What is happening when a person “goes on autopilot”?
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If you’ve done a task a lot, like driving, you get to where you can do it while not really paying attention. If you do that, zone out and stop thinking about what you’re doing, you’ve gone on autopilot.
Obviously, this is fine as long as nothing unusual happens, but it’s gonna be really bad if something different happens and your brain isn’t engaged. This often comes up in stories like “he was on autopilot, just waving everybody through the gate, and so he didn’t inspect the truck that the bomb was in”, and it’s probably the unmentioned cause of…I don’t know how many traffic accidents, but it’s gotta be a lot.
Your brain has two kinds of memory, long term memory and short term memory. One is for coordinating actions in the moment and one is for storing information for later on. Usually, what your brain considers important gets moved from short term to long term memory but if you’re doing something you’ve done repeatedly exactly the same way, your brain might toss all of the short term memory and none of it goes to long term memory. So you really were conscious in the moment but from your perspective afterward, you can’t remember any of it.
it means they aren’t really thinking about what they’re doing and are mainly doing it from muscle memory or rhythm that comes from them doing a task over and over again
I’ll try my best according to IFS therapy (and probably similar like Gestalt psychology).
When you think of yourself and who and what you are, you are not just a single entity. For example, your liver is processing alcohol without you controlling it, your white blood cells are fighting off infections, etc. Your heart is clearly part of you, yet you don’t tell it to pump blood.
Similarly your mind has different parts. A good example is the concept of the subconsciousness – we all accept some deeper underlying layer of us exists. Part of us, but not under our control. However, this isn’t the full picture.
Imagine your mind can create and run sub-processes like applications on a computer. As you experience events your mind automatically creates those processes to deal with it. They are called “parts”.
Parts vary widely in complexity and the roles they fulfill. When you go into autopilot you basically let one of your parts take the wheel and drive. This is one of several ways how to interact with your parts.
For example, when I analyse some data, I switch into my analyst mode. This is either letting my analyst part do it’s thing or me blending with it (think Bruce Banner vs Hulk vs Smart Hulk). That’s how your autopilot works.
When you get “random thoughts” they come from parts giving you suggestions. When you lash out at people but “didn’t mean to” it’s a part trying to protect you (in potentially unhelpful ways) by temporarily exercising control. When you hold conflicting opinions they are explained by reconciling opinions of conflicting parts (eg “I don’t mind immigrants BUT they have to learn our language”). The classic Angel and Devil on your shoulder, the internal conflict, that’s your parts.
It’s a wide and complex topic that is difficult to explore without direct experience. This article here is a great starting point: https://elemental.medium.com/inside-the-revolutionary-treatment-that-could-change-psychotherapy-forever-8be035d54770
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