|
Precognition as an epileptic aura
M Sadler, S Rahey (Halifax, NS)
Background: A myriad of subjective experiences compromised the auras of temporal lobe originating seizures. A patient with an aura of precognition (prescience) was encountered. This experience prompted a review of the ictal phenomenon in patients attending a tertiary care epilepsy outpatient clinic.
Methods: A computer epilepsy database was searched for patients with simple partial seizures and complex partial seizures with auras. Identified patients had their charts reviewed for details of their auras. Literature searches were done using the terms "precognition" (or "prescience") combined with "seizures" or "epilepsy". Standard comprehensive epilepsy textbooks were also reviewed.
Results: The charts of 218 patients (from the database of 927 patients) were reviewed. Three patients had precognition as an ictal feature. The patients' descriptions were very similar in all cases (a profound sense of being able to forecast the immediate future of their environment). The experience was clearly distinct from déjà vu and other psychic experiences. All patients likely have temporal lobe epilepsy. No other description of precognition as an ictal feature was found in the literature.
Conclusions: Precognition occurs in a minority of reports of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and represents a previously undescribed psychic phenomenon.!
From the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sicences – 38th Meeting of the Canadian Congress of Neurological Sicences – Abstracts
|
