seventh – TheCommonAtheist

Ellen White, prophetess and co-founder of the Seventh Day Adventist church had a large stone thrown at her when she was nine. Knocked immediately unconscious, regained consciousness for a few minutes, then slipped into coma for three weeks. From descriptions and lasting deformity appears she had a La Fort, or basilar skull fracture and permanent frontal lobe brain damage. Epilepsy is a term that had not been invented yet, but descriptions of her visions are like many seizures I have witnessed in the field. Eyes pegged upwards and trembling, falling, postictal phase, then waking up to ~~gibberish~~ prophesy an extension of her devoted Christian life. Modern medicine can calculate severity of injury based on duration of insult. Not so in early 19th century. HERE is an interesting read about her head injury and descriptions of her visions. After her death visions no longer blessed the church, nor with anyone since. (Since the next head injury) The rebuttal—God works in mysterious ways. Post traumatic epilepsy is a crucial link to revelation, as well as congenital epilepsy.