Overview: I want to share my experience of having an audible hallucination. First, I will explain a little of what a musical hallucination is, followed by my personal experience.
Musical hallucination: A form of auditory hallucination in which music is heard, often the same piece of music. In most cases the music is familiar to the person.
Musical hallucinations are most common in older people, especially women, with hearing loss. Beethoven had musical hallucinations after he became deaf. Musical hallucinations may also result from specific lesions in the dorsal pons, a part of the brain stem; these lesions are most often from a stroke and less often from a brain tumor, encephalitis, or a brain abscess. Also known as musical hallucinosis.
My personal experience: I have had one musical hallucination about 2 years ago. It was the most bizarre (albeit pleasant) experience I have ever had. I was absolutely fascinated by it and afterward read up on it via the internet.
Musical hallucinations are a little studied topic. The purpose of this post is to add my experience to the small amount known about this topic. For some reason, when I tell people about my experience, they start talking about paranormal subjects such as ghosts. This was simply a malfunctioning of some sort in my brain. Here are the facts with absolutely no embellishment:
- First and foremost, I was not lying down or sleepy at all
- The hallucination lasted approximately 30-45 minutes
- I have no history of mental illness
- I do NOT have hearing loss
- I was not taking any drugs/meds of any sort
- I heard a full orchestra. There was a long, complex melody; not just a few notes. There was also a flute solo at times (I used to play the flute about 10 years ago).
- The music was NOT faint at all. It was at about the same decibel level as people talk.
- I was alone in my house for most of the hallucination
- I was aware that the music was not real, even though it sounded no different from real music.
- At one point, my son walked in the house and I asked him if he heard music. He said "no" as I had expected.
- It was an enjoyable experience. I was absolutely fascinated for the duration of the hallucination.
This hallucination occurred during a time in my life when I was having unexplained bouts of mental fogginess. During these bouts I would sometimes forget everything stored in my short term memory. For instance, I worked for a short time as a preschool teacher. I knew all of my students' names like the back of my hand. During one of these spells, I could not remember any of their names, but I knew the names of my own children.
Sometimes I would stutter very badly during these spells. Once I took my daughter to the doctor, and one of these spells came on suddenly. I could not access the part of my brain that told me why I had brought her to the doctor.
Another time, I was at a play date with other moms. Someone asked me how old my 3 month old was. I had no earthly idea, because my brain refused to access that part of my memory. I did not want the other moms to think I was on drugs or anything, so I made a wild guess at her age. I said "she's 19 months." I'm sure they thought I was REALLY odd when they looked at this 3 month old baby that I was claiming was 19 months! These bouts were fairly rare, thank goodness, but scary nonetheless. I did see the doctor a few times, but the cause could not be determined. The most likely culprit seemed to be low blood sugar (I was tested at the doctor a few times, with normal results.). Although brain seizures (the kind you don't even know you're having) were also determined to be a possibility, the doctors said this was unlikely. Eating seemed to help these bouts, so my money is on low blood sugar. I have not had one of these bouts in at least a year and no more hallucinations. I am very thankful to be back to normal again.
In the last 50 years or less, music has become ever more accessible and common in the everyday lives of people. Scientists have hypothesized that with the advent of the Ipod especially, the prevalence of musical hallucinations should dramatically increase. Then, perhaps more research will be devoted to this fascinating topic.
