This paper is concerned with the use of a selforganizing map (SOM) to estimate the desired channel states of an unknown digital communication channel for blind equalization. The modification of SOM is accomplished by using the Bayesian likelihood fitness function and the relation between the desired channel states and channel output states. At the end of each clustering epoch, a set of estimated clusters for an unknown channel is chosen as a set of pre-defined desired channel states, and used to extract the channel output states. Next, all of the possible desired channel states are constructed by considering the combinations of extracted channel output states, and a set of the desired states characterized by the maximal value of the Bayesian fitness is subsequently selected for the next SOM clustering epoch. This modification of SOM makes it possible to search the optimal desired channel states of an unknown channel. In simulations, binary signals are generated at random with Gaussian noise, and both linear and nonlinear channels are evaluated. The performance of the proposed method is compared with those of the "conventional" SOM and an existing hybrid genetic algorithm. Relatively high accuracy and fast search speed have been achieved by using the proposed method.