Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones … The Power of Words

Guest Blogger: Jaime Rush

Okay, it may be the writer in me, but I love the idea that words have real power. That old kid’s saying was wrong—“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Words can hurt. How many times have we been hurt over something someone said to us? But it goes deeper than hurt feelings. Words have energy. Every time we utter words like “hate,” and the emotion that goes with it, we put negative energy into the atmosphere. I’ve done muscle testing experiments with my nine-year-old daughter, where she wrote “I hate mommy” on a piece of paper, and I held it to my chest and couldn’t resist when I held out my arm and she pressed down on it. But when I held the paper that said, “I love mommy,” I had my strength back.

Masaru Emoto has studied Magnetic Resonance Analysis at length, determining that the words taped to a glass of water actually affected the way crystals formed when the water was frozen. Words like “hate” made ugly, jagged designs, and words like “Love” and “Forgiveness” made snowflake designs.

I have always approached the paranormal aspect of my stories with an energetic bent, meaning I don’t have werewolves or vampires or the like but use psychic energy. I’ve explored and played with the possibility of parallel universes and what might happen if people from one different than ours came here. And recently, in my Offspring series, I’ve gone on to the energy of words and emotions becoming a tangible “something.” That something is called Darkness. Since the word Darkness, probably a negative word itself, appears in every Offspring title, I decided to make Darkness a real thing. An almost living entity. And it consists of an accumulation of all the repressed negative emotions of the people in my parallel dimension. Someone figured out how to tap into that energy, to use it like dark magic and transform themselves into something other than a human. And when those people come here, they bring Darkness with them.

My heroine, Jessie, holds Darkness, having inherited it from her other-dimension father. Unfortunately for her, she has no idea what it is, other than it’s triggered by her high emotions and turns her into something dark and powerful. Her uncle, who is a full-fledged holder of Darkness and therefore adept at it, is hunting her down. And Jessie, with the help of the last man to whom she’d ever reach out for help, is learning to face her darkest fears and get to know that Darkness inside.

I had great fun with Darkness and my parallel beings because I could create my own mythologies and abilities. But I like to base my stories on what could be real. What might be real. What some certainly believe is real.

So now I know that not only do my written words have power—to entertain, perhaps enlighten, and hopefully enrich—my spoken words do, too. I think about what I say more carefully these days.

How has a word or a piece of writing affected you?

About DARKNESS BECOMES HER:

Desperately in need of redemption, Lachlan McLeod has a mission: find the beast who put his brother into a coma. He’ll start with Jessie Bellandre, his brother’s girlfriend, who’s harboring a dark, dangerous secret that could get them all killed. But as they fight the battle of their lives, not falling in love with her will be as hard as staying alive.

About Jaimie Rush:

Missing the romance and action of her favorite television shows, X-FILES, ROSWELL, and HIGHLANDER, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Jaime Rush created her own mix in the Offspring series, from Avon Books. The Offspring: Sexy…dangerous…outcasts. They possess extraordinary abilities, and together they must find the truth and fight an enemy out to destroy them.

Jaime Rush is also bestselling Tina Wainscott, author of eighteen novels for St. Martin’s Press (now being re-released as e-books) and Harlequin. Contests, sneak peeks and more at Jaime’s website. You can also find her on Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook.

 

3 Comments:

  1. Words and writing have deeply affected me. As a child in the 60’s when bullying wasn’t stopped as today I was bullied “picked on” by my classmates. I was the “fatty” and the “ugly” one as labeled by my peers. Granted I was chubby and shy but not what dubbed by them. I was socially outcasted and had no friends. This affected who I became and how I treat others. Now as an adult I seek these individuals out to give them a smile and try to ease their way in life. I have become an individual who is strong in who I am tho at times not as confident as I seem. I seek to be a friend to others.

    The written word has become my was of escape when life gets too overwhelming. Lately life has been VERY overwhelming and romance, especially the paranormal has been a place to go when I need a break from reality. I like that the world the author has created (especially Jaime’s) has it’s own rules athat are different than ours. Thanks so much to all those authors who my my escape of reality such a pleasure 🙂

  2. ((Hugs)) on the bullying, Glittergirl. It’s awful the way people treat each other. It sounds like you’ve been able to turn that around and grow from it. That’s awesome. And how wonderful to hear that stories like mine can carry you out of life’s troubles!

  3. Ann, I totally do the same thing! Watch those words.

    Author/speaker Doreen Virtue has recently released work on an experiment she did with her son, who’s an audio guy. She was taping somethings (sorry, don’t remember all the details) and he noticed that when she said positive words, the graph went way up and down, and negative words stayed very tight to the baseline. Love this stuff!

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