Harmonizing Consciousness: How the Acquired Faculty of Language Wreaks Havoc on Human Consciousness, a

By Sylvie Rosewood

Although the premise for this book reads like science fiction, it rests firmly in the strangeness of reality. Harmonizing Consciousness: How the Acquired Faculty of Language Wreaks Havoc on Human Consciousness, and What We Can Do About It, will challenge readers to think about their lives as they never have before. It puts a spotlight on how human consciousness has become distinct from other animals and the special challenges that come along with being human.

After reading this book, readers will better understand what needs to be done to improve their well-being and how certain kinds of activities and therapies are effective in countering the negative effects of acquiring language. Eleven activities are described, including a simple meditation that makes it easy to begin a regular practice and stay on track with it. Three effective therapies are also discussed as well as how to find qualified facilitators for them; Eye Movement Desensitization Reprogramming (EMDR); Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT); and Hypnotherapy.

The stages of harmonizing consciousness are described in a cartoon about a girl and a gorilla. The GorillaFriend cartoon is the author's revision of the Ten Ox-herding Pictures which are ancient paintings from the Zen tradition and point to the stages of meditation and the path of enlightening.

Opportunities to ponder and practice what contributes to optimal functioning as a human being, are found in the pages of this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781775250401

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Sylvie Rosewood

This publication is not designed to replace professional assistance. If expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be engaged.

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Excerpt(s) from THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE: BRAIN, MIND, AND BODY IN THE HEALING OF TRAUMA by Bessel van der Kolk, copyright © 2014 by Bessel van der Kolk. Used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Penguin Random House LLC for permission.

Excerpt(s) from THE BRAIN’S WAY OF HEALING: REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES AND RECOVERIES FROM THE FRONTIERS OF NEUROPLASTICITY by Norman Doidge, copyright © 2015 by Norman Doidge. Used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Penguin Random House LLC for permission.

From Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter A. Levine, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright ©1997 by Peter A. Levine. Reprinted by permission of publisher.

Copyediting: Karen Payton, Laura Rutherford

GorillaFriend Image: Elizabeth Frison, Graphic Designer

GorillaFriend Cartoon: Daniel Blondeau, Illustrator

Cover Design by 100covers.com

Back Cover and Interior Design: BookBaby

Publisher: BookBaby, New Jersey, USA

Title: Harmonizing Consciousness: How The Acquired Faculty of Language Wreaks Havoc on Human Consciousness and What We Can Do About It

ISBN: 978-1-77525-041-8 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-77525-040-1 (eBook)

Created in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada and brought to you by Sylvie’s living cells and body processes.

Table of Contents

Part One

Connecting Matters

Introduction to Our Human Conundrum

The Double Bind of Human Mind

How Consciousness Speaks With Us

Part Two

Owning Your Bit of Consciousness

How Do We Harmonize Our Lives?

Becoming Conscious of Our Own Data

Meditation Makes Us Our Own Service Providers

Finding Assistance to Process Lost Emotional Connections

Part Three

The GorillaFriend Pictures

The Stages of Harmonizing Consciousness

Novel Ways to Stimulate Your Process of Consciousness

Appendix

Glossary

Resources

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Introduction to Our Human Conundrum

Hello Friend!

What if silent and invisible influences are wreaking havoc with human consciousness? The ideas presented in this book aim to challenge readers’ assumptions about aspects of their lives that they take for granted. Along with this challenge, however, rests an invitation to take a broader and more realistic view of what it is required for us to be happy and healthy, aware human beings.

Since I was a teenager, I wondered about the meaning of life, what happens when we die, and I also wondered how words came to sound in my head as my authority. I wondered what the function of thinking is, and what mind and consciousness are. My path in life led me to study these things in unconventional ways. It’s no wonder that when I finally came to write a book about what I learned, that it would read like a science fiction fantasy.

When it came time to write the introduction for this book, I had the idea to orient readers to key ideas by presenting them in a science fiction theme.

Here it goes.

The Alien Infiltration

This story begins with the discovery that a well-intentioned force has installed an alien, artificial coding system into human beings. This artificial interface has made human lives easier and safer. It has allowed us to collect knowledge and share it with future generations. As a system of code, it has alternatively distilled and expanded great volumes of data into simpler, transmittable symbols by hooking into the neurobiological processes of each human being.

The effect of this code was extremely powerful because of how it became attached to human biological processes. The alien code became so neatly embedded in their neurobiology, that it would pop into the minds of each person. Humans could hear the internalized alien code as clearly as if it were someone speaking inside their own heads. This had the advantage that humans could be guided by their cultural code at every moment, no matter where they were or what they were doing.

The alien code was a marvellous tool which allowed their cultures to flourish and organize into massive societies.

Humans were eager to be embedded with this code and they trained for years to learn its wonders after it was installed. Humans proliferated until they populated all the corners of the earth.

About this time, it became apparent that the artificial coding interface was flawed.

It was determined that the alien code was clunky and imprecise—unlike the human, precision-based neurobiology processes with which it interfaced. The interpretative errors that were introduced into humans by the alien code, disrupted the internal states of homeostasis in each human; human biology was thrown out of balance, like unbalanced wheels. Human lives still worked, but serious consequences followed. Humans found their individual lives began to feel chaotic. From each humans’ viewpoint, it seemed that they controlled their own actions. The reality was that they could not see how the alien interface propelled them because it occurred at a cellular level where they could not see it.

This effect snowballed.

As a result of the compounding effects of the artificial interface, life became very distressing for many humans who began to feel out of control, have alarming feelings, and feel isolated. Because the alien code was heard inwardly, each human believed the information and thoughts coming from their own biological senses were true, even though their thoughts did not always match reality. It became difficult to share ideas with others in a way that produced understanding because the alien interface confirmed different viewpoints of different people at the same time. Everyone thought they were right. From a population of billions, it was always possible to find other people who would agree with a certain idea, even if that idea was harmful to others. As a result, human society found it increasingly difficult to determine what was real and what was good for the whole of society.

The incidences of anxiety and depression in human societies skyrocketed. It was like an alien within their own cells had commandeered their own lives. And that artificial code was language. The well-intentioned force that originally installed the alien code was the same life process that evolved human beings from algae billions of years ago and that keeps us alive today.

Unaware humans were vulnerable because the alien code could be deliberately manipulated—this meant that their individual neurobiology could be deliberately manipulated too. It was clear that large populations of human lives could be controlled, to some degree at least, by those who had influence on the production and distribution of the alien code. Resources became limited as a result of overpopulation of the earth and this compounded the collective chaos which began to emerge.

A hopeful ending: Just in the nick of time, humans became aware of the influence of their alien code, studied its mechanisms and then learned how to protect their integrity and health. In this way life-affirming behaviours spread into communities and then across greater human society as well.

From Science Fiction and Fairy Tales—to Science

The literary folktale The Emperor’s New Clothes was written by Hans Christian Anderson in the early 1800s and whispers about the same human conundrum in a different style. In the story, some tailors have convinced the Emperor that they have made him the finest clothes—even though there are no clothes and he is naked. A little boy sees that the Emperor is naked and says so out loud. The townspeople pretend the Emperor wears fine garments so he does not appear like a fool. At the end of the story, the Emperor hears their whispers and suspects the townspeople are right but he carries on with his show.

In this story we read about three different versions of one event; the Emperor is dedicated to enjoying his demonstrations of power and rank; the townspeople are concerned about keeping their society’s hierarchy stable and unchallenged; the boy is still curious about the realities of his environment as he experiences them through his five senses. If we look to the effects of acquiring the faculty of language in this story we see that the Emperor and the townsfolk have received enough training to acquire the faculty of language which laid out their culture’s rules of conduct. Within a few years, this child will also be trained fully and brought into the fold of his group. Then it will be effortless and automatic for him to ignore the promptings of his neurobiology—billions of years in the making—in order to live among his human community using language instead. He will acquired a human consciousness. Finally, his acquired faculty of language will allow him to contribute to the smooth functioning of industrial human society.

The Bottom Line for Human Consciousness

My conclusion is that, in a manner that we don’t fully understand yet, humans are required to betray their own body systems in order to become part of the organization of human society. (This betrayal does not go unnoticed by children but their inherent intelligence and resilience allow them to adapt and quickly learn how to play the game.)

What I have written so far may sound bleak or even overwhelming to some, but I find there is great hope and promise in the act of turning our attention towards what we don’t know and what may even frighten us the most, both individually and collectively. My wish is that we turn our attention to studying the mechanisms that bind language to our neurobiology, soon. This will help us find effective ways to improve the quality of life for all human beings. Each human would like to experience well-being. Governing bodies could ensure that education and policies promote life-affirming activities which will speed up the process of improving well-being for everyone. If my idea can be proven by science as I suspect it can, more people would jump on board, fast gains could be made in our society and all of life on earth would benefit.

I will expound a little more about some of the general challenges our acquired language poses for us as an overview, below. More detail of these ideas are found in Chapter 2, The Double Bind of Human Mind, and Chapter 3, How Consciousness Speaks With Us.

How Language is a Problem for Individuals

There is a game that is sometimes called the Telephone Game, Grapevine, Gossip Game, or Pass the Message, which has players gather into a circle in order to secretly pass a message from person to person. The last player announces the message they received to the entire group. The message that arrives after everyone has had a turn at transmitting it is usually quite different (and often quite humorously so) from the message which was initially shared with the first person. This occurs because every person has unique understandings and different associations to the same word. By this observation alone, we can see that language is a terribly inaccurate way of sharing information. We don’t usually consider this, however. We just do it.

The inadequacy of language became clear to me in a different way as I wrote this book. As a clinical hypnotherapist, it felt effortless for me to assist my clients to make gains towards their goals. I just ‘knew’ what I had to do. I did it. Finding the words to describe what I found so effortless to do, however, was not effortless for me at all. I struggled for two and one half years to write this small book. As I brought this manuscript to completion, a part of me felt that I had learned more about what the inside a black hole feels like than how to translate my inner knowings into words which might allow some readers to sense their own truths. The more I tried to define terms for clarity, the more terms came forward to be included and defined. I found that writing about the process of consciousness was like pointing at empty space with a stick, and then dancing around to point at another empty space with a different stick held at a different angle. Perhaps if I danced around and pointed in enough ways with enough sticks, we might at the very least, end up looking in the same direction.

Human consciousness is a confusing business. We think we are the puppeteers of our lives but science confirms that we are more like puppets being manipulated by an unseen intelligence.

One reason human consciousness is confusing compared to other animals is that although there are mostly commonalities between members of our species, the contents of our individual, physiological, brain mapping processes always differ. Although this is also true for other animals, we humans interpret our world and live by using a system of symbols (language) and our brain maps have this added