What is hallucination?

A hallucination is the brain's reception of a false sensory input. This essentially means that the person having a hallucination is experiencing an event through one of their senses that is not occurring in the real world. This can be through any of the senses. When auditory hallucinations are examined, the most common are hearing one's own thoughts as if they were being spoken aloud, followed by hearing one's name being called by a voice when alone.

Common hallucinations include:

• Feeling a crawling sensation on the skin
• Hearing voices when no one has spoken
• Seeing patterns, lights, beings, or objects that aren't there

Hallucinations related to smell or taste are rare.

There are many causes of hallucinations, including:

• Being drunk or high, or coming down from such drugs as marijuana, LSD, cocaine or crack, heroin, and alcohol
• Fever, especially in children and the elderly
• Sensory problem, such as blindness or deafness
• Severe illness, including liver failure, kidney failure, and brain cancer
• Some psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, psychotic depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder

All of us some time or the other experience hallucination in our life...