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What I found most interesting about this discussion was the question of how we should interpret Dr. Taylor's experience.  Did her own understanding of neuroscience shape the way her brain understood its own stroke?  Does she really have this bizarre ability to "go into her right brain," or is she neurologically damaged (or just trying to sell a book)?  Her description of her experience is so unusual and emotionally charged that it's difficult to see it as purely scientific, but it's also hard to dismiss.  I too dislike any integration of religion with science, but I suppose that if you see religion as an experience of the brain/mind, it's going to come up eventually when you talk about strokes.  I'm not a fan of using terms like "nirvana" to describe these right-brain experiences because it is so specifically spiritual, but I believe that Dr. Taylor considers it the best way to describe her experience.  This book (and speech) are meant to be accessible to people without a strong neuroscience background.  When I consider this fact, I find it easier to accept her description of her experience.  It may be that certain neurological skills (like language use) may be so overpowering that we just don't notice what other parts of our brain are doing.  It seems entirely possible to me that if the language centers of the brain aren't functioning (the "chatter" is silenced, as Dr. Taylor says hers was), these strange right-brain experiences would come forward.  It actually reminds me in a strange way of acquired Savant Syndrome when unusual talents emerge following brain damage.  Perhaps this unusual perception of existence and feeling of euphoria is something that just has to be uncovered by the loss of a more dominant cognitive activity, like language use.