Where do intelligence and creativity come from?
Science tells us that they are qualities of the brain. Bigger brains have long been considered the impetus behind the evolution of our species, homo sapiens sapiensis. The smaller brains of other hominids, the Australopithecenes, the Denisovians, Homo Floresiensis, Neanderthals etc. have been seen as indicating their intellectual inferiority compared to ours ... despite strong evidence that these hominids were, in fact, very creative.
Where that concept fails of brain size fails, as with Einstein whose brain was actually significantly smaller than the average human brain, we are told that his superior brain functioned much more efficiently than the average brain, developing many more neural networks and requiring less grey matter.
Researchers have attributed Einstein's genius to the "extraordinary prefrontal cortices" of his brain (Scientific American blog, 16 Nov, 2012). Yet in light of what we know about neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to change it structure and functions) the question must be asked, Was Einstein's "extraordinary" brain a cause of his genius, or did a lifetime of extraordinary thinking processes reform his brain? Did Mind affect brain, or vice versa?
There is strong evidence that brain size, even brain structure may be much less important than we think.
One woman's brain was found to be missing a cerebellum. "The cerebellum’s main job is to control voluntary movements and balance, and it is also thought to be involved in our ability to learn specific motor actions and speak. .... Yet in this woman, the missing cerebellum resulted in only mild to moderate motor deficiency, and mild speech problems such as slightly slurred pronunciation." Otherwise, she functioned normally.
There are, of course, many instances where brain abnormalities do affect consciousness or our ability to function, sometime seriously; but there are also many cases where even though physical performance was impaired, intelligence was not.
"John Lorber, a British neurologist [who] has studied many cases of hydrocephalus (water on the brain)..... cites the case of a student at Sheffield University, who has an IQ of 126 and won first-class honors in mathematics. Yet, this boy has virtually no brain; his cortex measures only a millimeter or so thick compared to the normal 4.5 centimeters."
Source: http://www.drjudithorloff.com/Free-Articles/Is-Your-Brain-Necessary.htm
Many biologists and naturalists are convinced, moreover, that all of nature, all life forms, including those without even the rudimentary elements of a brain, seem to possess innate intelligence that allows them to receive and process information from their environment, including from each other, and respond appropriately, adapting to or even coming up with new solutions when faced with environmental changes.
Working with slimy molds of single-celled amoebae, which have not even a rudimentary brain, researchers discovered that they can "find their way through a maze, can remember, make decisions and anticipate change," that is, they demonstrate intelligence.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brainless-slime-molds/
What these findings, and many others, suggest is that what we define as brain is just one of many possible kinds of information receiving and organizing systems in nature, some of which are distributed throughout the body of the life form, or even across wide networks of life forms that cooperatively share information.
It is increasingly accepted that the human body has several 'brains', centres where information is gathered and processed. The heart has its own intelligence, as does the stomach, as do, according to some, every organ and cell within us. It is probably the same with other creatures, or even more diffused.
Nature could indeed be one great living, conscious organism whose Mind / Consciousness interacts with the intelligence of life form in a multitude of ways, one of them being the mammalian nervous system with its brain. Every part of nature possesses intelligence, and the attributes of intelligence that we humans possess, though it comes in a great variety of forms.
Every part of nature, this leaf, that ladybug, possesses consciousness. Consciousness is, it seems, a fundamental attribute of life.
Mind is not brain.
Some of our most esteemed neuroscientists, brain scientists and biologists believe that Mind is not an attribute of the brain at all, but something beyond brain, perhaps in the Self or, others argue, existing in morphic fields or everywhere. It is not the brain that conceives or created. It is the Mind, which draws upon this constantly evolving reservoir of universally accessible knowledge and experience. Brain does not give rise to Mind, or control it. Rather, the brain serve as a receiver and transmitter of information from the great Mind, and organizes the body's physiological and biochemical responses to that information.
In How the Self Controls Its Brain, Nobel laureate Sir John Eccles described the brain as a detector and amplifier of the Mind's impulses, which manages the release of appropriate neurotransmitters, sort of like an interactive computer.
Karl Popper, generally regarded as one of the greatest 20th century philosophers of science, also theorized the brain as receiver not only of environmental influences and heredity, but, significantly, of messages from Mind. The Self controls and regulates the brain, and can do so consciously (as has been shown through the research of Dr. Bruce Lipton), the brain in turn affecting the Self through its biochemical and neurological reactions.
(These two great thinkers met in Dunedin, New Zealand, become close friends, and co-wrote The Self and Its Brain).
If Mind is NOT brain, then what is it?
In the great spiritual traditions of the world, Mind IS Consciousness.
Mind is the living light of the Creator, of the All, the Cosmic One .... "Let there be light!"