Be careful before you mess with metaphor!

Think metaphor is random silly stuff done by people who aren't clever enough to think clearly? Limited to religious or hippie types? Not real hard information? Well, then think again...

Metaphor is an information transmission device which is exponentially more *information dense* than linear thought expression and indeed, one cannot actually get by in the n-complex systemics of the human mind or energy system without speaking this information rich super-language.

Here is a teaching example as to what happens when someone takes a metaphor, namely the "Snow Globe" from the EmoTrance technique of the same nature, and translates it into the "more sensible sounding" format of linear thought and calls them a "Thought Ball" - and just HOW MUCH would be lost in doing so.

 

Metaphor Magic - Thought Balls VS Snow Globes

[This is an excerpt from a letter written in response to the questions as whether it wouldn't be better to re-name Snow Globes to Thought Balls in order to avoid "putting off" "sensible" people into rejection the process. As a brief reminder, troubles are poured into a Snow Globe held in a persons hands and then lifted up and passed over to the Higher Processing Systems - see Snow Globes Article for details of the process.]

Now to the question why they are called Snow Globes and not Thought Balls.

I don't know if you have these things where you are, spheres made of glass with bits of sparkly stuff and usually something else - a local building or thing of interest, flowers, dolls, christmas scenes, all sorts. The newer ones are cheap and made of plastic but the really old fashioned ones were perfect spheres which rested on a wooden base; people collect them.

When I first started playing with the concept of a higher energy system to hand these things over to (which we now call, for ease of construct, the "soul"), I also played with words and metaphorical representations of all kinds; at one point I called the (rather dreary!) higher organising systems "The Angel Child" and said that the Angel Child needs toys to play with, else it gets bored and unhappy, and that our various thoughts, feelings and experiences would make the perfect toys. When I said it I got the image of an old fashioned snow globe and a child being totally fascinated by it, lifting it out of the wooden stand, holding it in both hands, shaking it and making the little sparkly bits dance.

Now, as you probably know, I take metaphors VERY seriously and the only reason I used to not talk about them much in public is because many a fine human construct is turned off big time when you start talking about "Snow Globes For The Angel Child" and I really don't want to lose them; so in public I translate and talk then instead about the far more acceptable "higher organising energy system which exists in quantum space and is thus, to all intents and purposes, immortal". So indeed, I fully appreciate where you are coming from with the idea of thought balls.

However, there is more to the Snow Globes for the Angel Child than just the translation would let you guess; there are many layers of that particular metaphor which contain *far more* than the linear-logic-proof translation.

Just few at random that I know of (I bet there are more that I don't consciously know of!)

- A snow globe is essentially a TOY. At leat the unconscious mind will understand that immediately and what are the presuppositions if we take these things that we used to take so terribly seriously, were so terribly afraid of, had such terrible problems with or were so bitterly ashamed of into that format of lightness, even of playfulness? This has *enormous* repercussions for the totality as a whole, and what previous life experiences mean, and how important they are in the overall scheme of things.

- There is the idea that a snow globe may contain *anything at all* - the biggest most impressive church or huge public building, for example - we've seen them, tiny inside a snowglobe, right? And here we come to one of the possible limitation of a thought ball - snow globes can contain *much more than just thoughts*. They can take emotions, memories, feelings, decisions, metaphors, energetic entities, dreams, prayers, wishes, conflicts, parts, personalities, people, whole families, multi-layered, multi-time events, houses, realities - anything at all and indeed, some things completely directly and not just in the format of their thought representations which is a pretty profound structural difference.

- There is the matter of the concept of the "globe". A perfect sphere is one of *the* most powerful magical symbols known to man (and/or woman and/or all others round here :-) There is a reason why crystal balls are thus and not crystal flat viewing screens, and we know this on some level, even though it may be impossible to explain in consciousness or linear speech. There may well be some rather central reason why we are handing over globes rather than spiky dodecahedrons - once again, I couldn't explain but the very thought just makes me shudder! Even a ball, which in essence looks like a sphere, is not really a sphere or a globe, not quite. It is just that little bit "harder" and I firmly believe that such small differences in metaphor can make a lot of difference in energy work.

- Following on from that, snow globes are fluid inside. It's one of their fascinations - they look like they're made of solid glass but they are actually *liquid*. And although, once again, I couldn't really tell you just why, I *know* they are different from similar but solid spheres such as crystal balls, or empty spheres such as bubbles. In writing the last word it seems to me that thoughts would do very well in a bubble, actually, and could be passed over nicely in that way. Just like in the cartoons!

- Now, with the snow globes, there's the matter of the "snow" - the sparkly bits inside the snow globes. This again is not spurious but has some very good reasons. I know a bit about that "fairy dust" by now and it is really a most essential, really powerful metaphor in its own right, describing one of the core principles of the universal flow - in Christian mythology, for example, this turns up as "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" (but they always had a way to make things sound dour and dreary, I just mention it as a nudge in the direction of just HOW important a metaphor this actually is).

Now, the thing with metaphors is that to take any aspect of any one cohesive energetic reality thus described (such as a complete snow globe with content) by itself and out of context is a misleading thing and thus I avoid it (as in, you can't ever know what a frog is all about by studying the bits of a dead one); if you put all the above components together and then add all the other layers that are tied in to something like this, it becomes noticeable just what a "snow globe" may be as an energetic device.

Mess with metaphors like this at your own risk, and only, ONLY if you are absolutely sure about what you are doing because you *understand the richness and density* of metaphoric information transmission. Otherwise, you would lose more than you would ever consciously be able to comprehend ... with linear logic alone.

Silvia Hartmann 2003