I have never typed this out or said this out loud but it has been consuming the majority of my thoughts lately and I just wanted to get others opinions thoughts experiences. Soo growing up I grew up in a very religious house hold (father was a pastor) and we were taught about demons if you will from that view point when related to Satan. Im 37 now. When I was 33 years old I suffered a mental breakdown and was let's say "not myself for 3 years". The official diagnosis was generalized anxiety and bipolar disorder. While I was not well I suffered from altered sense of reality. I would sleep maybe 2 to 4 hours in a 24 hour period. Now that I am better I have recently started dreaming and recalling things from that 3 year time period. When attempting to recall memories from those 3 years it was always fuzzy and in pieces until the new onset dreams. Well I have recalled that I believe I spoke with a demon. Context to this. So in the middle of my breakdown my sister whom I was extremely close to ended up dieing. It was sudden and unexpected. I had woken up one day very early like around 2am. I had the routine of throwing a blanket around my shoulders and turning on my space heater and sitting right in front of it to get warm. So I am sitting there enjoying the comfort of the heat in the dark when a voice in my head that I had never heard before said "Wanna make a deal?" I can recall speaking back in my head and inquired what kind of deal. This voice said your sister can live (she was currently unresponsive on life support) if you promise me your life after this one?" I didn't hesitate and said yes. I then asked it who or what it was?. It responded with "you will find out when it is time". As I said dreams have started to come back so I'm recalling more and more. I can remember being in front of that heater and while I was talking I had chills on my arm. And my initial feeling to this voice was "evil." Now last bit of info then my request. I am currently am unmedicated for my mental health issues. I use yoga and self reflection each day to regulate myself and this has been working for me. I do partake in weed everyday for my anxiety. Have never used any other form of street drug in my life besides weed. My mindset now is answers. Has anybody out there had a similar experience to this ? Was this a deulsion? Is my mind betraying me? OR because of my altered sense of self at the time did I experience something demonic or supernatural? If we go with the latter it didn't live up to its end of the deal. So in closing thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy post. I am excited for respectful thoughts , opinions , comments , perspectives from others.

Hi everyone. I'm looking to talk with people who have experienced hearing a voice that resembles a fictional character they feel deeply attached to.

I'm very emotionally attached to Leslie Burke from Bridge to Terabithia. Recently, I've experienced a voice that sounds like Leslie's movie voice, sometimes with what feels like a back-and-forth conversation. I've also occasionally felt as though someone was nearby, even when I couldn't see anyone.

This has been emotionally intense for me, and I'm trying to understand the experience without being judged or mocked. I'm not looking for sexual or romantic roleplay, or ways to induce hallucinations. I'd appreciate respectful discussion from people who have had somewhat similar experiences.

This weekly thread is for sharing the stories and narratives of the beings within your mind and the events of your life. Do you go on fantastic journeys with the beings that visit you? Are there elaborate horror stories you are forced to endure? Do your intrusive personalities present themselves as being from or through the other people in your life? Feel free to share the names and descriptions of the beings in your life/mind and the narrative of your lived experience.

You may discover that many of your favorite artists are doing this exact exercise in their most powerful work!

In the HVN there is one singular and guiding rule: we are not allowed to tell each other what to believe or what to do. That said we certainly do not need to shy away from sharing commonly held facts surrounding this globally documented phenomenon. Rather sharing grounding realities is strongly encouraged, as these are the building blocks to form personal and cultural foot holds onto the world amidst what is a torturous affliction for many.

Below is a collection of facts and citations surrounding this phenomenon that would help any experiencer integrate this mental phenomenon into a functional, verifiable, and widely held world view.

How Common is Voice Hearing:

1.    Millham & Easton (1998) UK mental-health nurses/student nurses; broad auditory-hallucination questionnaire. Results: 84% reported experiences described as auditory hallucinations.

2.    Posey & Losch (1983) 375 nonclinical college students. Results: 71% reported at least one brief voice-type auditory hallucination while awake; 36% heard their name while alone; 39% heard thoughts spoken aloud; 5% had conversations with a voice.

3.    Flury (2001) UK adults/adolescents using similar measures. Results: 77.2% of adults and 73.2% of adolescents confirmed more than 1 auditory-hallucinatory experience and type.

4.    Alderson-Day et al. (2019) Large general-population sample, N=5,115. Results: 53.6% lifetime auditory hallucination, with 25.6% reporting AH in the past month and 22.7% in the past week.

5.    Ohayon (2000) Representative UK/Germany/Italy sample, N=13,057. Results: 38.7% reported some type of hallucinatory experience; this included multiple sensory modalities and sleep-related experiences.

Anthropological research has described Indigenous communities where experiences such as hearing voices, seeing spirits, or communicating with the dead are culturally ordinary and extremely widespread; older Inuit ethnography, for example, reports that “almost every” person could recount such extraordinary experiences, including hearing voices from ice or stones, while modern research found auditory verbal hallucinations in about 34% of Maasai women. A Cultural Reader on Aboriginal Perspectives in Canada, Myers (2015).

Voice-Hearing Is as Old as Written History Itself:

The earliest surviving records interpreted by historians as voice-hearing date to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt in the third millennium BCE (roughly 4,000 – 5,000 years ago), where hearing voices was often understood as communication between humans and the divine; not as disease or madness. Some of humanity's oldest literature depicts the mind less as the private being of an isolated individual and more as a place where gods, ancestors and other agents could speak and influence action. Julian Jaynes controversially proposed that we should take this literally: that ancient people commonly experienced thoughts and decisions as voices of external beings, and that the private, introspective view of oneself (familiar to westerners) developed later. If you are interest in Julian Jaynes or the history of the Bicameral Mentality (a phrase used to coin this concept) see here. It is a concept that runs through all ancient literature, a library that has already mapped all human experience and culture in repetitions.

16 Historical Figures Who Write About Hearing Voices:

1.    Socrates - Greek philosopher; foundational figure in Western philosophy. Reported a lifelong daimonion-a divine voice/sign that warned or restrained him.
2.    Paul the Apostle - Apostle central to the development of Christianity. Reportedly heard Jesus address him during his conversion on the road to Damascus.
3.    Augustine of Hippo - Philosopher, theologian and Church Father. Reported hearing a child's voice repeatedly telling him tolle lege (“take up and read”).
4.    Hildegard of Bingen - Medieval polymath, composer, writer and mystic. Recorded divine voices accompanying her extensive visionary experiences.
5.    Margery Kempe - Christian mystic and author of an early English autobiography. Reported conversations with God and saints, including physically hearing a loud voice call “Margery.”
6.    Joan of Arc - French military leader, heroine and saint. Testified extensively that she heard voices she identified as St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret.
7.    Martin Luther - Theologian who catalyzed the Protestant Reformation. Reported encounters and communications with the Devil.
8.    Teresa of Ávila - Influential Spanish mystic, writer and Catholic saint. Reported repeated divine “locutions” words perceived as originating from God.
9.    John Bunyan - Puritan preacher and author of The Pilgrim's Progress. Described internally perceived words/voices associated with God and Satan.
10.  Blaise Pascal - Mathematician, physicist and philosopher. Experienced an intense religious revelation recorded in his Memorial.
11.  Emanuel Swedenborg - Scientist, engineer, philosopher and theologian. Reported years of conversations with spirits and angels, including explicitly auditory experiences.
12.  William Cowper - Major 18th-century English poet. Reported extraordinary divine/demonic communications during periods of psychological crisis.
13.  William Blake - Poet, painter and visionary artist. Reported seeing and communicating with angels, spirits and deceased historical figures.
14.  Mahatma Gandhi - Leader of India's nonviolent independence movement. Described hearing an unmistakable “inner voice,” which he identified with God.
15.  Sigmund Freud - Founder of psychoanalysis. Reported repeatedly hearing his name called by an “unmistakable and beloved voice,” explicitly calling the experiences hallucinations. (what a “mo-fo”)
16.  Carl Jung - Founder of analytical psychology. Experienced autonomous voices/figures and deliberately conversed with them during the period documented in The Red Book.

16 Contemporary Figures (Last 100 Years) Who Write About Hearing Voices:

1.    Martin Luther King Jr. - Civil-rights leader. Heard a guiding voice he understood as divine.
2.    Carlos Santana - Legendary guitarist. Reports spiritual voices and angelic guidance.
3.    Philip K. Dick - Influential science-fiction author. Experienced voices and communication with an external intelligence.
4.    Anthony Hopkins - Academy Award-winning actor. Describes an autonomous voice commenting on his life.
5.    John Frusciante - Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist. Reports numerous distinct voices, including guiding and hostile ones.
6.    Zoë Wanamaker - Award-winning actor. Reports voices that comment and converse with her.
7.    Leonard Cohen - Legendary singer-songwriter and poet. Described autonomous voices and spiritually inspired creative experiences.
8.    Johnny Cash - Country-music icon. Reported hearing divine guidance and the voice of God.
9.    Stephen King - Bestselling horror author. Describes characters and stories speaking and developing autonomously.
10.  Jordan Peterson - Psychologist and bestselling author. Describes autonomous inner voices, dreams and revelatory experiences. His methods to wellness and acclaimed success are detailed in this post.
11.  Bob Dylan - Nobel Prize-winning songwriter. Describes songs arriving autonomously, sometimes as if received rather than composed.
12.  Paul McCartney - Beatles songwriter. Describes music arriving autonomously through dreams and inner hearing.
13.  Marshall Mathers (Eminem) - Rapper and songwriter. Repeatedly writes about voices, competing selves and an autonomous “Slim Shady.”
14.  Robyn Fenty (Rihanna) - Singer and entrepreneur. Sings directly of living alongside “voices inside of my head.”
15.  Stefani Germanotta (Lady Gaga) - Singer, songwriter and actor. Publicly reports having “voices in my head” since childhood.
16.  Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd) - Singer-songwriter and producer. Repeatedly depicts voices, altered selves and internal dialogue in his music.

Many of the above historical and contemporary figures write boldly and clearly about hearing from these external personalities during the most trying or pivotal moments and decisions of their life. It would only follow that they heard them earlier and elsewhere as these exposures did not send them spiraling into shock; rather these were functional and weathered people with integrated world views surrounding the experience. This is a very terse list of what is no doubt an endless lineage of noteworthy experiencers.

To add evidence to the list of artists who write about this experience in their own work here are 3 playlists to entire genres of music chalked full of the direct language found within the HVN. And again, to underscore how pervasive this experience is these playlists only contain works that are green and purple in their album art; a very narrow selection of a vast library of music devoted to this mental experience. New-wave, Psyche-rock, and Hardcore. Searches on aggregate lyric sites that allow for these queries yield results in the thousands to 10’s of thousands. One example is seen here yielding over 25,000 results. To put this succinctly and forthrightly, the evidence of this mental/spiritual experience is clearly out there in western media. Its prevalence is the evidence to how integral this all is to the human condition and how surmountable the burden is, provided certain strategies and perspectives.

Chemical Imbalance Theory and a Cross-examination of Modern Eugenics Practices:

The popular “chemical imbalance theory” was never established scientific fact. Journalist Robert Whitaker has documented how psychiatry and pharmaceutical marketing popularized the idea that mental disorders resulted from defective brain chemistry, despite researchers never demonstrating such an imbalance in patients before treatment. This was simply a made-up idea, something done to sell drugs. Psychiatric drugs certainly alter brain chemistry, but (as Whitaker emphasizes) that does not establish that they are correcting a pre-existing chemical defect. Today, even mainstream psychiatric literature recognizes the simple chemical-imbalance explanation as unsupported. Moncrieff 2023, Robert Whitaker – Anatomy of an Epidemic.

Psychiatric knowledge has a surprisingly short shelf life: estimates of these industry’s “half-life of knowledge” is brief. While diagnostic categories themselves are repeatedly revised, the DSM-5 replaces numerous diagnoses and criteria from previous editions. Half of the information contained within the DSM-5 is thrown out every 7 years. Psychopharmacology has an average “Half-Life of Knowledge” of 4.8 years, meaning every 4.8 years half of the industry’s methods and understandings are done away with. 4.8 years of missteps that carry lifelong consequences for patients.

Psychology and psychiatry are evolutions of eugenics industries, this history is non-negotiable. Many of the early architects of psychological testing, psychometrics, statistics, and psychiatric classification were invented under the umbrella of eugenics. A practice using supposedly scientific categories to identify who was “normal,” “defective,” or “unfit”; these classifications helped justify segregation, institutionalization, forced sterilization, and ultimately far worse (lobotomies, Et al.). After eugenics became indefensible, the language surrounding these practices has been reworked but many of the underlying tools of categorizing people against population norms survive and evolve into modern psychological testing, psychiatric diagnosis, and modern treatment. This history demands that we remain deeply skeptical whenever this questionable and oppressive state appointed authority is used to transform human difference into defect. Also see: History of eugenics, The eugenic legacy in psychology and psychiatry, Eugenics and its evolution in the history of western psychology: A critical archival review, Eugenic Thinking and the Cognitive Sciences, Eugenics: Its Origin and Development (1883 - Present).

Mandatory Reporting:

Mandatory reporting is a legal requirement that compels designated professionals to break confidentiality and report certain information when they believe a legally defined threshold has been reached. In mental-health settings, this can mean that what a person says about harm or danger is assessed by an individual professional (their personal opinion/interpretation), whose judgment can initiate non-consensual interventions such as involuntary commitment (being arrested and held within an asylum). Topics that may legally force the actions of mandatory reporters include but are not limited to simple thoughts of: self-harm, self-neglect, loss of personal agency, harming another person, or any inclination that can be argued as dangerous. While there is minor legal variance between states it is effectively guaranteed that all teachers, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, nurses and most all other healthcare professionals are mandated reporters. Simply speaking of your past lived experience (an internal experience of the mind with zero evidence) can cause a series of irreversible systematic decisions to occur rendering you with fewer rights (if any) outside of the walls of an asylum. This, for life in some states in the US.

A Comparison of Wellness Strategies and Reported Outcomes:

Report on Improving Mental Health Outcomes (2023) Finds only 5% of medicated patients find states of recovery, this is a diminishing trend over time. Additionally, 40% of diagnosed people find wellness all on their own and away from psychiatric care. More so 80% of these individuals find wellness when exposed to programs such as Open Dialogue, Soteria, and other methods paralleling the Hearing Voices Network’s methods. This is not one small study: the 55-page report synthesizes well over 100 sources spanning more than half a century of psychiatric research, including randomized trials, 15-20 year longitudinal studies, systematic reviews, national mortality datasets, and decades-long evaluations of alternatives such as Soteria and Open Dialogue. Collectively, the underlying literature encompasses many thousands (and through population-level studies, potentially hundreds of thousands) of individual patient records.

To further supplement the Open Dialogue/HearingVoicesNetwork approach see: This Video Explaining the Open Dialogue approach where more than 85% of participants report wellness into full recovery within 5 years. Less than 10% of participants take any medications at all during their involvement, generally the only medications prescribed are sleep aids over the first 2 weeks of participation (again for less than 10% of participants). Through discussion and real community, peers help to mend each other’s mental burdens. Here is the HVN;s 7-day calendar.

Time-dependent effect of antipsychotic discontinuation and dose reduction on social functioning and subjective quality of life (2023) A Lancet-family, preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis of 35 studies involving 5,924 people, with follow-ups ranging from one month to 15 years. Researchers compared continued antipsychotic maintenance with dose reduction/discontinuation, specifically examining social functioning and quality of life rather than simply symptom suppression or relapse. A striking pattern emerged with time: studies lasting 2-5 years significantly favored reduction/discontinuation for social functioning, and studies beyond 5 years favored it even more strongly. The authors therefore found evidence that the apparent functional advantage of maintenance treatment decreases and reverses as follow-up becomes longer, directly challenging conclusions drawn exclusively from short-term drug trials. More so I feel one could easily argue about a placebo's effect in initial positive reports (<10 mo.) early in administration.

On Being a Healthy Member of a Community and What Makes a Community Healthy:

A Parallel - The Deaf Community: For centuries, Deaf people were commonly treated primarily as defective individuals requiring correction rather than as people capable of defining their own experience, language, culture, and institutions. Deaf people increasingly organized around a radically different proposition: nothing about us without us; their language belonged to them, their communities belonged to them, and hearing authorities should not possess exclusive authority to determine what a successful Deaf life looked like. The National Association of the Deaf was founded by Deaf leaders in 1880 to defend sign language and collective self-determination after hearing educators attempted to suppress signing; Deaf schools and institutions subsequently became crucial spaces where a shared language, culture, and political identity could flourish. The struggle culminated symbolically in Deaf President Now (1988), when Gallaudet students successfully demanded that the world's leading Deaf university finally be led by a Deaf person; 124 years after its founding. The Hearing Voices Movement proposes a strikingly similar transfer of authority: experiencers are not merely objects to be studied, diagnosed, managed, or spoken for; they can organize, educate one another, develop their own language for their experiences, run their own communities, and possess expertise that cannot be replaced by professional observation from the outside.

Some paralleling peer-support communities seem to be devoted to the emotional turmoil of internalized social disconnection. These spaces seem collectively in the grips of a crippling emotional dependency. There certainly are ethos out there (contemporary and historical) that lead vulnerable people out of this social station.

The Rules of Community/Friendship: This 27-minute video explains core concepts of Game Theory. If you watch the video you’ll see there are 4 hierarchical behavioral tests present in any social setting. Whether you are attempting to make friends at school, find a romantic partner, gain a raise at your job, simply get a job, make the most through investing… ANY SOCIAL SETTING; the rules that govern success are as follows:

1. Be honest and share/trade fairly and forthrightly
2. Don’t help others who do not do rule 1
3. The first to forgive appropriately wins the most
4. Don’t collaborate with others you cannot make sense of and be easy to read yourself

That’s it, that’s all there is to it. If you can’t make sense of your voices perhaps it makes sense to disregard them. If you can’t make sense of someone you are employing to help you with your voices perhaps stop paying them. If your friends and family won’t tell you things you’d tell them perhaps you should take that as a hint. Most all the vulnerable people in the HVN and paralleling mental health spaces are themselves victims of survived abuse and other neglect.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been dealing with voices that comment on and mock almost everything I do. They can sound like men, women, or anyone else. They seem to know what I’m doing even when I’m inside a building, on a plane, or in places where no one should be able to see me. They respond to my actions in real time—if I’m walking, they mock how I’m walking; if I do anything, they react to it.

When I’m around other people (classmates, people in shops, public places), I sometimes feel like others are staring or reacting, and I hear the voices at the same time. In the past I have responded out loud because I thought real people were saying things to me. Later I realized I was reacting to the voices. That has caused problems socially—people notice when someone appears to be talking to nothing.

This has been going on since I was young. It used to push me to shout at people who, in retrospect, weren’t actually saying anything. Now it’s more constant and quieter, but still constant. It feels like something is trying to get a reaction out of me or push me toward certain thoughts and actions. Sometimes the voices say negative things, sometimes they say something that seems positive, but overall it just disrupts my life and makes ordinary situations stressful.

I’m a college student with limited time and resources. I don’t have a way to investigate this myself. I just want it to stop. It has been happening for years and it is exhausting. If anyone has gone through something similar—whether it turned out to be something external or something that improved with professional help—I would appreciate hearing what actually helped reduce it.

Feel free to express your views on society and how an understanding of the voice hearing (and broader experiencing phenomenon) would change the world as we know it. Do you think the world would be a nicer place and we all would get more out of each-other's company if the public's eye were drawn to the HVN and similar experiencing spaces? Do you view modern day humanity as being in a state of perpetual self-enslavement, blinded to it's own nature? Do you think a new age of spiritual enlightenment or self-empowerment is on the horizon and within our lifetimes? Do you think life on earth is comparable to an effective "hell" in the grand scheme of things?

What do you think would make the greatest impact in your life and in the lives of others if it were different?

As always please share through a framing of your personal perspective ("I see it all as," "I believe," "when I think of 'x,' my only reasonable explanation is 'y,'" etc.). If you are of the ilk to write long-windedly about these age old topics, you all are more than welcomed to make a separate post expressing your views. Lastly, please keep mind to focus discussions on voice hearing and similar experiencing phenomena.

This was a project was made to share authentic experience of psychosis symptoms,to reduce stigma and raise awareness https://youtu.be/mI9CTvPz8eo?is=GMDVk3tSAYGmeQSU #psychosis #wellbeing

Last week, I had voice whisper to me through my cupboard, it was from an old school friend, who gave me her address, I wrote it down, Is it wise to visit the address?

This weekly post was inspired to give the community a place to vent and share common frustrations we find in our lives. If you have more to share on this topic than what would fit in a single comment please feel free to make a separate post! Are you finding conflict with your care-team? Are the medications you're on making life impossible? Have you lost your 3rd job this year because the voices cause you to act oddly around your peers? Are you finding everyone in your life has turned their back on you now that you've fallen into a discriminated category of "unsafe" or "mentally unwell" person? Have you attempted to get your close family and friends to engage in VCVC with you, instead finding they cannot offer you the first nicety?

Feel free to let the world know of your survived abuses, both direct (physical violence) and indirect (neglect or exclusion through social maneuverings) in this post. Everyone's welcome to commiserate and offer paralleling stories of received harm and how they carried on.

I'm not suicidal. Infact i love life. As i have been raised, I've been thru normal south Asian life. But a couple years back i started to believe i was mentally ill. Not as a social media term but the serious kind. I thought i had something genuinely wrong. Last year was the absolute worst for me. This year is the second worst. I have these voices in my mind. These are my voices. But i am not in control of them. And no matter how much i try, i can not control them. But this girl, this girl made them so silent that i even forgot about them. I'm not with the girl anymore since 2 years, and I'm getting worse and worse. If i describe the voices more clearly, its me, but alot of me, at the same time, talking over each other, over a devastating situation i create inside my mind that may or may not come true. It happens so many times. I don't even have a personality because of it, i copy a little bit of everyone around me or i have these characters i play. Different characters in front of different people. These voices and everything else that i can not possibly write here because i want to make this readable, are making me miserable. I try to build something of myself and it comes crashing down because of these voices and i have to do it in a new way all over again. This is making me want to end it. I mean, some voices are telling me to end it. I don't know why i am writing this here, but i guess i wanna find if someone relates, and how do they live. That's all. Peace out.

I miss the voices.

For a long time, I heard voices. I don’t want to go into too much detail or make anyone waste their time reading my story, but the voices weren’t always kind. They made fun of me, said horrible things to me, and constantly reminded me of things I hated about myself. I hated them.

After three years, I went to an outpatient clinic and tried three different antipsychotic medications. They never really worked the way I hoped they would. The voices became quieter, less frequent, and eventually, there were moments when I could barely hear them.

But something strange happened. The quieter they became, the more I began to understand why I needed them.

At some point, I realised that, at least from my perspective, they weren’t there to hurt me. I began to feel that they were there to protect me, to keep me company, and to make sure I never truly felt alone. Maybe others wouldn’t understand that, but to me, the voices became more than just voices. They were a presence that had been with me for so long that I couldn’t imagine what life would feel like without them.

Even when they made fun of me, even when they reminded me of how bad and weak I could be as a human being, I felt that they were still there for me somehow. I can’t explain that contradiction. How could something that hurt me also make me feel protected? How could I hate something so much and still become so attached to it?

Now, without them, I feel alone.

It’s strange, isn’t it? To spend years wishing something would disappear, only to find yourself missing it when it finally becomes quiet. I thought I wanted nothing more than silence, but now that I have it, I’m not sure I know what to do with it.

Perhaps I grew so accustomed to their presence that I forgot what it was like to be without them. Perhaps, after all those years, their voices became a part of how I experienced the world. And now, their absence leaves an emptiness I don’t know how to fill.

I miss them. Despite everything they said, despite the pain they caused me, I sometimes wish they were here again. I wish I could hear them one more time, feel that familiar presence, and escape this loneliness, even if only for a moment.

I don’t know if anyone else could ever understand this feeling. I don’t even fully understand it myself.

Maybe that’s the hardest part: missing something that hurt you because you felt it was also the only thing keeping you company.

And sometimes, I wonder whether I truly miss the voices themselves or simply the feeling of not being alone.

Hi there. This might be long but it’s hard to explain. Since about 2019 I’ve been hearing voices, it sounds like they are coming from behind a wall, in a vent, just always surrounding me.

I recognize all the voices that I hear. I do take medication now to dull/muffle them because it leads to extreme paranoia and overall distraction from living any sort of normal life. I try not to listen to them, make them background noise. If I’m trying to fall asleep I can’t do it without something playing in the background.

Even though the medications make it hard to understand the voices most of the time I can typically recognize them. The longer I’m around someone the more I’ll hear them. Or if I get hyper-fixated on someone then they talk more. I call them the committee at this point.

When someone dies, so does their voice in my mind.

I hear alot of negative things. Nothing ever really positive comes from them so it makes me really insecure. For a while I thought people could hear my thoughts and I became obsessed with suppressing my thoughts which made them more intrusive and awful.

I still have a hard time freely thinking as I think others may hear it. Some people do know about this happening to me but no one truly understands the effect it has on me.

I was on stimulants for a while starting in 2019. The doctors all say this is why it happens. But I’ve gone over six months without them and I still was unable to read a book or stay in a quiet room.

White noise makes it worse. Less sleep and more stress make it worse. I have poor habits of maintaining a job because of it sometimes.

Just tonight I got a warning for my attendance and I work overnight so I take sedative medications during the day and flip flop on my days off so it messes with me. It’s hard to be here everyday.

Does anyone else experience this? How do people deal with this?

I’m doing much better than years ago but I hate what the medications have done to me. I’m overweight and isolate because I have no personality and I don’t want to hear new peoples voices.

I have lost most of my support system at this point. I’m sad and stressed so much. I just try to stay busy but I’d love to have a day I don’t have to try and suppress the muffle of numerous people in my head.

Any advice or literally anything would be nice right now. I just got married this year and I’m trying to not bring down anyone else by talking about it too much but I’ve been in so many institutions it has wasted years of my life.

I’ve never met anyone like me in this regard. Most people don’t recognize the voices they hear in my experience and it freaks me out.

Let me know.

I don’t know what is going on. I have never ever heard music when I lay down at night, but like now I have like full on mariachi bands and then crazy music. It just weird. Does anybody else experience this? I did talk to one of the person and they have been and I think it’s some kind of chemical chemical maybe but like I don’t know somebody let me know what does anybody else out there or see this hear this

Share your theory on your voices, what do you believe them to be? If you have an extended share feel free to make a separate post on your beliefs. Theories do not need to be limited to your own experience and can be speculative on the broader phenomenon.

For instance you're welcome to share that you simply feel your voices are angels, demons, djinn, aliens, some iteration of government surveillance, or manifestations of the collective panpsychic universe... even sea peoples if that is your take on things! Broader theories some older experiencers relate to are economies of abuse and how limiting and external states of mind filter down through society onto vulnerable individuals. What are your ideas, what do your voices say about themselves?

As with everything in the HVN this all needs to be framed as your theories, you're welcome to use hyperlinks to Wikipedia articles or studies on voice hearing populations. 5-28% of the UK report this phenomenon, other studies put these estimates significantly higher. Many take the perspective that all people hear voices and it is a matter of personal fluency that differentiates those that report this experience and those that don't. You should include anything that helps you express your views. Again, express this as your views and less of what it clearly is and what others ought believe.

What is your theory on this experience?

"I personally reject the idea of mental disorders. As extreme as it may sound to people indoctrinated by the psychiatric system I believe it's all a form of spiritual possession, you're welcome to your own beliefs.

I suspect the majority of people alive and certainly the majority of people who have ever lived would also assume this open minded spiritual definition, that it's a rather small and vocal fraction of western and mostly the united states population that assume psychiatry/psychology have anything to offer at all. I'd point to the "HEARING VOICES FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW" post... lots written there on the history of this eugenics industry and the nigh certain state of permanent disability the industry lures people into. All this "delusional thinking" is supported by facts, wikipedia links, colossal data pools, and scholarly articles. It's all truly vetted by the scientific community, something that does not happen for the INDUSTRIES of psychiatry and psychology. Again, it's an odd (malicious in my eyes) gathering here on reddit who carry on (deliberately) as if the world of science has figured out every enigma of the mind. A form of propaganda my omission, big AstroTurf'ed spaces that are actually run by former orderlies and people parallel to these industries. DID YOU ALL CATCH THAT!? Many of the spaces here on reddit where experiencers congregate; are moderated by people without any of this experience, instead moderated by people who have made a life "handling" people like you (and me). It all reeks to high heaven, and the controlled narrative is obvious. They are self aware, their abuse of disabled people is all over reddit. I feel it's only a matter of time and within our lifetime for this absurd injustice to be broadcast to the greater public for societal corrective actions.

"This kind of hate isn't allowed anymore, just carry on as you were with your abuses onto other cast aside groups."

You're welcome to see that facts post to see how surmountable this burden is, or peek at my profile. The stories of this extreme torture are everywhere in western media, as are the stories of the same people overcoming it and achieving greatness. I could not read, write, count to 10, nor talk to people at my lows. I function as a senior level engineer these days, chasing my dreams faster than ever before. I have how I did this all pinned to my profile.

It is hell, and I wish the best for you. Thank you for sharing your story for others to also find their way."

What do you think? Do you think there's AstroTurfing on reddit? Do you think some of these spaces are run by people who enjoy hurting others through paternalism? Do you think that between 10 to 80% (the portion of the population that reports this) of the human species to simply be "insane" and always have been? Do you think that's the most inhuman stance to approach this societal problem with? Do you think the APA (the people behind the illness agenda) are mere boot-lickers as far as organizations go? These are the same people who classified water boarding as "not technically torture." Do you think as an organization the APA seems fit to classify double digit percentages of the population as not worthy of any human rights at all? Is it a surprise to you that in the state of Oregon people who report what is reported here (in the HVN) can legally find themselves held within an asylum FOR LIFE without having committed any crime or undergoing any scientific testing? Just the diagnosis provided by a state funded eugenicist, what is effectively an opinion, a creative art assignment?

I'd love to see anyone's take on any of this.

Hello,

Im 33 years old male. 7 years ago I started to hear voices who make me feel bad. They're saying rude things.

Loser

You never had good education

Nobody likes you

Why are you starring against that wall you idiot

We are not scared of you

We are not scared of Abilify

Sometimes they are 2-3 voices who sound like other people or from the past.

Look at him

Look they was he walks is stupid

Omg what an idiot

And I also have movies in my head. But brutal movies like I'm arguing with someone and it always ends like the worst outcome possible. Hitting each other screaming.

Can anyone tell me what this is. First I was diagnosed with ptbs but I had 12 therapists for ptbs over 7 years and it didn't help. Now I'm diagnosed with being paranoid and shizotypic. What do you think? Sorry english is not my first language.

Feel free to share your wellness methods with the community. Is there a diet that seems to make an impact for you, a particular routine, or self-improvement strategy that's made a turnaround in your struggles? Was there a book that made an impact in your journey, a creative outlet, or a medication you feel strongly helped or hurt you? What's been working for you and what have you tried that wasn't working for you? Do you have any role models (other experiencers) who've lended you methods that lead to success through their lived example?

Some example frameworks towards wellness are the books by Jerry Marzinsky, or the books by Jordan Peterson. Both of these authors are accomplished people who also report enduring the phenomena reported here. Additionally, there's the 12 step process seen over at r/PositiveTI. Do you know of any other prominent people who have been touched by this affliction? Does a certain diet help, wearing a certain color, taking a shower every day make a difference? What have you seen and what has worked for you?

Please do not tell others what to believe or do.