List of people with epilepsy

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Prince John had epilepsy. His story was told in the acclaimed TV drama The Lost Prince.

This is a list of notable people who have, or had, the medical condition epilepsy. Following from that, there is a short list of people who have received a speculative, retrospective diagnosis of epilepsy. Finally there is a substantial list of people who are often wrongly believed to have had epilepsy.

Epilepsy and greatness

A possible link between epilepsy and greatness has fascinated biographers and physicians for centuries. In his Treatise on Epilepsy, the French 17th century physician Jean Taxil refers to Aristotle's "famous epileptics". This list includes Heracles, Ajax, Bellerophon, Socrates, Plato, Empedocles, Maracus of Syracuse, and the Sibyls.^[1] However, historian of medicine Owsei Temkin argues that Aristotle had in fact made a list of melancholics and had only associated Heracles with the "Sacred Disease".^[2] Taxil goes on to add his own names: Roman Emperor Caligula, Drusus (tribune of the Roman people), Muhammad, and Petrarch. Neurologist John Hughes concluded that the majority of famous people alleged to have epilepsy did not in fact have this condition.^[3][4]

Certain diagnosis

This categorized chronological list contains only those people with a firm and uncontested diagnosis made while still alive.

Acting

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Bud Abbott	1895-1974	He had epilepsy all his life, and tried to control and hide it.	[5]
Ward Bond	1903–1960	A film actor. His epilepsy meant that he was rejected from the draft for World War II.	[6]
Danny Glover	born 1946	An actor and film director who had epilepsy from age 15 to age 35.	[7]
Margaux Hemingway	1955–1996	A film actress and model who had epilepsy from the age of 7. Her death was attributed to suicide by an intentional overdose of phenobarbital, which is an anticonvulsant, but see the footnoted article for an alternative explanation.	[8]
Martin Kemp	born 1961	Actor and former bassist with the pop band Spandau Ballet. He has had epilepsy since having two brain tumours in the 1990s.	[9]
Peter Deuel	1940–1971	A television and film actor. His epilepsy is thought to have been brought on during adolescence by head injuries sustained in an automobile accident.
Rik Mayall	1958-2014	A comedian and actor who was seriously injured and put in a coma for five days after a quad bike accident in 1998. Initially prescribed phenytoin prophylactically, he later had two seizures, possibly due to not taking his medication.	[10]
Hugo Weaving	born 1960	An actor who has taken anticonvulsants for epilepsy since his first seizure age 13.	[11][12]

Leadership, politics and royalty

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Michael IV the Paphlagonian	1010–1041	A Byzantine emperor who had frequent tonic-clonic seizures since adolescence. It was perceived to be demonic possession – punishment for his sins. His royal entourage were alert to signs of an impending seizure and tried to hide the emperor when ill.	[13]
Hans Ulrik Gyldenløve	1615–1645	Illegitimate son of Christian IV, King of Denmark and Norway, Hans Ulrik was an officer in the Danish Royal Navy and the commander of a royal castle, the Kronborg. But he was prone to epileptic spells. On a state visit to Spain with his father’s ambassador in 1640, he had one of them right after a bullfight. He had to be sent home to Denmark.	[14][15]
Ivan V Alekseyevich	1666–1696	Older half brother of Russian Tsar Peter the Great. Ivan V was feebleminded, epileptic, and half-blind. Would have never become Tsar except for the support of his sister Sophia, who wanted to become regent over him. His sister, with the military backing of the Streltsy, made Ivan V rule as co-tsar with Peter I (Great) (who had already been tsar for a few weeks).	[16]
Pope Pius IX	1792–1878	Had childhood epilepsy.	[17][18][19]
Francis Libermann	1802–1852	A Jew who converted to Christianity and studied for priesthood. Epilepsy prevented his ordination for many years.	[20]
Ida McKinley	1847–1907	First Lady of the United States from 1897 to 1901. Her epilepsy started in adulthood and was to become quite disabling and inconvenient. As was normal for the time, great efforts were made to keep this secret. Her husband, William McKinley would cover her face with a napkin when she had symptoms at dinner parties.	[21]
Vladimir Lenin	1870–1924	First Premier of the Soviet Union. Lenin's final year was characterized by neurological decline and loss of function. In his last few months, he developed epilepsy. His seizures worsened and he died in status epilepticus, which had lasted 50 minutes.	[22]
Caligula	12 AD-41 AD	Roman Emperor. Suetonius states that "As a boy he was troubled with the falling sickness [epilepsy], and while in his youth he had some endurance, yet at times because of sudden faintness he was hardly able to walk, to stand up, to collect his thoughts, or to hold up his head."	[23]
Harry Laughlin	1880–1943	The director of the American Eugenics Record Office from its inception in 1910 to its closing in 1939. In 1922, he drew up laws for the compulsory sterilization of various "degenerate" groups, which included those with epilepsy.	[24][25]
Prince Erik, Duke of Västmanland	1889–1918	The youngest son of Gustaf V of Sweden.	[26]
Prince John of the United Kingdom	1905–1919	The youngest son of King George V, John had epilepsy from the age of 4 until his death after a seizure aged 13. John's epilepsy, along with intellectual disability and possibly autism, led to his living most of his life at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate away from visitors who were not family members.	[27]
Rabbi Lionel Blue	born 1930	A rabbi and broadcaster, best known for his contributions to "Thought for the Day" on BBC Radio 4's Today program. His epilepsy was diagnosed when he was aged 57 and is successfully controlled with medication.	[28][29]
Dave Longaberger	1934–1999	A businessman and founder of The Longaberger Company, makers of handcrafted maple wood baskets and accessories. He overcame epilepsy and a stutter, eventually graduating from high school aged 21.	[30]
Joe Doyle	1936-2009	Joseph (Joe) Doyle was an Irish Fine Gael politician. He was a long-standing public representative for the Dublin South–East and served as a member of Dáil Eireann, Seanad Eireann and Dublin City Council before serving as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1998-1999. He first developed epilepsy at the age of 16. He became one of Ireland's most prominent advocate's for epilepsy and was a member of the Board of Directors of Brainwave, the Irish Epilepsy Association, at the time of his death.	[31]
Neil Abercrombie	born 1937	Governor of Hawaii who campaigns for increased funding for epilepsy research. He was diagnosed with epilepsy in his early thirties.	[32][33]
Rudi Dutschke	1940–1979	A prominent spokesperson of the left-wing German student movement of the 1960s. An assassination attempt in 1968, when he was shot twice in the head, left him partially blind and with frequent epileptic attacks. He drowned in the bathtub after suffering a seizure.	[34][35]
Tony Coelho	born 1942	A former United States congressman who developed epilepsy aged 16, possibly as a result of an earlier head injury. This would lead to rejection by his family and the Jesuits for "possession by the devil".[36] He has campaigned as a congressman for disabled rights and chairs the Epilepsy Foundation's national board of directors.	[36]
John Roberts	born 1955	Roberts is the 17th Chief Justice of the United States. He was appointed to office by President George W. Bush on September 29, 2005. His first seizure occurred in 1993 which was disclosed to the Senate Judiciary Committee who confirmed him. His second seizure occurred in 2008 when he fell 5 to 10 feet onto a dock near his house.	[37]
Laura Sandys	born 1964	British Conservative Party politician. She was elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet. She revealed in parliament in October 2010 that she had epilepsy, but had been seizure-free for seven years.	[38]
Paul Maynard	born 1975	British Conservative Party politician. He was elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackpool North and Cleveleys. He was the first British MP ever to reveal that he has epilepsy. In 2010, he was appointed vice-president of the charity Epilepsy Action.	[39]

Music

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Jimmy Reed	1925–1976	An American blues singer. His diagnosis of epilepsy in 1957 was delayed due to an assumption that these were attacks of delirium tremens. He died after an epileptic seizure aged 51.	[40][41]
Neil Young	born 1945	Canadian singer-songwriter, formerly of bands Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Disliked the effects of his medication; seeking personal stability as an alternative means of control.	[42]
Lil Wayne	born 1982	American rapper revealed in March 2013 that he has epilepsy. He has suffered with the disease since childhood and admits that he rarely remembers his seizures.[43]	[44]
Lindsey Buckingham	born 1949	The guitarist and singer in the music group Fleetwood Mac was taken to hospital after a seizure while on tour, aged 29. His epilepsy was successfully controlled by anticonvulsant drugs.	[45][46]
Chris Knox	born 1952	New Zealand indie musician (Toy Love, Tall Dwarfs) has addressed his epilepsy in such songs as "Lapse", and it is also referenced in his album title "Seizure".	[47]
Ian Curtis	1956–1980	The vocalist and lyricist of the band Joy Division was diagnosed with epilepsy aged 22. The cover of their album Unknown Pleasures resembles an EEG tracing, but is actually the tracings of the radio emissions of a pulsar. The condition was a primary cause of his suicide in 1980.	[48]
Richard Jobson	born 1960	Formerly the lead singer with the punk rock group The Skids, now a television presenter and film maker. He has absence seizures.	[49]
Susan Boyle	born 1961	Scottish singer who came to international public attention when she appeared as a contestant on the TV programme Britain's Got Talent on 11 April 2011. She had epilepsy as a child.	[50]
Edith Bowman	born 1974	Scottish television presenter and a radio D.J., who had epilepsy as a child.	[51]
Peter Jefferies	born ca.1961	New Zealand musician (Nocturnal Projections, This Kind of Punishment).	[52]
Vusi Mahlasela	born 1965	A singer-songwriter whose work inspired those in the anti-apartheid movement.	[53]
Hikari Oe	born 1963	A Japanese composer who has autism, epilepsy and intellectual disability and has created two successful classical-music CDs. He is the son of Kenzaburo Oe, the Japanese novelist who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature.	[54]
Mike Nolan	born 1954	Singer and one of the four original members of the British pop group Bucks Fizz. Developed epilepsy after a coach accident in 1985.	[55]
Adam Horovitz	born 1966	Member of the music group Beastie Boys.	[56][57]
Mike Skinner	born 1978	Also known as The Streets, he had epilepsy between the ages of 7 and 20.	[58]
Geoff Rickly	born 1979	A member of the band Thursday, who discovered he had epilepsy while on tour.	[59][60]
Prince	1958–2016	American singer, who had epilepsy as a child and sang about his condition in the song 'The Sacrifice of Victor'.	[61]
Lauren Pritchard	born 1987	An American singer, songwriter and actress who appeared in the original Broadway cast of Spring Awakening.	[62]

Sport

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Grover Cleveland Alexander	1887–1950	A major league baseball pitcher who tried to hide his epilepsy with alcohol, which was at the time considered to be a more socially acceptable problem. Ty Cobb said he "suffered hell on the field."	[63]
Tony Lazzeri	1903–1946	A major league baseball player who probably died after seizure that occurred when he was alone at home.	[64]
Hal Lanier	born 1942	A major league baseball player and manager. He developed epilepsy after a severe beating.	[65]
Tony Greig	1946 - 2012	A former cricketer and commentator who was involved with Epilepsy Action Australia. He had his first seizure, aged 14, during a tennis game but has successfully controlled his epilepsy with medication. he was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2012. Greig died in Sydney, New South Wales, on 29 December 2012, aged 66, from cardiac arrest due to an apparent heart attack	[66]
Buddy Bell	born 1951	A major league baseball player and manager.	[65]
Bobby Jones	born 1951	A former pro basketball player who developed epilepsy and a heart problem as an adult, but persevered with his game.	[67]
Terry Marsh	born 1958	A boxer who was IBF world light-welterweight champion. His diagnosis of epilepsy in 1987, aged 29, forced him into retirement undefeated.	[68][69]
Greg Walker	born 1959	A major league baseball player who collapsed on field with a tonic-clonic seizure. He had a further seizure in hospital that night and took anticonvulsant medication for the next two years. Walker had a childhood history of seizures until the age of 4.	[70]
Florence Griffith Joyner	1959–1998	An athlete with world records in the 100 m and 200 m. She developed seizures in her thirties, possibly due to a cavernous angioma that was discovered on autopsy. She died from asphyxiation after a grand mal seizure while asleep.	[71]
Wally Lewis	born 1959	One of Australia's greatest rugby league players, national team captain 1984-89. After retirement from the sport, he became a television sports presenter, but became disoriented during a live-to-air broadcast in late 2006. Medical tests revealed that he had epilepsy.	[72]
Paul Wade	born 1962	Former Australian national Football (soccer) player and television sports commentator. Wade had epilepsy all his life but was only diagnosed as an adult. He kept it secret until he had a seizure on live television in 2001. Drugs weren't controlling the seizures so, in 2002, he had surgery to remove a scar in his brain. He is now seizure free.	[73][74]
Marion Clignet	born 1964	A Franco-American cyclist who found that she has epilepsy at the age of 22. She was shunned by the U.S. cycling federation and subsequently rode in the colors of France. She has since won 6 world titles, 2 Olympic silver medals, as well as numerous races worldwide.	[75][76]
Maggie McEleny	born 1965	Four times British Paralympic swimmer, winning 3 gold, 5 silver and 7 bronze. McEleny has paraplegia and epilepsy. In 2000, she was made an MBE and awarded a Golden Jubilee Award by the British Epilepsy Association.	[77]
Jonty Rhodes	born 1969	A cricketer who is involved with Epilepsy South Africa.	[78]
Tom Smith	born 1971	Former Scottish international and Northampton Saints rugby player. Has had epilepsy since the age of 18. His seizures occur only at night, during sleep. He is a patron of the Scottish epilepsy charity, Enlighten.	[79][80]
Alan Faneca	born 1976	An American Football guard. The nine-time All-Pro was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 15 and takes the anticonvulsant carbamazepine, which successfully controls his seizures.	[81][82]
Samari Rolle	born 1976	A former American Football cornerback who played for the Baltimore Ravens.	[83]
Chanda Gunn	born 1980	A goalie in the US 2006 Winter Olympic women's hockey team. Gunn was diagnosed with juvenile absence epilepsy at the age of 9, which was treated with valproic acid. Epilepsy meant that she had to give up her childhood sports of swimming and surfing, but these were soon replaced with hockey.	[84]
Leon Legge	born 1985	An English professional footballer, who currently plays for Brentford as a central defender. His epilepsy is currently controlled.	[85]
Dai Greene	born 1986	A Welsh hurdler who specialises in the 400 metres hurdles event. Greene is the current European, Commonwealth and World Champion.	[86]
Ronde Barber	born 1975	A former American football player who played cornerback with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.	[87]
Tiki Barber	born 1975	A former American football player, who played running back for the New York Giants.	[87]
Jason Snelling	born 1983	An American football player with the Atlanta Falcons.	[88]
Davis Tarwater	born 1984	An Olympic Swimmer for the United States who suffered from epilepsy as a child	[89]

Art and writing

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Amy Sequenzia		Non-speaking autistic author, poet, and blogger notable for her support of disability rights and opposition to curing autism. She has seizures almost everyday.	[90]
Edward Lear	1812–1888	An artist, illustrator and writer known for his nonsensical poetry and limericks. His epilepsy, which he developed as a child, may have been inherited (his elder sister Jane had frequent seizures and died young). Lear was ashamed of his epilepsy and kept it a secret. He did, however, record each seizure in his diary.	[91]
Fyodor Dostoyevsky	1821–1881	A Russian writer whose epilepsy was probably inherited (both his father and his son had seizures). He incorporated his experiences into his novels – creating four different characters with epilepsy. Dostoyevsky's epilepsy was unusual in that he claimed to experience an ecstatic aura prior to a seizure, whereas most people experience unpleasant feelings.	[92][93]
George Inness	1825–1894	An American painter who had epilepsy from childhood.	[94]
R. D. Blackmore	1825–1900	Author of Lorna Doone.	[95]
Charles Altamont Doyle	1832–1893	Artist and father of Arthur Conan Doyle. His alcoholism and a violent outburst led him to be detained in an asylum. Whilst there, he developed epilepsy and severe memory problems.	[96]
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson	1832–1910	Norwegian writer and a 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. Developed focal epilepsy following a stroke in the final year of his life.	[97]
Ion Creangă	1837–1889	A Romanian children's writer and memoirist who had epilepsy for the last six years of his life.	[98]
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis	1839–1908	A Brazilian realist novelist, poet and short-story writer. He had epilepsy all his life, but was ashamed to mention it, using euphemisms when writing to friends. It is believed he had complex partial seizures, with secondary generalisation.	[99][100]
Dmitri Sinodi-Popov	1855–1910	A Russian artist, whose epilepsy interrupted his studies at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.	[101]
Minakata Kumagusu	1867–1941	A Japanese writer and naturalist. He had tonic-clonic seizures, with an aura that caused déjà vu. Postmortem MRI showed right hippocampal atrophy, consistent with temporal lobe epilepsy.	[102][103]
Vachel Lindsay	1879–1931	A poet who took phenobarbital for his epilepsy.	[104]
Laurie Lee	1914–1997	A poet, novelist and screenwriter, most famous for his autobiographical trilogy (which includes Cider with Rosie). His epilepsy probably developed after he was knocked down by a bicycle at the age of 10. He kept it secret and it only surfaced when his papers were read by biographers after his death.	[105]
Kyffin Williams	1918–2006	A landscape painter. His epilepsy ended his army career and may have prevented him marrying.	[106]
Max Clifford	born 1943	A publicist known for representing controversial clients. He developed epilepsy at the age of 46.	[107]
Karen Armstrong	born 1944	An author, feminist and writer on Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Her temporal lobe epilepsy went undiagnosed for many years. She wrote in her autobiography that when (in her early thirties) she was finally given the diagnosis, it was "an occasion of pure happiness".	[108][109]
Thom Jones	born 1945	Author of short stories, many of which include characters with epilepsy.	[110]
Stephen Knight	1951–1985	An author who was known for his books criticising the Freemasons. He started having seizures in 1977 and in 1980, agreed to take part in a BBC documentary TV program Horizon on epilepsy. The producers arranged for a brain scan, which showed up a tumour. This was removed but returned in 1984 and despite further surgery he died in 1985.	[111]
DeBarra Mayo	born 1953	Fitness and health author and writer.	[112]
Jago Eliot	1966–2006	Aristocrat, surfer and cyber artist. He died in his bath due to an epileptic seizure, which was recorded as a sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP).	[113][114]
Kathy Sierra	born 1957	A programming instructor and game developer who co-created the Head First series of books on computer programming. She had her first tonic-clonic seizure aged four. These were frequent and severe but greatly diminished by adulthood and were always preceded by an aura.	[115]
Joshua Kors	born 1978	An investigative reporter known for his coverage of veterans' issues. He had his first seizure in eighth grade.	[116]

Miscellaneous

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Jean Clemens	1880–1909	The youngest daughter of Mark Twain. She had epilepsy from age fifteen, which her father attributed to a childhood head injury. Her epilepsy was not successfully controlled and at one point she was sent to an epilepsy colony in Katonah, New York. She was found dead on Christmas Eve in her bath aged 29. The cause of death was reported as drowning due to epilepsy.	[117][118]
Derek Bentley	1933–1953	Hanged, aged 19, for a crime his partner committed, Bentley had epilepsy and a mental age of 11. He was pardoned after a 45-year campaign, which included the film Let Him Have It, starring Christopher Eccleston.	[119]
Emilie Dionne	1934–1954	The third of the Dionne quintuplets. Emilie's epilepsy was only made public after her death at a convent in Sainte Agathe, Quebec. She died from the complications of a series of epileptic seizures. These were recorded at noon the previous day, 11pm, 3am, and 5am, but no doctor was called until after her death. Her death from epilepsy caused alarm, leading H. Houston Merritt to inform the public that "the mortality rate among epileptics is no greater than among non-sufferers".	[120][121]
Virginia Ridley	1948–1997	A woman who had agoraphobia, hypergraphia and epilepsy. Her eccentric husband Alvin was charged with her murder but cleared after the jury accepted that she may have suffocated during a seizure. She had not been seen outside her home for 25 years.	[122]
Don Craig Wiley	1944–2001	A protein-structure biochemist. He kept his epilepsy secret, did not treat it, and died under mysterious circumstances, possibly owing to a seizure.	[123]
Barry George	born 1960	Initially convicted but later acquitted of murdering the British television presenter Jill Dando. Has epilepsy, mental health problems and is autistic.	[124]
Rick Harrison	born 1965	Co-owner of the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, Nevada and star of the History series Pawn Stars; had epilepsy when he was in his youth.	[125]
Katie Hopkins	born 1975	English reality television contestant (The Apprentice, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!) and businesswoman, who developed epilepsy as a teenager	[126]
Daniel Tammet	born 1979	An autistic savant who is a talented mnemonist and language learner. He had temporal lobe epilepsy as a child.	[127][128]
Brad Jones	born 1981	During his review of "Turkish Star Wars" The Cinema Snob mentions that he's been epileptic since 4th grade and takes Tegretol (carbamazepine).	[129]

Retrospective diagnosis

The following people were not diagnosed with epilepsy during their lifetime. A retrospective diagnosis is speculative and, as detailed below, can be wrong.

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Socrates	470–399 BC	Ancient Greek philosopher. It is speculated that his daimonion was a simple partial seizure and that he had temporal lobe epilepsy.	[130]
Julius Caesar	100–44 BC	Roman military and political leader. He had four documented episodes of what were probably complex partial seizures. He may additionally have had absence seizures in his youth. There is family history of epilepsy amongst his ancestors and descendants. The earliest accounts of these seizures were made by the biographer Suetonius who was born after Caesar's death.	[131][132][133]
Elizabeth Monroe	1768–1830	The wife of James Monroe, fifth President of the United States. Some historians believe her illness was epilepsy. She is reported to have been prone to convulsions and was once seriously burnt after falling into a fireplace.	[134]
Napoleon I of France	1769–1821	French military leader and emperor. A paper by William Osler in 1903 stated, "The slow pulse of Napoleon rests upon tradition; it has been suggested that his epilepsy and attacks of apathy may have been associated features in a chronic form of Stokes-Adams disease", which implies the seizures were not epileptic in origin. However, in 2003, John Hughes concluded that Napoleon had both psychogenic attacks due to stress and epileptic seizures due to chronic uremia from a severe urethral stricture caused by gonorrhea.	[135][136]
Harriet Tubman	1820-22 – 1913	An African-American abolitionist. Developed what was probably epilepsy as a result of a head injury.	[137]
George Gershwin	1898–1937	American composer. The first symptoms of his glioblastoma multiforme tumor were probably olfactory-uncinate simple partial seizures. He noticed the smell of burnt rubber at the same time as dizziness or, occasionally, brief blackouts. His condition deteriorated and he died six months later, despite surgery to remove the tumor.	[138]
Philip K. Dick	1928–1982	A science fiction writer. One biographer suggests temporal lobe epilepsy as a possible cause of his visions, but also regards such speculation as futile and unverifiable.	[139][140]

Religious figures

There is a long-standing notion that epilepsy and religion are linked,^[141] and many religious figures have been speculated to have had temporal lobe epilepsy. The temporal lobe generates the feeling of "I," and gives a feeling of familiarity or strangeness to the perceptions of the senses.^[142] It seems to be involved in mystical experiences,^[142][143] and in the change in personality that may result from such experiences.^[142]

Raymond Bucke's Cosmic Consciousness (1901) contains several case-studies of persons who have realized "cosmic consciousness".^[142] James Leuba's The psychology of religious mysticism noted that "among the dread diseases that afflict humanity there is only one that interests us quite particularly; that disease is epilepsy."^[144][141] Several of Bucke's cases are also being mentioned in J.E. Bryant's 1953 book, Genius and Epilepsy, which has a list of more than 20 people that combines the great and the mystical.^[145]

Slater and Beard and renewed the interest in TLE and religious experience in the 1960s.^[146] Dewhurst and Beard (1970) described six cases of TLE-patients who underwent sudden religious conversions. They placed these cases in the context of several western saints with a sudden conversion, who were or may have been epileptic. Dewhurst and Beard described several aspects of conversion experiences, and did not favor one specific mechanism.^[141]

Norman Geschwind described behavioral changes related to temporal lobe epilepsy in the 1970s and 1980s.^[147] Geschwind described cases of extreme religiosity, called the Geschwind syndrome,^[147] and aspects of the Geschwind syndrome have been identified in some religious figures, in particular extreme religiosity and hypergraphia (excessive writing).^[147] Geschwind also introduced the "interictal personality disorder," describing a cluster of specific personality characteristics which he found characteristic of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Critics note that these characteristics can be the result of any illness, and are not sufficiently descriptive for patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.^[148]

Neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick, in the 1980s and 1990s, also found a relationship between the right temporal lobe and mystical experience, but also found that pathology or brain damage is only one of many possible causal mechanisms for these experiences. He questioned the earlier accounts of religious figures with temporal lobe epilepsy, noticing that "very few true examples of the ecstatic aura and the temporal lobe siezure had been reported in the world scientific literature prior to 1980". According to Fenwick, "It is likely that the earlier accounts of temporal lobe epilepsy and temporal lobe pathology and the relation to mystic and religious states owes more to the enthusiasm of their authors than to a true scientific understanding of the natyure of temporal lobe functioning."^[149]

The occurrence of intense religious feelings in epileptic patients in general is rare,^[142] with an incident rate of ca. 2-3%. Sudden religious conversion, together with visions, has been documented in only a small number of individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy.^[20] The occurrence of religious experiences in TLE-patients may as well be explained by religious attribution, due to the background of these patients.^[146] Nevertheless, the neurological research of mystical experiences is a growing field of research, searching for specific neurological explanations of mystical experiences. Those rare epileptic patients with ecstatic seizures may provide clues for the neurological mechanisms involved in mystical experiences, such as the anterior insular cortex, which is involved in self-awareness and subjective certainty.^{[143] [150] [151]}

The presence of an entry in the following list does not indicate a scholarly consensus in favour of a diagnosis of epilepsy; merely that such a diagnosis has been suggested.

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
The Priestly source of the Pentateuch	c700 BC	According to one researcher, the writing has a pedantic and aggressive style, shows extreme religiosity, verbosity and redundant style. These are said to be evidence of Geschwind syndrome, though there is no evidence of any seizures since we have no personal information regarding the author.	[152]
Ezekiel	622BC – ?	Fainting spells, occasions of speechlessness, compulsive writing, extremely religious, pedantic speech.	[153][154]
Paul of Tarsus	3-10 – 62-68	Epilepsy is one of many suggestions regarding his "thorn in the flesh". F.F. Bruce says, "Many guesses have been made about the identity of this "splinter in the flesh"; and their very variety proves the impossibility of a certain diagnosis. One favourite guess has been epilepsy ... but it is no more than a guess". Researchers are quite divided on the cause of his Damascus conversion and vision. In addition to a seizure, heat exhaustion, the voice of conscience together with a migraine, and even a bolt of lightning have been suggested.	[20][155][156]
Saint Birgitta	1303–1373	Her skull shows evidence of a meningioma, which is a cause of epilepsy and may explain her visions. However, it is not in the temporal lobe and other researches suggest psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, or a combination.	[157][158]
Joan of Arc	1412–1431	Experienced religious messages through voices and visions which she said others could sometimes experience simultaneously. Some researchers consider the visions to be ecstatic epileptic auras, though more recent research may implicate idiopathic partial epilepsy with auditory features. Epileptic seizures with clear auditory and visual hallucinations are very rare. This, together with the extreme length of her visions, lead some to reject epilepsy as a cause.	[3][159][160]
Saint Catherine of Genoa	1447–1510	"[A]bnormal mental states" diagnosed as hysteria by Leuba; according to Dewhurst and Beard the symptoms may also suggest temporal lobe epilepsy. According to Dewhurst and Beard, Saint Catherine of Genoa, Saint Marguerite Marie and Mme Guyon "had periodic attacks which included the following symptoms: sensations of extremes of heat and cold, trembling of the whole body, transient aphasia, automatisms, passivity feelings, hyperaesthesiae, childish regression, dissociation , somnambulism, transient paresis, increased suggestibility, and an inability to open the eyes."[20]	[144][20]
Saint Teresa of Ávila	1515–1582	Visions, chronic headaches, transient loss of consciousness and also a four-day coma.	[20][161]
Saint Catherine of Ricci	1522–1590	Visual hallucinations. Loss of consciousness for 28 hours.	[20]
Saint Marguerite Marie	1647–1690	"[A]bnormal mental states" diagnosed as hysteria by Leuba; according to Dewhurst and Beard the symptoms may also suggest temporal lobe epilepsy. According to Dewhurst and Beard, Saint Catherine of Genoa, Saint Marguerite Marie and Mme Guyon "had periodic attacks which included the following symptoms: sensations of extremes of heat and cold, trembling of the whole body, transient aphasia, automatisms, passivity feelings, hyperaesthesiae, childish regression, dissociation , somnambulism, transient paresis, increased suggestibility, and an inability to open the eyes."[20]	[144][20]
Mme Guyon	1648–1717	"[A]bnormal mental states" diagnosed as hysteria by Leuba; according to Dewhurst and Beard the symptoms may also suggest temporal lobe epilepsy. According to Dewhurst and Beard, Saint Catherine of Genoa, Saint Marguerite Marie and Mme Guyon "had periodic attacks which included the following symptoms: sensations of extremes of heat and cold, trembling of the whole body, transient aphasia, automatisms, passivity feelings, hyperaesthesiae, childish regression, dissociation , somnambulism, transient paresis, increased suggestibility, and an inability to open the eyes."[20]	[144][20]
Emanuel Swedenborg	1688–1772	Swedish scientist, philosopher, seer, and theologian.	[162]
Joseph Smith	1805–1844	Seized with a strange power, rendered speechless, and fell on his back. Visions of darkness and light.	[20]
Ellen G. White	1827–1915	Severe head injury followed by three weeks of limited consciousness. Her visions involved loss of consciousness, upward eye deflection, visual hallucinations, affective changes, gestural automatisms, preservation of speech, a post-ictal-like period. Further, she meets several criteria for the Geschwind syndrome: extreme religiosity, hypergraphia (100,000 pages in 4,000 articles), repetitiveness, hypermoralism, and hyposexuality.	[163][164][165]
Ramakrishna	1836-1886	Bengali mystic, highly influential in the development of Hindu Universalism and Neo-Vedanta, through his disciple Swami Vivekananda, who took religious experience to be a valid means of knowledge. From the age of six onwards, he had ecstatic trances.[166][167] From his 10th or 11th year on, the trances became common, and by the final years of his life, Ramakrishna's samādhi periods occurred almost daily.[167] Early on, these experiences have been interpreted as epileptic seizures,[168][169][170][171] an interpretation which was rejected by Ramakrishna himself.[170]	[168][169][166][167]
Saint Thérèse de Lisieux	1873–1897	Seized with "strange and violent tremblings all over her body". Visual hallucinations and celestial visions.	[20]
Ramana Maharshi	1879-1950	At age 16, Ramana was seized by a sudden fear of death. He was struck by "a flash of excitement" or "heat," which he characterized as some avesam, a "spirit," "current" or "force" that seemed to possess him. After this event, he lost his interest in the usual life-routines, and immersed himself in emotional worship of Shiva and of Tamil saints. He left home, to live at the holy mountain Arunachala for the rest of his life, where he was worshipped as an avatar, due to his prolonged trance. In 1912, a major fit took place, accompanied with various sensations as a "white shield" over part of his vision, and "swimming in the head," and in which he lost consciousness. Ramana later stated that these fits appeared occasionally.	[172][173][174]
Pio of Pietrelcina	1887-1968	Had visions at an early age about God, Jesus and the Virgin Mary.	[20]
Jiddu Krishnamurti	1895-1986	Spiritual teacher, raised by Theosophians to become 'the world teacher.' In his 20s, he underwent an episode of severe pain in the neck accompanied by mystical experiences. Throughout his life "the process" occurred, accompanied by the presence of "the otherness." Sloss, daughter of Krishnamurti's long-term mistress, considered the process to be a purely physical event centred on sickness or trauma, and suggested the possibility of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.	[175]

Misdiagnosis

Many famous people are incorrectly recorded as having epilepsy. In some cases there is no evidence at all for a diagnosis of epilepsy. In others, the symptoms have been misinterpreted. In some, the seizures were provoked by acute illness or alcohol withdrawal, for example.^[4][176]

No evidence

The following people are often reported to have had epilepsy but there is no evidence that they had any attacks or illnesses that even resembled epilepsy.

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Cambyses II	?–521 BC	Herodotus, writing eighty years after the king's death, is responsible for repeating what are now regarded as slanderous remarks that Cambyses was mad and had epilepsy.	[177][178]
Pythagoras	582–507 BC		[3]
Aristotle	384–322 BC		[3]
Hannibal	247–183 BC	Carthaginian military leader.	[3]
Hermann von Helmholtz	1821–1894		[3]
Agatha Christie	1890–1976		[3]

Misdiagnosis by association

Many individuals have been mistakenly recorded as having epilepsy due to an association with someone (real or fictional) who did have epilepsy, or something similar.

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Dante Alighieri	1265–1321	In his fictional La Divina Commedia, he falls into a "dead faint".	[3]
Isaac Newton	1643–1727	In 2000, a paper was published comparing Newton's psychosis with that of a patient with psychosis, who additionally happened to have generalised tonic-clonic seizures. It is possible that ambiguities in the introduction to this paper led readers to associate the epilepsy with Newton rather than the patient.	[3][179]
Ludwig van Beethoven	1770–1827	His acquaintance Antonie Brentano had a son, Karl Joseph, who had epilepsy.	[3]
Alfred Tennyson	1809–1892	Close family had epilepsy and mental illness, which led Tennyson to fear this in himself.	[3]
William Morris	1834–1896	His daughter, May, had epilepsy and this caused Morris to question if his temper rages were related to this.	[3]
Patrick Dempsey	born 1966	Played a boy with epilepsy in the 1986 Disney TV Movie "A Fighting Choice". He won an award from the Epilepsy Foundation for his convincing portrayal.	[180]

Provoked seizures

The following people may have had one or more epileptic seizures but since the seizures were provoked, they do not result in a diagnosis of epilepsy:

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Edgar Allan Poe	1809–1849	Poe abused drugs and alcohol. If he had any seizures, they were most likely due to alcohol withdrawal. One author has suggested Poe may have had complex partial seizures.	[3][181]
Leo Tolstoy	1828–1910	"Fits of spleen" and anguish attacks. Had seizures while dying of pneumonia.	[3]
Algernon Charles Swinburne	1837–1909	Alcohol withdrawal attacks.	[3]
Lewis Carroll	1832–1898	Migraine and a possible seizure that was probably due to the effects of drug withdrawal.	[3]
Alfred Nobel	1833–1896	Febrile seizures in infancy.	[3]
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky	1840–1893	Seizures in the hours before death. Possible family history of epilepsy.	[3]
Franklin D. Roosevelt	1882–1945	Thought to have complex partial seizures attributable to cerebrovascular disease.	[182]
Truman Capote	1924–1984	Alcohol withdrawal seizures.	[3]
Richard Burton	1925–1984	Alcohol withdrawal seizures.	[3]

Similar conditions

There are many conditions that produce paroxysmal attacks or events. These events (especially in historical, non-medical literature such as biographies) are often called fits, seizures or convulsions. Those terms are not exclusive to epilepsy and such events are sometimes categorised as non-epileptic seizures. When studied in detail, the attacks were more fully described as "fits of spleen", "seized by pain", "convulsed with anguish", etc.

Name	Life	Comments	Reference
Alexander the Great	356–323 BC	Collapsed after taking strong medicine for pneumonia.	[183]
Charles the Fat	c.839–888	Commonly regarded as a sickly king, with epilepsy, who had a "fit" in Frankfurt in 873. One author's recent detailed investigations cast doubt on the accuracy of certain reports, or their common interpretation. Instead, headache, malaria and a stroke are suggested.	[184][185]
Alfred the Great	849–899	Acute pain.	[3]
Leonardo da Vinci	1452–1519	Nervous shaking and spasms when furious.	[3]
Michelangelo	1475–1564	A faint due to working in very hot weather.	[3]
Martin Luther	1483–1546	In John Osborne's play Luther, his visions are the result of epileptic seizures. Luther had many documented illnesses, but any recurrent attacks were probably due to Ménière’s disease.	[186][187]
Cardinal Richelieu	1585–1642	Bouts of tears.	[3]
Louis XIII of France	1601–1643	Episodes of violence, moodiness and fearfulness.	[3]
Molière	1622–1673	A coughing fit.	[3]
Blaise Pascal	1623–1662	Breath-holding spells as a child.	[3]
William III of England	1650–1702	Fainting and coughing fits.	[3]
Jonathan Swift	1667–1745	Severe fits of giddiness due to Ménière’s disease.	[3]
George Frideric Handel	1685–1759	A stroke.	[3]
William Pitt the Elder	1708–1778	Attacks of gout.	[3]
Samuel Johnson	1709–1784	Tourette syndrome.	[3]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau	1712–1778	Dizzy fits and agitation.	[3]
James Madison	1751–1836	Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures.	[3]
Walter Scott	1771–1832	Seizures of cramp due to kidney stones and, later, a stroke.	[3]
Niccolò Paganini	1784–1840	Repeated collapsing due to weakness.	[3]
Lord Byron	1788–1824	Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures.	[3]
Percy Bysshe Shelley	1792–1822	Fits of pain and nervous attacks.	[3]
Hector Berlioz	1803–1869	"Fits of spleen".	[3]
Robert Schumann	1810–1856	Depression and hallucinations.	[3]
Charles Dickens	1812–1870	Renal colic.	[3]
Søren Kierkegaard	1813–1855	Collapsing due to weakness.	[3]
Gustave Flaubert	1821–1880	In 1984, Henri Gastaut proposed a very specific retrospective diagnosis of a particular form of complex partial epilepsy. More recent biographical information led John Hughes, in 2005, to conclude that Flaubert had psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, and migraine.	[3][188]
Guy de Maupassant	1850–1893	Mental illness and hallucinations caused by inhaling ether.	[3][189]
Vincent van Gogh	1853–1890	Over 150 physicians have produced nearly 30 different diagnoses for van Gogh's illness. Henri Gastaut's posthumous diagnosis was "temporal lobe epilepsy precipitated by the use of absinthe in the presence of an early limbic lesion". This agrees with that of van Gogh's own doctor, Felix Rey, who prescribed potassium bromide. That van Gogh's personality closely matches the Geschwind syndrome is seen as further evidence by some. Not everyone agrees – a recent review by John Hughes concluded that van Gogh did not have epilepsy. He certainly was mentally ill at times and had "fainting fits" after heavy drinking.	[190][191]
Graham Greene	1904–1991	Greene was diagnosed with epilepsy as a young man, after several episodes of loss of consciousness. His impending marriage was at risk and he considered suicide. Treatment consisted of good walks and Kepler's Malt Extract. Greene eventually distrusted the diagnosis and it is now considered likely that the episodes were fainting spells.	[192]
John Berryman	1914–1972	Diagnosed with petit mal epilepsy, now reckoned to have been nervous exhaustion. Berryman suffered from depression and alcoholism.	[193][194]

Notes and references

1. Jean Taxil (1602). "Traicté de l'Epilepsie". Retrieved 22 August 2009.
2. Owsei Temkin (1994). The Falling Sickness : A History of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Beginnings of Modern Neurology (Softshell Books). The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 161. ISBN 0-8018-4849-0.
3. Hughes JR (2005). "Did all those famous people really have epilepsy?". Epilepsy & Behavior 6 (2): 115–39. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2004.11.011. PMID 15710295.
4. Jenna Martin. "Rewriting History: Did All Those Famous People Really Have Epilepsy?". Epilepsy.com. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
5. Tom Raymond. "Bud Abbott Biography". Abbott and Costello - Who's on First. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
6. Randy W Roberts (1 October 1997). John Wayne: American. University of Nebraska Press. p. 232. ISBN 0-8032-8970-7. Ward Bond, an epileptic 4-F, remained in the Hollywood
7. "Famous Star of the Big Screen steps out from the Shadows". International Bureau for Epilepsy. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
8. Hara Estroff Marano (1996). "What killed Margaux Hemingway?". Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
9. "Encephalitis Information Resource News".
10. Barber, Lynn (17 December 2000). "Forever young". Observer. Retrieved 8 February 2006.
11. Anna Spencer and Linda Ray (writers) (1995). Portraits: People with Epilepsy (Video). Australia: Epilepsy Queensland Inc.
12. (writer) (2004). Portraits: Epileptic pep talk (Video). USA: Home & Garden Publications. External link in |publisher= (help)
13. Lascaratos J, Zis P (2000). "The epilepsy of Emperor Michael IV, Paphlagon (1034-1041 A.D.): accounts of Byzantine historians and physicians." (PDF). Epilepsia 41 (7): 913–7. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1157.2000.tb00264.x. PMID 10897168.
14. Fridericia, J[ulius]. A[lbert]. (1892). Gyldenløve, Hans Ulrik, Dansk biografisk Lexikon, Bind VI: Gerson - H. Hansen. Gyldendal Boghandels. pp. 339–340.
15. Bredsdorff, Asta (2009). The Trials and Travels of Willem Leyel: An Account of the Danish East India Company in Tranquebar, 1639–48. Museum Tusculanum Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-87-635-3023-1.
16. Greenblatt, Miriam (2000). Rulers and Their Times: Peter the Great and Tsarist Russia. Benchmark Books. p. 80. ISBN 0-7614-0914-9.
17. Terry H Jones. "Pius IX". Patron Saints Index. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
18. Chadwick, Owen (March 2003). A History of the Popes 1830-1914. Oxford University Press. p. 113. ISBN 0-19-926286-1.
19. "Pope Pius IX". L'Osservatore Romano. 2000. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
20. Dewhurst K, Beard A (2003). "Sudden religious conversions in temporal lobe epilepsy. 1970." (PDF). Epilepsy & Behaviour 4 (1): 78–87. doi:10.1016/S1525-5050(02)00688-1. PMID 12609232.
21. Anne Adams. "Ida Saxton McKinley". History's Women: The Unsung Heroines. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
22. Lerner V, Finkelstein Y, Witztum E (2004). "The enigma of Lenin's (1870–1924) malady.". Eur J Neurol 11 (6): 371–6. doi:10.1111/j.1468-1331.2004.00839.x. PMID 15171732.
23. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (translation by James Loeb). "The Life of Gaius (Caligula)". The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
24. Watson, James D. (April 2004). "Chapter One: Beginnings of Genetics: From Mendel to Hitler". DNA: The Secret of Life. Arrow. ISBN 0-09-945184-0.
25. Pfeiffer, David (1994). "Eugenics and Disability Discrimination". Disability & Society 9 (4): 481–499. doi:10.1080/09687599466780471.
26. John Van der Kiste (1996). Northern crowns: the kings of modern Scandinavia. Sutton Pub. p. 52. ISBN 0-7509-1812-8.
27. Stephen Poliakoff (writer, director) (2005). The Lost Prince (TV-Drama). UK: BBC.
28. Lionel Blue. "Donation Appeal". fundraisingdinner.com (Epilepsy Research Foundation). Retrieved 10 February 2006.
29. "Celebrity Health - Rabbi Lionel Blue". BBC News. 10 September 2006. Retrieved 21 November 2006.
30. "Longaberger: Our History". The Longaberger Company. 2007. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
31. "Joe Doyle - epilepsy loses a true advocate". Retrieved 2012-06-30.
32. Natalie Frazin. "White House-Initiated Conference on Epilepsy". National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Retrieved 7 February 2006.
33. "Congress Alerted to Critical Issues in Women's Health". Epilepsy Foundation. Retrieved 7 February 2006.
34. "This Miserable Little Case". Time Magazine. 1 February 1971. Retrieved 5 September 2006.
35. "Milestones". Time Magazine. 7 January 1980. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2006.
36. McMahon, B.T.; L.R. Shaw (September 1999). "Chapter Six: Tony Coelho". Enabling Lives: Biographies of Six Prominent Americans with Disabilities. CRC Press. ISBN 0-8493-0351-6. neurologist, Dr. John Doyle, Sr., explained to Tony that he had epilepsy, a recurrent seizure disorder. He stated that, "The good news is that you don't have to serve in Vietnam, but the bad news is that you won't be able to become a Catholic priest — more specifically, a Jesuit." A section of the Roman Catholic Church's 1917 Code of Canon Law stated that those with epilepsy, or "possessed by the devil," could not be considered for ordination. […rescinded in the early 1980s]
37. John Roberts
38. UK Parliament. "Official record of debate in Westminster Hall, 12 October 2010". Retrieved 13 October 2010.
39. Paul Maynard. "Paul Maynard's biography". Website of Paul Maynard MP. Retrieved 11 July 2010.
40. Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, ed. (1 April 2003). http://www.bluesharp.ca/legends/jreed.html |chapterurl= missing title (help). All Music Guide to the Blues. Backbeat Books. p. 464. ISBN 0-87930-736-6.
41. "Jimmy Reed: performer". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. 2005. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
42. Young, Scott (30 July 1997). "Chapter 8: Buffalo Springfield and Epilepsy". Neil and Me. Music Sales Distributed. p. 68. ISBN 0-9529540-2-8. he went on daily medication to control his epilepsy – and grew to dislike the medication's effect on him so much that a few years later he stopped using, feeling that in his case control had more to do with personal stability than medication.
43. Gundersen, Edna (10 May 2013). "Lil Wayne can't recall seizures: 'I don't feel sick'". USA Today. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
44. kaufman, Gil (1 May 2013). "Lil Wayne Hospitalized Again For Seizures". MTV. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
45. McLane, Daisann (1980). "Five Not So Easy Pieces". Rolling Stone (310). Archived from the original on 2008-01-16.
46. Brunning, Bob (January 2004). The Fleetwood Mac Story: Rumours and Lies. Omnibus Press. p. 139. ISBN 1-84449-011-4.
47. Dix, John (1988). Stranded in Paradise: New Zealand Rock'n'Roll 1955-1988. Paradise Publications. ISBN 0-473-00638-3.
48. "Biography". Ian Curtis and Joy Division Fan Club. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
49. Close, Ajay (31 July 2004). "Richard Jobson: Pop star, poet, poseur - and, at last, auteur". The Independent. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
50. Iley, Chrissy (10 December 2011). "Of course I've been kissed! Susan Boyle’s most revealing interview yet". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
51. Wilde, Jon (13 May 2006). "Festival Queen Edith Bowman gets down and dirty". The Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
52. "Electricity". Radio New Zealand interview, 1998. Archived from the original on 2009-10-22. Retrieved 11 January 2007.
53. Daniel Brown (October 2005). "Vusi Mahlasela". Mondomix Portraits. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
54. Cameron, Lindsley (12 June 1998). The Music Of Light: The Extraordinary Story of Hikari and Kenzaburo Oe. Free Press. ISBN 0-684-82409-4.
55. "Making my mind up". NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent. May 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
56. "Interview with Adam Horovitz". Details Magazine. June 1994.
57. "Interview with Adam Horovitz". Spin Magazine. 1994.
58. Thompson, Ben (25 April 2004). "Dead cert". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
59. Montgomery, James (10 November 2004). "Despite Everything They Said, Thursday Aren't Breaking Up". VH1 Music News. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
60. Harris, Chris (27 September 2005). "Thursday Frontman Says He Doesn't Want To Exploit My Chemical Romance, But ...". MTV News. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
61. "Prince reveals childhood epilepsy". BBC News Entertainment. 29 April 2009. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
62. "Lauren Pritchard on Spring Awakening and Living With the Presleys". 2011. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
63. Swaine, Rick (March 2004). "Chapter five: Neurological and Psychological Disorders". Beating the Breaks: Major League Ballplayers Who Overcame Disabilities. McFarland & Company. pp. 159–167. ISBN 0-7864-1828-1.
64. Swaine, Rick (March 2004). "Chapter five: Neurological and Psychological Disorders". Beating the Breaks: Major League Ballplayers Who Overcame Disabilities. McFarland & Company. pp. 168–169. ISBN 0-7864-1828-1.
65. Swaine, Rick (March 2004). "Chapter six: Other Disabilities". Beating the Breaks: Major League Ballplayers Who Overcame Disabilities. McFarland & Company. p. 203. ISBN 0-7864-1828-1.
66. "Our Board". Epilepsy Action (Australia). Retrieved 2 February 2006.
67. David Friedman (2005). "The ultimate team player". Hoops Hype. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
68. Berger, Phil (October 7, 1987). "Boxing Notebook; Marsh Finds Profitable Life Out of Ring". New York Times. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
69. Marsh, Terry (September 2005). Undefeated. Terry Marsh Publishing. ISBN 0-9549999-0-8.
70. "Walker Suffers Second Seizure". The New York Times. Associated Press. 1 August 1988. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
71. Anderson, Kristina Rebelo (4 December 1998). "The Uneasy Death of Florence Griffith Joyner". Salon.com. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
72. not given (1 December 2006). "Wally Lewis reveals he has epilepsy". The Age. Retrieved 11 January 2007.
73. Matthew Hall (22 September 2002). "Wade ready to kick on again". The Age. Retrieved 12 August 2006.
74. "Coaching With Surgical Precision". Australian Headlines (National Epilepsy Magazine). Epilepsy Action (Australia). 2004. Archived from the original on 2006-08-29. Retrieved 12 August 2006.
75. James Raia (2007). "Marion Clignet: The Life & Times Of An Epileptic Cycling Champion". Retrieved 20 November 2008.
76. "Marion Clignet's Back". Retrieved 20 November 2008.
77. Doug Gillon (2004). "The Journey to Athens" (PDF). Scottish Institute of Sport. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
78. ""Epilepsy is not disabling", says Jonty" (PDF). Epilepsy South Africa, National Newsleter. 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
79. "Survey Reveals Impact Of Epilepsy On Men". Epilepsy Action. 2005. Retrieved 4 September 2007.
80. David Ferguson (24 October 2000). "Smith tries to put illness in perspective". The Scotsman. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
81. "Epilepsy Foundation Salutes Steelers' Alan Faneca on Super Bowl Sunday". Epilepsy Foundation. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
82. Adam Modzelesky. "Not Faster than a Speeding Bullet, but More Powerful than a Locomotive, this Man of Steel is an Inspiration for Everyone". Epilepsy USA. Retrieved 15 January 2006.
83. "Ravens Cornerback Rolle Reveals He Has Epilepsy". ESPN.com. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
84. Peggy Peck (2006). "Epilepsy can't stop U.S. Olympic goalie". MedPageToday.com (CNN.com). Retrieved 16 February 2006.
85. Johnson, Simon (9 December 2010). "Epilepsy has not stopped Leon Legge achieving his". Evening Standard. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
86. Malone, Sam (8 September 2011). "Gold medal hero Dai Greene: Athletics freed me from my battle with epilepsy". Western Mail. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
87. "Tiki Barber: Epilepsy in the Family". 13 December 2007. Retrieved 19 February 2012. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
88. "Shedding Light On Epilepsy". 19 February 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2013. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
89. John Adams (July 7, 2012). "More than a stroke of luck: Richmond Flowers can appreciate Davis Tarwater's success". Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
90. "An Interview With Amy Sequenzia, a Non-Speaking Autistic Writer and Poet". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-09-03.
91. "Edward Lear". Charge - The experience of Epilepsy. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
92. "Fyodor Dostoevsky". Charge - The experience of Epilepsy. Retrieved 2 February 2006.
93. Hughes JR (2005). "The idiosyncratic aspects of the epilepsy of Fyodor Dostoevsky". Epilepsy & Behavior 7 (3): 531–8. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2005.07.021. PMID 16194626.
94. Stanley L. Klos (2001). "George Inness". Virtualology.com. Retrieved 14 August 2006.
95. Dunn, Waldo Hilary (1956). R. D. Blackmore: The Author of Lorna Doone, a Biography. R. Hale. pp. 19,74,253.
96. Beveridge, Allan (2006). "What became of Arthur Conan Doyle’s father? The last years of Charles Altamont Doyle." (PDF). Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 36 (3): 264–270. PMID 17214131. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
97. Aarli J (1995). "[Medical treatment abroad. Why Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson died in Paris 1910]". Tidsskr nor Laegeforen 115 (30): 3740–4. PMID 8539743.
98. "Ion Creangă". National Institute For Research & Development In Informatics. Archived from the original on 25 October 2006. Retrieved 28 November 2006.
99. Guerreiro C (1992). "Machado de Assis's epilepsy.". Arquivos de Neuropsiquiatria 50 (3): 378–82. doi:10.1590/s0004-282x1992000300020. PMID 1308419.
100. Chapman A, Chapman-Santana M (2000). "Machado de Assis's own writings about his epilepsy: a brief clinical note." (PDF). Arquivos de Neuropsiquiatria 58 (4): 1153–4. doi:10.1590/s0004-282x2000000600029. PMID 11105089.
101. "Dmitri Sinodi-Popov". Official Website of the City of Taganrog. Retrieved 21 November 2006.
102. Murai T, Hanakawa T, Sengoku A, Ban T, Yoneda Y, Fujita H, Fujita N (1998). "Temporal lobe epilepsy in a genius of natural history: MRI volumetric study of postmortem brain.". Neurology 50 (5): 1373–6. doi:10.1212/wnl.50.5.1373. PMID 9595989.
103. Sengoku A (2006). "[Kumagusu Minakata with temporal lobe epilepsy: a pathographic study]". Seishin Shinkeigaku Zasshi 108 (2): 132–9. PMID 16562514.
104. Wheelock, John Hall (May 2002). The Last Romantic: A Poet Among Publishers: The Oral Autobiography of John Hall Wheelock. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 97. ISBN 1-57003-463-X.
105. Knight, John (2000). "Laurie Lee: Myth And Reality - Book Review". Contemporary Review (June 2000).
106. Evans, Rian (4 September 2006). "Obituary: Sir Kyffin Williams". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
107. "What would they do now? - Max Clifford on how today's monarchy might handle Prince John". BBC Worldwide Press Releases. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
108. Armstrong, Karen (20 May 2005). "I'm no freak, so don't treat me like one". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
109. Armstrong, Karen (January 2005). The Spiral Staircase. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-00-712229-2.
110. Natalie Angier (12 October 1993). "In the Temporal Lobes, Seizures and Creativity". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
111. Whittington-Egan, Richard (June 2002). "Stephen Knight". Ripperologist 41. Retrieved 24 November 2006.
112. "Out of the Shadows". Fayetteville Observer. 29 November 1999.
113. Heathcote Williams (1 May 2006). "Obituary: Jago Eliot". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
114. "Aristocrat widow tells how she found cocaine peer dead in the bath". Daily Mail. 23 August 2006. Retrieved 20 November 2006.
115. Sierra, Kathy (11 April 2005). "Who's in charge - you or your brain?". Creating Passionate Users. Retrieved 21 November 2006.
116. Kors, Joshua (May 2003). "The Talking Treatment: Looking at a New Approach to Epilepsy".
117. "Miss Jean Clemens Found Dead in Bath". The New York Times. 24 December 1909. Retrieved 21 November 2006.
118. Trombley, Laura Skandera. "‘She Wanted to Kill’: Jean Clemens and Postictal Psychosis". Pitzer College. Retrieved 21 November 2006.
119. Chris Taylor (31 July 1998). "Peace at Last for the Hanged Man". Time Magazine. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
120. United Press (7 August 1954). "Frailest Of 5 Dionnes Found Dead In Convent". Statesville Record & Landmark. Read via NewspaperArchive.com
121. (unknown) (9 August 1954). "Emilie Dionne Laid To Rest Amid Bitter Sobs Of Surviving Quintuplets". The Newport Daily News. Read via NewspaperArchive.com
122. Warner, Jack (16 January 1999). "The Village Eccentric on Trial". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on 17 May 2006. Retrieved 21 November 2006.
123. Jordan, Thomas (15 January 2002). "Scientist Don Wiley May Have Had Seizure". The Commercial Appeal.
124. Nick Hopkins; Steven Morris (2 July 2001). "Life and times of Barry George". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
125. Harrison, Rick (2011). License to Pawn: Deals, Steals, and My Life at the Gold & Silver . Hyperion. 2011. New York. ISBN 978-1-4013-2430-8
126. Vicki Grimshaw (9 May 2009). "Apprentice star Katie Hopkins: Why I kept Sandhurst in the dark about my epilepsy". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
127. Daniel Tammet. "Charity". Optimnem (official web site of Daniel Tammet). Retrieved 28 November 2006.
128. Richard Johnson (12 February 2005). "A genius explains". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
129. "Cinema Snob review of 'Turkish Star Wars'". Retrieved 4 August 2014.
130. Muramoto O, Englert W (2006). "Socrates and temporal lobe epilepsy: a pathographic diagnosis 2,400 years later.". Epilepsia 47 (3): 652–4. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2006.00481.x. PMID 16529635.
131. Hughes J (2004). "Dictator Perpetuus: Julius Caesar--did he have seizures? If so, what was the etiology?". Epilepsy Behav 5 (5): 756–64. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2004.05.006. PMID 15380131.
132. Gomez J, Kotler J, Long J (1995). "Was Julius Caesar's epilepsy due to a brain tumor?". The Journal of the Florida Medical Association 82 (3): 199–201. PMID 7738524.
133. H. Schneble (1 January 2003). "Gaius Julius Caesar". German Epilepsy Museum. Retrieved 10 August 2006.
134. Adams, Anne. "Elizabeth Monroe: Elegance in the White House". History's Women. Retrieved 1 September 2006.
135. Osler W (1903). "On the so-called Stokes-Adams disease (slow pulse with syncopal attacks, &c.)". The Lancet 2 (4173): 516–524. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(00)66180-9.
136. Hughes J (2003). "Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte: did he have seizures? Psychogenic or epileptic or both?". Epilepsy Behav 4 (6): 793–6. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2003.09.005. PMID 14698723.
137. Kate Clifford Larson (2004). Bound for the promised land: Harriet Tubman, portrait of an American hero. Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-45628-9.
138. Teive H, Germiniani F, Cardoso A, de Paola L, Werneck L (2002). "The uncinated crisis of George Gershwin.". Arq Neuropsiquiatr 60 (2-B): 505–8. doi:10.1590/S0004-282X2002000300033. PMID 12131961.
139. Sutin, Lawrence (9 August 2005) [1989]. Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick. Carroll & Graf. pp. 231–232. ISBN 0-7867-1623-1.
140. Sutin, Lawrence (1989). "Confessions of a Philip K. Dick Biographer". The Palm Tree Garden of Philip K. Dick. Willis E. Howard. Archived from the original on 6 November 2006. Retrieved 24 November 2006.
141. Devinsky, O. (2003), "Religious experiences and epilepsy", Epilepsy & Behavior 4 (2003) 76–77
142. Peter Fenwick (1980). "The Neurophysiology of the Brain: Its Relationship to Altered States of Consciousness (With emphasis on the Mystical Experience)". Wrekin Trust. Retrieved 21 August 2006.
143. Picard, Fabienne (2013), "State of belief, subjective certainty and bliss as a product of cortical dysfuntion", Cortex 49 (2013) 2494-2500
144. Leuba, J.H. (1925), The psychology of religious mysticism, Harcourt, Brace
145. Bryant, Ernest J. (1953). Genius and Epilepsy. Brief sketches of Great Men Who Had Both. Concord, Massachusetts: Ye Old Depot Press.
146. Craig Aaen-Stockdale, Neuroscience for the soul, The Psychologist
147. Drvinsky, Julie; Schachter, Steven (2009), "Norman Geschwind's contribution to the understanding of behavioral changes in temporal lobe epilepsy: The February 1974 lecture", Epilepsy & Behavior 15 (2009) 417-424
148. William Barr (22 September 2003). "Is there an epileptic personality?". Retrieved 23 August 2009.
149. Peter Fenwick (7 January 1994). "Untitled". 4th International Science Symposium on Science and Consciousness. Retrieved 15 August 2006.
150. Picard, Fabienne; Kurth, Florian (2014), "Ictal alterations of consciousness during ecstatic seizures", Epilepsy & Behavior 30 (2014) 58-61
151. Gschwind, Markus; Picard, Fabienne (2014), "Ecstatic Epileptic Seizures - the Role of the Insual in Altered Self-Awareness", Epileptologie 2014; 31
152. Altschuler E (2004). "Temporal lobe epilepsy in the priestly source of the Pentateuch." (PDF). South African Medical Journal 94 (11): 870. PMID 15587438.
153. Altschuler E (2002). "Did Ezekiel have temporal lobe epilepsy?". Archives of General Psychiatry 59 (6): 561–2. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.59.6.561. PMID 12044200.
154. Motluk, Alison (17 November 2001). "Old Testament prophet showed epileptic symptoms". New Scientist. Retrieved 21 July 2006.
155. Frederick Fyvie Bruce (2000). Paul Apostle of the Heart Set Free. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8028-4778-1.
156. Bullock J (1994). "Was Saint Paul struck blind and converted by lightning?". Survey of Ophthalmology 39 (2): 151–60. doi:10.1016/0039-6257(94)90161-9. PMID 7801224.
157. Landtblom A (2004). "Did St Birgitta suffer from epilepsy? A neuropathography.". Seizure 13 (3): 161–7. doi:10.1016/S1059-1311(03)00160-2. PMID 15010053.
158. Anne-Marie Landtblom (2001). "Was St. Birgitta suffering from epilepsy?" (PDF). Epigraph. International League Against Epilepsy. Retrieved 21 August 2006.
159. Foote-Smith E, Bayne L (1991). "Joan of Arc.". Epilepsia 32 (6): 810–5. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1157.1991.tb05537.x. PMID 1743152.
160. d'Orsi G, Tinuper P (2006). ""I heard voices...": From semiology, a historical review, and a new hypothesis on the presumed epilepsy of Joan of Arc.". Epilepsy & Behavior 9 (1): 152–7. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2006.04.020. PMID 16750938.
161. Garcia Albea E (2003). "[The ecstatic epilepsy of Teresa of Jesus]". Revista de Neurologia 37 (9): 879–87. PMID 14606057.
162. Foote-Smith E, Smith T (1996). "Emanuel Swedenborg.". Epilepsia 37 (2): 211–8. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1157.1996.tb00014.x. PMID 8635433.
163. Delbert H. Hodder, Gregory Holmes. "Ellen G. White and the Seventh-day Adventist Church: Visions or Partial-Complex Seizures?". Abstract of presentation at the American Academy of Neurology. The Ellen White Research Project. Archived from the original on 17 June 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2006. Note: This web site may not be considered a neutral source.
164. Molleurus Couperus (June 1985). "The Significance of Ellen White's Head Injury". Adventist Currents. The Ellen White Research Project. Archived from the original on 27 June 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2006. Note: This web site may not be considered a neutral source.
165. Visions or Seizures: Was Ellen White the Victim of Epilepsy? by Donald I. Peterson, MD
166. Zaleski 2006, pp. 162–163.
167. Bhawuk 2003.
168. Bardwell L. Smith (1982), Hinduism: New Essays in the History of Religions, BRILL, p.70
169. Vivekananda (Swami), Advaita Ashrama, Prabuddha Bharata: Or Awakened India, Volume 110, p.482
170. Swami Adiswarananda (2005), The Spiritual Quest and the Way of Yoga: The Goal, the Journey and the Milestones p.65
171. Katrak 2006.
172. David godman (7 may 2008), Bhagavan's death experience, The Mountain Path, 1981, pp. 67–69
173. Narasimha Swami (1993), Self Realisation: The Life and Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramanasraman
174. G.K. Pillai (2015), Monks are from Meditating Monkeys: Unravelling the Algorithm of True Spiritual Awakening, chapter six
175. Sloss, Radha Rajagopal (1991). Lives in the Shadow with J. Krishnamurti (1st ed.). London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7475-0720-8.
176. JW Sander, MC Walker and JE Smalls (2007). "Fits, faints and funny turns – the differential diagnosis of epilepsy" (PDF). Epilepsy 2007: From Cell to Community, A Practical Guide to Epilepsy. 11th ed (2007). International League Against Epilepsy (UK Chapter) and The National Society for Epilepsy. pp. 151–154. Retrieved 29 October 2008.
177. A. D. Godley (English Translation), ed. (1920). "Book 3, Chapter 33". Herodotus, The Histories. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-99133-8. Retrieved 3 September 2006. he is said to have been afflicted from his birth with that grievous disease which some call "sacred." (Epilepsy)
178. York G, Steinberg D (2001). "The sacred disease of Cambyses II.". Archives of Neurology 58 (10): 1702–4. doi:10.1001/archneur.58.10.1702. PMID 11594937.
179. Jeste D, Harless K, Palmer B (2000). "Chronic late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis that remitted: revisiting Newton's psychosis?". Am J Psychiatry 157 (3): 444–9. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.157.3.444. PMID 10698822.
180. "Patrick Dempsey Biography". TV.com. CNET. 2006. Retrieved 13 August 2006.
181. Bazil C (1999). "Seizures in the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe.". Archives of Neurology 56 (6): 740–3. doi:10.1001/archneur.56.6.740. PMID 10369317.
182. Lomazow S (2011). "The epilepsy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.". Neurology 76 (7): 668–9. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e31820c30e3.
183. Hughes J (2004). "Alexander of Macedon, the greatest warrior of all times: did he have seizures?". Epilepsy & Behavior 5 (5): 765–7. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2004.06.002. PMID 15380132.
184. Schutz, Herbert (1 January 2004). The Carolingians in Central Europe, Their History, Arts, and Architecture. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 129. ISBN 90-04-13149-3. Charles suffered seriously from epilepsy
185. MacLean, Simon (25 September 2003). Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the End of the Carolingian Empire. Cambridge University Press. pp. 39–41. ISBN 0-521-81945-8.
186. Irma Jacqueline Ozer (June 2006). "Epilepsy in Literature and Its Reflection in Society". Breath & Shadow. Archived from the original on 10 August 2006. Retrieved 28 August 2006.
187. Feldmann H (1989). "[Martin Luther's seizure disorder]". Sudhoffs Arch 73 (1): 26–44. PMID 2529669.
188. Gastaut H, Gastaut Y, Broughton R (1984). "Gustave Flaubert's illness: a case report in evidence against the erroneous notion of psychogenic epilepsy.". Epilepsia 25 (5): 622–37. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1157.1984.tb03472.x. PMID 6383791.
189. Luis-Carlos Álvaro (2005). "Hallucinations and pathological visual perceptions in Maupassant's fantastical short stories--a neurological approach.". Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 14 (2): 100–15. doi:10.1080/096470490523399. PMID 16019655.
190. Blumer D (2002). "The illness of Vincent van Gogh.". The American Journal of Psychiatry 159 (4): 519–26. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.159.4.519. PMID 11925286.
191. Hughes J (2005). "A reappraisal of the possible seizures of Vincent van Gogh.". Epilepsy & Behavior 6 (4): 504–10. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2005.02.014. PMID 15907745.
192. Reynolds E (2001). "The impact of epilepsy on Graham Greene.". Epilepsia 42 (8): 1091–3. doi:10.1046/j.1528-1157.2001.0420081091.x. PMID 11554900.
193. Mariani, Paul L. (1 March 1996). Dream Song: Life of John Berryman. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 116. ISBN 1-55849-017-5. Dr Gene Shafarman … told Berryman that he had been diagnosed as having a mild form of epilepsy called petit mal.
194. Athey, Joel (1999). "John Berryman's Life and Career". Modern American Poetry. Department of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Retrieved 31 August 2006.

Sources

• Bhawuk, Dharm P.S. (February 2003). "Culture's influence on creativity: the case of Indian spirituality". International Journal of Intercultural Relations (Elsevier) 27 (1): 8. doi:10.1016/S0147-1767(02)00059-7.
• Zaleski, Philip (2006). "The Ecstatic". Prayer: A History. Mariner Books.