The entirety of the infinite Physical Universe is divided into two realms: the realm of living things and the realm of lifeless matter.

Living beings, unlike lifeless matter, exhibit self-caused motion/growth, and reproduce themselves. This we call "Life".

All living beings are endowed with Mind sufficient to sustain their lives, however brief and limited, and permit their reproduction. "Mind" exhibits a mysterious faculty, which is Consciousness. We are conscious because we have Mind. Mind and Consciousness are mysteries that lie beyond our understanding. All that Science has ever said, or ever shall say about Consciousness, can only be descriptions of its operations, but Science will never, ever be able to tell us what it is, because Science deals with the Physical Universe, and Mind is not a part of the Physical Universe.

When I say “all living beings”, I refer to the whole of the animal kingdom, the whole of the vegetable kingdom, the whole of the microscopic kingdom of microbes, as well each of the trillions upon trillions of living cells which make up the bodies of the animal and vegetal kingdoms.

Do germs have minds? Indeed they do; germs are conscious to the degree that is adequate to the needs of their nature. Each spermatozoid, of the millions produced by a male ejaculation, has a micro-mind adequate to the purpose it seeks to fulfill. And each female ovum, when its moment has come, has a micro-mind that expects the arrival of a spermatozoid; at the instant when the two are conjoined, a new being – a human fetus - with its own single Mind comes into being, and begins to grow until completion and birth as a human infant. The fusion of the two Minds - that of the spermatozoid and of the ovum into one Mind - is one of the incomprehensible mysteries of Life. Abortion of the fertilized ovum is murder, because it involves the destruction of a human mind, which is proceeding to build the fetus which will be born as an infant in due course.

Each living tree has a Mind. The consciousness of a tree's mind sends out roots to seek dampness; its detects the changing seasons, and accordingly,  makes the tree shed its leaves when Winter approaches, and put out new foliage with the arrival of Spring. But if you ask: “Where is the tree’s brain?” that is a question to which we can give no answer: humans take it for granted that Mind requires a localized brain, but the life of the vegetable kingdom proves that Mind does not require a localized brain. The vegetable kingdom sustains its life by the operation of Mind, and reproduces by seeds or other means, which it creates by the operation of Mind. The mind of a tree controls the operations of the individual minds of innumerable cells which make up the tree.

The same applies to the whole of the animal kingdom: animals preserve and sustain their lives, by the operation of their minds; and they reproduce according to the dictates of their own minds.

Each living being of the animal and vegetable kingdoms is made up of countless millions of living cells, each of which has Mind which operates under the instruction of the Mind of the living being of which they form a part.

Fundamentally, the question resolves itself thus: Mind is not a quality of Matter. Mind is something else! Life, Mind and Consciousness are bound up and inseparable from each other. All entities that have life have minds according to their need to sustain their lives and reproduce. Humans have human minds. Trees have arboreal minds. Rats have ratty minds, living Cells have cellular minds  and microbes have micro-minds, as well, suited to their lives.

Science can tell us what the detectable characteristics of Life and of Mind are; but it cannot say what they are. “Science” is very proud, and objects when its limits are pointed out. It accompanies its objections by denouncing those who ask difficult questions as “unscientific”.

Science is necessarily silent with regard to Mind, because Mind is not part of the Physical Universe. Mind is an influx from an entirely non-physical source which pervades the whole Universe.

This is a huge mystery, and proud Science detests mysteries.

Intelligence is a faculty of Mind. All living beings have Mind, and therefore Consciousness and a related Intelligence, which is the capacity to deal with the problems that their Life faces. Microbes have Minds suitable to their needs, and Intelligence to preserve their lives, insofar as it is possible for them to do so.

Artificial Intelligence is an impossible thing, because Intelligence is a faculty of Mind possessed by living beings, and humans cannot create Life.

It is, of course, possible for humans to create very complicated machines, and provide them with programs to apply to various conditions. Machines can produce spectacular results – such as defeating the world’s cleverest chess-players - but they are not thereby demonstrating Intelligence: they are responding to programs; they do not have Life and a corresponding Mind, whose faculties only living beings possess, in various degrees.

The entertaining “Terminator” films, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, mislead the public by presenting what is essentially a fairy-tale of Science, where a monstrous machine acquires Mind (“Self-awareness”, in the film) and decides to destroy humanity - a totally impossible event. Fairy tales are suitable for children, and serve to entertain them or to frighten them into obedience to their elders. The “Terminator” films serve the same purpose, applied to a wide audience of adults and adolescents. A machine can never be endowed with Mind, and therefore can never acquire Intelligence. Machines will only ever be able to respond in programmed ways, according to sets of possible inputs programmed into them.

Contemporary Science considers the Universe as exclusively a Material Universe. It vigorously rejects the existence of anything at all, that is not physical. For Science today, the question of the existence of Mind is a heretical question not to be contemplated, but rather to be ridiculed as a reversion to primitive thinking. However, the answer which Science gives us to the origin of the very first life on this planet is ridiculous in itself: some elements came together entirely by chance, and suddenly came to life, and acquired the capacity to sustain their lives and reproduce; after that, "Evolution" took over and so we have human beings. That is indeed, a fairy tale!

Human beings suffer due to the pseudo-scientific theories of Psychology and Psychiatry; these disciplines, in order to present themselves as “scientific”, must ignore the phenomenon of Mind as something outside the physical world; they attempt to diagnose problems of Mind, from the point of view of its being entirely a manifestation of matter, i.e. something gone wrong in the brain, and not something of a totally, absolutely different origin outside the physical universe. These pseudo-doctors then attempt to cure mental illness with physical drugs, and what they frequently achieve is the destruction of their patients.

Economic Science, in the widely-known version which exists in today’s world, also negates the existence of Mind, because such Economic Science today, proceeds according to the methodology of the Physical Sciences, induction. Induction is the logical basis of physical experimentation and therefore inappropriate for the study of human behavior, characterized by choice, a phenomenon of Mind. Though we find examples of “choice” in animals, such choices are quite limited, whereas human choice is free, and allows humans to live in the most diverse of physical habitats. The valid Economic Science is Austrian Economics – and today especially the New Austrian Economics; Austrian Economics does not disregard the human mind - on the contrary, it takes up human choice as the fundamental phenomenon in its study of human volitional behavior.  

We know of the existence of mental problems such as “Possession” ascribed to evil spirits, but Psychiatry has no answer to give us regarding this puzzling phenomenon, except medication to reduce “Possessed” individuals to the condition of vegetables.

In conclusion: Life, Mind and Consciousness are profound mysteries, inaccessible to human investigation. All we can say is that it is wisdom to be aware of mysteries that cannot be compassed by human thought.