I Am A Metaphor
The Metaphorical Nature Of Consciousness

The idea that consciousness is a metaphorical creation is not so strange as it might seem at first. Consider for a moment what happens if you tell yourself "I am James Bond." If you adopt this metaphor of yourself as James Bond, and play along with it for a moment, you'll notice that your consciousness immediately changes to some extent. You think like Bond would think (or at least how you imagine he would think), and perhaps talk and answer questions like he would.

This has been used as a tool for creative problem solving. For example, if you imagine you are Donald Trump you may have ideas for real estate investing which you never would have had by "yourself," or when in your "normal" consciousness. But beyond being an interesting and useful mental exercise, this also raises the question of whether our normal conscious identity is anything more than a similar invention.

Some Speculation On Identity and Consciousness

Imagine for a moment if you had no name, no word "I" or "me" and no other convenient way to refer to yourself. That would certainly change your experience of life, wouldn't it? If you still had names for other people, you could think about them, but what about yourself? You could think FROM yourself, as all higher animals do, but only once you have a name and a concept of "me" can you think ABOUT yourself.

Though you exist as an individual, the "self" which you "see" in your thoughts is really just a metaphorical creation. Whether we are aware of it or not (sometimes we are), we are always creating a "story" about our lives that metaphorically represents the reality. You project yourself into an imagined future, and you "remember" who you are by reference to "memories" that are perhaps just more stories. In fact, research is showing more and more that "memories" are largely inventions rather than a recording of actual events.

A personal name and other concepts such as "I" and "me" are simple labels that pull together this collection of memories, ideas and metaphors. The "world" in our heads, in which we "see" ourselves "moving about," is of course not reality. It's just the best metaphor we have for understanding reality and our "place" in it.

Is this theory of consciousness and identity good news or bad news? Both. Remember the exercise above? If Bob thinks as though he is Ghandi or Rambo, he gets a certain outcome. But if he thinks as if he is himself - as he normally would do - he get's a different outcome, based on the "Bob" he has created in his mind. This self that he creates may have all sorts of limitations built into it.

This explains how two people with the same skills, intelligence, knowledge, and situation can have such radically different results. They are acting from the perspective of very different metaphorical identities. One may have a "self" that is capable of almost anything while the other has unfortunately created a more limited "self." Not too long ago, the term "self image" was coined to explain these differences.

Have you ever paid attention to successful people (with success in whatever area of life)? If so, you probably have noticed the variety of skills and knowledge and the differences in the levels of these. A blunt example: you have seen stupid people succeed in business.

Clearly there is something other than ability and circumstance that greatly contributes to success. This would be even clearer if you could see up close how absolutely mediocre in skills and intelligence some "great" figures of history are. How can this be? One place to start looking for answers to this mystery is with the particular consciousness and identity each person creates for him or herself.

This also suggests a question: If identity and consciousness are metaphorical inventions, can we re-invent them? Certainly those with multiple-personality disorder have done so. But can we do so consciously and with a more productive outcome? Now, that is a question worth exploring further.