Thinking about nothing, literally

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I've had many friends tell me that they always have something going on in their head that they are thinking about, and can't shut it off. While that happens to me sometimes, most of the time I can completely tune out the world. I guess it's pretty similar to meditation or self-hypnosis, and I've gone up to 8 hours at a stretch before. I've had some friends completely amazed that I can do this.

How I get there. I focus on one stationary object in the room (corner of a picture frame is always good). Then I think of white light coming from that point to where it spreads in all directions - think of it as erasing all color and images. When I get to the point where the white is surrounding me, I just stare at it without thinking. The process of getting to that point takes just a few seconds in complete quiet, or a couple of minutes with background noise.

Once there, I'm aware of my surroundings, but they don't seem to matter to me. The passage of time goes unnoticed. If a person moves thru the room, I take note of it but do nothing else. However, if addresses directly, I come out of it nearly instantly.

Anyone else experience this?

Bowling ball headed Homer Simpson just thinks of beer and cheeseburgers

I'm a bit the same, much less neurotic than skinny worry worts.

'Nothing can be put into a cup that is already full'

Yes.

I wish! My mind doesn't stop chattering away with thousands of conscious thoughts, as though there are people inside my head chattering away all the time. My mind just does not stop. Even my dreams involve a tremendous amount of talking and shouting. I always thought that was due to my Asperger's, and I keep wondering what it's like to have a calmer mind.

I've always thought this is why I get so anxious - it's because I think too much. I always thought NT's thought in pictures because I think in words ALL THE TIME and is causes many issues. I have told myself not to keep thinking, but sometimes thoughts just come before I realise, then I'm inwardly telling my mind to shut up again and I'm kind of losing out in what's going on around me. I just wish I could walk out once in a while without all these chattering thoughts bothering me all the time.

For example, say if I was walking in the street and saw roadworks ahead which was blocking the path. I would be thinking already, ''oh what do I do? There are roadworks there and that means I have to go round them, but I'm no good at judging distances of cars and I'm so small so what if I don't get seen and get hit and then....'' ohh, and it's just on and on. Instead, I just don't know why I can't just see the roadworks ahead then if I have to panic, I panic in a different way other than intense thinking and worrying, just thinking, ''oh great'' and worrying about how I'm going to get past safely instead of worrying who might see and if I'm going to look stupid or not. These constant chattering thoughts are so distracting that it's probably why I look stupid all the time. It's because these chattering thoughts make me feel quite dizzy and make me look stressed all the time.

I often like those times when my mind shuts down and I go into a kind of calm trance. But it is bad when anyone is around me.

I have an all-sensing no-thinking mode. I see things without processing them into what they are. Same with other sensations. It's nice and relaxing. My other happy mode is no-sensing all-thinking. I block out all sensations and no longer have a body. It's also nice and relaxing, but in a totally different way. The sensory-processing semi-thinking mode required for social interactions is the one that screws me up and feels sh***y.

I'm same as btbnnyr, except with a sensual monofocus.

If I touch something, I think in touch. If I smell something, I think in smells. If I look at something, I think in pictures. If I read or talk, I think in words. Smell is the trump suit, Words are the weakest suit. So, if I am having a conversation and catch a strong scent, my thinking shifts to smells and my word comprehension immediately fails.

I don't consider sensory thinking to be non thought. I can do math in smell thoughts (mixing spices, for ex.) Smell it once and know exactly how much more coriander that curry needs.

Can't say I have ever experienced this.

But, I'm more severely ADD than Autistic. I simply CANNOT shut off my mind. Even when I'm sleeping, it's running at mac 90. I wish I could turn it all off once in a while. I might actually wake up feeling rested if I could.

I've experienced this for a few minutes at a time; but I never remember those minutes. You have to be thinking about something to remember it. It's mostly during the worst shutdowns.

If you're talking about shutting down everything but self-awareness, that happens pretty much anytime I do relaxation exercises. I kinda figured that was the point.

Of course, I can also shut down self-awareness and let other stuff keep running--that happens when I'm hyperfocused. I forget I exist--the only thing that exists is whatever I'm doing. That's probably why I forget to eat or sleep or whatever until the need is pretty urgent, come to think of it. It can be difficult to remember the things I did during those times; I don't remember doing them; only the information I gained from doing them. It's rather interesting.

I know I do tend somewhat toward dissociation, but it's not pathological. You can get to the point where you dissociate uncontrollably, and THAT is a problem; but for me... not so much. Just a personality quirk.

Yeah (though there seem to be some similar states that I'm not sure how to differentiate).

I've been trying to make a habit of practicing getting into that no-thought/all-sensory state for a little while every day. It helps to stop ruminating on depressing/painful thoughts and memories.

When I go to that state I can observe my senses "opening up," and becoming like how I remember it when I was a kid. If there's one grain of salt on a table I can spot it instantly. And, everything around becomes sort of fractally interesting -- a tree, it's bark, an ant on it, the way the branches reach for the sky, etc. (I've wondered if from the outside it looks like "guy on drugs, marveling at a leaf".) So, I can walk around and absorb/be-absorbed-into the character of the environment. (I don't think I could maintain that for 8 hours, though.)

That makes me think that one of the compensations I developed (without knowing it) is to throttle the incoming sensory data to my brain. When I push to do things that are overloading I end up dissociated. What my senses tell me doesn't connect to any feeling of "self." And so the details fade away, until I'm only perceiving fragments. (My sensory stuff probably isn't quite as bad as that makes it sound.)

It's like NT's have a graphic equalizer which can isolate what their brain wants to pay attention to, whereas I only have a dimmer switch which reduces all inputs at the same time. OTOH, I can turn the dimmer switch all the way up without much more trouble than turning it down, whereas maybe pushing all the graphic equalizer sliders up at the same time takes more effort.

Takes me a lot of time to get into that state. My mind is chatterful by default.

"It's the stay putt marshmallow man."

Maybe nobody gets that joke but me...

I always wonder how NTs think. Like my bus-driver was talking to someone about when he stopped at some traffic lights earlier on that day and saw a security camera in a nearby bush, and I wondered to myself: did he spot it then had to analyze it in his head by hearing a voice in his head saying ''oh look there's a person with a security camera hiding in those bushes'', or did he just look and think no words or nothing but captured it and stored it in his memory ready for telling someone out of conversation? I really would love to know how others think and if it's normal to keep thinking words all the time. I don't know if it's an ADD thing (not that I ever knew I had ADD, but maybe I do). I will ask a few NTs this week and see what they say. Of course everyone's different, maybe some NTs might think like I do, maybe others don't. I'm not the type to divide NTs and Aspies up into groups over such small categories of traits, so I think I will find better results if I actually ask some NTs rather than thinking ''oh I think in too many words so it must be an Aspie thing''. By reading this topic, I have learnt a lot already.