These pictures provide a wealth of information, not only for the
observers but also for the owners. Questions can reveal many
implications of the metaphor that have sometimes been
outside its owner's awareness.
When thinking about what metaphors are true for you, you
may find that your unconscious mind pops an image or a
thought into your head. Your unconscious mind is the source of
your real hopes and fears. The more you learn to acknowledge
what your unconscious tells you, the more you will have access
to this powerful resource. Major breakthroughs in thinking are
believed to have come about through the power of metaphor.
It is held that Einstein discovered the theory of relativity as he
lay daydreaming, imagining himself riding a sunbeam.
“Metaphor and symbolism enable us to give form to those
aspects of life which are the most mystifying; namely, our
relationships, our problems and their solutions, our fears and
desires, our illness and health, our poverty and wealth, and the
love we give and the love we receive.”
James Lawley and Penny Tompkins, Metaphors in Mind
Excellent communicators and influencers use metaphor to
capture and hold attention. With metaphors they weave a
spell.
“The present life of men on earth, O King, as compared with the
whole length of time which is unknowable to us, seems to me to
be like this: as if, when you are sitting at dinner with your chiefs
and ministers in wintertime ... one of the sparrows from outside
flew very quickly through the hall; as if it came in one door and
soon went out through another. In that actual time it is indoors it
is not touched by the winter’s storm; but the tiny period of calm
is over in a moment, and having come out of the winter it soon
returns to the winter and slips out of your sight. Man’s life
appears to be more or less like this; and of what may follow it,
or what preceded it, we are absolutely ignorant.”
The Venerable Bede
Your unconscious mindMETAPHOR: THE KEY TO THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND 129