Between Asleep and Awake: Do you hear voices?

So .... and I don't mean this in a negative way...

Do you think this is a real phenomena... or is it possible that psychosis is common in this forum?

I have, always meditated, have used chemicals, lucid dream at will... and only in an actual 'dream" state have I ever heard voices, not while awake and not in the transition phase

Given the nature of topics discussed in here and that this site is probably watched... is it actually a good idea to openly admit to "hearing voices" when clinically it could be used to claim your psychotic?

Not infering anything... just asking a question, how would one know... in the end the difference between... real voices in their head and... an underlying mental disorder?

Or

is it possible that all psychotic people are actually not hearing voices and tapping into something?

Anyway, again... not trying to imply anyone is psychotic... just curious about the above questions and opinions

Wow, thats really intereseting! I don't get voices, but something else, but im a long way away from sleep, when this happens!

I see flashing pictures, so very clearly when I close my eyes. They are like photo's, flashing so quickly, one after eachother, non stop! So quick that, most of the time I cant see their faces! Its not bad stuff, just pictures!

This is a new thing for me over the last 2 years!

Here's my 2cents: - find sleep paralysis usually occurs in this state also. I, too have heard voices in this state of mind. However, it is usally many voices singing, and they're also in several different languages. I find this happens, when I am extremely over tired, and there is an accelerated move from one state of consciousness to the next.

Just my thoughts.

I have had these same experiences too. While I was going to college I started having intense "electric" feelings while I was trying to fall asleep. These had never happened before and it was like i was tapped into some kind of energy. Many times when I was trying to fall asleep for a year period I would feel the episode beginning. 1) My body would get numb and I couldn't move...this is how I knew I was about to start. 2)Then the whole world around me would start swirling around and everything would get louder...louder...and it would feel that everything around me was being pulled toward me. 3) I would see an intense bright light or electric ring which grew brighter with the noise. The noise also consisted of whispers and voices talking as if it was directly by my ear. I have to say when this first happened I was really freaked out and I didn't know who to talk to about it. I always resisted at the height of the noise, light, and voices because the climax scared me. I did push myself to go through it once and what happened startled me...I came to an awareness of myself being about 7 inches above my body and I panicked back into my body. The voices were always a part of this experiences and once I heard a baby crying as well...this really freaked me out. The last experience I had ended with a dream that blurred the lines between reality. I was sleeping with my girlfriend (my wife now) and went to sleep...I remember in my dream I was talking to someone...I didn't know this person...they were talking to me and telling me to push a button on a small box that they were holding in their hand (kind of like Morphius in the Matrix with the red/blue pill). I was really hesitant to push it and I really didn't want to...the person explained that things would be shown to me if I did...after a while I end up giving in and I pushed the button...all of a sudden this vortex of light opens up out of the box in the persons hand and begins to pull me into it...It felt like I was being separated from my body and I got scared and came "swimming" up back into my body and awoke sitting up quickly. My wife looked at me and asked what button I pushed...I said what? She said "you were talking to someone in your sleep and you were talking about some button that you didn't want to push. I explained everything to her and then began looking for my own answers as to what I was experiencing. I found that many people have had some what similar experiences.

This happened to me a couple of years ago, but I still remeber it VERY vividly, it really struck a nerve with me. My experience was scary, i don't know why but the voices i heard were sinister sounding, conspiring, and malevolent. they were laughing and their voices rose in vilume until i was completely rattled, then they just trailed off. It took my breath away, and I don't consider myself someone who spooks easily. very strange. Do any of you remember the associations that went on in your mind while hearing them? I know it may sound strange but i keep seeing them as very small in size, but staggering in number, and the mass communication was amazing. anyone identify with these feelings at all?

reply to post by lee anoma


lee anoma,

Before my Father passed away he complained of increased hearing sensitivity after waking up from sleeping and also suffered recurring hallucinations, many of these, as he described to me were of 'masses of voices to hard to understand.' Mind you this alwas happened after he woke up from sleeping.

It turned out he had a brain tumor messing with the hearing center of his brain. That tumor later killed him. Have you had an MRI or CAT scan within the last 6 years? I would get one if you haven't, your story sounds too close to my Father's before he passed.

reply to post by mapsurfer_


Ill second all of that. Ive experienced many times what your talking about. usually while falling asleep, though most nights my mind starts off into an odd tangent that manifests into a dream. Ive been trying lately to gain more and more control of this. Ive also entered weird states just while relaxing, similar to this but with weird sensations, like all of my hairs standing on end and an intense vibrating sensation sweeping over my body.

Lately i do try and meditate and see where i can go as far as lucid dreaming etc, its getting a little better every night

Lieing in bed, meditating and slowing down. Def. similar to n2o, but if were going to start talking about these kinds of things, well, lsd...

What happens if you talk in your sleep like me?

Maybe the sleep-talkers are comprising some of the voices that the semisleep-listeners like the OP are hearing.

I had a colleague who wrote a paper about a certain kind of schizophrenia that he thought would help him prove non-locality, but the technology was not available and no full-scale experiment could be implemented. (This was back in the 80's)

He thought they were all hearing each others voices, and thought there was a common ancestor, but no DNA testing methods were present to avail him. And there were not really any cell phones or any other communication technology that would be needed for his experiment.

It eventually become relegated to the world of the"Thought Experiment"

He died thinking he had discovered a genetic lineage wherein psychic and psychotic tendencies were far more prevalent than those of the surrounding populace, whereupon controlled studies/samples were done.

He hasn't been proven wrong or right. I'll post his experiment as a separate thread when I transcribe it.

reply to post by mopusvindictus


People that are clinally branded psychotic and hear voices to me are meant to sound like we're totally bonkers and so many of the world's population actually think that but theres more and more that are thinking are they really stark raving mad or is there something in it,they sit back and think 'they are actually quite intelliegent/interesting people.Theres another thing that doesnt get noticed alot,having been branded a name for so long Ive seen others in my situation quite alot and there are many that go through the same symptoms of hearing voices and having the same message from that voice and also receiving messages else where television/radio/papers/people in the streets and from up above.Its no wonder we go a bit insane when we think we're being told some secrets to life.
I dont care about viewing my state of point about my voices.its about time people like me are heard and not pushed back in the side lines with our minds sedated so we cant think straight.I think......no Im actually sure that if some people was off meds then there could be some kind of break through and answer to do with the mind and the voices inside it.
Ask yourself this.......Who's behind mental hospitals??

That happens to me always although not before I hit LaLa Land. I am sure in a meditative state (THC).

Originally posted by Alienmindflare
reply to post by mopusvindictus

 

"Its no wonder we go a bit insane when we think we're being told some secrets to life."

Your spot on with that. Good Point. These threads that pop up every so often about the sleep voices for instance, they are symptoms of something bigger IMO and the information age is allowing us to discuss it all in real time. Sorry if i got off topic, nice thread.

reply to post by lee anoma


I wouldn't worry about the voices. I believe it's a function of sleep. Just as some people feel as if they're falling just before falling asleep or just before waking.
Or waking and not being able to move.

From my understanding, the difference between being considered insane, or suffering from mental illness, and speaking about such experiences is being able to tell the difference. When you experience this type of phenomenon, and you recognize that this is not a part of the physical world, then you are considered sane. People who are diagnosed as having mental illness can not tell the difference between these types of experiences that most consciously share, and the physical world we identify as reality.

I think most people experience these things, most just do not want to talk about it. In the Western nations, a big reason for this is that the Catholic religion punished people who expressed these sorts of things as being witches. That is probably the biggest reason for this being taboo. People need to realize that Europeans were systematically pushed away from the spiritual world by the catholic religion, and forced into the heiarchy of the feudal system with the devine right of Kings. Even all forms of herbal medicine were forbidden. Seems to me that this was a horrible thing, the way that the Catholic church killed spirituality in the Europe. Now that this supression has been lifted, we are starting to awaken once again to our spirituality. Now of course comes a new religious wave from the Middle East. Sorry, but I see the parellels.

I have experienced most of the things that people talk about here. There was a time when I was experiencing so many clairvoyent dreams that I seriously began to question my sanity, and finally come to the conclusion that if I could keep the two separated I was fine, and in fact this is what I have read is the definition of sanity. This was from Bandlers books on NLP.

I have experienced hallucinations, those of feeling my pager vibrating when in fact it was not, and hearing my celphone ringing when it was not. From my understanding these are very common halucinations. These types of experiences are very different, in my experience, from the experiences of seeing images or hearing things when one closes ones eyes in a sleepful or meditative state. I also recognize the difference between standard dreams, which tend to be black and white and move along nonsensical, constantly changing themes, and dreams that are in color and follow clear, life simulating experiences.

I remember there was a guy on the lecture circuit who theorized that our memories are not stored in our brain, but in some other medium, and that our brains were only receptors to our intelligence. I guess you could look at our bodys as the physical aspect of who we are, and our spirits or souls as being the intelligence. Personally, I think we are made up of three different forms, body, spirit, and soul, the body being the physical, the spirit being the emotional driving force, and our soul being the intelligence.

One phenomenon I have been noticing lately, that I had not experienced before, that others have talked about here, that I find very unnerving, is hearing my own name being called out. This experience is very different form the others. The sounds, voices, and images I recognize as something that my mind senses separate from my body. The halucinations of my phone, as physical tricks my mind is playing on me, but this thing with hearing my name being called out it completely different. This seems to be a strong physical manifestation, a sound that I actually hear, coming from the physical world, even though I know it does not. It is a short burst, the sound of my name coming out of nowhere with a strong urgency. The voice always sounds like the same voice.

In addition, for the last four years I have been constantly feeling that everything is going to change soon, for the better. This is a very strong feeling, something is going to happen that changes everything, that our lives will be freed somehow of the current situation of everyday life that seems so sureal to many people.

Thanks to the op for starting this thread, I really enjoyed reading everyone's contributions. Ningulilium, thanks for the Asatru religion, I did a search, and it looks really interesting. Something new to me, although I read Norse mythology as a kid.

Lots of things have happened to me like this.
I all started as far back as maybe 7 or 8 years old, i used to have a hard time falling asleep, still do, so i used to follow the ceiling corner to corner one by one with my eyes, the more i lay there doing that, the more i could hear one or 2 voices talking mellow and then all of a sudden getting angry as if shouting at me but calming down again.
This would happen once a week at least but when i thought about it i didn't really know what to do as i was just a child.

When i hit 11 years old and i started my high school i had a high cabin bed, i used to get woke up maybe 2 or 3am i would look down apon my room and all around me was a mass of people all in different bright colours, was like a big wave of a rainbow around my room, i would sit and talk to them for a while and fall back asleep, i knew i was awake because i could look out my window and see the street light shine in and reflect onto things, and i just know the difference between when I'm dreaming and awake.
Funny thing is, when i woke up for school i would have no memory or i wouldn't think about talking to these people until the next night when i was about to fall asleep, to be honest, it didn't spook me or really matter as i kinda thought this was natural.

As the years went on, things got worse as the nice rainbow of people i used to see was turning into me waking up being paralyzed, a really high pitched noise in my ear, i had to kick out of it as it was not cool, like someone was sitting on my chest, sometimes like i was having sex with a woman on top, and the voices just freaked me out. I was really tired and soon as i dropped off again it happened again, i was between a rock and hard place because as much as i wanted to fall asleep, i feared it because as soon as i did...this thing would happen to me in an instant.
Worse one was when i woke and this massive black wave was spread across my room along with the terrible noise and paralyzed feeling was there also.

There have been good and bad things with whatever this is that occurs. Once i swear i left my body and crawled out my window and just flew about but was limited to only fly around my street cause i tried to fly over to a friends house in the other town and it was like as if i was a vampire who was trying to enter a house, uninvited. Reason again i thought this was real was the detail to things and i can just tell dream from reality.

Nowadays i can fight off whatever it is that happened to me, i kick out of it easier than before, takes a knack but i can do it.
Sometimes it takes more to kick out but it goes away after 2 or 3 attempts to get to me.
I fear it will try and go after my kid in the other room because years ago i was awake and my sister was pregnant and up the stairs getting an early night,,she came running down in her night dress which she would NEVER do but the fear in her face was unreal, she said, while trying to fall asleep, she heard me and my dad speaking down the stairs and then all of a sudden,,,bang! she got paralyzed and heard the noises, as much as i felt sorry for her, i smiled and told her about what i had experienced for years.

Don't know if this relates to this topic but i thought i would share what i have experienced.

this may sound funny, and i soppose if it hasn't happened to you then it would sound that way, but honestly, for anyone attempting to have OOBEs i reccomend that you turn off your alarm clock, and try to prevent any other distractions from happenig. Why? because you could get caught inbetween two places at once and it is the most unsettling thing i can name, a horrible thing to have felt. I was getting really good at "launching" and vrnturing further and further from my home each time, until one night i went all the way to the end of my road to the boat docks (about 1/8 of a mile) This was awesome because there were OTHER people there, all looking at the water and looking peaceful, if not coma like. I floated down and tapped one man on the shoulder and asked him why we were all there, whatt was going on and he just shrugged his shoulders and mumbled something and turned away. I began to look as well and I was mesmerized by the reflection of the moon on the water, then my alarm clock went off. For a fraction of time my being was stretched from my bedroom to the lake as i was "Sucked" back into my body, i immeadiately became ill and could not stop throwing up for a few minutes. If you plan to leave your body, try not to get roused when you are gone.
i forgot to add that everyone around me watching the water heard the clock too, because when it went off they all turned around and gave me the "librarian" look. i saw it on their face as i was being pulled away.

[edit on 18-8-2008 by Enigma Publius]

Yeah, got it sometimes too, not too often anymore but i would get the voices, screaming, laughing, saying my name etc etc etc. And the purple visuals. Even the eyes closed but seeing the room has happened sometimes and the music happened once or twice. Pretty fun really but never managed to start up a conversation with whatever it was.

Only do you people have trains of thoughts that felt very profound only to 'snap out of it' and forget what you where thinking about? It happens on more or less the same level of (un)consciousness. I would think about something for about 5 minutes before i realize i'm thinking about something and forget the thought that kept me preoccupied. Pretty irritating.

ummm has anyone been 'doorbelled' in their head? I was in between being awake and sleeping, and all of a sudden a loud BUZZZ! went off inside my head. it was so intense that it vibrated my brain and totally woke me up!
hmmm..but maybe it was just me

Awesome! I've experienced the same thing also, but sometimes instead of voices I'll see visions of random people and places all over the world. It's kinda like a dream, but not. This happens right before I'm actually falling asleep. It's kinda scary but cool at the same time.

I think that the voices and vision in that state of awareness is real and not just your imagination or overly active brain. It's sad because we as humans are given clues that we are capable of so much more, but we write these strange occurences as coincidence or as being crazy.

I like Ats it lets me know that there are people who are aware and willing to awake into being.

Bolding mine.

Originally posted by Snakeonadragonsback
As the years went on, things got worse as the nice rainbow of people i used to see was turning into me waking up being paralyzed, a really high pitched noise in my ear, i had to kick out of it as it was not cool, like someone was sitting on my chest, sometimes like i was having sex with a woman on top, and the voices just freaked me out. I was really tired and soon as i dropped off again it happened again, i was between a rock and hard place because as much as i wanted to fall asleep, i feared it because as soon as i did...this thing would happen to me in an instant.
Worse one was when i woke and this massive black wave was spread across my room along with the terrible noise and paralyzed feeling was there also.

*Bang* Symptoms experienced with Sleep Paralysis, which is accompanied with a dream-like state whilst you're awake.

Paralyzed: Sleep Paralysis
High Pitched noise: Less common but still experienced with Sleep Paralysis.
Feeling as if someone's sitting on your chest: Sleep Paralysis.


Simply put, ''awake & dreaming'' at the same time whilst being Paralyzed.

Sleep Paralysis is the method your body uses to prevent you from sleep-walking. However it is very much possible for a person to suffer from sleep paralysis before falling asleep and after waking up.

This is usually accompanied with ''hallucinations'', or in other words, dreaming without actually sleeping.

[edit on 18/8/08 by -0mega-]

Interesting thread.

I've always experienced this sort of thing, but it is not limited to that halfway point of drifiting off into sleep. I can always hear these voices in my head, all the time, 24 hours a day. Another difference is that my voices can range from people talking (lots of people.....like an entire conference room full) to full blown screaming and shrieking, to a weird muffled mumbling. But this is always a sound comprised of a collective, so making out language or discerning one voice in the mass is impossible. This is something that is literally ALWAYS going on in my head, so much so that I can listen in whenever I want, all I have to do is take down my"ignore" wall, so to speak. Imagine it as the sound of a ceiling fan in your home, you get so used to it that you don't realize it's even there, until to think about it to make sure it's still running. Same thing with me. The more normal, constant sound is the screaming/shrieking variety mixed with some people talking and some people mumbling all at the same time, it is really hard to describe accurately.

I have always felt like my mind/thought process is stuck on overdrive and it can lead me to be stressed sometimes because I can't turn my brain "off" so to speak. I am almost constantly having conversations in my head with voices that can change from family members, to jsut random voices I've never heard before. Asking a question in my mind invokes an almost immediate response that I didn't have any control or influence one way or the other. Running over "what if" scenarios is a common thing I do that I can only describe as a DVD with a multiple ending feature/deleted scenes kinda thing. This isn't something I sit and do which requires me to stop other things I'm doing, it is just something that is running in my head as a relative constant.

The voices/screaming are easy for me to ignore and/or block out on a normal basis, but sometimes, when I am stressed out or angry about something, they can be harder to block out, almost as if the volume has been turned onto 10 and I can't hear myself over it. This has sometimes occured when I am in the process of writing a song or working on a riff and have hit a peak of frustration, the voices ocme on harder, making it in turn more impossible for me to finish what I was doing because I can't focus on the instrumnt, the song, the riff, etc. That leads to more frustration and the inevitable increase in volume of my "soundtrack" as I can lovingly refer to it as. So, it can be a vicious cycle when a situation like that arises, because the cause plays into the effect and increases both exponentially.

In those instances, the "soundtrack" can lead me to be very irritable/short tempered/snippy with people who are around me, and in extreme, EXTREME levels, every once in a while can induce what I can only describe as a "blow up" and loss of temper. While I can maintain composure physicially for the most part, my mind goes batty with a combination of the voices and my own enraged thoughts. This is when my inner voice starts to mirror the voices inside, and my inner voice becomes one of the "choir" of screams, so to speak.

It's always been something that I have experienced, but something I've become so used to that I don't talk about it very often, if ever. This thread however made me feel like sharing. There's more to it, and if anyone has questions or comments, feel free to inquire.


-Ans-