It occurs to me that my world is created in language. By being aware of how language impacts me, I can alter my occurring world by altering language-what I believe and say. The following is an excerpt from one of my favorite books in the chapter titled, The Right Use of Language, by Ken Carey.
Author Ken Carey
“The term spelling is used to describe the mechanics of language. And spelling, in the sense of casting or projecting forth a binding illusion, has been the chief activity of historical languages.
“Language is the mechanism of matter’s spell, the means through which the spell is maintained from one generation to the next. Those who slumber beneath linguistic illusions limit themselves to the deficiencies, blind spots, and biases of a particular method of symbolism, which even at its best can convey no more consciousness than the consciousness of those who invented it. They imagine that without verbal, conceptual understanding there can be no understanding.
“Understanding can be symbolized and to some extent conveyed through words, but understanding itself requires language no more than a bird requires a cage. Understanding comes only through experience. And for experience, there has never been-and never will be-a substitute.
“Instead of serving as a tool of your creative expression to help you sculpt and mold sound and light into forms of beauty and grace, your Babylonian primate tongues have defined you, limited you , and kept you in the narrow definition prisons of the cultures that gave them birth.
“Belief systems are illusions of linguistically structured thought. They have been the means though which these guttural languages have limited your perception. They are cages created by words, imprisoning their makers. Even insights that accurately reflect reality cannot be preserved effectively by a belief system.
“The very attempt to hold on to the truth destroys its living nature. The same fruit cannot be both growing on the tree and preserved in a jar; it must be one or the other. The garden of living information that surrounds those who open their hearts in love is so prolific its fruits so abundant, that there is no need for individual, organizational, or cultural preservation.
“The universe sustains visions and ideas that are in its interest.
“What you struggle to retain is not the truth. The truth is always with you. It could not be otherwise. Some of that truth you feel and recognize. Some may be still hidden from your eyes, to be revealed another day, another hour, when it is needed and not before. The truth that is portrayed in the words of human language is an external symbol of the truth that lives within you. It is an artifact, a key, designed to open the passageway that connects you with the Living Truth. The words that trigger comprehension are no longer important once comprehension is accessed. (Carey, 1991, pp. 83-84)”
Carey, K. (1991). Starseed The Third Millennium : Living in the Posthistoric World. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.