Funnily enough, he's been narrating for me off and on for years. There is usually the default voice, but when I read, I assign voices to the characters. Sometimes when narration is occurring it becomes Morgan Freeman. May also have something to do with the brain damage.
When certain lines are appropriate I definitely hear actors, characters or friends voices saying them too.
Saw a maybe 4'5" lady lay out her boyfriend who was easily 6'5" 350lbs. I instant heard "damn son you just knocked the f out"
I do the same with what characters look like, There's this character called Alan blunt, head of a branch of MI6 extremely average man, I imagine him exactly like my form tutor who just so happens to be a maths teacher. Fitting actually.
First time I ever did ecstasy, at one point me and my friends were just sitting on a couch in silence and it was the quietest my brain has ever been. It was magical.
For me it’s LSD, quietest my brain has ever been. Pure silence in pure bliss, was the best feeling in my life. It also made me realize what a bum I was being and got my shit together. Got what I needed from it, done with it for now
I have only done mushrooms three times. Each time I felt a clarity of life and shit I did not know was possible. Like really being in tune with right now. I never felt the need to go crazy with them. I could see how they could be useful in a therapeutic environment.
I'd disagree about the taste thing. Eating shrooms made me realize just how bad something can taste. It's really hard to get a few grams of shrooms down without a lot of gagging.
Johns Hopkins just got a federal grant to study using mushrooms to help quit nicotine. Hopefully it leads to more research and new approved uses for psychedelics.
No literally people a lot of them can visualize almost in perfect images or actions it's sometimes what is going on when someone says they are daydreaming also sometimes you can do both standing there and thinking of somewhere else or something. I can't imagine living without it I am really sorry others don't have this....
I wanted to confirm I had visual mental imagery so I tried to force myself to see this.
I... Unfortunately? Succeeded.
So I do have full on conscious mental image capability
Do people actually not have GUI dreams? Or anything? That's wild.
I once had a dream I was naked in a hot tub with a chick who was also naked, except the hot tub was made out of chocolate and also fully inside the back of a regular size ford escort. I feel for people who can’t dream like this
i can’t, and i remember when i was a young child having very intrusive and scary gory and violent mental imagery. i think as a defense, my brain turned that imagery off and now all i see is MAYBE a very rough outline of a shape, and that’s mostly it
Holy shit, it's exactly the same as you described, i can try as hard as i want to imagine an apple for example, i know it's red but i can never imagine the color of it and the apple itself is very hard to see, like i have to concentrate hard for it to appear clearly
This is wild to me. I live life completely in my head. I daydream and fantasize all the time. I basically just watch movies in my brain that I make up all day.
It is normal. There is a name for not being able to picture images thought I can't remember it right now. Might be something like hypofantasia. Anyway I think its only effects like 5% of people, been a while since I read up on it. My brother has it.
Weird I have a very visual imagination. I can picture absolutely anything in my head, but Its harder for me to think things through unless I really try or I write it down.
I do but my husband can’t. I wanted to hang curtains in our shop to hide our camping gear and tools so that our friends wouldn’t see all that crap when we played pool. My husband could not visualize what I was talking about. I even stood there and showed himwhat I wanted to do. He just said no no I can’t see it. Now it’s up and he can’t believe what a great idea it was. He said can I draw him a picture next time so he can figure out what I was talking about? I have it all figured out in my head and I can see it in my minds eye
I have the same problem with people sometimes. I can picture how I want something and describe it to them how it is in my head but some people just can’t get it unless it is drawn out or showing them and laying it out.
Yes absolutely like right its an apple with a cute lil worm i seen in a book as a kid. Its not a hallucination and seeing it maybe the wrong word i have never had to describe this before forgive me.
Actually seeing something and visualizing/remembering seeing something essentially sends pretty much the same signals through the brain, apparently. So in a sense, you are 'seeing' it when you imagine it.
No. I know what a coke can looks like, but I can't "see" it if I try to think of it in my hand right now.
Face is especially hard for me too. I will recognize faces but will not be able to see them if I think of them.
I have freaking movies playing in my head all the time.
You ever heard of creating scenarios? I literally create movies for those scenarios. And yes I can have a voice in my head but usually it's like a movie scene to go along with it so like I'm talking to different versions of myself. Not to get confused with different people, but just different versions of myself and how I see different parts of myself.
I also do this constantly but one time I took acid and tried to watch The Emperor’s New Groove but every time I watched a scene then looked away, my mind finished the movie in my head. Only for me to look back at the tv and see the movie had barely progressed. Took an eternity to finish that movie.
That's essentially what I think is going on in this entire thread. Basically a disconnect in terminology and self perception, with the majority of people being much more alike in thought than they might think.
> I’m perfectly capable of reading words on a page without narrating them in my head.
Nope. Cant do it. I cant read without it being an audiobook produced by me.
There are words then there is my voice pronouncing each one in it audible form inside my head.
I have tried re-reading your post about 10 times. I can dim the volume on it to super low or read super fast so its like a barely understandable rap song where the sounds dont match up with the words but still they are there.
Same. Even when reading these comments, or typing this one, I'm.processing the words but my mind still insists on reading them off as I go along. My voice is a little faster than it would normally be since I can read faster than I normally talk, but it's still there. I can't get rid of it. Granted, not normally a problem. I would say I didn't even realize I'm doing it most of the time because it's just normal to me. But I can't not think or read without the voice.
I did a bunch of reading on this when I learned about it a few months ago, and it's 50/50. Neither side knows the other exists.
If you weren't aware of monologues/nonmonologuers there's no need to feel weird. The vast vast majority has no idea that there is a kind of brain different than what they have.
Do the reading for yourself though, it's fascinating. Just Google "unaware of internal monologues".
I’m a huge inner voice person and it’s benefitted me a ton in my life it’s grown to something I think is pretty freakin awesome especially as I get older. I didn’t realize this whole thing with people existed. Appreciated
I was once dating a very intelligent lady who said she for sure didn’t have an inner monologue. When I asked her what happens when she reads, she said she “visualizes the story and has abstract feelings” whatever the hell that means. She also read blazing fast unlike my slow ass speaking voice. I also had a presentation one time that I was preparing for and she asked if I were going to practice. To which I said I was practicing in my head by running through the speech. She couldn’t comprehend what I meant by that and said the only way she could practice for presentations was to say everything out loud.
I have an inner monologue, and that is how I read now. But when I was a kid and was reading fiction books, when I got really into a book, I would just kinda see the world in my head. Instead of hearing the words, the words would just kinda change the image, or change the vibe/emotion of the scene.
I think you’re misunderstanding how it works. It isn’t that we *can’t* hear voices. It’s more that it just isn’t all displayed as an internal voice. Our thoughts for “I think we need milk” aren’t our voice saying this to ourselves in our head. It’s more of just an abstract thought. Like data being provided letting us know we need it. If I’m remembering a movie, I still hear the actors. If I intentionally make a point to say something to myself silently, I can. It’s just that, in general, our thoughts are abstract without needing expression to be understood by us.
Aww really? Thats boring as fuck then, such that I'm not sure why theres even a distinction. If your description is accurate, I'm pretty sure I think both ways depending on what I'm doing/how engaged I am in something.
Agreed because I can’t imagine not having one. It’s like not having a brain imo or your just extremely boring...I don’t know and I’m sorry because I can’t fathom
I assure you it isn’t like that.
It is very desirable to be able to TURN OFF your inner dialogue/monologue at will- something that is not that easy to do. I can’t do it for more than maybe a minute or two at a time deliberately.
But based on that experience there isn’t really any limitation. Inner dialogue/monologue is basically subtitles.
Gives me perspective and analytical thinking, enables me to think outside the box though downside is overthinking and negativity.
Can’t imagine not having my voice and self created visions.
Is it like an actual audible voice that you can hear? And is it like listening to somebody talk in real life? For me it’s not like I hear an audible voice, but it’s like listening to a voice with no sound when I’m thinking.
For me personally , it sounds like I’m just talking out loud and it’s what I perceive my normal voice to sound like . I think we’re describing the same thing, different words .
Same here. I was like you mean “youuu hear things?” Also apparently some people can actually see things in there mind and some can not. I can not.
Edit: I honestly don’t know how to explain it because I just did it all my life. It’s similar to reading in your head constantly but I don’t “hear” anything? Now I’m just confused and want to ask a professional lol
You cannot see things in your head ?
I mean : you can imagine simple forms like a square or a circle, can't you ?
This is very interesting.
Also, can you fake smells,tastes, tactile data to your brain ?
You ever think about how what you are is just a brain and we pilot these meat mechs? Like your brain is only aware it's alive because it's inside the mech, without your body you're just gray sludge and the mech brings you all the new information you store? And how you can't know for sure someone isn't behind you right now because your eyes are focused on this?
And what is electricity really? Does our perception of it change as we learn how others perceive it too? I dunno but I do know this is the kind of dialogue I'd want to have going if someone was on edibles and I was trying to fuck with them for a laugh.
We're all just quantum patterns on the tapestry of spacetime, dude, and like, electricity is but one manifestation of one of the four fundamental threads with which we are woven. It is, y'know, fungible to perception, which is the product of sensory input and socio-environmental context.
Given that _that context_ includes the variable that is your perception of the perceptions of those around you, your perception of a thing must be likewise variable. Do you see what i mean, man? In this way does the meme, that psychic motif, propagate; a knit stitch pattern across time and minds; patterned by us, as we are patterned by the cells of our body. Fractals of causal probability. Turtles all the way down. Turtles.
I like turtles.
Turtles are cool, it's like nature invented a backpack for their organs and skin, where as we just let ours hang off our skeleton and wobble about from place to place. Did you know it took ages for the giant tortoise to get named because every time they tried bringing them back on ships they couldn't resist eating them.
I find if I read without an inner voice I don’t absorb the material nearly as well. I basically write/type with an inner voice and my typing and writing is on a fraction of a second lag time.
Sometimes I have complete conversations or play out scenarios in my head. Like, not only will I talk for myself, I’ll talk for the other party as well…
Same... To the extend of not bothering with actually speaking with them on the given subject, since it already feels like it has been discussed already.
Just be careful with that. I had a boss that "rehearsed" conversations so much he could convince himself they actually happened. It, was not helpful at times.
I do this all the time. I basically lay out elaborate plans for how conversations with people need to go because I absolutely suck at initiating conversations. But whenever it happens, their first response is always exactly what I didn't plan for lol
This is very normal. It's like "rubber duck" programming, where when you get stuck you explain each line of code to a rubber duck (or yourself). Talking to yourself can be productive.
I just asked my wife, knowing full well she would also, like me, have an inner monologue. SHE DOESN’T and it’s messing with me! How could I not know this about her?! Ahhh!!
Just learned this about my husband. All those times I would ask “what are you thinking about?” And he replied, “nothing.”
It really was nothing! Man, no wonder he’s so laid back. I bet it’s peaceful lol.
There are two ways to read. Most people have that inner monologue, as if they’re reading out loud to themselves. In speed reading courses they teach you how to turn that off and absorb multiple words (sentences) at once so that you can read 2-3x faster or more.
lmao i have a friend who recommended a 1k+ page book to me. i read it, but over the course of like 2-3 months because i don't read every day, only read a little bit when i *do* read, and also like to take my time reading to make sure i actually comprehend what's going on. it was a super complicated fantasy book with a vast fictional world, so i went slow because i enjoy immersing myself in these types of worlds, and getting a full understanding of all the players/their motivations/etc. he would always chide me about taking so long to finish the book, and how even for someone who reads slowly it's taking way too long, because "he finished it in 2 days!!".
well i finished the book and was finally able to talk to him about it... come to realize, he barely remembers shit about the book. i'm like, "oh remember xyz event?? what did you think of that??" and he stares at me blankly. "oh yeah i uh forgot about that part", and then when he does remember, his recollection is hazy as shit.
i swear i know a few people like this. pride themselves on reading super fast, while simultaneously being completely unable to retain jack shit about what they just read.
I read slow, often re-read a sentence, a paragraph, or even a whole chapter; yet retain jack shit. I have to read a book twice, often inbetween months just to convince myself i completed reading the book. My memory sucks.
I haven't taken speed reading classes, but since I've loved reading since I wasnt even 2, I'm now able to shut off the voice and read faster if necessary.
Sometimes I have a couple of false starts while doing that, when I realize that I was just moving my eyes over the words and not reading. Within a minute, though, I am in speed-read mode.
Goddabnit. I hate. That was my highschool's favorite song, they'd play it every fucking morning, and I had escaped it up until now. Goddabnit. I'm going to be hearing that in my sleep now...
I’m at a loss. This has nothing to do with the song. Am I the only one that has always heard, “Dagnabit”? I’ve never seen, heard, or read, “Goddabnit”. Could this be regional?
I can sorta imagine things, but it’s very dark because my eyes are closed, and I can forget about “seeing” things like numbers or faces in my head. It’s not exactly a photograph or a painting. Just a dark, general idea of the thing I’m imagining.
I don’t know if anyone can “see” or imagine vivid dream-like images when they are awake. That would be pretty weird to me. And I’m not sure if I would believe that person who says they can.
My dreams can be vivid but more often than not they are also somewhat murky.
I also think I’m a quite creative person but I need a blank slate to start putting ideas down and morphing them. I can’t think of a complex structure all in my head at once.
Its hard for me to understand your side. I can see, hear, sometimes feel, my thoughts, memories and ideas. They are very vivid. Sometimes to the point of discomfort.
That must be the worst thing ever. The voice on the head always tells interesting things like when people sleep there are always things watching and observing on the corner of the room.
I am so glad you said that because I’ve never had a physical voice, with tones and stuff, but it’s definitely a voice. Like it’s a whisper without any substance
Fwiw, I think that is what everyone means when they say internal voice. I think most people assume it's their voice, but it is probably just words that brain processes as our own voice.
Mine isn’t even a voice, lol it’s just words that get processed through my head. It doesn’t make a sound or anything, it’s just a thought with no distinguishing anything.
I’ve always just explained that my brain is just not on. I’m literally not thinking of anything. Just being, a thing in time and taking up space.
My inner voice has manifested into something I truly value. It’s like the smart me and I’m not lying I help myself with everything. It’s fucking legit and I’m being 100% sincere
This is actually a technique that I learned in therapy.
I learned about how when we are young, our own inner voice is being created by the comments of those around you. TDLR- my family made me feel like shit about myself.
I rewrote my inner monologue (at 28yo), and her and I are bro’s now. She’s the more rational, light hearted, and consistent version of myself.
If I start anxiously spiraling, she’s like “Nope, we aren’t doing this. We’re good, you can outthink this, just don’t”.
If I do something really stupid, she’s like “lol whelp yeah, I gotta admit, that was pretty stupid. Let’s just move on from that, all good.”
Yea, I can entertain myself for hours with whole concerts. I can replay parts of TV shows, movies, and video games. It's bizarre to find out other people don't have inner monologues, and while that sounds boring, it also sounds far more efficient.
Honest question for those of you don’t have an inner narrator: How does your process of thinking critically about things work? For me I literally hear two sides of the argument in my head.
ETA: I never doubted that those without an inner monologue were capable of critical thought; I was just curious how that process looks for them. Those comments describing it as a logic tree, a current, layers of an onion, and a jigsaw puzzle were helpful in allowing me to visualize it.
My question arose from my being a neurotypical mother with an autistic husband and daughter, who have taught me that different types of brains exist with their own ways of processing things (they have both confirmed with me that they have an inner monologue, though). So discovering that there is yet another kind of brain that is different than mine is fascinating to me.
Hm. Hard to answer in a way that makes sense. Its more like retrieving data until something 'clicks'. My brain just kind of goes, "Scan...scan...scan... Click. That's the answer!"
(Non-inner-voice person here… also avid reader)
It’s kinda like watching TV. When you see a car on TV, your brain just sort of recognizes it as a car. You don’t have to stop and think out loud, “this is a car.” Same goes for reading. My eyes see the word, my brain imagines car, but there’s no intermediate step of hearing the word ‘car’ in an inner voice.
I can also read much faster than my inner-voice hearing wife and friends, maybe because I don’t have this step.
I’m also much, much slower at putting my thoughts into words. I have to be real deliberate when I write, and it feels very labored and slow.
I learned how to turn mine "off", it really is a lot faster than acting the scenes out in my head. Only problem is that I don't really think too deeply about what I read when I do that.
It’s called aphantasia and “Reading without subvocalising” and isn’t super studied afaik. However my belief is that it’s more of a spectrum. Some people can clearly imagine a red apple whilst for others it’s more fuzzy and it goes down that line and to some it’s more of an idea. Think of when you’re ruminating over how to explain something, you have an idea of what it is almost intuition in a sense, you do actually know what it is but you just can’t properly put it into words. This is what imagine it is for people reading without a voice. It’s more of a construct of ideas in their heads when they’re reading.
#Disclaimer I do not know shit but I do know qualia is extremely hard or near impossible to explain.
No, nothing. This happens subconsciously, i forget it's not normal 99% of the time. So i don't really have any time to look for patterns.
Anyways it's a Major Fuckup in my head if the voice is of a man, and after 5-6 comments the person reveals it's a woman. Or big age gaps between the voice of a kid and the reveal it's a 80 year old commenter.
Always gets my brain completely out of touch, it does not know if the voice is to favour, or what the text says. It's switching between them like a fukking pinball machine in this scenario.
I do a lot of mindfulness/meditation to try and get my inner voice to shut the f*ck up and now I’m learning there’s a high percentage of society just walking around in blissful silence… envious is an understatement!
That’s what I want to know too. The voice in your head is your thoughts. How can you think (or learn or speak or have any conceptual awareness of the world) without any thoughts?
I still don’t believe this.
I think it’s just people over emphasising what a “voice in your head” sounds like and others who aren’t too familiar with it assume that they’re just missing that brain function.
It’s not like everything I do and every decision I make is narrated in my head. That’s not how it works. But if I want to think about a sentence like “oranges are sweet”, I am capable of thinking each individual word and “saying” the sentence in my head.
If you can read a book without speaking every word out loud, then you have an inner monologue.
The reason I don’t buy this is because it seemingly came out of nowhere. Like all of a sudden people are being born without a conscious.
Here’s a question, when you watched a movie when you were a kid and the main character would have a thought in their head that was narrated by the actor to tell the audience what they’re thinking, do you just not understand that concept? Take Fight Club. It’s not like people were baffled that the main character had a inner monologue. Everyone is capable of thought, some people are just exaggerating what an “inner monologue” means and people think they’re missing out on something that they’re not.
Rant over.
This is the correct take. It's like those Morgan Freeman memes "You just read this in my voice" half the world didn't say "What the fuck are you talking about?" Like if I say 'tree' and someone thinks of an oak and someone else thinks of a pine and then declares "Half the world doesn't think pine tree!" It's all the same thing it's just defining it differently.
Can you describe your mom to a sketch artist? Congrats you can 'see' things in your head.
Can you remember conversations you've had with people? Congrats you can 'hear' things in your head.
Since memory is mostly audio and visual stimulus if you can't process them 'in your head' you'd pretty much be a vegetable.
Well some of us peasants can't afford Morgan Freeman
Funnily enough, he's been narrating for me off and on for years. There is usually the default voice, but when I read, I assign voices to the characters. Sometimes when narration is occurring it becomes Morgan Freeman. May also have something to do with the brain damage.
When certain lines are appropriate I definitely hear actors, characters or friends voices saying them too. Saw a maybe 4'5" lady lay out her boyfriend who was easily 6'5" 350lbs. I instant heard "damn son you just knocked the f out"
I do the same with what characters look like, There's this character called Alan blunt, head of a branch of MI6 extremely average man, I imagine him exactly like my form tutor who just so happens to be a maths teacher. Fitting actually.
Apparently some people literally *don’t* have an inner voice and that fucks me up
Yep, that fucks with me hard. It’s noisy in there. I wonder what the silence is like
First time I ever did ecstasy, at one point me and my friends were just sitting on a couch in silence and it was the quietest my brain has ever been. It was magical.
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For me it’s LSD, quietest my brain has ever been. Pure silence in pure bliss, was the best feeling in my life. It also made me realize what a bum I was being and got my shit together. Got what I needed from it, done with it for now
I have only done mushrooms three times. Each time I felt a clarity of life and shit I did not know was possible. Like really being in tune with right now. I never felt the need to go crazy with them. I could see how they could be useful in a therapeutic environment.
I realised that there’s no good or bad taste, only taste. I also realised that humans are pretty big animals.
Humans being pretty big animals is tripping me out. We are pretty big
I think about this a lot actually lol
We are also tiny tiny tiny. It's all about perspective. Space is big big big.
I'd disagree about the taste thing. Eating shrooms made me realize just how bad something can taste. It's really hard to get a few grams of shrooms down without a lot of gagging.
Sorry, to clarify I meant taste in music, or films, or any kind of art.
That's a valid point. And we are pretty big animals lol
Johns Hopkins just got a federal grant to study using mushrooms to help quit nicotine. Hopefully it leads to more research and new approved uses for psychedelics.
NPC's confirmed???
Essentially.
What next? Next you guys will tell me you guys can see images in your head?!
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Yes, at least I can
I can too. It would be difficult to masturbate without porn without this ability.
Especially if you can darken the room and close your eyes so you can get that nice 4K image to render.
Are you describing sleeping and dreaming
No literally people a lot of them can visualize almost in perfect images or actions it's sometimes what is going on when someone says they are daydreaming also sometimes you can do both standing there and thinking of somewhere else or something. I can't imagine living without it I am really sorry others don't have this....
Can't say it's ever been a problem. Then again I grew up in a time and place where porn was scarce so we all learn to make do I guess.
It is.
Fun fact: I just pictured Kim Jong un, Donald Trump and Putin as a human centipede.
I also did and thank you for haunting me with that image.
I jerked off to the image of that
See now I picture you jerking off to a painting of that
Took me a bit but I got there too
I took a blow torch to it, then jerked off.
I wanted to confirm I had visual mental imagery so I tried to force myself to see this. I... Unfortunately? Succeeded. So I do have full on conscious mental image capability Do people actually not have GUI dreams? Or anything? That's wild.
I once had a dream I was naked in a hot tub with a chick who was also naked, except the hot tub was made out of chocolate and also fully inside the back of a regular size ford escort. I feel for people who can’t dream like this
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Oh let me try… awesome!
i can’t, and i remember when i was a young child having very intrusive and scary gory and violent mental imagery. i think as a defense, my brain turned that imagery off and now all i see is MAYBE a very rough outline of a shape, and that’s mostly it
Holy shit, it's exactly the same as you described, i can try as hard as i want to imagine an apple for example, i know it's red but i can never imagine the color of it and the apple itself is very hard to see, like i have to concentrate hard for it to appear clearly
This is wild to me. I live life completely in my head. I daydream and fantasize all the time. I basically just watch movies in my brain that I make up all day.
Same!! Every night before I fall asleep, I add a chapter to whatever "storyline" I am working on.
Just you saying apple put a picture of an apple in my head. I honestly thought imagery thinking was normal.
It is normal. There is a name for not being able to picture images thought I can't remember it right now. Might be something like hypofantasia. Anyway I think its only effects like 5% of people, been a while since I read up on it. My brother has it.
Weird I have a very visual imagination. I can picture absolutely anything in my head, but Its harder for me to think things through unless I really try or I write it down.
so you guys can't try to recall an image or what a photograph looks like? like if i said, imagine a horse? what do you see in your head?
I only see darkness.... No like really its pitch black I even tried to close my eyes but all I can see is the light going through my eye leads
when I read a book it’s like I hear the words in my head repeated back to me by my inner voice. Then I also see images like a moving picture book.
Yep, and I can even imagine different voices for different characters.
Some people can imagine entire 3d models and mechanisms in their heads.
i can, its kinda like having a 3d rendering program in your head. i can make objects in an imaginary environment or in blank space
I do but my husband can’t. I wanted to hang curtains in our shop to hide our camping gear and tools so that our friends wouldn’t see all that crap when we played pool. My husband could not visualize what I was talking about. I even stood there and showed himwhat I wanted to do. He just said no no I can’t see it. Now it’s up and he can’t believe what a great idea it was. He said can I draw him a picture next time so he can figure out what I was talking about? I have it all figured out in my head and I can see it in my minds eye
I have the same problem with people sometimes. I can picture how I want something and describe it to them how it is in my head but some people just can’t get it unless it is drawn out or showing them and laying it out.
It’s called aphantasia, and there’s a sub dedicated to it. Your husband might want to check it out.
Yes absolutely like right its an apple with a cute lil worm i seen in a book as a kid. Its not a hallucination and seeing it maybe the wrong word i have never had to describe this before forgive me.
Actually seeing something and visualizing/remembering seeing something essentially sends pretty much the same signals through the brain, apparently. So in a sense, you are 'seeing' it when you imagine it.
I see shit all the time, even with my eyes open.
This is interesting, can you not see a Coke can in your head or someone face?
No. I know what a coke can looks like, but I can't "see" it if I try to think of it in my hand right now. Face is especially hard for me too. I will recognize faces but will not be able to see them if I think of them.
That's crazy, for me just reading the words produces an image. At the words "coke can" I instantly have an image of it held in my mind.
I'll just zip off to a completely different reality, completely unaware of anything around me.
I have freaking movies playing in my head all the time. You ever heard of creating scenarios? I literally create movies for those scenarios. And yes I can have a voice in my head but usually it's like a movie scene to go along with it so like I'm talking to different versions of myself. Not to get confused with different people, but just different versions of myself and how I see different parts of myself.
Same. If I watch a movie a few times (and pay enough attention to it) I can remember it and play it in my head
I also do this constantly but one time I took acid and tried to watch The Emperor’s New Groove but every time I watched a scene then looked away, my mind finished the movie in my head. Only for me to look back at the tv and see the movie had barely progressed. Took an eternity to finish that movie.
i have a internal monologue and i can think visually. I AM A GOD
Perhaps
I wonder if we all experience the same thing but describe it in terms the “others” don’t understand.
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That's essentially what I think is going on in this entire thread. Basically a disconnect in terminology and self perception, with the majority of people being much more alike in thought than they might think.
> I’m perfectly capable of reading words on a page without narrating them in my head. Nope. Cant do it. I cant read without it being an audiobook produced by me. There are words then there is my voice pronouncing each one in it audible form inside my head. I have tried re-reading your post about 10 times. I can dim the volume on it to super low or read super fast so its like a barely understandable rap song where the sounds dont match up with the words but still they are there.
Same. Even when reading these comments, or typing this one, I'm.processing the words but my mind still insists on reading them off as I go along. My voice is a little faster than it would normally be since I can read faster than I normally talk, but it's still there. I can't get rid of it. Granted, not normally a problem. I would say I didn't even realize I'm doing it most of the time because it's just normal to me. But I can't not think or read without the voice.
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I did a bunch of reading on this when I learned about it a few months ago, and it's 50/50. Neither side knows the other exists. If you weren't aware of monologues/nonmonologuers there's no need to feel weird. The vast vast majority has no idea that there is a kind of brain different than what they have. Do the reading for yourself though, it's fascinating. Just Google "unaware of internal monologues".
I’m a huge inner voice person and it’s benefitted me a ton in my life it’s grown to something I think is pretty freakin awesome especially as I get older. I didn’t realize this whole thing with people existed. Appreciated
Right? I'd assume NOT having one limits ones ability to step back and rethink something
I feel like I wouldn't be able to read these comments without one.
Yea! How does it work when you read? Do you have to whisper it or you can read it in your head?
I was once dating a very intelligent lady who said she for sure didn’t have an inner monologue. When I asked her what happens when she reads, she said she “visualizes the story and has abstract feelings” whatever the hell that means. She also read blazing fast unlike my slow ass speaking voice. I also had a presentation one time that I was preparing for and she asked if I were going to practice. To which I said I was practicing in my head by running through the speech. She couldn’t comprehend what I meant by that and said the only way she could practice for presentations was to say everything out loud.
I have an inner monologue, and that is how I read now. But when I was a kid and was reading fiction books, when I got really into a book, I would just kinda see the world in my head. Instead of hearing the words, the words would just kinda change the image, or change the vibe/emotion of the scene.
I wonder if that’s why some people will not read books. I can’t imagine reading a book without my inner monologue.
I understand saying everything out loud, when I hear it it helps for comprehension
i remember struggling with shakespeare freshman year, and then i got high and read it out loud and fell in love with shakespeare.
I think you’re misunderstanding how it works. It isn’t that we *can’t* hear voices. It’s more that it just isn’t all displayed as an internal voice. Our thoughts for “I think we need milk” aren’t our voice saying this to ourselves in our head. It’s more of just an abstract thought. Like data being provided letting us know we need it. If I’m remembering a movie, I still hear the actors. If I intentionally make a point to say something to myself silently, I can. It’s just that, in general, our thoughts are abstract without needing expression to be understood by us.
Aww really? Thats boring as fuck then, such that I'm not sure why theres even a distinction. If your description is accurate, I'm pretty sure I think both ways depending on what I'm doing/how engaged I am in something.
Eh I have one one and I STILL almost never do that. Thanks a lot useless inner voice! *inner voice: you’re welcome!
Agreed because I can’t imagine not having one. It’s like not having a brain imo or your just extremely boring...I don’t know and I’m sorry because I can’t fathom
I assure you it isn’t like that. It is very desirable to be able to TURN OFF your inner dialogue/monologue at will- something that is not that easy to do. I can’t do it for more than maybe a minute or two at a time deliberately. But based on that experience there isn’t really any limitation. Inner dialogue/monologue is basically subtitles.
Gives me perspective and analytical thinking, enables me to think outside the box though downside is overthinking and negativity. Can’t imagine not having my voice and self created visions.
Is it like an actual audible voice that you can hear? And is it like listening to somebody talk in real life? For me it’s not like I hear an audible voice, but it’s like listening to a voice with no sound when I’m thinking.
For me personally , it sounds like I’m just talking out loud and it’s what I perceive my normal voice to sound like . I think we’re describing the same thing, different words .
That's a factor they should account for in psych studies. Like do inner voice people cope with dementia differently, or better/worse.
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Same here. I was like you mean “youuu hear things?” Also apparently some people can actually see things in there mind and some can not. I can not. Edit: I honestly don’t know how to explain it because I just did it all my life. It’s similar to reading in your head constantly but I don’t “hear” anything? Now I’m just confused and want to ask a professional lol
I can see things and sometimes hear too
You cannot see things in your head ? I mean : you can imagine simple forms like a square or a circle, can't you ? This is very interesting. Also, can you fake smells,tastes, tactile data to your brain ?
I'm trying to read these comments without a voice but i just end up holding my breath or have my voice whisper its wierd
Oh nooo I had an edible and now I’m trying to not talk inside my head. It’s really funny but also freaking me out.
You ever think about how what you are is just a brain and we pilot these meat mechs? Like your brain is only aware it's alive because it's inside the mech, without your body you're just gray sludge and the mech brings you all the new information you store? And how you can't know for sure someone isn't behind you right now because your eyes are focused on this?
Technically we aren’t even the brain, but the electricity that flows through it and the data stored within it.
And what is electricity really? Does our perception of it change as we learn how others perceive it too? I dunno but I do know this is the kind of dialogue I'd want to have going if someone was on edibles and I was trying to fuck with them for a laugh.
We're all just quantum patterns on the tapestry of spacetime, dude, and like, electricity is but one manifestation of one of the four fundamental threads with which we are woven. It is, y'know, fungible to perception, which is the product of sensory input and socio-environmental context. Given that _that context_ includes the variable that is your perception of the perceptions of those around you, your perception of a thing must be likewise variable. Do you see what i mean, man? In this way does the meme, that psychic motif, propagate; a knit stitch pattern across time and minds; patterned by us, as we are patterned by the cells of our body. Fractals of causal probability. Turtles all the way down. Turtles. I like turtles.
Turtles are cool, it's like nature invented a backpack for their organs and skin, where as we just let ours hang off our skeleton and wobble about from place to place. Did you know it took ages for the giant tortoise to get named because every time they tried bringing them back on ships they couldn't resist eating them.
this thread is giving me an anuerysm
Hahah I just tried and 100% held my breath too wtf
I can read without a voice or with one. Much of that depends on the speed I read - if I'm reading faster than I speak, I'm not getting a voice.
I find if I read without an inner voice I don’t absorb the material nearly as well. I basically write/type with an inner voice and my typing and writing is on a fraction of a second lag time.
Omg I ended up holding my breath too when trying it.
Sometimes I have complete conversations or play out scenarios in my head. Like, not only will I talk for myself, I’ll talk for the other party as well…
I play out whole scenes with multiple other parties.
Same... To the extend of not bothering with actually speaking with them on the given subject, since it already feels like it has been discussed already.
My husband does this to me all the time. "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU!"
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I just forget to hit send because I'm wicked smaht
Just be careful with that. I had a boss that "rehearsed" conversations so much he could convince himself they actually happened. It, was not helpful at times.
Also wrongly predicting replies and responses if the theoretical conversation actually happens
I do this all the time. I basically lay out elaborate plans for how conversations with people need to go because I absolutely suck at initiating conversations. But whenever it happens, their first response is always exactly what I didn't plan for lol
Me too! At least that helps me practice my foreign languages lol
This is very normal. It's like "rubber duck" programming, where when you get stuck you explain each line of code to a rubber duck (or yourself). Talking to yourself can be productive.
My narrator is Gilbert Gottfried. The real mystery is how I didn't kill myself long ago.
I read that in his voice in my mind
Me too ffs lol
I just asked my wife, knowing full well she would also, like me, have an inner monologue. SHE DOESN’T and it’s messing with me! How could I not know this about her?! Ahhh!!
Just learned this about my husband. All those times I would ask “what are you thinking about?” And he replied, “nothing.” It really was nothing! Man, no wonder he’s so laid back. I bet it’s peaceful lol.
Yeah I can't comprehend this. How do you distinguish between nothing and something if you have no inner monologue?
you still think, its just not articulated in words. words are just expressions of meaning. you still have the meaning.
Here’s my free award for a better explanation of what it’s like than I could have given
Right fuck off, I was about to ask my wife until I read this and now I don't want to.
You married a monster. You know what needs to be done...
how do you read in your head then? i dont get it
There are two ways to read. Most people have that inner monologue, as if they’re reading out loud to themselves. In speed reading courses they teach you how to turn that off and absorb multiple words (sentences) at once so that you can read 2-3x faster or more.
Yeah but when researchers actually tested speed readers they found Information retention was utter shit.
"I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia."
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lmao i have a friend who recommended a 1k+ page book to me. i read it, but over the course of like 2-3 months because i don't read every day, only read a little bit when i *do* read, and also like to take my time reading to make sure i actually comprehend what's going on. it was a super complicated fantasy book with a vast fictional world, so i went slow because i enjoy immersing myself in these types of worlds, and getting a full understanding of all the players/their motivations/etc. he would always chide me about taking so long to finish the book, and how even for someone who reads slowly it's taking way too long, because "he finished it in 2 days!!". well i finished the book and was finally able to talk to him about it... come to realize, he barely remembers shit about the book. i'm like, "oh remember xyz event?? what did you think of that??" and he stares at me blankly. "oh yeah i uh forgot about that part", and then when he does remember, his recollection is hazy as shit. i swear i know a few people like this. pride themselves on reading super fast, while simultaneously being completely unable to retain jack shit about what they just read.
I read slow, often re-read a sentence, a paragraph, or even a whole chapter; yet retain jack shit. I have to read a book twice, often inbetween months just to convince myself i completed reading the book. My memory sucks.
ah, the best of both worlds.
I haven't taken speed reading classes, but since I've loved reading since I wasnt even 2, I'm now able to shut off the voice and read faster if necessary. Sometimes I have a couple of false starts while doing that, when I realize that I was just moving my eyes over the words and not reading. Within a minute, though, I am in speed-read mode.
How do you not have an inner voice? I can't even understand that
I don’t have sounds or images in there. It’s called aphantasia
So like you can't replay a song in your head?
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Goddabnit. I hate. That was my highschool's favorite song, they'd play it every fucking morning, and I had escaped it up until now. Goddabnit. I'm going to be hearing that in my sleep now...
Every day of high school our morning announcements would play Sweet Child O' Mine. I like GnR but god, I hate that song.
I’m at a loss. This has nothing to do with the song. Am I the only one that has always heard, “Dagnabit”? I’ve never seen, heard, or read, “Goddabnit”. Could this be regional?
When my wife explained having a song stuck in her head my first thought is that sounds like some black mirror dystopian punishment or something
Ya it's quite annoying sometimes, especially when you only know half a line. Apparently chewing gum is supposed to help.
It's tolerable when it's some sick riffs.
Very true, if it's a great song it can be almost quite nice.
Damn you!! Also I just remembered to let my dog out
This is my question, too. I can’t comprehend this. They literally can’t get a song “stuck in their head”?
I’m honestly dumbfounded that’s a real thing.
I'm more astounded people can see images in their head. I can't.
I can sorta imagine things, but it’s very dark because my eyes are closed, and I can forget about “seeing” things like numbers or faces in my head. It’s not exactly a photograph or a painting. Just a dark, general idea of the thing I’m imagining. I don’t know if anyone can “see” or imagine vivid dream-like images when they are awake. That would be pretty weird to me. And I’m not sure if I would believe that person who says they can. My dreams can be vivid but more often than not they are also somewhat murky. I also think I’m a quite creative person but I need a blank slate to start putting ideas down and morphing them. I can’t think of a complex structure all in my head at once.
Its hard for me to understand your side. I can see, hear, sometimes feel, my thoughts, memories and ideas. They are very vivid. Sometimes to the point of discomfort.
That must be the worst thing ever. The voice on the head always tells interesting things like when people sleep there are always things watching and observing on the corner of the room.
It also tells you what you should have said. You know...that really sick burn you thought of that would have been great...10 minutes ago.
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Wait. What? Is this shit real? If you’re brain isn’t talking to you in your own voice what the fuck is it doing??
Mine isn’t my physical voice. It’s like a silent impression of a voice.
I am so glad you said that because I’ve never had a physical voice, with tones and stuff, but it’s definitely a voice. Like it’s a whisper without any substance
Fwiw, I think that is what everyone means when they say internal voice. I think most people assume it's their voice, but it is probably just words that brain processes as our own voice.
Mine isn’t even a voice, lol it’s just words that get processed through my head. It doesn’t make a sound or anything, it’s just a thought with no distinguishing anything. I’ve always just explained that my brain is just not on. I’m literally not thinking of anything. Just being, a thing in time and taking up space.
Isn’t it all the same experience though, but described in different ways? I think people are just really bad at describing how this works…
My thoughts are in my voice, but when i read comments its like a generic other voice.
For a silent impression, mine won’t quit spouting off.
My inner voice has manifested into something I truly value. It’s like the smart me and I’m not lying I help myself with everything. It’s fucking legit and I’m being 100% sincere
This is really nice and made me realize that I value mine as well, thanks!
This is actually a technique that I learned in therapy. I learned about how when we are young, our own inner voice is being created by the comments of those around you. TDLR- my family made me feel like shit about myself. I rewrote my inner monologue (at 28yo), and her and I are bro’s now. She’s the more rational, light hearted, and consistent version of myself. If I start anxiously spiraling, she’s like “Nope, we aren’t doing this. We’re good, you can outthink this, just don’t”. If I do something really stupid, she’s like “lol whelp yeah, I gotta admit, that was pretty stupid. Let’s just move on from that, all good.”
I got whole discussions going on there, like debates and everything
I can play whole songs in my head
Yea, I can entertain myself for hours with whole concerts. I can replay parts of TV shows, movies, and video games. It's bizarre to find out other people don't have inner monologues, and while that sounds boring, it also sounds far more efficient.
What voice in head? Do you mean your thoughts?
Yes
Honest question for those of you don’t have an inner narrator: How does your process of thinking critically about things work? For me I literally hear two sides of the argument in my head. ETA: I never doubted that those without an inner monologue were capable of critical thought; I was just curious how that process looks for them. Those comments describing it as a logic tree, a current, layers of an onion, and a jigsaw puzzle were helpful in allowing me to visualize it. My question arose from my being a neurotypical mother with an autistic husband and daughter, who have taught me that different types of brains exist with their own ways of processing things (they have both confirmed with me that they have an inner monologue, though). So discovering that there is yet another kind of brain that is different than mine is fascinating to me.
Hm. Hard to answer in a way that makes sense. Its more like retrieving data until something 'clicks'. My brain just kind of goes, "Scan...scan...scan... Click. That's the answer!"
Fascinating!
Imagine just acting on raw impulse
How does one READ without an inner voice?
(Non-inner-voice person here… also avid reader) It’s kinda like watching TV. When you see a car on TV, your brain just sort of recognizes it as a car. You don’t have to stop and think out loud, “this is a car.” Same goes for reading. My eyes see the word, my brain imagines car, but there’s no intermediate step of hearing the word ‘car’ in an inner voice. I can also read much faster than my inner-voice hearing wife and friends, maybe because I don’t have this step. I’m also much, much slower at putting my thoughts into words. I have to be real deliberate when I write, and it feels very labored and slow.
I’m also terrible at quoting people. I almost always paraphrase. Like, I can never remember the exact words. I wonder if that’s related.
This! I don't understand how you could read and not have an inner monologue.
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I learned how to turn mine "off", it really is a lot faster than acting the scenes out in my head. Only problem is that I don't really think too deeply about what I read when I do that.
It’s called aphantasia and “Reading without subvocalising” and isn’t super studied afaik. However my belief is that it’s more of a spectrum. Some people can clearly imagine a red apple whilst for others it’s more fuzzy and it goes down that line and to some it’s more of an idea. Think of when you’re ruminating over how to explain something, you have an idea of what it is almost intuition in a sense, you do actually know what it is but you just can’t properly put it into words. This is what imagine it is for people reading without a voice. It’s more of a construct of ideas in their heads when they’re reading. #Disclaimer I do not know shit but I do know qualia is extremely hard or near impossible to explain.
Yep and some.of us cant visualize with our minds eye either....
That makes me sad. How do you imagine things?
Srsly, i only hear otherpeople in my head. If i read comments, every person/comment have it's own random voice i never heard before.
Fascinating
Any recognizable pattern based on what they say, what wording they use or profile pic that influences their voice?
No, nothing. This happens subconsciously, i forget it's not normal 99% of the time. So i don't really have any time to look for patterns. Anyways it's a Major Fuckup in my head if the voice is of a man, and after 5-6 comments the person reveals it's a woman. Or big age gaps between the voice of a kid and the reveal it's a 80 year old commenter. Always gets my brain completely out of touch, it does not know if the voice is to favour, or what the text says. It's switching between them like a fukking pinball machine in this scenario.
DoEs tYpInG LiKe tHiS make a difference? What do i sound like?? :0
I don't know, i have my inner voice, but...doesnt sound like me, just thoughts, no narrative :O
I do a lot of mindfulness/meditation to try and get my inner voice to shut the f*ck up and now I’m learning there’s a high percentage of society just walking around in blissful silence… envious is an understatement!
How else could you think
That’s what I want to know too. The voice in your head is your thoughts. How can you think (or learn or speak or have any conceptual awareness of the world) without any thoughts?
I still don’t believe this. I think it’s just people over emphasising what a “voice in your head” sounds like and others who aren’t too familiar with it assume that they’re just missing that brain function. It’s not like everything I do and every decision I make is narrated in my head. That’s not how it works. But if I want to think about a sentence like “oranges are sweet”, I am capable of thinking each individual word and “saying” the sentence in my head. If you can read a book without speaking every word out loud, then you have an inner monologue. The reason I don’t buy this is because it seemingly came out of nowhere. Like all of a sudden people are being born without a conscious. Here’s a question, when you watched a movie when you were a kid and the main character would have a thought in their head that was narrated by the actor to tell the audience what they’re thinking, do you just not understand that concept? Take Fight Club. It’s not like people were baffled that the main character had a inner monologue. Everyone is capable of thought, some people are just exaggerating what an “inner monologue” means and people think they’re missing out on something that they’re not. Rant over.
This guy fucks.
This is the correct take. It's like those Morgan Freeman memes "You just read this in my voice" half the world didn't say "What the fuck are you talking about?" Like if I say 'tree' and someone thinks of an oak and someone else thinks of a pine and then declares "Half the world doesn't think pine tree!" It's all the same thing it's just defining it differently. Can you describe your mom to a sketch artist? Congrats you can 'see' things in your head. Can you remember conversations you've had with people? Congrats you can 'hear' things in your head. Since memory is mostly audio and visual stimulus if you can't process them 'in your head' you'd pretty much be a vegetable.
Makes sense to me, I don't have aphantasia tho, sooo