Mindhacks blog points to a fascinating (though also disturbing and graphic) study conducted in the mid-1980s about hallucinations experienced by the victims of kidnappings, rape, torture — and people who claim to have been abducted by UFOs.
The reasoning behind including two 'alien abductees' was to compare hallucinations in verified versus unverified hostage situations. Cases of people who were hostages but did not hallucinate are also included.
The study found that one in four hostages had intense hallucinations, and these were invariably people who were in life-threatening situations. Isolation, visual deprivation, physical restraint, violence and death threats also seemed to contribute to the chance of having a hallucinatory experience.
Link to Mindhacks post, which includes links to the studies, and an excerpt of one torture victim's hallucination testimony, in which he compares the visual imagery experienced to a PCP trip. As the Mindhacks writer, Vaughn, says, "Worth reading the paper in full if you can, or at least from the beginning of the case studies, as it's a rarely discussed but remarkably striking aspect of human experience." (via Maggie KB)
