…sight, 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 le…
Read more ›…d terrifying as a horror movie. (Sacks amply recounts his own entertaining hallucinations, including a drug-induced encounter with a spider who talked to him about Bertrand Russell.) “As always, Sacks approaches the topic as both a brain scientist and a humanist; he shows how hallucinations elucidate intricate neurological mechanisms—often they are the brain’s bizarre attempt to fill in for missing sensory input—and examines their imprint on folkl…
Read more ›…During a lecture at Columbia University, neurologist and author Oliver Sacks examined how the normal brain, if deprived of perceptual input, may generate illusory sensations as with the visual hallucinations of the blind, or the musical hallucinations of the deaf. Find out more about Sacks’s forthcoming book on the subject, Hallucinations, on sale November 6th….
Read more ›…person’s mind is what makes us truly human. Read an excerpt | Buy the book Hallucinations “Elegant. . . . An absorbing plunge into a mystery of the mind.” — Entertainment Weekly To many people, hallucinations imply madness, but in fact they are a common part of the human experience. These sensory distortions range from the shimmering zigzags of a visual migraine to powerful visions brought on by fever, injuries, drugs, sensory deprivation, exhaust…
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