FAITH IN MY BRAIN

Here is a poem a little different than what you are probably used to, if you read what I have written so far.

(Please read to the end. It will make sense later on, I promise.)

SORT OF MOONSTRUCK
So b,lkmkkh
Ichgfjki7
Hhhyakto daaa
Ffk its say sofyy cPhsay esazsen
Its doy going bicassf
Llnowonelsad lrvllkmm
Whewe
I got klsay
Pawk moom mtmttmtm
GokGot rtyjod I lod love

Nenenenene ked
Bible and rhptand
Hocsses wke and lrryfbnm
I buhjochen
Np its seredf.

Clatholic badrd
Rhukin wisom ocds

I know what you are thinking. What kind of poem is that????

I wrote that while having a seizure.

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SEIZURES, HISTORY AND BELIEVE

How about a history lesson on Epilepsy and/or Seizures?

What does Epilepsy have to do with religion?

Seizures are recorded in India 4500-1500 B.C. as a loss of consciousness. The ancient Babylonians knew there were different kinds of seizures and recoded them on tablets around the year 2000 B.C. They saw these seizures as a punishment for sinners. As far as we know, the Babylonians were the first to link spiritually, and God, or gods, and even evil spirits to seizures.

Hippocrates, in the 5th century B.C. used the word “selenazetai” referring to people who had seizures, as it was believed then that a moon god named Selene caused the seizures based on the phases of the moon. The term was Latin and it came to mean lunatic or “moonstruck” when translated into English. Hippocrates however, was the first to recognize it as a brain disorder and not a punishment from God. He called it the “great disease” and thus the term “big bad”, or “grand mal seizure” came to be, though it is being used less and less in society today.  A generalized tonic-clonic seizure is the proper terminology.

Epilepsy, and seizures being seen as a dysfunction of the brain and not a spiritual problem did not take root until the 18th  and 19th centuries. Pope Pius IX (who was in office from 1846-1878) had Epilepsy. It is also believed that St. Theresa of Avila suffered from temporal lobe Epilepsy.  Saint Valentine besides being the patron saint of lovers and beekeepers is also the patron saint of people with Epilepsy.

This Medieval and Renaissance iconography, depicts the third century doctor Saint Valentine of Terni, with a child while seizing.  It is said he had a special love for afflicted children and visited those suffering from Epilepsy. There are legends of miraculous healings attributed to him as well.

Thank you to Kristin Seaborg and her book The Sacred Disease: My Life With Epilepsy (2016) for much of the information above.

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Epilepsy in the Bible:

It makes me wonder how many people Jesus cured of Epilepsy and not evil spirits. Matthew 4:24 mentions that He cured lunatics and other people with infirmities from Syria. Did  Jesus, fully human, (and fully Divine) only teach that all seizures were a spiritual problem and not a neurological struggle?

In Matthew 17:14 A man asks Jesus to cure his son, a “lunatic” and yet the story is titled “The Healing of a Boy with A Demon” and Jesus told his disciples they could not drive the demon out because they did not have faith even the size of a mustard seed.

The word Lunatic is only used twice in the (English language) Catholic New testament.  Romance languages today now use something similar to the Greek when referring to Epilepsy, that being Epilepsia, struck by the moon.

I digress as I wonder how many times epilepsy, or even mental illness, was seen as a demonic encounter. How could Jesus tell the difference? If you have a concrete answer please let me know.

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Someone’s Quote:

“A big seizure just kind of grabs the inside of your skull and squeezes. It feels as if it’s twisting and turning your brain all up and down and inside out. Have you ever heard a washing machine suddenly flip into that bang-bang-bang sound when it gets out of balance, or a chain saw when the chain breaks and gets caught up in the gears, or an animal like a cat, screeching in pain? Those are what seizures felt like when I was little.”
― Terry Trueman, Stuck in Neutral

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( I wrote this in my early twenties.)

SUFFERING via EPILEPSY

The broken brain we know well
Some of us afraid to tell.
Why the secrecy? Why the fear?
When any moment it may be clear
They won’t like me. I’ll lose my life.
Every day this is our strife?
Feeling alone like no one cares.
Suffering this the rest of your years?
You play it down when you must say
lest others will be scared away
So what if I’m scared, and do ask why.
Selfishly I stop and cry.
But in truth life is full and real.
I was not dealt such an awful deal.
All I’ve learned from this situation.
How life for all is a unique creation
To look on the bright side of your beautiful life.
Don’t let Eternity be for strife.

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Proof that people who have seizures know how to laugh: