#2-2 Brain Stroke

Jill Bolte Taylor (born 1959) is a neuroanatomist who specializes in the postmortem investigation of the human brain. She is affiliated with the Indiana University School of Medicine, is the national spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center, and is the consulting neuroanatomist for the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. Her own personal experience with a massive stroke, experienced in 1996 at age 37, and her subsequent eight-year recovery, has informed her work as a scientist and speaker. For this work, in May 2008 she was named to Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. "My Stroke of Insight" received the top "Books for a Better Life" Book Award in the Science category from the New York City Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society on February 23, 2009 in New York City.

On December 10, 1996, Taylor woke up to discover that she was experiencing a rare form of stroke, an arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Three weeks later, on December 27, 1996, she underwent major brain surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to remove a golf ball-sized hemorrhage that was placing pressure on the language centers in the left hemisphere of her brain.

Taylor's February 2008 TED Conference talk about her memory of the stroke became an Internet sensation, resulting in widespread attention and interest around the world and an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Taylor has written a best-selling book, published by Viking in 2008, called My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, about her recovery from the stroke and the insights she has gained into the workings of her brain. Viking president Clare Ferraro won rights to publish the memoir in an intense auction conducted by literary agent and intellectual property attorney Ellen Stiefler of the Transmedia Agency, and Viking rushed the previously self-published book into hardcover to capitalize on Taylors rapidly rising profile.

Taylor was the first guest featured on Oprah's Soul Series webcast on Oprah.com and Satellite radio show starting May 12; Winfrey had been discussing Taylor with Eckhart Tolle during webinars for Oprah's Book Club about A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle's bestselling book. Taylor appeared on the Oprah Show on October 21, 2008.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• brain
• stroke
• aware
• awareness
• love
• illumination
• conscious
• consciousness
• awake
• awakening
• true
• truth
• reality
• real
• peace
• create
• creation
• believe
• spirit
• spiritual
• spirituality
• experience
• universe
• universal
• space
• time
• cosmos
• dimension
• dimensions
• freedom
• joy
• enlightenment
• liberation
• insight
• meditation
• nothingness
• emptiness
• mystic
• quantum
• energy
• nature

[cowgirl1359]

It's actually nice to hear someone else speak of theur experience. People thought I was losing it when I would tell them about mine. On Jan. 28,2009 I had an AVM hemorrage twice either on or in my cerebelum with a stroke on top of that. I didn't even recognize my husband when I came to. I flatlined 3 times but here I am. It's been almost 3 years and I'm waiting on my therepy. It affected my speech and left side. Thank you I guess just for telling people.

[lasurrey]

muy bueno

[saafein]

@drgood3 : Thanks for the information. I hope everybody reaches the Nirvana.

[drgood3]

@saafein nirvāna is the perfect peace of the state of mind that is free from craving, anger, and other afflicting states

[drgood3]

Truly blessed...

[saafein]

who is nirvana? :)

[mytv80]

what the heck was that!!??? I thought she was going to pull out a mormon book or dianetics by l. ron hubbard!? Um ..I don't think she fully recovered. Interesting take on a brain clot though.

[presencia1]

AMAZING THANK YOU VERY MUCH,

[Rusbalt]

thanks a lot for sharing your experience

[tgoazevedo]

uau, thank you