The idea for this thread was caused by the concern I felt while reading the "Big/Small" posts. In no way do I mean this as a blanket explanation for all paranormal experiences, but I feel that those who are still experiencing these sensations as adults should have a place to go where they can compare these sensations to the symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy or TLE.
I'll get into the symptoms in just a moment. First I want to say that absence seizures are relatively common in children. Using my own unscientific reasoning and your posts, I'm guessing that other types of seizures are fairly common in children as well. Just because you felt these sensations as a child, does not mean they're going to continue into adulthood.
Secondly, in testing for seizures, the clinicians use a few techniques to induce them. One is encouraging you to hyperventilate, another is to flash a strobe light. Many people have reported feeling these sensations while doing experiments in breathing such as meditation exercises. Many have also reported having these experiences in the car where the movement past trees and objects cause a kind of strobe affect.
Lastly, (this is all so formal, isn't it?) I want to talk about the stage between sleeping and waking. For me, this is the most dangerous time and where I have experienced the majority of my gran mals. Sleep in general is very difficult for me. From what I've read this makes sense because the function of the temporal lobes (memory, emotion) are related to the function of dreaming. It would also make sense that these symptoms are experienced not only while sleeping but in that wonderful, frightening state between dreaming and waking.
With that out of the way, I want to get on to the symptoms. The difference between someone with TLE and, say, schizophrenia is that TLE hallucinations usually last somewhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. They then go away leaving you scratching your head or with anxiety depending on how comfortable you feel about your own sanity or how many "True Tales of the Paranormal" you've read. A common general symptom is a funny feeling in your stomach, a rising, floaty, nauseating sensation. Another common symptom is apparantly a buzzing sound.
Someone with Left Temporal Lobe epilepsy is likely to experience a lot of memory hallucinations, things will appear familiar when they're not or unfamiliar when they are, including seconds long periods of amnesia. Left TLE seizures are often accompanied by bursts of out of place emotion like euphoria or a sense of doom like something terrible is going to happen.
Someone with Right Temporal Lobe epilepsy is likely to experience aural and visual hallucinations. They might hear music when there isn't any, or a voice. This isn't the schizophrenic type that interacts with you, it's more like hearing a memory. The visual hallucinations are very much like the big/small sensations in that they have to do with spatial relations. Since I don't have Right TLE I don't know if the strong out of place emotions accompany these hallucinations, but I assume they do.
If you suspect you have TLE it wouldn't hurt to see a doctor. While many people with TLE function just fine without medication and even enjoy their seizures as a kind of drug experience without the hastle of actual hallucinagins, there is the risk that your seizures could generalize into gran mals. The neurological term is called "kindling" in that once an area of your brain has reached an out of control active state, it's easier for it to spread to other areas. For those of you who say "I don't have epilepsy, I can induce these sensations at will." all I can say is "So can I." Your brain is a remarkable tool that forges pathways of learning. Congratulations, you've "learned" how to induce your own seizure in that a handy pathway is there just waiting for the right trigger. Personally, I have to be very careful about remembering actual seizures becaue this can induce a fresh one.
Here is a handy medical website.http://www.emedicine.com/NEURO/topic365.htm
That's it, my conscious is clear.
I'll get into the symptoms in just a moment. First I want to say that absence seizures are relatively common in children. Using my own unscientific reasoning and your posts, I'm guessing that other types of seizures are fairly common in children as well. Just because you felt these sensations as a child, does not mean they're going to continue into adulthood.
Secondly, in testing for seizures, the clinicians use a few techniques to induce them. One is encouraging you to hyperventilate, another is to flash a strobe light. Many people have reported feeling these sensations while doing experiments in breathing such as meditation exercises. Many have also reported having these experiences in the car where the movement past trees and objects cause a kind of strobe affect.
Lastly, (this is all so formal, isn't it?) I want to talk about the stage between sleeping and waking. For me, this is the most dangerous time and where I have experienced the majority of my gran mals. Sleep in general is very difficult for me. From what I've read this makes sense because the function of the temporal lobes (memory, emotion) are related to the function of dreaming. It would also make sense that these symptoms are experienced not only while sleeping but in that wonderful, frightening state between dreaming and waking.
With that out of the way, I want to get on to the symptoms. The difference between someone with TLE and, say, schizophrenia is that TLE hallucinations usually last somewhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. They then go away leaving you scratching your head or with anxiety depending on how comfortable you feel about your own sanity or how many "True Tales of the Paranormal" you've read. A common general symptom is a funny feeling in your stomach, a rising, floaty, nauseating sensation. Another common symptom is apparantly a buzzing sound.
Someone with Left Temporal Lobe epilepsy is likely to experience a lot of memory hallucinations, things will appear familiar when they're not or unfamiliar when they are, including seconds long periods of amnesia. Left TLE seizures are often accompanied by bursts of out of place emotion like euphoria or a sense of doom like something terrible is going to happen.
Someone with Right Temporal Lobe epilepsy is likely to experience aural and visual hallucinations. They might hear music when there isn't any, or a voice. This isn't the schizophrenic type that interacts with you, it's more like hearing a memory. The visual hallucinations are very much like the big/small sensations in that they have to do with spatial relations. Since I don't have Right TLE I don't know if the strong out of place emotions accompany these hallucinations, but I assume they do.
If you suspect you have TLE it wouldn't hurt to see a doctor. While many people with TLE function just fine without medication and even enjoy their seizures as a kind of drug experience without the hastle of actual hallucinagins, there is the risk that your seizures could generalize into gran mals. The neurological term is called "kindling" in that once an area of your brain has reached an out of control active state, it's easier for it to spread to other areas. For those of you who say "I don't have epilepsy, I can induce these sensations at will." all I can say is "So can I." Your brain is a remarkable tool that forges pathways of learning. Congratulations, you've "learned" how to induce your own seizure in that a handy pathway is there just waiting for the right trigger. Personally, I have to be very careful about remembering actual seizures becaue this can induce a fresh one.
Here is a handy medical website.http://www.emedicine.com/NEURO/topic365.htm
That's it, my conscious is clear.