Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge

I’m not trying to be cavalier and I’m certainly not discounting the experiences Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor relates in a NY Times piece published yesterday; I can’t imagine anyone being in a better position to analyze first-hand some of the sensory and perceptual changes that can occur as a result of a cerebrovascular accident (“CVA” or stroke).
Nevertheless, the vast amount attention her talks and interviews have garnered from “spiritualists” — she’s heard plenty from scientists, but not for the same reason — overlook an important point: If brain damage or neurological insult is a prerequisite for tapping into “nirvana” or “spiritual bliss” on command, something Bolte Taylor says she can do, then just how do these transcendentalists and religious nuts (people whom, to her credit, Bolte Taylor wants little dealings with) propose to emulate her state of mind and being?
It’s an interesting read, but the Oprah angle ought to serve as a warning bell, as Winfrey is an established proponent of woo and hokum whose endorsements typically signal more pandering to O-fans of the most breathless, lowest-common-denominator sort.