My Stroke of Insight

Jill Bolte Taylor

Jul 2008 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Jill Bolte Taylor

About this audiobook

The astonishing New York Times bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment.

On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life—all within four hours­—Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover.

For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter." Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah's online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone.

Ratings and reviews

Amazing story narrated by the author! it has really invited me to understand within my own perception, without any judgment and more love. I honestly, recommend it to anyone in the search to understand us as society and to possibly reach true mental peace ☮️. Thank you, Dr. Bolte, you are amazing! 💪🏻🙏🏻🌟

I found such insight into what my friend who has had a stroke and my son who has a TBI experience but also, surprisingly, so much about my own brain and how it works!

About the author

Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist who teaches at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Bloomington, Indiana. She is the national spokesperson for the mentally ill for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (Brain Bank) and the consulting neuroantomist for the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. Since 1993 she has been an active member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Her story has been featured on the PBS program Understanding Amazing Brain, among others. She was interviewed on NPR’s The Infinite Mind and ABC News, and was named one of the 100 of the World’s Most Influential People of 2008 by Time magazine.