Terence Hines - Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

Suddenly, a normally well-mannered, quiet, and devout individual begins to jerk and twitch and, to his own and everyone else’s horror, starts to curse and swear uncontrollably, using foul language he would ordinarily never even consider using in public. Another individual, following a sensation of profound dread and terror, appears to be thrown violently to the ground where he begins to writhe and thrash about, sometimes severely enough to break bones or even cause death. A third individual is overcome by a shimmering, brilliant vision of a bright light, when no light is actually present. The vision may contain various shapes and structures.

In all these cases, the individual is not in control of the behaviors he or she is exhibiting and believes, correctly, that he or she has absolutely no ability to control them. This being the case, it is easy to understand how control of the behaviors would be attributed to some malign and external force, such as the devil or demons. This would be especially likely to be the explanation of the behaviors in the first two cases, where the foul language, self-injurious behaviors, and lack of control all would be easy to interpret as the work of demons. In the final case, the experience could equally well be attributed to some type of divine inspiration or message.

In fact, the three cases described above are examples not of demonic possession or inspired visions, but of three different neurological diseases that have for centuries been taken as evidence for paranormal experiences. Beyerstein (1987–88) has traced the relationship between these three diseases and belief in demonic possession and inspired visions in an excellent paper that provided the basis for much of the following discussion. The first case is one of Gilles de la Tourette’s syndrome, a rare disease that has become the focus of considerable interest in neurology recently because of its strange symptoms, including uncontrollable twitches and, in severe cases, uncontrolled swearing and use of racial and ethnic epithets. It is clear that Tourette’s syndrome is a neurological disease, not a psychological disorder (Jankovik 2001). Shapiro and Shapiro (1982) have noted that the infamous Malleus Maleficarum, published in 1489 as a “manual” for the witch-hunters of the Inquisition, contains descriptions of behaviors said to be demonstrative of having consorted with the devil; these are similar to those seen in Tourette’s syndrome. The behavior of the little girl in The Exorcist (Blatty 1971) is very similar to what is seen in severe cases of Tourette’s syndrome. While Blatty contends that he based the book (and movie) on a case of “real” demonic possession (see Winter 1985), Shapiro and Shapiro state that the case was actually one of Tourette’s syndrome that was mistaken for possession. Such gross misdiagnoses of the syndrome are not, then, limited to the Middle Ages, but can still occur. Shapiro and Shapiro note that twenty-four of their Tourette’s syndrome patients had undergone exorcism for their disorder, but none had been helped by the process.

The second case described above is one of epilepsy, a neurological disorder much more common and well known than Tourette’s syndrome. The symptoms of epilepsy vary greatly from individual to individual. At one end of the scale are the “absence spells,” during which the individual is simply unresponsive to external stimuli for a minute or so and appears to be staring off into space. At the other end of the spectrum is the much more dramatic and dangerous grand mal seizure, as in the case described. Seizures are often preceded by an aura that is sometimes a feeling of impending terror and revulsion. When, immediately following this, some mysterious outside force seemingly takes over one’s body and causes it to behave in self-injurious ways, the inference that demons or the devil are responsible is an easy one to make.

A detailed account of the neuropathology of epilepsy is well beyond the scope of this book (for such an account see Beyerstein 1987–88; or Adams, Victor, and Ropper 1997) but a basic understanding will be necessary for this discussion. Information transmission between nerve cells in the mammalian brain is almost always a chemical process—molecules of chemicals called neurotransmitters are responsible. Within a neuron, transmission is electrical, and it is the electrical activity of a neuron that causes the molecules of neurotransmitter to be released from one neuron to make contact with and thereby transmit information to other neurons. In epilepsy, due to various chemical and physical changes in neurons, some neurons generate far too much electrical activity. This activity spreads through the brain. The areas of the brain to which it spreads determine the exact type of aura and seizure the patient will experience. Thus, in a case of an aura of dread and fear followed by a seizure in which the patient flails about, the areas of the brain responsible for feelings of fear and dread and those responsible for normal motor control are involved. For various neurophysiological reasons, the temporal lobe of the brain and the set of brain structures responsible in part for emotional behavior and feelings are frequently the site of epileptic activity.

Strange as it may seem, epileptic seizures need not always be unpleasant events. When the brain structures within the limbic system that underlie feelings of pleasure are involved and the areas for motor control are not involved (so there is no dangerous flailing about), the experience can produce feelings of profound joy. Such experiences are interpreted differently by different people and in different cultures, but a common factor of “transcendence” and “oneness with the universe” runs through the interpretations. The great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who was very probably epileptic, was subject to sudden episodes of what he interpreted as religious ecstasy. He described the feeling in a passage from The Possessed, published in 1871 and quoted in Beyerstein (1987–88):

You suddenly feel the presence of external harmony… you suddenly perceive the entirety of creation… it is a joy so great that, even if it were to last more than five seconds, the soul would not endure it and it would fade away… and for that I would give my whole life and not think I was paying too dearly.

Mandell (1980) has extensively reviewed the physiological and neurochemical research relevant to the brain processes underlying feelings of transcendental joy and euphoria. The basic physiological mechanisms involved in these states seem to be the same whether the state of euphoria is generated by epileptic activity or by drugs. Similar physiological changes may be brought about by the rhythmic chanting, singing, and dancing seen in the religious and conversion rituals of many cultures (Beyerstein 1987–88; Henry 1982). What differs in these situations is not the feeling but the cause to which it is attributed.

While epilepsy affects behavior dramatically during a seizure, it also has effects on behavior in the period between seizures. The personality of individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy is recognizably different in many cases from that of people not suffering from this disorder. The syndrome of temporal lobe epileptic personality includes “occurrence of spontaneous ecstatic episodes, religious preoccupations and compulsive, usually metaphysical, writing and preaching with a general feeling state of good-natured kindness” and a “reduction of interest in sexuality (not impotence)” (Mandell 1980, p. 437). Temporal lobe epileptics are also much more likely to have had multiple religious conversions (Mandell 1980). See Geschwind (1983) for additional discussion.

Epilepsy varies greatly in severity from individual to individual. At the extreme end of the range are individuals who, while they have never had overt seizures or even absence spells, do show signs of mild, epileptic-like temporal lobe dysfunction when their electroencephalograms (EEGs; brain waves) are examined. These individuals show some of the personality characteristics of those with overt temporal lobe epilepsy. These personality characteristics, when seen in clinically nonepileptic individuals, have been termed “temporal lobe signs” by Persinger (1984a), who developed a questionnaire test to detect them. Makarec and Persinger (1985) found high positive correlations between the number of temporal lobe signs in a nonepileptic population and actual EEC measures of epileptic-like temporal lobe activity (ELTLA). Persinger (1984b) showed that during a “peak experience” induced by meditation, one subject had a large increase in ELTLA. Nine other meditating individuals whose EEC was also recorded during meditation showed no increase in ELTLA and reported no peak experiences, although the normal meditation-induced relaxation was found. In another case reported by Persinger (1984b), a subject who “spoke in tongues” had increased ELTLA during the period when she felt herself to be in “closest contact with the Spirit” (p. 131). Another subject who spoke in tongues showed no increased ELTLA. Persinger (1984a) found a strong positive correlation between temporal lobe signs and the tendency to have experiences that were interpreted as paranormal. Persinger and Makarec (1987) have reported similar results in a sample of some four hundred college students.