Hallucinations

Summary

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 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

Oliver Sacks, Hallucinations (New York: Vintage Books 2012). 293 pages - Source: Goodreads.com

Personal Opinion

A very interesting journey into the complexities of the human brain. I found myself learning and retaining quite a bit of the information related to the different ways humans can experience these sense distortions. Most of us had only heard of mental imagery, hallucinations or perhaps about the voices heard by the unfortunate insane, but the famous and admired doctor, with a very enjoyable narrative and empathy for his patients, shares the types (visual, auditory, tactile), the causes, the symptoms, the treatments, and some of his own experiences with such delusions. We are all vulnerable to them and many of us will be faced with this phenomena at one time or another in our lives, not only due to accidents, illnesses, tragedy or even aging, but also via drugs, recreational or not. Also, some interesting proposed explanations for ghosts, near death and religious experiences. Indeed, a fascinating field with still too many unknowns.

My score (1-5):

About the Author:

Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (born 9 July 1933), is a British-American neurologist, psychologist, writer, and amateur chemist who is Professor of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine. Between 2007 and 2012, he was professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University, where he also held the position of "Columbia Artist". Before that, he spent many years on the clinical faculty of Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He also holds the position of visiting professor at the United Kingdom's University of Warwick.
Sacks is the author of numerous best-selling books, including several collections of case studies of people with neurological disorders. His 1973 book Awakenings was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film of the same name in 1990 starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. He and his book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain were the subject of "Musical Minds", an episode of the PBS series Nova.

Source: Wikipedia