Unconscious thought forms 95% of all thought

Are all electrical activities in the brain considered 'thought', or are some activities considered simple 'reflex signals'.

Perhaps conscious thought is the only 'thought' there is, and everything else is simply a reflex cascade resulting in a action. Perhaps conscioous thought is simply one possible resullt of a reflex cascade (rather than a physical action).

I think that before anyone can divide 'thought' in to 95% unconscious and 5% conscious, they need to define unconscious very accurately (perhaps more accurately than we currently have knowledge to support).

rosborne, I agree with where you are going with you last post. I'm not sure how anybody can measure "unconscious thought is 95%."

The following Wikipedia link may explain better how Benjamin Libet has conducted experiments to show that our brain's unconscious "decides" for us to do something, before our conscious mind is aware of doing it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Libet
Personally, only when I'm doing "mechanical" thinking, like arithmetic am I sure I'm driving my conscious thoughts; otherwise, I seem to think thoughts that seem to "bubble up" from my unconscious. Probably they were primed by something my eyes, ears, nose, taste buds, or skin sent to my brain. This belief goes along with my not thinking we have a dualistic mind, meaning there's no essense of us beyond our brain. Nothing to go to heaven, in effect. It also mean my brain is my own cable tv station.

If unconscious thoughts controlled me, how in the world did I finish college, and worked for 32 years in my profession?

Sitting in a chair to determine how unconscious thought preceeds everything we do is not realistic. This kind of research must be done on active, walking, working, breathing, individuals who are active all day; not by sitting in a chair.

I believe our unconscious mind manages our existence quite effectively. The fact that we may actually take orders from our unconscious for a good part of our waking time does not limit our capabilities.

I think we make a mistake in thinking of the unconscious as some chaotic and oppositional force working contrary to our conscious intentions. Sometimes it is (as in embarassing Freudian slips). To me, it IS my mind. The part that is experienced consciously is enriched by its unconscious foundations. Our identification with just our conscious awareness and ego is very limiting. Artists (including poets and muscians) and mystics are able to enjoy the deep wellspring of their total mind.

JLN, I also do not believe our unconscious mind is chaotic; I think it's just the opposite. It's well organized, and helps us survive in critical situations on how we react immediately to danger. It's our "instinct."
However, it's not instinct when we must organize our lives to to meet the demands of our daily life.

I would not equate the unconscious with "instinct"; it involves more than instinct.

Care to elaborate?

Well, my mind as a whole undoubtedly consists of instincts--i.e., hardwired biologically programmed behavioral predispositions--AND all the dispositions that make up my personality, tastes, biases and prejudices, etc.--and, in the Freudian framework, repressed experiences. The unconscious consists of all the mental actitivity that is out-of-awareness. Instincts are an important part, but only a part, of it.

The sciences of psychology and cognitive science consider the uncoscious to be very important. To dismiss it because we do not comprehend it is not a good idea.

Absolutely. Most of the world is not accessible to our bare senses. We need sense extenders like microscopes, telescopes, MRIs, etc. etc. I'm reminded of the joke:

An intoxicated man is looking for his keys outside his pub. Some of his drinking buddies came out and asked him what he was looking for. He told them he lost his keys. One of them said, "Good thing you lost them over here in the light." Our intoxicated man answered "No, I lost them over there in the dark, but it's easier to see here under the street light."