Meta-thread of various threads (mostly mine) about Iain McGilchrist's brain hemisphere model!
Meta-thread of threads on McGilchrist's brain hemispheres
38 tweets · May 2019 · 229 likes · 15 retweets · read on Twitter
(Note: there's lots of myths & bs about the brain hemispheres, but this new model seems pretty solid and better than a naive model that just says "all we know is that these functions are on the left and these are on the right")
Here's a thread that's deliberately designed to be a general summary & introduction:
Here's my first, where I intro'd the concept briefly and noted that a bunch of learning challenges get confusing because we try to teach our left hemisphere how to do things our right hemisphere already knows. Instead, LH needs to learn to let RH work.
McGilchrist's model helped me understand why I have often tended to feel anger instead of grief, even though it feels better to feel the grief.
@jonnym1ller posted a highlighted version of my 2017 ribbonfarm article about not-just-asking questions, which prompted me to reflect on the relationship between questions and the brain hemispheres
Here's a few tweets in response to @fortelabs saying that various things aren't things. There are no things!
A short thread about language:
Oh and of course this one today that basically concludes that tantric non-dual awareness enlightenment is basically synonymous with getting your left hemisphere to let your right hemisphere run the show.
@QiaochuYuan wrote a thread about different fictional magic concepts, that divide along hemispherical lines! (Also his thread links back to this meta-thread at the end, so we've got a nice loop going 🔄)
Me reflecting on another model of two ways of thinking ("aboutness" and "withness") that map almost perfectly onto the left & right hemispheres' unique worlds:
Grokking the relationship between change & stasis. Cried a couple happy tears while writing this one:
Most other popular brain models blatantly ignore the hemisphere axis despite its obvious importance, so they have to add epicycles to correct the confused assumption.
@Timber_22 makes a direct connection between Tilopa's ancient meditation advice and the left hemisphere. (Link is to mid-convo... scroll up in that thread for a lot of other cool stuff)
@Timber_22 Long thread integrating 3+ other twitter conversations, connecting the hemispheres with the triune brain model (intellectual, emotional, physical) and talking about false dichotomies and the value of having models anyway.
@Timber_22 An high-level initial exploration of the deep relevance of the brain hemispheres to: • current AI systems • prospects for AGI • AI Safety
@Timber_22 Didn't intend for this thread to talk about hemispheres, but that's where it ended up!
@Timber_22 Some excerpts on gesture. Second tweet is the real gem here, talking about how usually when people misspeak, their gesture is still accurate 😮
@Timber_22 Buddhism! Of my threads, this one is maybe the clearest/simplest justification for why RH is Master & LH is Emissary (McGilchrist's book is titled The Master and his Emissary, a reference to a story from Nietzsche)
@Timber_22 Short thread about both/and & either/or, faith & doubt.
@nosilverv doesn't explicitly talk about brain hemispheres here, but what he's saying is a very clear explanation of how the left hemisphere can't solve enlightenment the way it ordinarily solves problems.
🌶️ thread where I deconstruct the whole concept of Kegan stages, using McGilchrist's model. This idea has been bomping around my brain for a year... finally wrote it up decently:
A common thing that people try to map the brain hemispheres onto is masculinity & femininity, and some such mappings would be confusing & misleading, but others are remarkably resonant! Particularly the khandro-pawo dance from Vajrayana Buddhism:
Apparently summarizing a very short book still produces a very long thread. This is the best introduction on twitter so far though, as far as I know!
A 3-tweet thread that connects McGilchrist's model to a vital distinction between • "individualism" (atomistic; fragmented; un-whole) • "individuation" (the necessity of any system maintaining both boundary with environment & negentropic openness)
Mostly this thread is about David Bohm's book On Dialogue, but it's very relevant in general, and partway through I point out that he's saying something really similar to McGilchrist, regarding thought that re-presents rather than attends to presence.
More [[hemisphere dharma]], this time zooming in on tanha:
@Jeanvaljean689 tweeted some reflections on the counter-intuitive meanings of the word "counter-intuitive" 🙃 then summoned me to comment re McGilchrist. So this link is to halfway down; scroll up for context of what I'm replying to:
@Jeanvaljean689 @m_ashcroft excitedly linking brain hemispheres to Alexander Technique this is gonna be big guys McGilchrist didn't really have any pragmatic advice, & "drawing on the right side of the brain" doesn't generalize enough
@Jeanvaljean689 @m_ashcroft Dharma and neuroscience. Also this book is potentially a very good candidate for "how to shift locus to RH", and meanwhile the thread raises the question of wtf that even means.
Short thread by @m_ashcroft talking about connections between Alexander Technique and brain hemispheres. Expanding awareness & flow!
Long thread weaving McGilchrist with Christopher Alexander and architecture more generally, plus IFS and dignity-supportive user interfaces.
some quick connections while listening to a podcast:
an illustration I made to explain the difference between “i do what i want gosh” and “i am submitted to the immutable will of the divine”
thread on secure attachment as key for right hemisphere development
I'm probably one of the main people this thread says it's subtweet-critiquing, but I figured it worth including this in the meta-thread anyway because @aphercotropist has good thoughts and it's worth having dissenting voices not just hype.
@aphercotropist Short thread pointing out that modern app-based dating is fucked because of modal confusion: developing relationships is about opening to something larger, not about assessing based on flat details.
@aphercotropist another thread connecting vajrayana buddhism and hemispheres! along with other stuff about the origin of self-consciousness — how DID we become identified with our mental contents? when and why and how did that happen?