Book excerpt: This work takes us on a journey through time and space to explore the age-old question: What makes humans unique? How have we reached our position of preeminence among all living plant and animal life, and what drove our ascent to this commanding place? The answer revolves around the very essence of what makes us distinctly human - our brains. Dr. Robert DeMoss - a gifted writer and respected psychologist - probes the deepest recesses of our brain and the vast stretches of human knowledge to weave a broad tapestry depicting the richness of human thought and behavior. From this broad canvas, he derives 12 principles that can explain the rise of humankind and the evolution of human behavior. For out of this evolution arose the only species that can contemplate on its own future, that can think about the very act of thinking, and that has built mighty civilizations - and destroyed them too.