My Peace City | nonviolence & social change

Jill Bolte Taylor is a neurological researcher who had a stroke 12 years ago. In her new book, My Stoke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey, she describes her stroke and recovery in detail. Most interestingly, she describes a period of six weeks where she experienced complete euphoria and bliss.  This was a consequence of the stroke, which left her left brain (analysis, judgement, planning) totally incapacitated and put her right brain in overdrive.

In a facsinating interview with Terry Gross, Taylor describes how the stroke left her totally “in the moment” without a care for the future or concern for the past. She says that although her analytical left brain is now functioning, she can still go back to that feeling of bliss whenever she wants.  She explained that she does this on occasion because she doesn’t like the feeling that she gets when she gets caught up in left brain analysis or judgement. Her intelligence about the “feeling” of thoughts has grown since the stroke, as she is now hyper-aware of the “attachment” the analytical mind is prone to, and the resulting feeling of distress on the body.