by Milton Dawes
A human society with its diversity of activities, interrelationships,
interactions, rules, regulations, laws, and so on, as far as I know
could not survive without communication among its members. This
communication is usually achieved through words, sounds, gestures,
signs, movements, symbols, etc. Words are used to formulate our
policies, and rules, and so on; and they constitute one of our chief
means of communication.
We have had many discussions as to whether words have power or not. I
would like to propose that words do indeed have power. I would say as far
as we know, everything in Universe has power - and words are no exception.
In mechanics we have potential energy and kinetic energy. Analogously I
would offer that words can also be evaluated in terms of potential and
kinetic energy. A word unseen and unheard could be considered in terms
of psycho-biological potential energy and when seen or heard - as
psycho-biological kinetic energy. I am using "power" here as applied
to words following Webster's "the ability to produce an effect". I
propose that "words do produce effects". Now I caution you: Be careful.
if you attempt to disagree with this proposal - I suggest you will be
illustrating my point. You will be reacting to words. How you react is
another matter.
Words have the power (to produce effects) to affect our nervous systems
and stimulate interpretations, 'thoughts', meanings, 'feelings',
images, memory, fears, anxieties, actions. Of course, the kind of
'thought' or 'feeling' or action depends on how you and I interpret
the words we see or hear. But once heard or seen, words do have "some
degree of effect" on our systems. And this happens before we as aware
subjects can intervene. (Remember the old joke? Try not to 'think' about
a pink elephant.) There are also effects even when one simply remembers
some words. Depending on one's attentiveness, training, experience,
and so on, patterns of neural firings are modified in some way at
neurological levels. And at psycho-physiological levels, symbol
reactions might reign over signal reactions. So instead of reacting
violently when someone calls me an "x", I am able to summon a
wide range of alternative responses.
The word as a 'thing' (words can sometimes be referred to as
'things'. Here, written "words" are the 'things' I am writing
about") can be considered as a particular configuration, or pattern
of light waves which impacts our retinas, triggering particular
patterns of neural firings in neural circuits. (This includes words
represented through gestures and signs.) With "heard words", we have
particular patterns of sound waves. When these patterns of sound waves
impact certain structures in our ears, this impact triggers certain
patterns of neural firings. A look at spectrographs of various words
illustrates this factor that words spoken, constitute actual physical
structures. And with written words, one simply have to look at words in
this message to see that they have different visual and physical
structures.
Words often have long lasting effects. I believe that therapists,
counselors, psychologists - and you and me - can attest to that factor.
Dictators, priests, politicians, teachers, advertisers - and you and me
- are quite aware of the power of words. We have the power to supervise
to some degree, the power words have on us. We can be conscious that a
word is not the thing referred to. And we can take responsibility for the
meanings we give to what we read, or hear.
Remember: I am not saying that this is so. I am proposing that we can
evaluate words along these lines. And I am suggesting that "Sticks and
stones can hurt our bones". But without an awareness of the potential
power of words, and without training in ways to use our power over
words - words can be just as hurtful to our nervous system, and to
the many interacting nervous systems we call "society".
The words below were given in a presentation at a High School in Vermont.
We have not as yet, to any significant degree, recognized language as a very
important part of both our outer and inner environments. As a consequence,
we have very little awareness of the ways our inner environments have been
polluted by words from the day we were born, and the part words play in
determining our thoughts' and feelings' and the related attitudes,
prejudices, and behaviors. Without such awareness, we have little chance of
improving ourselves. A formula you can apply here is this one.
"Self-improvement depends on self-correction, which depends on
self-awareness". In other words, to do better at any thing, we have to be
aware of what we are doing, and how we are doing what we are doing.
Words will have power over us - unless we use our powers first.
Unfortunately, our education system and our societies values have not yet evolved to
encourage us to recognize and develop our personal powers - which are already there.
Now I am not saying words are "bad things". I am saying they will have power
over us if we are not trained to recognize their potential polluting powers
along with their powers to move us to become better humans.
With a show of hands, please indicate if you have ever felt insulted,
praised, ridiculed, put down, criticized, encouraged, made fun of, encouraged,
consoled, and so on. [Almost all students and teachers raised their hands.] From what
I see, it seems to me you will have little difficulty recognizing for
yourself the power words can have over us. Note I didn't say "If you were
ever insulted..." I would like you to realize that there is a big
difference between "believing" that you were insulted and "feeling"
insulted. I am proposing to you that "You cannot be insulted unless you
interpret the words you hear as "insult": The insult you 'feel', is not in
the words. [This was very difficult for students to accept and I had much
discussion on this when I visited some classes during the rest of the day.
Students would ask for instance, "Well what if you knew that this person
really meant to insult you?]
Here are some of the powers you have over the power of words.
You have the power to see for yourself that a word, or name, is not the
thing or situation or person it is used to represent. A sale sign on a
store does not necessarily mean lower prices. A manufacturer advertising that their
product is "safe" does not make it safe. No one can predict whether something is safe
or not. Someone calling you a jerk, or any other entity, does not change
you into one such thing.
Right now you are using the power we all have, to interpret what you hear
or read or see or experience. The power that we all have but are not taught
and encouraged to use, is the power you have, to change your interpretations and understanding and beliefs, when you see and hear and experience other things.
You have the power to learn from yourself, and about yourself, by paying
close attention to what you 'think', 'feel', say and believe. You use that power
when you ask yourself "How do I know that it's so? How could I show
someone that it's so?" You have the power to learn from others through
their written and taped words, and through their works and discoveries,
even though they might have passed away long, long, ago. Let's take a few
moments to remember parents, and teachers, friends and acquaintances; the
individuals who founded this Academy; the individuals who built this
auditorium; the individuals who take out the garbage; and all those many
individuals who have contributed to improving our lives; most of whom are
not here and whom we don't even know. And let's say a silent "Thank you."
[We then did this silent "Thanks." I found this a very moving experience,
and a new way to represent the higher order abstraction "time-binding" with
the lower order experience of saying "Thanks".]
You have the power of imagination and creativity which you are using right
now, listening to these words, and 'thinking' about them. You have the power
to use your imagination and creativity to improve yourself and improve your
world. You have the power to 'think', and to 'think' about your 'thinking'. This
involves what you might know as "critical thinking". We need to become more
critical 'thinkers' if we are to better understand ourselves and others, and
what's going on in our world. More critical 'thinking', by extending our
understanding, and awareness, will help us to get along better with each
other.
You have the power to mislead others with your words. And you also have the
power to encourage and help others by being more attentive to what you say
and how you say what you say.
You have the power to use your intelligence more intelligently. You have
the power to choose and decide whether words will have power over you, or you
will have power over words. You have the power to reflect on what you say and
how this might affect not only someone else, but also your own self. We do a
great deal of talking to ourselves - probably more than we talk to others.
You have the power to improve yourself by paying more attention to what
you say to yourself and how you talk to yourself.
You have the power to realize for yourself that no matter how well you
understand something or someone, or something you might have read or
heard, that you have not understood all you could. You have the power to
realize for yourself that no matter what is said or written, no matter
how knowledgeable the expert or authority, there is always more than can be
said or written. One of the most important words in the system I am
talking about, known as "general semantics" is the word et cetera. You
have the power to remember that there is always more to anything, including
all I have said this morning - and including yourself.
We are presently going through a period of great concern regarding our
pollution of our physical environments. Many of us are doing our part to
keep the land and waters clean. What we have not included in our cleanup
programs is the way words can pollute our inner environments.
