Being directly aware and involved in what we are doing can increase our intelligence and creativity
It seems that the brain works best under pressure. The solder being decorated for bravery often says “i don’t remember doing it—it all happened too fast.” Even in situations less terrifying and punishing than war, most of us have experienced this staggering efficiency and rapidity of the brain in emergencies. The left hemisphere prioritizes theory over experience, and the more certain of our views we become, the more we perceive ourselves to be victims of an impersonal world. It seems very likely then that habitual feelings of helplessness and inadequacy derive chiefly from into the “real” universe in our left hemisphere and not being directly involved in where we are, what is going on around us, and what we are doing.
To use the brain efficiently—to be mindful of where one is, what is going on within and around one, having a clear comprehension of activities, and to take responsibility for ones choices and perceptual bets (each perception that we make is best considered to be a gamble rather than a certainty)—seems to increase “intelligence” and “creativity.” This is hardly a surprise. Whatever our technical definitions of these mysterious functions, it is obvious that they are connected to the number of signals consciously apprehended, and with the rapidity of the revision process. When the left hemisphere holds a single model statistically between us and our experience, the amount of signals drops, no revision occurs, and “intelligence” and “creativity” correspondingly decline. But the right hemisphere can juggle multiple ambiguous possibilities and interpretations, whereas the left hemisphere jumps to premature conclusions. When many models are available, when we are consciously invovled in our choices, the number of signals consciously apprehended increases, and we behave more “intelligently” and “creatively.”
References
- Wilson, A., Robert. (1986). The New Inquisition Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science Chapter 8 Creative Agnosticism (Page 260 · Location 5470). Grand Junction, Colorado: Hilaritas Press.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Psychology / Neuropsychology Status:☀️