Dear Sane,
Yes! It is a very interesting article, it is all there and you see it happening all the time on this forum, how many times I have read a post and thought, yes that is exactly what I was thinking but the poster has put it down in black and white in better terms than I could have done.
I love this inner voice thing, I have been going through a phase of trying to be a better listener, when someone is having a conversation with me I find my mind is trying to form a reply even before the person has stopped talking, I think it is a bit of an art to really listen, but in watching myself I find that others are doing the same thing, how many times my conversation has been interrupted before I have conveyed my message properly, maddening!
For one, we can produce it much faster when we don’t have to go at the pace required to use tongues and lips and voice boxes. One researcher the book cites clocks inner speech at an average pace of 4,000 words per minute—10 times faster than verbal speech. And it’s often more condensed—we don’t have to use full sentences to talk to ourselves, because we know what we mean.
Well that does answer one question, 4000 words per minute, no wonder we have trouble communicating our message when our brain is flying along at that speed.
And this talking out loud thing, how many times have I caught someone mumbling away to themselves, usually when they are sat in front of a keyboard, when I ask, talking to your self again the reply is, aye I am the only sod who will listen
We all do it and the article is correct, it is usually when we are wrestling with some kind of problem.
Another interesting thing is this talking to dead relatives, I wonder how many posters on here will admit to that one, I do it, especially when I have achieved a goal in life then again I also talk to God, that is very useful to me, especially if I catch my ego running away with me, talking to God is a great way ( for me ) of centering myself, he/she/it stops me from becoming to boastful, humility, that's the word!
And I see old gut reaction is mentioned, have we already had a very quick internal conversation before we instinctively do something, fascinating stuff, what exactly is happening in our little minds/brains.
Gonnagle.