Hallucinations

Product Description

Have you ever seen something that wasn't really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you & 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. 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 colour 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 & 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 & 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 & compassion Dr Sacks weaves together stories of his patients & of his own mind-altering experiences to illuminate what hallucinations tell us about the organization & structure of our brains how they have influenced every culture's folklore & art & why the potential for hallucination is present in us all a vital part of the human condition.