Imagine looking at a loved one and seeing their face twist into a demonic, unnatural shape. Their eyes might stretch to the sides of their head, their nose might swell, and deep, unnatural grooves might appear across their cheeks and forehead. This terrifying visual experience belongs to a rare neurological condition known medically as prosopometamorphopsia. In popular media and online discussions, it is sometimes referred to as “demon face syndrome.” People with this condition see human faces as severely distorted, even though their vision for everyday objects remains completely normal. Prosopometamorphopsia is fundamentally different from a hallucination. A hallucination involves seeing something that is not actually present in the physical world. People experiencing these facial distortions are looking at a real person standing in front of them. Their brain simply alters the shape, size, color, or position of the facial features before the image reaches their conscious awareness. The condition is also distinct from face blindness, which scientists call prosopagnosia. People with face blindness cannot recognize who a person is, but the face itself looks …