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This book is an investigation into the types, physiological sources, and cultural resonances of hallucinations traces everything from the disorientations of sleep and intoxication to the manifestations of injury and illness. Have you ever seen something that was not 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, the author 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, he weaves together stories of his patients and of 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.… (more)
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Here, then, is a sampling which I hope will give a sense of the great range, the varieties, of hallucinatory experience, an essential part of the human condition.
“A sampling” it is -- essentially an accumulation of patient experiences that showcase the variety of
The book was interesting to read and somewhat informative (there is almost no exploration of the underlying science). But it’s rarely engaging (the exception being a chapter about Sacks’ personal experiences with transcendent/ intoxicant drugs). I love a narrative, I'll poke around in an encyclopedia, but this felt too much like reading a dictionary.
It is interesting that, near the end of the book, I happened to be listening to a Science Friday podcast with neuroscientist David Eagleman, who talked about timing in the brain -- our temporal perception of action first then effect, and the problem of misattributing action/effect:
Schizophrenia might fundamentally be a disorder of time perception. {…} You’re always generating an internal voice and listening to it. {…} But imagine you got the timing wrong, so that you think you heard the voice before you generated it. That would be an auditory hallucination. You’d have to interpret that as somebody’s else’s voice. {…} Instead of pumping people full of meds, what if we could just sit them down and have them play video games that recalibrate their timing?
I know: Sacks is a practitioner while Eagleman is a researcher. But that’s the kind of scientific/exploratory material I'd expected here.
(Review based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher.)
Primarily organized around types of hallucinations - visual, aural, parkinsonian, phantom limbs, etc. - the book is a fascinating blend of history and case study. Perhaps I was most fascinated to discover the types of hallucinations that I've had, mostly as a child, when I was in that state between sleep and wakefulness and "saw" someone by my bed or in my room. There are other, less common, hallucinations explored, too, and I really enjoyed when he brought up the results of fMRI scans done during hallucinations. The connections between what one experiences and what goes on the brain intrigues me, and I'll definitely be looking to read some of Sacks' earlier works.
As usual with Sack's books, there are a lot of fascinating descriptions of things his patients and others have experienced, intermixed with some layman's-level explanations about what's going on in the brain when this stuff happens, at least as far as it's actually understood. There are also some relevant accounts of the author's own personal experience; among other things, Sacks took a surprising amount of drugs back in the 60s. In the end, also as usual, I'm left with a bemused appreciation of how incredibly complex our brains are and just how deeply weird things can get when they go a bit wrong. I also keep expecting to start hallucinating myself any moment, but hopefully that will pass.
I found the subject fascinating. Sacks, a neurologist, has spent much of his life researching the mind and, in these pages, he shares some of what he has learned along the way. The language used is easy to understand. Medical terms are clarified and explained. The average person should have no problem reading this.
While I did find the examples interesting, after a while it all became a bit repetitive. Information was often repeated in various chapters. And the book didn't have much of a conclusion. Despite that, I'd recommend the book to everyone. What you'll learn is well worth the time you'll spend reading.
I found this book very easy to read as well as highly informative.
Oliver Sacks
Sunday, March 3, 2013 11:04 AM
Hallucinations can be produced in several ways in the brain. Oliver Sacks is interested in what people report seeing, hearing or feeling during these experiences. His first exploration is of Charles Bonnet syndrome, the visual hallucinations
His chapters on hallucination as a consequence of illness, prescription side-effects, sensory deprivation, sleep paralysis and grief are very interesting. Chapters on hallucinations as caused by psychedelic drugs are much less interesting, almost self-serving. Pages and pages of descriptions of trips that all sound like Jefferson Airplane lyrics are for the most part, only of interest to the author.
Still, the book is well worth reading if you have an avid interest in neurosciences (Sacks assumes the reader has a working knowledge of the main parts of the brain and their functions and does not slow down for expositions in this area) and if you are fascinated by the blurry line between reality and dreams and dreams and hallucinations.
The book starts with one disorder, Charles Bonnet Syndrome, which sometimes occurs in people who have lost their sight. Suddenly, they will begin to see again- except they are the only people who can see the things. Once told that the people (or whatever) are not real and that there is nothing wrong with them, some patients actually find the illusions interesting and amusing and even miss them when the hallucinations abate.
Those things we ‘see’ in the dark as we’re falling asleep are hypnagogic hallucinations; they usually have no emotional impact. Hypnopompic hallucinations and sleep paralysis, however, can be terrifying. Occuring as the person wakes, these hallucinations happen with they eyes open and are projected into the external environment and seem real- the monster is in your bedroom. Add sleep paralysis, where the mind is awake but the body hasn’t gotten the message yet, and you can’t fight or escape from the monster, dubbed in the past as the Hag or the Night Mare.
Told in Sacks’ usual amusing but informative style, this book is rich in detail but easily understandable by the person with no neurological knowledge. In this book, Sacks tells us something of his own history with hallucinations due to drug use in the 60s. One doesn’t expect this sort of openness in a medical book and I found it amusing as well as instructional; he can look at the drugs from the point of view of both doctor and user, providing an unusual balance. As always with one of Sacks’ books, it’s not to be missed if you have an interest in the brain.
Hallucinations don’t belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication,
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 of 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.
In Hallucinations, Dr. Sacks explains that
Sacks also went into the different types of hallucinations: visual, auditory, and tactile. Also, afflictions that really wouldn't be consider a hallucination, at least by me, like phantom limbs, migraines and certain sleep disorders. Infused within are brief history lessons about when was the first occurrence of the disorder or syndrome, etc.
Also, Sacks also gives personal insights like when he momentarily became addicted to drugs and had a very bad trip with hallucinations galore. It was funny. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely read more.
In Hallucinations, Dr. Sacks explains that
Sacks also went into the different types of hallucinations: visual, auditory, and tactile. Also, afflictions that really wouldn't be consider a hallucination, at least by me, like phantom limbs, migraines and certain sleep disorders. Infused within are brief history lessons about when was the first occurrence of the disorder or syndrome, etc.
Also, Sacks also gives personal insights like when he momentarily became addicted to drugs and had a very bad trip with hallucinations galore. It was funny. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely read more.
In Hallucinations, Dr. Sacks explains that
Sacks also went into the different types of hallucinations: visual, auditory, and tactile. Also, afflictions that really wouldn't be consider a hallucination, at least by me, like phantom limbs, migraines and certain sleep disorders. Infused within are brief history lessons about when was the first occurrence of the disorder or syndrome, etc.
Also, Sacks also gives personal insights like when he momentarily became addicted to drugs and had a very bad trip with hallucinations galore. It was funny. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely read more.
Aside from that, this was an interesting look at a large range of things that can be classified as hallucinations. You know how sometimes when you're laying in bed at night with your eyes closed and you'll start to see patterns? Mine are usually kind of like an optical illusion - they'll be a series of shapes that seem to be moving toward me or away from me. I didn't realize those are hallucinations, but they are. The ones we typically think of are covered, of course, including ones induced by drugs and hallucinations that involve each of our different senses. The occurrence of phantom limbs is talked about, and I thought this was one of the more fascinating sections. The relationship between what the eyes see and the brain knows is complicated, and although the brain has a long memory for things it hasn't seen in a while, it does eventually forget. This seems to be a cause for pain in a phantom limb or for feeling like a body part that has been immobile and invisible to you for a long time no longer belongs to you.
It wasn't extremely in depth about any particular type or cause of hallucinations, but instead provides a good overview. I stopped the audio a number of times to look up more information about occurrences he described just because some of them seemed too wild to be true, but of course they were true. What more can you really ask for in a book about hallucinations than to be entertained and left with a little wonder and head-shaking at the odd and amazing things that our brains can do?
I loved the way the topics and chapters were organized. Sacks is also great at covering interesting topics and providing just enough of an explanation without getting too technical. And he uses cases to illustrate each topic and chapter, with accounts from different doctors and patients.
A very interesting book. I read it over the course of a few months, but it was always easy to pick back up and get into, since the chapters read like their own separate topics. I plan on reading Awakenings next.