Category: | Book |
By (author): | Taylor, Jill Bolte |
Subject: | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General |
BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Healing / General | |
MEDICAL / Neuroscience | |
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Human Anatomy & Physiology | |
Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
Published: | May 2009 |
Format: | Book-paperback |
Pages: | 224 |
Size: | 7.98in x 5.29in x 0.53in |
From The Publisher* | The astonishing New York Times bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover. For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter." Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah's online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone. |
From The Publisher* | Jill Bolte Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained and published brain scientist when a blood vessel exploded in her brain. Through the eyes of a curious neuroanatomist, she watched her mind completely deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered her mind, brain and body. In My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Jill shares with us her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the right and left halves of her brain. Having lost the categorizing, organizing, describing, judging and critically analyzing skills of her left brain, along with its language centers and thus ego center, Jill's consciousness shifted away from normal reality. In the absence of her left brain's neural circuitry, her consciousness shifted into present moment thinking whereby she experienced herself "at one with the universe." |
Review Quote* | "Transformative...[Taylor's] experience...will shatter [your] own perception of the world." -ABC News "[Dr. Taylor] brings a deep personal understanding to something she long studied: that the two lobes of the brain have very different personalities." -The New York Times "Fascinating...invaluable...fearless...This book is about the wonder of being human." -Robert Koehler, Tribune Media Services |
Biographical Note | Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D., is a neuron-anatomist affiliated with the Indiana University School of Medicine. She is the national spokesperson at the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (Brain Bank), and one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World, 2008. |