Where do our own thoughts come from?

Question

We are in control of what thoughts we chew on.
There are many thoughts that "pop" into our mind.
I wonder, where do they come from?
Besides God and past experience.
What makes them appear at that given moment?

Answer 1

It may be difficult to list “all” of the places our thoughts come from; there are so many. Certainly they come from our experience and knowledge and problems and many things we’ve pondered and stored in memory. They are also generated by our emotions and five senses. Other people and things and events also generate thoughts. Aside from the more obvious generation of old thoughts or those from external experience and event, we do seem to have an internal thought generator.

When I am settled and at peace and open to new thought, when writing poetry, for example, I am sometimes flooded with so many thoughts and new ideas that I can’t possibly write them all down fast enough before I forget most of them. This is an example of the thought generator, consciously put to work, in overdrive.

Because of our brains being split down the middle, the two halves are separate and unaware of their separateness. They can work together on a common thread, but consciousness exists apart from the things we are conscious of. We are aware of thoughts and feelings, but these were not generated “consciously.” Neither is consciousness an entity (as is usually taught).

We are also taught that “will” is a separate entity, but it is not, neither separate nor an entity. Consciousness and the will are opposite polarities
(passive and active) of the same function. They are not really separate. They are two parts of the same thing, so I shall heretofore refer to them as “consciousness/will,” or imply “C/W.” As two parts of the same thing, they act in concert together. But the will also exists apart from the functions it sanctions, initiates, selects, controls, or suppresses.

We have verbal and graphic thoughts, but we also have a “thought generator, that throws thoughts into the sphere of consciousness, but functions outside and independent of the will. This is the mind.

We also have feelings, emotions and sensations, but also a “feelings generator” (incorrectly labeled as our soul). The generator of thoughts, emotions, and sensations is one and the same. But we have no perception of its existence and activity. Something (this thing) is working outside our sphere of consciousness that is guiding our physiological, mental, sensual, and emotional functions. This hidden, subconscious, or unconscious agent is called the spirit, the psyche, or soul.

Most people describe themselves with their habitual pattern of thought and emotional responses to events. And too, most people identify themselves as the thought generator (their minds) and its contents (their beliefs).

This misunderstanding is responsible for the impossibility to “Know thyself.”

The consciousness/will, or C/W, are the indicators of ourselves. If I assign them to the essence of our being, then I am defining our Selves as functions instead of entities. It becomes clear then, that these faculties within us are really the essential expressions of who we are, made by God to serve a function in the world.

Without God in the picture, we are reduced to nothing—a lost and helplessly drifting vessel. We are that which perceives the mental and physical worlds, but is imperceptible itself; that which “will” changes, but cannot (or will not) be willed or influenced to change. We are not aware of it, but C/W is the means through which we are aware of and dominate the world—inner (mental) and outer.

The spirit is the generator of our thoughts and emotions and sensations, as well as the functional agent behind our physiological functions (heartbeat, respiratory, blood flow, etc.); these are the forms and force--- through which our living is conducted, but is not who we are, even though we mistakenly think so. The spirit (unconsciousness) is the storehouse of knowledge, but devoid of consciousness, is incapable of knowing this knowledge. Neither can it know itself or anything, even though it stores the knowledge of the universe. And herein is the crux of the problem.

The consciousness/will can know, but has no storehouse of information. The C/W can initiate changes in the spirit, but lacks the power to carry them out. It can know itself and can identify with the not-self.

The spirit cannot initiate changes in its activities, but it is receptive to change from influences proceeding from the will, suggestions and stimuli from the environment, provided it is exposed to these at the right time or in the proper manner.

The underlying causes of our problems in the world, then, is lack of knowledge of Self, and acting with lack of truth or knowledge. We identify with the modalities of the unconscious, the spirit, instead of the conscious will.

The consciousness/will can decide which thoughts, feelings, and actions will be acceptable, but cannot generate thoughts and feelings, and lacks the power to carry out the acts it indicates to take place. On the other hand, the spirit has the power to generate thoughts, feelings and actions, but cannot direct these. One of them knows and directs, but is uninformed, while the other is incapable of knowing and directing, yet it is the power "to do" in the world.

Power is not an attribute of the will. The concept of interpreting the inability to act as desired, as weakness of the will, is erroneous. Nothing is wrong with the driver, if the car breaks down.

Without some Divine hand or purpose connecting the C/W and the spirit, we can't know anything, are totally lost, and can't possibly act correctly. The car has no driver; it is empty.

Answer 2

Our thoughts come from our genes, environment, education and our brain chemistry. I believe our brains have a "mind of their own."

I do not believe we are always in control of what thoughts we chew on. Science has shown that we do not always have the power to control our thoughts. Those who suffer from clinical depression or are subject to bipolar disorder are not in control of their own thoughts.

The ability to concentrate takes the appropriate brain chemistry plus the training of our brain function.

As for those thoughts coming to us at any given moment, it has to do with nerve endings that make connection. The synapses at those nerve endings will make or not make connection between nerve endings and therefore some thoughts will or will not occur.

I believe that God plays a part in that process only to the extent that we choose to see a relationship between God and that process or that we see God to be a part of all things, including the "star stuff" from which all things come, hence our genes, brain chemistry, etc.

For me, there is no mystery about it. We are not physiologically capable of seeing all possibilities and seeing all possibilities as being possible.

Answer 3

Well, according to John Locke....when we are born our minds are like a blank sheet of paper. We have no knowledge, no experience, no ideas are formed yet...
Some scientists wouldn't agree, and say that we are actually born with some sort of memory inherited from our parents. And by that they explain random thoughts, and ideas that 'POP" in our head's outta nowhere without previous knowledge or contemplation.
Although u said not to use experience to answer this, but i'm gonna have to say it is also experience. We learn things in life that we use when needed.
It's also our unconscious, it guides us if we listened, and took it to our advantage.
Good luck

Answer 4

Most of the time you have thoughts which is adopted from others. On that base you creating your beliefs to live with. Thoughts which is generated by your essence coming for your observation through the filter of your created beliefs, distorted enough to be rejected as not valid or direct thoughts which coming amplified with particular feeling might be rejected for it demand you to stop do what you happily doing sometimes. So you choosing...

Answer 5

As you mentioned, God and past experiences contribute to that.

Our subconsciousness picks up informations we might not know and it finds its way to our conscious minds when there are cues or things that arouse our senses and our conscious minds picks up memory or thoughts from our subconscious mind.

Answer 6

Our own thoughts come from our own brains. No deities involved. Why do we think what we think when we think it? Well, that's something to think about, isn't it?

Answer 7

thoughts are sparks of neurons in our brains