Homo narrare. Narrative Intelligence 3.0: Managing Reality and Influencing People. Arsen Avetisov

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      Homo narrare

      Narrative Intelligence 3.0: Managing Reality and Influencing People

      Arsen Avetisov

      Editor Gregory Attaryan

      Translator Gregory Attaryan

      © Arsen Avetisov, 2025

      © Gregory Attaryan, translation, 2025

      ISBN 978-5-0065-4569-4

      Created with Ridero smart publishing system

      ARSEN AVETISOV

      HOMO NARRARE

      Narrative Intelligence 3.0:

      Managing Reality and Influencing People

      Acknowledgements

      Life is an incredible journey, filled with loyal companions – family, friends, and like-minded souls. They are so original and uniquely predictable that I sometimes feel I have known them in another life. Each of them has contributed to this book, and I am deeply grateful to them all.

      To my parents – for my uniqueness, the exceptional blend of their genetic material in a special ratio, and for everything they have done to shape my destiny.

      To my wife – for her patience, love, and boundless, inspiring care.

      To my children – for their high expectations and determination, which serve as the best example of unceasing growth.

      To all my friends – those eternally rushing, bustling, and sensitive romantics who give me the strength to laugh at myself and help me smile in the most dramatic moments of life.

      I am thankful to everyone who supports me in my puzzling attempts to make this world a better place. And to everyone else – for the wide spectrum of perspectives, each reminding us that nothing human is foreign to us.

      Our challenges are simply proof of the Creator’s genuine interest in all of us. I am grateful to Him for continuing to teach His lessons and for still holding out hope for us. Life’s journey changes us. God rewards those who know how to wait but laughs at those who mistake laziness for patience. I thank Him for crafting my life’s story, for allowing me to walk the fine line separating the living from the eternal. I thank Him for not abandoning us in tough times and for helping us believe that tomorrow will be better than today. Because that is our greatest hope.

      I am sincerely grateful to all my adversaries and those who envy me, and to all those who have been indifferent or impatient. It is thanks to them, too, that I’ve become who I am. Love your enemies… but never trust them.

      Thanks to my teachers – they separated light from darkness. Some simply turned the light on.

      Special thanks to my old friend, who happens to be the editor and translator of The Power of Narrative Intelligence into English, for his witty comments and valuable advice. Our collaboration continues.

      I cherish what cannot be lost, what does not exist, and what cannot be destroyed because it was never built. We can only dispel the illusion of what seems real. And that is what this book is about.

      This is a book about our world – a world where those who know remain silent, while those who speak do not know.

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      Preface

      To throw a stone, one needs courage and determination. To make it hit the target, one needs wisdom and observation.

      There is a time to gather stones and a time to throw them.

      In my youth, despite all my courage and determination, I lacked wisdom and observation. Every age has its advantages. Now, after several decades, I have come to understand – it is pointless to feel impatience; everything has its time. The time has come to throw the stones. To throw a stone, you need courage and determination. To make it hit the target, you need wisdom and sharp observation.

      I wrote this book with the goal of ensuring that everyone blessed with life does not miss its most important aspects – observing events from the back row and mistaking the play being performed for life itself. Even more tragically, mistaking someone else’s life for their own. This is especially true now that there is knowledge, methods, and an entire system for developing narrative intelligence. We can now explain why and how the system has evolved, the theories that have come together to support it, and showcase examples of its application around the world.

      This book is not intended as a reference manual; rather, it is a journey into a parallel world that we often mistake for reality – a world through which we are subtly yet effectively governed.

      With that in mind, you might ask, why read this book? Perhaps because you have a persistent feeling of being manipulated, influenced, and unable to do anything about it. Meanwhile, you may sense you are not fully realizing the potential and abilities you were born with.

      Perhaps you have watched children and wondered how their genuine ability to influence their surroundings could be applied to the adult world. Or maybe you believe that creativity holds the power to transform processes within families, businesses, societies, and nations, and you want to discover how to harness that power. Perhaps you have marveled at how educated people repeatedly choose to be deceived, failing to learn from their mistakes. Or you might simply be curious about how the minds and lives of millions are controlled. Any of these reasons is a compelling one to read this book.

      It is difficult to assert confidently what in life has been good or bad. The past serves as a textbook for understanding the present and envisioning the future. It helps us navigate the system of meanings and goals constructed by our minds and environment – or at least orient ourselves within the stories we are told.

      We tend to overestimate the importance of our consciousness. We want to appear far more rational, spiritual, and elevated than we truly are. But the truth is, our behavior and thinking are fundamentally driven by the simple desire to live long and happily. Everything else – the narrative we tell ourselves to give our lives coherence – is built on top of this foundation.

      Our continuous self-justifying stream of consciousness sweeps aside the logical structures of cause and effect that could explain our actions and mistakes, replacing them with its own constructs. Anything that remains unexplained or threatens our self-perception is attributed to the external world’s unfairness, spawning conjectures, theories, and other uncontrollable, ambiguous forces we label as destiny.

      How and why do narratives influence our worldview, and how can they be used to modify or entirely change individual and collective behavior? Today, the battleground lies within our thinking, attention, perceptions, and intellect.

      Humanity has traversed a complex path – one far more challenging than that of its neighbors in the evolutionary tree. Yet perhaps the greatest challenge has been, and remains, understanding what governs our behavior, thinking, and intelligence. Ultimately, this understanding has become so expansive and scientific that it allows us to systematically define narrative intelligence, comprehend its functions, and recognize its potential to shape our environment.

      The system we know today is the result of a journey that began more than 15 years ago. This was not a deliberate, long-term strategy to expand a method’s reach into a new market segment. Nor was it the brainchild of a marketing department responding to demand or inventing a flashy new idea. What we now call the development of narrative intelligence began without even having a name – a concept for internal use, a desire for more creative ways to develop strategic directions, plans, and visions to unlock human potential within organizations and businesses.

      The ideas presented in this book are not abstract concepts; they are the result of systematic scientific discoveries and explorations of meaning throughout human history. At this stage, the concept has reached a balance of methods within the system. The synergy of facilitation, combining cognitive skill development, coaching, storytelling, mentoring, and other approaches, has proven effective