Dr. A., I think we come from the same sort of place, so don't take the request for definition as rude. I don't have my dictionaries handy, but I bet every one of them puts an hallucination as "something that appears utterly real, yet on further examination has no corroboration, within the experiencer or without." I have hallucinated, but I have corroboration from friends and from myself that I had voluntarily altered my mental state, with chemicals that are well known for hallucinatory effects.
Speaking for myself, maybe I'm lucky or way too uptight, but I've always been able to find that wee little corroboration or aetiology. I wish I could go out, sometimes, and see trees and cliffs like Wordsworth. I tend to look for strata in the cliffs, and look for the bird species that live there. O, for rapture, ... etc. Poets need hallucinations, they really do, and scientists need hypotheses. Wordsworth wished for a poetry of chemistry, and I think we're still waiting!
