Voice-Hearing in the General Population: The Relationship Between Inner Speech, Absorption, and Voice-Like Hallucinations

We argue that absorption, which we characterize as an attitude toward the mind, may be an important, causally antecedent factor to inner speech in generating voice-like experiences in the general population. We believe this better captures the expansive range of phenomenological experiences represented in voice hearing. Perhaps a voice is less like a misattributed thought and more like a very vivid thought which, because it is felt as vivid, is experienced as sensory.