Amazing Video!

[Micromegas]

To whet your appetite:

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story of recovery and awareness -- of how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 18:44.)

Really very exceptional story here, quite timely with some of the discussions of late.

Sent tingles up my spine.

Peace (from the right side of my brain),

Micro

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

Edited March 20, 2008 by Micromegas

[Avaricial]

To whet your appetite:

Really very exceptional story here, quite timely with some of the discussions of late.

Sent tingles up my spine.

Peace (from the right side of my brain),

Micro

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

Watched it a couple of days ago,

First time i've ever heard the left and right hemispheres of the brain described as serial and parallel processors. Is there anything in medical literature to support that ?

Regardless, it was an incredible video.

[t st tantra]

can you burn it and bring to the meet for people without broadband?

thanx

t s t .

[Hellonasty]

Thanks for posting. Very interesting.

[Alice]

There's a wealth of fascinating material on TED. i've consumed many, many days of my life watching these

One particular favourite is Sir Ken Robinson speaking about creativity in schools. I think many here would relate. He's a captivating speaker.

Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind, is also very cool. Who would have thought that we are all still synaesthetes, and just dont remember. Kiki and buba, hehe. crazy shit.

[Salviador]

Wow thankyou for that link She laughed, I laughed, she cried, I cried. What an inspiring and motivational story.

[Undergrounder]

Watched it a couple of days ago,

First time i've ever heard the left and right hemispheres of the brain described as serial and parallel processors. Is there anything in medical literature to support that ?

Regardless, it was an incredible video.

I went slowly through the video and as far as i can tell pretty much everything she says in terms of neuroanatomy is right. Certainly she has all of the specifics correct and i couldn't pick up any slip-ups, every symptom she says, fits with a left-hemisphere stroke. Actually the differences and similarities between both hemispheres is really amazing. People that have corpus callostomies often experience the striking differences between how each hemisphere operates, there are a really interesting set of experiments done. Check this out:

Her experiences after having a stroke remind me very much of my own personal out-of-body experiences and all those hypnagogic shenanigans that can happen when you're falling asleep. The 'silent mind' relates to the ceasing of internal narration, the sense of peacefulness, the euphoria, everything. Interestingly, she talks about problems with language and reading symbols and numbers and this correllates with similar experiences most people have in OOBEs - where words and signs or the alarm clock numbers blink randomly and refuse to make sense.

As the brain goes to sleep each night, it shuts off different parts of the brain sequentially, meaning that if you become conscious halfway through the shut down sequence, you might for instance find yourself with your logic and thought centres working, while your sensory perception areas not working, leading to a redefinition of your kinisthetic boundaries, hallucinations and dream-like thoughts while you still feel apparently alert and lucid. In effect i guess it's like a mini temporary stroke.

I don't want to be the boring sceptic, but the transcendental moment she experiences towards the end of the stroke also reminds me of the types of mystical and religious experiences people with OOBEs, NDEs, meditation and schizophrenia etc. experience and i have a feeling that too is brain-based. I've uploaded an interesting paper on the subject.

What i particularly liked though, was her final message about inner-experience (right brain? not sure if it fits that perfectly) being peaceful and euphoric and spiritual and how if everyone paid more attention to it the world would be a better place. I wonder if research into this area will give scientific credence to meditation practices and whether this inner world will become more accessible in the future, perhaps even induced scientifically. At our university there is alread a machine that can cause a temporary brain lesion to a specific area of the brain, knocking it out for a while. In theory you could knock out particular areas of the brain related to sensory perception and induce an inward state like this. Of course this is just the scientific way of doing what meditation and OOB astralnauts have been doing for years.

Thanks for posting

0591_2385.pdf

0591_2385.pdf

0591_2385.pdf

Edited March 22, 2008 by Undergrounder

[Lachy]

That's a fascinating paper, Undergrounder. It will undoubtedly spark some controversy (and probably some very heated debate too), but it's an interesting hypothesis nonetheless.