Hearing Voices

Program for the Study of Religion, University of California, San Diego (Spring 2009)

The history of religion is filled with stories of people hearing voices: the voices of gods, angels, preachers and teachers, saints and shamans, as well as devils, demons, witches and ghosts. In this course, we will explore how these experiences have been described, ascribed and proscribed. How are such experiences defined as either (or both) prophetic or psychotic? Who determines whether such experiences are "authentic" or fake? How have people attempted to call upon bodiless voices and to expel the voices from within their bodies? How do we distinguish between our own voices and the voices of others?