April 20, 2008

Stroke of insight: Jill Bolte Taylor on TED

Here's presentation from TED Talks 2008 by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist whose stroke showed her a place of peace in her own mind and inspiration to connect the two spheres of science and spirit. It's important to note that while she claims that humans are the life force of the universe, it might be instead that we are a manifestation of a field, a creation.

These sorts of insights might be important to the couple hundred thousand veterans dealing with mental issues and brain injuries.



Update: There's been a system-wide breakdown in the way the government treats injured soldiers and veterans. A March report that 60,000+ Iraq, Afghanistan Vets Diagnosed With PTSD has already been eclipsed by a RAND report of 300, 000.

This was the topic of the April 22 special on Pacifica radio, National Special on Wounded Veterans Lawsuit, which is now archived. It was hosted by Aaron Glantz, author of the upcoming book The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans (UC Press).

Update 2: Comments are great but book adverts, not so much.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for that. Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight is one of the most incredible stories I've heard in a long time. Her TEDTalk video blew my mind wide open to new possibilities. On the one hand, there's what she went through and how she emerged from it. On the other hand, there's what she can teach all of us.
I saw the 4 part Oprah interview on Oprah dot com Soul Series and I did learn a lot from that, but I'd like to find our more of how to do what Dr. Taylor did, without having a stroke of course!
Thin how many of us are living too much in the head, and not the heart. And of course, you can't get more left brain than a Harvard Brain Scientist. Isn't it ironic that she should be the one to have the stroke and transform from the quintessential left brainer into this ""seen the light"" disciple of finding inner peace?
I hope this movement keeps going. Maybe there will be My Stroke of Insight classes where we can practice what Jill Bolte Taylor is preaching.