This compression of complex information into a singular idea was noted in a description attributed to Mozart of how an entire musical composition might be “finished in my head though it may be long. Then my mind seizes it as a glance of my eye … It does not come successively, with various parts worked out in detail, as they will be later on, but in its entirety.”3 The conscious mind is able to “seize” on complex information “with various parts” so that its meaning can be grasped “in its entirety.” Consciousness allows our mind to be driven by ideas and concepts, rather than mere stimuli.
