Un-becoming You In order to function in life, a certain kind of mechanical knowledge is necessary. This type of knowledge is based on demonstrable fact: “This is an automobile, this is a gear shift; if I turn on the ignition, put the gear in Forward and press on the gas pedal, the car will move forward.” Like tying your shoestring or walking, once the brain has assimilated this knowledge, the thinking process comes into play for the activity without your even needing to be aware of it. But the brain is also capable of a more speculative kind of thinking, which is more conscious and not dependent on fact. This is the type of thinking—imagining—that we do primarily throughout our day: “Jim and the boss are talking…probably about that new project…it could mean we’re going to start on that today.” Without making a distinction in our mind, we normally recognize both types of mental activity simply as “thinking,” and the process in either activity as “thought.” However, there is a subtle difference in the results of the two activities. When we think thoughts that are based entirely on facts, we normally draw factual conclusions, upon which we can act (whether our facts are correct or incorrect): “So, if I put the gear shift in Forward, the car will move forward; but I can’t go forward, where I am parked; so I will need to go backward…put the gear shift in Reverse.” If our thoughts are of the speculative type, we may also act upon our conclusions, even though our conclusions are not dependent on fact: “If we’re going to start on that
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