3. MEANING, BETWEEN I AND THOU
The action of the
soul is oftener in that which is felt and left unsaid than in that which is
said in any conversation. It broods over every society, and they unconsciously
seek for it in each other. We know better than we do. We do not yet possess
ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more. I feel the same
truth often in my trivial conversation with my neighbours, that somewhat higher
in each of us overlooks this by-play, and Jove nods to Jove from behind each of
us. (Emerson)
Something marvelous happens between
people. Mere words have a tremendous effect in changing our respective worlds.
Martin Buber wrote about “the ‘I-Thou’ relationship,
wherein there is openness, directness, mutuality and presence; the inference
taken being that when friends (old or new) truly meet and communicate, Divinity
informs itself – the participating dialoguers ‘feasting’ on the miracle of
their union”. Marvelous also that in ‘good’ dialogue, 95% of the
conversation is new-born: as though by the act of coming together and intending
to share insights, new realizations manifest from between the
communicators, realizations from which the participants jointly ‘feast’.
Perhaps this is why one is often compelled to speak with another – to bring out
of oneself that which is within, but otherwise unknown – so that the speaker
may himself know what is coming through him into realization.
The phenomenon of therapeutic
hypnosis as pioneered by Milton Erickson and Ernest Rossi and now practiced
world-wide attests to the power of focused dialogue between people to alleviate
suffering and to bring about profound personal change. Further, in the area of
physical pain relief, a very spartan study by John Stern and his
associates (Stern, Brown, Ulett, & Sletten, 1977) compared the
effectiveness of seven different pain-challenging agents --
hypnosis, acupuncture, placebo acupuncture, morphine, aspirin, diazepam,
and placebo
pill -- against two kinds of pain in a within-subjects design that entailed a
total of 280 pain trials per subject. Analysis of the subjects’ cold-pressor
pain ratings showed that hypnosis was superior to all other
challenging agents, especially for those subjects who were highly hypnotizable.
[Interestingly, only hypnotic analgesia was correlated with hypnotizability.]
Similar findings were obtained for ischemic (suppression of blood-flow) muscle
pain.
http://www.institute-shot.com/laboratory_research.htm
-and,
as the reader may have inferred, the phenomenon of hypnosis, aka the healing-word-phenomenon
occurs not just where a professional is present, but in normal conversations
wherein the respective parties ‘in-form’ – that is to say – implant new forms
of reality within each other. And in some manner the seer within is always vigilant
and on the lookout for the new and the true. Where one is vitally interested,
the necessary truth will be felt somatically. Even when a person is deeply
anaesthetized, current surgical room procedures require attending staff to
refrain from making negative observations as to a patient’s prognosis – even
when unconscious, at some deep level the patient hears the commentary, and
recovery may be affected. Now, in normal conversation, whether or not what is
picked up by the unconscious can be made conscious depends on how well one can
get out of the way of one’s own ego, or ideology, or preference, and truly
listen. This was Erickson and Rossi’s main teaching – that to truly learn about
what is being said by the other (as the precursor step in affecting another in
therapeutic dialogue) it is essential to set aside oneself and one’s
prejudgments – to be ‘transparent’). And thereafter the marvelous happens.
- - - - - - -
Now,
by analogy, the same thing that happens between ‘I-Thou’ occurs within one’s solitude
when one thinks. Again, to quote Buber - “Plato has repeatedly called thinking
a voiceless colloquy of the soul with itself. Everyone who has really thought
knows that within this remarkable process there is a stage at which an ‘inner’
court is questioned and replies.” In other words, there is a normal
conversation which goes on within one’s parts similar to that between two
people, but further, depending on intensity and need, a deeper knowing
is felt, and one’s question is answered from beyond one’s normal voice
dialogue. New information – similar as to what occurs between ‘I-Thou’ when
conversing with the trusted friend. Sometimes we even catch a shadow of this
type of thinking -
-
when we do look into our own eyes in the mirror we have the inescapable
impression, so powerful and astonishing, that someone is looking back at us –– that experience
of being looked back at sobers us immediately –– someone looks back questioningly, serious, alert
and without intent to comfort; and we feel more depth in the eyes looking at us
than we ordinarily sense in our own eyes as we stare out at the world. How
strange! Who could it be that is looking at us? We conclude that it is another
part of us, the half that we don’t allow to pass out of our eyes when we glance
at others – and that
darker and more serious half looks back at us only at rare times. (Robert Bly)
Professional theologians would
relate that sensed presence to God/Allah, etc – a supranatural Being. One
wonders though. At the time that this page is being written, our world is in
dread of an imminent US/Iraq war. President Bush Jr. was recently admonished by
the Pope that such a war by the US would be neither morally nor legally
justified. The Pope also questioned the President's habit of making statements
invoking God's name as justification for the invasion. “God
is a neutral observer in the affairs of man,” the Pope said. “Man cannot march into war and assume God will be at his
side.” A NEUTRAL OBSERVER, yet! So if even the Pontiff sees that
God is a Neutral Observer, what then is this sensed presence that one sometimes
feels, and to which is attributed order and direction?? –
Michael Ventura,
acclaimed author and syndicated columnist, commented on -
THE
WATCHER - that sense of a constant companion, who is you yet more than you, and
who seems always with you, watching from a slight distance --- always a bit
older than you, usually silent, features indistinct - not actually passive but
rarely active. Its action is to watch. It’s outside of you (glimpsed in the
mirror sometimes). Anyone who travels alone is aware of this companion - the
sense of being in the company of oneself, - the presence from which
comes the mood of your solitude. It is necessary to befriend one’s Watcher -
not make an enemy of it, nor a judging ‘conscience’. Then despite one’s own
dislike of oneself (for one’s tabooed actions and thoughts) your Watcher will
be calm, non-judgmental and a friend to one’s solitude.
Notwithstanding
the lack of formal recognition for the ‘Watcher’ entity as a cultural concept,
the sense of it is so common that it is taken as a given. During bad times
one’s relationship with one’s Watcher is critical. It may be all one has then.
The Watcher does not appear to care about society or morality or the idea of
good or evil. The Watcher cares about YOU, and if it’s on your side to begin
with, it’s all the way on your side.
Perhaps then - to paraphrase
Emerson - Jove is immanent, within one and sustaining one; and this
Higher Self is one’s truest friend and must be listened to as such, so that all
our parts are in harmony for insight and creativity to be realized in good
times, and to be there as one’s sustenance and support in bad times. In his
writings, the noted physicist and monist idealism philosopher Prof. Amit
Goswami points to CONSCIOUSNESS
itself as being the ultimate reality; and that it is CONSCIOUSNESS
which lives through - and sustains - its created forms. In this view, “the play of consciousness is one of ever-increasing
revelation of new possibilities manifested by creativity. In the case of
humans, creativity is individualized. When the individual organism ceases to
involve itself in creativity, consciousness begins to withdraw. Inertia may
carry the body-mind for some time, but eventually the withdrawal culminates in
death”. The individual soul is simply a context, not a thing, through
which CONSCIOUSNESS engages its eternal creative play in an
infinite diversity of contexts.
Keith and Marnie
Elliott’s “REMEDY” Site
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