# Actual Freedom ~ Frequently Asked Questions Frequently Asked Questions ## What is Thought?
| Hello Richard, forgive me if this is known to everyone and an old subject here, but what exactly is thought? What is the neuro-physiological process supporting awareness in the absence of thought?
| What determines your actions? Your thoughts – right? Do you control your thoughts? Where do they come from? Can you CREATE thoughts? If so – HOW do you create them? So if you are not creating your thoughts – who is?
| Let us first differentiate thought from perception and from feeling. When we look at the varieties of thought we can posit at least six basic forms: ... Would you like to add any before we begin our discussion on whether there is a common structure to all?
| Thought creates the notion of a ‘me’ and a ‘not’ me. A ‘me’, a watcher, a detached something could never see this since it is what thought creates. The existence of a ‘me’ or an idea of some detached position is merely imputed by thought, so it can never see or observe anything. That is the meaning of ‘the observer is the observed’.
| What was the instrument used to measure all this [12-14 milliseconds for the nerve signal to reach the amygdala]? How is thought measured and how is it determined as arising from that source?
| The bottom line is that you can’t understand the nature of mind by merely studying the words of others. Why divide the process up? Whatever presents itself in terms of divisive thought and feeling can dissolve in awareness.
| Richard, I have some questions: Is ‘human intelligence’ or ‘thinking’ or ‘thought’ (as distinct from the mind of a dog or even a gorilla) the result of or the property of or the ability to abstract? Is cause/effect the way thought must operate, otherwise it is not called ‘intelligence’ or ‘thought’? But thought is not an awareness, is not a perceiving faculty, not a sense organ, so that couldn’t be right. What is the relationship of thought, language, intelligence, the power of abstraction and apperception?
| I am wondering what is your experience of your thoughts. Do they appear to be localised in your head?
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