Seizures of the brain is a condition described in historical documents dating back 2500 years. It’s to assume that pre-literate man had a few rip-roaring convulsions as well. The Greeks, the first to study the condition, believed those "touched by the gods" were an enlightened group and treated them respectfully. This soon changed with the onset of Christianity, when the early believers threw a markedly negative spin on the disease. Medieval theologians believed seizures were a manifestation of the devil and those who experienced them were "possessed."

This very un-Christian intolerance was justified by frequent citations of Mark 9:17—27; a Biblical passage which describes Christ healing a small boy of his "fits" by driving the demons from the young lad’s body. The newfound fear of evil possession fueled a belief that seizures were contagious and epileptics were superstitiously shunned. They remained as outcasts through the Middle Ages; they were compared to werewolves and the illness was lycanthropically dubbed "the disease of the full moon."

Had it not been for the Renaissance, the already troubled social status of the epileptic would have continued its downward spiral. This era of free thought, which embraced both art and science, led to a new tolerance of the disease. Early medical researchers began to conclude that biology played a larger role in the genesis of epilepsy than evil spirits.

Although the mystical aspect of the disease would be forever stamped in the collective consciousness of Europeans, greater leaps of research in the 16th century resulted in a further dismissal of the "magical seizure" theory. This wasn’t great news for feudal epileptics, however; if they experienced seizures, they were quickly either dubbed undesirable and shunned or sent to special institutions set aside for the mentally ill.

This questionable method of treatment continued up until the 19th century when cutting edge researchers of the time claimed to have found the cause: whacking off. Immediately, self-pleasuring epileptics were ordered to "knock it off," and many medical officials considered castration the final cure. This outlandish theory was thankfully proven wrong when pioneering researcher Hughlings Jackson correctly concluded that the seizures were caused by abnormal cells in the gray matter of the brain.

Things didn’t change immediately. Many epileptics were still ordered to "keep their hands above the sheets," and were locked up in isolated wards and institutions, but slowly the emphasis began to turn toward the epileptic rejoining society. Bromides were devised to palliate seizures and these mostly unsuccessful anticonvulsant tonics broke new ground in the treatment of epilepsy.

The 20th century led to a number of neurological discoveries and the creation of drugs to stabilize epileptic patients. Although Nazi Germany wasn’t exactly kind to their epileptic folk, for the most part, progress continued with doctors attempting to control the disease, hoping their epileptic patients would rejoin society.

Today, a great body of research coupled with education of the public has led to a new understanding of mental disorders. Although the early Christian prejudice seems to rise from the ashes with horror stories of epileptics having seizures and then waking up in jail , as a group we are now protected by the A.D.A. (Adults with Disabilities Act) and urged to assimilate into society.