March 23th 1998
"BALANCE THE RIGHT AND LEFT SIDE OF YOUR BRAIN" PART 1
When I started the first series of lectures I mentioned Leonardo da Vinci's picture of the symmetrical man as a beautiful image for the idea of the energies in the body being in perfect balance. Often the earth is compared with the human body and they both have a lot in common. Meridians in the body correspond to leylines, chakras to places of high energy on the globe, blood vessels and rivers have things in common, the weather can be compared with our emotions just to name a few.
When I was searching for a picture to illustrate the flyers for my workshops I had the idea to use a photograph of a person standing with both arms lifted symmetrically in front of the globe.
I have always been fascinated about the idea of finding a balance in my life on different levels.
One reason why I joined the anthroposophical society was that many members seemed to strive for not just one way to express themselves creatively but several ways. They would learn how to play an instrument, try to write articles and poetry and paint as well. They usually would not try to use their gifts for commercial purposes but save them for their own pleasure, balance and for further insights.
I do not think that I want to use just one of my talents and concentrate on bringing it to perfection because that would usually lead me into imbalance. I would start to overuse some parts of my body and neglect the other parts. So, many times in my life people have said to me that I should concentrate on one thing and try to become famous or earn money with it. But it has never really appealed to me to work hard and thus neglect my inner balance. Furthermore I realized that as soon as I was starting to concentrate on earning money the component of having fun could easily dissappear.
That probably has happened to many people. At first they really enjoyed their work and then gradually it became more and more boring because they always had to do the same things. But they decided to sacrifice the joy to earn money and becoming famous. The Ego crept in and took their fun away and they would usually say "Well, I really have no choice because I have to earn a living and pay the mortgage and I cannot find another job"
I am aware of the fact that I have probably sacrificed my need to earn money and become famous to the need to keep a balance, enjoy my work and have time to learn other important things as well. No money in the world can turn me into a composer, or help me to have time and awareness to understand and study books or learn a new instrument. We should never stop learning new things and visiting classes. It will keep us young and flexible.
To find a balance within our body we can at first look at the pairs of limbs and organs which we have got and find out how to balance them. In my first seven lectures I started to focus on the feet, the hands, the arms, the eyes and the ears.
In this lecture we will focus on the two sides of the brain. The two hemispheres of the brain connect via a kind of beam called "corpus collossum". The left side of the brain is linked with the right side of the body and vice versa. Hands, eyes and ears are connected with the contralateral half of the brain too. With the right side of the brain we hear music, listen to poetry, touch and smell. We receive information in a holistic way in patterns and symbols. With the left side of the brain we think, speak and listen in an analytical, rational way. We analyse, write and create logical structures. Here lies our sense of time.
Thorwald Dethlefsen in his book "Illness as a path" explains that according to the task we are accomplishing we are always dominated by one side of our brain. Via the beam or bridge of the brain there is always an exchange of information going on.
Of course we would not be "whole" if we only had one side of the brain. Nevertheless it seems as if most of our present world is run by the left side of the brain only. Rational, analytical and concrete thinking seems to be predominant and time always plays a big role in people's lives.
Dethlefsen writes that all the things we usually critizise as irrational, occult and phantastic are simply part of the ability to look at the world from the other side of our brain. This often suppressed shadow side of us can become important whenever we are in danger. Then our human nature often changes to the use of the right side of the brain. Once analytical thinking cannot help any more we can benefit from the ability of the right side to get a holistic overview and put us into a space where time does not seem to exist any more.
The two poles seem to compensate each other and therefore we cannot use the two sides of the brain together at the same time. As humans we are forced to use one after the other side of the brain and thus create rhythm, time and space.
Healing and initiation can both be a pathway leading from polarity to unity. We can only overcome the polarity which seems to keep us in a space where we identify with the egoistic human nature when we do not separate ourselves from the universe. First the ego needs to grow and then it has to die otherwise we cannot become part of everything.
To overcome the polarity we need to change the domination of one side of the brain into using them both at the same time.
The beam or bridge needs to become more and more permeable and two brains need to grow into one. The subjective conscious has to unite with the objective unconscious.
The universal wisdom of this step from polarity to unity can be found in Taoism as yin and yang.
The hermetics talk about the marriage of fire and water or the unification of sun and moon. The two snakes of the "caduceus" are symbolizing the two polar energy streams called ida (female) and pingala (male) that try to overcome the canal in the middle called shashumna.
The polarity of our consciousness always forces us to decide between two possibilities but we can only achieve one at a time. In order to find the right decision we have to judge and critizise. The only step that helps us out of this dilemma is the insight that there is no good or bad no right or evil. Every judgment is therefore subjective. These things have to be deeply understood.
Next week we will concentrate on various excercises to balance the brain and explore the Gem and Flower Essences for the brain area.