A person who is a good communicator creates a playground…

I like this. I guess this is why I can’t stop talking once I get started.

no matter what I seem to write or physically talk about - someone will zero in on one particular sentence or comment and take it entirely out of context.

This is very important but I don’t have an answer as to why. When it happens does it feel like it’s supposed to make you feel shy about speaking up or does it make you feel like the lights are on a little brighter, like you’re on stage? I don’t know where I’m going with this but it could be somwhere useful.

Thanks for sharing!

Pretty simple, really.

This is the entire problem that I am talking about.

This is not a problem! This is the *essence* of communication!

The fact that no matter what I seem to write or physically talk about - someone will zero in on one particular sentence or comment and take it entirely out of context.

This is because everyone is different and brings something different to the table during the experience of communication. Maybe try thinking of communication as a trade or an exchange. You give one thing and get something else in return.

A person who is a good communicator creates a playground…

But with spiritual, and theoretical discussion the issue crops its head up again and again…

“Simple” solution: give up trying to be “right”. Give up trying to “get your point across”…

It seems things regularly get “Lost in Translation”…

Communication Problems

This is the entire problem that I am talking about. The fact that no matter what I seem to write or physically talk about - someone will zero in on one particular sentence or comment and take it entirely out of context.

I have learned how to deal with it (for the most part) regarding everyday issues. But with spiritual, and theoretical discussion the issue crops its head up again and again…

trying to share Shakespeare with a 2 year old

By saying that you underestimate both Shakespeare and two year olds!

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2007/04/11/shakespeare-to-dogs/

I guess I need to take a step make and re-think my entire stance on “communication” and expression.

Speedbird, you have identified the issue exactly. There have been a lot of things I have experienced that I cannot describe or communicate. When on a path of spiritual development - eventually new senses develop within the self…which allow us to experience entirely new layers of reality (or at least layers that we couldn’t “see” before). Sometimes I just want to share those sorts of experiences, but it feels like trying to share a movie with a blind-deaf man…or trying to share Shakespeare with a 2 year old.

I guess it comes down to what you say - either finding like-minded people. Or perhaps in some cases these things are meant to be shared just yet.

Even still I remain convinced that there must be a way to successfully write about these things without damaging them. But who knows?

I agree. There’s this nasty idea out there (put about by some of the less pleasant forces in the internet) that ’sharing’ is all about either (a) communicating data (b) seeing what other people are up to. It ain’t necessarily so. Two people can share an experience without ever meeting.

Marcus - say you’ve seen something weird that you don’t reckon anyone else has seen quite the same way. If it’s partly spiritual there’s bound to be other people who’ve had similar experiences. These spirits tend to get about some. If it’s partly personal then hey, maybe you’re not meant to share it right now. Keep it to yourself, like the last name of a Cat (according to T.S. Eliot). If it’s partly indescribable, that doesn’t matter - you’ll still be able to identify like-minded people without being able to communicate just what it is you’re like-minded about. I guess that’s how you ended up here, right? Some things can’t be put into words. Some things aren’t meant to be put into words. Some things are damaged by being put into words. (Therein lies the skill of the writer.) And sometimes you can’t tell, you just have to show.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-naming-of-cats/

After all expression is the root of sharing.

No, sharing is the root of sharing. When you go to a movie with someone, you are sharing an experience. It does not require that you talk about it while it is happening or afterwards. It simply matters that you both did it together.

I feel I need to be able to communicate effectively in order to share.

Say you’re sharing an apple with someone. What do you effectively need to communicate in order for that sharing to occur? All you really need to do is hand the person the apple, and maybe if they look at you questioningly, then nod your head that it is okay.

The only communication that sharing requires is simply an invitation. And oftentimes, circumstances don’t even require that much.

if reading more would give me more room to express myself.

Why would that be the case?

It sounds like you feel as though you have a need to express yourself which is being left unfulfilled. What do you feel you will achieve by expressing yourself? Your first step towards having this feeling be fulfilled will be to answer that question clearly for yourself.

Especially if I am sharing with people that I am not physically located near to.

That’s all well and good, but you need to be able to share with those people who are physically located around you first and foremost, because we are physical beings whose social instincts actively require that. Maybe that is the root of the blockage you’re feeling?

how do I share something I have experienced (a feeling, and idea, an insight…a revelation) without losing the essence of that experience?

Think of communication as not a depiction of experience, but as a type of experience itself. When you are communicating, you are creating a *new* shared experience. Stop trying to capture and hang onto old experiences. They will forever be unexpressed, because their purpose is experience not expression. Simply try to experience the sharing opened up by communication each time as something fully new and fully unique to that moment only. It’s no longer relevant how the pieces were arranged five turns ago on the chessboard.

how do I share something I have experienced (a feeling, and idea, an insight…a revelation) without losing the essence of that experience?

Just share it and the people your stories are meant to reach will be reached.

I just wanted to clarify a few things. I don’t actually read any books and read very little on the Internet. I prefer to learn from life, reality and my own experiences.

I was wondering though if reading more would give me more room to express myself. After all expression is the root of sharing.

Which leads me back to communicating. I feel I need to be able to communicate effectively in order to share. Especially if I am sharing with people that I am not physically located near to.

Maybe part of the issue is needing to find outlets - though I feel I have much of that covered. The issue I feel is a lot to do with my ability to relate and share these “spiritual” experiences. That’s the question I keep asking myself. How do I clearly express and communicate those things - how do I share something I have experienced (a feeling, and idea, an insight…a revelation) without losing the essence of that experience?

One possibility is to match my intent with action.

That’s not *one* possibility. That’s the *only* possibility.

may not entirely match up with what I am trying to express.

Don’t bother trying to express yourself. Try to master your self. And don’t try. Do it. When you’re trying you’re setting yourself up for the possibility of failure: which means you’re compromising your intention from jump.

If I am in periods of learning, then read up on relevant and matching material. The problem with this is that is still relies heavily on intellectual notions

You’re always in periods of learning. If you’re not then you’re dead. What you’re missing - it sounds like from your word choice - is the use of your mind-body as a bridge between intention and action. You can read all you want (and it helps to do so) but it won’t be worth anything if you’re not applying it to EVERYTHING you do in your daily life. The books you’re reading should influence how you walk down the street, how you talk to people, what kinds of foods you buy, what thoughts are in your head at any given moment, etc. Find simple practical outlets for your intellectual explorations. For every page you read, walk one block in the real world.

there must be at least one clear method of communicating such experiences?

Communication and experience are two different things. Experiences are meant for experiencing. Don’t try to communicate your experiences: try to share them with others and celebrate them. That is the true root of communication.

Now my intention during those periods of spiritual growth clearly tends towards self-mastery and learning. Most of my lessons come from either my inner-self or from reality itself - in the form of various kinds of personal symbolism which I have learned to identify.

So my question is this. If I was asked to put these things I learn down into writing, I would put down general ideas in the form of metaphors, personal anecdotes and symbolic comments on reality. Now from a readers point of view - it may look as though I am describing intellectual notions, rather than “concrete” spiritual reality as I have experienced it.

My question then (finally), is that I am really not sure how to resolve that issue. One possibility is to match my intent with action. If I am in periods of learning, then read up on relevant and matching material. The problem with this is that is still relies heavily on intellectual notions, which may not entirely match up with what I am trying to express.

Another idea would be to communicate in a more specific and literal manner. The problem with this idea is that some of what I communicate would lose its meaning - as it is based upon personal symbolism and inner reality so-to-speak.

Perhaps it is the old adage of the Tao. “That which can be written is not the Tao” etc. But still - I am left feeling that there must be at least one clear method of communicating such experiences?

Any thoughts?

Alexander Technique advocates stopping, redirecting or preventing habits that are in the way of newly revised intentions.

There is a further self-deceptive drawback Alexander teachers are convinced of: using habits diminishes sensation. Using any habit decreases the importance of paying attention to seemingly unrelated proprioceptive feedback, because these anomalies do not match expectations and getting to the goal is usually the focus. Alexander teachers have observed that Sensory systems will flood from accommodating too many contradicting goals by performing the opposing corresponding habits to answer them. Habits are also designed to become innate; the sensation of doing a fully formed habit will disappear as it is learned. If the refinement of using habits is not continued, eventually senses will dull and become unreliable.