Here’s Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, giving a recent TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk on her experience with half a brain. Her left brain was erased in a stroke, which she eventually recovered from. (Minds Erased, take note!) What’s amazing is her out-of-body experience of Nirvana when her left brain is shut down and her right brain alone experiences the world. Great and profound talk.
The New York Times has an article on her by Leslie Kaufman, the most popular article today, called A Superhighway to Bliss.
Tags: body experience, bolte, fashion, harvard, Jill Bolte Taylor, kaufman, left brain, neuroanatomy, new york times, nirvana, nytimes, right brain, stroke, ted
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May 27, 2008 at 12:46 am
Zhu
The brain is such an amazing organ. I wish more people would use theirs sometimes
May 27, 2008 at 5:21 am
Dragonstar
What an incredible story, and an incredible woman! Thank you for posting this, I’d not have found it otherwise.
May 27, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Danielle Vyas
I have seen this talk a while ago and it still stays with me. Dr. Taylor’s retelling of her observing her own stroke. What she reveals about the importance of both sides of our brain can be related to everyone. We need more balance. Dr. Taylor reminds us that balance truly starts within.
Wishing you and yours the best.
Danielle
May 27, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Mardé
Yes, this is definitely mind-blowing. I too saw it a couple months ago but then got reminded again by that article in the NYT yesterday. Yes, Zhu, it would be nice if people used their brains more often for thinking. I think that means the left side. And yes, Dragonstar, she is an incredible woman. A great balance of the left and right sides after that erasure of the left. Helps to have a healthy corpus callosum. And thanks, Danielle, the balance truly starts within, but perhaps it does help to have that large corpus callosum, which women are supposed to have more than men.
May 28, 2008 at 10:02 am
barbara
Hi Mardé,
What an amazing speech. I was saving to see your video when I had some quiet time .
Even all her scientific knowledge did not prepare her a bit for everything that she would experience.Thinking of NanNan (my Grandmother) who passed away a long time ago due to a stroke.
Thanks for sharing Mardé.
May 28, 2008 at 11:44 am
Mardé
Yes, it is an amazing speech. Says a lot about our perception of the world, filtered as it is through our brains. Seems to suggest too that other brains, like those of whales, say, might construct a wholly different universe. Raises the question of which is the correct universe, if there is a correct one.
June 17, 2008 at 5:58 am
Linda
I loved the beautifully written “My Stroke of Insight - a Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey” by Jill Bolte Taylor and her incredible talk on TED dot com. Dr. Taylor’s unique perspective as a Harvard neuroanatomist having a stroke, combined with her sensitivity and awareness, produced something as powerful as I’ve ever witnessed. I want to share Dr Taylor’s story far and wide because it’s a wonderful story and a great book to read, but more importantly, this is the message we desperately need if we are to survive as a species.
June 18, 2008 at 8:38 am
Mardé
Thanks for your thoughtfully passionate post, Linda. I bet you are right!