Let me back up a bit. I often forget that the things I write about are usually the result of several years or quiet brooding or some conceptual daisy-chain. Without linking concepts, much of this won't fit together.

The idea of sound, particularly speech, rests on basic physics. Sound, as humans perceive it, is really nothing more than the perception of air pressure waves exerting force on the ear drum. In the end, it is a matter of physical force being exerted on our bodies by various external (and sometimes, internal) stimuli.

Now, as I mentioned in the last entry, "Speech and speech alone has the ability, because it intelligent sound, to effect physical matter, and, as a result, our bodies and the environment around us." What I meant to indicate is the lack of power sight, taste, smell and touch have to do what speech does so as to highlight the contrast between sound and its sister senses.

Light waves can exert force on other objects because light, according to modern physics, is actually small particles of matter streaming at us. It can affect us in a variety of ways, but, only once light reaches certain energy levels of either luminous or heat intensity, it is really used to identify objects in spatial relationships and characteristics about them.

Scents and tastes possess a certain amount of power to affect others, but the knowledge required to truly use these basic senses to communicate as we do with speech is astoundingly unlikely because these senses are normally not developed at all in Western culture. At best we are trained to use these senses to perceive threats to health and well-being. On the other end of the spectrum, we use these senses to have positive experiences with pleasing tastes. But, few people, except for experts, understand the power of pheremones, hormonal chemistry and human interaction well enough to use this knowledge effectively. At best, cooks and aromatherapists might indicate our two closest working ancestors to the ancient apothecaries. Nonetheless, as indirect methods of communication, neither of these senses poses much of a threat to the supremacy of sound.

Touch, much like taste and scent, requires, first, expert knowledge of often understudied aspects of human life: physiology, anatomy, bioenergetics, etc. Regardless of its largely overlooked uses, touch does have a more widely well-known power associated with it. The horror of the monkey experiments conducted in the cold war tell us that much! Either way, tactile communication is much more readily understood, but largely overlooked now that physical contact, i.e., touch, is so highly frowned up for fear of the countless variants of unfortunate things that could happen to people: the spread of disease, sexual misconduct and abuse for just a few minor examples.

All these considered, the point being made here, speech in particular, or sound as a whole, possesses the unique, undisputed, position among the things that happen to people and which could be used by people, to affect others without direct contact. Indeed, if you consider that of all these things, you can basically control all but sound, you see what I mean. To dispel the power of light, close your eyes or turn your head. Taste and scent are neutralized when you remove yourself from the direct influence of the items being sensed. Touch can be negated by simply not allowing physical contact. Sound, however, cannot be eliminated. If sound is loud enough, you cannot prevent it from being sensed. The ears will receive this physical stimulus regardless of efforts to stop it.

I decided to recap this and touch on the underlying concept a little more deeply because I felt I had failed to lay the proper foundation for one element of what I was trying to communicate. Sound is unlike any other of the sensory stimuli because it is the only one of the senses which allows direct physical force to be exerted on the body without direct physical contact. Yet, it still possesses all the power, and more, of a force that does directly contact the physical body. In short, sound gives us control over physical reality with something as simple as speech. How's that for a way to rethink something as simple as those slippery things called words?

So, what does this have to do with my overriding theme, Christianity? When trying to share the Good News we often run into conflict because people don't want to hear the message, otherwise we wouldn't be worried about them not listening. Folks resistant to the Gospel often don't want us to touch them... Using light therapy is hardly a means to share the glorious mystery of Jesus' work... And even the best cooks won't win souls with their tasty dishes... So, that leaves speech. Without the ability to physically manipulate people into believing in God (not that I would advocate or try that anyway) we are left with one tool, the one God mentions most anyway, the Word.

As talked about previously, speech, that is the mixture of intelligence and sound, is the most effective way to affect souls. The soul, it is often learned, is a mixture of tangible and intangible. If protoplasmic didn't really have a parapsychological feel, I think it would be the perfect term to describe the type of matter for the soul. It is the bridge between our bodies and our spirits.

In Christianity, at least since Augustine's writings, the soul has had 3 parts: mind, will and emotions. With these three parts noted, it seems clear that we can affect these three parts of another's being with sound. Each and all of these parts of a person can be touched and transformed simply through the power of speech, not because it is sound. Sound is simply the mechanism to exert force on physical matter. Intelligence is the spiritual attribute that works in conjunction with sound in the soul and spiritual realms to release true, eternal actions. With sound, that is speech, we can truly exert force on the souls of others.

But, and here's the caveat, one I'm not 100% on how to publicly comment: Watchman Nee once wrote of churches using soul power to try and force people or other congregations to do their will. It is literally an exertion of will. However, it is not spiritual, but rather soulish. By trying to convince people, through prayer, to do things is spiritual manipulation. By no means do I suggest this is acceptable. I believe that we are to expose love, that is God, and let God do his work on others. In that way, speech, when uttered with a life and spirit aligned with God and his love, can transform all things. That is the type of power words, and sounds, when combined with love can exert on others.