Alright, I'll bring this up. It’s something that, amazingly, I’ve seen across multiple genres, including horror. When for one reason or another, messages cannot or should not be delivered clearly. So, they are encrypted and/or decrypted in some form.
If you’re a brainy person, curious and into solving mysteries and puzzles, you might find the task stimulating rather than draining. Or at least that would be the case for a significant portion of the time. Because let’s be real, we all have downtimes when we’d prefer not to exert any extra effort if it can be helped. To just say and hear things as they are. With no encoding nor decoding required. Just plain and simple, blunt words.
Regardless, certain situations may be tricky…
We see it, for example, with ghosts and other entities from the afterlife or from different dimensions, how they attempt to communicate via objects or through visions and dreams. Perhaps with subtle and faint whispers and noises, if they can manage it, that’d make one wonder if one truly heard that or if it was merely a hallucination. Or they even take possession of modern technology! Besides making lights flicker, they might turn on radios and switch stations or turn on screens and switch channels. Some may even “hack” computers and other devices. Putting in front of you what most closely resembles what they're trying to say or point at. All to try and get their message across to who will pay attention.
We see it, also, in the secret (perhaps forbidden) exchange of notes on the same plane. You can write the message explicitly in them, but you’d be safer making it less obvious. So that, even if you’re careful to slip it in unnoticed past others, if anyone were to notice it, they’d still have trouble making something out of it that would be seriously compromising. Similar applies when speaking over the internet, the phone, or through walkie-talkies, exchanging information that you’d prefer third parties to not listen in on, so you try to use hints that they might miss but those the message is aimed at wouldn’t.
But let's not forget a classic! There’s the Morse Code, which can be used in several ways, even in the direst situations, and be impressively elusive. By blinking, tapping, and more. If anyone’s been trying to communicate with me through it, I am so sorry but I completely missed it. That’s how sneaky it can be. (I’d have to relearn it, too. Did anyone use it in high school to cheat on tests? I'm not saying I have, but it's perfect for that, too. 💁)
And of course, there are sign languages and specific signals that have been designed to communicate despite disability or the danger of being found out.
Furthermore, in desperate situations, one could as well resort to being out of character. For example, someone that always types correctly and gracefully may suddenly show many typos or awkwardly word and phrase things. And you might brush it off as nothing more than having an off day or you might find it odd and look for a hidden message in between.
We could also count the instances of knowledge being shared and passed down through various mediums (books, engravings, etc.) to only the few that are the kind to bother with going the extra mile for it. People who are intrigued and devoted enough to learn the meaning of symbols and more. As happens with the occult. Granted, it doesn't mean that it'll always land on the right hands, but it's nonetheless obfuscation.
And as it is related, I can’t go without mentioning what is known as a dog whistle in politics. Personally, I dislike this use of the term because dogs are sacred creatures to me and, before anything, I associate them with many great virtues. So I wince at any reference to them that isn't absolutely complimentary. But the analogy of a dog whistle does fit. And in this case, it illustrates how messages can fly over people’s heads, not perceived at all. Whatever the intention is, for better or for worse.
Now, even if you’re a fan of solving mysteries and puzzles, you ought to watch out that you don’t end up going out of your mind over it. Taken to the extreme or in high amounts would cause you to lose your ground. John Nash was undeniably epic in the movie A Beautiful Mind, but that level of mental processing is not something healthy to aspire towards. So if you’re going to repeatedly engage in the challenging, yet rewarding math of this, whether by reading stories, watching documentaries, or what have you, make sure that you also give yourself an appropriate dose of firm and undeniable facts to anchor yourself in reality.
If your head has become a mess, trying to interpret things, you can start sorting it out by separating data in:
- what is properly debunked and therefore false,
- what seems unlikely but is still possible,
- what is probable yet not tested,
- what seems likely thus sensibly bettable on,
- what is certain and demonstrable and therefore true.
And when in severe doubt, hang on to the latter while you discern what’s left to discern.
Given enough practice, accurately deciphering and successfully enciphering information will be second nature to you and it won’t weigh heavily on you. However, I’d still recommend good ol’ open and direct conversations when you can afford to have them! Those can be especially relieving and you might be surprised by how easy they are in contrast...
Do you have the mind of a detective or does this make you dizzy?