Science and Inquiry discussion

Our book selection for April 2013 is Hallucinations. You can use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

This looks interesting. Even more interesting than Nate Silver. I'm still stuck on his book.

I'm looking forward to reading this. I also like the all-seeing eye on the jacket!

I haven't had time to join group reads lately, but I downloaded this one this morning!

Heard a lengthy interview of the author on NPR and the book sounds delicious.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Sacks presented a broad range of behaviors or experiences that he categorized as hallucinations. I found this helpful in my role as caregiver for my husband who has Parkinson's disease and in listening to members of a related support group that I lead.
I, too, liked the all-seeing eye on the jacket that John mentioned.

I finished the book today, and thought it was really interesting. It's incredible to see how many different ways the brain can mess things up, while still attempting to maintain normalcy. It's so easy to go through life believing everything you see, hear, and experience are all how reality actually is. Every time I'm reminded how much work the brain does just to give us an approximation, and all the shortcuts it takes, I'm simultaneously awed by it's complexity and fragility.

I was very interested in this book. I get migraines, seizures (that they call complicated migraines) and severe insomnia. All these things cause me to hallucinate. I used to be very touchy about people knowing, but my current neurologist has put me more at ease. so did this book.

I'm about halfway through and find it very interesting. I had never really thought about all the different hallucinations there could be out there. He talks about his patients from Awakenings in the Parkinson's chapter. Some hallucinations are sort of like the phantom limb syndrome, in response to the loss of that sense.

This is an interesting--and entertaining--book! Just today, I heard of an elderly person I know who has started hearing musical hallucinations. So--I was able to look up in the book the possible causes of these hallucinations. Quite apropos!

Here is my review.