Epilepsy - A premature awakening?

"I am about to discuss the disease called 'sacred' (epilepsy). It is not in my
opinion, any more divine or more sacred than any other diseases, but has a natural cause, and its supposed divine origin is due to men's inexperience and to their wonder at its peculiar character... It is also curable, no less than other illnesses, unless by long lapse of time it be so ingrained as to be more powerful than the remedies that are applied. Its origin, like that of other diseases, lies in heredity... that it attacks the naturally phlegmatic, but does not attack the bilious... The fact is that the cause of this affection, as of the more serious diseases generally, is the brain."

Hippocrates of Cos, 500 B.C.

What the epileptic actually experiences and what we imagine the process to be, are two distinct things. What we call 'fitting' may not be so difficult to understand when we view it in the light of yoga. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a famous Russian writer, has this to say about fits in his book 'The Idiot':

"For a few minutes before the fit... I experience a feeling of happiness such as it is quite impossible to imagine in a normal state and which other people have no idea of. I feel entirely in harmony with myself and the whole world, and this feeling is so strong and delightful that for a few seconds of such bliss one would gladly give up ten years of one's life, if not one's whole life."

Dostoyevsky's description of fitting is not what medical science and our eyes have led us to believe.
Medical science states that the majority of fits are caused by unknown factors, and only a small percentage are caused by intracranial (brain) diseases such as tumours, head injuries and strokes, or by low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), kidney disease (uremia), heart disease (blocks of conduction), and sudden withdrawal of alcohol or drugs. However, all epilepsies come under the broad definition of short disorders of cerebral (brain) function, usually associated with disturbances of consciousness, and accompanied by a sudden, excessive electrical discharge of cerebral neurones. The EEG records high voltages (relative to the background voltage) and a synchronous discharge of neurones.

There are many paradoxes existing within the epileptic condition. It is a dual experience with both positive and negative attributes, as some people experience great bliss for a moment before the fit, but this positive experience is followed by a horrendous nightmare of uncontrolled energy. Afterwards a negative mental state that existed before the attack is relieved by a positive one in many epileptics.

At the physical/pranic level

Epilepsy is related to the physical body proper and the pranic body, an energy sheath which animates the physical. The nervous system acts as a matrix or framework for energy flowing through the body from a source, exceeding the brain's ability to handle and channel it.

A seizure can be induced in anyone by applying an electric current directly into the brain. This is used in electric shock therapy for
severely depressed or inhibited patients in psychiatric institutions, with remarkably good relief of symptoms in many cases. Convulsions have also occurred associated with rhythmic drumming and the orgiastic dancing of ancient religious rites as witnessed in African tribes, Voodoo drumming, Brazilian, Balinese, and many other cultural traditions. Hysterical excitement, nervous system collapse and exhaustion lead on to convulsions, crying out, struggling, trembling, quaking, shuddering and other epileptic-type activity. The Christian tradition also has in its midst the same phenomena. Evangelists such as the Quakers, Wesley in the 18th century, and today Billy Graham, all have reported such phenomena occurring in terms of religious conversion, the mechanism being attributed to the Holy Ghost. The common meeting point of all these phenomena is energy in the brain and nervous system going beyond the point of tolerance, exceeding a threshold, and resulting in convulsions, exhaustion of the nervous system and release of tensions and stress.

Both primitive and modern societies have used the convulsion mechanism to cure disease
and raise consciousness, while in epilepsy the same phenomenon is considered as a disease. The difference lies in the fact that in one the energies evoked by dancing, rhythmic drumming, emotive and powerful preaching etc., overcome the power of the nervous system and the willpower to resist, while in the epileptic the nervous system is weakened to normal body energies.

The pranic body has five subdivisions serving the different body functions in cooperation with the nadi-chakra complex which runs along the spine and out into the peripheral organs. It is this body which is responsible for the proper supply to and maintenance of the motive power in all body cells, organs and function. Any imbalance in this body causes emotional imbalance and physical disease. Imbalance is also probably responsible for the excessive energy in the nervous system.
 
  
 
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