Everything you need to understand or teach The Widget, the Wadget, and Boff by Theodore Sturgeon.
The premise of The Widget, the Wadget, and Boff is that all sentient species have a trait called Synapse Beta sub Sixteen, which in moments of extreme crisis allows members of these thinking species to step outside of time and space and observe their situations, allowing them to either take appropriate action to save themselves or to act for the greater good by saving others. Without this trait a species is doomed to...