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Who Hears Voices
Hearing voices or seeing visions is much more common than most people think. Around 8% of children and young people hear voices that others don't.
Some research in South London (Laurens et al, 2007) even found that around 30% of 9-12 year olds have had at least one experience of hearing or seeing something that other people don't!
All kinds of people hear voices - there is no single type. Whilst many of the young people we meet at Voice Collective have felt isolated, been bullied or had a difficult time - this isn't always the case. Anyone can hear voices at some point in their lives - whether they're rich, poor, popular, lonely, sporty, clever, creative or shy.
Famous people who hear (or have heard) voices
If you, or someone you know, hears voices or sees visions - you're in good company.
John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
"I had just so many mental problems. It wasn’t until I was 28 that my brain actually felt like a spacious place. When I was 18, 19, 22, my brain was just clogged all the time – non-stop voices. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. There was a lot of confusion inside me, this flood of voices, often contradicting each other, often telling me stuff that would happen in the future, and then it would happen, voices insulting me, telling me what to do"
Anthony Hopkins
A famous actor that has stared in movies and plays galore. In a 1993 interview in the News of the World, Anthony talked about a voice in his head that pulled him down when he was younger and less sure of himself.
"I’ve always had a little voice in my head, particularly when I was younger and less assured .... While onstage, during classical theatre the voice would suddenly say, “Oh, you think you can do Shakespeare, do you?"
"My school days were not always happy and I wanted to get away from Wales and be someone else. I was stupid at school, I just didn’t know what was going on. I thought I was on Mars, I didn’t know what they were talking about".
Zoe Wannamaker (Actress)
Zoe is an English actress, famous for her work with the Royal Shakespear Company, TV show 'My Family' and her role in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
"It’s like a little person sitting on your shoulder saying “No that’s wrong. Don’t do this. Don’t do that…
It’s got in the way when I was working, because my concentration would be tripped by this voice in the back of my head. You think you’re concentrating, but the voices were also saying “your not concentrating”.
"I know it sounds like Joan of Arc, but it was a sort of chatter that would be going on while I was on stage".
When asked if the voices had gone she said "They come back occasionally and have a good chat".
Gandhi
Known as 'Mahatma' (great soul). Ghandi led the Indian nationalist movement against British Rule.
"For me the Voice of God, of Conscience, of Truth, or the Inner Voice or ‘the Still Small Voice’ mean one and the same thing. I saw no form. I have never tried, for I have always believed God to be without form. But what I did hear was like a Voice from afar and yet quite near. It was as unmistakable as some human voice definitely speaking to me, and irresistible. I was not dreaming at the time I heard the Voice.
The hearing of the Voice was preceded by a terrific struggle within me. Suddenly the Voice came upon me. I listened, made certain it was the Voice, and the struggle ceased. I was calm".
Toward the end of his life the voice said: "You are on the right track, move neither to your left, nor right, but keep to the straight and narrow"
Saint Joan of Arc
When Joan was 12, she began to see visions of saints and angels. These visions talked with her, and she was also able to touch them. At first they told her to be good and go to church regularly. Later, they told her to lead the French Army to drive the English out of France.
St Joan led the French Army to some important victories, but was later captured by the English and conviced of 'heresy'. Twenty Five years after her death, she was declared innocent. In 1920, Joan of Arc was cannonised as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
Sigmund Freud (The founder of psychoanalysis)
"During the days when I was living alone in a foreign city ... I quite often heard my name suddenly called by an unmistakable and beloved voice;
I then noted down the exact moment of the hallucination and made anxious enquiries if those at home about what had happened at that time. Nothing had happened."
Carl Jung (Swiss psychiatrist)
Jung wrote about experiencing lots of different visions and voices. He thought some of these were parts of his subconscious, but believed that others were supernatural.
One of the voices he heard (Philemon) appeared to him when he needed advice or guidance.
"At times he seemed almost physically real. I walked up and down the garden with him, and he was to me what Indians call a guru"
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