Her Brain Told Her She Was Dying — and It Was Right

So I wanna ask you, in the unfortunate case that you ever had a brain tumor, what would you think if your brain actually told you that you had it? [laughs] I've actually read about an amazing case like this in Life Science from April this year.

So it's not something that happened recently, but I thought, "This is too interesting not to talk about it," and it really shows how amazing the human brain is, right? So imagine you are sitting at home, you're just doing something mundane like reading a book, having a cup of tea.

You've always been healthy.

You don't really see the doctor very much.

But suddenly a voice speaks inside your head.

Now, it's not a thought, it's actually a voice, all right? It's a comforting voice, but it wants to tell you s- that you're in danger.

And this actually happened to a lady who they're calling AB.

Uh, happened to her in London in 1984, and there's a well-known medical literature case that was published in December 1997 in the British Medical Journal, so it's a real thing that happened.

And, um, it was documented by her psychiatrist, Dr. E.K. Chukwuoze Onyeie, and he titled it, "A Difficult Case: Diagnosis Made by Hallucinatory Voices." So...

And what he wrote in his paper kinda sums it all up, but then we'll go through it.

He said, "The first-- This is the first and only instance I have come across in which hallucinatory voices sought to reassure the patient of their genuine interest in her welfare.

They offered her a specific diagnosis.

They directed her to the type of hospital best suited for her survival, expressed joy at her recovery, and bid her farewell, and then disappeared." [laughs] So-

Wow

... today we're gonna unpack this case and have a look and see how it went.

So AB was a woman born in continental Europe in the mid-1940s.

She migrated and settled to Britain in the 1960s.

She was a housewife, a mother living a quiet life.

She had no other history of psychiatric illness, no hospitalizations, et cetera.

But when one day she's just sitting at home, minding her own business, having a cup of tea, when suddenly a voice came out of her head.

Like I mentioned, it wasn't a thought, it was a voice, and it said, "Please don't be afraid.

I know it must be shocking for you to hear me speaking to you like this, but it's the easiest way I could think of.

My friend and I used to work at the Children's Hospital, Great Ormond Street, and we would like to help you." Okay.

So AB was panicked obviously.

She'd heard of the hospital-