Brian,

You mentioned a nootropic earlier. Do you care to share about it?

Sometimes you sound (no offense intended) like a bi-polar on the manic euphoria side of the swing, do you have periods where you swing the other way or is it generally up up up all the time?

I do believe it is possible to go into a state in which one has no internal sensory representations. Think of the brain, folks. There are parts of the brain associated with these representations and activity in these parts can be surpressed. Now, what sort of memory of this experience would exist?

It is possible to talk about a state of not having from a place of having. Just because you are in a state now where you have these representations doesn't mean you can't remember and talk about an experience in which you did not have them.

It has not been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that all thought occurs solely from representational systems. Yes, we do have thoughts and understandings with these internal senses of ours, but does their presence mean that all thought must be defined in their terms? Is it possible to have non-sensory thought? I think so. Just like it is possible and often the case that we have non-linguistic thought.

I am thinking in terms of lanuage when I disucss these things therefore every subject that I think about must be in the same structure of language. So when I am running everything I do and think must be of the essence of running and nothing else. Right? Even though I am talking about encyclopedias they are running encyclopedias ... see the flaw here?

No. I use language to talk *about* my thoughts. This doesn't mean these thoughts are necessarily linguistic. Same principle for representations. All brain activity is not sensory brain activity. I believe brain activity involved in thought is not always sensory in nature. Our sensory experience provides data which is processed through thought, but it isn't the only kind of data there necessarily is. So, I am basically saying that one is aware of sensory impressions and activity. This means awareness is not dependent upon the senses to exist. We can simply be aware. Of what? Well, that, I think, is developed over time and often the subject of spiritual matters.

[This message has been edited by babayada (edited August 31, 2003).]