Hallucinations: What People Get Wrong

Hallucinations are surrounded by misconceptions that prevent people from understanding what is actually happening — to themselves or to someone close to them. Dr. Andris Saulitis identifies several key mistakes.

Myth 1: Hallucinations have nothing to do with normal mental life

In fact, hallucinations lie on the same continuum as ordinary thoughts. The difference is one of intensity: when "mental temperature" keeps rising, thoughts become so powerful that a person begins to hear them as something external. This is not a break from normality — it is its extreme point. That is precisely why hallucinations cannot be dismissed as something that only happens to "crazy people."

Myth 2: All hallucinations are the same

Clinically, it is critically important to distinguish between true hallucinations and pseudohallucinations — and this is not merely a matter of terminology. True hallucinations are voices or images perceived as coming from the outside world, as though they were real external events. They more commonly accompany organic conditions: intoxication, encephalitis, alcohol-withdrawal delirium. Pseudohallucinations are different: the person is already immersed in a psychotic experience, and a psychic reality overlays the external one, producing figures and voices that feel as though they originate from within. Confusing the two means misunderstanding the nature of the disorder.

Myth 3: Hallucinations equal schizophrenia

This is one of the most dangerous oversimplifications. Hallucinatory phenomena occur across a wide range of conditions — from situational neurosis and PTSD to toxic and organic disturbances. The path from a mild neurosis to psychosis is not instantaneous: it is a gradual escalation shaped by genetics, environment, and the circumstances of a person's life. Equating a single symptom with a specific diagnosis is a serious mistake.

Myth 4: Historical and religious explanations were mere superstition

Dr. Saulitis reminds us that for thousands of years people had no concept of mental disorders as such. The phenomena of hallucinations were interpreted through religion, mysticism, and ideas of possession. This was not ignorance born of stupidity — it was the absence of knowledge. Now that the knowledge exists, it is important not to repeat the same error in reverse: neither dismissing a symptom as a "spiritual experience" nor stigmatising the person by labelling them as "mad."