People May Experience Hallucinations When Gazing Into Someone Else’s Eye

A majority of 90% reported hallucinating that they had seen a deformed face, and 75% said they had seen a monster when staring into someone’s eye.

Staring deeply into someone else’s eye can transport people to an altered state of consciousness in which they experience strange hallucinations, a new study suggests.

For this study 20 people were put in a dimly lit room and were made to sit opposite each other in pairs. Then they were asked to stare at each other, expressionless for 10 minutes. Many of the subjects had "a compelling experience that they never had before". The study was undertaken by Giovanni Caputo, researcher from the University of Urbino, Italy.

Hallucinations - Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Health Tips
Hallucinations or false perceptions, are often associated with mental disorders and neurological disorders. In the elderly, it occurs with dementia and auditory hallucinations are most common.

Questions regarding their experience were asked such as 'Did you see the face of a monster?', 'Did you see the face of one of your relatives?', 'Did you see that some facial traits were deformed?' and 'Did you see the face of a domestic or savage animal?'A majority of 90% reported hallucinating that they had seen a deformed face, and 75% said they had seen a monster.

Half of them said that their partner’s face had partially morphed or merged into their own face and 15% said they had seen a relative’s face. Also it was reported that the subjects felt dissociated from the world around them.

"A possible explanation of the results can be that the sensory deprivation (low lighting) and the sustained gazing toward a stimulus (the other's face) induces a general level of dissociation," said Caputo.

Can We Relieve Auditory Hallucinations in Victims of Schizophrenia With Computer Generated Avatars?
Scientists are studying the potential benefits of computer-generated avatars in helping patients with schizophrenia combat auditory hallucinations.

"The strange-face apparition momentarily interrupts the dissociative state by provoking a temporary hallucination. In other words, the strange-face apparition can be a form of rebound to 'reality' that occurs from a general state of dissociation due to sensory deprivation," he added.

The study was published in the journal Psychiatry Research.

Neural Mechanism Behind Hallucinations Identified
Australian researchers say they have identified the neural mechanism that could trigger hallucinations. The discovery could lead to more effective drugs for treatment of schizophrenia.

Source-Medindia

Even Mentally Healthy People Hallucinate and Have Delusions; They Function Well
Five percent of the general population has two to five episodes of hallucinations and delusions. Auditory hallucinations are more common in women than men.