cerebration

plural cerebrations

1. countableuncountableThe act of cerebrating; reflection, thinking, thought.

   Duncan himself, however, seems to have alpine cerebrations embedded in his very molecules.

   2009 January 25, Lee Siegel, “No Exit”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   We shall erelong hear still more remarkable illustrations of subconsciously maturing processes eventuating in results of which we suddenly grow conscious. […] Dr. Carpenter first, unless I am mistaken, introduced the term ‘unconscious cerebration’, which has since then been a popular phrase of explanation.

   1902, William James, “Lecture IX: Conversion”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 207

   To get at the very root of religion we must lay bare the first notions or thoughts that actuated mankind. We must go far beyond the beginnings of civilization. We must deal with the cerebration of primitive and savage man. We must consider in some detail the origin and evolution of reason and knowledge apart from and in addition to the origin of instinct.

   1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 3