You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'video' tag.
Get Jiggy With It Here
This fascinating video from the TED convention features a neuroscientist recounting her own experience with a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. First the video, then some initial questions:
- As beautiful as this description is, how much of it is her left-hemisphere’s perceptions based on already held assumptions of reality? I kept getting reminded that somebody was around to narrate the entire event – her Ego.
- What does this dichotomy between possessing a sense of self and a sense of selflessness between the hemispheres reveal about the nature of reality, the role of the human mind in perceiving it, and the way we understand and relate to God?
- Weren’t those moments of Nirvana arguably lapses into a type of brain-deadness – not a freedom from stress, only the temporary inability to process it? While it is certainly valuable to re-center by giving the right brain some time to run the show, as she suggests, I would also suggest that it is equally important to give the left hemisphere equal credibility so as to manage life and reduce the actual stresses the right hemisphere so effortlessly releases. I can imagine letting the dishes pile up, leaving my child to fend for himself, never showing up to work or paying the bills because they’re all so connected to the illusion of reality
. - Is it possible, based on the premise of two minds/one brain, that one’s theological biases (liberal, conservative, fundamentalist, postmodern) are influenced more by brain behavior than an objective standard of truth?
All kidding and questioning aside, this is a fascinating piece of analysis that we all can find useful, if only to help us understand the importance of balancing the brain’s influences on our actual lives. That, and the human brain had to be the coolest stage prop I’ve seen in a long time.
