Back in the fall of ’92 I remember getting voluntary electric shocks in the name of rock.
At that time, yours truly had nothing to do with obscure body language arts and everything to do with heavy metal and guitar riffs. I had joined a short lived, nameless garage band just for fun and we used to spend a couple afternoons a week rehearsing songs.
The electric shocks part happened because of my misunderstanding of physics and the precarious wiring and grounding of Venezuelan housings back then. We were playing at a literal garage and there were few things to sit on, so I decided to sit directly on the ground with my legs crossed (not a very comfortable position, but at least it allowed me to reach the fretboard in full)
I had my 120-watt Peavey amp plugged to the wall with no ground pin. It was a custom practice at the time to just tear out the grounding pin of your appliances with pliers, since it was RARE to find any electrical outlet that allowed you to insert that third pin, so off the third pin goes. Normal Venezuelan improvisation!
So anyway, I was sitting on the garage floor like a metal riffing Buddha when I felt a funny sensation on my fingers. Like an invisible hand was pinching and pulling at my fingertips as I was playing.
My first thought is that I was having a cardiac arrest or something, because it was my left hand’s fingers. And it’s such a classic and timeless thing that if you feel something going wrong with your left hand or arm, you immediately assume it’s a sheer heart attack. I had read enough PopSci-style magazines until then to think my early demise was inevitable. Or maybe it was too much time wearing those black shirts full of gory skulls.
Exactly this one.
Anyway, I kept playing.
I realized the good news: it was not a stroke because I was still through the verses of ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ and I was still alive. But the strange sensation had evolved to actual electric mini-shocks that began running all the way to my forearm, and, most comically, twisting my fingers in crazy positions when Angus Young’s notes demanded from them the most.
Then it dawned on me. I realized that since the amp didn’t have grounding, I WAS THE GROUNDING. In a pre-Breaking Bad manner, I could have said “I AM THE ONE WHO GROUNDS, SKYLER!!”, because I absolutely was.
“ALL THE WAY UP TO 220V!”
At least the electric shocks were coming from my fingers and not my arse end, so that was a plus I guess?
It was a funny misunderstanding, even if household appliances’ electricity issues don’t usually have ‘funny misunderstandings’ or ‘happy accidents’, as Bob Ross would say. Electricity is not going to care about your lack of knowledge, or who’s mom and dad. Just like human behavior.
I always remember my pre-body-language days as too much blidnly trusting others. Just like I trusted my Peavey amp not to kill me even if I had teared out one of its appendages as soon as it arrived home. There were hard lessons to be learned, an the ones involving people were way more painful than the ones involving electrons.
Although people are also made of electrons, so there’s that
What I could take from this is that any lack of grounding will leave you shakeable. Just as my finger were twitching uncontrollably, If we lack ‘grounding’ in our own values and principles, then be ready for bad stuff to happen.
“If you don’t ground on something, you’ll twitch for anything”, – Brian May (probably).
But no, seriously, that’s why I hammer-on so much the idea of knowing yourself and what you stand for. Because your very own, unique set of values is what keeps you grounded and unshakeable.
I thought long ago that there should be a better way to find out about ourselves in a more efficient way than just trial and error, dealing directly with both everyday people AND the eventual (and rather destructive) toxic personalities.
So, to fast track that self knowledge, I spent years developing the easiest and best tool for you: my NLP and Emotional Intelligence self-assessment course.
It’s $99 but until the end of July, you can get it at a 80% discount, at just $19 in the following link: https://campus.knesix.institute/enroll/1387323?price_id=4156455
You’ll have access to my full suite of self-discovery and self-knowledge tools PLUS any future updates, for life.
I’ll see you there!
Much Love and Bliss,
Jesús.
The Body Language Guy
