How Others Think

[gloomy-optimist]

Here... to help answer the OP...

How 'bout people just think through this and post what they were thinking as they went through it?

You see a man throw your child down a well. It was compleatly unprovoked and catches you off guard. The man stands there smiling at you and you can hear the child screaming and crying in the well. What do you do?


(sorry... only thing I could think of right now... maybe someone can come up with a better idea for my plan here.)

A well? Why a well? Why is he throwing my child? Like hell he would, if I had a kid, I'd jump that sonofabitch before he knew what was coming *cut to visuals of man in trench coat and shady hat and me ninja kicking him in the face* Red line under compleatly...would that catch me off guard? I don't think that would happen if I had a kid...I would kill someone *projected emotion of rage at man* I would choke the guy and probably scream at my kid that mommy was coming...Lordy, that man would die. Get help. Would I be able to find it? Are there people? *visual of frantic searching* Gotta keep that man around, cuz he's getting his ass hauled to jail...

 

[corvidae]

I imagine days of the week and months as a rays of different type of grey coloure. I was confused as a child when I discovered that all people dont' do that.

That's called synesthesia, and it's pretty uncommon. I only experience it when I'm on drugs.

Interesting topic. I've wondered the same over the years myself.

Do we all think using "our" speaking voice?
We thought before we talked. I can't recall my mind's voice changing while going through puberty.

How do we visualize things in our minds eye differently?
When I picture a calendar year in my mind, the months are laid out in a particular pattern that makes sense to me, but would probably make no sense to someone else.

Etc.

I wonder what blind people "visualize". Their "blankness" is probably not the same as we would "see" if we closed our eyes. They're used to not seeing anything at all.

And what "voice" do mute or deaf people think in?

 

[Tamagochi]

MBTI is one of those things that are supposed to measure thought patterns. I rarely get this in real life, but there are a few people on this forum whose posts I can literally read between the lines. It's like I know what will the next word be in a sentence. A bit weird feeling I've also noticed quite a few posts saying 'get out of my mind' - others probably experience that too.
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[Jana]

That's called synesthesia, and it's pretty uncommon. I only experience it when I'm on drugs.

For me it's natural, without drugs...

 

[gloomy-optimist]

That's called synesthesia, and it's pretty uncommon. I only experience it when I'm on drugs.

That's really interesting...I want to learn more about that

 

[MindYourHead]

I had a discussion about this with a cousin who is into neurology. He stated that it was funny that, a person could be communicating a message to someone else, and the other person would think that they understood the message and so they would never know that they had miscommunicated. It's hard to explain this in more depth, which is what I would want if someone else posted this. I'd ask for an example or something. But everyday life is the closest to an example that you can come by. If you really think about it communication is so limited that what you are expressing is only barely 'grasped'. Messages are lost in translation so often that we don't even notice it anymore. As long as the recipient gets the gist of it, we figure that it doesn't matter much.

Ugh! This just happened to me, but can't recall the conversation to give the example.
It was me who completely misunderstood, and I even thought at the time that it was the way she said it that led me to believe one thing, when she meant something else.

That's called synesthesia, and it's pretty uncommon. I only experience it when I'm on drugs.

I wonder what blind people "visualize". Their "blankness" is probably not the same as we would "see" if we closed our eyes. They're used to not seeing anything at all.

And what "voice" do mute or deaf people think in?

My 1st wife is deaf. I never thought to ask that.
I should shoot her an email and ask.

 

[Bt4fl]

The voices in my head tell me to kill...


For me, my inner voice is diffrent depending on the situation at hand. Diffrent feelings make diffrent voices, and I also think in the other person's voice when I am having a mental conversation with them.

As for how I think, it's a little harder to explain. Most of my thoughts simply pop into my head. When I think on a subject for a long time, say I'm thinking up diffrent ideas for how to design a chair, I get a basic idea of what I want, run it through 'till I have a finished product, then go back over details after the fact to fill it out. I can start a project, coversation, online post without a full understanding of what I want to do, just the end result, and I fill in the details as I go along.

My thoughts ramble as much as I do, I finish what I need to think about, then go back over it re-expressing diffrent parts over and over untill I feel I've fully explored everything I can on the subject.

There are some subject that I don't even know all that much about, but I allways make jumps to fill in blanks with what seems to make the most sense. For an example of this, I don't KNOW how a bouncing ball works, but I figure that when the ball hits the ground not all of the potental energy is used on impact, the ball is deformed and when it returns back into shape it pushes its self up into the air. I don't know if this is true, it is just a jump in logic that suits my way of thinking.

Yet I just went back through the thought of objects bouncing and came up with a better idea...

Anyways...

My memory is very visual. Anytime I remember an event, word, idea, sound, taste, they all have some sort of visual part that helps hold on to the idea better for me, be it floating words, what was happening at the time, little made up images, just something visual.

Wow... reading back through all this, not sure if it will make sense to anyone but me... :/

 

[gloomy-optimist]

Y'know, to tell you the truth, I'm not even sure how I think half the time. It's not really tangible.

 

[poetrygirl]

When I was little I use to wonder about things like this all the time but for me it was more visual. How do different individuals see the world? Are our colors the same? Is my red your green? If one actually saw from another's eye, would they see a completely alien world from what they are use to?

OM gosh. I used to think the same thing when I was little. Everyone could see a different color but never know it and everyone would call it the same thing!

 

[poetrygirl]

I imagine days of the week and months as a rays of different type of grey coloure. I was confused as a child when I discovered that all people dont' do that.

That's interesting. When I imagine the days of the week and months I still see my first grade calendar on the bulletin board.

 

[bamf]

OM gosh. I used to think the same thing when I was little. Everyone could see a different color but never know it and everyone would call it the same thing!

And at times it still makes me wonder...........

 

[gloomy-optimist]

Well, it actually is true that everyone sees a slight difference between hues, but it's not so distinct that they see a complete different color (excluding actual color blindness)

 

[Stephanie]

OM gosh. I used to think the same thing when I was little. Everyone could see a different color but never know it and everyone would call it the same thing!

. . . And everyone's favorite colour is actually the same colour . . . even though I call it "purple" and my best friend calls it "blue?" etc.

(But how can we know?? Is there really any way to scientifically prove that all colours are the same except for the hues and the extreme exceptions?)

I've also wondered what would happen if someone could hear my thoughts, I think they'd get so sick of it. It'd be like someone constantly chatting in your ear! I think (in words mostly, like 98% of the time, and even when there are pictures or colours there are words there too . . .) constantly. Of course it doesn't bother me until I am trying to go to sleep, but I bet others would be so annoyed by the incessant babble in my brain!

So many interesting ideas everyone! Great idea for a thread . . .

 

[bamf]

Well, it actually is true that everyone sees a slight difference between hues, but it's not so distinct that they see a complete different color (excluding actual color blindness)

How do we know this? All the characteristics we assign to colors depend on how the individual perceives it. The word bright for example, if you were looking at bright yellow in your eyes it might be bright, but if you looked at it from my eyes it would appear to be dull to what you are normally use to. I'm unsure if there is any way to be completely certain that we all see colors in the same basic way. I mean I'm pretty sure we do, but how can we be certain.

 

[gloomy-optimist]

Well, I think even if colors were different from person to person, they'd still be relative to each other -- meaning that certain color combinations are almost always appealing, so it would make sense that even if they were different from person to person, they'd be kind of parallel no matter what...if that makes sense.

Furthermore, if you take a scientific standpoint, you can consider the spectrum and how it bounces off of things and whatnot; generally, it would be the same spectrum for everyone.

So I guess even if people saw different hues, the colors would still be equivalent to each other and their places on the spectrum, no matter who looks at it

 

[Zero]

I have thought since I was a child that everyone thought the same way, just that they were inclined to certain behaviors I was not because they "chose" to. Like they would do something I considered evil or odd, because they chose to be evil or odd.

It was a realization when I started realizing over the years (as I grew more mature) that people are not so alike in their thoughts. I observed people throughout all of high school. Many people saw me as a wallflower, many also saw me as a nuisance, a waste of life, or insane, because I rarely held conversations over observation.

As my maturity progressed I started seeing that people simply thought differently. Some people needed to fit in and feel special because it matched their values they had of themselves. Some people needed to experiment with drugs and the like in order to show them that they're not disconnected from reality. Some people needed to study hard and get good grades because they ultimately had a need to be intelligent. I seemed to be one of the very few I noticed who simply needed to observe their surroundings and the people in them.

It was the immature ones also that caused me to realize that some people would sacrifice what they truly needed or wanted for themselves for something less meaningful (and it was usually very apparent that it was the case. Like the kid who studies only because his parents force him to. He could dream of being free from that all he wants and need it, but ultimately the person sacrifices his freedom for approval).

Of course these are just examples, but where in the beginning I only viewed a person as they applied to the way MY mind functioned, overtime I realized that people are much more complicated and diverse in their thinking.


I still wonder what it would be like to literally walk a mile in someone's shoes(metaphorically). To switch functions and consciousness with them for even a day.

How alien that would be to us.

 

[corvidae]

During my university orientation, we got to choose to listen to short seminars by faculty members. I chose philosophy, and the professor talked about the problem of consciousness, using vision as an example.

The philosophical problem with consciousness is that it is private. Science relies on objectivity and the ability to get consistent results from experiments. Consciousness, by nature, is subjective. Hence, we could never prove that one person's "green" is not another person's "red". We could infer from brain scans, but that begs the question - does Neuron X in one person cause the same sensation as Neuron X in another?

 

[TheLastMohican]

• I read this over twice in my head. Noted the spelling mistake.

"Compleat" is actually a valid variant spelling.

 

[ec3khrl]

I think about this all the time. When I was younger, I was always curious what other people thought about, and how different my own thoughts were in comparison. Now I wonder how they think about things and how they perceive the world in general; how they explain things to themselves, how their emotions affect their thought patterns, how their 'gut' feeling appears to them, and whether they ignore or accept it. How do people make decisions? Why some thoughts of theirs are so motivating/demotivating?

I think interviewing someone about this is a tricky process. Most people are very guarded about their own thoughts, and they get prickly when you ask too many questions. Others, on the other hand, love to brag about themselves, but they tend to only gab about the things that make them look better. It's rare to encounter anyone who is candid about sharing themselves honestly.

Mind you, I'm aware that even when it is explained, its not the same as experiencing it. I think it would be awesome for us to be able to align ourselves with the way other people think, just for the experience. Imagine how different the world might if you were to swap a thinking process with someone else.

I doubt there is anyway to truly quantify it, though.

Yeah.
That's a good thing I suppose, to have everything laid out open will just let people take it for granted. Oxygen, kindness, love.......

I am very curious about the scenery of the minds in others as well, but at the same time I don't want that to happen.

Because from my experience I know I tend to lose interest right away in anyone about whom I think I know well enough.

I don't like that how it develops, it's like this person in front of me was still the most intriguing thing alive I have ever seen and we were having fun with each other, now suddenly worth nothing to me.

It's not just the disappointment but I actually feel kind of sorry for myself sometimes to be a prick like that, to discard people like a child throws away his toy when I am no longer a child anymore.

If I really care that person enough I will almost always try to fix it up, but most of the time if nothing new comes up in the process that is strong enough to revoke my conclusion of knowing them well enough already. I just cannot feel the connection with them anymore.

I just can't, like my wit dries up all of a sudden. I don't know what to say to them besides the things you would say to a stranger - bullshit so to speak. I become the dumbest and boring guy in the world, and they can sense it too, relationship dries up eventually.

And it just happen again and again and again....
Lucky for me I am easily intrigued so I can escape this black hole quiet fast and dive into the new things at once just to forget the mess I have done.

Now I don't know if this is actually a good or bad thing for me or not. HA!

 

[Sandie33]

I wonder what blind people "visualize". Their "blankness" is probably not the same as we would "see" if we closed our eyes. They're used to not seeing anything at all.

And what "voice" do mute or deaf people think in?