Article on intentionally interacting with auditory hallucinations

[Reaper]

The answer itself is quite simple: an enormous commitment to self-honesty. It involved first realizing the barriers I had erected around my perception of myself in order to protect my ego, then the removal of those barriers to allow an undistorted view of the self.

In doing this, I ran into many things I found ugly, disgusting, scary, confusing...there were times I hated myself so much I wanted to just stop existing, but I told myself that I couldn't get any better until I could see what was already there. For a time I adopted quite a negative perspective, seeking to know my flaws only so that I could destroy them and replace them with better things. I felt I could shape myself into something superior this way. In time, however, as I uncovered more and more, I began to feel inevitable compassion upon these parts of myself that had been locked away and denied expression. All of the anger and hatred, the desire for violence and control...all of it stemmed from a child who endured traumatic experiences and hid herself away in an attempt to stay safe.

When I could see the child beneath the roaring monster, the monster ceased to be, yet it was only by acknowledging the monster that I could see the child to begin with.