Other names for the lost-in-thought state

This is the third article in the series on the lost-in-thought state. Before I go on, I should mention that this state has been described in various traditions and fields under other names.

The reason I prefer “lost-in-thought state” is because this name emphasizes its most important attribute for my purposes: diminished consciousness. None of the other common names refer to this crucial fact.

Here’s a list of terms prepared by Claude Sonnet 3.5. I haven’t checked it for accuracy so it may contain some mistakes.

• Default Mode Activity (DMA): Neuroscience term for the brain's "idle" or wandering state

• Mind-wandering: Psychology/cognitive science

• Discursive thinking: Buddhist terminology

• Monkey mind: Buddhist terminology

• Vibbhanta-citta; Buddhist terminology

• Scattered mind/scattered thinking: General usage

• Rumination: Psychology/clinical context

• Stream of consciousness: Psychology/literature

• Mental chatter: Colloquial/meditation contexts

• Cognitive noise: Psychology

• Spontaneous thought: Cognitive science

• Self-generated thought: Neuroscience/psychology

• Stimulus-independent thought: Scientific literature

• Woolgathering: Traditional English term

• Daydreaming: Common usage

These terms emphasize various important aspects of this state—its involuntary nature, its role as the brain's default mode, its separation from immediate experience, its typical content—but none highlights the fact that is most relevant for this blog: consciousness is diminished or absent in this state. While lost in thought, we don't know what we're thinking or even that we're thinking.