The recognition problem in collective optimal experience: the identity of generation and recognition as a structural event.
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2026 Isabella Langwei, Bin Li
Whether a group has collectively experienced an optimal state—like flow or effervescence—has been judged by individual reports, leaving unclear how the group itself could recognize such an experience. An analysis of bisosilin, the evaluative term Bunun singers use to decide whether their ritual polyphonic chant pasibutbut is complete, shows that recognition depends not on anyone's internal feeling but on achieving a specific relational configuration of sonic alignment, bodily coordination, and shared intentional orientation. The study argues that collective optimal experience is not generated first and then recognized; generation and recognition are structurally inseparable. Two models are proposed: a three-layer body grammar specifying necessary conditions, and a process-uncertainty-alignment model describing a nonlinear transition called critical convergence at which the experience is established as a structural event, not an internal state.