The hearing voices movement is a lived experience-led movement that regards hearing, seeing and sensing things others do not as meaningful experiences.
It normalises these experiences by recognising they exist on a continuum, and that many non-psychiatric patients have these experiences. It recognises that we all have the potential to have unusual sensory experiences under certain circumstances (e.g. sleep deprivation, bereavement, hallucinogens).
This understanding may provide reassurance and feel less stigmatising than some other approaches to understanding voices and visions.
The hearing voices movement is critical of psychiatry’s goal of eradicating voices as it is not reliably achieved through medication, not always desired by voice-hearers and it is seen as silencing not only the voices but also the voice-hearer’s voice.