The Ontological Status of Visions and Hallucinations.
June 4, 2022 Richard Michael Blaber 1 citation
The abstract questions the criteria used to distinguish real from unreal perceptions. Hallucinations in schizophrenia are deemed unreal because they are not shared, yet visions of religious figures or angels, and sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena by multiple witnesses, are also not shared. The text asks whether such anomalous experiences, when sincerely believed, should also be considered unreal, and whether an ontology that accepts them as real could be coherent and logically defensible.