The term intellectual aura comes from the Latin words intellectus (understanding, reason) and aura (wind, breeze, smell). The term aura intellectuelle was introduced in or shortly before 1860 by the French psychiatrist Jean Pierre Falret (1794-1870) to denote hallucinations and other complex mental warning symptoms preceding an epileptic seizure. In 1876 the term was rein-troduced in the form of intellectual aura by the British neurologist John Hughlings Jackson (1835-1911). In 1879 Jackson replaced the term by the somewhat paradoxical expression " dreamy state.
References
Falret, J. (1860/61). De l'état mental des epilep-tiques. Archives Générales de Médecine, 16, 661-679.
Dictionary of Hallucinations. J.D. Blom. 2010.