Posted by zuihitsu on July 29, 1999 at 03:23:33:
Hi all!
I've been reading these egram pages and boards for about two weeks now, and I'm pretty sure I'm 4w3 with a lot of wing5 elements, and INFP on the whatsitsname. Whatever.
Anyways. I don't know if you've already discussed this but I've been wondering about how people think. Many times I've heard people say that they see clear images in their minds, but I've never experienced that. I think mostly in, hmm, concepts, I guess. For example if I think about a person I know, I don't see his picture in my mind. Instead I think about how I feel about that person, what we've done together, what he's said, what's his personality... things like that. That is if I really try to focus on thinking about him. It doesn't mean I can't describe him, I know how he looks like, I just don't "see" him in my mind. When recalling someones face I sort of listen to some kind of describtion, but it's not only words but more like feelings and/or nonverbal thoughts. (This is so hard to explain in English which is not my native tongue (I'm Finnish).)
I also tend to think in (kind of) colours. For each person, event, time of day or year, song etc I have a colour for. I don't select these colours, they're just there. But even if I feel the colour I can't always name it. And it's not like they're bright and clear colours but more like shades, constantly changing ever so slightly.
For all I know many people kind of talk to themselves in thoughts. I do that too, but it seems that it's only an attempt to dress thoughts into words, thinking itself doesn't use words in the usual manner. There are many levels of this "mental speech", others are louder than the others. Have you ever noticed that sometimes you figure something out and then you tell it to yrself in a "louder" mental voice? I have, and it really bothers me (I'm a 4, remember? ;).
Just some thoughts (pun intended). Let me hear what you think.
Zuihitsu