The Magic of Metaphor E-Book

Nick Owen

• Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 277

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2001

Beschreibung

The Magic of Metaphor presents a collection of stories designed to engage, inspire, and transform the listener and the reader. Some of the stories motivate, some are spiritual, and some provide strategies for excellence. All promote positive feelings, encouraging confi dence, direction, and vision.

Leseprobe

Praise forThe Magic of Metaphor

“I have looked through the collection and have been both excited and uplifted by what I’ve found. I think that this is a very valuable resource for all teachers, trainers and facilitators. The stories themselves are rich and varied, and contain all the seeds of transformative learning – open-endedness, dramatic tension, humour and above all, the possibility of multiple interpretations. All of these qualities will enable teachers to develop dialogue and discussion with their learning groups on a wide range of issues. The narrative approach also facilitates the development of thinking skills, tapping into our resources of intuition and imagery. The narrative techniques are thus suitable for use both in language learning and development, as well as in training contexts. In addition to the valuable stories, I find the sections on their use and the rationale for their use both clear and accessible. Nick Owen has produced a book which deserves many users and a wide audience.”– Dr.TonyWright, Principal Lecturer, International Education, College of St. Mark & John, Plymouth.

“I love the book, both in terms of its content and the style in which it is written. The Master and Apprentice dialogue reminds me of The Little Prince, a great book about learning, and this dialogue provides added meaning and relevance to the stories. The variety in the stories provides a huge source of material for anyone who seeks to influence or entertain others through story telling. Some made me laugh, others were so clever I had to show them to others, and the spiritual depth of many I found very thought provoking.”–RichardHolroyd, Head of Training & Development, Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation.

“Stories have historically been an excellent way of getting messages across to a wide audience. This book gives the communicator a refreshing and creative way of cutting through the language barrier of Information Technology and delivering clear messages to often diverse audiences.”–AlisonHood, Managing Consultant and Operations Director for the Wholesale Investment Banking Practice.

“Nick Owen has managed to put together a collection of fascinating stories. His book does not only live up to Egan Kieran’s dictum that the story ‘is not just some casual entertainment; it reflects a basic and powerful form in which we make sense of the world and experience.’ (Teaching as Story Telling, 1986) The stories in this book offer more than orientation. They serve as blueprints for future action and are an elegant means of transformation and change. The Magic of Metaphor is a brilliant book. I can highly recommend it.”– Dr.HerbertPuchta, author and NLP Master Practitioner.

“A treasure trove of wisdom and fun! Stories for leaders to use on every occasion to enhance their effectiveness.”–RichardD FieldOBE, Industrialist, Leadership Coach and Student.

“Nick has collected some great stories here and put them together in a way which is really useful for speakers and trainers. I particularly like the material about how to improve our storytelling techniques. I shall certainly be using this book on our NLP trainings and leadership seminars, and recommending it to all trainers.”– PeterMcNab, INLPTA Master Trainer, Director of EFA (Training & Consultancy) Ltd., Founder Member of the Integral Institute.

“The stories, parables and myths in The Magic of Metaphor lend support to understanding and have a central didactic value. Many people feel overwhelmed when confronted with the abstract aspects of psychotherapeutic topics. One way to make it easier to understand is to use an example, a mythological story … or an imagination. In their own way these all deal with personal, interpersonal and social conflicts, and present possible solutions. The stories in this book, if used in a conscious way, help to gain a more distanced relationship to conflicts. The item ‘individual mythology and magic’ is understood to refer to all concepts as crystallisation of the attitudes of the individual. The effective mythology and magic, on the other hand, compromises conflicts which are detached from the individual and have acquired a social reality in communication and tradition. This book will not only be relevant just to those with professional interactive psychotherapy, it is also a rich treasure of psychological and pedagogic insights for others.”– Professor Nossrat Peseschkian, Director of the Wiesbadener fur Psychotherapie, Germany.

“I think the book is a fine offering to the teaching and training world.”– JudithDeLozier, author, NLP developer.

“The book appeals on diverse levels with insights and enlightening illustrations that will illuminate teaching and learning. Drawn from ancient oriental traditions, contemporary sources and the author’s own repertoire – the experience is challenging, life-affirming and enriching.”–MickReid, Voluntary Service Overseas, London.

“When Nick is training, his genuine love for and pride in his work really shines through. He is generous in his wish to share his knowledge and skills with others. He uses storytelling to great effect, capturing his audience with an abundance of multisensory language and the rich tones in his voice. A shared common experience enables all those who listen to become completely absorbed, connecting with their unconscious minds as they do so. Each person discovering often long after the story has finished that they keep pondering about what it meant for them. ‘Get your rocks in first’ is now a well established catch phrase embedded in the culture of our organisation … that’s a powerful result after telling a story once to a group of staff.”–CarolynTempleBDS,MSc,DDPH,RCS, Director of Community and Priority Services, Chester and Halton Community NHS Trust.

The Magic of Metaphor

77 Stories for Teachers, Trainers & Thinkers

Nick Owen

“Metaphor … the right brain’s unique contribution to the left brain’s language capability.”

Leonard Shlain The Alphabet versus the Goddess

“The rational mind is a faithful servant; the intuitive mind a sacred gift. The paradox of modern life is that we have begun to worship the servant and defile the Divine.”

Albert Einstein

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Arthur C. Clarke

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

Gandhi

For Sofija

Table of Contents

Title Page

Epigraph

Dedication

Acknowledgements and Background to the Book

Foreword

Introduction

Section 1: Pacing and Leading

1.01 Core Learning (Taking the Pith)

1.02 The Book of Stories

1.03 The Jar

1.04 The Door

1.05 Gandhi’s Completeness

1.06a On Message

1.06b Walking the Talk

1.07 Einstein and Intelligence

1.08 Three Steps to Success

1.09 Vision

1.10 Leadership

1.11 Prayers for the Sole

1.12 Being on Top

1.13 The Warrior of the Shadows

1.14 Lunchtime Learning

1.15 Perceptual Positions

1.16 St Augustine’s Prayer

Section 2: Value Added

2.01 Rules from the Book of the Earth

2.02 Real Knowledge

2.03 The Priest

2.04 The Quarryman

2.05 True Holiness

2.06 The Rewards of Study

2.07 Cape Canaveral

2.08 Food for Thought

2.09 Tutta la Vita é Fuori

2.10 Perception

2.11 Motivation

2.12 Learning the Rules

2.13 The Perfectionist

2.14 The Value of Time

2.15 The Caged Bird

Section 3: Structures and Patterns

3.01 Designer Genes

3.02 The Secret of Success

3.03 Knowing Where to Tap

3.04 The Littlest God

3.05 Thinking Differently

3.06 Two Little Boys

3.07 Talking the Same Language

3.08 A Tasty Dish

3.09 Expert Advice

3.10 Information Technomaly

3.11 A Triple Punishment

3.12 Wittgenstein

3.13 Thomas Edison: A strategy for genius

3.14 Gary Player

Section 4: Response-ability

4.01 Three Stonemasons

4.02 You Have It or You Don’t

4.03 Congruence

4.04 Not Yet Ready

4.05 The Grammarian

4.06 Buried Treasure

4.07 The Flood

4.08 Faith

4.09 The Spoons

4.10 Heaven and Hell

4.11 Hot Buttons

4.12 Assumptions

4.13 Service

4.14 The Chicken and the Eagle

4.15 Marriage Bans

Section 5: Choice Changes

5.01 The Jam Jar

5.02 The Monk and the Thief

5.03 Cutting Remarks

5.04 Pebbles

5.05 The Watermelon

5.06 Walking to Learn

5.07 A Silver Thread of Insight

5.08 Behavioural Flexibility

5.09 That Won’t Work

5.10 The Faithful Servant

5.11 Michelangelo

5.12 The Happiest Man in the World

5.13 The Shirt of a Happy Man

5.14 Picasso

5.15 Acorns

Section 6: Transition

6.01 An Irish Blessing

6.02 Five Silver Stars

Some Ways to Use the Metaphors and Stories in this Book

Bibliography

About Nick Owen

Copyright

Acknowledgements and Background to the Book

To all the people who asked me where I found the stories and metaphors that I use in my work. Their sheer persistence and refusal to go out and find their own stories encouraged me to start work on my first draft.

The friends and colleagues who not only supported me in embarking on the journey but also gave me their support and valuable feedback at various stages of the project: Joan Albert, Rick Cooper, Helen Eyre, Neil Hutchinson, FCJ, Sofija Mitreva, Dave Pammenter, Rupert Jones Parry, Maire Shelley, and Carolyn Temple.

The many storytellers from whom I have learned much in a variety of different ways. These include Juma Bakari, Paolo Coelho, Judith DeLozier, David Gordon, Noreen Jones, Hugh Lupton, John Morgan, Robert M. Pirsig and Andrew Wright.

Wyatt Woodsmall, who, on a trainer development programme, reconnected me to the teaching device of Master and Apprentice, knower and ingénu, a tradition which in recent times includes Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince, Konstantin Stanislavski’s An Actor Prepares, Paolo Coelho’s The Pilgrimage, and Deepak Chopra’s The Way of the Wizard. The device has proved a particularly useful holding form at various stages of the book.

Few of the stories in the book are my own, so I owe a huge amount of gratitude to storytellers and writers-down-of-stories through the ages who have created, developed, reframed, refined, and passed on so many of these stories. Many of the stories have been handed down from ancient traditions.

I have gathered the stories from a wide variety of sources: during my travels, from friends and acquaintances, at seminars, from books, the movies, the radio, and so on. Although I have reworked and adapted these stories, I have acknowledged, wherever possible, the storyteller or the sources at the end of each story.

I have divided sources into three categories. Primary sources are the people from whom I first heard the story, the book where I first read it, or the medium through which I was first introduced to it. Secondary sources are either the source that my primary source acknowledged, or a reference to books where you can find alternative versions of the story. General sources refer to stories that are widely known and exist in several variations.

Through the agencies of time and familiarity I have forgotten some of my original sources. I would very much welcome reminders from anyone who wishes to set the record straight for future editions.

My own stories have no acknowledgement underneath. Most of these are reflections on events in my own life in different contexts, and I thank those who shared these experiences with me and made them possible. They will recognise their participation when they read the book.

I have learnt much about the power of metaphor applied across a variety of different contexts from Judith DeLozier, Robert Dilts, David Gordon, James Lawley, Penny Tompkins, Julian Russell, Jane Revell, Susan Norman, Christina Hall, John Morgan, Mario Rinvolucri, and Milton Erickson.

I am grateful for the inspiration I have received from authors of other collections of stories, including Rachel Naomi Remen, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Mario Rinvolucri, John Morgan, Ulli Beier, Jack Canfield, and Mark Victor Hansen.

I have drawn on the wisdom and elegance of stories from Oriental traditions, especially stories from the Sufi tradition. I wish therefore to thank particularly the late Dr. Idries Shah and Dr. Nossrat Peseschkian for their collections of Sufi and Eastern stories (Eastern, of course, only from my perspective). Their scholarship, research, description, and application of stories have been illuminating and inspirational. In collecting and writing down these ancient teaching stories they have made possible the dissemination of a treasury of wisdom that the West has long neglected.

These stories have taught me much. And in a very real and humble sense my role as writer and disseminator of the stories in this book is as a conduit to pass on to others the wisdom and variety of the perspectives they offer. My hope is that readers and listeners will continue to learn from them, and in turn pass on their learning to others. This is the way of stories.

Information on these writers and their books can be found in the bibliography.

Thanks too to my publishing editor Bridget Shine for her support, enthusiasm, and efficiency, and to Matt Pearce, my editor.

The manuscript was written in London, Hong Kong, New York, Pound Ridge, Skopje, and Sagres. These locations too have been important.

Finally a future thank you to all those of you who select, use, and spread your own interpretations of these stories to a waiting world.

Nick OwenLondon2001

Foreword

Throughout the history of mankind stories have played a part in learning at all levels, from the everyday to the sacred. This has happened because stories teach us through their knots of relevance. It has been my good luck to have been influenced by Milton Erickson and Gregory Bateson. These mentors helped me develop a deeper understanding of connectedness and the ways in which stories serve to promote systemic thinking and systemic living. That’s not all. Stories also facilitate problem solving, help us manage transition, and formulate dreams.

Nick has taken a giant step in contributing to our understanding of what a story is. Not only about the story itself, but about the evocative power of the story, and how it is used as a necessary tool of communicating empowerment. Empowerment to the teacher, to the trainer and coach, and empowerment to those who benefit from them.

This comprehensive literature deals with the subject of the story, the role of the trainer as storyteller, and the major tool of a good story: language. Nick has endeavoured to show us that as facilitators, no matter how enthusiastic, charismatic, or skilled with various communication tools we are, we must understand the language of the story.

I myself have been a trainer for 25 years and, like Nick, have found the power of a story one of the most important tools for communicating through a framework that allows the maximum number of participants the possibility to understand a teaching point. This is the quality of a story. It offers a structure that is useful, even though the names and places of the story change.

In fact it has been said1 that stories serve as models that close the gap between my experience as a human being and the theories I can create to explain my experience. This thought process is referred to as abductive thinking, the thinking which allows us to close the gap between inductive thinking and deductive thinking. Stories offer the structures that help us go from the specific relata of life to the relationships of life.

From the practical aspect this is a book of stories that enchant us, make us laugh, and help us learn and transform. I thank Nick for making this offering to the world in general and to the trainers of the world specifically. All of this talk about stories reminds me of a story.

A man wanted to know about mind, not in nature, but in his private large computer. He asked it (no doubt in his best Fortran), “Do you compute that you will ever think like a human being?” The machine then set to work to analyse its own computational habits. Finally it printed its answer on a piece of paper, as such machines do. The man ran to get the result and found neatly typed:

That reminds me of a story.

In this little anecdote the suggestion is made that if a computer could truly think like a person it would be able to tell us a story. In other words, the computer could present us with a little knot or complex of that species of connectedness which we call relevance. In this book we find many knots of connectedness that are relevant.

Thanks, you.

Judith DeLozier

1 Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature: A Necessity Unity. London: Fontana.p. 22.

Introduction

Overview

“Why would you be interested in a book of stories?”

The Magician looked at the Young Apprentice and replied: “What is magic?”

“The art of transformation and change.”

“Good. And what is the role of a magician?”

“The Magician’s role is to assist people to make useful and beneficial changes in their lives.”

“And how can this be achieved?”

“By developing greater awareness that all things have a structure, that change is always possible, that there is always more than one perspective, and that the essence of useful change lies in having both creativity and access to a greater number of choices.”

“And what is the responsibility of the enlightened Magician?”

The Young Apprentice recalled his studies. “The responsibility of the Magician is to use her power wisely, ethically, and with humility.”

“And what are the key principles?”

The Little Magician considered a moment before replying. “There are five key principles.

A Magician must think systemically and look for the connections between things that are not always apparent. For this reason a Magician must always treat information in its wider context, for nothing exists or makes sense in a vacuum. A Magician must always be aware that her knowledge is provisional, that there is always something more to discover, and that there is always more than one way to achieve any outcome.A Magician shares her knowledge, for this is an enlightened pathway to empowering others and to achieving immortality.A Magician always follows the four Rs: respect for self; respect for others; respect for ecology; and responsibility for all her actions.A true Magician believes that none of the above are true, but acts as if they are true. She trusts the evidence of her senses to interpret the responses she gets to whatever she does; and she always considers which next choice will be the most appropriate in that particular situation.”

“You have learned well,” said the Magician. “And these are some of the reasons why a Magician collects and uses stories.

“For all stories are true and yet not true. Every story is complete in its own context, its own reality. Every story therefore reflects a system, a map of the world. Yet just as that map is complete in itself, it is also incomplete because it represents only one among many perspectives.

“Stories offer us a way to see and understand our world in a new light, from a different angle. By challenging our readers and listeners to accept the limitations and shortcomings of their own maps, new insights become possible. Knowing this, you will understand how stories are an important and powerful way to generate creativity and greater choice in our lives. And why Magicians, curious to discover more tools, spend time in bookshops.”

About this Book

People often ask, “Where do you find stories?” Stories are everywhere: in books and newspapers, in the movies, in everyday events, in dreams, in the minds and mouths of people, and, above all, in our own lives.

This book is a collection of some of the stories, anecdotes, and extended metaphors that, in my work, I have used in a wide variety of communication contexts. Stories can be used to affirm, change, or challenge people’s ideas, attitudes, beliefs, visions, behaviours, skills, and sense of purpose. Contexts in which stories may be applicable are education, business, communication and presentation, health, change work, relationships, the arts, sports, personal development and therapy, and, of course, simply for pleasure.

Resonant stories are essentially reframes. Like putting on different pairs of glasses, stories allow us to look at life and experience in ways that can shift our perspective, range, and focus. Different lenses in the frames allow stories to zoom in, or take a distant view, on their subject. Filters can be attached to a lens to change colour, mood, and energy levels. At their most magical, stories can challenge and disturb our existing frames of reference, our accustomed map of the world, and shift us away from our limited thinking towards new learning and discovery.

The stories that are in this book can be used in a variety of different interpersonal and professional contexts, and they can also be read simply for entertainment.

Framing and Meaning

Without a frame information has no meaning. Consider the following situation. Large black rain clouds have gathered and are now partly obscuring the sun. What is the meaning of this situation? We cannot know until we have understood the context, until we put a frame around it.

It could mean a disappointing holiday for a sun worshipper. Or it could mean an excellent time for planting seeds. It might be a disaster for a farmer whose wheat is ripe and ready for harvesting. It might equally be a blessing for a traveller in a waterless desert.

The stories in the book work best when they are told in relation to a particular context. For example, in a situation where a person has moved into a stuck and unresourceful state as a result of a past memory or present experience, the following story might be useful.

Two monks were on a pilgrimage. They had already walked many miles,avoiding where they could the society of people for they were from a particular order of monks that were forbidden to speak to or touch women.They had no wish to offend anyone so they kept to the by-ways and livedoff the land.

It was the rainy season and as they walked across a broad plain they werehoping that the river they had to cross would not be impassable. Fromafar they could see that the river had burst its banks; nevertheless theywere hopeful that the ferryman would be able to take them across in hisboat. But as they neared the crossing point they could see no sign of theboatman; the boat, it appeared, had been swept away in the current andthe ferryman had stayed at home.

There was, however, a woman.

She was dressed in fine clothes and carried an umbrella. She implored themonks to help her cross, for her mission was urgent and the river, thoughwide and fast, was not deep.

The younger monk ignored her and looked away. The elder, however, saidnothing but swept her up onto his shoulder and carried her across, putting her down, completely dry, on the other bank.

For the whole of the following hour as they journeyed on through thickand tangled woods, the younger monk berated the elder, heaping scornupon his actions, accusing him of betraying the order and his vows. Howdare he? How could he? What was he thinking of? What gave him theright to?

Eventually, the monks entered a clearing, and the elder monk stopped andlooked square into the eyes of the younger. There was a long moment ofsilence.

Finally in a soft tone, his eyes bright and gentle with compassion, theolder monk simply said: “My brother, I put that woman down an hourago. It is you that are still carrying her.”

The situation of stuckness is the frame that gives the story its power and meaning.

The frame around each of the stories in this book is for you to decide. Stuckness is one of many possible frames for this story. This is a sourcebook of magic, and the meaning of each story will depend on the context in which you tell it, who you are, and who you tell it to.

Meaning and Interpretation

The best stories are multi-layered and capable of rich interpretation. Some stories can contain within them apparently contradictory meanings, such as that entitled “The Quarryman”, where it is possible to draw completely opposing conclusions. Depending on personal experience and curiosity, every reader will read different, and sometimes complex, meanings into each story, anecdote, or metaphor.

Perhaps the word metaphor, as used in this book, needs some explanation. I would describe most of the stories in this book as extended metaphors. They are indirect, yet powerful, vehicles for reframing experience from unusual or unexpected perspectives.

Metaphors are not simply poetic or rhetorical embellishments, but powerful devices for shaping perception and experience. If we change the metaphor in which a concept is expressed, we change the frame, making it possible for the concept to be understood differently. It is precisely this change of perspective that allows us greater choice in how we perceive and act upon the world.1

Ideas from one set of concepts have been carried across or transferred (the literal meaning of the Old Greek word metaphor) to another set of concepts. This new frame suggests that we reappraise our existing thinking about the original concept. Our ability to think about our thinking allows us to take a meta-position to it and see the original situation with greater perspective, clarity, and wisdom.

One other facet of metaphor that makes it a particularly powerful tool is that it enables a storyteller to take complex concepts that are difficult to explain and recreate them in much more concrete forms. Metaphor allows us to externalise abstract thinking and translate it into a sensory-based tangible representation. This is perhaps what Leonard Shlain is referring to in Chapter 1of his book The Alphabet versus the Goddess,2 when he writes that “Metaphor [is] the right brain’s unique contribution to the left brain’s language capability.”

The power of stories

Every story creates its own highly contextualised world. And every story combines an inner logic and narrative sequence expressed through words (left brain preference) together with aspects of creativity, cohesion, and pattern forming expressed through tone and emotion (right brain preference). In this way both hemispheres of our intellectual brain—the neo-cortex—are stimulated. These factors considerably contribute to our understanding of the following: the attraction of stories as meaning-carrying vehicles, the memorability of stories, and the appeal of stories to different ages, cultures, and information-processing styles.

At a deeper level, stories are archetypes. Stories, metaphors, and myths carry the history, the culture, the values, and the customs of the people. They are a form of social glue that serves to entertain, instruct, and challenge the listener or reader. And because they strike deep chords in shared communal experience, they operate at both conscious and unconscious levels, conveying “messages” directly and indirectly. And it is the connection with the unconscious that challenges and disturbs our comfortable sense of self and identity, our programmed behaviours, our over habituated maps of the world. Or, alternatively, confirms them.

Stories also operate through time and space. A biblical parable, a Zen koan, or a Sufi anecdote can each affect powerfully contemporary values, behaviours, and contexts. Stories connect the past with the present, and project both past and present into the future.

Connecting between times and contexts, between ideas and concepts, between behaviours and values, stories enable listeners to review and anticipate thought and action. A useful contemporary illustration of this is the TV soap opera. Every episode ends at an unresolved moment of crisis, opening a loop in the viewer’s brain. Brains are meaning making organisations and search for completion so that the loop can be closed. The viewer reviews all the information offered in the present and preceding episodes in order to work out possible future outcomes. The soap opera director has created response-ability. The heightened anticipation will guarantee the audience for the next episode so the loop can be closed.3

In literature, a writer may open up many loops within a story that in a traditional novel will be satisfactorily closed by the denouement. In much contemporary literature the uncertainty principle4 may be brought into play, so many ways of closing the loops may be offered. Without the closing of loops, however, you don’t have a story. Just a sequence of discrete and unrelated facts.5

The uses of story

Stories appeal because they connect with readers in so many varied and profound ways. Because they connect at different levels, stories lend themselves to a wide variety of uses. Here are some ways in which stories in this book can be used.

1) Simply for pleasure.

2) Change the mood, state, or energy level of a person or group.

3) Reframe a problem as a new opportunity.

4) See a behaviour or attitude from a different perspective.

5) Disturb a limiting view of the world.

6) Challenge unacceptable behaviour.

7) Offer a model of more useful behaviour or attitude.

8) Teach a point indirectly.

9) Demonstrate that a problem is not new or unique.

10) Enhance creativity.

11) Demonstrate the inadequacies of logical reasoning: a koan.

12) Open a loop, waken the brain, and install information into open minds that are waiting for the loop to be closed.

13) As an overture, introducing key points to be fully dealt with later.

14) As a summary or review of information covered.

15) To search out new possibilities and meanings.

16) To encourage debate and discussion.

17) To challenge or confirm existing world views of listeners.

18) To include the audience in repetitive aspects of the story in order to practise new language structures or vocabulary.

19) To encourage audience involvement and intervention.

20) To encourage story telling among the audience.

21) To develop aspects of presentation skills and public speaking.

22) To introduce aspects of the structure of effective communication.

23) To demonstrate the systemic nature of relationships.

24) To demonstrate how people respond to their map of reality, not reality itself.

25) To fill a gap.

26) To whet a group’s appetite. (A lunchtime story)

27) To elicit curiosity.

28) To make a point more memorable.

29) To create powerful associations in listeners’ minds.

30) To demonstrate that you want to creatively entertain a group as well as instruct them.

31) To facilitate multi-sensory communication.

32) To surprise people.

33) To include the views and wisdom of other cultures.

34) To demonstrate how the views and wisdom of other cultures have similarities to, and differences from, our own.

35) To induce a light trance state or sleep.

36) To promote and provoke right brain activity.

37) To engage both hemispheres of the upper brain.

38) To shift brain activity from Beta-waves (conscious processing) to Alpha-waves (light trance or day dream state). Alpha-processing is particularly useful for installing information at a deeper, subconscious level and consolidating material already learned.6

39) To install information below the conscious level of awareness.

40) To demonstrate how each person interprets information differently and according to their own unique experience and map of the world.

41) To demonstrate that “perception is projection”: our map of the world determines how we will experience the world.

42) To have an excuse to write a book.

43) To have an excuse to read a book.

44) To make connections between past, present, and future.

45) To make the teaching of information more contextualised and memorable.

46) To develop visualisation skills.

47) To make the abstract, concrete.

48) To tap the unconscious mind.

49) To develop an awareness of the sensory basis of language and experience.

50) To develop an appreciation of the role and power of metaphor in stories, and in the communication of meaning in everyday language.

51) To encourage anticipation of the next stage of communication, by finishing the present stage at an uncompleted but critical moment in a story: the Scheherazade Effect.

52) To take a complex idea and “make it as simple as you can, but not any simpler”. (Einstein)

53) To challenge complacency.

54) To confirm a cultural viewpoint, attitude, set of values, or beliefs.

55) To shift a paradigm.

56) To create a play.

57) As the basis of a dramatisation.

58) To create cartoons, storyboards, or tableaux (still images).

The Art of Telling Stories

Story telling is an art that lies within the ability of everyone to achieve. To develop the art it is necessary to practise, and to pay attention to feedback. There are four types of feedback. The first is to watch and listen to storytellers that you admire. Ask yourself: What is it that they are doing that makes such a strong impression on me?How do they do that? Once you begin to discover what it is that they do, you can begin to model their behaviours. If it works for them, it may well work for you too. This is feedback you give yourself.

The second is feedback others give you while you are telling stories. You will need to maintain eye contact, and keep all your senses open and alert to notice the reactions you are getting as you tell your story. Are they the reactions you want at each stage? Effective story telling is like weaving a spell; you are putting listeners into a light trance, similar to daydreaming, and when you are succeeding it will be easy to move your audience from one state to another. Your feedback here is mainly non-verbal. This does not mean, of course, that your audience is passive. A lot of thinking and emotional processing may be occurring. The more you observe your audience, the more you will know if you are getting the results you want.