Hi Richard. Thanks for this. I can see how it might be helpful from a therapeutic perspective for Dr. Schnackenberg to maintain an agnostic perspective on the ultimate origin or nature of "voices", but for me as a "voice" hearer that's not very satisfying: I want to know their nature and intent, why I have become susceptible to them, and why they are interested in interfering with me and my sense of reality.
My perspective is that some of these beings are genuinely evil (so I am sympathetic with Charlie's comment above), although one might be able to learn some things from them insofar as one can learn from any criticism which has a point - when the messages are mixed, though, then the possibility of learning becomes more questionable.
I thought I would share part of a rough draft of an essay I wrote decades ago which may shed some light on the nature of inner voices
Related to this, I've experience in my own life "the symbolic image acting as releaser and transformer" as Edinger describes. This came up in dealing with a difficult relationship with a woman. I had been working on this relationship with a therapist who practices "Archetypal Psychology", a contemporary form of Jungian-based psychotherapy that uses the imagination and mythological imagery for healing. I described how I began to feel controlled and shamed by my partner as we became more intmate. She had been wanting a deeper level of commitment from me and a shared vision of a life together. I claimed to want this as well, yet when we talked about it, I felt overwhelmed by feelings shame and guilt. The more she asked for commitment, the more I felt paralyzed and incapable of giving it.
My therapist did a hypnotic induction with me, having me close my eyes and relax into a light trance state. In this highly suggestible state one can more readily access buried memories as well as archetypal images from the collective unconscious. The light trance state also allows to one to interact and have full recollection of the events that occur .
He then asked me where I felt the shame and guilt in my body and to notice the qualities of the feelings( the size, shape, texture, etc.) as well as any images that were present. I saw an image of a dark force entering through my solar plexus, then spreading throughout my body, entering every cell. He suggested I recall another time in my life when I had felt this way. Memories and images of my mother began to flood into my awareness. In one memory, she was castigating me for playing with neighborhood kids she considered to be "common" and beneath our moral stature as good Catholics. She launched into a diatribe about how these common people were a corrupting influence: "vulgar, immoral and not our kind of people."
I began experiencing the shame and guilt as coming from my mother. My therapist, then had me enter into an imagined dialogue with her. In this Jungian technique called "active imagination", I was to play both parts, alternating between myself and my mother, letting her voice speak through me.
In the dialogue I imagined my mother standing across from where I was sitting. I began to speak to her asking what she wanted from me. She answered that she didn't like the company I kept and that I had become just like them. I became angry and told her to get out of my life; that I didn't need her bullshit morality and to leave me the fuck alone. I began feeling her moral outrage building inside me; she was livid with moral indignation. She launched into a tirade, telling me that no decent person talks to their mother that way and that I was no better than the "niggers" and "wops"across the street. I continued to demand that she get out of my life and she continued to berate me from her moral high ground.
The image of my mother began to shift from her human figure to an image of a dark parasitic with tendrils that wrapped around my spinal column. I was no longer speaking with her voice but hearing a demonic voice in my mind. The parasite proclaimed that it had total control over me and that I couldn't fight it. It knew all my weak points, all my deepest fears and guilts. When I protested,it attacked me, using as ammunition all my repressed memories that harbored guilt and shame. I felt helpless to defend myself.
My therapist asked me to bring in my "allies", that is imaginary figures or archetypal tools used to defeat an "inner enemy". This could be any life-affirming symbol or figure in one's life. My inner allies were images of the Buddha and the Great Mother Goddess. But I was in a state of psychic pain, bound and paralysed by the parasitic force. It made me feel that I really was an evil person and that I deserved to suffer. The best I could do was admit that I needed help.
Then I became aware of another presence in myself. I experienced it as a white energy that seemed to float above my head. It had a feminine quality that was quite different from the dark energy that possessed me. There was a benevolence and generativity about it that began to loosen the grip of the parasite. I began to refer to it as the light mother. I experienced the communication from the light mother as a feeling of unconditional love and acceptance. It was as if my conscious "I" stood between two polar opposite forces and was able to translate their feelings into words.
The parasite, or dark mother, as I began to refer to it, kept reminding me of all the experiences in my life that I felt ashamed or guilty about-- all the times I had felt like a failure, all the times I felt I had harmed others or "sinned". As this information came through from the dark side, the light mother would dispel each of her accusations. Every reason the dark mother gave for my being a bad person and deserving to suffer, the light mother would expose as a lie. The dark mother used lies or gross exaggeration to conclude I was evil to the core.
This was the main lie. It wasn't as if the light mother thought I was perfect. One of the interesting features of the light mother was her intelligent way of putting things in perspective. If the dark mother would show an experience when I had been selfish or caused harm to someone, the light mother would expose the exaggeration of the claim and show a way I could make atonement or reparations to anyone if I needed to.
Through this process the tendrils of the dark mother began to fall away. Exposed to the light of awareness and compassion her hold on me evaporated and like the wicked witch she melted away.
My therapist then had me fully allow this generative feminine presence to move into my body, imagining it entering every cell and cleansing it of the dark parasitic energy.
Through this experience my aversion to commitment and intimacy dramatically shifted. I became more in touch with my own true heartfelt desires and less burdened by the psychological baggage from my childhood.
This isn't to say that all my problems related to intimacy and commitment vanished permanently. The net value I got from this experience was in learning to access an archetypal dimension behind my symptoms of self hatred and fear of intimacy. By seeing the mother symbolically I accessed the archetypal mother in her both her light and dark side. Behind the memory of my mother was an image of the dark goddess, the destroyer. This archetype is found in many world myths. In the Hindu religion it is represented as Kali the destroyer. "In India for example the goddess Kali was worshipped as the bringer of death and destruction"(Pearson. pg 137.). This is very different than the Christian idea of the Devil, who is to be resisted rather than revered. It was the dark goddess who pointed out to me all the memories, traumas and false beliefs that were buried. I had been acting out these negative beliefs, about myself in my relationship. These negative beliefs that I was evil to core and that I deserved to suffer, needed to be revealed so they could be released and transformed. "The Destroyer begins to becomes our ally when we recognize the need to change or give something up without denying the pain or grief involved"(Pearson pg. 143). "Jung developed the idea of the dual mother archetype that transcends the individual image of the mother. He also explored the profound implications of the Dual Mother Goddess who dwells in our unconscious minds as both Life and Death"(Woolger pg.432).
Once the dark mother had done her work in revealing what needed to be destroyed and transcended, the light mother's compassion and wisdom became available for healing and transformation. In experiencing this transformative process through this mythic dimension of the psyche I feel I have accessed an incredible resource which gives my life meaning and an intimate connection with the experiences of all people.
To conclude this essay I will leave the reader with this quote form Dr. Carl Jung describing his experience of this transformative healing dimension of the psyche with his patients.
To the patient it is nothing less than a revelation when something altogather strange arises up to confront him from the hidden depths of the psyche--something that is not his ego and is therefore beyond the reach of his pesonal will. He has regained access to the source of psychic life, and this marks the begining of the cure. . . As a religious minded person would say: guidance has come from God"(Whitmont. pg. 86.) or the Goddess..