Is there a power beyond the brain?

What is it that really deciding on Physical action – is it ‘I’ -consciousness or something else within the brain? Who is the "doer" of the action? Is there a power beyond the brain?

All these doubts and confusion are based on the physical self. The physical self is the false self.  To understand non-dual truth it is not possible through scientific invention in present form, which is based on physicality, because the truth lies prior to physicality.  The one which is aware of the physical existence is not physical, therefore investigating on the physical base and trying to discover, assimilate and realize the truth on laboratory condition is impossibility.  The brain and Nero science is part of the physical existence, and truth lies beyond physical existence. Thus there is a need to know what exists prior to physical existence to unfold the mystery of the true existence.

Deeper inquiry, analysis and reasoning revels the fact that the self is not physical.  The modern scientific inventions are based on physicality. 

Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness
by :Alva Noë. Hill and Wang, 2009

Alva No, a University of California, Berkeley, philosopher and cognitive scientist, argues that after decades of concerted effort on the part of neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers "only one proposition about how the brain makes us conscious ... has emerged unchallenged: we don't have a clue." The reason we have been unable to explain the neural basis of consciousness, he says, is that it does not take place in the brain. Consciousness is not something that happens inside us but something we achieve it is more like dancing than it is like the digestive process. To understand consciousness the fact that we think and feel and that a world shows up for us we need to look at a larger system of which the brain is only one element. Consciousness requires the joint operation of brain, body and world.

"You are not your brain. The brain, rather, is part of what you are."

If the brain is not the self then what is self?  Therefore, there is a need to understand and assimilate the self-knowledge through deeper inquiry, analysis and reasoning in order to unfold the mystery of the ‘I’.  

When the scriptures itself suggest that:-

This Atman cannot be attained by the study of the Vedas, or by intelligence, or by much hearing of sacred books. It is attained by him alone whom It chooses. To such a one Ataman reveals Its own form. [Katha Upanishad Ch-II -23-P-20]

This Atman cannot be attained through study of the Vedas, nor through intelligence, nor through much learning. He who chooses Atman—by him alone is Atman attained. It is Atman that reveals to the seeker Its true nature. [    3 –page-70 Mundaka Upanishad  Upanishads by Nikilanada]

The above passages further prove that: Self-Knowledge cannot be attained by study of the Vedas and intellectual understanding or by bookish knowledge.  Therefore, there is no use of studying the Vedas and other scriptures in order to acquire the non-dual wisdom.  That is why Buddha rejected the scriptures, and even Sri, Sankara indicated that, the truth lies beyond religion, concept of god and scriptures.  

For the same reason Raman Maharshi said fortunate are the one who do not lose themselves in the labyrinths of philosophy. Bhagwan says: Take Vedanta, for instance: it speaks of 15 pranas the names and functions of it   which the student is asked to commit memory. Will it not be sufficient if he thought only one prana does the whole work of maintaining the body? Again the antakaran is said to think, to desire, to will, to reason etc. Why all these details? Has anyone seen antakarana, or all these pranas? Do they really exist? They are conceptual divisions invented by teachers of philosophy by their excessive analysis. Where do all these concepts end? Why should confusion created and then explained away? Fortunate is the man who does not lose him self in the labyrinths of philosophy, but goes straight to the source from which they all arise. (GURU RAMANA .By S.S Cohen -vii Danger of philosophy-Page -58-59).

Thus, the truth is beyond physicality. One has to discover, grasp and assimilate it only by deeper thinking through inquiry, analysis and reasoning on the true base.