I know I talk about brain science and brain function in this weblog a bit more than I should. But it continues to strike me that arts and cultural managers are in the business of fostering meaning, emotion, and human discovery. In that work, it might help us to know how the equipment works.

Which leads to this extraordinary lecture/reflection by neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor. A lifelong student of brain science, Taylor shares with remarkable clarity her own loss of brain function, and what it taught her about her life and ours:

''...we have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world. Right here right now, I can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere where we are -- I am -- the life force power of the universe, and the life force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form. At one with all that is. Or I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere, where I become a single individual, a solid, separate from the flow, separate from you.... These are the 'we' inside of me.

Which would you choose? Which do you choose? And when?''

Well worth the 18 minutes to watch!