March 5, 2001 - In honor of Brain Awareness Week (March 12-18, 2001), Brain Channels is awarding its first annual "Thinker of the Year-2000" award. Since its debut in November 2000, Brain Channels, has won several respected awards for its interactive design and thought provoking content related to the human brain, evolution and memory topics.

The Thinker of the Year Award has been awarded to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor and former chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago who has devoted his life's work to the study of what makes people truly happy, satisfied and fulfilled.

Mr. Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced "chick-sent-me-high-ee") is chiefly renowned as the architect of the notion of "flow" in creativity; people enter a flow state when they are fully absorbed in activity during which they lose their sense of time and have feelings of great satisfaction. Mr. Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

Cheryl Merrill, designer for BrainChannels says that Mr. Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory opens up a whole new dimension for many of those who were unaware of this state of consciousness. "Flow is something everyone should strive for in their lives," said Merrill. "All of the great masters of anything that has to do with art, invention, music and ideas already know that losing one's self in something that you love to do, puts you into another dimension of time and reality that is a very pleasant place to be. Most of my web site was created within the consciousness of flow."

Mr. Csikszentmihalyi is also the author of many highly acclaimed books including, "The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millennium," "Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life," "Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention," and "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience." These books can be purchased at the BrainChannels Bookstore.

More information on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, his theories and works can be found at Thinker of the Year - 2000 Recipient Award Page