This concerns Intelligence.

Intelligence is one and eternal. Intelligence is rare and unique.

With Intelligence knowledge of Truth is gained.

Intelligence reveals Truth.

Intelligence studies Truth.

Intelligence explains Truth.

There are three orders of Intelligence: Recognition, Understanding, and Imagination.

Recognition is the first order of Intelligence. It is defined in three aspects. There is Perception of the environment, Feeling from the senses, and Awareness in the emotions.

Understanding comes from Recognition as the second order of Intelligence. Understanding is inferred in three degrees. These are Association, Meaning, and Comprehension.

Imagination comes from Understanding as the third order of Intelligence. This is expressed in three conceptualizations: Resolution to imposing problems, Speculations to anticipated circumstances, and Ingenuity to form situations.

Recognition provides Knowledge. Understanding provides Reason. Imagination provides Creativity.

Knowledge is personified with the supposition of an eternal intelligence, but its IDEA was empty since in the beginning there still was no Universe.

Reason is also personified by the premise of an all-knowing intelligence, but its LOGIC was not yet formed, as there still was no Universe in the beginning.

Creativity is also personified through the assumption of an everlasting intelligence, but no THOUGHT had risen prior to the existence of the Universe.

Then a logical idea was thought as the Universe became.

Truth!

An interminable word was uttered.

Creation! Formation! Contemplation!

Light of Energy Law of Force Condition of Matter... These are the elements of Reality, each a cause and an effect-an intricate play. Force affects Matter, changing its Energy. Energy changes Matter, causing a Force.

Knowledge, the sexless spirit of IDEA, upon recognizing the existence of the Universe, declared: "This is Reality. It is external, so I perceive it."

Reason, the god of LOGIC, upon understanding how this Universe came to be, declared: "This is Reality. It is my doing, for I conceptualize it."

Creativity, the goddess of THOUGHT, upon admiring the Universe, imagined what it was to be, declaring: "This is Reality. So it will be, as I conceived it."

As an artist obsessively performing, Creativity danced in circles to create endless themes of structural formations.

As a scientist tenaciously studying, Reason calculated direct relationships to determine the result of every event.

As the infant obstinately playing, Knowledge observed and enjoys the evolution that Universe took.

Much like the depiction of the cosmic beginning, Humans consciousness was likewise formed in three stages of intelligence. For a time uncounted the species roam Earth unconsciously like animals with very limited intelligence. But with the gain of knowledge, Humans could better their survival by forming more cohere groups, learning from each other, thus transmitting behavior that would evade and protect them from predators and the harshness of the environment. Eventually this capacity was enhanced to provide for the resolution of problems through reason, and Humans began to understand the world. Ultimately the brain continued to enlarged, expanding its intelligence, allowing for the emergence of creativity. It was then that Humans were able to protect themselves against predators and the environment by designing simple tools. Thus there was a rise of intelligence and Humans were enlightened with consciousness.

Humans became Aware of themselves.

Humans have found Meaning in their actions.

Humans seek Reason for their existence.

A man opened his eyes, looked around and realized that he was aware. His eyes had captured a different sort of light, the vision of Knowledge-Understanding.

Standing under an enormous tree, he looked up at its branches and realized for the first time that the tree was alive, like him. Thus, pondered a human for the first time upon the meaning of life.

"What is this that makes flora and fauna grow? Is it water, which fires everything to life? Water that puts-off fires and ignites life. Life, an invisible flame! And like fire consumes dead wood and dead meat, life must feed not from air but from water, continuously consuming new flesh to rekindle.

"But, how did the first spark of Life ignited? It could not have been lightning or sun, as these produce visible fire. Life must have risen from the water of the sea or from the rains that fall from the sky." And then he became elated by the thought that follows: "The clouds in the sky!" He became intrigued at these gaseous formations, wondering how where they form, and if these were the cosmic originators of water.

"How long must have taken the sky to flood the earth for the seas to have formed?

"The friction of sticks, the impact of stones, the striking of lightning, or the heat of the sun; these creates fire. For life, there is the planting of seeds or the injection of sperms, but these come from living organisms, just as lightning and the sun creates fire by being fiery."

He touched with his open hand the gigantic Sequoia tree, and to it he asserted: "You have given me inspiration. But now that I have begun to inquire, I realize how little I know. Is there anyone who knows the answers? Such a troubling concept! Nature seems to have no explanations" And with such worries in mind, he left the forest and returned to his camp.

It was not until he was clear out of the trees, that he saw a large eagle soaring proud above the majestic forest. He realized that just as easily as he has seen the bird, it too was aware of his presence. "Unlike trees, you are aware of me. I am aware of you. But how aware are you of yourself? Do you have the same thoughts as humans, and wonder about Life? No, you live and do not realize it. How strange must be to live without such thoughts, but I realized that only this morning I too lived without meaning. To recognize one's own intelligence, is an enlightening observation. Such thought raises the Human mind above Nature, no longer to live unaware like plants or without meaning like animals."

The man reached his camp and entered his teepee, still troubled by these unsettling thoughts. Inside waited his wife who immediately saw eyes of concern in her husband.

"Have you encountered a bear?"

"No. I have my spear against such threats, but I have no resolve against what is troubling me." He then explained his preoccupation to her and she became confused.

"What troubles you, I cannot see. We are different from plant and animal. Plants do not move. Animals do not speak. It is the way they were made."

"Made! By what?"

"By the creation!"

"What is this creation? How did it happen?"

"It is what formed all, and all happened consequently because of it."

"I cannot kill my inquiry by a spear of inference. I must seek an explanation."

"For lack of understanding," she composed, "any explanation is better than none."

"You might be correct with such argument. I accept your theory of creation, as long as it is the most concise and congruous explanation presented. For that same reason, I shall always seek additional knowledge, so that a better theory is constructed. While we lack knowledge, we will speculate erroneously."

The man returned three days later to the Sequoia forest for inspiration. There he said to himself in quiet study: "Are we different because we think, or do we think we are different? Are we external to creation? No. But, is our thought external to creation? If fire comes from fire and life comes from life, must thought comes from thought? Is Nature intelligent? Where there three creations and not one? The creation of Fire The creation of Life The creation of Thought Are we beings from the third creation?

"If air feeds fire, and water feeds life, from what does thought feeds from? Is it not information, which Humans share through words? Yes. But for that first fire to ignite, it must have needed air. Was there air before fire, or did both become simultaneously? Likewise, was there water before life, or did both became simultaneously into existence? Was there a word before the first thought, or had that thought come with that first word?

"Fire spews out from mountains and turns to stone. Water falls from the sky and springs forth life. Thoughts create words emitted by the tongue. Has there always been fire, and life and thought? Has there been one stage of formation or three?"

The man returned once again to his wife and presented her these new questions. She was intrigued as the thoughts and replied: "I suppose thoughts come from thoughts, as life comes from life and fire from fire, so even if there was three stages of creation, there must have been a thought and a life with that fire. Creation must have been self-aware. Such can only define a universal personality of eternal awareness and infinite intelligence-a god."

"Your ideas are soothing but shallow. It does not explain the original question: What forms a thought? Did such original thought created such a god? If there was this original thought of creation, what purpose did it find in having Humans think? Why must we think? Is it, so we think of god? Or did we think of god so we would not think?"

They both sat quiet for a moment, in reflection of these new ideas. Each time he has shared his thoughts with his wife, she had complicated things by simplifying them, inventing explanations.

Then the man spoke again: "Formation of Fire Formation of Life Formation of Thought Could it not be one consequence of the other? So that thought comes from life, which in turns comes from fire. Thus, thought has a beginning, and life has a beginning, while fire still lacks from a beginning. What caused the first spark? In any case: "Why are we the only ones with intelligence?"

To this the wife said: "We all have thought, given to us by God, no plant nor animal has this gift. And as part of God, these thoughts must return back to God. We are thus here to experience reality, and return our experiences. But wanting only good experiences God will reject those who have lived their lives badly. God is a god of goodness, for it has given us the great gift of Intelligence. We must be grateful."

"Woman, you are making this up," replied the man.

"It is the only possible solution, " she declared.

"No. It is only a simple answer."

A third time, the man returned to the Sequoia forest. There, beneath the giant evergreens, he laid down to contemplate the idea of God, but the quiet and tranquility of the forest overcame him and fell asleep.

The dream began with a bright light. Silently it glowed, growing faint very little. Maybe the flash of light must have been glowing for a long time before. Unable to reference its dimensions, it could have been forever.

Beautifulness!

Filaments in the firmament

Twisting path of incidence

Dancing ionic storm

Stars and galaxies they form

Splendid splendor!

Forms ignite to give off light

Hellish helix twist up tight

Spewed out from coils of fire

Raising order ever higher.

Filaments in the firmament began to form. Fainter now, streaks of energy became massive, creating a disturbance in the uniformity of glow, and providing a reference frame from which to measure space and time-the beginning of the Universe.

Eternally Chaotic! These electromagnetic disturbances caused alterations in the behavior of the particles that made them-a fractal path of incidence-self-referential dynamics. Dancing round and around, following an electric path of least resistance, forming a whirl of charged particles. As the plasma twists and tightens, a stronger force is created and the vortices grow. Self-reinforcement!

From the entwining gales of energy that swoop across space strings of galaxies were formed. Each galaxy a spinning wheel, filled with stars and nebulas.

Then the dream revealed a more bizarre transformation. A charged ionic cloud commenced to condense. Manifesting amid a dozen large spheres of fiery gas circling an even greater central sphere. This central sphere eventually grew large and dense enough to ignite-a nuclear furnace. The sun, in turn, transformed the nearby spheres-the inner planets. These too, became sufficiently massive to ignite, though to a lesser degree-a geothermal cauldron.

The man realized that he was dreaming the formation of planet Earth. From an unrecognizable black and red planet of lava, it metamorphosed into a more familiar blue and white of water. The land solidified but continued moving in large tectonic plates, creating mountain ranges and oceans. Volcanic eruptions changed the landscape and the atmosphere, charging everything with nutrients from Earth's molten womb. The sky circled with storms formed by the heat of the sun. The land eroded with latitudinal rain forming valleys and rivers. And all was renewed and swept away by coriolic wind. In the sea, agitated by lunar tides, life arose, competed and evolved. And from the seas life conquered the land, covering the earth in a green mantle.

Then the man awoke, and knew he did not understand his vision. He needed to learn more.

Like a great idea that becomes so obvious after it is first thought, once consciousness was conveyed to others, they too became superfluously self-aware. The same great realization that had profoundly intrigued the first human to self-question was taken for granted by everyone.

There were exceptions: there were those who inquired.

An inquisitive man wondered about his own intelligence-a thought about thoughts-the mind being self-aware. "But strange," he thought, "that it is recurrent only one. A thought about a thought about a thought cannot be made. So a thought cannot be by itself, existing independently like a spirit. The brain, where memories, emotions, and relationships are held, makes thoughts. Perception of the environment forms memories, emotions and relationships-these are the constituents of thoughts.

From our environment we gain information of reality. Between the senses and the brain, reality is absorbed, resolved, and stored for understanding.

"So when I think, I attempt to explain. To resolve problems, such is the purpose of the brain. What it is being asked to me? What I should answer? What I desire to eat? Where I should find food? A thought is to the brain, as a word is to the tongue.

"Am I so simple? Am I so shallow? Do I recognize myself only because my body is capable of producing a thought of a thought? Is my persona only an illusion of collected memories, emotions and relationships? I would not like to think so. But what else am I, but what my experiences have made me. It is also what makes me different from any other person. This implies that as a child, as an infant, I lacked of a persona; I had no personality yet formed-I was hardly human then!

"We are born to his earth as animals, then teach ourselves to be divine, to be above nature. Like beasts, we learn in order to survive, but like gods, we believe to live eternally. We do not want to die; we want to continue forever learning more. How can we escape death? How does a mortal become immortal? Imagine ultra-existence-life beyond the grave. Are we not thoughts after all? It is what the faithful like to think, that we are perpetual thoughts.

"But isn't a perpetual soul a privilege, doesn't everyone else gets to reincarnate? By order of admission by honor, it is claimed, that permission for eternal life is attained. So who makes the decision? Any god or one in particular? Your god or theirs? Will not my god suffice?

"I should not be further concerned by such vagary. I do not subscribe to such views. I accept my undesirable death. I was nothing before being born, nothing shall I be again.

"Humans have made a mistake. They have lied themselves as to the existence of a thought on a thought on a thought. Now, they have become confused, calling this hyper-thought, a god. God is the first and last thought, a higher awareness. As the nerves in the brain collectively form an essence capable of self-recognition, the collective essence of humanity has become self-aware, becoming a higher spirit, a god.

"God cannot exist outside our collective imagination. It is why ancient gods have died-when their followers have so too perished. So no god is then eternal. How to escape death then, even for the divine? Make God the Eternal Awareness, and we are perishable dreams. And, "let us become good thoughts, so God remember us eternally.' The faithful declare."

Have not humans thought up these gods? Divine inspirations

A potter had inspiration to form from clay something different, something useless. No more plates, no more jars, no more earthenware. She took the wet clay in her hands and asked it: "What shall I create from you?" And before she even started, she knew, she would make a figure in the shape of Humans.

The malleable clay was shaped into a female form with large breasts and large vulva. Her hands joined at the navel of her inflated belly to hold a bowl. It represented the mother goddess of creation-the bowl, a symbol of the water of life.

Then, she was inspired to sculpt another figurine. This second one was male, with a large erected penis. His hands held a round stone above his head as if ready to hurl it. The representation of the father god of formation-the stone symbolizing fire.

And again, the potter wetted more clay in order to give form to a third figurine. This was a sexless monstrosity with a large tongue protruding from an open mouth. It held its four horrendous claws, palm up and open, in front of its mouth. It represented the spirit of Imagination, holding a word in its paws.

After firing the clay figures, she adorned them with flowers, jewels, and perfumes. Upon seen what she was doing, her neighbors became concerned.

"What is that to which you are giving homage?" they asked.

"This is merely my art. No homage, just lovely decorations."

"What does it mean?" they asked.

"It depicts the wonderful story of creation that I once heard. Fire, water and thought. The jewels are the stones that come from fire, the flowers are the life that sprout from water, and the perfume represents the elusion of a thought."

"That cannot be so!" complained a young man. "Those represent gods of creation in human form, when these gods were of animal forms. Such I have been told by my teacher who is very wise and very old. He said that at the beginning there was a serpent, a fish, and an eagle. That the copper serpent said, 'I need a ground to crawl about,' and the earth was formed. Then the silver fish said, 'I need water to swim about,' and the sea was formed. And at last, the golden eagle said, "I need air to fly around,' and the sky was formed."

To which the potter announced: "Then, I shall make you figurines in the shape of a fish, a serpent, and an eagle. This is my art."

"Both of you are insulting," proclaimed another, much older man. "There is none, but one God, and it has no shape. It cannot be made into an icon."

"Then," she responded, "I regret not being able to make you a statuette. It is my art."

The young man that had just shared his simple mythology, questioned the artist as to whether she was to honor her offer. Upon her certification, he requested that: "if possible, have the serpent biting the eagle by the neck, the fish eating the serpent by the tail, and the eagle clawing the fish."

"I suggest that you may not fashion any more idols," demanded the old man. "It is a grave error!"

"What is so wrong about depicting an idea?" she asked.

"It demeans my god, who is real."

"And your god is more important than his mythology?" asked the artist.

"My God is the original cause," claimed the iconoclast. "Creator of fishes, serpents, and eagles. Creator of fire, water, and thought. By making idols of these false gods, you give support to such fallacious myths."

"I really do not understand your argument," she claimed.

"That is because you lack from faith to the one true god," he accused, and left enraged.

The artist created the idols of the three creator-animals, along with many other mythologies which people told her of. This was her art; she had no other motives.

The irritated man returned, compelled by a religion intolerant of others belief, follower of a jealous god, he approached the artist as she was giving form to a goddess of lactation, and broke her hands with a heavy staff he carried. Not conformed, he smashed the figurine and then impacted her head, mortally fracturing her skull. After the ordeal, he contemplated his deed, and condescends to his death with a knife to his own heart.

Upon hearing what had befallen, the young man, believer of the creator-animals, who by then had grown fond of the artist, fell to his knees in disbelief to grief his lost friendship. He could not find explanation as to why someone would kill anyone for his or her belief, mush less an artist. "How could someone kill another for their individual and particular ideas?"

He became intrigued by the thought of killing. His mythological creator beast where killing each other as they too created their surrounding. Formation through destruction; Alteration through elimination; Growth through decay! Birth though death!

He became intrigued by the thought of dying. Thinking to himself: "Can the dead know that they are no longer alive? Are the dead aware of there non-existence? Oh! How frustrating death is. But death gives life meaning. Recognize that our intelligence gives life a purpose: to be concern for the wellbeing of others; to love and cherish wife and children, family and friends; to learn and to grow; to be productive. In general, do that which is purposeful and it will bring pleasing results. One should enjoy life."

Afterwards, he decided to learn about the human body and its afflictions, study natural medicine, and learn to make surgery. Maybe he could not prevent the unpredictable calamities caused by human irrationality, but do so to an extent against the unanticipated casualties of natural decease. So he became apprentice to a great physician.

He climbed a mountain, by the valley where the community erected their tents, to find the old physician who lived inside a cave. He found him with a dead man, to which he was about to perform his ritual autopsy.

"I want to save the sick from dying," announce the young man.

"You have much to learn just in order to become as knowledgeable as I," indicated the old physician," but so much greater is the abyss I must fill, with the understanding of the human body, to do what you ask. Medicine is a science. Not to be practice as an art; inventing remedies indiscriminately: rattling bones, spitting the ground, and praying to the gods for a cure."

"I am here to learn."

"We both are," and opened the chest of the dead man.

"Why do you practice in a cave, so far from the camp?"

"To hide from the eyes of the ignorant. They cannot yet understand the purpose of this," as he cut loose the heart and placed it in an earthen bowl. "Though I regret it, it is more appropriate that they remain without understanding for a long time. Let them place their trust in spell-casters and diviners. To believe that everyone has a predefine destiny, and that sickness comes as a castigation from the gods. Let them not know that I seek other explanations to life's suffering, sickness and death, for if they learn of my practice, they will condemn the work of medicine for it contempt's against their gods. But what I do, is far more precarious to their faith than they can imagine.

"What I seek is the understanding of life. Beware, I bring change, chance, and choice; taking these privilege away from the gods. In the end, medical truth will split open the chest of the gods and eviscerate their empty hearts. It will kill their gods. It is why I practice in secrecy."

"Let us hope that the day when the practice of medicine is accepted comes soon."

Taking a deep breath he expired: "Yes! Science will eventually become robust enough for medicine to rise from the perpetual mediocrity of its commercialization."

EPILOGUE