In our daily lives, much of our thinking goes unnoticed, operating beneath the surface as a continuous flow of internal dialogue. This verbal thinking process — often automatic and subconscious — has been studied for centuries, with philosophers like Plato contemplating the nature of thought. But recent research is beginning to unravel its complexity, revealing how visual images, too, play a fundamental role in shaping our mental landscape.
This article delves into the relationship between verbal and pictorial thinking, exploring how these modes of thought interact and whether one is more primal than the other. Drawing on studies from Harvard University and scientific insights from behavioral research, we will examine how silencing verbal thoughts can lead to a profound shift in the mind’s state, bringing us closer to the no-mind experience — where both verbal and pictorial thinking cease, leaving behind pure silence. Let’s explore the silent mind and the fascinating dance between verbal and visual thinking, as well as what it means for creativity and the evolution of our consciousness.
verbal thinking. This is not something new but perhaps just recently some institutions are starting to look into it.
Was Plato referring to verbal thinking or was he just commenting on the thinking process?
What about this from Harvard University:
Visual images often intrude on verbal thinking, study says, suggesting that pondering with images may be hardwired.
Visual images often intrude on verbal thinking, study says
Then you find information like this on the Net: Verbal thinking and pictorial thinking.
Then you are asking yourself what is happening here? Verbal thinking? what are you talking about? Then you say to yourself, “do I verbalise what I am thinking”. “Do I simultaneously verbalise what I am writing?” I should be able to find this out for myself, right? I don’t need for somebody to tell me this. Can I feel my vocal cords silently fluttering away as I am thinking — verbal thinking? YES! no 2 ways about this — Harvard University tells me it does.
Then what happens if I try and stop verbalising my thoughts — will this verbal thinking process stop. Will I be able to stop thinking, verbal thinking. YES! Both processes are connected to each other. You stop verbalising your thoughts, psychological thinking stops. Your mind will immediately go silent. You think you are beyond the danger point now. The nightmare Frederick Krueger is gone. You wait a while and then he is back with pictorial thinking. With these images going through the silent mind of your past and subconscious mind rising to bother you. The longer you stay in the silent mind these pictorial images will also disappear. You will end up with this no thinking no-mind state of being. This is the end of your mind spaces because the next step you take in your mind it disappears and it returns with no memory of where it has been. True experiential story.
Look at this research done in 2017:
What they are saying here is that pictorial or image thinking is the primary, baseline thinking form and verbal thinking is just an intrusion on top of it as language would have come only after a while after we can down from the trees and developed language but pictorial or image-making in the brain was always there with us.
“Humans rely on at least two modes of thought: verbal (inner speech) and visual (imagery). Are these modes independent, or does engaging in one entail engaging in the other?”
Conclusion:
“An asymmetry was observed between inner speech and visual imagery. In particular, inner speech was engaged to a greater extent during verbal than visual thought, but visual imagery was engaged to a similar extent during both modes of thought. Thus, it appears that people generate more robust verbal representations during deliberate inner speech compared to when their intent is to visualize. However, they generate visual images regardless of whether their intent is to visualize or to think verbally. One possible interpretation of these results is that visual thinking is somehow primary, given the relatively late emergence of verbal abilities during human development and in the evolution of our species.”
So pictorial thinking is the baseline thinking process in the mind and verbal thinking is a later development. So that is why when verbal thinking is stopped when one stops verbalising one’s thoughts pictorial thinking is still working well in the mind. We might see it as 2 different mind spaces, one creatively chaotic and the other silent. One is an innate or primary thinking system and is omnipresent of sorts while the other verbal thinking can be easily stopped and started again. In time with more time spent in the silent mind pictorial thinking or image-making in the mind too can come to an end when the subconscious mind stops rising up to the surface of the mind or when one settles with one’s past or samskaras. Finally, the no-mind state where all forms of thinking have stopped.
Also, this: without verbal thinking, we cannot have a creative mind. Only verbal thinking can spin an idea in the creative process. It would have required language to come about first for this mutation to come about in our genes. The light bulb was invented only about 136 years ago.
Also, notice very young kids are initially just independent visual thinkers and independent learners until they learn to read and write and their minds gets corrupted by the psychological verbal thinking process.