Book Review and Little Outing

I finished neurologist Oliver Sacks' book, Hallucinations. See it here at Amazon.  It was an interesting and surprisingly quick read.  Sacks seems kind, very intelligent, and patient-centered. He also proves false the commonly held idea that having a hallucination means that a person is psychotic, although psychotic people do also hallucinate.  Apparently people hallucinate fairly readily under several circumstances that distort perception.  Dr. Sacks writes about people who hallucinate due to blindness, deafness, certain diseases, intoxication, migraines, grief, sensory deprivation, mortal danger, and isolation.

The chapter in which Sacks recalls hallucinations that he had after trying various mind altering substances was especially interesting.  I couldn't tell if Sacks was bragging about his adventures opening the doors of perception or if he was admitting a youthful addiction, or both.

The chapter on grief hallucinations was sad.  I have heard of people who had such experiences of seeing, hearing or smelling lost loved ones.  Some people thought they were grief induced mental tricks and others thought they were visitations from the spirit world.  What is kind of creepy to me, but not addressed in the book, is that some people have apparently experienced these grief hallucinations before they knew of their loss.

Sacks briefly wrote about the Third Man Factor.  I finished another book specifically about it this summer. Amazon info.  That is when a presence, usually helpful, appears to a person who is isolated and/or in deep trouble.  The Third Man is especially associated with mountain climbers, those working in the Arctic, astronauts, and people sailing alone on the ocean.

Sacks tells all kinds of stories. Some are sad and some are humorous or inspiring. I liked the sweet one about the woman who had a comforting visit from her cat that died the previous day.

You may know of the author as the doctor from "Awakenings."




Also, I visited my favorite agritourism destination over the weekend.  It is White Oak Lavender Farm in Harrisonburg, VA.  It is a beautiful place and the lavender is so relaxing.  My favorite part is their friendly farm animals.  Here are some pictures I made there.

I like this one because it looks like the one hen is saying, "That's some awesome highlighting on your feathers there, girlfriend!"