As a neuroanatomist in the pursuit of understanding her
brother’s mental disorder, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor ironically experienced a
mental disorder of her own. One December morning, Dr. Taylor awoke to discover
she was having a stroke, within the left hemisphere of her brain. As the blood
clot causing the stroke pressed on her language centers, Dr. Taylor began to
lose the voice of her mind but felt increasing free and in sync with the energy
of nature. Losing connection to her left hemisphere due to the stroke, she experienced
complete silence within her own mind. Surprisingly, she found herself captivated
by presence of energy around her. As she eventually recovered, she continued to
feel as if the stroke was a blessing, contrary to what she had previously
believed. At the end of her presentation, Dr. Taylor recaps her experience with
her stroke and presents the question, “.
In
agreement with Dr. Taylor, I standby the right hemisphere. Looking at society,
both domestic and internationally, the need to urbanize is a dominant presence.
As a result, the pace of life becomes similar to an endless marathon. In this
world, the left brain is prized. But in this process, the connection between
people is inadvertently lost. By idealizing the idea of past and future, the
future becomes the present only to be seen in the past. The right brain’s
parallel processing capabilities created the enormous feeling of life Dr.
Taylor experienced during her stroke. Likewise, following her statements, “I
pictured a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people
who knew that they could come to this space at any time… and find this peace,”
the right hemisphere is where humans create connections. Dr. Taylor stated, “…
I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of energy around me,”
demonstrating the liberation she felt by living solely in her right hemisphere.
I took the same stance on this topic. Society almost forces our hand and makes the left hemisphere the alpha. There is always a schedule that you have to be on and your brain needs to constantly keep you up to date on what you need to do and when and it hardly every gives you a moment of peace. In an ideal world the right hemisphere would rule. To be able to disassociate from the stress of your day and instead actually enjoy the people you get to encounter or the places you get to go. It was very impactful when Dr. Taylor talked about in a way achieving nirvana from her stroke because it muted her left hemisphere’s consciousness. It’s unfortunate that it took a near death experience for Dr. Taylor to achieve such a higher level of thinking but to the answer the question of when, for the most part it seems that some big or dramatic event is usually what will enlighten people. And this is when they are able to freely choose between their two hemispheres.
ReplyDelete