Loma’s dream:
“Suddenly there appeared an awesome sight in the sky above. It was a dazzling spectacle — the sky filled with a gigantic solid mass of brilliant stars, shaped like a huge banner. The stars began to quiver and separate, finally vanishing. She called my attention to the vanishing stars, when another huge grouping of flashing stars appeared, then quivering, separating, and vanishing like the first…. great white birds flew directly toward us. As they descended nearer, she perceived that they were angels….it dawned on me that Christ was coming, and I was so happy I was just crying for joy. Then suddenly I thought of Herbert and was rather worried. At that time, we had been going quite regularly to motion-picture theatres.“
From RT.
While the 46-year-old patient (who was Jewish, but reportedly not particularly religious) was hooked up to brain-monitoring equipment to undergo tests to help treat the neurological disease, he claims to have communicated with God.
“[W]e had the rare opportunity to record a delusional religious conversion in real time in a patient with right temporal lobe epilepsy,” doctors Shahar Arzy and Roey Schurr wrote in a study published in the neurological journal Epilepsy and Behavior.
“In this patient, a messianic revelation experience occurred several hours after a complex partial seizure of temporal origin,” the researchers explain.Arzy and Schurr believe the surge in activity in the patient’s frontal lobe, while he felt he was communicating with a deity, could indicate a form of “psychotic episode that can occur after epileptic seizures”, Discovery Magazine notes.
“The brain generator underlying this activity was localized to the left prefrontal cortex. This suggests that religious conversion in PIP [postictal psychosis] is related to control mechanisms in the prefrontal lobe-related processes rather than medial temporal lobe-related processes,” the study says.
During the epileptic episode, the authors say the patient suddenly froze in bed, later claiming he felt God approaching him, and began chanting prayers and saying that God had sent him.
The patient has since claimed he doesn’t know what the future holds for him in terms of his faith, but believes God will show him the way.
A correlation between epilepsy and visionary experiences has long been suspected, however this marks the first time the phenomenon was captured in the moment by brain monitoring equipment.
The Israeli scientists may have found an alternative explanation to St. Paul’s spiritual ‘revelation’ which supposedly spurred his allegiance to Jesus.
According to the Bible’s New Testament, Saul – the man who would become St. Paul – didn’t know or follow Jesus before the latter’s crucifixion. Instead, it says, he persecuted the followers of Jesus.
Then, as Saul was making his way from Jerusalem to Damascus (to seek out and arrest followers of Jesus, no less) he was struck blind by a light from above and was addressed by a divine voice, resulting in his conversion to one of Jesus’ followers and missionaries.
Is the Apostle Paul suffered from epilepsy, then when he was on his way to Damascus and had a seizure, rather than believing he was met by the risen Jesus, wouldn’t he had known that this was another one of his seizures? With his hate for the Christians, wouldn’t he be predisposed to interpret this “vision” as just another seizure? Wouldn’t he have had “visions” with earlier seizures and had dismissed it as such? If he was looking for proof of the risen Christ, he would have interpreted it such (confirmation bias) but he wasn’t in that mindset at the time.
‘Is the Apostle Paul suffered from epilepsy, then when he was on his way to Damascus and had a seizure, rather than believing he was met by the risen Jesus, wouldn’t he had known that this was another one of his seizures?’
No he would not know that he was having a seizure. Science of the medical profession was not advanced at that time. He would think he was having a vision from God.
‘With his hate for the Christians, wouldn’t he be predisposed to interpret this “vision” as just another seizure?’
Same answer as above.
‘If he was looking for proof of the risen Christ, he would have interpreted it such (confirmation bias) but he wasn’t in that mindset at the time.’
Perhaps he was an opportunists. Many arguments have Paul trying to gain influence over the then Christian community. Perhaps human nature was showing itself within Paul as he made a bid for power. Is this not what Rod Meredith and the rest of the huskers do when they start a new church?
Hmm I’ve only come across of late the idea that Paul was really an apostate and false apostle. At present, however, I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt and hold to the notion that his writings have been grossly misinterpreted. But, I’m still researching the subject especially since if true then we’d have to throw out most of what we know as the NT and if false then it still begs the question imo which NT writings are genuine and which are spurious (ie Were all epistles allegedly penned by Paul really authored by him or not? And why does Acts, James and 3 John not end with Amen?)
The Roman Catholic Church ‘assembled’ the New Testament 2 centuries after the supposed events happened — assembled from writers who had heard myths circulated through word of mouth. Everything was forged. It’s called hagiography. There are 40 gospels, but only 4 were selected. Rich guys commissioned writings — note that ‘Luke’ (not Luke) wrote for Theophilus, at least according to the New Testament. II Peter was clearly forged. Theologians know this. It’s interesting that they are so arrogant about it. Matthew didn’t write Matthew. Mark didn’t write Mark. Luke didn’t write Luke. John didn’t write John. The specifics of who wrote what and how it was assembled is lost in the musty dust of time.
Note that ‘the Apostle Paul’ completely turned the Jewish tradition upside down with Hellenistic Greek beliefs. ‘He’ never mentioned the virgin birth, nor did he seem to know anything about it from the writings. We know directly that 6 of ‘his’ supposed writings were pure fabrications. That ‘he’ even knew the other apostles is extremely unlikely, even if Jesus actually existed, which is highly unlikely and there are no real historians of that time who even hinted his existence — although, you know, some texts were ‘added’ centuries after the fact to prop up the mythology.
It’s interesting how a lie can embed itself into humanity’s history over centuries to the point it becomes established ‘fact’ when there is no viable basis for it.
Now if you are wondering about morals, just realize that they come from biology — it’s built in. Noah’s laws, the Ten Commandments, the Hammarabi all come from biological imperatives, which is why there is so much commonality worldwide. There is an objective basis for morals. We just need to realize it for ourselves, because society will crumble without the rules of the ethics of human order.
It’s difficult, since so many lies abound. There are so many hucksters and gaslighters. It’s tempting to take the path of least resistance, but truthfully, that’s really bad for humanity. Somewhere along the line, each of us needs to take responsibility and be accountable for our choices and not just make emotional choices that benefit only us at the exclusion of others… or even society as a whole.