The Flow – altered states of consciousness in Sports

The Flow – altered states of consciousness in Sports /
First up : I don’t claim to have found anything new – I just want to share some thoughts that come to my mind more often these days.
Maybe some of you have more ideas and additional thoughts on this topic.
This might turn out as a bunch of – at first sight – not well organized stuff – but I just wanted to wrtie this down some where ..
Spelling errors are not on purpose !
As being active in sports on a competitive level for more that 20 years now and having started thinking about altered states of mind,
concepts as „the multiverse“, „extra dimensions“ and practicing meditation some time now, I try to bring together the different aspects of my life.
„Being in the zone“ during intense intervals
During intense parts of my workouts or in competitions I sometimes experience a feeling of „Being in the zone“. A state where the „skill level“ and the „challenge level“
are in perfect balance – even thought the challenge level (speed) might be very high everything appears to be „effortless“.
I also experienced that the combination of high physical intensity and high concentration makes reaching the flow more likely.
For Example – going uphill being followed by a fast and technical challenging decent on a bike – beeing aware that even the smallers error might result in a serious crash.
These activities force you to be „RIGHT NOW“ and not beeing distracted by thoughts about yesterdays work or tommorrows lunch-break not even spending a thought anything else but
right now ! Thats a form of meditation.
If the challenge is too big and can never be fullfilled oder you are bored, because you are going too slow this state will not be reached.
Reaching this state, was not a things that would happen to me on a daily basis. Therefore it remained special too me – as for most people.
Having started meditation – It seams to be more likely to reach that state – it’s also more likely to have a so called lucid dream (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream)
Having thought about „extra dimensions“ a lot lately I sometimes had the feeling of actually being in a different dimension – or better beeing aware that I was / am moving the
a higher dimension.
Then I found this quote by Ayrton Senna during qualifying for the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix :
„I was already on pole, […] and I just kept going. Suddenly I was nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my team mate with the same car. And suddenly I realized that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel.“
… So can this really be possible ? Or is it all just a chemical reaction caused a so called  Endorphie-„Rush“ ?
Thomas Hellrigel – the first German to win the Ironman Hwaii once said that he feels a sort of „deep sadness“ during his races – even while winning them.
The Endorphie-„Rush“ is often referred to a being a feeling that you get after very long extensive workouts. I have done a lot of long workouts such as
12 h Bike rides, Marathons and Ironman Races but the feeling of „flow“ always occurred during intense workouts rather than „slow-twitching“ „long-lasting“ endurance sessions.
I think its more related to the balance of ability and actual doing that causes this effortless „drifting“.
„Flow@work“
Also I experienced a kind of „Flow“ during work – sounds odd but that is sometimes the case :
Developers of computer software reference getting into a flow state, sometimes referred to as the „Zone“ or „Hackmode“ – http://catb.org/jargon/html/H/hack-mode.html, when developing in an undistracted state.
Now how does this fit with the concept of our 4th dimensional Universe being created in slices at the Planck length in the 5th dimensional probability space ?
Maybe the intense „movement“ or movement of mind causes the „shift“ of time perception ?
The most intreaging idea that also corresponds to the above is the „World Record“ clip from the Animatrix Movie : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GQfs2IS7bk
An interesting experiment on „Altered time perception“ :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG6nZY9Bxy0
Or is it all just a „chemial reaction“ ?
What do you think ?
As I am not done with this at all this might well be the start of a new series of blog posts on this site …
… so stay tuned ..
Stephan

This blogpost is in english in order to reach a lagrer number of viewers – as english is more common than german :)

First up : this might sound a little esoteric  but I just want to share some thoughts that come to my mind more often these days.

Maybe some of you have more ideas and additional thoughts on this topic.

This might turn out as a bunch of – at first sight – not well organized stuff – but I just wanted to wrtie this downa.

Spelling errors are not on purpose !

As being active in sports on a competitive level for more that 20 years now and having started thinking about altered states of mind, concepts as „the multiverse„, „extra dimensions“ and „integral life“ plus practicing meditation some time now, I try to bring together the different aspects of my life.

„Being in the zone“ during intense intervals

During intense parts of my workouts or in competitions I sometimes experience a feeling of „Being in the zone“. A state where the „skill level“ and the „challenge level“ are in perfect balance – even thought the challenge level (speed) might be very high everything appears to be „effortless“.

I also experienced that the combination of high physical intensity and high concentration makes reaching the flow more likely. For Example – going uphill being followed by a fast and technical challenging decent on a bike – beeing aware that even the smallest error might result in a serious crash. These activities force you to be „RIGHT NOW“ and not beeing distracted by thoughts about yesterdays work or tomorrows lunch-break not even spending a thought anything else but right now ! Thats a form of meditation.
If the challenge is too big and can never be fullfilled or you are bored, because you are going too slow this state will not be reached.

Reaching this state, was not a things that would not happen to me on a daily basis. Therefore it remained special too me – as for most people.

Having started meditation – it seams to be more likely to reach that state – it’s also more likely to have a so called lucid dream (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream).

Having thought about „extra dimensions“ a lot lately I sometimes had the feeling of actually being in a different dimension – or better beeing aware that I was / am moving within a higher dimension.
Then I found this quote by Ayrton Senna from during the qualifying for the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix :

I was already on pole, […] and I just kept going. Suddenly I was nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my team mate with the same car. And suddenly I realized that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel.

… So can this really be possible ? Or is it all just a chemical reaction caused a so called  Endorphie-„Rush“ ?

Thomas Hellrigel – the first German to win the Ironman Hwaii once said that he feels a sort of „deep sadness“ during his races – even while winning them.

The Endorphie-„Rush“ is often referred to a being a feeling that you get after very long extensive workouts. I have done a lot of long workouts such as 12 h Bike rides, Marathons and Ironman Races but the feeling of „flow“ always occurred during intense workouts rather than „slow-twitching“ „long-lasting“ endurance sessions. I think its more related to the balance of ability and actual doing that causes this effortless „drifting“.

„Flow@work“

Also I experienced a kind of „Flow“ during work – sounds odd but that is sometimes the case : Developers of computer software reference getting into a flow state, sometimes referred to as the „Zone“ or „Hackmode“ – http://catb.org/jargon/html/H/hack-mode.html, when developing in an undistracted state.

Now how does this fit with the concept of our 4th dimensional Universe being created in slices at the Planck length in the 5th dimensional probability space as mentioned by Rob Bryanton (http://www.tenthdimension.com)? Maybe the intensemovement“ or movement of mind causes the „shift“ of time perception ?

The most intreaging idea that also corresponds to the above is the „World Record“ clip from the Animatrix Movie :

An interesting experiment on „Altered time perception“ :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG6nZY9Bxy0

Or is it all just a „chemial reaction“ ?

What do you think ?

As I am not done with this at all this might well be the start of a new series of blog posts on this site …

… so stay tuned ..

Stephan

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3 Responses to “The Flow – altered states of consciousness in Sports”

  1. Alex
    19. November 2009 at 18:27 #

    Dude, in Roth you were running in the 6th dimension using only slowtwitch muscles and no brain! ;)

    Nice article. Sometimes i feel similar. We should write a whole book about that shit. I promise, lots of people will buy it. Finally we’re gonna be rich & famous!!
    haha.

    Write on.

  2. 23. November 2009 at 12:49 #

    Nice post, many threads drawn together in a useful and challenging way.
    Bravo!

    Rob Bryanton

  3. 19. Juli 2011 at 20:26 #

    Great post! I’m looking into this phenomenon from a research standpoint. Let’s talk. :)

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