Scientific language sucks the life & soul out of what it describes…

Tough statement to say, yet it really feels that way for me

This sentence is something I recently said to my Mantra teacher Elizabeth after she send me a scientific article describing how to quantify & perform “alternative healing” methods.

More extremely put, I really thought: “Science sucks out the heart & soul of everything”…

Why would I say that? There are many reasons and if I go back in time, I can fully admit that I have not always thought that way.

I always loved science and art & decided to study biology after high school. I really loved nature, my surrounding, understanding it all and interacting with it. Before I committed to those studies, I did an internship in a human genetics’ lab.

This is where I fell in love with lab work, I really loved to do science and experiments, it was basically like a riddle to me that I would try to solve. And guess what? I always loved riddles, I love them until today!

I also realized that one needs to do a lot of reading and writing as a scientist. And once again, guess what: I loved to read, have always been a book worm and I loved to write too! So to me it seemed like becoming a scientist & studying biology was the perfect fit for me.

During my studies I dreaded the exams, I am just not a good exam-person, while I would nail the labs and practical works. I also realized that I was drawn to plants more than anything, so I started to focus on plant-science related topics.

I really enjoyed my bachelor and master theses! Why? Because I was out of this studying-for-exams world and in the real science-world, working in the lab, reading papers, finding solutions to questions and I even enjoyed writing both my Bachelor and Master thesis. A lot actually.

And then, because I enjoyed it all so much, I thought to extend my youth a bit & continue with a PhD! I thought it is still not the “real-world” and I would be able to play around a bit longer & enjoy the science-world more.

In the beginning it was like that. I was excited, motivated and filled with joy about it all.

However, with time this changed… I got to know the academic system more, I learned how science works, what it means to work at a university and be a researcher, I realized there is not much freedom, at least not the type I would consider important for me…

…and I started to feel it is exhausting and dreading to read papers, and to write them too. I really disliked the way how as a scientist one needs to write… Ach, let’s just be honest: I hated it! It took away my joy for reading and writing, totally killed my spirit in that realm.

There seemed to be no place for heart and soul in scientific writing, it all was over-complicated, dry and boring. And the worst was, when the authors of articles didn’t even bother to illustrate their findings properly. Make it easy for another scientist to understand their work without getting a headache reading it was rarely a priority.

These are the reasons why I recently said “Science sucks out the heart and soul of everything…”, cos it also sucked out those parts from me, at least partially… cos I am a rebel in my heart ;).

I knew how to stick to the rules of scientific writing and did it when needed, but I also went super creative and expressive when it came to my posters, my presentations, my slides and how I illustrated my science! Cos there I saw the possibility to instill some of my own heart and soul into science again! After all it was me presenting and I believed that I can be scientific AND soulful AND myself! Cos just because the science world makes science dry, doesn’t mean that I can’t instill my passion for my own personal scientific work!

I also always shared my thoughts, feelings, struggles and emotions, as much as I could at least, cos only afterwards I realized I got a bit crippled by the system either way.

And it took me a long time until I found back my love for writing again. In fact, it was a LinkedIN coaching that I did that helped me to find my own way to share science on a Social Media. Since I decided to share science in my own writing and share my scientific illustration on LinekdIN this part of me flowered again! I believe I just went into hibernation mode during my PhD for a while, to finally discover my way of communicating about science afterwards.

To get back to the start of my post: the scientific article I read about “alternative healing modalities” did basically everything to remove the heart, soul, personality and aura of the practitioner and the person who is supposed to be healed. When it comes to eastern medical practices, one central point is the soul of a person, their energy level, aura and everything non-material they emit, even their past, their present, potential future, a human being is seen as this holistic creature… and the scientific method, how to conduct studies and experiments just radically strips this away. To me, this is a disaster cos it takes away the essence of those practices.

However, I do see why it could be beneficial to convince “hardcore scientists” of the efficiency of these healing modalities. There are always two sides to the story I guess.

At least for me, I know that my scientific and academic journey let me to this point here today, where I found back my love to read and write and even expanded on it all and started to share myself and my thoughts & feelings here on Substack too. I never could have imagined that in my past. Even though I always loved to share reports on my adventures with friends, I never considered doing that officially on the internet as well.

This is why I am truly so grateful for each and one of you reading my posts here! I appreciate you all soooo much, it means a lot to me and gives me a lot of motivation and drive to continue!

Thank you so very much!!

Love,
Daria