That's not really a given. Maybe arguable for mammals, but arthropods? What about sponges? Fungi? Trees?

Not OP. I think the brain is more a receiver of consciousness than a generator, and there are many types of receivers, beyond neural cells.

Trees will form a network with the cooperation of fungi, to exchange information and nutrients among each other. Plants will grow better when they are planted with companion plant, or cultivated in guilds (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_(ecology)

Funny that you mention this consciousness thing.

A few years ago I've been out, seeing blackberry bushes in full bloom, ripe with berries,

many already dropped to the ground. One could even smell them from dozens of meters away.

That was on a former industrial/commercial zone in the harbour, everything torn down,

leveled up a few meters with massive earthworks, compacted, graded.

Since a few years, no activity. Barren and bare execpt for a few weeds and bushes,

some colorful wild flowers, thistles(also very colorful!) some small birches. "pioneer plants" AFAIK.

Anyways, hords/squadrons of all sorts of insects swarmed around those bushes,

really darkening the air and making a loud buzz/hum/drone.

But strangely no birds.

Whatever, I wanted some of those blackberries, too!

So I thought about what I intended to do in terms of movements, actions, and so on, all visually,

and thought about projecting that outwards in crystal clear HYPER-IMAX-3D-whatever, for every single step,

slowly stepping into the swarm, thinking the same way about every hand movement, exactly from where I'd pluck the next one,

thinking don't sting or bite me, stay away from my face, there is enough for all of us...

And none have stung or bitten me, also they left me alone, with the exception of a few landing on my bare arms,

and resting there for a few moments, before taking off again.

But it seemed mostly unnecessary, because most of them seemed to be in a holding pattern,

waiting for space on the ground, to gorge themselves there on the juices of the fallen berries.

So I only needed to watch my steps.

The berries were exceptionally good :-)

I took about 1,5 to 2kg back home in foldable plasic bags, which I always have in my backpack for shopping.

But before doing that, I took my time, squatting down, and watching the bees, wasps, bumblebees, flies, whatever, flying erratically,

like they were drunken from the juices of the fallen to the ground berries, away, maybe a hand width above the ground.

That was their pattern, coming in high, going out low, like drunken. Still no stings or bites! :-)

One of the weirdest experiences I've had.

I'm still doing that with my cats, which I got later. Not speaking,

but thinking visually about things I'd like them to stop, and why,

what can be dangerous when I'm working in the kitchen, or soldering electronics,

how I like the ways they move, and so on.

We mostly communicate in silence.

Typical "catness" stubbornly ignoring everything aside, it feels like it's working in about 80 to 90%.

No stress with "herding cats" here. (3 of them)

Maybe we lost this stuff, the ability to perceive things like that, or it has been selectively bred out of us,

by the environments we created, which in turn shape us.

Back to topic (somehow):

Long before I got my cats, I had a 'stray' calico coming to me for about a month, from who knows where.

One night, while she was resting on a four times folded sleeping bag I'd layed out for her on my bed, I heard her loudly meowing.

No clue about what was going on because out of sight. I went there, and she stood on her hind legs, looking afraid,

slowly walking backwards into the farthest corner on her hind legs, meowing miserably.

At first I didn't get what was going on, then I saw a small spider, brown white, whith pale green backbody,

not larger than a pea, whole spider maybe an inch at maximum with fully extended legs.

The cat was terrified of that spider! Even when I've put the spider into a glass and thrown it out onto the balcony.

When I came back she still warily sniffed the spot from where I put the spider into the glass, meowing annoyed.

Took some time to soothe her.

I've never seen, or heard of cats being afraid of spiders before, nor I can imagine how that should work,

since outdoor cats should have plenty experience meeting them in the wild?!

Humans … or I should say, modern humans have a bias towards consciousness structured as language. So yeah, it doesn’t normally occur to people that mind-to-mind contact can come in other forms. Among the (obviously non-techie) friends and communities who experiment and cultivate skills like these, using a visual channel for communicating with animals, plants, and insects is a thing. One example I heard, was a shaman telling me how she communicated to her dog that they will be gone a few days. Dog don’t understand clock time like we (modern humans) do. Dogs do understand the rising and setting of the sun though. Three of the rising and setting sun would be three days.

In the visionary shamanic community, we might call these intelligences animal, plant, or insect teachers.

Spiders have a special, very profound medicine. Many beings are afraid of them, and moving through that fear is part of the test to learn from the spider teacher. There is something similar with snakes. The venom is transformative.

I noticed too that you talk about pioneer plants and you seemed to have skill at foraging. I’ll make a bold assertion that’s out of place for this forum: I think that a civilization that are organized around local food resiliency and sovereignty using such things as permaculture design can free up the time for humans to really explore consciousness. It requires time and awareness and not better machines and technology.

Feel free to contact me by email if continue this conversation interests you. Talktohosh on gmail.