My Stroke of Insight
by Jill Bolte Taylor · first published 2008
63% recommend38% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Firsthand account by a neuroscientist of a left-hemisphere stroke, blending clinical insight with a personal story about how the brain experiences the world; suits readers curious about consciousness.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
On the morning of December 10, 1996 Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. A neuroanatomist by profession, she observed her own mind completely deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life, all within the space of four brief hours. As the damaged left side of her brain – the rational, grounded, detail and time-oriented side – swung in and out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realties: the e
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A great book on this is My Stroke of Insight, written by a neuroscientist who had a massive left-hemisphere stroke. Her experience was horrific in many ways, absolutely beautiful in others. She also has a TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_strok...
on “What Happens When You Can’t Talk to Yourself?” ↗You've probably already heard of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, but if you haven't, you should look up "My Stroke of Insight". The TED talk version is quick and interesting -- she talks about exactly this. I'm working through her "Whole Brain Living" book and it addresses many of the exact points in this Nautilus article, although…
on “Myths about the brain” ↗Another book that is very illuminating is "My Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor. Reading the brain stroke description can give non-experiential understanding of various Zen koans, including the non-verbal one where Buddha simply holds up a flower and it becomes…
on “A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time” ↗What a beautiful, thought provoking article! When I saw the title , I thought it was a book summary of “My stroke of insight” [0]. This book is by a neuro-anatomist who had a rare stroke resulting in the left hemisphere of her brain being incapacitated. That led her to experiences similar to that of the article’s author. Do…
on “What brain surgery taught me about the fragile gift of consciousness” ↗…building machines. (And when I say machines in the context of Cybernetics I mean to include those made out of people! "Human use of Human Beings", eh?) As an aside, there is a fascinating talk and book "My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientistʼs Personal Journey" by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor: > In it, she tells of her experience in 1996 of having a stroke in her left hemisphere and how the human brain creates our perception…
on “We must seek a widely-applicable science of systems” ↗There was a pretty fascinating talk at TED by Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroscientist who experienced a massive stroke ("my stroke of insight"). On the one hand she observed her own neurological functions shut down with clinical curiosity, and on the other she had a very strong impression of losing her sense of self and being completely connected…
on “Links to Spirituality Found in the Brain” ↗…haven't stopped noticing the same story in different places. It shows up in meditation frameworks (Chuladasa's attention/awareness) to Jungian psychology (anima/animus), in Jill Bolte Taylor's story "My Stroke of Insight", and many more. Here's a list of my favorites: https://www.notion.so/cameronboehmer/de3eb3e0a9524b6989962c4...
on “How researchers discovered we have “two brains” [video]” ↗…(especially after you wake up during the night and go back to sleep). There's no need to shut anything down through high focus, brain does it naturally to paralyze the body and lose the waking state. "My Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor goes through many side-effects experienced by the meditators, but through a lens of a brain stroke. > Thought ceases because it interferes with being aware, not because you are…
on “Large language models lack deep insights or a theory of mind” ↗…Similarly, Brain and Visual Perception is about how David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel worked out some of the circuits in primary visual cortex--and won the Nobel Prize. I have not read Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight, but people seem to like it. It's about a brain anatomist realizing that she's having a stroke. Oliver Sacks' books are probably the standard bearer in this category. Some of the explanations are a bit…
on “Electrical stimulation can boost brain's willingness to engage in mental effort” ↗…if the thing in your brain that makes distinctions is suppressed (by e.g. a stroke) you literally lose the ability to distinguish between your body and the world and enter into an "oceanic bliss". > "My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientistʼs Personal Journey", (2008) is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning book written by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist. In it, she tells…
on “The Philosophy of Computer Science (2017)” ↗…are just incorrect. I've been thinking about this for a long time, and I'm still not 101% convinced, but I think it's true: you can't have information without form. Check out "The Markable Mark" and "My Stroke of Insight". The act of distinction is the foundation of the whole of symbolic thought, and it is intrinsically a geometric act. http://www.markability.net > ... what is to be found in these pages is a reworking…
on “Ask HN: What startup/technology is on your 'to watch' list?” ↗