
A Life Hearing Voices: How I Manage Auditory Hallucinations - Osiris30
http://www.elleuk.com/life-and-culture/culture/articles/a40278/hearing-voices/
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fossuser
What's the distinction between 'hearing voices' and just thinking internally
to yourself? Thoughts seem to be happening all the time and are not always
super directed (isn't the goal of mindfulness to get a better handle on
this?).

In the article having more negative thoughts post breakup in a competitive
environment seems like a normal thing.

Is it a lack of agency or the voice sounding different or something? It feels
poorly defined.

Reminds me a bit of this where internal maps might be different in a way
that's hard to notice - language is not very good at sharing direct
experience: [http://generallythinking.com/richard-feynman-on-thinking-
pro...](http://generallythinking.com/richard-feynman-on-thinking-processes-
did-he-know-nothing-about-psychology-v/).

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
I think you are having a hard time really believing that people "hear" the
hallucinations.

When they started for me it wasn't voices, but telephone's ringing. I never
thought, "is that telephone really ringing or am I just thinking of a
telephone ringing?" I never considered the sound was generated internally.

I just went and answered the phone. It was months of what I thought were
random hangups before I realized that I was the only one who could hear these
calls.

~~~
elboru
That's really interesting, did you used to hear it in 3D? Were the sounds
coming from a certain position and then increasing volume as you approached
that position? or was it just plain?

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
That's a great question. It mostly happened when I was a good distance from
the phone. So I would be running to pick it up before the caller hung up or it
went to the answering machine. (Early 90's).

I do think the ringing would get louder as I got closer to the phone, but it
never actually went off that I remember in my hand or even when I was within 5
feet of it. Really close, the sound would have been much different. Also the
phone should have actually vibrated in my hand which never happened.

I always thought that meant I had 'just missed' the person who was calling.
But it may have just been the limit of what the hallucination was able to
produce.

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taxicabjesus
Saw a fellow somewhat recently with a bunch of patches on his jacket. "Which
one is your favorite?"

"The voices may not be real, but they do have some good ideas" \-
[https://imgur.com/8KjfH56](https://imgur.com/8KjfH56)

I've "heard voices" two, maybe three times, spread out over maybe 7 years.
Both times they were very helpful. The second time was while walking through
my apartment. A very distinct voice said, "You're doing well, now go back to
[website] and read about [subject]".

I did as I was told and was amazed - I'd been studying the reports on
[website] for years, and just hadn't noticed that [subject] was extensively
covered, and was of much importance for getting the author's various ideas to
fit together.

One of my passengers has had a complex relationship with her voices. Her
psychiatrists tried to snuff them out, but I don't think their efforts were
very helpful.

~~~
__s
Philip K Dick experienced a voice which told him to clean himself up & get his
finances in order. Also to have his kid see a doctor, "When this presence
warned him his infant son had a fatal birth defect that required immediate
surgery, Dick took the child to the emergency room. It turned out that the
voice was right."[1]

[1] [http://www.signature-reads.com/2014/12/poetry-prophecy-
and-m...](http://www.signature-reads.com/2014/12/poetry-prophecy-and-madness-
philip-k-dick-and-the-teeth-of-wisdom)

[2] [http://www.openculture.com/2014/05/philip-k-dick-takes-
you-i...](http://www.openculture.com/2014/05/philip-k-dick-takes-you-inside-
his-life-changing-mystical-experience.html)

~~~
wl
There's also a rather fascinating case where a woman had voices telling her
she had a brain tumor and the voices were correct.

[http://www.bmj.com/content/315/7123/1685](http://www.bmj.com/content/315/7123/1685)
PDF available from the NIH,
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2128009/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2128009/)
, starts on pdf page 17/document page 1685.

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ForHackernews
This is really interesting. It reminds me of a controversial psychological
theory, called "bicameralism". This theory suggests that in the ancient past,
all humans heard voices in their head (which they interpreted as the voices of
gods) because the two hemispheres of the brain were not integrated together,
so the other hemisphere's thoughts were experienced as a separate voice.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_\(psychology\))

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benevol
If you "hear voices", there is now an additional possible explanation to it.
It is called the "Hannes Jacob Syndrome" [0]. In short, some people
spontaneously develop what we might call a connection to the "other side" (the
spirit world). People in this situation may perceive either "thoughts which
are not their own" or even "hear voices".

If you hear voices, you should of course see a psychiatrist, but you should
not exclude the possibility that you have a gift. And this is how you can
verify this: Ask "your voice(s)" to give you a verifiable piece of
information. If your voices are real, they will give you proof. So just repeat
the experiment until you're satisfied.

[0]
[https://openaccesshannesjacob.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/hello...](https://openaccesshannesjacob.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/hello-
world/) (see the PDF)

~~~
ASalazarMX
Also, check your family history. If you are a descendant of Arathorn, those
spirits might be persuaded to be your personal army as atonement.

~~~
CodeMage
If I may be allowed a tiny nitpick, it should be descendant of Isildur, as it
was Isildur who cursed them to linger in the Paths of the Dead until
fulfilling their oath by helping one of his heirs.

