1 The neurological, psychiatric and theological significance of mystical seizures
The British Neuropsychiatry Association – Annual Meeting May 1, 2019 DOI: 10.1136/jnnp-2019-bnpa.1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Peer reviewed |
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| Key points | The authors note that seizures with spiritual content have been little studied despite lay interest since Dostoyevsky's descriptions. They report conducting a prevalence study at UCL and Cambridge epilepsy centres to examine whether the phenomenology of such seizures is homogeneous and comparable with mystical experiences outside neurological disease, and to explore their meaning for individuals and families. |
Abstract
Alasdair Coles is an academic neurologist in Cambridge, mainly working on experimental therapies in multiple sclerosis. He is also an Anglican priest. Funded by the Templeton Foundation, he has led two studies of the effect of neurological diseases on spirituality: Parkinson’s disease and temporal lobe epilepsy. He has edited ‘Neurology and Religion’, to be published by CUP in 2019. Since Dostoyevsky’s seminal descriptions of mystical seizures in The Idiot, based on his own epilepsy, there has been considerable lay interest in the significance of these seizures. But, they have been little studied. We have conducted a prevalence study of seizures with spiritual content at epilepsy centres in UCL and Cambridge and asked whether their phenomenology is homogeneous and comparable with mystical experiences outside of neurological disease. We have explored their meaning for the individual affected and their families.