Hallucinations are internally generated sensory experiences. In short, the perception of something for which there is no stimulus. Given there is the addition of something present, this is considered a “positive” experience or hallucination, and these come in all sensory varieties.

The most common include auditory and visual types. Less-encountered forms are the tactile (feel), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), somatic (internal sensations), extracampine (“6th sense presence”), and proprioceptive (motion). The latter three might be new to some readers, and are discussed at length in 3 Types of Hallucinations You've Probably Never Heard of.

As if those three types of hallucinations aren't interesting enough, would you believe there is such a thing as a “negative hallucination"?

I first heard of the concept years back while studying Milton Erickson, the psychiatrist who pioneered hypnosis and solution-oriented practices in psychotherapy. Interested readers can get a good introduction to Erickson in Dr. Elinor Greenberg's post, How Milton H. Erickson Revolutionized Hypnotherapy.

Those familiar with Erickson realize he thought so far outside of the box there wasn’t one in sight. A profound example of this involves negative hallucination induction to help patients become unaware of problematic sensory experiences. Those interested in how Erickson achieved "negative hallucination" in patients can learn more in Ernest Rossi's The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson on Hypnosis, Volume 2 (pp 36-40).

The term “negative hallucination” was........

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