Could Jesus' followers have hallucinated seeing him alive?

Hallucinations are real experiences, and some skeptics suggest grief-driven visions explain what the disciples reported.

But hallucinations are normally private, shaped by one person's own mind—not something a group of people share in identical detail, at the same time, in the same place. The New Testament describes appearances to individuals, small groups, and, in one account, more than 500 people at once.

These accounts also include details hallucinations don't usually produce: physical touch, shared meals, extended conversation. And a hallucination wouldn't explain why the tomb was empty, or why Paul—actively hunting down Christians at the time—became convinced almost overnight, or why James, Jesus' skeptical brother, changed his mind entirely.

Hallucination theories try to explain the belief without the appearance actually happening. They run into real, specific problems doing that, which is part of why this hasn't become historians' leading explanation either.