Can we learn to speak in a different language mode, and does it change our experience of reality?
Dear reader,
A new call is resonating within me—a call for fresh research and a new book. A few months ago, I felt a spark of excitement while working on an article about language and non-duality. Since then, amidst many other commitments, that call has grown louder. Now that I have a proper writing desk in my own study, I’ve begun sketching out the lines for the research I want to undertake and the project I hope to lead.
Long ago, I wrote a bachelor’s thesis on linguistic relativity, which poses the question: does your native language determine the world you perceive? People who speak French express things in a different way than those who speak Dutch. Does this mean they also see a different world?
In the meantime, I came across the ideas of David Bohm, a 20th-century quantum physicist, who argued that further exploration of reality is not possible if we continue to rely on the same Western languages. These languages are structured in a way that primarily sees static and separate objects, whereas, according to Bohm, the actual reality is a constant flux of movement and transformation. He designed a new language mode that could express this and later discovered that the languages of the Blackfoot and Navajo people function in a similar way. These languages describe “things” as dynamic interactions within a greater whole.
This is the focus of the research I want to conduct: can we change the way we speak and, in doing so, transform our relationship with reality? I do not intend to invent a new language but to explore a way of using our existing languages differently. Together with people who are willing to adopt this new language mode and come together during a retreat week, I want to study its impact on our experience of reality. Those interested in participating, experientially, financially, or both, will find more information here. Please contact if you can’t wait to be involved in this project.