Questioner: I'm unclear on the point about the difference between thinking and thought. Are you proposing that we slide from thinking into thought wi… - David Bohm

The mind’s tendency to hold on to what is familiar is enhanced by the fact that the overall tacit infrastructure is inseparably woven into the whole fabric of science as well as into its institutions, on which depends the professional security of each scientist. As a result, there is always a strong pressure against any individual scientist who threatens to “rock the boat.” But of course, this resistance is not confined simply to science but occurs in every walk of life when familiar and comfortable thoughts and feelings are threatened. People will therefore tend not to have the necessary energy and courage to call into question the whole tacit infrastructure of their field. But this becomes increasingly difficult to do as the whole infrastructure ultimately extends, in its implications, into the whole of science and even of society itself.

Q: Are you saying that thought has a kind of possessive quality which stays, gets stuck, and then becomes habitual? And we don't see this? Bohm: I think that whenever we repeat something it gradually becomes a habit, and we get less and less aware of it. If you brush your teeth every morning, you probably hardly notice how you're doing it. It just goes by itself. Our thought does the same thing, and so do our feelings. That's a key point.

Clarity of perception and thought evidently requires that we be generally aware of how our experience is shaped by the insight (clear or confused) provided by the theories that are implicit or explicit in our general ways of thinking.