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Conversational Vocabulary

Okay, I’m now going to talk about the vocabulary and language usage in the conversation that Dan and I had on near-death experiences.

1.  would bet X on it

The first thing that I’d like to point out is something that Dan asks me on page one of the transcript, right towards the very beginning of the conversation. He says to me, “Aaron, would you bet your life on it?” I said, “Sure would. I’d bet my life on it.” What we’re talking about, of course, is the existence or the reality of near-death experiences and paranormal experiences. When we use this expression “bet your life on it,” it basically means how certain are you? Dan’s asking me how certain are you that near-death experiences actually exist? If I’m very, very certain, I can say “Yeah, I bet my life on it.”

Now, you can change “life,” that noun, to anything that’s of importance to you. Now, most people would say their life is the most important thing. Maybe I wouldn’t bet my life on it, maybe I would bet my house on it or I’d bet my car on it. Those are also valuable things but not as valuable as your life.

We can also use the verb “stake,” to stake. That’s a good idea you have there, but if I were you, I wouldn’t stake my career on it. I wouldn’t stake my house on it.

This is just a way of communicating how certain you are of something. I was certain that near-death experiences were real. Dan was not so certain about it, and so he says a little bit later in the conversation that he wouldn’t bet his life on it. Meaning he’s not so sure that these things are real or they’re actually happening. That’s what it means to bet your life on it, to stake your life on it, to stake your career on it, okay? That’s the first one.

1. on a gut level

The next thing that Dan says right around the same area of the conversation, he says on an intuition, on a gut level, I do believe in non-physical spiritual things. On a level, on a gut level, and on a gut level, of course, gut means your stomach, your intestines, inside your abdomen.

Figuratively, we often use this area of the body to refer to your intuition. Maybe we point to our chest when we’re referring to emotional issues. That’s where the heart is. We point to our head when we’re talking about the intellect or reason. This phrase, “on a gut level,” can be changed. You can change your gut to other aspects of the human experience on an intellectual level, on a rational level, on an experiential level.

For example, I don’t fully understand gravity on an intellectual level, not having deeply studied physics or mathematics, but on an experiential level, we all understand gravity very, very well. On an emotional level, on an intuitive level would mean the same thing as on a gut level. Dan could have said, “On an intuitive level, I do believe in non-physical spirituality,” for example.

Another example might be that of Santa Claus. This is a tradition in the United States where parents tell their children that Santa Claus comes on the eve of Christmas morning to deliver presents, and of course, it’s a fantasy. As a child, on an intellectual level, I knew it wasn’t possible. Even on an intuitive level, I knew something was wrong. This could not possibly be happening.

On an emotional level, I really believed it. I really wanted to believe it because it was a happy, exciting thing and it was a very happy time where family got together and we got presents. On an emotional level, I definitely believed in Santa Claus, but on an intellectual and on an intuitive level, I didn’t. Of course I didn’t tell my parents that. I wanted to get presents. That’s how we use it.

You can also say have a gut feeling, like even though the weather report says it’s going to be sunny tomorrow, “Mm, I have a gut feeling it’s going to rain.” That’s another way to use it, so a gut feeling.

1. tolerance for ambiguity

The next phrase I want to focus on is tolerance for ambiguity. Dan says that he has a high tolerance for ambiguity. What he’s talking about is basically he is comfortable with ambiguity or uncertainty. To have tolerance means you can endure. In fact, he may even prefer situations that are uncertain.

Some people are more comfortable than others with uncertainty. People who have a low tolerance for ambiguity prefer lots of rules that regulate behavior and regulate how things are supposed to be.

People with a high tolerance for ambiguity prefer lack of rules, prefer uncertainty, prefer situations that are not so clear. Actually, it’s interesting that they’ve shown a link between having a high tolerance for ambiguity and being multi-lingual. People who have learned other languages and who can speak other languages often have a high tolerance for ambiguity, which is really interesting.

How about you? Do you have a high tolerance for ambiguity or a low tolerance for ambiguity? I feel that I’m somewhere in the middle. I don’t prefer situations where there’s no certainty, but I don’t mind them either, so I’m probably somewhere in the middle. My tolerance for ambiguity is average, okay?

That is tolerance for ambiguity, in case you were wondering what it meant.

1. The real question is…

The next one that I want to draw your attention to is mentioned on page three of the transcript and it is what I say when I say, “The real question is …” We were talking a little bit about death and what constitutes death, what is death and the legal definition of death, and I felt that we were getting away with what was important. If you ever feel like the conversation is moving off topic or it’s moving into a related topic that you feel is not the most important issue, you can bring the discussion back to the real question. The real question means the important thing, the important issue here in this moment.

I say to Dan, “The real question I have is even if the brain, according to science, is no longer functioning, are we still conscious?” In my opinion, that’s the real question, that’s what we really should be talking about. Let me give you an example. Right now, you’re listening to all of my explanations of the vocabulary and the phrases that are occurring in the conversation that Dan and I are having, and some of these may be interesting to you and others may not, but the real question is are you actually going to put them into practice? That’s the real question. That means that’s the important thing here.

1. phenomenon / phenomena

Okay, the next one is something that Dan says on page three. He’s talking about a phenomenon.

He actually uses the word “all of these phenomenon,” which is actually a grammatical error.

Phenomenon is a singular noun and phenomena is the plural. He actually should have said “all of these phenomena” and not phenomenon.

This should be something that gives you confidence because even native speakers, even English teachers, make grammatical errors when we speak. Actually, this noun, phenomenon, is very often used in a grammatically incorrect way. I do it myself and I’ve heard it many, many times. It’s just one of those common nouns that people don’t think about and they will say phenomenon when they mean phenomena, and vice versa, the other way around.

Anyway, we also talk here about psychic phenomena and what is psychic phenomena? Well, there are many different types of psychic phenomena. One of them is ESP or extrasensory perception.

Another one is Clairvoyance. “Clair” means clear and “voyance” refers to visions, so having clear vision. Basically, it’s the ability to see things far away, across space and time that we cannot detect with our normal five senses. Another one is telepathy and this is the ability to read other people’s minds or to transfer thoughts from one person to another.

1. drill down

Okay, the next one is drill down. Dan says … this is on page four in the commentary. He says, “I think the most common counterpoint to that would be, A, if that’s true that there are physical reactions happening at the same time as the experience, that it doesn’t really point to the truth or lack of truth in the experience.

What he’s basically talking about is some scientists are trying to explain the near-death experience as a chemical or a hormonal experience in the brain, that is, it’s caused by chemical imbalances or maybe a lack of oxygen, something like this. He uses the analogy of love. He says, “For example, I’m sure we could drill down to what the experience of love is when you’re thinking about a loved one, but does that equal love just because we’ve isolated a chemical experience?”

So drill down comes from…you might think it comes from carpentry because we use drills in carpentry to attach one piece of wood to another piece of wood using a drill. You could also, another phrase would be “to nail down,” and that also has a very, very similar meaning, as if you’re hammering a nail, attaching one board to another. What these phrases mean are to isolate and characterize something, to examine something in depth and be able to explain it.

Now, there’s actually another meaning of drill down in the world of information technology, but that’s a very specific phrase to a certain community of professionals. It’s not going to be useful to you. Let me give you another example. Let’s say my friends and I are going on a long journey over the next couple of days and we’re going to be taking a number of different buses and trains to get to our final destination. Since we’re not going to have much time, it’s important that we drill down the exact departure and arrival times so that we won’t be late. We need to drill down that schedule so we make sure that we can accomplish everything we want to accomplish on our trip, okay? So to drill down or nail down.

1. What about me?

All right, the next is something that happened between Dan and I. Dan was talking about our, like on a gut level he feels that our lives do have a spiritual component that transcends death, and that part of him is probably the part that he turn to. This part of him that feels this spiritual component is something that he tapped into when he was on that plane where he felt at peace even though he knew that death was possible in that moment.

Then he says, “What about you?” At that moment, I didn’t really know what that meant, what about me. Like what exactly was his question. I was confused. Instead of saying to him what question do you have for me, I said, “What about me?” And I put the emphasis on about. I put my intonation, put emphasis on “about.” What about me? Meaning, “What do you want to ask me?”

Now, had I said, “What about me?” that would had a different meaning. That would have meant a situation where Dan maybe asked two or three other people who were present about their opinions, but he didn’t ask me. Then I would interrupt and say, “Hey, wait a minute, what about me?”

Meaning, “Aren’t you going to ask me?” That’s not what I said. I said, “What about me?” and that means “What exactly do you want to ask me?”

A lot of times our intonation, the way that we emphasize different parts of speech, the way that we … the tones that we use can alter the meaning and that’s one good example of it. Of course, Dan wanted to ask me, “Are you afraid of death?” Okay? Pay attention to intonations. That’s important.

1. full of it

The next phrase is “full of it.” We’re talking about … Dan is talking about trusting someone a 100% if they tell him that near-death experiences are real or that there is life after death. He’d be open to their experience but they would really have to convince him that this was going to happen to him before he believed it. He thinks anybody who is 100% sure with confidence that there’s life after death, that they’re a little full of it. Then he asks me, “What do you think?” To be full of it means to be unfounded in your beliefs or unfounded in your statements. You’re not credible. In some cases, you’re just ridiculous. What you’re saying just doesn’t hold any support whatsoever. You might even be making it up or just putting blind faith into something. You’re full of it.

It comes from the phrase “to be full of shit” or “to be full of crap.” Now, these are very strong phrases and I don’t recommend that you use them. We leave off the word “shit” and we leave off the word “crap” in order to appear a little bit more polite.

We can let the listener infer the word that should be there. People who exaggerate are often full of it. People who brag about themselves are often full of it. People who lie consistently are definitely full of it. I know a guy who makes many claims about his past experiences. They could not possibly be true so I know he’s definitely full of it.

1. thrown in there

Okay. The very last one is called … something that I say on page six, and I say, “thrown in there.”

I’m talking about the beauty of life and how amazing it is. What I say is what’s important to me now is this life. I try to make the most of everyday, of every moment to enjoy this amazing thing we call life; the body, the mind , all the wonderful colors and all the pain and the suffering, and everything that’s thrown in there.

Basically, this is a phrase that means thrown into the mixture or added to the mixture. If you’re listing many things that go together to create a situation or to create a certain reality, you can use that phrase, thrown in there. Let me try to give you an example. Last night, I went to an all you can eat buffet and it was unbelievable. I mean all around the room, they just had foods from all over the world. They had everything thrown in there from meat to fish to pasta to salads to desserts to Indian food to Thai food. It was just all thrown in there. That’s how you would use this phrase when you’re talking about a big list of things that makes up a bigger hole.

Okay, so those are the vocabulary terms and phrases that I wanted to talk a little bit about. I hope that you got something out of it. The real question is, are you going to use it? Are you going to put these things into practice or not? That’s the real question.