Discussing Internal Monologue Research With A Clinical Psychologist
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 พ.ค. 2024
- Here is an interview with Dr. Russell T. Hurlburt who has been studying the way people think for almost 5 decades. He is a professor at UNLV and the pioneer of Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES), a method of tracking the way people think. In this interview we discuss how people inaccurately describe their thoughts, the major categories of thinking, possible clinical applications, and interesting findings of his research. Joined by Dr. Hurlburt is Alek Krumm, a Doctoral Student and Research Assistant, who helps Dr. Hurlburt with his research. She has also examined the thought processes of various conditions such as Bulimia Nervosa. Enjoy!
@RyanLangdon_
www.insidemymind.me
I don’t know if other people have this, but my inner monologue sometimes overpower my actual hearing. I like listening to audio books while I’m riding my bike somewhere. And maybe I see something and I start thinking about it and all of a sudden I come back from my thought and I totally missed a part of what was said. I play it back and I actually didn’t hear it. Obviously I did hear it because I wear head phones but somehow I didn’t like register it or something. I have no idea how this happens and I was interested if other people have this too
I think I actually might have this too. It happened a lot when I was younger but it can happen sometimes now as well, but my thoughts or my inner voice u could say basically overpowers my hearing and it’s almost like it’s shouting in and out of some kind of thought and it feels very loud in my head compared to normal inner dialogue.
Yes! I'm a voracious reader but I have trouble listening to audiobooks for this very reason. It can also happen in conversation or when watching videos/tv. If someone says something interesting that intrigues me and sets my mind racing in response, I'll often "check out" and miss everything else they say cause my mind goes off on a tangent.
it's like an benign schizophrenia (joke)
Happens to me very often too!
This is exactly the same for people who do long commutes, your brain shuts off everything that practically isn't autopilot.
Speaking feels like I'm choosing to externalize my continuous inner monologue. It's like the talking never stops, but occasionally I turn my volume up for other people to hear.
The monologue feels separate from my 'thoughts', too. It's like I automatically just dictate what I'm thinking and/or feeling to myself all the time. My girlfriend is the total opposite and I just want to pick her brain so much about it but it bothers her.
This perfectly describes me...wow....
@@RaspberrySwirl11
Thanks for reading my essay of a comment! If you want another one:
I'm wondering if it has anything at all to do with introversion/communication skills. I'm super introverted but as I get over my social anxiety I notice I'm starting to talk people's ears off, like my non-stop internal monologue just starts blabbing to this new person. It's like I'm just now starting to learn how to regulate my speech, at nearly 30..
Maybe a strong internal monologue is partially the result of stunted social communication skills? Though I do have some very extroverted friends with strong monologues.. I'm so interested in learning more about this but so few people are talking about it, and when I bring it up to people in person nobody seems to care that much.
@@zzdogger I am 41...just for context here...I too find myself talking peoples ear off at times..awkwardly most times....lol. I have never had social anxiety. I have a big personality but I am introverted through and through. My husband is as extroverted as they come and also has an internal monologue. I think it fascinating...the brain and how it works....I had a pretty traumatic childhood so I always kinds thought that I was the the I am bc of that....but as I get older I am not so sure of that. I truly believe we are all just wired differently...I mean duh of course we but I hope you get what I mean....I love to people watch...I admit I often look like a creep...but I swear I am not....just fascinated with humanity. I also keep multiple journals at one time to keep my inner monologue and thoughts somewhat organized...it does help with regulating speech....or for me it does. Always here to go down any rabbit holes. LOL.
@@zzdogger This is crazy I feel the exact same as you, I literally just made this comment about feeling the constant internal dialogue has something to do with being introverted (I mean that’s kind of in the definition of the word too):
I have so much going on in my brain at all times it actually makes socially interacting with people kind of hard. The more I have going on in my brain, the less I say out loud. I think this is the struggle of most introverts.
Same for me as well
Just recently found out about this. I never say "mind blown", but my mind is officially blown. I thought everyone heard their own voice when thinking. Down the rabbit hole
Don’t hear my own voice... no internal monologue. I think in pictures mostly. It’s all images. Movies. But no internal monologue. Not ever. That’s just weird to me
@@BambiOnIce19 I honestly couldn’t live without my internal dialog just as I’m sure you like the way you think. I just can’t understand it I guess. Literally my whole life revolves arriving that inner dialog. It’s everything I do
My mind is blown in the opposite way. How do you not get annoyed with your voice all the time? Is it true some people prepare speeches they'll never give? Someone said you can change tone/volume of voice? How many voices are there? If you want to change what you want to say do you "hear" the words change?
@@Brad14397 i can make it sound anyway i want to. and yes i will prepare talking points in my head if im gonna have a serious conversation with soemone.. i dont do it all the timer tho.. and we dont get annoyed with out own voice because we dont even notice it.. we just are used to it.. also i can change it to any voice i want.. sometimes im morgen freemen lol
oh god that sounds so tiring
WTF... Am I speaking thoughts in my head... Or am I hearing my thoughts in my head. This professor is not playing games. This is so deep.
Pinpointed my thoughts exactly - I was thinking I didn’t have an internal monologue because I don’t ‘hear’ in my head but in reality it’s more that I tend to ‘speak’ internally, there isn’t any voice coming back.
@@whyelizabeth yes my brain was hurting bc I didn’t know how to explain this
Can you stop your internal dialogue I can
@@whyelizabeth so you are thinking, but you don't hear it? I speak all of my thoughts, they don't really fly around, I pick a thing to think about than think about it. But if I'm doing something random and not really thinking, thoughts or images pop into my head.
@@backstabboi4559 when I try to stop my internal voice from speaking words it always just makes intelligible sounds like humming or "babble"... so to speak. It never fully turns off, even when I'm talking to someone or am focused on something, it just talks away or makes random sounds.
The scary part is when I’m not in control of the inner monologue. It’s rare and usually when I’m about to fall asleep or waking up. Just random thoughts flashing across my mind - the best way to describe it is flipping through the channels on tv - just quick flashes of 1 - 2 second “clips” that sometimes leaves me thinking, “where the fuck did that come from?” I don’t dwell on it; that’ll probably drive me actually crazy
Definitely happened to me while I was in the military, I thought I was channeling. I don't have that anymore.
The scary part to me is this divide by being recognized as a medical condition for not being one way or the other. Some kind of medication could be manufactured, I'm sure. We need a better understanding and to find a functional acceptance of it once we do.
I don't know if it fits the definition, but I once read about hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. It is usually normal but you can look it up and learn more. Hypnogogic hallucinations happen as you’re falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations happen as you’re waking up. I sometimes felt like I was in something like a dream but before I fell asleep (most of the time a lot of diferent noises and words, that would come from nowhere) and I believe that can be the explanation.
That sounds a little like intrusive thoughts, which is common enough to have a term for it. So even though you're (it sounds) a bit disturbed by it, it's not abnormal or dangerous.
i know EXACTLY what you mean
I don’t have an inner monologue and I always thought of having one as something ridiculous that happens only in books or dramas.
If I look in the mirror and don’t like the way I look, I don’t think to myself with words that I look bad, but I just kinda feel it. It’s like I have a feeling with a situation in the background instead of an inner monologue.
I’m a listener and a musician btw
Wow,See for me instead I would be looking in a mirror and in my head hear myself say”man i look like dead rat”
I don't have an inner voice either, nor do I see things. I just seem to have an inner feeling or understanding - like concepts only.
If I read or hear where they say: "Now, imagine or visualise a beautiful beach scene...."
I see nothing.
I wonder if my inability to do those things is part of why I have a chronically poor memory? For example, after returning home from school and my Mother would ask: "What did you do today at school?" I wouldn't be able to instantly recall. It would take a lot of effort to recall anything at all about my day.
Then when I entered the work force, it stunned me that my work mates could recall their weekends and what their friends said and did - it seemed like they all had superpowers!
I did okay at school, but mostly because my brain seems really good at instant problem solving and at instantly grasping concepts.
How do you make tough decisions during conversations? Like if you’re asked to pick between option A or B
@@PlanesKiwi Wow, that’s so interesting. But memory issues can be caused by a nutrient deficiency. Have you ever had a blood test done?
@@BRVvideos Thats a great question. Maybe they visualize the outcome of each? I feel like that’s what I’d do even though I also have an internal monologue.
I can look at myself in a mirror and mentally say full sentences, no shadow of a doubt.
OMG I do it all the time. I wish I could stop it tho...my voice is a real cruel sadist SOB that just picks me apart daily, esp. regarding my physical appearance...so mirrors are its favorite form of torture. :(
i did the same thing in the mirror. then i started training my inner monologue to say everything positive to myself. it changed me for the better
I don’t think I understand what he’s saying there…is he saying that I can’t look in a mirror, mouth closed and say a complete sentence in my mind? Maybe it’s more accurate to say I “imagine myself saying it”. Am I not understanding him or what? As you said as well, I absolutely can. If I do understand correctly then quite frankly I find his dismissive attitude rather rude and arrogant…a trait that many scientists find themselves displaying at the cost of their own intellectual honesty.
@@ClassicRiki basically do you hear your own or any voice in your head? Imagine darkness in your head and can you hear your own voice and talk to yourself without imagining anything and opening your mouth
I’m talking to myself 24/7 I can even hear myself in a Morgan freeman accent if I wanted to
Hey man, this makes me wonder if different learning styles are connected to different thinking styles. A person with an internal monologue might be more likely to retain information from a text, whereas a "visual thinker" might retain more information from an image. If this proves to be true, this might have an interesting effect on education, as it might turn out that giving a class of 30 individuals with 30 different thinking styles a piece of information that is written in text wont be the norm anymore
Learning styles have been debunked. They're not scientific.
Dream Dream Serene but being taught how to translate information into your style can be extremely beneficial since the education system has been proven to be failing
I learn by smell
@@paigetrant6062 you're failing
Personally I hear inner monologues, however the visuals while studying or remembering things are very strong.. down to remembering the outfit color of my professor or subject in order to establish the fact. Actually most of time my inner monologues are trying to find out what do I remember the most about that specific time in order to remember a specific fact. This is all very interesting.
You should include people with OCD in these discussions and studies because there is a particular manifestation of OCD that involves not only intrusive thoughts but the constant monologue. There are also people who become caught up in a seemingly constant stream of visualization. OCD is so complex and has so many manifestations and the study of it really integrates well with this larger subject of the mind and thinking in general.
It’s so crazy how different people really are the how diffrent the human experience can be for diffrent people. We all think others are like us but some are almost like totally different creatures pretty much. I can’t help but think these people without inner monologue have to be very stupid and gullible and it explains why the world is so messed up and stupid.
interesting, I was diagnosed with OCD, and I actually don’t have an internal monologue. I personally have constant visualization, but no voice. intrusive thoughts are images for me.
@@stringbender3 just being different from you doesn't make them stupid... if you think this maybe you are the stupid one...
for real mine were so weird when i was in school. the tiles in the hallway, the way i would have to step on them a certain way and would punish myself when i failed
I was diagnosed with OCD at about 13. I have crazy intrusive thoughts all the time, and scary ones too. It takes a long time for them to go away and they always come back. I’ve always thought this was anxiety but now I know it’s a combination of anxiety and OCD, AND a strong internal monologue. Lol 🤪
This shit is so fascinating, you have a literal gold mine here, I could watch this stuff all day!
Thinking about thinking is THE most interesting thing on the planet.
Im participating in research. So you'll be able to watch me get my thoughts dissected.
@@Rlangdon7 Awesome, glad to hear it.
This research reminds me of some other I've encountered; they were testing mentally challenged people who had a problem of speaking really slowly, hooked up their heads to eeg and found out their brains were working just as fast as anyone else's, they just couldn't get the speech out at the same speed, but their brain answered questions instantly, like anyone elses.
Sooo.. linking that to this research, I imagine that people who don't have an internal monologue still "think" it just looks different from voice inside the head.
I'm a visual thinker personally, if I don't have an image for something in my head, it just doesn't stay there. My mother however is A- aphasiaic as you said and can't picture anything, it's crazy to me to not be able to imagine something real by "visualizing" it. I can see it fuzzy when my eyes are open, and in full detail when they are closed. However I know their are some people like artist Kim Jung Gi that can probably see images in full fidelity with their eyes open.
Nuts how different we all are. 😁
I lived my whole life until my mid twenties before i realized that not everyone sees words in their head as they speak. I learned this when i started teaching English as a second language to adults. It became clear to me that some people only experience images in their inner mind.This was shocking but also made me a better teacher.
I think in numbers and letters, too! Sometimes I feel like the only one, though, because everyone else recognizes faces better than names, forgets phone numbers, can find an emoji in an array, etc. Whereas I'll remember the letters of someone's name, find words quickly on a page and get an immediate sense of the definition, scroll up and down several times through my emojis trying to find the right face, and pass by a sign with a symbol but immediately comprehend one with a word on it.
Did you mean to say “hears” rather than “sees” words? I’ve never heard of anyone seeing actual visuals of words in their head as they speak! That would be fascinating!
@@LetthembelightpeaceoneloveI def can see words as I speak n think
@@Madiitetr That is so interesting! If I try to visualize words in my head it’s super distracting
@@Letthembelightpeaceonelove This is even in this guys videos. One of his first interviews the lady said she visualizes words, not hears them. They dont hear anything in their head, its all visual.
If you want to find someone with a truly complex inner monologue, talk to those who are quiet and keep to themselves.
It's absolute torture. Seriously, at least for someone who can't shut tf up in her own head, and whose inner voice is a cruel sadist bully, just to me tho.
edit: it's not ALWAYS complex. Tho it's usually pretty busy in there lol. I guess that's why I am never really bored being by myself.
@@susanivy3619 Hey Susan, my inner monologue can be cruel sometimes too, with harsh truths or vivid concerns. It's what a strong imagination produces. What I do to help get a thought/song out of my head, is to focus on my breathing. when your mind wonders to the next thought remember to re-focus on your breathing again. It's the only way I can get my mind to shut up sometimes, because i cant think it away. 😄
The people I know who have the strongest inner monologues are the most outgoing and social. They are the ones who don’t have negative self-talk, so they are confident from growing and maturing from within.
@@rossg.8733 I was looking for this because I have extreme in inner monologue & confidence to the point of people with less internal esteem perceived it as arrogance!
Cringe
The greatest pleasure, has to be, seeing Ryan's utter disbelief that others don't have an audible 'word based' inner dialogue. Love that look!
- this has sparked substantial discussion in our household, with many questions about how we, individually, think. Thank You.
- e.g. I just have thoughts, which are inaudible and a sort of mistiness, and when I speak, words just come out in a flow. I never know beforehand, exactly what I will be saying. It's a process of interpreting feelings, which for me are, best described as frequencies and vibrations. - & I read really fast, getting the general idea & key concepts. Will only go back, if I've failed to grasp an understanding. - also fascinated by etymology, so I know and understand how words have been formed, and their originally intended meanings, and will insert synonyms, instantly, mid-sentence, with a closer meaning to that which I wish to express.
- it's fun. we're all wired differently.
holy shit, are you me?
The only difference for me from what you described is that I think of my thoughts as just thoughts. If I had to come up with a metaphor or visualization for other people, I'd describe the inside of my brain as a foggy web and the thoughts are just the parts that are in focus. But I struggle to come up with any visualization, and I don't have any sort of speech in my head.
Wow, it's almost as if you've put what goes on in my head into words. Sometimes, like when I'm writing or reading, I have an internal monologue but even then, it's barely keeping up with the words I'm reading or writing. For the most part, exactly like you described, I just have these foggy feelings and general concepts sorta floating around in there at all times. If i were to try to tell someone what's going on in my head as it happened, mann that'd be so hard to put into words they'd understand because i'm just going through and trying to interpret these frequencies at the same time. It's so cool to find someone who thinks like me!
That is a precise description of what goes on internally for me too! Such an interesting topic. So excited to see what the research brings us.
YES YES AND YES! Godaymn You did a great job describing that! I feel the same.
“mistiness” is exactly it! You nailed this description for me, too.
yk i have never seen someone as interested in aphantasia as you. people like us are asked a few questions but ppl don’t usually care after that. things like not liking reading, being bad at mental maths, etc. it is a bit heartwarming seeing someone doing deep dives into the topic. thank you for your interest! ❤
I've found that I was generally depressed for most of my twenties and had very negative inner thoughts. I worked on consciously changing this to stop myself from being so mean and harsh on myself and it helped a lot. Trying to think of how'd you talk to someone else and use those words on yourself in your inner voice. Helped me alot
Great advice
It's a shame things like this are not taught to us at a young age. Just getting young people to sit and think and breath properly when upset or unsettled is something I was never taught to do but would have gone a long way.
What I found along the way that helped me get out of the negative monologue rut was repeating things I am grateful for... there is always something. The food we eat, the roof over our head, if it comes down to it every breath we take - simple stuff really - there is always something and it usually helped to turn my brain frequencies around lol.
Same here. My 20s were terrible because I felt like the world was ending and didn't know why. Turns out it was anxiety causing those thoughts to circulate in my head that whole decade. I've finally gotten myself semi-detached from immediately reacting to my feelings but not all the way there yet. It's MUCH MUCH better nowadays than it was, though. I used to have to go to urgent care daily because I thought I was dying from something
I read that our inner voice is basically the voice of our caregivers. Sometimes you need to detached yourself and make it fully yours. You’re your own voice, you decide what that voice can say or not.
"I "think" haha."
Some high brow humor right there. Rene Descartes would approve.
I'm loving the deep dive into the internal monologue subject. It's really interesting to hear more about it, since I've always had internal monologue but never thought about it. When I saw your video interview and the girl said that she didn't have a monologue in her head, I was mindblown and I started researching it more and I've gotten to know myself much better thanks to your video. So that's the only time I've been grateful for a TH-cam recommendation lol. I'm excited to see your dedication and I can't wait to keep following along your journey on your channel! Best wishes from Denmark
A fun fact is that my native language is danish, but my internal monologue is in English. Just thought I'd share that quirky detail lol
Same
dank degl that's awesome to add to things. Thanks. When did it become English, do you remember
@@erinwright9910 it became English regularly in middle school as I was learning the language in my classes. After that, it just kept being that way. I think that might be one of the reasons why I can articulate myself so well in English as well. I think in the language already, so I don't have to translate my thoughts from danish :)) it's just natural to me, almost as if English was my first language as well
dank degl when it didn't know English how was it's Danish? English accent?
I’ve heard other musings about identity and self-understanding in relation to thoughts and the internal experience. I was struck by the question: Am I the one thinking the thoughts or the one listening to and interpreting the thoughts? Fascinating. I tend to think a person is not singular in mind. We all are made up of many ‘I’s’ and the dominant or lead I switches among the many throughout any given day. The differences wouldn’t be personality changes, more like functionalities and not all are even known or conscious within someone’s awareness.
You should watch the video "You are two" by the channel CGP Grey.
Different facets to the same identity. Different direction of seeing a thing. Different temporal experiences of a thing. All these inputs leading to a future action.
Psychologist call it: Id, ego, super ego.
@@Snuusnuu69 yeah I’m familiar with that organization system and it’s useful to be aware of and start with the id, ego, superego categorization, but I think it might be too much of a simple reduction for encompassing the entirety of somebody’s personality and/or consciousness.
There is a whole language to this science that needs to be established. Difficult to move forward without establishing the language to describe the science.
there is already one; you can
a) calculate "tithi" ; Indian astrology
b) look up which house Rahu occupies in your chart
c) three, look up any relationship of your planet Venus; oppositions, etc
Venus are your expectations of "loving relationships" and the moon represents subconscious; hence "tithi" is relevant. If it isn't brought to light; it cannot be perceived; the mind follows the same principles as nature. Astropsychology is the study of the nature of your thoughts; there is no dogman to believe in. We are made of stardust; some stars implode, some explode; same as all humans; introverted or extroverted. The ideal lies in the balance
@@MarcDufresneosorusrex with all due respect, what are you talking about we are talking about scientific studies not indian astrology
@@abirahmed8643 Astrology does not follow linear "regulations". Astrology was science before science became science and millenias before the internet, we looked to the stars to express the inner and outer workings of the divine, we didn't concern ourselves with linear and logic. The reason why logic is unable to explain how we perceive things is because we perceive many things through our senses and our senses aren't regulated through logic. Furthermore, our senses cannot entertain much less clarify questions pertaining to the absolute; only the mystic is concerned with such things. What you're telling me is that if you can't comprehend something then it isn't "scientific". Make of that what you will
@@MarcDufresneosorusrex nah i am not telling you that, i am muslim and thus a firm believer in Allah (God). But there is great evidence wherever you go of the existence of Allah (God), and in contrast to that astrology is totally and utterly baseless and thus i dont believe in it.
@@abirahmed8643 the mere fact that you actually think astrology is based on a set of beliefs tells me all I need to know.
i would love to know how these different thinking experiences effects psychedelic experiences
Brilliant idea. I would happily volunteer myself to be a test subject
Oh yeah, or just dreaming at all
Two amazing things about this :
Is it a speaking experience or a hearing experience in your head? I *am pretty sure* 😅 (now that we learned we can’t be sure about ourselves lol) that I definitely have both. As a musician, I can produce music in my head I want to experience in there, and most other times, there is music playing. And when it’s just music playing that I did not turn on purposely I can modify it. Like, oh I want to hear that violin part louder, etc. Same with words. I can produce words in my head to talk or think to myself and I also hear clearly voices and words I heard some other time playing, perhaps from a video or conversation I had perfectly how they were. I can reproduce the inflection as if it were a musical melody. Chalk it up to musician brain.
Also, I loved how he said at the end that people should have a true sense of how they are to relate to themselves (of course the wording is escaping me now 😆). For years I would always say I am not creative. Well, what is creativity? Bc everyone always thinks I am creative. So once I expanded my understanding of creativity, I realized, I am a version of creative that I didn’t know existed and a lot of frustration exited my life.
@Gina Codding could you please share how you expanded your understanding of creativity?
That’s really interesting. When I was studying music theory, we did a lot of the aural practice that helped develop a sense to audiate a pitch. I wonder how that works for other musicians
That’s really interesting. When I was studying music theory, we did a lot of the aural practice that helped develop a sense to audiate a pitch. I wonder how that works for other musicians
Thanks for sharing your experience. I certainly related to the way you hear music and words, and can modify it in your head. As well as the call backs or replays. I am also more on the creative side in comparison to those in my life and I took quickly to art, construction, and an interest in people. Only recently however, two years ago, did I pick up a guitar. Now things feel real good.
Ooh, that's interesting! I would say that I am kind of similar in that I have a violin fingerboard in my head that I can hear and play around with for melodies, etc. But also sometimes, I will have a song "in my head" but it actually sounds like it is coming from somewhere else...as in, softly down a distant hallway or something hahaha.
Mind blown. I LOVE this type of introspection. Keep these videos coming please!
When she expanded upon our not understanding that thinking visually isn't a given in an interview, it reminded me of that cartoon of fish and one is like, how's the water? And the others are thinking, what's water?
This interview was absolutely fascinating; I am truly blown away by this research. It call into question( and breeds yet more questions!) all my past learning about the mind and consciousness. Thank you thank you thank you for doing this
I’ve been so miserable studying psych lately and this legitimately just re-motivated me. SO DAMN INTERESTING.
For sure, this is one of the most interesting videos I've seen in a long time
if you are able to change your course of education still, I advise you do. Go into nursing or law school. getting a psyD or MA in psych is extremely overrated. coming for a clinical psych for over 15 years. best of luck whichever direction you go.
Keep going! This is pretty amazing. I like the part where you guys talked about the ability for this to help understand people’s mind and how to Taylor-make a plan for more effective therapy by knowing more of what goes on in a persons mind. I’m a psych student; this is so interesting. Great work 👍🏼
Around the 12 min mark I think is when discussion around “infinite emotions” started & specifically they both discussed how some people experience multiple emotions at once which can take a physical form. I’ve never heard about this but this is something I’ve experienced since as far back as I can remember. It’s as if my brain is so overwhelmed by emotions that it MUST manifest them physically or I’ll metaphorically explode. At times it’s too much to deal with on top of whatever I may be going through but it’s also my gift because it fuels my art (sculpture, dance, figure skating) all 3D & very physical which is interesting. But moving my body sometimes feels like the only way I can fully express and process my emotions.
Thanks for sharing that experience . It started me thinking how many languages does our inner dialogue have I tended to think of only Words/symbols, emotions and imagery. Ive now become more aware of music and kinetic. Not that I am particularly fluent in either
@@andrewwalker1377 it;'s also interesting which of them is prominent for people & which are not or completely not available!
I can relate to that! Its also fueling my art with is my job so I assumed it's alright. But I heard a little bit similar description of inner life from autistic people so I just assumed that what I have is "under the radar" autism.
This is a brilliant discussion. Thank you!
Interesting stuff! Love your videos. The idea of having unconscious thoughts is mind blowing. Helps me understand more about my own thinking.
I have no vision or sound in the mind.
I can think but it's completely silent.
I get very few unintentional thoughts also.
My mind is completely silent and black.
My thinking mind is silent and doesn't jump in with random thoughts really.
My life experience is based on experience in the real world, not the mind.
When I watch a video, I hear and see everything with no distractions.
I will add that the guy says about people being mistaken by their inner experience, well he would not still be doing research if he knew about the inner experience fully.
So he is also mistaken by his inner experience.
But he can't see it, as he said.
If driving I see the whole journey and remember it all, but if I think during driving it reduces the memory of that part of the drive.
Or if I think while reading, I will know what I read but it doesn't register correctly, so I have to go back and read it again.
Learning is really hard in standard education but learning in the workplace is really quick.
Also I don't think before I speak, it just flows and I sometimes say something I had never thought of before, so was new information to me, in a way.
how do you recall past events? this is so weird
This!! This is the most accurate description of no internal monolog! My mind is blown, I didn't know when people said "the voice in my head" actually heard a/their voice
@@prissyalford1664
Funny you commented today.
I saw a meme yesterday that made me think about this topic.
The meme was Obama giving himself a medal but the one receiving a medal had two Obama's on his head, the first laughing and second giving him a medal.
The caption was, what's the most important organ in the body.
All three Obama's said brain as an answer.
I give quick smart ass answers to people.
And when they say something I get a type of monologue.
I know I want to say cock but out of politeness I could say brain.
That questioning doesn't always come up.
It's like we play it all out in our head in an instant.
I get in trouble a lot for speaking my mind.
I have had trains of thought on subjects but it's more like only seeing one word at a time and you can't go back and see what you have done.
So very soon it writes over itself because it's accessing memory not flow of thought.
Not much point thinking to yourself, what if you have the best idea that will save humanity but forget it.
If you always share your insight, there is a better chance it will stick.
Those lightbulb moments come in an instant, not through thought.
And most thinking is negative.
Fear and the past or anxiety and the future.
I will speak with myself in between parts I write in a message, but speak slowly to myself as I type.
Then in between I may read it back and just sit and wait for the next thoughts that I write down.
I don't think about what I will write before I write it but I may have an inspiring little discussion in my mind regarding the next part.
Like the meme, I saw it and evaluated it from different perspectives as a chat to myself.
It's like going round a table getting everyone's view.
I don't think of the last perspective, I roll with the one that's coming.
Then after, I am pretty much blank on the whole thought process and do whatever I am doing.
But it's not a trailing thought, it was fully aware and curious as to why I was curious.
I only think about something if it is something that makes me think.
Like a puzzle or presenting a message to someone.
My attention has been solely on you and this message since I started writing it.
Any thought was productive as a different perspective but not for copying second hand.
If I am typing I have to say the word as I type it.
Although i could have a conversation at the same time, I would not hear them if I could hear my voice also so it is silent.
But it's the same as me speaking just with no volume turned up.
Some people can imagine a desert island and sit on it.
Some people can actually hear the sounds at that place, some people can have a different sounding bounce in the mind.
Ask ten people to imagine an elephant, then turn it green, then blue.
And ask the to make it look real and cartoon.
You will get a whole lot of different answers to what people can do.
Same with monologue.
My mind is just like a paint canvas that only 1 stroke is ever visable.
Mantra meditation is repeating a word in the mind to a whisper.
Doing that without going in to thought can be challenging for most people.
Reason I don't see mine as monologue, is I am doing it consciously, the same as if I was to talk.
I am in control of the direction and when to stop.
A constant running mind is a real bitch, I remember a time when it was perpetual without control.
Like a bottle lid that keeps spinning but never comes off.
Was like every thought had to be pushed aside by a new one to get rid of it.
Constant circles of what I did and what I have to do.
Was still the same mind as now, but it's quieter.
@@manavestnation exactly! I asked my boyfriend last night if he was playing out a conversation in his head between himself and someone, if he hears the other person voice or his own doing both parts and I was shocked when he said that he hears both his voice and the other persons! I guess he could see the shock on my face and he said, "I don't understand why u think that's weird, if I'm having a conversation with someone else in my head why wouldn't I heat their part in their voice?"
I'm so confused because I can't even hear my own voice in my head let alone someone else's!
I just typed this out whispering one word at a time while I typed! Lol
@@prissyalford1664
Whispering while writing, I know right.
It's a weird feeling when you realize,
People can go full experience in the mind.
I was trying to get an extra day off at work because they can go sit on the beach in the mind.
It does create quite a few questions over the legitimacy of tests when the other guy can see pages he read or hear the voice to remember.
Even if i try to scream or shout in the mind, i don't make any noise.
I also now wonder about drug use and how it's effects are perceived differently between people.
The questions in how it has an effect on people's role in the community.
It seems we are more different than we are led to believe.
Education and grading really need to change knowing this.
Wow!!! This is so complex and absolutely fascinating!!!!
I’m in my 30s currently and this happens frequently while listening to podcasts. I can remember times all the way back to my early youth reading books where my biggest struggle was“reading comprehension“ and my inability to “focus“ on the task at hand, especially when it came to reading or any type of single minded focus like when a teacher was giving a lecture in front of the chalkboard. I can vividly recall times where I would read multiple pages at once and then get to a certain point where I realized I don’t remember any of what I was just reading, all that I can remember is what I just realized I was thinking about. It’s made reading a struggle throughout my entire life. If I am not 100% interested in what I am reading or even watching at this point in my life I’m off in another universe thinking of something else, most the time, not even realizing that I’m thinking of said topic.
"There is light, where there is attention".
If your attention is with the thoughts, you will remember them. If you read, but keep your attention at what you are reading. Will remember the text. Same with hearing, with everything.
@@user-tw8gb9ei7q we attention goes energy flows. I agree.
I have inner monologue while Im speaking and formulationg thoughts and decissions. I dream in vivid color and have strong emotions and feelings durring my dreams. My goal has been to able to have my mind thinking without the delay caused by subvocalization which slows down the thought process. So I am attempting to train myself to think without the words, just the thought process at maximun speed..
This is going to sound pretentious, but I can create entire worlds in my mind's eye it seems. Sights and sounds. I used to just sit as a kid and try to visualize more and more vivid and realistic imagery.
I also have an internal monologue and can even narrate what I'm reading in my head with different tones, cadence etc.
@@alexanderjakubowski5673 not realy pretentious, I do the same, since my "inner monologue" consists of all my senses, and my inner monologue is akin to lucid dreaming/virtualization with god mode on^^
It's scary to find out a lot of people don't engage in very much inner dialogue. I use it constantly to plan, reflect.
Same. I can also use it to rationalize my feelings or thoughts that sometimes occur aside from my inner monologue. Also I have the ability to visualize like when reading or remembering a map or something. But my monologue is going while I’m visualizing, unless I’m reading. I also from thoughts based on feelings but I just don’t understand how someone thinks complex thoughts without a monologue.
Clearly people can, I just don’t understand how.
Why are people afraid of difference. Its not scary it’s different. I think language must be limiting. Do I go around say that as a fact? No because I understand it’s just my assumptions.
Yeah I feel as almost they are npcs
This was so cool to hear thank you
Thank you. Just had a conversation with my son of 25 and realized a lot about him. Those last few years of High school were brutal for both of us. Got through it and this may help other families to understand the mind set.
Ryan, it looks like You gonna learn a lot from this interview, good to see You are willing to correct Yourself based on new knowledge. Good job!
My inner monologue is very strong it overpowers my thoughts I can actually be reading something or watching something and I could totally think of other things in my mind and totally play it through like a movie
I'm really enjoying your videos and can't wait for the content you put out in the future. So glad I found your channel. Also while I was typing this I was also thinking about how bad I have to pee that I want peanut butter and how I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow so I can go to the beach after work.
This is awesome!! “Unsymbolized thinking” - I finally learned the term for how I think.. the majority of the time
Hey thanks for all these, they are very interesting.
is it possible that when the beep occurs one can not recall what they were thinking of?
Sure, but developing mindfulness can help with recall
This was FASCINATING
Nice follow up, thank you.
This interview was so interesting, thank you! I have aphantasia and I'm still not sure if I have an inner monologue. It's hard to explain. I can talk to myself but I don't hear anything, it's just as if I tried to speak but I learned how to do it inside (as they teach us in school to do with reading) so I don't feel it's a voice in my head talking but more like a learned way of expression inside. I could very well be saying that out loud but I've learned to fit into society and speak inside. But that does not mean all my thought are like this, this is just when I'm questioning something or a similar situation. Otherways, thoughts are just instant information. They need to study kids before they learn to read inside.
When I think or remember, it's just instant information. I don't see or hear anything. It's interesting when at around 20:00 he talks about unsymbolized thinking meaning that you think and you experience yourself consciously as choosing something without voice or image or sensation. I think that's close but he's missing something. The way I see what I do is that the information is vibration/energy. It's just there always and all humans have the ability to access it so we access it without needing to see it/hear it and others have a tool (hearing/seeing) that interprets that information for them. Because most people do this, they think there is no other option to access that information, but there is. We are proof. People want to use meditation and quiet their minds to access higher vibrations where information flows easily to them, I believe what people with aphantasia do is that but we've not learned to control it or quiet the flow of information so it's hard for us to control our constant flow of thought/information that being non visual, is harder to control. I don't know if it makes sense. It's good that this is being studied scientifically but if they ignore metaphysics and quantum physics, they'll never solve this.
My takeaway is that we all think we think the same way, but we probably don't and we aren't able to objectively interpret our thoughts much less other people's.
I thought of a decent comparison which is colors, you know what blue looks like as I can point the color out as well, look at my pfp. But who is to say we are really seeing the same color and not what we have associated the name of the color with.
This is great!! You’re awesome
I see its been a couple of years since you posted. I hope you have continued your work or the doctor has. This might help me explain to my doctor why i feel my mind is crazy.
Had to watch this video because my brain never shuts down! My head hurts sometimes because of it. It can be exhausting! :(
Really interesting topic, i was interested a lot about topic and to the prof itself and his idea.
I’m a little sad I’m late to this. I found this so exciting. Especially what they were saying about women with bulimia nervosa and how they can have certain processes going on simultaneously. I would be very interested to know how this correlates with NDs and how their internal experiences. Especially since it’s seems logical to me that not strictly but you are more likely to develop such eating disorders if you already have some SPDs.
I only found in the last year or so that not everyone has an internal voice with sounds and visuals and tastes and smells. It really does explain why there can sometimes be so much miscommunication if we’re going around with the assumption that others have the same internal experience capacity as ourselves.
Very interesting.
I’m still perplexed...my inner voice is always there! It’s not that I can’t control it or that it controls me necessarily but it is certainly a constant advisor! I’d like to be able to find common themes or if any categorization of the topics can occur but again, seems more like I’m in consultation with my own thoughts, thought processes and over-arching general implications of how that all bombards! Fascinating stuff.
Lucas Sonny Disappeared!! 😬
Nice to hear about unsymbolised thinking and that I'm not the only one. Although i actually think that a lot of people have unsymbolised thinking but they don't notice it.
This is so incredibly interesting.
This very interesting. I do have internal monologue. Say if I dropped a glass of water, my exact thoughts are “well damn.” I hear it in my head (my internal voice that rarely shuts up). When I read a book, something described reminds me of something else and my thoughts go there, before I know it, my eyes have looked at the words of 2 paragraphs and I have know idea what was said. With all that said, I found out about 9 years ago that I have aphantasia (it did not have a name then). I discovered this through watching (more like listening) to TH-cam guided meditation videos. I can’t imagine visuals, tastes, nor smells. This blew my mind when I realized that people could see in their mind, smell, or taste something that isn’t there. The only senses that I have (or feel) is my thought of “I want coffee.” I literally hear those words and I can feel the warmth of the coffee in my mouth. I can look at any object and feel it in my left hand (I’ve tried looking that one up but only phantom limbs come up). I just assumed that it my brains way of making up for the lack of the other imaginations.
What is odd to me.. isnt being capable of doing inner monologue.. but rather being incapable of turning it off.. imagine being a slave to your own mind.
Ye mine is constant like as I am typing this I am hearing the sentence in my head.... constant, never stop unless I'm asleep.
Feels pretty good, you're never alone and you can reflect on every single subject, it is an endless well of wisdom and true knowledge.
This video blew my mind and finally helped me understand this.
I am watching this video while writing this comment and counting to a minute in my head.
Good interview! I like your channel
I didn't know this was a thing and I'm really happy I found this. A few years ago I told my friend that I couldn't hear my thoughts and she thought it was very odd and because of things that had happened to my life but more recently I try to really focus on it and I don't know if I have heard a voice? But I feel the weirds, on the tip of my tongue or in my throat.
I can speak to myself not hear myself if that makes sense, I can play memory’s back in my head I can daydream and dream but I don’t “hear” voice I just think can’t really explain it it just happens like how my body breaths on it’s own
Same
audio mastering!!!!
This was interesting. I would think there are behavioral health implications with inner monologue or self talk. Especially studying negative and positive self talk. I know when I had a major depressive episode I was doing a lot of negative self talk. When I changed my inner dialogue to positive self talk my mood improved. I believe this is part of cognitive behavioral therapy.
This methodology seem like an extremely important starting point. There are probably a lot of parts of our experiences where we lack sufficient language to describe it so it might be difficult to get at many aspects. But then researchers can be clever to get solid results so it would be cool to learn more about the details.
I can hear the *exact* pitch and cadence of words in my head. I can recreate almost flawlessly the pitch and cadence of words in my head and on top of that, I can even hear the slight discrepancies between what I 'heard' in my head and vocalized with my mouth.
That being said, it's a smooth scale between literally hearing words and the pitch and cadence of words; and on the other side, recreating the taste of a cheeseburger and a hotdog to decide which I want to eat.
I think most of the time I'm feeling the emotions of experiences that I'm mulling over, but the closer what I'm thinking about gets to writing or discussions I've had or can potentially have with other humans, the thoughts turn more from feelings into literal words I can 'hear' in my head.
I do not have an internal dialog, never daydream, and am a very literal individual. In elementary and middle school I remember being very frustrated because I felt that I didn't have an imagination. When the teacher would ask us to close our eyes and imagine something absolutely no visual images would pop into my mind. I would not bring it up in class because I was smart enough to realize that it would make me appear different. I haven't thought about it for years so this was fascinating.
That's crazy I have the opposite problem, constantly all types of thinking described in this video, hard to turn it off. I had to act more down to earth growing up because I didn't want to appear different.
This is the wildest thing I've learned about this year...I thought everyone had an internal monolouge. I have a hard time understanding the concept of thinking without words 🤔 how can thoughts not have words?
Exactly. How do these people remember conversations, things they have read, etc? Remembering things I have said always comes through as inner-monologue at the very least. Most of the time when i remember something it's not only vocabulary. Visuals, acoustics, and feelings come through in varying degrees as well.
It's all silent. I have no visuals, no sounds, no scent recall, no touch recall - none of that. Except when it's in my dreams or involuntarily if I've played a game too often and I get the characters moving behind my eyes, once had the screaming of people on coasters in Roller Coaster Tycoon - once in 33 years.
I have memories, I can think of what was said, I can conceptualise but I cannot hear it again or physically see a representation of what i'm thinking.
The way 'normal' people think sounds like fantasy or sci-fi to me.
@@jewlz88au Thanks! That's amazing. I'm imagining how that works but still don't have a full grasp on it. Me and my inner dialog are having a full discussion about it 🤣
@@jewlz88au If you read this "A tall greenish tree with a bunch of Birds on it", do you hear your voice inside your head reading the words? and also do you picture the whole tree and birds on it?, also do you read? do you find it Boring?
@@edgaral I do not hear anything in my head at all, nor do I see anything. I think of a tree, this one would be a type of fir or gumtree - with a mix of native and non-native birds. But I can only think of or conceptualise the different elements - i don't 'see' them.
I love reading fiction, I almost devour books I read them so quickly. It might be better for me in a way when books are made in to movies or shows because I don't have visuals to compare them to.
I'm constantly living in my head my inner voice is louder then anything else around me. Like Im drowning out reality and living visually in whatever place that voice puts me in.
@ Dr. Hurlburt: My thoughts on the subject of boulimias thinking simultaniously of multiple things: Might this have to do with central coherence and sense of self? I read there is a central coherence system built in the brain the first years of a baby thanks to parents mirroring and attachment. (Because i also unfortunately think too many things exactly at the same time. I must check with a beaper but I really think I do. but i am not bolimia nor do i have any major food or body issue) and I always thought that was "adhd" for a lack of a better word. a scattered brain. But I recently read about how people form their identity according to pedagogy schoolbooks. And the first few years according to Attachment Theory and Attunement of parents that the baby gets a sense of self via the mirroring of the parent. And that it was previously thought to be built during adolescence but Harvard Childdevelopment says on info on their website that the foundations of sense of self is created during the first years and adolescense is only the finishing touch of that identity but now combined with peergroup and place in society. I think it is not surprising that bulimias think things simultaniously. My thought is that the sense of self is not perfectly formed due to unattunement of parents. For instance: Im a child of an autistic parent. I am participating in a interestgroup of adults raised as a child with autistic parents while they themselves have no ASD. And to my surprise anorexia was mentioned as one of the mental health issues associated with beeing raised in a mindblind nest. And ever since when someone tells me to have had anorexia in their past I asked "if you dont mind me asking do you have 1 or 2 ASD parents" the 2people ive asked so far one said 'yes how do you know this', and the other one said 'no but severely narcistic'. So total absense of mirroring. So a mind that thinks several things at the same time ( i have to watch this video 3 times because my inner monologue is shouting so i cant hear . i mean it is real a disease). To me it is clear one thing leads to another: attunement mentalisation - mirroring via parents leads to the building of a central coherence system. If not: less central coherence = problems of identity = less sense of self = chatterbox mind. (but the mix of genes (adhd) cultural context and personality and triggers lifevents everyones fenotype turns out in a different version. Others might have ocd depression anxiety what have you. Body image issues are just a very litteral translation of the issue of sense of self. The end result is different but the cause to me is clear. Central coherence system keeps your minds eye/voice/sense focused on one thing. (I see in my mind when I think of this a mental spotlight shining on a brain part that switches on. When the central coherense system is like a broad and vague spotlight or like a precise and sharp light): I wish to do a masters about this. Ill find your email en send some info.
I'm AuDHD, i have hecka internal dialogue, but I also understand her concept of visualization. I especially love her explanation of sentences having a shape and that seems like it would make it easier to learn different things. I like this. Subscribing
My experience is, that at the younger age, I was having very intense internal monologue, because I was always actively thinking about stuff. At adulthood due to many responsibilities, I tend to think less and less, my mind is often empty, since when I am not working, I listen to music, podcasts, watch videos... But when I think, the voice is always there. It is there now as i am writing this. But only rately I actively talk to myself in my head, most of the time it's subconscious and my mind provides images too.
Most of us are understanding, it seems, not by visualizing meaning,
but experiencing a feeling of knowing what someone means
My inner thoughts effects my breathing the same way talking does. Is anyone else expecting this?
I experience the exact same thing
Omg yes I thought I was the only one
Ryan, I know I should be skeptical, but I think I am the same as you.
I see no images, so I have aphantasia. And I constantly hear (or speak?) my inner monologue.
I see it as pretty much talking to myself all day long; it’s almost hard not to do it. I can stop if I want to, but I don’t want to.
I think it might be connected to me having anxiety, and it makes me feel better to process my thoughts through my inner monologue.
But seeing you talk about your experience, it seems like we’re extremely alike in how we think. 🤷🏻♀️
I absolutely have multiple inner voices and they all mimic a piece of my personality. The insecure me, the sexual me, the b!tch me, the intelligent me….and they all have conversations overlapping. I dissociate and believe during those times
I process what convos occur and that’s when I achieve understanding….not as the conversations are occurring.
I can’t see pictures, or taste or any of those other ways people experience thinking. I also have ADHD, and I think that may have something to do with it?
How do you mean you dissociate?
@@zeeschelp you "check out" and absorb nothing around you, no sounds or sights. It is like autopilot mode, you are so far away in your own thoughts, your body is just making automatic learned movements and you are not conscious of it because you are so incredibly wrapped up in your inner world / monologue
Sounds a little similar to other's experience of DID
Thank you😊
I would love to be a part of this study
Beep: sex
Beep: sex
Beep: food
Beep: sexy food
My first thought. But then I didn't want something in my ear. So then I tried to redesign the trial using a phone alarm. But then I started thinking about how it would influence validity. All in about ten seconds, a combination of visual and monologue. Sound familiar to you?
Interestingly some of this crosses over with autism in women specifically. I am unable to sense my own hunger, thirst, and even some emotions. I have a strong inner monologue but there is a disconnect in the transferring of messages from brain to body and vice versa. For example, I can't feel thirst or hunger, but i can recognize signs and symptoms. For some reason i kept asking for fruit not knowing why. Turns out i was dehydrated the whole time and my body wanted liquids but i am unable to get that message from my own brain. My sense of interoception is pretty poor and it made me pretty physically ill and mentally ill. I literally cannot sense my own hunger and thirst. Always underweight and dehydrated lol. Therapy has helped a lot though!
I have spent an ongoing great deal of time understanding my behavior and thinking, and my physiology… I definitely think it’s helped me develop where others have not. I analyze my thinking and question potential flaws in it to the point where I overcome behaviors that I observe as reactionary and lizard-brained of others. Especially in the world of addiction I spent a little time in, I retained a level of awareness and could step aside of myself and say, yknow, the [sensation] here is uncalled for or not usual for me, but my friend and I are arguing? Why? It’s obviously the drugs distorting my experience. I could manage that and most of my friends couldn’t get over it and remained stuck on it even at later times.
this is so interesting, I have an inner voice but not unmpromted monologue it's just like talking out loud I need to make a conscious effort to talk in my mind but I don't get random passing thoughts/sounds, I also have no visualization but I do dream I guess areas are not correlated, My mind was blown away when I started comparing experiences with friends and some told me they could remember tastes and smells and feel as if they were tasting or smelling the thing for real or that they could hear a song in their heads as if it was playing in the radio, like I thought the inner monologue scenes in movies were just a cheesy script resource lol same with flashbacks and then I ran into an aphantasia video, started asking around and wow the array of different experiences is incredible we tend to think that everyone experiences the world just like us, but just as everything in life it is a spectrum/grayscale so there are so many possibilities.
now i know why my dad always speak out his thought reactions.
I’ve heard that people can’t actually multi task but it seems like if some people can have multiple thoughts simultaneously, they have the ability to be doing multiple things at once.
I have such a hard time knowing what i’m feeling because I don’t just go “this makes me angry”, so I just sit there and unknowingly bottle my feelings
I just ran into this concept, and am interested because I really don't think in sentences. I hear something in my head when I read, especially dialogue, but I don't generally think in a speech mode. I do a lot of talking to myself out loud. That is the clearest way for me to think. The fact that people even have an internal monologue is news to me. It never occurred to me that people were sort of "hearing a voice" when they thought. I'm high functioning Aspergers, and have a hyper-sensitivity to sound. I'm a very good pianist, and have always loved music. I have even played a concerto with an orchestra. Still, I have always wondered why I can't seem to hear music in my head. It's like I have a very poor memory for sound. I write books now, but do most of my thinking "on the page." Once I have something written down, I evaluate it and edit it as if someone else had written it. My books usually have around 80 drafts behind them. When I read or edit my own books, I definitely hear my voice, but that's not thinking. It's reading.
They should interview the people I work with. I'm convinced there is no thinking or even a thought process going on with any of them.
hahahaha
if im not actively thinking (a inner voice speaks things i think) my mind goes into observe mode and it feels like im not thinking im consuming this topic is so fascinating
This is really interesting! I thought everyone had an almost constant running dialog with themselves. All most every interaction I have with the outside world I talk myself though the entire experience or I day dream. The only time I don't have a running conversation or internal commentary is when I'm doing "flow state" stuff like sex, physical exertion and focused concentration. This is not how, almost everyone, interacts with themselves? I'm sure going to have a conversation with myself about this😎 thanks for the video.
Hey Jerry, I'm the same way. I have what I feel are "surface level," verbal thoughts, which occur when I actively observe my thought. But, throughout the day when I'm in "flow state" I just have deeper abstract thought, which i strongly prefer as my thinking style. The verbal thought feels fake and not as effective as a thinking style.
Edit: typo
Nicholas H My bad, I meant to say that the verbal thought feels fake
@@chewby218 went ahead and deleted since you clarified your post
I’ve been wondering about inner-hearing vs. inner-speaking, I just didn’t have the exact wording for it until now. I have very little visuals, not on the absolute zero end of aphantasia, but I think my brain is loud in any way it can be to make up for the lack of visuals lol. It’s always so loud in here.
Also, as a man with anorexia, I definitely have overlapping thoughts a lot of the time, so that’s really interesting.
One day ur inner voice will say hi...
And it will be the spookiest thing..
But u will get the most trusted AI for ur brain, recalling memories and books, knowledge, images and tutorials u watched and learnt. U will truly become an unstoppable human just limitless
I have noticed about myself that I think in images a lot but I also catch myself thinking with words. I also have thoughts that don't seem able to be classified in either of those ways, experiencing thinking in concepts unrelated to words or images. I often pray silently, and there are definitely internal words associated with that.
I think Iv experienced both, I’m glad he mentioned the hot dog or hamburger. I have an internal monologue. However, there have been times when I was offered to different choices and I didn’t monologue it, instead I simply bounced back in forth with my eyes between my choices and felt like one was the better pick. Had the choice become difficult I probably would have resorted to thinking about it, but in the moment I didn’t really give it to much thought and instead just felt it and picked it.
I’m wondering if growing up all these years seeing people in schools, seeing them learn the world…how could you even understand/comprehend the word “think, thought, ponder.” Because when someone tell me to think, boom the inner monologue starts. What happens when you tell someone to think about something if they can ponder it in their head….
Try thinking about an abstract idea.
For instance, think about “love”. Does that prompt a monologue in your head about what love is? Or an attempt at visualizing love?
For me that would prompt several seconds of thoughts about images, ideas, memories, feelings, and MAYBE a word or two, all of which I would associate with love. These are my thoughts.
Afterword, I could attempt to verbalize/write these thoughts if prompted but (unless I am preemptively anticipating having to describe them) a monologue is not my natural way to think about something like this.
If I did describe my thoughts afterwards, it wouldn’t be a linear chain of sentences or words. It would be an attempt at translating my abstract associations and imaginings into English for the purposes of communication.
Now apply this to any more concrete noun, like a burger. If I’m thinking about a burger why would I do that in words, if I’m not anticipating having to talk about burgers with someone? In other words, a burger is better represented to myself, in my mind, via sensations, associations, and memories. English is just a tool to use to communicate this stuff to others.
I was talking about this with a friend while it played and I brought up multiple me's in my head talking things out and about a min later you brought up multiples
I don’t have an internal monologue. After talking with a multitude of people who do, I think what’s actually happening is that I don’t need a lingual medium in order to conceptualize things. I’m definitely thinking about things constantly, but there aren’t any words associated with my thoughts unless I decide to voice them. If I want to use language to think about things, I can technically think words inside my head, but because I don’t naturally do that it feels better to say them out loud.
Fascinating speakers. I don't know if my experience has relevance to this but seems to. I'm a behavioral psychologist and teach meditation and buddhist philosophy. A simple mindfulness beginner practice is counting 1-10 (odd # on inhales even # on exhales) which becomes a foreground experience (a task). What most people notice is that they are having about three other streams of thought at the same time (thoughts thinking me). Also interesting, most people can't differentiate the multiple trains of thought without a foreground/task component. This is a lot going on without even exploring body sensation and emotion (unless one thought is about pain or who they are angry with) or what they are observing in their five senses (unless there is a novel stimuli).
can you please direct me to a link that will go into further detail about everything you just said. Particularly one counting down but struggles because of multiple streams of thought coming in. Thank you!!
I recently heard of this real inner monologue thing. Ive also recently heard of different levels of imagination, or abilities to imagine in different levels of detail and manipulation. Would be a pretty interesting subject
Knowing you're not the only one who does this is amazing. Yet I do "think" there are simpler terms to categorize these different types of thinking...
Monologue, whether in your voice or others inside your head.
Audible, where you can hear things not speech but have an understanding of the thought completely through sound.
Sensory, as in the sensations you can feel without the actual action taken place in the moment.
Visionary, to project items, places and/or things vividly though ones mind.
And Emotional, having an embrace through ones "soul" or inner being to manifest these emotions that relate perfectly to the thought.
People who experience more than one of these at the same time are built just as I am.
It bothers me that we can have the same thought but completely different perspectives depending on our background and characteristics we labeled ourselves in. Sometimes.... I just want to turn everything off.... for one day 🤔
I feel like I do a mix of them. If for example I'm looking for something, I picture places where it might be, like looking at a photograph in my head but also hear myself 'where could it be' and also say to myself in my head 'hmm maybe it's there..', I feel in my hand how it feels when I touch the object, have the sensation of a faster heartbeat, maybe feel stress and have an emotion depending on how important it is to find it, I may feel adventurous and curious but could also feel down and on the verge of helpless, or playful, annoyed etc., I move in my head as if I'm walking through my apartment, more gliding actually and a bunch of other stuff like emotions or sounds or smell - depends on what I'm looking for
I feel like I have different ways to think for different activities/situations. I dont always hear myself or talk to myself in my head, sometimes it's just pictures, sometimes it's just black and words that aren't really there but are still there, sometimes it's just an emotion that I can later identify.
I do feel like I use the same way to think for the same scenarios, like the "looking for something" always consists of the same 'thinking ways' described above.
Confusing, very complex to even try and find the words for my own head..
Found the difference in volume between everyone too great to follow the conversation. My inner dialogue kept saying what’s wrong with the volume 😂
I have a internal monologue I also have inner seeing and experienced sensory experience… 🙏 thank you
So I have inner monologue but also I'm very visual and think in many ways, I find that the 'word' thoughts are ways of simply interpreting the stream of images, stimuli, memories, or the current situation, etc, in a comprehensive way, almost like I'm narrating what she's describing as her way of thinking, but there is this added layer on top of it. It's like a creative way of understanding my thoughts, like the words are not the thoughts themselves, they're just chatter on top of the 'thoughts'. I guess there are benefits and draw backs to this, such as in meditation we're taught how to quiet that chatter, but at first it's really weird for us 'inner monologue' people to understand the benefits of this at first because it sounds 'boring' I guess? And how do you know you've learned something or done something right without being able to interpret in word thoughts what's going on? But really I think something like meditation can help us understand how to use our thoughts without the chatter. Kind of like the way someone with no inner monologue can sometimes force themselves to say words in their head if they try, we can learn to think in their way if we really force ourselves. Im not great at meditation but its more peaceful without the chatter, it does help to feel more present, the chatter can takeover a bit as we know. On the other hand, as she said, some people without inner monologue have to be constantly doing something, that's weird for me, I'm most creative when I sitting silently with myself and my thoughts.
Other people without inner monologue were wondering if we have to hear our thoughts every time before we do something, buts It's like, we don't always have to think before we do or say something, such as when we are 'in a flow' and the words, usually spoken, are in unison with the thoughts and come out without without need for pre-thought, so in a sense I know what it's like to not have inner monologue before an action, but when I'm not in a flow, I have to interpret my thoughts in a monologue then work those thoughts into written word or a sentence. And it can be very helpful to be able to rehearse a conversation before speaking out loud, it gives the opportunity for preparedness. I don't think my thoughts are slow as some people without inner monologue wonder, because as I said, the word thoughts are simply interpretations of a thought that has already occurred, and the brain has already processed it before the narration has occurred. So in many cases my actions in response to the thought/stimuli are already being carried out before I've gone over the idea in thought words. Like if I'm cold, I'll wrap my sweater tighter around me before my mind starts with the "damn, it's cold in here, is it just me? Am I getting sick? Good thing I wore my favourite sweater today"... Etc.
Does any of this make any sense? I think we all think in a similar way, but we interpret our thoughts in different ways. Like someone who is deaf and has never heard spoken word before would have to use a different way of interpreting their thoughts even if they would have been an 'inner monologue person' if they had been born hearing, we adapt. Maybe people without an inner monologue just didn't need it so didn't develop it, because we weren't born with it, we wouldn't have used inner monologue until we could speak, and even then, did we start using words to interpret thoughts right away? Did we develope it over time? We learned how to walk and eat and love our parents before we had a grasp of language after all. So it must have be developed right?
I’m starting to think that women think very differently to men... it seems to me that men have a lot of this inner monologue, and women, given they are more emotional and more in tune with themselves, are more visual
omg this made perfect sense and the part where u were talking about how u have a physical stinuli reaction first? i literally gasped out loud and then muttered yes under my breath without even thinking ab it. the gasp came w/o me knowing 😭 and i have a physical reaction before i think ab anything
I can remember my Thoughts, when I was around 5 years old. But i do strongly remember having inner monologue at 5/6
I visualize a vast majority of my thoughts. I don't use a voice regularly but I do speak internally occasionally and daily. Prayer is an internal discussion. But I have lots of desires that drive my day. What to eat is usually based on cravings or desires. Most of what I do is mapped out in advance through images of my environment. I'm a very visual person.