Language is not essential for the cognitive processes that underlie thought

A little late to the thread, but this is obvious if you've done any reasonably serious mindfulness practice. When you are meditating, you can get to the point where the internal monolog (the yabbering of the "crazy monkey mind") is completely silenced. "You" are still present, and can direct your attention, and can observe all of the perceptions with full comprehension, without the verbal layer interpreting for you.

Came here to say something similar. You also notice that before any verbal thoughts arise, there are "primordial" thoughts, which are "felt" (sometimes as emotions.) These can instigate huge chains of verbal, visual, auditory thought, in turn generating more emotions, causing a (occasionally vicious) feedback loop.

This sounds similar to a fairly early realization in the practice of meditation. Daniel M Ingram refers to it as "Cause and Effect" in Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: [0]

> In the stage of Cause and Effect, the relationships between mental and physical phenomena become very clear and sometimes ratchet-like. There is a cause, such as intention, and then an effect, such as movement. There is a cause, such as a sensation, and there is an effect, namely a mental impression.

Trying to increase the frequency at which you oscillate between physical sensations and mental sensations is a fascinating exercise.

[0] https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-iv-insight...

This "feeling" of full comprehension can be an illusion. Similar to how we think we are taking in 140 degree of full visual information through our eyes. In truth, we can only take in accurate information about the size of our thumb at arms length. The so called saccades phenomenon.