Physics of Language

Physics of language:

there is a well remembered quote from the spiritual text A Course in Miracles that states "let's not forget, however, that words are but symbols of symbols, they are thus twice removed from reality" - I keep this in mind through my own use of words, reminding myself that what I write is only a representation of the reality I wish to convey and will never quite capture the essence of the vision I put forth. But I don't completely hold the same opinion of distance from words to reality that the Course holds. I believe that words have an alchemical quality to them, transformative in their affect on those who read them, and although they remain symbols, they vibrate with the very same essence of what they wish to convey. It's the physics of a single word or well used phrase. The physics of language.

the argument is that no matter how descriptive the language used by Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn, we still remain seated in our room, far removed from the Mississippi's flow, never actually feeling the power of the river as it meets an oar. Or as Alan Watt's famously said, " you can't get wet from the word water." What's Watt's is saying is that no matter how powerful the language, it is never the actual substance of its description. Thoughts only represent realty, not being the actual thing at all.  

but let's talk essence.

physics.

or at least my own imagined physics of language, my belief in the transformative and alchemical process of writing that allows words to carry the very essence of their description. Language is a powerful vibration of choice, a reader willing suspends the reality of a present situation and is carried to a realm of pure imagination, a dimension of  potentiality existing in the same moment of our ordinary lives. Through the right use of words we simply vibrate to other states of possibilities. Or maybe it's less physics and more of a shaman's journey - but my own imagination tells me they're the same. This insight informs me that in order for a symbol to be an accurate representation of a thing (no matter twice removed) it must carry the essence of the idea it represents, vibrating at a similar yet more subtle level of existence. That it's more a faint impression of the very same thing, an essence carried through vibration. This could be likened to a seed, that while an apple is never actually found within it's seed of origin, it's not truly removed either, there is always something of one found within the other.

essence. 

the right word is simply a seed of large ideas, not a symbol really, but a faint impression transported from the realm of our imagination. The physics of language is one of vibrations, a carried essence of what's imagined to the ordinary world of our perception. It's not that one is more real than the other, but more a quality of vibration, of same essence at its core. 

no matter how far it's seemingly removed.

~

Peace, Eric