I remember when I heard that a study revealed that 93% of human communication was nonverbal. I was shocked, and skeptical, but filled with wonder. I remember how startling it was when I began, slowly, to be able to detect and understand some of this language. It took almost 10 years for that to begin to happen. But when it did, it was like being a different species of animal, actually.

But I did not learn from a book. In fact, I am a huge fan of books, and of study… but when I want to learn something, I try to get closer to the way someone who -discovered it themselves- might learn about it. In other words, I go, in person, and look. Usually at nature, and humans (culture, technology, history, language, art, science, persons, and so on). So I went to nature, and directly to observation of living beings of every kind, including but certainly not limited to humans.

Now I can see some 10-12% of what is going on, and it is actually like having -a whole other array of senses-. If we are listening only to the words?

We’re actually probably getting something like 3% or less of the content, most of the time. Worse still, we like it this way: because it relieves us of every possible responsibility. We can not be expected to have to be insightful, critical, skeptical, intelligent, human, or even aware… if we have only received (or sent) 3% of the material, in a fashion where even that content is distorted and confused because the contexts are scrambled, shattered, or missing.

Most of our senses are lost because we have the representations, rather than the senses. And when you begin to understand nonverbal languaging… you not only get new senses, the basic nature of your intelligence will change in a way analogous to the change from childhood to adolescence… except… you will be in a world of children.