This is the first of my three favorite talks from TED2008. Not only does Jill Bolte Taylor use the best stage prop I've ever witnessed in a live speech, but she manages to talk about left brain and right brain in a way that helps us understand the power of living with a truly whole mind.
Her presentation blew me away the first time I heard it, and my second and third viewings have been just as powerful. I've already made some changes in my life as a result of her words.
Man, I wasn't prepared for this. Absolutely remarkable.
Posted by: Reilly Brennan | 13 March 2008 at 10:39 PM
This is one of the best presentations I've ever seen. Thank you for sharing it.
Posted by: jarango | 14 March 2008 at 08:41 AM
I completely respect her personal experience, but i think its blown out of proporttion to be exclaimed as mind blowing ! its a typical "amercanized" revelation that she felt nirvana... and its typical because i have seen it as a common cultural phenomena to kind of glamourise personal experiences with fancy words/speech...
Posted by: Achyutha | 20 March 2008 at 03:57 AM
A classic example of a great persuasive argument following Aristotle's logic of both logos, pathos and ethos. The logos part is however debatable. Functional localization is a hot topic in brain research. We see patients that have had severe brain injury or trauma develop cognitive/emotional functions in other (left or rightside) parts of the brain to compensate for damage, so the functional localization hypotheses doesnt always hold.
Posted by: Stephan | 25 March 2008 at 04:04 AM
Thank you for that. Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight is one of the most incredible stories I've heard in a long time. Her TEDTalk video blew my mind wide open to new possibilities. On the one hand, there's what she went through and how she emerged from it. On the other hand, there's what she can teach all of us.
I saw the 4 part Oprah interview on Oprah dot com Soul Series and I did learn a lot from that, but I'd like to find our more of how to do what Dr. Taylor did, without having a stroke of course!
Thin how many of us are living too much in the head, and not the heart. And of course, you can't get more left brain than a Harvard Brain Scientist. Isn't it ironic that she should be the one to have the stroke and transform from the quintessential left brainer into this ""seen the light"" disciple of finding inner peace?
I hope this movement keeps going. Maybe there will be My Stroke of Insight classes where we can practice what Jill Bolte Taylor is preaching.
Posted by: Alan | 01 June 2008 at 10:29 PM
MY STROKE OF INSIGHT was ranked #5 in all books sold on Amazon today and #1 in Memoirs above even Barbara Walters' memoir. Babs had been promoting her book for months in advance and Dr. Taylor's book was self-published.
Then Oprah recommended it. There's the Power of Now, and then there's the Power of Oprah!!
"My Stroke of Insight" is out in Hardcover now for less than the old paperback edition. Amazon has it for 40% off.
Posted by: Margaret | 03 June 2008 at 01:44 AM