Merged New Insights into Hallucinations and Paranormal Phenomenon

[dann]

It makes me wonder if people who have a brain dysfunction mistake these incidents as paranormal?

Jill Taylor's stroke gave her some rather new agey ideas.

 

[SusanB-M1]

The Charles Bonnet syndrome is to do with hallucinations mainly for those with sight loss. I have had some but mine are a particular pattern which varies in size, shrinks or expands and sometimes has a 3D effect. It is actually a very pleasant pattern and I wish I could paint it. Occasionally I have images of what appear to be real people, but they are only fleeting and I know what they are. I had an interesting phone call with someone in the RNIB a few weeks ago because, after a lapse of years, the pattern has been showing up, but as it is only in a simple form I wondered whether it could be classified as the syndrome, but apparenty any such hallucination comes under that heading.
It is the retina sending false messages to the brain because it is not performing its proper job, it seems!

 

[Donn]

So far as I can see the posts say little more in substance than "hallucinations occur in the brain and don't reflect external stimulus, when they are sufficiently convincing people mistake them for real and believe they have had paranormal experiences". Is this a fair summary?

Near as I can tell, yes.

The recent "update" is quite hard to read. (Why are paragraphs so hard to use?) It has added some mention of Buddhist philosophy.

Frankly, I'm under the whelm.

 

[Donn]

The Charles Bonnet syndrome is to do with hallucinations mainly for those with sight loss. I have had some but mine are a particular pattern which varies in size, shrinks or expands and sometimes has a 3D effect. It is actually a very pleasant pattern and I wish I could paint it. Occasionally I have images of what appear to be real people, but they are only fleeting and I know what they are. I had an interesting phone call with someone in the RNIB a few weeks ago because, after a lapse of years, the pattern has been showing up, but as it is only in a simple form I wondered whether it could be classified as the syndrome, but apparenty any such hallucination comes under that heading.
It is the retina sending false messages to the brain because it is not performing its proper job, it seems!

How interesting. I get the occasional intense white flashes - like a camera flash going off. Usually as I fall asleep.

I also have a rich swamp of sounds that I'm fairly sure don't emerge from outside.

Still no Jesus or Mo, though!

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Near as I can tell, yes.

The recent "update" is quite hard to read. (Why are paragraphs so hard to use?) It has added some mention of Buddhist philosophy.

Frankly, I'm under the whelm.

Thanks, it seems like a very long winded statement of the bleeding obvious, next up ten thousand words on the discovery that water has hydrological properties!

 

[SusanB-M1]

How interesting. I get the occasional intense white flashes - like a camera flash going off. Usually as I fall asleep.

I also have a rich swamp of sounds that I'm fairly sure don't emerge from outside.

Still no Jesus or Mo, though!

If you don't mind, I'll just take this opportunity to mention a general, but very important point: if ever anyone has any unusual phenomenon with sight, do not wait for an appointment with a GP and a referral, go straight to Eye Casualty. They would much rather have someone call and find that there is nothing wrong, than for any damage to have been done which could have been treated.

 

[Donn]

If you don't mind, I'll just take this opportunity to mention a general, but very important point: if ever anyone has any unusual phenomenon with sight, do not wait for an appointment with a GP and a referral, go straight to Eye Casualty.

It does worry me a little, and I'd do so, but my country and location within it put me far from the good medicine.

 

[SusanB-M1]

It does worry me a little, and I'd do so, but my country and location within it put me far from the good medicine.

Apologies if I caused any concern, but I expect you are able to phone someone? In my experience of having to phone occasionally, I have always found the Practice Nurses to be very good at assessing whether I needed to be seen or not.