Greetings,
This is a simple, basic outline of what essence is. The purpose is to help you to better understand what is going on so that you can dig further into the power of essence mapping. This is only a bird's eye view of the subject, so it should be easy to follow.
Everything has an essence. Everything has always had an essence. Everything has its own essence. And everyone perceives that essence in a different way from everyone else.
Whenever we see, hear of, or read about something, we immediately attach to it a load of connotations that we normally associate with that thing. That load is its essence as perceived by us. Everything has a range of different essences that different people might apply to it.
If we wanted to make sure that someone is perceiving the same essence that we are, we run into difficulties. The different things that people have done to overcome these difficulties have a very wide and diverse range of variety.
We have added one. And we like it.
Remember, everything has an essence. We have not invented essence. We have merely invented a new way of telling other people about what we perceive a thing's essence to be like.
The basic principle underlying most, if not all, of the ways of articulating essence that are out there, is simple.
You list several things, hoping that in their conjunction people will see what you are getting at.
So if I have a red background, and then I put a knife on it, most people will probably think of murder. If I put a rose on it, however, most people will probably think of love.
Now, if I put that same knife on a fish, people will think either of dinner, or of endangered species. Hopefully not the latter.
If I put the rose on a piano, people might think of a concert, if on a coffin, they will think of death or a funeral. Etc.
Movies, pictures, poetry, and books all try to use many different things put together to convey an emotion or an idea into you without actually spelling it out. Sometimes it would be easier to just spell it out, but they want to hide it and be more artistic. Other times it is just plain impossible to spell it out.
Our system of essence mapping that has so befuddled so many people is very simple in principle: we are merely listing different things in a tidy way to help them all tell you an idea of the essence of something in a very efficient way.
Just a list.
That is all.
Just an essence.
Does that help?
P.S. We tested this explanation by giving it to a 10-year-old to read. She understood it, so if you don't get it, we can make fun of you. Just kidding!
Dragon Egg
