I have been reading alot of the posts. There sometimes is a medical reason behind some of the these things. Hearing voices I am afraid is a psychotic symptom of a mental disorder. Hallucinations are also a psychotic symptom. I think to be sure some should be looking into psychiatric help for this. On the other hand, feelings, dreams, premonitions are real. Sorry but just had to add this because some of the things here are way out there, and I am a believer.

LMAO... yea, there may be a very fine line...not sure though!!

Well, that was a carefully worded posting . There is sometimes a medical reason, behind some of the posts, and some should surely be looking into psychiatric help.

Did you have anything specific in mind? Not a challenge, just a question. The original proposition is irrebuttable.

On the bright side, some of the really weird stuff might be made up. Offered as a sincere consolation to someone who seems genuinely concerned, not sarcasm.

I think if anybody is hearing voices, they need to get a psyche evaluation.

If someone were clairaudient, they are hearing voices but are not psychotic, the voices will have a purpose, be truthful and helpful.

In my opinion if someone hears voices and those voices are telling them to do some heinous crime or it is rabbling on about much of nothing, I think it could be described as a psychotic episode.

However, if the voice is giving some useful piece of information for the good then it could be something totally different. Maybe this is where "testing the spirits" could come into play - ie are they truthful? - because if they are not, the recipient could, indeed be mentally ill or in danger.

^^^Agreed.

Re: Hallucinations,

It's worth noting that in certain circumstances what might normally be described as hallucinations are, in my highly unprofessional opinion at least, not so much a case of mental illness as they are a case of wanting to see something so bad that irrelevant events are noted as significant, i.e. a pyrokinetic interpreting a wavering of a candle flame as beign proof of his or her abilities.

Also remember there's a different between what society deems "crazy" and what a qualified doctor would deem legitimate psychotic behaviour. And while I've thought many people on this forum are crazy by society's definition, you need to be more careful signing someone off as psychotic unless you have the qualifications to do so. I don't know about you, but I personally do not have those qualifications so I do not go around seemingly diagnosing people over an Internet forum.

Can't argue with you there SW. But I worked in mental institution for a brief time, and:
a. I felt at home sometimes, like I should be a patient.
b. I wondered if the employees were just as crazy as the patients.
c. The hair stood up on the back of my neck once because one demented pt. said something very personal to me, that NO ONE could have known.

At that time, I FELT the difference between psychosis and just plain evil. I even got mad at the Doctor, and we had a heated "discussion" about a particular patient that he diagnosed as delusional, because his beliefs could not be substantiated, and I asked him (the DR) if he believed in Jesus, and that he rose from the dead. Yeah, I only worked there 2 months, wonder why

Hey, Listening.

Good stuff. Many folks say that some people who study psychology may be attracted to the subject as a form of "self-treatment." As to the guards, that's sometimes true in prisons, too. Fifty-fifty which side of the bars some characters end up on. Remember Abu Ghraib? Some of the Guardsmen involved were state prison guards back home.

As to "c" don't worry; it's a trick. The patient probes everyone he or she comes in contact with. You never saw the many, many misses, and nobody talked about them to you, either (a raving lunatic said something nonsensical, like out of The Exorcist? - nothing to talk about, like water to a fish).

But just as a broken clock is right twice a day, sooner or later, there will be a hit, just your luck it was you. Of course it weirded you out, that's the point.

Sane people do it, too. Maybe you've met the predatory (not picking on men) man who solicits sex from a woman, every woman, way earlier than is socially usual. Ninety-nine out of a hundred women say no, but he only needs one yes.

As to your patient, it's not as if he or she had much else to do all day.

Take care.

someone psychotic has already being diagnosed delusuinal, a psychic is yet to be diagnosed...In most cases anyway, i do think some psychics are the real deal, the ones that offer some sort of evidence.

I agree... better to be safe than psycho...

Here's something I'd say's psychotic pretending to be psychic. Derek Accorah acting like he's possessed, and attacking his friends with lamps and other random objects.

Fortunately/unfortunately it is not always as simple as this. I can only speak from personal experience. I hear voices ocassionaly, but regularly, and have done so for over 40 years.

No one has ever been able to find any physical or mental impairment to explain this. Some of the voices are clearly internal,while others may be accompanied by visions. Some come in the form of dreams, others while i am clearly wide awake.

The interesting thing is that they tell me things which i could not otherwise know; eg the combination to a lock, where a phone or wallet has been lost/misplaced. Others give physical warning of real hazards in my life, allowing me to avoid them. Some present a full blown image/vision with commentary, of a future event.

These are spontaneous, and if they are controllable i have not learned how to do so, although they do sometimes work on demand, as a kind of party trick
Other independent witnesses have heard my predictions and seen the consequences of listening to these voices. It is not very useful to me, apart from saving my life, but it does add a different dimension to my life experiences and thus to my world view on many things

Some of the things i see /hear are clearly physical manifestations in the real world, and leave physical evidence behind. Others may be some form of internal dialogue with an aspect of the universe which i do not fully understand. Because of the nature and purpose of many of these communications ,I tend to think that they come from an entity which many call god, because it has the power to operate at a completely different level in our world, and for some reason has a personal interest in my life.

Unfortunately that's a huge issue.

I hear voices. These voices are the thoughts of others. Sometimes they appear as voices, sometimes as noiseless lines of words in my head (like my own thoughts, but not from me).
This makes me a schizophrenic.
And I accept this.

But that doesn't make me crazy. Just (receptive?).

Personally, I don't like them, and am currently trying to get medication to stop them.

Said to be crazy/delusional==money for diag./treatment., and people can joke and laugh it off.
Said to have clairvoyance/premonitions==money in the pocket from the sucker crowd. Great things to be enlightened with.

This seems to be a tactic that surfaces around a certain anniversary, where some who claim to have foretellings of future events try and set themselves a stage. 9/11 claims to have been foreseen, although not by many due to extraneous behaviours. This feeling is dissipating, however, with newer info. being cast in the light, and some seem to want to profit, in some way.

It's hard for some who are involved to try and say they can step out of current realities, while also punching the time clock for treating those who claim they "see".

You know I once had a doctor that said my 14 year old daughter was delusional because one of her obsessions with her OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) was in the afterlife. She searched for answers that couldn't be found and it overtook her life. But after I changed doctors and found a christian one she was properly diagnosed and treated and now is 18 and doing better.
I know what you mean by evil.

I understand what you are trying to say. But I would think that most people who really have a "gift" only feel safe being honest about it in a place such as this. I have only told a select few about things I have seen or experienced, and part of the reason is because of comments such as yours.

I am so sorry for that. That was not my intention. I should probably learn to shut my mouth sometimes. I know how you feel. My husband wouldn't let me tell the newspaper about my experience with my son's cardiac arrest. I know that the reporter had heard about it though because he kept asking me how I knew he was in trouble. I wish I would have told my story so that others like yourself were more comfortable with telling theirs. I really only meant to try to help people who were hearing evil voices and such. Because the one thing I don't believe in is that we can be possessed with evil unless we are mentally ill. Because the human spirit is much too strong for that.

Again, I am sorry. I would love to hear some of your experiences and I promise not to criticize.

Umm... there is a difference. I believe that my mother and I have a bit of a psychic connection. I SWEAR THIS IS NOT FAKE> But i havent documented this since I believed this all along, but i could try one day.

Although I AM a card magician, (not a very good one) i sometimes do a little test to see if we are "on the same line" that day. Sometimes, i just shuffle the cards (I ACTUALLY DO) and then i pick up the top card, i try to send the thought to my mom, and i tell her to think of the first card that comes in mind, and she says it out loud. It only works once or twice in a row though. after that, it won't work for the rest of the day. Tried it with a classmate once too.

That's really subjective. Just because someone may commit a crime due to voices doesn't mean that they're any more or less psychotic than someone who doesn't commit a crime. What if the crime is one that brings justice (killing a man who is clearly guilty of murder after he gets off on a technicality)? Is it helpful because it takes a murderer off the streets or is it harmful because it turns another man into what he just tried to eliminate? I don't think classifying voices as helpful, harmful or useless rules out mental illness because it's discrimatory and subjective.

This is a really interesting read (and it's fairly short and to the point):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_Voices_Movement

The research isn't conclusive so there's really no solid evidence to support any belief but it contains a lot of really interesting stuff. It definitely gives you something to think about.

That's okay. ~Hug~

"As to "c" don't worry; it's a trick. The patient probes everyone he or she comes in contact with. You never saw the many, many misses, and nobody talked about them to you, either (a raving lunatic said something nonsensical, like out of The Exorcist? - nothing to talk about, like water to a fish).

But just as a broken clock is right twice a day, sooner or later, there will be a hit, just your luck it was you. Of course it weirded you out, that's the point."

Eight Bits, I know what you saying is true, but trust me this was NOT a case of a random thought sticking . . . believe me, I ran through all of the practical and rational reasons for this incident, including someone else talking about me around the patient, but that absolutely was not the case. Also his voice changed, and he mentioned names and specifics. Lol, I think he was a case of a person with some psychic abilities gone wrong . . . trying to medicate it out of himself so to speak.

A lot of people would open up the "wires" so to speak if they did not self medicate, imo, with drugs, alcohol, food, noise, etc. I have a thing with high pitched frequencies. . . they actually make me angry! Other people don't seem to mind the sound, but I can't stand it. So I guess I could be a little psychotic too.

I think the line between being psychotic and being psychic is very fine. I have a friend who´s psychotic and I´ve felt at times like psychotics are those of us who have no control over their psychic side. Impressions, sounds and images just bombard them randomly and they lose the ability to seperate our physical reality from the signals they´re constantly receiving.

Fair enough, Listening.

The important thing is, you're safe now.

See you out there.

No, psychotic people are dangerous.