Absolutely fascinating account, told by a brain scientist, of what she experienced

[pnwmom]

when she was having a massive stroke.

http://blog.ted.com/2008/03/jill_bolte_tayl.php#more

SNIP

On the morning of the stroke, I woke up to a pounding pain behind my left eye. And it was the kind of pain, caustic pain, that you get when you bite into ice cream. And it just gripped me and then it released me. Then it just gripped me and then released me. And it was very unusual for me to experience any kind of pain, so I thought OK, I'll just start my normal routine. So I got up and I jumped onto my cardio glider, which is a full-body exercise machine. And I'm jamming away on this thing, and I'm realizing that my hands looked like primitive claws grasping onto the bar. I thought "that's very peculiar" and I looked down at my body and I thought, "whoa, I'm a weird-looking thing." And it was as though my consciousness had shifted away from my normal perception of reality, where I'm the person on the machine having the experience, to some esoteric space where I'm witnessing myself having this experience.

And it was all every peculiar and my headache was just getting worse, so I get off the machine, and I'm walking across my living room floor, and I realize that everything inside of my body has slowed way down. And every step is very rigid and very deliberate. There's no fluidity to my pace, and there's this constriction in my area of perceptions so I'm just focused on internal systems. And I'm standing in my bathroom getting ready to step into the shower and I could actually hear the dialog inside of my body. I heard a little voice saying, "OK, you muscles, you gotta contract, you muscles you relax."

And I lost my balance and I'm propped up against the wall. And I look down at my arm and I realize that I can no longer define the boundaries of my body. I can't define where I begin and where I end. Because the atoms and the molecules of my arm blended with the atoms and molecules of the wall. And all I could detect was this energy. Energy. And I'm asking myself, "What is wrong with me, what is going on?" And in that moment, my brain chatter, my left hemisphere brain chatter went totally silent. Just like someone took a remote control and pushed the mute button and -- total silence.

And at first I was shocked to find myself inside of a silent mind. But then I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of energy around me. And because I could no longer identify the boundaries of my body, I felt enormous and expansive. I felt at one with all the energy that was, and it was beautiful there.

Then all of a sudden my left hemisphere comes back online and it says to me, "Hey! we got a problem, we got a problem, we gotta get some help."

SNIP

[LSparkle]

1. Wow ... thanks for sharing ... I haven't had a stroke but

one part of her description reminds me of "funny feelings" I used to have periodically
as a child. I no longer have them, but I'd feel unbounded by my body, as if I was "enormous
and expansive" as she describes ... very weird.

[sammythecat]

2. I saw that a week or so ago and shared it with friends.

Unfortunately she doesn't give us any idea at all on how we (people with 2 functioning hemispheres) can step from one hemisphere to the other. At the end she implies we have a choice. Well, I'd like to spend most of my time in the right hemisphere. Great, but how do I do that? Would you rather be rich or be poor? Ok, I got an answer to that one too, I wanna be rich. Now what? What do I do now? How do I get rich?

It was an utterly fascinating talk though. I think it demonstrates that, despite our enormous progress in recent times, we are just barely beginning to understand the brain. I would liken our understanding of the brain today to our understanding of geography around the time of Christ. Many, many huge surprises yet to come.

[drmeow]

3. Meditation? n/t

[sammythecat]

14. Maybe,

but she doesn't say. Even though I'm a highly skilled and ardent daydreamer, I've never really been able to really "meditate" like the mystics supposedly do. I'd like to do that, but I don't think I can.

This talk made me think about drugs. If I take Vicodin I go into a very desirable state that I frankly wouldn't mind being in 24/7/365. I feel more "alive", "better", and more functional than at almost any other time. It's a very right brain experience for me. So, I know that ability is in my brain, the vicodin simply releases that which is already there. Trouble is, the good feeling is only for a while until addiction turns it all to hell.

So, drugs are probably out and I'd be afraid to induce a stroke and, to be honest, I think I'm just to lazy and undisciplined to master meditation.

[drmeow]

19. to lazy

and undisciplined to master meditation.to lazy and undisciplined to master meditation"

I'm with you there :) You'll notice the ? ... how would I know.

Yoga might be a way of doing it, too - I used to do yoga but, again, requires discipline.

Activities that release endorphins in the brain (runners high, for example) would theoretically achieve the same effect as vicodin although not as strong.

[pnwmom]

22. I don't know, sammythecat. I hate the way vicodin makes me feel,

but I like the timeless feeling I can get in a right-brained "trance."

[pnwmom]

5. I agree with the other poster -- meditation is one way.

Not that I would know this personally, but I understand that mind-altering drugs are another way!

Breathing patterns during labor did it for me when I was having my babies.

There's also a sense of timelessness -- if not ecstasy -- associated with other creative processes (music, writing, painting, etc.)

[Fredda Weinberg]

6. Try singing. It'll get you to the other hemisphere right quick

I had a different experience: traumatic amputation at a tender age forced my brain to switch dominance. So even my speaking voice is melodic, but that's just me.

[pnwmom]

8. Wow. I'm sorry about your loss, but

what an interesting turn of events afterwards. There is so much we don't know about the brain.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

16. Doing music is very right brained.

You can be analytical about it, but when you sit down and play it or sing it, it's very right brained.

Also, doing household chores and being fully present while doing them is also a good way to get into your right brain. That's why I enjoy gardening.

[nashville_brook]

9. whoa! me and the b/f both had that as kids...

been a topic of conversation lately.

[Fleshdancer]

4. wow

it's like she's describing an acid trip. weird.

[pnwmom]

7. That thought occurred to me, too. So, somehow,

LSD must have turned off the left side of the brain?

[RadiationTherapy]

11. Maybe. But I have experienced great surges of logic while on LSD

Creative logic to be sure, but I can't see being 100% right brained while tripping.

[Fumesucker]

24. I agree...

Looking at your body and thinking it looks weird..

Definitely sounds like tripping on Owsley.

Wow! Look how far away my toes are.. Are those REALLY part of me?

[Kitty Herder]

10. Fascinating.

That damned left hemisphere is such a buzzkill.

[pnwmom]

18. Now I'm wondering about animals. My dog, for instance.

Is he all right-brained? Or does he have two very different hemispheres, too? How is his left brain different from ours?

[SpiralHawk]

12. Navajo elder's stroke leads to Spirit Walkers

Great account. Thanks for posting. Here's another account of a stroke:

http://www.chiron-communications.com/communique11-1.html

"While Leon Secatero was teaching at a conference in early February, he experienced a stroke. He eventually lost consciousness and found himself on the other side...

"...Many people talk about seeing the other side,” he said. “I know this was the other side. The things I saw on the other side were very beautiful. I saw the glass world, the crystal world, and many different colors of light. The Wind Walkers were able to use this. They used the colors of light – the energy vibrations -- to heal.”

“For a while when I talked about sacred things like this,” Leon said, “I used words like ‘revelation’ and ‘prophecy.’ But those words do not represent real indigenous thought. More appropriately, I would speak of ‘a way of being,’ or a ‘knowing’ -- the knowing that’s in us.“

[pnwmom]

17. And thank you for that. Even more food for thought.

[jkshaw]

13. Thankyou for posting this

I read the piece first, then listened to her lecture. A tremendous experience. I've put the Ted Talks in my bookmarks as well. I've heard of them, but this is the first time I've experienced one. Many years ago I read Lovelock's Gaia. The book impressed me and the feeling of being able to bring myself into being one with the world has never left me. Hoping, to be able to do this, I mean. Especially near, though when I'm outside pulling weeds. I mean that's about as mindless an activity as one can engage in. I've never been able to lose myself totally in meditation. I've tried it. The chattering half of my brain keeps interrupting.

[pnwmom]

15. You're welcome. It was nice to be able to share it.

The chattering half of MY mind needed to tell somebody.

;)

[babydollhead]

23. I am a mosaic artist

last summer I was working on a huge floor, piece by piece, I sat there and glued. I go into the "portholes"...My train of thought can go from just being, as in, playing my music, sipping my tea, and having a 14 hour day fly by, to remembering things, worrying about things, dreaming of things. I have full conversations in my head with people all the time. One such porthole took me to a sad recognition of the state of our world, and I felt sorry that i had willingly brought kids into it. Then the question, "Why?' was answered. I brought them into this world to experience joy. to know what it's like to disappear into something and become one with it. To hum with the Universe.

[miyazaki]

20. Blood Music, great book

her account seems reminiscent of this sci-fi story where the worlds population melded into
one.

[pnwmom]

21. Welcome to DU, miyazaki! n/t

[HamdenRice]

25. I once saw a guy have a stroke while giving a paper in a graduate seminar

He was an elderly native German speaker who had been in the seminar for several months. He had always been articulate, but not particularly talkative.

His turn to give the paper for the week came. He started off saying, "The question of the problem is the question of the problem of the question of the problem ..." and basically repeated that phrase over and over. Everyone looked at him strangely, of course.

Then question and answer period began. He was asked complex questions about international relations, and would answer each one the same way: "The question of the problem is the question of the problem of the question of the problem ..."

Everyone was so polite that no one said, professor, you're not making any sense. Everyone pretended that it was all normal. At one point, the chair let out a chuckle, then composed his face and went on.

The following week we learned that he was having a stroke and his language center was affected. Because English was his second language there was a disconnect between his thoughts and what was coming out of his mouth.

He thought he was making perfect sense at the time.

It left a bad taste in my mouth about academia, because I realized that you really can spout almost any bullshit and get taken seriously or at least politely.