Calling “Frank!“
I’d originally written this post back in January 2018, then rediscovered it again in March of 2020. I still held off in posting it for reasons described below. Then, on Monday, August 29th, between 7 and 7:20 a.m., while waiting in a doctor’s waiting room the following occurred:
I was filling out paperwork to have some carpal tunnel symptoms looked at. I was the only patient sitting in the rather large waiting room. There were exactly three other people there, the receiving receptionist, and two secondary receptionists: one to the left and one to the right of the entrance. The one to my left left her partially cubicled desk and came over to the main receptionist, who sat out in the open, and they chatted the entire time I was there, while the one on the right came and went and had presently sat at her partially cubicled station by the entry into where I was headed. When I first entered, one of the nurses in the area I was to go came out and called for the single patient waiting there before me. That now left only me in the entire waiting area. As I’m sitting there filling out my paperwork, listening to the two women pleasantly and loudly chatting (and, yes, also loosely following their conversation–I had no choice really, they were that loud and they were pleasant about it all), I hear clear as a bell and loud as a bell: “Frank!”
I look up.
No one is standing where I expected the nurse-from-the-back to be standing. I lean forward a little to see if I can see her around her cubicled wall. No one. I replay the chatting the two women are doing and recall no such words that even remotely sound like “Frank,” “skank,” “tank,” or anything otherwise similarly, because, yes, they were talking loudly, and yes, I was listening.
I look all around me and I’m still the only one in there.
I sit for a moment or two more then get up and approach the main receptionist and ask if my name had been called.
They both looked at me as if I’d just killed a puppy in front of them, as I interrupted their conversation.
I told them I’d just heard my name called, and they young lady paused and said nope, they hadn’t. I shrugged and returned to my seat. Sit some more, but after a few more moments later check the time and see I’ve been sitting there 20 minutes. I returned to the main receptionist and restated my case that I’ve been sitting there 20 minutes and really swore I heard my name called–and that could she please call into the back to see if someone had, indeed, come out and called for me. Maybe just hadn’t seen me (you know in this HUGE, empty room…)?
The receptionist said okay, and lifted the phone to make the call, when out from that back area comes my nurse. “Oh, there she is!” says the receptionist.
Here’s the thing.
I heard my name…CLEAR as a bell…heard the enunciation of the “F” and the “rank.”
It was clear. Projected. Loud.
It was unmistakable enough for me to twice query others in the world about it. Sounded exactly as if a nurse was calling out for the next patient.
This is not the first time something like this has happened to me. I’ve actually lost track of how many other times it has happened. But I have heard my name called out a handful of other times in different places. When I’d done some float sessions I’d heard lots of voices that went into phrases and even full sentences. I’ve been reticent in posting any of these because I was employed and didn’t want to have my sanity questioned, but now that I’m retired, I’ve decided its time to post about these odd little events. It’s been a long time since I’ve had “anything weird” overtly happen to me, so this was so cool that I finally had something weird again happen.
I did a quick Internet search just now and haven’t seen anything new on the phenomena that was positive. Just another psych article that it’s all made up. Or the result of a “trauma.” Well, I have had no such traumas. My thoughts on what I feel may cause this phenomena I’ve described below, in the “Beautiful Voice” section.
I have, however, written up some of these incidents and have included them below. It is very time consuming to look these up because of my extensive journals and I just don’t want to put the time into it right now, but you’ll get the point: this has happened to me a lot over the years, though I’ve only gone back to 2015. It’s a really cool thing to happen, you know, as long as they’re not hearing negative voices and all–and by the way, not once were my voices ever mean, negative, or anything else.
So, here are some I’ve been able to quickly unearth: I’ve included them as verbatim as possible to make them”fit” into this post, versus how I’d written them “for” other styles or purposes and also cleaned up typos:
The Sound of Children Playing (Oct 18, 2016)
“When I got home from work yesterday, I took a nap. As I lay there falling asleep, I loudly heard in my head, the sound of children laughing and playing! There were none around the house, and I knew it was in my head.”
Smell of Coffee and a Shout Out (Oct 17, 2016)
“Interesting: at about 2:30 a.m. I awoke to the strong smell of coffee! But no one was up—no coffee made!
“And yesterday, I got up around 4:30 a.m. I went downstairs, but laid back down on the couch…and heard my name called out loud and clear as I almost fell asleep! It woke me up! Sounded as if it came from a “hollow” enclosure. Sounded like Laura (my wife), but she was not up.”
MileHiCon47 (October 23, 2015)
“When I went up to MileHiCon47 two Fridays ago, I was standing in the first floor lobby in line to check in, and I again heard my name—loud and so fricking clear—and it was above all the clamor and hub-bub of the hotel. The loudest I’ve ever heard my name called before! It startled me! I look around…cause I swore someone there had spotted me and called out. But no one. Not even another “Frank” (I heard “Frank!” shouted out). This happens to me all the time, but it’s usually in a quiet place, like at home, or when I’m alone, in bed. First time out in public. Very weird.”
Note the “first time out in public” mentioned!
From the Middle of the Bedroom (August 15, 2015)
“I again heard my name called out in the bedroom by a pleasant female voice not my wife’s. Laura was elsewhere, downstairs, and this voice came from the center of the room.”
And now for the main write-up that started all this back in January of 2018:
A Beautiful Voice in my Head
On January 7, 2018, in my bed, I’d awoken around midnight or 12:30 to the beautiful voice of a woman singing…in my head!
I’ve had this happen before, where I’ve had a woman’s voice humming or singing in my head, but I could never make out the words. This time, I could kind of make out words…or more to the point, I could just barely not make out the words to the song, but heard “word-like items.” And the music of her voice was positively incredible! After I awoke, the voice continued to sing for quite a (little) bit until it faded away. I just lay there listening to it.
My wife has a beautiful voice, too, but, no, this wasn’t her—in fact she was lying in bed beside me, fast asleep.
And it did not come from any external source, like a TV or a vampyre outside my window—it originated from inside my head.
As I’ve mentioned above, this has happened to me before. I thought I’d posted stuff like this before, but cannot, as yet, find anything I’ve posted. But when I hear a voice like this, it is usually brief and intense. Usually it’s just the my name begin called, but as you’ve seen above, I’ve experienced more than just my name voiced.
I did some research into this.
Here is a 2007 Psychology Today article.
Here is a 2014 article.
Now, the above two articles mainly focus on trauma. I’ve had no such trauma and when I hear a voice, it’s not nasty and not interactive. Usually I only hear my name mentioned. Once. A singular call. I’d originally written this post four years ago and held off publishing it. I only recently rediscovered it. I was a tiny bit concerned that others might think I’m going nuts or something, but then thought, I am not the only one having this kind of experience, people know me and my various “weirdnesses” and know who I am. Know that I’m not going off the rails. That I have, and continue to have, odd experiences that I’ve detailed and also included into some of my novels.
I also wanted to take this public so that others might have another data point to understand their own experiences.
This article takes a more positive approach, but was still not what I was looking for.
So what am I looking for?
I believe that sometimes such voices may originate from another dimension. Yes, I’m going there. When I heard these particular instances…the singing…my name…I knew it was not me…not the “me’s” we know from being inside our heads. Not “those” voices. So it has to originate from elsewhere. I feel that it must come from some other person in some other time and/or space.
Maybe it’s another version of me trying to reach out.
Maybe it’s someone in this or another time just thinking of me and suddenly all the psychic “stars align” and we psychically “line up.” Reach each other on the psychic “party line,” for any of those out there who know what that means.
It could also be bleed over from a dream or hypnagogic state. This actually does talk about people hearing their names called out.
And that’s about as far as I’ve gotten with that.
I don’t worry about it. It’s not frequent. Nor bothersome. I find it cool.
There is so much out there that we don’t know about, and I find things like this amazing and fascinating. I don’t dismiss something just because it “doesn’t make sense.” I identify it and try to analyze it. Document it. Try to understand it and allow more such experiences into my life, because they are always cool and amazing!
If I were really going off the rails, my family and friends would call me out on it. As it is…they usually say something like…”Oh, that’s just Frank….”
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