Internal dialogue and its termination

Thinking usually occurs in the form of inner speech, sometimes it is an internal monologue, sometimes it is an internal dialogue. Internal dialogue is a continuous internal communication of a person with himself, one of the main ways of reflection, thinking, reflection. Stopping the internal dialogue — stopping the flow of thoughts, stopping communication between different I (parts of I, subpersonalities).

Do I need to stop the internal dialogue? There is no single answer here. First, internal dialogue may or may not be productive. It is inappropriate to stop a productive and timely internal dialogue; it is right to stop an untimely and unproductive one.

The one who communicates within himself continuously and irrelevantly is an internal talker. If a person in his internal dialogue only scolds himself and justifies himself in response, this is a complete disgrace, and it is better to stop such an internal dialogue. It is precisely internal chatter that is characteristic of a mass personality; accordingly, one of the milestone tasks in the development of a personality is to stop an unproductive internal dialogue. On the other hand, the one who communicates within himself on business, for the sake of business and competently, is a thinker and doer. Similarly, if a person is preparing for negotiations, in an internal dialogue, acting out his position and his partner’s position alternately, this is an absolutely reasonable and very productive preparation.

The clients of psychotherapists are usually people with unproductive, and even completely counterproductive, negative and conflicting internal dialogue, so among psychotherapists there is a widespread belief that it is useful to stop the internal dialogue. Perhaps for similar reasons, a similar negative attitude towards the internal dialogue is common in many esoteric currents.

In particular, in the teachings of Castaneda, the internal dialogue is represented by the fact that a person is hindered fully in the world. be, and stopping the internal dialogue is obligatory for a warrior: it changes the attitude to life and makes it possible to join shamanic knowledge.

Quote: “We are constantly talking to ourselves about our world. In fact, we create our world with our internal dialogue. When we stop talking to ourselves, the world becomes what it should be. We renew it, we give it life, we support it with our internal dialogue. And not only this. We also choose our paths according to what we tell ourselves. So we repeat the same choice again and again, until we die. Because we continue the same internal dialogue. The warrior is aware of this and seeks to stop his internal dialogue. The main obstacle for a warrior is the internal dialogue: this is the key to everything. When a warrior learns to stop it, everything becomes possible. The most incredible projects become feasible.”

Interestingly, the cessation of internal dialogue is welcomed by some areas of official Orthodoxy. In Orthodoxy there is an inner trend called «hesychasm» (from the Greek word «hesychia» — «silence»). The main goal of hesychasm is to achieve a state of inner silence and «inner silence» through the constant practice of the Jesus Prayer. John of the Ladder (XNUMXth century, Palestine) described this state as follows: “Let the memory of Jesus unite with your breath, and then you will know the power of silence.”

The opinion that stopping the internal dialogue always leads to certain positive results has no serious evidence, and, apparently, the results of such a practice will be different for different people. A culturally and intellectually developed person who gives himself a respite from the analysis of difficult problems, while stopping the internal monologue, will rest to his advantage. Also, if for a person to think is not very habitual or distracts from difficult activities that require concentration, then the internal dialogue will interfere with him. If, however, it is as natural for a person to think as it is to breathe, and his thinking just helps him to focus on current activities, then the internal dialogue will help him. But if a narrow-minded person, who is not used to thinking, allows himself not to think for a long time and not to use his head, then the result of such a practice, most likely, will be only a general decrease in intelligence up to its complete idiocy.

One way or another, learning to stop the internal dialogue is useful in any case. How to stop the internal dialogue? The main means are diverting attention from the verbal channel, switching attention to kinesthetics, simple images or sounds. Additionally, with good attention to kinesthetics, you can feel the state of the body, its needs and desires — and thus switch the person to the first position of perception (I myself, my desires). The possible procedures here are varied: fixing a point in Zen Buddhism, almost any meditation, including meditation on a candle fire in yoga, calm presence and the “Great Mute” training in the synthon approach, bodily practices when a person is fully involved in kinesthetic sensations and experiences. And if a person knows how (for some, this is possible and not difficult), then he can simply stop thinking without any additional techniques. And immerse yourself in inner silence for a while…