Chapter 17
Telling Tales to Reach the
Unconscious: Stories,
Fables, and Metaphors
In This Chapter
▶ Discovering your skills for storytelling
▶ Speaking so that people remember your message
▶ Entertaining as you inform and influence
▶ Solving problems through stories and metaphors
W
e want to tell you a story. Nan-in, a Japanese Zen master in the Meiji
era, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen
Buddhism. Nan-in poured them both some tea. He filled up his visitor’s cup,
and then kept on pouring. The professor watched until unable to restrain
himself. ‘It’s overfull. No more will go in,’ he said.‘Like this cup,’ Nan-in said, ‘you’re full of your own opinions and speculations.
How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?’What was happening for you as you read those words? What came into your
head? Your response to this little story is unique to you, and if you ask a
group of people for their reactions to a story, you’re going to get totally
different responses. Stories get to the parts that other words don’t reach.
They speak to you at an unconscious level.Through stories you can get your message across in a way that’s much
more effective than any logical argument, because they connect to people’s
experiences, memories, and emotions. In NLP terms, stories help build
rapport. They enable you to convey information indirectly, pace someone’s
current reality, and then lead that person on to a new, healthier reality. You
can move away from problems to different outcomes and open up new
possibilities. So when you’re sitting comfortably, we will begin....