The original question was posed with many clarifications: "Who have you been speaking to recently? What groups, or what kinds of individuals, have you been sharing your life and values with? Do you reach out into other social or cultural groups? When was the last time you connected with someone very different than you?"

This query sent me considering just what is the extent of our communication with the world around us. Now, with the base question, are we referring to literally speaking--face-to-face, phone, Skype? Audible voice exchange, or the broader figurative use, "communicating"? The latter would include all the means of exchanging words (email, IM, blogging, hardcopy publishing, lyrical music, video, etc) as well as the non-verbal communication (instrumental music, body language, visual arts, anything one brings something into visual association with oneself--i.e. the house you build, the clothes you wear, the way you walk, the face you make when interrupted).

We communicate at the social level. No cues (visual or audible) other than proximity seem to be necessary for this exchange. You may have experienced this by coming into a room filled with people whose mood was communally contrary to yours as you entered. Whether you stay in that room or not, most people will start to feel a shift in their state of mind, moving toward the collective attitude of the group. How quickly this happens seems to depend on the degree of association one feels with the individuals in the group, and the group as a whole.

We communicate culturally not only by the actions that we take (the way we purchase, vote, resist, make life choices) but the actions we do not take as well (i.e. being complicit to even something disagreeable to us personally by our lack of action against it). When we do not speak (intentionally) for ourselves, we allow the predominate message of the culture, the environment, or the situation to speak for us.

There is also the psychic communication. I am a full believer of this form. Even among the strongest doubters, many will acknowledge the otherwise unexplainable occurrences of individuals being immediately aware of the moment when their loved one has come to some injury. Also validation of this realm of communication would be the studies showing how focused prayer is beneficial to the improved health of those who are being prayed for. I even once read a study of dream where someone slept in one room and someone they had never met concentrated on a subject (for example, a merry-go-round) in the room next door. The sleeper was wired up to allow the researchers to monitor when they began to dream. At the appropriate moment to increase the likeliness of the dreamer remembering the dream, the researchers woke the dreamer. Quite often, the various dreamers were having a dream that included the item being focused on by the person next door.

Just in this very limited consideration of our ways of communication, it would suggest that even though one, as myself, might only look into the eyes and speak to very few people each day, the extent of my communication is much more far-reaching. The only problem I have with this newfound awareness is the responsibility of the impact of what I might be communicating without explicit intention. Since it seems that every aspect of my living is a communication to the collective of consciousness, I can only aspire to be more conscious of the life I am living and, therefore, the message I am sharing.

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