A disclaimer of sorts, in that there's sure to be some people who will question the aims of these essays.

Though compelled by a pervasive sense of urgency, I wasn't yet sure which direction this book would take me. Hope it's as fun for you.

HALLOWED HALLS: An examination of human, and therefore, artificial laws, vs. natural law.  Which do we obey?

YOU IN THE BACK: How the most qualified voices in history have often been overshadowed by the static offered by our leaders.

ROLL OVER MAGELLAN: The role of technology as both our redeemer, and our destroyer.  This simplistic notion is used to illustrate how the choice is so far anyway, something we can learn how to control.

ON OUR OWN: The art, and insanity of learning how to listen to your own voice of reason.

A LOOK BACK: I felt an examination of my own childhood might help explain how I got this way, and how you may or may not relate to my "condition." In other words, some autobiographical stuff that might help explain some things about mental illness.

EVOLUTION, SCHMEVOLUTION: An early look into our origins as a species, and how we're likely to meet the upcoming changes that natural law is always foisting upon us.  How will we fare?

THE SQUAB WHO ROARED: It's extremely important to remember how to ask important questions again.  Really, a way to re-discover the child in us.  Here lies our strength to ask the toughest and most honest questions.  A sort of "out of the mouths of babes" essay.  "Why?" It's a question that too many of us no longer ask.

Table of Contents:

DAYS LIKE THESE: Why childhood betrayal forges who we are as adults.  If you're lucky, you can make better informed decisions as you learn to distinguish mythology from reality, or at least your unique version of it.  Also, how expectations usually usurp that reality, and how we can turn disappointment into victory.  Don't worry, this isn't a self-help book.

DINOSAUR THUMBS: An overview of our species, and how we came to be the particular brand of animal we are today.  Here, we examine how we must acknowledge our roots before taking evolutionary possibilities into our own hands.  This is where we first envision ourselves as a new species: Hyper-Sapiens.

SITTING IN A BOWL OF PASTA: To free ourselves of our own short-comings as a society, we must first recognize those elements which prohibit us from advancing beyond who and what we think we are.  In order to break free of our own ideologies, we must learn how to identify those laws which have been created to limit our true potential.

IN THE DIN: We're so easily decieved, because of a failure to adhere to our best instincts.  Instead, we choose to let ourselves be governed by those who's interests might not necessarily be our own.  It's here where we first start discussions on the nature of consciousness.  We also start talking about how this inner voice might be the conduit through which a viable soul might be at work.

GOD DIDN'T MAKE LITTLE CLONED APPLES: A great many people think that humans have always been as we are now.  They refuse to acknowledge how change is built into all matter, and that there's nothing we can do to alter that.  We can however, through genetic engineering and cloning, truly be the masters of our own future.  First, we must develop morality before taking such leaps.  That begins by acknowledging our past first, the way it really was, and how it still affects us today.  Self-education is also imperative.

PAPER TOWEL MONKEYS: An examination into how the role of governments have historically been geared to control the future, and how that control was initialized by first controlling the masses.  Written well before 9/11, an eerie warning of how in order to control the future, one must first invent it.  While X-files fans may rejoice, similar edicts have been with human civilization for thousands of years.

HEAD ON A RAIL: Music, among other things, is a barometer of the overall health of a society, for in it is reflected social relevance.  It's always been an integral part of who I am, and to a large degree, it will always have a purpose in my life.  Based on music, and other forms of media lately, we need to reevaluate the health of our culture today.  Here we explore the dumbing down campaign that seems to be getting more prominant each year. Music's chords can either touch the soul, or make it grow weary.

FLAT-LAND REVISITED: If such a thing as a soul exists, then where to find it? How the role of science might one day reveal the existence of conciousness as an entity, and not merely an idea.  Let's cross the boundaries of this dimension we know exists, and into the realms of those yet unseen.  Here, it's physics crossing over into metaphysics. At the signpost up ahead...

ON FUNK AND WAGNELL'S PORCH: An introduction to the bitter reality of our global economy.  It's global indeed, but stays so secular.  How to reach out and accept the fact that we are now, more than ever, one planet.  If we must base our lives on a profit margin, it must be expanded to include the welfare of all of us.  Inequity is something we can no longer afford.  Basically, an exercise in the joys of delusion!

OVER VIEWS: What we are doing here, is establishing an historic and biological precedent for the viability of souls.  In this plane of existence, a soul needs a body through which to do its work.  Here's how these bodies were provided to us through natural selection. It will also be science which bridges the gap between mind and body, as well as consciousness and spirit.

LITTLE SPLASHES: We have yet to begin examining those things that clearly transcend purely scientific or religious thought.  Metaphysics too, have their limitations, but it's a start.  We remain torn between those extremes of pure logic, and its antithesis, that which some call faith.  Once more, we must first come to understand that any real truth is in all actuality, non-existent.  Again, we point out that constant change is built into all matter, and that even our perception of truth is due for an overhaul.  Time for some real honesty here, and boy, it sure can be scary.  Someone has to come forward and say, "The emperor is NAKED!"

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM: "The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven." ---Milton In truth, body and soul are inseparable until you draw your final breath. We tend to think of a soul as a pure and self-sustaining presence, but it's not.  It too must evolve, learn, and grow. Are we living in a place where such growth is still encouraged?

THE CURLY SHUFFLE: If it's possible to address the soul directly, a new form of communication will be born, and our true purpose will be backed up empiracally.  Clearly, our current ability to communicate with each other is severly handicapped.  Instead of using each other as scapegoats, we should begin looking for ways to learn from each other.  No more secrets!

Note: This book essentially wrote itself.  It took less than a year, and was  finished  in February of 2000.  Since then, it's taken on a peculiar sort of social relevance.  There are over 50 chapters in all, but only the first 20 are offered here.  I figure if you get THIS far, then I'm very impressed!