PATTERN #7: META-STATING DRAGONS

When we use the metaphor of a “dragon” we do so as a symbol for an unresourceful state. As a metaphor, you may have to frame this, or reframe it, for some participants who might have the tendency to lose the frame and think that we’re talking about something real. It happens! Yet, it is a metaphor and, as such, stands for an unresourceful state. This unresourceful state may be a negative emotional state, it could be a conceptual state, it could even be a positive state but the person fears it, hates it, dreads it, feels embarrassed by it. So to that person, it is a “dragon” state and so interferes, distracts, or sabotages the person’s genius state.

Now in the “dance” with a dragon we do one of three things: we tame the dragon, we transform the dragon, or we slay the dragon. In the process, no actual dragon is threatened or hurt! This is true in spite of the fact that I was accused of “threatening an endangered species” by a NLP Trainer in Germany. That happened years ago when the book, Dragon Slaying was first published. And from all indications, he seemed serious about it.