Spiritual concepts
Tactile hallucinations

So called tactile hallucinations are nervous sensations that have no obvious cause. A multitude of tactile hallucinations are possible - prickling, stinging, itching, burning, crawling sensations, some involve a feeling that ants are crawling over the skin. There are a large number of examples on PubMed of people who have the sensation of parasites under their skin, for example, and after investigation, the people are found to have no parasites. The psychologists have given this the name of delusional parasitosis, which helps no one who has them. Note that a person may have parasites and the sensations can be genuine, parasites are often misdiagnosed and mistreated.
At the last count there were nearly 14,000 papers on PubMed where tactile hallucinations had been experienced.

There is one common factor that seems to cause these hallucinations and that is pharmaceuticals, mostly doctor prescribed ones, although there are instances of illegal drugs causing tactile hallucinations too. Anti-depressants and tricyclic anti-depressants seem to produce an inordinately high number of tactile hallucinations, however, a whole host of pharmaceuticals are implicated – ADHD drugs, narcolepsy treatments etc.
For example: J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2014 Aug;24(6):360-1. doi: 10.1089/cap.2013.0144. Epub 2014 Jul 9. Tactile hallucinations with fluoxetine and methylphenidate. Arora GS1, Arora HK, Sidhu J, Najjar F.PMID: 25007312.
Of the Adverse Health Reports from pharmaceuticals which have caused hallucinations on the eHealthme site, the type of hallucination is not specified, other than whether they were mixed or not. Altogether there are currently 30,177 such reports from FDA and social media currently recorded. It may be worth mentioning that the two biggest causes of hallucinations in general are pharmaceuticals and illness.

Rather alarmingly the link with pharmaceuticals does not appear to have been acknowledged and many people diagnosed with ‘psychosis’, are psychotic because of what their doctor has prescribed them, they are often given more pharmaceuticals which seems to exacerbate the problem.
Thus the principle cause of tactile hallucinations is damage to the sensory system by chemicals and the various causes of illness:
- Toxins
- Heavy metals - including both dental amalgam fillings and metal implants
- Hurt - emotional hurt [grief, loss, abuse, etc]
- Hurt - physical hurt [bumps bangs, crashes, cuts, etc]
- Bacteria
- Viruses
- Hypoxia - shortage of the air we need to breathe because of smoke, pollution etc
- Parasites
- Radiation/environmental stressors - including heat, cold, and electromagnetic radiation both domestic and industrial . There are actually a vast number of stressors here mechanical as well as electrical all of which stimulate the body via resonance - shake it up!
- Nutritional deprivation - shortage of food, excess food, or imbalance of food, minerals and vitamins
One interesting additional cause is related to ‘gases’. Hyperventilation caused by panic attacks or that produced by deliberately hyperventilating to get a ‘high’ – rapid breathing or inappropriate breathing can result in paraesthesia/tactile hallucinations. Hyperventilation and dysfunctional breathing result in too little carbon dioxide (hypocapnia) in their blood and other tissues. While oxygen is abundant in the bloodstream, rapid breathing reduces effective delivery of that oxygen to vital organs due to low-CO2-induced vasoconstriction and the suppressed Bohr effect. The hyperventilation is self-promulgating as rapid breathing causes carbon dioxide levels to fall below healthy levels, and respiratory alkalosis (high blood pH) develops. This makes the symptoms worse, which causes the person to try breathing even faster, which further exacerbates the problem. The respiratory alkalosis leads to changes in the way the nervous system fires and leads to the paraesthesia, dizziness, and perceptual changes that often accompany this condition.

There is also a cyclical cause here as many pharmaceuticals can also cause illness, as well as being a direct cause of hallucinations. One very key pharmaceutical is the Vaccines.
After this, the next major cause is synaesthesia, the translation of one input such as sound or taste, into another form of input. Yet again however, synaesthesia can have its origins in exactly the same causes as those mentioned above – pharmaceuticals, toxins etc.
Where pharmaceuticals have been administered on a regular or high dose basis, they can cause permanent brain damage giving the person permanent tactile hallucinations.
The only positive, as opposed to distressing tactile hallucinations encountered were those which accompanied the receipt of unusual functional ability. Some people who gained functionally, also gained tactile abilities which were not unpleasant but were often difficult to describe as they were unknown to them. Without any shared function between the experiencer and the recorder of the experience, no one can actually describe what the sensation feels like.
Observations
For iPad/iPhone users: tap letter twice to get list of items.
- 'Delusional parasitosis'
- 'Ginkgo biloba' supplements
- Abilify and Aripiprazole
- Actos
- Acute fluoride poisoning from a public water system
- Allopurinol
- Alprazolam and Xanax
- Amphetamine & Dextroamphetamine [including Dexedrine, Adderall and Vyvanse]
- Anafranil
- Appearance of a little dog during an experimental séance
- Artane
- Ashton R - Enormous worm like creature
- Auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, and bodily hallucinations in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Avandia
- Bisoprolol
- Braid, James - The case of the canaries in the bedroom
- Brain damage and Chronic tactile hallucinations
- Bugs crawling over her
- Buspar and Buspirone
- Buspirone
- Carbamazepine
- Carisoprodol by Aire EROWID
- Cash, Johnny – Goes out of body from amphetamine and barbiturate withdrawal
- Cash, Johnny – Hallucinating from opioids, benzodiazepines, morphine and alcohol abuse
- Cash, Johnny – The effects of amphetamine addiction
- Cat scratch disease
- Celebrex
- Citalopram and Celexa
- Clonazepam and Klonopin
- Clonidine
- Commander F M Moureau - The kiss from his dying son
- Copaxone
- Countess Amelie Carandini – The ghost of a tall, beautiful girl standing near her sister under the lighted gas-jet
- Creepy things inside his mattress
- Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine – The hallucinations of rabies
- Cymbalta and Duloxetine
- David Lewis-Williams - Native American Indians - Isaac Tens
- Delusional parasitosis: case report
- Diazepam and valium
- DPT - The Mind Is A Powerful Thing - Atman
- Durville, Hector and Henri - The observer felt blows, touches, or pulls by invisible hands and the phantom double was even visible
- Düşünen Adam The Journal of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences, Volume 29, Number 1, March 2016 Tactile hallucination and delusion following acute stroke: a case report
- Effexor and Venlafaxine
- Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 36 Terrified by the ghost of a small white dog, of the Pomeranian breed, which appeared to her at the bedside
- Escitalopram and Lexapro
- Eulexin and Flutamide
- Fioricet - Hallucination figures from eHealthme
- Fiorinal - eHealthme figures for hallucinations
- Flying [and dying] after wolf's bane tea
- Folic acid supplements
- Furosemide and Lasix
- Gabapentin and Neurontin
- Gastrografin
- Geodon
- Glimepiride
- Glipizide and Glucotrol
- Hallucinations from thyroid disease
- Harmaline, 5-MeO-DMT & DMT - A theory of the universe
- Hearing voices that sing to him
- I see a young girl, dressed in white, at the head of your bed; she's putting a wreath of roses on your forehead
- Isoniazid-induced visual hallucinosis in Lymph node tuberculosis
- It slapped him across the face
- Kant, Immanuel - Dreams of a Spirit Seer - How are hallucinations & visions constructed?
- Lamotrigine and Lamictral
- Laubscher, B J F – While still staring at his dead mother, she was gone and with that vanished his disbelief
- Limbic system symptomatology associated with colloid cyst of the third ventricle
- Lithium carbonate
- Lobsters feeding him
- Lorazepam, Ativan and Temesta
- Lunesta
- Lyrica [use and abuse]
- Mad itching - 'sensory hallucinations of pruritogenic stimuli'
- Madame d’Esperance - Shadow Land - 14 The disrupting influence of a non-believer
- Madame d’Esperance - Shadow Land - 25 Anna
- Masked Cushing's disease in an aged man associated with intraventricular hemorrhage and tuberculous peritonitis
- Masters and Houston - 4 Psychedelics and sex - Examples
- Masters and Houston - Feels that his substance now is the same as that of some part of the environment
- Masters and Houston - On becoming a machine
- Masters and Houston - Transmutation into another substance
- Mefloquine [Lariam]
- Meloxicam
- Mesmer, Franz Anton – The French Royal Society of Medicine report on Mesmer’s methods and healing effects
- Modafinil and Provigil
- Mr. W. T. Catlengh sees the double of his dying daughter
- New Recruit - Pins and needles, and a tunnel
- Norflex
- Nuages Gris - Felt so weird he wasn't sure he was breathing
- Olfactory hallucinations in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder
- Oliver Sacks - Stephanie sees angels
- Ondansetron
- Osty, Dr Eugene - Supernormal faculties in Man – M. de Fleuriere describes ecstasy
- Oxazepam and Serax
- P H Newnham - Did you particularly think of me last night at ten o'clock? I felt your arms round my waist
- Paxil
- Pemoline
- Pet Store Treasure by Shard
- Ponstel and Mefenamic acid
- Primidone - eHealthme figures
- Ramachandran, Dr V S - John
- Ramachandran, Dr V S - Mirabelle, templates and body image
- Ramachandran, Dr V S - Phantom pain
- Ramachandran, Dr V S - Removing pain
- Ramachandran, Dr V S - The Mirror box
- Rare effects of stroke – Stroke Association November 2012
- Reagan, Ronald – The assassination attempt and the white angels who encouraged him to live
- Relpax and Relert
- Requip
- Rosalie and Emilie
- Sacks, Oliver - Writing gave pain relief
- Salvinorin A - Caves and prickling
- Savage, Dr Minot Judson - Psychics : facts and theories – 20 The invisible hand that patted him on the knee
- Scorpions
- Seeress of Prevorst, the - Sympathetic magic and doppelgangers
- Serzone
- Severn, Arthur - Awakened by a blow on her lip so violent that she looked for blood
- Simvastatin and Zocor
- Sleep apnea
- Sleeping pills cause hallucinations
- Smoking crushed hyoscine; scopolamine tablets as drug abuse
- Somebody is just talking in my ear or they slap me in my face
- Sulfasalazine
- Tactile hallucinations and psychosis from a cocktail of mis-prescribed drugs
- Tactile hallucinations in patients with Parkinson's disease
- Tactile hallucinations secondary to dialysis
- Tactile, olfactory, and gustatory hallucinations in psychotic disorders
- Temazepam
- The ghost of the dying girl struck the witness on the shoulder when it passed by
- The Good Drugs Guide website - summary of effects of LSD
- The Mind Blank Spell - Salvia divinorum, Mushrooms & Alcohol by Memnoch
- The other night, I dreamed of a weasel with one eye biting my arms
- The Squid - Gets synaesthesia
- The vicar told me that it was the angels coming to get my mother
- Through the Looking Glass - Ch 05 - 1 Wool and Water
- Tizanidine
- Topiramate and Topamax
- Valproate, Depakene and Depakote
- Valtrex
- Very Bizzare Trip - Mushrooms by Faust
- Viagra
- Wellbutrin
- Wellbutrin sr
- Wellbutrin xl
- With my eyes open, I saw my dead husband before me, in a suit of clothes which he had worn out a long time before. His expression was mild and calm and I smelt menthol
- Zaleplon - Sonata
- Zanaflex
- Zantac and Ranitidine
- Zetia hallucinations
- Zoloft and Sertraline
- Zolpidem