Have you ever found yourself wondering what your unique contribution to Life might be? At one time or another, most of us have asked this question. Behind it lies, perhaps, the longing to step out of the shadows and into a richer, more colourful experience—one that goes beyond the stark black-and-white of the daily grind. We want to be less at the mercy of circumstances and more the Conductors of our own orchestras and Directors of our own films. This has sometimes been described as stepping into our own power. Such a nuanced life also suggests that our minds draw on both hemispheres of their vehicle, the brain, to open up these multi-dimensional layers.
Singing a Rainbow: Beyond Left-Brain Certainty
You might remember that popular children’s song, I Can Sing a Rainbow, written by Arthur Hamilton in 1955, perhaps it has something to teach us… If you recall, the words go something like this: Red and yellow and pink and green, Purple and orange and blue, I can sing a rainbow, Sing a rainbow, Sing a rainbow too. Later, the song invites us to sing along and to listen with our eyes as well as our ears, and to sing everything we see. If we rely on our left-brain we might well think that this is nonsense: how is it possible to listen with the eyes and to sing everything we see? It is only when the words from our left brain are translated by our right-brain that we move away from the purely analytical towards the intuition and a more holistic multi-dimensional viewpoint which knows exactly how we can listen with our eyes. And how might we listen with our eyes? We leave that with you!
When Meaning Loses its Colour: The Limits of Reductionism
British psychiatrist and neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist has unfolded the hemispheres of the brain at great length[1]. It seems that society as a whole (which of course means the individuals that compose it) has become reliant on the merits of the left-brain with its aptitude for critical thinking and problem-solving, without being led by the right-brain with its more holistic understanding and perspective. Of course we need both sides of the brain working together. Perhaps the rise of the left brain in modern society has encouraged us to collapse consciousness into the brain itself, forgetting that the brain is but its instrument. The left-brain tends to redact, so, for instance, 50 pages might be reduced to one paragraph. Whilst this can undoubtedly be useful, it serves to perpetuate a black and white view of life where all the nuances, and the colour, are lost. Of course the left brain is more than happy with this as it makes things more easily digestible and there is less need to unfold the complexities – and to have joy in them. Traditionally, this process of reducing things is known as reductionism where complexity is boiled down to a few basic components. This is certainly one of the challenges of society and a challenge for ourselves, if we really do want to see those colours! Throughout history left-brain reductionism has triumphed whenever the colours have been stripped away. There are many examples, but one such goes back to the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549 when the Book of Common Prayer was introduced. This new prayer book did away with Latin and favoured English. It is true that for many this made the liturgy more accessible, but it also served to strip away nuances of meaning. The descent continued in 1881 when the King James Bible was officially revised in the form of the Revised Version — an updated English edition created to make its language clearer and more accurate for contemporary readers. Of course, we must update things to meet the needs of the time (and our own needs.) But in the case cited, and no doubt in other cases, there is a potential pitfall – semantic drift – when the original meaning of a word or words, is lost. Added to this, meaning of text can be further reduced when it is stripped of its mystery in an attempt to popularise and make it palatable to most people. We can take this analogy further, do we sometimes try to ‘reduce’ ourselves and our own colours in order to ‘fit in’?
Expanding our Consciousness
Perhaps most of our speech and writing is necessarily reductionist, shaped and limited by the boundaries of our own consciousness—by both what we truly comprehend and what eludes us. This is compounded by something else: as we express ourselves the nuanced colours we see within us, become paler as they splay out into concrete words. Paradoxically, those words describe our inner state, yet they invariably fall disappointingly short of it. Hence, all artists (and we are all artists in the sense that we create) are simultaneously uplifted and piqued by their productions. Uplifted because of the joy of expression and piqued, because the true colours of consciousness cannot be unfolded all at once in full 360 degree splendour. It could be said that only the Divine Consciousness has that purview and that privilege. In the White Light of Divine Consciousness, we each sing a rainbow – a nuanced ‘colour’ or ‘note’ which is distinctly ours to contribute – and which brings joy and happiness! Moreover, in the very act of singing, additional notes — sometimes unknown to us—are drawn out. Good luck with singing your rainbow!
[1]The Master and his Emissary – The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, Yale University Press, 2009. The Matter with Things, Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, Perspectiva, 2021.
Watch this video and find out about Edi’s course which explores beyond the brain: A Journey Through Consciousness - Exploring our Humanity by Dr Edi Bilimoria: A Journey Through Consciousness: Exploring our Humanity - Integral Wisdom
