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251 Conclusions
To conclude, people’s views about themselves and the world around them are deeply rooted in their
conceptual systems, which are created by their experiences and their bodily interactions with the world,
whether it’s having to do with gravity in the case of Up and Down, or what our individual and social
concepts are. When people talk about religious and spiritual concepts, they are revealing a great deal
about the way they are, their world, and the way they interact with it.
The more entrenched a frame of mind is, the less plastic it is, and this is confirmed by the neurosciences
which claim that it is difficult to break down and reconstruct certain synaptic structures of the brain. our
basic way of seeing things are often incompatible or at best seep through when a new frame or a new
conceptual metaphor is introduced, whether it be in the form of speech, gesture or drawings. I hope this
was convincing, based on the evidence I’ve presented, which is by the way consistent with my other data
collected from another dozen of informants who define themselves as Jewish, Muslim, Monotheistic,
Pagan, New Age, Reiki, and so forth, and not only Christians. one conceptual metaphor does not give way
to another one immediately, and according to psychoanalytic studies, it is possible to substitute
conceptual metaphors and frames of mind, but only with a great deal of effort. The primary source domain
of our habitual conceptual metaphor, I would say, will always motivate any other laminated domain
mappings, or blends, especially for such meaningful concepts like personhood or belief systems.
Moreover, speech alone doesn’t provide all the information. Conceptual metaphor certainly tells a great
deal about the way we think the world works, but a lot more needs to go into the conceptual integration
networks. Gesture studies has proven to be yet another powerful instrument, which should demonstrate
how useful it can be for discourse analysis, psychoanalysis and various types of counseling, just to
mention a few. speech, gesture and drawings, each semiotic mode has its characteristic affordances and
limitations, but when used together, they can paint a more complete picture of what we are looking for,
whether it be a person’s concept of God or of himself. Thank you!