“Maria cracks me up… I must remember to get the car cleaned tomorrow… Did I switch off the stove… Why is this individual so noisy… There’s an odd sensation in my toe… I feel like I recognize that person… The sun is rising… blah-blah-blah-blah.”
We frequently find ourselves caught in a continuous cycle of thoughts. Occasionally, we attempt to halt this torrent of notions by commanding ourselves to cease thinking. But do we genuinely halt, or is it even feasible to completely stop thinking?
The response hinges on our interpretation of “thinking,” according to Michael Halassa, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. A thought, the outcome of chemical interactions between neurons, can transpire both consciously and subconsciously.
Thoughts can be either conscious or subconscious. “The kind of thinking we’re conscious of, like the incessant ideas that surface when we’re trying to sleep, can theoretically be quieted. That’s likely what meditation aims to achieve,” Halassa explained.
While meditators endeavor to accomplish this, it’s uncertain to what extent they can truly attain a “void state.”
“I’m unsure if it’s theoretically feasible to completely cease thinking – and if it is, I believe it would be incredibly challenging to verify. However, it’s evident that meditators are much more cognizant of their thoughts. Thus, when they need to concentrate on something and their mind drifts, they’re much better at detecting this shift in focus,” stated Julia Kam, a cognitive researcher at the Knight Lab at the University of California.
We’re contemplating something even when we believe we’re thinking about nothing. There’s a distinction between having a thought and being conscious of having a thought, the expert emphasized. Therefore, if you inquire what someone is thinking and they reply “nothing,” they might be unaware that they’re thinking, as Live Science suggests.
For instance, you could be engrossed in thoughts about a relationship or an upcoming exam, and you only become conscious of it when someone nudges you, interrupting this process. Individuals who claim to think about “nothing” might also have stream-of-consciousness thoughts that don’t form a coherent narrative.
However, the brain never ceases to think. The majority of thoughts actually take place in the background, unbeknownst to us, and there’s no method to halt them.
For instance, if you notice a familiar face in a crowd and feel you recognize them, you might not immediately recall where you know them from. It’s quite likely that after a few hours, you suddenly recollect. This is the result of thoughts transpiring “in the background” within our brains.
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