You might enjoy Jill's talk at the TED conference:

www.ted.com/index.php/ta..._insight.html

No question Jill had a remarkable experience. I think she goes a little overboard by interpreting her experience to mean that we can somehow "choose" to live right-brained instead of left-brained.

Why choose to disable yourself? You need a whole brain, not half.

Too much fluffy stuff has been written about this "right brain vs. left brain" thing. Here's the simple truth:

The right hemisphere of your brain operates in "scan for predator" mode, with emphasis on spatial relationships (position).

The left hemisphere of your brain operates in "scan for prey" mode, with emphasis on temporal relationships (motion).

It is an enormous survival advantage to have both modes operating simultaneously on the same set of sensory inputs, rather than switching back and forth between the two modes -- which is why the bicameral brain evolved. Even though humans today may not spend much time fleeing predators or chasing prey, the brain hemispheres have adapted to perform related higher spatial and temporal functions -- in tandem. Too much emphasis on one or the other causes a dysfunctional imbalance.

It is impossible to lecture *GOD* since illumination is the absence of the psyche, an interpreter parasite by the devil. Liberation is the absence of thoughts forever. Whoever has thoughts is far from it.

I liked the book on a lot of levels. Read it awhile back. Being an older guy, I ran out and bought a Nintendo DS and a few of the games designed to improve memory and other brain functions. Might as well take care of the thing, I thought. You only get one. (I've since lost interest in playing with the DS. I think I forgot where I put it, too. lol.)

It's a great story too. Amazingly, she had to reinvent herself. One can't say enough about this. The fact that she "chose" to do it in her own image (as a researcher and scientist ) says something, but I'm not sure exactly what. Some of the stuff that we "are" is deeply instilled, I guess (beyond choice, maybe?). Of course, if her stroke had impaired her differently (nature), or if her mother hadn't been there (nurture), perhaps her personality would have changed more markedly. Hard to say.
***

The left brain, right brain thing that she talks about, and the ability to choose one side over the other though really caught my attention. It's what I really want to address here.

Because I was reading Ramana Maharshi's "Talks" at the time (and still am a bit) I thought immediately of the "right side of the chest" that he refers to. I wanted to ask JIll - would still like to ask her - if that seemed like a corrolary to what she was suggesting, another way to describe it, in other words. What Ramana said, or is purported to have said is, "follow the I thought into the spiritual heart on the right side of the chest." Other places when he speaks of the spiritual heart he describes it as not having a location. I have had the experience in Self Inquiry of feeling a sensation on the right side of the chest but have no idea what this means. Possibly it's just power of suggestion.

However, the success, if one can call it that, that I've had from practicing the vichara (looking at one's self), seems to have come from an understanding of what it means to turn one's attention in on itself. In my experience, this does, to a certain degree and in a limited way, stop thought.

So, I wondered, following the I thought to it's source (in, or maybe not in, the right side of the chest), or turning one's attention in on itself, is this equivalent to what Jill was talking about and what she means when she talks about living from the left side of the brain?

I'd kind of forgotten about it and then a curious thing happened. A friend I know from a 12 step group expressed interest in hanging out with me (I like sitting on park benches and doing nothing. lol; I'd mentioned this to him). It's something that just happened. There are three of us who do this now on a fairly regular basis. It's kind of meditation but not really, at least not for me (the vichara is not really meditation, I would say). Anyway, this particular friend had read Jill's book and was really taken with the right brain concept. Meditation, or any kind of contemplative practice, was a foreign concept to him, as he'd been involved in fundamentalist Christianity for a number of years. But he'd been working with a therapist who happens to be a Zen practitioner and who specialized in PTSD, which this guy suffers from - he's a vet - and had grown open to the idea of meditation. Additionally, he'd had some recent tragedy in his life (which I won't say anything in particular about), but my feeling is that it was to him, this perceived tragedy, devastating (maybe this is more important than anything else; I don't know).

Anyway, he began to sit with us, and made very rapid and profound progress. I was kind of shocked, to tell the truth. What he describes, or rather attempts to describe, as he doesn't really have the language for it, sounds very much like nirvikalpa samadhi, very much ground of being stuff, and on a much deeper level than anything I've experienced. It's hard to know really though, from a description, as it's hard to find a point pin anything on when discussing this stuff. So, we talk a lot, and I share about Ramana and other stuff (Ribhu Gita, B. Gita, Nisargadatta, some present day "sages", etc.) and it seems to really resonate for him.

The only reason I bring it up though is because it seems that this all started for him from Jill's concept (at this point I would say he's began to let go of the left brain idea).

Anyway, that's enough for now.

Nice to be back on Tribe. I went away for awhile.

any thoughts abt. the process of EMDR in the right/ left brain dialectic? I've had it done and it felt like the two parts of my brain were whacking a badmiton birdie back and forth. it did have an effect but I think the benefit of it varies depending on the indivi-dual and the patient/technician (therapist) relationship....anyway, thanks

I liked the information on the amygdala and how it is involved in storing repressed emotions. These emotions she says have not matured and act when triggered with the irrational feelings which never got a chance to develop in a normal loving athmosphere. The ides that we can act from these type of feelings make a lot of sense to me. I feel that Taylor has shown that CHOICE plays a big part in integrating these feelings. Also, the idea that one needs to do a lot of subtle type/awareness type work is very important.. Brill book. Though one thing: Taylor says that we are "biological product of our environment." And because of this we should talk to our brain. In essence we are not a product of anything as we simply are.

Larry