b

For me as a therapsit, either B or L, depending upon the individual. I would say that the important variable is the level of suffering, and it's very likely a continuum, not an either-or. Despite the many people who seem to gain from hearing voices, the majority of my clients are suffering deeply and benefit from looking at it as an illness that can be dealt with. That said, I do have some clients whose voices start out as abusive and become supportive or at least non-disruptive.

I believe my voices are: B - a part of myself K - God I don't believe saints and prophets were schizophrenic. I believe that God is omnipresent and did not stop talking to people once the Bible/Koran and other holy books were written. I have had 2 distinct experiences with the voice of God. One is a constant, calming conversation. The other, a thundering revelation. I talk to a voice that is akin to someone whispering in my right ear. I cannot remember a time when it was not there. I consider it the voice of God. Calm, still, small. IT is always there but I have to pay attention. We talk. This voice often tells me things that I, Niki, cannot know. You could call it psychic intuition, but it is more than just that. It is very specific and very accurate. It gives me directions when I am lost. It gives me insights into other's issues/character. As a child, It told me how to save someone's life and kept me calm. Sometimes people ask me questions and this voice gives me answers. It sometimes directs me to say stuff to certain people. I feel really stupid but I say it anyway. Often these words mean nothing to me...but the people sure do. This psychic voice is not mine. Once I heard the voice of GOD differently. It came as an answer to a personal question. It thundered and I found myself drenched in tears. It was an ecstatic experience. I was comforted and challenged by the answer. It clarified all questions. It was not interactive. My voices are not due to some illness. There is no paranoia. To label all voices as brain dysfunction by those who don't hear voices stigmatizes the hearers and pushes it in under the rug. I personally consider it a gift.

I think that the voices I hear are other people that hear voices themselves. In other words, "People that hear voices, hear each other's voice's and do not know it." I've done some research, and found anomolous communication - I suggest you try looking that up in a medical dictionary. My spelling may be a little off. That's exactly what I think my voices are - basically all of us have extra sensory perception - just it's more intense with some of us. I find that medication does help in lowering thier volume level, but who wants to take meds? not me. I find that if I simply don't think about it - it simply just stays as a constant ringing in my ears. Now I can barely hear them, and only if I try to concentrate on what they're saying. They always seem to be there, but there's no point to trying to listen to them. I agree with Niki, I personally consider it as a gift as well. I noticed that I have the ability to really be able to read someone - even before speaking to them. Call it psychic ability or whatever you want - but I experience that all the time with different people. I notice that when the voices were loud and intense - that ability to "psychically connect" with someone is much greater. It really appears to be mind blowing at times. I get a feeling about a person - or better yet, some obscure subject matter comes to mind (not from the voices, but from my own thoughts) - and it always seems to happen that the obscure subject is usually something that the other person is greatly interested in - and we go and talk about whatever came up for hours. I can't accept the fact that the medical industry defines voices as simply "auditory hallucinations" - I even hear the direction from wich the voices come from (regardless of what direction I am facing, they are consistent in their direction of the source). For instance, a women's voice, call her voice #1, will always be heard coming from South East of me. And if I travel 5 hours south of home, her voice change's direction respectfully, e.g. the source then comes from North East. I also believe some of the voices in my realm are also spirits - not many, but some.

My mother was paranoid schizophrenic, but not violent. Her sister, also schizophrenic, would, from time to time, climb a tree with a rifle and shoot at neighbors. So I decided that I would not heed voices that told me 1) who needed killing, or 2) that I was "He whose name is hallowed." Really there is no reason I can think of to heed every voice, embodied or disembodied. That said, there are two different types of "voices" I hear. One is simple telepathy, hearing another's thoughts. This happened to me infrequently until I met my Sufi teacher, with whom telepathy was a normal mode of discourse. Anyone who reads the book "The Conscious Universe" will realize there is indisputable scientific evidence for Psi powers. There's even evidence pointing to the fact that the reason most of us don't experience telepathy is that it's just below the threshold of conscious awareness. Once you learn that not every thought that passes through your mind is your own, you begin to experience telepathy. For instance, I was writing an assignment down on the board just before lunch when I started thinking of Chinese food. This seemed strange as I had had a big breakfast and was not hungry. I turned around and said, "Okay, who is thinking about Chinese food?" A female student in the front row raised her hand. A second type is a voice from another dimension. I shared an apartment in San Francisco with a ghost who woke me one morning by whispering my name in my left ear. Another morning I woke up to a voice that said, "You are from another dimension, you are not from here." The so-called paranormal is normal for me because it is neither more nor less important to me than any other type of experience.

E People I used to know, as a punishment for talking about them they have come to get me in the only way they can

I HAVE BEENED DIALED INTO A SPLIT DEMENSION OR WHO THE HELL OR HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT FOR SOME TIME NOW,I HAVE SEEN AND HEARD OTHERS IN CONVERSATION,I AM NOT NUUUUUUUTS 43 AND LIVED A LIFE THAT I WOULD LIVE AGAIN,ALTHOUGH IT WOULD BE A LONG RUN,RETIRED,MAKING EVERY PENCE ON MY OWN ......IT IS REAL WE ARE TOO NEW INTO THESE UNIVERSES ,WE ARE JUST LITTLE HUMAN BEINGS JUSTIFIENG OUR EXISTENCE,MEDICAL PROOF THRU'OUR OWN DEMESTICATION V.S LIGHT YEARS OF CREATIONS,C'MON...........AND I KOW MY SPELLING STINKS.................ACCEPTANCE OF WHY IT IS NOT OF WHY IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE..........MATEO'

as far as my experience in concerned I would say A; B; and J. does anybody know the result of this poll? I would be very interested in knowing other people answers on it. thanks

A and J. I have been hearing voices for over 10 years. The first was my mother after she died. The others have been very wise and helpful and I call them spirit guides. Although I am not really sure what they are, I have on occasion asked for outside 'proof' of their existence and they have managed to show me that they exist by making events occur exactly as I had asked them (no...not to win lotto!). They were simple things that affected no one else but me. 'Divine intervention'? Whatever the voices are, they have the ability to do more than simply 'talk'.

I believe my voices were the manifestation of temporal lobe epilepsy which is considered to be a medical condition but NOT mental illness. The voices came on during an 11 day introduction to a doctoral program. They made it difficult to do my doctoral work. It took a year to get a good diagnosis, but one I had it, I consulted the scientific literature to see if a diet was available. Indeed, fasting and very high fat diets have been used to treat 'seizures' for millenia. Being in the field, I was able to calculate a very precise (to the gram) set of recipes for an 80% fat diet. The voices disappeared within four days. The diet is very dire. Basically, the body is starving in a state of severe ketosis. Children can stay on the diet for two years after which a great number never experience a seizure again. I was only able to stay with it for a few months because the side-effects are severe. However, that was enough to stop the voices and allow me to resume my studies. The frequent supervision of a supportive trained health care professional is essential to trying this diet. Extreme discipline is required to measure absolutely every gram of food. A deviation can trigger a seizure. Now, I eat an unrefined vegan diet which keeps my thinking very stable and highly productive. If I feel like the voices are creeping back, I increase the oil in my food for a day or so. I feel like I have unusually good intuition. I am often on target in developing approaches to people. I have a great deal of creativity in my field of research in refined food addiction. In fact, if a reader would like to gainexperience with controlling the volume and intensity of the voices through diet, eliminating refined foods and seeing what's left would be one approach. Joan Ifland joan@sugarsandflours.com

There is a lot of research about nutrition and hearing voices. The Orthomolecular approach has many advocates and has helped lots of people. It is definately well worth looking into. Vtamin B5, and zinc are often recommended. getting the body into balance. If the body is out of balance it can effect the mind. Regards Adrienne

A friend who claimed not to hear voices once commented to me upon my revealing to him that I heard voices and that i was wondering whether it might be God. That I should consider that it might just be some "white boys with some Hi-Tech equipment." Thirty years later I have ascertained that some of them are.

A friend who claimed not to hear voices once commented to me upon my revealing to him that I heard voices and that i was wondering whether it might be God. That I should consider that it might just be some "white boys with some Hi-Tech equipment." Thirty years later I have ascertained that some of them are. I recall that once after listening to some rather loud music a comment was made that" they had to listen to listen to me on headphones".

B and E. Mainly B

I truly believe the positive voices i hear are that of the Spirit world...the deceased...as i have evidence of this. I also believe in Spirit guides...I work with mine. Finally, I know I am telepathic, as I have personal friends who also possess this gift and we have shared face to face about our telepathic conversations. I consider it to be a gift. Also, without medication I come into darker, more persecuting voices which are managed with the meds.

I have been hearing voices for the past two weeks. This is my first experience hearing them, in response to the poll, I believe that it is several answers (b, e, l).

1. Occultism - 'black magick', made by other real and living people. F B-L

I can't actually recall when I first began "hearing voices". Mine are primarily that a voice sounds "out loud" to me, as if someone was within hearing distance for me; i.e., as if in the same or connecting room, and actually spoke to me, to the point where I answer back and then go to look for the person/voice who spoke, only to find no one is there. This happens to me mostly at night, before or as going to sleep, but also when I'm awake and doing something. In this particular method, it's never been bad, just startling, even after all these years, it 'catches me off guard', but never been really "scared". It used to be my Mother mostly, just calling me, but now not so much anymore (she died 15 years ago). Most recently, it was my daughter, with whom I have a strong bond (not stifling), but she wasn't there when I heard her call out. Sometimes I can faintly hear my son, but not very often (he left this world 6 years ago at age 20). Sometimes I cannot "identify" the voice at all and it's mostly just "one at a time". For me, it's strange, but somehow not "connective" for me at the same time, that I was "diagnosed" with schizophrenia at age 19, but never quite took to that, although I was diagnosed with Major Clinical Depression and Panic/Anxiety Disorder at age 40 after an apparent "mental breakdown" (I am now 52). My mother had shock treatments back in the 40's and 50's and I think she was probably severely depressed, possibly even bi-polar or something along those lines, now I look back on it, how I grew up and how her mental illness affected me. So, after I was diagnosed at 19, I basically blew it off and subsequently just "went wild" for quite a long time, but finally decided for myself I wasn't schizoid after having gotten attracted to and involved with one sort of addict after another and then found out about family dysfunction and got into that (self-help/recovery), as well as having tried several "religious" organizations/movements, but found the recovery worked best for me at the end, till now, enough to where I could "gain control of myself" enough to not feel "crazy" and to believe that whatever "ailments/illnesses/diseases", etc. that I might have, that I can now function well enough to feel fairly peaceful, calm, less stressed, etc., with the help of support from a partner which makes my situation easier for me (since "going out and dealing with people at jobs" was always EXTREMELY challenging for me), and now I see I am in much better shape staying quiet and gardening, cooking, writing, doing DIY, painting, studying about myself, etc. So, does this mean I have "found myself" or "been cured or healed"... well, maybe a bit of all of it, because I think from YEARS of experience, it can be explained in terms of whatever PERSONAL experiences an individual may have had and how that individual is able to interpret it or believe it to be, etc. For me, the main thing is that I am able to live a calm life and not feel torn and pulled inside which is very draining and distracting and hard to be productive or even to be able to get along with people, etc. Not meaning I don't like people, but that I can't tolerate a lot of noise, commotion, aggressiveness, pressure, or even certain types of things such as sarcasm, or even rudeness/impoliteness/inconsideration/unthoughtfullness, etc. (however, that mainly increased after the death of my son, I became very unable to tolerate any "garbage" from people or situations that seemed very ridiculous to me compared to how I felt, which I knew was a very deep grief and how it was affecting me). As far as where do I think the voices come from? For me, it would probably be some of A, B, E, maybe F, J, used to I would've included L, but I don't think of myself as schizophrenic because I don't think I have strong enough symptoms to be classified, I think I was diagnosed with that 33 years ago because there were less "mental definitions" back then than there are now. And because I sorted on my own that a lot of my behaviours, thoughts, etc. were due to the way I was dysfunctionally brought up in a pretty extreme environment which caused a lot of my "mental state".