{"id":5869,"date":"2024-11-10T20:12:18","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T01:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/?p=5869"},"modified":"2024-11-11T05:04:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T10:04:30","slug":"the-lost-in-thought-state-summary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/the-lost-in-thought-state-summary\/","title":{"rendered":"The lost-in-thought state: Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the last couple of weeks I wrote a half dozen articles exploring new ideas about the lost-in-thought state (LITS). They’re on my Substack blog<\/a> in case anyone is interested. I wrote them mainly for myself to clarify my thinking.<\/p>\n

My main conclusion is that LITS is the primary function of the mind. It’s not a pathology; it’s not caused by “conditioning.” It’s what natural selection (the mechanism of biological evolution) designed our minds to do during most of our waking moments.<\/p>\n

It is sometimes unpleasant — in fact it’s probably the main cause of unhappiness — but it’s natural. <\/p>\n

Mental activity in LITS consists mostly of recalled and imaginary simulated scenarios that generate strong emotions.<\/p>\n

It can be summarized with a pair of rhyming words: simulation and stimulation.<\/p>\n

When spiritual teachers say “be here now,” “be mindful,” “be aware”, “be aware of awareness,” etc., they are telling people to stay out of LITS.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that this “state” can just as well be called an “activity”.<\/p>\n

Here’s a summary of my Substack posts.<\/p>\n

Description of LITS<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Most people are in this state almost all the time while they’re awake.<\/li>\n
  2. People don’t know what<\/i> they are thinking while in this state.<\/li>\n
  3. People don’t know that<\/i> they are thinking while in this state.<\/li>\n
  4. They only know these things after they come out of the state.<\/li>\n
  5. Most people never notice that the state exists.<\/li>\n
  6. It can be noticed through specific practices like asking “Am I conscious now?” or through meditation when you suddenly realize you’ve been daydreaming.<\/li>\n
  7. Many people, after they notice this state, feel as if consciousness is absent or diminished in some way while they are in it.<\/li>\n
  8. It’s extremely difficult to stay out of this state for any length of time.<\/li>\n
  9. Simulation: Most thoughts in this state are simulations of scenarios, i.e., replayed memories with or without imaginary changes, imagined future experiences, imagined outcomes of possible future actions, etc.<\/li>\n
  10. Stimulation: Most thoughts in this state stimulate strong emotions.<\/li>\n
  11. Those emotions can be pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Nifty catchphrases<\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. Simulation-stimulation.<\/li>\n
    2. Simulated scenarios stimulate strong emotions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Conjectures about LITS<\/h3>\n
        \n
      1. Natural selection “designed” this state to be the normal default activity of the mind while it’s awake. (This contradicts, for example, the ideas that it’s pathological or that it’s the result of conditioning.)<\/li>\n
      2. This state (activity) is the main reason why life is unsatisfactory. (This contradicts, for example, the idea that craving is the main reason.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Wild-ass conjectures about LITS<\/h3>\n
          \n
        1. This state (activity) originated in early animals as a mechanism for planning the next action to be taken.<\/li>\n
        2. The mechanism worked by generating multiple scenarios and choosing one.<\/li>\n
        3. The choice was made in large part by comparing the intensities of the stimulated emotions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Other names for LITS from everyday speech, traditions, and academic fields<\/h3>\n

          Daydreaming, mind-wandering, vibbhanta-citta, default mode activity, scattered thought, rumination, cognitive noise, mental chatter, stimulus-independent thought, monkey mind, wool-gathering, self-generated thought.<\/p>\n

          “State” is not the right word<\/h3>\n

          I’ve been calling LITS a “state” throughout this article but the word is misleading. It would probably be better to eliminate the word and substitute “activity”. Two reasons why: (1) A state must be a state of something that doesn’t vary. It’s not clear what the something is in this case. It can’t be “I” because the “I” is generated by the brain and it varies from moment to moment depending on the brain’s activity. (2) States are usually understood to be mutually exclusive but LITS and other “states” (for example, driving hypnosis) can occur simultaneously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Over the last couple of weeks I wrote a half dozen articles exploring new ideas about the lost-in-thought state (LITS). They’re on my Substack blog in case anyone is interested. I wrote them mainly for myself to clarify my thinking. My main conclusion is that LITS is the primary function of the mind. It’s not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,37,36],"class_list":["post-5869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-consciousness","tag-lits","tag-lost-in-thought-state"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YVpx-1wF","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5869"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5892,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5869\/revisions\/5892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}