Akademik

   Also known as panoramic hallucination. The term scenic hallucination is indebted to the Greek noun sk'en'e, which means stage, scene, spectacle. It is unknown by whom the term was introduced. It appears in a 1930 paper on the psy-chotropic effects ofmescaline by the German psychologists Konrad Zucker and Julius Zâdor as szenenhafte Halluzination. The term scenic hallucination refers to a "complex visual hallucination (or, in a slightly different version of the concept, a " compound hallucination) in which the entire sensory input is replaced by hallucinatory percepts, thus constituting a totally different reality for the affected individual. As noted by the French psychiatrist Henri Ey (1900-1977), scenic hallucinations tend to fill out the whole visual field and to remain unaffected by eye movements and by the opening and closing of the eyes. Contrary to " cognitive illusions and " perceptive hallucinations, scenic hallucinations do not incorporate objects or stimuli from the extracorporeal world. Nor do they employ these as "points de repères for their development. When scenic hallucinations are accompanied by a compelling sense of objectivity, they are said to have a high degree of " xenopathy. When they are experienced simultaneously with the stream of regular sense impressions, the affected individual is said to be in a state of "double consciousness. "Deathbed visions which are in the nature of a scenic hallucination are referred to as "total hallucinations. Hypnotically induced "scenic hallucinations are also known as "lucid dreams. Traditionally, scenic hallucinations are designated as 'higher' perceptual phenomena, closely related to "dreams. As noted by Zucker and Zâdor in their paper on mescaline experiments, scenic hallucinations can be evoked most easily while the eyes are closed. As one subject in their experiments remarked, such hallucinations are experienced as "dreaming with a waking mind". Zucker and Zâdor use the term scenic hallucination in opposition to the term "primitive hallucination.

   References

   Ey, H. (2004). Traité des hallucinations. Tome 1. Paris: Claude Tchou pour la Bibliothèque des Introuvables. Zucker, K., Zâdor, J. (1930). Zur Analyse der Meskalin-Wirkung am Normalen. Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, 127, 15-29.