The Divided Brain

Three times in Western history—Athens in the 6th century BC, the beginning of the Roman empire, and the early Renaissance—civilizations showed marvelous balance between right and left hemispheric modes, but in each case this ended with movement toward left-hemisphere dominance, after which the civilization collapsed.

“When I began to look at the main movements in the history of ideas, a pattern emerged, which was quite extraordinary... three times in the West, there had been a period of flourishing of a civilization. Athens in the sixth century BC, the beginning of the empire in Rome. Then once again in the early Renaissance. And that this civilization in each three cases showed a marvelous balance of right hemisphere and left hemisphere modes of thinking. But in each case it ended up with a movement further and further towards that of the left hemisphere, after which the civilization collapsed.”

In universities, left-hemisphere thinking becomes more dominant; as students specialize in narrow fields, theories and categories become important, and the Humanities have been corrupted by treating literature not as universal human experience but through narrow identity politics frameworks.

“In universities, the left hemisphere's way of thinking becomes even more dominant... It's sad because also the Humanities at some level have been corrupted. When one reads a piece of literature, it's not experienced in terms of what can it teach us about the universal experience of being a human being, rather it's, you know, how can it be seen in the context of some narrow vision of identity politics.”

The 2008 financial crisis was caused by excessive reliance on left-hemisphere modeling and algorithmic thinking, particularly in pricing mortgage-backed securities and subprime derivatives, where models and assumptions (8% returns) substituted for understanding actual human and systemic risk.

“We can certainly think of the crisis in some measure as being traceable to an excessive reliance on certain forms of modeling, on algorithms which was used to price mortgage-backed securities and the subprime portions was done significantly.”

Michael Gazzaniga initially believed the right hemisphere had about as much intelligence as a chimpanzee and taught that the left hemisphere was the seat of serious cognitive work, but later research showed both hemispheres engage in reason, language, and emotion in crucially different ways.

“Michael Gazzaniga had said that the right hemisphere of the human brain had about as much intelligence as a chimpanzee. And, so that wasn't encouraging... And that summarized the importance I saw to the special, modules, we call them now, systems in the left hemisphere. That's where the heavy-duty lifting comes for our complex cognitive life.”

When a right-hemisphere-dominant task (constructing a cube) is performed, and the left hemisphere's hand keeps interfering because it doesn't know what it's doing, the right hemisphere on its own solves the problem in seconds, demonstrating superior performance on spatial-holistic tasks.

“But in this experiment with a split-brain patient, while the right hemisphere is trying to make the cube, the left hemisphere's hand keeps interfering... because it doesn't know what it's doing. Yet the right hemisphere on its own solves the problem in seconds.”

In the first couple years of life, the right hemisphere is more active and dominant; babies have innate need and urge to share rituals, engage in nursery songs, and clever handy action games—all right-hemisphere modes of communication before language develops.

“And in the first couple years, the right hemisphere is definitely more active... And enjoying imitation and games, right from immediately after birth. Babies have a great interest in sharing rituals. Little peculiar things like nursery songs and clever, clever handy action games.”

The theatrical performance of language and gesture requires coordination between hemispheres: the left hemisphere works on memorized lines while the right hemisphere determines how they are expressed through tone, gestures, and emotional authenticity.

“In the brain, memorized lines are worked on by the left hemisphere. But how they are expressed, the tone and gestures, is the preserve of the right hemisphere.”

Compared to North Americans, East Asians are more sensitive to context and attend more to context; when shown pictures of animals and objects, Chinese are more likely to group monkey and banana together (focusing on relationship), while North Americans focus on category (both flying insects).

“Compared to North Americans, East Asians are more sensitive to the context, they attend more to the context. When we show people the pictures... A panda, monkey, banana... Chinese actually are more likely to put monkey and banana together, because monkeys like bananas. So they focus on the relationship. For North Americans, usually it's more linear.”

The right hemisphere perceives an interconnected world, understands relationships, body language, facial expression, and implicit meaning; it engages with life, understands movement, story, and metaphor, and perceives how humanity fits into the whole of creation.

“The right hemisphere, by contrast, sees the broad view of the world. It is the master of the brain. It perceives an interconnected world; it understands relationships, body language, facial expression, and implicit meaning. The right hemisphere engages with life, understands movement, story, and metaphor. It perceives how humanity fits into the whole of creation.”

The split-brain experiments in the 1960s-70s at CalTech, which severed the corpus callosum in epileptic patients to prevent seizure spread, revealed that each hemisphere could operate independently and had different ways of perceiving and responding to the same stimuli.

“In the '60s and '70s in California, at CalTech, there was some incredibly important and fascinating work. And what they were trying to do was to improve the quality of life for people with intractable epilepsy...What they did was, with some trepidation initially, to divide this corpus callosum, the main pathway by which the two hemispheres communicate. And what they found after the operation was that the seizures largely stopped. The other thing was it was possible, by setting up carefully controlled experiments, to find out what the reactions of the left and the right hemisphere were independently.”

Patients with right-hemisphere damage display neglect: they act as if one part of their outer space does not exist, losing awareness of the left side of their world, and they are unaware of their deficit and lack insight into what they are missing.

“What is the definition of neglect? That people behave as if one part of their outer space would not exist. This part of her surroundings does not exist for her... And she's surprised there was no tomato sauce anymore.”

Split-brain experiments in the 1960s-70s at CalTech, where the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres was surgically divided in epilepsy patients, demonstrated that each hemisphere could maintain independent consciousness and had different ways of perceiving and responding to the world.

“In the '60s and '70s in California, at CalTech, there was some incredibly important and fascinating work... what they were trying to do was to improve the quality of life for people with intractable epilepsy... By sectioning this structure, called the corpus callosum, and it has over 2 million nerve fibers, and they richly interconnect the two halves of the brain... And what they found after the operation was that the seizures largely stopped. The other thing was it was possible, by setting up carefully controlled experiments, to find out what the reactions of the left and the right hemisphere were independently.”

The human brain has not changed mechanically throughout history, and every major civilization was built by people with the same kind of brain and perception of reality, suggesting that hemispheric imbalance is not a valid explanation for historical patterns.

“Scientists have argued that the human brain has been the same machine throughout history. And that every major civilization was built by people with the same kind of brain and the same perception of reality.”

Economics detached from a robust, resourceful picture of human well-being is very dangerous, and modern society treats unlimited material growth as self-evidently the best thing we can hope for, when the real task is rethinking what growth means and why some kinds of growth are privileged over the growth of human understanding.

“Economics detached from a robust, resourceful picture of human well-being is very dangerous, and that's what we're living with in large parts of the globe. We seem to take it as absolutely self-evident that unlimited material growth is the best thing we can hope for. And I think that the biggest single task is thinking again through that question of growth, and why, why it's so obvious a target, and why some kinds of growth are of course privileged over the notion of the growth of human well being and understanding.”

The divided-attention function of hemispheres is fundamental to survival for all beings—one hemisphere concentrates on tiny details while the other maintains broad environmental vigilance for threats like predators, and this is the evolutionary reason for hemispheric specialization.

“This is fundamental to survival, and that is the moment at which I realized, this is profoundly important to all beings that have to solve the conundrum of how to eat and stay alive.”

The left hemisphere is quick and dirty because it needs to make action; it likes things to be black and white and cannot tolerate ambiguity, metaphor, or nuance, demanding explicit facts instead.

“The left hemisphere is the quick and dirty one because it has to make action, right? It likes things to be black and white. 'What do you mean there's half, or ambiguity, or metaphor,' 'or... I want to know the facts, okay!' It's like this, or it's that.”

There is a global systemic correlation such that when mortgage holders in Orange County, California default on mortgages, the entire nation of Iceland goes bankrupt, demonstrating the hidden interdependencies that left-hemisphere reductive models fail to perceive.

“When mortgage-holders in Orange County, California start defaulting on their mortgages and then all of a sudden the whole nation of Iceland goes bust. So this level of intense correlation is something we need to be deeply aware of, and try to come up with some new more sustainable paradigms of how we do finance.”

Physics, particularly quantum mechanics, confirms that everything in the universe is connected to everything else, aligning with right-hemisphere and indigenous understandings of fundamental interconnection.

“Everything is related... The physicists say this... to everything else. And it's actually also in the wisdom and the culture of First Nations people.”

Einstein recognized that the rational mind is a faithful servant but the intuitive mind is a precious gift, and modern civilization honors the servant while forgetting the gift, requiring a paradigm shift in how we understand what a human being is, what the world is, and what our relationship with it should be.

“Einstein said the rational mind is a faithful servant, but the intuitive mind is a precious gift. We live in a world which honours the servant, but has forgotten the gift. We do need a paradigm shift, because it's not about little things here and there. It's about the whole way we conceive what a human being is, what the world is, and what our relationship with it is.”

The key philosophical insight of McGilchrist's work is not what brain hemispheres do, but *how* they do it—that there are times when we're very focused and explicit versus times when we're more nuanced, implicit, and contextual.

“The fundamental thing he's seen is the philosophical notion that what matters is not what the brain hemispheres do but how they do it. There are times when we're very focused, very explicit, and there're times when we're more nuanced and implicit and contextual.”

All art operates by implicit power in the parts that are not explicit; the reason we have theater, poetry, music, and religious ritual is that they take us beyond everyday language and its pinning-down, breaking out into regions that only powerfully performed art can reach.

“The reason we have theater, poetry, we have music, we have religious ritual, all these things are ways of taking us beyond the everyday language that we're pinned down by. And it's breaking out of that, and only things like really powerfully performed art and these things can take us there.”

Einstein said that the rational mind is a faithful servant but the intuitive mind is a precious gift, yet modern Western civilization honors the servant and has forgotten the gift, a paradigm shift is needed because the problem is not small issues but the whole way we conceive what a human being is, what the world is, and what our relationship with it is.

“Einstein said the rational mind is a faithful servant, but the intuitive mind is a precious gift. We live in a world which honours the servant, but has forgotten the gift. We do need a paradigm shift, because it's not about little things here and there. It's about the whole way we conceive what a human being is, what the world is, and what our relationship with it is.”

The implicit understanding that humans are part of nature is no longer a default position in modern urban life; our electricity, gas, water, and food sources are hidden from us, creating a kind of delusion at the heart of modern urban existence where we live disconnected from the ecological systems that sustain us.

“The problem is when a completely urban life shuts you off from the ecological resources that sustain the life you have, they're all hidden from us. I mean, our electricity, our gas, our water, our food sources, we don't know where they're coming from. So there's a kind of delusion, really at the heart of modern urban life. The sort of implicit understanding that we're a part of nature is no longer a default position.”

In universities, as students specialize in narrow fields, theories and categories become important in ways that damage humanistic understanding; literature is read not for what it teaches about universal human experience but through narrow identity-political frameworks.

“In universities, the left hemisphere's way of thinking becomes even more dominant. As students specialize in narrow fields, theories and categories become important... It's sad because also the Humanities at some level have been corrupted. When one reads a piece of literature, it's not experienced in terms of what can it teach us about the universal experience of being a human being, rather it's, you know, how can it be seen in the context of some narrow vision of identity politics.”

Modern urban life creates a systematic disconnect from the natural world by hiding the sources of essential resources (electricity, gas, water, food), creating a kind of cultural delusion about human independence from nature.

“The problem is when a completely urban life shuts you off from the ecological resources that sustain the life you have, they're all hidden from us. I mean, our electricity, our gas, our water, our food sources, we don't know where they're coming from. So there's a kind of delusion, really at the heart of modern urban life. The sort of implicit understanding that we're a part of nature is no longer a default position.”

When mortgage defaults in Orange County, California spread systemically to cause the entire nation of Iceland to go bust, this reveals an intense level of correlation and interdependence that requires new, more sustainable paradigms of how we do finance.

“When mortgage-holders in Orange County, California start defaulting on their mortgages and then all of a sudden the whole nation of Iceland goes bust. So this level of intense correlation is something we need to be deeply aware of, and try to come up with some new more sustainable paradigms of how we do finance.”

To address the modern crisis requires understanding the problem from multiple perspectives: science, technology, law, culture, democracy, and behavior—not just through left-hemisphere perspectives that want to slice, dice, and execute quickly.

“You've got to look at it from the perspective of science, from the perspective of technology, from law, from culture, from democracy, from behaviour, from money. And to do that requires a form of perception and understanding that isn't going to come from the left hemisphere, that wants to slice and dice and execute quickly.”

Public discourse in society increasingly becomes marked by anger and aggression because anger is an emotion that lateralizes particularly clearly to the left hemisphere, and the left hemisphere is quite emotional despite appearing rational.

“the left hemisphere's quite emotional. And one emotion that lateralizes particularly clearly is anger, and it lateralizes to the left. So discourse in public will become marked by anger and aggression.”

In traditional Chinese and Japanese paintings, there is less focus on the individual person—the face is barely visible—and instead the overall scene is depicted with mountains, trees, and flowers, with the person minimized within the landscape.

“In traditional Chinese and Japanese paintings, you do see less focus on the individual person. You barely see the face. You see the overall scenes, you see mountains, you see trees, flowers. The person actually is minimized.”

We need to cultivate dialogue again between different people and cultures, and resist the reductionism of those who claim to have all knowledge and certainty, replacing the monologue of absolute claims with genuine multi-perspective engagement.

“The monologue of the claimers who say, 'The world is like this and only like this,' this reductionism... that is a real danger for our world. And we have to cultivate the dialogue again, the dialogue with different people, different cultures, and not just claiming I'm the knowledge, I have the... I know everything.”

In the academy there is much fuss over trigger words and warring over language, exemplifying left-hemisphere discourse focused on explicit linguistic control rather than the cultivation of respectful culture.

“In the academy there's a lot of fuss over trigger words and everyone warring over language.”

We need to take advantage of other systems of knowledge and have a balance; if we do that, we will be around as a species for a long time.

“We need to take advantage of other systems of knowledge. We need to be... have a balance. If we do that, we will have... We will be around as a species for a long time.”

In early 20th-century modern art, the world was portrayed in fragments, cubes, and geometric shapes, reflecting left-hemisphere ways of seeing the world that had become fashionable, and artists' rebellions against this spirit of the age paradoxically reproduced the culture they came from.

“The Industrial Revolution also changed how artists saw the world. In the early 20th century, modern art frequently portrayed the world in terms of fragments, cubes, and geometric shapes.”

If competing forms of perception operate through mechanisms that make them compete and play out with one usurping the other, we should act on that understanding—there is agency to do something about hemispheric imbalance.

“If there are these competing forms of perception, and there are mechanisms, culturally, that make them compete and play out, and make one usurp the other... And I think you can argue that pretty coherently... Then we should act on it, you know, we should figure out what to do about it.”

Systems designed to maximize utility while lacking right-hemisphere integration result in loss of social cohesion because the left hemisphere needs control, creating a deficit of trust and proliferation of paranoia, necessitating surveillance infrastructure like CCTV and monitoring systems.

“Systems designed to maximize utility, there'll be a loss of cohesion socially, because the left hemisphere needs control, and there's a lack of trust and a lot of paranoia. There'll be a need for CCTV and monitoring of all kinds.”

Jokes, sex, and religion all lose their nature and power when made explicit—they change fundamentally when removed from implicit, flowing context and subjected to left-hemisphere analysis.

“Jokes, for example. Sex, for example. Religion, for example.”

Traders celebrated with expensive champagne while, on the other side of the same trade, people were committing suicide, illustrating how left-hemisphere abstraction of markets into electronic platforms obscures the real human consequences of financial actions.

“We see traders celebrating with thousand-pound bottles of champagne. And on the other side of that exact trade, there are people committing suicide. That clarifies the mind, when you suddenly think, 'Hang on, this is not just an electronic platform' 'which spikes on a chart.' 'There is a global real consequence to any action' 'that is done in any market.'”

People who lose their left brain hemisphere and are open to right-hemisphere holistic perception develop extraordinary ability to read people and detect lies through understanding tone of voice, facial expression, and body language, suggesting they should be hired for police lie detection work.

“I always say to people who have lost the left brain and they're open to the big picture right hemisphere, they can read people like nobody can. Truth-telling, relationship between tone of voice and facial expression and body expression. These people should be hired by police departments and anybody who really needs a good lie detection, because it's obvious.”

Solutions to hemispheric imbalance require seeing things more holistically, specifically, and in context, systematically resisting attempts to turn things into algorithm and to always measure and quantify, which would steer the world toward a better place.

“If we can get better at seeing things more holistically, more specifically, more in context, if we can get better at systematically resisting attempts to turn things into algorithm, to always measure, to always quantify. If we can get, you know, better and more robust at doing that, the world will begin to steer towards a better place.”

As children age and enter formal schooling, the school curriculum shifts away from embodied subjects (physical education, drama, cooking) where the right hemisphere excels toward abstract, analytical subjects where the left hemisphere dominates, and these embodied subjects are systematically devalued in the educational hierarchy.

“As children get older, their left hemisphere matures. It starts showing its talent for spoken and written language. The school curriculum moves away from areas where the right hemisphere excels.”

When society tries to solve cultural problems through legislation and regulation rather than through evolving culture itself, it produces higher levels of anxiety, deeper divisions, and fails to address the fundamental question of how to cultivate patient and respectful dialogue.

“The trouble is that when you start legislating about it, trying to control it, you produce higher levels, not lower levels, of anxiety. Deeper levels of division. And you park the fundamental question, which is, how do you evolve a culture in which people speak with one another patiently and respectfully? And you can't legislate that into existence.”

If people can see things more holistically and specifically, in context, and can systematically resist attempts to turn things into algorithms and constant quantification, the world will begin to steer toward a better place.

“If we can get better at seeing things more holistically, more specifically, more in context, if we can get better at systematically resisting attempts to turn things into algorithm, to always measure, to always quantify. If we can get, you know, better and more robust at doing that, the world will begin to steer towards a better place.”

Reductive, mechanistic left-hemisphere thinking has made us enormously powerful and enabled us to become wealthy, but at the cost of losing the means to understand the world and achieve genuine fulfillment.

“It's made us enormously powerful, it's enabled us to become wealthy, but it's also meant that we've lost the means to understand the world.”

Bureaucracy depends on qualities the left hemisphere provides: organize-ability, anonymity, standardization, uniformity, and abstraction. Systems designed to maximize utility will produce loss of social cohesion because the left hemisphere needs control, creating lack of trust and paranoia, driving the need for surveillance.

“Bureaucracy is in its element. It depends on qualities which the left hemisphere provide, organize ability, anonymity, standardization, uniformity, abstraction, and so on. Systems designed to maximize utility, there'll be a loss of cohesion socially, because the left hemisphere needs control, and there's a lack of trust and a lot of paranoia. There'll be a need for CCTV and monitoring of all kinds.”

When you make things explicit by putting them in the spotlight of attention, they change their nature; this is why jokes, sex, and religion lose their power and meaning when analyzed explicitly—the right-hemisphere implicit knowledge is destroyed by left-hemisphere explication.

“When you take them out they change. When you grab them and put them in the spotlight of attention and make them explicit, they change their nature. Jokes, for example. Sex, for example. Religion, for example.”

The Industrial Revolution was one of the most daring maneuvers of the left hemisphere: a full-scale onslaught on the natural world based on the assumption that humans were masters who could control and exploit mere material, resulting in landscapes molded by railway lines, tunnels, and explicit human stamp on nature.

“One of the most daring maneuvers of the left hemisphere is the Industrial Revolution. We began a full-scale onslaught on the natural world, that we were the masters and we could control and exploit mere material, as we saw the natural world. Something there for us to utilize... We saw machines, we saw a landscape that was increasingly molded by our efforts to slice through it with railway lines, to carve tunnels, to put our stamp on nature.”

Taking advantage of other systems of knowledge and achieving a balance between Western and non-Western ways of knowing is necessary for human species survival, and if we achieve this balance, we will persist as a species for a long time.

“We need to take advantage of other systems of knowledge. We need to be... have a balance. If we do that, we will have... We will be around as a species for a long time.”

McGilchrist was cautious about oversimplifying Taylor's right-hemisphere experience as simply 'the activity of the right hemisphere,' noting it is more complex, but argues that one cannot deny the reality and value of her experience and her fantastic work based on it.

“It's too simple to be able to just say what she's experiencing is the activity of the right hemisphere. I think it's more complex than that. But what one cannot deny is that is her experience. And, you know, she's done fantastic work on the basis of it.”

We need people to think rigorously, be literate, use models carefully, be articulate and lucid, but the concern is that we ask too little of our children; education is often about ingesting information rather than learning to think independently and critically on many different levels at once.

“We need people to think rigorously, to be literate, to be able to use models, to be careful, articulate, and lucid. My concern is that far from asking too much, we ask too little of our children. Far too often, education is about ingesting information. Not about learning how to think independently and critically and on many different levels at once.”

Love is pure attention to the existence of the other; it applies to many things in life and is what humans are on the planet to do—give attention to the other, whether other people or the natural world, which is our home and a completely amazing, beautiful, staggeringly expressive gift.

“Love is a pure attention to the existence of the other. It's such a simple saying, but it's so deep, and I've found it applies to many, many things in life. Really what we're on this planet to do is to give attention to... to that other. It can be other people, but it can also be what until very recently was the other that we were all surrounded by all the time, which was the natural world, which is our home. Which is just a completely amazing, beautiful, staggeringly expressive gift.”

While people broadly accept that climate change is a global phenomenon caused by humans and serious, requiring quick action with serious consequences if unaddressed, they live as if that knowledge does not exist—a gap between intellectual acknowledgment and behavioral response characteristic of left-hemisphere dominance.

“People broadly accept climate change as a global phenomenon... That humans are causing it, that it's very serious, that we can and should do something quickly, and that if we don't, there'll be very serious effects. But we live as if that knowledge was not there.”

People broadly accept climate change as a serious, human-caused phenomenon that requires urgent action, but they live as if this knowledge does not exist, suggesting a disconnect between intellectual knowledge and actual perception and behavior.

“People broadly accept climate change as a global phenomenon... That humans are causing it, that it's very serious, that we can and should do something quickly, and that if we don't, there'll be very serious effects. But we live as if that knowledge was not there.”

Economists and financial systems have been among those most taken over by left-hemisphere thinking, using fixed mathematical models of 8% returns as if they were mechanical laws, rather than recognizing the complex, contextual, and unpredictable nature of economic systems.

“Economists have been amongst the most frequent of my correspondents, saying, 'You describe precisely the world in which I operate.'...The tendency to get fixed with models, almost to fetishize them, has led us astray in many ways historically...The financial system was supposed to have been based on certain models and assumptions of 8% percent returns”

The Industrial Revolution represented a full-scale onslaught on the natural world driven by the left-hemisphere view that we are masters who could control and exploit nature, seeing the landscape as something to be molded through railway lines, tunnels, and human engineering.

“One of the most daring maneuvers of the left hemisphere is the Industrial Revolution. We began a full-scale onslaught on the natural world, that we were the masters and we could control and exploit mere material, as we saw the natural world...We saw machines, we saw a landscape that was increasingly molded by our efforts to slice through it with railway lines, to carve tunnels, to put our stamp on nature.”

Bureaucracy depends on qualities provided by the left hemisphere: organization ability, anonymity, standardization, uniformity, and abstraction, making it naturally aligned with left-hemisphere dominance.

“Bureaucracy is in its element. It depends on qualities which the left hemisphere provide, organize ability, anonymity, standardization, uniformity, abstraction, and so on.”

After losing the left hemisphere, Taylor felt that the woman she had been died that day, because she didn't have her friends, knowledge, or anything in common with her former self other than sharing the same body.

“I wasn't that woman I had been anymore; she died. The woman I had been died that day. No question, no question. I didn't have her friends, I didn't have her knowledge, I didn't have anything in common with her other than I was going to be in this body.”

In the 20th century, modern art reflected outward onto the world aspects of left-hemisphere thinking: cubism and geometric fragmentation became fashionable because artists unconsciously expressed the culture they inhabited, which was increasingly dominated by left-hemisphere vision.

“Artists always think that, you know, they can escape painting in the spirit of the age. But their very rebellion portrays the culture out of which they came. Art doesn't come out of thin air; it comes out of a culture. I think there's something different about the world that we have entered in the last hundred years. What we find is that various kinds of ways of looking at the world, that occur to people who have damage in the right hemisphere start to become fashionable.”

Some prominent neuroscientists are skeptical of McGilchrist's theory, arguing that the brain is mechanical like clockwork and that connecting hemispheric differences to cultural history represents problematic metaphorizing rather than rigorous neuroscience.

“But some scientists think he's a heretic. [Gunturkun] It's a fantastic book. It's a fantastic book that I don't believe in. [Gazzaniga] The brain is as mechanical as clockwork... This book is taking a selected set of neuroscience findings and trying to relate them to the clinical psychiatric experience, telling a story that tries to mesh those two things. I'm not comfortable with that.”

Humor is a wonderful tool for eliminating idiocies; a sense of humor is a sense of proportion, which is why comedians restore sanity by taking the mickey out of rigid, reductive left-hemisphere thinking.

“Humor is a wonderful tool for eliminating idiocies... 'cause it's true, a sense of humor is a sense of proportion. Well, I've been studying the DNA ideas for some time... Yes, and it's a sense of humor is a sense of proportion. I mean it just explained an incredible number of things that I've always been slightly puzzled about.”

Many models habitually used in education and promoted by governments are mechanistic, narrowing, and dull, buying into the problems McGilchrist describes rather than supporting human development.

“Look around, and many of the models we habitually use in education, many of the models that often government promotes in education, are mechanistic, narrowing, and dull. They buy into all the problems that we see.”

John Cleese's life trajectory changed from purely logical, linguistic thinking (trained in science and law) to intuitive, creative thinking when he discovered he could write comedy, demonstrating that switching toward right-hemisphere modes of operation made him much happier and more creative.

“Most of my education was all to do with the left hemisphere. You know, I got into Cambridge on science, then I did law. And that's how I was taught to think...It's been from this very logical, cold-blooded way of thinking, into something that is hugely more intuitive...And since then I've been...very much more intuitive, and very much less sort of logical, linguistic, in my approach to life. And much happier as a result.”

Traders were celebrating financial transactions with thousand-pound bottles of champagne while, simultaneously, on the other side of those exact trades, people were committing suicide, illustrating that left-hemisphere dominance enables abstraction from the relational human consequences of financial instruments.

“We see traders celebrating with thousand-pound bottles of champagne. And on the other side of that exact trade, there are people committing suicide. That clarifies the mind, when you suddenly think, 'Hang on, this is not just an electronic platform' 'which spikes on a chart.' 'There is a global real consequence to any action' 'that is done in any market.'”

Economics detached from a robust, resourceful picture of human well-being is dangerous; Western economies treat unlimited material growth as obviously self-evident, but many kinds of growth are privileged over the growth of human well-being and understanding.

“Economics detached from a robust, resourceful picture of human well-being is very dangerous, and that's what we're living with in large parts of the globe. We seem to take it as absolutely self-evident that unlimited material growth is the best thing we can hope for. And I think that the biggest single task is thinking again through that question of growth, and why, why it's so obvious a target.”

McGilchrist cautions that it is too simple to say that Jill Bolte Taylor's experience is purely right-hemisphere activity; it is more complex than that, but what cannot be denied is that it is her genuine experience and she has done fantastic work on the basis of it.

“It's too simple to be able to just say what she's experiencing is the activity of the right hemisphere. I think it's more complex than that. But what one cannot deny is that is her experience. And, you know, she's done fantastic work on the basis of it.”

It is a mistake to think of the arts or the sciences as belonging to one hemisphere or the other; a Renaissance man was someone learned and experienced in many aspects of knowledge, showing broad perspective on life where science and art came together as unified rather than separate.

“It's a mistake to think of the arts or the sciences as being one hemisphere or the other. A renaissance man was somebody who was learned and experienced in many aspects of knowledge. What you'd see is this broad perspective on life, in which science and art came together; they weren't separate, as they so often are today.”

If there are competing forms of perception shaped by culture and mechanisms that make them compete, with one usurping the other, then we should act on this knowledge and figure out what to do about the imbalance.

“If there are these competing forms of perception, and there are mechanisms, culturally, that make them compete and play out, and make one usurp the other... And I think you can argue that pretty coherently... Then we should act on it, you know, we should figure out what to do about it.”

As children get older, the left hemisphere matures and shows talent for spoken and written language; the school curriculum then shifts away from areas where the right hemisphere excels (embodied subjects), reflecting institutional left-hemispherization of education.

“As children get older, their left hemisphere matures. It starts showing its talent for spoken and written language. The school curriculum moves away from areas where the right hemisphere excels.”

The danger is monologues of people claiming 'The world is like this and only like this'—a reductive monologism that must be countered by cultivating dialogue again with different people and different cultures rather than claiming exclusive knowledge.

“The monologue of the claimers who say, 'The world is like this and only like this,' this reductionism... that is a real danger for our world. And we have to cultivate the dialogue again, the dialogue with different people, different cultures, and not just claiming I'm the knowledge, I have the... I know everything.”

During the last hundred years, a way of thinking that is reductive and mechanistic has come to dominate public life, making everything more regulated, rule-bound, and explicit, a shift that we can observe in bureaucratic systems, architecture, and institutional design.

“I began thinking about how in public life everything has become more regulated, more rule-bound, more explicit. For the last hundred years, a way of thinking which is reductive, mechanistic, has taken us over.”

Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist who suffered a left-hemisphere stroke, experienced the world without language for 5 weeks, describing a state of 'blissfulness' that 'feels like awe,' where her experience became 'the energy and the space between us' rather than individual separation.

“I didn't have language for 5 weeks... It was wonderful. And the state of blissfulness feels like awe. My experience became the energy and the space between us. It wasn't about me and you; it was about the experience of all of us.”

Modern models in education are often mechanistic, narrowing, and dull; they buy into the problems that McGilchrist describes, whereas education should ask more of children—not just ingesting information but learning to think independently, critically, and on many different levels at once.

“Look around, and many of the models we habitually use in education, many of the models that often government promotes in education, are mechanistic, narrowing, and dull. We need people to think rigorously, to be literate, to be able to use models, to be careful, articulate, and lucid. My concern is that far from asking too much, we ask too little of our children. Far too often, education is about ingesting information. Not about learning how to think independently and critically and on many different levels at once.”

McGilchrist wants his ideas to be picked up by others and internalized so they become a driver to look at the world differently; ancientknowledge was embodied in myths, drama, and poetry—ways of knowing that logic cannot reach—and modern culture has lost this integrated way of thinking, feeling, and being.

“I want my ideas to be picked up by other people, and internalized so that they use them as a driver to look at the world in a different way. Things that were anciently known, they were embodied in myths, in drama, in poetry. The way of thinking that was kept for the kind of knowledge that logic can't reach. A whole way of thinking, feeling, and being.”

Humanity is enormously resourceful, and there have been times in history when shifts in ideas occurred that could not have been foreseen, suggesting that the kind of shift needed now in consciousness may be possible despite current constraints.

“Like you, I appreciate that humanity is enormously resourceful. And there must have been times in history when we could not have foreseen what was coming, in terms of a shift in the ideas. And we need that shift now.”

During the Renaissance, the development of perspective in art (where spatial and temporal perspective are rendered) reflected a shift toward right-hemisphere perception of depth in space and time, contrasting with medieval art that lacked such depth.

“When we come forward here to this Adoration of the Kings in 1500, the building work here obeys the laws of perspective and at the same time gives us a sense of temporal perspective, that this event is taking place at some point in the past, hence the ruin. You will only get that perspective from... the right hemisphere take on the world.”

Rectilinear cities laid out on grids reflect the left-hemisphere way of thinking that likes to use things, creating urban environments that manifest left-hemisphere consciousness.

“cities that were laid out on grids which were full of structures that were... rectilinear. The left hemisphere way of thinking, of being able to use things.”

In ancient Greece and Rome, statues and paintings portrayed individuals with character; as the Roman empire declined, subjects often faced forward without emotion, and individual character gave way to expressions of power and status—a visual shift from right-hemisphere individuated perception to left-hemisphere categorical abstraction.

“In ancient Greece and Rome, statues and paintings portrayed individuals, people with character. But as the Roman empire declined, subjects often faced forward without emotion. Individual character gave way to expressions of power and status.”

Right hemisphere vision requires 'depth'—depth in space, depth in time, and depth of emotion. A medieval 14th-century crucifixion scene lacks depth: there is no landscape situated in the natural world and nothing to situate it historically, whereas Renaissance art recovers depth in landscape and temporal perspective.

“One of the things that distinguishes the right hemisphere is the concept of depth. It's a very important one, philosophically speaking. And one can think in quite concrete terms of depth in space, depth in time, and depth of emotion. Here we've got a crucifixion scene in the middle of the 14th century. There is no depth to this picture; there is no landscape that's situated in the natural world, and nothing to situate it historically.”

Solving complex problems like climate change requires perception and understanding from multiple perspectives (science, technology, law, culture, democracy, behavior, money) that cannot come from left-hemisphere thinking, which wants to 'slice and dice and execute quickly' rather than grasp systemic wholes.

“You've got to look at it from the perspective of science, from the perspective of technology, from law, from culture, from democracy, from behaviour, from money. And to do that requires a form of perception and understanding that isn't going to come from the left hemisphere, that wants to slice and dice and execute quickly.”

Humor serves the function of eliminating idiocies and restoring sanity by taking the mickey out of left-hemisphere reductionist thinking, and it represents a crucial corrective to overly rigid, categorical modes of thought.

“Humor is a wonderful tool for eliminating idiocies...which I think is why you restore our sanity, is because you take the mickey out of this kind of thinking.”

There must have been times in history when humans could not have foreseen what was coming in terms of a shift in ideas, yet a shift in ideas occurred—and we need that shift now in terms of hemispheric rebalancing.

“Like you, I appreciate that humanity is enormously resourceful. And there must have been times in history when we could not have foreseen what was coming, in terms of a shift in the ideas. And we need that shift now.”

In theater and performance, while the left hemisphere handles memorized lines and logical structure, the right hemisphere controls how lines are expressed—tone, gesture, and the implicit emotional and relational meaning that brings the words to life.

“In the brain, memorized lines are worked on by the left hemisphere. But how they are expressed, the tone and gestures, is the preserve of the right hemisphere.”

Maguire, a trader, realized at 2 AM that he was 'serving a system that we cannot control' and that 'you're not cleverer than the market. It's the market that's clever,' leading to his departure from finance.

“At 2 o'clock in the morning, I woke up and I said to my wife, 'I'm not doing this.' 'I cannot do this.' 'We're serving a system that we cannot control.' You're not cleverer than the market. It's the market that's clever.”

A working hypothesis in science should be one step ahead of what is known, not two steps, and McGilchrist's theory is either going to be either the bible of neuroscientists in 30 years or forgotten—there is nothing in between.

“We live scientists we read the papers, come up with a working hypothesis that is one step ahead of what we know, but not two steps. Two steps are punished. So I think there are two options. One option is in 30 years it could be the bible of neuroscientists. Or it could be forgotten. I think there is nothing in between.”

Onur Gunturkun notes that McGilchrist's theory could either become the bible of neuroscience in 30 years or be forgotten, with nothing in between—it cannot be a partial success because it is fundamentally different from current neuroscientific paradigms.

“So we live scientists we read the papers, come up with a working hypothesis that is one step ahead of what we know, but not two steps. Two steps are punished. So I think there are two options. One option is in 30 years it could be the bible of neuroscientists. Or it could be forgotten. I think there is nothing in between.”

Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain anatomist who experienced a left-hemisphere stroke, reports that when deprived of left-hemisphere function she experienced a state of blissfulness and awe where her experience became the energy and space between people rather than focused on individual identity and self.

“I didn't have language for 5 weeks. I had a completely silent mind, no language whatsoever...The state of blissfulness feels like awe. My experience became the energy and the space between us. It wasn't about me and you; it was about the experience of all of us.”

There are few academics who can span from authoritative analysis of scientific data through to big picture thinking and into spirituality, but McGilchrist demonstrates this rare broad intellectual reach.

“There aren't that many academics who can span, who have that broad span, that can go from very authoritative analysis of scientific data through to the big picture, and even on into spirituality.”

Mark Maguire, a former derivatives trader, had a revelation at 2 o'clock in the morning where he realized he was serving a system he could not control, that 'you're not cleverer than the market, it's the market that's clever,' and decided to leave the industry because the system was fundamentally wrong.

“At 2 o'clock in the morning, I woke up and I said to my wife, 'I'm not doing this.' 'I cannot do this.' 'We're serving a system that we cannot control.' You're not cleverer than the market. It's the market that's clever.”

McGilchrist hopes his ideas are picked up by other people and internalized as drivers to look at the world in a different way, not replacing old thinking but expanding perception.

“I want my ideas to be picked up by other people, and internalized so that they use them as a driver to look at the world in a different way.”

Economists have frequently been correspondents telling McGilchrist that his description of hemispheric differences precisely matches the world in which they operate, suggesting that the field of economics is a manifestation of left-hemisphere dominance.

“Economists have been amongst the most frequent of my correspondents, saying, 'You describe precisely the world in which I operate.'”

John Cleese was educated in left-hemisphere modes (science, law) and thought logically and linguistically; he discovered by accident at Cambridge that he could write things that made people laugh, and he realized the creative writing process was fundamentally different from legal reasoning—a shift from linguistic-logical to intuitive-humorous cognition.

“Most of my education was all to do with the left hemisphere... I got into Cambridge on science, then I did law... It's been from this very logical, cold-blooded way of thinking, into something that is hugely more intuitive. And this obviously came because I discovered, by accident, at Cambridge, that I could write stuff that made people laugh.”

Taylor observes that people who have lost the left brain and are open to right-hemisphere perception can read people 'like nobody can,' understanding truth-telling through correlation between tone of voice, facial expression, and body language, suggesting they should be hired by police departments for lie detection.

“I always say to people who have lost the left brain and they're open to the big picture right hemisphere, they can read people like nobody can. Truth-telling, relationship between tone of voice and facial expression and body expression. These people should be hired by police departments and anybody who really needs a good lie detection, because it's obvious.”

The process of writing comedy is fundamentally different from the process of understanding a legal case; comedy requires a kind of thinking that cannot be explained rationally—some jokes are 'so completely silly that it's almost meaningless,' and you simply cannot explain them.

“I began to see that the process that I used when I was writing stuff like this was quite different from the process that I used if I was trying to understand a legal case. They seemed quite different ways of operating. I think sometimes you have something that is so completely silly that it's almost meaningless. I can think of things in Monty Python jokes that you simply aren't able to explain.”