The Secret Message of The Sycamore Gap: it could change your life (if you get it)

In the middle of what was a very difficult week in the UK and beyond, something beautiful happened at the Sycamore Gap; something that?made me feel very reflective. ?

I wrote a therapeutic story about it?which is at the end of this post. To me it was a timely embodiment of?an important message for the complicated world in which we find ourselves today. ?

The easy way ?

It’s difficult to make things easy. However, bespoke storytelling really does help?accelerate positive outcomes, as I illustrated with my case study about Ruth. ?

Whether with clients, or running a training programme, I always try to offer explanations of, what can be very complex concepts, in ways that are useful. What's?the point of giving technically accurate explanations that are so ethereal they do not translate into something that has practical application? ? Filling the theory-application gap is, as ever, the real challenge of any educator and that’s why I tell stories. The right brain hemisphere will get a concept in an instant that the left hemisphere will take a long time to fathom out, if it ever does. ?

As neuroscience has evolved, the stories around how our brains work have certainly become much more complicated. In terms of the nature of human consciousness, we really are still just scratching the surface it seems. ?

When I explain things for my client (in reference to emotional hijacks for instance) I’ll say something like ‘Because I’m not a neuroscientist and you’re not a neuroscientist, I’m going to give you a simple explanation of what is happening in your brain and, because it’s so simple, I think you’ll get it and find very useful.’ ?

The Divided Brain ?

Referring to a bilateral brain might feel reductionist for some but, if my client really does get the concept, it puts them in control… which is generally where they need to be. ? If you haven’t read Iain Gilchrist’s ‘The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World’

I highly recommend it. He has devoted his professional life to addressing the complexities of how our brain hemispheres do (or don’t) work together. It’s not an easy read but the pay-off is huge, so stick with it. ?

Boiled down (very boiled down) we have two brains and both our brains see the world in a very different way: one is rational, linear and logical and the other is emotional, holistic and insightful. Both brains try to dominate and it’s only by stepping back into the Observing Self that we can we exert executive control over who is at the helm at any one time. This is the essence of emotional intelligence.

Here is what McGilchrist says: ? ‘Joseph Hellige , for example, arguably the world’s best informed authority on the subject, writes that while both hemispheres seem to be involved in one way or another in almost everything we do, here are some ‘very striking’ differences in the information-processing abilities and propensities of the two hemispheres. ?

V. S. Ramachandran , a well-known and highly regarded neuroscientist, accepts that the issue of hemisphere difference has been traduced, but concludes: ‘The existence of such a pop culture shouldn’t cloud the main issue – the notion that the two hemispheres may indeed be specialised for different functions.’ ?

And recently Tim Crow , one of the subtlest and most sceptical of neuroscientists researching into mind and brain, who has often remarked on the association between the development of language, functional brain asymmetry and psychosis, has gone so far as to write that ‘except in the light of lateralisation nothing in human psychology/psychiatry makes any sense.’ ?

My thesis is that for us as human beings there are two fundamentally opposed realities, two different modes of experience; that each is of ultimate importance in bringing about the recognisably human world; and that their difference is rooted in the bi-hemispheric structure of the brain. ? It follows that the hemispheres need to co-operate, but I believe they are in fact involved in a sort of power struggle, and that this explains many aspects of contemporary Western culture. ? This is important because the most fundamental difference between the hemispheres lies in the type of attention they give to the world. ?

In his book, McGilchrist uses the analogy of the Master and his Emissary (a story often attributed to Nietsche) to illustrate how we disregard the wisdom of the right hemisphere at our peril, both on a personal and societal level. Co operation is, as ever, the answer and, as I often say when describing coach-counsellor integrated practice, ? ‘The whole is so much more than the sum of its parts.’ ? Here’s the story: ?

The Master and his Emissary ? There was once a wise spiritual master, who was the ruler of a small but prosperous domain, and who was known for his selfless devotion to his people. ? As his people flourished and grew in number, the bounds of this small domain spread; and with it the need for trusted emissaries to be?sent to ensure the safety of its ever more distant parts. It was not just that it was impossible for him personally to order all that needed to be dealt with: as he wisely saw, he needed to keep his distance from such concerns. ?

And so he carefully nurtured and trained?his emissaries. ? Eventually, however, his cleverest and most ambitious vizier, the one he most trusted to do his work, began to see himself as the master and used his position to advance his own wealth and influence. He saw his master’s temperance and forbearance as weakness, not wisdom, and on his missions on the master’s behalf, adopted his mantle as his own – and the emissary became contemptuous of the?master. ? And so it came about that the master was usurped, the people were duped, the domain was degraded and eventually collapsed in ruins. ?

What it all means ?

McGilchrist says in the introduction to his book: ‘The meaning of this story is as old as humanity, and resonates far from the sphere of political history. I believe, in fact, that it helps us understand something taking place inside ourselves, inside our very brains, and played out in the cultural history of the West, particularly over the last 500 years or so. ?

Why I believe so forms the subject of this book. I hold that, like the Master and his emissary in the story, though the cerebral hemispheres should co-operate, they have for some time been in a state of conflict. ? The subsequent battles between them are recorded in the history of philosophy, and played out in the seismic shifts that characterise the history of Western culture. At present the domain – our civilisation – finds itself in the hands of the vizier, who, however gifted, is effectively an ambitious regional bureaucrat with his own interests at heart. ?

Meanwhile the Master, the one whose wisdom gave the people peace and security, is led away in chains. The Master is betrayed...’

Stories, stories, stories ?

Because I understand the power of story to effect change, and because of the need to work with the innate wisdom of our right hemisphere, I am bringing together a book of therapeutic stories right now; some I have written for clients over the years and others I’ve adapted to make them helpful for presenting issues. ? Here’s the one I wrote just this week as I mentioned. I hope it helps… ?

The Sycamore Gap* ? The felling of the Sycamore Gap tree brought an outpouring of emotion in 2023 with people? bereft at?the pictures showing it downed and on its side. The iconic tree has lived in the?dell on Hadrian’s Wall for over 150 years and became the site of countless marriage proposals, scatterings of ashes and birthday celebrations.

The tree made the Sycamore Gap a very special place it seemed. After the shock of the felling, the trunk was removed and the stump roped off and everyone wondered ‘Is this it? Is this the end?’ Winter came and passed. Nothing happened. Spring came but nothing happened. However, 10 months after the incident, Gary Pickles, the ranger who was first at the scene when the tree was felled, paid the stump a visit and noticed something that amazed him. He could clearly?see eight tiny shoots at the base of the stump, around 2-4 cm in height.

‘To see signs of life, just 10 months on, is astonishing’ said Pickles. ‘In my head I had consigned the tree to history… we hoped it would re grow but there has not been any sign and we all began to become a bit despondent.’

Now fencing and netting have been erected to prevent the shoots being harmed and it really is a question of nature via nurture as a safe environment is created to allow the tree to do what it knows innately how to do. Yes, for whatever reason, a force from without tried to destroy the Sycamore Gap tree…

But a force from within had quite a different idea!?

*A story for hope, resilience, post trauma growth, a SAFE SPACE

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