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Most people in modern-day western culture think of hearing voices as a clear sign of mental illness but it's as well to remember that not everyone shares this opinion. A report published by the British Psychological Society in (2000) claims that 10-15 % of the population hear voices or experience other hallucinations at some point in their life. However, only about 1 % of the population is given a diagnosis of schizophrenia
We have found there are many people who hear voices, yet are not troubled by them or have found their own ways of coping with them outside of psychiatric care. This is very significant as it shows you can hear voices and remain healthy.
Significantly, the search for ways of doing this began with the people who were best able to provide the answers, the voice hearers themselves including psychiatric patients, and equally importantly, people who heard voices who had never needed to seek the assistance of psychiatric services.
We now know, because we have met a lot of voice hearers who have recovered from the stress caused by their voices, to be sure that understanding the meaning of the voices is of great significance. It is important, therefore, that we promote this information in a more systematic way to ensure that our message is clear and coherent.
One outcome of this is the development of this online community.