Guard against being a slave to words – Carl Jung. The Red Book

Modern rational thinking has led us to believe that words are simply labels, but as soon as we detach ourselves from that type of belief words regain some of their magical potency of the past.

Many myths and religious texts refer to the potency of words, things being spoken into being, spells being cast by cosmic deities,’ In the beginning was the word’. The fact that we can actually label something with the sound gives us power over it, when something has a name we can express it. We can tell others about it, we can think about it and we can do something about it.

Without a word in a language that names or encapsulates something we cannot express it, we can trace unconscious meaning in a word by looking back into its etymology. It is as if the unconscious speaks through the history of the word even when a word seems to have changed its meaning over time, it can and does cast a shadow or a spell over our reality.

The problem with the rational understanding of words and language is that we have lost our control because we don’t feel there is anything that needs to be controlled but looking at it this way it is a genie that we let out the bottle that has deluded us and now controls us.

It is true that words are loaded and as people listen to a word they will load it with their own significant meanings if you understand what is going on in somebody’s mind you can make them feel those emotions by using the words that they have loaded with intention that is how neuro-linguistic programming works.

Rhetoric as an ancient form of using language to be persuasive and change minds it was the whole idea behind oratory and if we stand and look at that from our modern viewpoint we cannot explain how great orators such as Elizabeth I, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao managed to make people think differently. In the case of Elizabeth I her ability in rhetoric saved her neck, in the case of Winston Churchill he probably saved our necks.

So don’t be a slave to words otherwise you will be following those who have mastery of them but instead spend time using words thoughtfully in such a way that you get what you want by using them.

I would suggest that you get some books of NLP even the idiot’s guide would do (which of course is a terrible title, you will realise that by the time you get to the end of your NLP training) then start writing some songs that use crafted words which express the outcome you want, not what you have nightmares about.

Vic

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