Ever Have "Pure Thoughts"?

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Thoughts without words, without images, without any kind of representation what so ever, that you had no representation for but still understood?

I notice I get these sometimes. It will start as just a thought and I'll be aware of it, but it won't have a representation and I'll have to stop and think about how I want to word it.

I know they are there. I call them 'dark thoughts' because they are so intangible compared to thought that come in image or talk, not because they bum me out or anything

Yeah I think I know what you mean. I reckon it is like an animal thought. When animals have thoughts they cannot put them into words.

Are your thoughts definate? Or do they seem unclear and are more like feelings? I get thoughts which I would describe as not having words or pictures but they have a somewhat dampened feeling associated.

That's my main mode of thought.
I always thought that other ways of thinking seemed awfully slow and cumbersome.

When I read the topic I though that "pure thoughts" meant celibate, chaste, religious thoughts. Haha.

Unless I am engaging in or imagining myself engaging in social interaction or something specifically involving words (reading, listening to lyrical music, etc), this is generally my primary mode of "thinking." "Thoughts" are not words or images, but impressions, concepts, patterns, wordless understanding, formless confusion; perception, opinions, and emotions are one cohesive blur which are nearly impossible to separate into distinct component units. If you have read Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and remember the Tralfamadorians' books--I have imagined that it is like that. You simply open it and there it is all at once; nothing so cumbersome as turning from one page to the next to piece the story together bit by bit is required.

It can make communication a challenge. Amazingly, however, I have found that it is something one can alter somewhat over time and through concerted effort. I used to be nearly unable to express myself in any way resembling accuracy and now I think I do quite well, most of the time.

Yes, this is my default way of thinking. If there are no words in my mind everything relaxes. It's what I consider my natural state.

Almost like I'll think of an idea or form a concept in my head and experience solely as an idea or concept.

I can process it into words (And pictures when that helps on the way to words), but only do that when I'm trying to communicate it and don't always bother otherwise. So these are definitely definite thoughts. Sometimes in under a minute I'll have thoughts that if translated could fill a few pages but takes a while.

I would sit in class in 3-4 grade and think about what I call "everything and nothing" instead of doing my work. So in my report card it says Daydreams a lot.
It was like these feelings that just came and went, and I was virtually somewhere else in my head.

Pure thoughts are the only ones that I have. I rarely have thoughts about sex, drugs or drinking.

... would be my best description, and I seldom even attempt to verbalize them. Rather, they are like "filters" or "overlays" making "pure comprehension" and verbalized expressions of related things possible.

I have tried to explain this very thing to people and the response is invariably a blank stare. I am actually most comfortable when I am NOT thinking verbally or visually. I prefer a state of non-symbolic thought. Sadly, I have become so practiced at the expected modalities of these things called 'people' that I find it increasingly difficult to "float about" in that state of mind. But I'm working on reversing that. I don't care anymore. I feel much less stress when I don't have to spend so much energy translating my thoughts into acceptable formats.

Oh yes. I learned not to voice these things the moment I learned that I am autistic and most people are not. These days, I just explain myself with, "I'm not very good at putting things into words," if anything at all.

I am writing a novel at the moment and I have endless ideas coming to me that have no form or words or pictures. They are just ideas. I get frustrated that I get so many and cannot write them down. Thankfully the good ones seem to hang around in my head and I form words and pictures from them eventually.

same here lol.

I have this problem. So real and yet so insubstantial. You have my sympathies. I'm happy you are able to turn them into words.