Brain hemispheres

 So I have been reading The Master and his Emmisary by Iain McGilchrist. It is a fascinating insight into the world we are in.

I would suggest that everyone should read it, but it is 450 dense pages of fairly academic writing, so I thought I would explain some of the ideas that I have got from it here - and how it relates to my faith. I do not underestimate how challengeing that is.

One critical and core aspects of this writing is his total rejection of the popular left-brain/right-brain division. The idea that people are either left-brained and logical, analytical or right-brained and creative or artistic does not have any support in the neurology community because it is invalid as an idea.

However, he does discuss in depth the role of the diffferent hemispheres, and especially the difference in people who are primarily dominated by one or other. This is different, because everyone uses both hemispheres and the interaction between them is how we come to conclusions and decisions. People are much more variable that this, and the division into a simple binary is far too simplistic.

People are often either left- or right-hemisphere dominant. This is not the same as left- and right-brained, but there can be an overlap. The dominance is not a binary split, but it is a focus or driver, and both halves of the brain work together in all people. The dominance issue comes about because the two hemispheres picture the world in different ways - in incompatible ways (as McGilchrist points out and will be touched on later). The dominance is which perspective on reality is most prominant for an individual.

What I find fascinating is the cultural impact of hemisphere dominance.

As an example: Biblical Hebrew does not have vowels or spaces between the words, and is read from right to left. For all sorts of reasons, this is a right-hemisphere-dominant approach. Because the writing is not entirely deterministic - it is entirely possible to interpret the writing in more than one way. And all of those ways are valid.

When the writing is translated into Greek or Latin - and thence to English - these languages are left-hemisphere-dominant languages. This means that the cultural understanding and interpretation of the words is different (and significantly different, because the entire cultural paradigm is different).

In fact, the world at the time of the Old testament being written was very different. Those who were writing (that is, those who were literate) would tend to be the right-dominant people, but the world and the species were less split between left and right. But since then, we can see times in history - especially European history - where one or the other has become culturally dominant. So, as an example, the Rennaissance was a time when the right-dominant people were widely accepted and the cultural flourishing that epitomises this time is an example of right-hemisphere-dominant people.

The reformation was - although being driven by right-dominant - was strongly influenced by left-dominant people. What we saw then was a more legalistic approach to matters of faith and creativity.

There are plenty of examples throughout history. But there are two important conclusions that he comes to:

1. Left hemisphere dominant people have many signs of schizophrenia

2. Left hemisphere dominant people have been in charge since the start of the industrial revolution.

meaning, that we are in a society that is wrong-headed. In fact, he makes it clear that the correct functioning of the brain is for both hemispheres to be working together. Anything else is wrong. And a society that is dominated by left-hemisphere people is one that will not function well.

How does this relate to Quakers (if at all)? Well I think the Quaker model is more right-hemisphere-friendly than left. The basic acceptance of "the Divine" or "the numinous" is more right focussed. The rejection of structure and rules and social norms is also indicative of a more right-dominant approach. But we also have our rules and organisation and traditions, so there is clearly left-hemisphere involvement.

But, maybe more than anything, it is the fact that Quakers do not accept the society we are in today, the capitalist, militarist, consumerist society that is so beloved of the left-dominant.

How small is your god?

Isaiah 40

Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.  

He brings the princes to nothing;
He makes the judges of the earth useless.

 

This is written in the context of carving wooden gods, but it addresses a problem that was throughout the time of Israel - that their vision of the divine was always too small. Whether this was as small as a wooden doll or as small as the people of Israel, they always made God too small.

This passage ways that we are like grasshoppers. That sounds demeaning, but what I get from it is that we all look the same to the divine. Not pink, brown, rich or poor. And the "princes" and "judges" comment means that being PM or being on benefits doesn't matter from the divine perspective.

Our God is not the God of us. Of Quakers or Anglicans or Methodists or westerners or Africans or - whoever. This perspective is that the divine is for all humanity, every one of us. Even - especially - those who we disagree with.

Perspective is important - actually, in my reading of the Bible, so much is about perspective. That we - people - so often don't see things from the right perspective, we usually see the world and the divine-with-the-world far too small, far too local. We cannot see from the divine persepctive, but we need to understand that that is the right one to have. And to acknowledge that our perspective is - always - too small.