The need for balance

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure....Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you...We are all meant to shine."

—Marianne Williamson

What are we trying to achieve from all this problem-solving and learning using our L- and R-brain?

Perhaps you might be wondering, what's the point of having a L- and R-brain as a problem-solving tool and our emotions to record and better recall the patterns for helping us find new solutions? Are we trying to achieve anything from all of this problem-solving work?

There is a definite purpose. The more problems you solve, the more independent you become. Not only can you sit back and think about things more easily, but your brain tends to quickly find solutions to almost any problem. Then you become more adaptable to different situations. For example, you soon become more sociable, spontaneous and communicative within yourself and with others. You are becoming a creature capable of doing almost anything and everything and in knowing virtually anything and everything.

In essence, you are approaching a level known to psychologists as the balanced state. To religious leaders, you are approaching an understanding of the concept of what it is like to be God.

What's happening at the biological level?

Essentially at the biological level, you are increasing the size of your corpus callosum, the bundle of nerves connecting the L- and R-brain, as well as the number of nerve connections within specific functions in each hemisphere needed during problem-solving. In essence, your brain becomes better connected.

For example, a study conducted by Florida State University by an evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk and Weiwei Men of East China Normal University's Department of Physics discovered Einstein's brain is unusually well-connected with a particularly large corpus callosum. The new technique developed by Weiwei Men allows for the first time to gather details about Einstein's corpus callosum.

Weiwei, the lead author of the study, understood that certain brain functions needed to perform certain things we do in our lives tend to be located in specific areas of each hemispheres which are then connected by the nerves in the corpus callosum. The nerves carrying information for these functions across the two hemispheres tend to be positioned very specifically within the corpus callosum. For example, movement of the hands seems to be represented toward the front of the corpus callosum, and mental arithmetic along the back. The new technique is simply able to color-code which functions go through the corpus callosum and to measure the thicknesses of these subdivisions of the corpus callosum representing these functions to determine how well "connected" the brain appears to be.

Well, Weiwei has gathered the data from Einstein's brain (kept in preservation in a jar since Einstein's death in 1955) using high-resolution photographs of the inside surfaces of the two halves of Einstein's brain, taken by Falk and other researchers in 2012. Weiwei realised his new technique could provide new insights into the brain of a genius, so he requested the high-resolution photographs. He has compared the data with two samples — one of 15 elderly men and one of 52 men of Einstein's age when he was alive in 1905 at the time he published his Special Theory of Relativity. When the research team from both universities analysed the data, what they found was most interesting. It would appear Einstein had a large corpus callosum. But, more importantly, he had more connections between certain parts of his cerebral hemisphere compared to any of the men analysed in this study, both the old and young.

Further details are published on 24 September 2013 in the journal Brain - A Journal of Neurology under the title, "The Corpus Callosum of Albert Einstein's Brain: Another Clue to his High Intelligence?". You can obtain a copy of the article from here.

But you need not have to be well connected to the same brain functions as Einstein in order to be a genius. His specific functions helped him to visualize intensely the scientific problems of his day and had the aptitude to apply specific mathematics to the problems. But you can connect other functions of the brain to help you achieve remarkable feats of brilliance in your own way. And to do something well and quickly, you need to involve both sides of the brain to help you see the big picture through visualization and being creative, as well as the specifics needed to make something a reality. For example, you can become the greatest dancer, world famous artist, a genius in solving puzzles or doing crosswords, or whatever. But you can also create your own path and be unique in your own right. So long as what you do helps yourself and everyone else, you are already well on your way to achieving greatness for everyone.

So, in a sense, all the problem-solving you do and application of the L- and R-brain is all about helping you to become balanced in whatever you do in order to achieve far greater things in your life than you have ever realised.

Yeah, but shouldn't we think in a more L-brain or R-brain?

Yes, the Universe cannot allow you to think in a perfectly balanced way all the time. You must choose at any particular moment in time and place whether to apply more L-brain (i.e., being specific) or R-brain skills (i.e., gathering the "big picture" and using your "visualisation/creativity" skills) to a given situation.

Of course, for certain people, the tendency to be more L-brain or R-brain in their thinking and behaviours may become noticeable if maintained for sufficient periods of time as we have seen in the previous sections on L- and R-brain behaviours. However, your aim is to become more balanced in your thinking and ultimately this will affect your actions and behaviour. Why? Because there are enormous benefits in terms of solving problems more quickly, affect others around you, change society and ultimately create the utopian system of true balance where there is no war, people are free to apply themselves to anything they choose and society will benefit from the knowledge and experience, and you will have everything that you need to survive and achieve your goals for the good of all living things.

What's wrong with being more L-brain or R-brain?

We should make it clear at this stage that there is nothing wrong in being more L-brain or R-brain in our thinking. Using one side of the brain or the other can have their own set of advantages when achieving certain goals (i.e. part of our life's work). For example, our L-brain has allowed us to develop a technology and a communicative language. But there are disadvantages in applying one-sidedness in our thinking.

By being aware of these disadvantages, we begin to appreciate the value of other people in helping us balance our thinking and behaviours. Because sometimes the best solutions we search for come from others who think in the opposite way.

Similarly we also begin to appreciate the power of our mind in achieving great things simply by doing different things to help develop both sides of our brain. You have to realise your brain is capable of providing you with the best solutions by experiencing and learning different things.

Until your brain is more balanced and you might struggle with a problem, someone else can always help you to see a new solution. But once you are more balanced in your thinking, your brain can do the same as well. You will become an independent thinker and popular socialiser. Your will be creative, yet highly rational and sensible. You will be happy, yet have the empathy to see the difficulties other people go through and can find ways to help.

The power of being balanced is only beginning to be revealed to you.

What happens if we continue to think in a highly L-brain or R-brain way?

Let us briefly explain what could happen through an example.

L-brain people are often described as highly social people. When they are young, they do not know where the balance lies and so rely heavily on others to tell them so. Then they will say and do things as accepted by others in order to be seen in the right light in front of others and so maintain good social relationships. However, in some circumstances, because L-brain people are acutely aware of their own appearance and how other people feel and think about them, can easily develop phobias. The phobias develop because there is a lot of talk from people in a L-brain society (e.g. advertising and gossip). There may be talk of changing one's appearance, lifestyle, home and everything else as if there is a problem with one's appearance. There is a lot of scrutiny and judgement in a L-brain society to look this way or that. So how do L-brain people handle the situation? Some people will try to handle it by either ignoring it. But most L-brain people will go with the flow by changing one's outer appearance if there is a chance to be socially accepted. In other words, it looks trendy and you feel part of the group.

Where L-brain people decide to change themselves and achieve the goal, they think this is the balanced position according to those people around them that accepts the change. But is it the true position of balance according to all people, and yourself? Is this how you really want to be?

To some other L-brain people (usually the older types), they may have already changed enough to be accepted in society to the point where there may be a certain sense of resentment to change when others see the balanced position has not been reached; not being able to take some criticism even if the change is a good one. Why? Because L-brain people think they are right and therefore feel they have reached the own balanced position.

In other situations, some young L-brain people may never know where balance lies for them. They are so dominated by what others say and do that they think true balance is in the thing they see in others and not themselves. They will internalise all these imbalanced "outer appearance" views from magazines and people around them (e.g. so-called friends, advertisers etc) to the point where they start to question their own appearance all the time and make constant changes to ensure balance is achieved in their minds. And if that is not enough, their self-esteem is affected and must again pursue the goal of reaching balance according to their new world view gathered from outside. When put into action, such changes can be self-destructive to the point where it can develop into health problems such as anoxeria.

In other words, L-brain people can amplify the problem by finding ways to get what they want so they can match the appearance and get the acceptance of those they feel is somehow pressuring them to be a certain way.

Or should the fear of not looking right to others reach a certain point, L-brain people may suddenly withdraw from society because they think no one accepts them for who they are. This is perfectly normal and a natural balancing approach to help the person find time on his/her own to think through the problem until enough R-brain is developed. And then they may realise it does not matter how other people think.

Even if a L-brain person says a R-brain person must be suffering a social phobia because he/she is not talking with other people can be put into their place too. They have simply not understood the power of thinking and being quiet as a powerful tool to solving bigger problems. NOTE: R-brain people don't make value judgments about L-brain people because they already acknowledge differences in others and see them as equal partners in the game of life.

Not knowing what others think about them and whether or not it is okay to be themselves is at the heart of this kind of phobia among L-brain people.

How can you solve the problem? You solve it by balancing this world view in the mind and with other people. You start to look at the situation from a more R-brain point-of-view. You ask the question, where is true balance? And over time you develop new beliefs that are more balanced from the ones you have created originally by the L-brain.

You see, the problem is due to (i) the L-brain person not developing a strong, creative thinking R-brain skill to complement the highly critical and analytical L-brain; and (ii) society not balancing its own L-brain view by saying it is okay to be who you want to be and allow creativity to flourish.

This is why you see creative artists described as eccentrics because they look unusual or different as your L-brain will tell you no doubt. But you will also notice how they are not bothered by your reaction or care less about what you think or say about those differences. However, if you have developed a good R-brain, this should tell you it is perfectly normal because this is how people try to find different solutions through their thinking and by doing different things. You therefore learn to be accepting, tolerant and understanding of people for their differences.

Then you realise as you develop a R-brain person how you no longer have to be dictated by social norms. You decide the person you want to be and when it is necessary to change. Otherwise you can be happy with the person who you are now if you don't see anything you need to change. But remember, you will change over time. You will be constantly learning something new, even if it is the tiniest thing in life.

How much change you do now will determine the sort of person you will become tomorrow. And the more you learn, the more you reach the true position of balance based on everything you have seen and experienced.

Remember, you have the power to decide when to change yourself. If others are asking you to change, ask the real reason they want you to change. Is it to meet their expectations or world view? Or is it that they are afraid of change for themselves and don't want others to change into something they are not familiar with? Comfort those who fear change. Explain you will be a better person because of it. And if it turns out to be different, that's okay too. You decide how you wish to be seen, what you wish to believe, and the person you want to become. It is others who must change to accept the new person in you.

There is no doubt. Creativity is important to seeing the world in a different way and to be more tolerant of those who are different. Because everyone is seeking balance. And to do it requires someone to step away from the well-beaten track to see a new way. You need it to see a different side to life. It helps to solve more problems in a more original way than how the norm does it. And you approach balance more quickly.

So when you have creativity, you don't need to change other people. You can change yourself and what you do. And then you have the power to see things in a different way. It doesn't matter if other people don't change themselves or argue you should be more like them. Depending on your solution, other people may see the benefit and will change themselves if they so choose. But if not, it doesn't matter. Both ways have their own distinct advantages.

Of course it is possible to be a little too R-brain.

Part of your aim in life is to avoid harming others because of your actions. If your R-brain solution is causing harm to others, you will have to find another solution or apply more L-brain skills to achieve greater balance. Making further changes and learning will help you to find a new, more balanced solution where harming others becomes a thing of the past.

At the end of the day, the more you do this switching between the L- and R-brain the more you realise we are all the same because of our differences. We can be different in our own way, and yet we are the same as everyone else. We have the same needs and the same L- and R-brain. What makes us different is the type of information we gather through experience and learning and our choice in how we wish to solve problems which makes us and our bodies see unique solutions. And those solutions we display to the rest of the world through our behaviour.

Yes, those solutions and ultimately behaviour can look familiar from a L- and R-brain approach. But the differences between L- and R-brain help us to see new solutions to great problems.

So really it is okay to be who you are today and what you want to be in the future. No apologies are necessary. You deserve to be accepted and loved as you are. And you deserve to be supported for who you want to become. If you are not loved by others because you are not changing in the way other people want you to change, then the problem lies with them, not you. Their problem is one of insecurity of not being able to control everything to fit into their own world-view. They are afraid of differences.

You must think with your R-brain about the problem. This means gathering information to help you understand why it happens. What is the fear people have if you don't change? For example, ask yourself why others are focusing on outer appearance when it comes to suggesting changes to yourself and various things around you. And, most importantly, you must learn to love yourself for who you are as a unique human being.

For those people who have a fear of others not changing, they too may also need to be loved.

It doesn't matter what other people think about you. More than 9 times out of 10 they are not talking about you. And even if they are, remember that it is their point-of-view. But you don't have to share the same view. You can be the person you want to be.

You are just as special as anyone else.

Just do what you think is right, learn better ways of doing things, and be yourself. And realise our equality through our differences. Why prove who is better than whom by changing constantly? You choose to change how you wish and you become the person you want to be. You learn from others of ways where you don't create harm. Then, armed with the solutions you have come up with, you celebrate those solutions by freely expressing your differences to the world. And you help others by solving their problems through the solutions you have acquired.

Vice versa, if you have a problem which you find is difficult to solve, you can acknowledge the differences in others as a source of valuable information to help you solve your own problems. Then you ask for the advice of other people. Similarly, by developing both sides of your brain, you can given enough time solve the problems on your own without causing harm to others. You decide which is the best approach.

As you balance yourself themselves over time through experience and knowledge, you quickly reduce phobias within yourself to the point where you no longer have to worry about anything. There is no fear. You are able to live as a truly free person. Who cares what other people think? Who cares if you don't look the same as someone else? Does it really matter? No, it doesn't. You are free to be who you want to be.

Hence statements from L-brain people like "Why aren't you a white person?" or "Why don't you dress up or play the same games as we do?" can be put into their place — just value judgments because L-brain people have become accustomed to seeing and socialising in their own way over a long period of time. They don't know other ways of living and the benefits of those other ways. Hence the problems we see in the world is often due to maintaining this same ways of doing things for a long time. L-brain people think the world revolves around them when the world is really a much bigger place and includes so many other diverse people, each of which have a unique perspective and solution.

What does this essentially mean?

In essence, as soon as we start using one side of the brain or the other, we tend to see only one-half of the truth of life or the other and that is it. Anyone who argues the opposite half-truth will almost certainly be ignored (or some other negative action) by an opposite-thinking type of person. But if people are to see the complete truth or true reality and so make the best decisions and behaviours (i.e. solutions) throughout our lives, we have to see both half-truths and this requires us to be properly balanced in our thinking and behaviour. (1)

We need both our L- and R-brain for optimum living (i.e. the most effective solutions possible).

Yes, but we can't be balanced all the time!

You are absolutely right!

It is natural for the brain not to be perfectly balanced or to utilise both sides of the brain simultaneously. This is normal for the human brain and for all living creatures with their own brains. And in fact, this is probably how this great Universe (or the reality we are now living in) is designed - that is, we are forced to choose either one way or the other and then to learn the consequences of choosing one way or the other as part of our aim in life to gather experiences and knowledge throughout our lives and then to choose a more balanced path.

Actually, our brain is not big enough to handle everything this Universe can throw at us for absolute balance. We need to cycle back and forth between the L- and R-brain so we can see a deeper and more grander purpose and meaning to everything that we do and say. And then we approach a greater balance in what we do.

Are we on the road to greater balance?

Yes we are. It doesn't matter if you are not aware of this. L-brain people might call this hogwash or a load of bulldust. But they don't realise it occurs naturally almost without thinking about it. So long as you are curious and willing to learn new ideas then you will naturally approach balance.

Even in our early childhood, our young brain naturally does not know where balance is. It will choose this or that as part of its survival or to fit in socially, thinking it is right. And for a while it seems our young brain can effectively fool us into thinking this is how things should be done when we are able to survive or create a smile on someone elses face from the crude solution we have created. If we don't question what we believe, it becomes very easy to stick to what we think is the right or balanced path and so we continue doing what we've always done before.

So while we are young and perhaps a little naive, the brain will begin by naturally seeking the easiest solution to many problems it encounters in life and will find any reasonable way it feels comfortable to achieve that goal. In other words, we all start having a tendency to choose our preferred way of thinking.

But later in life — and so long as we choose to be curious and questioning of ourselves and our environment — we eventually realise there are many ways we could have achieved the same things in a better way.

We have to observe how other people live. We have to apply our imagination. And sometimes we need to simply try other ways as part of our experience because we quickly discover a better or alternative solution. Sometimes the solution is not always the best because this is how people have survived in their environment. We therefore start to empathise with others. And we can only do this by deeply imagining the situation or by trying out those things that other people do and say as a form of direct experience. Then we realise how important it is to balance ourselves in the best way we can so we can apply a wider variety of solutions to any given problem. By trying different things, we also practice using both sides of the brain to help maximise our power in solving problems and behaving appropriately in different situations. By being balanced, we can understand how to minimise the negative consequences and maximise the beauty of everything around us.

It is possible for our brain to search for a better balance without us realising it. All we need to do is maintain our curiosity (just like when we were a child experiencing this world for the very first time), and the greater beauty of life and the universe through the concept of balance will reveal itself more and more to us.

Is there scientific support from a psychologist for this balancing effect?

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) gave the closest theory in psychology for this unifying and balancing act within the brain. A famous Swiss psychologist by day, Jung was interested in Sigmund Freud's work. He worked with Freud between 1906-1913 and became a close friend. However a time came when he had to disagree with certain aspects of Freud's psychoanalysis. Jung's view is that the human psyche is driven towards a sense of balance or "wholeness" as a human approaches greater independence and self-realisation (or actualisation). Jung was the first to suggest dreams have a way of revealing the direction we need to take towards this unified wholeness to help us become more independent.

Jung also saw the psyche as an organised body of opposite but complementary patterns controlling our personal characteristics, functions or abilities. Where these opposites appear in the conscious mind as images forming our thoughts and behaviours and ultimately our personality, Jung would call them archetypes. Jung tried to describe these archetypes in the following way:

"Archetypes are like riverbeds which dry up when the water deserts them, but which it can find again at any time. An archetype is like an old watercourse along which the water of life has flowed for centuries, digging a deep channel for itself. The longer it has flowed in this channel, the more likely it is that sooner or later the water will return to its old bed."

But as time goes by and the individual develops psychologically, these opposites are balanced out within the mind and integrated into the psyche to form our more complete conscious personality and a strong sense of identity and purpose.

He supported the existence of these opposites by explaining how he saw within males and females certain behaviours he described as extraversion and interversion, sensing and intuition, and thinking and feeling. And he supported the unifying and balancing act of the brain by the way men and women learn from each other to develop and integrate certain masculine or feminine behaviours. For example, men may learn to integrate more feelings to help balance their thinking and more intraversion with their extraversion. For women, the opposite seems to occur.

Perfect balance - the holy grail of life?

Yet perfect balance is not yet achievable even within our lifetimes. Why? We are not perfect beings. We are not God. We are just gods approaching a better understanding of the one true God by learning and experiencing. Our brain is not yet fully developed and evolved to the highest level where we can question what we see, gather and process enough information from all around us quickly enough, and then eventually solve all our problems in the most balanced way possible.

Furthermore, our brain are designed to switch back and forth between the two hemispheres of the brain, and never both ways at the same time. Why? If our brains could somehow allow information to flow through both sides of the hemisphere simultaneously in an attempt to be perfectly balanced, there would be an overloading of the corpus callosum and the rest of the brain over a short period of time because of an exponential increase in the amount of information being generated from both sides of the hemispheres. Even if our brain was twice as large than it is today, it would still not be able to process the information simultaneously as it struggles to see the differences and ultimately see how all things are interrelated and merged into the one ultimate and balanced pattern of life for which we all hope to see in the end.

Our brain has to switch back and forth over time to avoid overloading it with too much information all at once. This is the fundamental biological restriction placed on the brain for all living organisms.

Is the speed of switching important?

Well, let us put it this way. You have a much better chance of breaking down a problem and reassembling the crucial patterns needed to form the ultimate pattern and hence a faster chance of finding a solution by being able to switch between the cerebral hemispheres quickly. But if not, it doesn't matter. Time is the key to solving any problem.

So long as you are curious and wanting to learn, you will solve any problem set before you.

How do I quicken the speed of switching?

Switching quickly in the mind requires the brain to be in a certain state.

The best way to get your brain to reach this state quickly is to relax. Being stressed (2) will not help because the brain is juggling many small pieces of information but cannot see the interrelationships between the pieces, thereby slowing down the problem-solving process and placing unnecessary burden on the corpus callosum and the frontal lobes to handle the information. If there is no pressure placed on you by other people or yourself, you can properly get your whole brain to grab a greater quantity of information and see the links in this information much better while letting you switch many times over between the two cerebral hemispheres. The result of this approach is a better and more balanced solution.

In essence, the quicker you can switch between the two cerebral hemispheres using any technique to help you relax, the more effective and faster your problem-solving abilities and the more likely you will achieve great things in your life within a short period of time.

Can this switching effect help me to achieve more things than an organisation full of L-brain people?

Potentially yes.

The idea that our L-brain society should tell you the sorts of problems you should solve, how and when they should be done (i.e. within a certain deadline) will result in the development of many similar-thinking individuals. And for people running organisations and leading all of society, this is easier to manage and control. However similar-thinking individuals are not likely to come up with original and different solutions with the potential to be more balanced and effective in society. You need different people working on the same problems. And even then, sometimes it is quicker in a relaxed state to solve problems more effectively by letting your mind naturally switch between the two cerebral hemispheres.

In fact, being a more balanced and relaxed individual can probably achieve more things than an organisation full of L-brain people because you have the power to switch over to the R-brain to see things that L-brain types cannot see.

Is brain switching really that important to solving problems?

Yes indeed. You need to be able to recognise the individual patterns that may or many not be related to a problem through the L-brain, and then you need the creativity and visual skills of the R-brain to assemble the patterns in many different ways as you can imagine until you eventually recognise another larger pattern that helps to explain everything in memory. All you have to remember is let the R-brain ignore the detail in favour of the big picture and, later on, allow the L-brain to ignore the big picture and instead focus on the detail. The ability to get each side of the brain to do its own job in a switching fashion in its own natural speed will lead to highly rational and extremely original solutions.

Is there scientific support for this idea of brain switching?

An Australian scientist named Professor John D. "Jack" Pettigrew FRS of the Vision Touch and Hearing Research Centre within the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland is taking this brain switching idea very seriously.

He believes the more quickly you can switch between the cerebral hemispheres the more easily you can adapt and solve problems. If, however, your switching speed is slow, it may indicate either old age or there may be a problem with the frontal cortex and/or the bundle of nerves shuttling information back and forth between the cerebral hemispheres known as the corpus callosum. A slow switching effect in the brain does not imply you have a problem. It just means you will take a little longer to solve problems and eventually come up with a balanced (i.e. a creative and rational) solution. You will need more time to solve problems.

Dr Pettigrew has also noticed how people with mental illness of some sort (e.g. bi-polar disease) tend to have a very slow brain switching effect. Could this reveal an important clue to understanding mental illness in society?

Are mentally ill patients finding it harder than usual to solve problems on their own compared to a majority of people of roughly the same age because of this slow brain switching effect?

What should I do for other people to do the same?

Just let the billions of other human beings in this world solve problems of their own choosing. Just so long as you remember to support everyone in whatever they wish to achieve (give them food, a roof over their heads, and security), then the solutions will be the best and most positive it can be for the good of society.

All other people have to do is make sure their solutions do not cause harm to others and they continue to maintain a questioning and curious attitude so they can test their solutions to make sure they are balanced.

Can my mind really make me a better person?

Yes, it will make you a better person.

The better your problem-solving abilities, the more likely you can deal with any situation. When your problem-solving skills are good, you can become a great leader in your own right. But remember, even the lowest paid person in society or a slow thinker have the power to solve all the greatest problems in the world. All you have to do is apply yourself to something of interest to you and something that you believe will benefit society in some important way. Then give yourself the time to gather information, visualise the information, and think it through in your own mind. Look for the simplest solutions. And choose the most positive solutions. And you will be just as great as any great leader in the world.

It is really up to you to decide how you wish to apply your mind and how much time you need to solve a problem of your choosing. You are the commander of your own destiny.

If it is so difficult to achieve absolute balance, should we make the effort to solve problems at all?

As described earlier, switching between the cerebral hemispheres is absolutely necessary to solving problems. Because the solutions we create will make us more balanced over time. This balancing effect will occur naturally so long as we remain curious. Nevertheless, some people still wonder, "What's the point in becoming balanced if we cannot achieve absolute balance within a human lifetime?"

As R-brain people tell us, this cycling or switching effect within the brain and ultimately throughout the Universe (e.g. oscillating radiation, rotational orbits of planets around stars, birth of new life from the old etc) suggests we will all experience many lifetimes. So wouldn't you want to know society has been improving and gathering the right knowledge to help you quickly reach the point of where you were in your current life through education and for you to continue the journey? The journey to absolute balance does not stop when you die.

So it is important to strive for greater balance right from the moment you are alive today. You may not reach absolute balance straight away. But you will be getting closer and closer to this ultimate balance. Share the knowledge and experiences you currently have with as many people as you can. In your next life, it is likely you will be able to continue the journey to greater balance when people remember the knowledge and experiences.

Until we get to this ultimate goal (and hence know the one true God), even the slightest effort we make now to achieve greater balance will guaranteed enormous quantum leaps in the improvement of our lives, our environment and everyone else we interact. We don't know what those improvements are like or the impact they will have on everything until we reach that extra step towards greater balance.

And if we record what we learn, then maybe in our next life (a R-brain view of life and the Universe) we can quickly learn what we've temporarily forgotten. And then who knows what else might be possible by making ourselves more balanced than we were before.

Actually so many of our personal and world problems today could be solved just by being a little more balanced in our thinking and actions. To just look through the superficial things and see who we really are, and perhaps then we can begin to see where balance should lie.

And if not, the universe has a way of eventually achieving balance no matter how extreme we may become. Our brain is no different in this regard. We just have to constantly strive for balance at all times and to continually practice good thinking with ourselves and others so that we can switch the information back and forth between the cerebral hemispheres (and with practice this switching effect should get faster over time) and so create increasingly higher quality, creative and more balanced solutions to all our problems in the quickest way possible. (4)

You don't have to do much. Just apply yourself to a simple task and solve it well and move on. You will surprise yourself over time how much easier it is to solve more difficult problems. And with it you will notice improvements in the way you live and see the world, and this will make you feel more positive and happier.

I'm not that curious. Should I achieve balance?

To be human is to be curious. The mere act of sitting down and reading this means you are curious. If you are listening to someone talk or watching them do something unusual or interesting means you are curious enough to make the effort to watch or listen to someone. But if you are genuinely not curious at this moment in time, then it means you are doing nothing. You are sitting back and saying you are happy where you are at this very moment in time and place. We call this existing. But if not, which means you want to participate in the universe, then you are curious and nature has a way of helping you balance yourself whether or not you are consciously aware of what you are doing.

The balancing effect still remains even when you are asleep. Because the brain does things to help sort out the daily information we receive, extract the most relevant information, and interweave this relevant information with our memories.

Then a moment will come when you have a fleeting thought or vision of a more balanced approach to something.

For example, there will be regular moments throughout your life when you will feel hungry. The brain has already extracted this information throughout evolution and has recorded the essential pattern needed for us to balance ourselves. Thus to balance this, you will have thoughts of food to eat and soon you will find food and eat it. The pleasure we find immediately after satisfying our hunger is nature's way of giving us the briefest glimpse of what it is like to experience balance.

Keep rebalancing yourself and eventually you become an expert or very effective at achieving this balance. And each time you try it, you will experience more and more of this ultimate state of true balance.

Even if you are consciously aware of the concept of balance, or in religious terms the God-like state (also known as the religious experience), and are actively wanting to approach this state through your work or play, there is nothing wrong in approaching it as close as you like so long as this is what you want.

It is like the experience of sex. For a brief moment before orgasm, it would appear your body is experiencing its own extreme which only an orgasm can bring back balance. It is prolonged and extreme until you reach the final moment. Then you feel complete. That is why it is not unusual for people to scream out loud "Oh God!" at the start of an orgasm to help describe this experience or sense of balance.

That is why some people may go to the extremes of experiencing the opposite sides of life through sex known as Slave & Master (S&M) just to have this experience of balance. In Slave & Master (S&M) situations, people want to enhance the pain so that the pleasure becomes more intense not only because they are seen as two sides of the same coin, but also because this is just another way for people to experience the near God-like state when going through both extremes.

Of course, you don't have to experience S&M just to have a taste of what balance is. There are other ways you will experience it.

The same is true when we must eat to survive. Sometimes we must experience some hunger for a while in order to appreciate the power of being balanced by fulfilling that hunger with food at the right time.

Can people achieve true balance?

Within a finite period of time, the answer is "No". You have to continually work at it to experience a moment of this state and have the knowledge to realise it. But it is the thing that will keep you going, push you further to try again and do it better, if you approach it properly and you enjoy what you are doing to the fullest. And there is nothing stopping you from getting as close as you like to this ultimate state of balance.

Each time you do it, you will feel the intensity of this state increase. It will push you to do more.

Certainly if you keep persisting at whatever you are good at while experiencing the opposites of life, you will over time get closer and closer to this ultimate state, experience greater things you have never had before and know better ways to solve problems.

And if you pass on your knowledge to future generations, your children and their children's children will have a greater opportunity to gain a higher state of balance.

And then it will be your turn in your next life to achieve an even higher state of balance.

Are people really trying to balance themselves?

Yes they are, whether they are aware of it or not. For example, we all know how relatively L-brain most scientists in the Western world tend to be with their obsession for exactness, detail, observation and shear rational logic using mathematics and other scientific tools.

However, more and more scientists are now finding out in the 21st century how serious the L-brain problem can get when solving complex scientific problems. For example, many scientists are resorting to computers to help handle large amounts of specific data. And even then scientists are still experiencing an enormous information overload. So what are scientists doing to solve this information overload problem? Scientists are increasingly learning to balance their approach by improving the visualisation of their information using graphics and the art. Art, a generally R-brain discipline, and science are now merging together for a more balanced approach to the work conducted by scientists.

For example, a complex problem such as the UFO phenomenon may contain a range of unusual and seemingly unrelated observations of something bizarre flying around in the sky. Some scientists may try to get around the problem by dismissing the subject as hallucination, hoaxes or other natural phenomena. But if you sit down with an artist and the witnesses and paint the pictures of the observations, you start to see a rational pattern emerging from the observations. You start to see something else. You can then simplify the problem and show the solution by relating it to a field of physics that will explain the observations. Will that field be plasma physics and hence the possibility of ball lighting, or a large-scale version Abraham-Lorentz solution for an electron emitting radiation. Only experimentation will prove the solution.

This is why SUNRISE uses a slide presentation with many visual aids to help present the observations in a clear and visualisable manner. Then anyone with the curiosity to look for new patterns can quickly see the relationship between all the observations and find a rational explanation.

Even outside of scientific circles and in the midst of the general community do we notice people trying to simplify (i.e. a R-brain activity) the complicated L-brain world created by scientists, politicians, the US military and business professionals and marketers as a way of balancing things. For example, in the article titled Keeping check on medicines at home published in the June 2002 edition of The Australian Senior, the quote given on page 21 by Ms Pam Learmonth is most revealing, especially in regards to our need to balance modern society:

"I found this a really valuable exercise and I have recommended to my friends that they discuss a medication review with their GP.

'"A lot of people with chronic health problems taking lots of different medications would be grateful to have someone come into their homes and simplify the process."

Or what about the people who retire from the mostly L-brain world of Western society? Have you noticed how many holiday advertisements exist in newspapers and magazines targeting senior citizens? This is all part of the rebalancing effect going on in society as people relearn to relax and reapply their R-brain skills once again. The sophisticated term used by business professionals to describe this R-brain activity is "a better lifestyle", or "live the good life", or a "seachange".

As for the business world, business professionals (mainly managers) and their staff are also heavily reliant on L-brain skills as required to organise and mass produce products and services and deliver them to customers in the quickest and most efficient way possible. Yet these people are increasingly yearning for greater balance in their lives when we hear statements like the following made by Derek Leddie, managing director of the Australian research company The Leading Edge:

"The rational, organised, efficient and sensible side of the brain is overworked in the business world. If you want people to be creative, inspiring and energised, you need to deliver right brain activities." (5)

Leddie now uses the creation of artworks as a means of releasing stress at work and increasing the creativity of his staff.

NOTE 1: Successful business entrepreneurs are often highly creative individuals (usually showing signs of being a social misfit or having an eccentric streak) compared to the more rational types known as managers. Managers are said to be L-brain control freaks, the ones who dictate how things should be done. But entrepreneurs are people who are more likely to apply more creativity to the problem of making money. They use a creative R-brain mind to find a niche market, develop new products and services, to experiment on new ideas, to let people try something different etc and a rational L-brain mind to implement the idea in reality. And they often have the emotional drive to enjoy what they do.

NOTE 2: Motivational business seminars will try to get people to be more entrepreneurial by convincing people it is okay to overcome fear. When people conquer their fears, it becomes possible for them to break their own L-brain barriers.

And did you know young L-brain types doing jobs like communication consultancy or IT tend to get into creative fields after work such as popular creative dancing, photography etc? This is nothing unusual. It is all part of the way the brain balances itself.

And what about the L-brain types in the 20th century who discovered the importance of combining previously separate things into one unified entity in the 21st century to help create greater meaning and balance in their lives? For example, people in the 20th century had made a habit of creating a distinction between work and play. The result towards the end of the century was a feeling that life had no meaning. The consequence of being so rational and in categorising so many things had created a problem: people realised something was missing in their lives. Now, in the early 21st century, people are understanding that combining work and play (i.e. finding a job you actually enjoy the most) soon brings back some of that sense of meaning to what they are doing.

And have we mentioned the very low morale within the Defence force? Given the highly L-brain nature of their work, one should not be surprised by the low morale among the lower paid and less-important members of the Defence force. Part of the problem is clearly in creating a hierarchy of power that emphasises the limited importance of the people in the lower echelons while keeping the people at the top somewhat invisible from the rest of the people working under them. Then there is also the monotony of the L-brain job to contend with as well. The result is people yearning for something different from the norm, something that will bring greater balance to what they are doing and experiencing.

As the article in The Canberra Times stated on 15 June 2002 regarding the morale of Defence workers:

"Morale and faith in the management of the Commonwealth's weapons acquisition organisation is at rock bottom, according to a confidential survey of staff at the Defence Materiel Organisation [DMO]...

'DMO staff thought their superiors were invisible, that they provided little direction, were not forward thinking, and were unreceptive to new ideas...

'After the Army and the Navy, DMO also had the lowest level of morale, with one third of staff believing their efforts went unappreciated....Only Air Force scored lower [than the Army, the Navy and DMO]." (6)

Or how about those technically-minded L-brain people who have followed the L-brain trend of accumulating many things only to find that the less you have, the happier and easier life gets?

For example Patrick Forman, a scientific officer within the school of Liberal studies at Bathurst's Charles Sturt University, develops web applications and writes computer programs for academic research for 4 days per week. The other three days he spends at his mudbrick house in the bush isolated from modern society including the technology of computers, television, electricity and running water via a tap. If he needs fresh water, he takes a short stroll down a hill and with a bucket or jug he collects his water from a stream. Why? As Mr Forman said:

"It's not as if I have a distaste for technology as such, but I have a distaste that we in the West use technology excessively.

'It is a Western thing that 20 per cent of the world's population consumes 80 per cent of the world's resources. I'm not a Luddite going around breaking things, but I'm trying to live a life that, by being as simple as possible, impinges less on the world.

'There is a serious movement in downsizing in Australia, where people are saying, "I'm working too much and I don't need a lot of these things." More and more, I have found out I just need less and less to maintain my sense of happiness and wellbeing." (7)

In a nutshell, he believes life must be balanced from all the constant use of technology or making technology too complicated and the pressures of buying and consuming. Where life is perceived as complicated, highly technical and/or demanding to constantly acquire more things, people seek the opposite — greater simplicity, creativity, and less taking from the environment — in order to attain maximum happiness.

It is a natural behaviour for all living things.

Even on a biological level, organisms are attracted to opposites or differences within their own species. For example, studies on humans have been conducted to determine which factors seem to attract people sexually.

In one study conducted in the UK, people were asked to smell a range of body odours of several people of the opposite sex from the clothes they had worn. The clothes of each anonymous individual were kept in an airtight plastic container and was only opened to allow the participants to smell the items for a short time. What scientists found is that people who thought the body odour of certain clothes smelt the worse had chosen people having the same or very similar immune systems. However the clothes which didn't have an obvious odour or didn't give a bad impression were actually from people who had different immune systems.

What this study showed was that people are more likely to be sexually interested in other people if the body odours didn't offend them and thus more likely for the genes responsible for creating opposite or different immune systems to combine to form a more powerful "balanced" immune system in the offspring.

Similarly, in another study conducted at Aberdeen University in 2005, 144 students were shown a series of paired faces. Then the psychologists asked the students (i) who they trust the most; and (ii) who they felt more sexually attracted to. The results of the study showed people who chose faces on the basis of trust were faces that looked similar to their own. But when it came to sexual attraction, it was the people with different facial characteristics which actually caught the eyes of the students.

In general, the more different you look in the eyes of another person, so long as the face conforms to a certain sense of symmetry (considered more attractive) with no obvious signs of deformity or whatever, the more likely you would be seen as sexually attracted to this other person.

The same can be said of people described as L-brain and R-brain in their behaviours. In the early stages of a relationship, it is likely L-brain people will become sexually attracted to R-brain people because of their idealistic and possibly more utopian views. Similarly R-brain people may become sexually attracted to L-brain types because of their rational and confident approach to life and ability to verbally communicate with people. True the relationships may not last if there is an expectation of one opposite thinking type to force another type to be more like themselves. If you are not willing to understand and learn from one another or allow the other to develop their skills, the relationship will be doomed to fail. But for the purposes of the chemistry needed to initiate sex and procreation, this is usually not an issue in the early stages.

However, once a child is born, the only way the relationship can be maintained is if there is a concerted effort by each opposite thinking partner to acknowledge the differences, to promote each other's strengths and achievements, to help in each others' ultimate goal(s), and to find different ways of communicating to help each other see where the other person is coming from. This requires extensive learning, being curious and an ability to handle many conflicts when they arise by each person especially if each person is imbalanced in their thinking. But once the solutions are found, the couple will achieve enormous growth, happiness and fulfill many great goal(s). Such learned relationships where greater balance is achieved is where the strongest bonds between humans are created. These bonds are permanent and will last for the rest of their lives.

Otherwise, for long term stable relationships where learning from each other and making babies are not given the highest priorities, people of similar thinking types are likely to get together and stay that way for the rest of their lives.

Do religious texts promote this balancing concept?

While this is still controversial, there appears to be an overall pattern emerging in religious texts such as the Bible and the Koran.

In the Bible, this L-brain and R-brain idea is taught in terms of the male and female characteristics behind the entity known as God. In the Old Testament of the Bible, for example, God is seen more as a dominating, top of the hierarchy male-like figure showing the strong L-brain masculine approach to solving social problems including destruction and other forms of punishment to those who do not follow God's path. On the other hand, the New Testament reveals a feminine side of God emerging through a figure called Jesus Christ (almost certainly born on 17 April in 6 BC in Bethleham based on latest astronomical analysis of the sky where scientists have noticed an unusual event consisting of a sudden appearance of a bright light in the northern morning sky under the constellation Aries by Jupiter as it past out of the lunar eclipse; no such unusual event existed in or around the 1 AD mark, as revealed in the 3 part-series BBC documentary Son of God). Here, forgiveness and compassion (part of the fundamental principle of love) are taught as the essential ways to solving social problems.

When seen as a whole, the Bible reveals this concept of balance, whereas the specific stories help to teach us our aim in life is to make the choice of following the path with a "heart" (or love) as both the short-term and long-term consequences for all of us will be profound and affect all of us in positive ways.

As they say, every good story tells a deeper one. The Bible is no exception to this.

There is further evidence in other religious texts to support a concept of balance.

In the Koran, there is much early discussions about invocations of violence showing the L-brain male characteristic of solving problems. Then we find the opposite view when the story of the Queen of Sheba is discussed. Talk of a society whose people are wealthy under this feminine leader and where the land is fertile and well looked after, growing food for society and becoming a Paradise is not uncommon.

Research is continuing. But perhaps further work may reveal more in the religious text about this L- and R-brain pattern as well as the constant need to reign in balance when things are to the extreme, while understanding the meaning of God as possibly the side of balance which we know is good and right.

But don't try to be God!

However, one thing is clear. Because we can never perfectly balance ourselves or be perfectly good creatures at all times and in any place we find ourselves in, we cannot be God.

You should never try to be God or pretend you are God. You cannot be God in a finite period of time and place. There can be only one God. You are here to learn through the experiences you have in this Universe and with those living things around you. And the goal of all this learning appears to be a better understanding of this concept of God and with it the meaning and purpose of why you are here and this Universe. This is the thing you are aiming for whether or not you are aware of it. You can be L-brain and think this is all hocus-pocus. But the brain naturally searches for meaning and the R-brain starts to uncover some inkling of what this might be by observing and imagining more of this Universe.

What about those who claim to be God?

Saying you are God is a dangerous thing. It places unnecessary burden on yourself and if you don't deliver, people who follow you will at some point lose faith, become more L-brain and rational, and never see the true R-brain patterns helping us to understand this Universe and our purpose and meaning. And it could have devastating consequences on both the followers and yourself should enough people lose faith.

This is how many dangerous cults are formed.

In the early stages of a cult, a religious leader may have a few reasonably good "balanced" ideas which attracts a small number of followers. The leader can become more popular and attract a larger following. But if people are not made leaders for themselves, the burden begins to be felt by the leader. The leader will have to deliver more to the people. He must acquire more power. Power can corrupt the leader's mind. He may no longer or is unable to deliver. The leader may lose sight of what he/she is there for because the leader can suddenly see the benefit of creating a group (e.g. more money, free sex etc.). Or he may know his time is almost up and must do anything to maintain the group. Then, after a while, some of the followers may become disillusioned in some way with the leader because they are moving away from the original concept of balance. The only way the leader can maintain his/her followers and even increase the group size is to start claiming he/she is God.

Then the leader and a few very dedicated followers must reduce the self-esteem, individualism and creativity of the rest of the followers until they become totally dependent on the leader for their survival. There is no learning and people soon become zombies of the leader.

When people of a religious group reaches this low point, there is no thinking, no progress, just existing to satisfy the needs of someone else in return for food and a roof over their heads. Life then becomes worthless and suicide or murder may be a common avenue for people to escape the situation.

Eventually if enough followers suddenly wake up from this nightmare, the consequences can be devastating on the leader and his very close supporters. If not, the followers will destroy themselves until there is no longer any power to the leader. And the leader will eventually be got rid of or forgotten by the rest of the group.

This is not the genuine path of life.

The path you must take is to become your own leader in the field of interest to you and to share your intimate knowledge and practical solutions with everyone in society so that others can become a greater leader in their own right thanks to the knowledge and solutions you have bestowed on others. In that way, we all progress more quickly and approach the true meaning and purpose for our existence.

Never lose sight of this path in your own life. And never try to be God.

There is always something new to be learnt in this Universe. No matter how much an expert you become in the area of interest to you, you are always a student in the classroom of this great Universe. And there is something much greater teaching you about the new things in this Universe.

But why do some people claim Jesus Christ is God?

We can understand the confusion readers may have with this one. As a classic example, in Elizabeth A. West's Christian book titled That the Kingdom May Come: Reflections on the meaning of Discipleship published by The Little Company of Mary in Sydney, Australia, she writes on page 3:

"We believe, as part of the mystery of our faith, that Jesus was the son of God. The hardest part of that mystery, and the easiest to forget, is that Jesus was made man, and lived with men and women, like to them in all things, sin excepted.

If we are to fully grasp the mystery of which we are a part, then we must come to terms with this fact: Jesus was man as well as God."

Notice how the terms "son of God" and "God" are used interchangeably to represent a once living, breathing man who died on the cross to make an important point about this mysterious Universe. Presumably this is because at the moment of death, Jesus is risen (or resurrected) and therefore is or has united with God. Therefore seeing him again in what he think is the flesh or some kind of apparition would tend many Christians to believe Jesus is God, and probably has always been God but in the human flesh form when he was alive.

It is understandable that readers will get confused and soon start to say that any great man like Jesus could potentially be God. And anyone who doesn't, or hasn't, achieved great things, is not a "God".

You should avoid this situation.

The truth to the matter is, all living things, including men and women, no matter how great they are, or think they are based on what others say, or may claim to receive the word of God, is always in a state of constant learning about this Universe. There is no perfectly balanced living organism at all times and place and hence we can call God. Not even Jesus was God when he was alive. Sure, Jesus was probably a more balanced individuals than just about anyone at the time in his part of the world. It doesn't mean he is perfect. Far from it.

As a case in point, was it necessary for Jesus to have sacrificed himself on the cross to get his message through to everyone of how important it is to think longer term, realise there are consequences for our actions as well as the likelihood of an afterlife for everyone, and that we must all do good things as part of the principle of love? Imagine if he lived a full and productive life teaching as many people as possible and to find more creative ways to get the message across. Would he had achieved more in his life? Maybe not. Or maybe yes.

We really don't know. But some could argue the decision may not have been a perfect one. It was a decision he decided to make as he felt it was probably the best way to achieve something. Then again, other people could argue a different point quite easily.

So what aren't we all perfect?

It is due to the fact that we are limited by our brain. Firstly it does not know precisely the true position of balance. It will acquire some knowledge and create beliefs that suggest a good sense of balance and understanding of a wide range of issues or problems of the time and usually in a given locality (although it may apply to other locations and different cultures). But it cannot in a physical sense have the power and skills to be God by maintaining perfect balance for all times and so give you the power to solve any problem virtually instantly. And secondly, the corpus callosum and the L- and R-brains are not large enough and highly advanced in structure to allow this kind of perfect shuttling and processing of the information to solve any problem instantly. Because of this biological restriction, you need time to gather some information, digest it and let it get shuttled back and forth through the corpus callosum for each hemisphere to process the information and distill the essential concept (or picture). And no one can live long enough to achieve perfect balance and gather enough information to understand everything to the tiniest detail.

To put simply, no living thing can be described as God. Not even Jesus. And even Jesus understood this well.

We see this in John 10:34 and 10:36 where Jesus was answering the charge of blasphemy by the Jews in the temple after stating "I and [my] Father are one" (John 10:30). Jesus answered:

"Is it not written in your law, I said "Ye [you] are gods?"....Thou blasphemest; because I said, "I am the Son of God?""

It is almost as if Jesus was testing the Jews to see whether they could understand what Jesus was on about (i.e. how L-brain the Jews were at the time).

To show we are not God, it is customary to describe humans as "sons and daughters of God", or the "children of God". For other living things, we may describe them as part of "God's kingdom" but are never said to be God. Even the term "gods" was used by Jesus himself to describe all human beings as not God but are gods in that we all have the power to act like God by making our own decisions as well as influencing and changing things in our environment as if we were God but, in fact, we are not. This is why Jesus never called himself God. And for L-brain types who believe in what they hear, the word "god" and "God" sound exactly the same, which is why Jesus often found himself creating considerable conflict with L-brain Jewish religious teachers who could not visualise through the R-brain carefully what was being said by the man.

It must be understood that "god" and "God" are distinct terms. They have different meanings. And it is all controlled by one letter. That letter is either upper case or lower case "g".

Hence you, and Jesus, are not God. But we are "gods".

The confusion in modern Christian literature between Jesus and God and how he is seen as perfect and therefore must be God can sometimes extend to his mother Mary. It is possible to find numerous examples describing Mary as "...most perfect mother" (West, p.11.). Then you can imagine the pressure on humans to be good or like Jesus or the mother of Jesus becomes so great that you often ask why do humans make any effort at all to grow and reach for a more balanced life? Why should we be called gods or the "sons and daughters of God" if we are considered so imperfect no matter how hard we try and people like Jesus and Mary are such perfect beings even before they have died at such a young age? What's the point of trying? We might as well be no smarter than an ordinary bacteria rather than a human being trying to reach for something.

Then you find in the Christian literature examples of how we should at least do good things in life even if we are not perfect through a combination of reward and punish statements. For example, the rewards can be described as getting closer to God and/or Jesus and entering into heaven. On the punishment side, the Christian literature may describe you as:

"...mocking the truth of God and of His call..."

and a person who should die because you have not "witnessed the truth" as seen in the following statement:

"...death to all those things that hold us back from witnessing to truth, and mothering forth our God."

This is just Old Testament type of psychology to frighten people (effectively treating them as "children of God") into doing the right things. It would explain why we still find a number of Christians focussed almost exclusively on the Old Testament with its stories of do this as commanded by God or you will be punished as a means of controlling behaviour in themselves and with other people close to them. The result is very little, if any, encouragement from the Christians for people to learn and do great things in any endeavour they wish to pursue. It seems certain Christians want to see people follow the path of Jesus or God by being good and doing good things as he would when he was alive and living a simple life 2,000 years ago. A nice way to remember Jesus and how he lived. But are we getting closer to God? Are we learning to become more balanced individuals by being our own "gods" and by pursuing any worthwhile goal to see where it will take us?

But why can't we make our own personal choice and learn from the consequences of those choices through experience so they can strive towards something greater and in the process become more balanced individuals? In other words, why can't we grow up to become adults and not always be treated like children? This seems to be the fundamental issue raised by a charismatic leader mentioned in the New Testament.

According to the New Testament, we find a new leader named Jesus emerging into adulthood with knowledge stating that you have the power to improve, make yourself better, become more balanced, and achieve great things, even greater than he can. Yes, even you can be just as great and balanced as Jesus had been, and better if you wish. Jesus is trying to say he was just an ordinary and simple man. He was acknowledging the fact that he was not perfect. He still had time in his life to learn many more things. Certainly as a young boy he seemed to be able to find time to think for long periods of time, to develop deep concentration, which he practised regularly with his carpentry skills learned from his father. He developed a good rational and logical mind. Yet his ability to think and visualise and use his imagination during his free time as a young boy helped him to observe and visualise the problems of the day. He was able to avoid being influenced by so-called other leaders so he could focus on the important things and realise the solutions to many, and probably eventually all, the problems he saw. And in the end, the choice he made to prove an ultimate point he learned about the nature of death is that there is more to life than living and eventually dying. Something else takes place beyond death. Something that not even our weary bodies can hold back. Our true selves will continue on in the great journey. Jesus felt it was necessary to prove this point by showing his willingness to sacrifice himself on the cross so that everyone can see and hopefully understand the concept. Then the true love of God will reveal itself through the process of resurrection.

Whether it was the right decision to make in the end for Jesus is hard to tell. We may have a large following of people called the Christians to remember his legacy and, more importantly, the essential concepts he wanted everyone to understand. One can only hope these followers have learnt the true meaning and purpose of life from his teachings and are actively applying the knowledge to achieve greater things for everyone and not just try to be good like a child trying to please a father. Maybe Jesus was merely trying to change people's perception of life in a way that makes everyone take on a more longer term view instead of the here-and-now moment of what we want because we think life has no meaning knowing death is just around the corner.

Whatever the truth, many genuine R-brain people can understand what Jesus was on about. The large-scale patterns these R-brain people can see in their minds after observing the universe suggests there is more to life than meets the eye. Death is looking like just another experience as we move into the next stage of our journey. And you, with the power to do great things of incredible love for others, are a god in your own right. You can be more balanced and knowledgeable than even a great man like Jesus, or even his mother Mary (if the purpose of Christians to bring her to our attention is to inspire women as well). R-brain people are realising you should not be held back by anyone, not even the Christians or any other religious person, because they think you are not Jesus or Mary. It doesn't matter if you are not Jesus, or Mary. You are who you are. You are the new leader of whatever you wish to apply yourself to and achieve for the good of all. Who cares what others think so long as what you believe through the actions you take will bring greater love. Once you've gained some understanding of the concept of love from others, you must become the independent person deciding your own future and the love you want to share through your efforts with everyone else. Because in the end, when you die, if the love is great, it will likely come back to you in a better way in your next life. Then your next life will be easier than at any time before.

This is why you will find examples in the Bible where Jesus eventually distances himself from his mother by calling her "woman". As a child, Jesus may have called her "mother". But as an adult, he had to live his own life. Of course, Mary will always be seen as his biological mother. And Jesus always treated her with kindness. But to Jesus, he was no longer a child following his parents like a sheep to a shepherd. He had to make the leap into being an independent man thinking for himself and doing things for the ultimate improvement of his people.

In conclusion, you should do great things for yourself. Listen and learn from everything and everyone around you so you will know where the balance lies. For this position of power you will know which action to take that will bring the most love into the world.

When implementing your understanding of love into the world, be aware of how your interference (a necessary part of implementing your knowledge for the benefit of others) through the great things you will achieve can benefit or potentially harm other living things. See everything you do as an opportunity to learn more and improve on your knowledge and actions all the time. Understand when harm may be nothing more than fear of the unknown and comfort them and show them there is nothing to fear. Education is such a vital part of this process. If it is more than this and there is genuine hurt, you must learn and quickly improve what you are doing. Your aim is to bring love to everyone while you are alive. And you have the right to implement your ideas of the principle of love for others through the things you do. No use keeping this knowledge to yourself no matter how great. Put the knowledge into practice and see the outcome. Think carefully before implementing certain ideas. But when you know it will work and is the best solution and will help many people, put it into practice so everyone can benefit from it. And no matter how great the achievement might seem by others, always remember you are not God. No matter how balanced you are, be humble and know your place in the Universe because you are no more than a child learning great things about this Universe. A knowledgeable child perhaps compared to other people through your chosen field of expertise. Maybe we should call you a young adult. But nevertheless still a person who needs to continue learning as we acknowledge the great mystery of the Universe and how much we have still to learn and understand.

Remember, you are a god.

Don't try to create and worship multiple gods

Similarly people who create multiple gods to idol or worship also have a poor understanding of the concept of God. God is not in one thing or another. It is in all things, both within you and all around you.

You are god. In other words, you have been give power to do great things in the Universe. So be a great leader yourself and bestow the power of love and greatness to all living things through your own hands.

Yet worshipping something to the point of calling it God or gods without realising we are all gods comes about because simple-minded people think there is no easy explanation for why a single God of love would allow disasters to occur where life can sometimes be destroyed. How could God bring misery upon those who are asked to believe in a single God? So the alternative and one which seems to alleviate the fear somewhat (at least in the early stages) is to break up God into individual gods with each playing a specific role in the way this Universe works. For example, in Hinduism, the god of destruction known as Sheva is created to help explain the destruction that takes place in the world every now and then. By creating these gods, simple-minded people think it would be a simple matter of appeasing the right god in some way to help minimise the harm or destruction to people.

But the creation of gods for people to worship are L-brain constructs.

There is only one true God of no specific location or moment in time. God is in all things, including yourself. And it is the God that understands the Universe must go through a balancing act in order for everything to exist and for life to continue. In the natural world, disasters will come and go just as much as times of peace and love. Should the disasters occur in greater numbers, it may be a sign that nature (or God) is trying to balance itself more so than usual. Or humans are interfering in nature in some way. Hence humans must understand and learn what is causing the imbalance and try to rectify it. Perhaps people need to move away from an area where disasters are common (e.g. earthquake prone regions). Once we learn how to balance what we do and our environment, our knowledge and action we take is likely to minimise this imbalance to the point where disasters become few and far between.

Providing offerings to gods will not solve a crisis or disaster. Nor will staying put and hoping (or praying) the next disaster won't come will work either. Understanding the Universe, learning and being curious about it, and acting on our acquired knowledge to protect life, however, will give us and all life a better chance of approaching the true God of love in our lives.

Any religion that supports multiple gods is a false religion because, as the name implies, there can be only one God. And God is not in one form or another. It is in all things and yet it is one.

This is the way it has always worked.

Should people believe in God?

Apart from the issue of a single God or multiple gods, there is the question of whether or not people should actually believe in God at all. Should we believe in God?

Well again this is so dependent on the way we think. In other words, how L-brain and R-brain we choose to become when we think and act will determine the type of belief we are likely to create. And what the belief should be for ourselves is based on what we can see from the concrete and observable small patterns, or can imagine/visualise from the hidden large-scale patterns, depending on what we trust most. Therefore people will have two distinct views on God.

Those who believe in God, usually the R-brain types, are categorised by L-brain people as thiests, and those who don't believe in God, usually the L-brain types, are called athiests.

Who is right?

Certainly this web page gives the impression God exists in terms of a simple yet powerful definition we call balance, or the mid-point between two paradoxical extremes. Does it mean God really does exist?

The truth is, only you can decide. You see, the issue of whether God should be believed or not is meant to be a personal thing that only you can decide. You have to look at all the evidence. And it is not just the evidence you can observe with your eyes. You have to see the patterns you cannot directly observe in order to get the complete picture. Once you have done this work yourself, only then can you decide whether or not to believe in a God or not.

No one else can decide on your behalf. No religious leader can do that job. Only you can decide for yourself. And it depends on how much of the R-brain you apply to the Universe to see the grander patterns of life.

Let's face it. It really doesn't matter whether or not you believe in God. In fact, why use the word God at all? We may use the word "balance" as a more accurate definition. It would certainly be more palatable to the L-brain types than the religious term called God. Or maybe there is no word to describe and name this ultimate entity of true balance in which we are approaching. Certainly this is the approach taken by a number of Eastern mystics.

At the end of the day, it's a personal thing which only you can decide and with it what belief you wish to carry with you throughout life.

What should matter to you is not the beliefs but rather what you do, think and say through your beliefs (i.e. your own personal religion) you have created (and stored firmly in the cerebral cortex of the human brain) based on the patterns you have observed, hopefully imagined as well for a more complete or deeper understanding (using the R-brain), and learned throughout life which will show whether or not you have understood the purpose and meaning of life and helps to bring much greater love to all living things in the Universe and hence to give all living things the opportunity to see the meaning and purpose of this Universe. Because in religion, expressing love brings you closer to the concept of God.

For millenia, atheists have been treated badly by fundamental religious theists (mainly L-brain types who believe in God) and vice versa over a single belief of whether or not God exists. We have to understand whatever we do is already helping us to become more balanced in our thinking and actions so long as we are curious and willing to learn and want to express our form of love through the work we do for other people. L-brain types may not want to call this balancing act through their work as a means of already approaching God let alone anything remotely relating to religion in some way even if they start to see some strange meaning to this Universe if they pursue deeply enough. Yet R-brain types know this is exactly what L-brain types are doing.

It really doesn't matter. You choose how you wish to describe it.

And if people do believe in God, what then? Does it matter how people describe God in their own words? No it shouldn't.

For example, some simple-minded people may describe God as a great "old Man" sitting in the sky watching over us and leading humankind along the right path. That's a perfectly fine picture if it helps you. For R-brain types, this simply means the concept of love is being subtly revealed through the feeling of security and sense of wisdom that balance brings which gives them this impression of God as an "old Man"? Or maybe this is the closest picture people can find to describe God in terms of the character traits needed to be closer to the idea of being balanced? Of course for other people who listens to this description and may take any definition of God quite literally in an extreme L-brain (rational) sense may find this description a little difficult to accept. Well, how many people can actually see an old Man sitting in the sky?

It really doesn't matter. It depends on our own personal definition of God, whether or not we actually use the word God or "the old Man" in explaining things.

Everyone has, or must create, their own definition of what it is they are approaching (if they sense this moment), that helps them to better understand the concept and with it the purpose and meaning of life and the Universe, whether or not they are aware of it. Even those people who claim not to believe in a God may in fact be moving towards God but are simply not aware of it because they haven't stopped for a moment to think about how their actions, thoughts and sayings might be leading them to God through the positive actions they take and thus see this great balancing act taking place all around them. It doesn't make them deficient in anyway because of it. They deserve just as much love as anyone else.

It is perfectly normal for people to choose what they want to believe. What matters is whether you promote the principle of love.

Perhaps the people we call atheists are nothing more than highly rational people who haven't formed a definition of God in their own minds to help them understand the concept. But they could just as well be doing things that brings them closer to God in the eyes of theists.

If you believe in the way the Universe balances itself over time, including the idea that life and death are just opposites to an endless cycling back and forth towards greater balance and thus acts as a kind of mysterious and invisible force pushing us towards a "destination" and how the greatest love of all tends to coincide at the moment of true balance, then it is likely you will believe in this balancing act.

Some people call this balancing act God. Call it what you will.

If you believe God does not exist because the descriptions people have given of God is too hard for you to swallow, then this is fine too. You have your own beliefs to follow. If anything, it is probably more a failing of religious leaders to try to find a better description for this thing they are searching which would make it more understandable and palatable to everyone.

Until more information arrives and a better understanding is found, we just have to accept the differences in opinion.

At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. Ask yourself, "Are you doing different things in life?" and "Are you helping yourself and other living things to become better and show more love?"

Because the answer to both questions will determine whether or not you are approaching true balance.

Remember, the religion you create for yourself through your belief system (we all have our own religions, even science itself can be described as a religion if we are not willing to question the theories other scientists put forth), whether or not it shows that you believe in God, is a personal thing. The true religion never imposes its beliefs on others. It is something we must discover through our own journey in life. And what we do, think and say, if based on worthy and sound principles of love, will show you are on the right track in life.

Anyone who imposes their beliefs (i.e. religion) on others without allowing others the opportunity to explore, develop and apply their own beliefs, or anyone who blatantly expresses hatred to others because the beliefs of others is different but cannot see the love in these beliefs is not following the path of true balance and ultimately the true religion of God.

God and the true religion of this great Universe always allow people to pursue their own beliefs. And so long as those beliefs are based on love (as you will discover when interacting with other lifeforms), then you will know you are closer to the true religion of God. Our job is to understand those beliefs, make more refined our own personal beliefs and so become more accurate and balanced, and to show the love and balance in those beliefs by applying them to life and the Universe as a form of experience for others and whether by watching other life forms that they too can feel the same love through those beliefs.

Because ultimately we are all reaching some ultimate goal, whether or not we are aware of it. There is a purpose and meaning to life and this Universe. Our R-brain is telling us this if we decide to use it.

And while there is love in what we do, do not interfere.

We all have the right to learn from our experiences.

NOTE: There is much we can learn from the R-brain. Already the R-brain is starting to reveal to us how this physical Universe is looking more like the heaven we are seeking (especially where life emerges on planetary worlds) so long as we can all experience, learn from our experiences, and apply what we learn for the benefit of all living things and not just ourselves. In other words, we must minimise the harm we create on all living things (where our bodies still require nutrition, we must seek it from sources that do not require the death of an animal, but rather can be made naturally through plants); realise all living things brought into this Universe have the right to live, experience and learn from their experiences so they may gain a similar insight into the Universe as we have; for us to make Earth more than just a liveable place (i.e. we shouldn't have to adapt to global warming for instance) but rather a place we and all living things can call heaven (i.e. start rebuilding the environment and soak up excess carbon dioxide and other natural chemical heat traps) without being forced to constantly struggle to survive and fight for what we need; to develop technology to further enhance our experience of this Universe to help better understand its purpose; and to apply our knowledge of extending the lifespan for all living things, especially where living things have learned to control their reproductive numbers because they realise predators are no longer there to hunt them (i.e. animals develop a large enough brain combined with a supportive environment that no longer reinforces predatorial behaviours).

We see evidence of this in the real world by the way some female lions brought up by humans from birth with considerable love (including the food they need) and attention no longer see the value of biting the hand that feeds them. They learn to be playful and curious.

Likewise where chimpanzees don't have to fight for food such as those in the Congo compare to those in central Africa, the individuals and groups as a whole learn to become peaceful and happy.

This is the aim of what we do everyday. We are here to help, to give service to others, and to allow others and ourselves (for now and for all generations to come) to experience life, gather knowledge, and present knowledge and experiences for the benefit of all living things.

Because we understand everyone and all living things deserve to be loved when they come into this Universe.

We are here to love and be curious about this Universe. There is nothing more you have to do.

Who to follow? God or the leaders of a Church or religious order?

As mentioned earlier, the concept of God is a personal thing. Only you can experience and gather knowledge about this concept for yourself and only you can decide if such a thing exists for you. Hence you must ultimately be the leader of your own destiny. Yes there is some element of fate in the sense our brain locks us into two ways of thinking, and the choice we make may reveal this type of thinking. But the range of choices we make for ourselves throughout our lives is what makes us who we are. We are all different and unique.

Thus you will be a leader in your own right.

Of course there are people who claim throughout history to be the leader of the Church such as the Pope and therefore the religion of Christianity. The Monarchy may also make such claims at certain times in history. And a political party (e.g. R-wing types) may act like they are the leaders of their own religious views. And all the while these people may expect or encourage people to join them, go to Church, or join a religious group (or else get treated differently). The reality is that these people have their own interpretations of God. Some will try to relate knowledge to the original religious text to justify their views and actions. Others may make different interpretations and yet still be seen as correct or seemingly valid.

Of course, there will always be disputes among leaders. For example, Martin Luther in the sixteenth century insisted the authority people should follow is the Bible and nothing else. In other words, the Bible should decide what it is the Church should teach and do to its followers. It is not the Pope or his bishops and other religious leaders under his care that people should follow.

The only thing to remember and learn throughout life is the principle of love and understand there is a thing called balance. Follow it, make your own decisions on how to promote the principle of love through your actions, and everything you will do will be in keeping with the one true God.

Leaders of any religious sect or Church, the Bible or any other religious text, should be there to give you some guidance and direction to places where you can experience and gather knowledge so you can make your own decisions. They are not to be accepted wholeheartedly as if these things are God. They are not. They were created by man. The concepts may closely approach God and the principles all humans should follow. But these concepts are for you to understand in your own life experiences. If the decision you make happens to coincide with other people, great. If not, your creativity has come to the forefront and the rest of society would be wise to listen to the different ideas people make for themselves.

Because the ultimate aim is to make everyone a leader of their own actions and decisions. And a leader that makes decisions and acts in a compassionate and loving way while understanding the concept of balance is more likely to understand the concept of God to a deeper level.

So what's the purpose of religion?

We must understand this L- and R-brain way of thinking was already uncovered and taught by the Greeks thousands of years ago. Other cultures have their own variation of these opposites in the brain. For the Greeks, they would call the rational side of the brain, or pragmatic mode of thought, as logos (reason). It would look at the external world with accuracy and in a logical manner, helping people to function effectively in the world and other people.

Yet too much emphasis on our reasoned thinking would result in a loss of meaning to one's life struggle and makes us face the reality of our mortality in a more poignant manner. For example, why are we mere mortals that must die in this physical Universe? What's the purpose of life and the reason we do the things we do? Why do good deeds and be ethical if we are going to die anyway?

The Greeks understood there was another side of thinking that helped to go beyond reason and the reality is presented to people. They would call it mythos. The approach is more creative and visual when seeking much broader patterns not observable by our eyes and ears. And it succeeds in finding hidden broader patterns about this Universe. It discovers things that help people to see a grander purpose to all their efforts. And it helps to provide the basis for human psychology in terms of how people should behave.

Once a glimpse of these hidden patterns are uncovered by various cultures, they are turned into art and stories to help give other people a glimpse at these hidden patterns and so help them better cope with their mortality and give them faith of something beyond this life.

From an understanding of these patterns do people begin to develop an inner strength where life's struggle is no longer seen as painful and sorrow, but rather seen with joy and serenity.

Through this positive side of looking at life, sometimes extraordinary things can happen. For example, certain chemicals in the body may suddenly get produced or removed more easily and soon some people may find themselves feeling better after being sick for a long time.

Perhaps this is the placebo effect? We don't know for sure.

Whatever it is, when people see something beyond what their eyes and ears are telling them, great things start to emerge in the people. Behaviour in people change to one of greater goodness and being ethical. People learn to share their resources and create a more harmonious society. This is the basis for all good psychology and its impact to human society.

The issue of God comes about because the creative side of the brain also starts to see these patterns as having something in common, but have yet to be reconciled into a single unifying pattern that can be seen or visualised in the mind. However the brain senses there is a single grand pattern prevalent in everything we see and can imagine. It may suggest a grand creator. Although it may well be a way for people to understand the concept rather than an actual truth.

What this central grand pattern of life and universe is, is best given a word for now as God.

In fact, there may not even be a word for it. But to somehow start the process, most people with a communicative language give it at least a word. Maybe "the Universe" is a better word? Or maybe "the Light". Who knows. Whatever it is, it is something that R-brain people believe exists.

Therefore religion is not meant to provide the ultimate and final detailed explanation to the observable world. Religion is more focussed on broader hidden patterns and only provides the initial start to answering such questions. The rest is up to you to find out. It is you who must be curious about this Universe.

And how you think will determine the type of patterns you decide to gather to help provide a better explanation.

Religion is not meant to satisfy our reason and logic in terms of what we see and hear. Religion is more interested in looking beyond our reason, beyond the eyes and ears we use, and all the detail. Religion is about acknowledging there are broader, hidden patterns common to many people who have applied their R-brain to the problem about this Universe. These are patterns deduced from observation and through our imagination and visual skills to look beyond the thing we see. It covers other patterns not directly observable with the eyes. With those patterns, a form of knowledge is developed from the broader patterns which helps people to understand the purpose and meaning of life and the universe.

This knowledge is then brought back into a form of reality through our art and imaginative stories. Because this is the best way to understand these patterns.

For example, many thousands of years ago, people did not have the microscopes to show the more rational L-brain people of patterns such as "ceaseless change" by the way atoms constantly move about due to the invisible energy of radiation colliding with solid matter. When quantum physicists realised this fact, they started to ask if such observations were already known to the mystics through their wise statements about ceaseless change. This is the basis for Fritjof Capra's book the Tao of Physics. Yet people, such as Buddhist monks, deduced this pattern well before science ever became an accepted part of human society. And when it comes to the issue of God, the biggest single unifying pattern, there is no instrument as yet to show what this is.

This is meant to be the aim of religion.

Understanding this ultimate unifying pattern will help us to answer all questions about life and the universe and why we are here.

And the pattern helps us to cope with our mortality by realising death is not the end, but rather the beginning to a new adventure, a kind of new life awaits us.

As Capra would agree: science does not need religion, and religion does not need science. But men and women need both.

How do we create the simplest picture of absolute balance?

Need a really basic picture to help begin the visualisation process for this concept of balance? What you need is an image showing the opposites of life and an image indicating where balance would lie between these two opposites. Well the best way to show opposites is a straight horizontal line where the ends of the lines can represent the opposites.

Now to show balance, you need to have something marking the exact middle of the line to give the impression of balance. The simplest way of doing this is to draw a perpendicular line intersecting the horizontal line exactly midway between the two opposites.

Does this picture remind you of something?

The picture we have just described is common among the people who practice Christianity. It is known quite simply as the cross. In other religions or the more L-brain types of christians of later years coming up with various interpretations, these people may try to complicate the picture by adding additional intersecting lines as if they are radiating from a central position. In other religions, the centre of all the intersecting lines may be emphasised by a circle and the lines themselves are less prominent. Or perhaps the Star of David might be drawn.

Then other religious people may draw sophisticated paintings of a spiralling staircase going up towards a central radiating light where the rays of light are used instead of intersecting lines. The spiralling staircase is, however, a representation of the journey of all living things in this universe as it approaches some great balance of the universe, whether or not all living things are aware of it.

Depending on how L-brain or R-brain you are and thus how complex or simple the images you create, the picture of lines intersecting at a balanced and central position is probably the best way of describing the concept of balance in visual form.

What are the signs of a good leader?

A good leader will have balanced ideas. And he should be able to choose the ideas that bring love to a society.

He/she will be someone who will never force upon others to accept or even to expect others to follow his/her own views no matter how balanced or full of love (since this universe forces us to choose as part of our experiences) it may seem. A good leader should permit others to think for themselves and come up with their own alternative "balanced" ways of solving problems and let them choose how to implement the solutions. If the solutions happen to coincide with the leader's own solutions, it only increases the leader's credibility and standing in the group and helps to bring a sense of commonality among everyone.

If not, it simply shows greater creativity. In which case, this is a greater opportunity to learn and find out.

Sometimes the act of leading should not actually be seen as leading, but rather encouraging others to think for themselves and try things out on their own. Let them come up with solutions, let them see the pros and cons of each solution, let them choose, and let them experience the solutions for themselves. If necessary, give some suggestions or guidance in case they have not thought about something deeply enough. Or better still, make it a journey of discovery for themselves what the solutions might be and let them work it out without interference. Eventually, if they think deeply enough, the solution will be the right one.

The leader can lead on occasions, but he/she must be able to break the pattern of leading. Leaders can lead others constantly like a parent with a child. A good leader will always remember to let a child grow into adults and become their own leaders in whatever they wish to become.

It is true a good leader is someone who will have a thorough understanding of the concept of balance in a number of crucial areas. He/she will provide good ideas in a social situation at the right times and places, but can also encourage people to think for themselves and carry on the task of generating good ideas independently of the leader so that the leader can continue with his/her own work without interference.

And anyway, all leaders will come and go. Leaders will die and someone must take over. Someone else must carry the flame of leadership and so on throughout all eternity. Eventually every person (no matter their religious views, race, gender or whatever) must become their own leaders and choose for themselves how they will support themselves and contribute to society and the Universe based on the principle of love.

Don't follow groups or individuals who claim to be God

Avoid leaders who believe in multiple gods, or claim to be God or have allegedly experienced it one hundred per cent and all the time, because they are the ones described as the false leaders. Anyone who claims they are God or have achieved or experienced God (or true nirvana) through their efforts, is either a fool or is lying, take your pick.

We can only have an inkling of the ultimate truth. And that truth will always be a little different for each person despite the numerous common patterns likely to exist in our experience of this ultimate truth.

Also remember there is nothing stopping you from getting as close as you like to this ultimate truth. And don't worry about whether you are achieving balance or not. The experience itself will come in the briefest and most intense way and is usually more than enough to urge you on to do whatever you are doing better next time in order to re-experience just that little bit more of the God-like or balanced state and hence become more balanced for yourself.

The only thing you must remember is whatever you do, make sure it will benefit everyone and not just yourself. And it must also help you to become a better person.

Don't let other people persuade you into thinking they are God. They may be gods in the way they act depending on how balanced their thinking might be. But they are not God.

Not even an advanced alien civilisation coming down to Earth to show us its magic through their technology and guide us towards a "path with a heart" should be seen as God. They are nothing more than people like you and I who have applied their L- and R-brain skills to solve problems to a greater extent and have come up with solutions showing their indepth understanding of the way the Universe works. But they too are still approaching this ultimate state of true balance.

Is there a true L-brain or R-brain person?

The same thing is true of trying to reach the extreme or ultimate opposite state of reaching true L-brain or true R-brain. In reality, there is no such thing as a true L-brain or R-brain person in the ultimate extreme case.

When we talk about L- and R-brain people in the world of psychology, what we mean is how often information tends to flow in one direction or the other inside the corpus callosum in a process known as either thinking or memorising. If this was not the case and we used only one side of the brain or the other and that is it, then by natural selection the side of the brain not being used would diminish in size and eventually disappear after many generations had passed.

Every one of us uses both sides of the brain at different times. It is only when we tend to push information to one side of the brain more than another for a long period of time that this tends to be reflected in our personality to some extent, in the beliefs we form in our minds, and in the behaviours we express to the world. We tend to do this because our social environment may dictate the need for those one-sided functions in the brain and also because it is easier and more comfortable for us to do so as it has helped us to survive in modern society.

And also because we may simply choose the side of the brain that seems to achieve our goals.

And when this happens, the side of our brain being used the least will tend to shrink slightly. But it will never diminish completely. The balancing effect of life and with every new generation that comes and goes will ensure the skills of both sides of the brain are maintained.

No matter how one-sided we may become, at certain moments in our lives we do switch over from one side of the brain to the other by reversing the flow of information depending on what our needs are at any moment in time. And even when we don't do anything, this balancing act in the brain is usually done automatically given sufficient time, adequate rest (i.e. through regular creative dreaming/thinking and by analysing those dreams/thoughts through the process of thinking), and/or by satisfying our basic needs. It is normal and natural.

Can this switching effect in the brain cause problems?

Nevertheless, as we shall see in the next section, this switching effect within the brain can have a potentially crucial impact on the development of human behaviour. In fact, the process of quickly moving a large amount of information regularly in one direction through the corpus callosum and then suddenly reversing this flow may either help to improve our behaviour or, if it is not done right or carefully, may be detrimental to our long-term and unique personality and to the health of our brain.

What does a balanced person look like?

This is difficult to describe in absolutely precise terms as no human being (or living thing for that matter) can be perfectly balanced at all times. But we can imagine what a balanced person might look like.

To begin with, a balanced person is likely to be someone who can do what appears to be a great many "multiskilled" things over a short space of time. He/she can easily relax, doing nothing and/or may think about things (e.g. creating new ideas or ways of doing things in solitude and/or with others) and then putting certain things into action quickly through changes in behaviour, by talking, and/or by using his/her hands and/or body (e.g. dancing, painting, building a new invention, solving mathematical problems and so on) to achieve certain goals.

It is likely many of the multiskilled tasks of a balanced person may already have been well-thought out or can be quickly deduced at time of implementing the tasks from a combination of rational and creative thinking. He/she may already have the patterns learned or can quickly deduce and create new patterns as he/she needs them.

A balanced person would also like to be on his/her own and quietly think about various issues while looking out of a window or doing something artistic without being concerned about being "lonely" as many social people would try to describe the situation; and then the balanced person can suddenly change to a highly talkative, spontaneous, rational, fun-loving individual when required in a room full of people. A balanced person may also be very quick to adapt to various situations even if they are unfamiliar to him/her and yet may choose to take plenty of time to learn the fine details if required. A classic example of this may be observed in the American science fiction series called The Pretender.

In other words, a balanced person always aims to be all things for everyone.

A balanced person may also provide significant input in a few well-chosen areas to help as many people as possible to achieve their own goal(s), but will often fall short of telling everyone what has to be done as if they want people to learn, balance themselves, and decide how best to run their own lives. In other words, a balanced person will often take a balanced approach to interfering and non-interfering with others depending on the circumstances at hand.

Generally, a balanced person will not say anything that would clearly show support for one opposing argument over another, nor will the person show favouritism for one group over the other unless it is required for improving the balance of things.

For example, if there is clear oppression being displayed over one group by another, it is not unusual for a balanced individual to be part of and supporting the oppressed group.

All things will be treated as equally as possible unless there is a clear imbalance in things, and then the person will try to improve the situation by focussing on the thing that needs balance.

As for more real-life glimpses of a balanced person, all we need to do is observe those independent and socially-capable people in society who are described as a good all-rounder who can do just about anything in any situation (including changing oneself and the environment (12) and then learning when not to interfere) and can have a balanced view on nearly all issues of life and the Universe.

And for the ultimate balance person, he/she would be able to solve any problem he/she sets his/her mind to in a virtually instantaneous way. Even the most controversial problems will not stop a balanced person from attempting to solve them. From the most complex world problems, to everyday simple life issues, to controversial areas other people don't want to touch such as UFOs and so on, nothing would be out-of-bounds for a truly balanced and curious person. There is no fear to tackle anything.

How do I become a more balanced person?

A good way to begin this process of balancing your mind is to start tackling problems in your life (e.g. phobias, relationship problems, etc.). Basically any type of problem. The more you face problems and find solutions, the more balanced you become.

Begin by giving yourself sufficient time away from everything. Find a place where you can feel relaxed and can clear your mind of all chatter. Choose a quiet and peaceful environment.

Next, you must focus your mind and senses to the light of a candle in a darkened room (positioned midway between the L- and R-side of your brain) or the sound of a person's relaxing voice (spoken like a chant) behind you for a long period of time until you become suddenly unaware of time and place (i.e. a kind of hypnotic state or trance). The only thing you are aware of is the thing you are focussing your mind on. If necessary, try to get someone to move the light or sound from left to right and back again and repeat the process so that you can get your mind to engage the L- and R-sides of the brain in a more balanced way and so be more receptive to the thing being focussed and later when you move your mind to solving any problem set before you. Now slowly focus your mind on the problem. Focussing means visualising the problem itself and then analysing it, breaking the problem down and then bringing everything together once more, and repeating the process until you see the crucial pattern of what it is which is creating the problem.

Sometimes visualisation can be considered the hardest part for some people because it may force them to confront what they fear the most. If fear starts to set in, analyse the problem. What's frightening about it? Understand that your brain can be taught to see your problem in any way you like. If necessary show who is really in control, your brain or yourself?

Once you have control over what you are seeing, start analysing it to its deepest and logical level. Try to talk it through in your mind. For example, "Why does this problem exist?" "What is the whole purpose behind it?" "Why do I feel frightened?", "What specifically is frightening about it?", "How can I view the problem in a different way?" and "What is it like to try it in a different way?"

Remember, get to the source of the problem and search for a positive and alternative solution that is both creative and practical. And apply your emotions to the solution to see whether it will benefit everyone and every living thing. Do this and the best rational, creative and emotionally positive solution to the original problem will be found.

Finally, you must implement the solution (or pattern) you have found. Time for action as they say. This may require further problem-solving and visualisation to know the best way to implement the solution. Keep doing this and act upon the solution in your mind first and later in reality and your problem will disappear. Once you have solved the problem, you are one step closer to being balanced in your life.

NOTE: To find solutions, learn to develop both a big picture of, and the specifics to, your problem. This means learning everything there is to know about your problem. If the problem is yourself, it is important to define all the critical moments in your life which has influenced your thinking and beliefs and turned you into the kind of person you have become. The you may need to gather more information. So start listening to the experiences of other people, reading books related to your problem; and consider travelling and observing nature and people. And while you do all of this, you have to believe there is a solution to be found for your particular problem. Then your mind will develop the patterns. Some patterns will help you to see possible solutions. Once you start to see solutions, rewrite your life script by changing your thoughts and ultimately your beliefs. Try to see the positive in things. Do not always believe in what other people in your life has said about you, your actions and/or other people. Start to see all things as equal, positive and worthy and your problem will disappear.

And a more balanced you will also emerge from this process.