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Oliver Sacks


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Oliver Sacks is a practicing neurologist and professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University in New York.

 

New Scientist recently did an interview with him (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628890.400-oliver-sacks-i-want-to-destigmatise-hallucinations.html?page=1 login required) on hallucinations, in which are a few interesting things I want to share with you.

 

>You mentioned stigma. Do most people associate hallucinations with mental illness?

I think there's a common view, often shared by doctors, that hallucinations denote madness - especially if there's any hearing of voices. I hope I can defuse or de-stigmatise this a bit. This can be felt very much by patients. There was a remarkable study of elderly people with impaired vision, and it turned out that many had elaborate hallucinations, but very few acknowledged anything until they found a doctor whom they trusted.

 

>What is the difference between hallucination and imagination?

I think you recognise that what you imagine is your own, whereas with hallucinations there is no sense of you having produced them. One feels, "What's that? Where did it come from?"

 

And the most interesting part...

>One time you had a conversation with a spider...

With the spider, I should have known that it's impossible. That's one of the few times when I was completely taken in. The business of believing and being converted by hallucinations worries me. For example, a book has just been published by a neurosurgeon who had a so-called near death experience and is convinced that he saw heaven. I want to say, strongly, hallucinations aren't evidence of anything, let alone heaven.

 

MMMmm, a neurologist that would be interested in the tulpa community. Someone totally needs to link him here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughtform#Modern_perspective

 

'I say 'soul making' Soul as distinguished from an Intelligence- There may be intelligences or sparks of divinity in millions- but they are not souls until they acquire identities, till each one is personality itself'

-John Keats, 1819

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Guest Albatross_

MMMmm, a neurologist that would be interested in the tulpa community. Someone totally needs to link him here.

 

Indeed, at least in the hallucination part of the process. I wonder what he was on (if anything) when he had that conversation with the spider.

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Guest Anonymous

"What's that? Where did it come from?"

 

Hmm. I recognize that what my tulpas say comes from me, but in an indirect sense. Though now I do sometimes have thoughts that I have difficulty attributing to any one of us in particular. Which one of us was daydreaming?

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I'm sorry for having to play devils advocate here but i think this forums community is not quite big and, more importantly, not quite mature enough to be taken seriously by professionals. The point where we can make ourselves known to actual scientists is the point when are more than just a bunch of Nerds and Bronies who need to get laid.

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I'm sorry for having to play devils advocate here but i think this forums community is not quite big and, more importantly, not quite mature enough to be taken seriously by professionals. The point where we can make ourselves known to actual scientists is the point when are more than just a bunch of Nerds and Bronies who need to get laid.

 

Well i don't think our social maturity should matter too much, i think all that really counts is that we are all participating in a very real phenomena that demands some real scientific research, especially in the field of psychology.

pix: Link

Diary: http://ponystasha.tumblr.com

Koomer.

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Well i don't think our social maturity should matter too much, i think all that really counts is that we are all participating in a very real phenomena that demands some real scientific research, especially in the field of psychology.

 

There's also not enough of us yet. It's not a good idea to rush this. Let the community grow, mature and get more diverse... then we can think about how we can make this whole thing accesible to the average man on the street. And even then it's not going to be easy.

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Well he's very interested in looking into hallucinations experienced by normal people... Maybe you guys could help me put together a message to send to him just to see how interested he is, so he can avoid the forum with pictures of PONIES all over the place! Alright, there aren't too many ponies... But still... Can we not tell him about the large amounts of people with pony tulpa until much, much later (maybe we could just ignore it and see if he'll ever notice :l).

 

This message will have to introduce what a tulpa is, the new guide that is being worked on, maybe even get someone with an imposed tulpa to talk about the process (QB?). I think we should also tell him how many people we have in the community with a talking tulpa and such. Yup, I honestly think any harm can come from messaging this person (he's had a conversation with a god damn spider and he's trying to encourage people to come out with their hallucinations). Let's get a draft going for the message going and see where we can get with it.

 

___ EDIT ____

DAMN, the tulpa.info registry (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AskcbS27-8TodERqLUJ5T251V2NyeTBqLUFkcGdBZHc#gid=0) has ~150 tulpa listed. And I think it might be good to have someone that you could call an expert with hallucinations in the community even if the community is small... But he does have a thing against people being so wrapped up with hallucinations. That's one of the few times when I was completely taken in. The business of believing and being converted by hallucinations worries me. For example, a book has just been published by a neurosurgeon who had a so-called near death experience and is convinced that he saw heaven. I want to say, strongly, hallucinations aren't evidence of anything, let alone heaven.

 

Yeaaah, could just be the religious thing that he doesn't approve of. He could be interested into hearing that people might have a god tulpa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughtform#Modern_perspective

 

'I say 'soul making' Soul as distinguished from an Intelligence- There may be intelligences or sparks of divinity in millions- but they are not souls until they acquire identities, till each one is personality itself'

-John Keats, 1819

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Guest Albatross_

I'm sorry for having to play devils advocate here but i think this forums community is not quite big and, more importantly, not quite mature enough to be taken seriously by professionals. The point where we can make ourselves known to actual scientists is the point when are more than just a bunch of Nerds and Bronies who need to get laid.

 

Been said before. Although I find it hilarious that this is coming from a guy whose YouTube channel consists almost exclusively of Pony Platforming Project LP's and dramatic fanfiction readings.

~

 

Well i don't think our social maturity should matter too much

 

In a perfect world, it wouldn't (as far as science goes). But it does.

 

i think all that really counts is that we are all participating in a very real phenomena that demands some real scientific research, especially in the field of psychology.

 

Why don't you go ask the werewolf communities why nobody believes them?

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Been said before. Although I find it hilarious that this is coming from a guy whose YouTube channel consists almost exclusively of Pony Platforming Project LP's and dramatic fanfiction readings.

 

There's a reason i said "we"... i'm not trying to argue that i'm anything but "a nerd and a brony who needs to get laid" myself. And i realize that i'm certainly not the right person to show how normal, well adjusted people can have tulpas as well. I may not be the most normal person but i'm close enough to be able to tell how normal people would view us right now. And that's not very positively.

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I'm living proof of the therapeutic potential that tulpae have, but pretty far from normal. I am interested in getting in touch with this Oliver Sacks guy though, he's a pretty influential neuroscientist that could lend us some much-needed credibility.

"Science isn't about why, science is about why not?" -Cave Johnson

Tulpae: Luna, Elise, Naomi

My progress report

 

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