Self-styled mystic Jaggi Vasudev (aka Sadhguru) makes an interesting point in one of his YouTube videos. “What we are all always doing, is mistaking our memories for intelligence.”
This is a mouthful and worth delving into. What he is saying is that everything we do is guided by what we have experienced in the past and how that has got embedded in our minds. We remember a variety of things and use those instances to make decisions for the future. We also consider those memories and events as knowledge and use it to not just portray our own IQ but also become judgemental about the IQs of others.
This memory characteristic is also true at the physical level. Our body (and every single cell in it) remembers too. This is why pav bhaji (or biryani or pizza or burger) eaten by you turns into more of you, and not into me or into some other animal or plant or food.
The problem with this memory-to-intelligence approach is that it limits our perception to only what exists in our memory. It also closes us to future possibilities, especially those that we cannot comprehend, based on current memory (which we call knowledge). If we are told that astrology is a baseless science, this sticks to us, and we make no efforts to unearth if this is actually true. This is particularly important when a modicum of faith is required, such as to progress on the spiritual path. Despite the guidance of many thousands of realized masters over many millennia, we are content with mistaking our own lack of experience, for intel-inside.