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.
Hallucinations
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shop the Amazon.com Textbooks Store and save up to 70% on textbook rentals, 90% on used textbooks and 60% on eTextbooks. |
Book Description
Best Value
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2012: A familiar song on mental repeat, a shadowy movement in an empty house--many of us experience minor visual and auditory hallucinations and think nothing of it. Neurologist and professor Oliver Sacks concerns himself with those for whom such breaks with reality are acute and life altering. Dr. Sacks’ latest book--one of the most compelling in his fascinating oeuvre--centers on Charles Bonnet syndrome, a condition characterized by intricate visual hallucinations. Weaving together case studies with anecdotes from his own past and accessible medical explanations, Dr. Sacks introduces us to Sharon, whose vision is invaded by Kermit the Frog; Gertie, whose phantasmal gentleman caller visits each evening, bearing gifts; and a host of other patients whose experiences elicit both sympathy and self-reflection. (The good doctor also shares his own experiments with hallucinogenic drugs, to comic and insightful effect.) Hallucinations is Oliver Sacks at his best: as learned, introspective, and approachable as we could possibly imagine. --Mia Lipman
The Neurological and the Divine: An Interview with Oliver Sacks
The following is an excerpt from a Q&A with Dr. Sacks published on Omnivoracious, the Amazon Books blog. Click here to read the full interview.
Mia Lipman: In Hallucinations, you mention that your childhood migraines are one of the reasons you became a neurologist. How did they help shape your path?
Dr. Sacks: My experiences go back to my first memories of when I was three or four, suddenly seeing a brilliant zigzag which seemed to be vibrating, then enlarged and covered everything to one side. This has happened innumerable times since, but that first time was very terrifying…I know I was in the garden, and part of the garden wall seemed to disappear, and I asked my mother about it. She too had classical migraines, so she explained what it was about and said that it was benign and it would only last a few minutes, and I'd be none the worse. So though I'm not in love with the attacks, it's nice to know that one can live with this quite well.
So that early experience made you curious about why this was happening to you?
Indeed, and there were other experiences. Sometimes it was just color, perhaps in one half of the visual field, or things would be frozen and I couldn't see any movement. So I think this gave me a very early feeling that it's only the privilege of a normal brain which allows us to see the way we do—and that what seems to be a simple vision in fact must have dozens of different components, and any one of these can go down. So it was a learning experience for me as well.
Speaking of learning experiences, you talk in the book about a period in your 30s when you did a lot of hallucinogenic drugs—
Ah, I thought that would come up. [Laughing.]
Of course, it's the best part! I especially liked your description of the results as "a mix of the neurological and the divine." What did this self-experimentation teach you about your field, as well as personally?
I can't conceal that my motives were sort of mixed, but these were learning experiences as well as recreational ones, and occasionally terrifying ones. The gain, I think, [is that] it's a way of revealing various capacities and incapacities in the brain, including, perhaps, mystical ones…I quote William James, who, after taking nitrous oxide, said that it showed him there were many forms of consciousness other than rational consciousness, and that these seem to be uncovered one by one. And that's quite an experience. I do not recommend it to anybody, and I hope my writing about these things is not seen as a recommendation. I think I'm very lucky to have survived them, which several of my friends and contemporaries didn't.
> Continue reading "The Neurological and the Divine: An Interview with Oliver Sacks"
From Bookforum
Many of the observations in Sacks's book are couched so modestly and gently that they seem not reductive but transcendent, the dependence of belief on biology representing one more example of the remarkable grace to be found in the operations of the human mind. —Jenny Davidson
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Oliver Sacks was born in London and educated in London, Oxford, California, and New York. He is professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University, and Columbia's first University Artist. He is the author of many books, including Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Musicophilia. His newest book, Hallucinations, will be published in November, 2012.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
159 of 166 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
You're sitting in a darkened room, or perhaps lying in bed. Suddenly, you hear your name being spoken. Perhaps it's a familiar voice. You start, you may even get up- but more likely you just realize there's no one there. You must have imagined it.
Has this ever happened to you? It would be odd if it hadn't. Most people have had this experience, and experiences like it. If and when it happened to you, your first thought was probably "I must have imagined it." You might also have thought about telling someone else about it- but then thought better of it. Normal people don't have hallucinations, right? That's something that happens to crazy people.
But hallucinations are a near-universal phenomenon, and they're not limited only to those people suffering from mental disorders. In fact, the hallucinations of schizophrenics, which are usually auditory in nature, make up a very small subset of the range of hallucinations that people experience. There are a great many conditions, both internal and external, that can result in hallucinations in all modalities- sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. There are kinesthetic hallucinations that affect a person's perception of the position of their body, or pain, or the passage of time. For every perception, there are hallucinations.
Many, if not most, people don't report hallucination for fear of being labeled crazy. There's a very common, yet underreported condition called Charles Bonnet Syndrome, or CBS for short, that commonly afflicts older people who suffer from some visual impairment. The impairment can be peripheral in nature, like macular degeneration, or central, as in a stroke affecting visual cortex or thalamus; the important thing is that all or part of the visual field is damaged, or missing. Sufferers of CBS see things- patterns, animals, people- all manner of visual hallucinations. They usually know that what they're perceiving isn't real, but at the same time they're very reticent to report their experiences for fear of be labeled as suffering from dementia, so the condition goes largely unreported. Most doctors, nurses and nursing home staff have never heard of it. And yet CBS has been known since Charles Bonnet first described it in 1760.
The hallucinations seen by CBS sufferers are triggered when the brain is deprived of perceptual information. Your mind is constantly busy constructing the perceptual world you inhabit. Most of what you experience as perception is in reality a fiction compiled from memory, constantly update by new perceptual information. When that input is disrupted, the brain starts filling in the missing bits. If part of your visual field is destroyed- as happened to Sacks- the brain tries to complete the scene, using stored memories. Sometimes the bits it fills in make sense. Often they don't.
There are other conditions in which sensory deprivation can trigger hallucinations. Phantom limb pain, a common complaint of patients who have had limbs amputated, is this sort of hallucination. So are the visions seen when people are placed in sensory deprivation tanks. Hallucinations can also be triggered by unnatural activity in the brain. Electrical stimulation (used in neurosurgery to identify function in the brain), epilepsy (which can be thought of as a spreading electrical "storm" in the brain), and hallucinogenic drugs can evoke hallucinations by raising the level of activity in part of the brain, evoking memories and stored perceptions. Many migraine sufferers are aware of the visual hallucinations that accompany or precede migraine headaches. These hallucinations are often caused by unusual activity in the visual cortex, and the migraine sufferer will typically perceive geometric forms that echo the organization of neurons in visual cortex.
Oliver Sacks is well known as a neurologist who has a particular gift for writing about the various pathologies of the human nervous system, and in Hallucinations he follows his usual pattern of telling a fascinating story via historical background, scientific research, and a large number of clinical cases he has consulted on. He begins with a discussion of Charles Bonnet Syndrome, and from there goes on to sensory deprivation, auditory hallucinations, hallucinations associated with Parkinson's disease, hallucinogenic drugs, epilepsy, sleep, religious experiences, and more. As he did in The Mind's Eye (Vintage), he brings his own experiences into the narrative as well- having lost vision in one eye from a tumor, Sacks himself experienced a range of visual hallucinations that helped him understand the experiences of some of his patients.
Perhaps because of his own experiences, Sacks seeks to demystify hallucinations, and to de-stigmatize those who experience them while being otherwise untroubled by psychiatric issues. He notes that about a third of all Parkinsons patients eventually experience hallucinations as a consequence of their medication, and this has led to many sufferers being labeled as psychotic by their doctors. While the administration of large- Sacks would say, excessive- doses of L-Dopa and dopamine agonists can indeed put patients in a delusional state, many patients experience mild hallucinations that they can identify as such, and some even find them amusing or entertaining. One patient of Sacks' found himself comforted by visits from a hallucinated cat while his own cat was at the veterinarian's. While many psychotics suffer from hearing voices, so do a number of decidedly non-psychotic people. Some even find them helpful. Sacks mentions Julian Jaynes' hypothesis (described in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind) concerning the origins of consciousness, and speculates, like Jaynes, that early man may have experienced these voices at some stage in human evolution.
I have every one of Sacks' previous books (they're lined up on a shelf next to my psychology and neuroscience textbooks) and I can certainly say that I found this volume every bit as interesting as any of his previous works. Sacks does a marvelous job of making complex neurological issues clear to the lay reader, and his use of case studies brings the reader a real perspective regarding the experiences of the sufferers. Sacks' patients are more than numbered case studies; they're people with real lives, with whom the reader can empathize. Readers of his previous works will know what I'm talking about. Readers new to Sacks will, I suspect, find this volume as fascinating as I did, and will be just as anxious to read his earlier books as I was when I first discovered him for myself.
Has this ever happened to you? It would be odd if it hadn't. Most people have had this experience, and experiences like it. If and when it happened to you, your first thought was probably "I must have imagined it." You might also have thought about telling someone else about it- but then thought better of it. Normal people don't have hallucinations, right? That's something that happens to crazy people.
But hallucinations are a near-universal phenomenon, and they're not limited only to those people suffering from mental disorders. In fact, the hallucinations of schizophrenics, which are usually auditory in nature, make up a very small subset of the range of hallucinations that people experience. There are a great many conditions, both internal and external, that can result in hallucinations in all modalities- sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. There are kinesthetic hallucinations that affect a person's perception of the position of their body, or pain, or the passage of time. For every perception, there are hallucinations.
Many, if not most, people don't report hallucination for fear of being labeled crazy. There's a very common, yet underreported condition called Charles Bonnet Syndrome, or CBS for short, that commonly afflicts older people who suffer from some visual impairment. The impairment can be peripheral in nature, like macular degeneration, or central, as in a stroke affecting visual cortex or thalamus; the important thing is that all or part of the visual field is damaged, or missing. Sufferers of CBS see things- patterns, animals, people- all manner of visual hallucinations. They usually know that what they're perceiving isn't real, but at the same time they're very reticent to report their experiences for fear of be labeled as suffering from dementia, so the condition goes largely unreported. Most doctors, nurses and nursing home staff have never heard of it. And yet CBS has been known since Charles Bonnet first described it in 1760.
The hallucinations seen by CBS sufferers are triggered when the brain is deprived of perceptual information. Your mind is constantly busy constructing the perceptual world you inhabit. Most of what you experience as perception is in reality a fiction compiled from memory, constantly update by new perceptual information. When that input is disrupted, the brain starts filling in the missing bits. If part of your visual field is destroyed- as happened to Sacks- the brain tries to complete the scene, using stored memories. Sometimes the bits it fills in make sense. Often they don't.
There are other conditions in which sensory deprivation can trigger hallucinations. Phantom limb pain, a common complaint of patients who have had limbs amputated, is this sort of hallucination. So are the visions seen when people are placed in sensory deprivation tanks. Hallucinations can also be triggered by unnatural activity in the brain. Electrical stimulation (used in neurosurgery to identify function in the brain), epilepsy (which can be thought of as a spreading electrical "storm" in the brain), and hallucinogenic drugs can evoke hallucinations by raising the level of activity in part of the brain, evoking memories and stored perceptions. Many migraine sufferers are aware of the visual hallucinations that accompany or precede migraine headaches. These hallucinations are often caused by unusual activity in the visual cortex, and the migraine sufferer will typically perceive geometric forms that echo the organization of neurons in visual cortex.
Oliver Sacks is well known as a neurologist who has a particular gift for writing about the various pathologies of the human nervous system, and in Hallucinations he follows his usual pattern of telling a fascinating story via historical background, scientific research, and a large number of clinical cases he has consulted on. He begins with a discussion of Charles Bonnet Syndrome, and from there goes on to sensory deprivation, auditory hallucinations, hallucinations associated with Parkinson's disease, hallucinogenic drugs, epilepsy, sleep, religious experiences, and more. As he did in The Mind's Eye (Vintage), he brings his own experiences into the narrative as well- having lost vision in one eye from a tumor, Sacks himself experienced a range of visual hallucinations that helped him understand the experiences of some of his patients.
Perhaps because of his own experiences, Sacks seeks to demystify hallucinations, and to de-stigmatize those who experience them while being otherwise untroubled by psychiatric issues. He notes that about a third of all Parkinsons patients eventually experience hallucinations as a consequence of their medication, and this has led to many sufferers being labeled as psychotic by their doctors. While the administration of large- Sacks would say, excessive- doses of L-Dopa and dopamine agonists can indeed put patients in a delusional state, many patients experience mild hallucinations that they can identify as such, and some even find them amusing or entertaining. One patient of Sacks' found himself comforted by visits from a hallucinated cat while his own cat was at the veterinarian's. While many psychotics suffer from hearing voices, so do a number of decidedly non-psychotic people. Some even find them helpful. Sacks mentions Julian Jaynes' hypothesis (described in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind) concerning the origins of consciousness, and speculates, like Jaynes, that early man may have experienced these voices at some stage in human evolution.
I have every one of Sacks' previous books (they're lined up on a shelf next to my psychology and neuroscience textbooks) and I can certainly say that I found this volume every bit as interesting as any of his previous works. Sacks does a marvelous job of making complex neurological issues clear to the lay reader, and his use of case studies brings the reader a real perspective regarding the experiences of the sufferers. Sacks' patients are more than numbered case studies; they're people with real lives, with whom the reader can empathize. Readers of his previous works will know what I'm talking about. Readers new to Sacks will, I suspect, find this volume as fascinating as I did, and will be just as anxious to read his earlier books as I was when I first discovered him for myself.
62 of 63 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Oliver Sacks has crossed a mystical line with *Hallucinations* and given us a journey into the human brain in all its misfiring, surreal glory. Sacks has a knack for writing about the *different,* the *unusual* as part of the normal human experience; his *Hallucinations* can be amazing, frightening and even ugly, but they are not in any way inhuman. Hallucinations are a part of who we are and who we're supposed to be. They've always been there...
I'm aphasic. I had a brain injury at age 18. Before that, I saw every Word, every sentence, every paragraph I spoke or I heard spoken or sung, pass before my eyes in Times Roman font. Because my brother is schizophrenic, I told no one. What would people think of me and my Words? But seeing the Words gave me comfort from the time I was three. When aphasia ripped my "hallucinations" out of my brain, I thought would die of loneliness. (I very nearly did.) It took me six years to relearn how to read again; but the Words didn't come home to my eyes. I was forced to see the world as it *is,* and I didn't like it very much. Twenty years out from injury, while listening to Ian Hunter's haunting slow burn of "All of the Good Ones Are Taken," I saw a fleeting phrase superimposed upon the windshield. And then, I saw another. And another. My "hallucinations" were Home; and I was finally again whole. And here's where you say, "But she LOOKS so normal..." Grin.
The beauty of *Hallucinations* is that Sacks writes eloquently and draws one into the world of the hallucinatory experience. He wants us to understand the reasons behind the existence of these visions, these phantoms of the brain. There are some people who understand their hallucinations and function well while having them; others are frightened and cannot discern hallucination from reality. Sacks is the consummate observer, whose approach to neuroscience is always fresh and very challenging. For me, reading *Hallucinations" was an intensely personal experience that reassured me that my brain is not alone in its weird wiring.
I cannot recommend *Hallucinations* highly enough on ALL levels. This is not an academic work, but it should be read by every person studying neuroscience. Sacks is a visionary in the field; and *Hallucinations* is by far his best book to date. You won't be disappointed and you WILL learn something new.
I'm aphasic. I had a brain injury at age 18. Before that, I saw every Word, every sentence, every paragraph I spoke or I heard spoken or sung, pass before my eyes in Times Roman font. Because my brother is schizophrenic, I told no one. What would people think of me and my Words? But seeing the Words gave me comfort from the time I was three. When aphasia ripped my "hallucinations" out of my brain, I thought would die of loneliness. (I very nearly did.) It took me six years to relearn how to read again; but the Words didn't come home to my eyes. I was forced to see the world as it *is,* and I didn't like it very much. Twenty years out from injury, while listening to Ian Hunter's haunting slow burn of "All of the Good Ones Are Taken," I saw a fleeting phrase superimposed upon the windshield. And then, I saw another. And another. My "hallucinations" were Home; and I was finally again whole. And here's where you say, "But she LOOKS so normal..." Grin.
The beauty of *Hallucinations* is that Sacks writes eloquently and draws one into the world of the hallucinatory experience. He wants us to understand the reasons behind the existence of these visions, these phantoms of the brain. There are some people who understand their hallucinations and function well while having them; others are frightened and cannot discern hallucination from reality. Sacks is the consummate observer, whose approach to neuroscience is always fresh and very challenging. For me, reading *Hallucinations" was an intensely personal experience that reassured me that my brain is not alone in its weird wiring.
I cannot recommend *Hallucinations* highly enough on ALL levels. This is not an academic work, but it should be read by every person studying neuroscience. Sacks is a visionary in the field; and *Hallucinations* is by far his best book to date. You won't be disappointed and you WILL learn something new.
81 of 86 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
"Hallucinations" is a fascinating and eminently readable neurological parade covering all varieties of hallucinations. Dr. Sacks calls it a "natural history or anthology of hallucinations," a perfectly apt description.
It turns out that hallucinations are not that uncommon. In fact, I'd guess that most readers drawn to these pages will find themselves exclaiming at one point or another, "Yeah, that's happened to me, too!" But don't get me wrong; this book is not filled with the commonplace. On the contrary, anyone who loves reading Oliver Sacks knows that his books are filled with extraordinary and totally off-the-wall case histories. This book does not disappoint...at times it is jaw-dropping surreal.
The work is divided into an introduction and fifteen chapters. Each chapter covers a different broad category of hallucination and each category is based on a specific neurological disorder or cognitive deficit. Sacks believes that the only way to understand hallucinations is to read about the first-hand experiences of those that suffer from them. Thus, the book is made up almost entirely of first-hand accounts. Whenever possible, Dr. Sacks follows each individual case description with information about the impact these hallucinations have had on that person's life. Perhaps one third of these first hand examples come from Sacks' professional clinical case studies. Another approximate fifteen percent or more comes from Dr. Sacks' own unique personal experience (i.e., his experiences having hallucinations due to his migraine disorder or from experimenting with a large variety of hallucinogenic drugs and other substances when he was a young man). The balance comes from general historical or medical primary source materials. The book is the result of not only extensive medical research, but also a great deal of in-depth cultural and historical research. Many of the cases concern famous writers, composers and other luminaries from the last few centuries. Almost every page has footnotes, and there is a large bibliography at the end.
I cannot honestly complete a review of this fine book without mentioning that it can become overwhelmingly bizarre and, at times, even tedious. Reading again and again about the details of each person's outlandish, weird, and freaky hallucinations can become...well, boring. It reminded me of the many times in my life when I've been cornered by a friend or colleague who just had to tell me the details about some wacky dream that had occurred the night before. Such descriptions can be entertaining at first, but after a while, it just gets so weird, you find your brain rebelling and turning off...it is as if your mind takes control and says, "this is so bizarre I'm just not going to try to comprehend or visualize this stuff for you any more,"...and then it shuts off. Unfortunately, that is how I felt many times as I read this anthology. I was totally fascinated and then after much repetition of similar bizarre accounts, my mind kept shutting off and I found myself getting sleepy. As a result, I recommend reading this book in small bits and pieces over a week or two. Anthologies are not designed to be read in a single sitting.
Despite this caveat, I recommend this book. I've read most of Dr. Sacks' books. For me, this was not as good as some of his other books; however, it meticulously covers the subject. If I was less than totally enthralled at any time, I believe it was because the unique nature of the subject matter and the fact that it was an anthology and not meant to be read quickly. So, read it slowly. Enjoy it a little at a time. It will change your attitude about this marvelous and fairly common phenomenon.
It turns out that hallucinations are not that uncommon. In fact, I'd guess that most readers drawn to these pages will find themselves exclaiming at one point or another, "Yeah, that's happened to me, too!" But don't get me wrong; this book is not filled with the commonplace. On the contrary, anyone who loves reading Oliver Sacks knows that his books are filled with extraordinary and totally off-the-wall case histories. This book does not disappoint...at times it is jaw-dropping surreal.
The work is divided into an introduction and fifteen chapters. Each chapter covers a different broad category of hallucination and each category is based on a specific neurological disorder or cognitive deficit. Sacks believes that the only way to understand hallucinations is to read about the first-hand experiences of those that suffer from them. Thus, the book is made up almost entirely of first-hand accounts. Whenever possible, Dr. Sacks follows each individual case description with information about the impact these hallucinations have had on that person's life. Perhaps one third of these first hand examples come from Sacks' professional clinical case studies. Another approximate fifteen percent or more comes from Dr. Sacks' own unique personal experience (i.e., his experiences having hallucinations due to his migraine disorder or from experimenting with a large variety of hallucinogenic drugs and other substances when he was a young man). The balance comes from general historical or medical primary source materials. The book is the result of not only extensive medical research, but also a great deal of in-depth cultural and historical research. Many of the cases concern famous writers, composers and other luminaries from the last few centuries. Almost every page has footnotes, and there is a large bibliography at the end.
I cannot honestly complete a review of this fine book without mentioning that it can become overwhelmingly bizarre and, at times, even tedious. Reading again and again about the details of each person's outlandish, weird, and freaky hallucinations can become...well, boring. It reminded me of the many times in my life when I've been cornered by a friend or colleague who just had to tell me the details about some wacky dream that had occurred the night before. Such descriptions can be entertaining at first, but after a while, it just gets so weird, you find your brain rebelling and turning off...it is as if your mind takes control and says, "this is so bizarre I'm just not going to try to comprehend or visualize this stuff for you any more,"...and then it shuts off. Unfortunately, that is how I felt many times as I read this anthology. I was totally fascinated and then after much repetition of similar bizarre accounts, my mind kept shutting off and I found myself getting sleepy. As a result, I recommend reading this book in small bits and pieces over a week or two. Anthologies are not designed to be read in a single sitting.
Despite this caveat, I recommend this book. I've read most of Dr. Sacks' books. For me, this was not as good as some of his other books; however, it meticulously covers the subject. If I was less than totally enthralled at any time, I believe it was because the unique nature of the subject matter and the fact that it was an anthology and not meant to be read quickly. So, read it slowly. Enjoy it a little at a time. It will change your attitude about this marvelous and fairly common phenomenon.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hallucinations
Mmm... Somehow this book left me with a bittersweet sensation after finishing it. I found this book filled with some good information and case histories about hallucinations, but... Read more
Published 6 days ago by Carlos Santana
5.0 out of 5 stars
Visions Beyond Reality: A Review of Oliver Sacks "Hallucinations"
Dr. Oliver Sacks' latest book, simply titled "Hallucinations", explores the wide range of hallucinations experienced by all sorts of people, from the mundane to the truly unique... Read more
Published 6 days ago by Christopher Higginbotham
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sometimes interesting, sometimes boring
I read about 75% of the book but then decided to put it away. Contains some interesting insights but for a layman difficult to understand the differences between different types of... Read more
Published 9 days ago by Ton054
2.0 out of 5 stars
Like someone telling you his dreams
Much of the book reads like a list of lists. Hallucination after hallucination is described without giving us much insight into what is interesting about them. Read more
Published 11 days ago by A
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hallucinations explained
Great book by Oliver Sacks on why we see things that are not there. From gods to aliens and other hallucinations such as Near Death to seeing people that have died to ones that may... Read more
Published 15 days ago by Carl
5.0 out of 5 stars
Helpful description of the experience of hallucinations
Oliver Sacks never disappoints. As a practitioner, I appreciated the excerpts of personal experiences of hallucinations in many different situations and originating from a variety... Read more
Published 17 days ago by Elizabeth M. Choby
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Facinating Book
Fascinating. Illuminating. Well written, well researched. I thorough enjoyed this informative book. It included many more topics than I expected. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Marion Wood
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting book about hallucinations
Divided into chapters on different causes. Drugs, sleep disorder, missing limbs, trauma, migraines, Parkinson's, etc. Recommend if it sounds interesting.
Published 21 days ago by October customer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing
The author writes about a difficult subject in a light, entertaining and enlightening way. Through his text we can feel the compassion and love he felt for all the people with whom... Read more
Published 24 days ago by Letícia F. B. Willemsens
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hallucinations for Dummies
Oliver Sacks has earned a medical degree from Oxford and is currently working at the New York University School of Medicine as a professor of neurology. Read more
Published 25 days ago by Willa
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling
- Books > Medical Books > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Neurology
- Books > Medical Books > Psychology > General
- Books > Medical Books > Psychology > Mental Illness
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences > Medicine > Clinical > Neurology
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Science & Mathematics
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Social Sciences > Psychology > Cognitive Psychology
- Books > Science & Math > Behavioral Sciences > Cognitive Psychology
