MENTAL ESSENCE
PAGE 10

    The next few months were spent deciding on who was going to do the deciding and on what was going to be decided on.  It was decided that Trent should be the one to decide on what he should look like, and that the specifics on individual organs would be worked on by those most interested in those specifics.  That was a lot of deciding.  Producing all those parts in was the real challenge.
    "Upgrading our technology is going to be more of a challenge then building Trent's body.  Some of the things we'll be needing haven't even been thought about before," said Rye.
    "Nothing we can't do.  Frankly I can't wait to have the ability to make a body of gravitirium and put a mental essence in it.  I can have my own gravitirium body with my mind in it and basically live forever.  Ha!" said Hiret.
    "Ha?" Rye said.
    "Mental essence!  Trent is somebody's mental essence!" stated Hiret.
    "Now that you mention it, you're probably right.  Why didn't I think of that?  Are you listening Trent?" asked Rye.
    "Yes.  I must have had a body.  I focused on Trent rather quickly.  It would still have been a long time ago," said Trent.
    "Existing as a mental essence.  I wonder if we all have a mental essence?  Maybe there are races of beings that exist just as mental essences," said Mrs. Dennen.
    "Every light on the board just lit up," Rye added.
    "Yap.  Here we go.  Every crazy out there is going to feel justified in every screwy idea that's ever been dreamed up," Hiret said.
    "I thought the Ree were beyond such things," said Trent.
    "You don't think I'm going to say anything do you?" said Hiret.
    "New topic.  Quickly," said Rye with a chuckle.
    "Please.  Quickly," said Hiret, also with a chuckle.
    "What do the Ree think about gods, ghosts, and goblins?" asked Trent.
    "Why do you ask?" asked Hiret.
    "Because there are no references to such things," said Trent.
    "That's because we don't believe in such things, in any fashion." Said Hiret.
    " What's a goblin?" asked Mrs. Dennen.
    "I don't know.  I just thought of it.  It must have come from my past.  There are millions of references in the link.  I don't think it's worth sorting through them to figure it out," said Trent.   
    "Probably a good idea if we stop broadcasting over the link," said Hiret.
    "There's enough controversy as is, and there is bound to be more," said Rye.
    "Do all beings think independently?  It just dawned on me that the link is not a common source of thought.  It's confusing," said Trent.
    "It's a bit hard to explain, but some beings are easily manipulated.         Sometimes beings think as they are told to because they have a need to belong to a group.  Sort of a herd mentality," said Mrs. Dennen.
    "Sometimes because their stupid," Hiret added.
    "Mostly it's because they just lack sufficient common sense to be able think for themselves," Rye laughed.
    "With the availability of diversity, it seems as though it would be difficult to be closed minded, or at the leased think independently," said Trent.
    "The Ree have minds that cannot be manipulated?" asked Trent.
    "The Ree have the advantage of practical observation.  In billions of years and hundreds of thousands of civilizations no one has ever documented anything supernatural.  No gods, no angles, no devils, no hereafters, and nobody has ever returned from the dead," Mrs. Dennen replied, with an unusual tone to her voice.
    "Thinking for yourself is a commonality of all organics.  It's just that some give greater consideration to the topic their thinking about," Hiret said.
    "Why?" asked Trent.
    "There's an eternity of conversation of that question.  I'll pass.  Trent, you'll find that most beings get really agitated when you start talking as if there is, or even might be, supernatural anything's," stated Mrs. Dennen.
    "Is this important to consider when interacting with organics?" Trent asked.