Image by Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator
A wonderful client sent me an email with the subject line ”Watch this” and a comment inside that it is an “astonishingly beautiful” story. So I watched the TED talk and found it beautiful and moving. And, I feel inspired to share it with you also.
It's the story of a brain scientist from Harvard university who woke up one morning and became quickly aware that her brain was malfunctioning. She was excited to be able to study her own brain from inside out as it completely deteriorated in its ability to process information.
The logical part of her brain was shutting down and her brain chatter stopped completely. There were no thoughts for a while – just silence. She experienced 'a sense of peaceful...euphoria.' Her body was no longer a limiting container and she felt boundless, 'expansive' and unlimited.
The atoms and molecules of her body merged with the energy of the wall she leaned against for support. Fascinating!
This kind of experience is often labelled as a spiritual awakening but it seems to me that she was experiencing what is our true nature. When the mind chatter stops, we are at one with everything around us. This has been my experience also when there is no mind chatter.
Mystics have spoken about this for centuries. I guess they are called mystics because what they experience as normal is like a mystery to others. They tell us that there is something within us that although confined by the boundaries of our physical body, strives to be limitless. Infinite expansion is its nature.
It's unlimited nature is expressed through our desires – the fact that irrespective of what your life is like – full of abundance/wealth or not - you want to be something more. You want infinite expansion (this desire is mainly unconscious) and try to achieve it through physical means like money, pleasure, alcohol, drugs...
And when you break the limitations created by the mind that you are limited and separate you experience expansion and can do what you want to do. You bloom inside and can create the life that you want and the kind of world you desire to live in.
I invite you to click here to watch the TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor. If you're at work and can't watch it now, why not send the link to your personal email and watch it later. The story is amazing and brilliant.
