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Visual Hallucinations Are a Normal Grief Reaction

Posted by kdawson on from the who-goes-there dept.

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.' "

6 of 550 comments (clear)

  1. Less complex explanation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's quite clearly just a simple glitch in the Matrix.

  2. Re:I think I have observed this! by xstonedogx · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're all wrong.

    i can haz 10 livs?

  3. Re:Ghosts by Hijacked+Public · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dug 'em up, they were still in there.

    --
    "Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
  4. Re:Ghosts by clam666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  5. Re:And yet.... by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  6. Re:Ghost stories by p.e.r.i.o.d.i.c.a.l · · Score: 5, Funny

    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...