Stroke of Genius: An Interview with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

It’s an understatement to say that for nearly all stroke survivors, a stroke is a negative experience. A blood vessel bursts inside your brain and blood fills the surrounding area, choking off millions of delicate neurons. Strokes can damage language centers, motor skills, and memory, depending on the area of the brain where they occur. So what kind of person could survive a massive stroke in her left hemisphere, struggle through eight years of rehabilitation, and end up being glad it happened?

Jill Bolte TaylorWell, a neuroscientist, for one. When Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke in 1996, she was just 37 years old. After years of studying the human brain, she found herself suddenly given a first-hand opportunity to witness the effects of a debilitating trauma to the left hemisphere of her brain — the side that is logical, rational, and marks time. With a surreal sense of distance, she witnessed her sense of reality come apart and found herself filled with a sense of oneness and connection to the energy of the universe. The part of her brain that would normally tell her where her body ended and the universe began was totally incapacitated. But for Taylor, it wasn’t just a neurological condition. It was a revelation. Her right brain, intuitive and creative, was no longer held in check by the dominant left-brain trained scientist she had previously been. Her sense of euphoria, oneness and peace was real, and had always been there — the barriers that had kept her from accessing it had simply been lifted.

Over the next eight years, her determined spirit walked the hard road to recovery, relearning language, motor skills, mathematics and, ultimately, her identity. Throughout this long process, she never lost touch with the insights that had come to her during her stroke, when her left brain was offline. She published a memoir of her experience, titled “My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey.” and the book became a bestseller. Taylor was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and also spoke at the 4th Annual Brain Education Conference. She was kind enough to take some time to answer our questions.

Brain World: Since your book was published, your story has been embraced by millions. How has that experience changed you?

Jill Bolte Taylor: It’s interesting that although the world has changed around me, I have not changed much at all. I had dinner one night with Paul Simon and he talked to me about fame. He said, “Fame is a lie. People who do not know you will love you. Others who do not know you will hate you. Don’t believe any of it, just be yourself and enjoy the ride.” I have taken his advice to heart and have continued to just be me. On a professional front, I now have the freedom to do what I believe is important.

BW: Has your message evolved since you first started touring and lecturing?

JBT: No, I am real clear that my point is that we are wired for deep inner peace and that we have much more control over what is going on in our heads than we were ever taught.

BW: Your experience in rehabilitation taught you the importance of bringing positive energy to others, and your power to hook into an emotion or let it pass. Do you think that’s useful to all people, regardless of the states of their brains?

JBT: Yes, we always have a choice to observe or engage. Pay attention to what is going on in your brain and choose to observe it rather than engage with it. Making the choice to recognize that you are neurocircuitry is step one.

BW: What techniques or exercises do you recommend for left-brain dominant folks who haven’t experienced the dramatic, unfiltered knowledge of their right brains?

JBT: Pay attention to when you are in your joy, your laughter, your state of prayer, your state of inner peace. Pay attention to what this feels like inside your body. Then practice rerunning that circuitry so you can run it any time you choose. My book gives lots of examples and tools.

BW: Have you been able to influence the way stroke victims are perceived and treated?

JBT: Yes, first, we now call them stroke survivors rather than stroke victims. This is very important in the way we look at these people and celebrate what they have already accomplished. The book is fresh out into the world but has already influenced many health professionals in the way they individually treat their patients. In addition, the book is now required reading for many young medical professionals. Even better, in smaller countries like France and the Netherlands, the book is influencing the physicians at the top of the medical system as well as the caregivers. The impact has already been profound.

BW: What more would you like to see done for stroke survivors?

JBT: Better rehabilitation tools for right hemisphere trauma would be terrific. Appreciating and encouraging sleep would be great. And helping these folks realize that the brain is capable of recovering quality of life over long periods of time helps change everything.

BW: What is the relationship between the euphoria and sense of oneness that you felt as your right brain became dominant after your stroke, and your assertions that your “brightness” was gone and you were not emotionally engaged with the world?

JBT: My lack of brightness felt like pressure and inhibition of function. Euphoria is a state of being, not an emotion. I think a lot of people confuse the experience I call nirvana with an emotional state of happiness. If anything, it was the state of a lack of emotion that was bliss. The absence of experience was one of bliss.

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