10 TRANSFORMATIONAL METAPHORS


Ralph Metzner (1998). The Unfolding Self: 

                                      Varieties of Transformative Experience.


Metzner was a psychologist, psychotherapist, professor, and researcher. In this book (formerly titled, Opening to Inner Light), Metzner claims to have uncovered 10 key metaphors that describe the process of psychospiritual transformation that are pancultural (similar across cultures/literatures of the world)...these were first reported at a conference and then published as an academic article entitled, "Ten Classical Metaphors of Self-Transformation" in Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1980, 12 (10), 47-62.

The 10 psychospiritual transformative metaphors are:

1.From dream to awakening 

2.From illusion to realization

3.From darkness to enlightenment

4.From imprisonment to liberation

5.From fragmentation to wholeness

6.From separation to oneness

7.From being on a journey to arriving at the destination

8.From being in exile to coming home

9.From seed to flowering tree

10.From death to rebirth


There are no PRACTICES (activities) described in the book. One idea for a practice is to ask oneself which of these metaphors best describes the process of my life thus far, and then read Mezner's references to stories and sources related to that metaphor--these primary sources will contain suggestions for practices to deepen and perhaps lead to the experience of some type of psychospsritual transformation.




 


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