Speaking as a meditation teacher, it's actually much worse. The average person is completely unaware that they are having thoughts, or that thoughts form an interpretative story about reality. It is so close, so continual, so normal, that they cannot even detect it One reason meditation begins with an object (e.g. sensations of the breath, a flame, etc) is so that repeated distraction from the task begins to make clear what the distraction is composed of. At the start, a beginner meditators mind might wander for 20 minutes before he finally remembers he is supposed to be watching the breath. This continues, until he eventually starts to catch it a little sooner, and a little sooner. With time, perhaps many years, he starts to disembed from this layer of mind until eventually both the object and the thoughts can be perceived simultaneously in the same field of awareness But this state of distractedness, this sense of permanently being embedded in the thought layer, is where 99% of humanity resides day to day. Without any kind of practice that systematically trains awareness of and disembbeding from it, it typically remains invisible For the average person, moment to moment experiences are so continuously and pervasively processed through this layer that it cannot even be seen that it's thought. Let alone any investigation into a shadow. It is simply the eyes they see the world with. The way that the world simply seems to be. And of course, also the primary cause of all suffering One of the most common report of a novice meditator is that he/she doesn't think much. And one of the most common reports of someone further along the path is a shock at how much thinking previously constituted their entire experience of life, and what a relief it is to be more free of it. And more than this, what a beautiful surprise it is that life functions perfectly well without this constant overlay, and how much energy is liberated as a result