"The idea of "hearing a voice" generates fear and suspicion [among others]. There are assumptions about people being violent or mad," says seniorresearcher at the Centre of Medical Humanities at Durham University, Angela Woods to WIRED.co.uk
She points, however, to the long tradition of voice hearing in human history, and asserts there have been situations and cultural contexts when it was considered an "ordinary aspect of human experience".
Woods is part of a group of 18 UK-based and international researchers from the Hearing the Voice project, who are set on debunking the prejudices associated with voice hearing. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, the researchers -- who hail from different disciplines -- have joined forces to argue that this can be both a positive and negative experience. The aim of their project is to shed light on the phenomenon holistically, within a wider social, cultural and scientific context.