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Paradox

The unity of the hemispheres

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So this is a topic that I want to talk about that is based on the research of Iain Mcgilchrist. I think there is an important point that is missing from the non-duality view of the right hemisphere, or maybe I didn't fully understand it and I'm stuck in a certain model, but neither Iain got too much into this aspect of time.

So this is important in the relationship with time. The left hemispheres takes the gestalt view of the right and deconstructs it into little mechanical pieces, the view is static, lifeless and in a way meaningless, things are black and white, giving rise to the perception of duality.

An important characteristic of the right hemisphere is that it doesn't see this duality and sees things as a whole. However I think here is a problem I'm facing. If we look at the brain we can clearly see is divided into two (at least the left might say). One can be treated as black, the other as white. The white (right) can be seen as the part that is all loving, forgiving, caring, full of emotions and life and lets go of the past (because it can't perceive it actually) and just flows (into the future). I believe the unrealization of the duality is simply because we are moving towards the future (there is no behind, there is just upfront) giving rise to this wonderful experience of the world, of movement and expression. The black realizes the duality exactly because we are moving into the future, and he is not, it cannot grasp it cause time ever flows ahead and he is ever collapsing it. So the right hemisphere is not actually in a non dual state, it just seems like it cause is merging with time moving towards the future.. Even if one might say that this is in itself is an illusion and time doesn't exist and maybe we are moving backwards and the left hemisphere merges with the past anyway, is actually irrelevant. Because the left cannot feel the connection anyhow.

To say that the white it is not dual is to say that it realizes both the past and the future as one (which it doesn't). It just simply let's go of the past (although it can't even perceive it) to maintain an open system. Iain also points out that from the right hemisphere we get the sensations or intuitions that something is about to happen. That is simply because it actually lives in the future. All the characteristics of the right hemisphere point to this.

Now the black, as it's opposite, keeps repeating what it already knows exactly because it's living in the past. It cannot go upfront just as the white cannot go behind. The past is static, set in stone, so is lifeless, or dead one might say. But by not merging with the movement towards the future it notices the dual aspect of it.

I'm just trying to point out that people think they can actually be fully in the present moment. Or they interpret the right hemisphere as the one in the present, which as I've mentioned, I think is wrong.  Is almost impossible to live in the present (although paradoxically, you can only be in the present). But you cannot fully merge with it. To be fully conscious of the present (or as Leo calls it God) is to be fully conscious of all. The mechanics and processes that work inside of you as parts and as a whole. People associate meditation often ( not always) being present with being the whole, but that's not it. As I've mentioned, it just seems like it because you are letting go of the past. But the present is also static! Is always now, always the same yet always moving.

So here are some features I believe one must have to actually reach the present moment and why is pretty much impossible. We have to be fully conscious of all the parts and also of the gestalt. So I have to be fully conscious of all the geometry inside of me as pieces and make up the machinery of being me up to the gestalt, to create a simulation of the gestalt. Now at the same time I also must be one with the gestalt simply by being and feeling it (this seems easier, however is not). The reason for focusing on all the fitting of the geometry is to have a grasp on how the gestalt is, even though is just a simulation. Like building a puzzle. However once the puzzle is fully build the left hemisphere has a better understanding of the right (remember that the sum of the parts does not make the whole, however there might be some debate here). But now I have a model in which I can use myself (left hemisphere characteristic) to be myself (right hemisphere characteristic). We also have to scale down at the same time from the gestalt. This might be counterintuitive but a good example is the practice that one tries to open the chakras. Is not just an endocrine system(left hemisphere might say) with mechanical functions, is a living system that you can feel it inside of you. Is more of an archetypal understanding that the gestalt has. Either way, one scales up, one scales down

Once a theoretical full union emerges, being able to change certain parts of the gestalt, the being experiences the world different. For example inducing synesthesia or anesthesia, pleasure or pain, perfect imagery or music. Being able to shape reality as one sits fit. Reality and dream merging into one. maybe even actually being able to create complex energetical systems that might even collapse into matter. Because remember, the right hemisphere sees the world as full of life and God exists. But the left doesn't, everything is just mechanical and being seen as a resource, just something to use. This detachment is important because as Iain puts it, "the left hemisphere says "No" to the right". Being fully conscious you can operate the "No". If it sounds to crazy, well, is like  NZT overdose meets psychedelics.

However, as I said, this is almost impossible to do so.  Present moment is beyond time and space. So I must be with one foot in the heavens and the other here. Dead and alive at the same time to fully experience the present. 

 

Now this is more like a side note. I don't think is helpful for people to keep talking about how we are one with everything and God and why you are God and why you are One and so on. I know a lot of people do it, including Leo. I don't pretend like I know much about the subject of egyptian mythology but one must wonder why the highest God in kemetism (Nun),  they don't find it that important. They focus more on other Gods. By doing so they bring the Gods closer and can better work with them, through the symbolism. This creates certain archetypal understandings, psychological configurations or "crafted" states of consciousness and deeper understandings of reality.

 

 

 

 

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It's very interesting that in our western society we emphasize language very much, and that is a left hemisphere function(although the right can do it too if needed). To the point where our kids start speaking at 1 year old. Whereas some more 'traditional' families don't talk as much to their kids and instead they express themselves through body and facial gestures. This makes the child start speaking later, at 3 years old. But his ability to understand human emotion is deeper.

I believe our left hemisphere is the western world projected out. I think we are a left hemisphere civilization that is enforcing itself everywhere on the globe...

Personally I think we are dysfunctional at birth as humans, in the way our brains work, and our mental obsessives.

I think tools that help us balance both hemispheres are key to self-actualization. 

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