Can you think without words?

[Charleh]

You know how there’s a voice reading to you in your head, and if you try shutting it up you can’t comprehend the letters on a page? This and the fact we all have mental chatter going on leads to an interesting theory that if we don’t have the word for a thing, event or concept, that we are unable to think about that particular thing. This video goes into greater detail on the theory.

 

[jadamz]

You know how there’s a voice reading to you in your head, and if you try shutting it up you can’t comprehend the letters on a page? This and the fact we all have mental chatter going on leads to an interesting theory that if we don’t have the word for a thing, event or concept, that we are unable to think about that particular thing. This video goes into greater detail on the theory.

Hey Charleh,I really enjoyed this video!! Thanks!

 

[Duke]

I could think better without words than I could without images....the "mind's eye".

 

[Charleh]

I could think better without words than I could without images....the "mind's eye".

Words can be so restraining

 

[Herbal Jaguar]

When I first started having ET experiences it was one of the first things I learned to do. Project images not words.

 

[Paintman]

I could think better without words than I could without images....the "mind's eye".

Sports psychology leaves us with a lot of clues about thinking. This is on the hard science side of psychology. Brain waves showing activity in specific centers related to bringing about certain specific activities.
imagine a quarterback trying to throw a ball to his receiver surrounded by heavy coverage, a pro golfer hitting a 5-iron 200 yards into a crosswind onto a spot on an undulating green, and have the ball funnel 2 feet from the hole, or a batter trying to hit a rising fastball at 98 miles an hour to the opposite field.
Pretty darn hard to do. All of these problems can be explained with math. Arm speed, club head speed, bat speed, angle of launch and angle of attack, some trigonometry, and playing conditions influenced by a barometer and a thousand other little details that can be measured.
People that are very good at these things are not working out math equations in the split-second it takes to decide what they want the ball to do. The proof is they are not engaging in the thinking areas of the brain -The areas related to conscious reason and cognition. This performance of intended action is emotional thought, where the emotional centers of the brain are activated.
Putting this into practice is the soft science side of psychology. Terms like - playing in the zone, effortlessness, controlled aggression, creative visualization, keeping your emotions in check, " seeing the right look",; the notion that to get a positive outcome, you need to play as if you do not care about the outcome........ playing unconsciously -playing instinctively.
The great paradox is thinking with the emotional centers of your brain, and at the same time controlling the brain chemicals that your amygdala squirts out in response to the emotional thoughts. The player has an overwhelming amount of data coming at him that needs to be sorted out, and does not feel overwhelmed.
This is why a lot of sports maladies are treated the way you would treat an anxiety disorder. A pitcher or a hitter in a slump, a golfer with the yips, or a gun shy quarterback.
I initially started studying this because I was such a headcase that I developed the Steve Sax Disease. He was a second baseman that could not throw the ball to first base. The ball went in the dirt, it went left or right, or into the stands . The New York Yankees spent a small fortune trying to fix him.
(My Senior League manager just moved me to third base and the problem solved itself.)
Fun topic Charleh.

 

[Paulm]

Sports psychology leaves us with a lot of clues about thinking. This is on the hard science side of psychology. Brain waves showing activity in specific centers related to bringing about certain specific activities.
imagine a quarterback trying to throw a ball to his receiver surrounded by heavy coverage, a pro golfer hitting a 5-iron 200 yards into a crosswind onto a spot on an undulating green, and have the ball funnel 2 feet from the hole, or a batter trying to hit a rising fastball at 98 miles an hour to the opposite field.
Pretty darn hard to do. All of these problems can be explained with math. Arm speed, club head speed, bat speed, angle of launch and angle of attack, some trigonometry, and playing conditions influenced by a barometer and a thousand other little details that can be measured.
People that are very good at these things are not working out math equations in the split-second it takes to decide what they want the ball to do. The proof is they are not engaging in the thinking areas of the brain -The areas related to conscious reason and cognition. This performance of intended action is emotional thought, where the emotional centers of the brain are activated.
Putting this into practice is the soft science side of psychology. Terms like - playing in the zone, effortlessness, controlled aggression, creative visualization, keeping your emotions in check, " seeing the right look",; the notion that to get a positive outcome, you need to play as if you do not care about the outcome........ playing unconsciously -playing instinctively.
The great paradox is thinking with the emotional centers of your brain, and at the same time controlling the brain chemicals that your amygdala squirts out in response to the emotional thoughts. The player has an overwhelming amount of data coming at him that needs to be sorted out, and does not feel overwhelmed.
This is why a lot of sports maladies are treated the way you would treat an anxiety disorder. A pitcher or a hitter in a slump, a golfer with the yips, or a gun shy quarterback.
I initially started studying this because I was such a headcase that I developed the Steve Sax Disease. He was a second baseman that could not throw the ball to first base. The ball went in the dirt, it went left or right, or into the stands . The New York Yankees spent a small fortune trying to fix him.
(My Senior League manager just moved me to third base and the problem solved itself.)
Fun topic Charleh.

Or " mushin no shin ", for the zen minded among us.

 

[7Critter]

Sports psychology leaves us with a lot of clues about thinking. This is on the hard science side of psychology. Brain waves showing activity in specific centers related to bringing about certain specific activities.
imagine a quarterback trying to throw a ball to his receiver surrounded by heavy coverage, a pro golfer hitting a 5-iron 200 yards into a crosswind onto a spot on an undulating green, and have the ball funnel 2 feet from the hole, or a batter trying to hit a rising fastball at 98 miles an hour to the opposite field.
Pretty darn hard to do. All of these problems can be explained with math. Arm speed, club head speed, bat speed, angle of launch and angle of attack, some trigonometry, and playing conditions influenced by a barometer and a thousand other little details that can be measured.
People that are very good at these things are not working out math equations in the split-second it takes to decide what they want the ball to do. The proof is they are not engaging in the thinking areas of the brain -The areas related to conscious reason and cognition. This performance of intended action is emotional thought, where the emotional centers of the brain are activated.
Putting this into practice is the soft science side of psychology. Terms like - playing in the zone, effortlessness, controlled aggression, creative visualization, keeping your emotions in check, " seeing the right look",; the notion that to get a positive outcome, you need to play as if you do not care about the outcome........ playing unconsciously -playing instinctively.
The great paradox is thinking with the emotional centers of your brain, and at the same time controlling the brain chemicals that your amygdala squirts out in response to the emotional thoughts. The player has an overwhelming amount of data coming at him that needs to be sorted out, and does not feel overwhelmed.
This is why a lot of sports maladies are treated the way you would treat an anxiety disorder. A pitcher or a hitter in a slump, a golfer with the yips, or a gun shy quarterback.
I initially started studying this because I was such a headcase that I developed the Steve Sax Disease. He was a second baseman that could not throw the ball to first base. The ball went in the dirt, it went left or right, or into the stands . The New York Yankees spent a small fortune trying to fix him.
(My Senior League manager just moved me to third base and the problem solved itself.)
Fun topic Charleh.

Good thoughts, Paintman. So what part of the memory is reinforced when a player repeatedly performs the same physical motion. Baseball players playing catch, a batter swinging a bat, a golfer swing his club, catching something thrown at you. These motor skills are learned so we'll that I would imagine that a third baseman reaches and snags a line drive without much "thinking." Is there really something called muscle memory ?

 

[7Critter]

And what part of the brain is "thinking" when a spring board diver visualizes the dive that he is about to perform. I used to mentally go through my gymnastics routine before I mounted an apparatus. In fact I did the routines so many times that I would almost do them automatically.

 

[Debi]

And what part of the brain is "thinking" when a spring board diver visualizes the dive that he is about to perform. I used to mentally go through my gymnastics routine before I mounted an apparatus. In fact I did the routines so many times that I would almost do them automatically.

I believe that is called motor memory or muscle memory. Same for dancers. It becomes automatic. To this day if I point a toe, my knee rotates out because in ballet that is what happens for the leg to be aligned properly. That muscle memory can be very deep and last forever. I don't think it...it just happens.