Image and pilgrimage: Flow

Tyler Hoskinson

Flow: "the holistic [or whole] sensation present when we act with total involvment." This concept intrigues me, that the idea of being "in the zone" is an every day term that carries a more concrete and philosophical meaning. Flow is a concept that argues the idea that a person can enter a state of being in which no conscious intervention is needed, but instead the person "acts according to an internal logic"; they act without the need of conscious thought or active participation of the brain. It seems as though it argues that flow is something that, once turned on, can opperate on its own without the need of human thought. Once a person is aware that they are aware, however, the flow is upset and no longer in action. Apparently you can't consciously be in a state of flow. But if you can't consciously be in that state then how is it that its possible to depict a person in that state? Can they consciously describe the previously nonconscious state that they were just in that allowed them to shoot 12 3-pointers in a row? If so, then wouldn;t they technically be consciously aware of what happened purely because of the fact that they can describe it afterwards? Interesting. Very interesting.