Hi Mile3

You are touching on an area that I have been fascinated with for the last 8-10 months.

I have been trying to understand the nature of our mind when we are in the middle of thinking something, and when there is a complete absence of thought.

Through various answers, I have shared many of the techniques I have been applying in trying to figure this out.

It is from these experiments that I came to the realization that "thinking" is not the primary method of comprehension.

We comprehend things, "anything", firstly at an instinctive level where there is no thought to distract that flow of information.

That's the moment when you go "I HAVE GOT IT!” the moment when the symbolic light bulb of understanding goes on within your presence.

But then we now start the process of translating "that" understanding into a format that is compatible and standardized within this 5-sense based 3-dimensional existence, and in doing that we convert what we have just "Understood" into a translation called "Thought"

Because If you study the nature of thought and the spoken word, you will realize that you need thought to translate your understanding into words. They are so interconnected, that you can sometimes substitute one with the other.

It you notice, people have used a tape recorder to immediately capture an idea before it is lost, by speaking about it. When you have a conversation with someone, you have no idea how you are going to put together the sentence that you just began to speak. The sentence constructs its' self magically, and translates this flow of information that is, sort of, waiting in the wings to be translated for consumption in a 3rd dimensional context.

When you start to play with silence, you start to stumble on the stage of your own consciousness where things are "waiting in the wings" and you have the choice to "think" them into existence for comprehension within a 3rd dimensional context or you can "touch" them with another ability that you already possess.

That ability can be described as a Hunch, a feeling, an inspiration, a movement, an understanding, or even an INSTINCT.

In my experience I have found that the moment you label "it" you fall into the "TRAP" of controlled reality.

You can describe it as any of the words I have used here, but each of those words has an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Those words have a "definition" that locks their energetic potential within an accepted predictability within our collective consciousness.

The moment you accept the definition as "Instinct" or any other word, your potential with that energy is locked into the "accepted common denominator definition" of our species.

So it is up to you. You can define it and label it in an attempt to "understand it" but all you are really doing is imprisoning the potential of your soul's discernment within a predefined matrix of repeatability at the lowest common denominator of comprehension.

And the more I look at "what has been hidden from view" the more I realize that what I am saying here has been understood and deliberately kept out of the mainstream to facilitate a highly controlled society.

Simply put if you are "Thinking" you are under control.

And there is no mechanism available for a thinking mind to discover that this is what is actually going on.

It is like you are in a play and the only tools available to you are the scripts that are given to you and as long as you are identifying with being the actor within the play you can't figure out that the whole bloody thing has another level that is being constantly translated to a pre-determined set of "accepted" reality and behavior.

Trying to understand this reality by thinking about it guarantees the continued script within the play.

The system is built up with such beautiful sophistication that when you suddenly find yourself outside of it, you shake your head in disbelief. Everything that people are so proud of in terms of "possession" and "accomplishments" are such beautiful prisons of their own acceptance, and they have no idea that that was the real purpose behind them.

There is a lot more to that scene in the matrix where Neo is given the opportunity to take the red pill or the blue pill.

That's where you are at by asking this question.

So congratulate yourself for getting there by your own effort.

Unfortunately, by waking up to this understanding, you are choosing a rather lonely path.

You are starting to "get" something that most people will not comprehend.

Not because they are incapable of comprehending it, they are afraid of it.

How do you deal with knowing that everything that you have given importance to is irrelevant to where we are going as a species?

YOU are primarily a soul with instinct.

YOU have always operated at that level without ever knowing it.

Thinking prevented you from knowing it.

YOU are starting to know it.

We will eventually learn to operate without thought (AS WE ALREADY DO RIGTH NOW!!!!).

When we eventually shake off the conditions that force us to operate within only thought we will all realize that we always operated without thought but were forced to share our instinctive free will with a system that depended on "knowing" what we will do next so that our desire can be channeled within a controlled and accepted circumstance.

OK I think I'll stop now before you guys throw me in an insane asylum.

Added Later

Upon reading Michaela's (and later, Wandering dude's) comment, I felt that some "fixing up" and some explanation might be helpful.

First I edited out the "F" word because, while I do feel like using it, it takes away from the entire direction and intent of this forum.

Next: the comment about "possessions and accomplishments being prisons", I think will be miss-understood in a way that the reader will feel insulted.

So let me share where this point of view is coming from.

From what I understand, we naturally exist within a point of reference, where the ego is the default reference point of the "I am" presence.

This is the default place of existence for all of us.

When the ego is the "window" through which we peek outwards, we unconsciously filter out everything that is "useless" to the ego.

So much of what we are now searching for, such as intuition and inspiration, are things that are usually discarded by the ego.

But then, when you start getting close to silence, you start to notice that the ego is actually riding on top of intuition and inspiration, all the time filtering out anything it cannot claim responsibility for.

How does it claim responsibility for inspiration?

It uses a mechanism called rationality.

Within the mechanism of rational thought, the ego solidifies its dominance through the concept of "authentication".

If it cannot be authenticated it is irrelevant and not real.

It is at this stage that the ego plays the usual game of "are you saying that anything you think of can be relevant in reality?"

And as I said before, come up with the thought first and then ask yourself how did you know how to formulate an example that is physically and conceptually impossible?

You have to know the difference between possible and impossible to have the ability to come up with it.

This ability is not at the reference point of your ego.

That "knowing" is what the ego is taking responsibility for, preventing you from seeing that every though you have has a nudge from inspiration.

In this reality we have to enjoy our possessions and accomplishments. That is the framework within which we experience "Joy" and "Happiness".

But we must examine it for what it is.

It is essentially an addiction for the ego.

The ego craves more and more accomplishment and possessions for it is never satisfied once the "effect" is gone.

And I believe that the reference point maintained by the ego is energetically compatible with other sources of manipulation.

So we may have been manipulated into this "ego" reference point and given all the pleasure stimulation necessary so that we would never dream of "waking up" to the freedom that is actually available to us.

In the ego reference point you are filtering your true potential down to the accepted and existing reality opportunities, and anything outside of that is rejected by the self as "irrelevant" and "impossible" (because if it was possible, it would already be available). Even the explanation you give yourself is prepackaged to keep the ego happy.

But the times are changing and new winds of opportunity are blowing this way.

I think, because of this energetic shift, inspiration is finally getting a chance to creep past the filter that is maintained by the ego.

Perhaps just like "Accomplishment" and "Possessions" were addictions necessary to maintain the reference point within the ego, we may stumble upon new reference points outside the ego that may be addictive for the soul.

Is it "Love" and "Compassion" instead of "Accomplishment"?

I don't know.

But something tells me that we have to let go of the reference point of the ego to prepare for whatever change that is coming along.

Until we know what that place is we are going to feel alone and lost.

We are in a transition where we are neither here or there, and the confusion is driving most people to hold on to "there" because they are afraid.

If you are finding that life is speeding up to an unbearable pace where everything is crowding your attention driving you towards, anxiety, alcoholism, break-ups etc. chances are you are grabbing for a reference point because what worked so far is being yanked out from under your feet and you are completely lost and scared.

Only one thing can bring you a reference point.

Your instinct.

You have always had it.

But your ego took responsibility for it, allowing you to believe that random firing of your nerves somehow produced your brilliant thoughts.

I believe that the ego can't go where we are going as a species.

So we are going to have to learn to slowly trust what was always hidden underneath the ego.

We are going to have to learn to trust and also exist within a reference point of intuition instead of ego.

We already do this right now, but that realization is being filtered out by the ego reference point.

As it falls away, you will learn to default back to your intuition.

However, if "Thinking" is the only reference point you know, the shift will be much harder, for you have to discover that intuition was always where you were at, while thinking simply took responsibility for your intuition.

Phew...I think it's time to stop now.

Either there is something useful here or it is one massive pile of BS.

I ask for desires, knowing that the best is on its way. Then I may have instinctive ideas about it. If it's that sinking feeling it's usually just fear and old ideas about not deserving. I may have to reaffirm what I want. Then practice feeling good about the desire, and everything else I think about. Keep a continually feeling good thing going on all day.

I really like what you wrote here Traveller. It expanded on ideas that I had been dancing around for a while now. I agree that instincts are where our thoughts come from, but I don't think that we are necessarily reverting back to an instinctual reality. I think that we are actually progressing from it. If you look at other mammals, they seem to live in an intuitive state-of-mind. What I mean is that they don't seem to be very self-aware. Humans also live in an intuitive reality, which I like to call "auto-pilot". For example, when you are sitting on the couch watching T.V. you are not thinking about your own presence. However, we have the ability to see past this reality through cognitive thought. This ability allows us to analyze our decisions and self-reflect through metacognition. For example, if you get nervous while you are out on a date, you may be thinking about what you are going to say or do and/or analye the effect that it will have on the date. I think that this cognitive ability has been around for a long time in human history, but it is becoming more prominent as humans progress their development. However, there are still people that act in the "now". These people tend to rely on their insticts or id more than thought or ego.

instincts ...hum .. my instinctive answer to this question is that instincts are invariably right , if they turn out later to be wrong then it must have been deviated at some point .

Yes, instincts are real, but it is does not apply to every given situations in the same way.

Sometimes we do know that our instincts are true, and at other times we do know that our instincts are messages, or alerts to protect us from making the wrong decisions. I have had many instances in my life whereby my instinct has saved the day!