The Characteristics And Causes Of Pseudohallucinations

Pseudohallucinations are common non-pathological phenomena that most people experience at some point in their lives. An example of this is the typical startling image that suddenly comes to mind as you fall asleep. Pareidolias (attributed to a particular stimulus such as leaves or a face looking at you) are other related facts.

These situations are worrisome beyond their anecdotal or even ironic nature. This is because they are a change of reality and a specific way of making contact with the strange, the unusual and even the paradoxical. Thus, the scenario in which pseudo-perceptions have the greatest impact is in the dream world.

You experience a pseudohallucination when you suddenly see things that are not there or that look like something else. These phenomena are usually a response to minor errors in brain perception.

What are pseudohallucinations?

Take Elena for example. She is a cashier in a supermarket who experiences various pseudohallucinations on a daily basis. For example, she thinks someone is calling her every time the megaphone beeps to send someone to the register and help a customer. This experience does not mean that there is anything wrong with her. She has no psychological problems or auditory hallucinations. It is the result of daily pressure and stress.

Pseudohallucinations are thus mental anomalies or errors in the brain’s perceptual process. They are situations where the mind conjures up images or even sounds that are not really there. It is important to emphasize that these are common experiences. They are usually not pathological (like the hallucinations experienced by someone with schizophrenia).

dr. Humberto Maturana, a well-known Chilean biologist, explains that the brain is constantly interpreting reality to make sense of things. Sometimes it is normal for there to be errors in the way people process any stimulus or situation. In fact, it makes you experience different kinds of pseudo-perceptions throughout your life. Most of them are perfectly normal, even if they are still mind boggling.

How many kinds of perception errors can the brain have?

We already mentioned pareidolias above, one of the most common of these is pseudohallucinations. So it is very common to assign a human face to a stone. Seeing faces in lunar craters is also common.

Scientists studying this phenomenon offer a simple explanation. A study conducted at the University of Sydney in Australia confirms that animals also experience pseudohallucinations. For example, rhesus monkeys also experience pareidolia. This effect is the brain’s natural tendency to look for “faces” everywhere.

As you can imagine, the mind will always detect a face in front of an inanimate object. It is common to experience other types of pseudohallucinations as well, such as:

The phenomenon of consecutive images

Imagine looking at a book with pictures of birds and your phone ringing as you turn the pages. You pick up and suddenly see a bird in front of you. Was it really there? Obviously not. This is a pseudohallucination, an error of your brain.

The phenomenon of sequential images arises after prolonged exposure to a series of specific stimuli.

Parasitic images

These kinds of experiences arise as a result of physical and mental exhaustion. For example, imagine you’ve been waiting all day at the airport for your flight to depart. When you go to bed, the image of the airport suddenly comes to mind as soon as you close your eyes.

Pseudohallucinations and mnemonics

This relates to the way the brain constructs memories. In this case, it is a common phenomenon to completely transform the image of a particular memory. The date you had with a certain person a year ago, for example, and not knowing if things really happened the way you remember or if your mind has distorted them.

Hypnagogic Perceptions

The most common types of pseudohallucinations are hypnagogic. These are rather vivid perceptual experiences that occur just between being awake and sleeping. These phenomena can interrupt your rest and suddenly wake you up when you experience a visual, tactile and auditory phenomenon.

However, the most complex part of this experience is that it usually occurs with parasomnias such as sleep paralysis. The person is hallucinating and unable to respond.

Basically, most people experience pseudohallucinations at some point in their lives. They are just another example of the complexity of the human brain and its errors.