Posted by Eddie Sylvano on November 21, 2002, at 9:32:50
When I'm having a dream, very often there is some part of my brain that begins to question the reality of what I'm experiencing ("Hold on a sec... I can't jump 40 feet in the air!"). Something triggers my ludicrous meter and I wake up. The couple times I've had hallucinations were similar ("There's no creature pulling on my penis!" (that was exciting)). I dunno. I feel like I have a deeply set understanding of reality, and the objectiveness to apply my understanding. That said, I've often read that psychotic people are unable to distinguish the unreality of their hallucinations or beliefs. How does this work? If someone has a lifetime of prior knowledge about science and nature, does this understanding of reality disappear? How fundamental are the thought changes induced by psychosis? I would just imagine that if I began to see or hear things that are plainly mental artifacts that I would be aware of this on some level. It seems odd that such a disorder would both induce hallucinations *and* erase any previous ability to reason through the origin or external reality of them.
poster:Eddie Sylvano
thread:128601
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021116/msgs/128601.html