Recently I encountered a short article in a Korean daily newspaper about American neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor that piqued my interest. She has generated a lot of talk among people interested in the brain and was even selected as one of TIME Magazine's "100 Most Influential People."
As I learned from watching the video of her 18-minute lecture given at the Technology Entertainment Design (TED) Conference, which has been viewed over 2 million times so far, Dr. Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke in 1996 in the left hemisphere of the brain. Many people suffer from a stroke every day, but what was unique about Dr. Bolte Taylor was that she was conscious for part of it and that as a brain scientist she could gain a lot of insight from her experience.
During that experience the left hemisphere of her brain shut down for periods of time, allowing her to discover first-hand the capabilities of her right hemisphere. For those periods she could not discern where her body ended and the rest of the world began. She felt herself floating in the energy of the universe and felt one with everything. When the stroke worsened she felt her spirit surrender and knew she no longer controlled her life. When she woke up in the hospital hours later, she experienced what she called nirvana and knew that if she could feel this while her body was still alive, then anyone can. This deeply motivated her to recover, so she could share her discovery with the world.
In her lecture she said what I have often told my own audiences, that we can choose how we want to be in the world. We can choose to use our logical, analytical, and separating left hemisphere of the brain or we can use our creative right hemisphere that knows that everything in the world is one and whole and beautiful. They both serve important purposes. However, Dr. Bolte Taylor says that the more we choose the right hemisphere of our brain, the more peaceful we will become as we feel more present in the moment, and the more peaceful the world will be.
From my own experience I know that we can freely choose our right or left hemisphere in any moment if we are able to control our brain waves and our brains are activated. Brain Education is intended to do this. No matter which side of our brain we've had a tendency to use dominantly, we can always develop and actively use the other side, letting the two halves work together to achieve more than either can accomplish alone.
I was so impressed by Dr. Bolte Taylor's experience and work to spread her message that I used the video in my recent book tour lecture in Hawaii. I've also invited her to speak at the Brain Education Conference being held this month at the United Nations.
