Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist, whose research specializes in understanding how our brain creates our perception of reality. Following decades of service and affiliation with the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (Harvard Brain Bank) and the Indiana University School of Medicine, she has shifted her academic affiliation to the DePaul University Department of Education, where she is making Whole Brain Living trainings available to school communities.
In 1996, Dr. Jill experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain. In the course of four hours, she lost the ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Her memoir, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey, documenting her experience with stroke and eight-year recovery spent 63 weeks on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. In 2008, Dr. Jill gave the first TED talk that ever went viral on the Internet, which now has well over 30 million views. She was chosen as one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World”, and appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s “Soul Series” web-cast and TV show.
In 2021, Dr. Jill’s second book, Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life was published. Available in 21 languages, Dr. Jill sincerely believes that sharing this material with the world is her life’s purpose.
In the eyes of Dr. Jill, our life is the greatest gift of the universe, and simply because we are human life, we are mighty beyond our wildest imaginations. Whole Brain Living provides an understanding about our two emotional and two thinking modules of cells, their skill-sets and how we each possess four predictable personalities.
The better we understand who is who inside of our own brain, we gain the ability to train ourselves to choose who and how we want to be in any moment – because we know what our choices are. We have the power to shift our consciousness in an instant, from one character to another and choose a more peaceful life.
We have so much more power over how we think and feel than we have ever been taught, and learning to tap into our peace of heart and mind by quieting the other parts of our brain is available to each of us at any time. We do have the power to choose who and how we want to be in any moment, regardless of our external circumstances, and Whole Brain Living and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life can help us get there.
My Art: Brains Brains and more Brains…
Additionally, I create anatomically-correct stained glass brains as fine art. There are dozens of these beautiful brains on display all around the world!
Finally, I am an Indiana Limestone carver. Here in Bloomington, Indiana, where my home-on-land is located, we are surrounded by quarries.
This stone is magnificent for carving, and as an anatomist, I generally carve human figures … and, of course, the occasional brain!