My Stroke of Insight

 

It might have been a couple of years ago that I first saw the video above where brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor describes the experience of watching herself having a stroke.  It was interesting, but I watched it as an entertaining story and not as an experience that had something to teach me.  Then, recently, a friend loaned me Taylor’s book, and I became intrigued by what her experience had to teach about the brain.  According to Taylor, the stroke started with bleeding in the left hemisphere of her brain causing her to lose skills of cognition.  However, from the right hemisphere, she reports

…I met a growing sense of peace.  In place of that constant chatter that had attached me to the details of my life, I felt enfolded by a blanket of tranquil euphoria. How fortunate I was that the portion of my brain that registered fear, my amygdala, had not reacted with alarm to these unusual circumstance and shifted me into a state of panic.  As the language centers in my left hemisphere grew increasingly silent and I became detached rom the memories of my life, I was comforted by an expanding sense of grace.  In this void of higher cognition and details pertaining to my normal life, my consciousness soared into an all-knowingness, a “being at one” with the universe, if you will. In a compelling sort of way, it felt like the good road home and I liked it.

She makes the above point in the video.  However, in the book, 

she talks about the advantages of this state of oneness and the task of integrating the cognitive left hemisphere skills with the different skills of the right without losing the sense of oneness.  In reading this, I saw different ways to deal with some of the troublesome parts of the left hemisphere, especially judgmentalness toward self and others. 

Sometimes this book reminded me of a typical self-help book espousing the virtues of positive thinking, and I was uncomfortable with that.  However, most of the time, the book reminded me of what I try to accomplish through meditation, a feeling of unity and oneness while at the same time retaining the cognitive skills needed to do the work in the world that needs to be done. I found it hopeful and helpful.