Do many people have an "Accompanying Voice" - an equal they converse with?

Question

A hypnosis professional told me this is true, so I am asking: is it a fact of psychology that many people have a voice that they talk with "in their head" which talks back to them and helps solve problems? I find that this voice often has a perspective I never had and presents ideas I had not thought of. But it does not just tell me what to do. When I really get in a fix, it backs off and lets me solve the problem "by myself". I am about 50 and it has been there as far back as I can recall.

Is it common to have an "Accompanying Voice" and conversations where both voices appear to have equal standing and independence? Is there research which shows this is something other than a hallucination? (After all, an internal monologue is not a hallucination. Why not have two voices in your mind?) The prevailing idea is that voices are hallucinations, but it seems that they could just be parts of the self. This is a cornerstone of Transpersonal Psychology, which uses a dialog method to help people improve self-awareness and solve inner issues.

Addition: Here is some info from a site about this topic, although it does not address my question directly:

Because of prevailing attitudes psychiatry and within society as a whole, it is important to point out, that there are many people who hear voices who can cope with their voices and regard them as a positive part of their lives. Neither is it the case that voices have always been regarded as a negative experience, throughout history and even today there are people who hear voices who find their voices inspirational and comforting.

These are facts, that on the face of it are hard to square with the negative way that the experience is regarded by psychiatry.

More Addition: Here is a bit about the Voice Dialog technique used in Transpersonal Psychology:

Voice Dialogue Technique
The Voice Dialogue technique allows a client to gain a deeper sense of inner wisdom and gives them the opportunity to identify and examine the voices within. Being armed with this powerful knowledge provides a greater resource from which the client can draw upon when faced with difficult circumstances. The Voice Dialogue guides a client into realizing that there are parts of their inner being that propel them, but they are separate from those parts. They begin to understand that they are made up of many parts and each serves a function and has an energy force that sustains it. With this awareness, a client is able to create a balance among all of his corresponding and correlating parts and can determine which ones to silence and which ones to accentuate.

The "Aware Ego" in Voice Dialogue
In Voice Dialogue, this heightened sense of awareness is referred to as the "aware ego." An aware ego is not a trait that one possesses, rather it is a process by which we begin to know all of the layers of our consciousness on an intimate level. Because there is an negative for every positive, the aware ego assumes that you can experience both the beneficial part of your consciousness and its opposite. With enough insight into your own identity, you can choose freely which one will serve you better, and can adjust, alter, and align the parts within to meet your goals for healing.

To me, this is about using a process which gets underneath assumptions, especially unconscious ones. The biggest assumption is that we are one singular thing that is consistent and understandable. Not So. But we can become master of ourselves.

Answer 1

Most people (including myself) do not hear or speak with inner voices, but it is not unheard of, see Hearing Voices Network.

Ego State theory is a theory of multiple personality facets (ego states). In their book "Ego States: Theory and Therapy", John G. and Helen H. Watkins transcribe several hypnosis sessions, where they communicate with different ego states of a person. Ego States are often mentioned in the context of trauma or multiple personalities, but they also exist in the average person.

I think that extreme cases help to understand normal phenomena, so I'd also recommend "The Flock" by Joan Frances Casey, a journey from multiple personalities that do not know of each other to working together to one integrated personality.

Answer 2

From a quick search online I see no reason why you distantiate what you describe from auditory hallucinations:

a form of hallucination that involves perceiving sounds without auditory stimulus.

Given the article you link to, which arguably does address your question (yes, some people report experiencing this), you mainly seem to be concerned that this would unequivocally be considered a mental illness. Your actual question thus seems to be "Is hearing multiple voices always considered a mental illness?".

Judging from the Wikipedia article (and its subheading 'Non-disease associated causes') this is seemingly not the case.

However, individuals may hear voices without suffering from diagnosable mental illness. (Thompson, 2006)

The article by Thompson mentions a study for which unfortunately no source is provided, thus I would take the following with a grain of salt:

But studies by Dutch researchers that began in the 1990s found that some healthy people also regularly hear voices. ... Many of the people who contacted them did not find the voices disruptive and had never felt the need to consult mental health services. ... The resulting studies found that more people might hear voices than psychologists had thought, perhaps around 4 percent of the population.

It might, however, set you on the right path to finding the actual studies, or more recent work in regards to how many people report hearing voices not attributed to the self without considering them a mental illness.

_{Thompson, Andrea (September 15, 2006). "Hearing Voices: Some People Like It". LiveScience.com.}