Your Internal Voice - What The Hell Is It?

[Cammy]

I'm under the impression this is the "I" thought or the ego itself? Would I be correct in understanding this? Essentially experiencing a voice that isn't "You" and trying to manipulate "you"? Not a pleasant thing...

[Eph75]

Yes, that is your ego, the mouldable essence of collected beliefs and biases that is growing stronger for each day we feed it, into a monster that eventually needs deconstructing and reconstruction in a conscious way, in a minimalistic way, eliminating the dysfunctional aspects it's accumulated through a lifetime of unconscious neglect.

The first step towards this is the becoming aware of there seemingly  being two "you", an authentic you that recognize suffering and another you through which your suffering is defined and often cteated. 

That distinction or separation allows you to step back out of narrative of that inner voice and become deliberate about observing, analyzing and reasoning around "it".

You are not your thoughts. 

Disindentification with the ego happening in that process, and the emergence of understanding that the inner chimp is more like a circus animal that is trained to do what it does, by us, our lack of awareness and ignorance, that can be "retrained" or "reprogrammed" through effort and insights. 

Essentially moving towards the form/manifestation of something that is closer to an authentic "you".

Thus, the choice not to be defined by our thoughts becomes available. 

Edited August 4, 2021 by Eph75

[LastThursday]

The internal voice is a hallucination brought about when we learn to read as kids. We learn to read "out loud", but then later on we're encouraged to "read to ourselves" in silence and that's when it starts.

I would say it isn't your ego. Your ego is much bigger than your internal voice. Your ego includes your sense of self and identity and all your behaviours good and bad. Your ego is mostly there to help you stay alive. So most of the things you do for survival is related to your ego. Ego is about separation and identity, and justifying all your actions in the name of those two things.

I'd also say that your internal voice is not thought. It is one way of thinking, but there are other ways, such as visually or emotionally. I suspect for a lot of people their internal voice is a running commentary on everything they're experiencing, so they confuse "I" for this voice. But it's possible with training to stop the internal voice at will: it doesn't stop you having an ego though.

[Eph75]

11 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

I'd also say that your internal voice is not thought. It is one way of thinking, but there are other ways, such as visually or emotionally. I suspect for a lot of people their internal voice is a running commentary on everything they're experiencing, so they confuse "I" for this voice. But it's possible with training to stop the internal voice at will: it doesn't stop you having an ego though.

So true, I conflated that voice as a phenomena with the content that voice is conveying. 

Edited August 4, 2021 by Eph75

[Breakingthewall]

I think that it is a way that the ego uses to feel that it is in control. as @LastThursday says. the voice is not the ego, it is that the ego abhors silence because it is the absence of control, the beginning of its dissolution, so constant talk is its tool to be entrenched. It is a real nuisance and the ego itself thinks that it should shut it up because it will be happier that way, but it can only do it by force for a short time, like holding its breath. the thinner the ego becomes, the calmer the talk, although its essence is anxiety. What he repeats in a thousand different ways is: watch out, stay alert, don't relax or you'll disappear, stay in control or things will get ugly. to give up is madness, decadence. silence is death

[WelcometoReality]

4 hours ago, Cammy said:

I'm under the impression this is the "I" thought or the ego itself? Would I be correct in understanding this? Essentially experiencing a voice that isn't "You" and trying to manipulate "you"? Not a pleasant thing...

Yes it's ego but only a small part of what ego is.

[Windappreciator]

It's your mom

[The0Self]

Internal voice is just a thought. But competition of the internal voice is the problem, hiding the underlying bliss.

For instance, when I was an active addict nearing early recovery, I would search my drawers for pills that I'd forgotten about or dropped (I had tons of opioid medication just laying around and I threw it all away when I quit, but there was always a bit more left over that had gotten lost -- I had tons and tons of painkillers in my drawers at one point lol). Anyway, all the while, I was literally simultaneously looking for the pill (to crush it and snort it through a straw), WHILE seriously hoping to NOT find it. If I found it (happened several times), the feeling was "fuck; dammit," and if I did NOT find it (also actually happened several times), the resulting feeling was THANK GOD.

That's the state of addiction, but it relates to all manifestations of competing desires -- basically the state of "not being at peace." Addiction as described above is simply a rather intense manifestation of it -- most people have it in other ways... uncertainty; confusion; not trusting their own power; etc.

Really it manifests all the time to some degree, IF you think you're a separate individual.

This competition of desires can be stilled with intensive meditation, and when they stop, an enormous amount of energy is released -- this is what "Kundalini awakening" is -- overwhelming exhilaration that makes you want to shake people and say "HAVE YOU EVER FUCKING TRIED MEDITATION? IT'S INCREDIBLE!" etc... (of course that's just a stage; almost a bit manic, but very lucid).

Edited August 5, 2021 by The0Self

[Cammy]

Thank you all for these responses. I appreciate your time. All extremely helpful. Except you Windappreciator - You suck

[Goldzilla]

Not true, the interior voice is before reading, before even speaking. The drive of doing things and play, that is the real deal inner voice you have. It does not use words necessarily. Is that voice that wakes you up in a middle of the exam and you got it. 

Is that voice, when mistreated guides you into action, etc. 

[Kamo]

On 8/4/2021 at 5:00 AM, LastThursday said:

 

I'd also say that your internal voice is not thought. It is one way of thinking

Thinking is Thought? We think in words and Images. Via internal voice. From my experience. maybe your perception differs? is that so?

[Kamo]

What are the things called "ear worms?" When you have a song "stuck in your head" Would that be thought?

[LastThursday]

3 hours ago, Kamo said:

We think in words and Images. Via internal voice. From my experience. maybe your perception differs? is that so?

Indeed my perception differs which is why I go on about it.

When I do computer programming for example, I don't actually talk to myself in Javascript, that would insanity. No. It is thought, but it's not my internal voice. It's a mixture of images, memories, "knowing", finger memory, intuition and so on, there's hardly internal voice going on at all (except to curse at bugs).

It seems completely alien to people that they could actually think without talking to themselves, I find it amusing and weird.

[Kamo]

1 hour ago, LastThursday said:

Indeed my perception differs which is why I go on about it.

When I do computer programming for example, I don't actually talk to myself in Javascript, that would insanity. No. It is thought, but it's not my internal voice. It's a mixture of images, memories, "knowing", finger memory, intuition and so on, there's hardly internal voice going on at all (except to curse at bugs).

It seems completely alien to people that they could actually think without talking to themselves, I find it amusing and weird.

Thats really cool, I think id prefer that. For example when I read as I am reading your message and replying this mind has to listen to the words internally or subvocalize. Its not much of an apparent choice there is. Sometimes I can skim quickly and still know the words without having to "say" it in my head, Meditation seems to be the primary training tool for this. Do you have any recommendations? It wasn't always like this tho. For me the subvocalizing didnt come online till I was about 24. Im 31 now. My mind was completely silent before that? More images. 

[LastThursday]

@Kamo don't get me wrong. I subvocalise with the best of them. Just not computer code or thought. I wish I could read without doing it too, it would be cool in a nerdy way. Reading isn't thought though. I'm very intrigued to know what happened to you at 24? Hopefully I won't regret the question?

Edited August 8, 2021 by LastThursday

[Kamo]

1 hour ago, LastThursday said:

@Kamo don't get me wrong. I subvocalise with the best of them. Just not computer code or thought. I wish I could read without doing it too, it would be cool in a nerdy way. Reading isn't thought though. I'm very intrigued to know what happened to you at 24? Hopefully I won't regret the question?

Well my mom passed away when I was 23. i didnt take it well..So i experience a what i understand now to be an egoic deconstruction because i had so much of my identity tied to my mom. It sort of lead me to a more spiritually oriented mentality because then i started question reality. Then I found Leo and been following ever since, since he provided many answers to questions I had since my perception of reality was breaking down and i was having trouble trying to understand wtf was going on. Post Traumatic Growth I believe its called that i went through. 

[Kamo]

1 hour ago, LastThursday said:

. Reading isn't thought though.

Would you consider reading just mental activity then? I often thought subvocalizing was the process of thinking in words?

[LastThursday]

12 hours ago, Kamo said:

Well my mom passed away when I was 23.

My condolences. I understand how difficult it is when a parent passes away.

12 hours ago, Kamo said:

Would you consider reading just mental activity then? I often thought subvocalizing was the process of thinking in words?

I wouldn't consider subvocalising when reading to be thought per se, it's just a mechanical action. It may trigger thoughts though, such as images, feelings and so on. It may even trigger further subvocalising which has nothing to do with what you're reading, so that would be a form of thought.

Thought is a complex interplay of many different experiences, subvocalising is just one aspect. If you think about it, you could also think visually in words, it needn't be auditory. For example people who spell visually (in their mind's eye), are often better spellers than those that do it auditorily. They are thinking visually in words.

[mandyjw]

You aren't two, so there's no "good you" or "real you" and a "bad you" (ego, the devil) or "false you". The boogeyman is you. You are what you're afraid of. You are the monster under the bed. On a psychological comfort level you've been sleeping on the hard floor amidst dirty socks and dust bunnies all your life, when you could have been sleeping in a nice warm soft bed. 

 

[tsuki]

On 7.08.2021 at 9:38 PM, Cammy said:

Thank you all for these responses. I appreciate your time. All extremely helpful. Except you Windappreciator - You suck

Actually, his response was very good. If you want to take conscious ownership of the voice, you should learn to identify where it comes from (who is responsible for the beliefs its articulates).

And yes, the most persistent parts of the voice actually come from your mother, since she was there with you when you were the youngest.

Edited August 9, 2021 by tsuki