Communicator (communicator) wrote,
Communicator
communicator

A fascinating insight from a Neuroscientist

I went to the Bridge therapy centre over the weekend to talk to Russell. I am now going to be a trainer at the centre, and my first teaching will be next Saturday. My first day is a one-to-one intensive session with a bloke who wants to catch up with some classes that he has missed.

Russell was very enthusiastic (he's an enthusiastic person) about TED - an interesting site with 18 minute talks by a wide range of interesting speakers offered as streaming video.

In particular I have been watching this talk by neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor on her experience of a stroke, which knocked out the left hemisphere of her brain. She's an excellent lively presenter, who seems happy talking about the same experiences from both an objective and a subjective/spiritual perspective. It's well worth listening to:

'I felt at one with all the energy that was, and it was beautiful there, and then my left hemisphere comes back online and it's like - Hey we have a problem here, you'd better get some help.'

Her perspective is definitely that the division between left and right brain thinking is not a metaphor, not a generalisation, but a tight and accurate picture of neural organisation. I was surprised at the confidence with which she states this as a professional opinion, and it may be that like the theory of continental drift this idea has moved into the mainstream.

It also strikes me how many intelligent people are wedded to the belief that only the left brain (if that is what it actually is) is real, meaningful and sound as a basis for thought.
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