Dear Dale,
No - they were not! And that is the first time. wow.
Hm... this is interesting....
The mind is in a scramble wanting to figure this out! lol.
I dont know what else to say!
Great! This is extremely precious. You are catching the mind in act, creating it's own reality. This is what thoughts do all the time: Create a cyberreality and none of it does really exist. It's just all words and Images, like a movie on the screen. In the cinema there is no person, no landscape, no animal on the screen. Just light looking like it.
You can never be certain whether it is true what thoughts say. Only sensations are what they are - for sure.
Watch thoughts how they are creating cyberreality. Notice a story they created. And then compare the story to what you see, hear, feel, smell and touch about the same time.
Share what you find.
Much love,
Ghata