Connection to Spirit

It is far from uncommon these days to meet people who find organised religion distasteful.  While I share a distaste for cliques, I deeply admire the members of some truly inspired and inspiring congregations.  Cliques range from the merely snobby, isolationists to the dangerous and despicable fundamentalists. Congregations seem only to vary in their ambitions whether local, remote or global.

Each of the major and minor religions along with every person with a set of metaphysical beliefs is attempting to connect with something that I believe is inherent in being human.  There is something divine that calls to humans and has done throughout human history - personally I think it is hard-wired. At least insofar as the deep structures of the brain produce a pattern that causes the conscious mind to seek a matching pattern somewhere in the world.

Many people inadvertently discard the sense of wonder and connection to something beyond the physical and intellectual world when they discard religious faith.  That connection can be reclaimed in a very personal sense by exploring within a personally meaningful metaphor.

"Make your God transparent to the transcendent, and it doesn't matter what his name is."
Joseph Campbell, Pathways to Bliss

Metaphors

The human mind is adept at playing with ideas at multiple levels and nowhere is this more evident or more powerful than in exploring consciousness.  Huge swathes of our minds are hidden from our conscious awareness. Simple, familiar story components like doors, paths, buried treasure, locked chests, temples, castles, caves, sanctuaries can be assembled in such a way as to explore parts of the hidden realm.

Metaphors are not exclusively verbal, but the story metaphor is extremely useful to express or articulate aspects of consciousness that are not easily accessible through language. Long used in teaching the story and the story-teller combine to create an emotional context to anchor a message or a lesson.

A good example of a metaphor in action is the recovery of the pleasure to be had in artistic expression. Many of us were told to put away our colouring pencils, our finger paints or our home-made story books and concentrate on homework or the like.  This was often done kindly or at least with good intentions, although not always.  Criticism or harsh judgement will drive the artistic spirit deep underground. Many people find that the child they once were put this artistic spirit in a safe place and through a self-directed story they can access that safe place and recover their childhood delight. Often this is all the motivation required to stimulate a new search for self-expression.

"These kids aren't going to make their living as artists, let's redirect their attention to something society can use" said the Ministry for Education

Jungle Adventure: Why Guided Visualisation

Guided visualisation draws on the awesome power of story-telling, working with only the barest outline of a scene the mind fills in the details from memory, imagination and the dreaming depths of the unconscious.  The effect can be likened to a lucid dream; in that the conscious mind can play with metaphors to get access to memories, resources and connections that are beyond the reach of logical processes.