Dissociation,

 

Whoever reads this must somehow know, that being busy with these words, is different from reading what is usually read. This text is a result of my daily involvement in Embodied Language (EL). Everything that is written elsewhere – yes, this is a big claim, but I am convinced it is true – is based on Disembodied Language (DL), our usual way of talking, in which we, as speakers, don’t listen to ourselves and dissociate from our body. Since we don’t experience our body in DL, we are out of touch with the reality, but once we express again, what we feel in our own body, we find, we listen to ourselves and we engage in Embodied Language (EL). Dissociation or detaching from the reality, is common, as we engage mechanically in senseless DL each day.

 

Psychologists explain dissociation as a feeling of daydreaming or being intensely focused, as well as the distressing and depressing experience of being disconnected from the reality. It should be immediately obvious, they – like everyone else – firmly believe in the fantasy of inner language, private speech, the mind or thinking, which is created by DL, in which we can never express, let alone be, ourselves. Therefore, they inadvertently refer to dissociation, as the disintegration of imaginary, inner, verbal stuff, such as consciousness, identity, memory or perception. Each of these concepts derive from our dissociative DL. Moreover, we have never talked about DL with EL, we have never spoken about dissociation in a non-dissociative manner.

 

During our usual, unintelligent, insensitive DL, we remain preoccupied with what is known as speaking truth to power. Whoever wins the battle for attention, which is the basis of our repetitive, problematic, unnatural, effortful DL, gets to do most of the talking, and, therefore, will gain power. With EL, however, we finally admit, that this intensely-focused, obsessive, inherently-deceitful activity, takes us further and further away from what we experience.

 

Due to DL, dissociation is associated with stress or trauma, but the unaddressed reality is, our habitual way of talking – in which we don’t talk with ourselves, in order to be able to listen to ourselves and only talk with others and listen to others or try to make them listen to us – causes this disconnect from our sensory experiences. Surely, once we have EL, we awaken from the dissociation, which was kept going by our DL. To be more specific, in DL, the speaker disconnects from and dominates the listener, but in EL, the speaker connects and regularly takes turns with the listener, who becomes the speaker, while the former speaker then becomes the listener.  

 

In DL, we remain – even if we are educated in chemistry, biology or physics – unaware about the, in EL, properly communicated fact, that dissociation is not a metaphorical reference about neuronal stuff, in our brains, but a natural phenomenon. In chemistry, dissociation is a chemical reaction, in which a molecule or compound breaks into smaller pieces, such as ions, atoms and radicals. Hydrochloric acid (HCI) dissociates in water, forming the H+ and the CI- ions. Usually, chemical dissociation is a reversable process. The reverse of chemical dissociation is association and recombination.

 

When we apply this knowledge of chemistry to what is really happening, psychologically or communicatively, we will find, ongoing EL, in which we listen to ourselves while we speak, separates DL – our unscientific, superstitious, phony way of talking, in which we pretend to be superior or inferior to each other – from our EL. This separation – as clear as the separation of water and oil, because oil is less dense than water – is needed to finally end our history of conditioning with DL, which burdened us with a metaphoric, inaccurate use of language. We are able with our EL, to realistically and effectively break down what is happening and we can put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall, so to speak.

 

We can also bring in some physics, to solve the problems of human interaction, which, with DL, always escalate into conflict and chaos. Let us consider the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which is roughly based on the notion, that heat always flows from hotter to colder regions or ‘downhill’ in the temperature gradient. Clearly, once we know the difference between DL and EL, we naturally want to stay away from DL.

 

We might as well also take note of the physical Law of Entropy, which states, that in a closed system – a human being with DL – disorder always increases. Since we don’t need to waste any more time, trying to re-invent the wheel again, let’s add some Evolutionary Theory and acknowledge that evolution, which is based on selection by consequences, always selects for anti-entropic adaptations, which expend energy in order to maintain homeo-stasis. If we simply follow our nature, we effortlessly achieve EL. A stable, robust language-behavior – like EL – can and must be understood as an anti-entropic adaptation, which directs energy to maintaining bio-psycho-social order, a wholesome, peaceful, enjoyable recombination of all the disparate, disjointed and meaningless fragments, we are conflicted about and struggle with, due to our DL.  

 

If you put your food in the micro-wave and turn on that machine, you heat up your food, but if you take it out and let is stand, it will cool off. The heat-energy, given by the microwave, is lost once the food is again outside the microwave. However, food cannot magically heat itself, you will have to first put it into the microwave and then turn it on. These are conscious acts. In dissociation, you turn on the microwave, walk away, but you come back too late and your food has cooled off again. Such is the Law of Entropy. There are only a few ways, to heat up food, but there are many ways, it will remain unheated. Likewise, there are only a limited number of ways to build a sand-castle, but there are infinite ways, in which sand will be dispersed.

 

To put it squarely, only our EL creates order, but our DL creates disorder. Moreover, DL creates disorder, because we dissociate from reality. Furthermore, selection of EL and extinction of DL, is an ultimately evolutionary process, which is already happening, but we haven’t woken up to it yet. On the one hand, we are still in denial about evolutionary theory, because there is no end-goal and we can’t stand the spirituality-denying fact, that we, like everyone else, at some point, will just die, on the other hand, we haven’t experienced the possibility of what it is like, to have EL, in which we are not trying to ward off chaos, but in which we live in order. ...You can hear me read this text on my You Tube channel maximuspeperkamp-hw8sw or you reach me on skype: limbicease or send me an email at mpeperkamp@sbcglobal.net