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The Story of Everything by Michelle Klimesh Paperback: 292 pages Publisher: Square Circles Publishing, Inc.; (January 1 " id="pdf-obj-0-2" src="pdf-obj-0-2.jpg">

The Story of Everything by Michelle Klimesh

Paperback: 292 pages Publisher: Square Circles Publishing, Inc.; (January 14, 2003) ISBN: 0966670558


The Story of Everything, An Abridged version of The Urantia Book

Part II: The Local



Table of Contents

Part I: The Central and


Paper 1: The Universal





Paper 5: God's Relation to the


Paper 6: The Eternal


Paper 7: Relation of the Eternal Son to the


Paper 8: The Infinite


Paper 9: Relation of the Infinite Spirit to the


Paper 10: The Paradise



Paper 12: The Universe of



Paper 14: The Central and Divine




Paper 17: The Seven Supreme Spirit


Paper 18: The Supreme Trinity


Paper 19: The Co-ordinate Trinity-Origin




Paper 22: The Trinitized Sons of



Paper 23: The Solitary Messengers.....................................................24 Paper 24: Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit...........................25 Paper 25: The Messenger Hosts of Space...........................................26

Paper 26: Ministering Spirits of the Central Universe........................26

Paper 27: Ministry of the Primary


Paper 28: Ministering Spirits of the


Paper 29: The Universe Power


Paper 30: Personalities of the Grand



Paper 32: The Evolution of the Local


Paper 33: The Administration of the Local


Paper 34: The Local Universe Mother Spirit......................................33

Paper 35: The Local Universe Sons of


Paper 36: The Life


Paper 37: Personalities of the Local


Paper 38: Ministering Spirits of the Local




Paper 41: Physical Aspects of the Local


Paper 42: Energy--Mind and Matter...................................................38 Paper 43: The Constellations..............................................................39 Paper 44: The Celestial Artisans.........................................................39


Paper 46: Local System


Paper 47: The Seven Mansion


Paper 48: The Morontia


Paper 49: The Inhabited


Paper 50: The Planetary



Paper 52: Planetary Mortal


Paper 53: The Lucifer Rebellion.........................................................47 Paper 54: Problems of the Lucifer Rebellion......................................48

Paper 55: The Spheres of Light and



Part III: The History of


Paper 57: The Origin of



Paper 59: The Marine Life Era on


Paper 60: Urantia During the Early Land Life


Paper 61: The Mammalian Era on




Paper 64: The Evolutionary Races of


Paper 65: The Overcontrol of


Paper 66: The Planetary Prince of


Paper 102: The Foundations of Religious


Paper 67: The Planetary


Paper 103: The Reality of Religious Experience................................91

Paper 68: The Dawn of


Paper 104: Growth of the Trinity


Paper 69: Primitive Human


Paper 105: Deity and


Paper 70: The Evolution of Human


Paper 106: Universe Levels of


Paper 71: Development of the


Paper 107: Origin and Nature of Thought Adjusters..........................95

Paper 72: Government on a Neighboring


Paper 108: Mission and Ministry of Thought Adjusters.....................95


Paper 109: Relation of Adjusters to Universe


Paper 74: Adam and


Paper 110: Relation of Adjusters to Individual Mortals.....................97


Paper 111: The Adjuster and the


Paper 76: The Second



Paper 77: The Midway


Paper 113: Seraphic Guardians of


Paper 78: The Violet Race After the Days of


Paper 114: Seraphic Planetary


Paper 79: Andite Expansion in the


Paper 115: The Supreme


Paper 80: Andite Expansion in the Occident......................................74

Paper 116: The Almighty


Paper 81: Development of Modern Civilization.................................75

Paper 117: God the


Paper 82: The Evolution of


Paper 118: Supreme and Ultimate--Time and Space........................104


Paper 119: The Bestowals of Christ





Paper 120: The Bestowal of Michael on Urantia..............................108


Paper 121: The Times of Michael's



Paper 122: Birth and Infancy of




Paper 89: Sin, Sacrifice, and



Paper 90: Shaminism--Medicine Men and Priests..............................81


Paper 91: The Evolution of



Paper 126: The Two Crucial Years...................................................113 Paper 127: The Adolescent Years.....................................................114


Paper 128: Jesus' Early


Paper 94: The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient..........................84

Paper 129: Later Adult Life of


Paper 95: Melchizedek Teachings in the


Paper 130: On the Way to


Paper 96: Yahweh--God of the Hebrews............................................86


Paper 97: Evolution of the God Concept Among the Hebrews..........87

Paper 131: The World's


Paper 98: The Melchizedek Teachings in the





Paper 100: Religion in Human


Paper 134: The Transition



Paper 135: John the




Paper 137: Tarrying Time in



Paper 138: Training the Kingdom's





Paper 140: The Ordination of the



Paper 141: Beginning the Public


Paper 176: Tuesday Evening on Mount Olivet.................................157


Paper 177: Wednesday, the Rest


Paper 143: Going Through


Paper 178: Last Day at the


Paper 144: At Gilboa and the Decapolis...........................................129


Paper 145: Four Eventful Days at



Paper 146: First Preaching Tour of




Paper 182: In


Paper 148: Training Evangelists at


Paper 183: The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus....................................165

Paper 149: The Second Preaching


Paper 184: Before the Sanhedrin


Paper 150: The Third Preaching


Paper 185: The Trial Before


Paper 151: Tarrying and Teaching by the Seaside............................134


Paper 152: Events Leading up to the Capernaum


Paper 187: The


Paper 153: The Crisis at




Paper 189: The


Paper 155: Fleeing Through Northern Galilee..................................138



Paper 156: The Sojourn at Tyre and Sidon.......................................139

Paper 191: Appearances to the Apostles and Other



Paper 192: Appearances in Galilee...................................................173 Paper 193: Final Appearances and Ascension..................................173

Paper 158: The Mount of Paper 159: The Decapolis




Paper 195: After



Paper 161: Further Discussions with Rodan.....................................142



Paper 163: Ordination of the Seventy at



Paper 165: The Perean Mission


Paper 166: Last Visit to Northern



Paper 168: The Resurrection of Lazarus...........................................149 Paper 169: Last Teaching at Pella.....................................................150

Paper 170: The Kingdom of




Part I: The Central and Superuniverses

Sponsored by a Uversa Corps of Superuniverse Personalities acting by authority of the Orvonton Ancients of Days.

How the cosmos is structured and managed: An organized personal universe, evolving in time-space relative to the perfection of the Paradise center of all things is described. This creation includes millions of inhabited worlds in various stages of biological, intellectual, social and spiritual evolution. The nature of God and his relationship to the evolving creation is explored in great detail.

Paper 1: The Universal Father

The Universal Father is the first source and center of all things. He is a creator, a controller, and an upholder. All enlightened beings worship God the Father and have one supreme ambition—to become like him.

Messengers from Paradise carry God's divine command throughout the universes: “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” Humans cannot be perfect in the infinite sense, but can become complete in divinity of will, personality motivation, and God-consciousness.

The Father is known by many names, but reveals himself only by nature. God is primal reality and the source of all truth. He is universal spirit, eternal truth, infinite reality, and a loving father. Affectionate dedication to doing his will is the only gift of true value that humans have to offer God.

God is an eternal, infinite, true, good, and beautiful personality beyond the imagination of the human mind. He delights in his children. The manifestations of the Universal Father in the local universes are his Creator Sons. It is eternally true: “He who has seen the Son, has seen the Father.”

God-knowing mortals have within themselves three experiential phenomena that constitute positive proof of God’s existence: God- consciousness, God-seeking, and the desire to do God's will.

God is an eternal power, a majestic presence, and a glorious ideal. He is a perfect personality, a person who can know and be known, love and be loved. Personality is not just an attribute of God, it is the revelation of God to the universes. Human personality is the shadow cast by the divine personality. Mortals view personality from the finite toward the infinite, but God’s perspective moves from the infinite to the finite.

The human body is literally the temple of God; a divine fragment of the

Father dwells within each mortal mind. The benefits received from this presence of the divine Father are limited only by the mortal’s capacity to receive and discern spiritual reality. God participates in the struggle of every imperfect soul in the universe who seeks to ascend. It is true that in all our afflictions he is afflicted, for in him we live and move and have our being.

Humans attain divine union through progressive spiritual communion with God and wholehearted, intelligent conformity to his will. Mind yielded to spirit becomes increasingly spiritual and ultimately will achieve oneness with the divine.

Paper 2: The Nature of God

Our understanding of God is handicapped because our minds are limited. Humans can best understand the nature of God as it has been revealed through the life and teachings of Jesus.

God the Father unfailingly meets the ever-changing demand for himself all over the universe. He knows everything. Universe Sovereigns may engage in adventure; the Constellation Fathers may experiment; the system heads may practice; but the Universal Father sees the end from the beginning. To God, all time is present, there is no past or future. He is infinite in all of his attributes.

God is perfect. In the universes, perfection is relative, but on Paradise, perfection is undiluted. He is perfect in beauty and goodness; there is nothing lacking in his divine character. His justice is tempered with mercy. God is inherently kind, compassionate and merciful. It is never necessary to persuade him to love us; our need is wholly sufficient to insure the flow of his grace.

Everything good comes from God. Love is the dominant characteristic of his personality. The highest reason to love God is that he guides us, step

by step, life by life, until we stand in his very presence. God literally sends his spirit to live and toil with us as we pursue the eternal universe career.

God is good; he is our eternal refuge. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up the wounds of the soul. It has been said that God loves sinners but hates sin. It is true that God loves sinners, but he has no attitude toward sin because sin is not a spiritual reality. Iniquity is inherently suicidal. The inevitable consequence of deliberate rebellion against God is loss of existence.

Divine truth is universal, but our understanding of truth is finite and therefore only relative. Evolving persons can be certain only as far as their own personal experience extends. That which is true in one part of the universe may be only partially true elsewhere. The search for truth requires a search for the creative design that pre-exists all universe phenomena.

Truth is both beautiful and good. Beauty is true and good. Goodness is true and beautiful. Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness in the human experience.

Paper 3: The Attributes of God

God is omnipresent; he alone can be in numberless places simultaneously. He rules in the local universes through his Creator Sons who are discernible to lower orders of beings and can compensate for God's invisibility. God is greater than all of his combined creations. Although he exists throughout the universes, the universes can never encompass his infinity. God pervades the physical universes of the past, present, and future. He is the primordial foundation of material creation.

Individually, humans are indwelt by Father fragments, and the effective presence of God within each person is conditioned by the degree of

cooperation provided. Fluctuations of God's presence are not due to whims of the Father but are directly determined by the mortal’s choice to receive him. God has freely bestowed himself without limit or favor.

God is energy. He is the cause of all physical phenomena; he controls all power. The power of God does not function blindly, but it is nearly impossible to explain the nature of his laws. From the limitations of our mortal perspective, many actions of the Creator may seem arbitrary and cruel, but God's actions are always purposeful, intelligent, kind, and wise.

God knows all things. He is the only personality who knows the number of all the stars and planets. His consciousness is universal, his circuit encompasses all personalities. God is never subject to surprise. The potential force, wisdom, and love of God is not reduced by his self- bestowal on subordinate creatures and creations. If creation should continue eternally, the power of God's control from the Isle of Paradise would be adequate for such an eternally increasing creation; God would still possess the same potential as if his power had never poured forth into the universe. Likewise, sending Father fragments to indwell the mortals of numerous worlds in no way lessens the wisdom and perfection of truth of the all-powerful Father.

The nearest approach to God is through love. Finite mind cannot know the infinity of the Father, but it can feel the Father's love.

The uncertainties of life do not contradict the universal sovereignty of God. Creature life is beset with certain inevitabilities. To develop courage, we must grapple with hardships. To develop altruism, we must experience social inequality. Hope results from being faced with insecurity, and faith arises when we live in such a way that we know less than we can believe. The love of truth is created only in an environment where falsehood is possible. Idealism comes as we struggle for a better world. Loyalty cannot emerge unless we live with the possibility of betrayal, and unselfishness results only if we have a self-life to forsake. To appreciate pleasure we must live in a world where pain and suffering

are possible. The only evolutionary world without error would be a world without free intelligence. Man must be fallible if he is to be free.

The sovereignty of God is unlimited. The universe was not inevitable. It was not an accident, neither is it self-existent; it is subject to the will of the Father. God the Father loves us, God the Son serves us, and God the Spirit inspires us in the adventure of finding the Father.

Paper 4: God's Relation to the Universe

Divine providence is not the childish material ministry that some mortals imagine it to be. Providence is possible due to related activities of spiritual beings who continuously work for the honor of God and for the spiritual advancement of his children. Providence is consistent with the perfect nature of God.

The watchword of the universe is progress.

God uses unlimited forces and personalities to fulfill his purposes and sustain his creatures. God creates, upholds, preserves, and renews all material and spiritual things. Without God, there would be no such thing as reality. The Father unceasingly pours energy, light, and life into his creations.

Much that appears haphazard to the human mind seems orderly and constructive to higher minds, but even high spiritual beings come across apparently fortuitous inter-associations of forces, energies, intellects, and spirits. The medley of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual phenomena in the universes undoubtedly accrue to the glory of God.

Nature is the perfection of Paradise divided by the evil and incompletion of the unfinished universes. Evolution modifies nature, diminishing the error of relative reality while augmenting the content of Paradise perfection. It is wrong to worship nature. Although nature is pervaded by

God in a limited sense, it is also a manifestation of the imperfect results of the universe experiment of cosmic evolution. Apparent defects in the natural world do not indicate corresponding defects in the character of God.

God is incapable of wrath or anger. These emotions are hardly worthy of human beings, much less of God. God is the only changeless being in existence; he is self-existent and independent. God is all-wise and all- powerful. He has no limits other that those which he imposes on himself.

God's absoluteness pervades all levels of universe reality. He is eternally motivated by love. In science, God is the First Cause; in religion, God is the Universal Father; in philosophy, God is the one being who exists by himself.

Human religious thought confuses associated Deity personalities with the Universal Father himself. This failure to recognize the difference between God the Father and the local universe creators and administrators is a source of great confusion on earth. Mortals also suffer from primitive concepts of God. The idea of appeasing an angry God, of winning the favor of Deity through sacrifice and penance represents a repulsive philosophy unworthy of an enlightened age of science and truth. It is an affront to God to teach that innocent blood must be shed to win his favor or divert his wrath. The human race is destined to know the beauty of character of the Universal Father, that which was so magnificently portrayed by Jesus when he sojourned on earth.

Paper 5: God's Relation to the Individual

A fragment of God lives within the intellect of every normal-minded, morally conscious human being. This fragment, the Thought Adjuster, guides mortals unerringly through the spiritual journey that leads into the presence of God the Father in Paradise.

God yearns for the association of every created being who can love him. Through the indwelling Adjusters, we can seek intimate personal communion with God's divine spirit as we advance inward through the ages toward Paradise. We cannot fail to attain the destiny God has established for us if we yield to the leading of his spiritual guidance.

The indwelling Thought Adjuster allows us to more fully discern the presence of other spiritual influences. Realization of contact with the Adjuster is primarily limited to the realms of the soul: lack of intellectual consciousness concerning the indwelling fragment does not disprove its existence. Proof of the divine Adjuster's work lies wholly in the fruits of the spirit that appear in the life of the believer.

Worship springs from a creature's spontaneous reaction to the recognition of the Father's nature and personality. Prayer contains an element of self-interest, but worship exists for its own sake. Mortals worship God, pray to and commune with the Son, and work out the details of earthly life with the offspring of the Infinite Spirit.

Nonreligious activities seek to bend the universe to the service of self; religious individuals seek to devote their activities to the service of the universe. Philosophy and art create bridges between nonreligious and religious activities by luring people into contemplating spiritual realities. Religious experience is essentially spiritual and cannot be fully understood by a material mind; the realities of religion are beyond mortal capacity of intellectual comprehension. Religious experience unifies human consciousness, promotes philosophic substantiation of ideal moral values, and leads to the spiritual satisfaction of worship—the experience of divine companionship.

God-consciousness includes the mind, the soul, and the spirit through the realization of the idea of God, the ideal of God, and the spirit reality of God. The experience of God-consciousness remains the same throughout history, even though the theological definition of God changes with each advancing epoch.

A human mind that possesses the capacity to distinguish right from wrong and to worship God, in union with a divine Adjuster, is all that is required to initiate the existence of an immortal soul. Eternal survival is wholly dependent on the choice of the mortal being. Survival is assured when the mind, soul, and Adjuster together believe in God and desire to be like him.

Personality, bestowed by God the Father, is one of the incomprehensible mysteries of the universe. Capacity for divine personality is inherent in the Adjuster, and capacity for human personality is potential in the cosmic-mind endowment of the human being. Mortal personality is observable as a functional reality only after the mortal mind is touched by the Adjuster.

The material personality and the prepersonal Adjuster together can create an immortal soul; mortal man alone either wills or inhibits the creation of this surviving self. No other being or agency in the universe can interfere with the sovereignty of mortal free will regarding eternal survival, and no creature can be coerced into the eternal adventure against his will.

The Universal Father is personally conscious of all personalities at all levels of self-conscious existence. As gravity is circuited in the Isle of Paradise, as mind is circuited in the Conjoint Actor, and as spirit is circuited in the Eternal Son, so is personality circuited and centered in the Universal Father.

Paper 6: The Eternal Son

The Eternal Son is the original Son of God, the Second Person of Deity, and the Second Great Source and Center. The Son is the spiritual center of the universe government and the personal manifestation of God the Father in the universe. The Son co-creates with the Father and shares the sonship experience with all other created beings; he loves us as both father and brother. Mercy is the essence of the Eternal Son's spiritual

character. He reveals the love of God to the universes.

All spiritual beings are responsive to the drawing power of the Eternal Son. He is omnipotent in the spiritual realm. Although the Son does not personally function in the physical domains, his omnipresence constitutes the spiritual unity and cohesion of all creation. The spirit of the Eternal Son is with us and around us, but not within us as is the Thought Adjuster. The indwelling Father fragment adjusts the human mind to divine attitudes, and such a mind becomes increasingly responsive to the spiritual drawing power of the Son.

Personality is the exclusive gift of the Universal Father. The Son gives origin to a vast spirit host, but he creates personality only in conjunction with the Father or the Conjoint Creator. The Son's personality is divine and absolute; it cannot be fragmented. The spirit fragment of the Father dwells within us, the spirit of the Son surrounds us, and the two forever work as one for our spiritual advancement.

The Eternal Son is spirit and has mind, but not a spirit or mind which mortal mind can comprehend. The kind of mind that allies with spirit is not comparable to either material mind or mind that coordinates matter and spirit. The Son's mind is unlike any other in the universe except the Father’s.

The Eternal Son is wholly spiritual. Since mortals are nearly entirely material, human understanding of the Son must await attainment of increased spiritual insight. The Son is a merciful minister, a divine spirit, and a spiritual power and personality. The Son is the sum of the First Source and Center, divested of all which is nonpersonal, extra-divine, nonspiritual, and purely potential.

As God is the Universal Father, the Son is the Universal Mother. The Father and Son are separate individuals, but in the administration of the universes they are so interrelated that it is not always possible to distinguish between them. God is the initiating thought and the Son is the expression, the Word. The Father is the bestower of human personality;

the Son is the pattern of mortal personality attainment; the Spirit is the source of the mortal mind.

The Son is approachable through his Paradise Sons and through the patient ministry of the creatures of the Infinite Spirit. Throughout the local universe experience, a Creator Son will compensate for the inability of mortals to appreciate the significance of the Eternal Son in Paradise. As we progress toward Paradise, we will enjoy an ever-enlarging comprehension of the Eternal Son.

Paper 7: Relation of the Eternal Son to the Universe









Paper 8: The Infinite Spirit

The time-bound mind of man must have a starting point for visualizing universe history. While a portrayal of sequential origin of Deity is helpful to the mortal mind as an explanation of the relationship of Deities, such a condescension does not preclude the fact that all three have existed eternally without beginning or end.

The members of the Trinity are distinct individuals in eternal association. If we imagine that God the Father is Thought and God the Son is Word, then God the Spirit is Action. In the instant that the Father and Son together conceived of infinite action, the Infinite Spirit sprang fully formed into being.

The existence of the Infinite Spirit set the stage of space for the drama of creation. In the instant of his creation, one billion perfect spheres materialized. The central universe of Havona was then embraced by physical and spiritual gravities, and the soil of life prepared for consciousness of mind manifest in the intelligence circuits of the God of Action. Upon these seeds of potential, creature personality appeared, and the presences of the Paradise Deities filled organized space and began to draw all things Paradiseward.

It is proper to name the Third Person of Deity the Infinite Spirit, but material creatures may also conceive of him as the Conjoint Creator, the Infinite Reality, the Universal Organizer, and the Personality Coordinator. He discloses the Father’s infinity and the Son’s mercy; he executes the purposes of the Father-Son. Ever and always, the Infinite Spirit is a mercy minister. As the Sons reveal the love of God, the Spirit reveals his mercy.

The Father delegates everything possible to the Son; likewise, the Son bestows all possible authority to the Spirit. Every post-Havona universe in existence was planned and created by partnership of the Son and the Spirit. The Spirit pledges all of his resources to the Father and the Son;

he has dedicated all that he has to the plan of drawing will creatures to Paradise. The Infinite Spirit is devoted to fostering the ascension of material creatures, especially through the persons of the Creative Daughters, the local universe Mother Spirits.

manipulator of energy. He has created power-control creatures—physical controllers, power directors, and power centers—who regulate and stabilize physical energies. These material energies are dependent on the absoluteness of the Eternal Isle. Paradise is the pattern of infinity, and the God of Action activates that pattern.

The essence of the Spirit’s divine character is everlasting ministry to mind. God is love, the Son is mercy, and the Spirit is the ministry of divine love and endless mercy to all creation. The Spirit is love applied to the individual minds of all the children of every universe. The Infinite Spirit is omnipresent. He is a universe presence, an eternal action, a cosmic power, a holy influence, a universal mind, and a true and divine personality. He is the Spirit whom all ascenders must attain before they approach the Father through the Son. In the administration of the universe the Father, Son, and Spirit are forever one, perfectly associated in the service of creation.

Energy is receptive and responsive to mind. Mind can be superimposed on energy, but does not need to be added to pure spirit because spirit is innately conscious. The insight of spirit transcends the consciousness of mind. Cosmic force responds to mind as cosmic mind responds to spirit. Mind establishes relationships between energy and spirit that suggest a mutual kinship in eternity.

The Third Source and Center bestows mind and is infinite in mind. If the universe should grow endlessly, his mind potential would remain adequate to endow limitless numbers of creatures with suitable minds. Through his associates, the Third Source ministers to all minds on all










spheres. He is personally conscious of every intellect in all of creation.



The Third Source and Center is responsive to both spiritual and material reality. He is the universal coordinator, the correlator of all reality. The Infinite Spirit functions whenever energy and spirit associate; no reality can escape eventual relationship with him. Agents of the Infinite Spirit ceaselessly manipulate forces and energies throughout the universes.

The Infinite Spirit pervades all space. He is omnipresent without qualification, but is omnipotent only in the domain of mind. The Infinite Spirit possesses the unique power of antigravity, which he transmits to certain of his higher creatures. He also has powers that neutralize energy and transcend force by slowing energy to the point of materialization. The Conjoint Actor manipulates the forces and energies of Paradise, thus bringing into existence the universal and absolute mind.

The Conjoint Creator is not the source of energy, rather, he is the

The Conjoint Creator is the ancestor of the cosmic mind; he completely controls the universal mind circuit. The human mind is an individual portion of the cosmic mind bestowed in the local universe by a Creative Mother Spirit. The Infinite Spirit is the perfect expression of the mind of the Creator to all creatures, just as the Supreme Being is the evolving expression of the minds of all creatures to the Creator.

The Conjoint Actor coordinates all levels of universe actuality through the phenomenon of universe reflectivity. He has the power to see, hear, sense, and know all things as they transpire, and to reflect this knowledge to any desired point. Reflectivity is the most complex interassociation of phases of existence in creation. There is a unique unification of spirit, energy, and mind in reflectivity which enables the universe rulers to know about remote conditions throughout the universes instantaneously. Reflectivity appears to be omniscient within the limits of the experiential finite. It may represent the emergence of the consciousness of the Supreme Being.

The Infinite Spirit transmits many of his powers to subordinate personalities, including the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise and the local universe Creative Spirits. The Third Source is further represented in the universes by a vast array of spirits, messengers, teachers, adjudicators, helpers and advisers. This vast family of the Infinite Spirit is dedicated to administering the love of God and the mercy of the Son to all intelligent creatures in time and space. These spirit beings constitute the living ladder whereby mortals climb from chaos to glory.

The Father upholds, the Son reveals, Paradise stabilizes, and the Spirit unifies.

Paper 10: The Paradise Trinity

The existence of the Paradise Trinity is the one inescapable inevitability in universe affairs. The concept of Trinity combines the absolute unity of Deity with the voluntary liberation that is inherent in God's threefold personalization.

The Universal Father delegates everything possible on other Creators or creatures, in every way, in every age, and in every place except in the central universe of his own indwelling. God has reserved for himself only those powers and authorities which seem impossible to delegate:

absolute fatherhood and absolute volition.

By bestowing absolute personality on the Original Son, the First Source and Center became the Universal Father and escaped the fetters of personality absolutism. The creation of the Infinite Spirit was a joint effort of the Father and the Son. The Father has no ancestral precedents, but is parent to both the Son and the Spirit. The Son is son to the Father and parent to the Spirit, and the Spirit is the son of both the Father and the Son.

The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit are unique persons. None is duplicate, each is original, yet all are united. They can act personally and collectively in seven possible combinations: Father alone, Son alone, Spirit alone, Father-Son, Father-Spirit, Son-Spirit, and Father-Son-Spirit. The seven available arrangements of divinity make it inevitable that the universe appears in seven variations of values, meanings, and personalities.

The First Source performs multiple functions outside of Havona. He acts as creator through the Creator Sons, and as controller through the gravity of Paradise. Through the Eternal Son he functions as spirit, and through the Conjoint Actor he functions as mind. He maintains parental contact with all creatures by means of his personality circuit. He acts directly as a person through his divine fragments, the Thought Adjusters. Only within the Paradise Trinity does the First Source function as total Deity.

The Trinity is an association of persons functioning in a nonpersonal way, somewhat like the way a corporation functions as a nonpersonal entity subject to the personal will of its officers. Functions of the Paradise Trinity include justice administration, coordinate actions, and cosmic overcontrol. The Trinity is not merely the sum of the attributes of the Father, Son, and Spirit. All associations, including families, social groups, and the Trinity, enjoy a group potential far in excess of the sum of the component individuals.

God is law. Law originates in the First Source and Center. The administration of law inheres in the Second Source and Center. The revelation of law is the function of the Third Source and Center. The application of law—justice—is carried out by the Trinity. Justice is inherent in the sovereignty of the Paradise Trinity; it is the Trinity's response to the attributes of the Father's love, the Son's mercy, and the Spirit's ministry. Justice is always a group function, never a personal one.

Judgment, the application of justice, is the work of the Stationary Sons of the Trinity: Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy, Eternals of Days, Ancients of Days, Perfections of Days, Recents of Days, Unions of Days, Faithfuls

of Days, Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, and Universal Censors. These children of the Trinity are specifically designed to represent the collective attitude of Deity in the domains of justice.

The Supreme Being appears to reflect the attitude of the Trinity, but he is something less than the Trinity functioning in the finite universes. The overcontrol of the Supreme is not wholly predictable. Some events—accidents, disasters, illnesses—may or may not be correlated with the workings of the Supreme Being, but it is certain that all difficult situations inevitably accrue to the welfare and progress of the universes. As things appear to mortals, the Paradise Trinity, like the Supreme Being, is concerned only with the total planet, the total universe, the total superuniverse. Human beings will not always be able to understand how the acts of the Trinity work for the good of individual mortals.

No single person of the Paradise Deities fills all Deity potential, but all three collectively do. The three divine persons activate the prepersonal and existential potential of total Deity—the Deity Absolute. The First, Second, and Third Persons of Deity are equal to each other, and they are truly and divinely one.

Paper 11: The Eternal Isle of Paradise

Paradise is the dwelling place of Deity and the eternal center of the universe of universes. It is the largest organized body of cosmic reality in the master universe; it is material as well as spiritual. The streams of life, energy, and personality flow outward from God in Paradise to every corner of the universe.

The Eternal Isle is essentially a flat ellipsoid divided into three geographic domains: upper Paradise, peripheral Paradise, and nether Paradise. Paradise is the original non-spiritual expression of the First Source and Center and is created of a substance found nowhere else in

the universe. Paradise is nonspatial; it exists without time and has no location in space. Space seems to originate just below nether Paradise, and time from just above upper Paradise.

The three spheres of activity on upper Paradise are the Deity presence, where the Three Persons dwell; the Most Holy Sphere, which is wholly spiritual; and the Holy Area, which is the residential area of Paradise Citizens, Havona natives, and ascendant creatures from the seven superuniverses. The staggering number of residential areas on Paradise currently occupy less than one per cent of the total residential area available.

The peripheral surface of Paradise contains landing and dispatch fields for spirit personalities. The Seven Master Spirits maintain headquarters on the Paradise periphery. Here, the Seven Supreme Power Directors mark the locations of stations that disperse Paradise energy into the seven superuniverses. Peripheral Paradise is also the location of enormous historic and prophetic exhibit areas dedicated to the local universes of time and space.

All physical-energy and cosmic-force circuits have their origin in nether Paradise. One zone of the force center of nether Paradise seems to act as a gigantic heart whose pulsations direct and modify force-energy currents to the outermost borders of physical space. The nether Paradise space presence is entirely impersonal, notwithstanding that in some manner it seems to be indirectly responsive to the Trinity. Personalities do not travel to nether Paradise.

All forms of force and energy appear to be encircuited, traveling out throughout the universes and returning by defined routes. The emanations seem to be either outgoing or incoming; they never occur simultaneously. All force-energy originates from nether Paradise and eventually returns thereto. Material organizations of the universes do not, however, all come from nether Paradise; space itself is the womb of several forms of matter and pre-matter. All physical force, energy, and matter are one.

Space alternatively contracts and expands, but we do not know the mechanism of this space respiration.

Space does not exist on any surface of Paradise, neither does it touch Paradise. Paradise is the motionless nucleus of the quiescent zones existing between pervaded and unpervaded space.

Pervaded space extends from nearly peripheral Paradise through the fourth space level and beyond. The relatively quiet zones between the moving space levels act as buffers, stabilizing the alternate clockwise and counterclockwise flow of the galaxies. Space levels function as elliptical regions of motion, surrounded on all sides by relative motionlessness.

Gravity is the all-powerful grasp of the physical presence of Paradise. Space, while nonresponsive to gravity, acts to equalize gravity. The center of absolute material gravity is the central Isle. Absolute gravity is Paradise gravity; linear gravity pertains to energy or matter. Linear gravity operates in the central universe, superuniverses, and outer universes wherever suitable materialization has taken place.

Paradise is unique because it is both the origin and the destiny of spirit personalities. Paradise is the geographic center of infinity. It is not part of universal creation, is not even a part of the eternal Havona universe. When the Father gave infinite personality to the Son, simultaneously, he revealed the infinite potential of his nonpersonal aspect as Paradise. Non-personal, non-spiritual Paradise appears to be an inevitable repercussion of the Father's act which eternalized the Son. God projected reality in two phases: personal and non-personal, spiritual and non- spiritual. The tension between the two gave existence to the Conjoint Actor and the central universe of material worlds and spiritual beings.

Paradise is the absolute of patterns. Everything which has been, now is, or will be, has come, now comes, or will come from this eternal home of God.

Paper 12: The Universe of Universes

God is spirit, but Paradise is not. The material universe is the arena wherein spiritual activities take place; spirit beings and spirit ascenders live and work on physical spheres of material reality. The universe of universes may seem boundless to finite minds, but it has definite dimensions. The total aggregate of material creation functions with predictable behavior as an organized whole.

The universe of universes is a series of elliptical space levels separated by quiet zones, all of which continuously move through the great circuits of space. The first of six ellipses encircling Paradise is Havona, the central universe. Havona has existed eternally and consists of one billion perfect spheres. Together with Paradise, this system forms the nucleus of the master universe.

The grand universe consists of the Paradise-Havona system combined with the seven superuniverses. The superuniverses are geographic clusters, each containing approximately one-seventh of the organized creation outside of Havona. The superuniverses are not yet fully inhabited. Our local universe of Nebadon is one of the newer creations within Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse.

One-half million light years beyond the seven superuniverses, an unbelievably vast creation of force and energy is assembling in the first outer space level. Fifty million light years beyond the first outer space level, past a quiet zone, even greater activity heralds the advent of the second, third, and fourth outer space levels. The almost countless collection of universes evolving beyond the borders of the grand universe constitutes the domains of the Unqualified Absolute.

All forms of energy—material, mindal, and spiritual—are subject to gravity. Ninety-five per cent of the physical gravity of the Isle of Paradise

is now engaged in controlling systems beyond the borders of the grand universe. However, virtually all of the spirit gravity pull of the Eternal Son is presently functioning within the grand universe. The universes evolving in outer space are, as yet, non-spiritual. Eighty-five per cent of the mind-gravity of the Conjoint Actor takes origin in the existing grand universe, which suggests that mind activities are involved with the physical activities progressing in outer space.

Space from the human viewpoint seems to be nothing, but space is real. Space contains and conditions motion, and space itself moves. The alternating direction of movement from one space level to the next contributes to the equalization of space tensions in the universes. The universes are not static. The stability of the universes is the product of balanced energies, cooperative minds, spirit overcontrol, and personality unification. Stability is wholly proportional to divinity.

Time is a result of motion. The absolute limit of time is eternity, but the absolute limit of space is unknown.

The will of God rules the universe of universes, even though it does not always prevail in the heart of each person. God loves each individual as a child without duplicate in infinity, as a creature irreplaceable in all eternity. The universality of God’s love creates the universal brotherhood, which includes every personality in existence.

All original energy proceeds from Paradise. Its journey through the universe is obedient to the ever-present pull of the eternal Isle. Physical energy steadfastly obeys universal law; only in the realms of creature will has there been deviation from the divine plans.

Mind alone can mediate the material and spiritual levels. As the mind of any personality becomes more spiritual, it simultaneously becomes less responsive to material gravity. Liaisons between the spiritual and material realms are phenomena of mind caused by acts of the Infinite Spirit. Mind is the technique whereby creature personalities experience spirit realities.

Mind, matter, and spirit are equally real, but they are not of equal value to personality in the attainment of divinity. Matter is organized energy subject to physical gravity. Mind is organized consciousness modified by spirit, and is not wholly subject to material gravity. Spirit, the highest personal reality, is immune to physical gravity. Spirit eventually becomes the motivating influence over every evolving energy system bestowed with personality.

The sum of two or more things is often something more than the predictable consequence of their union. The human mind is a personal- energy system surrounding a divine center, functioning in a material environment. Mortal man has a spirit nucleus. It is this living relationship of personal mind and divine spirit that creates the potential for eternal personality.

Paper 13: The Sacred Spheres of Paradise

Three eternal seven-world circuits belonging to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit exist between the Isle of Paradise and the innermost Havona planets.

Each of the seven spheres of the Father manifests a special aspect of the Deities of the Paradise Trinity. Divinington holds the secret of the bestowal and mission of Thought Adjusters. Sonarington contains the secret of the incarnation of the divine sons. Spiritington is the sphere that holds the mysteries of reflectivity. Vicegerington includes the secrets of trinitization. Solitarington is the rendezvous point of numerous unrevealed orders of beings. Seraphington is the planet where the secrets of seraphic transport are held. Ascendington is the receiving sphere for pilgrims of time who pass through Havona on the way to Paradise. The secrets of Ascendington include one of the most perplexing mysteries in the universe—how the mind of a mortal creature can evolve an immortal soul. Throughout all of eternity, mortals will regard Ascendington as

their home.

The seven spheres of the Eternal Son are worlds of pure-spirit existence. There is little concerning these worlds that can be revealed to material personalities.

The seven executive worlds of the Infinite Spirit are inhabited by various beings, including offspring of the Spirit, trinitized sons of created personalities, and other unrevealed beings. The Seven Master Spirits conduct work pertaining to the operations of the grand universe from these planets, the Paradise headquarters of the seven superuniverses. The Master Spirits control the flow of the spirit presence of Deity into the realms of the superuniverses.

Physical reactions are uniform and unvarying throughout the universe, but the availability of the spiritual presence of the Deities is conditioned by the decisions, choices, and attitudes of will creatures. God is ever faithful in satisfying the sincere desire of created beings for his presence in their lives.

Paper 14: The Central and Divine Universe

The billion worlds of Havona are arranged into seven concentric circuits surrounding the three circuits of Paradise satellites. Circling on the outskirts of this central universe are a large number of enormous dark gravity bodies. Since these dark gravity bodies neither reflect nor absorb light, they serve to hide Havona from the view of nearby inhabited universes.

Time is not reckoned on Paradise, but each Havona world observes its own time as determined by its position in the circuit around Paradise. The Paradise-Havona day is based on the length of time the inner Havona circuit takes to complete one revolution around the Isle of Paradise—in earth years, just seven minutes less than one thousand


The substance of the Havona worlds is different from the material organization of the planets in the seven superuniverses. Havona material consists of one thousand basic chemical elements. The energy of Havona is threefold, as compared to the twofold energy charge of the superuniverses. Havona natives respond to forty-nine sensory stimuli. Citizens of the central universe would not be visible to a person from Urantia; neither would our current senses react to any of the physical stimuli of Havona worlds.

Havona is spiritually perfect and physically stable. No sin has appeared in any ascending creature who has arrived there, and the freewill natives of Havona have never been guilty of transgressing the will of Deity. Life in the central universe is so rich and replete that it transcends human comprehension. Each planet of the central universe is a matchless, unique, and perfect creation.

Havona citizens enjoy the ideal of true self-government. The billion Havona spheres are training worlds for the natives of Paradise and Havona, and are the final proving grounds for ascending creatures of the worlds of time. Only about one per cent of Havona's capacity relative to the mortal ascension plan is currently being used.

There are seven types of beings in the central universe: material, morontial, spiritual, absonite, ultimate, co-absolute, and absolute. Havona natives are the offspring of the Paradise Trinity. They are non- reproducing beings. As mortals strive to do the will of the Father, so Havona natives live to fulfill the ideals of the Paradise Trinity. By nature, they are the will of God. All beings in all universes are created after a pattern of some creature living on one of the billion Havona worlds.

Havona serves many purposes. The central universe compensates for the time-space delay of the Father's urge for infinite expansion. It is his perfect pattern for all evolving universes, a revelation of spirit reality, the power nucleus for future universe expansion, and a

worthy goal for ascending beings. Havona gives the Eternal Son a base for ever-expanding spirit power and a foundation for his spirit-gravity control. The Infinite Spirit finds in Havona a laboratory for the creation of mind, a place to rehearse ministry, and a venue where he can participate in universe administration. Havona also serves as a pattern of the potential of the Supreme Being, the training ground for the Creator Sons and the Universe Mother Spirits, the destiny of every ascending mortal, and the starting place for finaliters as they begin their exploration of the infinity of the Universal Father.

Paper 15: The Seven Super Universes




Paradise force organizers transform space potency into primordial force.













Paper 16: The Seven Master Spirits

The Seven Master Spirits of Paradise are the primary personalities of the Infinite Spirit. While the Infinite Spirit is personally present within the Paradise-Havona system, his presence is revealed to the rest of the grand universe through the Seven Master Spirits. Individual differences between the Seven Master Spirits appear because each of them represent one of the seven possible Deity combinations.

Master Spirit number one presides over the first superuniverse, and is a manifestation of the power, love, and wisdom of the Universal Father. Number two portrays the character of the Eternal Son as he directs the destinies of the second superuniverse. Master Spirit number three, in charge of the third superuniverse, resembles the Infinite Spirit. Master Spirit number four displays the combined natures of the Father and the Son as he fosters the fourth superuniverse. The fifth superuniverse is directed by Master Spirit number five, who blends the characters of the Father and the Spirit. Master Spirit number six portrays the combination of the Son and the Spirit in the sixth superuniverse.

The functions of the Seventh Master Spirit include portraying the personal natures of the Father, Son, and Spirit, representing the personal attitude of God the Supreme, disclosing the deity attitude of the Paradise Trinity, and sponsoring the progress of ascension candidates from the worlds of time and space. The Seventh Master Spirit's domain is the

seventh superuniverse.

As a group, the Master Spirits function on every universe level of reality except the absolute level. They are efficient supervisors of all phases of administrative affairs in the superuniverses. They create the Universe Power Directors, who organize and regulate the physical energies of the grand universe. The Master Spirits assist Creator Sons as they shape and organize the local universes. They are the sevenfold source of cosmic mind, which provides the intellectual potential of the grand universe and of the individuals who inhabit evolutionary worlds. It is postulated that Orvonton's Master Spirit is involved with Life Carriers, adjutant mind- spirits, reflectivity mechanisms, and the bestowals of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth.

Each segment of the grand universe enjoys the benefits of the united wisdom of all seven Master Spirits, but receives the personal attention of just one. Every human and angel created in the superuniverses bears the characteristic stamp of one of these seven Paradise Spirits.

All will creatures are endowed with an innate response to three domains of universe realities: Causation, duty, and worship. Causation, the domain of physical reality, is the factual, mathematical, or scientific form of cosmic discrimination. Duty is the domain of morality, the arena in which right and wrong are judged. Worship is the spiritual domain of divine fellowship, spirit values, and the assurance of eternal survival. These innate cosmic intuitions make it possible for humans to function rationally as self-conscious personalities in the realms of science, philosophy, and religion. It is the purpose of education to develop these innate endowments, of civilization to express them, of life experience to realize them, of religion to ennoble them, and of personality to unify them.

Man's moral and religious nature distinguishes him from the rest of the animal world. Virtue is righteousness—conformity with the cosmos. Virtue is realized by the consistent choosing of good over evil, and such choosing is evidence of moral nature. Morality cannot be advanced by

law or force; it is a personal choice that spreads through contact with moral persons. Mortals can ascend to the level of moral beings because they are endowed with personality.

Creature personality is distinguished by two phenomena: self- consciousness and relative free will. Self-consciousness is the awareness of personal actuality. It includes the ability to recognize the reality of other personalities and indicates a capacity for individual experience with cosmic reality. Free will is involved in moral decisions, spiritual choices, brotherly service, group loyalty, cosmic insight, devotion to God's will, and worship.

Once a personality begins the realization of Deity kinship, such a self, indwelt by a fragment of God, is in truth a spiritual child of God. A human being can never become as absolutely certain of a fellow human being’s reality as he can be sure of the reality of the presence of God living within him. The recognition of God is inalienable and constitutive in all mortals. Self-consciousness is essentially a communal consciousness of God and man, Parent and child, Creator and creature. We become conscious of the brotherhood of man because we first become conscious of God as our Father. We worship God because he is, then, because he is in us, and last, because we are in him.

Paper 17: The Seven Supreme Spirit Groups

The work of the Master Spirits in the grand universe is carried out by the subordinate personalities of the Supreme Spirit groups. The classes of beings known as the seven Supreme Spirit groups are: The Master Spirits, the Seven Supreme Executives, the Reflective Spirits, the Reflective Image Aids, the Seven Spirits of the Circuits, the Local Universe Creative Spirits, and the Adjutant Mind-Spirits. Together, the seven groups of Supreme Spirits constitute the nucleus of the functional family of the Third Source and Center. They unify the descending administrative levels in the central, super, and local universes.

All executive matters—rulings, regulations, and administration—are carried out by the Seven Supreme Executives. The Supreme Executives in essence are the board of directors of the post-Havona creation. They direct all things physical, intellectual, and spiritual; they see all, hear all, and know all that transpires in Havona and the seven superuniverses.

Seven groups of Reflective Spirits are led by Majeston, the personal center of reflectivity in the seven superuniverses. Each one of the Reflective Spirits reveal the nature of one of the seven combinations of divinity. One set of seven Reflective Spirits serves on each superuniverse headquarters, gathering news, disseminating decrees, and recording everything of true spiritual value. Reflective Spirits are the offspring of the Paradise Trinity and the Master Spirits. A mystery attends their existence: neither the Master Spirits nor the Paradise Deities demonstrate powers of reflectivity, yet together they have created reflective beings.

Each Reflective Spirit creates one Reflective Image Aid, a virtual reproduction of the parent Reflective Spirit without his power of reflectivity. Image Aids function as channels of communication between the Reflective Spirits and the superuniverse authorities.

Seven Spirits of the Havona Circuits enable the Master Spirits to provide unified spiritual supervision in the central universe. Each one of the Spirits of the Circuits permeates a single Havona circuit. Circuit Spirits are related to the native inhabitants of Havona much as Thought Adjusters are related to mortals.

Local Universe Creative Spirits experience several stages of existence. When a Creator Son is first personalized, the simultaneous birth of his complementary Creative Mother Spirit occurs within the Infinite Spirit. While the Michael Son is training, his future consort further develops as an entity. Next, the Creative Spirit differentiates from the Infinite Spirit and becomes a part of the appropriate Master Spirit, with whom she remains until the Creator Son takes her into space to begin the adventure

of universe creation.

Local Universe Mother Spirits create Adjutant Mind-Spirits in the local universes.

Paper 18: The Supreme Trinity Personalities

Seven categories


Trinity Personalities


















Ten Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy preside over each of the seven innermost Paradise worlds of the Universal Father.

Each of the billion worlds of Havona is permanently ruled by one Eternal of Days. Eternals of Days also preside over planetary conclaves.

The rulers of the superuniverses are the Ancients of Days. They possess individuality, but do not differ from each other as the Master Spirits do. Three Ancients of Days oversee the administration of each of the superuniverses.

Three Perfections of Days are assigned to each of the major sector headquarters. Their work is mostly concerned with intellectual matters. Perfections of Days earn their name because they are perfect in the mastery of administrative detail.

Each minor sector is ruled by three Recents of Days, who attend to the physical problems of the universes.

Unions of Days serve as observers for the Paradise Trinity in the local universes. They coordinate all administrative activities of the universe government, from the local universes through the superuniverse levels. They report intellectual matters to the Perfections of Days and spiritual

matters to the Ancients of Days.

The Faithfuls of Days are Paradise advisers to the constellations. Faithfuls of Days act only as counselors, never participating in administrative roles except by invitation of the constellation authorities. They report to the Unions of Days of the local universes.

Paper 19: The Co-ordinate Trinity-Origin Beings

Seven groups of beings are classified as Coordinate Trinity-Origin Beings. These beings are brought into existence by the Paradise Trinity. Although endowed with freewill, no Coordinate Trinity-Origin Being has ever defaulted in his duties.

Trinity Teacher Sons serve throughout the central and superuniverses, even on individual planets. Sometimes known as Daynals, Teacher Sons have the distinction of also being classified as Paradise Sons of God. Trinity Teacher Sons are educators devoted to the spiritual enlightenment of mortals and seraphim.

Perfectors of Wisdom personify the wisdom of divinity in the superuniverses. They do not reflect the wisdom of the Trinity; they are that wisdom. One billion Perfectors of Wisdom are assigned to each of the superuniverses where they engage in the revelation of truth to ascending creatures.

Divine Counselors are the counsel of Deity to the superuniverse realms. Three billion serve in each superuniverse. When teamed with one Perfector of Wisdom and one Universal Censor, seven Divine Counselors constitute the highest mobile tribunal in time and space. The united counsel of seven Divine Counselors in liaison with a trio of perfected evolutionary beings approaches nearly-Paradisiacal attainment of the complete attitude of Deity toward any situation in the superuniverses.

The eight billion Universal Censors in existence are the judgment of Deity. One Censor serves on each of the billion planets of the central universe, and one billion are assigned to each of the seven superuniverses. When thousands of witnesses have testified, when the voice of wisdom has spoken, and when the counsel of divinity has been recorded, then the Universal Censor reveals an unerring total of all that has transpired. It appears that Censors form new meanings and values from the association of the facts and truths presented to them. Once a Censor has spoken, there is no appeal.

Inspired Trinity Spirits are one of the few wholly secret orders in existence. They belong to the category of super-personal spirits. Trinity Spirits appear to act independently of time and space, and may be related in some manner to the Thought Adjusters. It is conjectured that their work is to enlighten universe creatures by superconscious techniques; perhaps they are engaged in the communication of the vast body of essential spiritual knowledge that cannot consciously be received.

Havona natives are superb beings directly created by the Paradise Trinity. Havoners are destined to develop deep eternal friendships with ascending mortals. Mortals need to compensate for inherent spiritual impoverishment while Havona natives seek to overcome the experiential handicap of divine perfection.

Paradise citizens are not directly concerned with the ascension plan for will creatures; therefore their functions are not revealed to mortals. More than three thousand orders of this classification of intelligent personalities reside on Paradise.

Paper 20: The Paradise Sons of God and Paper 21: The Paradise Creator Sons



A Michael Son cannot assume supreme sovereignty in his local universe until he completes seven bestowal missions. When Jesus of Nazareth, the Creator Son of our local universe, breathed his last on the cross two thousand years ago, the words from his lips, “It is finished,” applied not only to his human life but also to his sevenfold bestowal career.






Paper 22: The Trinitized Sons of God

Some Trinitized Sons of God are Deity-trinitized, some are Trinity- embraced, and some are Creature-trinitized. Mighty Messengers, Those High in Authority, and Those Without Name and Number are adjuster- fused mortals who, after attaining the Corps of Finality, are embraced by the Trinity. Trinitized Custodians and Trinitized Ambassadors are Spirit- fused and Son-fused mortal ascenders, or seraphim and midway creatures who have attained Paradise. Creature-trinitized beings include Celestial Guardians and High Son Assistants.

Ascendant mortals who function loyally in the face of insurrection are destined to become Mighty Messengers. One trillion Mighty Messengers are commissioned on Uversa, and it is believed that there are one trillion

in each of the seven superuniverses. These messengers serve as observers for the Ancients of Days on individual planets and the headquarters worlds, and take part in all phases of mortal progression.

Perfected mortals who exhibit superior administrative ability are chosen to serve as Those High in Authority, executives for the Ancients of Days on the inhabited worlds. Over one hundred million ascendant mortals with minds of superior spiritual capacity have become Those Without Name and Number, the supreme jurors of Orvonton.

Ascendant seraphim and translated midway creatures who show valiant cooperation with an ascendant mortal member of the Corps of Finality may become a Trinitized Custodian. There currently are about ten million Custodians administering group projects in Orvonton. Son-fused and Spirit-fused mortals are selected for the Trinity embrace as Trinitized Ambassadors in service of the Ancients of Days. They are assigned to assist in the administration of Son-fusion and Spirit-fusion worlds. There is nothing on Urantia that is analogous to the activities of these beings.

Paradise-Havona personalities and some members of the finaliter corps can engage in creature- trinitization. This process creates an entirely new being who is the personification of some previously unexpressed concept, idea, or ideal. Trinitization can be achieved between two Paradise-Havona citizens, or two finaliters, or one of each. On the advice of the Trinity Teacher Sons, creature-trinitized beings may be embraced by the Trinity, thereby becoming twice-trinitized. Those of higher service become High Son Assistants, those of lower service become Celestial Guardians. There are almost one billion Celestial Guardians commissioned in Orvonton, and about one and one quarter million High Son Assistants. They are in constant circulation, traveling wherever they are needed to further the work of the Paradise Trinity.

Paper 23: The Solitary Messengers

The Solitary Messengers were created in a single act by the Infinite Spirit. At last report 7,690 trillion Solitary Messengers were in service in Orvonton, which is apparently less than one seventh of their total number.

Solitary Messengers begin at the center of all things and move outward. They crave remote assignments, even into the outer space levels. They are an important part of the Infinite Spirit's personal contact with the creatures of time and space. Solitary Messengers are capable of tuning into the universe broadcasts wherever they travel, and can detect the presence of Thought Adjusters and Inspired Trinity Spirits. They contribute much to the development of kinship between spiritual beings. Solitary Messengers are distinguished by services they perform.

Messengers of the Paradise Trinity are involved with the unrevealed policies and future conduct of the Deities. Since they are perfect, they never divulge secrets or betray confidences.

Messengers of the Havona Circuits enjoy close and personal communion with Havona natives.

Messengers of the Superuniverse can be dispatched with messages from the headquarters of one superuniverse to another. This is an advantage they enjoy over all other personalities, who must pass through Havona and the executive worlds of the Master Spirits before traveling to other superuniverses. A wide range of services are provided by Solitary Messengers in this capacity. They most delight to serve in Orvonton, because the opportunities for heroic effort are greatest in the youngest universe.

Messengers of the Local Universe reveal the motives and intent of the local universe Mother Spirit. Explorers of Undirected Assignment are thrilled to be assigned to the task of exploring and charting new worlds and universes in the unformed parts of the universes. Revelators of Truth are frequently attached to commissions sent to enlarge the revelation of truth to worlds and systems.

Solitary Messengers sometimes serve as Ambassadors and Emissaries of Special Assignment, representing one local universe to another until a native ambassador can be transported by seraphim to her assignment. Seraphim can carry a person at a speed of 550,000 miles per second, but Solitary Messengers are very nearly capable of defying time and space. The distance a seraphic transport travels in two hundred years can be completed by a Solitary Messenger in sixty-nine minutes. Faster beings exist, but they are not persons.

Paper 24: Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit

The vast power currents of space and the circuits of spiritual energy are subject to intelligent supervision by four orders of Universe Circuit Supervisors. One supreme circuit supervisor is stationed at each of the seven pilot worlds of the Havona circuits. One associate circuit supervisor is in charge of the circuits of the seven superuniverses. On the headquarters of each superuniverse, secondary circuit supervisors oversee energy circuits for the local universes. Tertiary circuit supervisors serve within each local universe. Circuit supervisors serve eternally at the same assignment, directing personality transits and transmissions of spiritual messages. If a system is in rebellion, it is they who isolate the worlds in spiritual quarantine.

Census Directors are immediately aware of the birth and death of every will creature in every part of the grand universe. They are personally sensitive and responsive to intelligent will. Orvonton contains 100,000 Census Directors who are overseen by Usatia, superuniverse chief of census directors.

Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit travel through space like Solitary Messengers. Only the Infinite Spirit relates to them as persons; they emit no spiritual presence, and we do not meet them on the way to Paradise.

Seven hundred thousand Associate Inspectors observe the affairs of the local universes and report to the Seven Supreme Executives.

Seven billion Assigned Sentinels keep the Associate Inspectors informed of the affairs of the systems of the local universes.

Graduate Guides are in charge of the university of technical instruction and spiritual training for mortal ascenders. A Graduate Guide greets each mortal as they arrive in Havona and accompanies them throughout their entire billion-world journey.

Paper 25: The Messenger Hosts of Space

Midway between the highest and lowest personalities of the Infinite Spirit are the Messenger Hosts of Space.

Havona Servitals are the offspring of the Seven Master Spirits and the Supreme Power Directors. They are created in groups; 250 semi-material Servitals for every 750 true spirit types. These versatile beings train ascenders on the study worlds surrounding the headquarters of the superuniverses.

Universal Conciliators are the embodiment of supreme justice. One Universal Conciliator appears in each of the superuniverses as a response to the creation of each Havona Servital. The Conciliators collectively manifest forty-nine experiential viewpoints in the superuniverses, insights which together are mutually compensatory. They serve in quartets, consisting of one Judge-Arbiter, one Spirit-Advocate, one Divine Executioner, and a Recorder.

Conciliators keep the universes running smoothly. They begin as Conciliators of the Worlds, assisting the supervisors of individual planets. As they ascend inward from the local universe they evolve from arbiters of differences to explainers of mysteries. At the superuniverse

levels Conciliators become wise teachers of the ascending pilgrims of time and space. At last count, eighteen trillion quartets of Conciliators served in Orvonton.

Technical Advisers serve in groups of seven as the legal and technical minds of the spirit world, the living law libraries of time and space. There currently are more than sixty-one trillion Technical Advisers in Orvonton. Technical Advisers help Universal Censors, Melchizedeks, Life Carriers, and the rulers of systems, constellations, universes, and universe sectors; they do not directly deal with material creatures. No Adviser has ever been known to go astray.

Custodians of Records on Paradise are chosen from the tertiary supernaphim in Havona to keep the formal written archives of Paradise.

Celestial Recorders serve by keeping the records of the superuniverses. Using their ability to manipulate both spiritual and material energy, they make original spirit recordings and simultaneously create semimaterial copies for the superuniverses. Through their work, ascending mortals learn the history and traditions of each sphere.

Morontia Companions are children of the local universe Mother Spirits. They are gracious hosts during an ascender’s morontia career, ensuring that time in rest and play is well spent.

Paradise Companions are angels selected to befriend any being who comes alone to Paradise. They work mostly with ascendant beings who reach Paradise without either a close associate or seraphic guardian. They are sympathetic and intriguing companions. If, during the course of the Havona adventure, a lone ascender fails in the Deity adventure and must be sent back to the universes of time, a Paradise Companion follows to comfort and cheer him.

Paper 26: Ministering Spirits of the Central Universe

Tertiary Supernaphim are specialists who serve ascending pilgrims of time and descending pilgrims of eternity in Havona. They originate in the Seven Spirits of the Circuits, and serve in seven classifications:

Harmony Supervisors contribute to mutual understanding between the ascenders and descenders on Havona. Chief Recorders record every important matter in triplicate: one copy for Havona, one for Paradise, and one for their own files. Broadcasters receive and send broadcasts of Havona and space reports of Deity phenomena on Paradise. Messengers bear messages requiring personal transmission throughout the Paradise- Havona system. Intelligence Coordinators are the “living newspapers” of Havona; they can assimilate as much information in one hour as the fastest telegraph can record in a thousand years. Transport Personalities transport various beings within Havona and also between Havona and the universes of time. The Reserve Corps may perform any of the services of their order.

Secondary Supernaphim are created by the Seven Master Spirits. They work in the central universe tutoring Paradise citizens and ascending mortals. When ascenders arrive on Havona they will possess a single aspect of perfection—perfection of purpose. On Havona, mortals begin to develop the comprehension necessary for Paradise perfection of personality. Seven groups of Secondary Supernaphim help mortals in this work.

Pilgrim Helpers provide detailed instruction to ascenders in three areas:

supreme understanding of the Paradise Trinity, spiritual comprehension of the Father-Son partnership, and intellectual recognition of the Infinite Spirit. Their work is done when their students spiritually recognize the Master Spirit of their superuniverse.

Supremacy Guides work on the sixth circle of the Havona worlds to help ascenders comprehend the Supreme Being. In the sixth circle, ascending

creatures undergo transforming growth, integration of consciousness, and spiritualization of purpose. These changes seem to be attributed to unrevealed activity of the Supreme Being.

Trinity Guides of the fifth circle give mortals advanced instruction concerning the Trinity in preparation for the quest to achieve personal recognition of the Infinite Spirit. Intense mental effort and arduous spiritual exertion are required to discern the Infinite Spirit on Paradise.

Son Finders of the fourth Havona circuit assist ascenders in their attempt to achieve contact with the Eternal Son. In addition to continued work in the realization of Trinity, Son Finders must prepare their charges to recognize the personality of the Son and to differentiate the personalities of the Son and the Spirit. Pilgrims who attain the Spirit seldom fail in finding the Son.

Father Guides of the third circle are the most experienced of the superaphic ministers. All beings who inhabit the central universe serve as teachers in the schools and colleges maintained by the Father Guides.

Counselors and Advisers of the second circle minister to all who attempt the attainment of the Universal Father. They comfort those who fail to attain the Father, and instruct those who succeed concerning the responsibilities of the Paradise career. On Paradise, disappointment is never regarded as defeat; postponement is never looked upon as disgrace; the apparent failures of time are never confused with the significant delays of eternity.

Complements of Rest train ascenders for Paradise residence; they use the diverse residents of the final Havona circuit to further this education. Near the end of the sojourn through this inmost circle of Havona, the Instigators of Rest help prepare ascenders for the final metamorphosis as they transform into children of Paradise.

Paper 27: Ministry of the Primary Supernaphim

The seven orders of primary supernaphim are perfect servants of the Paradise Deities. Primary supernaphim serve on the Eternal Isle, of which it is said: “There shall be no night there; and they need no light of the sun, for the Great Source and Center gives them light; they shall live forever and ever. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Instigators of Rest collaborate with the Complements of Rest on Havona to produce the final sleep of mortal ascenders to Paradise. Metamorphic sleep is required between earth and the mansion worlds, from Orvonton to Havona, and from Havona to Paradise.

Chiefs of Assignment preside over the self-governing orders of primary, secondary, and tertiary supernaphim.

Interpreters of Ethics assist new Paradise arrivals with the ethics needed to get along with their ever-increasing circle of universe associates.

Directors of Conduct instruct newcomers in proper Paradise conduct. They teach divine techniques for spontaneous worship and the approach of Divinity.

Custodians of Knowledge are living books of knowledge, automatic libraries for reference and verification. These brilliant beings are “the very thing you wish to know.”

Masters of Philosophy conduct elaborate courses in seventy functional divisions of wisdom. They delight in their work and teach by every possible method of instruction.

Conductors of Worship direct worship experiences on Paradise. Never since the time the first ascendant mortal reached Paradise have the

supernaphim been able to fully accommodate the spirit of worship on Paradise.

Paper 28: Ministering Spirits of the Superuniverses

There are three types of angelic hosts in the superuniverses; Omniaphim, Seconaphim, and Tertiaphim. Of these, only Seconaphim are directly involved in ministry to mortals. Seconaphim are produced in groups of seven by the seven Reflective Spirits, each group having one primary, three secondary and three tertiary Seconaphim.

Primary Seconaphim are living mirrors that allow the Ancients of Days to instantly communicate with beings hundreds of light-years away. They are categorized by the type of service they perform: Voices of the Conjoint Actor, Voices of the Seven Master Spirits, Voices of the Creator Sons, Voices of the Angelic Hosts, Broadcast Receivers, Transporters and reserves.

Seven classes of Secondary Seconaphim assist Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, and Universal Censors. The Voices of Wisdom are in perpetual liaison with the living libraries of Paradise. Souls of Philosophy create connections with the Masters of Philosophy on Paradise, and the Unions of Souls reveal the knowledge of Interpreters of Ethics. Hearts of Counsel are reflective of the intelligence and counsel of all beings, high and low. The Joys of Existence improve appreciation for humor and demonstrate the inherent joy in freewill existence. Satisfactions of Service are reflective of the directors of conduct on Paradise; they have done much to illuminate the deferred rewards inherent in unselfish service. Discerner of Spirits inform Universal Censors about the true motives, natures, and purposes of any individual in their universe. Through these angels the Censors see the very soul of the reflected individual.

Tertiary seconaphim serve the Mighty Messengers, Those High in

Authority and Those Without Name and Number. Significances of Origins are living genealogical references. Memories of Mercy are living records of the mercy which has been extended to individuals and races by children of the Infinite Spirit. Imports of Time instruct ascenders in the best use of time for rest and work. Solemnities of Trust reveal the sacredness of trust to ascending creatures and reveal the trustworthiness of any creature to the Trinitized Sons of Attainment. Sanctities of Service bare the motives of human hearts and angelic minds to determine their trustworthiness in service. The Secrets of Greatness and Souls of Goodness are two types of angels who function in tandem because greatness and goodness cannot be separated.

Paper 29: The Universe Power Directors

The Universe Power Directors are one of the three groups of living beings concerned with force control and energy regulation. Power Directors embrace four major divisions.

Seven Supreme Power Directors are stationed on peripheral Paradise. Their creation by the Seven Master Spirits is the first recorded instance of semimaterial beings being derived from spirit ancestry. They are, along with the Seven Master Spirits, ancestors of the vast host of the Power Centers and Physical Controllers throughout the superuniverses.

Supreme Power Centers possess exquisite intelligence; they are the intellect of the power systems of the grand universe. Power Centers are inherently perfect and are always on duty. They do not originate power, but they modify, manipulate, and directionize it. Power Centers are living and personal, and are closely associated with the cosmic overcontrol of the Supreme Being. Seven groups of Power Centers regulate the master energy circuits of the grand universe from nether Paradise through Havona and down into the inhabited worlds.

Master Physical Controllers serve throughout the grand universe and are able to traverse local space at speeds approaching that of Solitary Messengers. They are chiefly concerned with the adjustment of basic energies undiscovered on Urantia, and their numbers include seven distinct groups: Associate Power Directors, Mechanical Controllers, Energy Transformers, Energy Transmitters, Primary Associators, Secondary Dissociators, and Frandalanks.

Master Force Organizers are residents of Paradise but generally commute to unorganized space for their work. They are under the supervision of the Architects of the Master Universe. Primary Master Force Organizers create nebulae.

Paper 30: Personalities of the Grand Universe

The enormous numbers of living beings are classified differently in the grand universe than on Paradise. Living beings on Paradise are classified according to inherent and attained relationship with the Paradise Deities:

Triune Origin Beings, Dual-Origin Beings, Single-Origin Beings, Eventuated Transcendental Beings, Fragmented Entities of Deity, and Superpersonal Beings. Registries on the superuniverse headquarters of Uversa include seven grand divisions of personalities: Paradise Deities, Supreme Spirits, Trinity-Origin Beings, Sons of God, Personalities of the Infinite Spirit, Universe Power Directors, and the Corps of Permanent Citizenship.

Evolutionary mortals pass through seven stages of universe development.

Planetary mortals are animal origin beings of ascendant potential. Sleeping survivors are those who have not attained the level of intelligence and spirituality required to go directly to the mansion worlds after death. Such surviving souls remain unconscious until a new dispensation on the planet of their origin releases them for resurrection

on the mansion worlds. Mansion world students reawaken on the mansion worlds. Personality resurrection on the mansion worlds provides a new morontia form for the indwelling soul.

Morontia progressors strive for the advancement of intellect, spirit, and personality throughout their ascension through the local universe. Superuniverse wards are accredited evolving spirit beings who have embarked upon an individualized course of study on the worlds of the minor sectors, major sectors, and superuniverse headquarters. Havona pilgrims have completed their spiritual development and have begun personalized instruction in the perfect worlds of the central universe. Paradise arrivals are ascenders who have earned residency on Paradise.

Paper 31: The Corps of the Finality

The Corps of Mortal Finaliters is one of seven finaliter corps whose destiny is assumed to be service in the outer space realms. During the present universe age, finaliters serve in the superuniverses, never returning to their native superuniverse until they have served in all the others. Mortal finaliters are always in service on Urantia. Finaliters are self-governing, bearing allegiance only to the Paradise Trinity. They are forever secure against sin. Finaliter corps are composed from six groups of beings:

Havona Natives serve as teachers in the training schools of the central universe, and may become greatly attached to the ascending mortals in their care. Only one perfect Havona native is mustered into each thousand-member finaliter corps.

Gravity Messengers are personalized Adjusters who hail from Divinington and are able to transcend time and space. They are superspirit beings; divine, intelligent and touchingly understanding. Gravity Messengers and glorified mortals have a profound affection for one another; one being a personalization of a fragment of the Father and

the other an immortal soul fused with a Father fragment.

Glorified Mortals make up the bulk of each finaliter company. It is conjectured that the lengthy universe training ascendant mortals receive is designed to qualify them for greater tests of future service. Glorified mortals have not yet achieved final spirit status, final creature service, or experiential Deity attainment. They have ascended through every step of possible intelligent existence, and have been trained in every possible detail of administration of the superuniverses.

Adopted Seraphim are seraphic guardians who have gone through the ascendant career. Many join the corps after becoming Father-fused.

Glorified Material Sons and Daughters may elect to humanize and receive adjusters after their planet settles in light and life. If they join a finaliter company, they are invariably chosen as its leaders.

Glorified Midway Creatures released from permanent citizenship at the onset of the age of light and life on their home planet are destined for the finality corps. Secondary midwayers are eventually Adjuster-fused and may be accepted into the mortal corps.

The Architects of the Master Universe oversee all seven corps of finality:

Mortal Finaliters, Paradise Finaliters, Trinitized Finaliters, Conjoint Trinitized Finaliters, Havona Finaliters, Transcendental Finaliters, and the Unrevealed Sons of Destiny. These seven finaliter corps are destined to serve the future needs of the undeveloped vast new system of universes now organizing in the domains of outer space.

Part II: The Local Universe

Sponsored by a Nebadon Corps of Local Universe Personalities acting by authority of Gabriel of Salvington.

The evolutionary plan for fostering the evolving social structures of the universes is detailed. Personality survival is determined by our free will decisions related to our personal relationship with God and the values with which we choose to organize and conduct our personal lives. Growth toward perfection should be our fundamental orientation to life. This growth is evolutionary, cumulative, and virtually endless. It is achieved through the love of God and unselfish service to our fellow beings.

Paper 32: The Evolution of the Local Universe

Once a material creation has been planned by the Architects of the Master Universe, the Master Force Organizers manipulate primordial energy until it becomes responsive to gravity. When gravity response exists, Power Directors mobilize the energy to produce suns and material spheres. When energy-matter reaches a certain stage of materialization, the Creator Son arrives with the Creative Spirit, and construction of the headquarters sphere begins.

It took over one billion years to construct Salvington, the local universe headquarters. Salvington is located at the exact center of the local universe of Nebadon, which is a young cluster of stars, with 3,840,101 inhabited planets at last count. Our system of Satania has more than six hundred inhabited worlds in over five hundred physical subsystems. Forty-six subsystems in Satania have two inhabited worlds, four systems have three, and one has four inhabited planets. Satania is on the edge of Nebadon, which itself is well out toward the edge of Orvonton.

Gabriel, the Bright and Morning Star, was the first offspring of the Creative Spirit and Creator Son and is the chief executive of Nebadon. Immediately after Gabriel’s creation, the Creator Son and Spirit began the production of a vast and wonderful array of diverse creatures—the sons and daughters of the local universe.

Will creatures of evolutionary nature ascend the scale of life by progressively translating from life to life and sphere to sphere. The acquired perfection of the creatures of time is a true personality possession, the result of individual effort and experience. God could have created all of his children in perfection, but doing so would have deprived mortals of the valuable inward climb to perfection. Perfect beings and perfected beings are co-ordinate and dependent. Each type requires the other to achieve completion of function, service and destiny.

Human beings are part of an immense plan. The struggle of material

existence is a transient bridge to eternal spiritual reality. Humans are virtually unable to comprehend eternity—that which is never-beginning and never-ending—because everything familiar to mortals has an end. Death seems to represent an ending, but it constitutes the only method other than fusion by which mortals can escape the fetters of time and the bonds of the material world.

Paper 33: The Administration of the Local Universe

The Creator of our local universe, Michael of Nebadon, is 611,121st in a line of Creator Sons created by the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. Michael personifies the Paradise Father and the Eternal Son; his consort, the Mother Spirit, represents the Infinite Spirit. Michael’s bestowal experience also qualifies him to portray the divinity of the Supreme Being. These multiple aspects of deity personification give Michael unique qualifications for sovereignty. For all practical purposes, Michael is God in the local universe.

The Mother Spirit and Michael are concerned with three occupations:

creation, sustenance, and ministry. The Son and the Spirit function with the counsel and approval of the other. The Creator Son functions as a father, and the Creative Spirit ministers as a mother. This arrangement is the pattern for family organization and government throughout all of Nebadon.

Gabriel, chief executive of the local universe, is capable of broad and sympathetic contact with seraphic hosts and evolutionary will creatures. He and his staff are administrators, never departing from this work except during Michael’s creature bestowals. Gabriel supervises Nebadon’s judicial system.

Personalities from the central universe and Paradise are present in every local universe. At the head of Nebadon’s Paradise group is Immanuel of Salvington, a Union of Days. He is the only personality in Nebadon who

does not acknowledge subordination to Michael. Immanuel functions as an advisor to Michael and as supervisor to the Faithfuls of Days.

There are seventy court branches in Nebadon. Courts and assemblies of universe administration focus on spiritual transactions, and are thus very different from corresponding activities on Urantia. The universe courts cannot rule on matters involving questions of eternal life, defections of Local Universe Sons, or the spiritual status of any part of a local universe in spiritual isolation. In all other matters, the courts of Salvington are supreme; there is no appeal to their decisions.

Salvington possesses research and advisory councils but no true legislative bodies. Legislative assemblies are located in the headquarters of the one hundred constellations, and administration of the local creations is largely handled within the system headquarters.

Paper 34: The Local Universe Mother Spirit

When a Creator Son is ready to create life in a local universe, a new local universe Mother Spirit is personalized. The Mother Spirit, also known as the Divine Minister or the Creative Spirit, possesses all the physical- control attributes of the Infinite Spirit including antigravity and mind gravity. There is a basic uniformity of spiritual character in all Universe Mother Spirits; there is also diversity caused by the influence of one of the seven Master Spirits.

The Creative Spirit and the Creator Son produce, uphold, and conserve every creature in their realms. In personal prerogatives, the Creative Spirit is independent of space but not of time; she is equally present throughout her entire local universe. The Creator Son is usually independent of time, but not always of space. Michael cannot be in two places at once. When working together, the Creative Spirit and the Creator Son are essentially independent of both time and space.

Three distinct spirit circuits function in Nebadon: the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, and the intelligence-ministry circuit of the adjutant mind- spirits. The Spirit of Truth is the spiritual force that draws all truth seekers towards Michael. It derives from the Creator Son, but functions from within the Divine Minister. The Holy Spirit of the Mother Spirit is active only in her personal presence. By maintaining residence on Salvington, the Creative Mother Spirit serves as the universe focus of both the Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit work as one, hovering over the worlds, seeking to enlighten the minds of the ascending creatures. The Spirit of Truth is limited by man’s personal reception of the mission of the bestowal Son. The Holy Spirit is partially independent of human attitude, but is most effective in those mortals who most fully obey divine leadings. As individuals we do not personally possess a portion of these spirits, but our indwelling Thought Adjusters work in perfect harmony with the combined spirits of the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit. As mortals progress in spirit perception, the multiple spirit ministries become more and more co-ordinate.

Adjutant mind-spirits endow human and sub-human orders of life. The seven adjutant mind-spirits—the spirits of wisdom, worship, counsel, knowledge, courage, understanding, and intuition—are created by the Divine Minister. The Creator Son and the Mother Spirit work on the evolutionary worlds first with lifeless material, then vegetable life, then animal organisms, then early humans, then will creatures. The seven adjutants, by leading the races of mankind toward higher ideals, are largely responsible for this progression. Mortal man first experiences the ministry of the Holy Spirit when he develops receptivity for the adjutants of worship and wisdom.

A conspiracy of spiritual forces increasingly subjects mortals to the leadings of the Spirit. When such guidance is freely accepted, the human mind gradually develops consciousness of divine contact and assurance of spirit communion. This consciousness of spirit domination attends an increasing exhibition of the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, long-

suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.

On normal worlds, mortals do not experience conflicts between the spirit and the flesh as acutely as Urantians do, but even on the most ideal planets, people must put forth positive effort to ascend. On Urantia, the Calagastia betrayal robbed subsequent generations of the moral assistance of a well-ordered society. The Adamic default deprived the races of a physical nature that would have been more responsive to spiritual aspirations. In spite of these handicaps, mortals who enter the spirit kingdom enjoy comparative deliverance from bondage in the flesh. Faith sons work on levels far above the conflicts produced by unrestrained or unnatural physical desires.

The love of God is shed abroad in all hearts by the presence of the divine Spirit. In every dark hour, at every crossroad in the forward struggle, the Spirit of Truth will always speak, saying, “This is the way.”

Paper 35: The Local Universe Sons of God

Melchizedeks, Vorondadeks, and Lanonandeks are orders of local universe Sons of God created jointly by the Creator Son and Creative Spirit.

The firstborn of the Melchizedek order, the Father Melchizedek, collaborates with the Creator Son and Creative Spirit in the creation of the rest of the Melchizedek group. The Father Melchizedek is the first executive associate of Gabriel. Gabriel presides over regular tribunals and councils of Nebadon, while Father Melchizedek presides over special and emergency commissions.

Melchizedeks are a self-governing order. They are the first order of divine Sons that are close enough to humans to minister directly to them. Melchizedeks are understanding friends, sympathetic teachers, and wise counselors to all forms of intelligent life. They often win whole worlds to

the recognition of the Creator Son and the Paradise Father. Melchizedeks are nearly perfect in wisdom but are not infallible in judgment.

Generally, Melchizedeks devote themselves to education and training, but can also function in unusual assignments. On Edentia, they are known as emergency Sons. Melchizedeks render assistance when local universe plans are threatened, and sometimes act as temporary custodians of wayward planets. In Nebadon, a Melchizedek has appeared seven times in the likeness of mortal man.

Vorondadek Sons are commissioned by Gabriel to rule in the constellations. They do not possess the versatility of the Melchizedeks, but are more efficient as rulers and administrators. Vorondadeks serve as ambassadors, legislators, historians, and consuls. They rarely fall into error and have never rebelled. Twelve Vorondadek Sons presently administer our constellation of Norlatiakek.

Lanonandek Sons serve as Universe Coordinators, Constellation Counselors, System Sovereigns, Planetary Princes, Messenger Corps, Custodians, Recorders, and Reserves. Lanonandeks are able and versatile local universe administrators. Because they are a lower order of sonship, they are of greater service to the lower creatures than either Melchizedeks or Vorondadeks, but they also stand in greater danger of going astray. In Nebadon, seven hundred Lanonandeks rebelled against the universe government, precipitating confusion and spiritual isolation in several systems.

Paper 36: The Life Carriers

Life Carriers bring life into the inhabitable worlds. The Life Carriers are the offspring of three personalities: the Creator Son, the Universe Mother Spirit, and one Ancient of Days. One hundred million Life Carriers live in Nebadon in three divisions: senior Life Carriers, assistants, and custodians.

Life Carriers are devoted to the study of universe life. They are involved in new life design, life preservation, evolution of creature life, life associated with mind, the correlation of mind with spirit in living organisms, and in unrevealed domains of evolutionary creature life. The Life Carriers are living catalytic presences that agitate, organize, and vitalize otherwise inert material.

A commission of Life Carriers can either carry life plasm onto a new world or organize life patterns after they arrive. Once physical patterns are arranged, the Universe Mother Spirit supplies the vital spark of life; inert patterns become living matter. Life Carriers may spend five hundred thousand years to establish life on an evolutionary world. Once they have succeeded in producing a moral being, the Life Carriers' work ends. Life Carriers are forbidden to interfere with will creatures.

The central lodgments of the seven adjutant mind-spirits are on the headquarters world of the Life Carriers. The adjutants send forth their influence into all inhabited worlds. The first five adjutant mind-spirits— intuition, understanding, courage, knowledge, and counsel—function in the animal orders. The adjutants’ experience in relationship to animals makes them more effective in their ministry to human beings. The final two mind-spirits, worship and wisdom, function only in mortal candidates for spiritual ascension. The adjutant mind-spirits are not directly related to the function of the Holy Spirit, but they help prepare mortal minds for the appearance of this Spirit.

The survival of mortal creatures is wholly dependent on the evolution of an immortal soul within the mortal mind. The life bestowed on plants and animals possesses neither identity nor personality; it survives only as a part of the cosmic forces of the universe. Life is neither energy nor force; it is the animation of material, mindal, and spiritual systems of energy. Life flows from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

Paper 37: Personalities of the Local Universe

Long-term and permanent residents of the local universe include the Brilliant Evening Stars, Archangels, Most High Assistants, High Commissioners, and Celestial Overseers.

Brilliant Evening Stars are planned by the Melchizedeks and created by the Creator Son and the Mother Spirit. They chiefly serve as liaison officers for Gabriel, representing him at every constellation and system capital in Nebadon. Brilliant Evening Stars are a twofold order—some are specifically created to serve in this position and others attain service. They accompany Avonal Sons on their bestowal missions and may be assigned as liaisons for Trinity Teachers Sons in the mortal realms.

Archangels are created by the Creator Son and the Mother Spirit, and serve under the jurisdiction of Gabriel. Nearly eight hundred thousand archangels dedicate themselves to mortal survival and ascension in Nebadon. Archangels serve the Avonal orders and preserve mortal personality identification records between mortal death and resurrection.

Most High Assistants originate outside the local universe and volunteer in the local creations. They help local universe natives come to fuller harmony with the ideals of Paradise. They are supervised by the Union of Days. Most High Assistants are assigned to administrative, executive, and educational activities.

High Commissioners are Spirit-fused ascendant mortals. Souls of this order attain immortality by fusing with a fragment of the Universe Mother Spirit. High Commissioners begin their service as race commissioners, portraying the viewpoints and needs of various human races. They may serve at tribunals, with messenger hosts, with ministering spirits of time, at universe assemblies, or with bestowal missions. High Commissioners provide a continuity that enhances and stabilizes local universe administration.

The Nebadon education system is maintained by the Celestial Overseers. More than three million recruited Overseers currently oversee the education of ascending mortals, from the nativity worlds up through local universe headquarters. Their divine education provides for the intimate association of work and instruction.

Certain high-origin spirits of the family of the Infinite Spirit are on permanent assignment to the local universes. These include Solitary Messengers, Universe Circuit Supervisors, Census Directors, Associate Inspectors, Assigned Sentinels, Universal Conciliators, Technical Advisers, Celestial Recorders, and Morontia Companions.

Material Sons of God, created solely by the Creator Son to express his dual origin, serve as the original Adam and Eve of each local system in Nebadon. Their children are the permanent citizens of the system capitals.

Midway Creatures are difficult to classify. They arise from unusual circumstances involving transactions of superhuman beings on evolutionary planets. Midway Creatures are the permanent residents of the evolutionary worlds, providing continuous planetary administration despite ever-changing celestial ministries and shifting mortal inhabitants.

Paper 38: Ministering Spirits of the Local Universe

Seraphim are created by the universe Mother Spirit. Seraphim are just outside the mortal range of vision. Seraphim appreciate human efforts in music, art, and humor. They are mathematical prodigies. Seraphim truly love mortals, and only good can result from the effort to understand them. Once they complete their training, seraphim are commissioned as ministering spirits of time. They gather in groups of 24, companies of 288, battalions of 3,456, units of 41,472, and legions of 497,664. Twelve legions constitute a host and twelve hosts make an army of 71,663,616 angels.

Cherubim and sanobim are slightly lower than the seraphim spiritually. They assist the seraphim in routine spiritual matters on individual worlds but never attend to human beings. Every fourth cherub is nearly material. These quasi-material types are able to perform many indispensable tasks. Cherubim and sanobim may become ascension candidates; some achieve full seraphic standing.

Midway creatures appear on most inhabited worlds and all decimal planets. Primary midwayers, the more spiritual type, are progeny of the mortal staff of the Planetary Prince. They resemble angels more than mortals. On a normal world, primary midwayers are the intelligence corps of the Planetary Prince. Secondary midwayers are a more material group and are quite similar to human beings. There are twenty-four diverse techniques by which secondary midwayers can be created. If midwayers remain faithful to their trust, they eventually enter into the ascension plan alongside their mortal brethren.

Beings descending from the Father and the Son are spoken of as sons, while children of the Spirit are referred to as daughters. For this reason, all mortals are considered sons of God, even if they are female, and all angels are referred to as daughters of God.

Paper 39: The Seraphic Hosts

Although seraphim do not experience childhood as we know it, they are experiential creatures. They augment their divine endowments by acquiring skill in the various seraphic services. The higher the inherent function of an angel, the more she seeks assignment to the lower orders of service. Seraphim crave to serve at the lowest possible levels to achieve the highest range of experience. There are seven distinct groups of seraphim.

Supreme Seraphim may serve as Son-Spirit Ministers, Court Advisers,

Universe Orientors, Teaching Counselors, Directors of Assignment, or Recorders. Superior Seraphim are Intelligence Corps, Voices of Mercy, Spirit Coordinators, Assistant Teachers, Transports, and Recorders. Supervisor Seraphim serve in the constellations as Supervising Assistants, Law Forecasters, Social Architects, Ethical Sensitizers, Transporters, and Recorders. Administrator Seraphim serve in the systems as Administrative Assistants, Justice Guides, Interpreters of Cosmic Citizenship, Quickeners of Morality, Transporters, and Recorders.

Planetary Helpers are assigned to serve the Planetary Adams. They include the Voices of the Garden, Spirits of Brotherhood, Souls of Peace, Spirits of Trust, Transporters, and Recorders. Transition Ministers serve on the mansion worlds. Seraphim of the Future are not directly concerned with the mortal ascension plan.

There are hundreds of paths by which seraphim may attain Paradise, but their preferred career choice is that of guardian angel to an evolutionary mortal. Only the most experienced seraphim are chosen to be guardians of mortal destiny.

Paper 40: The Ascending Sons of God

There are seven classes of ascending sons. The non-mortal classes include evolutionary seraphim, ascending Material Sons, translated midwayers, and Personalized Adjusters. The mortal classes of ascending sons are Father-fused mortals, Son-fused mortals, and Spirit-fused mortals.

Mortals are also classified according to their type of Adjuster. Series one mortals are indwelt with transient Adjusters. This is a temporary series, appearing during the early eras of some inhabited worlds. Series one Adjusters contribute much to the advancement of primitive men but are unable to achieve union with them.

Series two mortals are also unable to attain eternal union with Adjusters. Many non-breathers belong to this series, along with many other groups who do not usually fuse with Adjusters. These mortals are often indwelt by virgin Adjusters. It is unknown why these beings cannot fuse with the Father fragments.

Series three are mortals of Adjuster-fusion potential. They are all of animal origin, and may be one-brained, two-brained, or three-brained. Nearly all surviving mortals fuse with their Adjusters during their sojourn on the mansion worlds, thereby entering a career of nearly limitless universe service. Since Thought Adjusters take origin in the Father, they do not cease striving until the mortal of their indwelling stands face to face with God.

Mortals who fail to attain fusion with their Adjuster may become fused with a fragment of the spirit of the Creator Son. These Son-fused mortals are rare, numbering less than one million in Orvonton. They usually live permanently in the superuniverse of their birth. The wisdom of Son- fused mortals is a vital factor in the settling of a universe.

Spirit-fused mortals are those who fuse with the spirit of the Third Source and Center. When they arrive in the resurrection halls of the morontia spheres they are like newly created beings, without human memory. Spirit-fused mortals are permanent citizens of the local universes.

God loves each of his sons alike, and his love utterly eclipses all other facts. All souls of every possible phase of mortal existence will survive, provided they cooperate with their indwelling Adjusters and desire to find God and to attain divine perfection.

Paper 41: Physical Aspects of the Local Universe

The physical boundaries of the local universes are not easily identified, although the major and minor sectors of Orvonton are clearly distinguishable. What separates one local universe from all others is the presence of a local universe Creative Mother Spirit.

Nebadon sprang from Andronover and other nebulae. Today it travels in an increasingly settled orbit around the Sagittarius center of our minor sector. Our system of Satania is one of one hundred systems in the constellation Norlatiadek.

There are more than two thousand suns in Satania. Suns serve as way stations for concentrating the energy circuits of the material creations. Some larger suns may break up or split into double stars. Some are solid, especially the older ones, and their density may be so great that one square inch weighs three tons. Urantia’s gaseous sun has a density of about one and a half times that of water.

Suns generate light and x-rays. Light is real; it can be highly explosive. Energy, including light, moves through space in straight lines and is responsive to other forces and energies. Large suns maintain such gravity control over their electrons that light escapes only with the aid of powerful x-rays. These rays penetrate all of space, and contribute to the maintenance of ultimatonic energy associations. Atoms and electrons are subject to physical gravity, but ultimatons are obedient only to Paradise gravity.

Our sun’s surface temperature is about six thousand degrees Fahrenheit; the interior temperature can approach thirty-five million degrees. Sources of this enormous energy include annihilation of atoms, transmutation of elements, accumulation of space energies, and solar contractions. A regulating blanket of hot gases envelops the sun and acts to stabilize solar heat loss. The heat given out by the sun each second is enough to boil all the water in all of Urantia’s oceans, instantly.

Earth’s sun is six billion years old and will continue to function in its present state of efficiency for another twenty-five billion years. It

currently radiates almost one hundred billion tons of matter annually.

Paper 42: Energy--Mind and Matter

The foundation of the universe is material, but the essence of life is spirit. All energy is under God’s control. Energy and matter are manifestations of the same cosmic reality, a phenomenon inherent in the Universal Father. The first measurable form of energy, the ultimaton, has Paradise as its nucleus.

The river of energy and life pours out from the Deities, pervading all creation. The force organizers modify space-force into energy, the power directors transmute energy into matter, and the material worlds are born. Energy is indestructible. It may be subject to endless transformation, but having originated in Paradise, energy will ultimately return there.

Energy denotes motion, action, and potential. Force is pre-gravity; power is post-gravity.

Space potency refers to a pre-reality known as absoluta on Uversa. Primordial force is pure energy. It is the first basic change from space potency and is known as segregata. Emergent energies are two forms of primordial force known on Uversa as ultimata. Havona energy, triata, is characteristic of the triune energy systems of the central universe. Transcendental energy operates only with absonite beings, and is known as transota. Monota is the living non-spirit energy of Paradise.

There are ten divisions of matter: ultimatonic, subelectronic, electronic, subatomic, shattered, ionized, atomic, molecular, radioactive, and collapsed. Matter is identical in every universe except Havona. Power centers manipulate the basic units of materialized energy—ultimatons— into electrons. The metamorphosis of energy and matter is influenced by gravity, temperature, velocity, revolution, energy currents, distance, and the presence of force organizers and power directors.

In Orvonton one hundred octaves of energy behave with wavelike tendencies. Sixty-four of these octaves are recognized on Urantia, including electronic energy, gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, visible light, infrared rays, and radio waves. The human eye reacts to just one octave, the visible white light of sunlight.

The formation of matter resembles the solar system: a relatively stable energy nucleus surrounded by whirling energy units. There are one hundred atomic stabilized atomic elements in Nebadon.

Material mind systems are non-spiritual energy systems. These include the mechanical mind, adjutant-spirit minds, evolving morontia minds, and the cosmic mind—the mind of time and space as ministered by the Master Spirits. Mind always connotes the presence of living ministry plus various energy systems. The universe is neither mechanical nor magical; it is planned and administered by the spirit-mind of the Creator.

Nearly every being in the superuniverses has a form. Humans think of a body as having a spirit, but spiritual beings regard spirit as having a body. The spirit is the architect, the mind is the builder, and the body is the material building.

Paper 43: The Constellations

Norlatiadek’s government worlds are ten satellites surrounding each of seventy major spheres surrounding the capitol, Edentia. Edentia contains thousands of lakes and interconnecting streams. Edentia is the home of the resurrection halls and two Melchizedek schools.

Edentia’s sea of glass, an enormous circular crystal one hundred miles in diameter and thirty miles deep, is used as a landing zone for transport angels and as a reflectivity surface.

Constellation administration is autonomous and is concerned primarily with legislative functions. The rulers of the constellations are Vorondadek Sons, also known as the Most Highs. A minimum of three Vorondadeks rule on each constellation.

The capitals of the constellations are the acme of morontia activities and botanical artistry. These architectural worlds are called ‘the Gardens of God’ because of the exquisite beauty of the gardens of the Most High. Architectural worlds have ten forms of material life: three animal, three vegetable, and four unrevealed types. The animals are intelligent, serviceable herbivores. The plant life tends to be purple instead of green.

A mortal’s time spends on the worlds at the center of Norlatiadek primarily in the mastery of group ethics—pleasant interrelationship with other personalities. We will achieve real socialization of our evolving personalities by learning to live and cooperate with fellow morontians as well as univitatia, the permanent citizens of Edentia. Time spent on the constellation training worlds is the most stable phase of the morontia career.

Paper 44: The Celestial Artisans

Celestial artisans devote themselves to embellishment and beautification throughout the grand universe. Celestial artisans are selected from Havona natives, ascending mortals, and other celestial groups. They work with morontial and spiritual reality, since to spirit beings, the material world is almost entirely unreal. There are seven divisions of celestial artisans:

Celestial Musicians manipulate spiritual forces of sound, light, energy, color, thought, music, and orders of beings to produce celestial harmony. Harmony is the universal code of spirit communication; it is the speech of Havona.

Heavenly Reproducers work in areas that are mostly unknown to us. They can present dramas using one million actors and one thousand scenes. They are able to re-enact an entire age, or portray the eternal values of the spirit world.

Divine Builders create homes, industrial buildings, recreational facilities, temples of worship, schools, and public buildings.

Thought Recorders preserve thoughts, idea patterns, oratory, broadcasts, rhythm, poetry, and something like group photographs.

Energy Manipulators include physical energy manipulators, mind energy manipulators, and spiritual energy manipulators. Compound manipulators work with all three energies in their attempt to discover God the Supreme, in whom occurs the unification of divine energy.

Designers and Embellishers work with color, sound, emotion, odor, and taste.

Harmony Workers deal with forces and energies that are unrecognized by mortals.

Paper 45: The Local System Administration

The chief executive of any local system is a primary Lanonandek Son. The System Sovereign is entrusted with unusual personal prerogatives. The present system sovereign of Satania, Lanaforge, is a gracious and brilliant ruler who demonstrated his loyalty to Michael during the second outbreak of rebellion in Nebadon. Lanaforge is a frequent visitor to Urantia.

Members of the Urantia advisory council are known as the four and twenty counselors. They live on Jerusem, the administrative capital of Satania. The four and twenty counselors are the personal agents of

Michael in all matters concerning mortal ascension on the isolated worlds of the system. Counselors include representatives from the Urantia races, Adam and Eve, Enoch, Moses, Elijah, Machiventa Melchizedek, John the Baptist, and 1-2-3 the First. Eight seats on this committee are being kept in reserve for future teachers and ascending mortals from Urantia.

Jerusem is surrounded by seven major satellites: the Finaliter World, the Morontia World, the Angelic World, the Superangel World, the World of the Sons, the World of the Spirit, and the World of the Father. Jerusem is the location of more than thirty educational centers maintained by the Melchizedeks.

Elective bodies on Jerusem are voted into authority by three groups:

Material Sons and Daughters, seraphim and associates, and mortals. Suffrage is universal among these three groups, but votes are weighted according to each individual’s mota achievement. Mota is so important that ascenders cannot leave system headquarters to begin their constellation career until they are certified for achievement of mota personality.

Paper 46: Local System Headquarters

Jerusem, the capital of Satania, is nearly perfect materially, morontially, and spiritually.

One day on Jerusem is a little less than three Urantia days. There are no days, nights, or seasons. Jerusem is not luminous in space, and would not be visible from Urantia even if it were near us.

Jerusem has no mountain ranges, no earthquakes, and no storms. There are thousands of small lakes but no rivers or oceans. The atmosphere is a mixture of three gases. On Jerusem there are no conflicting forms of life, no survival of the fittest, no struggle for existence. Jerusem so transcends

the things of Urantia that comparison is almost grotesque.

Mount Seraph, 15,000 feet high, is the point of departure for seraphic transports. Transports arrive on the planet on the “sea of glass,” a crystal field that also serves as a receptor of the universe broadcasts. This broadcast-receiving station is surrounded by an amphitheater large enough to hold five billion material and morontial beings, plus innumerable spirit beings. Listening to universe broadcasts is the most popular of all leisure activities on Jerusem. Occasionally, messages come in from Paradise and the entire population gathers to enjoy the reflectivity phenomenon.

Each of the seven major groups of universe life is assigned a set of seven concentric residential circles. The circles of the Sons of God are successively elevated so that each of the outer circles overlooks the smaller inner circles. People who live in these circles are Magisterial Sons, Trinity Teacher Sons, Melchizedeks, Vorondadeks, Lanonandeks, Life Carriers, and ascending sons. The Michael memorial fills the center of the circles.

Solitary Messengers, messenger hosts, ministering spirits, administrator seraphim, planetary seraphim, transition ministers, and some unrevealed orders occupy the circles of the angels. The circles of the universe aids surround the headquarters of the Evening Stars. The circles of the Master Physical Controllers are arranged around the enormous temple of power.

The circles of the ascending mortals contain a working model of Edentia surrounded by six hundred and nineteen memorials representing the inhabited worlds of Satania. The circles of the courtesy colonies house an observatory, an art gallery, and the theater of the reversion directors. The circles of the finaliters surround a vacant, sealed temple, similar to one on every system headquarters in Nebadon.

Spornagia live within the rectangles. Spornagia, animal-type beings devoted to the material care of the headquarters world, serve all manner of universe personalities. They are the landscape gardeners of Jerusem,

and use lower animals to help them in their work. Spornagia do not possess souls or personality. They can live forty to fifty thousand years. Spornagia are the only creatures in the universe who experience reincarnation when their bodies wear out.

Paper 47: The Seven Mansion Worlds

Fifty-six worlds encircling Jerusem—seven planets each surrounded by seven planets—are devoted to the transition of ascending mortals.

The mansion worlds are the seven planets surrounding transitional world number one.

Transitional world number one, also known as the finaliter world, is the location of the probationary nursery. The probationary nursery is devoted to the care of children who die on evolutionary worlds before they acquire individual status on the universe records. Parents who have growing children in the probation nursery are given every opportunity to participate in their children's training. All ascending mortals must experience raising children at some time during their universe careers, either on their native planets or during the afterlife.

All children who have Thought Adjusters but who have not made a final choice about the ascension career are repersonalized on the finaliter world. Any time after sixteen years of age these children may translate to the first mansion world and begin their Paradise ascent.

The center of all activities on the first mansion world is the resurrection hall, the temple of personality reassembly. Resurrected mortal survivors resume their lives just where they were when overtaken by death. Thought Adjusters hold human mind transcripts and memory patterns; mortal identity potentials are kept by the seraphic guardians of destiny. These two mortal components reassemble when sleeping survivors are restored to complete personality in the resurrection halls. Mortals resume

their intellectual and spiritual training precisely at the point where they were when interrupted by death.

A new morontia body is acquired on each mansion world. Adjuster memory remains fully intact from one world to another. Everything in human mental life that has survival value is retained as part of personal memory throughout the ascendant career. Survivors become less material and more intellectual from one world to the next, but will continue to eat, drink, and rest.

Mansion world number one pertains to deficiency ministry—correction of the legacies of life in the flesh. Mansion world number two is devoted to the removal of intellectual conflict and disharmony. More positive educational work begins on world number three, where ascenders gain practical insight into metaphysics, cosmic meanings, and universe interrelationships.

On world number four, mortals learn about the social life of morontia creatures, which is based on mutual appreciation, mutual service, and awareness of the common destiny of divine perfection. Ascenders begin to become God-knowing, God-revealing, God-seeking, and God-finding.

The culture of the fifth mansion world corresponds to the early era of light and life on normal planets. Ascenders, having mastered the local universe language, now devote time to the perfection of the language of Uversa. They also begin to learn about the constellation study worlds. A real birth of cosmic consciousness takes place on world number five; ascenders become universe conscious. Study becomes voluntary and worship becomes spontaneous.

Time on mansion world number six is a brilliant age for ascending mortals. Fusion frequently occurs on this planet.

The last remnants of "the mark of the beast" are eradicated on mansion world number seven. Here one engages in greater spiritual worship of the unseen Father. Classes begin to form for graduation to Jerusem, where

groups of ascending mortals are welcomed onto system headquarters as citizens. John the Revelator had a vision of the arrival of a class of advancing mortals on Jerusem when he said, "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and those who had gained the victory over the beast that was originally in them and over the image that persisted through the mansion worlds..."

Mortal death is merely a technique of escape from life in the flesh. The mansion world experience is the transition between material existence on earth and the higher spiritual attainment of eternity.

Paper 48: The Morontia Life

The only possible method by which mortals can transform from material beings into perfected spirits is through the transition of morontia life.

Morontia materialization is a union of material and spiritual energies made possible by the Morontia Power Supervisors, who provide each ascender with five hundred and seventy consecutive morontia bodies. The Power Supervisors work in close association with both the physical controllers and the seraphim. Millions of Morontia Power Supervisors coordinate the physical and spiritual energy that flows into the morontia realms.

Morontia Companions serve ascenders as companions, hosts, instructors, translators, excursion supervisors, and custodians.

Reversion Directors volunteer to help mortals rest their minds through humor. They assist ascenders in reverting memories to a former state of being by creating reminiscent jests. Reversion directors also promote the unimportance of personal anxiety and the satisfaction that all things work together for good.

Billions of Mansion World Teachers are recruited from the ranks of

cherubim and sanobim who have completed their work as assistants to guardian seraphim. Teachers usually work in pairs in the schools of things, feelings, doing, ethics, administration, social adjustment, philosophy, divinity, and spirituality.

Transition Ministers are seraphim devoted to facilitating the transition from life in the flesh to existence on the seven mansion worlds. Since the morontia life begins at the conception of the soul, Transition Ministers begin their work on the evolutionary worlds. Transition Ministers proclaim the gospel of eternal progression and perfection attainment. They counsel human teachers about truth, righteousness, and the goodness of God. The Transition Ministers are psychologists, counselors, philosophers, instructors and recorders. From these seraphim, ascenders learn to let pressure develop into stability; to be faithful, earnest, and cheerful; to accept challenges without complaint and difficulties without fear.

There is a divine purpose in the morontia scheme of extensive training for ascending creatures. Passage through this life will be joyous, but it also has a practical objective; the goal of transcendent service in the universes. The entire universe is a vast training school through which mortals are piloted, one by one, to their destiny as Paradise finaliters in service to new universes in the making.

Paper 49: The Inhabited Worlds

All worlds inhabited by mortals are evolutionary planets administered in systems of one thousand planets. Our system, Satania, is incomplete, with six hundred and nineteen inhabited worlds. Thirty-six more planets are near the life endowment stage, and nearly two hundred will be inhabitable within the next few million years.

Evolution may not always be predictable but it is never accidental. There is a precise system that determines the unfolding of life but no two

worlds are exactly alike. Life Carriers have developed seven distinct physical types of mortal life:

Atmospheric types are divided into nonbreathers, subbreathers, mid- breathers and superbreathers. Mortals on the planet Venus would be superbreathers, and on Mars, subbreathers. If mortals lived on the moon they would be nonbreathers. In Nebadon, less than three percent of all planets are inhabited by nonbreathers. Such a sphere exists in close proximity to Earth.

Elemental types may dwell on land, in the treetops, in the water, or in the air.

Gravity types are modified to adapt to a planet’s gravity pull. Mortals in Nebadon average seven feet in height, with a range between two and a half feet and ten feet tall.

Temperature types come in five orders according to the surface temperature of their world.

Electric types display ten various adjustments to electric, magnetic, and electronic energies.

Energizing types are categorized regarding nutritional intake.

Unnamed types have numerous additional unrevealed variations.

All will creatures are erect bipeds. There are three primary and three secondary races, but not all races are present on all planets. The average number of physical senses is twelve. Sex equality prevails on all advanced worlds. Agriculture is the one pursuit common to every atmospheric planet. Mortal longevity ranges from twenty-five years to nearly five hundred years.

Mortals may have different brain structures. The three-brained types are more spiritual, ethical, and worshipful than two-brained types such as

Urantians, who are in turn more imaginative, adventurous, and philosophical than one-brained mortals. All three orders are equally qualified for the ascension career.

Spirit reception is influenced by mind design, specifically, by the organization of certain glands that produce differing chemical endowments. Mortal survival is dependent on the birth and evolution of the immortal soul. Some people attain sufficient spiritual progress during their mortal lives to forego mansion world training. These individuals experience the mansion world as teachers rather than students. Some mortals from advanced planets escape the world of their nativity by fusing with their Thought Adjusters. Natural death becomes increasingly infrequent on spheres long settled in light and life.

Paper 50: The Planetary Princes

A Planetary Prince is a Lanonandek Son charged with organizing and administrating an inhabited sphere. Every planet receives a Planetary Prince soon after intelligent evolutionary beings have been developed by the Life Carriers. Planetary Princes are severely tested but seldom fail.

The Prince’s staff consists of personalities of the Infinite Spirit, high evolved beings, and ascending mortals. The staff organizes schools where the highest members of the evolutionary races engage in physical labor, social activity, vocational training, and spiritual culture. A keen rivalry usually develops among indigenous people seeking to gain entrance into the Prince's schools. Eventually, an uplifting and civilizing influence begins to emanate into the evolving races by way of the graduates of the Prince's training.

The nutrition epoch—when the quest for food is the primary focus.

The security age—when attention is paid to increasing personal and clan security.

The material comfort era—when people use their new leisure to seek personal comfort.

The quest for knowledge and wisdom—a time for the development of culture.

The epoch of philosophy and brotherhood—when people become interested in ethics and accurate judgment.

The age of spiritual striving—when people seek spiritual satisfactions and cosmic understandings.












accomplishments produces cosmic unity and unselfish service.

When compared to normal worlds, Urantia seems intellectually confused and spiritually retarded, but we should not imagine that life on other worlds is easy. A mortal’s first life is always attended by struggle. Urantia’s isolation provides a unique opportunity for faith development. Surviving Urantians will be known on Jerusem as agondonters— evolutionary will creatures who can believe without seeing, persevere when isolated, and triumph over difficulties even when alone. This distinct grouping persists even into the Corps of the Mortal Finality.

Paper 51: The Planetary Adams

The progress of civilization


not alike


any two planets, but


average world passes through the development:





When a human race on any planet reaches its natural evolutionary limit, the System Sovereign dispatches a pair of biologic uplifters to upstep the evolutionary races. Material Sons and Daughters who serve in this

capacity are usually known on the assigned planet as Adam and Eve.

Material Sons are a gift from the Creator Son to the inhabited worlds. One unique pair is produced for each local system; those who serve as Planetary Adams and Eves are descendants of the system's original pair. Materials Sons vary in height from eight to ten feet tall, are visible to humans, and glow with a radiant light of violet hue.

Adams and Eves are equal to each other, differing only in reproductive characteristics and chemical endowments. Material Sons are sustained by material food and by direct intake of cosmic energies. Created Adam and Eves are immortal, but their offspring depend on unbroken connection with the mind-gravity circuit of the Spirit for continuing life.

Material Sons are semi-material. They must dematerialize to be transported by seraphim to the planet of their assignment, where they are rematerialized. One hundred thousand angels accompany each pair. Normally, Material Sons and Daughters stay on the planet of their assignment until it attains the era of light and life.

Material Sons and Daughters dwell in a garden home. These homes are usually located in a secluded area in a near-tropical zone. Adam and Eve's offspring remain biologically segregated under the direction of the Planetary Prince until a strong violet race develops. Descendants of Adam and Eve are of two orders: physical children and secondary midway creatures. Secondary midwayers are often invisible and contribute much to the advancement of civilization.

On a normal world, the red race is ordinarily first to attain human development. The evolution of many races provides desirable variations in mortal types and contributes to the diverse expression of human potential. It is impossible to understand a normal planet’s racial evolution from observing the remnants of the early races on Earth.

Slavery is typically abolished on a planet soon after the arrival of Adam and Eve. Evolutionary races are blended with the Adamic strain only

after the inferior strains of each race are eliminated. Members of the violet race usually do not begin to mate with evolutionary humans until the violet race numbers one million individuals. The violet race is monogamous. Any man or woman who mates with an Adamic son or daughter must pledge to be faithful to a single spouse and to raise their children to be monogamous. The children produced from marriages between human and Adamic races are educated in the schools of the Planetary Prince before returning to the race of their evolutionary parent. Following this procreative outpouring, culture and civilization make rapid strides.

On a normal world, the centers of world culture are the Garden of Eden and the headquarters of the Planetary Prince. These two centers work together to influence progress throughout the world. The schools of the Prince are concerned with philosophy, religion, morals, and high intellectual and artistic achievements. The schools of Adam and Eve are devoted to practical arts, social culture, economic development, trade relations, physical efficiency, civil government, and fundamental intellectual training.

Paper 52: Planetary Mortal Epochs

Urantia has not proceeded in the normal order of planetary development. Average worlds progress through seven epochs of human life, determined by the planetary missions of the divine Sons.

1. Pre-Planetary Prince This age is characterized by survival of the fittest; some early races may be entirely obliterated. Primitive men are hunters and fighters. They are cave dwellers, cliff residents, or may live in treehuts. The early races learn to kindle fire, improve tools, and vanquish large animals. They use large flying animals for transportation. People usually acquire moral will when they develop early language. Some primitive people receive temporary Thought Adjusters.

  • 2. Post-Planetary Prince With the arrival of the Planetary Prince,

primitive government appears and people make great social strides. The invisible Prince and his visible staff make revelations of truth to uplift the evolved religions of fear and ignorance. The races begin to develop specialized systems of religious and philosophic thought. The great social achievement of the prince's epoch is the emergence of family life, made possible by the realization of sexual equality. Domestication of animals and cultivation of the soil supplant the roving and unsettled life of the hunter. On normal worlds, the races are brought to a high state of physical perfection and intellectual strength.

  • 3. Post-Adamic When humankind has reached the apex of animal

development, a Material Son and Daughter arrive. The Adamic regime moves humans completely from the hunter/herder stage to the agriculturist/horticulturist stage. This age usually completes the elimination of the unfit strains of the races. The Adamic life plasm upsteps human intellectual capacity and spiritual progress. This is an age of invention, energy control, mechanical development, and exploration. All races blend into an amalgamated race of one color, an olive shade of the violet hue. Nationalism wanes and the brotherhood of man begins to develop. Interest flourishes in art, music, literature, intellectual realities, and philosophy. Worldwide peace prompts the arrival of the age of the Magisterial Son.

  • 4. Post-Magisterial Son A Magisterial Son incarnates and sometimes

rules for many generations. This age produces economic liberation. Citizens generally labor only two and one-half hours a day, and use their newfound leisure for self-improvement and planetary advancement. Most people are Adjuster-indwelt. Society returns to simple, natural forms of

living. This age brings the flowering of art, music and higher learning. The end of this age is characterized by a worldwide spiritual enlightenment, signaling the arrival of the Bestowal Son.

  • 5. Post-Bestowal Son This age is characterized by the pursuit of moral

culture and spiritual truth, and the passion for communion with spiritual

reality. New systems of education and government arise. After the

Bestowal Son returns to the headquarters of the local universe, he and the Creator Son send the Spirit of Truth to the planet. Along with the Spirit of Truth, Thought Adjusters arrive en masse to indwell all normal- minded people. The average length of human life during this era is more than three hundred years. Fewer restrictive laws become necessary. The military passes away and international harmony arrives. There are many nations, but only one race, one language, and one religion.

  • 6. Post-Teacher Son Teacher Sons come in groups to effect the

transition of a planet into the era of light and life. Natural death becomes less frequent as more Adjusters fuse with their subjects during mortal lifetimes. The average length of mortal life approaches five hundred years. Representative government vanishes as the world passes into the rule of individual self-control. More and more people practice justice, mercy, and joyous service to the Sons of God.

  • 7. Light and Life

Eventually, the Planetary Prince elevates to Planetary

Sovereign. The planet enters the era of light and life, something beyond human concepts of heaven.

Social brotherhood on Earth depends on the following transformations:

  • 1. Social fraternity—international associations of travel, commerce,

and competitive play; the development of a common language.

  • 2. Intellectual cross-fertilization—an exchange of national and racial

literature. Each nation must become familiar with the feelings of all nations.

  • 3. Ethical awakening—disclosure of the immorality of intolerance and

strife, development of the spiritual insight that is essential to the golden rule.

  • 4. Political wisdom—substitution of civilized adjudication for the

barbarism of war.

  • 5. Spiritual insight—spiritual transformation, the enhancement of the

soul capacity of every mortal to love every other mortal.

Paper 53: The Lucifer Rebellion

Lucifer was a primary Lanonandek Son. He was once considered one of the hundred most brilliant personalities of more than seven hundred thousand Lanonandek Sons. Lucifer now is one of three System Sovereigns in ten thousand who, by embracing sin and rejecting universe allegiance, have rebelled against the local universe government. Lucifer and his assistant, Satan, reigned on Jerusem for more than five hundred thousand years before they became traitors to the Universal Father.

It is difficult to trace the exact cause of Lucifer's rebellion. No specific conditions in the system of Satania favored the outbreak. At some point, Lucifer’s evil devolved into deliberate sin; his self-pride turned into self- deception.

Several months passed before Lucifer succeeding in corrupting his assistant, but once corrupted, Satan became the primary spokesperson for Lucifer's cause on Urantia. Satan was assisted by Caligastia, the Planetary Prince; Abaddon, Caligastia's chief of staff; and Beelzebub, leader of the disloyal midwayers.

Lucifer presented his three main arguments in a manifesto known as the Lucifer Declaration of Liberty. The rebel claimed that the Universal Father was merely a myth invented by the Paradise Sons so they could maintain power in the universes. He protested the right of Michael to rule and denounced the Ancients of Days as tyrants and foreign potentates. Finally, he condemned the mortal ascension plan on the grounds that it wasted time and energy on a fictional destiny.

Lucifer's manifesto was issued at the annual conclave of Satania on the sea of glass two hundred thousand years ago. He promised that Planetary

Princes who followed him would rule as supreme executives. Michael, after taking counsel with his brother Immanuel, decided to assume a position of noninterference. Lucifer was given a free hand to promote his plan, and he pointed to this apparent lack of notice as proof that the universe government was unable to stop him. The following years were a time of great testing in Satania.

Gabriel, leading Lucifer’s opposition, set up headquarters in Satania and assumed command of the hosts loyal to Michael. The conflict was terrible, real, and far more deadly than material warfare on the immature worlds. Material life is lost in material conflicts, but those who choose the wrong side during heavenly rebellion forfeit their eternal lives.

The Lucifer Rebellion was system-wide. Thirty-seven Planetary Princes chose the side of the rebel; hundreds of thousands of personalities were lost. At the outbreak of the insurrection, the entire system of Satania was isolated from the constellation and universe communication circuits. No Trinitized Sons, Melchizedeks, archangels, or Brilliant Evening Stars rebelled, but a heavy loss occurred from Morontia Companions and Mansion World Teachers. All of the supreme order of seraphim remained loyal, but many superior and third order seraphim were lost. One third of the administrator angels went astray along with their associated cherubim. Over six hundred thousand Material Sons rebelled, as did large numbers of midway creatures. Ascending mortals withstood the rebellion better than the lower spirits. Not one ascendant citizen on Jerusem was lost, which, ironically, validated the mortal ascension scheme by proving that the best security against cosmic rebellion was the experience of universe ascension.

Lucifer and Satan roamed freely until the bestowal mission of Michael was completed on Urantia. Their attack against him while he was incarnate on Urantia brought an end to any remaining sympathy for the rebel cause in Satania. Michael's bestowal terminated the rebellion throughout the system except on the thirty-seven planets that rebelled. Salvation was offered to all rebels during the early days of the insurrection; none of the leaders accepted mercy, but thousands of angels

and lower orders of beings were rehabilitated.

The Ancients of Days have yet to hand down a decision regarding the disposition of Lucifer, Satan, and their associates. Lucifer and Satan are currently imprisoned on the Father's transition spheres surrounding Jerusem. For nineteen hundred years, their status has remained unchanged.

Michael's last act before leaving Urantia was to offer mercy to Caligastia and Dalagastia, but they rejected his offer. Caligastia is still free on Earth, although he has no power to enter the human mind and cannot corrupt any person unless they truly desire to be cursed with his presence. Both Caligastia and Dalagastia are powerless against the Thought Adjusters and the Spirit of Truth.

The system circuits will not be reinstated as long as Lucifer lives. It is believed that all rebels who will ever accept mercy have already done so. The universe awaits the Uversa decree that will deprive these rebels of personality existence.

Paper 54: Problems of the Lucifer Rebellion

Of all the problems caused by the Lucifer rebellion, none has created more difficulty than the failure of immature mortals to distinguish between true and false liberty. True liberty is related to reality and is mindful of cosmic fairness, fraternity, and divine obligations. Liberty divorced from justice, fairness, forbearance, duty, and spiritual values is suicidal. License disguised as liberty is the precursor of abject bondage.

Ever since he first formed Havona with the Son and the Spirit, God the Father has created a divine pattern of sharing. Sons and Daughters who attempt to replicate the central universe in the universes of time and space are creative partners with the Father, as is each person in every evolving universe who aspires to do the Father's will. Lucifer's crime was

an attempt to disenfranchise every personality in Satania from this God- given freewill participation in the evolutionary struggle for light and life. The Lucifer manifesto, masquerading as the promotion of liberty, attempted to deprive ascenders of the privilege of participating in the creation of their own destinies.

Sin is potential whenever imperfect beings are endowed with the ability to choose between good and evil. Mortals who are puzzled as to why God permits evil and sin fail to comprehend that both are inevitable if the creature is to be truly free. Free will is not a mere philosophic concept; it is a universe reality. Wholehearted identification with sin leads eventually to non-existence, but there is always a period between the embrace of sin and the penalty thereof. The Ancients of Days do not annihilate any being until all moral values are extinct, both in the evildoer and in any related supporters.

Lucifer and Satan were permitted to work their wickedness for an extended time before they were apprehended. People who have raised children are best able to understand why Michael, the Creator-father, might be slow to destroy his sons. Immanuel, the Faithful of Days, the Supreme Executive of Orvonton, and the Divine Minister all concurred that the rebellion should be allowed to take its full natural course.

Mercy delays of time are mandated by the Creators, and there is good to be derived in the universe from patience in dealing with sinful rebels. But such delays are not interminable. Justice in a mercy-dominated universe may be slow, but it is certain. Mercy requires that wrongdoers be given sufficient time to fully choose their evil thoughts and acts. Justice will never destroy that which mercy can save.

When a father shows mercy to one of his erring children, it may bring a temporary hardship to his other children. Such risk is inseparable from the reality of being a member of a family. Each family member profits by the righteous conduct of every other member, and each suffers the consequences of the misconduct of the others. But such hardships are transient; no consequence of fraternal misbehavior can never jeopardize

the eternal prospects of another individual.

Compensation invariably accompanies the sin of rebellion. The Lucifer rebellion at first seemed to be a complete calamity, but gradually benefits began to accrue. About twenty thousand years ago, the good that had arisen from Lucifer's sin came to equal the evil incurred. The evil now has become almost stationary, while the beneficial repercussions continue to multiply throughout the superuniverse. The good that has resulted from the Lucifer rebellion is now more than a thousand times the sum of the evil created. As mortals ascend Paradiseward, they will increasingly learn how ultimate good can derive from time-limited evil.

Paper 55: The Spheres of Light and Life

The final attainment of an evolutionary world is the age of light and life. Once attained, the era of light and life continues forever.

A morontia temple appears at a planet's entry into light and life. Morontia temples are designed on system headquarters and are built by Morontia Power Supervisors and Master Physical Controllers. Three hundred thousand seats provide for silent cosmic contemplation, revelation of spirit beings, graduation exercises, and fusion ceremonies.

A planet in the golden ages of light and life has achieved one language, one religion, and one race. Disease has not been entirely vanquished; hospitals still exist to treat accidental injuries and the infirmities of old age. Human government continues. In the advanced stages of light and life on a planet, idleness, poverty, degeneracy, insanity, and delinquency virtually disappear. Science, art, and industry flourish; economic life becomes ethical. War is known only in history; there are no armies or police forces. Government fades away in inverse proportion to morality and spirituality. Life is refreshingly simple.

Advanced mortals are taught the local universe language before fusion.

Most people who live on worlds in the advanced stages of light and life do not die; they are translated directly to the morontia existence through fusion. When people gather in the morontia temples to observe the passing of a loved one to the mansion worlds, it is an occasion of great joy.

Universes also pass through stages of light and life. The first stage begins when a single planet settles in light and life; the second stage occurs when a whole system is settled. The third is the constellation stage and the fourth is the local universe stage. The fifth and sixth stages (minor and major sectors) are relatively insignificant, but the seventh stage when an entire superuniverse settles in light and life may trigger sweeping changes in the entire superuniverse.

Paper 56: Universal Unity

The universe of universes is one mechanism controlled by one mind. Physical, intellectual, and spiritual realities are divinely correlated and are unified in the plans of the Architects of the Master Universe. Non- spiritual realities spring from pure energy. Divine overcontrol of all energy systems springs from pure spirit. Pure energy and pure spirit seem to be diverse phenomena, but both are centered in the Paradise Father— they are one because God is one.

Mind is the inevitable link between spiritual and material realities. At the Creator's first thought, two realities appeared: the Isle of Paradise (energy) and the Eternal Son (spirit). Mind unifies these two universe expressions of God. Mind, an endowment of the Infinite Spirit, is unified throughout time and space. From the adjutant mind spirits, to the mind of the chief executive of a universe, to the Seven Master Spirits, to the Supreme Mind—all mind ministry is perfectly correlated through the mind of the Infinite Spirit.

God is one. He reveals himself through the dual phenomena of spirit and

energy. Likewise, Paradise spirit realities are one, but this single spirit is revealed through the spirit personalities of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, and through the prepersonal spirit entities of the Father. All spiritual phenomena are derived from one God.

Perfected creature existence is attained when mortal mind fuses with a fragment of spirit. When a mortal mind, created by Sons of the Eternal Son and Daughters of the Infinite Spirit, fuses with the Father's Thought Adjuster, it becomes blessed with a threefold spirit endowment. This triple endowment becomes perfectly unified in finaliters even as it was originally unified in the I AM.

Spirit ultimately becomes Trinity-unified. God is a divinely unified personality, and his ascendant children who come to Paradise by the rebound of the Thought Adjusters will also be fully unified personalities.

Personality inherently reaches out to unify all constituent realities. Through the personality circuit, each creature can maintain unbroken contact with the Father of personalities on Paradise. Philosophically, we may postulate plural Deities and Trinities, but our worshipful contact with God the Father reveals that he is one.

There are three eternal personalizations of Deity, but in the Paradise Trinity they are one undivided Deity. Divinity functions in the superuniverses through the Creator Sons and Spirits, the Ancients of Days, and the Seven Master Spirits. These first three levels of God the Sevenfold lead inward to Paradise through the coordination of the evolving Supreme Being.

In the central universe, Deity unity is a fact. In the evolving universes, Deity unity is an achievement.

Before the creation of the seven superuniverses, God the Supreme functioned only on spiritual levels. The Creators of the grand universe instigated the evolution of the power prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme. This new power of Deity coordinates with the spiritual person

of the Supreme through the Supreme Mind, which sprang from the infinite mind of the Infinite Spirit. Mortals can comprehend Deity unity only as it evolves in the power-personality synthesis of the Supreme Being.

Evolution in the universes is accompanied by an increase of revelation of Deity to universe residents. Ascending mortals may experience the impersonal presence of Deity before they know these Deities on a personal level. As the creations of time and space progress, God the Supreme functions more fully and the Creator Sons and Spirits, Ancients of Days, and Master Spirits begin to withdraw.

The Supreme Being unifies divinity in time and space. He is the maximum level of Deity that mortals can comprehend. Through him, humans learn to experience absonite mind, eternal spirit, and Paradise personality. Finaliters, born in the local universes, nurtured in the superuniverses, and trained in the central universe, will have the potential to comprehend how God the Sevenfold unifies in the Supreme.

As worlds settle in light and life, the main pursuit of advancing mortals becomes the study of the comprehensible elements of Deity—truth, beauty and goodness—through philosophy, cosmology, and divinity. These qualities represent the revelation of Deity to the worlds of time and space. Eternal truth is the ministry of the Paradise Sons. Universal beauty is a reflection of the Isle of Paradise. Divine goodness is most fully shown in the ministry of the Infinite Spirit. Love, the sum of truth, beauty, and goodness, is man's perception of God as his Father. Our increasing understanding of the love of God yields the fruits of divinity:


Love is the greatest thing in the universe.

God is love.

Love is the desire to do good to others.

Part III: The History of Urantia











Personalities acting by authority of Gabriel of Salvington.

A geophysical history of our planet, Urantia, sets the stage for an overview of the development of civilization, culture, government, religion, the family, and other social institutions is described from the viewpoint of superhuman observers. The meanings and values contained within human religious civilization are revitalized, strengthening the foundations upon which further cultural development may take place. A description of human destiny is provided including a description of the worlds we will inhabit immediately following mortal death.

Paper 57: The Origin of Urantia

Nearly one trillion years ago, an inspector from the Primary Master Force Organizers of Paradise reported that conditions were favorable for materialization in our sector of Orvonton.

Nine hundred billion years ago a permit was issued authorizing the dispatch of a force organizer and his staff, who inaugurated the energy whirl that became the Andronover nebula.

Six hundred billion years ago the Andronover nebula acquired its maximum mass. The nebula’s rotational speed increase, its gravity began to weaken, and gas began to escape into two gigantic arms on opposing sides of the original mass.

Five hundred billion years ago the first sun in the Andronover system was formed.

Two hundred billion years ago the oldest inhabited planets of Nebadon were formed.

Six billion years ago our sun was born as the Andronover nebula condensed. Our solar system, Monmatia, had an unusual origin. An enormous system, Angona, drew near to Monmatia. Its gravity pulled solar gases from the sun, which evolved into planets, meteors, and space dust of our solar system. The planets now travel in the plane of the Angona system rather than around the equatorial plane of our sun. The reverse motion in the orbits of our sun's planets, which perplexes astronomers, is a result of material from the Angona system merging into our sun's gravity range. Jupiter and Saturn shone so brightly when they first formed that they were secondary suns; they remain largely gaseous today.

Three billion years ago our solar system was much as it is today. The planets were smaller; for some time the earth was not much bigger than

the moon.

One and one half billion years ago volcanic activity on earth was at its height. A crust gradually formed, and atmosphere slowly began to surround the planet.

One billion years ago Urantia was officially placed on the physical registries of Nebadon. As the world cooled, the first ocean formed, covering the entire earth in fresh water one mile deep. Fifty million years later there was one great continent and one ocean. Lava flows, earthquakes, and violent storms characterized this age.

Nine hundred million








recommended that Urantia

be designated a decimal




experiment world.

Six hundred and fifty million years ago, the continents had separated, the seas were attaining the necessary saltiness, and Urantia was nearly ready for establishment of life in the inland seas.

Paper 58: Life Establishment on Urantia

Life Carriers experiment with life forms on every tenth inhabitable planet in an effort to improve types of living beings. Urantia is the sixty-first of these experimental worlds in Satania. Life Carriers chose a sodium chloride pattern of life for our planet. All life here evolved in a salt- solution; human blood literally submerses every cell of the body in the essential salt solution. The Life Carriers implanted life when the ocean water became sufficiently salty, a large number of protected inland seas emerged, and atmospheric conditions became advantageous.

Five hundred and fifty million years ago the Life Carriers initiated the original life patterns of Urantia by planting them simultaneously in the ancient inland seas of three locations: Eurasia/Africa, Australia, and

Greenland/America. Three identical batches of life material were planted to ensure that there would be life on each of the great land masses when the continents drifted apart. Within fifty million years, marine vegetable life was well established.

Four hundred and fifty million years ago animal life developed. The transition to animal organisms took place in sheltered tropical bays and shorelines of the separating continents. This change was inherent in the original life patterns, and came about gradually. Slime molds, classified as neither plants nor animals, are a remnant of this era.

Genetic mutations are entirely natural. From era to era, radically new species can arise; new orders of life may appear suddenly. Although there are connecting links between the most simple to the most advanced life organisms, there are none between the highest prehuman animals and the earliest humans.

Paper 59: The Marine Life Era on Urantia

The billion-year history of Urantia extends through five major eras: the Pre-Life era (Archeozoic), the Life-Dawn era (Proterozoic), the Marine Life era (Paleozoic), the Early Land-Life era (Mezozoic), and the Mammalian era (Cenozoic). At the dawn of the marine-life period, plants and animals were fairly well distributed throughout the seas and vegetation had begun to move onto the land.

Four hundred million years ago the first multicellular animals suddenly made their appearance. The trilobites evolved and dominated the seas for ages. Periodically, land masses would sink into the oceans and rise again. At times the American land mass was almost entirely submerged. Greenland was warmed by the Gulf Stream. Sediments of conglomerates, limestone, shale, and sandstone were deposited.

Three hundred and sixty million years ago marine life included seaweed,

sponges, one-celled organisms, trilobites, and other crustaceans. Of the three thousand varieties of brachiopods appearing at the close of this period, only two hundred have survived into present times.

Three hundred and fifty million years ago saw the beginning of great flood periods on the continents. This age was characterized by enormous amounts of limestone laid down by the lime-secreting algae.

Three hundred and ten million years ago every type of marine life below the vertebrate scale was represented. Sea worms, some types of jellyfish, corals, and sponges evolved. Cephalopods developed and have survived as the modern pearly nautilus, octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Shelled animals were single-shelled and bivalve gastropods—drills, periwinkles, snails, oysters, clams and scallops—and by valve-shelled brachiopods.

Three hundred million years ago another great flood era occurred. The enormous deposits of animal and vegetable matter carried down with this land submergence provided the world with gas, oil, zinc, and lead.

Two hundred and eighty million years ago the continents had largely re- emerged. The trilobites declined. The cephalopods became masters of the seas; some of the larger mollusks grew to be fifteen feet long. Coral-reef formations multiplied. During this age the primitive water scorpions evolved and soon thereafter the first air breathing scorpions appeared.

Two hundred and fifty million years ago vertebrates suddenly appeared in the fish family. The land was rapidly overrun by new orders of vegetation. Ferns appeared suddenly and quickly spread over the face of the earth, some growing to be one hundred feet high. Leafless trees developed. The atmosphere of the earth became enriched with oxygen.

Two hundred and ten million years ago warm-water seas again covered most of North America and Europe. Out from the warm waters came snails, scorpions, and frogs. Spiders, cockroaches, crickets, locusts, and thirty-inch dragonflies soon followed.

Two hundred million years ago the most active stages of worldwide coal formation were in process.

One hundred and seventy million years ago great evolutionary changes took place. Lands rose and ocean beds sank. The earth’s crust folded extensively, and inland lakes and seas evaporated. Two new climatic factors appeared—glaciation and aridity. Thousands of marine animals perished. Of the 100,000 species of life on earth during this era, less than five hundred survived. Harsh weather replaced the mild climate. Insects underwent radical changes to meet the demands of winter and drought.

This period of biologic adversity eliminated all forms of life except those which had survival value. At the close of the marine-life era, the land was largely covered with vegetation, and the atmosphere had become ideal for animal respiration. The vast oceanic nursery of life on Urantia had served its purpose.

Paper 60: Urantia During the Early Land Life Era

One hundred and forty million years ago two full-fledged reptiles suddenly appeared, from which sprang crocodiles, sea serpents, flying reptiles, and dinosaurs. Early dinosaurs were egg layers and had very small brains. Several million years later the first mammal appeared and quickly failed.

One hundred and twenty million years ago dinosaurs of all sizes had evolved. The larger dinosaurs required so much food that they starved themselves into extinction.

One hundred and ten million years ago sea urchins mutated into existence. Crabs and lobsters matured, and fish continued to develop. Sea serpents infested the seas and threatened the destruction of all fishes.

Ninety million years ago angiosperms, fig trees, tulip trees, and

magnolias came into existence, followed by breadfruit trees and palms.

Sixty-five million years ago plant life evolved greatly with the appearance of modern-day trees such as beech, birch, oak, walnut, sycamore, maple and modern palms. Fruits, grasses, and cereals were widespread. These seed-bearing plants were second in evolutionary importance only to the appearance of man himself. Flowering plants mutated and spread all over the world.

Sixty million years ago land turtles measured twenty feet across. Modern-type crocodiles and snakes thrived.

Fifty-five million years ago the ancestor of all bird life, a small pigeon- like creature, suddenly appeared. It was the third type of flying creature to appear on Urantia; it sprang directly from the reptilian group. This period marked the end of the continental drift and the buildup of modern mountains. Fern forests were largely replaced by pines and redwoods. By the end of this period, the biologic stage was set for the early ancestors of mammalian types.

Paper 61: The Mammalian Era on Urantia

The mammalian era covers a period of fifty thousand years, starting from the times of the origin of placental mammals to the end of the ice age. Mammals have several survival advantages over other forms of life. They possess an ability to adapt to their environment, superior intelligence, agility, delivery of relatively mature offspring, and a tendency to nourish and protect their young.

Fifty million years ago placental mammals suddenly appeared in North America, descendants of a small, highly active, springing-type of carnivorous dinosaur.

Forty-five million years ago mammalian life was evolving rapidly. A

small egg-laying type of mammal flourished. The ancestors of kangaroos existed in Australia. Small versions of horses, rhinoceroses, tapirs, primitive pigs, squirrels, lemurs, opossums and monkey-like creatures appeared. A ten-foot-tall ostrich-like bird developed which became the ancestor of the passenger birds of later times.

These early mammals lived on land, under the water, in the air and among the treetops. They had mammary glands, were covered with considerable hair, developed two successive sets of teeth, and had large brains. At this time North America was connected to every continent except Australia; the world was overrun by primitive mammals.

Thirty-five million years ago began the age of domination by placental mammals. The dinosaur species were on the decline. Various groups of mammals took origin in an amphibious animal, now extinct, that was a cross between a cat and a seal. The ancestor of dogs evolved in Europe. Rodents appeared.

Thirty million years ago modern types of mammals began to develop. Hoofed types of grazing animals appeared. Horses and rhinoceroses continued to evolve. A small hog-like creature developed which became the ancestor of swine, peccaries, and hippos. Camels, llamas, and ancient lemurs originated. A group of mammals took to the seas and became ancestors to whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions. Most modern bird types existed.

Twenty million years ago the Bering land bridge was above water. Deer, oxen, camels, bison and rhinoceroses migrated to North America from Asia. Fifty species of elephant overran the entire world except Australia. Giant pigs became extinct.

Fifteen million years ago enormous herds of horses roamed western North America. Primitive monkeys and gorillas evolved in Asia. Wolves and foxes came into existence; panthers and saber-tooth tigers represented the cat family.

Ten million years ago the last great world-wide animal migration began. Camels entered China; sloths, armadillos, antelopes and bears moved to North America. The giraffe evolved in Africa. Mastodons migrated into every continent except Australia. The ocean currents shifted and seasonal winds changed direction. Parts of Europe and North America rose up to 30,000 feet and more; the thick depths of snow that began to form on the highlands eventually became masses of solid creeping ice.

Two million years ago marks the beginning of the ice ages. Throughout the ice ages, glaciers advanced and retreated across the continents, carving the landscape as they went. Many animal species were destroyed and others were radically changed by the rigors of migration. In North America, the last glacier movement wiped out horses, tapirs, llamas, and saber-tooth tigers. The ice ages ended thirty-five thousand years ago.

Paper 62: The Dawn Races of Early Man

The great event of the ice age was the evolution of primitive man.

Several million years ago, North American lemurs migrated over the Bering land bridge and settled west of India. There, they united with other favorable strains from the central life implantation to produce a superior lemur type. When climatic and geologic factors isolated the region from the rest of world, the superior lemur strains were able to multiply without contamination from inferior stocks.

A little more than a million years ago, Mesopotamian dawn mammals suddenly arose from the lemurs. Dawn mammals were three feet tall, carnivorous, and had opposable thumbs and grasping big toes. They had the largest brain of any proportionately sized animal that existed to that date. The creatures experienced many emotions and instincts; the human tendency to harbor irrational fear dates from their time. Dawn mammals had a strong tribal spirit and did not hesitate to make war on their inferior neighbors. The species progressively improved by selective

survival. For a thousand years they multiplied and spread throughout the Mesopotamian peninsula.

After seventy generations, twins far superior to their parents were born to a pair of the dawn mammals. These mid-mammals had larger brains and bodies, less hair, longer legs, and shorter arms than their parents. They grew to be a little over four feet in height and walked upright. The mid- mammal twins were soon recognized as leaders of the dawn-mammal tribe.

The twins instituted primitive forms of social organization and crude divisions of labor. They mated and produced twenty-one children, the nucleus of a new species. When the mid-mammals became numerous, war broke out, and dawn mammals were completely annihilated. The new species multiplied for fifteen thousand years.

Rudimentary human traits appeared in the mid-mammals. They collected

stones for weapons, fought among themselves, hoarded food, and built homes in the treetops and underground. Six hundred generations after the first mid-mammals appeared, a superior couple produced twins that were

the first primates, the direct ancestors of the human


During the

same era, another pair of mid-mammals gave birth to a set of twins who became the ancestors of modern simians.

The superior twins were more human and less animal than their predecessors. They had less hair on their bodies, had fully developed human-type hands and feet, and spoke to each other with signs and sounds. The twins grew to be over five feet tall. Even when very young, they insisted on walking upright. At fourteen years of age, the twins left home. Their descendants lived on the Mesopotamian peninsula where they were segregated from their less intelligent cousins.

After nine hundred generations—approximately 993,000 years ago—a mutation within this Primate stock gave origin to another set of twins, the first two true human beings. They had perfect human hands and feet; they walked and ran. The twins communicated verbally as well as

through signs and symbols. These first two humans felt a range of emotions including curiosity, admiration, vanity, awe, reverence, humility, pity, shame, love, hate, revenge and jealousy.

When they were about nine years old, the twins pledged their lives to each other. Two years later, they decided to elope; they left their tribe to start a new life together. This conscious decision marked the moment when the mind-spirit of wisdom first began to function on earth. The twins were recognized as true human beings, and Urantia was officially registered as an inhabited world.

Paper 63: The First Human Family

Andon and Fonta, the first human beings, were in some respects the most remarkable pair of humans who ever lived on Urantia. They were in every way superior to their immediate descendants and radically different from all of their ancestors. Andon and Fonta's decision to flee from the primate tribes implied a high quality of mind. They knew they were more than mere animals; they possessed personality and the presence of indwelling Thought Adjusters.

Before they fled, Andon and Fonta prepared a treetop retreat half a day's journey away. They retained the primate fear of being on the ground after dark, but knowing that they were less likely to be pursued during the night, they set out on their own before nightfall.

On the northward journey, Andon and Fonta gathered a supply of flint stones for future uses. By accident Andon discovered their sparking quality. After many failed attempts they learned to create fire by using bird's nests as kindling. Andon and Fonta realized that their discovery would make it possible for them to defy climate and live away from the warm regions. Two years after they left home, Fonta gave birth to their first child, Sontad.

Andon and Fonta had nineteen children and lived to know almost fifty grandchildren and several great grandchildren. Their extended family lived in four rock shelters connected by hallways excavated with flint tools. They avoided separation, seeming to realize that they were an isolated and unique group. The family hunted in groups and never strayed far from home. Andon and Fonta lived to be forty-two years old; their family group held together for twenty generations.

Early Andonites resembled the present-day Eskimo. They were the first creatures to use animal skins to protect themselves from cold weather. They developed social groups and divisions of labor. They were less sensitive to pain than modern-day humans. They were very loyal to their families. Many of the most noble human traits were foreshadowed in these primitive people.

As time passed the Andonites grew in numbers. Tribal wars erupted. Serious losses were sustained among the best specimens of the more advanced groups; some of the most valuable human strains were forever lost to the world.

The Andonites spread northward until the third glacier advance stopped them. They established more than one thousand settlements along the rivers leading to the warm waters of the North Sea. Andonites were clever in disguising their homes and showed great skill in building stone sleeping chambers. They were fearless hunters, living almost exclusively on meat, wild berries, and fruits. They became skilled in fashioning flint tools. In some ways, the early Andonites showed a degree of intelligence that their retrogressing descendants did not attain again for half a million years.

Andonites developed a fear of the elements: thunder, lightning, rain, snow, hail and ice. Since they largely subsisted on animals, they evolved a form of animal worship. Andonite worship ceremonies eventually included the use of sacrifices.

After ten thousand years of Andonite retrogression, Onagar, a great

mastermind and spiritual guide, assumed leadership of the tribes. Onagar established peace and led the tribesmen to worship the “Breath Giver.” From his headquarters at a settlement near the present-day Caspian Sea, he sent out the world's first missionaries. The tribal government that Onagar instituted was extremely efficient. Although Andon, Fonta, and many of their immediate descendants had received Thought Adjusters, it was not until the time of Onagar that large numbers of Adjusters and guardian angels came to this planet.

Paper 64: The Evolutionary Races of Color





Neanderthals were excellent fighters, great hunters, and extensive travelers. They improved flint work so much that it approached the level of Andon’s age. Neanderthals were superstitious—afraid of clouds, mists, darkness, and other natural forces. They used human sacrifices to coax the moon into shining. During the fourth and fifth glacial advances, the Neanderthal culture spread and dominated the world.

Five hundred thousand years ago, around the time of the Planetary Prince’s arrival, the relatively pure Badonan tribes became involved in a great racial struggle. After more than one hundred years of warfare, only about one hundred families of Andon and Fonta’s descendants were left alive.





In Asia,

offspring of red and yellow races migrated to the eastern








Paper 65: The Overcontrol of Evolution

Evolution is always purposeful, never accidental. Its course is directed by the combined teamwork of the Master Physical Controllers, who manage the mechanical, non-teachable types of life; the Adjutant Mind Spirits, who activate and regulate teachable life; and the Life Carriers, who plant life and oversee it until the appearance of human will.

Life Carriers perform on three levels: the physical, the quasi-morontial, and the semi-spiritual. When Life Carriers have chosen the sites for life implantation, they are modified to function on the physical level. Having started life, Life Carriers are returned to a morontial phase from which they can manipulate and maneuver evolving life. When will creatures appear, the Life Carriers cease their attempts to steer the course of organic evolution.

Life on Urantia was planted in three warm-water locations. All plant and animal life evolved from the slime of the sea beds. Bacteria and fungi were the most primitive forms of plant life. Next came transition organisms such as sponges, then single-celled ameba and other protozoans—the first true animals. These were followed by stone lilies, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, centipedes, insects, spiders, crustaceans, earthworms, leeches, and mollusks. Further mutations produced fish, frogs, reptiles, and placental mammals. Within this latter group arose the ancestral lemur from which sprang the dawn mammals, then mid- mammals, and lastly the Primates, who gave origin to the first human beings.

Life Carriers take advantage of environmental conditions to guide evolving life in favorable directions. Having selected southeast Asia as the best site for early man to evolve, and knowing that good prehuman stocks were developing in the central life group, the Life Carriers led man’s North American lemur ancestors across the Bering land bridge and into that central region where the two superior stocks could continue to evolve.

The appearance of man during the ice ages was intentional. The rigors of a cold climate produce hardiness in humans. If man’s ancestor strains had perished, evolution would have been retarded but not prevented; Life Carriers were simultaneously fostering over a thousand mutating strains of potentially pre-human life. Even the loss of Andon and Fonta would only have delayed the eventual appearance of human beings.

Urantia is an experimental planet, where Life Carriers have the

opportunity to modify life forms in the attempt to improve them. Evidence that life was intelligently planned is demonstrated by the way an injured cell throws off chemical substances to alert neighboring cells to create replacement cells. This healing method was chosen by the Life Carriers after half a million laboratory experiments. The appearance of the Andonic will creatures prior to the evolution of the six Sangik races was a planned experiment. Another was the simultaneous appearance of the six colored races in one family.

A major advance in the evolution of higher mammals was the development of the ability of iron to double as oxygen carrier and carbon dioxide remover. The fact that evolution is still in progress is illustrated by the evolution of teeth in higher mammals—while man's remote ancestors had thirty-six teeth, humans are now gravitating toward twenty-eight.

Experiments in plant evolution include the development of chlorophyll- making ability and the evolution of the spore into a complex seed. A great disappointment for the Life Carriers on Urantia was the reversion of certain plant forms to parasitic bacteria, which later caused diseases in higher mammals.

Paper 66: The Planetary Prince of Urantia

Most worlds receive a Planetary Prince when primitive man is able to choose eternal survival, which usually does not happen until the colored race emerges. The task of a Planetary Prince is to begin to transform primitive man from hunter to herder to farmer.

Urantia’s Planetary Prince, Caligastia, was a Lanonandek Son of the secondary order. He had acceptably managed five successive assignments prior to his arrival on earth. Caligastia. He arrived nearly five hundred thousand years after the arrival of the first will creatures, concurrent with the appearance of the six Sangik races.

Caligastia was invisible to the mortals of the realm. He was assisted by Daligastia, a fellow secondary Lanonandek Son. The two were accompanied by a group of one hundred ascendant Jerusem citizens. To rematerialize these volunteers into human form, the Life Carriers transferred life plasm from one hundred Andonites into bodies created for the Jerusem citizens. The contributing Andonites were given access to the system circuits, which enabled them to live for centuries alongside the Prince's staff.

Caligastia's headquarters, Dalamatia, was established near what is now the Persian Gulf. Dalamatia was a simple, beautiful city surrounded by a forty-foot wall. The modest buildings were neat and clean. Agricultural land within the city walls was sufficient for the support of twenty thousand people. A temple to the unseen Father was built at the center of the city.

The Prince's staff gathered superior individuals from the surrounding tribes, trained them in Dalamatia, and then returned them to their tribes as teachers and leaders. The staff was divided into ten councils.

1. The council on food and material welfare was led by Ang. This corps taught well digging and irrigation. They introduced weaving, improved methods of creating clothing from animal skins, and advanced cooking and food storage.

2. The board of animal domestication and utilization was directed by Bon. This council helped select and breed animals for transport, food, and soil. They trained carrier pigeons to send messages and fandors as passenger birds. This corps introduced the wheel to the human races.

3. The advisers regarding the conquest of predatory animals taught protection from wild animals and hostile humans. Captained by Dan, this group built the wall around Dalamatia to prevent surprise attacks. They trained people outside the walls to improve their dwellings and to make better animal traps.

  • 4. The faculty on dissemination and conservation of knowledge

formulated the first alphabet. They introduced a system of writing using tree barks, clay tablets, stone slabs, and parchment. The Dalamatia library was named the House of Fad in honor of the leader of this group.

  • 5. The commission on industry and trade was led by Nod. This council

provided many new commodities and expanded trade. They introduced commercial credit, using tokens from a central exchange to substitute for objects of barter.

  • 6. The college of revealed religion attempted to substitute Creator fear

for ghost worship. Led by Hap, they established a form of religious service, providing the Dalamatians with seven chants of worship and a daily praise-phrase.

  • 7. The guardians of health and life were organized by Lut. This council

introduced sanitation and promoted hygiene. They taught cooking as a means of avoiding sickness, persuaded people to bathe, and encouraged them to substitute handshaking for saliva exchange and blood drinking.

  • 8. The planetary council on art and science elevated ideas of beauty and

gave men instruction in rudimentary physics and chemistry. Under Mek's guidance this corps advanced pottery and metal work. Decorative and home arts were improved; the ideals of human beauty were enhanced.

  • 9. The governors of advanced tribal relations was commissioned to bring

human society up to the level of statehood. Tut was the chief of this

group, which promoted intertribal marriage, social dances, and competitive games. They attempted to regulate warfare and worked to improve tribal governments.

10. The supreme court of tribal co-ordination and racial co-operation was directed by Van. This council served as the court of appeals for the other nine councils, and was entrusted with all matters that were not specifically assigned to the other groups.

The inhabitants of Dalamatia lived in family units. The staff served as parents to adopted children from the superior families of the surrounding tribes. Industrial schools were set up in which students learned by doing useful manual tasks.

The Dalamatia teachers wisely refrained from attempts to radically modify the human way of life. The backward races had spent ages acquiring their religion and morals, and these superhuman teachers knew that only confusion would result by teaching their students more than they could understand. The Prince’s staff desired progression by evolution rather than by revolution or revelation.

Paper 67: The Planetary Rebellion

Caligastia had been in charge of Urantia for three hundred thousand years when Satan, Lucifer's assistant, arrived for an inspection. During this visit, Satan discussed Lucifer's proposed Declaration of Liberty with Caligastia. Caligastia decided to betray his planet by casting his lot with Lucifer.

Shortly after Satan's visit, Daligastia called a special session of the ten councils. Caligastia announced that he was appointing himself absolute sovereign of Urantia, and demanded that all administrative groups resign their powers to Daligastia.

Van, chairman of the council of coordination, objected to Caligastia’s announcement, and petitioned the councilors to abstain from any action until an appeal could be taken to Lucifer. The appeal was made. In reply, Lucifer designated Caligastia as supreme sovereign. Van formally accused Daligastia, Caligastia, and Lucifer of being in contempt of universe sovereignty, and appealed to the Most Highs of Edentia. By the time the second appeal could be sent out, the system circuits had been severed, and Urantia was isolated from outside counsel.

The rebellion determined the fate of every superhuman personality on the planet. Debates continued until every personality concerned had made a final decision in the matter. Sixty members of the Prince's staff sided with Lucifer. The remaining forty relocated to an unwalled settlement a few miles east of Dalamatia guarded constantly by loyal midway creatures. Angels took control of the tree of life.

The sixty rebels chose Nod as their leader. They soon discovered that they had been degraded to mortal status. Daligastia, knowing that they would eventually die, ordered them to begin sexual reproduction. The disloyal staff migrated north and east; their descendants were long known as Nodites. We do not know the fate of the original sixty, although their Adjusters still tarry on Jerusem.

Caligastia's scheme for the reconstruction of human society proved a swift and complete failure. Liberty was quickly translated into license by the semi-savage population. One hundred and sixty-two years after the rebellion, a tidal wave washed over Dalamatia and the headquarters sank beneath the sea.

Van’s followers moved to the highlands west of India where they planned for the rehabilitation of the world. Under the temporary leadership of the senior Life Carriers, Van divided his staff into ten councils of four along the lines of the Prince's staff. Van’s people provided leadership until the days of Adam and Eve. Van remained on Urantia until the times of Adam and Eve.

Paper 68: The Dawn of Civilization

Civilization is a human acquirement; it is not biologically inherent. Its scientific, philosophic and religious qualities are transmitted from one generation to the next only by enlightened conservation.

Cooperation is not a natural human trait. It was first introduced by the Dalamatia teachers, who nurtured man in the idea of group activities for three hundred thousand years. Early men soon learned to appreciate the strength of union. They developed group associations primarily for survival reasons; civilization provided insurance against violent death. Hunger, sex, and fear were additional influences that prompted association between humans.

The family, the first successful group, satisfied the sex urge in males and maternal devotion in females. Women maintained settled homes where they could cultivate food. Men and women learned to adjust their antagonisms to ensure the survival of the species.

The greatest single factor in the evolution of human society was the ghost dream. Early people were afraid of dreams, and dread of the departed dead gave them special terror. Their senseless superstitions caused them to band tightly together for protection. Until the Dalamatia teachers came with their liberating instructions, every activity people engaged in was prescribed by their mores and ceremonies.

Urantia has had four stages of civilization. Early men sustained themselves by gleaning food from the land. The invention of tools made hunting for food possible; learning to cure meat was a forward step during the hunting era. Further liberation occurred during the pastoral stage, when the domestication of animals gave humans more time to devote to culture and progress. The highest type of material civilization was brought about through the cultivation of plants—horticulture.

Paper 69: Primitive Human Institutions










institutionalization. Human institutions minister to social needs in three general classes.

Institutions of self-maintenance grow out of hunger and self- preservation; they include industry, property, and war for gain.

Institutions of self-perpetuation grow out of sex hunger, maternal instincts and the higher emotions, and comprise home-building, marriage customs, education, religion, and war for defense.

Institutions of self-gratification grow out of vanity and pride; these embrace dress customs, war for glory, dancing, amusements, and games.

Poverty is man's natural estate; wealth springs from labor, knowledge, and organization. Primitive men disliked hard work, but the necessity of labor was early man’s greatest blessing because it stimulated effort and industriousness. Primitive divisions of labor evolved based on sex, age, religion, and physical and mental endowments.

The first traders were women. The beginnings of trade and industry inspired innovations such as weights, units of barter, and the art of writing for keeping trade records; the first human literature was a salt advertisement. New ideas were carried around the world by traders. Commerce, linked with adventure, led to exploration and discovery, improved methods of communication, the birth of transportation, and cultural cross-fertilization. People began to store food and other goods for future use. Military organization stemmed from the desire to protect and increase individual and group wealth.

Fire was a great civilizer of early humans. Fire made evening social intercourse more pleasant and enabled people to stay on the ground at night. It protected against cold and wild beasts, and was thought to protect against ghosts. People learned to be watchful and dependable by keeping watch over the family hearth. Fire led to cooking, opened the door to metal-working, and led to the eventual discovery of steam power and electricity. Andon did not worship fire, but many of his descendants regarded it as a fetish.

Humans learned to protect themselves from animals, then to domesticate

them and put them to work. Men herded animals to insure a food supply. Animals that were easily tamed and that bred well in captivity were chosen for selective breeding. The first domesticated animal was the dog, which for ages was used for food, hunting, transportation, and companionship.

Slavery was an indispensable link in the chain of human civilization. Slavery temporarily created culture and social achievement. It enforced human industriousness and gave origin to the beginnings of government. Early slavery represented an advancement in mores from the times when prisoners were eaten, tortured, or sacrificed.

Primitive society was communal. The tribe owned all property, including women, tools and weapons. Among the first personal possessions were utensils, charms, sleeping spaces, and water holes. Communal life gave way to the concept of private property. The private ownership of property has been the nucleus of government, law, order, civil rights, peace, and happiness.

Paper 70: The Evolution of Human Government

Government evolves by trial and error. On an evolutionary world, peace is secured only by the development of a system to regulate social behavior. The natural antagonisms between tribes, clans, families, and individuals call for regulation and coordination. The development of industry demands law and order; private property requires government.

War, an animalistic reaction to misunderstandings and irritations, is the natural state of evolving man.

Though costly and dangerous, war contributes many benefits to society. It fosters discipline, cooperation, and courage, and accelerates social changes. But war, like slavery, must be abandoned as civilization advances. War will continue until people create adequate substitutes for

the benefits that war provides.

Industrialism can triumph over militarism if we avoid the dangers of the worship of wealth, indolence, biologic deterioration, and industrial slavery. Peace will be promoted more efficiently by international trade organizations than by visionary planning. Trade relations improve through advances in language, communication, and transportation.

The first peaceful group was the family, then the clan, the tribe, and the nation. The first government was a council of distinguished elders. During wartime, the efficiency of having a single leader led to having one ruler of the tribe acting as chief executive. Councils of elders became the legislative and judicial branches of government. Effective state rule came when chiefs or kings were given full executive authority.

The inequality of human beings insures that social classes will appear. The only worlds without social strata are the most primitive and the most advanced. Flexible social classes are indispensable to an evolving civilization, but when class becomes caste, it curtails individual development. Classes will persist until people obliterate them through education, by eliminating inferior human strains, and through religious awareness of human brotherhood.

Nature conferred no rights on humans, only life and a world in which to live. So-called human rights are social concepts that change from age to age. During the European middle ages every man belonged to someone else; rights were favors granted to individuals by the church or state. The revolt from this error led to the equally erroneous belief that all men are born equal. The weak may insist that the state compel the strong to make up for their deficiencies, but this equality is not found in nature.

Justice as conceived by humans has been a matter of progressive evolution. Early administration of justice included trial by ordeal. Society early adopted the attitude of “an eye for an eye.” Suicide was a common form of retaliation, because people believed that as a ghost they could return and visit wrath on their enemies. Justice was first meted out by the

family, then the clan, and later the tribe. True justice appears when revenge is taken from private hands and is administered by the state. When society fails to punish crimes, group resentment may assert itself through lynch law. The thoroughness and equity of the courts and the integrity of judges accurately determine the status of a civilization.

Law in advancing civilization becomes increasingly positive and directive. The ideal government for evolutionary people is a representative system where leadership is based on ability and where a proper balance of power is maintained between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

If people are to maintain their freedom, their government must prevent the following pitfalls: usurpation of unwarranted power by any one branch of government; machinations of ignorant agitators; retardation of scientific progress; the dominance of mediocrity; domination by vicious minorities; control by would-be dictators; taxation enslavement of the citizenry by the state; social and economic unfairness; union of church and state; and loss of personal liberty.

Paper 71: Development of the State

The state is not of divine origin, nor was it purposely produced by intelligent human action. It is an evolution of civilization that regulates social interaction and represents society’s net gain after the devastation of war.

An enduring state needs to have a common language, mores, and institutions. Strong states are held together by several factors, including private property, cities, agriculture, domestication of animals, patriarchal family units, a clearly defined territory, and strong rulers. Democracy is an ideal but has inherent dangers, one of which is the glorification of mediocrity. Democracy is a product of civilization rather than of evolution.

The ideal state is guided by the realization of human brotherhood, intelligent patriotism, and cosmic insight. It should provide for liberty, security, education, and social coordination. Society will not progress well if it permits idleness and poverty, but poverty will never be eliminated if degenerate stocks are freely supported and permitted to reproduce without restraint. A government must evolve if it is to survive.

An ideal society cannot be realized while the weak are allowed to take unfair advantage of idealists. People must live according to their ideals while maintaining adequate defense against those who may seek to exploit them. The test of the idealism of a government is the maintenance of military preparedness for defense but never for offense.

Profit motives are necessary to keep people at work, but profit motives must be augmented by service motives. In the ideal state, education continues throughout life. Philosophy, the search for wisdom, may become the chief pursuit of citizens. Control of education must be taken from lawyers and businessmen and entrusted to philosophers and scientists.

The only sacred feature of government is its division into executive, legislative and judicial domains; the universe is administered in accordance with such a plan. Apart from this divine concept, the form of government is not as important as the fact that its citizenry is ever progressing toward the goal of augmented self-control and increased social service.

The earmarks of ideal statehood are: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches; freedom of social, political, and religious activities; abolition of human bondage; citizen's control of taxation; universal lifelong education; proper adjustment between local and national government; fostering of science; conquest of disease; sexual equality; use of machines to reduce drudgery; universal language; end of war; and exaltation of the pursuit of wisdom.

Paper 72: Government on a Neighboring Planet

While it is most unusual for the system rulers to divulge information to one planet about the affairs of another, the revelators were granted permission to reveal something of the social, moral, and political life of a neighboring planet in the Satania system. This world, like Urantia, suffered from the disloyalty of the Lucifer rebellion and the default of its Material Son and Daughter.

On this neighboring planet, a superior civilization of one hundred and forty million people is evolving on an isolated continent about the size of Australia. The people are a mixture the blue, yellow, and violet races. Due to favorable climatic factors, natural resources, and advances in science, the society has become self-sustaining.

Cities are limited to one million inhabitants and are administered by the most advanced citizens. Their representative central government is divided into executive, judicial, and legislative branches. The central government oversees a federation of one hundred states. The federal chief executive is elected by the people and is advised by a team comprised of every living former chief executive.

This nation has two major court systems. Law courts decide cases on local, state and federal levels, while socioeconomic courts enforce laws affecting home, school, and economics. People regard the home as the basic institution of civilization. The smallest home site permitted is fifty thousand square feet. Families have an average of five children, and attendance of parents at parental schools is compulsory.

Instruction in sex and religion is done at home, although some moral instruction is provided by teachers at school. There are no churches. Religion is thought of as the striving to know God and to manifest love for one's fellows through service.

Children remain legally subject to their parents until they are fifteen.

They can marry with parental consent and vote when they are twenty, and marry without parental consent at twenty-five. Permission to marry is granted after one year's notice and completion of training for the responsibilities of married life. All children must leave home by their thirtieth year.

Education is compulsory from ages five to eighteen. All students become assistant teachers, instructing those behind them. There are no classrooms; books are used only to find information to solve problems in the school shops and farms. The feeble-minded are trained only for agriculture and are segregated by sex to prevent parenthood. Students spend a quarter of the school day participating in competitive athletics. At the age of eighteen, each child graduates as a skilled artisan and self- supporting citizen; only then do they begin the study of books and pursuit of specialized knowledge. Special schools after compulsory education include those for statesmanship, philosophy, science, professions, and military training.

Industry operates on a thirty-hour week. Everyone takes vacation for one month of the ten-month year. The profit motive is being displaced by higher ideals; public service is becoming the chief goal of ambition. People must retire at sixty-five. Slavery has been abolished for over one hundred years, and the nation has turned its attention to reducing the number of degenerates.

The federal government cannot go into debt except in the case of war. Federal income is derived from five sources: import duties, royalties, inheritance taxes, leasing of military equipment, and natural resources. Every person over twenty years old has one vote. Those who have rendered great service to society and those who pay heavy taxes can have additional votes conferred upon them. Prisoners and government employees are not allowed to vote.

These people are passing from the negative to the positive era of law. Ordinary criminals and defectives are segregated by sex and placed in self-supporting agricultural colonies. Serious habitual offenders and the

incurably insane are swiftly sentenced to death. Efforts to prevent breeding of criminals and defectives have been successful; there are no prisons or hospitals for the insane.

Courses pursued in the military schools include military training and professional mastery. During industrial slumps, unemployed people build military defenses; during periods of peace the mobile defense mechanisms are fully employed in trade, commerce, and recreation. This nation has not launched an offensive war in more than one hundred years, but has defended itself nine times in that period against the less advanced surrounding nations.

While in some ways this nation’s society is superior to that of Urantia nations, it has not benefited by magisterial or bestowal missions of the Paradise Sons. Since Urantia has been blessed with the Spirit of Truth, it is better prepared for the more immediate realization of a planetary government.

Paper 73: The Garden of Eden

The setbacks resulting from the Lucifer rebellion did not affect the biologic evolution of the human race, which approached its apex in 40,000 BC. The Life Carriers and Melchizedek receivers jointly petitioned the Most Highs for the immediate dispatch of biologic uplifters, and within a hundred years a Material Son and Daughter arrived on earth.

During this ear, only the Nodites and the Amadonites retained traces of the Dalamatia culture. The rest of the world had reverted to the savagery of pre-Planetary Prince days. The most advanced and civilized races were settled near the Caspian Sea, Lake Van, and the eastern Mediterranean.

Van had been predicting the arrival of a Material Son and Daughter for

nearly one hundred years. He dispatched a committee to find an optimal site for establishing a garden home for them. The site chosen for the garden of Eden was a peninsula—almost an island—projecting westward from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The climate was ideal. A great river, fed by four tributaries, ran from the high lands and flowed east to the mainland.

Van and his associates spent two years transferring the world’s cultural headquarters from the Indian highlands to the chosen peninsula. Three thousand volunteers began the construction of the garden homeland. Plans provided for homes and land for up to one million people. At the center of the Garden stood a temple of the Universal Father. To the north lay the administrative headquarters; to the south, the homes of the workers and their families; to the west, grounds for the proposed Adamic schools; and to the east, homes for Adam and Eve and their children. Drinking water was purified and all waste was scrupulously buried until a sewage-disposal system was established. Fruits, vegetables, and nuts were cultivated and improved. By the time Adam arrived, Eden had thousands of miles of irrigation ditches and over twenty-five thousand miles of paved roads.

Van planted the long-guarded tree of life in the center of the garden temple. Native to constellation headquarters spheres, the tree of life was a super-plant that stored certain space energies. Its fruit provided life- extension to the Prince's staff and their modified human associates, and Adam and Eve depended on it for their sustenance.

After the fall of Adam and Eve, the garden of Eden fell into the possession of Nodites. Eventually the temple and the tree were destroyed by fire. The Garden was occupied for four thousand years until geologic upheavals caused the peninsula to sink into the sea.

Paper 74: Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve had been employed in the physical laboratories of Jerusem for fifteen thousand years when they were selected for their mission to Urantia. The volunteer pool from which they were chosen included the entire senior corps of Material Sons and Daughters. Adam and Eve were thoroughly instructed concerning every danger and duty awaiting them on their strife-torn planet.

Leaving behind fifty sons and fifty daughters, Adam and Eve left Edentia for Earth almost thirty-eight thousand years ago. After being rematerialized in the Father’s temple, they were greeted by Van, Amadon, and a large audience of supporters. Adam spoke to the Garden dwellers of his plans for the rehabilitation of the world. Concurrent with their formal installation as the new rulers of the world, the broadcast voice of Gabriel decreed that a new dispensation—the Age of Adam— had begun, and the sleeping survivors from the age of the Planetary Prince were resurrected on the mansion worlds.

Adam and Eve’s second day on Urantia was spent learning details of the tragic history of the planet. On subsequent days they toured the garden, addressed the garden assembly, organized a temporary government, and inspected the various men and animals. On the seventh day they rested. The fable that our planet was created in six days was based on this period of time that Adam and Eve spent in surveying the Garden.

The Garden dwellers wholeheartedly accepted Adam and Eve as their rulers. After seven years, the Melchizedeks returned to Jerusem. Van and Amadon, who had been on Urantia for over four hundred and fifty thousand years, left with the Melchizedeks. The Material Son and Daughter were alone with their enormous task.

Eve bore sixty-three children who enjoyed a great appreciation for music, play, and humor. They attended school until they were sixteen, were betrothed at eighteen, and were allowed to marry at twenty.

The purpose of the schools of Eden was socialization. Younger children were taught by their siblings about healthcare, the golden rule, the

relationship of individual rights to group rights, the history and cultures of the earth races, world trade, coordination of conflicting duties, play, humor, and competitive substitutes for fighting. Mornings were devoted to horticulture and agriculture, afternoons to competitive play, and evenings to developing social skills and friendships. Public worship was at noon, family worship at sunset.

For a while all went fairly well. Adam and Eve tried to teach sex equality and improve worship by substituting offerings of fruit for animal sacrifice. They fostered trade relations and manufacturing, and began to establish laws and social organization. Yet whenever they tried to work outside the Garden, trouble arose. Caligastia, still present on earth, resisted all plans for the rehabilitation of society. Although Adam had a difficult task leading these mixed and mongrel savages in the better way, the more intelligent of the races looked forward to a future time when they would be permitted to intermarry with the children of the violet race.

Paper 75: The Default of Adam and Eve







The celestial life on the planet was astir; Adam recognized something was amiss. He confronted Eve and heard her plan for accelerating world improvement. It was then that Solonia, the “voice in the Garden,” announced Eve’s default. Eve's disillusionment was pathetic. Adam was heartbroken. He knew Eve had been reduced to mortal status. The thought of remaining on Urantia without her was unbearable; Adam chose to share her fate by mating with Laotta, a brilliant Nodite woman.





Although Adam and Eve failed, there has been no “fall of man.” On the contrary, the human race has profited enormously from the limited contribution made by Adam and Eve and their descendants.

Paper 76: The Second Garden

The Adamic caravan fled eastward to avoid the advancing hostile Nodites. Laden with seeds, cereals, bulbs, and herds, they set out on their journey. After a year the caravan reached one of the three sites originally proposed for the first Garden by Van and Amadon, a pleasant region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. During the journey Laotta died during childbirth; Eve delivered Cain, the offspring of her union with Cano.

In their new location Adam and his helpers built houses and established a new center of culture and religion. It was a difficult struggle, as the land

had not been prepared for sowing. Adam, busy with building, defense, and agriculture, entrusted the organization of worship and education to the Nodite priests. In a short time the religious practices of the second Garden reverted to the standards and rulings of pre-Adamic times.

The first child of Adam and Eve to be born in the second Garden was Abel, who arrived two years after Cain. Cain chose agriculture as his vocation and Abel devoted himself to herding. The brothers often argued about whose occupation had more value, and when Abel was eighteen his repeated taunts infuriated Cain so much that Cain killed Abel.

Fear and remorse prompted Cain to seek help from Eve. In response to his honest appeal for divine guidance, Cain received a Thought Adjuster. Soon thereafter he departed for the land of Nod, where he married his distant cousin Remona. Cain matured to become a leader of his people, promoting peace between the Adamites and Nodites.

The violet race had blue eyes, fair complexions, and blonde, red, or brown hair. They did not suffer during childbirth until they became mixed with other races. The original Adamites’ superior physical and spiritual senses enabled them to see midwayers, angels, and Melchizedeks. The Adamic children were usually Adjuster-indwelt. Their body cells, not being akin to the microscopic disease-producing organisms of the realm, were far more disease resistant than those of the indigenous peoples.

Adam spent most of his time teaching civil administration, educational methods, and religious devotions. The Garden dwellers developed an alphabet and maintained the arts of writing, metalworking, pottery making, weaving and architecture. Children were educated in agriculture, craftsmanship, and animal husbandry.

The line of civil rulers was drawn from Adam and Eve's sons. One son founded a secondary center of the violet race to the north, another became a great leader and administrator, and a third took over after Adam's death as head of the Adamic tribes. The religious rulers sprang

from their son Seth and his descendants, who worked to improve the spiritual status of the Adamites and the surrounding tribes. Each Sethite was a physician and teacher as well as a priest.

After becoming established in Mesopotamia, Adam chose to leave behind as many children as possible to uplift the world’s genetic stock. Eve selected nearly seventeen hundred women from the neighboring tribes to be impregnated. The resultant children, representing most of the races on earth, were born and raised in the tribes of their mothers.

Adam and Eve's mistake was an error in judgment, but it was not deliberate rebellion. Their human status coupled with sincere repentance enabled them to become Adjuster-indwelt, and this greatly comforted them. Eve died when she was five hundred and eighteen years old; Adam died twelve years later. After their deaths, Adam and Eve were repersonalized on the mansion worlds and quickly passed through the ascension worlds, attaining citizenship once again on Jerusem. They left their home in Jerusem as sons of God and returned as sons of man.

Paper 77: The Midway Creatures

Most inhabited worlds harbor groups of unique beings who fall into a category between humans and angels. These midway creatures are valuable helpers and are an essential order of planetary ministers. On Urantia there are two types: primary midwayers, whose origin dates back to early Dalamatia, and secondary midwayers, who came into existence during the days of Adam.

The physical members of the Prince's staff, though capable of sexual reproduction, had been ordered not to procreate. It came as a surprise to them when, as the result of a non-sexual liaison between a male and a female, the first of the primary midwayers appeared. Upon the discovery that such a creature could be of great service, permission was granted for each couple to produce a similar being. Eventually fifty thousand

midway creatures were produced. These midwayers became Caligastia's intelligence corps, studying and observing the human races. They rendered invaluable service in the work of influencing human society.

The secondary midwayers also sprang partially from the Nodite race. The Life Carriers had projected that the flesh-and-blood staff members would sometime mate with the best of the Andonites. They planned that resultant offspring would mate with the first generation of Adam and Eve's children to produce a new order of teacher-rulers.

It was assumed that the Prince's staff, having bodies generated by the plasm of the Andonites, would have children resembling other Andonites. But when the rebel members of the Prince’s staff resorted to sexual reproduction, their offspring proved to have superior mental, physical, and spiritual capacity. These children became the ancestors of the magnificent Nodite race, the “mighty men of old.”

After the sinking of Dalamatia, the Nodites founded the city of Dilmun as their new racial and cultural headquarters. Gradually the pure-line Nodites intermingled with the evolutionary races and dispersed to form three great Nodite centers: The western, or Syrian Nodites, moved north and mated with the Andonites; the eastern, or Elamite Nodites, settled near Mesopotamia in “the land of Nod”; and the central Nodites eventually blended with Adamites to establish the Sumerian culture. A fourth strong Nodite center to the north was made up of the loyal followers of Van who had established their center of culture around the shores of Lake Van.

Among the children of Adam who elected to stay on earth after the default of his parents was Adamson, the first-born son. Adamson’s wife and children had chosen to be transported to Edentia. When he was 120 years old, Adamson traveled north from the second Garden in search of the highland home of Van. Here he met a beautiful woman, Ratta, who claimed to be the last pure-line descendant of the fallen staff members. Within three months Ratta and Adamson were married.

Adamson and Ratta had sixty-seven children and founded a great line of world leaders. Sixteen of these children were of a unique order, often invisible. Ratta was perturbed by and even superstitious of these strange children, but Adamson well knew of the primary midwayers and concluded that these children were somewhat similar to the original midway creatures. He decided to mate male and female; their progeny constituted the origin of the secondary midwayers. The eight sets of male and female children of Ratta and Adamson lived and died as mortals, but produced 1,984 immortal secondary midway creatures. Adamson and Ratta had the benefit of these wonderful helpers throughout their long lives. Adamson lived for 396 years. The culture he and Ratta founded near the Caspian Sea lasted for almost seven thousand years.

After the death of Adamson, the secondary midwayers became disorganized. Over forty thousand primary midwayers and nine hundred secondary midwayers were influenced by the philosophy of Lucifer and fell into rebellion against the local universe government. These midwayers are now in custody, waiting for the final adjudication of the case against Lucifer.

The United Midwayers of Urantia currently function as a single corps numbering 10,992. Their motto is: “What the United Midwayers undertake, the United Midwayers do.” They are able to follow human humor and worship, and enter into the spirit of mortal work, rest, and play. They do not sleep or procreate.

Primary midwayers are more like angels than humans. Secondary midwayers are nearer to humans than angels; they exist just outside the range of mortal vision. They can make contact with material things, and have power over the things of time and space. Many acts attributed to angels have been performed by secondary midwayers.

Paper 78: The Violet Race After the Days of Adam

Apart from the Nodite centers, most of the world languished in savagery when the second Garden was established in Mesopotamia. For ten thousand years the Adamic people labored peacefully along the rivers, working on irrigation and flood-control, perfecting their defenses, and preserving the culture of Adam.

The major Adamic migrations began around 25,000 BC. The two largest populations of the violet race were the Adamites in Mesopotamia and the Adamsonites on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. The purer Nodites, pre-Sumerians, were in Mesopotamia.

The Andonites maintained representative settlements to the north of the Adamsonites and in Turkestan. Isolated Andonite groups persisted throughout Eurasia, Iceland, and Greenland, but they had been driven out of Europe and Asia. The red man occupied the Americas, the yellow race was in control of Asia, and the blue man held Europe. A blended mixture of all six colored races, mainly green, orange, and indigo, settled in pre- Dravidian India; an indigo-black group carrying submerged strains of green and orange had their most progressive settlements in the Sahara desert. A highly blended race of Saharans, blue men, and Nodites occupied the Mediterranean basin.

The early pure-line Adamic migrants scattered in three directions. Some went west into the valley of the Nile. A few penetrated eastward into Asia. The largest contingent of the violet people moved northward around the Caspian Sea into Europe. As they moved into Eurasia, the Adamites absorbed the best of the Nodites and Andonites. By 15,000 BC, more descendants of Adam inhabited Eurasia that any other region on earth. The stage was set for the emergence of the Andites.

The Andite race took origin in the regions near Mesopotamia. They were a blend of pure-line violet and Nodites, mixed with the best strains of the yellow, blue, and green men. They were pre-Aryan and pre-white, neither Occidental nor Oriental. When the deteriorated Nodites added a belligerent strain to the Andite mix, migrations began to take the form of military conquests.

The Andite migrations occurred from 15,000 to 6,000 BC, mainly into Europe. By 12,000 BC three quarters of the Andites in the world were in northern and eastern Europe. Others had infiltrated China, India, Egypt, and both coasts of Africa. One hundred and thirty-two Andites traveled in boats from Japan to South America and founded the ancestry of the Incas. Others stopped permanently in the Pacific islands and mixed with the native groups there. As the Andites poured out of Mesopotamia, they strengthened the surrounding cultures, contributing art, music, manufacturing, agriculture, and the domestication of animals.

When the last three waves of Andites left Mesopotamia between 8000 and 6000 BC, the center of world civilization moved to the Nile and the Mediterranean. Five percent of the purer Andites remained in their Mesopotamian homeland and became the Sumerians—Nodite by culture and Andite by inheritance.

Barbarians of Turkestan and the Iranian peninsula, driven south by drought, invaded the Euphrates valley and assimilated the remainder of the Andites, taking over all except the Sumerian settlement. The resultant mix became the Babylonians, who adopted the arts of the valley tribes and much of the culture of the Sumerians. About 2500 BC, the Sumerians were conquered by invading northerners and subsequently were absorbed into the Semite race.

Paper 79: Andite Expansion in the Orient

Until 2000 BC, central Eurasia was predominantly Andite. The Andite centers of culture were located in the then-fertile Tarim River valleys and in the highlands of Tibet. Traders began to appear about 15,000 BC. Urban life, together with commerce in stone, metal, wood, and pottery, began to flourish. Adonia, located near the present-day city of Ashkhabad, became the Asian center of commerce.

Andites had been slowly filtering northward into Europe for many centuries, but by 8000 BC the aridity of the highlands began to drive them southward to the shores of the Nile, Euphrates, Indus, and Yellow rivers. Extensive migrations beginning in 15,000 BC brought Andites into India where all of the Urantia races, mainly the secondary Sangiks, had blended. An infusion of Andite blood resulted in a mixed people called the Dravidians, the most versatile civilization of their time. The Dravidians were among the earliest people to build cities. They engaged in extensive trade by land and sea, and Dravidian commercial relationships greatly contributed to the further diversification of their culture. Much of their religious life stemmed from the teachings of Sethite priests who had entered India with the early Andite and later Aryan invasions.

Diminishing rainfall to the north drove the Andonites southward and forced the terminal exodus of Andites from their Turkestan homelands into the Eastern hemisphere. The final exodus of the Andites from Turkestan to India occurred around 2500 BC. These Aryan Andites greatly influenced culture and religion throughout India, but made little racial impression in India except in the north. The most characteristic feature of their society was an elaborate caste system, formed to preserve their racial identity. Brahmans of today are the cultural descendants of the Sethite teacher-priests.

China's story is primarily of two Sangik races, the red and the yellow, both of which largely avoided the Neanderthal race that had retarded the blue race of Europe. The red man moved around the highlands of India into eastern Asia and ruled there for almost one hundred thousand years.

About three hundred thousand years ago, the yellow race entered China from the south and invaded the hunting grounds of the red men. For over two hundred thousand years these two races waged war. The yellow race assimilated much of the red stock, and eventually the united strength of the yellow race drove the red race—greatly weakened by a tendency to fight among themselves—out of China into North America across the Bering land bridge. The North American red men thereafter remained

relatively isolated from the rest of the world.

In China, the expanding yellow race drove out the remaining Andonites. The strength of the yellow race was due to four factors: they had largely escaped mixture with inferior stocks; they valued peace among themselves; they had inherent spiritual tendencies; and they were protected geographically by mountains to the west and an ocean to the east.

Fifteen thousand years ago, the migrating Andites had begun to spread over the upper valleys of the Yellow River. The northern Chinese received enough of the Adamic strain to stimulate their minds, but not enough to cause the restless curiosity so characteristic of the white races. By 10,000 BC, the Chinese were beginning to build cities and engage in manufacture. Similarities between Chinese and Mesopotamian methods of time-reckoning, astronomy, and government administration sprang from their commercial relationships. The yellow race progressed in agriculture and horticulture, but the cumbersome nature of their writing system limited the numbers of their educated classes.

As time passed, the Chinese search for new truth became overshadowed by tendency to venerate established ideas. The stability of Chinese family groups helped conserve wealth, property and experience, and promoted morality, ethics, and the efficient education of children.

Paper 80: Andite Expansion in the Occident

Thirty-five thousand years ago, the blue people of Europe were a highly blended race carrying strains of both yellow and red. The Adamites used a route around the Caspian Sea to enter Europe, where they united with the higher members of the blue race. The resultant mixture produced a dozen groups of superior blue men, including those whom we know today as Cro-Magnons.

The blue men were vigorous, honest, courageous, and monogamous. They were hunters, fishers, food gatherers, and boat builders; they made stone axes and cut trees to build log huts. The women were well versed in domestic arts and agriculture. Children were trained in the care of caves, art, and flint-making. The blue race had strong artistic tendencies, and the addition of Adamic blood accelerated their creativity.

Climatic changes fifteen thousand years ago altered the European landscape, turning the open grazing lands into Alpine forest. Hunters became herders, fishers, and farmers. By this time the pure Adamites worldwide had become thoroughly blended with the other races, particularly the Nodites, to produce the Andites.

The next twelve thousand years saw seven major Andite invasions into Europe from Mesopotamia and Turkestan. The Andites were aggressive militarists. The use of horses during the final three invasions increased Andite mobility enough to allow them to maintain coherent groups as they entered Europe, where they absorbed the best of the blue people and exterminated the worst of them. The racial mixing that resulted from these invasions produced the ancestors of the Nordic races:

Scandinavians, Germans, and Anglo-Saxons.

For three thousand years, successive military campaigns were launched from Andite headquarters established in Denmark. The resultant early white men moved continuously southward, finally wiping out the last remnants of the Cro-Magnoid race in southern France. By 5000 BC, the evolving white race dominated northern Europe.

When the last exodus from the Euphrates occurred, many skilled Andite artisans moved to Egypt, which had received a steady stream of Mesopotamians for thousands of years. The Nodites introduced pottery, agriculture, metalwork, and domesticated animals to the Nile region. By 5000 BC, the cultural center of the world had shifted from Mesopotamia to the valley of the Nile. The Andites built the first stone structures and pyramids in Egypt. They developed an extensive theology and a burdensome priesthood.

About 12,000 BC, a brilliant tribe of Andites migrated to Crete. They were highly skilled in textiles, metals, pottery, plumbing, building with stone, writing, herding, and agriculture. Two thousand years later a group of tall, beautiful, intelligent descendants of Adamson journeyed from their highland home over the northern Aegean islands into Greece. A high civilization evolved. Presently Greece and the Aegean succeeded Egypt as the center of world culture. The Greeks were great teachers, artists, traders, and colonizers. Advances earned by Greek civilization persisted in southern Europe even after the Greek culture itself declined under the weight of the rapidly multiplying descendants of imported slaves.

The Andonites had always inhabited the mountainous regions of central Europe and the Danube valley where they farmed and herded, made pottery, and tilled the land. They were often reinforced by Andonites from Asia Minor. By 3000 BC, the Asian Andonites, who had been pushed farther and farther to the north and into central Asia, were being driven by drought conditions back into Turkestan. Here they split and penetrated Europe through both the Balkans and the Ukraine, carrying with them the remaining Andites from Iran and Turkestan. By 2500 BC the Asian Andonites had overrun Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and the Danube basin, where they united with the older Andonites. It was during these great nomadic invasions that a great expansion of sea traffic and trade permeated the Mediterranean coast lands.

Three white races were in Europe at the close of the Andite migrations. The northern or Nordic race consisted of the blue and Andite races, with small amounts of red and yellow Sangik. The early Nordic people were tall, long-headed, and blond. The central group was predominantly Andonite with strains of blue, yellow, and Andite. Their descendants were broad-headed, swarthy, and stocky. The southern white race was largely Andite and blue with a considerable Saharan strain. It has been impossible to identify these distinctions for several thousand years.

Paper 81: Development of Modern Civilization

The human race is made up of five basic racial stocks—Andonic, primary Sangik, secondary Sangik, Nodite, and Adamic—each of which could at one time be identified by distinct skeletal types. Extensive blending over the past twenty thousand years has resulted in mankind being divided into three basic groups: Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid.

Biologic evolution may advance in the absence of culture, but culture does not flourish without prior racial progression. The violet race improved human brain capacity and hastened natural evolution. The infusion of violet blood caused advances in civilization that exceeded the total biologic progress of the previous million years.

Early important events contributed greatly to the growth of human civilization. The taming of fire gave birth to modern science. The domestication of dogs, horses, sheep, goats, cows, camels, fowl, elephants, oxen, and yak lightened the human work load. Through agriculture, animal domestication, and improved architecture, mankind gradually began to seek higher standards of living.

About 12,000 BC, trade and manufacturing began to promote cross- fertilization of cultures. Two thousand years later, the era of independent cities dawned. Commerce quickly became the most effective influence in the spread of civilization. Military conquests, colonization, and missionary work also contributed to the exchange of ideas between people.

The socialization of human culture curtails personal liberty but enhances individual survival potential. Civilization protects group rights as well as those of individuals. The following essentials maintain and foster human civilizations:

Natural circumstances—Climate and geographic conditions contribute to

cultural evolution.

Capital goods—Material prosperity and well-earned leisure time afford people the opportunity to think and plan for social progress.

Scientific knowledge—Science trains people to think precisely, stabilizes philosophy, and purifies religion.

Human resources—The number of intelligent people influences the progress of society.

Natural resources—Much depends on the wise utilization of natural resources, scientific knowledge, capital goods and human potentials.

Effectiveness of language—Common language facilitates peace; linguistic development facilitates the expression of evolving thought.

Effectiveness of mechanical devices—The progress of civilization is directly related to the development of tools, machines, and distribution channels.

Character of torchbearers—The home must be the basic institution of culture for education of young people. Social life and schools should be secondary.

Racial ideals—Intelligence controls civilization, wisdom directs it, and spiritual idealism uplifts it.

Coordination of specialists—Civilization is dependent on the effective coordination of social, artistic, and industrial specialists.

Place-finding devices—Not only must man be trained for work, but society must devise techniques for directing individuals to suitable employment. People lose morale when continually supported from public funds.

The willingness to cooperate—Nations tend to disintegrate without intelligent patriotism.

Effective and wise leadership—Teamwork depends on leadership.

Social changes—Changes must keep pace with scientific development, but great changes should not be attempted suddenly.

The prevention of transitional breakdown—Moving from established methods into new systems requires strong leadership.

Paper 82: The Evolution of Marriage

Marriage is the evolutionary social repercussion of mating, which is instinctive. Marriage is the basis of all social evolution and is certain of enduring in some form. It creates the home, the crowning glory of the human evolutionary struggle. Children learn most of what is essential about life from their family and neighbors. The family is a master civilizer.

Sexual experience was fairly simple for primitive people. There was little or no sex regulation; there was no marriage or prostitution. Intense modern sexual passions are mainly due to race mixtures, especially the Andite inheritance. Regulation of sex in relation to marriage indicates both the relative progress of civilization, and the amount of Andite stock in a society. Sex codes can be expressive of both the highest and the lowest of human physical and emotional natures. No human emotion when overindulged can cause as much harm as the sex urge.

There will always be two distinct realms of marriage: the law regulating the external aspects, and the personal relationship. Marriage balances self-maintenance and self-perpetuation. Marriage regulations serve to balance the conflicting interests of parents, children, relatives, and society.

Mating has progressed through a multitude of transitions. Brides have been purchased, kidnapped, and won as contest prizes. Husbands have been required to prove their skill in hunting and fighting. In ancient times there have been child marriages and marriages between dead people. Some tribes mated their young men to older women and older men to young women to ensure that children would have at least one good parent. There have been times when a widow was expected to commit suicide on her husband’s grave, when wives took pride in their husbands' affairs, and when chastity in girls was frowned upon.

Marriage has been linked to property and religion. Property stabilizes marriage; religion moralizes it.

Modern sexual jealousy is a product of evolving mores. The chastity taboo had its origin in the idea that the wife was the property of the husband. As civilization advanced, adultery came to be recognized as a form of stealing. Chastity requirements were applied to wives but not to single women. When the idea of virginity before marriage took hold, it became the practice to imprison unwed girls to preserve their virginity.

The Adamites and the Nodites practiced mating among themselves, and this influenced later customs in Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia. Outside marriages eventually gained preference because they promoted peace, led to military alliances, and insured greater freedom from in-laws.

Hybridization of superior dissimilar stocks contributes to the creation of more vigorous strains. Race mixtures greatly increase creative potential. The prejudice against interracial mating arises because modern cross- breeding is often between inferior strains. Racial amalgamation is most successful when it takes place between the higher members of the races. There is jeopardy in the unrestrained multiplication of the degenerate strains within each race.

Paper 83: The Marriage Institution

Customs and rituals that surround modern-day wedding ceremonies stem from a number of sources. Magic and ritual surrounded the entire life of the ancients; marriage was no exception. Various ancient wedding rituals included eating together, the exchange of presents, consultation of astrologers, human sacrifice, lucky days, throwing grain, lighting candles, sprinkling holy water, and blessing the wedding bed. The bridal veil served to hide the bride from jealous ghosts. In some groups, wedding guests served as legal witnesses by observing the consummation of the marriage.

Group marriages preceded polygamy which preceded monogamy. Monogamy was unnatural to evolutionary man, but wholly natural to the purer Nodites and Adamites.

Monogamy has been of great cultural value to the advanced races. It is the idealistic goal of human sexual evolution and the measure of the advance of social civilization. Monogamy contributes to spiritual growth and to the refinement of moral character. It is the best arrangement for parental happiness, child welfare, and social efficiency.

Monogamy is good for those who attain it, but we are admonished to not disdain those unfortunate men and women who fail to achieve this ideal state. Large numbers of unmarried adults in a society indicate a temporary transition of mores. In modern times, the ideal of individual love in marriage has replaced the property motive; this has created temporary instability in the institution of marriage. Modern home life is also being challenged by the advancement of long-denied legal rights for women.

A successful marriage is a life-long partnership of self-effacement, dedication to child rearing, compromise, and devotion. Divorce will function as a social safety valve as long as society fails to provide premarital training, and as long as immature idealism is the arbiter of

entrance into marriage.

Much spiritual development occurs from the sincere effort of a husband and wife to progress together, but marriage is not necessarily sacred. While it cannot be compared to the human relationship with the indwelling Adjuster, nor to fraternity with Jesus, the ideal mortal marriage may be considered humanly sacred.

Paper 84: Marriage and Family Life

Before the connection between sex and pregnancy was understood, family units were maternal. Maternal love is an instinctive endowment of the adjutant mind-spirits, and is proportional to the length of infancy. Men were first attracted into marriage not by love but by hunger, because they knew that where women and children were sheltered, food could usually be found.

When herding gave control of the main source of food to men, the father- family came into being. Later, men became involved in agriculture, and women were able to devote more time to homemaking and child rearing. The shift from the mother-family to the father-family is one of the most radical adjustments that ever occurred in the human race. The mother- family is natural and biologic; the father-family is social, economic, and political.

Sexual equality is worthy of an expanding civilization, but it is not found in nature. When justice, peace and fairness prevail, women gradually emerge from slavery. The modern factory changed working conditions so that men and women compete more evenly in the work force. Evolution has succeeded in doing that which revelation failed to accomplish.

Civilization can never obliterate the differences of behavior between the sexes. Women cannot thrive on men's rights any more than men can thrive on women's; each sex will always remain supreme in its own

domain. Men and women are two distinct varieties of the same species living in close association. Complete understanding between the sexes is not possible; differing male and female viewpoints persist throughout the superuniverse ascension. These differences are highly beneficial. A man and woman cooperating are vastly superior in most ways to either two men or two women.

Marriage is now passing out of the property stage and into the personal era. New mores are emerging to stabilize marriage and the home even as modern child rearing is becoming more difficult. Problems arise from the degree of racial mixtures, acceptance of superficial education, and parents’ frequent absences from home. Advancing ideals will promote the idea that bringing a child into the world is the supreme responsibility of human existence.

Attempts to shift parental responsibility to the state or church are suicidal to civilization’s advancement. Civilization depends on the willingness of one generation to invest in the welfare of the next. The family teaches the essentials of brotherhood: patience, altruism, tolerance, and forbearance. Families are best managed through family councils rather than through autocratic methods. A good family reveals the love of the Creator to parents and children alike.

Paper 85: The Origins of Worship

Humans have worshipped everything on earth, including themselves. The first object to be worshipped was a stone. Stone worship was followed by hill worship; humans believed that gods inhabited mountains. Plants were worshipped because they were a source of intoxicants¾alcohol is still referred to as spirits. Sprouting grains were sources of awe, and many plants were venerated for their medicinal powers. Tree worship cults leave remnants of their beliefs in modern-day May poles, Christmas trees, and the superstition of knocking on wood.

The primitive races revered animals, earth, air, fire, water, springs, rivers, rainbows, wind, clouds, rain, hail, thunder, and lightning. Deification of the moon, stars and sun developed. Civilizations honored the sun by naming the first day of the week after it; sun veneration eventually led to Mithraism, the greatest of the mystery cults, which eventually wielded a potent influence on Christianity.

In some cultures people worshipped lunatics, epileptics, priests, kings, and prophets. When tribal chiefs died they were sometimes deified; later, distinguished people who died were sainted. The worship of man by men reached its peak when earthly rulers claimed to have descended from the gods.

The sixth adjutant mind-spirit has been at work throughout time, constantly stimulating the worship urge. When worship is directed by wisdom and meditation, it begins to develop into real religion. When wisdom prevails, worshippers turn from the adoration of nature to the adoration of the Creator of nature. Evolutionary religion creates gods in the likeness of mortal man, but revelatory religion seeks to transform mortal man into the image and likeness of God.

Paper 86: Early Evolution of Religion

Primitive people lived in constant danger. Their struggle for survival depended on factors over which they had no control. Chance played such a large role in early human life that people lived in continuous anxiety. Most people died violently; natural deaths were so unusual that people thought they were caused by spirits.

Helplessness against the forces of nature impelled early man to seek to understand supernatural phenomena. Belief in the afterlife began when people dreamt of deceased tribesmen. Belief in the soul started when men observed that breath was present in living creatures but not in the dead; they speculated that the breath lived on as a ghost after death.

Disembodied ghosts were thought to be responsible for all inexplicable events.

Primitive people thought that the soul could escape the body during fainting, sleeping, comas, death, or sneezing. Dreams were thought to be adventures of the soul. People believed that disembodied souls could enter animals and inanimate objects. Shadows were feared and mirrors were regarded with superstition.

The religion of ghost fear led people to believe that a spirit world controlled human destiny and that they could appease the spirits by regulating personal conduct. Rituals helped to relieve people from their unrelenting fears by helping them believe that they had the power to influence their own fate.

The idea that specific actions could help one avoid angering wandering ghosts was the seed of the concept of right and wrong. From this humble beginning, human ethics were born. Mortal minds began to prepare for the bestowal of true spirit forces, the indwelling fragments of God who have labored ceaselessly to transform the fear of God into the love of God.

Paper 87: The Ghost Cults

Early men feared death because death meant the creation of a new ghost. Ghosts were thought to have supernatural powers, but not supernatural intelligence. Attempts to trick ghosts led to many strange behaviors, some of which continue in today’s world. Some people still imagine that an outward pretense of piety can win the favor of God.






Paper 88: Fetishes, Charms, and Magic

Fetishism is the belief that spirits can enter objects, animals, or persons. Primitive fetishes included volcanoes, comets, pebbles, fire, holy water, trees, plants, fruits, animals, days of the week, numbers, saliva, hair, nails, skulls, umbilical cords, handicapped people, lunatics, intoxicants, poisons, bones, fireplaces, altars, and temples.

Odd customs arose from fetishism. Friday was considered an unlucky day. Three and seven were lucky numbers, but thirteen was unlucky.

When animals became fetishes, taboos evolved around eating them. When geniuses were considered fetishes, talented humans often resorted to fraud and trickery to wield power and authority over other men. The Israelites believed that the spirit of God literally lived in their stone altars. Skeletal remains of saints and heroes are regarded with superstitious awe even in modern times.

Magical properties were attributed to human flesh, tiger claws, crocodile teeth, snake venom, bones, bodily secretions, effigies, black cats, wands, drums, bells, and knots. Names were esteemed so highly that many ancients had two: a sacred name which they did not reveal, and a common name for everyday use. Moses tried to control the fetish worship of the Hebrews by forbidding them to create images. This lessened fetish worship but greatly retarded art and the enjoyment of beauty. Moses' mandate against fetishes became a fetish.

Words become fetishes, especially those words considered to be words of God. When doctrines become fetishes they can lead to bigotry, intolerance, and fanaticism. Holy books have become fetishes, and the practice of opening a book at random to seek advice is a form of fetishism.

Totemism was a combination of social and religious observance. Totems have largely been replaced by flags and other national symbols. Modern fetishes include the insignias of priests, the symbols of royalty, and public opinion.

In the past, medicine men, priests, and shamans practiced public magic for the good of the whole tribe. Witches, wizards, and sorcerers might use personal magic to bring evil to their enemies or good to themselves. Chants and incantations were thought to be magical; gestures, dances, and mimicry were even more so. Magic was thought to be a way to secure insight into the future. Magic gained a powerful influence over primitive people, who feared magic so much that their own fears sometimes killed them.

Ancient magic served the human race as the cocoon of modern science. Incantations became prayers, astrology became astronomy, and the study of magic numbers led to the science of mathematics. Such words as spellbound, possession, inspiration, ingenious, thunderstruck, entrancing, and astonished all have roots in the belief in magical spirits. Today, superstitions linger even in the minds of civilized people; mankind is slow to leave magic behind.

Paper 89: Sin, Sacrifice, and Atonement

Primitive people believed that spirits enjoyed human misery, and that staying in favor with the gods depended on either doing or avoiding specific things. This belief led to the birth of taboos. Later, religion made taboos into sins; confession, renunciation, and sacrifices developed. People bargained for the favor of God by fasting, chastity, voluntary poverty, and self-torture.

Early sacrifices included plucking hair, knocking out teeth, cutting off fingers and other mutilations. People offered sacrifices to the gods as thanksgiving and for the redemption of debts. Later, the idea of sacrificial substitution evolved into the atonement concept—an insurance policy against the displeasure of deity.

Cannibalism at one time was nearly universal, serving social, economic, religious, and military purposes. The Sangik races were cannibalistic; the pure-line Andonites, Nodites and Adamites were not. The Dalamatia taboo against cannibalism spread throughout the world, and cannibalism fell greatly out of common practice once human sacrifice made human flesh the food of the gods. Human sacrifice endured various modifications, including animal sacrifice, enforced exile, temple prostitution, temple virgins, bloodletting, physical mutilation, circumcision, castration, piercing, tattooing, and scarring. Moses tried to put an end to human sacrifice among the Hebrews by inventing a system of ransoms to priests as a substitute.

The practices of ransom, redemption, and covenants have evolved into the modern-day sacraments. Early prayers were crude bartering agreements with the spirit world, but they demonstrated human progress in that people had evolved to the point that they dared to make deals with God.

Paper 90: Shaminism--Medicine Men and Priests

As rituals became increasingly complex, people came to believe that only medicine men and shamans could communicate with the spirit world, and religion became a second-hand experience. Since abnormal human behavior was attributed to spirit possession, qualification for religious leadership included such things as epilepsy, hysteria, and paranoia. Some shamans were deliberate frauds, but many truly believed that they were possessed by spirits.

Shamans helped people control the hazards of their lives. They also specialized in rainmaking, healing, and crime detection. Shamans were great believers in chance as a revelatory tool. They frequently cast lots to arrive at decisions; evidence of this practice survives into modern times in children’s rhymes. Other tools of a shaman’s trade were astrology, interpretation of dreams, communicating with the dead, and fortune- telling.

Shamans were the original aristocracy, exempt from all tribal restrictions. They often functioned as doctors and surgeons. Injuries and illnesses that could not be attributed to obvious causes were thought to be caused by ghosts, magic, or a violation of the taboos. People greatly feared the sick, believing that ghosts had become displeased with the sufferer. Remedies for illness included chanting, howling, laying on of hands, breathing on the patient, massage, bloodletting, vapor baths, drumming, fasting, dieting, and purging.

Superstitious fears of the unknown and dread of the unseen were scaffolding for human concepts of God. Shamans eventually evolved into modern-day priests. Priests have done much to delay scientific development, but have also contributed to the stabilization of civilization and have sometimes been invaluable in pointing the way to higher realities.

Paper 91: The Evolution of Prayer

Early men often prayed for food, shelter, or rain. Praying for material blessings is a perversion of prayer, but it encouraged primitive people to seek these necessities by ethical means.

True prayer appears only in conjunction with the understanding that God is a personal being. Prayer contributes to the conservation of social, moral, and spiritual values. Prayer is a psychological procedure combined with a spiritual technique that promotes development of religious sentiment. It induces humans to look in two directions for help:

to the subconscious mind for material aid, and to the superconscious mind for inspiration and guidance. Prayer must be a stimulus for action rather than a substitute for action. It often effects lasting change in the person who prays.

Prayer contributes to health, personal happiness, self-control, social harmony, and spiritual attainment. God does not solve man’s difficulties, but he will provide wisdom and strength while man resolutely attacks his problems himself. Contact with the indwelling Adjuster is favored by meditation, but it is more frequently prompted through loving service to others.

Religious experience benefits the individual by bringing better physical health, more efficient mental function, socialization of religious experience, increased God-consciousness, and enhanced appreciation of truth, beauty and goodness. Genuine prayer is spontaneous God-

consciousness. Words are irrelevant to prayer because God answers man’s attitudes, not his words.

To attain effective prayer, one must consider the laws of prevailing petitions. Effective prayer requires the petitioner to: sincerely and courageously face problems that come up; exhaust the capacity to solve the problem by human means; surrender every wish of mind and every craving of soul to the transforming embrace of spiritual growth; make a wholehearted choice to follow the divine will; recognize the Father's will and translate it into action; pray for divine wisdom; and have living faith.

Paper 92: The Later Evolution of Religion

Religion has progressed from nature worship through ghost worship to fetishism. Throughout history fear has been the basic religious stimulus, but as civilization advances fear becomes modified by reverence and repentance.

Attempts to suddenly accelerate religious growth are unwise. Religion clings to mores; traditions become sacred; passing generations are afraid to discard what their ancestors deemed holy. Morality is not determined by evolutionary religion, rather, religious forms are dictated by morality. At some time in history, all that is now considered immoral was once accepted. Religion has handicapped social development in many ways, but without religion there would have been no enduring morality or worthwhile civilization. Religion has provided the discipline and self- control that makes wisdom possible.

Evolutionary religion, unlike science, does not provide for its own correction. The only two influences that can uplift religious dogma are the pressure of advancing mores, and periodic epochal revelations. Evolutionary religion must continue to be refined by revealed religion and genuine science, but revelation cannot be far removed from the thoughts of the era in which it is presented.

Evolutionary religion is a human reaction to the spiritual world; revelatory religion is the spirit realm's reaction to the human search for truth. Revelation is always limited by human capacity. There have been many events of religious revelation, but only five were of epochal significance: the Planetary Prince’s arrival, the mission of Adam and Eve, Melchizedek's teachings, Jesus' teachings, and the Urantia Papers. The fifth epochal revelation differs from all previous revelations because it is the collaborative work of many persons instead of just one person.

There is an instinctive longing in the human heart for help from above. This impulse was designed to foster the work of the Planetary Prince and the Material Sons and Daughters. People have always venerated their leaders, sometimes even at the expense of his teachings. There have been hundreds upon hundreds of religious leaders on our planet who have served as the personality fulcrums on which the levers of revelation depend.

New religions cannot be invented; they either evolve or are suddenly revealed. Religions are good if they bring mortals to God and bring the realization of God to mortals. It is wise to study and assimilate the truths contained in every faith; it is arrogance for any group of religionists to think that they possess the only truth.

The quality of religion is indicated by loyalties, values, and the cosmic progress of the persons involved. Religion is devotion to the service of supreme values, a living experience of love, a technique of thinking, and the eternal foundation of all enduring civilizations. No revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete—all other celestial ministrations are partial adaptations to local conditions in time and space.

Paper 93: Machiventa Melchizedek

The Melchizedek Sons often function in emergencies and have been exceptionally active on our planet. Twelve Melchizedeks took authority here shortly after the Caligastia default. These same twelve stayed until Adam and Eve arrived and returned after Eve's default.

After the days of Adam and Eve, human beings slowly began to lose sight of the concept of God. To prevent the light of truth from going out, one of the twelve Melchizedeks, Machiventa, volunteered to personalize on earth in human form to bring a new revelation of truth to Urantia. Machiventa appeared in Palestine almost two thousand years before Jesus was born. His metamorphosis was achieved in cooperation with the Life Carriers and other celestial personalities. Machiventa was first seen on earth when he entered the tent of a herder and announced, “I am Melchizedek, priest of El Elyon, the Most High, the one and only God.” Within a few years, Melchizedek had gathered a nucleus of disciples who formed the later community of Salem, now Jerusalem.

Machiventa resembled a man of the blended Nodite and Sumerian races. He spoke seven languages. Machiventa wore an emblem of three concentric circles on his clothing; this symbol became so sacred to his followers that they never dared use it. Few followers ever learned that the circles symbolized the infinity, eternity, and universality of the Paradise Trinity.

Melchizedek taught people that there was only one God, and that the favor of God depended on faith rather than sacrifices. Melchizedek substituted the sacrament of bread and wine for the older sacrifice of flesh and blood. He asked his followers to obey seven commandments and to spread the word of his teachings to all men. His ideas were too advanced for most people of those days; they simply could not grasp the idea of receiving divine favor through faith alone.

Because of the need to establish contact with a human family through whom Machiventa could work to promote the new teachings, the Melchizedeks for many generations had been watching the ancestors of Abraham. They were confident that within a certain generation, someone

would appear who would be intelligent, wise, sincere, and capable of taking initiative. From this family, Melchizedek chose Abraham to study with him in Salem.

Abraham had kingly ambitions. In time, he was recognized as the civil ruler of Salem and seven other tribes. Melchizedek maintained peaceful relations with the neighboring tribes, but Abraham envisioned the military conquest of all Canaan. Only with difficulty did Melchizedek restrain Abraham from using warfare to force the neighboring tribes to more quickly learn the truths of Salem. Machiventa's disapproval of Abraham's schemes for military conquest caused a temporary severance of their relationship. As time passed, Abraham found himself well on the way to becoming the head of a powerful civil state in Palestine, but he was held back by two concerns; the lack of Melchizedek's sanction of his plan, and that he had no son to continue his reign.

Abraham arranged a conference with Melchizedek. Melchizedek persuaded Abraham to abandon his scheme of military leadership in favor of spiritual promotion of the kingdom of heaven. In exchange, Melchizedek promised Abraham that he would produce an heir and many descendants. Abraham's wife, Sarah, subsequently gave birth to Isaac.

Soon after the child was born, Abraham and Melchizedek made a formal covenant in which Abraham surrendered his personal ambitions on behalf of the greater good of fostering Melchizedeks' spiritual goals for humankind. The covenant between Melchizedek and Abraham represents the great agreement between divinity and humanity wherein God agrees to do everything, while man agrees simply to believe God’s promises and to follow his instructions.

From their Salem headquarters, Melchizedek's missionaries traveled to Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, the British Isles, Iceland, China, and Japan. His teachings reached the descendants of Adamson, still living around the shores of Lake Van. Machiventa continued to instruct his students for 94 years. When he had done all he could, he disappeared without fanfare, just as he had arrived.

Abraham's descendants lost much of the Salem teachings. Within five hundred years many people regarded the story of Melchizedek as a myth, The Melchizedek gospel was almost completely absorbed into the cults of the Great Mother, the Sun and other ancient beliefs. Hebrew scribes later edited out scriptural references to Melchizedek in an attempt to bolster their national ego by exalting the memory of Abraham.

After leaving Urantia, Machiventa Melchizedek resumed his career as one of the twelve receivers of Urantia. He continues to take great interest in the affairs of the descendants of those who had believed in him in the flesh. Machiventa has recently been named Vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia.

Paper 94: The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient

The strength of the Brahman priests and their rituals prevented the people of ancient India from accepting the Melchizedek idea of salvation through faith alone. The Brahman priests had invested so much in being at the top of the caste system that they could not allow people to believe that faith was the only requirement for a relationship with God. The Rig- Veda, one of the oldest sacred books on earth, was written by the Brahmans in an attempt to combat the teachings of the Salem missionaries.

The rejection of the Melchizedek gospel was a major turning point in the civilization of India. As people rejected mortal ambitions and embraced reincarnation, they fell into a sense of spiritual hopelessness. Nevertheless, Brahmanism was a noble human effort into philosophy and metaphysics. It came close to the concept of an all-pervading Absolute, the IT IS rather than the I AM. Brahman teachings about universal overcontrol were very close to the truth about the Supreme Being.

The idea of karma bears some similarity to truth about inevitable

repercussions of one’s actions. The teaching of the soul being the indwelling of the Brahman approaches the concept of the Thought Adjuster, even including the point that the soul returns to Brahman as the Adjuster returns to the Father. The Hindu religion today is a composite of the Brahman teachings, ancient Vedic rituals, Buddhism, and Jainism. Hinduism is the most tolerant religion on earth and has survived as part of the social fabric of India.

In China, the Salem teachings led to an early form of Taoism, a very different religion than that which exists today. Early Taoism encompassed the monotheistic teachings of Singlangton, a version of the Melchizedek teachings, and the Brahman concepts. In Japan, this version of Taoism was known as Shinto. In both Japan and China, Taoism eventually became mixed with ancestor worship.

In the sixth century before Jesus' bestowal, an unusual coordination of spiritual agencies influenced a great number of religious teachers throughout the world. Lao-tse taught about One First Cause, the Tao, man’s destiny of being united with Tao, the Trinity as the source of all reality, and returning good for evil. Lao-tse’s teachings about nonresistance later became perverted into the erroneous belief of seeing, doing, and thinking nothing. Today's Taoism has little in common with the teachings of Lao-tse.

Confucius' chief work was a compilation of the wise sayings of ancient philosophers. His writings were not widely known or accepted during his lifetime, but became a great influence ever afterward in both China and Japan. Confucius put morality in the place of magic, and taught about the Way of Heaven, the patterns of the cosmos.

In India, Guatama Siddhartha formed the beginnings of Buddhism. He fought against the growing caste system by teaching a gospel of universal salvation, and freedom from sacrifice, rituals, torture, and priests. He taught that divine nature resided in all men, and that we could attain the realization of this divinity. His ideas were surprisingly similar to the Salem gospel.

Modern Buddhism is no more the teachings of Siddhartha than modern Christianity is the teachings of Jesus. The farther Buddhism spread from India, the more it was mixed with other religions; it was affected by Taoism, Shinto, and Christianity. Buddhism today is a growing religion because it conserves high moral values, promotes calmness and self- control, and augments serenity and happiness.

Paper 95: Melchizedek Teachings in the Levant

In Mesopotamia, Salem missionaries failed to bring a permanent realization of monotheism. Mesopotamians believed in multiple gods and were especially fond of Ishtar and the sex worship that accompanied her devotions. When the Salem teachers tried to abolish temple harlotry Mesopotamians resisted; they subsequently rejected all of the spiritual and philosophic teachings of the Salemites.

In Egypt a strong moral code was already in place, and the Salem religion flourished. One of the few great Egyptian prophets was Amenemope. He taught that riches were a gift from God, that every moment should be lived in the realization of the presence of God, and that all things earthly were fleeting. Amenemope wrote the Book of Wisdom, much of which is preserved as passages in the book of Proverbs, and also the first Psalm. His writings were translated into Greek and Hebrew.

Ikhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt, had been taught monotheism by his mother. Ikhnaton kept the doctrine of One God alive in Egypt. He had the clearest grasp of the religion of Salem of any person outside of Melchizedek's time. In his determination to swing the nation from polytheism to monotheism, Ikhnaton broke with the past, changed his name, abandoned his capital, built a new city, and created new art and literature for his people. Ikhnaton taught that God made not only Egypt, but all the lands and all the people in the world. This teaching was too

much for the nationalistic priests, who sprang back into power after Ikhnaton’s death. Although his teachings did not remain in force after he died, the concept of monotheism never again entirely died out in Egypt. Ikhnaton wrote 137 hymns, twelve of which are recorded in the book of Psalms.

In Iran, Melchizedek's doctrines advanced for five hundred years until a change of rulers led to the persecution of monotheistic teachers. Monotheism had become practically extinct in Iran when Zoroaster, the great prophet of Persia, appeared to revive the Salem gospel. He used the flame as a symbol of the wise Spirit of universal dominance. Zoroastrianism is the only religion on earth that retained the concepts of the Seven Master Spirits, which Zoroaster learned about in Ur. Jewish beliefs in heaven, hell, and devils all derived from Zoroastrianism.

The Salem teachers failed most completely in Arabia, so near to Salem itself. This desert region continued as it had for thousands of years, with each tribe worshipping its ancient fetish and many families praying to their own household gods. Long did the struggle continue between the Babylonian Ishtar, the Hebrew Yahweh, the Iranian Ahura, and the Christian Father of Jesus. Never was one concept able fully to displace the others; the people of Arabia did not universally embrace monotheism until the times of Islam.

Paper 96: Yahweh--God of the Hebrews

The early Semites had varying ideas of God, even during the same period. They worshipped Yahweh, El Elyon, El Shaddai, El, and Elohim; they believed in nature gods and other subordinate spirits.

Moses initiated the Hebrew belief in monotheism. Moses' mother was a member of the Egyptian royal family, and his father was a Semite liaison between the Egyptian government and the Hebrew slaves. Moses tried to negotiate for Hebrew freedom, but the agreement was later repudiated by

the Pharaoh. A year later, while the Egyptian armies were busy elsewhere, Moses led his followers out of Egypt in a spectacular escape.

Moses comprehended Egyptian philosophy. He had been educated as a child about El Shaddai, and through his father-in-law he learned of El Elyon. The slaves he led knew little about such things but had retained a vague memory of Yahweh, the god of Mount Horeb (Sinai). During their extended encampment at the base of Mount Horeb, Moses wisely adjusted his teachings of the One God, attributing all the qualities of the Creator to Yahweh, the familiar god of his ignorant people.

It is unlikely that Moses' advanced monotheistic teachings would have held the attention of the ex-captives if it had not been for the fortuitous eruption of the Horeb volcano during the third week they camped there. Moses used the occurrence to convince his people that their God was mighty and all-powerful, above all other gods, who had singled out the Hebrews as his chosen people. The Hebrew concept of a jealous God first sprang from this event.

Moses was the most important spiritual teacher between Melchizedek and Jesus. He was an extraordinary combination of military leader, social organizer, and religious teacher. After his death, progress in the understanding of Yahweh rapidly deteriorated among the Hebrews. Leaders of Israel continued to believe, but the common people drifted backward in their beliefs, becoming contaminated with the less advanced Canaanite religious practices.

The Book of Psalms records various concepts of God from the times of Amenemope to Isaiah, from the crude idea of tribal deity to the expanded ideal of a loving and merciful Father. The Book of Job is derived from over twenty Mesopotamians who lived over a period of three hundred years. The idea of God during those centuries was best preserved near Ur in Chaldea. In Palestine, the wisdom of God was understood, but his love and mercy were not. Only those from Ur continued to preach about the mercy of God and salvation by faith.

Paper 97: Evolution of the God Concept Among the Hebrews

The Hebrews accomplished the greatest feat in the evolution of religion when they transformed Yahweh, the savage, jealous god of Sinai, into the loving creator of all things, the merciful Father of all mankind.

After the times of Moses, the Hebrew people regressed in their religious practices. When Hebrew leaders combined their tribes to stave off hostile neighbors in Palestine, Samuel, a teacher from a long line of Salem teachers, used the new central government to turn Israel away from the worship of Baal and back to the worship of Yahweh. His great contribution was the pronouncement that Yahweh was changeless, perfect, and divine. Samuel taught that the favor of Yahweh was not shown through material prosperity. Samuel progressed in his understanding of God throughout his lifetime, eventually knowing him as a merciful judge. Samuel's successors continued his legacy, preaching a god of divine power.

One thousand years before Christ, the Hebrews split into two nations. Spiritual decadence set in. Elijah worked diligently to restore the northern kingdom to a God concept similar to the days of Samuel by devoting himself to demolishing the altars of Baal and other idols.

There was a long-standing controversy between followers of Yahweh and followers of Baal (Baal means owner). The southern tribes believed in one God. They thought that land belonged to Yahweh; it could not be bought and sold. The northern tribes, Canaanites and Baalites, believed in many Baals, and in the right to buy and sell land. Elijah succeeded in his work by shifting the Yahweh-Baal controversy from the issue of land ownership to the issue of monotheism vs. polytheism.

Amos discovered new concepts of Deity. From Amos, the Hebrews heard for the first time that God would no more tolerate their sins than he would tolerate the sins of other nations. This direct attack on the chosen

people doctrine was resented by many Hebrews. Amos proclaimed that Yahweh was the God of all nations, and that ritual could not replace righteousness. Hosea followed Amos with a doctrine of forgiveness through repentance rather than sacrifice; his gospel was one of divine mercy and loving kindness.

The first Isaiah preached the eternal nature of God, his infinite wisdom and reliability. He was followed by Micah and Obadiah, who denounced priestly rituals and attacked the systems of sacrifice. Jeremiah declared that Yahweh was God of all the earth, of all nations and all peoples, and that God did not defend Hebrews in their military struggles against other nations. He was cast into a dungeon for this accurate statement.

The Hebrew nation fell before the armies of Babylon. While in captivity in Mesopotamia, Hebrew priests prepared a textbook to bolster the courage of their people. Although they had no intention of writing a sacred book, their textbook later became scripture. In their fervor, these priests destroyed every known record of Hebrew history to make way for their newly written glorification of the Hebrew race.

The priests were greatly hindered in their influence over the captives by Isaiah the Second, a true believer in the God of justice, love and mercy. His theories of the nature of God were so compelling that he made converts equally among the Jews and their captors. The writings of the second Isaiah are preserved in the Book of Isaiah, chapters forty through fifty-five. Isaiah taught eloquently about God as universal creator and upholder. His writings are among the truest presentations of God’s character before the time of Jesus.

The Jewish religion of the Old Testament was born in Babylon during the captivity. The Hebrews concluded that if they were to prevail, they must convert the gentiles; they had to become the chosen servants of God. The leaders preached that the Jews would be a chosen people, not due to special indulgences from God, but because they would perform the special service of carrying the truth of one God to all people. But when the Babylonian captivity ended, the Jewish people returned to their

rituals. Without losing the concept of the Universal Father, the Hebrews fell into spiritual retrogression. Jewish theology refused to expand. Judaism persists today by virtue of its strong institutions and deep love of justice, wisdom, truth, and righteousness.













Mithraism eventually overshadowed every other