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I want to know how to think about feelings and emotions, in the framework we have been developing this week and last. What is it when I feel sad, happy, frightened, etc.? And where is it?  I know I should be able to use my understanding of the cognitive unconscious, the I function and the storyteller to understand 'feelings', but I am having some trouble  'telling' this story.

Someone sent me a link to a talk by Jeff Hawkins on YouTube about his 'theory' of how the brain works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6CVj5IQkzk  It's pretty interesting, though this talk is a few years old. I was trying to read his book, On Intelligence, but I think this is probably a quick summary of his ideas. He talks about intelligence as defined by prediction, based on the brain's observing patterns, storing memories and making predictions. Sounds similar to what we've been talking about here.

 On another note, I've searching to try to remember the name and author of a novel I read about a nun who experiences intense mystical visions, which she then eloquently writes about, who learns that the visions are likely caused by temporal lobe epilepsy. She then needs to decide whether to treat the epilepsy and lose her visions and her writing.  It's called Lying Awake by Mark Saltzman, and , as a review says, it " probes the nature of spiritual illumination and the meaning and purpose of prayer in everyday life; and, at bottom, there lurks a profound meditation on the mystery of artistic inspiration."  A very powerful read.