Why some people imagine they hear dead people

It is a windy October night in 1841, and although Liverpool is asleep, Mrs. Bates could be very much awake. Before her, shining on the foot of the bed, is her friend Elizabeth Morgan's “open vision”:standing before her in plain sight, wearing beautiful white robes“. The sparkling vision lasts for a “significant period of time” after which disappears. As dawn breaks and after a fitful sleep, a messenger informs Mrs. Bates that Elizabeth Morgan is dead.

People have reported terrifying, spiritual, and weird experiences for hundreds of years. Like Mrs. Bates, those that claimed to have spoken to the dead were ridiculed and revered. Our latest research revealed that mediums, mystics and psychics are more prone to certain auditory phenomena than the final population, which can play a task of their reports of communicating with the dead.

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The experience of hearing voices is rather more common than you may think. Some research estimated that as many as 50% of individuals hear the voice of a deceased loved one in periods of mourning. Elsewhere, our team's research showed that some Christians sometimes hear God as a literal voice with which they will commune.

The claim that one can speak to the dead is commonly found to coexist with the beliefs of so-called “spiritualism” – a quasi-religious movement based on the concept individuals live on after the death of their physical bodies. Their “spirits” can appear or communicate with living people, often called “mediums.”

Spiritism has its roots in Fox sisters, Maggie and Kate, who in 1848 claimed to have heard a ghost knocking on the partitions of their New York home. Mediums who “hear” spirits, because the Fox sisters did, are called “clair-hearing”, while those that “see” spirits are considered “clairvoyant”.

From Arthur Conan Doyle onwards Kardashiansthe potential for spiritual mediumship has endured and captivated many. In fact, the Spiritualist National Union (SNU), certainly one of the few contemporary Spiritualist organizations within the UK, boasts a membership of not less than 11,000.

Moreover, interest in spirit transmission, paranormal prophecies and life after death appears to be growing in each… Great Britain and US In recent years. But what actually happens when people hear voices that they mistake for the spirits of the dead?

“I Hear Dead People”

Our latest study clairaudient experiences of recent media begin to clarify why some people claim to listen to spiritual voices. We found that individuals who were more prone to experience “absorption” – the tendency to change into lost in mental images or altered states of consciousness – were also more prone to experience clairaudience.

This finding suggests that these individuals are indeed experiencing unusual sounds that they consider clairaudient. However, this doesn’t explain why they discover these voices with the spirits of the dead, which is a basic principle of spiritualism.

Significantly, almost 75% of those we surveyed said that they had no knowledge of spiritualism or its belief system before their earliest clairaudient experiences. This suggests that for a lot of, the sensation of talking to spirits preceded knowledge of clairaudience as a phenomenon.

Some scholars argue that mediums later attribute their voice hearing to spiritualism to clarify their auditory hallucinations. This “attribution theory” may explain why there are a lot of spirit mediums.

Serious concerns

Historical research suggests that emotional desires play a key role in causing such phenomena. This study shows that prior to now, when someone felt melancholy and desperately desired a manifestation of the supernatural, they often recorded a spiritual experience shortly thereafter.

The faith leader's guidance also seems essential in conjuring the metaphysical. Work For example, Stanford University anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann emphasizes that desires should be guided, noting the importance of coaching and instructing believers who hope to have vivid encounters with the divine through prayer.

However, further research showed spiritual practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect – not less than not with out a pre-existing tendency towards immersive mental activities. For the media, which means “longing and learning” are usually not enough. Clairaudience may require an exceptional tendency to listen to voices.

Healthy hearing

Scientists are increasingly involved in the similarities and differences between clairaudience and a number of other other types of voice hearing, reminiscent of those experienced by people affected by mental illness.

For example, people affected by psychosis also often hear voices. Comparing such voices in relation to media-reported clairaudience, researchers have already begun to discover essential differences that distinguish clairaudience from the experiences of individuals living with psychosis. For example, the media tends to exert more control over their voices – and report little or no anxiety surrounding the experience.

Returning to Liverpool in 1841, Mrs. Bates “rejoiced in the vision” of her friend at the top of her bed, while Elizabeth Morgan's husband reportedly received “comfort in the valley of sorrow” when he learned of the vision. Hearing the dead will not be necessarily an indication of mental distress or supernatural possession. For the media, this generally is a source of comfort – the standard of the best way they experience reality.