[gmoot]

"You" can learn to steer your mind by choosing which of these thoughts to capture and dwell on, by monitoring them.

There is voluminous writing in the area of monastic spiritually about this. On the one hand, they affirm that these thoughts aren't chosen, using the vocabulary of sinful thoughts introduced by demons. But it's also clear that change is possible through prayer/meditation (not exactly identical to modern ideas about mindfulness).

[rjbwork]

I tend to agree that change is possible and you can learn to steer, but that too is no choice.

[galaxyLogic]

I believe that our minds are much like Large Language Models. Our brains put together and combine and mix up sentences that on average have some benefit to us. We speculate to explore possible outcomes. We practice saying sentences within our heads and then explore their possible consequencees.

It is a random (but not totally random of course) process where one thought gives rise to new ones. I think that depression means being in an indirect loop of negative thoughts which amplify each other. Phychedelics might be a way to break out of such loops. But, I'm just speculating here of course.