A Possible Organic Explanation for Michele Bachmann

I had an ah-ha moment today when I read about the Michele Bachmann migraine revelation.  I don't pretend to be a diagnostician, but I have read my Oliver Sacks and I  know some sufferers. What is fascinating about this neurological disorder is the pre-migraine "aura" experienced by many victims.  It has been described variously as a dream-like, religious experience or an LSD-like episode replete with visuals.  It may even be neurologically related to the "white light" phenomenon of the near-death experience, leading some people to embrace religion after coming back from the great beyond.


Bachmann has previously described a dream of God telling her to run for office.  The apostle Paul may have been undergoing a migraine aura when he suffered his sudden blindness and then had his vision of Jesus telling him to go forth.  The medieval mystic nun Hildegard of Bingen apparently tripped on so-called "scintillating scotoma" before her own blinding pain hit.


In a poem called "God Speaks to Me in Headache" LoveMinus0 writes:

When I get a migraine, I feel fundamentally religious
and drop to my knees in the pre-formatted position
for prayer: forgiveness, relief and reconciliation.

My temple is filled with holy resonance
and spiritual compression; eyes shut - doors sealed.
Hands grasp desperately over my ears, searching for
The Door.....

And beyond the mysticism of the aura, migraine sufferer Joan Didion writes:  “There certainly is what doctors call a ‘migraine personality,’ and that personality tends to be ambitious, inward, intolerant of error, rather rigidly organized, perfectionist."

Something to think about.  I now find myself actually empathizing with Michele Bachmann.  My desire to see her not become president has nothing to do with her health issues.  And whatever Rovian smear campaign that has sprung up accusing her of being some kind of drug addict is pretty despicable. 



Hildegard of Bingen's Migraine