X-ray listening for imaginary friends and enemies

Becoming x-ray listeners means that we have to have to “hear” the truth of each other’s imagination. In researching and developing the ability, Judy Rees found that people use 6 metaphors a minute in an ordinary English conversation. We use words to give ideas physical properties so that we can place our ideas in the world of time and space in practical terms.  

When we say we want something to be clear, we do not generally mean that we want to be able to see through it like a pane of glass. We use the metaphor of clarity to refer to an internal state of being. To understand each other, we need to use more than our ears to listen.

 

Words serve the same purpose for adults that an imaginary friend may serve for a child. They allow us to explore the relationship between our internal experience and every other thing there is to think about in the universe. 

 

The saying is that “you have to build trust.” If that is how your imaginary friend says it is, then so it is. 

 

The first step in listening is believing that someone may be right about something. If we trust in the integrity of the universe, we don’t have to have all the answers. We don’t have to know what to do about everything in advance, or insist that everything be done a certain way.  

 

We may have a tendency to have things all figured out, and a feeling of frustration when somebody doesn’t see things the way we do. “If only you would see things my way” we think things would be so much better. But what if the way things are depends on how you think about them? The important thing would be the idea itself, not what you call it. The point is not which metaphor to use, but what the metaphor means for each person in their own Learning Story. 

 

Notice the imaginary friends, enemies, and metaphors being used by the people close to you. Do not point out what you think would be a better metaphor, or what you think is real. Ask the people close to you to describe their own experience using their own language.

 

Recognize that the metaphors that clothe our thoughts are fables in the sense that they tell a story, and myths in the sense that they represent a tradition of explaining one thing by comparing it to another. Each of us has the power to assign our consciousness space or dimensionality in physical terms, whether that is in the back of our mind, the tip of our tongue, or anywhere else. 

 

Respond to the views of others by taking 100% responsibility for seeing things from their point of view. If someone mentions your name or likeness to describe something going on in their mind, be curious about the size, shape, location, and position relative to other qualities the person gives to the space they inhabit. Do not take offense. Do not argue with imaginary friends or enemies. Seek to understand, and practice x-ray listening. Trust will follow.

 

 

* GODSPEED stands for “Gather Only Data in Sync with the Purpose of Every Excellent Deed.”