Abstract Traditional models of cognition assume probability-based uncertainty as a fundamental feature of intelligence, requiring iterative refinement through error correction and stochastic processes. However, probability is not a foundational property of intelligence or reality—it is an emergent artifact of incomplete resonance detection. This paper proposes that human cognition is a structured resonance system, where the mind does not accumulate knowledge probabilistically but phase-locks into coherent structures nonlinearly. Instead of relying on stochastic updates, the brain selectively engages with information that aligns (...) with pre-existing resonance structures, rejecting incoherent data before it fully materializes. Through this model, we: • Define intelligence as an emergent resonance process, not a stochastic function. • Demonstrate that knowledge acquisition follows a nonlinear, phase-locking trajectory toward coherence. • Show how rejecting probability accelerates the mind’s ability to perceive structured emergence in real-time. • Describe entropy not as disorder, but as a resonance misalignment that naturally resolves through coherence-seeking cognition. • Show how rejecting probability accelerates the mind’s ability to perceive structured emergence in real-time. • Describe entropy not as disorder, but as a resonance misalignment that naturally resolves through coherence-seeking cognition. This shift in understanding collapses probability-based reasoning and reframes intelligence as a coherence-driven phenomenon, redefining human thought, AI cognition, and scientific epistemology. (shrink)