I have yet to find a TED talk that I do not like. This was was absolutely fascinating. Her description of seeing herself as a spirit, feeling huge, and wondering how she fits in her little body and how peaceful it was to be in that state was fascinating to me.
Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
“Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.”
I saw one TED I really didn’t like, by Julia Sweeny. She gets alot of laughs, but for one trying to evangelize the ‘truth’ she seems awfully dishonest with herself and others.
Anyway, this one was very interesting. I am certain that critics will explain it away by pointing out that the same experience can be induced with narcotics (and why not? they shut your brain off too), but its interesting that that even a neuro scientist wouldn’t explain it away so easily when it happened to her.
Thank you for that. Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight is one of the most incredible stories I’ve heard in a long time. Her TEDTalk video blew my mind wide open to new possibilities. On the one hand, there’s what she went through and how she emerged from it. On the other hand, there’s what she can teach all of us.
I saw the 4 part Oprah interview on Oprah dot com Soul Series and I did learn a lot from that, but I’d like to find our more of how to do what Dr. Taylor did, without having a stroke of course!
Thin how many of us are living too much in the head, and not the heart. And of course, you can’t get more left brain than a Harvard Brain Scientist. Isn’t it ironic that she should be the one to have the stroke and transform from the quintessential left brainer into this “”seen the light”” disciple of finding inner peace?
I hope this movement keeps going. Maybe there will be My Stroke of Insight classes where we can practice what Jill Bolte Taylor is preaching.
I just veiwed Jill Bolte’s video talk on line. I so much appreciated her heart’s desire to bring forth the message she shared. She did’nt talk about living out of her heart and not her head, she talked about living out of one-half of her brain. Just as I’m not convinced that tonsils are irrelevent internal appendages that must be removed (babies keep being born with them); I am not convinced that we all simply need to remove or deaden the left side of our brain. It was, after all, the left brain which kept her alive. I appreciated her message, exquisitely delivered. I’m not sold on her science or sensibility. Perhaps the next step should be to explore the benefits of the left brain, and how to better incorporate our use of each lobe to complete what the other is lacking.