Exaltation in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: Neuropsychiatric Symptom or Portal to the Divine? Niall McCrae & Rob Whitley Published online: 15 July 2014 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014 Abstract Religiosity is a prominent feature of the Geschwind syndrome, a behavioural pattern found in some cases of temporal lobe epilepsy. Since the 1950s, when Wilder Penfield induced spiritual feelings by experimental manipulation of the temporal lobes, development of brain imaging technology has revealed neural correlates of intense emotional states, spurring the growth of neurotheology. In their secular empiricism, psychiatry, neurology and psychology are inclined to pathologise deviant religious expression, thereby reinforcing the dualism of objective and phenomenal worlds. Considering theological perspectives and the idea of cosmic consciousness, the authors urge a holistic approach to the spiritual events of epileptic aura, potentially leading to a deeper understanding of the mind and its transcendent potential. Keywords Epilepsy . Religion . Spirituality . Consciousness . Geschwind syndrome Introduction An intriguing phenomenon in some cases of epilepsy is the occurrence of spiritual experiences around the time of seizure, typically sensed as enlightenment to an expansive, timeless reality infused with deep meaning or of liberation of the soul from earthly constraint (Bear and Fedio 1977; Devinsky and Lai 2008). Fjodor Dostoyevsky described unsurpassable ecstasy during epileptic aura (Gastaut 1978), as conveyed vividly in the character of Prince Myshkin in The Idiot: Suddenly amidst the sadness, mental darkness, and depression, his brain seemed to burst into flame at brief moments, all his doubts and worries seemed composed in a twinkling, culminating in a great calm, full of sense and harmonious joy and hope…a blinding inner light flooded his soul. (1868/2004, 263) J Med Humanit (2014) 35:241–255 DOI 10.1007/s10912-014-9294-4 N. McCrae (*) Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, James Clerk Maxwell Building, King’ s College London, 57 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8WA, UK e-mail: n.mccrae@kcl.ac.uk R. Whitley Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, 6875 LaSalle Boulevard, Montreal, Quebec H4H 1R3, Canada e-mail: robert.whitley@mcgill.ca