Migraine and Visual Arts
| Author: Klaus Podoll | 12. March 2005 |
| Edited by: Klaus Podoll |
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
Abbey of St Hildegard
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), miniature from Scivias (detail).
"You will notice that the leading characteristic of migraine, apart from the headache and the tendency to nausea and vomiting, is the apparent perception of various striking visual phenomena. If the subjects saw these strange things when their health was at its best, they would look at them, either with startled astonishment, or with very real alarm. Now one of the things that has struck me very much in questioning a large number of migraine patients is their absence of either of these feelings in the description of their symptoms. They remember them afterwards rather than note them at the time, and under the advanced educational conditions of to-day they rightly ascribe them to a pathological condition which they have learnt is not of very serious significance.
Very widely different would be the mental attitude of a man who saw these startling phenomena with nothing to guide him as to their source and true meaning, especially if his mind were in that receptive condition for everything mysterious which characterized the visionaries of the past. The brilliant flash of coloured light, the golden halo behind it, the elusive streaks of lightning playing constantly in front of his eyes, the appearance as of stars, sometimes in rapid movement, of flaming rotating wheels of light, of shimmering seas, of luminous streams or rivers, all evoke in his mind an impression of the supernatural, and bring into it a receptive condition for interpretations which it would otherwise probably reject. It has been suggested to me that this may be the natural means that God has taken to reveal His will to man. I want to make it clear from the start that I neither affirm nor deny this. It is completely outside the purpose of the present paper. I leave this aspect of the question severely alone and confine myself to considering my subject from the physical and medical points of view.
The first Mystic of whom I wish to speak to you is one to whom I have already alluded in my first lecture, namely, The Reverend Mother Hildegard of Bingen ..."
(Elliot, 1932, p. 449-450)
Miscellaneous voices
HILDE'S HEADACHES:
Was Hilde a Saint, or a mystic?
Were her visions Divine, or intrinsic??
Though some say "canonize!"
At least one doc's advised:
What she saw was quite migraine-specific!
(Chris Kelsey, Newsgroups: rec.music.early, Subject: Uncouth: Saint Hildegard? (headaches!), January 6, 1996)
"FYI, a group of medievalists in an on-line discussion today/yesterday have sort-of agreed that if there is to be a patron saint against migraines, it is quite definitely Hildegard of Bingen, because of the nature of the visions she saw and because she was an amazingly skilled herbalist and also a philosopher. Some of your online migraine-ish friends might be interested."
(Suzie Eisfelder, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Patron Saint, January 1, 1999)
"I believe there is a patron saint for headache sufferers, but it isn't her. I suppose we can make her the patron saint of ASHM."
(Dennis, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Hildegard of Bingen (WAS: Re: migraine without pain??), March 14, 1999)
"The medieval abbess Hildegard von Bingen saw religious visions now usually classified (by doctors, not the Vatican!) as migraine auras."
(Catherine Yronwode, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Aura, or not???, July 26, 1999)
"I hope Hildegard von Bingen's in there, too - the coolest migraine patient ever!"
(bonfils, Newsgroups: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, Subject: Enduring Grace, June 13, 2000)
"Saint Hildegard of Bingen's mystic visions of the City of God are compatible with the visual effects of hemicrania [sine dolore] ..., which is a form of migraine with visual disturbances but no pain. As I occasionally suffer from that myself, I can attest that if I were a 12th century mystical nun I could well believe that I was being vouchsafed a glimpse of something mysterious beyond this world. As I'm a 20th/21st century materialist cynic I find having half my visual field trashed a pain in the posterior and nowhere near as much fun as recreational chemicals."
(Maneki Neko, Newsgroups: cam.misc, Subject: Psychology of religion experiments, March 14, 2002; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)
"Granted, the author [Sabina Flanagan] admits that it is a major step from visionary to prophet, and that Hildegard's status as prophet cannot be reduced to neuro-physiological phenomena. Nevertheless, the thesis is forced, and highly speculative, since there is no objective evidence to indicate that Hildegard even suffered from migraines, much less that she confused them with divinely inspired visions. I personally suffer from migraines - and believe me, I'm in no danger of confusing them with divine revelations."
(Lee Allard, Amazon Customer Review of Sabina Flanagan, Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179: A Visionary Life, June 1, 2003; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)
"Visions of the heavenly city - Well, that's what mediaeval abbess and composer Hildegard of Bingen thought they were. To me they're 'scintillating scotoma', the little flashing zigzags that come with a migraine attack. The only revelation I got from them yesterday morning was that I was going to feel crap for a couple of days, which was a pain as I'd got a ticket for Sierra Maestra at the World Music Prom."
(Bailamos, vamos a bailar: salsa in cardiff, July 20, 2004)
Malte Urbschat, Hildegard von Bingen featuring Malte Urbschat, mixed media, 2005. © 2005 Malte Urbschat (see here)
"Spiritual states in ourselves are not corresponding to anything that belongs to the region of objects and imaginative notions they are connected with, nor could we reduce them to the speculative level of universals, complicated categorial systems or even psychological illusions and eventual migraine-like states."*)
*) "Cf. my Berdyaev-like replication to the explanation of spiritual visions of Hildegard of Bingen as migraine-like illusions which is very popular today: "Hildegarda iz Bingna: simbol novega srednjega veka?" (Hildegard of Bingen: A Symbol of new Middle Ages?), Tretji dan 11/1998, pp. 110-111."
Boris Sinigoj: A Philosopher for the Time to come? The Question of Spirit and Being in the Philosophy of Nikolai Berdyaev. Paper presented at the International Symposium of Philosophy "Russian Religious Philosophy and Modern Thought", Ljubljana, Slovenia, June 6, 2001
(Boris Sinigoj, September 30, 2004)
"As Paul said, faith without works is dead, and the same thing is true of most of what makes a person a Christian. What is important is what one 'does;' it is the trip, not the destination.
And the same thing is true of mystical Christianity. The end 'is' the means. If one's personal emotional, neurologic, etc. makeup ties that to a specific set of 'feelings' or experiences, that is fine. It may well not do so.
One of the more famous medieval mystics, Hildegard of Bingen, experienced her religious revelations clearly as the byproduct of the prodrome of migraine headaches (and, as an aside, this is the same thing that is given credit for the imagery of Lewis Carroll see: here).
People who have problems with mystics use such things to 'explain' mystical experience -- that the revelations can be dismissed purely as a side effect of the migraine aura. The response of mystics such as myself is that God used the aura as a tool for revelation. Other routes are used for other people. Had Hildegard of Bingen 'not' been prone to migraines, then her revelations would have come from somewhere else."
(Bill Oliver, Newsgroups: misc.writing, Subject: God, July 4, 2003)
References
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Alvarez WC. Notes on the history of migraine. Headache 1963; 2: 209-213.
Elliot RH. Migraine. Postgrad Med J 1932; 8: 328-336.
Elliot RH. Migraine and mysticism. Postgrad Med J 1932; 8: 449-459.
Ezpeleta D. Las enfermedades de Santa Hildegarda de Bingen. Kranion 2001; 1 (1): 24-31.
Flanagan S. Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179: A Visionary Life. Routledge, London-New York 1989.
Langford D. Me and Hildegard of Bingen. Column for Fortean Times 115, October 1998.
Möbius P. Die Migräne. Hölder, Wien 1894.
Nappi G, Termine C. Migraine auras and the eyes of the mind. Funct Neurol 2008; 23: 109-112.
Plant GT. The fortification spectra of migraine. Br Med J 1986; 293: 1613-1617 [published erratum appears in Br Med J 1987; 294: 90].
Podoll K, Robinson D. Migräne und spirituelle Erfahrung. Ariadne, Aachen 2001.
Podoll K, Robinson D. The migrainous nature of the visions of Hildegard of Bingen. Neurol Psychiat Brain Res 2002; 10: 95-100.
Sacks OW. Migraine: The evolution of a common disorder. University of California Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles 1970.
Sacks OW. Migraine. Revised and expanded. University of California Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles-Oxford 1992.
Shaw B. The Two-Timers. Ace Books, New York 1968.
Singer C. Studies in the history and method of science, First series. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1917.
Singer C. From magic to science. Essays on the scientific twilight. Dover Edition. Dover, New York 1958.
Wilson SAK. Migraine. In: Wilson SAK, Neurology. 2nd ed. Edited by AN Bruce. Butterworth, London 1955, p. 1704-1725.
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