Hallucinations: Experiencing something that isn't present. Hallucinations are realistic perceptions by a person with the absence of any external stimulant. When someone is under the influence of a hallucination, their brain is just as active as it would be if it were physically engaging with such reality.
If a person experiences a hallucination, they may be deemed as psychologically disturbed, but as research shows this is not the case. Some cultures even go out of their way to induce such experience upon themselves.
These perceived realities are much more common than one would expect. Surveys reveal that 10 to 14 percent (and even as high as 39 percent) of college students have hallucinated once during the day without assistance of drugs or other forces.
So besides drugs, what causes one to hallucinate? Visual hallucination can be brought upon the lack of oxygen and senses. For example, people are known to float in warm water in dark silence. What this does is it completely deprives you of your senses so you hallucinate to compensate for the lack of sensory stimulation.
Chapter 5
No TrackBacks
TrackBack URL: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/176029
I also believe that hallucinations are not as uncommon as made out to be. Just last night, I thought I saw the figure of a face in one of the pillows at the end of my bed. I knew it wasn't actually there, but it looked so vivid that I wanted to believe it was. I believe that every set of eyes is different, and each set has a varied relationship to each person's brain that may cause hallucinations.
I find that hallucinations were much more common in my early years and especially at night. I consider myself to have an active imagination so when it would get dark my mind would start racing and figures, shapes and other such sinister things would always seem to appear in my room while I was trying to fall asleep.
As you said, hallucinations is not as uncommon as people make it out to be. And of course, it has a lot to do with our brains. If we want to see something badly enough, to imagine it so vividly, it can happen. As you said with the compensating for the lack of sensory stimulation. As you lay there in a dark room waiting for sleep to beckon closer to you, you look up to your ceiling and make out patters in the darkness. Where is the line between vivid imagination and hallucinations?