I think a lot of us have internal conversations with ourselves more or less all the time. Auditory hallucinations, however, are more like someone speaking to you from the outside. I don't know how else to describe it. I don't hear voices so much as I do music, but it definitely comes from an external source.....except it doesn't exist. I've also heard sounds like static that you hear when the radio is between stations. It's weird and I've only had it happen a couple of times during serious manic episodes.