January 3, 2015

January 3, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M. S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

What got this writer started explaining Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) was that others can produce a sound while they speak, which is more or less the same as his own sound. In behaviorology this principle is known as stimulus generalization. The more similar the new evocative stimulus, someone’s  voice, was to his own,  the more energized and inspired this writer became to produce and explore SVB. He knew very little, when he first began explaining to others that they too could produce Voice II, which produces SVB. Although his explanations were not as accurate as they are nowadays, even the smallest approximation made him happy. Since Voice II can only be produced when someone listens to him or herself, while he or she speaks, the person who produces Voice II is not imitating anyone’s voice, but he or she becomes, like a musician, attuned to his or her instrument, to his or her body. 

In a concert, musical instruments are also attuned to each other. That is why before the concert starts, musicians tune their instruments to the oboe, who plays what is known as the concert pitch, which is generally an A of 440 Herz. Interestingly, at various times in the history of classical music, musicians were inflating the pitch, because they were competing to produce brighter sounds. At some point this had to be stopped because strings were breaking and singers started having voice problems. 

In SVB, we are attuned to the pitch which is determined by our own sense of well-being. Like musicians, we must listen to our music, to our voice, to make sure that we sound right. If the musician wouldn’t listen to how he or she played, no music could be made. Similarly, if we don’t listen to how we talk, we can’t produce SVB. To the extent we are conditioned by Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), we listen to others more than to ourselves. During NVB we don’t listen to ourselves at all. This is all very strange. Can you imagine musicians not listening to how they sound? 

Certainly, to have conversation with others, listening to others is necessary, but this should not result in excluding listening to ourselves.  This is exactly what happens in NVB: we listen to others or we want others to listen to us, but during NVB nobody is listening to him or herself. Our ears are conditioned in NVB not to listen to ourselves. Consequently, even when we try to listen to ourselves, we are so to speak tone-deaf to the frequency which involves our own sense of well-being. In NVB conversation, we produce sounds which never allow us to fully relax and be at ease with each other. Paradoxically, we fear listening to such sounds, because we were punished instead of reinforced when we were making these sounds. 

When he decided he wanted to spread SVB and dedicated his life to this goal, this author didn’t realize he would be continuously punished by the majority of people. However, as more people became attuned to him and to themselves, he felt more and more reinforced for his SVB and less and less for his NVB. This is what he promises to those who want SVB. It is not going to be easy, but it is absolutely worthwhile.  

This author witnesses that lesser and lesser responses are evoked in him by people with NVB and more and more responses are evoked in him by people with SVB. It is a continuous adjustment to the circumstances he is in. His recent loss of his job as a case manager liberated him from experiencing every day the intense frustration, stress, anger, fear, humiliation and despair of those who have been incarcerated. There was a big impact of this exposure and now that this impact is gone, it is clear that he was very much affected by it. It has been a good experience though, because it once again demonstrated that SVB works. Parolees and probationers fight back NVB, because they know they are being punished and humiliated.  They recognized that this author connected with them in SVB. This author feels grateful for experiencing their rawness, humor and comradery. It was a population he had not worked with before and it enriched his experience. Although it was sad to lose this job with benefits, this author is happy to go on with teaching psychology at Butte College.