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Psychosis and Paroxysmal Visions in the Lives of the Founders of World

Religions

Article  in  The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences · February 2014

DOI: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.12120412 · Source: PubMed

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Psychosis and Paroxysmal
Visions in the Lives of the
Founders of World Religions
To the Editor: In a recent article, “The
Role of Psychotic Disorders in
Religious History Considered,”
Murray, Cunningham, and Price1
propose the provocative hypothesis
that Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and
Paul suffered primary or mood
disorder-associated psychotic symp-
toms and that these experiences in-
spired the beliefs and actions that
eventually led to the formation of
new religions. Without discounting
that hypothesis, I suggest that their
analysis would be strengthened, first,
by enlarging the sample of religious
innovators to include the founders of
all of the world’s major religions,
and, second, by taking into account,
as a primary etiological factor, a spe-
cific type of paroxysmal vision de-
scribed as a “white light,” or,
alternatively, as light that appears
sun-like, fire-like, or lightning-like.
Figure 1 lists descriptions of white-
light visions by founders of the
world’s major religions.
In order for the visual field to be
inundated with white flashes,
paroxysmal discharges must be
present at a central location in the
visual system, most likely in the
hippocampus and its adjacent
temporal cortices, which would
eclipse other vision-related signals.
When hippocampal seizures stimu-
late the septum, this generates sen-
sations that clearly qualify as
“ecstatic.”2 Other paroxysmal symp-
toms are sometimes present: muscle
tremors, physical collapse, loss of
consciousness, and/or temporary
residual dysfunction, such as inabil-
ity to speak (Ezekiel) or temporary
J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 00:0, n 2013
LETTERS
FIGURE 1. Light-Visions of the Founders of World Religions
Anonymous Authors of the Rig Veda5
• Indra’s thunderbolts are “bright-like-lightning,” like “the Sun
made manifest”
• Meditation-induced, ephedra-fueled “soma” visions of
“chariot wheels that fly”
Zoroaster5
• Visionary ”figure in a garment like light itself” takes him to a
“place of pure light”
• Meditation- and ephedra-induced “haoma” colored light visions
likely but not certain
Anonymous Authors of the Upanishads
• The “Abounding Brahma-Light” is “like lightning,” like
“an ocean of light”
• Meditation-induced visions of “fog, smoke,” “bubbles,”
“small lotus”
Moses
• Vision of a fiery light that appears to engulf a bush
• Meditation-induced visions of clear “sapphire pavement stones
under God’s feet”
Ezekiel
• “A mass of fire and out of it . . . hashmal [electrum],” and
“lightning flashes”
• Meditation-induced vision of beryl-colored “wheels within
wheels” that fly
• Falls to the ground during the vision and then can’t speak for
7 days
Gotama Sakyamuni, The Buddha
• Vision of “Unlimited Light-Manifestations” [i.e., of Abounding
Brahma-Light]
• Prodomal meditation-induced visions of “Limited Light-
Manifestations”
Anonymous Authors of the Early Daoist Texts
• Visions of “a white sun,” “lunar efflorescences,” or “vascillating
radiances”
• Meditation-induced visions of “green, orbed phosphors” and
“purple hazes”
Paul of Tarsus
• A vision of bright, flashing light knocked him down and left him
blind for 3 days
Mani, Apostle of Light
• Visions of the “Divine Twin” look “like lightnings” and sometimes
knock him down
Muhammed, Prophet of Allah
• Vision of a bright flash “al-falaq” [i.e., like the sun breaking
above a dark horizon]
• At age 6, episode resembling an absence-like seizure (”chest
washed with snow”)
• Meditation-induced vision of the “Lote Tree” [i.e., a green, disk-
shaped light]
• Meditation-induced visions of the “green cushions of dwellers
in Paradise”
blindness (Paul). Some of these seiz- in many cases they were self-
ures erupted spontaneously, consis- induced by persons for whom there
tent with a diagnosis of epilepsy, but, is no other evidence of epileptic
http://neuro.psychiatryonline.org 1
LETTERS
vulnerability, persons who adopted
a dissociative defense strategy of
frequent and prolonged “empty-
mind” meditation. If apparently
“normal” individuals can learn to
self-induce temporolimbic visionary
paroxysms at will, and if, as a result,
they experience the dramatic changes
associated with interictal behavior
syndrome, the question of account-
ing for their charismatic influence on
others is no longer as problematical
as is the case with the hypothesis of
psychosis.
The clues revealing that founders
were adept at meditation are
references to seeing visions of light-
rings or visions of green or blue
lights. I have published elsewhere
a neurologically-grounded, reverse-
engineering analysis of the char-
acteristics of meditation-induced
light-visions demonstrating how
visions of green light-rings and blue
mists are generated by slow-wave
sleep rhythms.3 Activating sleep
2 http://neuro.psychiatryonline.org
rhythms when cortical neurons are
already hyperexcitable for some rea-
son (e.g., sleep loss or depression)
can trigger a shift to corticothalamic
hypersynchrony with surprising
ease.4 If meditators continue to focus
on the visual field, corticothalamic
hypersynchrony can drive emer-
gence of paroxysmal discharges in
the hippocampus.3
Although psychosis may on
occasion shape the thoughts,
emotions, and behaviors of some
religious innovators, the critical
events that change the lives of world-
historical founders of world reli-
gions, which inspire them to initiate
new religious ideas and practices
that instill awe in their audiences, are
temporolimbic seizures that have
distinctive visual and ecstatic aurae,
seizures that can be self-induced by
“normal” individuals. Readers inter-
ested in viewing video animations of
meditation-induced visions and
descriptions of visions provided by
J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 00:0, n 2013
influential mystics can visit www.
religiousvisionsoflight.com.
Philip T. Nicholson, J.D., M.S.P.H.
Medical Writer
e-mail: philipnicholson@comcast.
net
References
1. Murray ED, Cunningham MG, Price BH:
The role of psychotic disorders in religious
history considered. J Neuropsychiatry Clin
Neurosci 2012; 24:410–426
2. Hughes JR: The idiosyncratic aspects of the
epilepsy of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Epilepsy
Behav 2005; 7:531–538
3. Nicholson PT: Meditation & Light Visions:
A Neurological Analysis. CreateSpace; An
Online Division of Amazon Books, 2010
4. Steriade M, Contreras D: Spike-wave com-
plexes and fast components of cortically-
generated seizures, I: role of neocortex and
thalamus. J Neurophysiol 1998; 80:1439–
1455
5. Nicholson PT: The Soma Code, Part III:
visions, myths, and drugs. The Electronic Q:1
Journal of Vedic Studies 2002; 8:70–92
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