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| Photo by Jennifer Berkowitz
I
recently witnessed something very interesting. While I was hanging out with my
horse yesterday, a crow sitting on a branch in the tree beside me started to
imitate the “honk” of some geese that belong to a neighbor next door to my trainer’s
property. I know that crows are exceptionally bright, but I have never seen or
heard anything like that. I don’t believe that this was just a case of mimicry,
either: the crow deliberately honked to the
goose several times as if trying to get the other bird’s attention. When it
finally responded, the crow honked right back a few times and then waited for
the goose to communicate again. Meanwhile, another crow nearby cawed at the
original one in the tree; the first crow responded in kind a few times and then
resumed its calls to the goose. How cool is that?
This
incident made me think about the different ways people imitate each other’s
voices in speech and in song. Not just the words someone else says but also
even the tone, pitch, rhythm/cadence, volume of the words and even regional dialect or
accent. Why do we do this, and how—and when—do we know that we are getting it
right? For example, when I lived in England while I worked on my post-graduate
degree, I gradually developed a slight lilt in my voice. I didn’t notice this
change in my speech until I returned to the United States and people commented that
I had developed a cool accent while I was away. This change made perfect sense,
as the people with whom I worked, lived and socialized were British; over time,
my subconscious mind accepted these accents as a new known and I eventually
adopted it (or a version of it) as my own.
Similarly, I often
sing along when a favorite song comes on the radio or my iPod. My conscious
mind knows that I do not sound anything Celine Dion, Annie Lennox, Katy Perry,
Bon Jovi or Tim McGraw, but I still try to imitate those singers’ voices. Why
won’t my subconscious mind let me give up that ghost and sing without trying to
sound like someone I’m not? Even when I consciously try to sing in my own voice, in the back of my mind I can still
imagine hearing what one of those performers sound like and I catch myself trying
to sing the same way.
My
answer to that question may be found in Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John
Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind. Dr. Kappas stated that from the moment we are
born we start to develop a subconscious life script by learning specific
behaviors through association and identification. Even though most of this
script is written by the time we are about eight years old, the mind continues
to take in more information which the subconscious mind may accept or reject.
For example, we learned how to talk by associating and identifying specific
words that a primary caretaker taught us, and then we imitated this behavior (e.g.,
how to move our mouths to create words) to speak. Over time, we also modeled
other people to learn and correct our pronunciation and increase our
vocabulary. Many parents or caretakers sing to their young children, which may
explain people’s fondness for listening to music and singing, or participating
in these activities ourselves. And, just like we did when we learned how to
speak, once we learn the words to a song we like we subconsciously imitate the way
the singer performs the lyrics.
I
wonder if the crow I observed yesterday was unintentionally imitating the
neighbor’s goose to communicate with the other bird the same way humans do in
speech and song.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about
Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
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