Educational Videos

Videos and Podcast of Jill Bolte Taylor

Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain scientist who had a stroke in 1996 that had disabled her left brain hemisphere, and the brain-chatter that goes along with it. This event gave her insights into the workings of the right hemisphere, the place of present-moment euphoria that is possible for humans to experience.

In her book My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey [page 111], she writes "I believe the experience of Nirvana exists in the consciousness of our right hemisphere, and that any moment, we can choose to hook into that part of our brain. ... 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."

After eight years, she had fully recovered. But she is still able to turn off her left hemisphere and experience that peaceful blissful state of her right-hemisphere at will. She now shares her story in lectures, videos, and interviews. Because of this, she was selected as 2008 Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People.

The most famous is the video of her talk at the TED conference.

Oprah did a series of detailed interviews with Jill Taylor on Oprah's Soul Series Webcasts where you can watch in the link provided. The webcast comes in four parts. Oprah read excerpts from the book, you get see a real brain being brought out, and Jill sings the Brain Bank jingle.

Here is another video of Jill Taylor talking about the difference between the left and right hemisphere of the brain.

Terry Gross of Fresh Air National Public Radio also interviewed Jill Taylor which you can hear on NPR.org.

To learn more about Jill Bolte Taylor, see her websites DrJillTaylor.com and MyStrokeOfInsight.com as well as the Wikipedia entry.

 

Author of "How Starbucks Saved My Life" Speaks at Google

Michael Gates Gill is the author of the book How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else. As an well educated and well-paid advertising executive, Gill had everything of privilege. Then he lost his job, his marriage, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. By chance co-incidence he was offered and accepted a job at Starbucks, where he then found respect, self-worth, and most of all happiness.

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