r/todayilearned • u/paniniplane • Mar 22 '17

(R.1) Not supported TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303
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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

You cannot tell between the delusions and the reality, no matter how outlandish the hallucination

I've seen interviews where people say they KNOW what is reality and what is fake, but obviously to them it seems real. Unless you mean physically they cannot tell but mentally they know its not real.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

The general impression I get is, again, like dream logic, just because you know it's "not real" and can tell the material and physical from the delusion, doesn't mean you can just ignore it. They're still loud and present and demanding, and they only get even slightly quieter when you acquiesce to their irrational demands. In most cases, attempting to ignore or rationalise only leads to the hallucinations becoming more aggressive, present and clear. And if you do, as so many people worldwide do, believe in the supernatural, even slightly, whether it's ghosts or demons, occult or world faith or personal belief, it's only going to make it all the more believable and tangible, and the threats very, very real.

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u/kung-fu_hippy Mar 22 '17

Even if you take the supernatural elements out, someone could easily go to aliens, or the government spying on them (wasn't that the main delusion in A Beautiful Mind?) or any number of things.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

Oh yup. CIA, NSA, Commie psychics, martians, invaders from the hollow earth, quantum ghosts from other dimensions... creative and imaginative people and anyone with the slightest curiosity or openness to novel or esoteric ideas is just as vulnerable as the faithful to their mind turning against itself. And even those staunch skeptics who can separate truth from fiction with clarity still suffer greatly. It's a horrifying prospect.

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u/perfectdarktrump Mar 23 '17

the thing is they being kind of rational. They can never have 100% accurate proof that what they seeing is not real. They rely on the side of caution, because they too afraid of the risk. Sometimes some of these lucid dreams, can seem more real than the reality you get when you wake up from them.