Interesting talk!!!
Of course I disagree with her closing remark: we need to pick the left hemisphere, or we will cease to exist as our selves…
I do understand the ‘lala’ land she describes and the brains states…they are not dissimilar from the ones I experienced myself when I went through a near-death experience.
I, too, have had the brain-state of connectedness to all, expansive, one with the universe and all that other stuff the meditation guru’s tout as a desirable state. What is more – having experienced it once, I can induce it at will with only minor meditation effort. (I don’t know if this is an aspect of my Aspieness or not, but it often takes me much longer to achieve something than others – but once I have reached a physical state, I can re-create it with much less effort.)
And while I had that sense of ‘this is profound’ – and, you could see the physiological changes in the speaker in the video just as she re-counted her tale prove just how profound the experience was for her – and while I understood perfectly well that this is the ‘Nirvana’ , I did not like it. Yes, it was ‘blissful’, I’ll admit that.
It’s just that the cost was too high.
I was just 10 years or so old when I experienced this, so I could not properly verbalize the aspects of the experience had on forming my world view. Perhaps I will still have trouble explaining it…but, let me try to simplify:
What kind of person, when forced to choose one or the other, would pick bliss over being true to one’s identity?
Certainly not I!!!
And while she may not realize that that is what she was doing, it is infinitely comforting to have a professional acknowledge that this desire for collectivism is the product of a diseased brain!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 