Do YOU hear voices?

Ok, I've got a question for everyone, humour me. Right now your reading this, agreed? You can see the letters on the webpage, processing them and understanding what I'm writing.

Now do you hear YOUR voice reading in your head or are the words just there?
What about when your thinking, is it your voice narriating your thoughts, or are they just there? Or is it someones else's voice? Or do you see the words there?

Ive had a huge debate with my classmates over this, with most, like 90% saying that they hear their voice when they silently read or when their thinking. This really got me thinking because I don't hear my voice, or anyone elses, the thoughts are just kinda there, and my minds empty (which went down well considering I shouted this in the middle of class).


Come on, lemme know

(edited to change seen to see. )

[edit on 11/6/09 by butterflycatcher]

they are associating their inner thoughts to a familial voice. which is ok, so long as it does not seperate itself from the persons actual personality. if that happens, the voice achieves a sort of independence, and can become dangerous to the actual persons best interest, or in rare cases survival.

reply to post by butterflycatcher


It depends of the speed at which I am reading. I can scan things can get just the words coming into my head and being interpreted. Mostly though, I hear the sounds of the words at a very high rate of speed, but not with anyone's voice. No particularities to the voice, just the sounds of the words, and too fast to ever be pronounced correctly by a human. Almost like a computer on fast forward.

Now at times I'll go into a trance while reading and only the raw data gets in. At such times, once I come out of it, I know I have been reading, but the memory of the act of reading is not there. Also in this trance my own inner ideas from under the surface bubble up and mix in with what I am reading so they're both coming in at once, but separated as to which was which.

Now I remember the interesting case of a woman named Jessica interviewed by Project Camelot. She said that when she's reading anything, it's like an inner voice or spirit is reading for her, interpreting, adding notes and commentary, and THEN giving it to her conscious mind. I resonated highly with this experience when I heard it, but this has really only happened to me a few times in my life, all recently. I think it's a higher, more trance-like form of what I can only sometimes do. So I think if I work at it, I might be able to reach that state.

Incidentally, when someone is talking to me in life, some part of my mind is seeing all their words, displaying them as a sentence, with spelling and punctuation, and delivering it to the conscious that way. So if you turn to me and say "Yo Don, what's up?" a piece in the back of mind mind is seeing this as if it were reading a book. And the sound is always saved. My consciousness is leaning more toward sound and less toward vision than most people, so whenever a person talks to me, the sound file is saved. So I can go back and repeat it weeks or months later (but not usually years) with the same inflections and such as you had originally put in. I guess at some point it just became important to save that data. I didn't have any friends as a child or really talk to anyone much. Or maybe it's because as a youth I so often related to people through MUDs and through books? Also words are just of a very paramount importance in my mind in general.

So hey, that was a lot of data, I hope it helped. And kudos for the idea. I think this will be a very interesting thread.

Edit: Just wanted to add, when I think it's actual vocal words, but again with no particular voices. No tone, inflection, anything remotely human like that. But the sounds of sounding out the words are still there. And often many overrunning each other. I think there are probably at least two, often three series of thoughts going through my head at any one moment. Like, one of them will be silent, raw data, one will be just the faint quiet, toneless whispers of some words I was thinking about, and one I will be actually almost listening to and will have the words all sounded out and with image pictures, videos or whatever comes to mind. I guess they usually call that the conscious mind? But it's not the only one, it's just like twice as loud as the others.

It took me about 25 years of life to really start thinking about this and for me to realize that when people heard "voices " in their head in the past it may not have been like they show on TV with the actual human voices. It really could just have been ideas that didn't seem like their own.
Which led me to the idea that I then, have "voices" in my head too, and so I might be crazy. But crazy is just a word for anything outside the comfort bubble, and so I decided that "crazy" is everything I ever wanted to be.


[edit on 6-11-2009 by IceOwl]

[edit on 6-11-2009 by IceOwl]

I think when people read they are imagining how their voice sounds as they read. It's quite different from this sort of imagined voice to actually hearing an external voice speaking.

I think it also depends on context. When I read a novel, I often have different voices for the different characters, so I will imagine how a character sounds as they speak or describe something.

reply to post by Toromos


If I have seen a television show or somesuch with voices for the characters in a book, and then read the book, or read a fanfic of something that once had voices for the characters, then all the characters will have their own proper voice.

I dont hear anything ...

reply to post by IceOwl


I do that too. Sometimes I'll see an actor with a distinctive voice like Sean Connery and the character I'm reading will have that voice, even though it doesn't exactly fit with the overall character portrait.

I generally hear my own voice when reading. Like someone else said, if it's a novel I'm reading, every character w/ have their own voice. The weirdest one though, is when I'm reading something factual, like Cobra II, (goings on in Iraq war) I get that dude that narrates Frontline - his voice.

The voice in my head is the guy off the Wonder Years that narrates the thoughts of that boy. Ever since I watched that show as a child it always stuck with me.

Originally posted by OpenYourHead
The voice in my head is the guy off the Wonder Years that narrates the thoughts of that boy. Ever since I watched that show as a child it always stuck with me.

Lol, i wonder how many that show effected, lol.

When we read, its probably both i would say, like when we type, we are thinking it, and then just shortly after typing it.

Yes, I hear my own voice when I read. I'm pretty sure you do too even if you don't realize you are doing it.

Example:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Could you read that? Did you hear your voice?



[edit on 6-11-2009 by DaMod]

reply to post by DaMod


Most people do not notice it.

I hear five different voices at any given time...

But to answer the thread, I think the brain interpretation will vary with individuals. It may just be the difference between a visual reader (who translates whole groups of words in a conceptual image) or a phonetic reader, who sounds out each and every word as they read. What is interesting is that the phonetic reader (and to a lesser extent the visual reader) will also move their vocal cords when they read each word. This is mucsle memory at play and called subvocalization. Seeing as how even subtle vibrations can cause sound, it is very possible the a phonetic reader indeed "hears themself" while reading.

Hope that helps...

Edit to add - subvocalization will apply to those who think phonetically as well. Words will be sounded out while a visual thinker (or one in a trancelike purely observational) will not have any need for it.

[edit on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:21:28 -0600 by MemoryShock]

I just hear an echo. Seriously, I hear voices for different characters and only my voice if the story is in the first person narrative. I also get so involved in the story that my wife or kids have to sometimes actually tap on my shoulder to get my attention.

reply to post by butterflycatcher


I usually hear my own voice, but occasionally, and I have no idea why, I'll think with a British accent, LOL! I usually notice this if I'm really tired, sick or if I've had a little bit to drink. It really baffles me as to why I do it.

I hear Halle Berry... It's really quite annoying because she is mostly reading Dr Seuss books - I'd tell her to stop but she just looks at me with those eyes.

Seriously tho - I do hear 'a' voice when I type and when I read slow, it's not my speaking voice though, just a functional voice, I can change it when I'm board! - When I'm in speed read mode though I just kinda let the data stream in, no voice.

I hear my own voice while reading but when reading a really good story book, it somehow turns into a movie in my mind (people in the story have their own voice) and I forget I am reading. The only time I remember I am reading is when I have to turn the page. I find it amazing that my imagination can just take over and make me forget I am reading. And sometimes while reading, my mind wanders, thinking about something I read but yet, I continue reading. I'll read a few paragraphs then snap back to reality and realize I just read a lot of stuff while day dreaming about something else... It's quite weird. Anyone else ever do this?

There's a voice but I wouldnt say I can hear it, and it definately hasnt got any accent.. its just sort of there. Bit difficult to describe!

Originally posted by packro
And sometimes while reading, my mind wanders, thinking about something I read but yet, I continue reading. I'll read a few paragraphs then snap back to reality and realize I just read a lot of stuff while day dreaming about something else... It's quite weird. Anyone else ever do this?

I do it all the time, Ive gotten through classes like this, where I'll leave the class with perfect notes but just be able to remember daydreaming about some crap, normally something like why are apples called apples or something equally pointless.

Originally posted by DaMod
Yes, I hear my own voice when I read. I'm pretty sure you do too even if you don't realize you are doing it.

Example:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Could you read that? Did you hear your voice?



[edit on 6-11-2009 by DaMod]

I dodnt hear a voice then as usual, and I dont hear it when I read, I've listened for it but nothing, seems like cats got its tounge, and I fair love that, because my spelling doesn't matter

Yes the narrating voice is there, for most thoughts and when I read etc.

But I don't actually "hear" it thou,(not in the way we hear the outside of head world) but I do hear it in some way. You know what I mean.


[edit on 6-11-2009 by _Phoenix_]