Why Do We Hallucinate?

We hallucinate when our brain tries to fill in missing pieces of information, just like when you’re trying to finish a puzzle with some pieces missing.

Imagine you're playing with building blocks. You have a red block, a blue block, and a green block. But one day, you only see the red and blue blocks, the green one is hidden behind the couch. Your brain might think, “Oh, I know what's missing!” and imagine the green block there even though it’s not visible. That’s like hallucinating, your brain made something up to help you understand the whole picture.

Your brain is like a detective who never stops working. When there are clues (like the red and blue blocks), it tries its best to guess what's missing (the green block). Sometimes, the guess is right. Sometimes, it’s not, like when your brain thinks you see a cat in the shadows, but it’s just a ball of yarn.

That’s why we hallucinate, our brain is trying to make sense of the world by guessing what might be there, even if it's not!