Kundalini Splendor

(image from source)

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain
scientists
would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive
stroke.
As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one,
speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every
moment.
This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us
to
the world and to one another.
(from introduction)

My commentary:
Even more important, perhaps, is her realization that everything is in fact light--essence, reality, the ultimate stuff of creation.

Mystics frequently describe their own experiences in this way. I have in fact known people who have undergone similar experiences under unusual circumstances. One woman, after kundalini awakening, said that she was afraid to put her foot down, because the the ground appeared to have no material substance, being composed of pure light. Others (not mystics beforehand) have reported similar transcendent moments during acupuncture--I knew one such person, who said that she simply saw her surroundings in this way and realized that light was all that was. She accepted her insight matter of factly and never repeated the experience. Mark Doty, the eminent poet/writer, also opened to light during acupuncture (but did not care to pursue the life of a mystic.)

The appearance of light in near death experiences is well known. Dante in Il Paradiso describe his great opening to the mystery of heaven in terms of light so strong he fell backward in astonishment.

In Genesis the creator commands, "Let there be light."

And often people who have had kundalini awakening report having a constant sense of light in their head.

In any event, this is a fascinating account by a scientist turned mystic, although I am not certain she realizes the connection.


View her talk on video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229