Hearing Voices?

[RainbowWarrior]

I want to start a thread about the phenomenon of hearing voices inside one's head.

I really hate how often stuff like "when you're hearing voices, go see a shrink, you're batshit crazy" gets posted around this site...

Personally i am convinced that there is a layer within the human brain/consciousness on which acoustic perceptions are being processed. In a majority of people this layer seems to be located in the subconsciousness, however a lot of people report hearing voices or other acoustic signals, a lot of them would not be diagnosed with a mental disorder by professionals.

My experiences with this phenomenon is limited, i sometimes access this layer of my brain when i am really high on sativas or when i am in the transition from awake to sleeping... the later fact made me think that the layer of consciousness i am refering to is similar to the layer of hypnagogic hallucinations or indeed the same...

i would like to hear some opinions on this!

i posted it in P&S in the hope of serious responses

p.s. bear with my formulations, i have been writing a paper for linguistics in german all day and can't concentrate that well on wording things in english right now...

oh yeah nearly forgot to include this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_Voices_Movement


good vibes

 

[twentysix]

i hear them.
but it's hard for me to share it. i'd like to... but the music keeps changing. i feel like i need an eye patch.

 

[sssssssssss]

ive never heard voices.. i dont think
but what do they say/ what kind of attitude do they have/make u feel?

im kind of interested lol

 

[Dedbeet]

Drugs and/or sleep deprivation can certainly change the way one perceives things -- for example, the classic "ghost radio", where you hear a radio station playing "somewhere, everywhere" when you haven't slept for a long time. Mostly this is just the misinterpreting of common "white noise" from fans, computers, etc, and isn't a hallucination -- it would be more accurately called a 'delusion', as it's a misinterpretation of something actually present.

Do I believe there's some sort of extrasensory ability to hear voices? For whatever it's worth -- no. It's a common human wish/fantasy to want to hear voices of others, dead loved ones, etc. and a common human fear to be hearing condemning voices. It's just the human psyche, that's all.

 

[twentysix]

I have felt the same, and still do at times... many times. Another is that EM waves might case one to hear things. I've also had them to be startlingly accurate in telling of things I can't possibly know. I'll write more later if I can.

 

[socko]

I've been hearing voices. I also hear Morse Code sometimes, especially when there is a lot of white noise in the background, but it's usually too fast and faint for me to copy it.

 

[twentysix]

Drugs and/or sleep deprivation can certainly change the way one perceives things -- for example, the classic "ghost radio", where you hear a radio station playing "somewhere, everywhere" when you haven't slept for a long time. Mostly this is just the misinterpreting of common "white noise" from fans, computers, etc, and isn't a hallucination -- it would be more accurately called a 'delusion', as it's a misinterpretation of something actually present.

Do I believe there's some sort of extrasensory ability to hear voices? For whatever it's worth -- no. It's a common human wish/fantasy to want to hear voices of others, dead loved ones, etc. and a common human fear to be hearing condemning voices. It's just the human psyche, that's all.

could be, but can you account for everything "the human psyche"?
why does everyone seem to think that what goes on inside your head isn't real?

 

[RedRum OG]

i have done my fair share of psychs, opiates, downers, uppers, amphetamines, everything basically. i have never heard a distinct voice talking to me from inside my head, but i often hear the non-descript blurred voices like there is a TV left on somewhere. it is actually very scary sometimes, when im dopesick or back when i used to go through alcohol WDs. but i can never make out any words, its just mumbling that doesnt ever stop

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

I really hate how often stuff like "when you're hearing voices, go see a shrink, you're batshit crazy" gets posted around this site...

You and me both. That and 'talking to yourself means you're mentally ill.'

My response: habitual use of mind-altering substances is, in the eyes of the medical establishment, a bona fide mental illness. So very few people here have the right to make that accusation here against anyone.

Also, according to what I learned in psychiatry, hearing voices is a common symptom of a couple of mental diseases. But it is not enough, in and of itself, to make a diagnosis. And if it doesn't bother the person or interfere with their daily life in any way, it's not a psychiatric problem, period.

I also hate how the phrase 'mental illness' is resrticted, in most people's minds, to schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (and SOMETIMES bipolar), and rubs people as the wrong terminology when used for really any other psychiatric problem. Come on, people, there are more ways to be ill in ways that have mental effects than just those three diseases.

 

[twentysix]

I hadn't talked to a certain ex for over two years... the longest wed gone without communications. I began thinking about her, and I wasn't sure what her number was after knowing it by heart. I felt some release, or expected that feeling, and two days later if that I received a text from her, but accidentally. After two years...

Around this time, I began exercising at night, and one night in particular I began to hear her. It was very clear at times. I remember hearing "Alicia Keys" (not her voice- but the more common, female voice I hear.), occasionally but often enough, and a next message I got from her was asking if the targeted recipient had her corporate key. Her name is Alisha...

I didn't respond right away to her messages as I didnt want to dig stuff up at all. She was the only girl I asked to marry me. Long story.

 

[Bardeaux]

My experience with auditory (hallucinations?) is strictly drug-related. When I was new to marijuana I would imagine music so vividly that I was actually hearing it, as if it were comming from somewhere else.

Also on high doses of dxm I've heard omnipresent voices discussing everything I do, much like sports announcers or a narrorator would do.

As for sober auditory disturbances, I haven't experienced anything of the sort.

 

[Tromps]

I'm going to stick with non-drug related experiences with what I perceived was 'hearing voices' to share. Due to the fact I couldn't count the times I've internally and externally heard voices from various substances

Quite recently actually (specifically at work) I've thought I've perceived semi-auditory voices, the reason I say semi is because it's more of a quick "echoey" distant shout. On a few occasions when I knew I was doing something wrong I've perceived what I thought was my name distantly being yelled or other-words an unrecognizable sound being directed towards me. Usually they are quick, short 'sounds' that have made me even look over my shoulder. Weirdly enough, a few times I have felt as if I even recognized the voice like it was some'thing' I know or had heard before. After thinking about it a little bit, perhaps this is my subconscious communicating to my conscious self when it knows it isn't in the right? Definitely a bizarre phenomenon, but sure is a possibly and would make sense.

Not sure if this is the kind of experience you're looking for, but it is an interesting topic and it made me think

 

[spaceyourbass]

Hearing voices in your head shouldn't cause you too much concern. Its when you start paying attention to them and think the voices/noises are part of some grandiose scheme that can get you in trouble or labelled as this or that.

 

[Pythagoras]

I have always thought that the mental chatter that goes on between various 'versions' of me/aspects of my personality was encountered by most. Other voices that you feel uncomfortable with can be a sign of delusions or psychosis (sleep deprivation, long term drug use).

If you ever hear voices that are unwelcome, or persuading you to do something with which you are not comfortable with then I would seek medical advice

 

[hobhead]

my svelte, sporty tin foil hat foils the voices

 

[halfoz]

lots of experience with sleep dep auditory hallucinations, zero experience with hearing voices as portrayed in the movies.

this, to me, is what characterizes a psychotic break: the inability to distinguish fantasy from reality while awake.

did so much sleep dep that its like i permanently fried that pattern into my brain. its much easier now to hear that ghost radio in the white noise of anything (its always a talk radio sports show, in my mind, just like when i had auditory hallucinations of actual music, the music was always accompanied by a marching band. it was actually cool.)

i have noted that while using meth i became much more able to pick apart and isolate lines of music in a harmony. its something that is muuuch more difficult for me clean. was interesting to know that my body had the physical capacity to be extra-capable.

 

[Jabberwocky]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/magazine/25voices.t.html?pagewanted=1

I know the OP is hearing the voices "in his head" but there is a movement for viewing hearing voices as non-pathological. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_Voices_Movement

I have to admit I tend to think schizophrenia when I hear of hearing voices but I've spent a lot of time in mental hospitals. I suspect many people hear voices, are otherwise relatively free of problems, and don't let anyone know because of the stigma.

 

[panic in paradise]

watch w/o reaction, the animals or childrens reactions around you.
~
such an inner-frequency can be quite literally shocking, though. so if possible retaining such a wave of attention which can be quickly polarized away -from your CNS-synaptic reaction what have you - might be worth practicing;-p

animals, and children dont worry about the environment so much (for different reasons), but at any-rate they do not feel the need to as often; their ego is neutral...

Edit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biorhythm

i found plenty of .gov med abstracts, sources claiming it as bogus for "psychic" exploitation(profiteering), but then carry on to provide links to scientific, biological, and medical applications theories and studies. all mostly from the 80's, back and forth debate , then not much else.

im not saying this defines a persons actions or traits, but that such 'vibrations' do exist; or so it seems proven in many aspects of life; along with many other cosmic generated frequencies/vibrations/waves/sound-shapes etc.

if you poke around with astrology at all, it is rather notable how many planetary aspects will be the sum of the BioRythm result, for what ever period of time.

___________________________________________________
just pointing that out, not swearing by it or nothin' yallZ.

 

[Tromps]

If you ever hear voices that are unwelcome, or persuading you to do something with which you are not comfortable with then I would seek medical advice

What if it were quite the opposite. Say you hear welcoming voices that persuade you to do good? Would it require psychiatric intervention then?

 

[Pythagoras]

^^


Very good question Tromps. My post was mainly concerned as to whether the person was having delusional thoughts, unwelcome or schizoid intrusions, and in the interests of harm reduction saw this a grounds for proposing a trained medical opinion.

Even if

you hear welcoming voices that persuade you to do good?

then I would still recommend seeking medical advice, just as one would if one had Tinnitus .

It's simple a precautionary measure with the sole intent of possible harm reduction, and I don't recall mentioning psychiatric intervention?