To: PSYART@LISTS.UFL.EDU
From: Dan Moonhawk Alford
Wed, 19 Apr 2000
While most linguists would agree with this sentiment, I do not -- because of my wider, diachronic, evolutionary model of language. So I would agree, at least, that the "unconscious" is structured as languages.
Except for me, there is no "unconcious" per se except as a label for our ignored evolutionary brains nested inside, underneath, the culturally valued left- and the right, less-valued hemispheres: the limbic system, and the R-complex. In my model, each brain operates in its own frequency range, has its own kind of awareness of the world, has its own unique kind of logic and thinking (incorporating Piaget's developmental levels of cognizing), and has its own unique form of language with its own unique form of syntax, which I call formal, social, emotional and body-behavior languages. Rather than "unconscious," I prefer, with the Cheyennes, to call them "the Old Language".
It's important to note that my model gives primacy to speed -- another contribution of Piaget, that speed is more basic than time. The speeds I use, indicated by the usual beta, alpha, theta, beta brainwave speed levels, are the "mind" portion of brainmind: the creative and generative part which calls forth stored structures in the "brain" part as well.
These speed levels are not seen as "separate": they are always in a dynamic mix of one kind or another with each other, depending on the individual's processing at the time. One can be focused more on words, memory and metamessages, emotions, bodily gestures and expressions, internal thinking, etc., which mix is that person's current consciousness.
This includes what are sometimes called "altered" or "alternative" states of consciousness, which are generally an unusual focus or mix of these brainmind speed levels. This is why we don't *speed up* but *slow down* when we go into most trances, and why we stroke a dog's fur quickly to rev 'em up and slowly to calm them [the 3rd person plural pronoun is intentional -- the only sane way out of our ancestor-imposed gender predicament! Let it follow the example of our 2nd person pronoun, which similarly lost the singular/plural distinction.]
If this makes any sense to you, you are welcome to visit other articles on this at my website.
warm regards, moonhawk
"I don't need a compass to tell me which way the wind shines!" -- Roy, Mystery Men