A Beautiful Mind
Pen & Watercolour Copyright 2008 Jean Burman
It’s funny… but the human mind is not something that we “think” about all that often. And that’s a paradox in itself isn’t it? Here are a couple of mind teasers to kick off this post
You know… I could have sworn there were only 3. But there’s 6. Honest!
And how about this one?
Seems no matter what you do… the answer will always be that infernal 9!
But the classic is the Spinning Lady… and I will come back to her in a moment.
(You might want to scroll her out while you read on - she can be extremely distracting! LOL)
First I wanted to tell you what I discovered this week whilst having my eyes tested for new glasses. As part of the test the Optometrist tested my eye dominance. To do this… she asked me to look though the gap between my outstretched overlapped hands and focus on a point in the distance. I then closed one eye and then the other without moving my hands. The eye that continues to see the focal point is the dominant eye. For me… it is my left.
This got me thinking… and when I got home I did a little research to see if my left eye dominance had any influence over the way I see my world. And guess what? Turns out it does.
As most of us probably already know… the left brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa. [I feel sure this was God's way of showing us that he has an overtly perverse sense of humour] (grin)
And we’ve heard a lot about left brain dominant people being analytical… whilst the right brain dominant are considered to be more creative. What I wondered then… was whether my left eye dominance had anything to do with my being right brain dominant. And guess what? Turns out it does.
Getting back to the Spinning Lady and the test which is supposed to sort the left brainers from the right brainers. Take a look at this.
Hmmm… now what does it mean when she spins both ways. Does that make me a no-brainer?!
When I first watched this… she would only spin clockwise (which puts me fair and square in the middle of the creative right brain dominant camp). No matter what I did… even standing on one ear… I couldn’t get that aggravating woman to spin the other way! Then someone interrupted me with a question. It was a question that required an analytical response. Sure enough… when I looked back at the screen… off she went in the other direction. But then I couldn’t get her to go back!
I have since perfected this… and can now control her at whim. When I want her to go clockwise I listen to a beautiful piece of music and dream of my next painting. When I want her to go anticlockwise I have to think about… um…well… what I’m going to cook for dinner… (ha… and you thought I was going to say econometrics didn’t you?)
Seriously… anyone can do this. And here’s the trick. Stare at her pivotal foot and the shadow crossing the floor. Soon you will see that she is in fact not even making a full rotation… but simply going back and forth!
Mind bending? Yeah… you betcha.
In reality… I believe our brains are multi-functional and multi-dimensional. Our ability or otherwise to use elements from both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously is determined by how often (and how well) we utilise the abilities of each side… and how well we are able to “make the swap”… (further developing neural pathways between the two).
Certainly genetics has some part to play in this… but I believe most of us ultimately “become” what we think about (and do) the most. We are the product of our own activity and learning. To limit the potential capacity of our brilliant minds to one hard and fast rule about whether we are left brain or right brain dominant seems somehow to insult the creator… whomever “she” may eventually prove to be!
Truth is… we are more than probably… a little bit of both. Or maybe even a lot. Exactly how much of both is determined by you. Each and every one of us is unique in our own special way… with something to offer that no-one else can. Our challenge is to find that uniqueness and bring it to the table.
It’s a no-brainer really! (laughs)
July 7th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Vision and Art by Margaret Livingstone explores the way the brain translates the eye’s signals into images, color and movement and looks at how artists have anticipated these findings. A great book!
July 7th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Yes I remember you mentioning that book Roger. I must try to get hold of a copy. I guess the way we “see” is the very first step in the creation of art. But sometimes art is made without “seeing” at all… at least not in the physical sense.
This type of art really fascinates me. Art that is drawn in a straight line from the imagination… utilising the power and impact of past observation… and delivered through the raw filter of emotion, memory and experience.
It has always surprised me that not everyone can see pictures in their mind in 20/20 panavision! Sometimes it’s a good thing. Sometimes it’s just plain scarey! LOL
July 8th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Funny, I too had an eye exam and got new glasses this week. (And I too have a stronger left eye.)
Okay, here’s the weird thing, the woman was spinning clockwise for me, which presumably makes me right-brained, but I could easily make her change direction at will. And what’s weirder, ,Jean, the minute you got into an analytical explanation of how it works I went into overload and shut down mentally. I did, however, get 6 on the first riddle when I went back to doublecheck my first answer, and the reason for always coming up with 9 was obvious to me before it was explained. It’s not something I thought about, it was just automatically clear. What does all this mean?
Actually, I don’t buy the whole left brain-right brain thing. I have a theory that something else altogether is going on. And the notion that most people are left brained is impossible. If this were true then we wouldn’t have advertising, politics, or religion because everyone would see right through it all. I believe that the right brain processes holistically, in what I call “thought stacks,” while the left brain turns those thought stacks into what I call “information streams,” which is how we communicate with one another through words and gestures. (It’s why the left brain is thought of as the verbal one.) When someone speaks to us, or when we read something, it is received first by the left brain and then is assembled by the right brain. It’s why as we read a book we don’t have to keep going back to remember what happened on page one. The fascinating thing is that the very same research that arrived at the conventional “hemispheric specialization” notion supports my theory. I think neuro-scientists got themselves locked into the original explanation and can’t let go of it.
As artists, it’s our right brain that enables us to envision what we want to paint or draw, and our left brain that turns it into one brush stroke or pencil stroke after another. The artists who have wonderful ideas but just can’t seem to realize them are, I believe, right brain dominant, while the artists who are technically skillful but don’t do interesting work tend to be left brain dominant. As in all things, the ideal is balance.
July 8th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Too right John! I suspect the right brain left brain theory has been latched onto as an easy explanation for a very complex process! It seems altogether too simplistic doesn’t it? Especially for those who are tuned in to their thought processes… and know exactly (and instinctively) where a particular function is springing from.
Most of us (I believe) are the product of a combination of interactions between both hemispheres. This explains why we can write AND paint. The left brain is the home of language. The right brain is the home of feelings and fantasy… spatial awareness and perception… (and interestingly enough… mathematics!) That wafty world we retreat to when the mind is fully engaged in the creative process.
Here’s an interesting thing… I listen to the radio when I paint… usually stories and interviews interspersed with music. In the “zone”… dominated by the right brain process… I scarcely hear the content but have total recall after the event… the mind surreptitiously storing the information away for later analysis.
Conversely I need to write in total silence. It seems I cannot receive any input that requires analytical left brain process at this time. Even music gets in the way!
Both activities take me away… transport me to a state of complete absorption (ask me a question and expect a more than vague answer) but the process for each is coming from an entirely different place!
I recently read an interesting book called Thesholds of the Mind written by Bill Harris creator of the Holosync Programme which deals with training the mind to shift perception through meditation using controlled brainwave techniques. Alpha Beta Delta Theta etc. This concept adds an even greater dimension to our understanding of the complex processes at play.
It’s all good fun… and so interesting!
ps: How odd we were getting new glasses at the same time… must have been some kind of universal call up? Spooky! LOL
July 9th, 2008 at 4:32 am
I’m with you entirely on the matter of listening to music or other “distractions” when I write, and I share your predilection for the radio or music when I’m drawing or painting (or cartooning). I can even have the TV on as background “noise,” and every now and again something will catch my attention.
I misspoke when referring to neuro-scientists previously. In fact, while they agree that the right and left hemispheres of the brain Ihave different functions, most stop short of the sweeping generalizations of popular culture, given wide circulation in “Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain.” Many of Betty Edward’s exercises and notions about the subject work, but not, I believe, for the reasons she gives.
It’s not just that the left brain is “the home of language.” I think it’s the home of the processing that allow us to communicate using language, numbers, gestures, and images. A complex thought or idea may pop into our head in an instant. That’s the right brain at work. To share that thought with another requires the left brain. It’s why people tend to be so resistent to new ideas in an argument. Their own preconceptions and prejudices are so deeply ingrained (right brain) that they cannot process contrary ideas coming in through the left brain.
When Einstein was a small child he was very slow in learning to speak. I believe it’s because his right brain was overwhelmingly hyperactive. When he did finally start to speak, much later than most children, he tended to “rehearse” things he was going to say by speaking quietly to himself first, before uttering them aloud. The ablity of his left brain to turn his thought processes into communication was all but shut down by his right brain. Even math did not come easily to him, but was something he forced himself to learn in order to explain the concepts of his mind.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Yes… he was thought to have suffered from ADHD and dyslexia as a child… his teachers labelling him retarded (why does this not surprise me?) LOL As a mother I have been down this track with a child who in 2nd grade wrote the alphabet backwards (and I mean… um… letters backwards) to the astonishment of all. It was downhill all the way from there within the rigid parametres of the education system. In high school there was hell to pay because complex mathematical problems were resolved without a formal process… something the “system” has no time for. Without the ability to show the left brain “process”… a solution arrived at in wholistic fashion by the right brain “intuitive”… simply won’t float! The fact that the answer was timely and correct was inconsequential. Consequently bright students who happen to be right brain dominant continue to be routinely overlooked by a system that favours abilities which can be readily assessed and easily measured!
But Einstein had already penned a good assessment of the situation! In the words of the great man himself…
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds” LOL
[Interesting also that Einstein's brain... whilst of average size... was found to be 15% wider than normal in the inferior parietal lobe where visuospatial cognition, mathematical thought and imagery of movement is understood to come from. What isn't known though is "what came first the chook or the egg" Was he simply "made" this way... or did his brain develop as a result of the flexing of that considerable muscle (okay brains aren't muscle... but figuratively speaking... you know)] grin