Ok this is an old article, but it's a good and interesting one none the less. So from reading the article it seems like that a great many people hear voices and not everyone goes and seeks help from them. It is also apparant that your outlook on hearing these voices can greatly change how you experience them which is rather interesting. I also find it interesting how it has had a positive effect on some people's lives. But then again there are people who are driven to suicide by the voices in their head and in that case, that isn't normal. So me personally, I wouldn't label it as "normal," just because it happens to a lot of people. If half the worlds shoots up heroin that doesn't make it normal, it just means half the world is retarded as fuck.
I hear voices every night, but mainly my voices, and I'm pretty sure everyone else does, but doesn't really notice it. Every night, while I'm drifting away into sleep, my thoughts become whispers. I can feel hot breathe on my ear to. It's creepy. Just about everytime, I get really startled and wake out of that state.
No, it's just my brain chatter. What ever I will be thinking (which is a lot of times in words). As soon as I hit this state in almost falling asleep, my brain chatter just decides to speak in my ear. I've heard other people talking about it, but I don't know if it happens to everyone.
This shit happens to me all the time.. There is a whisper in my ear and it feels as if someone is actually doing it. You can feel the breath in your ear and the warm moisture it leaves around your ear drum. It wakes you up right before you're about to sleep. I know better than to think it's like a ghost or something spiritual. It's just my mind being in that half awake, half asleep state. The kind where when you're day dreaming about fighting off a polar bear from attacking your hot tub full of naked chicks and in it, you punch it right in the fucking face. But your body thinks it's real life and wants to react and your arm comes spasming up.
Does that mean a change in your perspective of things? If so then I highly agree. On my multiple contacts I've had varying ways of how I accept it during that time when it occurs, and they significantly effect whether it was a positive, negative, or neutral experience. I personally believe you can turn almost any negative situation into something good just by your thoughts. Of course if you are getting killed or something like that, obviously your thoughts aren't going to make a different. But if we want to talk theoretically here for a second you can possibly change your universe based on your thought patterns, and your thoughts. All though this is just theoretically, but I have some suspicions that it might work.
Are Voices plural normal? how many people out there have more than one voice in their head? Of course we all have a voice, without it we couldnt think or speak.
What is the quality of this research? What was the sample size? How did they control for variables? Has it been replicated? Do their conclusions hold weight and lend credibility to observed statistics, or are they just personal inferences? What could be done to investigate further?
Well it is talking about voices. Because everyone hears a voice in their head, all it is though is you conversing with yourself through brain chatter. That is normal and everyone experiences it. What they are talking about is an external voice that isn't yours.
You pointed out some good questions, unfortunately I'm only able to answer some of them. 1) I think it's good quality, written by a very credible news agency, so they wouldn't just create an article about some bullshit research. 4) On the bottom of the article they were asking people above the age of 16 who have heard voices in their head to contact the researchers, so it is my guess it was on going and not just a one time thing.
You would be very surprised then. Even the most credible news agencies and even wire services are notoriously bad at reporting on science news and academic publications. From the top down, it's a huge red flag. Actually, the interaction between academic organizations and news agencies is arguably a very pertinent ethics issue, due to a massive gap of communication between researchers & scientists and journalists. An illustration, if you please; That's a pretty strong selection bias, don't you think? A terrible way to ensure you get reliable feedback.