How to recognize the lost-in-thought state

It can be noticed only by contrast

This page describes how to notice a phenomenon that will be discussed in detail in a future article.  This page is intentionally brief and incomplete.

People are usually unconscious in an important sense while they think. They don’t know what they’re thinking. They don’t know that they’re thinking. They don’t know anything.

Most people never notice this. They imagine they’re always conscious while they’re awake but this isn’t true. In fact the opposite is closer to the truth. Most people think constantly in the waking state so they are almost never conscious in the sense that I'm describing here.

I noticed this in myself for the first time about 20 years ago. That discovery was and still is the most surprising thing that has ever happened to me.  I had been unconscious most of my life and never suspected.

I’m going to write a future article about this state but since it can be of interest only to people who have noticed it, on this page I’ll give two easy exercises for noticing.

The basic strategy is to engineer a moment when you're not lost in thought, or wait for such a moment to occur spontaneously, then compare what it’s like with how you were a second or two earlier.

The first exercise was published by Susan Blackmore, a British academic psychologist and practicing Buddhist, in 2009 in a book called Ten Zen Questions.  This exercise could not be simpler.  You ask yourself, "Am I conscious now?"  If you're like many people you'll instantly become conscious.  At that moment you’ll recall how you were a second earlier and compare the two states.   That's the whole exercise.  Of course it doesn't work for everyone.

The second exercise takes a little more time and effort but has the advantage, I suspect, of working for more people.  Most meditators are already familiar with it.  You meditate in some way or other.  It makes no difference how you meditate as long as you attempt to control your attention.  You can  think continuously of some particular thing or avoid thinking altogether. Do anything you like as long as you artificially control your attention.

Suddenly you realize that for the last five or ten minutes you weren't meditating.  You were daydreaming without knowing it.  You feel like you just snapped back to your senses.  At that instant you are more conscious than usual.  Recall how you were a second earlier and compare the two states.

You may need to do one or both exercises repeatedly in order to get a good sense of the lost-in-thought state. This can be hard to do because when you begin these exercises, the lost-in-thought state can be observed only when you’re not in that state, by remembering it, and the moments when you’re not in it will probably be very brief. With practice you can make those moments longer. I suggest to you that it’s worth the effort. Recognizing that we’re usually unconscious is one of the most valuable discoveries we can make about ourselves.

See you, I hope, in the next article on this topic where I'll discuss the lost-in-thought state at greater length. Meditators sometimes regard it only as a hindrance but I think it tells us something extremely interesting about how the mind interacts with consciousness.