A person has a range of thoughts available to them in the moment, which for want of a better word, we’ll call their ontology. We’re using a slightly unusual definition of a thought as simply the atomic unit of a mind. A thought occurs and the thinker experiences it. Sometimes it’s clear to them that they are thinking, but more often than not the thought appears as if it’s part of their external reality, their circumstances. Their level of self-awareness, also called consciousness, determines to what degree they see the thought as them thinking versus being an immutable part of an independent reality, their circumstances.

Many times when people think about thinking they talk about the thoughts that occur and how these occur, but not the ontology from which they occur. That’s a surprisingly useful lens through which to think. As awareness grows the breadth of their ontology, or their bandwidth, grows too. As this awareness shrinks their bandwidth shrinks too. With a greater breadth of thinking, a greater bandwidth becomes possible and experiencing existing circumstances differently becomes more likely.