[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #14 METAPHORS ARE META-STATES

Sun Apr 4 22:32:34 EDT 2021

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #14

April 5, 2021

How Metaphors are Meta-States #1

METAPHORS ARE META-STATES

Whether you know it or not, a metaphor is a meta-state.  Actually, the word
itself tells you that.  Metaphor from meta "over or above" and phorein "to
carry" refers to carrying over one idea, feeling, state, or reference to
another.  When you create a metaphor, you compare something that you know (a
source) to something that you're trying to understand (a target).  You rise
above the target and apply the source to it.  You meta-stated the target
with your source.

So structurally, a meta-phor is a meta-state.  You have set up a structure
for understanding using something common and well-known and applied it to
something less well known or that you want to understand in a new way.  You
have started with a primary state or experience (X) and in reference to it,
you have made a meta-move, transcended it, and now include it inside of a
larger frame- the metaphor.

Consider this metaphor.  "NLP is like having the owner's manual for running
your own brain." The subject as a target is Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
What is it like?  What can I compare it to?  Let's see, what if it is like a
Owner's Manual?  I know about owner's manuals- I have one for my car, I have
one for my computer, I have one for several electronic items in my home.  So
what do I know about an owner's manual?

           It provides instructions about how to use the item. 

           It lists the parts and variables of the item.

           It shows relationships between things.

           It lists things to do and warns about things not to do.

Thinking about NLP as an owner's manual suggests that in NLP you will
discover instructions about what to do to run your own brain, you'll come to
understand the key variables of your mind and consciousness, how it's
related to your body, neurology, emotions, etc.  You'll learn how to
effectively set outcomes, achieve goals, access resources, attain expertise,
and much, much more.

                                           ____ Owner's Manual ______
Source Domain

          /        Managing Your Brain        \                Target Domain

As meta-states, metaphors set frames for how to understand something and how
to respond.  As a meta-states, metaphors suggest or imply experiential
states that you will step into and feel about the target subject.  With a
metaphor, now you have a lense through which to think about and emotionally
respond to the target subject.

Given all of that- the metaphors that you and your clients use are doorways
into consciousness.  It provides a pathway into a person's mind and
personality- how they think, feel, and respond to something.  This will be
especially true of the metaphors that a person repeats and relies on for
thinking.  As any meta-states sets the higher level frames as the internal
contexts, it establishes the domain of understanding for that person.

           As you think about a given area of life, what are the metaphors
that you use?

           What metaphors does your client use that formats her way of
thinking and understanding about the area in which you are coaching her?

Asking these questions is easy, answering them is not.  That's because most
metaphors hide.  Most of them are invisible to your awareness- unless or
until you have developed your own skills of metaphor awareness.  As all
language is ultimately metaphorical, most metaphors are hidden in plain
sight in the language that you and your clients use- but you never notice.
Noticing metaphors, like noticing values, beliefs, predicates, etc. requires
training, focus, and repetition.  At first, you will only notice the most
obvious metaphors and especially the novel metaphors.  Only with focused
practice will you begin to catch the orientation metaphors that arise from
neurology and physiology, metaphors like up, down, in, out, forward, behind,
beyond, etc.  Sentences that include statements such as "it is like..."
announce as if they were Romans horns, the coming of a metaphor.   Whereas
sentences that use the passive verb "is" hide the potential metaphor and you
are more likely to identify X with Y and think it is literal.  "Cause is a
force." 

"I feel like a hamster in a cage on a treadmill that goes nowhere."  A
client who says this is clearly shouting, "Here's a metaphor about my job."
He is not a hamster.  He is not literally on a treadmill.  He is not
literally going nowhere in his job. That is a source metaphor that he is
using as a meta-state about his feelings about his job.  Think "Caged
hamster on treadmill" as the meta-state over his "feelings about job" -the
primary state.

The meanings that this client has created is encoded in a metaphor.  The
metaphor, like a nominalization, like a cause-effect statement, like a
complex equivalence, is a linguistic structure that you can meta-model.  And
like the other linguistic statements, to truly understand the person, you
will want to work with the metaphor to gain more clear and precise
information.  And for that you will need to ask questions that first "run
with the metaphor" to see where it goes and then de-metaphor the metaphor to
get back to primary experience.

           What kind of caged hamster on a treadmill is this for you?

           How fast or slow are you running on the treadmill?

           What kind of running are you doing?

           Do you always feel like a caged hamster or are there times when
you're not on the treadmill?

           This running-nowhere-caged-hamster feeling refers to what
activities that you do ar work?

                            Key your eyes open- a new book, Thinking
Metaphorically will be available in sometime in April, 2021.

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com 

Check out The Shop -- www.neurosemantics.com/shop/ 

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Making smart decisions is not easy--- many, many cognitive biases work
against us and it is far too easy to default to pseudo-decisions: emotions,
gut feelings, intuitions, circumstances, others.  

Executive Decisions (2021) offers a way to decide intelligently and wisely.

130969 Neuro Semantics Executive Decisions Book Cover

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