Two weeks before his death, Oliver Sacks outlined his plans for the last book he would oversee, The River of Consciousness. As an eminent neurologist and highly regarded throughout his life for his far-reaching examinations of the human mind, this book marks Sacks' magnificent return. Known for his investigations into the brain, this is Sacks' chance to explore his fascination with questions posed by all the sciences. It is this unending passion and appetite for investigation that Sacks will be remembered for and which informs a work that explores not only the nature of the human mind but of all life. Sacks seeks the companionship of some of the greatest scientific minds we know and his own personal heroes, in Darwin and Freud, to illuminate his study of botany, evolution, chemistry, medicine, the arts, and neuroscience. The culmination of a lifetime of research, thought and meditation, The River of Consciousness is an exceptional piece of writing and a testament to one man's timeless project to understand what makes us human. Two weeks before his death, Oliver Sacks outlined the contents of The River of Consciousness, the last book he would oversee. The best-selling author of On the Move, Musicophilia, and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Sacks is known for his illuminating case histories about people living with neurological conditions at the far borderlands of human experience. But his grasp of science was not restricted to neuroscience or medicine; he was fascinated by the issues, ideas, and questions of all the sciences. That wide-ranging expertise and passion informs the perspective of this book, in which he interrogates the nature not only of human experience but of all life. 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, 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 book. The River of Consciousness demonstrates Sacks’s unparalleled ability to make unexpected connections, his sheer joy in knowledge, and his unceasing, timeless endeavor to understand what makes us human.