A short 2-part article on voice hearing. For hearers and carers. A somewhat eccentric and technical complementary perspective, for integration into an holistic framework in order to more fully understand the condition, with pointers for therapeutic application. Hearing Voices An Alternative Approach Part 1: 1. That autonomous movement of a person’s limbs, digits, posture, breath motion, face, may communicate that person’s inner speech, both conscious and subconscious thought, to another person observing who has the capacity to “read” this way into subtle speech channels in the speaker’s (gesticulator’s) native tongue. 2. When seen this way, a thoughtstream has a predominantly kinaesthetic quality, with the understanding of the observer happening more or less without audible “voicing”. 3. However, for some observers sensitive to this type of “reading”, it may be noticed that the same messages transmitted this way, if not attended to directly (especially when observing one’s own body language in this manner), sometimes manifest to the observer as a “heard voice”, with no apparent human point of origin. 4. Actually, the voicing is carried by the person’s movement, who “hears voices”, and seems to be a feedback loop whereby a person is influenced by their own thoughts, both consciously attended to and subconscious (i use this term meaning “able to be brought to consciousness”, by this included method, for example), which are expressed: a. in the first instance by the “autonomous componant” of bodily gesture/movement, and then amplified by a “subconscious attention” to the motion, which is automatically translated into a “heard voice” by a keen ability to “intuit” in the form described. Where disqualification of this notion is suggested on basis of elegance or simplicity, preferring to posit unmediated hearing of inner speech without reference to the amplification mechanism, it may be sufficient to note that in a quiet environment, the sound of the breath in conjunction with very subtle body movements may be adequate for the loop to be sustained, even amplified, b. as a secondary structural type of voicing, where the point of origin is separate from the person themselves and seems to be originating from a source of noise in the environment – leaves rustling, traffic – thus the ambient sound is a mid-amplification of the inner thought brought forth in bodily movement and reflected back from nearby noises, assembled into speech form again by the language processing matrices, and interpreted as “the voice of the tree”, etc., and c. thirdly, as the voice appearing to the hearer to become dissociated from both the body motion and local soundscape altogether, exhibiting a changing and fluid point of constellation, seeming “to have a [motile] life of it’s own”. 5. There is clear evidence that one person may interact with another person via purely gestural manner, irrespective of both parties being conscious of this level/form of interaction. 6. Clearly, many screen actors have the ability to transmit/communicate the inner terrain of their characters this way. As do musicians, instrumentalists, conduct a variation of this, suggesting a music of speech sound by the “voicings” of their instruments, though this is a topic not of immediate focus. 7. “Opening” the ability to read this way involves certain barriers, not the least of which being a belief in one’s capacity to read the thoughts of others. Ethical constraints may forbid a person from engaging in these activities also, depending upon religious concerns or issues regarding privacy, freedom of self-determnination, fair use, and many other extrapolatable troubles for the ethically sensitive. Further obstacles to directly perceiving inner language of oneself and others include a somewhat tenuous and perilous path of approach to such understanding, unless under wise guidance, and injunctions by many sages of old to not dabble in these fields at all – however, it must be recognised that elders of various traditions have safety mechanisms in place to ensure safe passage for those who have good motivation, exemplars of which in the modern day might be well-intentioned counsellors, medical doctors, magistrates, spiritual advisors, social workers, etc. 8. Some methods shown to have resulted in such abilities involve meditative techniques, psychedelic/entheogenic plant ingestion, simple concentration and attention training, sleep deprivation, fasting, smoking hashish or marijuana, and regimented courses of study by various occultist groups and secret societies. Learning by observation of the carefully crafted gestural language of famous film actors is also educational. 9. As pertains to the very specific instance of “voice hearers”, a condition which is not exclusive to the domain of serious “mental illness” but visits far more people than many suppose, actively developing an ability to read gestural language may short circuit the voicing process, once the origin is wrested from the winds and understood as with known origin. This seems to potentially have the capacity, if careful attention is paid to the different archetypal inlfluences comprising subconscious thinking, of helping the voice hearer who may wish relief from the amplified inner content, assisting to reintegrate partly dissociated and rogue fragments of the psyche. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hearing Voices An Alternative Approach Part 2: Adjoining one’s personal aural framework, may be discerned an ambient spectrum of auditory events. The soundscape of winds, trees, birdlife, frogs and crickets, houses settling and shifting, the passing of motor vehicles, all contribute to a complex and communal matrix. Noises that may appear to the “voice hearer” (one who discerns with sensitivity the hidden and subtle) as within the inner world, attached to a nearby object (eg., “the voice of the wren”), or disembodied and apparantly autonomous, in many instances may be a product of the amplification mechanism of quiet thinkings magnified by positive feedback loops, yet ... may also arise as the product of intentional communication from nearby sources. Foundationally, insofar as sonic perceptual ether pervades our sensory apparatus even when attention wanders, together we co-exist in an intricate confluence of messages, some “channels” used by community elders for managing and overseeing the trouble-free development of younger members of society – others simply natural conduits for the gossiping and everyday chatterings that constitute interpersonal harmony. To disentangle the personal from the social aspects of a profoundly interdependent web of sounds may, for the person overwhelmed by inner content, however greatly dissociated and amplified, misplaced as seeming to arise from a “heard voice”, contribute to a feeling of wellbeing, calmness, and give cause for the hearer to engage in their natural way of being. How is this accomplished? Beginning, attention training in the structure of audible sounds around the home would seem sensible. Listening, not only to the often disconcerting nagging or chiding of “the voice(s)”, but also learning to distinguish different voicings that occur as simplex sound. At first, employing breathing exercises such as counting breaths to ten and then starting over (a preliminary Zen discipline), while sitting comfortably with eyes closed, we begin to discern sounds we had forgotten to attend to, that had faded into the background while our attention was dominated by whatever variety of emotional tendencies one’s heard voice expresses. Soon enough, a development of equanimous perception equilibrates the heard voice and the ambient soundscape, and with persistence, the variety of “messages” heard is greater, the counterbalance to overwhelming language sounds being ordinary sound, devoid of semantic content. This can be a relief, however the stabilising guidance of a mentor or counsellor is recommended as we initiate the process. Given the nature of inner life, even imagining the assistance of gurus, trusted friends, angels or whomever constitutes for us “’higher/wiser’ benign beings”, may provide support. Eventually, and with some effort to maintain loving attitude throughout the course of broadened auditory apperception, the person who was focussed upon a single origin of apparent persistent existence (the “voice”), arrives at a discernment of their entire local environment, gradually acclimatising to attention wandering now this way to the traffic, now this way to the trees speaking mysteries into our hearts, while going about daily patterns and functions of activity. With practice, the local matrix of sound yields direct sensory understanding of subtleties naturally forming a very talkative ambience. Those of us fortunate enough to be gifted with natural sensitivity to inner speech amplified often by the quietness of isolation, whereby the feedback mechanisms of gestural language, breath sounds, rustlings, apprehension of detail overlooked by those living a more hectic lifestyle, making our own thoughts discernable, have inherent aptitude for the realising of the many real and caring voices carried by the winds. Even as we become aware of the distinct outer sounds flowing all around and through us unabated, largely sympathetic to well-being, so do we have the opportunity for insight into the processes at large in our communities, allowing variety of soothing and socially functional voice music, if already attuned to hearing language this way, to be perceived alongside a correspondingly contextualised heard voice, nurturing us in ways that later in life, we may hope to comprehend and navigate. -------------------------------------------- Copyleft2014taotiger -------------------------------------------
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 01:46:33 +0000
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