You dirty rat: Daring rodent shows puzzled leopard exactly who's boss by stealing its lunch
This mouse diced with death when it tucked into the lunch of a hungry leopard. Seemingly unaware of the beast
towering over it, the mischievous rodent grabbed at scraps of meat thrown into the African Leopard's enclosure.
But instead of pouncing on the the tiny intruder the 12-year-old leopard, called Sheena, appeared to be afraid of
the daring mouse and kept her distance. At one stage she tried to nudge the mouse away with her nose, but the
determined little chap carried on chewing away until he was full.
Excuse me? A perturbed Sheena the leopard looks on as a cheeky mouse nibbles her food.
The extraordinary scene was captured by photography student Casey Gutteridge at the
Santago Rare Leopard Project in Hertfordshire.
The 19-year-old, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, who was photographing the leopard for a course project, was astounded
by the mouse's Behaviour. He said: 'I have no idea where the mouse came from - he just appeared in the enclosure after the
keeper had dropped in the meat for the leopard.
'He didn't take any notice of the leopard, just went straight over to the meat and started feeding himself.
But the leopard was pretty surprised - she bent down and sniffed the mouse and flinched a bit like she was scared.
In the meantime the mouse just carried on eating like nothing had happened.'
..but even a gentle shove does not deter the little creature from getting his fill...
It was amazing, even the keeper who had thrown the meat into the enclosure was shocked - he said he'd never seen anything
like it before.
Project owner Jackie James added: 'It was so funny to see - Sheena batted the mouse a couple of times to try to get it away from her food.
'But the determined little thing took no notice and just carried on.'
Sheena was brought in to the Santago Rare Leopard Project from a UK zoo when she was just four months old.
She is one of 14 big cats in the private collection started by Jackie's late husband Peter in 1989. The African Leopard can be found
in the continent's forests, grasslands, savannas, and rainforests.
..so the mouse continued to eat the leopard's lunch and show the leopard who was boss.
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
The Jungle Book predators who have forged a lifelong friendship...
Jan2010
They make an unlikely trio, but Baloo the bear, Leo the lion and Shere Khan the tiger have forged
an unusually strong bond.
Considering that they would be mortal enemies if they ever were to meet in the wild, it is stunning to see
their unique and genuine friendship in these intimate pictures.
Rescued eight years ago during a police drugs raid in Atlanta, Georgia, the three friends were only cubs
at the time at barely two months old.
They had been kept as status symbol pets by the drug barons.
Delivered to the Noah's Ark Animal Rescue Centre in Locust Grove, Georgia, the decision was made to keep
the youngsters together, because of their budding rapport.
'We could have separated them, but since they came as a kind of family, the zoo decided to keep them together,'
said Diane Smith, assistant director of Noah's Ark.
'To our knowledge, this is the only place where you'll find this combination of animals together.'
Living with the zoo's founders for the past eight years, Shere Khan, Baloo and Leo have now moved to a
purpose-built habitat where the US public can now witness first hand their touching relationships.
'We didn't have the money to move them at first,' said Diane.
'Now their habitat is sorted and they have been moved away from the children's zoo areas where the
public couldn't really get a good look.
'It is possible to see Baloo, who is a 1000lb bear, Shere Khan, a 350lb tiger and Leo, who is also 350lbs,
messing around like brothers.
'They are totally oblivious to the fact that in any other circumstance they would not be friends.'
Handled by Charles and Jama Hedgecoth, the zoo's owners and founders, the three friendly giants
appear to have have no comprehension of their animal differences.
'Baloo and Shere Khan are very close,' says Diane.
'That is because they rise early, and as Leo is a lion, he likes to spend most of the day sleeping.
'It is wonderful and magical to see a giant American Black Bear put his arm around a Bengal and
then to see the tiger nuzzle up to the bear like a domestic cat.
'When Leo wakes up the three of them mess around for most of the day before they settle down to some food.'
Surprisingly for three apex predators with the power to kill with a single bite or swipe of their paw, they are very
relaxed around each other.'They eat, sleep and play together,' said Jama.
'As they treat each other as siblings they will lie on top of each other for heat and simply for affection.
'At the moment they are getting used to their new habitat.
'Shere Khan is being quite reticent about the move, but Baloo, the bear, is very good at leading him on and making
him feel comfortable and safe.'
Explaining that the three 'brothers' have always seemed to share a unique bond, Charles said: 'Noah's Ark is their
home and they could not possibly be separated from each other.
'You just have to remember who you're dealing with when you are with them, though.
'It's when you forget that these fellows are wild animals that you get yourself in trouble.'
The trio's new habitat had to be constructed carefully, in order to accommodate its occupants.
Jama said: 'The clubhouse had to be very sturdy for the guys, because they all sleep in it together,'
She added: 'We had to include a creek, because the tiger and the bear both like to be in water.'
I come in peace....Unbelievable bit of photojournalism. Real life events.
If you don't already think animals are far more spiritually advanced than we humans, think again.
Stuart Brown describes
Norbert Rosing's striking images of a wild polar bear coming upon tethered sled dogs in the wilds
of Canada's Hudson Bay
The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his dogs when the polar bear wandered in.
It's hard to believe that this polar bear only needed to hug someone!
The Polar Bear returned every night that week to play with the dogs.
May you always have love to share,
Health to spare,
And friends that care
*************************************************************************************
So, you're worried about squirrels getting into your bird feeder?
What the heck is that line made of?
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THE VERY RARE PARROT FLOWER.
This is a flower from Thailand .
It is also a protected species and not allowed to be exported.
This will be the only way we will be able to view this flower.
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A newborn panda cub at Chiang Mai zoo in northern Thailand
For more extraordinary pictures see link: Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
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For those who have seen the video, but are not aware of his website, here it is:
Amazing enthusiasm and seeing People getting together. Specially watch the video Matt recorded with the
Wigmen!
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How's that for a flower garden?
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And here are the Top images From the Internet For Year 2008
The best natural exterior picture The best urban picture The best natural interior picture
The best “Human” picture The best “On the Spot” picture Special Category for best “Human Landscape”
Special Category for Best“Animal World” Special Category for Best “Pets (Dogs)” Special Category for Best“Pets (Cats)”
Special Category for Best “Urban Painting” Special Category for Best “Body Paints” Special Category for Best “Adventure Sport”
Special Category for Best “Transport” Special Category for Best “Public Display (Masculine)” Special Category for Best “Public Display (Feminine)”
Special Category for Best The Special Mention The Prize that leave us with the last word....
“Public Display (General)”
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This year's sand castles competition in Oregon- stunning ...the best..
Ever see an iceberg from top to bottom?
This is awesome!
This came from a Rig Manager for Global Marine Drilling
in St. Johns, Newfoundland.
They actually have to divert the path of these things
away from the rig by towing them with ships!
Anyway, in this particular case the water was calm.
And the sun was almost directly overhead
so that the diver was able to get into the water
and click this pic. Clear water huh?!
They estimated the weight at 300,000,000 tons.
Nature is amazing!
Look at these interesting pictures landscape in Antarctica ! ! ro
Phenomenal - -
The water froze the instant the wave broke through the ice. That's what it is like in Antarctica where it is the
coldest weather in decades. Water freezes the instant it comes in contact with the air. The temperature of the
water is already some degrees below freezing.
Just look at how the wave froze in mid-air!!!
almost like ocean waves ( Tsunami's ) being instantly frozen ! ! You can tell by the pictures , that they are
Icemelt from above ground lakes , that overflowed at some point in time - - maybe millions of years ago!
Now - - either because of global warming , or plate tectonics - these sheets of frozen waves or tsunami's
are again visible - til they again either melt , or get reburied again for some more millennia !
Quite the pictures just the same !
What's scary is we are more than likely seeing these show up because of global warming.
Icebergs with coloured strips.
Icebergs in the Antarctic area sometimes have stripes, formed by
layers of snow that react to different conditions.
Blue stripes are often created when a crevice in the ice sheet
fills up with melt water and freezes so quickly that no
bubbles form. When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can freeze to the underside. If this is rich
in algae, it can form a green stripe.
Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up
when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea.
Northern Lights over Yellow Knife Canada
and a Fire Rainbow- A once in a lifetime experience
THE RAREST OF ALL NATURALLY OCCURRING ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA.
THE PICTUREWAS CAPTURED THIS WEEK ON THE IDAHO / WASHINGTON BORDER.
THE EVENT LASTED ABOUT 1 HOUR.
CLOUDS HAVE TO BE CIRRUS, AT LEAST 20K FEET IN THE AIR,
WITH JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF ICE CRYSTALS
AND THE SUN HAS TO HIT THE CLOUDS AT PRECISELY 58 DEGREES.
THIS IS A FIRE RAINBOW -
THE RAREST OF ALL NATURALLY OCCURRING ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA.
Bambi & Thumper'.... Really do exist!
What an incredible photographer, to have caught these shots...
May you always have
Love to Share,
Health to Spare,
And Friends Who Care. watch?v=GwYNmqHswF8
This is something I have never seen before, or ever even heard of. This woman lives in a Hummingbird fly zone. As they migrated, about 20 of them were
in her yard. She took the little red dish, filled it with sugar water and this is the result.
Most of us see hummingbirds as shy, skittish little creatures that dart away if they so much as think someone is looking at them, so the idea that these
tiny birds would willingly come to land and feed on a person's hand seems rather remarkable. However, training hummingbirds to hand-feed is not as
difficult as one might think and can be accomplished with the right approach and a bit of patience.
The images displayed here were taken from the gallery of photographer Sam Alfano of Pine, Louisiana, who snapped pictures of his wife Abigail feeding
hummingbirds in September 2006.
Due to the tremendous popularity these pictures achieved after they were circulated (without attribution) via e-mail, Abigail put up a web page identifying
herself as the "Hummingbird Lady" and providing her and her husband's explanations of the photos' origins and spread across the Internet:
I am Abigail Alfano, the woman in the photos. My husband, Sam is the photographer. We live in Pine, Louisiana which is approximately 1 1/2 hours north
of New Orleans.This year we had more hummingbirds in our yard than I ever recall. The feeder sits right outside of my window where I drink my morning
coffee. I remember watching the birds one morning and telling my husband that I wish I could just hold one! We decided to give it a shot.
Over the course of several days, I would simply stand beside the feeder so that they would get used to my presence. Then, I began putting my hands
around the feeder so that in order to drink they had to land on my fingers. I was amazed at how quickly they were willing to do this.
The next step was to remove the feeder and place a small red cap on an old milk can in the same area. They eventually found the small replacement and
began feeding. The morning the photos were taken, I simply went outside and filled the cap with the sugar water, placed it in the palm of my hand, and sat
very very still. Within ten minutes, they were resting in my hands, drinking. It was sheer delight for me! I was even able to move my hands around a bit with
the birds on my fingers. They are light as a feather ... and simply beautiful. I can't wait until next year.
PORK CHOPS
In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the
pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny
size, they died shortly after birth.
The mother tiger, after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health,
although physically she was fine.
The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if
the tigress could surrogate
another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.
After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were
no tiger cubs of the right
age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo
environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only orphans that could
be found quickly were a litter of weaning pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the
babies around the mother tiger.
Would they become cubs or pork chops? Take a look...you won't believe your eyes!!
Now, please tell me one more time..
Why can't the rest of the world (including the Barbican!!) get along?
These incredible photos are of a White Bengal Tiger named Odin.
Odin is six years old and 10 feet long from tail to nose. Odin lives at a Zoo in Vallejo , California , near San Francisco .
Odin with his British trainer Lee Munro.
Odin was hand-raised at the zoo. And after he was weaned, his British trainer Lee Munro discovered his remarkable skill.
When a lump of meat was thrown into a pool of water, Odin would happily dive in after it.
' He makes a funny face - and it ' s actually to close his nostrils to stop the water from going into his nose '
Not all big cats enjoy the water but for Tigers from the hot climate of South-East Asia it ' s one way to cool down.
Plus they hunt in and around water. They ' re an ambush predator so they wait for prey to come down to the water
' When you actually see him dive underwater he looks so graceful, '
' Odin loves the water and he loves food, ' he said. ' Not all big cats will dive and swim underwater even for meat treats '
Munro said tigers were the most powerful swimmers out of all land-dwelling animals.
Tragically, within our lifetimes, zoos might be the only places left to see these magnificent animals.
A century ago there were about 100,000 tigers in the wild. Now there are just 2,500 adults, with the Bengal variety almost extinct.
None has been seen in the wild since the last white tiger was shot and killed in 1958.
White tigers are the most rare. They get their white color from an unusual and extremely rare genetic combination.
An antidote for Multiculturism !
Hippopotamus and the Tortoise |
'Much of life can never be explained but only witnessed.'
- Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the
tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong
bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal
facility in the port city of Mombassa , officials said.
The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about
300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki
River into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore
when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on
December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.
'It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a
male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to
be very happy with being a 'mother',' ecologist Paula Kahumbu,
who is in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP.
'After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized.
It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother.
Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond.
They swim, eat and sleep together,' the ecologist added.
'The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother.
If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive,
as if protecting its biological mother,' Kahumbu added.
'The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and
by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their
mothers for four years,' he explained.
'Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.'
This is a real story that shows that our differences don't matter
much when we need the comfort of another.
We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of God,
'Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.'
I saw this story on Animal Miracles on Animal Planet.....
Freedom and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in 4 places. She's my baby.
When Freedom came in she could not stand. Both wings were broken, her left wing in 4 places. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vet's office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes.We also had to tube feed her for weeks.
This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn't stand in a week. You know you don't want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn't bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her owl cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.
We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington. We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV. Miracle Pets even did a show about us.
In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-hodgkin's lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo.Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.
Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone. Yahoo!
So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk.. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn't said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don't know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.
On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power course through his body. I have so many stories like that.
I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom's.
Hope you enjoy this. Jeff |
Who are we???
Stroke of insight: Jill Bolte Taylor on TED.com
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 of recovery and awareness -- of how our brains define us and
connect us to the world and to one another. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 18:44.)
listen to: http://blog.ted.com/2008/03/jill_bolte_tayl.php#more
or read below:
I grew up to study the brain because I have a brother who has been diagnosed with a brain disorder, schizophrenia. And as a sister
and as a scientist, I wanted to understand, why is it that I can take my dreams, I can connect them to my reality, and I can make my
dreams come true -- what is it about my brother's brain and his schizophrenia that he cannot connect his dreams to a common, shared
reality, so they instead become delusions?
So I dedicated my career to research into the severe mental illnesses. And I moved from my home state of Indiana to Boston where
I was working in the lab of Dr. Francine Benes, in the Harvard Department of Psychiatry. And in the lab, we were asking the question,
What are the biological differences between the brains of individuals who would be diagnosed as normal control, as compared to the
brains of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or bipolar disorder?
So we were essentially mapping the micro circuitry of the brain, which cells are communicating with which cells, with which chemicals,
and then with what quantities of those chemicals. So there was a lot of meaning in my life because I was performing this kind of
research during the day. But then in the evenings and on the weekends I traveled as an advocate for NAMI, the National Alliance on
Mental Illness.
But on the morning of December 10 1996 I woke up to discover that I had a brain disorder of my own. A blood vessel exploded in the
left half of my brain. And in the course of four hours I watched my brain completely deteriorate in its ability to process all information.
On the morning of the hemorrhage I could not walk, talk, read, write or recall any of my life. I essentially became an infant in a woman's body.
If you've ever seen a human brain, it's obvious that the two hemispheres are completely separate from one another. And I have brought
for you a real human brain. [Thanks.] So, this is a real human brain. This is the front of the brain, the back of the brain with a spinal cord
hanging down, and this is how it would be positioned inside of my head. And when you look at the brain, it's obvious that the two cerebral
cortices are completely separate from one another. For those of you who understand computers, our right hemisphere functions like a
parallel processor. While our left hemisphere functions like a serial processor. The two hemispheres do communicate with one another
through the corpus collosum, which is made up of some 300 million axonal fibers. But other than that, the two hemispheres are completely
separate. Because they process information differently, each hemisphere thinks about different things, they care about different things,
and dare I say, they have very different personalities. [Excuse me. Thank you. It's been a joy.]
Our right hemisphere is all about this present moment. It's all about right here right now. Our right hemisphere, it thinks in pictures and it
learns kinesthetically through the movement of our bodies. Information in the form of energy streams in simultaneously through all of our
sensory systems. And then it explodes into this enormous collage of what this present moment looks like. What this present moment smells
like and tastes like, what it feels like and what it sounds like. I am an energy being connected to the energy all around me through the
consciousness of my right hemisphere. We are energy beings connected to one another through the consciousness of our right hemispheres
as one human family. And right here, right now, all we are brothers and sisters on this planet, here to make the world a better place.
And in this moment we are perfect. We are whole. And we are beautiful.
My left hemisphere is a very different place. Our left hemisphere thinks linearly and methodically. Our left hemisphere is all about the past,
and it's all about the future. Our left hemisphere is designed to take that enormous collage of the present moment. And start picking details
and more details and more details about those details. It then categorizes and organizes all that information. Associates it with everything
in the past we've ever learned and projects into the future all of our possibilities. And our left hemisphere thinks in language. It's that ongoing
brain chatter that connects me and my internal world to my external world. It's that little voice that says to me, "Hey, you gotta remember to
pick up bananas on your way home, and eat 'em in the morning." It's that calculating intelligence that reminds me when I have to do my
laundry. But perhaps most important, it's that little voice that says to me, "I am. I am." And as soon as my left hemisphere says to me "I am,"
I become separate. I become a single solid individual separate from the energy flow around me and separate from you.
And this was the portion of my brain that I lost on the morning of my stroke.
On the morning of the stroke, I woke up to a pounding pain behind my left eye. And it was the kind of pain, caustic pain, that you get when
you bite into ice cream. And it just gripped me and then it released me. Then it just gripped me and then released me. And it was very unusual
for me to experience any kind of pain, so I thought OK, I'll just start my normal routine. So I got up and I jumped onto my cardio glider, which
is a full-body exercise machine. And I'm jamming away on this thing, and I'm realizing that my hands looked like primitive claws grasping onto
the bar. I thought "that's very peculiar" and I looked down at my body and I thought, "whoa, I'm a weird-looking thing." And it was as though
my consciousness had shifted away from my normal perception of reality, where I'm the person on the machine having the experience, to some
esoteric space where I'm witnessing myself having this experience.
And it was all every peculiar and my headache was just getting worse, so I get off the machine, and I'm walking across my living room floor,
and I realize that everything inside of my body has slowed way down. And every step is very rigid and very deliberate. There's no fluidity to
my pace, and there's this constriction in my area of perceptions so I'm just focused on internal systems. And I'm standing in my bathroom
getting ready to step into the shower and I could actually hear the dialog inside of my body. I heard a little voice saying, "OK, you muscles,
you gotta contract, you muscles you relax."
And I lost my balance and I'm propped up against the wall. And I look down at my arm and I realize that I can no longer define the boundaries
of my body. I can't define where I begin and where I end. Because the atoms and the molecules of my arm blended with the atoms and molecules
of the wall. And all I could detect was this energy. Energy. And I'm asking myself, "What is wrong with me, what is going on?" And in that
moment, my brain chatter, my left hemisphere brain chatter went totally silent. Just like someone took a remote control and pushed the mute
button and -- total silence.
And at first I was shocked to find myself inside of a silent mind. But then I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of energy around me.
And because I could no longer identify the boundaries of my body, I felt enormous and expansive. I felt at one with all the energy that was,
and it was beautiful there.
Then all of a sudden my left hemisphere comes back online and it says to me, "Hey! we got a problem, we got a problem, we gotta get some help."
So it's like, OK, OK, I got a problem, but then I immediately drifted right back out into the consciousness, and I affectionately referred to this
space as La La Land. But it was beautiful there. Imagine what it would be like to be totally disconnected from your brain chatter that connects
you to the external world. So here I am in this space and any stress related to my, to my job, it was gone. And I felt lighter in my body. And
imagine all of the relationships in the external world and the many stressors related to any of those, they were gone. I felt a sense of peacefulness.
And imagine what it would feel like to lose 37 years of emotional baggage! I felt euphoria. Euphoria was beautiful -- and then my left hemisphere
comes online and it says "Hey! you've got to pay attention, we've got to get help," and I'm thinking, "I got to get help, I gotta focus." So I get
out of the shower and I mechanically dress and I'm walking around my apartment, and I'm thinking, "I gotta get to work, I gotta get to work,
can I drive? can I drive?"
And in that moment my right arm went totally paralyzed by my side. And I realized, "Oh my gosh! I'm having a stroke! I'm having a stroke!"
And the next thing my brain says to me is, "Wow! This is so cool. This is so cool. How many brain scientists have the opportunity to study
their own brain from the inside out?"
And then it crosses my mind: "But I'm a very busy woman. I don't have time for a stroke!" So I'm like, "OK, I can't stop the stroke from happening
so I'll do this for a week or two, and then I'll get back to my routine, OK."
So I gotta call help, I gotta call work. I couldn't remember the number at work, so I remembered, in my office I had a business card with my number
on it. So I go in my business room, I pull out a 3-inch stack of business cards. And I'm looking at the card on top, and even though I could see
clearly in my mind's eye what my business card looked like, I couldn't tell if this was my card or not, because all I could see were pixels. And the
pixels of the words blended with the pixels of the background and the pixels of the symbols, and I just couldn't tell. And I would wait for what I
call a wave of clarity. And in that moment, I would be able to reattach to normal reality and I could tell, that's not the card, that's not the card,
that's not the card. It took me 45 minutes to get one inch down inside of that stack of cards.
In the meantime, for 45 minutes the hemorrhage is getting bigger in my left hemisphere. I do not understand numbers, I do not understand the
telephone, but it's the only plan I have. So I take the phone pad and I put it right here, I'd take the business card, I'd put it right here, and I'm
matching the shape of the squiggles on the card to the shape of the squiggles on the phone pad. But then I would drift back out into La La Land,
and not remember when I come back if I'd already dialed those numbers.
So I had to wield my paralyzed arm like a stump, and cover the numbers as I went along and pushed them, so that as I would come back to normal
reality I'd be able to tell, yes, I've already dialed that number. Eventually the whole number gets dialed, and I'm listening to the phone, and my
colleague picks up the phone and he says to me, "Whoo woo wooo woo woo." [laughter] And I think to myself, "Oh my gosh, he sounds like
a golden retriever!" And so I say to him, clear in my mind I say to him. "This is Jill! I need help!" And what comes out of my voice is, "Whoo
woo wooo woo woo." I'm thinking, "Oh my gosh, I sound like a golden retriever." So I couldn't know, I didn't know that I couldn't speak or
understand language until I tried.
So he recognizes that I need help, and he gets me help. And a little while later, I am riding in an ambulance from one hospital across Boston to
Mass General Hospital. And I curl up into a little fetal ball. And just like a balloon with the last bit of air just, just right out of the balloon I felt
my energy lift and I felt my spirit surrender. And in that moment I knew that I was no longer the choreographer of my life. And either the doctors
rescue my body and give me a second chance at life or this was perhaps my moment of transition.
When I awoke later that afternoon I was shocked to discover that I was still alive. When I felt my spirit surrender, I said goodbye to my life,
and my mind is now suspended between two very opposite planes of reality. Stimulation coming in through my sensory systems felt like pure
pain. Light burned my brain like wildfire and sounds were so loud and chaotic that I could not pick a voice out from the background noise and
I just wanted to escape. Because I could not identify the position of my body in space, I felt enormous and expensive, like a genie just liberated
from her bottle. And my spirit soared free like a great whale gliding through the sea of silent euphoria. Harmonic. I remember thinking there's no
way I would ever be able to squeeze the enormousness of myself back inside this tiny little body.
But I realized "But I'm still alive! I'm still alive and I have found Nirvana. And if I have found Nirvana and I'm still alive, then everyone who is alive
can find Nirvana." I picture a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people who knew that they could come to this space
at any time. And that they could purposely choose to step to the right of their left hemispheres and find this peace. And then I realized what a
tremendous gift this experience could be, what a stroke of insight this could be to how we live our lives. And it motivated my to recover.
Two and a half weeks after the hemorrhage, the surgeons went in and they removed a blood clot the size of a golf ball that was pushing on my
language centers. Here I am with my mama, who's a true angel in my life. It took me eight years to completely recover.
So who are we? We are the life force power of the universe, with manual dexterity and two cognitive minds. And 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. I am Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, intellectual, neuroanatomist. These are the "we" inside of me.
Which would you choose? Which do you choose? And when? I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner peace
circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful our planet will be. And I thought that
was an idea worth spreading.
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