DAPHNA, on Oct 26 1997 you wrote,

Dr. Ghitis's suggestion (August 20) as to what separates us from {mere} ('non-rational') animals is an interesting thought...(I) ask him, if he is willing to accept that other animals think, then why not accept that they possibly also think about thinking?

It is quite accepted that animals think, for it would be far-fetched to even suspect that they act just on instinct. Cats can 'count' since a mother realizes that a baby of hers is missing. If we deny this fact, how can we be sure that humans think? Animals other than humans obviously 'think' differently. Homo sapiens requires language --spoken or mentally imaged-- for 'human,' advanced thinking.
Ergo, animals must use a different approach for their thinking. Rat's whiskers serve for communication with the brain by means of some sort of radio-like electromagnetic wave, for example. As a corollary, to be able to metathink, a highly developed complex language has to be present. Most probably primitive people are unable to even grasp the concept of metathinking, the highest manifestation of thinking.

Daphna, attempting to go further in our dialog would be an exercise in futility. I have coined the Metathinking neologism; however, as you know, I am just building on 1st BCE century's use of the 'meta' prefix to create the word Metaphysics. Such word was then understood as meaning after 'Physics' (Aristotle's first manuscript); afterwards, the word 'Metaphysics' was exploited, endowing it with confusing meanings.
Yet Aristotle's concept of 'thought of thought' as the 'Prime Mover'-- the first cause, immutable, in sum, God, perhaps was not related to the meaning that 'metathinking' embodies, as I understand it. Suppose you state: "Physics is the study of matter, while Metaphysics is the study of Physics:
How and when it was defined as a branch of knowledge, how it evolved, what is the use of it..." Just as stating: "Thinking is using the mind to grasp and analyze meanings, while Metathinking is the study of thinking: When was thinking defined as an activity of the mind, where does it reside, what function does it serve, what are its limits, can we arrive by thinking to understanding the essence of the universe."

Daphna, we are able to comprehend that time is a dimension of energy and that therefore it is uniform in forward movement in spite of zonal 'warps' caused by effects related to Special Relativity, and that space is a dimension of matter, not uniform but expanding, and most probably deflating in the future, obeying physical laws related to the necessarily critical mass-energy limit-- at least in our Universe, if there are others.
Metathinking also refers to the awesome question: "Will the human mind evolve in the course of eons to the point where it will be capable of understanding the essence of what exists, comprehending the never-beginning and never-ending organized --limited or unlimited-- amount of matter-energy?"

Daphna, it is my impression that those who search for "THE TRUTH" are actually asking these very questions, but I’ll go no further. Suffice to say:

"Happy those who do not succumb to the disillusion of never finding THE TRUTH. Religion may be a way to mental salvation. Better still, being modest and walking --not in the wake, but ahead the steps of past seekers' of the existing truth, such as Thales, who used thinking to discover that phenomena are natural, independent of any god's shenanigans; or walking ahead of other past thinkers, such as Compte the Positivist and of those, like Descartes, who rejected absolute authority on knowledge."

Now, as per your question, dear Daphna, about voluntarily delaying gratification, not just under the duress of a trainer's presence: Cats delay the gratification of excreting until some appropriate recipient is found, but not by training but by instinct. Dogs are trained for that effect, they do not 'think' about such action. Only humans are capable of deciding upon delaying a gratification until a given condition is present."