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Polynechramorph
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16 May 2022, 4:25 am

I was wondering if anybody else experiences this.

When I write or design things (I'm an engineer), I often enter a state of hyper focus where I'm somewhat aware of what I'm doing but I get the feeling as if I'm so deep that it's like a trance. I often snap out of this mode only to be surprised at the outcome of what I've created. I then go through the process of trying to figure out exactly what I've created.

It's almost like an out the body experience 8O , a sort of dream state where I am only somewhat conscious of what I'm doing. Like an observer through a cloud of disembodiment.

It's very hard to put to words, but maybe you get what I'm saying. :D


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16 May 2022, 5:32 am

Yes.
But I have an explination.

This is how I describe it and the best example that I can give is when I do maths but it also applies elsewhere as well.

There is the surface thinking and the deep thinking parts of my mind. The surface thinking part does sums in the way that I can think in numbers and everything is conventional, but if I have to think deeply, for maths I think in dots as my deep thinking part of my mind thinks in pictures best. I don't think I can use it for maths unless I turn things into picture forms, and I use dots in patterns so I am thinking in patternses of dots.

I am good at designing model railway things via my visual deep thinking mind. In fact, on my Mothers side of the family via her Dad and her Dads Dad, I have a designing background as both of them were designers and had designed a great many things, but my Dad also rarely did anything written (Unlike my Mum who writes everything) as almost everything my Dad did to create something was visual headwork.


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16 May 2022, 5:51 am

Polynechramorph wrote:
I was wondering if anybody else experiences this.

When I write or design things (I'm an engineer), I often enter a state of hyper focus where I'm somewhat aware of what I'm doing but I get the feeling as if I'm so deep that it's like a trance. I often snap out of this mode only to be surprised at the outcome of what I've created. I then go through the process of trying to figure out exactly what I've created.

It's almost like an out the body experience, a sort of dream state where I am only somewhat conscious of what I'm doing. Like an observer through a cloud of disembodiment.

It's very hard to put to words, but maybe you get what I'm saying.
←Electrical Engineer.

I call it "The Zone", wherein I lose all sense of time, don't sleep, and forget to eat.  Composers, writers, and other creative artists describe the same thing to me.  Coders, too.

It is like seeing the finished project before it exists, and then filling in the empty spaces with real devices and equipment.

People have told me that I look like a different person, as if I had a super-genius twin take over my job for me.  Co-workers have learned to stay out of my way unless they are bringing coffee.

Once it passes, I feel physically and mentally wrung out.



Polynechramorph
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16 May 2022, 6:20 am

Fnord wrote:
Once it passes, I feel physically and mentally wrung out.


Yes it is very draining. I forgot to mention that.


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16 May 2022, 6:33 am

I have found that when programming one can create a mental model that collapses when interrupted and can take hours to reconstruct.



Polynechramorph
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16 May 2022, 6:54 am

Interrupting me when I'm in this state is so utterly annoying that I can react very harshly. It's like waking someone up with a bucket of ice-water.


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16 May 2022, 7:09 am

timf wrote:
I have found that when programming one can create a mental model that collapses when interrupted and can take hours to reconstruct.


I used to get this when I was last working (Actually in a few related jobs over the years doing the same thing), where I would either make a list or someone would give me a list of the bicycles or wheels needing repair or a list of the new bikes needing assembling and PDI'ing, and their order with the most urgent bikes needing to be done first and the ones still awaiting parts that have not arrived yet or the ones which are for a day or more in advanced so they are not so urgent at the back of the list (The list will usually be longer than I could do within my working hours (Which it was rare that I did not go over as I was always either losing track of time or being taken advantage of in some places I worked) and as long as I had what I needed and was left alone to do the job I was in "Full on concentration" mode. I was in my own little world!
Where the problems came was I was so focused and had everything so worked out in my head of what needed to be done but others would come in and say "Put that job aside for a minute as I want you to do this bike as it is more urgent as the customer is waiting" and I would be struggling to stop myself from completely shutting down, as the sudden change would push me into a partial shutdown and the enviroment would push me deeper so it would be all I could to prevent myself from being stuck on the ground unable to move or see etc in a full on flat out shutdown.
Prolonged working in this enviroment then would push me into a mental mess where I would completely burn out.


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jimmy m
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16 May 2022, 7:55 am

Let me try and explain what is happening but it will really sound weird. But I like weird.

When you look at the human brain, you will see that it has two sides. One on the left and one on the right. Essentially human beings have two separate brains that are connected together and generally operate together as a whole with the left side in charge. But they are very different brains and perform very different functions and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Some people are sleepwalkers. They wake up in the middle of the night and leave their homes and walk around their neighborhoods. Their left brain has fallen into a state of sleep but their right brain decides it wants to go on an adventure and off your body goes. This is a good example of your second brain acting its independence.

If you wish to explore this subject, there is a very interesting book titled "Whole Brain Living" by Jill Bolte Taylor. She had a massive stroke at the age of around 35 (about 20 years ago). Before her stroke she was a top notched medical doctor and scientist but then after her stroke she came back as a totally different person. I would probably call her NEW AGE. The left side of her brain had been severely damaged by the stroke and her right side of her brain came back and filled the void. Her perception of the human brain and how it functions is really interesting. At least 50 percent or more of what she says (in my humble opinion) is spot on. BUT NOT ALL. Anyways if you are interested in understanding the experience that you cited, this is the book worth reading.


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Polynechramorph
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16 May 2022, 9:11 am

jimmy m wrote:
Let me try and explain what is happening but it will really sound weird. But I like weird.

When you look at the human brain, you will see that it has two sides. One on the left and one on the right. Essentially human beings have two separate brains that are connected together and generally operate together as a whole with the left side in charge. But they are very different brains and perform very different functions and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Some people are sleepwalkers. They wake up in the middle of the night and leave their homes and walk around their neighborhoods. Their left brain has fallen into a state of sleep but their right brain decides it wants to go on an adventure and off your body goes. This is a good example of your second brain acting its independence.

If you wish to explore this subject, there is a very interesting book titled "Whole Brain Living" by Jill Bolte Taylor. She had a massive stroke at the age of around 35 (about 20 years ago). Before her stroke she was a top notched medical doctor and scientist but then after her stroke she came back as a totally different person. I would probably call her NEW AGE. The left side of her brain had been severely damaged by the stroke and her right side of her brain came back and filled the void. Her perception of the human brain and how it functions is really interesting. At least 50 percent or more of what she says (in my humble opinion) is spot on. BUT NOT ALL. Anyways if you are interested in understanding the experience that you cited, this is the book worth reading.


Very interesting. This has been an interest of mine for many years. There is also a very awesome but exhausting book by Iain McGilchrist, "The master and his emissary". Well worth reading if you're interested. Full of many interviews and studies on people with left or right hemisphere injuries as well as lots of experiments where hemispheres are silenced. Interestingly one of the things he said that really clicked was that contrary to popular belief the corpus callosum is there not to connect the hemispheres together, but rather to inhibit the one or the other in a constant battle for control. Altruism vs. creative, convergent thinking vs. divergent thinking etc.


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16 May 2022, 9:21 am

It's very strange to feel that way, I had a friend who told me a story like that. I know what you mean.



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16 May 2022, 9:56 am

Polynechramorph wrote:
Very interesting. This has been an interest of mine for many years. There is also a very awesome but exhausting book by Iain McGilchrist, "The master and his emissary". Well worth reading if you're interested. Full of many interviews and studies on people with left or right hemisphere injuries as well as lots of experiments where hemispheres are silenced. Interestingly one of the things he said that really clicked was that contrary to popular belief the corpus callosum is there not to connect the hemispheres together, but rather to inhibit the one or the other in a constant battle for control. Altruism vs. creative, convergent thinking vs. divergent thinking etc.


When I was a young child around the age of 3, I almost died because I was struck in the head by a bull. I weighed about 20 pounds and the bull weighed around 1,000 pounds. It was like being attacked by a dinosaur. I suspect that at the time, my left brain went off line. At the time, my right side of my brain was asked to make a decision to live or to die. I saw my parents sad and in great fear, huge fear. I decided to live. But it was my right side of my brain that made the decision. This side of the brain is very unique and very different then left side brains which is what most humans comprise. I live in a world that stretches across time and space and is boundless.


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16 May 2022, 9:59 am

I'm an artist. I often find myself on "autopilot" when I'm working. My hands are doing the work but my mind wanders somewhere else. From time to time, I have to pull myself back so that I can look at my work.



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16 May 2022, 1:05 pm

SpiralingCrow wrote:
I'm an artist. I often find myself on "autopilot" when I'm working. My hands are doing the work but my mind wanders somewhere else. From time to time, I have to pull myself back so that I can look at my work.


I'm also a musician and this happens to me when I'm just musically drifting along jammin' to my inner melody.


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16 May 2022, 2:35 pm



"Hyper-Focus God Mode"

Excellent Metaphor for Autotelic FLoW, in Secular
Terms, When We Ascend/Transcend the Neo-Cortex More
And Yes, Light Up More Areas of Our Brains in A Meditative State
of Mind And Body NoW iN Balance; Integrating Much More Human

Potential in Most Anything We Set out to Do As Long As We Are
in Focus of One Task;

And Not Spreading
Out in Multi-Tasking
Ways Where Science Suggests
It Takes A Half A Minute or So

To Get Back on Course of What We
Were Doing Before More in Flow As Such.

The Autotelic Aspect of Flow is The Real Bliss
And Nirvana in Balance We Actually Feel and Sense;

Amusingly, Different Cultures Come to Tribally Believe
They Own this All Natural Truly Sacred And Divine Holy

Experience of Greater Human Potentials as 'Star Wars' Might Refer

to it as 'the Force;' As Buddhists Might Refer to it as A Meditative Flow

In Contemplating Ways of Creativity Called Samadhi; And Then of Course,

The Japanese Folks Might Describe it As Satori; And Taoists May Describe A Similar

Greater Human Potential As Tao And the List Goes on in Terms of Kundalini Yoga;

Really Unlimited Terms Like the 'Zen Art of Motor-Cycle Maintenance' or Even Holy

Spirit in Christian Terms of this Real Sacred And Divine Experience That Not All Folks

Achieve in Life, For So Much More Human Potential As Even Science Shows that A Meditative
Practice This Way Several Times A Week May Increase Human Creativity and Resulting Productivity

500 Percent; Yet HAha, Just IMaGiNE What A Human Being Might Be Able to Do If They Stay in A State

of Bliss and Nirvana, FRiEnDS With All Gravity in Balance As Metaphor This Way Almost ALL Hours of the

Day And Even
in Dreams
That
Result

in Even More
Original Creativity;

True, Ya Just Might Dance in Public
For 16,601 Miles in 8 Years and 8 Months
And in Tandem From Ages 53 to Close to Age
62 Now Ongoing, Write a 10.4 MiLLioN Word Free Verse
Longest Long Form Poem to Use another Cross Cultural

Metaphor; Yes, Do it All in 8 Years and 8 Months in Effortless
"Wu Wei" Ease With Endless Energy And In Fact Enough Actual Empirically
Measured Strength, Still Jaw Dropping For Elite Military Dudes in A Military

Gym As Yep,
i Still Leg Press
up to 1520 Pounds
With My Arms Raised

To The Sky All FRiEnDS With
Gravity in Autotelic Flow this Way;

And Folks Ask me How the Hell Do i Do it,
Turning 62 on June 6th This Year; And i Simply

Dance Sing Something Like

Do Ya Ever Watch The

Grace And The

Perfect Silence

And Stillness of
A Lion Before He Pounces
on an Antelope in A Sudden
Chase for Survival in Life; And Then

i May Dance And Sing, This is Life as the Predator
Cannot Afford to Lose Focus on Task of the Prey At
Hand; And Not only That the Predator Must Keep A Large
Enough View of Reality At Hand Not to Be Captured By Prey the Same...

Yet Usually Because
of the Lion's Enormous
Strength And Size of Jaws,
Teeth, And Claws, There is not Much

Worry Over Predators; Yet Never the
Less, Without Graceful Moves in Flow,
FRiEnDS With Gravity Across the Savannah
To Conserve Every Vital Calorie of Life When

The Antelope Resources Are Not Nearly as Great,

The Lion Will Fall Much Earlier to Decay in Grasses,

Fertilizing Greater Grazing Opportunities For the Antelope

To Increase a Lion's Resource And Other Animal's Survival too....

FoR Me at Least, i Make All of Life an Art This Way; FoR Me at Least

For Every Word of Song And Every Move of Dance Yet Now of Course

These Are Only Fumes

(These Words on Page)

of the Real Kingdom

of Heaven Within,

i Experience most

Every Second of Life;

So, It's Rather A Moot Point,

Whether or not Anyone Affirms what
i Come to Sing; Never the Less, When Someone
Says they Cannot Understand This Free Verse Artful Holy
And Sacred Divine Feeling in Dance And Free Verse Poetic Writing Song,

i Let My High School Educated Wife Read Over it; And in Almost

Every Case, She Has No Problem Understanding it; Yet Ya See; Nope,

It Doesn't Matter if one Has A 160 IQ or Not; There Are Other Kinds

of Interpretive

Intelligences

in Life That Totally

By-Pass IQ Tests; As They

Only Measure A Tiny Part of

Human Potential as Most Folks Stick

With What they Are Only Spoon-Fed in Life

As Far As Data Down-Load Stuff From Birth;

Now to Be Clear, A Person May Achieve Zen Flow in

Motor Cycle Maintenance Or Climbing Mountains in

Greater Complexity of Human Potential As They Go in
The Sweet Spot
Tween

Anxiety
And Apathy;

Yet What May Be
Missing Still is the
Artistic, Social Empathic,
Real Divine Holy and Sacred
Spiritual Emotional Parts Of

Life Continuously Coloring

Life In Feelings and Senses in Synergies
of Human Energy Never Felt Before; Yep, It's

True, There Are Many Kinds of Flow; Some more Colorful

Than Others; Yet most All of them in Some Way Result Effectively

And Or Affectively in Greater Human Potentials Achieved As Ya Might

Build Something Never Seen Before

Or in Other Ways You
Might Help

Someone
See, Feel,
And Sense Life
in New Colors Never

Experienced Before; Mileage
Varies of Course, Depending on
Make and Model of Human Vessel
or Vehicle, in Other Words, Nature And Nature Now;

What Are the Limits With Human iMaGiNaTiON And

Creativity; Indeed They Are Beyond So-Called 'iNFiNiTY'

As They Are Always Beginning Now Beyond All 'Real Illusions'

of Time, Distance, Space And Matter Now; Indeed Such an Excellent

Metaphor Ya Bring

For Real

the "Hyper-
Focus of "God Mode" Indeed,

The Force, The Higher Power Within

As Even in Biblical Text Like Luke 17:21

The Kingdom of Heaven Within; Yes, Samadhi;
Satori; Kundalini Rising, The Tao, Effortless in
Ease Wu Wei; The Chi; Prana, And Sure 'The Force'

In 'Star Wars' in Part Modeled After Cross-Cultural Holy
And Sacred Texts The SaMe Way; Hehe, Yet if Ya Wanna

Get A Tribal Thinking

Person Who Idolizes

Forms Specific to Their
Culture in Idols of Words More

Than the Essence That is Similar

Cross Culturally; Tell Them They Don't Own

God; They Don't Own Love; Yet They Can Try if they Like;

Hehe,

Sure,

Good
'Luck' On that
Or Any Other Part
of Life That Attempts
to Gaslight What is Real

And True Now in Essence
Free to Anyone Who Seeks
Within And Finds This Higher
Power and Force Within to Have

A Much Greater Life In Terms of
How We Experience Bliss and Nirvana

And What We Are able to Create And Produce;

For Some Folks It's Stuff They Make; For Other
Folks, It is a 'Depth oF A STory of Life' in Colors that

Paint Nirvana
And Bliss in
Ways Never

Experienced Before; Yep

Almost Totally Without Measure

Eternally Now Beyond Almost All Empirical Measure Now;

Yet It's True, THere is Always Something to Measure of
The Fumes Left over; Whether it is Word Count or Three Quarters
of A Ton Leg PRESSinG Again, With Arms Raised to the Sky in Wu Wei Effortless

Ease in Balancing Now
FRiEnDS With Gravity

New WHere the Weight

Feels No Different Than
The Weight of A Feather;

Yet Of Course, You'd have
to Experience it to Actually

Understand it; Same as the
'Zen Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance'

or the Dark Flow of Telling Unlimited
Lies for Selfish Purposes Per the 'Trump Meme of Life Lies" too;

Just in case Ya Wonder, Why Folks are so motivated to Do 'Evil' too;

As Most Stuff in LiFE, Flow Comes in DarK and LiGhT Ways that Help

or Harm
The Rest of
Existence Now

Per Altruism

Verus Selfishness Still Now...

So This is Partly Why i Run What i Do
Across the Eyes of my High School Educated
Wife; to See if What i Write is too Complicated;

Or Others Just Don't Currently Have the Human
Software and Hardware to Understand It; i Surely

Am Not Gonna Water Down My Human Potential

To Spoon Feed Heaven to Other Folks; As That's the

Whole Point; Ya Work For Heaven Everyday Always Now
As A Real Practice Never Ending in Life Eternally Now;

(Some Occultist Flavored Folks CaLL iT "A Great Work of Life"}

If Ya Think Ya Get it

Over 'There'

On A Roman's
10:9 Pamphlet

That Offers A Carrot
of Heaven After Death
or Stick of Hell; Yes, After
Death too, If Ya Don't Worship Some
Verily Dead Dude Who Lived 2,000 Years

Ago That's What Ya Eventually Get A Dirt Nap Reward...

i am not
One to

Put
off Heaven
That Way; Yet of Course,
for Folks who Only Believe
it Happens After Death; That
Often Becomes A More Shallow
Life Fulfilling Prophecy Indeed

Anyway; Here's

A Toast to "Hyper-Focus
God Mode" Of Course no

External Substances Required to Be
Ingested And Far From 'Woo' As It is
A Cross-Cultural Human Potential

Described in Holy and Sacred

Texts Around

The World;

At Least for those
Who Have the Hardware
And Software Earned to
Understand And Or Actually 'Get it' Now..:)



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SpiralingCrow
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16 May 2022, 2:37 pm

I used to write poetry but that was a very different process with a few stages where I was more engaged. There was a lot of pondering and imagination involved but no autopilot.



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16 May 2022, 3:22 pm

I'd call it "Savant Mode." I got there a lot more often before I learned that stupid people are dangerous. I just can't keep all the memory registers concentrated on one task now. Scott Adams (Dilbert) notes that it can take engineers hours to remember what they were doing each morning, and that thoughtless managers will spoil it all by calling for a quick mid-morning staff meeting. I also see that few solo musicians can play without dancing to some extent. I think that they are using muscle memory as extra storage.
Aspie John Robison wrote about designing the first 5-way equalizer in his head, and then just building it. In "The Soul of a New Machine" there's a bit about a stubborn bug that went away when one engineer came in one morning and said he couldn't explain why, but he shorted two terminals and it was fixed without other issues.