Delusion

Delusions are the experience of spontaneous beliefs held with strong conviction. In the context of hallucinogenic drugs they are temporary perspectives which one may slip into during high dosage experiences. They are most likely to occur during states of ego loss or ego death and are not by any means permanent as with schizophrenic delusions but do share many common themes and elements with them. These delusions can be broken out of when appropriate evidence is provided to the contrary or the person has sobered up enough to logically analyse the situation.

Types

Delusions are categorized into four different groups:

• Bizarre delusion: This is a delusion that is very strange and completely implausible. An example of a bizarre delusion would be that aliens have removed the reporting person's brain.
• Non-bizarre delusion: This is a delusion that, though false, is at least possible such as the affected person mistakenly believing that he is under constant police surveillance.
• Mood-congruent delusion: This is any delusion with content consistent with either a depressive or anxious state. For example, a depressed person may believe that news anchors on television highly disapprove of him or a person in a manic state might believe she is a powerful deity.
• Mood-neutral delusion: This is a delusion that does not relate to the sufferer's emotional state. For example, a belief that an extra limb is growing out of the back of one's head is neutral to either depression or mania.

Themes

In addition to these categories, delusions often manifest according to a consistent theme. Although delusions can have any theme, certain themes are more common. Some of the more common delusion themes are:

• Delusion of control: This is a false belief that another person, group of people, or external force controls one's general thoughts, feelings, impulses, or behaviour.
• Delusion of death: This is a false belief that one is about to die, is currently dying, does not exist or has already died.
• Delusion of guilt or sin (or delusion of self-accusation): This is an ungrounded feeling of remorse or guilt of delusional intensity in which one believes that they have committed some sort of unethical act.
• Delusion of mind being read: This is the false belief that other people can know one's thoughts.
• Delusion of thought insertion: This is the belief that another thinks through the mind of the person. This results in the person becoming unable to distinguish between their own thoughts and those inserted into their minds.
• Delusion of reference: The person falsely believes that insignificant remarks, events, or objects in one's environment have personal meaning or significance. For example, one may feel that people on television or radio are talking about or talking directly to them.
• Grandiose religious delusion: This is the belief that the affected person is a god or chosen to act as a god. An individual can become convinced they have special powers, talents, or abilities. Sometimes, the individual may actually believe they are a famous person or character such as Jesus Christ. Alternatively this can occur as a philosophical insight through high level states of unity and interconnectedness in which it is not necessarily a delusion but a debatable metaphysical perspective.
• Delusion of transcendence: This is the belief that one has permanently transcended to a higher plane of dimensional existence as a result of high dosage hallucinogen use. It can also manifest itself as one thinking that they have discovered the secret to "transcending" and that they will be able to implement it just as soon as they sober up. Once this occurs however the secret is found to nonsensical or completely irrelevant.

See also

• Subjective effects index
• Psychedelics - Subjective effects
• Dissociatives - Subjective effects
• Deliriants - Subjective effects