Flow – Psychology of Optimal Experience

THE BODY IN FLOW ■ 1 07

system, to keep from stepping on the cat, or to find the car keys.
Occasionally people stop to “feast their eyes” when a particularly gor­
geous sight happens to appear in front of them, but they do not cultivate
systematically the potential of their vision. Visual skills, however, can
provide constant access to enjoyable experiences. Menander, the classi­
cal poet, well expressed the pleasure we can derive from just watching
nature: “The sun that lights us all, the stars, the sea, the train of clouds,
the spark of fire—if you live a hundred years or only a few, you can never
see anything higher than them.” The visual arts are one of the best
training grounds for developing these skills. Here are some descriptions
by people versed in the arts about the sensation of really being able to
see. The first recalls an almost Zen-like encounter with a favorite paint­
ing, and emphasizes the sudden epiphany of order that seems to arise
from seeing a work that embodies visual harmony: “There is that won­
derful Cezanne ‘Bathers’ in the Philadelphia Museum ... which ... gives
you in one glance that great sense of a scheme, not necessarily rational,
but that things come together.... [That] is the way in which the work
of art allows you to have a sudden appreciation of, an understanding of
the world. That may mean your place in it, that may mean what bathers
on the side of a river on a summer day are all about... that may mean
the ability to suddenly let go of ourselves and understand our connec­
tion to the world...
Another viewer describes the unsettling physical dimension of the
aesthetic flow experience, which resembles the shock a body feels when
diving into a pool of cold water:

When I see works that come close to my heart, that I think are really fine,

I have the strangest reaction: which is not always exhilarating, it is sort

of like being hit in the stomach. Feeling a little nauseous. It’s just this

sort of completely overwhelming feeling, which then I have to grope my

way out of, calm myself down, and try to approach it scientifically, not

with all my antennae vulnerable, open.... What comes to you after

looking at it calmly, after you’ve really digested every nuance and every

little thread, is the total impact. When you encounter a very great work

of art, you just know it and it thrills you in all your senses, not just

visually, but sensually and intellectually.

Not only great works of art produce such intense flow experiences;

for the trained eye, even the most mundane sights can be delightful. A

man who lives in one of Chicago’s suburbs, and takes the elevated train

to work every morning, says: