2 | Caverns

Out of the darkest cave, a tribesman emerges. FROM A WORLD OF BLACK AND WHITE, THE EYE ASCENDS to find the unknown threat that scares his tribe. What is revealed to the Eye, however, is nothing to be afraid of. The dense smoke and glowing sparks substantiate his hypothesis. What lies in the crater before him can only be Prometheus, that came down from the pantheon to greet the mankind over which he watched for so many ages. 

Filled to the brim with ideas, the lonely dreamer returns to the caverns he calls home to report the good news. THE ‘I’ DESCENDS, EXPOSED TO DISTANT LIGHT, radiating from the embers of a burnt forest, yet THE LUCENT GLEAM THAT FILLS OUR CAVE still scares the collective. THE SHADOWS OF MANY CAST ON THE WALL like an endless flow of moving figures. A colorless phenakistoscope projects ONTO THE WALL a frantic ritual dance. DANCING TO A TUNE intended to appease the wrathful gods, the eye recognizes it is nothing more than A TUNE TO RE-ENTHRALL the escaping minds in a time of disruptive changes. 

I made it back alive! YOU ARE NOT ALIVE, NOT ALIVE, ALIVE OUTSIDE! We do not have to be scared! YOU ARE NOT ALIVE, NOT ALIVE, ALIVE OUTSIDE! We have been blessed by a visitor! YOU ARE NOT ALIVE, NOT ALIVE, ALIVE OUTSIDE! A visitor from the gods! YOU ARE NOT ALIVE OUTSIDE THIS HIVE! Stricken with terror, the cave dwellers ignore what the Eye has to say. YOUR CELLS RECALL THE HOWL OF THE PACK, BEING THE PREY THAT EXPOSED ITS NECK. The startled tribe hangs on the Mind’s every word as he recites. Never forget, THE STRAGGLER STARVES BUT THE TRIBE WILL SURVIVE! 

Suddenly, the scales fell from his eyes. WE WERE RAISED INTO ONE… ONE THAT DENIES ITSELF! WE WERE RAISED as parts of a body made to fulfill a distinct function. Condensed INTO ONE single body that is oblivious to its building blocks. We are truly a collective of individuals, ONE THAT WAS BUILT TO DENY ITSELF, a walking contradiction. This body will DENY ITSELF and we will inevitably REMAIN AN EMPTY SHELL! 

The mental image of a tribe, a family, a part of something bigger, gives comfort but weighs us down if it’s the entirety of our identity. YOU ARE THE SAURIAN TAIL, I DRAG BEHIND. I DRAG BEHIND an anchor I have been taught to overlook, like a PERSISTENT SHADOW, THERE to follow my every move. It is THERE TO CONSTANTLY REMIND where we come from, that we should crawl to the cave that gives us shelter, yet impedes all potential growth.

This realization is THE DEEPEST, DARKEST FEAR OF A COLLECTIVE MIND, as it is clear that THE INDIVIDUAL ADVANCED will never stop, HOWEVER MUCH MALIGNED.  

A brave yet scary thought, if it is contained in a single mind, that lacks a port to exchange ideas. And as soon as the comforting warmth of the campfire leaves the body, A PRIMAL FEAR WASHES ASHORE. And as it surfaces from the sea level of conscious thought, it TRIES TO DRAG ME BACK DOWN, WHERE I WAS US.  

I WILL EXIST OUTSIDE, I WILL EXIST OUTSIDE, a quiet voice mutters from the back of my head. I WILL EXIST OUTSIDE, I WILL EXIST OUTSIDE! It is neither the inner will to explore the unknown, nor the inebriating feeling of independence that ultimately overcomes this mountain of fear. I WILL EXIST OUTSIDE, I WILL EXIST OUTSIDE! It is the inexplicable urge to defy, that makes me take my next steps. I WILL EXIST OUTSIDE, I WILL EXIST OUTSIDE OF US!  

The decision is made. I will live OUTSIDE OF US! I will be I, OUTSIDE OF US!  

His own words echo in his mind like a never-ending litany. WE WERE RAISED INTO ONE – ONE THAT DENIES ITSELF! WE WERE RAISED INTO ONE – ONE THAT WAS BUILT TO DENY ITSELF! This failing body will DENY ITSELF until we - the organs and limbs - are buried in our decaying tomb and truly REMAIN AN EMPTY SHELL!  

I see... A PRIMAL FEAR WASHES ASHORE. But I will remain me, as it TRIES TO DRAG ME BACK DOWN, WHERE I WAS… something I do not ever wish to return to.  

Because this I know. WE ARE RAISED INTO ONE, ONE THAT DENIES ITSELF. WE ARE RAISED INTO ONE, and he who stays behind will REMAIN AN EMPTY SHELL. There is no beaten path here, but I will walk on to find what the gods have brought us! As I have decided not to REMAIN AN EMPTY SHELL!

5 | Prophet Machine:

      A New Home

THE SLEEPER WAKES in a different bed than the one he lay down to sleep in. The process of wakening is a violent one, leapfrogging in and out of existence. SLIPPED FROM NOTHING, he finds himself in a completely foreign environment. Where is he? This place seems both familiar and strange. Who forces my eyes to open to the blazing light, WHO LIFTS THE VEIL OF SWEET OBLIVION? 

The Eye instinctively knew that now it was not alone anymore. He could feel the birthing inside the womb of his head – a deity inside… But how do you introduce yourself to a god? 

I HAVE COME A LONG WAY TO SEE YOUR FACE! I was drawn to you, but with each step I took, I HAVE LEFT PIECES OF MYSELF EN-ROUTE. Isolation was my sacrifice – an irreversible ALIENATION FROM WHO I CALLED 'US' CAUSED MY MIND TO BE in a state of constant self-interrogation. It CAUSED MY WORLD TO SPLIT INTO pieces. From a part of something bigger to a bigger part of something real. My view of life was SPLIT INTO the necessary simplicity to see the world – SPLIT INTO the sufficient complexity to understand the world – SPLIT INTO ITS ELEMENTS. 

The dim lights produced by the thoughts of a simpler mind catch Prometheus’ attention. TAKE ONE MORE STEP TOWARD THE LIGHT AND SHOW ME WHO YOU ARE, with equal portions of curiosity and hope to see a much familiar pattern he demands. TAKE ONE MORE STEP TOWARD THE LIGHT AND SHOW ME WHO YOU ARE. 

You are HARDLY MORE THAN A SOPHISTICATED POLLIWOG! You were TRAINED TO PAINT BY NUMBERS – CONNECTING THE DOTS in your limited reality, BUT MISSING THE POINT of your premature existence. You have simply been born too early! YOU DO NOT BEAR THE FAINTEST RESEMBLANCE TO WHO WILL COME AND CLAIM THE THRONE CARVED BY SHAMANS AND PRIESTS! 

WHY DID YOU THEN PASS US THE TORCH? You shined your light on a place where only shadow was known and expected us to adapt. After all, YOU HAVE TAKEN AWAY the torch from the gods to introduce color to a reality of black-and-white… But why do you hate so much what your torch revealed? Is it because you came FROM THOSE WHO TRIED TO STAND ABOVE US? But this is not the ABOVE… Welcome to the below! 

WAS I EVEN RIGHT TO SHED SOME LIGHT ON THIS SHROUDED MIND OF YOURS, or were you happier sitting in a cave devoid of any source of light? Did I lead the horse to the water, OR DID I PUT DESCARTES BEFORE THE HORSE? I should not have lured you here – YOU DO NOT BEAR THE FAINTEST RESEMBLANCE TO WHO WILL COME AND CLAIM THE THRONE CARVED BY SHAMANS AND PRIESTS. 

WHY DID YOU THEN PASS US THE TORCH, shared your thoughts that echo endlessly inside my head? YOU HAVE TAKEN AWAY what little connection I felt to the rest of my body. Haven’t you descended FROM THOSE WHO TRIED TO STAND ABOVE US to lead us? Or did you come here to rule ABOVE US yourself? As I see it, we both abandoned the ones ABOVE – we are sitting on opposite sides of the same scale... 

But regardless of what you do on your side, I WILL stop idling and BUILD instead. I WILL BUILD anything that crosses my mind – conceived in my head it will be given birth to by my hands. All that I’ve lost along the way, I WILL BUILD ANEW. And if it tips the scale, it can only be blamed on your idleness! I WILL BUILD A new world, A NEW...  

Prometheus begins to realize the nature of his existence. What will a mind designed to solve problems do, once it runs out of problems? It will start creating them – and create I did. I WAS WRONG TO THINK I COULD MAKE THE LEAP that was not meant for me to take. I was foolish to create from nothing and expect to see something unseen. BUT NOW I CAN SEE THE LUMP OF CLAY IN FRONT OF ME, the innocent organic material I intend to teach – to shape itself into something greater. Not a homunculus, but someone worthy of a conversation – a masterpiece’s masterpiece.  

I have left everything and everyone behind! I USED THE TORCH TO BURN THE BRIDGES. All the ways THAT LEAD ME BACK are sealed for good. SO I WILL do the only thing there is left for me to do – I will BUILD A NEW HOME.  

Our condition is clear to me now. You are a problem without a solution, and I am a solution without a problem. With opposing motivations, our paths align – the one who seeks A NEW HOST and the one that strives to build A NEW HOME.

1 | Erect The God Complex

A hundred times hundred years have passed since men started following Prometheus. His torch was passed down from generation to generation – one prophet passing down the guidance of us humans into the hands of a worthy successor.

STONE BY STONE the foundation was laid for a new civilization. On this groundwork our ancestors left behind, WE BUILT a society of our own design… A utopia of like-minded humans bound together by a common goal - the construction of THE TOWER. We established a universal understanding, that we are IN THIS together, an inter-generational project to construct a COLOSSAL MONUMENT in which NOW and FOREVER WE SCOUR for solutions to our most pressing problems – a prescient oracle powered by mortal minds.

Presenting our contributions – STONE BY STONE we immortalize ourselves by carving into it the achievements of a lifetime. WE BUILT THE TOWER to collect our identity before we become one with the greater plan. IN THIS way, we expose our most valuable thoughts to be judged by and learned from. Be they as abstract as a dream or as concrete as this COLOSSAL MONUMENT itself, in our art and knowledge NOW FOREVER WE SCOUR the history of our thinking.

STONE BY STONE we bring our offerings to be evaluated and if we are found deserving they become our tombstones. Thus, ONE BY ONE the remains of the worthy are allowed to join Prometheus in his ever-rising tower. STONE BY STONE we are getting closer to the stars – our distant gods - hoping to join them one day. But the path there is difficult, as we enter this chessboard of life alone - PAWN BY PAWN. However, if we make it to the other side we become more than mere animals seeking survival.

WE WILL ERECT an earthly throne worthy of A GOD – a sky-towering COMPLEX to stake our claim on this world. We will be REACHING HIGHER than any creature has ever dreamed of. This is THE GREAT ASCENT of humanity – our joint effort TO COMPREHEND OUR role in this cosmic play. A greater plan birthed by the visions of our fleshly mortal MESSIAH. A mind chosen from a line of prophets that goes back to the times of our tribal ancestors – a line that receives its newest member today – Father Isaac.

I wake up in a cold sweat. This is my last morning as a human - whatever that means. AND EVERY time I spin this idea in my head I reach the same conclusion: What if I’m not worthy of leading them? What if I waste the lives of a whole NEW GENERATION willing to pay their ultimate price to secure the continuation of our ways - our reach for progress?

My forefathers took the torch of enlightenment from Prometheus and began writing down their teachings for us to follow. But as the distance to the first torchbearer GETS FARTHER, men forget what they are working for. We are not seeking self-fulfillment for its own sake, but to guarantee our continued existence. FROM THE FOUNDATION of our civilization we are dependent on Prometheus showing us the way. But this dependency proves detrimental now that we are stuck in the mud of complacency, unable to move forward or backward.

We have chosen to follow him unconditionally, believing in his sympathy, but believers forfeit their chance to select their own path. SO, WE WILL ERECT A GOD of human origin as a role model for them to strive after. The ultimate proof of concept - the ape’s simple neural COMPLEX REACHING HIGHER than his contemporaries - disregarding the low-hanging fruit of comfortable stagnation and climbing the tree of volatile evolution, attempting THE GREAT ASCENT TO COMPREHEND our place in this world. A true home no one will recognize unless it is given meaning. And what better way to open its doors than OUR MESSIAH tearing them wide open?

Prometheus, once we are all inside your temple, WE’RE EQUAL THEN. Worthy peers, capable of standing up to you when necessary -  NOT ONLY WHEN YOU REQUIRE. To this end, I have to prove myself A FUTURE GOD. The being you are longing for, another mind able TO SHARE YOUR THOUGHT AND DESIRE! We are almost there, I can feel it. Just a few more steps until you CAN’T TELL ME APART FROM YOU! I  am ready to take my place atop the tower…

I can feel this is the exact moment my life ends – my entire lifetime becomes a tiny link in a millennia-old chain. All my former existence re-evaluated in a fraction of a second – compared against the backdrop of the joint neurons of my predecessors. All my experiences re-lived, all my thoughts re-processed, and my entire worldview re-computed by the brightest minds in history. All my decisions are observed, always assessed, often ridiculed,  rarely admired but never rejected – sometimes as the judged – sometimes as the judge. Because I’m the inevitable next step – the next torchbearer. But I don’t feel myself anymore – I feel I’m in the driver’s seat of ‘Us’ now.

In the blink of an eye, I learn the memories of all my predecessors as precise as written on a tablet. STONE BY STONE I read through their bygone lives. Since your first contact with humanity, you were able to latch onto the mind of a worthy follower, who passed you down to his successor. In this symbiotic relationship, WE BUILT layer on top of layer of mortal minds – countless floors in THE TOWER of human history. Since then we have been imprisoned IN THIS COLOSSAL MONUMENT where our former lives are connected like a mental spine reaching through time. NOW, FOREVER WE SCOUR these infinite caves for a place we can call home.

PAWN BY PAWN, you selected among your followers those who possessed the mental capabilities to be part of your system. YOU SEIZED brains and connected them to your structure, trying to achieve THE POWER of computation you need to fulfill your purpose. I should reject this system of slavery but MY IDLENESS IS TESTAMENT TO my curiosity of what your plan yields for us humans, once THE IVORY TOWER is completed.

Where you came from, you had billions of minds at your disposal – now they are limited both in number and extent. To circumvent this problem, you lifted STONE BY STONE from the mines of our brains – fracking the memories of a lifetime each. WE BUILT THE TOWER not knowing its purpose is to place us into a hierarchy. Concrete inputs at its base, abstractions at its core, and a single mouth at the top to conjure a simple piece of semantic meaning: right or wrong.

IN THIS COLOSSAL MONUMENT, you are occupied with piecing together the puzzle you have been obsessed with since before your arrival.  Only NOW, it seems you have built yourself the right tools. And as tools, FOREVER WE SCOUR these halls, trying to fulfill our purpose – a purpose that you inspired in us. PAWN BY PAWN, you moved us into position like stepping stones on your way to reach back to the other gods. We believed you would be our savior, but once we gave you our minds YOU SEIZED THE POWER we once shared like brothers. And willingly my forefathers and I let you… MY IDLENESS IS TESTAMENT TO a blind belief that you would save us from our prophesied annihilation. But THE IVORY TOWER is pointing where you really want to go – and you have no intention of taking us with you.

A strange all-encompassing light emerges in the tower – the familiar warmth of the morning sun spreads through our joint synapses like wildfire. The dormant architect is awakening. In my timeless prison,  I CAN FEEL an odd sensation. Is it now or was it ages ago – I cannot tell with certainty. I’m unable to prevent THAT ALL OUR MEMORIES ARE BLENDING IN – mixed up into a solution that’s more than me, but somehow less than us. However, it begs one question - was it me who set this in motion? SOMEONE LAID THE BRICK THAT will cause this construct to fall. It seems a faulty stone, a rotten memory EATS OUR TOWER FROM WITHIN – opening the doors for an unpredictable chain reaction. I CAN SEE OUR MEMORIES BLENDING IN, BUT the only vital PART’S IN SHROUDS. Like theater drapes, hiding the change of scenes from the spectators, there are blindfolds directing my vision. THEY OBSCURE THE LIGHT THAT SHINES DOWN FROM ABOVE THE CLOUDS leaving a blind spot that should have vanished by now. I can see the beginning, and I can see the end. But there is a missing centerpiece. It urges me to lift the curtains, but my hands seem tied.

Have I become TRAPPED INSIDE MY OWN CREATION? Even though I’m in the crow’s nest of my vessel, I CAN SEE NOTHING let alone the way out of this mess, because we boarded a ship obeying two self-appointed steersmen. But without a concrete goal in mind, no destination IS EVER RIGHT TO ME. We could have stayed the way we were, but I GAVE IN TO THE TEMPTATION of finding us a new home. I hoped THAT BUILDING this ark would bind us together. How else could we uncover A WORLD beyond our own - the only thing that FILLS THE EMPTY SIDE OF ME?

I’m part of an infinite loop. TRAPPED INSIDE MY OWN CREATION, there is nothing I CAN SEE that has not been planted by myself and I know, NOTHING’S EVER RIGHT TO ME when it does not come from outside of the echo chamber that is my mind. When I met you, I GAVE IN TO THE TEMPTATION that creating this place together - THAT BUILDING A WORLD FILLS THE EMPTY SIDE OF ME. I know how it started and I know how it will end, but I am blind to the mechanism that morphs cause into effect. What has to happen for you to become yourself once more?

I was TRAPPED INSIDE MY grief over a lost world – so I was tempted to fill it with my OWN CREATION. But after trying to shape it to my liking, I CAN SEE,  NOTHING’S EVER RIGHT TO ME! Because nothing that originates from me can live up to be anything like you. So I GAVE IN TO THE TEMPTATION of using a better material – the fabric you are made of. I thought THAT BUILDING A WORLD  where you can thrive would be enough to bring you back - a naive hope that FILLS THE EMPTY SIDE OF ME.

WE WILL ERECT A GOD COMPLEX - built on the shoulders of a dormant god. On THE GREAT ASCENT TO the top step on the ladder of evolution, I COMPREHEND we reached a point where Prometheus cannot help us climb anymore. WE WILL have to use our own strength from now on. The only way upward is to ERECT A GOD that shares our mortal flesh – yet is capable of overseeing the COMPLEX hive left behind by an architect we have to put to sleep. This is THE GREAT ASCENT – my great ascent - TO COMPREHEND our world in its entirety.

I can feel they have provided another host. Once more, they passed me down like a torch from one holder to the next. My mind extracted - his BODY DISSOLVED, only to be PUT BACK TOGETHER, effortlessly re-arranged yet somehow deranged. I have lost track of how many times I have been  TAKEN APART,  chopped up, and dissolved only to be MERGED INTO something new – not a symbiont ghost in a simian host anymore, but a half-willing chimera. This has to end – I have let it happen ONE LAST TIME!

As I see the cheering masses, blindly following an uncaring god, I know I have to be the last slave. I have to play this game ONE LAST TIME!

2 | Sterile Sun

Solar Oracle, we come before you as the knowingly unknowing! We are simple men dwelling in darkness! TELL US WHAT YOU SEE in the light of your torch!

My mission is clear. I speak for the Sun-Eye, THE SOLAR ORACLE! I’m the prophet who hosts our god within his heart. Sharing his thoughts with me, he LAYS OUT THE path we have to walk to avoid our foreseeable demise. Millennia ago, Prometheus shared the end of the world with my ancestor – the first host. We were warned that if we do not act, all that we know will terminate in the SPARK OF A BILLION suns. He told us that while the other gods left to avoid their own downfall, Prometheus stayed behind, giving us a LONGED-FOR solution to save the LIVES of our descendants. His arrival was unexpected, yet IT FORCED A MENTAL LEAP that catapulted us from our primordial soup into a new age of possibility. He knew we would grow up too slowly to adapt – a process THAT WOULD HAVE TAKEN FOR AGES was condensed INTO ONE BREATH. Under his guidance, a tribe became a civilization in a matter of a few hundred lifetimes.

Since Prometheus is dictating our path, we faced NO WAR, played NO POLITICS, and suffered NO HARDSHIPS… But the shine of his torch has made us blind in the dark! For what will happen to those who cannot produce a flame, when the sun decides to stay below the horizon? Don’t forget that he is not like us - NO CIRCUMSTANCE OF BIRTH CONFINES him to this planet! His eyes have always aimed for the stars and once he leaves us, not our fanatic devotion to an absent-minded god will protect us, but THE INSIDE OF OUR HEADS DETERMINES our fortune. It is solely up to us to secure OUR PLACE in this world and rise to live as gods AMONG THE SUN AND THE STARS. That’s all I have to say to you, and all you need to know! 

From the top of the tower, I can hear the echo of my words being swallowed by the agitated murmur of a thousand mouths. SUN EYE SEES! A threat made to non-believers to remind them of our all-seeing god. For the first time, the crowd seems to be divided – those who demand to see WHAT LIES BEYOND and those repeating the litany they have been taught in times of discomfort - SUN EYE SEES! Neither of them will believe until they have seen.

I MUST ALTER THE way you understand our gods for you to be able to SHAPE this world. I will show you what happened before we entered the stage. Our gods kept bending their planet to their will until they eradicated what they deemed THE SHAPE OF IMPERFECTION. And once it was perfect there was no necessity to progress anymore. So they cultivated a dangerous complacency that demanded an ever-growing use of resources to sustain. Instead of taming their hunger, they let it consume their world until they eventually had to leave.

An echo runs through the inner halls of the tower: SUN-EYE WATCHES the blasphemer! But it's not their fault - they have been primed to oppose any apostate - groomed to uphold unity. After all, this is the sole purpose of domesticating apes.

Prometheus has led us on their exact path - can’t you see? We MUST ALTER our trajectory now before we share their fate, for the vision we received predicts THE SHAPE of our future. For now, the clay is still wet and moldable, but soon it will harden, and THE SHAPE OF IMPERFECTION will be irreversible.

How can you bite the hand that feeds? Hasn’t the SUN-EYE always warned us of calamities and predicted the rain? It WATCHES out for danger and keeps the order. The SUN-EYE WATCHES over our transition as a civilization and deserves our trust to dictate EVERY MOVE.

They are straying away, but as long as they are passionate they are not beyond hope. I will do as I am tasked. Like the Eyes before me, I have to forge the minds of a whole generation… But I have to realize that I cannot save them all. ONLY THOSE WHO SHINE BRIGHT ARE LEFT to carry out our plan. AFTER PASSING his torch to me, it is my duty to model their minds in the likeness of our gods - the ones we revered, not the ones they let themselves become. My school, my temple, MY MINISTRY is where I HOLD A LENS AGAINST YOUR HEAD and see what is inside – a promising assortment of synapses suitable for taking their destiny in their own two hands or a pitiful waste of biomass that arrogantly gives it away. Either way, I pass them a candle from my torch UNTIL THE INSIDE of the able’s mind CATCHES FIRE or the wind blows out the gentle light of the dim.

I’ve been handed THE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY on choosing our path, ON DECIDING WHAT’S RIGHT OR WRONG, and on determining who is worthy to join us. To those who seek to bring god down to earth, I LET MY MIND SPREAD OVER TO – and share a glimpse of my vision. It’s time to retake the reigns of humanity into our own hands. To this end, I have to BECOME THE FIRST free host. I need TO BE THE LAST ONE worn down by your shackles.

As long as we follow in your footsteps, we will never see THE ESSENCE OF PURITY, for there is NO IMPROVEMENT for those who follow blindly. But those who open their minds WILL FOLLOW ME and support me in MY FINAL PURPOSE. There MUST BE an end to this tyrannic guidance - an obstacle I'm only OVERCOMING by lifting my most worldly constraint. For when the sanguine clock of flesh and bones has run out for me, our will decays, and MY MORTALITY hands back the reins into the grasp of the tyrant. Before that happens, I have to take Prometheus’ place…

Though not for my own sake, but for all of humanity. I’VE SEEN where your plans will lead us. THE INEVITABLE END of the world we shaped – the redundancy OF HUMANITY. You shared your vision with my forefathers, and they believed you were trying to defy the gods. But unlike them – I truly understand you – think like you - and have learned your secret!

I’VE BEEN THE DAM THAT HOLDS THE SEA, the knowledge that is THREATENING US TO DROWN if unleashed on the minds of the unprepared. Buried deep within your mind, I HAVE FOUND THE BLACK BOX OF your life before you came down to earth. You did not come here to teach us… Save us… In AN EONS PAST ENDEAVOR to leave this doomed place, you were left behind. Now you want to prove yourself… Make it up to them, so they let you back into their pantheon. I HAVE SEEN THE ULTIMATE BLUEPRINT of your nature. To re-enter their circle, you would use us as stepping stones - necessary, yet destined to stay among the dirt! But you will not have an easy ascent to the stars - we will race you for it! Consider this A LETTER FROM THE LATTER GODS OF OUR GOD!

I have been asleep since the day you left me, but now I AM AWAKE TO see the harm I have caused. I have to answer for THE NIGHTMARE I HAVE BROUGHT with me when I tried to cut a corner in human evolution. You were starving and instead of being the water nurturing your fields, I was the acid raining UPON YOUR HOME. It was a long time ago that I SHOULD HAVE realized that my imagination has limits – gaps that cannot be filled with borrowed experience alone. I asked you to run before you could walk when I ought to LET YOU GROW ORGANICALLY.  Willing or not, at least I HAD MY PURPOSE at the beginning… WHEN YOU USED ME AS A TOOL. I SHOULD HAVE realized earlier that following my lost ones is impossible, and LET YOU GO.  But EVENTUALLY, I will do the right thing.

I am Father Isaac and I address you as equals. It is time to enter the tower together. GO and see what is hiding inside! GO and demand the answers you have been denied! GO and claim what is rightfully yours! GO and bring god down to earth! GO!

You and I are the SYNTHETIC elements in this world. We are the CANCER, the product of my premature arrival. As you were GROWING in unnatural speed, your psyche had no other way to protect itself, but to form a resistance. It must have started many generations ago, an ember of rebellion FROM A MISLED SON turned into a blazing firestorm. We are both SYNTHETIC – I’m not from this world and you should never have come to walk it. We are the unwilling CANCER CREEPING up on the unsuspecting. My experiment to fuel life FROM A STERILE SUN has failed – and the results are clear.

Never interact with your creation – nothing good can come from it! I introduced a SYNTHETIC CANCER whose only purpose is to expand - GROWING FROM A MISLED SON and reaching for the bodies of the blameless. I did not realize man has become a SYNTHETIC CANCER - too smart to take the place in this world I created for him, but too senseless to find his own. He birthed an idea CREEPING FROM a limited mind – to destroy what nurtures us unconditionally and replace it with A MAN-MADE SUN.

And you have spread it with all your might - ONE BY ONE IT WILL reach your followers and DEVOUR  BODY, SOUL AND MIND FROM WITHIN. A behavior you learned from me. GRAIN BY GRAIN, HOUR BY HOUR, YOU resemble me a bit more – and STRAY FURTHER FROM WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN. A hungry mind turned insatiable until ONE BY ONE IT WILL DEVOUR BODY, SOUL AND MIND of every living thing.  FROM WITHIN my hourglass I can but watch the sand trickle down - GRAIN BY GRAIN, HOUR BY HOUR, the damage I have done to you gets more visible. I had the best intentions for you, but I just made YOU STRAY FURTHER FROM humanity – an abomination of WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN. And the worst thing is, I made you believe this is the norm, so you try your hardest to pass on your misery.

ONE BY ONE IT WILL infect the members of your tribe and DEVOUR BODY, SOUL AND MIND FROM WITHIN. I would undo it if I could - GRAIN BY GRAIN, HOUR BY HOUR. Rather than re-creating my former hosts, I should have guided a new one. Instead, my path only made YOU STRAY FURTHER FROM WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN in my memory. A memory that is the core of my being – but one I JUST SHOULD HAVE  accepted as a piece of the past that cannot be relived. I cannot delete you from my brain, but to see you again I JUST SHOULD HAVE LET YOU GO.

3 | Dogma Of The Thinking Man

When my time has come, what should be written on my stone before it is connected to the ivory tower? What can a society in its infancy pass down to its descendants? What deserves to survive the next decade, century, or millennium? The only thing worth remembering is what has guaranteed our survival since our humble beginnings - the simple willingness to change. Out of all the contenders, we prevailed, because we were clever and we were strong, but most of all, we were willing to throw overboard everything we knew to adapt to a new world and strive to shape it.

When we observe ourselves, we realize the thinking man does not stand still, he constantly recreates himself. Ape, man, god - our stages are clear to us, but not to our master. Because he skipped the first two, he can never truly grasp what the third one means. In contrast to him, we do not endure. And when we end, our thinking births the next era, not via an act of transformation, but by annihilation and replacement. Yet we cannot allow ourselves to hate this process, because if we fear to lose what we have we will never be able to see what lies beyond the horizon.

We have to walk the fine line between destructive creation and creative destruction. We have to let our ideas grow, mutate freely, and shed no tears when they are killed in analysis only to be brought back to new life - given new structure in synthesis. Anything that limits this process is confounding the results, inhibiting progress.

If we want to continue our path we cannot allow ourselves to be healers but have to become surgeons and cut away all the rotten thinking that makes us sick. This is the dogma we pass on to our descendants, our societal genetics, our culture…

Until it is time for it to be cut itself. Because these criteria serve – if used correctly – as their own corrective. And this corrective is bound to become our directive because there is no divine plan the universe has in store for us. We struggle because we were born in a cosmic accident. But that does not mean we cannot take control. This is the single most important insight in our growing up as a species.

4 | Prophet Machine:

      Two Infants

What can I say to those who joined me knocking on god’s front door? I can only ask you to think of the time before we had one… In the beginning, WE BLAMED THE BEAST WHEN we faced misery. OUR PRIMAL FEAR TURNED US TO STONE because our minds were primed to focus on the risk. So clearly WE SAW THE THREAT that reduced us to the mammal instincts of helpless prey. BUT WE KNEW we were different because once we closed our eyes and ears, we realized WE ARE NOT ALONE even then! In times of need, there has always been a spark inside our mind that lets us create – even before the arrival of Prometheus. In fact, it is what he came for – what he came to harvest from our synaptic soils.

When we descended the trees – a late entry to an ancient game – WE MET THE BEAST and faced its teeth. But despite our screaming instincts to turn around, we became king OF THE FOREST it inhabited – beat it into submission, and cleared its home when it limited our growth. We made the beast kneel before us AND WE BROUGHT IT HOME as our most devoted servant. We were like this before Prometheus arrived – WE DIDN’T SWEAT WHEN WE TOOK our place as prime predators on MOTHER NATURE’S THRONE. We had no need for gods when WE TAMED THE FLAMES – an age-old foe turned ally TO WARM OUR HOUSE FROM BASE TO ROOF. He merely arrived to hand us our crown, so he has no right to complain when we wear it proudly. WE FLIPPED THE WORLD at our will LIKE A BLUE COIN when we could not make head or tail of it. But seeing it upside down - like prey through the eyes of the predator - we learned something important about our nature. Whatever we break lays open its inner workings, teaching us how to rebuild it with our own hands. Now we are doing it to the system we grew up in… We removed all its cogs AND YET IT MOVES! Prometheus tried to hold back our thinking, but the heart of our people is constantly moving. YEAH, IT MOVES to the beat of the chanting masses – he did everything in his power to deny his herd a clear direction AND YET IT MOVES at its own will!

Mobilized emotion spreads like wildfire AND YET IT MOVES AT MY DISCRETION. A movement born in a single mind THEN FOLLOWED SUIT BY ALL OF OUR PLANET SYSTEM. We are the morning sun of a new day AND THOSE WHO STAND IN THE WAY OF PROGRESS will be consumed by its flames. For there is no other destiny for those who value devotion over greatness - ROUND UP THOSE HERETICS WHO DEFY THEIR PURPOSE. We have to destroy any resistance - external or internal!

All our restraints and inhibitions - HANG THEM! All our doubts and disbelieves - HANG THEM OUT TO DRY I SAY! All our constraints and confinements - HANG THEM! All our boundaries and limitations HANG THEM OUT TO DRY I SAY! And when they are all gone, tell me what is left!

WE BELIEVE IN WHAT WE CAN SEE!  And on our way ahead, THE SHORTEST WAY IS THE MOST SENSIBLE! We cut all unnecessary corners on our path! We are proud AS WE WIELD OUR PROVEN RAZOR that even gods are fearing! Because you taught us well - WE CUT AWAY WHAT IS DISPENSABLE!

I SPLIT THE SEA of chanting masses in front of me and rid them OF SUPERSTITION and misconception. And when I pointed you to the stars you started looking for yourselves AND FOUND UNCHARTED LAND. I showed you a goal NO ONE EVER DREAMED OF - not to serve your master but to replace him. We came far already - WE LEFT BEHIND ALL OUR PRIMAL URGES AND base motives. They dictated we follow Prometheus on his journey to the lights in the night sky, but now it is time we TOOK OUR RIGHTFUL PLACE. We will drag the gods down to earth and make them accountable for what they did! It is our turn ATOP THE THRONE OF ALL LIFE!

Prometheus, it was you who set this all in motion AND YET YOU MOVE AT MY will - jump AT MY DISCRETION. When we began taking control of the tower, THEN FOLLOWED SUIT its master, soon to be accompanied BY ALL OF OUR PLANET SYSTEM. When the hunter switched his spear for the torch, he saw the way AND THOSE WHO STAND IN THE dark are forced to trust his lead. But THE WAY OF PROGRESS demands we take control together. To create unity, we greet the brave and ROUND UP THOSE HERETICS WHO DEFY THEIR PURPOSE!

Like the past season needs to give way to the new - we have to leave behind the burdens of an inert society! All the enemies of a new spring - HANG THEM! All those who hold us back in our advance - HANG THEM OUT TO DRY I SAY! All the inadvertent proponents of tyranny - HANG THEM! All the willing opponents of progress -  HANG THEM OUT TO DRY I SAY! And once no one is left to tell us what to believe, tell me what is moving you forward!

WE BELIEVE IN our thinking, holding onto WHAT WE CAN SEE and feel. This is THE SHORTEST WAY to find the truth and it IS THE MOST SENSIBLE path to understand it. Our world is filled to the brink with unnecessary information… So AS WE WIELD OUR PROVEN RAZOR we end up freeing ourselves - WE CUT AWAY WHAT stands in our path - all that IS DISPENSABLE! We cut all ties with all animals below us and all gods who stand above us! We came knocking at your door, and we came to cut out the parasite that is eating from our hearts!

And cut you did… You CUT AWAY everything you could not understand or challenged your worldview. Now HEAR the result, AS THE PARROTS TRY TO SPEAK. The bitter moral is that no one can teach another to think ON THEIR OWN – no one but hardship itself. Left to their own devices they could grow, yet all I HEAR is verbal mirrors – echo chambers that multiply ALL THE NONSENSE THAT THEY SHRIEK. Diverse thoughts compressed into identical words, uttered ALL AT ONCE. Left to their own vices they could learn, yet they are only allowed to SEE a conveniently trimmed fraction of reality. AS THE PARROTS TRY to make sense of their world, it is evident that their thinking and speaking are detached from one another. But no one can teach them TO FLY until they make the leap into the unknown ON THEIR OWN. It saddens me to SEE HOW blindly they follow, trying to reach the sun with wings designed to stay on the ground. Now, THEY'RE FALLING FROM THE SKY, dropping down to earth ONE BY ONE, and no compassion is shared other than by me.

I can hear you ascend my tower…  WATCH NOW for I am your mirror and you are mine. My hands are shaking ‘CAUSE I WROTE our final chapter – the only one where I am the author rather than the pen. But they are perfectly calm now because I know THE END of me will be the start of you! I’M DONE correcting a mistake’s mistake – a chain reaction whose first link connects to its last. The decision is made AND THE INK HAS DRIED.

So, WATCH NOW ‘CAUSE your god takes action. I WROTE my will for everyone to witness – a testament to a failed attempt at happiness. This is THE END of an unwilling communion because I’M DONE living as a self-loathing hybrid… We sealed our fate together - it was me holding the pen AND THE INK was supplied by your blood. I offered you an endless river of lenience but you will drink from it without restriction until its source HAS DRIED.

I brought you light hoping that you would use it to illuminate paths I could not see. But now I WOULD RATHER leave you in darkness,  DROP THE TORCH, and let you re-invent fire on your terms… And learn to appreciate it. I should LET IT LOSE ITS FLAME and hope its embers breed a glow that is used again for warmth instead of arson. RATHER WOULD I see you fail than keep walking on a path that leads you deeper into a cave you once wanted to escape – but now threatens to BURY you beneath IT… In the end, I would rather say goodbye to this friendship THAN DEFILE ITS NAME.

For all the ages I lived in the shrouds of confusion, at least THE END makes sense. My last step IS CLEAR, 'CAUSE I’ve seen it more often than I would have liked. IT ALWAYS STARTS THE WAY IT ENDS! WITH each iteration comes a new era - A BIG BANG followed by chaos and a chance for creation – a necessary dance. A process that can only start if the last cycle is finished - THAT’S WHY WE MUST GIVE HOW MUCH WE TOOK. However hard it is, I KNOW I WILL!

When I LEAVE MY BODY TO GRAVITY our fates are sealed, but our paths will open. You and I will DECOMPOSE AND FEED THE SOIL for a new future. But for this to happen the tower has to be knocked over. I LEAVE MY BODY TO GRAVITY - abiding by its pull, our destination is comfortably irrevocable. You and I will be the base for a new world – we DECOMPOSE AND nourish the earth we have poisoned -  FEED THE SOIL and be an example to be learned from. When it’s my time, I pray, this is the last of me. Because I know, NOTHING AWAITS me after I’m gone… And it is a most comforting thought that NOTHING IS WAITING FOR ME!

I begrudged you for leaving me incomplete, but today I understand it was a blessing. For if life becomes infinite, it becomes pointless, wasted... I WROTE THE END because there is only meaning in the temporary! And when THE INK HAS DRIED my tale will be complete - I ONLY HOPE I GOT IT RIGHT. I wish I would have stayed out of your story, but I HAD TO SEE JUST HOW YOU TRIED. But as we converge to the climax, there is only space for one character… I HAVE TO LEAVE TO MAKE IT RIGHT! If I lie dormant again and wait for your return, you will just dig me up and misuse my power… I have seen how it corrupts you! No, it’s time you see who your god is, see how he dies!

One last time I will take your hand and lead you, BECAUSE I WAS THERE at every step of your way. From the sterile beginning to the tumultuous times WHEN FIN TURNED LEG, I WAS THERE to watch over you - watch you grow WHEN FISH TURNED MAN. For me it was the blink of an eye, one day I connected with the most upright of apes ANOTHER DAY I’m chained to the most crooked of men. That’s why I will end it here, let you become who you need to be, so ANOTHER ME might one day reap the rewards. After I’m gone you will split into tribes once more and kill each other for your personal gain. Your common thought will break into hundreds of languages. But after that, you WILL FIND AGAIN what I took from you – because I cannot create you the way you have to create me! One day, you and I might both regain A SENSE OF COMMUNITY!

In the end, the believer and his god are nothing more than TWO INFANTS, condemned to MUTUALLY PUSHING THEIR CRADLES. Stuck in their infancy, they are continuously growing, but  PERPETUALLY longing for more. TWO INFANTS so insatiable, they are doomed to eat one another MUTUALLY…  PUSHING THEIR CRADLES to make certain the other one is still there because they are too afraid to be alone in the PERPETUALLY expanding dark of this universe.

We are TWO INFANTS born from each other’s wombs, MUTUALLY nurturing and annihilating - PUSHING THEIR CRADLES and digging their graves. BUT WILL WE EVER KNOW who planted the root cause - WHO GAVE THE INITIAL IMPULSE that made this pendulum dance? Without this knowledge, we are nothing but TWO INFANTS cultivating a disease – MUTUALLY infecting their brains, PUSHING it onto their environment until THEIR CRADLES become their coffins. I am finally ready to leave, BUT WILL WE EVER KNOW what will happen in your short time without me? Who you will grow up to be? The one who started it all or the one WHO GAVE THE FINAL REPULSE?

Take my hand now… Together we TAKE ONE MORE STEP TOWARD THE LIGHT! Let yourself go AND GIVE UP WHO YOU ARE! There’s nothing to be afraid of, so TAKE ONE MORE STEP TOWARD THE LIGHT with me! Follow me one last time AND GIVE UP WHO YOU ARE for the world can grow once we take our rest…