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Not everyone has an internal monologue

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Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#891

Post by kazarnowicz »

K0SM0S wrote: post #863
jodrellblank wrote: post #847

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's way beyond me. What is a " philosophical super-hero " - in what way is any amount of philosophy heroic at all, let alone super-heroic?

I don't think it's "beyond you", I think it's so simple you passed right above it. A "philosophical super-hero" in the context of Matrix, circa 1999 is something along the lines of: Everybody's asleep like Jim Careys in the Truman Show. Reality is not what we think it is. We're all slaves, we're all miserable even if we think we're happy. It's all a lie. “They” control us. “They” know and keep us ignorant. “They” are…

I think you made a very fair interpretation of what I mean. But then, I saw the Matrix seven times in theaters the first year (1999-2000). Then I saw it many more times on DVD/streaming. But it took until I was about 40 before I realized that it was about something more than just the story. My meta-cognition seems to have been stuck in the early teens level until my 40s.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#892

Post by ip26 »

didibus wrote: post #705
ip26 wrote: post #646

I would say I don't have an internal monologue. But that doesn't mean my mind isn't wandering all over the place. I don't talk to myself, I don't play out conversations in my head. Instead it's more like a collection of "thoughts", or "images", or visualizing myself "doing". I can get extremely caught up in this. There's also an awful lot of contemplating objects, observing features, visualizing how they interact. Ve…

Like you can actually see things in your head? Visually? With color and all?

I don't see photorealistic pictures on the backs of my eyelids or anything, I don't know if people can do that. For me it's sort of abstract, like a Picasso or caricature, or like looking at something out of the corner of your eyes. I am aware of the nature of the thing but I do not see a camera picture inside my head.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#893

Post by ip26 »

tempestn wrote: post #724
ip26 wrote: post #646

I would say I don't have an internal monologue. But that doesn't mean my mind isn't wandering all over the place. I don't talk to myself, I don't play out conversations in my head. Instead it's more like a collection of "thoughts", or "images", or visualizing myself "doing". I can get extremely caught up in this. There's also an awful lot of contemplating objects, observing features, visualizing how they interact. Ve…

Say you're planning to write a letter (or an email), but you're not actually sitting at your computer to do it right at that time. You're in the shower, or walking around or whatever. Will you play out specific sentences you intend to include, in your mind? Could you do that if you wanted to?

More like I will peruse concepts I want to discuss, storyboard or outline style. I could compose a sentence AFK but it's not my natural thought pattern, I'd only do that if I considered it of particular importance.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#894

Post by bananamerica »

kmonsen wrote: post #625
bananamerica wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, it is so satisfying when a conversation hits a branch you worked on for hours on end! Very useful for dating and job interviews. Especially for people with foot-in-mouth disease [1] [1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foot-in-mouth_disease

Is it though? I have found a job and wife that is OK with my foot in mouth disease and think it works better when you sell who you are. Don't get me wrong self improvement is important, but so is telling people who are going to spend time with you what they are going to get.

The fact the I plan conversations does not make me any less of myself. You are mistaking planning with deception.

And anyone I meet will eventually learn all my flaws, but that's an incremental process. It doesn't make sense to just throw each one of them on the first date.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#895

Post by nprateem »

WillDaSilva wrote: post #864
nprateem wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> see amazing colours and shapes whenever I close my eyes Are they fractal shapes, or like you'd see in a kalaidoscope perchance?

Not fractals or like a kaleidoscope. I'm not sure I have the words to explain it in any understandable way, and I'm certain that I lack the skill to do it justice. Usually it starts as blots of colour/brightness, as well as gradients (both radial and linear), and some more exotic images. Then if I keep paying attention they'll start to morph into all sorts of different things. These can be abstract imagery (not entir…

I've heard about that sort of thing be experienced through yoga/meditation (and have seen stuff myself on occasion), but who knows what our brains are doing in those states. Perhaps you're naturally inclined to be able to experience those sorts of things...

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#896

Post by philwelch »

rapnie wrote: post #323
feanaro wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you differentiate between the dreams being detailed and the dreamers simply being convinced of the dreams being detailed? It's certainly my impression that my dreams are extremely visually detailed, to the point that I'm often able to read things in dreams (and remember it later).

This is interesting. I hear from others that their dreams are very mundane, i.e. very similar to real life. Mine are very crazy, absurd adventures. Very fun and mind-blowing to remember them when waking up, so I am training my dream recall. In my dreams familiar people from all stages in my life meet together. I always thought I dreamt them in great detail, but I have now learnt that only their 'essence' is there. Ju…

Do you have these vivid and fascinating dreams every night or is it less frequent than that? What may be going on is a cognitive bias where you only remember your more memorable dreams, and the mundane ones are just forgotten.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#897

Post by whalabi »

(this was posted ages ago but) have you ever held a concept in your mind without knowing the word for it? And you can feel the concept just as well as if you did?

I imagine it's a bit like that. Maybe these people have exactly the same experience, but it bypasses the auditory feedback (or whatever) parts of the mind.

Fascinating.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#898

Post by whalabi »

downtide wrote: post #750
JabavuAdams wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost 44 years, and the hurricane hasn't seemed to calm down. I just have fewer registers. :/

If it's any consolation you miss it when it's gone.

That sounds a little distressing. Have you found a positive?

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#899

Post by plinkplink »

No one thinks in spoken language. The construct of words is not the kernel of thought. More like the parsing of your subconscious thoughts (neurons firing) into human-readable language.

Think of raw thought as machine code and internal monologue as a high-level programming language. Binary vs JavaScript. Some people are able to interact meaningfully with their subconscious machine code while others must abstract it into spoken language. There is an infinite spectrum between the two extremes that we all constantly tread.

Infants who don't know how to talk yet and animals (as well as hominids before language) do not think in words. Brains are not constructed in such a way as to use spoken language words as the fundamental component of thought.

I, personally, almost never think or reason about things in human language unless I am talking, practicing a speech, or writing. Then I must manually construct each word. I think deeply about things quickly and make useful logical connections between disparate topics that others tend to miss, but I tend to be slow at communicating.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#900

Post by c0restraint »

plinkplink wrote: post #899

No one thinks in spoken language. The construct of words is not the kernel of thought. More like the parsing of your subconscious thoughts (neurons firing) into human-readable language. Think of raw thought as machine code and internal monologue as a high-level programming language. Binary vs JavaScript. Some people are able to interact meaningfully with their subconscious machine code while others must abstract it i…

> No one thinks in spoken language.

I generally do. I see the words as I think them. Spelling and sound. It’s weird I guess, though I never thought of it being weird until now.

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