On his YouTube channel, American author and scientist Gregg Braden explains how every word we speak influences our neural connections and the way we perceive the world.
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He recalls studying the Hopi language used by linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf in the early 20th century. Whorf showed that the way we speak not only shapes our thinking, but actually determines what we are able to think, because the structure of our thoughts depends on how the neurons in the brain are wired.
Why the Hopi language fascinated Benjamin Lee Whorf
In fact, Whorf discovered, working with the Hopi tribe in northern Arizona, that their language describes the world in a radically different way, says Gregg Braden. In Hopi everything is alive, everything is connected, everything is present, in the here and now. “There are no nouns to denote past or future; Their language is more precise than ours, because it describes the actual flow of life, without separation and without the confusion of time as a fixed line,” he further explains.
According to Britannica, the Hopi language has attracted the interest of many researchers over time because of the way in which the concepts of time and space are expressed. For example, an event at a great distance from the speaker is described as taking place in the distant past; the smaller the spatial distance, the smaller the perceived temporal distance.
Also, Hopi verbs do not have proper tense (present, past, future), but are differentiated by aspect (the duration of an event), validity (whether the action is complete or ongoing), and relation between sentences (showing the temporal relationship between two or more verbs). In addition, verbs can be modified to indicate whether an action is repeated in segments: for example, ríya (“makes a quick turn”) and riyáyata (“spins”).
Starting from the discussion of the Hopi, Gregg Braden mentions the film “Arrival”, in which humanity, caught in the language of separation, was on the verge of war, of destruction. Specifically, Arrival features aliens who bring a new language to Earth and change the way we perceive time and possibilities. “There is evidence that something similar has already happened on Earth. It didn't necessarily come from another world in our time. Maybe it was left to us in the past. There are 23 examples of ancient texts, ancient languages, that cannot be translated, that preserve ancient wisdom”he opines. In this way, language becomes a user interface for the matrix of our lives, a bridge between what we think and what we can manifest, he explains.
The language of separation and the language of connection
Next, Gregg Braden talks about the language of separation. “The English language, like many other languages, is based on principles of separation. And that separation is reflected in the ideas it embraces. Thinking about things separately and in isolation, like you versus me, them versus us, leads us to think of winners versus losers. This is the language of conflict and war. Connection-based language creates a very, very different kind of experience. A connection-based language is unity thinking. This is the language of evolution, of community, of cooperation. What I mean is that once we change the language, we change the brain. Or, in other words, we change the way the brain accesses the matrix.”
Here he makes the transition to his own experience. “Your act of creating, reaching inside and connecting to your own source, bringing something new, becoming more than you were a minute ago… Well, that act is the biological trigger, the impetus for your neurons to start connecting in a way that will support what you chose to create.”
“Let me give you an example of this. I'm a musician. I've been a guitar player since I was eight years old. And when I want to learn to play like another guitar player.. For example, one of the most influential guitar players in my life was Michael Hedges. He had a very strong impact on my life. And when I saw Michael Hedges play, he blew away all the rules that I had been taught to play. Finally, when I want to I sing like Michael Hedges does and I listen to his songs over and over again, at first the process is quite mechanical.
Maybe you've had this experience too: when you're trying to learn a foreign language, say French or Spanish… Or you're trying to solve a math problem… you follow several steps and suddenly one morning you find yourself speaking French, Spanish, thinking in the language of mathematicians, in the language of Michael Hedges, and suddenly you know how to connect chords. When that happens, here's what you did: It was the act of striving to achieve that expression that triggers the neurons in your body to actually find other neurons to grow and find other neurons.” Gregg Braden confesses.
This has a direct impact when it comes to the language and words we use to express ourselves in our lives, he says.
Finally, he claims that “The words we use to communicate, day in and day out, are more than just words. They are, in fact, directly linked to the neurons in our brains. Now, if you've ever thought about the power of speech, just… I'd like to tell you how powerful that ability is, in itself. Which will lead us to the power of language itself. When we speak, when we utter words to convey what we feel and think, what we're doing is actually following a series of steps, beginning with one of the most intimate acts we could ever imagine.”
Essentially, by changing the words we use on a daily basis (moving from separation to connection and unity, as Braden proposes) we can stimulate the brain's neuroplasticity and, implicitly, be open to new opportunities in life.
