A Stroke of Insight

[soitgoes]

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.

Watch the video here. Highly recommended!

[lindabeekeeper]

Re: A Stroke of Insight

:shock: Wow. Very powerful.

One interesting thing is when she was talking about shrinking away from her sensory inputs when she was in the ambulance. Light was so bright that it hurt. But she could choose to move away from that which felt peaceful and expansive. In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, you are advised to move toward the bright light to reach Nirvana--to choose the less comfortable path.

Dying is an interesting process. Thanks for sharing this.

Linda

[Lynn]

Re: A Stroke of Insight

OK...I'm a soft touch by nature. So, this left me in tears at the end. What a powerful, amazing story. Left me feeling speechless and unbelievably grateful for my life. It also underscores the teaching that we have the power to choose our perception at any moment. "Take a step to the right out of our left brains...."

Thank you for sharing the link. Will pass it on.

In Gassho~

Lynn

[will]

Re: A Stroke of Insight

Inspirational perhaps. Heartfelt definitely. Emotional for sure. But it doesn't really do a lot for me in any practical sense.

Gassho

[lindabeekeeper]

Re: A Stroke of Insight

Yes, emotionally powerful indeed. I'm glad she survived to tell her tale. But she seems way too conclusively convinced of what she experienced.

I believe there is a good, and very practical, precedent in Zen of advising us not to take our experiences too seriously or accept them too conclusively.

Her approach seems to mix science and unscientific conclusions/info in a way which I think is manipulative and subjective. Drugs can induce similar, and even more 'profound realities' as those she describes.

Please consider not buying into religion draped in everything that seems rational and scientific. Its just the same sort of old hokum

Yes, of course you are right. I just find it interesting how people react to situations like that.

Linda

[Lynn]

Re: A Stroke of Insight

Well, you can scuttle around the sentimentality and dramatization to get to the message. I wasn't sure who her audience was as I'm unfamiliar with the group. Sounded a bit like she was trying to speak about a religious experience to a group of hardcore scientists Either that, or she was trying to speak about a religious experience without identifying it as such to herself. I agree it was a little confusing.

Nevertheless, should this ever happen to me, I pray that I will have the ability to come back from it the way she has. That is inspirational in and of itself given the severity of the stroke. I have patients who have had similar strokes who will most likely never again get anywhere near that ability to articulate their experience.

In Gassho~
Lynn

[soitgoes]

Re: A Stroke of Insight

Yes, emotionally powerful indeed. I'm glad she survived to tell her tale. But she seems way too conclusively convinced of what she experienced. I believe there is a good, and very practical, precedent in Zen of advising us not to take our experiences too seriously or accept them too conclusively.

How can you not be convinced of what you experience? The experiences themselves were real - how and if they relate to reality is a different matter altogether.

Her approach seems to mix science and unscientific conclusions/info in a way which I think is manipulative and subjective. Drugs can induce similar, and even more 'profound realities' as those she describes.

Which conclusions does she draw, then?

Please consider not buying into religion draped in everything that seems rational and scientific. Its just the same sort of old hokum

How is this religion? She uses the word nirvana to describe her feelings of bliss, but where did she say it was the buddhist interpretation? Definition 2 of nirvana on WordNet: any place of complete bliss and delight and peace.