Oliver Sacks: Nervous System and the Soul (excerpt) - Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove

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NOTE: This is an excerpt from a 30-minute DVD.
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Dramatic, musical and mathematical qualities of the soul are available even those with neurological challenges. Oliver Sacks, M.D., is author of Awakenings, A Leg to Stand On and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. He maintains that our our conventional awareness is limited compared to the talents of those with Tourette's syndrome and other disorders.

[@HAL_NlNETH0USAND]

Whenever I have a bad day just ten minutes of Oliver Sacks calm me down.

[@solarnaut]

0:52 - 2:33 I wish I could smell this video when the audio kicks down.

[@MysticGwen]

LOL

[@naraicks]

After seeing the real man here, Robin Williams was perfect casting in awakenings. They are like brothers, same eyes, same smile and same warmth in the voice.

[@Lagahan]

I could listen to this man all day

[@manifest_it_man]

this fucking show is the best and the intro music is awesome... i get jiggy with it every time

[@Neueregel]

RIP Oliver Sacks (9 July 1933 - 30 August 2015), he was a British neurologist, writer and Professor of Neurology at New York University.

[@spidaminida]

The day he died I was telling a new friend about him - telling the story of how his client had forgotten what a glove is for, thinking it was a coin purse for different denominations. The friend (who had never heard of him previously) told me he heard on the radio that morning that Oliver had died, and I suddenly had to stop myself from welling up. But then I thought how lovely it had been to have him in the world. Death is sad, but it is also the completing of a life. And his was marvellous.

[@JarrodMarshall1]

holy shit I was too!!! It's weird cause I hadn't read any of his books in like a year and then I start talking about him to a friend and I looked him up later that day to find that he had passed that same day!

[@spidaminida]

JarrodMarshall1 Isn't it funny how that happens?? I remember once I suddenly started hearing the word "milquetoast" everywhere. On Sherlock, QI, a couple films, it was really weird. I bet Oliver could have given us an explanation...

[@JarrodMarshall1]

yeah man... synchronicity is trippy stuff... it seems to hint at the fundamental interconnectedness of all life on an inconceivable level. happens to me all the time. particularly with music. I'm a musician and I always notice harmony around me. for instance, I'll be playing the piano and some noise happens around me that harmonizes with what I just played precisely when I hit the note... it's my most common synchronicity but I've also had many more unusual ones

[@spidaminida]

Yes! Synchronicity! I suppose if you were to approach it from a purely "rational" standpoint (which is really ignoring the fact that we clearly don't know everything) you'd have to say that it's just selective attention. But that doesn't really ring true :/ Interconnectedness kinda has to play a role imho. Like the concept of morphic fields - birds on either side of the Atlantic suddenly figuring out at the same time how to get through the foil on top of a milk bottle so they could get the cream - or how Dennis the Menace was created simultaneously by two people with no contact. What does it all meeeean?? Guess I'll have to wait for the next thrilling DMT instalment - or news from CERN lol...maybe it's just that one busy little electron having fun.

[@DoctorMoo]

It's worth noting that the story about the "young medical student" who gained an incredible sense of smell for 3 weeks after ingesting lots of speed... is biographic. Yes, that young medical student was Sacks himself. In recent years he's been able to open up about this; it seems when this was filmed it was still too taboo for him to disclose.

[@VidkunQL]

+Kas Sioc I've read the book and wondered about that story -- not about the identity of the man, but about the accuracy. The book states the man's experience as fact, but doesn't mention him arranging for other people to test him. Isn't it possible -- and maybe more likely -- that his perception of extraordinary smell was just his imagination? That said, I've read that Richard Feynman did some experiments to test his own sense of smell, and found that it was much keener than he had realised, and that he could recognize and track people by scent as soon as he made a serious effort to do so. I've also had at least one "bloodhound" moment in my own life.

[@lolylu8168]

VidkunQL I have very strong sense of smell. For me, when I was a child, I could get a migraine provoced by different smells. These days, I don't have migraines but anxiety and panic attacks when exposed to some sorts of smells. I have no explanation but that limbic center is to activated and overstimulated.

[@dimethaltryptamine1]

Don't know why anyone with medical knowledge would choose copius amounts of speed over LSD or Shoom's or even cannabis all of which are harmless compared to the raveging hideous drug speed!

[@felipepeixoto7]

no one but robin williams could play this character

[@thebestusername5852]

Clayton Matias I swear I thought the same thing. He reminded me so much of Robin Williams at times too.

[@mayateola4732]

Uncanny resemblance

[@DanteMoodyFilms]

How brilliant the mind is. This man is very intelligent.

[@omniufo7350]

Our human existence..e n j o y it all..I love it..

[@mcgregor23]

not one dislike on this video, speaks volumes. only just came across these. so good

[@sedothlove]

amazing! thank you for posting

[@davidwise3426]

This old interview popped up on my feed. I read Sack's books and the Perfume novel decades ago. He was brilliant, explained everything from a materialistic/atheistic point of view however.

[@irishelk3]

Love these.

[@JanusKannuberg]

Very interesting, thank you for posting.

[@MrHavetofly]

whatever method these functions have, its miraculous,

[@christopherdiedrich40]

that's some trippy audio!

[@lestat305]

They're Alive! whos the dude in your pic

[@christopherdiedrich40]

Scottish Samurai Hahaha I'm afraid it's not too original. Just Google or search a John Carpenter film titled "They Live" and you will see. It's a great cult film made in 1988. The main character is a drifter that finds some sunglasses that he can see the truth with and show him how we are programed and that there are aliens living among us. So the guy in my photo is what the aliens look like hence; They're Alive! 👽👾💀

[@lestat305]

They're Alive! Thats dope! Gonna check it out, cheers mate

[@curt6525]

Alan Parish, been waiting for this!

[@Maximuss1999]

In his autobiography he reveals that the man he’s talking about here is actually himself.

[@arvi2010]

Robin Williams knew how to act!

[@guyfluffer4524]

+RU-Q? WiCash! SoChi! Wrong! it's Richard Dreyfuss. Duh

[@califgirl101]

What an interesting video this is! Thank you again for posting this video for us! :)

[@merlin711oregon]

In my late fourties I was put on an anti-depressant that caused me to have what appeared to be Tourette's Syndrome even though people don't get it at that age. I was seen by renown specialists in the field. I had over 100 physical and vocal tics a day then they put me on medication for it and it responded to only four or so episodes a day. When I went off the anti-depressent years later it all suddenly stopped and I no longer needed Tourette's medicine.

[@solarnaut]

m will ... thanks for sharing that. Some doctor said "no side effect ... no effect." LIFE and the MIND are such complex mechanisms ... it's amazing how much actually does go "right." With hindsight, were the side effects a necessity to ward of the dangers/malice of depression, or "not worth it"?

[@staphinfection]

Astonishment and wonder need to be part of his daily work because after all, he's dealing with real people that have real neurological disorders, and in the end, most of them can be extremely debilitating and sad, especially for the family and friends who don't understand why their loved one suddenly does not recognize them anymore etc etc.

[@Triangulations]

Sacks clearly has a hyper-associative mind himself. A wonderful mind, albeit one that makes connections that awe more than reveal. (I too suffer/enjoy the same, I fear). His atavistic use of the word "savage" to describe non-agricultural cultures was telling of the prejudices of earlier years. And odd, given his insightful acceptance of a broader range of the human spirit. All together, a fantastic clip -- an inspiring man with a fine legacy.

[@SoftBreadSoftware]

+Sceattas Very neutral

[@zenmeister451]

I'm sure he used it in a somewhat 'neutral' sense. However, he does come from a time when the sensitive use of words (PC'ness?) was not a particularly worthy matter of concern. That said, it's difficult NOT to see certain cultures as having had a 'savage' mindset. Even cultures such as the Romans (when considering the almost unbelievable cruelty of their punishments, and their enjoyments of the brutalities of the arena) could be said to have had a savage mindset.

[@TBlev215]

Sacks hesitates at the beginning because the med student who got the sense of smell is in fact himself!

[@akupremium]

10:05 Best "ultimately" i've ever heard :)

[@staphinfection]

The dog smell story is from "The Man who mistook his wife for a hat", it's filled with all kinds of case histories he's personally worked on. He also wrote "Awakenings" which was made into a great movie starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams who plays Oliver Sacks.

[@methylbenzodiazepine]

that beard and that accent definitely go together

[@Aluminata]

I had a severe accident- some time after returning home from hospital I had the experience of profoundly enhanced smell; there was a bar of soap near my bed side - I felt like I was in the bowls of a soap factory - it was completely unbearable!

[@Arunava_Gupta]

I think this could have happened if there's little or no inhibition of the signals brought in by the neurons to the conscious personality from the object of the sense (of smell in this particular case).

[@staphinfection]

You might be referring to Haight street, or the area around Haight street in San Francisco which in the late 1960's was a mecha of LSD and other drug counter culture which also sparked amazing music from free concerts played in the area around that time.

[@marcushl]

Look at that magnificent mane! What is this, "the Haight" circa 1967? Oliver Sacks, I love you, you hippie!

[@jacquelineward6201]

This man imbibed the perfect confluence of science and humanity

[@staphinfection]

That might be because Robin Williams plays him in the movie "Awakenings" which Oliver Sacks wrote about his trials with Parkinsons patients and giving them El Dopa to wake them up out of their comas.

[@apow3rs]

Is there an audio issue? There appears to be a music soundtrack under Oliver that ends at 2 mins 45 secs

[@BlackSabotage100]

@DanteMoodyFilms It is really is.

[@abooswalehmosafeer173]

Sound broke down where a shame.Please rectify.Thank.

[@detroitdieselpower]

In his new book he reveals that he was the young medical student who had a heightened sense of smell while on speed.

[@lolersilold8072]

@singingandsighing Hahaha! I imagine that's why they had robin Williams play him in the Awakening

[@Reporterreporter770]

The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

[@LoneGranger]

Wish the audio was audible.

[@jacquietarr7280]

Is there sound aberration on this video.

[@Gandalf17]

Awakenings (1990)

[@SuxFrancy]

I sottotitoli non c'entrano Nulla con ciò che Sacks sta dicendo.

[@Bedianamight1]

thE soUND WENT OUT FOR A FEW MINS OR SO...

[@hartantoj]

Reminds me of a more sophisticated david cross

[@junevandermark952]

Without the word "soul," there couldn't be any religion. All stories are based on what the soul is thinking, and what the soul is doing, and where the soul came from, and where the soul is going after death of the physical body. Fortunes have been made by theologians who taught that the soul is a gift from God, and that women must never have abortions, because abortions offend God's gift to humanity. Evolution of the soul is a huge seller in religion. It means that your soul is ever upgrading and will hopefully soon make the grade of God's "entire" approval of enlightenment and salvation … or … that in the afterlife something horrible could happen to your soul. If you remove the word "soul" from religion, you will not have anything but ground zero.

[@timeandattention3945]

If Karl Max were to get a hair cut

[@moonatysunat83]

por que haces pollos tan ricos! general!!

[@spankrobot]

Comments about his beard show how we are influenced by appearances rather than content or fact. Consider how often this is exploited (advertising, politics, etc) to influence us without our awareness or permission.

[@allmertalex]

Why does he look so much like Robbin Williams with a beard?

[@DreamingConcepts]

I assume is his kindness which makes his face look so similar.

[@gspaulsson]

savages??? what century is this guy from?

[@jcr65566]

cat hear him

[@yolk17]

lol!!

[@TerencePalmer]

One day very soon Dr. Sacks will learn all about TS, what causes it and how to treat it. He will be surprised.

[@macgeek21]

you sure he wasn't hallucinating?

[@BlackSabotage100]

Not to be prejudice but I saw this video because of the guy's beard

[@vatovega]

I love my aunt Sally aunt aunt love you bye love bye bye baby bye love you bye bye love bye bye 👋 moon moon love you 😍

[@kyle21843]

dat beard

[@linrkirk]

sounds a bit acid

[@jmmanuelseale823]

there is no method to intuition

[@sedeslav]

Dogs have ten times more smelling cells them human!

[@inxxxes]

Thinking and soul ??????? this is not rational thinking! Just wonderland

[@ferise1]

Dude creeps me out...

[@SoftBreadSoftware]

+ferise1 Why?

[@BikiniDeathSquad]

the arrogance of PRETENDING you know the unknowable