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In modern society, there is a prevalent emphasis on the left brain hemisphere, characterized by its logical, analytical, and rational thinking processes. This bias can be attributed to the prioritization of subjects and skills that align with academic and professional success, such as mathematics, sciences, and structured problem-solving. While the left-brain functions are undoubtedly essential for cognitive development and decision-making, the overemphasis on these aspects has led to a relative neglect of the right-brain hemisphere’s intuitive, creative, holistic capacities and surrender to total emotional states. This imbalance can result in negative consequences for individuals and society as a whole. I see all these happening right in front of my eyes, as I look back to my childhood, I remember many people around me kept talking about IT-related jobs with awe and respect. In high school, my classmates who were good at math and physics were highly respected both by teachers, parents and the general public. While, I saw and understood the reason why, I felt that there was something that’s missing. As a matter of fact, I saw people literally being hungry for intense emotions and longing to surrender to sensationalism and passion. No wonder why, I guess, no wonder why indeed. In a world of numbers, emotions are useless.
East vs West, or Left vs Right brain hemisphere
In the Western world, particularly in Europe and North America, there has historically been a tendency to emphasize left-brain hemisphere attributes, such as rationality, individualism, and analytical thinking, in the interpretation of the divine. This has led to the development of monotheistic religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, which often emphasize structured dogma, logic-based theological arguments, and adherence to written scriptures. The divine is often understood within a framework of ordered governance, law, and moral judgment.
Conversely, in many non-Western cultures, there has been a greater inclination to emphasize right-brain hemisphere attributes, such as intuition, interconnectedness, and holistic understanding, in approaching the divine. Many indigenous and Eastern belief systems, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and various traditional indigenous religions, emphasize a more cyclical and interconnected view of the universe. These perspectives often highlight the divine as immanent, interconnected with all aspects of life, and emphasize practices such as meditation, mindfulness, and spiritual interconnectedness.
I remember being an exchange student in Turkey, and one night while I was out for a walk near the Bosphorus with my American and Japanese colleagues, we were talking about many things. Very varied topics, ranging from robotics to transcendence. And I remember watching their facial reaction carefully while we were discussing these topics, volatility is the right word here. When talking about math related things, both my American and my Japanese colleagues’ facial reactions were identical. They were controlled and rational, and their expression was neutral, reflecting intellectual processing. However, when we changed the topic to God, there was a sudden and sharp difference in terms of facial reaction of the two. While my American colleague still continued to exhibit the same neutral face, proving or disproving the existence of God, my Japanese colleague’s facial reaction has changed. He had a softened gaze, elevated eyebrows with a slight smile. He placed less emphasis on verbal precision, in fact less emphasis on any verbal expression. He happily surrendered to the divine.
So, I felt like this is it. This is how I feel when I talk about the divine, about art, about music. I feel like I can’t talk a lot anyway. Words are not helping. They aren’t really helping, because you cannot really approach the transcendent with the dry noise of logic. A fine example is that we humans may be able to understand some of the sentient beings with less sophisticated central nervous systems, such as your faithful friend, your dog. But can he understand you? It is not possible, the complex device suitable for this purpose is missing. Try it out! Sit down and try to read a poem to your puppy. Do you think he will understand and apprehend what you are reading? Of course not, he will just sit there and wait faithfully for you to start playing with him. This is the case of brain hemispheres as well. Just like the thermometer is unable to tell you the taste of your soup if you happen to put it in your bowl, and it is because it wasn’t designed to describe tastes.
The Right Way
The inherent connection between the right hemisphere of the brain and transcendental experiences lies in the right hemisphere’s unique role in processing abstract and holistic aspects of human consciousness. Transcendental experiences often involve a profound sense of interconnectedness, heightened awareness, and a feeling of unity beyond ordinary perception. These experiences transcend the boundaries of individual self and ego, focusing on a deeper understanding of the world and existence. The right hemisphere, which is associated with holistic thinking, creativity, and the processing of non-verbal and emotional information, appears to be more attuned to these abstract and spiritual dimensions of human experience. It plays a part in facilitating the sense of unity and interconnectedness that individuals often report during transcendental moments, such as deep meditation, religious experiences, or psychedelic journeys. While transcendental experiences are multifaceted and involve various brain regions, the right hemisphere’s capacity for holistic and abstract processing contributes significantly to our understanding of these profound states of consciousness.
Our modern culture receives so much information on a daily basis, that it is not processable. I see pictures of war, demolished buildings, refugee crises and so on, on Google. Wouldn’t I be terrified of it if I were a normal person? But I can’t be terrified of it, because I received new information about a girlfriend of mine on Instagram showing her new cute cat. Well normally this would make me feel good, but I can’t be feeling good because the picture is changing, and I see a horrible car accident on YouTube where everyone dies. Wouldn’t it make me sad if I’m a compassionate person? Well, I wish it would, but I cannot be sad because the scenery changes again and I see a superb goal of my favourite football team on Tik-Tok. Now wouldn’t it make me feel happy about it, but… no time.
We don’t need all this. If we want to embark on a psychedelic journey, we must listen to our right brain hemisphere more often.
Let the Right into your life more often
Since early childhood, I have developed a plan to listen to my right brain hemisphere more often. Maybe the plan is the wrong word here. See this is a good example of how my left-brain hemisphere flows into my right changing my choice of words. I should write, I have developed my listening skills. Listening to my intuition. When I have a hunch of something I just tend to go with it, it’s my right brain trying to tell something. Often, it’s about being creative. I like to compose songs on my guitar, I record the whole session, edit it, and then go back to practice more, get some inspiration from bands and guitar players. In the meantime, compose the drums and bass with drum software, add additional instruments with different software and then record my playing over the background music. The end result usually it’s instrumental guitar rock and/or melodic metal music. The sense of completeness feels awesome! And of course, the activity involves both the left and right brain hemispheres working synchronously, but it’s the right’s intention to start it. I use my left-brain knowledge to finish the project, to do a job well done. And I would never use my left brain hemisphere in this case to come up with plans on how to accuse or put down someone with my music. I feel like I have learned the mistake of churches. Many thousands of years have come to pass in such a way that very religious people (faith is right-brain peculiarity) used the transcendent as a reason to attack other people. Thinking that people of different religions are no good, in fact, they are evil. Hinduism had 4000 years, Judaism had 3500 years, Buddhism had 3000 years, Christianity had 2000 years and Islam had 1500 years to teach their people to get closer to the world of transcendent. And it was a failure. Because people on the top used it systematically against their own and other people to “teach them a lesson”. So sad.
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