More than words

I was catching up with my reading of my New Scientist magazines and found this and other related articles about "Animals and Us" in the 4th June edition.

Jane Goodall says, "When you look into the eyes of a chimp, or another animal, you know you are looking into the eyes of a thinking, feeling being. To me the wonder and the mystery is that you never really know what they are thinking. What do they think of me? What is it like to think without words?"

What is it like to think without words?
This gave me a zen-like moment. Stop and try to think about something without words. Limit yourself to your senses. Think about an experience only in terms of sight, sound, texture, smell and taste. Being the verbose person that I am, it's impossible. I tried something really simple, nothing involving abstract or complex ideas, just a train journey ... I couldn't do it. Words kept popping into my head - objects that I saw in my minds eye, place names on the journey, etc.

We can confidently say language as complex and structured as ours is one thing that separates us from animals. We can communicate ideas to others, plan for future events, pass on oral history, blog ... Advancement of a society such as ours would appear to be impossible without the ability to communicate in such a structured and varied way.

And yet, while I may be a complex developed being, I can't even imagine what it would be like to think without words.