Who Are We? We Get to Choose.

In my early twenties I worked to serve brain-injured children. Those have been the most rewarding, tireless, and frightening six years of my life. Many vivid images are still seared in my mind from those days. Some things you just never forget - those that touch you personally become woven into the fabric of your being.

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another. Her 2008 TED talk [running time 18:44] is an experience worth having.

So who are we? We are the life force power of the universe, with manual dexterity and two cognitive minds. And we have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world. Right here right now, I can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere where we are -- I am -- the life force power of the universe, and the life force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form. At one with all that is. Or I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere. where I become a single individual, a solid, separate from the flow, separate from you. I am Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, intellectual, neuroanatomist. These are the "we" inside of me.

Which would you choose? Which do you choose? And when? I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful our planet will be. And I thought that was an idea worth spreading.

This is the kind of content worth spreading. It has not escaped my notice that BMW is sponsoring it.

Comments

[Marc Meyer]

Amazing. To explain what we can and can't do in such a way as to use a stroke as a vehicle to expound on a belief that was, up to that point researched, studied and analyzed from afar, just astounds me to no end. It was as poignant 18 minutes as I've seen in quite some time...

[Steve Borsch]

Her talk was absolutely fascinating and luckily I stumbled across this when posted and, of course, sent it tons of people and it's been the topic of several conversations.

Valeria, if you liked this video then you'd like this book I picked up yesterday (I posted about it today: http://www.iconnectdots.com/ctd/2008/04/rewiring-your-b.html). After my son, daughter and I had brain SPECT scans for ADD/ADHD several years ago (and learned more than I have time to write!), I've become fascinated by how much we are learning and how little we know about this blob of flesh in our skulls and this book gave me yet another glimpse into the accelerating knowledge being gathered in brain science.

What struck me about her talk was that she recovered and could articulate her experience. I, too, briefly worked at Courage Center in Minneapolis on weekends trying to teach computer skills to folks with brain injuries. Often told to rachet down my expectations, "Oh he'll NEVER be able to write a letter to his brother" saw me try anyway and the guy who'd been in a motorcycle accident wrote that letter (albeit one sentence that took an hour to peck out) and gave me a grin...huge breakthrough in my mind.

That she could have thoughts...observational thoughts...while this was happening and also come out of it with what is clearly a profoundly moving and emotional experience, is what I found so compelling.

People I know have done acid and had these sorts of profound experiences; others I know have done it with years of meditation work; still others with seeking peak experiences (diving off a cliff; running an ultra-marathon); but I'm not sure I'd want to risk a stroke to have it. Glad she recovered and was willing to share her experience with all of us.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Marc - It was a very moving speech, what a beautiful human being and how amazing that she retained the awareness of those moments as a gift to us.

@Steve - the people I worked with have known that the brain is plastic for 50 years! Essentially what we did at the center was teach these children's brain healthy brain cells to take on the job of the dead one. You need to have enough intensity, frequency, and duration to teach the brain something. Developmentally, we are wired to go find those experiences in those doses. Think about two-year olds (or the terrible twos) into everything. Or three year olds, it's all about "me, me, me" when they are discovering "self". There is actually someone who is downloading his brain memory - his name now escapes me. It was a Fast Company cover story in the last couple of years. Yes, I know about these sort of experiences from meditation.

[Steve Bannister]

Hi Valeria,

When I first viewed this TED video on the TED site I was completely blown away to the point that I too had to post about it.

I found that the power of her sincerity came through loud and clear and her way of articulating her experience was fascinating!

Thanks for the post!

Cheers,
Steve

[Andrew Wilson]

The TED talks are some of the best tings that I have come across this last year or so and the talk by Jill Bolte Taylor is of the most moving and inspiring that I have seen. I coincidentally shared this with a co-worker today but have passed links to everyone from my mom to my best friend working in Kenya.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Steve - sincerity and vulnerability are some of the best qualities for inspiration. In some moments of her talk I felt what she was feeling.

@Andrew - thank you for spreading the idea and her story. We are natural storytellers and when we are in that zone, content just flows. As she said in her speech, no difference from you to me - all energy and shared humanity.

[Paul Chaney]

I've been meaning to comment on this for days now, but am only getting to it. In my early career I worked in the mental health field as a music therapist, then later social worker, with developmentally disabled children and adults. Later, I worked as a houseparent with emotionally disturbed children.

You are absolutely correct Valeria, some things do get seared into the mind and become part of who you are. Working with those two groups did for me.

As to BMW's sponsorship, content marketing, especially when it's of this quality, seems like a very good idea.

[Valeria Maltoni]

I was sitting at a restaurant this past weekend and overhearing a conversation about music composition. The healing powers of music are great. My cousin took horse back riding lessons, which I am told is also quite powerful for people with physical disabilities.

I look back at those years as an opportunity to test my own resolve and mettle as well as learn about this fantastic (wet) system we call the brain.

BMW has made many smart moves in its campaigns - all around context marketing. Now if I could only afford one... ;-)