Choty el-Djerid is the name of a vast dry salt lake in the Sahara desert, Tunisia, where mirages are most likely to form in the midday sun. Here, the intense desert heat manipulates, bends, and distorts the light rays to such an extent that you see things which literally are not there. Trees and sand dunes float off the ground, the edges of mountains and buildings ripple and vibrate, color and form blend into one shimmering dance. In May 1979, I spent two weeks in this space recording the mirages and various heat distortions with my video camera. From this material plus other recordings made during winter on the prairies of Illinois and Saskatchewan, Canada, I composed Chott el-Djerid, a half hour landscape in visual symphonic form.If one believes that mental hallucinations are the manifestation of some chemical or biological imbalance in the brain, then mirages and desert heat distortions can be considered hallucinations of the landscape. It was like physically being inside someone else’s dream. It was real. Mirages are real and they can be recorded on videotape.