The Urantia Book
Paper 40
The Ascending Sons of God
(443.2) 40:0.2 1. Father-fused Mortals.(443.9) 40:0.9 The story of these beings, from the lowly animal-origin mortals of the evolutionary worlds to the Personalized Adjusters of the Universal Father, presents a glorious recital of the unstinted bestowal of divine love and gracious condescension throughout all time and in all universes of the far-flung creation of the Paradise Deities.
(443.3) 40:0.3 2. Son-fused Mortals.
(443.4) 40:0.4 3. Spirit-fused Mortals.
(443.5) 40:0.5 4. Evolutionary Seraphim.
(443.6) 40:0.6 5. Ascending Material Sons.
(443.7) 40:0.7 6. Translated Midwayers.
(443.8) 40:0.8 7. Personalized Adjusters.
(443.10) 40:0.10 These presentations began with a description of the Deities, and group by group, the narrative has descended the universal scale of living beings until it has reached the lowest order of life endowed with the potential of immortality; and now am I dispatched from Salvington — onetime a mortal of origin on an evolutionary world of space — to elaborate and continue the recital of the eternal purpose of the Gods respecting the ascending orders of sonship, more particularly with regard to the mortal creatures of time and space.
(443.11) 40:0.11 Since the greater part of this narrative will be devoted to a discussion of the three basic orders of ascending mortals, consideration will first be given to the nonmortal ascending orders of sonship — seraphic, Adamic, midwayer, and Adjuster.
1. Evolutionary Seraphim
(443.13) 40:1.2 To climb to the supernal heights of finaliter sonship with God is a masterly achievement for an angel, an accomplishment far transcending your attainment of eternal survival through the plan of the Eternal Son and the ever-present help of the indwelling Adjuster; but the guardian seraphim, and occasionally others, do actually effect such ascensions.
2. Ascending Material Sons
(444.2) 40:2.2 When such an Adam and Eve are wholly successful in their joint planetary mission as biologic uplifters, they share the destiny of the inhabitants of their world. When such a world is settled in the advanced stages of light and life, this faithful Material Son and Daughter are permitted to resign all planetary administrative duties, and after being thus liberated from the descending adventure, they are permitted to register themselves as perfected Material Sons on the records of the local universe. Likewise, when planetary assignment is long delayed, may the Material Sons of stationary status — the citizens of the local systems — withdraw from the activities of their status spheres and similarly register as perfected Material Sons. After these formalities such liberated Adams and Eves are accredited as ascending Sons of God and may immediately begin the long journey to Havona and Paradise, starting at the exact point of their then present status and spiritual attainment. And they make this journey in company with the mortal and other ascending Sons, continuing until they have found God and have achieved the Corps of Mortal Finality in the eternal service of the Paradise Deities.
3. Translated Midwayers
4. Personalized Adjusters
(445.1) 40:4.2 Personalized Adjusters are beings of a unique and unfathomable order. Originally of existential prepersonal status, they have experientialized by participation in the lives and careers of the lowly mortals of the material worlds. And since the personality bestowed upon these experienced Thought Adjusters takes origin, and has its wellspring, in the Universal Father’s personal and continuing ministry of the bestowals of experiential personality upon his creature creation, these Personalized Adjusters are classified as ascending Sons of God, the highest of all such orders of sonship.
5. Mortals of Time and Space
(445.3) 40:5.2 Likewise does the Original and Infinite Spirit, by a long series of decreasingly divine and increasingly human orders, draw nearer and nearer to the struggling creatures of the realms, reaching the limit of expression in the angels — than whom you were created but a little lower — who personally guard and guide you in the life journey of the mortal career of time.
(445.4) 40:5.3 God the Father does not, cannot, thus downstep himself to make such near personal contact with the almost limitless number of ascending creatures throughout the universe of universes. But the Father is not deprived of personal contact with his lowly creatures; you are not without the divine presence. Although God the Father cannot be with you by direct personality manifestation, he is in you and of you in the identity of the indwelling Thought Adjusters, the divine Monitors. Thus does the Father, who is the farthest from you in personality and in spirit, draw the nearest to you in the personality circuit and in the spirit touch of inner communion with the very souls of his mortal sons and daughters.
(445.5) 40:5.4 Spirit identification constitutes the secret of personal survival and determines the destiny of spiritual ascension. And since the Thought Adjusters are the only spirits of fusion potential to be identified with man during the life in the flesh, the mortals of time and space are primarily classified in accordance with their relation to these divine gifts, the indwelling Mystery Monitors. This classification is as follows:
(445.6) 40:5.5 1. Mortals of the transient or experiential Adjuster sojourn.(445.9) 40:5.8 Series one — mortals of the transient or experiential Adjuster sojourn. This series designation is temporary for any evolving planet, being used during the early stages of all inhabited worlds except those of the second series.
(445.7) 40:5.6 2. Mortals of the non-Adjuster-fusion types.
(445.8) 40:5.7 3. Mortals of Adjuster-fusion potential.
(445.10) 40:5.9 Mortals of series one inhabit the worlds of space during the earlier epochs of the evolution of mankind and embrace the most primitive types of human minds. On many worlds like pre-Adamic Urantia great numbers of the higher and more advanced types of primitive men acquire survival capacity but fail to attain Adjuster fusion. For ages upon ages, before man’s ascent to the level of higher spiritual volition, the Adjusters occupy the minds of these struggling creatures during their short lives in the flesh, and the moment such will creatures are indwelt by Adjusters, the group guardian angels begin to function. While these mortals of the first series do not have personal guardians, they do have group custodians.
(446.1) 40:5.10 An experiential Adjuster remains with a primitive human being throughout his entire lifetime in the flesh. The Adjusters contribute much to the advancement of primitive men but are unable to form eternal unions with such mortals. This transient ministry of the Adjusters accomplishes two things: First, they gain valuable and actual experience in the nature and working of the evolutionary intellect, an experience which will be invaluable in connection with later contacts on other worlds with beings of higher development. Second, the transient sojourn of the Adjusters contributes much towards preparing their mortal subjects for possible subsequent Spirit fusion. All God-seeking souls of this type achieve eternal life through the spiritual embrace of the Mother Spirit of the local universe, thus becoming ascending mortals of the local universe regime. Many persons from pre-Adamic Urantia were thus advanced to the mansion worlds of Satania.
(446.2) 40:5.11 The Gods who ordained that mortal man should climb to higher levels of spiritual intelligence through long ages of evolutionary trials and tribulations, take note of his status and needs at every stage of the ascent; and always are they divinely fair and just, even charmingly merciful, in the final judgments of these struggling mortals of the early days of the evolving races.
(446.3) 40:5.12 Series two — mortals of the non-Adjuster-fusion types. These are specialized types of human beings who are not able to effect eternal union with their indwelling Adjusters. Type classification among the one-, two-, and three-brained races is not a factor in Adjuster fusion; all such mortals are akin, but these non-Adjuster-fusion types are a wholly different and markedly modified order of will creatures. Many of the nonbreathers belong to this series, and there are numerous other groups who do not ordinarily fuse with Adjusters.
(446.4) 40:5.13 Like series number one, each member of this group enjoys the ministry of a single Adjuster during lifetime in the flesh. During temporal life these Adjusters do everything for their subjects of temporary indwelling that is done on other worlds where the mortals are of fusion potential. The mortals of this second series are often indwelt by virgin Adjusters, but the higher human types are often in liaison with masterful and experienced Monitors.
(446.5) 40:5.14 In the ascendant plan for upstepping the animal-origin creatures, these beings enjoy the same devoted service of the Sons of God as is extended to the Urantia type of mortals. Seraphic co-operation with Adjusters on the nonfusion planets is just as fully provided as on the worlds of fusion potential; the guardians of destiny minister on such spheres just as on Urantia and similarly function at the time of mortal survival, at which time the surviving soul becomes Spirit fused.
(446.6) 40:5.15 When you encounter these modified mortal types on the mansion worlds, you will find no difficulty in communicating with them. There they speak the same system language but by a modified technique. These beings are identical with your order of creature life in spirit and personality manifestations, differing only in certain physical features and in the fact that they are nonfusible with Thought Adjusters.
(447.1) 40:5.16 As to just why this type of creature is never able to fuse with the Adjusters of the Universal Father, I am unable to say. Some of us incline to the belief that the Life Carriers, in their efforts to formulate beings capable of maintaining existence in an unusual planetary environment, are confronted with the necessity of making such radical modifications in the universe plan of intelligent will creatures that it becomes inherently impossible to bring about permanent union with the Adjusters. Often have we asked: Is this an intended or an unintended part of the ascension plan? but we have not found the answer.
(447.2) 40:5.17 Series three — mortals of Adjuster-fusion potential. All Father-fused mortals are of animal origin, just like the Urantia races. They embrace mortals of the one-brained, two-brained, and three-brained types of Adjuster-fusion potential. Urantians are of the intermediate or two-brained type, being in many ways humanly superior to the one-brained groups but definitely limited in comparison with the three-brained orders. These three types of physical-brain endowment are not factors in Adjuster bestowal, in seraphic service, or in any other phase of spirit ministry. The intellectual and spiritual differential between the three brain types characterizes individuals who are otherwise quite alike in mind endowment and spiritual potential, being greatest in the temporal life and tending to diminish as the mansion worlds are traversed one by one. From the system headquarters on, the progression of these three types is the same, and their eventual Paradise destiny is identical.
(447.3) 40:5.18 The unnumbered series. These narratives cannot possibly embrace all of the fascinating variations in the evolutionary worlds. You know that every tenth world is a decimal or experimental planet, but you know nothing of the other variables that punctuate the processional of the evolutionary spheres. There are differences too numerous to narrate even between the revealed orders of living creatures as between planets of the same group, but this presentation makes clear the essential differences in relation to the ascension career. And the ascension career is the most important factor in any consideration of the mortals of time and space.
(447.4) 40:5.19 As to the chances of mortal survival, let it be made forever clear: All souls of every possible phase of mortal existence will survive provided they manifest willingness to co-operate with their indwelling Adjusters and exhibit a desire to find God and to attain divine perfection, even though these desires be but the first faint flickers of the primitive comprehension of that “true light which lights every man who comes into the world.”
6. The Faith Sons of God
(448.1) 40:6.2 It is a solemn and supernal fact that such lowly and material creatures as Urantia human beings are the sons of God, faith children of the Highest. “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.” “As many as received him, to them gave he the power to recognize that they are the sons of God.” While “it does not yet appear what you shall be,” even now “you are the faith sons of God”; “for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship, whereby you cry, ‘our Father.’” Spoke the prophet of old in the name of the eternal God: “Even to them will I give in my house a place and a name better than sons; I will give them an everlasting name, one that shall not be cut off.” “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts.”
(448.2) 40:6.3 All evolutionary worlds of mortal habitation harbor these faith sons of God, sons of grace and mercy, mortal beings belonging to the divine family and accordingly called the sons of God. Urantia mortals are entitled to regard themselves as being the sons of God because:
(448.3) 40:6.4 1. You are sons of spiritual promise, faith sons; you have accepted the status of sonship. You believe in the reality of your sonship, and thus does your sonship with God become eternally real.
(448.4) 40:6.5 2. A Creator Son of God became one of you; he is your elder brother in fact; and if in spirit you become truly related brothers of Christ, the victorious Michael, then in spirit must you also be sons of that Father which you have in common — even the Universal Father of all.
(448.5) 40:6.6 3. You are sons because the spirit of a Son has been poured out upon you, has been freely and certainly bestowed upon all Urantia races. This spirit ever draws you toward the divine Son, who is its source, and toward the Paradise Father, who is the source of that divine Son.
(448.6) 40:6.7 4. Of his divine free-willness, the Universal Father has given you your creature personalities. You have been endowed with a measure of that divine spontaneity of freewill action which God shares with all who may become his sons.
(448.7) 40:6.8 5. There dwells within you a fragment of the Universal Father, and you are thus directly related to the divine Father of all the Sons of God.
7. Father-Fused Mortals
(448.9) 40:7.2 Your own races of surviving mortals belong to this group of the ascending Sons of God. You are now planetary sons, evolutionary creatures derived from the Life Carrier implantations and modified by the Adamic-life infusion, hardly yet ascending sons; but you are indeed sons of ascension potential — even to the highest heights of glory and divinity attainment — and this spiritual status of ascending sonship you may attain by faith and by freewill co-operation with the spiritualizing activities of the indwelling Adjuster. When you and your Adjusters are finally and forever fused, when you two are made one, even as in Christ Michael the Son of God and the Son of Man are one, then in fact have you become the ascending sons of God.
(449.1) 40:7.3 The details of the Adjuster career of indwelling ministry on a probationary and evolutionary planet are not a part of my assignment; the elaboration of this great truth embraces your whole career. I include the mention of certain Adjuster functions in order to make a replete statement regarding Adjuster-fused mortals. These indwelling fragments of God are with your order of being from the early days of physical existence through all of the ascending career in Nebadon and Orvonton and on through Havona to Paradise itself. Thereafter, in the eternal adventure, this same Adjuster is one with you and of you.
(449.2) 40:7.4 These are the mortals who have been commanded by the Universal Father, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” The Father has bestowed himself upon you, placed his own spirit within you; therefore does he demand ultimate perfection of you. The narrative of human ascent from the mortal spheres of time to the divine realms of eternity constitutes an intriguing recital not included in my assignment, but this supernal adventure should be the supreme study of mortal man.
(449.3) 40:7.5 Fusion with a fragment of the Universal Father is equivalent to a divine validation of eventual Paradise attainment, and such Adjuster-fused mortals are the only class of human beings who all traverse the Havona circuits and find God on Paradise. To the Adjuster-fused mortal the career of universal service is wide open. What dignity of destiny and glory of attainment await every one of you! Do you fully appreciate what has been done for you? Do you comprehend the grandeur of the heights of eternal achievement which are spread out before you? — even you who now trudge on in the lowly path of life through your so-called “vale of tears”?
8. Son-Fused Mortals
(449.5) 40:8.2 Such mortals have been deemed worthy of survival by the adjudicational authorities, and even their Adjusters, by returning from Divinington, have concurred in their ascension to the mansion worlds. Such beings have ascended through a system, a constellation, and through the educational worlds of the Salvington circuit; they have enjoyed the “seventy times seven” opportunities for fusion and still have been unable to attain oneness with their Adjusters.
(449.6) 40:8.3 When it becomes apparent that some synchronizing difficulty is inhibiting Father fusion, the survival referees of the Creator Son are convened. And when this court of inquiry, sanctioned by a personal representative of the Ancients of Days, finally determines that the ascending mortal is not guilty of any discoverable cause for failure to attain fusion, they so certify on the records of the local universe and duly transmit this finding to the Ancients of Days. Thereupon does the indwelling Adjuster return forthwith to Divinington for confirmation by the Personalized Monitors, and upon this leave-taking the morontia mortal is immediately fused with an individualized gift of the spirit of the Creator Son.
(450.1) 40:8.4 Much as the morontia spheres of Nebadon are shared with the Spirit-fused mortals, so do these Son-fused creatures share the services of Orvonton with their Adjuster-fused brethren who are journeying inward towards the far-distant Isle of Paradise. They are truly your brethren, and you will greatly enjoy their association as you pass through the training worlds of the superuniverse.
(450.2) 40:8.5 Son-fused mortals are not a numerous group, there being less than one million of them in the superuniverse of Orvonton. Aside from residential destiny on Paradise they are in every way the equals of their Adjuster-fused associates. They frequently journey to Paradise on superuniverse assignment but seldom permanently reside there, being, as a class, confined to the superuniverse of their nativity.
9. Spirit-Fused Mortals
(450.4) 40:9.2 The fact that these types of mortal creatures are not Adjuster-fusion candidates does not prevent the Adjusters from indwelling them during the life in the flesh. Adjusters do work in the minds of such beings during the span of material life but never become everlastingly one with their pupil souls. During this temporary sojourn the Adjusters effectively build up the same spirit counterpart of mortal nature — the soul — that they do in the candidates for Adjuster fusion. Up to the time of mortal death the work of the Adjusters is wholly akin to their function in your own races, but upon mortal dissolution the Adjusters take eternal leave of these Spirit-fusion candidates and, proceeding directly to Divinington, the headquarters of all divine Monitors, there await the new assignments of their order.
(450.5) 40:9.3 When such sleeping survivors are repersonalized on the mansion worlds, the place of the departed Adjuster is filled by an individualization of the spirit of the Divine Minister, the representative of the Infinite Spirit in the local universe concerned. This spirit infusion constitutes these surviving creatures Spirit-fused mortals. Such beings are in every way your equals in mind and spirit; and they are indeed your contemporaries, sharing the mansion and morontia spheres in common with your order of fusion candidates and with those who are to be Son fused.
(450.6) 40:9.4 There is, however, one particular in which Spirit-fused mortals differ from their ascendant brethren: Mortal memory of human experience on the material worlds of origin survives death in the flesh because the indwelling Adjuster has acquired a spirit counterpart, or transcript, of those events of human life which were of spiritual significance. But with Spirit-fused mortals there exists no such mechanism whereby human memory may persist. The Adjuster transcripts of memory are full and intact, but these acquisitions are experiential possessions of the departed Adjusters and are not available to the creatures of their former indwelling, who therefore awaken in the resurrection halls of the morontia spheres of Nebadon as if they were newly created beings, creatures without consciousness of former existence.
(451.1) 40:9.5 Such children of the local universe are enabled to repossess themselves of much of their former human memory experience through having it retold by the associated seraphim and cherubim and by consulting the records of the mortal career filed by the recording angels. This they can do with undoubted assurance because the surviving soul, of experiential origin in the material and mortal life, while having no memory of mortal events, does have a residual experiential-recognition-response to these unremembered events of past experience.
(451.2) 40:9.6 When a Spirit-fused mortal is told about the events of the unremembered past experience, there is an immediate response of experiential recognition within the soul (identity) of such a survivor which instantly invests the narrated event with the emotional tinge of reality and with the intellectual quality of fact; and this dual response constitutes the reconstruction, recognition, and validation of an unremembered facet of mortal experience.
(451.3) 40:9.7 Even with Adjuster-fusion candidates, only those human experiences which were of spiritual value are common possessions of the surviving mortal and the returning Adjuster and hence are immediately remembered subsequent to mortal survival. Concerning those happenings which were not of spiritual significance, even these Adjuster-fusers must depend upon the attribute of recognition-response in the surviving soul. And since any one event may have a spiritual connotation to one mortal but not to another, it becomes possible for a group of contemporary ascenders from the same planet to pool their store of Adjuster-remembered events and thus to reconstruct any experience which they had in common, and which was of spiritual value in the life of any one of them.
(451.4) 40:9.8 While we understand such techniques of memory reconstruction fairly well, we do not grasp the technique of personality recognition. Personalities of onetime association mutually respond quite independently of the operation of memory, albeit, memory itself and the techniques of its reconstruction are necessary to invest such mutual personality response with the fullness of recognition.
(451.5) 40:9.9 A Spirit-fused survivor is also able to learn much about the life he lived in the flesh by revisiting his nativity world subsequent to the planetary dispensation in which he lived. Such children of Spirit fusion are enabled to enjoy these opportunities for investigating their human careers since they are in general confined to the service of the local universe. They do not share your high and exalted destiny in the Paradise Corps of the Finality; only Adjuster-fused mortals or other especially embraced ascendant beings are mustered into the ranks of those who await the eternal Deity adventure. Spirit-fused mortals are the permanent citizens of the local universes; they may aspire to Paradise destiny, but they cannot be sure of it. In Nebadon their universe home is the eighth group of worlds encircling Salvington, a destiny-heaven of nature and location much like the one envisioned by the planetary traditions of Urantia.
10. Ascendant Destinies
(452.2) 40:10.2 Spirit-fused mortals are of the local universe; they do not, ordinarily, ascend beyond the confines of their native realm, beyond the boundaries of the space range of the spirit that pervades them. Son-fused ascenders likewise rise to the source of spirit endowment, for much as the Truth Spirit of a Creator Son focalizes in the associated Divine Minister, so is his “fusion spirit” implemented in the Reflective Spirits of the higher universes. Such spirit relationship between the local and the superuniverse levels of God the Sevenfold may be difficult of explanation but not of discernment, being unmistakably revealed in those children of the Reflective Spirits — the secoraphic Voices of the Creator Sons. The Thought Adjuster, hailing from the Father on Paradise, never stops until the mortal son stands face to face with the eternal God.
(452.3) 40:10.3 The mysterious variable in associative technique whereby a mortal being does not or cannot become eternally fused with the indwelling Thought Adjuster may seem to disclose a flaw in the ascension scheme; Son and Spirit fusion do, superficially, resemble compensations of unexplained failures in some detail of the Paradise-attainment plan; but all such conclusions stand in error; we are taught that all these happenings unfold in obedience to the established laws of the Supreme Universe Rulers.
(452.4) 40:10.4 We have analyzed this problem and have reached the undoubted conclusion that the consignment of all mortals to an ultimate Paradise destiny would be unfair to the time-space universes inasmuch as the courts of the Creator Sons and of the Ancients of Days would then be wholly dependent on the services of those who were in transit to higher realms. And it does seem to be no more than fitting that the local and the superuniverse governments should each be provided with a permanent group of ascendant citizenship; that the functions of these administrations should be enriched by the efforts of certain groups of glorified mortals who are of permanent status, evolutionary complements of the abandonters and of the susatia. Now it is quite obvious that the present ascension scheme effectively provides the time-space administrations with just such groups of ascendant creatures; and we have many times wondered: Does all this represent an intended part of the all-wise plans of the Architects of the Master Universe designed to provide the Creator Sons and the Ancients of Days with a permanent ascendant population? with evolved orders of citizenship that will become increasingly competent to carry forward the affairs of these realms in the universe ages to come?
(452.5) 40:10.5 That mortal destinies do thus vary in no wise proves that one is necessarily greater or lesser than another, merely that they differ. Adjuster-fused ascenders do indeed have a grand and glorious career as finaliters spread out before them in the eternal future, but this does not mean that they are preferred above their ascendant brethren. There is no favoritism, nothing arbitrary, in the selective operation of the divine plan of mortal survival.
(453.1) 40:10.6 While the Adjuster-fused finaliters obviously enjoy the widest service opportunity of all, the attainment of this goal automatically shuts them off from the chance to participate in the agelong struggle of some one universe or superuniverse, from the earlier and less settled epochs to the later and established eras of relative perfection attainment. Finaliters acquire a marvelous and far-flung experience of transient service in all seven segments of the grand universe, but they do not ordinarily acquire that intimate knowledge of any one universe which even now characterizes the Spirit-fused veterans of the Nebadon Corps of Completion. These individuals enjoy an opportunity to witness the ascending processional of the planetary ages as they unfold one by one on ten million inhabited worlds. And in the faithful service of such local universe citizens, experience superimposes upon experience until the fullness of time ripens that high quality of wisdom which is engendered by focalized experience — authoritative wisdom — and this in itself is a vital factor in the settling of any local universe.
(453.2) 40:10.7 As it is with the Spirit fusers, so is it with those Son-fused mortals who have achieved residential status on Uversa. Some of these beings hail from the earliest epochs of Orvonton, and they represent a slowly accumulating body of insight-deepening wisdom which is making ever-augmenting service contributions to the welfare and eventual settlement of the seventh superuniverse.
(453.3) 40:10.8 What the ultimate destiny of these stationary orders of local and of superuniverse citizenship will be we do not know, but it is quite possible that, when the Paradise finaliters are pioneering the expanding frontiers of divinity in the planetary systems of the first outer space level, their Son- and Spirit-fused brethren of the ascendant evolutionary struggle will be acceptably contributing to the maintenance of the experiential equilibrium of the perfected superuniverses while they stand ready to welcome the incoming stream of Paradise pilgrims who may, at that distant day, pour in through Orvonton and its sister creations as a vast spirit-questing torrent from these now uncharted and uninhabited galaxies of outer space.
(453.4) 40:10.9 While the majority of Spirit fusers serve permanently as citizens of the local universes, all do not. If some phase of their universe ministry should require their personal presence in the superuniverse, then would such transformations of being be wrought in these citizens as would enable them to ascend to the higher universe; and upon the arrival of the Celestial Guardians with orders to present such Spirit-fused mortals at the courts of the Ancients of Days, they would so ascend, never to return. They become wards of the superuniverse, serving as assistants to the Celestial Guardians and permanently, save for those few who are in turn summoned to the service of Paradise and Havona.
(453.5) 40:10.10 Like their Spirit-fused brethren, the Son fusers neither traverse Havona nor attain Paradise unless they have undergone certain modifying transformations. For good and sufficient reasons, such changes have been wrought in certain Son-fused survivors, and these beings are to be encountered ever and anon on the seven circuits of the central universe. Thus it is that certain numbers of both the Son- and the Spirit-fused mortals do actually ascend to Paradise, do attain a goal in many ways equal to that which awaits the Father-fused mortals.
(453.6) 40:10.11 Father-fused mortals are potential finaliters; their destination is the Universal Father, and him they do attain, but within the purview of the present universe age, finaliters, as such, are not destiny attainers. They remain unfinished creatures — sixth-stage spirits — and hence nonactive in the evolutionary domains of prelight-and-life status.
(454.1) 40:10.12 When a mortal finaliter is Trinity embraced — becomes a Trinitized Son, such as a Mighty Messenger — then has that finaliter attained destiny, at least for the present universe age. Mighty Messengers and their fellows may not in the exact sense be seventh-stage spirits, but in addition to other things the Trinity embrace endows them with everything which a finaliter will sometime achieve as a seventh-stage spirit. After Spirit-fused or Son-fused mortals are trinitized, they pass through the Paradise experience with the Adjuster-fused ascenders, with whom they are then identical in all matters pertaining to superuniverse administration. These Trinitized Sons of Selection or of Attainment at least for now are finished creatures, in contrast to the finaliters, who are at present unfinished creatures.
(454.2) 40:10.13 Thus, in the final analysis, it would be hardly proper to use the words “greater” or “lesser” in contrasting the destinies of the ascending orders of sonship. Every such son of God shares the fatherhood of God, and God loves each of his creature sons alike; he is no more a respecter of ascendant destinies than is he of the creatures who may attain such destinies. The Father loves each of his sons, and that affection is not less than true, holy, divine, unlimited, eternal, and unique — a love bestowed upon this son and upon that son, individually, personally, and exclusively. And such a love utterly eclipses all other facts. Sonship is the supreme relationship of the creature to the Creator.
(454.3) 40:10.14 As mortals you can now recognize your place in the family of divine sonship and begin to sense the obligation to avail yourselves of the advantages so freely provided in and by the Paradise plan for mortal survival, which plan has been so enhanced and illuminated by the life experience of a bestowal Son. Every facility and all power have been provided for insuring your ultimate attainment of the Paradise goal of divine perfection.
(454.4) 40:10.15 [Presented by a Mighty Messenger temporarily attached to the staff of Gabriel of Salvington.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 41
Physical Aspects of the Local Universe
(455.2) 41:0.2 While the administrative organization of the grand universe discloses a clear-cut division between the governments of the central, super-, and local universes, and while these divisions are astronomically paralleled in the space separation of Havona and the seven superuniverses, no such clear lines of physical demarcation set off the local creations. Even the major and minor sectors of Orvonton are (to us) clearly distinguishable, but it is not so easy to identify the physical boundaries of the local universes. This is because these local creations are administratively organized in accordance with certain creative principles governing the segmentation of the total energy charge of a superuniverse, whereas their physical components, the spheres of space — suns, dark islands, planets, etc. — take origin primarily from nebulae, and these make their astronomical appearance in accordance with certain precreative (transcendental) plans of the Architects of the Master Universe.
(455.3) 41:0.3 One or more — even many — such nebulae may be encompassed within the domain of a single local universe even as Nebadon was physically assembled out of the stellar and planetary progeny of Andronover and other nebulae. The spheres of Nebadon are of diverse nebular ancestry, but they all had a certain minimum commonness of space motion which was so adjusted by the intelligent efforts of the power directors as to produce our present aggregation of space bodies, which travel along together as a contiguous unit over the orbits of the superuniverse.
(455.4) 41:0.4 Such is the constitution of the local star cloud of Nebadon, which today swings in an increasingly settled orbit about the Sagittarius center of that minor sector of Orvonton to which our local creation belongs.
1. The Nebadon Power Centers
(456.1) 41:1.2 One hundred Supreme Power Centers of the fourth order are permanently assigned to our local universe. These beings receive the incoming lines of power from the third-order centers of Uversa and relay the down-stepped and modified circuits to the power centers of our constellations and systems. These power centers, in association, function to produce the living system of control and equalization which operates to maintain the balance and distribution of otherwise fluctuating and variable energies. Power centers are not, however, concerned with transient and local energy upheavals, such as sun spots and system electric disturbances; light and electricity are not the basic energies of space; they are secondary and subsidiary manifestations.
(456.2) 41:1.3 The one hundred local universe centers are stationed on Salvington, where they function at the exact energy center of that sphere. Architectural spheres, such as Salvington, Edentia, and Jerusem, are lighted, heated, and energized by methods which make them quite independent of the suns of space. These spheres were constructed — made to order — by the power centers and physical controllers and were designed to exert a powerful influence over energy distribution. Basing their activities on such focal points of energy control, the power centers, by their living presences, directionize and channelize the physical energies of space. And these energy circuits are basic to all physical-material and morontia-spiritual phenomena.
(456.3) 41:1.4 Ten Supreme Power Centers of the fifth order are assigned to each of Nebadon’s primary subdivisions, the one hundred constellations. In Norlatiadek, your constellation, they are not stationed on the headquarters sphere but are situated at the center of the enormous stellar system which constitutes the physical core of the constellation. On Edentia there are ten associated mechanical controllers and ten frandalanks who are in perfect and constant liaison with the near-by power centers.
(456.4) 41:1.5 One Supreme Power Center of the sixth order is stationed at the exact gravity focus of each local system. In the system of Satania the assigned power center occupies a dark island of space located at the astronomic center of the system. Many of these dark islands are vast dynamos which mobilize and directionize certain space-energies, and these natural circumstances are effectively utilized by the Satania Power Center, whose living mass functions as a liaison with the higher centers, directing the streams of more materialized power to the Master Physical Controllers on the evolutionary planets of space.
2. The Satania Physical Controllers
(457.1) 41:2.2 Satania itself is composed of over seven thousand astronomical groups, or physical systems, few of which had an origin similar to that of your solar system. The astronomic center of Satania is an enormous dark island of space which, with its attendant spheres, is situated not far from the headquarters of the system government.
(457.2) 41:2.3 Except for the presence of the assigned power center, the supervision of the entire physical-energy system of Satania is centered on Jerusem. A Master Physical Controller, stationed on this headquarters sphere, works in co-ordination with the system power center, serving as liaison chief of the power inspectors headquartered on Jerusem and functioning throughout the local system.
(457.3) 41:2.4 The circuitizing and channelizing of energy is supervised by the five hundred thousand living and intelligent energy manipulators scattered throughout Satania. Through the action of such physical controllers the supervising power centers are in complete and perfect control of a majority of the basic energies of space, including the emanations of highly heated orbs and the dark energy-charged spheres. This group of living entities can mobilize, transform, transmute, manipulate, and transmit nearly all of the physical energies of organized space.
(457.4) 41:2.5 Life has inherent capacity for the mobilization and transmutation of universal energy. You are familiar with the action of vegetable life in transforming the material energy of light into the varied manifestations of the vegetable kingdom. You also know something of the method whereby this vegetative energy can be converted into the phenomena of animal activities, but you know practically nothing of the technique of the power directors and the physical controllers, who are endowed with ability to mobilize, transform, directionize, and concentrate the manifold energies of space.
(457.5) 41:2.6 These beings of the energy realms do not directly concern themselves with energy as a component factor of living creatures, not even with the domain of physiological chemistry. They are sometimes concerned with the physical preliminaries of life, with the elaboration of those energy systems which may serve as the physical vehicles for the living energies of elementary material organisms. In a way the physical controllers are related to the preliving manifestations of material energy as the adjutant mind-spirits are concerned with the prespiritual functions of material mind.
(457.6) 41:2.7 These intelligent creatures of power control and energy direction must adjust their technique on each sphere in accordance with the physical constitution and architecture of that planet. They unfailingly utilize the calculations and deductions of their respective staffs of physicists and other technical advisers regarding the local influence of highly heated suns and other types of supercharged stars. Even the enormous cold and dark giants of space and the swarming clouds of star dust must be reckoned with; all of these material things are concerned in the practical problems of energy manipulation.
(457.7) 41:2.8 The power-energy supervision of the evolutionary inhabited worlds is the responsibility of the Master Physical Controllers, but these beings are not responsible for all energy misbehavior on Urantia. There are a number of reasons for such disturbances, some of which are beyond the domain and control of the physical custodians. Urantia is in the lines of tremendous energies, a small planet in the circuit of enormous masses, and the local controllers sometimes employ enormous numbers of their order in an effort to equalize these lines of energy. They do fairly well with regard to the physical circuits of Satania but have trouble insulating against the powerful Norlatiadek currents.
3. Our Starry Associates
(458.2) 41:3.2 The suns of Nebadon are not unlike those of other universes. The material composition of all suns, dark islands, planets, and satellites, even meteors, is quite identical. These suns have an average diameter of about one million miles, that of your own solar orb being slightly less. The largest star in the universe, the stellar cloud Antares, is four hundred and fifty times the diameter of your sun and is sixty million times its volume. But there is abundant space to accommodate all of these enormous suns. They have just as much comparative elbow room in space as one dozen oranges would have if they were circulating about throughout the interior of Urantia, and were the planet a hollow globe.
(458.3) 41:3.3 When suns that are too large are thrown off a nebular mother wheel, they soon break up or form double stars. All suns are originally truly gaseous, though they may later transiently exist in a semiliquid state. When your sun attained this quasi-liquid state of supergas pressure, it was not sufficiently large to split equatorially, this being one type of double star formation.
(458.4) 41:3.4 When less than one tenth the size of your sun, these fiery spheres rapidly contract, condense, and cool. When upwards of thirty times its size — rather thirty times the gross content of actual material — suns readily split into two separate bodies, either becoming the centers of new systems or else remaining in each other’s gravity grasp and revolving about a common center as one type of double star.
(458.5) 41:3.5 The most recent of the major cosmic eruptions in Orvonton was the extraordinary double star explosion, the light of which reached Urantia in A.D. 1572. This conflagration was so intense that the explosion was clearly visible in broad daylight.
(458.6) 41:3.6 Not all stars are solid, but many of the older ones are. Some of the reddish, faintly glimmering stars have acquired a density at the center of their enormous masses which would be expressed by saying that one cubic inch of such a star, if on Urantia, would weigh six thousand pounds. The enormous pressure, accompanied by loss of heat and circulating energy, has resulted in bringing the orbits of the basic material units closer and closer together until they now closely approach the status of electronic condensation. This process of cooling and contraction may continue to the limiting and critical explosion point of ultimatonic condensation.
(459.1) 41:3.7 Most of the giant suns are relatively young; most of the dwarf stars are old, but not all. The collisional dwarfs may be very young and may glow with an intense white light, never having known an initial red stage of youthful shining. Both very young and very old suns usually shine with a reddish glow. The yellow tinge indicates moderate youth or approaching old age, but the brilliant white light signifies robust and extended adult life.
(459.2) 41:3.8 While all adolescent suns do not pass through a pulsating stage, at least not visibly, when looking out into space you may observe many of these younger stars whose gigantic respiratory heaves require from two to seven days to complete a cycle. Your own sun still carries a diminishing legacy of the mighty upswellings of its younger days, but the period has lengthened from the former three and one-half day pulsations to the present eleven and one-half year sunspot cycles.
(459.3) 41:3.9 Stellar variables have numerous origins. In some double stars the tides caused by rapidly changing distances as the two bodies swing around their orbits also occasion periodic fluctuations of light. These gravity variations produce regular and recurrent flares, just as the capture of meteors by the accretion of energy-material at the surface would result in a comparatively sudden flash of light which would speedily recede to normal brightness for that sun. Sometimes a sun will capture a stream of meteors in a line of lessened gravity opposition, and occasionally collisions cause stellar flare-ups, but the majority of such phenomena are wholly due to internal fluctuations.
(459.4) 41:3.10 In one group of variable stars the period of light fluctuation is directly dependent on luminosity, and knowledge of this fact enables astronomers to utilize such suns as universe lighthouses or accurate measuring points for the further exploration of distant star clusters. By this technique it is possible to measure stellar distances most precisely up to more than one million light-years. Better methods of space measurement and improved telescopic technique will sometime more fully disclose the ten grand divisions of the superuniverse of Orvonton; you will at least recognize eight of these immense sectors as enormous and fairly symmetrical star clusters.
4. Sun Density
(459.6) 41:4.2 Gaseous, liquid, and solid states are matters of atomic-molecular relationships, but density is a relationship of space and mass. Density varies directly with the quantity of mass in space and inversely with the amount of space in mass, the space between the central cores of matter and the particles which whirl around these centers as well as the space within such material particles.
(459.7) 41:4.3 Cooling stars can be physically gaseous and tremendously dense at the same time. You are not familiar with the solar supergases, but these and other unusual forms of matter explain how even nonsolid suns can attain a density equal to iron — about the same as Urantia — and yet be in a highly heated gaseous state and continue to function as suns. The atoms in these dense supergases are exceptionally small; they contain few electrons. Such suns have also largely lost their free ultimatonic stores of energy.
(460.1) 41:4.4 One of your near-by suns, which started life with about the same mass as yours, has now contracted almost to the size of Urantia, having become forty thousand times as dense as your sun. The weight of this hot-cold gaseous-solid is about one ton per cubic inch. And still this sun shines with a faint reddish glow, the senile glimmer of a dying monarch of light.*
(460.2) 41:4.5 Most of the suns, however, are not so dense. One of your nearer neighbors has a density exactly equal to that of your atmosphere at sea level. If you were in the interior of this sun, you would be unable to discern anything. And temperature permitting, you could penetrate the majority of the suns which twinkle in the night sky and notice no more matter than you perceive in the air of your earthly living rooms.
(460.3) 41:4.6 The massive sun of Veluntia, one of the largest in Orvonton, has a density only one one-thousandth that of Urantia’s atmosphere. Were it in composition similar to your atmosphere and not superheated, it would be such a vacuum that human beings would speedily suffocate if they were in or on it.
(460.4) 41:4.7 Another of the Orvonton giants now has a surface temperature a trifle under three thousand degrees. Its diameter is over three hundred million miles — ample room to accommodate your sun and the present orbit of the earth. And yet, for all this enormous size, over forty million times that of your sun, its mass is only about thirty times greater. These enormous suns have an extending fringe that reaches almost from one to the other.
5. Solar Radiation
(460.6) 41:5.2 Light, in the presence of the propulsive gases, is highly explosive when confined at high temperatures by opaque retaining walls. Light is real. As you value energy and power on your world, sunlight would be economical at a million dollars a pound.
(460.7) 41:5.3 The interior of your sun is a vast X-ray generator. The suns are supported from within by the incessant bombardment of these mighty emanations.
(460.8) 41:5.4 It requires more than one-half million years for an X-ray-stimulated electron to work its way from the very center of an average sun up to the solar surface, whence it starts out on its space adventure, maybe to warm an inhabited planet, to be captured by a meteor, to participate in the birth of an atom, to be attracted by a highly charged dark island of space, or to find its space flight terminated by a final plunge into the surface of a sun similar to the one of its origin.
(461.1) 41:5.5 The X rays of a sun’s interior charge the highly heated and agitated electrons with sufficient energy to carry them out through space, past the hosts of detaining influences of intervening matter and, in spite of divergent gravity attractions, on to the distant spheres of the remote systems. The great energy of velocity required to escape the gravity clutch of a sun is sufficient to insure that the sunbeam will travel on with unabated velocity until it encounters considerable masses of matter; whereupon it is quickly transformed into heat with the liberation of other energies.
(461.2) 41:5.6 Energy, whether as light or in other forms, in its flight through space moves straight forward. The actual particles of material existence traverse space like a fusillade. They go in a straight and unbroken line or procession except as they are acted on by superior forces, and except as they ever obey the linear-gravity pull inherent in material mass and the circular-gravity presence of the Isle of Paradise.
(461.3) 41:5.7 Solar energy may seem to be propelled in waves, but that is due to the action of coexistent and diverse influences. A given form of organized energy does not proceed in waves but in direct lines. The presence of a second or a third form of force-energy may cause the stream under observation to appear to travel in wavy formation, just as, in a blinding rainstorm accompanied by a heavy wind, the water sometimes appears to fall in sheets or to descend in waves. The raindrops are coming down in a direct line of unbroken procession, but the action of the wind is such as to give the visible appearance of sheets of water and waves of raindrops.
(461.4) 41:5.8 The action of certain secondary and other undiscovered energies present in the space regions of your local universe is such that solar-light emanations appear to execute certain wavy phenomena as well as to be chopped up into infinitesimal portions of definite length and weight. And, practically considered, that is exactly what happens. You can hardly hope to arrive at a better understanding of the behavior of light until such a time as you acquire a clearer concept of the interaction and interrelationship of the various space-forces and solar energies operating in the space regions of Nebadon. Your present confusion is also due to your incomplete grasp of this problem as it involves the interassociated activities of the personal and nonpersonal control of the master universe — the presences, the performances, and the co-ordination of the Conjoint Actor and the Unqualified Absolute.
6. Calcium — The Wanderer of Space
(461.6) 41:6.2 Calcium is, in fact, the chief element of the matter-permeation of space throughout Orvonton. Our whole superuniverse is sprinkled with minutely pulverized stone. Stone is literally the basic building matter for the planets and spheres of space. The cosmic cloud, the great space blanket, consists for the most part of the modified atoms of calcium. The stone atom is one of the most prevalent and persistent of the elements. It not only endures solar ionization — splitting — but persists in an associative identity even after it has been battered by the destructive X rays and shattered by the high solar temperatures. Calcium possesses an individuality and a longevity excelling all of the more common forms of matter.
(462.1) 41:6.3 As your physicists have suspected, these mutilated remnants of solar calcium literally ride the light beams for varied distances, and thus their widespread dissemination throughout space is tremendously facilitated. The sodium atom, under certain modifications, is also capable of light and energy locomotion. The calcium feat is all the more remarkable since this element has almost twice the mass of sodium. Local space-permeation by calcium is due to the fact that it escapes from the solar photosphere, in modified form, by literally riding the outgoing sunbeams. Of all the solar elements, calcium, notwithstanding its comparative bulk — containing as it does twenty revolving electrons — is the most successful in escaping from the solar interior to the realms of space. This explains why there is a calcium layer, a gaseous stone surface, on the sun six thousand miles thick; and this despite the fact that nineteen lighter elements, and numerous heavier ones, are underneath.
(462.2) 41:6.4 Calcium is an active and versatile element at solar temperatures. The stone atom has two agile and loosely attached electrons in the two outer electronic circuits, which are very close together. Early in the atomic struggle it loses its outer electron; whereupon it engages in a masterful act of juggling the nineteenth electron back and forth between the nineteenth and twentieth circuits of electronic revolution. By tossing this nineteenth electron back and forth between its own orbit and that of its lost companion more than twenty-five thousand times a second, a mutilated stone atom is able partially to defy gravity and thus successfully to ride the emerging streams of light and energy, the sunbeams, to liberty and adventure. This calcium atom moves outward by alternate jerks of forward propulsion, grasping and letting go the sunbeam about twenty-five thousand times each second. And this is why stone is the chief component of the worlds of space. Calcium is the most expert solar-prison escaper.
(462.3) 41:6.5 The agility of this acrobatic calcium electron is indicated by the fact that, when tossed by the temperature-X-ray solar forces to the circle of the higher orbit, it only remains in that orbit for about one one-millionth of a second; but before the electric-gravity power of the atomic nucleus pulls it back into its old orbit, it is able to complete one million revolutions about the atomic center.
(462.4) 41:6.6 Your sun has parted with an enormous quantity of its calcium, having lost tremendous amounts during the times of its convulsive eruptions in connection with the formation of the solar system. Much of the solar calcium is now in the outer crust of the sun.
(462.5) 41:6.7 It should be remembered that spectral analyses show only sun-surface compositions. For example: Solar spectra exhibit many iron lines, but iron is not the chief element in the sun. This phenomenon is almost wholly due to the present temperature of the sun’s surface, a little less than 6,000 degrees, this temperature being very favorable to the registry of the iron spectrum.
7. Sources of Solar Energy
(463.2) 41:7.2 The surface temperature of your sun is almost 6,000 degrees, but it rapidly increases as the interior is penetrated until it attains the unbelievable height of about 35,000,000 degrees in the central regions. (All of these temperatures refer to your Fahrenheit scale.)
(463.3) 41:7.3 All of these phenomena are indicative of enormous energy expenditure, and the sources of solar energy, named in the order of their importance, are:
(463.4) 41:7.4 1. Annihilation of atoms and, eventually, of electrons.(463.11) 41:7.11 There exists a regulating blanket of hot gases (sometimes millions of degrees in temperature) which envelops the suns, and which acts to stabilize heat loss and otherwise prevent hazardous fluctuations of heat dissipation. During the active life of a sun the internal temperature of 35,000,000 degrees remains about the same quite regardless of the progressive fall of the external temperature.
(463.5) 41:7.5 2. Transmutation of elements, including the radioactive group of energies thus liberated.
(463.6) 41:7.6 3. The accumulation and transmission of certain universal space-energies.
(463.7) 41:7.7 4. Space matter and meteors which are incessantly diving into the blazing suns.
(463.8) 41:7.8 5. Solar contraction; the cooling and consequent contraction of a sun yields energy and heat sometimes greater than that supplied by space matter.
(463.9) 41:7.9 6. Gravity action at high temperatures transforms certain circuitized power into radiative energies.
(463.10) 41:7.10 7. Recaptive light and other matter which are drawn back into the sun after having left it, together with other energies having extrasolar origin.
(463.12) 41:7.12 You might try to visualize 35,000,000 degrees of heat, in association with certain gravity pressures, as the electronic boiling point. Under such pressure and at such temperature all atoms are degraded and broken up into their electronic and other ancestral components; even the electrons and other associations of ultimatons may be broken up, but the suns are not able to degrade the ultimatons.
(463.13) 41:7.13 These solar temperatures operate to enormously speed up the ultimatons and the electrons, at least such of the latter as continue to maintain their existence under these conditions. You will realize what high temperature means by way of the acceleration of ultimatonic and electronic activities when you pause to consider that one drop of ordinary water contains over one billion trillions of atoms. This is the energy of more than one hundred horsepower exerted continuously for two years. The total heat now given out by the solar system sun each second is sufficient to boil all the water in all the oceans on Urantia in just one second of time.
(464.1) 41:7.14 Only those suns which function in the direct channels of the main streams of universe energy can shine on forever. Such solar furnaces blaze on indefinitely, being able to replenish their material losses by the intake of space-force and analogous circulating energy. But stars far removed from these chief channels of recharging are destined to undergo energy depletion — gradually cool off and eventually burn out.
(464.2) 41:7.15 Such dead or dying suns can be rejuvenated by collisional impact or can be recharged by certain nonluminous energy islands of space or through gravity-robbery of near-by smaller suns or systems. The majority of dead suns will experience revivification by these or other evolutionary techniques. Those which are not thus eventually recharged are destined to undergo disruption by mass explosion when the gravity condensation attains the critical level of ultimatonic condensation of energy pressure. Such disappearing suns thus become energy of the rarest form, admirably adapted to energize other more favorably situated suns.
8. Solar-Energy Reactions
(464.4) 41:8.2 Reduction of hydrogen content increases the luminosity of a sun. In the suns destined to burn out, the height of luminosity is attained at the point of hydrogen exhaustion. Subsequent to this point, brilliance is maintained by the resultant process of gravity contraction. Eventually, such a star will become a so-called white dwarf, a highly condensed sphere.
(464.5) 41:8.3 In large suns — small circular nebulae — when hydrogen is exhausted and gravity contraction ensues, if such a body is not sufficiently opaque to retain the internal pressure of support for the outer gas regions, then a sudden collapse occurs. The gravity-electric changes give origin to vast quantities of tiny particles devoid of electric potential, and such particles readily escape from the solar interior, thus bringing about the collapse of a gigantic sun within a few days. It was such an emigration of these “runaway particles” that occasioned the collapse of the giant nova of the Andromeda nebula about fifty years ago. This vast stellar body collapsed in forty minutes of Urantia time.
(464.6) 41:8.4 As a rule, the vast extrusion of matter continues to exist about the residual cooling sun as extensive clouds of nebular gases. And all this explains the origin of many types of irregular nebulae, such as the Crab nebula, which had its origin about nine hundred years ago, and which still exhibits the mother sphere as a lone star near the center of this irregular nebular mass.
9. Sun Stability
(465.2) 41:9.2 Atoms and electrons are subject to gravity. The ultimatons are not subject to local gravity, the interplay of material attraction, but they are fully obedient to absolute or Paradise gravity, to the trend, the swing, of the universal and eternal circle of the universe of universes. Ultimatonic energy does not obey the linear or direct gravity attraction of near-by or remote material masses, but it does ever swing true to the circuit of the great ellipse of the far-flung creation.
(465.3) 41:9.3 Your own solar center radiates almost one hundred billion tons of actual matter annually, while the giant suns lose matter at a prodigious rate during their earlier growth, the first billion years. A sun’s life becomes stable after the maximum of internal temperature is reached, and the subatomic energies begin to be released. And it is just at this critical point that the larger suns are given to convulsive pulsations.
(465.4) 41:9.4 Sun stability is wholly dependent on the equilibrium between gravity-heat contention — tremendous pressures counterbalanced by unimagined temperatures. The interior gas elasticity of the suns upholds the overlying layers of varied materials, and when gravity and heat are in equilibrium, the weight of the outer materials exactly equals the temperature pressure of the underlying and interior gases. In many of the younger stars continued gravity condensation produces ever-heightening internal temperatures, and as internal heat increases, the interior X-ray pressure of supergas winds becomes so great that, in connection with the centrifugal motion, a sun begins to throw its exterior layers off into space, thus redressing the imbalance between gravity and heat.
(465.5) 41:9.5 Your own sun has long since attained relative equilibrium between its expansion and contraction cycles, those disturbances which produce the gigantic pulsations of many of the younger stars. Your sun is now passing out of its six billionth year. At the present time it is functioning through the period of greatest economy. It will shine on as of present efficiency for more than twenty-five billion years. It will probably experience a partially efficient period of decline as long as the combined periods of its youth and stabilized function.
10. Origin of Inhabited Worlds
(466.1) 41:10.2 The majority of solar systems, however, had an origin entirely different from yours, and this is true even of those which were produced by gravity-tidal technique. But no matter what technique of world building obtains, gravity always produces the solar system type of creation; that is, a central sun or dark island with planets, satellites, subsatellites, and meteors.
(466.2) 41:10.3 The physical aspects of the individual worlds are largely determined by mode of origin, astronomical situation, and physical environment. Age, size, rate of revolution, and velocity through space are also determining factors. Both the gas-contraction and the solid-accretion worlds are characterized by mountains and, during their earlier life, when not too small, by water and air. The molten-split and collisional worlds are sometimes without extensive mountain ranges.
(466.3) 41:10.4 During the earlier ages of all these new worlds, earthquakes are frequent, and they are all characterized by great physical disturbances; especially is this true of the gas-contraction spheres, the worlds born of the immense nebular rings which are left behind in the wake of the early condensation and contraction of certain individual suns. Planets having a dual origin like Urantia pass through a less violent and stormy youthful career. Even so, your world experienced an early phase of mighty upheavals, characterized by volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, and terrific storms.
(466.4) 41:10.5 Urantia is comparatively isolated on the outskirts of Satania, your solar system, with one exception, being the farthest removed from Jerusem, while Satania itself is next to the outermost system of Norlatiadek, and this constellation is now traversing the outer fringe of Nebadon. You were truly among the least of all creation until Michael’s bestowal elevated your planet to a position of honor and great universe interest. Sometimes the last is first, while truly the least becomes greatest.
(466.5) 41:10.6 [Presented by an Archangel in collaboration with the Chief of Nebadon Power Centers.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 42
Energy — Mind and Matter
(467.2) 42:0.2 The manipulation of universe energy is ever in accordance with the personal will and the all-wise mandates of the Universal Father. This personal control of manifested power and circulating energy is modified by the co-ordinate acts and decisions of the Eternal Son, as well as by the united purposes of the Son and the Father executed by the Conjoint Actor. These divine beings act personally and as individuals; they also function in the persons and powers of an almost unlimited number of subordinates, each variously expressive of the eternal and divine purpose in the universe of universes. But these functional and provisional modifications or transmutations of divine power in no way lessen the truth of the statement that all force-energy is under the ultimate control of a personal God resident at the center of all things.
1. Paradise Forces and Energies
(467.4) 42:1.2 Matter — energy — for they are but diverse manifestations of the same cosmic reality, as a universe phenomenon is inherent in the Universal Father. “In him all things consist.” Matter may appear to manifest inherent energy and to exhibit self-contained powers, but the lines of gravity involved in the energies concerned in all these physical phenomena are derived from, and are dependent on, Paradise. The ultimaton, the first measurable form of energy, has Paradise as its nucleus.
(467.5) 42:1.3 There is innate in matter and present in universal space a form of energy not known on Urantia. When this discovery is finally made, then will physicists feel that they have solved, almost at least, the mystery of matter. And so will they have approached one step nearer the Creator; so will they have mastered one more phase of the divine technique; but in no sense will they have found God, neither will they have established the existence of matter or the operation of natural laws apart from the cosmic technique of Paradise and the motivating purpose of the Universal Father.
(468.1) 42:1.4 Subsequent to even still greater progress and further discoveries, after Urantia has advanced immeasurably in comparison with present knowledge, though you should gain control of the energy revolutions of the electrical units of matter to the extent of modifying their physical manifestations — even after all such possible progress, forever will scientists be powerless to create one atom of matter or to originate one flash of energy or ever to add to matter that which we call life.
(468.2) 42:1.5 The creation of energy and the bestowal of life are the prerogatives of the Universal Father and his associate Creator personalities. The river of energy and life is a continuous outpouring from the Deities, the universal and united stream of Paradise force going forth to all space. This divine energy pervades all creation. The force organizers initiate those changes and institute those modifications of space-force which eventuate in energy; the power directors transmute energy into matter; thus the material worlds are born. The Life Carriers initiate those processes in dead matter which we call life, material life. The Morontia Power Supervisors likewise perform throughout the transition realms between the material and the spiritual worlds. The higher spirit Creators inaugurate similar processes in divine forms of energy, and there ensue the higher spirit forms of intelligent life.
(468.3) 42:1.6 Energy proceeds from Paradise, fashioned after the divine order. Energy — pure energy — partakes of the nature of the divine organization; it is fashioned after the similitude of the three Gods embraced in one, as they function at the headquarters of the universe of universes. And all force is circuited in Paradise, comes from the Paradise Presences and returns thereto, and is in essence a manifestation of the uncaused Cause — the Universal Father; and without the Father would not anything exist that does exist.
(468.4) 42:1.7 Force derived from self-existent Deity is in itself ever existent. Force-energy is imperishable, indestructible; these manifestations of the Infinite may be subject to unlimited transmutation, endless transformation, and eternal metamorphosis; but in no sense or degree, not even to the slightest imaginable extent, could they or ever shall they suffer extinction. But energy, though springing from the Infinite, is not infinitely manifest; there are outer limits to the presently conceived master universe.
(468.5) 42:1.8 Energy is eternal but not infinite; it ever responds to the all-embracing grasp of Infinity. Forever force and energy go on; having gone out from Paradise, they must return thereto, even if age upon age be required for the completion of the ordained circuit. That which is of Paradise Deity origin can have only a Paradise destination or a Deity destiny.
(468.6) 42:1.9 And all this confirms our belief in a circular, somewhat limited, but orderly and far-flung universe of universes. If this were not true, then evidence of energy depletion at some point would sooner or later appear. All laws, organizations, administration, and the testimony of universe explorers — everything points to the existence of an infinite God but, as yet, a finite universe, a circularity of endless existence, well-nigh limitless but, nevertheless, finite in contrast with infinity.
2. Universal Nonspiritual Energy Systems
(Physical Energies)
(469.2) 42:2.2 I will, however, endeavor to lessen conceptual confusion by suggesting the advisability of adopting the following classification for cosmic force, emergent energy, and universe power — physical energy:
(469.3) 42:2.3 1. Space potency. This is the unquestioned free space presence of the Unqualified Absolute. The extension of this concept connotes the universe force-space potential inherent in the functional totality of the Unqualified Absolute, while the intension of this concept implies the totality of cosmic reality — universes — which emanated eternitywise from the never-beginning, never-ending, never-moving, never-changing Isle of Paradise.(471.5) 42:2.21 We know that finite creatures can attain the worship experience of the Universal Father through the ministry of God the Sevenfold and the Thought Adjusters, but we doubt that any subabsolute personality, even power directors, can comprehend the energy infinity of the First Great Source and Center. One thing is certain: If the power directors are conversant with the technique of the metamorphosis of space-force, they do not reveal the secret to the rest of us. It is my opinion that they do not fully comprehend the function of the force organizers.
(469.4) 42:2.4 The phenomena indigenous to the nether side of Paradise probably embrace three zones of absolute force presence and performance: the fulcral zone of the Unqualified Absolute, the zone of the Isle of Paradise itself, and the intervening zone of certain unidentified equalizing and compensating agencies or functions. These triconcentric zones are the centrum of the Paradise cycle of cosmic reality.
(469.5) 42:2.5 Space potency is a prereality; it is the domain of the Unqualified Absolute and is responsive only to the personal grasp of the Universal Father, notwithstanding that it is seemingly modifiable by the presence of the Primary Master Force Organizers.
(469.6) 42:2.6 On Uversa, space potency is spoken of as ABSOLUTA.
(469.7) 42:2.7 2. Primordial force. This represents the first basic change in space potency and may be one of the nether Paradise functions of the Unqualified Absolute. We know that the space presence going out from nether Paradise is modified in some manner from that which is incoming. But regardless of any such possible relationships, the openly recognized transmutation of space potency into primordial force is the primary differentiating function of the tension-presence of the living Paradise force organizers.
(469.8) 42:2.8 Passive and potential force becomes active and primordial in response to the resistance afforded by the space presence of the Primary Eventuated Master Force Organizers. Force is now emerging from the exclusive domain of the Unqualified Absolute into the realms of multiple response — response to certain primal motions initiated by the God of Action and thereupon to certain compensating motions emanating from the Universal Absolute. Primordial force is seemingly reactive to transcendental causation in proportion to absoluteness.
(469.9) 42:2.9 Primordial force is sometimes spoken of as pure energy; on Uversa we refer to it as SEGREGATA.
(470.1) 42:2.10 3. Emergent energies. The passive presence of the primary force organizers is sufficient to transform space potency into primordial force, and it is upon such an activated space field that these same force organizers begin their initial and active operations. Primordial force is destined to pass through two distinct phases of transmutation in the realms of energy manifestation before appearing as universe power. These two levels of emerging energy are:
(470.2) 42:2.11 a. Puissant energy. This is the powerful-directional, mass-movemented, mighty-tensioned, and forcible-reacting energy — gigantic energy systems set in motion by the activities of the primary force organizers. This primary or puissant energy is not at first definitely responsive to the Paradise-gravity pull though probably yielding an aggregate-mass or space-directional response to the collective group of absolute influences operative from the nether side of Paradise. When energy emerges to the level of initial response to the circular and absolute-gravity grasp of Paradise, the primary force organizers give way to the functioning of their secondary associates.(470.4) 42:2.13 We are quite uncertain regarding the exact causes of the early stages of force evolution, but we recognize the intelligent action of the Ultimate in both levels of emergent-energy manifestation. Puissant and gravity energies, when regarded collectively, are spoken of on Uversa as ULTIMATA.
(470.3) 42:2.12 b. Gravity energy. The now-appearing gravity-responding energy carries the potential of universe power and becomes the active ancestor of all universe matter. This secondary or gravity energy is the product of the energy elaboration resulting from the pressure-presence and the tension-trends set up by the Associate Transcendental Master Force Organizers. In response to the work of these force manipulators, space-energy rapidly passes from the puissant to the gravity stage, thus becoming directly responsive to the circular grasp of Paradise (absolute) gravity while disclosing a certain potential for sensitivity to the linear-gravity pull inherent in the soon appearing material mass of the electronic and the postelectronic stages of energy and matter. Upon the appearance of gravity response, the Associate Master Force Organizers may retire from the energy cyclones of space provided the Universe Power Directors are assignable to that field of action.
(470.5) 42:2.14 4. Universe power. Space-force has been changed into space-energy and thence into the energy of gravity control. Thus has physical energy been ripened to that point where it can be directed into channels of power and made to serve the manifold purposes of the universe Creators. This work is carried on by the versatile directors, centers, and controllers of physical energy in the grand universe — the organized and inhabited creations. These Universe Power Directors assume the more or less complete control of twenty-one of the thirty phases of energy constituting the present energy system of the seven superuniverses. This domain of power-energy-matter is the realm of the intelligent activities of the Sevenfold, functioning under the time-space overcontrol of the Supreme.
(470.6) 42:2.15 On Uversa we refer to the realm of universe power as GRAVITA.
(470.7) 42:2.16 5. Havona energy. In concept this narrative has been moving Paradiseward as transmuting space-force has been followed, level by level, to the working level of the energy-power of the universes of time and space. Continuing Paradiseward, there is next encountered a pre-existent phase of energy which is characteristic of the central universe. Here the evolutionary cycle seems to turn back upon itself; energy-power now seems to begin to swing back towards force, but force of a nature very unlike that of space potency and primordial force. Havona energy systems are not dual; they are triune. This is the existential energy domain of the Conjoint Actor, functioning in behalf of the Paradise Trinity.
(471.1) 42:2.17 On Uversa these energies of Havona are known as TRIATA.
(471.2) 42:2.18 6. Transcendental energy. This energy system operates on and from the upper level of Paradise and only in connection with the absonite peoples. On Uversa it is denominated TRANOSTA.
(471.3) 42:2.19 7. Monota. Energy is close of kin to divinity when it is Paradise energy. We incline to the belief that monota is the living, nonspirit energy of Paradise — an eternity counterpart of the living, spirit energy of the Original Son — hence the nonspiritual energy system of the Universal Father.
(471.4) 42:2.20 We cannot differentiate the nature of Paradise spirit and Paradise monota; they are apparently alike. They have different names, but you can hardly be told very much about a reality whose spiritual and whose nonspiritual manifestations are distinguishable only by name.
(471.6) 42:2.22 These power directors themselves are energy catalyzers; that is, they cause energy to segment, organize, or assemble in unit formation by their presence. And all this implies that there must be something inherent in energy which causes it thus to function in the presence of these power entities. The Nebadon Melchizedeks long since denominated the phenomenon of the transmutation of cosmic force into universe power as one of the seven “infinities of divinity.” And that is as far as you will advance on this point during your local universe ascension.
(471.7) 42:2.23 Notwithstanding our inability fully to comprehend the origin, nature, and transmutations of cosmic force, we are fully conversant with all phases of emergent-energy behavior from the times of its direct and unmistakable response to the action of Paradise gravity — about the time of the beginning of the function of the superuniverse power directors.
3. Classification of Matter
(471.9) 42:3.2 In the varied suns, planets, and space bodies there are ten grand divisions of matter:
(472.1) 42:3.3 1. Ultimatonic matter — the prime physical units of material existence, the energy particles which go to make up electrons.(472.11) 42:3.13 The foregoing classification of matter pertains to its organization rather than to the forms of its appearance to created beings. Neither does it take into account the pre-emergent stages of energy nor the eternal materializations on Paradise and in the central universe.
(472.2) 42:3.4 2. Subelectronic matter — the explosive and repellent stage of the solar supergases.
(472.3) 42:3.5 3. Electronic matter — the electrical stage of material differentiation — electrons, protons, and various other units entering into the varied constitution of the electronic groups.
(472.4) 42:3.6 4. Subatomic matter — matter existing extensively in the interior of the hot suns.
(472.5) 42:3.7 5. Shattered atoms — found in the cooling suns and throughout space.
(472.6) 42:3.8 6. Ionized matter — individual atoms stripped of their outer (chemically active) electrons by electrical, thermal, or X-ray activities and by solvents.
(472.7) 42:3.9 7. Atomic matter — the chemical stage of elemental organization, the component units of molecular or visible matter.
(472.8) 42:3.10 8. The molecular stage of matter — matter as it exists on Urantia in a state of relatively stable materialization under ordinary conditions.
(472.9) 42:3.11 9. Radioactive matter — the disorganizing tendency and activity of the heavier elements under conditions of moderate heat and diminished gravity pressure.
(472.10) 42:3.12 10. Collapsed matter — the relatively stationary matter found in the interior of the cold or dead suns. This form of matter is not really stationary; there is still some ultimatonic even electronic activity, but these units are in very close proximity, and their rates of revolution are greatly diminished.
4. Energy and Matter Transmutations
(472.13) 42:4.2 We do not fully comprehend the almost endless changes to which physical energy may be subject. In one universe it appears as light, in another as light plus heat, in another as forms of energy unknown on Urantia; in untold millions of years it may reappear as some form of restless, surging electrical energy or magnetic power; and still later on it may again appear in a subsequent universe as some form of variable matter going through a series of metamorphoses, to be followed by its outward physical disappearance in some great cataclysm of the realms. And then, after countless ages and almost endless wandering through numberless universes, again may this same energy re-emerge and many times change its form and potential; and so do these transformations continue through successive ages and throughout countless realms. Thus matter sweeps on, undergoing the transmutations of time but swinging ever true to the circle of eternity; even if long prevented from returning to its source, it is ever responsive thereto, and it ever proceeds in the path ordained by the Infinite Personality who sent it forth.
(473.1) 42:4.3 The power centers and their associates are much concerned in the work of transmuting the ultimaton into the circuits and revolutions of the electron. These unique beings control and compound power by their skillful manipulation of the basic units of materialized energy, the ultimatons. They are masters of energy as it circulates in this primitive state. In liaison with the physical controllers they are able to effectively control and direct energy even after it has transmuted to the electrical level, the so-called electronic stage. But their range of action is enormously curtailed when electronically organized energy swings into the whirls of the atomic systems. Upon such materialization, these energies fall under the complete grasp of the drawing power of linear gravity.
(473.2) 42:4.4 Gravity acts positively on the power lanes and energy channels of the power centers and the physical controllers, but these beings have only a negative relation to gravity — the exercise of their antigravity endowments.
(473.3) 42:4.5 Throughout all space, cold and other influences are at work creatively organizing ultimatons into electrons. Heat is the measurement of electronic activity, while cold merely signifies absence of heat — comparative energy rest — the status of the universal force-charge of space provided neither emergent energy nor organized matter were present and responding to gravity.
(473.4) 42:4.6 Gravity presence and action is what prevents the appearance of the theoretical absolute zero, for interstellar space does not have the temperature of absolute zero. Throughout all organized space there are gravity-responding energy currents, power circuits, and ultimatonic activities, as well as organizing electronic energies. Practically speaking, space is not empty. Even the atmosphere of Urantia thins out increasingly until at about three thousand miles it begins to shade off into the average space matter in this section of the universe. The most nearly empty space known in Nebadon would yield about one hundred ultimatons — the equivalent of one electron — in each cubic inch. Such scarcity of matter is regarded as practically empty space.
(473.5) 42:4.7 Temperature — heat and cold — is secondary only to gravity in the realms of energy and matter evolution. Ultimatons are humbly obedient to temperature extremes. Low temperatures favor certain forms of electronic construction and atomic assembly, while high temperatures facilitate all sorts of atomic breakup and material disintegration.
(473.6) 42:4.8 When subjected to the heat and pressure of certain internal solar states, all but the most primitive associations of matter may be broken up. Heat can thus largely overcome gravity stability. But no known solar heat or pressure can convert ultimatons back into puissant energy.
(473.7) 42:4.9 The blazing suns can transform matter into various forms of energy, but the dark worlds and all outer space can slow down electronic and ultimatonic activity to the point of converting these energies into the matter of the realms. Certain electronic associations of a close nature, as well as many of the basic associations of nuclear matter, are formed in the exceedingly low temperatures of open space, being later augmented by association with larger accretions of materializing energy.
(473.8) 42:4.10 Throughout all of this never-ending metamorphosis of energy and matter we must reckon with the influence of gravity pressure and with the antigravity behavior of the ultimatonic energies under certain conditions of temperature, velocity, and revolution. Temperature, energy currents, distance, and the presence of the living force organizers and the power directors also have a bearing on all transmutation phenomena of energy and matter.
(474.1) 42:4.11 The increase of mass in matter is equal to the increase of energy divided by the square of the velocity of light. In a dynamic sense the work which resting matter can perform is equal to the energy expended in bringing its parts together from Paradise minus the resistance of the forces overcome in transit and the attraction exerted by the parts of matter on one another.
(474.2) 42:4.12 The existence of pre-electronic forms of matter is indicated by the two atomic weights of lead. The lead of original formation weighs slightly more than that produced through uranium disintegration by way of radium emanations; and this difference in atomic weight represents the actual loss of energy in the atomic breakup.
(474.3) 42:4.13 The relative integrity of matter is assured by the fact that energy can be absorbed or released only in those exact amounts which Urantia scientists have designated quanta. This wise provision in the material realms serves to maintain the universes as going concerns.
(474.4) 42:4.14 The quantity of energy taken in or given out when electronic or other positions are shifted is always a “quantum” or some multiple thereof, but the vibratory or wavelike behavior of such units of energy is wholly determined by the dimensions of the material structures concerned. Such wavelike energy ripples are 860 times the diameters of the ultimatons, electrons, atoms, or other units thus performing. The never-ending confusion attending the observation of the wave mechanics of quantum behavior is due to the superimposition of energy waves: Two crests can combine to make a double-height crest, while a crest and a trough may combine, thus producing mutual cancellation.
5. Wave-Energy Manifestations
(474.6) 42:5.2 Wavelike energy manifestations — from the standpoint of twentieth-century Urantia scientific enlightenment — may be classified into the following ten groups:
(474.7) 42:5.3 1. Infraultimatonic rays — the borderland revolutions of ultimatons as they begin to assume definite form. This is the first stage of emergent energy in which wavelike phenomena can be detected and measured.(475.9) 42:5.13 Of all these ten phases of wavelike energy activity, the human eye can react to just one octave, the whole light of ordinary sunlight.
(474.8) 42:5.4 2. Ultimatonic rays. The assembly of energy into the minute spheres of the ultimatons occasions vibrations in the content of space which are discernible and measurable. And long before physicists ever discover the ultimaton, they will undoubtedly detect the phenomena of these rays as they shower in upon Urantia. These short and powerful rays represent the initial activity of the ultimatons as they are slowed down to that point where they veer towards the electronic organization of matter. As the ultimatons aggregate into electrons, condensation occurs with a consequent storage of energy.
(475.1) 42:5.5 3. The short space rays. These are the shortest of all purely electronic vibrations and represent the preatomic stage of this form of matter. These rays require extraordinarily high or low temperatures for their production. There are two sorts of these space rays: one attendant upon the birth of atoms and the other indicative of atomic disruption. They emanate in the largest quantities from the densest plane of the superuniverse, the Milky Way, which is also the densest plane of the outer universes.
(475.2) 42:5.6 4. The electronic stage. This stage of energy is the basis of all materialization in the seven superuniverses. When electrons pass from higher to lower energy levels of orbital revolution, quanta are always given off. Orbital shifting of electrons results in the ejection or the absorption of very definite and uniform measurable particles of light-energy, while the individual electron always gives up a particle of light-energy when subjected to collision. Wavelike energy manifestations also attend upon the performances of the positive bodies and the other members of the electronic stage.
(475.3) 42:5.7 5. Gamma rays — those emanations which characterize the spontaneous dissociation of atomic matter. The best illustration of this form of electronic activity is in the phenomena associated with radium disintegration.
(475.4) 42:5.8 6. The X-ray group. The next step in the slowing down of the electron yields the various forms of solar X rays together with artificially generated X rays. The electronic charge creates an electric field; movement gives rise to an electric current; the current produces a magnetic field. When an electron is suddenly stopped, the resultant electromagnetic commotion produces the X ray; the X ray is that disturbance. The solar X rays are identical with those which are mechanically generated for exploring the interior of the human body except that they are a trifle longer.
(475.5) 42:5.9 7. The ultraviolet or chemical rays of sunlight and the various mechanical productions.
(475.6) 42:5.10 8. The white light — the whole visible light of the suns.
(475.7) 42:5.11 9. Infrared rays — the slowing down of electronic activity still nearer the stage of appreciable heat.
(475.8) 42:5.12 10. Hertzian waves — those energies utilized on Urantia for broadcasting.
(475.10) 42:5.14 The so-called ether is merely a collective name to designate a group of force and energy activities occurring in space. Ultimatons, electrons, and other mass aggregations of energy are uniform particles of matter, and in their transit through space they really proceed in direct lines. Light and all other forms of recognizable energy manifestations consist of a succession of definite energy particles which proceed in direct lines except as modified by gravity and other intervening forces. That these processions of energy particles appear as wave phenomena when subjected to certain observations is due to the resistance of the undifferentiated force blanket of all space, the hypothetical ether, and to the intergravity tension of the associated aggregations of matter. The spacing of the particle-intervals of matter, together with the initial velocity of the energy beams, establishes the undulatory appearance of many forms of energy-matter.
(476.1) 42:5.15 The excitation of the content of space produces a wavelike reaction to the passage of rapidly moving particles of matter, just as the passage of a ship through water initiates waves of varying amplitude and interval.
(476.2) 42:5.16 Primordial-force behavior does give rise to phenomena which are in many ways analogous to your postulated ether. Space is not empty; the spheres of all space whirl and plunge on through a vast ocean of outspread force-energy; neither is the space content of an atom empty. Nevertheless there is no ether, and the very absence of this hypothetical ether enables the inhabited planet to escape falling into the sun and the encircling electron to resist falling into the nucleus.
6. Ultimatons, Electrons, and Atoms
(476.4) 42:6.2 Local or linear gravity becomes fully operative with the appearance of the atomic organization of matter. Preatomic matter becomes slightly gravity responsive when activated by X ray and other similar energies, but no measurable linear-gravity pull is exerted on free, unattached, and uncharged electronic-energy particles or on unassociated ultimatons.
(476.5) 42:6.3 Ultimatons function by mutual attraction, responding only to the circular Paradise-gravity pull. Without linear-gravity response they are thus held in the universal space drift. Ultimatons are capable of accelerating revolutionary velocity to the point of partial antigravity behavior, but they cannot, independent of force organizers or power directors, attain the critical escape velocity of deindividuation, return to the puissant-energy stage. In nature, ultimatons escape the status of physical existence only when participating in the terminal disruption of a cooled-off and dying sun.
(476.6) 42:6.4 The ultimatons, unknown on Urantia, slow down through many phases of physical activity before they attain the revolutionary-energy prerequisites to electronic organization. Ultimatons have three varieties of motion: mutual resistance to cosmic force, individual revolutions of antigravity potential, and the intraelectronic positions of the one hundred mutually interassociated ultimatons.
(476.7) 42:6.5 Mutual attraction holds one hundred ultimatons together in the constitution of the electron; and there are never more nor less than one hundred ultimatons in a typical electron. The loss of one or more ultimatons destroys typical electronic identity, thus bringing into existence one of the ten modified forms of the electron.
(476.8) 42:6.6 Ultimatons do not describe orbits or whirl about in circuits within the electrons, but they do spread or cluster in accordance with their axial revolutionary velocities, thus determining the differential electronic dimensions. This same ultimatonic velocity of axial revolution also determines the negative or positive reactions of the several types of electronic units. The entire segregation and grouping of electronic matter, together with the electric differentiation of negative and positive bodies of energy-matter, result from these various functions of the component ultimatonic interassociation.
(477.1) 42:6.7 Each atom is a trifle over 1/100,000,000th of an inch in diameter, while an electron weighs a little more than 1/2,000th of the smallest atom, hydrogen. The positive proton, characteristic of the atomic nucleus, while it may be no larger than a negative electron, weighs almost two thousand times more.*
(477.2) 42:6.8 If the mass of matter should be magnified until that of an electron equaled one tenth of an ounce, then were size to be proportionately magnified, the volume of such an electron would become as large as that of the earth. If the volume of a proton — eighteen hundred times as heavy as an electron — should be magnified to the size of the head of a pin, then, in comparison, a pin’s head would attain a diameter equal to that of the earth’s orbit around the sun.
7. Atomic Matter
(477.4) 42:7.2 Within the atom the electrons revolve about the central proton with about the same comparative room the planets have as they revolve about the sun in the space of the solar system. There is the same relative distance, in comparison with actual size, between the atomic nucleus and the inner electronic circuit as exists between the inner planet, Mercury, and your sun.
(477.5) 42:7.3 The electronic axial revolutions and their orbital velocities about the atomic nucleus are both beyond the human imagination, not to mention the velocities of their component ultimatons. The positive particles of radium fly off into space at the rate of ten thousand miles a second, while the negative particles attain a velocity approximating that of light.
(477.6) 42:7.4 The local universes are of decimal construction. There are just one hundred distinguishable atomic materializations of space-energy in a dual universe; that is the maximum possible organization of matter in Nebadon. These one hundred forms of matter consist of a regular series in which from one to one hundred electrons revolve around a central and relatively compact nucleus. It is this orderly and dependable association of various energies that constitutes matter.
(477.7) 42:7.5 Not every world will show one hundred recognizable elements at the surface, but they are somewhere present, have been present, or are in process of evolution. Conditions surrounding the origin and subsequent evolution of a planet determine how many of the one hundred atomic types will be observable. The heavier atoms are not found on the surface of many worlds. Even on Urantia the known heavier elements manifest a tendency to fly to pieces, as is illustrated by radium behavior.
(477.8) 42:7.6 Stability of the atom depends on the number of electrically inactive neutrons in the central body. Chemical behavior is wholly dependent on the activity of the freely revolving electrons.
(478.1) 42:7.7 In Orvonton it has never been possible naturally to assemble over one hundred orbital electrons in one atomic system. When one hundred and one have been artificially introduced into the orbital field, the result has always been the instantaneous disruption of the central proton with the wild dispersion of the electrons and other liberated energies.
(478.2) 42:7.8 While atoms may contain from one to one hundred orbital electrons, only the outer ten electrons of the larger atoms revolve about the central nucleus as distinct and discrete bodies, intactly and compactly swinging around on precise and definite orbits. The thirty electrons nearest the center are difficult of observation or detection as separate and organized bodies. This same comparative ratio of electronic behavior in relation to nuclear proximity obtains in all atoms regardless of the number of electrons embraced. The nearer the nucleus, the less there is of electronic individuality. The wavelike energy extension of an electron may so spread out as to occupy the whole of the lesser atomic orbits; especially is this true of the electrons nearest the atomic nucleus.
(478.3) 42:7.9 The thirty innermost orbital electrons have individuality, but their energy systems tend to intermingle, extending from electron to electron and well-nigh from orbit to orbit. The next thirty electrons constitute the second family, or energy zone, and are of advancing individuality, bodies of matter exerting a more complete control over their attendant energy systems. The next thirty electrons, the third energy zone, are still more individualized and circulate in more distinct and definite orbits. The last ten electrons, present in only the ten heaviest elements, are possessed of the dignity of independence and are, therefore, able to escape more or less freely from the control of the mother nucleus. With a minimum variation in temperature and pressure, the members of this fourth and outermost group of electrons will escape from the grasp of the central nucleus, as is illustrated by the spontaneous disruption of uranium and kindred elements.
(478.4) 42:7.10 The first twenty-seven atoms, those containing from one to twenty-seven orbital electrons, are more easy of comprehension than the rest. From twenty-eight upward we encounter more and more of the unpredictability of the supposed presence of the Unqualified Absolute. But some of this electronic unpredictability is due to differential ultimatonic axial revolutionary velocities and to the unexplained “huddling” proclivity of ultimatons. Other influences — physical, electrical, magnetic, and gravitational — also operate to produce variable electronic behavior. Atoms therefore are similar to persons as to predictability. Statisticians may announce laws governing a large number of either atoms or persons but not for a single individual atom or person.
8. Atomic Cohesion
(478.6) 42:8.2 The interelectronic space of an atom is not empty. Throughout an atom this interelectronic space is activated by wavelike manifestations which are perfectly synchronized with electronic velocity and ultimatonic revolutions. This force is not wholly dominated by your recognized laws of positive and negative attraction; its behavior is therefore sometimes unpredictable. This unnamed influence seems to be a space-force reaction of the Unqualified Absolute.
(479.1) 42:8.3 The charged protons and the uncharged neutrons of the nucleus of the atom are held together by the reciprocating function of the mesotron, a particle of matter 180 times as heavy as the electron. Without this arrangement the electric charge carried by the protons would be disruptive of the atomic nucleus.
(479.2) 42:8.4 As atoms are constituted, neither electric nor gravitational forces could hold the nucleus together. The integrity of the nucleus is maintained by the reciprocal cohering function of the mesotron, which is able to hold charged and uncharged particles together because of superior force-mass power and by the further function of causing protons and neutrons constantly to change places. The mesotron causes the electric charge of the nuclear particles to be incessantly tossed back and forth between protons and neutrons. At one infinitesimal part of a second a given nuclear particle is a charged proton and the next an uncharged neutron. And these alternations of energy status are so unbelievably rapid that the electric charge is deprived of all opportunity to function as a disruptive influence. Thus does the mesotron function as an “energy-carrier” particle which mightily contributes to the nuclear stability of the atom.
(479.3) 42:8.5 The presence and function of the mesotron also explains another atomic riddle. When atoms perform radioactively, they emit far more energy than would be expected. This excess of radiation is derived from the breaking up of the mesotron “energy carrier,” which thereby becomes a mere electron. The mesotronic disintegration is also accompanied by the emission of certain small uncharged particles.
(479.4) 42:8.6 The mesotron explains certain cohesive properties of the atomic nucleus, but it does not account for the cohesion of proton to proton nor for the adhesion of neutron to neutron. The paradoxical and powerful force of atomic cohesive integrity is a form of energy as yet undiscovered on Urantia.
(479.5) 42:8.7 These mesotrons are found abundantly in the space rays which so incessantly impinge upon your planet.
9. Natural Philosophy
(479.7) 42:9.2 The number seven is basic to the central universe and the spiritual system of inherent transmissions of character, but the number ten, the decimal system, is inherent in energy, matter, and the material creation. Nevertheless the atomic world does display a certain periodic characterization which recurs in groups of seven — a birthmark carried by this material world indicative of its far-distant spiritual origin.
(480.1) 42:9.3 This sevenfold persistence of creative constitution is exhibited in the chemical domains as a recurrence of similar physical and chemical properties in segregated periods of seven when the basic elements are arranged in the order of their atomic weights. When the Urantia chemical elements are thus arranged in a row, any given quality or property tends to recur by sevens. This periodic change by sevens recurs diminishingly and with variations throughout the entire chemical table, being most markedly observable in the earlier or lighter atomic groupings. Starting from any one element, after noting some one property, such a quality will change for six consecutive elements, but on reaching the eighth, it tends to reappear, that is, the eighth chemically active element resembles the first, the ninth the second, and so on. Such a fact of the physical world unmistakably points to the sevenfold constitution of ancestral energy and is indicative of the fundamental reality of the sevenfold diversity of the creations of time and space. Man should also note that there are seven colors in the natural spectrum.
(480.2) 42:9.4 But not all the suppositions of natural philosophy are valid; for example, the hypothetical ether, which represents an ingenious attempt of man to unify his ignorance of space phenomena. The philosophy of the universe cannot be predicated on the observations of so-called science. If such a metamorphosis could not be seen, a scientist would be inclined to deny the possibility of developing a butterfly out of a caterpillar.
(480.3) 42:9.5 Physical stability associated with biologic elasticity is present in nature only because of the well-nigh infinite wisdom possessed by the Master Architects of creation. Nothing less than transcendental wisdom could ever design units of matter which are at the same time so stable and so efficiently flexible.
10. Universal Nonspiritual Energy Systems
(Material Mind Systems)
(480.5) 42:10.2 The universal nonspiritual energies are reassociated in the living systems of non-Creator minds on various levels, certain of which may be depicted as follows:
(480.6) 42:10.3 1. Preadjutant-spirit minds. This level of mind is nonexperiencing and on the inhabited worlds is ministered by the Master Physical Controllers. This is mechanical mind, the nonteachable intellect of the most primitive forms of material life, but the nonteachable mind functions on many levels beside that of primitive planetary life.(481.4) 42:10.7 On Paradise, mind is absolute; in Havona, absonite; in Orvonton, finite. Mind always connotes the presence-activity of living ministry plus varied energy systems, and this is true of all levels and of all kinds of mind. But beyond the cosmic mind it becomes increasingly difficult to portray the relationships of mind to nonspiritual energy. Havona mind is subabsolute but superevolutionary; being existential-experiential, it is nearer the absonite than any other concept revealed to you. Paradise mind is beyond human understanding; it is existential, nonspatial, and nontemporal. Nevertheless, all of these levels of mind are overshadowed by the universal presence of the Conjoint Actor — by the mind-gravity grasp of the God of mind on Paradise.
(481.1) 42:10.4 2. Adjutant-spirit minds. This is the ministry of a local universe Mother Spirit functioning through her seven adjutant mind-spirits on the teachable (nonmechanical) level of material mind. On this level material mind is experiencing: as subhuman (animal) intellect in the first five adjutants; as human (moral) intellect in the seven adjutants; as superhuman (midwayer) intellect in the last two adjutants.
(481.2) 42:10.5 3. Evolving morontia minds — the expanding consciousness of evolving personalities in the local universe ascending careers. This is the bestowal of the local universe Mother Spirit in liaison with the Creator Son. This mind level connotes the organization of the morontia type of life vehicle, a synthesis of the material and the spiritual which is effected by the Morontia Power Supervisors of a local universe. Morontia mind functions differentially in response to the 570 levels of morontia life, disclosing increasing associative capacity with the cosmic mind on the higher levels of attainment. This is the evolutionary course of mortal creatures, but mind of a nonmorontia order is also bestowed by a Universe Son and a Universe Spirit upon the nonmorontia children of the local creations.
(481.3) 42:10.6 The cosmic mind. This is the sevenfold diversified mind of time and space, one phase of which is ministered by each of the Seven Master Spirits to one of the seven superuniverses. The cosmic mind encompasses all finite-mind levels and co-ordinates experientially with the evolutionary-deity levels of the Supreme Mind and transcendentally with the existential levels of absolute mind — the direct circuits of the Conjoint Actor.
11. Universe Mechanisms
(481.6) 42:11.2 Mechanisms do not absolutely dominate the total creation; the universe of universes in toto is mind planned, mind made, and mind administered. But the divine mechanism of the universe of universes is altogether too perfect for the scientific methods of the finite mind of man to discern even a trace of the dominance of the infinite mind. For this creating, controlling, and upholding mind is neither material mind nor creature mind; it is spirit-mind functioning on and from creator levels of divine reality.
(482.1) 42:11.3 The ability to discern and discover mind in universe mechanisms depends entirely on the ability, scope, and capacity of the investigating mind engaged in such a task of observation. Time-space minds, organized out of the energies of time and space, are subject to the mechanisms of time and space.
(482.2) 42:11.4 Motion and universe gravitation are twin facets of the impersonal time-space mechanism of the universe of universes. The levels of gravity response for spirit, mind, and matter are quite independent of time, but only true spirit levels of reality are independent of space (nonspatial). The higher mind levels of the universe — the spirit-mind levels — may also be nonspatial, but the levels of material mind, such as human mind, are responsive to the interactions of universe gravitation, losing this response only in proportion to spirit identification. Spirit-reality levels are recognized by their spirit content, and spirituality in time and space is measured inversely to the linear-gravity response.
(482.3) 42:11.5 Linear-gravity response is a quantitative measure of nonspirit energy. All mass — organized energy — is subject to this grasp except as motion and mind act upon it. Linear gravity is the short-range cohesive force of the macrocosmos somewhat as the forces of intra-atomic cohesion are the short-range forces of the microcosmos. Physical materialized energy, organized as so-called matter, cannot traverse space without affecting linear-gravity response. Although such gravity response is directly proportional to mass, it is so modified by intervening space that the final result is no more than roughly approximated when expressed as inversely according to the square of the distance. Space eventually conquers linear gravitation because of the presence therein of the antigravity influences of numerous supermaterial forces which operate to neutralize gravity action and all responses thereto.
(482.4) 42:11.6 Extremely complex and highly automatic-appearing cosmic mechanisms always tend to conceal the presence of the originative or creative indwelling mind from any and all intelligences very far below the universe levels of the nature and capacity of the mechanism itself. Therefore is it inevitable that the higher universe mechanisms must appear to be mindless to the lower orders of creatures. The only possible exception to such a conclusion would be the implication of mindedness in the amazing phenomenon of an apparently self-maintaining universe — but that is a matter of philosophy rather than one of actual experience.
(482.5) 42:11.7 Since mind co-ordinates the universe, fixity of mechanisms is nonexistent. The phenomenon of progressive evolution associated with cosmic self-maintenance is universal. The evolutionary capacity of the universe is inexhaustible in the infinity of spontaneity. Progress towards harmonious unity, a growing experiential synthesis superimposed on an ever-increasing complexity of relationships, could be effected only by a purposive and dominant mind.
(482.6) 42:11.8 The higher the universe mind associated with any universe phenomenon, the more difficult it is for the lower types of mind to discover it. And since the mind of the universe mechanism is creative spirit-mind (even the mindedness of the Infinite), it can never be discovered or discerned by the lower-level minds of the universe, much less by the lowest mind of all, the human. The evolving animal mind, while naturally God-seeking, is not alone and of itself inherently God-knowing.
12. Pattern and Form — Mind Dominance
(483.2) 42:12.2 1. Creation of material mechanisms.(483.9) 42:12.9 Mind is always creative. The mind endowment of an individual animal, mortal, morontian, spirit ascender, or finality attainer is always competent to produce a suitable and serviceable body for the living creature identity. But the presence phenomenon of a personality or the pattern of an identity, as such, is not a manifestation of energy, either physical, mindal, or spiritual. The personality form is the pattern aspect of a living being; it connotes the arrangement of energies, and this, plus life and motion, is the mechanism of creature existence.
(483.3) 42:12.3 2. Discovery of hidden mysteries.
(483.4) 42:12.4 3. Exploration of remote situations.
(483.5) 42:12.5 4. Formulation of mental systems.
(483.6) 42:12.6 5. Attainment of wisdom goals.
(483.7) 42:12.7 6. Achievement of spirit levels.
(483.8) 42:12.8 7. The accomplishment of divine destinies — supreme, ultimate, and absolute.
(483.10) 42:12.10 Even spirit beings have form, and these spirit forms (patterns) are real. Even the highest type of spirit personalities have forms — personality presences in every sense analogous to Urantia mortal bodies. Nearly all beings encountered in the seven superuniverses are possessed of forms. But there are a few exceptions to this general rule: Thought Adjusters appear to be without form until after fusion with the surviving souls of their mortal associates. Solitary Messengers, Inspired Trinity Spirits, Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit, Gravity Messengers, Transcendental Recorders, and certain others are also without discoverable form. But these are typical of the exceptional few; the great majority have bona fide personality forms, forms which are individually characteristic, and which are recognizable and personally distinguishable.
(483.11) 42:12.11 The liaison of the cosmic mind and the ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits evolve a suitable physical tabernacle for the evolving human being. Likewise does the morontia mind individualize the morontia form for all mortal survivors. As the mortal body is personal and characteristic for every human being, so will the morontia form be highly individual and adequately characteristic of the creative mind which dominates it. No two morontia forms are any more alike than any two human bodies. The Morontia Power Supervisors sponsor, and the attending seraphim provide, the undifferentiated morontia material wherewith the morontia life can begin to work. And after the morontia life it will be found that spirit forms are equally diverse, personal, and characteristic of their respective spirit-mind indwellers.
(483.12) 42:12.12 On a material world you think of a body as having a spirit, but we regard the spirit as having a body. The material eyes are truly the windows of the spirit-born soul. The spirit is the architect, the mind is the builder, the body is the material building.
(484.1) 42:12.13 Physical, spiritual, and mindal energies, as such and in their pure states, do not fully interact as actuals of the phenomenal universes. On Paradise the three energies are co-ordinate, in Havona co-ordinated, while in the universe levels of finite activities there must be encountered all ranges of material, mindal, and spiritual dominance. In nonpersonal situations of time and space, physical energy seems to predominate, but it also appears that the more nearly spirit-mind function approaches divinity of purpose and supremacy of action, the more nearly does the spirit phase become dominant; that on the ultimate level spirit-mind may become all but completely dominant. On the absolute level spirit certainly is dominant. And from there on out through the realms of time and space, wherever a divine spirit reality is present, whenever a real spirit-mind is functioning, there always tends to be produced a material or physical counterpart of that spirit reality.
(484.2) 42:12.14 The spirit is the creative reality; the physical counterpart is the time-space reflection of the spirit reality, the physical repercussion of the creative action of spirit-mind.
(484.3) 42:12.15 Mind universally dominates matter, even as it is in turn responsive to the ultimate overcontrol of spirit. And with mortal man, only that mind which freely submits itself to the spirit direction can hope to survive the mortal time-space existence as an immortal child of the eternal spirit world of the Supreme, the Ultimate, and the Absolute: the Infinite.
(484.4) 42:12.16 [Presented by a Mighty Messenger on duty in Nebadon and by the request of Gabriel.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 43
The Constellations
(485.2) 43:0.2 The government of your constellation is situated in a cluster of 771 architectural spheres, the centermost and largest of which is Edentia, the seat of the administration of the Constellation Fathers, the Most Highs of Norlatiadek. Edentia itself is approximately one hundred times as large as your world. The seventy major spheres surrounding Edentia are about ten times the size of Urantia, while the ten satellites which revolve around each of these seventy worlds are about the size of Urantia. These 771 architectural spheres are quite comparable in size to those of other constellations.
(485.3) 43:0.3 Edentia time reckoning and distance measurement are those of Salvington, and like the spheres of the universe capital, the constellation headquarters worlds are fully supplied with all orders of celestial intelligences. In general, these personalities are not very different from those described in connection with the universe administration.
(485.4) 43:0.4 The supervisor seraphim, the third order of local universe angels, are assigned to the service of the constellations. They make their headquarters on the capital spheres and minister extensively to the encircling morontia-training worlds. In Norlatiadek the seventy major spheres, together with the seven hundred minor satellites, are inhabited by the univitatia, the permanent citizens of the constellation. All these architectural worlds are fully administered by the various groups of native life, for the greater part unrevealed but including the efficient spironga and the beautiful spornagia. Being the mid-point in the morontia-training regime, as you might suspect, the morontia life of the constellations is both typical and ideal.
1. The Constellation Headquarters
(486.1) 43:1.2 The water of Edentia and similar architectural spheres is no different from the water of the evolutionary planets. The water systems of such spheres are both surface and subterranean, and the moisture is in constant circulation. Edentia can be circumnavigated via these various water routes, though the chief channel of transportation is the atmosphere. Spirit beings would naturally travel above the surface of the sphere, while the morontia and material beings make use of material and semimaterial means to negotiate atmospheric passage.
(486.2) 43:1.3 Edentia and its associated worlds have a true atmosphere, the usual three-gas mixture which is characteristic of such architectural creations, and which embodies the two elements of Urantian atmosphere plus that morontia gas suitable for the respiration of morontia creatures. But while this atmosphere is both material and morontial, there are no storms or hurricanes; neither is there summer nor winter. This absence of atmospheric disturbances and of seasonal variation makes it possible to embellish all outdoors on these especially created worlds.
(486.3) 43:1.4 The Edentia highlands are magnificent physical features, and their beauty is enhanced by the endless profusion of life which abounds throughout their length and breadth. Excepting a few rather isolated structures, these highlands contain no work of creature hands. Material and morontial ornamentations are limited to the dwelling areas. The lesser elevations are the sites of special residences and are beautifully embellished with both biologic and morontia art.
(486.4) 43:1.5 Situated on the summit of the seventh highland range are the resurrection halls of Edentia, wherein awaken the ascending mortals of the secondary modified order of ascension. These chambers of creature reassembly are under the supervision of the Melchizedeks. The first of the receiving spheres of Edentia (like the planet Melchizedek near Salvington) also has special resurrection halls, wherein the mortals of the modified orders of ascension are reassembled.
(486.5) 43:1.6 The Melchizedeks also maintain two special colleges on Edentia. One, the emergency school, is devoted to the study of problems growing out of the Satania rebellion. The other, the bestowal school, is dedicated to the mastery of the new problems arising out of the fact that Michael made his final bestowal on one of the worlds of Norlatiadek. This latter college was established almost forty thousand years ago, immediately after the announcement by Michael that Urantia had been selected as the world for his final bestowal.*
(486.6) 43:1.7 The sea of glass, the receiving area of Edentia, is near the administrative center and is encircled by the headquarters amphitheater. Surrounding this area are the governing centers for the seventy divisions of constellation affairs. One half of Edentia is divided into seventy triangular sections, whose boundaries converge at the headquarters buildings of their respective sectors. The remainder of this sphere is one vast natural park, the gardens of God.
(486.7) 43:1.8 During your periodic visits to Edentia, though the entire planet is open to your inspection, most of your time will be spent in that administrative triangle whose number corresponds to that of your current residential world. You will always be welcome as an observer in the legislative assemblies.
(486.8) 43:1.9 The morontia area assigned to ascending mortals resident on Edentia is located in the mid-zone of the thirty-fifth triangle adjoining the headquarters of the finaliters, situated in the thirty-sixth triangle. The general headquarters of the univitatia occupies an enormous area in the mid-region of the thirty-fourth triangle immediately adjoining the residential reservation of the morontia citizens. From these arrangements it may be seen that provision is made for the accommodation of at least seventy major divisions of celestial life, and also that each of these seventy triangular areas is correlated with some one of the seventy major spheres of morontia training.
(487.1) 43:1.10 The Edentia sea of glass is one enormous circular crystal about one hundred miles in circumference and about thirty miles in depth. This magnificent crystal serves as the receiving field for all transport seraphim and other beings arriving from points outside the sphere; such a sea of glass greatly facilitates the landing of transport seraphim.
(487.2) 43:1.11 A crystal field on this order is found on almost all architectural worlds; and it serves many purposes aside from its decorative value, being utilized for portraying superuniverse reflectivity to assembled groups and as a factor in the energy-transformation technique for modifying the currents of space and for adapting other incoming physical-energy streams.
2. The Constellation Government
(487.4) 43:2.2 Constellations thus function as the legislative or lawmaking units, while the local systems serve as the executive or enforcement units. The Salvington government is the supreme judicial and co-ordinating authority.
(487.5) 43:2.3 While the supreme judicial function rests with the central administration of a local universe, there are two subsidiary but major tribunals at the headquarters of each constellation, the Melchizedek council and the court of the Most High.
(487.6) 43:2.4 All judicial problems are first reviewed by the council of the Melchizedeks. Twelve of this order who have had certain requisite experience on the evolutionary planets and on the system headquarters worlds are empowered to review evidence, digest pleas, and formulate provisional verdicts, which are passed on to the court of the Most High, the reigning Constellation Father. The mortal division of this latter tribunal consists of seven judges, all of whom are ascendant mortals. The higher you ascend in the universe, the more certain you are to be judged by those of your own kind.
(487.7) 43:2.5 The constellation legislative body is divided into three groups. The legislative program of a constellation originates in the lower house of ascenders, a group presided over by a finaliter and consisting of one thousand representative mortals. Each system nominates ten members to sit in this deliberative assembly. On Edentia this body is not fully recruited at the present time.
(487.8) 43:2.6 The mid-chamber of legislators is composed of the seraphic hosts and their associates, other children of the local universe Mother Spirit. This group numbers one hundred and is nominated by the supervising personalities who preside over the various activities of such beings as they function within the constellation.
(488.1) 43:2.7 The advisory or highest body of constellation legislators consists of the house of peers — the house of the divine Sons. This corps is chosen by the Most High Fathers and numbers ten. Only Sons of special experience may serve in this upper house. This is the fact-finding and timesaving group which very effectively serves both of the lower divisions of the legislative assembly.
(488.2) 43:2.8 The combined council of legislators consists of three members from each of these separate branches of the constellation deliberative assembly and is presided over by the reigning junior Most High. This group sanctions the final form of all enactments and authorizes their promulgation by the broadcasters. The approval of this supreme commission renders legislative enactments the law of the realm; their acts are final. The legislative pronouncements of Edentia constitute the fundamental law of all Norlatiadek.
3. The Most Highs of Norlatiadek
(488.4) 43:3.2 At least three Vorondadek Sons are commissioned by Gabriel as the Most Highs of each of the Nebadon constellations. The presiding member of this trio is known as the Constellation Father and his two associates as the senior Most High and the junior Most High. A Constellation Father reigns for ten thousand standard years (about 50,000 Urantia years), having previously served as junior associate and as senior associate for equal periods.
(488.5) 43:3.3 The Psalmist knew that Edentia was ruled by three Constellation Fathers and accordingly spoke of their abode in the plural: “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the most holy place of the tabernacles of the Most Highs.”
(488.6) 43:3.4 Down through the ages there has been great confusion on Urantia regarding the various universe rulers. Many later teachers confused their vague and indefinite tribal deities with the Most High Fathers. Still later, the Hebrews merged all of these celestial rulers into a composite Deity. One teacher understood that the Most Highs were not the Supreme Rulers, for he said, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” In the Urantia records it is very difficult at times to know exactly who is referred to by the term “Most High.” But Daniel fully understood these matters. He said, “The Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever he will.”
(488.7) 43:3.5 The Constellation Fathers are little occupied with the individuals of an inhabited planet, but they are closely associated with those legislative and lawmaking functions of the constellations which so greatly concern every mortal race and national group of the inhabited worlds.
(489.1) 43:3.6 Although the constellation regime stands between you and the universe administration, as individuals you would ordinarily be little concerned with the constellation government. Your great interest would normally center in the local system, Satania; but temporarily, Urantia is closely related to the constellation rulers because of certain system and planetary conditions growing out of the Lucifer rebellion.
(489.2) 43:3.7 The Edentia Most Highs seized certain phases of planetary authority on the rebellious worlds at the time of the Lucifer secession. They have continued to exercise this power, and the Ancients of Days long since confirmed this assumption of control over these wayward worlds. They will no doubt continue to exercise this assumed jurisdiction as long as Lucifer lives. Much of this authority would ordinarily, in a loyal system, be invested in the System Sovereign.
(489.3) 43:3.8 But there is still another way in which Urantia became peculiarly related to the Most Highs. When Michael, the Creator Son, was on his terminal bestowal mission, since the successor of Lucifer was not in full authority in the local system, all Urantia affairs which concerned the Michael bestowal were immediately supervised by the Most Highs of Norlatiadek.
4. Mount Assembly — The Faithful of Days
(489.5) 43:4.2 This Faithful of Days is a Trinity Son of Paradise and has been present on Edentia as the personal representative of Immanuel since the creation of the headquarters world. Ever the Faithful of Days stands at the right hand of the Constellation Fathers to counsel them, but never does he proffer advice unless it is asked for. The high Sons of Paradise never participate in the conduct of the affairs of a local universe except upon the petition of the acting rulers of such domains. But all that a Union of Days is to a Creator Son, a Faithful of Days is to the Most Highs of a constellation.
(489.6) 43:4.3 The residence of the Edentia Faithful of Days is the constellation center of the Paradise system of extrauniverse communication and intelligence. These Trinity Sons, with their staffs of Havona and Paradise personalities, in liaison with the supervising Union of Days, are in direct and constant communication with their order throughout all the universes, even to Havona and Paradise.
(489.7) 43:4.4 The most holy mount is exquisitely beautiful and marvelously appointed, but the actual residence of the Paradise Son is modest in comparison with the central abode of the Most Highs and the surrounding seventy structures comprising the residential unit of the Vorondadek Sons. These appointments are exclusively residential; they are entirely separate from the extensive administrative headquarters buildings wherein the affairs of the constellation are transacted.
(489.8) 43:4.5 The residence of the Faithful of Days on Edentia is located to the north of these residences of the Most Highs and is known as the “mount of Paradise assembly.” On this consecrated highland the ascending mortals periodically assemble to hear this Son of Paradise tell of the long and intriguing journey of progressing mortals through the one billion perfection worlds of Havona and on to the indescribable delights of Paradise. And it is at these special gatherings on Mount Assembly that the morontia mortals become more fully acquainted with the various groups of personalities of origin in the central universe.
(490.1) 43:4.6 The traitorous Lucifer, onetime sovereign of Satania, in announcing his claims to increased jurisdiction, sought to displace all superior orders of sonship in the governmental plan of the local universe. He purposed in his heart, saying: “I will exalt my throne above the Sons of God; I will sit upon the mount of assembly in the north; I will be like the Most High.”
(490.2) 43:4.7 The one hundred System Sovereigns come periodically to the Edentia conclaves which deliberate on the welfare of the constellation. After the Satania rebellion the archrebels of Jerusem were wont to come up to these Edentia councils just as they had on former occasions. And there was found no way to stop this arrogant effrontery until after the bestowal of Michael on Urantia and his subsequent assumption of unlimited sovereignty throughout all Nebadon. Never, since that day, have these instigators of sin been permitted to sit in the Edentia councils of the loyal System Sovereigns.
(490.3) 43:4.8 That the teachers of olden times knew of these things is shown by the record: “And there was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Most Highs, and Satan came also and presented himself among them.” And this is a statement of fact regardless of the connection in which it chances to appear.
(490.4) 43:4.9 Since the triumph of Christ, all Norlatiadek is being cleansed of sin and rebels. Sometime before Michael’s death in the flesh the fallen Lucifer’s associate, Satan, sought to attend such an Edentia conclave, but the solidification of sentiment against the archrebels had reached the point where the doors of sympathy were so well-nigh universally closed that there could be found no standing ground for the Satania adversaries. When there exists no open door for the reception of evil, there exists no opportunity for the entertainment of sin. The doors of the hearts of all Edentia closed against Satan; he was unanimously rejected by the assembled System Sovereigns, and it was at this time that the Son of Man “beheld Satan fall as lightning from heaven.”
(490.5) 43:4.10 Since the Lucifer rebellion a new structure has been provided near the residence of the Faithful of Days. This temporary edifice is the headquarters of the Most High liaison, who functions in close touch with the Paradise Son as adviser to the constellation government in all matters respecting the policy and attitude of the order of Days toward sin and rebellion.
5. The Edentia Fathers since the Lucifer Rebellion
(490.7) 43:5.2 The present government of the constellation, however, has been expanded to include twelve Sons of the Vorondadek order. These twelve are as follows:
(490.8) 43:5.3 1. The Constellation Father. The present Most High ruler of Norlatiadek is number 617,318 of the Vorondadek series of Nebadon. He saw service in many constellations throughout our local universe before taking up his Edentia responsibilities.(491.11) 43:5.15 And this takes no account of the numerous Vorondadeks, envoys of Nebadon constellations, and others who are also resident on Edentia.
(490.9) 43:5.4 2. The senior Most High associate.
(491.1) 43:5.5 3. The junior Most High associate.
(491.2) 43:5.6 4. The Most High adviser, the personal representative of Michael since his attainment of the status of a Master Son.
(491.3) 43:5.7 5. The Most High executive, the personal representative of Gabriel stationed on Edentia ever since the Lucifer rebellion.
(491.4) 43:5.8 6. The Most High chief of planetary observers, the director of the Vorondadek observers stationed on the isolated worlds of Satania.
(491.5) 43:5.9 7. The Most High referee, the Vorondadek Son intrusted with the duty of adjusting all difficulties consequential to rebellion within the constellation.
(491.6) 43:5.10 8. The Most High emergency administrator, the Vorondadek Son charged with the task of adapting the emergency enactments of the Norlatiadek legislature to the rebellion-isolated worlds of Satania.
(491.7) 43:5.11 9. The Most High mediator, the Vorondadek Son assigned to harmonize the special bestowal adjustments on Urantia with the routine administration of the constellation. The presence of certain archangel activities and numerous other irregular ministrations on Urantia, together with the special activities of the Brilliant Evening Stars on Jerusem, necessitates the functioning of this Son.
(491.8) 43:5.12 10. The Most High judge-advocate, the head of the emergency tribunal devoted to the adjustment of the special problems of Norlatiadek growing out of the confusion consequent upon the Satania rebellion.
(491.9) 43:5.13 11. The Most High liaison, the Vorondadek Son attached to the Edentia rulers but commissioned as a special counselor with the Faithful of Days regarding the best course to pursue in the management of problems pertaining to rebellion and creature disloyalty.
(491.10) 43:5.14 12. The Most High director, the president of the emergency council of Edentia. All personalities assigned to Norlatiadek because of the Satania upheaval constitute the emergency council, and their presiding officer is a Vorondadek Son of extraordinary experience.
(491.12) 43:5.16 Ever since the Lucifer rebellion the Edentia Fathers have exercised a special care over Urantia and the other isolated worlds of Satania. Long ago the prophet recognized the controlling hand of the Constellation Fathers in the affairs of nations. “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people.”
(491.13) 43:5.17 Every quarantined or isolated world has a Vorondadek Son acting as an observer. He does not participate in planetary administration except when ordered by the Constellation Father to intervene in the affairs of the nations. Actually it is this Most High observer who “rules in the kingdoms of men.” Urantia is one of the isolated worlds of Norlatiadek, and a Vorondadek observer has been stationed on the planet ever since the Caligastia betrayal. When Machiventa Melchizedek ministered in semimaterial form on Urantia, he paid respectful homage to the Most High observer then on duty, as it is written, “And Melchizedek, king of Salem, was the priest of the Most High.” Melchizedek revealed the relations of this Most High observer to Abraham when he said, “And blessed be the Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”
6. The Gardens of God
(492.2) 43:6.2 About one half of Edentia is devoted to the exquisite gardens of the Most Highs, and these gardens are among the most entrancing morontia creations of the local universe. This explains why the extraordinarily beautiful places on the inhabited worlds of Norlatiadek are so often called “the garden of Eden.”
(492.3) 43:6.3 Centrally located in this magnificent garden is the worship shrine of the Most Highs. The Psalmist must have known something about these things, for he wrote: “Who shall ascend the hill of the Most Highs? Who shall stand in this holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully.” At this shrine the Most Highs, on every tenth day of relaxation, lead all Edentia in the worshipful contemplation of God the Supreme.
(492.4) 43:6.4 The architectural worlds enjoy ten forms of life of the material order. On Urantia there is plant and animal life, but on such a world as Edentia there are ten divisions of the material orders of life. Were you to view these ten divisions of Edentia life, you would quickly classify the first three as vegetable and the last three as animal, but you would be utterly unable to comprehend the nature of the intervening four groups of prolific and fascinating forms of life.
(492.5) 43:6.5 Even the distinctively animal life is very different from that of the evolutionary worlds, so different that it is quite impossible to portray to mortal minds the unique character and affectionate nature of these nonspeaking creatures. There are thousands upon thousands of living creatures which your imagination could not possibly picture. The whole animal creation is of an entirely different order from the gross animal species of the evolutionary planets. But all this animal life is most intelligent and exquisitely serviceable, and all the various species are surprisingly gentle and touchingly companionable. There are no carnivorous creatures on such architectural worlds; there is nothing in all Edentia to make any living being afraid.
(492.6) 43:6.6 The vegetable life is also very different from that of Urantia, consisting of both material and morontia varieties. The material growths have a characteristic green coloration, but the morontia equivalents of vegetative life have a violet or orchid tinge of varying hue and reflection. Such morontia vegetation is purely an energy growth; when eaten there is no residual portion.
(492.7) 43:6.7 Being endowed with ten divisions of physical life, not to mention the morontia variations, these architectural worlds provide tremendous possibilities for the biologic beautification of the landscape and of the material and the morontia structures. The celestial artisans direct the native spornagia in this extensive work of botanic decoration and biologic embellishment. Whereas your artists must resort to inert paint and lifeless marble to portray their concepts, the celestial artisans and the univitatia more frequently utilize living materials to represent their ideas and to capture their ideals.
(493.1) 43:6.8 If you enjoy the flowers, shrubs, and trees of Urantia, then will you feast your eyes upon the botanical beauty and the floral grandeur of the supernal gardens of Edentia. But it is beyond my powers of description to undertake to convey to the mortal mind an adequate concept of these beauties of the heavenly worlds. Truly, eye has not seen such glories as await your arrival on these worlds of the mortal-ascension adventure.
7. The Univitatia
(493.3) 43:7.2 Spiritually, the univitatia are alike; intellectually, they vary as do mortals; in form, they much resemble the morontia state of existence, and they are created to function in seventy diverse orders of personality. Each of these orders of univitatia exhibits ten major variations of intellectual activity, and each of these varying intellectual types presides over the special training and cultural schools of progressive occupational or practical socialization on some one of the ten satellites which swing around each of the major Edentia worlds.
(493.4) 43:7.3 These seven hundred minor worlds are technical spheres of practical education in the working of the entire local universe and are open to all classes of intelligent beings. These training schools of special skill and technical knowledge are not conducted exclusively for ascending mortals, although morontia students constitute by far the largest group of all those who attend these courses of training. When you are received on any one of the seventy major worlds of social culture, you are immediately given clearance for each of the ten surrounding satellites.
(493.5) 43:7.4 In the various courtesy colonies, ascending morontia mortals predominate among the reversion directors, but the univitatia represent the largest group associated with the Nebadon corps of celestial artisans. In all Orvonton no extra-Havona beings excepting the Uversa abandonters can equal the univitatia in artistic skill, social adaptability, and co-ordinating cleverness.
(493.6) 43:7.5 These citizens of the constellation are not actually members of the artisan corps, but they freely work with all groups and contribute much to making the constellation worlds the chief spheres for the realization of the magnificent artistic possibilities of transition culture. They do not function beyond the confines of the constellation headquarters worlds.
8. The Edentia Training Worlds
(494.1) 43:8.2 The time spent on the seventy training worlds of transition morontia culture associated with the Edentia age of mortal ascension, is the most settled period in an ascending mortal’s career up to the status of a finaliter; this is really the typical morontia life. While you are re-keyed each time you pass from one major cultural world to another, you retain the same morontia body, and there are no periods of personality unconsciousness.*
(494.2) 43:8.3 Your sojourn on Edentia and its associated spheres will be chiefly occupied with the mastery of group ethics, the secret of pleasant and profitable interrelationship between the various universe and superuniverse orders of intelligent personalities.
(494.3) 43:8.4 On the mansion worlds you completed the unification of the evolving mortal personality; on the system capital you attained Jerusem citizenship and achieved the willingness to submit the self to the disciplines of group activities and co-ordinated undertakings; but now on the constellation training worlds you are to achieve the real socialization of your evolving morontia personality. This supernal cultural acquirement consists in learning how to:
(494.4) 43:8.5 1. Live happily and work effectively with ten diverse fellow morontians, while ten such groups are associated in companies of one hundred and then federated in corps of one thousand.(495.1) 43:8.12 We have portrayed Edentia socialization as an association of a morontia mortal with a univitatia family group consisting of ten intellectually dissimilar individuals concomitant with a similar association with ten fellow morontians. But on the first seven major worlds only one ascending mortal lives with ten univitatia. On the second group of seven major worlds two mortals abide with each native group of ten, and so on up until, on the last group of seven major spheres, ten morontia beings are domiciled with ten univitatia. As you learn how better to socialize with the univitatia, you will practice such improved ethics in your relations with your fellow morontia progressors.
(494.5) 43:8.6 2. Abide joyfully and co-operate heartily with ten univitatia, who, though similar intellectually to morontia beings, are very different in every other way. And then must you function with this group of ten as it co-ordinates with ten other families, which are in turn confederated into a corps of one thousand univitatia.
(494.6) 43:8.7 3. Achieve simultaneous adjustment to both fellow morontians and these host univitatia. Acquire the ability voluntarily and effectively to co-operate with your own order of beings in close working association with a somewhat dissimilar group of intelligent creatures.
(494.7) 43:8.8 4. While thus socially functioning with beings like and unlike yourself, achieve intellectual harmony with, and make vocational adjustment to, both groups of associates.
(494.8) 43:8.9 5. While attaining satisfactory socialization of the personality on intellectual and vocational levels, further perfect the ability to live in intimate contact with similar and slightly dissimilar beings with ever-lessening irritability and ever-diminishing resentment. The reversion directors contribute much to this latter attainment through their group-play activities.
(494.9) 43:8.10 6. Adjust all of these various socialization techniques to the furtherance of the progressive co-ordination of the Paradise-ascension career; augment universe insight by enhancing the ability to grasp the eternal goal-meanings concealed within these seemingly insignificant time-space activities.
(494.10) 43:8.11 7. And then, climax all of these procedures of multisocialization with the concurrent enhancement of spiritual insight as it pertains to the augmentation of all phases of personal endowment through group spiritual association and morontia co-ordination. Intellectually, socially, and spiritually two moral creatures do not merely double their personal potentials of universe achievement by partnership technique; they more nearly quadruple their attainment and accomplishment possibilities.
(495.2) 43:8.13 As ascending mortals you will enjoy your sojourn on the progress worlds of Edentia, but you will not experience that personal thrill of satisfaction which characterizes your initial contact with universe affairs on the system headquarters or your farewell touch with these realities on the final worlds of the universe capital.
9. Citizenship on Edentia
(495.4) 43:9.2 This entire sojourn on the constellation training worlds, culminating in Edentia citizenship, is a period of true and heavenly bliss for the morontia progressors. Throughout your sojourn on the system worlds you were evolving from a near-animal to a morontia creature; you were more material than spiritual. On the Salvington spheres you will be evolving from a morontia being to the status of a true spirit; you will be more spiritual than material. But on Edentia, ascenders are midway between their former and their future estates, midway in their passage from evolutionary animal to ascending spirit. During your whole stay on Edentia and its worlds you are “as the angels”; you are constantly progressing but all the while maintaining a general and a typical morontia status.
(495.5) 43:9.3 This constellation sojourn of an ascending mortal is the most uniform and stabilized epoch in the entire career of morontia progression. This experience constitutes the prespirit socialization training of the ascenders. It is analogous to the prefinaliter spiritual experience of Havona and to the preabsonite training on Paradise.
(495.6) 43:9.4 Ascending mortals on Edentia are chiefly occupied with the assignments on the seventy progressive univitatia worlds. They also serve in varied capacities on Edentia itself, mainly in conjunction with the constellation program concerned with group, racial, national, and planetary welfare. The Most Highs are not so much engaged in fostering individual advancement on the inhabited worlds; they rule in the kingdoms of men rather than in the hearts of individuals.
(495.7) 43:9.5 And on that day when you are prepared to leave Edentia for the Salvington career, you will pause and look back on one of the most beautiful and most refreshing of all your epochs of training this side of Paradise. But the glory of it all augments as you ascend inward and achieve increased capacity for enlarged appreciation of divine meanings and spiritual values.
(496.1) 43:9.6 [Sponsored by Malavatia Melchizedek.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 44
The Celestial Artisans
(497.2) 44:0.2 Though their work may be almost incomprehensible to the material mind, it should be understood that the morontia and spirit worlds are not without their high arts and supernal cultures.
(497.3) 44:0.3 The celestial artisans are not created as such; they are a selected and recruited corps of beings composed of certain teacher personalities native to the central universe and their volunteer pupils drawn from the ascending mortals and numerous other celestial groups. The original teaching corps of these artisans was sometime assigned by the Infinite Spirit in collaboration with the Seven Master Spirits and consisted of seven thousand Havona instructors, one thousand to each of the seven divisions of artisans. With such a nucleus to start with, there has developed through the ages this brilliant body of skillful workers in spirit and morontia affairs.
(497.4) 44:0.4 Any morontia personality or spirit entity is eligible for admission to the corps of the celestial artisans; that is, any being below the rank of inherent divine sonship. Ascending sons of God from the evolutionary spheres may, after their arrival on the morontia worlds, apply for admission to the artisan corps and, if sufficiently gifted, may choose such a career for a longer or shorter period. But no one may enlist with the celestial artisans for less than one millennium, one thousand years of superuniverse time.
(497.5) 44:0.5 All celestial artisans are registered on the superuniverse headquarters but are directed by morontia supervisors on the local universe capitals. They are commissioned in the following seven major divisions of activity by the central corps of morontia supervisors functioning on the headquarters world of each local universe:
(497.6) 44:0.6 1. Celestial Musicians.(498.4) 44:0.13 The original teachers of these seven groups all hailed from the perfect worlds of Havona, and Havona contains the patterns, the pattern studies, for all phases and forms of spirit artistry. While it is a gigantic task to undertake to transfer these arts of Havona to the worlds of space, the celestial artisans have improved in technique and execution from age to age. As in all other phases of the ascending career those who are most advanced in any line of endeavor are required constantly to impart their superior knowledge and skill to their less favored fellows.
(497.7) 44:0.7 2. Heavenly Reproducers.
(497.8) 44:0.8 3. Divine Builders.
(497.9) 44:0.9 4. Thought Recorders.
(498.1) 44:0.10 5. Energy Manipulators.
(498.2) 44:0.11 6. Designers and Embellishers.
(498.3) 44:0.12 7. Harmony Workers.
(498.5) 44:0.14 You will first begin to glimpse these transplanted arts of Havona on the mansion worlds, and their beauty and your appreciation of their beauty will heighten and brighten until you stand in the spirit halls of Salvington and behold the inspiring masterpieces of the supernal artists of the spirit realms.
(498.6) 44:0.15 All these activities of the morontia and spirit worlds are real. To spirit beings the spirit world is a reality. To us the material world is the more unreal. The higher forms of spirits freely pass through ordinary matter. High spirits are reactive to nothing material excepting certain of the basic energies. To material beings the spirit world is more or less unreal; to spirit beings the material world is almost entirely unreal, being merely a shadow of the substance of spirit realities.
(498.7) 44:0.16 I cannot, with exclusive spirit vision, perceive the building in which this narrative is being translated and recorded. A Divine Counselor from Uversa who chances to stand by my side perceives still less of these purely material creations. We discern how these material structures appear to you by viewing a spirit counterpart presented to our minds by one of our attending energy transformers. This material building is not exactly real to me, a spirit being, but it is, of course, very real and very serviceable to material mortals.
(498.8) 44:0.17 There are certain types of beings who are capable of discerning the reality of the creatures of both the spirit and the material worlds. Belonging to this class are the so-called fourth creatures of the Havona Servitals and the fourth creatures of the conciliators. The angels of time and space are endowed with the ability to discern both spirit and material beings as also are the ascending mortals subsequent to deliverance from the life in the flesh. After attainment of the higher spirit levels the ascenders are able to recognize material, morontia, and spirit realities.
(498.9) 44:0.18 There is also here with me a Mighty Messenger from Uversa, an ascendant Adjuster-fused, onetime mortal being, and he perceives you as you are, and at the same time he visualizes the Solitary Messenger, the supernaphim, and other celestial beings present. Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to recognize your friends and fellows of former estates.
(498.10) 44:0.19 All this is made possible in the experience of ascending mortals by the action of the indwelling Thought Adjusters. Through their retention of the duplicates of your entire life’s experiences, you are assured of never losing any true attribute you once had; and these Adjusters are going through with you, as a part of you, in reality, as you.
(499.1) 44:0.20 But I almost despair of being able to convey to the material mind the nature of the work of the celestial artisans. I am under the necessity of constantly perverting thought and distorting language in an effort to unfold to the mortal mind the reality of these morontia transactions and near-spirit phenomena. Your comprehension is incapable of grasping, and your language is inadequate for conveying, the meaning, value, and relationship of these semispirit activities. And I proceed with this effort to enlighten the human mind concerning these realities with the full understanding of the utter impossibility of my being very successful in such an undertaking.
(499.2) 44:0.21 I can do no more than attempt to sketch a crude parallelism between mortal material activities and the manifold functions of the celestial artisans. If the Urantia races were more advanced in art and other cultural accomplishments, then could I go that much farther in an effort to project the human mind from the things of matter to those of morontia. About all I can hope to accomplish is to make emphatic the fact of the reality of these transactions of the morontia and the spirit worlds.
1. The Celestial Musicians
(499.4) 44:1.2 The celestial musicians are occupied with the production of celestial harmony by the manipulation of the following spirit forces:
(499.5) 44:1.3 1. Spiritual sound — spirit current interruptions.(500.1) 44:1.10 There are over one hundred thousand different modes of sound, color, and energy manipulation, techniques analogous to the human employment of musical instruments. Your ensembles of dancing undoubtedly represent a crude and grotesque attempt of material creatures to approach the celestial harmony of being placement and personality arrangement. The other five forms of morontia melody are unrecognized by the sensory mechanism of material bodies.
(499.6) 44:1.4 2. Spiritual light — the control and intensification of the light of the morontia and spiritual realms.
(499.7) 44:1.5 3. Energy impingements — melody produced by the skillful management of the morontia and spirit energies.
(499.8) 44:1.6 4. Color symphonies — melody of morontia color tones; this ranks among the highest accomplishments of the celestial musicians.
(499.9) 44:1.7 5. Harmony of associated spirits — the very arrangement and association of different orders of morontia and spirit beings produce majestic melodies.
(499.10) 44:1.8 6. Melody of thought — the thinking of spiritual thoughts can be so perfected as to burst forth in the melodies of Havona.
(499.11) 44:1.9 7. The music of space — by proper attunement the melodies of other spheres can be picked up on the universe broadcast circuits.
(500.2) 44:1.11 Harmony, the music of the seven levels of melodious association, is the one universal code of spirit communication. Music, such as Urantia mortals understand, attains its highest expression in the schools of Jerusem, the system headquarters, where semimaterial beings are taught the harmonies of sound. Mortals do not react to the other forms of morontia melody and celestial harmony.
(500.3) 44:1.12 Appreciation of music on Urantia is both physical and spiritual; and your human musicians have done much to elevate musical taste from the barbarous monotony of your early ancestors to the higher levels of sound appreciation. The majority of Urantia mortals react to music so largely with the material muscles and so slightly with the mind and spirit; but there has been a steady improvement in musical appreciation for more than thirty-five thousand years.
(500.4) 44:1.13 Tuneful syncopation represents a transition from the musical monotony of primitive man to the expressionful harmony and meaningful melodies of your later-day musicians. These earlier types of rhythm stimulate the reaction of the music-loving sense without entailing the exertion of the higher intellectual powers of harmony appreciation and thus more generally appeal to immature or spiritually indolent individuals.
(500.5) 44:1.14 The best music of Urantia is just a fleeting echo of the magnificent strains heard by the celestial associates of your musicians, who left but snatches of these harmonies of morontia forces on record as the musical melodies of sound harmonics. Spirit-morontia music not infrequently employs all seven modes of expression and reproduction, so that the human mind is tremendously handicapped in any attempt to reduce these melodies of the higher spheres to mere notes of musical sound. Such an effort would be something like endeavoring to reproduce the strains of a great orchestra by means of a single musical instrument.
(500.6) 44:1.15 While you have assembled some beautiful melodies on Urantia, you have not progressed musically nearly so far as many of your neighboring planets in Satania. If Adam and Eve had only survived, then would you have had music in reality; but the gift of harmony, so large in their natures, has been so diluted by strains of unmusical tendencies that only once in a thousand mortal lives is there any great appreciation of harmonics. But be not discouraged; some day a real musician may appear on Urantia, and whole peoples will be enthralled by the magnificent strains of his melodies. One such human being could forever change the course of a whole nation, even the entire civilized world. It is literally true, “melody has power a whole world to transform.” Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits. Harmony is the speech of Havona.
2. The Heavenly Reproducers
(501.1) 44:2.2 There are seven groups of the heavenly reproducers, and I will attempt to illustrate their work by the following classification:
(501.2) 44:2.3 1. The singers — harmonists who reiterate the specific harmonies of the past and interpret the melodies of the present. But all of this is effected on the morontia level.(501.9) 44:2.10 Very often and effectively the heavenly reproducers collaborate with the reversion directors in combining memory recapitulation with certain forms of mind rest and personality diversion. Before the morontia conclaves and spirit assemblies these reproducers sometimes associate themselves in tremendous dramatic spectacles representative of the purpose of such gatherings. I recently witnessed such a stupendous presentation in which more than one million actors produced a succession of one thousand scenes.
(501.3) 44:2.4 2. The color workers — those artists of light and shade you might call sketchers and painters, artists who preserve passing scenes and transient episodes for future morontia enjoyment.
(501.4) 44:2.5 3. The light picturizers — the makers of the real semispirit-phenomena preservations of which motion pictures would be a very crude illustration.
(501.5) 44:2.6 4. The historic pageanteers — those who dramatically reproduce the crucial events of universe records and history.
(501.6) 44:2.7 5. The prophetic artists — those who project the meanings of history into the future.
(501.7) 44:2.8 6. The life-story tellers — those who perpetuate the meaning and significance of life experience. The projection of present personal experiences into future attainment values.
(501.8) 44:2.9 7. The administrative enactors — those who depict the significance of governmental philosophy and administrative technique, the celestial dramatists of sovereignty.
(501.10) 44:2.11 The higher intellectual teachers and the transition ministers freely and effectively utilize these various groups of reproducers in their morontia educational activities. But not all of their efforts are devoted to transient illustration; much, very much, of their work is of a permanent nature and will forever remain as a legacy to all future time. So versatile are these artisans that, when they function en masse, they are able to re-enact an age, and in collaboration with the seraphic ministers they can actually portray the eternal values of the spirit world to the mortal seers of time.
3. The Divine Builders
(502.1) 44:3.2 1. The home designers and builders — those who construct and remodel the abodes assigned to individuals and working groups. These morontia and spirit domiciles are real. They would be invisible to your short-range vision, but they are very real and beautiful to us. To a certain extent, all spirit beings may share with the builders certain details of the planning and creation of their morontia or spirit abodes. These homes are fitted up and embellished in accordance with the needs of the morontia or of the spirit creatures who are to inhabit them. There is abundant variety and ample opportunity for individual expression in all these constructions.(502.8) 44:3.9 While neither these structures nor their embellishment would be exactly real to the sensory comprehension of material mortals, they are very real to us. You would be unable to see these temples could you be there in the flesh; nevertheless, all of these supermaterial creations are actually there, and we clearly discern them and just as fully enjoy them.
(502.2) 44:3.3 2. The vocation builders — those who function in designing and assembling the abodes of the regular and routine workers of the spirit and morontia realms. These builders are comparable to those who construct the Urantia workshops and other industrial plants. The transition worlds have a necessary economy of mutual ministry and specialized division of labor. We do not all do everything; there is diversity of function among morontia beings and evolving spirits, and these vocation builders not only build better workshops but also contribute to the vocational enhancement of the worker.
(502.3) 44:3.4 3. The play builders. Enormous edifices are utilized during the seasons of rest, what mortals would call recreation and, in a certain sense, play. Provision is made for a suitable setting for the reversion directors, the humorists of the morontia worlds, those transition spheres whereon takes place the training of ascendant beings but recently removed from the evolutionary planets. Even the higher spirits engage in a certain form of reminiscent humor during their periods of spiritual recharging.
(502.4) 44:3.5 4. The worship builders — the experienced architects of the spirit and the morontia temples. All the worlds of mortal ascent have temples of worship, and they are the most exquisite creations of the morontia realms and the spirit spheres.
(502.5) 44:3.6 5. The education builders — those who build the headquarters of morontia training and advanced spirit learning. Always is the way open to acquire more knowledge, to gain additional information respecting one’s present and future work as well as universal cultural knowledge, information designed to make ascending mortals more intelligent and effective citizens of the morontia and spirit worlds.
(502.6) 44:3.7 6. Morontia planners — those who build for the co-ordinate association of all the personalities of all realms as they are at any one time present on any one sphere. These planners collaborate with the Morontia Power Supervisors to enrich the co-ordination of the progressive morontia life.
(502.7) 44:3.8 7. The public builders — the artisans who plan and construct the designated places of assembly other than those of worship. Great and magnificent are the places of common assembly.
4. The Thought Recorders
(503.2) 44:4.2 1. Thought preservers. These are the artisans dedicated to the preservation of the higher thought of the realms. On the morontia worlds they truly treasure the gems of mentation. Before first coming to Urantia, I saw records and heard broadcasts of the ideation of some of the great minds of this planet. Thought recorders preserve such noble ideas in the tongue of Uversa.
(503.3) 44:4.3 Each superuniverse has its own language, a tongue spoken by its personalities and prevailing throughout its sectors. This is known as the tongue of Uversa in our superuniverse. Each local universe also has its own language. All of the higher orders of Nebadon are bilingual, speaking both the language of Nebadon and the tongue of Uversa. When two individuals from different local universes meet, they communicate in the tongue of Uversa; if, however, one of them hails from another superuniverse, they must have recourse to a translator. In the central universe there is little need of a language; there exists perfect and well-nigh complete understanding; there, only the Gods are not fully comprehended. We are taught that a chance meeting on Paradise reveals more of mutual understanding than could be communicated by a mortal language in a thousand years. Even on Salvington we “know as we are known.”
(503.4) 44:4.4 The ability to translate thought into language in the morontia and spirit spheres is beyond mortal comprehension. Our rate of reducing thought to a permanent record can be so speeded up by the expert recorders that the equivalent of over half a million words, or thought symbols, can be registered in one minute of Urantia time. These universe languages are far more replete than the speech of the evolving worlds. The concept symbols of Uversa embrace more than a billion characters, although the basic alphabet contains only seventy symbols. The language of Nebadon is not quite so elaborate, the basic symbols, or alphabet, being forty-eight in number.
(503.5) 44:4.5 2. Concept recorders. This second group of recorders are concerned with the preservation of concept pictures, idea patterns. This is a form of permanent recording unknown on the material realms, and by this method I could gain more knowledge in one hour of your time than you could gain in one hundred years of perusing ordinary written language.
(503.6) 44:4.6 3. Ideograph recorders. We have the equivalent of both your written and spoken word, but in preserving thought, we usually employ concept picturization and ideograph techniques. Those who preserve ideographs are able to improve one thousandfold upon the work of the concept recorders.
(503.7) 44:4.7 4. Promoters of oratory. This group of recorders are occupied with the task of preserving thought for reproduction by oratory. But in the language of Nebadon we could, in a half hour’s address, cover the subject matter of the entire lifetime of a Urantia mortal. Your only hope of comprehending these transactions is to pause and consider the technique of your disordered and garbled dream life — how you can in a few seconds traverse years of experience in these fantasies of the night season.
(503.8) 44:4.8 The oratory of the spirit world is one of the rare treats which await you who have heard only the crude and stumbling orations of Urantia. There is harmony of music and euphony of expression in the orations of Salvington and Edentia which are inspiring beyond description. These burning concepts are like gems of beauty in diadems of glory. But I cannot do it! I cannot convey to the human mind the breadth and depth of these realities of another world!
(504.1) 44:4.9 5. The broadcast directors. The broadcasts of Paradise, the superuniverses, and the local universes are under the general supervision of this group of thought conservers. They serve as censors and editors as well as co-ordinators of the broadcast material, making a superuniverse adaptation of all Paradise broadcasts and adapting and translating the broadcasts of the Ancients of Days into the individual tongues of the local universes.
(504.2) 44:4.10 The local universe broadcasts must also be modified for reception by the systems and the individual planets. The transmittal of these space reports is carefully supervised, and there is always a back registry to insure the proper reception of every report on every world in a given circuit. These broadcast directors are technically expert in the utilization of the currents of space for all purposes of intelligence communication.
(504.3) 44:4.11 6. The rhythm recorders. Urantians would undoubtedly denominate these artisans poets, although their work is very different from, and almost infinitely transcends, your poetic productions. Rhythm is less exhausting to both morontia and spirit beings, and so an effort is frequently made to increase efficiency, as well as to augment pleasure, by executing numerous functions in rhythmic form. I only wish you might be privileged to hear some of the poetic broadcasts of the Edentia assemblies and to enjoy the richness of the color and tone of the constellation geniuses who are masters of this exquisite form of self-expression and social harmonization.
(504.4) 44:4.12 7. The morontia recorders. I am at a loss to know how to depict to the material mind the function of this important group of thought recorders assigned to the work of preserving the ensemble pictures of the various groupings of morontia affairs and spirit transactions; crudely illustrated, they are the group photographers of the transition worlds. They save for the future the vital scenes and associations of these progressive epochs, preserving them in the archives of the morontia halls of records.
5. The Energy Manipulators
(504.6) 44:5.2 1. Physical-energy manipulators. The physical-energy manipulators serve for long periods with the power directors and are experts in the manipulation and control of many phases of physical energy. They are conversant with the three basic currents and the thirty subsidiary energy segregations of the superuniverses. These beings are of inestimable assistance to the Morontia Power Supervisors of the transition worlds. They are the persistent students of the cosmic projections of Paradise.
(504.7) 44:5.3 2. Mind-energy manipulators. These are the experts of intercommunication between morontia and other types of intelligent beings. This form of communication between mortals is practically nonexistent on Urantia. These are the specialists who promote the ability of the ascending morontia beings to communicate with one another, and their work embraces numerous unique adventures in intellect liaison which are far beyond my power to portray to the material mind. These artisans are the keen students of the mind circuits of the Infinite Spirit.
(505.1) 44:5.4 3. Spiritual-energy manipulators. The manipulators of spiritual energy are an intriguing group. Spiritual energy acts in accordance with established laws, just as does physical energy. That is, spirit force, when studied, yields dependable deductions and can be precisely dealt with, even as can the physical energies. There are just as certain and reliable laws in the spirit world as obtain in the material realms. During the last few millions of years many improved techniques for the intake of spiritual energy have been effected by these students of the fundamental laws of the Eternal Son governing spirit energy as applied to the morontia and other orders of celestial beings throughout the universes.
(505.2) 44:5.5 4. The compound manipulators. This is the adventurous group of well-trained beings who are dedicated to the functional association of the three original phases of divine energy manifested throughout the universes as physical, mindal, and spiritual energies. These are the keen personalities who are in reality seeking to discover the universe presence of God the Supreme, for in this Deity personality there must occur the experiential unification of all grand universe divinity. And to a certain extent, these artisans have in recent times met with some success.
(505.3) 44:5.6 5. The transport advisers. This corps of technical advisers to the transport seraphim are most proficient in collaborating with the star students in working out routings and in otherwise assisting the chiefs of transport on the worlds of space. They are the traffic supervisors of the spheres and are present on all inhabited planets. Urantia is served by a corps of seventy transport advisers.
(505.4) 44:5.7 6. The experts of communication. Urantia, likewise, is served by twelve technicians of interplanetary and interuniverse communication. These long-experienced beings are expert in the knowledge of the laws of transmittal and interference as applied to the communications of the realms. This corps is concerned with all forms of space messages except those of Gravity and Solitary Messengers. On Urantia much of their work must be accomplished over the archangels’ circuit.
(505.5) 44:5.8 7. The teachers of rest. Divine rest is associated with the technique of spiritual-energy intake. Morontia and spirit energy must be replenished just as certainly as physical energy, but not for the same reasons. I am, perforce, compelled to employ crude illustrations in my attempts to enlighten you; nevertheless, we of the spirit world must stop our regular activities periodically and betake ourselves to suitable places of rendezvous where we enter the divine rest and thus recuperate our depleting energies.
(505.6) 44:5.9 You will receive your first lessons in these matters when you reach the mansion worlds after you have become morontia beings and have begun to experience the technique of spirit affairs. You know of the innermost circle of Havona and that, after the pilgrims of space have traversed the preceding circles, they must be inducted into the long and revivifying rest of Paradise. This is not only a technical requirement of transit from the career of time to the service of eternity, but it is also a necessity, a form of rest required to replenish the energy losses incident to the final steps of the ascendant experience and to store reserves of spirit power for the next stage of the endless career.
(506.1) 44:5.10 These energy manipulators also function in hundreds of other ways too numerous to catalogue, such as counseling with the seraphim, cherubim, and sanobim regarding the most efficient modes of energy intake and as to the maintenance of the most helpful balances of divergent forces between active cherubim and passive sanobim. In many other ways do these experts lend assistance to morontia and spirit creatures in their efforts to understand the divine rest, which is so essential to the effective utilization of the basic energies of space.
6. The Designers and Embellishers
(506.3) 44:6.2 This corps, while embracing over one thousand subdivisions of activity, is grouped under the following seven major heads:
(506.4) 44:6.3 1. The craftworkers of color. These are they who make the ten thousand color tones of spirit reflection peal forth their exquisite messages of harmonious beauty. Aside from color perception there is nothing in human experience to which these activities may be compared.
(506.5) 44:6.4 2. The sound designers. Spirit waves of diverse identity and morontia appreciation are depicted by these designers of what you would call sound. These impulses are in reality the superb reflections of the naked and glorious spirit-souls of the celestial hosts.
(506.6) 44:6.5 3. The emotion designers. These enhancers and conservators of feeling are those who preserve the sentiments of morontia and the emotions of divinity for the study and edification of the children of time and for the inspiration and beautification of morontia progressors and advancing spirits.
(506.7) 44:6.6 4. The artists of odor. This comparison of supernal spirit activities to the physical recognition of chemical odors is, indeed, unfortunate, but Urantia mortals could hardly recognize this ministry by any other name. These artisans create their varied symphonies for the edification and delight of the advancing children of light. You have nothing on earth to which this type of spiritual grandeur can be even remotely compared.
(506.8) 44:6.7 5. The presence embellishers. These artisans are not occupied with the arts of self-adornment or the technique of creature beautification. They are devoted to the production of multitudinous and joyous reactions in individual morontia and spirit creatures by dramatizing the significance of relationship through the positional values assigned to different morontia and spirit orders in the composite ensembles of these diversified beings. These artists arrange supermaterial beings as you would living musical notes, odors, sights, and then blend them into the anthems of glory.
(506.9) 44:6.8 6. The taste designers. And how can you be told of these artists! Faintly I might suggest that they are improvers of morontia taste, and they also endeavor to increase the appreciation of beauty through the sharpening of the evolving spirit senses.
(507.1) 44:6.9 7. The morontia synthesizers. These are the master craftsmen who, when all others have made their respective contributions, then add the culminating and finishing touches to the morontia ensemble, thus achieving an inspiring portrayal of the divinely beautiful, an enduring inspiration to spirit beings and their morontia associates. But you must await your deliverance from the animal body before you can begin to conceive of the artistic glories and aesthetic beauties of the morontia and spirit worlds.
7. The Harmony Workers
(507.3) 44:7.2 Beauty, rhythm, and harmony are intellectually associated and spiritually akin. Truth, fact, and relationship are intellectually inseparable and associated with the philosophic concepts of beauty. Goodness, righteousness, and justice are philosophically interrelated and spiritually bound up together with living truth and divine beauty.
(507.4) 44:7.3 Cosmic concepts of true philosophy, the portrayal of celestial artistry, or the mortal attempt to depict the human recognition of divine beauty can never be truly satisfying if such attempted creature progression is ununified. These expressions of the divine urge within the evolving creature may be intellectually true, emotionally beautiful, and spiritually good; but the real soul of expression is absent unless these realities of truth, meanings of beauty, and values of goodness are unified in the life experience of the artisan, the scientist, or the philosopher.
(507.5) 44:7.4 These divine qualities are perfectly and absolutely unified in God. And every God-knowing man or angel possesses the potential of unlimited self-expression on ever-progressive levels of unified self-realization by the technique of the never-ending achievement of Godlikeness — the experiential blending in the evolutionary experience of eternal truth, universal beauty, and divine goodness.
8. Mortal Aspirations and Morontia Achievements
(507.7) 44:8.2 There are three possible sources of special human ability: At the bottom always there exists the natural or inherent aptitude. Special ability is never an arbitrary gift of the Gods; there is always an ancestral foundation for every outstanding talent. In addition to this natural ability, or rather supplemental thereto, there may be contributed the leadings of the Thought Adjuster in those individuals whose indwelling Adjusters may have had actual and bona fide experiences along such lines on other worlds and in other mortal creatures. In those cases where both the human mind and the indwelling Adjuster are unusually skillful, the spirit artisans may be delegated to act as harmonizers of these talents and otherwise to assist and inspire these mortals to seek for ever-perfecting ideals and to attempt their enhanced portrayal for the edification of the realm.
(508.1) 44:8.3 There is no caste in the ranks of spirit artisans. No matter how lowly your origin, if you have ability and the gift of expression, you will gain adequate recognition and receive due appreciation as you ascend upward in the scale of morontia experience and spiritual attainment. There can be no handicap of human heredity or deprivation of mortal environment which the morontia career will not fully compensate and wholly remove. And all such satisfactions of artistic achievement and expressionful self-realization will be effected by your own personal efforts in progressive advancement. At last the aspirations of evolutionary mediocrity may be realized. While the Gods do not arbitrarily bestow talents and ability upon the children of time, they do provide for the attainment of the satisfaction of all their noble longings and for the gratification of all human hunger for supernal self-expression.
(508.2) 44:8.4 But every human being should remember: Many ambitions to excel which tantalize mortals in the flesh will not persist with these same mortals in the morontia and spirit careers. The ascending morontians learn to socialize their former purely selfish longings and egoistic ambitions. Nevertheless, those things which you so earnestly longed to do on earth and which circumstances so persistently denied you, if, after acquiring true mota insight in the morontia career, you still desire to do, then will you most certainly be granted every opportunity fully to satisfy your long-cherished desires.
(508.3) 44:8.5 Before ascending mortals leave the local universe to embark upon their spirit careers, they will be satiated respecting every intellectual, artistic, and social longing or true ambition which ever characterized their mortal or morontia planes of existence. This is the achievement of equality of the satisfaction of self-expression and self-realization but not the attainment of identical experiential status nor the complete obliteration of characteristic individuality in skill, technique, and expression. But the new spirit differential of personal experiential attainment will not become thus leveled off and equalized until after you have finished the last circle of the Havona career. And then will the Paradise residents be confronted with the necessity of adjusting to that absonite differential of personal experience which can be leveled off only by the group attainment of the ultimate of creature status — the seventh-stage-spirit destiny of the mortal finaliters.
(508.4) 44:8.6 And this is the story of the celestial artisans, that cosmopolitan body of exquisite workers who do so much to glorify the architectural spheres with the artistic portrayals of the divine beauty of the Paradise Creators.
(508.5) 44:8.7 [Indited by an Archangel of Nebadon.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 45
The Local System Administration
(509.2) 45:0.2 The seven mansion worlds are the seven subsatellites of transition world number one.
(509.3) 45:0.3 This entire system of fifty-seven architectural worlds is independently lighted, heated, watered, and energized by the co-ordination of the Satania Power Center and the Master Physical Controllers in accordance with the established technique of the physical organization and arrangement of these specially created spheres. They are also physically cared for and otherwise maintained by the native spornagia.
1. Transitional Culture Worlds
(509.5) 45:1.2 Number 1. The Finaliter World. This is the headquarters of the finaliter corps of the local system and is surrounded by the receiving worlds, the seven mansion worlds, dedicated so fully to the scheme of mortal ascension. The finaliter world is accessible to the inhabitants of all seven mansion worlds. Transport seraphim carry ascending personalities back and forth on these pilgrimages, which are designed to cultivate their faith in the ultimate destiny of transition mortals. Although the finaliters and their structures are not ordinarily perceptible to morontia vision, you will be more than thrilled, from time to time, when the energy transformers and the Morontia Power Supervisors enable you momentarily to glimpse these high spirit personalities who have actually completed the Paradise ascension, and who have returned to the very worlds where you are beginning this long journey, as the pledge of assurance that you may and can complete the stupendous undertaking. All mansion world sojourners go to the finaliter sphere at least once a year for these assemblies of finaliter visualization.
(510.1) 45:1.3 Number 2. The Morontia World. This planet is the headquarters of the supervisors of morontia life and is surrounded by the seven spheres whereon the morontia chiefs train their associates and helpers, both morontia beings and ascending mortals.
(510.2) 45:1.4 In passing through the seven mansion worlds, you will also progress through these cultural and social spheres of increasing morontia contact. When you advance from the first to the second mansion world, you will become eligible for a visitor’s permit to transitional headquarters number two, the morontia world, and so on. And when present on any one of these six cultural spheres, you may, on invitation, become a visitor and observer on any of the seven surrounding worlds of associated group activities.
(510.3) 45:1.5 Number 3. The Angelic World. This is the headquarters of all the seraphic hosts engaged in system activities and is surrounded by the seven worlds of angelic training and instruction. These are the seraphic social spheres.
(510.4) 45:1.6 Number 4. The Superangel World. This sphere is the Satania home of the Brilliant Evening Stars and a vast concourse of co-ordinate and near-co-ordinate beings. The seven satellites of this world are assigned to the seven major groups of these unnamed celestial beings.
(510.5) 45:1.7 Number 5. The World of the Sons. This planet is the headquarters of the divine Sons of all orders, including the creature-trinitized sons. The surrounding seven worlds are devoted to certain individual groupings of these divinely related sons.
(510.6) 45:1.8 Number 6. The World of the Spirit. This sphere serves as the system rendezvous of the high personalities of the Infinite Spirit. Its seven surrounding satellites are assigned to individual groups of these diverse orders. But on transition world number six there is no representation of the Spirit, neither is such a presence to be observed on the system capitals; the Divine Minister of Salvington is everywhere in Nebadon.
(510.7) 45:1.9 Number 7. The World of the Father. This is the silent sphere of the system. No group of beings is domiciled on it. The great temple of light occupies a central place, but no one can be discerned therein. All beings of all the system worlds are welcomed as worshipers.
(510.8) 45:1.10 The seven satellites surrounding the Father’s world are variously utilized in the different systems. In Satania they are now used as the detention spheres for the interned groups of the Lucifer rebellion. The constellation capital, Edentia, has no analogous prison worlds; the few seraphim and cherubim who went over to the rebels in the Satania rebellion have been long since confined on these isolation worlds of Jerusem.
(510.9) 45:1.11 As a sojourner on the seventh mansion world, you have access to the seventh transition world, the sphere of the Universal Father, and are also permitted to visit the Satania prison worlds surrounding this planet, whereon are now confined Lucifer and the majority of those personalities who followed him in rebellion against Michael. And this sad spectacle has been observable during these recent ages and will continue to serve as a solemn warning to all Nebadon until the Ancients of Days shall adjudicate the sin of Lucifer and his fallen associates who rejected the salvation proffered by Michael, their universe Father.
2. The System Sovereign
(511.2) 45:2.2 In Satania, even after this disastrous upheaval, absolutely no changes have been made in the technique of system administration. The present System Sovereign possesses all the power and exercises all the authority that were invested in his unworthy predecessor except for certain matters now under the supervision of the Constellation Fathers which the Ancients of Days have not yet fully restored to Lanaforge, the successor of Lucifer.
(511.3) 45:2.3 The present head of Satania is a gracious and brilliant ruler, and he is a rebellion-tested sovereign. When serving as an assistant System Sovereign, Lanaforge was faithful to Michael in an earlier upheaval in the universe of Nebadon. This mighty and brilliant Lord of Satania is a tried and tested administrator. At the time of the second system rebellion in Nebadon, when the System Sovereign stumbled and fell into darkness, Lanaforge, the first assistant to the erring chief, seized the reins of government and so conducted the affairs of the system that comparatively few personalities were lost either on the headquarters worlds or on the inhabited planets of that unfortunate system. Lanaforge bears the distinction of being the only primary Lanonandek Son in all Nebadon who thus functioned loyally in the service of Michael and in the very presence of the default of his brother of superior authority and antecedent rank. Lanaforge will probably not be removed from Jerusem until all the results of the former folly have been overcome and the products of rebellion removed from Satania.
(511.4) 45:2.4 While all the affairs of the isolated worlds of Satania have not been returned to his jurisdiction, Lanaforge discloses great interest in their welfare, and he is a frequent visitor on Urantia. As in other and normal systems, the Sovereign presides over the system council of world rulers, the Planetary Princes and the resident governors general of the isolated worlds. This planetary council assembles from time to time on the headquarters of the system — “When the Sons of God come together.”
(511.5) 45:2.5 Once a week, every ten days on Jerusem, the Sovereign holds a conclave with some one group of the various orders of personalities domiciled on the headquarters world. These are the charmingly informal hours of Jerusem, and they are never-to-be-forgotten occasions. On Jerusem there exists the utmost fraternity between all the various orders of beings and between each of these groups and the System Sovereign.
(511.6) 45:2.6 These unique assemblages occur on the sea of glass, the great gathering field of the system capital. They are purely social and spiritual occasions; nothing pertaining to the planetary administration or even to the ascendant plan is ever discussed. Ascending mortals come together at these times merely to enjoy themselves and to meet their fellow Jerusemites. Those groups which are not being entertained by the Sovereign at these weekly relaxations meet at their own headquarters.
3. The System Government
(512.2) 45:3.2 1. The System Sovereign — Lanaforge, number 2,709 of the primary order and successor to the apostate Lucifer.(512.9) 45:3.9 This executive group of seven Lanonandeks constitutes the expanded emergency administration made necessary by the exigencies of the Lucifer rebellion. There are only minor courts on Jerusem since the system is the unit of administration, not adjudication, but the Lanonandek administration is supported by the Jerusem executive council, the supreme advisory body of Satania. This council consists of twelve members:
(512.3) 45:3.3 2. The first assistant Sovereign — Mansurotia, number 17,841 of the tertiary Lanonandeks. He was dispatched to Satania along with Lanaforge.
(512.4) 45:3.4 3. The second assistant Sovereign — Sadib, number 271,402 of the tertiary order. Sadib also came to Satania with Lanaforge.
(512.5) 45:3.5 4. The custodian of the system — Holdant, number 19 of the tertiary corps, the holder and controller of all interned spirits above the order of mortal existence. Holdant likewise came to Satania with Lanaforge.
(512.6) 45:3.6 5. The system recorder — Vilton, secretary of the Lanonandek ministry of Satania, number 374 of the third order. Vilton was a member of the original Lanaforge group.
(512.7) 45:3.7 6. The bestowal director — Fortant, number 319,847 of the reserves of the secondary Lanonandeks and temporary director of all universe activities transplanted to Jerusem since Michael’s bestowal on Urantia. Fortant has been attached to the staff of Lanaforge for nineteen hundred years of Urantia time.
(512.8) 45:3.8 7. The high counselor — Hanavard, number 67 of the primary Lanonandek Sons and a member of the high corps of universe counselors and co-ordinators. He functions as acting chairman of the executive council of Satania. Hanavard is the twelfth of this order so to serve on Jerusem since the Lucifer rebellion.
(512.10) 45:3.10 1. Hanavard, the Lanonandek chairman.(513.3) 45:3.22 This council periodically chooses three members to represent the local system on the supreme council at universe headquarters, but this representation is suspended by rebellion. Satania now has an observer at the headquarters of the local universe, but since the bestowal of Michael the system has resumed the election of ten members to the Edentia legislature.
(512.11) 45:3.11 2. Lanaforge, the System Sovereign.
(512.12) 45:3.12 3. Mansurotia, the first assistant Sovereign.
(512.13) 45:3.13 4. The chief of Satania Melchizedeks.
(512.14) 45:3.14 5. The acting director of the Satania Life Carriers.
(512.15) 45:3.15 6. The chief of the Satania finaliters.
(512.16) 45:3.16 7. The original Adam of Satania, the supervising head of the Material Sons.
(512.17) 45:3.17 8. The director of the Satania seraphic hosts.
(512.18) 45:3.18 9. The chief of the Satania physical controllers.
(512.19) 45:3.19 10. The director of the system Morontia Power Supervisors.
(513.1) 45:3.20 11. The acting director of system midway creatures.
(513.2) 45:3.21 12. The acting head of the corps of ascending mortals.
4. The Four and Twenty Counselors
(513.5) 45:4.2 These twenty-four counselors have been recruited from the eight Urantia races, and the last of this group were assembled at the time of the resurrection roll call of Michael, nineteen hundred years ago. This Urantia advisory council is made up of the following members:
(513.6) 45:4.3 1. Onagar, the master mind of the pre-Planetary Prince age, who directed his fellows in the worship of “The Breath Giver.”(514.9) 45:4.19 These selected personalities are exempt from the ascension regime for the time being, on Gabriel’s request, and we have no idea how long they may serve in this capacity.
(513.7) 45:4.4 2. Mansant, the great teacher of the post-Planetary Prince age on Urantia, who pointed his fellows to the veneration of “The Great Light.”
(513.8) 45:4.5 3. Onamonalonton, a far-distant leader of the red man and the one who directed this race from the worship of many gods to the veneration of “The Great Spirit.”
(513.9) 45:4.6 4. Orlandof, a prince of the blue men and their leader in the recognition of the divinity of “The Supreme Chief.”
(513.10) 45:4.7 5. Porshunta, the oracle of the extinct orange race and the leader of this people in the worship of “The Great Teacher.”
(513.11) 45:4.8 6. Singlangton, the first of the yellow men to teach and lead his people in the worship of “One Truth” instead of many. Thousands of years ago the yellow man knew of the one God.
(513.12) 45:4.9 7. Fantad, the deliverer of the green men from darkness and their leader in the worship of “The One Source of Life.”
(513.13) 45:4.10 8. Orvonon, the enlightener of the indigo races and their leader in the onetime service of “The God of Gods.”
(514.1) 45:4.11 9. Adam, the discredited but rehabilitated planetary father of Urantia, a Material Son of God who was relegated to the likeness of mortal flesh, but who survived and was subsequently elevated to this position by the decree of Michael.
(514.2) 45:4.12 10. Eve, the mother of the violet race of Urantia, who suffered the penalty of default with her mate and was also rehabilitated with him and assigned to serve with this group of mortal survivors.
(514.3) 45:4.13 11. Enoch, the first of the mortals of Urantia to fuse with the Thought Adjuster during the mortal life in the flesh.
(514.4) 45:4.14 12. Moses, the emancipator of a remnant of the submerged violet race and the instigator of the revival of the worship of the Universal Father under the name of “The God of Israel.”
(514.5) 45:4.15 13. Elijah, a translated soul of brilliant spiritual achievement during the post-Material Son age.
(514.6) 45:4.16 14. Machiventa Melchizedek, the only Son of this order to bestow himself upon the Urantia races. While still numbered as a Melchizedek, he has become “forever a minister of the Most Highs,” eternally assuming the assignment of service as a mortal ascender, having sojourned on Urantia in the likeness of mortal flesh at Salem in the days of Abraham. This Melchizedek has latterly been proclaimed vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia with headquarters on Jerusem and authority to act in behalf of Michael, who is actually the Planetary Prince of the world whereon he experienced his terminal bestowal in human form. Notwithstanding this, Urantia is still supervised by successive resident governors general, members of the four and twenty counselors.
(514.7) 45:4.17 15. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Michael’s mission on Urantia and, in the flesh, distant cousin of the Son of Man.
(514.8) 45:4.18 16. 1-2-3 the First, the leader of the loyal midway creatures in the service of Gabriel at the time of the Caligastia betrayal, elevated to this position by Michael soon after his entrance upon unconditioned sovereignty.
(514.10) 45:4.20 Seats numbers 17, 18, 19, and 20 are not permanently occupied. They are temporarily filled by the unanimous consent of the sixteen permanent members, being kept open for later assignment to ascending mortals from the present postbestowal Son age on Urantia.
(514.11) 45:4.21 Numbers 21, 22, 23, and 24 are likewise temporarily filled while being held in reserve for the great teachers of other and subsequent ages which undoubtedly will follow the present age. Eras of the Magisterial Sons and Teacher Sons and the ages of light and life are to be anticipated on Urantia, regardless of unexpected visitations of divine Sons which may or may not occur.
5. The Material Sons
(515.1) 45:5.2 The domain of the Adams is the center of attraction to all new arrivals on Jerusem. It is an enormous area consisting of one thousand centers, although each family of Material Sons and Daughters lives on an estate of its own up to the time of the departure of its members for service on the evolutionary worlds of space or until their embarkation upon the Paradise-ascension career.
(515.2) 45:5.3 These Material Sons are the highest type of sex-reproducing beings to be found on the training spheres of the evolving universes. And they are really material; even the Planetary Adams and Eves are plainly visible to the mortal races of the inhabited worlds. These Material Sons are the last and physical link in the chain of personalities extending from divinity and perfection above down to humanity and material existence below. These Sons provide the inhabited worlds with a mutually contactable intermediary between the invisible Planetary Prince and the material creatures of the realms.
(515.3) 45:5.4 At the last millennial registration on Salvington there were of record in Nebadon 161,432,840 Material Sons and Daughters of citizenship status on the local system capitals. The number of Material Sons varies in the different systems, and their number is being constantly increased by natural reproduction. In the exercise of their reproductive functions they are not guided wholly by the personal desires of the contacting personalities but also by the higher governing bodies and advisory councils.
(515.4) 45:5.5 These Material Sons and Daughters are the permanent inhabitants of Jerusem and its associated worlds. They occupy vast estates on Jerusem and participate liberally in the local management of the capital sphere, administering practically all routine affairs with the assistance of the midwayers and the ascenders.
(515.5) 45:5.6 On Jerusem these reproducing Sons are permitted to experiment with the ideals of self-government after the manner of the Melchizedeks, and they are achieving a very high type of society. The higher orders of sonship reserve the veto functions of the realm, but in nearly every respect the Jerusem Adamites govern themselves by universal suffrage and representative government. Sometime they hope to be granted virtually complete autonomy.*
(515.6) 45:5.7 The character of the service of the Material Sons is largely determined by their ages. While they are not eligible for admission to the Melchizedek University of Salvington — being material and ordinarily limited to certain planets — nevertheless, the Melchizedeks maintain strong faculties of teachers on the headquarters of each system for the instruction of the younger generations of Material Sons. The educational and spiritual training systems provided for the development of the younger Material Sons and Daughters are the acme of perfection in scope, technique, and practicability.
6. Adamic Training of Ascenders
(515.8) 45:6.2 Mortal survivors spend much of their leisure on the system capital observing and studying the life habits and conduct of these superior semiphysical sex creatures, for these citizens of Jerusem are the immediate sponsors and mentors of the mortal survivors from the time they attain citizenship on the headquarters world until they take leave for Edentia.
(516.1) 45:6.3 On the seven mansion worlds ascending mortals are afforded ample opportunities for compensating any and all experiential deprivations suffered on their worlds of origin, whether due to inheritance, environment, or unfortunate premature termination of the career in the flesh. This is in every sense true except in the mortal sex life and its attendant adjustments. Thousands of mortals reach the mansion worlds without having benefited particularly from the disciplines derived from fairly average sex relations on their native spheres. The mansion world experience can provide little opportunity for compensating these very personal deprivations. Sex experience in a physical sense is past for these ascenders, but in close association with the Material Sons and Daughters, both individually and as members of their families, these sex-deficient mortals are enabled to compensate the social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual aspects of their deficiency. Thus are all those humans whom circumstances or bad judgment deprived of the benefits of advantageous sex association on the evolutionary worlds, here on the system capitals afforded full opportunity to acquire these essential mortal experiences in close and loving association with the supernal Adamic sex creatures of permanent residence on the system capitals.
(516.2) 45:6.4 No surviving mortal, midwayer, or seraphim may ascend to Paradise, attain the Father, and be mustered into the Corps of the Finality without having passed through that sublime experience of achieving parental relationship to an evolving child of the worlds or some other experience analogous and equivalent thereto. The relationship of child and parent is fundamental to the essential concept of the Universal Father and his universe children. Therefore does such an experience become indispensable to the experiential training of all ascenders.
(516.3) 45:6.5 The ascending midway creatures and the evolutionary seraphim must pass through this parenthood experience in association with the Material Sons and Daughters of the system headquarters. Thus do such nonreproducing ascenders obtain the experience of parenthood by assisting the Jerusem Adams and Eves in rearing and training their progeny.
(516.4) 45:6.6 All mortal survivors who have not experienced parenthood on the evolutionary worlds must also obtain this necessary training while sojourning in the homes of the Jerusem Material Sons and as parental associates of these superb fathers and mothers. This is true except in so far as such mortals have been able to compensate their deficiencies on the system nursery located on the first transitional-culture world of Jerusem.
(516.5) 45:6.7 This probation nursery of Satania is maintained by certain morontia personalities on the finaliters’ world, one half of the planet being devoted to this work of child rearing. Here are received and reassembled certain children of surviving mortals, such as those offspring who perished on the evolutionary worlds before acquiring spiritual status as individuals. The ascension of either of its natural parents insures that such a mortal child of the realms will be accorded repersonalization on the system finaliter planet and there be permitted to demonstrate by subsequent freewill choice whether or not it elects to follow the parental path of mortal ascension. Children here appear as on the nativity world except for the absence of sex differentiation. There is no reproduction of mortal kind after the life experience on the inhabited worlds.
(517.1) 45:6.8 Mansion world students who have one or more children in the probationary nursery on the finaliters’ world, and who are deficient in essential parental experience, may apply for a Melchizedek permit which will effect their temporary transfer from ascension duties on the mansion worlds to the finaliter world, where they are granted opportunity to function as associate parents to their own and other children. This service of parental ministry may be later accredited on Jerusem as the fulfillment of one half of the training which such ascenders are required to undergo in the families of the Material Sons and Daughters.
(517.2) 45:6.9 The probation nursery itself is supervised by one thousand couples of Material Sons and Daughters, volunteers from the Jerusem colony of their order. They are immediately assisted by about an equal number of volunteer midsonite parental groups who stop off here to render this service on their way from the midsonite world of Satania to the unrevealed destiny on their special worlds of reservation among the finaliter spheres of Salvington.
7. The Melchizedek Schools
(517.4) 45:7.2 The Brilliant Evening Stars (and their unnamed co-ordinates) frequently serve as teachers in the various educational enterprises of the universe, including those sponsored by the Melchizedeks. Also do the Trinity Teacher Sons collaborate, and they impart the touches of Paradise perfection to these progressive training schools. But all these activities are not exclusively devoted to the advancement of ascending mortals; many are equally occupied with the progressive training of the native spirit personalities of Nebadon.
(517.5) 45:7.3 The Melchizedek Sons conduct upward of thirty different educational centers on Jerusem. These training schools begin with the college of self-evaluation and end with the schools of Jerusem citizenship, wherein the Material Sons and Daughters join with the Melchizedeks and others in their supreme effort to qualify the mortal survivors for the assumption of the high responsibilities of representative government. The entire universe is organized and administered on the representative plan. Representative government is the divine ideal of self-government among nonperfect beings.
(517.6) 45:7.4 Every one hundred years of universe time each system selects its ten representatives to sit in the constellation legislature. They are chosen by the Jerusem council of one thousand, an elective body charged with the duty of representing the system groups in all such delegated or appointive matters. All representatives or other delegates are selected by the council of one thousand electors, and they must be graduates of the highest school of the Melchizedek College of Administration, as also are all of those who constitute this group of one thousand electors. This school is fostered by the Melchizedeks, latterly assisted by the finaliters.
(518.1) 45:7.5 There are many elective bodies on Jerusem, and they are voted into authority from time to time by three orders of citizenship — the Material Sons and Daughters, the seraphim and their associates, including midway creatures, and the ascending mortals. To receive nomination for representative honor a candidate must have gained requisite recognition from the Melchizedek schools of administration.
(518.2) 45:7.6 Suffrage is universal on Jerusem among these three groups of citizenship, but the vote is differentially cast in accordance with the recognized and duly registered personal possession of mota — morontia wisdom. The vote cast at a Jerusem election by any one personality has a value ranging from one up to one thousand. Jerusem citizens are thus classified in accordance with their mota achievement.
(518.3) 45:7.7 From time to time Jerusem citizens present themselves to the Melchizedek examiners, who certify to their attainment of morontia wisdom. Then they go before the examining corps of the Brilliant Evening Stars or their designates, who ascertain the degree of spirit insight. Next they appear in the presence of the four and twenty counselors and their associates, who pass upon their status of experiential attainment of socialization. These three factors are then carried to the citizenship registrars of representative government, who quickly compute the mota status and assign suffrage qualifications in accordance therewith.
(518.4) 45:7.8 Under the supervision of the Melchizedeks the ascending mortals, especially those who are tardy in their personality unification on the new morontia levels, are taken in hand by the Material Sons and are given intensive training designed to rectify such deficiencies. No ascending mortal leaves the system headquarters for the more extensive and varied socialization career of the constellation until these Material Sons certify to the achievement of mota personality — an individuality combining the completed mortal existence in experiential association with the budding morontia career, both being duly blended by the spiritual overcontrol of the Thought Adjuster.
(518.5) 45:7.9 [Presented by a Melchizedek of temporary assignment on Urantia.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 46
The Local System Headquarters
1. Physical Aspects of Jerusem
(519.3) 46:1.2 The standard mile of Jerusem is equivalent to about seven Urantia miles. The standard weight, the “gradant,” is built up through the decimal system from the mature ultimaton and represents almost exactly ten ounces of your weight. The Satania day equals three days of Urantia time, less one hour, four minutes, and fifteen seconds, that being the time of the axial revolution of Jerusem. The system year consists of one hundred Jerusem days. The time of the system is broadcast by the master chronoldeks.
(519.4) 46:1.3 The energy of Jerusem is superbly controlled and circulates about the sphere in the zone channels, which are directly fed from the energy charges of space and expertly administered by the Master Physical Controllers. The natural resistance to the passage of these energies through the physical channels of conduction yields the heat required for the production of the equable temperature of Jerusem. The full-light temperature is maintained at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, while during the period of light recession it falls to a little lower than 50 degrees.
(519.5) 46:1.4 The lighting system of Jerusem should not be so difficult for you to comprehend. There are no days and nights, no seasons of heat and cold. The power transformers maintain one hundred thousand centers from which rarefied energies are projected upward through the planetary atmosphere, undergoing certain changes, until they reach the electric air-ceiling of the sphere; and then these energies are reflected back and down as a gentle, sifting, and even light of about the intensity of Urantia sunlight when the sun is shining overhead at ten o’clock in the morning.
(520.1) 46:1.5 Under such conditions of lighting, the light rays do not seem to come from one place; they just sift out of the sky, emanating equally from all space directions. This light is very similar to natural sunlight except that it contains very much less heat. Thus it will be recognized that such headquarters worlds are not luminous in space; if Jerusem were very near Urantia, it would not be visible.
(520.2) 46:1.6 The gases which reflect this light-energy from the Jerusem upper ionosphere back to the ground are very similar to those in the Urantia upper air belts which are concerned with the auroral phenomena of your so-called northern lights, although these are produced by different causes. On Urantia it is this same gas shield which prevents the escape of the terrestrial broadcast waves, reflecting them earthward when they strike this gas belt in their direct outward flight. In this way broadcasts are held near the surface as they journey through the air around your world.
(520.3) 46:1.7 This lighting of the sphere is uniformly maintained for seventy-five per cent of the Jerusem day, and then there is a gradual recession until, at the time of minimum illumination, the light is about that of your full moon on a clear night. This is the quiet hour for all Jerusem. Only the broadcast-receiving stations are in operation during this period of rest and rehabilitation.
(520.4) 46:1.8 Jerusem receives faint light from several near-by suns — a sort of brilliant starlight — but it is not dependent on them; worlds like Jerusem are not subject to the vicissitudes of sun disturbances, neither are they confronted with the problem of a cooling or dying sun.
(520.5) 46:1.9 The seven transitional study worlds and their forty-nine satellites are heated, lighted, energized, and watered by the Jerusem technique.
2. Physical Features of Jerusem
(520.7) 46:2.2 There are thousands upon thousands of small lakes but no raging rivers nor expansive oceans. There is no rainfall, neither storms nor blizzards, on any of the architectural worlds, but there is the daily precipitation of the condensation of moisture during the time of lowest temperature attending the light recession. (The dew point is higher on a three-gas world than on a two-gas planet like Urantia.) The physical plant life and the morontia world of living things both require moisture, but this is largely supplied by the subsoil system of circulation which extends all over the sphere, even up to the very tops of the highlands. This water system is not entirely subsurface, for there are many canals interconnecting the sparkling lakes of Jerusem.
(520.8) 46:2.3 The atmosphere of Jerusem is a three-gas mixture. This air is very similar to that of Urantia with the addition of a gas adapted to the respiration of the morontia order of life. This third gas in no way unfits the air for the respiration of animals or plants of the material orders.
(521.1) 46:2.4 The transportation system is allied with the circulatory streams of energy movement, these main energy currents being located at ten-mile intervals. By adjustment of physical mechanisms the material beings of the planet can proceed at a pace varying from two to five hundred miles per hour. The transport birds fly at about one hundred miles an hour. The air mechanisms of the Material Sons travel around five hundred miles per hour. Material and early morontia beings must utilize these mechanical means of transport, but spirit personalities proceed by liaison with the superior forces and spirit sources of energy.
(521.2) 46:2.5 Jerusem and its associated worlds are endowed with the ten standard divisions of physical life characteristic of the architectural spheres of Nebadon. And since there is no organic evolution on Jerusem, there are no conflicting forms of life, no struggle for existence, no survival of the fittest. Rather is there a creative adaptation which foreshadows the beauty, the harmony, and the perfection of the eternal worlds of the central and divine universe. And in all this creative perfection there is the most amazing intermingling of physical and of morontia life, artistically contrasted by the celestial artisans and their fellows.
(521.3) 46:2.6 Jerusem is indeed a foretaste of paradisiacal glory and grandeur. But you can never hope to gain an adequate idea of these glorious architectural worlds by any attempted description. There is so little that can be compared with aught on your world, and even then the things of Jerusem so transcend the things of Urantia that the comparison is almost grotesque. Until you actually arrive on Jerusem, you can hardly entertain anything like a true concept of the heavenly worlds, but that is not so long a time in the future when your coming experience on the system capital is compared with your sometime arrival on the more remote training spheres of the universe, the superuniverse, and of Havona.
(521.4) 46:2.7 The manufacturing or laboratory sector of Jerusem is an extensive domain, one which Urantians would hardly recognize since it has no smoking chimneys; nevertheless, there is an intricate material economy associated with these special worlds, and there is a perfection of mechanical technique and physical achievement which would astonish and even awe your most experienced chemists and inventors. Pause to consider that this first world of detention in the Paradise journey is far more material than spiritual. Throughout your stay on Jerusem and its transition worlds you are far nearer your earth life of material things than your later life of advancing spirit existence.
(521.5) 46:2.8 Mount Seraph is the highest elevation on Jerusem, almost fifteen thousand feet, and is the point of departure for all transport seraphim. Numerous mechanical developments are used in providing initial energy for escaping the planetary gravity and overcoming the air resistance. A seraphic transport departs every three seconds of Urantia time throughout the light period and, sometimes, far into the recession. The transporters take off at about twenty-five standard miles per second of Urantia time and do not attain standard velocity until they are over two thousand miles away from Jerusem.
(521.6) 46:2.9 Transports arrive on the crystal field, the so-called sea of glass. Around this area are the receiving stations for the various orders of beings who traverse space by seraphic transport. Near the polar crystal receiving station for student visitors you may ascend the pearly observatory and view the immense relief map of the entire headquarters planet.
3. The Jerusem Broadcasts
(522.2) 46:3.2 This Jerusem broadcast-receiving station is encircled by an enormous amphitheater, constructed of scintillating materials largely unknown on Urantia and seating over five billion beings — material and morontia — besides accommodating innumerable spirit personalities. It is the favorite diversion for all Jerusem to spend their leisure at the broadcast station, there to learn of the welfare and state of the universe. And this is the only planetary activity which is not slowed down during the recession of light.
(522.3) 46:3.3 At this broadcast-receiving amphitheater the Salvington messages are coming in continuously. Near by, the Edentia word of the Most High Constellation Fathers is received at least once a day. Periodically the regular and special broadcasts of Uversa are relayed through Salvington, and when Paradise messages are in reception, the entire population is assembled around the sea of glass, and the Uversa friends add the reflectivity phenomena to the technique of the Paradise broadcast so that everything heard becomes visible. And it is in this manner that continual foretastes of advancing beauty and grandeur are afforded the mortal survivors as they journey inward on the eternal adventure.
(522.4) 46:3.4 The Jerusem sending station is located at the opposite pole of the sphere. All broadcasts to the individual worlds are relayed from the system capitals except the Michael messages, which sometimes go direct to their destinations over the archangels’ circuit.
4. Residential and Administrative Areas
(522.6) 46:4.2 1. The circles — the nonnative residential areas.(522.10) 46:4.6 This arrangement of the system activities into circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles is common to all the system capitals of Nebadon. In another universe an entirely different arrangement might prevail. These are matters determined by the diverse plans of the Creator Sons.
(522.7) 46:4.3 2. The squares — the system executive-administrative areas.
(522.8) 46:4.4 3. The rectangles — the rendezvous of the lower native life.
(522.9) 46:4.5 4. The triangles — the local or Jerusem administrative areas.
(523.1) 46:4.7 Our narrative of these residential and administrative areas takes no account of the vast and beautiful estates of the Material Sons of God, the permanent citizens of Jerusem, neither do we mention numerous other fascinating orders of spirit and near-spirit creatures. For example: Jerusem enjoys the efficient services of the spironga of design for system function. These beings are devoted to spiritual ministry in behalf of the supermaterial residents and visitors. They are a wonderful group of intelligent and beautiful beings who are the transition servants of the higher morontia creatures and of the morontia helpers who labor for the upkeep and embellishment of all morontia creations. They are on Jerusem what the midway creatures are on Urantia, midway helpers functioning between the material and the spiritual.
(523.2) 46:4.8 The system capitals are unique in that they are the only worlds which exhibit well-nigh perfectly all three phases of universe existence: the material, the morontial, and the spiritual. Whether you are a material, morontia, or spirit personality, you will feel at home on Jerusem; so also do the combined beings, such as the midway creatures and the Material Sons.
(523.3) 46:4.9 Jerusem has great buildings of both material and morontia types, while the embellishment of the purely spiritual zones is no less exquisite and replete. If I only had words to tell you of the morontia counterparts of the marvelous physical equipment of Jerusem! If I could only go on to portray the sublime grandeur and exquisite perfection of the spiritual appointments of this headquarters world! Your most imaginative concept of perfection of beauty and repleteness of appointment would hardly approach these grandeurs. And Jerusem is but the first step on the way to the supernal perfection of Paradise beauty.
5. The Jerusem Circles
(523.5) 46:5.2 1. The circles of the Sons of God.(523.12) 46:5.9 Each of these residential groupings consists of seven concentric and successively elevated circles. They are all constructed along the same lines but are of different sizes and are fashioned of differing materials. They are all surrounded by far-reaching enclosures, which mount up to form extensive promenades entirely encompassing every group of seven concentric circles.
(523.6) 46:5.3 2. The circles of the angels and higher spirits.
(523.7) 46:5.4 3. The circles of the Universe Aids, including the creature-trinitized sons not assigned to the Trinity Teacher Sons.
(523.8) 46:5.5 4. The circles of the Master Physical Controllers.
(523.9) 46:5.6 5. The circles of the assigned ascending mortals, including the midway creatures.
(523.10) 46:5.7 6. The circles of the courtesy colonies.
(523.11) 46:5.8 7. The circles of the Corps of the Finality.
(524.1) 46:5.10 1. Circles of the Sons of God. Though the Sons of God possess a social planet of their own, one of the transitional-culture worlds, they also occupy these extensive domains on Jerusem. On their transitional-culture world the ascending mortals freely mingle with all orders of divine sonship. There you will personally know and love these Sons, but their social life is largely confined to this special world and its satellites. In the Jerusem circles, however, these various groups of sonship may be observed at work. And since morontia vision is of enormous range, you can walk about on the Sons’ promenades and overlook the intriguing activities of their numerous orders.
(524.2) 46:5.11 These seven circles of the Sons are concentric and successively elevated so that each of the outer and larger circles overlooks the inner and smaller ones, each being surrounded by a public promenade wall. These walls are constructed of crystal gems of gleaming brightness and are so elevated as to overlook all of their respective residential circles. The many gates — from fifty to one hundred and fifty thousand — which penetrate each of these walls consist of single pearly crystals.
(524.3) 46:5.12 The first circle of the domain of the Sons is occupied by the Magisterial Sons and their personal staffs. Here center all of the plans and immediate activities of the bestowal and adjudicational services of these juridical Sons. It is also through this center that the Avonals of the system maintain contact with the universe.
(524.4) 46:5.13 The second circle is occupied by the Trinity Teacher Sons. In this sacred domain the Daynals and their associates carry forward the training of the newly arrived primary Teacher Sons. And in all of this work they are ably assisted by a division of certain co-ordinates of the Brilliant Evening Stars. The creature-trinitized sons occupy a sector of the Daynal circle. The Trinity Teacher Sons come the nearest to being the personal representatives of the Universal Father in a local system; they are at least Trinity-origin beings. This second circle is a domain of extraordinary interest to all the peoples of Jerusem.
(524.5) 46:5.14 The third circle is devoted to the Melchizedeks. Here the system chiefs reside and supervise the almost endless activities of these versatile Sons. From the first of the mansion worlds on through all the Jerusem career of ascending mortals, the Melchizedeks are foster fathers and ever-present advisers. It would not be amiss to say that they are the dominant influence on Jerusem aside from the ever-present activities of the Material Sons and Daughters.
(524.6) 46:5.15 The fourth circle is the home of the Vorondadeks and all other orders of the visiting and observer Sons who are not otherwise provided for. The Most High Constellation Fathers take up their abode in this circle when on visits of inspection to the local system. Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, and Universal Censors all reside in this circle when on duty in the system.
(524.7) 46:5.16 The fifth circle is the abode of the Lanonandeks, the sonship order of the System Sovereigns and the Planetary Princes. The three groups mingle as one when at home in this domain. The system reserves are held in this circle, while the System Sovereign has a temple situated at the center of the governing group of structures on administration hill.
(524.8) 46:5.17 The sixth circle is the tarrying place of the system Life Carriers. All orders of these Sons are here assembled, and from here they go forth on their world assignments.
(524.9) 46:5.18 The seventh circle is the rendezvous of the ascending sons, those assigned mortals who may be temporarily functioning on the system headquarters, together with their seraphic consorts. All ex-mortals above the status of Jerusem citizens and below that of finaliters are reckoned as belonging to the group having its headquarters in this circle.
(525.1) 46:5.19 These circular reservations of the Sons occupy an enormous area, and until nineteen hundred years ago there existed a great open space at its center. This central region is now occupied by the Michael memorial, completed some five hundred years ago. Four hundred and ninety-five years ago, when this temple was dedicated, Michael was present in person, and all Jerusem heard the touching story of the Master Son’s bestowal on Urantia, the least of Satania. The Michael memorial is now the center of all activities embraced in the modified management of the system occasioned by Michael’s bestowal, including most of the more recently transplanted Salvington activities. The memorial staff consists of over one million personalities.
(525.2) 46:5.20 2. The circles of the angels. Like the residential area of the Sons, these circles of the angels consist of seven concentric and successively elevated circles, each overlooking the inner areas.
(525.3) 46:5.21 The first circle of the angels is occupied by the Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit who may be stationed on the headquarters world — Solitary Messengers and their associates. The second circle is dedicated to the messenger hosts, Technical Advisers, companions, inspectors, and recorders as they may chance to function on Jerusem from time to time. The third circle is held by the ministering spirits of the higher orders and groupings.
(525.4) 46:5.22 The fourth circle is held by the administrator seraphim, and the seraphim serving in a local system like Satania are an “innumerable host of angels.” The fifth circle is occupied by the planetary seraphim, while the sixth is the home of the transition ministers. The seventh circle is the tarrying sphere of certain unrevealed orders of seraphim. The recorders of all these groups of angels do not sojourn with their fellows, being domiciled in the Jerusem temple of records. All records are preserved in triplicate in this threefold hall of archives. On a system headquarters, records are always preserved in material, in morontia, and in spirit form.
(525.5) 46:5.23 These seven circles are surrounded by the exhibit panorama of Jerusem, five thousand standard miles in circumference, which is devoted to the presentation of the advancing status of the peopled worlds of Satania and is constantly revised so as to truly represent up-to-date conditions on the individual planets. I doubt not that this vast promenade overlooking the circles of the angels will be the first sight of Jerusem to claim your attention when you are permitted extended leisure on your earlier visits.
(525.6) 46:5.24 These exhibits are in charge of the native life of Jerusem, but they are assisted by the ascenders from the various Satania worlds who are tarrying on Jerusem en route to Edentia. The portrayal of planetary conditions and world progress is effected by many methods, some known to you, but mostly by techniques unknown on Urantia. These exhibits occupy the outer edge of this vast wall. The remainder of the promenade is almost entirely open, being highly and magnificently embellished.
(525.7) 46:5.25 3. The circles of the Universe Aids have the headquarters of the Evening Stars situated in the enormous central space. Here is located the system headquarters of Galantia, the associate head of this powerful group of superangels, being the first commissioned of all the ascendant Evening Stars. This is one of the most magnificent of all the administrative sectors of Jerusem, even though it is among the more recent constructions. This center is fifty miles in diameter. The Galantia headquarters is a monolithic cast crystal, wholly transparent. These material-morontia crystals are greatly appreciated by both morontia and material beings. The created Evening Stars exert their influence all over Jerusem, being possessed of such extrapersonality attributes. The entire world has been rendered spiritually fragrant since so many of their activities were transferred here from Salvington.
(526.1) 46:5.26 4. The circles of the Master Physical Controllers. The various orders of the Master Physical Controllers are concentrically arranged around the vast temple of power, wherein presides the power chief of the system in association with the chief of the Morontia Power Supervisors. This temple of power is one of two sectors on Jerusem where ascending mortals and midway creatures are not permitted. The other one is the dematerializing sector in the area of the Material Sons, a series of laboratories wherein the transport seraphim transform material beings into a state quite like that of the morontia order of existence.
(526.2) 46:5.27 5. The circles of the ascending mortals. The central area of the circles of the ascending mortals is occupied by a group of 619 planetary memorials representative of the inhabited worlds of the system, and these structures periodically undergo extensive changes. It is the privilege of the mortals from each world to agree, from time to time, upon certain of the alterations or additions to their planetary memorials. Many changes are even now being made in the Urantia structures. The center of these 619 temples is occupied by a working model of Edentia and its many worlds of ascendant culture. This model is forty miles in diameter and is an actual reproduction of the Edentia system, true to the original in every detail.
(526.3) 46:5.28 Ascenders enjoy their Jerusem services and take pleasure in observing the techniques of other groups. Everything done in these various circles is open to the full observation of all Jerusem.
(526.4) 46:5.29 The activities of such a world are of three distinct varieties: work, progress, and play. Stated otherwise, they are: service, study, and relaxation. The composite activities consist of social intercourse, group entertainment, and divine worship. There is great educational value in mingling with diverse groups of personalities, orders very different from one’s own fellows.
(526.5) 46:5.30 6. The circles of the courtesy colonies. The seven circles of the courtesy colonies are graced by three enormous structures: the vast astronomic observatory of Jerusem, the gigantic art gallery of Satania, and the immense assembly hall of the reversion directors, the theater of morontia activities devoted to rest and recreation.
(526.6) 46:5.31 The celestial artisans direct the spornagia and provide the host of creative decorations and monumental memorials which abound in every place of public assembly. The studios of these artisans are among the largest and most beautiful of all the matchless structures of this wonderful world. The other courtesy colonies maintain extensive and beautiful headquarters. Many of these buildings are constructed wholly of crystal gems. All the architectural worlds abound in crystals and the so-called precious metals.
(527.1) 46:5.32 7. The circles of the finaliters have a unique structure at the center. And this same vacant temple is found on every system headquarters world throughout Nebadon. This edifice on Jerusem is sealed with the insignia of Michael, and it bears this inscription: “Undedicated to the seventh stage of spirit — to the eternal assignment.” Gabriel placed the seal on this temple of mystery, and none but Michael can or may break the seal of sovereignty affixed by the Bright and Morning Star. Some day you shall look upon this silent temple, even though you may not penetrate its mystery.
(527.2) 46:5.33 Other Jerusem circles: In addition to these residential circles there are on Jerusem numerous additional designated abodes.
6. The Executive-Administrative Squares
(527.4) 46:6.2 1. Physical maintenance and material improvement, the domains of physical power and energy.(527.14) 46:6.12 These structures are transparent; hence all system activities can be viewed even by student visitors.
(527.5) 46:6.3 2. Arbitration, ethics, and administrative adjudication.
(527.6) 46:6.4 3. Planetary and local affairs.
(527.7) 46:6.5 4. Constellation and universe affairs.
(527.8) 46:6.6 5. Education and other Melchizedek activities.
(527.9) 46:6.7 6. Planetary and system physical progress, the scientific domains of Satania activities.
(527.10) 46:6.8 7. Morontia affairs.
(527.11) 46:6.9 8. Pure spirit activities and ethics.
(527.12) 46:6.10 9. Ascendant ministry.
(527.13) 46:6.11 10. Grand universe philosophy.
7. The Rectangles — The Spornagia
(527.16) 46:7.2 On Jerusem you will be amazed by the agricultural achievements of the wonderful spornagia. There the land is cultivated largely for aesthetic and ornamental effects. The spornagia are the landscape gardeners of the headquarters worlds, and they are both original and artistic in their treatment of the open spaces of Jerusem. They utilize both animals and numerous mechanical contrivances in the culture of the soil. They are intelligently expert in the employment of the power agencies of their realms as well as in the utilization of numerous orders of their lesser brethren of the lower animal creations, many of which are provided them on these special worlds. This order of animal life is now largely directed by the ascending midway creatures from the evolutionary spheres.
(528.1) 46:7.3 Spornagia are not Adjuster indwelt. They do not possess survival souls, but they do enjoy long lives, sometimes to the extent of forty to fifty thousand standard years. Their number is legion, and they afford physical ministry to all orders of universe personalities requiring material service.
(528.2) 46:7.4 Although spornagia neither possess nor evolve survival souls, though they do not have personality, nevertheless, they do evolve an individuality which can experience reincarnation. When, with the passing of time, the physical bodies of these unique creatures deteriorate from usage and age, their creators, in collaboration with the Life Carriers, fabricate new bodies in which the old spornagia re-establish their residences.
(528.3) 46:7.5 Spornagia are the only creatures in all the universe of Nebadon who experience this or any other sort of reincarnation. They are only reactive to the first five of the adjutant mind-spirits; they are not responsive to the spirits of worship and wisdom. But the five-adjutant mind equivalates to a totality or sixth reality level, and it is this factor which persists as an experiential identity.
(528.4) 46:7.6 I am quite without comparisons in undertaking to describe these useful and unusual creatures as there are no animals on the evolutionary worlds comparable to them. They are not evolutionary beings, having been projected by the Life Carriers in their present form and status. They are bisexual and procreate as they are required to meet the needs of a growing population.
(528.5) 46:7.7 Perhaps I can best suggest to Urantia minds something of the nature of these beautiful and serviceable creatures by saying that they embrace the combined traits of a faithful horse and an affectionate dog and manifest an intelligence exceeding that of the highest type of chimpanzee. And they are very beautiful, as judged by the physical standards of Urantia. They are most appreciative of the attentions shown them by the material and semimaterial sojourners on these architectural worlds. They have a vision which permits them to recognize — in addition to material beings — the morontia creations, the lower angelic orders, midway creatures, and some of the lower orders of spirit personalities. They do not comprehend worship of the Infinite, nor do they grasp the import of the Eternal, but they do, through affection for their masters, join in the outward spiritual devotions of their realms.
(528.6) 46:7.8 There are those who believe that, in a future universe age, these faithful spornagia will escape from their animal level of existence and attain a worthy evolutional destiny of progressive intellectual growth and even spiritual achievement.
8. The Jerusem Triangles
(529.1) 46:8.2 When Satania can return to the constellation fold, then will come up for consideration the readmission of the isolated worlds into the system family of inhabited planets, accompanied by their restoration to the spiritual communion of the realms. But even if Urantia were restored to the system circuits, you would still be embarrassed by the fact that your whole system rests under a Norlatiadek quarantine partially segregating it from all other systems.
(529.2) 46:8.3 But ere long, the adjudication of Lucifer and his associates will restore the Satania system to the Norlatiadek constellation, and subsequently, Urantia and the other isolated spheres will be restored to the Satania circuits, and again will such worlds enjoy the privileges of interplanetary communication and intersystem communion.
(529.3) 46:8.4 There will come an end for rebels and rebellion. The Supreme Rulers are merciful and patient, but the law of deliberately nourished evil is universally and unerringly executed. “The wages of sin is death” — eternal obliteration.
(529.4) 46:8.5 [Presented by an Archangel of Nebadon.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 47
The Seven Mansion Worlds
(530.2) 47:0.2 Transition world number one itself is quite exclusively devoted to ascendant activities, being the headquarters of the finaliter corps assigned to Satania. This world now serves as the headquarters for more than one hundred thousand companies of finaliters, and there are one thousand glorified beings in each of these groups.
(530.3) 47:0.3 When a system is settled in light and life, and as the mansion worlds one by one cease to serve as mortal-training stations, they are taken over by the increasing finaliter population which accumulates in these older and more highly perfected systems.
(530.4) 47:0.4 The seven mansion worlds are in charge of the morontia supervisors and the Melchizedeks. There is an acting governor on each world who is directly responsible to the Jerusem rulers. The Uversa conciliators maintain headquarters on each of the mansion worlds, while adjoining is the local rendezvous of the Technical Advisers. The reversion directors and celestial artisans maintain group headquarters on each of these worlds. The spironga function from mansion world number two onward, while all seven, in common with the other transitional-culture planets and the headquarters world, are abundantly provided with spornagia of standard creation.
1. The Finaliters’ World
(530.6) 47:1.2 Though the finaliter world is a sphere of exquisite physical beauty and extraordinary morontia embellishment, the great spirit abode located at the center of activities, the temple of the finaliters, is not visible to the unaided material or early morontia vision. But the energy transformers are able to visualize many of these realities to ascending mortals, and from time to time they do thus function, as on the occasions of the class assemblies of the mansion world students on this cultural sphere.
(531.1) 47:1.3 All through the mansion world experience you are in a way spiritually aware of the presence of your glorified brethren of Paradise attainment, but it is very refreshing, now and then, actually to perceive them as they function in their headquarters abodes. You will not spontaneously visualize finaliters until you acquire true spirit vision.
(531.2) 47:1.4 On the first mansion world all survivors must pass the requirements of the parental commission from their native planets. The present Urantia commission consists of twelve parental couples, recently arrived, who have had mortal experience in rearing three or more children to the pubescent age. Service on this commission is rotational and is for only ten years as a rule. All who fail to satisfy these commissioners as to their parental experience must further qualify by service in the homes of the Material Sons on Jerusem or in part in the probationary nursery on the finaliters’ world.
(531.3) 47:1.5 But irrespective of parental experience, mansion world parents who have growing children in the probation nursery are given every opportunity to collaborate with the morontia custodians of such children regarding their instruction and training. These parents are permitted to journey there for visits as often as four times a year. And it is one of the most touchingly beautiful scenes of all the ascending career to observe the mansion world parents embrace their material offspring on the occasions of their periodic pilgrimages to the finaliter world. While one or both parents may leave a mansion world ahead of the child, they are quite often contemporary for a season.
(531.4) 47:1.6 No ascending mortal can escape the experience of rearing children — their own or others — either on the material worlds or subsequently on the finaliter world or on Jerusem. Fathers must pass through this essential experience just as certainly as mothers. It is an unfortunate and mistaken notion of modern peoples on Urantia that child culture is largely the task of mothers. Children need fathers as well as mothers, and fathers need this parental experience as much as do mothers.
2. The Probationary Nursery
(531.6) 47:2.2 It is these same deserted cherubim who, as Mansion World Teachers, under the supervision of the Melchizedeks, maintain such extensive educational facilities for the training of the probationary wards of the finaliters. These wards of the finaliters, these infants of ascending mortals, are always personalized as of their exact physical status at the time of death except for reproductive potential. This awakening occurs at the exact time of the parental arrival on the first mansion world. And then are these children given every opportunity, as they are, to choose the heavenly way just as they would have made such a choice on the worlds where death so untimely terminated their careers.
(532.1) 47:2.3 On the nursery world, probationary creatures are grouped according to whether or not they have Adjusters, for the Adjusters come to indwell these material children just as on the worlds of time. Children of pre-Adjuster ages are cared for in families of five, ranging in ages from one year and under up to approximately five years, or that age when the Adjuster arrives.
(532.2) 47:2.4 All children on the evolving worlds who have Thought Adjusters, but who before death had not made a choice concerning the Paradise career, are also repersonalized on the finaliter world of the system, where they likewise grow up in the families of the Material Sons and their associates as do those little ones who arrived without Adjusters, but who will subsequently receive the Mystery Monitors after attaining the requisite age of moral choice.
(532.3) 47:2.5 The Adjuster-indwelt children and youths on the finaliter world are also reared in families of five, ranging in ages from six to fourteen; approximately, these families consist of children whose ages are six, eight, ten, twelve, and fourteen. Any time after sixteen, if final choice has been made, they translate to the first mansion world and begin their Paradise ascent. Some make a choice before this age and go on to the ascension spheres, but very few children under sixteen years of age, as reckoned by Urantia standards, will be found on the mansion worlds.
(532.4) 47:2.6 The guardian seraphim attend these youths in the probationary nursery on the finaliter world just as they spiritually minister to mortals on the evolutionary planets, while the faithful spornagia minister to their physical necessities. And so do these children grow up on the transition world until such time as they make their final choice.
(532.5) 47:2.7 When material life has run its course, if no choice has been made for the ascendant life, or if these children of time definitely decide against the Havona adventure, death automatically terminates their probationary careers. There is no adjudication of such cases; there is no resurrection from such a second death. They simply become as though they had not been.
(532.6) 47:2.8 But if they choose the Paradise path of perfection, they are immediately made ready for translation to the first mansion world, where many of them arrive in time to join their parents in the Havona ascent. After passing through Havona and attaining the Deities, these salvaged souls of mortal origin constitute the permanent ascendant citizenship of Paradise. These children who have been deprived of the valuable and essential evolutionary experience on the worlds of mortal nativity are not mustered into the Corps of the Finality.
3. The First Mansion World
(532.8) 47:3.2 The very center of all activities on the first mansion world is the resurrection hall, the enormous temple of personality assembly. This gigantic structure consists of the central rendezvous of the seraphic destiny guardians, the Thought Adjusters, and the archangels of the resurrection. The Life Carriers also function with these celestial beings in the resurrection of the dead.
(533.1) 47:3.3 The mortal-mind transcripts and the active creature-memory patterns as transformed from the material levels to the spiritual are the individual possession of the detached Thought Adjusters; these spiritized factors of mind, memory, and creature personality are forever a part of such Adjusters. The creature mind-matrix and the passive potentials of identity are present in the morontia soul intrusted to the keeping of the seraphic destiny guardians. And it is the reuniting of the morontia-soul trust of the seraphim and the spirit-mind trust of the Adjuster that reassembles creature personality and constitutes resurrection of a sleeping survivor.
(533.2) 47:3.4 If a transitory personality of mortal origin should never be thus reassembled, the spirit elements of the nonsurviving mortal creature would forever continue as an integral part of the individual experiential endowment of the onetime indwelling Adjuster.
(533.3) 47:3.5 From the Temple of New Life there extend seven radial wings, the resurrection halls of the mortal races. Each of these structures is devoted to the assembly of one of the seven races of time. There are one hundred thousand personal resurrection chambers in each of these seven wings terminating in the circular class assembly halls, which serve as the awakening chambers for as many as one million individuals. These halls are surrounded by the personality assembly chambers of the blended races of the normal post-Adamic worlds. Regardless of the technique which may be employed on the individual worlds of time in connection with special or dispensational resurrections, the real and conscious reassembly of actual and complete personality takes place in the resurrection halls of mansonia number one. Throughout all eternity you will recall the profound memory impressions of your first witnessing of these resurrection mornings.
(533.4) 47:3.6 From the resurrection halls you proceed to the Melchizedek sector, where you are assigned permanent residence. Then you enter upon ten days of personal liberty. You are free to explore the immediate vicinity of your new home and to familiarize yourself with the program which lies immediately ahead. You also have time to gratify your desire to consult the registry and call upon your loved ones and other earth friends who may have preceded you to these worlds. At the end of your ten-day period of leisure you begin the second step in the Paradise journey, for the mansion worlds are actual training spheres, not merely detention planets.
(533.5) 47:3.7 On mansion world number one (or another in case of advanced status) you will resume your intellectual training and spiritual development at the exact level whereon they were interrupted by death. Between the time of planetary death or translation and resurrection on the mansion world, mortal man gains absolutely nothing aside from experiencing the fact of survival. You begin over there right where you leave off down here.
(533.6) 47:3.8 Almost the entire experience of mansion world number one pertains to deficiency ministry. Survivors arriving on this first of the detention spheres present so many and such varied defects of creature character and deficiencies of mortal experience that the major activities of the realm are occupied with the correction and cure of these manifold legacies of the life in the flesh on the material evolutionary worlds of time and space.
(534.1) 47:3.9 The sojourn on mansion world number one is designed to develop mortal survivors at least up to the status of the post-Adamic dispensation on the normal evolutionary worlds. Spiritually, of course, the mansion world students are far in advance of such a state of mere human development.
(534.2) 47:3.10 If you are not to be detained on mansion world number one, at the end of ten days you will enter the translation sleep and proceed to world number two, and every ten days thereafter you will thus advance until you arrive on the world of your assignment.
(534.3) 47:3.11 The center of the seven major circles of the first mansion world administration is occupied by the temple of the Morontia Companions, the personal guides assigned to ascending mortals. These companions are the offspring of the local universe Mother Spirit, and there are several million of them on the morontia worlds of Satania. Aside from those assigned as group companions, you will have much to do with the interpreters and translators, the building custodians, and the excursion supervisors. And all of these companions are most co-operative with those who have to do with developing your personality factors of mind and spirit within the morontia body.
(534.4) 47:3.12 As you start out on the first mansion world, one Morontia Companion is assigned to each company of one thousand ascending mortals, but you will encounter larger numbers as you progress through the seven mansion spheres. These beautiful and versatile beings are companionable associates and charming guides. They are free to accompany individuals or selected groups to any of the transition-culture spheres, including their satellite worlds. They are the excursion guides and leisure associates of all ascending mortals. They often accompany survivor groups on periodic visits to Jerusem, and on any day you are there, you can go to the registry sector of the system capital and meet ascending mortals from all seven of the mansion worlds since they freely journey back and forth between their residential abodes and the system headquarters.
4. The Second Mansion World
(534.6) 47:4.2 Spirit-fused survivors occupy the mansion worlds in common with the Adjuster-fused ascending mortals. While the various orders of celestial life differ, they are all friendly and fraternal. In all the worlds of ascension you will find nothing comparable to human intolerance and the discriminations of inconsiderate caste systems.
(534.7) 47:4.3 As you ascend the mansion worlds one by one, they become more crowded with the morontia activities of advancing survivors. As you go forward, you will recognize more and more of the Jerusem features added to the mansion worlds. The sea of glass makes its appearance on the second mansonia.
(534.8) 47:4.4 A newly developed and suitably adjusted morontia body is acquired at the time of each advance from one mansion world to another. You go to sleep with the seraphic transport and awake with the new but undeveloped body in the resurrection halls, much as when you first arrived on mansion world number one except that the Thought Adjuster does not leave you during these transit sleeps between the mansion worlds. Your personality remains intact after you once pass from the evolutionary worlds to the initial mansion world.
(535.1) 47:4.5 Your Adjuster memory remains fully intact as you ascend the morontia life. Those mental associations that were purely animalistic and wholly material naturally perished with the physical brain, but everything in your mental life which was worth while, and which had survival value, was counterparted by the Adjuster and is retained as a part of personal memory all the way through the ascendant career. You will be conscious of all your worth-while experiences as you advance from one mansion world to another and from one section of the universe to another — even to Paradise.
(535.2) 47:4.6 Though you have morontia bodies, you continue, through all seven of these worlds, to eat, drink, and rest. You partake of the morontia order of food, a kingdom of living energy unknown on the material worlds. Both food and water are fully utilized in the morontia body; there is no residual waste. Pause to consider: Mansonia number one is a very material sphere, presenting the early beginnings of the morontia regime. You are still a near human and not far removed from the limited viewpoints of mortal life, but each world discloses definite progress. From sphere to sphere you grow less material, more intellectual, and slightly more spiritual. The spiritual progress is greatest on the last three of these seven progressive worlds.
(535.3) 47:4.7 Biological deficiencies were largely made up on the first mansion world. There defects in planetary experiences pertaining to sex life, family association, and parental function were either corrected or were projected for future rectification among the Material Son families on Jerusem.
(535.4) 47:4.8 Mansonia number two more specifically provides for the removal of all phases of intellectual conflict and for the cure of all varieties of mental disharmony. The effort to master the significance of morontia mota, begun on the first mansion world, is here more earnestly continued. The development on mansonia number two compares with the intellectual status of the post-Magisterial Son culture of the ideal evolutionary worlds.
5. The Third Mansion World
(535.6) 47:5.2 When sojourning on the first mansion world, you have permission to visit the first of the transition worlds, the headquarters of the finaliters and the system probationary nursery for the nurture of undeveloped evolutionary children. When you arrive on mansonia number two, you receive permission periodically to visit transition world number two, where are located the morontia supervisor headquarters for all Satania and the training schools for the various morontia orders. When you reach mansion world number three, you are immediately granted a permit to visit the third transition sphere, the headquarters of the angelic orders and the home of their various system training schools. Visits to Jerusem from this world are increasingly profitable and are of ever-heightening interest to the advancing mortals.
(536.1) 47:5.3 Mansonia the third is a world of great personal and social achievement for all who have not made the equivalent of these circles of culture prior to release from the flesh on the mortal nativity worlds. On this sphere more positive educational work is begun. The training of the first two mansion worlds is mostly of a deficiency nature — negative — in that it has to do with supplementing the experience of the life in the flesh. On this third mansion world the survivors really begin their progressive morontia culture. The chief purpose of this training is to enhance the understanding of the correlation of morontia mota and mortal logic, the co-ordination of morontia mota and human philosophy. Surviving mortals now gain practical insight into true metaphysics. This is the real introduction to the intelligent comprehension of cosmic meanings and universe interrelationships. The culture of the third mansion world partakes of the nature of the postbestowal Son age of a normal inhabited planet.
6. The Fourth Mansion World
(536.3) 47:6.2 On the fourth mansonia the individual ascender more fittingly finds his place in the group working and class functions of the morontia life. Ascenders here develop increased appreciation of the broadcasts and other phases of local universe culture and progress.
(536.4) 47:6.3 It is during the period of training on world number four that the ascending mortals are really first introduced to the demands and delights of the true social life of morontia creatures. And it is indeed a new experience for evolutionary creatures to participate in social activities which are predicated neither on personal aggrandizement nor on self-seeking conquest. A new social order is being introduced, one based on the understanding sympathy of mutual appreciation, the unselfish love of mutual service, and the overmastering motivation of the realization of a common and supreme destiny — the Paradise goal of worshipful and divine perfection. Ascenders are all becoming self-conscious of God-knowing, God-revealing, God-seeking, and God-finding.
(536.5) 47:6.4 The intellectual and social culture of this fourth mansion world is comparable to the mental and social life of the post-Teacher Son age on the planets of normal evolution. The spiritual status is much in advance of such a mortal dispensation.
7. The Fifth Mansion World
(537.2) 47:7.2 Having mastered the local universe language before leaving the fourth mansion world, you now devote more time to the perfection of the tongue of Uversa to the end that you may be proficient in both languages before arriving on Jerusem with residential status. All ascending mortals are bilingual from the system headquarters up to Havona. And then it is only necessary to enlarge the superuniverse vocabulary, still additional enlargement being required for residence on Paradise.
(537.3) 47:7.3 Upon arrival on mansonia number five the pilgrim is given permission to visit the transition world of corresponding number, the Sons’ headquarters. Here the ascendant mortal becomes personally familiar with the various groups of divine sonship. He has heard of these superb beings and has already met them on Jerusem, but now he comes really to know them.
(537.4) 47:7.4 On the fifth mansonia you begin to learn of the constellation study worlds. Here you meet the first of the instructors who begin to prepare you for the subsequent constellation sojourn. More of this preparation continues on worlds six and seven, while the finishing touches are supplied in the sector of the ascending mortals on Jerusem.
(537.5) 47:7.5 A real birth of cosmic consciousness takes place on mansonia number five. You are becoming universe minded. This is indeed a time of expanding horizons. It is beginning to dawn upon the enlarging minds of the ascending mortals that some stupendous and magnificent, some supernal and divine, destiny awaits all who complete the progressive Paradise ascension, which has been so laboriously but so joyfully and auspiciously begun. At about this point the average mortal ascender begins to manifest bona fide experiential enthusiasm for the Havona ascent. Study is becoming voluntary, unselfish service natural, and worship spontaneous. A real morontia character is budding; a real morontia creature is evolving.
8. The Sixth Mansion World
(537.7) 47:8.2 The assistant System Sovereign makes frequent visits to this world, and the initial instruction is here begun in the technique of universe administration. The first lessons embracing the affairs of a whole universe are now imparted.
(538.1) 47:8.3 This is a brilliant age for ascending mortals and usually witnesses the perfect fusion of the human mind and the divine Adjuster. In potential, this fusion may have occurred previously, but the actual working identity many times is not achieved until the time of the sojourn on the fifth mansion world or even the sixth.
(538.2) 47:8.4 The union of the evolving immortal soul with the eternal and divine Adjuster is signalized by the seraphic summoning of the supervising superangel for resurrected survivors and of the archangel of record for those going to judgment on the third day; and then, in the presence of such a survivor’s morontia associates, these messengers of confirmation speak: “This is a beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” This simple ceremony marks the entrance of an ascending mortal upon the eternal career of Paradise service.
(538.3) 47:8.5 Immediately upon the confirmation of Adjuster fusion the new morontia being is introduced to his fellows for the first time by his new name and is granted the forty days of spiritual retirement from all routine activities wherein to commune with himself and to choose some one of the optional routes to Havona and to select from the differential techniques of Paradise attainment.
(538.4) 47:8.6 But still are these brilliant beings more or less material; they are far from being true spirits; they are more like supermortals, spiritually speaking, still a little lower than the angels. But they are truly becoming marvelous creatures.
(538.5) 47:8.7 During the sojourn on world number six the mansion world students achieve a status which is comparable with the exalted development characterizing those evolutionary worlds which have normally progressed beyond the initial stage of light and life. The organization of society on this mansonia is of a high order. The shadow of the mortal nature grows less and less as these worlds are ascended one by one. You are becoming more and more adorable as you leave behind the coarse vestiges of planetary animal origin. “Coming up through great tribulation” serves to make glorified mortals very kind and understanding, very sympathetic and tolerant.
9. The Seventh Mansion World
(538.7) 47:9.2 While sojourning on mansonia number seven, permission is granted to visit transition world number seven, the world of the Universal Father. Here you begin a new and more spiritual worship of the unseen Father, a habit you will increasingly pursue all the way up through your long ascending career. You find the Father’s temple on this world of transitional culture, but you do not see the Father.
(538.8) 47:9.3 Now begins the formation of classes for graduation to Jerusem. You have gone from world to world as individuals, but now you prepare to depart for Jerusem in groups, although, within certain limits, an ascender may elect to tarry on the seventh mansion world for the purpose of enabling a tardy member of his earthly or mansonia working group to catch up with him.
(539.1) 47:9.4 The personnel of the seventh mansonia assemble on the sea of glass to witness your departure for Jerusem with residential status. Hundreds or thousands of times you may have visited Jerusem, but always as a guest; never before have you proceeded toward the system capital in the company of a group of your fellows who were bidding an eternal farewell to the whole mansonia career as ascending mortals. You will soon be welcomed on the receiving field of the headquarters world as Jerusem citizens.
(539.2) 47:9.5 You will greatly enjoy your progress through the seven dematerializing worlds; they are really demortalizing spheres. You are mostly human on the first mansion world, just a mortal being minus a material body, a human mind housed in a morontia form — a material body of the morontia world but not a mortal house of flesh and blood. You really pass from the mortal state to the immortal status at the time of Adjuster fusion, and by the time you have finished the Jerusem career, you will be full-fledged morontians.
10. Jerusem Citizenship
(539.4) 47:10.2 John the Revelator saw a vision of the arrival of a class of advancing mortals from the seventh mansion world to their first heaven, the glories of Jerusem. He recorded: “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 and finally over the last mark and trace, standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and singing the song of deliverance from mortal fear and death.” (Perfected space communication is to be had on all these worlds; and your anywhere reception of such communications is made possible by carrying the “harp of God,” a morontia contrivance compensating for the inability to directly adjust the immature morontia sensory mechanism to the reception of space communications.)
(539.5) 47:10.3 Paul also had a view of the ascendant-citizen corps of perfecting mortals on Jerusem, for he wrote: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the grand assembly of Michael, and to the spirits of just men being made perfect.”
(539.6) 47:10.4 After mortals have attained residence on the system headquarters, no more literal resurrections will be experienced. The morontia form granted you on departure from the mansion world career is such as will see you through to the end of the local universe experience. Changes will be made from time to time, but you will retain this same form until you bid it farewell when you emerge as first-stage spirits preparatory for transit to the superuniverse worlds of ascending culture and spirit training.
(540.1) 47:10.5 Seven times do those mortals who pass through the entire mansonia career experience the adjustment sleep and the resurrection awakening. But the last resurrection hall, the final awakening chamber, was left behind on the seventh mansion world. No more will a form-change necessitate the lapse of consciousness or a break in the continuity of personal memory.
(540.2) 47:10.6 The mortal personality initiated on the evolutionary worlds and tabernacled in the flesh — indwelt by the Mystery Monitors and invested by the Spirit of Truth — is not fully mobilized, realized, and unified until that day when such a Jerusem citizen is given clearance for Edentia and proclaimed a true member of the morontia corps of Nebadon — an immortal survivor of Adjuster association, a Paradise ascender, a personality of morontia status, and a true child of the Most Highs.
(540.3) 47:10.7 Mortal death is a technique of escape from the material life in the flesh; and the mansonia experience of progressive life through seven worlds of corrective training and cultural education represents the introduction of mortal survivors to the morontia career, the transition life which intervenes between the evolutionary material existence and the higher spirit attainment of the ascenders of time who are destined to achieve the portals of eternity.
(540.4) 47:10.8 [Sponsored by a Brilliant Evening Star.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 48
The Morontia Life
(541.2) 48:0.2 The morontia life, extending as it does over the various stages of the local universe career, is the only possible approach whereby material mortals could attain the threshold of the spirit world. What magic could death, the natural dissolution of the material body, hold that such a simple step should instantly transform the mortal and material mind into an immortal and perfected spirit? Such beliefs are but ignorant superstitions and pleasing fables.
(541.3) 48:0.3 Always this morontia transition intervenes between the mortal estate and the subsequent spirit status of surviving human beings. This intermediate state of universe progress differs markedly in the various local creations, but in intent and purpose they are all quite similar. The arrangement of the mansion and higher morontia worlds in Nebadon is fairly typical of the morontia transition regimes in this part of Orvonton.
1. Morontia Materials
(541.5) 48:1.2 The morontia spheres are the transition phases of mortal ascension through the progression worlds of the local universe. Only the seven worlds surrounding the finaliters’ sphere of the local systems are called mansion worlds, but all fifty-six of the system transition abodes, in common with the higher spheres around the constellations and the universe headquarters, are called morontia worlds. These creations partake of the physical beauty and the morontia grandeur of the local universe headquarters spheres.
(541.6) 48:1.3 All of these worlds are architectural spheres, and they have just double the number of elements of the evolved planets. Such made-to-order worlds not only abound in the heavy metals and crystals, having one hundred physical elements, but likewise have exactly one hundred forms of a unique energy organization called morontia material. The Master Physical Controllers and the Morontia Power Supervisors are able so to modify the revolutions of the primary units of matter and at the same time so to transform these associations of energy as to create this new substance.
(542.1) 48:1.4 The early morontia life in the local systems is very much like that of your present material world, becoming less physical and more truly morontial on the constellation study worlds. And as you advance to the Salvington spheres, you increasingly attain spiritual levels.
(542.2) 48:1.5 The Morontia Power Supervisors are able to effect a union of material and of spiritual energies, thereby organizing a morontia form of materialization which is receptive to the superimposition of a controlling spirit. When you traverse the morontia life of Nebadon, these same patient and skillful Morontia Power Supervisors will successively provide you with 570 morontia bodies, each one a phase of your progressive transformation. From the time of leaving the material worlds until you are constituted a first-stage spirit on Salvington, you will undergo just 570 separate and ascending morontia changes. Eight of these occur in the system, seventy-one in the constellation, and 491 during the sojourn on the spheres of Salvington.
(542.3) 48:1.6 In the days of the mortal flesh the divine spirit indwells you, almost as a thing apart — in reality an invasion of man by the bestowed spirit of the Universal Father. But in the morontia life the spirit will become a real part of your personality, and as you successively pass through the 570 progressive transformations, you ascend from the material to the spiritual estate of creature life.
(542.4) 48:1.7 Paul learned of the existence of the morontia worlds and of the reality of morontia materials, for he wrote, “They have in heaven a better and more enduring substance.” And these morontia materials are real, literal, even as in “the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” And each of these marvelous spheres is “a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”
2. Morontia Power Supervisors
(542.6) 48:2.2 Morontia Power Supervisors are the offspring of a local universe Mother Spirit. They are fairly standard in design though differing slightly in nature in the various local creations. They are created for their specific function and require no training before entering upon their responsibilities.
(542.7) 48:2.3 The creation of the first Morontia Power Supervisors is simultaneous with the arrival of the first mortal survivor on the shores of some one of the first mansion worlds in a local universe. They are created in groups of one thousand, classified as follows:
(542.8) 48:2.4 1. Circuit Regulators . . . 400(543.5) 48:2.11 The power supervisors always serve in their native universe. They are directed exclusively by the joint spirit activity of the Universe Son and the Universe Spirit but are otherwise a wholly self-governing group. They maintain headquarters on each of the first mansion worlds of the local systems, where they work in close association with both the physical controllers and the seraphim but function in a world of their own as regards energy manifestation and spirit application.
(542.9) 48:2.5 2. System Co-ordinators . . 200
(542.10) 48:2.6 3. Planetary Custodians . . 100
(543.1) 48:2.7 4. Combined Controllers . . 100
(543.2) 48:2.8 5. Liaison Stabilizers. . . 100
(543.3) 48:2.9 6. Selective Assorters. . . .50
(543.4) 48:2.10 7. Associate Registrars . . .50
(543.6) 48:2.12 They also sometimes work in connection with supermaterial phenomena on the evolutionary worlds as ministers of temporary assignment. But they rarely serve on the inhabited planets; neither do they work on the higher training worlds of the superuniverse, being chiefly devoted to the transition regime of morontia progression in a local universe.
(543.7) 48:2.13 1. Circuit Regulators. These are the unique beings who co-ordinate physical and spiritual energy and regulate its flow into the segregated channels of the morontia spheres, and these circuits are exclusively planetary, limited to a single world. The morontia circuits are distinct from, and supplementary to, both physical and spiritual circuits on the transition worlds, and it requires millions of these regulators to energize even a system of mansion worlds like that of Satania.
(543.8) 48:2.14 Circuit regulators initiate those changes in material energies which render them subject to the control and regulation of their associates. These beings are morontia power generators as well as circuit regulators. Much as a dynamo apparently generates electricity out of the atmosphere, so do these living morontia dynamos seem to transform the everywhere energies of space into those materials which the morontia supervisors weave into the bodies and life activities of the ascending mortals.
(543.9) 48:2.15 2. System Co-ordinators. Since each morontia world has a separate order of morontia energy, it is exceedingly difficult for humans to visualize these spheres. But on each successive transition sphere, mortals will find the plant life and everything else pertaining to the morontia existence progressively modified to correspond with the advancing spiritization of the ascending survivor. And since the energy system of each world is thus individualized, these co-ordinators operate to harmonize and blend such differing power systems into a working unit for the associated spheres of any particular group.
(543.10) 48:2.16 Ascending mortals gradually progress from the physical to the spiritual as they advance from one morontia world to another; hence the necessity for providing an ascending scale of morontia spheres and an ascending scale of morontia forms.
(543.11) 48:2.17 When mansion world ascenders pass from one sphere to another, they are delivered by the transport seraphim to the receivers of the system co-ordinators on the advanced world. Here in those unique temples at the center of the seventy radiating wings wherein are the chambers of transition similar to the resurrection halls on the initial world of reception for earth-origin mortals, the necessary changes in creature form are skillfully effected by the system co-ordinators. These early morontia-form changes require about seven days of standard time for their accomplishment.
(544.1) 48:2.18 3. Planetary Custodians. Each morontia world, from the mansion spheres up to the universe headquarters, is in the custody — as regards morontia affairs — of seventy guardians. They constitute the local planetary council of supreme morontia authority. This council grants material for morontia forms to all ascending creatures who land on the spheres and authorizes those changes in creature form which make it possible for an ascender to proceed to the succeeding sphere. After the mansion worlds have been traversed, you will translate from one phase of morontia life to another without having to surrender consciousness. Unconsciousness attends only the earlier metamorphoses and the later transitions from one universe to another and from Havona to Paradise.
(544.2) 48:2.19 4. Combined Controllers. One of these highly mechanical beings is always stationed at the center of each administrative unit of a morontia world. A combined controller is sensitive to, and functional with, physical, spiritual, and morontial energies; and with this being there are always associated two system co-ordinators, four circuit regulators, one planetary custodian, one liaison stabilizer, and either an associate registrar or a selective assorter.
(544.3) 48:2.20 5. Liaison Stabilizers. These are the regulators of the morontia energy in association with the physical and spirit forces of the realm. They make possible the conversion of morontia energy into morontia material. The whole morontia organization of existence is dependent on the stabilizers. They slow down the energy revolutions to that point where physicalization can occur. But I have no terms with which I can compare or illustrate the ministry of such beings. It is quite beyond human imagination.
(544.4) 48:2.21 6. Selective Assorters. As you progress from one class or phase of a morontia world to another, you must be re-keyed or advance-tuned, and it is the task of the selective assorters to keep you in progressive synchrony with the morontia life.
(544.5) 48:2.22 While the basic morontia forms of life and matter are identical from the first mansion world to the last universe transition sphere, there is a functional progression which gradually extends from the material to the spiritual. Your adaptation to this basically uniform but successively advancing and spiritizing creation is effected by this selective re-keying. Such an adjustment in the mechanism of personality is tantamount to a new creation, notwithstanding that you retain the same morontia form.
(544.6) 48:2.23 You may repeatedly subject yourself to the test of these examiners, and as soon as you register adequate spiritual achievement, they will gladly certify you for advanced standing. These progressive changes result in altered reactions to the morontia environment, such as modifications in food requirements and numerous other personal practices.
(544.7) 48:2.24 The selective assorters are also of great service in the grouping of morontia personalities for purposes of study, teaching, and other projects. They naturally indicate those who will best function in temporary association.
(544.8) 48:2.25 7. Associate Registrars. The morontia world has its own recorders, who serve in association with the spirit recorders in the supervision and custody of the records and other data indigenous to the morontia creations. The morontia records are available to all orders of personalities.
(545.1) 48:2.26 All morontia transition realms are accessible alike to material and spirit beings. As morontia progressors you will remain in full contact with the material world and with material personalities, while you will increasingly discern and fraternize with spirit beings; and by the time of departure from the morontia regime, you will have seen all orders of spirits with the exception of a few of the higher types, such as Solitary Messengers.
3. Morontia Companions
(545.3) 48:3.2 Morontia Companions are trained for service by the Melchizedeks on a special planet near Salvington; they do not pass through the central Melchizedek schools. In service they range from the lowest mansion worlds of the systems to the highest study spheres of Salvington, but they are seldom encountered on the inhabited worlds. They serve under the general supervision of the Sons of God and under the immediate direction of the Melchizedeks.
(545.4) 48:3.3 The Morontia Companions maintain ten thousand headquarters in a local universe — on each of the first mansion worlds of the local systems. They are almost wholly a self-governing order and are, in general, an intelligent and loyal group of beings; but every now and then, in connection with certain unfortunate celestial upheavals, they have been known to go astray. Thousands of these useful creatures were lost during the times of the Lucifer rebellion in Satania. Your local system now has its full quota of these beings, the loss of the Lucifer rebellion having only recently been made up.
(545.5) 48:3.4 There are two distinct types of Morontia Companions; one type is aggressive, the other retiring, but otherwise they are equal in status. They are not sex creatures, but they manifest a touchingly beautiful affection for one another. And while they are hardly companionate in the material (human) sense, they are very close of kin to the human races in the order of creature existence. The midway creatures of the worlds are your nearest of kin; then come the morontia cherubim, and after them the Morontia Companions.
(545.6) 48:3.5 These companions are touchingly affectionate and charmingly social beings. They possess distinct personalities, and when you meet them on the mansion worlds, after learning to recognize them as a class, you will soon discern their individuality. Mortals all resemble one another; at the same time each of you possesses a distinct and recognizable personality.
(545.7) 48:3.6 Something of an idea of the nature of the work of these Morontia Companions may be derived from the following classification of their activities in a local system:
(545.8) 48:3.7 1. Pilgrim Guardians are not assigned to specific duties in their association with the morontia progressors. These companions are responsible for the whole of the morontia career and are therefore the co-ordinators of the work of all other morontia and transition ministers.(547.2) 48:3.17 As systems and universes are settled in light and life, the mansion worlds increasingly cease to function as transition spheres of morontia training. More and more the finaliters institute their new training regime, which appears to be designed to translate the cosmic consciousness from the present level of the grand universe to that of the future outer universes. The Morontia Companions are destined to function increasingly in association with the finaliters and in numerous other realms not at present revealed on Urantia.
(546.1) 48:3.8 2. Pilgrim Receivers and Free Associators. These are the social companions of the new arrivals on the mansion worlds. One of them will certainly be on hand to welcome you when you awaken on the initial mansion world from the first transit sleep of time, when you experience the resurrection from the death of the flesh into the morontia life. And from the time you are thus formally welcomed on awakening to that day when you leave the local universe as a first-stage spirit, these Morontia Companions are ever with you.
(546.2) 48:3.9 Companions are not assigned permanently to individuals. An ascending mortal on one of the mansion or higher worlds might have a different companion on each of several successive occasions and again might go for long periods without one. It would all depend on the requirements and also on the supply of companions available.
(546.3) 48:3.10 3. Hosts to Celestial Visitors. These gracious creatures are dedicated to the entertainment of the superhuman groups of student visitors and other celestials who may chance to sojourn on the transition worlds. You will have ample opportunity to visit within any realm you have experientially attained. Student visitors are allowed on all inhabited planets, even those in isolation.
(546.4) 48:3.11 4. Co-ordinators and Liaison Directors. These companions are dedicated to the facilitation of morontia intercourse and to the prevention of confusion. They are the instructors of social conduct and morontia progress, sponsoring classes and other group activities among the ascending mortals. They maintain extensive areas wherein they assemble their pupils and from time to time make requisition on the celestial artisans and the reversion directors for the embellishment of their programs. As you progress, you will come in intimate contact with these companions, and you will grow exceedingly fond of both groups. It is a matter of chance as to whether you will be associated with an aggressive or a retiring type of companion.
(546.5) 48:3.12 5. Interpreters and Translators. During the early mansonia career you will have frequent recourse to the interpreters and the translators. They know and speak all the tongues of a local universe; they are the linguists of the realms.
(546.6) 48:3.13 You will not acquire new languages automatically; you will learn a language over there much as you do down here, and these brilliant beings will be your language teachers. The first study on the mansion worlds will be the tongue of Satania and then the language of Nebadon. And while you are mastering these new tongues, the Morontia Companions will be your efficient interpreters and patient translators. You will never encounter a visitor on any of these worlds but that some one of the Morontia Companions will be able to officiate as interpreter.
(546.7) 48:3.14 6. Excursion and Reversion Supervisors. These companions will accompany you on the longer trips to the headquarters sphere and to the surrounding worlds of transition culture. They plan, conduct, and supervise all such individual and group tours about the system worlds of training and culture.
(546.8) 48:3.15 7. Area and Building Custodians. Even the material and morontia structures increase in perfection and grandeur as you advance in the mansonia career. As individuals and as groups you are permitted to make certain changes in the abodes assigned as headquarters for your sojourn on the different mansion worlds. Many of the activities of these spheres take place in the open enclosures of the variously designated circles, squares, and triangles. The majority of the mansion world structures are roofless, being enclosures of magnificent construction and exquisite embellishment. The climatic and other physical conditions prevailing on the architectural worlds make roofs wholly unnecessary.
(547.1) 48:3.16 These custodians of the transition phases of ascendant life are supreme in the management of morontia affairs. They were created for this work, and pending the factualization of the Supreme Being, always will they remain Morontia Companions; never do they perform other duties.
(547.3) 48:3.18 You can forecast that these beings are probably going to contribute much to your enjoyment of the mansion worlds, whether your sojourn is to be long or short. And you will continue to enjoy them all the way up to Salvington. They are not, technically, essential to any part of your survival experience. You could reach Salvington without them, but you would greatly miss them. They are the personality luxury of your ascending career in the local universe.
4. The Reversion Directors
(547.5) 48:4.2 Celestial relaxation and superhuman humor are quite different from their human analogues, but we all actually indulge in a form of both; and they really accomplish for us, in our state, just about what ideal humor is able to do for you on Urantia. The Morontia Companions are skillful play sponsors, and they are most ably supported by the reversion directors.
(547.6) 48:4.3 You would probably best understand the work of the reversion directors if they were likened to the higher types of humorists on Urantia, though that would be an exceedingly crude and somewhat unfortunate way in which to try to convey an idea of the function of these directors of change and relaxation, these ministers of the exalted humor of the morontia and spirit realms.
(547.7) 48:4.4 In discussing spirit humor, first let me tell you what it is not. Spirit jest is never tinged with the accentuation of the misfortunes of the weak and erring. Neither is it ever blasphemous of the righteousness and glory of divinity. Our humor embraces three general levels of appreciation:
(547.8) 48:4.5 1. Reminiscent jests. Quips growing out of the memories of past episodes in one’s experience of combat, struggle, and sometimes fearfulness, and ofttimes foolish and childish anxiety. To us, this phase of humor derives from the deep-seated and abiding ability to draw upon the past for memory material with which pleasantly to flavor and otherwise lighten the heavy loads of the present.(548.3) 48:4.8 But the reversion directors of the realms are not concerned exclusively with depicting the high humor of the various orders of intelligent beings; they are also occupied with the leadership of diversion, spiritual recreation and morontia entertainment. And in this connection they have the hearty co-operation of the celestial artisans.
(548.1) 48:4.6 2. Current humor. The senselessness of much that so often causes us serious concern, the joy at discovering the unimportance of much of our serious personal anxiety. We are most appreciative of this phase of humor when we are best able to discount the anxieties of the present in favor of the certainties of the future.
(548.2) 48:4.7 3. Prophetic joy. It will perhaps be difficult for mortals to envisage this phase of humor, but we do get a peculiar satisfaction out of the assurance “that all things work together for good” — for spirits and morontians as well as for mortals. This aspect of celestial humor grows out of our faith in the loving overcare of our superiors and in the divine stability of our Supreme Directors.
(548.4) 48:4.9 The reversion directors themselves are not a created group; they are a recruited corps embracing beings ranging from the Havona natives down through the messenger hosts of space and the ministering spirits of time to the morontia progressors from the evolutionary worlds. All are volunteers, giving themselves to the work of assisting their fellows in the achievement of thought change and mind rest, for such attitudes are most helpful in recuperating depleted energies.
(548.5) 48:4.10 When partially exhausted by the efforts of attainment, and while awaiting the reception of new energy charges, there is agreeable pleasure in living over again the enactments of other days and ages. The early experiences of the race or the order are restful to reminisce. And that is exactly why these artists are called reversion directors — they assist in reverting the memory to a former state of development or to a less experienced status of being.
(548.6) 48:4.11 All beings enjoy this sort of reversion except those who are inherent Creators, hence automatic self-rejuvenators, and certain highly specialized types of creatures, such as the power centers and the physical controllers, who are always and eternally thoroughly businesslike in all their reactions. These periodic releases from the tension of functional duty are a regular part of life on all worlds throughout the universe of universes but not on the Isle of Paradise. Beings indigenous to the central abode are incapable of depletion and are not, therefore, subject to re-energizing. And with such beings of eternal Paradise perfection there can be no such reversion to evolutionary experiences.
(548.7) 48:4.12 Most of us have come up through lower stages of existence or through progressive levels of our orders, and it is refreshing and in a measure amusing to look back upon certain episodes of our early experience. There is a restfulness in the contemplation of that which is old to one’s order, and which lingers as a memory possession of the mind. The future signifies struggle and advancement; it bespeaks work, effort, and achievement; but the past savors of things already mastered and achieved; contemplation of the past permits of relaxation and such a carefree review as to provoke spirit mirth and a morontia state of mind verging on merriment.
(548.8) 48:4.13 Even mortal humor becomes most hearty when it depicts episodes affecting those just a little beneath one’s present developmental state, or when it portrays one’s supposed superiors falling victim to the experiences which are commonly associated with supposed inferiors. You of Urantia have allowed much that is at once vulgar and unkind to become confused with your humor, but on the whole, you are to be congratulated on a comparatively keen sense of humor. Some of your races have a rich vein of it and are greatly helped in their earthly careers thereby. Apparently you received much in the way of humor from your Adamic inheritance, much more than was secured of either music or art.
(549.1) 48:4.14 All Satania, during times of play, those times when its inhabitants refreshingly resurrect the memories of a lower stage of existence, is edified by the pleasant humor of a corps of reversion directors from Urantia. The sense of celestial humor we have with us always, even when engaged in the most difficult of assignments. It helps to avoid an overdevelopment of the notion of one’s self-importance. But we do not give rein to it freely, as you might say, “have fun,” except when we are in recess from the serious assignments of our respective orders.
(549.2) 48:4.15 When we are tempted to magnify our self-importance, if we stop to contemplate the infinity of the greatness and grandeur of our Makers, our own self-glorification becomes sublimely ridiculous, even verging on the humorous. One of the functions of humor is to help all of us take ourselves less seriously. Humor is the divine antidote for exaltation of ego.
(549.3) 48:4.16 The need for the relaxation and diversion of humor is greatest in those orders of ascendant beings who are subjected to sustained stress in their upward struggles. The two extremes of life have little need for humorous diversions. Primitive men have no capacity therefor, and beings of Paradise perfection have no need thereof. The hosts of Havona are naturally a joyous and exhilarating assemblage of supremely happy personalities. On Paradise the quality of worship obviates the necessity for reversion activities. But among those who start their careers far below the goal of Paradise perfection, there is a large place for the ministry of the reversion directors.
(549.4) 48:4.17 The higher the mortal species, the greater the stress and the greater the capacity for humor as well as the necessity for it. In the spirit world the opposite is true: The higher we ascend, the less the need for the diversions of reversion experiences. But proceeding down the scale of spirit life from Paradise to the seraphic hosts, there is an increasing need for the mission of mirth and the ministry of merriment. Those beings who most need the refreshment of periodic reversion to the intellectual status of previous experiences are the higher types of the human species, the morontians, angels, and the Material Sons, together with all similar types of personality.
(549.5) 48:4.18 Humor should function as an automatic safety valve to prevent the building up of excessive pressures due to the monotony of sustained and serious self-contemplation in association with the intense struggle for developmental progress and noble achievement. Humor also functions to lessen the shock of the unexpected impact of fact or of truth, rigid unyielding fact and flexible ever-living truth. The mortal personality, never sure as to which will next be encountered, through humor swiftly grasps — sees the point and achieves insight — the unexpected nature of the situation be it fact or be it truth.
(549.6) 48:4.19 While the humor of Urantia is exceedingly crude and most inartistic, it does serve a valuable purpose both as a health insurance and as a liberator of emotional pressure, thus preventing injurious nervous tension and overserious self-contemplation. Humor and play — relaxation — are never reactions of progressive exertion; always are they the echoes of a backward glance, a reminiscence of the past. Even on Urantia and as you now are, you always find it rejuvenating when for a short time you can suspend the exertions of the newer and higher intellectual efforts and revert to the more simple engagements of your ancestors.
(550.1) 48:4.20 The principles of Urantian play life are philosophically sound and continue to apply on up through your ascending life, through the circuits of Havona to the eternal shores of Paradise. As ascendant beings you are in possession of personal memories of all former and lower existences, and without such identity memories of the past there would be no basis for the humor of the present, either mortal laughter or morontia mirth. It is this recalling of past experiences that provides the basis for present diversion and amusement. And so you will enjoy the celestial equivalents of your earthly humor all the way up through your long morontia, and then increasingly spiritual, careers. And that part of God (the Adjuster) which becomes an eternal part of the personality of an ascendant mortal contributes the overtones of divinity to the joyous expressions, even spiritual laughter, of the ascending creatures of time and space.
5. The Mansion World Teachers
(550.3) 48:5.2 These deserted assistants of the ministering seraphim are often summoned to universe headquarters, where they pass into the intimate embrace of the Universe Mother Spirit and then go forth to the system training spheres as Mansion World Teachers. These teachers often visit the material worlds and function from the lowest mansion worlds on up to the highest of the educational spheres connected with the universe headquarters. Upon their own motion they may return to their former associative work with the ministering seraphim.
(550.4) 48:5.3 There are billions upon billions of these teachers in Satania, and their numbers constantly increase because, in the majority of instances, when a seraphim proceeds inward with an Adjuster-fused mortal, both a cherubim and a sanobim are left behind.
(550.5) 48:5.4 Mansion World Teachers, like most of the other instructors, are commissioned by the Melchizedeks. They are generally supervised by the Morontia Companions, but as individuals and as teachers they are supervised by the acting heads of the schools or spheres wherein they may be functioning as instructors.
(550.6) 48:5.5 These advanced cherubim usually work in pairs as they did when attached to the seraphim. They are by nature very near the morontia type of existence, and they are inherently sympathetic teachers of the ascending mortals and most efficiently conduct the program of the mansion world and morontia educational system.
(551.1) 48:5.6 In the schools of the morontia life these teachers engage in individual, group, class, and mass teaching. On the mansion worlds such schools are organized in three general groups of one hundred divisions each: the schools of thinking, the schools of feeling, and the schools of doing. When you reach the constellation, there are added the schools of ethics, the schools of administration, and the schools of social adjustment. On the universe headquarters worlds you will enter the schools of philosophy, divinity, and pure spirituality.
(551.2) 48:5.7 Those things which you might have learned on earth, but which you failed to learn, must be acquired under the tutelage of these faithful and patient teachers. There are no royal roads, short cuts, or easy paths to Paradise. Irrespective of the individual variations of the route, you master the lessons of one sphere before you proceed to another; at least this is true after you once leave the world of your nativity.
(551.3) 48:5.8 One of the purposes of the morontia career is to effect the permanent eradication from the mortal survivors of such animal vestigial traits as procrastination, equivocation, insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and ease seeking. The mansonia life early teaches the young morontia pupils that postponement is in no sense avoidance. After the life in the flesh, time is no longer available as a technique of dodging situations or of circumventing disagreeable obligations.
(551.4) 48:5.9 Beginning service on the lowest of the tarrying spheres, the Mansion World Teachers advance, with experience, through the educational spheres of the system and the constellation to the training worlds of Salvington. They are subjected to no special discipline either before or after their embrace by the Universe Mother Spirit. They have already been trained for their work while serving as seraphic associates on the worlds native to their pupils of mansion world sojourn. They have had actual experience with these advancing mortals on the inhabited worlds. They are practical and sympathetic teachers, wise and understanding instructors, able and efficient guides. They are entirely familiar with the ascendant plans and thoroughly experienced in the initial phases of the progression career.
(551.5) 48:5.10 Many of the older of these teachers, those who have long served on the worlds of the Salvington circuit, are re-embraced by the Universe Mother Spirit, and from this second embrace these cherubim and sanobim emerge with the status of seraphim.
6. Morontia World Seraphim — Transition Ministers
(551.7) 48:6.2 You should understand that the morontia life of an ascending mortal is really initiated on the inhabited worlds at the conception of the soul, at that moment when the creature mind of moral status is indwelt by the spirit Adjuster. And from that moment on, the mortal soul has potential capacity for supermortal function, even for recognition on the higher levels of the morontia spheres of the local universe.
(552.1) 48:6.3 You will not, however, be conscious of the ministry of the transition seraphim until you attain the mansion worlds, where they labor untiringly for the advancement of their mortal pupils, being assigned for service in the following seven divisions:
(552.2) 48:6.4 1. Seraphic Evangels. The moment you consciousize on the mansion worlds, you are classified as evolving spirits in the records of the system. True, you are not yet spirits in reality, but you are no longer mortal or material beings; you have embarked upon the prespirit career and have been duly admitted to the morontia life.(555.4) 48:6.36 Even as mortals, so have these angels been father to many disappointments, and they will point out that sometimes your most disappointing disappointments have become your greatest blessings. Sometimes the planting of a seed necessitates its death, the death of your fondest hopes, before it can be reborn to bear the fruits of new life and new opportunity. And from them you will learn to suffer less through sorrow and disappointment, first, by making fewer personal plans concerning other personalities, and then, by accepting your lot when you have faithfully performed your duty.
(552.3) 48:6.5 On the mansion worlds the seraphic evangels will help you to choose wisely among the optional routes to Edentia, Salvington, Uversa, and Havona. If there are a number of equally advisable routes, these will be put before you, and you will be permitted to select the one that most appeals to you. These seraphim then make recommendations to the four and twenty advisers on Jerusem concerning that course which would be most advantageous for each ascending soul.
(552.4) 48:6.6 You are not given unrestricted choice as to your future course; but you may choose within the limits of that which the transition ministers and their superiors wisely determine to be most suitable for your future spirit attainment. The spirit world is governed on the principle of respecting your freewill choice provided the course you may choose is not detrimental to you or injurious to your fellows.
(552.5) 48:6.7 These seraphic evangels are dedicated to the proclamation of the gospel of eternal progression, the triumph of perfection attainment. On the mansion worlds they proclaim the great law of the conservation and dominance of goodness: No act of good is ever wholly lost; it may be long thwarted but never wholly annulled, and it is eternally potent in proportion to the divinity of its motivation.
(552.6) 48:6.8 Even on Urantia they counsel the human teachers of truth and righteousness to adhere to the preaching of “the goodness of God, which leads to repentance,” to proclaim “the love of God, which casts out all fear.” Even so have these truths been declared on your world:
(552.7) 48:6.9 The Gods are my caretakers; I shall not stray;(553.1) 48:6.20 That is the story whispered in the night season to the shepherd boy. He could not retain it word for word, but to the best of his memory he gave it much as it is recorded today.
(552.8) 48:6.10 Side by side they lead me in the beautiful paths and glorious refreshing of life everlasting.
(552.9) 48:6.11 I shall not, in this Divine Presence, want for food nor thirst for water.
(552.10) 48:6.12 Though I go down into the valley of uncertainty or ascend up into the worlds of doubt,
(552.11) 48:6.13 Though I move in loneliness or with the fellows of my kind,
(552.12) 48:6.14 Though I triumph in the choirs of light or falter in the solitary places of the spheres,
(552.13) 48:6.15 Your good spirit shall minister to me, and your glorious angel will comfort me.
(552.14) 48:6.16 Though I descend into the depths of darkness and death itself,
(552.15) 48:6.17 I shall not doubt you nor fear you,
(552.16) 48:6.18 For I know that in the fullness of time and the glory of your name
(552.17) 48:6.19 You will raise me up to sit with you on the battlements on high.
(553.2) 48:6.21 These seraphim are also the evangels of the gospel of perfection attainment for the whole system as well as for the individual ascender. Even now in the young system of Satania their teachings and plans encompass provisions for the future ages when the mansion worlds will no longer serve the mortal ascenders as steppingstones to the spheres on high.
(553.3) 48:6.22 2. Racial Interpreters. All races of mortal beings are not alike. True, there is a planetary pattern running through the physical, mental, and spiritual natures and tendencies of the various races of a given world; but there are also distinct racial types, and very definite social tendencies characterize the offspring of these different basic types of human beings. On the worlds of time the seraphic racial interpreters further the efforts of the race commissioners to harmonize the varied viewpoints of the races, and they continue to function on the mansion worlds, where these same differences tend to persist in a measure. On a confused planet, such as Urantia, these brilliant beings have hardly had a fair opportunity to function, but they are the skillful sociologists and the wise ethnic advisers of the first heaven.
(553.4) 48:6.23 You should consider the statement about “heaven” and the “heaven of heavens.” The heaven conceived by most of your prophets was the first of the mansion worlds of the local system. When the apostle spoke of being “caught up to the third heaven,” he referred to that experience in which his Adjuster was detached during sleep and in this unusual state made a projection to the third of the seven mansion worlds. Some of your wise men saw the vision of the greater heaven, “the heaven of heavens,” of which the sevenfold mansion world experience was but the first; the second being Jerusem; the third, Edentia and its satellites; the fourth, Salvington and the surrounding educational spheres; the fifth, Uversa; the sixth, Havona; and the seventh, Paradise.
(553.5) 48:6.24 3. Mind Planners. These seraphim are devoted to the effective grouping of morontia beings and to organizing their teamwork on the mansion worlds. They are the psychologists of the first heaven. The majority of this particular division of seraphic ministers have had previous experience as guardian angels to the children of time, but their wards, for some reason, failed to personalize on the mansion worlds or else survived by the technique of Spirit fusion.
(553.6) 48:6.25 It is the task of the mind planners to study the nature, experience, and status of the Adjuster souls in transit through the mansion worlds and to facilitate their grouping for assignment and advancement. But these mind planners do not scheme, manipulate, or otherwise take advantage of the ignorance or other limitations of mansion world students. They are wholly fair and eminently just. They respect your newborn morontia will; they regard you as independent volitional beings, and they seek to encourage your speedy development and advancement. Here you are face to face with true friends and understanding counselors, angels who are really able to help you “to see yourself as others see you” and “to know yourself as angels know you.”
(553.7) 48:6.26 Even on Urantia, these seraphim teach the everlasting truth: If your own mind does not serve you well, you can exchange it for the mind of Jesus of Nazareth, who always serves you well.
(554.1) 48:6.27 4. Morontia Counselors. These ministers receive their name because they are assigned to teach, direct, and counsel the surviving mortals from the worlds of human origin, souls in transit to the higher schools of the system headquarters. They are the teachers of those who seek insight into the experiential unity of divergent life levels, those who are attempting the integration of meanings and the unification of values. This is the function of philosophy in mortal life, of mota on the morontia spheres.
(554.2) 48:6.28 Mota is more than a superior philosophy; it is to philosophy as two eyes are to one; it has a stereoscopic effect on meanings and values. Material man sees the universe, as it were, with but one eye — flat. Mansion world students achieve cosmic perspective — depth — by superimposing the perceptions of the morontia life upon the perceptions of the physical life. And they are enabled to bring these material and morontial viewpoints into true focus largely through the untiring ministry of their seraphic counselors, who so patiently teach the mansion world students and the morontia progressors. Many of the teaching counselors of the supreme order of seraphim began their careers as advisers of the newly liberated souls of the mortals of time.
(554.3) 48:6.29 5. Technicians. These are the seraphim who help new ascenders adjust themselves to the new and comparatively strange environment of the morontia spheres. Life on the transition worlds entails real contact with the energies and materials of both the physical and morontia levels and to a certain extent with spiritual realities. Ascenders must acclimatize to every new morontia level, and in all of this they are greatly helped by the seraphic technicians. These seraphim act as liaisons with the Morontia Power Supervisors and with the Master Physical Controllers and function extensively as instructors of the ascending pilgrims concerning the nature of those energies which are utilized on the transition spheres. They serve as emergency space traversers and perform numerous other regular and special duties.
(554.4) 48:6.30 6. Recorder-Teachers. These seraphim are the recorders of the borderland transactions of the spiritual and the physical, of the relationships of men and angels, of the morontia transactions of the lower universe realms. They also serve as instructors regarding the efficient and effective techniques of fact recording. There is an artistry in the intelligent assembly and co-ordination of related data, and this art is heightened in collaboration with the celestial artisans, and even the ascending mortals become thus affiliated with the recording seraphim.
(554.5) 48:6.31 The recorders of all the seraphic orders devote a certain amount of time to the education and training of the morontia progressors. These angelic custodians of the facts of time are the ideal instructors of all fact seekers. Before leaving Jerusem, you will become quite familiar with the history of Satania and its 619 inhabited worlds, and much of this story will be imparted by the seraphic recorders.
(554.6) 48:6.32 These angels are all in the chain of recorders extending from the lowest to the highest custodians of the facts of time and the truths of eternity. Some day they will teach you to seek truth as well as fact, to expand your soul as well as your mind. Even now you should learn to water the garden of your heart as well as to seek for the dry sands of knowledge. Forms are valueless when lessons are learned. No chick may be had without the shell, and no shell is of any worth after the chick is hatched. But sometimes error is so great that its rectification by revelation would be fatal to those slowly emerging truths which are essential to its experiential overthrow. When children have their ideals, do not dislodge them; let them grow. And while you are learning to think as men, you should also be learning to pray as children.
(555.1) 48:6.33 Law is life itself and not the rules of its conduct. Evil is a transgression of law, not a violation of the rules of conduct pertaining to life, which is the law. Falsehood is not a matter of narration technique but something premeditated as a perversion of truth. The creation of new pictures out of old facts, the restatement of parental life in the lives of offspring — these are the artistic triumphs of truth. The shadow of a hair’s turning, premeditated for an untrue purpose, the slightest twisting or perversion of that which is principle — these constitute falseness. But the fetish of factualized truth, fossilized truth, the iron band of so-called unchanging truth, holds one blindly in a closed circle of cold fact. One can be technically right as to fact and everlastingly wrong in the truth.
(555.2) 48:6.34 7. Ministering Reserves. A large corps of all orders of the transition seraphim is held on the first mansion world. Next to the destiny guardians, these transition ministers draw the nearest to humans of all orders of seraphim, and many of your leisure moments will be spent with them. Angels take delight in service and, when unassigned, often minister as volunteers. The soul of many an ascending mortal has for the first time been kindled by the divine fire of the will-to-service through personal friendship with the volunteer servers of the seraphic reserves.
(555.3) 48:6.35 From them you will learn to let pressure develop stability and certainty; to be faithful and earnest and, withal, cheerful; to accept challenges without complaint and to face difficulties and uncertainties without fear. They will ask: If you fail, will you rise indomitably to try anew? If you succeed, will you maintain a well-balanced poise — a stabilized and spiritualized attitude — throughout every effort in the long struggle to break the fetters of material inertia, to attain the freedom of spirit existence?
(555.5) 48:6.37 You will learn that you increase your burdens and decrease the likelihood of success by taking yourself too seriously. Nothing can take precedence over the work of your status sphere — this world or the next. Very important is the work of preparation for the next higher sphere, but nothing equals the importance of the work of the world in which you are actually living. But though the work is important, the self is not. When you feel important, you lose energy to the wear and tear of ego dignity so that there is little energy left to do the work. Self-importance, not work-importance, exhausts immature creatures; it is the self element that exhausts, not the effort to achieve. You can do important work if you do not become self-important; you can do several things as easily as one if you leave yourself out. Variety is restful; monotony is what wears and exhausts. Day after day is alike — just life or the alternative of death.
7. Morontia Mota
(556.2) 48:7.2 Not long since, while executing an assignment on the first mansion world of Satania, I had occasion to observe this method of teaching; and though I may not undertake to present the mota content of the lesson, I am permitted to record the twenty-eight statements of human philosophy which this morontia instructor was utilizing as illustrative material designed to assist these new mansion world sojourners in their early efforts to grasp the significance and meaning of mota. These illustrations of human philosophy were:
(556.3) 48:7.3 1. A display of specialized skill does not signify possession of spiritual capacity. Cleverness is not a substitute for true character.(557.15) 48:7.31 Such is the work of the beginners on the first mansion world while the more advanced pupils on the later worlds are mastering the higher levels of cosmic insight and morontia mota.
(556.4) 48:7.4 2. Few persons live up to the faith which they really have. Unreasoned fear is a master intellectual fraud practiced upon the evolving mortal soul.
(556.5) 48:7.5 3. Inherent capacities cannot be exceeded; a pint can never hold a quart. The spirit concept cannot be mechanically forced into the material memory mold.
(556.6) 48:7.6 4. Few mortals ever dare to draw anything like the sum of personality credits established by the combined ministries of nature and grace. The majority of impoverished souls are truly rich, but they refuse to believe it.
(556.7) 48:7.7 5. Difficulties may challenge mediocrity and defeat the fearful, but they only stimulate the true children of the Most Highs.
(556.8) 48:7.8 6. To enjoy privilege without abuse, to have liberty without license, to possess power and steadfastly refuse to use it for self-aggrandizement — these are the marks of high civilization.
(556.9) 48:7.9 7. Blind and unforeseen accidents do not occur in the cosmos. Neither do the celestial beings assist the lower being who refuses to act upon his light of truth.
(556.10) 48:7.10 8. Effort does not always produce joy, but there is no happiness without intelligent effort.
(556.11) 48:7.11 9. Action achieves strength; moderation eventuates in charm.
(556.12) 48:7.12 10. Righteousness strikes the harmony chords of truth, and the melody vibrates throughout the cosmos, even to the recognition of the Infinite.
(556.13) 48:7.13 11. The weak indulge in resolutions, but the strong act. Life is but a day’s work — do it well. The act is ours; the consequences God’s.
(556.14) 48:7.14 12. The greatest affliction of the cosmos is never to have been afflicted. Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation.
(556.15) 48:7.15 13. Stars are best discerned from the lonely isolation of experiential depths, not from the illuminated and ecstatic mountain tops.
(556.16) 48:7.16 14. Whet the appetites of your associates for truth; give advice only when it is asked for.
(557.1) 48:7.17 15. Affectation is the ridiculous effort of the ignorant to appear wise, the attempt of the barren soul to appear rich.
(557.2) 48:7.18 16. You cannot perceive spiritual truth until you feelingly experience it, and many truths are not really felt except in adversity.
(557.3) 48:7.19 17. Ambition is dangerous until it is fully socialized. You have not truly acquired any virtue until your acts make you worthy of it.
(557.4) 48:7.20 18. Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is like a stone hurled into a hornet’s nest.
(557.5) 48:7.21 19. Anxiety must be abandoned. The disappointments hardest to bear are those which never come.
(557.6) 48:7.22 20. Only a poet can discern poetry in the commonplace prose of routine existence.
(557.7) 48:7.23 21. The high mission of any art is, by its illusions, to foreshadow a higher universe reality, to crystallize the emotions of time into the thought of eternity.
(557.8) 48:7.24 22. The evolving soul is not made divine by what it does, but by what it strives to do.
(557.9) 48:7.25 23. Death added nothing to the intellectual possession or to the spiritual endowment, but it did add to the experiential status the consciousness of survival.
(557.10) 48:7.26 24. The destiny of eternity is determined moment by moment by the achievements of the day by day living. The acts of today are the destiny of tomorrow.
(557.11) 48:7.27 25. Greatness lies not so much in possessing strength as in making a wise and divine use of such strength.
(557.12) 48:7.28 26. Knowledge is possessed only by sharing; it is safeguarded by wisdom and socialized by love.
(557.13) 48:7.29 27. Progress demands development of individuality; mediocrity seeks perpetuation in standardization.
(557.14) 48:7.30 28. The argumentative defense of any proposition is inversely proportional to the truth contained.
8. The Morontia Progressors
(557.17) 48:8.2 There is a definite and divine purpose in all this morontia and subsequent spirit scheme of mortal progression, this elaborate universe training school for ascending creatures. It is the design of the Creators to afford the creatures of time a graduated opportunity to master the details of the operation and administration of the grand universe, and this long course of training is best carried forward by having the surviving mortal climb up gradually and by actual participation in every step of the ascent.
(558.1) 48:8.3 The mortal-survival plan has a practical and serviceable objective; you are not the recipients of all this divine labor and painstaking training only that you may survive just to enjoy endless bliss and eternal ease. There is a goal of transcendent service concealed beyond the horizon of the present universe age. If the Gods designed merely to take you on one long and eternal joy excursion, they certainly would not so largely turn the whole universe into one vast and intricate practical training school, requisition a substantial part of the celestial creation as teachers and instructors, and then spend ages upon ages piloting you, one by one, through this gigantic universe school of experiential training. The furtherance of the scheme of mortal progression seems to be one of the chief businesses of the present organized universe, and the majority of innumerable orders of created intelligences are either directly or indirectly engaged in advancing some phase of this progressive perfection plan.
(558.2) 48:8.4 In traversing the ascending scale of living existence from mortal man to the Deity embrace, you actually live the very life of every possible phase and stage of perfected creature existence within the limits of the present universe age. From mortal man to Paradise finaliter embraces all that now can be — encompasses everything presently possible to the living orders of intelligent, perfected finite creature beings. If the future destiny of the Paradise finaliters is service in new universes now in the making, it is assured that in this new and future creation there will be no created orders of experiential beings whose lives will be wholly different from those which mortal finaliters have lived on some world as a part of their ascending training, as one of the stages of their agelong progress from animal to angel and from angel to spirit and from spirit to God.
(558.3) 48:8.5 [Presented by an Archangel of Nebadon.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 49
The Inhabited Worlds
(559.2) 49:0.2 All inhabited worlds are basically grouped for celestial administration into the local systems, and each of these local systems is limited to about one thousand evolutionary worlds. This limitation is by the decree of the Ancients of Days, and it pertains to actual evolutionary planets whereon mortals of survival status are living. Neither worlds finally settled in light and life nor planets in the prehuman stage of life development are reckoned in this group.
(559.3) 49:0.3 Satania itself is an unfinished system containing only 619 inhabited worlds. Such planets are numbered serially in accordance with their registration as inhabited worlds, as worlds inhabited by will creatures. Thus was Urantia given the number 606 of Satania, meaning the 606th world in this local system on which the long evolutionary life process culminated in the appearance of human beings. There are thirty-six uninhabited planets nearing the life-endowment stage, and several are now being made ready for the Life Carriers. There are nearly two hundred spheres which are evolving so as to be ready for life implantation within the next few million years.
(559.4) 49:0.4 Not all planets are suited to harbor mortal life. Small ones having a high rate of axial revolution are wholly unsuited for life habitats. In several of the physical systems of Satania the planets revolving around the central sun are too large for habitation, their great mass occasioning oppressive gravity. Many of these enormous spheres have satellites, sometimes a half dozen or more, and these moons are often in size very near that of Urantia, so that they are almost ideal for habitation.
(559.5) 49:0.5 The oldest inhabited world of Satania, world number one, is Anova, one of the forty-four satellites revolving around an enormous dark planet but exposed to the differential light of three neighboring suns. Anova is in an advanced stage of progressive civilization.
1. The Planetary Life
(560.1) 49:1.2 The biologic unit of material life is the protoplasmic cell, the communal association of chemical, electrical, and other basic energies. The chemical formulas differ in each system, and the technique of living cell reproduction is slightly different in each local universe, but the Life Carriers are always the living catalyzers who initiate the primordial reactions of material life; they are the instigators of the energy circuits of living matter.
(560.2) 49:1.3 All the worlds of a local system disclose unmistakable physical kinship; nevertheless, each planet has its own scale of life, no two worlds being exactly alike in plant and animal endowment. These planetary variations in the system life types result from the decisions of the Life Carriers. But these beings are neither capricious nor whimsical; the universes are conducted in accordance with law and order. The laws of Nebadon are the divine mandates of Salvington, and the evolutionary order of life in Satania is in consonance with the evolutionary pattern of Nebadon.
(560.3) 49:1.4 Evolution is the rule of human development, but the process itself varies greatly on different worlds. Life is sometimes initiated in one center, sometimes in three, as it was on Urantia. On the atmospheric worlds it usually has a marine origin, but not always; much depends on the physical status of a planet. The Life Carriers have great latitude in their function of life initiation.
(560.4) 49:1.5 In the development of planetary life the vegetable form always precedes the animal and is quite fully developed before the animal patterns differentiate. All animal types are developed from the basic patterns of the preceding vegetable kingdom of living things; they are not separately organized.
(560.5) 49:1.6 The early stages of life evolution are not altogether in conformity with your present-day views. Mortal man is not an evolutionary accident. There is a precise system, a universal law, which determines the unfolding of the planetary life plan on the spheres of space. Time and the production of large numbers of a species are not the controlling influences. Mice reproduce much more rapidly than elephants, yet elephants evolve more rapidly than mice.
(560.6) 49:1.7 The process of planetary evolution is orderly and controlled. The development of higher organisms from lower groupings of life is not accidental. Sometimes evolutionary progress is temporarily delayed by the destruction of certain favorable lines of life plasm carried in a selected species. It often requires ages upon ages to recoup the damage occasioned by the loss of a single superior strain of human heredity. These selected and superior strains of living protoplasm should be jealously and intelligently guarded when once they make their appearance. And on most of the inhabited worlds these superior potentials of life are valued much more highly than on Urantia.
2. Planetary Physical Types
(561.1) 49:2.2 1. Atmospheric types.(561.8) 49:2.9 The Satania system contains all of these types and numerous intermediate groups, although some are very sparingly represented.
(561.2) 49:2.3 2. Elemental types.
(561.3) 49:2.4 3. Gravity types.
(561.4) 49:2.5 4. Temperature types.
(561.5) 49:2.6 5. Electric types.
(561.6) 49:2.7 6. Energizing types.
(561.7) 49:2.8 7. Unnamed types.
(561.9) 49:2.10 1. The atmospheric types. The physical differences of the worlds of mortal habitation are chiefly determined by the nature of the atmosphere; other influences which contribute to the planetary differentiation of life are relatively minor.
(561.10) 49:2.11 The present atmospheric status of Urantia is almost ideal for the support of the breathing type of man, but the human type can be so modified that it can live on both the superatmospheric and the subatmospheric planets. Such modifications also extend to the animal life, which differs greatly on the various inhabited spheres. There is a very great modification of animal orders on both the sub- and the superatmospheric worlds.
(561.11) 49:2.12 Of the atmospheric types in Satania, about two and one-half per cent are subbreathers, about five per cent superbreathers, and over ninety-one per cent are mid-breathers, altogether accounting for ninety-eight and one-half per cent of the Satania worlds.
(561.12) 49:2.13 Beings such as the Urantia races are classified as mid-breathers; you represent the average or typical breathing order of mortal existence. If intelligent creatures should exist on a planet with an atmosphere similar to that of your near neighbor, Venus, they would belong to the superbreather group, while those inhabiting a planet with an atmosphere as thin as that of your outer neighbor, Mars, would be denominated subbreathers.
(561.13) 49:2.14 If mortals should inhabit a planet devoid of air, like your moon, they would belong to the separate order of nonbreathers. This type represents a radical or extreme adjustment to the planetary environment and is separately considered. Nonbreathers account for the remaining one and one-half per cent of Satania worlds.
(561.14) 49:2.15 2. The elemental types. These differentiations have to do with the relation of mortals to water, air, and land, and there are four distinct species of intelligent life as they are related to these habitats. The Urantia races are of the land order.
(561.15) 49:2.16 It is quite impossible for you to envisage the environment which prevails during the early ages of some worlds. These unusual conditions make it necessary for the evolving animal life to remain in its marine nursery habitat for longer periods than on those planets which very early provide a hospitable land-and-atmosphere environment. Conversely, on some worlds of the superbreathers, when the planet is not too large, it is sometimes expedient to provide for a mortal type which can readily negotiate atmospheric passage. These air navigators sometimes intervene between the water and land groups, and they always live in a measure upon the ground, eventually evolving into land dwellers. But on some worlds, for ages they continue to fly even after they have become land-type beings.
(562.1) 49:2.17 It is both amazing and amusing to observe the early civilization of a primitive race of human beings taking shape, in one case, in the air and treetops and, in another, midst the shallow waters of sheltered tropic basins, as well as on the bottom, sides, and shores of these marine gardens of the dawn races of such extraordinary spheres. Even on Urantia there was a long age during which primitive man preserved himself and advanced his primitive civilization by living for the most part in the treetops as did his earlier arboreal ancestors. And on Urantia you still have a group of diminutive mammals (the bat family) that are air navigators, and your seals and whales, of marine habitat, are also of the mammalian order.
(562.2) 49:2.18 In Satania, of the elemental types, seven per cent are water, ten per cent air, seventy per cent land, and thirteen per cent combined land-and-air types. But these modifications of early intelligent creatures are neither human fishes nor human birds. They are of the human and prehuman types, neither superfishes nor glorified birds but distinctly mortal.
(562.3) 49:2.19 3. The gravity types. By modification of creative design, intelligent beings are so constructed that they can freely function on spheres both smaller and larger than Urantia, thus being, in measure, accommodated to the gravity of those planets which are not of ideal size and density.
(562.4) 49:2.20 The various planetary types of mortals vary in height, the average in Nebadon being a trifle under seven feet. Some of the larger worlds are peopled with beings who are only about two and one-half feet in height. Mortal stature ranges from here on up through the average heights on the average-sized planets to around ten feet on the smaller inhabited spheres. In Satania there is only one race under four feet in height. Twenty per cent of the Satania inhabited worlds are peopled with mortals of the modified gravity types occupying the larger and the smaller planets.
(562.5) 49:2.21 4. The temperature types. It is possible to create living beings who can withstand temperatures both much higher and much lower than the life range of the Urantia races. There are five distinct orders of beings as they are classified with reference to heat-regulating mechanisms. In this scale the Urantia races are number three. Thirty per cent of Satania worlds are peopled with races of modified temperature types. Twelve per cent belong to the higher temperature ranges, eighteen per cent to the lower, as compared with Urantians, who function in the mid-temperature group.
(562.6) 49:2.22 5. The electric types. The electric, magnetic, and electronic behavior of the worlds varies greatly. There are ten designs of mortal life variously fashioned to withstand the differential energy of the spheres. These ten varieties also react in slightly different ways to the chemical rays of ordinary sunlight. But these slight physical variations in no way affect the intellectual or the spiritual life.
(562.7) 49:2.23 Of the electric groupings of mortal life, almost twenty-three per cent belong to class number four, the Urantia type of existence. These types are distributed as follows: number 1, one per cent; number 2, two per cent; number 3, five per cent; number 4, twenty-three per cent; number 5, twenty-seven per cent; number 6, twenty-four per cent; number 7, eight per cent; number 8, five per cent; number 9, three per cent; number 10, two per cent — in whole percentages.
(563.1) 49:2.24 6. The energizing types. Not all worlds are alike in the manner of taking in energy. Not all inhabited worlds have an atmospheric ocean suited to respiratory exchange of gases, such as is present on Urantia. During the earlier and the later stages of many planets, beings of your present order could not exist; and when the respiratory factors of a planet are very high or very low, but when all other prerequisites to intelligent life are adequate, the Life Carriers often establish on such worlds a modified form of mortal existence, beings who are competent to effect their life-process exchanges directly by means of light-energy and the firsthand power transmutations of the Master Physical Controllers.
(563.2) 49:2.25 There are six differing types of animal and mortal nutrition: The subbreathers employ the first type of nutrition, the marine dwellers the second, the mid-breathers the third, as on Urantia. The superbreathers employ the fourth type of energy intake, while the nonbreathers utilize the fifth order of nutrition and energy. The sixth technique of energizing is limited to the midway creatures.
(563.3) 49:2.26 7. The unnamed types. There are numerous additional physical variations in planetary life, but all of these differences are wholly matters of anatomical modification, physiologic differentiation, and electrochemical adjustment. Such distinctions do not concern the intellectual or the spiritual life.
3. Worlds of the Nonbreathers
(563.5) 49:3.2 There are so very few of the nonbreather type of inhabited worlds in Satania because this more recently organized section of Norlatiadek still abounds in meteoric space bodies; and worlds without a protective friction atmosphere are subject to incessant bombardment by these wanderers. Even some of the comets consist of meteor swarms, but as a rule they are disrupted smaller bodies of matter.
(563.6) 49:3.3 Millions upon millions of meteorites enter the atmosphere of Urantia daily, coming in at the rate of almost two hundred miles a second. On the nonbreathing worlds the advanced races must do much to protect themselves from meteor damage by making electrical installations which operate to consume or shunt the meteors. Great danger confronts them when they venture beyond these protected zones. These worlds are also subject to disastrous electrical storms of a nature unknown on Urantia. During such times of tremendous energy fluctuation the inhabitants must take refuge in their special structures of protective insulation.
(563.7) 49:3.4 Life on the worlds of the nonbreathers is radically different from what it is on Urantia. The nonbreathers do not eat food or drink water as do the Urantia races. The reactions of the nervous system, the heat-regulating mechanism, and the metabolism of these specialized peoples are radically different from such functions of Urantia mortals. Almost every act of living, aside from reproduction, differs, and even the methods of procreation are somewhat different.
(564.1) 49:3.5 On the nonbreathing worlds the animal species are radically unlike those found on the atmospheric planets. The nonbreathing plan of life varies from the technique of existence on an atmospheric world; even in survival their peoples differ, being candidates for Spirit fusion. Nevertheless, these beings enjoy life and carry forward the activities of the realm with the same relative trials and joys that are experienced by the mortals living on atmospheric worlds. In mind and character the nonbreathers do not differ from other mortal types.
(564.2) 49:3.6 You would be more than interested in the planetary conduct of this type of mortal because such a race of beings inhabits a sphere in close proximity to Urantia.
4. Evolutionary Will Creatures
(564.4) 49:4.2 There are six basic evolutionary races: three primary — red, yellow, and blue; and three secondary — orange, green, and indigo. Most inhabited worlds have all of these races, but many of the three-brained planets harbor only the three primary types. Some local systems also have only these three races.
(564.5) 49:4.3 The average special physical-sense endowment of human beings is twelve, though the special senses of the three-brained mortals are extended slightly beyond those of the one- and two-brained types; they can see and hear considerably more than the Urantia races.
(564.6) 49:4.4 Young are usually born singly, multiple births being the exception, and the family life is fairly uniform on all types of planets. Sex equality prevails on all advanced worlds; male and female are equal in mind endowment and spiritual status. We do not regard a planet as having emerged from barbarism so long as one sex seeks to tyrannize over the other. This feature of creature experience is always greatly improved after the arrival of a Material Son and Daughter.
(564.7) 49:4.5 Seasons and temperature variations occur on all sunlighted and sun-heated planets. Agriculture is universal on all atmospheric worlds; tilling the soil is the one pursuit that is common to the advancing races of all such planets.
(564.8) 49:4.6 Mortals all have the same general struggles with microscopic foes in their early days, such as you now experience on Urantia, though perhaps not so extensive. The length of life varies on the different planets from twenty-five years on the primitive worlds to near five hundred on the more advanced and older spheres.
(564.9) 49:4.7 Human beings are all gregarious, both tribal and racial. These group segregations are inherent in their origin and constitution. Such tendencies can be modified only by advancing civilization and by gradual spiritualization. The social, economic, and governmental problems of the inhabited worlds vary in accordance with the age of the planets and the degree to which they have been influenced by the successive sojourns of the divine Sons.
(564.10) 49:4.8 Mind is the bestowal of the Infinite Spirit and functions quite the same in diverse environments. The mind of mortals is akin, regardless of certain structural and chemical differences which characterize the physical natures of the will creatures of the local systems. Regardless of personal or physical planetary differences, the mental life of all these various orders of mortals is very similar, and their immediate careers after death are very much alike.
(565.1) 49:4.9 But mortal mind without immortal spirit cannot survive. The mind of man is mortal; only the bestowed spirit is immortal. Survival is dependent on spiritualization by the ministry of the Adjuster — on the birth and evolution of the immortal soul; at least, there must not have developed an antagonism towards the Adjuster’s mission of effecting the spiritual transformation of the material mind.
5. The Planetary Series of Mortals
(565.3) 49:5.2 1. Adjustment to planetary environment.(565.10) 49:5.9 The inhabited spheres of the seven superuniverses are peopled with mortals who simultaneously classify in some one or more categories of each of these seven generalized classes of evolutionary creature life. But even these general classifications make no provision for such beings as midsoniters nor for certain other forms of intelligent life. The inhabited worlds, as they have been presented in these narratives, are peopled with evolutionary mortal creatures, but there are other life forms.
(565.4) 49:5.3 2. Brain-type series.
(565.5) 49:5.4 3. Spirit-reception series.
(565.6) 49:5.5 4. Planetary-mortal epochs.
(565.7) 49:5.6 5. Creature-kinship serials.
(565.8) 49:5.7 6. Adjuster-fusion series.
(565.9) 49:5.8 7. Techniques of terrestrial escape.
(565.11) 49:5.10 1. Adjustment to planetary environment. There are three general groups of inhabited worlds from the standpoint of the adjustment of creature life to the planetary environment: the normal adjustment group, the radical adjustment group, and the experimental group.
(565.12) 49:5.11 Normal adjustments to planetary conditions follow the general physical patterns previously considered. The worlds of the nonbreathers typify the radical or extreme adjustment, but other types are also included in this group. Experimental worlds are usually ideally adapted to the typical life forms, and on these decimal planets the Life Carriers attempt to produce beneficial variations in the standard life designs. Since your world is an experimental planet, it differs markedly from its sister spheres in Satania; many forms of life have appeared on Urantia that are not found elsewhere; likewise are many common species absent from your planet.
(565.13) 49:5.12 In the universe of Nebadon, all the life-modification worlds are serially linked together and constitute a special domain of universe affairs which is given attention by designated administrators; and all of these experimental worlds are periodically inspected by a corps of universe directors whose chief is the veteran finaliter known in Satania as Tabamantia.
(566.1) 49:5.13 2. Brain-type series. The one physical uniformity of mortals is the brain and nervous system; nevertheless, there are three basic organizations of the brain mechanism: the one-, the two-, and the three-brained types. Urantians are of the two-brained type, somewhat more imaginative, adventurous, and philosophical than the one-brained mortals but somewhat less spiritual, ethical, and worshipful than the three-brained orders. These brain differences characterize even the prehuman animal existences.
(566.2) 49:5.14 From the two-hemisphere type of the Urantian cerebral cortex you can, by analogy, grasp something of the one-brained type. The third brain of the three-brained orders is best conceived as an evolvement of your lower or rudimentary form of brain, which is developed to the point where it functions chiefly in control of physical activities, leaving the two superior brains free for higher engagements: one for intellectual functions and the other for the spiritual-counterparting activities of the Thought Adjuster.
(566.3) 49:5.15 While the terrestrial attainments of the one-brained races are slightly limited in comparison with the two-brained orders, the older planets of the three-brained group exhibit civilizations that would astound Urantians, and which would somewhat shame yours by comparison. In mechanical development and material civilization, even in intellectual progress, the two-brained mortal worlds are able to equal the three-brained spheres. But in the higher control of mind and development of intellectual and spiritual reciprocation, you are somewhat inferior.
(566.4) 49:5.16 All such comparative estimates concerning the intellectual progress or the spiritual attainments of any world or group of worlds should in fairness recognize planetary age; much, very much, depends on age, the help of the biologic uplifters, and the subsequent missions of the various orders of the divine Sons.
(566.5) 49:5.17 While the three-brained peoples are capable of a slightly higher planetary evolution than either the one- or two-brained orders, all have the same type of life plasm and carry on planetary activities in very similar ways, much as do human beings on Urantia. These three types of mortals are distributed throughout the worlds of the local systems. In the majority of cases planetary conditions had very little to do with the decisions of the Life Carriers to project these varied orders of mortals on the different worlds; it is a prerogative of the Life Carriers thus to plan and execute.
(566.6) 49:5.18 These three orders stand on an equal footing in the ascension career. Each must traverse the same intellectual scale of development, and each must master the same spiritual tests of progression. The system administration and the constellation overcontrol of these different worlds are uniformly free from discrimination; even the regimes of the Planetary Princes are identical.
(566.7) 49:5.19 3. Spirit-reception series. There are three groups of mind design as related to contact with spirit affairs. This classification does not refer to the one-, two-, and three-brained orders of mortals; it refers primarily to gland chemistry, more particularly to the organization of certain glands comparable to the pituitary bodies. The races on some worlds have one gland, on others two, as do Urantians, while on still other spheres the races have three of these unique bodies. The inherent imagination and spiritual receptivity is definitely influenced by this differential chemical endowment.
(566.8) 49:5.20 Of the spirit-reception types, sixty-five per cent are of the second group, like the Urantia races. Twelve per cent are of the first type, naturally less receptive, while twenty-three per cent are more spiritually inclined during terrestrial life. But such distinctions do not survive natural death; all of these racial differences pertain only to the life in the flesh.
(567.1) 49:5.21 4. Planetary-mortal epochs. This classification recognizes the succession of temporal dispensations as they affect man’s terrestrial status and his reception of celestial ministry.
(567.2) 49:5.22 Life is initiated on the planets by the Life Carriers, who watch over its development until sometime after the evolutionary appearance of mortal man. Before the Life Carriers leave a planet, they duly install a Planetary Prince as ruler of the realm. With this ruler there arrives a full quota of subordinate auxiliaries and ministering helpers, and the first adjudication of the living and the dead is simultaneous with his arrival.
(567.3) 49:5.23 With the emergence of human groupings, this Planetary Prince arrives to inaugurate human civilization and to focalize human society. Your world of confusion is no criterion of the early days of the reign of the Planetary Princes, for it was near the beginning of such an administration on Urantia that your Planetary Prince, Caligastia, cast his lot with the rebellion of the System Sovereign, Lucifer. Your planet has pursued a stormy course ever since.
(567.4) 49:5.24 On a normal evolutionary world, racial progress attains its natural biologic peak during the regime of the Planetary Prince, and shortly thereafter the System Sovereign dispatches a Material Son and Daughter to that planet. These imported beings are of service as biologic uplifters; their default on Urantia further complicated your planetary history.
(567.5) 49:5.25 When the intellectual and ethical progress of a human race has reached the limits of evolutionary development, there comes an Avonal Son of Paradise on a magisterial mission; and later on, when the spiritual status of such a world is nearing its limit of natural attainment, the planet is visited by a Paradise bestowal Son. The chief mission of a bestowal Son is to establish the planetary status, release the Spirit of Truth for planetary function, and thus effect the universal coming of the Thought Adjusters.
(567.6) 49:5.26 Here, again, Urantia deviates: There has never been a magisterial mission on your world, neither was your bestowal Son of the Avonal order; your planet enjoyed the signal honor of becoming the mortal home planet of the Sovereign Son, Michael of Nebadon.
(567.7) 49:5.27 As a result of the ministry of all the successive orders of divine sonship, the inhabited worlds and their advancing races begin to approach the apex of planetary evolution. Such worlds now become ripe for the culminating mission, the arrival of the Trinity Teacher Sons. This epoch of the Teacher Sons is the vestibule to the final planetary age — evolutionary utopia — the age of light and life.
(567.8) 49:5.28 This classification of human beings will receive particular attention in a succeeding paper.
(567.9) 49:5.29 5. Creature-kinship serials. Planets are not only organized vertically into systems, constellations, and so on, but the universe administration also provides for horizontal groupings according to type, series, and other relationships. This lateral administration of the universe pertains more particularly to the co-ordination of activities of a kindred nature which have been independently fostered on different spheres. These related classes of universe creatures are periodically inspected by certain composite corps of high personalities presided over by long-experienced finaliters.
(568.1) 49:5.30 These kinship factors are manifest on all levels, for kinship serials exist among nonhuman personalities as well as among mortal creatures — even between human and superhuman orders. Intelligent beings are vertically related in twelve great groups of seven major divisions each. The co-ordination of these uniquely related groups of living beings is probably effected by some not fully comprehended technique of the Supreme Being.
(568.2) 49:5.31 6. Adjuster-fusion series. The spiritual classification or grouping of all mortals during their prefusion experience is wholly determined by the relation of the personality status to the indwelling Mystery Monitor. Almost ninety per cent of the inhabited worlds of Nebadon are peopled with Adjuster-fusion mortals in contrast with a near-by universe where scarcely more than one half of the worlds harbor beings who are Adjuster-indwelt candidates for eternal fusion.
(568.3) 49:5.32 7. Techniques of terrestrial escape. There is fundamentally only one way in which individual human life can be initiated on the inhabited worlds, and that is through creature procreation and natural birth; but there are numerous techniques whereby man escapes his terrestrial status and gains access to the inward moving stream of Paradise ascenders.
6. Terrestrial Escape
(568.5) 49:6.2 From time to time, on motion of the planetary authorities or the system rulers, special resurrections of the sleeping survivors are conducted. Such resurrections occur at least every millennium of planetary time, when not all but “many of those who sleep in the dust awake.” These special resurrections are the occasion for mobilizing special groups of ascenders for specific service in the local universe plan of mortal ascension. There are both practical reasons and sentimental associations connected with these special resurrections.
(568.6) 49:6.3 Throughout the earlier ages of an inhabited world, many are called to the mansion spheres at the special and the millennial resurrections, but most survivors are repersonalized at the inauguration of a new dispensation associated with the advent of a divine Son of planetary service.
(568.7) 49:6.4 1. Mortals of the dispensational or group order of survival. With the arrival of the first Adjuster on an inhabited world the guardian seraphim also make their appearance; they are indispensable to terrestrial escape. Throughout the life-lapse period of the sleeping survivors the spiritual values and eternal realities of their newly evolved and immortal souls are held as a sacred trust by the personal or by the group guardian seraphim.
(568.8) 49:6.5 The group guardians of assignment to the sleeping survivors always function with the judgment Sons on their world advents. “He shall send his angels, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds.” With each seraphim of assignment to the repersonalization of a sleeping mortal there functions the returned Adjuster, the same immortal Father fragment that lived in him during the days in the flesh, and thus is identity restored and personality resurrected. During the sleep of their subjects these waiting Adjusters serve on Divinington; they never indwell another mortal mind in this interim.
(569.1) 49:6.6 While the older worlds of mortal existence harbor those highly developed and exquisitely spiritual types of human beings who are virtually exempt from the morontia life, the earlier ages of the animal-origin races are characterized by primitive mortals who are so immature that fusion with their Adjusters is impossible. The reawakening of these mortals is accomplished by the guardian seraphim in conjunction with an individualized portion of the immortal spirit of the Third Source and Center.
(569.2) 49:6.7 Thus are the sleeping survivors of a planetary age repersonalized in the dispensational roll calls. But with regard to the nonsalvable personalities of a realm, no immortal spirit is present to function with the group guardians of destiny, and this constitutes cessation of creature existence. While some of your records have pictured these events as taking place on the planets of mortal death, they all really occur on the mansion worlds.
(569.3) 49:6.8 2. Mortals of the individual orders of ascension. The individual progress of human beings is measured by their successive attainment and traversal (mastery) of the seven cosmic circles. These circles of mortal progression are levels of associated intellectual, social, spiritual, and cosmic-insight values. Starting out in the seventh circle, mortals strive for the first, and all who have attained the third immediately have personal guardians of destiny assigned to them. These mortals may be repersonalized in the morontia life independent of dispensational or other adjudications.
(569.4) 49:6.9 Throughout the earlier ages of an evolutionary world, few mortals go to judgment on the third day. But as the ages pass, more and more the personal guardians of destiny are assigned to the advancing mortals, and thus increasing numbers of these evolving creatures are repersonalized on the first mansion world on the third day after natural death. On such occasions the return of the Adjuster signalizes the awakening of the human soul, and this is the repersonalization of the dead just as literally as when the en masse roll is called at the end of a dispensation on the evolutionary worlds.
(569.5) 49:6.10 There are three groups of individual ascenders: The less advanced land on the initial or first mansion world. The more advanced group may take up the morontia career on any of the intermediate mansion worlds in accordance with previous planetary progression. The most advanced of these orders really begin their morontia experience on the seventh mansion world.
(569.6) 49:6.11 3. Mortals of the probationary-dependent orders of ascension. The arrival of an Adjuster constitutes identity in the eyes of the universe, and all indwelt beings are on the roll calls of justice. But temporal life on the evolutionary worlds is uncertain, and many die in youth before choosing the Paradise career. Such Adjuster-indwelt children and youths follow the parent of most advanced spiritual status, thus going to the system finaliter world (the probationary nursery) on the third day, at a special resurrection, or at the regular millennial and dispensational roll calls.
(570.1) 49:6.12 Children who die when too young to have Thought Adjusters are repersonalized on the finaliter world of the local systems concomitant with the arrival of either parent on the mansion worlds. A child acquires physical entity at mortal birth, but in the matter of survival all Adjusterless children are reckoned as still attached to their parents.
(570.2) 49:6.13 In due course Thought Adjusters come to indwell these little ones, while the seraphic ministry to both groups of the probationary-dependent orders of survival is in general similar to that of the more advanced parent or is equivalent to that of the parent in case only one survives. Those attaining the third circle, regardless of the status of their parents, are accorded personal guardians.
(570.3) 49:6.14 Similar probation nurseries are maintained on the finaliter spheres of the constellation and the universe headquarters for the Adjusterless children of the primary and secondary modified orders of ascenders.
(570.4) 49:6.15 4. Mortals of the secondary modified orders of ascension. These are the progressive human beings of the intermediate evolutionary worlds. As a rule they are not immune to natural death, but they are exempt from passing through the seven mansion worlds.
(570.5) 49:6.16 The less perfected group reawaken on the headquarters of their local system, passing by only the mansion worlds. The intermediate group go to the constellation training worlds; they pass by the entire morontia regime of the local system. Still farther on in the planetary ages of spiritual striving, many survivors awaken on the constellation headquarters and there begin the Paradise ascent.
(570.6) 49:6.17 But before any of these groups may go forward, they must journey back as instructors to the worlds they missed, gaining many experiences as teachers in those realms which they passed by as students. They all subsequently proceed to Paradise by the ordained routes of mortal progression.
(570.7) 49:6.18 5. Mortals of the primary modified order of ascension. These mortals belong to the Adjuster-fused type of evolutionary life, but they are most often representative of the final phases of human development on an evolving world. These glorified beings are exempt from passing through the portals of death; they are submitted to Son seizure; they are translated from among the living and appear immediately in the presence of the Sovereign Son on the headquarters of the local universe.
(570.8) 49:6.19 These are the mortals who fuse with their Adjusters during mortal life, and such Adjuster-fused personalities traverse space freely before being clothed with morontia forms. These fused souls go by direct Adjuster transit to the resurrection halls of the higher morontia spheres, where they receive their initial morontia investiture just as do all other mortals arriving from the evolutionary worlds.
(570.9) 49:6.20 This primary modified order of mortal ascension may apply to individuals in any of the planetary series from the lowest to the highest stages of the Adjuster-fusion worlds, but it more frequently functions on the older of these spheres after they have received the benefits of numerous sojourns of the divine Sons.
(570.10) 49:6.21 With the establishment of the planetary era of light and life, many go to the universe morontia worlds by the primary modified order of translation. Further along in the advanced stages of settled existence, when the majority of the mortals leaving a realm are embraced in this class, the planet is regarded as belonging to this series. Natural death becomes decreasingly frequent on these spheres long settled in light and life.
(571.1) 49:6.22 [Presented by a Melchizedek of the Jerusem School of Planetary Administration.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 50
The Planetary Princes
(572.2) 50:0.2 The signal for a System Sovereign to act in the matter of assigning a ruler to a given planet is the reception of a request from the Life Carriers for the dispatch of an administrative head to function on this planet whereon they have established life and developed intelligent evolutionary beings. All planets which are inhabited by evolutionary mortal creatures have assigned to them a planetary ruler of this order of sonship.
1. Mission of the Princes
(572.4) 50:1.2 The prince of a newly inhabited world is surrounded by a loyal corps of helpers and assistants and by large numbers of the ministering spirits. But the directing corps of such new worlds must be of the lower orders of the administrators of a system in order to be innately sympathetic with, and understanding of, the planetary problems and difficulties. And all of this effort to provide sympathetic rulership for the evolutionary worlds entails the increased liability that these near-human personalities may be led astray by the exaltation of their own minds over and above the will of the Supreme Rulers.
(572.5) 50:1.3 Being quite alone as representatives of divinity on the individual planets, these Sons are tested severely, and Nebadon has suffered the misfortune of several rebellions. In the creation of the System Sovereigns and the Planetary Princes there occurs the personalization of a concept that has been getting farther and farther away from the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, and there is an increasing danger of losing the sense of proportion as to one’s self-importance and a greater likelihood of failure to keep a proper grasp of the values and relationships of the numerous orders of divine beings and their gradations of authority. That the Father is not personally present in the local universe also imposes a certain test of faith and loyalty on all these Sons.
(573.1) 50:1.4 But not often do these world princes fail in their missions of organizing and administering the inhabited spheres, and their success greatly facilitates the subsequent missions of the Material Sons, who come to engraft the higher forms of creature life on the primitive men of the worlds. Their rule also does much to prepare the planets for the Paradise Sons of God, who subsequently come to judge the worlds and to inaugurate successive dispensations.
2. Planetary Administration
(573.3) 50:2.2 The Planetary Princes may at any time seek the counsel of the Melchizedeks, their former instructors and sponsors, but they are not arbitrarily required to ask for such assistance, and if such aid is not voluntarily requested, the Melchizedeks do not interfere with the planetary administration. These world rulers may also avail themselves of the advice of the four and twenty counselors, assembled from the bestowal worlds of the system. In Satania these counselors are at present all natives of Urantia. And there is an analogous council of seventy at the constellation headquarters also selected from the evolutionary beings of the realms.
(573.4) 50:2.3 The rule of the evolutionary planets in their early and unsettled careers is largely autocratic. The Planetary Princes organize their specialized groups of assistants from among their corps of planetary aids. They usually surround themselves with a supreme council of twelve, but this is variously chosen and diversely constituted on the different worlds. A Planetary Prince may also have as assistants one or more of the third order of his own group of sonship and sometimes, on certain worlds, one of his own order, a secondary Lanonandek associate.
(573.5) 50:2.4 The entire staff of a world ruler consists of personalities of the Infinite Spirit and certain types of higher evolved beings and ascending mortals from other worlds. Such a staff averages about one thousand, and as the planet progresses, this corps of helpers may be increased up to one hundred thousand or more. At any time need is felt for more helpers, the Planetary Princes have only to make request of their brothers, the System Sovereigns, and the petition is granted forthwith.
(573.6) 50:2.5 Planets vary greatly in nature and organization and in administration, but all provide for tribunals of justice. The judicial system of the local universe has its beginnings in the tribunals of a Planetary Prince, which are presided over by a member of his personal staff; the decrees of such courts reflect a highly fatherly and discretionary attitude. All problems involving more than the regulation of the planetary inhabitants are subject to appeal to the higher tribunals, but the affairs of his world domain are largely adjusted in accordance with the personal discretion of the prince.
(574.1) 50:2.6 The roving commissions of conciliators serve and supplement the planetary tribunals, and both spirit and physical controllers are subject to the findings of these conciliators. But no arbitrary execution is ever carried out without the consent of the Constellation Father, for the “Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men.”
(574.2) 50:2.7 The controllers and transformers of planetary assignment are also able to collaborate with angels and other orders of celestial beings in rendering these latter personalities visible to mortal creatures. On special occasions the seraphic helpers and even the Melchizedeks can and do make themselves visible to the inhabitants of the evolutionary worlds. The principal reason for bringing mortal ascenders from the system capital as a part of the staff of the Planetary Prince is to facilitate communication with the inhabitants of the realm.
3. The Prince’s Corporeal Staff
(574.4) 50:3.2 Such volunteer assistants are citizens of a system capital, and none of them have fused with their indwelling Adjusters. The status of the Adjusters of such volunteer servers remains as of the residential standing on the system headquarters while these morontia progressors temporarily revert to a former material state.
(574.5) 50:3.3 The Life Carriers, the architects of form, provide such volunteers with new physical bodies, which they occupy for the periods of their planetary sojourn. These personality forms, while exempt from the ordinary diseases of the realms, are, like the early morontia bodies, subject to certain accidents of a mechanical nature.
(574.6) 50:3.4 The prince’s corporeal staff are usually removed from the planet in connection with the next adjudication at the time of the second Son’s arrival on the sphere. Before leaving, they customarily assign their various duties to their mutual offspring and to certain superior native volunteers. On those worlds where these helpers of the prince have been permitted to mate with the superior groups of the native races, such offspring usually succeed them.
(574.7) 50:3.5 These assistants to the Planetary Prince seldom mate with the world races, but they do always mate among themselves. Two classes of beings result from these unions: the primary type of midway creatures and certain high types of material beings who remain attached to the prince’s staff after their parents have been removed from the planet at the time of the arrival of Adam and Eve. These children do not mate with the mortal races except in certain emergencies and then only by direction of the Planetary Prince. In such an event, their children — the grandchildren of the corporeal staff — are in status as of the superior races of their day and generation. All the offspring of these semimaterial assistants of the Planetary Prince are Adjuster indwelt.
(575.1) 50:3.6 At the end of the prince’s dispensation, when the time comes for this “reversion staff” to be returned to the system headquarters for the resumption of the Paradise career, these ascenders present themselves to the Life Carriers for the purpose of yielding up their material bodies. They enter the transition slumber and awaken delivered from their mortal investment and clothed with morontia forms, ready for seraphic transportation back to the system capital, where their detached Adjusters await them. They are a whole dispensation behind their Jerusem class, but they have gained a unique and extraordinary experience, a rare chapter in the career of an ascending mortal.
4. The Planetary Headquarters and Schools
(575.3) 50:4.2 Much of the physical work connected with the establishment of this headquarters city is performed by the corporeal staff. Such headquarters cities, or settlements, of the early times of the Planetary Prince are very different from what a Urantia mortal might imagine. They are, in comparison with later ages, simple, being characterized by mineral embellishment and by relatively advanced material construction. And all of this stands in contrast with the Adamic regime centering around a garden headquarters, from which their work in behalf of the races is prosecuted during the second dispensation of the universe Sons.
(575.4) 50:4.3 In the headquarters settlement on your world every human habitation was provided with abundance of land. Although the remote tribes continued in hunting and food foraging, the students and teachers in the Prince’s schools were all agriculturists and horticulturists. The time was about equally divided between the following pursuits:
(575.5) 50:4.4 1. Physical labor. Cultivation of the soil, associated with home building and embellishment.(575.10) 50:4.9 A Planetary Prince is not visible to mortal beings; it is a test of faith to believe the representations of the semimaterial beings of his staff. But these schools of culture and training are well adapted to the needs of each planet, and there soon develops a keen and laudatory rivalry among the races of men in their efforts to gain entrance to these various institutions of learning.
(575.6) 50:4.5 2. Social activities. Play performances and cultural social groupings.
(575.7) 50:4.6 3. Educational application. Individual instruction in connection with family-group teaching, supplemented by specialized class training.
(575.8) 50:4.7 4. Vocational training. Schools of marriage and homemaking, the schools of art and craft training, and the classes for the training of teachers — secular, cultural, and religious.
(575.9) 50:4.8 5. Spiritual culture. The teacher brotherhood, the enlightenment of childhood and youth groups, and the training of adopted native children as missionaries to their people.
(575.11) 50:4.10 From such a world center of culture and achievement there gradually radiates to all peoples an uplifting and civilizing influence which slowly and certainly transforms the evolutionary races. Meantime the educated and spiritualized children of the surrounding peoples who have been adopted and trained in the prince’s schools are returning to their native groups and, to the best of their ability, are there establishing new and potent centers of learning and culture which they carry on according to the plan of the prince’s schools.
(576.1) 50:4.11 On Urantia these plans for planetary progress and cultural advancement were well under way, proceeding most satisfactorily, when the whole enterprise was brought to a rather sudden and most inglorious end by Caligastia’s adherence to the Lucifer rebellion.
(576.2) 50:4.12 It was one of the most profoundly shocking episodes of this rebellion for me to learn of the callous perfidy of one of my own order of sonship, Caligastia, who, in deliberation and with malice aforethought, systematically perverted the instruction and poisoned the teaching provided in all the Urantia planetary schools in operation at that time. The wreck of these schools was speedy and complete.
(576.3) 50:4.13 Many of the offspring of the ascenders of the Prince’s materialized staff remained loyal, deserting the ranks of Caligastia. These loyalists were encouraged by the Melchizedek receivers of Urantia, and in later times their descendants did much to uphold the planetary concepts of truth and righteousness. The work of these loyal evangels helped to prevent the total obliteration of spiritual truth on Urantia. These courageous souls and their descendants kept alive some knowledge of the Father’s rule and preserved for the world races the concept of the successive planetary dispensations of the various orders of divine Sons.
5. Progressive Civilization
(576.5) 50:5.2 The progress of civilization is hardly alike on any two planets. The details of the unfoldment of mortal evolution are very different on numerous dissimilar worlds. Notwithstanding these many diversifications of planetary development along physical, intellectual, and social lines, all evolutionary spheres progress in certain well-defined directions.
(576.6) 50:5.3 Under the benign rule of a Planetary Prince, augmented by the Material Sons and punctuated by the periodic missions of the Paradise Sons, the mortal races on an average world of time and space will successively pass through the following seven developmental epochs:
(576.7) 50:5.4 1. The nutrition epoch. The prehuman creatures and the dawn races of primitive man are chiefly concerned with food problems. These evolving beings spend their waking hours either in seeking food or in fighting, offensively or defensively. The food quest is paramount in the minds of these early ancestors of subsequent civilization.(577.6) 50:5.11 After serving their spheres through successive dispensations of world history and the progressing epochs of planetary progress, the Planetary Princes are elevated to the position of Planetary Sovereigns upon the inauguration of the era of light and life.
(576.8) 50:5.5 2. The security age. Just as soon as the primitive hunter can spare any time from the search for food, he turns this leisure to augmenting his security. More and more attention is devoted to the technique of war. Homes are fortified, and the clans are solidified by mutual fear and by the inculcation of hate for foreign groups. Self-preservation is a pursuit which always follows self-maintenance.
(577.1) 50:5.6 3. The material-comfort era. After food problems have been partially solved and some degree of security has been attained, the additional leisure is utilized to promote personal comfort. Luxury vies with necessity in occupying the center of the stage of human activities. Such an age is all too often characterized by tyranny, intolerance, gluttony, and drunkenness. The weaker elements of the races incline towards excesses and brutality. Gradually these pleasure-seeking weaklings are subjugated by the more strong and truth-loving elements of the advancing civilization.
(577.2) 50:5.7 4. The quest for knowledge and wisdom. Food, security, pleasure, and leisure provide the foundation for the development of culture and the spread of knowledge. The effort to execute knowledge results in wisdom, and when a culture has learned how to profit and improve by experience, civilization has really arrived. Food, security, and material comfort still dominate society, but many forward-looking individuals are hungering for knowledge and thirsting for wisdom. Every child is provided an opportunity to learn by doing; education is the watchword of these ages.
(577.3) 50:5.8 5. The epoch of philosophy and brotherhood. When mortals learn to think and begin to profit by experience, they become philosophical — they start out to reason within themselves and to exercise discriminative judgment. The society of this age becomes ethical, and the mortals of such an era are truly becoming moral beings. Wise moral beings are capable of establishing human brotherhood on such a progressing world. Ethical and moral beings can learn how to live in accordance with the golden rule.
(577.4) 50:5.9 6. The age of spiritual striving. When evolving mortals have passed through the physical, intellectual, and social stages of development, sooner or later they attain those levels of personal insight which impel them to seek for spiritual satisfactions and cosmic understandings. Religion is completing the ascent from the emotional domains of fear and superstition to the high levels of cosmic wisdom and personal spiritual experience. Education aspires to the attainment of meanings, and culture grasps at cosmic relationships and true values. Such evolving mortals are genuinely cultured, truly educated, and exquisitely God-knowing.
(577.5) 50:5.10 7. The era of light and life. This is the flowering of the successive ages of physical security, intellectual expansion, social culture, and spiritual achievement. These human accomplishments are now blended, associated, and co-ordinated in cosmic unity and unselfish service. Within the limitations of finite nature and material endowments there are no bounds set upon the possibilities of evolutionary attainment by the advancing generations who successively live upon these supernal and settled worlds of time and space.
6. Planetary Culture
(578.2) 50:6.2 The development of civilization on Urantia has not differed so greatly from that of other worlds which have sustained the misfortune of spiritual isolation. But when compared with the loyal worlds of the universe, your planet seems most confused and greatly retarded in all phases of intellectual progress and spiritual attainment.
(578.3) 50:6.3 Because of your planetary misfortunes, Urantians are prevented from understanding very much about the culture of normal worlds. But you should not envisage the evolutionary worlds, even the most ideal, as spheres whereon life is a flowery bed of ease. The initial life of the mortal races is always attended by struggle. Effort and decision are an essential part of the acquirement of survival values.
(578.4) 50:6.4 Culture presupposes quality of mind; culture cannot be enhanced unless mind is elevated. Superior intellect will seek a noble culture and find some way to attain such a goal. Inferior minds will spurn the highest culture even when presented to them ready-made. Much depends, also, upon the successive missions of the divine Sons and upon the extent to which enlightenment is received by the ages of their respective dispensations.
(578.5) 50:6.5 You should not forget that for two hundred thousand years all the worlds of Satania have rested under the spiritual ban of Norlatiadek in consequence of the Lucifer rebellion. And it will require age upon age to retrieve the resultant handicaps of sin and secession. Your world still continues to pursue an irregular and checkered career as a result of the double tragedy of a rebellious Planetary Prince and a defaulting Material Son. Even the bestowal of Christ Michael on Urantia did not immediately set aside the temporal consequences of these serious blunders in the earlier administration of the world.
7. The Rewards of Isolation
(579.1) 50:7.2 On Jerusem the ascenders from these isolated worlds occupy a residential sector by themselves and are known as the agondonters, meaning evolutionary will creatures who can believe without seeing, persevere when isolated, and triumph over insuperable difficulties even when alone. This functional grouping of the agondonters persists throughout the ascension of the local universe and the traversal of the superuniverse; it disappears during the sojourn in Havona but promptly reappears upon the attainment of Paradise and definitely persists in the Corps of the Mortal Finality. Tabamantia is an agondonter of finaliter status, having survived from one of the quarantined spheres involved in the first rebellion ever to take place in the universes of time and space.
(579.2) 50:7.3 All through the Paradise career, reward follows effort as the result of causes. Such rewards set off the individual from the average, provide a differential of creature experience, and contribute to the versatility of ultimate performances in the collective body of the finaliters.
(579.3) 50:7.4 [Presented by a Secondary Lanonandek Son of the Reserve Corps.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 51
The Planetary Adams
(580.2) 51:0.2 These Sons are the material gift of the Creator Son to the inhabited worlds. Together with the Planetary Prince, they remain on their planet of assignment throughout the evolutionary course of such a sphere. Such an adventure on a world having a Planetary Prince is not much of a hazard, but on an apostate planet, a realm without a spiritual ruler and deprived of interplanetary communication, such a mission is fraught with grave danger.
(580.3) 51:0.3 Although you cannot hope to know all about the work of these Sons on all the worlds of Satania and other systems, other papers depict more fully the life and experiences of the interesting pair, Adam and Eve, who came from the corps of the biologic uplifters of Jerusem to upstep the Urantia races. While there was a miscarriage of the ideal plans for improving your native races, still, Adam’s mission was not in vain; Urantia has profited immeasurably from the gift of Adam and Eve, and among their fellows and in the councils on high their work is not reckoned as a total loss.
1. Origin and Nature of the Material Sons of God
(580.5) 51:1.2 The material order of sonship is not uniform throughout the local universe. The Creator Son produces only one pair of these beings in each local system; these original pairs are diverse in nature, being attuned to the life pattern of their respective systems. This is a necessary provision since otherwise the reproductive potential of the Adams would be nonfunctional with that of the evolving mortal beings of the worlds of any one particular system. The Adam and Eve who came to Urantia were descended from the original Satania pair of Material Sons.
(580.6) 51:1.3 Material Sons vary in height from eight to ten feet, and their bodies glow with the brilliance of radiant light of a violet hue. While material blood circulates through their material bodies, they are also surcharged with divine energy and saturated with celestial light. These Material Sons (the Adams) and Material Daughters (the Eves) are equal to each other, differing only in reproductive nature and in certain chemical endowments. They are equal but differential, male and female — hence complemental — and are designed to serve on almost all assignments in pairs.
(581.1) 51:1.4 The Material Sons enjoy a dual nutrition; they are really dual in nature and constitution, partaking of materialized energy much as do the physical beings of the realm, while their immortal existence is fully maintained by the direct and automatic intake of certain sustaining cosmic energies. Should they fail on some mission of assignment or even consciously and deliberately rebel, this order of Sons becomes isolated, cut off from connection with the universe source of light and life. Thereupon they become practically material beings, destined to take the course of material life on the world of their assignment and compelled to look to the universe magistrates for adjudication. Material death will eventually terminate the planetary career of such an unfortunate and unwise Material Son or Daughter.
(581.2) 51:1.5 An original or directly created Adam and Eve are immortal by inherent endowment just as are all other orders of local universe sonship, but a diminution of immortality potential characterizes their sons and daughters. This original couple cannot transmit unconditioned immortality to their procreated sons and daughters. Their progeny are dependent for continuing life on unbroken intellectual synchrony with the mind-gravity circuit of the Spirit. Since the inception of the system of Satania, thirteen Planetary Adams have been lost in rebellion and default and 681,204 in the subordinate positions of trust. Most of these defections occurred at the time of the Lucifer rebellion.
(581.3) 51:1.6 While living as permanent citizens on the system capitals, even when functioning on descending missions to the evolutionary planets, the Material Sons do not possess Thought Adjusters, but it is through these very services that they acquire experiential capacity for Adjuster indwellment and the Paradise ascension career. These unique and wonderfully useful beings are the connecting links between the spiritual and physical worlds. They are concentrated on the system headquarters, where they reproduce and carry on as material citizens of the realm, and whence they are dispatched to the evolutionary worlds.
(581.4) 51:1.7 Unlike the other created Sons of planetary service, the material order of sonship is not, by nature, invisible to material creatures like the inhabitants of Urantia. These Sons of God can be seen, understood, and can, in turn, actually mingle with the creatures of time, could even procreate with them, though this role of biologic upliftment usually falls to the progeny of the Planetary Adams.
(581.5) 51:1.8 On Jerusem the loyal children of any Adam and Eve are immortal, but the offspring of a Material Son and Daughter procreated subsequent to their arrival on an evolutionary planet are not thus immune to natural death. There occurs a change in the life-transmitting mechanism when these Sons are rematerialized for reproductive function on an evolutionary world. The Life Carriers designedly deprive the Planetary Adams and Eves of the power of begetting undying sons and daughters. If they do not default, an Adam and Eve on a planetary mission can live on indefinitely, but within certain limits their children experience decreasing longevity with each succeeding generation.
2. Transit of the Planetary Adams
(582.2) 51:2.2 Adams and Eves are semimaterial creatures and, as such, are not transportable by seraphim. They must undergo dematerialization on the system capital before they can be enseraphimed for transport to the world of assignment. The transport seraphim are able to effect such changes in the Material Sons and in other semimaterial beings as enable them to be enseraphimed and thus to be transported through space from one world or system to another. About three days of standard time are consumed in this transport preparation, and it requires the co-operation of a Life Carrier to restore such a dematerialized creature to normal existence upon arrival at the end of the seraphic-transport journey.
(582.3) 51:2.3 While there is this dematerializing technique for preparing the Adams for transit from Jerusem to the evolutionary worlds, there is no equivalent method for taking them away from such worlds unless the entire planet is to be emptied, in which event emergency installation of the dematerialization technique is made for the entire salvable population. If some physical catastrophe should doom the planetary residence of an evolving race, the Melchizedeks and the Life Carriers would install the technique of dematerialization for all survivors, and by seraphic transport these beings would be carried away to the new world prepared for their continuing existence. The evolution of a human race, once initiated on a world of space, must proceed quite independently of the physical survival of that planet, but during the evolutionary ages it is not otherwise intended that a Planetary Adam or Eve shall leave their chosen world.
(582.4) 51:2.4 Upon arrival at their planetary destination the Material Son and Daughter are rematerialized under the direction of the Life Carriers. This entire process takes ten to twenty-eight days of Urantia time. The unconsciousness of the seraphic slumber continues throughout this entire period of reconstruction. When the reassembly of the physical organism is completed, these Material Sons and Daughters stand in their new homes and on their new worlds to all intents and purposes just as they were before submitting to the dematerializing process on Jerusem.
3. The Adamic Missions
(583.1) 51:3.2 These Gardens of Eden are so named in honor of Edentia, the constellation capital, and because they are patterned after the botanic grandeur of the headquarters world of the Most High Fathers. Such garden homes are usually located in a secluded section and in a near-tropic zone. They are wonderful creations on an average world. You can judge nothing of these beautiful centers of culture by the fragmentary account of the aborted development of such an undertaking on Urantia.
(583.2) 51:3.3 A Planetary Adam and Eve are, in potential, the full gift of physical grace to the mortal races. The chief business of such an imported pair is to multiply and to uplift the children of time. But there is no immediate interbreeding between the people of the garden and those of the world; for many generations Adam and Eve remain biologically segregated from the evolutionary mortals while they build up a strong race of their order. This is the origin of the violet race on the inhabited worlds.
(583.3) 51:3.4 The plans for race upstepping are prepared by the Planetary Prince and his staff and are executed by Adam and Eve. And this was where your Material Son and his companion were placed at great disadvantage when they arrived on Urantia. Caligastia offered crafty and effective opposition to the Adamic mission; and notwithstanding that the Melchizedek receivers of Urantia had duly warned both Adam and Eve concerning the planetary dangers inherent in the presence of the rebellious Planetary Prince, this archrebel, by a wily stratagem, outmaneuvered the Edenic pair and entrapped them into a violation of the covenant of their trusteeship as the visible rulers of your world. The traitorous Planetary Prince did succeed in compromising your Adam and Eve, but he failed in his effort to involve them in the Lucifer rebellion.
(583.4) 51:3.5 The fifth order of angels, the planetary helpers, are attached to the Adamic mission, always accompanying the Planetary Adams on their world adventures. The corps of initial assignment is usually about one hundred thousand. When the work of the Urantia Adam and Eve was prematurely launched, when they departed from the ordained plan, it was one of the seraphic Voices of the Garden who remonstrated with them concerning their reprehensible conduct. And your narrative of this occurrence well illustrates the manner in which your planetary traditions have tended to ascribe everything supernatural to the Lord God. Because of this, Urantians have often become confused concerning the nature of the Universal Father since the words and acts of all his associates and subordinates have been so generally attributed to him. In the case of Adam and Eve, the angel of the Garden was none other than the chief of the planetary helpers then on duty. This seraphim, Solonia, proclaimed the miscarriage of the divine plan and requisitioned the return of the Melchizedek receivers to Urantia.
(583.5) 51:3.6 The secondary midway creatures are indigenous to the Adamic missions. As with the corporeal staff of the Planetary Prince, the descendants of the Material Sons and Daughters are of two orders: their physical children and the secondary order of midway creatures. These material but ordinarily invisible planetary ministers contribute much to the advancement of civilization and even to the subjection of insubordinate minorities who may seek to subvert social development and spiritual progress.
(583.6) 51:3.7 The secondary midwayers should not be confused with the primary order, who date from the near times of the arrival of the Planetary Prince. On Urantia a majority of these earlier midway creatures went into rebellion with Caligastia and have, since Pentecost, been interned. Many of the Adamic group who did not remain loyal to the planetary administration are likewise interned.
(584.1) 51:3.8 On the day of Pentecost the loyal primary and the secondary midwayers effected a voluntary union and have functioned as one unit in world affairs ever since. They serve under the leadership of loyal midwayers alternately chosen from the two groups.
(584.2) 51:3.9 Your world has been visited by four orders of sonship: Caligastia, the Planetary Prince; Adam and Eve of the Material Sons of God; Machiventa Melchizedek, the “sage of Salem” in the days of Abraham; and Christ Michael, who came as the Paradise bestowal Son. How much more effective and beautiful it would have been had Michael, the supreme ruler of the universe of Nebadon, been welcomed to your world by a loyal and efficient Planetary Prince and a devoted and successful Material Son, both of whom could have done so much to enhance the lifework and mission of the bestowal Son! But not all worlds have been so unfortunate as Urantia, neither has the mission of the Planetary Adams always been so difficult or so hazardous. When they are successful, they contribute to the development of a great people, continuing as the visible heads of planetary affairs even far into the age when such a world is settled in light and life.
4. The Six Evolutionary Races
(584.4) 51:4.2 The earlier races are somewhat superior to the later; the red man stands far above the indigo — black — race. The Life Carriers impart the full bestowal of the living energies to the initial or red race, and each succeeding evolutionary manifestation of a distinct group of mortals represents variation at the expense of the original endowment. Even mortal stature tends to decrease from the red man down to the indigo race, although on Urantia unexpected strains of giantism appeared among the green and orange peoples.
(584.5) 51:4.3 On those worlds having all six evolutionary races the superior peoples are the first, third, and fifth races — the red, the yellow, and the blue. The evolutionary races thus alternate in capacity for intellectual growth and spiritual development, the second, fourth, and sixth being somewhat less endowed. These secondary races are the peoples that are missing on certain worlds; they are the ones that have been exterminated on many others. It is a misfortune on Urantia that you so largely lost your superior blue men, except as they persist in your amalgamated “white race.” The loss of your orange and green stocks is not of such serious concern.
(584.6) 51:4.4 The evolution of six — or of three — colored races, while seeming to deteriorate the original endowment of the red man, provides certain very desirable variations in mortal types and affords an otherwise unattainable expression of diverse human potentials. These modifications are beneficial to the progress of mankind as a whole provided they are subsequently upstepped by the imported Adamic or violet race. On Urantia this usual plan of amalgamation was not extensively carried out, and this failure to execute the plan of race evolution makes it impossible for you to understand very much about the status of these peoples on an average inhabited planet by observing the remnants of these early races on your world.
(585.1) 51:4.5 In the early days of racial development there is a slight tendency for the red, the yellow, and the blue men to interbreed; there is a similar tendency for the orange, green, and indigo races to intermingle.
(585.2) 51:4.6 The more backward humans are usually employed as laborers by the more progressive races. This accounts for the origin of slavery on the planets during the early ages. The orange men are usually subdued by the red and reduced to the status of servants — sometimes exterminated. The yellow and red men often fraternize, but not always. The yellow race usually enslaves the green, while the blue man subdues the indigo. These races of primitive men think no more of utilizing the services of their backward fellows in compulsory labor than Urantians would of buying and selling horses and cattle.
(585.3) 51:4.7 On most normal worlds involuntary servitude does not survive the dispensation of the Planetary Prince, although mental defectives and social delinquents are often still compelled to perform involuntary labor. But on all normal spheres this sort of primitive slavery is abolished soon after the arrival of the imported violet or Adamic race.
(585.4) 51:4.8 These six evolutionary races are destined to be blended and exalted by amalgamation with the progeny of the Adamic uplifters. But before these peoples are blended, the inferior and unfit are largely eliminated. The Planetary Prince and the Material Son, with other suitable planetary authorities, pass upon the fitness of the reproducing strains. The difficulty of executing such a radical program on Urantia consists in the absence of competent judges to pass upon the biologic fitness or unfitness of the individuals of your world races. Notwithstanding this obstacle, it seems that you ought to be able to agree upon the biologic disfellowshiping of your more markedly unfit, defective, degenerate, and antisocial stocks.
5. Racial Amalgamation —
Bestowal of the Adamic Blood
(585.6) 51:5.2 Usually the violet peoples do not begin to amalgamate with the planetary natives until their own group numbers over one million. But in the meantime the staff of the Planetary Prince proclaims that the children of the Gods have come down, as it were, to be one with the races of men; and the people eagerly look forward to the day when announcement will be made that those who have qualified as belonging to the superior racial strains may proceed to the Garden of Eden and be there chosen by the sons and daughters of Adam as the evolutionary fathers and mothers of the new and blended order of mankind.
(585.7) 51:5.3 On normal worlds the Planetary Adam and Eve never mate with the evolutionary races. This work of biologic betterment is a function of the Adamic progeny. But these Adamites do not go out among the races; the prince’s staff bring to the Garden of Eden the superior men and women for voluntary mating with the Adamic offspring. And on most worlds it is considered the highest honor to be selected as a candidate for mating with the sons and daughters of the garden.
(586.1) 51:5.4 For the first time the racial wars and other tribal struggles are diminished, while the world races increasingly strive to qualify for recognition and admission to the garden. You can at best have but a very meager idea of how this competitive struggle comes to occupy the center of all activities on a normal planet. This whole scheme of race improvement was early wrecked on Urantia.
(586.2) 51:5.5 The violet race is a monogamous people, and every evolutionary man or woman uniting with the Adamic sons and daughters pledges not to take other mates and to instruct his or her children in single-matedness. The children of each of these unions are educated and trained in the schools of the Planetary Prince and then are permitted to go forth to the race of their evolutionary parent, there to marry among the selected groups of superior mortals.
(586.3) 51:5.6 When this strain of the Material Sons is added to the evolving races of the worlds, a new and greater era of evolutionary progress is initiated. Following this procreative outpouring of imported ability and superevolutionary traits there ensues a succession of rapid strides in civilization and racial development; in one hundred thousand years more progress is made than in a million years of former struggle. In your world, even in the face of the miscarriage of the ordained plans, great progress has been made since the gift to your peoples of Adam’s life plasm.
(586.4) 51:5.7 But while the pure-line children of a planetary Garden of Eden can bestow themselves upon the superior members of the evolutionary races and thereby upstep the biologic level of mankind, it would not prove beneficial for the higher strains of Urantia mortals to mate with the lower races; such an unwise procedure would jeopardize all civilization on your world. Having failed to achieve race harmonization by the Adamic technique, you must now work out your planetary problem of race improvement by other and largely human methods of adaptation and control.
6. The Edenic Regime
(586.6) 51:6.2 On normal worlds the garden headquarters of the violet race becomes the second center of world culture and, jointly with the headquarters city of the Planetary Prince, sets the pace for the development of civilization. For centuries the city headquarters schools of the Planetary Prince and the garden schools of Adam and Eve are contemporary. They are usually not very far apart, and they work together in harmonious co-operation.
(587.1) 51:6.3 Think what it would mean on your world if somewhere in the Levant there were a world center of civilization, a great planetary university of culture, which had functioned uninterruptedly for 37,000 years. And again, pause to consider how the moral authority of even such an ancient center would be reinforced were there situated not far-distant still another and older headquarters of celestial ministry whose traditions would exert a cumulative force of 500,000 years of integrated evolutionary influence. It is custom which eventually spreads the ideals of Eden to a whole world.
(587.2) 51:6.4 The schools of the Planetary Prince are primarily concerned with philosophy, religion, morals, and the higher intellectual and artistic achievements. The garden schools of Adam and Eve are usually devoted to practical arts, fundamental intellectual training, social culture, economic development, trade relations, physical efficiency, and civil government. Eventually these world centers amalgamate, but this actual affiliation sometimes does not occur until the times of the first Magisterial Son.
(587.3) 51:6.5 The continuing existence of the Planetary Adam and Eve, together with the pure-line nucleus of the violet race, imparts that stability of growth to Edenic culture by virtue of which it comes to act upon the civilization of a world with the compelling force of tradition. In these immortal Material Sons and Daughters we encounter the last and the indispensable link connecting God with man, bridging the almost infinite gulf between the eternal Creator and the lowest finite personalities of time. Here is a being of high origin who is physical, material, even a sex creature like Urantia mortals, one who can see and comprehend the invisible Planetary Prince and interpret him to the mortal creatures of the realm, for the Material Sons and Daughters are able to see all of the lower orders of spirit beings; they visualize the Planetary Prince and his entire staff, visible and invisible.
(587.4) 51:6.6 With the passing of centuries, through the amalgamation of their progeny with the races of men, this same Material Son and Daughter become accepted as the common ancestors of mankind, the common parents of the now blended descendants of the evolutionary races. It is intended that mortals who start out from an inhabited world have the experience of recognizing seven fathers:
(587.5) 51:6.7 1. The biologic father — the father in the flesh.
(587.6) 51:6.8 2. The father of the realm — the Planetary Adam.
(587.7) 51:6.9 3. The father of the spheres — the System Sovereign.
(587.8) 51:6.10 4. The Most High Father — the Constellation Father.
(587.9) 51:6.11 5. The universe Father — the Creator Son and supreme ruler of the local creations.
(587.10) 51:6.12 6. The super-Fathers — the Ancients of Days who govern the superuniverse.
(587.11) 51:6.13 7. The spirit or Havona Father — the Universal Father, who dwells on Paradise and bestows his spirit to live and work in the minds of the lowly creatures who inhabit the universe of universes.
7. United Administration
(588.1) 51:7.2 Before the first Magisterial Son concludes his mission on a normal evolutionary world, there has been effected the union of the educational and administrative work of the Planetary Prince and the Material Son. This amalgamation of the dual supervision of a planet brings into existence a new and effective order of world administration. Upon the retirement of the Magisterial Son the Planetary Adam assumes the outward direction of the sphere. The Material Son and Daughter thus act jointly as planetary administrators until the settling of the world in the era of light and life; whereupon the Planetary Prince is elevated to the position of Planetary Sovereign. During this age of advanced evolution, Adam and Eve become what might be called joint prime ministers of the glorified realm.
(588.2) 51:7.3 As soon as the new and consolidated capital of the evolving world has become well established, and just as fast as competent subordinate administrators can be properly trained, subcapitals are founded on remote land bodies and among the different peoples. Before the arrival of another dispensational Son, from fifty to one hundred of these subcenters will have been organized.
(588.3) 51:7.4 The Planetary Prince and his staff still foster the spiritual and philosophic domains of activity. Adam and Eve pay particular attention to the physical, scientific, and economic status of the realm. Both groups equally devote their energies to the promotion of the arts, social relations, and intellectual achievements.
(588.4) 51:7.5 By the time of the inauguration of the fifth dispensation of world affairs, a magnificent administration of planetary activities has been achieved. Mortal existence on such a well-managed sphere is indeed stimulating and profitable. And if Urantians could only observe life on such a planet, they would immediately appreciate the value of those things which their world has lost through embracing evil and participating in rebellion.
(588.5) 51:7.6 [Presented by a Secondary Lanonandek Son of the Reserve Corps.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 52
Planetary Mortal Epochs
(589.2) 52:0.2 1. Pre-Planetary Prince Man.(589.9) 52:0.9 The worlds of space, as soon as they are physically suitable for life, are placed on the registry of the Life Carriers, and in due time these Sons are dispatched to such planets for the purpose of initiating life. The entire period from life initiation to the appearance of man is designated the prehuman era and precedes the successive mortal epochs considered in this narrative.
(589.3) 52:0.3 2. Post-Planetary Prince Man.
(589.4) 52:0.4 3. Post-Adamic Man.
(589.5) 52:0.5 4. Post-Magisterial Son Man.
(589.6) 52:0.6 5. Post-Bestowal Son Man.
(589.7) 52:0.7 6. Post-Teacher Son Man.
(589.8) 52:0.8 7. The Era of Light and Life.
1. Primitive Man
(589.11) 52:1.2 The evolutionary races of color — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo — begin to appear about the time that primitive man is developing a simple language and is beginning to exercise the creative imagination. By this time man is well accustomed to standing erect.
(589.12) 52:1.3 Primitive men are mighty hunters and fierce fighters. The law of this age is the physical survival of the fittest; the government of these times is wholly tribal. During the early racial struggles on many worlds some of the evolutionary races are obliterated, as occurred on Urantia. Those who survive are usually subsequently blended with the later imported violet race, the Adamic peoples.
(589.13) 52:1.4 In the light of subsequent civilization, this era of primitive man is a long, dark, and bloody chapter. The ethics of the jungle and the morals of the primeval forests are not in keeping with the standards of later dispensations of revealed religion and higher spiritual development. On normal and nonexperimental worlds this epoch is very different from the prolonged and extraordinarily brutal struggles which characterized this age on Urantia. When you have emerged from your first world experience, you will begin to see why this long and painful struggle on the evolutionary worlds occurs, and as you go forward in the Paradise path, you will increasingly understand the wisdom of these apparently strange doings. But notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of the early ages of human emergence, the performances of primitive man represent a splendid, even a heroic, chapter in the annals of an evolutionary world of time and space.
(590.1) 52:1.5 Early evolutionary man is not a colorful creature. In general, these primitive mortals are cave dwellers or cliff residents. They also build crude huts in the large trees. Before they acquire a high order of intelligence, the planets are sometimes overrun with the larger types of animals. But early in this era mortals learn to kindle and maintain fire, and with the increase of inventive imagination and the improvement in tools, evolving man soon vanquishes the larger and more unwieldy animals. The early races also make extensive use of the larger flying animals. These enormous birds are able to carry one or two average-sized men for a nonstop flight of over five hundred miles. On some planets these birds are of great service since they possess a high order of intelligence, often being able to speak many words of the languages of the realm. These birds are most intelligent, very obedient, and unbelievably affectionate. Such passenger birds have been long extinct on Urantia, but your early ancestors enjoyed their services.
(590.2) 52:1.6 Man’s acquirement of ethical judgment, moral will, is usually coincident with the appearance of early language. Upon attaining the human level, after this emergence of mortal will, these beings become receptive to the temporary indwelling of the divine Adjusters, and upon death many are duly elected as survivors and sealed by the archangels for subsequent resurrection and Spirit fusion. The archangels always accompany the Planetary Princes, and a dispensational adjudication of the realm is simultaneous with the prince’s arrival.
(590.3) 52:1.7 All mortals who are indwelt by Thought Adjusters are potential worshipers; they have been “lighted by the true light,” and they possess capacity for seeking reciprocal contact with divinity. Nevertheless, the early or biologic religion of primitive man is largely a persistence of animal fear coupled with ignorant awe and tribal superstition. The survival of superstition in the Urantia races is hardly complimentary to your evolutionary development nor compatible with your otherwise splendid achievements in material progress. But this early fear religion serves a very valuable purpose in subduing the fiery tempers of these primitive creatures. It is the forerunner of civilization and the soil for the subsequent planting of the seeds of revealed religion by the Planetary Prince and his ministers.
(590.4) 52:1.8 Within one hundred thousand years from the time man acquires erect posture, the Planetary Prince usually arrives, having been dispatched by the System Sovereign upon the report of the Life Carriers that will is functioning, even though comparatively few individuals have thus developed. Primitive mortals usually welcome the Planetary Prince and his visible staff; in fact, they often look upon them with awe and reverence, almost with worshipfulness, if they are not restrained.
2. Post-Planetary Prince Man
(591.2) 52:2.2 The average length of this dispensation is around five hundred thousand years, some longer, some shorter. During this era the planet is established in the circuits of the system, and a full quota of seraphic and other celestial helpers is assigned to its administration. The Thought Adjusters come in increasing numbers, and the seraphic guardians amplify their regime of mortal supervision.
(591.3) 52:2.3 When the Planetary Prince arrives on a primitive world, the evolved religion of fear and ignorance prevails. The prince and his staff make the first revelations of higher truth and universe organization. These initial presentations of revealed religion are very simple, and they usually pertain to the affairs of the local system. Religion is wholly an evolutionary process prior to the arrival of the Planetary Prince. Subsequently, religion progresses by graduated revelation as well as by evolutionary growth. Each dispensation, each mortal epoch, receives an enlarged presentation of spiritual truth and religious ethics. The evolution of the religious capacity of receptivity in the inhabitants of a world largely determines their rate of spiritual advancement and the extent of religious revelation.
(591.4) 52:2.4 This dispensation witnesses a spiritual dawn, and the different races and their various tribes tend to develop specialized systems of religious and philosophic thought. There uniformly run through all of these racial religions two strains: the early fears of primitive men and the later revelations of the Planetary Prince. In some respects Urantians do not seem to have wholly emerged from this stage of planetary evolution. As you pursue this study, you will the more clearly discern how far your world departs from the average course of evolutionary progress and development.
(591.5) 52:2.5 But the Planetary Prince is not “the Prince of Peace.” Racial struggles and tribal wars continue over into this dispensation but with diminishing frequency and severity. This is the great age of racial dispersion, and it culminates in a period of intense nationalism. Color is the basis of tribal and national groupings, and the different races often develop separate languages. Each expanding group of mortals tends to seek isolation. This segregation is favored by the existence of many languages. Before the unification of the several races their relentless warfare sometimes results in the obliteration of whole peoples; the orange and green men are particularly subject to such extinction.
(591.6) 52:2.6 On average worlds, during the latter part of the prince’s rule, national life begins to replace tribal organization or rather to be superimposed upon the existing tribal groupings. But the great social achievement of the prince’s epoch is the emergence of family life. Heretofore, human relationships have been chiefly tribal; now, the home begins to materialize.
(591.7) 52:2.7 This is the dispensation of the realization of sex equality. On some planets the male may rule the female; on others the reverse prevails. During this age normal worlds establish full equality of the sexes, this being preliminary to the fuller realization of the ideals of home life. This is the dawn of the golden age of the home. The idea of tribal rule gradually gives way to the dual concept of national life and family life.
(592.1) 52:2.8 During this age agriculture makes its appearance. The growth of the family idea is incompatible with the roving and unsettled life of the hunter. Gradually the practices of settled habitations and the cultivation of the soil become established. The domestication of animals and the development of home arts proceed apace. Upon reaching the apex of biologic evolution, a high level of civilization has been attained, but there is little development of a mechanical order; invention is the characteristic of the succeeding age.
(592.2) 52:2.9 The races are purified and brought up to a high state of physical perfection and intellectual strength before the end of this era. The early development of a normal world is greatly helped by the plan of promoting the increase of the higher types of mortals with proportionate curtailment of the lower. And it is the failure of your early peoples to thus discriminate between these types that accounts for the presence of so many defective and degenerate individuals among the present-day Urantia races.
(592.3) 52:2.10 One of the great achievements of the age of the prince is this restriction of the multiplication of mentally defective and socially unfit individuals. Long before the times of the arrival of the second Sons, the Adams, most worlds seriously address themselves to the tasks of race purification, something which the Urantia peoples have not even yet seriously undertaken.
(592.4) 52:2.11 This problem of race improvement is not such an extensive undertaking when it is attacked at this early date in human evolution. The preceding period of tribal struggles and rugged competition in race survival has weeded out most of the abnormal and defective strains. An idiot does not have much chance of survival in a primitive and warring tribal social organization. It is the false sentiment of your partially perfected civilizations that fosters, protects, and perpetuates the hopelessly defective strains of evolutionary human stocks.
(592.5) 52:2.12 It is neither tenderness nor altruism to bestow futile sympathy upon degenerated human beings, unsalvable abnormal and inferior mortals. There exist on even the most normal of the evolutionary worlds sufficient differences between individuals and between numerous social groups to provide for the full exercise of all those noble traits of altruistic sentiment and unselfish mortal ministry without perpetuating the socially unfit and the morally degenerate strains of evolving humanity. There is abundant opportunity for the exercise of tolerance and the function of altruism in behalf of those unfortunate and needy individuals who have not irretrievably lost their moral heritage and forever destroyed their spiritual birthright.
3. Post-Adamic Man
(593.1) 52:3.2 Thought Adjusters are increasingly bestowed upon the post-Adamic men, and in constantly augmented numbers these mortals attain capacity for subsequent Adjuster fusion. While functioning as descending Sons, the Adams do not possess Adjusters, but their planetary offspring — direct and mixed — become legitimate candidates for the reception, in due time, of the Mystery Monitors. By the termination of the post-Adamic age the planet is in possession of its full quota of celestial ministers; only the fusion Adjusters are not yet universally bestowed.
(593.2) 52:3.3 It is the prime purpose of the Adamic regime to influence evolving man to complete the transit from the hunter and herder stage of civilization to that of the agriculturist and horticulturist, to be later supplemented by the appearance of the urban and industrial adjuncts to civilization. Ten thousand years of this dispensation of the biologic uplifters is sufficient to effect a marvelous transformation. Twenty-five thousand years of such an administration of the conjoint wisdom of the Planetary Prince and the Material Sons usually ripens the sphere for the advent of a Magisterial Son.
(593.3) 52:3.4 This age usually witnesses the completion of the elimination of the unfit and the still further purification of the racial strains; on normal worlds the defective bestial tendencies are very nearly eliminated from the reproducing stocks of the realm.
(593.4) 52:3.5 The Adamic progeny never amalgamate with the inferior strains of the evolutionary races. Neither is it the divine plan for the Planetary Adam or Eve to mate, personally, with the evolutionary peoples. This race-improvement project is the task of their progeny. But the offspring of the Material Son and Daughter are mobilized for generations before the racial-amalgamation ministry is inaugurated.
(593.5) 52:3.6 The result of the gift of the Adamic life plasm to the mortal races is an immediate upstepping of intellectual capacity and an acceleration of spiritual progress. There is usually some physical improvement also. On an average world the post-Adamic dispensation is an age of great invention, energy control, and mechanical development. This is the era of the appearance of multiform manufacture and the control of natural forces; it is the golden age of exploration and the final subduing of the planet. Much of the material progress of a world occurs during this time of the inauguration of the development of the physical sciences, just such an epoch as Urantia is now experiencing. Your world is a full dispensation and more behind the average planetary schedule.
(593.6) 52:3.7 By the end of the Adamic dispensation on a normal planet the races are practically blended, so that it can be truly proclaimed that “God has made of one blood all the nations,” and that his Son “has made of one color all peoples.” The color of such an amalgamated race is somewhat of an olive shade of the violet hue, the racial “white” of the spheres.
(593.7) 52:3.8 Primitive man is for the most part carnivorous; the Material Sons and Daughters do not eat meat, but their offspring within a few generations usually gravitate to the omnivorous level, although whole groups of their descendants sometimes remain nonflesh eaters. This double origin of the post-Adamic races explains how such blended human stocks exhibit anatomic vestiges belonging to both the herbivorous and carnivorous animal groups.
(593.8) 52:3.9 Within ten thousand years of racial amalgamation the resultant stocks show varying degrees of anatomic blend, some strains carrying more of the marks of the nonflesh-eating ancestry, others exhibiting more of the distinguishing traits and physical characteristics of their carnivorous evolutionary progenitors. The majority of these world races soon become omnivorous, subsisting upon a wide range of viands from both the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
(594.1) 52:3.10 The post-Adamic epoch is the dispensation of internationalism. With the near completion of the task of race blending, nationalism wanes, and the brotherhood of man really begins to materialize. Representative government begins to take the place of the monarchial or paternal form of rulership. The educational system becomes world-wide, and gradually the languages of the races give way to the tongue of the violet people. Universal peace and co-operation are seldom attained until the races are fairly well blended, and until they speak a common language.
(594.2) 52:3.11 During the closing centuries of the post-Adamic age there develops new interest in art, music, and literature, and this world-wide awakening is the signal for the appearance of a Magisterial Son. The crowning development of this era is the universal interest in intellectual realities, true philosophy. Religion becomes less nationalistic, becomes more and more a planetary affair. New revelations of truth characterize these ages, and the Most Highs of the constellations begin to rule in the affairs of men. Truth is revealed up to the administration of the constellations.
(594.3) 52:3.12 Great ethical advancement characterizes this era; the brotherhood of man is the goal of its society. World-wide peace — the cessation of race conflict and national animosity — is the indicator of planetary ripeness for the advent of the third order of sonship, the Magisterial Son.
4. Post-Magisterial Son Man
(594.5) 52:4.2 When an evolutionary world becomes thus ripe for the magisterial age, one of the high order of Avonal Sons makes his appearance on a magisterial mission. The Planetary Prince and the Material Sons are of local universe origin; the Magisterial Son hails from Paradise.
(594.6) 52:4.3 When the Paradise Avonals come to the mortal spheres on judicial actions, solely as dispensation adjudicators, they are never incarnated. But when they come on magisterial missions, at least the initial one, they are always incarnated, though they do not experience birth, neither do they die the death of the realm. They may live on for generations in those cases where they remain as rulers on certain planets. When their missions are concluded, they yield up their planetary lives and return to their former status of divine sonship.
(594.7) 52:4.4 Each new dispensation extends the horizon of revealed religion, and the Magisterial Sons extend the revelation of truth to portray the affairs of the local universe and all its tributaries.
(594.8) 52:4.5 After the initial visitation of a Magisterial Son the races soon effect their economic liberation. The daily work required to sustain one’s independence would be represented by two and one-half hours of your time. It is perfectly safe to liberate such ethical and intelligent mortals. Such refined peoples well know how to utilize leisure for self-improvement and planetary advancement. This age witnesses the further purification of the racial stocks by the restriction of reproduction among the less fit and poorly endowed individuals.
(595.1) 52:4.6 The political government and social administration of the races continue to improve, self-government being fairly well established by the end of this age. By self-government we refer to the highest type of representative government. Such worlds advance and honor only those leaders and rulers who are most fit to bear social and political responsibilities.
(595.2) 52:4.7 During this epoch the majority of the world mortals are Adjuster indwelt. But even yet the bestowal of divine Monitors is not always universal. The Adjusters of fusion destiny are not yet bestowed upon all planetary mortals; it is still necessary for the will creatures to choose the Mystery Monitors.
(595.3) 52:4.8 During the closing ages of this dispensation, society begins to return to more simplified forms of living. The complex nature of an advancing civilization is running its course, and mortals are learning to live more naturally and effectively. And this trend increases with each succeeding epoch. This is the age of the flowering of art, music, and higher learning. The physical sciences have already reached their height of development. The termination of this age, on an ideal world, witnesses the fullness of a great religious awakening, a world-wide spiritual enlightenment. And this extensive arousal of the spiritual natures of the races is the signal for the arrival of the bestowal Son and for the inauguration of the fifth mortal epoch.
(595.4) 52:4.9 On many worlds it develops that the planet is not made ready for a bestowal Son by one magisterial mission; in that event there will be a second, even a succession of Magisterial Sons, each of whom will advance the races from one dispensation to another until the planet is made ready for the gift of the bestowal Son. On the second and subsequent missions the Magisterial Sons may or may not be incarnated. But no matter how many Magisterial Sons may appear — and they may also come as such after the bestowal Son — the advent of each one marks the end of one dispensation and the beginning of another.
(595.5) 52:4.10 These dispensations of the Magisterial Sons cover anywhere from twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand years of Urantia time. Sometimes such an epoch is much shorter and in rare instances even longer. But in the fullness of time one of these same Magisterial Sons will be born as the Paradise bestowal Son.
5. Post-Bestowal Son Man
(595.7) 52:5.2 When the worlds have become ripe for spiritualization, the bestowal Son arrives. These Sons always belong to the Magisterial or Avonal order except in that case, once in each local universe, when the Creator Son prepares for his terminal bestowal on some evolutionary world, as occurred when Michael of Nebadon appeared on Urantia to bestow himself upon your mortal races. Only one world in near ten million can enjoy such a gift; all other worlds are spiritually advanced by the bestowal of a Paradise Son of the Avonal order.
(596.1) 52:5.3 The bestowal Son arrives on a world of high educational culture and encounters a race spiritually trained and prepared to assimilate advanced teachings and to appreciate the bestowal mission. This is an age characterized by the world-wide pursuit of moral culture and spiritual truth. The mortal passion of this dispensation is the penetration of cosmic reality and communion with spiritual reality. The revelations of truth are extended to include the superuniverse. Entirely new systems of education and government grow up to supplant the crude regimes of former times. The joy of living takes on new color, and the reactions of life are exalted to heavenly heights of tone and timbre.
(596.2) 52:5.4 The bestowal Son lives and dies for the spiritual uplift of the mortal races of a world. He establishes the “new and living way”; his life is an incarnation of Paradise truth in mortal flesh, that very truth — even the Spirit of Truth — in the knowledge of which men shall be free.
(596.3) 52:5.5 On Urantia the establishment of this “new and living way” was a matter of fact as well as of truth. The isolation of Urantia in the Lucifer rebellion had suspended the procedure whereby mortals can pass, upon death, directly to the shores of the mansion worlds. Before the days of Christ Michael on Urantia all souls slept on until the dispensational or special millennial resurrections. Even Moses was not permitted to go over to the other side until the occasion of a special resurrection, the fallen Planetary Prince, Caligastia, contesting such a deliverance. But ever since the day of Pentecost, Urantia mortals again may proceed directly to the morontia spheres.
(596.4) 52:5.6 Upon the resurrection of a bestowal Son, on the third day after yielding up his incarnated life, he ascends to the right hand of the Universal Father, receives the assurance of the acceptance of the bestowal mission, and returns to the Creator Son at the headquarters of the local universe. Thereupon the bestowal Avonal and the Creator Michael send their joint spirit, the Spirit of Truth, into the bestowal world. This is the occasion when the “spirit of the triumphant Son is poured out upon all flesh.” The Universe Mother Spirit also participates in this bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, and concomitant therewith there issues the bestowal edict of the Thought Adjusters. Thereafter all normal-minded will creatures of that world will receive Adjusters as soon as they attain the age of moral responsibility, of spiritual choice.
(596.5) 52:5.7 If such a bestowal Avonal should return to a world after the bestowal mission, he would not incarnate but would come “in glory with the seraphic hosts.”
(596.6) 52:5.8 The postbestowal Son age may extend from ten thousand to a hundred thousand years. There is no arbitrary time allotted to any of these dispensational eras. This is a time of great ethical and spiritual progress. Under the spiritual influence of these ages, human character undergoes tremendous transformations and experiences phenomenal development. It becomes possible to put the golden rule into practical operation. The teachings of Jesus are really applicable to a mortal world which has had the preliminary training of the prebestowal Sons with their dispensations of character ennoblement and culture augmentation.
(596.7) 52:5.9 During this era the problems of disease and delinquency are virtually solved. Degeneracy has already been largely eliminated by selective reproduction. Disease has been practically mastered through the high resistant qualities of the Adamic strains and by the intelligent and world-wide application of the discoveries of the physical sciences of preceding ages. The average length of life, during this period, climbs well above the equivalent of three hundred years of Urantia time.
(597.1) 52:5.10 Throughout this epoch there is a gradual lessening of governmental supervision. True self-government is beginning to function; fewer and fewer restrictive laws are necessary. The military branches of national resistance are passing away; the era of international harmony is really arriving. There are many nations, mostly determined by land distribution, but only one race, one language, and one religion. Mortal affairs are almost, but not quite, utopian. This truly is a great and glorious age!
6. Urantia’s Post-Bestowal Age
(597.3) 52:6.2 Even on normal evolutionary worlds the realization of the world-wide brotherhood of man is not an easy accomplishment. On a confused and disordered planet like Urantia such an achievement requires a much longer time and necessitates far greater effort. Unaided social evolution can hardly achieve such happy results on a spiritually isolated sphere. Religious revelation is essential to the realization of brotherhood on Urantia. While Jesus has shown the way to the immediate attainment of spiritual brotherhood, the realization of social brotherhood on your world depends much on the achievement of the following personal transformations and planetary adjustments:
(597.4) 52:6.3 1. Social fraternity. Multiplication of international and interracial social contacts and fraternal associations through travel, commerce, and competitive play. Development of a common language and the multiplication of multilinguists. The racial and national interchange of students, teachers, industrialists, and religious philosophers.(598.3) 52:6.8 If you could be transplanted from your backward and confused world to some normal planet now in the postbestowal Son age, you would think you had been translated to the heaven of your traditions. You would hardly believe that you were observing the normal evolutionary workings of a mortal sphere of human habitation. These worlds are in the spiritual circuits of their realm, and they enjoy all the advantages of the universe broadcasts and the reflectivity services of the superuniverse.
(597.5) 52:6.4 2. Intellectual cross-fertilization. Brotherhood is impossible on a world whose inhabitants are so primitive that they fail to recognize the folly of unmitigated selfishness. There must occur an exchange of national and racial literature. Each race must become familiar with the thought of all races; each nation must know the feelings of all nations. Ignorance breeds suspicion, and suspicion is incompatible with the essential attitude of sympathy and love.
(597.6) 52:6.5 3. Ethical awakening. Only ethical consciousness can unmask the immorality of human intolerance and the sinfulness of fratricidal strife. Only a moral conscience can condemn the evils of national envy and racial jealousy. Only moral beings will ever seek for that spiritual insight which is essential to living the golden rule.
(598.1) 52:6.6 4. Political wisdom. Emotional maturity is essential to self-control. Only emotional maturity will insure the substitution of international techniques of civilized adjudication for the barbarous arbitrament of war. Wise statesmen will sometime work for the welfare of humanity even while they strive to promote the interest of their national or racial groups. Selfish political sagacity is ultimately suicidal — destructive of all those enduring qualities which insure planetary group survival.
(598.2) 52:6.7 5. Spiritual insight. The brotherhood of man is, after all, predicated on the recognition of the fatherhood of God. The quickest way to realize the brotherhood of man on Urantia is to effect the spiritual transformation of present-day humanity. The only technique for accelerating the natural trend of social evolution is that of applying spiritual pressure from above, thus augmenting moral insight while enhancing the soul capacity of every mortal to understand and love every other mortal. Mutual understanding and fraternal love are transcendent civilizers and mighty factors in the world-wide realization of the brotherhood of man.
7. Post-Teacher Son Man
(598.5) 52:7.2 The Teacher Sons come in groups to the spiritualizing worlds. A planetary Teacher Son is assisted and supported by seventy primary Sons, twelve secondary Sons, and three of the highest and most experienced of the supreme order of Daynals. This corps will remain for some time on the world, long enough to effect the transition from the evolutionary ages to the era of light and life — not less than one thousand years of planetary time and often considerably longer. This mission is a Trinity contribution to the antecedent efforts of all the divine personalities who have ministered to an inhabited world.
(598.6) 52:7.3 The revelation of truth is now extended to the central universe and to Paradise. The races are becoming highly spiritual. A great people has evolved and a great age is approaching. The educational, economic, and administrative systems of the planet are undergoing radical transformations. New values and relationships are being established. The kingdom of heaven is appearing on earth, and the glory of God is being shed abroad in the world.
(598.7) 52:7.4 This is the dispensation when many mortals are translated from among the living. As the era of Trinity Teacher Sons progresses, the spiritual allegiance of the mortals of time becomes more and more universal. Natural death becomes less frequent as the Adjusters increasingly fuse with their subjects during the lifetime in the flesh. The planet eventually is classed as of the primary modified order of mortal ascension.
(599.1) 52:7.5 Life during this era is pleasant and profitable. Degeneracy and the antisocial end products of the long evolutionary struggle have been virtually obliterated. The length of life approaches five hundred Urantia years, and the reproductive rate of racial increase is intelligently controlled. An entirely new order of society has arrived. There are still great differences among mortals, but the state of society more nearly approaches the ideals of social brotherhood and spiritual equality. Representative government is vanishing, and the world is passing under the rule of individual self-control. The function of government is chiefly directed to collective tasks of social administration and economic co-ordination. The golden age is coming on apace; the temporal goal of the long and intense planetary evolutionary struggle is in sight. The reward of the ages is soon to be realized; the wisdom of the Gods is about to be manifested.
(599.2) 52:7.6 The physical administration of a world during this age requires about one hour each day on the part of every adult individual; that is, the equivalent of one Urantia hour. The planet is in close touch with universe affairs, and its people scan the latest broadcasts with the same keen interest you now manifest in the latest editions of your daily newspapers. These races are occupied with a thousand things of interest unknown on your world.
(599.3) 52:7.7 Increasingly, true planetary allegiance to the Supreme Being grows. Generation after generation, more and more of the race step into line with those who practice justice and live mercy. Slowly but surely the world is being won to the joyous service of the Sons of God. The physical difficulties and material problems have been largely solved; the planet is ripening for advanced life and a more settled existence.
(599.4) 52:7.8 From time to time throughout their dispensation, Teacher Sons continue to come to these peaceful worlds. They do not leave a world until they observe that the evolutionary plan, as it concerns that planet, is working smoothly. A Magisterial Son of judgment usually accompanies the Teacher Sons on their successive missions, while another such Son functions at the time of their departure, and these judicial actions continue from age to age throughout the duration of the mortal regime of time and space.
(599.5) 52:7.9 Each recurring mission of the Trinity Teacher Sons successively exalts such a supernal world to ever-ascending heights of wisdom, spirituality, and cosmic illumination. But the noble natives of such a sphere are still finite and mortal. Nothing is perfect; nevertheless, there is evolving a quality of near perfection in the operation of an imperfect world and in the lives of its human inhabitants.
(599.6) 52:7.10 The Trinity Teacher Sons may return many times to the same world. But sooner or later, in connection with the termination of one of their missions, the Planetary Prince is elevated to the position of Planetary Sovereign, and the System Sovereign appears to proclaim the entrance of such a world upon the era of light and life.
(599.7) 52:7.11 It was of the conclusion of the terminal mission of the Teacher Sons (at least that would be the chronology on a normal world) that John wrote: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth and the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a princess adorned for the prince.”
(600.1) 52:7.12 This is the same renovated earth, the advanced planetary stage, that the olden seer envisioned when he wrote: “‘For, as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, so shall you and your children survive; and it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another all flesh shall come to worship before me,’ says the Lord.”
(600.2) 52:7.13 It is the mortals of such an age who are described as “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, an exalted people; and you shall show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into this marvelous light.”
(600.3) 52:7.14 No matter what the special natural history of an individual planet may be, no difference whether a realm has been wholly loyal, tainted with evil, or cursed by sin — no matter what the antecedents may be — sooner or later the grace of God and the ministry of angels will usher in the day of the advent of the Trinity Teacher Sons; and their departure, following their final mission, will inaugurate this superb era of light and life.
(600.4) 52:7.15 All the worlds of Satania can join in the hope of the one who wrote: “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”
(600.5) 52:7.16 The departure of the Teacher Son corps, at the end of their first or some subsequent reign, ushers in the dawn of the era of light and life — the threshold of the transition from time to the vestibule of eternity. The planetary realization of this era of light and life far more than equals the fondest expectations of Urantia mortals who have entertained no more farseeing concepts of the future life than those embraced within religious beliefs which depict heaven as the immediate destiny and final dwelling place of surviving mortals.
(600.6) 52:7.17 [Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily attached to the staff of Gabriel.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 53
The Lucifer Rebellion
(601.2) 53:0.2 In the universe of Nebadon, the domain of Christ Michael, there are ten thousand systems of inhabited worlds. In all the history of Lanonandek Sons, in all their work throughout these thousands of systems and at the universe headquarters, only three System Sovereigns have ever been found in contempt of the government of the Creator Son.
1. The Leaders of Rebellion
(601.4) 53:1.2 Lucifer was a magnificent being, a brilliant personality; he stood next to the Most High Fathers of the constellations in the direct line of universe authority. Notwithstanding Lucifer’s transgression, subordinate intelligences refrained from showing him disrespect and disdain prior to Michael’s bestowal on Urantia. Even the archangel of Michael, at the time of Moses’ resurrection, “did not bring against him an accusing judgment but simply said, ‘the Judge rebuke you.’” Judgment in such matters belongs to the Ancients of Days, the rulers of the superuniverse.
(601.5) 53:1.3 Lucifer is now the fallen and deposed Sovereign of Satania. Self-contemplation is most disastrous, even to the exalted personalities of the celestial world. Of Lucifer it was said: “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your brightness.” Your olden prophet saw his sad estate when he wrote: “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are you cast down, you who dared to confuse the worlds!”
(602.1) 53:1.4 Very little was heard of Lucifer on Urantia owing to the fact that he assigned his first lieutenant, Satan, to advocate his cause on your planet. Satan was a member of the same primary group of Lanonandeks but had never functioned as a System Sovereign; he entered fully into the Lucifer insurrection. The “devil” is none other than Caligastia, the deposed Planetary Prince of Urantia and a Son of the secondary order of Lanonandeks. At the time Michael was on Urantia in the flesh, Lucifer, Satan, and Caligastia were leagued together to effect the miscarriage of his bestowal mission. But they signally failed.
(602.2) 53:1.5 Abaddon was the chief of the staff of Caligastia. He followed his master into rebellion and has ever since acted as chief executive of the Urantia rebels. Beelzebub was the leader of the disloyal midway creatures who allied themselves with the forces of the traitorous Caligastia.
(602.3) 53:1.6 The dragon eventually became the symbolic representation of all these evil personages. Upon the triumph of Michael, “Gabriel came down from Salvington and bound the dragon (all the rebel leaders) for an age.” Of the Jerusem seraphic rebels it is written: “And the angels who kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he has reserved in sure chains of darkness to the judgment of the great day.”
2. The Causes of Rebellion
(602.5) 53:2.2 There were no peculiar or special conditions in the system of Satania which suggested or favored rebellion. It is our belief that the idea took origin and form in Lucifer’s mind, and that he might have instigated such a rebellion no matter where he might have been stationed. Lucifer first announced his plans to Satan, but it required several months to corrupt the mind of his able and brilliant associate. However, when once converted to the rebel theories, he became a bold and earnest advocate of “self-assertion and liberty.”
(602.6) 53:2.3 No one ever suggested rebellion to Lucifer. The idea of self-assertion in opposition to the will of Michael and to the plans of the Universal Father, as they are represented in Michael, had its origin in his own mind. His relations with the Creator Son had been intimate and always cordial. At no time prior to the exaltation of his own mind did Lucifer openly express dissatisfaction about the universe administration. Notwithstanding his silence, for more than one hundred years of standard time the Union of Days on Salvington had been reflectivating to Uversa that all was not at peace in Lucifer’s mind. This information was also communicated to the Creator Son and the Constellation Fathers of Norlatiadek.
(602.7) 53:2.4 Throughout this period Lucifer became increasingly critical of the entire plan of universe administration but always professed wholehearted loyalty to the Supreme Rulers. His first outspoken disloyalty was manifested on the occasion of a visit of Gabriel to Jerusem just a few days before the open proclamation of the Lucifer Declaration of Liberty. Gabriel was so profoundly impressed with the certainty of the impending outbreak that he went direct to Edentia to confer with the Constellation Fathers regarding the measures to be employed in case of open rebellion.
(603.1) 53:2.5 It is very difficult to point out the exact cause or causes which finally culminated in the Lucifer rebellion. We are certain of only one thing, and that is: Whatever these first beginnings were, they had their origin in Lucifer’s mind. There must have been a pride of self that nourished itself to the point of self-deception, so that Lucifer for a time really persuaded himself that his contemplation of rebellion was actually for the good of the system, if not of the universe. By the time his plans had developed to the point of disillusionment, no doubt he had gone too far for his original and mischief-making pride to permit him to stop. At some point in this experience he became insincere, and evil evolved into deliberate and willful sin. That this happened is proved by the subsequent conduct of this brilliant executive. He was long offered opportunity for repentance, but only some of his subordinates ever accepted the proffered mercy. The Faithful of Days of Edentia, on the request of the Constellation Fathers, in person presented the plan of Michael for the saving of these flagrant rebels, but always was the mercy of the Creator Son rejected and rejected with increasing contempt and disdain.
3. The Lucifer Manifesto
(603.3) 53:3.2 1. The reality of the Universal Father. Lucifer charged that the Universal Father did not really exist, that physical gravity and space-energy were inherent in the universe, and that the Father was a myth invented by the Paradise Sons to enable them to maintain the rule of the universes in the Father’s name. He denied that personality was a gift of the Universal Father. He even intimated that the finaliters were in collusion with the Paradise Sons to foist fraud upon all creation since they never brought back a very clear-cut idea of the Father’s actual personality as it is discernible on Paradise. He traded on reverence as ignorance. The charge was sweeping, terrible, and blasphemous. It was this veiled attack upon the finaliters that no doubt influenced the ascendant citizens then on Jerusem to stand firm and remain steadfast in resistance to all the rebel’s proposals.(604.2) 53:3.7 And it was with such a Declaration of Liberty that Lucifer launched his orgy of darkness and death.
(603.4) 53:3.3 2. The universe government of the Creator Son — Michael. Lucifer contended that the local systems should be autonomous. He protested against the right of Michael, the Creator Son, to assume sovereignty of Nebadon in the name of a hypothetical Paradise Father and require all personalities to acknowledge allegiance to this unseen Father. He asserted that the whole plan of worship was a clever scheme to aggrandize the Paradise Sons. He was willing to acknowledge Michael as his Creator-father but not as his God and rightful ruler.
(603.5) 53:3.4 Most bitterly did he attack the right of the Ancients of Days — “foreign potentates” — to interfere in the affairs of the local systems and universes. These rulers he denounced as tyrants and usurpers. He exhorted his followers to believe that none of these rulers could do aught to interfere with the operation of complete home rule if men and angels only had the courage to assert themselves and boldly claim their rights.
(603.6) 53:3.5 He contended that the executioners of the Ancients of Days could be debarred from functioning in the local systems if the native beings would only assert their independence. He maintained that immortality was inherent in the system personalities, that resurrection was natural and automatic, and that all beings would live eternally except for the arbitrary and unjust acts of the executioners of the Ancients of Days.
(604.1) 53:3.6 3. The attack upon the universal plan of ascendant mortal training. Lucifer maintained that far too much time and energy were expended upon the scheme of so thoroughly training ascending mortals in the principles of universe administration, principles which he alleged were unethical and unsound. He protested against the agelong program for preparing the mortals of space for some unknown destiny and pointed to the presence of the finaliter corps on Jerusem as proof that these mortals had spent ages of preparation for some destiny of pure fiction. With derision he pointed out that the finaliters had encountered a destiny no more glorious than to be returned to humble spheres similar to those of their origin. He intimated that they had been debauched by overmuch discipline and prolonged training, and that they were in reality traitors to their mortal fellows since they were now co-operating with the scheme of enslaving all creation to the fictions of a mythical eternal destiny for ascending mortals. He advocated that ascenders should enjoy the liberty of individual self-determination. He challenged and condemned the entire plan of mortal ascension as sponsored by the Paradise Sons of God and supported by the Infinite Spirit.
4. Outbreak of the Rebellion
(604.4) 53:4.2 Self-assertion was the battle cry of the Lucifer rebellion. One of his chief arguments was that, if self-government was good and right for the Melchizedeks and other groups, it was equally good for all orders of intelligence. He was bold and persistent in the advocacy of the “equality of mind” and “the brotherhood of intelligence.” He maintained that all government should be limited to the local planets and their voluntary confederation into the local systems. All other supervision he disallowed. He promised the Planetary Princes that they should rule the worlds as supreme executives. He denounced the location of legislative activities on the constellation headquarters and the conduct of judicial affairs on the universe capital. He contended that all these functions of government should be concentrated on the system capitals and proceeded to set up his own legislative assembly and organized his own tribunals under the jurisdiction of Satan. And he directed that the princes on the apostate worlds do the same.
(604.5) 53:4.3 The entire administrative cabinet of Lucifer went over in a body and were sworn in publicly as the officers of the administration of the new head of “the liberated worlds and systems.”
(605.1) 53:4.4 While there had been two previous rebellions in Nebadon, they were in distant constellations. Lucifer held that these insurrections were unsuccessful because the majority of the intelligences failed to follow their leaders. He contended that “majorities rule,” that “mind is infallible.” The freedom allowed him by the universe rulers apparently sustained many of his nefarious contentions. He defied all his superiors; yet they apparently took no note of his doings. He was given a free hand to prosecute his seductive plan without let or hindrance.
(605.2) 53:4.5 All the merciful delays of justice Lucifer pointed to as evidence of the inability of the government of the Paradise Sons to stop the rebellion. He would openly defy and arrogantly challenge Michael, Immanuel, and the Ancients of Days and then point to the fact that no action ensued as positive evidence of the impotency of the universe and the superuniverse governments.
(605.3) 53:4.6 Gabriel was personally present throughout all these disloyal proceedings and only announced that he would, in due time, speak for Michael, and that all beings would be left free and unmolested in their choice; that the “government of the Sons for the Father desired only that loyalty and devotion which was voluntary, wholehearted, and sophistry-proof.”
(605.4) 53:4.7 Lucifer was permitted fully to establish and thoroughly to organize his rebel government before Gabriel made any effort to contest the right of secession or to counterwork the rebel propaganda. But the Constellation Fathers immediately confined the action of these disloyal personalities to the system of Satania. Nevertheless, this period of delay was a time of great trial and testing to the loyal beings of all Satania. All was chaotic for a few years, and there was great confusion on the mansion worlds.
5. Nature of the Conflict
(605.6) 53:5.2 At the time of this rebellion and the two which preceded it there was no absolute and personal sovereign authority in the universe of Nebadon. Michael ruled by divine right, as vicegerent of the Universal Father, but not yet in his own personal right. He had not completed his bestowal career; he had not yet been vested with “all power in heaven and on earth.”
(605.7) 53:5.3 From the outbreak of rebellion to the day of his enthronement as sovereign ruler of Nebadon, Michael never interfered with the rebel forces of Lucifer; they were allowed to run a free course for almost two hundred thousand years of Urantia time. Christ Michael now has ample power and authority to deal promptly, even summarily, with such outbreaks of disloyalty, but we doubt that this sovereign authority would lead him to act differently if another such upheaval should occur.
(605.8) 53:5.4 Since Michael elected to remain aloof from the actual warfare of the Lucifer rebellion, Gabriel called his personal staff together on Edentia and, in counsel with the Most Highs, elected to assume command of the loyal hosts of Satania. Michael remained on Salvington while Gabriel proceeded to Jerusem, and establishing himself on the sphere dedicated to the Father — the same Universal Father whose personality Lucifer and Satan had questioned — in the presence of the forgathered hosts of loyal personalities, he displayed the banner of Michael, the material emblem of the Trinity government of all creation, the three azure blue concentric circles on a white background.
(606.1) 53:5.5 The Lucifer emblem was a banner of white with one red circle, in the center of which a black solid circle appeared.
(606.2) 53:5.6 “There was war in heaven; Michael’s commander and his angels fought against the dragon (Lucifer, Satan, and the apostate princes); and the dragon and his rebellious angels fought but prevailed not.” This “war in heaven” was not a physical battle as such a conflict might be conceived on Urantia. In the early days of the struggle Lucifer held forth continuously in the planetary amphitheater. Gabriel conducted an unceasing exposure of the rebel sophistries from his headquarters taken up near at hand. The various personalities present on the sphere who were in doubt as to their attitude would journey back and forth between these discussions until they arrived at a final decision.
(606.3) 53:5.7 But this war in heaven was very terrible and very real. While displaying none of the barbarities so characteristic of physical warfare on the immature worlds, this conflict was far more deadly; material life is in jeopardy in material combat, but the war in heaven was fought in terms of life eternal.
6. A Loyal Seraphic Commander
(606.5) 53:6.2 At the outbreak of rebellion on Jerusem the head of the seraphic hosts joined the Lucifer cause. This no doubt explains why such a large number of the fourth order, the system administrator seraphim, went astray. The seraphic leader was spiritually blinded by the brilliant personality of Lucifer; his charming ways fascinated the lower orders of celestial beings. They simply could not comprehend that it was possible for such a dazzling personality to go wrong.
(606.6) 53:6.3 Not long since, in describing the experiences associated with the onset of the Lucifer rebellion, Manotia said: “But my most exhilarating moment was the thrilling adventure connected with the Lucifer rebellion when, as second seraphic commander, I refused to participate in the projected insult to Michael; and the powerful rebels sought my destruction by means of the liaison forces they had arranged. There was a tremendous upheaval on Jerusem, but not a single loyal seraphim was harmed.
(606.7) 53:6.4 “Upon the default of my immediate superior it devolved upon me to assume command of the angelic hosts of Jerusem as the titular director of the confused seraphic affairs of the system. I was morally upheld by the Melchizedeks, ably assisted by a majority of the Material Sons, deserted by a tremendous group of my own order, but magnificently supported by the ascendant mortals on Jerusem.
(606.8) 53:6.5 “Having been automatically thrown out of the constellation circuits by the secession of Lucifer, we were dependent on the loyalty of our intelligence corps, who forwarded calls for help to Edentia from the near-by system of Rantulia; and we found that the kingdom of order, the intellect of loyalty, and the spirit of truth were inherently triumphant over rebellion, self-assertion, and so-called personal liberty; we were able to carry on until the arrival of the new System Sovereign, the worthy successor of Lucifer. And immediately thereafter I was assigned to the corps of the Melchizedek receivership of Urantia, assuming jurisdiction over the loyal seraphic orders on the world of the traitorous Caligastia, who had proclaimed his sphere a member of the newly projected system of ‘liberated worlds and emancipated personalities’ proposed in the infamous Declaration of Liberty issued by Lucifer in his call to the ‘liberty-loving, free-thinking, and forward-looking intelligences of the misruled and maladministered worlds of Satania.’”
(607.1) 53:6.6 This angel is still in service on Urantia, functioning as associate chief of seraphim.
7. History of the Rebellion
(607.3) 53:7.2 Throughout this period Caligastia was advocating the cause of Lucifer on Urantia. The Melchizedeks ably opposed the apostate Planetary Prince, but the sophistries of unbridled liberty and the delusions of self-assertion had every opportunity for deceiving the primitive peoples of a young and undeveloped world.
(607.4) 53:7.3 All secession propaganda had to be carried on by personal effort because the broadcast service and all other avenues of interplanetary communication were suspended by the action of the system circuit supervisors. Upon the actual outbreak of the insurrection the entire system of Satania was isolated in both the constellation and the universe circuits. During this time all incoming and outgoing messages were dispatched by seraphic agents and Solitary Messengers. The circuits to the fallen worlds were also cut off, so that Lucifer could not utilize this avenue for the furtherance of his nefarious scheme. And these circuits will not be restored so long as the archrebel lives within the confines of Satania.
(607.5) 53:7.4 This was a Lanonandek rebellion. The higher orders of local universe sonship did not join the Lucifer secession, although a few of the Life Carriers stationed on the rebel planets were somewhat influenced by the rebellion of the disloyal princes. None of the Trinitized Sons went astray. The Melchizedeks, archangels, and the Brilliant Evening Stars were all loyal to Michael and, with Gabriel, valiantly contended for the Father’s will and the Son’s rule.
(608.1) 53:7.5 No beings of Paradise origin were involved in disloyalty. Together with the Solitary Messengers they took up headquarters on the world of the Spirit and remained under the leadership of the Faithful of Days of Edentia. None of the conciliators apostatized, nor did a single one of the Celestial Recorders go astray. But a heavy toll was taken of the Morontia Companions and the Mansion World Teachers.
(608.2) 53:7.6 Of the supreme order of seraphim, not an angel was lost, but a considerable group of the next order, the superior, were deceived and ensnared. Likewise a few of the third or supervisor order of angels were misled. But the terrible breakdown came in the fourth group, the administrator angels, those seraphim who are normally assigned to the duties of the system capitals. Manotia saved almost two thirds of them, but slightly over one third followed their chief into the rebel ranks. One third of all the Jerusem cherubim attached to the administrator angels were lost with their disloyal seraphim.
(608.3) 53:7.7 Of the planetary angelic helpers, those assigned to the Material Sons, about one third were deceived, and almost ten per cent of the transition ministers were ensnared. In symbol John saw this when he wrote of the great red dragon, saying: “And his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them down in darkness.”
(608.4) 53:7.8 The greatest loss occurred in the angelic ranks, but most of the lower orders of intelligence were involved in disloyalty. Of the 681,227 Material Sons lost in Satania, ninety-five per cent were casualties of the Lucifer rebellion. Large numbers of midway creatures were lost on those individual planets whose Planetary Princes joined the Lucifer cause.
(608.5) 53:7.9 In many respects this rebellion was the most widespread and disastrous of all such occurrences in Nebadon. More personalities were involved in this insurrection than in both of the others. And it is to their everlasting dishonor that the emissaries of Lucifer and Satan spared not the infant-training schools on the finaliter cultural planet but rather sought to corrupt these developing minds in mercy salvaged from the evolutionary worlds.
(608.6) 53:7.10 The ascending mortals were vulnerable, but they withstood the sophistries of rebellion better than the lower spirits. While many on the lower mansion worlds, those who had not attained final fusion with their Adjusters, fell, it is recorded to the glory of the wisdom of the ascension scheme that not a single member of the Satania ascendant citizenship resident on Jerusem participated in the Lucifer rebellion.
(608.7) 53:7.11 Hour by hour and day by day the broadcast stations of all Nebadon were thronged by the anxious watchers of every imaginable class of celestial intelligence, who intently perused the bulletins of the Satania rebellion and rejoiced as the reports continuously narrated the unswerving loyalty of the ascending mortals who, under their Melchizedek leadership, successfully withstood the combined and protracted efforts of all the subtle evil forces which so swiftly gathered around the banners of secession and sin.
(608.8) 53:7.12 It was over two years of system time from the beginning of the “war in heaven” until the installation of Lucifer’s successor. But at last the new Sovereign came, landing on the sea of glass with his staff. I was among the reserves mobilized on Edentia by Gabriel, and I well remember the first message of Lanaforge to the Constellation Father of Norlatiadek. It read: “Not a single Jerusem citizen was lost. Every ascendant mortal survived the fiery trial and emerged from the crucial test triumphant and altogether victorious.” And on to Salvington, Uversa, and Paradise went this message of assurance that the survival experience of mortal ascension is the greatest security against rebellion and the surest safeguard against sin. This noble Jerusem band of faithful mortals numbered just 187,432,811.
(609.1) 53:7.13 With the arrival of Lanaforge the archrebels were dethroned and shorn of all governing powers, though they were permitted freely to go about Jerusem, the morontia spheres, and even to the individual inhabited worlds. They continued their deceptive and seductive efforts to confuse and mislead the minds of men and angels. But as concerned their work on the administrative mount of Jerusem, “their place was found no more.”
(609.2) 53:7.14 While Lucifer was deprived of all administrative authority in Satania, there then existed no local universe power nor tribunal which could detain or destroy this wicked rebel; at that time Michael was not a sovereign ruler. The Ancients of Days sustained the Constellation Fathers in their seizure of the system government, but they have never handed down any subsequent decisions in the many appeals still pending with regard to the present status and future disposition of Lucifer, Satan, and their associates.
(609.3) 53:7.15 Thus were these archrebels allowed to roam the entire system to seek further penetration for their doctrines of discontent and self-assertion. But in almost two hundred thousand Urantia years they have been unable to deceive another world. No Satania worlds have been lost since the fall of the thirty-seven, not even those younger worlds peopled since that day of rebellion.
8. The Son of Man on Urantia
(609.5) 53:8.2 Formerly, when the Planetary Princes, the “Sons of God,” were periodically assembled, “Satan came also,” claiming that he represented all of the isolated worlds of the fallen Planetary Princes. But he has not been accorded such liberty on Jerusem since Michael’s terminal bestowal. Subsequent to their effort to corrupt Michael when in the bestowal flesh, all sympathy for Lucifer and Satan has perished throughout all Satania, that is, outside the isolated worlds of sin.
(609.6) 53:8.3 The bestowal of Michael terminated the Lucifer rebellion in all Satania aside from the planets of the apostate Planetary Princes. And this was the significance of Jesus’ personal experience, just before his death in the flesh, when he one day exclaimed to his disciples, “And I beheld Satan fall as lightning from heaven.” He had come with Lucifer to Urantia for the last crucial struggle.
(609.7) 53:8.4 The Son of Man was confident of success, and he knew that his triumph on your world would forever settle the status of his agelong enemies, not only in Satania but also in the other two systems where sin had entered. There was survival for mortals and security for angels when your Master, in reply to the Lucifer proposals, calmly and with divine assurance replied, “Get you behind me, Satan.” That was, in principle, the real end of the Lucifer rebellion. True, the Uversa tribunals have not yet rendered the executive decision regarding the appeal of Gabriel praying for the destruction of the rebels, but such a decree will, no doubt, be forthcoming in the fullness of time since the first step in the hearing of this case has already been taken.
(610.1) 53:8.5 Caligastia was recognized by the Son of Man as the technical Prince of Urantia up to near the time of his death. Said Jesus: “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast down.” And then still nearer the completion of his lifework he announced, “The prince of this world is judged.” And it is this same dethroned and discredited Prince who was once termed “God of Urantia.”
(610.2) 53:8.6 The last act of Michael before leaving Urantia was to offer mercy to Caligastia and Daligastia, but they spurned his tender proffer. Caligastia, your apostate Planetary Prince, is still free on Urantia to prosecute his nefarious designs, but he has absolutely no power to enter the minds of men, neither can he draw near to their souls to tempt or corrupt them unless they really desire to be cursed with his wicked presence.
(610.3) 53:8.7 Before the bestowal of Michael these rulers of darkness sought to maintain their authority on Urantia, and they persistently withstood the minor and subordinate celestial personalities. But since the day of Pentecost this traitorous Caligastia and his equally contemptible associate, Daligastia, are servile before the divine majesty of the Paradise Thought Adjusters and the protective Spirit of Truth, the spirit of Michael, which has been poured out upon all flesh.
(610.4) 53:8.8 But even so, no fallen spirit ever did have the power to invade the minds or to harass the souls of the children of God. Neither Satan nor Caligastia could ever touch or approach the faith sons of God; faith is an effective armor against sin and iniquity. It is true: “He who is born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one touches him not.”
(610.5) 53:8.9 In general, when weak and dissolute mortals are supposed to be under the influence of devils and demons, they are merely being dominated by their own inherent and debased tendencies, being led away by their own natural propensities. The devil has been given a great deal of credit for evil which does not belong to him. Caligastia has been comparatively impotent since the cross of Christ.
9. Present Status of the Rebellion
(611.1) 53:9.2 The archdeceiver has never been on Urantia since the days when he sought to turn back Michael from the purpose to complete the bestowal and to establish himself finally and securely as the unqualified ruler of Nebadon. Upon Michael’s becoming the settled head of the universe of Nebadon, Lucifer was taken into custody by the agents of the Uversa Ancients of Days and has since been a prisoner on satellite number one of the Father’s group of the transition spheres of Jerusem. And here the rulers of other worlds and systems behold the end of the unfaithful Sovereign of Satania. Paul knew of the status of these rebellious leaders following Michael’s bestowal, for he wrote of Caligastia’s chiefs as “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
(611.2) 53:9.3 Michael, upon assuming the supreme sovereignty of Nebadon, petitioned the Ancients of Days for authority to intern all personalities concerned in the Lucifer rebellion pending the rulings of the superuniverse tribunals in the case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer, placed on the records of the Uversa supreme court almost two hundred thousand years ago, as you reckon time. Concerning the system capital group, the Ancients of Days granted the Michael petition with but a single exception: Satan was allowed to make periodic visits to the apostate princes on the fallen worlds until another Son of God should be accepted by such apostate worlds, or until such time as the courts of Uversa should begin the adjudication of the case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer.
(611.3) 53:9.4 Satan could come to Urantia because you had no Son of standing in residence — neither Planetary Prince nor Material Son. Machiventa Melchizedek has since been proclaimed vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia, and the opening of the case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer has signalized the inauguration of temporary planetary regimes on all the isolated worlds. It is true that Satan did periodically visit Caligastia and others of the fallen princes right up to the time of the presentation of these revelations, when there occurred the first hearing of Gabriel’s plea for the annihilation of the archrebels. Satan is now unqualifiedly detained on the Jerusem prison worlds.
(611.4) 53:9.5 Since Michael’s final bestowal no one in all Satania has desired to go to the prison worlds to minister to the interned rebels. And no more beings have been won to the deceiver’s cause. For nineteen hundred years the status has been unchanged.
(611.5) 53:9.6 We do not look for a removal of the present Satania restrictions until the Ancients of Days make final disposition of the archrebels. The system circuits will not be reinstated so long as Lucifer lives. Meantime, he is wholly inactive.
(611.6) 53:9.7 The rebellion has ended on Jerusem. It ends on the fallen worlds as fast as divine Sons arrive. We believe that all rebels who will ever accept mercy have done so. We await the flashing broadcast that will deprive these traitors of personality existence. We anticipate the verdict of Uversa will be announced by the executionary broadcast which will effect the annihilation of these interned rebels. Then will you look for their places, but they shall not be found. “And they who know you among the worlds will be astonished at you; you have been a terror, but never shall you be any more.” And thus shall all of these unworthy traitors “become as though they had not been.” All await the Uversa decree.
(611.7) 53:9.8 But for ages the seven prison worlds of spiritual darkness in Satania have constituted a solemn warning to all Nebadon, eloquently and effectively proclaiming the great truth “that the way of the transgressor is hard”; “that within every sin is concealed the seed of its own destruction”; that “the wages of sin is death.”
(612.1) 53:9.9 [Presented by Manovandet Melchizedek, onetime attached to the receivership of Urantia.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 54
Problems of the Lucifer Rebellion
(613.2) 54:0.2 The Gods neither create evil nor permit sin and rebellion. Potential evil is time-existent in a universe embracing differential levels of perfection meanings and values. Sin is potential in all realms where imperfect beings are endowed with the ability to choose between good and evil. The very conflicting presence of truth and untruth, fact and falsehood, constitutes the potentiality of error. The deliberate choice of evil constitutes sin; the willful rejection of truth is error; the persistent pursuit of sin and error is iniquity.
1. True and False Liberty
(613.4) 54:1.2 True liberty is the quest of the ages and the reward of evolutionary progress. False liberty is the subtle deception of the error of time and the evil of space. Enduring liberty is predicated on the reality of justice — intelligence, maturity, fraternity, and equity.
(613.5) 54:1.3 Liberty is a self-destroying technique of cosmic existence when its motivation is unintelligent, unconditioned, and uncontrolled. True liberty is progressively related to reality and is ever regardful of social equity, cosmic fairness, universe fraternity, and divine obligations.
(613.6) 54:1.4 Liberty is suicidal when divorced from material justice, intellectual fairness, social forbearance, moral duty, and spiritual values. Liberty is nonexistent apart from cosmic reality, and all personality reality is proportional to its divinity relationships.
(613.7) 54:1.5 Unbridled self-will and unregulated self-expression equal unmitigated selfishness, the acme of ungodliness. Liberty without the associated and ever-increasing conquest of self is a figment of egoistic mortal imagination. Self-motivated liberty is a conceptual illusion, a cruel deception. License masquerading in the garments of liberty is the forerunner of abject bondage.
(614.1) 54:1.6 True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings.
(614.2) 54:1.7 Even wisdom is divine and safe only when it is cosmic in scope and spiritual in motivation.
(614.3) 54:1.8 There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness. Only true and genuine liberty is compatible with the reign of love and the ministry of mercy.
(614.4) 54:1.9 How dare the self-willed creature encroach upon the rights of his fellows in the name of personal liberty when the Supreme Rulers of the universe stand back in merciful respect for these prerogatives of will and potentials of personality! No being, in the exercise of his supposed personal liberty, has a right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, and subjects.
(614.5) 54:1.10 Evolutionary man may have to contend for his material liberties with tyrants and oppressors on a world of sin and iniquity or during the early times of a primitive evolving sphere, but not so on the morontia worlds or on the spirit spheres. War is the heritage of early evolutionary man, but on worlds of normal advancing civilization physical combat as a technique of adjusting racial misunderstandings has long since fallen into disrepute.
2. The Theft of Liberty
(614.7) 54:2.2 Every creature of every evolving universe who aspires to do the Father’s will is destined to become the partner of the time-space Creators in this magnificent adventure of experiential perfection attainment. Were this not true, the Father would have hardly endowed such creatures with creative free will, neither would he indwell them, actually go into partnership with them by means of his own spirit.
(614.8) 54:2.3 Lucifer’s folly was the attempt to do the nondoable, to short-circuit time in an experiential universe. Lucifer’s crime was the attempted creative disenfranchisement of every personality in Satania, the unrecognized abridgment of the creature’s personal participation — freewill participation — in the long evolutionary struggle to attain the status of light and life both individually and collectively. In so doing this onetime Sovereign of your system set the temporal purpose of his own will directly athwart the eternal purpose of God’s will as it is revealed in the bestowal of free will upon all personal creatures. The Lucifer rebellion thus threatened the maximum possible infringement of the freewill choice of the ascenders and servers of the system of Satania — a threat forevermore to deprive every one of these beings of the thrilling experience of contributing something personal and unique to the slowly erecting monument to experiential wisdom which will sometime exist as the perfected system of Satania. Thus does the Lucifer manifesto, masquerading in the habiliments of liberty, stand forth in the clear light of reason as a monumental threat to consummate the theft of personal liberty and to do it on a scale that has been approached only twice in all the history of Nebadon.
(615.1) 54:2.4 In short, what God had given men and angels Lucifer would have taken away from them, that is, the divine privilege of participating in the creation of their own destinies and of the destiny of this local system of inhabited worlds.
(615.2) 54:2.5 No being in all the universe has the rightful liberty to deprive any other being of true liberty, the right to love and be loved, the privilege of worshiping God and of serving his fellows.
3. The Time Lag of Justice
(615.4) 54:3.2 Although conscious and wholehearted identification with evil (sin) is the equivalent of nonexistence (annihilation), there must always intervene between the time of such personal identification with sin and the execution of the penalty — the automatic result of such a willful embrace of evil — a period of time of sufficient length to allow for such an adjudication of such an individual’s universe status as will prove entirely satisfactory to all related universe personalities, and which will be so fair and just as to win the approval of the sinner himself.
(615.5) 54:3.3 But if this universe rebel against the reality of truth and goodness refuses to approve the verdict, and if the guilty one knows in his heart the justice of his condemnation but refuses to make such confession, then must the execution of sentence be delayed in accordance with the discretion of the Ancients of Days. And the Ancients of Days refuse to annihilate any being until all moral values and all spiritual realities are extinct, both in the evildoer and in all related supporters and possible sympathizers.
4. The Mercy Time Lag
(616.1) 54:4.2 Parents, those who have borne and reared children, are better able to understand why Michael, a Creator-father, might be slow to condemn and destroy his own Sons. Jesus’ story of the prodigal son well illustrates how a loving father can long wait for the repentance of an erring child.
(616.2) 54:4.3 The very fact that an evil-doing creature can actually choose to do wrong — commit sin — establishes the fact of free-willness and fully justifies any length delay in the execution of justice provided the extended mercy might conduce to repentance and rehabilitation.
(616.3) 54:4.4 Most of the liberties which Lucifer sought he already had; others he was to receive in the future. All these precious endowments were lost by giving way to impatience and yielding to a desire to possess what one craves now and to possess it in defiance of all obligation to respect the rights and liberties of all other beings composing the universe of universes. Ethical obligations are innate, divine, and universal.
(616.4) 54:4.5 There are many reasons known to us why the Supreme Rulers did not immediately destroy or intern the leaders of the Lucifer rebellion. There are no doubt still other and possibly better reasons unknown to us. The mercy features of this delay in the execution of justice were extended personally by Michael of Nebadon. Except for the affection of this Creator-father for his erring Sons, the supreme justice of the superuniverse would have acted. If such an episode as the Lucifer rebellion had occurred in Nebadon while Michael was incarnated on Urantia, the instigators of such evil might have been instantly and absolutely annihilated.
(616.5) 54:4.6 Supreme justice can act instantly when not restrained by divine mercy. But the ministry of mercy to the children of time and space always provides for this time lag, this saving interval between seedtime and harvest. If the seed sowing is good, this interval provides for the testing and upbuilding of character; if the seed sowing is evil, this merciful delay provides time for repentance and rectification. This time delay in the adjudication and execution of evildoers is inherent in the mercy ministry of the seven superuniverses. This restraint of justice by mercy proves that God is love, and that such a God of love dominates the universes and in mercy controls the fate and judgment of all his creatures.
(616.6) 54:4.7 The mercy delays of time are by the mandate of the free will of the Creators. There is good to be derived in the universe from this technique of patience in dealing with sinful rebels. While it is all too true that good cannot come of evil to the one who contemplates and performs evil, it is equally true that all things (including evil, potential and manifest) work together for good to all beings who know God, love to do his will, and are ascending Paradiseward according to his eternal plan and divine purpose.
(616.7) 54:4.8 But these mercy delays are not interminable. Notwithstanding the long delay (as time is reckoned on Urantia) in adjudicating the Lucifer rebellion, we may record that, during the time of effecting this revelation, the first hearing in the pending case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer was held on Uversa, and soon thereafter there issued the mandate of the Ancients of Days directing that Satan be henceforth confined to the prison world with Lucifer. This ends the ability of Satan to pay further visits to any of the fallen worlds of Satania. Justice in a mercy-dominated universe may be slow, but it is certain.
5. The Wisdom of Delay
(617.2) 54:5.2 1. Mercy requires that every wrongdoer have sufficient time in which to formulate a deliberate and fully chosen attitude regarding his evil thoughts and sinful acts.(618.3) 54:5.14 There are an equal number of reasons for not arbitrarily stopping the Lucifer rebellion which would be partially comprehensible to you, but which I am not permitted to narrate. I may inform you that on Uversa we teach forty-eight reasons for permitting evil to run the full course of its own moral bankruptcy and spiritual extinction. I doubt not that there are just as many additional reasons not known to me.
(617.3) 54:5.3 2. Supreme justice is dominated by a Father’s love; therefore will justice never destroy that which mercy can save. Time to accept salvation is vouchsafed every evildoer.
(617.4) 54:5.4 3. No affectionate father is ever precipitate in visiting punishment upon an erring member of his family. Patience cannot function independently of time.
(617.5) 54:5.5 4. While wrongdoing is always deleterious to a family, wisdom and love admonish the upright children to bear with an erring brother during the time granted by the affectionate father in which the sinner may see the error of his way and embrace salvation.
(617.6) 54:5.6 5. Regardless of Michael’s attitude toward Lucifer, notwithstanding his being Lucifer’s Creator-father, it was not in the province of the Creator Son to exercise summary jurisdiction over the apostate System Sovereign because he had not then completed his bestowal career, thereby attaining unqualified sovereignty of Nebadon.
(617.7) 54:5.7 6. The Ancients of Days could have immediately annihilated these rebels, but they seldom execute wrongdoers without a full hearing. In this instance they refused to overrule the Michael decisions.
(617.8) 54:5.8 7. It is evident that Immanuel counseled Michael to remain aloof from the rebels and allow rebellion to pursue a natural course of self-obliteration. And the wisdom of the Union of Days is the time reflection of the united wisdom of the Paradise Trinity.
(617.9) 54:5.9 8. The Faithful of Days on Edentia advised the Constellation Fathers to allow the rebels free course to the end that all sympathy for these evildoers should be the sooner uprooted in the hearts of every present and future citizen of Norlatiadek — every mortal, morontia, or spirit creature.
(617.10) 54:5.10 9. On Jerusem the personal representative of the Supreme Executive of Orvonton counseled Gabriel to foster full opportunity for every living creature to mature a deliberate choice in those matters involved in the Lucifer Declaration of Liberty. The issues of rebellion having been raised, the Paradise emergency adviser of Gabriel portrayed that, if such full and free opportunity were not given all Norlatiadek creatures, then would the Paradise quarantine against all such possible halfhearted or doubt-stricken creatures be extended in self-protection against the entire constellation. To keep open the Paradise doors of ascension to the beings of Norlatiadek, it was necessary to provide for the full development of rebellion and to insure the complete determination of attitude on the part of all beings in any way concerned therewith.
(617.11) 54:5.11 10. The Divine Minister of Salvington issued as her third independent proclamation a mandate directing that nothing be done to half cure, cowardly suppress, or otherwise hide the hideous visage of rebels and rebellion. The angelic hosts were directed to work for full disclosure and unlimited opportunity for sin-expression as the quickest technique of achieving the perfect and final cure of the plague of evil and sin.
(618.1) 54:5.12 11. An emergency council of ex-mortals consisting of Mighty Messengers, glorified mortals who had had personal experience with like situations, together with their colleagues, was organized on Jerusem. They advised Gabriel that at least three times the number of beings would be led astray if arbitrary or summary methods of suppression were attempted. The entire Uversa corps of counselors concurred in advising Gabriel to permit the rebellion to take its full and natural course, even if it should require a million years to wind up the consequences.
(618.2) 54:5.13 12. Time, even in a universe of time, is relative: If a Urantia mortal of average length of life should commit a crime which precipitated world-wide pandemonium, and if he were apprehended, tried, and executed within two or three days of the commission of the crime, would it seem a long time to you? And yet that would be nearer a comparison with the length of Lucifer’s life even if his adjudication, now begun, should not be completed for a hundred thousand Urantia years. The relative lapse of time from the viewpoint of Uversa, where the litigation is pending, could be indicated by saying that the crime of Lucifer was being brought to trial within two and a half seconds of its commission. From the Paradise viewpoint the adjudication is simultaneous with the enactment.
6. The Triumph of Love
(618.5) 54:6.2 In all their dealings with intelligent beings, both the Creator Son and his Paradise Father are love dominated. It is impossible to comprehend many phases of the attitude of the universe rulers toward rebels and rebellion — sin and sinners — unless it be remembered that God as a Father takes precedence over all other phases of Deity manifestation in all the dealings of divinity with humanity. It should also be recalled that the Paradise Creator Sons are all mercy motivated.
(618.6) 54:6.3 If an affectionate father of a large family chooses to show mercy to one of his children guilty of grievous wrongdoing, it may well be that the extension of mercy to this misbehaving child will work a temporary hardship upon all the other and well-behaved children. Such eventualities are inevitable; such a risk is inseparable from the reality situation of having a loving parent and of being a member of a family group. Each member of a family profits by the righteous conduct of every other member; likewise must each member suffer the immediate time-consequences of the misconduct of every other member. Families, groups, nations, races, worlds, systems, constellations, and universes are relationships of association which possess individuality; and therefore does every member of any such group, large or small, reap the benefits and suffer the consequences of the rightdoing and the wrongdoing of all other members of the group concerned.
(619.1) 54:6.4 But one thing should be made clear: If you are made to suffer the evil consequences of the sin of some member of your family, some fellow citizen or fellow mortal, even rebellion in the system or elsewhere — no matter what you may have to endure because of the wrongdoing of your associates, fellows, or superiors — you may rest secure in the eternal assurance that such tribulations are transient afflictions. None of these fraternal consequences of misbehavior in the group can ever jeopardize your eternal prospects or in the least degree deprive you of your divine right of Paradise ascension and God attainment.
(619.2) 54:6.5 And there is compensation for these trials, delays, and disappointments which invariably accompany the sin of rebellion. Of the many valuable repercussions of the Lucifer rebellion which might be named, I will only call attention to the enhanced careers of those mortal ascenders, the Jerusem citizens, who, by withstanding the sophistries of sin, placed themselves in line for becoming future Mighty Messengers, fellows of my own order. Every being who stood the test of that evil episode thereby immediately advanced his administrative status and enhanced his spiritual worth.
(619.3) 54:6.6 At first the Lucifer upheaval appeared to be an unmitigated calamity to the system and to the universe. Gradually benefits began to accrue. With the passing of twenty-five thousand years of system time (twenty thousand years of Urantia time), the Melchizedeks began to teach that the good resulting from Lucifer’s folly had come to equal the evil incurred. The sum of evil had by that time become almost stationary, continuing to increase only on certain isolated worlds, while the beneficial repercussions continued to multiply and extend out through the universe and superuniverse, even to Havona. The Melchizedeks now teach that the good resulting from the Satania rebellion is more than a thousand times the sum of all the evil.
(619.4) 54:6.7 But such an extraordinary and beneficent harvest of wrongdoing could only be brought about by the wise, divine, and merciful attitude of all of Lucifer’s superiors, extending from the Constellation Fathers on Edentia to the Universal Father on Paradise. The passing of time has enhanced the consequential good to be derived from the Lucifer folly; and since the evil to be penalized was quite fully developed within a comparatively short time, it is apparent that the all-wise and farseeing universe rulers would be certain to extend the time in which to reap increasingly beneficial results. Regardless of the many additional reasons for delaying the apprehension and adjudication of the Satania rebels, this one gain would have been enough to explain why these sinners were not sooner interned, and why they have not been adjudicated and destroyed.
(619.5) 54:6.8 Shortsighted and time-bound mortal minds should be slow to criticize the time delays of the farseeing and all-wise administrators of universe affairs.
(620.1) 54:6.9 One error of human thinking respecting these problems consists in the idea that all evolutionary mortals on an evolving planet would choose to enter upon the Paradise career if sin had not cursed their world. The ability to decline survival does not date from the times of the Lucifer rebellion. Mortal man has always possessed the endowment of freewill choice regarding the Paradise career.
(620.2) 54:6.10 As you ascend in the survival experience, you will broaden your universe concepts and extend your horizon of meanings and values; and thus will you be able the better to understand why such beings as Lucifer and Satan are permitted to continue in rebellion. You will also better comprehend how ultimate (if not immediate) good can be derived from time-limited evil. After you attain Paradise, you will really be enlightened and comforted when you listen to the superaphic philosophers discuss and explain these profound problems of universe adjustment. But even then, I doubt that you will be fully satisfied in your own minds. At least I was not even when I had thus attained the acme of universe philosophy. I did not achieve a full comprehension of these complexities until after I had been assigned to administrative duties in the superuniverse, where by actual experience I have acquired conceptual capacity adequate for the comprehension of such many-sided problems in cosmic equity and spiritual philosophy. As you ascend Paradiseward, you will increasingly learn that many problematic features of universe administration can only be comprehended subsequent to the acquirement of increased experiential capacity and to the achievement of enhanced spiritual insight. Cosmic wisdom is essential to the understanding of cosmic situations.
(620.3) 54:6.11 [Presented by a Mighty Messenger of experiential survival in the first system rebellion in the universes of time now attached to the superuniverse government of Orvonton and acting in this matter by request of Gabriel of Salvington.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 55
The Spheres of Light and Life
(621.2) 55:0.2 This era of light and life, inaugurated by the Teacher Sons at the conclusion of their final planetary mission, continues indefinitely on the inhabited worlds. Each advancing stage of settled status may be segregated by the judicial actions of the Magisterial Sons into a succession of dispensations; but all such judicial actions are purely technical, in no way modifying the course of planetary events.
(621.3) 55:0.3 Only those planets which attain existence in the main circuits of the superuniverse are assured of continuous survival, but as far as we know, these worlds settled in light and life are destined to go on throughout the eternal ages of all future time.
(621.4) 55:0.4 There are seven stages in the unfoldment of the era of light and life on an evolutionary world, and in this connection it should be noted that the worlds of the Spirit-fused mortals evolve along lines identical with those of the Adjuster-fusion series. These seven stages of light and life are:
(621.5) 55:0.5 1. The first or planetary stage.(621.12) 55:0.12 At the conclusion of this narrative these stages of advancing development are described as they relate to the universe organization, but the planetary values of any stage may be attained by any world quite independent of the development of other worlds or of the superplanetary levels of universe administration.
(621.6) 55:0.6 2. The second or system stage.
(621.7) 55:0.7 3. The third or constellation stage.
(621.8) 55:0.8 4. The fourth or local universe stage.
(621.9) 55:0.9 5. The fifth or minor sector stage.
(621.10) 55:0.10 6. The sixth or major sector stage.
(621.11) 55:0.11 7. The seventh or superuniverse stage.
1. The Morontia Temple
(622.2) 55:1.2 A morontia temple has three parts: Centermost is the sanctuary of the Paradise bestowal Son. On the right is the seat of the former Planetary Prince, now Planetary Sovereign; and when present in the temple, this Lanonandek Son is visible to the more spiritual individuals of the realm. On the left is the seat of the acting chief of finaliters attached to the planet.
(622.3) 55:1.3 Although the planetary temples have been spoken of as “coming down from heaven,” in reality no actual material is transported from the system headquarters. The architecture of each is worked out in miniature on the system capital, and the Morontia Power Supervisors subsequently bring these approved plans to the planet. Here, in association with the Master Physical Controllers, they proceed to build the morontia temple according to specifications.
(622.4) 55:1.4 The average morontia temple seats about three hundred thousand spectators. These edifices are not used for worship, play, or for receiving broadcasts; they are devoted to the special ceremonies of the planet, such as: communications with the System Sovereign or with the Most Highs, special visualization ceremonies designed to reveal the personality presence of spirit beings, and silent cosmic contemplation. The schools of cosmic philosophy here conduct their graduation exercises, and here also do the mortals of the realm receive planetary recognition for achievements of high social service and for other outstanding attainments.
(622.5) 55:1.5 Such a morontia temple also serves as the place of assembly for witnessing the translation of living mortals to the morontia existence. It is because the translation temple is composed of morontia material that it is not destroyed by the blazing glory of the consuming fire which so completely obliterates the physical bodies of those mortals who therein experience final fusion with their divine Adjusters. On a large world these departure flares are almost continuous, and as the number of translations increases, subsidiary morontia life shrines are provided in different areas of the planet. Not long since I sojourned on a world in the far north whereon twenty-five morontia shrines were functioning.
(622.6) 55:1.6 On presettled worlds, planets without morontia temples, these fusion flashes many times occur in the planetary atmosphere, where the material body of a translation candidate is elevated by the midway creatures and the physical controllers.
2. Death and Translation
(623.2) 55:2.2 This experience of translation from the material life to the morontia state — fusion of the immortal soul with the indwelling Adjuster — increases in frequency commensurate with the evolutionary progress of the planet. At first only a few mortals in each age attain translation levels of spiritual progress, but with the onset of the successive ages of the Teacher Sons, more and more Adjuster fusions occur before the termination of the lengthening lives of these progressing mortals; and by the time of the terminal mission of the Teacher Sons, approximately one quarter of these superb mortals are exempt from natural death.
(623.3) 55:2.3 Farther along in the era of light and life the midway creatures or their associates sense the approaching status of probable soul-Adjuster union and signify this to the destiny guardians, who in turn communicate these matters to the finaliter group under whose jurisdiction this mortal may be functioning; then there is issued the summons of the Planetary Sovereign for such a mortal to resign all planetary duties, bid farewell to the world of his origin, and repair to the inner temple of the Planetary Sovereign, there to await morontia transit, the translation flash, from the material domain of evolution to the morontia level of prespirit progression.
(623.4) 55:2.4 When the family, friends, and working group of such a fusion candidate have forgathered in the morontia temple, they are distributed around the central stage whereon the fusion candidates are resting, meantime freely conversing with their assembled friends. A circle of intervening celestial personalities is arranged to protect the material mortals from the action of the energies manifest at the instant of the “life flash” which delivers the ascension candidate from the bonds of material flesh, thereby doing for such an evolutionary mortal everything that natural death does for those who are thereby delivered from the flesh.
(623.5) 55:2.5 Many fusion candidates may be assembled in the spacious temple at the same time. And what a beautiful occasion when mortals thus forgather to witness the ascension of their loved ones in spiritual flames, and what a contrast to those earlier ages when mortals must commit their dead to the embrace of the terrestrial elements! The scenes of weeping and wailing characteristic of earlier epochs of human evolution are now replaced by ecstatic joy and the sublimest enthusiasm as these God-knowing mortals bid their loved ones a transient farewell as they are removed from their material associations by the spiritual fires of consuming grandeur and ascending glory. On worlds settled in light and life, “funerals” are occasions of supreme joy, profound satisfaction, and inexpressible hope.
(623.6) 55:2.6 The souls of these progressing mortals are increasingly filled with faith, hope, and assurance. The spirit permeating those gathered around the translation shrine resembles that of the joyful friends and relatives who might assemble at a graduating exercise for one of their group, or who might come together to witness the conferring of some great honor upon one of their number. And it would be decidedly helpful if less advanced mortals could only learn to view natural death with something of this same cheerfulness and lightheartedness.
(624.1) 55:2.7 Mortal observers can see nothing of their translated associates subsequent to the fusion flash. Such translated souls proceed by Adjuster transit direct to the resurrection hall of the appropriate morontia-training world. These transactions concerned with the translation of living human beings to the morontia world are supervised by an archangel who was assigned to such a world on the day when it was first settled in light and life.
(624.2) 55:2.8 By the time a world attains the fourth stage of light and life, more than half the mortals leave the planet by translation from among the living. Such diminishment of death continues on and on, but I know of no system whose inhabited worlds, even though long settled in life, are entirely free from natural death as the technique of escape from the bonds of flesh. And until such a high state of planetary evolution is uniformly attained, the morontia-training worlds of the local universe must continue in service as educational and cultural spheres for the evolving morontia progressors. The elimination of death is theoretically possible, but it has not yet occurred according to my observation. Perhaps such a status may be attained during the faraway stretches of the succeeding epochs of the seventh stage of settled planetary life.
(624.3) 55:2.9 The translated souls of the flowering ages of the settled spheres do not pass through the mansion worlds. Neither do they sojourn, as students, on the morontia worlds of the system or constellation. They do not pass through any of the earlier phases of morontia life. They are the only ascending mortals who so nearly escape the morontia transition from material existence to semispirit status. The initial experience of such Son-seized mortals in the ascension career is in the services of the progression worlds of the universe headquarters. And from these study worlds of Salvington they go back as teachers to the very worlds they passed by, subsequently going on inward to Paradise by the established route of mortal ascension.
(624.4) 55:2.10 Could you but visit a planet in an advanced stage of development, you would quickly grasp the reasons for providing for the differential reception of ascending mortals on the mansion and higher morontia worlds. You would readily understand that beings passing on from such highly evolved spheres are prepared to resume their Paradise ascent far in advance of the average mortal arriving from a disordered and backward world like Urantia.
(624.5) 55:2.11 No matter from what level of planetary attainment human beings may ascend to the morontia worlds, the seven mansion spheres afford them ample opportunity to gain in experience as teacher-students all of everything which they failed to pass through because of the advanced status of their native planets.
(624.6) 55:2.12 The universe is unfailing in the application of these equalizing techniques designed to insure that no ascender shall be deprived of aught which is essential to his ascension experience.
3. The Golden Ages
(625.1) 55:3.2 Human government in the conduct of material affairs continues to function throughout this age of relative progress and perfection. The public activities of a world in the first stage of light and life which I recently visited were financed by the tithing technique. Every adult worker — and all able-bodied citizens worked at something — paid ten per cent of his income or increase to the public treasury, and it was disbursed as follows:
(625.2) 55:3.3 1. Three per cent was expended in the promotion of truth — science, education, and philosophy.(625.6) 55:3.7 The natural resources of this planet were administered as social possessions, community property.
(625.3) 55:3.4 2. Three per cent was devoted to beauty — play, social leisure, and art.
(625.4) 55:3.5 3. Three per cent was dedicated to goodness — social service, altruism, and religion.
(625.5) 55:3.6 4. One per cent was assigned to the insurance reserves against the risk of incapacity for labor resultant from accident, disease, old age, or unpreventable disasters.
(625.7) 55:3.8 On this world the highest honor conferred upon a citizen was the order of “supreme service,” being the only degree of recognition ever to be granted in the morontia temple. This recognition was bestowed upon those who had long distinguished themselves in some phase of supermaterial discovery or planetary social service.
(625.8) 55:3.9 The majority of social and administrative posts were held jointly by men and women. Most of the teaching was also done jointly; likewise all judicial trusts were discharged by similar associated couples.
(625.9) 55:3.10 On these superb worlds the childbearing period is not greatly prolonged. It is not best for too many years to intervene between the ages of a family of children. When close together in age, children are able to contribute much more to their mutual training. And on these worlds they are magnificently trained by the competitive systems of keen striving in the advanced domains and divisions of diverse achievement in the mastery of truth, beauty, and goodness. Never fear but that even such glorified spheres present plenty of evil, real and potential, which is stimulative of the choosing between truth and error, good and evil, sin and righteousness.
(625.10) 55:3.11 Nevertheless, there is a certain, inevitable penalty attaching to mortal existence on such advanced evolutionary planets. When a settled world progresses beyond the third stage of light and life, all ascenders are destined, before attaining the minor sector, to receive some sort of transient assignment on a planet passing through the earlier stages of evolution.
(626.1) 55:3.12 Each of these successive ages represents advancing achievements in all phases of planetary attainment. In the initial age of light the revelation of truth was enlarged to embrace the workings of the universe of universes, while the Deity study of the second age is the attempt to master the protean concept of the nature, mission, ministry, associations, origin, and destiny of the Creator Sons, the first level of God the Sevenfold.
(626.2) 55:3.13 A planet the size of Urantia, when fairly well settled, would have about one hundred subadministrative centers. These subordinate centers would be presided over by one of the following groups of qualified administrators:
(626.3) 55:3.14 1. Young Material Sons and Daughters brought from the system headquarters to act as assistants to the ruling Adam and Eve.(626.10) 55:3.21 The great handicap confronting Urantia in the matter of attaining the high planetary destiny of light and life is embraced in the problems of disease, degeneracy, war, multicolored races, and multilingualism.
(626.4) 55:3.15 2. The progeny of the semimortal staff of the Planetary Prince who were procreated on certain worlds for this and other similar responsibilities.
(626.5) 55:3.16 3. The direct planetary progeny of Adam and Eve.
(626.6) 55:3.17 4. Materialized and humanized midway creatures.
(626.7) 55:3.18 5. Mortals of Adjuster-fusion status who, upon their own petition, are temporarily exempted from translation by the order of the Personalized Adjuster of universe chieftainship in order that they may continue on the planet in certain important administrative posts.
(626.8) 55:3.19 6. Specially trained mortals of the planetary schools of administration who have also received the order of supreme service of the morontia temple.
(626.9) 55:3.20 7. Certain elective commissions of three properly qualified citizens who are sometimes chosen by the citizenry by direction of the Planetary Sovereign in accordance with their special ability to accomplish some definite task which is needful in that particular planetary sector.
(626.11) 55:3.22 No evolutionary world can hope to progress beyond the first stage of settledness in light until it has achieved one language, one religion, and one philosophy. Being of one race greatly facilitates such achievement, but the many peoples of Urantia do not preclude the attainment of higher stages.
4. Administrative Readjustments
(626.13) 55:4.2 Upon the formal inauguration of the planetary ministry of the Corps of the Finality, the majority of the celestial hosts withdraw. But the seraphic guardians of destiny continue their personal ministry to the progressing mortals in light; indeed such angels come in ever-increasing numbers throughout the settled ages since larger and larger groups of human beings reach the third cosmic circle of co-ordinate mortal attainment during the planetary life span.
(627.1) 55:4.3 This is merely the first of the successive administrative adjustments which attend the unfolding of the successive ages of increasingly brilliant attainment on the inhabited worlds as they pass from the first to the seventh stage of settled existence.
(627.2) 55:4.4 1. The first stage of light and life. A world in this initial settled stage is being administered by three rulers:
(627.3) 55:4.5 a. The Planetary Sovereign, presently to be advised by a counseling Trinity Teacher Son, in all probability the chief of the terminal corps of such Sons to function on the planet.(627.6) 55:4.8 Acting as interpreters for the seraphic guardians and the finaliters are the exalted and liberated midway creatures. One of the last acts of the Trinity Teacher Sons on their terminal mission is to liberate the midwayers of the realm and to promote (or restore) them to advanced planetary status, assigning them to responsible places in the new administration of the settled sphere. Such changes have already been made in the range of human vision as enable mortals to recognize these heretofore invisible cousins of the early Adamic regime. This is made possible by the final discoveries of physical science in liaison with the enlarged planetary functions of the Master Physical Controllers.
(627.4) 55:4.6 b. The chief of the planetary corps of finaliters.
(627.5) 55:4.7 c. Adam and Eve, who function jointly as the unifiers of the dual leadership of the Prince-Sovereign and the chief of finaliters.
(627.7) 55:4.9 The System Sovereign has authority to release midway creatures any time after the first settled stage so that they may humanize in the morontia by the aid of the Life Carriers and the physical controllers and, after receiving Thought Adjusters, start out on their Paradise ascension.
(627.8) 55:4.10 In the third and subsequent stages, some of the midwayers are still functioning, chiefly as contact personalities for the finaliters, but as each stage of light and life is entered, new orders of liaison ministers largely replace the midwayers; very few of them ever remain beyond the fourth stage of light. The seventh stage will witness the coming of the first absonite ministers from Paradise to serve in the places of certain universe creatures.
(627.9) 55:4.11 2. The second stage of light and life. This epoch is signalized on the worlds by the arrival of a Life Carrier who becomes the volunteer adviser of the planetary rulers regarding the further efforts to purify and stabilize the mortal race. Thus do the Life Carriers actively participate in the further evolution of the human race — physically, socially, and economically. And then they extend their supervision to the further purification of the mortal stock by the drastic elimination of the retarded and persisting remnants of inferior potential of an intellectual, philosophic, cosmic, and spiritual nature. Those who design and plant life on an inhabited world are fully competent to advise the Material Sons and Daughters, who have full and unquestioned authority to purge the evolving race of all detrimental influences.
(627.10) 55:4.12 From the second stage on throughout the career of a settled planet the Teacher Sons serve as counselors to the finaliters. During such missions they serve as volunteers and not by assignment; and they serve exclusively with the finaliter corps except that, upon the consent of the System Sovereign, they may be had as advisers to the Planetary Adam and Eve.
(628.1) 55:4.13 3. The third stage of light and life. During this epoch the inhabited worlds arrive at a new appreciation of the Ancients of Days, the second phase of God the Sevenfold, and the representatives of these superuniverse rulers enter into new relationships with the planetary administration.
(628.2) 55:4.14 In each succeeding age of settled existence the finaliters function in ever-increasing capacities. There exists a close working connection between the finaliters, the Evening Stars (the superangels), and the Trinity Teacher Sons.
(628.3) 55:4.15 During this or the following age a Teacher Son, assisted by the ministering-spirit quartette, becomes attached to the elective mortal chief executive, who now becomes associated with the Planetary Sovereign as joint administrator of world affairs. These mortal chief executives serve for twenty-five years of planetary time, and it is this new development that makes it easy for the Planetary Adam and Eve to secure release from their world of long-time assignment during the following ages.
(628.4) 55:4.16 The ministering-spirit quartettes consist of: the seraphic chief of the sphere, the superuniverse secoraphic counselor, the archangel of translations, and the omniaphim who functions as the personal representative of the Assigned Sentinel stationed on the system headquarters. But these advisers never proffer counsel unless it is asked for.
(628.5) 55:4.17 4. The fourth stage of light and life. On the worlds the Trinity Teacher Sons appear in new roles. Assisted by the creature-trinitized sons so long associated with their order, they now come to the worlds as volunteer counselors and advisers to the Planetary Sovereign and his associates. Such couples — Paradise-Havona-trinitized sons and ascender-trinitized sons — represent differing universe viewpoints and diverse personal experiences which are highly serviceable to the planetary rulers.
(628.6) 55:4.18 At any time after this age the Planetary Adam and Eve can petition the Sovereign Creator Son for release from planetary duties in order to begin their Paradise ascent; or they can remain on the planet as directors of the newly appearing order of increasingly spiritual society composed of advanced mortals striving to comprehend the philosophic teachings of the finaliters portrayed by the Brilliant Evening Stars, who are now assigned to these worlds to collaborate in pairs with the seconaphim from the headquarters of the superuniverse.
(628.7) 55:4.19 The finaliters are chiefly engaged in initiating the new and supermaterial activities of society — social, cultural, philosophic, cosmic, and spiritual. As far as we can discern, they will continue this ministry far into the seventh epoch of evolutionary stability, when, possibly, they may go forth to minister in outer space; whereupon we conjecture their places may be taken by absonite beings from Paradise.
(628.8) 55:4.20 5. The fifth stage of light and life. The readjustments of this stage of settled existence pertain almost entirely to the physical domains and are of primary concern to the Master Physical Controllers.
(628.9) 55:4.21 6. The sixth stage of light and life witnesses the development of new functions of the mind circuits of the realm. Cosmic wisdom seems to become constitutive in the universe ministry of mind.
(628.10) 55:4.22 7. The seventh stage of light and life. Early in the seventh epoch the Trinity Teacher counselor of the Planetary Sovereign is joined by a volunteer adviser sent by the Ancients of Days, and later on they will be augmented by a third counselor coming from the superuniverse Supreme Executive.
(629.1) 55:4.23 During this epoch, if not before, Adam and Eve are always relieved of planetary duties. If there is a Material Son in the finaliter corps, he may become associated with the mortal chief executive, and sometimes it is a Melchizedek who volunteers to function in this capacity. If a midwayer is among the finaliters, all of that order remaining on the planet are immediately released.
(629.2) 55:4.24 Upon obtaining release from their agelong assignment, a Planetary Adam and Eve may select careers as follows:
(629.3) 55:4.25 1. They can secure planetary release and from the universe headquarters start out immediately on the Paradise career, receiving Thought Adjusters at the conclusion of the morontia experience.(629.8) 55:4.30 Throughout all of these epochs the imported assisting Material Sons and Daughters exert a tremendous influence on the progressing social and economic orders. They are potentially immortal, at least until such time as they elect to humanize, receive Adjusters, and start for Paradise.
(629.4) 55:4.26 2. Very often a Planetary Adam and Eve will receive Adjusters while yet serving on a world settled in light concomitant with the receiving of Adjusters by some of their imported pure-line children who have volunteered for a term of planetary service. Subsequently they may all go to universe headquarters and there begin the Paradise career.
(629.5) 55:4.27 3. A Planetary Adam and Eve may elect — as do Material Sons and Daughters from the system capital — to go direct to the midsonite world for a brief sojourn, there to receive their Adjusters.
(629.6) 55:4.28 4. They may decide to return to the system headquarters, there for a time to occupy seats on the supreme court, after which service they will receive Adjusters and begin the Paradise ascent.
(629.7) 55:4.29 5. They may choose to go from their administrative duties back to their native world to serve as teachers for a season and to become Adjuster indwelt at the time of transfer to the universe headquarters.
(629.9) 55:4.31 On the evolutionary worlds a being must humanize to receive a Thought Adjuster. All ascendant members of the Mortal Corps of Finaliters have been Adjuster indwelt and fused except seraphim, and they are Father indwelt by another type of spirit at the time of being mustered into this corps.
5. The Acme of Material Development
(629.11) 55:5.2 The advanced stages of a world settled in light and life represent the acme of evolutionary material development. On these cultured worlds, gone are the idleness and friction of the earlier primitive ages. Poverty and social inequality have all but vanished, degeneracy has disappeared, and delinquency is rarely observed. Insanity has practically ceased to exist, and feeble-mindedness is a rarity.
(629.12) 55:5.3 The economic, social, and administrative status of these worlds is of a high and perfected order. Science, art, and industry flourish, and society is a smoothly working mechanism of high material, intellectual, and cultural achievement. Industry has been largely diverted to serving the higher aims of such a superb civilization. The economic life of such a world has become ethical.
(630.1) 55:5.4 War has become a matter of history, and there are no more armies or police forces. Government is gradually disappearing. Self-control is slowly rendering laws of human enactment obsolete. The extent of civil government and statutory regulation, in an intermediate state of advancing civilization, is in inverse proportion to the morality and spirituality of the citizenship.
(630.2) 55:5.5 Schools are vastly improved and are devoted to the training of mind and the expansion of soul. The art centers are exquisite and the musical organizations superb. The temples of worship with their associated schools of philosophy and experiential religion are creations of beauty and grandeur. The open-air arenas of worship assembly are equally sublime in the simplicity of their artistic appointment.
(630.3) 55:5.6 The provisions for competitive play, humor, and other phases of personal and group achievement are ample and appropriate. A special feature of the competitive activities on such a highly cultured world concerns the efforts of individuals and groups to excel in the sciences and philosophies of cosmology. Literature and oratory flourish, and language is so improved as to be symbolic of concepts as well as to be expressive of ideas. Life is refreshingly simple; man has at last co-ordinated a high state of mechanical development with an inspiring intellectual attainment and has overshadowed both with an exquisite spiritual achievement. The pursuit of happiness is an experience of joy and satisfaction.
6. The Individual Mortal
(630.5) 55:6.2 On Urantia, and as you are, you can have little appreciation of the advanced status and progressive nature of the enlightened races of these perfected worlds. These people are the flowering of the evolutionary races. But such beings are still mortal; they continue to breathe, eat, sleep, and drink. This great evolution is not heaven, but it is a sublime foreshadowing of the divine worlds of the Paradise ascent.
(630.6) 55:6.3 On a normal world the biologic fitness of the mortal race was long since brought up to a high level during the post-Adamic epochs; and now, from age to age throughout the settled eras the physical evolution of man continues. Both vision and hearing are extended. By now the population has become stationary in numbers. Reproduction is regulated in accordance with planetary requirements and innate hereditary endowments: The mortals on a planet during this age are divided into from five to ten groups, and the lower groups are permitted to produce only one half as many children as the higher. The continued improvement of such a magnificent race throughout the era of light and life is largely a matter of the selective reproduction of those racial strains which exhibit superior qualities of a social, philosophic, cosmic, and spiritual nature.
(630.7) 55:6.4 The Adjusters continue to come as in former evolutionary eras, and as the epochs pass, these mortals are increasingly able to commune with the indwelling Father fragment. During the embryonic and prespiritual stages of development the adjutant mind-spirits are still functioning. The Holy Spirit and the ministry of angels are even more effective as the successive epochs of settled life are experienced. In the fourth stage of light and life the advanced mortals seem to experience considerable conscious contact with the spirit presence of the Master Spirit of superuniverse jurisdiction, while the philosophy of such a world is focused upon the attempt to comprehend the new revelations of God the Supreme. More than one half of the human inhabitants on planets of this advanced status experience translation to the morontia state from among the living. Even so, “old things are passing away; behold, all things are becoming new.”
(631.1) 55:6.5 We conceive that physical evolution will have attained its full development by the end of the fifth epoch of the light-and-life era. We observe that the upper limits of spiritual development associated with evolving human mind are determined by the Adjuster-fusion level of conjoint morontia values and cosmic meanings. But concerning wisdom: While we do not really know, we conjecture that there can never be a limit to intellectual evolution and the attainment of wisdom. On a seventh-stage world, wisdom can exhaust the material potentials, enter upon mota insight, and eventually even taste of absonite grandeur.
(631.2) 55:6.6 We observe that on these highly evolved and long seventh-stage worlds human beings fully learn the local universe language before they are translated; and I have visited a few very old planets where abandonters were teaching the older mortals the tongue of the superuniverse. And on these worlds I have observed the technique whereby the absonite personalities reveal the presence of the finaliters in the morontia temple.
(631.3) 55:6.7 This is the story of the magnificent goal of mortal striving on the evolutionary worlds; and it all takes place even before human beings enter upon their morontia careers; all of this splendid development is attainable by material mortals on the inhabited worlds, the very first stage of that endless and incomprehensible career of Paradise ascension and divinity attainment.
(631.4) 55:6.8 But can you possibly imagine what sort of evolutionary mortals are now coming up from worlds long existing in the seventh epoch of settled light and life? It is such as these who go on to the morontia worlds of the local universe capital to begin their ascension careers.
(631.5) 55:6.9 If the mortals of distraught Urantia could only view one of these more advanced worlds long settled in light and life, they would nevermore question the wisdom of the evolutionary scheme of creation. Were there no future of eternal creature progression, still the superb evolutionary attainments of the mortal races on such settled worlds of perfected achievement would amply justify man’s creation on the worlds of time and space.
(631.6) 55:6.10 We often ponder: If the grand universe should be settled in light and life, would the ascending exquisite mortals still be destined to the Corps of the Finality? But we do not know.
7. The First or Planetary Stage
(632.1) 55:7.2 To outward and visible appearances the actual rulers, or directors, of such a world settled in light and life are the Material Son and Daughter, the Planetary Adam and Eve. The finaliters are invisible, as also is the Prince-Sovereign except when in the morontia temple. The actual and literal heads of the planetary regime are therefore the Material Son and Daughter. It is the knowledge of these arrangements that has given prestige to the idea of kings and queens throughout the universe realms. And kings and queens are a great success under these ideal circumstances, when a world can command such high personalities to act in behalf of still higher but invisible rulers.
(632.2) 55:7.3 When such an era is attained on your world, no doubt Machiventa Melchizedek, now the vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia, will occupy the seat of the Planetary Sovereign; and it has long been conjectured on Jerusem that he will be accompanied by a son and daughter of the Urantia Adam and Eve who are now held on Edentia as wards of the Most Highs of Norlatiadek. These children of Adam might so serve on Urantia in association with the Melchizedek-Sovereign since they were deprived of procreative powers almost 37,000 years ago at the time they gave up their material bodies on Urantia in preparation for transit to Edentia.
(632.3) 55:7.4 This settled age continues on and on until every inhabited planet in the system attains the era of stabilization; and then, when the youngest world — the last to achieve light and life — has experienced such settledness for one millennium of system time, the entire system enters the stabilized status, and the individual worlds are ushered into the system epoch of the era of light and life.
8. The Second or System Stage
(632.5) 55:8.2 With the settling of the system the Assigned Sentinel, representative of the superuniverse Supreme Executive, becomes the volunteer adviser to the system supreme court and actual presiding officer of the new legislative assembly.
(632.6) 55:8.3 After the settling of an entire system in light and life the System Sovereigns will no more come and go. Such a sovereign remains perpetually at the head of his system. The assistant sovereigns continue to change as in former ages.
(632.7) 55:8.4 During this epoch of stabilization, for the first time midsoniters come from the universe headquarters worlds of their sojourn to act as counselors to the legislative assemblies and advisers to the adjudicational tribunals. These midsoniters also carry on certain efforts to inculcate new mota meanings of supreme value into the teaching enterprises which they sponsor jointly with the finaliters. What the Material Sons did for the mortal races biologically, the midsonite creatures now do for these unified and glorified humans in the ever-advancing realms of philosophy and spiritualized thinking.
(633.1) 55:8.5 On the inhabited worlds the Teacher Sons become voluntary collaborators with the finaliters, and these same Teacher Sons also accompany the finaliters to the mansion worlds when those spheres are no longer to be utilized as differential receiving worlds after an entire system is settled in light and life; at least this is true by the time the entire constellation has thus evolved. But there are no groups that far advanced in Nebadon.
(633.2) 55:8.6 We are not permitted to reveal the nature of the work of the finaliters who will supervise such rededicated mansion worlds. You have, however, been informed that there are throughout the universes various types of intelligent creatures who have not been portrayed in these narratives.
(633.3) 55:8.7 And now, as the systems one by one become settled in light by virtue of the progress of their component worlds, the time comes when the last system in a given constellation attains stabilization, and the universe administrators — the Master Son, the Union of Days, and the Bright and Morning Star — arrive on the capital of the constellation to proclaim the Most Highs the unqualified rulers of the newly perfected family of one hundred settled systems of inhabited worlds.
9. The Third or Constellation Stage
(633.5) 55:9.2 When a constellation is thus settled in light, the legislative function ceases, and the house of System Sovereigns, presided over by the Most Highs, functions instead. Now, for the first time, such administrative groups deal directly with the superuniverse government in matters pertaining to Havona and Paradise relationships. Otherwise the constellation remains related to the local universe as before. From stage to stage in the settled life the univitatia continue to administer the constellation morontia worlds.
(633.6) 55:9.3 As the ages pass, the Constellation Fathers take over more and more of the detailed administrative or supervising functions which were formerly centered on the universe headquarters. By the attainment of the sixth stage of stabilization these unified constellations will have reached the position of well-nigh complete autonomy. Entrance upon the seventh stage of settledness will no doubt witness the exaltation of these rulers to the true dignity signified by their names, the Most Highs. To all intents and purposes the constellations will then deal directly with the superuniverse rulers, while the local universe government will expand to grasp the responsibilities of new grand universe obligations.
10. The Fourth or Local Universe Stage
(634.2) 55:10.2 The universe administration, as far as concerns Gabriel and the Father Melchizedek, is quite unchanged. This council of unlimited authority is chiefly concerned with the new problems and the new conditions arising out of the advanced status of light and life.
(634.3) 55:10.3 The Associate Inspector now mobilizes all Assigned Sentinels to constitute the stabilization corps of the local universe and asks the Father Melchizedek to share its supervision with him. And now, for the first time, a corps of the Inspired Trinity Spirits are assigned to the service of the Union of Days.
(634.4) 55:10.4 The settling of an entire local universe in light and life inaugurates profound readjustments in the entire scheme of administration, from the individual inhabited worlds to the universe headquarters. New relationships extend down to the constellations and systems. The local universe Mother Spirit experiences new liaison relations with the Master Spirit of the superuniverse, and Gabriel establishes direct contact with the Ancients of Days to be effective when and as the Master Son may be absent from the headquarters world.
(634.5) 55:10.5 During this and subsequent ages the Magisterial Sons continue to function as dispensational adjudicators, while one hundred of these Avonal Sons of Paradise constitute the new high council of the Bright and Morning Star on the universe capital. Later on, and as requested by the System Sovereigns, one of these Magisterial Sons will become the supreme counselor stationed on the headquarters world of each local system until the seventh stage of unity is attained.
(634.6) 55:10.6 During this epoch the Trinity Teacher Sons are volunteer advisers, not only to the Planetary Sovereigns, but in groups of three they similarly serve the Constellation Fathers. And at last these Sons find their place in the local universe, for at this time they are removed from the jurisdiction of the local creation and are assigned to the service of the supreme council of unlimited authority.
(634.7) 55:10.7 The finaliter corps now, for the first time, acknowledges the jurisdiction of an extra-Paradise authority, the supreme council. Heretofore the finaliters have recognized no supervision this side of Paradise.
(634.8) 55:10.8 The Creator Sons of such settled universes spend much of their time on Paradise and its associated worlds and in counseling the numerous finaliter groups serving throughout the local creation. In this way the man of Michael will find a fuller fraternity of association with the glorified finaliter mortals.
(634.9) 55:10.9 Speculation concerning the function of these Creator Sons in connection with the outer universes now in process of preliminary assembly is wholly futile. But we all engage in such postulations from time to time. On attaining this fourth stage of development the Creator Son becomes administratively free; the Divine Minister is progressively blending her ministry with that of the superuniverse Master Spirit and the Infinite Spirit. There seems to be evolving a new and sublime relationship between the Creator Son, the Creative Spirit, the Evening Stars, the Teacher Sons, and the ever-increasing finaliter corps.
(635.1) 55:10.10 If Michael should ever leave Nebadon, Gabriel would undoubtedly become chief administrator with the Father Melchizedek as his associate. At the same time new status would be imparted to all orders of permanent citizenship, such as Material Sons, univitatia, midsoniters, susatia, and Spirit-fused mortals. But as long as evolution continues, the seraphim and the archangels will be required in universe administration.
(635.2) 55:10.11 We are, however, satisfied regarding two features of our speculations: If the Creator Sons are destined to the outer universes, the Divine Ministers will undoubtedly accompany them. We are equally sure that the Melchizedeks are to remain with the universes of their origin. We hold that the Melchizedeks are destined to play ever-increasingly responsible parts in local universe government and administration.
11. The Minor and Major Sector Stages
(635.4) 55:11.2 The minor sector age. As far as observations can penetrate, the fifth or minor sector stage of stabilization has exclusively to do with physical status and with the co-ordinate settling of the one hundred associated local universes in the established circuits of the superuniverse. Apparently none but the power centers and their associates are concerned in these realignments of the material creation.
(635.5) 55:11.3 The major sector age. Concerning the sixth stage, or major sector stabilization, we can only conjecture since none of us have witnessed such an event. Nevertheless, we can postulate much concerning the administrative and other readjustments which would probably accompany such an advanced status of inhabited worlds and their universe groupings.
(635.6) 55:11.4 Since the minor sector status has to do with co-ordinate physical equilibrium, we infer that major sector unification will be concerned with certain new intellectual levels of attainment, possibly some advanced achievements in the supreme realization of cosmic wisdom.
(635.7) 55:11.5 We arrive at conclusions regarding the readjustments which would probably attend the realization of hitherto unattained levels of evolutionary progress by observing the results of such achievements on the individual worlds and in the experiences of individual mortals living on these older and highly developed spheres.
(635.8) 55:11.6 Let it be made clear that the administrative mechanisms and governmental techniques of a universe or a superuniverse cannot in any manner limit or retard the evolutionary development or spiritual progress of an individual inhabited planet or of any individual mortal on such a sphere.
(635.9) 55:11.7 In some of the older universes we find worlds settled in the fifth and the sixth stages of light and life — even far extended into the seventh epoch — whose local systems are not yet settled in light. Younger planets may delay system unification, but this does not in the least handicap the progress of an older and advanced world. Neither can environmental limitations, even on an isolated world, thwart the personal attainment of the individual mortal; Jesus of Nazareth, as a man among men, personally achieved the status of light and life over nineteen hundred years ago on Urantia.
(636.1) 55:11.8 It is by observing what takes place on long-settled worlds that we arrive at fairly reliable conclusions as to what will happen when a whole superuniverse is settled in light, even if we cannot safely postulate the event of the stabilization of the seven superuniverses.
12. The Seventh or Superuniverse Stage
(636.3) 55:12.2 It is generally believed that large numbers of the otherwise unattached creature-trinitized sons are to be assembled on the headquarters and divisional capitals of the settled superuniverses. This may be in anticipation of the sometime arrival of outer-spacers on their way in to Havona and Paradise; but we really do not know.
(636.4) 55:12.3 If and when a superuniverse should be settled in light and life, we believe that the now advisory Unqualified Supervisors of the Supreme would become the high administrative body on the headquarters world of the superuniverse. These are the personalities who are able to contact directly with the absonite administrators, who will forthwith become active in the settled superuniverse. Although these Unqualified Supervisors have long functioned as advisers and counselors in advanced evolutionary units of creation, they do not assume administrative responsibilities until the authority of the Supreme Being becomes sovereign.
(636.5) 55:12.4 The Unqualified Supervisors of the Supreme, who function more extensively during this epoch, are not finite, absonite, ultimate, or infinite; they are supremacy and only represent God the Supreme. They are the personalization of time-space supremacy and therefore do not function in Havona. They function only as supreme unifiers. They may possibly be involved in the technique of universe reflectivity, but we are not certain.
(636.6) 55:12.5 None of us entertain a satisfactory concept of what will happen when the grand universe (the seven superuniverses as dependent on Havona) becomes entirely settled in light and life. That event will undoubtedly be the most profound occurrence in the annals of eternity since the appearance of the central universe. There are those who hold that the Supreme Being himself will emerge from the Havona mystery enshrouding his spirit person and will become residential on the headquarters of the seventh superuniverse as the almighty and experiential sovereign of the perfected creations of time and space. But we really do not know.
(636.7) 55:12.6 [Presented by a Mighty Messenger temporarily assigned to the Archangel Council on Urantia.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 56
Universal Unity
(637.2) 56:0.2 The diverse levels of creation are all unified in the plans and administration of the Architects of the Master Universe. To the circumscribed minds of time-space mortals the universe may present many problems and situations which apparently portray disharmony and indicate absence of effective co-ordination; but those of us who are able to observe wider stretches of universal phenomena, and who are more experienced in this art of detecting the basic unity which underlies creative diversity and of discovering the divine oneness which overspreads all this functioning of plurality, better perceive the divine and single purpose exhibited in all these manifold manifestations of universal creative energy.
1. Physical Co-ordination
(637.4) 56:1.2 The Unqualified Absolute upholds the physical universe, while the Deity Absolute motivates the exquisite overcontrol of all material reality; and both Absolutes are functionally unified by the Universal Absolute. This cohesive correlation of the material universe is best understood by all personalities — material, morontia, absonite, or spiritual — by the observation of the gravity response of all bona fide material reality to the gravity centering on nether Paradise.
(638.1) 56:1.3 Gravity unification is universal and unvarying; pure-energy response is likewise universal and inescapable. Pure energy (primordial force) and pure spirit are wholly preresponsive to gravity. These primal forces, inhering in the Absolutes, are personally controlled by the Universal Father; hence does all gravity center in the personal presence of the Paradise Father of pure energy and pure spirit and in his supermaterial abode.
(638.2) 56:1.4 Pure energy is the ancestor of all relative, nonspirit functional realities, while pure spirit is the potential of the divine and directive overcontrol of all basic energy systems. And these realities, so diverse as manifested throughout space and as observed in the motions of time, are both centered in the person of the Paradise Father. In him they are one — must be unified — because God is one. The Father’s personality is absolutely unified.
(638.3) 56:1.5 In the infinite nature of God the Father there could not possibly exist duality of reality, such as physical and spiritual; but the instant we look aside from the infinite levels and absolute reality of the personal values of the Paradise Father, we observe the existence of these two realities and recognize that they are fully responsive to his personal presence; in him all things consist.
(638.4) 56:1.6 The moment you depart from the unqualified concept of the infinite personality of the Paradise Father, you must postulate MIND as the inevitable technique of unifying the ever-widening divergence of these dual universe manifestations of the original monothetic Creator personality, the First Source and Center — the I AM.
2. Intellectual Unity
(638.6) 56:2.2 Mind is the functional endowment of the Infinite Spirit, therefore infinite in potential and universal in bestowal. The primal thought of the Universal Father eternalizes in dual expression: the Isle of Paradise and his Deity equal, the spiritual and Eternal Son. Such duality of eternal reality renders the mind God, the Infinite Spirit, inevitable. Mind is the indispensable channel of communication between spiritual and material realities. The material evolutionary creature can conceive and comprehend the indwelling spirit only by the ministry of mind.
(638.7) 56:2.3 This infinite and universal mind is ministered in the universes of time and space as the cosmic mind; and though extending from the primitive ministry of the adjutant spirits up to the magnificent mind of the chief executive of a universe, even this cosmic mind is adequately unified in the supervision of the Seven Master Spirits, who are in turn co-ordinated with the Supreme Mind of time and space and perfectly correlated with the all-embracing mind of the Infinite Spirit.
3. Spiritual Unification
(639.2) 56:3.2 Paradise spirit realities are likewise one, but in all time-space situations and relations this single spirit is revealed in the dual phenomena of the spirit personalities and emanations of the Eternal Son and the spirit personalities and influences of the Infinite Spirit and associated creations; and there is yet a third — pure-spirit fragmentations — the Father’s bestowal of the Thought Adjusters and other spirit entities which are prepersonal.
(639.3) 56:3.3 No matter on what level of universe activities you may encounter spiritual phenomena or contact with spirit beings, you may know that they are all derived from the God who is spirit by the ministry of the Spirit Son and the Infinite Mind Spirit. And this far-flung spirit functions as a phenomenon on the evolutionary worlds of time as it is directed from the headquarters of the local universes. From these capitals of the Creator Sons come the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth, together with the ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits, to the lower and evolving levels of material minds.
(639.4) 56:3.4 While mind is more unified on the level of the Master Spirits in association with the Supreme Being and as the cosmic mind in subordination to the Absolute Mind, the spirit ministry to the evolving worlds is more directly unified in the personalities resident on the headquarters of the local universes and in the persons of the presiding Divine Ministers, who are in turn well-nigh perfectly correlated with the Paradise gravity circuit of the Eternal Son, wherein occurs final unification of all time-space spirit manifestations.
(639.5) 56:3.5 Perfected creature existence can be attained, sustained, and eternalized by the fusion of self-conscious mind with a fragment of the pre-Trinity spirit endowment of some one of the persons of the Paradise Trinity. The mortal mind is the creation of the Sons and Daughters of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit and, when fused with the Thought Adjuster from the Father, partakes of the threefold spirit endowment of the evolutionary realms. But these three spirit expressions become perfectly unified in the finaliters, even as they were in eternity so unified in the Universal I AM ere he ever became the Universal Father of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit.
(639.6) 56:3.6 Spirit must always and ultimately become threefold in expression and Trinity-unified in final realization. Spirit originates from one source through a threefold expression; and in finality it must and does attain its full realization in that divine unification which is experienced in finding God — oneness with divinity — in eternity, and by means of the ministry of the cosmic mind of the infinite expression of the eternal word of the Father’s universal thought.
4. Personality Unification
(640.1) 56:4.2 Personality inherently reaches out to unify all constituent realities. The infinite personality of the First Source and Center, the Universal Father, unifies all seven constituent Absolutes of Infinity; and the personality of mortal man, being an exclusive and direct bestowal of the Universal Father, likewise possesses the potential of unifying the constituent factors of the mortal creature. Such unifying creativity of all creature personality is a birthmark of its high and exclusive source and is further evidential of its unbroken contact with this same source through the personality circuit, by means of which the personality of the creature maintains direct and sustaining contact with the Father of all personality on Paradise.
(640.2) 56:4.3 Notwithstanding that God is manifest from the domains of the Sevenfold up through supremacy and ultimacy to God the Absolute, the personality circuit, centering on Paradise and in the person of God the Father, provides for the complete and perfect unification of all these diverse expressions of divine personality so far as concerns all creature personalities on all levels of intelligent existence and in all the realms of the perfect, perfected, and perfecting universes.
(640.3) 56:4.4 While God is to and in the universes all that we have portrayed, nevertheless, to you and to all other God-knowing creatures he is one, your Father and their Father. To personality God cannot be plural. God is Father to each of his creatures, and it is literally impossible for any child to have more than one father.
(640.4) 56:4.5 Philosophically, cosmically, and with reference to differential levels and locations of manifestation, you may and perforce must conceive of the functioning of plural Deities and postulate the existence of plural Trinities; but in the worshipful experience of the personal contact of every worshiping personality throughout the master universe, God is one; and that unified and personal Deity is our Paradise parent, God the Father, the bestower, conservator, and Father of all personalities from mortal man on the inhabited worlds to the Eternal Son on the central Isle of Light.
5. Deity Unity
(640.6) 56:5.2 From the original Paradise-Havona level of existential reality, two subabsolute levels have differentiated, and thereon have the Father, Son, and Spirit engaged in the creation of numerous personal associates and subordinates. And while it is inappropriate in this connection to undertake the consideration of absonite deity unification on transcendental levels of ultimacy, it is feasible to look at some features of the unifying function of the various Deity personalizations in whom divinity is functionally manifest to the diverse sectors of creation and to the different orders of intelligent beings.
(640.7) 56:5.3 The present functioning of divinity in the superuniverses is actively manifest in the operations of the Supreme Creators — the local universe Creator Sons and Spirits, the superuniverse Ancients of Days, and the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise. These beings constitute the first three levels of God the Sevenfold leading inward to the Universal Father, and this entire domain of God the Sevenfold is co-ordinating on the first level of experiential deity in the evolving Supreme Being.
(641.1) 56:5.4 On Paradise and in the central universe, Deity unity is a fact of existence. Throughout the evolving universes of time and space, Deity unity is an achievement.
6. Unification of Evolutionary Deity
(641.3) 56:6.2 The personality realities of the Supreme Being come forth from the Paradise Deities and on the pilot world of the outer Havona circuit unify with the power prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme coming up from the Creator divinities of the grand universe. God the Supreme as a person existed in Havona before the creation of the seven superuniverses, but he functioned only on spiritual levels. The evolution of the Almighty power of Supremacy by diverse divinity synthesis in the evolving universes eventuated in a new power presence of Deity which co-ordinated with the spiritual person of the Supreme in Havona by means of the Supreme Mind, which concomitantly translated from the potential resident in the infinite mind of the Infinite Spirit to the active functional mind of the Supreme Being.
(641.4) 56:6.3 The material-minded creatures of the evolutionary worlds of the seven superuniverses can comprehend Deity unity only as it is evolving in this power-personality synthesis of the Supreme Being. On any level of existence God cannot exceed the conceptual capacity of the beings who live on such a level. Mortal man must, through the recognition of truth, the appreciation of beauty, and the worship of goodness, evolve the recognition of a God of love and then progress through ascending deity levels to the comprehension of the Supreme. Deity, having been thus grasped as unified in power, can then be personalized in spirit to creature understanding and attainment.
(641.5) 56:6.4 While ascending mortals achieve power comprehension of the Almighty on the capitals of the superuniverses and personality comprehension of the Supreme on the outer circuits of Havona, they do not actually find the Supreme Being as they are destined to find the Paradise Deities. Even the finaliters, sixth-stage spirits, have not found the Supreme Being, nor are they likely to until they have achieved seventh-stage-spirit status, and until the Supreme has become actually functional in the activities of the future outer universes.
(641.6) 56:6.5 But when ascenders find the Universal Father as the seventh level of God the Sevenfold, they have attained the personality of the First Person of all deity levels of personal relationships with universe creatures.
7. Universal Evolutionary Repercussions
(642.2) 56:7.2 As the components of a local universe are progressively settled in light and life, God the Sevenfold is increasingly made manifest. Time-space evolution begins on a planet with the first expression of God the Sevenfold — the Creator Son-Creative Spirit association — in control. With the settling of a system in light, this Son-Spirit liaison attains the fullness of function; and when an entire constellation is thus settled, the second phase of God the Sevenfold becomes more active throughout such a realm. The completed administrative evolution of a local universe is attended by new and more direct ministrations of the superuniverse Master Spirits; and at this point there also begins that ever-expanding revelation and realization of God the Supreme which culminates in the ascender’s comprehension of the Supreme Being while passing through the worlds of the sixth Havona circuit.
(642.3) 56:7.3 The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit are existential deity manifestations to intelligent creatures and are not, therefore, similarly expanded in personality relations with the mind and spirit creatures of all creation.
(642.4) 56:7.4 It should be noted that ascending mortals may experience the impersonal presence of successive levels of Deity long before they become sufficiently spiritual and adequately educated to attain experiential personal recognition of, and contact with, these Deities as personal beings.
(642.5) 56:7.5 Each new evolutionary attainment within a sector of creation, as well as every new invasion of space by divinity manifestations, is attended by simultaneous expansions of Deity functional-revelation within the then existing and previously organized units of all creation. This new invasion of the administrative work of the universes and their component units may not always appear to be executed exactly in accordance with the technique herewith outlined because it is the practice to send forth advance groups of administrators to prepare the way for the subsequent and successive eras of new administrative overcontrol. Even God the Ultimate foreshadows his transcendental overcontrol of the universes during the later stages of a local universe settled in light and life.
(642.6) 56:7.6 It is a fact that, as the creations of time and space are progressively settled in evolutionary status, there is observed a new and fuller functioning of God the Supreme concomitant with a corresponding withdrawing of the first three manifestations of God the Sevenfold. If and when the grand universe becomes settled in light and life, what then will be the future function of the Creator-Creative manifestations of God the Sevenfold if God the Supreme assumes direct control of these creations of time and space? Are these organizers and pioneers of the time-space universes to be liberated for similar activities in outer space? We do not know, but we speculate much concerning these and related matters.
(643.1) 56:7.7 As the frontiers of experiential Deity are extended out into the domains of the Unqualified Absolute, we envision the activity of God the Sevenfold during the earlier evolutionary epochs of these creations of the future. We are not all in agreement respecting the future status of the Ancients of Days and the superuniverse Master Spirits. Neither do we know whether or not the Supreme Being will therein function as in the seven superuniverses. But we all conjecture that the Michaels, the Creator Sons, are destined to function in these outer universes. Some hold that the future ages will witness some closer form of union between the associated Creator Sons and Divine Ministers; it is even possible that such a creator union might eventuate in some new expression of associate-creator identity of an ultimate nature. But we really know nothing about these possibilities of the unrevealed future.
(643.2) 56:7.8 We do know, however, that in the universes of time and space, God the Sevenfold provides a progressive approach to the Universal Father, and that this evolutionary approach is experientially unified in God the Supreme. We might conjecture that such a plan must prevail in the outer universes; on the other hand, the new orders of beings that may sometime inhabit these universes may be able to approach Deity on ultimate levels and by absonite techniques. In short, we have not the slightest concept of what technique of deity approach may become operative in the future universes of outer space.*
(643.3) 56:7.9 Nevertheless, we deem that the perfected superuniverses will in some way become a part of the Paradise-ascension careers of those beings who may inhabit these outer creations. It is quite possible that in that future age we may witness outer-spacers approaching Havona through the seven superuniverses, administered by God the Supreme with or without the collaboration of the Seven Master Spirits.
8. The Supreme Unifier
(643.5) 56:8.2 Ascendant finaliters, having been born in the local universes, nurtured in the superuniverses, and trained in the central universe, embrace in their personal experiences the full potential of the comprehension of the time-space divinity of God the Sevenfold unifying in the Supreme. Finaliters serve successively in superuniverses other than those of nativity, thereby superimposing experience upon experience until the fullness of the sevenfold diversity of possible creature experience has been encompassed. Through the ministry of the indwelling Adjusters the finaliters are enabled to find the Universal Father, but it is by these techniques of experience that such finaliters come really to know the Supreme Being, and they are destined to the service and the revelation of this Supreme Deity in and to the future universes of outer space.
(644.1) 56:8.3 Bear in mind, all that God the Father and his Paradise Sons do for us, we in turn and in spirit have the opportunity to do for and in the emerging Supreme Being. The experience of love, joy, and service in the universe is mutual. God the Father does not need that his sons should return to him all that he bestows upon them, but they do (or may) in turn bestow all of this upon their fellows and upon the evolving Supreme Being.
(644.2) 56:8.4 All creational phenomena are reflective of antecedent creator-spirit activities. Said Jesus, and it is literally true, “The Son does only those things which he sees the Father do.” In time you mortals may begin the revelation of the Supreme to your fellows, and increasingly may you augment this revelation as you ascend Paradiseward. In eternity you may be permitted to make increasing revelations of this God of evolutionary creatures on supreme levels — even ultimate — as seventh-stage finaliters.
9. Universal Absolute Unity
(644.4) 56:9.2 The major philosophic proposition of the master universe is this: Did the Absolute (the three Absolutes as one in infinity) exist before the Trinity? and is the Absolute ancestral to the Trinity? or is the Trinity antecedent to the Absolute?
(644.5) 56:9.3 Is the Unqualified Absolute a force presence independent of the Trinity? Does the presence of the Deity Absolute connote the unlimited function of the Trinity? and is the Universal Absolute the final function of the Trinity, even a Trinity of Trinities?
(644.6) 56:9.4 On first thought, a concept of the Absolute as ancestor to all things — even the Trinity — seems to afford transitory satisfaction of consistency gratification and philosophic unification, but any such conclusion is invalidated by the actuality of the eternity of the Paradise Trinity. We are taught, and we believe, that the Universal Father and his Trinity associates are eternal in nature and existence. There is, then, but one consistent philosophic conclusion, and that is: The Absolute is, to all universe intelligences, the impersonal and co-ordinate reaction of the Trinity (of Trinities) to all basic and primary space situations, intrauniversal and extrauniversal. To all personality intelligences of the grand universe the Paradise Trinity forever stands in finality, eternity, supremacy, and ultimacy and, for all practical purposes of personal comprehension and creature realization, as absolute.
(644.7) 56:9.5 As creature minds may view this problem, they are led to the final postulate of the Universal I AM as the primal cause and the unqualified source of both the Trinity and the Absolute. When, therefore, we crave to entertain a personal concept of the Absolute, we revert to our ideas and ideals of the Paradise Father. When we desire to facilitate comprehension or to augment consciousness of this otherwise impersonal Absolute, we revert to the fact that the Universal Father is the existential Father of absolute personality; the Eternal Son is the Absolute Person, though not, in the experiential sense, the personalization of the Absolute. And then we go on to envisage the experiential Trinities as culminating in the experiential personalization of the Deity Absolute, while conceiving the Universal Absolute as constituting the universe and the extrauniverse phenomena of the manifest presence of the impersonal activities of the unified and co-ordinated Deity associations of supremacy, ultimacy, and infinity — the Trinity of Trinities.
(645.1) 56:9.6 God the Father is discernible on all levels from the finite to the infinite, and though his creatures from Paradise to the evolutionary worlds have variously perceived him, only the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit know him as an infinity.
(645.2) 56:9.7 Spiritual personality is absolute only on Paradise, and the concept of the Absolute is unqualified only in infinity. Deity presence is absolute only on Paradise, and the revelation of God must always be partial, relative, and progressive until his power becomes experientially infinite in the space potency of the Unqualified Absolute, while his personality manifestation becomes experientially infinite in the manifest presence of the Deity Absolute, and while these two potentials of infinity become reality-unified in the Universal Absolute.
(645.3) 56:9.8 But beyond subinfinite levels the three Absolutes are one, and thereby is infinity Deity-realized regardless of whether any other order of existence ever self-realizes consciousness of infinity.
(645.4) 56:9.9 Existential status in eternity implies existential self-consciousness of infinity, even though another eternity may be required to experience self-realization of the experiential potentialities inherent in an infinity eternity — an eternal infinity.
(645.5) 56:9.10 And God the Father is the personal source of all manifestations of Deity and reality to all intelligent creatures and spirit beings throughout all the universe of universes. As personalities, now or in the successive universe experiences of the eternal future, no matter if you achieve the attainment of God the Sevenfold, comprehend God the Supreme, find God the Ultimate, or attempt to grasp the concept of God the Absolute, you will discover to your eternal satisfaction that in the consummation of each adventure you have, on new experiential levels, rediscovered the eternal God — the Paradise Father of all universe personalities.
(645.6) 56:9.11 The Universal Father is the explanation of universal unity as it must be supremely, even ultimately, realized in the postultimate unity of absolute values and meanings — unqualified Reality.
(645.7) 56:9.12 The Master Force Organizers go out into space and mobilize its energies to become gravity responsive to the Paradise pull of the Universal Father; and subsequently there come the Creator Sons, who organize these gravity-responding forces into inhabited universes and therein evolve intelligent creatures who receive unto themselves the spirit of the Paradise Father and subsequently ascend to the Father to become like him in all possible divinity attributes.
(645.8) 56:9.13 The ceaseless and expanding march of the Paradise creative forces through space seems to presage the ever-extending domain of the gravity grasp of the Universal Father and the never-ending multiplication of varied types of intelligent creatures who are able to love God and be loved by him, and who, by thus becoming God-knowing, may choose to be like him, may elect to attain Paradise and find God.
(646.1) 56:9.14 The universe of universes is altogether unified. God is one in power and personality. There is co-ordination of all levels of energy and all phases of personality. Philosophically and experientially, in concept and in reality, all things and beings center in the Paradise Father. God is all and in all, and no things or beings exist without him.
10. Truth, Beauty, and Goodness
(646.3) 56:10.2 Throughout this glorious age the chief pursuit of the ever-advancing mortals is the quest for a better understanding and a fuller realization of the comprehensible elements of Deity — truth, beauty, and goodness. This represents man’s effort to discern God in mind, matter, and spirit. And as the mortal pursues this quest, he finds himself increasingly absorbed in the experiential study of philosophy, cosmology, and divinity.
(646.4) 56:10.3 Philosophy you somewhat grasp, and divinity you comprehend in worship, social service, and personal spiritual experience, but the pursuit of beauty — cosmology — you all too often limit to the study of man’s crude artistic endeavors. Beauty, art, is largely a matter of the unification of contrasts. Variety is essential to the concept of beauty. The supreme beauty, the height of finite art, is the drama of the unification of the vastness of the cosmic extremes of Creator and creature. Man finding God and God finding man — the creature becoming perfect as is the Creator — that is the supernal achievement of the supremely beautiful, the attainment of the apex of cosmic art.
(646.5) 56:10.4 Hence materialism, atheism, is the maximation of ugliness, the climax of the finite antithesis of the beautiful. Highest beauty consists in the panorama of the unification of the variations which have been born of pre-existent harmonious reality.
(646.6) 56:10.5 The attainment of cosmologic levels of thought includes:
(646.7) 56:10.6 1. Curiosity. Hunger for harmony and thirst for beauty. Persistent attempts to discover new levels of harmonious cosmic relationships.(646.10) 56:10.9 The worlds settled in light and life are so fully concerned with the comprehension of truth, beauty, and goodness because these quality values embrace the revelation of Deity to the realms of time and space. The meanings of eternal truth make a combined appeal to the intellectual and spiritual natures of mortal man. Universal beauty embraces the harmonious relations and rhythms of the cosmic creation; this is more distinctly the intellectual appeal and leads towards unified and synchronous comprehension of the material universe. Divine goodness represents the revelation of infinite values to the finite mind, therein to be perceived and elevated to the very threshold of the spiritual level of human comprehension.
(646.8) 56:10.7 2. Aesthetic appreciation. Love of the beautiful and ever-advancing appreciation of the artistic touch of all creative manifestations on all levels of reality.
(646.9) 56:10.8 3. Ethic sensitivity. Through the realization of truth the appreciation of beauty leads to the sense of the eternal fitness of those things which impinge upon the recognition of divine goodness in Deity relations with all beings; and thus even cosmology leads to the pursuit of divine reality values — to God-consciousness.
(647.1) 56:10.10 Truth is the basis of science and philosophy, presenting the intellectual foundation of religion. Beauty sponsors art, music, and the meaningful rhythms of all human experience. Goodness embraces the sense of ethics, morality, and religion — experiential perfection-hunger.
(647.2) 56:10.11 The existence of beauty implies the presence of appreciative creature mind just as certainly as the fact of progressive evolution indicates the dominance of the Supreme Mind. Beauty is the intellectual recognition of the harmonious time-space synthesis of the far-flung diversification of phenomenal reality, all of which stems from pre-existent and eternal oneness.
(647.3) 56:10.12 Goodness is the mental recognition of the relative values of the diverse levels of divine perfection. The recognition of goodness implies a mind of moral status, a personal mind with ability to discriminate between good and evil. But the possession of goodness, greatness, is the measure of real divinity attainment.
(647.4) 56:10.13 The recognition of true relations implies a mind competent to discriminate between truth and error. The bestowal Spirit of Truth which invests the human minds of Urantia is unerringly responsive to truth — the living spirit relationship of all things and all beings as they are co-ordinated in the eternal ascent Godward.
(647.5) 56:10.14 Every impulse of every electron, thought, or spirit is an acting unit in the whole universe. Only sin is isolated and evil gravity resisting on the mental and spiritual levels. The universe is a whole; no thing or being exists or lives in isolation. Self-realization is potentially evil if it is antisocial. It is literally true: “No man lives by himself.” Cosmic socialization constitutes the highest form of personality unification. Said Jesus: “He who would be greatest among you, let him become server of all.”
(647.6) 56:10.15 Even truth, beauty, and goodness — man’s intellectual approach to the universe of mind, matter, and spirit — must be combined into one unified concept of a divine and supreme ideal. As mortal personality unifies the human experience with matter, mind, and spirit, so does this divine and supreme ideal become power-unified in Supremacy and then personalized as a God of fatherly love.
(647.7) 56:10.16 All insight into the relations of the parts to any given whole requires an understanding grasp of the relation of all parts to that whole; and in the universe this means the relation of created parts to the Creative Whole. Deity thus becomes the transcendental, even the infinite, goal of universal and eternal attainment.
(647.8) 56:10.17 Universal beauty is the recognition of the reflection of the Isle of Paradise in the material creation, while eternal truth is the special ministry of the Paradise Sons who not only bestow themselves upon the mortal races but even pour out their Spirit of Truth upon all peoples. Divine goodness is more fully shown forth in the loving ministry of the manifold personalities of the Infinite Spirit. But love, the sum total of these three qualities, is man’s perception of God as his spirit Father.
(648.1) 56:10.18 Physical matter is the time-space shadow of the Paradise energy-shining of the absolute Deities. Truth meanings are the mortal-intellect repercussions of the eternal word of Deity — the time-space comprehension of supreme concepts. The goodness values of divinity are the merciful ministries of the spirit personalities of the Universal, the Eternal, and the Infinite to the time-space finite creatures of the evolutionary spheres.
(648.2) 56:10.19 These meaningful reality values of divinity are blended in the Father’s relation with each personal creature as divine love. They are co-ordinated in the Son and his Sons as divine mercy. They manifest their qualities through the Spirit and his spirit children as divine ministry, the portrayal of loving mercy to the children of time. These three divinities are primarily manifested by the Supreme Being as power-personality synthesis. They are variously shown forth by God the Sevenfold in seven differing associations of divine meanings and values on seven ascending levels.
(648.3) 56:10.20 To finite man truth, beauty, and goodness embrace the full revelation of divinity reality. As this love-comprehension of Deity finds spiritual expression in the lives of God-knowing mortals, there are yielded the fruits of divinity: intellectual peace, social progress, moral satisfaction, spiritual joy, and cosmic wisdom. The advanced mortals on a world in the seventh stage of light and life have learned that love is the greatest thing in the universe — and they know that God is love.
(648.4) 56:10.21 Love is the desire to do good to others.
(648.5) 56:10.22 [Presented by a Mighty Messenger visiting on Urantia, by request of the Nebadon Revelatory Corps and in collaboration with a certain Melchizedek, the vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia.]
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The Urantia Book
Paper 57
The Origin of Urantia*
(651.2) 57:0.2 When referring to an event as of one or two millions of years ago, we intend to date such an occurrence back that number of years from the early decades of the twentieth century of the Christian era. We will thus depict these far-distant events as occurring in even periods of thousands, millions, and billions of years.
1. The Andronover Nebula
(651.4) 57:1.2 At the time of the beginning of this recital, the Primary Master Force Organizers of Paradise had long been in full control of the space-energies which were later organized as the Andronover nebula.
(651.5) 57:1.3 987,000,000,000 years ago associate force organizer and then acting inspector number 811,307 of the Orvonton series, traveling out from Uversa, reported to the Ancients of Days that space conditions were favorable for the initiation of materialization phenomena in a certain sector of the, then, easterly segment of Orvonton.
(651.6) 57:1.4 900,000,000,000 years ago, the Uversa archives testify, there was recorded a permit issued by the Uversa Council of Equilibrium to the superuniverse government authorizing the dispatch of a force organizer and staff to the region previously designated by inspector number 811,307. The Orvonton authorities commissioned the original discoverer of this potential universe to execute the mandate of the Ancients of Days calling for the organization of a new material creation.*
(652.1) 57:1.5 The recording of this permit signifies that the force organizer and staff had already departed from Uversa on the long journey to that easterly space sector where they were subsequently to engage in those protracted activities which would terminate in the emergence of a new physical creation in Orvonton.
(652.2) 57:1.6 875,000,000,000 years ago the enormous Andronover nebula number 876,926 was duly initiated. Only the presence of the force organizer and the liaison staff was required to inaugurate the energy whirl which eventually grew into this vast cyclone of space. Subsequent to the initiation of such nebular revolutions, the living force organizers simply withdraw at right angles to the plane of the revolutionary disk, and from that time forward, the inherent qualities of energy insure the progressive and orderly evolution of such a new physical system.
(652.3) 57:1.7 At about this time the narrative shifts to the functioning of the personalities of the superuniverse. In reality the story has its proper beginning at this point — at just about the time the Paradise force organizers are preparing to withdraw, having made the space-energy conditions ready for the action of the power directors and physical controllers of the superuniverse of Orvonton.
2. The Primary Nebular Stage
(652.5) 57:2.2 800,000,000,000 years ago the Andronover creation was well established as one of the magnificent primary nebulae of Orvonton. As the astronomers of near-by universes looked out upon this phenomenon of space, they saw very little to attract their attention. Gravity estimates made in adjacent creations indicated that space materializations were taking place in the Andronover regions, but that was all.
(652.6) 57:2.3 700,000,000,000 years ago the Andronover system was assuming gigantic proportions, and additional physical controllers were dispatched to nine surrounding material creations to afford support and supply co-operation to the power centers of this new material system which was so rapidly evolving. At this distant date all of the material bequeathed to the subsequent creations was held within the confines of this gigantic space wheel, which continued ever to whirl and, after reaching its maximum of diameter, to whirl faster and faster as it continued to condense and contract.
(652.7) 57:2.4 600,000,000,000 years ago the height of the Andronover energy-mobilization period was attained; the nebula had acquired its maximum of mass. At this time it was a gigantic circular gas cloud in shape somewhat like a flattened spheroid. This was the early period of differential mass formation and varying revolutionary velocity. Gravity and other influences were about to begin their work of converting space gases into organized matter.
3. The Secondary Nebular Stage
(653.2) 57:3.2 The near-by star students of that faraway era, as they observed this metamorphosis of the Andronover nebula, saw exactly what twentieth-century astronomers see when they turn their telescopes spaceward and view the present-age spiral nebulae of adjacent outer space.
(653.3) 57:3.3 About the time of the attainment of the maximum of mass, the gravity control of the gaseous content commenced to weaken, and there ensued the stage of gas escapement, the gas streaming forth as two gigantic and distinct arms, which took origin on opposite sides of the mother mass. The rapid revolutions of this enormous central core soon imparted a spiral appearance to these two projecting gas streams. The cooling and subsequent condensation of portions of these protruding arms eventually produced their knotted appearance. These denser portions were vast systems and subsystems of physical matter whirling through space in the midst of the gaseous cloud of the nebula while being held securely within the gravity grasp of the mother wheel.
(653.4) 57:3.4 But the nebula had begun to contract, and the increase in the rate of revolution further lessened gravity control; and erelong, the outer gaseous regions began actually to escape from the immediate embrace of the nebular nucleus, passing out into space on circuits of irregular outline, returning to the nuclear regions to complete their circuits, and so on. But this was only a temporary stage of nebular progression. The ever-increasing rate of whirling was soon to throw enormous suns off into space on independent circuits.
(653.5) 57:3.5 And this is what happened in Andronover ages upon ages ago. The energy wheel grew and grew until it attained its maximum of expansion, and then, when contraction set in, it whirled on faster and faster until, eventually, the critical centrifugal stage was reached and the great breakup began.
(653.6) 57:3.6 500,000,000,000 years ago the first Andronover sun was born. This blazing streak broke away from the mother gravity grasp and tore out into space on an independent adventure in the cosmos of creation. Its orbit was determined by its path of escape. Such young suns quickly become spherical and start out on their long and eventful careers as the stars of space. Excepting terminal nebular nucleuses, the vast majority of Orvonton suns have had an analogous birth. These escaping suns pass through varied periods of evolution and subsequent universe service.
(653.7) 57:3.7 400,000,000,000 years ago began the recaptive period of the Andronover nebula. Many of the near-by and smaller suns were recaptured as a result of the gradual enlargement and further condensation of the mother nucleus. Very soon there was inaugurated the terminal phase of nebular condensation, the period which always precedes the final segregation of these immense space aggregations of energy and matter.
(654.1) 57:3.8 It was scarcely a million years subsequent to this epoch that Michael of Nebadon, a Creator Son of Paradise, selected this disintegrating nebula as the site of his adventure in universe building. Almost immediately the architectural worlds of Salvington and the one hundred constellation headquarters groups of planets were begun. It required almost one million years to complete these clusters of specially created worlds. The local system headquarters planets were constructed over a period extending from that time to about five billion years ago.
(654.2) 57:3.9 300,000,000,000 years ago the Andronover solar circuits were well established, and the nebular system was passing through a transient period of relative physical stability. About this time the staff of Michael arrived on Salvington, and the Uversa government of Orvonton extended physical recognition to the local universe of Nebadon.
(654.3) 57:3.10 200,000,000,000 years ago witnessed the progression of contraction and condensation with enormous heat generation in the Andronover central cluster, or nuclear mass. Relative space appeared even in the regions near the central mother-sun wheel. The outer regions were becoming more stabilized and better organized; some planets revolving around the newborn suns had cooled sufficiently to be suitable for life implantation. The oldest inhabited planets of Nebadon date from these times.
(654.4) 57:3.11 Now the completed universe mechanism of Nebadon first begins to function, and Michael’s creation is registered on Uversa as a universe of inhabitation and progressive mortal ascension.
(654.5) 57:3.12 100,000,000,000 years ago the nebular apex of condensation tension was reached; the point of maximum heat tension was attained. This critical stage of gravity-heat contention sometimes lasts for ages, but sooner or later, heat wins the struggle with gravity, and the spectacular period of sun dispersion begins. And this marks the end of the secondary career of a space nebula.
4. Tertiary and Quartan Stages
(654.7) 57:4.2 75,000,000,000 years ago this nebula had attained the height of its sun-family stage. This was the apex of the first period of sun losses. The majority of these suns have since possessed themselves of extensive systems of planets, satellites, dark islands, comets, meteors, and cosmic dust clouds.
(654.8) 57:4.3 50,000,000,000 years ago this first period of sun dispersion was completed; the nebula was fast finishing its tertiary cycle of existence, during which it gave origin to 876,926 sun systems.
(654.9) 57:4.4 25,000,000,000 years ago witnessed the completion of the tertiary cycle of nebular life and brought about the organization and relative stabilization of the far-flung starry systems derived from this parent nebula. But the process of physical contraction and increased heat production continued in the central mass of the nebular remnant.
(655.1) 57:4.5 10,000,000,000 years ago the quartan cycle of Andronover began. The maximum of nuclear-mass temperature had been attained; the critical point of condensation was approaching. The original mother nucleus was convulsing under the combined pressure of its own internal-heat condensation tension and the increasing gravity-tidal pull of the surrounding swarm of liberated sun systems. The nuclear eruptions which were to inaugurate the second nebular sun cycle were imminent. The quartan cycle of nebular existence was about to begin.
(655.2) 57:4.6 8,000,000,000 years ago the terrific terminal eruption began. Only the outer systems are safe at the time of such a cosmic upheaval. And this was the beginning of the end of the nebula. This final sun disgorgement extended over a period of almost two billion years.
(655.3) 57:4.7 7,000,000,000 years ago witnessed the height of the Andronover terminal breakup. This was the period of the birth of the larger terminal suns and the apex of the local physical disturbances.
(655.4) 57:4.8 6,000,000,000 years ago marks the end of the terminal breakup and the birth of your sun, the fifty-sixth from the last of the Andronover second solar family. This final eruption of the nebular nucleus gave birth to 136,702 suns, most of them solitary orbs. The total number of suns and sun systems having origin in the Andronover nebula was 1,013,628. The number of the solar system sun is 1,013,572.
(655.5) 57:4.9 And now the great Andronover nebula is no more, but it lives on in the many suns and their planetary families which originated in this mother cloud of space. The final nuclear remnant of this magnificent nebula still burns with a reddish glow and continues to give forth moderate light and heat to its remnant planetary family of one hundred and sixty-five worlds, which now revolve about this venerable mother of two mighty generations of the monarchs of light.
5. Origin of Monmatia — The Urantia Solar System
(655.7) 57:5.2 Today, your sun has achieved relative stability, but its eleven and one-half year sunspot cycles betray that it was a variable star in its youth. In the early days of your sun the continued contraction and consequent gradual increase of temperature initiated tremendous convulsions on its surface. These titanic heaves required three and one-half days to complete a cycle of varying brightness. This variable state, this periodic pulsation, rendered your sun highly responsive to certain outside influences which were to be shortly encountered.
(655.8) 57:5.3 Thus was the stage of local space set for the unique origin of Monmatia, that being the name of your sun’s planetary family, the solar system to which your world belongs. Less than one per cent of the planetary systems of Orvonton have had a similar origin.
(655.9) 57:5.4 4,500,000,000 years ago the enormous Angona system began its approach to the neighborhood of this solitary sun. The center of this great system was a dark giant of space, solid, highly charged, and possessing tremendous gravity pull.
(656.1) 57:5.5 As Angona more closely approached the sun, at moments of maximum expansion during solar pulsations, streams of gaseous material were shot out into space as gigantic solar tongues. At first these flaming gas tongues would invariably fall back into the sun, but as Angona drew nearer and nearer, the gravity pull of the gigantic visitor became so great that these tongues of gas would break off at certain points, the roots falling back into the sun while the outer sections would become detached to form independent bodies of matter, solar meteorites, which immediately started to revolve about the sun in elliptical orbits of their own.
(656.2) 57:5.6 As the Angona system drew nearer, the solar extrusions grew larger and larger; more and more matter was drawn from the sun to become independent circulating bodies in surrounding space. This situation developed for about five hundred thousand years until Angona made its closest approach to the sun; whereupon the sun, in conjunction with one of its periodic internal convulsions, experienced a partial disruption; from opposite sides and simultaneously, enormous volumes of matter were disgorged. From the Angona side there was drawn out a vast column of solar gases, rather pointed at both ends and markedly bulging at the center, which became permanently detached from the immediate gravity control of the sun.
(656.3) 57:5.7 This great column of solar gases which was thus separated from the sun subsequently evolved into the twelve planets of the solar system. The repercussional ejection of gas from the opposite side of the sun in tidal sympathy with the extrusion of this gigantic solar system ancestor, has since condensed into the meteors and space dust of the solar system, although much, very much, of this matter was subsequently recaptured by solar gravity as the Angona system receded into remote space.
(656.4) 57:5.8 Although Angona succeeded in drawing away the ancestral material of the solar system planets and the enormous volume of matter now circulating about the sun as asteroids and meteors, it did not secure for itself any of this solar matter. The visiting system did not come quite close enough to actually steal any of the sun’s substance, but it did swing sufficiently close to draw off into the intervening space all of the material comprising the present-day solar system.
(656.5) 57:5.9 The five inner and five outer planets soon formed in miniature from the cooling and condensing nucleuses in the less massive and tapering ends of the gigantic gravity bulge which Angona had succeeded in detaching from the sun, while Saturn and Jupiter were formed from the more massive and bulging central portions. The powerful gravity pull of Jupiter and Saturn early captured most of the material stolen from Angona as the retrograde motion of certain of their satellites bears witness.
(656.6) 57:5.10 Jupiter and Saturn, being derived from the very center of the enormous column of superheated solar gases, contained so much highly heated sun material that they shone with a brilliant light and emitted enormous volumes of heat; they were in reality secondary suns for a short period after their formation as separate space bodies. These two largest of the solar system planets have remained largely gaseous to this day, not even yet having cooled off to the point of complete condensation or solidification.
(656.7) 57:5.11 The gas-contraction nucleuses of the other ten planets soon reached the stage of solidification and so began to draw to themselves increasing quantities of the meteoric matter circulating in near-by space. The worlds of the solar system thus had a double origin: nucleuses of gas condensation later on augmented by the capture of enormous quantities of meteors. Indeed they still continue to capture meteors, but in greatly lessened numbers.
(657.1) 57:5.12 The planets do not swing around the sun in the equatorial plane of their solar mother, which they would do if they had been thrown off by solar revolution. Rather, they travel in the plane of the Angona solar extrusion, which existed at a considerable angle to the plane of the sun’s equator.
(657.2) 57:5.13 While Angona was unable to capture any of the solar mass, your sun did add to its metamorphosing planetary family some of the circulating space material of the visiting system. Due to the intense gravity field of Angona, its tributary planetary family pursued orbits of considerable distance from the dark giant; and shortly after the extrusion of the solar system ancestral mass and while Angona was yet in the vicinity of the sun, three of the major planets of the Angona system swung so near to the massive solar system ancestor that its gravitational pull, augmented by that of the sun, was sufficient to overbalance the gravity grasp of Angona and to permanently detach these three tributaries of the celestial wanderer.
(657.3) 57:5.14 All of the solar system material derived from the sun was originally endowed with a homogeneous direction of orbital swing, and had it not been for the intrusion of these three foreign space bodies, all solar system material would still maintain the same direction of orbital movement. As it was, the impact of the three Angona tributaries injected new and foreign directional forces into the emerging solar system with the resultant appearance of retrograde motion. Retrograde motion in any astronomic system is always accidental and always appears as a result of the collisional impact of foreign space bodies. Such collisions may not always produce retrograde motion, but no retrograde ever appears except in a system containing masses which have diverse origins.
6. The Solar System Stage — The Planet-Forming Era
(657.5) 57:6.2 The planets nearest the sun were the first to have their revolutions slowed down by tidal friction. Such gravitational influences also contribute to the stabilization of planetary orbits while acting as a brake on the rate of planetary-axial revolution, causing a planet to revolve ever slower until axial revolution ceases, leaving one hemisphere of the planet always turned toward the sun or larger body, as is illustrated by the planet Mercury and by the moon, which always turns the same face toward Urantia.
(657.6) 57:6.3 When the tidal frictions of the moon and the earth become equalized, the earth will always turn the same hemisphere toward the moon, and the day and month will be analogous — in length about forty-seven days. When such stability of orbits is attained, tidal frictions will go into reverse action, no longer driving the moon farther away from the earth but gradually drawing the satellite toward the planet. And then, in that far-distant future when the moon approaches to within about eleven thousand miles of the earth, the gravity action of the latter will cause the moon to disrupt, and this tidal-gravity explosion will shatter the moon into small particles, which may assemble about the world as rings of matter resembling those of Saturn or may be gradually drawn into the earth as meteors.
(658.1) 57:6.4 If space bodies are similar in size and density, collisions may occur. But if two space bodies of similar density are relatively unequal in size, then, if the smaller progressively approaches the larger, the disruption of the smaller body will occur when the radius of its orbit becomes less than two and one-half times the radius of the larger body. Collisions among the giants of space are rare indeed, but these gravity-tidal explosions of lesser bodies are quite common.
(658.2) 57:6.5 Shooting stars occur in swarms because they are the fragments of larger bodies of matter which have been disrupted by tidal gravity exerted by near-by and still larger space bodies. Saturn’s rings are the fragments of a disrupted satellite. One of the moons of Jupiter is now approaching dangerously near the critical zone of tidal disruption and, within a few million years, will either be claimed by the planet or will undergo gravity-tidal disruption. The fifth planet of the solar system of long, long ago traversed an irregular orbit, periodically making closer and closer approach to Jupiter until it entered the critical zone of gravity-tidal disruption, was swiftly fragmentized, and became the present-day cluster of asteroids.
(658.3) 57:6.6 4,000,000,000 years ago witnessed the organization of the Jupiter and Saturn systems much as observed today except for their moons, which continued to increase in size for several billions of years. In fact, all of the planets and satellites of the solar system are still growing as the result of continued meteoric captures.
(658.4) 57:6.7 3,500,000,000 years ago the condensation nucleuses of the other ten planets were well formed, and the cores of most of the moons were intact, though some of the smaller satellites later united to make the present-day larger moons. This age may be regarded as the era of planetary assembly.
(658.5) 57:6.8 3,000,000,000 years ago the solar system was functioning much as it does today. Its members continued to grow in size as space meteors continued to pour in upon the planets and their satellites at a prodigious rate.
(658.6) 57:6.9 About this time your solar system was placed on the physical registry of Nebadon and given its name, Monmatia.
(658.7) 57:6.10 2,500,000,000 years ago the planets had grown immensely in size. Urantia was a well-developed sphere about one tenth its present mass and was still growing rapidly by meteoric accretion.
(658.8) 57:6.11 All of this tremendous activity is a normal part of the making of an evolutionary world on the order of Urantia and constitutes the astronomic preliminaries to the setting of the stage for the beginning of the physical evolution of such worlds of space in preparation for the life adventures of time.
7. The Meteoric Era — The Volcanic Age
The Primitive Planetary Atmosphere
(659.1) 57:7.2 2,000,000,000 years ago the earth began decidedly to gain on the moon. Always had the planet been larger than its satellite, but there was not so much difference in size until about this time, when enormous space bodies were captured by the earth. Urantia was then about one fifth its present size and had become large enough to hold the primitive atmosphere which had begun to appear as a result of the internal elemental contest between the heated interior and the cooling crust.
(659.2) 57:7.3 Definite volcanic action dates from these times. The internal heat of the earth continued to be augmented by the deeper and deeper burial of the radioactive or heavier elements brought in from space by the meteors. The study of these radioactive elements will reveal that Urantia is more than one billion years old on its surface. The radium clock is your most reliable timepiece for making scientific estimates of the age of the planet, but all such estimates are too short because the radioactive materials open to your scrutiny are all derived from the earth’s surface and hence represent Urantia’s comparatively recent acquirements of these elements.
(659.3) 57:7.4 1,500,000,000 years ago the earth was two thirds its present size, while the moon was nearing its present mass. Earth’s rapid gain over the moon in size enabled it to begin the slow robbery of the little atmosphere which its satellite originally had.
(659.4) 57:7.5 Volcanic action is now at its height. The whole earth is a veritable fiery inferno, the surface resembling its earlier molten state before the heavier metals gravitated toward the center. This is the volcanic age. Nevertheless, a crust, consisting chiefly of the comparatively lighter granite, is gradually forming. The stage is being set for a planet which can someday support life.
(659.5) 57:7.6 The primitive planetary atmosphere is slowly evolving, now containing some water vapor, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen chloride, but there is little or no free nitrogen or free oxygen. The atmosphere of a world in the volcanic age presents a queer spectacle. In addition to the gases enumerated it is heavily charged with numerous volcanic gases and, as the air belt matures, with the combustion products of the heavy meteoric showers which are constantly hurtling in upon the planetary surface. Such meteoric combustion keeps the atmospheric oxygen very nearly exhausted, and the rate of meteoric bombardment is still tremendous.
(659.6) 57:7.7 Presently, the atmosphere became more settled and cooled sufficiently to start precipitation of rain on the hot rocky surface of the planet. For thousands of years Urantia was enveloped in one vast and continuous blanket of steam. And during these ages the sun never shone upon the earth’s surface.
(659.7) 57:7.8 Much of the carbon of the atmosphere was abstracted to form the carbonates of the various metals which abounded in the superficial layers of the planet. Later on, much greater quantities of these carbon gases were consumed by the early and prolific plant life.
(660.1) 57:7.9 Even in the later periods the continuing lava flows and the incoming meteors kept the oxygen of the air almost completely used up. Even the early deposits of the soon appearing primitive ocean contain no colored stones or shales. And for a long time after this ocean appeared, there was virtually no free oxygen in the atmosphere; and it did not appear in significant quantities until it was later generated by the seaweeds and other forms of vegetable life.
(660.2) 57:7.10 The primitive planetary atmosphere of the volcanic age affords little protection against the collisional impacts of the meteoric swarms. Millions upon millions of meteors are able to penetrate such an air belt to smash against the planetary crust as solid bodies. But as time passes, fewer and fewer prove large enough to resist the ever-stronger friction shield of the oxygen-enriching atmosphere of the later eras.
8. Crustal Stabilization
The Age of Earthquakes
The World Ocean and the First Continent
(660.4) 57:8.2 The atmosphere, together with incessant moisture precipitation, facilitated the cooling of the earth’s crust. Volcanic action early equalized internal-heat pressure and crustal contraction; and as volcanoes rapidly decreased, earthquakes made their appearance as this epoch of crustal cooling and adjustment progressed.
(660.5) 57:8.3 The real geologic history of Urantia begins with the cooling of the earth’s crust sufficiently to cause the formation of the first ocean. Water-vapor condensation on the cooling surface of the earth, once begun, continued until it was virtually complete. By the end of this period the ocean was world-wide, covering the entire planet to an average depth of over one mile. The tides were then in play much as they are now observed, but this primitive ocean was not salty; it was practically a fresh-water covering for the world. In those days, most of the chlorine was combined with various metals, but there was enough, in union with hydrogen, to render this water faintly acid.
(660.6) 57:8.4 At the opening of this faraway era, Urantia should be envisaged as a water-bound planet. Later on, deeper and hence denser lava flows came out upon the bottom of the present Pacific Ocean, and this part of the water-covered surface became considerably depressed. The first continental land mass emerged from the world ocean in compensatory adjustment of the equilibrium of the gradually thickening earth’s crust.
(660.7) 57:8.5 950,000,000 years ago Urantia presents the picture of one great continent of land and one large body of water, the Pacific Ocean. Volcanoes are still widespread and earthquakes are both frequent and severe. Meteors continue to bombard the earth, but they are diminishing in both frequency and size. The atmosphere is clearing up, but the amount of carbon dioxide continues large. The earth’s crust is gradually stabilizing.
(660.8) 57:8.6 It was at about this time that Urantia was assigned to the system of Satania for planetary administration and was placed on the life registry of Norlatiadek. Then began the administrative recognition of the small and insignificant sphere which was destined to be the planet whereon Michael would subsequently engage in the stupendous undertaking of mortal bestowal, would participate in those experiences which have since caused Urantia to become locally known as the “world of the cross.”
(661.1) 57:8.7 900,000,000 years ago witnessed the arrival on Urantia of the first Satania scouting party sent out from Jerusem to examine the planet and make a report on its adaptation for a life-experiment station. This commission consisted of twenty-four members, embracing Life Carriers, Lanonandek Sons, Melchizedeks, seraphim, and other orders of celestial life having to do with the early days of planetary organization and administration.
(661.2) 57:8.8 After making a painstaking survey of the planet, this commission returned to Jerusem and reported favorably to the System Sovereign, recommending that Urantia be placed on the life-experiment registry. Your world was accordingly registered on Jerusem as a decimal planet, and the Life Carriers were notified that they would be granted permission to institute new patterns of mechanical, chemical, and electrical mobilization at the time of their subsequent arrival with life transplantation and implantation mandates.
(661.3) 57:8.9 In due course arrangements for the planetary occupation were completed by the mixed commission of twelve on Jerusem and approved by the planetary commission of seventy on Edentia. These plans, proposed by the advisory counselors of the Life Carriers, were finally accepted on Salvington. Soon thereafter the Nebadon broadcasts carried the announcement that Urantia would become the stage whereon the Life Carriers would execute their sixtieth Satania experiment designed to amplify and improve the Satania type of the Nebadon life patterns.
(661.4) 57:8.10 Shortly after Urantia was first recognized on the universe broadcasts to all Nebadon, it was accorded full universe status. Soon thereafter it was registered in the records of the minor and the major sector headquarters planets of the superuniverse; and before this age was over, Urantia had found entry on the planetary-life registry of Uversa.
(661.5) 57:8.11 This entire age was characterized by frequent and violent storms. The early crust of the earth was in a state of continual flux. Surface cooling alternated with immense lava flows. Nowhere can there be found on the surface of the world anything of this original planetary crust. It has all been mixed up too many times with extruding lavas of deep origins and admixed with subsequent deposits of the early world-wide ocean.
(661.6) 57:8.12 Nowhere on the surface of the world will there be found more of the modified remnants of these ancient preocean rocks than in northeastern Canada around Hudson Bay. This extensive granite elevation is composed of stone belonging to the preoceanic ages. These rock layers have been heated, bent, twisted, upcrumpled, and again and again have they passed through these distorting metamorphic experiences.
(661.7) 57:8.13 Throughout the oceanic ages, enormous layers of fossil-free stratified stone were deposited on this ancient ocean bottom. (Limestone can form as a result of chemical precipitation; not all of the older limestone was produced by marine-life deposition.) In none of these ancient rock formations will there be found evidences of life; they contain no fossils unless, by some chance, later deposits of the water ages have become mixed with these older prelife layers.
(662.1) 57:8.14 The earth’s early crust was highly unstable, but mountains were not in process of formation. The planet contracted under gravity pressure as it formed. Mountains are not the result of the collapse of the cooling crust of a contracting sphere; they appear later on as a result of the action of rain, gravity, and erosion.
(662.2) 57:8.15 The continental land mass of this era increased until it covered almost ten per cent of the earth’s surface. Severe earthquakes did not begin until the continental mass of land emerged well above the water. When they once began, they increased in frequency and severity for ages. For millions upon millions of years earthquakes have diminished, but Urantia still has an average of fifteen daily.
(662.3) 57:8.16 850,000,000 years ago the first real epoch of the stabilization of the earth’s crust began. Most of the heavier metals had settled down toward the center of the globe; the cooling crust had ceased to cave in on such an extensive scale as in former ages. There was established a better balance between the land extrusion and the heavier ocean bed. The flow of the subcrustal lava bed became well-nigh world-wide, and this compensated and stabilized the fluctuations due to cooling, contracting, and superficial shifting.
(662.4) 57:8.17 Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes continued to diminish in frequency and severity. The atmosphere was clearing of volcanic gases and water vapor, but the percentage of carbon dioxide was still high.
(662.5) 57:8.18 Electric disturbances in the air and in the earth were also decreasing. The lava flows had brought to the surface a mixture of elements which diversified the crust and better insulated the planet from certain space-energies. And all of this did much to facilitate the control of terrestrial energy and to regulate its flow, as is disclosed by the functioning of the magnetic poles.
(662.6) 57:8.19 800,000,000 years ago witnessed the inauguration of the first great land epoch, the age of increased continental emergence.
(662.7) 57:8.20 Since the condensation of the earth’s hydrosphere, first into the world ocean and subsequently into the Pacific Ocean, this latter body of water should be visualized as then covering nine tenths of the earth’s surface. Meteors falling into the sea accumulated on the ocean bottom, and meteors are, generally speaking, composed of heavy materials. Those falling on the land were largely oxidized, subsequently worn down by erosion, and washed into the ocean basins. Thus the ocean bottom grew increasingly heavy, and added to this was the weight of a body of water at some places ten miles deep.
(662.8) 57:8.21 The increasing downthrust of the Pacific Ocean operated further to upthrust the continental land mass. Europe and Africa began to rise out of the Pacific depths along with those masses now called Australia, North and South America, and the continent of Antarctica, while the bed of the Pacific Ocean engaged in a further compensatory sinking adjustment. By the end of this period almost one third of the earth’s surface consisted of land, all in one continental body.
(662.9) 57:8.22 With this increase in land elevation the first climatic differences of the planet appeared. Land elevation, cosmic clouds, and oceanic influences are the chief factors in climatic fluctuation. The backbone of the Asiatic land mass reached a height of almost nine miles at the time of the maximum land emergence. Had there been much moisture in the air hovering over these highly elevated regions, enormous ice blankets would have formed; the ice age would have arrived long before it did. It was several hundred millions of years before so much land again appeared above water.
(663.1) 57:8.23 750,000,000 years ago the first breaks in the continental land mass began as the great north-and-south cracking, which later admitted the ocean waters and prepared the way for the westward drift of the continents of North and South America, including Greenland. The long east-and-west cleavage separated Africa from Europe and severed the land masses of Australia, the Pacific Islands, and Antarctica from the Asiatic continent.
(663.2) 57:8.24 700,000,000 years ago Urantia was approaching the ripening of conditions suitable for the support of life. The continental land drift continued; increasingly the ocean penetrated the land as long fingerlike seas providing those shallow waters and sheltered bays which are so suitable as a habitat for marine life.
(663.3) 57:8.25 650,000,000 years ago witnessed the further separation of the land masses and, in consequence, a further extension of the continental seas. And these waters were rapidly attaining that degree of saltiness which was essential to Urantia life.
(663.4) 57:8.26 It was these seas and their successors that laid down the life records of Urantia, as subsequently discovered in well-preserved stone pages, volume upon volume, as era succeeded era and age grew upon age. These inland seas of olden times were truly the cradle of evolution.
(663.5) 57:8.27 [Presented by a Life Carrier, a member of the original Urantia Corps and now a resident observer.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 58
Life Establishment on Urantia
1. Physical-Life Prerequisites
(664.3) 58:1.2 It should be made clear that Life Carriers cannot initiate life until a sphere is ripe for the inauguration of the evolutionary cycle. Neither can we provide for a more rapid life development than can be supported and accommodated by the physical progress of the planet.
(664.4) 58:1.3 The Satania Life Carriers had projected a sodium chloride pattern of life; therefore no steps could be taken toward planting it until the ocean waters had become sufficiently briny. The Urantia type of protoplasm can function only in a suitable salt solution. All ancestral life — vegetable and animal — evolved in a salt-solution habitat. And even the more highly organized land animals could not continue to live did not this same essential salt solution circulate throughout their bodies in the blood stream which freely bathes, literally submerses, every tiny living cell in this “briny deep.”
(664.5) 58:1.4 Your primitive ancestors freely circulated about in the salty ocean; today, this same oceanlike salty solution freely circulates about in your bodies, bathing each individual cell with a chemical liquid in all essentials comparable to the salt water which stimulated the first protoplasmic reactions of the first living cells to function on the planet.
(664.6) 58:1.5 But as this era opens, Urantia is in every way evolving toward a state favorable for the support of the initial forms of marine life. Slowly but surely physical developments on earth and in adjacent space regions are preparing the stage for the later attempts to establish such life forms as we had decided would be best adapted to the unfolding physical environment — both terrestrial and spatial.
(665.1) 58:1.6 Subsequently the Satania commission of Life Carriers returned to Jerusem, preferring to await the further breakup of the continental land mass, which would afford still more inland seas and sheltered bays, before actually beginning life implantation.
(665.2) 58:1.7 On a planet where life has a marine origin the ideal conditions for life implantation are provided by a large number of inland seas, by an extensive shore line of shallow waters and sheltered bays; and just such a distribution of the earth’s waters was rapidly developing. These ancient inland seas were seldom over five or six hundred feet deep, and sunlight can penetrate ocean water for more than six hundred feet.
(665.3) 58:1.8 And it was from such seashores of the mild and equable climes of a later age that primitive plant life found its way onto the land. There the high degree of carbon in the atmosphere afforded the new land varieties of life opportunity for speedy and luxuriant growth. Though this atmosphere was then ideal for plant growth, it contained such a high degree of carbon dioxide that no animal, much less man, could have lived on the face of the earth.
2. The Urantia Atmosphere
(665.5) 58:2.2 The earth’s atmosphere is all but opaque to much of the solar radiation at the extreme ultraviolet end of the spectrum. Most of these short wave lengths are absorbed by a layer of ozone which exists throughout a level about ten miles above the surface of the earth, and which extends spaceward for another ten miles. The ozone permeating this region, at conditions prevailing on the earth’s surface, would make a layer only one tenth of an inch thick; nevertheless, this relatively small and apparently insignificant amount of ozone protects Urantia inhabitants from the excess of these dangerous and destructive ultraviolet radiations present in sunlight. But were this ozone layer just a trifle thicker, you would be deprived of the highly important and health-giving ultraviolet rays which now reach the earth’s surface, and which are ancestral to one of the most essential of your vitamins.
(665.6) 58:2.3 And yet some of the less imaginative of your mortal mechanists insist on viewing material creation and human evolution as an accident. The Urantia midwayers have assembled over fifty thousand facts of physics and chemistry which they deem to be incompatible with the laws of accidental chance, and which they contend unmistakably demonstrate the presence of intelligent purpose in the material creation. And all of this takes no account of their catalogue of more than one hundred thousand findings outside the domain of physics and chemistry which they maintain prove the presence of mind in the planning, creation, and maintenance of the material cosmos.
(666.1) 58:2.4 Your sun pours forth a veritable flood of death-dealing rays, and your pleasant life on Urantia is due to the “fortuitous” influence of more than two-score apparently accidental protective operations similar to the action of this unique ozone layer.
(666.2) 58:2.5 Were it not for the “blanketing” effect of the atmosphere at night, heat would be lost by radiation so rapidly that life would be impossible of maintenance except by artificial provision.
(666.3) 58:2.6 The lower five or six miles of the earth’s atmosphere is the troposphere; this is the region of winds and air currents which provide weather phenomena. Above this region is the inner ionosphere and next above is the stratosphere. Ascending from the surface of the earth, the temperature steadily falls for six or eight miles, at which height it registers around 70 degrees below zero F. This temperature range of from 65 to 70 degrees below zero F. is unchanged in the further ascent for forty miles; this realm of constant temperature is the stratosphere. At a height of forty-five or fifty miles, the temperature begins to rise, and this increase continues until, at the level of the auroral displays, a temperature of 1200° F. is attained, and it is this intense heat that ionizes the oxygen. But temperature in such a rarefied atmosphere is hardly comparable with heat reckoning at the surface of the earth. Bear in mind that one half of all your atmosphere is to be found in the first three miles. The height of the earth’s atmosphere is indicated by the highest auroral streamers — about four hundred miles.
(666.4) 58:2.7 Auroral phenomena are directly related to sunspots, those solar cyclones which whirl in opposite directions above and below the solar equator, even as do the terrestrial tropical hurricanes. Such atmospheric disturbances whirl in opposite directions when occurring above or below the equator.
(666.5) 58:2.8 The power of sunspots to alter light frequencies shows that these solar storm centers function as enormous magnets. Such magnetic fields are able to hurl charged particles from the sunspot craters out through space to the earth’s outer atmosphere, where their ionizing influence produces such spectacular auroral displays. Therefore do you have the greatest auroral phenomena when sunspots are at their height — or soon thereafter — at which time the spots are more generally equatorially situated.
(666.6) 58:2.9 Even the compass needle is responsive to this solar influence since it turns slightly to the east as the sun rises and slightly to the west as the sun nears setting. This happens every day, but during the height of sunspot cycles this variation of the compass is twice as great. These diurnal wanderings of the compass are in response to the increased ionization of the upper atmosphere, which is produced by the sunlight.
(666.7) 58:2.10 It is the presence of two different levels of electrified conducting regions in the superstratosphere that accounts for the long-distance transmission of your long- and short-wave radiobroadcasts. Your broadcasting is sometimes disturbed by the terrific storms which occasionally rage in the realms of these outer ionospheres.
3. Spatial Environment
(667.1) 58:3.2 This short-ray energy charge of universe space is four hundred times greater than all other forms of radiant energy existing in the organized space domains. The output of short space rays, whether coming from the blazing nebulae, tense electric fields, outer space, or the vast hydrogen dust clouds, is modified qualitatively and quantitatively by fluctuations of, and sudden tension changes in, temperature, gravity, and electronic pressures.
(667.2) 58:3.3 These eventualities in the origin of the space rays are determined by many cosmic occurrences as well as by the orbits of circulating matter, which vary from modified circles to extreme ellipses. Physical conditions may also be greatly altered because the electron spin is sometimes in the opposite direction from that of the grosser matter behavior, even in the same physical zone.
(667.3) 58:3.4 The vast hydrogen clouds are veritable cosmic chemical laboratories, harboring all phases of evolving energy and metamorphosing matter. Great energy actions also occur in the marginal gases of the great binary stars which so frequently overlap and hence extensively commingle. But none of these tremendous and far-flung energy activities of space exerts the least influence upon the phenomena of organized life — the germ plasm of living things and beings. These energy conditions of space are germane to the essential environment of life establishment, but they are not effective in the subsequent modification of the inheritance factors of the germ plasm as are some of the longer rays of radiant energy. The implanted life of the Life Carriers is fully resistant to all of this amazing flood of the short space rays of universe energy.
(667.4) 58:3.5 All of these essential cosmic conditions had to evolve to a favorable status before the Life Carriers could actually begin the establishment of life on Urantia.
4. The Life-Dawn Era
(667.6) 58:4.2 550,000,000 years ago the Life Carrier corps returned to Urantia. In co-operation with spiritual powers and superphysical forces we organized and initiated the original life patterns of this world and planted them in the hospitable waters of the realm. All planetary life (aside from extraplanetary personalities) down to the days of Caligastia, the Planetary Prince, had its origin in our three original, identical, and simultaneous marine-life implantations. These three life implantations have been designated as: the central or Eurasian-African, the eastern or Australasian, and the western, embracing Greenland and the Americas.
(668.1) 58:4.3 500,000,000 years ago primitive marine vegetable life was well established on Urantia. Greenland and the arctic land mass, together with North and South America, were beginning their long and slow westward drift. Africa moved slightly south, creating an east and west trough, the Mediterranean basin, between itself and the mother body. Antarctica, Australia, and the land indicated by the islands of the Pacific broke away on the south and east and have drifted far away since that day.
(668.2) 58:4.4 We had planted the primitive form of marine life in the sheltered tropic bays of the central seas of the east-west cleavage of the breaking-up continental land mass. Our purpose in making three marine-life implantations was to insure that each great land mass would carry this life with it, in its warm-water seas, as the land subsequently separated. We foresaw that in the later era of the emergence of land life large oceans of water would separate these drifting continental land masses.
5. The Continental Drift
(668.4) 58:5.2 The outer one thousand miles of the earth’s mass consists principally of different kinds of rock. Underneath are the denser and heavier metallic elements. Throughout the early and preatmospheric ages the world was so nearly fluid in its molten and highly heated state that the heavier metals sank deep into the interior. Those found near the surface today represent the exudate of ancient volcanoes, later and extensive lava flows, and the more recent meteoric deposits.
(668.5) 58:5.3 The outer crust was about forty miles thick. This outer shell was supported by, and rested directly upon, a molten sea of basalt of varying thickness, a mobile layer of molten lava held under high pressure but always tending to flow hither and yon in equalization of shifting planetary pressures, thereby tending to stabilize the earth’s crust.
(668.6) 58:5.4 Even today the continents continue to float upon this noncrystallized cushiony sea of molten basalt. Were it not for this protective condition, the more severe earthquakes would literally shake the world to pieces. Earthquakes are caused by sliding and shifting of the solid outer crust and not by volcanoes.
(668.7) 58:5.5 The lava layers of the earth’s crust, when cooled, form granite. The average density of Urantia is a little more than five and one-half times that of water; the density of granite is less than three times that of water. The earth’s core is twelve times as dense as water.
(668.8) 58:5.6 The sea bottoms are more dense than the land masses, and this is what keeps the continents above water. When the sea bottoms are extruded above the sea level, they are found to consist largely of basalt, a form of lava considerably heavier than the granite of the land masses. Again, if the continents were not lighter than the ocean beds, gravity would draw the edges of the oceans up onto the land, but such phenomena are not observable.
(668.9) 58:5.7 The weight of the oceans is also a factor in the increase of pressure on the sea beds. The lower but comparatively heavier ocean beds, plus the weight of the overlying water, approximate the weight of the higher but much lighter continents. But all continents tend to creep into the oceans. The continental pressure at ocean-bottom levels is about 20,000 pounds to the square inch. That is, this would be the pressure of a continental mass standing 15,000 feet above the ocean floor. The ocean-floor water pressure is only about 5,000 pounds to the square inch. These differential pressures tend to cause the continents to slide toward the ocean beds.
(669.1) 58:5.8 Depression of the ocean bottom during the prelife ages had upthrust a solitary continental land mass to such a height that its lateral pressure tended to cause the eastern, western, and southern fringes to slide downhill, over the underlying semiviscous lava beds, into the waters of the surrounding Pacific Ocean. This so fully compensated the continental pressure that a wide break did not occur on the eastern shore of this ancient Asiatic continent, but ever since has that eastern coast line hovered over the precipice of its adjoining oceanic depths, threatening to slide into a watery grave.
6. The Transition Period
(669.3) 58:6.2 Although the evolution of vegetable life can be traced into animal life, and though there have been found graduated series of plants and animals which progressively lead up from the most simple to the most complex and advanced organisms, you will not be able to find such connecting links between the great divisions of the animal kingdom nor between the highest of the prehuman animal types and the dawn men of the human races. These so-called “missing links” will forever remain missing, for the simple reason that they never existed.
(669.4) 58:6.3 From era to era radically new species of animal life arise. They do not evolve as the result of the gradual accumulation of small variations; they appear as full-fledged and new orders of life, and they appear suddenly.
(669.5) 58:6.4 The sudden appearance of new species and diversified orders of living organisms is wholly biologic, strictly natural. There is nothing supernatural connected with these genetic mutations.
(669.6) 58:6.5 At the proper degree of saltiness in the oceans animal life evolved, and it was comparatively simple to allow the briny waters to circulate through the animal bodies of marine life. But when the oceans were contracted and the percentage of salt was greatly increased, these same animals evolved the ability to reduce the saltiness of their body fluids just as those organisms which learned to live in fresh water acquired the ability to maintain the proper degree of sodium chloride in their body fluids by ingenious techniques of salt conservation.
(669.7) 58:6.6 Study of the rock-embraced fossils of marine life reveals the early adjustment struggles of these primitive organisms. Plants and animals never cease to make these adjustment experiments. Ever the environment is changing, and always are living organisms striving to accommodate themselves to these never-ending fluctuations.
(670.1) 58:6.7 The physiologic equipment and the anatomic structure of all new orders of life are in response to the action of physical law, but the subsequent endowment of mind is a bestowal of the adjutant mind-spirits in accordance with innate brain capacity. Mind, while not a physical evolution, is wholly dependent on the brain capacity afforded by purely physical and evolutionary developments.
(670.2) 58:6.8 Through almost endless cycles of gains and losses, adjustments and readjustments, all living organisms swing back and forth from age to age. Those that attain cosmic unity persist, while those that fall short of this goal cease to exist.
7. The Geologic History Book
(670.4) 58:7.2 Fossils of this era yield algae, corallike plants, primitive Protozoa, and spongelike transition organisms. But the absence of such fossils in the early rock layers does not necessarily prove that living things were not elsewhere in existence at the time of their deposition. Life was sparse throughout these early times and only slowly made its way over the face of the earth.
(670.5) 58:7.3 The rocks of this olden age are now at the earth’s surface, or very near the surface, over about one eighth of the present land area. The average thickness of this transition stone, the oldest stratified rock layers, is about one and one-half miles. At some points these ancient rock systems are as much as four miles thick, but many of the layers which have been ascribed to this era belong to later periods.
(670.6) 58:7.4 In North America this ancient and primitive fossil-bearing stone layer comes to the surface over the eastern, central, and northern regions of Canada. There is also an intermittent east-west ridge of this rock which extends from Pennsylvania and the ancient Adirondack Mountains on west through Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Other ridges run from Newfoundland to Alabama and from Alaska to Mexico.
(670.7) 58:7.5 The rocks of this era are exposed here and there all over the world, but none are so easy of interpretation as those about Lake Superior and in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, where these primitive fossil-bearing rocks, existing in several layers, testify to the upheavals and surface fluctuations of those faraway times.
(670.8) 58:7.6 This stone layer, the oldest fossil-bearing stratum in the crust of the earth, has been crumpled, folded, and grotesquely twisted as a result of the upheavals of earthquakes and the early volcanoes. The lava flows of this age brought much iron, copper, and lead up near the planetary surface.
(670.9) 58:7.7 There are few places on the earth where such activities are more graphically shown than in the St. Croix valley of Wisconsin. In this region there occurred one hundred and twenty-seven successive lava flows on land with succeeding water submergence and consequent rock deposition. Although much of the upper rock sedimentation and intermittent lava flow is absent today, and though the bottom of this system is buried deep in the earth, nevertheless, about sixty-five or seventy of these stratified records of past ages are now exposed to view.
(671.1) 58:7.8 In these early ages when much land was near sea level, there occurred many successive submergences and emergences. The earth’s crust was just entering upon its later period of comparative stabilization. The undulations, rises and dips, of the earlier continental drift contributed to the frequency of the periodic submergence of the great land masses.
(671.2) 58:7.9 During these times of primitive marine life, extensive areas of the continental shores sank beneath the seas from a few feet to half a mile. Much of the older sandstone and conglomerates represents the sedimentary accumulations of these ancient shores. The sedimentary rocks belonging to this early stratification rest directly upon those layers which date back far beyond the origin of life, back to the early appearance of the world-wide ocean.
(671.3) 58:7.10 Some of the upper layers of these transition rock deposits contain small amounts of shale or slate of dark colors, indicating the presence of organic carbon and testifying to the existence of the ancestors of those forms of plant life which overran the earth during the succeeding Carboniferous or coal age. Much of the copper in these rock layers results from water deposition. Some is found in the cracks of the older rocks and is the concentrate of the sluggish swamp water of some ancient sheltered shore line. The iron mines of North America and Europe are located in deposits and extrusions lying partly in the older unstratified rocks and partly in these later stratified rocks of the transition periods of life formation.
(671.4) 58:7.11 This era witnesses the spread of life throughout the waters of the world; marine life has become well established on Urantia. The bottoms of the shallow and extensive inland seas are being gradually overrun by a profuse and luxuriant growth of vegetation, while the shore-line waters are swarming with the simple forms of animal life.
(671.5) 58:7.12 All of this story is graphically told within the fossil pages of the vast “stone book” of world record. And the pages of this gigantic biogeologic record unfailingly tell the truth if you but acquire skill in their interpretation. Many of these ancient sea beds are now elevated high upon land, and their deposits of age upon age tell the story of the life struggles of those early days. It is literally true, as your poet has said, “The dust we tread upon was once alive.”
(671.6) 58:7.13 [Presented by a member of the Urantia Life Carrier Corps now resident on the planet.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 59
The Marine-Life Era on Urantia
(672.2) 59:0.2 1. The prelife era extends over the initial four hundred and fifty million years, from about the time the planet attained its present size to the time of life establishment. Your students have designated this period as the Archeozoic.(672.7) 59:0.7 The marine-life era thus covers about one quarter of your planetary history. It may be subdivided into six long periods, each characterized by certain well-defined developments in both the geologic realms and the biologic domains.
(672.3) 59:0.3 2. The life-dawn era extends over the next one hundred and fifty million years. This epoch intervenes between the preceding prelife or cataclysmic age and the following period of more highly developed marine life. This era is known to your researchers as the Proterozoic.
(672.4) 59:0.4 3. The marine-life era covers the next two hundred and fifty million years and is best known to you as the Paleozoic.
(672.5) 59:0.5 4. The early land-life era extends over the next one hundred million years and is known as the Mesozoic.
(672.6) 59:0.6 5. The mammalian era occupies the last fifty million years. This recent-times era is known as the Cenozoic.
(672.8) 59:0.8 As this era begins, the sea bottoms, the extensive continental shelves, and the numerous shallow near-shore basins are covered with prolific vegetation. The more simple and primitive forms of animal life have already developed from preceding vegetable organisms, and the early animal organisms have gradually made their way along the extensive coast lines of the various land masses until the many inland seas are teeming with primitive marine life. Since so few of these early organisms had shells, not many have been preserved as fossils. Nevertheless the stage is set for the opening chapters of that great “stone book” of the life-record preservation which was so methodically laid down during the succeeding ages.
(672.9) 59:0.9 The continent of North America is wonderfully rich in the fossil-bearing deposits of the entire marine-life era. The very first and oldest layers are separated from the later strata of the preceding period by extensive erosion deposits which clearly segregate these two stages of planetary development.
1. Early Marine Life in the Shallow Seas
The Trilobite Age
(673.2) 59:1.2 400,000,000 years ago marine life, both vegetable and animal, is fairly well distributed over the whole world. The world climate grows slightly warmer and becomes more equable. There is a general inundation of the seashores of the various continents, particularly of North and South America. New oceans appear, and the older bodies of water are greatly enlarged.
(673.3) 59:1.3 Vegetation now for the first time crawls out upon the land and soon makes considerable progress in adaptation to a nonmarine habitat.
(673.4) 59:1.4 Suddenly and without gradation ancestry the first multicellular animals make their appearance. The trilobites have evolved, and for ages they dominate the seas. From the standpoint of marine life this is the trilobite age.
(673.5) 59:1.5 In the later portion of this time segment much of North America and Europe emerged from the sea. The crust of the earth was temporarily stabilized; mountains, or rather high elevations of land, rose along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, over the West Indies, and in southern Europe. The entire Caribbean region was highly elevated.
(673.6) 59:1.6 390,000,000 years ago the land was still elevated. Over parts of eastern and western America and western Europe may be found the stone strata laid down during these times, and these are the oldest rocks which contain trilobite fossils. There were many long fingerlike gulfs projecting into the land masses in which were deposited these fossil-bearing rocks.
(673.7) 59:1.7 Within a few million years the Pacific Ocean began to invade the American continents. The sinking of the land was principally due to crustal adjustment, although the lateral land spread, or continental creep, was also a factor.
(673.8) 59:1.8 380,000,000 years ago Asia was subsiding, and all other continents were experiencing a short-lived emergence. But as this epoch progressed, the newly appearing Atlantic Ocean made extensive inroads on all adjacent coast lines. The northern Atlantic or Arctic seas were then connected with the southern Gulf waters. When this southern sea entered the Appalachian trough, its waves broke upon the east against mountains as high as the Alps, but in general the continents were uninteresting lowlands, utterly devoid of scenic beauty.
(673.9) 59:1.9 The sedimentary deposits of these ages are of four sorts:
(673.10) 59:1.10 1. Conglomerates — matter deposited near the shore lines.(673.14) 59:1.14 The trilobite fossils of these times present certain basic uniformities coupled with certain well-marked variations. The early animals developing from the three original life implantations were characteristic; those appearing in the Western Hemisphere were slightly different from those of the Eurasian group and from the Australasian or Australian-Antarctic type.
(673.11) 59:1.11 2. Sandstones — deposits made in shallow water but where the waves were sufficient to prevent mud settling.
(673.12) 59:1.12 3. Shales — deposits made in the deeper and more quiet water.
(673.13) 59:1.13 4. Limestone — including the deposits of trilobite shells in deep water.
(674.1) 59:1.15 370,000,000 years ago the great and almost total submergence of North and South America occurred, followed by the sinking of Africa and Australia. Only certain parts of North America remained above these shallow Cambrian seas. Five million years later the seas were retreating before the rising land. And all of these phenomena of land sinking and land rising were undramatic, taking place slowly over millions of years.
(674.2) 59:1.16 The trilobite fossil-bearing strata of this epoch outcrop here and there throughout all the continents except in central Asia. In many regions these rocks are horizontal, but in the mountains they are tilted and distorted because of pressure and folding. And such pressure has, in many places, changed the original character of these deposits. Sandstone has been turned into quartz, shale has been changed to slate, while limestone has been converted into marble.
(674.3) 59:1.17 360,000,000 years ago the land was still rising. North and South America were well up. Western Europe and the British Isles were emerging, except parts of Wales, which were deeply submerged. There were no great ice sheets during these ages. The supposed glacial deposits appearing in connection with these strata in Europe, Africa, China, and Australia are due to isolated mountain glaciers or to the displacement of glacial debris of later origin. The world climate was oceanic, not continental. The southern seas were warmer then than now, and they extended northward over North America up to the polar regions. The Gulf Stream coursed over the central portion of North America, being deflected eastward to bathe and warm the shores of Greenland, making that now ice-mantled continent a veritable tropic paradise.*
(674.4) 59:1.18 The marine life was much alike the world over and consisted of the seaweeds, one-celled organisms, simple sponges, trilobites, and other crustaceans — shrimps, crabs, and lobsters. Three thousand varieties of brachiopods appeared at the close of this period, only two hundred of which have survived. These animals represent a variety of early life which has come down to the present time practically unchanged.
(674.5) 59:1.19 But the trilobites were the dominant living creatures. They were sexed animals and existed in many forms; being poor swimmers, they sluggishly floated in the water or crawled along the sea bottoms, curling up in self-protection when attacked by their later appearing enemies. They grew in length from two inches to one foot and developed into four distinct groups: carnivorous, herbivorous, omnivorous, and “mud eaters.” The ability of the latter group largely to subsist on inorganic matter — being the last multicelled animal that could — explains their great increase and long survival.
(674.6) 59:1.20 This was the biogeologic picture of Urantia at the end of that long period of the world’s history, embracing fifty million years, designated by your geologists as the Cambrian.
2. The First Continental Flood Stage
The Invertebrate-Animal Age
(675.1) 59:2.2 350,000,000 years ago saw the beginning of the great flood period of all the continents except central Asia. The land masses were repeatedly covered with water; only the coastal highlands remained above these shallow but widespread oscillatory inland seas. Three major inundations characterized this period, but before it ended, the continents again arose, the total land emergence being fifteen per cent greater than now exists. The Caribbean region was highly elevated. This period is not well marked off in Europe because the land fluctuations were less, while the volcanic action was more persistent.
(675.2) 59:2.3 340,000,000 years ago there occurred another extensive land sinking except in Asia and Australia. The waters of the world’s oceans were generally commingled. This was a great limestone age, much of its stone being laid down by lime-secreting algae.
(675.3) 59:2.4 A few million years later large portions of the American continents and Europe began to emerge from the water. In the Western Hemisphere only an arm of the Pacific Ocean remained over Mexico and the present Rocky Mountain regions, but near the close of this epoch the Atlantic and Pacific coasts again began to sink.
(675.4) 59:2.5 330,000,000 years ago marks the beginning of a time sector of comparative quiet all over the world, with much land again above water. The only exception to this reign of terrestrial quiet was the eruption of the great North American volcano of eastern Kentucky, one of the greatest single volcanic activities the world has ever known. The ashes of this volcano covered five hundred square miles to a depth of from fifteen to twenty feet.
(675.5) 59:2.6 320,000,000 years ago the third major flood of this period occurred. The waters of this inundation covered all the land submerged by the preceding deluge, while extending farther in many directions all over the Americas and Europe. Eastern North America and western Europe were from 10,000 to 15,000 feet under water.
(675.6) 59:2.7 310,000,000 years ago the land masses of the world were again well up excepting the southern parts of North America. Mexico emerged, thus creating the Gulf Sea, which has ever since maintained its identity.
(675.7) 59:2.8 The life of this period continues to evolve. The world is once again quiet and relatively peaceful; the climate remains mild and equable; the land plants are migrating farther and farther from the seashores. The life patterns are well developed, although few plant fossils of these times are to be found.
(675.8) 59:2.9 This was the great age of individual animal organismal evolution, though many of the basic changes, such as the transition from plant to animal, had previously occurred. The marine fauna developed to the point where every type of life below the vertebrate scale was represented in the fossils of those rocks which were laid down during these times. But all of these animals were marine organisms. No land animals had yet appeared except a few types of worms which burrowed along the seashores, nor had the land plants yet overspread the continents; there was still too much carbon dioxide in the air to permit of the existence of air breathers. Primarily, all animals except certain of the more primitive ones are directly or indirectly dependent on plant life for their existence.
(676.1) 59:2.10 The trilobites were still prominent. These little animals existed in tens of thousands of patterns and were the predecessors of modern crustaceans. Some of the trilobites had from twenty-five to four thousand tiny eyelets; others had aborted eyes. As this period closed, the trilobites shared domination of the seas with several other forms of invertebrate life. But they utterly perished during the beginning of the next period.
(676.2) 59:2.11 Lime-secreting algae were widespread. There existed thousands of species of the early ancestors of the corals. Sea worms were abundant, and there were many varieties of jellyfish which have since become extinct. Corals and the later types of sponges evolved. The cephalopods were well developed, and they have survived as the modern pearly nautilus, octopus, cuttlefish, and squid.
(676.3) 59:2.12 There were many varieties of shell animals, but their shells were not then so much needed for defensive purposes as in subsequent ages. The gastropods were present in the waters of the ancient seas, and they included single-shelled drills, periwinkles, and snails. The bivalve gastropods have come on down through the intervening millions of years much as they then existed and embrace the mussels, clams, oysters, and scallops. The valve-shelled organisms also evolved, and these brachiopods lived in those ancient waters much as they exist today; they even had hinged, notched, and other sorts of protective arrangements of their valves.*
(676.4) 59:2.13 So ends the evolutionary story of the second great period of marine life, which is known to your geologists as the Ordovician.
3. The Second Great Flood Stage
The Coral Period — The Brachiopod Age
(676.6) 59:3.2 No fire rocks or lava are found in the stone layers of this period except those of the great volcanoes of southern Europe and eastern Maine and the lava flows of Quebec. Volcanic action was largely past. This was the height of great water deposition; there was little or no mountain building.
(676.7) 59:3.3 290,000,000 years ago the sea had largely withdrawn from the continents, and the bottoms of the surrounding oceans were sinking. The land masses were little changed until they were again submerged. The early mountain movements of all the continents were beginning, and the greatest of these crustal upheavals were the Himalayas of Asia and the great Caledonian Mountains, extending from Ireland through Scotland and on to Spitzbergen.
(677.1) 59:3.4 It is in the deposits of this age that much of the gas, oil, zinc, and lead are found, the gas and oil being derived from the enormous collections of vegetable and animal matter carried down at the time of the previous land submergence, while the mineral deposits represent the sedimentation of sluggish bodies of water. Many of the rock salt deposits belong to this period.
(677.2) 59:3.5 The trilobites rapidly declined, and the center of the stage was occupied by the larger mollusks, or cephalopods. These animals grew to be fifteen feet long and one foot in diameter and became masters of the seas. This species of animal appeared suddenly and assumed dominance of sea life.
(677.3) 59:3.6 The great volcanic activity of this age was in the European sector. Not in millions upon millions of years had such violent and extensive volcanic eruptions occurred as now took place around the Mediterranean trough and especially in the neighborhood of the British Isles. This lava flow over the British Isles region today appears as alternate layers of lava and rock 25,000 feet thick. These rocks were laid down by the intermittent lava flows which spread out over a shallow sea bed, thus interspersing the rock deposits, and all of this was subsequently elevated high above the sea. Violent earthquakes took place in northern Europe, notably in Scotland.
(677.4) 59:3.7 The oceanic climate remained mild and uniform, and the warm seas bathed the shores of the polar lands. Brachiopod and other marine-life fossils may be found in these deposits right up to the North Pole. Gastropods, brachiopods, sponges, and reef-making corals continued to increase.
(677.5) 59:3.8 The close of this epoch witnesses the second advance of the Silurian seas with another commingling of the waters of the southern and northern oceans. The cephalopods dominate marine life, while associated forms of life progressively develop and differentiate.
(677.6) 59:3.9 280,000,000 years ago the continents had largely emerged from the second Silurian inundation. The rock deposits of this submergence are known in North America as Niagara limestone because this is the stratum of rock over which Niagara Falls now flows. This layer of rock extends from the eastern mountains to the Mississippi valley region but not farther west except to the south. Several layers extend over Canada, portions of South America, Australia, and most of Europe, the average thickness of this Niagara series being about six hundred feet. Immediately overlying the Niagara deposit, in many regions may be found a collection of conglomerate, shale, and rock salt. This is the accumulation of secondary subsidences. This salt settled in great lagoons which were alternately opened up to the sea and then cut off so that evaporation occurred with deposition of salt along with other matter held in solution. In some regions these rock salt beds are seventy feet thick.
(677.7) 59:3.10 The climate is even and mild, and marine fossils are laid down in the arctic regions. But by the end of this epoch the seas are so excessively salty that little life survives.
(677.8) 59:3.11 Toward the close of the final Silurian submergence there is a great increase in the echinoderms — the stone lilies — as is evidenced by the crinoid limestone deposits. The trilobites have nearly disappeared, and the mollusks continue monarchs of the seas; coral-reef formation increases greatly. During this age, in the more favorable locations the primitive water scorpions first evolve. Soon thereafter, and suddenly, the true scorpions — actual air breathers — make their appearance.
(678.1) 59:3.12 These developments terminate the third marine-life period, covering twenty-five million years and known to your researchers as the Silurian.
4. The Great Land-Emergence Stage
The Vegetative Land-Life Period
The Age of Fishes
(678.3) 59:4.2 As the land emerges from the last Silurian inundation, an important period in world development and life evolution comes to an end. It is the dawn of a new age on earth. The naked and unattractive landscape of former times is becoming clothed with luxuriant verdure, and the first magnificent forests will soon appear.
(678.4) 59:4.3 The marine life of this age was very diverse due to the early species segregation, but later on there was free commingling and association of all these different types. The brachiopods early reached their climax, being succeeded by the arthropods, and barnacles made their first appearance. But the greatest event of all was the sudden appearance of the fish family. This became the age of fishes, that period of the world’s history characterized by the vertebrate type of animal.
(678.5) 59:4.4 270,000,000 years ago the continents were all above water. In millions upon millions of years not so much land had been above water at one time; it was one of the greatest land-emergence epochs in all world history.
(678.6) 59:4.5 Five million years later the land areas of North and South America, Europe, Africa, northern Asia, and Australia were briefly inundated, in North America the submergence at one time or another being almost complete; and the resulting limestone layers run from 500 to 5,000 feet in thickness. These various Devonian seas extended first in one direction and then in another so that the immense arctic North American inland sea found an outlet to the Pacific Ocean through northern California.
(678.7) 59:4.6 260,000,000 years ago, toward the end of this land-depression epoch, North America was partially overspread by seas having simultaneous connection with the Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic, and Gulf waters. The deposits of these later stages of the first Devonian flood average about one thousand feet in thickness. The coral reefs characterizing these times indicate that the inland seas were clear and shallow. Such coral deposits are exposed in the banks of the Ohio River near Louisville, Kentucky, and are about one hundred feet thick, embracing more than two hundred varieties. These coral formations extend through Canada and northern Europe to the arctic regions.
(678.8) 59:4.7 Following these submergences, many of the shore lines were considerably elevated so that the earlier deposits were covered by mud or shale. There is also a red sandstone stratum which characterizes one of the Devonian sedimentations, and this red layer extends over much of the earth’s surface, being found in North and South America, Europe, Russia, China, Africa, and Australia. Such red deposits are suggestive of arid or semiarid conditions, but the climate of this epoch was still mild and even.
(679.1) 59:4.8 Throughout all of this period the land southeast of the Cincinnati Island remained well above water. But very much of western Europe, including the British Isles, was submerged. In Wales, Germany, and other places in Europe the Devonian rocks are 20,000 feet thick.
(679.2) 59:4.9 250,000,000 years ago witnessed the appearance of the fish family, the vertebrates, one of the most important steps in all prehuman evolution.
(679.3) 59:4.10 The arthropods, or crustaceans, were the ancestors of the first vertebrates. The forerunners of the fish family were two modified arthropod ancestors; one had a long body connecting a head and tail, while the other was a backboneless, jawless prefish. But these preliminary types were quickly destroyed when the fishes, the first vertebrates of the animal world, made their sudden appearance from the north.
(679.4) 59:4.11 Many of the largest true fish belong to this age, some of the teeth-bearing varieties being twenty-five to thirty feet long; the present-day sharks are the survivors of these ancient fishes. The lung and armored fishes reached their evolutionary apex, and before this epoch had ended, fishes had adapted to both fresh and salt waters.
(679.5) 59:4.12 Veritable bone beds of fish teeth and skeletons may be found in the deposits laid down toward the close of this period, and rich fossil beds are situated along the coast of California since many sheltered bays of the Pacific Ocean extended into the land of that region.
(679.6) 59:4.13 The earth was being rapidly overrun by the new orders of land vegetation. Heretofore few plants grew on land except about the water’s edge. Now, and suddenly, the prolific fern family appeared and quickly spread over the face of the rapidly rising land in all parts of the world. Tree types, two feet thick and forty feet high, soon developed; later on, leaves evolved, but these early varieties had only rudimentary foliage. There were many smaller plants, but their fossils are not found since they were usually destroyed by the still earlier appearing bacteria.
(679.7) 59:4.14 As the land rose, North America became connected with Europe by land bridges extending to Greenland. And today Greenland holds the remains of these early land plants beneath its mantle of ice.
(679.8) 59:4.15 240,000,000 years ago the land over parts of both Europe and North and South America began to sink. This subsidence marked the appearance of the last and least extensive of the Devonian floods. The arctic seas again moved southward over much of North America, the Atlantic inundated a large part of Europe and western Asia, while the southern Pacific covered most of India. This inundation was slow in appearing and equally slow in retreating. The Catskill Mountains along the west bank of the Hudson River are one of the largest geologic monuments of this epoch to be found on the surface of North America.
(679.9) 59:4.16 230,000,000 years ago the seas were continuing their retreat. Much of North America was above water, and great volcanic activity occurred in the St. Lawrence region. Mount Royal, at Montreal, is the eroded neck of one of these volcanoes. The deposits of this entire epoch are well shown in the Appalachian Mountains of North America where the Susquehanna River has cut a valley exposing these successive layers, which attained a thickness of over 13,000 feet.
(680.1) 59:4.17 The elevation of the continents proceeded, and the atmosphere was becoming enriched with oxygen. The earth was overspread by vast forests of ferns one hundred feet high and by the peculiar trees of those days, silent forests; not a sound was heard, not even the rustle of a leaf, for such trees had no leaves.
(680.2) 59:4.18 And thus drew to a close one of the longest periods of marine-life evolution, the age of fishes. This period of the world’s history lasted almost fifty million years; it has become known to your researchers as the Devonian.
5. The Crustal-Shifting Stage
The Fern-Forest Carboniferous Period
The Age of Frogs
(680.4) 59:5.2 220,000,000 years ago many of the continental land areas, including most of North America, were above water. The land was overrun by luxurious vegetation; this was indeed the age of ferns. Carbon dioxide was still present in the atmosphere but in lessening degree.
(680.5) 59:5.3 Shortly thereafter the central portion of North America was inundated, creating two great inland seas. Both the Atlantic and Pacific coastal highlands were situated just beyond the present shore lines. These two seas presently united, commingling their different forms of life, and the union of these marine fauna marked the beginning of the rapid and world-wide decline in marine life and the opening of the subsequent land-life period.
(680.6) 59:5.4 210,000,000 years ago the warm-water arctic seas covered most of North America and Europe. The south polar waters inundated South America and Australia, while both Africa and Asia were highly elevated.
(680.7) 59:5.5 When the seas were at their height, a new evolutionary development suddenly occurred. Abruptly, the first of the land animals appeared. There were numerous species of these animals that were able to live on land or in water. These air-breathing amphibians developed from the arthropods, whose swim bladders had evolved into lungs.
(680.8) 59:5.6 From the briny waters of the seas there crawled out upon the land snails, scorpions, and frogs. Today frogs still lay their eggs in water, and their young first exist as little fishes, tadpoles. This period could well be known as the age of frogs.
(680.9) 59:5.7 Very soon thereafter the insects first appeared and, together with spiders, scorpions, cockroaches, crickets, and locusts, soon overspread the continents of the world. Dragon flies measured thirty inches across. One thousand species of cockroaches developed, and some grew to be four inches long.
(680.10) 59:5.8 Two groups of echinoderms became especially well developed, and they are in reality the guide fossils of this epoch. The large shell-feeding sharks were also highly evolved, and for more than five million years they dominated the oceans. The climate was still mild and equable; the marine life was little changed. Fresh-water fish were developing and the trilobites were nearing extinction. Corals were scarce, and much of the limestone was being made by the crinoids. The finer building limestones were laid down during this epoch.
(681.1) 59:5.9 The waters of many of the inland seas were so heavily charged with lime and other minerals as greatly to interfere with the progress and development of many marine species. Eventually the seas cleared up as the result of an extensive stone deposit, in some places containing zinc and lead.
(681.2) 59:5.10 The deposits of this early Carboniferous age are from 500 to 2,000 feet thick, consisting of sandstone, shale, and limestone. The oldest strata yield the fossils of both land and marine animals and plants, along with much gravel and basin sediments. Little workable coal is found in these older strata. These depositions throughout Europe are very similar to those laid down over North America.
(681.3) 59:5.11 Toward the close of this epoch the land of North America began to rise. There was a short interruption, and the sea returned to cover about half of its previous beds. This was a short inundation, and most of the land was soon well above water. South America was still connected with Europe by way of Africa.
(681.4) 59:5.12 This epoch witnessed the beginning of the Vosges, Black Forest, and Ural mountains. Stumps of other and older mountains are to be found all over Great Britain and Europe.
(681.5) 59:5.13 200,000,000 years ago the really active stages of the Carboniferous period began. For twenty million years prior to this time the earlier coal deposits were being laid down, but now the more extensive coal-formation activities were in process. The length of the actual coal-deposition epoch was a little over twenty-five million years.
(681.6) 59:5.14 The land was periodically going up and down due to the shifting sea level occasioned by activities on the ocean bottoms. This crustal uneasiness — the settling and rising of the land — in connection with the prolific vegetation of the coastal swamps, contributed to the production of extensive coal deposits, which have caused this period to be known as the Carboniferous. And the climate was still mild the world over.
(681.7) 59:5.15 The coal layers alternate with shale, stone, and conglomerate. These coal beds over central and eastern United States vary in thickness from forty to fifty feet. But many of these deposits were washed away during subsequent land elevations. In some parts of North America and Europe the coal-bearing strata are 18,000 feet in thickness.
(681.8) 59:5.16 The presence of roots of trees as they grew in the clay underlying the present coal beds demonstrates that coal was formed exactly where it is now found. Coal is the water-preserved and pressure-modified remains of the rank vegetation growing in the bogs and on the swamp shores of this faraway age. Coal layers often hold both gas and oil. Peat beds, the remains of past vegetable growth, would be converted into a type of coal if subjected to proper pressure and heat. Anthracite has been subjected to more pressure and heat than other coal.
(681.9) 59:5.17 In North America the layers of coal in the various beds, which indicate the number of times the land fell and rose, vary from ten in Illinois, twenty in Pennsylvania, thirty-five in Alabama, to seventy-five in Canada. Both fresh- and salt-water fossils are found in the coal beds.
(682.1) 59:5.18 Throughout this epoch the mountains of North and South America were active, both the Andes and the southern ancestral Rocky Mountains rising. The great Atlantic and Pacific high coastal regions began to sink, eventually becoming so eroded and submerged that the coast lines of both oceans withdrew to approximately their present positions. The deposits of this inundation average about one thousand feet in thickness.
(682.2) 59:5.19 190,000,000 years ago witnessed a westward extension of the North American Carboniferous sea over the present Rocky Mountain region, with an outlet to the Pacific Ocean through northern California. Coal continued to be laid down throughout the Americas and Europe, layer upon layer, as the coastlands rose and fell during these ages of seashore oscillations.
(682.3) 59:5.20 180,000,000 years ago brought the close of the Carboniferous period, during which coal had been formed all over the world — in Europe, India, China, North Africa, and the Americas. At the close of the coal-formation period North America east of the Mississippi valley rose, and most of this section has ever since remained above the sea. This land-elevation period marks the beginning of the modern mountains of North America, both in the Appalachian regions and in the west. Volcanoes were active in Alaska and California and in the mountain-forming regions of Europe and Asia. Eastern America and western Europe were connected by the continent of Greenland.
(682.4) 59:5.21 Land elevation began to modify the marine climate of the preceding ages and to substitute therefor the beginnings of the less mild and more variable continental climate.
(682.5) 59:5.22 The plants of these times were spore bearing, and the wind was able to spread them far and wide. The trunks of the Carboniferous trees were commonly seven feet in diameter and often one hundred and twenty-five feet high. The modern ferns are truly relics of these bygone ages.
(682.6) 59:5.23 In general, these were the epochs of development for fresh-water organisms; little change occurred in the previous marine life. But the important characteristic of this period was the sudden appearance of the frogs and their many cousins. The life features of the coal age were ferns and frogs.
6. The Climatic Transition Stage
The Seed-Plant Period
The Age of Biologic Tribulation
(682.8) 59:6.2 This age was one of great life impoverishment. Thousands of marine species perished, and life was hardly yet established on land. This was a time of biologic tribulation, the age when life nearly vanished from the face of the earth and from the depths of the oceans. Toward the close of the long marine-life era there were more than one hundred thousand species of living things on earth. At the close of this period of transition less than five hundred had survived.
(682.9) 59:6.3 The peculiarities of this new period were not due so much to the cooling of the earth’s crust or to the long absence of volcanic action as to an unusual combination of commonplace and pre-existing influences — restrictions of the seas and increasing elevation of enormous land masses. The mild marine climate of former times was disappearing, and the harsher continental type of weather was fast developing.
(683.1) 59:6.4 170,000,000 years ago great evolutionary changes and adjustments were taking place over the entire face of the earth. Land was rising all over the world as the ocean beds were sinking. Isolated mountain ridges appeared. The eastern part of North America was high above the sea; the west was slowly rising. The continents were covered by great and small salt lakes and numerous inland seas which were connected with the oceans by narrow straits. The strata of this transition period vary in thickness from 1,000 to 7,000 feet.
(683.2) 59:6.5 The earth’s crust folded extensively during these land elevations. This was a time of continental emergence except for the disappearance of certain land bridges, including the continents which had so long connected South America with Africa and North America with Europe.
(683.3) 59:6.6 Gradually the inland lakes and seas were drying up all over the world. Isolated mountain and regional glaciers began to appear, especially over the Southern Hemisphere, and in many regions the glacial deposit of these local ice formations may be found even among some of the upper and later coal deposits. Two new climatic factors appeared — glaciation and aridity. Many of the earth’s higher regions had become arid and barren.
(683.4) 59:6.7 Throughout these times of climatic change, great variations also occurred in the land plants. The seed plants first appeared, and they afforded a better food supply for the subsequently increased land-animal life. The insects underwent a radical change. The resting stages evolved to meet the demands of suspended animation during winter and drought.
(683.5) 59:6.8 Among the land animals the frogs reached their climax in the preceding age and rapidly declined, but they survived because they could long live even in the drying-up pools and ponds of these far-distant and extremely trying times. During this declining frog age, in Africa, the first step in the evolution of the frog into the reptile occurred. And since the land masses were still connected, this prereptilian creature, an air breather, spread over all the world. By this time the atmosphere had been so changed that it served admirably to support animal respiration. It was soon after the arrival of these prereptilian frogs that North America was temporarily isolated, cut off from Europe, Asia, and South America.
(683.6) 59:6.9 The gradual cooling of the ocean waters contributed much to the destruction of oceanic life. The marine animals of those ages took temporary refuge in three favorable retreats: the present Gulf of Mexico region, the Ganges Bay of India, and the Sicilian Bay of the Mediterranean basin. And it was from these three regions that the new marine species, born to adversity, later went forth to replenish the seas.
(683.7) 59:6.10 160,000,000 years ago the land was largely covered with vegetation adapted to support land-animal life, and the atmosphere had become ideal for animal respiration. Thus ends the period of marine-life curtailment and those testing times of biologic adversity which eliminated all forms of life except such as had survival value, and which were therefore entitled to function as the ancestors of the more rapidly developing and highly differentiated life of the ensuing ages of planetary evolution.
(684.1) 59:6.11 The ending of this period of biologic tribulation, known to your students as the Permian, also marks the end of the long Paleozoic era, which covers one quarter of the planetary history, two hundred and fifty million years.
(684.2) 59:6.12 The vast oceanic nursery of life on Urantia has served its purpose. During the long ages when the land was unsuited to support life, before the atmosphere contained sufficient oxygen to sustain the higher land animals, the sea mothered and nurtured the early life of the realm. Now the biologic importance of the sea progressively diminishes as the second stage of evolution begins to unfold on the land.
(684.3) 59:6.13 [Presented by a Life Carrier of Nebadon, one of the original corps assigned to Urantia.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 60
Urantia During the Early Land-Life Era
(685.2) 60:0.2 The closing epochs of the preceding era were indeed the age of frogs, but these ancestors of the land vertebrates were no longer dominant, having survived in greatly reduced numbers. Very few types outlived the rigorous trials of the preceding period of biologic tribulation. Even the spore-bearing plants were nearly extinct.
1. The Early Reptilian Age
(685.4) 60:1.2 Few fossils are to be found in these layers, but numerous sandstone footprints of the land reptiles may be observed. In many regions the one thousand feet of red sandstone deposit of this period contains no fossils. The life of land animals was continuous only in certain parts of Africa.
(685.5) 60:1.3 These deposits vary in thickness from 3,000 to 10,000 feet, even being 18,000 on the Pacific coast. Lava was later forced in between many of these layers. The Palisades of the Hudson River were formed by the extrusion of basalt lava between these Triassic strata. Volcanic action was extensive in different parts of the world.
(685.6) 60:1.4 Over Europe, especially Germany and Russia, may be found deposits of this period. In England the New Red Sandstone belongs to this epoch. Limestone was laid down in the southern Alps as the result of a sea invasion and may now be seen as the peculiar dolomite limestone walls, peaks, and pillars of those regions. This layer is to be found all over Africa and Australia. The Carrara marble comes from such modified limestone. Nothing of this period will be found in the southern regions of South America as that part of the continent remained down and hence presents only a water or marine deposit continuous with the preceding and succeeding epochs.
(686.1) 60:1.5 150,000,000 years ago the early land-life periods of the world’s history began. Life, in general, did not fare well but did better than at the strenuous and hostile close of the marine-life era.
(686.2) 60:1.6 As this era opens, the eastern and central parts of North America, the northern half of South America, most of Europe, and all of Asia are well above water. North America for the first time is geographically isolated, but not for long as the Bering Strait land bridge soon again emerges, connecting the continent with Asia.
(686.3) 60:1.7 Great troughs developed in North America, paralleling the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The great eastern-Connecticut fault appeared, one side eventually sinking two miles. Many of these North American troughs were later filled with erosion deposits, as also were many of the basins of the fresh- and salt-water lakes of the mountain regions. Later on, these filled land depressions were greatly elevated by lava flows which occurred underground. The petrified forests of many regions belong to this epoch.
(686.4) 60:1.8 The Pacific coast, usually above water during the continental submergences, went down excepting the southern part of California and a large island which then existed in what is now the Pacific Ocean. This ancient California sea was rich in marine life and extended eastward to connect with the old sea basin of the midwestern region.
(686.5) 60:1.9 140,000,000 years ago, suddenly and with only the hint of the two prereptilian ancestors that developed in Africa during the preceding epoch, the reptiles appeared in full-fledged form. They developed rapidly, soon yielding crocodiles, scaled reptiles, and eventually both sea serpents and flying reptiles. Their transition ancestors speedily disappeared.
(686.6) 60:1.10 These rapidly evolving reptilian dinosaurs soon became the monarchs of this age. They were egg layers and are distinguished from all animals by their small brains, having brains weighing less than one pound to control bodies later weighing as much as forty tons. But earlier reptiles were smaller, carnivorous, and walked kangaroolike on their hind legs. They had hollow avian bones and subsequently developed only three toes on their hind feet, and many of their fossil footprints have been mistaken for those of giant birds. Later on, the herbivorous dinosaurs evolved. They walked on all fours, and one branch of this group developed a protective armor.
(686.7) 60:1.11 Several million years later the first mammals appeared. They were nonplacental and proved a speedy failure; none survived. This was an experimental effort to improve mammalian types, but it did not succeed on Urantia.
(686.8) 60:1.12 The marine life of this period was meager but improved rapidly with the new invasion of the sea, which again produced extensive coast lines of shallow waters. Since there was more shallow water around Europe and Asia, the richest fossil beds are to be found about these continents. Today, if you would study the life of this age, examine the Himalayan, Siberian, and Mediterranean regions, as well as India and the islands of the southern Pacific basin. A prominent feature of the marine life was the presence of hosts of the beautiful ammonites, whose fossil remains are found all over the world.
(686.9) 60:1.13 130,000,000 years ago the seas had changed very little. Siberia and North America were connected by the Bering Strait land bridge. A rich and unique marine life appeared on the Californian Pacific coast, where over one thousand species of ammonites developed from the higher types of cephalopods. The life changes of this period were indeed revolutionary notwithstanding that they were transitional and gradual.
(687.1) 60:1.14 This period extended over twenty-five million years and is known as the Triassic.
2. The Later Reptilian Age
(687.3) 60:2.2 The largest of the dinosaurs originated in western North America. These monstrous reptiles are buried throughout the Rocky Mountain regions, along the whole of the Atlantic coast of North America, over western Europe, South Africa, and India, but not in Australia.
(687.4) 60:2.3 These massive creatures became less active and strong as they grew larger and larger; but they required such an enormous amount of food and the land was so overrun by them that they literally starved to death and became extinct — they lacked the intelligence to cope with the situation.
(687.5) 60:2.4 By this time most of the eastern part of North America, which had long been elevated, had been leveled down and washed into the Atlantic Ocean so that the coast extended several hundred miles farther out than now. The western part of the continent was still up, but even these regions were later invaded by both the northern sea and the Pacific, which extended eastward to the Dakota Black Hills region.
(687.6) 60:2.5 This was a fresh-water age characterized by many inland lakes, as is shown by the abundant fresh-water fossils of the so-called Morrison beds of Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming. The thickness of these combined salt- and fresh-water deposits varies from 2,000 to 5,000 feet; but very little limestone is present in these layers.
(687.7) 60:2.6 The same polar sea that extended so far down over North America likewise covered all of South America except the soon appearing Andes Mountains. Most of China and Russia was inundated, but the water invasion was greatest in Europe. It was during this submergence that the beautiful lithographic stone of southern Germany was laid down, those strata in which fossils, such as the most delicate wings of olden insects, are preserved as of but yesterday.
(687.8) 60:2.7 The flora of this age was much like that of the preceding. Ferns persisted, while conifers and pines became more and more like the present-day varieties. Some coal was still being formed along the northern Mediterranean shores.
(687.9) 60:2.8 The return of the seas improved the weather. Corals spread to European waters, testifying that the climate was still mild and even, but they never again appeared in the slowly cooling polar seas. The marine life of these times improved and developed greatly, especially in European waters. Both corals and crinoids temporarily appeared in larger numbers than heretofore, but the ammonites dominated the invertebrate life of the oceans, their average size ranging from three to four inches, though one species attained a diameter of eight feet. Sponges were everywhere, and both cuttlefish and oysters continued to evolve.
(688.1) 60:2.9 110,000,000 years ago the potentials of marine life were continuing to unfold. The sea urchin was one of the outstanding mutations of this epoch. Crabs, lobsters, and the modern types of crustaceans matured. Marked changes occurred in the fish family, a sturgeon type first appearing, but the ferocious sea serpents, descended from the land reptiles, still infested all the seas, and they threatened the destruction of the entire fish family.
(688.2) 60:2.10 This continued to be, pre-eminently, the age of the dinosaurs. They so overran the land that two species had taken to the water for sustenance during the preceding period of sea encroachment. These sea serpents represent a backward step in evolution. While some new species are progressing, certain strains remain stationary and others gravitate backward, reverting to a former state. And this is what happened when these two types of reptiles forsook the land.
(688.3) 60:2.11 As time passed, the sea serpents grew to such size that they became very sluggish and eventually perished because they did not have brains large enough to afford protection for their immense bodies. Their brains weighed less than two ounces notwithstanding the fact that these huge ichthyosaurs sometimes grew to be fifty feet long, the majority being over thirty-five feet in length. The marine crocodilians were also a reversion from the land type of reptile, but unlike the sea serpents, these animals always returned to the land to lay their eggs.
(688.4) 60:2.12 Soon after two species of dinosaurs migrated to the water in a futile attempt at self-preservation, two other types were driven to the air by the bitter competition of life on land. But these flying pterosaurs were not the ancestors of the true birds of subsequent ages. They evolved from the hollow-boned leaping dinosaurs, and their wings were of batlike formation with a spread of twenty to twenty-five feet. These ancient flying reptiles grew to be ten feet long, and they had separable jaws much like those of modern snakes. For a time these flying reptiles appeared to be a success, but they failed to evolve along lines which would enable them to survive as air navigators. They represent the nonsurviving strains of bird ancestry.
(688.5) 60:2.13 Turtles increased during this period, first appearing in North America. Their ancestors came over from Asia by way of the northern land bridge.
(688.6) 60:2.14 One hundred million years ago the reptilian age was drawing to a close. The dinosaurs, for all their enormous mass, were all but brainless animals, lacking the intelligence to provide sufficient food to nourish such enormous bodies. And so did these sluggish land reptiles perish in ever-increasing numbers. Henceforth, evolution will follow the growth of brains, not physical bulk, and the development of brains will characterize each succeeding epoch of animal evolution and planetary progress.
(688.7) 60:2.15 This period, embracing the height and the beginning decline of the reptiles, extended nearly twenty-five million years and is known as the Jurassic.
3. The Cretaceous Stage
The Flowering-Plant Period
The Age of Birds
(689.1) 60:3.2 Near the close of the preceding geologic period much of the continental land was up above water, although as yet there were no mountain peaks. But as the continental land drift continued, it met with the first great obstruction on the deep floor of the Pacific. This contention of geologic forces gave impetus to the formation of the whole vast north and south mountain range extending from Alaska down through Mexico to Cape Horn.
(689.2) 60:3.3 This period thus becomes the modern mountain-building stage of geologic history. Prior to this time there were few mountain peaks, merely elevated land ridges of great width. Now the Pacific coast range was beginning to elevate, but it was located seven hundred miles west of the present shore line. The Sierras were beginning to form, their gold-bearing quartz strata being the product of lava flows of this epoch. In the eastern part of North America, Atlantic sea pressure was also working to cause land elevation.
(689.3) 60:3.4 100,000,000 years ago the North American continent and a part of Europe were well above water. The warping of the American continents continued, resulting in the metamorphosing of the South American Andes and in the gradual elevation of the western plains of North America. Most of Mexico sank beneath the sea, and the southern Atlantic encroached on the eastern coast of South America, eventually reaching the present shore line. The Atlantic and Indian Oceans were then about as they are today.
(689.4) 60:3.5 95,000,000 years ago the American and European land masses again began to sink. The southern seas commenced the invasion of North America and gradually extended northward to connect with the Arctic Ocean, constituting the second greatest submergence of the continent. When this sea finally withdrew, it left the continent about as it now is. Before this great submergence began, the eastern Appalachian highlands had been almost completely worn down to the water’s level. The many colored layers of pure clay now used for the manufacture of earthenware were laid down over the Atlantic coast regions during this age, their average thickness being about 2,000 feet.
(689.5) 60:3.6 Great volcanic actions occurred south of the Alps and along the line of the present California coast-range mountains. The greatest crustal deformations in millions upon millions of years took place in Mexico. Great changes also occurred in Europe, Russia, Japan, and southern South America. The climate became increasingly diversified.
(689.6) 60:3.7 90,000,000 years ago the angiosperms emerged from these early Cretaceous seas and soon overran the continents. These land plants suddenly appeared along with fig trees, magnolias, and tulip trees. Soon after this time fig trees, breadfruit trees, and palms overspread Europe and the western plains of North America. No new land animals appeared.
(689.7) 60:3.8 85,000,000 years ago the Bering Strait closed, shutting off the cooling waters of the northern seas. Theretofore the marine life of the Atlantic-Gulf waters and that of the Pacific Ocean had differed greatly, owing to the temperature variations of these two bodies of water, which now became uniform.*
(689.8) 60:3.9 The deposits of chalk and greensand marl give name to this period. The sedimentations of these times are variegated, consisting of chalk, shale, sandstone, and small amounts of limestone, together with inferior coal or lignite, and in many regions they contain oil. These layers vary in thickness from 200 feet in some places to 10,000 feet in western North America and numerous European localities. Along the eastern borders of the Rocky Mountains these deposits may be observed in the uptilted foothills.
(690.1) 60:3.10 All over the world these strata are permeated with chalk, and these layers of porous semirock pick up water at upturned outcrops and convey it downward to furnish the water supply of much of the earth’s present arid regions.
(690.2) 60:3.11 80,000,000 years ago great disturbances occurred in the earth’s crust. The western advance of the continental drift was coming to a standstill, and the enormous energy of the sluggish momentum of the hinter continental mass upcrumpled the Pacific shore line of both North and South America and initiated profound repercussional changes along the Pacific shores of Asia. This circumpacific land elevation, which culminated in present-day mountain ranges, is more than twenty-five thousand miles long. And the upheavals attendant upon its birth were the greatest surface distortions to take place since life appeared on Urantia. The lava flows, both above and below ground, were extensive and widespread.
(690.3) 60:3.12 75,000,000 years ago marks the end of the continental drift. From Alaska to Cape Horn the long Pacific coast mountain ranges were completed, but there were as yet few peaks.
(690.4) 60:3.13 The backthrust of the halted continental drift continued the elevation of the western plains of North America, while in the east the worn-down Appalachian Mountains of the Atlantic coast region were projected straight up, with little or no tilting.
(690.5) 60:3.14 70,000,000 years ago the crustal distortions connected with the maximum elevation of the Rocky Mountain region took place. A large segment of rock was overthrust fifteen miles at the surface in British Columbia; here the Cambrian rocks are obliquely thrust out over the Cretaceous layers. On the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, near the Canadian border, there was another spectacular overthrust; here may be found the prelife stone layers shoved out over the then recent Cretaceous deposits.
(690.6) 60:3.15 This was an age of volcanic activity all over the world, giving rise to numerous small isolated volcanic cones. Submarine volcanoes broke out in the submerged Himalayan region. Much of the rest of Asia, including Siberia, was also still under water.
(690.7) 60:3.16 65,000,000 years ago there occurred one of the greatest lava flows of all time. The deposition layers of these and preceding lava flows are to be found all over the Americas, North and South Africa, Australia, and parts of Europe.
(690.8) 60:3.17 The land animals were little changed, but because of greater continental emergence, especially in North America, they rapidly multiplied. North America was the great field of the land-animal evolution of these times, most of Europe being under water.
(690.9) 60:3.18 The climate was still warm and uniform. The arctic regions were enjoying weather much like that of the present climate in central and southern North America.
(690.10) 60:3.19 Great plant-life evolution was taking place. Among the land plants the angiosperms predominated, and many present-day trees first appeared, including beech, birch, oak, walnut, sycamore, maple, and modern palms. Fruits, grasses, and cereals were abundant, and these seed-bearing grasses and trees were to the plant world what the ancestors of man were to the animal world — they were second in evolutionary importance only to the appearance of man himself. Suddenly and without previous gradation, the great family of flowering plants mutated. And this new flora soon overspread the entire world.
(691.1) 60:3.20 60,000,000 years ago, though the land reptiles were on the decline, the dinosaurs continued as monarchs of the land, the lead now being taken by the more agile and active types of the smaller leaping kangaroo varieties of the carnivorous dinosaurs. But sometime previously there had appeared new types of the herbivorous dinosaurs, whose rapid increase was due to the appearance of the grass family of land plants. One of these new grass-eating dinosaurs was a true quadruped having two horns and a capelike shoulder flange. The land type of turtle, twenty feet across, appeared as did also the modern crocodile and true snakes of the modern type. Great changes were also occurring among the fishes and other forms of marine life.*
(691.2) 60:3.21 The wading and swimming prebirds of earlier ages had not been a success in the air, nor had the flying dinosaurs. They were a short-lived species, soon becoming extinct. They, too, were subject to the dinosaur doom, destruction, because of having too little brain substance in comparison with body size. This second attempt to produce animals that could navigate the atmosphere failed, as did the abortive attempt to produce mammals during this and a preceding age.
(691.3) 60:3.22 55,000,000 years ago the evolutionary march was marked by the sudden appearance of the first of the true birds, a small pigeonlike creature which was the ancestor of all bird life. This was the third type of flying creature to appear on earth, and it sprang directly from the reptilian group, not from the contemporary flying dinosaurs nor from the earlier types of toothed land birds. And so this becomes known as the age of birds as well as the declining age of reptiles.
4. The End of the Chalk Period
(691.5) 60:4.2 This period also witnesses the end of the continental drift and the building of the modern mountains of Urantia. But the pressure of the continental masses and the thwarted momentum of their agelong drift are not the exclusive influences in mountain building. The chief and underlying factor in determining the location of a mountain range is the pre-existent lowland, or trough, which has become filled up with the comparatively lighter deposits of the land erosion and marine drifts of the preceding ages. These lighter areas of land are sometimes 15,000 to 20,000 feet thick; therefore, when the crust is subjected to pressure from any cause, these lighter areas are the first to crumple up, fold, and rise upward to afford compensatory adjustment for the contending and conflicting forces and pressures at work in the earth’s crust or underneath the crust. Sometimes these upthrusts of land occur without folding. But in connection with the rise of the Rocky Mountains, great folding and tilting occurred, coupled with enormous overthrusts of the various layers, both underground and at the surface.
(692.1) 60:4.3 The oldest mountains of the world are located in Asia, Greenland, and northern Europe among those of the older east-west systems. The mid-age mountains are in the circumpacific group and in the second European east-west system, which was born at about the same time. This gigantic uprising is almost ten thousand miles long, extending from Europe over into the West Indies land elevations. The youngest mountains are in the Rocky Mountain system, where, for ages, land elevations had occurred only to be successively covered by the sea, though some of the higher lands remained as islands. Subsequent to the formation of the mid-age mountains, a real mountain highland was elevated which was destined, subsequently, to be carved into the present Rocky Mountains by the combined artistry of nature’s elements.
(692.2) 60:4.4 The present North American Rocky Mountain region is not the original elevation of land; that elevation had been long since leveled by erosion and then re-elevated. The present front range of mountains is what is left of the remains of the original range which was re-elevated. Pikes Peak and Longs Peak are outstanding examples of this mountain activity, extending over two or more generations of mountain lives. These two peaks held their heads above water during several of the preceding inundations.
(692.3) 60:4.5 Biologically as well as geologically this was an eventful and active age on land and under water. Sea urchins increased while corals and crinoids decreased. The ammonites, of preponderant influence during a previous age, also rapidly declined. On land the fern forests were largely replaced by pine and other modern trees, including the gigantic redwoods. By the end of this period, while the placental mammal has not yet evolved, the biologic stage is fully set for the appearance, in a subsequent age, of the early ancestors of the future mammalian types.
(692.4) 60:4.6 And thus ends a long era of world evolution, extending from the early appearance of land life down to the more recent times of the immediate ancestors of the human species and its collateral branches. This, the Cretaceous age, covers fifty million years and brings to a close the premammalian era of land life, which extends over a period of one hundred million years and is known as the Mesozoic.
(692.5) 60:4.7 [Presented by a Life Carrier of Nebadon assigned to Satania and now functioning on Urantia.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 61
The Mammalian Era on Urantia
(693.2) 61:0.2 During this Cenozoic age the world’s landscape presented an attractive appearance — rolling hills, broad valleys, wide rivers, and great forests. Twice during this sector of time the Panama Isthmus went up and down; three times the Bering Strait land bridge did the same. The animal types were both many and varied. The trees swarmed with birds, and the whole world was an animal paradise, notwithstanding the incessant struggle of the evolving animal species for supremacy.*
(693.3) 61:0.3 The accumulated deposits of the five periods of this fifty-million-year era contain the fossil records of the successive mammalian dynasties and lead right up through the times of the actual appearance of man himself.
1. The New Continental Land Stage
The Age of Early Mammals
(693.5) 61:1.2 Early in this period and in North America the placental type of mammals suddenly appeared, and they constituted the most important evolutionary development up to this time. Previous orders of nonplacental mammals had existed, but this new type sprang directly and suddenly from the pre-existent reptilian ancestor whose descendants had persisted on down through the times of dinosaur decline. The father of the placental mammals was a small, highly active, carnivorous, springing type of dinosaur.
(693.6) 61:1.3 Basic mammalian instincts began to be manifested in these primitive mammalian types. Mammals possess an immense survival advantage over all other forms of animal life in that they can:
(693.7) 61:1.4 1. Bring forth relatively mature and well-developed offspring.(694.1) 61:1.9 45,000,000 years ago the continental backbones were elevated in association with a very general sinking of the coast lines. Mammalian life was evolving rapidly. A small reptilian, egg-laying type of mammal flourished, and the ancestors of the later kangaroos roamed Australia. Soon there were small horses, fleet-footed rhinoceroses, tapirs with proboscises, primitive pigs, squirrels, lemurs, opossums, and several tribes of monkeylike animals. They were all small, primitive, and best suited to living among the forests of the mountain regions. A large ostrichlike land bird developed to a height of ten feet and laid an egg nine by thirteen inches. These were the ancestors of the later gigantic passenger birds that were so highly intelligent, and that onetime transported human beings through the air.
(693.8) 61:1.5 2. Nourish, nurture, and protect their offspring with affectionate regard.
(693.9) 61:1.6 3. Employ their superior brain power in self-perpetuation.
(693.10) 61:1.7 4. Utilize increased agility in escaping from enemies.
(693.11) 61:1.8 5. Apply superior intelligence to environmental adjustment and adaptation.
(694.2) 61:1.10 The mammals of the early Cenozoic lived on land, under the water, in the air, and among the treetops. They had from one to eleven pairs of mammary glands, and all were covered with considerable hair. In common with the later appearing orders, they developed two successive sets of teeth and possessed large brains in comparison to body size. But among them all no modern forms existed.
(694.3) 61:1.11 40,000,000 years ago the land areas of the Northern Hemisphere began to elevate, and this was followed by new extensive land deposits and other terrestrial activities, including lava flows, warping, lake formation, and erosion.
(694.4) 61:1.12 During the latter part of this epoch most of Europe was submerged. Following a slight land rise the continent was covered by lakes and bays. The Arctic Ocean, through the Ural depression, ran south to connect with the Mediterranean Sea as it was then expanded northward, the highlands of the Alps, Carpathians, Apennines, and Pyrenees being up above the water as islands of the sea. The Isthmus of Panama was up; the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were separated. North America was connected with Asia by the Bering Strait land bridge and with Europe by way of Greenland and Iceland. The earth circuit of land in northern latitudes was broken only by the Ural Straits, which connected the arctic seas with the enlarged Mediterranean.
(694.5) 61:1.13 Considerable foraminiferal limestone was deposited in European waters. Today this same stone is elevated to a height of 10,000 feet in the Alps, 16,000 feet in the Himalayas, and 20,000 feet in Tibet. The chalk deposits of this period are found along the coasts of Africa and Australia, on the west coast of South America, and about the West Indies.
(694.6) 61:1.14 Throughout this so-called Eocene period the evolution of mammalian and other related forms of life continued with little or no interruption. North America was then connected by land with every continent except Australia, and the world was gradually overrun by primitive mammalian fauna of various types.
2. The Recent Flood Stage
The Age of Advanced Mammals
(694.8) 61:2.2 Although the early placental mammals sprang from carnivorous ancestors, very soon herbivorous branches developed, and, erelong, omnivorous mammalian families also sprang up. The angiosperms were the principal food of the rapidly increasing mammals, the modern land flora, including the majority of present-day plants and trees, having appeared during earlier periods.
(695.1) 61:2.3 35,000,000 years ago marks the beginning of the age of placental-mammalian world domination. The southern land bridge was extensive, reconnecting the then enormous Antarctic continent with South America, South Africa, and Australia. In spite of the massing of land in high latitudes, the world climate remained relatively mild because of the enormous increase in the size of the tropic seas, nor was the land elevated sufficiently to produce glaciers. Extensive lava flows occurred in Greenland and Iceland, some coal being deposited between these layers.
(695.2) 61:2.4 Marked changes were taking place in the fauna of the planet. The sea life was undergoing great modification; most of the present-day orders of marine life were in existence, and foraminifers continued to play an important role. The insect life was much like that of the previous era. The Florissant fossil beds of Colorado belong to the later years of these far-distant times. Most of the living insect families go back to this period, but many then in existence are now extinct, though their fossils remain.
(695.3) 61:2.5 On land this was pre-eminently the age of mammalian renovation and expansion. Of the earlier and more primitive mammals, over one hundred species were extinct before this period ended. Even the mammals of large size and small brain soon perished. Brains and agility had replaced armor and size in the progress of animal survival. And with the dinosaur family on the decline, the mammals slowly assumed domination of the earth, speedily and completely destroying the remainder of their reptilian ancestors.
(695.4) 61:2.6 Along with the disappearance of the dinosaurs, other and great changes occurred in the various branches of the saurian family. The surviving members of the early reptilian families are turtles, snakes, and crocodiles, together with the venerable frog, the only remaining group representative of man’s earlier ancestors.
(695.5) 61:2.7 Various groups of mammals had their origin in a unique animal now extinct. This carnivorous creature was something of a cross between a cat and a seal; it could live on land or in water and was highly intelligent and very active. In Europe the ancestor of the canine family evolved, soon giving rise to many species of small dogs. About the same time the gnawing rodents, including beavers, squirrels, gophers, mice, and rabbits, appeared and soon became a notable form of life, very little change having since occurred in this family. The later deposits of this period contain the fossil remains of dogs, cats, coons, and weasels in ancestral form.
(695.6) 61:2.8 30,000,000 years ago the modern types of mammals began to make their appearance. Formerly the mammals had lived for the greater part in the hills, being of the mountainous types; suddenly there began the evolution of the plains or hoofed type, the grazing species, as differentiated from the clawed flesh eaters. These grazers sprang from an undifferentiated ancestor having five toes and forty-four teeth, which perished before the end of the age. Toe evolution did not progress beyond the three-toed stage throughout this period.
(695.7) 61:2.9 The horse, an outstanding example of evolution, lived during these times in both North America and Europe, though his development was not fully completed until the later ice age. While the rhinoceros family appeared at the close of this period, it underwent its greatest expansion subsequently. A small hoglike creature also developed which became the ancestor of the many species of swine, peccaries, and hippopotamuses. Camels and llamas had their origin in North America about the middle of this period and overran the western plains. Later, the llamas migrated to South America, the camels to Europe, and soon both were extinct in North America, though a few camels survived up to the ice age.
(696.1) 61:2.10 About this time a notable thing occurred in western North America: The early ancestors of the ancient lemurs first made their appearance. While this family cannot be regarded as true lemurs, their coming marked the establishment of the line from which the true lemurs subsequently sprang.
(696.2) 61:2.11 Like the land serpents of a previous age which betook themselves to the seas, now a whole tribe of placental mammals deserted the land and took up their residence in the oceans. And they have ever since remained in the sea, yielding the modern whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions.
(696.3) 61:2.12 The bird life of the planet continued to develop, but with few important evolutionary changes. The majority of modern birds were existent, including gulls, herons, flamingoes, buzzards, falcons, eagles, owls, quails, and ostriches.
(696.4) 61:2.13 By the close of this Oligocene period, covering ten million years, the plant life, together with the marine life and the land animals, had very largely evolved and was present on earth much as today. Considerable specialization has subsequently appeared, but the ancestral forms of most living things were then alive.
3. The Modern Mountain Stage
Age of the Elephant and the Horse
(696.6) 61:3.2 There was a great increase in the varieties of grasses, and the teeth of many mammalian species gradually altered to conform to the present-day grazing type.
(696.7) 61:3.3 25,000,000 years ago there was a slight land submergence following the long epoch of land elevation. The Rocky Mountain region remained highly elevated so that the deposition of erosion material continued throughout the lowlands to the east. The Sierras were well re-elevated; in fact, they have been rising ever since. The great four-mile vertical fault in the California region dates from this time.
(696.8) 61:3.4 20,000,000 years ago was indeed the golden age of mammals. The Bering Strait land bridge was up, and many groups of animals migrated to North America from Asia, including the four-tusked mastodons, short-legged rhinoceroses, and many varieties of the cat family.*
(696.9) 61:3.5 The first deer appeared, and North America was soon overrun by ruminants — deer, oxen, camels, bison, and several species of rhinoceroses — but the giant pigs, more than six feet tall, became extinct.
(697.1) 61:3.6 The huge elephants of this and subsequent periods possessed large brains as well as large bodies, and they soon overran the entire world except Australia. For once the world was dominated by a huge animal with a brain sufficiently large to enable it to carry on. Confronted by the highly intelligent life of these ages, no animal the size of an elephant could have survived unless it had possessed a brain of large size and superior quality. In intelligence and adaptation the elephant is approached only by the horse and is surpassed only by man himself. Even so, of the fifty species of elephants in existence at the opening of this period, only two have survived.
(697.2) 61:3.7 15,000,000 years ago the mountain regions of Eurasia were rising, and there was some volcanic activity throughout these regions, but nothing comparable to the lava flows of the Western Hemisphere. These unsettled conditions prevailed all over the world.
(697.3) 61:3.8 The Strait of Gibraltar closed, and Spain was connected with Africa by the old land bridge, but the Mediterranean flowed into the Atlantic through a narrow channel which extended across France, the mountain peaks and highlands appearing as islands above this ancient sea. Later on, these European seas began to withdraw. Still later, the Mediterranean was connected with the Indian Ocean, while at the close of this period the Suez region was elevated so that the Mediterranean became, for a time, an inland salt sea.
(697.4) 61:3.9 The Iceland land bridge submerged, and the arctic waters commingled with those of the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic coast of North America rapidly cooled, but the Pacific coast remained warmer than at present. The great ocean currents were in function and affected climate much as they do today.
(697.5) 61:3.10 Mammalian life continued to evolve. Enormous herds of horses joined the camels on the western plains of North America; this was truly the age of horses as well as of elephants. The horse’s brain is next in animal quality to that of the elephant, but in one respect it is decidedly inferior, for the horse never fully overcame the deep-seated propensity to flee when frightened. The horse lacks the emotional control of the elephant, while the elephant is greatly handicapped by size and lack of agility. During this period an animal evolved which was somewhat like both the elephant and the horse, but it was soon destroyed by the rapidly increasing cat family.
(697.6) 61:3.11 As Urantia is entering the so-called “horseless age,” you should pause and ponder what this animal meant to your ancestors. Men first used horses for food, then for travel, and later in agriculture and war. The horse has long served mankind and has played an important part in the development of human civilization.
(697.7) 61:3.12 The biologic developments of this period contributed much toward the setting of the stage for the subsequent appearance of man. In central Asia the true types of both the primitive monkey and the gorilla evolved, having a common ancestor, now extinct. But neither of these species is concerned in the line of living beings which were, later on, to become the ancestors of the human race.
(697.8) 61:3.13 The dog family was represented by several groups, notably wolves and foxes; the cat tribe, by panthers and large saber-toothed tigers, the latter first evolving in North America. The modern cat and dog families increased in numbers all over the world. Weasels, martens, otters, and raccoons thrived and developed throughout the northern latitudes.*
(698.1) 61:3.14 Birds continued to evolve, though few marked changes occurred. Reptiles were similar to modern types — snakes, crocodiles, and turtles.
(698.2) 61:3.15 Thus drew to a close a very eventful and interesting period of the world’s history. This age of the elephant and the horse is known as the Miocene.
4. The Recent Continental-Elevation Stage
The Last Great Mammalian Migration
(698.4) 61:4.2 10,000,000 years ago began an age of widespread local land deposits on the lowlands of the continents, but most of these sedimentations were later removed. Much of Europe, at this time, was still under water, including parts of England, Belgium, and France, and the Mediterranean Sea covered much of northern Africa. In North America extensive depositions were made at the mountain bases, in lakes, and in the great land basins. These deposits average only about two hundred feet, are more or less colored, and fossils are rare. Two great fresh-water lakes existed in western North America. The Sierras were elevating; Shasta, Hood, and Rainier were beginning their mountain careers. But it was not until the subsequent ice age that North America began its creep toward the Atlantic depression.
(698.5) 61:4.3 For a short time all the land of the world was again joined excepting Australia, and the last great world-wide animal migration took place. North America was connected with both South America and Asia, and there was a free exchange of animal life. Asiatic sloths, armadillos, antelopes, and bears entered North America, while North American camels went to China. Rhinoceroses migrated over the whole world except Australia and South America, but they were extinct in the Western Hemisphere by the close of this period.
(698.6) 61:4.4 In general, the life of the preceding period continued to evolve and spread. The cat family dominated the animal life, and marine life was almost at a standstill. Many of the horses were still three-toed, but the modern types were arriving; llamas and giraffelike camels mingled with the horses on the grazing plains. The giraffe appeared in Africa, having just as long a neck then as now. In South America sloths, armadillos, anteaters, and the South American type of primitive monkeys evolved. Before the continents were finally isolated, those massive animals, the mastodons, migrated everywhere except to Australia.
(698.7) 61:4.5 5,000,000 years ago the horse evolved as it now is and from North America migrated to all the world. But the horse had become extinct on the continent of its origin long before the red man arrived.
(698.8) 61:4.6 The climate was gradually getting cooler; the land plants were slowly moving southward. At first it was the increasing cold in the north that stopped animal migrations over the northern isthmuses; subsequently these North American land bridges went down. Soon afterwards the land connection between Africa and South America finally submerged, and the Western Hemisphere was isolated much as it is today. From this time forward distinct types of life began to develop in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
(699.1) 61:4.7 And thus does this period of almost ten million years’ duration draw to a close, and not yet has the ancestor of man appeared. This is the time usually designated as the Pliocene.
5. The Early Ice Age
(699.3) 61:5.2 Simultaneously with these land elevations the ocean currents shifted, and the seasonal winds changed their direction. These conditions eventually produced an almost constant precipitation of moisture from the movement of the heavily saturated atmosphere over the northern highlands. Snow began to fall on these elevated and therefore cool regions, and it continued to fall until it had attained a depth of 20,000 feet. The areas of the greatest depth of snow, together with altitude, determined the central points of subsequent glacial pressure flows. And the ice age persisted just as long as this excessive precipitation continued to cover these northern highlands with this enormous mantle of snow, which soon metamorphosed into solid but creeping ice.
(699.4) 61:5.3 The great ice sheets of this period were all located on elevated highlands, not in mountainous regions where they are found today. One half of the glacial ice was in North America, one fourth in Eurasia, and one fourth elsewhere, chiefly in Antarctica. Africa was little affected by the ice, but Australia was almost covered with the antarctic ice blanket.
(699.5) 61:5.4 The northern regions of this world have experienced six separate and distinct ice invasions, although there were scores of advances and recessions associated with the activity of each individual ice sheet. The ice in North America collected in two and, later, three centers. Greenland was covered, and Iceland was completely buried beneath the ice flow. In Europe the ice at various times covered the British Isles excepting the coast of southern England, and it overspread western Europe down to France.
(699.6) 61:5.5 2,000,000 years ago the first North American glacier started its southern advance. The ice age was now in the making, and this glacier consumed nearly one million years in its advance from, and retreat back toward, the northern pressure centers. The central ice sheet extended south as far as Kansas; the eastern and western ice centers were not then so extensive.
(699.7) 61:5.6 1,500,000 years ago the first great glacier was retreating northward. In the meantime, enormous quantities of snow had been falling on Greenland and on the northeastern part of North America, and erelong this eastern ice mass began to flow southward. This was the second invasion of the ice.
(699.8) 61:5.7 These first two ice invasions were not extensive in Eurasia. During these early epochs of the ice age North America was overrun with mastodons, woolly mammoths, horses, camels, deer, musk oxen, bison, ground sloths, giant beavers, saber-toothed tigers, sloths as large as elephants, and many groups of the cat and dog families. But from this time forward they were rapidly reduced in numbers by the increasing cold of the glacial period. Toward the close of the ice age the majority of these animal species were extinct in North America.
(700.1) 61:5.8 Away from the ice the land and water life of the world was little changed. Between the ice invasions the climate was about as mild as at present, perhaps a little warmer. The glaciers were, after all, local phenomena, though they spread out to cover enormous areas. The coastwise climate varied greatly between the times of glacial inaction and those times when enormous icebergs were sliding off the coast of Maine into the Atlantic, slipping out through Puget Sound into the Pacific, and thundering down Norwegian fiords into the North Sea.
6. Primitive Man in the Ice Age
(700.3) 61:6.2 1,000,000 years ago Urantia was registered as an inhabited world. A mutation within the stock of the progressing Primates suddenly produced two primitive human beings, the actual ancestors of mankind.
(700.4) 61:6.3 This event occurred at about the time of the beginning of the third glacial advance; thus it may be seen that your early ancestors were born and bred in a stimulating, invigorating, and difficult environment. And the sole survivors of these Urantia aborigines, the Eskimos, even now prefer to dwell in frigid northern climes.
(700.5) 61:6.4 Human beings were not present in the Western Hemisphere until near the close of the ice age. But during the interglacial epochs they passed westward around the Mediterranean and soon overran the continent of Europe. In the caves of western Europe may be found human bones mingled with the remains of both tropic and arctic animals, testifying that man lived in these regions throughout the later epochs of the advancing and retreating glaciers.
7. The Continuing Ice Age
(701.1) 61:7.2 750,000 years ago the fourth ice sheet, a union of the North American central and eastern ice fields, was well on its way south; at its height it reached to southern Illinois, displacing the Mississippi River fifty miles to the west, and in the east it extended as far south as the Ohio River and central Pennsylvania.
(701.2) 61:7.3 In Asia the Siberian ice sheet made its southernmost invasion, while in Europe the advancing ice stopped just short of the mountain barrier of the Alps.
(701.3) 61:7.4 500,000 years ago, during the fifth advance of the ice, a new development accelerated the course of human evolution. Suddenly and in one generation the six colored races mutated from the aboriginal human stock. This is a doubly important date since it also marks the arrival of the Planetary Prince.
(701.4) 61:7.5 In North America the advancing fifth glacier consisted of a combined invasion by all three ice centers. The eastern lobe, however, extended only a short distance below the St. Lawrence valley, and the western ice sheet made little southern advance. But the central lobe reached south to cover most of the State of Iowa. In Europe this invasion of the ice was not so extensive as the preceding one.
(701.5) 61:7.6 250,000 years ago the sixth and last glaciation began. And despite the fact that the northern highlands had begun to sink slightly, this was the period of greatest snow deposition on the northern ice fields.
(701.6) 61:7.7 In this invasion the three great ice sheets coalesced into one vast ice mass, and all of the western mountains participated in this glacial activity. This was the largest of all ice invasions in North America; the ice moved south over fifteen hundred miles from its pressure centers, and North America experienced its lowest temperatures.
(701.7) 61:7.8 200,000 years ago, during the advance of the last glacier, there occurred an episode which had much to do with the march of events on Urantia — the Lucifer rebellion.
(701.8) 61:7.9 150,000 years ago the sixth and last glacier reached its farthest points of southern extension, the western ice sheet crossing just over the Canadian border; the central coming down into Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois; the eastern sheet advancing south and covering the greater portion of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
(701.9) 61:7.10 This is the glacier that sent forth the many tongues, or ice lobes, which carved out the present-day lakes, great and small. During its retreat the North American system of Great Lakes was produced. And Urantian geologists have very accurately deduced the various stages of this development and have correctly surmised that these bodies of water did, at different times, empty first into the Mississippi valley, then eastward into the Hudson valley, and finally by a northern route into the St. Lawrence. It is thirty-seven thousand years since the connected Great Lakes system began to empty out over the present Niagara route.
(702.1) 61:7.11 100,000 years ago, during the retreat of the last glacier, the vast polar ice sheets began to form, and the center of ice accumulation moved considerably northward. And as long as the polar regions continue to be covered with ice, it is hardly possible for another glacial age to occur, regardless of future land elevations or modification of ocean currents.
(702.2) 61:7.12 This last glacier was one hundred thousand years advancing, and it required a like span of time to complete its northern retreat. The temperate regions have been free from the ice for a little over fifty thousand years.
(702.3) 61:7.13 The rigorous glacial period destroyed many species and radically changed numerous others. Many were sorely sifted by the to-and-fro migration which was made necessary by the advancing and retreating ice. Those animals which followed the glaciers back and forth over the land were the bear, bison, reindeer, musk ox, mammoth, and mastodon.
(702.4) 61:7.14 The mammoth sought the open prairies, but the mastodon preferred the sheltered fringes of the forest regions. The mammoth, until a late date, ranged from Mexico to Canada; the Siberian variety became wool covered. The mastodon persisted in North America until exterminated by the red man much as the white man later killed off the bison.
(702.5) 61:7.15 In North America, during the last glaciation, the horse, tapir, llama, and saber-toothed tiger became extinct. In their places sloths, armadillos, and water hogs came up from South America.
(702.6) 61:7.16 The enforced migration of life before the advancing ice led to an extraordinary commingling of plants and of animals, and with the retreat of the final ice invasion, many arctic species of both plants and animals were left stranded high upon certain mountain peaks, whither they had journeyed to escape destruction by the glacier. And so, today, these dislocated plants and animals may be found high up on the Alps of Europe and even on the Appalachian Mountains of North America.
(702.7) 61:7.17 The ice age is the last completed geologic period, the so-called Pleistocene, over two million years in length.
(702.8) 61:7.18 35,000 years ago marks the termination of the great ice age excepting in the polar regions of the planet. This date is also significant in that it approximates the arrival of a Material Son and Daughter and the beginning of the Adamic dispensation, roughly corresponding to the beginning of the Holocene or postglacial period.*
(702.9) 61:7.19 This narrative, extending from the rise of mammalian life to the retreat of the ice and on down to historic times, covers a span of almost fifty million years. This is the last — the current — geologic period and is known to your researchers as the Cenozoic or recent-times era.
(702.10) 61:7.20 [Sponsored by a Resident Life Carrier.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 62
The Dawn Races of Early Man
1. The Early Lemur Types
(703.3) 62:1.2 While these early lemurs evolved in the Western Hemisphere, the establishment of the direct mammalian ancestry of mankind took place in southwestern Asia, in the original area of the central life implantation but on the borders of the eastern regions. Several million years ago the North American type lemurs had migrated westward over the Bering land bridge and had slowly made their way southwestward along the Asiatic coast. These migrating tribes finally reached the salubrious region lying between the then expanded Mediterranean Sea and the elevating mountainous regions of the Indian peninsula. In these lands to the west of India they united with other and favorable strains, thus establishing the ancestry of the human race.
(703.4) 62:1.3 With the passing of time the seacoast of India southwest of the mountains gradually submerged, completely isolating the life of this region. There was no avenue of approach to, or escape from, this Mesopotamian or Persian peninsula except to the north, and that was repeatedly cut off by the southern invasions of the glaciers. And it was in this then almost paradisiacal area, and from the superior descendants of this lemur type of mammal, that there sprang two great groups, the simian tribes of modern times and the present-day human species.
2. The Dawn Mammals
(704.1) 62:2.2 These dawn mammals attained full growth when three or four years of age, having a potential life span, on the average, of about twenty years. As a rule offspring were born singly, although twins were occasional.
(704.2) 62:2.3 The members of this new species had the largest brains for their size of any animal that had theretofore existed on earth. They experienced many of the emotions and shared numerous instincts which later characterized primitive man, being highly curious and exhibiting considerable elation when successful at any undertaking. Food hunger and sex craving were well developed, and a definite sex selection was manifested in a crude form of courtship and choice of mates. They would fight fiercely in defense of their kindred and were quite tender in family associations, possessing a sense of self-abasement bordering on shame and remorse. They were very affectionate and touchingly loyal to their mates, but if circumstances separated them, they would choose new partners.
(704.3) 62:2.4 Being small of stature and having keen minds to realize the dangers of their forest habitat, they developed an extraordinary fear which led to those wise precautionary measures that so enormously contributed to survival, such as their construction of crude shelters in the high treetops which eliminated many of the perils of ground life. The beginning of the fear tendencies of mankind more specifically dates from these days.
(704.4) 62:2.5 These dawn mammals developed more of a tribal spirit than had ever been previously exhibited. They were, indeed, highly gregarious but nevertheless exceedingly pugnacious when in any way disturbed in the ordinary pursuit of their routine life, and they displayed fiery tempers when their anger was fully aroused. Their bellicose natures, however, served a good purpose; superior groups did not hesitate to make war on their inferior neighbors, and thus, by selective survival, the species was progressively improved. They very soon dominated the life of the smaller creatures of this region, and very few of the older noncarnivorous monkeylike tribes survived.
(704.5) 62:2.6 These aggressive little animals multiplied and spread over the Mesopotamian peninsula for more than one thousand years, constantly improving in physical type and general intelligence. And it was just seventy generations after this new tribe had taken origin from the highest type of lemur ancestor that the next epoch-making development occurred — the sudden differentiation of the ancestors of the next vital step in the evolution of human beings on Urantia.
3. The Mid-Mammals
(705.1) 62:3.2 These children grew to be a little over four feet in height. They were in every way larger than their parents, having longer legs and shorter arms. They had almost perfectly opposable thumbs, just about as well adapted for diversified work as the present human thumb. They walked upright, having feet almost as well suited for walking as those of the later human races.
(705.2) 62:3.3 Their brains were inferior to, and smaller than, those of human beings but very superior to, and comparatively much larger than, those of their ancestors. The twins early displayed superior intelligence and were soon recognized as the heads of the whole tribe of dawn mammals, really instituting a primitive form of social organization and a crude economic division of labor. This brother and sister mated and soon enjoyed the society of twenty-one children much like themselves, all more than four feet tall and in every way superior to the ancestral species. This new group formed the nucleus of the mid-mammals.
(705.3) 62:3.4 When the numbers of this new and superior group grew great, war, relentless war, broke out; and when the terrible struggle was over, not a single individual of the pre-existent and ancestral race of dawn mammals remained alive. The less numerous but more powerful and intelligent offshoot of the species had survived at the expense of their ancestors.
(705.4) 62:3.5 And now, for almost fifteen thousand years (six hundred generations), this creature became the terror of this part of the world. All of the great and vicious animals of former times had perished. The large beasts native to these regions were not carnivorous, and the larger species of the cat family, lions and tigers, had not yet invaded this peculiarly sheltered nook of the earth’s surface. Therefore did these mid-mammals wax valiant and subdue the whole of their corner of creation.
(705.5) 62:3.6 Compared with the ancestral species, the mid-mammals were an improvement in every way. Even their potential life span was longer, being about twenty-five years. A number of rudimentary human traits appeared in this new species. In addition to the innate propensities exhibited by their ancestors, these mid-mammals were capable of showing disgust in certain repulsive situations. They further possessed a well-defined hoarding instinct; they would hide food for subsequent use and were greatly given to the collection of smooth round pebbles and certain types of round stones suitable for defensive and offensive ammunition.
(705.6) 62:3.7 These mid-mammals were the first to exhibit a definite construction propensity, as shown in their rivalry in the building of both treetop homes and their many-tunneled subterranean retreats; they were the first species of mammals ever to provide for safety in both arboreal and underground shelters. They largely forsook the trees as places of abode, living on the ground during the day and sleeping in the treetops at night.
(705.7) 62:3.8 As time passed, the natural increase in numbers eventually resulted in serious food competition and sex rivalry, all of which culminated in a series of internecine battles that nearly destroyed the entire species. These struggles continued until only one group of less than one hundred individuals was left alive. But peace once more prevailed, and this lone surviving tribe built anew its treetop bedrooms and once again resumed a normal and semipeaceful existence.
(705.8) 62:3.9 You can hardly realize by what narrow margins your prehuman ancestors missed extinction from time to time. Had the ancestral frog of all humanity jumped two inches less on a certain occasion, the whole course of evolution would have been markedly changed. The immediate lemurlike mother of the dawn-mammal species escaped death no less than five times by mere hairbreadth margins before she gave birth to the father of the new and higher mammalian order. But the closest call of all was when lightning struck the tree in which the prospective mother of the Primates twins was sleeping. Both of these mid-mammal parents were severely shocked and badly burned; three of their seven children were killed by this bolt from the skies. These evolving animals were almost superstitious. This couple whose treetop home had been struck were really the leaders of the more progressive group of the mid-mammal species; and following their example, more than half the tribe, embracing the more intelligent families, moved about two miles away from this locality and began the construction of new treetop abodes and new ground shelters — their transient retreats in time of sudden danger.
(706.1) 62:3.10 Soon after the completion of their home, this couple, veterans of so many struggles, found themselves the proud parents of twins, the most interesting and important animals ever to have been born into the world up to that time, for they were the first of the new species of Primates constituting the next vital step in prehuman evolution.
(706.2) 62:3.11 Contemporaneously with the birth of these Primates twins, another couple — a peculiarly retarded male and female of the mid-mammal tribe, a couple that were both mentally and physically inferior — also gave birth to twins. These twins, one male and one female, were indifferent to conquest; they were concerned only with obtaining food and, since they would not eat flesh, soon lost all interest in seeking prey. These retarded twins became the founders of the modern simian tribes. Their descendants sought the warmer southern regions with their mild climates and an abundance of tropical fruits, where they have continued much as of that day except for those branches which mated with the earlier types of gibbons and apes and have greatly deteriorated in consequence.
(706.3) 62:3.12 And so it may be readily seen that man and the ape are related only in that they sprang from the mid-mammals, a tribe in which there occurred the contemporaneous birth and subsequent segregation of two pairs of twins: the inferior pair destined to produce the modern types of monkey, baboon, chimpanzee, and gorilla; the superior pair destined to continue the line of ascent which evolved into man himself.
(706.4) 62:3.13 Modern man and the simians did spring from the same tribe and species but not from the same parents. Man’s ancestors are descended from the superior strains of the selected remnant of this mid-mammal tribe, whereas the modern simians (excepting certain pre-existent types of lemurs, gibbons, apes, and other monkeylike creatures) are the descendants of the most inferior couple of this mid-mammal group, a couple who only survived by hiding themselves in a subterranean food-storage retreat for more than two weeks during the last fierce battle of their tribe, emerging only after the hostilities were well over.
4. The Primates
(707.1) 62:4.2 When about fourteen years of age, they fled from the tribe, going west to raise their family and establish the new species of Primates. And these new creatures are very properly denominated Primates since they were the direct and immediate animal ancestors of the human family itself.
(707.2) 62:4.3 Thus it was that the Primates came to occupy a region on the west coast of the Mesopotamian peninsula as it then projected into the southern sea, while the less intelligent and closely related tribes lived around the peninsula point and up the eastern shore line.
(707.3) 62:4.4 The Primates were more human and less animal than their mid-mammal predecessors. The skeletal proportions of this new species were very similar to those of the primitive human races. The human type of hand and foot had fully developed, and these creatures could walk and even run as well as any of their later-day human descendants. They largely abandoned tree life, though continuing to resort to the treetops as a safety measure at night, for like their earlier ancestors, they were greatly subject to fear. The increased use of their hands did much to develop inherent brain power, but they did not yet possess minds that could really be called human.
(707.4) 62:4.5 Although in emotional nature the Primates differed little from their forebears, they exhibited more of a human trend in all of their propensities. They were, indeed, splendid and superior animals, reaching maturity at about ten years of age and having a natural life span of about forty years. That is, they might have lived that long had they died natural deaths, but in those early days very few animals ever died a natural death; the struggle for existence was altogether too intense.
(707.5) 62:4.6 And now, after almost nine hundred generations of development, covering about twenty-one thousand years from the origin of the dawn mammals, the Primates suddenly gave birth to two remarkable creatures, the first true human beings.
(707.6) 62:4.7 Thus it was that the dawn mammals, springing from the North American lemur type, gave origin to the mid-mammals, and these mid-mammals in turn produced the superior Primates, who became the immediate ancestors of the primitive human race. The Primates tribes were the last vital link in the evolution of man, but in less than five thousand years not a single individual of these extraordinary tribes was left.
5. The First Human Beings
(707.8) 62:5.2 These two remarkable creatures were true human beings. They possessed perfect human thumbs, as had many of their ancestors, while they had just as perfect feet as the present-day human races. They were walkers and runners, not climbers; the grasping function of the big toe was absent, completely absent. When danger drove them to the treetops, they climbed just like the humans of today would. They would climb up the trunk of a tree like a bear and not as would a chimpanzee or a gorilla, swinging up by the branches.
(708.1) 62:5.3 These first human beings (and their descendants) reached full maturity at twelve years of age and possessed a potential life span of about seventy-five years.
(708.2) 62:5.4 Many new emotions early appeared in these human twins. They experienced admiration for both objects and other beings and exhibited considerable vanity. But the most remarkable advance in emotional development was the sudden appearance of a new group of really human feelings, the worshipful group, embracing awe, reverence, humility, and even a primitive form of gratitude. Fear, joined with ignorance of natural phenomena, is about to give birth to primitive religion.
(708.3) 62:5.5 Not only were such human feelings manifested in these primitive humans, but many more highly evolved sentiments were also present in rudimentary form. They were mildly cognizant of pity, shame, and reproach and were acutely conscious of love, hate, and revenge, being also susceptible to marked feelings of jealousy.
(708.4) 62:5.6 These first two humans — the twins — were a great trial to their Primates parents. They were so curious and adventurous that they nearly lost their lives on numerous occasions before they were eight years old. As it was, they were rather well scarred up by the time they were twelve.
(708.5) 62:5.7 Very early they learned to engage in verbal communication; by the age of ten they had worked out an improved sign and word language of almost half a hundred ideas and had greatly improved and expanded the crude communicative technique of their ancestors. But try as hard as they might, they were able to teach only a few of their new signs and symbols to their parents.
(708.6) 62:5.8 When about nine years of age, they journeyed off down the river one bright day and held a momentous conference. Every celestial intelligence stationed on Urantia, including myself, was present as an observer of the transactions of this noontide tryst. On this eventful day they arrived at an understanding to live with and for each other, and this was the first of a series of such agreements which finally culminated in the decision to flee from their inferior animal associates and to journey northward, little knowing that they were thus to found the human race.
(708.7) 62:5.9 While we were all greatly concerned with what these two little savages were planning, we were powerless to control the working of their minds; we did not — could not — arbitrarily influence their decisions. But within the permissible limits of planetary function, we, the Life Carriers, together with our associates, all conspired to lead the human twins northward and far from their hairy and partially tree-dwelling people. And so, by reason of their own intelligent choice, the twins did migrate, and because of our supervision they migrated northward to a secluded region where they escaped the possibility of biologic degradation through admixture with their inferior relatives of the Primates tribes.
(708.8) 62:5.10 Shortly before their departure from the home forests they lost their mother in a gibbon raid. While she did not possess their intelligence, she did have a worthy mammalian affection of a high order for her offspring, and she fearlessly gave her life in the attempt to save the wonderful pair. Nor was her sacrifice in vain, for she held off the enemy until the father arrived with reinforcements and put the invaders to rout.
(709.1) 62:5.11 Soon after this young couple forsook their associates to found the human race, their Primates father became disconsolate — he was heartbroken. He refused to eat, even when food was brought to him by his other children. His brilliant offspring having been lost, life did not seem worth living among his ordinary fellows; so he wandered off into the forest, was set upon by hostile gibbons and beaten to death.
6. Evolution of the Human Mind
(709.3) 62:6.2 We had been watching the twins develop mentally through our observation of the functioning of the seven adjutant mind-spirits assigned to Urantia at the time of our arrival on the planet. Throughout the long evolutionary development of planetary life, these tireless mind ministers had ever registered their increasing ability to contact with the successively expanding brain capacities of the progressively superior animal creatures.
(709.4) 62:6.3 At first only the spirit of intuition could function in the instinctive and reflex behavior of the primordial animal life. With the differentiation of higher types, the spirit of understanding was able to endow such creatures with the gift of spontaneous association of ideas. Later on we observed the spirit of courage in operation; evolving animals really developed a crude form of protective self-consciousness. Subsequent to the appearance of the mammalian groups, we beheld the spirit of knowledge manifesting itself in increased measure. And the evolution of the higher mammals brought the function of the spirit of counsel, with the resulting growth of the herd instinct and the beginnings of primitive social development.
(709.5) 62:6.4 Increasingly, on down through the dawn mammals, the mid-mammals, and the Primates, we had observed the augmented service of the first five adjutants. But never had the remaining two, the highest mind ministers, been able to function in the Urantia type of evolutionary mind.
(709.6) 62:6.5 Imagine our joy one day — the twins were about ten years old — when the spirit of worship made its first contact with the mind of the female twin and shortly thereafter with the male. We knew that something closely akin to human mind was approaching culmination; and when, about a year later, they finally resolved, as a result of meditative thought and purposeful decision, to flee from home and journey north, then did the spirit of wisdom begin to function on Urantia and in these two now recognized human minds.
(709.7) 62:6.6 There was an immediate and new order of mobilization of the seven adjutant mind-spirits. We were alive with expectation; we realized that the long-waited-for hour was approaching; we knew we were upon the threshold of the realization of our protracted effort to evolve will creatures on Urantia.
7. Recognition as an Inhabited World
(710.1) 62:7.2 It was an eventful day on Urantia when our small group gathered about the planetary pole of space communication and received the first message from Salvington over the newly established mind circuit of the planet. And this first message, dictated by the chief of the archangel corps, said:
(710.2) 62:7.3 “To the Life Carriers on Urantia — Greetings! We transmit assurance of great pleasure on Salvington, Edentia, and Jerusem in honor of the registration on the headquarters of Nebadon of the signal of the existence on Urantia of mind of will dignity. The purposeful decision of the twins to flee northward and segregate their offspring from their inferior ancestors has been noted. This is the first decision of mind — the human type of mind — on Urantia and automatically establishes the circuit of communication over which this initial message of acknowledgment is transmitting.”
(710.3) 62:7.4 Next over this new circuit came the greetings of the Most Highs of Edentia, containing instructions for the resident Life Carriers forbidding us to interfere with the pattern of life we had established. We were directed not to intervene in the affairs of human progress. It should not be inferred that Life Carriers ever arbitrarily and mechanically interfere with the natural outworking of the planetary evolutionary plans, for we do not. But up to this time we had been permitted to manipulate the environment and shield the life plasm in a special manner, and it was this extraordinary, but wholly natural, supervision that was to be discontinued.
(710.4) 62:7.5 And no sooner had the Most Highs left off speaking than the beautiful message of Lucifer, then sovereign of the Satania system, began to planetize. Now the Life Carriers heard the welcome words of their own chief and received his permission to return to Jerusem. This message from Lucifer contained the official acceptance of the Life Carriers’ work on Urantia and absolved us from all future criticism of any of our efforts to improve the life patterns of Nebadon as established in the Satania system.
(710.5) 62:7.6 These messages from Salvington, Edentia, and Jerusem formally marked the termination of the Life Carriers’ agelong supervision of the planet. For ages we had been on duty, assisted only by the seven adjutant mind-spirits and the Master Physical Controllers. And now, will, the power of choosing to worship and to ascend, having appeared in the evolutionary creatures of the planet, we realized that our work was finished, and our group prepared to depart. Urantia being a life-modification world, permission was granted to leave behind two senior Life Carriers with twelve assistants, and I was chosen as one of this group and have ever since been on Urantia.
(710.6) 62:7.7 It is just 993,408 years ago (from the year A.D. 1934) that Urantia was formally recognized as a planet of human habitation in the universe of Nebadon. Biologic evolution had once again achieved the human levels of will dignity; man had arrived on planet 606 of Satania.
(710.7) 62:7.8 [Sponsored by a Life Carrier of Nebadon resident on Urantia.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 63
The First Human Family
(711.2) 63:0.2 “Man-mind has appeared on 606 of Satania, and these parents of the new race shall be called Andon and Fonta. And all archangels pray that these creatures may speedily be endowed with the personal indwelling of the gift of the spirit of the Universal Father.”(711.3) 63:0.3 Andon is the Nebadon name which signifies “the first Fatherlike creature to exhibit human perfection hunger.” Fonta signifies “the first Sonlike creature to exhibit human perfection hunger.” Andon and Fonta never knew these names until they were bestowed upon them at the time of fusion with their Thought Adjusters. Throughout their mortal sojourn on Urantia they called each other Sonta-an and Sonta-en, Sonta-an meaning “loved by mother,” Sonta-en signifying “loved by father.” They gave themselves these names, and the meanings are significant of their mutual regard and affection.
1. Andon and Fonta
(711.5) 63:1.2 The parents of this first human couple were apparently little different from the average of their tribe, though they were among its more intelligent members, that group which first learned to throw stones and to use clubs in fighting. They also made use of sharp spicules of stone, flint, and bone.
(711.6) 63:1.3 While still living with his parents, Andon had fastened a sharp piece of flint on the end of a club, using animal tendons for this purpose, and on no less than a dozen occasions he made good use of such a weapon in saving both his own life and that of his equally adventurous and inquisitive sister, who unfailingly accompanied him on all of his tours of exploration.
(711.7) 63:1.4 The decision of Andon and Fonta to flee from the Primates tribes implies a quality of mind far above the baser intelligence which characterized so many of their later descendants who stooped to mate with their retarded cousins of the simian tribes. But their vague feeling of being something more than mere animals was due to the possession of personality and was augmented by the indwelling presence of the Thought Adjusters.
2. The Flight of the Twins
(712.2) 63:2.2 And it was in this new home among the treetops, one night after they had been awakened by a violent storm, and as they held each other in fearful and fond embrace, that they finally and fully made up their minds to flee from the tribal habitat and the home treetops.
(712.3) 63:2.3 They had already prepared a crude treetop retreat some half-day’s journey to the north. This was their secret and safe hiding place for the first day away from the home forests. Notwithstanding that the twins shared the Primates’ deathly fear of being on the ground at nighttime, they sallied forth shortly before nightfall on their northern trek. While it required unusual courage for them to undertake this night journey, even with a full moon, they correctly concluded that they were less likely to be missed and pursued by their tribesmen and relatives. And they safely made their previously prepared rendezvous shortly after midnight.
(712.4) 63:2.4 On their northward journey they discovered an exposed flint deposit and, finding many stones suitably shaped for various uses, gathered up a supply for the future. In attempting to chip these flints so that they would be better adapted for certain purposes, Andon discovered their sparking quality and conceived the idea of building fire. But the notion did not take firm hold of him at the time as the climate was still salubrious and there was little need of fire.
(712.5) 63:2.5 But the autumn sun was getting lower in the sky, and as they journeyed northward, the nights grew cooler and cooler. Already they had been forced to make use of animal skins for warmth. Before they had been away from home one moon, Andon signified to his mate that he thought he could make fire with the flint. They tried for two months to utilize the flint spark for kindling a fire but only met with failure. Each day this couple would strike the flints and endeavor to ignite the wood. Finally, one evening about the time of the setting of the sun, the secret of the technique was unraveled when it occurred to Fonta to climb a near-by tree to secure an abandoned bird’s nest. The nest was dry and highly inflammable and consequently flared right up into a full blaze the moment the spark fell upon it. They were so surprised and startled at their success that they almost lost the fire, but they saved it by the addition of suitable fuel, and then began the first search for firewood by the parents of all mankind.
(712.6) 63:2.6 This was one of the most joyous moments in their short but eventful lives. All night long they sat up watching their fire burn, vaguely realizing that they had made a discovery which would make it possible for them to defy climate and thus forever to be independent of their animal relatives of the southern lands. After three days’ rest and enjoyment of the fire, they journeyed on.
(712.7) 63:2.7 The Primates ancestors of Andon had often replenished fire which had been kindled by lightning, but never before had the creatures of earth possessed a method of starting fire at will. But it was a long time before the twins learned that dry moss and other materials would kindle fire just as well as birds’ nests.
3. Andon’s Family
(713.2) 63:3.2 Andon and Fonta had nineteen children in all, and they lived to enjoy the association of almost half a hundred grandchildren and half a dozen great-grandchildren. The family was domiciled in four adjoining rock shelters, or semicaves, three of which were interconnected by hallways which had been excavated in the soft limestone with flint tools devised by Andon’s children.
(713.3) 63:3.3 These early Andonites evinced a very marked clannish spirit; they hunted in groups and never strayed very far from the homesite. They seemed to realize that they were an isolated and unique group of living beings and should therefore avoid becoming separated. This feeling of intimate kinship was undoubtedly due to the enhanced mind ministry of the adjutant spirits.
(713.4) 63:3.4 Andon and Fonta labored incessantly for the nurture and uplift of the clan. They lived to the age of forty-two, when both were killed at the time of an earthquake by the falling of an overhanging rock. Five of their children and eleven grandchildren perished with them, and almost a score of their descendants suffered serious injuries.
(713.5) 63:3.5 Upon the death of his parents, Sontad, despite a seriously injured foot, immediately assumed the leadership of the clan and was ably assisted by his wife, his eldest sister. Their first task was to roll up stones to effectively entomb their dead parents, brothers, sisters, and children. Undue significance should not attach to this act of burial. Their ideas of survival after death were very vague and indefinite, being largely derived from their fantastic and variegated dream life.
(713.6) 63:3.6 This family of Andon and Fonta held together until the twentieth generation, when combined food competition and social friction brought about the beginning of dispersion.
4. The Andonic Clans
(713.8) 63:4.2 The tribal life of the animal ancestors of these early men had foreshadowed the beginnings of numerous social conventions, and with the expanding emotions and augmented brain powers of these beings, there was an immediate development in social organization and a new division of clan labor. They were exceedingly imitative, but the play instinct was only slightly developed, and the sense of humor was almost entirely absent. Primitive man smiled occasionally, but he never indulged in hearty laughter. Humor was the legacy of the later Adamic race. These early human beings were not so sensitive to pain nor so reactive to unpleasant situations as were many of the later evolving mortals. Childbirth was not a painful or distressing ordeal to Fonta and her immediate progeny.
(714.1) 63:4.3 They were a wonderful tribe. The males would fight heroically for the safety of their mates and their offspring; the females were affectionately devoted to their children. But their patriotism was wholly limited to the immediate clan. They were very loyal to their families; they would die without question in defense of their children, but they were not able to grasp the idea of trying to make the world a better place for their grandchildren. Altruism was as yet unborn in the human heart, notwithstanding that all of the emotions essential to the birth of religion were already present in these Urantia aborigines.
(714.2) 63:4.4 These early men possessed a touching affection for their comrades and certainly had a real, although crude, idea of friendship. It was a common sight in later times, during their constantly recurring battles with the inferior tribes, to see one of these primitive men valiantly fighting with one hand while he struggled on, trying to protect and save an injured fellow warrior. Many of the most noble and highly human traits of subsequent evolutionary development were touchingly foreshadowed in these primitive peoples.
(714.3) 63:4.5 The original Andonic clan maintained an unbroken line of leadership until the twenty-seventh generation, when, no male offspring appearing among Sontad’s direct descendants, two rival would-be rulers of the clan fell to fighting for supremacy.
(714.4) 63:4.6 Before the extensive dispersion of the Andonic clans a well-developed language had evolved from their early efforts to intercommunicate. This language continued to grow, and almost daily additions were made to it because of the new inventions and adaptations to environment which were developed by these active, restless, and curious people. And this language became the word of Urantia, the tongue of the early human family, until the later appearance of the colored races.
(714.5) 63:4.7 As time passed, the Andonic clans grew in number, and the contact of the expanding families developed friction and misunderstandings. Only two things came to occupy the minds of these peoples: hunting to obtain food and fighting to avenge themselves against some real or supposed injustice or insult at the hands of the neighboring tribes.
(714.6) 63:4.8 Family feuds increased, tribal wars broke out, and serious losses were sustained among the very best elements of the more able and advanced groups. Some of these losses were irreparable; some of the most valuable strains of ability and intelligence were forever lost to the world. This early race and its primitive civilization were threatened with extinction by this incessant warfare of the clans.
(714.7) 63:4.9 It is impossible to induce such primitive beings long to live together in peace. Man is the descendant of fighting animals, and when closely associated, uncultured people irritate and offend each other. The Life Carriers know this tendency among evolutionary creatures and accordingly make provision for the eventual separation of developing human beings into at least three, and more often six, distinct and separate races.
5. Dispersion of the Andonites
(715.2) 63:5.2 Before this extensive ice sheet reached France and the British Isles, the descendants of Andon and Fonta had pushed on westward over Europe and had established more than one thousand separate settlements along the great rivers leading to the then warm waters of the North Sea.
(715.3) 63:5.3 These Andonic tribes were the early river dwellers of France; they lived along the river Somme for tens of thousands of years. The Somme is the one river unchanged by the glaciers, running down to the sea in those days much as it does today. And that explains why so much evidence of the Andonic descendants is found along the course of this river valley.
(715.4) 63:5.4 These aborigines of Urantia were not tree dwellers, though in emergencies they still betook themselves to the treetops. They regularly dwelt under the shelter of overhanging cliffs along the rivers and in hillside grottoes which afforded a good view of the approaches and sheltered them from the elements. They could thus enjoy the comfort of their fires without being too much inconvenienced by the smoke. They were not really cave dwellers either, though in subsequent times the later ice sheets came farther south and drove their descendants to the caves. They preferred to camp near the edge of a forest and beside a stream.
(715.5) 63:5.5 They very early became remarkably clever in disguising their partially sheltered abodes and showed great skill in constructing stone sleeping chambers, dome-shaped stone huts, into which they crawled at night. The entrance to such a hut was closed by rolling a stone in front of it, a large stone which had been placed inside for this purpose before the roof stones were finally put in place.
(715.6) 63:5.6 The Andonites were fearless and successful hunters and, with the exception of wild berries and certain fruits of the trees, lived exclusively on flesh. As Andon had invented the stone ax, so his descendants early discovered and made effective use of the throwing stick and the harpoon. At last a tool-creating mind was functioning in conjunction with an implement-using hand, and these early humans became highly skillful in the fashioning of flint tools. They traveled far and wide in search of flint, much as present-day humans journey to the ends of the earth in quest of gold, platinum, and diamonds.
(715.7) 63:5.7 And in many other ways these Andon tribes manifested a degree of intelligence which their retrogressing descendants did not attain in half a million years, though they did again and again rediscover various methods of kindling fire.
6. Onagar — The First Truth Teacher
(716.1) 63:6.2 Andon’s philosophy had been most confused; he had barely escaped becoming a fire worshiper because of the great comfort derived from his accidental discovery of fire. Reason, however, directed him from his own discovery to the sun as a superior and more awe-inspiring source of heat and light, but it was too remote, and so he failed to become a sun worshiper.
(716.2) 63:6.3 The Andonites early developed a fear of the elements — thunder, lightning, rain, snow, hail, and ice. But hunger was the constantly recurring urge of these early days, and since they largely subsisted on animals, they eventually evolved a form of animal worship. To Andon, the larger food animals were symbols of creative might and sustaining power. From time to time it became the custom to designate various of these larger animals as objects of worship. During the vogue of a particular animal, crude outlines of it would be drawn on the walls of the caves, and later on, as continued progress was made in the arts, such an animal god was engraved on various ornaments.
(716.3) 63:6.4 Very early the Andonic peoples formed the habit of refraining from eating the flesh of the animal of tribal veneration. Presently, in order more suitably to impress the minds of their youths, they evolved a ceremony of reverence which was carried out about the body of one of these venerated animals; and still later on, this primitive performance developed into the more elaborate sacrificial ceremonies of their descendants. And this is the origin of sacrifices as a part of worship. This idea was elaborated by Moses in the Hebrew ritual and was preserved, in principle, by the Apostle Paul as the doctrine of atonement for sin by “the shedding of blood.”
(716.4) 63:6.5 That food was the all-important thing in the lives of these primitive human beings is shown by the prayer taught these simple folks by Onagar, their great teacher. And this prayer was:
(716.5) 63:6.6 “O Breath of Life, give us this day our daily food, deliver us from the curse of the ice, save us from our forest enemies, and with mercy receive us into the Great Beyond.”(716.6) 63:6.7 Onagar maintained headquarters on the northern shores of the ancient Mediterranean in the region of the present Caspian Sea at a settlement called Oban, the tarrying place on the westward turning of the travel trail leading up northward from the Mesopotamian southland. From Oban he sent out teachers to the remote settlements to spread his new doctrines of one Deity and his concept of the hereafter, which he called the Great Beyond. These emissaries of Onagar were the world’s first missionaries; they were also the first human beings to cook meat, the first regularly to use fire in the preparation of food. They cooked flesh on the ends of sticks and also on hot stones; later on they roasted large pieces in the fire, but their descendants almost entirely reverted to the use of raw flesh.
(716.7) 63:6.8 Onagar was born 983,323 years ago (from A.D. 1934), and he lived to be sixty-nine years of age. The record of the achievements of this master mind and spiritual leader of the pre-Planetary Prince days is a thrilling recital of the organization of these primitive peoples into a real society. He instituted an efficient tribal government, the like of which was not attained by succeeding generations in many millenniums. Never again, until the arrival of the Planetary Prince, was there such a high spiritual civilization on earth. These simple people had a real though primitive religion, but it was subsequently lost to their deteriorating descendants.
(717.1) 63:6.9 Although both Andon and Fonta had received Thought Adjusters, as had many of their descendants, it was not until the days of Onagar that the Adjusters and guardian seraphim came in great numbers to Urantia. This was, indeed, the golden age of primitive man.
7. The Survival of Andon and Fonta
(717.3) 63:7.2 On Jerusem both Andon and Fonta were fused with their Thought Adjusters, as also were several of their children, including Sontad, but the majority of even their immediate descendants only achieved Spirit fusion.
(717.4) 63:7.3 Andon and Fonta, shortly after their arrival on Jerusem, received permission from the System Sovereign to return to the first mansion world to serve with the morontia personalities who welcome the pilgrims of time from Urantia to the heavenly spheres. And they have been assigned indefinitely to this service. They sought to send greetings to Urantia in connection with these revelations, but this request was wisely denied them.
(717.5) 63:7.4 And this is the recital of the most heroic and fascinating chapter in all the history of Urantia, the story of the evolution, life struggles, death, and eternal survival of the unique parents of all mankind.
(717.6) 63:7.5 [Presented by a Life Carrier resident on Urantia.]
The Urantia Book
Paper 64
The Evolutionary Races of Color
(718.2) 64:0.2 The human race is almost one million years old, and the first half of its story roughly corresponds to the pre-Planetary Prince days of Urantia. The latter half of the history of mankind begins at the time of the arrival of the Planetary Prince and the appearance of the six colored races and roughly corresponds to the period commonly regarded as the Old Stone Age.
1. The Andonic Aborigines
(718.4) 64:1.2 Many of man’s earliest religious emotions grew out of his feeling of helplessness in the shut-in environment of this geographic situation — mountains to the right, water to the left, and ice in front. But these progressive Andonites would not turn back to their inferior tree-dwelling relatives in the south.
(718.5) 64:1.3 These Andonites avoided the forests in contrast with the habits of their nonhuman relatives. In the forests man has always deteriorated; human evolution has made progress only in the open and in the higher latitudes. The cold and hunger of the open lands stimulate action, invention, and resourcefulness. While these Andonic tribes were developing the pioneers of the present human race amidst the hardships and privations of these rugged northern climes, their backward cousins were luxuriating in the southern tropical forests of the land of their early common origin.
(718.6) 64:1.4 These events occurred during the times of the third glacier, the first according to the reckoning of geologists. The first two glaciers were not extensive in northern Europe.
(718.7) 64:1.5 During most of the ice age England was connected by land with France, while later on Africa was joined to Europe by the Sicilian land bridge. At the time of the Andonic migrations there was a continuous land path from England in the west on through Europe and Asia to Java in the east; but Australia was again isolated, which further accentuated the development of its own peculiar fauna.
(719.1) 64:1.6 950,000 years ago the descendants of Andon and Fonta had migrated far to the east and to the west. To the west they passed over Europe to France and England. In later times they penetrated eastward as far as Java, where their bones were so recently found — the so-called Java man — and then journeyed on to Tasmania.
(719.2) 64:1.7 The groups going west became less contaminated with the backward stocks of mutual ancestral origin than those going east, who mingled so freely with their retarded animal cousins. These unprogressive individuals drifted southward and presently mated with the inferior tribes. Later on, increasing numbers of their mongrel descendants returned to the north to mate with the rapidly expanding Andonic peoples, and such unfortunate unions unfailingly deteriorated the superior stock. Fewer and fewer of the primitive settlements maintained the worship of the Breath Giver. This early dawn civilization was threatened with extinction.
(719.3) 64:1.8 And thus it has ever been on Urantia. Civilizations of great promise have successively deteriorated and have finally been extinguished by the folly of allowing the superior freely to procreate with the inferior.
2. The Foxhall Peoples
(719.5) 64:2.2 These were the times when large numbers of inferior mongrel groups were arriving in England from southern France. These tribes were so largely mixed with the forest apelike creatures that they were scarcely human. They had no religion but were crude flintworkers and possessed sufficient intelligence to kindle fire.
(719.6) 64:2.3 They were followed in Europe by a somewhat superior and prolific people, whose descendants soon spread over the entire continent from the ice in the north to the Alps and Mediterranean in the south. These tribes are the so-called Heidelberg race.
(719.7) 64:2.4 During this long period of cultural decadence the Foxhall peoples of England and the Badonan tribes northwest of India continued to hold on to some of the traditions of Andon and certain remnants of the culture of Onagar.
(719.8) 64:2.5 The Foxhall peoples were farthest west and succeeded in retaining much of the Andonic culture; they also preserved their knowledge of flintworking, which they transmitted to their descendants, the ancient ancestors of the Eskimos.
(719.9) 64:2.6 Though the remains of the Foxhall peoples were the last to be discovered in England, these Andonites were really the first human beings to live in those regions. At that time the land bridge still connected France with England; and since most of the early settlements of the Andon descendants were located along the rivers and seashores of that early day, they are now under the waters of the English Channel and the North Sea, but some three or four are still above water on the English coast.
(720.1) 64:2.7 Many of the more intelligent and spiritual of the Foxhall peoples maintained their racial superiority and perpetuated their primitive religious customs. And these people, as they were later admixed with subsequent stocks, journeyed on west from England after a later ice visitation and have survived as the present-day Eskimos.
3. The Badonan Tribes
(720.3) 64:3.2 These highland Badonites occupied an extensive plateau surrounded by forests, traversed by streams, and abounding in game. Like some of their cousins in Tibet, they lived in crude stone huts, hillside grottoes, and semiunderground passages.
(720.4) 64:3.3 While the tribes of the north grew more and more to fear the ice, those living near the homeland of their origin became exceedingly fearful of the water. They observed the Mesopotamian peninsula gradually sinking into the ocean, and though it emerged several times, the traditions of these primitive races grew up around the dangers of the sea and the fear of periodic engulfment. And this fear, together with their experience with river floods, explains why they sought out the highlands as a safe place in which to live.
(720.5) 64:3.4 To the east of the Badonan peoples, in the Siwalik Hills of northern India, may be found fossils that approach nearer to transition types between man and the various prehuman groups than any others on earth.
(720.6) 64:3.5 850,000 years ago the superior Badonan tribes began a warfare of extermination directed against their inferior and animalistic neighbors. In less than one thousand years most of the borderland animal groups of these regions had been either destroyed or driven back to the southern forests. This campaign for the extermination of inferiors brought about a slight improvement in the hill tribes of that age. And the mixed descendants of this improved Badonite stock appeared on the stage of action as an apparently new people — the Neanderthal race.
4. The Neanderthal Races
(720.8) 64:4.2 800,000 years ago game was abundant; many species of deer, as well as elephants and hippopotamuses, roamed over Europe. Cattle were plentiful; horses and wolves were everywhere. The Neanderthalers were great hunters, and the tribes in France were the first to adopt the practice of giving the most successful hunters the choice of women for wives.
(721.1) 64:4.3 The reindeer was highly useful to these Neanderthal peoples, serving as food, clothing, and for tools, since they made various uses of the horns and bones. They had little culture, but they greatly improved the work in flint until it almost reached the levels of the days of Andon. Large flints attached to wooden handles came back into use and served as axes and picks.
(721.2) 64:4.4 750,000 years ago the fourth ice sheet was well on its way south. With their improved implements the Neanderthalers made holes in the ice covering the northern rivers and thus were able to spear the fish which came up to these vents. Ever these tribes retreated before the advancing ice, which at this time made its most extensive invasion of Europe.
(721.3) 64:4.5 In these times the Siberian glacier was making its southernmost march, compelling early man to move southward, back toward the lands of his origin. But the human species had so differentiated that the danger of further mingling with its nonprogressive simian relatives was greatly lessened.
(721.4) 64:4.6 700,000 years ago the fourth glacier, the greatest of all in Europe, was in recession; men and animals were returning north. The climate was cool and moist, and primitive man again thrived in Europe and western Asia. Gradually the forests spread north over land which had been so recently covered by the glacier.
(721.5) 64:4.7 Mammalian life had been little changed by the great glacier. These animals persisted in that narrow belt of land lying between the ice and the Alps and, upon the retreat of the glacier, again rapidly spread out over all Europe. There arrived from Africa, over the Sicilian land bridge, straight-tusked elephants, broad-nosed rhinoceroses, hyenas, and African lions, and these new animals virtually exterminated the saber-toothed tigers and the hippopotamuses.
(721.6) 64:4.8 650,000 years ago witnessed the continuation of the mild climate. By the middle of the interglacial period it had become so warm that the Alps were almost denuded of ice and snow.
(721.7) 64:4.9 600,000 years ago the ice had reached its then northernmost point of retreat and, after a pause of a few thousand years, started south again on its fifth excursion. But there was little modification of climate for fifty thousand years. Man and the animals of Europe were little changed. The slight aridity of the former period lessened, and the alpine glaciers descended far down the river valleys.
(721.8) 64:4.10 550,000 years ago the advancing glacier again pushed man and the animals south. But this time man had plenty of room in the wide belt of land stretching northeast into Asia and lying between the ice sheet and the then greatly expanded Black Sea extension of the Mediterranean.
(721.9) 64:4.11 These times of the fourth and fifth glaciers witnessed the further spread of the crude culture of the Neanderthal races. But there was so little progress that it truly appeared as though the attempt to produce a new and modified type of intelligent life on Urantia was about to fail. For almost a quarter of a million years these primitive peoples drifted on, hunting and fighting, by spells improving in certain directions, but, on the whole, steadily retrogressing as compared with their superior Andonic ancestors.
(721.10) 64:4.12 During these spiritually dark ages the culture of superstitious mankind reached its lowest levels. The Neanderthalers really had no religion beyond a shameful superstition. They were deathly afraid of clouds, more especially of mists and fogs. A primitive religion of the fear of natural forces gradually developed, while animal worship declined as improvement in tools, with abundance of game, enabled these people to live with lessened anxiety about food; the sex rewards of the chase tended greatly to improve hunting skill. This new religion of fear led to attempts to placate the invisible forces behind these natural elements and culminated, later on, in the sacrificing of humans to appease these invisible and unknown physical forces. And this terrible practice of human sacrifice has been perpetuated by the more backward peoples of Urantia right on down to the twentieth century.
(722.1) 64:4.13 These early Neanderthalers could hardly be called sun worshipers. They rather lived in fear of the dark; they had a mortal dread of nightfall. As long as the moon shone a little, they managed to get along, but in the dark of the moon they grew panicky and began the sacrifice of their best specimens of manhood and womanhood in an effort to induce the moon again to shine. The sun, they early learned, would regularly return, but the moon they conjectured only returned because they sacrificed their fellow tribesmen. As the race advanced, the object and purpose of sacrifice progressively changed, but the offering of human sacrifice as a part of religious ceremonial long persisted.
5. Origin of the Colored Races
(722.3) 64:5.2 And now, among these highland Badonites there was a new and strange occurrence. A man and woman living in the northeastern part of the then inhabited highland region began suddenly to produce a family of unusually intelligent children. This was the Sangik family, the ancestors of all of the six colored races of Urantia.
(722.4) 64:5.3 These Sangik children, nineteen in number, were not only intelligent above their fellows, but their skins manifested a unique tendency to turn various colors upon exposure to sunlight. Among these nineteen children were five red, two orange, four yellow, two green, four blue, and two indigo. These colors became more pronounced as the children grew older, and when these youths later mated with their fellow tribesmen, all of their offspring tended toward the skin color of the Sangik parent.
(722.5) 64:5.4 And now I interrupt the chronological narrative, after calling attention to the arrival of the Planetary Prince at about this time, while we separately consider the six Sangik races of Urantia.
6. The Six Sangik Races of Urantia
(723.1) 64:6.2 The appearance of the earlier Andonites on Urantia was also something new in Satania. On no other world in the local system has such a race of will creatures evolved in advance of the evolutionary races of color.
(723.2) 64:6.3 1. The red man. These peoples were remarkable specimens of the human race, in many ways superior to Andon and Fonta. They were a most intelligent group and were the first of the Sangik children to develop a tribal civilization and government. They were always monogamous; even their mixed descendants seldom practiced plural mating.
(723.3) 64:6.4 In later times they had serious and prolonged trouble with their yellow brethren in Asia. They were aided by their early invention of the bow and arrow, but they had unfortunately inherited much of the tendency of their ancestors to fight among themselves, and this so weakened them that the yellow tribes were able to drive them off the Asiatic continent.
(723.4) 64:6.5 About eighty-five thousand years ago the comparatively pure remnants of the red race went en masse across to North America, and shortly thereafter the Bering land isthmus sank, thus isolating them. No red man ever returned to Asia. But throughout Siberia, China, central Asia, India, and Europe they left behind much of their stock blended with the other colored races.
(723.5) 64:6.6 When the red man crossed over into America, he brought along much of the teachings and traditions of his early origin. His immediate ancestors had been in touch with the later activities of the world headquarters of the Planetary Prince. But in a short time after reaching the Americas, the red men began to lose sight of these teachings, and there occurred a great decline in intellectual and spiritual culture. Very soon these people again fell to fighting so fiercely among themselves that it appeared that these tribal wars would result in the speedy extinction of this remnant of the comparatively pure red race.
(723.6) 64:6.7 Because of this great retrogression the red men seemed doomed when, about sixty-five thousand years ago, Onamonalonton appeared as their leader and spiritual deliverer. He brought temporary peace among the American red men and revived their worship of the “Great Spirit.” Onamonalonton lived to be ninety-six years of age and maintained his headquarters among the great redwood trees of California. Many of his later descendants have come down to modern times among the Blackfoot Indians.
(723.7) 64:6.8 As time passed, the teachings of Onamonalonton became hazy traditions. Internecine wars were resumed, and never after the days of this great teacher did another leader succeed in bringing universal peace among them. Increasingly the more intelligent strains perished in these tribal struggles; otherwise a great civilization would have been built upon the North American continent by these able and intelligent red men.
(723.8) 64:6.9 After crossing over to America from China, the northern red man never again came in contact with other world influences (except the Eskimo) until he was later discovered by the white man. It was most unfortunate that the red man almost completely missed his opportunity of being upstepped by the admixture of the later Adamic stock. As it was, the red man could not rule the white man, and he would not willingly serve him. In such a circumstance, if the two races do not blend, one or the other is doomed.
(723.9) 64:6.10 2. The orange man. The outstanding characteristic of this race was their peculiar urge to build, to build anything and everything, even to the piling up of vast mounds of stone just to see which tribe could build the largest mound. Though they were not a progressive people, they profited much from the schools of the Prince and sent delegates there for instruction.
(724.1) 64:6.11 The orange race was the first to follow the coast line southward toward Africa as the Mediterranean Sea withdrew to the west. But they never secured a favorable footing in Africa and were wiped out of existence by the later arriving green race.
(724.2) 64:6.12 Before the end came, this people lost much cultural and spiritual ground. But there was a great revival of higher living as a result of the wise leadership of Porshunta, the master mind of this unfortunate race, who ministered to them when their headquarters was at Armageddon some three hundred thousand years ago.
(724.3) 64:6.13 The last great struggle between the orange and the green men occurred in the region of the lower Nile valley in Egypt. This long-drawn-out battle was waged for almost one hundred years, and at its close very few of the orange race were left alive. The shattered remnants of these people were absorbed by the green and by the later arriving indigo men. But as a race the orange man ceased to exist about one hundred thousand years ago.
(724.4) 64:6.14 3. The yellow man. The primitive yellow tribes were the first to abandon the chase, establish settled communities, and develop a home life based on agriculture. Intellectually they were somewhat inferior to the red man, but socially and collectively they proved themselves superior to all of the Sangik peoples in the matter of fostering racial civilization. Because they developed a fraternal spirit, the various tribes learning to live together in relative peace, they were able to drive the red race before them as they gradually expanded into Asia.
(724.5) 64:6.15 They traveled far from the influences of the spiritual headquarters of the world and drifted into great darkness following the Caligastia apostasy; but there occurred one brilliant age among this people when Singlangton, about one hundred thousand years ago, assumed the leadership of these tribes and proclaimed the worship of the “One Truth.”
(724.6) 64:6.16 The survival of comparatively large numbers of the yellow race is due to their intertribal peacefulness. From the days of Singlangton to the times of modern China, the yellow race has been numbered among the more peaceful of the nations of Urantia. This race received a small but potent legacy of the later imported Adamic stock.
(724.7) 64:6.17 4. The green man. The green race was one of the less able groups of primitive men, and they were greatly weakened by extensive migrations in different directions. Before their dispersion these tribes experienced a great revival of culture under the leadership of Fantad, some three hundred and fifty thousand years ago.
(724.8) 64:6.18 The green race split into three major divisions: The northern tribes were subdued, enslaved, and absorbed by the yellow and blue races. The eastern group were amalgamated with the Indian peoples of those days, and remnants still persist among them. The southern nation entered Africa, where they destroyed their almost equally inferior orange cousins.
(724.9) 64:6.19 In many ways both groups were evenly matched in this struggle since each carried strains of the giant order, many of their leaders being eight and nine feet in height. These giant strains of the green man were mostly confined to this southern or Egyptian nation.
(725.1) 64:6.20 The remnants of the victorious green men were subsequently absorbed by the indigo race, the last of the colored peoples to develop and emigrate from the original Sangik center of race dispersion.
(725.2) 64:6.21 5. The blue man. The blue men were a great people. They early invented the spear and subsequently worked out the rudiments of many of the arts of modern civilization. The blue man had the brain power of the red man associated with the soul and sentiment of the yellow man. The Adamic descendants preferred them to all of the later persisting colored races.
(725.3) 64:6.22 The early blue men were responsive to the persuasions of the teachers of Prince Caligastia’s staff and were thrown into great confusion by the subsequent perverted teachings of those traitorous leaders. Like other primitive races they never fully recovered from the turmoil produced by the Caligastia betrayal, nor did they ever completely overcome their tendency to fight among themselves.
(725.4) 64:6.23 About five hundred years after Caligastia’s downfall a widespread revival of learning and religion of a primitive sort — but none the less real and beneficial — occurred. Orlandof became a great teacher among the blue race and led many of the tribes back to the worship of the true God under the name of the “Supreme Chief.” This was the greatest advance of the blue man until those later times when this race was so greatly upstepped by the admixture of the Adamic stock.
(725.5) 64:6.24 The European researches and explorations of the Old Stone Age have largely to do with unearthing the tools, bones, and artcraft of these ancient blue men, for they persisted in Europe until recent times. The so-called white races of Urantia are the descendants of these blue men as they were first modified by slight mixture with yellow and red, and as they were later greatly upstepped by assimilating the greater portion of the violet race.
(725.6) 64:6.25 6. The indigo race. As the red men were the most advanced of all the Sangik peoples, so the black men were the least progressive. They were the last to migrate from their highland homes. They journeyed to Africa, taking possession of the continent, and have ever since remained there except when they have been forcibly taken away, from age to age, as slaves.
(725.7) 64:6.26 Isolated in Africa, the indigo peoples, like the red man, received little or none of the race elevation which would have been derived from the infusion of the Adamic stock. Alone in Africa, the indigo race made little advancement until the days of Orvonon, when they experienced a great spiritual awakening. While they later almost entirely forgot the “God of Gods” proclaimed by Orvonon, they did not entirely lose the desire to worship the Unknown; at least they maintained a form of worship up to a few thousand years ago.
(725.8) 64:6.27 Notwithstanding their backwardness, these indigo peoples have exactly the same standing before the celestial powers as any other earthly race.
(725.9) 64:6.28 These were ages of intense struggles between the various races, but near the headquarters of the Planetary Prince the more enlightened and more recently taught groups lived together in comparative harmony, though no great cultural conquest of the world races had been achieved up to the time of the serious disruption of this regime by the outbreak of the Lucifer rebellion.
(726.1) 64:6.29 From time to time all of these different peoples experienced cultural and spiritual revivals. Mansant was a great teacher of the post-Planetary Prince days. But mention is made only of those outstanding leaders and teachers who markedly influenced and inspired a whole race. With the passing of time, many lesser teachers arose in different regions; and in the aggregate they contributed much to the sum total of those saving influences which prevented the total collapse of cultural civilization, especially during the long and dark ages between the Caligastia rebellion and the arrival of Adam.
(726.2) 64:6.30 There are many good and sufficient reasons for the plan of evolving either three or six colored races on the worlds of space. Though Urantia mortals may not be in a position fully to appreciate all of these reasons, we would call attention to the following:
(726.3) 64:6.31 1. Variety is indispensable to opportunity for the wide functioning of natural selection, differential survival of superior strains.
(726.4) 64:6.32 2. Stronger and better races are to be had from the interbreeding of diverse peoples when these different races are carriers of superior inheritance factors. And the Urantia races would have benefited by such an early amalgamation provided such a conjoint people could have been subsequently effectively upstepped by a thoroughgoing admixture with the superior Adamic stock. The attempt to execute such an experiment on Urantia under present racial conditions would be highly disastrous.
(726.5) 64:6.33 3. Competition is healthfully stimulated by diversification of races.
(726.6) 64:6.34 4. Differences in status of the races and of groups within each race are essential to the development of human tolerance and altruism.
(726.7) 64:6.35 5. Homogeneity of the human race is not desirable until the peoples of an evolving world attain comparatively high levels of spiritual development.
7. Dispersion of the Colored Races
(726.9) 64:7.2 Thus it was that for almost one hundred thousand years these Sangik peoples spread out around the foothills and mingled together more or less, notwithstanding the peculiar but natural antipathy which early manifested itself between the different races.
(726.10) 64:7.3 Between the times of the Planetary Prince and Adam, India became the home of the most cosmopolitan population ever to be found on the face of the earth. But it was unfortunate that this mixture came to contain so much of the green, orange, and indigo races. These secondary Sangik peoples found existence more easy and agreeable in the southlands, and many of them subsequently migrated to Africa. The primary Sangik peoples, the superior races, avoided the tropics, the red man going northeast to Asia, closely followed by the yellow man, while the blue race moved northwest into Europe.
(727.1) 64:7.4 The red men early began to migrate to the northeast, on the heels of the retreating ice, passing around the highlands of India and occupying all of northeastern Asia. They were closely followed by the yellow tribes, who subsequently drove them out of Asia into North America.
(727.2) 64:7.5 When the relatively pure-line remnants of the red race forsook Asia, there were eleven tribes, and they numbered a little over seven thousand men, women, and children. These tribes were accompanied by three small groups of mixed ancestry, the largest of these being a combination of the orange and blue races. These three groups never fully fraternized with the red man and early journeyed southward to Mexico and Central America, where they were later joined by a small group of mixed yellows and reds. These peoples all intermarried and founded a new and amalgamated race, one which was much less warlike than the pure-line red men. Within five thousand years this amalgamated race broke up into three groups, establishing the civilizations respectively of Mexico, Central America, and South America. The South American offshoot did receive a faint touch of the blood of Adam.
(727.3) 64:7.6 To a certain extent the early red and yellow men mingled in Asia, and the offspring of this union journeyed on to the east and along the southern seacoast and, eventually, were driven by the rapidly increasing yellow race onto the peninsulas and near-by islands of the sea. They are the present-day brown men.
(727.4) 64:7.7 The yellow race has continued to occupy the central regions of eastern Asia. Of all the six colored races they have survived in greatest numbers. While the yellow men now and then engaged in racial war, they did not carry on such incessant and relentless wars of extermination as were waged by the red, green, and orange men. These three races virtually destroyed themselves before they were finally all but annihilated by their enemies of other races.
(727.5) 64:7.8 Since the fifth glacier did not extend so far south in Europe, the way was partially open for these Sangik peoples to migrate to the northwest; and upon the retreat of the ice the blue men, together with a few other small racial groups, migrated westward along the old trails of the Andon tribes. They invaded Europe in successive waves, occupying most of the continent.
(727.6) 64:7.9 In Europe they soon encountered the Neanderthal descendants of their early and common ancestor, Andon. These older European Neanderthalers had been driven south and east by the glacier and thus were in position quickly to encounter and absorb their invading cousins of the Sangik tribes.
(727.7) 64:7.10 In general and to start with, the Sangik tribes were more intelligent than, and in most ways far superior to, the deteriorated descendants of the early Andonic plainsmen; and the mingling of these Sangik tribes with the Neanderthal peoples led to the immediate improvement of the older race. It was this infusion of Sangik blood, more especially that of the blue man, which produced that marked improvement in the Neanderthal peoples exhibited by the successive waves of increasingly intelligent tribes that swept over Europe from the east.
(727.8) 64:7.11 During the following interglacial period this new Neanderthal race extended from England to India. The remnant of the blue race left in the old Persian peninsula later amalgamated with certain others, primarily the yellow; and the resultant blend, subsequently somewhat upstepped by the violet race of Adam, has persisted as the swarthy nomadic tribes of modern Arabs.
(728.1) 64:7.12 All efforts to identify the Sangik ancestry of modern peoples must take into account the later improvement of the racial strains by the subsequent admixture of Adamic blood.
(728.2) 64:7.13 The superior races sought the northern or temperate climes, while the orange, green, and indigo races successively gravitated to Africa over the newly elevated land bridge which separated the westward retreating Mediterranean from the Indian Ocean.
(728.3) 64:7.14 The last of the Sangik peoples to migrate from their center of race origin was the indigo man. About the time the green man was killing off the orange race in Egypt and greatly weakening himself in so doing, the great black exodus started south through Palestine along the coast; and later, when these physically strong indigo peoples overran Egypt, they wiped the green man out of existence by sheer force of numbers. These indigo races absorbed the remnants of the orange man and much of the stock of the green man, and certain of the indigo tribes were considerably improved by this racial amalgamation.
(728.4) 64:7.15 And so it appears that Egypt was first dominated by the orange man, then by the green, followed by the indigo (black) man, and still later by a mongrel race of indigo, blue, and modified green men. But long before Adam arrived, the blue men of Europe and the mixed races of Arabia had driven the indigo race out of Egypt and far south on the African continent.
(728.5) 64:7.16 As the Sangik migrations draw to a close, the green and orange races are gone, the red man holds North America, the yellow man eastern Asia, the blue man Europe, and the indigo race has gravitated to Africa. India harbors a blend of the secondary Sangik races, and the brown man, a blend of the red and yellow, holds the islands off the Asiatic coast. An amalgamated race of rather superior potential occupies the highlands of South America. The purer Andonites live in the extreme northern regions of Europe and in Iceland, Greenland, and northeastern North America.
(728.6) 64:7.17 During the periods of farthest glacial advance the westernmost of the Andon tribes came very near being driven into the sea. They lived for years on a narrow southern strip of the present island of England. And it was the tradition of these repeated glacial advances that drove them to take to the sea when the sixth and last glacier finally appeared. They were the first marine adventurers. They built boats and started in search of new lands which they hoped might be free from the terrifying ice invasions. And some of them reached Iceland, others Greenland, but the vast majority perished from hunger and thirst on the open sea.
(728.7) 64:7.18 A little more than eighty thousand years ago, shortly after the red man entered northwestern North America, the freezing over of the north seas and the advance of local ice fields on Greenland drove these Eskimo descendants of the Urantia aborigines to seek a better land, a new home; and they were successful, safely crossing the narrow straits which then separated Greenland from the northeastern land masses of North America. They reached the continent about twenty-one hundred years after the red man arrived in Alaska. Subsequently some of the mixed stock of the blue man journeyed westward and amalgamated with the later-day Eskimos, and this union was slightly beneficial to the Eskimo tribes.
(728.8) 64:7.19 About five thousand years ago a chance meeting occurred between an Indian tribe and a lone Eskimo group on the southeastern shores of Hudson Bay. These two tribes found it difficult to communicate with each other, but very soon they intermarried with the result that these Eskimos were eventually absorbed by the more numerous red men. And this represents the only contact of the North American red man with any other human stock down to about one thousand years ago, when the white man first chanced to land on the Atlantic coast.
(729.1) 64:7.20 The struggles of these early ages were characterized by courage, bravery, and even heroism. And we all regret that so many of those sterling and rugged traits of your early ancestors have been lost to the later-day races. While we appreciate the value of many of the refinements of advancing civilization, we miss the magnificent persistency and superb devotion of your early ancestors, which oftentimes bordered on grandeur and sublimity.
(729.2) 64:7.21 [Presented by a Life Carrier resident on Urantia.]
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