I can trace the beginning of the explosion of my intellect back to one Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode titled "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and was written by Diane Duane & Michael Reaves.

In this episode, Picard and crew welcome a loud-mouth, self-important asshole know-it-all onto the ship to "reconfigure" the warp engines to supposedly exceed all know warp speeds to that point.

Well, this guy brings a "traveler" assistant with him who Counselor Troi refers to as "not even there" emotionally.

The experiment works, but only because the traveler manipulated space and time to the point where the Enterprise winds up in some "dimension" where their thoughts actually become reality--and this is the "spiritual plane" where the traveler exists.

They eventually get back but the traveler must sacrifice his existence in this realm in order to warp space and time in a way that will get them back to their "reality/existence." Before going, the traveler has a conversation with Wesley Crusher (played by Wil Wheaton of Blogospheric Legendary Fame) whereby Wesley guesses at the traveler's secret by suggesting that space, time, and thought weren't the separate things we think they are--that they are all intricately connencted. The traveler confirms this and speaks privately with Captain Picard, telling him that Wesley is a genius on the scale of Mozart and should be encouraged but restrained at the same time.

Thus, Wesley gets his pin as acting Ensign and the series really began taking off from there in terms of the level of storytelling.

In one of the latter episodes of the final season (Season 7 for those of you who aren't Trekkies out there), the Traveler returns to "claim" Wesley and take him to the other dimension where he will begin existing on that plane.

[Begin Star Wars and Stephen King Digression]

This actually reminds me of the Jedi in the Star Wars Universe hand picking their Padawan learners at very young ages. Also, keep in mind that Anakin and Luke were chosen very late in life for Padawan learnes, during a time when the barriers between space, time, and thought had been well established and they were at the peak of their emotional vulnerability, able to be manipulated by strong forces.

Anakin built the foundation of his spiritual projection onto the world with the force of power pulling him in every direction to make things right so that he could enjoy his time with Padme and his new child.

Luke, on the other hand, fought against this will to power and embraced the path of individual enlightenment supporting a strong and clear headed Democracy of leaders who were concerned with building and maintaining peace instead of a constant series of war in order to better secure the space and resources of the single planet (or galaxy) they existed on and in.

Luke supported a social outward turning mental projection with a very strong and independent spiritual turning inward.

Darth Vader supported the turning inward of everything--into himself and for himself alone. This is also the choice we must each make for ourselves. George Lucas is a quiet genius of the magnitude that artistic criticism has never been able to embrace in the times which the artist actually lives.

I also consider Stephen King to be an artist on this level. These men have allowed themselves to become golden tools of creative spiritual channeling so that each of us as individuals can better turn inward while focusing outward at the same time.

But I digress.

[End Star Wars and Stephen King Digression]

But getting back to the point of my Awakening of Intelligence which was inspired by this episode of Star Trek; it changed the way I thought about everything.

The entire story arc of Wesley Crusher going to one day come back to save all of humanity by showing them how they will elevate their thinking to the next level of existence completely changed the way I thought about the nature of the inner and outer universes.

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" was a perfect piece of television art because, at an early age; I was able to digest a very high-brow concept of Theoretical Physics, Cosmology, and Philosophy without knowing that I was being exposed to it and that my brain was processing it in the background. I saw right through the metaphors and something remained without my knowledge, a small litle tear in the complacency of my inquiry towards the deeper mysteries of life and the universes both inside and outside of us (which I believe are ultimately the same universe viewed from two different angles).

And that small tear grew into a very big hole, full of the thrust of quantum questioning. There was a fire in the mind and not the pompous explosion of a Supernova star, too fat with its own weight to contain the energy being channeled into it and through it. But it was a cool blue pulsing neutron star that pulled all things into it but yet still exerted such gravitational force and luminosity that if completely unveiled in the light of day, it would drown out all other sensation and destroy the flimsy separation that exists in the mental and spiritual spaces between people and objects in the rational natural world.

The question eventually turned back on itself to reveal a dual-sided coin. One one side are planets, asteroids, black holes. On the other side are the churches and the books, the lofted notions, and don't forget the bombs and bullets. The images of god that we kill for just wouldn't be the same without bombs and bullets, right?

So I still don't have any answers yet; but if you hit me up in about eighty years, I should at least be able to tell you which one's my ass and which one's the mud-hole walked dry by big mouth bloggers who are arrogant enough to think they actually know it all.

LINKS:
The Enterprise-Inspired Nissan Terranaut
Wil Wheaton's Blog
Star Trek.com
Star Wars.com
Stephen King.com

TAGS:
Star Trek, The Next Generation, Star Wars, George Lucas, Stephen King, Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Captain Picard, Wesley Crusher, Wil Wheaton, Art, Cosmology, Philosophy, Physics, Traveler, Where No Man Has Gone Before, Diane Duane, Michael Reaves