My Inner "David Attenborough"

A few weeks ago, my family and I had a fascinating conversation about, well, conversation itself—specifically, how our thoughts operate. By this, I mean the way we "hear" ourselves think, through that continuous inner monologue. It's the voice in your mind as you read a sentence in a book or the self-talk you engage in while processing thoughts throughout the day. As much as I wish my inner voice sounded like the famous Sir David Attenborough, British broadcaster and narrator of shows such as Planet Earth, my inner voice sounds more like a whisper, without any real distinguishable features at all.

To my astonishment, my partner shared that he doesn't experience this inner voice at all—his mind is completely silent in that regard. I was stunned. How could that be possible? He explained that it's not a matter of his mind being blank or devoid of thoughts but rather that his thought process is image-based. Instead of hearing an internal dialogue, he visualizes his thoughts as images.

Interestingly, this aligns with research by Russell Hurlburt, a psychology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has explored this very phenomenon. He developed a method called "descriptive experience sampling," in which participants use beepers to record their immediate inner experiences when prompted. This approach provides a more accurate picture of what's truly happening in their minds.

Hurlburt's findings revealed that people experience an inner voice only about 25% of the time. He noted that "some people never have words going on, a few people have words all the time, and most people experience words some of the time." Surprisingly, the number of individuals who think without words—relying instead on other forms of mental processing, like images—is higher than one might expect, offering validation for what my partner described.

What fascinates me most about this is how it ties into mediumship. When I receive messages, I often “hear” them—a voice inside my mind. Other times, they come to me as images or movie-like scenes. It makes me wonder if some of us are naturally more attuned to our intuition, because of the unique ways we experience our inner worlds. An equally captivating realization from sitting in a mediumship circle with other mediums is that each person has their own distinct approach. While we share common ground, every individual perceives and interprets messages in slightly different ways. This echoes the idea of our conscious experience—we are all interpreting our realities in ways that reflect our individuality and unique capacities, and this beautifully extends into the realm of mediumship.

At the end of the day, any empirical attempt to measure a conscious experience showcases the remarkable diversity of individual perception and underscores the complexity of defining consciousness. Among the three great scientific enigmas—the Origin of the Universe, the Origin of Life, and the Origin of Consciousness—the last remains the most perplexing. Unlike physical phenomena, consciousness relies on subjective experience, making it challenging to quantify or fully understand. It bridges the worlds of philosophy, neuroscience, and even quantum theory, continually expanding the limits of human knowledge. What I find endlessly intriguing is how, as a race of humans equipped with incredible brains, we have yet to fully grasp the origins of our own experiences or unlock the immense potential that resides within us. To me, this signals that we have much more to discover about our capabilities and the ways we can tap into these readily available gifts.

Hurlburt, R. T., & Heavey, C. L. (2006). Exploring inner experience: The Descriptive Experience Sampling method. John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aicr.64