Table 4.

Representative Quotations Regarding Phenomenology of Psychic Voice-Hearing

Similar To P+H+	Dissimilar to P+H+
[Researcher: Where in space do they sound like they’re coming from?...] More often, it’s either from within my body or right to the right side of my head [Researcher: Within your head? Or within other parts of your body?] Within my head.	[Researcher: Anything make [the voices] less frequent?] If I’m really worried about something, really preoccupied with something in my own life, not sleeping, caffeine, that kind of thing, I’m more likely to block them out.
[Researcher: Is it mostly words, sentences or whole conversations?] It’s mostly words and sentences. Very rarely whole conversations.	[Researcher: Do they affect your safety?] I have gotten voices that calm me down…When I was in a car accident once and they said everything was going to be okay.
[Researcher: Do you do anything to control them besides shutting yourself off?] Yes, sometimes I will sing. I will play a song in my head so that I hear a song and not them.
[Researcher: Any environmental things that make them more likely...?] I would say white noise or anytime I’m not really focused on anything so maybe when I’m driving and not really focusing or zoning out
I try not to listen to the T.V. or radio for [personal communications]… I’m very religious… my husband was the president of his church… I try not to… but if I really focus on it I can.	[Researcher: When do [the voices] happen?] If I allow it, it can happen all the time.Sometimes I can put a wall up, but if its meant to be heard or seen, it will be.The voices don’t cause anxiety because I’ve trained myself.
[Researcher: Have you ever heard the devil?] Yes. I’ve heard the devil and the Angel of Death. [Researcher: In the past [have you] heard the voice of God speaking?] Yes, all the time!
[Researcher: is that typical of the length [of the voices]?] yes, now I can get sentences. When I was younger, I only really got words but now sentences.	I’ve done a lot of meditation techniques to just make sure that the voices are clear so that I can understand the message.
[Researcher: As far as the acoustic qualities...?] As clear as your voice or as clear as my voice	You said to me, “You’re amazing” and then I heard a small voice say, “Yes, you truly are.”...As clear as day. For me, it was a validation.
My Husband’s voice is always with me... And it would be something like “Don’t forget to take your pills” [Researcher: And that was from outside of you] Yes, he would tell me like routine things. the routine kind of continued even though my husband wasn’t there.	[Researcher: Can you make it happen?] Yeah, when you’re open it will come. But it takes work.
[Researcher: In terms of how real [the voices] sound...] Very real...I think depending on the messages and how in tune you are. Sometimes they can just be jibberish and in the background and sometimes they can be really intense. [Researcher: You hear jibberish sometimes?] Yes, but it’s rare. They’re usually pretty intense.
[Researcher: Do [the voices] ever come when you don’t want it to come?] It always comes when you don’t want it to come; you don’t expect it. [Researcher: Can you stop it?] You can’t stop it. [Researcher: Can you call it?]I can not want to deal with it and it will come later on. [Researcher: Like, postpone it?] Yeah, I can postpone it but I can’t stop it.
It was later on in life... I was like 5 when my mom told me that what I was doing was wrong and I was making things up and I didn’t need to talk about things because people would think I was crazy and stuff.	[Researcher: [Have you] ever been troubled by hearing voices in your head?] No, it doesn’t really faze me.
I can turn it off, but it more often sounds like a cocktail party when I shut myself off to them.	These voices are my spirit guides. They come from heaven. They’re departed loved ones.
	[Researcher: Sounds like they happen in episodes...] I would never quantify that by saying it’s an “episode” at all. There are times when I don’t want to communicate or I’m dealing with something in my earthly life that I just don’t... I tune it out. I am not in constant communication 24/7
	I can’t make them communicate with me but I can make myself open to hearing...
I used to hear so big that I couldn’t function...I would pray and ask for help but it was so big that there was no help and I couldn’t function just from all the overwhelming noise.	I learned to ask God to hear everything out-loud and eventually I learned to ask one spokesperson to step forward and talk to me one at a time.
I have a very special relationship with Archangel Michael. He was my imaginary friend when I was a kid, but he wasn’t imaginary. I just didn’t know his name was Michael until he told me way later… after reading the Bible or someone saying something or something.
[Researcher: Do you hear conversations?] Oh yeah [they talk to each other.] It’s just like walking through a cafeteria
When I’m “on” [the number of voices] can be relentless. [Researcher: And for days off?] When I’m off, I can run into some situation and it’s there, like it’s so strong that I have to do whatever it says.	I can turn things on and turn things off. When I’m working, i open myself and when I’m not, i turn it off, like a switch.
It can happen two, three times a day [when I’m “off”] spontaneously.
[Researcher: Do you ever get any personal communications from the radio or television?] Every now and then... Like if there’s an energy that wants to communicate but I have the walls up because I don’t want to deal with this... [Researcher: what happens then?] Lets say the screen will get fuzzy and there’s no reason and then you’ll hear through the fuzz... when you shut [the voices] off and they’re like “No, I want to talk to you.”	I’m not scared to hear [a voice] but certain voices are troubling.
My phone is weird because I’ll shut everything off and my phone will be like “Nope, you’re not going to shut down on me.” There’s no reason for it. Anything battery or electric they can manipulate.	That noise [from the voices] becomes padded but it’s there...but you’re shutting it away. You’re like, “I don’t want to hear that” so you’re padding it. [Researcher: Because you’re attending to other things?] Exactly. [Researcher: But it’s still there? So there’s chatter now?] It’s off. [So is it still there or are you just not paying attention to it?] I close the wall. It’s almost like there’s a wall and I put the wall up. I taught myself to do this when I was five...because my mother just shut me down [when I tried to talk about my experiences].
When you sleep, you’re out of your body and a lot of times they try to talk to you when you’re sleeping.	You train yourself. You just shut it off...But I can’t make them disappear. They’re like muffled.
When I was six, I remember sitting outside by myself and having conversations with something...I thought it was the wind [that I was conversing with], and just hearing the voices, which I was comfortable with... Then there were other times when I would be sent to my room and it was dark and I was being punished and there would be occasional voices that would freak me out.	[Researcher: Are they episodic or do they happen constantly?] They’re not constant. I can shut them off.
There would be moments where I would be in kind of a quiet contemplative state, so like I would be cooking a meal and making a recipe and then I would just hear... Sometimes it was like... A lot of chatter, so like a cocktail party and you’re just hearing the overtones of everybody. But there would be a feeling of like I don’t like... if I could make out what they were saying, I would have a feeling that I don’t like that because it’s not pleasant to me.	[Researcher: What do you do to shut them down?] I tell them to shut up. [That’s all you do? Just internal, you just tell them to shut up?] No, I say it out loud...”I’m off duty now. Go away.”
There would be moments when the voices would egg me on... Egg my anger on and it would be like “go break something” or “go hit your brother” or go do something like that… a lot of it was more of a self-loathing thing, so I would hear “you’re stupid” or things like that.
When I was a kid we used to joke that there were voices in the fan.
	I don’t think I was troubled by it...it was like “Okay, what’s the deal?” and I wanted to understand it. But I always had a sense of reassurance...I never felt like I had to worry for hearing voices in my head.
[What was your first experience hearing a voice?] I don’t remember a time, but I do remember as I got older--closer to my teen years--where I would be upset and it would be like this other person talking to me. I would be like “I’m going freaking crazy”.	Other times I miss it. I’m like, “where are my friends?” [Researcher: Can you turn it back on then?] Yeah, if there’s something I want to know personally I can.
“I was troubled until I learned what it was.”	[Researcher: You were getting verbal messages [during your early experiences]?] It would be verbal messages, but it would be more bodily sensations...it turned out to be this mediumship thing. [Researcher: So you started finding meaning in these somatic sensations?] Exactly...it wouldn’t scare me anymore and now I work enough of the energies that I can be like “Bro, back up.”
	I was [younger] and would be like “I am going to be nothing when I grow up,” and they would be like, “No, you’re going to be a writer and you’re going to help people.”...[Researcher: So your first experience with voices was reassuring?] They were talking to me positively... trying to keep me from being like, “I suck.”
	[The voices] never bothered me where I’ve been scared or frightened....I ‘ve always been very comforted and felt not alone in a positive way
[Researcher: [Have you] ever been troubled by hearing voices in your head?] Never been troubled...That’s not true. I’ll say a 2 [on a scale of five] because I was, but I’m not now.	[One of my voices] was a female French scientist...and that was the powerful female, smart female presence that I needed. Having a female scientist who came to me was...very empowering.
At that point, I was going absolutely crazy trying to figure out what is wrong with me: why am I hearing all of these things? I really feel nuts. How do I fix this?	I... fumbled through life for a while with this whole hearing [voices] and “knowing” [clairsentience] and “seeing” [clairvoyance] and then a friend of mine...was like, “You have to go to this center because there are people like you! You have a gift and you need to go!” And since then, it has been wonderful. Understanding how to dissect it...being able to understand and dissect what was happening to me.
So you’ll think I’m crazy, in the session this morning, I was travelling through this woman’s time and space and we got to a point where it felt like it was her but it wasn’t a person, it was an alien. The alien was speaking to me but I couldn’t understand and my guide had to translate to me.	[Spirits talking to me is] part of being “on” all the time, which I do like, but there are boundaries and I have to set them. [Researcher: So you’re ignoring them.] No, I’m not ignoring them…I’m just like, “No, not right now.”
[Researcher: In terms of where they sound like they’re coming from ...] Sometimes it will be from far away. Most of the time it’s like they’re right here...90% of the time they’re right here.
[Researcher: Can you make them happen by will?] By my passions, I’m making them more inclined to happen, but they happen when they happen.	[Researcher: [Have you] ever been troubled by hearing voices in your head?] No, I’ve never been troubled by it.
My first big master was the Roman Emperor Julian the apostate.	[Researcher: [Have you] ever been troubled by hearing voices in your head?] I’ve never been troubled... Because I can control it.
	[Researcher: When you first heard a voice, what was that? How old were you?] 14. [Do you remember what it was like?] Uplifting. Astral projecting. Loving. Protective.
I used to hear voices a lot. What happened was I started to develop a psychic sense. I would hear a cacophony of voices. I would try to go to sleep and I could hear conversations and I would hear the doorbell ring and then five minutes later it would ring and I could hear people knocking....it bothered me because I couldn’t sort it out. I was too open, if that makes sense.	[How old were you when you first heard a voice?] I was around 5 or 7. [Was it a pleasant or unpleasant experience?] It was nurturing. It was effeminate in nature. You might equate it to some kind of benevolent guide.

Note: Each row comprises quotations from individual subjects.