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The River of Consciousness

Oliver Sacks

3.91 · Rating details · 2,118 ratings · 277 reviews

From the best-selling author of Gratitude, On the Move, and Musicophilia, a collection of essays that displays Oliver Sacks's passionate engagement with the most compelling and seminal ideas of human endeavor: evolution, creativity, memory, time, consciousness, and experience.

Oliver Sacks, a scientist and a storyteller, is beloved by readers for the extraordinary neurolog ...more

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Hardcover, 256 pages

Published October 24th 2017 by Knopf Publishing Group

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Feb 05, 2019 David rated it really liked it

Shelves: psychology, audiobook

Oliver Sacks was a neurologist and a great author. He wrote a number of memorable books about psychology, psychiatry and neurology. He is most famous for his books such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales and An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales. These books try to use very unusual minds and psychological conditions to understand better how the brain works. But it is not fair to focus on just these books; he was a Renaissance man, and he wrote a wide Oliver Sacks was a neurologist and a great author. He wrote a number of memorable books about psychology, psychiatry and neurology. He is most famous for his books such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales and An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales. These books try to use very unusual minds and psychological conditions to understand better how the brain works. But it is not fair to focus on just these books; he was a Renaissance man, and he wrote a wide range of books and could converse intelligently on many many subjects.

This book is not just about consciousness, per se. In fact, the book's title is a play on words; "Stream of Consciousness" may also be a good description, as each chapter is really an essay about a different topic. Each essay is wonderful and entertaining; a chapter about Darwin, Freud, Poincaré, Tourette's syndrome, color blindness, face blindness, and other interesting topics. Be warned though; some of this book is difficult; for me, the chapter about Freud was especially difficult.

The most interesting aspect of the book is his focus on periods of darkness, which he called "scotoma". This term is used in multiple ways. First, an individual can have a black-out period in which memory or vision disappears. Then, there is a societal scientific scotoma, where a whole body of knowledge seems to disappear--sometimes for centuries--before reappearing at a later time. Tourette's syndrome is one of these scotoma's, because it was known during the 19th century, but disappeared from the scientific literature before being revived late in the 20th. Another one is the astronomical concept of the sun being the center of the solar system--known to the ancient Greeks, but Aristotle and Ptolemy changed this view to a geocentric universe, until Copernicus brought the correct theory back to science.

This book is one of Sacks' last books--he may have still been writing it when he died in 2015. But, besides being short, the book feels like it was finished properly.

I didn't read this book; I listened to the audiobook. Dan Woren does an excellent reading of the book, and if you are able to listen to nonfiction attentively, then I heartily recommend it. ...more

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Oct 28, 2017 Mason Neil rated it really liked it

I have found that as I've read books written later in Sacks' life, his tone shifts from a focus on specific details to a more abstract and comprehensive overview that delves more into the meanings of his life's observations. The River of Consciousness was, for me, an excellent culmination of that change in tone and focus. Sacks writes about all areas of science with such grace and art that you can't help but be completely consumed. There were moments in The River of Consciousness, especially tow ...more

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Jan 19, 2018 Paul Ataua rated it liked it

A fairly mixed bag of variable quality. Essays on Darwin, Time, Freud, and more. All were beautifully written and superficially interesting, but never really inspiring and rarely thought provoking. I read an essay, stopped momentarily, and then moved onto the next one. Yes, I did enjoy reading it, but I also sensed a lack of depth or coherence I didn’t associate with Sacks.

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Oct 11, 2017 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: she-blinded-me-with-science, to-review

A short collection of previously published essays that make us feel the loss of a person like Oliver Sacks very keenly. He loved science and scientific advances in all fields, not just his chosen profession of neuroscience. The collection is a bit too eclectic to be was wonderful as something like The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. The essays on Darwin aren’t that interesting but for the essays that focus more particularly on neuroscience and the brain, especially “Scotoma: Forgetting and N ...more

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May 11, 2018 Jeff rated it liked it

Not his most cohesive or engaging book, but still worth the read.

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Jun 04, 2017 GONZA rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: posseduto

Some of the most famous scientists explained by one of them. Darwin,Freud, James and Poincaré told by Sacks and some other informations about Edelmann and consciousness in the chapter that gives the title to the book. Prof. Sacks you are deeply missed.

Alcuni degli scienziati piú famosi e delle loro scoperte, raccontati da uno di loro. Darwin, Freud, James e Poincaré piú alcune ulteriori informazioni su Edelmann e la coscienza nel capitolo che da il titolo al libro. Prof. Sacks quanto ci manchi!

T ...more

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Jun 03, 2018 Diletta rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Coscienza a largo raggio.

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Jan 15, 2019 Tracey rated it really liked it

Shelves: borrowed-books, factual, hardback, work-related

This man has such a wonderful way of describing the ways of the Mind and body.

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Nov 30, 2017 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A highly interesting, multifaceted essay collection. Sacks's magpie mind is well-represented here, a series of essays that discuss more than their subject matter without ever getting too arcane. Fascinating to read about Freud's evolution from neurology to psychotherapy, or the nature of visual consciousness, or to consider what Sacks calls "Scotoma"—dark spots in the field of vision—in scientific knowledge. And underneath all of those explorations, a deep joy in the possibilities of creation, e ...more

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Nov 18, 2017 Paul rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Oliver Sacks is the most approachable genius one could encounter while studying the human brain and its behaviors. This book is sublime.

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Nov 11, 2017 Marcus Hobson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is yet another marvellous book to add the the shelf of other titles from the late Dr Oliver Sachs.
The Forward tells of a television documentary called "A Glorious Accident" which gathered together a biologist, a physicist, a palaeontologist, a historian of science, a philosopher and Dr Sachs. What shone through was Sachs' ability to move fluidly between all of the disciplines represented. That is where this book sits, moving easily between sciences and the traits of the human brain. We cons ...more

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Aug 08, 2018 Devi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Wissenschaftshistorische Essays zum Thema Bewusstsein, Neurologie, Biologie, Psychologie ... von Oliver Sacks vorzüglichst aufbereitet. Leider wird es wohl kaum noch ein weiteres posthum veröffentlichtes Buch von ihm geben.

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Dec 06, 2018 Feisty Harriet rated it liked it

Shelves: psychology, brains, evolution

A collection of essays that are loosely related to Sacks' work, but cover a wide variety of topics. I'm glad I had a solid background in (armchair) neuroscience, evolution, and psychology because it really helped deepen my understanding of what Sacks discusses in this book. 3.5 stars.

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Nov 23, 2017 Jackie rated it it was amazing

Another fascinating study of human consciousness. Sacks describes sentience in lower order animals and in plants. He studies illnesses such as Tourettes and Parkinsons. He leads the reader on a journey of the history of scientific ideas and educates us through story telling.

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Jan 12, 2018 Helga Cohen rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, science, essays

This is the final book written by Oliver Sacks and it was published after his August 2015 death by cancer. It was written as a catalyst from a documentary he was in which included 6 scientists in 1993. The issues investigated were the origin of life, the meaning of evolution and the nature of consciousness. All disciplines from all sciences were investigated. This book explored all sciences including Darwin and evolution, botany and psychology. Sacks had a familiarity with literature, medicine s This is the final book written by Oliver Sacks and it was published after his August 2015 death by cancer. It was written as a catalyst from a documentary he was in which included 6 scientists in 1993. The issues investigated were the origin of life, the meaning of evolution and the nature of consciousness. All disciplines from all sciences were investigated. This book explored all sciences including Darwin and evolution, botany and psychology. Sacks had a familiarity with literature, medicine since he was a neurologist, botany, animal anatomy, chemistry, the history of science, philosophy and psychology. He worked until his death. This book reveals his ability to make connections in all the sciences and his true knowledge as a scientist and storyteller. Some of these articles, 10 in number, were fairly academic in tone and if not familiar with his prior books or some of these sciences would require definition.

Since I love science and studied it, I found them fascinating. His first article dealt with “Darwin and the Meaning of Flowers” in which he discussed Darwin as a botanist and natural selection at work. He states that 70% DNA between humans to plants is unique. He especially loved Orchids. In the article “Speed”, he discusses movement from the wings of insects, the movement of plants and the slowness of the tortoise. He discussed time lapse photography to see movement change. A microscope shows slow motion and a telescope is the speeding up of motion. He discussed martial arts and speed and how drugs are either accelerators or retarders of speed. In “Sentience”, he wrote about the mental life of plants and worms, the light and day behavior of invertebrate minds. Other interesting articles dealt with “The Other Road”, Freud as a Neurologist and the “Fallibility of Memory”. This was about the errors of memory, the distortions, reality and subjective imagination and the use of Functional Brain Imaging. The “Mishearing” article, dealt with alterations in hearing and the perceptions of it that pose as reality. In the “Creative Self”, he discussed the inquisitive mind of a child and the importance of storytelling and mythmaking and the minds of savants and the autistic. How important education is for voracious assimilation of art, film, literature and immersion through reading. In a “General Feeling of Disorder” he discusses homeostasis in the body, the core consciousness of the body and migraines and his melanoma. In “River of Consciousness” he discusses how our motions and actions in time and thoughts flow like a river. They are ever flowing. In “Scotoma: Forgetting and Neglect in Science”, he explores instances of scientific discoveries that were underappreciated or ignored in their time.

In many of these articles Sacks mentions many of the books he wrote which were based on medical cases. I found this book to be a very fitting depiction of Oliver Sacks and his brilliant mind. ...more

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Feb 16, 2019 David rated it it was amazing

Reading Oliver Sacks makes me glad to be alive. Sometimes I look at the title and know I am going to love whatever he's writing about, and of course I do. But I'll look at some essay and think, 'oh dear, this one is bound to be dull,' only to find that it is exactly the opposite -- it opens worlds of thought than I had no idea existed before. Sad to think this was his last book, but I've not read many of his earlier ones, so there's still plenty to look forward to!

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Jan 01, 2018 ÔnÎÿ Fâÿ rated it really liked it

استهلت عام 2018.بكتاب جميل للرائع اوليفر ساكس.
الكتاب مجموعة عن مقالات متفرقةللكاتب. بعضها قديم و البعض الأخر جديد.
حقيقة اسلوب ساكس في الكتابة فريد من نوعه. شغفه و فضوله اللامتناهي...قدرته على الربط و تبسيط المواضيع الفلسفية و العلمية مدهش . عند تقليب صفحات الكتاب شعرت انني . استمع لموسيقى باخ...احسست أني أتأمل لوحة لكلود مونيه.
كتاب جدير بالقراءة لكل فضولي و محب للكتب العلمية الخفيفة.

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May 12, 2018 Emanuela rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: biologia, adelphi, e-book, non-fiction, scienza, scienze-cognitive

Riflessioni sulla Scienza, sulle idee che nascono, che si sviluppano, che a volte non sono pronte all'accettazione dalla comunità scientifica.
Visioni che si fanno strada in percorsi complessi e dinamici contro dogmi consolidati, a volte con la fortunata casualità che aiuta nelle dimostrazioni, altre dove le teorie vengono relegate nel dimenticatoio, ma che riemergono in tempi successivi.

I temi trattati in questo saggio sono diversi, quasi sempre a carattere neurologico (fisiologia e patologia), ...more

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Jan 02, 2019 Colleen Edwards rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Mind bending!!

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Feb 24, 2018 Steve rated it it was amazing

Lovely, marvelous science writing by one of the very best. Beautiful essays, most about consciousness-related things, but not a single-topic book by any means. What a great writer.

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Dec 05, 2017 Miguel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

O livro que reúne os últimos ensaios escritos por Oliver Sacks e que, entre muitas outras coisas, nos ensina que a ciência não precisa de deus para se espantar com a essência e o mistério da aventura humana.

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Dec 24, 2018 Robert rated it it was amazing

Oliver Sacks remains, even post-mortem, one of the most brilliant essayists and thinkers writing in English. The River of Consciousness is a volume of pieces published in the New York Review of Books and selected by Sacks for inclusion here only a few days before his death. His editorial team and designees have done a wonderful job arranging these meditations on speed, consciousness, the intricacies of the brain, Darwin, and the sentience of plants.

Each piece has a thematic unity that is enriche Oliver Sacks remains, even post-mortem, one of the most brilliant essayists and thinkers writing in English. The River of Consciousness is a volume of pieces published in the New York Review of Books and selected by Sacks for inclusion here only a few days before his death. His editorial team and designees have done a wonderful job arranging these meditations on speed, consciousness, the intricacies of the brain, Darwin, and the sentience of plants.

Each piece has a thematic unity that is enriched by Sacks astounding ability to digress and yet hold the thread of thought firmly between his fingers. And each piece is stylistically a marvel of lucidity, pace, and one, sometimes drawing scientific history, sometimes drawing on Sacks' personal experiences as a doctor and thinker, and sometimes drawing on his capacity as an intellectual historian.

For me his most useful observations have to do with the changing nature of science itself from the 19th century through the 20th. Fundamentally the science of the 19th century was rooted in detail, the accumulation of annotations relevant to a given subject. A hinge figure was Darwin, who both recorded every little thing he saw and at the same time felt the pressure to consolidate his findings into theoretical form--ergo, evolution. Theory can never be detached from "fact" and yet Einstein took us into a paradigm-shift based on an entirely different theory of time and space. Freud is less well known as a neurologist than as a psychoanalyst, but as Sacks (and others) observe, Freud's first twenty years as a doctor were heavily invested in neurological data collection. Sacks then comments on how Freud's experience in natural science blended rather naturally into his psychologizing in broader terms. He mentions the famous case of Anna O--a case of hysteria, demonstrating weird somatic effects emerging from even weirder psychodynamics--and this caused me last night to reread that case in light of Sack's analysis. In fact, it's true that one can see Freud driven from nonplussed doctoring to psychodynamic theorizing for compelling reasons. And with Anna O, the history of psychology, as we know it, was changed.

But writing in the 21st century Sacks has moved far beyond those early days of mental mystery, giving us glimpses of the multi-tiered neuronal complexity that underlies sight, thought, memory and identity.

I understand one more book of this nature is in the offing. May Sacks continue speaking from the grave even longer than that. ...more

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Feb 08, 2019 Patrick Martel rated it liked it

Shelves: essai

Bouquin recommandé par une amie, et je l’en remercie. Je connaissais Oliver Sacks, je savais qui il était (AWAKENINGS), mais je ne l’avais jamais lu. Pas nécessairement mon champ d’intérêt premier. Mais encore! Ce qu’il a à dire concerne tellement de phénomènes abordés et discutés dans tous les médiums, qu’il est difficile de ne pas se sentir interpellé et, du fait même, intéressé par ce que le neurologue-botaniste-théoricien-professeur-auteur-et-j’en-passe a à dire.

Paru deux après la mort de S Bouquin recommandé par une amie, et je l’en remercie. Je connaissais Oliver Sacks, je savais qui il était (AWAKENINGS), mais je ne l’avais jamais lu. Pas nécessairement mon champ d’intérêt premier. Mais encore! Ce qu’il a à dire concerne tellement de phénomènes abordés et discutés dans tous les médiums, qu’il est difficile de ne pas se sentir interpellé et, du fait même, intéressé par ce que le neurologue-botaniste-théoricien-professeur-auteur-et-j’en-passe a à dire.

Paru deux après la mort de Sacks, THE RIVER OF CONCIOUSNESS se veut un recueil de dix textes déjà publiés, dans lesquels l’auteur met en relief différents aspects de la curiosité scientifique. Il revoit des théories et des démarches mises de l’avant par des collègues (passés et contemporains) qui ont fait avancer les théories, qui ont défié des bases établies en ouvrant de nouveaux chemins (des rivières) qui ne suivent pas nécessairement le trajet convenu.

Il débute par Darwin, en insistant davantage sur l’importance de ses travaux portant sur la botanique, ouvrages publiés après le célèbre THE ORIGINE OF SPECIES. Le naturiste est celui qui a proposé (et démontré) la circumnutation des fleurs par la pollinisation effectuée par les insectes. Darwin a écarté le principe de l’auto-fertilisation et ramené l’incontournable évolution des espèces (insectes, plantes) en fonction des conjonctures.

C’est à ce type de notions, de concepts, d’études, que s’emploie à proposer Sacks, texte après texte, toujours de façon accessible et enrichissante. Malgré la complexité de ce qui est relaté, il est fascinant à quel point Sacks a la capacité de faire sentir intelligent le lecteur. Les faits sont expliqués dans un langage que peut comprendre aisément le profane, tant que celui-ci s’applique à suivre la démarche enthousiaste proposée par l’auteur.

Suivent ensuite des chapitres portant notamment sur le mouvement du temps, sur l’intelligence (consciousness) des vers de terre, des jellyfishs et des insects, sur la brillante carrière de Freud comme neurologue ayant pavé son chemin (la rivière) vers la psychiatrie, sur les ratés et les oublis de la science.

THE RIVER OF CONCIOUSNESS est une lecture qui impose l’attention du lecteur, mais qui le récompense pour l’effort fourni. Comme c’est souvent le cas pour des recueils, l’intérêt envers la proposition varie d’un texte à l’autre, oscillant entre le palpitant et le correct.
...more

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Feb 13, 2019 • Frannie • rated it liked it · review of another edition

Ripartiamo da qui: una raccolta di scritti rimasta sulla scrivania di Oliver Sacks fino a pochi giorni prima della sua morte, un ideale testamento che spazia tra gli argomenti che più lo hanno affascinato e un’ultima prova letteraria, finalmente tradotta e pubblicata da Adelphi nel 2018.

Oliver Sacks: medico, docente di neurologia e psichiatria, chimico e scrittore, tristemente venuto a mancare pochi anni fa. Una mente brillante, curiosa e inevitabilmente attratta dalla vita e dai meccanismi che ...more

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Dec 15, 2017 Nicole rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, health, non-fiction, science, psychology

When I first saw this book on the new releases table at the book store, I was skeptical. Is the estate of Oliver Sacks simply trying to milk all they can from a great mind now departed, I wondered. How can a book published from scraps be any good? I decided against getting it as a Christmas present for someone because of this, but when I saw it at the library, available thanks to a program here in Seattle to keep new releases in stock, I couldn't help but to check it out. I'm glad I did.

From th ...more

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May 06, 2018 João rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science

Um conjunto de ensaios muitíssimo interessantes, esclarecedores e, por vezes, surpreendentes, sobre a perceção, a consciência, o tempo e a memória , que nos obrigam a repensar muitas das certezas que temos. Destaco:
"Velocidade": sobre a perceção que temos da velocidade e da escala temporal, onde Sacks inclui o exemplo de pacientes neurológicos para os quais o tempo passa em câmara lenta, como no filme "Matrix", quando o herói se desvia das balas, ou o exemplo das pessoas sujeitas a perigo de mo ...more

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Jan 31, 2018 Bob rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Katherine, Paul and everyone else

Shelves: 5-star-books

Magnificent and magical. Sacks' ability to convey medical and scientific information to lay people was always among the best, and this series of essays is a source of both enlightenment and intrigue. I recommend his piece on the fallibility of memory to everyone, young and old - for me, it explains why I have such vivid memories of events from my childhood that my sister and our old friends assure me did not occur (as well as verifying my understanding of the fallibility of eyewitness identifica ...more

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Jul 10, 2018 Mukul rated it it was amazing

In The River of Consciousness, Dr Sacks takes on evolution, botany, chemistry, medicine, neuroscience, and the arts, and calls upon his great scientific and creative heroes - above all, Darwin, Freud l, and William James. For Sacks, these thinkers were constant companions from an early age; the questions they explored - the meaning of evolution, the roots of creativity, and the nature of consciousness - lie at the heart of science and of this books.

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Oct 31, 2018 Shannon rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I'm really glad I read this, though I'd say the essays were uneven. What floored me the most were perhaps the discussions of time disorders and how good, ground-breaking science gets lost or ignored. I also enjoyed the sections on plagiarism and creativity and the fine line between - though that felt more familiar, less novel. I'm definitely interested in reading Sachs' other books.

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Apr 07, 2018 Jason rated it it was amazing

Another, and sadly the last, addition to Dr. Sack's completely unique and beguiling library of brilliance. These essays examine, every area of life, consciousness and humanness with Sack's engaging style and unquenchable curiosity. This man was truly extraordinary, and the lose of his voice and perspective will be felt for a long time to come.

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About Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks

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Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, was a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he wa Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, was a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.

After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.

Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.

His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), where Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor, is built. In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award. The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".

Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years. On 1 July 2007, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics. Sacks was a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintained a practice in New York City.

Since 1996, Sacks was a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature). In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks was awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Georgetown University (1992), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, has been named in his honor. ...more

Books by Oliver Sacks

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales

More…

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Quotes from The River of Cons...

“Why is it that of every hundred gifted young musicians who study at Juilliard or every hundred brilliant young scientists who go to work in major labs under illustrious mentors, only a handful will write memorable musical compositions or make scientific discoveries of major importance? Are the majority, despite their gifts, lacking in some further creative spark? Are they missing characteristics other than creativity that may be essential for creative achievement—such as boldness, confidence, independence of mind? It takes a special energy, over and above one’s creative potential, a special audacity or subversiveness, to strike out in a new direction once one is settled. It is a gamble as all creative projects must be, for the new direction may not turn out to be productive at all. Creativity involves not only years of conscious preparation and training but unconscious preparation as well. This incubation period is essential to allow the subconscious assimilation and incorporation of one’s influences and sources, to reorganize and synthesize them into something of one’s own. In Wagner’s overture to Rienzi, one can almost trace this emergence. There are echoes, imitations, paraphrases, pastiches of Rossini, Meyerbeer, Schumann, and others—all the musical influences of his apprenticeship. And then, suddenly, astoundingly, one hears Wagner’s own voice: powerful, extraordinary (though, to my mind, horrible), a voice of genius, without precedent or antecedent. The essential element in these realms of retaining and appropriating versus assimilating and incorporating is one of depth, of meaning, of active and personal involvement.” — 1 likes

“While some of these near-death experiences are marked by a sense of helplessness and passivity, even dissociation, in others there is an intense sense of immediacy and reality, and a dramatic acceleration of thought and perception and reaction, which allow one to negotiate danger successfully. Noyes and Kletti describe a jet pilot who faced almost certain death when his plane was improperly launched from its carrier: “I vividly recalled, in a matter of about three seconds, over a dozen actions necessary to successful recovery of flight attitude. The procedures I needed were readily available. I had almost total recall and felt in complete control.” — 1 likes

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