Hard-boiled Dreams of the World » Blog Archive » Achieving Left and Right Brain Balance

Achieving Left and Right Brain Balance

As mentioned in the previous post, brain experts are beginning to realize the right side of most normal people’s brains harbors genius, savant-like abilities. But, you were born with two very impressive brain hemispheres, and your left side is important too.

Let’s use George W. Bush as an example. To the right we see Bush, with both sides of his brain intact.

In this picture, Bush’s left side brain is controlling the right side of his face, and his right side brain controls the left side of his face. Your brain hemispheres control the opposite side of your face and body, too.

So, what would Bush be like if he only had a wonderful savant-like super talented right side brain, and vice versa?

The Godlike Right Brain

George W. Bush's Right Side Brain Meet Bush with two right side brains (actually, the right-brain controlled left side of his face and its mirror image.)

The right side brain is like God. When freed from the left hemisphere, it has almost miraculous savant-like abilities. It’s exceptional at imagining and creating (In the beginning…), processing spatial information (separating light from dark, water from land…), and seeing the big picture when faced with many shapes and sizes and complex interrelationships (all the little children of the world…)

And like God (I AM), the right side brain is always living in the present.

The down side is that Mr. Right Side Brain is pretty scatterbrained ( it might show up as a burning bush one day, a cloud the next, or just disappear and leave a crowd wandering in the desert for 40 years…) It stinks at organization, and it’s horrible at explaining itself verbally (Abraham, kill your son Isaac…but wait! No, not really…)

Frankly, the right side brain would rather keep dreaming big dreams and leave the details up to others (I gave you ten big ones on tablets; somebody else can write the New Testament…)

The Egocentric Left Brain

George W. Bush's Left Side Brain Now, meet Bush with two left side brains (the right side of his face, doubled.)

I’m not the first to suggest the left side brain is home of the ego. It’s even jealous of the right side brain, and proud of its own talent for language and verbal expression. If the right side brain paints a picture, the left side brain immediately slaps a name on it.

The left side brain is orderly, literal, articulate, and to the point. It tends to see everything in a linear way, past or future, black and white, good and evil, with no gray areas in between.

The down side? The egocentric left side brain doesn’t understand emotions. Emotions don’t make sense. Your puppy died? So, get another one. Problem solved. Now, back to balancing the checkbook…

The Perfect Human Brain

A lot of people say the dissident teacher Jesus was as close to a perfect human as anybody has ever come. Jesus supposedly attained Christ Consciousness. Jesus said he was the son of God, and the son of man. Maybe he was trying to tell us that he used both the godlike right and the egocentric left sides of his brain. Equally.

Perhaps to thrive in the world, we need to strike a balance between our godlike and egocentric brain halves.

Balancing Your Left and Right Side Brain

Most everybody has a dominant side of the brain. (Take this quiz to find out which side of your brain is dominant.)

Over 90% of Americans have the same dominant side of the brain. Care to guess which side it is? Here’s a clue: The left side of the brain is used for reading, writing, and basic arithmetic.

Add to this the fact that programs like No Child Left Behind require schools to spend even more time teaching Reading and Math — at the expense of already little-taught right-brain subjects like Art and Music — and the future culture of this country is looking even more egocentric brain imbalanced. If you think everybody is either with us or against us now, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

But there is something you can do about it; you can help restore balance, and you can start with your own brain.

Your left and right brain hemispheres are connected by a bridge called the corpus callosum. Like a muscle, it can be exercised and strengthened until it is physically larger, which will allow better communication and cooperation between your egocentric left brain and your godlike right brain. (If it’s any encouragement, Albert Einstein’s brain had a huge corpus callosum.)

Try this exercise on for size: visual brain-balancing exercise.

Left Right Brain Balancing Exercise

Look at the circles above. Cross your eyes until you see the third circle between the blue and red one. When your left brain is dominant, you’ll see the blue circle/verticle line. When your right brain is dominant, you’ll see the red circle/horizontal line.

Try to focus your eyes so that you see a cross, which means you’re seeing both circles equally, which means you’re using both sides of your brain at the same time, which not only induces a very pleasant meditative state, but also grows your corpus callosum by leaps and bounds.

Alternating Left and Right Brain Dominance

Another interesting tidbit is that your left and right side brains switch dominance all the time, every 90 minutes or so on average, but at times as often as every few seconds.

Yogis say you can tell which side of your brain is currently dominant: if you’re breathing more through your left nostril, it’s the right side, and vice versa. Because they tend to feel more peaceful and connected with the world when their right side brain is dominant, yogis practice breathing through their left nostril to help turn on their right side brain.

Nose Peace. Who’d a thunk it? ;-)

Related Articles

The Right Side Brain Savant
Split Brain Consciousness in Action
Binaural Beats for Curious Surfers
Perfect Memory and the Cosmic Mind
Total Body Regeneration

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 1:16 am and is filed under Consciousness, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

19 Responses to “Achieving Left and Right Brain Balance”

Jodi says:

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 7:34 am

My Score:

Score: 13
Left Count: 5
Right Count: 31
Both Count: 14
Unanswered: 0
Total amount of questions is: 50

You are center brained, with a tendancy to think towards your right side.

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Jodi says:

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 8:26 am

btw… The red and blue circle exersize frustrated me… an extra red circle tried to pop out a couple of times.

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Xman says:

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 8:57 am

Score: -4.6666666666667
Left Count: 24
Right Count: 10
Both Count: 15
Unanswered: 1 (maybe I answered the “absentminded question wrong?)
Total amount of questions is: 50
You are center brained, with a tendancy to go towards your left side.

The sight test was murder! I tried several times, but I just kept going back and forth between the two. I think I got 1/2 a cross a few times though.
It would be interesting to see results, men vs women, old vs young, aborigine vs college grad, liberal vs conservative, convict vs…..what? Priest?, etc.

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pelmo says:

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 9:04 am

Why don’t we try the simple excersie of turning off that TV and start talking to our kids, friends and neighbors. We wouldn’t allow all of those idiots on TV to do all of our thinking for us.

Go back to the old days when people gathered on front porches to exchange ideas from A to Z. The children played together as the adults talked. We were sure a lot safer and smarter, and knew a lot more what was going on around us.

Now we do everything to keep from talking to anyone. Heaven forbid you even say good morning to someone for fear of interupting a phone call or a popular tune that is blaring from an Ipod.

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Jodi says:

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 10:00 am

PELMO!!! I want to live in THAT world!!!!!

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JoeC says:

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 11:41 am

My brain dominance results:
Score: -7
Left Count: 25
Right Count: 11
Both Count: 14
Unanswered: 0
Total amount of questions is: 50

You are center brained, with a tendancy to go towards your left side. Hmmm…is anybody NOT center brained and leaning left? ;-)

I’m finding it a lot harder to see the blue/red circle cross than I thought I would. I’ve tried it several different times, and I can catch glimpses, but the two brain halves — man, they do fight each other for control.

Hey Pelmo, if people do go back to sitting on the porch and telling stories and talking late into the night, is it ok to bring my laptop? :-) Yeah, I know…I think I’m part of the problem!

Hey, Jodi’s got a brand new world: Happy in the World. I’m adding it to my links right now…

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jodi says:

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 11:48 am

You are center brained, with a tendancy to go towards your left side. Hmmm…is anybody NOT center brained and leaning left? ;-)

ME!!!! I lean to the right.

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pelmo says:

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 7:47 pm

Shame on all three of you for all those scores. I’m happy when I get the spam protection number right. I had to takeoff both shoes to get this one right.

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Xman says:

Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 7:50 am

Nice sentiments and nice site, Jody.
Am struck by a few thoughts:

The world is basically aflame. Human deceit, control, toxic pollution, waste, threats, wars, starvation, fear, terror, horror everywhere. Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, colliding asteroids, volcanos, droughts, fires, everywhere.
And then there is Jody, deep underground on a base of somekind. Trying to find a way to raise her family in some sort of beautiful pastoral setting…at least in a pastoral mindset…and sending out little internet radio signals to anyone who is out there. Anyone who might be able to pick up her faint signal of hope.

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jodi says:

Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 11:48 am

LOL! I think Jodi is trying to have hope. It is a start. One of my parent figures once told me when I was not in such a happy place, that in order to have faith that things will be better, you first need to have hope… I did not get it then. I guess I kind of get it now. Sort of. I just know that I feel better when I think happy thoughts.

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Dusty says:

Saturday, April 26, 2008 at 11:09 pm

This was SO interesting Joe..Thank you kind sir.

My results:

Score: 3.3333333333333
Left Count: 11
Right Count: 21
Both Count: 15
Unanswered: 3
Total amount of questions is: 50

You are center brained, with a tendancy to think towards your right side.

I don’t know if that is good or bad ;)

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JoeC says:

Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 7:21 pm

Dusty, sounds like your brain is well-balanced, and if it leans toward the right side, then, uh…I guess it means you’ve bucked the left-leaning educational system and are truly an independent-thinking American. But, I’ll bet everybody who knows you already knew that! :-)

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Indigobusiness says:

Monday, April 28, 2008 at 6:05 pm

What a great post.

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JoeC says:

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 5:31 am

Thanks, Indigobusiness!

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Indigobusiness says:

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 6:37 pm

You’re welcome, Joe, I want to repost it on my blog.

You know, I gave a speech on this in college. Half the audience stared at me like deer caught in the headlights. Leftbrainers, I reckon.

I’d like to see your photo analysis applied to the Mona Lisa.

BTW I finally found a way past your spam-blocker. My math skills aren’t the best, but I’m officially blaming it on my software.

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JoeC says:

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 10:22 pm

Mona Lisa, huh? In the immortal words of Elmer Fudd, Vewy vewy intewesting. Well, Mona Lisa doesn’t work so great because she (or he, if it really is Leonardo in drag…) is sitting pretty far side-saddle with very unequal portions of her face showing. Still, it’s worth a look.

Here she is normal:

And here, with her left side showing (right side brain):

And here with her right side showing (left side brain):

P.S. It’s always a pleasure to see something here get reposted over at God Is Not an Asshole, so feel free anytime.

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Indigobusiness says:

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 9:30 am

Haha!!! It doesn’t really work, but, when viewing the two halves separately, something is revealed about the bicameral mind and the enigmatic smile.

Thanks again, Joe.

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Hard-boiled Dreams of the World » Blog Archive » The Right Side Brain Savant says:

Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 11:29 am

[...] « House Blocks Paper Ballot Voting Help Achieving Left and Right Brain Balance » [...]

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terry david says:

Friday, June 18, 2010 at 1:29 pm

Whoa. I just did the eye-crossing thing, I can’t get a cross at all. I get a complete blue that dissolves into red, continuing cyclically, changing about every 2-3 seconds. Is it serious doc?

[I know its two years past the original post, but this stuff is timeless, right? RIGHT?]

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