Bi-cameral brains in M&D

Sat Feb 6 12:17:06 CST 2016

Talking brain science research in the BIG GROUP GR READ would NEVER be
discouraged even if nothing is ever "stopped"
SINCE IT IS ITSELF A MAJOR THEME within GR......

It will be very fun to explore 'it' from our perceived perspectives from
GR.

On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 1:06 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> The book that started the bicameral thread , The Master and His Emissary:…
> , attempts to elucidate current neuroscience on the hemispheric differences
> of the brain. Written by someone with high credentials as both a scientist
> and a writer steeped in philosophy. It revises and refines a map of our
> brains.  Maps are powerful. Accupuncture is based on a different map of
> energy flow than the west uses. The concept of energy flow sounds more
> mysterious than it is; examples include the nervous sytem by which messages
> move from brain to body, the circulatory sytem by which oxygen, sugars,
> trace minerals, chemicals are moved to cells. The respiratory system. We
> can expand that into Physics and  the nature of various fields:  Strong
> force, weak force, gravity, electromagnetism, and now the Higgs field. Is
> consciousness a field with its own energy flow/patterns?
>
> How we map ourselves determines what we see and take note of, how we
> understand what we see, and what we consider legitimate. That was a major
> theme of M&D.  The chinese geomancer was  a bit like acupuncture in our
> recent discouse, carrying a different approach to mapping the geography of
> the new world than the cartesian grid lines that M&D were commissioned to
> survey and reify.
>
> Interestingly Mason and Dixon, 2 of Pynchons most 3 D and fully realized
> characters seem to me to  parallel in their fundamental disposition the 2
> hemispheres, but each also carries an ongoing internal struggle with and
> attraction to aspects of the other hemisphere. Mason is best identified
> with the left brain, he constantly works to keep order in his inner life
> and his outer life, but that order is challenged by the power of a love
> that was real, transendent of mere order, and is now missing. His longing
> for love is also a longing for God and the certainties of meaning that God
> implies. He is attuned to the legitimizing maps of his age and is clearly
> the steering mecahnism of the M&D collaboration. His inner map ultimately
> gides him to  the completion of a Herculean, if flawed, task, a deep and
> secure marriage based in love and a lifelong friendship that transcends the
> work done together with Dixon. But the reader is also left with many
> qustions about the maps that defined Mason as an important figure of his
> time. We, with hindsight, are unable to avoid the bloody future of the line
> being drawn, and the saddening reality that a man with a deep sense of
> honor might facilitate something monstrous by doing what is expected
> according to the cultural maps of the time.
>
> Dixon is better associated with the right brain. He is fundamentally
> intuitive and of a mind to think for himself and reject any schematic in
> favor of a wisdom approriate to immediate circumstances. He favors the
> wisdom of the body, of sensory pleasure and information. He is deeply
> empathic, able to understand the suffering and wiles of others at a gut
> level. He is a creative problem solver rather than a follower of  plans,
> but he is also gifted as a cartographer, surveyor, observor of details. His
> left brain is highly functional but is kept in check as a servant rather
> than a master. He is content to let Mason guide their adventures along
> practical lines and to draw his friend out into his own world of glorious
> chaos and pleasure to form a friendly bond. He is also the sign of
> resistance to the given maps of his era. He questions the slavery,
> Calvinism, and Cartesian claims of ownership that prevail.
>
> Ownership is a  concept that flourishes with hierachic power structures
> and the power of grasp. Brain research draws a distinct connection between
> the favoring of right handedness and the instinct toward grasp that is
> rooted in the left hemisphere. ( Recall that left hemisphere controls right
> arms hands feet etc, and right hemisphere left hand feet etc.) Manipulation
> and control of the discrete parts of a system are also the domain of the
> left hemisphere. The reduction of land and people to manipulable units in a
> grid are a major theme of M&D along with the implied forces of entropy and
> the disruptive power of love and empathy.
>
> So what I am saying here is that science based brain research  is seeming
> to my mind to offer an intriguing and intuitively commonsensical  means of
> interpreting certain aspects of the discourse that takes place in
> literature, philosophy, science, politics and religion. All the juicy
> things you are not supposed to talk about. It seems particularly
> interesting in regard to Pynchon. I hope the list will indulge me in
> further use of this map if we embark on the proposed group read of GR.
>
>
> > On Feb 6, 2016, at 9:58 AM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Yes, and accupuncture is used in many substance abuse therapies, and it
> is covered as medical treatment by many respectable insurance carriers. It
> is, however, very difficult to shake someone out of a belief system they
> buy into freely. Consider the christian Right in American society. Science
> is a set a metaphors, just like every other system of communicating ideas.
> >
> > On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 6:44 AM, Danny Weltman <danny.weltman at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > There you go! I know nothing of medicine in any of its forms - to the
> extent that tai chi is already finding its way into contemporary medical
> practices in the West, it's probably just a matter of time until people
> like John Bove are in the same situation as people who refuse vaccinations
> because they think they know better than doctors what counts as "real
> medicine." There is a long, noble history of doctors doing things that work
> long before we know why they work, although this sort of thing is typically
> hidden from people rather than worn on the sleeve. If tai chi, acupuncture,
> and who knows what else work, it's up to scientists to figure out why, not
> for lay people to poo-poo them because they don't have the imprimatur of
> science.
> >
> > Danny
> >
> > On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 6:27 AM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > As a matter of fact, Dr. Yang, my primary Taiji teacher, conducts Taiji
> workshops at the Mayo Clinic.
> >
> > The only thing anyone can know for certain is what they have verified
> for themselves. The rest is just conceptual.
> >
> > Www.innergroovemusic.com
> >
> > On Feb 6, 2016, at 8:58 AM, Danny Weltman <danny.weltman at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> At the very least, from Bove's list of "subjective observations that
> are most typically wrong," geocentricity, phlogiston, humours, and leeching
> were undoubtedly part of science as it existed at the time. The Ptolemaic
> geocentric model of the universe provided BETTER predictions than the
> Copernican heliocentric model for some time, for instance, thanks to all
> the "epicycles" that they added into the Potlemaic model as they refined it
> over the years. Phlogiston was a respectable theory of combustion until we
> came up with tests to distinguish it from its competitors, at which point
> it was disproven. That ought not to be a black mark on phlogiston:
> scientists can be wrong sometimes! The same can be said for humours and
> leeching, which were our best bets at figuring out what was going on and
> how to fix it.
> >>
> >> Thus what it takes for something to be "proven" knowledge is a little
> opaque to me. Certainly things that we thought were right later turned out
> to be wrong, such as Aristotelian physics and Newtonian physics, or
> geocentricity, or phlogiston. Much of what we now think is right may one
> day similarly turn out to be wrong, and if you think about it, the track
> record for science is actually one which suggests that we're likely to
> DISPROVE much of what we now take to be "proven" as we make progress, hence
> the idea of what philosophers call the "pessimistic induction" or the
> "pessimistic meta-induction," which is that one ought not to think that
> science has proven ANYTHING yet, because at some point in the future, the
> next Einsteins will make us throw out everything we are now as sure about
> as we were once sure about Newtonian physics (see here:
> http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-realism/#PesInd ).
> >>
> >> This is not to say that anything goes, but it is, I think, ludicrous to
> deny that science is not just a magic objective process that serves us
> slices of truth on toast every once in a while. Scientists don't have a
> mystical ability to divine the truth - instead they have a process that
> lets the muddle along and improve on our current models with models that we
> think do better. How long will these models last? It's very had to predict
> this sort of thing. People have been as certain as anything about things we
> now know are wrong. Kant thought Newtonian physics was fundamental to our
> understanding of reality such that there's no way to conceive of space and
> time outside of Newton (if you're a human, at least). Because science is a
> process undertaken by scientists, it's subject to all the vagaries of those
> scientists themselves, including (for instance) Eurocentricity about the
> sorts of medical treatments that are subject to sustained study and
> refinement in the "proper" scientific manner. Maybe acupuncture and so on
> is all bullshit, maybe it isn't, but there are more reasons than "it's
> bullshit" for the fact that the Mayo Clinic isn't sticking needles into
> people (if in fact they aren't).
> >>
> >> Danny
> >>
> >> On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 8:57 PM, Joseph Stafura <jzstafura at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> Snide comments on here aside - my life has been marked by a decreasing
> number of people who believe in the value of the scientific method. The
> weird mortality bump among 50-ish whites in America is likely a result of
> this, as is an inability to think in certain organized ways that allow one
> to see the world clearly - in at least one way! not the only way! It used
> to depress the living shit out of me, but now it is not surprising in the
> least.
> >>
> >> Peace all….Joe
> >>
> >>
> >>> On Feb 5, 2016, at 11:52 PM, Christopher <christophperec at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Bove's aggression and sneering is just another case of the increasing
> number of people who aggressively believe in scientific 'progress' in
> retaliation to a fear of the unknown and an anxiety over that which they're
> unable to 'master'.
> >>>
> >>> And, of course, science requires an act of faith as anything else
> does....
> >>>
> >>> On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 4:44 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>> There have always been things that are not measureable by current
> "science." Science is limited by theory and technology.  Science IS a
> belief system. If you don't know that, you should check yourself...
> >>>
> >>> David Morris
> >>>
> >>> On Friday, February 5, 2016, john bove <malignd at gmx.com> wrote:
> >>> I make myself too important?  If there are things that exist tht are
> not measurable by science, explain to me what it is you're proposing to
> show that they do exist.  Science isn't a belief system; it's a method, a
> program, for verifying or not the things that you want to believe in
> without verification, most of which are tied up with superstition, ancient
> ideas, etc.  and "ultimate realities"?  What the fuck does that mean?
> >>>
> >>> Sent: Friday, February 05, 2016 at 10:28 PM
> >>> From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> >>> To: "john bove" <malignd at gmx.com>
> >>> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >>> Subject: Re: Bi-cameral brains in depth
> >>> Bove,
> >>>
> >>> You make yourself too important, like Trump.
> >>>
> >>> There are things that exist that are not measureable by current
> science. There are ultimate realities that defy describing by words,
> because they are beyond words.
> >>>
> >>> Mysteries are real.
> >>>
> >>> David Morris
> >>>
> >>> On Friday, February 5, 2016, john bove <malignd at gmx.com> wrote:
> >>> Eons of subjective observations that are most typically wrong -- the
> flat earth, geocentricity, witches, devils, over one thousand invented gods
> and counting, phlogiston, humours, leeching, Christian scientists, Jung,
> intelligent designers ...  It may be deep in the genes, but that's
> precisely why it can't be trusted.  And horrors attributable to the pursuit
> of objectivity, to the scientific method?  You want it abandoned?  Or do
> you mean the ends, e.g., atomic bombs, to which that knowledge has been put
> to -- horrible because effective, because it was correct.
> >>>
> >>> And interesting to see how criticism of what one person -- me -- finds
> unscientific (untestable, subject to irresponsible, anecdotal, and naive
> claims) makes people so angry.  Someone who has chosen to call himself
> "Jerky" wants me tossed off the list. Been there before ...
> >>>
> >>> Good luck with your pursuits.  I suggest Madame Blavatsky, if you
> haven't yet embraced her.
> >>> Sent: Monday, February 01, 2016 at 10:47 PM
> >>> From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> >>> To: "john bove" <malignd at gmx.com>
> >>> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >>> Subject: Re: Bi-cameral brains in depth
> >>> Bove,
> >>>
> >>> You somehow think your measure of reality is superior because it is
> somehow "objective?"  But your objectivity discounts multitudes of eons of
> subjective observation.  Call it what you will, but it is deep in the
> genes. Your standard is modern, but not inherently superior.  It has its
> benefits, but its horrors are also rife.  A real scientist would look at
> the eons of other esoteric sciences and be less hostile. They don't
> threaten you.  They don't care about you.  Truth will prevail.
> >>>
> >>> David Morris
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Feb 1, 2016 at 5:39 PM, john bove <malignd at gmx.com> wrote:
> >>> I'm not picking a fight. I'm in fact doing the opposite, trying to
> take this seriously.  But  Chunlian Al Huang said or did this, and Spinoza
> thought that in the 15th century and even Nietsche gave it a green light
> ... The two houses of the brain ... (Why "houses"?), natural wisdom, a
> helix curved ...  By any standard this is laughable non-science, and so you
> have to fall back on the argument that science misses important keys of
> knowledge or undiscovered pathways or the wisdom of the ancients or
> whatever.  If you can't do better than that or, instead, offer up anecdotal
> evidence ("my backache's gone!"), it's on the level of astrology.
> >>> Sent: Monday, February 01, 2016 at 2:20 PM
> >>> From: "Ian Livingston" <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> >>> To: "ish mailian" <ishmailian at gmail.com>
> >>> Cc: "pynchon -l" <Pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >>>
> >>> Subject: Re: Bi-cameral brains in depth
> >>> Keith, my teacher's teacher was Chunliang Al Huang. It is a less
> martial, more simply chi-oriented style that resembles dance more than
> combat-training--but, then, tai chi chuan resembles dance in individual
> practice anyhow, doesn't it?
> >>>
> >>> Joseph, there is indeed support for the linear / holistic activities
> for recognizing a division of labor between the two houses of the brain.
> Language is associated with the left brain, so pretty much all we express
> in linguistic terms (remembering that mathematics is a language, as may
> movement be) is dominated by left-brain activity. That, of course, implies
> that even the most finely-honed linguistic approaches to expression also
> engage the broader, synthetic functions of the creative, visionary areas of
> the right brain. I look forward to reading The M & Em.
> >>>
> >>> And pain, yes. Some of the neurons associated with pain messages
> extend the entire distance from the mid-brain to the tip of the big toe.
> That can be a 7' long neuron. Don't know where I'm going with that, but,
> hey--it's just one of those remarkable factoids contained within the fact
> of the non-duality of the body and mental activity. It still fascinates me
> that Spinoza postulated that argument so effectively in the 15th c. That's
> quite a stretch for a lens grinder! For all his eagerness to dismiss
> Spinoza for his methods, even Nietzsche embraced the rightness of his
> thought.
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 3:47 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>> In this brief and simple piece some of the ideas discussed here
> >>> recently are addressed. One of the ideas is the Natural wisdom we
> >>> have, of our bodies, bodies that are not separate from our heads or
> >>> minds, not divided. .  We got here without much of modern medicine's
> >>> miracles. The miracle of conception, of two sharing the energies of
> >>> life, the double, is a black hole, is a helix curved.
> >>>
> >>> Does Lamaze “Work”?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3431777/
> >>>
> >>>
> https://www.timeshighereducation.com/content/book-review-black-hole-by-marcia-bartusiak
> >>>
> >>>
> http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/12/lifes-greatest-secret-story-race-genetic-code-matthew-cobb-review
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 12:09 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
> wrote:
> >>> > Just caught your reply tonight. Thanks for the feedback. Your
> experience with accupuncture, where the healing takes place overnight, is
> typical of several people I have talked with and my own experience. Makes
> me think pain works in the brain in a self-reinforcing cycle. I find that
> sending consciousness and , in my imagination, breath/chi to an aggravated
> or painful area while doing qigong exercises has reliably good results.
> >>> >
> >>> > As far as the hemisphere differences, McGilchrist often repeats what
> your studies are saying that complex processes engage  more than one
> hemisphere. But it does seem irrefutable that when there is for instance a
> stroke that severely impairs one hemisphere or the other the disabilities
> are dramatically different for each and fall into distinct patterns of
> effect that point both to the kinds of things that each hemispere is likely
> to handle and to the way each side processes personal experiences and
> mental tasks.  Of course what is hard to tell by that means would be
> something that initiates in one hemispere and is sent to the other  for the
> bulk of processing. But his extensive citations show he is not alone in his
> leanings about some general and specific  differences between the
> hemisperes. McGilchrists mastery of the current reasearch is not of a
> pop-science quality, but the expression of a life devoted to brain research
> and its interpretation in a larger context.
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> >> On Jan 27, 2016, at 4:00 AM, Ian Livingston <
> igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> >>
> >>> >> A single accupuncture treatment cured my sciatica a decade ago
> after I had thrown useless hundreds away on massage therapy and
> chiropractic treatment. The next step was to be weeks of bed rest I could
> not afford combined with pain meds. Would've cost thousands in lost work
> and expenses. On a whim, because I figured I had nothing to lose, I stopped
> at an accupuncture school in Santa Cruz, Ca, where I lived at the time, and
> got a low-cost treatment from an advanced student. That night the pain was
> incredible, but I eventually fell asleep and woke in the morning pain-free,
> with full range of motion. True story. I took up tai chi chuan as a
> maintenance plan, and have had no flare-ups of the pain I experienced while
> trying to climb trees (I was a full-time arborist then) and carry heavy
> logs and limbs, and generally bend, lift and twist 8 hours a day.
> >>> >>
> >>> >> I do not understand all the energy theories. I've been at the
> fringes of all that stuff for decades, on and off, of course, but I've
> mostly worked in heavy labor and played in book-learning. It was shortly
> after the incident with the sciatica that I took up a serious Zen
> meditation practice, which did wonders for helping me to stop smoking and
> quit caffeine without anxiety or cravings. I went on to study Chinese
> alchemy as a result of reading Jung on the subject, and found myself in
> agreement with him that alchemy is indeed a psychological pursuit of
> integrity on a relatively subtle level. There's a terrific little intro
> book used in Traditional Chinese Medicine schools here in CA, The Web That
> Has No Weaver. Worth a look.
> >>> >>
> >>> >> In direct response to your query, Joseph, my profs were cautious
> about the left-brain / right-brain differentiation primarily because recent
> work with fMRI studies shows that, when complex problems are presented, the
> whole brain lights up, with higher activity levels in some areas than in
> others. Also, the role of the corpus collosum appears to be that of making
> sure that action potentials carry effectively between the two cerebral
> lobes. Furthermore, it would be false to say that the entire brain is
> divided by the corpus collosum. Only the cerebral cortex is thus divided
> and united, as it were. The why of that is the study of a great many
> lifetimes. Maybe humans will someday know. One of the darkest areas of
> brain research is still to do with neurotransmitters. Research reveals how
> they work in synapses, but how many operate within the brain is still
> anybody's guess, and the functions of only a very few are known. Folks are
> discovering new ones all the time.
> >>> >>
> >>> >> I'll leave off with a wonderful quote from one of my neuropsych
> texts: "The number of possible synaptic connections in a normal human brain
> exceeds the number molecules in the known universe." I suspect it'll be a
> while before we fully understand an organ with that level of potential
> complexity.
> >>> >>
> >>> >>
> >>> >>
> >>> >> On Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 6:44 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
> wrote:
> >>> >>
> >>> >> The Chinese have been working with energy flow  for thousands of
> years and have developed a medical system based on it that is very
> effective. The west too is beginning to study the flow of low level
> electric charge in the body.   Many would have mocked  mindfulness
> meditation as having any value a decade ago. Now, based on clinical trials,
> it is being incorporated into western medical practice. Tibetan herbs are
> being used in medical operations in Israel to minimize drug side effects
> and improve the speed and comfort of healing.  Such herbs are being studied
> in Switzerland and Germany for the treatment of high cholesterol.
> >>> >>
> >>> >> At 64 i have personally only found increased flexibility, better
> posture,  improved non drug -dependent energy levels, and other sometimes
> dramatically  positive effects from yoga, acupuncture, tai chi and qigong.
> I teach a small class on qi-gong and tai chi and others report similar
> positive results.
> >>> >>
> >>> >> I understand  and practice skepticism. I see from a friends post
> that the Dalai Lama is going in for prostate surgery. No Kundalini bolt up
> the spine for me so far.  I don’t so much believe in energy meridians as
> hold them in my mind as a map, and pay attention to my actual experience
> with qigong practices. Accupuncture can be simply amazing for things that
> doctors can’t seem to treat. Myself and several very rational friends have
> seen severe chronic pain from an injury disappear overnight through
> accupuncture.
> >>> >>
> >>> >>
> >>> >> > On Jan 26, 2016, at 4:38 PM, john bove <malignd at gmx.com> wrote:
> >>> >> >
> >>> >> > And you too?  The Kundalini awakening???  Good luck.
> >>> >> >
> >>> >> > Sent: Monday, January 25, 2016 at 4:33 PM
> >>> >> > From: "Joseph Tracy" <brook7 at sover.net>
> >>> >> > To: "P-list List" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >>> >> > Subject: Re: Bi-cameral brains in depth
> >>> >> > Very interesting response in that I am myself very engaged
> currently with trying to learn to meditate with particular interest in the
> Kundalini awakening. For years I have done yoga and for the last 3 years
> have shifted my interest to qigong and tai chi. But for a couple months now
> I have been trying to meditate and doing some breath practices. If you have
> any personal thoughts or advice or suggestions for reading or online info,
> I would be interested. With qigong I am experiencing very discernible
> warmth and tingling in my arms and hands and have been able to profoundly
> and at least for 2 months now, completely relieve some muscle knots in my
> left shoulder and neck - knots that had been with me for probably cloose to
> a decade.
> >>> >> >
> >>> >> > In general it seems that asian philosophies and practices have
> much greater emphasis on balance. The idea/knowledge base that the central
> channel has no power of its own is something I had missed but really fits
> with role of emptiness in Taoism and Tibetan Buddhism. Anyway thanks,
> David. This one went right past the conversation at hand to hit dead center
> of my own interests and pursuits.
> >>> >> >
> >>> >> > > On Jan 25, 2016, at 4:00 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > > In Eastern meditation/spiritual schools there is a concept of
> Kundalini energy that is the life-source of all animated flesh. This model
> is part of the ages-old Chakra system that illustrates the pathways of
> something called the "subtle body." In that model chakras are nodes of
> energy passage, crossings along the vertical main highways of the three
> main energy channels: the Right side (Bingala Nadi), the Left side (Ida
> Nali), and the Central channel (Sushumna Nadi). In some ways it might be
> said that the goal of meditation when it come to the workings of the Chakra
> system, is to achieve a balanced blending of the right and left energy
> channels into the central channel, achieving a synthesis greater then the
> sum of the two sides, because the central channel has no power of its own,
> only that supplied from the two sides. But when the two sides unify into
> the center, that is when transcendence happens.
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > > I expect the bicameral structure of the brain might be also
> mapped to this ancient system.
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > > http://www.freemeditationnz.com/our-three-energy-channels.html
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > > David Morris
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > > On Monday, January 25, 2016, Ian Livingston <
> igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> >> > > My neuropsych profs were eager to caution that we have now
> reached such a deep understanding of the brain and its functions that we
> can at last say with confidence that we know almost nothing about it.
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > > On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 8:47 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
> wrote:
> >>> >> > > Yes I read those reviews. What I am finding so far is that the
> book is very careful to build its picture of how the hemispheres work from
> data. Every step of the way, he draws on research and is very careful so
> far not to overreach and to include differing takes on that data. One of
> the things he points out is that brain science is with current technology
> and perhaps will always be a matter of intelligent interpretation since it
> deals with qualities and actions for which quantification makes little
> sense, like empathy, unjustified self confidence, manual grasping behaviors
> etc. Also it is almost impossible to really track the mechanisms involved(
> if they really are of a mechanistic nature) because they take place in a
> living organism. So brain scans give correspondences between activities and
> brain metabolism but not clearly detailed causal relationships. Also many
> mental processes draw on both sides of the brain which he frequently
> reminds the reader.
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > > Stlll, I think any reader will be surprised and amazed at the
> wealth and specificity of the data and how much can be meaningfully and
> confidently understood about the hemispheric differences. I know I am.
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > > It is true that he is trying to say something philosophically
> profound and that is always dangerous terrain, though I have not gotten to
> the heart of that part of the text. The question is whether there is enough
> data to support it. So far the data base is so rich that the book cannot
> fail to leave a powerful imprint and sense of enriched understanding for me.
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > > > On Jan 25, 2016, at 10:22 AM, Paul Mackin <
> mackin.paul at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > > One of a number of favorable reviews, this one glowing.
> However a couple of reviewers according to Wikipedia cautioned against
> culture and psychology conclusions getting too far ahead of hard brain
> science.
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > > http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/02/1
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > > On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 6:39 AM, Mark Kohut <
> mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> >> > > > "You're gonna want your cause and effect, eh?"
> >>> >> > > > Since his first book is entitled Against Criticism, I hope he
> isn't IN GR--
> >>> >> > > > but I'll mic drop in advance. ......
> >>> >> > > > Just a little metajoke there, heh, heh.
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > > On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 8:10 PM, Joseph Tracy <
> brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> >>> >> > > > I am currently reading Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and his
> Emissary
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > > One of the most scientifically, psychologically and
> philosophically profound books I have ever read. It really has me reeling
> with information and insight and makes sense of so much that seems
> inscrutable in human history and personal behavior. I came across the title
> and a description with a brief quote while doing research on another book.
> It seemed the more intriguing book so I got it from the library. Will be
> looking for a used copy.
> >>> >> > > > The topic is the roles of the 2 hemispheres of the brain and
> he brings together an unexpected wealth of medical/scientific research,
> both contemprary and historic to build a very powerful picture of the
> nature of each hemisphere, as well as the evolutionary logic of their
> differentiation. Both from the introduction and from some peeks ahead I
> know he has a philosophic intention that argues for a greater balance in
> our cultural biases, and greater awareness of the brain-structure origins
> of those biases.
> >>> >> > > > From a Pynchon reader POV McGilchrist takes on the brain
> structure basis of major themes and historic tendencies that appear
> throughout the body of P’s work. Essentially it is about the division in
> the brain between left hemisphere’s tendency to seek and produce control
> achieved through manipulable units of thought, communication, structure,
> manufacture and the right brain’s holistic, individualistic and socially
> empathic style. ( there is no way to adequadetly summarize this or the
> pages of precise information derived from scientific research). This
> struggle appers in all P books and with profound starkness in Pynchon’s
> essay on CP Snow, and the GR theme of mechanistic control vs nature/pursuit
> of bliss/personal freedom, humane solidarity.
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > > The writer’s background for this book is about as good as
> possible. Professional Psychiatrist specializing in physiological brain
> issues, a researcher in neuro-imaging and an Oxford English teacher 3 times
> elected Fellow at All Souls College. Of equal or greater importance is the
> originality of his brilliance and the humane depth of his quest to
> understand how our brain structure fits into our historic development, and
> his sense that understanding these things might free us to find a better
> way forward.
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > > Has anyone else read it?
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > > 462 pgs of text and over 100 of end notes etc.-
> >>> >> > > > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > > >
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> > > -
> >>> >> > > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> >
> >>> >> > -
> >>> >> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> >>> >> > - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> >>> >>
> >>> >> -
> >>> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>> >>
> >>> >
> >>> > -
> >>> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>> -
> >>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>> - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>> - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>> - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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