But a physical sensation is NOT thinking. When you look up the definition of thinking, none of what you said pertains to the definition of ‘thought’, ‘thinking’ or otherwise. So more or less it’s you misjudging the definition of thinking. The person probably wasn’t looking for something complex or simple. Just whatever.
” I felt (physical sensation.” Is not thinking. It is a response to a stimuli.
However if you weren’t thinking, you probably should have said that. As often as people think, there are times when we just completely shut and rely on instinct rather than contemplate and think of what’s going to a sudden movement, activity. etc.
“I shut down. I wasn’t thinking.” is probably a response they might have expected although if they expect you to be thinking in certain situations such as rape or whatever similar punch them in the face because most people don’t think at that point. They simply rely on physical stimuli and instinct.
Some people just don’t think all the time. And thinking is often not done in words or even sound-most of the time there isn’t even color. It’s an abstract sort of thing that occurs in our brains when we examine or contemplate things, but the average healthy human brain is normally able to translate this into the known human language within milliseconds and it tumbles out the mouth in words as opposed to the abstract way it was originally done in the brain so that this thought can be communicated.

And then I’ll get told “You’re just telling me things you noticed. I want to know how you FEEL”.

I’ve even been discharged by counsellors for being ‘uncooperative’ when the real issue was that I wasn’t able to give a truthful answer that was what they wanted to hear or were conditioned to expect.

“Well I was uncomfortable with being touched.” is not thinking? Seriously?????? Say it ain’t so, Joe! (reference to Sarah Palin debating Joe Biden during the VP candidate debate in 2008)

You discussed/described this very issue brilliantly in your video “In My Language”

but I’m very curious about one thing concerning that video….it’s not entirely relevant to this post but…..how were you able to bang on the door or strike objects against surfaces and tolerate the sound? Was the sound “turned off” for you at that point?

We had to turn the volume way down for that part of the video….but it was brilliant nonetheless.

Mom- thank you for your part in bringing Amanda into the world, so she can share this knowledge with us!

Amanda, I think many people in today’s world have very busy minds that don’t turn off easily and they have to be trained not to think and just allow the senses to process. You come from another angle entirely and your writing this allows us to understand that better.

It may have suited Descartes, though he was on a hiding to nowhere rather than know where.

I suppose that thinking is an illusion caused by selective attention. There is a lot of brain activity going on, only some of it ever gets to be called thinking.

Oh well I opined today, that trees don’t exist until they get to be called trees, that means they can’t really fall in forests making no sound, because there are no forests and there is no sound but that it comes only into being when considered as such.

So even Dr Johnson the man of words was wrong in refuting Berkeley with a swift kick upon a stone, because the stone only was when his toe met it, or to be more precise when his brain noticed his toe making the connection, and made him conscious of that sensation above all others.

So really I don’t think at all, I only think I do :)