Throughout human history man has been a storyteller. The development of language from a physiological viewpoint has been traced back at least 100000 years, and appears to have been common between Neanderthal and Modern humans, although the specific structures are not identical, so it appears that the ability for verbal communication is one of the defining qualities of the development of hominids. There are of course many types of non-verbal communication used by many animals from communal insects through to higher primates, and version of verbal communication used by aquatic mammals that we have yet to comprehend fully. The difference appears to be in the ability to convey abstract concepts. A colony of bees can use body language to convey location to a source of pollen, but would struggle to convey an artistic concept.
There is a question over whether the ability to think in an abstract way was a condition in developing verbal communication, or vice versa, but it does appear based on cerebral morphology that the two abilities developed in parallel perhaps with one driving the other. Whatever the developmental process, what is clear is that as far as we can tell, humans are the only animal that has developed the ability to create and tell stories. The question today is, what purpose have stories historically had? And perhaps just as importantly, are they still necessary today. Broadly we can split stories into a number of categories. We have stories which provide information on morals and ethics, stories that carry a warning, stories that convey complex arguments succinctly and stories that serve to explain the inexplicable.
We currently live in an age where we are beginning to understand the World around us, and our place wthin it, so it could be argued that explanatory stories have less of a place. The myths of thunder Gods and wrathful sea demons have largely been consigned to the annals of history. We also have ways of teaching about morality and how to live in society that rely less heavily on stories for their method of dissemination. Early years education appears to be moving away from story telling towards a more focused and integrated approach to societal interactions. The warning stories of history, primarily in the form of fairy tales still have a place, but their role is being diminished by earlier exposure to the brutality of reality with danger being increasingly explicit rather than implicit.
So what rle for modern day storytellers, the bards of yore? Personally I believe that the role of the story needs to change. If we consider stories as thought experiments, specifically designed to promote creative and logical thinking patterns, and to encourage a love of experimentation and learning then I can envisage a future in which the creative storyteller weaving a believable situation can havea strong role to play. We can also perhaps see a role in terms of expanding the remit of what is currently considered “Pathworking” using a story to create an altered state of conciousness to allow for enhanced creative ability and psychological healing. Perhaps a core area of research that needs to be explored is the symbiosis of practical psychology, talking therapies, hypnotism and altered states of conciousness and philosophy. By weaving a story using these tools it may be possible to use stories to enhance peoples experiences of life, and possibly even to create an environment whereby individuals are more able to “think” creatively and develop new ideas beyond the facilities of the physical world.
The possibilities may in fact be truly limitless….
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