# Auditory Hallucinations **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 29, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auditory-hallucinations/680034 "2014-01-29T14:38:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auditory-hallucinations/680034/21 "2014-03-19T20:23:35Z")
I walked out of my office once, into the editorial bay, and said, “Has someone been playing the Star Wars theme?” Utter silence. No Star Wars theme. No one playing it. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auditory-hallucinations/680034/22 "2014-03-19T23:53:42Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > That is probably what is occurring with me too, although mine frequently happens when I’m awake. If it happens at night (usually around 2:30 am after an intense, violent dream) I hear a buzzing, whirring, or mumbling noise that gradually becomes repeated words or phrases such as “gutenheimer”, “yoyt”, “no no no”, or “Nixon bowling.” The voice is rather sinister and unpleasant but I suspect it’s my brain trying to make sense of the tinnitus noise. I like your “choice” of words! LOL In the process of researching this online earlier, I did come across a lot of mentions of tinnitus and our brains trying to make sense of white noise. One researcher claimed that anyone will start hearing murmuring after a while if they go way out into the “bush” and sit for a while listening to a creek or wind through the trees. There was also a mention that supposedly the DSM specifically exempts the hallucination of hearing one’s own name because this is so common (there is a Catherine Wheel song that has gotten me on this one many times). I should note that although I say I haven’t heard any auditory hallucinations since childhood, that’s not entirely true. What’s true is that I haven’t really heard any when fully awake, sober (i.e., not under the influence of controlled substances), and with a body temperature in the normal range. When I have been high, or had a significant fever, I’ve definitely had some wild ones. ETA: > [@tapu](#): > > I walked out of my office once, into the editorial bay, and said, “Has someone been playing the Star Wars theme?” > > Utter silence. No Star Wars theme. No one playing it. And this is the only time in your life (or your adult life) that this happened? Wild. No chance someone was gaslighting you? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auditory-hallucinations/680034/23 "2014-03-20T03:04:12Z")
I occasionally hear my mother calling my name. This never happened until after her death. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auditory-hallucinations/680034/24 "2014-03-20T06:21:36Z")
Somewhere in my 50’s I developed an inner juke box - it actually sounds as if a tinny, old-fashioned record player is in the next room, with the door closed. For some reason, “Whiter Shade of Pale” (Procol Harum 12 May 1967) is a recurring favorite. Years ago, I could change the program. This has nothing to do with sleep, or even white noise (although white noise may encourage it). At first I thought “Cool - all those lyrics I never understood - let’s see if they come up”. I got two instances of getting the desired song run, but when it came for the missing lyrics, it failed, and did the noise I always heard. Kinda cool. I may well be losing some other mental capacity by developing this, but so far, nothing important is missing. I also can get lucid dreams, and have two instances sleep paralysis and one night terror. I had read of night terror, so I didn’t freak too much. The sleep paralysis came out of nowhere and bothered me a great deal. Happy to say I didn’t freak - I figured “can’t do anything else - maybe go back to sleep and try waking again”. It worked. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auditory-hallucinations/680034/25 "2014-03-20T13:24:15Z")
I have had exactly one vivid, waking auditory hallucination. There’s a western (One Upon a Time in the West, maybe?) where the opening scene has a creaky/squaky windmill in it. A couple weeks after I saw the movie, I was sitting at my desk at work and vividly _heard_ an identical sound down the hallway. Squeakcreaksqueakcreak. Wandered out to pinpoint it. Couldn’t. Then it stopped. I asked a couple people what the sound was, but nobody else heard it. And as loud as it was, they would have had it been real. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auditory-hallucinations/680034/26 "2014-03-20T14:07:25Z")
Strange to hear multiple accounts of single occurrences of adult auditory hallucination. Why would this happen and not recur? That sleep paralysis sounds freaky. **Panache** , does your mother’s voice only come faintly through white noise, or plain as day in a quiet room? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auditory-hallucinations/680034.md?page=1)