Do I really have internal monologue?
(Reality TV about inner experience)

Russell T. Hurlburt
Alek E. Krumm
University of Nevada, Las Vegas



Part I: Lena
Do I have internal monologue? Apparently not!


Part II: Ryan Langdon
We explore Ryan's own inner experience


Part III: Sadie Dingfelder
A case of face-blindness (prosopagnosia)


Part IV: Olivia R.
Inner experience of a well-known podcaster


Part V: Amber G., a college senior, plus
Masterclass conversations about DES


Part VI: Phil Jaekl, Ph.D., a neuroscience writer
who writes about this DES experience in Nautilus.


Part VII: Joe Jebelli, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and writer
who will write about DES in his upcoming book The Quiet Mind.


Part VIII: Gabriel H., a college senior interested in philosophy
including discussions of philosophical issues.

Ryan Langdon's January 28, 2020 blog "Today I Learned That Not Everyone Has An Internal Monologue And It Has Ruined My Day" drew 10,000,000 views by the end of February and sparked a firestorm of conversations around the globe.

Psychology professor Russ Hurlburt is the originator of Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES), a research method that uses a beeper to trigger the investigation of inner experience. His research results are what ruined Ryan's day: Hurlburt has found that whereas some people do experience constant internal monologues, many (perhaps most) do not.

Many have wondered how DES works, wondered about the basis of Hurlburt's claims. He has written six books and many articles on the topic, but has never opened the process up to real-time examination from beginning to end--until now. This site publicly unfolds the DES process as it occurs, first with Lena (who believed herself to have ubiquitous inner monologue), then with Ryan Langdon himself, then with a variety of other participants.

For more information:
Russell T. Hurlburt, Ph.D.
Descriptive Experience Sampling online materials

©2023 Russell T. Hurlburt
Updated July 17, 2023