Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More


GoFundMe

Me And The Voice In My Head II:

An I Said He Said

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

Fourth Of July, 2025



This essay, Me And The Voice In My Head II: An I Said He Said, is the seventeenth in a group of seventeen written on the Fourth Of July:
  1. Anticipation: Accounting For An American Love Affair
  2. Independence Day
  3. I'd Rather Be With Me
  4. Do It For Nothing
  5. The Only Way Out Is Through
  6. Under All Circumstances
  7. Word Power
  8. When There's Nothing To Say
  9. The Possibility Of Being Independent And Free
  10. Intimacy In A Crowded Place
  11. What Goes On Internally
  12. Imprints Of Love
  13. Bookends: A Reflection On Mortality
  14. Come Back To Being
  15. Nobody Is Responsible Except You
  16. Like A Monk In A Cave
  17. Me And The Voice In My Head II: An I Said He Said
in that order.

It is also the sequel to Me And The Voice In My Head.




I said I'd heard the voice in my head.

He said the voice in his head is satisfying to follow. He said that it knows things only life can know and orchestrate. I said he should maybe begin noticing what he ascribes to that voice in his head. I said that it's really nothing more than mere static from what's tantamount to an AM/FM  radio playing in the background ... and  that it's in another room. More than that, I said it's on full automatic. I said that I really didn't ascribe any more value to it than that.

He said he'd love to explore more of what that voice ("noise" is more like it, actually) in his head that he hears and follows, really is. I said in all likelihood it's just a voice in his head, and that there's nothing more to it than that. More than that, I said if he looks closely, he may see it will do anything  to avoid being exposed ie found out to be no more than just a voice in his head (like the emperor with no clothes). It really is nothing more than a radio playing in the background on full automatic with no mystical or magical qualities he should listen, to guide him as if it's some kind of medium or hot voice from God.

He said the voice in his head, is his thinking. I said the voice in his head, may actually not be his thinking. Rather, I said whatever it's saying may not even be what  he's thinking, and in particular, it may not even be he  who's thinking it. Instead it may be that it  is thinking him. He said that listening what it's saying, is what thinking for himself really is. I said to think for himself, he has to differentiate between who he is, and what that voice in his head is saying (whatever  it's saying) ie to not make that voice in his head and whatever it's saying significant, no more than he would make his nose or an ear significant.

I said that for me, the voice in my head is not some kind of messenger  which is coming from somewhere beyond  with special bulletins for me. It's just a voice (a "noise" is more like it) in my head. That's what it is, and that's all  it is, and I can listen it and take what it's saying, or not. Either way, whether I choose to follow it or not, it's still nothing more than just a voice in my head, carrying with it as little significance as any other body part that makes noise.

He said that it must come from somewhere ... and that it must mean something. I said pursuing that angle may simply be adding significance to it. What's more likely I said, is that the voice in his head is just built into the machinery of being human ie that it comes with the package of being human, and like a nose or an ear, he's born with it that way, and there's nothing significant about any of them at all (it's making things significant which is what we do best).

He said he wonders what the voice in his head is for, what its purpose is if it's not his thinking, and if it's not some mystical, magical, mysterious guide to follow. I said its purpose may simply be to ensure he survives, like providing a siren for a klaxon alarm system. To regard it as the voice of God speaking to him, is naïve at best, and grossly ignorant at worst. Equating it to "the inner voice of conscience" diminishes it if its automaticity isn't distinguished first. Not distinguishing its automaticity first, will ensure conscience and differentiating between right and wrong, will be beyond what we can take responsibility for.



Communication Promise E-Mail | Home

© Laurence Platt - 2025 Permission