Fascinating and strange, what the mind can create seemingly right in front of your eyes. This book is all about different types of hallucinations that people experience- from many different causes. Oliver Sacks describes case studies of patients, as well as his own visual distubrances caused by migranes and intentional drug use (back in the 60’s and 70’s). Each chapter has a focus on the type of hallucination- caused by illness, brain damage, sensory deprivation or chemical influences. I was surprised at how specific the different types of hallucinations are. For example, before the onset of a migrane many people smell certain things very distinctly. Other people see geometric patterns behind their eyes or superimposed on everything they look at. Sacks relates how the brain often imagines things just on the verge of sleep... Odd distortions of perception are also explored in the chapter about phantom limbs, and another about out-of-body experiences- both of which have biological explanations, what is going on in the brain that cases these perceptions. Including explanations of hallucinations of figures coinciding with an overwhelming sense of benevolence or euphoria, that many could interpret as a religious experience. I think what fascinates me most, is how hard the brain works to make sense out of things when there is no sensory input for it to use- so that people in solitary confinement for example, or deprived of their sight, will start seeing faces or brilliant colors. There’s also details in here that make me marvel, at how complex the mechanism of vision is, and how delicately the brain interprets it for us- and so easily it can go awry, making us see things that aren’t there (likewise smell or hear, he deals briefly with olfactory and auditory hallucinations too).

So much in this book I can’t even touch on or explain, as admittedly I struggled to understand some of it myself. Not that the author makes it hard to comprehend, but sometimes it goes so quickly through the material that I feel I missed some parts and had to backtrack. I definitely want to read this again and more thoroughly. ( )

Fascinating but overlong investigation of the variety of hallucinations human beings experience. I never knew, for instance, how prevalent hallucinations were in sufferers of migraines or epilepsy. We also learn about out of body experiences, drug-induced hallucinations, phantom limb syndrome, near death experiences, and a lot more. Surprisingly, Sacks himself experienced a few of these, most notably in his earlier years when he experimented with any number of drugs, stories he relates very frankly here. Reading this shortly after watching Bart Ehrman's "How Jesus Became God" lectures from the Great Courses, I can't help but make connections. Perhaps the stories of Jesus' followers who "saw" him after his death were not made up by later biblical authors, but were simply the type of hallucination many bereaved people have when they lose a loved one (or a loved pet, for that matter.) Everything is connected, and the human mind has corners most of us will never visit. But hearing about some of the fantastic and elaborate visions some of the subjects of this book experienced does make me a bit jealous. It is small compensation that I did have a dream one time--and a dream is very distinct from a hallucination as this book makes clear--where bags of potato chips were falling from the sky and attaching themselves to low branches on trees, so I could take all I wanted. This still doesn't quite compare to watching the Battle of Culloden take place on your dressing gown. ( )

If you've never read Oliver Sacks--read the Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat or the Anthropologist from Mars. Those are excellent books. This one feels more like just a survey of medical information and research about various types of hallucinations. Interesting if that is your field or you have a deep interest in hallucinations but I just wasn't feeling it with this one. It did whet my appetite though for his upcoming memoir which I will be buying in hardcover as soon as it publishes. In this book he talks about his own self-induced drug experimentation which made me wonder more about this strange man who has done so much to teach us about our inner world. ( )

Young Dr. Sacks tried a remarkable variety of mind altering substances. His reports of these experiences are fascinating. His more clinical descriptions of the types of hallucination are informative if not as riveting. Interesting to consider the changes in cultural acceptance for different drugs (amphetamines, sleeping pills in the 60s, the brief legal era for LSD among doctors/chemists).

3.25 stars

Oliver Sacks is a neuroscientist, and this book includes essays on the topic of hallucinations. There were chapters on blindness, Parkinsons, epilepsy, drugs, migraines, narcolepsy, and a lot more, as well as a couple of chapters on auditory and smell hallucinations.

It was mostly interesting, but some parts did lose my interest. His books are like that for me (well, the few that I’ve read). ( )