@jascha Hmm. I don't know if I'm neurotypical or not, I've never looked into it. I definitely don't have the gift of not thinking at all. There's always something "in the background", maybe not always something that's too tangible or easy to put into words though. I do have the habit of occasionally saying that I'm not thinking about anything particular, but the keyword is "particular". It's a stream of consciousness, like water flowing. I might not have paid enough attention to pick out things well enough to describe the things in the stream. I almost always know the gist of the thoughts during these moments, but might not have spent any energy putting words to it, and therefore struggle to describe the thoughts. I haven't yet translated it to words, if you will. So when I'm in those situations it's easier to just say that I'm not thinking about anything. And sometimes I just say that if I want to avoid talking about certain things, of course.
If some people actually _are_ able to shut it off completely I have to say that my mind is kind of blown. It's so interesting to think about how peoples' minds operate, I wish I knew more.