Hearing and seeing things that aren’t there is more common than you might think. As part of their series Science & Story, our friends at the World Science Festival are bringing together neurologist and best-selling author Oliver Sacks and award-winning journalist John Hockenberry to discuss Sacks’ latest book, released November 6, which explores the bewitching and surreal world of hallucinations.

The conversation, at Cooper Union in New York City, will canvass the rich cultural history and contemporary science of the hallucinatory experience and will also touch on Sacks’ own early psychedelic forays that helped convince him to dedicate his life to neurology and to write about the myriad riddles of the human mind.

Sacks will answer select questions tweeted to him after the program and in several follow-up posts on the World Science Festival blog at worldsciencefestival.com. Use the hash tag #AskOliver

Can't wait? Listen to the Nature podcast interview with Sacks by Kerri Smith, Nature’s podcast editor. Sacks recounts some interesting drug-induced trips, including one in which he has a philosophical discussion with a spider.

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