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.

杰出的神经病学专家，闻名全球的畅销书作家。

毕业于牛津大学皇后学院，曾任哥伦比亚大学临床神经科教授，现任纽约大学医学院教授。从1973年起，他就开始以亲身的医患经历，写作了一系列的“医疗轶事”。萨克斯将患者案例文学化，将虚构与真实融为一体，饱含同情，着力描写患者的各种身心体验，给读者打开一道通往奇异世界之门。

奥利弗•萨克斯系列作品

《火星上的人类学家》

《错把妻子当帽子》

《钨舅舅》

《脑袋里装了2000出歌剧的人》

《睡人》