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The Cosmic Octave

Hello! I'm so excited again! Goosebumps, heart palpitations, and sweating all at once (well, the latter could also have something to do with my menopause).

Every now and then, I browse through your stories here, and they lead me back to my own. This time, it was "flow," although I admit I haven't read all of it yet.

"Flow." Immersing oneself completely in something, becoming one with it, merging with it through action. As I was baking a cake earlier and watching the mixer blades turn, I somehow felt the need to listen to music. And there it was. The memory of "our" sound systems. The legendary "Spiral Tribe" and their legacy "Lego" and "Subsound." Our many shared journeys, the many nights of dancing together to ecstasy, merging with the music. This universal score, which reflects the primeval tones of our solar system. Some DJs mastered this art so well! Dancing together in front of the sound system, which was so loud that the bass could be felt in every pore of the body. Each person completely merged with the music, yet hand in hand.

I now know why I was so drawn to drugs. In my youth, I even regularly went in search of magic mushrooms that grew high on the mountain at the foot of which I grew up. Where other teenagers ordered their beer, I had my tea with me . But I never told anyone. The experiences I had regularly from then on were so extraordinary, out of body, so funny and so beautiful. But as it is with excessive drug use (marijuana and alcohol were already "basic drugs"), at some point you can no longer feel that initial feeling of the unsurpassable new, these excessively absolutely new possibilities of feeling, sensing, seeing. You don't feel it the same way you did at the beginning. So I escalated. As a result, I had hardly missed any drug that was available on the synthetic market. "Multitox."

This eventually led to my addiction to heroin and eventually to severe depression. For years, I went through one cold turkey after another. All of this culminated in my suicide attempt in 2007 with 50 strong sleeping pills and other means. And then I had my NDE. Which made me absolutely drug-free overnight. Just like that

For some reason, it's important for me to mention at this point that I wasn't a typical junkie. During these years, I also went to school, wrote my diploma thesis on a more than parallel topic. I wrote about this underground scene and highlighted the limited possibilities of social work in it. I also wrote about indigenous peoples and their sacred dances.

What or who would I be today if I hadn't experienced all of this? Could I have "healed"?

As a child, I was already regularly offered alcohol. The backstory to this is irrelevant, but the path to my healing (through addiction?) is. Understandable in retrospect, at least for me .

Alcohol was the most difficult chapter for me personally. It seemed impossible to get rid of it. I went to a clinic three times and went to therapy. "Difficult to treat, as compensated from childhood on," it was said among other things. My constant question to myself: "Why is it so hard for me to look at the world soberly? What could happen? I'm not that child anymore, am I?"

And guess what helped me out of this despair to absolute abstinence. Love. Someone who stands behind me and simply accepts and loves me for who I am. Just like I was able to do with myself from then on. Supports me and doesn't judge me.

The red thread to the cosmic octave? Ah! Here it is

Thank you, your Live

And finally, my cake is burnt. I completely forgot about it. My conclusion: I need to practice staying in the present moment. Oh, Anthonychipoletti, I tried the "brain massage" yesterday. It was wonderful! Thank you for that

anthonychipoletti wrote: ↑Thu Sep 14, 2023 10:30 pm A WELL BALANCED MEAL

Hello, Live. You just reminded me that, around a week ago, I followed a video course about focus and flow. Among the hormones that make flow enjoyable is oxytocin, which is related to a number of circumstances, such as love and the power of music. So it sounds as though you are able to experience flow in this way. Since flow disconnects the part of the brain in charge of the perception of time, you need to be careful not to enter flow while cooking.

In this context, I have read about workaholism. The complete dedication to work. That is definitely something different from flow, for example through music. The mental space is different, right? Fantasy.

Flow is an exceptionally unique experience, and an activity that elicits a flow-like state for one person may be a burdensome chore for another. Even identical twins don’t necessarily find flow in the same events. Flow is extraordinarily personalized and intimately tied to one's individual skills and challenges.


As discussed before, flow occurs when the skills and challenges of a person match perfectly, and the activity just seems to glide, like water flowing down a stream. It can be a feeling of being "in the zone," or hitting a kind of "sweet spot" in your actions and thoughts. Here are the other hallmark characteristics of flow as described by MC:

Complete concentration on the task

Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback

Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down of time)

The experience itself is intrinsically rewarding, has an end in itself, is autotelic

Effortlessness and ease

There is a balance between challenge and skills

Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination

There is a feeling of control over the task



I’d bet that when reading those characteristics, some experience in your life instantly came to mind. If not, that's okay too. Not every flow experience is going to check all of those boxes but read through them carefully and try to remember a time in your life where you engaged in some activity that met at least a few of those criteria.

"My mind isn't wandering. I am not thinking of something else. I am totally involved in what I am doing. My body feels good. I don't seem to hear anything. The world seems to be cut off from me. I am less aware of myself and my problems. My concentration is like breathing I never think of it. When I start, I really do shut out the world. I am really quite oblivious to my surroundings after I really get going. I think that the phone could ring, and the doorbell could ring or the house burn down or something like that. When I start I really do shut out the world. Once I stop I can let it back in again. I am so involved in what I am doing. I don't see myself as separate from what I am doing." (Adapted from Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi 1988 b, p. 195)



Here is a passage from C & C s Flow Questionnaire, a tool used to study the subjective experience of flow. Read through it and think about a time you identified with the author:

There are certainly some activities that are more likely to elicit a flow like experience than others. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who reaches peak flow while doing their taxes or getting their teeth cleaned. Athletics is one area where flow experience has been extensively studied. Almost all professional level athletes report getting into some kind of flow when they are performing at their peak capacity. They are some of the fortunate people whose jobs are frequently flow experiences. Maybe you remember a time in your work where you felt something like flow? Another activity that is commonly reported to be a flow experience is artistic endeavors. From painters to musicians, artists often report getting into a kind of "trance" like flow state when they are rooted in the creative process. The same can be true for writers and creatives of all types. Even the appreciation of good art can bring about a flow experience when dancing, singing or listening to good music.



Some people find flow while driving cars, motorcycles or bicycles. People who sail or kayak often find a flow out on the water. Some people find flow in the kitchen while cooking. Some people find flow playing video games! In fact, playing, in general, seems to be an activity in which individuals frequently find flow. Playing chess, bridge, poker or other strategic games can often be a flow experience, perhaps because of how the challenges of the game continually rise and fall to meet the skills of the player. These activities are games, and they are immensely enjoyable, but still challenging, if not impossible to ever truly master. Conversely, there is not a lot of flow reported in playing “go fish” or tic tac toe. It is speculated that children seem to engage in flow states more frequently, often while playing. This is an interesting observation and likely due to many factors, one of which is a wonderfully child-like lack of self-awareness and self-conscious rumination that is, unfortunately, such a part of growing up.

Now you've hopefully identified at least one time in your life when you felt a flow experience. It is such an intuitive feeling to know when you are in flow but challenging to put your finger on exactly what it is that makes it that way. As an exercise, I'd like you to try to remember as much as you can about that experience and then write a response to the following prompt:

Questions for this assignment:

Describe the circumstances surrounding your flow experience, where were you? How did you feel emotionally, intellectually and physiologically before during and after the experience?

Looking back at the eight characteristics of flow, how many of the criteria did you meet in your experience? Describe how your activity met those criteria in detail. Which ones did it not match? Why?

as a reminder, here are the 8 characteristics of flow again:

1. Complete concentration on the task

2. Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback

3. Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down of time)

4. The experience itself is intrinsically rewarding, has an end and purpose in itself

5. Effortlessness and ease

6. There is a balance between challenge and skills

7. Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination

8. There is a feeling of control over the task



What steps can you take in your life to cultivate that feeling of flow and increase the amount of time you spend engaging in your chosen flow activity?