"Proust Was a Neuroscientist"
"Proust Was a Neuroscientist" is the title of a book by Jonah Lehrer, and which discusses how art leads science; what the artist discovers first is later confirmed by neuroscience, as in the new 5th taste: umami, or the way Cezanne understood the process of vision. And consciousness may be the last mystery, according to Lehrer, and one which is not explainable. And consciousness may be all there is, ultimately.
From page 195 of "Proust Was a Neuroscientist":
"...the real gift of our matter is to be more than matter."
"Poetry sways matter."
As the title of my Blog says, quoting Shakespeare: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on."
And, I would add, so does beauty, in all its forms, sway matter just as poetry--linguistic beauty--does: visual art, landscape, music, touch, and emotional beauty as when two hearts connect. And that may be where Lehrer needs to go next: He is looking at the solitary brain or mind, and what emerges in community and in relationship with others? Vygotsky is right about the social and cultural origins of mind.
And not only beauty is able to move us, but terror, and the nightmare.