My Stroke of Insight covers a lot of information and in part is written as an informative guide to help those trying to better understand a stroke victim. Dr. Taylor highlights things like the importance of patience, human touch, respect and modified (slower and better enunciated) speech when interacting with a stroke victim. For a different audience then, this information will no doubt prove highly valuable and the book is worth reading not only as a first-person perspective on the process of suffering a stroke, but also from the same person’s point of view undergoing rehabilitation (it took eight years for Dr. Taylor to fully recover). In this synopsis however I will be concentrating on Dr. Taylor’s actual experience of the stroke and the feelings and frustrations she had as My Stroke of Insight provides an excellent perspective on one of the central themes of this blog: how ascetic, meditative and martial disciplines can be used to gain satori (‘enlightenment’) or, as I prefer to define it, a brief moment of complete right hemisphere dominance that totally over-rides the more normal left hemisphere control.
Whereas the work of Dr. Julian Jaynes and Tony Wright describe the proposed history of the dynamic (and continuing) shift from right hemisphere dominance to left hemisphere dominance and the loss of contact with the ‘divine’ My Stroke of Insight clearly points out that regaining right hemisphere dominance is possible and describes the experience allowing us to make a comparison with descriptions of ‘enlightenment’ made by spiritual ascetics.
My Stroke of Insight begins with a description of how, within four hours of initially suffering the stroke, Dr. Taylor was unable to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any information regarding her life. She had lost her identity and her ability to interact with the external world in what we would usually describe as a meaningful way. As despairing as such a state may appear to be, Dr. Taylor instead found herself, at least initially, quite happy. In place of her ability to conceptualize the world she now perceived that she was at one with the universe; that the duality between self and other had disappeared. In simple terms, the damage suffered to her left brain hemisphere caused her to journey into her right brain hemisphere and to be here embraced by a feeling of deep inner peace.
There are numerous points that I want to highlight from My Stroke of Insight, which expertly blends personal experience with hard scientific fact.
The Human Brain is Experiencing Continual Change
The human brain has its own history and that is a history of change. Over the last 2,000 years our brains have changed and they will no doubt do so again over the next 2,000 years. Key developments, such as the development of language, can cause radical shifts in our brain makeup.
Hemispherical Co-operation
Our brain hemispheres communicate with one another primarily though the corpus callosum and while each hemisphere has a unique way of processing incoming information, in the course of our everyday life, via the corpus callosum, they work together to generate a single seamless perception of the world. My Stroke of Insight effectively describes the break down of this single seamless stream of consciousness and neatly divides consciousness into two.
Everyone’s Brain is Different
At a microscopic level variation between brains is the rule, not the exception. This contributes to generating our individuality and also means that we all experience reality in a slightly different way. I mention this because I have written before on how different people immersed in right hemisphere contact will have different experiences (with these differences then compounded by our different left brain hemispheres when we attempt to conceptualize the non-conceptual).
Two Complementary Halves of a Whole
When normally (my emphasis) connected the two hemispheres complement and enhance each others abilities. When surgically separated (or, I would argue, differentiated through some other means, such as suffering a stroke or through ascetic discipline), the two hemispheres function as two independent brains with unique personalities. By communicating through the corpus callosum our everyday cognitive behavior utilizes activity in both the left and right brain hemispheres. Each hemisphere undertakes this behavior in a different way and then appears to seamlessly join together these two different ways of perceiving the world.
What is Brain Dominance?
I have often commented in previous articles that we are left hemisphere brain dominant and the work of both Dr. Julian Jaynes and Tony Wright maintains that left hemisphere dominance is a recent phenomena and is the result of a shift from right brain dominance. Brain dominance is defined by which hemisphere houses the ability to create and understand verbal language.
The Creation and Experience of Time
My Stroke of Insight details some important differences between our left and right brain hemispheres. One such difference is in the creation and experience of time. Our right hemisphere does not perceive any time except the present moment. This allows us to recall isolated moments in our lives (such as where we were and what we were doing when we first heard about the 9/11 attacks) and, rather than arrange memories chronologically, our right hemisphere relates different experiences to one another across time. In the present moment - now - everything and everyone are connected together as one. This allows us to see the bigger picture.
Our left hemisphere orders our experiences through time or, more precisely, our left hemisphere arranges events sequentially and this brings about an awareness of time. Within this framework our left hemisphere seeks details, the more the better. Rather than perceive the bigger picture, our left hemisphere focuses in closer on more and more detail of the particulars. To use a simple analogy, while our right hemisphere would perceive a forest (the big picture) our left hemisphere would seek to label each and every tree and bush found within that forest…and then label each and every part of each and every tree and bush…and so on. A result of this identified in My Stroke of Insight is a sense of left hemisphere authority over the details identified.
I would like to draw your attention at this point to the valuable insight offered by Dr. Julian Jaynes in his analysis of differences in expression (and, he would therefore argue, experience) of time between The Iliad and The Odyssey. In the earlier Iliad the characters are caught up in the present moment (as the right hemisphere would experience ‘time’). By the time of The Odyssey however the protagonists are more detached from the present moment and do things ‘quickly’ rather than immediately while also at times being hesitant to act. Is this evidence of an historical shift to left hemisphere dominance where time is delineated, as Dr. Jaynes suggests?
Right Hemisphere Dominance Described
With the full onset of the stroke, Dr. Taylor began to have hitherto unknown experiences. Thanks to her training, Dr. Taylor had recognized fairly early on that she was indeed suffering a stroke. She next faced two problems: her damaged left hemisphere was no longer able to conceptualize a means to get help for herself and her right brain hemisphere didn’t appear to care. Dr. Taylor found herself increasingly unable to concentrate or remain connected with an external reality and instead found herself fully immersed in each and every moment. Here was tranquility, a feeling that she describes (while acknowledging that she is no expert) as being Buddhist Nirvana. She describes herself as being
…entranced by the feelings of tranquility, safety, blessedness, euphoria, and omniscience. A piece of me wanted to be released completely from the captivity of this physical form.
So confused was she that she was unable to find and dial a simple phone number that would allow her to call for help. Drifting into and out of left hemisphere dominance she experienced moments of clarity and was eventually able to make a call…only to find that she had completely lost all her ability to speak!
Eventually help came and Dr. Taylor was taken to hospital where she was stabilized, diagnosed and cared for, thus beginning an eight year recovery period. Lying exhausted in the hospital bed Dr. Taylor reflected on her experience and realized that she had undergone a shift from left hemisphere ‘doing-consciousness’ to right hemisphere ‘being-consciousness. In the state of being-consciousness she no longer felt isolated or alone. Instead, she felt intimately connected to the universe. She concludes that she believes the experience of Nirvana exists in the consciousness of our right hemisphere. She goes on to state
My stroke of insight would be: Peace is only a thought away, and all we have to do to access it is silence the voice of our dominating left mind.
Clearly this latter statement is of enormous significance to my own research, as is the identification of Nirvana with the right hemisphere. I would also like to make an additional point here that I have previously made. Note that while right hemisphere dominance is non-conceptual (no ability to talk, read, write or understand spoken language) when attempting to explain or conceptualize that insight Dr. Taylor, like so many others, is forced into using language that is familiar to herself and her audience. She specifically uses the term Nirvana just as, I have argued, both Jesus and Mohammed used terminology that was familiar to them and their audience (in these latter cases, God). Dr. Taylor identifies the difficulty in conceptualizing the non-conceptual when, some two years after her stroke, she worked with a Gestalt therapist who helped her verbalize what she had been through. The result is My Stroke of Insight.
One final point I want to note in this synopsis of My Stroke of Insight is that Dr. Taylor equates right hemisphere brain consciousness with ‘heart consciousness’. At this stage in my research this was arguably the most intriguing of all statements made in My Stroke of Insight. I have been very fortunate to enter private communication with Dr. Taylor and she is adamant that the definition of one equals the definition of the other. The importance and relevance of this insight will become clearer in the future when I examine other ascetic disciplines, most notably Christian Hesychasm. Since contacting Dr. Taylor directly I have been dwelling on how and why right hemisphere consciousness can be linked with heart consciousness (thereby causing a delay in me writing this article…) and have come to the following tentative conclusion: the seat of our emotional life resides in our right hemisphere. In the West we have a tendency to distinguish between rational thought (that occurring in our mind) and our emotions (arising in our heart). While a case can be made for the sensitivity of our heart as a feeling organ (along with our stomach, for example), I wonder now if the mind = rational thought / heart = emotions paradigm is an oversimplification of a newly discovered paradigm of left hemisphere consciousness = rational thought / right hemisphere consciousness = emotions. I mention this here as a point of interest and for future reference.
For more information on My Stroke of Insight and on Dr. Jill Taylor please visit www.drjilltaylor.com or www.mystrokeofinsight.com.
