Cloudscape

In schizophrenia, severe chronic stress resulted in the failure of the individual's coping mechanisms; she or he loses courage to face his difficulties and therefore to care for her- or himself. In other words, the ego dissolves. Practical thought becomes reduced because the individual has lost the will to concern her- or himself with it. Not finding safety in reality, the individual is then forced to flee into unreality, leading to psychosis.
What remains is simple experience, be it of a sensory nature (i.e. sensations) or abstract (i.e. imagination). No longer having the will to filter perceptions of practical value from those without, perceptions that are normally filtered at once become more prominent. This is referred to as decreased latent inhibition. Perceptions that are normally unconscious encroach upon the conscious, while normally conscious (practical) perceptions become unconscious.
Because the individual's awareness is partly transferred from the practical thought which usually accounts for a large part of our mental processes to experience, this may lead to a state of expanded consciousness. While this may be experienced as pleasant at times, as the illness progresses it becomes so inescapable that it becomes horrifying.