Being in our right Mind
(I first wrote this in 2013 but it never made it to the blog. It is more important than ever in our world now.)
There were two men talking one day when one of them said to the other, "You're out of your mind!", the other man replied, "Thank you! I've spent my whole lifetime trying to get there!"
In dealing with many of our anxieties, phobias, compulsions and fears we need to 'get out of our heads’—or at least out of the linear left brain that is always analyzing, processing, dividing and often blaming—ad infinitum. This becomes 'run on thinking' or a circular inner dialogue that defies what even we ourselves previously know. It is where 'control' for the addict resides within us or the ‘solution’ resides for the spiritually self-righteous. Our challenge consistently is "how do I turn it off?"
Where we need to go is our 'right brain’—our connection to peace and sense of being beyond ourselves. The French scientist Meinard Simon Du Pui suggests that each hemisphere of our brain has its own mind—Homo duplex—in essence we are double minded. But because the right brain defies logical or linear definition, the left brain dismisses the input from those 'sectors'. Much like a staunch scientist, if it's not scientifically provable, it cannot be--at least to the left brain. The right brain defies definition beyond even a dream state although many dreams give us clues to this other realm of being. In this realm there is no time (chronological) as we know it. Most of the 'normal' rules don't apply and because they don't, the left brain has no framework or categories to put experiences from the right inside of. It will use words like strange, weird, crazy, coincidence, 'out of your mind' (we wish), or bazaar to describe what it cannot explain. To switch sides 'or brains', I suggest that anytime you hear any of these words in your head—stop and look again at whatever the message or experience is—or is 'saying'.
(if you want to read further into the fascinating phenomena within our heads read Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander or My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor; or watch the video I Am)
To reach our peace, or the security beyond our own making, 'getting right' or BEING in our right mind is crucial. Your real, deeper consciousness resides one this side as well as where God becomes amazingly more 'real' and relational. 'Keeping left'--staying in your left brain--is the false self of our own making and as a result it breeds a lot of self focus and ultimately selfishness and arrogance. 'Giving up control' or believing that there is something beyond my ability to explain is a stretch for the left brain. 'Getting right' is a statement of belief or faith (the stretch) that God is. When he said 'cast all your anxieties on me' he well meant BE in your right brain. Hearing and seeing in the right brain are not the same as the left. Few people have ever heard the audible voice of God but millions have heard God ‘speak' at a much deeper level. The Left hemisphere demands an audible voice, the right is totally satisfied with presence and the peace that comes with it which are so 'loud' and comforting that audible sound doesn't matter.
At times when we are stressed out, overwhelmed with a crisis or trauma, we are thrust to the right. We have unexplainable moments, often timeless, where we get glimpses of this amazing realm. Once you begin 'to believe' or at least crack the door, you will stop filtering out the input from the right. Beware of the dismissal/marker words and turn those into clues. Talk to others about their own 'crazy experiences' and you will likely be blown away at their stories. The rewards are out of this world—way beyond this world.
Use meditation, reflection, moments of silence, fasting—try some level of a techno fast—not just food. Make time for the retreat that your left brain is always telling you that you don't have time for. Take a vacate--ion, get to the woods, the mountains, the beach--it is easier to be in our right minds when outside. Read—but be careful. Don't read ‘recipe books’ that talk of 5 steps to this or ten steps to that which will only feed your left brain. Read spiritual material that when something speaks to you—when particular words 'glow' or wiggle on the page—STOP! Don't go any further. If your left brain is saying READ then read the same passage again, and again. Sit with it until the meaning is clearer—until you experience the truth it’s trying to reveal. Write something in your journal about it. Music, art, beauty throughout creation will serve up the mysteries of the right brain. As Philippians 4:8 admonishes us, 'Whatever is pure, true, noble, right, lovely or admirable..dwell on these things'.
Just maybe when we were told to 'be ye perfect' by the renewing of our minds what it meant was be ye perfected by changing sides—the sides of your own brain. Did you know that the word 'repent' in Greek means 'to change your mind'? I have a hunch that our spirits--our souls--meet the Great Spirit, the Holist of Spirits only in our right minds. Paradoxically we thought it meant to act and think perfectly. When the left brain heard that, we followed a clear pathway to self-righteousness or as Richard Rohr calls it, meritocracy.
This action—moving left to right--is the avenue to recovery, to self discovery, to wholeness, to God in all His fullness.
Just BE, in your right mind.