Awo Fagbami Nougbodekon : Metaphor, ambiguity, sensiotics, neurology and other considerations that come from the wonderful realm of the Spirit of Eternal Knowledge. Ifa uses a highly metaphoric language in order to transmit His messages through His Ese, a language that is filled with many liturgical meanings that sum up their influence to the overall meaning, creating so a unique way of communication. This way of communication is directed to the unconscious mind of the “client” in order to activate her creativity and to the meocosmic mind of the Babalawo in order to inform him about the causes, the evolution and the sacrifice that is ordered to the client in order to heal or solve his/her problems. The word metaphor comes from the Latin metaphora, carrying over, in turn from the Greek μεταφορά (metaphorá), transfer, from μεταφέρω (metapherō), to carry over, to transfer and that from μετά (meta), after, with, across + φέρω (pherō), to bear, to carry. The etimology expresses the power of metaphor to carry the comprehension through two or more different and non-related concepts, in order to establish an analogy that apparently does not exist. In this sense, metaphor, like other types of analogy, can usefully be distinguished from metonymy as one of two fundamental modes of thought. Metaphor and analogy both work by bringing together two concepts from different conceptual domains, whereas metonymy works by using one element from a given domain to refer to another closely related element. Thus, a metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas a metonymy relies on the existing links within them. The difference is in the euristic results, that is in the possibility to create new associations of meanings and new forms of comprehension. In the same way the Aristotelian metaphor is something that has no euristic relate and is limited to some form of causal deletion. For example if I say Peter is a lion, I am proposing the phrase Peter is like a lion but erasing the term like. BTW Ifa does not use simple metaphors, metonymies or Aristotelian deletions, but complex euristic allegories, or extended metaphors wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject. In these stories the metaphorical language is permeated of symbolic images, and run through the mechanisms of implication, violation of a selective limitation and others, in order to render the final meaning and to suggest possible solution to problems. As for Yoruba language, sometimes these complex mechanisms may be inside a single word. For example the word Babalawo represents a specific metaphor with a violation of selective restriction and some implication. Baba l’awo may mean the Father of the Secret, even though this may be an imperfect translation. However, the selective violation refers to the obvious fact that a secret cannot have a Father following the logic reasonment. The euristic association is that somebody can be the possessor of a secret and this make him a Father, or that to know a secret may make one elevating to a parental level (the euristic conclusion here is Elders are owners of wisdom and they will share it with their children). The second meaning is given by the mechanism of implication. If there is a Father, there is also a Mother. The third meaning comes again by implication. A good Father has secrets that will share with his children in order to make them progress to his role of Elder through the time. The fourth meaning is that Babalawos have access to secrets, not to mysteries. They are not able to comprehend the unknown that is Ifa. Human beings cannot know Ifa. It is Ifa who know us. Where metaphors come from? One should understand that human brain is not that developed wonder while evolution has left some solution that refers to ambiguity. For example, in case of a rotten bad smelling food, there is a specific cerebral area (insula) that activates in order to express the feeling of gustative disgust. That same area is involved also in case of moral disgust. So, moral pain can be improved inhibiting a neuro-mediator that is called substance P, whose work is to transmit the feeling of physical pain. During evolution Nature attributed to the same cerebral areas and mediators the same metaphorical response. That is, Nature created the nonlinguistic metaphors in order to save space due to the limited capacity of human skull. Another example of how the brain links the literal and the metaphorical comes from a study by the University of Colorado and Yale. Volunteers would meet one of the researchers, believing that they would be starting the experiment shortly. In reality, the experiment began when the experimenter, seemingly struggling with an armful of folders, asks the volunteer to briefly hold their coffee. As the key experimental manipulation, the coffee was either hot or iced. Subjects then read a description of some individual, and those who had held the warmer cup tended to rate the individual as having a warmer personality, with no change in ratings of other attributes. Another brilliant study by Bargh and colleagues concerned haptic sensations (haptic: related to the sense of touch). Volunteers were asked to evaluate the resumes of supposed job applicants where, as the critical variable, the resume was attached to a clipboard of one of two different weights. Subjects who evaluated the candidate while holding the heavier clipboard tended to judge candidates to be more serious, with the weight of the clipboard having no effect on how congenial the applicant was judged. After all, we say things like “weighty matter” or “gravity of a situation.” So, one should conclude human mind is predisposed to metaphor due to a certain degree of natural ambiguity that is part of at least a definite piece of unconscious work. Btw that is the reason why the Unconscious mind is often defined “literal” alluding to her relative ambiguity and metaphorical abilities. However, Unconscious is made of several parts and the literality is limited to a definite type of mechanisms that are completely different from other more creative possibilities. Both these parts may concur to the successful outcome of therapeutic messages. Ambiguity is in fact a specific mechanism in hypnotic communication, as may directly influence the unconscious response. One could thus say metaphor arises first as non-linguistic mechanism from the unconscious interpretation of different concepts by the mechanism of ambiguity. Art theorist Robert Vischer argued that when we look at a painting, we feel ourselves into it by imagining our body in the posture of a nonhuman or inanimate object in the painting. For example, the painting The Solitary Tree by Caspar David Friedrich shows a tree with contorted, barren limbs. In looking at that painting, we may imagine our limbs in a similarly contorted and barren shape, and that creates a feeling in us of strain and distress. Or a real physical feeling, that is a kinestesis feedback. Vischer was describing synesthesia,that is the interpretative transformation of a sense into another. So, synesthesically one can feel a color, or hear a sensation linking two non-linguistic realms such as sensory realms like in the case of what I call sensiotic Ifa. In this case a non-linguistic metaphor is the main mechanism through which Ifa can express His message with let’s say sensorial Ese and recurring to the force of symbols in order to make individually clear His words. This is probably what remains in humans of a primal ancient form of communication among human beings and with the Spiritual realm. This language did probably last hundreds of thousands years before the appearing of the verbal language of which it was the precursor. Today it remains as a partly atrophied spiritual possibility in humans. It deserves further study and adequate evaluation in order to improve the approach to Ifa Divination and to increase the chances for a successful outcome for clients. Interestingly, there is a recent scientific study by functional NMR that evaluated the brain activation during the expression of linguistic metaphors. Unexpectedly, what emerged was a prevalent left hemispheric activation in two specific areas, that are the left prefrontal area (angular gyrus) and the left posterior angular gyrus. The time course of activation demonstrated the all starts from the prefrontal cortex to reach then the posterior angular gyrus. However, the prevalent left hemispheric activation is widely explained by the type of linguistic approach of the study where researchers made wide use of metonymy and not metaphor. Metonymy is mainly a logic construction so it is adequately dealt through the logic left hemisphere. One could speculate about the neurologic meaning of this behavior. But here we are discussing of Ifa so it is interesting to know what Ifa says according to this instrumental demonstration. Odu Ifa follow a peculiar and specific arrangement all around the Opon. Opon Ifa may be considered a microcosmic representation of several different macrocosmic realities. In my experience one of the macrocosmic representation is the human brain and the sensorial disposition of thoughts. Due to the position of the activated areas during metonymy, the resulting Odu that deals with this language mechanism is Obara Ofun. Obara Ofun is mainly a visual Odu from sensiotic point of view. It expresses the relation between the LEFT prefrontal visual cortex with the posterior LEFT occipital visual cortex. The direction of the sensiotic thought is from Obara to Ofun, that is from the left anterior prefrontal to the left posterior occipital gyrus (according to the results of the study). This direction speaks about a logic initial filtering of a visual information that is then transmitted to the posterior visual cortex for final elaboration and decoding. The implication is that metaphors are build up through the intervention of an internal visual strategy through real recalled images (so called Vr) that are filtered through the prefrontal cortex in order to be analyzed and sent to the occipital cortex that will make them available to the sensorial final internal perception. The final activation of cerebellar and deep central areas is in accord with the possibility of a kinestesis mechanism of feedback with the presence of visceral and muscular nonspecific feelings. From a neurosensiotic point of view the overall strategy will thus be: VrfVroKl (visual real frontal, visual real occipital, kinestesis left). So, Ifa informs us that, at least for metonymy (and probably even to a higher level for real metaphors) this visual decoding strategy is linked to kinestesis feedback. Depending on the localization and quality of these kinestesis manifestation, there will be a different symbolic messages whose nature will depend on one’s peculiar needs. The Oyeku implication of Obara Ofun confirms from Ifa point of view both the presence of kinestesis and add the important point of an emotional final response that will be related to the quality of the metonymy. Ifa confirms the neurology and the sensiotics by this Ese. Òbàrà Òfún. Itun ntun mi se, Ifá nfá won wa towótowó; Ero okere nwa mii bowa. A dífá fún Òrúnmìlà. Wòn niki Órúnmìlà wa rúbo a maa ri’re lojo gbogbo. Ebo: Aso funfun, eyelé funfun, adiye funfun ati egbèjìlélógún owó. Ó gbó ó rú. My history repeats, Ifa is drawing them to me with their money. Visitors from a long distance are looking for me. This was divined for Orunmila, who was advised to sacrifice so that he might see good things all the days of his life. The sacrifice: a piece of white cloth, a white pigeon, a white fowl, and forty-four hundred cowries. He heard and sacrificed. This brief Ese starts alluding to some kind of repetition, that is to the neurologic attitude to circulate. Visitors from long distance refers to the necessity of involvement of long distance areas. With their money is a reference to the reward that will be gained. From a long distance implicates that some neurologic circuit may elaborate the information through adjacent cerebral areas, while in this case the involved areas are far away each other. As the Ese shows the white as sacrifice, that is an indirect allusion to the light, or visual information. So, Ifa is implicating: the information will be visual, there are far areas that are involved. As the most distant areas in the brain are located in frontal and occipital lobes, this is an indirect suggestion these areas are in the frontal and occipital lobes. The sacrifice is related to the concept of white, that is the light of consciousness that may enlighten the comprehension. In this case white is also a reference to the biologic energy that is consumed in order to allow the neurologic circuit. White cloth is the energy, pigeon refers to necessity of a long distance travel, fowl refers to the final localization of energy and money quantify a certain dispersion of energy. The phrase “….so that he might see good things all the days of his life” is a clear reference to the visual sensiotic approach.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 14:26:23 +0000
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