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llamprou's picture

Consciousness

This weekend I was surfing the internet for a topic to base my second web paper on, when I stumbled upon a video in the New York Times, featuring a Dr. Taylor who had recently experienced a stroke in the left-hemisphere of her brain. She claimed that the left hemisphere is the part of the brain that takes the raw data input from the right side relates it to past experience (memory) and then projects it to the future via language. It is the “I am” of consciousness. On the other side, the main concern is with the present, the here and now. How things feel, smell, look and sound come in as “energy” and are basically raw data. The data is not “judged” or processed. There is no sense of self or separateness from the environment and others; no boundaries. Bolte describes the feeling produced by this unbridled consciousness as expansive, beautiful and awesome. I just wanted to share this with everyone because I feel as though it sheds new light both on the I-function and also on consciousness as a whole. The website is below!

. http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/fullscreen.html?v=/ted/movies/JILLTAYLOR-2008-2&cid=/ted/movies

I did end up writing my web paper on this topic and am amazed at some of the observations this women recorded after her episode. If nothing else it is great food for thought.  

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