Oliver Sacks

Dubbed "the poet laureate of medicine" by the New York Times, Oliver Sacks' most famous works are probably his case studies of neurological patients, including The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Awakenings. His Orthodox Jewish upbringing gave him a taste for the practice of religion, but he has never inclined to belief, and an early experiment involving God and some radishes led him to conclude that there was no reality other than that which could be proved scientifically. He talks to Joan about the role hallucinatory states have in the formation of religion, and his own need to create order from chaos.