Tag: conductivity

Human Communication – Information and Energy?

 

As I watched a young Mum communicating with her daughter this morning an insight appeared. 

An insight around communication: When we communicate, 2 quantities (at least) are exchanged.

  • 1. A quantity of Information
  • 2. A quantity of Energy

We know in this world a huge amount about quantities of Information we exchange.

Not so much about the quantities of Energy. 

As I watched this young girl and her Mum I began to think about language and how we learn / acquire it. 

How do we learn for instance the word ‘Bad’ is bad? We could just as easily teach children the word ‘Good’ is bad. Or give meaning to the words right and wrong? 

How? 

What the young girl and all of us are hyper aware of is Energy. 

For me, the Energy is transmitted faster than the information and is received by us first. 

We resonate with this Energy and use it to frame the information that follows. When the Energy given off by the communicator is positive / loving as it was with Mum this morning, the young girl (using mirror Neurons?) creates an internal state of safety, being loved and associates that internal energy state with the information being exchanged. 

Primarily Humans communicate by Exchange of Energy. Information is secondary.

The Energy exchange will prime our brain about how to work with the information that follows, thus: 

If the Energy received is calm, caring, loving, positive then we mirror that state (safe) and associate with the following information exchanged, in a calm, caring, loving, positive way. 

If the Energy received is agitated, annoyed, angry, threatening, forcing, dominating etc. then we mirror that state and trigger a threat state within us (unsafe) and the information is received in a Fight / Flight / Freeze mode. 

When we communicate with animals it is the Energy that the dog, cat, horse, whatever, mirrors and uses to create the internal state within them. 

So when we learn the word ‘bad’ what we associate it with is the Energy transmitted, and make it mean unsafe, away from state and by the way then generate that Energy, when we communicate the word ‘bad’. 

When we learn the word ‘good’ what we associate it with is the Energy transmitted, and make it mean safe, towards state. 

I have just invented this word, Janjijanji. Is it a good word or a bad word? You won’t know until you receive my Energy when I say it to you. 

Remember Emotion, E-Motion = Energy in Motion 

Also Human Conductivity (the quality of connection between us) is created by the Energy exchange between us. 

Human communication the effective sharing of information between us is directly dependant on the Energy transmitted and received. The Energy is received first. 

The Energy we transmit is a function of the level of consciousness we are operating at. 

We have developed into the Information Age, we now must grow into the Human Energy age and the develop the same levels of understanding of Human Energy as we have of information.

There is a story to be told about this

How aware are you of:

  • The ambient Energy in an interaction – meeting?
  • The Energy that you are transmitting in varying contexts?
  • How you may control that Energy in given situations?

The Conductivity of Relationships

It is important when we think about the relationships we have, to consider their quality (measure of excellence).

Why?

  • We are social animals and live in relationship all the time.
  • Because the quality of  relationship will define what can flow across it and how easily it does that (both ways).

Why  have I used Conductivity in the title of this entry?

A fundamental aspect of electrical engineering concerns the conductivity of component parts. (Conductivity :- The ability or power to conduct or transmit heat, electricity, or sound.) Wood does not conduct, copper does, as per the diagram above when conduction happens, the light comes on 🙂

Take  the example of electricity running in one cable compared to running in another. If the cables / wires are of different diameters, then the current they are capable of carrying, without ‘burning up’ is defined by the cross- section of the wire,  e.g a tiny diameter copper wire is used in electric fires to generate heat and if too much current is passed through it, it will break (it is how electrical fuses work)
If you have large diameter copper wires such as used in London Underground, to transmit electric current to the rails, then the amount of current that can flow is much much greater than  flows in the electric fire.
In this metaphor you can see that the conductivity of the wires (proportional to the diameter) defines how much ‘energy’ can flow without breaking.
If we join two wires together with massively different conductivities, the energy that can flow without breaking, is determined by the conductivity of the smaller diameter wire. Solder a 13 amp fuse wire to the Underground wire and the maximum current that can flow without ‘blowing the fuse’, is 13 amps!

So it is with Human to Human engagement, relationships and communication.  What flows is determined by the lowest conductivity..

When communicating with other people the message can be lost if the connection between us lacks conductivity. If the flow (conductivity ) of one person does not match the flow (conductivity) of the other in a communicative act, then the message one is communicating to the other may be compromised. For example I am very enthusiastically speaking about this subject, my favourite, at 700 amps worth and you can only take 13 amps worth.. Your fuse blows, you do what we know as ‘glaze over’ #toomuchinformation

Think of some important relationships

  • How conductive are they?
  • What flows from the sender and is never received?
  • How can you make the relationship more conductive?

“We never listen to people who do not listen to us”

Why not try really listening to the other first 🙂