Theosophy believes that:
1. Animals have a collective brain. Like when you make five holes in a wall and stick your fingers through them. You see five fingers, but behind the wall there is a "master brain", the hand. That is why animals always know what to do. They are ruled by the hand behind the wall.
2. The body is just a vehicle. We use it, but it is not everlasting. When it is used up and dies, our mind goes to a higher level.
3. The brain is not - as most people believe - only a transmitter (as in telling our body what to do), but also a receiver. We receive input from a higher level, although we are not conscious of it most of the time.
4. Dreams are not - what most people believe - simply the dealing with things you have encountered that day, but you are in reality in another realm, a higher one. There are seven or twelve of this realms. At this moment we are in the fourth one, so in our dreams we are in the fifth.
If you want to know more of this, read some theosophical literature. Just google it.