March 1985
1. Definition: Communication: The effect or relationship one being has on or with another.
Kinds:
- Static: One thing contiguous with another.
- Dynamic: One thing affecting (making changes) in another being.
Static communication is always reciprocal. Dynamic communication may or may not be reciprocal.
Intentional communication=agentive communication.
2. Definition: Human communication: One human being affecting the body of another human being.
Kinds of active human communication:
- Visual affect
- Auditory affect
- Substance affect
- Taste
- Smell
- Chemical
- Solid object
- Addition or deprivation of heat
- Kinetic communication (hitting, pushing, etc.)
Prominent myth about human communication: Human communication is the exchange of ideas.
This is a myth because we humans can only directly affect another person’s body, not their mind.
3. Spiritual communication: One being affecting another being by non-physical means.
Principal kinds:
- Good: Radiating the good spirit, thus influencing other beings to do godly (righteous) things.
- Evil: Radiating the evil spirit, thus influencing other beings to do evil (selfish) things.
Postulate: Human beings are always spiritual beings and always under the influence of at least one other spirit, either the spirit of God or the spirit of Satan. Each human being radiates to others either a good or an evil spiritual influence.
4. Communication between human beings is always a combination of human communication and spiritual communication. (The effect of spiritual communication gives rise to the myth of transfer of ideas.)
5. Agent communication always has specific parts:
- a1. Sender intention: what the sender desires to accomplish.
- b1. Sender main idea: the mental image which prompts the sender’s action.
- c1. Sender assertion: the physical action launched by the sender to affect the target of communication.
- d1. Sender affect: the net result of what the sender accomplished in asserting.
- a2. Receiver intention: what the receiver desires to achieve as a response to what the receiver believes the sender intends.
- b2. Receiver main idea: what the receiver thinks as a result of what the receiver thinks the sender had as a main idea.
- c2. Receiver assessment: the urgency or importance or strength which the receiver places on the communication from the sender in light of what the receiver knows and imagines.
- d2. Receiver affect: the specific response of the receiver to the sender’s communication.
6. Postulates of communication:
- a. To exist is to communicate. Not to affect anything nor to be affected by anything is not to exist. All real beings communicate with something other than themselves.
- b. How a being communicates defines its being, since anything exists only in communicating.
- c. In a given situation, one being may not act, but only be acted upon by another. But to be a being, it must be potentially able to act. If it is never able to act for itself, it is not a separate being but only a part of the being which acts upon it.
- d. The effects of communication upon agents are effects only of accident. Ordinary human communication never does or can change a hearer-agent’s essence.
- e. An agent being has two potentials, one good, the other evil. The choices and actions (the communications) of the agent fix upon that agent one of the two potentials. Thus the agent partly creates himself or herself.
- f. Salvation is communication from the Savior to an agent who has consistently chosen good over evil, inasmuch as he or she was able to do so, to make the person wholly good (holy).
- g. Communication is always an entropic process. More is sent than is ever received.
7. Total Communication: takes place when two beings interact so completely that they become as one being.
8. Ways to achieve total communication:
- a. Communicated in every way.
- b. Communicate about everything.
- c. Communicate in every environment.
- d. Be redundant.
- e. Communicate only good (unselfishness).
Exercises for communication
1. Why is no human communication intelligible? Because it acts only on the body of the recipient.
2. When is there too much communication? In a physical fight.
3. When is there too little communication? When someone needs help, and none is given.
4. What is the connection between communication and reality? Reality is what is communicated.
5. What is the connection between communication and morality? All communication either helps or hinders the recipient.
6. What are examples of total communication? God exalting one of his children.
7. How does one communicate love? One being blesses another, leaving them better off afterward.
8. Devise a strategy for communicating to any other person your concept of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Be an example of living by faith in Jesus Christ.