The Adage That Fact Is Stranger Than

We Are Not Angels, We Are Merely Sophisticated Apes. Yet We Feel Like Angels Trapped Inside The Bodies Of Beasts, Craving Transcendence And All The Time Trying To Spread Our Wings And Fly Off, And It's Really A Very Odd Predicament To Be In, If You Think About It.

Any Ape Can Reach For A Banana, But Only Humans Can Reach For The Stars.

With The Arrival Of Humans, It Has Been Said, The Universe Has Suddenly Become Conscious Of Itself. This, Truly, It The Greatest Mystery Of All.

Self-awareness Is A Trait That Not Only Makes Us Human But Also Paradoxically Makes Us Want To Be More Than Merely Human. As I Said In My Bbc Reith Lectures, “science Tells Us We Are Merely Beasts, But We Don’t Feel Like That. We Feel Like Angels Trapped Inside The Bodies Of Beasts, Forever Craving Transcendence

In The Fetus, Or A Really Young Child, All The Different Brain Areas Are Connected To Each Other, Diffusely. And As The Brain Develops, The Excess Connections Are Turned Off, So You Get Very Specialized Areas. So Most People Have Really Specialized Talents. What Happens In Creative People Is This Pooling Doesn't Take Place.