<story><title>The Sound of Madness</title><url>https://harpers.org/archive/2018/06/the-sound-of-madness/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>danieltillett</author><text>As someone who normally doesn&amp;#x27;t have the self-talk module running, I was amazed to learn that most people have it running all the time. I only use the module when writing, otherwise my consciousness is normally non-verbal.&lt;p&gt;I suspect it is related, but when I read I don&amp;#x27;t hear the words unless I deliberately choose to read the text in my head, otherwise my process is written word -&amp;gt; concept.</text></item><item><author>mirimir</author><text>Good article.&lt;p&gt;But it doesn&amp;#x27;t mention the self-talk aka &amp;quot;stream of consciousness&amp;quot; that virtually everyone hears. And a key insight is that it&amp;#x27;s not &lt;i&gt;our&lt;/i&gt; consciousness. It&amp;#x27;s basically just recordings that get played back on queue. A central aspect of meditation is becoming aware of that voice as something distinct from self.&lt;p&gt;So anyway, it&amp;#x27;s best to think &amp;quot;Thanks for sharing :)&amp;quot; and then to do something intentional.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TeMPOraL</author><text>It seems to be similar with mental pictures.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.lesswrong.com&amp;#x2F;posts&amp;#x2F;baTWMegR42PAsH9qJ&amp;#x2F;generalizing-from-one-example&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.lesswrong.com&amp;#x2F;posts&amp;#x2F;baTWMegR42PAsH9qJ&amp;#x2F;generalizi...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The debate [over mental imagery] was resolved by Francis Galton (...). Galton gave people some very detailed surveys, and found that some people did have mental imagery and others didn&amp;#x27;t. The ones who did had simply assumed everyone did, and the ones who didn&amp;#x27;t had simply assumed everyone didn&amp;#x27;t, to the point of coming up with absurd justifications for why they were lying or misunderstanding the question. There was a wide spectrum of imaging ability, from about five percent of people with perfect eidetic imagery to three percent of people completely unable to form mental images.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Personally, I&amp;#x27;m someone with small-talk module running almost constantly, verbalizing most of my thinking and reading. On the other hand, I have very low capability of forming mental images.&lt;p&gt;I wonder how many other things in brain are like that, widely differing between people.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Sound of Madness</title><url>https://harpers.org/archive/2018/06/the-sound-of-madness/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>danieltillett</author><text>As someone who normally doesn&amp;#x27;t have the self-talk module running, I was amazed to learn that most people have it running all the time. I only use the module when writing, otherwise my consciousness is normally non-verbal.&lt;p&gt;I suspect it is related, but when I read I don&amp;#x27;t hear the words unless I deliberately choose to read the text in my head, otherwise my process is written word -&amp;gt; concept.</text></item><item><author>mirimir</author><text>Good article.&lt;p&gt;But it doesn&amp;#x27;t mention the self-talk aka &amp;quot;stream of consciousness&amp;quot; that virtually everyone hears. And a key insight is that it&amp;#x27;s not &lt;i&gt;our&lt;/i&gt; consciousness. It&amp;#x27;s basically just recordings that get played back on queue. A central aspect of meditation is becoming aware of that voice as something distinct from self.&lt;p&gt;So anyway, it&amp;#x27;s best to think &amp;quot;Thanks for sharing :)&amp;quot; and then to do something intentional.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Lambdanaut</author><text>Even further-leaning on that spectrum, I have an acquaintance with complete Aphantasia.&lt;p&gt;He lives life with a complete inability to experience anything that is not happening at that moment. He cannot picture his mother&amp;#x27;s face. He can&amp;#x27;t recall his life. He can&amp;#x27;t get a song stuck in his head. He can&amp;#x27;t hear any words in his head at all.&lt;p&gt;And yet he&amp;#x27;s an incredibly talented musician, writer, and teacher. When he sits at his piano, the music just happens. He can only compose while working at the instrument.</text></comment>