by Richard DABLAH
(Email: RICHARD.DABLAH@gmail.com)
I have been watching the recent flurry of prophets and “prophetic voices” with a skeptical eye.
As a public intellectual, I see these claims through the lens of both science and history. On the
one hand, modern psychiatry treats voice-hearing as a clinical symptom. On the other hand,
many cultures have long celebrated such experiences as divine encounters. The line between
“prophecy” and “pathology” seems less a fact of nature and more a matter of how society
frames it.
The Psychiatric Perspective
In contemporary medicine, hearing voices is typically understood as a symptom of brain-based
disorders. For example, roughly 75% of people with schizophrenia report hearing voices, and
substantial minorities of those with bipolar disorder or PTSD do as well. Psychiatrists view this
as a form of psychosis – a disconnection from reality – and they treat it accordingly. Standard
treatment involves antipsychotic medications (neuroleptics like clozapine or other
psychotropics) and psychotherapies (often cognitive-behavioral therapy) to help patients
manage or reinterpret the voices. In other words, today’s default interpretation is medical: the
voices are symptoms of neurochemistry or trauma, not messages from the beyond.
● Prevalence: ~75% of schizophrenia patients hear voices. A significant share of people
with bipolar disorder, PTSD, or severe depression do as well.
● Treatment: Antipsychotic drugs (which dampen hallucinations) combined with talk
therapies (like CBT) are the norm.
This clinical view has become dominant in Europe and other secularized societies: a person
claiming to hear persistent commanding voices is more likely to be brought to a psychiatrist than
an oracle.
Voices in History and Scripture
The medical view contrasts sharply with how voice-hearing appears in sacred history. The
Hebrew Bible, Christian tradition, and others are filled with examples of individuals chosen by
voices. Moses, for instance, famously heard God speaking from a burning bush and later on
Mount Sinai. In the New Testament and Islamic tradition, Jesus and Muhammad similarly
received revelations as inner voices. These stories were (and are) told as miracles, not
symptoms.
Likewise, Joan of Arc (15th-century France) is a classic example: as a teenager, she insisted
that saints and angels spoke to her, directing her to lead the Dauphin’s forces. Contemporaries
generally accepted her voices as divine guidance. It was only later, under different political
pressures, that skeptics and even the Church posthumously labeled her visions as delusional.
Similarly, in colonial-era Congo, the Baptist catechist Simon Kimbangu reported repeatedly
hearing Jesus’ voice commanding him to preach liberation to his people. The Belgian
authorities jailed him as a heretic or madman, but Congolese followers came to revere him as a
genuine prophet or national liberator.
● Moses (13th–12th c. BCE): Heard God’s voice at the burning bush and throughout
Exodus. Scriptural accounts treat this as theophany and divine lawgiving.
● Joan of Arc (15th c. CE): Claimed visits from saints (Michael, Catherine, Margaret)
ordering her to save France. Her peers believed she was “guided by God”, although later
historians debate medical explanations.
● Simon Kimbangu (c. 1889–1951): A Congolese catechist who in 1918 “repeatedly
heard the voice of Jesus” urging him to convert and uplift the Congolese. Colonial rulers
harshly suppressed his movement, but it was later celebrated as a spiritual liberation
force.
These examples show the spectrum: in each case contemporaries treated the experience as
sacred. Only with hindsight (or modern bias) do some question whether it might have been
illness.
Culture and Interpretation
Beyond religion, cultural context drastically shapes how voice-hearing is viewed.
Anthropologists and cross-cultural psychiatrists have documented that what people hear and
how they interpret it depends on society’s frame. Stanford’s Tanya Luhrmann observed that
in Ghana and India, voice-hearers often report benign or playful spirits, whereas in the U.S.
they describe harsh, threatening voices. One study found that Western clinicians tend to
dismiss voices as neurological “background noise,” but Africans or Indians might see them as
personal messages.
A recent ethnographic study in South Africa noted that traditional healers (sangomas,
nyangas) understand auditory hallucinations as possible spirit possession or ancestral calling,
not simply illness. They see “spirit possession” as a valid channel of communication with
ancestors or divine beings (potentially beneficial). By contrast, a Western psychiatrist would
likely diagnose the same person with schizophrenia or psychosis. As one report bluntly put it,
“Traditional health practitioners understand spirit possession as a cultural or religious spirit …
whereas mental healthcare providers understand it as mental illness”.
● Western model: Voice-hearing = brain disease to be medicated. The American/British
psychiatrist typically expects voices to be random, negative, and manageable through
therapy.
● African/Asian model: Voice-hearing may mean spiritual contact. A healer might call it
“ancestral calling” or possession, requiring rituals or guidance.
● Anthropological view: Early 20th-century anthropologists like Ruth Benedict noted
“cultures where those who heard voices interpreted them as spirits – and could become
shamans or prophets, not patients”.
In practical terms, this means the same person might be locked away in one country but
revered as a visionary in another. The discrepancy is not just medical ignorance, but
deep-seated beliefs about mind and spirit.
Today’s Prophets and Perils
What puzzles me is how the ancient awe of voice-hearing persists even now. Across the globe,
individuals still claim divine messages and amass followers. Modern media can amplify a
charismatic voice-hearer into a cult figure overnight. History offers cautionary tales: every
charismatic “prophet” risks tipping into fanaticism or authoritarianism if unchecked. We’ve seen
movements where a self-proclaimed messenger leads people into dangerous utopian fantasies.
I remain acutely aware of this line. Some followers may genuinely believe in a miracle-worker;
others may become unwitting participants in mass delusion. Even secular analyses admit that
extreme political or religious leaders often exhibit traits – grandiose hallucinations, conspiratorial
delusions – familiar from psychosis. At the same time, I cannot dismiss the social role these
figures sometimes fill. In troubled communities, a “voice-hearing” leader can unite people with a
shared narrative, for good or ill.
Key Observations:
● Science vs. Spirit: Modern psychiatry sees auditory voices as symptoms of conditions
like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, treatable with drugs and therapy.
● Historical reverence: Many foundational religious figures heard voices (God, saints,
angels) and were regarded as prophets. Our dispassionate 21st-century lens might call
these hallucinations, but their own societies called them miracles.
● Cultural lens: In secular Europe/North America, a voice-hearer is likely considered ill; in
parts of Africa or Asia, they may be seen as chosen or called. The interpretation shapes
the outcome – mental hospital or pulpit.
● Followers and delusion: Claiming divine voices can still mobilize large followings today,
sometimes with benign outcomes (reform movements) but sometimes dangerous (cults,
false prophecies). History warns that charisma plus unchallenged belief is volatile.
● Prophecy vs. pathology: Ultimately, whether a voice is “holy” or “sick” depends on
cultural storylines. The boundary is not a medical fact but a social narrative.
In closing, I note a poignant irony: we often call prophets “crazy” or madmen, or call madmen
“prophetic.” My conclusion is guarded: while I respect that such experiences can hold deep
meaning for individuals and communities, I trust the weight of evidence that hallucinations
usually have natural causes. In a world where miracles sell news, I remain a rational critic. But I
also recognize that human beings live by stories. If our ancestors heard gods in the rustling of
leaves, perhaps I should not be entirely surprised when people today insist that the inner voice
is not just a glitch of neurology but a calling. The question then isn’t who’s right – God or
medicine – but understanding why each culture sees the same phenomenon so differently
