Julian Jaynes Society Discussion Forum: Exploring Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind Theory since 1997

Please note I am not a crackpot. I was wondering if anyone could help me out or refer to someone who could.

For more than 4 years I have set out on a goal to become ambidexterous in order to be able to become a great basketball player; to that end as I am naturally left handed but forced to use my right hand to write when I was younger (and as such I throw darts and eat with my right), I tried to "improve" my right side and slowly started to activate the muscles on my right starting from my hand and moving up from there. It all went well up til a certain point recently when I passed my shoulder area; seemingly upon activation of shoulder area and down my back, it has caused me problems with brain to the extent described hereunder. I begin to undergo different "experiences" of the world as my most likely left brain became my dominant and my brain was being rewired, experience nausea, balancing problems at times, had a bitter taste in my mouth at times. I seem to have different spatial orientations and all of this seem to have to do with both sides of my brain essentially fight for dominance depending on which side of body make a movement. Moreover, I have experience difficulty in focusing, and cloudiness of my mind.

Please help me as I am extremely concerned for my future; I do not know what my future holds and the prognosis for this. I do not believe I could "deactivate" the should area which would allow my left side (and right brain) to dominate again. Perhaps a surgery to cut some nerves to my right shoulder. As you could see, I am exceedingly concerned and in need of haste help.

I would recommend seeing your doctor right away. I am not a doctor and not qualified to offer advice on this issue. I would recommend describing your symptoms to your doctor and getting all necessary tests done to rule out more prosaic causes of your symptoms such as a sinus infection, some type of allergic reaction, lyme disease, etc., etc. If that doesn't reveal the cause then you should see a neurologist for further testing into more serious possible causes.

I think the ambidexterity exercises and your symptoms are probably unrelated. When two things take place in close proximity it's easy to link them up and see one as the cause of the other, but often it's just coincidental. Various ambidexterity programs and fads have come and gone but I've never heard of any related problems.

The parts of your brain that control movement are the sensory-motor cortex and the cerebellum. Each half of the sensory-motor cortex controls the opposite side of the body. I can see how one could improve dexterity via excercises but not how any "hemispheric dominance" struggles could ensue. I would imagine if such a thing were even possible we'd be hearing a lot more about it from a variety of athletes, musicians, etc. For example many left-handed people learn to play a right-handed guitar. In the past, left-handed children were sometimes forced to write right handed in school. Just playing the piano involves a great deal of dexterity in both hands.

In any case, you need to see your doctor. Please give us an update after you've seen your doctor.