I share this post because originally I intended to write on a different topic. However, suddenly an idea linked with the first one, and the idea of this emerged from nowhere.
I read a post on ants and how they arrange themselves to share food. Later, I needed to find more information about how ants store seeds and hide them for later consumption.
What captivated me first is that ants split seeds into two halves before storing them in hidden places. It turned out that splitting seeds into two halves do not allow seeds to germinate.
Ants do the same with all seeds except for coriander seeds. The ants divide them into four parts because if in two parts they grow.
How amazing? How did ants know this?
The Detour of Thinking started
The idea of splitting into two halves appealed to me. I decided to explore it in more depth.
One finding is having this feeling “Basically my left side of my body and right side feel different”. The author went on to say “It feels like there is a VERTICAL line running all the way down my body cutting exactly right through my scalp, belly button, and genitalia…”
This can be a fertile area for imagination with two legs each moving on its own.
This feeling of being cut in two halves exists in the brain as well. This is known as the “split-brain syndrome”. Encyclopedia Britannica explains this syndrome in some detail.
Imagine the left brain is separated from the right brain and disconnecting their communication. The left brain is the logical brain and the right brain is the creative brain. However, we know that the two brains talk to each other.
Is splitting the brain similar to the splitting of seeds in two halves so that they cannot germinate?
Likewise, shall our brains “germinate” if we split the right brain from the left brain? I leave this to your imagination.
My mind stretched its imagination to the spherical earth and what would happen if it is cut in two halves.
To my surprise, I found a very interesting video that answered my question. This video is a must-see.
What If the Earth Was Cut in Half?
I strongly advise the reader to watch this four minutes video.
The simple idea of splitting a seed carried me to the splitting of the earth. I better stop writing before my brain splits into two halves.
One in six Americans allegedly doesn’t believe the world is round. Yikes! What would happen to them if the Earth split? I can see many sleepless nights ahead as I wrestle with this conundrum.
Seriously, we have much to learn about cooperation from the rest of the natural world. Check out the following as an example:
https://www.nal.usda.gov/collections/stories/three-sisters#:~:text=and%20the%20Southeast.-,The%20Iroquois%20and%20the%20Cherokee%20called%20corn%2C%20bean%2C%20and%20squash,squash%20throughout%20of%20the%20field.
Thank you Jeff for sharing your interesting thoughts.
Amazing is the number of people who still do not believe the earth is round. They live with a “flat” mentality
Thanks for the link. Will read tonight.
just started to read the link, Jeff,
It is fascinating.
Reading this “The squash leaves provide ground cover between the corn and beans, preventing weeds from taking over the field. These three plants thrive together better than when they are planted alone.”
What a great example of collaboration. I am going to quote it soon in a post.
Million thanks Jeff for bringing this publication to my attention
Your reflections are very interesting and stimulate curiosity.
Our planet is far from stationary in the Universe. The movements of the Earth are diverse and have important consequences for both life and climate. But when it “falls apart” (think of earthquakes) they are serious problems.
We are used to thinking of our body, our identity and our mind as unique and coherent objects. Some discoveries derived from research on split-brain (adopted to treat epilepsy) undermine our perception. In a brain with two communicating hemispheres, do we have a single brain or two separate, and therefore two divided minds, working together? Furthermore, is our consciousness distributed in both hemispheres or is it confined to only one? Or again, are we sure we have only one conscience? Research is addressing these issues and we expect a new decade full of surprises in this field as well.
The three issues you highlighted Aldo are indeed a focus of interesting research.
Research shall reveal many unknowns and hidden facts.
The integrity of the human mind, body and heart if split and each works alone is a topic that fascinates me and which I am trying to explore in a greater depth
Hello again Brother Ali
The video is a bit depressing, but I don’t see the earth breaking apart in this way in my lifetime. We are breaking apart in other ways, but more on that later.
The way ants break the seed is interesting. They intinctually know that their stored nourishment is compromised if the seed germinate -that is nourish the plant they are intended to grow.
It seems to me that some companies, some bosses prevent germinations and growth so that they can absorb the nourishment the owrkers provide -keep them uninformed, keep them in a role too long, so they won’t grow beyond the manager or company’s us.
Split brain syndrome -some times we do this to ourselves voluntarily over-developing the analytical -underdeveloping the spatial. Are highly analytical people immune to body language cues?
The brain also splits between the cerebral (thought) and limbic (emotional) how do we supress out emotional synapses becaause we over value our thought?
Back to splitting the Earth – we are splitting the planet between nhaves and Have nots, between climate uninhabitable regions and uuninhabitable regions. Mighten we slow or stop some of that?
Sobering.
This is a fascinating comment Brother Alan,
As for splitting the world between the and have not- this is a great idea and even if the splitting does not give equal halves the consequences are terrible. The results are not as devastating as the splitting of the earth, bit not very far from it.
The second great thought that you mention is germinating the seeds of ideas as some managers want to stop their germination so that no employee can surpass them.
This is true and happens. The results are devastating. Ants split the seeds for good purpose. Managers who split the ideas and suggestion of employees are for bad purposes and the intention is wicked.
As for splitting the brain syndrome. Even splitting it intangibly weakens the brain. The right brain and left brain must communicate. If not splitting happens,
Thank you brother for your valuable added thoughts.
Your thoughts were much more interesting than the video, Ali. And thank you for the tidbit about the ants.
Some people have had their two halves of the brain separated – if I recall correctly as a remedy against particularly difficult bouts of epilepcy. Other people have had one half of the brain destroyed from strokes or aneurysms and have regained full function (The Brain that Changes Itself is an excellent read on neuro-plascicity.)
We shouldn’t be too focused on what the brain can do in the right or left side because it can do so much more than it normally does when challenged.
Thank you Charlotte and for your appreciation.
I agree we need the whole brain to germinate ideas and not only one half.
Those incidents that cause forced split of the brain are special cases. What some people do they dwell heavily on one side of the brain. This post is for them.