Is seeing a shadow out of the corner of your eye a hallucination? What if you hear people talking in the distance that aren't there but it's real faint? Maybe I'm just trying to normalize my own experiences, but it seems like almost everyone probably has experienced one of those things once or twice in their life without having a mental disorder or any sort of real differences in them causing it. I have experienced stuff though that is much more than that like seeing people and messed up stuff that wasn't there, hearing full sentences/dialogue, etc. so I sort of know that there is a difference between these subtle types of things and true hallucinatory experiences. I mean what do you think about these sorts of sub-hallucinatory experiences?

[healingme4me]

My first thought, when considering any type of hallucinatory experience, is, is there a chance of a neurological illness, first and foremost. Previous concussion, whiplash, migraines, partial seizures, et al.
Then, are you getting enough sleep?
How's your nutritional status? Those types of wonderments. Long before, considering psychological illness.

Originally Posted by healingme4me

My first thought, when considering any type of hallucinatory experience, is, is there a chance of a neurological illness, first and foremost. Previous concussion, whiplash, migraines, partial seizures, et al.
Then, are you getting enough sleep?
How's your nutritional status? Those types of wonderments. Long before, considering psychological illness.

I know but what I'm saying is how is a hallucination even defined because there's a big difference between say what I experience (hearing voices calling my name and occasionally talking about me out of nowhere and seeing people who are not there from time to time) and faintly hearing a noise or seeing a shadow out of the corner of your eye. I'm saying that it could probably be subjective from individual to individual where the line is drawn. For me though, there really is no line because I do truly hallucinate at random and fairly regularly. I'm just wondering where the "sane" people draw the distinction between hallucination and normal experience.

[Altered Moment]

Hallucination - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hypnagogic hallucinations and hypnopompic hallucinations are considered normal phenomena. Hypnagogic hallucinations can occur as one is falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations occur when one is waking up.

I have never heard those two big words. There are links to both of them which I am sure define them.

I get them a lot where I will hear my name being called very loud but no one called it. Sometimes it wakes me from a dead sleep and sometimes it happens when I am just waking up. I don't know if you can call me normal or sane though. When in severe depression I think I have slight psychotics features. It is worst when I am trying to get to sleep but am having trouble. Other times it is very bad paranoia, but that might be considered delusional and not psychotic. Like misinterpreting things that are real. This happens in the middle of the day when I am wide awake.

Originally Posted by zinco14532323

Hallucination - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


I have never heard those two big words. There are links to both of them which I am sure define them.

I get them a lot where I will hear my name being called very loud but no one called it. Sometimes it wakes me from a dead sleep and sometimes it happens when I am just waking up. I don't know if you can call me normal or sane though. When in severe depression I think I have slight psychotics features. It is worst when I am trying to get to sleep but am having trouble. Other times it is very bad paranoia, but that might be considered delusional and not psychotic. Like misinterpreting things that are real. This happens in the middle of the day when I am wide awake.

As someone who does experience and has experienced numerous hallucinations in the form of both voices and visions, I can say it is impossible to draw any line between sanity and insanity. There really is no definite way to define if someone is "psychotic". Even if someone hallucinates in the middle of the day on a daily basis, they are not always "insane" as they could be functioning perfectly fine. Someone could hallucinate several times or more during a typical day and function alright. I have been like that at times, so when you think about it, drawing the line becomes difficult and maybe it is best to not draw distinct lines between "crazy" and "sane"

[Swabbingred]

There's an obviously dichotomy between hallucinations and figments of one's imagination. It's quite obvious to differentiate both if one happens repeatedly.

[Altered Moment]

Originally Posted by Steve223

As someone who does experience and has experienced numerous hallucinations in the form of both voices and visions, I can say it is impossible to draw any line between sanity and insanity. There really is no definite way to define if someone is "psychotic". Even if someone hallucinates in the middle of the day on a daily basis, they are not always "insane" as they could be functioning perfectly fine. Someone could hallucinate several times or more during a typical day and function alright. I have been like that at times, so when you think about it, drawing the line becomes difficult and maybe it is best to not draw distinct lines between "crazy" and "sane"

The terms crazy, insane, and sane are not really used anymore. At least not in the mental health field. Probably for the reasons you mention. Its about symptoms and functioning and how things effect your life.

[shakespeare47]

Oliver Sacks' book, Hallucinations was a big eye-opener for me. He describes just how common hallucinations are.

You can be perfectly sane and experience hallucinations. Hallucinations are common among people who are losing their vision. Sacks even describes some of the hallucinations he himself has experienced over the years.

Sacks tells an amusing story of someone who was aware that he was hallucinating because of some medical condition. He saw someone waving to him from outside a window while he was inside a tall building, and assumed it wasn't real, and so ignored it. It turned out it was a window washer who was perturbed he didn't wave back, lol.

Even the visual migraines that some people experience are technically considered hallucinations.