TVSquad

A Christian approach to epilepsy

By way of comparison, three common triggers for panic attacks are light, noise and crowds. The triggers may not be substantial, but they are meaningful – the straw that breaks the camel’s back. (It would be interesting to find out if the derivation of this expression indicates that animals are more intersted in whether the load they are carrying is “moral” rather than light enough.)

Noise, light and crowds are all features of outside activity. Agoraphobia is “fear of public places or market places”. When C. Westphal first designated this phobia as being distinct to others, he noted that some sufferers do go out in public, but only if they have something with them such as alcohol, a vehicle, a cane, a friend or even a prostitute for an escort as far as the front door. It’s all to do with coping with outside life. There are another two main ways in which people deal with phobias besides avoidance and holding tightly to people, objects or ideas. They are escape (not so much getting out of a situation, as deliberately and possibly repeatedly exposing yourself to something to test your prior assumptions about it), and enduring discomfort (which has traditionally been regarded as piety). Why do individuals who are worried about public places put such importance the distinction between inside and outside behaviour?

The Bible says that arranging our lives from the inside out (putting reminders about our goals in life behind our doorposts) is contrary to God’s will and dangerous for our physical welfare (Isa 57:8-14), even if it may seem like a spiritual solution to the problem. In Proverbs 24:27 it says to prepare your fields first, then build your house. In Psalms 141:3, our lips are likened to doorposts and in Matt 12, our head or self is likened to our house. In modern parlance, the Bible is favouring cognitive behavioural therapy (changing your thoughts by changing your behaviour or talking things through) or picking out a narrative from the past, music therapy or just seeking to understand the processes involved, for example, over meditation, breaking down the past in bits so as to build up a new picture, or reinventing yourself by means of ‘analysis paralysis’. A good counsellor realises the influence of culture on human behaviour and feelings. Understanding cultural concerns can help more than trying to pick our own brains to pieces.

For example, bed wetting has been associated with epilepsy, as well as general distress in a child’s life over changes they don’t understand. Talking with the child about their cultural concerns seems to be the Biblical approach more than pathologising that child’s behaviour so as to diagnose it as an inherent disorder of the mind. Compare Jesus’ reaction of curing epileptics by means of ‘rebuking the demon’, as opposed to diagnosing the disorder medicable with no particular idea how long it would last. (Matt 17:18) Why the rebuke? Perhaps if a child is told that they must approach their parents with issues they have so as to talk them out and they don’t because they want to be “brave” and handle it under their own steam, not only are they bringing health afflictions on themselves, but they are creating extra stress for their poor parents who don’t know what’s going on. Children need to learn to approach their parents and communicate. Parents aren’t mind readers! This is another application of the principle of starting with your fields and working back into your house (mind, self), rather than trying to internally repeat suggestions that work on the ego but not the problem.
It is no surprise that the Greek word used for epilepsy (seleniazomai) in, for example, Matt 4:24 is derived from a word meaning “the moon” (selene). It can also be translated “moonstruck” or “lunatic”. In relation to the Middle Eastern understanding of disease in the first century, it is curiously enough a fairly constant phenomenon of human thought that things used to be substantially different. Every generation has thought it and anticipated a better future because of their allegedly increased wisdom. This is a feature of mythological thinking – the idea that the ‘perfect world’ is merely archetypal. Epilepsy was supposed to return and increase with the moon cycles. It has been said that this meaning is doubtful because apparently the Greeks knew nothing about epilepsy (the New Testament was written or translated into the Greek language by Hebrew authors). However, the Greeks did coin the term “hysteria” from hystera (the uterus). I have no idea why they thought the womb moved during hysterical attacks, except to speculate that the condition of the stomach is a feature of both fight and flight responses, one extreme being associated with ongoing fear or flight (indigestion) and the other extreme being associated with passive concentration, fighting or hypnotherapy (stomach noises). Hippocrates built on the uterine theory; marriage was among his recommended treatments. It has been a constant feature of mythological thought around the world in both the East and West to attribute heterosexual marriage the saving grace of entrace to the ‘correct’ social sphere, according to ancient ideas based on a wheel imagery, or the music of the spheres. This kind of thinking has been replaced in our modern world by people like Alhazen (light goes into the eyes, rather than comes out of them) and Isaac Newton (vectors, differentials etc. mean that the world is dynamic, not simply a re-enactment of everlasting truths at a constant speed that end up back at the source).
Others to have been diagnosed with hysteria were the saints, the shamans and the demon-possessed. Shamans have been those who suffered nervous breakdowns as teenagers, and were venerated for their ‘superior wisdom’ by the tribe. They would be trained in the arts of ecstasy and destruction including in the realm of sexual activities at its extremes so as to provide spiritual guidance by being the one to “travel to the centre of the earth” and return. They would need others around them to revive them to consciousness, otherwise they were in a spot of trouble. Therefore, the practical solution of attributing special powers to themselves so as to attract a following. These days we have people like Casanovas who appear to think that orgasm is not the real thing unless you pass out and those who are very morally rigid. These categories are not exclusive. They co-exist. These extreme ideals of behaviour also show up in other areas of life such as food, cleanliness, physical fitness etc.
Scientific knowledge is an effective antidote to those who are confused about these issues so that they over-compensate in many directions, trying to keep a stable balance in their lives. Health is actually a constant feature of the sales pitch of cults and cultic ideas. For example, a knowledge of how levers work can really appeal to kids who can see that they are living examples of science themselves, not merely observers. It’s not so much that they need a doctor or therapist to move their limbs for them. In fact, there is a tendency to pathologise everyday behaviours. Children need to know that they are capable of comprehending the basics of science from an early age. They are not at the mercy of a society that seems to want to give the money to the technologically ‘literate’ (whether or not they are able to justify this assertion is another matter) and keep the ‘deskilled labour force’ including child carers and artists at a low pay level.
In fact, science plays a role in child care and art to the extent that organic processes are at work. The Bible says in 1 Cor 13:11: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” This points to the idea of development in life being at the discretion of the conscious wish of the individual. The idea of a set progression of behaviours in life comes under attack constantly as being too prescriptive and carrying the risk of being merely a self-fulfilling prophecy. In times past, art, craft/technology and magic were interchangeable ideas, along with controversy over whether craft and magic are analogous or mutually exclusive. Technology comes from the Greek: tekhne ("skill" or "art"). Technology refers to a source and sustaining power of the world in which we live. Technology stretches man and his powers while it improves his ability to conquer the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28). However, the Greek word logos which has to do with pragmatism is used to describe Jesus.
Further observations that support the idea that improvements could be made simply by encouraging the child to take an active, involved approach to life by means of staying in touch with the community and their family are the patterns of cerebral blood flow. They are typically low in the cerebellum, hyperfrontal region and left hemisphere in illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, dyslexia and epilepsy. See more studies for validation of this observation. These are exactly the same results as are found after autogenic training, a method of self-hyponosis wherein one repeats positive affirmations to oneself, but without necessarily learning about the cause of the symptoms that are being ‘healed’. As previously noted the physiological reactions in regards to stomach behaviour, relaxation, sensory perception etc. are diametrically opposite for prolonged stress as for the relaxation models of healing. But is this a good thing? Can it be sustained? The evidence indicates that it simply reverses the behaviour which sets up a swinging between the two extremes. Autogenic discharges can become worse than the original problem. The cerebellum is involved in functions such as matching sensory perception with muscle perception. It would seem more practical to involve those who are suffering from disturbances for which a cause seems elusive in activities that unite form and function, science and art. Let children learn about why sunsets are that colour. (Maybe it would be a good time to brush up on some of the basics yourself!) Why is the sky blue? Does this have anything to do with the red shift at the edge of the universe where the movement is away from us, rather than towards us in the case of falling dust particles in the air reflecting light? As Nietszche said, the nose is a better scientist than than mathematics is. Maths is applied logic and logic is a sign convention, whereas our nose is perceiving the real thing.
Self-hypnosis and autogenic training (which seem rather similar to the Australian male culture of “she’ll be right, mate” instead of looking at what really happened) are based on the idea that the conscious mind can redirect blood flow in the body simply because it wants to. If you tell your mind that it’s more important to think you’re cool and know the latest fads than to understand (and experience!) the science of the world we live in (how daggy!??!), then your mind seems to dutifully divert the blood to the Rolandic region (body scheme) rather than the autonomic, language and logic (left hemisphere) and sensory matching (cerebellum) regions, so that bed wetting, sleep disorders, sexual arousal disorders and appetite disorders occur. It’s not worth it to accept too many compliments! Proverbs 29:5 says: “Whoever flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his feet.” Proverbs 27:21 says: “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.”
A further consideration is the way that agoraphobic crutches are actually utilised. (Vehicles, canes, friends, prostitutes, alcohol) It could be said that men sometimes think of their penises this way. The way that agoraphobic crutches work for people is that they represent movement. However, people like to feel that they are the ones who are in control of movement in their lives. Hence an alcoholic will feel justified in feeling in control of their drinking if they can take the measure of the alcohol. Whether or not the measurement is correct is beside the point. The point is that humans can tend to feel superior to things if they can measure them. This also has to do with the controversies over particle physics etc. Also the way that some people can tell you anything about the measurements of their car (even if they don’t know how to fix it.) Or their best friend’s dress size (a bit of an interdependent relationship, I would be thinking). Using the sales and marketing phrase “testing and measuring”, as a starting point, the scripture in Proverbs 27:21 might be talking about buying into whatever measurements somebody else makes of us, or as Galations 6:4 says: “Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else.”

Reply