When reading many of the scientific reports about SP the term" hallucinations" is often employed when out-of-the-ordinary experiences are noted or referred to.  It is important to place the very use of this term "hallucination" in the entire context of the SP experience.   Psychologically speaking a hallucination is a word-concept that most likely describes an altered state of consciousness.   In this narrow sense, dreams-with-self-awareness and with the certainty that the dreamer is not, as far as she knows, dreaming, may qualify as "hallucinations".  Earlier in the book, we established the fact that to the extent that it is fairly easy for the average person to slip into D-sleep, a good portion of humanity is already prone to altered states of consciousness.  So if we are trying to normalize these experiences and make them understandable to the layperson, then it would be more accurate to say that everybody is prone to hallucinations without emphasizing the special cases; that is, to come right out and say that humans regularly exist and perceive the world in a consciousness-to-altered-states-of consciousness continuum.   The myth, the fables or the spirit visitations are only a sleep cycle away.

    More importantly, a hallucination is a description of an altered state of consciousness when we perceive these events from the perspective of a normal (awake, alert, regular) state of consciousness.  In a clinical sense, it is appropriate to describe these experiences as hallucinations since the subject moved from being awake to experiencing them in a very short period of time.  That is, first the subjects believe they are awake, and the next thing they know they are in the midst of a very real (to them) dream landscape populated by strong emotions and vivid imagery.  In a more precise sense, though, it might be inappropriate to refer to these experiences as "hallucinations" since we ordinarily do not refer to dream experiences as hallucinations.  The dreamer wakes up and simply declares, "I had the most bizarre dream."  Seldom do we hear our family members or friends say, "I hallucinated last night and it was a cool hallucination at that."  Either SP imagery is related to REM states or it isn't.  If it is, then they are not hallucinations in the proper sense of this term.  This is not trivial semantics because some researchers have had to explain these distinctions (hallucinations vs. imagery) in an attempt to describe the neurobiology of SP.

    Furthermore, there are practical aspects of using (or not) the term "hallucination" when it comes to doing the science of SP.   When people who suffer from recurrent SP hear the term "hallucination" applied to their experiences, it might make them less likely to share their reports with people who could be in a position to help them.  If I had a snowflake for every time a subject's report contained the phrase, "I thought I was crazy, I was afraid to tell anyone for fear that they would think I was going bonkers," or words to that effect, I would be shoveling an avalanche by now.   The logic of their thinking goes something like this: If THEY say these are hallucinations then I must be crazy, and if I am crazy I am not telling THEM!   Fortunately for our studies, a lot of subjects do come forward and share their fascinating stories.

    In the context of the previous paragraph then, the host of SP experiences must be validated phenomenologically first, that is, taken at face value as the reports of normal individuals in the midst of unusual circumstances.  To my subjects these experiences are not mere "hallucinations" but are part of the reality of going to sleep.  In the absence of other psychopathologies, and in the context of normal people going about their regular business, to use the term "hallucination" to describe their reports is to belittle real suffering and even terror.  Our subjects know themselves to be responsible and sane individuals with a puzzle or mystery plaguing their dream life: SP.

    Finally, some of us have move beyond the fright and the depravation of the paralytic state and are now using SP as a more or less trivial indicator, a road sign, that we are moving into lucid dreaming.  In the context of using SP for creative dreaming the word "hallucination" is offensive not only because it misrepresents lucid REM states, but also because it says nothing of the control that can be gained, albeit with a lot of practice, by manipulating these states.  In the traditional use of the word "hallucination", it seems to me, the perceiver is at the mercy of experiences that dictate unforeseeable outcomes.  So, in the context of controlled lucid dreaming, the term "hallucination" is a poor descriptor at best, and at worst, it casts a delusional light onto the whole affair of applying personal will and rationality to typically uncontrollable experiences.  What is actually an awareness-expanding practice has the danger of becoming a mere hallucinatory curiosity in the hands of clinical terminology.

    I propose that we forgo the term "hallucinations" when describing the rich imagery experienced by SP sufferers, narcoleptics, and the occasional sleep-onset REM dreamer.  My own logs categorize these experiences as regular dreams, vivid dreams, lucid dreams, and lucid dreams that I control.  There is another category for SP's and LD's that I initiate via meditative or self-hypnotic practices.  I personally do not hallucinate because I am always certain that what I experienced the night before was an ultra cool dream.  I sleep and dream reassured that the rest of the dreaming world does not hallucinate either.

                                                    Email: [email protected]