Hi there Terry, I am not perfectly fluent in inner silence J sometimes I will enter such states spontaneously as it where, and sometimes I will successfully enter such states by will or by engaging in an activity which leads towards inner silence. Sometimes on the other hand I will fail in entering such states, despite this being my intention. I mention this so you know from which position I offer my comments. When I use the term inner silence it is slightly misleading of course. What I am really refering to are states where no part, or a very small part of my attention are directed towards the verbal portion of my internally generated experience. What signifies a state which is free from words? In all sensory channels all of ones attention is directed towards nonverbal portions of their content. Using words to talk and think about states without words is of course slightly tricky - since the words themselves negate what they describe if one uses them to describe ones ongoing experience or what one wants to experience simultaneously as one uses the words. There is a trick here. I suppose most people have had plenty of wordless experiences, only thing is that it is a bit tricky to keep track of them if one is used to keeping track of things with words. Sometimes a persons internal dialogue may have a function to fill. The trick in those cases is to maintain those functions while insisting on having silence as an option. 6-step reframing may come in handy. Or a new code game. Grinder sometimes tells about how after he and the others had invented the Metamodel he would apply it on his own internal dialogue, and thereby ending up in the position where he has internal dialogue when he chooses to. Anyone applying the noun and verb specifier on their own internal dialogue may note how it leads the attention more and more towards nonverbal representations. Another way is to engage in activity which necessitates the direction of ones attention towards the nonverbal portions of experience. Playing new code games tends to do this. For me a couple of other behaviors which have had this effect are skiing downhill fast enough so that there is no room or time for talking to myself and getting multiball while playing pinball. I have never played tennis, but I read Timothy Gallways inner game of tennis, in which he suggests that one can get rid of the disturbing aspects of ones internal dialogue by substituting it with words like “hit” and “bounce” whenever the raquet makes contact with the ball, or the ball bounces on the floor. Betty Edwards noted that something similar often happens as one enter a state in which one draws things like one sees them: ones internal dialogue starts to consist of words like: “up … slightly there … down … left …” Of course such simple words may be substituted with nonverbal sounds. Another thing to experiment with may be to use micro-muscle movements to mimic another persons bodymovements and facial expressions. If they should happen to talk or create vocal noices subvocalizing these as well. The skillset developed thereby may also be used for going second position with someone who is silent on the inside. The skillfull application of the miltonmodel either by yourself, or someone else who is skilful in its applications J may also be advantageous. Well, those are some possible suggestions for moving towards nonverbal experience. The next question, after one has the option, may be where and when one prefers nonverbal experience to verbal thinking. I hope some of this helps you. All the best Thomas