• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Hearing Voices

Wombat68

Wombat68

I'll be chilling at Booya Moon
Joined
Jan 23, 2022
Messages
56
Has this happened to anyone else? Yesterday I was on my own in the house, son at his dad's when I heard him shout mum then mum again in a more irritated voice. I called out hang on thinking he'd forgotten his keys but when I opened the front door no one was there, he didn't arrive back home for another two hours.
 
Wombat68 said:
Has this happened to anyone else? Yesterday I was on my own in the house, son at his dad's when I heard him shout mum then mum again in a more irritated voice. I called out hang on thinking he'd forgotten his keys but when I opened the front door no one was there, he didn't arrive back home for another two hours.
Click to expand...
Congratulations, you have experienced a vardoger;

"A recurring experience, common even today, is when someone in the house hears a key in the front door, a footfall on the stair, the sound of someone taking off and storing their outer clothing, only for there to be no one behind the noises. A while later, the same sounds will be heard again, but this time, the person will enter the building."

https://norwegianfolktales.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-hug-vardger-and-fylgje.html

Discussed here:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/the-vardoger-with-the-phantom-knockers.63540/

... and I am sure elsewhere
 
 
henry said:
or a simple case of auditory pareidolia
Click to expand...
Also, I think, it can be a case of hearing something and the brain interpreting it as something else, simply because it is what the brain is expecting to hear. As in, I can often hear my dog's claws clicking over the tiles as though she is following me into the kitchen, but when I turn around she isn't there, but is asleep under her blanket. My brain expects (because she is an incredibly needy dog and nearly always glued to me) to hear her following, and then presumably hears a clock ticking or radiators crackling, and hears it as the dog's claws.
 
catseye said:
Also, I think, it can be a case of hearing something and the brain interpreting it as something else, simply because it is what the brain is expecting to hear. As in, I can often hear my dog's claws clicking over the tiles as though she is following me into the kitchen, but when I turn around she isn't there, but is asleep under her blanket. My brain expects (because she is an incredibly needy dog and nearly always glued to me) to hear her following, and then presumably hears a clock ticking or radiators crackling, and hears it as the dog's claws.
Click to expand...
Or perhaps you have a ghost dog.
 
Whenever I read about people hearing their name called it has often been described as 'urgent'.
This intrigues me, as I have only ever heard someone shout 'Louisa!' in a hypnogogic state, but it is almost always urgent, clipped, and to the point.. I often wonder if there might be a vestige of something primal about it, perhaps a long mislaid purpose to it which we have forgotten how to interpret? Possibly anxiety related, nonetheless.
When she was still alive, I often heard my mother's voice calling my name in a semi sleep state, always with urgency, and as real as damn it.
I have never heard her since. Although there are a few occasions in recent months in which I have heard my ex (long term) partner call my name.

Didn't the Norwegian forum member 'Vardoger' used to be called 'First Person Vardoger' at some point? Or m I still asleep?
 
Last edited:
merricat said:
Whenever I read about people hearing their name called it has often been described as 'urgent'.
This intrigues me, as I have only ever heard someone shout 'Louisa!' in a hypnogogic state, but it is almost always urgent, clipped, and to the point.. I often wonder if it there might be a vestige of something primal about it, perhaps a long forgotten purpose to it which we have forgotten how to interpret? Possibly anxiety related, nonetheless.
When she was still alive, I often heard my mother's voice calling my name in a semi sleep state, always with urgency, and as real as damn it.
I have never heard her since. Although there are a few occasions in recent months in which I have heard my ex (long term) partner call my name.

Didn't the Norwegian forum member 'Vardoger' used to be called 'First Person Vardoger' at some point? Or m I still asleep?
Click to expand...
Has Vardoger arrived yet??
 
catseye said:
Could be, I suppose. But I think it's more probably a misfiring brain. I would LOVE a ghost dog, particularly if it were one of my old ones...

Unlikely though, as they never lived in this house.
Click to expand...
I wasn’t being entirely serious. I’m with you in fancying a ghost dog. You could take it out for a walk without having to pick up shit.
 
Another relevant thread:
The Vardoger With The Phantom Knockers

I've had similar experiences twice that I recall - once it was keys turning in the lock a couple of yards from where I was sat reading, another time my wife and I distinctly heard our friends talking outside and rummaging around in their car (we were in a very rural area, staying at our friends' house, and they were out working). Both were very odd, but the second instance particularly so, with my wife also hearing them.
 
I must have been 3 or 4 or so. I was in the toilet at my grandparents house (they moved out in 1976 so I can pinpoint my age to then. I distinctedly heard a woman's voice in the toilet room (but not coming from anywhere say the word 'voices' in a kind of 'definite' tone. The word then echoed and faded out. I remember being quite shocked by this. I was young so could have been anything I suppose - a dream - a voice from another room. Who knows? I puzzled it over every now and again when I was a kid. The voice sounded impersonal - almost like a transmission breaking into a radio programme from another station. I kind of had the weird idea it was my brain 'growing up' or something. A long time ago so this could all be projecting things backwards, but yeah, weird.
 
merricat said:
Whenever I read about people hearing their name called it has often been described as 'urgent'.
This intrigues me, as I have only ever heard someone shout 'Louisa!' in a hypnogogic state, but it is almost always urgent, clipped, and to the point.. I often wonder if there might be a vestige of something primal about it, perhaps a long mislaid purpose to it which we have forgotten how to interpret? Possibly anxiety related, nonetheless.
When she was still alive, I often heard my mother's voice calling my name in a semi sleep state, always with urgency, and as real as damn it.
I have never heard her since. Although there are a few occasions in recent months in which I have heard my ex (long term) partner call my name.

Didn't the Norwegian forum member 'Vardoger' used to be called 'First Person Vardoger' at some point? Or m I still asleep?
Click to expand...
I used to hear my kids, when they lived at home, calling out 'Mum!' on the point of sleep. Sometimes I'd hear a knock at the bedroom door. Since the children grew up and moved out, I have never heard it again. So I wonder if it's maybe something we subconsciously expect to hear, or that has been heard so often during the day that it's got stuck in our brain?

For example - do people who live alone miles from anywhere hear voices (if they don't generally hear voices during the day) or would they be more likely to hear hypnopompic sounds like things falling, phones ringing or doors slamming?
 
catseye said:
I used to hear my kids, when they lived at home, calling out 'Mum!' on the point of sleep. Sometimes I'd hear a knock at the bedroom door. Since the children grew up and moved out, I have never heard it again. So I wonder if it's maybe something we subconsciously expect to hear, or that has been heard so often during the day that it's got stuck in our brain?

For example - do people who live alone miles from anywhere hear voices (if they don't generally hear voices during the day) or would they be more likely to hear hypnopompic sounds like things falling, phones ringing or doors slamming?
Click to expand...
I've bolded the bit I'm replying to - I wonder if the brain 'fills in' for, say, a lack of stimulus, particularly if a person's life has previously been very full and activite (parenting, etc). This reminded me of Charles Bonnet Syndrome; an eye condition (vision loss) which causes hallucinations due to the brain receiving less information than it did previously. Sufferer's often see people in their home or other random materialisations, I imagine it could be quite a terrifying thing to adjust to as there is no known cure.
It made me wonder whether a lack of stimulation involving our other senses might result in a similar effect, albeit not quite as dramatic or clinical.

I once heard a series of night-knockings that went on for weeks. My cat also heard it which put paid to my theory that it was hypnogogic. I tried to discover what the source of the knocking was but failed to work it out. This was shortly after the death of my father, and I do still wonder...whilst I certainly didn't think it was his spirit, it did push me towards making a decision which I regretted later.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top