From the New York Times:

Harvard neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor has become a media phenom thanks to her memoir, “My Stroke of Insight,” in which she documents the stroke that gave her a sense of blissful enlightenment. After surgery and eight years of recovery, Taylor emerged with a drive to teach others about the inner workings of the brain.

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.”

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.

Taylor’s talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference (TED) has drawn more than two million views on the internet, and she was also selected as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world for 2008. See earlier post here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am and is filed under books, brain damage, media, personal stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post