I would have thought that an interested maker could whip up a pair of goggles if they were able to discover the correct frequency and brightness for the light. A bit like a modern Dreamachine?

Btw, I don’t think it’s correct to say he has Asperger’s.  He’s said “I’m an honorary Tourette’s because I tend to jerk.  I am also an honorary Asperger. And I’m an honorary bipolar. I suspect we all have a bit of everything.”

I like the way he’s expressed that – all too often people like to claim they have “mild Asperger’s” or similar.  The “geek chic” aura around this condition is perverse because it’s been specifically created to label those who are genuinely disabled (at least in the sense of being able to function normally in the modern world – from the DSM-IV definition we have ” clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning” and “restricted repetitive & stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities”).  It’s important to remember it’s an artificial set of criteria – people who don’t quite meet the full set may get the less glamorous label of PDD-NOS, or be described as having some autistic traits.  But “mild Asperger’s” is akin to describing cold feet as “mild frostbite and gangrene”. 

I think the first Sacks book I read was Island of the Colorblind. A travelogue, botany lesson, and neurology tale all in one. I hooked my aunt and mother on his books, and they actually went to his lectures back East.