I wanted to show people what it is like to live with hallucinations and I thought, what better way to do that than with Shadow Puppets!? The themes of exploring the shadow-self and the dark conscious comes from Carl Jung. In one of his dreams he went down a set of stairs (which reminds me of certain spiritual out of body practices) and he explored different 'parts' of himself. Of course he told the dream to Freud who told Jung he had the dream because he wished Freud was his dad or some weird shit. Not everything is about YOU, Freud.  ...........................................................................................................................................................

Hallucinations are considered a “positive symptom” associated with psychosis, conditions on the schizophrenia spectrum, and other related mental conditions. Positive symptoms are things that are added to a person’s experience, such as hallucinations. Negative symptoms are things that are reduced, or are taken away from a person, such as isolating or difficulty speaking There are 5 types of hallucinations:

Visual (seeing) I see a cat but there is no cat

Auditory (Hearing) I hear a cat but there is no cat

Tactile (Feeling) I feel a cat brushing up against my leg but there is no cat

Olfactory (Smelling) I smell a cat but there is no cat Gustatory

(Tasting) I’m pretty sure this food was made of or by cats and I can not eat it because it’s contaminated

There you have the five basic cats of hallucination. There are other branches of hallucinations and conditions associated with each. Also worth mentioning are hypnogogic hallucinations, which happen between wakefulness and sleep. Usually these hallucinations occur during sleep paralysis. These types of hallucinations are much more common and do not require the presence of schizophrenia or other psychosis.