Frontal lobe civilization

Antappan is an ant who lives in the kingdom of Antadonia. Amid the 24-hour back-breaking work, his mind used to wander. He felt his two-dimensional world is somehow incomplete. Once, he met a fly who could reach any place without walking. In the eyes of the two-dimensional Antappan, it disappeared from one place and suddenly appeared in the other. “Teleportation”, Antappan thought with awe.

One day, due to unknown reasons, Antappan grew a pair of wings. After some trial and error, Antappan learned to use his wings and took off into the air. Suddenly his two-dimensional world transformed into a three-dimensional one. Everything was wonderful. He could now stop the long march from Antadonia to the cake on the table and take the easy aerial route to reach there. To his ant friends, Antappan was teleporting.

Though he tried to explain the third dimension to them, their little ant heads could not process it. For them, Antappan was a teleporting mysterious being.

Are we limited?

Last day, while listening to a lecture by the author and spiritual guru Sri M, I heard him label today’s world as the ‘frontal lobe civilization’. A light bulb went inside my head.

We as a society have evolved a lot from the stone age. Thanks to our wonderful brains. But are we making full use of the greatest faculty?

The truth is, we are not. We are too reliant on the frontal lobe and have created a world where logic, memory, and muscle control (sports) are the only things that matter. Effectively we are like the two-dimensional ants in Antadonia, only in our case, we are restricted by the limitations of our frontal lobe.

We struggle to make sense of many things in the world due to this disability. We sometimes try to squeeze those things into the box of logic. If we fail, we resort to denial and mockery, as it is easier than expanding our horizons.

A rejuvenated brain

Imagine an alien civilization where people are biologically the same as humans, but have unlocked the full potential of their brains. I feel that we would find them very advanced but strange. Their value systems and goals might be totally different from ours.

For instance, they might believe the goal of life is to grow in love, not make a ton load of money. Similarly, spiritual experience, considered voodoo by our frontal lobe civilization, may be as intuitive to the alien civilization as 1+1=2 for us.

They would be the three-dimensional beings in our two-dimensional world.

The myths might be true

When we make full use of the other parts of the brain, we might start perceiving the world differently. We may develop intuitions, go beyond our five senses and develop a perception of the other dimensions.

But it is difficult to reach that place if we do not accept that we are living a limited life. This acceptance might be the first step.

Secondly, as the ancients believed, we may have to turn off our senses and work with ourselves to lighten up the whole of the brain. We may have to use meditation as a tool for this.

Think of the freedom Antappan enjoyed when the third dimension opened up for him. Can’t we likewise transform our limited world and perceive reality?

Thank you for reading. Please post your thoughts in the comment box.