Monsters and Magical Sticks: There's No Such Thing As Hypnosis? by Steven Heller & Terry Lee Steele

Author:Steven Heller & Terry Lee Steele [Heller, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi, pdf
Tags: Psychology
Publisher: Yasser Adnan
Published: 2012-04-20T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter X:

Left Meets Right Meets Left

TWO BRAINS

If asked, most people would insist that they are rational and that they would respond to reality. I would ask of them: “Which reality?” Within each of us there reside (at least) two separate, distinct, different and equal realities. One “reality” is that of the left hemisphere of the brain (LH) and the other is that of the right hemisphere (RH).

Professor Betty Edwards (1978) conveys the general consensus of brain researches when she states that not only do the two hemispheres specialize, they also perceive reality in their own unique way. The left hemisphere specializes in verbal skills, numbers, analytical thinking and linear, digital reasoning. The right hemisphere specializes in spatiality, visual imagery, imagination, color, rhythm, kinesthetic experience, and creativity (Ornstein, 1973; Edwards, 1978; Buzan and Dixon, 1978). As Robert Ornstein (1972) puts it:

Both the structure and function of these two “half brains” in some part underline the two modes of consciousness which simultaneously coexist within each one of us. Although each hemisphere shares the potential for many functions, and both sides participate in most activities, in the normal person the two hemispheres tend to specialize.

When you see someone you already know, your left hemisphere recognizes each specific feature: i.e., the nose, mouth, eyes, etc. However, if only your left hemisphere were operating, you would not be able to recognize the whole. Your right hemisphere, with its spatial and conceptual ability, takes the specific pieces and makes a whole. Dr. Roger Sperry of the California Institute of Technology, along with his associates Joseph Bogen, Michael Gazzaniga, et al., have demonstrated this concept in their research with split brain patients (epileptics in which the corpus callosum—the arched bridge of nervous tissue that connects the two cerebral hemispheres and allows communication between the right and left sides of the brain—has been surgically cut).

SPERRY: SPLIT BRAIN RESEARCH

In one of the now classical experiments by the Sperry group, split brain patients were given the task of assembling a jigsaw puzzle while they were in a situation that allowed only left-hemisphere function. Films of these experiments show the patient struggling with the pieces and then failing to put the pieces where they belong. One film shows an even more provocative phenomenon: One subject was busy trying to find where the pieces went using his right hand (left hemisphere) and suddenly, without his left-hemisphere awareness, he received help. The film shows his left hand (right hemisphere) sneaking into the picture and correcting the right hand until the experimenter forces the intruder away.

HEMISPHERIC CYCLES

Psychologists at Dalhousie University have been investigating what is termed the 90-minute cycle of the brain. During their research, they have been able to verify a specific hemispheric pattern: When left-hemisphere activities are at their peak, right-hemisphere activities are at their lowest ebb. Conversely, when right-hemispheric activities are at their peak, left-hemisphere activity is at its lowest ebb.

Since different tasks require different hemispheric activity, we might wonder what would happen if one were to over rely on one hemisphere and under utilize the other; or rely on the wrong hemisphere for the task at hand.

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