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Samuel Louis Goh's avatar

It’s pretty wild that this series of pieces is ongoing.

Some of my favourite video games take huge inspiration from Jungian psychology, with the Tarot acting as the map of the soul.

How metaphor fits into the mix, I’ve always likened myself to a Persona called the Hierophant, typified as a champion of conservative values, but runs the risk of appearing as rigid or resistant to change.

My inner world reflected that to a T. A hollowed out Auditorium not uncommon with larger churches with rooms neatly compartmentalising the various faucets that make me who I am.

Metaphors I would use to describe my inner world would be orderly enough to allow for some controlled chaos.

Walled off just enough for structure and a revolving door to explore ideas and concepts that may not have occured to me before.

That would explain my comfort with overarching routine, but that penchant for spontaneity to keep things interesting. It’s pretty cool to have language around this, and I can only dream on what possibilities this could lead to, especially in the area of healing one’s inner child that never felt quite safe growing up, and how that spills over into our adult quirks and habits.

Keep em coming Rach! :D

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Rachel Elena Tng's avatar

Okay I'm infodumping to whoever's here bc too excited:

I hope to demystify the inner experience of ND individuals. I noticed that many simulations of the ND experience (whether in VR or stories) focus on depicting reactions to sensory stimuli or thought processes. This is great, but I feel it still doesn't capture qualia well enough, which is the subjective "what it's like" feelings and sensations of experiencing something.

Metaphor helps us use our sensory experiences (embodiment) to think about concepts (abstraction). So I think deconstructing metaphors might help us see how they correlate to our sensory, embodied experiences. E.g. if my self is a house that is surrounded by a moat, what embodied experiences led me to internalise this metaphor? Could I have experienced physical (and emotional) distance from others that led to a sense of isolation—be it forced or voluntary? Could non-ND folks understand ND folks' subjective experiences better with such metaphors?

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