God's Laser

There are a couple late medieval / early renaissance paintings that depict saints and such being inspired by God by a laser beam shot directly from heaven. Often the architecture of the building they occupy even has an ornate hole to accommodate such an occurrence, I wonder if the architect guessed at the hole’s purpose, or if they just felt an overwhelming urge to put a hole there and decorate it. Anyway this is my interpretation of someone being shot with an atomic laser of liquid knowledge from God.