© 2025 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KCTI-AM/FM is off-air due to damage from a lightning strike. We are working to restore service as quickly as possible.

A Famous Hallucination: Ahab's Phantom Leg

The human brain can, indeed, make up things that aren't there — sights, sounds, feelings. Michele Norris has a literary reminder of a famous hallucination: Captain Ahab, from Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick. Ahab lost his leg but can feel it still.

Copyright 2008 NPR