HALLUCINATION THEORY
Some say that the disciples were merely hallucinating, which made them think that Christ had risen again. They claim that Jesus Christ did not literally rise from the dead. Rather, because of their nervousness, mental distress, and enthusiasm, they hallucinated and had a temporary vision of Jesus. This is often called the “Hallucination Theory.” In this theory, those who supposedly saw Jesus did not actually see Him; instead, they collectively experienced some sort of hallucination. This theory is perhaps the most popular among liberal scholars.
Answering the Objection
In answering such a theory, imagine yourself sitting in a classroom with 50 other people while you are daydreaming in one corner. What are the chances that the other 50 people in the same room would have the very same daydream at the very same time? That’s impossible!
The record tells us that Jesus showed Himself to more than 500 people at different times after His death (1 Cor 15:6). He talked, walked, ate, and drank with them. Scientific studies show that hallucinations can only be experienced by an individual. No two people can have the exact same hallucination at the same time. How much more with 500 people? That’s absurd!
William Milligan, in his book The Resurrection of our Lord, said that visions or hallucinations must be characterized by “belief in the idea that it expresses, and excited expectation that the idea will somehow be realized.” In other words, to experience such a vision or hallucination, a person must have a strong desire for something he wants to happen and then attach that imagined desire to reality.
However, in the case of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ, this was not the state of His followers. The sense of expectancy, anticipation, or even readiness to see their Master was not there. In fact, when the Lord finally appeared to His disciples at one point, they were terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:37–39)!
Such a statement makes the hallucination theory impossible. C.S. Lewis, in his book Miracles, said, “…any theory of hallucination breaks down on the fact (and if it is an invention it is the oddest invention that ever entered the mind of man) that on three separate occasions this hallucination was not immediately recognized as Jesus (Luke 24:13–31; John 20:15; 21:4).”
The disciples were not gullible people. In fact, they were very skeptical and did not believe things easily. That’s why hallucination could not explain their experience. For them to take on the enormous task of preaching and writing about such an unpopular—and even impossible—idea as the death and resurrection of a Jewish man named Jesus, and to live lives of self-denial and suffering because of it, there is only one explanation:
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