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Visual Hallucinations Are a Normal Grief Reaction
Hugh Pickens writes "Vaughn Bell has written an interesting essay at Scientific American about grief hallucinations. This phenomenon is a normal reaction to bereavement that is rarely discussed, although researchers now know that hallucinations are more likely during times of stress. Mourning seems to be a time when hallucinations are particularly common, to the point where feeling the presence of the deceased is the norm rather than the exception. A study by Agneta Grimby at the University of Goteborg found that over 80 percent of elderly people experience hallucinations associated with their dead partner one month after bereavement, as if their perception had yet to catch up with the knowledge of their beloved's passing. It's not unusual for people who have lost a partner to clearly see or hear the person about the house, and sometimes even converse with them at length. 'Despite the fact that hallucinations are one of the most common reactions to loss, they have barely been investigated and we know little more about them. Like sorrow itself, we seem a little uncomfortable with it, unwilling to broach the subject,' writes Bell. 'We often fall back on the cultural catch all of the "ghost" while the reality is, in many ways, more profound.' "
Mourning seems to be a time when hallucinations are particularly common
Yes, this is very common, and is usually attributed to the caffeine withdrawal symptoms prior to morning coffee.
Better known as 318230.
That's quite clearly just a simple glitch in the Matrix.
You're all wrong.
i can haz 10 livs?
Just because it happens frequently doesn't mean it is *not* supernatural in nature.
That's why I pray every day to our great Flying Spaghetti Monster so I can see his terrific, supernatural tentacles grabbing down everything where others just see "gravity".
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
Of course I'm dead due to misfiring brain cells.
No no, you're pining for the fjords.
Dug 'em up, they were still in there.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
Bad point. There may well be less things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of. Especially if you consider for instance pre-election rethoric as dreams.
Dude it's called the Bible. And if isn't in there you shouldn't even be thinking about it, sinner.
I have been told "You don't exist, go away!". Perhaps that was no error message.
who you gonna call?
How exactly did someone's death prove there is no afterlife? I can understand not believing in an afterlife, but how did someone you love's dying prove it?/
He postulated his epistemology a priori then pronounced it a posteriori posthumously.
Probably.
I'm a satanic clam.
Time and space is an illusion
Lunchtime doubly so
Free Martian Whores!
Besides, the researchers may well find themselves on the other end of that hallucination.
I totally hate when the people I'm studying start hallucinating me.
(I, for one, welcome our dead, elderly, overlords)
You voted for McCain, right?
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
I was sitting on the toilet, and since I was alone I didn't bother shutting the bathroom door.
I looked up just as a woman wearing contemporary-looking clothing walked up to the door, startled out of her wits as if she'd seen a ghost, as was I
So, in other words, it scared the shit out of you...
'e's not dead. 'e's pinin' for the fjords!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
One thing that my death has proved to me is that certainly there is afterlife.
Ooohh! Oohh! I know this one!
Batman! It's Batman, right? It's gotta be.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
They have medications for that.
Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
The human brain seems to be very good at making shortcuts to speed up processing.
So when I'm around my wife, my human brain assumes that the person I see is my wife (shoot, it even assumes the warmth next to me in bed is my wife, and that the person I'm talking to is my wife), and interprets it that way for me.
If your brain was REALLY good at making shortcuts, it'd skip all that and use the only shortcut a married man needs: "Yes dear" ;-)
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer