Hallucinations - What are they?

[Rhi]

So I participated in a little comment thread on hallucinations two weeks ago on the Dark Sword page[dont-starve-game.wikia.com] of the Don't Starve wiki. It was interesting and presented some new ideas, and it was quite cool.

So, I have a question for those on the Steam forums: What are hallucinations? Is the Dark Sword really just a twig wrapped up in Wilson's imagination? The Night Armor, papyrus? Why is it that you can get nightmare fuel and beard hair from beardlings (that stay constant even if sane), if beardlings are just figments of the imagination? Do Night Hands really steal your fire? What's the Grue, really? (I know Grue is stretching it for hallucinations, but what the hell)

[Munkeyman100]

Its really hard for me to explain my theory on such a thing,but i shall try............

When people go mad in real life they see things differently to what a "normal" person would,(granted not bunnys turning black with lots of beard hair) but sometimes even after the person is "cured" they still see some things like they did before,the mind is a weird thing,like a young childs imagination.
Basically they are just imagining it,the whole wolves and everything might just be Wilsons imagination.........Confusing right?

[JoshnPosh]

Originally posted by Munkeyman100:

Its really hard for me to explain my theory on such a thing,but i shall try............

When people go mad in real life they see things differently to what a "normal" person would,(granted not bunnys turning black with lots of beard hair) but sometimes even after the person is "cured" they still see some things like they did before,the mind is a weird thing,like a young childs imagination.
Basically they are just imagining it,the whole wolves and everything might just be Wilsons imagination.........Confusing right?

the world must be wilsons imagnation for how could you kill something with a wepon that dosent exist?

[Munkeyman100]

Originally posted by JoshnPosh³:

Originally posted by Munkeyman100:

Its really hard for me to explain my theory on such a thing,but i shall try............

When people go mad in real life they see things differently to what a "normal" person would,(granted not bunnys turning black with lots of beard hair) but sometimes even after the person is "cured" they still see some things like they did before,the mind is a weird thing,like a young childs imagination.
Basically they are just imagining it,the whole wolves and everything might just be Wilsons imagination.........Confusing right?

the world must be wilsons imagnation for how could you kill something with a wepon that dosent exist?

The point is that everything is purely Wilsons imagination,again just my personal theory............

[JoshnPosh]

Originally posted by Munkeyman100:

Originally posted by JoshnPosh³:

the world must be wilsons imagnation for how could you kill something with a wepon that dosent exist?

The point is that everything is purely Wilsons imagination,again just my personal theory............

That adds the questions is he having hallucinations in his hallucinations?
or is this just a dream and he just forgot everything about his last life or... i should stop now my head is hurting >.<*

[Munkeyman100]

Originally posted by JoshnPosh³:

Originally posted by Munkeyman100:

The point is that everything is purely Wilsons imagination,again just my personal theory............

That adds the questions is he having hallucinations in his hallucinations?
or is this just a dream and he just forgot everything about his last life or... i should stop now my head is hurting >.<*

Well when Wilson made the machine (in the trailer) maxwell did blah blah but maybe he only put Wilson into a coma or a deeeeeeeeeep sleep..............

[JoshnPosh]

Originally posted by Munkeyman100:

Originally posted by JoshnPosh³:

That adds the questions is he having hallucinations in his hallucinations?
or is this just a dream and he just forgot everything about his last life or... i should stop now my head is hurting >.<*

Well when Wilson made the machine (in the trailer) maxwell did blah blah but maybe he only put Wilson into a coma or a deeeeeeeeeep sleep..............

Prehaps Wilson was hypnotized? and maxwell made wilson faint from building the machine and geting scared?

[J20Hawkz]

I was going to ninja this thread but had a powercut......

Ok lets put on my thinking cap.

Hallucinations are perceptions witnessed through the eyes of a certain individual. They simply see something that thier mind has thought up and believe it to be real. In this state we can say the person is not mentally right and thus they are counciled and prescribed medication. Hallucinations can be brought about by many factors some include stress, fear, past traumatic experiences, lack of sleep, lack of circulation to the brain.

What we are experiencing in this game is all a hallucination. Wilson is seen to be stressed in the opening trailer. I believe as he slumps into his chair he falls asleep and is dreaming this or wakes up because the radio suddenly turns on and believes he is bieng spoken to thus hallucinating it all. He is obviously incapable of inventing something as complex as the door way through to this world. But as he sleeps he imagines a bieng called maxwell who is really an evil version of himself. It is in his dream or him hallucinating that he has made this door way and is trying to survive in such a harsh wolrd. Nothing is real.

The other characters are all memories of his past experiences. Willow could have been his wife who was killed in a tragic fire accident. Wendy and Abigail are most likely his two daughters. Abigail was also killed in the fire that took away his wife. Wendy could have been seperated from Wilson during the fire and he now spends his time inventing things to help find her. WX-78 is most likely a child hood toy of his. Wolfgang is what Wilson imagines himself to be. Wickerbottom is his school teacher turned librarian. Wes is something that he fears as when we fear something we never really see them talking to us, just chasing us. And Maxwell is the evil genious that haunts Wilson in his mind telling him he is worthless over the tragic loss of his family.

So everything that Wilson is experiencing is not real. Really he is just walking around the wood outisde his home. The beefalo are really just cows he has, the hounds are really just his pet dogs, Krampus is just the postman, gobblers are just the children next door, pigmen are well just the pigs he keeps. The tencales are worms, I can imagine him just poking them with a small stick, where as we are there hacking away with a spear! Deeclops is actually the nurse that comes to check on him. Also its not actually snowing/winter. When the nurse comes they take him to hospital which is all white. And obviously he once he leaves the hospital its already summer outside so thats explains why there is only two seasons.

Those hallucinations he sees are actually the real things. It what is actually keeping him from completely losing it. It is something that he can relate to in real life. When we hallucinate we can think up of anything. So when he sees those dark hands trying to grab his fire they are actually trying to save him from carrying on living this dream. They are trying to pull the fire away and stop him from carrying on.

So yeah.

[Rhi]

Originally posted by J20Hawkz:

It is in his dream or him hallucinating that he has made this door way and is trying to survive in such a harsh wolrd. Nothing is real.

Eh, I dunno, I'd be pretty disappointed if this were the case. It would kind of... I don't know, take away from a large part of the game.

Originally posted by J20Hawkz:

And obviously he once he leaves the hospital its already summer outside so thats explains why there is only two seasons.

Why would they let him out of the hospital? He's completely hallucinating and possibly violent (I dunno, every time I see Deerclops I kill it). Someone who has no basis in reality whatsoever probably wouldn't be given just periodic nurse checkups and hospital visits. They'd be locked away and put on medication.

~

I posted my opinion on the wiki. If you follow the link and go down to the comments section, you might find it. I prefer to think of everything as real-- including the hallucinations. The sanity meter is less a sanity meter and more a measure of how in tune you are with the more magical creatures of Maxwell's world. That when your character stops being insane, they're just exercising some really complex doublethink to wish the scary monsters away (and it works, because magic is a product of the mind and sensing magic should be a product of the mind, too).

Maxwell chose these people in particular because they could wish the hallucinations away. Hallucinations and the Grue aren't Maxwell's minions, they're agents of whatever is keeping Maxwell prisoner (and obviously, are trying to stop whoever enters without their permission, which I'm fairly certain Maxwell did not ask permission to trick someone else into taking his place).

Maxwell has his sanity boost because he knows how all this works and is smart enough to purposefully think everything away (the other characters genuinely believe they were 'just' hallucinating). I don't believe that if we looked at just 'plain sanity meters', Maxwell would be the most sane. No one who's sat through a lifetime of ragtime and uncomfortable chairs would be the most sane out of the cast. No matter how dapper.

Yes, I realize there's probably some glaring problems with this theory, but I honestly don't believe there's an actual, problemless solution to this question, which is why I asked it.

[Back to MrDilly]

My thery is that Maxwell is the Devs trying to have a charechter.

With Huluchionation, my there is the same a Ahvaren

[Bear]

Also, just a bit on the Grue, a lot people believe the Grue was once a human and turned into a monster. If you go into the dark as Maxwell, he says "Charlie? It's me, Charlie!" or something along those lines, implying that the Grue is familiar to Maxwell. Of course, this could just be from him being on the Throne, but it does imply that the Grue is in some way tangible and not just a hallucination. The human theory could fit in well with William Carter as well.

[Rhi]

Originally posted by Wynter:

Also, just a bit on the Grue

Was that directed towards my theory? If so, (and yeah, I think the devs confirmed that the Grue was Charlie-- she was his friend before the Throne) it fits with my theory. I grouped the Grue in with the hallucinations because they operate much the same. But like I said, I believe the hallucinations are real all the time, they can just only hurt you under certain circumstances. For the Grue, the circumstance is total darkness. I believe that the Grue is just a REALLY strong manifestation (probably because it was formerly human) of the same stuff that hallucinations are.

Edit: Oh, wait, I did mention the Grue in my first post. Nevermind this, then. I understand what you were responding to.

[Back to MrDilly]

Maxwell Is the devs. Have you ever seen maxwell page where he tell you that you have solved his puzzel

[Back to MrDilly]

http://www.dontstarvegame.com/gallery/concept-art

[Back to MrDilly]

I just solved the puzzel for you

[Bear]

Originally posted by Dilly:

Maxwell Is the devs. Have you ever seen maxwell page where he tell you that you have solved his puzzel

See edit.

Edit: Ah, just saw the link you posted and completely forgot about the rest of that page. Anyway, it actually seems like they're implying they (the devs) are working with Maxwell, as he calls them his "associates."