this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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This reminded me of a sort of similar topic, and curiously enough it's about reading, and might provide some insight into your question.
Some years ago, I happened on a thread in which the OP asked people whose voice they "heard" when they read.
I couldn't even make sense of that question. The only time I "hear" voices when I read is when a character speaks. The rest of the time, I not only don't "hear" the words - I'm not even really aware of them. My eyes follow the lines while my brain instantly translates the words I'm seeing into images and concepts and the like. And yes - it's like a movie playing out inside my brain, and yes, I'm a #1 on this chart.
But apparently there's a not insignificant number of people who "hear" a book inside their heads just as if someone else was reading it out loud. Instead of visualizing things, they remain focused only on the words - the representations - and somehow glean from them alone the necessary details.
I wouldn't be surprised if those people are also generally #5 or thereabouts on this chart, and again what it is is that their brains don't directly envision things but instead rely on descriptive representations.
I don't get how it works either, but self-evidently it does.
I hear a narrator if I decide to; otherwise the words just go directly into my brain like you described. I just had Morgan Freeman read your comment to me for funsies.
Afaik the two are unrelated. I'd guess the ‘narration’ rather might be tied to the internal monologue. E.g. I'm around 2 or 3 on visualization, but have lots of monologuing going on constantly, and likewise ‘hear’ the text being read unless I specifically try to skim. It's also worse in the second language, which is English for me, while I can read my native language faster — I've noticed before that the second language requires more brain processing and isn't absorbed as directly.
Do you have the internal monologue, when not reading?
The ‘speed reading’ technique, of which you might've heard, is all about turning off the internal narration while reading and just absorbing the text directly. However, studies show that for most people, the narration helps comprehension and recall; and also that everyone or nearly everyone has subvocalization when reading, i.e. involuntary muscle movement of the throat, mirroring the words that they're reading.
It depends on the situation.
I actually have it sometimes when I read - like when I'm reading something purely conceptual, like a question on a forum.
Basically, as near as I can tell, if it's a written description of some tangible thing or place or event, I jump straight to visualizing it and the words don't really register. But if it's conceptual - an expression of an idea or philosophy or such - I "narrate" the words to myself.
I also have an internal voice - my own - when I write, presumably because I can't directly share my visualizations, so have to translate them into words right from the start.
When I'm not reading, it seems to split broadly the same way - I only have an internal monologue regarding things that are conceptual. If it's available to my sensorium, then my consciousness of it is simply those sensory impressions without the accompanying words, so no internal monologue.
But if it's something conceptual, or something I'm sharing with someone else, then I translate it into words.
Well, it seems that you don't have the internal monologue as a mandatory part of your everyday life, instead using it sporadically as a helping instrument — which also translates to you not using it when reading, for the most part.
Although it seems weird to me that you're using narration for conceptual things, and not ones describing tangible stuff. Since you're a borderline case, you might want to commit yourself to one of the neuropsychology departments, for us normies to study what the hell is going on in your brain.
I think you missed the point of this thread.
Again, I want to emphasize that what's going on in your mind is not normal at any point, and you need to immediately surrender yourself to the nearest mental hospital, to be studied by your friendly psychotherapists and neuropsychologists. This is a matter of humanity's well-being.
Wow! No, I've never "heard" a novel. Some writing is easy enough, like a meme where, "You just read this in Morgan Freeman's voice." OTOH, I didn't "hear" it, but somehow I read it that way in my mind's eye/ear.
I might be a 5 on the hearing scale! That's really something to think on.