Cheltenham Group Meeting 23/9/10: The Two Hemispheres

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Rumpelteazer
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Cheltenham Group Meeting 23/9/10: The Two Hemispheres

Postby Rumpelteazer » Sat Sep 25, 2010 4:27 pm

The group discussed this paper from C and Pewsey groups.
Paper_10_16.pdf
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The following comments were made about the Iain McGilchrist’s assertion that the left hemisphere has become dominant in the world at large:
  • From a former teacher: I noticed that some students found it easy to learn things when presented in a left-hemisphere way, but others didn’t. Both types of teaching are needed in our schools.
  • I found when I was working that I was using only the left hemisphere. I’ve tried to get away from that ever since.
We went on to talk about relaxation and insight:
  • In my work, I often found there were two ways of doing things corresponding to the different hemispheres. For example, at one time I used to write very complex machine-level computer programs that translated themselves into software that was then able to translate programming languages. It was hard to find errors in these programs because of the iterative nature of them, but two of us discovered a technique of working together just slowly and quietly turning over the pages of the printout until one of us quite magically put a hand down on the page with the error. Quietness and relaxation were the keys to doing this successfully. There was then some boring and detailed left-hemisphere work to pin it down, prove it, and correct it. However, other people in the team didn’t seem able to do this and would have to go through hours and hours of logical analysis to find errors.
  • I found that practical problems were often solved in sleep.
One member of the group was particularly struck by the idea of the right hemisphere being responsible for understanding metaphor. She related this to poetry and poetic language.

Some examples were given of people being unbalanced in one or another hemisphere:
  • A friend who was brilliantly creative but completely disorganised and very difficult to work with
  • A relative who took everything literally and found it hard to understand anything said ironically
  • One member of the group said he often needed to have jokes that were told in an after-dinner speech explained to him the following morning. But when they were explained he often found them very funny.
We discussed how to recognise and control which hemisphere is doing what. A number of ideas and questions were raised and there were varying views on the answers:
  • How do you know when meditation moves into the right hemisphere? One person thought this might happen at the point where one lets go of the mantra and it ‘does its own thing’.
  • HH seems to suggest (if you read the full context around the quote given in the paper) that, as learners, our efforts should be to give active, focussed attention to what we do (left hemisphere) like the arrow maker, although the attention of the realised man is very free (right hemisphere). However Dr Roles stressed the importance of also practising the free, passive attention of the realised man and as the paper suggests, using the type of attention appropriate to activity being undertaken. Why the difference?
  • One person wondered whether the left hemisphere related to rajas and the right hemisphere to tamas? In a similar vein, another saw the right hemisphere as responsible for initiating the triad of refinement (tamas, rajas, sattva) and the left hemisphere for initiating the growth triad (rajas, tamas, sattva). However a third person (who had read more of Iain McGilchrist’s book than anyone else) disagreed as the evidence is that both hemispheres are active in everything we do. A fourth person also disagreed as she felt that the right hemisphere was the home of sattva.
  • It was pointed out that some people believe that it is impossible to think without words, but everyone in the group seemed to think otherwise.
  • With regard to conscience, one person thought there were no words involved in real conscience – if there are words it is the left hemisphere talking and imposing its own beliefs and rules. There didn’t seem to be much agreement on this.
We would appreciate any answers and explanations from others in the Society who have more knowledge of this subject.

Iain McGilchrist’s talk is available for listening or download here.
His book, “The Master and his Emissary” is excellent and highly recommended by at least two members of the group.

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