Hearing voices is often associated with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. But is this phenomenon always a sign of disorder? Although rarely explored outside clinical contexts, recent studies suggest it is more common than previously thought: it is estimated that between 4% and 15% of healthy adults have heard voices without any external stimulus.
A study led by Giulia Prete, conducted with 680 Italian adults without psychiatric diagnoses, aimed to better understand these experiences in healthy individuals.
The results revealed that factors such as age, gender, religiosity, anxiety, and depression significantly influence the likelihood of hearing voices. Being young, female, and non-religious, combined with elevated levels of anxiety or depression (even if not clinical), is associated with a greater propensity to hear voices. Religiosity showed an ambivalent role: positive beliefs (such as faith in benevolent forces) are linked to more pleasant, less intrusive experiences with greater personal meaning. On the other hand, persecutory beliefs (such as fear of divine punishment) are associated with greater emotional distress and a higher frequency of unusual auditory experiences.
Hearing voices is not, in itself, a sign of illness. It can be experienced as a gift, a disturbance, or an expression of the diversity of human consciousness. Understanding these experiences, rather than stigmatizing them, is essential for a more humane and informed approach to mental health.
This study was published in the scientific journal BJPsych open, in the article The impact of religiosity, anxiety and depression on proneness to auditory hallucinations in healthy individuals, as a part of research project 20/22 - From psychiatric disorder to spiritual gift: Phenomenology and cerebral correlates of hearing voices, supported by the Bial Foundation.
ABSTRACT
Background
Auditory hallucinations (hearing voices in the absence of physical stimuli) are present in clinical conditions, but they are also experienced less frequently by healthy individuals. In the non-clinical population, auditory hallucinations are described more often as positive and not intrusive; indeed, they have received less attention.
Aims
The present study explores the phenomenology of non-clinical auditory hallucinations and their possible relationship with religiosity.
Method
Starting from previous findings suggesting that non-clinical auditory hallucinations are often described as a gift or a way to be connected with ‘someone else’, we administered standardised questionnaires to quantify proneness to experiencing auditory hallucinations, religiosity and anxiety/depression scores.
Results
Regression analysis carried out using an auditory hallucinations, index as the dependent variable on a final sample of 680 responders revealed that a total of 31% of the variance was explained by a five-steps model including demographic characteristics (i.e. being young, a woman and a non-believer) and negative (e.g. being afraid of otherworldly punishments) and positive (e.g. believing in benevolent supernatural forces) components of religiosity, anxiety and depression. Crucially, compared with believers, non-believers revealed higher scores in depression, anxiety and in a specific questionnaire measuring proneness to auditory hallucinations.
Conclusions
Results suggests that religiosity acts as a potential protective factor for proneness to paranormal experiences, but a complex relationship emerges between religious beliefs, mood alterations and unusual experiences.
