Is Temporal lobe epilepsy an explanation for ghosts, aliens, god and the paranormal

The left side of the temporal lobe is associated more with long term memory retrieval, emotion, sexual behavior, and understand of language. Specifically spoken language. I can't begin to tell you all how frustrating it is for me to try to listen and understand people sometimes. I have had my hearing checked several times, but except for a minor loss in my right ear that was associated with an incident involving a large amount of alcohol, a friends girlfriend, butter and a drinking straw my hearing is fine....but that's a totally different story! The language issue is from the tumor, which is benign, but probably been there for many years.

English accents are the worst for me. My wife loves to watch Dr. Who, but it's meaningless to me. I need subtitles. And English is my first language!

Some might think the sexual behavior thing would be nice, especially since it involves an increase in that type of activity, but it's never a good thing to find out later after a seizure you felt your daughters breasts while postictal, or the ER nurses crotch who you have to work with all the time.

With all of that said though, for me, while having seizures has become a huge inconvenience for me, and the experience is strange; overall for me, the seizures are in a way pretty cool.

One more post on this for the people with ADD..including me...and I will go into detail on how the temporal lobe seizures seem to affect me as well as others.

Thanks dave...I wish I had seen this thread yesterday..lol..but totally missed it until just this morning!

There are multiple ways people have seizures. Let's start with what's known as simple partial seizures. These seizures are completely contained within the area where they begin.You often hear of an aura associated with seizures..the aura itself is actually a simple partial seizure.

For me, a simple partial seizure begins in my left temporal lobe and stays there. It generally gives me a very weird sensation in my mouth. Almost metallic taste..it's really hard to describe. I also get the feelings of deja vu, although more commonly for me it's jamais vu. Sometimes my eyes cross, or give the feeling of crossing, obviously affecting my vision. I have had this occurring to me for 19 years. You would think that I should have known what it was. Well, I did, but until recently, had no reason to suspect it was what it was, even though I knew better! Most people will always remember the events associated with SPS.

A large majority of people who have TLE have simple partial seizures only. Those with right side TLE will often have the space issues where distances and objects seem to alter and distort.

The next type of seizure...next step up are complex partial seizures. For TLE, they begin in one lobe, but then cross the mid-brain line and spread to the other side. The seizure is still contained within the temporal lobe though. When the electrical storm crosses the mid-brain, that's when event amnesia occurs. Obviously, when both sides of the temporal lobe are affected, the individual will get the experiences associated with both sides. While SPS's usually last less than 30 seconds, CPS's can last up to 2 mins. They are also associated with a short postictal state. However, my postictal state can last for hours, although I can still function, but tend to walk around and act really stoned. I just don't remember anything.

Now for the meat of the whole thing. When a seizure begins in a certain area of the brain, then spreads out to the rest of the brain, a generalized seizure occurs. The tonic, clonic or tonic-clonic jerking/tensing up that most people associate with seizures happens. So..for TLE, the aura comes from the SPS, then spreads to the whole brain and thus body.

Now, the entirety of these three threads was all background to say this!..lol. When I have had a generalized seizure, which btw is extremely rare for me, I have noticed several things in the time afterward, including days afterward for me.
I become very paranoid.
I feel like I am psychic.
And, I also have the feeling of an increased ability to sense the paranormal.

Also, since my left brain is the one that gets the most overall activity, my right brain takes over. I find myself more creative. More musical. And way more in touch with the things the right brain is associated normally with that for me are normally way suppressed since I am left brain dominant.

So, for me, while I do believe the paranormal exists normally, although I am very skeptical of most claims; after having generalized seizures that originate in the temporal lobes I am way more open to any claim, and as I said, feel I have the ability to interact with it more closely that other people can.

Do I believe all paranormal events are associated with TLE? NO. But for my short answer to the OP in the thread, I do believe that yes, definitely TLE can be highly linked with such events as the OP has suggested.

reply to post by webpirate


Thank you once again, the seizures leaving people actually more open to believing in the paranormal, as well as giving people direct paranormal type experiences is an aspect I hadn't even considered.

This is probably an impossible question to answer, but the research I did seems to suggest that it is possible to have a seizure without necessarily even noticing that it has happened i.e. you notice something strange is happening but someone from the outside wouldn't think that you were having an epileptic seizure. Is this right?

Also before you realised that you were have TLE what did you put your experiences down to? did you think they were paranormal events?

reply to post by davespanners


Yeah. It's definitely possible. Especially with a complex partial seizure. The person may be doing something, and "zone out" for a few seconds. The people around them may not realize they are having a seizure unless the person presents with an automatism, such as lip smacking, or something else like that, then zone back in and be none the wiser anything has happened.
Unless someone else notices something about the person if they haven't been diagnosed yet, possibly the only way someone with less pronounced seizures may even realize something is wrong, is a repeated loss of time.

I knew something wasn't right. For a long time. I had several times said to multiple people it felt like I was having an aura. But, there was no reason to suspect anything else. Plus, since it occasionally involved a visual disturbance, it was "officially" written off as a feign migraine. Or a migraine without the actual accompanying headache. A simple definition of a migraine is just a dilation of the blood vessels in the brain. It doesn't have to cause pain. And since the disturbances to me were at first few and very far between...maybe 2 a year, no further testing was done until I had my first witnessed generalized seizure, a little over a year ago.

I have TLE I've walked with god in my hallucinations. It starts with déjà vu of a dream that I don't know if I actually had at one point or not. I get a feeling of knowing everything all the answers but they fade afterwards. God is telling me things and walking around showing me how to I guess live that's the feeling I get. The only bad thing is all the information I receive is lost once I come out of my aura. I would have to say its the best feeling ever. Almost sad when it ends and I return to reality. I can see why some people especially in ancient times would think they actually were walking with god. I myself am an atheist which is kinda weird seeing how Ive actually "seen" god.