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Home Renovations: Intercom or Holodeck?

July 26, 2014

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In my article on home renovations, I started talking about how malleable and plastic our internal landscape is, and how we can mold it to specific purposes.

Internal systems communication has come up many times lately, so I wanted to touch base on the importance of internal landscape with regards to internal communication, and give a few tips on how one can purposefully adjust the internal landscape to foster better internal communication.

Sometimes a resident has a communication issue. They may be apparently mute, speak another language, or appear to barely have the capability to form coherent language at all such as animals. Some of us are able to get around these limitations directly, via a form of telepathy. Others don't have that ability to communicate either.

If you're having trouble understanding someone, always ask around to make sure that everyone else also has the same issue. Maybe someone would volunteer to translate if they can understand the resident in question. This means you already have a translation service available inside and don't necessarily need another. That said, the easy answer doesn't always work.

So how can we leverage the things we know about what's going on in our head and make it work?

Our internal landscape is a co-creation of all the entities in our head. I said in the home renovations article that "you can't really 'tamper' with the internal landscape because you created it in the first place. There's no reason NOT to try to tweak or alter it." Indeed, where we can all agree that communication is absolutely vital to being functional rather than just surviving, altering your internal landscape to foster better communication becomes vital, not just permissible.

We build our own walls...

CN: The Wall is a rock opera that employs some graphic fascist metaphors for a trauma survivor's lifetime. If you've already seen it, you know — but we mentioned it in this article and in spite of how troublesome the movie's metaphors are, it's still an apt example of building walls that keep both desirable & undesirable things out.

At the end of Pink Floyd's The Wall the protagonist Pink holds an internal trial (The Trial) and finds himself guilty of having walled himself off from everyone with whom he was supposed to be in a vulnerable relationship. He then sentences himself "to be exposed before [his] peers." and thus commences the tearing down of his internal wall.

For those of us who have walls hampering internal communication, this could be a topic of discussion at an internal meeting. The existence of the walls can be discussed, and their meaning to the group. I caution against tearing them down immediately once they're discovered, although transforming them might be a long-term goal. You want to know whether they are serving you or hampering you, whether you ought to be trying to change something about them. And you need everyone who is accessible to give their input, explore the unknown, and discuss the issues.

How might one modify the walls? Would it hurt to have doors or windows? Could you install an intercom, an inter-office air-tube system, add some places where a note can be slipped between the rooms? Any modification can help improve the internal communication system.

For those of us without "visible walls" we may have other barriers to communication, as mentioned above: language, speech or lack thereof, intellect or perception of the world. As mentioned in our former article, we have our language filter, a translation device that can "translate any communication" however poorly it does so. Miscommunications still take place, leading to someone having to tweak the device, but it is a good sight better than no device at all.

How do we create a communication device?

It's all about belief and believability. If someone in you "is an animal" it's because you as a group believe it to be so. If someone in you is mute, it's because you believe it to be so. If someone in you speaks another language, it's because you believe it. So if an object is going to translate between people, you have to believe it too.

My recommendation is to have a meeting in which you pool your resources with everyone with whom you are allowed to communicate, and anyone who is attempting to communicate regardless of the barriers involved. They may be mute, but still can nod, or they may be an animal but can use other body language or noises when they are pleased with something. Include them in on the meeting if they're willing and able to be there.

Then commence with a brainstorming session to address the issue. I do this with someone fronting taking notes on paper in the physical world while everyone inside is coming up with ideas. You can close your eyes and do it all internally. The idea is to create something that you know will work for you and your headmates, because to change our internal landscape only requires the power of belief. The item must be believable.

Then there's the actual creation of the internal landscape object. Here's some ideas for the actual creation process that me and my headmates can think of off the top of our collective head: Mail order it. If there's a magical resident, ask them if they could cast a spell on an object or summon it. Ask the robot or computer techie to make a device. Have the littles craft it out of clay and pipe cleaners. Imagine or visualize it into being. Dig through a box or closet until you find it. Have someone do a magic trick to produce it out of thin air. Go on a shamanic journey and ask one of your guides or power animals to help you find it. Create it symbolically in the real world and then internalize it. Use Minecraft bricks, legos, Arduino system objects, to build it. Insert a babelfish in someone's ear (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Install a telephone or order up a smartphone. Install an intercom system. Use a beanie hat with propellers that grants telepathy to the user. Enchant a special "talking stick" that magically translates for the holder. A whiteboard or smartboard and markers. Everyone inside learns a system-wide brand of sign language. Everyone steps into a holodeck area and not only can you change the scenery, you can suddenly completely understand each other -- like an internal landscape inside the internal landscape where you can change the rules easily.

Really, anything goes if it gets the job done. Leverage your own internal abilities to make and foster the changes that you need to make it happen.

Don't be surprised if it takes a somewhat different form than you pictured. It's a collaborative creation process, and you don't have full communication with everyone in residence: that's part of the point, right?


Keep in mind that communication is a two-way street -- there's what is said versus what is heard. All communication is subject to flaws and imperfections. However, improved communication is always better than little to no communication. You can take control of this situation and help improve communication in your system if you all put your minds to it.

Other Posts in July 2014


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