So, watching how apparent it is that dogs react to body language and tonal things, it gets me thinking. Esoterically, in Frank Herbert's Dune novels (yes, I will keep returning to those, I did my bloody thesis on the first one) there's the idea of 'Voice,' wherein through creating a certain tonal effect in one's voice, one would be able to address another person's subconscious, as opposed to their conscious - so, in effect, insta-hypnosis of sorts. The only way one would be able to confront such a thing would be to have enough introspective knowledge and self-awareness, and the discipline necessary for such, to be comfortable with one's own unconscious - meaning that the average person, who has no care for such a practice, would be horribly susceptible to Voice.

Anyway, so I begin to wonder how much people are affected by body language and tone, without realizing it (and whether being comfortable with or having trained one's unconscious can affect that). The only practical example I can think of was from that women's self-defense workshop we just put on - it really is almost unnerving to realize that if one backs up and just assertively puts their hands up and out, palms forward, it can totally defuse another person's aggresion/dominance (and be a nice offensive position to boot, but that's besides the point). Whereas if one stands their ground and brings fists up, the natural reaction is to think 'ohhh, that's it' and the fight's on.

Or, the standard quintessential aikido principal - yeah, if you slam a strike at someone's face, they're going to react, even if just by flinching. But if you casually drift a hand up, as if you were say going to brush a fly away, nine times out of ten the other person won't react, even when you lay your hand on them. Try it, it's funny!