This is my first Oliver Sacks book and given his popularity I went in with high expectations. They were unfortunately not met. I don't fault a person writing pop-neurology for focusing on structural and biological aspects of hallucination. That said, I found this book boring. It read basically like repeating themes of "people with this hallucinate that and here is an example." I would have liked to have read more about what differentiates hallucinations from psychosis, how our pathologizing of any perceptual abnormality has led to said abnormalities being labeled dangerous when they are not, etc. He touched very briefly on these topics then quickly shied away.

There also was a lot of "this is true because I say so." Many stories were told of how people's religious, paranormal, anxious, etc experiences were just hallucinations without any explanation of how he knows this to be true. I am an atheist who leans far more to the side of science than ghost hunting, but I also am not easily swayed by the idea that we know and explain everything easily with such a young field like neurology, psychology, neuroscience, or anything else.

That said, it wasn't all bad. There were some interesting case studies and fun stories about Sacks own experiences that made him relatable. I don't regret reading the book. I may give Sacks another try since other reviews indicate this is not one of his best books.