The Honeymoon of the Hemispheres. Among the many gifts that have been given us, we have two of almost everything—two arms, two legs, two lungs, two kidneys, two eyes etc. As lovely as this arrangement is, allowing us to have binocular vision, directional stereophonic hearing, and a backup for everything, the situation often has undesirable effects.
Sometimes we trip over our own feet. There are occasions the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. People are also known to speak with a forked tongue, that is, they say one thing and mean another. There are still other people who have been more experimentally daring and split their tongues along the median to find they can move the two halves independently.
In short, our bilateral symmetry may appear to be both convenient and elegant, but the two parts don’t always work in tandem. It is through this arrangement that we often get in our own way when we want to accomplish something. We drop things. We miss our mouth with a fork while eating, usually when we are out in public. Our words don’t come out right.
When this kind of thing occurs, we can look to the brain as the true culprit. If the two hemispheres were only coordinated, we could overcome these flaws. The problem is that, if the two hemispheres mirrored each other’s actions perfectly, we would be able to accomplish only half as much because both halves would be doing the same thing at the same time causing us to lose much of the elegance that we have as human beings. It would also limit our repertoire of behavior as the actions of each hemisphere would be necessarily limited by the other. It is a result of the uncertainty of action of both sides of the body and both sides of the brain that we find that we have to do work to achieve coordination and elegance if we are to overcome our inherent clumsiness. It is through our efforts to coordinate both halves that we are able to discover new solutions to achieve desired goals. It is also as a result of this effort that we discover both beauty and originality.
By working to resolve the differences in our two halves, we can learn to move more purposefully and deliberately in the world. This is possible because, whatever the differences or conflicts, the two hemispheres have essentially the same purpose, to allow us to orient to the larger environment so that we can accomplish our goals, whether it is to grasp an object, perform in Swan Lake, or ace our final exam. The kinds of errors that we make serve as an impetus for us to resolve our lack of coordination so that we can achieve goals. The fact that we are able to make both halves work together is a wonder and a true gift. The lack of coordination may be an inconvenience, but it is not a handicap.
The Incredible Two Headed Transplant. A second head transplanted to the body of another. This is something that only Hollywood could dream up. Right?
Think about it! One head would have to be a psychopath and the other head would be fundamentally good, but helpless to stop it. Wow! What theater! It’s unusual! It’s amazing!
Besides the fact that it was already made into a movie twice, it is also something that we live with everyday. The monster is within us already. It is our limbic system, what writer and philosopher Arthur Koestler dubbed “the ghost in the machine” and is sometimes called the reptilian brain because, along with us, all animals down to the lowest reptiles have one. It is the origin of our fight and of our flight. It is the part that chases and eats us in our dreams. It is the part that makes us want to hide in our houses or want to (or actually) kill someone when they threaten us.
Is it surprising, then, that most people who have fought off everyone and taken everything that they wanted, who have licked their plates clean, then eaten more, those who have accumulated their own wealth, then found a way to strip everyone else of theirs, should have more anxiety than the rest of us who have far less? But it should not be terribly surprising, especially if you consider that an all-consuming motive such as insuring survival and fending off competition is not likely to go away simply because you have achieved an interim goal. After all, to someone who is paranoid, the best way to insure that no one will get you is to insure that you have removed everyone who poses a threat.
(Strange to consider, it is the paranoid mentally ill who are perfectly happy being left alone once they have removed certain specific parties who cause them fear. Only non-psychotic people are so deluded to think they need to remove all threats to feel secure. It is because they do not suffer from a major mental illness, yet still commit heinous crimes to eliminate competition in order to insure survival and enhance prestige that we have given them a special category and have dubbed them psychopaths.)
What is interesting about that other division in our brains, the separation between the cerebral cortex and our primitive reptilian brain is that the limbic system almost has a life of its own. It is like the Tingler in the Vincent Price movie. It has its own responses to stimuli that may be very different from what our enlightened nature would like us to do. But, like the Tingler, it takes precedence. For us to take advantage of its benefits, it needs to be trained. It requires discipline, management, and occasionally cajoling if it is to support the efforts of the cortex. (This often occurs later on in life, sometimes in Boot Camp or in prison.) Without training, it runs roughshod over our better natures, for those of us who have one. It can lead us to unrestrained fight or flight or both.
It may be unproven, but I would suggest that the limbic system is the origin of not only our nightmares, but also of our dreams. I think of a reptile that, after spending a busy day ingesting a rodent, basks in the sun. Reptiles often act much like people around a swimming pool, sunning themselves, and they may have similar interests. I would expect that they have reptilian dreams just as we have our own dreams of success in all those areas that offer us pleasure and power.
But there is something about certain people that make their desires and their dreams unquenchable. They seem to worship what their feral natures can do and what their uncontrolled natures can acquire for them. They seem to worship it more than the sanctity of life or of any religious belief. In their worship of their reptilian natures, they leave the cortex unchecked, to say or do whatever it needs to do in order to navigate in the world. When the opportunity arises, however, when it becomes a question of survival of the fittest, asserting dominance in a dog-eat-dog world, Godzilla raises its head and roars, breathing fire, to take what it can.
For those of us with a well-developed cortex and perhaps an underdeveloped limbic system, we are surprised by the changes in our peers’ behavior when Godzilla raises his head. When the press finally arrives after a cache of bodies is found next door in the basement, we say, “I knew him all my life. He was a good neighbor, a real family man. He gave more than his share when he tithed at our church. I can’t believe he could do anything like this! Bury bodies in the basement! Surely, you must be referring to someone else.”
In these situations, we think instinctively, having some understanding because we have our own reptiles inside us, “How did he live his life? Did he treat people in the way he would like to be treated himself? Or did he walk over people in his business dealings? Did he beat his wife or his kids? Did he kick his dog?”
Somehow we know that anyone who can take advantage of others or flaunt or overturn the rules is capable of breaking other rules as well, rules that may be more fundamental to existence. So, we may demand more exemplary behavior of others, while we do not make the least effort to apply those same rules to ourselves. We all have our own snake to feed!
I would argue that, if we can repair the rift between our thoughts, impulses, and actions, we can work toward a greater harmony within us and we might be able to fulfill dreams that are more personally gratifying than the mere elimination of competition. Unfortunately, there are few role models and even fewer guides to show us how to accomplish this. Nevertheless, it can and should be done, if we are able to establish some order in a world that is rapidly declining into chaos. But still, it’s naïve to anticipate that anyone should act any other way outside of serving their self-interest. The real question is, whom have they harmed and whom have they helped along the way. If the balance is unfairly tipped, we may want to know why and we may find it more preserving to demand that they be checked and treated as uncivilized.
