Observations placeholder
Sacks, Oliver - Writing gave pain relief
Identifier
014734
Type of Spiritual Experience
Invisible input - inspiration
Hallucination
Background
This needs to be carefully taken in.
That in the process of receiving inspiration to write his book - spiritual experience of a positive kind - pain went. Pain is a sensory experience - a tactile experience, as such we could classify this as a form of tactile hallucination and many such similar examples exists through acupuncture for example. By opening the 'energy flows' and letting th echannels to input open, the pain disappears.
A description of the experience
The Big Idea #5: Oliver Sacks
By Suzanne Koven
July 9th, 2013
Sacks: I had a bunch of surgeries about three years ago, when I had to have my knee done and a laminectomy, and then after that I broke a hip. I was in intense pain. Most of The Mind’s Eye was written at that time and I felt that writing was more effective than morphine.
Rumpus: Really? Literally? In the moment: I’m in pain. I will write. My pain will be relieved while I’m writing? Not just, sort of, in general?
Sacks: No. Only with the act of writing.
Rumpus: With the act?
Sacks: Yes. Writing and thinking. It didn’t go away completely but I didn’t need to take, and also didn’t want to take morphine when I was writing.