The Inner Voice/Monologue

[UltraBudgie]

We all have an inner voice, and that inner voice can guide us to beautiful places.

Don't be afraid.

I though this might deserve its own thread. The inner monologue, the silent voice that speaks in our heads. "Us".

A constant narration "oh i wonder if it will rain today hmm i need to check the tire pressure on my car if it doesn't i wonder if this yoghurt is still good aargh these flax seeds get stuck in my teeth yikes i should floss more ouch my ankle hurts ..." blah blah blah. Even while sitting doing nothing, the little voice keeps commenting.

This is what people meditate to try and still, or tame, or control. It's said that some people don't have one! They think visually, or in other ways. Is anyone here like that, naturally?

I've done yoga for many years and can still the constant inner voice at will. Simply exist in the moment without everything being chewed up with a part of the brain that won't let up. It's really quite peaceful, and it makes the difference between brain and consciousness so apparent. Most people seem to think they're the same thing. I'm a consciousness experiencing the brain, ego, voice, and no longer identify with that as being "me".

The mind is like a muscle. It's said that in earlier time, the mind was still by default, and only activated when there was something to think about, addressed it, then went quiet again. Before the times of "civilization", agriculture, large social systems. Then, humans changed so that the mind was constantly active, the inner voice awake all the time, like a muscle constantly being clenched. We could still focus on a single thing without distraction, a state known as single-pointedness in meditation. This was the age that birthed mysticism and religion.

In more modern times, the inner voice has become distracted, no longer able to focus on a single thing for any length of time, flitting around like a hummingbird with too much sugar. Like a muscle in constant spasm. The voice just won't shut up, and leads us on constant tangents. It becomes infatuated with sensory experiences, spiraling into desire, distraction. All this happens as we have lost the "muscle control" of calming our inner voice.

It's though by some that the inner voice is not us, but a projection into us, speaking to us. That kind of disassociation isn't always productive, but it can help those who are lost in a maze of trying to figure things out with narrative to break free. Our voices tell us narrative, give us models to communicate, and they are a tool, but if we let the tool control us we may never find peace.

Do others here experience the "inner voice" this way? Anyone here naturally "narrative free"? Any other thoughts about the "inner voice"? I am just going to post this little ramble without proofreading, haha.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

It's though by some that the inner voice is not us, but a projection into us, speaking to us. That kind of disassociation isn't always productive, but it can help those who are lost in a maze of trying to figure things out with narrative to break free. Our voices tell us narrative, give us models to communicate, and they are a tool, but if we let the tool control us we may never find peace.

Do others here experience the "inner voice" this way? Anyone here naturally "narrative free"? Any other thoughts about the "inner voice"? I am just going to post this little ramble without proofreading, haha.

It all depends how depraved of a shadow self you have.

How often does that inner voice screw up?

Like consider a girl with a controlling abusive piece of trash of a father. He abuses and intimidates her. What's her self-voice gonna say? Anything to lead to an endless cycle of self-sabotage and replicating abuse? Addiction to being a victim?

It starts off like looking through pristine glass at the world, but from the moment you can process stimuli the glass becomes dirtied by everything being thrown on it, altering your view. Including what your elders teach you, warp you with, and what social concepts (like religion or politics) are put in your head.

It's created by your experience/damage and then projects itself into your conscious like it's some bit of imparted wisdom. In reality it just throws shit all over your world window.

[Maxmars]

(Maxmars responded) 

... The inner monologue, the silent voice that speaks in our heads. "Us".

A constant narration "oh i wonder if it will rain today hmm i need to check the tire pressure on my car if it doesn't i wonder if this yoghurt is still good aargh these flax seeds get stuck in my teeth yikes i should floss more ouch my ankle hurts ..." blah blah blah. Even while sitting doing nothing, the little voice keeps commenting.

This is what people meditate to try and still, or tame, or control. It's said that some people don't have one! They think visually, or in other ways. Is anyone here like that, naturally?

That seemingly constant stream of narrative monologue within our mind is part of the process and  function of the human experience. 
I have always hesitated to accept characterizations of it as a 'flaw' or 'weakness' as misdirected judgement against intent. 
I agree that it can become distracting and counter-productive to circumstance, but it is also a fundamental aspect of communication, not just between people, but also between the true and undecided self. 
Of all judgements that must reflect reality, those about our inner-selves manifests here... in the mind's monologue.

I've done yoga for many years and can still the constant inner voice at will. Simply exist in the moment without everything being chewed up with a part of the brain that won't let up. It's really quite peaceful, and it makes the difference between brain and consciousness so apparent. Most people seem to think they're the same thing. I'm a consciousness experiencing the brain, ego, voice, and no longer identify with that as being "me".

It was to me, a stunning realization that the 'pause' of the stream, the quieting of thought, the exercise of passively experiencing the stillness of the mind, is as refreshing and empowering as sleep... without the torpidity. 
While mediation, prayer, and orchestrated stillness may not sufficiently satisfy all the needs of physical sleep; it does allow the mind to rest in a receptive. non-struggling sense. 
In my opinion, the monologue we are usually quieting is the ego clinging to the proverbial "me." 
That process which bolsters our impulse to formally concretize 'identity.' 
In the peace of meditation we find the perspective that the "me" obsession, the drive to create an image of ourselves in our mind, is often wasted effort... we are who we are... narratives alone can't ever seem to reach equilibrium... and rarely lead to a peace from within, an inner peace.

The mind is like a muscle. It's said that in earlier time, the mind was still by default, and only activated when there was something to think about, addressed it, then went quiet again. Before the times of "civilization", agriculture, large social systems. Then, humans changed so that the mind was constantly active, the inner voice awake all the time, like a muscle constantly being clenched. We could still focus on a single thing without distraction, a state known as single-pointedness in meditation. This was the age that birthed mysticism and religion.

In more modern times, the inner voice has become distracted, no longer able to focus on a single thing for any length of time, flitting around like a hummingbird with too much sugar. Like a muscle in constant spasm. The voice just won't shut up, and leads us on constant tangents. It becomes infatuated with sensory experiences, spiraling into desire, distraction. All this happens as we have lost the "muscle control" of calming our inner voice.

I find myself resisting the metaphor "The mind is like a muscle."

I can't know how literal you are being there, but I feel it may also misdirect certain ideas towards adopting inappropriate tropes... like the idea of 'exercising' the mind, and 'using' the mind for things... whereas the mind is more of a lens of interpretation, and not simply the experience of "interpreting." 
The mind is in use as long as we are conscious... there is no 'turned off' mind unless we are not conscious in an active sense... not being 'who we are'...

I have found that even in people whose minds race more or less continuously, the manifestation of a "pause" can be evoked, and eventually coaxed into repetition... then experienced as the 'quite stillness' where it was perceived as impossible before. 
Control is ultimately a matter of intent, in my opinion; 'intent' can often be prostituted by desire...and thus new avenues of the struggle to control can manifest... breaking the "quite stillness" and engendering frustration.

But that "pause," once experienced, will mark the entryway to a new focus.

It's though by some that the inner voice is not us, but a projection into us, speaking to us. That kind of disassociation isn't always productive, but it can help those who are lost in a maze of trying to figure things out with narrative to break free. Our voices tell us narrative, give us models to communicate, and they are a tool, but if we let the tool control us we may never find peace.

Many find ways to characterize and develop the inner monologue into something which we can either embrace, control, or struggle against (all in the midst of the ongoing monologue.) 
The thought process to envelop the experience within a reasoned litany of parameters can become disassociated... but so intensely a personal experience must be unraveled from within the Gordian knot.  Each must face that process alone, if it is to come to an unraveled harmony. 
That silent quietness serves as a leverage point.

Some have experienced an "otherness" within the monologue... I cannot judge, since I am not them. 
Perhaps we become sensitive to another stream of information that our narrative-laden lives can't rationalize... Sprits, Forces, God, other humans... many are the subject of speculation... but again.. .any such experience is too personal to pretend to flatly understand.

Do others here experience the "inner voice" this way? Anyone here naturally "narrative free"? Any other thoughts about the "inner voice"? I am just going to post this little ramble without proofreading, haha.

I have upon occasion, felt I had experienced "inner voice"-free moments...

When I was younger, I flattered myself thinking I had 'achieved' something remarkable... but in truth, such a state cannot manifest fully and freely in our "social" world. 
Most people are unconcerned with another persons' inner state of affairs, so accommodations and adjustments to it in the human world are relegated to retreats, monasteries, and 'special' gatherings of the like-minded.

Some will call it enlightenment (which is sometimes a narcissistic and exclusionary idea.)  Some simply embrace the peace of the experience... to great and calming effect.  Others are so moved by the realizations that flow that it might change them at their core.




The voice to which we refer is actually not a voice. 
It a thought. 
It is that thing which tyrants want to eradicate and replace with their own narratives. 
It the fearful beast that challenges faith-following... called personal reasoning. 

Some say it's not 'safe,' some say it's a vital skill to be honed. 

Ultimately, it is the singular thing that is actually and truly 'free,' the motivator of speech, the conductor of action,
and simultaneously the slave responsible for the narratives we create so we can live with ourselves.

[GENERAL EYES]

I've had an inner narrative since my first memory, but it's fragmented....one is a Masculine Voice, the other is a Passive Feminine and then there's a silent "Big Sister" of sort watching out over the other two.  These days, I have an enitre Internal Dynamic of a Family Unit, but some are Non-Verbal and others are more "expressive".  One is prefers to communicate through it's own simple version of sign language.  Someone once asked me a long time ago how many of these internal "voices" I had, and I had to confess I honestly didn't know.  It varies from moment to moment, some days certain ones are awake and more vocal, and other days the more mature ones are dominant while the "children" sleep. Usually we work together as a creative unit, but sometimes I also hear external voices who sometimes corrupt things and can cause the children to exprience all sort of negative and painful traumas.  I'm getting better at keeping them safe, but it's still a challege to navigate on a daily basis, especially with outside interference from various sources.

[KKLoco]

Oh that bastard. Yeah, he/me is ALWAYS there. In fact, he/me never shuts the fuck up! I had to bitch slap him/me today in fact — for being too judgmental. I mean, this mother fuckers got an opinion about EVERYTHING. I’ve been trying to beat this pompous prick out of me for decades….

It’s true Budgie, my happiest moments / memories are ALWAYS when I’m in the moment. With no care or thought in the world. Nature does that for me. Specifically, water. Even more specifically, the ocean. So cleansing and humbling. Just calming peacefulness.

I’m glad you wrote this thread. Because like I said, I was thinking about this dick today. Helps me reaffirm that I truly do need to KICK HIS ASS!!!

[midicon]

In the beginning was the word
And that was enough
But the word sort of grew
Into all sorts of stuff

It was fine at the start
When the word was innate
Like a warning call
Or a signal to mate

Then it got complicated
With pronouns and verbs
And grammar and syntax
Just made it worse

And the word became king
The thing in itself
And every word
On the library shelf

Became so important
We began to belive
That somehow the word
Could never deceive

The word said I think
So therefore I am
That old philosophical
Cartesian scam

[CCoburn]

It all depends how depraved of a shadow self you have.

How often does that inner voice screw up?

Like consider a girl with a controlling abusive piece of trash of a father. He abuses and intimidates her. What's her self-voice gonna say? Anything to lead to an endless cycle of self-sabotage and replicating abuse? Addiction to being a victim?

It starts off like looking through pristine glass at the world, but from the moment you can process stimuli the glass becomes dirtied by everything being thrown on it, altering your view. Including what your elders teach you, warp you with, and what social concepts (like religion or politics) are put in your head.

It's created by your experience/damage and then projects itself into your conscious like it's some bit of imparted wisdom. In reality it just throws shit all over your world window.

I think in theory the little/inner voice often acts as moral compass and 'whispers' accordingly, but it could be somewhat compromised due to past trauma e.g. hinting that you shouldn't when maybe you should and vice versa.

An individual nurtured and continuing on in some optimal pristine environment might harbor an inner voice that is less wary than it would otherwise be and perhaps less wary than it should be in this day and age.

In a way the voice resembles the "ego" in the Freudian model of the psyche. Except that instead of attempting to model/filter your actions according to observance by a judgmental society (superego) will do so instead solely for your own good although lines between "ego" and inner voice may become somewhat grayed or nonexistent at times given the circumstances. The inner voice may guide you against actions that might harm others – conscience.

In my particular case. Sometimes it 'attempts' diversion from certain driving compulsions when I'm on the road, and at times I ignore it because I'd rather have some fun and briefly hang on the edge, or it may tell me that a piece I've just written could use a little reworking/restructuring.

My existence is moderately isolated and non-invasive, so my little voice will likely be optional much of the time, but for others could be the difference between life and death.

On the edit tags:

I see those "edit tags" as an unwanted blemish and will occasionally briefly argue with the little voice as to whether or not one is deserving in correcting some minor triviality i.e. negligible. At times that annoying little voice will nag at me and I end up giving in and fixing it five or ten minutes later – OCD.

[UltraBudgie]

It all depends how depraved of a shadow self you have.

How often does that inner voice screw up?

Like consider a girl with a controlling abusive piece of trash of a father. He abuses and intimidates her. What's her self-voice gonna say? Anything to lead to an endless cycle of self-sabotage and replicating abuse? Addiction to being a victim?

It starts off like looking through pristine glass at the world, but from the moment you can process stimuli the glass becomes dirtied by everything being thrown on it, altering your view. Including what your elders teach you, warp you with, and what social concepts (like religion or politics) are put in your head.

It's created by your experience/damage and then projects itself into your conscious like it's some bit of imparted wisdom. In reality it just throws shit all over your world window.

The is reminiscent of the creation of 'alters', which are alternate personality modalities formed by trauma programming. In a way I think that modern society does this to us all. After all, isn't that what middle school is all about? Haha. These personas hide away and pop up as intrusive thoughts, and in a more unconscious way work to modulate motivation, perception, and at times push self-sabotage. A sanskrit term for these trauma-anchors is samskara. One of the daunting things about clearing the mind's chatter is that the samskara float to the surface. But this is an opportunity to face and resolve them it's a complex process but a simple practice.

I like the pristine glass analogy. That's what makes us different. If no one had that we'd all be the same emotionally differentiated only by our sense experience. Life is a process of dirtying the glass and then cleaning it off, this is why lao tzu said the act of becoming is the act of returning, and jesus said that to achieve the kingdom you must become again as a little child. Unwinding the samskara. Patanjali called this roasting the seeds of karma and described a practice for achieving it. Meditation can be like quieting the room so the voices of these imprints can be heard and led to love.

I've had an inner narrative since my first memory, but it's fragmented....one is a Masculine Voice, the other is a Passive Feminine and then there's a silent "Big Sister" of sort watching out over the other two.  These days, I have an enitre Internal Dynamic of a Family Unit, but some are Non-Verbal and others are more "expressive".  One is prefers to communicate through it's own simple version of sign language.  Someone once asked me a long time ago how many of these internal "voices" I had, and I had to confess I honestly didn't know.  It varies from moment to moment, some days certain ones are awake and more vocal, and other days the more mature ones are dominant while the "children" sleep. Usually we work together as a creative unit, but sometimes I also hear external voices who sometimes corrupt things and can cause the children to exprience all sort of negative and painful traumas.  I'm getting better at keeping them safe, but it's still a challege to navigate on a daily basis, especially with outside interference from various sources.

When I was a child I had distinct names for these different aspects and modalities. They grew with me. What I didn't realize at the time was that others were growing with me too. I think there's a point in our lives, perhaps when the corpus callosum fully develops, where the mundane self becomes aware of these previously unconscious personas, and they manifest initially as externalities in our perception. We can then acknowledge them as the shadow of ourselves, as some people call it and work to heal them. They don't want to be healed always! It would be an end to them and they fight it. That's why it is a difficult process of change and growth. I still have some work to do, as I will occasionally get intrusive voicings, usually of hatred that I've refuse to embrace and am still unwinding. It's difficult to love the world and have no regrets, I'm not quite there yet. Until then my little bitter friends make their nest, I try to keep them comfortable. Every time they zap me with cringe it is of course another opportunity to unwrap the armour but I don't always take it and I am often too transactional in my bargaining. It's a control thing I know. There is a karma yoga thing about "acting for the many that are in and of you" that I've known since I was a kid, but whooboy some of the mirrormes aren't cooperative haha.

Oh that bastard. Yeah, he/me is ALWAYS there. In fact, he/me never shuts the fuck up! I had to bitch slap him/me today in fact — for being too judgmental. I mean, this mother fuckers got an opinion about EVERYTHING. I’ve been trying to beat this pompous prick out of me for decades….

It’s true Budgie, my happiest moments / memories are ALWAYS when I’m in the moment. With no care or thought in the world. Nature does that for me. Specifically, water. Even more specifically, the ocean. So cleansing and humbling. Just calming peacefulness.

I’m glad you wrote this thread. Because like I said, I was thinking about this dick today. Helps me reaffirm that I truly do need to KICK HIS ASS!!!

Yeah! I love it when the ego is egone. Or happy in the moment at least. Just being. Like in the ocean when the waves become my breathing. There's also the flow state, some call it, when doing tasks without monologue thinking, just one thing leading to another and I'm thinking in image-actions and they all mesh together and I'm just a boat on the stream, cooking or typing or cleaning or building or whatever. It is like calm in action, the center of the hurry-cane, the voice is quiet and the ego is static by the world moves like water and the body is the world and the self isn't trapped but has become the enjoyer. I don't know if I could be that way all the time, but I like it and I've found it's a skill that gets better with practice, beyond what is a natural skill like an artist drawing or doing their thing. It can be done with everything. The skill is nativating the blockers that sap the energy and reestablish the self-questioning ego, the gumption traps pirsig called them. I like the water description you give there's a reason they're called flow states. The inner voice isn't yammering in syllables but humming in contentment.

[FlyersFan]

My inner monologue is a train wreck.
Considering how much time I spend in prayer (daily rosary and spiritual reading), you'd think it would be better.
But it's a mess of unending fear and self flagellation.
Probably a demon or two pounding on me ... they influence thoughts just like good angels do.

Interesting book I think I'll get ... "Seeing Beyond" by Sara Jane Biggart
HERE
Quote from the book is below ....  
Spirit Daily

Describing the first time she “saw,” the author writes: “It was bizarre and yet similar to a movie scene in slow motion and then changing to three-dimensional for a few minutes. The first time, in a split second, I began to see all the ‘spiritual clothes’ each person was wearing. As they walked by, I could see that all of the ‘clothes’ had words written on them such as lust, greed, depression, and fear. I could see the clothing as well as feel and hear it in the spirit.
 
“God revealed that the sounds of these clothes were from the spirits they were associated with.
 
“Fear was the loudest, most high-pitched, dreadful screeching sound of them all,” she posits for our discernment. “This ‘clothing’ can travel great distances in the spirit, with fear traveling the farthest. With the revelation came the realization that any demonic spirit or person operating in spiritual sight could easily see and sense what every one of us had partnered with—unintentionally or otherwise.”
 
When spirits sense such sounds and energy, they tap into them.

[UltraBudgie]

In the beginning was the word
And that was enough
But the word sort of grew
Into all sorts of stuff

It was fine at the start
When the word was innate
Like a warning call
Or a signal to mate

Then it got complicated
With pronouns and verbs
And grammar and syntax
Just made it worse

And the word became king
The thing in itself
And every word
On the library shelf

Became so important
We began to belive
That somehow the word
Could never deceive

The word said I think
So therefore I am
That old philosophical
Cartesian scam

This is beautiful! Thank you.

That old "Cartesian scam", great insight. Always question anyone who has something named after them, haha. You're reminding me of Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, and the ways we externalize, project and individuate while we may indeed be talking to ourself. The word really is ego, isn't it?