Segment 1: The Left Brain and Conflict.
Everything in the human experience begins in the brain, including war, conflict and peace. Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show, who will discuss this theory, is James Olson. James is a management-trained philosopher whose studies have included business, engineering, art, Eastern and Western religion, yoga, qigong, psychology, language, neuro-linguistics, philosophy and brain perspective. His book, The Whole Brain Path to Peace, argues that the hemispheric nature of our brains account for much of the conflict and peace in our world. His website is www.thewholebrainpath.com.
James’ personal journey started out as a farmer on the family farm. During the winters he had time to study a wide range of interests and he came up with a very holistic view of the world. When he realized he was left brain dominate he set out to determine what that meant and how it dictated his perception of reality. The two sides of the brain both feed us info. We take information from one side and information from the other side and integrate them to come up with our own personal perspective. James researched the left brain versus right brain and found that that left brain disassembles and deconstructs, while the right brain puts things together and assembles things. The left brain, if left untempered by the wisdom of the right brain, can get us into trouble and cause conflict.
Segment 2: Mixing Oil and Water.
Upbringing has a great deal to do with attitude and world perception. We are heavily affected not only by the dominant side of our brain but also by our environment. If someone has a dominate right brain but is never taught how to think critically, they will not have a balanced view of the world and will not use “whole brain” thinking. We have a dualistic set-up within the brain. Trying to mix the left brain’s polar ideas with the right brain’s non-polar ideas is like mixing oil and water. The left brain tends to be skeptical and cautious and controlling. It can be resistant to working with right brain.
Segment 3: Smart Phones Versus Brains.
The secret is to begin using our non-dominant brain more — the side/perspective that has been neglected. To retrain our own brains and to reactive the non-dominant side, just understand different perspectives and different options. If you don’t know what your brain is capable of doing, you can’t access it. We know more about accessing our smart phones than we do about our own brains. The better we understand it, the better we use it. Meditation helps as well. Meditation shuts off the left brain and brings us into our right brain. This helps us see more holistically and make better decisions.
Segment 4: Understanding the Dualistic System and Finding Peace.
James has found most males are left brain dominant and most women are right brain dominant. There is a biological basis for sexual orientation. If we understand what’s going on in our brain we can find peace with a situation. If we don’t understand the dualistic system of our brain it can cause conflict and war-like behavior.
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