Have you ever spotted yourself believing your own lie? Was this lie at one time a justification or excuse for a something you did wrong? We tend to gather opinions that support our lies and justifications and this is a primary method by which cultural conditioning is empowered. The significance of the left-right brain split is profoundly important in understanding and monitoring both the therapeutic and personal development processes.

The Bilateral Meter is able to instantly differentiate the comparative arousal of left and right cortical hemispheres. What is the significance of this?

Man is a being of several parts, which work best together as an integrated whole. Firstly there is the spiritual Being, which is, essentially, not located in space nor time. Secondly, there is the Mind of subtle energies, which relate to the considerations of the Being, and his located viewpoint in the physical world. Thirdly, there is the Body, which the Being and Mind identify with. The subtle energies are translated by the brain computer into physical, nervous-system impulses which cause action of the body. Furthermore, man has a dual brain which allows him to see two or more aspects of his environment and to compute upon these aspects simultaneously.

The parallel processing of the right hemisphere attends to the nonverbal, holistic, spatial and emotional aspects of the environment. The right brain identifies relevant experience and provides the context and awareness within which understanding is possible. There is no sense of time, and much of this process operates below the level of consciousness.

In contrast, the interpretative processing of the left hemisphere provides a verbal description and attends to the detailed information in the environment, and this material is usually available to our conscious minds. The left brain is sequential and, above all, time-based - it includes an accurate internal clock. When the left-brain takes control, this results in rigid adherence to the one-sided reality in which we have been educated and culturally conditioned. In short, we have been fed with pre-packaged cultural patterns - fixed solutions - which emphasize the penetrating, masculine values of activity, manipulation and direct influence over the environment.

In most cases right-hemisphere participation in conscious thinking is actually suppressed. As a result of traumatic experience and cultural conditioning many of the important functions of the right hemisphere are suppressed, e.g. the softer, more feminine ability to be aware of one's feelings, to let things happen and be involved in the moment in an un-selfconscious way. If only the verbal-analytic left side is operating, a person is effectively cut off from many of the ways in which he could experience the world around him - life can become dry, meaningless and boring.

Whether you are left or right handed, man or woman, left-hemispheric cultural patterns of thinking rule the day. As a result we lose touch with our intuitive, spiritual nature. We push aside our unspoken feelings as irrelevant to the struggle for survival. We rationalize the beliefs we have adopted in order to be accepted members of our partnership, family, peer generation, etc. We push aside right-hemisphere intuition because it contains the real truth of who we are, what we have done and what we intend to do. Above all, we repress what we feel about ourselves, because the truth hurts. The keystone of left-brain consciousness is time, the primary lie of the physical universe. The right brain is timeless, so it cannot lie!

The Left/Right Brain Split

Left-brain thought processes are analytical, verbal, logical, sequential - the left brain is good at intelligent thought, argument, making hypotheses, but also at making things up, telling lies. It is therefore responsible for the mind's defense mechanisms of rationalization, justification, blame. This particularly occurs when feelings and real experiences cannot be confronted (faced up to) - in this case they are uncomfortable, painful, they threaten our survival, the rightness of our identity.

Because feelings, emotions, perceptions and real experiences are the province of the right brain, this defense causes a repression of the right-brain mode of experience, unfortunately also cutting off the valuable aspects of right-brain awareness such as intuitive thought and being in touch with feelings and the current objective reality, in short being grounded. At the extreme this leads to the delusory schizophrenic personality disorder and to the psychopath who is totally cut off from feelings. But this split also affects most people to a lesser degree.

Right brain thought processes are holistic and relational, non-verbal and based on perceptions, feelings and actual memories. If thinking realistically and objectively about painful experiences or wrong-doings cannot be confronted, but the reality cannot be avoided or explained away, this may result in a retreat to the right-brain mode of experience, where there are strong feelings but no logic to direct them. This is how we feel when overcome by fear, sadness or remorse. In extreme this can lead to the manic-depressive personality.

Clearly we need both modes of functioning; they complement each other. Therapy and development is largely the business of re-integrating thoughts and feelings, to take advantage of both our analytical and intuitive faculties, fully in touch with objective reality.

Problems are created whenever we are unable or unwilling to accept our reality. If, no matter what we do, we feel we cannot change, alter or modify our reality - what has happened or is happening or that we predict will happen - then we can fall into the left-brain mode of justifying, blaming, hoping, wishing, denying, rationalizing, ignoring or intellectualizing. These are are just a few of the ways thought attempts to change, alter or modify reality. Alternatively we can fall into the right-brain mode of dramatizing an emotional response. Both of these responses avoid confronting and accepting the reality that is.

In this situation we need to change our perception or view of reality, to become more aware, to understand. And the only way we can do that is to observe - to look again and fully experience the reality without acting upon it like trying to escape it, change it or attack it. With this new perception we can then observe how our reality affects us and how we respond to it. The new understanding causes a change in how we approach and respond to life. In turn, this change causes our reality to change.

The fragmented mind constantly contradicts itself. Part of me might say say,"I didn't work hard on the project because it was a waste of time anyway" - this is what I'm being now and I believe this is accurate and that I'm fully aware. Upon exploaration, other parts show their face.I'm really upset at the criticism I received. Yet another part of me knows that I didn't do my best, that I was lazy. Another really wants to achieve great things and knows I'm capable of it. Another reminds me of my past failures. Eventually, through observation, greatly facilitated by the Bilateral Meter, I cut through the distortions and pain and saw that thought had indeed been oblivious of its own illusions.

Aware consciousness sees everything in terms of facts and unknowns or possibilities and probabilities. It acknowledges that everything is constantly changing. Similarly, acknowledging the unknown is an acceptance that all may not be as it appears to be. These acknowledgments instruct the mind to pay attention to consciousness so we can effectively deal with our reality.

We are going to experience upsets and stress as long as we treat judgments, opinions and beliefs as facts rather than as possiblities, and as long as we allow emotional responses to prevent us from being ourselves in the present and looking anew. Understanding, as a result of objective observation of personal experience, causes us to experience fewer problems because we are paying more attention to here-and-now consciousness - we are in touch with the true self. The true self is loving, empathetic and willing to communicate. And communication is the solvent of all problems.

 
The Bilateral Meter, invented by Gregory Mitchell, has been in use in the context of personal development, training and therapy for 25 years. Many therapists and university researchers have also made use of the Bilateral Meter in widely varying contexts. This testifies to the value of the Bilateral Meter as a diagnostic and prescriptive tool in any field in which the human mind is being explored.

The Bilateral Meter measures the difference in degree of arousal of each of the two cortical hemispheres of the brain. Each hemisphere is connected, through the autonomic nervous system, to the opposite side of the body: thus the left hemisphere connects to the right side of the body, and vice versa. By virtue of the Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), autonomic nervous system activity causes a change in the skin's conductivity. Since the hands (especially the thumb and forefinger) have particularly extensive connections to the cortex, the difference in arousal of one cortical hemisphere over the other may be measured as the difference in skin resistance between the hands. Thus at any time, the difference in skin resistance between the hands, indicates the difference of arousal between the hemispheres, and this is shown by the readings of the Bilateral Meter.

The overall degree of arousal of the hemispheres, and indeed the whole brain, is shown by the readings of the GSR Meter, which does not differentiate between the hemispheres. Higher arousal (such as occurs with increased tension or stress) will almost instantaneously (0.2 - 0.5 sec) cause a fall in skin resistance; reduced arousal (such as occurs with relaxation or detachment) will cause a rise in skin resistance. The Bilateral Meter indicates whether this fall or rise occurred more in one hemisphere than the other. The ramifications and applications of the above principles will be explained in detail throughout this Course.

The different types of needle response are discussed, when the Bilateral Meter is used to monitor a client's cognitive and sub-cognitive mental processes in the course of therapeutic procedures. The practical details of the use of a Bilateral Meter in case assessment then follows. By this method of assessment, the subject's left or right dominance and flexibility of hemispheric arousal are determined, and his degree of introversion/extraversion. People have habitual responses and styles of cognition that relate to certain personality types as specified by Jung. In assessment we are first trying to gather what the client's reality is - his model of reality and its relationship to Objective Reality. We are looking for information about his organismic reality, his existential reality, his relationship to the 'group think', and his spiritual reality, and thereby to position the client on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Knowing this information, and his hemispheric balance, the Case Supervisor is then in a position to select the most appropriate case handling.

In the context of a clear concept of the Objective Reality, the following information about irrational behavior, emotions and beliefs, and defenses or distorted patterns of thinking, will fall into place. Having learnt Fifteen Types of Distorted Thinking extremely thoroughly, the student will be able to recognize the elements of distorted thinking, and aspects of the client's reality, as various assessments are undertaken. In particular, the General Assessment will reveal the client's characteristic distortions and these should be noted down during a full interview, alongside both types of Meter readings and the client's personal information.

A General Assessment is undertaken at the start of a programme of personal growth, whereas the Life Stress List is used when a client is feeling stressful and wants this handled but does not know what the actual problem is. Similarly with the Upsets Repair List. If at any time Antagonism becomes an issue (or is the presenting problem) then the Procedure for Handling Antagonism may be applied.

When an unwanted condition has been clarified by the various means of assessment, the procedure described in Handling Unwanted Conditions is then appropriate. Following the various assessments (particularly the General Assessment), as a Case Supervisor the student will determine the most appropriate case handling and be able to explain the reasons for doing so.