Balancing the Brain:
Short Course with Satish Kumar & Iain McGilchrist
22nd- 26th September 2025
Uncovering the true nature of the differences between the brain’s hemispheres has taken decades of research. We now understand that they should not be seen as simply ‘doing different things,’ but rather as creating two divergent experiential worlds, each with its own aims, characteristics, and values.
Our contemporary culture has largely prioritized the left hemisphere’s perspective, which evolved to make us skilled at acquiring and achieving. However, this view is reductionist, materialistic, and stripped of deeper meaning. The challenge is how we can become more attuned to the right hemisphere, which, despite everything, still holds understanding of what is essential, and how we can restore the balance that appreciates meaning, spirit, and purpose in our lives once more.
In this course, Iain McGilchrist, Satish Kumar, and June Mitchell will explore ways to restore the lost balance between the brain's hemispheres. Join them on this journey to discover the relationship between the secular and the sacred, between matter and spirit, between East and West, and between the here and now and the beyond.
Set in a homely environment along the River Dart, you’ll be invited to enjoy the beautiful landscape, home-cooked meals, and the practice of Qi Gong, movement, and meditation with June Mitchell.
Balancing the Brain is a unique opportunity to bring together insights from modern brain science and the wisdom of ancient traditions. Our aim is to explore what it means to be human in a world that is not mechanical and devoid of meaning, but purposeful and alive. Satish Kumar and Iain McGilchrist will merge their shared philosophical interests and offer their unique perspectives through dialogue. This vital enquiry is unfolding across many disciplines and sectors, and we hope you will join us as part of our Schumacher Wild adventure.
Venue: The course will be held that the Rill Estate nestling into the lush Devon hills between Dartmoor and the coast and almost hidden by 80 acres of woods, fields and organic farmland.
Course Highlights:
Explore the reasons for balancing the two hemispheres of the brain.
Understand not just what the hemispheres of the brain do, but how and in what manner they operate.
Practice Qi Gong, movement, and meditation, and spend time in nature to foster harmony and balance.
Engage in dialogue and co-enquiry with like-minded participants.
Teachers On this Course
Satish Kumar
Satish Kumar is the Founder of Schumacher College in the United Kingdom. He was Editor of Resurgence magazine for 40 years. This magazine was described by the Guardian newspaper as “the artistic and spiritual flagship of the Green Movement”.
A former Jain monk, Satish Kumar went on an international pilgrimage for peace. He, with a friend, walked 8000 miles from New Delhi to Moscow, Paris, London and Washington. Along the way he met Bertrand Russell and Martin Luther King. Satish is the author of ten books including his autobiography, No Destination. Other books include Elegant Simplicity, Soil, Soul, Society and Radical Love. Satish is a lifelong activist in the cause of environmental sustainability, social justice and world peace. He is the recipient of Goi Peace Prize 2022.
Dr Iain McGilchrist
Dr Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher and literary scholar. He is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and former Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, London. He has been a Research Fellow in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore and a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch. He has published original articles and research papers in a wide range of publications on topics in literature, philosophy, medicine and psychiatry. He is the author of a number of books, but is best-known for The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (Yale 2009). In November 2021 his two-volume work The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World was published by Perspectiva Press.
June Mitchell
June Mitchell follows the Plum Village tradition, founded by Thich Nhat Hanh. She teaches 'Way of the Heart', a Qi Kong exercise with a long light bamboo stick, which she learnt at the monastery in France. She also guides walking and sitting meditation and deep relaxation. She taught at Schumacher College and Forty Two Acres.
