New TED Talk: Jill Bolte Taylor’s “My Stroke of Insight”

Thursday, 13 March 2008 Clay Burell Print This Post

Hot off the TED presses: A brain scientist shares her experience of what can only be called mysticism from, of all things, a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain.

It’s nice to hear scientists describing these experiences without recourse to the religious Books of old. One doesn’t need to read a book to encounter the Divine, nor to personify it with a name.

It’s a truly beautiful, captivating talk. We really should, in English and speech classes around the world, throw out the textbooks and schooly assignments, and simply watch TED to learn what a great speech is. What sort of unit would this be: each student giving his or her own TED talk, his or her own “idea worth sharing.”

You won’t regret watching this. It’s sublime.

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6 Responses to “New TED Talk: Jill Bolte Taylor’s “My Stroke of Insight””

Charlie A. Roy writes:
No. 1 — March 15th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Charlie A. Roy’s last blog post..Possible Bullying Speaker to Share

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Jonathan Chambers writes:
No. 2 — March 27th, 2008 at 12:15 am
Hi Clay, I’m glad you noticed Jill Taylor’s TEDTalk, as Leigh-Anne and I were quite taken aback by it. Just for the record, watching TEDTalks has pretty much taken over our concept of ‘traditional TV’ and this is the kind of podcast that we sit down to watch at our television these days, as it provides us with a lot more brainfood and mental sustenance than your average network show.

The first 3 minutes or so of Jill’s talk were laborious… her seemingly painful accent and mannerisms were quite a bit to surmount, but then once she got into the ‘meat’ of her discussion it was evident that she had something much more amazing and consequential to share.

I rate all of the TEDTalks podcasts that I download (ie. every single one of them), and this is one of the rare ones that I just had to give a “5 star” rating. This is a truly exceptional podcast, and I’d love to continue to encourage everyone to give this one a sincere listen/watch.

Jonathan Chambers’s last blog post..Language as an evolutionary map

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Ellen writes:
No. 3 — May 17th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
I’ve been recommending Jill Bolte Taylor’s book “My Stroke of Insight” to everyone I know. It’s the best book I’ve read all year!
You can get the book for just $16.47 with free shipping from Amazon! Here is the Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/My-Stroke-Insight-Scientists-Personal/dp/0670020745/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210709205&sr=8-4

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Charles writes:
No. 4 — May 29th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
The New York Times Sunday Newspaper on May 25 had a great two page article on Jill Bolte Taylor and her book, “MY STROKE OF INSIGHT”. Her book is a must read and this NY Times article – called “A Superhighway to bliss” is worth checking out too.

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Eneida writes:
No. 5 — May 30th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I read “My Stroke of Insight” in one sitting – I couldn’t put it down. I laughed. I cried. It was a fantastic book (I heard it’s a NYTimes Bestseller and I can see why!), but I also think it will be the start of a new, transformative Movement! No one wants to have a stroke as Jill Bolte Taylor did, but her experience can teach us all how to live better lives. Her TED.com speech was one of the most incredibly moving, stimulating, wonderful videos I’ve ever seen. Her Oprah Soul Series interviews were fascinating. They should make a movie of her life so everyone sees it. This is the Real Deal and gives me hope for humanity.

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Lizzie writes:
No. 6 — June 3rd, 2008 at 2:25 pm
MY STROKE OF INSIGHT was ranked #5 in all books sold on Amazon today and #1 in Memoirs above even Barbara Walters’ memoir. Babs had been promoting her book for months in advance and Dr. Taylor’s book was self-published.

Then Oprah recommended it. There’s the Power of Now, and then there’s the Power of Oprah!!

“My Stroke of Insight” is out in Hardcover now for less than the old paperback edition. Amazon has it for 40% off.

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