Listening as a Metaphor

June 22nd, 2006 Fred McVittie Posted in Hearing, Illumination, Meditation, Metaphor, Synaesthesia |

The term ‘listening’ has been used to refer to a type of awareness or ‘openness’ unconnected to the reception of auditory stimulus. It is used metaphorically to describe a phase in creativity or intuition immediately prior to, and hopefully facilitative of, a moment of ‘breakthrough’ or ‘illumination’ . This undirected listening, a heightened sense of awareness without that awareness having an object, is also a feature of certain meditation techniques.

It is likely that parts of the the auditory system within the brain are being activated within this particular state, although clearly not in a way which is instrumental or intended to actually hear things in the outside world.

It is also likely that this form of ‘listening’, in which the action of paying auditory attention is carried out by the metaphorical body, rather than the physical body, has a significant synaesthetic component, since the type of intuitions or creative entities which emerge from this ‘listening’ are not necessarily auditory in nature.