One day I asked myself what it be like to think if you were deaf. Without having ever heard speech you would no doubt not think in verbal words as (I assume) most people do. Maybe you'd visualize words as we imagine our voice, but none of that really mattered because I was stuck on the concept of thought without sub-vocalization.

Recently I came across a speed reading pdf, and one of the concepts taught is to learn to not 'hear' the words you see as much as let images appear in your head. It would also seem that being able to do this in general thought could open a lot of new doors. I believe many people learn this on their own (at least the reading aspect of it) and I'm wondering if there are other ways to develop this ability apart from the various speed reading techniques.

Has anyone consciously/unconsciously developed this ability? What techinques did you apply?

Thanks.

i can read lips really well so if i like pluged my ears for a day i could make out what people were saying by just reading their lips

It is a hard job to do to silence the Mind esp when you can come across errant thoughts and obsessions, these are what the Yogi's call False Personas or Personality Constructs or possibly just sedimints within the brain that will eventually clean themselves out. Possibly Ids and Ego Constucts and Obsessions left over from residual mundane and self destructive lifestylisms abound.
This is where we know evertything may seem like Maya ie false, and fully working within Michael Talbot's Holographic Theories.
Some people use earphones or headphones to better the work of silencing the Mind, even meditating under the water can aid as well. This can work good to effectively block out extrenous thought as in verbal anchors from overheard conversations, which may replay in someone's head whilst mediating, believe me I've been there! So watch out for the Vampires!!

Thinking in a non-verbal manner is,I believe,a more advanced form of thought.Abstract concepts that do not follow a linear form or bear the characteristics of verbally formed thought seems to me to be a deeper process of thinking.On a side note I have theorized from my own experiments that it is much easier to "read" the thoughts of someone who is thinking in a linear or more word based manner.More abstract thought seems much harder to pin down and read.

abstract thought may be hard to read cuz it is not applicable or definable clearly with words. Or, it could be that it is nonsense, and it is hard to make sense of nonsense. I think the pc, the net, and tv are all forcing our minds to shift from words to pictures, which may be the big shift that is so overhyped these days. The creative side may soon replace the analytical side, or said another way, God may soon give way to Goddess. Love may replace Intellect as our prime motivator, and we may then solve things by our intuition, which may become more popular a path than linear deduction.