Chat Log: Metaphors
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IRC Chat Log, May 14, 1998
| Jonathan | Hi folks -- welcome to the chat -- looks like we have about 10-15 active participants this time... and that's a good number! Isn't it?
| tranzpupy, PhilAlex, peanut, kamilian, K_O | y
| Jonathan | Because its not how many people show, its how we work together!
| Jonathan | Won't we?
| tranzpupy | didn't we?
| Jonathan | This reminds me of one of the other chats I did.
| tranzpupy | ?
| peanut | could we
| Jonathan | I started up, and I began to talk, and after a few lines... I asked a question....
| K_O | how?
| Jonathan | and no one answered. It was like, they were all... somewhere else...
| tranzpupy | where?
| Jonathan | And I don't know if it was the content of the chat, because I was talking about Milton Erickson.
| tranzpupy | zzzz
| K_O | Hey isn't that what hypnosis is all about? being somewhere else?
| tranzpupy | at the same time we're hear
| Jonathan | You see, Erickson liked to give his clients tasks to complete. Now, none of you are actually here, so I can't suggest you work in my garden... but Milton used to suggest people go work in his garden, sometimes until their unconscious would allow them to make changes that were of importance to them... and sometimes he'd talk about his tomato plant. Now, as you think about how Milton would give people seemingly irrelevant tasks, and get them to DO something other than what they were used to doing... and ... eventually, they'd start to really really get it -- whatever it was.
| K_O | so he got free gardening work while helping his clients? that's pretty damned cool!
| tranzpupy | and it was their it. Not his they got.
| Jonathan | But he was often very successful. People would bind the results of them completing their gardening task to the results they wanted in their own minds. Sure! Its the best thing about Hypnosis... no one needs to really know your content. You get to keep it to yourself. Now, I think its pretty cool, they got to make changes, and he got free gardening work!
| Klorm | Its all process, right?
| K_O | So you mean success in the garden=success in real life?
| tranzpupy | which is sometimes a very good idea.. (keeping it to yourself)
| Jonathan | So what I want you to think about is how when you take trips in life, lets say on an airplane... sometimes they go up 5000 feet for short flights... sometimes 10000 feet.... sometimes 20000.... and occasionally they take you up to 35000. And the interesting thing about compressed air tubes with wings is that when you drink a beer, or a glass of wine... there's a little less oxygen up there... so it's like its too strong. It's TOO strong. I mean, its really TWO strong, isn't it?
| tranzpupy | one.
| Jonathan | Like, you could drink 2 glasses of wine at Sea level, but if you go up in a place, 2 glasses of wine, and you're flying!!!
| kamilian | man, i want a drink
| Jonathan | See I was recently coming back from California, and I had some dental work done so I was on Vicodin.
| kamilian | ;)
| Jonathan | Good stuff, vicodin. Its like TWO-strong codeine.
| K_O | sounds cheeper than drinking at sea level!
| Jonathan | Now, I had taken my vicodin, and the plane was cruising at 35000 feet -- I was cruising at 70,000 feet!
| tranzpupy | kewl
| Jonathan | I thought -- WOW -- now that's a major birds' eye view! I could see 4 times as much! Neat! But then time was moving much more quickly for me -- I got there in what seemed like a lot less time. And so I guess I saw less detail. I didn't get hung up in it.
| K_O | Jon-was that a good thing or a bad thing?
| MarkM | what I always wonder about metaphors is, what happens if you know a person is using one?
| Jonathan | So what you can see, now, is that the above story is just a story. It doesn't have to mean anything. It could mean a lot, couldn't it?
| tranzpupy | yes
| K_O | sure??
| Jonathan | I mean, I didn't tell you that the flight attendant saw me smiling and I told her "I loooove flying..." ;) And that may or may not mean anything of importance to you... But as you cycle through rep systems understanding what I'm saying... see here, now... I could mean any number of things, could I not>
| tranzpupy | well, what you see at sea level is different, right?
| Jonathan | Because whether or not I mean a lot of little things... as you listen to the story/stories... you may shift into or through certain states as I do so.
| K_O | Jon-yeah.. you could.. which is kinda confusing..
| Jonathan | So whether I mean things at the detail level or at the state level is really... well... its up to your unconscious, right? And I did change states during that flight, let me tell you!
| tranzpupy | and my unconscious is not a see level..
| Bohunkas | so the metaphor is just a delivery system for processes.
| Jonathan | I love the word "just" ;)
| Bohunkas | :)
| Jonathan | May I quote Bandler?
| tranzpupy | quote away
| Jonathan | "When people use 'Just' it means that they're right up at the edge of their internal model... face pressed up against the glass... And that's the glass wall you want to throw the brick through..."
| tranzpupy | ouch
| K_O | OUCH! Wouldn't hat kinda hurt?
| Jonathan | I can quote Bandler. I mean, I guess I just did, so that must mean I can! ;)
| tranzpupy | don't be mean about it, though
| Jonathan | The brick -- is a metaphor... if it weren't obvious... for NLPers ability to expand people's awareness for... what it is that they don't yet accept as a wider set of options and skills and knowledge of what is possible in the world. So yes! Bohunkas! It is a delivery system for processes. And it is much much more!
| Bohunkas | gotcha
| Jonathan | What kinds of things can we use metaphor FOR?
| K_O | IT still sounds like it'd hurt.. couldn't you just remove the glass or um.. cut it away or something??
| Jonathan | (sorry to repeat myself!)
| Bohunkas | why would it hurt?
| Jonathan | K_O -- sure. But it doesn't hurt to learn that you're capable of more.
| Bohunkas | maybe you'd rather use the door....
| Jonathan | That your belief systems can expand. That your knowledge can grow and your skills will multiply.
| K_O | Hey you imagin your sittin with your face up againced some glass and some weirdo throughs a brick at the window! I think it'd hurt!
| Jonathan | OK... K_O... would it help to know that guess what: The brick needs to be thrown from the inside out! You have to get inside their model... and open it wide up!
| K_O | Oh Ok.. that's better!
| Jonathan | If you throw the metaphorical brick from outside... sometimes they get defensive and put up a brick wall!
| tranzpupy | and throw bricks back.
| Jonathan | But if you enter their world completely... so that YOU can see the limitations of their model... you can help them expand it to allow for new & better things!
| K_O | Yeah that's what i'd do! Protect myself from the attack!
| Jonathan | So! What kinds of things can we use metaphor FOR?
| peanut | changing beliefs
| tranzpupy | conveying information... creating trance...
| Jonathan | changing beliefs... ooooh good one -- how might you do that, peanut?
| peanut | experiencing new perspectives, adjusting beliefs
| Bohunkas | persuasion
| K_O | coersion!
| Jonathan | Persuasion... Coersion, yes, all that applies.
| Kupal | Have you heard of my Entering Worlds algorithm ? Where I play from the inside rather than from the outside ?
| peanut | presenting a story using their rep system and then change it.
| Jonathan | What about... HEALING others? (assuming you're a licensed mental health practitioner in your state or country ;)
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