Metaphors and neuro linguistic programming

By M.Farouk Radwan, MSc.

NLP metaphors

We all use metaphors while speaking either in the form of phrases that we say or in the form of a stories that we tell.

When you use a metaphor you access certain values in your brain based on your background, culture and belief system. This information becomes loaded into your brain and so may impact the decisions or choices made at that time.

The same happens when you use a metaphor when talking to another person. This person also accesses a certain part of his mind based on the metaphor you used.

By selecting the metaphors you use you can let the person you are talking to load certain information into his mind and so manipulate his behaviour and choices to a certain extent.

How words affect people

An experiment was done by bringing 3 groups of people and exposing them to a game that contained lots of words. The first group were exposed to words such as anger, rage ..etc, the second group were exposed to words such as kindness and politeness while the third group were exposed to neutral words.

Moments later a person who worked with the researchers started interrupting all the people in the three groups and the result was that the first group became aggressive towards him, the second group was less aggressive while the third was neutral!!

This research shows how words affect people, so what about metaphors?

metaphors can program other people's minds

Metaphors also bypass the conscious mind and reach the subconscious mind of a person directly and this makes it a suitable method in giving suggestions to a hypnotized person.

Even without hypnotizing others metaphors can bypass the conscious mind and so can be used to reprogram people to a certain extent.

When a friend of yours asks you for help with an emotional problem you can use metaphors to help him out instead of giving him the answers directly.

Because people respond better to metaphors your friend can experience a good change in mood without realizing that metaphors were the reason.

Use metaphors whenever you are trying to motivate a person or make him feel better.

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