Midway through last night's installment of the Buffy marathon that has become my summer, Tom raised an important issue: If you could read minds, could you read the mind of someone whose native language is one that you don't understand?

Or, more generally: Do I think in English, or do I think in a universal "Humanese" that is translated into English at some later point in my cognitive process? And--assuming the "English level" isn't my only cognitive level--which level would the mind-reader "hear?"

Hard to say. It's even hard to say who we should go ask: the philosopher, the monk, or the cognitive neuroscientist, if there's even any difference in these enlightened days.