The word 'hallucination', derived from Latin (hallucinatus, meaning wandering of the mind), is no longer limited to human experience but now also applies to Artificial Intelligence, particularly large language models (LLMs). These generate responses by predicting text fragments step by step. When an AI system produces a confident yet factually incorrect answer, we refer to it as an 'AI hallucination'. However, there is an interesting parallel between an unfounded response generated by AI and Yog Vasishtha's assertion that the world we experience does not have an independent existence, appearing vivid and convincing only for the duration of a dream. [1]
Yog Vasishtha speaks of a single infinite consciousness, which is both the experiencer and the experienced. In this non-dual view, the apparent separation between subject and object disappears. The phenomenal world manifests within Supreme Consciousness. Similar to a spider that weaves a web and then withdraws it, maya weaves the fabric of existence, which ultimately dissolves into Brahman. When we identify as separate individuals, navigating independently in the world, we confuse appearance with ultimate reality. The remedy is not correcting individual perceptual errors, but realizing non-duality and waking up from our dream world. [1]
The text presents several stories about dream worlds that dissolve when their inhabitants recognize their true nature. King Lavana is informed that the world is created by the mind, but he refuses to believe it. The magician presents a bunch of peacock feathers, and the king falls into a trance. What seems like a moment, he lives an entire lifetime: becoming hunted prey in the forest, a pariah, getting married, raising children, and suffering hunger and grief. Just as he prepares to die in fire, he wakes up on his throne, with his courtiers still waiting. Later, while wandering, he encounters the village and people seen in his vision. [1]
Another story features Queen Lila, who invokes the goddess Saraswati after the death of her husband, King Padma, wishing for an eternal reunion. Although Saraswati helps her discover that her husband's consciousness resides in another world, full of kings, wars, and cities, the story offers a dizzying vision: universes within universes, each seemingly completely real to those who inhabit them. Space is no longer a barrier, since an entire cosmos can unfold within the smallest room of consciousness. [1]
Vasishtha describes a massive, solid stone that, for those with sufficient understanding, contains whole universes, with creatures, seasons, and eons hidden within it. The lesson is that 'solid' and 'empty' are distinctions imposed by the mind. Consciousness can take forms and spaces that defy ordinary perception, and anything appearing within a frame of experience seems complete to one immersed in it. 'The appearance of the world is nothing but empty form; its substance is nothing other than consciousness,' writes Swami Venkatesananda in his book, The Supreme Yoga: Yog Vasishta. [1]
Liberation (moksha) comes from understanding the nature of one's own experience. The text promotes vichar (self-inquiry): 'Who am I? What is this experience?'. It encourages exploring the nature of reality and realizing that the separate existence of the individual is merely a dream, a hallucination, an error in the matrix. The liberated person does not flee from life. The jivanmukta continues to eat, work, and speak, but is not bound by the illusion of a separate self. As Vasishtha tells Ram, we can participate in the world like an actor playing a role: wholeheartedly and skillfully, without confusing the role with our true identity. [1]
Similar to the character Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan, we are left floating between two realities in the final scene. Cobb finally reunites with his children. He spins the totem on the table and goes to embrace them. The totem wobbles slightly, and just as we begin to wonder if it will stop, the screen goes black. Is Cobb still dreaming or has he truly returned home? And, more importantly, will we awaken to the nature of reality, or will we continue to be overwhelmed by a hallucination we created ourselves? [1]
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