The 12 Languages of the Mind

I write today with some hesitation, the same hesitation I felt 2 weeks ago when I wrote about the romance of shadows and the piercing of horizontal planes. You may recall that I asked, “Was this stuff interesting for you or did it go over your head?”

Three hundred and ninety-one responded with variations of “More! More!” and only 2 said they didn’t quite get it. If the 391 spoke for the 42,712 subscribers they would statistically represent, you’re going to enjoy today’s memo. If by some sad chance of luck or fate those 391 represented only themselves, I offer you this apology in advance:

“What crazies we writers are

our heads full of language like buckets of minnows

standing in the moonlight on a dock.”

– from Ray, by Hayden Carruth

There is an objective reality but we are ill equipped to experience it. You and I live in private, perceptual realities.

“Our perception does not identify the outside world as it really is, but the way that we are allowed to recognize it, as a consequence of transformations performed by our senses. We experience electromagnetic waves, not as waves, but as images and colors. We experience vibrating objects, not as vibrations, but as sounds. We experience chemical compounds dissolved in air or water, not as chemicals, but as specific smells and tastes. Colors, sounds, smells and tastes are products of our minds, built from sensory experiences. They do not exist, as such, outside our brain. Actually, the universe is colorless, odorless, insipid and silent. Although you and I share the same biological architecture and function, perhaps what I perceive as a distinct color and smell is not exactly equal to the color and smell you perceive. We may give the same name to similar perceptions, but we cannot know how they relate to the reality of the outside world. Perhaps we never will.”

– Dr. Jorge Martins de Oliveira

A yarmulke covers the sensory association area, that part of the brain that gathers and tabulates sensory data collected from the sensory receptors in the ears, eyes, muscles and skin.

Associative memories are added to this information equation as it flows toward Broca’s area of the brain where the predictable information is subtracted. Information that’s new, surprising or different flows beyond Broca’s area into conscious awareness – imagination – where the central executive of Working Memory searches for relevance. Only after the central executive gives the information the thumbs up is it forwarded to the prefrontal cortex – located just behind your forehead – for a decision about whether or not to take action.

No, I didn’t make any of this up. I read it in the writings of Alan Baddeley, Susan Gathercole, Ricardo Gattass, Silvia Helena Cardoso, Burkhard Maess, Steven Pinker and Jorge Martins de Oliveira, cognitive neuroscientists, all.

This next part, however, is all mine and yes I might be crazy or just plain wrong.

But I don’t think so.

There are 12 languages of the mind that supply the constituent components of concrete, analytical thought. It is these 12 languages that enable our perceptual realities.

A signal received in one language of the mind can reinforce, or contradict, a signal received in another. Signal reinforcement deepens perception. Signal contradiction elevates interest.

 1. Shape – angles send a different message than curves.

 2. Numbers – a language of relativity. Many or few?

 3. Phonemes – sounds represented by letters of the alphabet.

 4. Color – often combined with shape and radiance.

 5. Proximity – near/far, large/small, left/right, up/down, etc.

 6. Music – any sound that isn't a phoneme.

 7. Radiance – energy sent outward or sucked inward.

 8. Motion – fast/slow

 9. Symbols – messages with secondary meaning.

10. Taste – tongues do it.

11. Feel – skin and muscles do it.

12. Smell – noses do it.

Each of these 12 has a shadow language that supplies the components of emotional, philosophical, abstract thought. But that’s another matter for another day.

Control the signals and you control the perceptions.

Control the perceptions and you control the conclusions.

Control the conclusions and persuasion is accomplished.

Next week’s memo will be easier to understand and infinitely more useful to most of you. We’re going to talk about how Portals, Reveals, and Partial Reveals can be used to take people where you want them to go.

And now it is time for me

to go.

Roy H. Williams