When the Servant Usurps the Crown

or, Einstein said: We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.

An Article by Judy Apps, ?September 2023

It had been a long day. He agreed to meet me off the train. I’ll be just outside,”he said. “Or further down the dual carriageway on the opposite side near the petrol station.”

His car is large and blue. I came down the long stairs from the railway bridge and began to walk along the line of cars stretching back from the pedestrian crossing. There was a blue car in the distance, though I wasn’t sure whether it was the right one. I walked along the line, and discovered that ?it wasn’t. So I walked back to the pedestrian crossing to cross to the other side where the petrol station was.

Suddenly, a car horn sounded loudly behind me. I turned and saw that my own little black car was at the very front of the line of cars on my side of the road. He had never met me in my car before. I opened the passenger door with relief.

“Blind as a bat!” was his greeting.

Fair enough; but I felt slightly annoyed.

No, that’s inaccurate. I felt really put out, and instead of thanking him, remained in silence all the way home, as did he. (I know, I know!)

A trivial moment in the life of… . But maybe a good example to play with.

I asked myself why I felt annoyed? I had walked right past my own car after all. Twice! At the same time, his comment felt unjust. He had never picked me up in my car before without telling me beforehand, so quite reasonably I was looking for a blue car. My brain had employed a ‘blue car’ filter to sort for blue cars. I had acted reasonably, in my book.

Ah, filters. Did you ever catch the very short ‘invisible gorilla’ video that did the rounds a while ago? (from the invisible gorilla.com.) It’s an excellent example of filtering. In the video, you are asked to do a particular task, to count the number of ball passes made by the white team. If you concentrate on the task you’ll miss the gorilla, though the gorilla is obvious! Try it.

What you are doing when you concentrate on one thing at the expense of wider attention is engaging a filter. We regularly engage filters, there is just too much information to take in everything at any one time, so we automatically fail to notice much of what is available in any situation in order to focus on what we find relevant. Walking down a street, one person might focus on the architecture, one might be interested in what people are wearing, another might be on the lookout for danger. It’s a way of attending that is becoming more and more the norm. And it’s useful. ?

But it ignores a vital different way of attending, associated with the right side of the brain. Take goal setting: if the left hemisphere of the brain is in charge, a goal is identified and you put together the pieces needed to achieve it. (It’s a ‘closed’ process if you like - the end is already decided.) Scientific research is mostly forced into this left brain approach today. “Identify a single desired outcome - e.g. Find a cure for cancer - then consciously put together whatever leads towards that end.

Clearly, there’s nothing wrong with goal setting or using our brain in a particular way to find cures for particular diseases. However, if that is our only approach, there’s a problem. For example, some of the greatest scientific discoveries in the past came from a freer more open-minded approach - right-brained, if you like: “Go, excellent-scientist-whom-we-trust, research! See what emerges! Oh, penicillin, great! Oh the atomic bomb, yep, ok. Oh, graphine, the most useful material of our age, that’s terrific!”

Life needs more than the left brain model. There’s a different way to be, which requires a wide attention, open to what’s there – less focus, more presence. You might think you don’t know how to do that, but if you’ve ever been entranced by a view, or practised meditation, or experienced empathy in relation to another human being, you have experienced it. In such moments, your body and mind are open rather than focused, and this state allows creativity and intuition.

The unconscious mind is much vaster than the conscious mind. When we have an intuition about something, it arises at a time of its own choosing from our unconscious. We can facilitate its occurrence by keeping the mind at ease and open, which activates the right hemisphere of the brain. It’s a state of mindfulness, of being physically present and aware, without being carried away on our thoughts. You might describe intuition as the art of finding what you are looking for when you don’t know what you are looking for.

Intuitions don’t always make sense at first, but they can be hugely useful. Here are some examples (in ‘left brain’ bullet points:-) ):

• Lateral thinking - an idea pops into your head from nowhere, and you recognise that it’s a good one.
• You have the intuition to be suspicious of someone, and your hunch is born out.
• You have the intuition to trust someone without knowing why, and later you discover that your instinct was exactly right.
• You listen to a colleague or friend without any agenda – without judgement or impatience or interpretation or the desire to intervene – and you hear what they are saying beyond what they are saying.
• You put a problem aside and sleep on it, then awake with a fully formed solution.

It’s like sending out a question to a celestial internet far vaster than any current resource and allowing it to give us the answer we need. ?Intuition, imagination, nuance, complexity, humour, metaphor, symbol, paradox and context are all the province of the right hemisphere of the brain.

Now we live in a world that likes to think it is rational. Iain Gilchrist’s marvellous book on the divided brain, The Master and His Emissary, shows how even a decision to be rational is in itself an intuition. I used this quote from his book on the first page of my The Art of Communication:

It is not rational to assume, without evidence, that rationality can disclose everything about the world, just because it can disclose some things. Our intuition in favour of rationality, where we are inclined to use it, is just that – an intuition. ?Reason is founded in intuition and ends in intuition, like a pair of massive bookends. ?

My Art of Communication includes a chapter entitled “Use Both Hemispheres of the Brain” to explain how they influence your life. ? INCIDENTALLY, I notice that World of Books has a surprising current ￡5 bargain offer on my book (free delivery in the UK).

I believe Mcgilchrist took the title of his book from an observation of Albert Einstein:

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

If you find much of what happens in public life and politics today just plain stupid or ignorant, you’re probably looking at examples of the servant having taken over from the master. They are everywhere. Don’t lose trust in your intuition. The more you use it, the more you trust it, and the more you trust it the more useful it is to you.

I’m off for a quiet sit in the garden with a cup of tea. All in the service of research …

All the very best for new beginnings this autumn. Go well,

Judy

AND …

How your voice touches others. Thetrue meaning of what you say - My TEDx Talk

Do you know how your voice touches others? Isn’t it strange– considering how we care what we look like, and about the words we use to communicate - that the considerable impact of the actual sound we make is completely unknown to most of us? Many people have told me that my 12 minute TEDxTalk was a revelation.Do share the link if you’d like to recommend it to friends.

Brighton Art Trail

All summer the central streets of Brighton have been festooned with banners designed by Rosie Apps (the surname might ring a bell). Next month, if you’re down that way, look for her two humorous Shaun the Sheep on the baa-rilliant Brighton art trail of over 40 individually designed sculptures displayed around Brighton &Hove’s streets, squares and parks.9 September – 5 November. ?

My Books

The Art of Communication Bring nuance, depth, and meaning to every conversation you have. Perhaps you feel that your conversations lack depth and meaning and that you'd like to enrich your relationships with others,if only you knew how. Or perhaps you are a confident communicator but suspect there may be more to the art of conversation that you have not yet been able to access. This book will meet you there and show you how to engage wholeheartedly with others.

The Art of Conversation – Good conversation is at the heart of networking, meetings,interviews, negotiations and raising your profile. It can ease your way in work, enabling you to build alliances; create strong relationships with staff,bosses, and clients; succeed at interviews; motivate; and inspire. Worth getting better at! But conversation is something most of us were never taught!The book gives you what some people have naturally that enables them to converse comfortably and easily, to engage people and build better relationships.?

Voice and Speaking Skills For Dummies– Everything you wanted to know about voice and speaking in a book that’s easy to dip into to answer all your questions.

Voice of Influence – How to get people to love to listen to you. Translated into 9 different languages. Find your own unique voice.

Butterflies and Sweaty Palms – Get rid of your nerves now! Never again stand in front of people and quake! The information is tried and tested,and highly practical. Read it also in Italian: Farfalle Nello Stomaco e ManiSudate.

Coaching and self-coaching

Dr Nicole LePera’s book, How to Meet Yourself is a good read. Nicole also posts great advice on relationships on Twitter? - @holisticpsych.

Contact me for coaching online. A short sequence of sessions will recharge your life and boost your confidence. Also voice and presentation coaching. And September is a good month for new beginnings, don’t you think? ?