Deconcentration of Attention / Altered States diving

[aquacat8]

I am curious about benefical altered mental states people have experienced freediving or scuba diving. For instance Natalia Molchanova the famous freediver used a Russian technique called Deconcentration Of Attention. Soviet scientists in the 1980’s extracted this as a “technology free of ideology” from historic meditation practices: in other words meditation without religion.

I often experience what I consider meditative states swimming, freediving, and diving. Do you? Is this part of what you enjoy about it?

I would like to learn more and perhaps enhance or train these abilities.

АлександрД Have you heard of this?

Read Psychonetics: a nerd’s toolset to work with mind and perception | Leanpub

 

[aquacat8]

Too weird for y’all?
Attention deconcentration in freediving | Natalia Molchanova - free diving world champion

 

[johndiver999]

Didn't she die while freediving and her body was never recovered? Or was it some other lady?

 

[aquacat8]

Yes she did, it is thought she was caught in a downcurrent while recreationally freediving. She was a world champion in midlife and mentored many young freedivers. She was much beloved and her son is a major freediver too. Freediving is a dangerous sport, no doubt about that. More dangerous than scuba I think.

 

[lowviz]

Too weird for y’all?

Not at all. But is it possible that this is just another dimension of schizophrenia?

Quote: "However, recent research suggests that people with schizophrenia (PSZ) actually focus attention more strongly on objects containing goal-relevant features."

Reference: Hyperfocusing of attention on goal-related information in schizophrenia: Evidence from electrophysiology. - PubMed - NCBI

There are people on this board (@drrich2) who might even be able to answer that. I would like to know if attention deconcentration is possibly a form of hyperfocusing...

Edit:
One can hyperfocus on anything, including hyperfocusing on being in a neutral, but aware, state. The brain can override biology for only so long. This whole thing sounds a bit dicey to me.

 

[aquacat8]

Well who knows what mentally different people can do with their minds. There must be some reason evolution has favored such divergence enough that it was not bred out. But this was developed for training cosmonauts and nuclear power plant monitors. I hope the soviets weren’t using schizophrenics for those jobs, but ya never know.

I think attention deconcentration is quite different from hyper focus on a goal object. Are you saying you can hyperfocus on not hyper focusing?

 

[aquacat8]

I’m interested in how normal people can experience beneficial altered states similar to meditation from being in the water: like deep relaxation, a feeling of oneness with the environment, enhanced awareness, and, if freediving, the mental states that attend mammalian dive reflex. Have any of you folks felt this kind of thing?

 

[lowviz]

Are you saying you can hyperfocus on not hyper focusing?

Pretty much exactly that, but not 'saying'. That would be my question.

'Normal' is a funny word too, we are all somewhere on a continuum of mental abilities and states. Like deco, there are no sharp divisions.

And yes, meditation and relaxation are why I dive. Period. When everything aligns, it is truly a 'Zen' state. (Whatever that is)

 

[lowviz]

Maybe this: 'deconcentration of attention' is just a recast/rename of a long-established idea that I was exposed to aeons ago in martial arts:

Mushin | ZEN BUDDHISM

 

[aquacat8]

Yes. Do you think your study of martial arts benefitted you as a scuba diver?