Prelude To An Explanation of The Origin of Words…

I promised one of our regular readers that I’d explain how I think Real Words are produced in our minds and then begin the journey to other minds through what most people think are real words << those symbols that exist on screens and pages but aren’t Real Words…

As fate would have it, my plan got altered–I needed to do some research and the tabs at the top of this blog needed reorganization.

So, as a beginning to tomorrow’s post about the journeys Real Words make, I should point out that I’m not going to be talking about the origins of English words in other and older languages–that’s something you can explore with this cool Online Etymology Dictionary.

A related site that includes a forum to discuss words and their histories is Wordwizard.

Also, for true word-lovers, there’s the links page on The Sciolist.

What I’ll be starting tomorrow is a description of the origin of words before they end up being in languages–the rock-bottom, primal dwelling place of Real Words…

Since this exploration will touch on concepts like Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, you might want to read this short article about The Archetypal Patterns.

Now, I need to get prone and dream a bit…
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I’ve Never Really Seen A Word . . .

Our last post began to explore where words come from.

I postulated that words are metaphysical entities–that the things we see on the screen or paper aren’t Real Words but just the symbols we use to get a set of Real Words from one mind to another.

If the word “metaphysical” isn’t something you’re real comfortable with, you may want to look at that last post for a possible excuse to give it a reprieve :-)

Minds are metaphysical.

If you doubt that bald statement you may want to check out the Wikipedia entry that includes this statement: “The nature of the mind and its relation to the body has been seen as more of a problem as science has progressed in its mechanistic understanding of the brain and body”

I can only continue on the assumption that our minds and the words which come from them are metaphysical because I’ve spent most of my 65 years studying the whole messy business of how we think and why we write.

If you can’t believe that the mind and words are something other than physical entities then I suppose you can only leave me behind in your cloud of dust…

OK, now where are the Real Words and how did they get there?

Some folks are happy saying God created words and that’s that.

Some folks could agree with that last statement but would need a bit more explanation about where they hang out and how we know about them.

Some folks believe that humans evolved a capacity to formulate words, even though they couldn’t see them.

Some folks don’t really give a damn :-)

So, as they say, for the sake of the argument, let’s temporarily agree that words are not physical and hang out somewhere in our minds.

I’ll propose they have their residence in what’s called the Collective Unconscious. For now just think of the collective unconscious as a realm so deep in the mind that there are no “my thoughts” or “your thoughts” but only the energy patterns that make conscious thought possible.

These energy patterns are ultra-creative and we all share them–the same basic primal patterns of all words, concepts, and thoughts are in every one of our minds–this is why you can understand what I’m typing right now, even if you don’t believe what I’m typing :-)

In our next post I’ll attempt a detailed description of how a set of Real Words gets from one mind to another. And, in case you’d like to explore a range of other opinions on the creativity of the unconscious, check out these archived articles on Demon Muse…
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This Post Is A Setup . . .

This post’s “message” will be a series of statements and questions designed to massage various parts of your mind and heart; but, first, just a bit of explanation:

I keep a list of possible blog posts.

I was just looking that list over.

I realized that most of the posts would need a lot of explaining before I could get to the meat of the matter.

I agree with the “experts” who say blog posts should generally be on the short side of long…

So, I want to use this post to get my regular readers ready for a series of posts. I’ll also use it as a reference-link in certain posts for folks new to the blog.

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All of us use words but most of us don’t stop to consider how they were created.

Most of us do most of our thinking with words.

Without words, human communication would be a rather bleak endeavor :-)

There are words that point to emotions–like “hate”–and then there are words that convey emotions–like, “She drove the knife deep into his groin.”

Emotions can either cloud the meaning of words or add color and light…

Many people feel thoughts and emotions are usually antagonistic.

Some people think emotions are the source, or at least the goad, of thought.

The rational mind (with the sometimes aid of its cousin, the emotional mind) is the creator of every object surrounding you, including the words you just read…

Some words (and the thoughts they summon) refer to states and forces that can never be directly sensed. One example: you can define “integrity” and you can say things like, “John, in spite of his feelings and in the face of terrible risk to his life, continued to publish what he saw as the truth.”, but can you actually see, smell, or taste integrity?

Where do words exist when they’re not on the page?

Where do emotions happen?

Why does so much of what’s important in life seem to resist simple definition?

Is the metaphysical realm a fantasy or can there be metaphysical realities?

Are there entities and forces that exist beyond human sensation?

Does any of this matter in reading, writing, and publishing??

O.K., that was the setup—look in the left side-bar for the free essay, What Are Words?—it’s what the setup was about :-)
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