Where The Wild Thoughts Are Can epilepsy reveal the secrets of perception?
We’re exploring the secrets of bliss – with neurologist and epilepsy specialist Fabienne Picard of the Medical School of Geneva.
Fabienne became fascinated by a rare condition called “ecstatic seizure” after reading the work of 19th century Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. He used his own experiences with epilepsy as inspiration, in particular a profound and intriguing feeling that would strike him just before the seizure itself. He wrote about how, for a few moments, all of his doubts and anxieties disappeared, and the world felt perfectly vivid and clear.
“I feel entirely in harmony with myself and the whole world,” he wrote, “and this feeling is so strong and so 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.”
Fabienne asked her patients whether any of them had similar experiences, and found that some did, they’d just never had the opportunity to talk about it in conventional consultations. She has identified dozens of new cases, which has enabled her to pin down which part of the brain is involved, and even trigger this feeling in people who don’t have this kind of epilepsy.
I spoke to Fabienne about her patients, what she thinks is happening in their brains, and whether we might all one day be able to benefit from such episodes of bliss -- without the devastating seizures that follow.
LINKS
Fabienne’s home page at University Hospitals of Geneva
https://www.hug.ch/en/neurology/dr-fabienne-picard
Ecstatic or mystical experience through epilepsy: 2023 paper by Fabienne & colleagues
Insular stimulation produces mental clarity and bliss: 2022 paper by Fabienne & colleagues
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ana.26282
Epilepsy and ecstatic experiences: 2021 paper by Fabienne & colleagues
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/11/1384
Fabienne’s talk to the Buddhist monks at Plum Village
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M16k8Djz29A&t=1957s
Epilepsy in the artistic creation of Dostoevsky: 2014 review
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2173580814000686
Dostoevsky’s epilepsy: 1990 case report
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2161565/
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