Language, that most human invention, can enable what, in principle, should not be possible. It can allow all of us, even the congenitally blind, to see with another person’s eyes. Oliver Sacks More Quotes by Oliver Sacks More Quotes From Oliver Sacks The same areas which are active in listening to music are also active when you imagine music, and this includes the motor areas, too. That explains why earlier, even though I was only thinking of the mazurka, I was thinking in terms of movement. Oliver Sacks movement listening thinking ... the body, normally, is never in question: our bodies are beyond question, or perhaps beneath question - they are simply, unquestionably, there. This unquestionability of the body, is, for Wittgenstein, the start and basis of all knowledge and certainty. Oliver Sacks bases certainty body A profound intriguing and compelling guide to the intricacies of the human brain. Oliver Sacks intriguing brain profound Even when other powers have been lost and people may not even be able to understand language, they will nearly always recognize and respond to familiar tunes. And not only that. The tunes may carry them back and may give them memory of scenes and emotions otherwise unavailable for them. Oliver Sacks giving memories people I feel I should be trying to complete my life, whatever completing a life means. Oliver Sacks should trying mean I rejoice when I meet gifted young people... I feel the future is in good hands. Oliver Sacks young hands people I think the brain is a dynamic system in which some parts control or suppress other parts. And if perhaps one has damage in one of the controlling or suppressing areas, then you may have the emergence or eruption of something, whether it is a seizure, a criminal trait - - or even a sudden musical passion. Oliver Sacks passion musical thinking The miracle is that, in most cases, he succeeds - for the powers of survival, of the will to survive, and to survive as a unique inalienable individual, are absolutely, the strongest in our being: stronger than any impulses, stronger than disease. Oliver Sacks will-to-survive miracle unique Darwin speculated that “music tones and rhythms were used by our half-human ancestors, during the season of courtship, when animals of all kinds are excited not only by love, but by strong passions of jealousy, rivalry, and triumph” and that speech arose, secondarily, from this primal music. Oliver Sacks passion strong animal Psychotic hallucinations, whether they are visual or vocal, they address you. They accuse you. They seduce you. They humiliate you. They jeer at you. You interact with them. Oliver Sacks hallucinations addresses brain Given her deafness, the auditory part of the brain, deprived of its usual input, had started to generate a spontaneous activity of its own, and this took the form of musical hallucinations, mostly musical memories from her earlier life. The brain needed to stay incessantly active, and if it was not getting its usual stimulation..., it would create its own stimulation in the form of hallucinations. Oliver Sacks musical brain memories It really is a very odd business that all of us, to varying degrees, have music in our heads. Oliver Sacks degrees odd It is easy to recollect the good things of life, the times when one's heart rejoices and expands, when everything is enfolded in kindness and love; it is easy to recollect the fineness of life-how noble one was, how generous one felt, what courage one showed in the face of adversity. Oliver Sacks adversity kindness heart Enhancement not only allows the possibilities of a healthy fullness and exuberance, but of a rather ominous extravagance, aberration, monstrosity ... This danger is built into the very nature of growth and life. Growth can become over-growth, life 'hyper-life' ... The paradox of an illness which can present as wellness - as a wonderful feeling of health and well-being, and only later reveal its malignant potentials - is one of the chimaeras, tricks and ironies of nature. Oliver Sacks growth health feelings When I was five, I am told, and asked what my favorite things in the world were, I answered, smoked salmon and Bach. Oliver Sacks salmon favorites-things world Studies by Andrew Newberg and others have shown that long-term practice of meditation produces significant alterations in cerebral blood flow in parts of the brain related to attention, emotion, and some autonomic functions. Oliver Sacks practice long blood The power of music and the plasticity of the brain go together very strikingly, especially in young people. Oliver Sacks together brain people Sign language is the equal of speech, lending itself equally to the rigorous and the poetic, to philosophical analysis or to making love. Oliver Sacks philosophical philosophy science I think there's probably always been visions and voices, and these were variously ascribed to the divine or demonic or the muses. I think many poets still feel they depend on an inner voice, or a voice which tells them what to do. Oliver Sacks vision voice thinking It seems that the brain always has to be active, and if the auditory parts of the brain are not getting sufficient input, then they may start to create hallucinatory sounds on their own. Although it is curious that they do not usually create noises or voices; they create music. Oliver Sacks voice sound brain
