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to me, “is straining to monitor for the sound. It seems to me that it is this hyper-alert state that generates the phantom
sounds.”
7. There may be paroxysmal musical hallucinations during temporal lobe seizures. But in such cases, the musical
hallucinations have a xed and invariable format; they appear along with other symptoms (perhaps visual or olfactory
hallucinations or a sense of déjà vu) and at no other time. If the seizures can be controlled medically or surgically, the
epileptic music will cease.
8. Most people who get musical hallucinations are elderly and somewhat deaf; it is not unusual for them to be treated as
if demented, psychotic, or imbecilic. Jean G. was hospitalized after she had an apparent heart attack, and a few days
later, she began “hearing a male choir in the distance as if it were coming through the woods.” (Several years later, when
she wrote to me, she still heard this, especially in times of stress or when she was extremely tired.) But, she said, “I
quickly stopped talking about this type of music when faced with a nurse asking me, ‘Do you know your name? Do you
know what day this is?’ I responded back, ‘Yes, I know what day this is—it is the day I am going home.’ ”
9. I have written at much greater length about musical hallucinations (as well as intrusive musical imagery, or
“earworms”) in my book Musicophilia.