Function and fluidity

I’d like to share a few more of Jill Bolte Taylor’s words from My Stroke of Insight on brain function and choice. This is long again, but GOOD stuff (well, interesting to me anyway, you may well differ).

“Many of us speak about how our head (left hemisphere- LH) is telling us to do one thing while our heart (right hemisphere – RH) is telling us to do the exact opposite. Some of us distinguish between what we think (LH) and what we feel (RH). Other’s communicate about our mind consciousness (LH) versus our body’s instinctive consciousness (RH)…or our small self(LH) versus our inner or authentic self (RH)…and if you are a Carl Jung fan, then there’s our sensing mind (LH) versus our intuitive mind(RH), and our judging mind (LH) versus our perceiving mind (RH)…

From a neuroanatomical perspective, I gained access to the experience of deep inner peace in the consciousness of my right mind when the language and orientation association areas in the left hemisphere of my brain became nonfunctional. The brain research performed by Drs. Andrew Newberg and the late Eugene D’Aquili (Why God Won’t Go Away, NY: Ballantine, 2001) earlier this decade have helped me understand exactly what was going on in my brian. Using SPECT technology (single photon emission computed tomography), these scientists identified the neuroanatomy underlying our ability to have a religious or spiritual (mystical) experience. They wanted to understand which regions of the brain were involved in our capacity to undergo a shift in consciousness – away from being an individual to feeling that we are at one with the universe (God, Nirvana, euphoria).

Tibetan meditators and Franciscan nuns were invited to meditate or pray inside the SPECT machine. They were instructed to tug on a cotton twine when they reached either their meditative climax or felt united with God. These experiments identified shifts in neurological activity in very specific regions in the brain. First, there was a decrease in the activity of the left hemisphere language centers resulting in a silencing of their brain chatter. Second, there was a decrease in activity in the orientation association area, located in the posterior parietal gyrus of the left hemisphere. This region of our left brain helps us identify our personal physical boundaries. When this area is inhibited or displays decreased input from our sensory systems, we lose sight of where we begin and where we end relative to the space around us.” p 134-136

Thus, during the stroke, Jill’s consciousness shifted away from feeling like a solid, to a perception of herself as fluid.

I’d like that – more at-oneness fluidity with the universe and Creator.

I seem to have a clamorous left hemisphere - -Rx: way more meditation for me!