Hallucinations

Summary

Some hallucinations induced by psychedelics may reveal aspects of the mind, contrary to the belief that they do not. The chapter examines how low-level geometric hallucinations generated by the primary visual cortex can reflect early perceptual processes. It also explores the idea that other types of hallucinations might reveal unconscious content or simply distort the mind, possibly arising from effects that do involve mind-revelation, like uncovering hidden memories.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract This chapter addresses the question of whether psychedelic-induced hallucinations are evidence against the hypothesis that psychedelics reveal the mind. While, at first glance, this may appear to be the case, the chapter argues that some (but perhaps not all) hallucinations induced by psychedelics do involve mind-revelation. In particular, by analysing mathematical models of how the primary visual cortex generates low-level geometric hallucinations, the chapter argues that these hallucinations are revelations of the early stages of our perceptual processes. The chapter also discusses the possibility that other kinds of hallucinations may be mind-revealing in other ways (such as being vehicles for unconscious contents) and that some hallucinations are merely distortions of the mind (rather than revelations of it), perhaps arising as by-products of other effects that involve mind-revelation (such as revealing hidden memories).