Inner dialogue

Hi,

I was reading "meditation for dummies" and at some point you can read :

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Becoming aware of your inner dialogue

Begin this meditation by paying attention to your thoughts.
After several minutes, notice what the voices inside your head are telling you. (If you’re not aware of any voices, you may want to observe feelings or images instead.)
Does one voice predominate, or do several voices vie for your attention? Do they criticize or encourage you? Shame or praise you? Or do they focus primarily on the other people in your life? Do any of the voices argue with one another? What kind of emotional tone do these voices have? Are they loving and gentle or angry and impatient? Does one voice sound more like you
than the others? Do any of them remind you of people in your life — past or present? How do these voices make you feel?
Allow ten minutes for this exercise initially. When you have the knack of it, you can stop from time to time during the day and pay attention to your inner dialogue.
The important point is, you’re not your thoughts — and you don’t necessarily have to believe the messages they impart.

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I find this a little weird, I only hear one voice, my voice, and it's always speaking at the first person.
Is it different for you?

Hearing multiple different voice commenting your life is a symtom of schizophrenia :o

thanks.

It's said that insanity is a normal state of mind carried to an extreme only you get stuck there. Essentially we all experience various 'insane' mental states temporarily, in a less intense form than a psychosis.

I have had this kind of inner dialogue from time to time - not always. I would notice them especially if I was doing something like mowing the lawn, when there's no TV or music on, nobody to talk to, nothing to occupy your mind except for inner dialogue. In other words, very much like meditation. Also when I'd be walking or jogging. During a very troubled part of my younger life I became aware of 2 'voices' (they're more imaginary than actual - not as clear as voices you hear in hypnagogia, but they seem very consistent in their characters - sort of sub-sub-vocal). It would go like this - I'm mowing the lawn, and decide to use the time to think about things, which I did subvocally - sort of like whispering without any voice. In fact I'd notice that when I swallowed or switched from inhaling to exhaling the stream of thought would stop briefly - meaning I was actually talking to myself, just without making any actual sound (and sometimes even moving my mouth a little). This is subvocalizing. If you try to think without even subvocalizing it becomes hard to keep your thoughts focused and coherent - try it sometime while holding your breath.

Being a writer I would often use this time to work on story ideas or something. So, I'm mowing away, subvocalizing my ideas, and rising up from somewhere below the subvocal would come another 'voice' - not really a voice, but just a thought. Always responding to what I had just said. There were 2 distinctly different ones - I came to call them the critic and the idiot (pretty self-explanatory). One would endlessly criticize, the other would usually just say "what do you mean?" (something my friend would say a lot actually). I came to realize they represented my own inner projections of my mom (critic) and my friend (idiot). It's as if some part of my subconscious was always anticipating what one or both of them might say if I would present these ideas to them. As you can imagine it was very frustrating, carrying on these inner dialogues with only a harsh critic and a useless idiot for conversation!

I learned that I could bring in other 'voices' as well to counter these negative ones, by consciously thinking about other people that I knew in life or from TV or movies or something - I'd think of intelligent and kind people and visualize a round table conversation where several of them were sitting with me, and I'd begin subvocalizing. Certain of my invited guests would begin to respond, some wouldn't - it was just a matter of inviting a group of them and seeing who speaks up. But it did work to alleviate the constant nagging negativity I was suffering. I called these "imaginal dialogues" (emphasis on 2nd syllable, like 'imagine').

It's very subtle though - in order to notice the sub-sub-vocal 'voices' you have to 'listen' very closely. It might help if you actually begin by talking to yourself - actually imagining a conversation with someone close to you - maybe somebody you argue with a lot or who frustrates you. I believe that's the reason I first noticed these voices, because I was in a situation where I was surrounded by people who frustrated me at every turn, to the point that when I was thinking to myself their voices would haunt me very subtly - I probably wouldn't have noticed if they were supportive because the dialogue would have been more satisfying and productive.

Have you practiced meditation? Have you run into the problem yet of trying to quiet the inner voices? Holding your breath helps - of course it's a temporary solution but it does help you to understand the subvocal nature of your thoughts. It can also help - and in a more lasting way - to sort of seal your mouth shut airtight and suck the air out of it. This causes the tongue to expand until it's pressed firmly against the roof and floor of the mouth, rendering it motionless. By trapping the tongue like this you stop your vocal apparatus from slightly moving, making subvocalization almost impossible and thus pushing your thinking down deeper into the subconscious.

Isee, I prefer not to talk to myself with multiple voices, I could, I can change the pitch and tone of my inner voice to any in order to make it sounds like someone else.
But what if it becomes something I can"t control^^

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Have you practiced meditation? Have you run into the problem yet of trying to quiet the inner voices?

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I tried only once, and I only have one inner voice, mine.
I don't identify it as a thing that keep talking, but rather it's me who can't shut up^^

When trying to shut down my inner voice, after 5 seconds of silence I would always sub-vocalize "IT WORKS! ....... well sh#t"

I must admit that sometimes I have though that "should not be mine"
When walking down the street I always critizise people "damn this one is ugly", "oh lol his voice", which is weird because I know that their is no point in
judging people on their appeirance.
I came to the conclusion that inside I'm an asshole.