Mere Words

It's only words, 

and words are all I have

To take your heart away

The Author,

JOSE CHUNG: 

What is your opinion of hypnosis?

The Skeptic,

SPECIAL AGENT DANA SCULLY: 

I know that it has its therapeutic value, but it has never been proven to enhance memory. 

In fact, it actually worsens it since, since, since people in that state or prone to confabulation.

The Author,

JOSE CHUNG: 

When I was doing research for my book "The Caligarian Candidate..."

SCULLY: 

One of the greatest thrillers ever written.

The Author,

JOSE CHUNG: 

Oh...

(He chuckles.)

Thank you. I was, uh... 

interested in how the C.I.A., 

when conducting their MK-Ultra mind control experiments back in the '50s, 

had no idea  — How Hypnosis Worked.

SCULLY: 

Hmm.

The Author,

JOSE CHUNG: 

Or, What it Was.

SCULLY: 

No one still knows.

The Author,

JOSE CHUNG: 

Still, as A Storyteller, I'm fascinated how a person's sense of consciousness can be... so transformed by nothing more magical than LISTENING to WORDS. 

Mere. Words.

mere (adj.)

late 14c., of a voice, "pure, clear;" mid-15c., of abstract things, "absolute, sheer;" from Old French mier "pure" (of gold), "entire, total, complete," and directly from Latin merus "unmixed" (of wine), "pure; bare, naked;" figuratively "true, real, genuine," according to some sources probably originally "clear, bright," from PIE *mer- "to gleam, glimmer, sparkle" (source also of Old English amerian "to purify," Old Irish emer "not clear," Sanskrit maricih "ray, beam," Greek marmarein "to gleam, glimmer"). But de Vaan writes "there is no compelling reason to derive 'pure' from 'shining,'" and compares Hittite marri "just so, gratuitously," and suggests the source is a PIE *merH-o- "remaining, pure." 

 

The English sense of "nothing less than, in the fullest sense absolute" (mid-15c., surviving now only in vestiges such as mere folly) existed for centuries alongside the apparently opposite sense of "nothing more than" (1580s, as in a mere dream).

mere (n.1)

"pool, small lake, pond," from Old English mere "sea, ocean; lake, pool, pond, cistern," from Proto-Germanic *mari (source also of Old Norse marr, Old Saxon meri "sea," Middle Dutch maer, Dutch meer "lake, sea, pool," Old High German mari, German Meer "sea," Gothic marei "sea," mari-saiws "lake"), from PIE root *mori- "body of water." The larger sense of "sea, arm of the sea" has been obsolete since Middle English. Century Dictionary reports it "Not used in the U.S. except artificially in some local names, in imitation of British names."

mere (n.2)

"boundary line" (between kingdoms, estates, fields, etc.), now surviving in provincial use or place names, but once an important word, from Old English mære "boundary, object indicating a boundary," from Proto-Germanic *mairjo- (source also of Middle Dutch mere "boundary mark, stake," Old Norse -mæri "boundary, border-land"), related to Latin murus "wall" (see mural (n.)).