At eleven years old, a traumatic brain injury and an out-of-body experience flipped my world upside down. The doctors delivered a bleak prognosis: I would never fully recover.
Boy, were they wrong.
Instead of permanent limitation, the trauma unlocked dormant regions of my mind. Through sheer stubbornness and an innate spatial dexterity—amplified by being both ambidextrous and dyslexic—my nervous system began the slow, radical process of rewiring itself. In fact, I’ve had to rebuild my entire neural network not once, but three times.
As an artist, game designer, author, and entrepreneur, operating with both brain hemispheres isn’t just a party trick—it’s my default state of being. This demands me to apply both lobes as best as I can to balance and access more of the neuro-network to operate.
Since my injury happened when I was young, this has always baffled many clinical doctors and therapists. I also recognize that there are many out there who have experienced a TBI, with far less success of recovery than I. I speak about each of these topics to empower others to become more whole brained.
The human brain is remarkably malleable. Yet, modern society often relies on a “lazy button,” conditioning us toward stagnation and fear-driven compliance. When we rely solely on rigid paradigms, we end up in what my colleague Nate and I call Functional Disbelief—a state of social cognitive zombie-ism where our higher faculties remain largely untapped, while mental deficiencies arise, sometimes out of thin air.
Consider the ambient drone of our daily lives: non-consensual psychological stress from sensationalized news, relentless advertising, and pervasive fear. Recently, I came across a class-action lawsuit against a foster home where staff are being held legally accountable for psychological trauma inflicted on children. It raised a critical question: if psychological harm is recognized as a crime in court, why do we tolerate the daily onslaught of mental pollution that keeps our minds trapped in survival mode?
I believe that it is vital for children to learn how to use their entire faculties through learning models which include ambidexterity, working with dyslexia, OBE, and other ‘out of the box’ thinking programs.
Healing isn’t just about recovering from physical trauma; it’s about learning, and giving ourselves permission on how to use our full faculties. We need educational and cognitive models that embrace non-traditional thinking—integrating ambidexterity, leveraging dyslexia as a processing strength, and exploring unconventional states of consciousness.
What we perceive as reality is ultimately a matter of interpretation. When we shift our internal landscape, our external reality follows.
My mission is to help society move beyond inflicted fear and step into whole-brain integration and wellness.
How do we actively rewire our brains to foster positive growth in a negatively biased world? What practices help you break out of automatic patterns and access your full potential?
I’d love to hear your thoughts—leave a comment below and join the conversation.
Follow along for the next piece in this series, where we’ll dive deeper into the mechanics of cognitive renewal.
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