Article on intentionally interacting with auditory hallucinations

[Reaper]

My internal world is an ongoing conversation. There seem to be an awful lot of me in here! It is difficult to achieve collective silence in something like meditation, but it is also often a comfort to me.

When I was younger the voices would constantly say nasty things, telling me to kill myself, hurt people I loved, etc. For a while it became so bad that my personality fractured and I would act out each voice individually, sometimes becoming very violent. It got me locked up a number of different times. Eventually, when the medications became unbearable, I changed my approach and looked at each voice as a part of myself that wasn't being heard. It was difficult deciphering that language, seeing through all the anger and hatred, but once I got the gist of it, the voices became helpful, giving advice, warning me of potential dangers and occasionally correctly predicting the future. I can ask any question and get an answer I would never have expected of myself. This has been an advantage in automatic writing and channeling attempts as well. I constantly hear voices, and am also an active, productive member of society who takes nothing but herbal supplements to keep up her health.

It is a shame that so many people are branded crazy and put on a lifetime of poisonous meds for something that is much less debilitating than it initially seems.

Note: I am not in this post encouraging anyone with mental illness to simply stop taking their medications- doing so is quite dangerous. I'm merely offering another perspective to the idea that the only cure for mental illness is a barrage of narcotics.