# Hallucinations in people lacking certain senses **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 10, 2024, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hallucinations-in-people-lacking-certain-senses/1001347 "2024-05-10T09:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2024, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hallucinations-in-people-lacking-certain-senses/1001347/1 "2024-05-10T09:43:00Z")
Isolation tanks have been reported to cause **[hallucinations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_deprivation#Psychedelic_effects)** in some individuals. One theory is that in the absence of sensory input, the brain makes shit up. Why don’t blind or deaf people have hallucinations? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2024, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hallucinations-in-people-lacking-certain-senses/1001347/2 "2024-05-10T17:09:08Z")
Just a guess, but people have hallucinations in that scenario because regions of the brain are starved from the input they expect. For deaf or blind people those processing areas of the brain have already atrophied or been reassigned. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hallucinations-in-people-lacking-certain-senses/1001347/3 "2024-05-10T17:20:42Z")
People who are going blind can hallucinate: > **[Eyes - Charles Bonnet syndrome](https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/eyes-charles-bonnet-syndrome)** > > Many people who suffer from Charles Bonnet syndrome do not consult their doctor out of fear and embarrassment, as hallucinations are associated with mental illness. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Terrific](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tom_terrific/32/342_2.png) [@Tom\_Terrific](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Terrific)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2024, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hallucinations-in-people-lacking-certain-senses/1001347/4 "2024-05-11T12:56:02Z")
I’ve had audio hallucinations. I can’t hear most normal volume sounds and wear hearing aids. Sometimes, usually in the evening after I remove my hearing aids, I will hear voices. They sound like the television is playing. It sounds like voices mumbling but I don’t get any understandable words. I’ve got up to check and see if the TV has turned itself on several times. ---
**Author:** ![Ricc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@Ricc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ricc)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hallucinations-in-people-lacking-certain-senses/1001347/5 "2024-05-12T00:37:32Z")
Profound hearing loss here. Not real often, but I have heard things that I know aren’t real. My weirdest (more than once) thing I’ve heard was the sound of a tricycle bell ringing in the distance and very softly. Like ring ring ring ring, then again about 20 minutes later. The first time I heard that it was about 5 o’clock in the afternoon outside, same day, but again at 10 pm inside of my house. It’s been awhile since I’ve heard the ring ring. PSA. When a deaf person doesn’t understand what you’re saying, and ask you to repeat what you said, talking in a louder voice doesn’t help. Try Face to face while talking slower. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hallucinations-in-people-lacking-certain-senses/1001347/6 "2024-05-12T01:12:58Z")
Related thread I posted a few years ago: > [@Deaf people and "hearing voices"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-people-and-hearing-voices/855016): > > At some times, for various reasons, people hallucinate someone talking to them. It can be due to a mental illness such as schizophrenia, or in a dream or dreamlike state, or the result of hallucinogenic drugs, or whatever. The ears have nothing to do with this: It’s all in the brain. And the language parts of the brain are definitely involved, because the voices say intelligible things, not just random noise. How does this work for deaf people? Their brains are the same as those of hearing… ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hallucinations-in-people-lacking-certain-senses/1001347/7 "2024-05-12T11:41:35Z")
> [@Ricc](#): > > PSA. > When a deaf person doesn’t understand what you’re saying, and ask you to repeat what you said, talking in a louder voice doesn’t help. Try Face to face while talking slower. This times a thousand.