Imagine a table in a science lab. At one end is a man dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, smiling and looking around. At the other end is a scientist in a white coat, holding a clipboard.
“I’ll ask you some yes-no questions,” the scientist says. “But don’t answer me in words. Instead I want you to point to YES or NO on this board here. And for each question, I will tell you which hand I want you to point with. Makes sense?”
The other man nods.
“Let’s start then. Right hand: are you at Caltech right now?”
The man points to YES with his right hand.
“Left hand: are you a woman?”
The man points to NO with his left hand.
“Right hand: is chocolate your favorite ice cream flavor?”
YES.
“Left hand: are you asleep right now?”
NO.
“Ok… here’s a more personal question. Right hand: do you believe in God?”
The right hand points to NO.
“Left hand: do YOU believe in God?”
The man’s left hand flies to point to YES. Because the left side of this man’s body, and the right side of his brain, are believers. But the right side of his body, and the left side of his brain, are atheists.
The crazy thing is, this experiment really happened. And so have many other related experiments.
They were all done on patients who had their corpus callosum cut. That’s the bridge between the two islands of your left and right brain hemispheres.
People with a cut corpus callosum do just fine in normal situations. But in a lab setting, you can tease out that they have two brains… two personalities… and two different consciousnesses inside their skulls and skin.
In a person with a normal corpus callosum, these two parts somehow merge. But my guess is these split-brain conflicts remain in all of us, just hidden beneath the surface.
Anyways, now that I’ve told you about the man who might be going to both heaven and hell, here’s the point of today’s email:
According to split-brain research, the right side of the brain responds to images, humor, surprise, and metaphors…
While the left side of the brain responds to facts, argument, consistency, and logic.
So you’ve got to both SHOW and TELL. Because you don’t want the two sides arguing with each other beneath the surface. It might sink your message.
And here’s another tip:
If you’ve tried and failed to persuade somebody before… even though you have a good point… then you don’t need better logic.
The left side is happy hearing the same sound logic over and over.
But you do need a surprising new presentation. It doesn’t have to be logical. It just has to be dramatic. How dramatic? Ideally, heaven-and-hell-type stuff.
Did you find this post enlightening? If you did, then use your left hand to click here and sign up for more ideas and images like what you just read.