LeGrand Cirque Psyche Presents:
The 20TH Century Tuesday of a Noman,
Introduction Part 2 (contintued)

Later I was introduced to his work and it has taken me three years more to convince him to allow me this introductory note to his second book. I wanted the opportunity of this introduction to clarify some fundamental ideas which are not necessarily widely enough known, but which are, at the very core of advanced theories of perception today.
First off the reader of Toc's work must understand, what is a metaphor, and more importantly, why. A metaphor is a overlay of one image on another. For example; Johnny is a dog. The fact that Johnny is an eighteen year old human male surging with hormones humors us to say he is a dog. These simple words overlays on Johnny all the dog-like qualities we associate with dogs. From our own cultural bias we are usually implying the negative qualities, such as; eating garbage, a fascination with loud smells, and an endless desire to copulate. But why a metaphor? And the answer is, that with four words, "Johnny is a dog", we have created an image worth hundreds of words. This aphorism states an essential function of the "subconscious". The subconscious speaks to us by way of concise images and feelings, and the connectedness of metaphors, gathers the most imagery in the least words.
So what is "The Subconscious"? The subconscious is a perceptive function of our awareness that misses nothing, witnessing every layer of perception and then feeding needed parts back to us by way of dreams, desires, feelings and inspirations, thereby quietly directing our life.
There are ways to influence "The Subconscious", but its predilections are mostly preset from the perceptually rich experiences of childhood. In most people the subconscious accepts the safe predigested persona of the group, that of Jesus, Jehovah, Allah, etc., Money, etc. And in some few, the subconscious takes on a character and voice before the culture has the chance to form it, (or in spite of it). These people often find their way into the arts, because the hard-wired difference of their perception makes their observations a little more interesting, and therefore a little richer. Often these individuals feel compelled by their subconscious to offer their society their personal language of images and feelings, giving us fresh views of our own humanity.
They give us these views through personalized metaphor, because metaphors arouse the subconscious into a state of response. This seems to be the mechanics of it's nature, it is curious, puzzling and playful. To an extent the more and more concise the metaphor the greater the subconscious responds. The connecting-imagery of metaphors is a kind of high-energy food to the subconscious. Artists are addicts. They are addicted to the escalating response of their own subconscious and the particular energy of feeling it affords. The feeling is everything. And in the arts we applaud obsession. (Introduction Part 3 contintued on next page)