March 31, 2014
Personally Speaking
One
of my current college classes is on interpersonal communication. I found it
interesting that some social scientists estimate that 93 percent of the
emotional impact of a message comes from nonverbal sources – body language, eye
contact, gestures. No doubt our charismatic friends would put nonverbal communication
as a high priority on their religious landscape. I have a hard time thinking that
body language in worship, that seen during fellowship, song and sermon, has such a large
emotional impact. I’m afraid if anyone, including the Spirit, used 93 percent nonverbal
clues on me I’d miss something. However, I can say to the Spirit, “talk to me”
and if I listen, I can hear Him. Jesus said, “He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matt
13:9 NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I don’t know if these social scientists are limiting “nonverbal sources” to only body language, gestures, and expressions of the speaker. If they are, then I will outright disagree. Indeed, the nonverbal antics of a speaker are highly influential, but so are the props he brings along, or the trappings of where he chooses to speak, including the décor around the rest of the area, and any background sounds as well. Emotions are emotions because they are the reactions of subconscious processes, while thought is the volitional reactions of conscious processes. Even though we seem consciously trained only upon the linguistic message of a speaker, the subconscious is yet reacting to the other flood of information proceeding from the rest our surroundings.
-----What urks the tar out of me are people who run around saying body language is a language. That it is a language at all is metaphorical only. A language is a set of symbols having commonly held meanings by which concepts are volitionally communicated. Although a few body postures have somewhat undeniable meanings, many have only suggestive meanings, and most have no universal meaning. You can’t communication specifics from hodge-podge. Yet, you can communicate basic emotions and even a few feelings with a limited number of gestures having quite universal meaning, certain finger arrangements of the hand, for instance.
-----The rest of body language having less or no universal meaning still carries some meaning. But that meaning will be of what the observer’s subconscious has assigned to it, not of what the deliverer intends. For the subconscious associates sights and sounds with the emotional import of events. Emotionalism does not convey specificity like the intellect does. It conveys relational generalities: fright/security; attachment/detachment; hope/despair; anger/joy; etc., even though these generalities are often toned into feelings by intruding intellectual subtlety. Lacking the precision of specifics, emotions are free to associate with whatever most generates them in any particular individual’s repertoire of experiences.
-----Most of us lead normal lives (liberals hate the concept of “normal”, but to them I hold up a particular finger arrangement.) This normality of experience does generate a “quasi” language of emotional meaning because the human emotional response is also somewhat normal. Thus, culture partly forms where décor and sounds of an area continually correlate with more specific intellectual messages. Then, within such cultured environs, certain chosen body postures can deliver even more specific meaning. Until pompous little busybodies decide that the whole, cultured “language” needs replaced.
-----Lo, the emotional strengths common and comfortable to the people of the culture are shattered by the disrespectful sights and sounds of the maltreatment of their meaningful, cultural symbols. Within the resulting weakness, these busybodies construct a new culture for whoever is willing to discard their old repertoire of inner meanings. Not a nice thing to demand of another person. Not an act from the nature of serving others.
-----Nonverbal communication is not just from a speaker. It is enormous. And it forms important mental framework.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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