Even 12-year olds have heard of left-brain, right-brain theory. We teach classes of 8th and 9th graders (as well as executives) and they know that our brain is divided into a left-hemisphere for language and a right-hemisphere for sensory and motor functions.

Few are familiar with the scientist Roger W. Sperry of Cal Tech who received the 1981 Nobel for his split-brain research that originally recognized our cerebral cortex is divided into two hemispheres.

The two key discoveries concerning the brain made in the 20th century are: the difference in functions between the left-and-right-brain, and the use of fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imagery) to track the functions of our brain structures in action.

In-Sync

When our left-brain is not in-sync (symmetrical) with our right-brain, homo sapiens experience chronic stress. A student asked: what is cognitive dissonance in the brain?

The answer: when there is a conflict in our mind (thinking without a making a decision) our brain is in contradiction and incompatibility, and causes tension, stress and anxiety. Some psychologists call it a trigger for creativity and imagination to solve the dissonance (conflict). Once we have cognitive assonance (harmony and balance) we feel better and control our behaviors.

We Care

Speedlearners are into brain-synchronization (in-sync and entrainment) because it has a direct affect on our ability to learn, long-term memory and reading speed. You enjoyment of life, satisfactory relationships (did you know 51% of Americans live without a spouse?), and career success require your two-brains act in-sync.

The most recent neuroscientific research reinforces the evidence that chronic stress panic-attacks, and angst are the result of our left-brain and right-brain not being in-sync. Our job is to restore physiological and emotional equilibrium in order to significantly reduce or extinguish chronic stress.

Want another reason to eliminate chronic stress from your life?

There is good reason to believe that continuing chronic stress is a trigger for heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Anatomy

Our two brains communicate through a broad structure of axon tissue called the Corpus Callosum (< L firm body). It acts as a switchboard between the left and right cerebral cortices. Our right-brain directly knows only 30 basic words and gets its verbal information over the Corpus Callosum from our left-brain.

Our right-brain offers intuition, creativity, emotional flavor and spatial knowledge to its counterpart through three brain structures: corpus callosum; hippocampal commissure; and anterior commissure.

When synchronization is lost our conscious and non-conscious minds suffer a loss of knowledge. Our language becomes clichéd, without flavor and lacking figures-of-speech (metaphors) without cross-fertilization between left and right hemispheres.

Our posture and body-language, motor-control and feedback lack sharpness without the logic and analytical support of our left-brain being in-sync and broadcasting through the Corpus-Callosum et al.

Emotions Are Physiology

Breathing diaphragmatically - Changing your Eye-Movements - Replacing Negative Mental Visualization

Profound Fact: change (shift) your physiology and your feelings will follow. We are our behaviors, and emotion follows the mental-movies in our mind. Eliminate ANTS (automatic negative thoughts) and you change your behaviors.

Move your body differently - breathe deeper and change your eye-movements from narrow to wide and you change your feelings and behaviors. One more once - its your oxygen intake (20% of all your oxygen is required by your three-pound brain) oxygen and more (+ 5% when studying). More oxygen transfers additional blood supply to the brain, which includes additional glucose (blood sugar) fuel.

Changing your eye-movements from fovea/macula (narrow) to peripheral (broad) causes a brain revolution from Sympathetic to Parasympathetic Nervous System, and neurotransmitters from adrenaline (epinephrine) to acetylcholine. You go from stress-excited (fight-or-flight) to relaxation and equilibrium. Get centered and you become focused on your goals.

Lastly, use your volition to consciously trigger positive imagery in your mind and blast away visualizations creating fear and foreboding. Instantly your feelings move to correspond with your mental pictures.

A Baby Easy Exercise to Get In-Sync

Want to stay in-sync for four-hours by investing just two-minutes? We call it In-Sync-Braining and all it requires is a heavy tennis-type ball. Many students use a smaller sized weighted ball with a bell in it. They are manufactured in China and can be purchased cheaply Online.

There are two-steps to this synchronization braining-exercise:

First, throw the ball from one hand to the other - about 12 inches apart. It can be in a high loop, or a straight pitch from left-to-right, and back again from right-to-left. Wait - your eyes are opened.

The objective is to spend 60 seconds not paying conscious attention to the trajectory of the ball. We must shift from using our eyes (conscious-mind) throwing to letting our mind take over the interaction between hands - non-consciously. Do not look at the ball - stare straight in front horizontally or about two-feet above the horizon.

In baseball the MVP hitters mentally see the ball as larger than a cantaloupe, closer than reality, moving slower than normal, and so sharply defined they have time to count the stitches on the cover. You can do this with your mind commands until it becomes automatic.

You can loop the ball or pitch it but remember to control the force of the action. If you drop it, consider it good feedback and start again. In a few seconds the 11 million bits of information flowing from your non-conscious mind (hind-brain and basal ganglia) takes over and ousts your conscious mind with its puny 40 bits of information from the game. Remember - do not look at the ball for visual reinforcement because that triggers your conscious (left-brain) mind.

Second, do the same exercise just described - with your eyes closed.

You non-consciousness works even better without the interference of your visual cortex which is mediated by your left-brain. This exercise is a right-brain strategy to create synchronization between your hemispheres.

You have a total of 60 seconds for your right-brain to let four brain structures to activate that work in the dark. At first your right-brain will use mental visualization to see the ball going left-to-right and right-to-left with your eyes closed.

In seconds your right-brain gets bored and triggers your Somatosensory Cortex, Peripheral-vision (yes, it works with your eyes closed), and Proprioception Nervous System to take over. These three do not require your conscious mind to pay attention through visual imagery.

Now you will notice that you are flying on auto-pilot not seeing a mental picture nor focusing on pitching the ball. You are in the flow, in the zone and in-sync blending both hemispheres. Finally your VOR (Vestibulo-Ocular-Reflex is triggered for later use in tripling your reading speed and doubling your memory.

Google: somatosensory cortex, peripheral visions and proprioceptive nervous system and VOR (Vestibulo-Ocular-Reflex).

Endwords

This may seem like busywork and irrelevant to influencing your brain - it is an extremely valuable two-minute exercise that produces four-hours of brain synchronization. You eliminate chronic stress, angst and tension and learn like Einstein; you 3x your reading speed and 2x your long-term memory. Cheap investment for the results and the fun of throwing a ball back-and-forth.

See ya,

copyright © 2007 H. Bernard Wechsler www.speedlearning.org hbw@speedlearning.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------