Quotes from David Bohm, Thought as a System
- David Bohm on Free Will
- David Bohm on Thought, Perception and Matter
David Bohm on Free Will
p. 72 “We have to be able to think on this clearly; even though, as I said, that by itself won’t really change the reflexes. But if we don’t think of it clearly then all our attempts to get into this will go wrong. Clear thinking implies that we are in some way awakened a little bit. Perhaps there is something beyond the reflex which is at work – in other words, something unconditioned.”
p. 72 “The question is really: is there the unconditioned? If everything is conditioned, then there’s no way out. But the very fact that we are sometimes able to see new things would suggest that there is unconditioned. Maybe the deeper material structure of the brain is unconditioned, or maybe beyond.”
p. 72 “If there is the unconditioned, which could be the movement of intelligence, then there is some possibility of getting into this.”
p. 73 “If we say that there cannot be the unconditioned, then it would be foolish for us to try to do anything with the conditioning. Is that clear?”
p. 73 “If we once assume that there cannot be the unconditioned, then we’re stuck. On the other hand, if we assume that there is the unconditioned, again we are going to be stuck – we will produce an image of the unconditioned in the system of conditioning, and mistake the image for the unconditioned. Therefore, let’s say that there may be the unconditioned. We leave room for that. We have to leave room in our thought for possibilities.”
p. 220 “freedom is the creative perception of a new order of necessity.”
David Bohm on Thought, Perception and Matter
p. 146 “Thought’s participation produces all sorts of things. And it effects perception – what you think affects what you perceive outside and how you feel inside.”
p. 146 “You see of feel something produced by thought, but then the next thought comes along and says ‘I’m only telling you the way it is’. Thought makes that claim, while it is actually affecting the way things are.”
p. 147 “Thought is part of a material process. … Thought can be conveyed by material processes such as radio waves, television, writing – all kinds of ways. In talking, sound goes out and conveys thought.”
p. 147-148 “We’re saying that thought is a material process; it has reflexes that just go on by themselves. And if you have an insight or perception that this is true, then that will actually affect you. An insight or a perception of truth may deeply affect the material processes, which includes all the reflexes.”
p. 148 “We discussed yesterday that matter may be infinitely subtle. Science doesn’t know all about it, and probably never will. But matter is not just mechanical. Therefore, it could respond to that perception in very deep and subtle ways which may be beyond what science could even trace. So there can be a change.”
p. 150 “But our whole set of reflexes is against that. It says ‘thought is not a material process’. Our first reflex is: ‘Thought is far beyond matter, or separated from matter somehow. It has some spiritual truth or significance.’ This notion has been conditioned into us as a reflex.”
p. 200 “The thoughts, the fantasies and the collective fantasies are entering perception. Myth are collective fantasies, and every culture has its myths. Many of them entering perception as if they were perceived realities. Everybody has a somewhat different way in which this happens, and we don’t see the fact. That is the fact: that we don’t see the fact. There is a higher order of fact – which is that we are not seeing the direct fact.”