Causing hallucinations or visions; a substance that creates false sensory experiences that seem very real but aren't actually happening.
From 'hallucination' (Latin 'alucinari,' to wander in thought) plus '-genic' (producing, causing). The term became widely used in the 1950s-60s during research into LSD and psilocybin.
Albert Hofmann's accidental discovery of LSD's effects in 1938 created urgent need for scientific language, and 'hallucinogenic' emerged as the clinical term for substances that fundamentally scramble how the brain processes reality.
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