INSTRUMENTAL  TRANSCOMMUNICATION
by Ernst Senkowski

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B-12.3  PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS 

Information is what influences the probability of future events.
Thompson JR. 

Given the adequately proven existence of TA phenomena, psycholinguistic observations might seem to be superfluous. However, they can point out some specific problems involved with the interpretation of (disturbed) acoustical signals, and can increase the competency for criticism in respect of subjective assertions whose validity is questionable from an objective position. Furthermore, and complementary to the reflections laid down in A-1 and A-2, the principle issues of human classification, understanding, and learning are concerned [115].

FLANAGAN unmistakably points out that the process of understanding linguistically coded information still has not been explained satisfactorily. He stresses the importance of learning and of association, and states: 

‘Speech perception is a process of adaptation in which the mode and form of recognition is probably tailored so as to adapt to the signal and the hearing test.’

According to HOERMANN, ‘understanding is a creative, constructive process, which always goes beyond the information encoded in the utterance itself, sometimes ignoring a lot of it, but always getting the instruction on its purpose from the listener’s intention: to make the world that surrounds him intelligible by passing through the words of the utterance, so to say. Linguistic understanding is always also the understanding of what is non-linguistic’. 

Intention, according to SCHICK (p. 120), then leads to a situation in which ‘identical sounds arouse different ways of attention in different listeners, conditioned by their motives, needs, valuations, goals, expectations, and hopes’.  

Regarding the topic ‘attention’ in the analysis of VOT, see PRESI; for general phonetics, see TILLMANN. ROTHSCHILD provides a superstructure for these statements: 

‘The beginning of the reception of something to be experienced goes along with an interior act of adaptation, and presupposes a fundamental affinity between all partners in the communication which roots in the common creative basis of the world system.’

A large range of interpretations of ill-defined interference-laden signals is accurately characterized here. It cannot be held against anyone that he regards his personal version as binding for himself. He can only not expect or demand that other listeners share his opinion, or that, later, he himself (adequately poor memory postulated) discovers his earlier interpretations on the tape and understands them in the same way. The phenomenon of the ‘changing words’ is revealing: when repeatedly repeating a clearly (!) spoken word, each time (a) different word(s) is(are) heard (NAESER/LILLY in WATZLAWICK:  “Die erfundene Wirklichkeit” (Invented reality). The uncritical listener must be aware of the risks that go with a being overwhelmed by, and a possible becoming dependent on voice phenomena, which can lead either directly or via the outbreak of no longer controllable inner voices into mediumistic psychoses (BENDER) ([116], see C-16).

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According to GITT (A-2), the sender normally wishes that the meaning he expresses (correctly) in the process of formulation be understood by the receiver to its full extent. During the process of understanding the received combination of signs is analysed and pictured in corresponding thoughts. This process comprises three steps [117]: 

signal reception (statistical level of information);
sentence analysis (syntactical level);
determination of meaning (semantic level). 

Since the major part of VOT and many DEAV are taken with interferences as soon as they appear, the difficulties of interpretation begin with the signal reception. Every rerecording conditions unforeseeable alterations that result from the specific transmission properties of the apparatuses, the room acoustics, and the relative positions of sound source and listener. The intentional variations in tape replay speed, made on our side for adapting what we have received to our hearing capabilities, cause non-linear distortions which can lead to altered ‘voices’ and/or interpretations. MANGOLD: 

‘The parameters of volume and speed of speech change in a non-linear manner. A speech recognition system must possess excellent adaptation features.’

Furthermore, subjective rhythmization plays an important role. POPPER-ECCLES (p. 531 in English edition): 

‘We hear the individual words of a spoken delivery, but no temporal gaps can be discovered in the message on the tape-recording.’

The disagreements about the correct interpretation of a given passage, never-ending since first noticed, are completely nonsensical from the perspectives of communication technology and psycholinguistics. When the S/N ratio is low, and the signals are vague or distorted, neither a human being nor a machine can provide an unequivocal decoding. A summary is given in Ill. 22.

 Ill. 22:  RATIO OF SIGNAL STRENGTH (S) TO INTERFERENCE OR NOISE (N) 

DIN Standard 33410 (12/1981) offers a conception on the limits of the understandability of disturbed speech signals. Its study is recommendable to everybody seriously dealing with paranormal voice phenomena. Representations by SCHNEIDER, H. and ZWICKER/FELDKELLER are of older date. According to DIN, the understandability of speech depends on:

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Under heavily disturbed conditions only a specific component of the human acoustical faculties of perception may be of assistance – if any at all -, that which as yet no machine has been able to imitate or copy: the ‚selective hearing’, also known as ‚party effect’ – which, with exercise and attention, enables a human individual to become receptive to one single voice out of a big group of simultaneously speaking persons, and to understand it. With this background, an experienced interpreter may claim a certain degree of validity and reliability of his interpretations. Besides, JUERGENSON already stressed with insistency that people in general, and particularly those engaged in the field of VOT would have to re-learn how to hear and listen (see G-39.2). And the TEs invite again and again to exercise hearing, for instance by: Komm zum Ueben, hock dich hin, nicht nur einige Mal. Komm zum Ueben, und zum Ueben schicke Geduld, Mensch, schicke Geduld (Come to practice, sit down, not just a few times. Come to practice, and send (bring with you) patience to practice, man, send patience) [118].

The incorporation of the statements of FLANAGAN and others within a broader framework has to proceed from the assumption that, in the course of sociocultural imprinting - predominantly in the early childhood – lasting (HEIM: scleromorphic) (mother) language structures are tied down in the ‚memory’ and possibly are supplemented by the learning of professional terminologies and/or foreign languages. At any time thereafter, every word or concept (see MILLER) exists within ‚word-fields’ and reference networks in largely unconscious and unreflected relation to a multitude of other words, and can only be grasped by means of other words giving the most complete paraphrasing possible. One is inevitably drawn into ‚endless semiosis’. ECO: ‚the continuous interpretation of signs by signs’, and ‚we conceive reality only at the intersecting point of criss-crossing streams of communication’, see PIERCE in KLOESEL-PAPE. This is valid not only for semantic linkages, which convey sense and meaning not before placed within a context or overall system, but is true even for meaning-bearing signals (sense impressions) that can be correctly decoded within certain ranges of fluctuation. They call up memorized (fragments of) information, stimulate it(them), initiate within the (hopefully!) ‚open system’ new associative linkings, so that, at the end ‚understanding appears to be a partially dynamic structural resonance in the intellectual sphere’ (SENKOWSKI). According to NALIMOV, selections are made from the semantic field by means of ‚filters’: 

‚The semantic system is open for the spontaneous creation of filters. We are prepared and ready to place spontaneity in relation to the transpersonal, superpersonal element in the human being; we touch here the final reality. This is a mystery. The understanding of any text is a creative process. The use of the filter radically changes the preconditions’ initial state. The hermeneutic approach proceeds from the idea that language in its widest import is the foundation of the universe. One has to understand the nature of meanings, since the human being primarily acts as an active bearer of meaning. The meaning of the world lies in the revelation of its potential meanings, and the meaning of human life lies in the active participation in this process. There is another problem still to resolve: we have to understand in what way the semantic reality of the world is related/linked to the physical reality, for example in a ‚supersingle field theory’ (a superunified theory that goes beyond the unified field theory which the physicists aspire to)’, see D-22, D-27, [119].

Although the synthesizing adaptation processes are subject to time-dependent psychosomatic influences, they perform relatively unproblematically when the S/N ratio is sufficient, as long as clearly enunciated speech is concerned whose bandwidth has not been unduly narrowed during the transmission process. The conventional 50 % to 70 % understandability rate (is different for syllables, words, and sentences), is in most cases sufficient because the human languages contain considerable redundant elements not necessary for understanding. Hence, normal contents are usually understood without great difficulties even with reduced bandwidth (approx. 300 – 3400 Hz in telephone networks). Contrary to this, the correct transmission of unknown names falls flat. It is necessary to repeat the names several times, or to encode them using a different method, for instance, a (previously agreed as well) ‚spelling alphabet’. The reason for this is the loss of the formants in the upper kHz range, due to which the characteristic attributes of some consonants get lost while the less susceptible vocals tend to be preserved. The fact that many VOT can be interpreted in multiple ways (their polyvalence) partly bases on these factors [120], and LADEFORGED. It seems that paranormal signals can have an extremely small bandwidth, and therefore, the S/N ratio on our side can be improved by technological filters reducing the noise. Filtertechnik, das kann schaerfer sein (filter technology, that can be sharper), or: Benutz’ den engeren Filter (use the narrower filter) [121].

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Computerized filters are available since a number of years. In some cases they permit to clearly improve the understandability of disturbed voices, in others they debase understandability, so that – leaving experiments with scientific-technical background aside – the expenditure for such will hardly be rewarding to laymen.  

The differentiation in respect of the understandability of syllables, words, and sentences, mentioned in the DIN standard, plays an important role in the interpretation of signals hard to understand. According to TRAJNA, the probability of a correct recognition of a passage increases as the numbers of syllables and words grows, and – depending on the S/N ratio – with 8 to 10 syllables arrives at 100 %. 

When using the ‚sideband tuning’ method described in B-9.3.1 and in B-9.2 [60 – It seems that the heavily distorted signals deliberately produced by methods of group C (and partly group D) are particularly well suited for ‘supermodulation’; however, it is not easy to clearly distinguish between psycholinguistically explainable effects and genuine TI. Presumably both objective and telepathic/mediumistic-subjective elements are involved. – Similar transitions from an arbitrary interpretation of more or less defined noises on to an inducement of telepathic-mediumistic contacts appear to take place, for instance, with the mediumistic Italian Laura PARADISO. She records the scratching noises she herself produces, and when subsequently listening to the replaying, she furnishes correct enouncements which she cannot have received over normal ways], signals come in that follow a normal speech rhythm, but have a different frequency spectrum. They allow a particularly wide latitude for imaginative interpretations, could however stimulate mediumistic-telepathical abilities.  

On the syntactical level, difficulties with the analysis of sentences rarely come up in the psychophonic style, despite of considerable departures from regular grammar and unusual figures of speech. Most of the anomalies consist in abbreviated word forms, omissions and variations in word order. They may be dependent on technical transmission requirements (such as time-saving compression), and/or intended by the TEs as demonstrations or hall-marks for their paranormal nature. 

GITT formulated the essential difficulties that exist on the semantic level: ‘Sender and receiver have a different prior understanding when using the same concepts’, and ‘the receiver does not perceive the full scope of meaning of the text formulated by the sender’. This may suffice to describe normal interhuman communication. For ITC additionally applies that the TEs’ states of consciousness (C-20) differ in an insufficiently known manner from those of the normal consciousness of awake earthly humans, and that the TEs possibly may pursue specific aims [122]. The necessary transposition of the concepts and their links might make the sender’s processes of formulation more difficult, and – in case they originate from structures of higher complexity – go hand in hand with a considerable reduction of the original contents [123].

The TEs’ resignation in the sight of the impossibility to adequately describe their states and conditions in the Beyond is given expression in one or the other transcontact, for instance by SALTER: Wie soll ich Ihnen das alles Ihrem kurzen Menschenleben erklaeren, wo ich nicht einmal die richtigen Vokabeln in Ihrer Sprache zur Verfügung habe ? (How shall I explain all this to your short human life when I don’t even dispose of the correct vocabulary in your language?) We therefore should assume that the TEs are restricted to what is conveyable in form of ‘images’ comprehensible to us, and we should avoid too naïve ideas on the Beyond in our semantic interpretations. On occasions they inform that TIs are formulated in such manner that the essential contents are symbolically hidden ‘between the lines’ and arrive at the receiver’s unconscious structures when repeatedly taken note of [124].

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As a general principle have to be included in these reflections the qualities of our European languages, which co-determine and pre-form our world-pictures to a considerable degree.  

According to KORZYBSKI and WHORF 

‘the Indo-European languages lock us into a fragmentary model of life. They disregard the interconnections of things, and by means of their subject-predicate structure they force us to think in cause-and-effect schemes. We will not conceive the nature of reality until we recognize the limitations of words’.

WITTGENSTEIN: ‘The boundaries of my language are the boundaries of my world’. 

BOHR, 1934: ‘All current languages embody in their grammar and vocabulary a world-view that is in the process of melting away. The best example of it is the fact that we are compelled to use ‘thing-words’ to express what are basically events and not things’.

We have to look on a further possible issue. The existence of remote perception implies that the flowing-in of telepathic elements into linguistic communication can principally not be ruled out. The inner psychic - uni- or bi-directional - contacts are superior to the audiovisual contacts because of their relative independence from space-time (‘relative’ because still bound to the material stucture of incarnated humans), although they do not possess their degree of perspicuity and reliability. Within superior holomorphic structures, the habitual sensorimotor forms can appear as psychosomatically reduced modes of experience of a primary mental-spiritual communication felt linear in time. These modes of experience that characterize the awake consciousness of present-day humans, can be described as energetic-material. MUSES (p.117): ‘Words must be supplemented essentially by communication via the superior transconscious mind in order to be really comprehended.’ 

ARNIM: ‘Learning to hear is a complicated process that is not easy to see through. It contains elements that go beyond hearing in the acoustical sense. This faculty of perception can be highly developed and trained. Our knowledge about the actual processes that link the speaker and the person perceiving the speech is so poor. The way in which a person experiences, and understands another person’s speech as such, is still a riddle to us. The sounds are not arbitrary signs but mental-spiritual revelations.’

Ill. 23:  VERBAL AND TELEPATHIC COMMUNICATION

According to this ‘(working) hypothesis’, ITC would have to be understood as a partly materialized form of a mental-telepathic reciprocal effect between a TE and an earthly human, to say it in the Bible’s speech: ‘When two or three are gathered in my name, I am among them’, and in conformity with CORDULA: Wir beweisen diese Spiritualitaet auf telepathischem Wege mittels akustischer Instrumente (We evidence this spirituality on a telepathic way by means of acoustical instruments). The signals, syntax, and semantics of this sentence are free of problems - pragmatics and apobetics are left to the reader’s valuation. 

Terrestrial telepathic communication and mediumistic communication with the Beyond perform primarily in the unconscious areas of the psyche. In default of focussed attention, these activities are not consciously perceived, neither in their general global forms, nor as information exchanged between certain human partners. Since the normal fellow-man is influenced by the suggestion of alleged inaccessibility of the ‘inner spaces’, or the transworlds, he desists from self-confident pushing forward, and blocks the Beyond’s gates, although according to (past)master GOETHE ‘the spirit world is not closed’. Forlorn searchers plunge, often without any directory, into the bewildering play of turbulent ‘occult waves’, in which all sorts of self-proclaimed gurus claim to be enlightened pilots (and ask their fees). In this way one betrays one’s spiritual home. In our era of increasingly assailed blind belief in science and technology, the realities of ITC could contribute to widen – ‘inwards or upwards’ - the horizon of those people who are not absolutely closed to transcendency.

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