Could It Be...Satan?

Sitting in front of our computers, we feel pretty sure that we live in a modern world, much "advanced" from the time centuries ago when epilepsy was thought to be caused by demons. That's why it's a shock to read an article like the one that appeared in The Boston Sunday Globe on September 2, 2001, telling of an old man in Slovakia who murdered an 80-year-old woman because he thought that her witchcraft was responsible for his granddaughter's epilepsy.

The old man, Milan Mramuch, and his family live in a small, isolated village in the Carpathian Mountains. When the doctors could not stop 2-year-old Nikolka from having seizures, the family consulted a faith healer, who suggested that Satanism was the cause. Mr. Mramuch then traveled across the border to a village in the Czech Republic that is famous for its soothsayers, who can predict the future. The soothsayer told him that Nikolka would die before age 12 unless the witch was stopped. Not surprisingly, Mr. Mramuch then did what he felt he needed to do—he beat Anna Tomkova to death with a cane.

Events like this are very rare in our world—but they do happen. There are many people living today in the United States and elsewhere who cling to beliefs in magic and witches, and find such things to be likely explanations for a puzzling problem like epilepsy. Recall that for the past 2,000 years, these beliefs dominated Western civilization. When there is no clear answer, people need to have one. We hope that information and education will help erase false beliefs and the dangers they create.

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