God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light

Epilepsy sufferers are always told that each person’s epilepsy is a personal story and that each form of epilepsy and its manifestations are in some ways different from others. I much prefer it this way. It is just such a pity that on approaching the third millennium, the general public still do not view it this way. By this latter term, I intend people from all nationalities, from different social backgrounds, of both sexes and from academics to people with learning difficulties. I could go on. It is a sad defect of human nature to overgeneralize. As a Saudi diplomat once said to me. ‘The world could be a happier place if people could stop creating stereotypes of people: not all Italians are lazy, not all Scots are mean, not all Arabs are terrorists etc.’ He could well have added that not all people with epilepsy are of low intelligence, erratic, aggressive, pious as Bertrand Russell once wrote and so on. I have perhaps surprised the reader by mentioning academics. By and large their comprehension of illness can be more comprehensive but certainly not always. My first attempt at university was a failure. I almost did enough to pass on to second year but not quite. Settling into and adapting to new environments has always been a problem for me, perhaps less so now than before. A medical physician appealed to the university senate to consider my case with understanding and humanity. The university refused to be moved and I had to depart. To this day, I have always said that I would have passed had I been given a second chance. Only very recently that same university was in the media after a number of students maintained that their welfare interests had not been and were not being taken seriously enough by the university. A public statement from the university said that it dealt with and had always dealt with students’ problems with the greatest of understanding. Academia, therefore, can also show at times its cold and unsympathetic face. Returning for a minute to overgeneralizing and stereotyping people, a further point should be added. I was recently talking to a senior member of the British Government and he told me that a recent survey or questionnaire amongst would-be employers showed that they were often more ready to employ somebody with a criminal background than somebody with a disability. I reflected on this. Certainly a man or woman who has paid the penalty for having committed some crime should be given every fair chance to be readmitted into society but why this strange attitude towards people with disabilities? They often totally fail to see that such a person’s work output along with his or her loyalty to the employer could far outweigh any inconvenience caused by employing that person. Sadly, too few people have that patience, understanding and insight which is needed to enter into the world of that disabled person and make him or her feel at home in every possible way. Another recent survey showed that a substantial number of people believe that wheelchair-bound people are of inferior intelligence. How much worse it probably is with attitudes towards sufferers of epilepsy, autism and other ‘hidden disabilities’! What do these examples show and why do I mention them? For me it sadly demonstrates the reality of much of the so-called advanced Western Society which reputedly has left behind the age of religious myths, stories of epileptics possessed by demons, through the age of enlightenment and passed into a period of postenlightenment but in reality is still suffering from a high degree of unenlightenment, lack of understanding and lack of vision both in depth as well as in breadth. Where, therefore, can we find that real light of understanding and vision? Not necessarily in the church or in religious groups, not necessarily in the schools or in the universities, not necessarily in the middle classes but simply amongst people, not necessarily of high intelligence, who merely go through life with that often rare possession of warmth and human understanding. They are sadly in the minority and here, I believe, I am not being unduly pessimistic. This little story is by way of a personal confession. Quite recently I was waiting in a queue of people in a