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People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

theguardian.com

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Re: People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

#41

Post by checkyoursudo »

boc wrote: post #35
checkyoursudo wrote: post #24

A couple of years ago, I learned that other people see images in their minds. Now I learn that people hear voices in their minds in a way that is dramatically different to mine. When I am thinking, there is pure silence and blank-ness in my mind. I don't see anything in my blind mind's eye, and I don't hear anything in my deaf mind's ear. It seems that I can create a monologue in my mind, but I have to be consciously…

So wait, if you close your eyes and picture Mount Everest, you can't see Mount Everest in your head? For me it's easy to "fly" around my neighborhood just by closing my eyes and remembering what the streets and trees and houses look like as I take a lap. I can see off into the distance, I can see the sidewalk cracks, I can see people... all of them are obviously fuzzed versions of reality but nonetheless they're rela…

If I close my eyes, I can see nothing. If I keep my eyes open, I can sort of barely super-impose some ghostly relief of the thing I am supposedly imagining.

My wife can see like full Technicolor motion pictures in her mind with special effects and superstar cameos.

I am jealous.

My mind is seriously black when I close my eyes.

On the plus side for me, it is super easy for me to fall asleep whenever I want, because it's just black and blank and boring when I close my eyes at bed time. :)

Re: People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

#42

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

checkyoursudo wrote: post #24

A couple of years ago, I learned that other people see images in their minds. Now I learn that people hear voices in their minds in a way that is dramatically different to mine. When I am thinking, there is pure silence and blank-ness in my mind. I don't see anything in my blind mind's eye, and I don't hear anything in my deaf mind's ear. It seems that I can create a monologue in my mind, but I have to be consciously…

If you do not have any discursive thought, I am curious how meditation is for you. Must be incredibly simple and easy.

Re: People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

#43

Post by dylan604 »

StreakyCobra wrote: post #21

> Many of the people I speak to learned late in life that their inner voices were not the norm. For years, Worrall thought that other people also had attics in their brains. I went through exactly the same situation around 10 years ago, but it was about mental imaging. Do you know people can actually visualize and see things when they close there eyes? You probably do, but it took me 25 years to figure out that for m…

Way back in high school, I took several different tests that would have questions that would show a drawing of a folded piece of paper with a hole in it that would then ask what the pattern of dots on the unfolded page would look like. The ASVAB was one of them IIRC. At the time, I was shocked at the number of people that could not visualize this. Going through life, I then met so many people that would say they could not picture what was being described to the point I thought I just sucked at descriptions. While there may be some truth to that, I learned that aphantasia existed and it wasn't that someone was just not trying very hard.

Re: People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

#44

Post by jklinger410 »

haxiomic wrote: post #7

I love hearing about how other minds work! It's the coolest thing to think about and fascinating how we all go by without ever realising how different we can be to one another HN: How does your mind work? Do you have a dialog, monolog, abstract concepts, something else entirely?

I have a monologue in the form of an argument between different perspectives. I can envision things, but not clearly, so unclear that at first I wasn't sure if I could or not.

I also feel like I have access to a very limited range of active memory, and when I store old information it can be very hard to find. Like a slow and fragmented HDD on a new-ish computer.

Re: People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

#45

Post by jklinger410 »

haxiomic wrote: post #18
haxiomic wrote: post #7

I love hearing about how other minds work! It's the coolest thing to think about and fascinating how we all go by without ever realising how different we can be to one another HN: How does your mind work? Do you have a dialog, monolog, abstract concepts, something else entirely?

For me it's a clear audible monolog which breaks into a dialog of self talk for problem solving and day-to-day planning. It sounds nothing like my physical voice but I feel that's my truest self I've had this wonderful experience after learning sign language that for the first time I feel like I can talk to other people with the voice in my head! And when they sign back I hear a voice speaking aloud each sign. What I…

That's interesting about sign language. I wonder if it helps with plasticity.

Re: People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

#46

Post by ben_w »

haxiomic wrote: post #7

I love hearing about how other minds work! It's the coolest thing to think about and fascinating how we all go by without ever realising how different we can be to one another HN: How does your mind work? Do you have a dialog, monolog, abstract concepts, something else entirely?

A lot of monologue, though sometimes I find the abstract part has raced ahead and finished the thought before the words have time to be thought. If I stop those words because the thought is complete, it feels weird.

Sometimes just visuals, especially when I’m trying to understand geometric problems.

Re: People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

#47

Post by pempem »

boc wrote: post #35
checkyoursudo wrote: post #24

A couple of years ago, I learned that other people see images in their minds. Now I learn that people hear voices in their minds in a way that is dramatically different to mine. When I am thinking, there is pure silence and blank-ness in my mind. I don't see anything in my blind mind's eye, and I don't hear anything in my deaf mind's ear. It seems that I can create a monologue in my mind, but I have to be consciously…

So wait, if you close your eyes and picture Mount Everest, you can't see Mount Everest in your head? For me it's easy to "fly" around my neighborhood just by closing my eyes and remembering what the streets and trees and houses look like as I take a lap. I can see off into the distance, I can see the sidewalk cracks, I can see people... all of them are obviously fuzzed versions of reality but nonetheless they're rela…

That. is amazing!

I cannot see anything personally without a visual reference right before closing my eyes. I can begin to use words to reason my way around the block, but even then despite seeing them so often, I cannot picture them.

Re: People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

#48

Post by helaoban »

Sometimes when I'm lost in thought a sound, a voice or a piece of music that I heard recently is almost completely reproduced in my brain, like I'm actually hearing it again. It's a subconscious act, I don't think I've ever been able to will that sensation consciously, but once it happens I can sustain it for almost a minute or two (especially music).

I have a very "strong" internal monologue, talking to myself all day. I supposed there could be a connection.

Anybody else have similar experiences?

Re: People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

#49

Post by chippy »

josephg wrote: post #15

I started doing improv comedy classes a few years ago. It’s terrifying. My friends would share stories of what their inner critics were saying about their performances. “You were rubbish and everyone was knows it!”. It was weird for me - my mind doesn’t have a voice like that. “Hah maybe I don’t have an inner critic” I thought. But I still felt crippling shame after bad scenes in class. In quiet moments my mind is fu…

> “Hah maybe I don’t have an inner critic” I thought.

thats your inner voice!

Re: People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices

#50

Post by dmitrygr »

kzrdude wrote: post #32
StreakyCobra wrote: post #21

> Many of the people I speak to learned late in life that their inner voices were not the norm. For years, Worrall thought that other people also had attics in their brains. I went through exactly the same situation around 10 years ago, but it was about mental imaging. Do you know people can actually visualize and see things when they close there eyes? You probably do, but it took me 25 years to figure out that for m…

Aphantasia: Is there a simple test or procedure we can use to make it easier to decide to what degree we have this or not? It just seems like a topic where expectations can differ a lot. Since it's hard to clearly explain what visualizing feels like and doesn't. Some people might even be very normal and yet disappointed and think they are missing something. I don't think my mind's eye is particularly strong for examp…

> Is there a simple test

Close your eyes and imagine a triangle. Now, quickly, what color was it? If you have an answer, you do not have aphantasia. If you have no answer, you likely have aphantasia - your mind instantiated a concept of a triangle, but until the question of color came up, it was irrelevant and was not considered

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