Voices in the night

[Wckoek]

It is something you'll never forget when you hear human voice in the night when you can be sure that no way anyone was there, and I'm sure I wasn't hallucinating either.
Does anyone have such strange experience at sea?

[belizesailor]

So...no one was around, you weren't hullicinating...whats the third possibility?

[44'cruisingcat]

I read about this. The sea makes a wide spectrum of sound. Your brain tries to find recognizable sounds in amongst it. So occasionally you'll hear something a bit like voices.

[daletournier]

Yes, I have had heard voices at sea not just at night. A couple of times I looked around to make sure there was no one in trouble although I knew there was no one there. My girlfriend has also experienced this...

[Ahquabi]

Yes, there is some guy, living in my rigging somewhere, who yells abuse at me at night when its 20+ knots.

[Don C L]

yep, heard 'em too, and you don't have to be overly fatigued to hear 'em if that's what you meant by not hallucinating, or at least I don't.. I suppose it's a cross of auditory hallucination and fabrication from the available white noise...? Is there a doctor in the house?

[liquidice]

A preponderance of the current research regarding AVH (auditory verbal hallucinations, ie hearing voices) comes from the study of schizophrenia. McCarthy Jones et al had this interesting take on how to parse the different voices people hear:
“Five subtypes are proposed; hypervigilance, autobiographical memory (subdivided into dissociative and nondissociative), inner speech (subdivided into obsessional, own thought, and novel), epileptic and deafferentation. We suggest other facets of AVH, including negative content and form (eg, commands), may be best treated as dimensional constructs that vary across subtypes. “

The “commands” one is spooky.

[Wckoek]

Yes, I mean not overly fatigue.
I heard and read that a lot of sailors do hear voices at sea where there isn't supposed to be, I guess I am not alone in this.

That may be an explanation for it other than supernatural, probably your mind trick you into thinking that it was a human voice when it pick up similar signals.

"Commands" are the ones that tell you to do something like schizophrenics does?

[Jacana]

Best to not anchor too close to another vessel .

[sailorboy1]

Hear the voices in my head
I swear to god it sounds like they're snoring
But if you're bored then you're boring
The agony and the irony, they're killing me
I'm not sick but I'm not well
And I'm so hot cause I'm in hell
I'm not sick but I'm not well
And it's a sin to live so well

[liquidice]

Originally Posted by Wckoek

"Commands" are the ones that tell you to do something like schizophrenics does?

Just so.

I have the opportunity to work with special kids. Diagnoses of autism are on the rise, and I have spent much time working with children with autism. I mention this because often they have issues with sounds and processing aural information (think Rain Man covering his ears). I feel like our human minds are constantly searching for patterns. The strange sounds are picked up by our ears and our brain fills in the gaps and it turns into distant speech. This is an oversimplification of course, but I’m building understanding.

Periodically leaving a radio on at barely perceptible levels will really make you question. I’m sure others have breathed a sigh of relief when finding a handheld under a life jacket or towel, squawking away. “I knew I heard something “... as I turn it off.

[zeehag]

when i was moored in sandiegos coronado moorings i could hear people talking. i could identify their voices. i could hear their words. perfectly.
folks donot realize how far sound travels thru water.
sound travels better thru water than thru air.
my neighbor in sd used to ask if i hear the lady crying in the night. seems she would awaken him with her crying in her boat. i never did learn if she was real or imaginary, as i did not hear her.
thru water is how i caught the sound of the returning panga with honda engines when i broke the nocturnal theft ring in ensenada. below water line is best
you can hear family fights, happiness, crying, engines..so many things and voices are heard. i heard fighting in la cruz anchorage at night. each and every word.
yes they are real.
you donot yet need geodon to remove them.

[SV_Harbinger]

Once while anchored, in Tarpaulin Cove ( Vineyard Sound, MA) I heard what to me and both people who were aboard as well, what sounded just like a voice whispering "why" sounded like it was coming from everywhere all at once... But only very intermittently, at no discernable interval...
After much investigation, turns out it was the inflatable drifting up and touching the transom...

It's incredible what the human mind can make of various inputs, especially at night.

[Mirage35]

On a long watch the drone of the diesel or the wind in the rigging turn into music in my mind - I start hearing them as bits of melody.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by AnglaisInHull

On a long watch the drone of the diesel or the wind in the rigging turn into music in my mind - I start hearing them as bits of melody.

Me, too and not only at night.


Vive la differance