Observations placeholder
Oliver Sacks - Donald Fish has scary hallucinations
Identifier
001579
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The symbolism is personal in this, although he may be seeing a mass of general symbolism, we cannot tell
A description of the experience
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