The way the brain works is something. Though it does all the thinking, it has no knowledge about its own neurons, which means that your brain doesn’t know where your thoughts come from. This is why the brain is considered to be the only known object that is conscious. But it’s never questioned since it all involves with brain’s biology, and everything that’s about the brain has been reduced to biology.
Still, even though the brain is an object, neuroscience goes against its own assumptions and values. Objects are things, things consist of working parts, working parts when completely analyzed defines the “thing” that you are studying and want to know. The chemical composition is no different than other parts of the body; the glucose on which neurons feed is not smarter than glucose on other parts. So, the notion that brain cannot understand itself cannot be explained through biology.
How can we explain it then? If biology cannot solve it, then what other paths can we take to understand it? First, we need to understand that the brain is not a “privileged” object. The brain is not the source of the mind, just as radio is not the source of music. The brain is more like a receiver. Hence, the analogy between radio and brain. The brain is too involved in reception that it does not know that it is a receiver. When the brain receives information like thoughts, feelings, sensation and images through sensory organs, it fills our mind, and we are the beings of experience, enveloped in these experiences.
Second, it is important to clarify the question: “How do we know what we know?”. After that, the answer comes clearly, and the answer is nothing except the basic: “All knowledge comes from experience, and all experience is in the consciousness.” Neuroscience would not accept that answer because it is stuck with analyzing the brain only on the basis of biology, but the subject of the brain is beyond biology, more into philosophy, psychology and metaphysics too. It’s a human problem and not a neuroscience problem.
So, what does it really mean “All knowledge comes from experience, and all experience is in the consciousness. Everything in the universe is a conscious phenomenon. What we think, our memories, experience, in the space-time continuum is conscious. Only if you can internalize this, you can start to understand and study the mind. You need to supplant brain from its privileged position to atoms and molecules.
This might look totally ridiculous. But if you free the mind from its dependency with the brain, you will truly be able to internalize how the brain gets its thoughts. To explain the mind without the brain is out of the reach at the moment, but it will eventually happen.