101 Questions - About Ellen White and Her Writings

Question 6: Were Ellen White’s visions the result of epilepsy? (“Ellen G. White’s Visions a Result of Epilepsy?”)

I happened onto a Web site listed in my search results while I was looking up the Ellen G. White Estate site, and I became engrossed in reading the material presented because of its credible, nonattacking style. The information was regarding Ellen White’s visions. Basically, the site strongly suggested the visions were linked to what is called temporal lobe epilepsy with hypergraphia resulting from brain damage that could have resulted from the rock-throwing incident when Ellen White was a young girl. I have to confess their evidence is quite compelling and discomforting. 101Q 29.1

Style can be as deceptive as content. One should be careful about granting credibility to someone because of style before ascertaining all the facts involved. 101Q 29.2

There was a doctor or two who made these claims in the 1980s; I don’t remember their names now. Neither was a specialist in temporal lobe epilepsy, the condition they concluded was the cause of her visions. At Loma Linda University, Dr. Donald I. Peterson, a professor of neurology (the appropriate specialty) and chief of neurology at Riverside General Hospital, convened a panel of qualified specialists, Adventist and non-Adventist, to look at the evidence. They concluded that her experience did not match that of people suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy. Apparently, science is on Mrs. White’s side on this one. 101Q 29.3

Dr. Peterson wrote a brief little booklet on the matter, “Visions or Seizures: Was Ellen White the Victim of Epilepsy?” It is now out of print but is available on the Ellen G. White Estate Website. 101Q 29.4