I don’t know if anyone has given much thought to this and I haven’t done any kind of research to determine if there is any clinical data to back it up, but for a long time now I have held the belief that our conscious minds harbour not one stream of thought, but rather two. Those times when you are aware of a song playing in the background of your mind while you actively work at a problem is, to me, the proof of this duality — the foreground thought process dealing with the task at hand, and the background thought process recounting a melody replete with lyrics and guitar solos. There are also those occasions when I may be working at a problem or perhaps carrying on a conversation, when I become vaguely aware, sometimes intermittently, of another stream of thought working in the background of my consciousness on a completely different track from the task at hand.
I don’t know if others have experienced the same phenomenon, but I must assume that I’m not unique in this regard. I only write about it now because I’ve never in my 33 years heard this opinion expressed by anyone. It is my impression that one stream of thought has always been assumed, but then it’s not something that would come up in general conversation. I know that before I really thought about it, I had assumed one stream, one thought process.
So what? Well, I got to thinking about why this might be. What would precipitate such an evolutionary development? Some kind of advantage must be conferred by such an arrangement. I have no concrete answers to this, but I have some ideas, the most prominent of which is the notion that these two streams of thought actively intermingle to produce at their points of conflagration, like brilliant sparks, new and unexpected ideas. Recount the number of times you’ve completed half of a sentence when you’ve been suddenly struck sideways by a notion that seemed to come out of thin air. Many a eureka! in science came to the discoverer in such a way; a sudden gelling of random thoughts. I propose that these things happen when the foreground and the background streams of thought conjoin to spark a novel notion, interacting like two waves crossing a pond in oblique directions, the meeting point of the two crests creating a point in the water higher than either of them. In short, the interactions of these streams of thought produce what can only be called creativity or, in some instances, insight.
I mentioned that I sometimes sense a second stream of thought operating ‘intermittently’ in the background. I don’t know if this is merely a perceived intermittence brought on by the conscious minding of the foreground task — a sort of blinder effect — or rather a real intermittence whereby the background stream of thought is actually dropped in order that all of my faculties can be brought to bear on the foreground task. At any rate, it appears that in a relaxed state of mind the background stream of thought is afforded more mental effort than in times of deep concentration. That is, I am generally more aware of the background stream of thought when my mind isn’t occupied by any specific problem, and most prominently when I’m in daydream mode. The second stream of thought appears to be a luxury only made possible by the relinquishing of energy by the first. This idea fits neatly with the generally recognized truism that people are most creative when their mind is relaxed, and least so when distracted or disturbed.
The sensation of being mentally in the zone occurs commonly among programmers and other occupations demanding intense focussed thought for prolonged periods of time. Speaking as a programmer, this is the holy grail of states of mind. It is achieved relatively rarely, but is always sought and represents a time of peak mental performance. During these times of intense focus, the programmer behaves as if in a trance, unresponsive to and unaware of outside distractions. Hours pass without notice. A marching band could parade past his desk and he or she would scarcely blink. I believe that it is during these periods of time that the background stream of thought is truly quelled, while the sum total of all our mental resources are committed to the maintenance of just one highly focussed thought process. During these times a great deal of work can be accomplished, but it is not a time for real creativity. I tend to enter this state of mind after all of the creative work and problem solving has already been done and what remains is to implement an already mapped out stratagem.
At any rate, these are my current thoughts on the topic — not exactly a well rounded essay, but I’ve run out of gas for the moment. This stuff takes a long time to write, phew! If anyone has any thoughts, issues, questions, comments, please let me know.