Date of Award
1972
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Psychology
First Reader
Unknown
Abstract
Ancient mediators, ascetics, and others on religious quests deliberately withdrew from all sensory experience and even transcended awareness of their own body in order to open up the "inner rooms of the house of mind."
Experimenters of the modern era have attempted to analyze the various forms of hallucinations that have occurred under such "mysterious" circumstances. Contemporary sensory deprivation situations have yielded results which correspond very closely to the transcendentalism of the ancient mystics. However, the scientists of today have various means of complex experimentation available. Thus, hallucinations are no longer the mystical experiences of transcendentalists--hallucinations can be explained through physiological experimentation.
This paper will be concerned with three major aspects of hallucinations: (1) Hallucinations produced by sensory deprivation; (2) The comparison of sensory deprivation hallucinations with psychotic and drug induced hallucinations; and (3) An elementary physiological explanation of sensory deprivational hallucinations.
Recommended Citation
Latham, Larry M., "Hallucinations Induced by Sensory Deprivation: Fact or Fiction?" (1972). Honors Theses. 271.
https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/271