96 ■ FLOW
swimmer, flow cannot be a purely physical process: muscles and brain
must be equally involved.
In the pages that follow we shall review some of the ways that the
quality of experience can be improved through the refined use of bodily
processes. These include physical activities like sports and dance, the
cultivation of sexuality, and the various Eastern disciplines for control
ling the mind through the training of the body. They also feature the
discriminating use of the senses of sight, hearing, and taste. Each of
these modalities offers an almost unlimited amount of enjoyment, but
only to persons who work to develop the skills they require. To those
who do not, the body remains indeed a lump of rather inexpensive flesh.
HIGHER, FASTER, STRONGER
The Latin motto of the modern Olympic games—Altius, citius, fortius— is
a good, if incomplete summary of how the body can experience flow. It
encompasses the rationale of all sports, which is to do something better
than it has ever been done before. The purest form of athletics, and
sports in general, is to break through the limitations of what the body
can accomplish.
However unimportant an athletic goal may appear to the outsider,
it becomes a serious affair when performed with the intent of demon
strating a perfection of skill. Throwing things, for instance, is a rather
trivial ability; even small babies are quite good at it, as the toys surround
ing any infant’s crib testify. But how far a person can throw an object
of a certain weight becomes a matter of legend. The Greeks invented
the discus, and the great discus throwers of antiquity were immortalized
by the best sculptors; the Swiss gathered on holidays in mountain
meadows to see who could toss the trunk of a tree farthest; the Scots
did the same with gigantic rocks. In baseball nowadays pitchers become
rich and famous because they can throw balls with speed and precision,
and basketball players because they can sink them into hoops. Some
athletes throw javelins; others are bowlers, shot-putters, or hammer
throwers; some throw boomerangs or cast fishing lines. Each of these
variations on the basic capacity to throw offers almost unlimited oppor
tunities for enjoyment.
Altius—higher—is the first word of the Olympic motto, and soar
ing above the ground is another universally recognized challenge. To
break the bonds of gravity is one of the oldest dreams of mankind. The
myth of Icarus, who had wings fashioned so he could reach the sun, has
been long held to be a parable of the aims—noble and misguided at the