Thought adjuster between the two brain hemispheres

A book review with commentary on

The Master and His Emissary:

The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

Iain McGilchrist, Yale University Press, 2009, 2019

Brain-type series. The one physical uniformity of mortals is the brain and nervous system; nevertheless, there are three basic organizations of the brain mechanism: the one-, the two-, and the three-brained types. Urantians are of the two-brained type, somewhat more imaginative, adventurous, and philosophical than the one-brained mortals but somewhat less spiritual, ethical, and worshipful than the three-brained orders. These brain differences characterize even the prehuman animal existences. (49:5.13 [566.1])

From the two-hemisphere type of the Urantian cerebral cortex you can, by analogy, grasp something of the one-brained type. The third brain of the three-brained orders is best conceived as an evolvement of your lower or rudimentary form of brain, which is developed to the point where it functions chiefly in control of physical activities, leaving the two superior brains free for higher engagements: one for intellectual functions and the other for the spiritual-counterparting activities of the Thought Adjuster. (49:5.14 [566.2], emphasis added)

Part One: The Two Brain Hemispheres: Two Different Views of the World

Part Two: Brain Chemistry: What About the Pineal and Pituitary Glands?

Part One

The Two Brain Hemispheres: Two Different Views of the World

The author of this 608-page tome is a psychiatrist who, previous to that role, spent time in brain research. He took twenty years to write The Master and His Emissary which was listed with the Royal Society 2010 Prize for Science Books.

His main premises have to do with how markedly the two brain hemispheres are divided, being different in weight, structure, types of neurotransmitters, and function. Anatomically, they are clearly divided, and it is correct to refer to them as two brains.

In order to entertain McGilchrist’s hypotheses, views, and observations one must heavily discount and even dismiss much of what pop-science pronounced as the differences and domains of the left and right brains during the 1960s and 1970s—views which he considers absurd. Because of the superficiality of those early conceptions, research on human bilateral brain differences all but ceased for a while, but research was carried on by ethologists studying fish, birds, reptiles, and mammals that also have two brains. These researchers continued that which scientists ought to do—making observations. We will consider those findings among the lower animal kingdom later in this essay.

The Folk Tale of The Master and His Emissary

The best place to begin, and to frame for you the author’s concept, is to recite the folk tale from which comes the title of his book.

A wise Master sets up a center of culture and governance, and because of his wisdom his village prospers in all ways. At some point of growth and development, as new towns and cities spread out from this beneficent center, the Master realizes that he cannot govern these new areas, but more importantly he discerns that he should not attempt to oversee them. To do so would dilute his ability to maintain his place and center of enlightened culture. Therefore he appoints a qualified vizier, an Emissary to administer these increasingly far flung towns, cities, and counties. This proves to be an effective strategy, for a while. But after some time the efficient Emissary begins to think, “I know all that goes on in this kingdom, and my Master just sits in his palace.” The Emissary eventually begins to wear the robe of the Master, and even presents himself as the Master. He reports back less and less to his leader, and becomes disinterested in the Master’s advice and wisdom. Soon, the kingdom languishes, and both the Emissary and the Master become weakened, and the enterprise fails. (paraphrased, cf. The Master and His Emissary, McGilchrist, 2009, p. 14)

In McGilchrist’s view, the Master is the right hemisphere, and the Emissary is the left. It will take some effort and finessing of the differences to avoid simplistic conclusions. First, it is important to know that both brains are involved in everything; both are involved together in speech, analysis, understanding, and emotions. I view McGilchrist’s studies on the two brains as the most insightful of any I’ve read, and that is why I write this essay—to thoughtfully look at his discoveries.

Consider this quote from Albert Einstein:

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant but has forgotten the gift. 

The key to grasping the why of two hemispheres is to recognize that each has its own, and very different, view of the world. The differences, the asymmetry of the two, has increased from the lineage of the apes, not diminished, and evolution always has a purpose.

In birds, the eye controlled by the left brain is good at sharply focusing on tiny things such as seeds against a backdrop of grit and gravel. It wants to get the food to eat, or the twig to build a nest. However, the other eye is simultaneously looking, as it must, at the whole landscape for something—it knows not what. There could be a predator wanting to make the bird its lunch while the bird searches for its meal. So this other eye looks at the big picture—what is happening in the environment—such as with its mate. It is wondering if a predator is coming down, if it is beginning to rain, and so forth.

The left brain eye wants one thing—to pick up as many seeds as possible, as quickly as it can. But the right brain may make an executive decision such as to return to the nest and its offspring, bed down for the night, or move to better hunting grounds. The left brain is very sure about itself and its work. The right brain will receive feedback about all these great seeds on the ground and remember that useful information, but will look at the big picture. This is well documented in the literature. The hemispheres are quite divided in their missions.

Thought Adjustment in the Human

Let us consider a tennis game as an analogy of the brain hemispheres. The right court and its player is the master, the net is the largely inhibitory corpus callosum, the nerve fiber network that connects but also appropriately keeps separated the two brains, and the ball is the information, thoughts, and impressions that are passed back and forth between the two players.

The common human situation is that when we focus on some detail or fact, if we obsess over it and don’t pass it back to be reasoned out, then tension is set up in the game or process. Conversely, if the right brain holds on too long with its big-picture ideas then nothing will happen in the outside world.

The left brain says, “We need to hammer these boards and build this house, now.” It doesn’t have time to ponder philosophically whether the board is really a board, or to puzzle over whether a nail might really work. It wants to build the bridge, hunt the prey, and get the job done, pronto. The right brain will consider larger purposes such as what to build, how to build, or even if it should build, or hunt, or fight, or procreate at this time.

If the left brain is approached too quickly, it may just want to bite, or become angry. The right brain might think, “But this person could become a friend; we should work this out.”

The problem with the left brain is that it “doesn’t know what it doesn’t know” in McGilchrist’s words. That is a dangerous condition left by itself. But it is so very sure and convinced about what it sees. Poor man, poor woman.

Some people are persons of great decision, others of moderate decision-making capability. But when you pass an idea back and forth across the net, and finally come to a decision, somehow, through harmony and cooperation of the two brains, giving the greater weight to the higher center, then you have made a bonafide decision.

Bingo! You just had a thought adjustment. Here is a pearl that is worth the whole essay and your reading it: When you come successfully to a conclusion about a personal, spiritual, philosophic, social, aesthetic, or theological question that has puzzled you—then and there the Thought Adjuster/Controller activates a spiritual counterpart (see 49:5.14 [566.2]) of that realization in your right brain. The Adjuster says, “That’s it, that’s right, you got it!” and takes a snapshot of it—and it thereby becomes a permanent part of your soul transcript that goes with you into the next life and is part of you and your divine partner throughout all eternity! An essential part of this decision process is the ripening or spiritualization of an insight into a plan of action. Otherwise, the insight remains as a mere stereotype or conception.

That’s pretty amazing. The right brain initiates higher thought; then your human intellect left brain parses out the details and refers it back again to the right brain, back and forth like a tennis ball until that concept, feeling, or idea settles and gets the divine stamp of approval. That is thought adjustment through a human-divine joint effort.

Let’s wrestle with challenges, and make decisions, decisions, and more decisions. That is a spiritual act that releases us to service and action in the world.

Purpose of Life

The purpose of all education should be to foster and further the supreme purpose of life, the development of a majestic and well-balanced personality (195:10.17 [2086.3]).

A Right Brain Destroyed by Stroke

In the medical literature, as described by McGilchrist, cases are observed when a person’s right brain function is destroyed by a stroke. The left arm is controlled by the right brain (it always crosses laterally in the body this way.) Cases have been observed where the sufferer is asked about his or her limp left arm, and he or she acknowledges it is there. When further asked, he or she will deny any problem, convinced that if it can be seen, then it is there, and that is that. When further pressed, the person may even deny that it is his or her arm, or may say that it is someone else’s. This demonstrates how unreasonably or irrationally sure the left brain can be, operating on its own, about facts as it partially perceives them or understands them.

A point I would like to state here is that a normally-brained individual can suffer from an analogous hampering dysfunction through “unsteady and rapidly shifting mental attitudes” and by “preconceived opinions, settled ideas, and long-standing prejudices” (see 109:5.3 [1199.4]).

In our two-brained type the motor functions are mixed with our higher cognitive functioning (compared with the three-brained type). That goes a long way in explaining why we are so easily distracted (cf. 49:5.14).

Image of house and a flower as drawn by a person with visual neglect from right brain dysfunction

Part Two

Brain Chemistry: What About the Pineal and Pituitary Glands?

Part One of this essay covers the main points of the important differential between the two brain hemispheres. This section, Part Two, looks at the endocrine brain chemistry endowment affecting conscious and superconscious thinking.

In the center of the brain lies the tiny pineal gland, about the size of a grain of rice (5 to 8 mm). Certain brain gland secretions provide for an electrochemical substrate that our consciousness rests gently upon. That provision is the delicate physical connection point from the spiritual to the material-mindal realm. We are of the two-brained type, and we are also of the two-gland series. These glands and their secretions are part of the brain function that facilitates spiritual communion.

Human consciousness rests gently upon the electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia energy system above (111:1.5 [1216.6]).

Spirit-reception series . . . refers primarily to gland chemistry, more particularly to the organization of certain glands comparable to the pituitary bodies. The races on some worlds have one gland, on others two, as do Urantians, while on still other spheres the races have three of these unique bodies. The inherent imagination and spiritual receptivity is definitely influenced by this differential chemical endowment. (49:5.19 [566.7])

I cannot prove that the pineal and pituitary are the two glands referenced above. (The hypothalamus is also worth considering. It is attached to the pituitary and is a sort of storehouse for and adjunct to the pituitary, but is considered part of the limbic system.) Our brain structure is designed for spiritual receptivity, activity, and balance. The pineal gland has been observed to secrete highly psychoactive DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine), and this substance has been detected in the microdialysate of the complex rodent pineal gland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23881860).

It has been hypothesized that the pineal gland in humans makes this secretion for a few minutes each night during the deepest part of sleep. This is likely a time when spiritual presences would like to register superconscious concepts in the human mind (cf. 109:5.1 [1199.2]). The pineal gland receives a voluminous blood supply in the body, second only to the kidney as measured by comparative organ volume. It is the last part of the body to die when the rhythmic pulsations of the brain cease.

Iodine concentrates in the pineal gland as it also does in the thyroid and elsewhere, and iodine can be pathologically displaced in the body by the halides fluorine, chlorine, and bromine. The pineal gland gets its name from the word “pine” as it is in appearance somewhat like a pine cone.

The pituitary gland, about the size of a pea, provides for regulation regarding motivation, reward cognition, reducing stress, creating homeostasis, and is a part of the reward system group of neural structures. This gland secretes beta-endorphin which is an opioid neuropeptide.

   The pine cone appears in esoteric artwork worldwide. 

Certain reptiles such as the tuatara (above) have a parietal eye at the top of the skull. Even though it is covered with a skin flap, it is still photoreceptive, light sensitive.

There are several other functions and secretions of these two glands, the pituitary and pineal, but these particulars are selected for your study as likely having the capacity to contribute to spiritual receptivity. Rene Descartes early speculated on the pineal gland as a sort of third eye and this has been demonstrated to be not far from the mark as current research shows that the pineal gland contains rod and cone cells much like the retina of the eye. We call it “seeing with the mind’s eye.” This is sensible because, for example, early salamander-like creatures had a light sensitive spot on the top of the head, which through the process of evolution descended into the brain becoming the pineal gland as the forward eyes developed. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3158392)

The animal brain also has these two glands and the basic functions such as the sleep response from the melatonin release of the pineal gland at nighttime are consistent with that of humans. But the human brain, unlike the lower animals, also has the highly evolved neocortex and prefrontal cortexes (left and right) upon which neuroglandular chemistry can further function.

This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behavior . . . decision making, and moderating social behavior. The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals.

The most typical psychological term for functions carried out by the prefrontal cortex area is executive function. Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social “control” (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex)

Consider this quote that describes how we are prone to translate or crowd our own thoughts into the Adjuster’s messages to us:

While their mortal hosts are asleep, the Adjusters try to register their creations in the higher levels of the material mind, and some of your grotesque dreams indicate their failure to make efficient contact. The absurdities of dream life not only testify to pressure of unexpressed emotions but also bear witness to the horrible distortion of the representations of the spiritual concepts presented by the Adjusters. Your own passions, urges, and other innate tendencies translate themselves into the picture and substitute their unexpressed desires for the divine messages which the indwellers are endeavoring to put into the psychic records during unconscious sleep. (110:5.4 [1208.3])

There is an important clue here that I submit is descriptive of our most basic problem with Adjuster/Controller guidance during the waking state as well. It goes like this in everyday life: we get a glimmer or distant echo of a higher thought, or picturization, or symbol coming from our indwelling divine spirit; then immediately we may cancel, overlay, translate, substitute, and replace that high thought with a human intellect version, “Oh, that reminds me of . . . ” such and such. Sound familiar?

Make no mistake, this is not purely a brain activity. Rather, it is an interactive physical brain (material-mind) and soul-mind phenomenon.

About the Author

Joshua J. Wilson is a father, educator, musician, pastoral counselor, and essayist who writes on historical and scientific subjects harmonizing science, philosophy and religion. 

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Decision Information Systems, specializing in Human Behavior in Organizations, and certificates in Not-for-Profit Management and Active Parenting Instruction. Hobbies include camping and hiking.

Contact email: musical@cox.net

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