I have often wondered about the brain and the mind – how they are linked. The mind is, without doubt, produced by the brain and, in some sense, could just be viewed as an abstract concept used to describe a set of activities within the brain rather than something that has any meaningful existential status itself. Yet you can’t have an abstract concept unless you have some tool to perform the abstraction, which is in this case the conscious mind – which all seems a little tautological. The mind also does not seem to occupy the whole of the brain, but just certain parts of it. It also has layers from conscious process through memory and down into the unfathomable depths of the sub-conscious – or so we’re led to believe. Although I have thought about this I have never actually done much by way of research to understand this area better.
One thing I have heard is that the left and right hemispheres govern or perform different tasks with creative thought being a right-brained activity and more formal learned activity being controlled by the left. This all sounded like academic theorising and was of only passing interest to me. However, this bifurcation became more overtly apparent to me when, towards then end of 2005, I became unwell and whereas I normally perceive my mind as being a single entity, it seemed to me to split into two separate functions running in parallel.
The illness was little more than a cold for the first couple of weeks but then I went into a decline and took to my bed with a fever. It was by no means severe or dangerous, probably some mild influenza, but enough to sap my energy and send me through a cycle of chills and hot sweats. I needed to rest and rest I did.
The strange thing about this was that as I lay there either shivering or sweating, sometimes both, I entered a strange state where I was at the same time both awake and asleep. Even though my eyes were closed, and I couldn’t move at all – like the connection between my mind’s instruction to move and my body’s response had been severed - I was aware of the room around me, the noises in the house of my children, my wife coming into the room to check on me and eventually to come to bed. I was aware of all of this without interruption even though I seemed otherwise to be asleep. All this awareness was located on the left side of my brain – I could feel it being physically there in the way that you can feel where a headache is located. Meanwhile on the right side of my brain all hell was breaking loose. It was uncontrolled streaming thought rushing past me at incredible speed, just like a dream. Sometimes these streams wher
e uninteresting reflections on some aspect of work or mundane life, sometimes they would switch to wild fantasy. At one point the right side of my brain started playing old 1930’s and 40’s dance band music on what sounded vividly like an old 78’ vinyl record player, complete with hiss, crackle and skips. I don’t know anything about such dance band music, I don’t own any recordings of it, vinyl or otherwise, nor do I think I have ever heard much of it in my life (background music in films perhaps). Odd though that particular experience was, it is unimportant.
What was so strange was the sensation of having my mind running simultaneously in two modes. It was a bit like wearing a pair of special glasses with one lens being normal glass whilst, through the other lens, is projected a whole series of curious images at speed.
2 comments:
That post was probably more thought provoking than my entire blog, keep it up. ^_^
Very interesting. Particularly the part about your mind's ability to function concurrently in two separate patterns.
Your post made me think that left and right hemispheric control may provide the explanation for the amazing abilities of my neighbour. When he is in a highly inebriated state, he slurrs his speech so badly that it is all Greek to me. But at the same time, if he sings (which he tends to do), every word is pronounced with absolute clarity.
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