Scientific insight shines light on auditory hallucinations

bagtaggar said:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14894187/

I found this very interesting. With more research perhaps we can finally start to understand why people claim to have the experiences that they do. It makes a lot of sense, no?
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I'm not sure. I've certainly had auditory hallucinations before (hearing sounds, and sometimes voices that weren't there), but I'm intelligent to recognize that they were, in fact, that, hallucinations. People who claim to be hearing the dead have something else going on that convince them that the hallucinations are real.

Marc
 
Here's once cause of hearing voices that few people realise:

Hearing Loss

Audiotory hallucinactions, hearing phantom music and sounds are symptoms of hearing loss and tinnitus. When sensory input is diminished, the brain manufactors sounds.

I once ventured this explaination in a "haunted" forum and was generally jeered off. I would not be surprised if many of the young people posting about hearing their names called, etc. are experiencing hearing damage due to noise. This is the age of Ipods, Bluetooth and a myriad of devices plugged into ears, usually at high volume.
 
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Any new parent will tell you they hear their baby crying or making noises in random noise ALL THE TIME. Heck my son is 2 and I still do it sometimes.

We're hardwired to find patterns in noise, even moreso when we want to find them (be it hearing a lost loved one or looking for ghosts to confirm our bias).

Like you said, some people don't understand that their senses can't always be trusted.
 
I just find it interesting that this is such a seemingly common occurance (well, ok, 4% of the population).

Now I've got something for whenever someone gives me:

"Well, I'm not crazy, and once, I heard voices in my basement. I went and checked, and there was nobody there!"

"Don't have to be crazy. Just human."
 
We know that some people think aloud when they have to concentrate or are distracted. If we go down one step from actually speaking to just listening to your own voice in your head, is that "hearing voices"? I can easily imagine my own voice in my head, and perhaps one just needs a small push before this voice seems to come from outside the head?
 
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