Auras: a 6th sense experience

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Auras: a 6th sense experience

    Spring break my sophomore year, March 19th 2023 to be exact, I had my first ever seizure. I was on my way back from a service trip with InterVarsity in New Orleans and we had made it to Connecticut. We had stopped to get breakfast in the morning and had already dropped off students from another school. I went back to sleep on the bus, happy to have had breakfast and to have a row all to myself now that there were fewer passengers. The next thing I knew the bus was stopped, everyone was looking at me, and my campus staff was standing next to me. 
A hospital selfie. Becuase I am still someone born in the 2000s

    I was beyond confused and when I learned I needed to take an ambulance ride to the hospital and I had had a seizure, I was embarrassed. Ps this is how one of my friends said they knew I was back after failing for a few minutes to know who I was, what day it was, or recognize the people around me.
    Long story short I spent a few hours in a Connecticut hospital doing some regular testing, drove home in an Uber with my staff while watching The Chosen, and got Chipotle for dinner. There was no clear cause of my seizure; all of my levels looked normal. The next day a friend invited me to a guest speaker event hosted by the religion department and the speaker started talking to me about my deceased father, but that's a story for another day.     

    The rest of the semester did not include any I spent that summer on Wheaton campus, interning at AEI, and getting loads of neurological tests all while being unable to drive. We were also in a rush to learn as much as we could because I was flying out to Denmark to study abroad on August 15th! 
    I had an MRI and multiple EEGs, with one even lasting 48 hours where I had to stay home and on camera! All that was able to be concluded was that "abnormal activity" has been seen when I go in and out of sleep. This became extra concerning when we remembered that the heart attack that killed my father was initially brought on by a seizure that happened while he was sleeping.
48-hour accessories: me in my summer dorm with my electrodes and battery pack

    Since my seizure, my life has changed very little. I have not had any others that I am aware of although I don't know if I would know about them. Most of the last four years I have had roommates, none of whom have reported seeing me seize while sleeping, but I will be living alone after graduation. A few times I have worried I was close to having a seizure because of something called auras. 
        An aura is a subjective experience some people have before seizures. They can manifest in several different ways targeting many different senses individually or at the same time. Some people experience visual auras where their vision becomes blurry, spotty, or appears like a glitching electronic. Others may have auditory auras an hear ringing, buzzing, or hear music. Sense of taste, smell, and physical sensations like numbness or tingling can also be affected. Stong or sudden emotions may be brought on and experiences of Deja vu are also common.
    I have had many episodes that I thought were visual auras and feared would be the start of a seizure. When I am especially tired in class, or God forbid even while driving, I frequently perceive my in-motion surroundings as smudged or feel like the tv in my brain displaying my sight is glitching. I have never had a real aura because these sensations have never preceded a seizure, but I live my life a little paranoid all the time now.
I think auras are a great connection to our class because they can target all of the main senses as well as emotion, cognition, and their ability to "tell the future" (aka predict a seizure) feels like an example of the 6th sense.


Free use images found at pexels.com

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausMay 12, 2025 at 7:45 AM

    Out of curiosity, do you see anything sacred or Divine in your seizure experience or experience of the auras related to seizures? Also, you make the connection to your late dad. That's a little uncanny, but also typically of uncanny "paranormal" experiences according to Kripal.

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