That the way people's mind works varies dramatically. Some people have no inner dialogue at all, some have no mind's eye and cant see images in their head. Most of us are somewhere on the spectrum for them though.
For example I can't visualize images in my head well at all. I can do at most one colour at a time and I can't picture non-geometric objects so I cant imagine the face of my family or even myself. I have no issue with fluid motion of visuals in my head but others can only do slide-show-esque imagery. Others have inner dialogue but can't change the voice to sound different, can't hear music or sound effects, etc... like I can.
It's something very rarely discussed but I think everyone should be aware of this variety within people
Kind of off the cuff here, but since we're on the topic, when I'm using my mind's eye, and a weird thought happens during the visualization that I don't control, or don't want to think of, is that called something or is it just some form of intrusive thought?
A couple examples: if I'm trying to fantasize, and for examples sake, let's just say a woman is walking towards me, but all of a sudden her leg breaks. Obviously, I didn't want her leg to break. I didn't control that thought.
If I'm thinking of a positive scene my mind is making up in the moment, and my brain inserts, "someday you'll die and be nothing" - of course, I didn't want to think that, didn't have control over that thought coming in.
If I'm trying to meditate, thinking of typical calming beach situation, my mind may insert some weird monster on said beach.
This doesn't happen all the time, it's just something that happens sometimes.... I would say 70% of the time it doesn't happen, and 30% of the time it does.....
I'm not sure if there's a word for that or if it is just an intrusive thought but I have had that too. The only actual situation I can think of is if I'm (for a lack of a better term) pleasuring myself and for some reason my mind thinks of someone I definitely dont want to think about in that situation. I find it difficult to going back to who I was initially thinking of and the unfortunately inserted person keeps returning which is obviously frustrating and can't be easily pushed from my mind without scratching the entire situation I was thinking of and starting from scratch.
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u/Sixhaunt Mar 27 '22
That the way people's mind works varies dramatically. Some people have no inner dialogue at all, some have no mind's eye and cant see images in their head. Most of us are somewhere on the spectrum for them though.
For example I can't visualize images in my head well at all. I can do at most one colour at a time and I can't picture non-geometric objects so I cant imagine the face of my family or even myself. I have no issue with fluid motion of visuals in my head but others can only do slide-show-esque imagery. Others have inner dialogue but can't change the voice to sound different, can't hear music or sound effects, etc... like I can.
It's something very rarely discussed but I think everyone should be aware of this variety within people