International Consortium on Hallucination Research special supplement published

Posted on 11 November 2025

In September 2023, Dr Clara Humpston hosted the 7th biennial meeting of the International Consortium on Hallucination Research (ICHR) at the Department of Psychology, which was attended by over 70 participants from 10 different countries.

The participants included clinicians, researchers, students, as well as individuals with lived experience of hallucinations. Now, after two years of continued collaboration, working groups who presented at the 2023 meeting have had their reports published in the highly prestigious journal Schizophrenia Bulletin as a Special Supplement.

Review

This Special Supplement includes a new review on the bodily self and hallucinations, an update on cognitive-developmental mechanisms of hallucination, and two papers focusing on voice-hearing in Thailand and cross-cultural evidence for links between inner speech, absorption and hallucination. There is also a much-needed update on the relations between sleep pathology and hallucinations, and a fascinating report on visual hallucinations in serotonergic psychedelics and Lewy-Body disease. Lastly, this Supplement showcases an RCT of the iMAPS-2 Trial, a new imagery-focused therapy for psychosis.

“It has been an incredible honour and pleasure to work with so many excellent colleagues at the ICHR, some of whom I have known for over a decade. The ICHR exemplifies the importance of international collaboration and synergy between a wide range of individuals from different perspectives,” says Dr Humpston.

“To have been able to host an international conference at such a scale as a new member of staff at the Department of Psychology, I would like to thank my Department for their support. I also had the opportunity to involve a number of undergraduate students from the Department in the meeting, which was a very inspiring experience for them.”

Showcases

Professor Ben Alderson-Day, Chair of the ICHR, says: “This special supplement showcases the cutting edge of hallucination science around the world. It breaks new boundaries in terms of how we think about the body in relation to hallucinations, how we manage health emergencies like sleep dysfunction, and how we think about unusual experiences in non-Western cultures.

“The ICHR is scientific collaboration in its purest form. All of our members give up their time to share ideas, resources, and skills to advance what we know about hallucinations, psychosis, and unusual experiences more generally.”