A speculative work which may shed some light on this phenomenon is Julian Jaynes' <i>The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind</i> - <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Consciousness-Breakdown-Bicameral-Mind/dp/0618057072" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Consciousness-Breakdown-Bicamer...</a> and well-summarized at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)</a> - although the abstract does not even come close to the experience of reading Jaynes' book.<p>I am disappointed at the dismissive comments; perhaps those skimming he article failed to note Taylor's comment that 'religion is a story the left brain tells the right brain', and that she is capable enough to teach neuroanatomy at Indiana University's medical school - if she is not up to or interested in performing as much academic research, she has hardly become an anti-scientist.<p>It's quite possible to be a good materialist and still enjoy a spiritual dimension to life without evoking immaterial agencies or phenomena to do so; the different cerebration that seems to take place in the subordinate (usually right) hemisphere doesn't indicate less 'processing power' or 'buggy software'; it just processes incoming information differently, and the idea that there is nothing worthwhile to be learned this way is arguably foolish.<p>Indeed, there's a faulty syllogism at work here:
Scatterbrained mystics make unscientific claims about the right brain.
Taylor makes positive reports of improved mental state, following a temporary, documented inhibition of her left hemisphere.
Therefore, Taylor is a scatterbrained mystic whose claims are unscientific.<p>I don't see Taylor making any claims about immaterial causes or phenomena, either in this article or on her website, any more than the literature of Zen does, or any of the serious research into psychotropic drugs.