The Inner Voice/Monologue

[Ray1990]

Stilling the voice is dying, you become an automaton. Sleeping is called the little death but there you still dream.

This is my problem with focus and being mechanistic and why I much prefer channeling energy where my time isn't lost. Now if I could just stop channeling Dionysus for a day.

I'd just revel in the liberty of a careless free mind. Although never knowing when the party is over can be problematic...

It's better than channeling Oizys, born from an immaculate birth no less... Because misery loves company but it's not a requirement!

The Greeks had a sense of humour and a command of the poetic.

[sahgwa]

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.

I have been meditating on and off for about 20 years and I can also still the inner voice when needed.  The question becomes how long, and in what fashion?
Everyone has this ability, they just need to figure it out and practise it.

Point being, it is as simple as the monkey brain vs the true you.

The monkey brain is full of chatter and comes all by itself.  It's the ego and the id both.  When you say to yourself automatically/your brain puts out 'i'm hungry; that's your id. When your thoughts are automatic or your brain says 'let's go downstairs to get food' that's your ego. 
You can still both of those, but they will always arise on their own.

The secret is what do you do once they arise?
If you are trying forcefully to 'be silent' that generally doesn't work. It's too active. 
That's like engaging with little kids who want attention.

The trick is to acknowledge those thoughts appearing in the field of your mind, and just let them drift away. Then you will have Silence, for at least a few seconds.
Eventually through 'non-focussing' such as on the breath, the thoughts will stop arising altogether....

Wu wei / the zone/ not-doing 
are all tricks that we can attempt to master. 
Just like in quantum physics, how the observer effects the outcome, the trick is to observe without observing.

[sahgwa]

I feel "jibber jabber" is a vastly underrated phrase. Perhaps that's more apt.

[appropriate emoji here]



Social conscience is a key, I think you've sounded a good note here. I remember as a very young child becoming aware of the perception of others of my actions. It set up an internalized feedback loop, a second-guessing of myself, that I think is what leads to having an introverted monologue. A redirection of immediate action into thinking, internally vocalizing, instead of the pure acting in the moment of a child. It's a long road back to that. The idea of that voice being the superego, a voice of the personal ego as a member of the larger group, is interesting, because that matches with my experience. Of course the moral compass thing applies, too, and sometimes I have little voices of remaining unresolved trauma pop up like devilish magnets trying to spin my compass, derail my more intentional self. I've welcomed most of them back into the flock, but some remain, and it is very easy to consider them 'intrustive' or externalize them as plaguing spirits or such. It takes actually facing the absolute to know the difference, I guess, although maybe as you say someone born and raised in an optimal pristine environment would be different in that regard. Although looking even at the elite and most privileged in this would who might enjoy that, it seems that may not be the case, and everything warps somehow. Perhaps the key to bloodline legacies is knowing how to consistently mould such warping intergenerationally.

Isn't the "call of the void" when driving fun? "Just steer off the road, it would only take a wrist twitch" or "I bet I could get the car across that guardrail and off the bridge". Memento mori, thanks for the reminder, shadow! Hahaha I say -- someday, if only it were that easy, void my friend.


Recently I've been examining the song lyrics that are stuck in my head. Sometimes when I have no inner monologue, I'll get refrains going in a loop. That's annoying. Anyone dove into processing those? I wonder if it's the time and place of the songs, the life-memories they are tagged to, that are what persists, or perhaps unnoticed significance in the lyrics, or maybe even just the rhythmic theme? As I have not heard it said, "if you meet the music on the road, kill it". Classical seems to be a way to go, pure tonal emotion patterns, but even better is the om at various vibrational levels that LightAngel and quintessentone were mentioning in the other thread.

 I think we would have to differentiate the 'little whisper' or conscience from the monkey brain/ego/id chatter altogether.
I believe through experience that the latter is mostly automatic and useless from a higher level POV , while the former is actually part of intuition and our Higher Self talking to and through us.

[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.

[Ray1990]

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.

It's much more convenient to buy new pants then poorly rinse and repeat.

You can hide the stains but you've still got a leaky faucet? Maybe an Italian plumber with some mushrooms would help...

I drift towards existentialism myself but we're all individuals. Can inner monologues be an affliction? They must start at some point since it's language, the question is why? It's not like we're talking gibberish to ourselves in our minds at 6 months.

[sahgwa]

It's much more convenient to buy new pants then poorly rinse and repeat.

You can hide the stains but you've still got a leaky faucet? Maybe an Italian plumber with some mushrooms would help...

I drift towards existentialism myself but we're all individuals. Can inner monologues be an affliction? They must start at some point since it's language, the question is why? It's not like we're talking gibberish to ourselves in our minds at 6 months.

In this analogy buying new pants would mean offing yourself lol .
As babies we are in the now. The inner monologue is a kind of baggage accrued from The World

[Ray1990]

In this analogy buying new pants would mean offing yourself lol .
As babies we are in the now. The inner monologue is a kind of baggage accrued from The World

That thought came to my mind about pants but I then wondered if that's forsaking pants altogether... I guess it works for the ones who think we live in a prison too lol.

I have a few memories of the earliest days, there's a sort of narrative but it's hazy to remember. Looking back I always thought I 'became' conscious around the age of 4 when the family moved as everything before had less of a taste of free will. As if their was always a sort of monologue but it just lacked a vocabulary before that, I've been feebly defining everything since.

I tend to agree about the baggage, which is why I wonder if this way of thinking is potentially an affliction. There's definitely a link between pressure and thinking.

There's advancement with thinking but there's contentment in silence. I find it ironic.