The necessity of the right brain

The brain has two major modes or systems which must work together and be

harmonized if we are not to lose the essentials of our human existence. The nadis must be

balanced for optimal functioning, for sushumna to function, and for us to maximize our

human elements and potential. Unfortunately, few of us are really balanced and most of

us, especially men, tend towards the purely external, materialistic and technological

pingala side rather than the subtle, intuitive, feeling ida side. When imbalance between

the nadis is minor we may not even notice its effect, though it must manifest in our

personality, behavior, relationships and so forth, in ways that are baffling to us, and

which can make our lives miserable. What happens in the normal situation can be better

understood when we look at an extreme example.

       Howard Gardener and his colleagues studied people with severely damaged right

brains (ida) and found that they become robot-like, minus their essential human

understanding. (2) He has found that only when both hemispheres of the brain are

working together can we appreciate the moral of a story, the measuring of a metaphor,

words describing emotion, or the punch line of a joke.

      Without the right brain we lose our understanding and take things very literally. For

example, someone might say that he has a broken heart and the right brain damaged

person will ask, "How did it break?" They see the explicit, the facts, but cannot

understand what has been implied. These people also tell jokes at the wrong moment,

their sentences become meaningless and they confabulate - make up things. The

important points in their sentences are lost and are submerged or flattened, becoming part

of the background. There is just a stream of words without meaning or purpose. They

also accept the bizarre and argue with what should normally be accepted. It is obvious

then that the right brain, which yogis called ida or the receptive mind, is vital in the

appreciation of relationships, of seeing how the parts fit together as a whole, in

understanding.

        There is also evidence to show that the right brain is not only important for normal

understanding, but also holds the key for intuition and higher experience. Eugene

D'Aquili, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, feels

that split brain research indicates that the circuits which underlie higher mental states,

from flashes of inspiration to altered states of consciousness, lie within the right brain,

ida, and are powered by the emotions. (3) D'Aquili has formulated a neurological

description of "the intuitive perception of God" in which one sees reality as a unified

whole, experiencing a feeling of oneness with the world. He feels it is a product of the

parietal-occipital lobe on the right, "non-dominant" side of the brain which somehow

takes over the brain's functioning. Time is experienced as standing still and a sense of

absolute and complete unity of self with the cosmos is felt. Both are features of right

brain function and this experience is long lasting and totally transforms people's lives so

that they find new motivation and a healthier, more fulfilling perspective of their

relationship with life.

   This research indicates that unless we begin to take more notice of and develop the
right brain, we cannot partake inthe experience of higher consciousness. According to
yogis, the right and left brain, ida and pingala, must be balanced for such experience to
take place.