Sentience and Cognition

In mutual shaping the question is not simply, do you talk to each other?, but rather, do you actually affect the way in which the two speakers think about things? Do you actually seek to restructure people's beliefs, and do you restructure their actions? I would say that a full-blown exploration of mind and consciousness occurs when the participants of a symposium like this not only speak and listen to each other, but actually put their own ideas at risk. And they say, . . . 'There is something that might actually make me think differently about things, and go about my daily practice differently.' If that happens, then we will have entered into a genuine dialogue, where the ultimate outcome remains open.
		p. 87
Howard E. Gardner	"Cognition: A Western Perspective" MindScience: An East-West Dialog Wisdom Books, 1994