After a career studying the human brain, Jill Bolte Taylor experienced her own near-fatal stroke (described in her book My Stroke of Insight and her online TED talk). While she was losing her sense of who she was, she was feeling, she says, that “my soul was as big as the universe and frolicked with glee in a boundless sea. . . . I was completely entranced by feelings of tranquility, safety, blessedness, euphoria, and omniscience.” She believes that a wise but seldom experienced part of our mind recognizes “this marvelous planet, which sustains our life. It perceives the big picture, how
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