How the Brain Works

We come into this world as empty vessels, 
blank tablets, just waiting to be filled with experience.  
David Hume (1711-1776 C.E.). Scottish philosopher 

up to that moment in mankind's intellectual evolution.
Hume's assertion was the best knowledge available 
on how the brain works

Unfortunately it was also the same philosophy 
adopted by the British Empire at that time
when it first instituted primary and secondary education systems
primarily designed at the start of the Industrial Revolution
for the need of literacy on the mass production lines
with workers able to analyse instruction manuals
.
To this day
down-loading predigested analytically orientated data 
into supposedly empty child brains
via text-book instruction
remains the standard foundation of all global education systems.

This antiquated assessment of how he brain is stimulated
based on scanty 18h Century information
is seriously, perhaps even catastrophically, erred
on a number of basic premsises 

1.  The vessel is far from empty 
2.  The brain is not purely analytical - it has two separate modes of perception
3   It is stimulated via patterns of behavior that lead to predictions of reward

1. DNA

So far these are the base facts we know about about DNA

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. 
The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people. The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism, similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet appear in a certain order to form words and sentences.

An important property of DNA is that it can replicate, or make copies of itself. Each strand of DNA in the double helix can serve as a pattern for duplicating the sequence of bases. This is critical when cells divide because each new cell needs to have an exact copy of the DNA present in the old cell.

At the moment there is no scientific methodology available
which can determine conclusively that human DNA
is not only encoded with our parent's physiological characteristics
but also imprinted with the entire evolution of organic behavioral experience.
that under the correct stimulus
this vast wealth of survival experience can be accessed

Circumstantial evidence informs us that if each child was indeed a blank slate
and DNA was not behaviorally encoded with 100,000 generations of our species advances 
parents would be left trying to teach a chimpanzee
to behave like a human.with every birth.
It took Nature at least eight million years to do that
.
Since an infant can master the quantum leap in language use
inside a single year
we have to assume that not one digit of the code
that laid the foundations of such mastery
as well as all the social and spiritual organization that followed
from the Stone Age hunter/gaherer
to the Nuclear Age scientist
has been lost

The fact that many infant and child prodigies
begin to spontaneously manifest  mathematical and artistic talents
prior to formal instruction
supports the circumstantial evidence
that hard-won ancestral behavioral attributes
are part and parcel of our birth inheritance.

If some children are able to access ancestral behavioral smarts
and exhibit prodigious talents without the benefit of formal instruction
how does that happen?
More importantly
why does such genus not occur to all of us?

Could it be
that by incarcerating young children inside classrooms for six to eight hours a day
downloading predigested text-book data
we are blocking access to intuitive expressions of genius?

We were warned two generations ago
via split brain research
that an almost purely analytical approach to brain function
in mass education systems

does not evoke the full genius potential



 2. Left Brain and Right Brain Modes of  Perception
  
"The main theme to emerge...is that there appears to be two modes of thinking, verbal and non-verbal represented rather separately in left and right hemispheres respectively,and that our education system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the non-verbal form of intellect. What it comes down to, is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere."

Nobel Laureate - Prof. Roger Sperry
Lateral Specialization of Cerebral Function in Surgically Separated Hemispheres. 1973

So far
this is what has been discovered by observing the behavior of patients who have had the two hemispheres of the cortex surgically severed

left brain                   right brain
analytical                  intuitive
convergent               divergent
negative                   positive
digital                      analogic
secondary               primary
directed                  free
propositional           imaginative
lineal                       non lineal
sequential                multiple
objective                 subjective
successive               simultaneous

J.E. Brogen 
"Some Educational Aspects of Hemispheric Specialization"  

There is a persuasive argument that these divergent modes of percepion
indicate that there are masculine and feminine attributes  associated 
with left and right brain percepions.

This gender distinction is illustrated in the 
I Ching or Book of Changes

 yin                         yang
feminine                  masculine
negative                  positive
moon                      sun
night                        day
yielding                    aggressive
left side                    right side
unconscious             conscious
right brain                left brain
emotion                   reason

Considering the concerns we have 
over the dwindling performance of our mass education systems
with a 40% drop out rate
only 1% exhibiting excellence
the rest mediocre
and heaven knows how much cheating at exams
it might seem astonishing that with this information
in dual brain research available
for over 40years
a more holistic system of child education would have been implemented by now

the fact that we persist with a failing system
speaks to symptomatic mass dysfunction
accrued over five generations of classroom incarceration
where systematic concentration on left brain instruction
has stunted the intuitive inspirational capabilities of our  right brain 
resulting in the loss of creative adaptation and motivational predictions

in short
we have trained ourselves
and continue to train our kids
to become mass production line automatons
and not the inspired creative geniuses
intended in the process of natural selection
when it produced such a huge two-chambered brain

Perhaps the reason why dual brain research has been ignored
is because it not been explained thus far
exactly how these two attributes of the brain communicateor the benefits that accrue from that interaction

For the past wenty years our family's education foundation
has been researching the dual brain phenomenon
with seven of our own children
from birth
through puberty
their teens
and into young adulthood

We hve discovered that
beginning with the right brain at birth
the dominance of each side of the brain
alternates sequentially every seven years
completing a right/left cycle every fourteen years
with a larger maturation taking place over twenty one year periods

The first cycle
between birth and puberty
is the most formative
and consequentially the most vital

At birth
the intuitive right side of the infant brain is active
busy collecting survival information
the analytical left side of the brain remains largely passive
waiting for the right brain to collective enough data
to form a creative image comprehensive enough
to be transmitted for analysis

for the first three years
as the brain grows in size
until the weaning process is complete
right brain transmissions are largely uncreative
and the left brain analysis remains tentative

The complete genius of the human psyche
is distributed throughout the body
every cell consciously holds the complete code of the DNA
which is continuously being imprinted
with all inc-coming existential information
which then flows electrically through the nervous system
for collection and collation
in the right side of the brain
which then transmits creative imagery
to the left side of the brain
for analysis
and possible application
the two brins act asre
the ability to read patterns and trends in behavior
as circumstances force change
allows us to see problems down the road
and via adjustments and adaptation
predict or forecast reasonable out-comes

asit stands now
with vast debt
endlesswarring
and mounting catastrophic  natural occurrences
has left the future of our kids  at a cross roads

the inability to see a reachable collective future
strips the mass of our prime motivating factor

in order for individual students to strive for excellence
an achievable goal must be envisioned

3. Patterns

Genius can be defined by the ability to read patterns
All of us can read short term daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly patterns
and adjust our behavior to synchronize with them
we seek patterns in order to achieve a sense of certainty
in a universe of seemingly concrete probalilities
under-cut by invisible uncertainties

In order to survive we all need
education
food
shelter
energy to combat the elements

Once we have assertained a pattern
that reasonably ensures survival
we work to maintain its certainty

All moving organisms exhibit basic survival genius

Man is different
where once the daily paterns was set by the 
certainty/uncertainty of a Stone Age of hunt and gathering
 the uncertainties were accommodated by 
paranormal sense of reverence for Mother Nature 
we know as Animism
abeyance to Her 
more or less ensured the luck of the hunt
and thus with prediction accompanying pattern
 much of our anxiety over the uncertainty principle was allaid

on the day we were forced by changing circumstances
to break the daily pattern and domesticate Nature
we took he future into our own hands
we evolved to have he paranormal perception
of a future harvest
lying many months of hard work down the road
thus a Bronze Age survival pattern 
of planting, nurturing and harvesting set in
ensuring
education
food
shelter
energy
while at the same time
forcing us to factor in the uncertainties of the weather
thus the need for shamanistic mediumship interceding with dead ancestors
ameliorating with the weather gods
pattern and prediction
removed much of our anxiety caused by the uncertainty principle


for instance most seek a job with an established income
and with a minumium of a months notice for lay-off
then we enter a daily and weekly pattern 
which will lead to a month of  certainty
if we can wangle a yearly contract
so much more certain