Thank you both for another great talk. I often direct my more philosophically enquiring clients to Channel McGilchrist and Dr McGilchrist's books. One of the most important public voices of our time in my humble...💫
Thank you, Dr Mark Vernon for your vast wisdom and insights, also all others on this panel of discussion with the books of Dr. Iain McGilchrist vast array of his enormous wisdom of learning by he what he chose to learn at higher levels of education and how has opened the doors for all to hear. We are all fortunate. Life is a journey of the dark and the light. Philosophy, world histories, sciences, theology, literatures, poetry, music and art. Subsequently, I remember reading and also hearing the pyschist, David Bohm and Krishnamurti, in 1980, which led to another opening of the meaning of time. "Thought is of time, intelligence is not of time. Intelligence is immeasurable." With the deepest appreciation and respect for all who joined this conversation. What an marvelous organ the brain is and the heart that beats. The human body is a story in itself.
40:30 I feel this may be the key point of all of this; that there needs to be an active involvement in perception to integrate both hemispheres, and flow with both the guestalt and the context. Because the "objective truth" can signify a constraint and a congelation in a reality that is quite a bit in the realm of the potential and the flow
The concept of temporalisation may be useful to the woman at 01:12:00. In order for traumatic memory to become suffering, it needs to be very incrementally bought back into time. Only then is it suffering - something that can be experienced directly and, for example, grieved. Mentalisation theorists such as Jon Allen and Peter Fonagy are good resources here.
The picture of paradiso with all the disparate thinkers and believers integrated into a circle reminds me so much of the ending of Fellini’s movie 8 1/2: “a new world and the old world made explicit/ understood in the completion of its partial ecstasy/ and resolution of its partial horror.” (Eliot)
Even plato and socrates found value in the mystery cults of their time. The dionysian and of course Jung's contrabution and of our current time we have Iain McGilchrist. Wonderful! Gobor Mate and Iain McGilchrist together in my mind would make a compelling discussion each playing and bouncing off each other.
This reminds me of an 'encounter' I had with art in a public gallery in London, where I landed in a dialogue with a piece; a subjective, I-to-I experience. There's a chap who organises these events now and again, called "You, Me & Art".
[Cough! Splutter!] A collab between 2 of my favourite YT channels!? I can’t imagine what I did to deserve this… I find myself imagining David Bentley Hart thrown into the mix, but surely this is too much to hope for (?)
Speaking of attention, I quote Iain “The most ancient difference between the two hemispheres lies in two kinds of attention. And so does the most highly evolved difference, enhanced by the frontal lobes. The more focal attention is narrowed, the more it takes its object out of the realm of time, space, the body and emotion. A virtual world is merely the conclusion of that process - and that is where the evolution of the left hemisphere leads: to a virtual world.” I’m genuinely concerned... I follow a LOT of so-called ‘social media’, not least Bannon’s WarRoom... he has on a lot of guests and the discussions are often jaw dropping in there significance; not least where Dr Robert Malone and Naomi Wolf are concerned... and also Tucker Carlson has been doing some astonishing reporting... Steve Turley, esp this seemingly unstoppable escalation of war with Russia. I also highly recommend a recent discussion between John Anderson and Mary Eberstadt... in fact that’s arguably the most important. I mention this to give some context... we are hurtling toward a collision whereby the denial of reality on such a scale is surely just not sustainable without reverting to all out Orwellian tyranny. A very striking case in point is the recent inaugural address of the new VC of Iain’s alma mater, Oxford University. Tracy speaks of tackling, or combating ( don’t recall the exact phrasing) ‘disinformation’ and also effectively praises AstraZeneca... I have a strong sense that much of the above list would ‘qualify’ as disinformation but why would someone, presumably so intelligent (a neuroscientist, I believe) be so matter of fact (Confident?) at this point when so much is coming to light; I suspect her definition of ‘disinformation’ is going to have to perform far greater feats of contortion than Nicola Sturgeon re trans people. Interesting times... I wonder if the new VC understands the Hemisphere Hypothesis, I think not.
Funnily enough, a very recent Turley upload is on Yuri Besmenov (footag of been familiar with for about ten years). Besmenov on ‘Demoralisation’ “exposure to true information does not matter anymore” I encounter this regularly, I attribute it mainly to the Sexual Revolution (see Mary Eberstadt) I recall in 1997, a young feminist woman (23) who had done a degree in Sociology said to me “I never fake a special moment... it just gives the guy an ego” Her insistence on referring to sexual climax as a ‘special moment’ I think was due to a largely subconscious sense of the desacralisation of society. I didn’t argue with her, but it obviously raises a few questions, not least, but what when it’s the real deal? Surely that’s just going to give him more of an ego... but of course, that’s fine, because the arbiter here is not God, the arbiter is the liberated individual... in this case, and most cases, the feminist. She indeed had a point, ‘getting lucky’ is the evolutionary jackpot, so to speak, but sex should have the metaphysical status of gift... you can’t earn or deserve it, to think you can is what I call the idolatry of consent.
Great quote from IMcG ! So much in it. My sense is that Bannon, and his ilk, are in many ways the mirror image of the pathology you see in the left ( Sturgeon's contortions about transwonen being a good example ) IE many also are driven by ideology and have a narrow focus ( Trump )
@@damianclifford9693 thank you for the reply; I have followed literally hundreds of hours of Bannon’s WarRoom closely; he admits he’s far from perfect... I’d need more specific accusations against him (yes, I’m obviously familiar with the controversy re the Wall) to re-evaluate my overall good impression of the work he and his team are doing. As for Trump, I have a lot to say about that, hopefully later, in the meantime I recommend his Warsaw speech and Victor Davis Hanson’s views on the matter
Interesting presentation, thanks. - A short note, if I may: Dr. McGilchrist mentions Dôgen. I suppose, he thereby refers to the Sôto-Zen master Dôgen Kigen (1200-1253 C.E.). The citation would fit quite neatly with the literal style of his, namely as found in the Shôbô-genzô collection. Well, Dôgen spent some time in China, but he was Japanese, even of aristocratic origin. He began his Buddhist studies on Mount Hiei, near the capital Kyôto. He stayed there for more than 15 years, if I remember correctly. Then he undertook two journies to Mainland China. Later, he founded his own temple, the Eihei-ji, and monks-and-lays community in the rather fringe province Echizen - it was halfways a kind of exile. Just saying, as a supplement. -Regards
Wonderful talk Mark - certainly bears repeating! I noticed that too - Dogen was Japanese. Didn't know he studied at Mount Hiei (The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei!!). Back then two thirds of journies from Japan to China ended in ship wreck and death - but that didn't stop the quest for truth! My favourite quote by Dogen is from when asked 'what is the highest teaching' to which he answered, 'an appropriate response'. Or maybe 'eyes are horizontal, noses are vertical'.
Artists live this life. As much as I adore Iain and his work, the artists know more about this if they are really artists and not mere surface jockeys.
so, the crazy thing is... as an artist, you spend most of your life realizing, if you're honest with yourself, that you don't know where your great ideas come from. You're very aware of this, and you love the world because of it (if you're looking at it right) since it's not 'you' doing the stuff you love. Your great ideas are never products of conscious plotting. They're gifts from elsewhere. And you wish others could have this same feeling - because you know it's why you love the world, and you know not loving the world (cynicism) is at the core of so many world problems. But not everyone's an artist, so I've always just thought, "If only." The thing that hit me more recently (and I left a long, stand-alone comment on this video about it) is that the same is true with every single one of my thoughts and inner sensations/feelings - not just the ones that turn into art I like. My thoughts and sensations - I don't choose any of them. They just happen in my brain/body/awareness. And this idea of choice- what is it, really? Thinking of something and seeing how it makes you feel, right? Except we don't choose how we feel about anything. The whole concept of free will / conscious choice starts to break down completely, not just for artists but for everyone. We're not choosing. It's not determinism because no one is in charge - there is no such thing as choice. And so what I'd come to know and love about being an artist...(the feeling of melodies or ideas as being 'gifts')... I realized actually applies to every moment of our lives, all of us. Seeing this you start to scratch on the feeling that any given moment is a gift, and the more 'out of your control' it feels, the more like a treasure your very waking experience starts to seem. I call it 'touching the magic' and it's started to happen more often. But how to get there? Letting go (because there's no choice, right?). But TRULY letting go by knowing you don't choose if you let go or not. Just remind yourself "There is no such thing as choice." I also spend lots of time just feeling the sensations of my body, since actually holding one's mental cursor on body sensation seems to get the talking mind to quiet down, and then reality starts to feel like a gift. Sounds woo-woo, but I'm not selling crystals. And hey, if we don't feel it yet - we needn't worry, since we don't choose what we think of or feel. This is how the ego dies, when it does, if it does :)
@@cecilcharlesofficial I felt joy reading your comment. I took psychology classes before I painted, figured out neural plasticity in the late 80’s, and when I arrived at the unexpected idea that I would be a painter, I ran the whole thing as neural plasticity. I saw others in painting classes as deepening a way their work looked at the beginning of a semester. That’s the main thing I learned in art classes, and I stayed on my energy while running various methods of capture of the model. I wonder why being creative is abrasive to people who don’t understand that part you described that is reception - I add a curation of energy. I receive imagoes as I go. I don’t see a whole image that is pre-mind or pre-play. I’m in the unknown though with skills, but skill of undefended reception of many impulses. This makes life different, and in a quick reply, I believe you are describing something like that. Every thought, feeling, idea, conversation, site, sight and person, word, room or view, has value. There’s no wrong outcome if one is jingled a bit. Bigger context from every moment. It’s all magic but I don’t feel the magic of it all of the time. I do know there is an arc in me that builds when it’s not yet accumulated enough to fulfill what’s next. I know the uncomfortable things are part of what I need. I always thought art was about changing me. Neurally, socially, in reading, writing, painting is just a part of what deepens. I’m not at the no free will juncture but I read about why people take that description. Hold on loosely, with directed attention - not many can do this. Those are the ones befuddled by my disposition towards life. Everything is a treasure if one can keep the store open. Life can be crushing. Do you also like Rilke’s Letter to a a young Poet, August 12, 1904? Gothenburg. I found that 25 or 28 years ago and it suited me. I believe one can’t be rigid and need exactness to live as you described. I don’t like the five factor personality inventory bc it flips what I find precious to a derogatory side, and keeps academics as the good side. Nice to read a likeminded person! Cheers!
It seems one of the great values of Iain's work, and those like his, which labor through the 'left-brain' processes and ways of knowing, is to help those bound by the affects of our 'left-brain' dominant culture pierce the veil of conscious awareness to access that which the artist, poet, and mystic find central to their way of being. If we are to enjoy a more balanced culture, it'll be through methods such as this as well as the examples of those 'right brain' dominant folks.
If I may be so presumptuous, I wrote this as a comment on an Alan Watts video and it received good feedback. It's how I remind myself, trick myself, back into flow state. Hope you enjoy. ** The secret can be found by looking at the characteristics of your life so far (and Watts has said this). Look at your own mind. Look how it works. Bam! There's a thought. Bam! Another thought, perhaps contradicting the first. And feelings (sensations in the body) that arise with those thoughts. The secret: you've chosen precisely zero of any of those things. They just come into your mind and body. Sit with that and you’ll realize actually you have no control. It's what Schopenhauer said - your desires, they're free. But only in the sense that they seem to be under no one's control, not even yours. You don't choose what you prefer. You just prefer. And so it's not that you're under the control of others or the universe (determinism), it's that 'free will' is an illusion. Choice is an illusion. Not just for you, but for anything. How do you choose? You think about something and see how it makes you feel, right? But you don't choose how it makes you feel. How would you choose your thoughts? By thinking of one and seeing how it makes you feel. But this isn’t a trap, because a) we never know what we’ll think of next, nor how anything will make us feel the next time around, and b) we DO learn. So, if you prefer logical, pragmatic thoughts, it's likely because you’ve learned that the consequences of logic and pragmatism tend to FEEL better to you. And thus our preferences change and we are able to see past our own noses and predict the consequences of our actions. And there are always consequences, even if it's just the voice inside that says "That was a good thing you did," or "Shame on you." That voice never goes away (to all the silly moral relativist children about to pipe in). But we don't choose. Yet our unwillingness to feel things (and to stay in our brains and think instead) seems to be what holds us up. Thankfully we can learn to feel things. To put our focus on body sensations (anxiety is the main one) and feel them. Try it. Just for a few moments. Feel where you feel anxious in your body. Feel the muscles there, tight. Just feel them, and they'll start to relax. Points of tension seem to relax to the extent that you are willing to feel them. Be patient - it takes a few moments of holding concentration. And once relaxed, the tensions often come back. So it’s not precisely “getting them relaxed” that’s the point, because that suggests there’s an end goal (some state of perfect relaxation). I don’t think so. Rather, the goal seems more simply to dive in, over and over, and feel completely the sensations that are emerging. It’s the feeling-without-resisting that begins to truly calm the mind, because you realize “Hey, I CAN feel this” - that thing you’ve been resisting. It’s simple, I know. Now try it again for longer. You’ll realize that you have an innate fear of feeling those pockets of anxiety you find. But also that it’s the fear of feeling the anxiety that IS the anxiety. And that's what anxiety is. The fear of feeling. So you clench. And that clenching stops you from being the relaxed, playful human you can be. It's actually you not feeling life, preferring to keep thinking about how things ‘should be’ or how you ‘should feel.’ Again the secret is just to feel whatever is happening right now. So if that’s you chastising yourself because you can’t seem to do what I’m suggesting, then feel the chastise-ness. Feel what that emotion does in your body. The clench. The buzz. The tension. The tingle. Whatever it is, feeling the clench is what unclenches it. Unclenching doesn’t mean you lose your conscience. You still value what you value, you simply see more relaxed, fun ways to get there. It’s the difference between being offered drugs and lashing out with some sort of implicit or explicit “How dare you offer that trash to me,” versus smiling and saying, “No thanks, but thanks for thinking of me.” Conversely, in the drug-offering scenario, unclenching also means allowing yourself to feel that first emotion (the emotion of ‘how dare you’) if that’s what courses through you in that moment. So put your imaginary mental cursor on body sensations as often as you can remember to. I learned to do this for singing, but I’ve realized the willingness to feel can be cultivated in other parts of life, too. While walking. While talking to people. While working. Just feel, and see how you start to handle each part of your life. If you forget (you realize you’ve been caught up in some inner story for minutes or hours) it's ok - you don't choose your thoughts! But you DO learn, so have faith that you can learn to do this. Do it lots, and watch how your brain starts to heal itself in the calm, in its ability to feel again and not run from everything. Imagine being a person who could valiantly feel every emotion. It’s a different kind of bravery, isn’t it? Not ‘in control of the world,’ and not even ‘in control of oneself’ (as much as you want to be), but simply honest. “Here’s the sensation I’m having now.” Notice I don’t call them emotions, because the word ‘emotion’ seems to add the weight of the conceptual label you’ve given them - ‘sorrow,’ ‘anxiety,’ ‘anger’ - and the idea of the emotion gets in the way of you feeling the body sensation that it brings. And again, I’m certainly NOT suggesting we act on every emotion or that any given emotion is ‘justified.’ Rather, it’s what’s happening in your body right now and you can choose to clench against it or not. Just feel what you’re shown. It’s surrender. It’s faith. You know it's your fear of feeling that's in your way, that makes you clench, and that makes you react with hostility to the world around you. Our devils are our fears of feeling and the egos that arise by thinking we're in control. Except we’re not in control - nothing is. But we can learn. And feeling the body sensations (the physical act of surrender and having faith) seems to be a secret no one quite remembers.
The practices you describe sounds very resonant with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as well as aspects of the Alexander Technique. If you’re not already familiar with them you might enjoy a trip down those rabbit holes.
Thank you for writing such a useful comment. I often find the practical, applied wisdom in the comments and you have brought me joy this morning as a gem of inspiration!
What a wonderfully insightful talk by Mark. It felt good to listen, both in heart and mind. A thought about Nils' impression there at the end. The issue for me is this: As within so without. So, whatever your mind is able to externalize in the world will always be a reflection of your internal state. People build systems on the outside, but it is the individual's internal state and capabilities that determine whether your framework will be used for betterment or whether it becomes a nightmare. I believe this world is here for you to evolve individually. The external and what we do or don't do in that space is simply for experience's sake. By wanting to map or capture the right hemisphere to make it 'useful' to a left dominant world, you are trying to necrotize that which is able to propel us further on our internal journey. That personal journey is the only one that matters. We evolve as individuals, not as ants in a colony.
Disagree. It is the village that raises individuals. Long before individuals are ready to undertake "inner journeys," the village frames the world from which journey unfolds.
I see what you mean but to me the village in whatever incarnation can have a big influence. It’s about being dynamic enough to go beyond the village. It’s ineffable- ‘ kiss the joy that flies’.
What's the best interface between those who can negotiate our world with the right and left perspectives such as they are and those who can't? What kind of awakening can we hope for there? You absolutely do know what I mean.
Have you Iain McGilchrist ever considered a discussion with Gabor Mate? Or have you already? If so can you post an address to the same? Thank you regardless.
Edit2: sorry obvious necro. When it comes to practices i found, using the internett as a Metalobe since 2000, that a quick "fast" in that regard let me take a long, hard look at how time and reality is something i didnt realy know. I feel the Secular world should reinstate some kind of tradgegy/commedy Lent. 40 days and night to quit smoking as example. sorry spelling nns. Edit: and on my way to the pub.
"he who binds to himself the joy
does the winged life destroy
but he who kisses the joy as it flies
lives in eternal sunrise" - William Blake
As a dragonfly in flight sips water from a pond, the fountain of life
Thank you both for another great talk. I often direct my more philosophically enquiring clients to Channel McGilchrist and Dr McGilchrist's books. One of the most important public voices of our time in my humble...💫
can you interpret his works for your clients?
Thank you, Dr Mark Vernon for your vast wisdom and insights, also all others on this panel of discussion with the books of Dr. Iain McGilchrist vast array of his enormous wisdom of learning by he what he chose to learn at higher levels of education and how has opened the doors for all to hear. We are all fortunate.
Life is a journey of the dark and the light. Philosophy, world histories, sciences, theology, literatures, poetry, music and art.
Subsequently, I remember reading and also hearing the pyschist, David Bohm and Krishnamurti, in 1980, which led to another opening of the meaning of time.
"Thought is of time, intelligence is not of time. Intelligence is immeasurable."
With the deepest appreciation and respect for all who joined this conversation.
What an marvelous organ the brain is and the heart that beats.
The human body is a story in itself.
Wonderful. The best talk I have ever heard Mark to give
40:30 I feel this may be the key point of all of this; that there needs to be an active involvement in perception to integrate both hemispheres, and flow with both the guestalt and the context. Because the "objective truth" can signify a constraint and a congelation in a reality that is quite a bit in the realm of the potential and the flow
Whew! THAT was a brilliant synthesis for my brain. I loved it. Thank you Gentleman.
Definitely time well spent!😊
The concept of temporalisation may be useful to the woman at 01:12:00. In order for traumatic memory to become suffering, it needs to be very incrementally bought back into time. Only then is it suffering - something that can be experienced directly and, for example, grieved. Mentalisation theorists such as Jon Allen and Peter Fonagy are good resources here.
I concur! Thanks very much Gents!
The practice of thankfulness or gratefulness is surely a great, a very great key. And it helps us to love that of this world that seems unlovable.
The picture of paradiso with all the disparate thinkers and believers integrated into a circle reminds me so much of the ending of Fellini’s movie 8 1/2: “a new world and the old world made explicit/ understood in the completion of its partial ecstasy/ and resolution of its partial horror.” (Eliot)
Even plato and socrates found value in the mystery cults of their time. The dionysian and of course Jung's contrabution and of our current time we have Iain McGilchrist. Wonderful! Gobor Mate and Iain McGilchrist together in my mind would make a compelling discussion each playing and bouncing off each other.
This reminds me of an 'encounter' I had with art in a public gallery in London, where I landed in a dialogue with a piece; a subjective, I-to-I experience. There's a chap who organises these events now and again, called "You, Me & Art".
To young UNI students, please learn and meditate about these issues, you are the future of humanity
This is an extraordinary dialogue about, if not with, our collective quantum future.
[Cough! Splutter!] A collab between 2 of my favourite YT channels!? I can’t imagine what I did to deserve this…
I find myself imagining David Bentley Hart thrown into the mix, but surely this is too much to hope for (?)
Speaking of attention, I quote Iain
“The most ancient difference between the two hemispheres lies in two kinds of attention. And so does the most highly evolved difference, enhanced by the frontal lobes. The more focal attention is narrowed, the more it takes its object out of the realm of time, space, the body and emotion.
A virtual world is merely the conclusion of that process - and that is where the evolution of the left hemisphere leads: to a virtual world.”
I’m genuinely concerned... I follow a LOT of so-called ‘social media’, not least Bannon’s WarRoom... he has on a lot of guests and the discussions are often jaw dropping in there significance; not least where Dr Robert Malone and Naomi Wolf are concerned... and also Tucker Carlson has been doing some astonishing reporting... Steve Turley, esp this seemingly unstoppable escalation of war with Russia. I also highly recommend a recent discussion between John Anderson and Mary Eberstadt... in fact that’s arguably the most important. I mention this to give some context... we are hurtling toward a collision whereby the denial of reality on such a scale is surely just not sustainable without reverting to all out Orwellian tyranny.
A very striking case in point is the recent inaugural address of the new VC of Iain’s alma mater, Oxford University. Tracy speaks of tackling, or combating ( don’t recall the exact phrasing) ‘disinformation’ and also effectively praises AstraZeneca... I have a strong sense that much of the above list would ‘qualify’ as disinformation but why would someone, presumably so intelligent (a neuroscientist, I believe) be so matter of fact (Confident?) at this point when so much is coming to light; I suspect her definition of ‘disinformation’ is going to have to perform far greater feats of contortion than Nicola Sturgeon re trans people.
Interesting times... I wonder if the new VC understands the Hemisphere Hypothesis, I think not.
Their... not there🙄
Funnily enough, a very recent Turley upload is on Yuri Besmenov (footag of been familiar with for about ten years).
Besmenov on ‘Demoralisation’ “exposure to true information does not matter anymore”
I encounter this regularly, I attribute it mainly to the Sexual Revolution (see Mary Eberstadt)
I recall in 1997, a young feminist woman (23) who had done a degree in Sociology said to me “I never fake a special moment... it just gives the guy an ego”
Her insistence on referring to sexual climax as a ‘special moment’ I think was due to a largely subconscious sense of the desacralisation of society.
I didn’t argue with her, but it obviously raises a few questions, not least, but what when it’s the real deal? Surely that’s just going to give him more of an ego... but of course, that’s fine, because the arbiter here is not God, the arbiter is the liberated individual... in this case, and most cases, the feminist.
She indeed had a point, ‘getting lucky’ is the evolutionary jackpot, so to speak, but sex should have the metaphysical status of gift... you can’t earn or deserve it, to think you can is what I call the idolatry of consent.
‘Footage I’ve been familiar with’ 🙄 is the AI just messing with me?
Let’s see how this comment turns out
Great quote from IMcG ! So much in it. My sense is that Bannon, and his ilk, are in many ways the mirror image of the pathology you see in the left ( Sturgeon's contortions about transwonen being a good example ) IE many also are driven by ideology and have a narrow focus ( Trump )
@@damianclifford9693 thank you for the reply; I have followed literally hundreds of hours of Bannon’s WarRoom closely; he admits he’s far from perfect... I’d need more specific accusations against him (yes, I’m obviously familiar with the controversy re the Wall) to re-evaluate my overall good impression of the work he and his team are doing.
As for Trump, I have a lot to say about that, hopefully later, in the meantime I recommend his Warsaw speech and Victor Davis Hanson’s views on the matter
Interesting presentation, thanks. - A short note, if I may: Dr. McGilchrist mentions Dôgen. I suppose, he thereby refers to the Sôto-Zen master Dôgen Kigen (1200-1253 C.E.). The citation would fit quite neatly with the literal style of his, namely as found in the Shôbô-genzô collection. Well, Dôgen spent some time in China, but he was Japanese, even of aristocratic origin. He began his Buddhist studies on Mount Hiei, near the capital Kyôto. He stayed there for more than 15 years, if I remember correctly. Then he undertook two journies to Mainland China. Later, he founded his own temple, the Eihei-ji, and monks-and-lays community in the rather fringe province Echizen - it was halfways a kind of exile. Just saying, as a supplement.
-Regards
Wonderful talk Mark - certainly bears repeating! I noticed that too - Dogen was Japanese. Didn't know he studied at Mount Hiei (The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei!!). Back then two thirds of journies from Japan to China ended in ship wreck and death - but that didn't stop the quest for truth! My favourite quote by Dogen is from when asked 'what is the highest teaching' to which he answered, 'an appropriate response'. Or maybe 'eyes are horizontal, noses are vertical'.
Artists live this life. As much as I adore Iain and his work, the artists know more about this if they are really artists and not mere surface jockeys.
so, the crazy thing is... as an artist, you spend most of your life realizing, if you're honest with yourself, that you don't know where your great ideas come from. You're very aware of this, and you love the world because of it (if you're looking at it right) since it's not 'you' doing the stuff you love. Your great ideas are never products of conscious plotting. They're gifts from elsewhere.
And you wish others could have this same feeling - because you know it's why you love the world, and you know not loving the world (cynicism) is at the core of so many world problems. But not everyone's an artist, so I've always just thought, "If only."
The thing that hit me more recently (and I left a long, stand-alone comment on this video about it) is that the same is true with every single one of my thoughts and inner sensations/feelings - not just the ones that turn into art I like. My thoughts and sensations - I don't choose any of them. They just happen in my brain/body/awareness. And this idea of choice- what is it, really? Thinking of something and seeing how it makes you feel, right? Except we don't choose how we feel about anything.
The whole concept of free will / conscious choice starts to break down completely, not just for artists but for everyone. We're not choosing. It's not determinism because no one is in charge - there is no such thing as choice.
And so what I'd come to know and love about being an artist...(the feeling of melodies or ideas as being 'gifts')... I realized actually applies to every moment of our lives, all of us. Seeing this you start to scratch on the feeling that any given moment is a gift, and the more 'out of your control' it feels, the more like a treasure your very waking experience starts to seem. I call it 'touching the magic' and it's started to happen more often.
But how to get there? Letting go (because there's no choice, right?). But TRULY letting go by knowing you don't choose if you let go or not. Just remind yourself "There is no such thing as choice." I also spend lots of time just feeling the sensations of my body, since actually holding one's mental cursor on body sensation seems to get the talking mind to quiet down, and then reality starts to feel like a gift. Sounds woo-woo, but I'm not selling crystals.
And hey, if we don't feel it yet - we needn't worry, since we don't choose what we think of or feel. This is how the ego dies, when it does, if it does :)
@@cecilcharlesofficial I felt joy reading your comment. I took psychology classes before I painted, figured out neural plasticity in the late 80’s, and when I arrived at the unexpected idea that I would be a painter, I ran the whole thing as neural plasticity.
I saw others in painting classes as deepening a way their work looked at the beginning of a semester. That’s the main thing I learned in art classes, and I stayed on my energy while running various methods of capture of the model.
I wonder why being creative is abrasive to people who don’t understand that part you described that is reception - I add a curation of energy. I receive imagoes as I go. I don’t see a whole image that is pre-mind or pre-play. I’m in the unknown though with skills, but skill of undefended reception of many impulses.
This makes life different, and in a quick reply, I believe you are describing something like that. Every thought, feeling, idea, conversation, site, sight and person, word, room or view, has value. There’s no wrong outcome if one is jingled a bit. Bigger context from every moment.
It’s all magic but I don’t feel the magic of it all of the time. I do know there is an arc in me that builds when it’s not yet accumulated enough to fulfill what’s next. I know the uncomfortable things are part of what I need. I always thought art was about changing me. Neurally, socially, in reading, writing, painting is just a part of what deepens.
I’m not at the no free will juncture but I read about why people take that description. Hold on loosely, with directed attention - not many can do this. Those are the ones befuddled by my disposition towards life.
Everything is a treasure if one can keep the store open. Life can be crushing.
Do you also like Rilke’s Letter to a a young Poet, August 12, 1904? Gothenburg. I found that 25 or 28 years ago and it suited me.
I believe one can’t be rigid and need exactness to live as you described. I don’t like the five factor personality inventory bc it flips what I find precious to a derogatory side, and keeps academics as the good side.
Nice to read a likeminded person!
Cheers!
In good faith, do we lose something by categorising? I am reflecting on my own question…
It seems one of the great values of Iain's work, and those like his, which labor through the 'left-brain' processes and ways of knowing, is to help those bound by the affects of our 'left-brain' dominant culture pierce the veil of conscious awareness to access that which the artist, poet, and mystic find central to their way of being. If we are to enjoy a more balanced culture, it'll be through methods such as this as well as the examples of those 'right brain' dominant folks.
@@cecilcharlesofficialtype in ‘jim newman sweden’ on youtube and watch the first video :)
If I may be so presumptuous, I wrote this as a comment on an Alan Watts video and it received good feedback. It's how I remind myself, trick myself, back into flow state. Hope you enjoy.
**
The secret can be found by looking at the characteristics of your life so far (and Watts has said this). Look at your own mind. Look how it works.
Bam! There's a thought.
Bam! Another thought, perhaps contradicting the first.
And feelings (sensations in the body) that arise with those thoughts.
The secret: you've chosen precisely zero of any of those things. They just come into your mind and body.
Sit with that and you’ll realize actually you have no control. It's what Schopenhauer said - your desires, they're free. But only in the sense that they seem to be under no one's control, not even yours. You don't choose what you prefer. You just prefer.
And so it's not that you're under the control of others or the universe (determinism), it's that 'free will' is an illusion. Choice is an illusion. Not just for you, but for anything.
How do you choose? You think about something and see how it makes you feel, right? But you don't choose how it makes you feel. How would you choose your thoughts? By thinking of one and seeing how it makes you feel.
But this isn’t a trap, because a) we never know what we’ll think of next, nor how anything will make us feel the next time around, and b) we DO learn.
So, if you prefer logical, pragmatic thoughts, it's likely because you’ve learned that the consequences of logic and pragmatism tend to FEEL better to you. And thus our preferences change and we are able to see past our own noses and predict the consequences of our actions.
And there are always consequences, even if it's just the voice inside that says "That was a good thing you did," or "Shame on you." That voice never goes away (to all the silly moral relativist children about to pipe in). But we don't choose.
Yet our unwillingness to feel things (and to stay in our brains and think instead) seems to be what holds us up. Thankfully we can learn to feel things. To put our focus on body sensations (anxiety is the main one) and feel them. Try it. Just for a few moments.
Feel where you feel anxious in your body. Feel the muscles there, tight. Just feel them, and they'll start to relax. Points of tension seem to relax to the extent that you are willing to feel them. Be patient - it takes a few moments of holding concentration. And once relaxed, the tensions often come back.
So it’s not precisely “getting them relaxed” that’s the point, because that suggests there’s an end goal (some state of perfect relaxation). I don’t think so. Rather, the goal seems more simply to dive in, over and over, and feel completely the sensations that are emerging. It’s the feeling-without-resisting that begins to truly calm the mind, because you realize “Hey, I CAN feel this” - that thing you’ve been resisting. It’s simple, I know. Now try it again for longer.
You’ll realize that you have an innate fear of feeling those pockets of anxiety you find. But also that it’s the fear of feeling the anxiety that IS the anxiety. And that's what anxiety is. The fear of feeling.
So you clench. And that clenching stops you from being the relaxed, playful human you can be. It's actually you not feeling life, preferring to keep thinking about how things ‘should be’ or how you ‘should feel.’ Again the secret is just to feel whatever is happening right now.
So if that’s you chastising yourself because you can’t seem to do what I’m suggesting, then feel the chastise-ness. Feel what that emotion does in your body. The clench. The buzz. The tension. The tingle. Whatever it is, feeling the clench is what unclenches it.
Unclenching doesn’t mean you lose your conscience. You still value what you value, you simply see more relaxed, fun ways to get there. It’s the difference between being offered drugs and lashing out with some sort of implicit or explicit “How dare you offer that trash to me,” versus smiling and saying, “No thanks, but thanks for thinking of me.” Conversely, in the drug-offering scenario, unclenching also means allowing yourself to feel that first emotion (the emotion of ‘how dare you’) if that’s what courses through you in that moment.
So put your imaginary mental cursor on body sensations as often as you can remember to. I learned to do this for singing, but I’ve realized the willingness to feel can be cultivated in other parts of life, too. While walking. While talking to people. While working. Just feel, and see how you start to handle each part of your life.
If you forget (you realize you’ve been caught up in some inner story for minutes or hours) it's ok - you don't choose your thoughts! But you DO learn, so have faith that you can learn to do this. Do it lots, and watch how your brain starts to heal itself in the calm, in its ability to feel again and not run from everything.
Imagine being a person who could valiantly feel every emotion. It’s a different kind of bravery, isn’t it? Not ‘in control of the world,’ and not even ‘in control of oneself’ (as much as you want to be), but simply honest. “Here’s the sensation I’m having now.” Notice I don’t call them emotions, because the word ‘emotion’ seems to add the weight of the conceptual label you’ve given them - ‘sorrow,’ ‘anxiety,’ ‘anger’ - and the idea of the emotion gets in the way of you feeling the body sensation that it brings.
And again, I’m certainly NOT suggesting we act on every emotion or that any given emotion is ‘justified.’ Rather, it’s what’s happening in your body right now and you can choose to clench against it or not.
Just feel what you’re shown. It’s surrender. It’s faith.
You know it's your fear of feeling that's in your way, that makes you clench, and that makes you react with hostility to the world around you. Our devils are our fears of feeling and the egos that arise by thinking we're in control. Except we’re not in control - nothing is. But we can learn.
And feeling the body sensations (the physical act of surrender and having faith) seems to be a secret no one quite remembers.
The practices you describe sounds very resonant with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as well as aspects of the Alexander Technique. If you’re not already familiar with them you might enjoy a trip down those rabbit holes.
@@ScottPeeplesMusic thank you - I'm not, so I'll check them out :)
Thank you for writing such a useful comment. I often find the practical, applied wisdom in the comments and you have brought me joy this morning as a gem of inspiration!
What a wonderfully insightful talk by Mark. It felt good to listen, both in heart and mind. A thought about Nils' impression there at the end. The issue for me is this: As within so without. So, whatever your mind is able to externalize in the world will always be a reflection of your internal state. People build systems on the outside, but it is the individual's internal state and capabilities that determine whether your framework will be used for betterment or whether it becomes a nightmare. I believe this world is here for you to evolve individually. The external and what we do or don't do in that space is simply for experience's sake. By wanting to map or capture the right hemisphere to make it 'useful' to a left dominant world, you are trying to necrotize that which is able to propel us further on our internal journey. That personal journey is the only one that matters. We evolve as individuals, not as ants in a colony.
Disagree. It is the village that raises individuals. Long before individuals are ready to undertake "inner journeys," the village frames the world from which journey unfolds.
I see what you mean but to me the village in whatever incarnation can have a big influence. It’s about being dynamic enough to go beyond the village. It’s ineffable- ‘ kiss the joy that flies’.
Ahhhh... yes. Inspiration indeed.
What's the best interface between those who can negotiate our world with the right and left perspectives such as they are and those who can't? What kind of awakening can we hope for there? You absolutely do know what I mean.
Thx
Have you Iain McGilchrist ever considered a discussion with Gabor Mate? Or have you already? If so can you post an address to the same? Thank you regardless.
My goodness! So rich , like a multistage , looping koan
Edit2: sorry obvious necro.
When it comes to practices i found, using the internett as a Metalobe since 2000, that a quick "fast" in that regard let me take a long, hard look at how time and reality is something i didnt realy know. I feel the Secular world should reinstate some kind of tradgegy/commedy Lent. 40 days and night to quit smoking as example. sorry spelling nns.
Edit: and on my way to the pub.
The Mona Lisa is not by Michelangelo. Another guy did it.
Banksy
Leonardo DiCaprio
Did anyone else have trouble following this PowerPoint presentation? Like just get on with it and say what your trying to say?
Yes, but seeing the pictures made my right hemisphere much happier!
Not cool this guy’ Iain is cool! This one definitely has an agenda.