divided brain
It would be crazy to suppose that our brains were so perfectly constructed that they could understand and make us aware of everything in the universe.
from The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning by Iain McGilchrist
divided brain
McGilchrist notes:
Only the right hemisphere has a whole body image; the left hemisphere sees the body as an assemblage of parts, and as if it were an object in space alongside other objects, rather than a mode of existence. ...For the right hemisphere, we live the body; whereas for the left, we live in it, rather as we drive a car.
River Kenna • Solving McGilchrist's Big Problem
What do I mean by ‘betweenness'? Think about the nature of music. Music does not exist in one particular note – which is in itself meaningless; or in a lot of such single notes, each in itself meaningless. I am tempted to say it exists more in the spaces than in the notes: the spaces between successive notes in pitch that creates the melody, the
... See moreIain McGilchrist • The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning
betweenness
Only the left hemisphere encodes tools and machines – you will remember that the purpose of the left hemisphere is to allow us to manipulate the world, not to understand it.
Iain McGilchrist • The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning
The right hemisphere seems to be involved more with new experience, new events, things, ideas, words, skills or music, or whatever it may be, while they are still fresh, original and unique, and so to speak present, to the mind. The right hemisphere's world is present – or more precisely ‘presences’ to us, as Heidegger puts it. By contrast the left
... See moreIain McGilchrist • The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning
re-presented (interesting)
two modes of experience McGilchrist describes (one associated with the left hemisphere, the other with the right) match up pretty precisely with two modes of experience that have been described again and again elsewhere, from Taoism1 to John Keats' letters2 to Federico Campagna's philosophy3 to Proust — you can even see it in things like Finite &... See more
River Kenna • Solving McGilchrist's Big Problem
Because the left hemisphere is concerned with power, its narrative is always about power. You will notice this all around you nowadays.
Iain McGilchrist • Moving on
It sees that our understanding has to be participatory , and that the soul and body are not opposed but discernibly different aspects of one reality. It is better at holding together apparently conflicting positions – whereas according to the left hemisphere, nothing can be separate and connected, precisely measurable and intrinsically imprecise,... See more
Iain McGilchrist • Moving on
The soul and the body have been designed to be a functioning team, much the way the conscious and subconscious mind function together. The body knows our oneness with everything because it feels it. The awakened heart longs to explore others, to nurture others, to experience our oneness with others, and this offers a clue to the truths that the
... See moreJohn Kehoe • Quantum Warrior | The Future of the Mind
The right hemisphere, the so-called minor hemisphere, is in fact the one that knows, and more importantly the one that understands, more.