I've been reading a new book called Left in the Dark by Tony Wright and Graham Gynn, and I'm only about 100 pages into the book but so far it has been a fascinating read. I'll be writing a review for my company's web site soon, but I wanted to post something here too because the book is so relevant to the theme of this site.
Tony Wright, one of the book's co-authors, broke the world record for sleep deprivation in May of this year as part of a personal experiment in left-brain/right-brain consciousness. For more than eleven days, he remained not only awake but fully coherent and active. He participated in interviews with reporters from local television news programs and radio stations, including ongoing video interviews with the BBC, right up until the end of the experiment. He also kept a daily diary, which was published on the BBC web site, and interacted with guests at the Studio Bar in Cornwall where the experiment took place. That kind of dedication to personal research always gets my attention, and it lends more credence to the theories explored in the book.
The first section of Left in the Dark discusses neurochemistry and the evolution of the brain -- in simple explanations that are easily accessible to a layman -- and posits a theory about the impact of a plant-based diet on the early development of the human brain. The authors also describe how our modern diet has negatively impacted our cognitive development, and examine the anthropological and spiritual repercussions in addition to the biological effects. The implications are so intriguing I was prompted to seriously consider returning to vegetarianism, which I'll post more about later this week in an article about nutrition and its effects on consciousness.
Left in the Dark also discusses the differences between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and their influence on states of consciousness, drawing examples from cases of savant syndrome, multiple personality disorder, and even hemispherectomy (the removal of one hemisphere of the brain). The book explores the right hemisphere's involvement in artistic functions, healing abilities, intuition, and transcendent experiences. The authors also imply that society's ongoing favor of the left hemisphere may prevent us from accessing our full potential, and in later chapters they include suggestions for restoring your own individual consciousness.
I'm eager to finish reading the book to learn more about the authors' theories about consciousness and personal evolution. I'll post a link here when the formal review is published on my company's web site, but in the meantime I recommend visiting Tony Wright's web site and ordering a copy of Left in the Dark for yourself.
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this book is a MUST read