MEDITATION, SLOW WAVE SLEEP AND ECSTATIC SEIZURES: The Etiology ofKundalini Visions

Abstract

This paper describes phosphene images observed by a medical writer during the onset and evolution of a partial seizure with an ecsratic emotional accompaniment. This seizure was inadvertendy induced by rhe author's attempt to practice mediration during the early morning hours while in a sleep-deprived condition. A neurological workup did nor find evidence of epileptic lesions or interictal activiry. The phosphene sequence matches descriptions of light visions in the ancient Vedic scriptures and in yoga meditarion rexts of rhe Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. suggesting the possibiliry of a common etiology. Analysis of the phosphene spatiotemporal characteristics in light of recem research ill the neuroscience of sleep, vision, and epilepsy suggests that the images were generated by the following sequence of neural events: (1) acrivation of slow wave sleep rhythm oscillarors in conicorhalamocortical circuits (CTC); (2) destabilization of sleep rhythm oscillators, triggering emergence of hypersynchronous spike-waves and fast runs in CTC circuits; (3) a huild-up of rhythmical activity in the right hippocampus

(H) due to the synergistic interaction of synchronous sharp waves, high-frequency ripples, and affcrem visual stimuli; (4) an outbreak of paroxysmal dischatges in the comralareral left H; and,

(6) precipitation of a bilateral mesotemporal seizure.