An Original Model for Hallucinations and Its Implications

This paper develops an original model to interpret hallucinations which are extremely miraculous and perplexing in ASC: 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 illusion, one cannot distinguish reality from illusion, and reality and illusion 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. Besides making it impossible to determine which is real, the inconsistence of the five senses makes one feel uneasy, even terrified in ASC. Furthermore, the inconsistence of the five senses makes it possible to merge internal stimulations with external stimulations together. The integration (not simple superposition) of internal and external stimulations, especially visual and tactile stimulations, combined with the amplifying function of enhanced awareness which always occurs along with hallucinations, could explain various marvelous and even weird hallucinations in ASC. Moreover, it can also explain the mechanisms of out-of-body experiences (resulting from the inconsistence of vision and touching) and synesthesia (resulting from the mismatch of the two pairs of five senses) well. 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: When one is in deep hallucinations, 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. 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, this paper indicates that paranormal phenomena are delusions that happen along with deep hallucinations and drops some helpful hints for the clinical treatment of schizophrenia.