I was meditating on my back porch one summer evening in the mid-nineties when I suddenly noticed that every residual distraction to my focus (naturally involving the internal monologue) was being correlated by proportional, but very subtle tensions in my throat. It was then that I first realized that "thinking" in words was a literal act of just talking to oneself, and ALWAYS involved the nerves and muscles of the vocal cords.
A natural corollary follows: that if one *completely* relaxes the muscles of the throat, it becomes impossible to "think" in words. The result is a state of consciousness that is, by definition, characterized by utter silence. In the medieval Taoist text, 'The Book of Balance and Harmony,' the still mind is compared to a pool of water deep within a cave. The surface of this pool is thus so unperturbed that it a provides a perfect *reflection* of its environment...
The default perception of modern humans is that the otherwise non-stop stream of muttering and declaiming to oneself not only represents thinking, in and of itself, but is also a purely "abstract" phenomenon. This is the sort of thing that has kept the human race in a state of muddled awareness since the dawn of time, and remains largely incapable of grasping the true nature and source of consciousness.
I'll touch only briefly on one of the primary consequences of this state of affairs: The structure of any language is inherently linear, with "causes" (nouns) and "effects" (verbs) strung in sequences of "particles" of meaning (words), coupled to the belief that such a system provides, if nothing else, a very close approximation of reality --as opposed to, say, forming a tightly delineated box for the mind. Welcome to the Matrix.
The sequential nature of linear thinking permeates and circumscribes the mind with paradoxes, conundrums and problems that are entirely illusory: Which "came first", the chicken or the egg? Which "came first," time or space, particles or waves, inflation or unemployment, mind or matter? etc. etc. There are many such conundrums, both camouflaged and overt, scattered throughout all of our sciences, such that it's fair to say that, when it comes to "reality," the general run of the human race is almost completely blind.
A brief metaphor may be helpful: A sentence is like a short, linear arrow with "cause" written on one end and "effect" written on the other. In direct contrast however, the phenomenon of consciousness is entirely nonlinear --being a manifestation of electro-sensate, resonant FEEDBACK, thus manifesting to a perfect circle of events. Now take that line and bend it around until it conforms to the circle... And voila!: you have simulated the circle, but wherein cause meets effect --Head on, so to speak. And thus, which comes "first," the cause or the effect? The 'problem of consciousness' --as a phenomenon now apparently beyond logic and reason-- has thus emerged as a manifest, SENSORY conflict in the very heart of perception.
The *vortex* in your throat is key.