Hallucinations
by Oliver Sacks · first published 2012
70% recommend30% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Collection of neurology case studies on how ordinary people, including patients who have lost vision, can experience vivid hallucinations; well suited to readers curious about how the brain works.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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?
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If you haven't read it, you should check out Hallucinations, by the neurologist Oliver Sacks. His books in general are super fascinating, but there's a really interesting section on drugs in that one, and specifically mentions psychedelics a number of times (which…
on “LSD, Reconsidered for Therapy” ↗I would happily recommend you to read "Hallucinations" by Oliver Sacks. This book is not about UFO sightings, but about how ordinary people can have wild hallucinations. For example, an elderly woman who would regularly have very vivid, daytime, hallucinations…
on “CIA Releases UFO Documents” ↗> The contrast in Sacks's hobbies Though you wouldn't know if from TFA, Sacks was also a life-long enthusiast of mind-altering substances[0]. His 2012 Hallucinations[1] inquires into the etiology and social and phenomenal aspects of its subject by examining cases from his patients and from his own recreational episodes and is a completely fascinating read! 0: See,…
on “Letters by Oliver Sacks review” ↗There are fascinating descriptions of patient hallucinations after loss of vision in the aptly named book "Hallucinations" by Oliver Sacks. Tons of examples, but one that many musicians with partially lost vision experienced those missing parts of their vision…
on “Researchers launch "moonshot" to cure blindness through eye transplants” ↗…hand but not the other. You can think of it like a bunch of different subsystems responsible for different kinds of tasks and some of them can be broken so the connections between them don't work. Read Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks for a lot of case studies.
on “Some people can't see mental images” ↗…their geopolitical impacts. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" - been on my list for years. Long but good. "Steve Jobs" - needs no introduction. Got me interested in Isaacson's other books. "Hallucinations" (Oliver Sacks) - insightful analysis of the prevalence and for-reaching effects of hallucination. It's a lot more common (and puzzling) than most of us realize.
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…movements as I do", which requires some form of proprioception. Oliver Sacks talks a lot about other senses beyond those covered in school. I can recommend "The man who mistook his wife for a hat", "Hallucinations", and "Awakenings".
on “The Beauty of Crossed Brain Wires” ↗Not at all surprised this is getting downvoted. There's a decent book on this theme: https://www.amazon.com/Hallucinations-Oliver-Sacks/dp/030794... where the author postulates that a decent portion of society experiences hallucinations at least once in their lifetime without any "helpers" like drugs or sleep deprivation.…
on “Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?” ↗…markets and told in an experimental style. Rust: The Longest War (Jonathan Waldman): Explores several different stories tied together by the theme of metal corrosion and the people who contend with it. Hallucinations (Oliver Sacks): Mostly about what malfunctions of the brains of a few can tell us about how all of our brains are structured. Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry (Parts 1…
on “Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?” ↗Any non-fictions in the list except Oliver Sacks’s “Hallucinations”? The list lacks for some descriptions and IMO any fiction book just don't deserves to be called "unusual".
on “I like unusual books. Here’s what I’d read – if I had time” ↗