Thinking About Thinking

By Lara

Recently, a friend asked me how I think. I asked for some clarification, because that's a strange thing to ask someone. He explained that he was curious about how my mind processed information and how aware I was of the inner workings of my though processes. Sigh. Engineers...

Needless to say, I haven't thought about thinking in quite some time. I decided to take the challenge and think about it. It is an interesting question, afterall.

I found myself trying too hard to be consciously aware of my thoughts. Nothing seemed natural. Every time I remembered that I was supposed to be thinking about how I think, I started talking to myself in my head.

I tried to explain this phenomenon to him. We talked about the modes of thinking for several minutes, but I was sure that I hadn't really captured my inner mechanism.

Last night, I spent most of the evening with this question on the back burner. How do I think?

Obviously, I couldn't think about it directly, or it wouldn't have been natural.

I have come to the conclusion that my brain is like a screening room for movies, audio, and slide shows. At any given time there are two or three movie reels, one or two soundtracks, and at least one slide show going on at the same time. The voice that talks to me in the first person is observing all of the goings on and commenting about them when necessary. That voice is the girl running the screening room. She turns on different movies, picks out different music, and decides what slides I'm going to watch. She is the editor if you will. She has a silent partner (my subconscious) who reacts to what I see, hear, smell, touch, taste. This silent partner also takes control while I sleep, cutting and pasting the movies, music, and slides from the day into dreams.

My pre-sleeping thoughts are when the two personas are fighting for control of the editing room.

So... those are my conclusions. And now that I'm mentally exhausted, I'm not going to think about it anymore.

Lara works for the Department of Defense. She would tell you more, but then she'd have to hunt you down and, well, you know... She enjoys spending time with friends, building sand castles on the beach in winter and going on international adventures. Lara and Beth M. were the brains behind our fun series on the Year of the Birthday. We are thankful they have decided to continue the fun with the Bucket List and Every Day Life.