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Oliver Sacks – Hallucinations

While …hallucinations are only occasional with most people, they may occur frequently in some, as is the case with Donald Fish, an Australian man whom I met in Sydney after he wrote to me about his vivid hallucinations:

I wake from a calm sleep and perhaps a fairly normal dream with a shock, and there before me is a creature that even Hollywood couldn't create. The hallucinations fade in about ten seconds, and I can move when I have them. In fact I usually jump about a foot into the air and scream. . . . The hallucinations are becoming worse - now about four a night - I am now becoming terrified of going to bed. The following are some examples of what I see:

• A huge figure of an angel standing over me next to a figure of death in black.
• A rotting corpse lying next to me.
• A huge crocodile at my throat.
• A dead baby on the floor covered in blood.
• Hideous faces laughing at me.
• Giant spiders - very frequent.
• Huge hand over my face. Also one on the floor five feet across.
• Drifting spider webs.
• Birds and insects flying into my face.
• Two faces looking at me from under a rock
• Image of myself - only looking older - standing by the bed in a suit.
• Two rats eating a potato.
• A mass of different coloured flags descending onto me.
• Ugly-looking primitive man lying on floor covered in tufts of orange hair.
• Shards of glass falling on me.
• Two wire lobster pots.
• Dots of red, increasing to thousands, like spattered blood.
• Masses of logs falling on me