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RATIONAL VOICE HEARING

by John Exell

This article is an attempt to analyse the nature of voices or audible hallucinations and suggest ways of dealing with them. I am a voice hearer, but haven't heard any for at least two weeks. I am labelled a schizophrenic, whatever that means.

Voice hearers describe their voices as originating from a number of different sources: spirits God, the devil, other people by telepathy, radio waves, transmitters, their own minds, subconscious, etc etc. We will ignore that for a minute and look at it more generally. The source can be either bad and foolish, bad and wise, good and foolish, or good and wise. But these are all relative terms, and there are degrees of goodness and wisdom etc. As we are the recipient of the voices we will instead use the terms, less or more good than us, and more foolish or wiser than us, were possible, without causing confusion.

Bad and wise is a contradiction in terms. If a person is bad, they have more chance of getting into trouble with the law and being sent to prison. Less chance of being liked by others and so given presents like cups of tea, digestive biscuits, camel cigarettes, sex, etc, etc. There is the case of bad rulers, who are the law. In history, they have always come to a sticky end, they are not liked by others, others simply suck up to them, and given the chance, others would depose and even kill them. Also what awaits them in the after life, if it exists. So obviously it is wise to be good. So a wise person would be good. Also the Universe, the Cosmos and God, if He/She and/or It exists, must be wise due to the complexity of everything, especially us humans, our minds and consciousness. And it must be good, due to the existence of sunrises and sunsets, tea, digestive biscuits, camel cigarettes, attractive nubile young things, etc, etc. If there is an Ultimate Power or Chief Spirit in the Universe it must be good otherwise the Universe would have fallen apart, disintegrated and have been destroyed long ago. If a spirit is bad, it risks falling foul of the Chief Spirit Ultimate Power or God, who by definition is also All Wise and the Ultimate Law. So it is also wise for a spirit to be good. So we can safely say that the combination bad and wise does not exist.

If the source is bad and foolish, it can do us no good whatsoever, and we should have nothing to do with it and so we should completely ignore it. If the source is good and stupid, we would not be able to learn anything from it if we listen to it we may also become foolish, and so run the risk of becoming bad, so we should also ignore it and have nothing to do with it.

So that only leaves sources that are good and wise. But how do we know if the source is good and wise. The magic combination of goodness and wisdom also creates other qualities, such as beauty, happiness, pleasure, bliss, well-being, health, practicality, etc, etc. So hearing voices or seeing things coming from such a source would also inculcate these feelings in us, we would feel happy, well-being, etc, etc. So if the voice does not make us feel good we can safely ignore it.

Let us now take the different possible good and wise sources. If it is a good and wise spirit an angel, God, etc., it would understand our predicament being labelled schizophrenic, that part of us views all voices as hallucinations, that they do not really exist so it would make it obvious that it had something good and wise to say to us, and show itself to us, come close to us and visit us, e.g. Moses and the Burning Bush. So we would have a tremendous sense of awe and well-being at being close to such a being.

If the voice is from a human source, telepathy, radio waves, transmitters etc., the person being good and wise, would likewise understand our doubt and contact us by more usual sources, e.g. meeting us and talking to us face to face in the normal manner, letter, telephone, e-mail, etc, etc. If they do not do this, they obviously haven't got anything important to say and so the voices are not worth bothering about. Then we have the case of the voice coming from ourselves, our own minds or subconscious. Scientists say we only use a small part of our minds and are only aware of this small part, so this is possible. We all have crazy, stupid, foolish or bad thoughts sometimes, which in our better moments we simply ignore. So it should be with crazy, stupid, foolish or bad voices which we perceive as coming from within us, from part of our mind. When we have a good or wise thought it makes us feel good, so if we hear a good or wise thought from within it would make us feel good, so we should simply ignore any voice from within that does not make us feel good, that does not make us feel happy.

There is the case that the voice is asking for help or wisdom from us. If the voice is coming from our own minds, obviously this doesn't apply and we can safely ignore it. If a spirit etc., it would seek help or wisdom from another spirit. It may be that a spirit wants us to do something that only humans can do. in which case, we should only listen to a good and wise spirit which again their visit to us would fill us with well-being, but again we should subject their message to a rigorous examination, and again, if the voice does not make us feel good, we should Ignore it. If the voice is from a fellow human, there is always the doubt that the voice Is an hallucination, and there is nothing worse than someone trying to help you or instruct you when you don't want it or need it. So again, we should wait until the fellow human personally asks us for help or instruction, if ever, by face to face conversation, letter or telephone, etc. Again, if they cannot be bothered to do this, it cannot be very important. So again, we should completely ignore the voice.

So we are left with voices from a divine source, and good, wise voices from within, both making us feel good and happy. Is the good and wise voice within also divine? Everything else we can safely ignored, with no loss to ourselves. Even so, we should test the good wise voice with reason and logic, common-sense and practicality, before believing in it and/or acting on it, as in the spirit world, if It exists, there are a lot of actors, beautiful people, who are In fact completely mischievous, and we can easily be fooled. I am sure God would not expect instant obedience to His Voice from someone labelled a schizophrenic, or anyone that thinks that it could be an hallucination. Any voice which makes us feel bad in any way, angry, guilty, confused, off balance, etc., we should completely ignore.