a thousand thoughts

Patrice Berube, modified 10 Years ago at 1/9/14 3:20 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 1/9/14 3:19 PM

a thousand thoughts

Posts: 39 Join Date: 9/15/10 Recent Posts
Hello

anyone has ever heard of someone hearing a thousand voices?
so many thoughts all at once without much control over them?
not thinking really fast, seeing all of those thoughts.

Specially at night time?


A friend of mine whose very "spiritual" in a good way (not hippy lovey type) has those from time to time and has no idea why or what it could be.

She doesn't have any mental health problems and doesn't take drugs.


Anyone has any idea? clues?


thank you very much for your time!
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tom moylan, modified 10 Years ago at 1/10/14 12:39 AM
Created 10 Years ago at 1/10/14 12:39 AM

RE: a thousand thoughts

Posts: 896 Join Date: 3/7/11 Recent Posts
Hello Patrice,
its a difficult question to answer with authority. you say that your frind has no mental health issues while describing something that COULD be interpreted as such. i'm not implying that she has an organic or diagnosible mental illnes but just wanted to point out how difficullt these things can be to diagnose especiall for lay people. even the DSM 5 cannot point to any objective tests for any of their thousands of "mental diseases".

that said, the hearing of voices, seeing scenes, faces etc. flashing by are not uncommon phenomena for most meditators at some point.

at one point during a retreat last year i was in a place where i had absolutely no control over a rush of physical and mental flashing experiences. it was as if my brain was reorganizing itself, much like a hard drive being defragmented, at a speed which was inconcievable. it was the closest i have ever been to what i imagine is "absolutely crazy" to use the scientific nomenclature of our time emoticon

i have had other experiences which don't exactly match your friends' but leave me with the general take that we need to be really tolerant of all of our experiences however extreme they are. if they bleed into our relationships and off-cushion life, then we may have to take stronger measures.

is your friend worried about her experinces or just you?

cheers

tom
Patrice Berube, modified 10 Years ago at 1/10/14 8:38 AM
Created 10 Years ago at 1/10/14 8:29 AM

RE: a thousand thoughts

Posts: 39 Join Date: 9/15/10 Recent Posts
Hello Tom,

Thank you for your answer.

I know it could be diagnosed as some kind of temporary Schizophrenic experience but she doesn't have any other symptoms associated with Schizophrenia and this is not a daily event, and it doesn't impact her normal life.

No we're not worried about it, as it happen only on occasion and never seem to be a problem or never seem to be evolving into something that would be worrisome. It's not getting more frequents or come during the day or anything, and is been happening for many years without any changes in its frequency (once or twice a month, at night time in bed).

Imo she's quite the undiagnosed dark knight yogi tho, growing up as a very deep child, questioning stuff that children shouldn't ponder, going through several insanely profound episodes of depression during her life and make it out of it all on her own.
She went deep during those times.
She can relate to carl jung, Khrisnamurty, Rupert Spira, alan watts types much better than her normal friends.
She's the brilliant, highly educated phd type that people naturally are drawn to, to ask advices about their life.

But even tho she is not the intense meditator going to retreats, she will describe the experience itself in a way that sound very much like when you describe your experiences (if that make any sense).

Anyway thank you for trying to help me out! emoticon


-p
Tom Tom, modified 10 Years ago at 1/10/14 5:53 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 1/10/14 5:38 PM

RE: a thousand thoughts

Posts: 466 Join Date: 9/19/09 Recent Posts
It's not getting more frequents or come during the day or anything, and is been happening for many years without any changes in its frequency (once or twice a month, at night time in bed)


The fact that this only happens while in bed makes it a harmless hypnagogic hallucination. These are hallucinations that can occur in the transition from wakefulness to sleep (hypnopompic hallucinations occur in the transition from sleep to waking).

They occur in the absence of any mental illness (it is completely harmless). Now she might try to argue that this is happening while she is supposedly "wide awake" in bed, but the fact that she is in bed when this is happening means that she is in the process of falling asleep and she is not as "wide awake" as she thinks she is.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogic_hallucinations