TED: Jill Bolte Taylors Stroke Of Insight

It appears Jill had a very fascinating experience of achieving peace within the NOW moment that some strive to attain for most of their life via meditation, etc.

I think the video link coupled with "The Power of Now" would be a great add to the high-school education system ... why not share a peaceful perspective to students ready to take on the world and make a difference?

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I think it is interesting that her stroke of insight is very similar to what many people experience when they have psychedelic experiences on magic mushrooms. What is particularly interesting is that there is a major link being studied between Zen Buddhist practitioners and the "oneness" that Dr. Taylor was trying to encapsulate at the end of her speech. Psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, is known to induce "oneness" with space and time; much the same way that "stepping to the right of our left hemisphere" that Jill Taylor is something that supposedly will bring us to an insight of the spiritual energy of "oneness" that connects all living things in the Universe.

It is something that certainly warrants much attention, but gets very little because of the delinquency of the ways in which illicit drugs are used. I today's fast-paced world, where we are taught that we are INDIVIDUALS and we are raised and brought up to own our OWN POSSESSIONS, how can we possibly experience this oneness that Dr. Taylor is trying to expose us to? How can we have any experience or knowledge of what I can only refer to as more or less of a 'global consciousness'? I'll refer to the Beatles' lyric to explain: "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together." If we truly want to understand, we must expand our own minds.

Zen Buddhism is one way to do this.. But it requires a life of devotion to meditation and understanding; also it requires a thorough cleansing of the mind. It requires the desire to live a simpler life free from the delusions that our left hemisphere has built up for us through the years of our western lives. However, it is a path that, as millions have discovered, warrants true investigation.

Until the masses come around and realize how real this global consciousness is; how truly universal the thread of oneness is throughout the universe, we must rely on people like Dr. Taylor to deliver speeches to the public. Maybe then people will see


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Allow me to correct my previous statement; Fehmi does not state how to jump from left to right brain focus, but instead how to jump from a left brain narrow focus to a state of alpha brain waves synchroous across the four lobes of the brain, thus a flexible, open focus using the entire brain. The need to make this correction demonstrates a right brain bias on my part, a state in which enthusiasm supercedes precision...


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I am just finishing a book called The Open-Focus Brain by Les Fehmi and Jim Robbins. Fehmi is a neurofeedback specialist who has identified very specifically how to make the jump from a left brain, narrow focus of attention to a right brain open focus. Very simply, by shifting your attention to a sense of space or emptiness, a non-object focus of attention, your right brain is engaged. By allowing your attention to diffuse into non-specific focus on the space that surrounds and permeates all things, as in all ground/no figure, you spontaneously, effortlessly engage more and more of the right brain. I am actually having a hard time writing this because I have been playing around with the exercises included with the book on a CD. (That right there was a really hard sentence to write...not that I care, as this can be a delightfully goofy state) As a meditator of thirty some years, this internal spaciousness and awareness is familiar territory, but I am really struck by how simple and effortless this method is for arriving at this state of expanded awareness. This morning I feel like I do after a nine day silent meditation retreat...Fehmi's book, by the way is an easy, straightforward read, practical and optimistic.

Eric, the idea is to focus away from our inner brain chatter. A sensory experience can help break the dominance of left-brain being since the senses are a right-brain process. A visual method is to focus on an object to the exclusion of everything else. If you can remain focused on an object for 15-30 minutes (or more) you will find a reduction of brain chatter and a sense of inner peace. On an auditory level, a single tone (such as the droning sound of a didgeridoo), can help shift our focus to the right brain. If you can find a sensory method that you are comfortable with, it may be the catalyst to create a shift in focus from the left brain to the right.


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Im sure this question has been asked (or id atleast hope so), but does anyone have any good practical advise for how one would go about cultivating this experience for themselves (Left Hemisphere talking). I mean short of a self induced stroke or psychoactive drugs, if there was a consistent method for cultivating this experience it would quite possibly be the most benefitial contribution to the human race.


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I was struck by how much Jill's 'right brain' experience mimicked the experiences I recollect (and heard of) from using LSD in the 1960's. The sense of ego-loss & universality was a much-touted part of the 'Acid' experience.

Responding to the comment requesting more 'practicality' and less 'emotional outpouring' I'd like to point out that the experience of connecting to our environment & each other occurs at an emotional level. The lack of this emotional connection is, to my mind, one reason that believers in religion (who experience such events - albeit usually confined to co-believers) decry science & atheism, believing that a rational mind-set precludes the ecstatic experience. It need not (as Sam Harris also argues), and, indeed, if rational thought is to achieve any sort of dominance over superstition in our daily & world affairs, we must learn how to achieve such ecstatic experiences (through the rational application of science) for the general public not just to provide a cathartic personal experience but to produce a generalized bonding experience that mankind's hunger for religion seems to argue is innate in our psychological make-up.

Our choice and challenge as Divine/Physical Beings isn't one or the other . . . to live in our right OR left brain. It's to give each their due and to deeply know
we are both as "me". It's so much fun this way. It's truly exhilerating!
It puts the WOW factor into our lives! To be able to be deeply silent and in
communion w/ one's ever expanding energy universe just swimming in an
ocean of oneness w/ all energy and then to function as an intelligent, totally functioning, creative and inspired personality. God! I love it!! It's " IT " ;-)
I went thru the trouble to register just so I could use my ego to express my
heart. The longings of my heart blossom in expression . . . she who thinks
the smile and she who is the smiler. Nitey-nite ALL !! xoxo


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Only individuals that actually are humble enough to put their ego down for a minute can be open to the spiritual experience and higher functions of the mind! The crazy thing is, the skeptics have no idea how much meditation or spiritual practice can probably help their own lives, if only they would be open to pursuing that path they might begin to see!!!

Her experience also sounds exactly the same as high-dose psychedelic experiences, especially her comments about the molecules of her body dissolving into the environment. The brain is a gigantic filter for one's infinite consciousness. Its purpose is to allow consciousness to become focused in on the realm of physical creation. Over-identification with the body is the root of all ignorance, insecurity and pain. When we understand that we are whole beings exactly as we are, we realize we cannot be added to or subtracted from, for we are eternally complete. Were all GODS. Praise the Self.

This is incredible!