The Inner Voice/Monologue

[sahgwa]

Apparently only about 30-50% of us have an inner dialogue, some people consciously think differently and these people tend to have a much stronger ability to visualise consciously.

I have a very weak visual imagination unless I'm highly focused which can be achieved via meditation, I do have full colour dreams though, occasionally I can read in them, trigger autonomy and a few other things, all these things seem to be accessible via meditation too. I only mention all that because there's seemingly a very strong link with the ability to visualise within the mind and parts of the brain that regulate.

Hypnagogic hallucinations manifest as visions in the minds eye for some, faces, shapes and randomness just passing by before that inevitable flip into pure imagination/sleep. Those 'hallucinations' for me come forth from a grey fine mist where the images swirl into existence, almost like a smokey grainy old photograph.

Again, it can be trained to have better visual imagination, the same can be said for visual memory too, I suspect it's ways of thinking but then how to you confirm that beyond trusting others and what they say? Brain scans? They all point to the same places pretty much.

Fact is we do not understand consciousness.

When I think of things like this I'm naturally pessimistic and I'm probably going down similar thought patterns as IdeomotorPrisoner, that inner monologue is more likely guided by experiences and the way we think is often. 'corrupted' by experiences and trauma or maybe that's what actually develops it? Language and memory are intrinsically linked with how we think, I'd go one further and say that what some call intrusive thoughts are actually just the subconscious or at least mostly. I'm still open about the possibility of telepathy and other weirdness.

There's the whole "people born blind have never ever been diagnosed with schizophrenia" too which is absolutely fascinating, there doesn't seem to be any changes with the inner monologue of blind people though. Look it up... People who develop blindness do get schizophrenia and other related issues.

It's those pathways of development I find the most interesting when it comes to inner voices. Seems that social animals are the most nuts, most of us can go nuts and have all the functions to make it so, the question is why do some people hallucinate and others don't, another is why do some people have intrusive thoughts and images whereas others just have a subconscious. Is it all the same thing wound up around an ego?

Faith systems and culture often ask us to cast aside negative psychological issues and I seriously wonder if it's these practices that potentially worsen the experience of individuals. It cannot be natural to deny and invalid aspects of ourselves that we've developed via experience.

If it is a 'good' social or faith system and culture, it will not teach you to 'cast aside' negativity.  It will teach you to fully experience it, to integrate it and then to dissipate it.
Like spilling grease on your new pants. You can't ignore it, it won't go away, it will fester and get worse.  You have to fully engage with it, do the focussing ON IT, have your attention on it, then process/clean it.