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

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.

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

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.

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