THE EFFECT OF
STORY TELLING
ON YOU  
..The same effect could be seen in societies when myths were believed to be true facts, which enabled man to bridge the gap between image and action. This is a physical process which is common to all human behavior.
 
First, after perceiving the subject which we act upon, we come to possess an image (achieved instantaneously either through intuition or experience) of the perceived subject. At the same time, not only do we possess the image of the subject but also, to motivate our action, we possess the image of our action upon it as well. We carry out and simulate our actions according to such images, but we always perceive an unavoidable gap between our images and the result of our real action.
 
Man has always tried in various ways to subconsciously bridge this gap to maintain the meaning of experience, which is fundamental to us and requires continuity and repetitiveness of perception.
 
Myths provided man with complete stories that prescribed our images and perceptions which covered and erased the difference between the two. By filling the gap, man has forgotten the existence of the gap itself.
 
But now, society has become something of relative value due to our objectivism, which is in fact individual subjectivism (our inclination towards absolute individual freedom), and myths, unlike medicine, have lost their value as well as their function in our society.
 
By losing our myths, we have also lost their placebo effect, and this has led us to research in vain for a substitute to fill the gap between image and action. In vain, because the placebo effect is only possible when one holds an absolute value in something other than oneself and establishes a strong bond of faith with it. This is not possible in a world where individual freedom is absolute.
 
Attempts have been made, only to fail to fill the gap by creating new images by words, such as in literature (pseudo-myths which do not have the placebo effect) and in philosophy (which attempts to objectively structuralize myths through one's subjectivity).
 
If the gap cannot be filled, the only evasive action would be to temporality forget the difference, to place the mind in a state of paralysis and to act as if the gap didn't exist. (Death is another way to cover and erase the difference, but this would deprive us of our continuity and repetitiveness.)
 
Presently, the society demands various contrivances to continuously place the mind in a state of paralysis and to make us forget the difference between image and action, to the extent that such devices are ubiquitous in our daily lives and it has become an obsessive habit for us to use them.
 
It can be said that the loss of the placebo effect has necessitated us to use such life- sustaining-equipment-like devices. It is impossible to recover the placebo effect without abandoning it and we may end our whole lives surrendering ourselves to such life-support systems.
 
Listening to a storyteller is a wonderful experience. It is totally effortless. Time and space disappear completely and it energizes everybody. Even after listening to a story for six hours nobody feels tired. Only when the narrator 'disappears' in the story, the audience can vanish too, receiving that vital energy in the process. If he cannot forget himself, the audience will leave him very quickly, because they don't want him to come between them and the story. Not only is it forbidden to change anything, he is not even allowed to be there. The narrators name will be forgotten, only the story lives on. No writer wants that to happen to his name.
 
That's why they looked down upon story tellers. Those illiterates were low brow and unimportant. Names of writers were very important. They were highly visible. They wrote their 'own' stories and freely 'edited' the stories of others. They wrote about themselves and in many cases only their names remained, but their books forgotten (or known only to a few). It is impossible to memorize a complete book like you can with an oral story.
 
You couldn't just go to the market with your friends to experience the stories of a writer. Reading is not a very social activity. You have to do it in solitude. Just like the writer has to write his story all alone. 'Privacy' is probably the result of the printing press. Both reader and writer have to give up their freedom and study for years at restrictive schools to learn how to extract meaning from black abstract signs on white paper, before they can enjoy a written story.
 
No kid likes school. He rather plays outside with the other kids. With reading, facial expressions, body language, moods and other natural processes which make up sixty percent of most languages are gone. A book a day keeps reality away. Reading the text aloud does not bring back story telling. The voice becomes toneless and unnatural, just like the sound of most news readers. It takes a lot of effort to become a reader.
 
Since the West has introduced general literacy, storytelling has virtually disappeared and so has memory. Every child is forced to go to school and illiteracy is treated as a disease. Only written text on paper has legal value. It is unthinkable that a student accepts an oral degree after finishing college. Since writers have taken over, the oral tradition has been treated as low brow and only fit for children who cannot read and write yet. When TV was introduced the golden age of the printing press came to an end. People started looking at human faces again to get their stories. Facial expression, body language, emotions and communal listening etc. became once more vital parts of popular culture. Although most stories on TV were still read aloud, talkshows and interviews introduced 'normal' talking again.
 
The press and other printed media protested and tried the same tricks that worked so well with the oral tradition (TV is too easy and makes you stupid), but less and less books were sold and of those sold many were not even opened to be read. Television was simply more attractive. The screen in every living room bombarded the viewers with pretty pictures, day after day. The eyes got quickly used to it and over the years the speed of the image barrage had to be increased again and again to the point of the kaleidoscopic video clips and commercials. Much faster is practically impossible and will change the image into a blur. Brainwave frequency is much lower then the current speed of TV. As a result very little of it registers and can be remembered.
 
At that point Willem de Ridder introduced story telling on television. The camera fixed in one position focused on the narrator who tells a story of at least one hour. Sometimes the tale lasts two hours and the narrator takes a break. He gets up from his chair and the screen shows an empty chair for about seven minutes. No music, no camera movements, no editing. The medium does not add anything.
 
Stories by Willem de Ridder can be heard in English on the All Chemix Radio Series. ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) transmitted him live from Munich via satelite. He also appears live in any situation possible and impossible. He talks on any subject (you name it) and always tells the truth.