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Hallucinations and the issue of truth
A hallucination occurs when, in the absence of external stimuli, an individual’s perceptions are significantly altered. A very strong and compelling sense of reality is felt by such individuals. The question of whether or not there is truth in this 'perceived reality' has several differing answers, depending on the perspective or discipline that is employed to examine it.

What is the issue regarding truth and hallucinations?
Hallucinations come from within one's mind, therefore objectivity regarding the subject can be difficult to achieve as the existence of hallucinations is based solely on a person's personal experience. As with all topics, there are different ways of approaching the subject of hallucinations, while a positivist view would present the chemical reality and a clinical psychological interpretation of the matter and an interpretive view a more person-centred explanation, it is also possible to look at hallucinations as a product of culture and social construct.

Chemical Reality:
Hallucinations can occur within a very wide range, which extends to the five sensory modalities (namely sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing), however, the most frequently experienced ones are visual and auditory hallucinations. A recent study carried out at the University of Oregon found that after administering mice with a dose with a similar chemical structure to LSD, the mice experienced reduced activity in their visual cortex. This suggests that whilst there may not be 'truth' behind the perceived reality of the hallucination, there is, in fact, an empirical reality in the chemical, physiological and neurobiological natures of such experiences. The visual cortex is located at the back of the brain. It is responsible for processing all the information that is taken in by the eyes. This mechanism provides some evidence to possibly explain the genesis and chemical reality of hallucinating. For example, seizure activity in the brain can cause irritation in the cortical centers, which may lead to the development of hallucinations.

A distinction must be made between hallucinations and illusions. The latter being misperceptions of real external stimuli. Essentially, hallucinations are seeing, hearing, feeling, or smelling something that is real but which are given an incorrect interpretation by the brain. On the other hand, true hallucinations do not include such incorrectly interpreted stimuli. Hypnagogic experiences are unusual perceptual experiences that often occur while dreaming, falling asleep, or waking up. These false perceptions include vivid dreaming or lucid dreaming. In summary, real hallucinations are mainly experienced as symptoms of either medical, neurological, or mental disorders (e.g. epilepsy or schizophrenia).

Certain recreational drugs can also induce hallucinations. The most frequently used drugs include amphetamines, cocaine, hallucinogens, lysergic acid, diethylamide, LSD, phencyclidine (PCP), cannabis, and marijuana. Visual hallucinations (sometimes referred to as lilliputian hallucinations), whereby individuals report false perceptions of animals or other individuals, have been closely linked to substance use. Withdrawal syndromes that arise from drug abuse have also been associated with this type of hallucination. For instance, withdrawal from alcohol, sedatives, hypnotics, and anxiolytics.

This suggests that overall there is some form of truth in hallucinating, even it is not apparent at first. The chemical alterations in your brain provide real, empirical evidence that a disruption of brain chemistry has occurred. Hence, hallucinations are symptoms of irregular brain activity and from this perspective can be considered to be true.

Mental wellbeing:
In terms of medical illnesses and wellbeing, genuine hallucinations have been most closely linked to delusion. If someone experiences a hallucination in the absence of such a mental illness there is a higher index of suspicion (that the hallucination is in fact, fake).

Positivism versus Interpretivism
Positivism and interpretivism are two very different approaches sociological study and research. On the one hand, the former is often associated to a traditional 'scientific method' and the latter postulate that our knowledge of the world is 'socially constructed'.

Positivism
Firstly, positivist believe that hypotheses, conjectures and theories can be generated and tested, often using empirical evidence and/or direct observation. Overall, positivists are more likely to use quantitative research methods by analysing a study using statistical methods (overall a clear alignment to the natural sciences. They deem their approach to be generalised, representative of the population, reliable, trustworthy, and objective evidence that is free from any type of human bias or unavoidable experimental influence. The most frequent research methods include official statistics, social surveys, questionnaires, and structured interviews. This evidence is often very useful at the time of making technical comparisons or summarising large data sets.

Interpretivism
Secondly, interpretivists can acknowledge the fact that evidence is often not wholly unequivocal or absolute and there is different meanings and interpretations behind data. Evidence and data is often transmitted trough people in the form of ideas, experiences and discourses. They prefer to interpret the world instead of taking for granted that there are only simple, straightforward and monochromatic facts. The idea that 'humans shape society' is fundamental to this approach and qualitative methods are most commonly used. These methods include case studies, participant observation, ethnography, and personal documents. Similar to positivists, they can appreciate the importance of ' validity' in studies and investigations. The methods described above are ideal in order to obtain in-depth insight into the lives of the respondents. This helps them gain a greater empathetic understanding of why the behave in the way that they do (context must be taken under consideration when analysing the actions taken by different groups of people). Often described as a more humanistic and conscientious approach to research.