Great to a find a substack highlighting Iain McGilchrist's work. I have been thinking about how to wake up the RHs in others as well as ourselves. This is what I came up with "Then the “waking up of the masses” becomes the task of literally waking up the right hemispheres of people under the spell of mass psychosis. This cannot be simply achieved by argumentation with facts and logic, because this just feeds the left hemisphere over-activation, but must be done by appealing to the right hemisphere via re-connection to love and common humanity, through metaphor, comedy, poetry, music, awe and beauty."
Beautifully put, and fully agreed. We need to change the "territory". Spending time in nature is also a great way of re-connecting I think. And good conversations too. In some ways it's like we have to "grow" the right brain again, nurture and develop it, to get the healthy balance back. Thanks again for great inputs and thoughts. Richard.
I think Thai Chi is a good middle ground, or the dialectic phase John has, journaling after the meditation are all probably middle ground. I think spiritual goals, and journaling dreams probably crystalize the right hemispheric.
That's right on to the crucial point I think, what does the middle or unified ground look like. And could the middle be temporal, which is what a poem or narrative easily can do. It's like the idea of the Moon in Dante's Paradiso, having both hemispheres active at the same time. I think McGilchrist described a small exercise (slightly on the side here), but focusing narrowly on something, while actively having a broad and alert awereness, could put both hemispheres crisply and actively consciuos for oneself. I also think f.ex. a good conversation can greate a beaming and glowing harmony of the hemispheres, with a flowing mild happiness. Which then could last for hours.
Hi Richard, I've been pondering Iain McGilchrist's work for a few years now. One thing to note is that probably from the RH point of view there is no "battle of the hemispheres", because it sees the need for its own "negation" and understand it can't get involved in the details.
I've recently had a thought about how in the world could the balance (RH dominance) come back from the LH-dominated mindset. What I came up with is that LH effectively lives on borrowed time and will eventually run out of steam. The final stages can be observed, e.g., in the self-referential nature of today's "art". (Fits in with the view that LH is a hall of mirrors unable to conceive of anything outside itself. In Pageau's terms, the upside-down world will be flipped back on its feet by the same forces that flipped it upside-down in the first place. Kind of like hitting rock bottom in one's personal life.
I've been reading Wordsworth to "balance my brain", I went through the journey with Mark Vernon's commentaries on Dante's Divine Comedy only later to realize that I've been on a journey of spiritual transformation, I'm reading classics and philosophy (Greeks, Bergson, Bartoft, Gadamer) to catch up on what I've missed (I have a Ph.D. in technical math-based profession, which is rather dry, but I've always felt there is more).
thanks so much for reaching out - and I love the thoughts that you're laying out here! I've been thinking lately that there is so much to be drawn out from Greek Orthodoxy, Dante's Divine Comedy, and from Iain McGilchrist at the same time in this special moment that we might seem to be in now. And fully agreed regarding "borrowed time", I think that the models that the left hemisphere tends to build of the world eventually is always bound to become too far detached from realities, thus becoming too dysfunctional and also too strongly and constantly in contrast to what the right hemisphere observes more correctly and directly from the world.
Also very happy to hear about your spiritual transformation with what seems like very good sources and solid nutrition. Would love to hear what you especially like with Bergson, Bartoft and Gadamer! Btw. Pageau has done a tremendous job with opening up symbolic thinking and orthodox theology to so many people I think. It's also interesting and instructive to watch him in dialogue with more left hemisphere thinkers.
Anyways, thanks again, and have a wonderful evening!
When I first read Bergson's Time and Free Will it was challenging, but something kept me going, because I felt like with him I'm getting closer to reality and putting off my glasses with which I view the world. I realized how shallow of a thinker I was ;). To give an example, Bergson goes into the nature of numbers themselves. He says that numbers require externality to one another, which is an interesting point. He points out distinctions between intensive and extensive, the time and real duration. He applies these ideas to try and understand the psychic states. Somehow, while reading him, you get a sense that he is moving you much closer to the phenomena as they are - sort of makes you think about the interiority of your everyday experiences. I'm no expert on Bergson by any stretch of the imagination, the little that I read makes me wanna read more, however. I'm considering purchasing an anthology to get a sweeping view of his thought.
Bartoft is another excellent writer. Formerly a physicist turned phenomenologist. The first book of his about Goethe's Way of Science, goes into the act of seeing itself, which he leads the reader to recognize as an active process, not as a passive reception/interpretation of external stimuli (although they play a role). In his second book, Taking Appearance Seriously he goes into meaning and how one comes to acquire it and uses Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics to transcend the dualism of absolute relativism (postmodernism) and its polar opposite (the meaning of the work is what the author had in mind when he produced the work). Anyway, behind all this is the common thread of dynamism. The meaning-making faculties are inherently dynamic and must respond to what the work demands. What I also love about this, is that even though it is a dynamic approach to meaning, it accounts for the fact that there is a true meaning (which however needs interpretation to fully realize itself). This is involved ;) I don't recall all the details, but I definitely found his books very illuminating. In his second book, he also explicitly mentions the work of McGilchrist on the hemispheric differences, because throughout reading his work you can't help but see the parallels.
I haven't read Gadamer himself, but his philosophical hermeneutics is on my ever-expanding list of books to read.
These are very interesting thoughts - I've had Bergson's books waiting patiently for a couple of years in a special folder, but maybe now it's the time to dig into it. I also love how Bergson has a special place in Marcel Proust's books, as half of the model for the intellectual character "Bergotte". In some ways I think Proust has put much of Bergson's ideas of time and experience into a novel form (which btw. Proust had concluded was his own necessary vehicle to express his philosophy, the narrative form).
Numbers and their nature is often a great starting point for philosophy, as a simple example of an immaterial reality we apprehend easily and apply to the material world all the time. And they are beyond time and space as well. The externality is a fascinating point - I'll have to read the book now! His influence on McGilchrist is also very expressed, and I think the process-philosophy of Bergson & Whitehead might be the most fully articulated balanced/right-hemisphere expressions of philosophy in our recent times.
I just found some old lectures by Bartoft from 2009, I'll have a look into it, they seem very pertinent and illuminating.
And btw. thanks again for these wonderful thoughts and inputs, it's encouraging to see the amount of work and thinkers that have been working on re-balancing the hemispheres in the last couple of centuries, and might now be brought forward into the light once again. We don't have to start at square one.
I too feel like these process philosophies have been largely sidelined by the mainstream thought in favor of logic of solid bodies (as Bergson would put it). Whitehead is also on my reading list, but I've heard from John Vervaeke that he wasn't able to get through Process and Reality how thick it was. :D Footnotes2Plato is a good YouTube Whiteheadian who has interesting thoughts in that vein.
Would you recommend Proust's In Search of Lost Time in its entirety? I've been eyeballing it, but haven't dug into it on account of it being rather voluminous work.
I'd hugely recommended the first book, Swann's Way, just to get a sense of the writing and the deep thoughts spread throughout. The second volume is great too, but after that it's a bit stretched out in my opinion. But the last volume is very massive again. That's when the big thoughts on life, time, change, growing and old age come, as well as the deeper calling of being a writer in itself. But also; one needs to have a calm life when starting Proust. If your days are busy, it's close to impossible to absorb and appreciate all the nuances in his thinking.
It's interesting with Vervaeke, he's a very fascinating person but I'm still not sure if his overall project it feasible. He's a brilliant left brain thinker at times, and then deep right brain spiritual at others. But uniting the two from the more scientific approach is likely not possible. He would need to unify the scientific into the spiritual and right brain world I think, not the other way around. But he seems to maybe be bridging more from the left to the right than has been done before.
And I've started P&R and will continue one day. I love Whitehead's various quotes, so maybe the time is right after "The Matter with Things"!
Great to a find a substack highlighting Iain McGilchrist's work. I have been thinking about how to wake up the RHs in others as well as ourselves. This is what I came up with "Then the “waking up of the masses” becomes the task of literally waking up the right hemispheres of people under the spell of mass psychosis. This cannot be simply achieved by argumentation with facts and logic, because this just feeds the left hemisphere over-activation, but must be done by appealing to the right hemisphere via re-connection to love and common humanity, through metaphor, comedy, poetry, music, awe and beauty."
Beautifully put, and fully agreed. We need to change the "territory". Spending time in nature is also a great way of re-connecting I think. And good conversations too. In some ways it's like we have to "grow" the right brain again, nurture and develop it, to get the healthy balance back. Thanks again for great inputs and thoughts. Richard.
I think Thai Chi is a good middle ground, or the dialectic phase John has, journaling after the meditation are all probably middle ground. I think spiritual goals, and journaling dreams probably crystalize the right hemispheric.
That's right on to the crucial point I think, what does the middle or unified ground look like. And could the middle be temporal, which is what a poem or narrative easily can do. It's like the idea of the Moon in Dante's Paradiso, having both hemispheres active at the same time. I think McGilchrist described a small exercise (slightly on the side here), but focusing narrowly on something, while actively having a broad and alert awereness, could put both hemispheres crisply and actively consciuos for oneself. I also think f.ex. a good conversation can greate a beaming and glowing harmony of the hemispheres, with a flowing mild happiness. Which then could last for hours.
Best, Richard
Hi Richard, I've been pondering Iain McGilchrist's work for a few years now. One thing to note is that probably from the RH point of view there is no "battle of the hemispheres", because it sees the need for its own "negation" and understand it can't get involved in the details.
I've recently had a thought about how in the world could the balance (RH dominance) come back from the LH-dominated mindset. What I came up with is that LH effectively lives on borrowed time and will eventually run out of steam. The final stages can be observed, e.g., in the self-referential nature of today's "art". (Fits in with the view that LH is a hall of mirrors unable to conceive of anything outside itself. In Pageau's terms, the upside-down world will be flipped back on its feet by the same forces that flipped it upside-down in the first place. Kind of like hitting rock bottom in one's personal life.
I've been reading Wordsworth to "balance my brain", I went through the journey with Mark Vernon's commentaries on Dante's Divine Comedy only later to realize that I've been on a journey of spiritual transformation, I'm reading classics and philosophy (Greeks, Bergson, Bartoft, Gadamer) to catch up on what I've missed (I have a Ph.D. in technical math-based profession, which is rather dry, but I've always felt there is more).
Dear Jakub,
thanks so much for reaching out - and I love the thoughts that you're laying out here! I've been thinking lately that there is so much to be drawn out from Greek Orthodoxy, Dante's Divine Comedy, and from Iain McGilchrist at the same time in this special moment that we might seem to be in now. And fully agreed regarding "borrowed time", I think that the models that the left hemisphere tends to build of the world eventually is always bound to become too far detached from realities, thus becoming too dysfunctional and also too strongly and constantly in contrast to what the right hemisphere observes more correctly and directly from the world.
Also very happy to hear about your spiritual transformation with what seems like very good sources and solid nutrition. Would love to hear what you especially like with Bergson, Bartoft and Gadamer! Btw. Pageau has done a tremendous job with opening up symbolic thinking and orthodox theology to so many people I think. It's also interesting and instructive to watch him in dialogue with more left hemisphere thinkers.
Anyways, thanks again, and have a wonderful evening!
Very best,
Richard
When I first read Bergson's Time and Free Will it was challenging, but something kept me going, because I felt like with him I'm getting closer to reality and putting off my glasses with which I view the world. I realized how shallow of a thinker I was ;). To give an example, Bergson goes into the nature of numbers themselves. He says that numbers require externality to one another, which is an interesting point. He points out distinctions between intensive and extensive, the time and real duration. He applies these ideas to try and understand the psychic states. Somehow, while reading him, you get a sense that he is moving you much closer to the phenomena as they are - sort of makes you think about the interiority of your everyday experiences. I'm no expert on Bergson by any stretch of the imagination, the little that I read makes me wanna read more, however. I'm considering purchasing an anthology to get a sweeping view of his thought.
Bartoft is another excellent writer. Formerly a physicist turned phenomenologist. The first book of his about Goethe's Way of Science, goes into the act of seeing itself, which he leads the reader to recognize as an active process, not as a passive reception/interpretation of external stimuli (although they play a role). In his second book, Taking Appearance Seriously he goes into meaning and how one comes to acquire it and uses Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics to transcend the dualism of absolute relativism (postmodernism) and its polar opposite (the meaning of the work is what the author had in mind when he produced the work). Anyway, behind all this is the common thread of dynamism. The meaning-making faculties are inherently dynamic and must respond to what the work demands. What I also love about this, is that even though it is a dynamic approach to meaning, it accounts for the fact that there is a true meaning (which however needs interpretation to fully realize itself). This is involved ;) I don't recall all the details, but I definitely found his books very illuminating. In his second book, he also explicitly mentions the work of McGilchrist on the hemispheric differences, because throughout reading his work you can't help but see the parallels.
I haven't read Gadamer himself, but his philosophical hermeneutics is on my ever-expanding list of books to read.
These are very interesting thoughts - I've had Bergson's books waiting patiently for a couple of years in a special folder, but maybe now it's the time to dig into it. I also love how Bergson has a special place in Marcel Proust's books, as half of the model for the intellectual character "Bergotte". In some ways I think Proust has put much of Bergson's ideas of time and experience into a novel form (which btw. Proust had concluded was his own necessary vehicle to express his philosophy, the narrative form).
Numbers and their nature is often a great starting point for philosophy, as a simple example of an immaterial reality we apprehend easily and apply to the material world all the time. And they are beyond time and space as well. The externality is a fascinating point - I'll have to read the book now! His influence on McGilchrist is also very expressed, and I think the process-philosophy of Bergson & Whitehead might be the most fully articulated balanced/right-hemisphere expressions of philosophy in our recent times.
I just found some old lectures by Bartoft from 2009, I'll have a look into it, they seem very pertinent and illuminating.
And btw. thanks again for these wonderful thoughts and inputs, it's encouraging to see the amount of work and thinkers that have been working on re-balancing the hemispheres in the last couple of centuries, and might now be brought forward into the light once again. We don't have to start at square one.
Very best, Richard
Thank you, Richard.
I too feel like these process philosophies have been largely sidelined by the mainstream thought in favor of logic of solid bodies (as Bergson would put it). Whitehead is also on my reading list, but I've heard from John Vervaeke that he wasn't able to get through Process and Reality how thick it was. :D Footnotes2Plato is a good YouTube Whiteheadian who has interesting thoughts in that vein.
Would you recommend Proust's In Search of Lost Time in its entirety? I've been eyeballing it, but haven't dug into it on account of it being rather voluminous work.
I'd hugely recommended the first book, Swann's Way, just to get a sense of the writing and the deep thoughts spread throughout. The second volume is great too, but after that it's a bit stretched out in my opinion. But the last volume is very massive again. That's when the big thoughts on life, time, change, growing and old age come, as well as the deeper calling of being a writer in itself. But also; one needs to have a calm life when starting Proust. If your days are busy, it's close to impossible to absorb and appreciate all the nuances in his thinking.
It's interesting with Vervaeke, he's a very fascinating person but I'm still not sure if his overall project it feasible. He's a brilliant left brain thinker at times, and then deep right brain spiritual at others. But uniting the two from the more scientific approach is likely not possible. He would need to unify the scientific into the spiritual and right brain world I think, not the other way around. But he seems to maybe be bridging more from the left to the right than has been done before.
And I've started P&R and will continue one day. I love Whitehead's various quotes, so maybe the time is right after "The Matter with Things"!