Characteristics and identity of voices
| Present study | Woods et al 2015 | |
| Characteristics | (n=58) | (n=153) |
| Auditory only | 30 (52%) | 67 (44%) |
| Thought-like only | 14 (24%) | 14 (9%) |
| Mixed auditory and thought-like | 12 (21%) | 56 (37%) |
| External | 28 (48%) | 69 (45%) |
| Internal | 30 (52%) | 67 (44%) |
| Single voice | 50 (86%) | 10 (7%) |
| More than one voice | 8 (14%) | 124 (81%) |
| Bodily sensations | 15 (26%) | 101 (66%) |
| Characterful | 29 (50%) | 106 (69%) |
| Commands | 20 (34%) | 8 (5%) |
| Conversational | 6 (10%) | 57 (37%) |
| Abusive | 5 (9%) | 54 (35%) |
| Identity of the voice† | (n=58) | (n=24)* |
| God | 46 (79%) | 5 (21%) |
| Holy Spirit | 7 (12%) | 0 (0%) |
| Jesus/Christ | 7 (12%) | 1 (4%) |
| Angel/messenger | 6 (10%) | 3 (13%) |
| Self (eg, ‘deepest, non-ego self’) | 3 (5%) | 3 (13%) |
| God–other (creator/Lord) | 2 (3%) | 0 (0%) |
| Devil/demons | 2 (2%) | 7 (29%) |
| Goddess | 1 (2%) | 0 (0%) |
| Spirit guide | 1 (2%) | 3 (13%) |
| Other | 5 (9%) | 13 (54%) |
| Unknown | 11 (19%) | 0 (0%) |
*Subjects reporting spiritual/supernatural voice identity
†Some participants had multiple voices/speakers and some gave multiple attributions. Percentages therefore sum to more than 100%.