Hildegard of Bingen was a twelfth-century German abbess who became legendary for her profound religious visions, which she claimed were direct, dazzling messages sent straight from God.

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Hildegard of Bingen was a twelfth-century German abbess who became legendary for her profound religious visions, which she claimed were direct, dazzling messages sent straight from God. She produced incredibly detailed illuminated manuscripts depicting these divine encounters, featuring jagged, pulsating rings of light, shimmering stars, and fortresses made of blinding divine radiance. Modern neurologists who have examined her meticulous descriptions and artwork are almost universally convinced that this celebrated mystic was actually suffering from severe, classical migraine auras. It is honestly inspiring that instead of just lying in a dark room complaining about a headache, she managed to parlay her neurological visual disturbances into becoming one of the most powerful and influential women of the Middle Ages