The Harmonizing Power of Poetic Language, Between Mimesis and Catharsis

An unsolved dispute still marks the history of language, as a system of signs ²: is the word a “natural object”, carrying something essential from the denominated referential, as Cratylus sustained, or is the word – and language, implicitly – only a conventional relationship among people, as Hermogenes argued? In the terms of a “Semiotics of Light” ³ one can demonstrate rigorously that both theories are justified, because:

at the very beginning of the human history, the natural genesis predominated; in illo tempore the power of the word was generated by the “iconic resonant” force of the signifier, of the sonorous / energetic support of sign;

in time, this genesis was replaced by the conventional one: the power of the word started being expressed at the level of the signified, of the cultural / informational meaning content.

In order to scientifically sustain such a point of view, two categories of explanatory hypotheses are taken into consideration: conventional (involving the semio-linguistic disciplines) and unconventional (involving the biophotonics perspective) hypotheses.

Considering that the iconicity (mimicry) is an essential criteria for defining the genesis and evolution of the language, it was possible to synthesize from the semio-linguistic perspective the following four  types of explanatory hypotheses: (1) natural mimicry hypothesis, involving the words genesis by sound imitation (onomatopoeia, interjections etc.); (2)phoneticmimicry hypotheses, concerning the active / suggestive resources of articulated sounds (symbolic and  articulating mimesis, distinctive traits mimesis etc.);  (3)  partial conventional hypotheses suggest the words’ genesis by: semantic transfer, symbolic motivation, neighborhood, etc.; (4) integral conventionalism hypotheses, concerning the words genesis by a cultural convention established among people. All these complementary hypotheses explained the language becoming from an integral iconicity (naturalism) to an integral arbitrariness (conventionalism), from Nature to Culture.

As a merely recent scientific discipline, biophotonics tries to unify biology, as a science of living, with photonics, as a theory and technology of lasers.It explains the role of the (bio)light emission of each biological system, starting from DNA to the whole body  – an ultraweak bioluminescence having the same properties of a laser emission, which the German scientist Fritz-Albert Popp ⁴ put experimentally into evidence the morphology and optical functionality of the biological structures, in their quality of “bio-lasers”, which we have extensively explained ^{5, 6}.

Using the hypotheses of biophotonics concerning the cerebral functions, is possible to justify the mechanism of iconic genesis of the word by: (1) explaining Karl Pribram's ⁷ essential hypothesis sustaining that the brain's activity is of a holographic type; (2) arguing that between the capacity of sight and speech is a very strong connection ⁸

Taking into consideration the hypothetical principles and problems mentioned above, we could propose a biophotonic explanatory model for the word / language genesis. This model is based on the paradigm of iconicity, considered by Thomas A. Sebeok – in his IH (“iconicity hypothesis”) ⁹ – to be “the primary means by which bodily experience is transformed into a system of signs and meanings” ¹⁰. In this spirit some other very recent contributions are formulated, such as: the “iconic theory of language genesis” ¹¹, the “motor theory of language” ¹², etc. Although these theories are basically correct, they had not the indispensable explanatory instruments of biophotonics. Using them, our theoretical model – extensively developed into other context ¹³ – is able to explain scientifically the stages of the brain activity, essentially involved into the genesis of the word, namely:

the genesis of the visual representations (mental holograms) as some stable “memory traces”, drawn by some transparent “crystal liquid” structures, present to level of cellular membranes; these “cerebral holograms” reproduce the properties  of the referential object by a holographic resonance mechanism;

the activation of the “mental luminous hologram” of an object, phenomenon, etc. in the absence of the referential (= process of representation),  by controlling the volition and attention;

the specific commands realized by the brain (transmitted from the central or periferic brain sectors), in order to transfer the information comprised in the cerebral hologram (as a “photonic sign”), at the level of the  verbal-kinesthesic apparatus;

this information (hologram’s vibrations) is transformed into mechanic (pressure) information at the level of the verbal-kinesthesic apparatus, due to the same property of piezoelectricity of the membranous liquid crystals;

this type of information is simultaneously and synchronously (coherently) transferred at the level of the system of “linked resonators” (stomach and lung cavity, trachea, larynx, pharynx, mouth cavity), which defines a complex and special type of “biological lasers”:

stomach, lung and trachea muscles, in order to regulate the quantity of pumped air into the resonating cavities;

the larynx’s muscles regulate the complex of stimulated sounds to become coherent, mono-harmonic and  directed; these effects are generated at the level of symmetric vocal cords, whose vibration determines the appearance of some “nodes” and “ventres”; in this way, the diffusion (diffraction) of the luminous fascicle on the sound waves is achieved effectively;

the muscles of the larynx, whichamplifiesthe sound complex, and the muscles of the face, mouth and tongue are differently activated for each kind of sound; at the level of the oral resonator (only with human being this is disposed perpendicularly on the direction of the other resonators)the “iconic motif” of the cerebral hologram is reproduced on a sensible manner (by articulated sounds); the phonic complex pumped by the pharynx – the soundsignifier –  is able to suggest on a “resonant” manner some meanings (signified) such as: a) forms of circular, linear, fricative or slide, round or pointed type, etc.; b) actions of implosive or explosive, descending or ascending,  intensive or extensive type, etc.; c) attributes, such as light or dark, hot or humid, warm or cold, etc.

At the human body level’s, all these type of meaningfully forms – determined by the energy-information of sounds (intensity, frequency, amplitude, etc.) are sustained by three major types of signifiers / bio-physical support:

the  membranous liquid crystal structures (a), transparent to (bio)light are generating optic effects of memory, reflection-refraction (b), and extremely sensitive – by piezoelectricity – to sonorous resonant stimuli;

the human body’s water molecules (about 70 %), present into the interstitial cellular water, in blood, plasma, etc., able to be structured according to the frequency and forms of certain sonorous stimuli;

the bioluminescent field, able to conserve by a complex waves interferences (Fourier spectrum) the message of the external of inner sounds emission, already transformed into a bio-luminescent field by a piezoelectric or / and holographic cerebral mechanism. (Figure 1)

Figure 1.The human body complementary signifiers (memory support) of the sonorous stimuli: a) membranous liquid crystal structures; (b) the orientation of the liquid crystals conforming the (sonorous) stimuli characteristics (oscillation mode, intensity, etc.); c) optical activity of the liquid crystal structures (light refraction and rotatory magnetic dispersion) determined by piezoelectricity; d) the pattern of sound “AAA” put into evidence by Ernest Chladni, resonating upon a fine sand powder, placed on a very thin metallic plate; e,f) the patterns of musical sounds upon the surface of the water, realized by Alexander Lauterwasser http://www.wasser; similarly it happens in the case of the membranous liquid crystal structure and its (re)configuration under the influence of different stimuli (sonorous included); b) the “memory of the water”, stimulated by the influence of different sonorous emissions, is proved by the well known experiments of Masaru Emoto 2001: the images of the some frozen drops of water, generated by water’s resonance with a Tibetan Sutra, Beethoven’s Pastoral, Heavy Metal Music.

The integrity of these types of signifiers / language type of memory represents an essential condition of human health, because – into the terms of biophotonics and of complementary therapies – we could say that:

the illness means to lose the memory of the good functioning / structure of the organism, at the level of substantial organism substratum (cells, tissues, organs) which the bioluminescent light-field (human aura) is essentially governing;

to become health means to recuperate the right memory capacity of the organism – by the reconfiguration of the different levels of aura (beginning from DNA to the whole body), by using different allopathic or complementary strategies, the sonorous ones being included here.

Semiotically, to recuperate the health presupposes to re-establish the harmony between the soul (auric signified) and the body (physical signifier), by two types of complementary therapeutic actions:

to beneficially modify the properties of the human aura / biofield, by some adequate vibratory stimuli, the optimizing information being non-aggressive transmitted to the structural body systems; it is the perspective of the old “magic medicine”, of the holistic medicine curing the “soul” first (the informational signified) and then the body (the substantial signifier);

to act by biochemical / surgery procedures directly upon the affected organs (the signifier’s substratum), action which will adequately modify the human aura state (the signified’s content).  

So, it is possible to recuperate the health by acting from the invisible state of the “soul / field” to the visible state of the “body / corpuscle” or vice-versa.

All in all, the succession of “technical” consideration we have been obliged to present above, can justify that the primordial human words could have this short “history”:

a) after some essential energo-information (biophotonic) metamorphoses, the interior form / signified (mental hologram) is finally expressed as an exterior form / signifier, delivered at the level of oral cavity as an “articulated word”, as a “ photo-sonic hologram”,respectively;

b) by such a generative process, the “sign-word” reproduces by resonance the properties of the “hologram-object”, which is, in its turn, in a homeomorphic relationship with the referential;

c) by their iconicity, the primordial words are a type of “second degree reality”, as a “reflection of reflection”;

d) the “natural genesis” of the word permitted to the human being, in illo tempore, to act upon the denominated object and to influence it, by a sonic resonance of the type: “Open, Sesame!”. (Figure 2)

Figure 2.The genesis of the Adamic Language: a biophotonic approach

We could find in this genesis of the word a very special intuition of the sufi thinkers: “The Word is the mirror by which Divinity reflects himself to the exterior. The word is both sound and light, because light is the sense of the sound” ¹⁴. It is difficult to find a more suggestive expression of the presence of the “Light-Sound Word” into the world, of the essential iconicity between the uncreated “Divine Light” and the “complex light” of the human body, soul and mind¹⁵.

Each of these hypostases of the human “living light” could be assumed in a specific way by an integrative “semiotics of light”, including pertinent explanations on the effects of “magic language”, starting from the therapeutic effects of the exorcism or of the “powerful words” (such as mantras, prayers, etc.) ¹⁶, until the harmonizing power of poetry, scientifically studied by Mineo Moritani ¹⁷.

The waves of the remedy / sonorous resonator specifically interacts (after a first piezoelectric metamorphosis) with the waves of the receptor (at the level of cell, organs, whole body), by modulating / normalizing its own vibratory state, first, by remodeling the receptor’s substantial form (by determining the liquid crystals repositioning), second. (Figure 3)

Figure 3.The general mechanisms of the healing by sounds / words

This mechanism is explaining – by the principle of "holographic resonance" – all the magic effects of human language, from telepathy to witchcraft of black or white magic, from mimetic to cathartic effects of poetry, as we will further explain. We already named this integrative science able to explain this logogenetic mechanism as: SEMIO-BIO-PHOTONICS ¹⁸.

In this way, having in mind the above biophotonic explanations, we could scientifically understand and recuperate therapeutic-mimesic practices such as:   

The correspondence between the sounds of the musical scale vibrations and the human organs health represents a relations on which the music therapy is integrally based, supposing the permanent and harmonic hearing of the musical notes. Accorded to Masaru Emoto ¹⁹ and other researches, under the musical effects of sonorous resonance the water is modifying its surface structure in different forms, more or less organized (see the difference between the classic music and heavy metal one). Similarly, by resonating at the level of human body as a certain music, the poetic sounds are generating similar forms at the level of water, blood, lymph.   

The old practice of the healing by personal emitted sounds, resonating by their frequency to the human body different levels, supposed: the simple reproducing of the “cosmic sounds”, such as shhhhu…, hhhuuu…, hhhooo, … ²⁰, the incantation of the vocals phonemes (A,E,I,O,U) or of the morphemes (such as KSAM, HAM, YAM, RAM, VAM, LAM …) and the incantation of the complex oriental mantra (such as: OM... AUM MANI PADME HUM) ²¹, acting at different organic-endocrine levels (chakras) of the human body.

By recuperating the suggestions of the “magic medicine” tradition, the modern cymatics is already using the technology of the infra- or ultra-sonorous inductions, for dispersing the organism malfunctions ²². In this way, we could conclude that by its sounds the poetry could play the same therapeutic role as the old mantras or witchcrafts had: to delivery by resonance (as a supra-radiant stimuli) some curative resources, such as neurotransmitters, serotonin or melatonin, endorphin, etc.   

The incantation of the most powerful personal mantra, which is the given name, could be connected to some other traditional practices, such as: the protecting of the child from malefic interventions, by keeping hidden his / her right name or / and by supplying it with a nickname. It is still used in Romanian folk therapy the ritual of “selling” the little child, by changing his / her name, in order to heal an unknown illness. In this way, a certain dysfunctional stimulation present in its signifier / sonorous complex is avoided and the child’s health is recuperated. In synthesis, such practices are crediting the hypothesis that the name’s resonance is essentially determining the human personality becoming, from the body form structure to the genesis of the temperament and character. Finally, speaking about the universal practice of the exorcism, we could affirm that it is complementary based on:

The resonant effects of the signifier, which is determined by the right pronouncement (with the same intonation, intensity, etc.) of certain “magic” words / sounds, sometimes with any semantic sense (as magical abracadabra seems to be). For example, the Romanian exorcism “against snake” uses the incantation: “Da zalcamalca / Da zatkabatca / Aturisiuturbre…”. These words –  lacked by logical signification (maybe the meaning is belonging to an old lost language) – are resonating somehow and somewhere inside the human body, for delivering some organism’s specific antitoxins, necessary for annulling the snake’s poison effect.

— The mental influence of the exorcism’s content (verses / signified) seems to be determined by the very well known “placebo effect”, the auto-suggestive effect of the positive thinking, generated by the imperatives which the exorcist explicitly pronounces: go away illness, whatever you may be, go to the waste, over 99 countries and seas, and perish there, “to be purified / purified and bright / Like filtered silver, / Like the sun when the sky is clear / For ever amen!”. Such a powerful / positive suggestion – manifested by the specific types of resonances / holographic complexes of waves – is able to generate at the level of the brain a specific emission of serotonin or melatonin, of different types of hormones, etc., able to generate an objective state of health.

The verbal practices are implicitly accompanied by different types of complementary therapies, such as by hands bio-energization, press-puncture and acupuncture, massage, etc. In this way, a complex BEMPH effects are synergically generated at the level of the human body systems, by transforming the exorcism into the first holistic therapy of humankind. A particular type of therapy, which POETRY still keeps in its deep memory.

According the genesis of the language already described, we could explain how it is possible to generate mimetic and cathartic human states by using the power of poetic language (of the poetic text / signifier & discourse / signified namely).

In this way, we could define some poetic strategies of using the sonorous perception and the symbolism of meanings, by detaching and translating some relevant examples from our own poetic creation ^{23, 24}:

The Mimetic use of the Poetic Onomatopoeia and Interjections (articulatory mimetism) is generating nouns and verbs able to transmit intuitively information about the referential(such as: vaiet / groan, oftat / sight, trosnet / crush, pocnet / click, etc.), or by onomatopoeic analogies such as tic-tac (clock sound) or hai-hui (lets-go): "When you waking up at dawn, escaped from run  / With a heart tic-tac, hai-hui / You should detach me of the cosmic horses /  To put me, as an Amazon, in the book!".

The Mimetism of "Distinctive Features" is supposing that – by their sonority – the words could suggest some objective qualities such as: big or little, cold or warm, solid or liquid etc., respectively states of coincidentiaoppositorum:  "You are making me laugh, you are making me cry, I am alive / And the night passes into dawn, slowly, slowly...). 

These types of using sounds are generating resonant effect at the level of human biological body, namely at the level of: a) membranous liquid crystal systems; b) at the level of body's water, lymph, blood. Similarly is expressed the (poetic) language of children (repetitive and as song refrain) could have by its incantation the same magic effects. So, mature poets should remember this type of speech as being a strong instrument of power.

Consequently, we could assert that a more complex word  (as a synergy of some specific sounds, accorded their resonant properties) generates constantly one and the same pattern-effect, able to stimulate or to relax the human being bio-psychical states.

This type of stimulatory process – determined by the simple words speech – could be amplified by other poetic / stylistic procedures, such as:

The Rhythmicity of Versification is generating a certain musically of the classic poetry, by connecting the syllables from the end of verses. In opposition, the blanc-verse has no rhyme. All the classical types of rhyme – mono-rhyme, paired, crossed, embraced – are generating, by their sonorous effects, a certain auditory pleasure, namely a wellbeing state.

Rhythmic Repetitions of the Words are generatingholographic-fractalic effects between the part and wholeness, amplifying the emotions: a) "For me to remain the same when one-sided, / For us to remain alike when together complete, / You’re making a request and justice is done:/ You’re bringing me into being, and you’re singling me out and I’m singling you out; b) I remain to you the same when one-sided, / You remain to me alike when together complete, / It is the sky only that can still do justice: / You’re bringing me into being, and you’re chasing around... and I’m chasing about..

In this way, the mimetic procedures open towards catharsis.

If the MIMETISM is somehow connected to the NATURAL phase of logogenesis (phusys, pre-Babel Iconic Language), the CATHARSIS is connected essentially to the CULTURAL stage of the language genesis (Babel Language).

In this context, we should remember the last two level of POETIC MIMETISM predominantly conventional:

The use of Semi-Conventional Mimetismis implying the transfer of meanings from one reality to another one, by analogies such as: man = mortal, hand = five, jump = quark etc.). This hypostasis is symbolically creating a new semantic universe,  by passing from concrete aspects to abstract meanings.

The Conventional Mimetism – mainly specific to blank-versification – is realizing the poetic expression by using abstract words, without any connection with the referential, but able to intellectually suggest complex meanings and states: "I envisage you – just remain there among the fractal, The sacred geometry to fathom / And in the amalgam of ideas, details, / You’re losing track of me... and I’m weeping for your deep eyes)".

Taking in this way our own poetic creation, we should declare it as being both mimetic and cathartic. The mimetic strategies are subordinated to the purpose of LOVING COMMUNION, namely:

by transcending Aristotle's zoon politikon through a spiritual togetherness;

by living harmoniously the resonance with the living nature and cosmos, with the sacrality of the creative wholeness.

In this integrative effort, our conviction is, mutatis mutandis (according André Malraux): WE WILL BE TOGETHER (HARMONIOUSLY) OR WE WILL NOT BE AT ALL. And, for accomplishing such a purpose, the POETIC LANGUAGE should be both emotionally and rationally involved. As we, humans, already can do and be.

This is possible because – synergically – the Poetic language could mix both the mimetic and cathartic effects by specific strategies such as:

use of some specific sounds, such as opened and lightly vocals a, e, o..., or very short verses, such as in old ballads or witchcrafts etc.;

poetic combination of rhythmic verses and the blank ones, generating a complex musicality, such as modern music is: harmony and disharmony both, combined;

doubling these mimetic effects by other effects generated by positive or negative thinking.

And, it is time to assert that this last poetic attitude is essentially determining our well-being states, as our measurements (with bioresonance devices) are proving. (Figure 4)

Figure 4.Stimulating or inhibitory modifications of the BPL states accorded to the simple 3 minutes of saying / thinking: YES / NO.

We should precise that the mimetic & cathartic performance is essentially dependent by the poetic semiosis parameters, namely:

by the emotional subjectivity of the artist / poet and  his / her connection to the society,

by the inner structure of the poetry and the strategy of expression,

by the mimesis and cathartic context and purpose of the poetic communication.

All these connected are generating a certain state of PLEASURE / WELLBEING.

In synthesis, as we already proved biophotonically that "I LIKE IT" means: I NEED THESE STIMULI, bio-psychically, namely: "I need these sounds and lights, these musical forms and positive senses etc.". The poetry plays the same role as the ancient Romanian witchcraft had, being recognized by Hippocratics physicians who said: "This learning is coming from Zamolxian doctors, who knew how to cure body by curing first the soul, with their magic (poetic) words" ²⁵.

By concluding, we could consider that the result of all these phonologic and stilistic procedures of generating human wellbeing by the harmony of form and content of poetic language, of its signifier and signified, Mimesis and Catharsis through the poetic texte-discourse is representing the main aspiration of our paper.

In this way, we decided to descend semiotics / creative language / poetry from Parnas to Agora. This is our last option in assuming semiotics too: not only explaining academically its postulates, ex cathedra, but also in order to share its living "emanations" into one and the same common respiration, by bringing the FIRST POETIC WORD in resonance with the UNIVERSE, into a synchronicity of rhythms and creative forms!

FINALLY,by thinking the theory of mimesis and catharsis, we are wondering: which effect should we first assume?

No doubt, that the first answer should be: THE SUBLIMATION. That, there is not other purpose more important in writing poetry as the sublimation of our innate states descended from a "world of ideas" – as Plato said – till our common terrestrial states. Such as poetry is...

Further thinking, we certainly should assume THE AMAZEMENT... The feeling of identity between actors of poetic communion: to give and to receive archetypal meanings. The Native Language, the Mother Tongue we learn first is a poetic one. As one Romanian writer said: "For me, the Romanian language is the distance between heart and its shadow, which is named soul" (Fanus Neagu).

And finally, LOVE... That feeling able to full the empty space among the words, the stanzas, signs... able to generate revelations, emotional states, ideas and senses, even when the writer is keeping silence. But, this silence is so full of other's one presence... Of his / her frequency, able to generate our ASCENSION IN LIGHT, when we pass away. By turning us HOME. ACASA... in AKASHA... by translating our human speech directly into the Original Sounds and Light.

In a resonance still belonging to the ORIGINAL CREATIVE LANGUAGE:

THE LANGUAGE OF GOD.

To Arithea-Hestia

    You, Angel, through me on Pilgrimage,

Amongst darkness-wrapped chambers,

Of the Light that is encompassing myself,

I don’t require anything .... From you, nothing do I require!

Between your landing and your leaving,

There are waves of spaces-time streaming through us

Between lifelessness and traveling,

There’s, for both of us, that.... unaccountable something ...

If you learn how to become Affection,

If I learn that you’ve touched me,

Enwrapped in Immortality –

My verity of dreams,

We’ll turn into none but one, and ... voicelessly

Just as only God Himself

Will still be in the know; heavenly solace,

You as my clay, myself – your intent ...

Oh! Dream-conveying angel

One fine day, I’m sure, you’ll fly away,

   And of you, what I’ll have some recollection

    Will only be your hand... in my hand.

    By Shanti Nilaya

(English version, by Ligia Doina Constantinescu, June 2017)