Can Your Brain Think Without You? The Neuroscience of Consciousness & Problem Solving

So- I have been practically experiencing with people, particularly when it's not just the somatic homeostasis AHA, but the cognitive homeostasis.

And so with the AHA problem-solving, The brain itself is solving problems that the person with their mind just couldn't figure out.

And there's an episode or two on AHA problem solving and an example of the involuntary autobiographical cognition that's occurring, the learning, the problem solving, the remembering information, but applying it in new ways and anticipation.

and all of that.

And I've been experiencing that hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times in sessions with people in the wellness coaching because I'm clearly not doing that.

The brain is doing all the thinking.

I'm just coaching the person in how to listen to their brain speaking.

And one of the critical missing pieces from the neuroscience perspective was that there was, I'd never seen, nor had there ever been any neuroscience research demonstrating what I was practically experiencing with people as their brain was engaging in that.

Okay.

And it's been done.

Yeah.

That's why I'm so incredibly excited because this is just last June, June 28, 2026.

It was published in the science news that – and the study was brain activity under anesthesia – challenges what we know about consciousness.

So consciousness, let me unpack this that way, okay? So consciousness is just interoception, sensory awareness of I sense that I am consciousness, and your pet is conscious.

You are conscious.

But that's always been thought of as different than cognition.

Cognition is thinking, processing information.

So an amoeba or a cell or some little thing like when I'm with my granddaughter and we're walking and there's a pill bug and it's kind of scooting along the sidewalk and we put our finger near it, not touching it because we want to respect that.

And not frighten it, but put something near it and it curls up in a little ball.

Protectively.

It's conscious.

It is sentient.

It is aware of its surroundings, that sort of thing.

Now, the degree of cognition, hopefully we have a bit more ability to process information than a pill bug.

Who knows? But anyway.