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.
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