The Moment of Discovery in Flow
Olga KISS, (Corvinus University, Budapest)
Flow, the perfect experience, is closely related to the concept of happiness. However, there is much more to flow than just subjective pleasure. When the flow occurs, our own intentions, abilities, and knowledge are aligned with what we do, the domain, the world, and indirectly, even those who deal with the same subject, the field. In scientific research, discovery is such a moment: it opens up a previously unknown side of truth. A new Gestalt is made up of data. This is what Kisiel calls the hermeneutical moment: when we suddenly understand something - which, of course, remains to be explained, unfolded and interpreted. A big discovery is more than a person's momentary “Aha!” experience. It is an event that can lead to a paradigm shift that can change our worldview, culture, and life. How is it possible? How is it visible in the connectedness and alignment of flow experience?
As a researcher, most of us are already content with knowing how to get to the "zone", how to re-create our own creativity. What matters to Csíkszentmihályi is why this causes us, humans, joy. Why does it feel so good to think, to discover, to create?
