hallucinating
Perceiving unreal things
Hallucinating is perceiving things that aren't there—seeing, hearing, or sensing what others cannot detect.
The cause may be drugs, fever, mental illness, or exhaustion: I was so sleep-deprived I started hallucinating.
More loosely, it means being wildly mistaken: If you think I'm paying that much, you're hallucinating.
In AI contexts, hallucinating describes when a system generates plausible-sounding but false information.
Planned travel somewhere
- acidLow-pH chemical compound
- psilocybinHallucinogenic substance from fungi
- shroomsHallucinogenic fungi, informally
- ayahuascaPsychoactive Amazonian plant brew
mescaline · peyote · ketamine · psychoactive · visuals · tracers · ego death · set
Atmospheric optical deception
- apparitionVisible supernatural manifestation
- illusionMisleading sensory impression
- phantomInsubstantial apparition
- figmentImagined thing, unreal
specter · vision · afterimage · pareidolia · distortion · seeing things · false perception · sensory
Stubbornly held false belief
- psychosisSevere reality detachment
- schizophreniaPsychotic disorder with delusions
- deliriumAcute mental disorientation
- paranoiaIrrational persecution fears
mania · dementia · dissociation · flashback · episode · symptom · disorder · medication
Acute mental disorientation
- feveredAbnormally hot, overheated
- deliriousMentally unhinged temporarily
- incoherentLacking logical connection
- ramblingLong-winded and unfocused
disoriented · sweating · chills · sickbed · nightmares · vivid · confused · heatstroke
Invented memories believed true
- fabricationDeliberately untrue statement
- plausibleAppearing worthy of belief
- nonsenseMeaningless words or actions
- confidentSure of oneself
incorrect · chatbot · language model · generated · output · error · misinformation · invented
trip
Planned travel somewhere
- acidLow-pH chemical compound
- psilocybinHallucinogenic substance from fungi
- shroomsHallucinogenic fungi, informally
ayahuasca · mescaline · peyote · ketamine · psychoactive · visuals · tracers · ego death · set · setting
mirage
Atmospheric optical deception
- apparitionVisible supernatural manifestation
- illusionMisleading sensory impression
- phantomInsubstantial apparition
figment · specter · vision · afterimage · pareidolia · distortion · seeing things · false perception · sensory · chimera
delusion
Stubbornly held false belief
- psychosisSevere reality detachment
- schizophreniaPsychotic disorder with delusions
- deliriumAcute mental disorientation
paranoia · mania · dementia · dissociation · flashback · episode · symptom · disorder · medication · antipsychotic
delirium
Acute mental disorientation
- feveredAbnormally hot, overheated
- deliriousMentally unhinged temporarily
- incoherentLacking logical connection
rambling · disoriented · sweating · chills · sickbed · nightmares · vivid · confused · heatstroke · withdrawal
confabulation
Invented memories believed true
- fabricationDeliberately untrue statement
- plausibleAppearing worthy of belief
- nonsenseMeaningless words or actions
confident · incorrect · chatbot · language model · generated · output · error · misinformation · invented · false
- mental statesknowledge, conscious, mood, anxious, memory
- intoxication stateshigh, stoned, drunk, intoxicated, buzzed
- intoxicateddrunk, high, intoxicated, inebriated, wasted
- meltdownsnuclear meltdown, reactor meltdown, meltdown, freak out, losing it
hallucinatinglucid
Mentally sharp and comprehensible
clear-sighted · clear-eyed · sober · observing · witnessing
- visual hallucinationsSeeing nonexistent things
- auditory hallucinationsPerceived sounds without stimulus
- sleep hallucinationsVisions at consciousness threshold