New Phrases,
- It is almost three years ago, I wrote on this blog. Although the blog is still called Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB), I now prefer to refer to it as Embodied Language (EL). As anyone who has read my texts knows, I coined the term SVB, because, for many years, I explored the Behavioral perspective, on what I used to call The Language That Creates Space. I was inspired by B.F. Skinner's book Verbal Behavior and created the Sound Verbal Behavior Academy. However, my quest for a scientific foundation for the new way of dealing with language, I had discovered, came to an abrupt end by reading L. Fraley's magnificent book Science, Life and Reality. What he describes, can be summarized as follows: we each create and live in our own reality. Thus, there is no objective external environment, which is separate from us. However, he doesn't address the difference between what I now call Disembodied Language (DL) - what I used to call Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) - and EL, that is why I lost interest in Behaviorology. Simply stated, EL is the scientific and, in my opinion, proper way of dealing with language explained by Behaviorology.
- Behaviorology only makes sense, if we can talk about it with ongoing EL. The denial of Behaviorology in academia is a direct result of the fact that we unknowingly, repeatedly, engage in DL and, therefore, don't even recognize the importance of knowing the difference between EL and DL. We have as little EL as we do, because speaking from our own authority, is basically everywhere taboo. Moreover, EL has nothing whatsoever to do with speaking our mind, as there is no such process going on as private speech or covert inner dialogue. Our tenacious belief in such superstitious nonsense is the inevitable result of our dreadful history of conditioning with DL. Once have ongoing EL, it is clear that speaking, hearing, writing and reading are the four behaviors, which make us aware of our Language Enlightenment (LE). In other words, our speaking and, therefore, our hearing, as well as our writing and, therefore, our reading from our own authority reveals our LE. Stated differently, in EL all our attention can finally go to natural self, that is, to how we can use our language to fulfill our needs.