Mentioned previously, neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor spoke at TED on waking up one morning in the winter of 1996 after a blood vessel in her brain exploded. She chronicles the next four hours of her life from that point as she undergoes a massive stroke, slowly losing the ability to define the boundaries that separate one’s self from the infinite surroundings.

And in that moment my right arm went totally paralyzed by my side. Then 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.

Luckily, Dr. Taylor was able to get to a hospital, and survived the stroke. Awakening after the surgery, though, she was shocked to find herself still alive, and still feeling some of the effects of the blood loss.

Because I could not identify the position of my body in space, I felt enormous and expansive, 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.

Read the transcript or watch the video above.

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