Gabriel was wandering what directed his consciousness. Could it just be a chemical impulse in the brain? That might explain how he might lift his right hand, but what was it that made him know that he was? It came from nowhere and in his consciousness he met Melchizadek, who had also come from nowhere.

Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

Hebrews, 7:1-3

So his awareness of self came from nothing being. It came, perhaps, from something in the depths of his soul. Consciousness cannot be seen or measured. There seems no first mover in this metaphysical world. It just exists.

You are a priest for ever. A priest like Melchizadek of old.

Psalm 100

And this sentence rang like a mantra in Gabriel’s mind, striking something deep on his being.

Professor Richard Dawkins seems perplexed by the same idea.