A Novel Model for Hallucinations and Its Implications

Abstract

Different from most research focusing on the generation mechanism of hallucinations from the perspective of neurophysiology, this paper attempts to propose an original model to reveal the formation mechanism of different states of hallucinations. Our starting point is that there are two pathways through which to affect perception: When false internal stimulations and external objective stimulations affect perception together, the changes in their relative strength will result in the consistence, breakdown and re-consistence of the five senses, leading to three basic states of hallucinations (one can distinguish reality from fantasy, one cannot distinguish reality from fantasy, and reality and fantasy are totally reversed).

The shift from the first state to the second state of hallucinations occurs because false internal stimulations become strong enough to break the consistence of the five senses originating externally, making it impossible to determine which is real. Moreover, in the second state of hallucinations, the inconsistence of the five senses can also explain the mechanisms of out-of-body experiences (resulting from the inconsistence of vision and touching), synesthesia (resulting from the mismatch of the two pairs of five senses) and many other marvelous psychedelic phenomena in altered states of consciousness (ASC).

The shift from the second state into the third state happens because false internal stimulations become further stronger to form a new consistence of the five senses originating internally. This state of hallucinations is so fancy and nobody has studied it before. It suggests a novel hypothesis to interpret extrasensory perception (ESP): the essence of ESP is that false internal stimulations are mistaken as external objective stimulations which enter through sensory organs, while real external objective stimulations are mistaken as perceptions which do not result from sensory organs when one is in deep hallucinations. In this situation, since he cannot find the counterpart in the imaginary world, one would naturally treat the inconsistent and “unexplainable” external stimulation as information acquired through psychic abilities such as clairaudience, clairvoyance or telepathy.

Finally, we arrive at a conclusion that paranormal phenomena are simply illusions that happen along with deep hallucinations and drop some helpful hints for the clinical treatment of schizophrenia.

Keywords: Hallucinations, Consistence and Inconsistence of the Five Senses, Extrasensory Perception (ESP), Altered States of Consciousness (ASC), Schizophrenia