textfiles/occult/URANTIA/p012.txt

               Urantia Book Paper 12 The Universe Of Universes
        SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET.

  Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super
 Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's
    Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son
Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The
    Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of
  Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central
And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven
    Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate
  Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The
   Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The
Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central
    Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The
Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe
                            The Corps Of The Finality
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                      Paper 12 The Universe Of Universes

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Introduction

THE immensity of the far-flung creation of the Universal Father is utterly
beyond the grasp of finite imagination; the enormousness of the master universe
staggers the concept of even my order of being. But the mortal mind can be
taught much about the plan and arrangement of the universes; you can know
something of their physical organization and marvelous administration; you may
learn much about the various groups of intelligent beings who inhabit the seven
superuniverses of time and the central universe of eternity.

In principle, that is, in eternal potential, we conceive of material creation
as being infinite because the Universal Father is actually infinite, but as we
study and observe the total material creation, we know that at any given moment
in time it is limited, although to your finite minds it is comparatively
limitless, virtually boundless.

We are convinced, from the study of physical law and from the observation of
the starry realms, that the infinite Creator is not yet manifest in finality of
cosmic expression, that much of the cosmic potential of the Infinite is still
self-contained and unrevealed. To created beings the master universe might
appear to be almost infinite, but it is far from finished; there are still
physical limits to the material creation, and the experiential revelation of
the eternal purpose is still in progress.

1. SPACE LEVELS OF THE MASTER UNIVERSE

The universe of universes is not an infinite plane, a boundless cube, nor a
limitless circle; it certainly has dimensions. The laws of physical
organization and administration prove conclusively that the whole vast
aggregation of force-energy and matter-power functions ultimately as a space
unit, as an organized and co-ordinated whole. The observable behavior of the
material creation constitutes evidence of a physical universe of definite
limits. The final proof of both a circular and delimited universe is afforded
by the, to us, well-known fact that all forms of basic energy ever swing around
the curved path of the space levels of the master universe in obedience to the
incessant and absolute pull of Paradise gravity.

The successive space levels of the master universe constitute the major
divisions of pervaded space--total creation, organized and partially inhabited
or yet to be organized and inhabited. If the master universe were not a series
of elliptical space levels of lessened resistance to motion, alternating with
zones of relative quiescence, we conceive that some of the cosmic energies
would be observed to shoot off on an infinite range, off on a straight-line
path into trackless

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space; but we never find force, energy, or matter thus behaving; ever they
whirl, always swinging onward in the tracks of the great space circuits.

Proceeding outward from Paradise through the horizontal extension of pervaded
space, the master universe is existent in six concentric ellipses, the space
levels encircling the central Isle:

1. The Central Universe--Havona.

2. The Seven Superuniverses.

3. The First Outer Space Level.

4. The Second Outer Space Level.

5. The Third Outer Space Level.

6. The Fourth and Outermost Space Level.

Havona, the central universe, is not a time creation; it is an eternal
existence. This never-beginning, never-ending universe consists of one billion
spheres of sublime perfection and is surrounded by the enormous dark gravity
bodies. At the center of Havona is the stationary and absolutely stabilized
Isle of Paradise, surrounded by its twenty-one satellites. Owing to the
enormous encircling masses of the dark gravity bodies about the fringe of the
central universe, the mass content of this central creation is far in excess of
the total known mass of all seven sectors of the grand universe.

The Paradise-Havona System, the eternal universe encircling the eternal Isle,
constitutes the perfect and eternal nucleus of the master universe; all seven
of the superuniverses and all regions of outer space revolve in established
orbits around the gigantic central aggregation of the Paradise satellites and
the Havona spheres.

The Seven Superuniverses are not primary physical organizations; nowhere do
their boundaries divide a nebular family, neither do they cross a local
universe, a prime creative unit. Each superuniverse is simply a geographic
space clustering of approximately one seventh of the organized and partially
inhabited post-Havona creation, and each is about equal in the number of local
universes embraced and in the space encompassed. Nebadon, your local universe,
is one of the newer creations in Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse.

The Grand Universe is the present organized and inhabited creation. It consists
of the seven superuniverses, with an aggregate evolutionary potential of around
seven trillion inhabited planets, not to mention the eternal spheres of the
central creation. But this tentative estimate takes no account of architectural
administrative spheres, neither does it include the outlying groups of
unorganized universes. The present ragged edge of the grand universe, its
uneven and unfinished periphery, together with the tremendously unsettled
condition of the whole astronomical plot, suggests to our star students that
even the seven super-universes are, as yet, uncompleted. As we move from
within, from the divine center outward in any one direction, we do, eventually,
come to the outer limits of the organized and inhabited creation; we come to
the outer limits of the grand universe. And it is near this outer border, in a
far-off corner of such a magnificent creation, that your local universe has its
eventful existence.

The Outer Space Levels. Far out in space, at an enormous distance from the
seven inhabited superuniverses, there are assembling vast and unbelievably

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stupendous circuits of force and materializing energies. Between the energy
circuits of the seven superuniverses and this gigantic outer belt of force
activity, there is a space zone of comparative quiet, which varies in width but
averages about four hundred thousand light-years. These space zones are free
from star dust--cosmic fog. Our students of these phenomena are in doubt as to
the exact status of the space-forces existing in this zone of relative quiet
which encircles the seven superuniverses. But about one-half million
light-years beyond the periphery of the present grand universe we observe the
beginnings of a zone of an unbelievable energy action which increases in volume
and intensity for over twenty-five million light-years. These tremendous wheels
of energizing forces are situated in the first outer space level, a continuous
belt of cosmic activity encircling the whole of the known, organized, and
inhabited creation.

Still greater activities are taking place beyond these regions, for the Uversa
physicists have detected early evidence of force manifestations more than fifty
million light-years beyond the outermost ranges of the phenomena in the first
outer space level. These activities undoubtedly presage the organization of the
material creations of the second outer space level of the master universe.

The central universe is the creation of eternity; the seven superuniverses are
the creations of time; the four outer space levels are undoubtedly destined to
eventuate-evolve the ultimacy of creation. And there are those who maintain
that the Infinite can never attain full expression short of infinity; and
therefore do they postulate an additional and unrevealed creation beyond the
fourth and outermost space level, a possible ever-expanding, never-ending
universe of infinity. In theory we do not know how to limit either the infinity
of the Creator or the potential infinity of creation, but as it exists and is
administered, we regard the master universe as having limitations, as being
definitely delimited and bounded on its outer margins by open space.

2. THE DOMAINS OF THE UNQUALIFIED ABSOLUTE

When Urantia astronomers peer through their increasingly powerful telescopes
into the mysterious stretches of outer space and there behold the amazing
evolution of almost countless physical universes, they should realize that they
are gazing upon the mighty outworking of the unsearchable plans of the
Architects of the Master Universe. True, we do possess evidences which are
suggestive of the presence of certain Paradise personality influences here and
there throughout the vast energy manifestations now characteristic of these
outer regions, but from the larger viewpoint the space regions extending beyond
the outer borders of the seven superuniverses are generally recognized as
constituting the domains of the Unqualified Absolute.

Although the unaided human eye can see only two or three nebulae outside the
borders of the superuniverse of Orvonton, your telescopes literally reveal
millions upon millions of these physical universes in process of formation.
Most of the starry realms visually exposed to the search of your present-day
telescopes are in Orvonton, but with photographic technique the larger
telescopes penetrate far beyond the borders of the grand universe into the
domains of outer space, where untold universes are in process of organization.
And there are yet other millions of universes beyond the range of your present
instruments.

In the not-distant future, new telescopes will reveal to the wondering gaze of
Urantian astronomers no less than 375 million new galaxies in the remote

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stretches of outer space. At the same time these more powerful telescopes will
disclose that many island universes formerly believed to be in outer space are
really a part of the galactic system of Orvonton. The seven superuniverses are
still growing; the periphery of each is gradually expanding; new nebulae are
constantly being stabilized and organized; and some of the nebulae which
Urantian astronomers regard as extragalactic are actually on the fringe of
Orvonton and are traveling along with us.

The Uversa star students observe that the grand universe is surrounded by the
ancestors of a series of starry and planetary clusters which completely
encircle the present inhabited creation as concentric rings of outer universes
upon universes. The physicists of Uversa calculate that the energy and matter
of these outer and uncharted regions already equal many times the total
material mass and energy charge embraced in all seven superuniverses. We are
informed that the metamorphosis of cosmic force in these outer space levels is
a function of the Paradise force organizers. We also know that these forces are
ancestral to those physical energies which at present activate the grand
universe. The Orvonton power directors, however, have nothing to do with these
far-distant realms, neither are the energy movements therein discernibly
connected with the power circuits of the organized and inhabited creations.

We know very little of the significance of these tremendous phenomena of outer
space. A greater creation of the future is in process of formation. We can
observe its immensity, we can discern its extent and sense its majestic
dimensions, but otherwise we know little more about these realms than do the
astronomers of Urantia. As far as we know, no material beings on the order of
humans, no angels or other spirit creatures, exist in this outer ring of
nebulae, suns, and planets. This distant domain is beyond the jurisdiction and
administration of the superuniverse governments.

Throughout Orvonton it is believed that a new type of creation is in process,
an order of universes destined to become the scene of the future activities of
the assembling Corps of the Finality; and if our conjectures are correct, then
the endless future may hold for all of you the same enthralling spectacles that
the endless past has held for your seniors and predecessors.

3. UNIVERSAL GRAVITY

All forms of force-energy--material, mindal, or spiritual--are alike subject to
those grasps, those universal presences, which we call gravity. Personality
also is responsive to gravity--to the Father's exclusive circuit; but though
this circuit is exclusive to the Father, he is not excluded from the other
circuits; the Universal Father is infinite and acts over all four
absolute-gravity circuits in the master universe:

1. The Personality Gravity of the Universal Father.

2. The Spirit Gravity of the Eternal Son.

3. The Mind Gravity of the Conjoint Actor.

4. The Cosmic Gravity of the Isle of Paradise.

These four circuits are not related to the nether Paradise force center; they
are neither force, energy, nor power circuits. They are absolute presence
circuits and like God are independent of time and space.

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In this connection it is interesting to record certain observations made on
Uversa during recent millenniums by the corps of gravity researchers. This
expert group of workers has arrived at the following conclusions regarding the
different gravity systems of the master universe:

1. Physical Gravity. Having formulated an estimate of the summation of the
entire physical-gravity capacity of the grand universe, they have laboriously
effected a comparison of this finding with the estimated total of absolute
gravity presence now operative. These calculations indicate that the total
gravity action on the grand universe is a very small part of the estimated
gravity pull of Paradise, computed on the basis of the gravity response of
basic physical units of universe matter. These investigators reach the amazing
conclusion that the central universe and the surrounding seven superuniverses
are at the present time making use of only about five per cent of the active
functioning of the Paradise absolute-gravity grasp. In other words: At the
present moment about ninety-five per cent of the active cosmic-gravity action
of the Isle of Paradise, computed on this totality theory, is engaged in
controlling material systems beyond the borders of the present organized
universes. These calculations all refer to absolute gravity; linear gravity is
an interactive phenomenon which can be computed only by knowing the actual
Paradise gravity.

2. Spiritual Gravity. By the same technique of comparative estimation and
calculation these researchers have explored the present reaction capacity of
spirit gravity and, with the co-operation of Solitary Messengers and other
spirit personalities, have arrived at the summation of the active spirit
gravity of the Second Source and Center. And it is most instructive to note
that they find about the same value for the actual and functional presence of
spirit gravity in the grand universe that they postulate for the present total
of active spirit gravity. In other words: At the present time practically the
entire spirit gravity of the Eternal Son, computed on this theory of totality,
is observable as functioning in the grand universe. If these findings are
dependable, we may conclude that the universes now evolving in outer space are
at the present time wholly nonspiritual. And if this is true, it would
satisfactorily explain why spirit-endowed beings are in possession of little or
no information about these vast energy manifestations aside from knowing the
fact of their physical existence.

3. Mind Gravity. By these same principles of comparative computation these
experts have attacked the problem of mind-gravity presence and response. The
mind unit of estimation was arrived at by averaging three material and three
spiritual types of mentality, although the type of mind found in the power
directors and their associates proved to be a disturbing factor in the effort
to arrive at a basic unit for mind-gravity estimation. There was little to
impede the estimation of the present capacity of the Third Source and Center
for mind-gravity function in accordance with this theory of totality. Although
the findings in this instance are not so conclusive as in the estimates of
physical and spirit gravity, they are, comparatively considered, very
instructive, even intriguing. These investigators deduce that about eighty-five
per cent of the mind-gravity response to the intellectual drawing of the
Conjoint Actor takes origin in the existing grand universe. This would suggest
the possibility that mind activities are involved in connection with the
observable physical activities now in progress throughout the realms of outer
space. While this estimate is probably far from accurate, it accords, in
principle, with our belief that intelligent force organizers

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are at present directing universe evolution in the space levels beyond the
present outer limits of the grand universe. Whatever the nature of this
postulated intelligence, it is apparently not spirit-gravity responsive.

But all these computations are at best estimates based on assumed laws. We
think they are fairly reliable. Even if a few spirit beings were located in
outer space, their collective presence would not markedly influence
calculations involving such enormous measurements.

Personality Gravity is noncomputable. We recognize the circuit, but we cannot
measure either qualitative or quantitative realities responsive thereto.

4. SPACE AND MOTION

All units of cosmic energy are in primary revolution, are engaged in the
execution of their mission, while swinging around the universal orbit. The
universes of space and their component systems and worlds are all revolving
spheres, moving along the endless circuits of the master universe space levels.
Absolutely nothing is stationary in all the master universe except the very
center of Havona, the eternal Isle of Paradise, the center of gravity.

The Unqualified Absolute is functionally limited to space, but we are not so
sure about the relation of this Absolute to motion. Is motion inherent therein?
We do not know. We know that motion is not inherent in space; even the motions
of space are not innate. But we are not so sure about the relation of the
Unqualified to motion. Who, or what, is really responsible for the gigantic
activities of force-energy transmutations now in progress out beyond the
borders of the present seven superuniverses? Concerning the origin of motion we
have the following opinions:

1. We think the Conjoint Actor initiates motion in space.

2. If the Conjoint Actor produces the motions of space, we cannot prove it.

3. The Universal Absolute does not originate initial motion but does equalize
and control all of the tensions originated by motion.

In outer space the force organizers are apparently responsible for the
production of the gigantic universe wheels which are now in process of stellar
evolution, but their ability so to function must have been made possible by
some modification of the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute.

Space is, from the human viewpoint, nothing--negative; it exists only as
related to something positive and nonspatial. Space is, however, real. It
contains and conditions motion. It even moves. Space motions may be roughly
classified as follows:

1. Primary motion--space respiration, the motion of space itself.

2. Secondary motion--the alternate directional swings of the successive space
levels.

3. Relative motions--relative in the sense that they are not evaluated with
Paradise as a base point. Primary and secondary motions are absolute, motion in
relation to unmoving Paradise.

4. Compensatory or correlating movement designed to co-ordinate all other
motions.

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The present relationship of your sun and its associated planets, while
disclosing many relative and absolute motions in space, tends to convey the
impression to astronomic observers that you are comparatively stationary in
space, and that the surrounding starry clusters and streams are engaged in
outward flight at ever-increasing velocities as your calculations proceed
outward in space. But such is not the case. You fail to recognize the present
outward and uniform expansion of the physical creations of all pervaded space.
Your own local creation (Nebadon) participates in this movement of universal
outward expansion. The entire seven superuniverses participate in the
two-billion-year cycles of space respiration along with the outer regions of
the master universe.

When the universes expand and contract, the material masses in pervaded space
alternately move against and with the pull of Paradise gravity. The work that
is done in moving the material energy mass of creation is space work but not
power-energy work.

Although your spectroscopic estimations of astronomic velocities are fairly
reliable when applied to the starry realms belonging to your superuniverse and
its associate superuniverses, such reckonings with reference to the realms of
outer space are wholly unreliable. Spectral lines are displaced from the normal
towards the violet by an approaching star; likewise these lines are displaced
towards the red by a receding star. Many influences interpose to make it appear
that the recessional velocity of the external universes increases at the rate
of more than one hundred miles a second for every million light-years increase
in distance. By this method of reckoning, subsequent to the perfection of more
powerful telescopes, it will appear that these far-distant systems are in
flight from this part of the universe at the unbelievable rate of more than
thirty thousand miles a second. But this apparent speed of recession is not
real; it results from numerous factors of error embracing angles of observation
and other time-space distortions.

But the greatest of all such distortions arises because the vast universes of
outer space in the realms next to the domains of the seven superuniverses seem
to be revolving in a direction opposite to that of the grand universe. That is,
these myriads of nebulae and their accompanying suns and spheres are at the
present time revolving clockwise about the central creation. The seven
superuniverses revolve about Paradise in a counterclockwise direction. It
appears that the second outer universe of galaxies, like the seven
superuniverses, revolves counterclockwise about Paradise. And the astronomic
observers of Uversa think they detect evidence of revolutionary movements in a
third outer belt of far-distant space which are beginning to exhibit
directional tendencies of a clockwise nature.

It is probable that these alternate directions of successive space processions
of the universes have something to do with the intramaster universe gravity
technique of the Universal Absolute, which consists of a co-ordination of
forces and an equalization of space tensions. Motion as well as space is a
complement or equilibrant of gravity.

5. SPACE AND TIME

Like space, time is a bestowal of Paradise, but not in the same sense, only
indirectly. Time comes by virtue of motion and because mind is inherently aware
of sequentiality. From a practical viewpoint, motion is essential to time, but
there is no universal time unit based on motion except in so far as the
Paradise-Havona

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standard day is arbitrarily so recognized. The totality of space respiration
destroys its local value as a time source.

Space is not infinite, even though it takes origin from Paradise; not absolute,
for it is pervaded by the Unqualified Absolute. We do not know the absolute
limits of space, but we do know that the absolute of time is eternity.

Time and space are inseparable only in the time-space creations, the seven
superuniverses. Nontemporal space (space without time) theoretically exists,
but the only truly nontemporal place is Paradise area. Nonspatial time (time
without space) exists in mind of the Paradise level of function.

The relatively motionless midspace zones impinging on Paradise and separating
pervaded from unpervaded space are the transition zones from time to eternity,
hence the necessity of Paradise pilgrims becoming unconscious during this
transit when it is to culminate in Paradise citizenship. Time-conscious
visitors can go to Paradise without thus sleeping, but they remain creatures of
time.

Relationships to time do not exist without motion in space, but consciousness
of time does. Sequentiality can consciousize time even in the absence of
motion. Man's mind is less time-bound than space-bound because of the inherent
nature of mind. Even during the days of the earth life in the flesh, though
man's mind is rigidly space-bound, the creative human imagination is
comparatively time free. But time itself is not genetically a quality of mind.

There are three different levels of time cognizance:

1. Mind-perceived time--consciousness of sequence, motion, and a sense of
duration.

2. Spirit-perceived time--insight into motion Godward and the awareness of the
motion of ascent to levels of increasing divinity.

3. Personality creates a unique time sense out of insight into Reality plus a
consciousness of presence and an awareness of duration.

Unspiritual animals know only the past and live in the present. Spirit-indwelt
man has powers of prevision (insight); he may visualize the future. Only
forward-looking and progressive attitudes are personally real. Static ethics
and traditional morality are just slightly superanimal. Nor is stoicism a high
order of self-realization. Ethics and morals become truly human when they are
dynamic and progressive, alive with universe reality.

The human personality is not merely a concomitant of time-and-space events; the
human personality can also act as the cosmic cause of such events.

6. UNIVERSAL OVERCONTROL

The universe is nonstatic. Stability is not the result of inertia but rather
the product of balanced energies, co-operative minds, co-ordinated morontias,
spirit overcontrol, and personality unification. Stability is wholly and always
proportional to divinity.

In the physical control of the master universe the Universal Father exercises
priority and primacy through the Isle of Paradise; God is absolute in the
spiritual administration of the cosmos in the person of the Eternal Son.
Concerning the domains of mind, the Father and the Son function co-ordinately
in the Conjoint Actor.

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The Third Source and Center assists in the maintenance of the equilibrium and
co-ordination of the combined physical and spiritual energies and organizations
by the absoluteness of his grasp of the cosmic mind and by the exercise of his
inherent and universal physical- and spiritual-gravity complements. Whenever
and wherever there occurs a liaison between the material and the spiritual,
such a mind phenomenon is an act of the Infinite Spirit. Mind alone can
interassociate the physical forces and energies of the material level with the
spiritual powers and beings of the spirit level.

In all your contemplation of universal phenomena, make certain that you take
into consideration the interrelation of physical, intellectual, and spiritual
energies, and that due allowance is made for the unexpected phenomena attendant
upon their unification by personality and for the unpredictable phenomena
resulting from the actions and reactions of experiential Deity and the
Absolutes.

The universe is highly predictable only in the quantitative or
gravity-measurement sense; even the primal physical forces are not responsive
to linear gravity, nor are the higher mind meanings and true spirit values of
ultimate universe realities. Qualitatively, the universe is not highly
predictable as regards new associations of forces, either physical, mindal, or
spiritual, although many such combinations of energies or forces become
partially predictable when subjected to critical observation. When matter,
mind, and spirit are unified by creature personality, we are unable fully to
predict the decisions of such a freewill being.

All phases of primordial force, nascent spirit, and other nonpersonal ultimates
appear to react in accordance with certain relatively stable but unknown laws
and are characterized by a latitude of performance and an elasticity of
response which are often disconcerting when encountered in the phenomena of a
circumscribed and isolated situation. What is the explanation of this
unpredictable freedom of reaction disclosed by these emerging universe
actualities? These unknown, unfathomable unpredictables--whether pertaining to
the behavior of a primordial unit of force, the reaction of an unidentified
level of mind, or the phenomenon of a vast preuniverse in the making in the
domains of outer space--probably disclose the activities of the Ultimate and
the presence-performances of the Absolutes, which antedate the function of all
universe Creators.

We do not really know, but we surmise that such amazing versatility and such
profound co-ordination signify the presence and performance of the Absolutes,
and that such diversity of response in the face of apparently uniform causation
discloses the reaction of the Absolutes, not only to the immediate and
situational causation, but also to all other related causations throughout the
entire master universe.

Individuals have their guardians of destiny; planets, systems, constellations,
universes, and superuniverses each have their respective rulers who labor for
the good of their domains. Havona and even the grand universe are watched over
by those intrusted with such high responsibilities. But who fosters and cares
for the fundamental needs of the master universe as a whole, from Paradise to
the fourth and outermost space level? Existentially such overcare is probably
attributable to the Paradise Trinity, but from an experiential viewpoint the
appearance of the post-Havona universes is dependent on:

1. The Absolutes in potential.

2. The Ultimate in direction.

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3. The Supreme in evolutionary co-ordination.

4. The Architects of the Master Universe in administration prior to the
appearance of specific rulers.

The Unqualified Absolute pervades all space. We are not altogether clear as to
the exact status of the Deity and Universal Absolutes, but we know the latter
functions wherever the Deity and Unqualified Absolutes function. The Deity
Absolute may be universally present but hardly space present. The Ultimate is,
or sometime will be, space present to the outer margins of the fourth space
level. We doubt that the Ultimate will ever have a space presence beyond the
periphery of the master universe, but within this limit the Ultimate is
progressively integrating the creative organization of the potentials of the
three Absolutes.

7. THE PART AND THE WHOLE

There is operative throughout all time and space and with regard to all reality
of whatever nature an inexorable and impersonal law which is equivalent to the
function of a cosmic providence. Mercy characterizes God's attitude of love for
the individual; impartiality motivates God's attitude toward the total. The
will of God does not necessarily prevail in the part--the heart of any one
personality--but his will does actually rule the whole, the universe of
universes.

In all his dealings with all his beings it is true that the laws of God are not
inherently arbitrary. To you, with your limited vision and finite viewpoint,
the acts of God must often appear to be dictatorial and arbitrary. The laws of
God are merely the habits of God, his way of repeatedly doing things; and he
ever does all things well. You observe that God does the same thing in the same
way, repeatedly, simply because that is the best way to do that particular
thing in a given circumstance; and the best way is the right way, and therefore
does infinite wisdom always order it done in that precise and perfect manner.
You should also remember that nature is not the exclusive act of Deity; other
influences are present in those phenomena which man calls nature.

It is repugnant to the divine nature to suffer any sort of deterioration or
ever to permit the execution of any purely personal act in an inferior way. It
should be made clear, however, that, if, in the divinity of any situation, in
the extremity of any circumstance, in any case where the course of supreme
wisdom might indicate the demand for different conduct--if the demands of
perfection might for any reason dictate another method of reaction, a better
one, then and there would the all-wise God function in that better and more
suitable way. That would be the expression of a higher law, not the reversal of
a lower law.

God is not a habit-bound slave to the chronicity of the repetition of his own
voluntary acts. There is no conflict among the laws of the Infinite; they are
all perfections of the infallible nature; they are all the unquestioned acts
expressive of faultless decisions. Law is the unchanging reaction of an
infinite, perfect, and divine mind. The acts of God are all volitional
notwithstanding this apparent sameness. In God there "is no variableness
neither shadow of changing." But all this which can be truly said of the
Universal Father cannot be said with equal certainty of all his subordinate
intelligences or of his evolutionary creatures.

Because God is changeless, therefore can you depend, in all ordinary
circumstances, on his doing the same thing in the same identical and ordinary
way. God

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is the assurance of stability for all created things and beings. He is God;
therefore he changes not.

And all this steadfastness of conduct and uniformity of action is personal,
conscious, and highly volitional, for the great God is not a helpless slave to
his own perfection and infinity. God is not a self-acting automatic force; he
is not a slavish law-bound power. God is neither a mathematical equation nor a
chemical formula. He is a freewill and primal personality. He is the Universal
Father, a being surcharged with personality and the universal fount of all
creature personality.

The will of God does not uniformly prevail in the heart of the God-seeking
material mortal, but if the time frame is enlarged beyond the moment to embrace
the whole of the first life, then does God's will become increasingly
discernible in the spirit fruits which are borne in the lives of the spirit-led
children of God. And then, if human life is further enlarged to include the
morontia experience, the divine will is observed to shine brighter and brighter
in the spiritualizing acts of those creatures of time who have begun to taste
the divine delights of experiencing the relationship of the personality of man
with the personality of the Universal Father.

The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man present the paradox of the
part and the whole on the level of personality. God loves each individual as an
individual child in the heavenly family. Yet God thus loves every individual;
he is no respecter of persons, and the universality of his love brings into
being a relationship of the whole, the universal brotherhood.

The love of the Father absolutely individualizes each personality as a unique
child of the Universal Father, a child without duplicate in infinity, a will
creature irreplaceable in all eternity. The Father's love glorifies each child
of God, illuminating each member of the celestial family, sharply silhouetting
the unique nature of each personal being against the impersonal levels that lie
outside the fraternal circuit of the Father of all. The love of God strikingly
portrays the transcendent value of each will creature, unmistakably reveals the
high value which the Universal Father has placed upon each and every one of his
children from the highest creator personality of Paradise status to the lowest
personality of will dignity among the savage tribes of men in the dawn of the
human species on some evolutionary world of time and space.

This very love of God for the individual brings into being the divine family of
all individuals, the universal brotherhood of the freewill children of the
Paradise Father. And this brotherhood, being universal, is a relationship of
the whole. Brotherhood, when universal, discloses not the each relationship,
but the all relationship. Brotherhood is a reality of the total and therefore
discloses qualities of the whole in contradistinction to qualities of the part.

Brotherhood constitutes a fact of relationship between every personality in
universal existence. No person can escape the benefits or the penalties that
may come as a result of relationship to other persons. The part profits or
suffers in measure with the whole. The good effort of each man benefits all
men; the error or evil of each man augments the tribulation of all men. As
moves the part, so moves the whole. As the progress of the whole, so the
progress of the part. The relative velocities of part and whole determine
whether the part is retarded by the inertia of the whole or is carried forward
by the momentum of the cosmic brotherhood.

                                top of page - 139

It is a mystery that God is a highly personal self-conscious being with
residential headquarters, and at the same time personally present in such a
vast universe and personally in contact with such a well-nigh infinite number
of beings. That such a phenomenon is a mystery beyond human comprehension
should not in the least lessen your faith. Do not allow the magnitude of the
infinity, the immensity of the eternity, and the grandeur and glory of the
matchless character of God to overawe, stagger, or discourage you; for the
Father is not very far from any one of you; he dwells within you, and in him do
we all literally move, actually live, and veritably have our being.

Even though the Paradise Father functions through his divine creators and his
creature children, he also enjoys the most intimate inner contact with you, so
sublime, so highly personal, that it is even beyond my comprehension--that
mysterious communion of the Father fragment with the human soul and with the
mortal mind of its actual indwelling. Knowing what you do of these gifts of
God, you therefore know that the Father is in intimate touch, not only with his
divine associates, but also with his evolutionary mortal children of time. The
Father indeed abides on Paradise, but his divine presence also dwells in the
minds of men.

Even though the spirit of a Son be poured out upon all flesh, even though a Son
once dwelt with you in the likeness of mortal flesh, even though the seraphim
personally guard and guide you, how can any of these divine beings of the
Second and Third Centers ever hope to come as near to you or to understand you
as fully as the Father, who has given a part of himself to be in you, to be
your real and divine, even your eternal, self?

8. MATTER, MIND, AND SPIRIT

"God is spirit," but Paradise is not. The material universe is always the arena
wherein take place all spiritual activities; spirit beings and spirit ascenders
live and work on physical spheres of material reality.

The bestowal of cosmic force, the domain of cosmic gravity, is the function of
the Isle of Paradise. All original force-energy proceeds from Paradise, and the
matter for the making of untold universes now circulates throughout the master
universe in the form of a supergravity presence which constitutes the
force-charge of pervaded space.

Whatever the transformations of force in the outlying universes, having gone
out from Paradise, it journeys on subject to the never-ending, ever-present,
unfailing pull of the eternal Isle, obediently and inherently swinging on
forever around the eternal space paths of the universes. Physical energy is the
one reality which is true and steadfast in its obedience to universal law. Only
in the realms of creature volition has there been deviation from the divine
paths and the original plans. Power and energy are the universal evidences of
the stability, constancy, and eternity of the central Isle of Paradise.

The bestowal of spirit and the spiritualization of personalities, the domain of
spiritual gravity, is the realm of the Eternal Son. And this spirit gravity of
the Son, ever drawing all spiritual realities to himself, is just as real and
absolute as is the all-powerful material grasp of the Isle of Paradise. But
material-minded man is naturally more familiar with the material manifestations
of a physical

                                top of page - 140

nature than with the equally real and mighty operations of a spiritual nature
which are discerned only by the spiritual insight of the soul.

As the mind of any personality in the universe becomes more
spiritual--Godlike--it becomes less responsive to material gravity. Reality,
measured by physical-gravity response, is the antithesis of reality as
determined by quality of spirit content. Physical-gravity action is a
quantitative determiner of nonspirit energy; spiritual-gravity action is the
qualitative measure of the living energy of divinity.

What Paradise is to the physical creation, and what the Eternal Son is to the
spiritual universe, the Conjoint Actor is to the realms of mind--the
intelligent universe of material, morontial, and spiritual beings and
personalities.

The Conjoint Actor reacts to both material and spiritual realities and
therefore inherently becomes the universal minister to all intelligent beings,
beings who may represent a union of both the material and spiritual phases of
creation. The endowment of intelligence, the ministry to the material and the
spiritual in the phenomenon of mind, is the exclusive domain of the Conjoint
Actor, who thus becomes the partner of the spiritual mind, the essence of the
morontia mind, and the substance of the material mind of the evolutionary
creatures of time.

Mind is the technique whereby spirit realities become experiential to creature
personalities. And in the last analysis the unifying possibilities of even
human mind, the ability to co-ordinate things, ideas, and values, is
supermaterial.

Though it is hardly possible for the mortal mind to comprehend the seven levels
of relative cosmic reality, the human intellect should be able to grasp much of
the meaning of three functioning levels of finite reality:

1. Matter. Organized energy which is subject to linear gravity except as it is
modified by motion and conditioned by mind.

2. Mind. Organized consciousness which is not wholly subject to material
gravity, and which becomes truly liberated when modified by spirit.

3. Spirit. The highest personal reality. True spirit is not subject to physical
gravity but eventually becomes the motivating influence of all evolving energy
systems of personality dignity.

The goal of existence of all personalities is spirit; material manifestations
are relative, and the cosmic mind intervenes between these universal opposites.
The bestowal of mind and the ministration of spirit are the work of the
associate persons of Deity, the Infinite Spirit and the Eternal Son. Total
Deity reality is not mind but spirit-mind--mind-spirit unified by personality.
Nevertheless the absolutes of both the spirit and the thing converge in the
person of the Universal Father.

On Paradise the three energies, physical, mindal, and spiritual, are
co-ordinate. In the evolutionary cosmos energy-matter is dominant except in
personality, where spirit, through the mediation of mind, is striving for the
mastery. Spirit is the fundamental reality of the personality experience of all
creatures because God is spirit. Spirit is unchanging, and therefore, in all
personality relations, it transcends both mind and matter, which are
experiential variables of progressive attainment.

In cosmic evolution matter becomes a philosophic shadow cast by mind in the
presence of spirit luminosity of divine enlightenment, but this does not
invalidate

                                top of page - 141

the reality of matter-energy. Mind, matter, and spirit are equally real, but
they are not of equal value to personality in the attainment of divinity.
Consciousness of divinity is a progressive spiritual experience.

The brighter the shining of the spiritualized personality (the Father in the
universe, the fragment of potential spirit personality in the individual
creature), the greater the shadow cast by the intervening mind upon its
material investment. In time, man's body is just as real as mind or spirit, but
in death, both mind (identity) and spirit survive while the body does not. A
cosmic reality can be nonexistent in personality experience. And so your Greek
figure of speech--the material as the shadow of the more real spirit
substance--does have a philosophic significance.

9. PERSONAL REALITIES

Spirit is the basic personal reality in the universes, and personality is basic
to all progressing experience with spiritual reality. Every phase of
personality experience on every successive level of universe progression swarms
with clues to the discovery of alluring personal realities. Man's true destiny
consists in the creation of new and spirit goals and then in responding to the
cosmic allurements of such supernal goals of nonmaterial value.

Love is the secret of beneficial association between personalities. You cannot
really know a person as the result of a single contact. You cannot
appreciatingly know music through mathematical deduction, even though music is
a form of mathematical rhythm. The number assigned to a telephone subscriber
does not in any manner identify the personality of that subscriber or signify
anything concerning his character.

Mathematics, material science, is indispensable to the intelligent discussion
of the material aspects of the universe, but such knowledge is not necessarily
a part of the higher realization of truth or of the personal appreciation of
spiritual realities. Not only in the realms of life but even in the world of
physical energy, the sum of two or more things is very often something more
than, or something different from, the predictable additive consequences of
such unions. The entire science of mathematics, the whole domain of philosophy,
the highest physics or chemistry, could not predict or know that the union of
two gaseous hydrogen atoms with one gaseous oxygen atom would result in a new
and qualitatively superadditive substance--liquid water. The understanding
knowledge of this one physiochemical phenomenon should have prevented the
development of materialistic philosophy and mechanistic cosmology.

Technical analysis does not reveal what a person or a thing can do. For
example: Water is used effectively to extinguish fire. That water will put out
fire is a fact of everyday experience, but no analysis of water could ever be
made to disclose such a property. Analysis determines that water is composed of
hydrogen and oxygen; a further study of these elements discloses that oxygen is
the real supporter of combustion and that hydrogen will itself freely burn.

Your religion is becoming real because it is emerging from the slavery of fear
and the bondage of superstition. Your philosophy struggles for emancipation
from dogma and tradition. Your science is engaged in the agelong contest
between truth and error while it fights for deliverance from the bondage of
abstraction, the slavery of mathematics, and the relative blindness of
mechanistic materialism.

                                top of page - 142

Mortal man has a spirit nucleus. The mind is a personal-energy system existing
around a divine spirit nucleus and functioning in a material environment. Such
a living relationship of personal mind and spirit constitutes the universe
potential of eternal personality. Real trouble, lasting disappointment, serious
defeat, or inescapable death can come only after self-concepts presume fully to
displace the governing power of the central spirit nucleus, thereby disrupting
the cosmic scheme of personality identity.

[Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom acting by authority of the Ancients of
Days.]

                                top of page - 143

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super
 Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's
    Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son
Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The
    Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of
  Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central
And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven
    Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate
  Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The
   Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The
Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central
    Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The
Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe
                            The Corps Of The Finality

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