What does listening mean? (from Robin Grille’s post):
“The listening I am talking about here is not just about receiving and storing information, not just about remembering what your child said. I am talking about listening with your heart, not just with your ears. Real listening is all about feelings. All you need to be a good listener is a genuine interest in your child’s emotional world. When you truly want to hear, no special skill is needed. Your child senses your interest in the tone of your voice, in your body language and the look in your eyes. You know you have listened when you feel moved. You might feel compassion, protectiveness, you might feel some pain about your child’s hurts, pride or excitement about his achievements, or joy to meet his joy. Listening means letting yourself feel touched somehow, and being aware of the feelings that move through you.”
and from Oliver Sacks account of aphasia vs. agnosia (from chapter 9, The President’s Speech, of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat):
Apahsiacs:
natural speech does not consist of words alone..it consists of utterance- the understanding of which involves infinitely more than mere word recognition.
…spoken language is normally suffused with ‘tone’, embedded in an expressiveness which transcends the verbal
…meaning may be fully grasped even when every word is missed
…sensitive to ‘tone’ and feeling
one cannot lie to an aphasiac. He cannot grasp your words, and so cannot be deceived by them; but what he grasps he grasps with infallible precision, namely the expression
preternaturally sensitive…understanding without words…undeceived and undeceivable by words
meaning without words…the grimaces, the histrionisms, the false gestures, false tones and cadences of voice
…word-deaf, but enhanced sense of tone
We recognise this with dogs… they pick up on falsehood… but people (hearies) are so susceptible to words
Agnosia:
(perceive everything as) computerized voice… reduce speech to pure words
expressive qualities of voices disappear- their tone, their timbre, their feeling, their entire character- while words (and grammatical constructions) are perfectly understood.
Since voices lacked expression, she had to look at peoples faces, their postures and movements when they talked
required interlocutors that they speak prose -’proper words in proper places’… compensate for lack of perceived tone or feeling.
(s/he is) lost with ‘evocative’ speech (where meaning is wholly given in the use and sense of tone).
also cant pick up on visual cues (one’s expressions, one’s gestures, one’s entire, largely unconscious, personal repertoire and posture..
So what I get from Oliver Sacks here is comparison of two types of communication processing. Aphasiacs are like Deaf people because we understand meaning beyond words, which is True Listening. And the fact that words cannot deceive us is why ASL is a threat to Oralist agenda, whose emphasis is on being Agnosiatic (words instead of feelings). They want us to just pay attention to actual words verbatim, so they can lie to us easier. Speaking and Listening advocates are hellbent on words being understood. You cannot deceive as well nonverbally. That is why it is known that Deaf people seem blunt, honest, direct.
We understand on a different level. It is a spectrum. We are a linguistic minority. We have valuable asset to contribute to diverse language landscape. Making Deaf people process communications verbally with specific words understanding takes away the natural predisposition to nonverbal, which is a deeper meaning.
and from Source Field Investigations by David Wilcock:
-All of Nature is In a Constant “Conversation” (Backster Effect).
-Every living thing is intimately attuned to its environment.
-Source Field is not electromagnetic.
-Every living thing in nature is listening to everything else.
All living things- bacteria, plants, insets, animals, birds, fish, and humans- are in some form of constant communication with one another. This communication involves the use of a field that is not supposed to exist- because it cannot be found in the conventional EM spectrum of visible light, radio waves, infrared, microwaves, x-rays, and others, as all living things are sharing a psychic attunement with one another.
So, The Deaf Way teaches us to trust in Source Field, not EM spectrum (sound waves). Deaf are more conscious of feelings/ Age of Aquarius?
I think Deaf people listen better than hearing people because we are active listeners.
here is another article, by Rich Maggiani, to sum up True Listening:
…we look at the person talking, smile, nod our head, lean forward, show we are thinking, show we are engaged.
…True listening means seeing beyond the words, engendering trust, and establishing an emotional personal connection. See beyond the words. The nonverbal part of communication often expresses more than the actual words themselves
…look behind or between the meaning of the words being spoken
…true listening engages your eyes and heart.
Be Deaf and truly listen.
