(This blog was originally posted on September 2, 2014)
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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 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 another person's
voice in speech and in song. Not just the words someone else says but also
even the tone, pitch, rhythm/cadence 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 when I’m singing
along to their songs. 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/.
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