"My Stroke of Insight" Now Available Through Viking Penguin Group

I just found out (via the Fashion & Style section of the New York Times) that Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's book, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, is now available through Viking Adult, a division of the Penguin Group.

A Superhighway to Bliss

By LESLIE KAUFMAN
Published: May 25, 2008

JILL BOLTE TAYLOR was a neuroscientist working at Harvard’s brain research center when she experienced nirvana.

But she did it by having a stroke.

On Dec. 10, 1996, Dr. Taylor, then 37, woke up in her apartment near Boston with a piercing pain behind her eye. A blood vessel in her brain had popped. Within minutes, her left lobe — the source of ego, analysis, judgment and context — began to fail her. Oddly, it felt great.

The incessant chatter that normally filled her mind disappeared. Her everyday worries — about a brother with schizophrenia and her high-powered job — untethered themselves from her and slid away.

Her perceptions changed, too. She could see that the atoms and molecules making up her body blended with the space around her; the whole world and the creatures in it were all part of the same magnificent field of shimmering energy.

“My perception of physical boundaries was no longer limited to where my skin met air,” she has written in her memoir, “My Stroke of Insight,” which was just published by Viking.

Previously, Dr. Taylor's memoir was self-published, but her recent inspirational TED talk (and appearances on Oprah's webcast and in Time magazine, for starters) have provided wider exposure for this talented scientist/artist.

Read an early interview with Dr. Taylor, where she discusses her stained glass brains and her post-stroke creative process.