Harvard neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor had a massive stroke in her 30s, a decade ago. The stroke took her left brain functioning offline within a few hours, and during that time, scientist that she was, she had a chance to observe first-hand what life is like, living from the right-brain with occasional interference from the more logical, linear, language, labeling functioning that is typical of the left hemisphere.

Taylor published a book about her experience, called My Stroke of Insight. She also has a wonderful video of a talk she gave for the TED talks. Here is the website: www.ted.com.

When Taylor was interviewed on Oprah's Soul Series, she gave us a glimpse of what it's like to live in the right brain, a place she likens to "nirvana." As Eckhart Tolle describes it, Taylor experienced how it is to be completely present, open to her senses, connected to every other being, perfect, whole, and beautiful. She says that she made a "choice" to recover, because she never wanted to relinquish this "la-la land," as she affectionately named it. It was a time when she felt expansive, at one with the world, euphoric.

Taylor also gives us a wake-up call about how our loved ones who might have had a stroke or other neurological accident are really aware and cognizant of how they are treated and what the atmosphere is like in their caregiving environment. Though she had no language during her months of recovery, she intuited much of what her caregivers' mood and intentions were. For those of us who are exposed to a family member or friend in that state, her prescriptions are critical for the patient's recovery.

Taylor, like many other spiritual seekers, discovered, through this "stroke of insight" that we all have the power to choose whom we want to be in the world. We all have access to our right-hemisphere, even though it has been obscured by the left-brain functioning that our culture has touted as leading to success. But, at what cost?