Interlocutionary Mental Phenomena

Recently added to the articles section of Bodhimind Institute is the paper entitled “Interlocutionary Mental Phenomena, Part I”

From the paper:

The practice of Zen meditation has much in common with the practice of science. In Zen, one observes dispassionately and without assumption. And, in this manner, what is observed is seen as it is, rather than according to a preconceived set of notions. Therefore, it is somewhat different from the religious traditions that interpret their observations in terms of a customary belief system. Over the course of several decades of Zen meditation practice, one has the time and occasion to observe many phenomena in great depth. And, it is from these observations that the material in
this paper is gleaned…


For every person, there are images, sounds and objects that easily evoke certain predictable biological responses in that person that are uniquely personal to them. For instance, wood is a material that most people are familiar with, but we do not all have the same biological response when holding a piece of old weathered plank. One person may think that the object is a piece of refuse to be discarded, another may think that this is a treasured link to nature, another may think of reminders of their childhood home.

This article addresses one of these biological phenomena that people commonly experience. This is the phenomenon of the thinking process that includes a non-auditory sensation of speaking within the head. The material that is being presented here is about how this works as it has been learned through observation, rather than from a theory of what is at work in this phenomenon.
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