Leisure as immediate conscious experience: Foundations, evaluation, and extension of the theory of structured experiences

Psychological nature of leisure and tourism experience

We developed and validated single-item category (CAT) and labeled magnitude (LM) scales of three recalled immediate conscious leisure experiences: engagement, immersion, and absorption. These minimally invasive scales are suitable for use in experiments, surveys, and evaluations in the travel and leisure industries. The CAT scales followed a familiar Likert-type format, while the LM scales involved calibration by 169 judges using two modalities (drawing lines of differing lengths and providing numeric magnitude judgments) to establish empirically determined ratio-scaled distances among seven modifiers (not at all, slightly, somewhat, quite, very, greatly, and extremely). We collected 3,821 experience observations from 621 visitors to entertainment, recreation, and tourism venues using both scales. Theoretical determinants and results of engagement, immersion, and absorption were measured. Results supported the validity of both scales. LM measures are preferred because they reduced halo effects, generated greater variance, and provided ratio-level measures of intensity of the three immediate conscious experiences.

The study focuses on the phenomenon of hope conceived as an orientation which makes it possible for a human being to deal with the uncertainty of the future. The author takes into consideration the new ‘processual’ sense of the concepts and meanings helpful in understanding the conditions necessary to achieve the state of hope. The study makes use of theoretical analysis, in particular of the concepts of ‘peak experiences’ and ‘optimal experiences,’ as worked out by, respectively, Abraham Maslow and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The phenomenon of hope has been described with a special focus on the ‘process’ that allows a human being to experience it.

Males (n = 12, M age 25.6 yrs) with clear experiences (CE) of both "pure consciousness" (unbounded inner awareness without thoughts) and the TM--Sidhi techniques (mental procedures derived from Vedic Science to enhance cognitive, perceptual and other abilities) were compared with unclear experience (UE) males (n = 10, M age 25.5 yrs) on creativity (ideational fluency, Torrance, Novel Uses, Verbal) and EEG coherence, a measure of phase stability derived from Fourier series analysis. Multivariate analysis of variance of coherence between four pairs of EEG derivations (F3F4, F3C3, F4C4, C3C4) and a t-test on the creativity variable showed that CE subjects had higher alpha (8--12 Hz) coherence (p = 0.052) and higher creativity (p = 0.011) than UE subjects. Several of the alpha coherence variables were positively correlated with creativity: Bilateral Frontal (F3F4), r = 0.65, p = 0.001; Homolateral Right, r = 0.50, p = 0 .011; mean of the four alpha variables, r = 0.66, p = 0.001; Dominant Alpha (area of highest alpha coherence for each subject) r = 0.64, p = 0.001. It is concluded that: (1) information processing, at least to the extent measured by ideational fluency, is enhanced in those with clear experiences of pure consciousness and the TM--Sidhi techniques, (2) that EEG coherence is a psychophysiological correlate of this subject variable and (3) that the results may be generalizable to the field of information processing and "peak experiences" described in Humanistic psychology.

Psychedelic Birth: Bodies, Boundaries and the Perception of Pain in the 1970s

The flow experience, first studied by Mihaly (Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Harper Perennial, 1991), represents a glimpse into peak experiences, and suggests an expanded state of consciousness often accompanied by superior creativity and accomplishment. The experience of transcendence through Transcendental Meditation® (TM®), brought to the world by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, leads to development of consciousness and is associated with heightened creativity and fluid thinking. This chapter will compare flow experience with the development of consciousness toward higher states. Flow experiences have prerequisites in terms of mastery of craft, unambiguous clear task requirements, and a basic equivalence between the individual’s level of skill and the presented challenge. Flow experiences E "experience" are often fleeting and hard to predict. Regular practice of TM can systematically support more frequent experiences of creativity and the establishment of higher states of consciousness, known as enlightenment and create more frequent experiences of creativity and effortlessness. The goal of practice of the TM technique is enlightenment, living the experience of pure consciousness in all situations throughout the day, along with the other three states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, and sleeping), during external turbulence or not, and autotelic or not. Autotelic simply means that the activity is inspiring in and of itself enough, without an end-purpose. That is one of the findings in the flow experience but is not necessary in higher states of consciousness. There is overlap; however higher states of consciousness are based on refinement of the nervous system to support silence and dynamism.

The physical technique of slow, long distance running and the mental centering devices of T. M. are combined, using hypnosis in some cases, to enhance a "peak experience," or altered state of consciousness. Indications and contraindications to this technique are described for various psychiatric, psychosomatic and somatic syndromes, and its use as an adjunct to formal individual and group psychotherapy is discussed.

This paper argues that society is saturated with ideas of ‘normal’ ‘healthy’ leisure practice. These ideas reflect an historically specific distribution of power. The case of the hippy convoy and the controversy over the use value of Stonehenge as a leisure resource is examined to illustrate the official ordering of leisure in society and the social reaction to it. The paper concentrates on the events of 1986 leading to the Stoney Cross clearance. The paper concludes by making two general points about the significance of leisure experience in consciousness raising and the importance of deviant leisure for leisure studies.

All forms of augmented reality (AR)—including games—have common features. According to the authors, the two most important are immersion and flow. The phenomenon of AR is closely related with the technology: the optics, the sensors and HD displays are requirements. With the use of applications, digital information can be projected on the real world, while it becomes interactive. Most of AR games are smartphone related. In 2018 smartphones are ubiquitous devices. Their developers’ attention is focused on usability and experience, the goal is to make it as intuitive as possible and not to block the immersion of users into the games. Without the right speed or resolution, games simply do not work, but flow gives the necessary edge. In this study, the authors build on the theory by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who in his discourse on flow points out the peak experience that occurs when an individual is deeply involved in an activity. This perfect instantaneous real momentum is the flow that is the unity of joy and creativity, something the most popular AR games provide.

AimsThis study examines what effect wilderness has on our conscious awareness, and by extension of that meta-cognition; our physical, mental and spiritual health. It reviews available scientific and artistic literature and integrates this with interviews in order to generate original grounded theory. It was found that intensity of wilderness experience varied proportionally with four mediators; Challenge, Immersion, Beauty and Time. With these maximised, experiences broadly within four themes occurred; Increased Awareness, Confidence, Perspective and Connectedness. When sufficiently intense, these four experiences amalgamated to elicit what Maslow described as 'Peak Experience'. As such, this thesis unexpectedly provides a pragmatic recipie towards peak experience, and a map of one's potential psychological journey, in the context of wilderness.

While previous research has investigated the effects of emotional videos on peripheral physiological measures and conscious experience, this study extends the research to include electrocortical measures, specifically the steady-state visual-evoked potential (ssVEP). A carefully curated set of 45 videos, designed to represent a wide range of emotional and neutral content, were presented with a flickering border. The videos featured a continuous single-shot perspective, natural soundtrack, and excluded elements associated with professional films, to enhance realism. The results demonstrate a consistent reduction in ssVEP amplitude during emotional videos which strongly correlates with the rated emotional intensity of the clips. This suggests that narrative audiovisual stimuli have the potential to track dynamic emotional processing in the cortex, providing new avenues for research in affective neuroscience. The findings highlight the potential of using realistic video stimuli to investigate how the human brain processes emotional events in a paradigm that increases ecological validity. Future studies can further develop this paradigm by expanding the video set, targeting specific cortical networks, and manipulating narrative predictability. Overall, this study establishes a foundation for investigating emotional perception using realistic video stimuli and has the potential to expand our understanding of real-world emotional processing in the human brain.

Previous research concerning the relationship between the shaman’s conscious experiences and the ‘spirit world’ suggests that shamans are realists in the sense that they conceptualize their multi-layered universe (e.g., upper, middle and lower world) as real, objective and independent of the perceiver. However, these studies have neglected to analyze the logical coherence of a realist interpretation of these shamanic ‘nonphysical.’ worlds (NPWs). We address this lacuna first by determining which variant of realism is most consistent with the shaman’s purported views concerning the ontological status of the aforementioned NPWs. Subsequently, we consider sk.a-ma-nic journeying imagery with regards to the key definitional elements of the term ‘mental image.’ Finally, we formulate three premises pertaining to shamanic journeying imagery and NPWs with the aim of assessing the logical coherence of the shaman’s realist ontology. We conclude that if sk.a-ma-nic journeying images constitute mental images, then this does not necessarily preclude shamanic NPWs from existing independently of the percipient’s mindbody state(s).

Music and Peak Experiences: An Empirical Study Michael J. Lowis1' Anomalous experiences, such as inner voices or moments of revelation, have been reported from the earliest of times, and music has often been associated with them. Tapes of music were played on two occasions to 74 individual members of college staff who had previously completed questionnaires on their histories of experiences, based on the descriptions of Maslow, and the associated antecedents. By pressing a button synchronized to the music, some 77% of participants indicated that least one significant experience had occurred to them during the sessions. Significantly more reports occurred with upbeat music than was the case with gentle music. Thoughts and feelings evoked by the music were noted on post-test questionnaires: some indicated strong emotional reactions or mystical images, the more so with the upbeat music. Although association of the music with previous events may have been partly responsible for the participant responses, arousal theory also appeared to be implicated in the reactions. Whether or not such strong affective responses can be brought about in the listener simply through manipulation of a composition, is contrasted with the notion that music may have inherent emotional qualities. KEYWORDS: Peak experiences, Altered states of Music, Arousal, Evoked memories Anomalous, subjective experiences have probably occurred to humans from the dawn of history, and reports of such have appeared in early texts such as those of both Eastern and Western religions dating back to about 1,000 B.C. Liester (1996), in a review of just one example - inner voices, mentioned that Socrates (c.470-399 B.C.) heard voices throughout his life, and that ancient Egyptians and Romans believed guiding voices originated from the gods. In the early 1960s, Abraham Maslow, in his desire to investigate the psychology of health, made a study of the finest specimens of humankind he could find. He discovered that such individuals (self-actualizers) inter alia tended to report profound experiences variously described as: moments of great awe, a feeling of oneness with the world, seeing the ultimate truth, the definitive satisfaction of vague, unsatisfied yearnings, stepping into heaven, getting lost in the present, or being detached from time and place (Maslow, 1962; 1971). Although originally thinking of such events as mystical, Maslow came to the conclusion that in general they had little to do with religion - at least in the supernaturalist sense (Maslow, 1962, p.10). He came to regard them as natural, referring to them as peak experiences. Definitions of what constitutes a experience have broadened somewhat since Maslow's earlier reports. Kokoszka (1992) compiled a typology, subsumed under the heading of altered states of consciousness, defining these in terms of what represents a sufficient deviation from general norms for that individual during alert, waking consciousness. MacDonald, Le Clair, Holland, Alter and Friedman (1995) noted that such events can probably only be truly understood through direct experience. They are, in fact, unshared sensory experiences (Stevenson, in Liester, 1996). Robinson (in Hay, 1990) stated that they have a quality that is self-authenticating: if a person has experienced a significant event, then that event is very to him or her - sociologically real (Giesler, 1996). MacDonald et al (1995) concluded from their studies with a Peak Experiences Scale that, although such experiences involve positive affect, they are primarily cognitive events. Whatever their origin, evidence suggests that experiences are not rare. Maslow (1962), whilst believing that few people were likely to achieve high levels of self-actualization, nevertheless suspected that experiences occurred in practically everybody although are not always recognized as such. Hay (1990) conducted three surveys in the United Kingdom, asking his participants if they had ever been aware of, or influenced by, a presence or power, whether one called it God or not. …

Abstract. This paper reports on a research project that has a focus on the perception of place, collective experience, and shared perceptions. It aims to demonstrate how mapping can be used to bring depth and meaning to places through portraying emotions, memory, sensation, and the imagination. This study explores how maps can be developed to create a deeper understanding and explore perceptions of place. It draws upon the diverse experiences of a participatory study of a single, shared place, the Edinburgh Gardens in North Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia. This participatory study expands upon a previous research study of the Edinburgh Gardens, which focused on the influence of time in the perception of place. While time plays a significant role in changing perceptions of place, emotions, sensory inputs, and memory also play vital roles in shaping these perceptions. The intent of this study was to look for shared experiences, synergies, or differences between different participants’ visits to the park, while examining how people perceive, move through, and understand the place and their emotional connection to it. Through a three-part participatory study, 1. Memory, 2. Experience, and 3. Reflection, the data collected informs a series of emotional maps of the Edinburgh Gardens. The first part of the study, Memory, asked participants to recall and describe a memory of an experience they had at the Edinburgh Gardens. Questions included why the event was significant, were they with other people, how long did they stay, and could they remember any smells or sounds or think of any colours associated with the experience. Participants were also asked to draw a map of the gardens as they remembered them (Figure 1). The second part of the study, Experience, asked participants to go for a walk in the park and capture their experience in real-time (Figure 2). This included many of the same questions as Part 1, while also asking them to record their route as they moved through the park, via a GPS walking app and pen and paper (Figure 3). The final part of the study, Reflection, asked participants to reflect and compare the visits to the park. The intention of this participatory component of the research programme is to visually explore emotional connections to place by creating prototype maps of place perceptions. The study focuses on the making of place and examines how places are perceived through deep mapping and associated spatial narratives. In creating these prototype maps, it investigates how the cartographic sciences, design thinking, and artistic expression can inform one another to spark new ideas and generate new ways of thinking about approaches to cartography and in turn, the possibilities that emerge when these disciplines work together. Through a practical and theoretical investigation into emotional cartography, this study explores perception of place and the representation of shared perceptions through mapping. Furthermore, it illustrates the role memory and conscious experience have on feelings and emotions attached to perception of place. Through creating prototypes of emotional maps, we are able to see the crossover between scientific cartography and artistic expression and appreciate how these different disciplines can be engaged to shape new approaches to cartography and reveal the map’s ability to impart emotion and evoke a sense of place.

Previous research has shown that both the daily experiences and personal traits of adolescents are linked to aggression. Our aim was to further investigate the relationship between leisure experience, self-esteem, and aggression according to the general aggression model. In addition, within frustration-aggression theory, we proposed that leisure experience and aggression have a negative correlation. Furthermore, based on broaden-and-build theory, we explored the mediating role of self-esteem between leisure experience and aggression. The participants included 660 Chinese teenagers with an average age of 14.3. Among them, male students accounted for 310 (49.4%) and female students accounted for 318 (50.6%). The results showed that leisure experience was positively correlated with self-esteem and negatively correlated with aggression, while self-esteem was also negatively correlated with aggression. Additionally, self-esteem fully mediated the relationship between leisure experience and aggression. Our study could enrich research on leisure and provide a basis for protective factors of aggression in adolescents.