Part VIII: Gabriel H., a college senior interested in philosophy including discussions of philosophical issues
A few months ago, Gabriel H., a senior interested in philosophy at my university whom I had never met, volunteered as a Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) participant because of his interest in the intersection of DES and philosophy. I agreed if we could make his sampling part of the DES training of a graduate student.
The interviews were conducted by Russ Hurlburt (the originator of DES), Amber Goto, the graduate student, and Cody Kaneshiro (another more advanced graduate student). Because of Gabriel's analytical interests, over the course of sampling there is discussion of many philosophical issues related to DES.
Below are links to the interviews as they occurred.
In general—sampling day 1: All DES interviews are some combination of iterative training (so that future sampling days can be more skillful) and description of experience. The aim of the first sampling interview (or the first several sampling interviews) is almost entirely iterative training. First-day sampling interviews appear to be inquiries into experience, but their fundamental aim is to facilitate discussions of how to do DES more skillfully. DES recognizes that participants on their first sampling day are not skillful, so DES routinely discards first-day descriptions.
Gabriel's samples:
Sample 1.1 [3:57]: [Gabriel was watching a conspiracy theory video about Elon Musk while cooking.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel heard "he's probably some kind of cyborg" (from the speaker on the video) [the beep occurred at or after "cyborg.". This hearing might involve attending to the speaker's southern accent, but we did not clarify this with fidelity in the interview]. At the same time, he felt wackiness/slight annoyance (because of the absurdity of the video), which possibly involved a physical tenseness in his stomach.
Sample 1.2 [22:52]: [Gabriel was playing chess on his phone. Gabriel was contemplating what would happen if his opponent's queen captured a pawn.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel saw the possible paths of the queen—he saw the squares [of the queen's various paths if his pawn was taken)in 3D that shimmered (such that the 3D depth-ness was not stable and changed depending on his focus). [The 3D-ness stopped when getting to a square with a piece on it. The 3Dness of the squares was a product of Gabriel's own creation and not present in reality, but at the moment of the beep he was seeing shimmering squares.] The 3D squares were clearly seen; all other squares were blurry [CK doubts whether the other square were blurrily seen or were actually not in experience at all].
Sample 1.3 [36:05]: [Gabriel was playing chess on his phone. He was aware that, by moving his queen, he would be able to check his opponent's king.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel felt tension (as a manifestation of the check)—this tension was possibly mental, [but we were unable to determine that with confidence in the interview. Gabriel was anticipating a check which comes with the tension he was feeling]. At the same time, he saw the possible paths of his queen: he did not see his queen on the square, but instead saw the squares (that would be in his control if he placed his queen there) in a 3D-ish contrast that shimmered [the 3D depth-ness grew in contrast the more he looked at it, identical to the 3D squares in 1.2, while all other squares got blurrier].
Sample 1.4 [47:41]: [Gabriel was not confident about his experience at the moment of the beep. As a result, this beep was skipped.]
Sample 1.5 [48:16]: [Gabriel was playing chess on his phone.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel was feeling release of stress, a physical releasing-of-tension on the surface of his sternum/chest. At the same time, Gabriel saw the path of his knight to (his opponent's) queen: he saw his knight and L-shaped path of squares that led to the queen; he did not see the rest of the board. [Gabriel had a factual knowledge of safety that presented itself as the stress relief, feeling of tension release. Gabriel said he saw his phone screen as it was at the moment of the beep, minimally. Considering this is a first day of sampling, this should be considered with some skepticism.]
Sample 1.5 [56:25]: [Gabriel was whispering out loud "okay, if you say so" while looking at a shelf] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel innerly saw Jane (his girlfriend) and heard himself whispering to her "okay, if you say so." [This was an inner seeing/hearing of a situation that had occurred earlier in the day]: Gabriel saw Jane, seen as a humanish-lump sitting across from him; he saw her straight-on from the first-person perspective. The entire seeing was blurry, dim, and had a bluish-gray light over the whole scene. The whispered "okay, if you say so" was heard to be part of the innerly seen scene, despite the fact that he was in reality whispering it at the moment of the beep. (That is, at the moment of the beep Gabriel did not experience himself as actually whispering the sentence.) At the same time, Gabriel saw the blackness of his shelf.
Gabriel collected 6 samples, but we had time to discuss only 3. ...
In general—sampling day 2: All DES interviews are some combination of iterative training (so that future sampling days can be more skillful) and description of experience. The aim of the second sampling interview is a combination of experience description and iterative training.
Gabriel's samples:
Sample 2.1 [0:56]:[Gabriel was zipping his backpack.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel innerly saw Magnus Carlsen, felt a metallic coldness (of the zipper handle), saw his backpack (dimly), and heard the zipper he was closing. (The zipper hearing was least prominent; the others were equally prominent. Gabriel’s inner seeing was of Magnus Carlsen sitting with his head tilted down, wearing a white shirt, but seen more as blotches of color than a clear seeing; there was a white outline around the image [but we did not take the time to elaborate this aspect]. About the cold zipper handle, he felt the handle itself to be cold (that is, he did not experience this as sensations in his fingers). [We had a long philosophical-ish conversation about whether his inner seeing was experienced as seeing Magnus or as seeing blotches; RTH encouraged him to bracket presuppositions about the way experience must work.]
Sample 2.2 [32:03]: [Gabriel was playing chess on his phone and moved his king to E2.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (60%) felt frustration (because by moving his king he had forfeited his castle-ing rights). This feeling was mental in the sense that is did not appear to be bodily. This aspect was about the feeling only; he did not experience the loss-of-castle-ing-rights at the moment of the beep).
At the same time, Gabriel (40%) heard a crinkling of a water bottle to his left (his friend sitting next to him had squeezed the bottle, but that was not in his experience. [Gabriel's frustration was a mental feeling. However, he was unsure if that was what he experienced at the moment of the beep.]
Sample 2.3 [41:10]:[Gabriel was writing an essay.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel innerly said "we know." [Gabriel's inner speaking had no particular vocal characteristics, and in that way was similar to a whisper.
At the same time, he recognized himself as intending to continue the "we know" writing with that this is possible (those specific words were understood without the words being present at the moment of the beep).
Simultaneously he recognized as a mental fact that those words were wrong (that is, that this is possible didn't make sense in the context of the essay).
Simultaneously he felt confusion (over the discrepancy between his intention and his knowledge that it wasn't right) original words he was going to write.) Gabriel was unsure how to describe how the confusion presented itself to him at the moment of the beep.]
Prior to beginning today's sampling, Gabriel raised some questions about the quality of visual imagery, and there ensued a longish discussion about it. The interview transcript includes substantial discussion of those issues as well as the iterative procedure in general. We discussed two of Gabriel's samples (he collected six)....
In general—sampling day 3: All DES interviews are some combination of iterative training (so that future sampling days can be more skillful) and description of experience. The aim of the third sampling interview is a combination of experience description and iterative training.
Gabriel's samples:
Introductory discussion [0:32]: We discuss some philosophical / analytical issues.
Sample 3.1 [11:21]: [Gabriel was on his phone.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel saw (as one way of apprehending) a picture of a crème brulee (on his phone). As another way of apprehending, he saw a pie-like object and noticed that the brown specks on top of the pie-like object reminded him of pumpkin pie. [We could not determine whether both of these ways of apprehending were simultaneously present, or how they were present.] [This seeing was the most salient portion of Gabriel's experience.]
At the same, Gabriel says aloud (on the phone) "they do have crème brulee." This was a limited portion of Gabriel's experience and he was unsure of any inflection in his speaking at the moment of the beep.]
Gabriel also thinks (without words) that the crème brulee is in the pastry section; another way of apprehending this thinking was that he was pleased.
Sample 3.2 [39:27]:[Gabriel was looking at a cartoon his mom sent him about the fictional Italian Lombardo brothers who built the floor of the Sistine Chapel.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel innerly spoke "Sistine" and heard it with the same whispery vocal characteristics as 2.3 [but we did not do a good job of exploring this].
At the same time, Gabriel had an idea of overweight and the smell of sweat; another way of apprehending this was that he was thinking of the Italian brothers.
Gabriel also felt slight discomfort/displeasure. Another way of apprehending this was the analytical result that the joke in the cartoon was not a good one because it depended on the fact that no one knows who built the floor of the Sistine chapel when in fact their names were Lombardo as was documented somewhere.] The meaning of the word pristine was also present in Gabriel's experience at the moment of the beep (the word pristine however, was not present in Gabriel's experience at the moment of the beep.)
December 27
Interview 4
Because of a recording malfunction, there is no video or transcript from today....
We discussed five samples, and interspersed throughout RTH answered Gabriel's questions about philosophical issues...
The transcript contains further discussion of the philosophical issues. See the comments that are printed in green in the accompanying transcript.
Gabriel's samples:
Sample 5.1 [1:06]: Gabriel was listening to a video on his phone]. At the moment of the beep, Gabriel heard "like that?" in a resistance fighter's voice (with sarcastic, righteous, folksy, and shame-on-you characteristics). At the same time, he heard fire from the video and saw some wooden crates on the video. (However, Gabriel and we are not sure about what aspects, if any, of that was present at the moment of the beep.) [We had a long conversation about issues with recollecting what was in his experience at the moment of the beep, the distinction between retrospection and introspection, and so on.]
Sample 5.2 [40:17]: [Gabriel was listening to a video while brushing his teeth.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (70%) heard "lectures" (he was confident that it was one word and not the rest of the sentence) and understood its meaning, and felt a drop of wetness on his knuckle. [The drop of wetness was on Gabriel's left knuckle of his middle finger as a fact of the universe.] At the same time, Gabriel (30%) heard water and the smell of mint with some artificial quality.
Comparison of 5.1 and 5.2 [52:18]: Discussion comparing and contrasting Gabriel's experience in samples 5.1 and 5.2
Sample 5.3 [55:40]: [Gabriel was listening to something through headphones.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (50%) heard "cars" accompanied with the meaning of the statement known for my cars. ["Cars" was part of a larger statement as a fact of the universe. Gabriel did not have the whole statement "known for my cars" in his experience at the moment of the beep, and yet the existence of the rest of the sentence was somehow present. Contrast this with 5.2, where the word "picture" was present alone without the somehow-presentness of the rest of the sentence.] At the same time, Gabriel (50%) saw a drop (of medicine at the top of a needle). He was focused on the drop, even though the rest of the needle was doubtless present on his retina.
Sample 5.4 [1:01:52]: [Gabriel was typing the word "coffee roll" into Google.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (50%) read "coffee roll" and innerly said "coffee roll" in a whispery, transparent, human voice (that was recognized to be Gabriel's voice even though it did not sound like Gabriel's voice). Gabriel's reading (which required effort and intentionality) and inner speaking (which occurred effortlessly and automatically) occur alongside each other. At the same time, Gabriel (50%) thought of (Google's) did you mean coffee roll as something he could press. [Gabriel had misspelled "coffee roll" in the google search prompting the correction link did you mean coffee roll to appear. Gabriel's eyeballs were pointed at the link, but it appeared as a button, something he could press or click on.]
Sample 5.5 [1:13:34]: [Gabriel was solving a chess puzzle which involved advancing his pawn.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel saw the square (his pawn would move to) and the diagonal that led to his bishop, which would protect the pawn: the two squares downward and to the right, which were the start of the diagonal, were seen as popping out closer to him with additional depth. [The squares popped out as if they were closer to Gabriel than the other squares on the board. In reality, the squares did not have this depth-ness quality. In the moment, Gabriel was not at all confused about the fact that the popping-out was a product of his imagination.]
We discussed four samples, and interspersed throughout RTH answered Gabriel's questions about philosophical issues...
The transcript contains further discussion of the philosophical issues. See the comments that are printed in green in the accompanying transcript.
Gabriel's samples:
Sample 6.1 [2:26]: [Gabriel was playing online chess and looking at the formation of his opponent's pieces.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (80%) thought without words or symbols if his rook could attack (his opponent's) bishop, whether that move would be successful, about some sort of upward defensive consideration of the bishop. This experience is the same as the wondering experience in 4.1.] At the same, Gabriel (20%) had some sort of sense of weirdness about the visual pattern of the two pawns and the bishop.
Sample 6.2 [13:32]: [Gabriel was playing online chess.] At the moment of the beep Gabriel (70%) innerly heard "Monday niiiiight" in a male, moderately high pitched voice in a deep south southern accent located at the back of the top of Gabriel's head. The words were inflected like an announcement with a fun/lively energy. [The voice was not Gabriel's.] [The words seemed to have no referent—just random words that for whatever reason appeared.] At the same time Gabriel (30%) had a vague, idle intention to find an attack he could mount, sort of a wishful hope, but he wasn't really actively looking or searching.
Sample 6.3 [24:51]: [Gabriel lost track of his experience when trying to respond to this beep.]
Sample 6.4 [25:08]: [Gabriel was watching a video about the coronavirus.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (90%) heard (from the video) "stay home," spoken by the newscaster in a serious voice that implied that there was more to the story. As part of that hearing, Gabriel had a sense of documentary intrigue (the shallow expectancy created by the newscaster's implication that something was coming). At the same time, Gabriel saw in the video (10%) the two newscasters sitting at a blue and green desk in front of a background that was green in one corner and blue in the other corner, with the colors fading into each other.
Sample 6.5 [39:06]: [Gabriel was watching a video of someone playing a video game.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (90%) heard the woman [in the game] say "trusting him is." [Gabriel is familiar with the game; he knows this woman to be a comforting character.] At the same time, Gabriel (10%) saw triangles on an elevator and wondered what they are. [The elevator was part of the video game in the video that Gabriel was watching. We did not have time to ask additional questions about this portion of Gabriel's experience.]
Discussion during sample 6.5: We had a long conversation about whether Gabriel heard the words "trusting him is" or heard a sentence that included those words and was interrupted by the beep. Gabriel’s impression was that he heard both, but we wondered together whether that was a theory-driven impression.
We discussed four samples, and after the fourth sample...
there was a longish discussion of whether Gabriel is describing his inner experience with fidelity.
Gabriel's samples:
Sample 7.1 [3:36]: [Gabriel was playing chess—his opponent had just captured his bishop, to Gabriel's surprise.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (50%) felt annoyance/ confusion/disbelief/ dissatisfaction/being mad at himself, a mental emotion. At the same time, Gabriel (25%) saw the chess board, and the squares where the knight might move to fork his opponent's bishop and queen were seen especially clearly and somewhat raised up. (Gabriel was not sure whether this was experienced as being part of the phone display or whether he experienced himself as performing the raising [he understood that he had in fact clarified / raised these squares; the question was whether that understanding was present to him at the moment of the beep].) At the same time, (25%) felt a visual satisfaction/appreciation (the raised-squares pattern was visually appealing, pretty).
Sample 7.2 [18:19]: [Gabriel was writing in class.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (66%) innerly said "with phenomena" in his voice (and airy, non-human-sounding voice with no tonal quality) [this voice is not how his external voice sounds to him; it is how his inner voice sounds at least some of the time (e.g., samples 3.2, 5.4)]. [Gabriel was simultaneously writing "with phenomena," and understood the writing as ongoing past the end of the speaking; the writing was on autopilot.] (He understood that his experience is including the words "with" and "phenomena" as existing separately, and also that "with phenomena" was experienced as a unit.) Simultaneously, Gabriel also felt a mental excitement at the prospect that he was (in what he was writing) solving a philosophical problem; also simultaneously he felt worry that philosophers might be confused or wouldn't understand along with a feeling of ambition and wanting to be successful. (The excitement and the worry/ambition are two pretty distinct feelings.) At the same time, Gabriel (33%) heard his professor's voice (which was low and could be characterized as suggesting a particular personality) [this was the first day of class, so the voice was rather unfamiliar] but Gabriel was not hearing the professor's words.
Sample 7.3 [45:52]: [Gabriel was reading a paper about phenomenology.] At the moment of the beep Gabriel (50%) innerly said "the body," his internal voice saying what he is reading. [This voice is the same voice discussed in 7.2.] At the same time, Gabriel innerly saw in the top left a rectangular area of "ferns" (hundreds of dark green and orange leaves connected with branches), representing phenomenon; in the top right is a black square representing a person's mind (more or less like the screen in a Cartesian theater; the screen is blank at the moment); and in the bottom right a square of "everyman's" head (representing the body) facing left against a shimmery/flickery red expanse.
Sample 7.4 [1:05:30]: At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (60%) innerly said "oh no!" in his voice as if speaking to his girlfriend in a critical and light-hearted tone. [Before the beep, Gabriel read a message his girlfriend had written, he was responding as if to tell her what she had written was wrong. Gabriel was innerly speaking, but he was unsure if this was the same voice discussed in 7.2 and 7.3]. At the same time, Gabriel (40%) saw an email notification (from a guitar course he no longer uses) and felt annoyed at the teacher of the course, a mental feeling. [Gabriel's guitar course was an online course and the teacher is someone that Gabriel does not know personally.]
Discussion after sampling [1:21:35]: (a) The history of this website; would Gabriel like to be part of it? (b) Gabriel feels that if inner experience is possible to be described, then he is describing his experience quite well. But he has some doubt about whether it is possible. RTH said that such doubt is warranted. The object of DES is to describe that doubt if it is directly apprehended at the moment of the beep.
We discussed three samples, and interspersed throughout were discussions of philosophical issues related to DES...
Gabriel sampled across two days; we began on the second day so as to discuss the 'fresher beeps' first.
Gabriel's samples:
Sample 8.6 [5:07]: [Gabriel was in class; his professor was saying "you know the rest."] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel heard his professor say "know the rest," an auditory experience of a relatively discrete chunk of words (even though I grasp the meaning as "you know the rest." At the same time, Gabriel felt confused, mental wondering: how could we know the rest? am I wrong? is he wrong? Is it him? is it me? that also involves a mental discomfort/frustration. Gabriel also saw a tall and skinny closing angle bracket. Gabriel saw (probably) just the angle bracket (but perhaps saw a few characters before the closing bracket or a vague smudge of the rest of the board [RTH thinks that is presuppositional]), but either way, Gabriel understood the angle bracket was a small part of the things that had been written.
Sample 8.7 [23:20]: [I am reading "Hesperus is Hesperus." ] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (70%) wondered if Hesperus is Hesperus would have the same cognitive value (= communicates the same thing = represents the same thing) to an omniscient being as would the other phrase. [The other phrase being Hesperus is Phosphorus.] Simultaneously, as a small part of his experience, Gabriel innerly saw what an omniscient being would see if looking at Venus: he saw a small 3-D black box his visual field with a small (half the size of the box) white sphere (Venus) inside the box. The box is cut diagonally in half with the upper corner sides being white and the lower corner sides being black. While he reads those words, Gabriel (20%) innerly said "Hesperus is Hesperus" in his reading voice, a raspy whisper. At the same time, Gabriel (10%) saw the (second instance of) word "Hesperus" in his notes. [Gabriel was reading "Hesperus is Hesperus" but physically saw only "Hesperus" in his notes.]
Sample 8.1 [55:59]: [Gabriel was watching a YouTube video showing an antique grenade launcher; the caption was the year "1730" in orange letters.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel saw this as a grenade launcher and [most prominently] read 1730, understanding it as a year [Gabriel is not sure whether "1730" was innerly speaking]. The number 30 was more present to him than the rest of the date, and there was a felt sense of satisfaction [at 30 being a multiple of 10 and that the sum of 7 and 3 equals 10. The concepts of powers of 10 or summing to 10 were not present at the moment of the beep, but Gabriel could trace back the satisfaction feeling to those numerological facts.] At the same time, Gabriel felt annoyance, the residual feeling of having innerly seen a fancy, ornate, pretentious (or stuck-up) British gun with a big barrel. (That imagined gun has a pretentious quality that had annoyed him—at the moment of the beep the inner seeing was gone, and the concept of the gun was gone, but the annoyance continued.) At the same time, Gabriel felt tiredness, a physical dryness of eyes wanting to close.
Gabriel collected a total of 7 samples from yesterday and today. We had time to discuss only 4 samples starting with those from today....
Gabriel's samples:
Sample 9.5 [0:31]: [Gabriel was in class.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel was (60%) looking at his paper, for the shape of an indentation and the letter "c". [As fact of the universe, Gabriel was searching for the letter c to find the Cth entry of an ordered list, this did not involve the semantic qualities of "c" or the intent-ness; experientially, Gabriel was searching for the visual shape]. At the same time, Gabriel (30%) heard his professor speaking. [No doubt Gabriel’s professor was saying words, however, no words or their semantic meanings were present to Gabriel at the moment of the beep.] Gabriel also (20%) felt a mental annoyance (that the same kind of sentences were being reviewed).
Sample 9.6 [11:44]: [Gabriel was taking notes in class, writing "limited knowledge".] At the moment of the beep Gabriel (70%) innerly said "limited knowledge" in his inner speaking voice (which has an air/raspy quality and different from his external speaking voice.) At the same time, Gabriel (15%) saw black ink (of the tail end of the last part that he had written). Gabriel also (15%) was aware that his professor was speaking. [Gabriel was unsure if, at the moment of the beep, he heard his professor speaking or cognitively knew that his professor was speaking.]
Sample 9.7 [26:40]: At the moment of the beep Gabriel (60-70%) hears his professor say "strings of sentences" with some faint (probably visual) presentation of a meaning of each word as it is said (e.g., he sees thread when "strings" is said). Gabriel was also somewhat actively "throwing away" (suppressing/ignoring) this single-word-meaning presentation. [Gabriel’s understanding of each word had nothing to do with what his professor was talking about, and he was attempting to pay attention to the meaning of what was being said.] At the same time, Gabriel saw a hand writing words on a white board (that is, he was zeroed in on the visual of the hand writing—this was not a sematic experience, although he understood the hand was writing words not drawing pictures). Gabriel also felt frustration, (a feeling with mental and physical qualities of physically uncomfortable stomach hurting, muscle cramping on abdomen on inside area of belly button and a tiredness in his eyes.
Sample 9.1 [43:11]:[Gabriel was helping his mom change a light bulb.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel saw his mom in the process of sitting in a chair while watching her robe with a particular interest in how the seam (of the robe) is going to hit the ground, and noticing the blue of the robe. At the same time, Gabriel heard his mom say "Is it called…" (and understood that this was the beginning of a question). Gabriel also had a goal of finding the lightbulb on Amazon.) [Actually, Gabriel knew that someone else had already found the lightbulb that Gabriel was looking for and the situation was resolved; however, this goal was still present in Gabriel’s experience. On retrospection, Gabriel recognized the unnecessariness of that goal seeking, but at the moment of the beep, it was just a goal. The goal of finding the lightbulb was the least salient characteristic of Gabriel’s experience.]
Gabriel wore the beeper this morning, collecting a total of 5 samples....
Gabriel's samples:
Sample 10.1 [0:54]: [Gabriel was opening his refrigerator.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel heard three rubbery/snaggy sounds, dah, dah, dah (caused by the refrigerator door handle twisting the skin of his hand as he opened the door. At the same time, Gabriel heard/felt his hand’s skin being dragged by the handle’s rotating as the door opened. [This was in actuality a mechanical/tactile action, but] Gabriel’s experience was of hearing it.
Sample 10.2 [7:16]: [Gabriel was on his phone scrolling through the comment section on a YouTube video.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (80%) wondered why (the spelling of) "Hi-5" felt wrong, an analytical process without words. That is, this was a directly apprehended experience of thinking about what it was about the "Hi-5" that felt wrong. Gabriel also (slightly) innerly saw "Hi-5" with white letters (apparently holding over what he had seen a bit before). At the same time, Gabriel (20%) saw the comment section (of the YouTube video).
Sample 10.3 [20:38]: [Gabriel was in class with a handout in front of him.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel heard his professor say "Frege last time," which was experienced semantically only to the extent that it served as something to search for (with no further differentiation of Frege the person or his philosophy, etc.). At the same time, Gabriel directly experienced the intention to begin looking at headings (on his worksheet). [This intention was the most salient characteristic of his experience at the moment of the beep.] Gabriel also saw his hand flipping his page [Gabriel’s seeing of flipping the page was in motion.]
Sample 10.4 [34:38]: [Gabriel was in class.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel wondered without words or other symbols if another class would be held in the same room on Monday; at the same time, some aspect of the word "Monday" was present. ["Monday" present either auditorily or visually, Gabriel was not sure which at the time of the interview.] At the same time, Gabriel innerly saw a purple bag of powder with a white label on the bag. Gabriel understood this was a bag of gum but was somewhat more interested in the purpleness of the bag. He also had a visual sense of a mailbox seen around the bag [but this was not an inner seeing the mailbox at the moment of the beep.] (This inner seeing with its surrounding mailbox was understood to be some sort of wondering whether the gum had been delivered), [but this wondering was not explicitly present—that is, was not an unsymbolized thinking like the classroom portion of this sample.] Gabriel also saw "11" (on his phone) with an understanding of it to be the hour portion of the current time display. [The minutes portion of the time display was only dimly if at all present in his experience at the moment of the beep.]
Sample 10.5 [59:57]: [Gabriel received a text message asking him why he doesn’t get groceries like normal people.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (50%) innerly said "normal people" in his inner (reading) voice, a raspy/whispery voice with no tone. At the same time, Gabriel (50%) innerly saw the grocery store where he usually shops, along with (off to the left) the other small shops that were in the plaza.). He saw into the interior of the grocery store (as if the front wall were missing), seeing a column with a basket with a woman picking grapes out of it, a cashier, and other people around the store.
Gabriel collected a total of 5 samples, 2 this morning and 3 last night. We only had time to discuss 4 samples, starting with the most recent....
Gabriel's samples:
Sample 11.5 [1:11]: [Gabriel was reading a message bubble.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (80%) read and innerly said "bleeding." [Bleeding was part of a sentence, but Gabriel was looking at only "bleeding" at the moment of the beep with the meaning present. Gabriel was unsure if "bleeding" was innerly spoken in his speaking or in his reading voice.] At the same time, Gabriel (20%) innerly saw a drop of blood (suspended in the shape of a drip in a room dimly lit by a bluish light).
Sample 11.4 [12:35]: [Gabriel was in class and his professor was writing on the white board while giving a lecture on the ambiguous woman, and before the beep had said "some woman".] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (60%) innerly saw a cube of ivory chipped on top, drizzled in a blanket of honey with gold dust, making the money appear glittery. (This was all seen against a black background.) In the top left, there was a sun-like light source. Simultaneous with inner seeing, Gabriel had a sense of motherhood, including some sense of a woman’s affection for a child, a feeling of comfort, and the smell of vanilla. The cube and the motherhood senses, experienced together has a whole, comprise the concept of the ambiguous woman. At the same time, Gabriel (40%) saw and re-heard in his professor’s voice "some woman." [Gabriel’s professor had said "some woman" before the beep, but Gabriel was still hearing (or continuing to hear) his professor’s voice.]
Sample 11.3 [26:54]: [Gabriel was getting ready for bed and recalling a conversation he had had with his professor where Gabriel had said "you know Chalmers?" with a YouTube video playing in the background.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel (60%) innerly says "You know Chalmers" with the beep coming at "Chalmers." At the same time Gabriel (40%) heard "electromagnetic radiation" (from his YouTube video) and innerly saw a black blob with 6-ish orange arrows pointing upward and to the right (representing black body radiation) outside on dirt against a blue sky with some white clouds.
Sample 11.2 [43:08]: [Gabriel was watching a video where one cook, Adam was talking about/mocking another chef, Marco Pierre White. Adam was saying Marco Pierre knows good steak by how much fat is around it.] At the moment of the beep, Gabriel heard Adam say "is definitionally…." ["Is definitionally…" is part of the statement "because a steak is definitionally…" the semantic meaning of the entire statement, "Because a steak is definitionally…" was in Gabriel’s experience at the moment of the beep.] Simultaneously, Gabriel saw a deep red steak with a ring of fat around it. Simultaneously, Gabriel was wondering whether Adam was going to explain that Marco Pierre is wrong because a steak with the fat chopped off is indistinguishable from a steak with no fat. [This thinking was clear and specific and was present without words or pictures.]