In 1981 Roger W. Sperry won The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for producing evidence of left and right hemisphere brain functions. I (Mark Virkler) often discuss the difference between the function of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, as well as ways to help you shift from one hemisphere to the other.


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Click here to download a FREE brain preference indicator test. You can print this out for yourself and your family members to complete. It is fun for all, and it is a great learning experience. It can really promote family understanding and family harmony. This is my favorite brain preference indicator test. I have had over 1000 students take it, and had them confirm to me that this accurately describes them and the way they operate internally.

The scale used on the brain preference test is similar to the Richter scale which measures the intensity of an earthquake. Each number increase on the Richter scale indicates an intensity that is ten times stronger. For example, an earthquake of magnitude 6 is ten times stronger than an earthquake of magnitude 5. An earthquake of magnitude 7 is 100 times stronger than an earthquake of magnitude 5 (10 times 10).

This scale works in the same way. So if your spouse has 4.5 as his brain preference score and you have 5.5, this means there is a tenfold difference internally in the way you and your spouse process life. If your score is 6.5 and his is 4.5, then there is a 100-fold difference in the way you internally process life. This is HUGE, and if you don’t honor the differences between you, it can produce great damage to your marriage. We are to serve one another with our gifts (1 Pet. 4:10), so the right-brain intuitive would offer profound, clear revelation from God which is the gift a prophet offers, and the left-brainer might organize it into chunks which can be effectively lived out, piece by piece, which is the gift a teacher offers.

Eighty percent of the population is between 4 and 6 on the brain preference scores, and ninety-eight percent of the population is between 3 and 7. So only one percent of the population has scores below 3 and another one percent of the people have scores above 7. Actually, a score of 4 is very left brain, and a score of 6 is very right brain.

Retake the test multiple times. Picture yourself in various life settings each time, (at home, work, etc.) to see if you are getting thrown off balance and not really being yourself while at work or at home or at play. If so, ask the Lord what He would like to say to you concerning this. Make any adjustments He recommends.

I have re-taken this test over a 30 year period, and essentially my score remains the same as it was 30 years ago. So my instinctive nature has not changed. However I have learned and grown a great deal over the years, and now I know how to purposely step from the left to the right side of my brain so I can receive spontaneous thoughts and spontaneous pictures from the Lord. Give the test a try and pass it around to your friends. Then encourage them to get the book 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice so they can learn to quickly come into whole brain balance and more easily catch the initiatives of heaven.

Go deeper

Jill’s is an astonishing story, which she shares in this TED talk of a brain injury which damaged one half of her brain, and the impact that had on her abilities, until it was fully healed 8 years later. Settle back and be amazed.