Mahvish Qureshi's blog

                “You are getting sleepy” are the last words you hear as you close your eyes and shut out the gold watch waving in front of your face. This is the classic image that is conjured when imagining a hypnotist or circus sideshow. Hypnosis is not as simple a phenomenon as circus shows make it seem. How does the brain work to override a person’s better judgment and leave them quacking like a duck on stage? What gives the suggestions spoken by a virtual stranger such power? All of these questions and more have been studied by analyzing the brain and its various regions activated at certain times.

Have you ever experienced hearing a voice in your head showing you right from wrong, your conscience, the real life Jiminy Cricket? Or have you had the slightly humiliating experience in a noisy crowd where you go ‘Yes!’ assuming someone has called out to you? These are a few examples that can be paralleled to the experience of auditory hallucinations heard by schizophrenic patients although the actual phenomenon is a much more complex one. The occurrence of auditory hallucinations, or false perceptions of voices, has fascinated many who have chosen to study it, and has

The body is a well-oiled machine, generally not faltering in its steps. The ability to always breathe on time, and make the heart beat at the right moment, is due largely to the nervous system and the brain. The nervous system is comprised of neurons that send and receive signals, resulting in an output, or some sort of response to the stimuli. What happens if the stimulus being sent is interrupted or altered, due to an exterior influence? The use of drugs such as LSD is an example of such a case, in which the body responds to an altered stimulus, resulting in an altered perception. These altered perceptions are better referred to as hallucinations.