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Hallucination
A strong sensory perception that one has of an object or event while awake, when no such object or event exists. Hallucinations can be heard, seen, smelled, tasted, or felt. An example of a hallucination that is heard would be hearing voices when there is nothing actually present that sounds like voices.

An example of a hallucination that is seen would be seeing a person in the kitchen when there is no one actually present in the kitchen. An example of a hallucination that is smelled would be smelling chicken when there is no odor actually present that smells like chicken. An example of a hallucination that is tasted would be tasting coffee when there is nothing actually present that tastes like coffee. An example of a hallucination that is felt would be feeling spiders crawling on the skin, when there is nothing actually present that would feel like spiders crawling on the skin.

The difference between a hallucination and an illusion is that an illusion is a misperception of something in the environment that is similar to, but not identical to, what is being perceived. An example of an illusion would be misperceiving a random noise outside as being that of somebody calling out your name. In this case, the random noise outside (for example, a noise from a loud car radio) may sound similar to someone calling out your name, and is misperceived. Using this example as a comparison, if there was not a noise being misperceived in the environment and a person hears somebody call out their name (when no one is actually doing so), this is a hallucination. The word "hallucination" comes from the Latin word "alucinor," meaning "to wander in the mind."

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