Just read this short description by a neuroanatomist of her personal experience of a stroke and if that does not make you think or stir a dim recognition that your very person is but a self aware collection of mental processes then click through to the review of her book. It is not going to be the tedious "left brain/right brain" approximations but an unflinching ringside seat to an incredible and educational trauma. And a happy ending with a recovery so complete it should move you to teary awe at the fantastic machinery we are born with.
So reflect for a second on that bit of reality and then think of all the drinks, drugs, call girls, willingly believed myths about the existence of a durable soul, priests and gurus that people have turned to to rid themselves of the demons that this keen observer saw flushed away by a stroke. The stroke is a real, physical thing that happens and can be medically detected and dealt with. The ecstatic and detached states your spiritual practice may bring you are pale imitations and temporary respites. The near death experiences that are interpreted as visits to the heaven of the Christians are but misinterpretations of the phenomena this neuroanatomist had the misfortune to suffer and the good fortune to be trained to understand...and through that receptiveness, to learn even more.
If you catch assorted parties reading religious things into the story, just be patient. Ignoring superstition is more profitable than fighting it because it is your energy that is freed for better things. Conventionally spiritual interpretations are not required either to understand or gain inspiration from this unusual account of having a human mind.
3 comments:
ok...that actually made me weep.
Thank you.
It does make life more precious or the loss of it more absolute and more tragic when you look at what a person is, what YOU are, in more scientifically informed terms...definitely did not diminish your perception of humanity. It definitely does not diminish mine.
That is the beef I have with all the afterlifers...they are ready to fuck over anyone living, even themselves, because they think somehow they are getting another ride when this one is over. Dumb shits. Dangerous dumb shits. This life is it so best to open up to it and that would start with just opening ones eyes.
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