Good, Good, Good, Good Vibrations
How many times have you said, “She gave me a bad vibe.” Or,
“I dunno, the place just had a good vibe.”
You may have attributed this expression to hippies or New Agers,
but despite that use it anyway, perhaps without thought. It is generally
accepted in our regular nomenclature that one can receive or give a “vibe” of
some sort. Even if it is an evil eye or a fluttering flirtatious one. Humans
can read one another and can interpret whether that person is threatening, friendly
or oblivious.
But why use the expression “vibe”? Is there some deeper
meaning to that word as opposed to just saying “She came off as hostile?” or
“The place felt nice?” Is there a subtext there that perhaps you were picking
something up that is not measurable with the five senses? Something . . .
extra-sensory, perhaps?
We are not all psychics and if we were, we don’t all know
that. It is unlikely that whenever we use the word “vibe” we are tapping into
our ESP powers. It is also unlikely that’s what we truly mean by using the
word. However, I would submit there could be a deeper meaning than only
perceiving one’s intentions.
All matter exists with or without us (despite what some
nay-saying philosophers may suggest). If there is a cup of coffee on the table,
chances are that cup of coffee will be there even if we aren’t. And just
because we got blind drunk the night before and can’t properly open our eyes
and register the fact a cup of coffee is there, doesn’t mean the coffee doesn’t
exist.
The thing is, our interpretation
of that coffee cup is completely in the air. We don’t sense the coffee cup, per
se. With our eyes, we sense those aspects of light that the coffee cup
reflected back at us. With our nose, we smell those particular molecules that
chemical composition of coffee produces. With our fingers, we sense the
end-result of a bunch of collected molecules. With our ears, we hear the
disturbance a clink makes in the air around us. None of our senses can sense the actual coffee mug. A collection of
hard-to-explain data is brought to the brain to be interpreted as being most
likely a coffee mug.
We are sensing the vibe of the coffee mug. Not the actual
mug itself. While the coffee mug is there no matter what, our interpretation of
it is completely variable based upon what senses we used, how impaired they may
be or what tricks may be played upon them. We may also have such a prejudice
against coffee mugs that the sight of one changes what we think it looks or
acts like. External things may also change what it is to us without actually changing the mug: earmuffs, gloves,
rose-colored John Lennon sunglasses, etc.
So when you use the word “vibe” you are referring to your
actual empirical interpretation of a person or thing. You happen to be more
correct about your perception of reality than people who don’t use that
phoo-phoo word. The next time someone says, “Did you see that?” you can say,
“No, I received a collection of light that caused me to interpret what that
might be.”
This work by Mark Havenner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwanc/
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