Observations placeholder
Oliver Sacks - Mrs O' C and the crystal radio
Identifier
003694
Type of Spiritual Experience
Perception recall
Hallucination
Background
A description of the experience
The Man who mistook his wife for a hat – Oliver Sacks
Mrs O’C was somewhat deaf, but otherwise in good health. She lived in an old people’s home. One night in January 1979, she dreamt vividly, nostalgically of her childhood in Ireland, and especially of the songs they danced to and sang. When she woke up, the music was still going, very loud and clear.
‘I must be still dreaming’ she thought, but this was not so. She got up, roused and puzzled. It was the middle of the night. Someone she assumed, must have left a radio playing. But why was she the only person to be disturbed by it? She checked every radio she could find – they were all turned off. Then she had another idea; she had heard that dental fillings could sometimes act like a crystal radio, picking up broadcasts with unusual intensity. ‘That’s it’ she thought ‘One of my fillings is playing up. It won’t last long, I’ll get it fixed in the morning’.
She complained to the night nurse, who said her fillings looked fine. At this point another notion occurred to Mrs O’C. ‘What sort of radio station’ she reasoned to herself, ‘would play Irish songs, deafeningly, in the middle of the night? Songs, just songs, without introduction or comment? And only songs that I know. What radio station would play my songs and nothing else?’
At this point she asked herself ‘Is the radio in my head?’
Mrs O’C was found to have suffered a stroke in her right temporal lobe and as it resolved, the songs started to disappear.
The Man who mistook his wife for a hat – Oliver Sacks
By mid April the songs had entirely gone and Mrs O’C was herself again. I asked her at this point how she felt about it all and in particular, whether she missed the paroxysmal songs she heard.
‘It’s funny you should ask that’ she said with a smile. ‘Mostly I would say it is a great relief. But yes, I do miss the old songs a little. Now, with lots of them, I can’t even recall them. It was like being given back a forgotten bit of my childhood again. And some of the songs were really lovely.