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This is interesting to me because I don't meditate, but I also don't have "voices in my head" most of the time. There is a "voice" that is present while I am reading and I can summon it in order to work through something I want to say or write, also sometimes I "play music" in my head where the vocals are usually in the voice of the artist. By and large, though, my mind is usually "silent". Do most people hear voices all the time? Most of the time? I was under the impression hearing voices a lot was associated with psychosis and not the default way brains work.

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You don't hear them, unless you have an auditory hallucination, but you have thoughts, which you can verbalize or materialize to a greater or lesser degree. These thoughts are something you do, not what you are. You'll hear them if you start listening to them.

So you're saying that you never have anything going on in your head that you didn't choose? No uncomfortable thoughts that you have to push away? No egos lashing out at other people or telling you you're not good enough?

If that's the case then congratulations are in order, most people have to put in some effort to get there. Maybe you're a natural, depends on where you came from. Being left alone to do your thing in a sane environment makes it easier to stay in touch.

Whatever the case, there's never any harm in sitting still with closed eyes for ten minutes.

> So you're saying that you never have anything going on in your head that you didn't choose? No uncomfortable thoughts that you have to push away? No egos lashing out at other people or telling you you're not good enough?

Thanks for putting it this way. I definitely remember my brain used to do stuff like that, when I was a teenager, but it is not a state I can deeply relate to decades later. I recall making a conscious decision, around the time I was 19, to not get hung up on that stuff because it was not pragmatically useful to my physical life. So perhaps I have put some effort into "getting there" and it was just so long ago I've forgotten what it was like.

It's not literally hearing voices, but rather observing the flow of thoughts. You feel hungry, there's a thought. You suddenly realize you forgot someone's birthday, there's a thought. You think about that chocolate bar you ate last week, boom there's a thought. So that's the "voices" or "monkey mind" that meditation practitioners will talk about.

I’m relatively new to meditation. About 5 months, most days but not all.

The thing is, you don’t notice that those voices aren’t you until someone points it out. And you see it most clearly through meditation. Because when you think your mind is empty, it’s not, you’re telling yourself tales constantly. At least I am. But I never thought I was until I sat back and observed how my mind was working.

It’s like those drawing that ask if you see a cat or a woman and you see a cat. But then someone points out the woman and you just can’t unsee the woman. That’s the best analogy I can find at least.

As I said, I am early in experimenting with meditation, but it really feels like a game changer.

I’ve tried to read a variety on the topic. Being that I’m of the more secular bend, I’ve really enjoyed the Sam Harris book and app, Waking Up. If you want an intro, start with either. If you’re of a more spiritual bend, I’m sure there good other options.

I'm not saying this necessarily applies to you, but many people find that it takes them quite a bit of intensive meditation practice to even discover that they've been overlooking a lot of chatter in their minds.

> Beginning meditators often think that they are able to concentrate on a single object, such as the breath, for minutes at a time, only to report after days or weeks of intensive practice that their attention is now carried away by thought every few seconds. This is actually progress. It takes a certain degree of concentration to even notice how distracted you are.

—Sam Harris

My daughter had voices in her head for a bit as she grew up. The professional advice we got is that it is common in children, but diminishes as they age. Most adults do not hear voices. And even the ones that do are normally just verbalization of their own thoughts.

But we were warned that if they didn't fade, or they were being negative or harmful, that is a red flag that should invoke some action.

I guess that what "hearing voices" was pointing at in this case were thoughts and thinking.

I've definitely had it before where I was alone at night and it sounded like I was listening to the radio or something like that. Like nothing directed towards me, but voices cutting in and out about different things.

I suppose it's not hearing voices that makes you crazy, but when you start listening to them and doing what they say...

Presumably those who meditate to "quiet their minds" are also seeking to drive out remembrance of a scent or feeling, innate thought-feelings (like confusion that's internal to the brain), imagery, and all the other ponderable facets the brain creates?

Why not say "seeing movies" or "feeling emotions" or "imagining smells" or whatever form a specific thought might take though? Seems weird to only consider vocal thoughts.

There are other aspects to thoughts too, like links and non-picturable things that one seems to grasp but aren't present in a sense-based way -- for example a "hypercube that smells of snozzberries", you can't see it, it's not making a sound that you've heard before, the smell is not something you know, etc., but to some extent you still behold it.

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