Hey this is my first time posting and I just wanted to see if anybody has experienced this “state of being”. To be honest I don’t really know what to call it but, I like to call it “zero state” because that’s what I feel like when I experience it. In order to actually understand what it is I’m going to give a little bit of context.
About a week ago I was told to write a paper for my literature class about Willa Cather's classic short story, "Paul's Case" written in 1905. While I was writing the paper my mind began to wander as I began to think about other things like what I was going to eat for lunch the following day, how my friends were doing in their respective schools, what I should do once my paper was finished, etc. Now when I finally got my head back into the paper I look down to realize that I had already written about half of my paper during the time which I had been day dreaming. I read over the paragraph's because for the life of me I could not remember writing what was on the page and I realized that the couple of paragraphs I wrote in that time were the best paragraphs I have written in my whole entire life.
I found it weird that I had not been paying attention at all yet at the same time I managed to do all that work. I call that way of thinking "zero state" because It's like you're not thinking about anything, but thinking about everything at the same time. I've also had this happen while gaming where my mind will wander while playing a video game and when I snap back into reality my score will be way higher than what it would be if I were paying attention to what I was doing. I wanted to know if this has happened to anybody or if anybody has a reasonable explanation to what this "higher consciousness" is or how it works?
I believe that a state of “non focus” also activates the inner inteligence that we all crave to obtain. you are one of few that can activate this state (That i know of). Maybe you are an intilectual why is yet to discover your abilities.
When I was a kid I’d done something horrible and my mother told me as punishment I had to either work in the garden an hour a day or practice the piano an hour a day (previously it had been 30 min./day, and I had been very patchy about it). I picked piano because it didn’t get dirt under my nails. About three weeks into this regime, I sat down at the piano, and next thing I knew my hour was up! And I had the impression that I’d been playing really well. I was playing Beethoven’s “pathetique” sonata and there were some troubling measures in the second movement, and the third movement was entirely a problem, and yet, there I was at the end of it. My mother even mentioned that I was sounding really good–and it had been effortless! After 3 weeks of daily practice, of course. And I felt really good.
So naturally, the next day I tried to instantly achieve the same state. And failed.
Never got there while trying to, but only while not trying. And then, it gets harder, because if you’re consciously not trying, so as to try…well…
This reminds me of something slightly related. Often, when I’m crossing a street, I just ***know ***with which foot I’ll reach the other side. Somehow my brain knows the exact length of my stride, and does the math. But if I’m consciously trying to do it, it doesn’t work.
If all that happened was that you concentrated really hard whilst performing the task, then forgot about it afterwards, how would it feel any different?
Not to piss on the parade, but it also sounds a lot like dissociation. I’ve only experienced that a few times (all of which were extremely distressing) and even then I was aware of what was happening, it just felt like it was happening to someone else (sort of, hard to explain).
Zipping up and trying to be more positive, I would also say it sounds a lot the state of mind achieved by Zen masters. In Japanese Zen (maybe Chinese too, don’t recall), it is demonstrated by some preternatural ability, such as in archery. It’s where the meme about ‘becoming the arrow’ and its ilk comes from.