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. This post probably will not be very popular. However, that is OK by me; such is the nature of human conditioning. Popular posts might tell you how wonderful everything is, how splendid and noble your efforts are, and how love is everywhere. I say that there is not nearly enough love in the world. There is plenty of beauty in the world, I feel… but there is not nearly enough love. Honestly, so many of us are indifferent; so many put up with wars, nuclear armaments, pollution, overpopulation, suffering of people and animals, etc., without doing much of anything at all about it. We have to do a lot more to make things better here on this planet. If enough of us make a difference and change things for the better, then maybe love will be everywhere; but right now (honestly) it isn’t. I sure hope that one day it (i.e., love) will be everywhere!
Some of the important things that we must be leery about, in our passage through life, are organizations and old-fashioned traditions that steer us into the complacency of being mere followers. Many of us might maintain that we do not merely “follow the crowd”; but so many of us do so, unawares, not really seeing or realizing how we blindly follow the manner, habits, and cold indifference of others. We chronically copy others, yet think that we are independent… not mere followers. Some of us are warmly caring… but not nearly enough of us are.
What I’m about to tell you isn’t going to be what you’ll like to hear (i.e., read). It goes against people’s grain, so to speak. Bear with me on this; but don’t continue to read if you are easily disturbed. It goes, if one examines deeply and objectively, against much of what a lot of us have been told — and what was ingrained into us — about the afterlife (i.e., heaven or reincarnation or some such stuff)… and about free will, conditioning, and awareness. However, don’t — upon reading about it — merely allow yourself to get depressed, melancholy, and disheveled. One’s life can be eternally significant, despite what occurs concerning the human brain. Despite what the following may imply… one can still become imbued by the eternal.
I learned about it many years ago, while in college. I had read extensive articles about it; and it caused me to really delve into different aspects and avenues of spirituality involving understanding the whole of existence. It — what the articles were about — certainly was shocking to me. The articles dealt with how surgeons severed the corpus callosum. The human brain is, in a big way, a lot like the two halves of the inside of a walnut. Connecting the halves is what is known as the corpus callosum. Surgeons have had to sever the corpus callosum in certain individuals — such as those suffering from certain forms of epilepsy — in order to try to keep the severity of the seizures down. In patients who have had their corpus callosum severed, the right half of the brain does not know what the left half of the brain is thinking (and vice versa). In other words, two fields of separate consciousness are created (following the surgery)… when initially there was one. This type of surgery has occurred many times; it is not some kind of theoretical proposition or fluke (one-time) occurrence.
People, following such surgery, exist as two separate minds within one body. Instances have occurred wherein a man (following having his corpus callosum severed) was trying to pull his pants up with his right hand… while his left hand was trying to pull his pants down. (Each field of consciousness had something different in mind!) Another (similar) man was observed trying to strike his wife with one hand, while the other hand tried to stop the opposite hand from hitting her.
Does this have deep implications about life for us? You bet it does! The implications extend far beyond what most care to look into; however, it would be prudent if they did look deeper. Many are afraid to look deeper. I, for one, looked deeper. I am glad that I did (look deeper). The implications are extensive. Does it negate the possibility of eternity for us? No, it does not! However, merely looking at life in our standard, old-fashioned ways — as we have always done in the past — may not be prudent (considering this). We have to change the way we look at things. Otherwise we will become more and more fragmented inwardly and outwardly (not entirely unlike the unfortunate patients of the brain surgery). Many people don’t wish to change; but change we must!
Walnuts black by José Luis Hernández Zurdo
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 