To celebrate Brain Awareness Week 2021 (15th-21st March) and World Poetry Day (21st March), I was interviewed by the student magazine Pi from University College London about my experience of writing 'Multilingual Neuropoetry'. I share with the interviewers my inspiration for writing the book, the challenges I faced during the process, and why scientists and non-scientists will be equally intrigued by 'Multilingual Neuropoetry'. The link to the interview is on the Pi website. Here is the full extended version of the interview, in which I also share with you what our brain has got to do with our gut, and how you can become truly creative.
Book Interview: Dr Jayanthiny Kangatharan
By Laura Riggall & Rachel Dumbrell
Could you please tell us about your new book, Multilingual Neuropoetry?
I wrote my book Multilingual Neuropoetry to explain and explore diverse neuroscientific phenomena through a poetic lens. You find my poetry on the brain and the mind covering themes such as neurophysiology, neurology and consciousness. Multilingual Neuropoetry also attempts to answer questions we usually ask ourselves revolving around our human existence, and the very essence that makes us human.
What inspired you to link neuroscience and poetry, and where did the inspiration for Multilingual Neuropoetry come from?
I have always liked poetry, and with my extensive background in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, it was only a matter of time that my creative self would connect the romantic feel of poetry with the unembellished reality of neuroscience. The idea of neuropoetry is as old as humankind itself, and if you look around, you will find several books on this topic, none of which, however, actually establishes the idea in a formal way. I decided to create Multilingual Neuropoetry to define the idea, give science an artistic expression, and art a scientific expression, and make neuropoetry accessible to multilingual audiences. Multilingual Neuropoetry therefore introduces everyone to neuropoetry in a tangible and an easy-to-grasp manner.
There are many interesting elements to Multilingual Neuropoetry. Could you explain why you chose to make the book multilingual, and what dimension this adds for the reader?
Usually if you read or listen to poetry in a language, your mind is taken on a poetic journey in which you start to become creative in that language. I chose to provide a multilingual layer to the book to expand the reader’s creative potential and encourage them to transform from a reader to a writer by inspiring them to pen a poem in a non-native language, and in their native language if English is not their first language. I hope this adds a layer of fun, and intrigue to the reader/writer experience.
Creativity is the language of our soul, and so creativity isn’t confined to just any one human language. This means you can express yourself creatively in any human language you want. So in a sense, you can say poetry is a feeling that you can put in word using multiple colours and flavours. Each colour or flavour is like a different language with its own deep rhythm, rich sound, vivid tone, exotic feel and fine shades of meaning that allow your soul to creatively express itself in a unique way. Reading a poem in English will therefore feel different to reading a poem in Italian, and so it will naturally leave a different sensation or taste on your mind, or feeling on your soul so to speak.
What kind of research did you do for the book, and how long did you spend researching before starting the writing process?
My research came from my readings and studies on the mind and the brain that I did during my undergrad, postgrad, doctoral and postdoc years and my time spent teaching. Unbeknownst to me then, I didn’t know that this would help me become familiar with the material around which I would later create my neuropoetry. Ten years into my studies, I started writing neuropoetry because when I joined a local writers’ group I wanted to have something to present and get feedback on. Once I realised that neuropoetry is a concept that many people might find fascinating, I decided to create a book since it would serve them as a good introduction. I spent another four years of research, which is when the book actually started to take shape because it was during this time that I did the actual writing. When creating a poem on a topic that I previously had been exposed to, my research therefore was already done in that sense because of my prior reading. When writing on a new topic, I would spend a few hours reading about it before starting writing.
What were the biggest challenges you faced writing Multilingual Neuropoetry?
One big challenge I faced writing Multilingual Neuropoetry was thinking that I had finished writing, just to find out later that it’d be good to add more detail. This happened to me several times throughout the writing process. The book initially was supposed to be a light reading including just poetry until someone pointed out that it would be worth considering having some notes for each poem to explain how neuroscience and poetry come together in each poem. I therefore created multiple revisions. Naturally my book grew in size, and I couldn’t resist adding some more poetry as well. Receiving the valuable input of so many different supporters while working on my book who pointed me in the right direction to improve the reader experience has been a really humbling experience. I’m therefore incredibly grateful to all of my contributors who helped me rediscover the beauty of my book through their eyes.
Another challenge was choosing an appropriate front cover. I created several covers, and I nearly had chosen a black and white image. It was not until a year later that I went ahead with a colourful picture, which is the one you can see now. This picture represents the brain in an artistic way with the different colours signifying the different languages in which I express my poetry about the brain. I’m glad I waited for the right cover to reveal itself and I am also thankful for the input of a good friend who confirmed the choice because this picture perfectly fits the purpose of the book as it nicely ties in the themes of science, languages and art.
How does Multilingual Neuropoetry appeal to both neuroscientists and non-neuroscientists alike? What kind of person would Multilingual Neuropoetry appeal to?
Neuroscientists might find this book interesting because Multilingual Neuropoetry introduces them to a creative way in which neuroscience can be viewed, accessed and explained. In that sense, it might help them clarify their own research to members of the public in a fun and engaging way. Multilingual Neuropoetry therefore serves as an inspiration and a resource that they could use as part of their public outreach or science communication strategies, activities and endeavours.
Non-neuroscientists might find this book worth reading because it piques their curiosity about how we ‘tick’. It helps you understand different ideas in psychology and neuroscience using your creativity to gain insights into how your brain works. It invites you to enrich your mind by going into unexpected depth. At the same time you learn about different poetic ways that will inspire you to express yourself and share with others how your brain makes you feel in whichever language you choose.
Multilingual Neuropoetry therefore is a great book for any open-minded person who wants to know more about their mind and brain in a creative way, and who doesn’t shy away from learning something new to challenge themselves, expand their creative vision and share it with others.
At its heart Multilingual Neuropoetry is about the creative potential of our brain. It is about the endless creative possibilities that we can discover if we go beyond what we know. I sincerely hope reading my book will help readers critically question reality as we know it in order to empower them to think for themselves so they can expand their consciousness and ultimately create their own reality.
What advice would you give to students with an interest in creative writing?
I would encourage them to write regularly, and jot down any creative bits and pieces that enter their mind. You would be surprised what you can come up with! I would also advise them to join their local creative writing group. This will open your mind towards exploring different avenues of creative writing, be it short stories, poetry or novels, and help you find the one that allows you to express yourself freely.
It is also worth attending and performing at open-mic events, be it in person or online, to expose yourself to new ideas and new audiences. Listening to others will help you connect with other creative individuals, expand your imagination, and develop your writing in new directions. Sharing your enthusiasm about creativity with like-minded individuals in a more dynamic space is also lots of fun! When you captivate the audience with your originality… it truly is a magical moment! Your unique touch will make your performance memorable and leave your audience inspired.
Reading Multilingual Neuropoetry emphasised some of the creative ways in which neuroscience can be explored. Do you have any ideas for future creative works?
With creativity you have got the power to change the way ideas are perceived, and therefore to change the perception of others thereby redefining reality and extending the realms of diverse possibilities. With your creativity you can therefore rediscover of what a concept, an entire field, or your reality truly means to you, how it relates to you and how you can share your new understanding of it with others.
There are different creative ways to uncover the many possibilities in which a concept or field can be rediscovered. Neuropoetry is one way to express the concept of neuroart, that is to combine art and neuroscience, in a literary way, and there have been other attempts to explore neuroscience using visual artworks in form of paintings, sculptures, ceramic work or pottery. Other ways could be to take the wonders of the brain or take neurological accounts and express them in form of photography, nonfictional novels or short stories, creative writing, songs, musicals, plays or movies through which we can come to appreciate the beauty of our brain and understand what it is like to live with a certain condition. It is also possible to mix the different artistic media, and see what you can come up with using your originality to express yourself creatively. But there is more you can do to express yourself beyond 3D.
Have you got an idea of how we could express our creativity beyond 3D?
To me the ultimate expression of our creativity happens when we expand our consciousness.
Creativity is to manifest what our soul sees because creativity is essentially how our soul expresses itself. Neuroscience with its limited methods has yet to address the role our soul plays in our life and I talk about this issue in more detail in Multilingual Neuropoetry. It is unlikely that this question will ever be addressed in the field of neuroscience because you cannot compute the soul. It’s a God-given gift that bestows upon us the miracle of life. You cannot use 3D methods to explain a 5D concept. Our nervous system is the vehicle for our soul to help our body navigate life in 3D. With our souls comes the life force to express our heart’s desires and our emotions. Emotion is nothing but energy in motion that is our soul in action.
It is well-known that much of our brain is involved in representing information that we acquire from our different sensory receptors, but most of our brain processing is actually unconscious. This means brain sciences are barely even touching upon the surface of what actually ‘drives’ us. Many have suggested, for example, that our vision is nothing but a grand illusion, and I talk about it in more detail in Multilingual Neuropoetry.
Because of the limited nature of our existing methods to address this unconscious activity, you can say that we are literally tapping around in the dark. Remember that the word ‘science’ comes from the Latin ‘scire’ meaning ‘to know’. It’s all about knowing, and finding another piece to the puzzle in the mystery that we call the brain. The problem starts when the different pieces don’t add up. However, this is to be expected because with the existing methods we can only focus on what is ‘visible’ in 3D; that is what we are consciously ‘conscious’ of while we are missing most of the picture that is the rest, which is ‘invisible’ to us because it is unconscious since most of our brain processing is unconscious.
Why do you think in our daily life we are not consciously aware of most of our brain processing?
The way we are living our life at the moment doesn’t allow us to be fully conscious because our attention, focus and perception are tied to what is happening in our 3D state of mind. This means we are not functioning to our fullest capacity because we are ‘asleep’ when it comes to our higher conscious state of our being. I talk about the idea of life being a dream in Multilingual Neuropoetry, and what happens when we actually ‘wake up’. This means that only when we expand our consciousness beyond 3D by aligning ourselves with our best version of ourselves in 5D so to speak, can we become ‘awake’ from our dream-like state. By aligning yourself with your higher self, you will actually break free of this 3D programming where you are being brainfed everyday with what to believe or what to do and you will literally shine light upon the fact that we truly have got the power inside of us to create our own reality to fulfil our true purpose that we are meant to do. This is the ultimate expression of what it means to be creative because you are allowing your soul to be free, to speak for itself and to fulfil its purpose.
Expanding our consciousness and raising our awareness is the moment that we leave the world of knowledge behind and enter the sphere of truth, because it is only then that we will shine light upon what has been previously ‘invisible’ to us. We fully step into our own power and the truth will resonate with who we truly are and what we are supposed to do.
What can we do in our everyday life to expand our level of consciousness?
You need to be truthful with yourself about whether you are living with an elevated sense of consciousness. One step to do this is to ask yourself in your daily life whenever you are doing something or you ‘think’ you are working: whom or what are you serving with what you are doing? Are you living in a 3D reality or are you actually living how you are supposed to live according to your higher self? Dissect your reality. Question it. Follow your gut instinct and the truth will reveal itself. Many of us don’t know that our brain is very intimately connected to our gastrointestinal tract. Our gut is not only the greatest digestive and endocrine organ in our body but also houses our enteric nervous system, and as it is relatively independent of our brain, our gut can be considered a ‘brain’ in itself. In Multilingual Neuropoetry I talk in more detail about how through our intimate gut-brain connection our emotions can cause symptoms in our gut, and why inversely we need to treat our gut well because what goes on in our gut can influence our mind and behaviour. We need to ensure that our brain works in sync with our heart and our gut.
To expand our level of consciousness, we need to become better observers of reality and of ourselves. When our processing of reality is subliminal, which happens when our brain activity is evoked by something that is below our awareness, this information is inaccessible to our awareness. When you notice something, and it doesn’t feel right in your gut, become aware of what it is that you are doing, and why you are doing it. Our conscious awareness occurs when there is sufficient salience of what you noticed as not right. Our top-down attention amplifies signals so that the signals exceed the threshold for awareness and you can actually ‘see’ by fine-tuning your awareness what is true and what is not. We therefore need to ensure that we let our gut guide us in expressing our heart energy and let our brain follow. Only then can we heighten our level of awareness of why we are doing what we are doing, and share our insights with others. Only by consciously expanding our perspective on what we are actually doing with our life can we ultimately fulfil our true purpose.
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