Hearing voices

An experiment is described in which people with auditory hallucinations were brought into contact with each other. On an evening television talk show, a patient--diagnosed several times as having schizophrenia--talked about her voices. Four hundred and fifty people who also were hearing voices reacted to the program by telephone. A questionnaire was sent to those who responded to the television program in order to get more information about their way of coping with the voices. From those who filled out the questionnaire, 20 people were selected who explained their experiences in a clear way. A meeting for people hearing voices was organized, and the 20 persons were invited to become the speakers. In this article the experiences described by the participants are reported as well as the many ways in which they coped with these experiences.