Psychologists have launched a study to find out why some people who hear voices in their head consider it a positive experience while others find it distressing.
The University of Manchester investigation – announced on World Hearing Voices Day (Thursday, 14th September) – comes after Dutch researchers found that many healthy members of the population there regularly hear voices.
Although hearing voices has traditionally been viewed as ‘abnormal’ and a symptom of mental illness, the Dutch findings suggest it is more widespread than previously thought, estimating that about 4% of the population could be affected.
Researcher Aylish Campbell said: “We know that many members of the general population hear voices but have never felt the need to access mental health services; some experts even claim that more people hear voices and don’t seek psychiatric help than those who do.
“In fact, many of those affected describe their voices as being a positive influence in their lives, comforting or inspiring them as they go about their daily business. We’re now keen to investigate why some people respond in this way while others are distressed and seek outside help.”
Although the voices heard by psychiatric patients and members of the general population seem to be of the same volume and frequency, the former group tend to interpret the voices as more distressing and negative.
The team believes that external factors such as a person’s life experiences and beliefs may be the key to these differences: for example, the presence of childhood trauma or negative beliefs about themselves could have an affect.
“If a person is struggling to overcome a trauma or views themselves as worthless or vulnerable, or other people as aggressive, they may be more likely to interpret their voices as harmful, hostile or powerful,” said Aylish.
“Conversely, a person who has had more positive life experiences and formed more healthy beliefs about themselves and other people might develop a more positive view of their voices.
“People being treated for hearing voices are usually given medication in an attempt to eliminate the problem. By investigating the factors influencing how voices are experienced we hope to contribute to the development of psychological therapies to help people better understand and cope with their voices.”
A number of the posts i made down towards the bottom of the page have appeared at the top not in the right spot.
Apoloties for being a bit harsh above, but it does get a bit irritating after a while when people wont post and then don’t reply to posts. It comes accross as a bit rude and ungrateful. Anyway, I’d like to hear more comments on what we’ve said and hear about people’s experiences of their voices. Have you had any strange experiences?
How to go to sleep:
Don’t do much activities that use the brain late at night such as computer/text/tv/read
Don’t drink stimulating drinks with caffeine such as tea, coffee, alcahol.
Don’t exercise in the evening.
Don’t try to go to sleep, by trying to relax. The action of trying makes your brain more active.
Don’t dwell on disturbing thoughts.
Drink milk. If you don’t fall asleep after half an hour, drink more as the effect only lasts something like 20 mins.
I find that monotonous sounds put me to sleep, such as the sound of the engine on the bus or under the hair drier. Perhaps tape these and play the sound.
I’m not saying that stalkers and such don’t exist. Someone sends me cookes here to stop me posting and when I delete them, I can post again.
You know coincidences is one thing, but there are penalties for real live stalker, and evidence. Some people have been let off lightly.
I’ve had many odd experiences and coincidences. I remember one time I was in a club and spoke to a man and woman behind the reception desk and then a few minutes later when I walked down a busy shopping street, everyone was a lookalike for that man and woman. Then another time I was on a bus and everyone on the bus, indluding me was wearing all denims. Things like this start to happen a lot when you develop your interest in the ‘super’natural and right brain.
Let us know about your odd experiences folks.
Some people would put all these experiences down to CIA, but there are other alternative explanations, such as demons. i don’t know whether this is true or not, but I heard that spirits can move objects in your room and do other things. Does anyone know if things like astral projection and remote viewing and poltergeist really exist? Another problem is that when you become more right brained, your memory gets worse, so you may forget you put something somewhere and wonder how it got there. But a demon could be another possibility. there are several alternative possibilities apart from the CIA. Like I said below, the more you develop your psychic powers the more you will experience coicidences. You will put all this down to CIA if you aren’t aware of alternatives.
Let us know about your odd experiences folks. So please start posting again.
Some people would put all these experiences down to CIA, but there are other alternative explanations, such as demons. i don’t know whether this is true or not, but I heard that spirits can move objects in your room and do other things. Does anyone know if things like astral projection and remote viewing and poltergeist really exist? Another problem is that when you become more right brained, your memory gets worse, so you may forget you put something somewhere and wonder how it got there. But a demon could be another possibility. there are several alternative possibilities apart from the CIA. Like I said below, the more you develop your psychic powers the more you will experience coicidences. You will put all this down to CIA if you aren’t aware of alternatives.
I think there are other ways to explain many of these things, rather than all being by the CIA. If you know about other alternatives, then you wont be thinking about the CIA so much.
My posts weren’t appearing, so that is why a lot of this stuff has been repeated.
If I really was that kind of CIA agent, I wouldn’t be here telling you you aren’t mad, would I?
Personally I find that most problems are caused by other people. It is hardly surprising when you hear so-called schizophrenics having conspiracy theories about others, because people ARE usually to blame. The kind of people who post here are peaceful folk. Nobody is here attacking posts like you get on many websites by narrowminded bigotted bigheads who call thenselves sane.
I feel that if your body chemistry isn’t right on a certain day, for example if your iron level goes down, that you will attract negative experiences and negative abusive people into your life on those days. It may take a fair bit of effort to avoid such dark souls on those days.
they might be afraid you’ll come at them in the beds with a screwdriver
part of my post got deleted. anyway I was saying that in response to:
“Nobody is here attacking posts “
Huh? would you like me to go over and fix your loose screws?
No. I don’t think that is necessary. Look. This subject is much to important for that.
I was only joking tyler. It’s an Irish thing called banter. Not to be taken literally. Besides readyteddy was me using another username. I was just having some fun. (please nobody tell me I have multiple personality disorder now)
Were you pretending to be him too?
I recommend you reading a series of books called the Celestine prophecy to help you with some of your confusion. It explains how randomness doesn’t really exist. The more psychic you become (or right brained), the more coincidences start to happen in your life and the more odd experiences occur. It’s like if you are seeing or thinking too much about something, you will attract it. Things don’t just always happen randomly like people say. Prayer and quantum theory would correlate with that, but people don’t notice that. Why do so many people believe in prayer and randomness? When these things start to happen to you and you are not aware of what I have said about randomness, then you will start to get suspicious. You will start to wonder why you are always bumping into the same people for example and you will then wonder if these people are stalking you and then if you become really suspicious you will think the worst, that they are CIA agents. There is nothing wrong with you. You are not mad, it’s just that reality isn’t what the popular concensus say it is. It is them who are living in a bubble. You will start to suspect everyone you meet if this becomes really confusing. You may think I’m a CIA agent too now, trying to hide behind a mask, and that I followed you here, but the fact is that it is probably one of those coincidences I mentioned, as to why you may have met me before, and that like minded people tend to go to the same websites anyway. I have had as much confusion as you have and you can see I’m trying to figure all this stuff out too because I do believe that truth is out there. It is unfortunate when there are organisations like the CIA around that arounse people’s suspicious and contribute to people’s suspicions and confusions by the secretive nature of the organisation. And then certain people are drawn to mystery and secrets which only adds to their problem. The CIA probably have a laugh at all these normal guys out there thinking they are spying on them. Would they really be bothered? I guess if you were to pay them a lot of attention, they may start to take an interest in you then and actually wonder if you are a spy.
Tyler, i hope you don’t think I’m a CIA agent. I wouldn’t be telling you you aren’t mad and explaining this stuff if I was that kind of agent. Different people’s opinions differ on this stuff depending on their knowledge. I haven’t looked into this artificial telepathy stuff a great deal or seen the technology. i do think that most of it could probably be developed. I need to see full evidence in order to believe in something, and I’m open to the possibility that this could be done. From talking to other people who hear voices, we tend to think that the voices come from a variety of means, some from your own mind or a spirit and some from mind telepathy with another person and maybe some from artificial telepathy. i can believe that artificial telepathy in the ears could esist, but I need to see more evidence of the artifial mind telepathy to believe it. People tell you you are mad from symptoms like you think people are stalking you, but there are stalkers out there, police reports will show that. Just as a lot of this kind of technology is out there. I know I have stalkers because when I try to post, someone prevents me from and then when I delete my cookies, I can ppost again. I’m told by many I have no stalkers. They are probably just jealous lying folk.
Can I ask if you have a satellite dish? That could be a way for them to send a signal to your house from a long distance. I don’t want this to make you more suspicious, but it may be an idea to get rid of one if you have. I don’t know all that much about this kind of technology and what it can do, but a satellite dish seems more likely than those signals you mentioned coming from a clock tower. Just an idea. Don’t blame me for causing you to get rid of any expensive technnology which may be harmless.
One of the reasons I have in believing there is other causes than the technology, is that I get visual images also, along with voices, whereas it is known that this technology can’t send visual images.
Artificial telepathy can trigger memories and cause visual “abberations”. Sorry about the vocabulary terms but they are important here.
Can it? Well when I was reading about it on the internet, it said that they have not developed the technology for you to see images yet, only voice. Maybe they are voice memories.
At least you respond to my messages tyler. Most people are too scared of what people think, whereas we can do what we like. It is funny because 99% of the population have this problem and they are scared of what people think who also are scared of what other people think. So the only people who’s judgment is worth anything is us. We are the scary folk. Beware!
No problem. My posts aren’t perfectly edited either. I’m aware of some grammar mistakes I’ve made lol. But I agree it is important to give a good impression presentation wise here to add more credibility to your argument and to look more intelligent. It’s often not what you do, but the way that you do it that gets results.
Regarding what you said about Artificial telepathy triggering memories and causing visual “abberations, well the images I see aren’t memory, they are new images, things I hadn’t seen before. Some of them may be the same as before, but most are new.
By the way, it’s your short term memory which is affected when you become more right brained, not long term (which I think is lheld in the brain cells, like a hard disk as opposed to RAM).
If you are having a problem with direction in general, like with a career choice, this could mean that you have too many options available to you. I usually find that prioritising them or really just chosing the one you want to pursue most or first and concentrating on that only works best. Being single minded is usually the best way to achieve a goal, otherwise you become scattered and unfocused.
Rather than be waiting for an attack when you go to bed, you should focus on relaxing yourself. I find that milk helps to relax me and makes me go to sleep quickly after I go to bed. Aparently, if you don’t get enough sleep, this can cause mood swings also.
You would tend to think that schizophrenics are creative thinkers, well from all the press we get that we imagine things, but it may be real. The voices could be telepathy or clair voyance. Parts of your brain get developed that you practice on. So perhaps if you practice creativity, for example, if your job is as a writer or artist, you may begin to hear voices, as this part of your brain is being used. Creative thinking is associated with using the right side of your brain. Right brain use is also associated with memory loss, so therefore, it seems likely that if you practice a creative skill, you will develop a poor memory. There are also foods to avoid that may cause memory loss. Apart from alcahol, I linked a list of things that kill brain cells. As I already said, Omega 3 fish oils help to grow new brain cells as does iodine, both found in fish. I have a list of those foods too. Berries tend to make your memory bad. Your brain cells may be fine, but if you practice creative thinking, you will lessen your ability to access those brain cells. Also if brain cells aren’t used, they may die. It is likely also that the dopamine foods I linked could affect your memory as dopamine is linked to the voices, which seem linked to creative thinking. I’m not really sure about this though, just my thoughts and letting some folks know who were curious about memory.
Here’s a link to a good website I found on improving your memory:
http://www.helpguide.org/life/improving_memory.htm
From what I read on the internet recently, there are a 3 forms of bipolar; one is called manic depression, where the individual experiences episodes of mania, followed by depression, but not always. The next kind is known as hypomania. In this case, the edisodes of mania aren’t quite as extreme, but the depression is worse, and suicide is a risk. The third kind is called a mixed episode.
The symptoms of bipolar are similiar if not one and the same thing as schizophrenia. Both individuals believe they are all powerful at times, so it isn’t surprising when you hear of schizophrenics wondering if they are God or other powerful beings from time to time. Both are delusional (or are they?) The mania experienced is characterised by heightened creativity, which could be the same as the heightened imaginations of schizophrenics. People often use different labels for one and the same thing.
I don’t think there is a difference either between mood swings and one of the degrees of bipolar and pms may fall under one of these categories too.
Now what causes this? All of these conditions may stem from being too right brained, consuming stimulant substances, such as drugs, sugar, caffeine (found in fizzy drinks, tea, coffee, chocolate etc.), A high is frequently followed by a low as a form of balance, so perhaps anything that is stimulating will be followed by a low, even just an activity. By the way, I meant to mention that you shouldn’t give up any food you are on (apart from dangerous stuff like sugar). I know that it said in the article I linked on memory to give up red meat, for example. But, red meat is a good source of iron, and without iron, you can have mood swings and pms. Perhaps consider supplements as an altternative. It is difficult to get your supplements right though. For vitamins to work, other vitimins and minerals are often needed aswell for them to be absorbed.
Drinking milk will help to relax you and go to sleep quickly. A lack of sleep can sometimes cause mood swing I heard.
http://www.nutritionmd.org/health_care_providers/hematology/iron_anemia.html
I was believing it is telepaty,then thought
it to b demons or blackmagic but i’ve heard up to five voices but only onestands out it says its going to kill me and family something bothers my kids &wife at night it make me hear noises in my home cant sleep waiting for attack I see a phyic but all I get is meds that dont work.
http://www.nutritionmd.org/health_care_providers/hematology/iron_anemia.html
sorry, this link wasn’t intended for here. I reposted it above. Further down the page, you will find a reply to your question. For some reason many of my posts aren’t going where I put them.
I have a special talent for killing discussion forums :P
In 2002, the Air Force Research Laboratory patented precisely such a technology: Nonleghal weapon which includes (1) a neuro-electromagnetic device which uses microwave transmission of sound into the skull of persons or animals by way of pulse-modulated microwave radiation; and (2) a silent sound device which can transmit sound into the skull of person or animals. NOTE: The sound modulation may be voice or audio subliminal messages. One application of Voice to Skull is use as an electronic scarecrow to frighten birds in the vicinity of airports. Many mind control victims also have claimed to be harassed by Voice to Skull technologies.
(http://peacepink.ning.com/forum/topics/introduce-v2k-voice-to-skull )
You should probably try to listen to some calming music to relax yourself, rather than be waiting for an attack when you go to bed. I find that milk help to relax me and makes me go to sleep quickly after I go to bed. Aparently, if you don’t get enough sleep, this can cause mood swings also.
Apologies for this reply going under the wrong message. I meant it for the guy above.
Hi Soleil, it’s Tyler Eugene Nelson. Good to hear you! Anyways, there are certain people who cannot, or will not, allow this technology to be the cause of their voices. This technology is simply too much for certain individuals. They would rather believe some mysterious other cause. It is most unfortunate that only the CIA/NSA knows for certain who these individuals are. It takes a confidence that some people just don’t have .I know I am a Ti and I also know why. Thank you for your help . I have posted here before with the same information.
The voices are from the vibration of head and body movement hitting your ears. the thoughts are just the attitude you had about the sound you heard.
I have been having trouble with voices in my head and in my dreams. They are becoming worse which is making school even harder than it already is. It constantly has to do with the struggles of heaven and hell, the idea of sin, and all the “religious” figures such as the antichrist, jesus, the devil, god, angels, demons etc. It is like I am seeing life (and hearing converstations) on multiple levels of existence. It is making me go nuts and I can’t stand it. ……. ugggg mental illness is rough. (at least I am hoping this is what it is)
Wow, that’s wat I’m going thru, everything that happens to me good or bad, I question who’s doing this to me because there is so much evil in this world.
Dont think so sumthing is verbally
attacking me it says it wants to kill me.
In all honesty the psychiatric community needs to find a cure but it won’t happen because a lot this is perpetrated by our own gov’t doing experiments on our citizens. I know people are going your crazy. I used to hear voices in my head and literally started psychologically playing games with them until they admitted about Freemasons, Illuminati, Bilderberg Group, skull & bones, Bohemian Grove etc…. I never in my life read or studed conspiracy theorys before hearing these things. I’m hopeing that people involved will come clean about MK ULTRA and the real side affects of prescription medication, LSD and other hallucinatic narcotics, all ever Alex Jones at prisonplanet.com and infowars.com has information but people are to naive to listen.
True. No joke. My understanding is that it is to change our heirarchy of need. And yes some people are too ignorant, so ergo the constant bombardment with electronic harassment. People would certainly be lazy about if given the choice. Not good that people are so lazy about truth.
What if u have three voices in ur head and they tell u ur alone and people tell u that the voices are not really
Are not really what Brandon?
I read something interesting on another website. It was a form of treatment for people who hear voices. It involved using magnitism on a certain part of the brain. People who tried it, didn’t hear voices for months. I think that’s mainly what the treatment involved.
Sometimes I feel like I am literally and mentally talking to myself on this forum.. I’m not sure why this is, but I may as well continue to talk to myself. I’ve decided to let others also talk to themselves, afterall, we are supposd to be mad here right? Anyway, mad isn’t a nice word, and it is unfortunate that in this day and age there is such a stigma against people with mental illness. People with physical illness get treated with sympathy, but people with mental illness get nothing, they are treated at a subhuman level and cast in the loonie bin.
hi Alice. i would of never entertained a mad chat, b4 i experienced some really out of this world experiences which were externally complicating the issue that made me question reality.. those voices could quite possibly be real, for what reason well never know. im not saying mental illness dosent exist, but i think our governments use these symptoms to orchestrate their own will, under the cover of darkness to the general populas…
Hi there. Hearing voices may come as a byproduct of trying to think outside the box and really be insane, but it does seem real and separate, like it is coming from someone else by telepathy, and these experiences tend to happen to you out of the blue, rather when you are going out of your way to have them and questioning reality. There should be more experiments carried out to see if there is some kind of telepathy involved, but psychiatriests usually ignore what their patients voices are saying and what it really means, probably afraid of going out of business.
i have to see a doctor because my family is worried about me because the voices in my head tell me everyday to kill myself and then show me pictures of what i’ll look like dead i don’t what to do one day i nearly gave in
You should probably stop thinking about death and morbid things and take up a hobby to take your mind off that stuff. You may also feel better if you eat a healthier diet and cut out sugar which causes mood swings. If you get a voice like that, just ignore it. You don’t have to do what they tell you. I’ve managed to turn my voices into the positive and have them working for me, where they now give me advice, suggestions, reminders etc. If you give them positive praise and admiration, they will likely then act that way towards you, because people like being praised.
I wont be answering anymore of your posts. Clearly someone is playing a no-reply game with me under various usernames, and used the suicide card when then saw I hadn’t responded to the last few. Time to grow up and be a bit nicer and kinder like I am.
That’s because you hate my guts.
Me? why would I? I don’t know you. I’ve no idea who any of these people are behind the scenes. You sound likable, but I am a little wary of you after what you said to me in those emails. What I don’t like is people messing with my head and saying one thing on the board and the opposite in emails.
Some people go around in circles and cannot find direction. Could it be there is nothing wrong these people. I noticed Soliel Mavis from Peace Pink. Very special lady and maybe you could talk to her.
I’m not really sure about that re going round in circles. I think that when someone is having a temper tantrum or mood swing, they will go around in circles and not really get anywhere they want to go. But whether this is normal or illness, I’m not fully sure. I’m tending to think that it is illness, an iron deficiency at the time. Soliel Mavis, I noticed that name above. Was that you under another usename? or is she a real person. What does she do and how would I talk to her?
You know what Alice? This situation is negative. The basic problem here is that this technology amplifies human exploits. There are so many people in this world who do not care about truth. In fact my own American government is rather psychotic with it’s rheroric of denial. “Do as I say, not as I do”, as method of operation is the norm. I would hope that there would be someone smarter than my government as a whole. It is a simple problem. People are insecure about truth. So I apologize if I seem stressed. But the fact remains that there is a technology that my own government cannot handle. That is where I come in. A government in denial promotes a society in denial. Okay? Just like a child being reared by a parent with munchausen disorder. My government has failed. By the way, Soliel Mavis is one my favorites. Give her a chance if not me.
Yes Tyler. There is so much confusion out there because more than half the population are lying or denying the truth about these things, or are just ignorant. I’m open minded to the possibility that this technology can be created, but personally, i don’t think it is being used on me. Just from observation. I don’t think the government would be that bothered to listen to so many people’s thoughts 24/7. There wouldn’t be enough people to do all that listening and projecting. And for what purpose? I did scan my room using a device and got no signals coming in. You could try doing a scan while you are hearing voices to check that out. i read that someone said there was evidence this technology existed from redness on someone’s ear while hearing voices, but the redness could be caused by something else. I never hear voices in my ears either. They are only in my mind. Is there any evidence of technology that can do that? There is that sony patent, but is there evidence that it has been developed?
Moderator, would you be able to put a hits counter here or a counter that shows how many people are currently online please?
I saw on another website yesterday, that had similiar content and google ranking to this one, that the viewership was currently over 4000 people online.
Hi Alice. Yes there is see through wall technology. Thing is that satellite technology is what all the fuss is all about. It looks to me that the NSA “RNM”, technology can pick up all kinds of brain activity. The sky’s the limit. This technology is thought to have an infinite “head room”. It simply means that so much can be done with it. Everything our brain does can be monitored using functional MRI. Let’s say I measure your brain activity when you are upset. I find and record that frequency in your brain and reverse it using micowave energy. Your brain would entrained and you would feel that way again. Artificially.
Hi Tyler, I was just referring to the normal walls around a house, and not seethrough walls. Sound waves don’t travel much through outside walls. We know this because it’s hard or impossible to hear inside a house if you are outside. And with double glazing on windows, it should be difficult for these devices to work through windows also. I read that microwaves also can’t penetrate outside walls. I assume because they are waves, they work in a similiar way.
I’ve heard of the infrared technology, but that just shows heat, not other details. Are you talking about other technology than this?
You know Alice. Airport security scanning already shows detailed body imagery. It is so detailed that “stick fiquers” are to used.
Oh, I know about that, I was just talking about technology that can see through the outside wall of a house. I think if this technology existed, the police would use it, because they are often searching for criminals in buildings.
Hi Alice. Your cellphone works through the walls. So would your artificial telepathy. Think “radio waves”, not “acoustic waves”.
Oh, I thought you said it was microwaves for that device. I read that microwaves can’t travel through outside walls. I was just using sound waves as an example to explain this, but if you are talking about mobile phone technology, then yeah, they can travel through walls alright unfortunately. But mpbile phone technology or radio waves can’t do the kind of harm that microwaves can? like what you said in the post at the top of this page can do to you.
thought you said it was microwaves for that device. I read that microwaves can’t travel through outside walls. I was just using sound waves as an example to explain this, but if you are talking about mobile phone technology, then yeah, they can travel through walls alright unfortunately. But mpbile phone technology or radio waves can’t do the kind of harm that microwaves can? like what you said in the post at the top of this page can do to you.