Schizophrenia bulletin
September 1, 2022
Peter Moseley, Adam Powell, Angela Woods et al.
15 citations
Voice-hearing in people with psychosis and in nonclinical spiritualist communities shows important similarities and differences. Nonclinical voice-hearers report less distress and more control over their voices, consistent with prior findings. They also often integrate multiple sensory modalities into a single entity, experience high levels of associated visual imagery, and perceive voices in locations that differ in relation to perceptual boundaries. Most nonclinical voice-hearers reported hearing voices before encountering spiritualism, indicating that onset was not solely due to deliberate practice. The study suggests that understanding how spiritual voice-hearers cultivate and control voices after onset may inform interventions for distressing voices in psychosis.
Implicit Religion
September 8, 2025
Caroline Starkey, Josh Bullock, Adam Powell
Pub psychic nights in Britain, attended predominantly by working-class women, serve as spaces for spirit communication led by a medium or psychic. Based on 16 interviews and four participant observations, these events help attendees deal with grief and loss, extending beyond entertainment. They offer opportunities to address existential questions and seek comfort outside traditional religious institutions. The nights blur boundaries between ordinary and extraordinary, transforming historically male-dominated pub spaces into local hubs of female-led spirituality. This research deepens understanding of contemporary spiritual practices and their significance for marginalized communities.
Schizophr Bull
February 1, 2023
Tanya M Luhrmann, Ben Alderson-Day, Ann Chen et al.
In communities where hearing voices is common and expected, people are taught cultural models to identify and explain voice-like events. These communities share common features: they teach discernment to accurately identify the legitimate voice of a spirit or being, and they use two methods to enable experiencing spirits—trained attention to inner experience and repeated speech to the invisible other. The ability to hear spirits becomes more skilled with practice, and what is heard becomes clearer over time. Despite shared cultural ideas, individual variation in experience exists, some possibly reflecting psychotic process. Voice-like events may be shaped by cognitive expectation, trained practice, and an experiential pathway.