A Wisdom Archive on Illusion

Non-dualism is the highest Vedantic truth. Only Brahman exists. The pluralistic world as we experience it is merely a figment of the imagination. An illusion.
 
At the highest level Vedanta does not encourage any discussion on the nature of the world and its cause. That would merely be emphasising the reality of something which does not exist. It focuses on the direct experience of Reality.

 
(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Life and Death: Illusion And Reality

A delusion is commonly defined as a fixed false belief and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception. In psychiatry, the definition is necessarily more precise and implies that the belief is pathological (the result of an illness or illness process). Delusions typically occur in the context of neurological or mental illness, although they are not tied to any particular disease and have been found to occur in the context of many pathological states (both physical a ... Including:

• Delusion - Psychiatric definition
• Delusion - Primary and Secondary Delusions
• Delusion - Diagnostic issues

Read more here: » Delusion: Encyclopedia - Delusion

A hallucination is a sensory perception experienced in the absence of an external stimulus, as distinct from an illusion, which is a misperception of an external stimulus. Hallucinations may occur in any sensory modality - visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, or mixed. Hallucination - Origins of the word. The word 'hallucinatory' has its roots in the Latin hallucinere or allucinere, meaning 'to wander in mind'. Altenatively in the Greek Including:

• Hallucination - Origins of the word
• Hallucination - Possible causes

Read more here: » Hallucination: Encyclopedia - Hallucination

Illusion. In Occultism everything finite (like the universe and all in it) is called illusion or maya.

 
(See also: Illusion, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

For more dictionary entries, see » Illusion Dictionary

Jaspers originally made a distinction between primary and secondary delusions. According to Jaspers, primary delusions (sometimes called true delusions) are distinguished by a transformation of meaning, so that the world, or aspects of it, are interpreted in a radically different way by the delusional person. To others, this interpretation is 'un-understandable' in terms of the normal mental causality, mood, environmental influences and other psychological or psychopathological factors. Jaspers describes four types of primary delusion ...

Read more here: » Delusion: Encyclopedia II - Delusion - Primary and Secondary Delusions

Although non-specific concepts of madness have been around for several thousand years, the psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers was the first to define the three main criteria for a belief to be considered delusional in his book General Psychopathology. These criteria are: certainty (held with absolute conviction) incorrigibility (not changeable by compelling counterargument or proof to the contrary) impossibility or falsity of conte ...

Read more here: » Delusion: Encyclopedia II - Delusion - Psychiatric definition

Mayin:
One who controls the worlds of illusion, a magician or mystic.

 
(See also: Mayin, Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary )

For more dictionary entries, see » Illusion Dictionary

Neither the body nor the senses are real - these are only instruments of varied expressions and actions associated with the temporal world of Atman , the Divine Self.
 
It is on realising the Atman that we become aware that we are essentially a fragmented part of the Universal Soul.
 
The individual consciousness though infinite and one, is manifested in finitude of body and mind. The goal of human life is attaining oneness with the infinite.
 

 
(See also: Oneness, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Oneness: Viveka And Vairagya Dispel Illusion  

Samvriti (Sanskrit). False conception - the origin of illusion.

 
(See also: Samvriti, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

For more dictionary entries, see » Illusion Dictionary