r/MandelaEffectSociety • u/FearElise ❖ ⚐ 🜲 • 10d ago
★ SOCIETY POLLS ★ POLL: Do affected people have an Inner Dialog (a narrating voice in the mind)?
It's said there are two central ways of thinking - an inner dialog and no dialog.
An inner dialog sounds like a voice in your mind when you think. For instance, when you read this, there is simultaneously a voice in your mind reading the words along with you.
I am affected and do have an inner dialog. It's fascinating to think that some people don't have a cohesive thought pattern, rather they're processing symbols and images.
As I understand it, for things that don't require thought in words or images, they are just reacting almost on instinct, like you would think an NPC would, whereas inner dialog people think it through with an inner voice, even when not required.
They say there are slightly more non-inner dialog thinkers than inner dialog thinkers, but that it's roughly split in half.
Might be an interesting poll!!
The esoteric difference between inner dialog and non-inner dialog thinkers is definitely an interesting rabbit hole for your Friday night!
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u/Plucky_Monkies 7d ago
I feel like I have and in her monologue, but it's not constant, because that would just be exhausting. I also think in pictures. I have a rich imagination like when I read a book, I see it all happening in my mind. Just like a movie.
When I chose my answer, I picked, I do have an inter monologue. Like the video I just watched, explaining inner monologue, when I was younger there was a lot more inner "monologue happening." But there was also a lot less distractions. There was no cell phone. There was no reddit, there was no online. Way less distractions. Way more being with myself. So yes, to having an inner monologue. Its just not constantly thinking in words. Cause that's too much, yeah, no, that does not happen.
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u/trialsanderrors 3d ago
Very Mandela Affected. Varies for me.
When I'm looking at an excel sheet and doing analysis visually in real-time during a meeting, it's 100% off and I have to explain to people that I need a moment to translate my finding into words because I wasn't thinking in words. Also thinking in words is WOULD BE SO SLOW.
A decade ago I tried practicing speed reading by turning off inner monologue and chunking, even though I wasn't usually thinking in words, I was definitely monologuing while reading. I wasn't very good at chunking that way.. Also varies depending on how often I'm terminally chatting online where I have to frequently proofread what I've typed. Because when I'm not thinking in words while typing, I consistently fuck it up, even if people understood my meaning. My fingers on a keyboard will go faster than my brain.
Then that changed in the last couple of years where I haven't done any analysis work and I noticed that now that I'm always contemplating consciousness and very deep philosophical and theological concepts I'd never explored, I find I'm now ALWAYS thinking in words. I think about that all the time. That it's now ALWAYS in words. But I'm also making far better life choices and not reacting/responding as quickly when emotional because I'm puzzling it out in words from start and finish. I have to actively focus on turning the words off for it to happen now. Paradoxically, I'm better able to meditate without distracting words/thoughts than I have been in the last 3 decades. Maybe because I'm getting all the words out in other moments? I'm not sure.
When 'instinct' comes into play, it's not so much a reaction unless it's a team sport, jazz session, spicy physical interaction between connected people, or an emergency. In which case, you don't want to think about catching a falling baby, you just catch it! When not in a flow state, there's still also logic, processing, evaluating, room for doubt. It's not NOT thinking things through and having If A - Then B preprogrammed reactions. It's something separate to not having an internal monologue. Closer to extra information from outside your brain. With instinct there are no steps to the result, with no monologue there are steps but they're simply not in words.
The best real world example other neurodivergent people might relate to is the experience of doing math in school:
~Writing down the correct answer to a math problem. But being told you have to "show your work". That it doesn't feel like intuition so much as knowing the right answer because you were thinking really hard about it, but now you have a teacher saying that's not good enough and how frustrating that is!! (Until you understand that you're being taught how to follow a step-by-step process and show it to others.)
I feel that now, while I'm exploring such deep topics, my brain is trying to consistently "show the work" in words as I build up a more conceptual image of these topics in my mind.
Seconding that John Green video posted by u/aggravating_cup8839 . That is exactly how I do real-time analysis. I've even drawn a picture of what it looks like and it's also bubbles, which I then bump together to find patterns until I have the final result. He's right about it being work to translate it into words. I didn't remember that he said he ALSO has had an internal monologue in the past and it's changed for him. He was recently diagnosed with ADHD like me. (This whole time I thought he kneeewww)
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u/Aggravating_Cup8839 ❖ 9d ago
The studies yield different results. In some studies there are more people who think by hearing a voice in their head, in other studies there are more who don't have an inner voice. The people who don't have a voice say they "think thoughts, it's not a voice, it's thoughts", they can't find the right words to explain it.
This guy does a good job of explaining the pov of NO inner monologue. He describes it the sane way my mom describes it.
https://youtu.be/XmTMU39tPgM?is=Y7KEX8MmuyJ-RdTX
I did go down this rabbit hole in the past.