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Want inner peace? Have a stroke.
Posted on September 19th, 2008 1 commentJill Bolte Taylor, a neuroscientist, had a stroke that effectively shut down the left hemisphere of her brain. It took her 8 years to fully recover. In this video she shares her experience of entirely losing her sense of herself as an individual being.
Mystics, meditators, and psychadelic explorers have been to that “place;” a bleeding brain took her there. To her it felt profoundly spiritual but also underscored her understanding of the vastly different roles of the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
Are we spiritual beings capable of having physical experiences or physical beings capable of having spiritual experiences? I think the way that we’re “wired” prevents us from being able to know which is true. Does such a dichotomy even serve us?
Science continues to demonstrate how electrical impulses and chemicals interact to create our perception, which can include vast experiences of consciousness. If we truly are nothing more than extraordinarily complex machines, does that really matter? We do know that what matters in our relation to others and the world is what we do in the physical realm.
[via Open Culture]
1 responses to “Want inner peace? Have a stroke.”
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As I’m becoming more educated about the human nervous system through chiropractic care and information, and my own experiences in what my body is going through, I wonder the same things? are we a spiritual being having a human experience or a human being having a spiritual experience or is it nothing more than neurons firing back and forth?
Nobody knows, but when things are flowing and working correctly, the human body/spirit is capable of so many possibilities.
I don’t think it necessarily matters, but it does make for a great debate. We’re always a product of our environment and perceptions. Spend a lot of time saturated in Western Medicine, you’d probably think one thing. Spend your time doing a lot of meditation in the mountains, you’d probably think another. It’s kind of a matter of choice.
Ok, I’m done rambling. I’m feeling quite good today because I cranial work done and I can actually think clearly. That’s a nice change.
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Jess September 25th, 2008 at 20:30