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I'll never forget the first time I heard my now-husband talking to himself in the bathroom. We were only dating at the time, and I was convinced there was something wrong with this guy. Fast forward 10 years of marriage, two kids, and several moves, and I've learned to accept this quirk.

The Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents has named Russell Hurlburt, PhD, as one of the seven recipients of the 2024 Distinguished Nevadan Award. Hurlburt, a psychology professor at the Ê×Ò³| Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­, won for his research on exploring people’s inner experience, including thoughts, feelings, and sensations.

Inner speaking, inner seeing, feelings, sensory awareness, unsymbolized thinking. Do we all have the same inner experiences? And how aware are we of what we actually experience from moment to moment?

In the F&F article on inner speech, there was a list of five common types of inner experiences, according to psychology professor Russell T. Hurlburt: emotions, sensory sensations, inner speech, visual thinking, and unsymbolized thinking. I was surprised that music wasn't on the list. I imagine that a fairly large percentage of people can hear inner music in some form, not unlike how we experience inner speech.

While experts disagree on how common self-talk really is, they wholeheartedly agree that it’s a valuable tool for self-discovery.

Many of us talk to ourselves in our heads pretty much all day long. But it turns out that there are plenty of people who don’t. In fact, thinking comes in many shapes and sizes, and no two minds are exactly alike. In this episode, we explore the peculiar world of how we think, and consider the pros and cons of inner speech.

Consciousness is what we can know best and explain least. It is the inner subjective experience of what it feels like to see red or smell garlic or hear Beethoven. Consciousness has intrigued and baffled philosophers. To begin, we must define and describe consciousness. What to include in a complete definition and description of consciousness?

Have you given it a name? I call mine Ms. Hyde. She is my friend, critic, partner-in-crime, and the voice of my willpower. She lives inside me within a cloud, a chauffeur of several hats driving the vehicle of my life.