From Language to Dancing

Where we now see flowers (objects), our Paleolithic ancestors saw ‘flowering’ (movement). Where we now see a fire, they saw ‘burning.’ They didn’t see a mountain but ‘rising and protecting.’ There was no light but ‘shining.’ A tree was not a static thing but ‘growing and being’. Our ancestors didn’t see a world of separate objects, but a connected whole of movements and processes.

In the Paleolithic era, when we were still hunter-gatherers and very much present in the moment, we used far fewer words and more gestures, singing, dancing, and touch to communicate with each other. So, we didn’t just see more movement, we also moved more ourselves!

Growing - being - flowering

With the agricultural revolution, we became more grounded: we literally started living in one place, began cultivating fields and raising livestock – and thus started planning and thinking in terms of time and yield. Where we were once specialized in living from and with our direct environment, we began to specialize in professions (farmer, blacksmith, potter…) and trade with one another. Possession also emerged. The experience of reality became dual: it was measured in time, in progression, in having, in more and less, in better and worse. Reality was no longer experienced as a timeless, interconnected whole of movement and change, but as something that could be made and conceptualized. People wanted to capture things. Language changed accordingly. It became more specialized and abstract. Verbs (movement) hardened into nouns (objects).

Can we use language differently, so that we start experiencing the world as a timeless, interconnected whole? Can we free ourselves from our dual conditioning in this way? Can we see more movement and also become more movement ourselves? Can modifying language help us see that life is actually dancing?

This is what I’m exploring with The Language Mode Project. You can support this research by making a donation, or by joining the research itself. There’s already a study group, but you can still join. In October, we’ll come together for a retreat and “live” with the new language mode. What will happen to our experience of reality and our sense of connection with one another when we do this?

Support this project with a donation here.
Join our study group by registering for the next online meeting on 7 May (Dutch) or 8 May (English) - and prepare with materials on this page.

By now, it’s clearer to me why I love climbing trees so much. It must be my Paleolithic nature.

Loving,
Zoe

Climbing in being