Unless you drink to the point of alcohol poisoning, the likelihood of hallucinations from absinthe are more likely to be a result of alcohol toxicity than wormwood content. http://www.absinthe-guide.com/forum/absinthe-forum24.html

Well i hate to disprove the other answer here, but yes, it most definetly does, the ammount of thujon-which is the hallucinatory agent in absinthe is quite low-5 mg roughly, the fact is that most absinthe available in the US contains no wormwood-which is the sourse of thujone, and it is actully illegal for health reasons. although it is avaible through many other contries in absinthe as strong as 80% alchohol and containing 100mg of thugone

A little back ground first… Absinthe, true absinthe, is brewed using a particular strain of wormwood (Artemesia absinthium) that contains thujone. It can be brewed using other strains of wormwood that does not contain, very little if it does, thujone or in other methods to remove it which is much better for you. Both brews (with and without the thujone) have been brewed using wormwood and qualify as Absinthe. In my opinion though only that which has the good levels of thujone is true absinthe. Any absinthe being legally sold inside of the U.S. is not true absinthe by this definition. Drinking the absinthe that can be legally purchased in the U.S. will not make you hallucinate unless it’s from alcohol poisoning or a psycho-toxic reaction which can happen to some people who may be sensitive to other factors in the brew. Now the real stuff… True absinthe is hard to acquire. The substance thujone as well as wormwood have been declared unsafe for human consumption in many countries. In the U.S. it is listed as controlled and regulated by the F.D.A. but is a non-scheduled drug. Which is to say: You can’t buy it and you can’t make it. However I have heard, maybe just a rumor, that if someone in a country where it is available (I believe it is still legally available in Spain and perhaps the Chezk republic) was to send it to you for use as an additive or flavoring (Not Purchased but as a gift) that it is not illegal to possess Absinthe, even if it contains thujone (Don’t quote me on that). There are also some herbs that are legal to buy/sell/grow in the U.S. that contain thujone. Drinking true absinthe (a few ounces mixed half and half with water is usual) will make your tongue numb and leave you with a feeling of euphoria as well as even make you hallucinate possibly give you convulsions. Thujone… CAN make you hallucinate, give you convulsions and can even kill you. …So yes drinking the proper kind of absinthe can make you hallucinate but if you legally purchased it in the U.S. it’s not the right kind.

The real absinth cost over 200 us dollars and is illegal in the usa. it uses high concentrates of worm wood, Large amounts of wormwood can be toxic to people. the level of toxicity could cause hallucinations and weird abnormal thoughts and actions.so the answer is YES if you can find the real deal!

ok, my aunt brought me some from holland a few week ago, saturday night me and the girls did a few (and it was the real deal) - a few of the girls said it caused them to see things that weren't there, but i never hallucinated, i was fairly blasted though!! may just affect different people in different ways - no way to prove or disprove whether it does for you unless you try it yourself!!

I drank some with a couple of close and it didn't make us hallucinate but we lost a couple hours of the night. We had drunk a few beers first and then drank a couple of large shots (with sugar and ignited it) at about 1am and the next thing we all remember was that it was nearly 3am. Scared the bejesus out of us. Never drinking it again

Most of the absinthe you can buy today has had the hallucination causeing ingrediants removed. If you go to the Prague or Budapest for example you can still get the original drink, but in the UK, Scandinavia, France, Germany and alot of other countries it is sold without the hallucination causeing ingrediants.

NO! It does not cause hallucinatons. It's a myth. People have studied the chemical, thujone, alot more in recent years and found that there is no evidence that it causes hallucinations. Read this article http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/absinthe.htm That article clearly states that thujone causes no hallucinagenic effects and that you would die from alcohol poisoning from drinking absinthe way before thujone actually takes effect (which the effect of thujone is convulsions not hallucination). By the way REAL absinthe is very easy to get, do a simple google search it won't take you long to find authentic absinthe.

I've never hallucinated on it but I have lost a few hours time.

No it never has. It is an urban myth of grand proportions.

On two separate occasions I shared a whole bottle with someone [yes, clearly I was sanity-impaired at the time] and I've never hallucinated on it. And we even prepared it the 'proper' way by heating it up and adding sugar, etc. But make no mistake, it's serious stuff and very different from normal alcohol. We definitely went all funny in the head and ran around whooping it up and having a grand time. If you're thinking of trying it, be somewhere safe with good friends :)

Not really.

No "Absinthe has long been believed to be hallucinogenic. This belief got a contemporary boost in the 1970s when a scientific paper mistakenly reported thujone was related to THC, the active chemical in marijuana, which has hallucinogenic properties. Martin Paul Smith incorrectly argued that absinthe had narcotic effects due to the fermentation process in early 2008. Ten years after his 19th century experiments with wormwood oil, the French Dr. Magnan studied 250 cases of alcoholism and claimed that those who drank absinthe were worse off than those drinking ordinary alcohol, and that they experienced rapid-onset hallucinations. Such accounts by absinthe opponents were embraced by its most famous users, many of whom were bohemian artists or writers. In one of the best known accounts of absinthe drinking, Oscar Wilde described the feeling of having tulips on his legs after leaving a bar. Two famous painters who helped popularize the notion that absinthe had powerful psychoactive properties were Toulouse Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh (who suffered from mental instability throughout his life). Today it is known that absinthe does not cause hallucinations, especially ones similar to those described in 19th century studies. Thujone, the supposed active chemical in absinthe, is a GABA antagonist and, while it can produce muscle spasms in large doses, there is no evidence that it causes hallucinations. It has been speculated that reports of hallucinogenic effects of absinthe may have been due to poisonous chemicals being added to cheaper versions of the drink in the 19th century, to give it a more vivid colour. However, the debate over whether absinthe produces effects on the human mind additional to those of alcohol has not been conclusively resolved. The effects of absinthe have been described by some artists as mind opening. The most commonly reported experience is a 'clear-headed' feeling of inebriation — a form of 'lucid drunkenness'. Some modern specialists, such as chemist, historian and absinthe distiller Ted Breaux, claim that alleged secondary effects of absinthe may be caused by the fact that some of the herbal compounds in the drink act as stimulants, while others act as sedatives, creating an overall lucid effect of awakening. Long term effects of low absinthe consumption in humans remain unknown, although it is known that the herbs contained in absinthe have both painkilling and antiparasitic properties." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe#Effects_of_absinthe