Daniel asked Do you think you can choose what you are th…

To some degree, yea. I can make a conscious decision to focus on a specific task for 20 minutes and my mind will mostly have strings of thought that are associated with that task. But distractions exist; sometimes while working on a task I'll accidentally look up and see the 30 tabs I have open and start scrolling through them which initiates some other string of thoughts associated with those tabs. Transient thoughts like "what if vegetable was pronounced like regrettable" can happen and then some other strings of thought happen that are associated with that...

But I'm a fairly neurotypical person -- imagine for someone with ADHD or someone with OCD: they're going to have less control over their thoughts. I think how much control you have is probably a spectrum tbh

Teo · 4y

Yes

J1smith · 4y

That'd be great but sometimes you can't resist; You just have to succumb and let the disturbing thoughts swamp your mind.

Arman · 4y

not all the time

kelcey · 4y

Excluding any metaphysical wishwash, I can steer what I am thinking, I don't believe in hardline determinism.
Also I'm mentally sound enough that I don't have compulsive thoughts all throughout.

#4001 · 4y

You can choose what to think about but you can't choose what you think or feel about something

Pawesome · 4y

No, not what you think. What you believe, yes. Those are two different things to me. Thoughts are instinctual and irrational, often operating in bursts that can just run away with you. There are times, for example, when I feel myself judging another person for how they choose to present themselves and then follow that with reason and understanding. I've always liked the example that goes, "Your first thought is what you were taught. Your second thought is who you are." I think that's a good way to distinguish between thoughts and beliefs.

MistyRiver · 4y

But you can train it.

Wasserpistole · 4y

Yes, your thoughts are your own to control. Unless you're schizophrenic.

Alice 💋 · 4y

Yes, obviously. For the most part anyway. Sometimes you don't want to think about something and even trying not to think about it makes you think of it. =P

Well, I guess my mind works according to association. One thought leads to another. But I can choose to dwell on and prolong the next thought that comes up or dismiss it. And I can choose what I'm focusing my attention on which affects the character of the thoughts that come up. And I can choose what I want to imagine, though the exact contents of the imagining seem to happen on their own.

Sometimes I dare myself to think of something powerfully that will have negative consequences and I can't help but "look at it" and hence think it. I think I do it because I'm existentially bored senseless and have been my entire life.

Then there are beliefs/expectations about something that's going to happen or not happen, and those border on being thoughts themselves.. and it's often hard to control those. I think they border on the unconscious.

Long story short: you have a lot of free will over what you think, but it's not absolute. After all, if it were, how would you choose the thoughts that make you want to think what you do? :p