People who have unusual, or non-existent, inner voices • Hacker News Board

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

#51

Post by haxiomic » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 9:43 PM UTC

bengale wrote: post #22

This is going to be like when I discovered I had aphantasia isn’t it. People are hearing actual voices inside their heads? I can sometimes have a train of thought that I could vocalise if I wanted to but I don’t actually hear it as a voice. Can you all hear things like music and other sounds too?

I've heard skilled artists can have aphantasia and my friend who has it gets very vivid dreams interestingly

Do you find you're quicker to read and process things than others seem to be?

Music definitely, it's been stronger at some points in my life, I can't do so easily these days but at one point I could hear and improvise music so clear it felt like everyone else would hear it too if you put an audio jack in my ear

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

#52

Post by dylan604 » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 9:43 PM UTC

bengale wrote: post #22

This is going to be like when I discovered I had aphantasia isn’t it. People are hearing actual voices inside their heads? I can sometimes have a train of thought that I could vocalise if I wanted to but I don’t actually hear it as a voice. Can you all hear things like music and other sounds too?

I hate when I hear "random" noises, but my brain tries to hear a rhythm or pattern to the point it stops doing what I feel it should be doing.

I imagine what the guys that create music from gadgets like printers, steam irons, etc. [0] must go through daily. Every little noise sounds like a note/chord that they then are reminded of a song. I'm guessing it gets old/annoying after awhile.

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7eI1-rMkQI

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

#53

Post by TedDoesntTalk » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 9:45 PM UTC

floatingatoll wrote: post #2

Hey, it’s me! I’m one of the “inner silence” folks, in case anyone has questions. Didn’t realize y’all heard voices until five years ago.

When you hear a song that you know and like, does the music and singing repeat in your head after the song is over?

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

#54

Post by haxiomic » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 9:45 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #46

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.

Totally agree on that abstract bit going faster, sometimes it feels I'm verbalising thoughts for completeness!

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

#55

Post by ars » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 9:45 PM UTC

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…

> So wait, if you close your eyes and picture Mount Everest, you can't see Mount Everest in your head?

I can picture the concept of Mount Everest. But it's more of an abstract idea. Like I don't actually see a mountain in color as if it were in front of me. But there's this "mental concept" sitting in front of me.

Are you able to actually "see" a picture? Are most people able to do that?

I've never noticed a limitation in myself - I can easily visualize how things will look if arranged, but I don't see a picture like a painting, rather I see the concept of the object. So I figured I was typical.

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

#56

Post by titusjohnson » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 9:45 PM UTC

floatingatoll wrote: post #34

titusjohnson wrote: post #19

The broadcaster Jenni Murray lives in author Hannah Begbie’s brain. Well, not Murray exactly, but a facsimile of Murray, with the same kind but quizzical voice, and a scarf flung loosely over her shoulder. “My inner voice is a duologue, like I am in a constant state of interviewing myself,” says Begbie, who is 44 and lives in London. “The interviewing always happens in a plush radio studio,” she says. “There’s nice r…

There’s no other self in my head to debate with. Except when I’m specifically thinking about what someone else would say, in which case I can get fragments of phrases enough to sort-of rehearse different branches of a conversation. I also can’t play chess against myself, because I can see my own logic on both sides, and it nullifies.

Well, I don't have an "other self" to debate with, I know it's just me. It's like a verbal exercise, where you go through a conversation and prepare responses to expected objections or questions.

Similar to playing chess against myself, there's only use if I am super strict about trying to make "each side" as honest as possible.

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

#57

Post by dylan604 » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 9:46 PM UTC

floatingatoll wrote: post #2

Hey, it’s me! I’m one of the “inner silence” folks, in case anyone has questions. Didn’t realize y’all heard voices until five years ago.

I'd love to be you at bedtime. That's when the voices love to just ruin your day/night.

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

#58

Post by throwaway34241 » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 9:46 PM UTC

xyzelement wrote: post #4

floatingatoll wrote: post #2

Hey, it’s me! I’m one of the “inner silence” folks, in case anyone has questions. Didn’t realize y’all heard voices until five years ago.

I didn't read the article yet but since you're offering... how do you "think through" problems? Example, this was a dialogue I had in my head this morning: "Avenue X has a lot of stop signs which is annoying. But Avenue Y is narrow and it's garbage-pickup time, so I can get unlucky and really stuck behind a garbage truck. That's not worth the risk, I'd rather deal with the stop signs so I am taking avenue X" What is…

If you've played a sport or video games you've probably made all sorts of actions / judgement calls without having time to fully verbalize them, but with the thought still conscious enough that you could explain what you were trying to do afterward. At least for me I'd describe it as something like that, just slower and without the time pressure.

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

#59

Post by helaoban » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 9:46 PM UTC

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…

I don't even have to close them, I can reproduce pictures of objects, people, scenery etc in my mind while my eyes are open and actively observing other things.

As I type this comment I've got an image of a girl I saw yesterday fixed in my mind, as if looking at a picture of her.

I also assumed this was the norm.

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

#60

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 02, 2021, 9:47 PM UTC

bengale wrote: post #22

This is going to be like when I discovered I had aphantasia isn’t it. People are hearing actual voices inside their heads? I can sometimes have a train of thought that I could vocalise if I wanted to but I don’t actually hear it as a voice. Can you all hear things like music and other sounds too?

[deleted]