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Apr. 2nd, 2008 @ 07:25 am the we inside of me
A ted talk that should not be missed: Jill Taylor, a neuroanatomist, has a stroke and describes the subjective experience as her brain functions slip away.

Of particular interest to me were the last few minutes of the talk, when she speaks very emotionally about the awakening she experienced. Everything she said, with essentially no modification at all, translates to the transcendent experience many people have after ingesting LSD, psilocybin, or ecstasy. In fact, an entheogen-knowledgeable person who caught only the end of the talk would assume that's what she was talking about. It is very sad to me that there are millions of people like her who will never know that feeling unless they too have a stroke. It is not uncommon for a single drug use in a productive setting to enable profound, lasting, enormously positive changes, but all of that knowledge is walled off from the majority because, oh no, drugs! I mean oh no, drugs, except for the ones that come with childproof caps! So much unnecessary unhappiness, and for what? For nothing.

Update: now looking through the comments I see lots of people had the same reaction. This one sums it up rather sharply but not inaccurately: "That this experience can seem profound to either a neuroscientist or ted's audience displays some of the intellectual backwaters created by political repression of psychedelic substances. The talk is nice, but anyone who hasn't already had a similar experience should feel ashamed to categorize themselves as intellectuals."
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