Imagine you’ve just walked into your favorite local bar, ready to to try something new as you make your way through the crowd. On this short journey to the beer tap, you proceed to scan the types of beer, survey your surrounding, recognize someone you know, notice what’s on TV, smell the fajitas that just passed by on a waitress’ tray, and recognize your name as it’s called amid the buzz.

“In all that sensory noise, how can you hear your name and lust for those fajitas when your intent is to catch the bartender’s attention and ask for a nice, hoppy ale?” This is just one of the questions author Ransom Stephens, PhD asks and answers in his latest book, “The Left Brain Speaks The Right Brain Laughs.”

Stephens, known for his forward-thinking, science fiction novels, “The God Patent” and “The Sensory Deception,” now shares an edgy look at neuroscience as it relates to those who identify as either right-brained or left-brained, and tackles the reasons why we think the way we do. In the spirit of appeasing both his right- and left-brained readers, Stephens even titles each chapter with opposing ideas: Life & Death, Art & Science, Alone & Together and so on.

In case you’re thinking this is a serious read, think again. What could be a drab explanation on gray matter ends up as a humorous and interesting read, offering anecdotes along with insightful information. Each chapter is broken up into easy to digest subsections, with amusing topics like “The realities of whales, dogs, and trees (and naked people).”

From Chapter 1.5: “What are we doing here”:

In “The Left Brain Speaks The Right Brain Laughs,” we’ll pay a lot of attention to creativity because the brain itself is an instrument for creating. In an ongoing rush of experience, our brains create the reality of our worlds. We’ll investigate the neuroscience processes that lead to amazing feats in the arts and sciences, what happens in the brain when we get those “ah ha!” light bulb moments as well as when we derive a solution/invention/masterpiece through the deliberate process of hard work.

Learn more about “The Left Brain Speaks The Right Brain Laughs” and Ransom Stephens’ other books at his website, www.ransomstephens.com.

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