Inner Peace Circuitry

In 1996 a 37 year old neuroscientist had a stroke that caused the left lobe of her brain to shut down. A golf ball sized tumor and a burst blood vessel arrested motion, speech, memory, self-awareness, along with other functions that cluster to create ego. As a consequence she had a dramatic change in perception. Not only did her usual mind chatter diminish, she “saw” her own body blend with the world around her.

Jill Bolte Taylor has recovered. Her new book “My Stroke of Insight” has just been published. It chronicles her stroke and recovery: the extraordinary perceptions the stroke brought, as well as how she’s now able to return to the left lobe’s way of perceiving and knowing.

Her subsequent ability to shut off her left brain and return to the right hemisphere’s blissful awareness has been likened to the enlightened state that is the goal of Buddhist meditation.

You can view an 18 minute video of a talk by Ms. Taylor that has had more than 2 million hits since February: http://www.ted.com/speakers/view/id/203.

In my estimation Ms. Taylor’s chance experiences, a portal to the body/mind conundrum, is yet another significant recent event that illuminates what we have long called religion. Regarding this revelation, she makes no judgment, because she’s more interested in results, what she calls the “deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemispheres.”