Customer Reviews

Fire in the Brain

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The glowing praise from Dr. Oliver Sacks, and dissimilarity between Sacks and Siegel, have been mentioned in Travis Miller's customer review. I second Miller's comments, but with a slightly different slant. Sacks tries to lead readers into the world of the people he describes, and empathizes with them, whatever their odd mental or perceptual ailments may be. Siegel, on the other hand, comes across as a hard-boiled cynic and somewhat of an egotist. The literary style owes a lot to that of noir novels, withholding information to build suspense for a sensationalist twist now and again. I get the distinct impression that Siegel, himself a Californian, wrote this book with the hope that one or more of his stories would be taken up as a film script.

I stand with Siegel in skepticism about claims of the paranormal, but my skepticism only increases my sense of wonder. Siegel, rather, is content to chronicle the sordid side of human nature, and leave it at that. I do think that Miller misconstrues Siegel's owning books about astrology, etc. -- Siegel does not endorse these books, but rather, reads them for research purposes.

Siegel is inconsistent in embracing as well as disparaging drug culture, and his judgment appears to have suffered from the encounter. I was particularly astonished at his chronicle of having himself locked in a cage, in a pitch-dark basement, to determine what effect the experience would have on him. Granted, *that* story wouldn't be a good candidate for a movie script, but it is distressing in what it reveals about the author. Siegel put himself in the charge of only one person who knew where he was, a mentally imbalanced former Vietnam prisoner of war who had been locked in a similar cage by his captors. This episode reveals Siegel either as writing fiction, or as seriously lacking in judgment.

Still, all in all, I found the book entertaining, and somewhat informative, but be warned: some parts are about hallucination as escape from mental and physical torture, and are not for the squeamish.

I have recommended (and even loaned) this book to friends who are interested in how the mind works, particularly how our own brains can fool us. It is a lot easier and more entertaining to read than neuroanatomy and neurochemistry. The common theme is the minds ability to trick itself into believing in things that just aren't "real" in the exterior world.

For those of us who do not believe in the miraculous, this little collection of anecdotes comes as a relief. Near death experience? Was that tunnel and into-the-light rapture something miraculous, or just the standard way the visual centers and endorphin system react to oxygen starvation in the brain.

This book is an antidote for unbelievers to share with the overtly mystically inclined.

This is rough stuff and not for the faint of heart. This book challenged my viewpoint. The author is also very brave and committed to helping his patients and shows such compassion by often putting himself in danger to try to see things as they might. Can you acknowledge the entire spectrum of human experience and still have that positive desire to help people and not be crushed by it? I recommend it but not for just before bed.

This book is written for the layman - consisting mostly of personal narratives, with very little in the way of actual scientific information. That's not necessarily a bad thing; the same approach works very well for Oliver Sacks (whose glowing praise is quoted on the back of the book). Unfortunately, Ronald Siegel is no Oliver Sacks, either in terms of storytelling ability or scientific credibility.

Siegel recounts anecdotes of his research into hallucinatory phenomena - such as a teenage girl who still spends time with an imaginary friend, a woman whose experiences with DMT have left her with permanent auditory hallucinations, a man who lives with the ghost of his unborn daughter, and the imaginary companions of those lost alone at sea.

It's an interesting read, but Siegel's academic integrity leaves something to be desired. His methods are sloppy, and though he assures us he doesn't believe in any of that paranormal mumbo-jumbo, he entertains said mumbo-jumbo a little too seriously - even going so far as to admit that his bookshelf includes titles on astrology and plant consciousness. He refers to his volunteer research subjects as "psychonauts", and expresses implicit sympathy with the drug culture of the 70s. All in all, I don't think Siegel is the best source of objective information on the subject.