Al, a friend on another support group suggested this article to me and I have a question, if you don't mind (not sure if you're still responding to comments on older posts like this). You said: "Words and Symbols evoke Feelings, which evoke Thought Processes....Yes, the feelings come first. I guess this is pretty basic to the way our brains work – fast. If I show you a symbol of danger, your body starts to respond to that danger before the good old cortex decides what to do. (See my Chapter on Safety, The Lizard.) Apparently you body does not wait to think. It moves." This is a little different from other descriptions I've read and that I live by, that an event (which seems to correspond to your "words and symbols") triggers an INTERPRETATION, which THEN triggers a feeling. In other words, a thought process (ie an interpretation) occurs PRIOR to the feeling. And you say this in your discussion of triggers: "My favorite word for this “evoking” is the word TRIGGER. I use it a lot. For me it means a little thing that kicks off something that may be a lot bigger. Also it suggests a connection but not a causal connection. I like that. A symbol may trigger an emotion one time and may not the next time." So if a symbol can trigger an emotion one time but not a later time, what is the cause of this difference? According to my suggestion above, it is INTERPRETATION. But according to your quote above, no thought process occurs between a word or symbol and a feeling. So anyway, do you still believe that feelings come before thought processes? If so, how do you account for why sometimes a "symbol" triggers an emotion and sometimes it doesn't? Thanks! John Lucas