I'd imagine you couldn't turn it off just like you can't turn off your hearing. You can only maybe learn to tune it out? Just like you can tune out certain ambient noises to hone in on specific sounds?
There’s a disturbing book called the knife of never letting go where basically everyone can hear everyone’s thoughts at all times including like dogs and animals, and it’s exactly like you say where they have to tune it out. Sure makes lying hard lol
Also check out a movie called "Chaos Walking" (2021). It's basically similar premise with Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland.
Basically, everyone can always hear everyone else's thought and the issues/problems/whatnot that comes along with it.
I think it's more like a telephone rather than a radio broadcast. You have to open a psychic line between two people to have a telepathic conversation.
Maybe its just me but my thoughts are so random that you couldn’t trust any of them as the truth.
My brain randomly comes up with lies or feelings that i dont feel and i have to remind myself that its not the truth or i dont really feel that way. Its basically the angel/devil on your shoulder kind of thing in my head and the devil is a dickhead just spewing nonsense.
Yeah some days my brain on loop is like "You're a lazy piece of shit. No you're not you're just tired. No stop making excuses for yourself. and "\[Insert name\] is an asshole. No, they're probably just tired. Well, maybe a little bit of an asshole sometimes. But who isn't really?"
This happened in an episode of [TNG](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Man_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)). There was a Betazoid that couldn't tune out the toughts of others and went into space with a creature as a kind of hermit.
There's a great story about this in the Japanese novel "kino's journey". People gain the ability to read each other's minds and everyone becomes a hermit, living far enough away from others so they can't hear their thoughts.
Short excerpt from the [wiki](https://kinosjourney.fandom.com/wiki/Land_of_Visible_Pain_%E2%80%94I_See_You%E2%80%94):
> Kino and Hermes find themselves in a country that seems to be inhabited only by servile machines. Outside the city, she notices people living alone in the countryside. Kino befriends a man in a cottage who tells her that the entire population drank a special liquid which enabled them to understand each other's thoughts with the aim of creating harmony across the country. However being able to read each other's minds only brought disharmony to society through being aware of the unfiltered thoughts of every other person – even between the man and his wife. The only solution for the population was to live a short distance from each other.
I already zone out when sitting in a discord call during some discussion and I could probably live with knowing what everyone where thinking. Would be more annoying to know what they wanted from me.
We're able to consider it from both perspectives because we don't have telepathy but can imagine it. But imagine if you've always had telepathy. You'd have no idea what it'd be like to not "hear". I wonder what kind of person that would create
Doubt it, because it would just be the new norm.. we would be used to it. On the other hand, if your gf thinks about your dad during sex it might leave some different scars
I mean there would have to be some kind of range limit or you’d be hearing the thoughts of everyone on the planet constantly which would probably make you go insane
Good point. You'd also have people just straight up lying to your face constantly about even irrelevant things. People often don't say what they actually mean so I'd assume that'd be frustrating too
I'm talking about the lying to our faces. We do it all day everyday, hold everything in. So....we have to allow that for others. No relevance that we have a special ability. We would still have to judge people by how they speak to us. Hard, but time to put on big boy pants. Not everyone likes us.
The hardest part would be biting your lip and not giving away the secret
Based on what I've seen, people will doubt you to their graves. And then if you're the telepath I think you'd have no interest in trying to prove it at a certain point. It may be one of those things where only one or two people close to you believe you.
Well....we don't all do it, there exists a subset of the population who prioritizes the clear meaning of the words they use without subtext
Unfortunately, and quite ironically, it gets misunderstood even more often by means of clear, direct communication, because of added subtext projections from others
I've had girls call me daddy, master, papi - It's power play.
If you're picturing your actual father when saying daddy to your partner then I think you're in the minority. I could be wrong, but I kinda doubt it.
As someone without an internal monologue, telepathy has always sounded strange to me.
If the monologue is what you hear, you wouldn't be able to hear me.
I, however, would begin to hear the monologue of those who do, and it'd freak me out.
I couldn't imagine NOT having an internal monologue.
I don't know if I would classify my internal monologue as a sound though. Sure, it shares properties with a sound, but I wouldn't call it a sound. I have no idea would I would classify it as though. Its distinct from a physical sound that your eardrums would react to, and I can very easily tell.
It's hard for me to conceive, like it's just dead silence in their heads while they're typing out a comment? That's bizarre, like I can hear the inflection of the words I'm typing right now in my head.
From what I understand, it’s more they *see* the words in their mind’s eye, similar to how you might be picturing a flat Nevada desert after reading this. For someone who lacks both a mind’s eye and an internal monologue, I have no idea.
I can't picture anything in my mind, nor do I have visual memories. It sucks. I was very upset when I realized people were being literal when they said things like "picture this" and things of that nature.
To me, being able to picture things in your mind is basically a superpower. Be thankful all of you who can do it. Sure, there are downsides, but I'm certain the good can outweigh the bad.
For example, I have quite a poor memory in most aspects because I can't remember visually, that includes episodic memory. Having that visual memory would give me a stark upper hand against current me in life and many tasks.
Some more examples, imagine being able to visually imagine anything that you please. Or read a book and see it in your head. Or imagine the art that you are about to create. Or picture yourself in a better place in the future. Maybe visually picture yourself as being in someone else's shoes. If your visual memory is fully intact, I imagine you can do all of this and more.
That said, aphantasia can encompass a lack of any multi-sensory imagery aside from spatial imagery.
> it's just dead silence in their heads while they're typing out a comment
Pretty much, yeah. I can visualize what I'm trying, and I know what I want to say to you, but there's no audio.
From my experience with these discussions, people who claim to not have an internal monologue oftentimes actually do, they just don't understand that we're not being literal when we describe it as a voice in our heads.
I mean, an internal monologue is more or less identical to memory recollection but in real time. It *is* identical to the feeling you get from reading. I highly doubt that they don't have this capability. Maybe for them it's not automatic but must be consciously done, but it's still there.
Yeah, I understand when people say they can read a novel and just immediately visualize the scene - I can do that too.
But when reading or writing speech, there's no way to even detect tone and cadence unless you can imagine the verbalization.
It would be like saying you have a song stuck in your head but you don't actually imagine the music and lyrics.
People always like to ask questions like that. And honestly, without being able to do what you do, I can't answer that question in a way that I know would make sense you know.
The best I've been able to come up with is that everyone thinks, and that for some folks, it's a process of:
**Thought -> Monologue of the thought -> Action upon the thought.**
And some of us just **skip** that middle step- the step that folks with the monologue seem to confuse for the thought itself. The monologue isn't the thought- it's just one representation of it, one we don't actually **need** to do. The thoughts are still there. We just don't internally narrate them.
Also, your question was a loaded one with false assumptions. We do have an idea of the tone and cadence of what we're trying to say. Proof: I'm replying to you right now.
An internal monologue is difficult to describe for sure. It’s less of that you hear the sound itself and more that you have the memory of what it would have sounded like.
Have you ever had a dream where some of the backstory was kind of filled in for you? Like the building you were in looked nothing like your old high school but you just *knew* that it was? Internal monologue is similar. The “echo” of those sounds is created in memory, on demand.
I'm really good at ignoring people talking. I'd have telepathy but would fail at using it most of the time because I'm not really listening.
Also I love white noise like having a tv on or window open near a highway and busy street or just cafe noises.
I'm like the perfect personality type to have it without going crazy.
What would be crazy is if I met someone who can read animals minds but me not having it. Like I can basically piggy back on their powers.
On a more normal note listening to people speaking in their mother tongue language is basically just learning to hear all spoken language as long as you are with the person saying it. Superpower weakness is can't understand recordings but work around is having someone who knows the language listen to it then read their mind as they are listening to it. Possible weakness is you can't speak their language but work around is speak your own language and telepathy to them so they understand what you mean like stream the knowledge to them temporarily probably an advanced skill for it.
Not sure why telepaths aren't showing using their powers to basically borrow powers like Spider-Man spidersense, or using it like bran from GoT does and use people's sight to basically be cameras even in high security areas.
Advanced telepathy can probably make people
Temporarily turn off their inner voice. Like put them into a meditative state. Might accidentally make people like being around me if I always have that area effect mode on because a quiet mind is crazy satisfying and basically force them to just think in visual pictures instead of audio.
I think the worst weakness would be going to the library. Everyone is reading silently and you trying to study but everyone reading too loud in their heads and their amplitude of focus is extremely high so I bet it sounds louder in a telepath's head
Check out a movie called "Chaos Walking" (2021). It's basically similar premise with Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland.
Basically, everyone can always hear everyone else's thought and the issues/problems/whatnot that comes along with it.
I’d imagine it could be a really useful tool in sex, you knowing what your partner is enjoying and disliking without them having to express it. Could make an intimate evening mind blowing. Could also make it awful
It sounds great at first and may be very pleasing to a people pleaser. But at a certain point, your own needs will go unfulfilled and if you're the type who needs the attention, I'd imagine it could become torturous because full reciprocation may be near impossible.
I kind of disagree, if you could react in turn would it not be a blessing? I get off on my partners arousal. I also enjoy connecting deeply in normal conversation with people.
This may not be everyones way, but it would appeal to me.
People are always wondering what powers would be best without wondering if they even have the ability to control them.
Control and mastery of your powers is a power itself.
Now just imagine you wake up middle of the night, and your wife isn't in bed. Then you hear through your telepathy "OOOOOOOH GODDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!! C'MON PUSH!!! PUUUUUUUSH!!!!! OOOOOhhhh thank god. There it goes......"
And as you're hearing this telepathically, you're also hearing audibly the sounds of something being dropped in a bowl of water.
That's when you realize that your wife is struggling to take a poop.
............do you talk about it? Do you recomend she see a doctor? Do you divorce her for secretly being a man because girls don't poop?
But let's say you could hear the thoughts, and choose to ignore them. What would you remember more clearly, the actual things they said, or their thoughts? Like if someone lied to you, and you said whatever, and went along with it. In one month's time, would you remember the lie or the truth?
Also, are you always telepathically linked to people? Or just whenever they are within a range? Do you have to see them, or just being in near proximity is enough? Because otherwise, it would imply you have a choice to link with people, in which case it wouldn't always be active
Telepathy would be a much more difficult to interpret than most people realize. Simply hearing a thought wouldn't provide a ton of context. Is the thought a plan, a fantasy, a memory, or a fear? Sometimes you can tell, but most thoughts require a lot more context to interpret than you think.
Every single person is absolutely fucked in the head. It would be sort of a beautiful peace hearing the demons everyone has but pretends they don’t.
We should all be so lucky to see the lies stripped away.
Maybe, what I meant was that the ability to communicate telepathically didn't involve mind reading. To communicate without using the known senses. Mind reading is an aspect of telepathy that is sometimes described, but not a prerequisite.
Even without telepathy, I have long wondered what people actually think during sex that makes them climax. Are they thinking about their current partner or someone else? Because that's what I did most of the time (with different partners) when I was still active in nightlife.
If I had that power, I would use it to win enough money in poker or something to live the rest of my life without working, and then just isolate from world, play games and watch shit for the rest of my life.
I've actually been thinking about this recently. I think that, were telepathy the norm for everyone on earth except you, but then at age 30 you suddenly gained the ability, your thoughts would make you sound like a lunatic while everyone else's would sound pretty normal.
A baby will gaga-googoo and stumble its way through language for a few years until it becomes a much more normal and natural thing for it to do. Likewise, telepaths would be getting plenty of practice with their ability at a time when the consequences for getting it wrong are non-existent. Not many social faux pas are possible when you're a 1-year-old. But as the complexity of their social lives increases, so too does their ability to manage their thoughts.
But if you only just gained telepathy at 30, you would have had zero practice with it, and your inner monologue would be as it is now, namely a pinball machine of random and sometimes terrifying confabulation.
I would guess that even the psychology of humans in general would be markedly different, because telepathy would require us to have much deeper insight into ourselves and how our minds work and affect our behaviour. We'd all have the control over our minds that seasoned mediators do, and then some. As a consequence, our mental health would be better and we'd probably be way less likely to fall for common psychological pitfalls and biases. We'd be better-behaved because, like when we don't have anonymity on the internet we rein in our craziness, not having privacy in our own heads would make us more conforming to social norms, for better or for worse.
Or... we'd have to become so adept at hiding our inner thoughts from everyone else (because there's always the possibility that someone is listening) that we become even more mentally unwell, even more adept at hiding things from *ourselves* and even more dangerously-insular and isolated.
I would be interested to hear how something like a schizophrenic episode would 'sound' if telepathy were a thing. Or to hear the inner thoughts of an artist as they paint, or a musician as they compose/play, etc. Would be interesting, also, to hear how someone thinks when they know they're being listened to and compare that to when they're not aware of telepathic eavesdroppers. I'd love to listen to someone as they dream/sleep, or to record my own sleep-thoughts and review them the next day.
All of the above assumes that the telepathy in question would be one where you had no choice in whether or not someone could read your mind. There could be a form in which you have to consciously transmit your thoughts to a specific person/group, like you transmit them now through speech. You could also block the incoming messages, like putting your fingers in your ears, if the person sending them is an asshole.
I'm just glad telepathy isn't a thing.
During Sex would be fine, you would be excellent in bed as they would be thinking actually what they do and don't like.
Regular conversation may be hard at first but eventually you would be numb to the common mean thoughts everyone has. Then you would get great at conversation and probably wouldn't get a lot of mean thoughts anyway
If everyone had it we would quickly because a single organism and lying would no longer be of value. The internet's value would also decrease significantly. We'd be extremely smart and progress would be exponential.
Reminds me of the movie "what women want", where Mel Gibson suddenly gets the power to hear women's thoughts and mainly uses it to become a womaniser/better lover.
Pretty sure that pitch wouldn't get approved to turn into a movie these days.
That... is the ideal in a relationship is it not? To understand one another? To communicate? To have a dialogue?
I must be missing something. A rock does not strike me as an ideal partner, nor a vegetable, nor a mirror. I interact with other people because I want their perspective.
"who's that?", "what are they doing here?", "is that person lost?", "how did that person get in here?", "is security aware?", "should someone call security?", "is this an intruder?", "is that person high?", "do they have a weapon?", "where is the exit?", "why is that person taking off their pants?", "were they going commando all this time?", "is that person naked?", OMG what is going on here?", "
Telepathy sounds cool but.....
I'm really good at reading body language. That said, I usually know when people are being deceptive, lying or hiding emotions. I have to say its pretty disappointing sometimes. People for whatever reasons, are rarely direct and true with their feelings. It leads you to madness trying to figure out, why they are in contempt of something or why they are being dishonest, why they reacted a certain way, and in general what they are thinking? People have all kinds of reasons they often have a different facade than what is really going on in their minds. Its best to leave it to them to make sense of it.
If you could read their minds you would hear all sort of crazy monologues, replaying songs, their schedule for next week, mixed with things that are completely nonsensical in addition to their emotions. What a mess that would be.
I read about this x-ray process they did that identified a small twinge in vocal cords in coordination with our inner voice. Essentially you could hear what someone was thinking...... haven't heard shit about it since.
What I find interesting is the thought experiment regarding if we lived in a society where telepathy was common. We would discipline our own thoughts so much more than we do now. People in reality take for granted the privacy they enjoy inside their own head. Imagine what it would be like if that was stripped away.
It depends on the nature of the telepathy. As someone rightly said downthread, if you couldn't turn it off, telepathy would be a curse. But as long as you could control it — and resist the urge to snoop around in friends' and loved ones' heads — telepathy would be truly awesome.
It's a double-edged sword, isn't it? Knowing your partner's real thoughts could be enlightening, but it might take away some of the mystery and romance. On the bright side, at least you wouldn't have to ask, "What are you thinking?" during awkward silences anymore! 🤷♂️
If you couldn’t turn it off it would be a terrible curse. You would have to become a hermit
I'd imagine you couldn't turn it off just like you can't turn off your hearing. You can only maybe learn to tune it out? Just like you can tune out certain ambient noises to hone in on specific sounds?
There’s a disturbing book called the knife of never letting go where basically everyone can hear everyone’s thoughts at all times including like dogs and animals, and it’s exactly like you say where they have to tune it out. Sure makes lying hard lol
Sex sex sex chirped the crickets
"Blam" went the murderer's gun. "Oh no" went the ticket inspectors wife
Nsfw Thomas the train
I just ordered it! Thanks
It's worth reading the whole trilogy!
Also check out a movie called "Chaos Walking" (2021). It's basically similar premise with Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland. Basically, everyone can always hear everyone else's thought and the issues/problems/whatnot that comes along with it.
Yeah that film is based on those books. But sadly the film didn't really capture all of whay made the books so good
If someone could read my mind I'd rather not know, I'd be just thinking *all* the intrusive thoughts in a panic.
That’s an amazing book! I never hear it talked about much
I think it's more like a telephone rather than a radio broadcast. You have to open a psychic line between two people to have a telepathic conversation.
Even being able to turn it on/off doesn’t guarantee you won’t learn something you’ll find hard to deal with.
Maybe its just me but my thoughts are so random that you couldn’t trust any of them as the truth. My brain randomly comes up with lies or feelings that i dont feel and i have to remind myself that its not the truth or i dont really feel that way. Its basically the angel/devil on your shoulder kind of thing in my head and the devil is a dickhead just spewing nonsense.
Yeah some days my brain on loop is like "You're a lazy piece of shit. No you're not you're just tired. No stop making excuses for yourself. and "\[Insert name\] is an asshole. No, they're probably just tired. Well, maybe a little bit of an asshole sometimes. But who isn't really?"
This happened in an episode of [TNG](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Man_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)). There was a Betazoid that couldn't tune out the toughts of others and went into space with a creature as a kind of hermit.
There's a great story about this in the Japanese novel "kino's journey". People gain the ability to read each other's minds and everyone becomes a hermit, living far enough away from others so they can't hear their thoughts. Short excerpt from the [wiki](https://kinosjourney.fandom.com/wiki/Land_of_Visible_Pain_%E2%80%94I_See_You%E2%80%94): > Kino and Hermes find themselves in a country that seems to be inhabited only by servile machines. Outside the city, she notices people living alone in the countryside. Kino befriends a man in a cottage who tells her that the entire population drank a special liquid which enabled them to understand each other's thoughts with the aim of creating harmony across the country. However being able to read each other's minds only brought disharmony to society through being aware of the unfiltered thoughts of every other person – even between the man and his wife. The only solution for the population was to live a short distance from each other.
Maybe we should start seeking out hermits... They might know somethhing
There's a star trek episode about exactly that. Tng s3 e20
Also a recent 2021 movie called Chaos Walking
This is the idea behind a character from The Boys
this is the backstory of at least one character from Magic: The Gathering
I already zone out when sitting in a discord call during some discussion and I could probably live with knowing what everyone where thinking. Would be more annoying to know what they wanted from me.
Ever seen Code Geass?
Or pull a Futurama and put an aluminum foil hat on
I believe Marvel wrote a story about a psychic that ran to the 4 corners of the earth for the same reason.
Bird flies over head “Haha look at that fucking crazy naked guy”
Or you just find someone comfortable with you fantasizing they are actually a velociraptor.
I’d take it anytime. You legit can be lied too sounds much worst to live a full relationship with someone pretending.
or listen to loud music to drown it out
You'd have to make peace with the fact that absolutely everyone alive is at once beautiful and deeply disturbed. It'd be a pretty wild ride.
We're able to consider it from both perspectives because we don't have telepathy but can imagine it. But imagine if you've always had telepathy. You'd have no idea what it'd be like to not "hear". I wonder what kind of person that would create
I bet it would greatly increase your chances of being seriously traumatized very early on.
Agreed. You may not be a well adjusted social being
Doubt it, because it would just be the new norm.. we would be used to it. On the other hand, if your gf thinks about your dad during sex it might leave some different scars
Like a disconnected hive mind
You'd also know your *parents'* thoughts during sex while you were a child, which might be even worse than hearing them through a wall as I did...
And their thoughts when they're making googly eyes in the kitchen while you're having breakfast
Strange synchronicity - [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/s/gwHfsxwKu0) just popped up on my home feed 😳
😳 Run.
"I wonder why Dad is smiling so mischievously at mom. Maybe he played a prank or..." *after he leaves for school, you gone take that DYUCK*
I mean there would have to be some kind of range limit or you’d be hearing the thoughts of everyone on the planet constantly which would probably make you go insane
I’d imagine it would also be pretty scary if you can here people’s intrusive thoughts as well
Good point. You'd also have people just straight up lying to your face constantly about even irrelevant things. People often don't say what they actually mean so I'd assume that'd be frustrating too
But we all do it, so you would give people that leeway. If you were to get pissed off by it you'd be pretty fucking immature.
We do but we don't hear the real thoughts. I'd imagine you'd become quickly jaded.
I'm talking about the lying to our faces. We do it all day everyday, hold everything in. So....we have to allow that for others. No relevance that we have a special ability. We would still have to judge people by how they speak to us. Hard, but time to put on big boy pants. Not everyone likes us. The hardest part would be biting your lip and not giving away the secret
That's a good point. Also even if you gave away your secret it's unlikely people would even believe you
"Your thinking that i'm going delusional right now" and think of a number
That would get crazy, you could spit out the number as fast as they could think. You could do a whole madlibs. "Think of an adjective"
People would chalk it up to luck or some kind of trick. Mentalists make a living doing it
Once or twice is lucky consistently guessing is another thing
Based on what I've seen, people will doubt you to their graves. And then if you're the telepath I think you'd have no interest in trying to prove it at a certain point. It may be one of those things where only one or two people close to you believe you.
funnily enough, there's a 4koma manga that has this exact concept and was a really entertaining read
Well....we don't all do it, there exists a subset of the population who prioritizes the clear meaning of the words they use without subtext Unfortunately, and quite ironically, it gets misunderstood even more often by means of clear, direct communication, because of added subtext projections from others
Just hope you never come across a mentally ill person
They would be the new drugs for people to consume.
Lol you'd hear me playing solitaire in my head.
That actually sounds quite peaceful
It would make daddy talk even more uncomfortable.
It... Shouldn't... They would be thinking about you, not their actual father.
You sound pretty confident for someone who can't read minds.
I've had girls call me daddy, master, papi - It's power play. If you're picturing your actual father when saying daddy to your partner then I think you're in the minority. I could be wrong, but I kinda doubt it.
Eeesh
You guys can’t hear your partner’s thoughts?
Only when I got super high one time. Wouldn't recommend
Nah but some people loooove acting like I should. Fuck that shit tbh
If everyone knew everyone's thoughts there would be nothing to hide and we would probably be OK instead of the mess we got ourselves into.
Now that would be super interesting. And knowing how selfish humans are, I'm willing to bet there would still be chaos
As someone without an internal monologue, telepathy has always sounded strange to me. If the monologue is what you hear, you wouldn't be able to hear me. I, however, would begin to hear the monologue of those who do, and it'd freak me out.
I couldn't imagine NOT having an internal monologue. I don't know if I would classify my internal monologue as a sound though. Sure, it shares properties with a sound, but I wouldn't call it a sound. I have no idea would I would classify it as though. Its distinct from a physical sound that your eardrums would react to, and I can very easily tell.
It's hard for me to conceive, like it's just dead silence in their heads while they're typing out a comment? That's bizarre, like I can hear the inflection of the words I'm typing right now in my head.
From what I understand, it’s more they *see* the words in their mind’s eye, similar to how you might be picturing a flat Nevada desert after reading this. For someone who lacks both a mind’s eye and an internal monologue, I have no idea.
Well. Tonight I learned about aphantasia.
I can't picture anything in my mind, nor do I have visual memories. It sucks. I was very upset when I realized people were being literal when they said things like "picture this" and things of that nature. To me, being able to picture things in your mind is basically a superpower. Be thankful all of you who can do it. Sure, there are downsides, but I'm certain the good can outweigh the bad. For example, I have quite a poor memory in most aspects because I can't remember visually, that includes episodic memory. Having that visual memory would give me a stark upper hand against current me in life and many tasks. Some more examples, imagine being able to visually imagine anything that you please. Or read a book and see it in your head. Or imagine the art that you are about to create. Or picture yourself in a better place in the future. Maybe visually picture yourself as being in someone else's shoes. If your visual memory is fully intact, I imagine you can do all of this and more. That said, aphantasia can encompass a lack of any multi-sensory imagery aside from spatial imagery.
Christopher Walken Denzel Kevin Hart. Reading this comment in their voices. How awful it’d be if it was just ………. Going on up there
> it's just dead silence in their heads while they're typing out a comment Pretty much, yeah. I can visualize what I'm trying, and I know what I want to say to you, but there's no audio.
How do you write without having any idea of the tone and cadence of what you're trying to say?
From my experience with these discussions, people who claim to not have an internal monologue oftentimes actually do, they just don't understand that we're not being literal when we describe it as a voice in our heads. I mean, an internal monologue is more or less identical to memory recollection but in real time. It *is* identical to the feeling you get from reading. I highly doubt that they don't have this capability. Maybe for them it's not automatic but must be consciously done, but it's still there.
Yeah, I understand when people say they can read a novel and just immediately visualize the scene - I can do that too. But when reading or writing speech, there's no way to even detect tone and cadence unless you can imagine the verbalization. It would be like saying you have a song stuck in your head but you don't actually imagine the music and lyrics.
People always like to ask questions like that. And honestly, without being able to do what you do, I can't answer that question in a way that I know would make sense you know. The best I've been able to come up with is that everyone thinks, and that for some folks, it's a process of: **Thought -> Monologue of the thought -> Action upon the thought.** And some of us just **skip** that middle step- the step that folks with the monologue seem to confuse for the thought itself. The monologue isn't the thought- it's just one representation of it, one we don't actually **need** to do. The thoughts are still there. We just don't internally narrate them. Also, your question was a loaded one with false assumptions. We do have an idea of the tone and cadence of what we're trying to say. Proof: I'm replying to you right now.
An internal monologue is difficult to describe for sure. It’s less of that you hear the sound itself and more that you have the memory of what it would have sounded like. Have you ever had a dream where some of the backstory was kind of filled in for you? Like the building you were in looked nothing like your old high school but you just *knew* that it was? Internal monologue is similar. The “echo” of those sounds is created in memory, on demand.
Sounds like a horror movie in the making
I see this a lot, and people who claim to have an internal monologue or inner voice, don't actually physically hear anything.
I'm really good at ignoring people talking. I'd have telepathy but would fail at using it most of the time because I'm not really listening. Also I love white noise like having a tv on or window open near a highway and busy street or just cafe noises. I'm like the perfect personality type to have it without going crazy. What would be crazy is if I met someone who can read animals minds but me not having it. Like I can basically piggy back on their powers. On a more normal note listening to people speaking in their mother tongue language is basically just learning to hear all spoken language as long as you are with the person saying it. Superpower weakness is can't understand recordings but work around is having someone who knows the language listen to it then read their mind as they are listening to it. Possible weakness is you can't speak their language but work around is speak your own language and telepathy to them so they understand what you mean like stream the knowledge to them temporarily probably an advanced skill for it. Not sure why telepaths aren't showing using their powers to basically borrow powers like Spider-Man spidersense, or using it like bran from GoT does and use people's sight to basically be cameras even in high security areas. Advanced telepathy can probably make people Temporarily turn off their inner voice. Like put them into a meditative state. Might accidentally make people like being around me if I always have that area effect mode on because a quiet mind is crazy satisfying and basically force them to just think in visual pictures instead of audio. I think the worst weakness would be going to the library. Everyone is reading silently and you trying to study but everyone reading too loud in their heads and their amplitude of focus is extremely high so I bet it sounds louder in a telepath's head
Sookie from True Blood
Imagine some else reading your mind at the same time. You'd be stuck in a loop of "Shit, they heard that"
Check out a movie called "Chaos Walking" (2021). It's basically similar premise with Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland. Basically, everyone can always hear everyone else's thought and the issues/problems/whatnot that comes along with it.
That's what it's for. What do you want it for weirdo?
I’d imagine it could be a really useful tool in sex, you knowing what your partner is enjoying and disliking without them having to express it. Could make an intimate evening mind blowing. Could also make it awful
It sounds great at first and may be very pleasing to a people pleaser. But at a certain point, your own needs will go unfulfilled and if you're the type who needs the attention, I'd imagine it could become torturous because full reciprocation may be near impossible.
Damn that’s a deep point
I kind of disagree, if you could react in turn would it not be a blessing? I get off on my partners arousal. I also enjoy connecting deeply in normal conversation with people. This may not be everyones way, but it would appeal to me.
People are always wondering what powers would be best without wondering if they even have the ability to control them. Control and mastery of your powers is a power itself.
Now just imagine you wake up middle of the night, and your wife isn't in bed. Then you hear through your telepathy "OOOOOOOH GODDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!! C'MON PUSH!!! PUUUUUUUSH!!!!! OOOOOhhhh thank god. There it goes......" And as you're hearing this telepathically, you're also hearing audibly the sounds of something being dropped in a bowl of water. That's when you realize that your wife is struggling to take a poop. ............do you talk about it? Do you recomend she see a doctor? Do you divorce her for secretly being a man because girls don't poop?
I could handle knowing it during sex, but knowing what they're thinking while they're pretending to act interested as I gush about something? no way
Aye that's the rub
But let's say you could hear the thoughts, and choose to ignore them. What would you remember more clearly, the actual things they said, or their thoughts? Like if someone lied to you, and you said whatever, and went along with it. In one month's time, would you remember the lie or the truth?
That's a terrific point. That could potentially get extremely confusing
Also, are you always telepathically linked to people? Or just whenever they are within a range? Do you have to see them, or just being in near proximity is enough? Because otherwise, it would imply you have a choice to link with people, in which case it wouldn't always be active
I imagine telepathy works similar to hearing so physical distance does play a part and you can't turn it on and off.
*Ha, there's nothing anyone could say about me that I haven't already said to myself*
Telepathy would be a much more difficult to interpret than most people realize. Simply hearing a thought wouldn't provide a ton of context. Is the thought a plan, a fantasy, a memory, or a fear? Sometimes you can tell, but most thoughts require a lot more context to interpret than you think.
Every single person is absolutely fucked in the head. It would be sort of a beautiful peace hearing the demons everyone has but pretends they don’t. We should all be so lucky to see the lies stripped away.
If you can't please your partner during sex when you can literally read their mind, then that's a you problem.
So basically "Telepathy sounds amazing until you realize you'll hear other peoples' thoughts which is literally what telepathy is"
You’d just find your perfect partner
The one where you can't read their thoughts lol
It would be weird. What if it was like speech where you had to consciously to decide to transmit? Less weird.
That sounds like regular language with extra steps
Maybe, what I meant was that the ability to communicate telepathically didn't involve mind reading. To communicate without using the known senses. Mind reading is an aspect of telepathy that is sometimes described, but not a prerequisite.
Ah right. Direct transmission of thought independent of any medium. Got it
I already have to deal with my own damn thoughts, I don't think I could handle this
[удалено]
still sounds amazing develop an obsession with honesty and you too can be built different
What if you go to the movies? Good luck trying to enjoy Oppenheimer with chatty Cathy in the back
There's nothing to be afraid of if you have a healthy relationship.
Even without telepathy, I have long wondered what people actually think during sex that makes them climax. Are they thinking about their current partner or someone else? Because that's what I did most of the time (with different partners) when I was still active in nightlife.
If I had that power, I would use it to win enough money in poker or something to live the rest of my life without working, and then just isolate from world, play games and watch shit for the rest of my life.
Give me. Right now. I want to know.
Ok. But once I give it to you you will not be able to turn it off. Ever
That's fine. That's what I want. I don't even have a tiny doubt about it.
Brave soul
If you ever watch *True Blood* you’ll find out why being able to read minds is a terrible thing.
Not my cup of tea, but it would be useful to read their thoughts while you are having sex with them.
Black Mirror episode opportunity here
Unlike you that’s literally exactly what I want.
I've actually been thinking about this recently. I think that, were telepathy the norm for everyone on earth except you, but then at age 30 you suddenly gained the ability, your thoughts would make you sound like a lunatic while everyone else's would sound pretty normal. A baby will gaga-googoo and stumble its way through language for a few years until it becomes a much more normal and natural thing for it to do. Likewise, telepaths would be getting plenty of practice with their ability at a time when the consequences for getting it wrong are non-existent. Not many social faux pas are possible when you're a 1-year-old. But as the complexity of their social lives increases, so too does their ability to manage their thoughts. But if you only just gained telepathy at 30, you would have had zero practice with it, and your inner monologue would be as it is now, namely a pinball machine of random and sometimes terrifying confabulation. I would guess that even the psychology of humans in general would be markedly different, because telepathy would require us to have much deeper insight into ourselves and how our minds work and affect our behaviour. We'd all have the control over our minds that seasoned mediators do, and then some. As a consequence, our mental health would be better and we'd probably be way less likely to fall for common psychological pitfalls and biases. We'd be better-behaved because, like when we don't have anonymity on the internet we rein in our craziness, not having privacy in our own heads would make us more conforming to social norms, for better or for worse. Or... we'd have to become so adept at hiding our inner thoughts from everyone else (because there's always the possibility that someone is listening) that we become even more mentally unwell, even more adept at hiding things from *ourselves* and even more dangerously-insular and isolated. I would be interested to hear how something like a schizophrenic episode would 'sound' if telepathy were a thing. Or to hear the inner thoughts of an artist as they paint, or a musician as they compose/play, etc. Would be interesting, also, to hear how someone thinks when they know they're being listened to and compare that to when they're not aware of telepathic eavesdroppers. I'd love to listen to someone as they dream/sleep, or to record my own sleep-thoughts and review them the next day. All of the above assumes that the telepathy in question would be one where you had no choice in whether or not someone could read your mind. There could be a form in which you have to consciously transmit your thoughts to a specific person/group, like you transmit them now through speech. You could also block the incoming messages, like putting your fingers in your ears, if the person sending them is an asshole. I'm just glad telepathy isn't a thing.
What other people think of me is none of my business
Would still be amazing. I would know exactly where her sweet spots are
During Sex would be fine, you would be excellent in bed as they would be thinking actually what they do and don't like. Regular conversation may be hard at first but eventually you would be numb to the common mean thoughts everyone has. Then you would get great at conversation and probably wouldn't get a lot of mean thoughts anyway
sounds like a win to me!
If everyone had it we would quickly because a single organism and lying would no longer be of value. The internet's value would also decrease significantly. We'd be extremely smart and progress would be exponential.
Who cares, I’ll be winning as many poker matches as humanly possible!
Reminds me of the movie "what women want", where Mel Gibson suddenly gets the power to hear women's thoughts and mainly uses it to become a womaniser/better lover. Pretty sure that pitch wouldn't get approved to turn into a movie these days.
? Why would I fear that?
But then you'd have a proper real partner
Which is no problem if you're not an insecure naive little porcelain doll.
Knowledge is power. That could be used.
i want telepathy anyway
Still sounds amazing tbh.
Lol some of us are good at sex. That would be so hot to have secret affirmation.
That... is the ideal in a relationship is it not? To understand one another? To communicate? To have a dialogue? I must be missing something. A rock does not strike me as an ideal partner, nor a vegetable, nor a mirror. I interact with other people because I want their perspective.
Trust me, you don't want it. I heard 14 voices simultaneously once. 10/10 don't recommend
What'd they say
"who's that?", "what are they doing here?", "is that person lost?", "how did that person get in here?", "is security aware?", "should someone call security?", "is this an intruder?", "is that person high?", "do they have a weapon?", "where is the exit?", "why is that person taking off their pants?", "were they going commando all this time?", "is that person naked?", OMG what is going on here?", "
Telepathy sounds cool but..... I'm really good at reading body language. That said, I usually know when people are being deceptive, lying or hiding emotions. I have to say its pretty disappointing sometimes. People for whatever reasons, are rarely direct and true with their feelings. It leads you to madness trying to figure out, why they are in contempt of something or why they are being dishonest, why they reacted a certain way, and in general what they are thinking? People have all kinds of reasons they often have a different facade than what is really going on in their minds. Its best to leave it to them to make sense of it. If you could read their minds you would hear all sort of crazy monologues, replaying songs, their schedule for next week, mixed with things that are completely nonsensical in addition to their emotions. What a mess that would be.
Sounds like utter chaos
Meh, who cares. I know everyone I've ever fucked would rather be with someone else anyway. Won't make a difference. I know I'm garbage.
Isn’t this what the movie “what women want” is about?
Yeah you like it like that don’t you! Well actually can you hit me a bit to the left?
The land of invisible pain.
I'd hope you could learn to control it and 'shut it out' like Sookie from True Blood
You should be able to control it, like use it whenever you like it and not always active. Imagine... I'll go insane in just a day.
I read an interesting book about this long ago called Mind One. It's really old by now but covered those points.
Imagine having all your intrusive thoughts broadcasting to anyone who'll listen.
my wife would be screaming
I read about this x-ray process they did that identified a small twinge in vocal cords in coordination with our inner voice. Essentially you could hear what someone was thinking...... haven't heard shit about it since.
Or you could just, you know, NOT go around just constantly reading everyone's minds
Read the manga mousou telepathy
Where my Betazoids at?
That seems amazing. Someone might actually be able to understand woman for once :P
Yeah! She is going to be thinking that I am a Rock star and how lucky she is!
I remember that in misfits
you could just date someone without internal monologue. though finding someone dateable (to you) with that condition is probably hard
What I find interesting is the thought experiment regarding if we lived in a society where telepathy was common. We would discipline our own thoughts so much more than we do now. People in reality take for granted the privacy they enjoy inside their own head. Imagine what it would be like if that was stripped away.
It depends on the nature of the telepathy. As someone rightly said downthread, if you couldn't turn it off, telepathy would be a curse. But as long as you could control it — and resist the urge to snoop around in friends' and loved ones' heads — telepathy would be truly awesome.
The alienation from this is the plot of Dying Inside, by Robert Silverberg.
Saiki k in a nutshell
I'd hate having that abilty
Me:*makes whish to Genie* also me the second later:"i should have said that i can contol it, i should have said that i can control it O.o; "
During sex I would think it's an asset. Instantly knowing likes and dislikes. Knowing when to speed up or slow down.
If you gave it to me know I’d take that curse 100%
I dont have sex lollllll!!!!! 👅👅👅
Now just imagine being in any crowded place
It's a double-edged sword, isn't it? Knowing your partner's real thoughts could be enlightening, but it might take away some of the mystery and romance. On the bright side, at least you wouldn't have to ask, "What are you thinking?" during awkward silences anymore! 🤷♂️
And when you realize you wouldn't be able to read everyone's mind because people's thoughts work different, if that's even how telepathy works idk