An interested read

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Jesse
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An interested read

Post by Jesse »

Some sites I read:
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/h/hearing-voices
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ps ... ear-voices

It is the most common type of hallucination in people with psychotic disorders. However, a large number of otherwise healthy individuals have also reported hearing voices.

It is difficult to describe what it is like to hear voices, particularly if you’ve never heard voices yourself. Persons have described them as the voice of someone standing right next to them, or as voices that are thought-like. Some persons have reported experiencing a combination of both.3 The voices heard can be critical, complementary or neutral. They may give you commands that are potentially harmful. They may even engage you in conversation.4

You may think you have never experienced this, but are you sure? You may have had the experience of hearing someone call your name only to find that there is no one there. Indeed, research shows that, especially for recently bereaved people, it is not uncommon to hear the voice of someone who isn’t actually there speaking to you, or who may even be dead.

It's also common for people to hear voices as if they are thoughts entering their mind from somewhere outside themselves. This is not the same as a suddenly inspired idea, which people usually recognize as coming from themselves. These thoughts are not their own and would seem to come from outside their own consciousness..
A study published earlier this year, based on a World Health Organization (WHO) survey of over 30,000 people across 18 countries, revealed that 2.5% of respondents reported voice-hearing at some point in their lives. In fact, the reported prevalence of 2 to 3 voice-hearers out of every 100 people is low compared to other similar studies that have found rates of anywhere from less than 1% to 84%
I am curious on other people's thoughts on people who hear voices. Why is it such a common phenomenon? What do you think are the sources of these voices? It's already been mostly established that it happens at a very high frequency in non-psychotics.. So is it a coping mechanism? ESP? Anatta displaying it'self in full view? :rolling:

Thoughts/Opinions? If you want to research it more before posting, there is plenty of information out there, even quite a bit of peer-reviewed research on it. Especially since it's related to mental illness.
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SunWuKong
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Re: An interested read

Post by SunWuKong »

Here’s an assumption that other minds can’t speak to yours unless wired to vocal chords.
"We are magical animals that roam" ~ Roam
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climb-up
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Re: An interested read

Post by climb-up »

My guess would be a mix of ESP, spirits and imagination.
Not sure what ratios, probably depends on the person.

I like that they point out that people who think they haven't heard voices, very likely have.
Your attention and worldview/interpretation have a lot to do with it.
I have a line in shows that I do "people often ask me, 'how can I have a psychic experience, but of course, we all have psychic experiences everday ...we just don't usually pay attention."

Of course, I've had heard voices strongly sometimes when I have a song stuck in my head, ...so that probably isn't too paranormal.
"Death's second name is 'omnipresent.' On the relative truth it seems we become separate. But on the absolute there is no separation." Lama Dawa
tingdzin
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Re: An interested read

Post by tingdzin »

If you haven't already, read Julian Jaynes' "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind". Very thought-provoking. According to Jaynes, who was a Princeton psychologist, all of humanity used to hear such voices, until they became evolutionarily , mmm, inconvenient. They were generated in the left hemisphere of the brain as guidance mechanisms. I'm shocked that Dr. Pierre has evidently never heard of Jaynes; a lot of intelligent people have been at least partially persuaded by his evidence. Read some of the comments on the Amazon reviews, for a starter.
tingdzin
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Re: An interested read

Post by tingdzin »

I should add that a lot of cultures don't stigmatize the hearers of voices in the same way the West does.
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climb-up
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Re: An interested read

Post by climb-up »

tingdzin wrote: Fri Feb 16, 2018 8:54 am If you haven't already, read Julian Jaynes' "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind". Very thought-provoking. According to Jaynes, who was a Princeton psychologist, all of humanity used to hear such voices, until they became evolutionarily , mmm, inconvenient. They were generated in the left hemisphere of the brain as guidance mechanisms. I'm shocked that Dr. Pierre has evidently never heard of Jaynes; a lot of intelligent people have been at least partially persuaded by his evidence. Read some of the comments on the Amazon reviews, for a starter.
I have heard of it, but not read the book.
It seems like this theory either maintains, or simply assumes, the mind=brain theory of popular western reductionist scientism.
Is that correct?
If so, does it address this issue, or just assume it?
"Death's second name is 'omnipresent.' On the relative truth it seems we become separate. But on the absolute there is no separation." Lama Dawa
tingdzin
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Re: An interested read

Post by tingdzin »

Jaynes was working within the scientific community, so his presentation was naturally reductivist in that way, and does not address the larger philosophical brain/ mind issue at all, except indirectly, implying the whole issue is a chimera. But if you read the book, or some of the volumes that have come out after Origin that discuss the implications of his theory, it is clear that what he had to say is destructive to those psychologists who theorize that consciousness is just a property of matter -- as a matter of fact, Jaynes demolishes the usual assumptions of what consciousness is in an early chapter of the book. As far as his theory goes, the voices that people heard, and some people still hear, were no more or less "real" that our stream of consciousness -- more real in that, in the early days, the people hearing them took them as absolute reality.
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DiamondMeru
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Re: An interested read

Post by DiamondMeru »

I have severe mental illness of Schizoaffective Disorder which has delusions, and hearing voices. After many years of searching for answers because I believe I have a spiritual affliction of not being in a culture that would teach me to become a shaman. I am relatively stable and highly interested in Buddhism and Hindu mysticism because of the siddhis. I know I am sensitive to others but it is the lack of spiritual guidance that my ideas and hallucinations are seen as illness to Western Psychiatry. I am a college graduate with a B.S. in Psychology but cannot practice due to severe paranoia. I am hoping Buddhism will help me let go of my delusions. This post is very interesting to me, thank you for posting it.
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