A Neuroanatomist Describes Her Own Stroke

Dat · Post by **Dat** » 17 Mar 2008 12:36

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229

This is a pretty interesting talk, with a mix of science and spiritualism. Definitely worth freeing 19 minutes of your time to watch.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » 17 Mar 2008 19:43

Thanks for the heads up.

A very interesting talk with some powerful implications about the multi-faceted nature of human subjective experience. Her description of the divide between linguistic and non-linguistic reality was fascinating. This has been a topic of Buddhists for ages.

But we have to be careful not to quickly equate this with mysticism. She uses many Eastern "spiritual" terms to describe her experience, which makes me somewhat wary of the implications she is drawing. Let's not forget that this is nothing more than an anecdotal account also.

People have probably experienced similar things with drugs, meditation, or in certain extreme conditions. And those experiences need not always be positive.

Meditation in particular needs to be viewed with a critical eye, because it is often wrapped up in ancient mythologies and religious worldviews. Yet it could prove valuable if used carefully.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 18 Mar 2008 04:08

All the TED talks are excellent.

Psilocybe · Post by **Psilocybe** » 19 Mar 2008 10:45

Knowing neurologists, I can pretty much guarantee she'd be one to talk down about drugs. But, you can get all that for $30 and without a friggin' stroke. lol. Well, maybe not the paralysis. It sounded like she had good ol' ego loss. Perhaps ego death. I hated how she threw the word "energy" around so much.

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 19 Mar 2008 14:28

yeah a chewed a quarter of boomers last weekend and felt pretty much the same exact thing

but yeah very interesting and with a good mix of understandable science thrown in.