I was recently reading an article about linguistics which suggested that every child was born with the ability to make all the sounds which exist in any language, and the process of actually learning to talk is partly one of unlearning to make the sounds which are not needed in one's mother tongue, which makes the process of learning them later much more difficult (I've been battling with the Dutch sch, r, ij and ui for 25 years!) - even recognition of the differences between sounds is "unlearned" so that for instance many Japanese experience the "l" and "r" sounds as something identical and will interchange them indiscriminately.

The thought suddenly hit me like a bolt from the blue. Perhaps the same could apply to our capability for experience at a "higher" conscious level, whether the direct experience of transpersonal consciousness or all kinds of paranormal capacities - we are born with the possibility of various forms of experience, communication, action etc. which are not allowed to develop in this society and so are unlearned at a very early age. Once this idea hits you, you see evidence for it everywhere - small children possessing astounding inntuitive qualities, foreknowledge of things that are about to happen, the ability to detect others as "good" or "evil" (auras?) and much more.

Where does it disappear? If we knew that we would have the secret of life! Maybe layers of trauma: a crying child must be experiencing fear far in excess of what we suffer in later life. Maybe group pressure: the urge to "belong" and not be too different seems to be present at an early age. Maybe our own attempts to educate them in good behaviour, with images of angry authority figures, with or without white beards, who are going to exact enormous penalties at any sign of wilful deviation.

But what a hope is implicit in the idea! Suddenly a spiritual journey is not any more a voyage forwards to an unknown territory but a return to a place where we have already been!

PIERS
Clement

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Last updated 25.4.2003