Fluidum
Already
in the late forties of the last century Andreas Okopenko, an Austrian
poet and writer, started to take notes about a certain consciousness
state, which he experienced often. Later he began to call this state
‘Fluidum’, “…At this enthused discourse at an age
of 16 I called this phenomenon this reactive feeling upon a selected
reality, FLUIDUM, I don’t know why.” ((2),
p 20/21) His first publication about his self observations appeared
in an Austrian literary magazine in 1977 (1),
much later a version with more examples and some comments by the author
himself can be found in the two volumes of his selected writings (2).
Okopenko
tried very hard to give us a good description of his ‘fluidum’
as well as some definitions, a few of those I am presenting in an English
translation.
“But
the essential cannot be found in these encirclements, which do not sensually
exceed thoughts or feelings, but something similar elementary or irreducible
as the experience of the five senses.” ((2),
p 28)
“An
important component of the fluidum is the affected one. The feeling
of a fluidum comes most often as a shock.” ((2),
p 31)
“The
fluidum is unique and mirrors subjectively the uniqueness of the moment.
It hits like lightning. It is in the moment when it is perceived. During
a fluidum the constituents of the moment are being felt as a whole and
not as a collection of particular elements. The fluidum is an integral
for experience within a time differential.” ((2),
p 53/54)
It
should be noted that Okopenko by his heritage and upbringing has been
a person from the eastern part of Europe (Moldavia) transferred to Vienna
in his early teens and so has had a scholling experience with a number
of different languages.
“The
experience (of a fluidum) is functional: recognising (perceiving, reflecting),
but also always dynamic: as seizure <Anwandlung>, enlightenment,
lightning. The whole of the concept ‘fluidum’ is an indivisible
complex of objective content and excitement.” ((2),
p 27)
“The
fluidum is not being exhausted in the optical realm on one side, and
on the other side much conscious scanning does not lead to any fluidic
experiences.” ((2), p 25)
“The
fluidum is also one of the phenomena of pre-language thinking which
is sometimes put into disgrace by the philosophers. (Thinking in pictures
– not anything unclear! And not in icons! – clear perceiving
of relations between seen or sensual imagined objects; before the words
appear for them. ….)” ((2), p 29)
“The
experience of a fluidum has similarities with spontaneous or provoked
states of enlightenment or mystical intimacy, without a faith however
at the fluidum.” ((2), p 31)
“The
clear sight in its meta-wordly aspect is the ‘direct experience’3 …and one day the flash of the highest insight, the clear, happens,
and with it the sight of the true reality.” ((2),
p 35)
In
order to differentiate his fluidum experiences from the Eastern world
view Okopenko mentions:
“In
my fluidum experience I wander … over the limits of the subject,
this tragic bearer of ‘the always opposite one’ (Rainer Maria
Rilke); until the confluence of the subject into the world of objects:
into the midst within, at the suspension of contrast….” ((2),
p 38)
In
1963 Andreas states:
“You
are recognising that everything you tried to say remains incommunicable.
It can not be said with all the painstaking images of reality. It clings
to the images but has its own nature.”
If
these last two sentences give way to a feeling, which overcomes (I believe)
many of us in the writing business sometimes, Okopenko certainly points
to the problem of communicating consciously experienced phenomena. Especially
states of consciousness apart from any mood may be very difficult to
describe in a way accessible for the laywoman or the student.
Noting
the additionally provided examples of Okopenko’s own poems or prose
lines I suggest that his truthful self-observations fall into two categories,
one characterised by this spontaneous enlightenment, and the other by
a certain revelation, a heightened awareness, especially in the direction
of aesthetic experience, but also of nature poetry.
I
would like to add some other descriptions about fluidum by Okopenko.
“Fluidum is an emotional state with existential resonance, or before
an infinite horizon, basically it could happen always, even to catch
up to a given narrow feeling.” ((2) p
53)
“Maybe
a great calm and a feeling of clarity comes over us.” ((2)
p 53)
“The
Fluidum is singular and subjectively mirrors the singularity of the
moment. It hits. It is complete in the very moment it is experienced.
The elements of the moment are being felt as a unit and not as a cluster
of individual pieces. The fluidum is an experience integral in a time
differential. Despite the uniqueness of a fluidum all of one’s
own fluidi are similar to each other, and one’s own and strange
fluidi are also similar to each other, since each unique moment is similar
to another one, and each psyche resembles another one. Artistic, fluidic
communication: one zest for life alarms the other one.” ((2)
p 53/54)
The
important thesis by Okopenko regarding poetry can be formulated as follows:
The fluidic state of an author (poet) supports the development of new
ways to write and to form poems. He cites a number of poets like Ezra
Pound, James Joyce and T.S. Eliot, whose poetic works show an influence
from the fluidic consciousness states. Especially the imagism from Pound
seems to hold much in favour of Okopenko’s thesis. He believes
very strongly that in writing poetry one tries to communicate ones own
fluidic experiences. I believe an example of one of his poems from 1950
should somewhat clarify his intentions: a partial translation follows.
Now
the various depths are being separated
Now you don’t
eat in the best way cut up flowers
They do have their
own scent, not a good one,
Now you eat bread
from last year’s harvest or drill sharply
Into a tin can
and cut around
The first slice
of a canned piece.
As fast as possible
you harness yourself before the rest of the country coaches
Breathe the yellow
shaft
Pant the song
in the yellow brown stubble field
From pursuing
gray under the spread out gray
And then the sky
rushes down.
You can only see
a few steps ahead
The earth receives
an adverse play explosions
Fountains of upwards
pelting rain bundles
And sloping downwards,
broken
And overlapping
circles everywhere all the time.
Soaked man,
Man of the threethousand
steps!
(From
‘Zu Herbstbeginn’ (at the beginning of fall) in Okopenko 1980.
In
my view: there is still a story, and the poem is full of surrealist
influences, but when we take these away there is a rest, which may correspond
to the fluidic experience: a certain hold in individual time, a widened
consciousness state, which is able to observe simultaneously many different
events on more than one sensual plan.
Let’s
take a few lines by T.S. Eliot:
At
the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor
towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest
nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and
future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent
nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be
no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say,
how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom
from practical desire,
The release from
action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer
compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sence, a white light still and moving,
Erhebung without
motion, concentration
Without elimination,
both a new world
And the old made
explicit, understood
In the completion
of its partial ecstasy,
The resolution of its partial horror.
Yet the enchainment
of past and future
Woven in the weakness
of the changing body,
Protects mankind
from heaven and damnation
Which flesh cannot
endure.
Time past and
time future
Allows but a little
consciousness,
To be conscious is not to be in time
But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,
The moment in
the arbour where the rain beat,
The moment in the draughty church at smokefall
Be remembered;
involved with past and future.
Only through time time is conquered.
(T.S.
Eliot 1963)
This
part of a longer poem (Burnt Norton) really has the ‘fluidic’
quality Okopenko tries to demonstrate in his essay. Despite some contents
which lead us to later discussion in my paper.
Let
me end with a poem in English by Samuel Beckett:
Da
Tagte Es
redeem
the surrogate goodbyes
the sheet astream in your hand
who have no more
for the land
and the glass
unmisted above your eyes
There
is little to add. (Maybe no thing).
(Samuel
Beckett 1961)
Synaesthesia
Some
aspects in Okopenko’s description of his Fluidum lead to the discussion,
if this consciousness state has some common elements with Fluidum. Usually
synaesthetic experiences are defined as the production of mental sense
impression relating to one sense by the stimulation of another sense.
‘A
Review of Current Knowledge’ has been written by Richard E. Cytowic
in PSYCHE, 2 (10), July 1995. In his ABSTRACT he summarises very clearly
all aspects, which are interesting to neurology and art & consciousness.
Under
2.8 he writes “…The spatial location of objects is also strikingly
remembered, such as the precise location of kitchen utensils, furniture
arrangements and floor plan, books on shelves, or text blocks in a specific
book….”
A
descriptive passage from Andreas Okopenko ((2),
p 23): “Suddenly – be it spontaneously or provoked, a watercock
becomes of enormous importance to us, which has been indifferently looked
at before. Or a room appears in a moving-perspective to us and becomes
exciting for us. Particularly the alienation (‘Verfremdung’)
does much for a fluidic movement in the presence.”
“A
whole landscape including the smallish human beings, little houses,
vehicles, their perspectives, flowers, closenesses, distances, their
weather, fragments of conversation, manifest values and no values, their
tragedy, their humour, youth, age, water, heat, wind, single movements
constantly everywhere, embedded in the nearest and the farthest surrounding,
sucking in prehistory until world future, in addition superpositioning
with my own small and large history, my appetite, clothe status, health
status, working plan, with hopes, resentments, sexual life, this fitted
into the world and this observing one self that all may become enchanting
in the simultaneous experience (and not in remembering it).”
This
poetic recall of a fluidic experience seems to me to be the only overlap
between Okopenko’s concept and the general acceptance of synaesthetic
ones. In this regard I would like to point to Cytowic’s paragraph
3. ‘History Of Synaesthesia’ as well as to Braddock’s
paragraph ‘Synaesthesia: A Case Study in Phenomenology through
Vicarious Experience’ in (5) and to the
section ‘Artists, Poets and Synaesthesia’ by Ramachandran
and Hubbard in (6).
Besides
the point, that Okopenko mentions a number of poets, whom he suspects
of having had ‘fluidic’ experiences, and whose names we find
again in the articles mentioned above there is little evidence, that
‘fluidum’ could be really listed within the synaesthetic experiences.
The
discussion about synaesthesia lead to very interesting speculations,
which should be noted by writers and literary reviewers, as “Second,
we propose the existence of a kind of sensory to motor synaesthesia,
which may have played a pivotal role in the evolution of language.”
(Ramachandran and Hubbard in ‘Synaesthesia – A Window into
Perception, Thought and Language’ in (6)).
A similar view on the evolution of language is expressed by Harry van
der Hulst in Hulst 1999.
Reviewing
the above mentioned sources I am declined to think, that the ‘fluidum’
of Okopenko has very little connections with anything being discussed
within the realm of synaesthesia. There is one point which should be
mentioned, however. The literature points to a fact, that synaesthets
within the group of poets, writers and artists in the wider sense of
the word are unproportionally existing compared with a more general
group.
I
am no synaesthet: music recalls emotions in my mind, but no colours,
and paintings are just paintings for me. Understanding the main feelings
of a synaesthet I still do find a phenomenological problem within this
area.
Maybe
the sentence by G. Braddock in his ‘Beyond Reflection in Naturalized
Phenomenology’ (5) on page 13: “In
short, our phenomenological verdict about synaesthesia and its role
in normal perception will be directed by all of the above information,
and, in fact by any other information that might push our account of
the phenomena in one direction or another.” Serves well to my ideas
at this time in writing that ‘account’.
It
may be interesting to note, that the German term ‘Doppelbegabung’,
intended to describe artists creating original works in at least two
different art provinces, like poetry and music, or painting and theatrical
propositions, may only try to group persons as synaesthetics together.
To
own this heightened awareness in perception in form and intensity of
sound, colour, bodily movement or rhapsodic prose may have been sometimes
an advantage for the individual, leaving it to achieve a carrier as
shamane, sorceress, cave painter, rock scratcher, and later into the
roles of bards and clowns. It can be summed up by two sentences of Robert
Allott:
“The
process of art production as a biological reality presents problems
for a number of aspects of evolutionary theory (e.g. fitness, altruism,
gene determination of behaviour, gene selection) which may best be solved
by defining or amending the theories rather than by ejecting the art
process from the realm of biology. If the arts are correctly treated
as biological in origin and in the process of artistic creation, the
issue that matters, on the the analysis in the preceding section, is
not the node of transmission of cultural pattern (via hypothetical memes,
culturgens, etc.) but the origination of the cultural patterns, artistic
or cultural ‘creation’.” (Allott 2002)
Freeze
(An
associative description)
After
a short while travelling in the tram during the onsetting twilight the
view from my wide open eyes remains sharply focussed in the direction
of the fast passing building walls with windows, entrances, shops, and
in between lying billboards. The passengers are perceived as precisely
outlined shapes throughout the field of vision, especially, if one moves.
Familiar faces are resolved into strange features. (The way of viewing,
the representation of the surrounding objects must have been widened.)
The written signs on the shop portals are being perceived as such, but
the meaning of the agglomeration of letters cannot be recognised.
The
colours and shapes on each poster appear extremely clear, but cannot
be combined together into a picture. Mirrorlike glass surfaces surrounded
by dark brown frame wood, the phenomena themselves start to win significance,
and those concepts which regulate the representation of objects are
not involved.
In
a way Jennifer Church gives us some explanation wen she writes in her
article ‘Seeing A’s and the Double Bind of Consciousness’
(4) on page 99: “Central to aesthetic
experience, but also to experience in general, is the phenomenon of
‘seeing as’. We see a painting as a landscape, we hear sequence
of sounds as a melody, we see a wooden contraption as a boat, and we
hear a comment as an insult.”
Back
to my ‘inside’ report:
No
effort can be felt by keeping the look forward even throughout many
minutes. After these minutes the visual attention widens itself over
the total field of view, no difference between foreground and background
can be made anymore, the movement of single elements against each other,
the shifts and overpositions can be observed, without moving the direction
of the view, all things happening simultaneously. During this time acoustic
phenomena can be perceived as well, and in contrast to the visual experience
the meaning of utterances, even when more then one persons speaks at
the same time, can be understood.
Thinking
in a certain respect has actually ceased, since stimuli or analogue
chains are no more followed at all. The capacity of conscious perception
is just large enough to accept the immensely large abundance of visual
and auditory details. The progressive loss of significance leads one
to indulge in a strong feeling of strangeness. The normal atmosphere
of feelings and emotions vanishes. The self is no longer included in
the reality around it.
Another
citation from Church’s above mentioned article, page 103, following
Kant’s insight: “although seeing seems to be a twoplace relation
between the seer and the seen, and thinking appears to be a twoplace
relation between the thinker, the object of thought, and what is thought
about that object, conscious thinking also requires one to merge an
object with the way it is presented. ” And later on page 105: “This
is not to say, that all thinking must be accompanied by images; sometimes
thinking amounts to little more than the syntactical manipulation of
symbols.”
Without
being able to compare my ‘freeze’ experience with those of
others I can only speculate, that there are certain ways to loosen the
‘double binding’ in consciousness space.
Since
introspection does not give me any hints, how I really manage to click
on freeze, I must leave this consciousness state to further investigations.
It
seems also, that Eastern meditative practices lead to a similar state.
Zazen,
Zen
‘zen’
is a translation of the Indian Sanskrit word for meditation. Meditation
has been passed down as one of the three facets of Buddhist practice
(i.e. morality, meditation and wisdom). It is the most essential of
the practices taught by Sakyamuni Buddha who himself attained supreme
enlightenment by single-mindedly penetrating zazen.
In
his Fukan Zazengi (The Universal Promotion of the principles
of Zazen). Dögen says, that the crux of zazen is “non-thinking;
that is the essential of zazen.” This non-thinking is impossible
to explain. If it could be explained, then it would not be non-thinking.
Non-thinking is just non-thinking and there is no other way for you
to experience for yourself in zazen.
You
can’t understand with your brain. If you practice zazen, on the
other hand, you can experience satori unconsciously. The posture of
zazen itself is satori. Satori is the return to the normal, original
condition. It is the consciousness of the new-born baby. Unlike what
many people think, satori is not some special state, but simply a return
to the original condition. Through the practice of Zazen one becomes
peacefully. Through one’s body one can discover the consciousness
of satori. So posture is very important. You can’t discover satori
with your head in your hands like Rodin’s thinker. That is why
people in the East respect the posture of the Buddha. It is the highest
posture of the human body. Chimpanzees and babies cannot experience
satori. Babies are in their original condition, but then karma obscures
it, and we must regain that condition. Chimpanzees don’t nee to;
they are always in their original condition. Only human beings have
lost it and become complicated and so they must regain it.
Zazen
clears up the human being mind immediately and lets him dwell in his
true essence. Zazen transcends both the unenlightened and the sage,
rises above the dualism of delusion and enlightenment. Through zazen
we break free from all things, forsake myriad relations, do nothing
and stop the working of the six sense organs.
Awareness
is the ontological ground of phenomenal appearance, which only have
reality as manifestations of Nature.
From
these diverse statements (Maybe one wants to look up ‘Lecture on
Zen’ by Alan Watts) it seems plausible, to compare ‘freeze’
with Zen When we lose the name of an object do we lose the object too?
Patches of colour, sounds without meaning remain.
Andreas
Okopenko writes about ‘direktes Erkennen’ and Satori and believes,
that Haiku or Zenrin are very close to a fluidic kind of poetry.
Conclusion
Literary
creativity is a wide area, where new imagery, new forms for poetry or
prose or new philosophical thoughts or recombinations are tried out
and performed. Throughout our writing history stimulations have been
sought by poets and writers in general to wake up creativity. Heavy
smoking seems to be the one most often used ancillary, but alcoholic
fluids from beer to whisky served some as well. In the modern literary
history the use of many kinds of substances with mind expanding or mind
changing abilities have been in use.
So
it lies near that specific consciousness states, reached without the
intake of any chemical substance at all, could serve this purpose as
well.
From
the various descriptions of poets, especially in ‘Fluidum’
by Andreas Okopenko, one receives the impression, however, that the
fluidum or synaesthetic experiences serve indirect means for literary
creativity. It is the impact of these experiences which the poet tries
to describe or bring into a communicable form, using language. Okopenko
points to the theory of writing zenrin and haiku.
The
role of ‘fluidum’ may be described by using some words of
explanation, Okopenko has written (2) about
a request, to explain one of his own poems:
(partial
presentation)
“Fluidum
is a feeling with existential resonance, in front of a unending horizon,
basically always possible, to be catched up with a given narrow emotion……About
a great silence and a feeling of clarity overcomes us.”
It
seems to me, that writing in this sense means reliving those episodes
of unusual consciousness states. Okopenko has, however, scanned modern
literature for remains and suggestions about fluidic experiences, brought
forward in writing. For details see (2).
Synaesthetic
experiences lead to somewhat different examples, many of those cited
in the mentioned literature. A large number of poets used metaphors
including colour references, as well as painters like Wassilij Kandinsky
(The yellow sound) worked from the synaesthetic experience of music
and colour. We can state that synaesthetic poets and writers have an
internal source for creativity in their poetic work.
‘Freeze’
and Zen – may I combine my intentions here? – can also not
be used for writing while you are in a freeze or enlightened. Remembering
those consciousness states, however, should spur the strife of writing.
Using my freeze experiences I tried to get into what I repeatedly described
as an ‘hot point’ within myself, finding there the opening
lines of some of my emotional moving poems. Let me end with one of it:
Heart
Your Shaking
As by asked for I had
Only one hand – gratified touch
Ask never what aggravated me
Entrusted to clarity
Literature [top]
(1)
protokolle No 2 (1977), Wien, Jugend und Volk
(2) Okopenko, Andreas 2000/2001, Gesammelte Aufsätze Vol
I & II, Klagenfurt, Ritter
(3) JCS Vol 6 (1999) June/July
(4) JCS Vol 7 No 8-9 (2000)
(5) JCS Vol 8 No 11 (2001)
(6) JCS Vol 8 No 12 (2001)
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States and Literary Creativity