Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation). In the last week of February 2026, I shared an excerpt titled ‘Ways to Think About Economy in the 21st Century’, which is from the book titled – ‘Doughnut Economics’ – Seven Ways to Think like a 21st Century Economist by Kate Raworth. It highlighted, “What if we started economics not with its long-established theories, but with humanity’s long-term goals, and then sought out the economic thinking that would enable us to achieve them?”. Now, SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of your attention, because, ‘Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to’.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – ‘Thought, Perception and The Hidden Dimension’, which is from the book titled – ‘The Hidden Dimension’ by Edward T. Hall. The central theme of the book is social and personal space and man’s (Human being) perception of it.
Thought, Perception and The Hidden Dimension
Communication constitutes the core of culture and indeed life itself.
Language, is more than just a medium for expressing thought. It is, in fact, a major element in the formation of thought. Furthermore, to use a figure from our own day, man’s very perception of the world about him is programmed by the language he speaks, just as a computer is programmed. Man’s mind will register and structure external reality only in accordance with the program. Since two languages often program the same class of events quiet differently, no belief or philosophical system should be considered apart from language.
Cultural systems pattern (Human) behaviour in radically different ways, but they (Human behaviour) are deeply rooted in biology and physiology.
He (Human) is distinguished from other animals by virtue of the fact that he has elaborated what I have termed extensions of his organism. By developing his extensions, man has been able to improve or specialize various functions. The computer is an extension of part of the brain, the telephone extends the voice, the wheel extends the legs and feet. Language extends experience in time and space while writing extends language. Man (Human’s) has elaborated his extensions to such a degree that we are apt to forget that this humanness is rooted in his animal nature.
Man (Human’s) has elaborated and specialized his extensions to such a degree that they have taken over, and rapidly replacing nature. In other words, man (human’s) has created a new dimension, the cultural dimension.
Man (Human’s) is now in the position of actually creating the total world in which he lives, what the ethologists refer to as his biotope. In creating this world, he is actually determining what kind of an organism he will be.
Excerpt from ‘The Hidden Dimension’ by Edward T. Hall.
I am sure that you will enjoy reading the book and find it thought provoking too; to buy your copy, you can click on the following link:
https://humanjourney.us/books/the-hidden-dimension
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste.
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