A Tale of Change
Part 1: The Beginning?
Once upon a no-time and pre-space, there lived a Great Spirit who was unchangeable, ever-present, and all-knowing. Literally, every possible idea that would ever exist, and many more, were parts of Its knowledge. However, the Spirit wasn’t satisfied that it only knew these things, but had not yet experienced them. And there is a difference between the two. It is one thing to know a recipe in one’s mind for example, but it is quite another to actually practice cooking it, as all inexperienced cooks soon discover when they try. So, because Spirit yearned to experience, it decided to act on one very deep part of its nature.
“Change!” It commanded itself with the first Intention ever. And because this came from the ultimate source of everything, the power of this purpose is and always will be unlimited and eternal.
Now, some very credible people these days think that Spirit first changed into a singularity – an infinitesimal point that contained absolutely everything within itself as raw energy. But other credible people are not so sure that such a point could ever exist. They have other ideas involving strings, collisions of branes, and an all-at-once periodic reshuffling of everything to a primitive disorganization. But that is how it goes with the Great Spirit – no one can be absolutely certain about its origins.
Anyhow, let us assume that the change that Spirit directed really did follow steps out of a singularity. Concentrating its will throughout the tiny point of light, Spirit blasted itself into materiality with a Big Bang. First, it unfolded like a hot, dense roll of energetic fabric. Three minutes later, as the energy continued to expand and began to cool, Spirit contemplated the next change to undertake.
“I can’t add anything new to my fabric, because I am already everything there is,” it thought. “How can I create change without adding anything new?”
Suddenly, an idea solidified.
“Vibrate parts of your fabric in such a way that you create various bundles of waves,” the idea suggested. And Spirit understood.
“Divide!” it directed itself through its Secondary Intention.
Tiny ripples arose in clusters within the fabric. Some of the ripples reverberated in a certain positive way, and nowadays we call these ripples protons. Other ripples fluttered negatively and are now called electrons. And of course, some of the neutral ripples are named neutrons. Through creating protons, electrons, and neutrons, the Great Spirit had also created Division. But perhaps it was through these symbols that Spirit’s ideas began to be put into words.
For 300,000 years, a time period that didn’t seem at all that long to Spirit, the universal fabric continued to unroll while cooling. Protons, electrons, and neutrons were now rippling all throughout. But the initial Intention that the Spirit had unleashed was not satisfied. In fact, it never again would be. A new type of change was imperative. But what else could be done if already the three fundamental types of vibrations existed?
“Well, of course, I could go on creating new types of vibrations to infinity,” thought Spirit.
“But then you would just be doing the same thing over and over again,” noted the Primary Intention. “You would just be creating new types of vibrations. Where is the novelty in that?”
Suddenly, Spirit had a breakthrough – a leap of an idea.
“Aha!” it thought. “If I combine the vibrations together in different combinations, I can add images and textures to my fabric.”
“Great idea!” congratulated the Primary Intention. “You are thinking outside the box. Let’s work on that together.”
“Merge!” willed Spirit through Its Tertiary Intention.
And so Spirit and its three Intentions began sculpting different designs from the basic vibrations, just like a group of excited children with different colors of Play-doh. Initially, they built the simplest structure, a hydrogen atom, from just one proton and one electron. It was very easy and quick to construct. There was something stimulating about molding two opposite parts in such a way as to bring them together into a stable bond. A dazzling little spark of energy went off every time. The Spirit child became so fascinated with building Hydrogen and continued to do that for so long that now it makes up nearly three quarters of everything that we see through a telescope.
Soon, Primary Intention had to send a reminder to Spirit. “Remember to change,” it whispered.
“Oh yes, of course,” Spirit replied, as it moved on to combining together something slightly more complex – Helium, with its two protons, two neutrons, and two electrons. Once again, the child became mesmerized with building Helium. There were more pieces to play around with. More variety. More questions.
“What happens if instead of two neutrons, I use one?” wondered Spirit, as It created Helium-3.
“And why is it so difficult to remove the electron, after it has been stuck to the atom?”
While exploring these questions, Spirit ended up turning Helium into nearly a quarter of everything currently visible.
Having built hydrogen and experimented with Helium, the Spirit was flooded with a surge of invention. Entertained by the rush of discovery, it set about creating all the other elements in the periodic table. Tertiary Intention was still present all throughout space and time, and slowly exerted its influence on the clouds of Hydrogen and Helium. For a billion of years, Unification used a force, which we now call gravity, to gather the gases into clumps. As they condensed, the temperature at the core of their masses rose incredibly high and the stage was now set for Primary Intention to swoop in and set in motion a new type of change – nuclear reaction. Spirit started creating heavier elements, with progressively more pieces and unique properties. And innovation was the name of the game. In the process of creating new elemental structures, there arose some astonishing creations.
Part 2: Life
Stars were formed as gravity clumped masses of hydrogen together into spinning discs. Unification was playing with yoyos. The centres of the discs turned into a variety of sizes and colors – white, blue, yellow, orange, and red; the brightest Alphas and the dullest Omegas; some as hot as 80,000oC, and others as cold as 2,500oC. Exhibiting self-organization, these beings started out by converting Hydrogen to Helium within their cores, in the process letting out tremendous flares of energy. As the Hydrogen supply ran out, the stars then began to build Carbon from Helium and in the process expanded into red giants. Soon, layers formed around each star, in which all other elements were produced from various reactions. As the outer layers blew away from the expansion, each star then compressed their atoms and became a white dwarf, or exploded in a colossal supernova, showering the universe with its assortment of elements.
The space dust on the edges of newly forming discs solidified into balls of hot liquid fire.
“Hot potato! Hot potato!” yelled Spirit and its Intentions as they played with these soon-to-be planets.
Spirit was very happy with what the team had produced up until then.
“I can make amazing creations with you three,” it delighted. “Through Change, Division, and Unification, my project will keep constantly transforming and developing. The fabric of reality will keep unrolling while I myself remain as constant and changeless as I have always been.”
“Exciting, isn’t it?” proclaimed the Three Intentions. “Let’s get to work!”
Now, the distance of 150 million kilometers between one ball of molten lava and a yellow star called the Sun, was apparently one of those distances that was just right for the next stage of the Spiritual enterprise. For 500 million years, which appeared as approximately 5 minutes to the Spirit, the lava cooled, but the temperature was still warm enough to prevent gases from freezing. The surface of the space sphere, which we now call Earth, solidified into rock. One steamy gas, known as water, condensed into thick, dark clouds above the rock and caused rain for thousands of years. Our future home planet, now had the appearance of extreme gloominess that we see on rainy days. So much water came down that oceans were eventually formed, abundant in dissolved carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, and various other elements.
“Ooh! Look how fun this looks!” exclaimed Unification as it grabbed Spirit and raced to the scene.
Together, they undertook the connecting of numerous atoms into macromolecules like children frolicking with toys. They built carbohydrate Lego trains with long chains of linked saccarine cars and yelled “Choo-choo!” with glee. They gently blew through wands and watched fatty acid soap bubbles grow and float off appealingly. They braided nucleic acid gimp threads to create long strands such as RNA and DNA. Finally, they twisted and connected amino acid elastics to produce protein loom bracelets.
Playing with these toys was so much fun for Spirit. Change and Unification were delighted as well.
“There is so much variety here!” they exclaimed, “So much novelty!”
“I wish to keep combining!” Unification stated.
And so the first stable sequences of chemical reactions between protein molecules closed into catalytic loops, encircled by protective lipid membranes, nourished by carbohydrate energy reserves, and genetically programmed for action and change via nucleic acids. Spirit had formed the first hypercycles and over the next 500 million years tweaked these creations through little changes into the first living cells.
A cell was an enterprising little creature – a self-generating network of components precisely interrelated through its own cycles of chemical reactions. Although the structure of a cell was somewhat rigidly determined through genetics, energy and matter could still flow between the cell and the environment. And quite frequently, the cellular cycles of reactions integrated the incoming material from the outside. This is precisely how cells were able to respond to their environments, and in a sense also influence and be influenced by them.
When Spirit finished creating cells, It was suddenly struck with déjà-vu. The behavior of these little creatures, as they went about maintaining their internal processes while absorbing and assimilating parts of their surroundings, and emitting products, was reminiscent of other creatures that were already created. Stars, as well functioned in comparable ways.
“Interesting,” thought Spirit. “I willed to create change and difference, yet these distinct aspects of me are now acting as similarities.”
This satisfied the deep, immutable component of Spirit. And with great curiosity, it continued Its project.
Part 3: Networks
Now, the early Earth was a very dangerous place for little bacteria. Every which way they turned, the little buggers were exposed to severe sunlight, harsh droughts, crashing meteorites, erupting volcanoes, and overpowering floods. Many times the combined parts of each cell – the membrane and internal components – went their separate ways under exhausting conditions of suffering. Integrity was an all-consuming task. But the Intentions were there to help.
“Remember, speed is your strength,” Division reminded DNA. And DNA listened and began to replicate quicker, to increase cellular survival.
“And you were designed for flexibility,” Change advised the catalytic reaction loops within cells.
And the reactions understood and began performing more contemporary maneuvers in their synchronized dancing. Like classical ballet with its moves of combined strength and grace, fermentation was one of the first acts. Then followed nitrogen fixation, zesty like latin samba, allowing bacteria to create a multitude of colorful proteins for every possible function. Next, the stage was set for the breathtaking acrobatic complexity of photosynthesis. Just like B-boys utilize physical momentum to achieve windmills, flares, and head spins, photosynthesizers captured and used solar energy to accomplish their own adroit tricks.
“Combine your skills for a grand spectacle!” requested Unification.
And all the dance teams coordinated themselves with precise timing. The carbon dioxide that could have been depleted by photosynthesizers, leaving the Earth cold and uninhabitable, for example, was cleverly restored by fermenters. In this way, cunning balance permeated itself through the networks of literally thousands of biotechnologies all around Earth. And another form of life was inaugurated – Gaia. The Great Spirit was tremendously pleased. Even planets now exhibited the universal characteristics of similarity it had witnessed in stars and cells.
At this stage, the bacteria separated and covered the surface of the Earth. They lived in waters, soils, and sediments. And although, they were interconnected through a global network of chemical interactions, something else was missing – unwavering cooperation.
“You must substantiate your bonds,” Unification advised.
And the individual cells clustered together into colonies. In some groups, multiple layers of slime were formed. On the front lines, the top layers exposed themselves fearlessly to the sun and shriveled away as heroes to protect their bacterial nations from the ruthless enemy. Some of the injured were saved, thanks to the emerging medical technologies of DNA UV-damage repair.
“It’s no use getting injured so readily, though,” the bacteria reasoned. “Let’s concoct a sunblock pigment to defend ourselves.”
“But, we don’t want to battle anymore,” other cells exclaimed. “Let’s move to saline environments and protect ourselves in salt bunkers.
In other tribes, a financial system of genes was established.
“I’ll give you this gene for that one,” the cells bartered with each other.
Communication and productivity increased. Less than 1% of genes actually remained permanent in each cell. Genes, like money, were not initially designed to be hoarded.
As the bacterial populations flourished and filled the spaces of the Earth, precious hydrogen became depleted. Bacterial industries required it as a resource for construction of organic compounds, and fuel for manufacture of food and energy. Greedily, the bacteria consumed the cherished substance for their own selfish needs, without any care for future generations.
“Population crisis! We are all going to die!” some bacteria began to profess.
“We can solve this,” a certain entrepreneurial blue-green bacteria advocated, as they introduced an innovative new green technology known as oxygenic photosynthesis.
You see, the photosynthesis up until that time used only hydrogen sulfide as a resource for energy. The blue-green bacteria proposed water as the abundant fuel for the new photosynthesis. But the bonds in water molecules were stronger than in hydrogen sulfide. More investment from the bacterial governments would be required to break them. Were they ready to take such a costly step towards averting hunger and starvation of the masses? They were and they did. Oxygenic photosynthesis proliferated, coloring the Earth in shades of vibrant green.
However, the struggles of bacterial nations did not end there. Cyanobacteria now produced oxygen as a waste product. For millions of years, the Earth was able to absorb the oxygen and bond it with its hidden metals and sulfuric compounds. Then came a point of saturation, and the oxygen began to accumulate in the atmosphere causing smog and all kinds of health problems among the bacteria.
Once again the cells cried and complained, “There is so much pollution. We are killing ourselves!”
And many did die. Species first became endangered and finally went extinct. Nations were annihilated by the plague that was oxygen.
“What misery! What devastation!” the individual survivors wept.
“What change!” Primary Intention’s voice boomed wisely and clapped its hands excitedly.
“Don’t give up!” Combination motivated the lonely left-over cells. “Reorganize!”
And then the little blue-green bacteria summoned all their remaining resolve and focused all of their trust into their inner strengths of fast replication and adaptability. Soon enough, the Great Spirit provided them with the next amazing surge of creativity.
“We can use the oxygen and turn it into something useful,” bacteria realized with a flash of inspiration. “We can recycle!”
The cells drew in voluminous breaths and exhaled contented sighs of gratitude for Spirit’s help. They had just invented respiration.
“I can help, too,” Gaia said in her nurturing voice. And like a mother overseeing her children, she stabilized the oxygen production to above 15%, so that her little bacterial children would not suffocate, and below 25%, so that they would not burn. Also, she used oxygen to weave a blanket of ozone to cover and protect herself and her children from the severity of the outside world. Life on Earth was now safe to continue evolving. Mothers are such caring creatures.
Meanwhile, like rowdy teenagers, the bacterial cells began combating each other. In competition, one cell would use various tactics to engulf another and steal its materials. The Intention of Division was thrilled at the ensuing struggles and cackled cruelly like an vicious witch. But once again, after an initial little while, Unification arrived on the scene.
“Remember me?” it asked sweetly.
“We sure do,” replied the cells. “You’re nice!”
Suddenly, they comprehended what needed to be accomplished next.
“I’m sorry that I tried to eat you,” said one bacteria to another one inside it. “Maybe, we can strike a deal. I certainly still need food and energy, but I shouldn’t constantly destroy other cells. What if I let you live inside of me safely, and in turn you can supply me with food for me?” asked the outer bacteria.
“Sounds like a deal to me,” replied the inner bacteria.
And the cells developed symbiosis. Various organelles, such as mitochondria, chloroplasts, and nucleus compartmentalized within cells. And although each section was physically separated by a membrane, chemically the network of processes within each cell grew exceedingly more efficient. Cooperation always prevails over destruction… eventually.
But Division grew furious.
“It’s not fair,” it shouted at Unification. “Spirit created me before you and I must be given a chance to do my work as well.”
Then it thought hard about what it could do to create a potent division throughout Spirit’s experiment. Finally, it came up with the idea of gender. And so it applied its efforts and released a huge force that intensified the differences between pairs of cells, which were at that point innocently exchanging genetic information and appeared very similar in all aspects. This is how there arose the male and female biological genders.
“This should make things more riveting for Spirit,” snickered Division triumphantly.
Along with sexual reproduction, came a decrease in the cellular abilities for self-repair and regeneration. Aging and death emerged. Many people nowadays believe Division to be a vile intention. To a certain extent, they are right. It is a somewhat more malevolent entity than Unification. But a little bit of Division is always paramount. Were it not for its separating abilities, Spirit could never achieve everything that it had set out to accomplish within its project, including the eventual triumph of Unification.
Part 4: Complexity
A new type of transformation was looming. Increasingly, globular multi-cellular gatherings began to develop cutting-edge capabilities, such as coordinated amoeba-like movements of whole groups from one place to another. Change was guiding Spirit through a dynamic stride along the evolutionary highway. Early animals and plants entered the red carpet in all their glory and glamour, showcasing nature’s hard-earned achievements.
In the oceans, the cells within each conglomeration learned how to co-operate. Advanced intercellular communication networks developed and eventually evolved into the first nervous systems with miniscule brains. Maintenance of such nervous systems produced a lot of excess calcium, discarded to produce trash heaps of coral reefs. Once again, life faced another pollution crisis. But as we have already seen, such disasters are ideal conditions for the workings of Change. A moment of 100 million years later, larger animals began to use the waste calcium to build and carry exotic shells and skeletons.
By the time the marine creatures began venturing out of the water, plants had already successfully immigrated from their native oceans to new lands, full of promising possibilities. However, adjusting to the culture shock of the new terrain was a challenging task indeed. Like acquiring a new language, the major difficulty involved developing novel breathing organs. This was no endeavor for the feeble. Tough skin was required to protect against harsh sunlight. Only the strong were able to remain as foreigners on new ground without running back to the comfort of their birth homes. Strong were those with sturdy muscles and bones to fight against the uncompromising pull of gravity.
The ones that were able to survive for subsequent generations forevermore kept reminders of their nationalities. Just like immigrants who raise their children speaking their native language in a foreign environment, these animals continued to provide marine pouches for their young in their eggs. Cultural heritage is passed on through blood. Even now, humans still carry that oceanic saline water in their blood, sweat, tears, and wombs.
Amphibians turned into reptiles and then dinosaurs who overtook the Earth like dictator tyrants. Insects proliferated like the masses of the fragile and the insignificant who are condemned by society to a life of poverty. Flowering plants appeared with their fashionable ensembles and sweet etiquette. They charmed animals and bees into companionship, and then used them to spread their seeds. Like mafia, fungi developed underground business partnerships with the roots of plants, and like governments forests expanded to control entire regions. Some dinosaurs began to fly and patrolled the skies like aircraft.
“Where is society going?” many wondered once again. “Will we ever live together in peace?”
Some began to profess the coming apocalypse. And then, like a ball of fiery rage, God’s will came down and decimated the Sodom and Gomorrah, which was the Cretaceous period. This is the story that the survivors told their offspring, anyway. Meanwhile, Spirit was watching.
“Silly creatures,” it chuckled. “I am not cursing or punishing you. These things happen naturally. Don’t you understand that every little bit of you is part of me and can never be destroyed?”
Part 5: Civilization
The survivors celebrated their perseverance in the face of catastrophe. In the absence of dinosaurs, mammals established a new dynasty. Unlike cold-blooded reptiles that left their offspring to fend for themselves after the hatching of eggs, mammals developed warmer, more caring hearts.
“We want to cuddle our children in our bodies,” they said kindly, “and stay close and care for them after they are born.”
Birds too, began showing the wisdom of compassion. “We’ll fly to find food for our babies,” they chirped, “and teach them how to build nests when they’re older.”
With the help of Change, certain types of mammals transformed into pre-monkeys called prosimians. They lived in trees and jumped, twirled, and somersaulted from branch to branch like children in a park playground. Their hands and feet grew flexibly skilled and accustomed to such acrobatics.
“Make sure to look ahead at where you’re going,” advised Change like a concerned parent that did not wish for its children to become injured playing. The prosimians developed frontal eyes and 3D eyesight.
Of course, there were also other bigger and tougher kids on the playground – bullies. They hunted for smaller, defenseless creatures and installed fear among skinny, geeky prosimians.
“What can we do to defend ourselves?” the prosimians asked each other.
“We can stick together so that these hooligans don’t attack us,” suggested one.
“We can pick up rocks and sticks and defend ourselves from the ruffians,” another one offered.
“When I jump down from a tree,” said one, “I will stand up straight while using my hands to pick up food from the ground, so that I will see if there is any danger around me.”
“Let’s make a system of yells to notify each other when a bully is coming,” one ingenuous prosimian proposed.
And so evolved social mentality, upright posture, and vocal communication. It’s funny how fear can sometimes inspire cooperation and creativity. Working together helped the little prosimians grow closer and stand up against the dangerous predators. Eventually, the prosimians transformed into monkeys and apes that continued the tradition of using rocks and sticks to make tools. As an undeniable aspect of Spirit, technology has been co-evolving with life and stimulating brain growth ever since.
Eventually, prosimians transformed into monkeys and apes. Austrolopithecus, the first upright-walking ape, roamed the African woodlands and savannahs like a mighty king for one million years. Sometimes, even Change needs a rest. But after stability’s fifteen minutes of fame, progress was once again ready for action.
“I really liked the group-work of prosimians, monkeys, and apes,” recalled Unification. “I will intensify these creature’s social bonds.”
It did this by eliminating hair from the bodies of Austrolopithecus. Babies were born unprotected, with exposed skin. Therefore, mothers had to nurse them for longer periods of time. Fathers had to form communal bonds with the mothers, in order to protect their offspring. Families evolved, and from there communities, tribes, and villages. Inklings of society were emerging.
At the same time, increasing tool use and vocal communication dynamized the brains of these creatures. Intelligence, in the way that humans are used to defining it anyway, gradually emerged. Homo habilis turned into Homo erectus, exhibiting even more adaptability and innovative behavior.
Let us not forget about Gaia, who herself went through Change. Covering herself with a blanket of snow, the great mother went through a period of melancholy, like all women do sometimes. However, this Ice Age caused incredible alterations in the lives of Homo erectus – hunting of wooly species for warm clothing and food to sustain the body in the cold, control of fire for heat and cooking, and rituals of food sharing. The communication and closeness around the dinner table gave rise to the first myths, art, and language – truly social dimensions of the hominid experience. It is due to this boost of social reality that Homo sapiens finally made their entrance into the great flow of things.
The rest was history. Humanity proliferated and began to rule the Earth. But along came many problems – competition and war, hunger and starvation, pollution and habitat destruction, fear and anxiety. Their intensity was palpable. However as we have already seen, the Earth has witnessed all of these problems before, disguised by other eras and cultures, though essentially the same at their spiritual core. And just as in all other times past, by the time 2050 came around, innovation and adaptation triumphed.
Part 6: Gaia
In 1859, with the inspiration and help of Spirit, a wise man named Charles Darwin published a book that gave a name to the grand experiment – evolution. An extremely ingenuous first theory of change, it was however incomplete. It defined evolution as only life on Earth, not the whole universe. It explained evolution’s forces as only Change (genetic mutation) and Division (natural selection). Division, of course, was quite happy with such spotlight. Wars, conflicts, and destruction prevailed among humanity. Unification, who has accomplished so much through time, was forced to take the backseat. There was no room left for altruism in the world of competition and survival of the fittest. Luckily, in the end more inclusive explanations of evolution had arisen, which gave due respect to Unification.
An Intention is impossible to kill. One can only stifle it for so long. Unification continued to exert its quiet influence from behind the scenes. Compared to 1,500 BC when 600,000 separate nations inundated the Earth, in 2024 there were only 200. Though wars and conflicts were still regular parts of life, the people kept hope and remembered that progress is a meandering turtle.
“So what is next?” the people wondered.
“Consciousness,” the Great Spirit hinted. “Focus on embracing this mysterious force, learn all you can about it, allow it to flow and work through you. Surrender to this higher purpose, and all your problems will be solved.”
And the people listened and understood. The deepest portions of their minds, bodies, cells, and molecules began to vibrate with ancient solutions. Just like the ancient aerobes, we tapped into them through the simplicity of focused respiration, which connected us autopoietically in feedback loops through repetitive cycles to the atmosphere around us, and so fed us into the higher global organism of Gaia. As this divine femme awakened, she began to speak loudly, conveying to each individual their own specific ideas and actions for Her ultimate purpose of survival and success. We accepted her motherly instructions like yearning children, and like the Intentions, we delighted in the creative play of our work, thereby infusing the whole process with our collective soul.
And so like the bacteria which learned the arts of cooperation and symbiosis, we too overcame egoic selfishness in order to grow into one multi-cellular tissue of collective consciousness. Following the example of blue-green bacteria, we used the accumulation of toxins in our environment to introduce novel green technologies and sustainable resources. We faced and accepted Division as a rowdy child in need of our acceptance, and so grew wisdom to also see it as an ancient Intention, and part of the divine plan. We allowed Unification to show us how to balance out Division, in instances like the gender revolution. Just like the mammals and the birds, we learned the importance of family, whether traditional or not, and practiced compassion as a way of life, donating money and time to the less fortunate. As the prosimians, we used our intense fear of the predatory forces of materialism, consumerism, totalitarianism, and new world order, to spark radically novel emergent abilities that helped us adapt and prevail through communication and cooperation. Like land animals, we used our rudimentary wisdom of the aquatic past stored in our bodies and the collective unconscious. Solutions to every crisis the earth has experienced through history were already stored within us in this way, and were simply allowed to be unleashed with trust and wisdom as powerful forces continuing evolution.
References That Inspired This Story
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