Paperback, 352 pages
Published July 2, 2013 by Vintage, Vintage Books.
Have you ever seen something that wasn't really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you and turned around to find nothing?
Hallucinations don't belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. People with migraines may see shimmering arcs of light or tiny, Lilliputian figures of animals and people. People with failing eyesight, paradoxically, may become immersed in a hallucinatory visual world. Hallucinations can be brought on by a simple fever or even the act of waking or falling asleep, when people have visions ranging from luminous blobs of color to beautifully detailed faces or terrifying ogres. Those who are bereaved may receive comforting "visits" from the departed. In some conditions, hallucinations can lead to religious epiphanies or even the feeling of leaving one's own body.
Humans have always sought such life-changing visions, and …
Have you ever seen something that wasn't really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you and turned around to find nothing?
Hallucinations don't belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. People with migraines may see shimmering arcs of light or tiny, Lilliputian figures of animals and people. People with failing eyesight, paradoxically, may become immersed in a hallucinatory visual world. Hallucinations can be brought on by a simple fever or even the act of waking or falling asleep, when people have visions ranging from luminous blobs of color to beautifully detailed faces or terrifying ogres. Those who are bereaved may receive comforting "visits" from the departed. In some conditions, hallucinations can lead to religious epiphanies or even the feeling of leaving one's own body.
Humans have always sought such life-changing visions, and for thousands of years have used hallucinogenic compounds to achieve them. As a young doctor in California in the 1960s, Oliver Sacks had both a personal and a professional interest in psychedelics. These, along with his early migraine experiences, launched a lifelong investigation into the varieties of hallucinatory experience.
Here, with his usual elegance, curiosity, and compassion, Dr. Sacks weaves together stories of his patients and his own mind-altering experiences to illuminate what hallucinations tell us about the organization and structure of our brains, how they have influenced every culture's folklore and art, and why the potential for hallucination is present in us all, a vital part of the human condition.
Basically just a long list of case studies. Interesting stories but little context or insight.
“One does not see with the eyes; one sees with the brain, which has dozens of different systems for analyzing the input from the eyes.”
I saw this on the shelf at the library and immediately picked it up – Oliver Sacks! This is my second book of his that I have read, following his best-selling The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales. Hallucinations aren’t really something I had given a lot of thought to prior to this book. Like most, I categorized them in the realm of drugs or mental illness, something to be remedied. Sacks explores a lot of different types of hallucinations in this book, thought notably, not the kinds you see from schizophrenia or similar mental illness. As he mentions in the blurb, one can experience hallucinations for a variety of reasons. Though I have never had any myself, …
“One does not see with the eyes; one sees with the brain, which has dozens of different systems for analyzing the input from the eyes.”
I saw this on the shelf at the library and immediately picked it up – Oliver Sacks! This is my second book of his that I have read, following his best-selling The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales. Hallucinations aren’t really something I had given a lot of thought to prior to this book. Like most, I categorized them in the realm of drugs or mental illness, something to be remedied. Sacks explores a lot of different types of hallucinations in this book, thought notably, not the kinds you see from schizophrenia or similar mental illness. As he mentions in the blurb, one can experience hallucinations for a variety of reasons. Though I have never had any myself, this book made me surprised at how common this sort of thing seems to be.One of the best parts of the book is when Sacks describes his own drug-fueled early adulthood as a medical resident, where he spent entire weekends doing some psychedelic or other, or self-medicating with questionable drugs. This, given his childhood history of migraines, certainly had me… side-eyeing him, but his descriptions are fascinating and honest. The other chapters go through different types of hallucinations, such as night-mares or phantom limbs. The mentions of case history from the 19th century and earlier were also interesting to read. There were some also thoughtful considerations about the nature of spiritual or enlightened experiences, and how hallucinations may have been responsible for a lot of historical ‘religious experiences’ or ‘visits from God’, etc. (Sacks tries not to press on this too much, but as an nonreligious person, I thought the analysis was spot-on.) At times, the book did seem to get repetitive and a bit too anecdotal; it would have been helpful to read this alongside some more modern scholarship about neuroscience. I read this book during a really stressful period in which I started studying for an exam that I must take, finishing two term-papers that were due last minute, and figuring out logistics for a move. Needless to say, this book took me longer to read than I anticipated, and I probably had a less enjoyable experience because of how fragmented my reading of this was. Thus, I’m going to be a little more lenient with this book.Most of all, this book helped reinforce the idea that perception is largely a gamble put on by your brain. Your brain receives inputs from your touch receptors, optic nerves, and olfactory nerves, and countless others. If any one of these many parts get jumbled up, your brain ‘perceives’ something else entirely. Sacks’s admiration of the brain and its wonderful capabilities is a subtle but underlying theme as with his other books, I imagine. Given that I have aphantasia, I wonder if I’m ever going to experience hallucinations like what is described in this book. The idea that perceiving something that isn’t there can bring someone so much joy and peace… or alternatively, so much pain and horror, is yet another thing about the brain that inspires awe and respect.
That was a very rich book. it's is nominally "hallucinations", but it's range is extensive.
The author, Oliver Sacks, is a knowledgeable neurologist and neurosurgeon passed away not too long ago, but his experience was intense. I learned that he experimented with hallucinogenic and other drugs when he was younger, and he used his experiences and knowledge of the brain and human reactions to inform himself and the scientific community of pluses and minuses of all types. I respect the fact that he realized that his one and only experience with opioids was enough for him, and he consciously decided not to do that again!
Explorations of near-death experiences and out of body experiences and how they relate to the brain and reality are great. And the comparison with God and God-like experiences are convincing and satisfying, perhaps more so for non-God believers – like me – then for, say, …
That was a very rich book. it's is nominally "hallucinations", but it's range is extensive.
The author, Oliver Sacks, is a knowledgeable neurologist and neurosurgeon passed away not too long ago, but his experience was intense. I learned that he experimented with hallucinogenic and other drugs when he was younger, and he used his experiences and knowledge of the brain and human reactions to inform himself and the scientific community of pluses and minuses of all types. I respect the fact that he realized that his one and only experience with opioids was enough for him, and he consciously decided not to do that again!
Explorations of near-death experiences and out of body experiences and how they relate to the brain and reality are great. And the comparison with God and God-like experiences are convincing and satisfying, perhaps more so for non-God believers – like me – then for, say, fundamentalists. Relating all kinds of things with hallucinations as opposed to "spirits" or "extrasensory" experiences is encouraging and paints a picture of reality as opposed to magic. I really liked this book!
I have read part of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and I now feel that I need to go back and reread the entire thing. He's humorous but serious, and he emphasizes the amazing things that the mind can do. Excellent author!
