Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-12T23:30:00.048Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Unsymbolized Thinking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Russell T. Hurlburt
By
Sarah A. Akhter
Russell T. Hurlburt
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Get access

Summary

We have seen in previous chapters (bulimia in Chapter 2, Tourette's Syndrome in Chapter 6, a virtuoso in Chapter 14) that people, including scientists, are often dramatically unaware of salient (hay in the haystack) features of their experience. Against the argument that this blindness is characteristic only of special populations, in the present chapter and the next I present features of inner experience that are extremely common across ordinary people and yet are often unknown to the people themselves and to science. The present chapter discusses unsymbolized thinking; Chapter 16 discusses sensory awareness.

I believe that anyone who attends with adequate care to everyday experience as it is actually lived moment by moment will frequently come across experiences such as these:

Abigail is wondering whether Julio (her friend who will be giving her a ride that afternoon) will be driving his car or his pickup truck. This wondering is an explicit, unambiguous, “thoughty” phenomenon: It is a thought, not a feeling or an intimation; it is about Julio, and not any other person; and it intends the distinction between Julio's car and truck, not his van or motorcycle, and not any other distinction. But there are no words that carry any of these features – no word “Julio,” no “car,” no “truck,” no “driving.” Further, there are no images (visual or otherwise) experienced along with this thought – no image of Julio, or of his car, or of his truck. In fact, there are no experienced symbols whatsoever – Abigail simply apprehends herself to be wondering this and can provide no further description of how this wondering takes place. […]

Type
Chapter
Information
Investigating Pristine Inner Experience
Moments of Truth
 , pp. 291 - 308
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×