aristotle thought that the brain cooled the blood, that thinking was the function of the heart. rene descartes described the brain as the pump of a nerve fountain. it has been compared to a clock, a telephone switchboard, a computer, yet the mechanics of the brain are far more intricate than any analog. theorist lyall watson wrote that if the brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple the we couldn't. and the source of all this theory and speculation was the walnut-shaped, fleshy, grey mass of tissue before me.

(alberto villoldo & erik jendersen DANCE OF THE FOUR WINDS)