Eighteen months ago, Dilbert creator Scott Adams lost his voice – permanently. While the condition, known as Spasmodic Dysphonia, left him unable to speak, he could still sing and engage in public speaking. Apparently, speech is processed in different parts of the brain based on context, which explains why he could speak in some contexts and not in others.
Scott theorized that he could “reconnect” the neural pathways to his vocal cords by finding the patterns in the times when his voice worked best and worse. Once he could speak in a context that was similar yet different enough from normal speech, he attempted to close that different context gap until the pathways to normal speech was “remapped”. His theory has started to work. Click here for the full account of Scott’s inspiring story.
Here are the two key takeaways I got from his story:
- When the medical community tells you that no one has ever recovered from the illness you have, don’t give up. You can be the first case of recovery.
- If Scott can remap his neural pathways to speak, I can certainly remap the neural pathways of beliefs that no longer serve me. It may take a little a work but it’s gotta be something that’s do-able.
