I started having this conversation with a friend, while a little drunk, and it seemed interesting and decided to pursue it sober. The question is: how do you think? What is your subjective experience of thinking like?

For example: I am always having conversations with imaginary people. It's not like schizophrenic auditory hallucinations, I am just ALWAYS imagining that I am talking to someone. It can be friends, strangers, family, teachers, whatever. I work through problems by 'talking them out' with people.

The friend I was speaking to found this very alien. She is a painter and said that she thinks in pictures. She never imagines words, but rather, things becomes images that she manipulates.

How do you think?
I suspect that there is more variety then we tend to think there is.

Blessings
~ND

I think in English. I believe most people would think in their native language.
I imagine that if someone think in pictures, they would initially think in pictures (to conceptualise) then perform internal conversion to language...but that's just a guess.

I tend to have this a lot as well. Sometimes I am thinking about something and find myself having the conversation with that person just inside my head. Often the conversation even goes that way when having it in real life...

Haha what is thinking? I just think everyone thinks in an integrative process. I mean that your brain is taking EVERYTHING you experience and integrates it into thought. Sound, sight, touch, hearing, feel.

This is a good thread.

If there is something stressing me out or an unresolved issue I often will visualize me having a conversation with whoever, talking with them about how I feel ect. Then basically creating there dialogue, playing out the scenario like a movie. Usually this ends up me getting into an argument with them in my head. Sometimes getting even more upset. Once it gets to this point I stop, as if walking away from an argument. Most of the time I playback multiple different possible scenarios.

Sometimes I do this to pre-determine how I am going to go about approaching this person with the problem or to give myself a different pov. Although doing this usually leads to me getting over it and not pursuing a resolution by bringing it up like I did in my head. This is all automatic too I don't decide to play these movies in my head it just happens.

When I am driving I will look around and imagine what other vehicles might do. Most of the time I imagine them doing something like pulling in front of me or merging into me so that I can be ready for whatever might happen. This was a learned process as my dad told me when teaching me to drive that, that's what he does and it's will help you to avoid accidents caused by others. It actually has, and has become so automatic that I don't always know that I'm doing it.

It's especially helpful on my motorcycle, as a lot of vehicles don't see you. It has saved me from an accident numerous times.

I also use a modified version of this technique when doing anything risky. Rock climbing, snowboarding, jumping rocks, ect. It's like visualizing many different possible outcomes really fast. Sometimes so fast that only some of them are visible in my mind as the others are just a quick idea.

When listening to others talk, I visualize what they are saying. In fact this is how I remember things. When figuring out how a machine works, or how to fix something ect I visualize a parts blow up so I can see each part and how they interact. If I don't know what the inside looks like I start with what I know and figure it out. Then as I go along and learn I wasn't correct I adjust the visual so that its proper.

I could go on and on about this topic.

Anrchy, that is exactly how it works in my mind too. I even tend to react in a certain way depending on waht the person has said in the dialogue I'm having with them in my head. I also realise that I'm getting upset or frustrated and then I snap out of it and am amazed at what was actually happening.

I don't really know if it is that healthy though, as I tend to be much more calmer and relaxed when I am able to stick to the moment instead of letting my thoughts wander off. I tend to internalise my attention instead of focusing on the external a lot... It's actually a good meditation practice for me to try to stick to the moment.

Ya I feel ya. Besides the other ways I do it, the conversations I have with people in my head don't have a benefit that outweighs the negativity that is generated usually. It just gets me worked up and doesn't solve anything. When I approach it lightly, and visualize how I will start the conversation only then it works out, and I don't continue turning it into an argument.

This model is a huge insight to the struggle I have within me. I tend to debate passionately if I don't keep focus on how I'm coming off. I think leaning to control how I do it in my head will help me in the real world with how I communicate with others. I'm a real internal thinker, and need people around me to release that energy that builds up inside.

My biggest issue is I don't mind being proven wrong, I actually like it sometimes. Just not very many people bring forth the evidence, rather they want to provide their own subjective view, and I'm too opinionated sometimes.

I have a lot of trouble thinking. Often when I really want to think about a particular thing, I find that I either can't form thoughts or have trouble forming a coherent thought before being interrupted by 10 unrelated thoughts. If I ever make it to the end of a thought, I often find that I can't remember how I got there or where I started. For me, thinking is like listening to white noise or being in a crowded room. Trying to make sense of such thoughts is overwhelming, so I usually just put them on the backburner until my subconscious has made sense of it. It's like trying to a remember a song and coming up with nothing, but then later the song just pops into your head.

At least that's what it usually seems like. Perhaps that is due to the abstract types of things that I usually think about. I have no such trouble solving mechanical problems.

How do I think?

In heavily encrypted code. I can only understand myself when I wear this little sailboat shaped tinfoil hat that both de-encrypts for my mind and keeps foreign receivers from intercepting my code. You can never be too safe. Only too sorry.

JBArk

Liar. You're one of the clearest thinkers on this forum. And the greatest danger to hacking into my tinfoil hat and decoding my thoughts. I've got my third eye on you.

JBArk

I used to think in practiced conversation as if pretending to talk to someone else with which I relate the subject matter. i.e If I have a friend who likes trains and I thinking about locomotives, I imagine how they'd respond which implies a coloured version of my own opinion.

These days I'm just talking to myself and get quite aggressive with self-criticism, then on the flip-side I immensely pat my own back when I get something right.

I believe myself to be either much more sure of myself these days or considering notions on which people I have come into contact with couldn't possibly have an opinion.

I also think in non-verbal sounds that do not relate in anyway to language or concepts barring those of the very abstract which are purely masturbatory.

My initial description is true at least some of the time, and it is certainly true when trying to think about the problems that I consider to be most "important" (i.e. most mysterious to me). There are logical pathways that I am adept at navigating after much trailblazing, imitating, and contemplating, and so accessing them is like picking out a solution from a database. It is an instinctive reaction. I suppose my first description applies to my attempts to push past my current paradigm of logic and knowledge, which is so tight-knit that making improvements is often difficult.

Perhaps a tin foil hat will help me tune in to the thoughts I have trouble accessing.

Well thought out answer. Case in point.

And my tinfoil hat is mine. MINE. Got it?

JB^%&^&^$&%$

I too have imaginary conversations with people if I am thinking about interacting with a person. I usually think in words, as in I actually visualize the words I am thinking about a given subject like I am reading a book. Most of the time though I will be thinking of a particular situation, but be thinking in random bursts of words that don't relate whatsoever to the subject nor do they make sense in the linear way of writing or speaking. This sort of resonates with what Hixidom said about being in a crowded room and it can get sort of confusing when I realize what is going on.

It doesn't happen too much anymore, probably because I don't play as often, but when I used to play a lot of guitar, I would visualize the music as abstract images and movie like scenes.

So I can't seem to find very much info on the topic. It would seem to me that this would be something studied more. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. This is the only thing that I could find that comes close:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_style

When I think of people, I always think in hypothetical conversations like the one you mentioned. But when I think of most other things, I think in pictures.