Watching The Brain Having a Stroke

Every year, 15 million people will suffer from a stroke, five million of them will die and a further five million will be left permanently disabled.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, is a brain scientist who suffered a massive stroke at the age of 37.

Knowing how the brain operates, she was able to observe and understand the deterioration that followed.

BBC World Service – 23 min interview with Dr. Jill Taylor.

Many will have seen this video of Dr. Taylor talking about her stroke, in detail. If you are in the least interested in looking into how the mind works this is a video for you.

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5 thoughts on “Watching The Brain Having a Stroke”

  1. Thanks for the link to the video of Jill Bolte Taylor’s talk, Reverend Mugo. It’s very uplifting, and moving.

  2. thank you for sharing this wonderful story. i have shared it with a friend whose is taking care of elderly Parents.
    her Father has Alzheimer’s and each day requires so much energy.

  3. Thank you for this link Rev Mugo. I found it fascinating and thought provoking. I was particularly struck by the way Dr Taylor recounted her experience. She is obviously used to lecturing but the manner in which she shared such a deeply personal experience, using humour and such openess I found moving, sort of humbling.

    My Father had a stroke two weeks ago. He is at home again now and doing well but he’s been told by the Dr’s that he needs to make changes to the way he lives and he is pretty resistant to this. The experience has shaken his confidence and fightened him a lot but it also appears to have put him more ‘in touch’ with himself. The brain is an amazing organ, but it can lead us a merry dance can’t it?

    Thank you also for pointing me in the direction of your blog. It has proved a source of comfort and insight over the past month; for which I am truely grateful.

    In gassho
    Julie

  4. Dear Julie,
    So sorry to hear about your father. I hope you have a Transfer of Merit notice up at Throssel – if not let me know his name and I’ll get one posted.

    Glad you find this site of help. A source of comfort and insight? – I think this comes through you and your practice and reading here simply resonates with ‘that which is’ within you. This is probably how people derive something from coming here, and keeps them/you returning.

    There is really nothing to be gained from reading the stuff I publish however if it is of some benefit, even on the simple information level, good.

    Thanks for leaving this comment.

  5. Dear Rev Mugo
    Thank you for your reply. I have been off-line for a couple of days and unable to respond.

    I had asked the GD to put a card on the merit board for my dad and he is continuing to do well, though his blood pressure can reach nearly 300 some days!

    My brother has been cooking my parents really delicious and healthy vegitarian and sometimes macrobiotic food but last night, while my brother was out of the house, my dad made himslef bacon, fried bread and cheese and eat it in his bedroom! My mum thought my brother would be upset but he was very understanding. I see this as a teaching in how strongly we can hold on to our conditioning, attachments and desires, and how they can be driven by fear.

    Even though my dad is aware that consuming this sort of food could actually contribute towards ending his life, and even though he is very afraid of dying, he is somehow driven to fly in the face of all that and do it anyway. Previously, having been told to loose weight and get his blood pressure down, he sat down to chocoalte cake with custard, cream and ice cream. It appears to me as if he’s challenging the inevitable. I can’t but help think this is rooted in fear.

    I am quite like my dad in many ways and I have experienced this type of self-destructive behaviour in the past. I now realise that I also count as one of the countless ‘living things’ that I wish to help through the unfolding of the Buddha’s teachings and I am able to be more compashionate towards myself as well as others.

    The more contact I have with the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha the more I am reminded of this, and more able to do it. I hear what you say about the content of Jade Mountains resonating with ‘that which is’ within me, and I think you are right about this. This is probably one of the main reasons that people return to the site. To my mind ‘resonating’ is a dynamic word that implies a movement and 2-way connection(I could be getting a bit mixed up with vibrating or oscillating here?) but do you not think that it is earier for a person to ‘feel’ or recognise something more clearly when it is dynamic ‘resonating’? As a forum and means of connecting people and things and ideas I think Jade is of great benefit and a wondeful offering.

    With bows
    Julie

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