Randomness, Apropos of Nothing
I am entirely capable of not thinking of Pink Elephants. At least, I am capable of not visualizing pink elephants when I see the words "pink elephants". When someone dares me, "Don't think of an elephant!" one of two things happens. Either:
A) my brain is stymied into confusion and responds, "Don't think of an elephant? Okay...." while focused, as is traditional, on the face of the person with whom I am having a conversation, or...
B) I think of the word 'elephant' exactly as you just read it. If someone dares me not to think of a pink elephant, I think of the word 'elephant' in pink font.
Basically, unless I am daydreaming, whatever I am staring at is exactly what I am visualizing.
I kind of wonder what that says about me, besides the fact that you can't use "Don't think about X!" as a tactic to telepathically lift information about X from my brain. You're much more likely to get song lyrics, since I am singing to myself inside my head pretty much 24/7.
I have it on good authority that this habit is annoying as hell to telepaths.
A) my brain is stymied into confusion and responds, "Don't think of an elephant? Okay...." while focused, as is traditional, on the face of the person with whom I am having a conversation, or...
B) I think of the word 'elephant' exactly as you just read it. If someone dares me not to think of a pink elephant, I think of the word 'elephant' in pink font.
Basically, unless I am daydreaming, whatever I am staring at is exactly what I am visualizing.
I kind of wonder what that says about me, besides the fact that you can't use "Don't think about X!" as a tactic to telepathically lift information about X from my brain. You're much more likely to get song lyrics, since I am singing to myself inside my head pretty much 24/7.
I have it on good authority that this habit is annoying as hell to telepaths.