Eckhart Tolle describes thoughts as parasitic energy fields that masquerade as the self and consume consciousness. When you become aware you're lost in thought, choice returns and you can act from presence instead of from the mind's hijacked state.
The thoughts are little energy fields that are using you, pretending to be you. This is why I've sometimes described them as parasitic entities, all these useless thoughts. They live in your mind, pretend to be you, and using all your— up all their— all your consciousness. They're using them, using up all that. They are parasites, mental parasites. And when you're totally in the grip of a mental parasite, Choice just doesn't come in. You have no choice because you are not even there. You have been replaced by the parasitic entities. So it sounds like science fiction, but that's how ultimately how it is. It is energetically. Choice comes in the moment you realize that this is what's happening to you, because then that realization comes from the The— that which is behind the mind, there's a little bit of presence, and from there you can realize, oh, I'm completely lost in the mind. I'm completely lost. There it is. Now, if you have to realize, when you know that, the— in that moment you have a choice. When, when you realize you've lost yourself, you have a choice. And you're not completely lost anymore.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
