Neuroscience tells us that we have two functional brains. The left hemisphere (the seat of our analytical reasoning) and the right hemisphere (the seat of our contextual intuition).
According to some measurements, both hemispheres are capable of actually "thinking" independently of each other. So we essentially have two brains. The left hemisphere which takes care of anywhere between 75-90% of our daily tasks. Including me typing a blog posts here. And the right brain which sort of adds the flavor and personality to who we are. You can say that the left brain is the creative artist, and the right brain is its inspiration in the form of a muse.
But it seems there is no real scientific consensus as yet on how they may actually do that. But let's hypothesize that they do.
Here is the thing... According to theory, the left brain doesn't know it has a muse. Consciously, while the right brain is fully aware of the fact that there is another brain present, the left brain doesn't have a clue about the right brain existence. It's as if the right brain was a ghost inhabiting the same house as the left brain, whispering spiritual affirmations and denouncements into the ear of the left brain. The left brain has no idea where they come from. So a true muse, in the classical, spiritual sense of the word.
So here is the proposition:
If it is possible for the right brain to be viewing and influencing the left brain's activity without the left brain knowing, isn't it possible that a third brain is doing the same to both the right and left brain? Therefore, we have four premises in play in this proposition:
1] There is a third brain.
2] The third brain knows about the right and left brain but they do not know about the third brain.
Now, before I get to [3] and [4], I have to address a challenge to this theory. The reason why we know of the right and left brain's independent activity is that we can see it in MRI brain scans. But we have never observed a third brain. Or have we?
The patterns of active thought peak under brain scan when we are actively carrying out a task. For example, I start calling you a bunch of assholes, and my limbic system, my temporal lobe, my hippocampus, and my right frontal lobe kick into gear. A symbolic rainbow coalition on the brain scan monitor. Otherwise, they are quiet. But that silence doesn't mean I have stopped thinking you are as asshole. It means that I am not thinking about it that hard anymore. That my cognition is being passive and not as reactive as when I first thought about you being an asshole.
What this tells us is that there are times when the non-reactive brain is just sitting still and watching. Waiting for something to happen. It is like when we sleep. Contrary to popular belief, the brain doesn't actually slow down or stop when we sleep. What stops is the interconnectivity between the different areas of the brain. The different regions stop talking to and reacting to one another. So somewhere in that median fuzzy logic of mental activity could be a hypothetical third brain, the Voyeur, which gets off on watching rather than actually participating. You can even call it the "perverse brain."
And if that brain doesn't like to interact, how do we know it's there? So we arrive at the next two premises:
3] The third brain only watches, and doesn't influence.
4] As a non-reactive brain, we can't tell the difference between it and the normal background noise of our thoughts.
So, here is the really pertinent question... What if you—that is, your true, core, consciousness—is this Voyeur brain, not the right or left brain? And as the Voyeur brain, what if you are sitting there in your head, watching the activity of the right and left brain; and since you are not self-aware because you are not reactive like the right and left brain, have no idea that you are just watching the right and left brain carry out tasks, thinking that they are you? When the fact is, they are just mechanisms that you are viewing much like a person viewing a stage play.
Only, in this case, that person has what amounts to a severe dissociative disorder and believes themselves to be the actors on the stage and not the audience. That proverbial Self being just a lump of brain matter with no reason, intuition, emotion, or purpose beyond voyeurism and make-believe.
You may think: Well, even if the Voyeur brain exists, that doesn't mean you aren't also the right and left brain. So everything is still the same. And that would be true. Except for things like emotional attachments, ego, free will, self-correction, cognitive adaptation, and knowledge. All of these rely on the belief that when you make a conscious choice, that choice comes from what is primarily YOU, and not the part of you that is the ant farm being observed by the real you.
