The paradigm within which hallucinations are studied, and the explanatory frameworks employed, may bias the phenomenological analysis of these experiences. After introducing the new term, hallucination, this paper undertook an inter-disciplinary study of the phenomenology of hallucinations identified by the sixteenth-century theologians, St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avila. It was...
Abstract One factor limiting research involving hypnagogic and hypnopompic (H&H) hallucinations is the lack of a brief, valid and reliable self-report measure of such experiences. The present paper reports on the development of the Durham Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Hallucinations Questionnaire (DHQ), which consists of three unidimensional subscales assessing the presence of auditory, visual,...
Article examining the phenomenological commonalities between Emanuel Swedenborg's experiences and near-death experiences (NDEs). It argues that a distal cause of Swedenborg's experiences was neural changes induced by his lifetime of unusual respiration, in conjunction with a predisposition to temporal lobe seizures. It concludes by proposing a number of empirically testable hypotheses emerging...
The causes of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are still unclear. The evidence for 2 prominent cognitive models of AVHs, one based on inner speech, the other on intrusions from memory, is briefly reviewed. The fit of these models, as well as neurological models, to the phenomenology of AVHs is then critically examined. It is argued that only a minority of AVHs, such as those with content...