WHAT IS HEARING VOICES?

“I ‘hear’ voices inside my head…that are not under my control. There are a large number of voices; some of them scream at me, call me names, insult me, and other frightening things; some simply narrate my experience or speak in word salad; and some are friendly.”

David*

“I hear voices which represent people I know, or have seen (know of), and parts of myself and finally my whole self. The best way to describe it is telepathy, in different grades of vividness, from bearable to intrusive.”

Sandeep*

“Since age three, I’ve heard voices, and participated in conversations in my head. I thought everyone did. These were mostly good internal friends, but there were some scary voices as well.”

Berta*

The first time my voice-hearing was so ‘other’ that it made me jump was when a voice with the tenderness of Christ said ‘you are my own dear child’.  It was a very enriching moment as I was in great difficulty at the time.

Federico*

“I’m a professional writer and I have all kinds of voice-type experiences. Some are voices that are clearly in my head but which feel “different” from my own thoughts. Some are voices that seem to come from outside but which I know don’t. Some are voices of characters in books or scripts I’m writing but which I hear very clearly and feel as if I’m really taking dictation.”

Marion*

“I hear distinct voices. Each voice has their own personality. They often try to tell me what to do or try to interject their own thoughts or feelings about a certain subject or matter…My voices range in age and maturity. Many of them have identified themselves and given themselves names. I often carry on conversations with them. Sometimes these are pleasant other-times they are not.”

Charlie*

“I first started hearing voices when I was around 19. More often than not it is a female whose voice comes from a near-by area, but is unattached to a body or form. Usually when I hear her it is just like she is sitting next to me or laying behind me in bed.”

Sanjee*

“When I hear actual voices generally they are speaking nonsense or phrases that make sense but aren’t immediately meaningful… almost like flipping between channels on a radio very quickly. They aren’t talking “to” me most of the time, just talking….I also hear noises and, at times, those noises are human (like hearing a person breathing or their lips smacking or tongue moving in their mouth) but other times they aren’t human.

One of my most common voice-hearing experiences is just hearing laughter…Other times, I have even “seen voices” in the sense that the message or phrase or voice came across in my mind’s eye in literal typographic form….Sometimes, I simply have “loud” thoughts, which I do feel are my own, but are also somehow experienced differently than my normal thoughts– more startling, more “out of the blue” or more concrete, somehow, than an organic normal thought…”

Ben*

“I hear whispered or low-volume voices/sounds. Sometimes it sounds like one voice and sometimes it sounds like multiple voices in unison. Usually just a repeated word or couple of words. It is usually a two syllable word, most often the word “today”, though the emphasis is always on the first syllable regardless of the word and the normal emphasis of the word. The only exception is when I hear my own name.”

Lela*