textfiles/occult/URANTIA/p112.txt

                 Urantia Book Paper 112 Personality Survival
        SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET.

Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia
  : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On
Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The
 Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color
   The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary
  Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution
Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet
  The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden
The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In
 The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization
The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The
    Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes,
  Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And
   Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa
  Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings
In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The
    Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of
      Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The
  Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of
  The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And
 Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation
 Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals
                            ... Personality Survival
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                        Paper 112 Personality Survival

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Introduction

THE evolutionary planets are the spheres of human origin, the initial worlds of
the ascending mortal career. Urantia is your starting point; here you and your
divine Thought Adjuster are joined in temporary union. You have been endowed
with a perfect guide; therefore, if you will sincerely run the race of time and
gain the final goal of faith, the reward of the ages shall be yours; you will
be eternally united with your indwelling Adjuster. Then will begin your real
life, the ascending life, to which your present mortal state is but the
vestibule. Then will begin your exalted and progressive mission as finaliters
in the eternity which stretches out before you. And throughout all of these
successive ages and stages of evolutionary growth, there is one part of you
that remains absolutely unaltered, and that is personality--permanence in the
presence of change.

While it would be presumptuous to attempt the definition of personality, it may
prove helpful to recount some of the things which are known about personality:

1. Personality is that quality in reality which is bestowed by the Universal
Father himself or by the Conjoint Actor, acting for the Father.

2. It may be bestowed upon any living energy system which includes mind or
spirit.

3. It is not wholly subject to the fetters of antecedent causation. It is
relatively creative or cocreative.

4. When bestowed upon evolutionary material creatures, it causes spirit to
strive for the mastery of energy-matter through the mediation of mind.

5. Personality, while devoid of identity, can unify the identity of any living
energy system.

6. It discloses only qualitative response to the personality circuit in
contradistinction to the three energies which show both qualitative and
quantitative response to gravity.

7. Personality is changeless in the presence of change.

8. It can make a gift to God--dedication of the free will to the doing of the
will of God.

9. It is characterized by morality--awareness of relativity of relationship
with other persons. It discerns conduct levels and choosingly discriminates
between them.

10. Personality is unique, absolutely unique: It is unique in time and space;
it is unique in eternity and on Paradise; it is unique when bestowed--there are

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no duplicates; it is unique during every moment of existence; it is unique in
relation to God--he is no respecter of persons, but neither does he add them
together, for they are nonaddable--they are associable but nontotalable.

11. Personality responds directly to other-personality presence.

12. It is one thing which can be added to spirit, thus illustrating the primacy
of the Father in relation to the Son. (Mind does not have to be added to
spirit.)

13. Personality may survive mortal death with identity in the surviving soul.
The Adjuster and the personality are changeless; the relationship between them
(in the soul) is nothing but change, continuing evolution; and if this change
(growth) ceased, the soul would cease.

14. Personality is uniquely conscious of time, and this is something other than
the time perception of mind or spirit.

1. PERSONALITY AND REALITY

Personality is bestowed by the Universal Father upon his creatures as a
potentially eternal endowment. Such a divine gift is designed to function on
numerous levels and in successive universe situations ranging from the lowly
finite to the highest absonite, even to the borders of the absolute.
Personality thus performs on three cosmic planes or in three universe phases:

1. Position status. Personality functions equally efficiently in the local
universe, in the superuniverse, and in the central universe.

2. Meaning status. Personality performs effectively on the levels of the
finite, the absonite, and even as impinging upon the absolute.

3. Value status. Personality can be experientially realized in the progressive
realms of the material, the morontial, and the spiritual.

Personality has a perfected range of cosmic dimensional performance. The
dimensions of finite personality are three, and they are roughly functional as
follows:

1. Length represents direction and nature of progression--movement through
space and according to time--evolution.

2. Vertical depth embraces the organismal drives and attitudes, the varying
levels of self-realization and the general phenomenon of reaction to
environment.

3. Breadth embraces the domain of co-ordination, association, and selfhood
organization.

The type of personality bestowed upon Urantia mortals has a potentiality of
seven dimensions of self-expression or person-realization. These dimensional
phenomena are realizable as three on the finite level, three on the absonite
level, and one on the absolute level. On subabsolute levels this seventh or
totality dimension is experiencible as the fact of personality. This supreme
dimension is an associable absolute and, while not infinite, is dimensionally
potential for subinfinite penetration of the absolute.

The finite dimensions of personality have to do with cosmic length, depth, and
breadth. Length denotes meaning; depth signifies value; breadth embraces
insight--the capacity to experience unchallengeable consciousness of cosmic
reality.

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On the morontia level all of these finite dimensions of the material level are
greatly enhanced, and certain new dimensional values are realizable. All these
enlarged dimensional experiences of the morontia level are marvelously
articulated with the supreme or personality dimension through the influence of
mota and also because of the contribution of morontia mathematics.

Much trouble experienced by mortals in their study of human personality could
be avoided if the finite creature would remember that dimensional levels and
spiritual levels are not co-ordinated in experiential personality realization.

Life is really a process which takes place between the organism (selfhood) and
its environment. The personality imparts value of identity and meanings of
continuity to this organismal-environmental association. Thus it will be
recognized that the phenomenon of stimulus-response is not a mere mechanical
process since the personality functions as a factor in the total situation. It
is ever true that mechanisms are innately passive; organisms, inherently
active.

Physical life is a process taking place not so much within the organism as
between the organism and the environment. And every such process tends to
create and establish organismal patterns of reaction to such an environment.
And all such directive patterns are highly influential in goal choosing.

It is through the mediation of mind that the self and the environment establish
meaningful contact. The ability and willingness of the organism to make such
significant contacts with environment (response to a drive) represents the
attitude of the whole personality.

Personality cannot very well perform in isolation. Man is innately a social
creature; he is dominated by the craving of belongingness. It is literally
true, "No man lives unto himself."

But the concept of the personality as the meaning of the whole of the living
and functioning creature means much more than the integration of relationships;
it signifies the unification of all factors of reality as well as co-ordination
of relationships. Relationships exist between two objects, but three or more
objects eventuate a system, and such a system is much more than just an
enlarged or complex relationship. This distinction is vital, for in a cosmic
system the individual members are not connected with each other except in
relation to the whole and through the individuality of the whole.

In the human organism the summation of its parts constitutes
selfhood--individuality--but such a process has nothing whatever to do with
personality, which is the unifier of all these factors as related to cosmic
realities.

In aggregations parts are added; in systems parts are arranged. Systems are
significant because of organization--positional values. In a good system all
factors are in cosmic position. In a bad system something is either missing or
displaced--deranged. In the human system it is the personality which unifies
all activities and in turn imparts the qualities of identity and creativity.

2. THE SELF

It would be helpful in the study of selfhood to remember:

1. That physical systems are subordinate.

2. That intellectual systems are co-ordinate.

3. That personality is superordinate.

4. That the indwelling spiritual force is potentially directive.

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In all concepts of selfhood it should be recognized that the fact of life comes
first, its evaluation or interpretation later. The human child first lives and
subsequently thinks about his living. In the cosmic economy insight precedes
foresight.

The universe fact of God's becoming man has forever changed all meanings and
altered all values of human personality. In the true meaning of the word, love
connotes mutual regard of whole personalities, whether human or divine or human
and divine. Parts of the self may function in numerous ways--thinking, feeling,
wishing--but only the co-ordinated attributes of the whole personality are
focused in intelligent action; and all of these powers are associated with the
spiritual endowment of the mortal mind when a human being sincerely and
unselfishly loves another being, human or divine.

All mortal concepts of reality are based on the assumption of the actuality of
human personality; all concepts of superhuman realities are based on the
experience of the human personality with and in the cosmic realities of certain
associated spiritual entities and divine personalities. Everything nonspiritual
in human experience, excepting personality, is a means to an end. Every true
relationship of mortal man with other persons--human or divine--is an end in
itself. And such fellowship with the personality of Deity is the eternal goal
of universe ascension.

The possession of personality identifies man as a spiritual being since the
unity of selfhood and the self-consciousness of personality are endowments of
the supermaterial world. The very fact that a mortal materialist can deny the
existence of supermaterial realities in and of itself demonstrates the
presence, and indicates the working, of spirit synthesis and cosmic
consciousness in his human mind.

There exists a great cosmic gulf between matter and thought, and this gulf is
immeasurably greater between material mind and spiritual love. Consciousness,
much less self-consciousness, cannot be explained by any theory of mechanistic
electronic association or materialistic energy phenomena.

As mind pursues reality to its ultimate analysis, matter vanishes to the
material senses but may still remain real to mind. When spiritual insight
pursues that reality which remains after the disappearance of matter and
pursues it to an ultimate analysis, it vanishes to mind, but the insight of
spirit can still perceive cosmic realities and supreme values of a spiritual
nature. Accordingly does science give way to philosophy, while philosophy must
surrender to the conclusions inherent in genuine spiritual experience. Thinking
surrenders to wisdom, and wisdom is lost in enlightened and reflective worship.

In science the human self observes the material world; philosophy is the
observation of this observation of the material world; religion, true spiritual
experience, is the experiential realization of the cosmic reality of the
observation of the observation of all this relative synthesis of the energy
materials of time and space. To build a philosophy of the universe on an
exclusive materialism is to ignore the fact that all things material are
initially conceived as real in the experience of human consciousness. The
observer cannot be the thing observed; evaluation demands some degree of
transcendence of the thing which is evaluated.

In time, thinking leads to wisdom and wisdom leads to worship; in eternity,
worship leads to wisdom, and wisdom eventuates in the finality of thought.

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The possibility of the unification of the evolving self is inherent in the
qualities of its constitutive factors: the basic energies, the master tissues,
the fundamental chemical overcontrol, the supreme ideas, the supreme motives,
the supreme goals, and the divine spirit of Paradise bestowal--the secret of
the self-consciousness of man's spiritual nature.

The purpose of cosmic evolution is to achieve unity of personality through
increasing spirit dominance, volitional response to the teaching and leading of
the Thought Adjuster. Personality, both human and superhuman, is characterized
by an inherent cosmic quality which may be called "the evolution of dominance,"
the expansion of the control of both itself and its environment.

An ascending onetime human personality passes through two great phases of
increasing volitional dominance over the self and in the universe:

1. The prefinaliter or God-seeking experience of augmenting the
self-realization through a technique of identity expansion and actualization
together with cosmic problem solving and consequent universe mastery.

2. The postfinaliter or God-revealing experience of the creative expansion of
self-realization through revealing the Supreme Being of experience to the
God-seeking intelligences who have not yet attained the divine levels of
Godlikeness.

Descending personalities attain analogous experiences through their various
universe adventures as they seek for enlarged capacity for ascertaining and
executing the divine wills of the Supreme, Ultimate, and Absolute Deities.

The material self, the ego-entity of human identity, is dependent during the
physical life on the continuing function of the material life vehicle, on the
continued existence of the unbalanced equilibrium of energies and intellect
which, on Urantia, has been given the name life. But selfhood of survival
value, selfhood that can transcend the experience of death, is only evolved by
establishing a potential transfer of the seat of the identity of the evolving
personality from the transient life vehicle--the material body--to the more
enduring and immortal nature of the morontia soul and on beyond to those levels
whereon the soul becomes infused with, and eventually attains the status of,
spirit reality. This actual transfer from material association to morontia
identification is effected by the sincerity, persistence, and steadfastness of
the God-seeking decisions of the human creature.

3. THE PHENOMENON OF DEATH

Urantians generally recognize only one kind of death, the physical cessation of
life energies; but concerning personality survival there are really three
kinds:

1. Spiritual (soul) death. If and when mortal man has finally rejected
survival, when he has been pronounced spiritually insolvent, morontially
bankrupt, in the conjoint opinion of the Adjuster and the surviving seraphim,
when such co-ordinate advice has been recorded on Uversa, and after the Censors
and their reflective associates have verified these findings, thereupon do the
rulers of Orvonton order the immediate release of the indwelling Monitor. But
this release of the Adjuster in no way affects the duties of the personal or
group

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seraphim concerned with that Adjuster-abandoned individual. This kind of death
is final in its significance irrespective of the temporary continuation of the
living energies of the physical and mind mechanisms. From the cosmic standpoint
the mortal is already dead; the continuing life merely indicates the
persistence of the material momentum of cosmic energies.

2. Intellectual (mind) death. When the vital circuits of higher adjutant
ministry are disrupted through the aberrations of intellect or because of the
partial destruction of the mechanism of the brain, and if these conditions pass
a certain critical point of irreparability, the indwelling Adjuster is
immediately released to depart for Divinington. On the universe records a
mortal personality is considered to have met with death whenever the essential
mind circuits of human will-action have been destroyed. And again, this is
death, irrespective of the continuing function of the living mechanism of the
physical body. The body minus the volitional mind is no longer human, but
according to the prior choosing of the human will, the soul of such an
individual may survive.

3. Physical (body and mind) death. When death overtakes a human being, the
Adjuster remains in the citadel of the mind until it ceases to function as an
intelligent mechanism, about the time that the measurable brain energies cease
their rhythmic vital pulsations. Following this dissolution the Adjuster takes
leave of the vanishing mind, just as unceremoniously as entry was made years
before, and proceeds to Divinington by way of Uversa.

After death the material body returns to the elemental world from which it was
derived, but two nonmaterial factors of surviving personality persist: The
pre-existent Thought Adjuster, with the memory transcription of the mortal
career, proceeds to Divinington; and there also remains, in the custody of the
destiny guardian, the immortal morontia soul of the deceased human. These
phases and forms of soul, these once kinetic but now static formulas of
identity, are essential to repersonalization on the morontia worlds; and it is
the reunion of the Adjuster and the soul that reassembles the surviving
personality, that reconsciousizes you at the time of the morontia awakening.

For those who do not have personal seraphic guardians, the group custodians
faithfully and efficiently perform the same service of identity safekeeping and
personality resurrection. The seraphim are indispensable to the reassembly of
personality.

Upon death the Thought Adjuster temporarily loses personality, but not
identity; the human subject temporarily loses identity, but not personality; on
the mansion worlds both reunite in eternal manifestation. Never does a departed
Thought Adjuster return to earth as the being of former indwelling; never is
personality manifested without the human will; and never does a dis-Adjustered
human being after death manifest active identity or in any manner establish
communication with the living beings of earth. Such dis-Adjustered souls are
wholly and absolutely unconscious during the long or short sleep of death.
There can be no exhibition of any sort of personality or ability to engage in
communications with other personalities until after completion of survival.
Those who go to the mansion worlds are not permitted to send messages back to
their loved ones. It is the policy throughout the universes to forbid such
communication during the period of a current dispensation.

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4. ADJUSTERS AFTER DEATH

When death of a material, intellectual, or spiritual nature occurs, the
Adjuster bids farewell to the mortal host and departs for Divinington. From the
headquarters of the local universe and the superuniverse a reflective contact
is made with the supervisors of both governments, and the Monitor is registered
out by the same number that recorded entry into the domains of time.

In some way not fully understood, the Universal Censors are able to gain
possession of an epitome of the human life as it is embodied in the Adjuster's
duplicate transcription of the spiritual values and morontia meanings of the
indwelt mind. The Censors are able to appropriate the Adjuster's version of the
deceased human's survival character and spiritual qualities, and all this data,
together with the seraphic records, is available for presentation at the time
of the adjudication of the individual concerned. This information is also used
to confirm those superuniverse mandates which make it possible for certain
ascenders immediately to begin their morontia careers, upon mortal dissolution
to proceed to the mansion worlds ahead of the formal termination of a planetary
dispensation.

Subsequent to physical death, except in individuals translated from among the
living, the released Adjuster goes immediately to the home sphere of
Divinington. The details of what transpires on that world during the time of
awaiting the factual reappearance of the surviving mortal depend chiefly on
whether the human being ascends to the mansion worlds in his own individual
right or awaits a dispensational summoning of the sleeping survivors of a
planetary age.

If the mortal associate belongs to a group that will be repersonalized at the
end of a dispensation, the Adjuster will not immediately return to the mansion
world of the former system of service but will, according to choice, enter upon
one of the following temporary assignments:

1. Be mustered into the ranks of vanished Monitors for undisclosed service.

2. Be assigned for a period to the observation of the Paradise regime.

3. Be enrolled in one of the many training schools of Divinington.

4. Be stationed for a time as a student observer on one of the other six sacred
spheres which constitute the Father's circuit of Paradise worlds.

5. Be assigned to the messenger service of the Personalized Adjusters.

6. Become an associate instructor in the Divinington schools devoted to the
training of Monitors belonging to the virgin group.

7. Be assigned to select a group of possible worlds on which to serve in the
event that there is reasonable cause for believing that the human partner may
have rejected survival.

If, when death overtakes you, you have attained the third circle or a higher
realm and therefore have had assigned to you a personal guardian of destiny,
and if the final transcript of the summary of survival character submitted by
the Adjuster is unconditionally certified by the destiny guardian--if both
seraphim and Adjuster essentially agree in every item of their life records and
recommendations--if the Universal Censors and their reflective associates

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on Uversa confirm this data and do so without equivocation or reservation, in
that event the Ancients of Days flash forth the mandate of advanced standing
over the communication circuits to Salvington, and, thus released, the
tribunals of the Sovereign of Nebadon will decree the immediate passage of the
surviving soul to the resurrection halls of the mansion worlds.

If the human individual survives without delay, the Adjuster, so I am
instructed, registers at Divinington, proceeds to the Paradise presence of the
Universal Father, returns immediately and is embraced by the Personalized
Adjusters of the superuniverse and local universe of assignment, receives the
recognition of the chief Personalized Monitor of Divinington, and then, at
once, passes into the "realization of identity transition," being summoned
therefrom on the third period and on the mansion world in the actual
personality form made ready for the reception of the surviving soul of the
earth mortal as that form has been projected by the guardian of destiny.

5. SURVIVAL OF THE HUMAN SELF

Selfhood is a cosmic reality whether material, morontial, or spiritual. The
actuality of the personal is the bestowal of the Universal Father acting in and
of himself or through his manifold universe agencies. To say that a being is
personal is to recognize the relative individuation of such a being within the
cosmic organism. The living cosmos is an all but infinitely integrated
aggregation of real units, all of which are relatively subject to the destiny
of the whole. But those that are personal have been endowed with the actual
choice of destiny acceptance or of destiny rejection.

That which comes from the Father is like the Father eternal, and this is just
as true of personality, which God gives by his own freewill choice, as it is of
the divine Thought Adjuster, an actual fragment of God. Man's personality is
eternal but with regard to identity a conditioned eternal reality. Having
appeared in response to the Father's will, personality will attain Deity
destiny, but man must choose whether or not he will be present at the
attainment of such destiny. In default of such choice, personality attains
experiential Deity directly, becoming a part of the Supreme Being. The cycle is
foreordained, but man's participation therein is optional, personal, and
experiential.

Mortal identity is a transient time-life condition in the universe; it is real
only in so far as the personality elects to become a continuing universe
phenomenon. This is the essential difference between man and an energy system:
The energy system must continue, it has no choice; but man has everything to do
with determining his own destiny. The Adjuster is truly the path to Paradise,
but man himself must pursue that path by his own deciding, his freewill
choosing.

Human beings possess identity only in the material sense. Such qualities of the
self are expressed by the material mind as it functions in the energy system of
the intellect. When it is said that man has identity, it is recognized that he
is in possession of a mind circuit which has been placed in subordination to
the acts and choosing of the will of the human personality. But this is a
material and purely temporary manifestation, just as the human embryo is a
transient parasitic stage of human life. Human beings, from a cosmic
perspective, are born, live, and die in a relative instant of time; they are
not enduring. But mortal personality, through its own choosing, possesses the

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power of transferring its seat of identity from the passing material-intellect
system to the higher morontia-soul system which, in association with the
Thought Adjuster, is created as a new vehicle for personality manifestation.

And it is this very power of choice, the universe insignia of freewill
creaturehood, that constitutes man's greatest opportunity and his supreme
cosmic responsibility. Upon the integrity of the human volition depends the
eternal destiny of the future finaliter; upon the sincerity of the mortal free
will the divine Adjuster depends for eternal personality; upon the faithfulness
of mortal choice the Universal Father depends for the realization of a new
ascending son; upon the steadfastness and wisdom of decision-actions the
Supreme Being depends for the actuality of experiential evolution.

Though the cosmic circles of personality growth must eventually be attained,
if, through no fault of your own, the accidents of time and the handicaps of
material existence prevent your mastering these levels on your native planet,
if your intentions and desires are of survival value, there are issued the
decrees of probation extension. You will be afforded additional time in which
to prove yourself.

If ever there is doubt as to the advisability of advancing a human identity to
the mansion worlds, the universe governments invariably rule in the personal
interests of that individual; they unhesitatingly advance such a soul to the
status of a transitional being, while they continue their observations of the
emerging morontia intent and spiritual purpose. Thus divine justice is certain
of achievement, and divine mercy is accorded further opportunity for extending
its ministry.

The governments of Orvonton and Nebadon do not claim absolute perfection for
the detail working of the universal plan of mortal repersonalization, but they
do claim to, and actually do, manifest patience, tolerance, understanding, and
merciful sympathy. We had rather assume the risk of a system rebellion than to
court the hazard of depriving one struggling mortal from any evolutionary world
of the eternal joy of pursuing the ascending career.

This does not mean that human beings are to enjoy a second opportunity in the
face of the rejection of a first, not at all. But it does signify that all will
creatures are to experience one true opportunity to make one undoubted,
self-conscious, and final choice. The sovereign Judges of the universes will
not deprive any being of personality status who has not finally and fully made
the eternal choice; the soul of man must and will be given full and ample
opportunity to reveal its true intent and real purpose.

When the more spiritually and cosmically advanced mortals die, they proceed
immediately to the mansion worlds; in general, this provision operates with
those who have had assigned to them personal seraphic guardians. Other mortals
may be detained until such time as the adjudication of their affairs has been
completed, after which they may proceed to the mansion worlds, or they may be
assigned to the ranks of the sleeping survivors who will be repersonalized en
masse at the end of the current planetary dispensation.

There are two difficulties that hamper my efforts to explain just what happens
to you in death, the surviving you which is distinct from the departing
Adjuster. One of these consists in the impossibility of conveying to your level
of comprehension an adequate description of a transaction on the borderland of
the physical and morontia realms. The other is brought about by the restric-

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tions placed upon my commission as a revelator of truth by the celestial
governing authorities of Urantia. There are many interesting details which
might be presented, but I withhold them upon the advice of your immediate
planetary supervisors. But within the limits of my permission I can say this
much:

There is something real, something of human evolution, something additional to
the Mystery Monitor, which survives death. This newly appearing entity is the
soul, and it survives the death of both your physical body and your material
mind. This entity is the conjoint child of the combined life and efforts of the
human you in liaison with the divine you, the Adjuster. This child of human and
divine parentage constitutes the surviving element of terrestrial origin; it is
the morontia self, the immortal soul.

This child of persisting meaning and surviving value is wholly unconscious
during the period from death to repersonalization and is in the keeping of the
seraphic destiny guardian throughout this season of waiting. You will not
function as a conscious being, following death, until you attain the new
consciousness of morontia on the mansion worlds of Satania.

At death the functional identity associated with the human personality is
disrupted through the cessation of vital motion. Human personality, while
transcending its constituent parts, is dependent on them for functional
identity. The stoppage of life destroys the physical brain patterns for mind
endowment, and the disruption of mind terminates mortal consciousness. The
consciousness of that creature cannot subsequently reappear until a cosmic
situation has been arranged which will permit the same human personality again
to function in relationship with living energy.

During the transit of surviving mortals from the world of origin to the mansion
worlds, whether they experience personality reassembly on the third period or
ascend at the time of a group resurrection, the record of personality
constitution is faithfully preserved by the archangels on their worlds of
special activities. These beings are not the custodians of personality (as the
guardian seraphim are of the soul), but it is nonetheless true that every
identifiable factor of personality is effectually safeguarded in the custody of
these dependable trustees of mortal survival. As to the exact whereabouts of
mortal personality during the time intervening between death and survival, we
do not know.

The situation which makes repersonalization possible is brought about in the
resurrection halls of the morontia receiving planets of a local universe. Here
in these life-assembly chambers the supervising authorities provide that
relationship of universe energy--morontial, mindal, and spiritual--which makes
possible the reconsciousizing of the sleeping survivor. The reassembly of the
constituent parts of a onetime material personality involves:

1. The fabrication of a suitable form, a morontia energy pattern, in which the
new survivor can make contact with nonspiritual reality, and within which the
morontia variant of the cosmic mind can be encircuited.

2. The return of the Adjuster to the waiting morontia creature. The Adjuster is
the eternal custodian of your ascending identity; your Monitor is the absolute
assurance that you yourself and not another will occupy the morontia form
created for your personality awakening. And the Adjuster will be present at
your personality reassembly to take up once more the role of Paradise guide to
your surviving self.

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3. When these prerequisites of repersonalization have been assembled, the
seraphic custodian of the potentialities of the slumbering immortal soul, with
the assistance of numerous cosmic personalities, bestows this morontia entity
upon and in the awaiting morontia mind-body form while committing this
evolutionary child of the Supreme to eternal association with the waiting
Adjuster. And this completes the repersonalization, reassembly of memory,
insight, and consciousness--identity.

The fact of repersonalization consists in the seizure of the encircuited
morontia phase of the newly segregated cosmic mind by the awakening human self.
The phenomenon of personality is dependent on the persistence of the identity
of selfhood reaction to universe environment; and this can only be effected
through the medium of mind. Selfhood persists in spite of a continuous change
in all the factor components of self; in the physical life the change is
gradual; at death and upon repersonalization the change is sudden. The true
reality of all selfhood (personality) is able to function responsively to
universe conditions by virtue of the unceasing changing of its constituent
parts; stagnation terminates in inevitable death. Human life is an endless
change of the factors of life unified by the stability of the unchanging
personality.

And when you thus awaken on the mansion worlds of Jerusem, you will be so
changed, the spiritual transformation will be so great that, were it not for
your Thought Adjuster and the destiny guardian, who so fully connect up your
new life in the new worlds with your old life in the first world, you would at
first have difficulty in connecting the new morontia consciousness with the
reviving memory of your previous identity. Notwithstanding the continuity of
personal selfhood, much of the mortal life would at first seem to be a vague
and hazy dream. But time will clarify many mortal associations.

The Thought Adjuster will recall and rehearse for you only those memories and
experiences which are a part of, and essential to, your universe career. If the
Adjuster has been a partner in the evolution of aught in the human mind, then
will these worth-while experiences survive in the eternal consciousness of the
Adjuster. But much of your past life and its memories, having neither spiritual
meaning nor morontia value, will perish with the material brain; much of
material experience will pass away as onetime scaffolding which, having bridged
you over to the morontia level, no longer serves a purpose in the universe. But
personality and the relationships between personalities are never scaffolding;
mortal memory of personality relationships has cosmic value and will persist.
On the mansion worlds you will know and be known, and more, you will remember,
and be remembered by, your onetime associates in the short but intriguing life
on Urantia.

6. THE MORONTIA SELF

Just as a butterfly emerges from the caterpillar stage, so will the true
personalities of human beings emerge on the mansion worlds, for the first time
revealed apart from their onetime enshroudment in the material flesh. The
morontia career in the local universe has to do with the continued elevation of
the personality mechanism from the beginning morontia level of soul existence
up to the final morontia level of progressive spirituality.

It is difficult to instruct you regarding your morontia personality forms for
the local universe career. You will be endowed with morontia patterns of per-

                               top of page - 1236

sonality manifestability, and these are investments which, in the last
analysis, are beyond your comprehension. Such forms, while entirely real, are
not energy patterns of the material order which you now understand. They do,
however, serve the same purpose on the local universe worlds as do your
material bodies on the planets of human nativity.

To a certain extent, the appearance of the material body-form is responsive to
the character of the personality identity; the physical body does, to a limited
degree, reflect something of the inherent nature of the personality. Still more
so does the morontia form. In the physical life, mortals may be outwardly
beautiful though inwardly unlovely; in the morontia life, and increasingly on
its higher levels, the personality form will vary directly in accordance with
the nature of the inner person. On the spiritual level, outward form and inner
nature begin to approximate complete identification, which grows more and more
perfect on higher and higher spirit levels.

In the morontia estate the ascending mortal is endowed with the Nebadon
modification of the cosmic-mind endowment of the Master Spirit of Orvonton. The
mortal intellect, as such, has perished, has ceased to exist as a focalized
universe entity apart from the undifferentiated mind circuits of the Creative
Spirit. But the meanings and values of the mortal mind have not perished.
Certain phases of mind are continued in the surviving soul; certain
experiential values of the former human mind are held by the Adjuster; and
there persist in the local universe the records of the human life as it was
lived in the flesh, together with certain living registrations in the numerous
beings who are concerned with the final evaluation of the ascending mortal,
beings extending in range from seraphim to Universal Censors and probably on
beyond to the Supreme.

Creature volition cannot exist without mind, but it does persist in spite of
the loss of the material intellect. During the times immediately following
survival, the ascending personality is in great measure guided by the character
patterns inherited from the human life and by the newly appearing action of
morontia mota. And these guides to mansonia conduct function acceptably in the
early stages of the morontia life and prior to the emergence of morontia will
as a full-fledged volitional expression of the ascending personality.

There are no influences in the local universe career comparable to the seven
adjutant mind-spirits of human existence. The morontia mind must evolve by
direct contact with cosmic mind, as this cosmic mind has been modified and
translated by the creative source of local universe intellect--the Divine
Minister.

Mortal mind, prior to death, is self-consciously independent of the Adjuster
presence; adjutant mind needs only the associated material-energy pattern to
enable it to operate. But the morontia soul, being superadjutant, does not
retain self-consciousness without the Adjuster when deprived of the
material-mind mechanism. This evolving soul does, however, possess a continuing
character derived from the decisions of its former associated adjutant mind,
and this character becomes active memory when the patterns thereof are
energized by the returning Adjuster.

The persistence of memory is proof of the retention of the identity of original
selfhood; it is essential to complete self-consciousness of personality
continuity and expansion. Those mortals who ascend without Adjusters are
dependent on the instruction of seraphic associates for the reconstruction of
human memory; otherwise the morontia souls of the Spirit-fused mortals are not
limited. The

                               top of page - 1237

pattern of memory persists in the soul, but this pattern requires the presence
of the former Adjuster to become immediately self-realizable as continuing
memory. Without the Adjuster, it requires considerable time for the mortal
survivor to re-explore and relearn, to recapture, the memory consciousness of
the meanings and values of a former existence.

The soul of survival value faithfully reflects both the qualitative and the
quantitative actions and motivations of the material intellect, the former seat
of the identity of selfhood. In the choosing of truth, beauty, and goodness,
the mortal mind enters upon its premorontia universe career under the tutelage
of the seven adjutant mind-spirits unified under the direction of the spirit of
wisdom. Subsequently, upon the completion of the seven circles of premorontia
attainment, the superimposition of the endowment of morontia mind upon adjutant
mind initiates the prespiritual or morontia career of local universe
progression.

When a creature leaves his native planet, he leaves the adjutant ministry
behind and becomes solely dependent on morontia intellect. When an ascender
leaves the local universe, he has attained the spiritual level of existence,
having passed beyond the morontia level. This newly appearing spirit entity
then becomes attuned to the direct ministry of the cosmic mind of Orvonton.

7. ADJUSTER FUSION

Thought Adjuster fusion imparts eternal actualities to personality which were
previously only potential. Among these new endowments may be mentioned:
fixation of divinity quality, past-eternity experience and memory, immortality,
and a phase of qualified potential absoluteness.

When your earthly course in temporary form has been run, you are to awaken on
the shores of a better world, and eventually you will be united with your
faithful Adjuster in an eternal embrace. And this fusion constitutes the
mystery of making God and man one, the mystery of finite creature evolution,
but it is eternally true. Fusion is the secret of the sacred sphere of
Ascendington, and no creature, save those who have experienced fusion with the
spirit of Deity, can comprehend the true meaning of the actual values which are
conjoined when the identity of a creature of time becomes eternally one with
the spirit of Paradise Deity.

Fusion with the Adjuster is usually effected while the ascender is resident
within his local system. It may occur on the planet of nativity as a
transcendence of natural death; it may take place on any one of the mansion
worlds or on the headquarters of the system; it may even be delayed until the
time of the constellation sojourn; or, in special instances, it may not be
consummated until the ascender is on the local universe capital.

When fusion with the Adjuster has been effected, there can be no future danger
to the eternal career of such a personality. Celestial beings are tested
throughout a long experience, but mortals pass through a relatively short and
intensive testing on the evolutionary and morontia worlds.

Fusion with the Adjuster never occurs until the mandates of the superuniverse
have pronounced that the human nature has made a final and irrevocable choice
for the eternal career. This is the at-onement authorization, which, when
issued, constitutes the clearance authority for the fused personality
eventually to leave the confines of the local universe to proceed sometime to
the headquarters

                               top of page - 1238

of the superuniverse, from which point the pilgrim of time will, in the distant
future, enseconaphim for the long flight to the central universe of Havona and
the Deity adventure.

On the evolutionary worlds, selfhood is material; it is a thing in the universe
and as such is subject to the laws of material existence. It is a fact in time
and is responsive to the vicissitudes thereof. Survival decisions must here be
formulated. In the morontia state the self has become a new and more enduring
universe reality, and its continuing growth is predicated on its increasing
attunement to the mind and spirit circuits of the universes. Survival decisions
are now being confirmed. When the self attains the spiritual level, it has
become a secure value in the universe, and this new value is predicated upon
the fact that survival decisions have been made, which fact has been witnessed
by eternal fusion with the Thought Adjuster. And having achieved the status of
a true universe value, the creature becomes liberated in potential for the
seeking of the highest universe value--God.

Such fused beings are twofold in their universe reactions: They are discrete
morontia individuals not altogether unlike seraphim, and they are also beings
in potential on the order of the Paradise finaliters.

But the fused individual is really one personality, one being, whose unity
defies all attempts at analysis by any intelligence of the universes. And so,
having passed the tribunals of the local universe from the lowest to the
highest, none of which have been able to identify man or Adjuster, the one
apart from the other, you shall finally be taken before the Sovereign of
Nebadon, your local universe Father. And there, at the hand of the very being
whose creative fatherhood in this universe of time has made possible the fact
of your life, you will be granted those credentials which entitle you
eventually to proceed upon your superuniverse career in quest of the Universal
Father.

Has the triumphant Adjuster won personality by the magnificent service to
humanity, or has the valiant human acquired immortality through sincere efforts
to achieve Adjusterlikeness? It is neither; but they together have achieved the
evolution of a member of one of the unique orders of the ascending
personalities of the Supreme, one who will ever be found serviceable, faithful,
and efficient, a candidate for further growth and development, ever ranging
upward and never ceasing the supernal ascent until the seven circuits of Havona
have been traversed and the onetime soul of earthly origin stands in worshipful
recognition of the actual personality of the Father on Paradise.

Throughout all this magnificent ascent the Thought Adjuster is the divine
pledge of the future and full spiritual stabilization of the ascending mortal.
Meanwhile the presence of the mortal free will affords the Adjuster an eternal
channel for the liberation of the divine and infinite nature. Now have these
two identities become one; no event of time or of eternity can ever separate
man and Adjuster; they are inseparable, eternally fused.

On the Adjuster-fusion worlds the destiny of the Mystery Monitor is identical
with that of the ascending mortal the Paradise Corps of the Finality. And
neither Adjuster nor mortal can attain that unique goal without the full
co-operation and faithful help of the other. This extraordinary partnership is
one of the most engrossing and amazing of all the cosmic phenomena of this
universe age.

                               top of page - 1239

From the time of Adjuster fusion the status of the ascender is that of the
evolutionary creature. The human member was the first to enjoy personality and,
therefore, outranks the Adjuster in all matters concerned with the recognition
of personality. The Paradise headquarters of this fused being is Ascendington,
not Divinington, and this unique combination of God and man ranks as an
ascending mortal all the way up to the Corps of the Finality.

When once an Adjuster fuses with an ascending mortal, the number of that
Adjuster is stricken from the records of the superuniverse. What happens on the
records of Divinington, I do not know, but I surmise that the registry of that
Adjuster is removed to the secret circles of the inner courts of Grandfanda,
the acting head of the Corps of the Finality.

With Adjuster fusion the Universal Father has completed his promise of the gift
of himself to his material creatures; he has fulfilled the promise, and
consummated the plan, of the eternal bestowal of divinity upon humanity. Now
begins the human attempt to realize and to actualize the limitless
possibilities that are inherent in the supernal partnership with God which has
thus factualized.

The present known destiny of surviving mortals is the Paradise Corps of the
Finality; this is also the goal of destiny for all Thought Adjusters who become
joined in eternal union with their mortal companions. At present the Paradise
finaliters are working throughout the grand universe in many undertakings, but
we all conjecture that they will have other and even more supernal tasks to
perform in the distant future after the seven superuniverses have become
settled in light and life, and when the finite God has finally emerged from the
mystery which now surrounds this Supreme Deity.

You have been instructed to a certain extent about the organization and
personnel of the central universe, the superuniverses, and the local universes;
you have been told something about the character and origin of some of the
various personalities who now rule these far-flung creations. You have also
been informed that there are in process of organization vast galaxies of
universes far out beyond the periphery of the grand universe, in the first
outer space level. It has also been intimated in the course of these narratives
that the Supreme Being is to disclose his unrevealed tertiary function in these
now uncharted regions of outer space; and you have also been told that the
finaliters of the Paradise corps are the experiential children of the Supreme.

We believe that the mortals of Adjuster fusion, together with their finaliter
associates, are destined to function in some manner in the administration of
the universes of the first outer space level. We have not the slightest doubt
that in due time these enormous galaxies will become inhabited universes. And
we are equally convinced that among the administrators thereof will be found
the Paradise finaliters whose natures are the cosmic consequence of the
blending of creature and Creator.

What an adventure! What a romance! A gigantic creation to be administered by
the children of the Supreme, these personalized and humanized Adjusters, these
Adjusterized and eternalized mortals, these mysterious combinations and eternal
associations of the highest known manifestation of the essence of the First
Source and Center and the lowest form of intelligent life capable of
comprehending and attaining the Universal Father. We conceive that such
amalgamated beings, such partnerships of Creator and creature, will become
superb rulers, matchless administrators, and understanding and sympathetic

                               top of page - 1240

directors of any and all forms of intelligent life which may come into
existence throughout these future universes of the first outer space level.

True it is, you mortals are of earthly, animal origin; your frame is indeed
dust. But if you actually will, if you really desire, surely the heritage of
the ages is yours, and you shall someday serve throughout the universes in your
true characters--children of the Supreme God of experience and divine sons of
the Paradise Father of all personalities.

[Presented by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton.]

                               top of page - 1241

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia
  : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On
Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The
 Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color
   The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary
  Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution
Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet
  The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden
The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In
 The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization
The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The
    Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes,
  Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And
   Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa
  Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings
In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The
    Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of
      Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The
  Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of
  The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And
 Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation
 Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals
  The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny
  Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The
  Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael

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