Below follow sketchy notes on the Flow State achievement, compiled from notes on the Thrills&Chills Management and Peak State Training by its author Max Sandor. These were made for coaches of Power Coaching but they turned out to be very useful of coachees as well, and, beyon…
Without a lot of other explanations, for those in the know, we add to the discrete steps of the Flow State emergence the flow numbers from Sandor’s numerical system of the ‘Flows of Eshu’ – along with the names of the according polarities within the 16×16 Matrix of Ifá, the so-called Odù. You can skip that information unless you want to look deeper. In the latter case, you can USE this very information of course to modify the parameters easily and find other conditions to enter the flow state AT WILL. The SEQUENCE will always be the same because it NATURALLY follows the a sequence of natural numbers that mark the SCRIPTS of the polarities of the Matrix of the Universe via its Flows of Eshu.
Script A (encapsulated by prime states 19 & 23)
———————————————-
Before a Beginning…. there is Detachment, detachment, detachment (Flow #19, a rogue flow with no polarity attached to it)
A. Setup
— A1. Chaos, loud noises, random movements, shaking limbs (Flow #20 with Ofun-oyeku)
or
— A2. Aesthetics with movement, cheerleaders…(Flow #20 with Oshe-Irosun)
B. Assuming position. Time seems to stand still or go slower. Everything is heavier and slower than usual. (Flow #21 with Ogunda-Owonrin)
Note: this state is polarizing into its opposite after passing through the charging up forces of #22 and #23 and then become the appearance of speeding up time and levitation. See Cartoons for funny animations of this part.
C. Ready! an impulse, main entry point for a Thrill (Flow #22 with Oyeku-Odi)
D. Steady! waiting for the start shot (Flow #23 => a rogue flow.
Notes: this is the most frequent moment of noticing a Thrill which in reality already sparked in C. Also, noticed as a suspense in films or music, often artificially prolonged before an impact (for example in cartoons). The State #23 is also the natural ‘attractor’ for the male force (attracting the female). Should not be extended for too long, if not it can enter a Chill and fall back on the negative side of state #19 (despair, upset), the encapsulating entry state.
(end of script A / overlapping with B)
Script B (encapsulated by prime states 23 & 29)
————————————————-
E. Go!
— E1. gunfire, explosion (Flow #24 with Ogbe-ogunda)
or
— E2. a bright flash, intense fire (Flow #24 with Irosun-bara)
or
— E3. an insight, AHA experience (Flow #24 with Obara-rosun)
or
— E4. falling, going down, no ground under the feet (Flow #24 with Oyeku-Iwori)
or
— E5. a process from Agni Yoga (flipping between E2 and E3), also used in GIRAPOLI
F. Finally, entering the Flow State by adding a sense of aesthetics (Flow #25 with Oshe-Meji), maintained by a constant flow of beauty BOTH inside and outside.
Note: Some drugs (amphetamines, cocaine) can create an artificial remembrance (substitute) of this state. The drawback is severe because State #26 will be kicking in heavily on the negative side after the effect is fading (see below).
G. Now we have two choices:
—G1. Exiting the Flow State by going on too long and entering H. (Flow #26 => Oyeku-beka). A great void is felt. There can be either the sense of being reborn or that of dying. This is typically happening after passing the finishing line or the curtain dropped down.
—G2. Renewal of the thrill. On stage, a new punch line; in the arena, having scored. A new stunt, a new thrill. (looping back to Flow #23 and passing through #24 and adding an aesthetics before re-entering or maintaining the flow state)
H. post coitum anima tristis est (Flow #26 => Oyeku-beka)
(the following 2 super peak-states are usually blocked by State #26)
I. Pure (Fighting) Magick, the energy behind Fa Jin (Flow #27 with Osa-gunda)
J. Pure Power ( Flow #28 with Oyeku-Oturopon)
(end of script B)
—————————————————–
OK. That’s so far just a sequence of observable events for the majority of instances of a Flow State occurring in life. There are quite a number of these descriptions out there even though the one above is unique in its details and the way it is hinting at a more universal structure or SCRIPT in life.
Now, using the Thrills&Chills observations, we can MARK exactly WHERE in this sequence our thrill(s) occur. We can ‘clean’ these from our minds by de-linking them from emotions and efforts. Then we can invoke the thrills and we can ENTER the sequence at that moment where it occurs in the sequence. This saves us from going through the entire chain of events and preparations and is practically ‘guaranteed’ to work.
There are OTHER ways to get into the Flow directly at any time. They however involve a model of the human psyche different from today’s mainstream perspective. Let me mention just two: one, cleaning and activating the Gunas (a Vedic approach), and two, activating the polarity of the FLOW state as the peak-state called Oshe-Meji (roughly, a flow of beauty inside Vs a flow of beauty outside) using Max Sandor’s GIRAPOLI method.
Both narratives presented here are obviously counter-examples for the conventional Risk & Reward concept for (successful) Games.
Are Flow States addictive? In a larger sense, perhaps. After working with Thrills & Chills, however, you may change your opinion and side with me in saying that it is really the Thrill that is addictive, and not the Flow State. For what it’s worth 🙂
—————————————————–
To contrast above, here now is the short history of how I lost my Flow again. Only with the superimposition of the two stories, how it worked and how it didn’t, I later on gained a perspective of the details of the arrival and maintenance of what people now call the Flow State.
After my glorious and unexpected victory at the New Year’s Cross-Country in 1964, I was winning every competition. EVERY. With an interruption because of an accident and a botched knee surgery that nearly left me crippled for life, years passed by and the streak continued. On the track, I simply reenacted my entrance into the Flow that I had experienced on the ski trail and I won easily. In the hindsight, I never lost on track nor trail ever, except once. Which was to become my last race.
It was 1968, the year of the Olympics of Mexico City, I was training officially in a club by now and even had the latest running shoes for the track, featuring replaceable spikes. I was invincible. One Friday night in early Spring, my trainer rang the door bell and told my mother that we had drive about 5 hours for me to compete the next morning and then in another the day after. With both races won and with times in a reasonable range, he would lobby to get me to fill in a sudden vacancy in the Olympic team. despite my young age. Why wait four years (for the next Olympics) when you win already any and all competitions now? he said and off we drove in the middle of the night. There was no doubt in my mind that I would win. Not that I COULD win, but that I WOULD win. Once in the flow, I had a never-failing strategy for the 400m distance, and, yes, I was always practically flying with the Flow up and through the finishing line.
We prepared me for the race as usual. Then one of the head honchos of the National Team came by to have look at me. “Look!” he said to me, intentionally ignoring my trainer “Now matter what you got told by anyone, today you don’t need to win at all. All other runners in this next race are already confirmed for Mexico. And there is no second run, that’s your only chance right now. But you need to stay under 48.5. That’s what you will do: Go strong immediately from the beginning, don’t worry about the finish. Full speed from the beginning. You don’t need to win. Have I been clear? This is an order! You follow it, you’ll have the ticket to Mexico in your pocket. Understood?” And he walked away without waiting for my response. My trainer, visibly uncomfortable with the situation, tapped me on the back. “Come on! He is not even a coach. But he has the say! So, ignore what we two talked about during the long drive to here. Actually, ignore everything you know! DO EXACTLY as he told you. If you don’t follow his orders, he won’t get you on the team even if you would beat all the others.” To say I was unhappy would be an understatement. I was boiling inside. I was so upset, I even walked into the wrong lane to get settled in the starting hole. What an embarrassment! I skipped closing my eyes and blanking out my mind as I usually did. I didn’t even shake my limbs. I just wanted to get it over with. Less than one minute separated me from being on the Olympic team and on my way to Mexico. I produced two fail starts. The other runners getting annoying. Then the shot, and I started to run as fast as I could. Thoughts raced through my mind, the ash on the track looked ugly to me, I didn’t take notice at all of the other runners. I felt only only my emotions in uproar.
After 20 meters or so, the Flow should have set in, but it didn’t. Between 40 and 50 meters I usually was in the full Flow state already. Not this time. The seconds crawled along like minutes. No Flow still at the 100 mark. it seemed an eternity to get to the 200. I kept up full speed. I felt clumsy and not as elegantly floating along as usual. Passing the 300. Coming up on the final stretch. I suddenly was aware that I had nobody in front of me. Nobody to chase in front of me, as I always liked it so much except for the final sprint. I was clearly in the lead. 80 meters to go. I heard my own breath. Something I never had noticed before. I heard the runners behind me coming closer and closer. 50 meters to go. My knees suddenly started to feel soft and a bit wobbly. I lost speed dramatically. At 40 meters before the finishing line, all other runners had passed me. My thoughts were still racing through my mind. Just come in within medal range. Nothing else counts! My legs started to feel like half a ton of weight. Then they quit. The last 10 meters I could hardly walk.
I passed the finishing line like a snail. My competitors already on the way to the shower as I falling down in the grass beside the track, thinking I was about to die. A strange fear and a scary darkness was engulfing me. I was certain I would not survive one more moment like this. In this moment of agony, I made the solemn oath to never again run in a competition if I should ever survive this horrifying moment. And I never did run thereafter. My athletic career was over after less than five years, short and glorious, and OVER.
This didn’t have to happen, of course. But it did. Pretty much the way I described it today. It took me more than thirty years to start understanding what went wrong. “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t”. And there is a method to the Flow state. A state, everyone can get in. Everyone!]]> http://sandorian.us/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000245-000382.htm 2016-05-20T22:59:25Z 2016-05-23T21:15:00ZThrills&Chills Management is an essential tool of Game Management to motivate the players initiating and maintaining a game. It supersedes conventional ‘Rewards & Risk’ models which are true only in games which have been compromised (see below). It introduces the concept of ‘Essences…
Thrills&Chills Management is an essential tool of Game Management to motivate the players initiating and maintaining a game.
It supersedes conventional ‘Rewards & Risk’ models which are true only in games which have been compromised (see below).
It introduces the concept of ‘Essences’ as a ‘third E’ in addition to Efforts and Emotions.
A THRILL is the indication of a MOVE towards a desired game position. Take notice here, it is the MOVE, not the fulfillment of the action itself.
A CHILL is the opposite of a thrill – a desired position has been thwarted.
Both Thrills and Chills, in the definitions here used, are NOT emotions even though they typically prompt players & spectators to have some of the latter.
It is common to confuse thrills’n’chills with the emotions of celebration and disappointment after a victory or a defeat. This happens to spectators which are NOT players. A perfect player does not feel any emotion during the duration of a game – it would hinder peak performance as a player.
Again, Thrills&Chills are mirrored down from the upper-consciousness of a PLAYER. There are a glimpse from a different ‘Universe’ in which ‘flows of essences’ is the core of the game. Essences are comparable to Efforts and Emotions: however, they are from entirely different ‘worlds’: efforts are embedded in the physical Universe, emotions are human sentiments.
The perceptions of a flow within a game as a spectator and as a player are DIFFERENT. In consequence, the thrill experienced by a player is often NOT even imaginable by the spectator.
————————
EXAMPLES:
A Thriller, like in movies and books, consists of a SEQUENCE of thrills and chills with a final CLIMAX which ends the game (an the movie).
In ball games, we often see an embedding larger game structure with the possibility of several climaxes for either party (goals or points) and this larger game is than viewed as the ‘game itself’.
In acquisition games (‘Monopoly’) the only difference is that there are no time limits like in sports games.
——————————————————-
About Analyzing Games:
– A first action typically consists of a survey of actual (currently) existing thrills and chills.
– Next, isolate and model/simulate the game scenarios. Substitute links to other games by tokens (placeholders) and model those separately to reduce complexity of the model.
– Mark the 3 types of ‘E’ where they occur in the flow of game events: Effort, Emotion, and Essence. The latter can be only INFERRED because they happen in a super-conscious event space.
– Evaluate the type of a game (see below)
– Here and now, analyze the conventional wisdom of resource analysis (risk & reward) and determine what the expected outcome would be (win/win. win/lose. lose/win, or lose/lose).
– You can now redesign the games compound as needed.
——————————
Notes on types of Games:
========================
– an INNOCENT game is a game that is played for the sake of playing a game, like children’s game, and, in a sense, the game of life in our Universe.
– a FALSE game is that produces another effect than what has been proposed by the game makers
– a MALICIOUS or BAD GAME is a trick game to cause the participants to be hurt
– a FAKE GAME is one that is offered to occlude a ‘real game’ which remains hidden
– a SPOILED GAME, a pseudo-game where the ‘reward’ of the game makers is the only objective
Note, that a game may have a ‘mixed-type’ and that it may CHANGE its type over time (which, if intentionally done so, is typical of a malicious or a spoiled game).
———————————
Last not least:
“Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet you can’t win.”
— Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
]]> http://sandorian.us/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000245-000381.htm 2016-05-19T17:21:08Z 2016-05-19T18:41:07ZTowards a revised definition of Games and its parameters. Note, that “reward and risk” have been omitted in this layout. Conventionally, they are regarded as part of games, which is true only for some games, especially all that are fake, malicious, or false (definitions in Part 2). “Rewards and ri…
Towards a revised definition of Games and its parameters. Note, that “reward and risk” have been omitted in this layout. Conventionally, they are regarded as part of games, which is true only for some games, especially all that are fake, malicious, or false (definitions in Part 2). “Rewards and risks” are either rationalizations of thrills or they serve in strategies and Game Resource Management for organizing particles (‘resources’) and are NOT necessary to play a game.
——————————————————————
A game consists of a coordination of vectors of game forces in support or opposition of another such game (a cyclic definition!). There are three basic game force types: efforts, emotions, and powers.
Efforts are physical movements to conquer or maintain a location in a game terrain. Power is the ability to control a location in a game terrain. Emotions are human reactions to the state of a game and are used as an additional, intermediary game terrain.
A strategy is a plan of the coordination of game force.
A Thrill is a flash of awareness of intending, initiating, modifying, or terminating a game. A Chill is a flash of awareness of a danger to a strategy within a game.
A goal is a declared state of a game, such as the location of vectors at a given time.
Players are points of origin of game vectors. Particles are physical or non-physical placeholders (tokens) moved or positioned to mark a location in a game terrain.
Game management is the organization of players, particles, and resources.
For an effective Game Analysis (or Synthesis), it is vital to draw a map of the flows of ALL of the above parts of a game. In especially, note Thrills&Chills and Rewards&Risks for any sub-game.