Hallucination

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A hallucination is a "perception without a stimulus" — in other words, seeing something that isn't there.

Hallucinations are a symptom of certain mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, certain forms of dementia, Parkinson's disease, and epilepsy. They can also be experienced by the ingestion of psychoactive substances, most notably LSD.

There are also two common forms of hallucination called hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations which are unrelated to mental illness, the former occurring before sleep and the latter during the process of waking up. Blurred vision and switching between alert and sleeping states can cause anyone to see strange things. These hallucinations can create false memories. Similarly, sleep paralysis can cause memorably frightening hallucinations.

They are distinct from delusions, or demonstrably false beliefs of pathological origin; however, the two are often caused by the same mental illnesses.

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