Saturday, November 08, 2025

When Reality Bends


​🤯 When Reality Bends: My Hallucination Story

​Most of us will have at least one hallucination in our lives—they're often caused by mild things like sleep deprivation or more severe things like trauma.

​During my past cardiac event, I had two vivid instances. One was likely a side effect of the hospital medication, and the other was definitely from intense sleep deprivation.

​For a bit of fun (and to process the wildness of it!), I tried using Generative AI to recreate the experience, and it came pretty close!

  1. The Hospital Ghoul: While on medication, I hallucinated a skinny ghoul ripping metal out of the hospital ceiling and loudly stacking the junk in the hall. It was so vivid and loud I found it impossible to sleep! I successfully used AI to create the image I saw.
  2. The Never-Ending Stairs: After I got home, I had a period of no sleep. I went to walk downstairs only to find the staircase had become infinite—I couldn't reach the bottom.

​It's wild how the mind can create such intense, false realities under stress.

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