The Invisible Power of

Metaphors

By Edwin Bayse

🛡️ Immortalis Prime Law Preface

Within Immortalis, freedom begins with sovereignty of mind. Prime Law Capitalism requires individuals capable of clear perception, integrated honesty, and self-led thought — not obedience to imposed frameworks or unconscious narratives.

This article examines how metaphors quietly shape human thinking and perception, inviting readers to become conscious of the lenses through which they interpret reality. By encouraging awareness rather than belief, and clarity rather than authority, it reflects a foundational Immortalis principle: no force, no fraud, no coercion — even at the level of thought.

Here, understanding is not dictated but discovered, reinforcing the inner freedom necessary for voluntary cooperation, authentic value creation, and a civilization grounded in conscious choice rather than unconscious conformity.

We usually think of metaphors as decorative language, something poets use to make sentences more colorful. In reality, metaphors are doing far more work than that.

They quietly shape how we think, how we reason, and how we decide what feels true. Much of human thought is structured not by formal logic alone, but by metaphorical frameworks that operate below our awareness.

When we say "time is money," "ideas are tools," or "arguments are battles," we are not merely speaking creatively.

We are importing entire patterns of meaning from one domain into another. These patterns guide what we notice, what we ignore, and what conclusions seem natural.

Metaphor, Analogy, and Simile:

Close Relatives

Metaphor, analogy, and simile all perform a similar cognitive function: they map understanding from a familiar domain onto a less familiar one.

A metaphor asserts identity in a symbolic sense. "The mind is a machine" does not mean the mind literally contains gears, but it invites us to think in terms of inputs, outputs, and efficiency.

A simile does nearly the same work, but more gently. "The mind is like a machine" keeps the comparison explicit and slightly looser.

An analogy is usually more extended and structured. It explains

how relationships in one system resemble relationships in another.

For example, describing memory as being like a library allows us to talk about storage, retrieval, and organization in a systematic way.

The differences are mostly about emphasis and precision.

All three rely on the same underlying cognitive mechanism understanding one thing in terms of another.

Why the Brain Thinks in Metaphors

Human brains did not evolve to process abstract truth in a vacuum.

They evolved to survive in physical and social environments.

As a result, we understand abstract ideas by grounding them in bodily

experience and shared cultural imagery.

We speak of "grasping" an idea, "seeing" a point, or "feeling" that something is right. A problem is often referred to as a "can of worms." These are not accidents of language. They reflect how cognition works. Neural systems originally evolved for movement, perception, and emotion are reused to reason about logic, ethics, and meaning.

Culture layers additional metaphors on top of biology.

Every society inherits dominant metaphorical frameworks that shape how people think about time, the self, nature, and reality itself. Some cultures emphasize balance and flow. Others emphasize control, progress, or competition. These metaphors become invisible assumptions rather than conscious choices.

Metaphors as Filters of Truth

Because metaphors structure thought, they also filter truth. A metaphor highlights certain aspects of reality while hiding others.

If you think of the brain as a computer, you will focus on information processing and efficiency, but you may overlook emotion,

embodiment, and lived experience. If you think of nature as a machine, you may emphasize control and optimization, while downplaying interdependence and fragility.

Metaphors do not simply describe reality. They participate in

constructing the version of reality we experience. This does not

mean truth is arbitrary, but it does mean that our access to truth is always mediated.

The Ubiquity of Metaphor in Language

It is nearly impossible to speak or write without metaphors. Words like

"understand," "concept," and "theory" are themselves metaphorical in origin. Even grammar contains metaphors of space, movement, and containment.

We "fall into" confusion, "get out of" trouble, "hold onto" beliefs, and "build" arguments. These expressions feel

literal only because they are so familiar.

Language without metaphor would be nearly unthinkable.

Metaphor is not an optional feature of communication. It is one of its foundations.

Metaphors in Science, All the Way Down

Science often presents itself as purely literal and objective, but it too relies heavily on metaphor.

Physics is a clear example.

We speak of waves and particles, even though neither fully describes what quantum entities are. We talk about fields, spacetime curvature, and information, each of which began as metaphors borrowed from everyday experience.

As physicists push toward deeper levels of reality, metaphor becomes even more unavoidable.

Some describe reality as a fabric, a network, a field, a process, or a computation. Others use metaphors drawn from consciousness, such as experience, observation, or participation.

Mainstream and non-mainstream thinkers alike reach for language that can point beyond familiar categories. Whether one speaks of fundamental fields, relational structures, information, or universal consciousness, these are all metaphorical attempts to gesture toward something that resists direct description.

Metaphor is not a weakness here. It is a necessity. When we go beyond direct sensory

experience, metaphor is often the only bridge available.

Using Metaphors Well and Wisely

The danger of metaphors is not that we use them, but that we forget we are using them.

A metaphor becomes misleading when it is mistaken for literal truth, or when it is applied beyond the domain where it fits.

The wave and particle metaphors in physics are useful, but only if we remember that they are partial and provisional. Good use of metaphor involves awareness. Ask what the

metaphor illuminates, and what it hides. Ask where it breaks down. Be willing to switch metaphors when the old ones start to constrain understanding rather than expand it. Be aware of how others may interpret the metaphor differently, which could distort the idea you are trying to convey. When communicating complex ideas, especially across disciplines or

to general audiences, clear metaphors can be powerful tools.

But they should be presented as lenses, not as final answers.

Seeing the Invisible Metaphors are invisible precisely because they are everywhere.

They hide in plain sight. They quietly guide how we think about truth, reality, and ourselves.

Becoming conscious of them does not free us from metaphor, but it

gives us choice. We can compare metaphors, refine them, and use them more responsibly.

In the end, metaphors don't need to be obstacles to truth. They can be the paths by which we approach it.

The more carefully we choose and examine those paths, the closer we come to seeing what lies beyond them, and the closer we come to fully integrated honesty.

A Final Word

Metaphor is not just something language uses. It is what language is made of. "Metaphor" is itself a metaphor. This self-referential aspect is not a defect or a bug. It is a window into how deeply metaphor is woven into thought itself.