Getting Out Of A Prison With A Wide Open Door
I watched Jill Bolte Taylor on Oprah's webcast yesterday. Jill's question (I paraphrase): "Why didn't I know about this part of myself all my 37 years?" struck me.
I've struggled for a long time with the difficulty of talking to others in the West about the spiritual and experiential dimension of the self: dreams that come true, deep knowing without using the normal senses, synchronicities, and certainty of life after physical death.
When Jill had the stroke, the part of the brain responsible for logical functions stopped. The part of the brain that connects to everything took over. She experienced for the first time the interconnectedness of all things and all people.
"We are all brothers and sisters," she said.
Mystics have known for centuries that a part of us is inaccessible to our logical mind. A wide spectrum of what is escapes those who base their reality soley on rational thought.
Just as we need instruments to detect visible and invisible light, infrared and ultraviolet rays, so also we need the appropriate tools to experience the subtle dimensions of who we truly are. Effective tools exist today to do this.
Jill Bolte Taylor is one of this new breed of scientists who, through their own experiences, are breaking free from the prison of categorical thinking, the hallmark of Western Logic.
The door to the prison that has held many Westerners captive for several centuries is flung wide open. It always has been wide open. If you still languish in the culturally imposed confinement, you, too, can walk away Scot free. You do not need to have a stroke to go to lala-land. And as Rumi asked: "Why do you stay in prison when the door is wide open?"
