Sunday, October 26, 2008

So where does the sanity all fit in to this?

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

This remarkable story may do a fine job of beginning that conversation.

4 comments:

subgenius said...

(slightly off-topic) I have a couple of Adam Curtis video links people might be interested in:

Power of Nightmares: Compares the rise of the Neo-Conservative movement in the United States and the radical Islamist movement, making comparisons on their origins and claiming similarities between the two. More controversially, it argues that the threat of radical Islamism as a massive, sinister organised force of destruction, specifically in the form of al-Qaeda, is a myth perpetrated by politicians in many countries—and particularly American Neo-Conservatives—in an attempt to unite and inspire their people following the failure of earlier, more utopian ideologies.

The film was awarded a BAFTA in the category of "Best Factual Series" in 2005.

part 1
part 2
part 3

and Curtis' new series...

The Century of the self: This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4

Each episode is ~1 hour, so it will take a while to get through them all, but highly recommended before they get taken down....

Steve Roberts said...

I want Jill to be the Consciousness Czar in the new administration.

Owen said...

It seems to me that what happened to her mind, via a stroke, is very like the state that Eckhard Tolle tries to teach achieving through "stilling your inner voice", i.e. making the mind (left hemisphere?) stop, for a while, the ceaseless chatter of "thinking". Some call it "living in the moment". They both appear to have achieved lengthening and deepening this state using different means. Disclaimer: I advocate neither listening to Eckhard Tolle tapes nor having strokes.

Amos said...

Wow, I've only watched the first one so far but it supports everything I have thought for years and been called unamerican for thinking. It is really sad. Think of all the good people smeared by this movement.