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[NT] Can any NT males think of nothing

briochick

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I have heard this interesting theory that men, all men, are capable of thinking of nothing. My father describes it as something like a giant black space in which a ping pong ball slowly bounces back and forth for a time.

This is difficult for me to comprehend as I'm always thinking about something. Always. Even when, and often more so when I'm asleep. It helps that I usually remember what I was thinking while I was asleep. lol, some have called me a freak of nature.

Anyway, in all my thinking it occurred to me, 'hey, NTs seem to think an awful lot, I wonder if NT guys can do this "not thinking" thing that they claim all men can do.'

So, can you?
 

therationaledge

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I have heard this interesting theory that men, all men, are capable of thinking of nothing. My father describes it as something like a giant black space in which a ping pong ball slowly bounces back and forth for a time.

This is difficult for me to comprehend as I'm always thinking about something. Always. Even when, and often more so when I'm asleep. It helps that I usually remember what I was thinking while I was asleep. lol, some have called me a freak of nature.

Anyway, in all my thinking it occurred to me, 'hey, NTs seem to think an awful lot, I wonder if NT guys can do this "not thinking" thing that they claim all men can do.'

So, can you?

Only when i think about death. But sure. A vast black void, but not black of color, black as absence of everything. With no thoughts or life.

Its a great vacation spot lol jk
 

The Decline

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This is the void. It is death. Slow down all of your bodily processes and you'll find yourself in between cycles and rhythms where time expands infinitely. Or something.
 

Alwar

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Well, if you try to not think, be sure not to experiment on the can, as that is the place where men make the most important decisions in their lives, and contemplate the deepest thoughts. It's nature, do not desecrate the throne.
 

INTJ123

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I certainly can but I don't think it has to do with being an NT male. It has to do with mastering the self, meditation, and practicing the art of staying still, staying completely still is very hard to do and if you can do it, it brings you one step closer to blanking out the mind.
 

Katsuni

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Well I know *I* can't, but then again, I'm not an NT male either. I suppose it would make sense as to why all the monks are always guys though. Them and their silly meditation... I'm too busy having a party in my head. With sock puppet golems. YEU HEARD ME.
 

briochick

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I don't know why someone would want to, but it's the ever mysterious answer to the Woman's question "what'cha thinking?"
The Man's answer being "nothing."
Which leads one to wonder, 'really?!'
 

FDG

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Yes, it's not that hard. When I'm relaxed on the beach I often think of nothing. However, I don't usually think of nothing, and I wouldn't describe the sensation similarly to your dad: when I'm not thinking I just feel completely connected to my body and "listening" to its sensations, that seems to take my full processing power.
 

MacGuffin

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This is why I fail at meditation.
 

m32

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When i push away my mind i usually go like. Wow, trees and the sky.
 

OrangeAppled

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This seems to be a sensory thing, IMO, especially those with Se. I've heard some sensors say that they can get so focused on something physical they are doing that their mind basically blanks out. They are just completely in the moment, doing, and not thinking. I find that a mostly foreign concept myself.

The closest I've ever gotten to this are brief moments in pilates and yoga where I am concentrating very hard to hold a position. You have to focus your mind on it or you topple :D. It is relaxing, because all worry is obliterated for those few seconds.
 

Polaris

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Black is a color, and space is the objectification of the distance between things. To think of a black space is to think of something, not nothing. The closest thing to thinking of nothing is for consciousness to cease, like when you go to sleep. But that cessation of consciousness is only recognized once you wake up and realize that time has passed since you fell asleep. It's light now, whereas it was dark when you went to bed, and since your experience tells you that night and day are separated by hours, you automatically fill in the blanks with those same hours in order to establish a sense of continuity. There is a contrast here between your actual experience, in which those hours did not exist, and an external, objective understanding that you constructed by watching and memorizing how the world functions. When you look at your experience from the vantage point of this second perspective, a perspective that requires those hours to exist, you recognize an incongruity, and this is what you call nothingness.
 

Animus

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It's pretty difficult for me to just stop thinking. I'm thinking from the moment I wake up until the moment it puts me top sleep. I've tried meditating a few times, but I could never get my mind to reach the state of nothingness.
 

Matthew_Z

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The problem is that I try to conceptualize nothing. Is nothing void of nothingness? And then there's the really bad puns that naturally come to mind...

-insert statement about being too paranoid to let my guard down and accept a realm of no protective thoughts here-
 

simulatedworld

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I can think of nothing worse than not being allowed to think anything.
 

EcK

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Is this thread implying something about NT females :laugh:?
 

chasingAJ

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I'm not a man but gender has never stopped me from opening my big mouth. I don't understand the ability to think of nothing and I spent a long time arguing with my ex about this. He, apparently, has this ability. When I'm not thinking in tangible terms I'm feeling and when I'm not feeling I'm numbing which takes thought to do (at least on some level). I never stop thinking and I often wish that I could.
 

lowtech redneck

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I don't know why someone would want to, but it's the ever mysterious answer to the Woman's question "what'cha thinking?"
The Man's answer being "nothing."
Which leads one to wonder, 'really?!'

We're lying. Big surprise, huh?

In that case, we're either;
1.) Thinking about something stupid, and don't want you to know
2.) Thinking about something objectionable, and don't want you to know.
3.) Thinking about something that wouldn't easily translate into words
4.) Thinking about something we don't want to think about, and therefore don't want to talk about.
5.) Thinking about something that simply wouldn't be interesting to talk about, like some basic physical, visual, or auditory sensation.

If I left anything out, feel free to add something guys.
 

Kra

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Black is a color, and space is the objectification of the distance between things. To think of a black space is to think of something, not nothing. The closest thing to thinking of nothing is for consciousness to cease, like when you go to sleep. But that cessation of consciousness is only recognized once you wake up and realize that time has passed since you fell asleep. It's light now, whereas it was dark when you went to bed, and since your experience tells you that night and day are separated by hours, you automatically fill in the blanks with those same hours in order to establish a sense of continuity. There is a contrast here between your actual experience, in which those hours did not exist, and an external, objective understanding that you constructed by watching and memorizing how the world functions. When you look at your experience from the vantage point of this second perspective, a perspective that requires those hours to exist, you recognize an incongruity, and this is what you call nothingness.

Very well put.

One can draw parallels to the idea of "I think, therefore I am." Whether you are thinking of nothing or thinking of something is irrelevant. You are still thinking.

Even meditation's purpose is not to stop the mind entirely, but rather to calm it and focus it.
 
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