Introduction

• But whatever the dictates of fashion, it seems that those who take the trouble to gain mastery over what happens in consciousness do live a happier life.
• Consciousness has developed the ability to override its genetic instructions and to set its own independent course of action.
• With consciousness, we can deliberately weigh what the senses tell us, and respond accordingly. Without it, we would still "know" what is going on but would have to react in a reflexive, instinctive manner.
• This ability to persevere despite obstacles and setbacks is the quality people most admire in others, and justly so; it is probably the most important trait not only for succeeding in life, but for enjoying it as well.
• To develope this trait, one must find ways to order consciousness so as to be in control of feelings and thoughts.
• Because no branch of science deals with consciousness directly, there is no single description of how it works.
• flow - a phenomenological model of consciousness based on information theory
• consciousness - intentially ordered information
• intentions - force that keeps information in consciousness ordered
• consciousness can be ordered in terms of different goals and intentions
• each of us has this freedom to control our subjective reality.

The limits of consciousness

• If it were possible to expand indefinitely what consciousness is able to encompass, it would be almost as good as being immortal or omnipotent
• Consciousness is limited by our attention capacity
• We can manage at most 7 bits of information - such as differentiated sounds, or visual stimuli, or recognizable nuances of emotion or thought - at any one time, and that the shortest time it takes to discriminate between one set of bits and another is about 1/18 of a second.
• The limitation of consciousness is demonstrated by the fact that to understand what another person is saying we must process 40 bits of information each second.
• Consciousness, the optimists orgue, is an "open system"; in effect, it is infinitely expandable, and there is no need to take its limitations into account
• not surprisingly, people report some of the lowest levels of concentration, use of skills, clarity of thought, and feelings of potency when watching television.
• In any case, an individual can experience only so much. Therefore, the information we allow into consciousness becomes extremely important; it is, in fact, what determines the content and the quality of life.

Attention as psychic energy

• Information enteres consciousness either because we inted to focus attention on it or as a result of attentional habits based on biological or social instructions.
• There is a distinct process that makes such reactions possible, a process called attenion.
• Despite its great powers, attention cannot step beyond limits. It cannot notice or hold infocus more information than can be processed simultaneously.
• The mark of a person who is in control of consciousness is the ability to focus attention at will, to be oblivious to distractions, to concentrate for as long as it takes to achieve a goal, and not longer.
• attention can be invested in innumerable ways, ways that can make life either rich or miserable.
• because attention determines what will or will not appeat in consciousness, and because it is also required to make any other mental events - such as remembering, thinking, feeling, and makeing decisions - happen there, it is useful to think of it as psychic energy.
• this energy is under our control, to do with as we please; hence, attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience.

Enter the self

• Yet however much we are aware of it, the self is in many ways the most important element of consciousness, for it represents symbolically all of consciousness's other contents, as well as the pattern of their interrelations
• Attention shapes the self, and is in turn shaped by it.

Disorder in consciousness: psychic entrophy

• One of the main forces that affects consciousness adversely is psychich disorder - that is, information that conflicts with existing intentions, or distracts us from carrying them out.
• A new piece of information will either create disorder inconsciousness, by getting us all worked up to face teh treat, or it will reinforce out goals, thereby freeing up psychic energy.

Order in consciousness: Flow

• The opposite state from the condition of psychic entrophy is optimal experience
• when the information that keeps coming into awareness is congruent with goals, psychic energy flows effortlessly
• Flow experiences are situations in which attention can be freely invested to achieve a person's goals, because there is no disorder to straighten out, no threat for the self to defend against
• negentropy, opposite of psychic entropy, those who attain it develop a stronger, more confident self, because more of their psychic energy had been invested successfully in goals they themselves had chosen to pursue
• The "battle" is not really against the self, but against the entropy that brings disorder to consciousness

Complexity and growth of self

• It is becoming increasingly complex taht the self might be said to grow
• Complexity is the result of two broad psychological precesses: differentiation and integration
• Differentiation implies a movement towards uniqueness, toward separating oneself from others
• Integration refers to its opposite: a union with other people, with ideas and entites beyond the self
• A complex self is one that succeeds in combining these opposite tendencies
• The self becomes more differentiated as a result of flow because overcoming a challenge inevitable leaves a person feeling more capable, more skilled
• Without integration, a differentiated system would be a confusing mess
• Flow itself helps to integrate the self becasue in that state of deep concentration, consciousness i susually well ordered
• A self that is only differentiated - not integrated - may attain great individual accomplishments, but risks being mired in self-centered egotism
• A person whose self is based exclusively on integration will be connected and secure, but lack autonomous individuality
• Only when a person invests equal amounts of psychic energy in these two processes and avoids both selfishness and conformity is the self likely to reflect complexity
• When we choose a goal and invest ourselves in it to the limits of our concentration, whatever we do will be enjoyable. Any once we have tasted this joy, we will redouble our efforts to taste it again. This is the way the self grows