VISIONS OR SEIZURES: Was Ellen White the Victim of Epilepsy?

Donald I. Peterson, MD

VISIONS OR SEIZURES: Was Ellen White the Victim of Epilepsy?

Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1988,

http: //www.whiteestate.org/issues/visions.html

Contents:

i. About the Author

ii. About the Book

 

Allegations Not New

•     Ellen White’s Head Injury

•     The Allegation

•     Epilepsy Allegation Not New

 

2. Ellen White's Sickness

•     Sources of Information

•     Allegation of Major Brain Insult

•     Coma or Stupor, Which?

•     The Difference Between Stupor and Coma

•     Ellen White’s “Sickness”

•     Bleeding Into the Throat While Unconscious

 

3. Ellen White and Partial Complex Seizures

•     What Are Seizures?

•     Kinds of Epilepsy

•     Partial Complex Seizures

•     Intellectual Brilliance in Spite of, Not Because of Epilepsy

•     Ellen White’s Visions Versus Partial Complex Seizures

•     Stereotyped Symptoms Versus Varied Content

•     Automatisms and Response to Environment

•     Odors During Partial Complex Seizures

•     Ellen White and Hypergraphia

•     Perseveration

•     Ellen White’s Eyes While in Vision

•     Did Ellen White Breathe While in Vision?

•     Long Periods of Apnea Inconsistent With Partial Complex Seizures

•     Summary and Conclusions

•     References

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Donald I. Peterson is a Professor of Neurology at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and Chief of Neurology at Riverside General Hospital, California. He has served on the Medical Advisory Board of the California Epilepsy Society and has authored over sixty articles in the field of neurology in scientific magazines.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ellen G. White received her first vision in 1844, when she was only seventeen years old. Her prophetic role was central in guiding the developing Adventist church through many perils.

 

In recent years a number of critics have revived the old allegation that Ellen White’s visions were due to temporal lobe epilepsy resulting from an injury she received when she was nine years old. In this book Dr. Peterson thoroughly explodes this theory.

Allegations Not New

 

Ellen White’s Head Injury

 

Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen G. White (born 1827, died 1915)

possessed what they “have accepted as the prophetic gift described in the Bible.” 1 When she was nine years old, an angry schoolmate threw a stone, which struck her on the nose and caused significant injury. Some have alleged that this blow so severely damaged the temporal lobe of her brain as to cause her to have a type of epilepsy known as partial complex seizures (also called complex partial seizures). Thus, it is argued, her visions were not divine revelations from God, but due to temporal lobe epilepsy.

 

The Allegation

 

In 1981, for instance, Delbert H. Hodder, a pediatrician with a special interest in pediatric neurology, wrote in Evangelica (a magazine now defunct) that Ellen White’s visions were “consistent with what is now known as partial-complex or psychomotor seizures.” 2 Four years later Molleurus Couperus, a retired dermatologist, made a similar allegation in an article in Adventist Currents when he said that Ellen White’s visions were due to “temporal lobe epilepsy.” 3

 

Since Hodder’s and Couperus’s claims are so similar, they will, with some exceptions, be treated as one in this study.

 

Epilepsy Allegation Not New

 

There is nothing new to the allegation that a prophet’s visions were due to some form of epilepsy. Critics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have claimed that the visions of the Bible prophets were epileptic seizures. As recently as 1970 Kenneth Dewhurst and A. W. Beard claimed that Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus was due to “temporal lobe epilepsy…” 4

 

With respect to the latter allegation, those who accept the evidence in the biblical accounts reject this suggestion for the simple reason that Paul was not the only one who experienced what happened that day. Those who were with him saw a light, they all fell to the ground, they all heard a voice (see Acts 9: 3-7; 22: 6-9; 26: 13, 14). This much is clear. If Paul had a seizure, then the entire group had seizures simultaneously. That this could have been the case is bizarre beyond belief—especially since to Paul the voice was an intelligible message to him, while to the others it was merely an unintelligible sound!

 

If the vision of a Bible prophet can be attributed to temporal lobe epilepsy, it is not surprising that the same allegation should be made concerning Ellen White’s visions. During her lifetime, for instance, Dudley M. Canright, a Seventh-day Adventist minister who left the church, claimed that she had a “complication of hysteria, epilepsy, catalepsy, and ecstasy” and stated that her “visions were merely the result of her early misfortune.” 5

 

Although Canright was a contemporary of Ellen White, he was not a physician; hence his claim will not be dealt with in this study. Hodder and Couperus, however, are physicians, so their claims will be considered.

 

The purpose of this study is to determine if the allegations of these critics have any validity.

 

Sources of Information

 

Since Ellen White has been dead for many years, it is obviously impossible to make a diagnosis of her case on the basis of direct clinical evidence. Both critics and defenders must reach their conclusions on the basis of available records.

 

The oldest and most reliable description of Ellen White’s childhood injury and its long-term effects comes from Mrs. White herself. It reads as follows:

 

I turned to see how far she [the angry schoolmate] was behind me, and as I turned, the stone hit me on my nose. I fell senseless. When I revived, I found myself in a merchant’s store, the blood streaming from my nose, my garments covered with blood, and a large stream of blood on the floor.

A kind stranger offered to take me home in his carriage. I knew not how weak I was, and told him I should greatly soil his carriage with blood, and that I could walk home. Those present were not aware that I was so seriously injured. I had walked but a few rods when I grew dizzy and faint. My twin sister and my schoolmate carried me home. I have no recollection of anything for some time after the accident. My mother says that I noticed nothing, but lay in a stupid state for three weeks....

As I aroused to consciousness, it seemed to me that I had been asleep. I was not aware of the accident, and knew not the cause of my sickness. 6

 

Coma or Stupor, Which?

 

Couperus alleges that Ellen was in a coma or unconscious state for three weeks due to the direct effects of her head injury. This interpretation is not correct. The record shows that Ellen was unconscious for only a brief time as a direct result of the head injury and that after recovering consciousness briefly, she was in a stupid state” 9 or “stupor, ” 10 (not a coma) for three weeks.

 

Neurologists generally agree that the duration of amnesia for events preceding head trauma usually closely parallels the severity of the brain damage caused by the injury. By this criterion Ellen suffered minor rather than a severe brain injury.

 

It is clear from the record that there was no amnesia for events prior to the injury because Ellen later remembered turning to see if the attacking girl was catching up with her and that as she turned, the stone struck her nose. Her memory of events between the time she regained consciousness and lapsed into a stupor was no more than slightly impaired, because she later clearly remembered being in a merchant’s store with blood pouring from her nose and declining the kind stranger’s offer to take her home in his carriage because she might soil it.

Although any injury causing a person to lose consciousness may be serious, there is nothing in the records that demands that Ellen sustained severe brain damage. This is a conclusion Hodder and Couperous arrive at by their interpretation of the data. The facts, as will be shown, can better be interpreted to mean that the injury was serious because it caused trauma to her nose resulting in a hemorrhage so severe that she nearly died from loss of blood. 11

 

What Are Seizures?

 

A seizure or epileptic attack has been defined as an intermittent derangement of the nervous system, presumably due to a sudden and excessive disorderly electrical discharge by brain cells. 21 For practical purposes it can be said that epilepsy and seizure disorder are essentially synonymous, even though some prefer to give them slightly different definitions. But regardless of the cause, epilepsy or seizure disorder is an abnormality of brain function. On this all authorities agree.

 

Kinds of Epilepsy

 

One kind of seizure disorder is called a convulsion. This term usually refers to the type of attack that causes abnormal contractions and stiffness of voluntary muscles usually associated with loss of consciousness. This condition may also be called generalized tonic-clonic seizures, major motor seizures, or grand mal epilepsy.

 

Another kind of seizure consists of a sudden cessation of activity for a brief period with the individual being completely unaware of his surroundings. Unlike major motor seizures, this form of epilepsy is rarely associated with falling or abnormal movements. It usually lasts less than half a minute and has been called absence seizures, petit mal epilepsy, or generalized, nonconvulsive seizure disorder. This type of epilepsy rarely occurs in adults.

 

Partial Complex Seizures

 

In the older medical literature the term complex, when used in reference to seizures, sometimes denoted complex symptomatology. This usage is no longer accurate. In Its modern usage partial seizures that do not impair consciousness are called partial simple seizures. If consciousness is impaired, they are called partial complex seizures.

 

Partial complex seizure disorder is one of the more common types of epilepsy, and this is the type Hodder and Couperus allege Ellen White had. Temporal lobe epilepsy, or psychomotor seizures are older terms for this kind of attack. It should be pointed out, however, that these seizure types are not necessarily identical.

 

Partial complex seizure disorder consists of a temporary impairment of brain function. During the attack a person may exhibit automatic movements. These movements may seem to be purposeful, but they are usually inappropriate. This kind of epilepsy may also involve a trancelike state and various abnormalities of sensation and autonomic function. It is accompanied by impairment of consciousness, which is usually of brief duration.

 

Perseveration

 

Hodder and Couperus suggest that Ellen White had partial complex seizure disorder because she exhibited “perseveration” of speech while in vision as well as in her writings. 37 These reviewers apparently do not understand the nature of speech perseveration.

 

In his book The Neurological Examination, Russell N. De Jong, M.D., defines perseveration of speech as “the persistence of one reply or one idea in response to various, questions.” 38 For example, an examining physician asks a patient a question such as, “What color is my shirt? ” The patient may respond, “Blue.” Whether or not this answer is correct or incorrect is not the issue. But now notice, if the physician then asks other questions, such as, “What time is it? ” or, “What is the name of the President of the United States? ” and the patient continues to answer, “Blue, ” this is perseveration. Thus Hodder and Couperus use the term incorrectly when they apply

it to the repetitive, but appropriate, use of a word or phrase.

 

Perseveration of speech is rare in partial complex seizure disorder, yet Hodder and Couperus allege that because Ellen White repeated certain words and phrases while going into vision, while in vision, or following a vision in her writings, she exhibited perseveration. For example, these critics quote Ellen White as saying, “Glory, glory, glory, ” 39 while going into vision. This is repetition, but these expressions were appropriate to the context in which they were spoken, and hence are not perseveration as the term is used in a neurological context. In another example of “perseveration, ” Couperus refers to an article in which Ellen White repeated the words “I saw” thirty-five times. 40 Even though her reiterated use of this expression is more repetitive than it might be for well-edited writing, there is nothing illogical or inappropriate in the way she used the phrase. This, therefore, is not perseveration of speech, nor is it evidence of seizure disorder.

 

Summary and Conclusions

A careful examination of Hodder’s and Couperus’s theories in the light of the historical record shows that they have failed to establish that Ellen White’s “sickness” consisted of serious temporal lobe injury or that the phenomena associated with her visions were consistent with partial complex seizure disorder.

 

On September 1, 1983, the trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate appointed a committee to examine all pertinent information available concerning the nature of Ellen White’s visions and render an opinion. After a thorough examination, this committee, consisting of eight professors in the Loma Linda University School of Medicine and Nursing, including three neurologists, and a well-known psychiatrist from northern California, concluded:

The recent articles and presentation that suggest that Ellen White’s visions and writings were the result of a complex partial seizure disorder contain many inaccuracies. Ambiguous reasoning and misapplication of facts have resulted in misleading conclusions...

After a careful review of the autobiographical and biographical material available, considered in the light of the present knowledge of this type of seizure, it is our opinion that (1) there is no convincing evidence that Ellen G. White suffered from any type of epilepsy, and (2) there is no possibility that complex partial seizures could account for Mrs. White’s visions or for her role in the development of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 53

In this researcher’s opinion, Ellen White was given divine guidance through her visions, which were of value in pointing out the way of salvation through Jesus Christ to those who were searching for truth. Her visions were also beneficial in providing direction to the early Seventh-day Adventist Church in matters of church organization, fundamentals of education, and principles of healthful living. Abundant evidence supports the belief that “something supernatural” was indeed happening when Ellen White experienced her visions. It is the conviction of this researcher that it was a manifestation of the true prophetic gift—not some form of epilepsy.

 

Concerning prophets, the Bible says, “Ye shall know them by their fruits”

(Matthew 7: 16). This is an appropriate standard by which to judge the visions and works of Ellen White.

 

References

 

1 Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1988 (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association), p. 7.

 

2 Delbert H. Hodder, M.D., “Visions or Partial-Complex Seizures? ” Evangelica, vol. 2, no. 5 (November 1981), p. 35.

 

3 Molleurus Couperus, “The Significance of Ellen White’s Head Injury, ” Adventist Currents, vol. 1, no. 6 (June 1985), p. 31.

 

4 Kenneth Dewhurst and A. W. Beard, “Sudden Religious Conversions in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, ” Journal of Psychiatry, vol.117 (1970), p. 497-507.

 

5 D. M. Canright, Life of Mrs. E. G. White (Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Company, 1919), p. 171 (emphasis supplied).

 

6 Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts (Washington, D. C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1860, 1944), vol. 2, pp. 7, 8. For other accounts by Ellen White, see Testimonies for the Church (Boise, Id.: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1948), vol. 1, pp. 9, 10, and Life Sketches of Ellen G. White (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1915, 1943), pp. 17, 18. These accounts vary slightly in wording and minor details but are in substantial agreement.

 

7 Hodder, p. 32.

 

8 Couperus, p. 17.

 

9 Gifts, vol. 2, p. 8.

 

10 Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 10.

 

11 Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 11.

 

12 Robley Dunglison, M.D., LL.D., Dictionary of Medical Science (Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, 1868), p. 923, “STUPOR… Diminished activity of the intellectual faculties, often amounting to lethargy.”

 

13 Hodder, p. 32.

 

14 Couperus, p. 18.

 

15 Gifts, vol. 2, p. 8.

 

16 Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 10.

 

17 Ibid., p. 11.

 

18 Ibid., p. 10.

 

19 Life Sketches, p. 72.

 

20 Gifts, vol. 2, p. 30. Cf. James White in Life incidents, in Connection With the Great Advent Movement, as Illustrated by the Three Angels of Revelation XVI (Battle Creek, Mich.: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, 1868), p. 273, says that “when she had her first vision she was an emaciated invalid given up by her friends and physicians to die of consumption.”

 

21 See Maurice Victor and Raymond D. Adams, Principles of Neurology (New York: McGraw-Hill Pub. Co., 3rd. ed. 1985), p. 233.

 

22 Hodder, p. 33.

 

23 Couperus, p. 22.

 

24 Gifts, vol. 2, pp. 292, 293.

 

25 Couperus, p. 22.

 

26 Hodder, p. 33.

 

27 Jerome Engel, Jr., Cecil Textbook of Medicine, James B. Wyngaarden and Lloyd H. Cecil, eds. (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 17th ed. 1985), p. 2152.

 

28 An oral presentation by Delbert H. Hodder and Gregory L. Holmes, entitled “Ellen G. White and the Seventh-day Adventist Church: Visions or Partial Complex Seizures? ” an abstract of which appears in Neurology, 1981, vol. 31, pp. 160, 161; Hodder, Evangelica, p. 34; Couperus, p. 22.

 

29 Hodder, Evangelica, p. 34.

 

30 See David D. Daly, “Ictal Clinical Manifestations of Complex Partial Seizures, ” Advances in Neurology (New York: Raven Press, 1975), vol. 11, pp. 57-84.

 

31 Couperus, p. 22 (emphasis supplied).

 

32 See W. C. White, “A Comprehensive Vision—I: Sketches and Memories of James and Ellen White” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 135 (February 10, 1938), p. 6.

 

33 Couperus, p. 23.

 

34 Daly, p. 61 (emphasis supplied).

 

35 Hodder, pp. 35, 36; Couperus, p. 26.

 

36 Stephen G. Waxman and Norman Geschwind, “Hypergraphia in temporal lobe epilepsy, ” Neurology, vol. 24, no. 7 (July 1974), pp. 629-636.

 

37 Hodder, p. 34; Couperus, p. 27.

 

38 Russell N. De Jong, The Neurological Examination (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 4th ed. 1979), p. 274.

 

39 Couperus, p. 27.

 

40 Ibid.

 

41 Hodder and Holmes, pp. 160, 161; Couperus, p. 21.

 

42 J. N. Loughborough, The Great Second Advent Movement (Fort Worth, Tex.: Southern Publishing Association, 1905), p. 204.

 

43 Ibid. (emphasis supplied).

 

44 Ibid., pp. 207-210.

 

45 Ibid., p. 204.

 

46 Ibid., p. 205.

 

47 Ibid., p. 210, (emphasis supplied).

 

48 George I. Butler, “Visions and Prophecy, ” The Advent Review and the Herald of the Sabbath, vol. 43 (June 9, 1874), p. 201.

 

49 Gifts, vol. 2, pp. 77-79.

 

50 Hodder, p. 33.

 

51 Ibid.

 

52 Couperus, p. 22.

 

53 A committee report, “Did Ellen White have complex partial seizures? ” Ministry, vol. 57 (August 1984), p. 25.

 

Donald I. Peterson, MD

VISIONS OR SEIZURES: Was Ellen White the Victim of Epilepsy?

Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1988,

http: //www.whiteestate.org/issues/visions.html

Contents:

i. About the Author

ii. About the Book

 

Allegations Not New

•     Ellen White’s Head Injury

•     The Allegation

•     Epilepsy Allegation Not New

 

2. Ellen White's Sickness

•     Sources of Information

•     Allegation of Major Brain Insult

•     Coma or Stupor, Which?

•     The Difference Between Stupor and Coma

•     Ellen White’s “Sickness”

•     Bleeding Into the Throat While Unconscious

 

3. Ellen White and Partial Complex Seizures

•     What Are Seizures?

•     Kinds of Epilepsy

•     Partial Complex Seizures

•     Intellectual Brilliance in Spite of, Not Because of Epilepsy

•     Ellen White’s Visions Versus Partial Complex Seizures

•     Stereotyped Symptoms Versus Varied Content

•     Automatisms and Response to Environment

•     Odors During Partial Complex Seizures

•     Ellen White and Hypergraphia

•     Perseveration

•     Ellen White’s Eyes While in Vision

•     Did Ellen White Breathe While in Vision?

•     Long Periods of Apnea Inconsistent With Partial Complex Seizures

•     Summary and Conclusions

•     References

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Donald I. Peterson is a Professor of Neurology at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and Chief of Neurology at Riverside General Hospital, California. He has served on the Medical Advisory Board of the California Epilepsy Society and has authored over sixty articles in the field of neurology in scientific magazines.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ellen G. White received her first vision in 1844, when she was only seventeen years old. Her prophetic role was central in guiding the developing Adventist church through many perils.

 

In recent years a number of critics have revived the old allegation that Ellen White’s visions were due to temporal lobe epilepsy resulting from an injury she received when she was nine years old. In this book Dr. Peterson thoroughly explodes this theory.

Allegations Not New

 

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