Her Stroke of Insight Showed Her Nirvana
Posted by Ted Hopton on May 25, 2008
I already wrote about Jill Bolte Taylor — Scientist Turns Microscope on Herself (while having a stroke) — but this article in the NYT, “A Superhighway to Bliss,” adds much more to the story. The experience enlightened her in the Buddhist sense, and she has written a memoir to try to share what she learned.
Today, she says, she is a new person, one who “can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere” on command and be “one with all that is.”
Although it took eight years to recover from her stroke, she has not been permanently debilitated.
Her desire to teach others about nirvana, Dr. Taylor said, strongly motivated her to squeeze her spirit back into her body and to get well.
Her perspective is unique and can’t be lightly dismissed as ill-informed.
To her it is not faith, but science. She brings a deep personal understanding to something she long studied: that the two lobes of the brain have very different personalities. Generally, the left brain gives us context, ego, time, logic. The right brain gives us creativity and empathy. For most English-speakers, the left brain, which processes language, is dominant. Dr. Taylor’s insight is that it doesn’t have to be so. Her message, that people can choose to live a more peaceful, spiritual life by sidestepping their left brain, has resonated widely.
It’s a fascinating article — I highly recommend it. And I think I’m going to read her book, too: My Stroke of Insight.
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May 26, 2008 at 7:51 pm
[...] to Ted at Yaicha, for posting this article following up on the recent coverage by Yaicha and others of Jill Bolte [...]