There’s a distinct difference between hearing something vividly in your head, which is more like imagining a sound, and having an actual auditory hallucination. I read last night: schizophrenics may know that their auditory hallucinations aren’t real, but they also can’t distinguish them from real sounds.
Whenever I have had an auditory hallucination (also, very rarely), it has been of my name being called as well!
I often (~monthly) believe that my name is being called when further investigation suggests otherwise. I believe it is a result of a similar sibilant sound and my upbringing. My stepfather insisted that if he shouted my name I had to come running, even if I was out of earshot blocks away. Thus I was “nurtured” towards false positives.
This audio hallucination always fools me, but visual hallucinations never do.
At approximately the same rate (monthly), I imagine I see a cloaked figure. This is more an optical illusion in my peripheral vision, which I quickly recognize. Occasional Melatonin or Vitamin D greatly reduce the occurrence of this optical misidentification.
I also have a story about conditioned susceptibility to hallucinations: At one point I was in a long-distance relationship and I started hallucinating Google chat’s New Instant Message notification sound. This happened several times a day, and if I happened to be in proximity to a computer I would have to check to see if it was real.
I’ll take your questions in reverse order. (Note:
Wikipedia gives
audiation
a purely musical meaning, but I’m using it here to include
hearing speaking voices and other nonmusical things in one’s
head.)
I have what I think is above-average skill at visualization
and audiation. (For musical things, my skill is definitely
above average even among the musicians I know.) During the
day, these are both under my conscious control—I decide
to see or hear something in my head, and I do.
When I’m falling asleep, though, my visualizations and
audiations become
much more vivid, and
spontaneous, in the sense that even though I still have
some control over them, if I’m not exerting control at the
moment, they keep going (like I have a TV station in my
head that broadcasts nonsense).
Despite the vividness and spontaneity, though, I never think
any of this is real. It has a clear quality of coming from
inside my head rather than the external world.
In the very rare occurrences of actual hallucinations, which
are always voices and usually saying my name, they seem
real. The only way I know they’re not real is context—I
live alone so I figure it’s more likely that I’m
hallucinating than that someone has entered my house late at
night and is talking to me. (Back when I lived with someone
I would holler back if it sounded like someone was calling
me from another room.)
I have also noticed hearing things when I am very sleepy: usually music or words that I can’t quite hear clearly.
I’m very confused by this sentence! You know the auditory hallucinations aren’t real, right? And what are these vivid audiations you speak of?
There’s a distinct difference between hearing something vividly in your head, which is more like imagining a sound, and having an actual auditory hallucination. I read last night: schizophrenics may know that their auditory hallucinations aren’t real, but they also can’t distinguish them from real sounds.
Whenever I have had an auditory hallucination (also, very rarely), it has been of my name being called as well!
I often (~monthly) believe that my name is being called when further investigation suggests otherwise. I believe it is a result of a similar sibilant sound and my upbringing. My stepfather insisted that if he shouted my name I had to come running, even if I was out of earshot blocks away. Thus I was “nurtured” towards false positives.
This audio hallucination always fools me, but visual hallucinations never do.
At approximately the same rate (monthly), I imagine I see a cloaked figure. This is more an optical illusion in my peripheral vision, which I quickly recognize. Occasional Melatonin or Vitamin D greatly reduce the occurrence of this optical misidentification.
I also have a story about conditioned susceptibility to hallucinations: At one point I was in a long-distance relationship and I started hallucinating Google chat’s New Instant Message notification sound. This happened several times a day, and if I happened to be in proximity to a computer I would have to check to see if it was real.
.
I’ll take your questions in reverse order. (Note: Wikipedia gives audiation a purely musical meaning, but I’m using it here to include hearing speaking voices and other nonmusical things in one’s head.)
I have what I think is above-average skill at visualization and audiation. (For musical things, my skill is definitely above average even among the musicians I know.) During the day, these are both under my conscious control—I decide to see or hear something in my head, and I do.
When I’m falling asleep, though, my visualizations and audiations become
much more vivid, and
spontaneous, in the sense that even though I still have some control over them, if I’m not exerting control at the moment, they keep going (like I have a TV station in my head that broadcasts nonsense).
Despite the vividness and spontaneity, though, I never think any of this is real. It has a clear quality of coming from inside my head rather than the external world.
In the very rare occurrences of actual hallucinations, which are always voices and usually saying my name, they seem real. The only way I know they’re not real is context—I live alone so I figure it’s more likely that I’m hallucinating than that someone has entered my house late at night and is talking to me. (Back when I lived with someone I would holler back if it sounded like someone was calling me from another room.)