It is often accepted that the brain interprets perception picked up by sensory organs; yet when a line is drawn in the hand with a finger, it is the hand that feels, not the brain or the back of the neck where the nerves supposedly meet up with the brain. On the other hand, it is possible to perceive in dreams when the sensory organs are not stimulated by any actual physical object. I can conceive of 2 ways to possibly explain this phenomenon, although I concede there may be more complicated systems:

(1) Sensory organ feedback is bi-directional. It picks up external stimuli, sending signals to the brain, but the brain must send a signal back in order to confirm how the stimuli is to be felt. In this case, it is the sensory organ that perceives and aids in sensing, or feeling of the stimuli.

(2) Sensory organs pick up external stimuli, then sends the signal to the brain (1 direction), and it is the brain that then prompts feeling to the appropriate spatial area. In this case, the only function of a sensory organ is to gather external information, and then brain would be capable of imagining feeling outside of the brain.

If either of these are true, then there are consequences.

If (1) is true, then consciousness, even in a state of dreaming, may be impossible if sensory organs were somehow severed from your central nervous system. You would lack any kind of spatial awareness, and unable to induce even imaginary feeling through any of your senses, if sensory organs were required to sense. It may even be impossible to think if you can't imagine sight, sound, feeling, or emotions, which are often basis in which logical symbols arise.

If (2) is true, then it may be possible, if you truly will it, to imagine a sensory feeling in any spatial coordinate, such that you would be able to realistically feel someone touching an object (through timed imagination) 3 yards in front of you because the activation of your sensory organs would not be require to sense. It may also be true that it would be possible to stimulate someone born blind to imagine sight. It may also mean that the brain is capable of self-generating rational thought without prior stimuli.