Communication ‘At a Distance’

     The Oxford English Dictionary defines communication as ‘The imparting, conveying or exchange of ideas, knowledge, etc. (whether by speech, writing or signs). So, how do you communicate with someone (or something) who cannot see you, hear you, or ‘feel’ you using any sense; someone who may not be able to understand you even if you could hear or see them? How do you get your idea(s) across when the separation between you is vast or perturbed, clouded by enormous distance and ‘fog’ or even separated by time? Or, if you believe it possible, how would you communicate with ‘someone’ in another dimension or even in ‘the great beyond’ (see post: Talk with the Dead)?

     Besides our voices and our words, face-to-face communication can utilize hand signs (such as American Sign language), symbols (international highway direction signs are a good example), visible codes (semaphore using flags, Morse code using flashing lights, Native American smoke signals). Coded word messages can also be sent as numbers or ‘gematria’ (see post: Gematria: Fun with Numbers Again).

     Communication can also be purely auditory with the use of sirens, horns and whistles, drum beats or electronic-auditory (Morse Code by telegraph). But in order to achieve detailed communication, usually a more complex system has to be employed.

 

     Stephen Hawking, afflicted with the neuro-degenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is unable to use the muscles of his larynx well enough to talk and is unable to punch out letters on a keyboard. But Dr. Hawking is still able to communicate his brilliant ideas using special computer devices that ‘mechanise‘ his voice.

     The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a  good example of an attempt to communicate ‘at a distance’. Using a massive array of telescopes, SETI has tried to find evidence of communication that have reached our planet from intelligent life forms and, in turn, broadcast the ‘Arecibo Message‘ by radio wave in the direction of a specific star cluster (globular star cluster M13 – 25,000 light years away from earth) in 1974. The message consisted of 1679 binary digits broadcast over less than three minutes and included the following information: the number 1 through 10; the atomic numbers of elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus which make up our DNA (genetic material); the formulae for the sugars and bases in the nucleotides of DNA; the number of nucleotides in DNA and a graphic of the DNA double helical structure; a graphic of a human being with average height and human population of the earth; a graphic of our solar system; and a graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope with dimensions of the transmitting dish.

     This is a condensation of information that communicates what we wish to communicate in the smallest package using the simplest (electronic) form we have, binary code.

     How then would one communicate with another being in another ‘dimension’ or ‘in the great beyond’? How would you communicate through the fog of time and ‘dimension’, unable to touch, to clearly see or hear what the other person is saying? When words may be garbled, muted or simply fade away?

     A basic method would be to use ‘symbols’, signs that can be repeated and recognized on both sides of the ‘divide’. Color can communicate ideas (see post: The Colors of Faith) and symbols have been used for thousands of years by mankind to denote darkness, brightness, the sun, war and any number of ideas (see post: Symbols of the Sun). Coded numbers (gematria) have long been used to encrypt but also simplify words and text.  Music is mathematical and has been used as a communication device early times, relaying quite complex ideas if the receiver can understand the code.

     There is one other technique of communication that might not appear obvious and that is the ‘communication of poetry‘. Why mankind ever developed poetry and still continues to use it and re-invent it to this day is not entirely clear. Poetry is often beautiful and thought-provoking. It can also be insightful and entertaining. But what is really special about poetry (in any language) is the rhythm of the verse, much like music, quite mathematical. A good poem, like a good song, sticks in your mind, is easy to remember and can have very precise meaning(s).

     So, if binary code or other sophisticated devices are not an option,  in order to communicate with another ‘dimension’ or speak with someone in ‘the great beyond’, could we use symbols, number codes (gematria), color, music and (the rhythm of) poetry?

      *Paranormal experience: subject of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God – Amazon Kindle.