It can be difficult, if not impossible, for me to differentiate my more convincing hallucinations from reality. Usually, if I see or hear something really strange, I think that it may have been a hallucination, but I still can't know for sure, which is frustrating. I hear my name being called often too; when I hear it multiple times in multiple places in the same day, I think that is probably a hallucination, because what are the chances that everywhere I go, people would be calling out to their other friends with my (admittedly common) name? When I hear someone around me say something similar to whatever is on my mind at the time, I know its probably a hallucination, because how would they have access to my thoughts?

I also have hallucinations that are very easy to tell aren't real. Most of my visuals fall into this category; I see demons, for example, but they are only there for three seconds, and then they disappear. Other times, I just get this convincing sense that what I am sensing is not real. It feels dream-like.

I find hallucinations very fascinating. What are they, really? Are they truly just the product of us having too much dopaminergic action in our mesolimbic circuits, or are they actually representations of a different plane of reality?