Research has been carried out to determine the factors that make people prone to hearing the voices of the dead. It has been revealed that too much engagement in daily tasks, unusual auditory experiences, and a high vulnerability to somatosensory hallucinations are all the characteristics that are prevalent in human beings who are more inclined toward the spiritual side. Clairvoyance and clairaudience, i.e., the ability to see or hear someone who is not present physically, and especially being able to hear the dead, is a very fascinating topic for the research of anthropologists and the scientists involved in such studies.
According to researchers, it would be important to note why some people with the above-mentioned characteristics associate these things with a spiritual experience while those who do not have any inherited capability equate them with mental health problems like schizophrenia. Psychologist Peter Moseley of Northumbria University stated, “Spiritualists tend to report unusual auditory experiences which are positive, start early in life, and which they are often able to control.” “Understanding how these develop is important because it could help us understand more about distressing or non-controllable experiences of hearing voices too.”
Peter collaborated with another psychologist, Adam Powell, of Durham University, to conduct research and investigate the distinguishing factors between the general public and spiritual people that made them hear the voices of the dead. For this, 65 clairaudient members from the spiritual community in the UK and 143 members of the general public have been surveyed and it has been found that 79% of them stated that it is completely normal for them to hear such voices and they have been undergoing through such experiences since their childhood.
On the other hand, 44.6% of the spiritualists said that they hear such voices daily, while 31.7% of them reported hearing external voices. However, most of them said that they usually hear the voices inside their heads. The results reveal that spiritualists tend to have more faith in such kinds of activities, and they don’t lend an ear to what other people think of them regarding this.
Similarly, these types of people acquire such abilities at early ages, and the estimated average age is 21.7 years. It should be noted that the general population also showed the same level of belief in such paranormal activities and visual hallucinations. According to Powell,
“Our findings say a lot about ‘learning and yearning’. For our participants, the tenets of Spiritualism seem to make sense of both extraordinary childhood experiences as well as the frequent auditory phenomena they experience as practicing mediums. “But all of those experiences may result more from having certain tendencies or early abilities than from simply believing in the possibility of contacting the dead if one tries hard enough.”
