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Within the caterpillar, from its inception, is the butterfly. The caterpillar does not make a butterfly out of itself so much as it finds the butterfly hiding within itself, and responds in extraordinary ways when it does.
In every caterpillar are special cellular structures called imaginal discs because they hold the image of the entire butterfly on them the whole butterfly in each cell on every imaginal disc. A good analogy is to a sticker; imagine lots of identical butterflies stuck onto the cells of the caterpillar.
When the caterpillar begins its remarkable process of metamorphosis, wrapped inside its chrysalis, fantastic chemical changes begin that activate the imaginal discs and initiate the disintegration of the caterpillar. The imaginal discs begin to move around, seeking each other, for the butterfly can only happen if the imaginal discs are joined as one. It is perhaps important to repeat, given our mechanical habit of mind, that it is not parts of the butterfly that are linking up, but many wholes.
But the caterpillar resists its disintegration and tries to hold on to its chemical integrity by waging chemical warfare against the imaginal discs. It creates a toxic sludge that can kill the imaginal discs of the butterfly if they are caught swimming solo in this deadly chemical stew. But the toxic sludge is not effective against the imaginal discs that are linked together; something in the linking gives them immunity.
This war costs the caterpillar its own life, for the toxic sludge is also poison to its cellular structure. And how could it not be, since its cellular structure is the butterfly within it and the caterpillar both? But the battle is an intense one, as solo imaginal discs and caterpillar are consumed by toxic sludge, while within the same chemical poison other imaginal discs risk death to link with each other to survive their own metamorphosis.
Eventually, the toxic sludge that the caterpillar generated to destroy the butterfly it in essence always has been, destroys itself. The linked imaginal discs begin to consume the toxic sludge, which is no longer fatal now that they have reached a critical linked mass, and the chemistry makes its shift in favor of the butterfly.
The butterfly then emerges, fully formed, beautiful, and does what the caterpillar, perhaps, was always dreaming it could do, fly. And in becoming a butterfly, it does.
I'm going to do a bit more research on the scientific aspect of this, and see how close it falls to these articles, since none of them seem to have sources...