My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Private Journey Books
Product Description
The surprising New York Times epic that chronicles how a brain scientist’s own stroke led to enlightenment
On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-ancient Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she experimental her mind deteriorate to the top that she may possibly not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic aptly brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was absolutely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover.
For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by “stepping to the aptly” of our left brains, we can reveal feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by “brain chatter.” Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah’s online Soul Run, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone.Amazon.com Review
A brain scientist’s journey from a debilitating stroke to full recovery becomes an inspiring exploration of human consciousness and its possibilities
On the morning of December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-ancient Harvard-trained brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. A neuroanatomist by profession, she experimental her own mind absolutely deteriorate to the top that she may possibly not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life, all within the space of four brief hours. As the hurt left side of her brain–the rational, grounded, detail- and time-oriented side–swung in and out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realties: the joyous nirvana of the intuitive and kinesthetic aptly brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace; and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized Jill was having a stroke, and enabled her to seek help before she was lost absolutely.
In My Stroke of Insight, Taylor shares her unique perspective on the brain and its capacity for recovery, and the sense of omniscient understanding she gained from this unusual and inspiring voyage out of the abyss of a wounded brain. It would take eight years for Taylor to heal absolutely. Because of her knowledge of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and most of all an incredible mother, Taylor absolutely repaired her mind and recalibrated her understanding of the world according to the insights gained from her aptly brain that morning of December 10th.
Today Taylor is convinced that the stroke was the best thing that may possibly have happened to her. It has taught her that the feeling of nirvana is never more than a mere plotting away. By stepping to the aptly of our left brains, we can all reveal the feelings of well-being and peace that are so often sidelined by our own brain chatter. A fascinating journey into the mechanics of the human mind, My Stroke of Insight is both a valuable recovery guide for anyone touched by a brain injury, and an emotionally stirring testimony that deep internal peace truly is accessible to anyone, at any time.
Questions for Jill Bolte Taylor
Amazon.com: Your first reaction when you realized what was happening to your body was one you would guess: “Oh my gosh, I’m having a stroke!” Your second, though, was a small more surprising: “Wow, this is so cool!” What may possibly be cool about a stroke?
Taylor: I grew up to study the brain because I have a brother who is only 18 months older than I am. He was very different in the way he perceived experiences and then chose to behave. As a result, I became fascinated with the human brain and how it makes our perception of reality. He was eventually diagnosed with the brain disorder schizophrenia, and I dedicated my career to the postmortem investigation of the human brain in an attempt to know, at a biological level, what are the differences between my brain and my brother’s brain. On the morning of the stroke, I realized that my brain was no longer functioning like a “normal” brain and this insight into my brother’s reality excited me. I was fascinated to intimately know what it might be like on the surrounded by for someone who would not be diagnosed as normal. Through the eyes of a curious scientist, this was an absolutely rare and fascinating experience for me to witness the breakdown of my own mind.
Amazon.com: What did you learn about the brain from your stroke and your recovery that your scientific training hadn’t prepared you for?
Taylor: My scientific training did not teach me anything about the human spirit and the value of compassion. I had been trained as a scientist, not as a clinician. I can only hope that we are teaching our future physicians about compassion in medicine, and I know that some medical schools, including the Indiana University School of Medicine, have made a curriculum with this aim.
My training as a scientist, but, did provide me with a roadmap to how the body and brain work. And although I lost my left cognitive mind that thinks in language, I retained my aptly hemisphere that thinks in pictures. As a result, although I may possibly not communicate with the external world, I had an intuitive understanding about what I needed to do in order to make an environment in which the cells in my brain may possibly be pleased and healthy enough that they may possibly regain their function. In addition, because of my training, I had an innate trust in the ability of my brain to be able to recover itself and my mother and I respected the organ by listening to it. For example, when I was tired, I allowed my brain to sleep, and when I was fresh and capable of focusing my attention, we gave me age-apt toys and tools with which to work.
Amazon.com: Your stroke affected functions in your left brain, leaving you to what you call the “la-la land” of your aptly hemisphere. What was it like to live in your aptly brain, and then to rebuild your left?
Taylor: When the cells in my left brain became nonfunctional because they were swimming in a pool of blood, they lost their ability to inhibit the cells in my aptly hemisphere. In my aptly brain, I shifted into the consciousness of the bestow moment. I was in the aptly here, aptly now awareness, with no memories of my past and no perception of the future. The beauty of La-la land (my aptly hemisphere experience of the bestow moment) was that everything was an explosion of magnificent stimulation and I dwelled in a space of euphoria. This is fantastic way to exist if you don’t have to communicate with the external world or care whether or not you have the capacity to learn. I found that in order for me to be able to learn anything, but, I had to take in rank from the last moment and apply it to the bestow moment. When my left hemisphere was absolutely nonfunctional early on, it was impossible for me to learn, which was okay with me, but I am sure it was frustrating for those nearly me. A simple example of this was trying to place on my shoes and socks. I eventually became physically capable of putting my shoes and socks on, but I had no ability to know why I would have to place my socks on before my shoes. To me they were simply independent actions that were not correlated and I did not have the cognitive ability to figure out the apt sequencing of the events. Over time, I regained the ability to weave moments back together to make an expanse of time, and with this ability came the ability to learn methodically again. Life in La-la land will everlastingly be just a plotting away, but I am truly grateful for the ability to reckon with linearity once again.
Amazon.com: What can we learn about our brains and ourselves from your experience, even if we haven’t lived through the kind of brain trauma you have?
Taylor: I learned that I have much more say about what goes on between my ears than I was ever taught and I judge that this is right for all of us. I used to know that I had the ability to stop thought about one thing by consciously choosing to preoccupy my mind with thought about something else. But I had no thought that it only took 90 seconds for me to have an emotional circuit triggered, flush a physiological response through my body and then flush absolutely out of me. We can all learn that we can take full responsibility for what thoughts we are thought and what emotional circuitry we are feeling. Knowing this and acting on this can lead us into feeling a wonderful sense of well-being and peacefulness.
Amazon.com: You are the “Singin’ Scientist” for Harvard’s Brain Bank (just as you were before your stroke). May possibly you tell us about the Brain Bank (in song or not)?
Taylor: There is a long-term shortage of brain tissue donated for research into the severe mental illnesses. Most people don’t realize that when you sign the back of your license as an organ donor, the brain is not included. If you want to donate your brain for research, you must contact a brain bank directly. There is also a shortage of “normal control” tissue for research. The bottom line reality is that if there were more tissue available for research, then more scientists would be dedicating their careers to the study of the severe mental illnesses and we would have more answers about what is going on with these disorders. The numbers of mentally ill individuals in our society are staggering. The most serious and disabling conditions affect about 6 percent–or one in 17–adults and 9-13 percent of children in the United States. Half of all lifetime conditions of mental illness start by age 14 years, and three-fourths by age 24 years.
For more in rank about brain donation to the Harvard brain bank, please call 1-800-BRAINBANK or stay them at: www.brainbank.mclean.org
If you want to hear me sing the brain bank jingle, please stay www.drjilltaylor.com!
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She has captured an incredible experience viewing her own brain disintegrate and rebuild itself. A truly revealing book about the plasticity of the mind.
Rating: 1 / 5
This book was a bit too far out on a limb for me. The spiritual side of having a stroke, even as fascinating, was not what I was interested in. It seems the author made a tremendous journey from being a left-brained analytical scientist to a aptly-brain warm and fuzzy humanist. Fascinating reading, but I wouldn’t urge it to anyone needing in rank from a caregiver’s perspective or anyone interested in helpful in rank on stroke recovery.
Rating: 2 / 5
I just listened to the author on the radio. When questioned about her “spiritual experience through her stroke” and the possible comparison with any mystical experience associated with religion, she dismissed the religions themselves as tales not being the experience itself. My objections to that resolution:
1)Right, they are tales but provide a time tested incremental path to reach that experience if you have not been “fortunate” enough to have a stroke.
2)how is her “tale” of left brain/aptly brain, better than the religions’ tales when it comes to getting to the experience itself? She never describes any method for replicating that experience.
3) She has no clues on how to make people reach the same state as she did,but she says she has an inspirational tale…but she cannot lead anyone else where she has been. If she had gone there by her own effort and not by some accident, then she would be entitled to discard other paths, although people who achieve real realization never celebrate their path by negating others’.
4)she confuses, in a very dualistic way, a state without plotting and a state with thoughts. She discussion about being able to go back to that state of pure silent joy whenever she wants but that state of joy does not seem to include the bestow moment when she IS thought…in right meditation one is able to be aware of both silence and thoughts without distraction. Even confusion is mindful and joyful.
5)Another very bizarre confusion is that she equates Beingness with aptly brain????
I suspect that she has the arrogance of the people who have just place one foot on the path and reckon they know it. In a absolutely realized being there will be integrated awareness during both the awake and the sleep state; if she is at that state, then bravo, if not well maybe she has more to learn about the integration of her “brain”. Who is more qualified to lead her there than the time tested ancient make religions that have already laid down the path and where real teachers preclude one from apt full of oneself?
Rating: 1 / 5
Fact that Jill is a PhD and trained at Harvard did “misled” me initially in believing Jill has a scientific leap forward. In her talk at least she does not talk about it, which was discomforting to me. It appears she is talking about spiritualism even as publicizing the fact that she is a scientist !
Anyone clear on what’s going on here ?
Rating: 2 / 5
What a disappointment this book was. I expected a stirring memoir on how the author survived and recovered from a stroke but instead got a book with very few actual storytelling and non stop repetitive ramblings on controlling your brain and how lucky the author was to get a stroke. She even now thanks her cells when she leaves a dump. No joking, that is really in the book. What makes it worse is that Jill is a scientist yet this book is nothing more than new age theories that are repeated over and over. Absolutely awkward and dull to read and one of the most terrible books this book lover has encountered in years.
Ultimately the folks you see giving this book lavish praise are what is referred to as the lowest common denominator. Essentially they are simpletons easily impressed with something that just seems like it reeks of importance.
Rating: 1 / 5