Has anyone ever had the "I thought"?

[Thomlin]

Asking because I've only just discovered this is an actual thing, with a name, practiced by other people!

When I was a little girl I remember lying in my bed awake at night trying to get to sleep and my mind would start wondering into "who am I?" territory. The only way I can describe it is like constantly asking yourself, your true inner self, what you are, who you are, why you exist etc. I'd keep doing it and go further and further "inside" almost like going deeper and deeper into space. Until I got so scared of "losing myself in there" so I'd get myself out again.

I'm aware I probably sound like a loon, I've never done this as an adult I think once I went so deep and got a bit freaked out and just forgot all about it. I was reading a book tonight which mentioned "the method of self-inquiry of Advaita" so off I went to google and ended up on Wikipedia, which called it the "I thought".

Anyway I just wondered if there was anyone else out there who had ever experienced this or something similar. Not sure I'd do it again but would love to hear thoughts or experiences!

I've never heard of this! goes off to Google

I've never done it either (that I can remember).

I've never heard of it. Is it a form of mindfulness?

Even searching for I thought and adding in Wikipedia isn't helping me understand

I think its very common

I don't do this but I do it with time. I sit there and think about time and how everything is "fake" and somebody created a way to tell time and we just follow it and it drives me to the brink of insanity and I feel like one of them mad scientists!!

I’m with you meadowmeow,
I googled it and still unclear! Can anyone give me an idiots guide please

Yes it is a form of mindfulness I think! Although I tried to do it last night and couldn't manage it like when I was little, I'm wondering if my minds too full of tatties these days

Here is the Wiki I was reading, sorry even this is a bit double-dutch but I don't really know much about it, only that I definitely experienced it as a child!

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-enquiry_(Ramana_Maharshi)

amilo intersting you've managed to get to the same state with time, I might try that one tonight as the I-thought couldn't work last night. I definitely remember like almost a feeling of going deeper into space until I was scared I'd almost forgotten who I was. Strange!

I have and similar thoughts. I don't like them and find it unsettling so try not to do it.

I used to so this as a child.

Also when trying to get to sleep.

I don't do it anymore because it scares the bejeezus out of me! As I face my own mortality, I avoid thinking these big thoughts about the nature of existence.

I also used to do this as a child and would get to a point where it would freak me out so much I had to try and think about something else!

Thank you Thomlin - I’ll give it a read

I kind of do this where I think about how the world began and how we are at this point - and it scares me so try not to do it. I feel like if given the chance I could sit in a dark room and just think these thoughts for the rest of my life!

Occasionally I start thinking about how space and time both go on FOREVER, and it makes me feel really odd. Especially the space one. There's literally no edge.

Yes I used to do his as a child. It would really freak me out and then everything would start to feel unreal and peculiar. Can’t even begin to accurately describe it. I still do it occasionally now.

We were taught how to do this in drama; at the end of lessons to help us calm down and de stress.

Good Lord yes!! it's really scary but also quite peaceful

I haven't heard of this or done it, but the idea of infinity (in terms of both time and space) used to freak me out as a child.

I can remember not being at all scared of dying, but then thinking about what would happen next. The idea that if death wasn't the end and that there was something like heaven it would go on for ever and ever and ever...... was too big to cope with and very scary.

The only form of infinity that I was happy with was numbers; the idea that there is no such thing as the biggest number because you can always add one more.

So interesting to read others have experienced it and it's freaked them out too! I do remember feeling like I had to stop and think of something else, really wonder what would happen if we didn't stop and just kept going- could this be "enlightenment"?

Not sure I really believe in enlightenment and such things but it's interesting to think about nonetheless, thanks for responding

And caria yes can definitely relate to infinity being a scary thought except in numbers. I remember Brian Cox explaining "if you give an infinite amount of monkeys an infinite amount of typewriters, one of them will type the full works of Shakespeare word for word". That blows my mind a little!!

Yep as a child definitely. Slip off into the infinity of everything, as I was lying in bed at night. Can't do it as an adult mind you. Far too riddled with adult anxieties now.