“(…) your brain is constantly making up its own reality whether it receives actual reality-driven input from your senses or not. In the absence of sensory input, your brain’s own world making machinations keep on truckin’ nevertheless. That’s why solitary confinement is considererd a punishement in our prison system. You might think that solitary confinement would be a relief from the dangers and unpleasantness of prison life. But it is just the worst thing that you can do to prisoners, because they lose touch with reality. Many consider the practice a form of torture, and volumes have been written on the negative psychological effects of solitary confinement. Prisoners eventually report having hallucinations and other types of psychotic reactions. That is, they begin to believe the illusions.”
– Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions – by Macknik, Stephen L; Martinez-Conde, Susana; Blakeslee, Sandra.
