1 The neurological, psychiatric and theological significance of mystical seizures. (28th May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Coles, Alasdair
• Is Part Of: Journal of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry. Volume 90(2019)Supplement 2
• Page Start: A1
• Page End: A1
• Publication Date: 2019-05-28
• Subjects: Neurology -- Periodicals; Nervous system -- Surgery -- Periodicals; Psychiatry -- Periodicals; 616.8
• DOI: 10.1136/jnnp-2019-BNPA.1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3050

Abstract

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.