Pareidolia or what?

Had a strange experience two nights ago. This isn't the first time it has happened. I went to bed with my white noise app on my phone running and the ceiling fan overhead on high. In a short period of time I heard when sounded like human voices whispering mostly long soft consonants like S and Sh and F interspersed with short and long vowel sounds like soft A, U, and O sounds.
The sound had a cadence to it that sounded like conversation but was muted so I couldn't here definitive words. At one point the whispering male voice was interrupted by a higher-pitched female voice that had a more staccato sound.

I don't pretend to think it was an external phenomena because I sleep with one pillow under my head and one over my head but the voices were loud. They must have been internal.

I have to know though, is this some kind of Pareidolia? Pareidolia is defined as a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant.

Link: Wikipedia Entry for Pareidolia

I see a number of very old threads concerning this subject. Has there been any consensus about the cause of the phenomena?

a reply to: frostjon361

I would consider pareidolia indeed. I would also encourage you to check for possible mental cause, just to be sure. Also, it's possible for the human mind to become sleepy but still think it's awake, and thus have "waking" hallucinations.

Or it could be paranormal.

Who knows? I personally think it could be simply that the fan had an oscillating pitch probably caused by mis-alignement or phase interference. Especially if it's an old fan.

But that's just what I can come up with the few data I have.

There have been a few threads on here discussing this phenomenon.
I experience it on occasion myself.
I did a little research and found that is fairly common.

a reply to: swanne

Thank you. I assume it was internal because as I said I had my head covered in a pillow but the "voice" was pretty dominant, if not too clear. I'll take your advice.

a reply to: skunkape23

Glad to know it's fairly common. Thank you.

Yea, we had a discussion about this on here not long ago - I thought I *might* be suffering some sort of neurological condition, as this has happened countless times (thinking that my neighbors are having a conversation late at night, only to take a look out my window only to find that really no one is awake).

It is definitely strange - it really does sound like voices; sometimes I swear I can distinctly hear both males and females, laughter, etc. I've come to believe (or at least I really want it to be true) that sometimes this phenomenon is a sort of perception happening beyond the usual manner of our Five senses; because the conscious mind and 5 senses are winding down for the day, becoming hushed, our Sixth sense may resurface more or less unobstructed from the average hum-drum of daytime stimuli and thus perceive a type of 'ethereal bleed-over' from other dimensions, or unseen realms, or even (most likely) from the deep mind - that's what I imagine at least some of it is anyway. I have distinctlly heard my voice a few times - clearly. No one was around, and it wasn't perceived by my physical ears, but more so 'appearing' from inside my head. Hard to explain.

So yeah, you might wanna dust off that ol' ouija board and host one of those old school 1870's style chat rooms with the other side!

Best,
-kissy

a reply to: kissy princess

LOL I think I'll leave the seances alone. My concern was less supernatural and more psychological. The voices came very unexpectedly and only at night. I repeated all the same conditions the next morning during the daylight and got nowhere. Maybe because I was expecting the same effect or maybe hoping for it? The only thing different was that I wasn't settling in to a sleep cycle which is probably a key component considering some of the responses about the phenomenon I've had here so far.

I really don't know what to think yet but I'll be talking to a few professionals soon. I'm not against supernatural occurrences, but I have to go with something internal since my head was sandwiched between 2 pillows when the occurrence happened. Whispering voices just don't carry when a ceiling fan, white noise generator, and thick pillows are all in the way.

Thanks for the input

a reply to: frostjon361

The same thing happens to me when I use electric fans. At first it drove me nuts because I couldn't figure out where the"voices"were coming from, but I soon noticed that the phenomenon stopped immediately when shutting it off I do not always notice it when I listen to white noise from other sources, so something about the way the fan interacts with the air really seems to do the trick and fool my brain/ears.

Hearing what sounds like voices or music when surrounded by white noise is quite common. It can of course, be caused by more serious things, ie. neurological disorders, but the way you've described it seems perfectly normal. Now if you were to start hearing actual words, then it would be time to go see a doctor...

a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

Thanks. That's an optimistic response and I choose to side with you rather than the "I'm losing my mind" opinion that's been floating around in my head.