Psychology of Belief, Part 6: Hallucinations
Hearing voices: It’s not just for schizophrenics any more! Hallucination is a relatively common phenomenon. Virtually all of us will, at one point or another, experience sensory perceptions generated entirely out of our own minds. Sadly, some people are more prone to this than others, and it is entirely within reason that every spiritual experience in human history is attributable to auditory, visual, and tactile hallucinations. Anywhere between 1-2 % of the human population hears voices on a regular basis. Sometimes the voices say encouraging things. Sometimes the voices are derogatory and vicious. Other times they speak nonsense. Occasionally they are even capable of full conversations. Sometimes the voices are audible. Sometimes they are like loud thoughts. Other times they are like severe, intrusive urges. Sometimes the voices are a blessing in the life of the hearer. Other times the voices are a nuisance. Some people cope by taking drugs. Others cope by asserting dominance with the voices. Some have even developed bizarre coping mechanisms like having “voice time” or simply repeating everything the voices say back at them. In short, if you think you have heard the voice of God. You probably have not.
Video Rating: 5 / 5
Love the way you use ACTUAL footage of believers falling into these traps. Great work.
I think one of my friends must be an alien or have telekinesis or something because something lifted into the air and hit me in the face while we were all sitting there playing a videogame..
often the feelings I have..
they are not really voices just feelings..
are completely correct when i reveal the top 10 cards of a deck of cards..
the psycic abilitites helped me get good grades on tests in school several times..
but I completely see them as useless because the mind it’sself gets no excersise if I just use them all the time..
I never had any audible conversations with God and I am an AVID believer.. I have only had dreams with God telling me something through the dream..
“Consider the following experiment.”
These four words now strike fear into the heart of true believers everywhere! LOL.
An oposing theory could that people who have been hit over the head, have experienced trauma or suffer from scitzophrenia are actually Gods chosen messengers. The messages they hear are actually God talking to them.
Take for instance nephilimfree – I think it is a fair guess that he has had a few to many blows over his head and now he has like a broadband connection directly to God.
And my proof for all of this is of cause all the wonderfull and true things he says on his videos
@TheStigma
You’re basically echoing me with different words. I personally prefer the modifier “without any compelling reason to think otherwise.” This way we don’t have to mince words about relative certainty. We can rest assured in absolute certainty, because that certainty is always tentative. That is to say, the conclusion is 100% certain, but the assumptions are not. But since evidence determines our assumptions, they remain valid until something better comes along.
@AntiCitizenX In practice we think alike, but I think it would be more prudent to say that all such experiences are allmost certainly hallucinations (slight wording difference). Its a suble distinction I’m making between claiming absolute certainty, and only being very very certain that such is the case. Yes yes, I’m being nitpicky, sorry
@TheStigma
“the inability for an internal voice to produce physical effects for example is NESSSECARILY proof of halucination,”
The voice may or may not be coming from a telepathy, but we do have a purely natural explanation for where that voice could be coming from without it. We also have a long human history hearing things that aren’t real. So without any compelling reason to think otherwise, Occam’s razor forces us to conclude that all such experiences are hallucinations.
@wtfthatsrandum Being able to meet Superman allmost seems like it would make up for the occational bouts of mania
@TheStigma Note that I don’t say that people shoud think this, but I think it would have been better worded as something like “… you have no evidence based reason to think that it is anything else than a common hallucination” rather than wording it as “an admission if common hallucinations”.
I am basically just disagreeing slightly on the semantics of your point though I agree with it.
These are very good videos. I hope you keep making them. their educational value regardless og wether or not choose to accept applying them to religious settings is great.
However I don’t think the inability for an internal voice to produce physical effects for example is NESSSECARILY proof of halucination, even if that is the most reasonable deduction. its not inconcievable that an real internal voice could be limited to just audio, such as if for example telepathy werelater proven to be fact.
@parswarr
You can always send me a private message (PM).
You seem to have a particular interest in the Mormon faith; I was wondering if you were located in the Salt Lake area. I don’t know if there is a way to talk out of the comments section in here via email or something similar, but I would seriously like to buy you lunch some time and pick your brain.
self awareness ftw
Sound in the deep HZ can also cause hallucinations. just a tip.
@colourmegone You’re welcome
@badassmixedchick Ditto, you saved me the chore of writing a reply. Thanks.
@AntiCitizenX Lol! Yea I thought I’d give him an endearing nickname. I’ve grown rather fond of the old guy….lol. Keep up the good work.
@badassmixedchick
Richie D? Oh, Richard Dawkins! LOL… I had to think about that for a second.
Thanks for the kind feedback.
Love Richie D at the end! Lol. Btw you’re awesome…I love the psychological approach! I think it would be more beneficial if some of my fellow atheists would spend less time being blindly angry towards religious people for their ignorance, and more time delving into why they believe what they do, and finding ways to prevent that mental gap for future generations. Keep doing what you do—it is much appreciated!
@AntiCitizenX I wasn’t literally hearing voices but yes, trying to find patterns. The patterns sounded like distorted whispers. The AC was in the living room while I was in the bed room. My cousins and me used to play that game in the dark, stare at darkness and make out what it is. Pretty fun.
@HybridD91
Were you actually hearing what seemed to be voices? Or impressions? What did they actually sound like when you tried to find some kind of pattern?
This kind of reminds me of a game I used to play when I was a kid. When in a very dark room, just stare blankly at a friend’s face. After 10-15 seconds, your eyes will relax a little, and the face will contort into some hideous deformation as your mind tries to fill in the blanks. It’s a great game for cheap scares.
I did an experiment on myself when I was 15. I keep thinking about demons and noises I couldn’t make out, which were generated by an AC. I keep thinking, what if they’re evil spirits. I tricked myself into thinking they were because of biased beliefs. Every time I heard noises I couldn’t make out, I made the same conclusions. It was obvious I knew where the nosies came from but my biased beliefs made them what they weren’t.
@AntiCitizenX
You know the following, but let me say it.
The great value in your analysis is that you go beyond WHAT they get wrong and show us HOW (even WHY) they and we all can get it wrong – and how we can be deceived and manipulated by them and others.
This is why I encourage you to do that “real-time” analysis.
I guess it must be a world of work – but at least finding videos with pure types of bias would no longer be a problem.
Kudos to you for your already great public service.