I used to get that amazing totally detatched feeling of floating when I was very young. I could barely reach the top of his desk, but Charlie McCarthy (his real name) and Frank, another fellow who worked at the building where I grew up, would tell me stories of their lives and that feeling would overtake me. It was a warm, floating and wonderful feeling that seemed almost addictive. I often went down to their work places to try to "make it happen"---but it would never happen that way. You couldn't make it occur.

Strangely, I don't ever remember feeling that on stage. I always was a bit too tense--too intense--for it to occur while I was concerned about doing the song WELL.

I do know about what Harp called FLOW. It happened for me all the time. It still happens for me even though I'm no longer able to play. It is a concept first given voice by Mihaly Csilszentmihalyi (pronounced Mee-hi Chick-sent-meehi-yee) and put forth in his book "FLOW---THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE"---published by Harper Perrenial--a division of Harper Collins. The author is a professor at the University of Chicago. There are many amazing observations and insights regarding our human behavior here.

If you've seen the film "LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL" you know exactly what the book's main premice is. Csiksz. was wondering how some people got through the experience of imprisonment, in a concentration camp (and even in a bad job, marriage or a terribly dysfunctional family) with fewer problems. Some even did it with seeming ease. One fellow even, as I said in another thread a few years ago, after being a prisoner of war and then released, said his main wish was to play golf. When he did get around to playing golf, he did a very good job of it--even better than he'd ever done before. To keep himself sane in an insane situation, he played 18 or more holes of golf in his head every day of his captivity. Every lay was vividly seen by him--every contour of the land and the course. Every club he used was picked specifically for the shot he was facing. Even sand traps and water hazards. He credits that "flow experience" he created in his mind as the grounding mechanism that allowed him to endure the terrible years of torture, deprivation and terror. Others who couldn't thusly occupy themselves often perished from a lack of a certain kind of mental fortitude---the ability to, when given lemons, make lemonade. In many ways, I personally know that the computer---connecting with friends on the web---has given a purpose to some down times. As with most FLOW experiences, time just about disappears. You might be pickin' on stage for 3 hours and it will seem like 20 minutes.

Another personal obsevation: I use FLOW to get to sleep often. When the thoughts are racing all around my head and keeping me from getting needed sleep, I just start a long ballad in my mind, and before I finish, I'm asleep. Other than being pissed off 'cause I failed to finish the song, it usually works. When it doesen't work it's from am inability on my part to stay focused that particular evening.

Abby, thanks for reminding me of the concept of flow. (I'll be answering your private letter real soon.) Csiksz.'s book is not a self-help book in the sense that other books are. It's a scholarly discussion by a well-thought of man of a basic concept that we might've overlooked. It shines a beacon on something I already knew on some level--only because it's pretty much accurate to see tings in this light. The instructive aspect of this book, for me, is a treatice on on how to attain flow. It's a way to maximise our personal experiences.

Does it fit this thread? I think so! Different but definitely connected concepts. FLOW can be worked toward. The "floating feeling" may happen as a RESULT of flow. But maybe it's a separate aspect -- like yin is an aspect of yang and vise-versa.

Just one guy's gut feeling...

Art Thieme