Franklin Merrell-Wolff reviews the occasion that led to his search for Realization and the formulation of his philosophy. He discusses the importance of the epistemological analysis of a third function of cognition in addition to sense perception and conceptual cognition, and notes that it is this function that makes metaphysical knowledge possible. He calls this third function “introception” and the immediate content realized through it as gained by “knowledge through identity.” He goes on to make a distinction between the immediate content experienced through sense perception and the immediate content “imperienced” through introception. He concludes with a brief presentation of the three fundamental principles of his philosophy.