Presence, Poetry, and the Collaborative Right Hemisphere

Carole Brooks Platt, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2007, 14, 3, 36-53.

Abstract: Neuropsychologist Michael Persinger’s ‘Muse Factor’ experiment holds up in the study of mystics and poets with the added caveats of enhanced temporal lobe lability being preconditioned by adverse childhood circumstances, especially maternal deprivation, and the sexual abuse factor or loss of a significant male figure, in women. The wounded mind searches for enhanced personal meaning and the stabilization of the self through a restorative dialogic with conjured Others and real collaborators. Whether aroused by intense verbal meaningfulness, meditation, pathologies, drug usage, ritualistic behaviours or electromagnetically, the creative output can provide healing perceptions, a change of course and, often, an inspired poetic voice.

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