The Urantia Book - Part I - original from:
http://urantiabook.org/newbook/index.html

FOREWORD

  0:0.1 IN THE MINDS of the mortals of Urantia -- that being the name of your
  world -- there exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as
  God, divinity, and deity. Human beings are still more confused and uncertain
  about the relationships of the divine personalities designated by these
  numerous appellations. Because of this conceptual poverty associated with so
  much ideational confusion, I have been directed to formulate this introductory
  statement in explanation of the meanings which should be attached to certain
  word symbols as they may be hereinafter used in those papers which the
  Orvonton corps of truth revealers have been authorized to translate into the
  English language of Urantia.

  0:0.2 It is exceedingly difficult to present enlarged concepts and advanced
  truth, in our endeavor to expand cosmic consciousness and enhance spiritual
  perception, when we are restricted to the use of a circumscribed language of
  the realm. But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our
  meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue. We have been
  instructed to introduce new terms only when the concept to be portrayed finds
  no terminology in English which can be employed to convey such a new concept
  partially or even with more or less distortion of meaning.

  0:0.3 In the hope of facilitating comprehension and of preventing confusion on
  the part of every mortal who may peruse these papers, we deem it wise to
  present in this initial statement an outline of the meanings to be attached to
  numerous English words which are to be employed in designation of Deity and
  certain associated concepts of the things, meanings, and values of universal
  reality.

  0:0.4 But in order to formulate this Foreword of definitions and limitations
  of terminology, it is necessary to anticipate the usage of these terms in the
  subsequent presentations. This Foreword is not, therefore, a finished
  statement within itself; it is only a definitive guide designed to assist
  those who shall read the accompanying papers dealing with Deity and the
  universe of universes which have been formulated by an Orvonton commission
  sent to Urantia for this purpose.



  0:0.5 Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar inhabited planets which
  comprise the local universe of Nebadon. This universe, together with similar
  creations, makes up the superuniverse of Orvonton, from whose capital, Uversa,
  our commission hails. Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses
  of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of
  divine perfection -- the central universe of Havona. At the heart of this
  eternal and central universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the
  geographic center of infinity and the dwelling place of the eternal God.

  0:0.6 The seven evolving superuniverses in association with the central and
  divine universe, we commonly refer to as the grand universe; these are the now
  organized and inhabited creations. They are all a part of the master universe,
  which also embraces the uninhabited but mobilizing universes of outer space.





I. DEITY AND DIVINITY



  0:1.1 The universe of universes presents phenomena of deity activities on
  diverse levels of cosmic realities, mind meanings, and spirit values, but all
  of these ministrations -- personal or otherwise -- are divinely co-ordinated.



  0:1.2 DEITY is personalizable as God, is prepersonal and superpersonal in ways
  not altogether comprehensible by man. Deity is characterized by the quality of
  unity -- actual or potential -- on all supermaterial levels of reality; and
  this unifying quality is best comprehended by creatures as divinity.

  0:1.3 Deity functions on personal, prepersonal, and superpersonal levels.
  Total Deity is functional on the following seven levels:

  0:1.4 1. Static -- self-contained and self-existent Deity.

  0:1.5 2. Potential -- self-willed and self-purposive Deity.

  0:1.6 3. Associative -- self-personalized and divinely fraternal Deity.

  0:1.7 4. Creative -- self-distributive and divinely revealed Deity.

  0:1.8 5. Evolutional -- self-expansive and creature-identified Deity.

  0:1.9 6. Supreme -- self-experiential and creature-Creator-unifying Deity.
  Deity functioning on the first creature-identificational level as time-space
  overcontrollers of the grand universe, sometimes designated the Supremacy of
  Deity.

  0:1.10 7. Ultimate -- self-projected and time-space-transcending Deity. Deity
  omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Deity functioning on the second level
  of unifying divinity expression as effective overcontrollers and absonite
  upholders of the master universe. As compared with the ministry of the Deities
  to the grand universe, this absonite function in the master universe is
  tantamount to universal overcontrol and supersustenance, sometimes called the
  Ultimacy of Deity.



  0:1.11 The finite level of reality is characterized by creature life and time-
  space limitations. Finite realities may not have endings, but they always have
  beginnings -- they are created. The Deity level of Supremacy may be conceived
  as a function in relation to finite existences.

  0:1.12 The absonite level of reality is characterized by things and beings
  without beginnings or endings and by the transcendence of time and space.
  Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated -- they simply are. The Deity
  level of Ultimacy connotes a function in relation to absonite realities. No
  matter in what part of the master universe, whenever time and space are
  transcended, such an absonite phenomenon is an act of the Ultimacy of Deity.

  0:1.13 The absolute level is beginningless, endless, timeless, and spaceless.
  For example: On Paradise, time and space are nonexistent; the time-space
  status of Paradise is absolute. This level is Trinity attained, existentially,
  by the Paradise Deities, but this third level of unifying Deity expression is
  not fully unified experientially. Whenever, wherever, and however the absolute
  level of Deity functions, Paradise-absolute values and meanings are manifest.

  0:1.14 Deity may be existential, as in the Eternal Son; experiential, as in
  the Supreme Being; associative, as in God the Sevenfold; undivided, as in the
  Paradise Trinity.

  0:1.15 Deity is the source of all that which is divine. Deity is
  characteristically and invariably divine, but all that which is divine is not
  necessarily Deity, though it will be co-ordinated with Deity and will tend
  towards some phase of unity with Deity -- spiritual, mindal, or personal.



  0:1.16 DIVINITY is the characteristic, unifying, and co-ordinating quality of
  Deity.

  0:1.17 Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness;
  correlated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry; disclosed on
  impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.

  0:1.18 Divinity may be perfect -- complete -- as on existential and creator
  levels of Paradise perfection; it may be imperfect, as on experiential and
  creature levels of time-space evolution; or it may be relative, neither
  perfect nor imperfect, as on certain Havona levels of existential-experiential
  relationships.



  0:1.19 When we attempt to conceive of perfection in all phases and forms of
  relativity, we encounter seven conceivable types:

1. Absolute perfection in all aspects.

2. Absolute perfection in some phases and relative perfection in all other
aspects.

3. Absolute, relative, and imperfect aspects in varied association.

4. Absolute perfection in some respects, imperfection in all others.

5. Absolute perfection in no direction, relative perfection in all other
manifestations.

6. Absolute perfection in no phase, relative in some, imperfect in others.

7. Absolute perfection in no attribute, imperfection in all.



II. GOD



  0:2.1 Evolving mortal creatures experience an irresistible urge to symbolize
  their finite concepts of God. Man's consciousness of moral duty and his
  spiritual idealism represent a value level -- an experiential reality -- which
  is difficult of symbolization.

  0:2.2 Cosmic consciousness implies the recognition of a First Cause, the one
  and only uncaused reality. God, the Universal Father, functions on three
  Deity-personality levels of subinfinite value and relative divinity
  expression:

1. Prepersonal -- as in the ministry of the Father fragments, such as the
Thought Adjusters.

2. Personal -- as in the evolutionary experience of created and procreated
beings.

3. Superpersonal -- as in the eventuated existences of certain absonite and
associated beings.

  0:2.3 GOD is a word symbol designating all personalizations of Deity. The term
  requires a different definition on each personal level of Deity function and
  must be still further redefined within each of these levels, as this term may
  be used to designate the diverse co-ordinate and subordinate personalizations
  of Deity; for example: the Paradise Creator Sons -- the local universe
  fathers.



  0:2.4 The term God, as we make use of it, may be understood:

  0:2.5 By designation -- as God the Father.

  0:2.6 By context -- as when used in the discussion of some one deity level or
  association. When in doubt as to the exact interpretation of the word God, it
  would be advisable to refer it to the person of the Universal Father.

  0:2.7 The term God always denotes personality. Deity may, or may not, refer to
  divinity personalities.



  0:2.8 The word GOD is used, in these papers, with the following meanings:

  0:2.9 1. God the Father -- Creator, Controller, and Upholder. The Universal
  Father, the First Person of Deity.

  0:2.10 2. God the Son -- Co-ordinate Creator, Spirit Controller, and Spiritual
  Administrator. The Eternal Son, the Second Person of Deity.

  0:2.11 3. God the Spirit -- Conjoint Actor, Universal Integrator, and Mind
  Bestower. The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity.

  0:2.12 4. God the Supreme -- the actualizing or evolving God of time and
  space. Personal Deity associatively realizing the time-space experiential
  achievement of creature-Creator identity. The Supreme Being is personally
  experiencing the achievement of Deity unity as the evolving and experiential
  God of the evolutionary creatures of time and space.

  0:2.13 5. God the Sevenfold -- Deity personality anywhere actually functioning
  in time and space. The personal Paradise Deities and their creative associates
  functioning in and beyond the borders of the central universe and power-
  personalizing as the Supreme Being on the first creature level of unifying
  Deity revelation in time and space. This level, the grand universe, is the
  sphere of the time-space descension of Paradise personalities in reciprocal
  association with the time-space ascension of evolutionary creatures.

  0:2.14 6. God the Ultimate -- the eventuating God of supertime and transcended
  space. The second experiential level of unifying Deity manifestation. God the
  Ultimate implies the attained realization of the synthesized absonite-
  superpersonal, time-space-transcended, and eventuated-experiential values, co-
  ordinated on final creative levels of Deity reality.

  0:2.15 7. God the Absolute -- the experientializing God of transcended
  superpersonal values and divinity meanings, now existential as the Deity
  Absolute. This is the third level of unifying Deity expression and expansion.
  On this supercreative level, Deity experiences exhaustion of personalizable
  potential, encounters completion of divinity, and undergoes depletion of
  capacity for self-revelation to successive and progressive levels of other-
  personalization. Deity now encounters, impinges upon, and experiences identity
  with, the Unqualified Absolute.





III. THE FIRST SOURCE AND CENTER



  0:3.1 Total, infinite reality is existential in seven phases and as seven co-
  ordinate Absolutes:

1. The First Source and Center.

2. The Second Source and Center.

3. The Third Source and Center.

4. The Isle of Paradise.

5. The Deity Absolute.

6. The Universal Absolute.

7. The Unqualified Absolute.

  0:3.2 God, as the First Source and Center, is primal in relation to total
  reality -- unqualifiedly. The First Source and Center is infinite as well as
  eternal and is therefore limited or conditioned only by volition.

  0:3.3 God -- the Universal Father -- is the personality of the First Source
  and Center and as such maintains personal relations of infinite control over
  all co-ordinate and subordinate sources and centers. Such control is personal
  and infinite in potential, even though it may never actually function owing to
  the perfection of the function of such co-ordinate and subordinate sources and
  centers and personalities.

  0:3.4 The First Source and Center is, therefore, primal in all domains:
  deified or undeified, personal or impersonal, actual or potential, finite or
  infinite. No thing or being, no relativity or finality, exists except in
  direct or indirect relation to, and dependence on, the primacy of the First
  Source and Center.

  0:3.5 The First Source and Center is related to the universe as:

  0:3.6 1. The gravity forces of the material universes are convergent in the
  gravity center of nether Paradise. That is just why the geographic location of
  his person is eternally fixed in absolute relation to the force-energy center
  of the nether or material plane of Paradise. But the absolute personality of
  Deity exists on the upper or spiritual plane of Paradise.

  0:3.7 2. The mind forces are convergent in the Infinite Spirit; the
  differential and divergent cosmic mind in the Seven Master Spirits; the
  factualizing mind of the Supreme as a time-space experience in Majeston.

  0:3.8 3. The universe spirit forces are convergent in the Eternal Son.

  0:3.9 4. The unlimited capacity for deity action resides in the Deity
  Absolute.

  0:3.10 5. The unlimited capacity for infinity response exists in the
  Unqualified Absolute.

  0:3.11 6. The two Absolutes -- Qualified and Unqualified -- are co-ordinated
  and unified in and by the Universal Absolute.

  0:3.12 7. The potential personality of an evolutionary moral being or of any
  other moral being is centered in the personality of the Universal Father.



  0:3.13 REALITY, as comprehended by finite beings, is partial, relative, and
  shadowy. The maximum Deity reality fully comprehensible by evolutionary finite
  creatures is embraced within the Supreme Being. Nevertheless there are
  antecedent and eternal realities, superfinite realities, which are ancestral
  to this Supreme Deity of evolutionary time-space creatures. In attempting to
  portray the origin and nature of universal reality, we are forced to employ
  the technique of time-space reasoning in order to reach the level of the
  finite mind. Therefore must many of the simultaneous events of eternity be
  presented as sequential transactions.

  0:3.14 As a time-space creature would view the origin and differentiation of
  Reality, the eternal and infinite I AM achieved Deity liberation from the
  fetters of unqualified infinity through the exercise of inherent and eternal
  free will, and this divorcement from unqualified infinity produced the first
  absolute divinity-tension. This tension of infinity differential is resolved
  by the Universal Absolute, which functions to unify and co-ordinate the
  dynamic infinity of Total Deity and the static infinity of the Unqualified
  Absolute.

  0:3.15 In this original transaction the theoretical I AM achieved the
  realization of personality by becoming the Eternal Father of the Original Son
  simultaneously with becoming the Eternal Source of the Isle of Paradise.
  Coexistent with the differentiation of the Son from the Father, and in the
  presence of Paradise, there appeared the person of the Infinite Spirit and the
  central universe of Havona. With the appearance of coexistent personal Deity,
  the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, the Father escaped, as a personality,
  from otherwise inevitable diffusion throughout the potential of Total Deity.
  Thenceforth it is only in Trinity association with his two Deity equals that
  the Father fills all Deity potential, while increasingly experiential Deity is
  being actualized on the divinity levels of Supremacy, Ultimacy, and
  Absoluteness.



  0:3.16 The concept of the I AM is a philosophic concession which we make to
  the time-bound, space-fettered, finite mind of man, to the impossibility of
  creature comprehension of eternity existences -- nonbeginning, nonending
  realities and relationships. To the time-space creature, all things must have
  a beginning save only the ONE UNCAUSED -- the primeval cause of causes.
  Therefore do we conceptualize this philosophic value-level as the I AM, at the
  same time instructing all creatures that the Eternal Son and the Infinite
  Spirit are coeternal with the I AM; in other words, that there never was a
  time when the I AM was not the Father of the Son and, with him, of the Spirit.



  0:3.17 The Infinite is used to denote the fullness -- the finality -- implied
  by the primacy of the First Source and Center. The theoretical I AM is a
  creature-philosophic extension of the "infinity of will," but the Infinite is
  an actual value-level representing the eternity-intension of the true infinity
  of the absolute and unfettered free will of the Universal Father. This concept
  is sometimes designated the Father-Infinite.

  0:3.18 Much of the confusion of all orders of beings, high and low, in their
  efforts to discover the Father-Infinite, is inherent in their limitations of
  comprehension. The absolute primacy of the Universal Father is not apparent on
  subinfinite levels; therefore is it probable that only the Eternal Son and the
  Infinite Spirit truly know the Father as an infinity; to all other
  personalities such a concept represents the exercise of faith.





IV. UNIVERSE REALITY



  0:4.1 Reality differentially actualizes on diverse universe levels; reality
  originates in and by the infinite volition of the Universal Father and is
  realizable in three primal phases on many different levels of universe
  actualization:

  0:4.2 1. Undeified reality ranges from the energy domains of the nonpersonal
  to the reality realms of the nonpersonalizable values of universal existence,
  even to the presence of the Unqualified Absolute.

  0:4.3 2. Deified reality embraces all of infinite Deity potential ranging
  upward through all realms of personality from the lowest finite to the highest
  infinite, thus encompassing the domain of all that which is personalizable and
  more -- even to the presence of the Deity Absolute.

  0:4.4 3. Interassociated reality. Universe reality is supposedly either
  deified or undeified, but to subdeified beings there exists a vast domain of
  interassociated reality, potential and actualizing, which is difficult of
  identification. Much of this co-ordinate reality is embraced within the realms
  of the Universal Absolute.

  0:4.5 This is the primal concept of original reality: The Father initiates and
  maintains Reality. The primal differentials of reality are the deified and the
  undeified -- the Deity Absolute and the Unqualified Absolute. The primal
  relationship is the tension between them. This Father-initiated divinity-
  tension is perfectly resolved by, and eternalizes as, the Universal Absolute.



  0:4.6 From the viewpoint of time and space, reality is further divisible as:

  0:4.7 1. Actual and Potential. Realities existing in fullness of expression in
  contrast to those which carry undisclosed capacity for growth. The Eternal Son
  is an absolute spiritual actuality; mortal man is very largely an unrealized
  spiritual potentiality.

  0:4.8 2. Absolute and Subabsolute. Absolute realities are eternity existences.
  Subabsolute realities are projected on two levels: Absonites -- realities
  which are relative with respect to both time and eternity. Finites --
  realities which are projected in space and are actualized in time.

  0:4.9 3. Existential and Experiential. Paradise Deity is existential, but the
  emerging Supreme and Ultimate are experiential.

  0:4.10 4. Personal and Impersonal. Deity expansion, personality expression,
  and universe evolution are forever conditioned by the Father's freewill act
  which forever separated the mind-spirit-personal meanings and values of
  actuality and potentiality centering in the Eternal Son from those things
  which center and inhere in the eternal Isle of Paradise.



  0:4.11 PARADISE is a term inclusive of the personal and the nonpersonal focal
  Absolutes of all phases of universe reality. Paradise, properly qualified, may
  connote any and all forms of reality, Deity, divinity, personality, and energy
  -- spiritual, mindal, or material. All share Paradise as the place of origin,
  function, and destiny, as regards values, meanings, and factual existence.

  0:4.12 The Isle of Paradise -- Paradise not otherwise qualified -- is the
  Absolute of the material-gravity control of the First Source and Center.
  Paradise is motionless, being the only stationary thing in the universe of
  universes. The Isle of Paradise has a universe location but no position in
  space. This eternal Isle is the actual source of the physical universes --
  past, present, and future. The nuclear Isle of Light is a Deity derivative,
  but it is hardly Deity; neither are the material creations a part of Deity;
  they are a consequence.

  0:4.13 Paradise is not a creator; it is a unique controller of many universe
  activities, far more of a controller than a reactor. Throughout the material
  universes Paradise influences the reactions and conduct of all beings having
  to do with force, energy, and power, but Paradise itself is unique, exclusive,
  and isolated in the universes. Paradise represents nothing and nothing
  represents Paradise. It is neither a force nor a presence; it is just
  Paradise.





V. PERSONALITY REALITIES



  0:5.1 Personality is a level of deified reality and ranges from the mortal and
  midwayer level of the higher mind activation of worship and wisdom up through
  the morontial and spiritual to the attainment of finality of personality
  status. That is the evolutionary ascent of mortal- and kindred-creature
  personality, but there are numerous other orders of universe personalities.

  0:5.2 Reality is subject to universal expansion, personality to infinite
  diversification, and both are capable of well-nigh unlimited Deity co-
  ordination and eternal stabilization. While the metamorphic range of
  nonpersonal reality is definitely limited, we know of no limitations to the
  progressive evolution of personality realities.

  0:5.3 On attained experiential levels all personality orders or values are
  associable and even cocreational. Even God and man can coexist in a unified
  personality, as is so exquisitely demonstrated in the present status of Christ
  Michael -- Son of Man and Son of God.

  0:5.4 All subinfinite orders and phases of personality are associative
  attainables and are potentially cocreational. The prepersonal, the personal,
  and the superpersonal are all linked together by mutual potential of co-
  ordinate attainment, progressive achievement, and cocreational capacity. But
  never does the impersonal directly transmute to the personal. Personality is
  never spontaneous; it is the gift of the Paradise Father. Personality is
  superimposed upon energy, and it is associated only with living energy
  systems; identity can be associated with nonliving energy patterns.



  0:5.5 The Universal Father is the secret of the reality of personality, the
  bestowal of personality, and the destiny of personality. The Eternal Son is
  the absolute personality, the secret of spiritual energy, morontia spirits,
  and perfected spirits. The Conjoint Actor is the spirit-mind personality, the
  source of intelligence, reason, and the universal mind. But the Isle of
  Paradise is nonpersonal and extraspiritual, being the essence of the universal
  body, the source and center of physical matter, and the absolute master
  pattern of universal material reality.



  0:5.6 These qualities of universal reality are manifest in Urantian human
  experience on the following levels:

  0:5.7 1. Body. The material or physical organism of man. The living
  electrochemical mechanism of animal nature and origin.



  0:5.8 2. Mind. The thinking, perceiving, and feeling mechanism of the human
  organism. The total conscious and unconscious experience. The intelligence
  associated with the emotional life reaching upward through worship and wisdom
  to the spirit level.

  0:5.9 3. Spirit. The divine spirit that indwells the mind of man -- the
  Thought Adjuster. This immortal spirit is prepersonal -- not a personality,
  though destined to become a part of the personality of the surviving mortal
  creature.

  0:5.10 4. Soul. The soul of man is an experiential acquirement. As a mortal
  creature chooses to "do the will of the Father in heaven," so the indwelling
  spirit becomes the father of a new reality in human experience. The mortal and
  material mind is the mother of this same emerging reality. The substance of
  this new reality is neither material nor spiritual -- it is morontial. This is
  the emerging and immortal soul which is destined to survive mortal death and
  begin the Paradise ascension.

  0:5.11 Personality. The personality of mortal man is neither body, mind, nor
  spirit; neither is it the soul. Personality is the one changeless reality in
  an otherwise ever-changing creature experience; and it unifies all other
  associated factors of individuality. The personality is the unique bestowal
  which the Universal Father makes upon the living and associated energies of
  matter, mind, and spirit, and which survives with the survival of the
  morontial soul.

  0:5.12 Morontia is a term designating a vast level intervening between the
  material and the spiritual. It may designate personal or impersonal realities,
  living or nonliving energies. The warp of morontia is spiritual; its woof is
  physical.





VI. ENERGY AND PATTERN



  0:6.1 Any and all things responding to the personality circuit of the Father,
  we call personal. Any and all things responding to the spirit circuit of the
  Son, we call spirit. Any and all that responds to the mind circuit of the
  Conjoint Actor, we call mind, mind as an attribute of the Infinite Spirit --
  mind in all its phases. Any and all that responds to the material-gravity
  circuit centering in nether Paradise, we call matter -- energy-matter in all
  its metamorphic states.



  0:6.2 ENERGY we use as an all-inclusive term applied to spiritual, mindal, and
  material realms. Force is also thus broadly used. Power is ordinarily limited
  to the designation of the electronic level of material or linear-gravity-
  responsive matter in the grand universe. Power is also employed to designate
  sovereignty. We cannot follow your generally accepted definitions of force,
  energy, and power. There is such paucity of language that we must assign
  multiple meanings to these terms.

  0:6.3 Physical energy is a term denoting all phases and forms of phenomenal
  motion, action, and potential.

  0:6.4 In discussing physical-energy manifestations, we generally use the terms
  cosmic force, emergent energy, and universe power. These are often employed as
  follows:

  0:6.5 1. Cosmic force embraces all energies deriving from the Unqualified
  Absolute but which are as yet unresponsive to Paradise gravity.

  0:6.6 2. Emergent energy embraces those energies which are responsive to
  Paradise gravity but are as yet unresponsive to local or linear gravity. This
  is the pre-electronic level of energy-matter.

  0:6.7 3. Universe power includes all forms of energy which, while still
  responding to Paradise gravity, are directly responsive to linear gravity.
  This is the electronic level of energy-matter and all subsequent evolutions
  thereof.

  0:6.8 Mind is a phenomenon connoting the presence-activity of living ministry
  in addition to varied energy systems; and this is true on all levels of
  intelligence. In personality, mind ever intervenes between spirit and matter;
  therefore is the universe illuminated by three kinds of light: material light,
  intellectual insight, and spirit luminosity.

  0:6.9 Light -- spirit luminosity -- is a word symbol, a figure of speech,
  which connotes the personality manifestation characteristic of spirit beings
  of diverse orders. This luminous emanation is in no respect related either to
  intellectual insight or to physical-light manifestations.



  0:6.10 PATTERN can be projected as material, spiritual, or mindal, or any
  combination of these energies. It can pervade personalities, identities,
  entities, or nonliving matter. But pattern is pattern and remains pattern;
  only copies are multiplied.

  0:6.11 Pattern may configure energy, but it does not control it. Gravity is
  the sole control of energy-matter. Neither space nor pattern are gravity
  responsive, but there is no relationship between space and pattern; space is
  neither pattern nor potential pattern. Pattern is a configuration of reality
  which has already paid all gravity debt; the reality of any pattern consists
  of its energies, its mind, spirit, or material components.

  0:6.12 In contrast to the aspect of the total, pattern discloses the
  individual aspect of energy and of personality. Personality or identity forms
  are patterns resultant from energy (physical, spiritual, or mindal) but are
  not inherent therein. That quality of energy or of personality by virtue of
  which pattern is caused to appear may be attributed to God -- Deity -- to
  Paradise force endowment, to the coexistence of personality and power.

  0:6.13 Pattern is a master design from which copies are made. Eternal Paradise
  is the absolute of patterns; the Eternal Son is the pattern personality; the
  Universal Father is the direct ancestor-source of both. But Paradise does not
  bestow pattern, and the Son cannot bestow personality.





VII. THE SUPREME BEING



  0:7.1 The Deity mechanism of the master universe is twofold as concerns
  eternity relationships. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are
  eternal -- are existential beings -- while God the Supreme, God the Ultimate,
  and God the Absolute are actualizing Deity personalities of the post-Havona
  epochs in the time-space and the time-space-transcended spheres of master
  universe evolutionary expansion. These actualizing Deity personalities are
  future eternals from the time when, and as, they power-personalize in the
  growing universes by the technique of the experiential actualization of the
  associative-creative potentials of the eternal Paradise Deities.

  0:7.2 Deity is, therefore, dual in presence:

1. Existential -- beings of eternal existence, past, present, and future.

2. Experiential -- beings actualizing in the post-Havona present but of unending
existence throughout all future eternity.

  0:7.3 The Father, Son, and Spirit are existential -- existential in actuality
  (though all potentials are supposedly experiential). The Supreme and the
  Ultimate are wholly experiential. The Deity Absolute is experiential in
  actualization but existential in potentiality. The essence of Deity is
  eternal, but only the three original persons of Deity are unqualifiedly
  eternal. All other Deity personalities have an origin, but they are eternal in
  destiny.

  0:7.4 Having achieved existential Deity expression of himself in the Son and
  the Spirit, the Father is now achieving experiential expression on hitherto
  impersonal and unrevealed deity levels as God the Supreme, God the Ultimate,
  and God the Absolute; but these experiential Deities are not now fully
  existent; they are in process of actualization.



  0:7.5 God the Supreme in Havona is the personal spirit reflection of the
  triune Paradise Deity. This associative Deity relationship is now creatively
  expanding outward in God the Sevenfold and is synthesizing in the experiential
  power of the Almighty Supreme in the grand universe. Paradise Deity,
  existential as three persons, is thus experientially evolving in two phases of
  Supremacy, while these dual phases are power-personality unifying as one Lord,
  the Supreme Being.

  0:7.6 The Universal Father achieves freewill liberation from the bonds of
  infinity and the fetters of eternity by the technique of trinitization,
  threefold Deity personalization. The Supreme Being is even now evolving as a
  subeternal personality unification of the sevenfold manifestation of Deity in
  the time-space segments of the grand universe.



  0:7.7 The Supreme Being is not a direct creator, except that he is the father
  of Majeston, but he is a synthetic co-ordinator of all creature-Creator
  universe activities. The Supreme Being, now actualizing in the evolutionary
  universes, is the Deity correlator and synthesizer of time-space divinity, of
  triune Paradise Deity in experiential association with the Supreme Creators of
  time and space. When finally actualized, this evolutionary Deity will
  constitute the eternal fusion of the finite and the infinite -- the
  everlasting and indissoluble union of experiential power and spirit
  personality.

  0:7.8 All time-space finite reality, under the directive urge of the evolving
  Supreme Being, is engaged in an ever-ascending mobilization and perfecting
  unification (power-personality synthesis) of all phases and values of finite
  reality, in association with varied phases of Paradise reality, to the end and
  for the purpose of subsequently embarking upon the attempt to reach absonite
  levels of supercreature attainment.





VIII. GOD THE SEVENFOLD



  0:8.1 To atone for finity of status and to compensate for creature limitations
  of concept, the Universal Father has established the evolutionary creature's
  sevenfold approach to Deity:

1. The Paradise Creator Sons.

2. The Ancients of Days.

3. The Seven Master Spirits.

4. The Supreme Being.

5. God the Spirit.

6. God the Son.

7. God the Father.

  0:8.2 This sevenfold Deity personalization in time and space and to the seven
  superuniverses enables mortal man to attain the presence of God, who is
  spirit. This sevenfold Deity, to finite time-space creatures sometime power-
  personalizing in the Supreme Being, is the functional Deity of the mortal
  evolutionary creatures of the Paradise-ascension career. Such an experiential
  discovery-career of the realization of God begins with the recognition of the
  divinity of the Creator Son of the local universe and ascends through the
  superuniverse Ancients of Days and by way of the person of one of the Seven
  Master Spirits to the attainment of the discovery and recognition of the
  divine personality of the Universal Father on Paradise.



  0:8.3 The grand universe is the threefold Deity domain of the Trinity of
  Supremacy, God the Sevenfold, and the Supreme Being. God the Supreme is
  potential in the Paradise Trinity, from whom he derives his personality and
  spirit attributes; but he is now actualizing in the Creator Sons, Ancients of
  Days, and the Master Spirits, from whom he derives his power as Almighty to
  the superuniverses of time and space. This power manifestation of the
  immediate God of evolutionary creatures actually time-space evolves
  concomitantly with them. The Almighty Supreme, evolving on the value-level of
  nonpersonal activities, and the spirit person of God the Supreme are one
  reality -- the Supreme Being.

  0:8.4 The Creator Sons in the Deity association of God the Sevenfold provide
  the mechanism whereby the mortal becomes immortal and the finite attains the
  embrace of the infinite. The Supreme Being provides the technique for the
  power-personality mobilization, the divine synthesis, of all these manifold
  transactions, thus enabling the finite to attain the absonite and, through
  other possible future actualizations, to attempt the attainment of the
  Ultimate. The Creator Sons and their associated Divine Ministers are
  participants in this supreme mobilization, but the Ancients of Days and the
  Seven Master Spirits are probably eternally fixed as permanent administrators
  in the grand universe.

  0:8.5 The function of God the Sevenfold dates from the organization of the
  seven superuniverses, and it will probably expand in connection with the
  future evolution of the creations of outer space. The organization of these
  future universes of the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quartan space levels
  of progressive evolution will undoubtedly witness the inauguration of the
  transcendent and absonite approach to Deity.





IX. GOD THE ULTIMATE



  0:9.1 Just as the Supreme Being progressively evolves from the antecedent
  divinity endowment of the encompassed grand universe potential of energy and
  personality, so does God the Ultimate eventuate from the potentials of
  divinity residing in the transcended time-space domains of the master
  universe. The actualization of Ultimate Deity signalizes absonite unification
  of the first experiential Trinity and signifies unifying Deity expansion on
  the second level of creative self-realization. This constitutes the
  personality-power equivalent of the universe experiential-Deity actualization
  of Paradise absonite realities on the eventuating levels of transcended time-
  space values. The completion of such an experiential unfoldment is designed to
  afford ultimate service-destiny for all time-space creatures who have attained
  absonite levels through the completed realization of the Supreme Being and by
  the ministry of God the Sevenfold.



  0:9.2 God the Ultimate is designative of personal Deity functioning on the
  divinity levels of the absonite and on the universe spheres of supertime and
  transcended space. The Ultimate is a supersupreme eventuation of Deity. The
  Supreme is the Trinity unification comprehended by finite beings; the Ultimate
  is the unification of the Paradise Trinity comprehended by absonite beings.

  0:9.3 The Universal Father, through the mechanism of evolutionary Deity, is
  actually engaged in the stupendous and amazing act of personality focalization
  and power mobilization, on their respective universe meaning-levels, of the
  divine reality values of the finite, the absonite, and even of the absolute.

  0:9.4 The first three and past-eternal Deities of Paradise -- the Universal
  Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit -- are, in the eternal
  future, to be personality-complemented by the experiential actualization of
  associate evolutionary Deities -- God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and
  possibly God the Absolute.

  0:9.5 God the Supreme and God the Ultimate, now evolving in the experiential
  universes, are not existential -- not past eternals, only future eternals,
  time-space-conditioned and transcendental-conditioned eternals. They are
  Deities of supreme, ultimate, and possibly supreme-ultimate endowments, but
  they have experienced historic universe origins. They will never have an end,
  but they do have personality beginnings. They are indeed actualizations of
  eternal and infinite Deity potentials, but they themselves are neither
  unqualifiedly eternal nor infinite.





X. GOD THE ABSOLUTE



  0:10.1 There are many features of the eternal reality of the Deity Absolute
  which cannot be fully explained to the time-space finite mind, but the
  actualization of God the Absolute would be in consequence of the unification
  of the second experiential Trinity, the Absolute Trinity. This would
  constitute the experiential realization of absolute divinity, the unification
  of absolute meanings on absolute levels; but we are not certain regarding the
  encompassment of all absolute values since we have at no time been informed
  that the Qualified Absolute is the equivalent of the Infinite. Superultimate
  destinies are involved in absolute meanings and infinite spirituality, and
  without both of these unachieved realities we cannot establish absolute
  values.

  0:10.2 God the Absolute is the realization-attainment goal of all
  superabsonite beings, but the power and personality potential of the Deity
  Absolute transcends our concept, and we hesitate to discuss those realities
  which are so far removed from experiential actualization.





XI. THE THREE ABSOLUTES



  0:11.1 When the combined thought of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son,
  functioning in the God of Action, constituted the creation of the divine and
  central universe, the Father followed the expression of his thought into the
  word of his Son and the act of their Conjoint Executive by differentiating his
  Havona presence from the potentials of infinity. And these undisclosed
  infinity potentials remain space concealed in the Unqualified Absolute and
  divinely enshrouded in the Deity Absolute, while these two become one in the
  functioning of the Universal Absolute, the unrevealed infinity-unity of the
  Paradise Father.

  0:11.2 Both potency of cosmic force and potency of spirit force are in process
  of progressive revelation-realization as the enrichment of all reality is
  effected by experiential growth and through the correlation of the
  experiential with the existential by the Universal Absolute. By virtue of the
  equipoising presence of the Universal Absolute, the First Source and Center
  realizes extension of experiential power, enjoys identification with his
  evolutionary creatures, and achieves expansion of experiential Deity on the
  levels of Supremacy, Ultimacy, and Absoluteness.



  0:11.3 When it is not possible fully to distinguish the Deity Absolute from
  the Unqualified Absolute, their supposedly combined function or co-ordinated
  presence is designated the action of the Universal Absolute.



  0:11.4 1. The Deity Absolute seems to be the all-powerful activator, while the
  Unqualified Absolute appears to be the all-efficient mechanizer of the
  supremely unified and ultimately co-ordinated universe of universes, even
  universes upon universes, made, making, and yet to be made.

  0:11.5 The Deity Absolute cannot, or at least does not, react to any universe
  situation in a subabsolute manner. Every response of this Absolute to any
  given situation appears to be made in terms of the welfare of the whole
  creation of things and beings, not only in its present state of existence, but
  also in view of the infinite possibilities of all future eternity.

  0:11.6 The Deity Absolute is that potential which was segregated from total,
  infinite reality by the freewill choice of the Universal Father, and within
  which all divinity activities -- existential and experiential -- take place.
  This is the Qualified Absolute in contradistinction to the Unqualified
  Absolute; but the Universal Absolute is superadditive to both in the
  encompassment of all absolute potential.



  0:11.7 2. The Unqualified Absolute is nonpersonal, extradivine, and undeified.
  The Unqualified Absolute is therefore devoid of personality, divinity, and all
  creator prerogatives. Neither fact nor truth, experience nor revelation,
  philosophy nor absonity are able to penetrate the nature and character of this
  Absolute without universe qualification.

  0:11.8 Let it be made clear that the Unqualified Absolute is a positive
  reality pervading the grand universe and, apparently, extending with equal
  space presence on out into the force activities and prematerial evolutions of
  the staggering stretches of the space regions beyond the seven superuniverses.
  The Unqualified Absolute is not a mere negativism of philosophic concept
  predicated on the assumptions of metaphysical sophistries concerning the
  universality, dominance, and primacy of the unconditioned and the unqualified.
  The Unqualified Absolute is a positive universe overcontrol in infinity; this
  overcontrol is space-force unlimited but is definitely conditioned by the
  presence of life, mind, spirit, and personality, and is further conditioned by
  the will-reactions and purposeful mandates of the Paradise Trinity.

  0:11.9 We are convinced that the Unqualified Absolute is not an
  undifferentiated and all-pervading influence comparable either to the
  pantheistic concepts of metaphysics or to the sometime ether hypothesis of
  science. The Unqualified Absolute is force unlimited and Deity conditioned,
  but we do not fully perceive the relation of this Absolute to the spirit
  realities of the universes.



  0:11.10 3. The Universal Absolute, we logically deduce, was inevitable in the
  Universal Father's absolute freewill act of differentiating universe realities
  into deified and undeified -- personalizable and nonpersonalizable -- values.
  The Universal Absolute is the Deity phenomenon indicative of the resolution of
  the tension created by the freewill act of thus differentiating universe
  reality, and functions as the associative co-ordinator of these sum totals of
  existential potentialities.



  0:11.11 The tension-presence of the Universal Absolute signifies the
  adjustment of differential between deity reality and undeified reality
  inherent in the separation of the dynamics of freewill divinity from the
  statics of unqualified infinity.



  0:11.12 Always remember: Potential infinity is absolute and inseparable from
  eternity. Actual infinity in time can never be anything but partial and must
  therefore be nonabsolute; neither can infinity of actual personality be
  absolute except in unqualified Deity. And it is the differential of infinity
  potential in the Unqualified Absolute and the Deity Absolute that eternalizes
  the Universal Absolute, thereby making it cosmically possible to have material
  universes in space and spiritually possible to have finite personalities in
  time.

  0:11.13 The finite can coexist in the cosmos along with the Infinite only
  because the associative presence of the Universal Absolute so perfectly
  equalizes the tensions between time and eternity, finity and infinity, reality
  potential and reality actuality, Paradise and space, man and God.
  Associatively the Universal Absolute constitutes the identification of the
  zone of progressing evolutional reality existent in the time-space, and in the
  transcended time-space, universes of subinfinite Deity manifestation.

  0:11.14 The Universal Absolute is the potential of the static-dynamic Deity
  functionally realizable on time-eternity levels as finite-absolute values and
  as possible of experiential-existential approach. This incomprehensible aspect
  of Deity may be static, potential, and associative but is not experientially
  creative or evolutional as concerns the intelligent personalities now
  functioning in the master universe.



  0:11.15 The Absolute. The two Absolutes -- qualified and unqualified -- while
  so apparently divergent in function as they may be observed by mind creatures,
  are perfectly and divinely unified in and by the Universal Absolute. In the
  last analysis and in the final comprehension all three are one Absolute. On
  subinfinite levels they are functionally differentiated, but in infinity they
  are ONE.



  0:11.16 We never use the term the Absolute as a negation of aught or as a
  denial of anything. Neither do we regard the Universal Absolute as self-
  determinative, a sort of pantheistic and impersonal Deity. The Absolute, in
  all that pertains to universe personality, is strictly Trinity limited and
  Deity dominated.





XII. THE TRINITIES



  0:12.1 The original and eternal Paradise Trinity is existential and was
  inevitable. This never-beginning Trinity was inherent in the fact of the
  differentiation of the personal and the nonpersonal by the Father's unfettered
  will and factualized when his personal will co-ordinated these dual realities
  by mind. The post-Havona Trinities are experiential -- are inherent in the
  creation of two subabsolute and evolutional levels of power-personality
  manifestation in the master universe.

  0:12.2 The Paradise Trinity -- the eternal Deity union of the Universal
  Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit -- is existential in
  actuality, but all potentials are experiential. Therefore does this Trinity
  constitute the only Deity reality embracing infinity, and therefore do there
  occur the universe phenomena of the actualization of God the Supreme, God the
  Ultimate, and God the Absolute.

  0:12.3 The first and second experiential Trinities, the post-Havona Trinities,
  cannot be infinite because they embrace derived Deities, Deities evolved by
  the experiential actualization of realities created or eventuated by the
  existential Paradise Trinity. Infinity of divinity is being ever enriched, if
  not enlarged, by finity and absonity of creature and Creator experience.

  0:12.4 Trinities are truths of relationship and facts of co-ordinate Deity
  manifestation. Trinity functions encompass Deity realities, and Deity
  realities always seek realization and manifestation in personalization. God
  the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and even God the Absolute are therefore divine
  inevitabilities. These three experiential Deities were potential in the
  existential Trinity, the Paradise Trinity, but their universe emergence as
  personalities of power is dependent in part on their own experiential
  functioning in the universes of power and personality and in part on the
  experiential achievements of the post-Havona Creators and Trinities.

  0:12.5 The two post-Havona Trinities, the Ultimate and the Absolute
  experiential Trinities, are not now fully manifest; they are in process of
  universe realization. These Deity associations may be described as follows:

  0:12.6 1. The Ultimate Trinity, now evolving, will eventually consist of the
  Supreme Being, the Supreme Creator Personalities, and the absonite Architects
  of the Master Universe, those unique universe planners who are neither
  creators nor creatures. God the Ultimate will eventually and inevitably
  powerize and personalize as the Deity consequence of the unification of this
  experiential Ultimate Trinity in the expanding arena of the well-nigh
  limitless master universe.

  0:12.7 2. The Absolute Trinity -- the second experiential Trinity -- now in
  process of actualization, will consist of God the Supreme, God the Ultimate,
  and the unrevealed Consummator of Universe Destiny. This Trinity functions on
  both personal and superpersonal levels, even to the borders of the
  nonpersonal, and its unification in universality would experientialize
  Absolute Deity.

  0:12.8 The Ultimate Trinity is experientially unifying in completion, but we
  truly doubt the possibility of such full unification of the Absolute Trinity.
  Our concept, however, of the eternal Paradise Trinity is an ever-present
  reminder that Deity trinitization may accomplish what is otherwise
  nonattainable; hence do we postulate the sometime appearance of the Supreme-
  Ultimate and the possible trinitization-factualization of God the Absolute.



  0:12.9 The philosophers of the universes postulate a Trinity of Trinities, an
  existential-experiential Trinity Infinite, but they are not able to envisage
  its personalization; possibly it would equivalate to the person of the
  Universal Father on the conceptual level of the I AM. But irrespective of all
  this, the original Paradise Trinity is potentially infinite since the
  Universal Father actually is infinite.





ACKNOWLEDGMENT

  0:12.10 In formulating the succeeding presentations having to do with the
  portrayal of the character of the Universal Father and the nature of his
  Paradise associates, together with an attempted description of the perfect
  central universe and the encircling seven superuniverses, we are to be guided
  by the mandate of the superuniverse rulers which directs that we shall, in all
  our efforts to reveal truth and co-ordinate essential knowledge, give
  preference to the highest existing human concepts pertaining to the subjects
  to be presented. We may resort to pure revelation only when the concept of
  presentation has had no adequate previous expression by the human mind.

  0:12.11 Successive planetary revelations of divine truth invariably embrace
  the highest existing concepts of spiritual values as a part of the new and
  enhanced co-ordination of planetary knowledge. Accordingly, in making these
  presentations about God and his universe associates, we have selected as the
  basis of these papers more than one thousand human concepts representing the
  highest and most advanced planetary knowledge of spiritual values and universe
  meanings. Wherein these human concepts, assembled from the God-knowing mortals
  of the past and the present, are inadequate to portray the truth as we are
  directed to reveal it, we will unhesitatingly supplement them, for this
  purpose drawing upon our own superior knowledge of the reality and divinity of
  the Paradise Deities and their transcendent residential universe.

  0:12.12 We are fully cognizant of the difficulties of our assignment; we
  recognize the impossibility of fully translating the language of the concepts
  of divinity and eternity into the symbols of the language of the finite
  concepts of the mortal mind. But we know that there dwells within the human
  mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit
  of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable
  material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the
  philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these
  spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual
  appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-
  progressing reality of personal religious experience -- God-consciousness.



  0:12.13 Indited by an Orvonton Divine Counselor, Chief of the Corps of
  Superuniverse Personalities assigned to portray on Urantia the truth
  concerning the Paradise Deities and the universe of universes.



 PART I


  The Central and Superuniverses


  PAPER 1


  THE UNIVERSAL FATHER



   1:0.1 THE Universal Father is the God of all creation, the First Source and
   Center of all things and beings. First think of God as a creator, then as a
   controller, and lastly as an infinite upholder. The truth about the Universal
   Father had begun to dawn upon mankind when the prophet said: "You, God, are
   alone; there is none beside you. You have created the heaven and the heaven
   of heavens, with all their hosts; you preserve and control them. By the Sons
   of God were the universes made. The Creator covers himself with light as with
   a garment and stretches out the heavens as a curtain." Only the concept of
   the Universal Father -- one God in the place of many gods -- enabled mortal
   man to comprehend the Father as divine creator and infinite controller.

   1:0.2 The myriads of planetary systems were all made to be eventually
   inhabited by many different types of intelligent creatures, beings who could
   know God, receive the divine affection, and love him in return. The universe
   of universes is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse
   creatures. "God created the heavens and formed the earth; he established the
   universe and created this world not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited."

   1:0.3 The enlightened worlds all recognize and worship the Universal Father,
   the eternal maker and infinite upholder of all creation. The will creatures
   of universe upon universe have embarked upon the long, long Paradise journey,
   the fascinating struggle of the eternal adventure of attaining God the
   Father. The transcendent goal of the children of time is to find the eternal
   God, to comprehend the divine nature, to recognize the Universal Father. God-
   knowing creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire,
   and that is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his
   Paradise perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous
   supremacy. From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone
   forth the supreme mandate, "Be you perfect, even as I am perfect." In love
   and mercy the messengers of Paradise have carried this divine exhortation
   down through the ages and out through the universes, even to such lowly
   animal-origin creatures as the human races of Urantia.

   1:0.4 This magnificent and universal injunction to strive for the attainment
   of the perfection of divinity is the first duty, and should be the highest
   ambition, of all the struggling creature creation of the God of perfection.
   This possibility of the attainment of divine perfection is the final and
   certain destiny of all man's eternal spiritual progress.

   1:0.5 Urantia mortals can hardly hope to be perfect in the infinite sense,
   but it is entirely possible for human beings, starting out as they do on this
   planet, to attain the supernal and divine goal which the infinite God has set
   for mortal man; and when they do achieve this destiny, they will, in all that
   pertains to self-realization and mind attainment, be just as replete in their
   sphere of divine perfection as God himself is in his sphere of infinity and
   eternity. Such perfection may not be universal in the material sense,
   unlimited in intellectual grasp, or final in spiritual experience, but it is
   final and complete in all finite aspects of divinity of will, perfection of
   personality motivation, and God-consciousness.

   1:0.6 This is the true meaning of that divine command, "Be you perfect, even
   as I am perfect," which ever urges mortal man onward and beckons him inward
   in that long and fascinating struggle for the attainment of higher and higher
   levels of spiritual values and true universe meanings. This sublime search
   for the God of universes is the supreme adventure of the inhabitants of all
   the worlds of time and space.





 1. THE FATHER'S NAME



   1:1.1 Of all the names by which God the Father is known throughout the
   universes, those which designate him as the First Source and the Universe
   Center are most often encountered. The First Father is known by various names
   in different universes and in different sectors of the same universe. The
   names which the creature assigns to the Creator are much dependent on the
   creature's concept of the Creator. The First Source and Universe Center has
   never revealed himself by name, only by nature. If we believe that we are the
   children of this Creator, it is only natural that we should eventually call
   him Father. But this is the name of our own choosing, and it grows out of the
   recognition of our personal relationship with the First Source and Center.

   1:1.2 The Universal Father never imposes any form of arbitrary recognition,
   formal worship, or slavish service upon the intelligent will creatures of the
   universes. The evolutionary inhabitants of the worlds of time and space must
   of themselves -- in their own hearts -- recognize, love, and voluntarily
   worship him. The Creator refuses to coerce or compel the submission of the
   spiritual free wills of his material creatures. The affectionate dedication
   of the human will to the doing of the Father's will is man's choicest gift to
   God; in fact, such a consecration of creature will constitutes man's only
   possible gift of true value to the Paradise Father. In God, man lives, moves,
   and has his being; there is nothing which man can give to God except this
   choosing to abide by the Father's will, and such decisions, effected by the
   intelligent will creatures of the universes, constitute the reality of that
   true worship which is so satisfying to the love-dominated nature of the
   Creator Father.

   1:1.3 When you have once become truly God-conscious, after you really
   discover the majestic Creator and begin to experience the realization of the
   indwelling presence of the divine controller, then, in accordance with your
   enlightenment and in accordance with the manner and method by which the
   divine Sons reveal God, you will find a name for the Universal Father which
   will be adequately expressive of your concept of the First Great Source and
   Center. And so, on different worlds and in various universes, the Creator
   becomes known by numerous appellations, in spirit of relationship all meaning
   the same but, in words and symbols, each name standing for the degree, the
   depth, of his enthronement in the hearts of his creatures of any given realm.



   1:1.4 Near the center of the universe of universes, the Universal Father is
   generally known by names which may be regarded as meaning the First Source.
   Farther out in the universes of space, the terms employed to designate the
   Universal Father more often mean the Universal Center. Still farther out in
   the starry creation, he is known, as on the headquarters world of your local
   universe, as the First Creative Source and Divine Center. In one near-by
   constellation God is called the Father of Universes. In another, the Infinite
   Upholder, and to the east, the Divine Controller. He has also been designated
   the Father of Lights, the Gift of Life, and the All-powerful One.

   1:1.5 On those worlds where a Paradise Son has lived a bestowal life, God is
   generally known by some name indicative of personal relationship, tender
   affection, and fatherly devotion. On your constellation headquarters God is
   referred to as the Universal Father, and on different planets in your local
   system of inhabited worlds he is variously known as the Father of Fathers,
   the Paradise Father, the Havona Father, and the Spirit Father. Those who know
   God through the revelations of the bestowals of the Paradise Sons, eventually
   yield to the sentimental appeal of the touching relationship of the creature-
   Creator association and refer to God as "our Father."

   1:1.6 On a planet of sex creatures, in a world where the impulses of parental
   emotion are inherent in the hearts of its intelligent beings, the term Father
   becomes a very expressive and appropriate name for the eternal God. He is
   best known, most universally acknowledged, on your planet, Urantia, by the
   name God. The name he is given is of little importance; the significant thing
   is that you should know him and aspire to be like him. Your prophets of old
   truly called him "the everlasting God" and referred to him as the one who
   "inhabits eternity."





 2. THE REALITY OF GOD



   1:2.1 God is primal reality in the spirit world; God is the source of truth
   in the mind spheres; God overshadows all throughout the material realms. To
   all created intelligences God is a personality, and to the universe of
   universes he is the First Source and Center of eternal reality. God is
   neither manlike nor machinelike. The First Father is universal spirit,
   eternal truth, infinite reality, and father personality.



   1:2.2 The eternal God is infinitely more than reality idealized or the
   universe personalized. God is not simply the supreme desire of man, the
   mortal quest objectified. Neither is God merely a concept, the power-
   potential of righteousness. The Universal Father is not a synonym for nature,
   neither is he natural law personified. God is a transcendent reality, not
   merely man's traditional concept of supreme values. God is not a
   psychological focalization of spiritual meanings, neither is he "the noblest
   work of man." God may be any or all of these concepts in the minds of men,
   but he is more. He is a saving person and a loving Father to all who enjoy
   spiritual peace on earth, and who crave to experience personality survival in
   death.



   1:2.3 The actuality of the existence of God is demonstrated in human
   experience by the indwelling of the divine presence, the spirit Monitor sent
   from Paradise to live in the mortal mind of man and there to assist in
   evolving the immortal soul of eternal survival. The presence of this divine
   Adjuster in the human mind is disclosed by three experiential phenomena:

 1. The intellectual capacity for knowing God -- God-consciousness.

 2. The spiritual urge to find God -- God-seeking.

 3. The personality craving to be like God -- the wholehearted desire to do the
 Father's will.

   1:2.4 The existence of God can never be proved by scientific experiment or by
   the pure reason of logical deduction. God can be realized only in the realms
   of human experience; nevertheless, the true concept of the reality of God is
   reasonable to logic, plausible to philosophy, essential to religion, and
   indispensable to any hope of personality survival.

   1:2.5 Those who know God have experienced the fact of his presence; such God-
   knowing mortals hold in their personal experience the only positive proof of
   the existence of the living God which one human being can offer to another.
   The existence of God is utterly beyond all possibility of demonstration
   except for the contact between the God-consciousness of the human mind and
   the God-presence of the Thought Adjuster that indwells the mortal intellect
   and is bestowed upon man as the free gift of the Universal Father.



   1:2.6 In theory you may think of God as the Creator, and he is the personal
   creator of Paradise and the central universe of perfection, but the universes
   of time and space are all created and organized by the Paradise corps of the
   Creator Sons. The Universal Father is not the personal creator of the local
   universe of Nebadon; the universe in which you live is the creation of his
   Son Michael. Though the Father does not personally create the evolutionary
   universes, he does control them in many of their universal relationships and
   in certain of their manifestations of physical, mindal, and spiritual
   energies. God the Father is the personal creator of the Paradise universe
   and, in association with the Eternal Son, the creator of all other personal
   universe Creators.



   1:2.7 As a physical controller in the material universe of universes, the
   First Source and Center functions in the patterns of the eternal Isle of
   Paradise, and through this absolute gravity center the eternal God exercises
   cosmic overcontrol of the physical level equally in the central universe and
   throughout the universe of universes. As mind, God functions in the Deity of
   the Infinite Spirit; as spirit, God is manifest in the person of the Eternal
   Son and in the persons of the divine children of the Eternal Son. This
   interrelation of the First Source and Center with the co-ordinate Persons and
   Absolutes of Paradise does not in the least preclude the direct personal
   action of the Universal Father throughout all creation and on all levels
   thereof. Through the presence of his fragmentized spirit the Creator Father
   maintains immediate contact with his creature children and his created
   universes.





 3. GOD IS A UNIVERSAL SPIRIT



   1:3.1 "God is spirit." He is a universal spiritual presence. The Universal
   Father is an infinite spiritual reality; he is "the sovereign, eternal,
   immortal, invisible, and only true God." Even though you are "the offspring
   of God," you ought not to think that the Father is like yourselves in form
   and physique because you are said to be created "in his image" -- indwelt by
   Mystery Monitors dispatched from the central abode of his eternal presence.
   Spirit beings are real, notwithstanding they are invisible to human eyes;
   even though they have not flesh and blood.

   1:3.2 Said the seer of old: "Lo, he goes by me, and I see him not; he passes
   on also, but I perceive him not." We may constantly observe the works of God,
   we may be highly conscious of the material evidences of his majestic conduct,
   but rarely may we gaze upon the visible manifestation of his divinity, not
   even to behold the presence of his delegated spirit of human indwelling.

   1:3.3 The Universal Father is not invisible because he is hiding himself away
   from the lowly creatures of materialistic handicaps and limited spiritual
   endowments. The situation rather is: "You cannot see my face, for no mortal
   can see me and live." No material man could behold the spirit God and
   preserve his mortal existence. The glory and the spiritual brilliance of the
   divine personality presence is impossible of approach by the lower groups of
   spirit beings or by any order of material personalities. The spiritual
   luminosity of the Father's personal presence is a "light which no mortal man
   can approach; which no material creature has seen or can see." But it is not
   necessary to see God with the eyes of the flesh in order to discern him by
   the faith-vision of the spiritualized mind.



   1:3.4 The spirit nature of the Universal Father is shared fully with his
   coexistent self, the Eternal Son of Paradise. Both the Father and the Son in
   like manner share the universal and eternal spirit fully and unreservedly
   with their conjoint personality co-ordinate, the Infinite Spirit. God's
   spirit is, in and of himself, absolute; in the Son it is unqualified, in the
   Spirit, universal, and in and by all of them, infinite.



   1:3.5 God is a universal spirit; God is the universal person. The supreme
   personal reality of the finite creation is spirit; the ultimate reality of
   the personal cosmos is absonite spirit. Only the levels of infinity are
   absolute, and only on such levels is there finality of oneness between
   matter, mind, and spirit.



   1:3.6 In the universes God the Father is, in potential, the overcontroller of
   matter, mind, and spirit. Only by means of his far-flung personality circuit
   does God deal directly with the personalities of his vast creation of will
   creatures, but he is contactable (outside of Paradise) only in the presences
   of his fragmented entities, the will of God abroad in the universes. This
   Paradise spirit that indwells the minds of the mortals of time and there
   fosters the evolution of the immortal soul of the surviving creature is of
   the nature and divinity of the Universal Father. But the minds of such
   evolutionary creatures originate in the local universes and must gain divine
   perfection by achieving those experiential transformations of spiritual
   attainment which are the inevitable result of a creature's choosing to do the
   will of the Father in heaven.



   1:3.7 In the inner experience of man, mind is joined to matter. Such
   material-linked minds cannot survive mortal death. The technique of survival
   is embraced in those adjustments of the human will and those transformations
   in the mortal mind whereby such a God-conscious intellect gradually becomes
   spirit taught and eventually spirit led. This evolution of the human mind
   from matter association to spirit union results in the transmutation of the
   potentially spirit phases of the mortal mind into the morontia realities of
   the immortal soul. Mortal mind subservient to matter is destined to become
   increasingly material and consequently to suffer eventual personality
   extinction; mind yielded to spirit is destined to become increasingly
   spiritual and ultimately to achieve oneness with the surviving and guiding
   divine spirit and in this way to attain survival and eternity of personality
   existence.



   1:3.8 I come forth from the Eternal, and I have repeatedly returned to the
   presence of the Universal Father. I know of the actuality and personality of
   the First Source and Center, the Eternal and Universal Father. I know that,
   while the great God is absolute, eternal, and infinite, he is also good,
   divine, and gracious. I know the truth of the great declarations: "God is
   spirit" and "God is love," and these two attributes are most completely
   revealed to the universe in the Eternal Son.





 4. THE MYSTERY OF GOD



   1:4.1 The infinity of the perfection of God is such that it eternally
   constitutes him mystery. And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries
   of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner
   in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most
   profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is
   the mystery of mysteries.

   1:4.2 The physical bodies of mortals are "the temples of God."
   Notwithstanding that the Sovereign Creator Sons come near the creatures of
   their inhabited worlds and "draw all men to themselves"; though they "stand
   at the door" of consciousness "and knock" and delight to come in to all who
   will "open the doors of their hearts"; although there does exist this
   intimate personal communion between the Creator Sons and their mortal
   creatures, nevertheless, mortal men have something from God himself which
   actually dwells within them; their bodies are the temples thereof.

   1:4.3 When you are through down here, when your course has been run in
   temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when
   the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it
   came"; then, it is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who
   gave it." There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of
   God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of
   possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive
   the mortal existence.



   1:4.4 We are constantly confronted with this mystery of God; we are nonplused
   by the increasing unfolding of the endless panorama of the truth of his
   infinite goodness, endless mercy, matchless wisdom, and superb character.



   1:4.5 The divine mystery consists in the inherent difference which exists
   between the finite and the infinite, the temporal and the eternal, the time-
   space creature and the Universal Creator, the material and the spiritual, the
   imperfection of man and the perfection of Paradise Deity. The God of
   universal love unfailingly manifests himself to every one of his creatures up
   to the fullness of that creature's capacity to spiritually grasp the
   qualities of divine truth, beauty, and goodness.

   1:4.6 To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and
   on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all
   of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such
   spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons,
   either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the
   universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a
   creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the
   supermaterial world.

   1:4.7 As a reality in human spiritual experience God is not a mystery. But
   when an attempt is made to make plain the realities of the spirit world to
   the physical minds of the material order, mystery appears: mysteries so
   subtle and so profound that only the faith-grasp of the God-knowing mortal
   can achieve the philosophic miracle of the recognition of the Infinite by the
   finite, the discernment of the eternal God by the evolving mortals of the
   material worlds of time and space.





 5. PERSONALITY OF THE UNIVERSAL FATHER



   1:5.1 Do not permit the magnitude of God, his infinity, either to obscure or
   eclipse his personality. "He who planned the ear, shall he not hear? He who
   formed the eye, shall he not see?" The Universal Father is the acme of divine
   personality; he is the origin and destiny of personality throughout all
   creation. God is both infinite and personal; he is an infinite personality.
   The Father is truly a personality, notwithstanding that the infinity of his
   person places him forever beyond the full comprehension of material and
   finite beings.

   1:5.2 God is much more than a personality as personality is understood by the
   human mind; he is even far more than any possible concept of a
   superpersonality. But it is utterly futile to discuss such incomprehensible
   concepts of divine personality with the minds of material creatures whose
   maximum concept of the reality of being consists in the idea and ideal of
   personality. The material creature's highest possible concept of the
   Universal Creator is embraced within the spiritual ideals of the exalted idea
   of divine personality. Therefore, although you may know that God must be much
   more than the human conception of personality, you equally well know that the
   Universal Father cannot possibly be anything less than an eternal, infinite,
   true, good, and beautiful personality.

   1:5.3 God is not hiding from any of his creatures. He is unapproachable to so
   many orders of beings only because he "dwells in a light which no material
   creature can approach." The immensity and grandeur of the divine personality
   is beyond the grasp of the unperfected mind of evolutionary mortals. He
   "measures the waters in the hollow of his hand, measures a universe with the
   span of his hand. It is he who sits on the circle of the earth, who stretches
   out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a universe to dwell in."
   "Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created all these things, who
   brings out their worlds by number and calls them all by their names"; and so
   it is true that "the invisible things of God are partially understood by the
   things which are made." Today, and as you are, you must discern the invisible
   Maker through his manifold and diverse creation, as well as through the
   revelation and ministration of his Sons and their numerous subordinates.

   1:5.4 Even though material mortals cannot see the person of God, they should
   rejoice in the assurance that he is a person; by faith accept the truth which
   portrays that the Universal Father so loved the world as to provide for the
   eternal spiritual progression of its lowly inhabitants; that he "delights in
   his children." God is lacking in none of those superhuman and divine
   attributes which constitute a perfect, eternal, loving, and infinite Creator
   personality.



   1:5.5 In the local creations (excepting the personnel of the superuniverses)
   God has no personal or residential manifestation aside from the Paradise
   Creator Sons who are the fathers of the inhabited worlds and the sovereigns
   of the local universes. If the faith of the creature were perfect, he would
   assuredly know that when he had seen a Creator Son he had seen the Universal
   Father; in seeking for the Father, he would not ask nor expect to see other
   than the Son. Mortal man simply cannot see God until he achieves completed
   spirit transformation and actually attains Paradise.

   1:5.6 The natures of the Paradise Creator Sons do not encompass all the
   unqualified potentials of the universal absoluteness of the infinite nature
   of the First Great Source and Center, but the Universal Father is in every
   way divinely present in the Creator Sons. The Father and his Sons are one.
   These Paradise Sons of the order of Michael are perfect personalities, even
   the pattern for all local universe personality from that of the Bright and
   Morning Star down to the lowest human creature of progressing animal
   evolution.



   1:5.7 Without God and except for his great and central person, there would be
   no personality throughout all the vast universe of universes. God is
   personality.



   1:5.8 Notwithstanding that God is an eternal power, a majestic presence, a
   transcendent ideal, and a glorious spirit, though he is all these and
   infinitely more, nonetheless, he is truly and everlastingly a perfect Creator
   personality, a person who can "know and be known," who can "love and be
   loved," and one who can befriend us; while you can be known, as other humans
   have been known, as the friend of God. He is a real spirit and a spiritual
   reality.

   1:5.9 As we see the Universal Father revealed throughout his universe; as we
   discern him indwelling his myriads of creatures; as we behold him in the
   persons of his Sovereign Sons; as we continue to sense his divine presence
   here and there, near and afar, let us not doubt nor question his personality
   primacy. Notwithstanding all these far-flung distributions, he remains a true
   person and everlastingly maintains personal connection with the countless
   hosts of his creatures scattered throughout the universe of universes.



   1:5.10 The idea of the personality of the Universal Father is an enlarged and
   truer concept of God which has come to mankind chiefly through revelation.
   Reason, wisdom, and religious experience all infer and imply the personality
   of God, but they do not altogether validate it. Even the indwelling Thought
   Adjuster is prepersonal. The truth and maturity of any religion is directly
   proportional to its concept of the infinite personality of God and to its
   grasp of the absolute unity of Deity. The idea of a personal Deity becomes,
   then, the measure of religious maturity after religion has first formulated
   the concept of the unity of God.

   1:5.11 Primitive religion had many personal gods, and they were fashioned in
   the image of man. Revelation affirms the validity of the personality concept
   of God which is merely possible in the scientific postulate of a First Cause
   and is only provisionally suggested in the philosophic idea of Universal
   Unity. Only by personality approach can any person begin to comprehend the
   unity of God. To deny the personality of the First Source and Center leaves
   one only the choice of two philosophic dilemmas: materialism or pantheism.

   1:5.12 In the contemplation of Deity, the concept of personality must be
   divested of the idea of corporeality. A material body is not indispensable to
   personality in either man or God. The corporeality error is shown in both
   extremes of human philosophy. In materialism, since man loses his body at
   death, he ceases to exist as a personality; in pantheism, since God has no
   body, he is not, therefore, a person. The superhuman type of progressing
   personality functions in a union of mind and spirit.



   1:5.13 Personality is not simply an attribute of God; it rather stands for
   the totality of the co-ordinated infinite nature and the unified divine will
   which is exhibited in eternity and universality of perfect expression.
   Personality, in the supreme sense, is the revelation of God to the universe
   of universes.



   1:5.14 God, being eternal, universal, absolute, and infinite, does not grow
   in knowledge nor increase in wisdom. God does not acquire experience, as
   finite man might conjecture or comprehend, but he does, within the realms of
   his own eternal personality, enjoy those continuous expansions of self-
   realization which are in certain ways comparable to, and analogous with, the
   acquirement of new experience by the finite creatures of the evolutionary
   worlds.

   1:5.15 The absolute perfection of the infinite God would cause him to suffer
   the awful limitations of unqualified finality of perfectness were it not a
   fact that the Universal Father directly participates in the personality
   struggle of every imperfect soul in the wide universe who seeks, by divine
   aid, to ascend to the spiritually perfect worlds on high. This progressive
   experience of every spirit being and every mortal creature throughout the
   universe of universes is a part of the Father's ever-expanding Deity-
   consciousness of the never-ending divine circle of ceaseless self-
   realization.

   1:5.16 It is literally true: "In all your afflictions he is afflicted." "In
   all your triumphs he triumphs in and with you." His prepersonal divine spirit
   is a real part of you. The Isle of Paradise responds to all the physical
   metamorphoses of the universe of universes; the Eternal Son includes all the
   spirit impulses of all creation; the Conjoint Actor encompasses all the mind
   expression of the expanding cosmos. The Universal Father realizes in the
   fullness of the divine consciousness all the individual experience of the
   progressive struggles of the expanding minds and the ascending spirits of
   every entity, being, and personality of the whole evolutionary creation of
   time and space. And all this is literally true, for "in Him we all live and
   move and have our being."





 6. PERSONALITY IN THE UNIVERSE



   1:6.1 Human personality is the time-space image-shadow cast by the divine
   Creator personality. And no actuality can ever be adequately comprehended by
   an examination of its shadow. Shadows should be interpreted in terms of the
   true substance.



   1:6.2 God is to science a cause, to philosophy an idea, to religion a person,
   even the loving heavenly Father. God is to the scientist a primal force, to
   the philosopher a hypothesis of unity, to the religionist a living spiritual
   experience. Man's inadequate concept of the personality of the Universal
   Father can be improved only by man's spiritual progress in the universe and
   will become truly adequate only when the pilgrims of time and space finally
   attain the divine embrace of the living God on Paradise.

   1:6.3 Never lose sight of the antipodal viewpoints of personality as it is
   conceived by God and man. Man views and comprehends personality, looking from
   the finite to the infinite; God looks from the infinite to the finite. Man
   possesses the lowest type of personality; God, the highest, even supreme,
   ultimate, and absolute. Therefore did the better concepts of the divine
   personality have patiently to await the appearance of improved ideas of human
   personality, especially the enhanced revelation of both human and divine
   personality in the Urantian bestowal life of Michael, the Creator Son.



   1:6.4 The prepersonal divine spirit which indwells the mortal mind carries,
   in its very presence, the valid proof of its actual existence, but the
   concept of the divine personality can be grasped only by the spiritual
   insight of genuine personal religious experience. Any person, human or
   divine, may be known and comprehended quite apart from the external reactions
   or the material presence of that person.

   1:6.5 Some degree of moral affinity and spiritual harmony is essential to
   friendship between two persons; a loving personality can hardly reveal
   himself to a loveless person. Even to approach the knowing of a divine
   personality, all of man's personality endowments must be wholly consecrated
   to the effort; halfhearted, partial devotion will be unavailing.

   1:6.6 The more completely man understands himself and appreciates the
   personality values of his fellows, the more he will crave to know the
   Original Personality, and the more earnestly such a God-knowing human will
   strive to become like the Original Personality. You can argue over opinions
   about God, but experience with him and in him exists above and beyond all
   human controversy and mere intellectual logic. The God-knowing man describes
   his spiritual experiences, not to convince unbelievers, but for the
   edification and mutual satisfaction of believers.



   1:6.7 To assume that the universe can be known, that it is intelligible, is
   to assume that the universe is mind made and personality managed. Man's mind
   can only perceive the mind phenomena of other minds, be they human or
   superhuman. If man's personality can experience the universe, there is a
   divine mind and an actual personality somewhere concealed in that universe.



   1:6.8 God is spirit -- spirit personality; man is also a spirit -- potential
   spirit personality. Jesus of Nazareth attained the full realization of this
   potential of spirit personality in human experience; therefore his life of
   achieving the Father's will becomes man's most real and ideal revelation of
   the personality of God. Even though the personality of the Universal Father
   can be grasped only in actual religious experience, in Jesus' earth life we
   are inspired by the perfect demonstration of such a realization and
   revelation of the personality of God in a truly human experience.





 7. SPIRITUAL VALUE OF THE PERSONALITY CONCEPT



   1:7.1 When Jesus talked about "the living God," he referred to a personal
   Deity -- the Father in heaven. The concept of the personality of Deity
   facilitates fellowship; it favors intelligent worship; it promotes refreshing
   trustfulness. Interactions can be had between nonpersonal things, but not
   fellowship. The fellowship relation of father and son, as between God and
   man, cannot be enjoyed unless both are persons. Only personalities can
   commune with each other, albeit this personal communion may be greatly
   facilitated by the presence of just such an impersonal entity as the Thought
   Adjuster.

   1:7.2 Man does not achieve union with God as a drop of water might find unity
   with the ocean. Man attains divine union by progressive reciprocal spiritual
   communion, by personality intercourse with the personal God, by increasingly
   attaining the divine nature through wholehearted and intelligent conformity
   to the divine will. Such a sublime relationship can exist only between
   personalities.



   1:7.3 The concept of truth might possibly be entertained apart from
   personality, the concept of beauty may exist without personality, but the
   concept of divine goodness is understandable only in relation to personality.
   Only a person can love and be loved. Even beauty and truth would be divorced
   from survival hope if they were not attributes of a personal God, a loving
   Father.



   1:7.4 We cannot fully understand how God can be primal, changeless, all-
   powerful, and perfect, and at the same time be surrounded by an ever-changing
   and apparently law-limited universe, an evolving universe of relative
   imperfections. But we can know such a truth in our own personal experience
   since we all maintain identity of personality and unity of will in spite of
   the constant changing of both ourselves and our environment.

   1:7.5 Ultimate universe reality cannot be grasped by mathematics, logic, or
   philosophy, only by personal experience in progressive conformity to the
   divine will of a personal God. Neither science, philosophy, nor theology can
   validate the personality of God. Only the personal experience of the faith
   sons of the heavenly Father can effect the actual spiritual realization of
   the personality of God.



   1:7.6 The higher concepts of universe personality imply: identity, self-
   consciousness, self-will, and possibility for self-revelation. And these
   characteristics further imply fellowship with other and equal personalities,
   such as exists in the personality associations of the Paradise Deities. And
   the absolute unity of these associations is so perfect that divinity becomes
   known by indivisibility, by oneness. "The Lord God is one." Indivisibility of
   personality does not interfere with God's bestowing his spirit to live in the
   hearts of mortal men. Indivisibility of a human father's personality does not
   prevent the reproduction of mortal sons and daughters.

   1:7.7 This concept of indivisibility in association with the concept of unity
   implies transcendence of both time and space by the Ultimacy of Deity;
   therefore neither space nor time can be absolute or infinite. The First
   Source and Center is that infinity who unqualifiedly transcends all mind, all
   matter, and all spirit.

   1:7.8 The fact of the Paradise Trinity in no manner violates the truth of the
   divine unity. The three personalities of Paradise Deity are, in all universe
   reality reactions and in all creature relations, as one. Neither does the
   existence of these three eternal persons violate the truth of the
   indivisibility of Deity. I am fully aware that I have at my command no
   language adequate to make clear to the mortal mind how these universe
   problems appear to us. But you should not become discouraged; not all of
   these things are wholly clear to even the high personalities belonging to my
   group of Paradise beings. Ever bear in mind that these profound truths
   pertaining to Deity will increasingly clarify as your minds become
   progressively spiritualized during the successive epochs of the long mortal
   ascent to Paradise.



   1:7.9 Presented by a Divine Counselor, a member of a group of celestial
   personalities assigned by the Ancients of Days on Uversa, the headquarters of
   the seventh superuniverse, to supervise those portions of this forthcoming
   revelation which have to do with affairs beyond the borders of the local
   universe of Nebadon. I am commissioned to sponsor those papers portraying the
   nature and attributes of God because I represent the highest source of
   information available for such a purpose on any inhabited world. I have
   served as a Divine Counselor in all seven of the superuniverses and have long
   resided at the Paradise center of all things. Many times have I enjoyed the
   supreme pleasure of a sojourn in the immediate personal presence of the
   Universal Father. I portray the reality and truth of the Father's nature and
   attributes with unchallengeable authority; I know whereof I speak.


PAPER 2


 THE NATURE OF GOD



  2:0.1 INASMUCH as man's highest possible concept of God is embraced within the
  human idea and ideal of a primal and infinite personality, it is permissible,
  and may prove helpful, to study certain characteristics of the divine nature
  which constitute the character of Deity. The nature of God can best be
  understood by the revelation of the Father which Michael of Nebadon unfolded
  in his manifold teachings and in his superb mortal life in the flesh. The
  divine nature can also be better understood by man if he regards himself as a
  child of God and looks up to the Paradise Creator as a true spiritual Father.

  2:0.2 The nature of God can be studied in a revelation of supreme ideas, the
  divine character can be envisaged as a portrayal of supernal ideals, but the
  most enlightening and spiritually edifying of all revelations of the divine
  nature is to be found in the comprehension of the religious life of Jesus of
  Nazareth, both before and after his attainment of full consciousness of
  divinity. If the incarnated life of Michael is taken as the background of the
  revelation of God to man, we may attempt to put in human word symbols certain
  ideas and ideals concerning the divine nature which may possibly contribute to
  a further illumination and unification of the human concept of the nature and
  the character of the personality of the Universal Father.

  2:0.3 In all our efforts to enlarge and spiritualize the human concept of God,
  we are tremendously handicapped by the limited capacity of the mortal mind. We
  are also seriously handicapped in the execution of our assignment by the
  limitations of language and by the poverty of material which can be utilized
  for purposes of illustration or comparison in our efforts to portray divine
  values and to present spiritual meanings to the finite, mortal mind of man.
  All our efforts to enlarge the human concept of God would be well-nigh futile
  except for the fact that the mortal mind is indwelt by the bestowed Adjuster
  of the Universal Father and is pervaded by the Truth Spirit of the Creator
  Son. Depending, therefore, on the presence of these divine spirits within the
  heart of man for assistance in the enlargement of the concept of God, I
  cheerfully undertake the execution of my mandate to attempt the further
  portrayal of the nature of God to the mind of man.





1. THE INFINITY OF GOD



  2:1.1 "Touching the Infinite, we cannot find him out. The divine footsteps are
  not known." "His understanding is infinite and his greatness is unsearchable."
  The blinding light of the Father's presence is such that to his lowly
  creatures he apparently "dwells in the thick darkness." Not only are his
  thoughts and plans unsearchable, but "he does great and marvelous things
  without number." "God is great; we comprehend him not, neither can the number
  of his years be searched out." "Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold,
  the heaven (universe) and the heaven of heavens (universe of universes) cannot
  contain him." "How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding
  out!"

  2:1.2 "There is but one God, the infinite Father, who is also a faithful
  Creator." "The divine Creator is also the Universal Disposer, the source and
  destiny of souls. He is the Supreme Soul, the Primal Mind, and the Unlimited
  Spirit of all creation." "The great Controller makes no mistakes. He is
  resplendent in majesty and glory." "The Creator God is wholly devoid of fear
  and enmity. He is immortal, eternal, self-existent, divine, and bountiful."
  "How pure and beautiful, how deep and unfathomable is the supernal Ancestor of
  all things!" "The Infinite is most excellent in that he imparts himself to
  men. He is the beginning and the end, the Father of every good and perfect
  purpose." "With God all things are possible; the eternal Creator is the cause
  of causes."



  2:1.3 Notwithstanding the infinity of the stupendous manifestations of the
  Father's eternal and universal personality, he is unqualifiedly self-conscious
  of both his infinity and eternity; likewise he knows fully his perfection and
  power. He is the only being in the universe, aside from his divine co-
  ordinates, who experiences a perfect, proper, and complete appraisal of
  himself.

  2:1.4 The Father constantly and unfailingly meets the need of the differential
  of demand for himself as it changes from time to time in various sections of
  his master universe. The great God knows and understands himself; he is
  infinitely self-conscious of all his primal attributes of perfection. God is
  not a cosmic accident; neither is he a universe experimenter. The Universe
  Sovereigns may engage in adventure; the Constellation Fathers may experiment;
  the system heads may practice; but the Universal Father sees the end from the
  beginning, and his divine plan and eternal purpose actually embrace and
  comprehend all the experiments and all the adventures of all his subordinates
  in every world, system, and constellation in every universe of his vast
  domains.

  2:1.5 No thing is new to God, and no cosmic event ever comes as a surprise; he
  inhabits the circle of eternity. He is without beginning or end of days. To
  God there is no past, present, or future; all time is present at any given
  moment. He is the great and only I AM.



  2:1.6 The Universal Father is absolutely and without qualification infinite in
  all his attributes; and this fact, in and of itself, automatically shuts him
  off from all direct personal communication with finite material beings and
  other lowly created intelligences.

  2:1.7 And all this necessitates such arrangements for contact and
  communication with his manifold creatures as have been ordained, first, in the
  personalities of the Paradise Sons of God, who, although perfect in divinity,
  also often partake of the nature of the very flesh and blood of the planetary
  races, becoming one of you and one with you; thus, as it were, God becomes
  man, as occurred in the bestowal of Michael, who was called interchangeably
  the Son of God and the Son of Man. And second, there are the personalities of
  the Infinite Spirit, the various orders of the seraphic hosts and other
  celestial intelligences who draw near to the material beings of lowly origin
  and in so many ways minister to them and serve them. And third, there are the
  impersonal Mystery Monitors, Thought Adjusters, the actual gift of the great
  God himself sent to indwell such as the humans of Urantia, sent without
  announcement and without explanation. In endless profusion they descend from
  the heights of glory to grace and indwell the humble minds of those mortals
  who possess the capacity for God-consciousness or the potential therefor.

  2:1.8 In these ways and in many others, in ways unknown to you and utterly
  beyond finite comprehension, does the Paradise Father lovingly and willingly
  downstep and otherwise modify, dilute, and attenuate his infinity in order
  that he may be able to draw nearer the finite minds of his creature children.
  And so, through a series of personality distributions which are diminishingly
  absolute, the infinite Father is enabled to enjoy close contact with the
  diverse intelligences of the many realms of his far-flung universe.

  2:1.9 All this he has done and now does, and evermore will continue to do,
  without in the least detracting from the fact and reality of his infinity,
  eternity, and primacy. And these things are absolutely true, notwithstanding
  the difficulty of their comprehension, the mystery in which they are
  enshrouded, or the impossibility of their being fully understood by creatures
  such as dwell on Urantia.



  2:1.10 Because the First Father is infinite in his plans and eternal in his
  purposes, it is inherently impossible for any finite being ever to grasp or
  comprehend these divine plans and purposes in their fullness. Mortal man can
  glimpse the Father's purposes only now and then, here and there, as they are
  revealed in relation to the outworking of the plan of creature ascension on
  its successive levels of universe progression. Though man cannot encompass the
  significance of infinity, the infinite Father does most certainly fully
  comprehend and lovingly embrace all the finity of all his children in all
  universes.

  2:1.11 Divinity and eternity the Father shares with large numbers of the
  higher Paradise beings, but we question whether infinity and consequent
  universal primacy is fully shared with any save his co-ordinate associates of
  the Paradise Trinity. Infinity of personality must, perforce, embrace all
  finitude of personality; hence the truth -- literal truth -- of the teaching
  which declares that "In Him we live and move and have our being." That
  fragment of the pure Deity of the Universal Father which indwells mortal man
  is a part of the infinity of the First Great Source and Center, the Father of
  Fathers.





2. THE FATHER'S ETERNAL PERFECTION



  2:2.1 Even your olden prophets understood the eternal, never-beginning, never-
  ending, circular nature of the Universal Father. God is literally and
  eternally present in his universe of universes. He inhabits the present moment
  with all his absolute majesty and eternal greatness. "The Father has life in
  himself, and this life is eternal life." Throughout the eternal ages it has
  been the Father who "gives to all life." There is infinite perfection in the
  divine integrity. "I am the Lord; I change not." Our knowledge of the universe
  of universes discloses not only that he is the Father of lights, but also that
  in his conduct of interplanetary affairs there "is no variableness neither
  shadow of changing." He "declares the end from the beginning." He says: "My
  counsel shall stand; I will do all my pleasures" "according to the eternal
  purpose which I purposed in my Son." Thus are the plans and purposes of the
  First Source and Center like himself: eternal, perfect, and forever
  changeless.

  2:2.2 There is finality of completeness and perfection of repleteness in the
  mandates of the Father. "Whatsoever God does, it shall be forever; nothing can
  be added to it nor anything taken from it." The Universal Father does not
  repent of his original purposes of wisdom and perfection. His plans are
  steadfast, his counsel immutable, while his acts are divine and infallible. "A
  thousand years in his sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a
  watch in the night." The perfection of divinity and the magnitude of eternity
  are forever beyond the full grasp of the circumscribed mind of mortal man.



  2:2.3 The reactions of a changeless God, in the execution of his eternal
  purpose, may seem to vary in accordance with the changing attitude and the
  shifting minds of his created intelligences; that is, they may apparently and
  superficially vary; but underneath the surface and beneath all outward
  manifestations, there is still present the changeless purpose, the everlasting
  plan, of the eternal God.

  2:2.4 Out in the universes, perfection must necessarily be a relative term,
  but in the central universe and especially on Paradise, perfection is
  undiluted; in certain phases it is even absolute. Trinity manifestations vary
  the exhibition of the divine perfection but do not attenuate it.



  2:2.5 God's primal perfection consists not in an assumed righteousness but
  rather in the inherent perfection of the goodness of his divine nature. He is
  final, complete, and perfect. There is no thing lacking in the beauty and
  perfection of his righteous character. And the whole scheme of living
  existences on the worlds of space is centered in the divine purpose of
  elevating all will creatures to the high destiny of the experience of sharing
  the Father's Paradise perfection. God is neither self-centered nor self-
  contained; he never ceases to bestow himself upon all self-conscious creatures
  of the vast universe of universes.

  2:2.6 God is eternally and infinitely perfect, he cannot personally know
  imperfection as his own experience, but he does share the consciousness of all
  the experience of imperfectness of all the struggling creatures of the
  evolutionary universes of all the Paradise Creator Sons. The personal and
  liberating touch of the God of perfection overshadows the hearts and
  encircuits the natures of all those mortal creatures who have ascended to the
  universe level of moral discernment. In this manner, as well as through the
  contacts of the divine presence, the Universal Father actually participates in
  the experience with immaturity and imperfection in the evolving career of
  every moral being of the entire universe.

  2:2.7 Human limitations, potential evil, are not a part of the divine nature,
  but mortal experience with evil and all man's relations thereto are most
  certainly a part of God's ever-expanding self-realization in the children of
  time -- creatures of moral responsibility who have been created or evolved by
  every Creator Son going out from Paradise.





3. JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS



  2:3.1 God is righteous; therefore is he just. "The Lord is righteous in all
  his ways." "`I have not done without cause all that I have done,' says the
  Lord." "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." The
  justice of the Universal Father cannot be influenced by the acts and
  performances of his creatures, "for there is no iniquity with the Lord our
  God, no respect of persons, no taking of gifts."



  2:3.2 How futile to make puerile appeals to such a God to modify his
  changeless decrees so that we can avoid the just consequences of the operation
  of his wise natural laws and righteous spiritual mandates! "Be not deceived;
  God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap." True,
  even in the justice of reaping the harvest of wrongdoing, this divine justice
  is always tempered with mercy. Infinite wisdom is the eternal arbiter which
  determines the proportions of justice and mercy which shall be meted out in
  any given circumstance. The greatest punishment (in reality an inevitable
  consequence) for wrongdoing and deliberate rebellion against the government of
  God is loss of existence as an individual subject of that government. The
  final result of wholehearted sin is annihilation. In the last analysis, such
  sin-identified individuals have destroyed themselves by becoming wholly unreal
  through their embrace of iniquity. The factual disappearance of such a
  creature is, however, always delayed until the ordained order of justice
  current in that universe has been fully complied with.

  2:3.3 Cessation of existence is usually decreed at the dispensational or
  epochal adjudication of the realm or realms. On a world such as Urantia it
  comes at the end of a planetary dispensation. Cessation of existence can be
  decreed at such times by co-ordinate action of all tribunals of jurisdiction,
  extending from the planetary council up through the courts of the Creator Son
  to the judgment tribunals of the Ancients of Days. The mandate of dissolution
  originates in the higher courts of the superuniverse following an unbroken
  confirmation of the indictment originating on the sphere of the wrongdoer's
  residence; and then, when sentence of extinction has been confirmed on high,
  the execution is by the direct act of those judges residential on, and
  operating from, the headquarters of the superuniverse.

  2:3.4 When this sentence is finally confirmed, the sin-identified being
  instantly becomes as though he had not been. There is no resurrection from
  such a fate; it is everlasting and eternal. The living energy factors of
  identity are resolved by the transformations of time and the metamorphoses of
  space into the cosmic potentials whence they once emerged. As for the
  personality of the iniquitous one, it is deprived of a continuing life vehicle
  by the creature's failure to make those choices and final decisions which
  would have assured eternal life. When the continued embrace of sin by the
  associated mind culminates in complete self-identification with iniquity, then
  upon the cessation of life, upon cosmic dissolution, such an isolated
  personality is absorbed into the oversoul of creation, becoming a part of the
  evolving experience of the Supreme Being. Never again does it appear as a
  personality; its identity becomes as though it had never been. In the case of
  an Adjuster-indwelt personality, the experiential spirit values survive in the
  reality of the continuing Adjuster.



  2:3.5 In any universe contest between actual levels of reality, the
  personality of the higher level will ultimately triumph over the personality
  of the lower level. This inevitable outcome of universe controversy is
  inherent in the fact that divinity of quality equals the degree of reality or
  actuality of any will creature. Undiluted evil, complete error, willful sin,
  and unmitigated iniquity are inherently and automatically suicidal. Such
  attitudes of cosmic unreality can survive in the universe only because of
  transient mercy-tolerance pending the action of the justice-determining and
  fairness-finding mechanisms of the universe tribunals of righteous
  adjudication.

  2:3.6 The rule of the Creator Sons in the local universes is one of creation
  and spiritualization. These Sons devote themselves to the effective execution
  of the Paradise plan of progressive mortal ascension, to the rehabilitation of
  rebels and wrong thinkers, but when all such loving efforts are finally and
  forever rejected, the final decree of dissolution is executed by forces acting
  under the jurisdiction of the Ancients of Days.





4. THE DIVINE MERCY



  2:4.1 Mercy is simply justice tempered by that wisdom which grows out of
  perfection of knowledge and the full recognition of the natural weaknesses and
  environmental handicaps of finite creatures. "Our God is full of compassion,
  gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy." Therefore "whosoever calls
  upon the Lord shall be saved," "for he will abundantly pardon." "The mercy of
  the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting"; yes, "his mercy endures
  forever." "I am the Lord who executes loving-kindness, judgment, and
  righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight." "I do not afflict
  willingly nor grieve the children of men," for I am "the Father of mercies and
  the God of all comfort."

  2:4.2 God is inherently kind, naturally compassionate, and everlastingly
  merciful. And never is it necessary that any influence be brought to bear upon
  the Father to call forth his loving-kindness. The creature's need is wholly
  sufficient to insure the full flow of the Father's tender mercies and his
  saving grace. Since God knows all about his children, it is easy for him to
  forgive. The better man understands his neighbor, the easier it will be to
  forgive him, even to love him.



  2:4.3 Only the discernment of infinite wisdom enables a righteous God to
  minister justice and mercy at the same time and in any given universe
  situation. The heavenly Father is never torn by conflicting attitudes towards
  his universe children; God is never a victim of attitudinal antagonisms. God's
  all-knowingness unfailingly directs his free will in the choosing of that
  universe conduct which perfectly, simultaneously, and equally satisfies the
  demands of all his divine attributes and the infinite qualities of his eternal
  nature.

  2:4.4 Mercy is the natural and inevitable offspring of goodness and love. The
  good nature of a loving Father could not possibly withhold the wise ministry
  of mercy to each member of every group of his universe children. Eternal
  justice and divine mercy together constitute what in human experience would be
  called fairness.

  2:4.5 Divine mercy represents a fairness technique of adjustment between the
  universe levels of perfection and imperfection. Mercy is the justice of
  Supremacy adapted to the situations of the evolving finite, the righteousness
  of eternity modified to meet the highest interests and universe welfare of the
  children of time. Mercy is not a contravention of justice but rather an
  understanding interpretation of the demands of supreme justice as it is fairly
  applied to the subordinate spiritual beings and to the material creatures of
  the evolving universes. Mercy is the justice of the Paradise Trinity wisely
  and lovingly visited upon the manifold intelligences of the creations of time
  and space as it is formulated by divine wisdom and determined by the all-
  knowing mind and the sovereign free will of the Universal Father and all his
  associated Creators.





5. THE LOVE OF GOD



  2:5.1 "God is love"; therefore his only personal attitude towards the affairs
  of the universe is always a reaction of divine affection. The Father loves us
  sufficiently to bestow his life upon us. "He makes his sun to rise on the evil
  and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."



  2:5.2 It is wrong to think of God as being coaxed into loving his children
  because of the sacrifices of his Sons or the intercession of his subordinate
  creatures, "for the Father himself loves you." It is in response to this
  paternal affection that God sends the marvelous Adjusters to indwell the minds
  of men. God's love is universal; "whosoever will may come." He would "have all
  men be saved by coming into the knowledge of the truth." He is "not willing
  that any should perish."

  2:5.3 The Creators are the very first to attempt to save man from the
  disastrous results of his foolish transgression of the divine laws. God's love
  is by nature a fatherly affection; therefore does he sometimes "chasten us for
  our own profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness." Even during your
  fiery trials remember that "in all our afflictions he is afflicted with us."

  2:5.4 God is divinely kind to sinners. When rebels return to righteousness,
  they are mercifully received, "for our God will abundantly pardon." "I am he
  who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember
  your sins." "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that
  we should be called the sons of God."

  2:5.5 After all, the greatest evidence of the goodness of God and the supreme
  reason for loving him is the indwelling gift of the Father -- the Adjuster who
  so patiently awaits the hour when you both shall be eternally made one. Though
  you cannot find God by searching, if you will submit to the leading of the
  indwelling spirit, you will be unerringly guided, step by step, life by life,
  through universe upon universe, and age by age, until you finally stand in the
  presence of the Paradise personality of the Universal Father.



  2:5.6 How unreasonable that you should not worship God because the limitations
  of human nature and the handicaps of your material creation make it impossible
  for you to see him. Between you and God there is a tremendous distance
  (physical space) to be traversed. There likewise exists a great gulf of
  spiritual differential which must be bridged; but notwithstanding all that
  physically and spiritually separates you from the Paradise personal presence
  of God, stop and ponder the solemn fact that God lives within you; he has in
  his own way already bridged the gulf. He has sent of himself, his spirit, to
  live in you and to toil with you as you pursue your eternal universe career.

  2:5.7 I find it easy and pleasant to worship one who is so great and at the
  same time so affectionately devoted to the uplifting ministry of his lowly
  creatures. I naturally love one who is so powerful in creation and in the
  control thereof, and yet who is so perfect in goodness and so faithful in the
  loving-kindness which constantly overshadows us. I think I would love God just
  as much if he were not so great and powerful, as long as he is so good and
  merciful. We all love the Father more because of his nature than in
  recognition of his amazing attributes.

  2:5.8 When I observe the Creator Sons and their subordinate administrators
  struggling so valiantly with the manifold difficulties of time inherent in the
  evolution of the universes of space, I discover that I bear these lesser
  rulers of the universes a great and profound affection. After all, I think we
  all, including the mortals of the realms, love the Universal Father and all
  other beings, divine or human, because we discern that these personalities
  truly love us. The experience of loving is very much a direct response to the
  experience of being loved. Knowing that God loves me, I should continue to
  love him supremely, even though he were divested of all his attributes of
  supremacy, ultimacy, and absoluteness.

  2:5.9 The Father's love follows us now and throughout the endless circle of
  the eternal ages. As you ponder the loving nature of God, there is only one
  reasonable and natural personality reaction thereto: You will increasingly
  love your Maker; you will yield to God an affection analogous to that given by
  a child to an earthly parent; for, as a father, a real father, a true father,
  loves his children, so the Universal Father loves and forever seeks the
  welfare of his created sons and daughters.

  2:5.10 But the love of God is an intelligent and farseeing parental affection.
  The divine love functions in unified association with divine wisdom and all
  other infinite characteristics of the perfect nature of the Universal Father.
  God is love, but love is not God. The greatest manifestation of the divine
  love for mortal beings is observed in the bestowal of the Thought Adjusters,
  but your greatest revelation of the Father's love is seen in the bestowal life
  of his Son Michael as he lived on earth the ideal spiritual life. It is the
  indwelling Adjuster who individualizes the love of God to each human soul.



  2:5.11 At times I am almost pained to be compelled to portray the divine
  affection of the heavenly Father for his universe children by the employment
  of the human word symbol love. This term, even though it does connote man's
  highest concept of the mortal relations of respect and devotion, is so
  frequently designative of so much of human relationship that is wholly ignoble
  and utterly unfit to be known by any word which is also used to indicate the
  matchless affection of the living God for his universe creatures! How
  unfortunate that I cannot make use of some supernal and exclusive term which
  would convey to the mind of man the true nature and exquisitely beautiful
  significance of the divine affection of the Paradise Father.



  2:5.12 When man loses sight of the love of a personal God, the kingdom of God
  becomes merely the kingdom of good. Notwithstanding the infinite unity of the
  divine nature, love is the dominant characteristic of all God's personal
  dealings with his creatures.





6. THE GOODNESS OF GOD



  2:6.1 In the physical universe we may see the divine beauty, in the
  intellectual world we may discern eternal truth, but the goodness of God is
  found only in the spiritual world of personal religious experience. In its
  true essence, religion is a faith-trust in the goodness of God. God could be
  great and absolute, somehow even intelligent and personal, in philosophy, but
  in religion God must also be moral; he must be good. Man might fear a great
  God, but he trusts and loves only a good God. This goodness of God is a part
  of the personality of God, and its full revelation appears only in the
  personal religious experience of the believing sons of God.

  2:6.2 Religion implies that the superworld of spirit nature is cognizant of,
  and responsive to, the fundamental needs of the human world. Evolutionary
  religion may become ethical, but only revealed religion becomes truly and
  spiritually moral. The olden concept that God is a Deity dominated by kingly
  morality was upstepped by Jesus to that affectionately touching level of
  intimate family morality of the parent-child relationship, than which there is
  none more tender and beautiful in mortal experience.

  2:6.3 The "richness of the goodness of God leads erring man to repentance."
  "Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights."
  "God is good; he is the eternal refuge of the souls of men." "The Lord God is
  merciful and gracious. He is long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
  truth." "Taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who trusts
  him." "The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He is the God of
  salvation." "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up the wounds of the soul.
  He is man's all-powerful benefactor."



  2:6.4 The concept of God as a king-judge, although it fostered a high moral
  standard and created a law-respecting people as a group, left the individual
  believer in a sad position of insecurity respecting his status in time and in
  eternity. The later Hebrew prophets proclaimed God to be a Father to Israel;
  Jesus revealed God as the Father of each human being. The entire mortal
  concept of God is transcendently illuminated by the life of Jesus.
  Selflessness is inherent in parental love. God loves not like a father, but as
  a father. He is the Paradise Father of every universe personality.



  2:6.5 Righteousness implies that God is the source of the moral law of the
  universe. Truth exhibits God as a revealer, as a teacher. But love gives and
  craves affection, seeks understanding fellowship such as exists between parent
  and child. Righteousness may be the divine thought, but love is a father's
  attitude. The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was
  irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father, presupposed
  absence of unity in the nature of Deity and led directly to the elaboration of
  the atonement doctrine, which is a philosophic assault upon both the unity and
  the free-willness of God.

  2:6.6 The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on
  earth, is not a divided personality -- one of justice and one of mercy --
  neither does it require a mediator to secure the Father's favor or
  forgiveness. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive
  justice; God as a father transcends God as a judge.



  2:6.7 God is never wrathful, vengeful, or angry. It is true that wisdom does
  often restrain his love, while justice conditions his rejected mercy. His love
  of righteousness cannot help being exhibited as equal hatred for sin. The
  Father is not an inconsistent personality; the divine unity is perfect. In the
  Paradise Trinity there is absolute unity despite the eternal identities of the
  co-ordinates of God.



  2:6.8 God loves the sinner and hates the sin: such a statement is true
  philosophically, but God is a transcendent personality, and persons can only
  love and hate other persons. Sin is not a person. God loves the sinner because
  he is a personality reality (potentially eternal), while towards sin God
  strikes no personal attitude, for sin is not a spiritual reality; it is not
  personal; therefore does only the justice of God take cognizance of its
  existence. The love of God saves the sinner; the law of God destroys the sin.
  This attitude of the divine nature would apparently change if the sinner
  finally identified himself wholly with sin just as the same mortal mind may
  also fully identify itself with the indwelling spirit Adjuster. Such a sin-
  identified mortal would then become wholly unspiritual in nature (and
  therefore personally unreal) and would experience eventual extinction of
  being. Unreality, even incompleteness of creature nature, cannot exist forever
  in a progressingly real and increasingly spiritual universe.

  2:6.9 Facing the world of personality, God is discovered to be a loving
  person; facing the spiritual world, he is a personal love; in religious
  experience he is both. Love identifies the volitional will of God. The
  goodness of God rests at the bottom of the divine free-willness -- the
  universal tendency to love, show mercy, manifest patience, and minister
  forgiveness.





7. DIVINE TRUTH AND BEAUTY



  2:7.1 All finite knowledge and creature understanding are relative.
  Information and intelligence, gleaned from even high sources, is only
  relatively complete, locally accurate, and personally true.

  2:7.2 Physical facts are fairly uniform, but truth is a living and flexible
  factor in the philosophy of the universe. Evolving personalities are only
  partially wise and relatively true in their communications. They can be
  certain only as far as their personal experience extends. That which
  apparently may be wholly true in one place may be only relatively true in
  another segment of creation.

  2:7.3 Divine truth, final truth, is uniform and universal, but the story of
  things spiritual, as it is told by numerous individuals hailing from various
  spheres, may sometimes vary in details owing to this relativity in the
  completeness of knowledge and in the repleteness of personal experience as
  well as in the length and extent of that experience. While the laws and
  decrees, the thoughts and attitudes, of the First Great Source and Center are
  eternally, infinitely, and universally true; at the same time, their
  application to, and adjustment for, every universe, system, world, and created
  intelligence, are in accordance with the plans and technique of the Creator
  Sons as they function in their respective universes, as well as in harmony
  with the local plans and procedures of the Infinite Spirit and of all other
  associated celestial personalities.



  2:7.4 The false science of materialism would sentence mortal man to become an
  outcast in the universe. Such partial knowledge is potentially evil; it is
  knowledge composed of both good and evil. Truth is beautiful because it is
  both replete and symmetrical. When man searches for truth, he pursues the
  divinely real.

  2:7.5 Philosophers commit their gravest error when they are misled into the
  fallacy of abstraction, the practice of focusing the attention upon one aspect
  of reality and then of pronouncing such an isolated aspect to be the whole
  truth. The wise philosopher will always look for the creative design which is
  behind, and pre-existent to, all universe phenomena. The creator thought
  invariably precedes creative action.

  2:7.6 Intellectual self-consciousness can discover the beauty of truth, its
  spiritual quality, not only by the philosophic consistency of its concepts,
  but more certainly and surely by the unerring response of the ever-present
  Spirit of Truth. Happiness ensues from the recognition of truth because it can
  be acted out; it can be lived. Disappointment and sorrow attend upon error
  because, not being a reality, it cannot be realized in experience. Divine
  truth is best known by its spiritual flavor.



  2:7.7 The eternal quest is for unification, for divine coherence. The far-
  flung physical universe coheres in the Isle of Paradise; the intellectual
  universe coheres in the God of mind, the Conjoint Actor; the spiritual
  universe is coherent in the personality of the Eternal Son. But the isolated
  mortal of time and space coheres in God the Father through the direct
  relationship between the indwelling Thought Adjuster and the Universal Father.
  Man's Adjuster is a fragment of God and everlastingly seeks for divine
  unification; it coheres with, and in, the Paradise Deity of the First Source
  and Center.



  2:7.8 The discernment of supreme beauty is the discovery and integration of
  reality: The discernment of the divine goodness in the eternal truth, that is
  ultimate beauty. Even the charm of human art consists in the harmony of its
  unity.

  2:7.9 The great mistake of the Hebrew religion was its failure to associate
  the goodness of God with the factual truths of science and the appealing
  beauty of art. As civilization progressed, and since religion continued to
  pursue the same unwise course of overemphasizing the goodness of God to the
  relative exclusion of truth and neglect of beauty, there developed an
  increasing tendency for certain types of men to turn away from the abstract
  and dissociated concept of isolated goodness. The overstressed and isolated
  morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion and loyalty of
  many twentieth-century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in addition to its
  moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the truths of science,
  philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the beauties of the physical
  creation, the charm of intellectual art, and the grandeur of genuine character
  achievement.

  2:7.10 The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-
  looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new
  and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely
  integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine
  goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is
  good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul.
  Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale
  of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become
  increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.



  2:7.11 All truth -- material, philosophic, or spiritual -- is both beautiful
  and good. All real beauty -- material art or spiritual symmetry -- is both
  true and good. All genuine goodness -- whether personal morality, social
  equity, or divine ministry -- is equally true and beautiful. Health, sanity,
  and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are
  blended in human experience. Such levels of efficient living come about
  through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.

  2:7.12 Truth is coherent, beauty attractive, goodness stabilizing. And when
  these values of that which is real are co-ordinated in personality experience,
  the result is a high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by
  loyalty. The real purpose of all universe education is to effect the better
  co-ordination of the isolated child of the worlds with the larger realities of
  his expanding experience. Reality is finite on the human level, infinite and
  eternal on the higher and divine levels.



  2:7.13 Presented by a Divine Counselor acting by authority of the Ancients of
  Days on Uversa.




PAPER 3


 THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD



  3:0.1 GOD is everywhere present; the Universal Father rules the circle of
  eternity. But he rules in the local universes in the persons of his Paradise
  Creator Sons, even as he bestows life through these Sons. "God has given us
  eternal life, and this life is in his Sons." These Creator Sons of God are the
  personal expression of himself in the sectors of time and to the children of
  the whirling planets of the evolving universes of space.

  3:0.2 The highly personalized Sons of God are clearly discernible by the lower
  orders of created intelligences, and so do they compensate for the
  invisibility of the infinite and therefore less discernible Father. The
  Paradise Creator Sons of the Universal Father are a revelation of an otherwise
  invisible being, invisible because of the absoluteness and infinity inherent
  in the circle of eternity and in the personalities of the Paradise Deities.



  3:0.3 Creatorship is hardly an attribute of God; it is rather the aggregate of
  his acting nature. And this universal function of creatorship is eternally
  manifested as it is conditioned and controlled by all the co-ordinated
  attributes of the infinite and divine reality of the First Source and Center.
  We sincerely doubt whether any one characteristic of the divine nature can be
  regarded as being antecedent to the others, but if such were the case, then
  the creatorship nature of Deity would take precedence over all other natures,
  activities, and attributes. And the creatorship of Deity culminates in the
  universal truth of the Fatherhood of God.





1. GOD'S EVERYWHERENESS



  3:1.1 The ability of the Universal Father to be everywhere present, and at the
  same time, constitutes his omnipresence. God alone can be in two places, in
  numberless places, at the same time. God is simultaneously present "in heaven
  above and on the earth beneath"; as the Psalmist exclaimed: "Whither shall I
  go from your spirit? or whither shall I flee from your presence?"

  3:1.2 "`I am a God at hand as well as afar off,' says the Lord. `Do not I fill
  heaven and earth?'" The Universal Father is all the time present in all parts
  and in all hearts of his far-flung creation. He is "the fullness of him who
  fills all and in all," and "who works all in all," and further, the concept of
  his personality is such that "the heaven (universe) and heaven of heavens
  (universe of universes) cannot contain him." It is literally true that God is
  all and in all. But even that is not all of God. The Infinite can be finally
  revealed only in infinity; the cause can never be fully comprehended by an
  analysis of effects; the living God is immeasurably greater than the sum total
  of creation that has come into being as a result of the creative acts of his
  unfettered free will. God is revealed throughout the cosmos, but the cosmos
  can never contain or encompass the entirety of the infinity of God.

  3:1.3 The Father's presence unceasingly patrols the master universe. "His
  going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit to the ends of it;
  and there is nothing hidden from the light thereof."



  3:1.4 The creature not only exists in God, but God also lives in the creature.
  "We know we dwell in him because he lives in us; he has given us his spirit.
  This gift from the Paradise Father is man's inseparable companion." "He is the
  ever-present and all-pervading God." "The spirit of the everlasting Father is
  concealed in the mind of every mortal child." "Man goes forth searching for a
  friend while that very friend lives within his own heart." "The true God is
  not afar off; he is a part of us; his spirit speaks from within us." "The
  Father lives in the child. God is always with us. He is the guiding spirit of
  eternal destiny."

  3:1.5 Truly of the human race has it been said, "You are of God" because "he
  who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him." Even in wrongdoing you
  torment the indwelling gift of God, for the Thought Adjuster must needs go
  through the consequences of evil thinking with the human mind of its
  incarceration.



  3:1.6 The omnipresence of God is in reality a part of his infinite nature;
  space constitutes no barrier to Deity. God is, in perfection and without
  limitation, discernibly present only on Paradise and in the central universe.
  He is not thus observably present in the creations encircling Havona, for God
  has limited his direct and actual presence in recognition of the sovereignty
  and the divine prerogatives of the co-ordinate creators and rulers of the
  universes of time and space. Hence must the concept of the divine presence
  allow for a wide range of both mode and channel of manifestation embracing the
  presence circuits of the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and the Isle of
  Paradise. Nor is it always possible to distinguish between the presence of the
  Universal Father and the actions of his eternal co-ordinates and agencies, so
  perfectly do they fulfill all the infinite requirements of his unchanging
  purpose. But not so with the personality circuit and the Adjusters; here God
  acts uniquely, directly, and exclusively.



  3:1.7 The Universal Controller is potentially present in the gravity circuits
  of the Isle of Paradise in all parts of the universe at all times and in the
  same degree, in accordance with the mass, in response to the physical demands
  for this presence, and because of the inherent nature of all creation which
  causes all things to adhere and consist in him. Likewise is the First Source
  and Center potentially present in the Unqualified Absolute, the repository of
  the uncreated universes of the eternal future. God thus potentially pervades
  the physical universes of the past, present, and future. He is the primordial
  foundation of the coherence of the so-called material creation. This
  nonspiritual Deity potential becomes actual here and there throughout the
  level of physical existences by the inexplicable intrusion of some one of his
  exclusive agencies upon the stage of universe action.

  3:1.8 The mind presence of God is correlated with the absolute mind of the
  Conjoint Actor, the Infinite Spirit, but in the finite creations it is better
  discerned in the everywhere functioning of the cosmic mind of the Paradise
  Master Spirits. Just as the First Source and Center is potentially present in
  the mind circuits of the Conjoint Actor, so is he potentially present in the
  tensions of the Universal Absolute. But mind of the human order is a bestowal
  of the Daughters of the Conjoint Actor, the Divine Ministers of the evolving
  universes.

  3:1.9 The everywhere-present spirit of the Universal Father is co-ordinated
  with the function of the universal spirit presence of the Eternal Son and the
  everlasting divine potential of the Deity Absolute. But neither the spiritual
  activity of the Eternal Son and his Paradise Sons nor the mind bestowals of
  the Infinite Spirit seem to exclude the direct action of the Thought
  Adjusters, the indwelling fragments of God, in the hearts of his creature
  children.



  3:1.10 Concerning God's presence in a planet, system, constellation, or a
  universe, the degree of such presence in any creational unit is a measure of
  the degree of the evolving presence of the Supreme Being: It is determined by
  the en masse recognition of God and loyalty to him on the part of the vast
  universe organization, running down to the systems and planets themselves.
  Therefore it is sometimes with the hope of conserving and safeguarding these
  phases of God's precious presence that, when some planets (or even systems)
  have plunged far into spiritual darkness, they are in a certain sense
  quarantined, or partially isolated from intercourse with the larger units of
  creation. And all this, as it operates on Urantia, is a spiritually defensive
  reaction of the majority of the worlds to save themselves, as far as possible,
  from suffering the isolating consequences of the alienating acts of a
  headstrong, wicked, and rebellious minority.

  3:1.11 While the Father parentally encircuits all his sons -- all
  personalities -- his influence in them is limited by the remoteness of their
  origin from the Second and the Third Persons of Deity and augmented as their
  destiny attainment nears such levels. The fact of God's presence in creature
  minds is determined by whether or not they are indwelt by Father fragments,
  such as the Mystery Monitors, but his effective presence is determined by the
  degree of co-operation accorded these indwelling Adjusters by the minds of
  their sojourn.



  3:1.12 The fluctuations of the Father's presence are not due to the
  changeableness of God. The Father does not retire in seclusion because he has
  been slighted; his affections are not alienated because of the creature's
  wrongdoing. Rather, having been endowed with the power of choice (concerning
  Himself), his children, in the exercise of that choice, directly determine the
  degree and limitations of the Father's divine influence in their own hearts
  and souls. The Father has freely bestowed himself upon us without limit and
  without favor. He is no respecter of persons, planets, systems, or universes.
  In the sectors of time he confers differential honor only on the Paradise
  personalities of God the Sevenfold, the co-ordinate creators of the finite
  universes.





2. GOD'S INFINITE POWER



  3:2.1 All the universes know that "the Lord God omnipotent reigns." The
  affairs of this world and other worlds are divinely supervised. "He does
  according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
  earth." It is eternally true, "there is no power but of God."

  3:2.2 Within the bounds of that which is consistent with the divine nature, it
  is literally true that "with God all things are possible." The long-drawn-out
  evolutionary processes of peoples, planets, and universes are under the
  perfect control of the universe creators and administrators and unfold in
  accordance with the eternal purpose of the Universal Father, proceeding in
  harmony and order and in keeping with the all-wise plan of God. There is only
  one lawgiver. He upholds the worlds in space and swings the universes around
  the endless circle of the eternal circuit.

  3:2.3 Of all the divine attributes, his omnipotence, especially as it prevails
  in the material universe, is the best understood. Viewed as an unspiritual
  phenomenon, God is energy. This declaration of physical fact is predicated on
  the incomprehensible truth that the First Source and Center is the primal
  cause of the universal physical phenomena of all space. From this divine
  activity all physical energy and other material manifestations are derived.
  Light, that is, light without heat, is another of the nonspiritual
  manifestations of the Deities. And there is still another form of nonspiritual
  energy which is virtually unknown on Urantia; it is as yet unrecognized.

  3:2.4 God controls all power; he has made "a way for the lightning"; he has
  ordained the circuits of all energy. He has decreed the time and manner of the
  manifestation of all forms of energy-matter. And all these things are held
  forever in his everlasting grasp -- in the gravitational control centering on
  nether Paradise. The light and energy of the eternal God thus swing on forever
  around his majestic circuit, the endless but orderly procession of the starry
  hosts composing the universe of universes. All creation circles eternally
  around the Paradise-Personality center of all things and beings.

  3:2.5 The omnipotence of the Father pertains to the everywhere dominance of
  the absolute level, whereon the three energies, material, mindal, and
  spiritual, are indistinguishable in close proximity to him -- the Source of
  all things. Creature mind, being neither Paradise monota nor Paradise spirit,
  is not directly responsive to the Universal Father. God adjusts with the mind
  of imperfection -- with Urantia mortals through the Thought Adjusters.



  3:2.6 The Universal Father is not a transient force, a shifting power, or a
  fluctuating energy. The power and wisdom of the Father are wholly adequate to
  cope with any and all universe exigencies. As the emergencies of human
  experience arise, he has foreseen them all, and therefore he does not react to
  the affairs of the universe in a detached way but rather in accordance with
  the dictates of eternal wisdom and in consonance with the mandates of infinite
  judgment. Regardless of appearances, the power of God is not functioning in
  the universe as a blind force.

  3:2.7 Situations do arise in which it appears that emergency rulings have been
  made, that natural laws have been suspended, that misadaptations have been
  recognized, and that an effort is being made to rectify the situation; but
  such is not the case. Such concepts of God have their origin in the limited
  range of your viewpoint, in the finiteness of your comprehension, and in the
  circumscribed scope of your survey; such misunderstanding of God is due to the
  profound ignorance you enjoy regarding the existence of the higher laws of the
  realm, the magnitude of the Father's character, the infinity of his
  attributes, and the fact of his free-willness.

  3:2.8 The planetary creatures of God's spirit indwelling, scattered hither and
  yon throughout the universes of space, are so nearly infinite in number and
  order, their intellects are so diverse, their minds are so limited and
  sometimes so gross, their vision is so curtailed and localized, that it is
  almost impossible to formulate generalizations of law adequately expressive of
  the Father's infinite attributes and at the same time to any degree
  comprehensible to these created intelligences. Therefore, to you the creature,
  many of the acts of the all-powerful Creator seem to be arbitrary, detached,
  and not infrequently heartless and cruel. But again I assure you that this is
  not true. God's doings are all purposeful, intelligent, wise, kind, and
  eternally considerate of the best good, not always of an individual being, an
  individual race, an individual planet, or even an individual universe; but
  they are for the welfare and best good of all concerned, from the lowest to
  the highest. In the epochs of time the welfare of the part may sometimes
  appear to differ from the welfare of the whole; in the circle of eternity such
  apparent differences are nonexistent.

  3:2.9 We are all a part of the family of God, and we must therefore sometimes
  share in the family discipline. Many of the acts of God which so disturb and
  confuse us are the result of the decisions and final rulings of all-wisdom,
  empowering the Conjoint Actor to execute the choosing of the infallible will
  of the infinite mind, to enforce the decisions of the personality of
  perfection, whose survey, vision, and solicitude embrace the highest and
  eternal welfare of all his vast and far-flung creation.

  3:2.10 Thus it is that your detached, sectional, finite, gross, and highly
  materialistic viewpoint and the limitations inherent in the nature of your
  being constitute such a handicap that you are unable to see, comprehend, or
  know the wisdom and kindness of many of the divine acts which to you seem
  fraught with such crushing cruelty, and which seem to be characterized by such
  utter indifference to the comfort and welfare, to the planetary happiness and
  personal prosperity, of your fellow creatures. It is because of the limits of
  human vision, it is because of your circumscribed understanding and finite
  comprehension, that you misunderstand the motives, and pervert the purposes,
  of God. But many things occur on the evolutionary worlds which are not the
  personal doings of the Universal Father.



  3:2.11 The divine omnipotence is perfectly co-ordinated with the other
  attributes of the personality of God. The power of God is, ordinarily, only
  limited in its universe spiritual manifestation by three conditions or
  situations:

1. By the nature of God, especially by his infinite love, by truth, beauty, and
goodness.

2. By the will of God, by his mercy ministry and fatherly relationship with the
personalities of the universe.

3. By the law of God, by the righteousness and justice of the eternal Paradise
Trinity.

  3:2.12 God is unlimited in power, divine in nature, final in will, infinite in
  attributes, eternal in wisdom, and absolute in reality. But all these
  characteristics of the Universal Father are unified in Deity and universally
  expressed in the Paradise Trinity and in the divine Sons of the Trinity.
  Otherwise, outside of Paradise and the central universe of Havona, everything
  pertaining to God is limited by the evolutionary presence of the Supreme,
  conditioned by the eventuating presence of the Ultimate, and co-ordinated by
  the three existential Absolutes -- Deity, Universal, and Unqualified. And
  God's presence is thus limited because such is the will of God.





3. GOD'S UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE



  3:3.1 "God knows all things." The divine mind is conscious of, and conversant
  with, the thought of all creation. His knowledge of events is universal and
  perfect. The divine entities going out from him are a part of him; he who
  "balances the clouds" is also "perfect in knowledge." "The eyes of the Lord
  are in every place." Said your great teacher of the insignificant sparrow,
  "One of them shall not fall to the ground without my Father's knowledge," and
  also, "The very hairs of your head are numbered." "He tells the number of the
  stars; he calls them all by their names."

  3:3.2 The Universal Father is the only personality in all the universe who
  does actually know the number of the stars and planets of space. All the
  worlds of every universe are constantly within the consciousness of God. He
  also says: "I have surely seen the affliction of my people, I have heard their
  cry, and I know their sorrows." For "the Lord looks from heaven; he beholds
  all the sons of men; from the place of his habitation he looks upon all the
  inhabitants of the earth." Every creature child may truly say: "He knows the
  way I take, and when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." "God knows
  our downsittings and our uprisings; he understands our thoughts afar off and
  is acquainted with all our ways." "All things are naked and open to the eyes
  of him with whom we have to do." And it should be a real comfort to every
  human being to understand that "he knows your frame; he remembers that you are
  dust." Jesus, speaking of the living God, said, "Your Father knows what you
  have need of even before you ask him."

  3:3.3 God is possessed of unlimited power to know all things; his
  consciousness is universal. His personal circuit encompasses all
  personalities, and his knowledge of even the lowly creatures is supplemented
  indirectly through the descending series of divine Sons and directly through
  the indwelling Thought Adjusters. And furthermore, the Infinite Spirit is all
  the time everywhere present.

  3:3.4 We are not wholly certain as to whether or not God chooses to foreknow
  events of sin. But even if God should foreknow the freewill acts of his
  children, such foreknowledge does not in the least abrogate their freedom. One
  thing is certain: God is never subjected to surprise.



  3:3.5 Omnipotence does not imply the power to do the nondoable, the ungodlike
  act. Neither does omniscience imply the knowing of the unknowable. But such
  statements can hardly be made comprehensible to the finite mind. The creature
  can hardly understand the range and limitations of the will of the Creator.





4. GOD'S LIMITLESSNESS



  3:4.1 The successive bestowal of himself upon the universes as they are
  brought into being in no wise lessens the potential of power or the store of
  wisdom as they continue to reside and repose in the central personality of
  Deity. In potential of force, wisdom, and love, the Father has never lessened
  aught of his possession nor become divested of any attribute of his glorious
  personality as the result of the unstinted bestowal of himself upon the
  Paradise Sons, upon his subordinate creations, and upon the manifold creatures
  thereof.

  3:4.2 The creation of every new universe calls for a new adjustment of
  gravity; but even if creation should continue indefinitely, eternally, even to
  infinity, so that eventually the material creation would exist without
  limitations, still the power of control and co-ordination reposing in the Isle
  of Paradise would be found equal to, and adequate for, the mastery, control,
  and co-ordination of such an infinite universe. And subsequent to this
  bestowal of limitless force and power upon a boundless universe, the Infinite
  would still be surcharged with the same degree of force and energy; the
  Unqualified Absolute would still be undiminished; God would still possess the
  same infinite potential, just as if force, energy, and power had never been
  poured forth for the endowment of universe upon universe.

  3:4.3 And so with wisdom: The fact that mind is so freely distributed to the
  thinking of the realms in no wise impoverishes the central source of divine
  wisdom. As the universes multiply, and beings of the realms increase in number
  to the limits of comprehension, if mind continues without end to be bestowed
  upon these beings of high and low estate, still will God's central personality
  continue to embrace the same eternal, infinite, and all-wise mind.

  3:4.4 The fact that he sends forth spirit messengers from himself to indwell
  the men and women of your world and other worlds in no wise lessens his
  ability to function as a divine and all-powerful spirit personality; and there
  is absolutely no limit to the extent or number of such spirit Monitors which
  he can and may send out. This giving of himself to his creatures creates a
  boundless, almost inconceivable future possibility of progressive and
  successive existences for these divinely endowed mortals. And this prodigal
  distribution of himself as these ministering spirit entities in no manner
  diminishes the wisdom and perfection of truth and knowledge which repose in
  the person of the all-wise, all-knowing, and all-powerful Father.



  3:4.5 To the mortals of time there is a future, but God inhabits eternity.
  Even though I hail from near the very abiding place of Deity, I cannot presume
  to speak with perfection of understanding concerning the infinity of many of
  the divine attributes. Infinity of mind alone can fully comprehend infinity of
  existence and eternity of action.



  3:4.6 Mortal man cannot possibly know the infinitude of the heavenly Father.
  Finite mind cannot think through such an absolute truth or fact. But this same
  finite human being can actually feel -- literally experience -- the full and
  undiminished impact of such an infinite Father's LOVE. Such a love can be
  truly experienced, albeit while quality of experience is unlimited, quantity
  of such an experience is strictly limited by the human capacity for spiritual
  receptivity and by the associated capacity to love the Father in return.

  3:4.7 Finite appreciation of infinite qualities far transcends the logically
  limited capacities of the creature because of the fact that mortal man is made
  in the image of God -- there lives within him a fragment of infinity.
  Therefore man's nearest and dearest approach to God is by and through love,
  for God is love. And all of such a unique relationship is an actual experience
  in cosmic sociology, the Creator-creature relationship -- the Father-child
  affection.





5. THE FATHER'S SUPREME RULE



  3:5.1 In his contact with the post-Havona creations, the Universal Father does
  not exercise his infinite power and final authority by direct transmittal but
  rather through his Sons and their subordinate personalities. And God does all
  this of his own free will. Any and all powers delegated, if occasion should
  arise, if it should become the choice of the divine mind, could be exercised
  direct; but, as a rule, such action only takes place as a result of the
  failure of the delegated personality to fulfill the divine trust. At such
  times and in the face of such default and within the limits of the reservation
  of divine power and potential, the Father does act independently and in
  accordance with the mandates of his own choice; and that choice is always one
  of unfailing perfection and infinite wisdom.

  3:5.2 The Father rules through his Sons; on down through the universe
  organization there is an unbroken chain of rulers ending with the Planetary
  Princes, who direct the destinies of the evolutionary spheres of the Father's
  vast domains. It is no mere poetic expression that exclaims: "The earth is the
  Lord's and the fullness thereof." "He removes kings and sets up kings." "The
  Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men."

  3:5.3 In the affairs of men's hearts the Universal Father may not always have
  his way; but in the conduct and destiny of a planet the divine plan prevails;
  the eternal purpose of wisdom and love triumphs.

  3:5.4 Said Jesus: "My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no
  one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." As you glimpse the
  manifold workings and view the staggering immensity of God's well-nigh
  limitless creation, you may falter in your concept of his primacy, but you
  should not fail to accept him as securely and everlastingly enthroned at the
  Paradise center of all things and as the beneficent Father of all intelligent
  beings. There is but "one God and Father of all, who is above all and in all,"
  "and he is before all things, and in him all things consist."



  3:5.5 The uncertainties of life and the vicissitudes of existence do not in
  any manner contradict the concept of the universal sovereignty of God. All
  evolutionary creature life is beset by certain inevitabilities. Consider the
  following:



  3:5.6 1. Is courage -- strength of character -- desirable? Then must man be
  reared in an environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and
  reacting to disappointments.



  3:5.7 2. Is altruism -- service of one's fellows -- desirable? Then must life
  experience provide for encountering situations of social inequality.



  3:5.8 3. Is hope -- the grandeur of trust -- desirable? Then human existence
  must constantly be confronted with insecurities and recurrent uncertainties.



  3:5.9 4. Is faith -- the supreme assertion of human thought -- desirable? Then
  must the mind of man find itself in that troublesome predicament where it ever
  knows less than it can believe.



  3:5.10 5. Is the love of truth and the willingness to go wherever it leads,
  desirable? Then must man grow up in a world where error is present and
  falsehood always possible.



  3:5.11 6. Is idealism -- the approaching concept of the divine -- desirable?
  Then must man struggle in an environment of relative goodness and beauty,
  surroundings stimulative of the irrepressible reach for better things.



  3:5.12 7. Is loyalty -- devotion to highest duty -- desirable? Then must man
  carry on amid the possibilities of betrayal and desertion. The valor of
  devotion to duty consists in the implied danger of default.



  3:5.13 8. Is unselfishness -- the spirit of self-forgetfulness -- desirable?
  Then must mortal man live face to face with the incessant clamoring of an
  inescapable self for recognition and honor. Man could not dynamically choose
  the divine life if there were no self-life to forsake. Man could never lay
  saving hold on righteousness if there were no potential evil to exalt and
  differentiate the good by contrast.



  3:5.14 9. Is pleasure -- the satisfaction of happiness -- desirable? Then must
  man live in a world where the alternative of pain and the likelihood of
  suffering are ever-present experiential possibilities.



  3:5.15 Throughout the universe, every unit is regarded as a part of the whole.
  Survival of the part is dependent on co-operation with the plan and purpose of
  the whole, the wholehearted desire and perfect willingness to do the Father's
  divine will. The only evolutionary world without error (the possibility of
  unwise judgment) would be a world without free intelligence. In the Havona
  universe there are a billion perfect worlds with their perfect inhabitants,
  but evolving man must be fallible if he is to be free. Free and inexperienced
  intelligence cannot possibly at first be uniformly wise. The possibility of
  mistaken judgment (evil) becomes sin only when the human will consciously
  endorses and knowingly embraces a deliberate immoral judgment.



  3:5.16 The full appreciation of truth, beauty, and goodness is inherent in the
  perfection of the divine universe. The inhabitants of the Havona worlds do not
  require the potential of relative value levels as a choice stimulus; such
  perfect beings are able to identify and choose the good in the absence of all
  contrastive and thought-compelling moral situations. But all such perfect
  beings are, in moral nature and spiritual status, what they are by virtue of
  the fact of existence. They have experientially earned advancement only within
  their inherent status. Mortal man earns even his status as an ascension
  candidate by his own faith and hope. Everything divine which the human mind
  grasps and the human soul acquires is an experiential attainment; it is a
  reality of personal experience and is therefore a unique possession in
  contrast to the inherent goodness and righteousness of the inerrant
  personalities of Havona.



  3:5.17 The creatures of Havona are naturally brave, but they are not
  courageous in the human sense. They are innately kind and considerate, but
  hardly altruistic in the human way. They are expectant of a pleasant future,
  but not hopeful in the exquisite manner of the trusting mortal of the
  uncertain evolutionary spheres. They have faith in the stability of the
  universe, but they are utter strangers to that saving faith whereby mortal man
  climbs from the status of an animal up to the portals of Paradise. They love
  the truth, but they know nothing of its soul-saving qualities. They are
  idealists, but they were born that way; they are wholly ignorant of the
  ecstasy of becoming such by exhilarating choice. They are loyal, but they have
  never experienced the thrill of wholehearted and intelligent devotion to duty
  in the face of temptation to default. They are unselfish, but they never
  gained such levels of experience by the magnificent conquest of a belligerent
  self. They enjoy pleasure, but they do not comprehend the sweetness of the
  pleasure escape from the pain potential.





6. THE FATHER'S PRIMACY



  3:6.1 With divine selflessness, consummate generosity, the Universal Father
  relinquishes authority and delegates power, but he is still primal; his hand
  is on the mighty lever of the circumstances of the universal realms; he has
  reserved all final decisions and unerringly wields the all-powerful veto
  scepter of his eternal purpose with unchallengeable authority over the welfare
  and destiny of the outstretched, whirling, and ever-circling creation.

  3:6.2 The sovereignty of God is unlimited; it is the fundamental fact of all
  creation. The universe was not inevitable. The universe is not an accident,
  neither is it self-existent. The universe is a work of creation and is
  therefore wholly subject to the will of the Creator. The will of God is divine
  truth, living love; therefore are the perfecting creations of the evolutionary
  universes characterized by goodness -- nearness to divinity; by potential evil
  -- remoteness from divinity.



  3:6.3 All religious philosophy, sooner or later, arrives at the concept of
  unified universe rule, of one God. Universe causes cannot be lower than
  universe effects. The source of the streams of universe life and of the cosmic
  mind must be above the levels of their manifestation. The human mind cannot be
  consistently explained in terms of the lower orders of existence. Man's mind
  can be truly comprehended only by recognizing the reality of higher orders of
  thought and purposive will. Man as a moral being is inexplicable unless the
  reality of the Universal Father is acknowledged.

  3:6.4 The mechanistic philosopher professes to reject the idea of a universal
  and sovereign will, the very sovereign will whose activity in the elaboration
  of universe laws he so deeply reverences. What unintended homage the mechanist
  pays the law-Creator when he conceives such laws to be self-acting and self-
  explanatory!

  3:6.5 It is a great blunder to humanize God, except in the concept of the
  indwelling Thought Adjuster, but even that is not so stupid as completely to
  mechanize the idea of the First Great Source and Center.



  3:6.6 Does the Paradise Father suffer? I do not know. The Creator Sons most
  certainly can and sometimes do, even as do mortals. The Eternal Son and the
  Infinite Spirit suffer in a modified sense. I think the Universal Father does,
  but I cannot understand how; perhaps through the personality circuit or
  through the individuality of the Thought Adjusters and other bestowals of his
  eternal nature. He has said of the mortal races, "In all your afflictions I am
  afflicted." He unquestionably experiences a fatherly and sympathetic
  understanding; he may truly suffer, but I do not comprehend the nature
  thereof.



  3:6.7 The infinite and eternal Ruler of the universe of universes is power,
  form, energy, process, pattern, principle, presence, and idealized reality.
  But he is more; he is personal; he exercises a sovereign will, experiences
  self-consciousness of divinity, executes the mandates of a creative mind,
  pursues the satisfaction of the realization of an eternal purpose, and
  manifests a Father's love and affection for his universe children. And all
  these more personal traits of the Father can be better understood by observing
  them as they were revealed in the bestowal life of Michael, your Creator Son,
  while he was incarnated on Urantia.



  3:6.8 God the Father loves men; God the Son serves men; God the Spirit
  inspires the children of the universe to the ever-ascending adventure of
  finding God the Father by the ways ordained by God the Sons through the
  ministry of the grace of God the Spirit.



  3:6.9 Being the Divine Counselor assigned to the presentation of the
  revelation of the Universal Father, I have continued with this statement of
  the attributes of Deity.




PAPER 4


 GOD'S RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE



  4:0.1 THE Universal Father has an eternal purpose pertaining to the material,
  intellectual, and spiritual phenomena of the universe of universes, which he
  is executing throughout all time. God created the universes of his own free
  and sovereign will, and he created them in accordance with his all-wise and
  eternal purpose. It is doubtful whether anyone except the Paradise Deities and
  their highest associates really knows very much about the eternal purpose of
  God. Even the exalted citizens of Paradise hold very diverse opinions about
  the nature of the eternal purpose of the Deities.

  4:0.2 It is easy to deduce that the purpose in creating the perfect central
  universe of Havona was purely the satisfaction of the divine nature. Havona
  may serve as the pattern creation for all other universes and as the finishing
  school for the pilgrims of time on their way to Paradise; however, such a
  supernal creation must exist primarily for the pleasure and satisfaction of
  the perfect and infinite Creators.

  4:0.3 The amazing plan for perfecting evolutionary mortals and, after their
  attainment of Paradise and the Corps of the Finality, providing further
  training for some undisclosed future work, does seem to be, at present, one of
  the chief concerns of the seven superuniverses and their many subdivisions;
  but this ascension scheme for spiritualizing and training the mortals of time
  and space is by no means the exclusive occupation of the universe
  intelligences. There are, indeed, many other fascinating pursuits which occupy
  the time and enlist the energies of the celestial hosts.





1. THE UNIVERSE ATTITUDE OF THE FATHER



  4:1.1 For ages the inhabitants of Urantia have misunderstood the providence of
  God. There is a providence of divine outworking on your world, but it is not
  the childish, arbitrary, and material ministry many mortals have conceived it
  to be. The providence of God consists in the interlocking activities of the
  celestial beings and the divine spirits who, in accordance with cosmic law,
  unceasingly labor for the honor of God and for the spiritual advancement of
  his universe children.

  4:1.2 Can you not advance in your concept of God's dealing with man to that
  level where you recognize that the watchword of the universe is progress?
  Through long ages the human race has struggled to reach its present position.
  Throughout all these millenniums Providence has been working out the plan of
  progressive evolution. The two thoughts are not opposed in practice, only in
  man's mistaken concepts. Divine providence is never arrayed in opposition to
  true human progress, either temporal or spiritual. Providence is always
  consistent with the unchanging and perfect nature of the supreme Lawmaker.

  4:1.3 "God is faithful" and "all his commandments are just." "His faithfulness
  is established in the very skies." "Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in
  heaven. Your faithfulness is to all generations; you have established the
  earth and it abides." "He is a faithful Creator."

  4:1.4 There is no limitation of the forces and personalities which the Father
  may use to uphold his purpose and sustain his creatures. "The eternal God is
  our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." "He who dwells in the
  secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
  "Behold, he who keeps us shall neither slumber nor sleep." "We know that all
  things work together for good to those who love God," "for the eyes of the
  Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers."

  4:1.5 God upholds "all things by the word of his power." And when new worlds
  are born, he "sends forth his Sons and they are created." God not only
  creates, but he "preserves them all." God constantly upholds all things
  material and all beings spiritual. The universes are eternally stable. There
  is stability in the midst of apparent instability. There is an underlying
  order and security in the midst of the energy upheavals and the physical
  cataclysms of the starry realms.

  4:1.6 The Universal Father has not withdrawn from the management of the
  universes; he is not an inactive Deity. If God should retire as the present
  upholder of all creation, there would immediately occur a universal collapse.
  Except for God, there would be no such thing as reality. At this very moment,
  as during the remote ages of the past and in the eternal future, God continues
  to uphold. The divine reach extends around the circle of eternity. The
  universe is not wound up like a clock to run just so long and then cease to
  function; all things are constantly being renewed. The Father unceasingly
  pours forth energy, light, and life. The work of God is literal as well as
  spiritual. "He stretches out the north over the empty space and hangs the
  earth upon nothing."



  4:1.7 A being of my order is able to discover ultimate harmony and to detect
  far-reaching and profound co-ordination in the routine affairs of universe
  administration. Much that seems disjointed and haphazard to the mortal mind
  appears orderly and constructive to my understanding. But there is very much
  going on in the universes that I do not fully comprehend. I have long been a
  student of, and am more or less conversant with, the recognized forces,
  energies, minds, morontias, spirits, and personalities of the local universes
  and the superuniverses. I have a general understanding of how these agencies
  and personalities operate, and I am intimately familiar with the workings of
  the accredited spirit intelligences of the grand universe. Notwithstanding my
  knowledge of the phenomena of the universes, I am constantly confronted with
  cosmic reactions which I cannot fully fathom. I am continually encountering
  apparently fortuitous conspiracies of the interassociation of forces,
  energies, intellects, and spirits, which I cannot satisfactorily explain.

  4:1.8 I am entirely competent to trace out and to analyze the working of all
  phenomena directly resulting from the functioning of the Universal Father, the
  Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and, to a large extent, the Isle of
  Paradise. My perplexity is occasioned by encountering what appears to be the
  performance of their mysterious co-ordinates, the three Absolutes of
  potentiality. These Absolutes seem to supersede matter, to transcend mind, and
  to supervene spirit. I am constantly confused and often perplexed by my
  inability to comprehend these complex transactions which I attribute to the
  presences and performances of the Unqualified Absolute, the Deity Absolute,
  and the Universal Absolute.

  4:1.9 These Absolutes must be the not-fully-revealed presences abroad in the
  universe which, in the phenomena of space potency and in the function of other
  superultimates, render it impossible for physicists, philosophers, or even
  religionists to predict with certainty as to just how the primordials of
  force, concept, or spirit will respond to demands made in a complex reality
  situation involving supreme adjustments and ultimate values.



  4:1.10 There is also an organic unity in the universes of time and space which
  seems to underlie the whole fabric of cosmic events. This living presence of
  the evolving Supreme Being, this Immanence of the Projected Incomplete, is
  inexplicably manifested ever and anon by what appears to be an amazingly
  fortuitous co-ordination of apparently unrelated universe happenings. This
  must be the function of Providence -- the realm of the Supreme Being and the
  Conjoint Actor.

  4:1.11 I am inclined to believe that it is this far-flung and generally
  unrecognizable control of the co-ordination and interassociation of all phases
  and forms of universe activity that causes such a variegated and apparently
  hopelessly confused medley of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual phenomena
  so unerringly to work out to the glory of God and for the good of men and
  angels.

  4:1.12 But in the larger sense the apparent "accidents" of the cosmos are
  undoubtedly a part of the finite drama of the time-space adventure of the
  Infinite in his eternal manipulation of the Absolutes.





2. GOD AND NATURE



  4:2.1 Nature is in a limited sense the physical habit of God. The conduct, or
  action, of God is qualified and provisionally modified by the experimental
  plans and the evolutionary patterns of a local universe, a constellation, a
  system, or a planet. God acts in accordance with a well-defined, unchanging,
  immutable law throughout the wide-spreading master universe; but he modifies
  the patterns of his action so as to contribute to the co-ordinate and balanced
  conduct of each universe, constellation, system, planet, and personality in
  accordance with the local objects, aims, and plans of the finite projects of
  evolutionary unfolding.

  4:2.2 Therefore, nature, as mortal man understands it, presents the underlying
  foundation and fundamental background of a changeless Deity and his immutable
  laws, modified by, fluctuating because of, and experiencing upheavals through,
  the working of the local plans, purposes, patterns, and conditions which have
  been inaugurated and are being carried out by the local universe,
  constellation, system, and planetary forces and personalities. For example: As
  God's laws have been ordained in Nebadon, they are modified by the plans
  established by the Creator Son and Creative Spirit of this local universe; and
  in addition to all this the operation of these laws has been further
  influenced by the errors, defaults, and insurrections of certain beings
  resident upon your planet and belonging to your immediate planetary system of
  Satania.



  4:2.3 Nature is a time-space resultant of two cosmic factors: first, the
  immutability, perfection, and rectitude of Paradise Deity, and second, the
  experimental plans, executive blunders, insurrectionary errors, incompleteness
  of development, and imperfection of wisdom of the extra-Paradise creatures,
  from the highest to the lowest. Nature therefore carries a uniform,
  unchanging, majestic, and marvelous thread of perfection from the circle of
  eternity; but in each universe, on each planet, and in each individual life,
  this nature is modified, qualified, and perchance marred by the acts, the
  mistakes, and the disloyalties of the creatures of the evolutionary systems
  and universes; and therefore must nature ever be of a changing mood, whimsical
  withal, though stable underneath, and varied in accordance with the operating
  procedures of a local universe.

  4:2.4 Nature is the perfection of Paradise divided by the incompletion, evil,
  and sin of the unfinished universes. This quotient is thus expressive of both
  the perfect and the partial, of both the eternal and the temporal. Continuing
  evolution modifies nature by augmenting the content of Paradise perfection and
  by diminishing the content of the evil, error, and disharmony of relative
  reality.



  4:2.5 God is not personally present in nature or in any of the forces of
  nature, for the phenomenon of nature is the superimposition of the
  imperfections of progressive evolution and, sometimes, the consequences of
  insurrectionary rebellion, upon the Paradise foundations of God's universal
  law. As it appears on such a world as Urantia, nature can never be the
  adequate expression, the true representation, the faithful portrayal, of an
  all-wise and infinite God.

  4:2.6 Nature, on your world, is a qualification of the laws of perfection by
  the evolutionary plans of the local universe. What a travesty to worship
  nature because it is in a limited, qualified sense pervaded by God; because it
  is a phase of the universal and, therefore, divine power! Nature also is a
  manifestation of the unfinished, the incomplete, the imperfect outworkings of
  the development, growth, and progress of a universe experiment in cosmic
  evolution.

  4:2.7 The apparent defects of the natural world are not indicative of any such
  corresponding defects in the character of God. Rather are such observed
  imperfections merely the inevitable stop-moments in the exhibition of the
  ever-moving reel of infinity picturization. It is these very defect-
  interruptions of perfection-continuity which make it possible for the finite
  mind of material man to catch a fleeting glimpse of divine reality in time and
  space. The material manifestations of divinity appear defective to the
  evolutionary mind of man only because mortal man persists in viewing the
  phenomena of nature through natural eyes, human vision unaided by morontia
  mota or by revelation, its compensatory substitute on the worlds of time.

  4:2.8 And nature is marred, her beautiful face is scarred, her features are
  seared, by the rebellion, the misconduct, the misthinking of the myriads of
  creatures who are a part of nature, but who have contributed to her
  disfigurement in time. No, nature is not God. Nature is not an object of
  worship.





3. GOD'S UNCHANGING CHARACTER



  4:3.1 All too long has man thought of God as one like himself. God is not,
  never was, and never will be jealous of man or any other being in the universe
  of universes. Knowing that the Creator Son intended man to be the masterpiece
  of the planetary creation, to be the ruler of all the earth, the sight of his
  being dominated by his own baser passions, the spectacle of his bowing down
  before idols of wood, stone, gold, and selfish ambition -- these sordid scenes
  stir God and his Sons to be jealous for man, but never of him.



  4:3.2 The eternal God is incapable of wrath and anger in the sense of these
  human emotions and as man understands such reactions. These sentiments are
  mean and despicable; they are hardly worthy of being called human, much less
  divine; and such attitudes are utterly foreign to the perfect nature and
  gracious character of the Universal Father.

  4:3.3 Much, very much, of the difficulty which Urantia mortals have in
  understanding God is due to the far-reaching consequences of the Lucifer
  rebellion and the Caligastia betrayal. On worlds not segregated by sin, the
  evolutionary races are able to formulate far better ideas of the Universal
  Father; they suffer less from confusion, distortion, and perversion of
  concept.



  4:3.4 God repents of nothing he has ever done, now does, or ever will do. He
  is all-wise as well as all-powerful. Man's wisdom grows out of the trials and
  errors of human experience; God's wisdom consists in the unqualified
  perfection of his infinite universe insight, and this divine foreknowledge
  effectively directs the creative free will.

  4:3.5 The Universal Father never does anything that causes subsequent sorrow
  or regret, but the will creatures of the planning and making of his Creator
  personalities in the outlying universes, by their unfortunate choosing,
  sometimes occasion emotions of divine sorrow in the personalities of their
  Creator parents. But though the Father neither makes mistakes, harbors
  regrets, nor experiences sorrows, he is a being with a father's affection, and
  his heart is undoubtedly grieved when his children fail to attain the
  spiritual levels they are capable of reaching with the assistance which has
  been so freely provided by the spiritual-attainment plans and the mortal-
  ascension policies of the universes.

  4:3.6 The infinite goodness of the Father is beyond the comprehension of the
  finite mind of time; hence must there always be afforded a contrast with
  comparative evil (not sin) for the effective exhibition of all phases of
  relative goodness. Perfection of divine goodness can be discerned by mortal
  imperfection of insight only because it stands in contrastive association with
  relative imperfection in the relationships of time and matter in the motions
  of space.

  4:3.7 The character of God is infinitely superhuman; therefore must such a
  nature of divinity be personalized, as in the divine Sons, before it can even
  be faith-grasped by the finite mind of man.





4. THE REALIZATION OF GOD



  4:4.1 God is the only stationary, self-contained, and changeless being in the
  whole universe of universes, having no outside, no beyond, no past, and no
  future. God is purposive energy (creative spirit) and absolute will, and these
  are self-existent and universal.

  4:4.2 Since God is self-existent, he is absolutely independent. The very
  identity of God is inimical to change. "I, the Lord, change not." God is
  immutable; but not until you achieve Paradise status can you even begin to
  understand how God can pass from simplicity to complexity, from identity to
  variation, from quiescence to motion, from infinity to finitude, from the
  divine to the human, and from unity to duality and triunity. And God can thus
  modify the manifestations of his absoluteness because divine immutability does
  not imply immobility; God has will -- he is will.

  4:4.3 God is the being of absolute self-determination; there are no limits to
  his universe reactions save those which are self-imposed, and his freewill
  acts are conditioned only by those divine qualities and perfect attributes
  which inherently characterize his eternal nature. Therefore is God related to
  the universe as the being of final goodness plus a free will of creative
  infinity.

  4:4.4 The Father-Absolute is the creator of the central and perfect universe
  and the Father of all other Creators. Personality, goodness, and numerous
  other characteristics, God shares with man and other beings, but infinity of
  will is his alone. God is limited in his creative acts only by the sentiments
  of his eternal nature and by the dictates of his infinite wisdom. God
  personally chooses only that which is infinitely perfect, hence the supernal
  perfection of the central universe; and while the Creator Sons fully share his
  divinity, even phases of his absoluteness, they are not altogether limited by
  that finality of wisdom which directs the Father's infinity of will. Hence, in
  the Michael order of sonship, creative free will becomes even more active,
  wholly divine and well-nigh ultimate, if not absolute. The Father is infinite
  and eternal, but to deny the possibility of his volitional self-limitation
  amounts to a denial of this very concept of his volitional absoluteness.



  4:4.5 God's absoluteness pervades all seven levels of universe reality. And
  the whole of this absolute nature is subject to the relationship of the
  Creator to his universe creature family. Precision may characterize
  trinitarian justice in the universe of universes, but in all his vast family
  relationship with the creatures of time the God of universes is governed by
  divine sentiment. First and last -- eternally -- the infinite God is a Father.
  Of all the possible titles by which he might appropriately be known, I have
  been instructed to portray the God of all creation as the Universal Father.

  4:4.6 In God the Father freewill performances are not ruled by power, nor are
  they guided by intellect alone; the divine personality is defined as
  consisting in spirit and manifesting himself to the universes as love.
  Therefore, in all his personal relations with the creature personalities of
  the universes, the First Source and Center is always and consistently a loving
  Father. God is a Father in the highest sense of the term. He is eternally
  motivated by the perfect idealism of divine love, and that tender nature finds
  its strongest expression and greatest satisfaction in loving and being loved.



  4:4.7 In science, God is the First Cause; in religion, the universal and
  loving Father; in philosophy, the one being who exists by himself, not
  dependent on any other being for existence but beneficently conferring reality
  of existence on all things and upon all other beings. But it requires
  revelation to show that the First Cause of science and the self-existent Unity
  of philosophy are the God of religion, full of mercy and goodness and pledged
  to effect the eternal survival of his children on earth.

  4:4.8 We crave the concept of the Infinite, but we worship the experience-idea
  of God, our anywhere and any-time capacity to grasp the personality and
  divinity factors of our highest concept of Deity.

  4:4.9 The consciousness of a victorious human life on earth is born of that
  creature faith which dares to challenge each recurring episode of existence
  when confronted with the awful spectacle of human limitations, by the
  unfailing declaration: Even if I cannot do this, there lives in me one who can
  and will do it, a part of the Father-Absolute of the universe of universes.
  And that is "the victory which overcomes the world, even your faith."



   5. ERRONEOUS IDEAS OF GOD



  4:5.1 Religious tradition is the imperfectly preserved record of the
  experiences of the God-knowing men of past ages, but such records are
  untrustworthy as guides for religious living or as the source of true
  information about the Universal Father. Such ancient beliefs have been
  invariably altered by the fact that primitive man was a mythmaker.

  4:5.2 One of the greatest sources of confusion on Urantia concerning the
  nature of God grows out of the failure of your sacred books clearly to
  distinguish between the personalities of the Paradise Trinity and between
  Paradise Deity and the local universe creators and administrators. During the
  past dispensations of partial understanding, your priests and prophets failed
  clearly to differentiate between Planetary Princes, System Sovereigns,
  Constellation Fathers, Creator Sons, Superuniverse Rulers, the Supreme Being,
  and the Universal Father. Many of the messages of subordinate personalities,
  such as Life Carriers and various orders of angels, have been, in your
  records, presented as coming from God himself. Urantian religious thought
  still confuses the associate personalities of Deity with the Universal Father
  himself, so that all are included under one appellation.



  4:5.3 The people of Urantia continue to suffer from the influence of primitive
  concepts of God. The gods who go on a rampage in the storm; who shake the
  earth in their wrath and strike down men in their anger; who inflict their
  judgments of displeasure in times of famine and flood -- these are the gods of
  primitive religion; they are not the Gods who live and rule the universes.
  Such concepts are a relic of the times when men supposed that the universe was
  under the guidance and domination of the whims of such imaginary gods. But
  mortal man is beginning to realize that he lives in a realm of comparative law
  and order as far as concerns the administrative policies and conduct of the
  Supreme Creators and the Supreme Controllers.



  4:5.4 The barbarous idea of appeasing an angry God, of propitiating an
  offended Lord, of winning the favor of Deity through sacrifices and penance
  and even by the shedding of blood, represents a religion wholly puerile and
  primitive, a philosophy unworthy of an enlightened age of science and truth.
  Such beliefs are utterly repulsive to the celestial beings and the divine
  rulers who serve and reign in the universes. It is an affront to God to
  believe, hold, or teach that innocent blood must be shed in order to win his
  favor or to divert the fictitious divine wrath.

  4:5.5 The Hebrews believed that "without the shedding of blood there could be
  no remission of sin." They had not found deliverance from the old and pagan
  idea that the Gods could not be appeased except by the sight of blood, though
  Moses did make a distinct advance when he forbade human sacrifices and
  substituted therefor, in the primitive minds of his childlike Bedouin
  followers, the ceremonial sacrifice of animals.

  4:5.6 The bestowal of a Paradise Son on your world was inherent in the
  situation of closing a planetary age; it was inescapable, and it was not made
  necessary for the purpose of winning the favor of God. This bestowal also
  happened to be the final personal act of a Creator Son in the long adventure
  of earning the experiential sovereignty of his universe. What a travesty upon
  the infinite character of God! this teaching that his fatherly heart in all
  its austere coldness and hardness was so untouched by the misfortunes and
  sorrows of his creatures that his tender mercies were not forthcoming until he
  saw his blameless Son bleeding and dying upon the cross of Calvary!

  4:5.7 But the inhabitants of Urantia are to find deliverance from these
  ancient errors and pagan superstitions respecting the nature of the Universal
  Father. The revelation of the truth about God is appearing, and the human race
  is destined to know the Universal Father in all that beauty of character and
  loveliness of attributes so magnificently portrayed by the Creator Son who
  sojourned on Urantia as the Son of Man and the Son of God.



  4:5.8 Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.




PAPER 5


 GOD'S RELATION TO THE INDIVIDUAL



  5:0.1 IF THE finite mind of man is unable to comprehend how so great and so
  majestic a God as the Universal Father can descend from his eternal abode in
  infinite perfection to fraternize with the individual human creature, then
  must such a finite intellect rest assurance of divine fellowship upon the
  truth of the fact that an actual fragment of the living God resides within the
  intellect of every normal-minded and morally conscious Urantia mortal. The
  indwelling Thought Adjusters are a part of the eternal Deity of the Paradise
  Father. Man does not have to go farther than his own inner experience of the
  soul's contemplation of this spiritual-reality presence to find God and
  attempt communion with him.

  5:0.2 God has distributed the infinity of his eternal nature throughout the
  existential realities of his six absolute co-ordinates, but he may, at any
  time, make direct personal contact with any part or phase or kind of creation
  through the agency of his prepersonal fragments. And the eternal God has also
  reserved to himself the prerogative of bestowing personality upon the divine
  Creators and the living creatures of the universe of universes, while he has
  further reserved the prerogative of maintaining direct and parental contact
  with all these personal beings through the personality circuit.





1. THE APPROACH TO GOD



  5:1.1 The inability of the finite creature to approach the infinite Father is
  inherent, not in the Father's aloofness, but in the finiteness and material
  limitations of created beings. The magnitude of the spiritual difference
  between the highest personality of universe existence and the lower groups of
  created intelligences is inconceivable. Were it possible for the lower orders
  of intelligence to be transported instantly into the presence of the Father
  himself, they would not know they were there. They would there be just as
  oblivious of the presence of the Universal Father as where they now are. There
  is a long, long road ahead of mortal man before he can consistently and within
  the realms of possibility ask for safe conduct into the Paradise presence of
  the Universal Father. Spiritually, man must be translated many times before he
  can attain a plane that will yield the spiritual vision which will enable him
  to see even any one of the Seven Master Spirits.

  5:1.2 Our Father is not in hiding; he is not in arbitrary seclusion. He has
  mobilized the resources of divine wisdom in a never-ending effort to reveal
  himself to the children of his universal domains. There is an infinite
  grandeur and an inexpressible generosity connected with the majesty of his
  love which causes him to yearn for the association of every created being who
  can comprehend, love, or approach him; and it is, therefore, the limitations
  inherent in you, inseparable from your finite personality and material
  existence, that determine the time and place and circumstances in which you
  may achieve the goal of the journey of mortal ascension and stand in the
  presence of the Father at the center of all things.



  5:1.3 Although the approach to the Paradise presence of the Father must await
  your attainment of the highest finite levels of spirit progression, you should
  rejoice in the recognition of the ever-present possibility of immediate
  communion with the bestowal spirit of the Father so intimately associated with
  your inner soul and your spiritualizing self.

  5:1.4 The mortals of the realms of time and space may differ greatly in innate
  abilities and intellectual endowment, they may enjoy environments
  exceptionally favorable to social advancement and moral progress, or they may
  suffer from the lack of almost every human aid to culture and supposed
  advancement in the arts of civilization; but the possibilities for spiritual
  progress in the ascension career are equal to all; increasing levels of
  spiritual insight and cosmic meanings are attained quite independently of all
  such sociomoral differentials of the diversified material environments on the
  evolutionary worlds.

  5:1.5 However Urantia mortals may differ in their intellectual, social,
  economic, and even moral opportunities and endowments, forget not that their
  spiritual endowment is uniform and unique. They all enjoy the same divine
  presence of the gift from the Father, and they are all equally privileged to
  seek intimate personal communion with this indwelling spirit of divine origin,
  while they may all equally choose to accept the uniform spiritual leading of
  these Mystery Monitors.



  5:1.6 If mortal man is wholeheartedly spiritually motivated, unreservedly
  consecrated to the doing of the Father's will, then, since he is so certainly
  and so effectively spiritually endowed by the indwelling and divine Adjuster,
  there cannot fail to materialize in that individual's experience the sublime
  consciousness of knowing God and the supernal assurance of surviving for the
  purpose of finding God by the progressive experience of becoming more and more
  like him.

  5:1.7 Man is spiritually indwelt by a surviving Thought Adjuster. If such a
  human mind is sincerely and spiritually motivated, if such a human soul
  desires to know God and become like him, honestly wants to do the Father's
  will, there exists no negative influence of mortal deprivation nor positive
  power of possible interference which can prevent such a divinely motivated
  soul from securely ascending to the portals of Paradise.

  5:1.8 The Father desires all his creatures to be in personal communion with
  him. He has on Paradise a place to receive all those whose survival status and
  spiritual nature make possible such attainment. Therefore settle in your
  philosophy now and forever: To each of you and to all of us, God is
  approachable, the Father is attainable, the way is open; the forces of divine
  love and the ways and means of divine administration are all interlocked in an
  effort to facilitate the advancement of every worthy intelligence of every
  universe to the Paradise presence of the Universal Father.

  5:1.9 The fact that vast time is involved in the attainment of God makes the
  presence and personality of the Infinite none the less real. Your ascension is
  a part of the circuit of the seven superuniverses, and though you swing around
  it countless times, you may expect, in spirit and in status, to be ever
  swinging inward. You can depend upon being translated from sphere to sphere,
  from the outer circuits ever nearer the inner center, and some day, doubt not,
  you shall stand in the divine and central presence and see him, figuratively
  speaking, face to face. It is a question of the attainment of actual and
  literal spiritual levels; and these spiritual levels are attainable by any
  being who has been indwelt by a Mystery Monitor, and who has subsequently
  eternally fused with that Thought Adjuster.



  5:1.10 The Father is not in spiritual hiding, but so many of his creatures
  have hidden themselves away in the mists of their own willful decisions and
  for the time being have separated themselves from the communion of his spirit
  and the spirit of his Son by the choosing of their own perverse ways and by
  the indulgence of the self-assertiveness of their intolerant minds and
  unspiritual natures.

  5:1.11 Mortal man may draw near God and may repeatedly forsake the divine will
  so long as the power of choice remains. Man's final doom is not sealed until
  he has lost the power to choose the Father's will. There is never a closure of
  the Father's heart to the need and the petition of his children. Only do his
  offspring close their hearts forever to the Father's drawing power when they
  finally and forever lose the desire to do his divine will -- to know him and
  to be like him. Likewise is man's eternal destiny assured when Adjuster fusion
  proclaims to the universe that such an ascender has made the final and
  irrevocable choice to live the Father's will.

  5:1.12 The great God makes direct contact with mortal man and gives a part of
  his infinite and eternal and incomprehensible self to live and dwell within
  him. God has embarked upon the eternal adventure with man. If you yield to the
  leadings of the spiritual forces in you and around you, you cannot fail to
  attain the high destiny established by a loving God as the universe goal of
  his ascendant creatures from the evolutionary worlds of space.





2. THE PRESENCE OF GOD



  5:2.1 The physical presence of the Infinite is the reality of the material
  universe. The mind presence of Deity must be determined by the depth of
  individual intellectual experience and by the evolutionary personality level.
  The spiritual presence of Divinity must of necessity be differential in the
  universe. It is determined by the spiritual capacity of receptivity and by the
  degree of the consecration of the creature's will to the doing of the divine
  will.

  5:2.2 God lives in every one of his spirit-born sons. The Paradise Sons always
  have access to the presence of God, "the right hand of the Father," and all of
  his creature personalities have access to the "bosom of the Father." This
  refers to the personality circuit, whenever, wherever, and however contacted,
  or otherwise entails personal, self-conscious contact and communion with the
  Universal Father, whether at the central abode or at some other designated
  place, as on one of the seven sacred spheres of Paradise.

  5:2.3 The divine presence cannot, however, be discovered anywhere in nature or
  even in the lives of God-knowing mortals so fully and so certainly as in your
  attempted communion with the indwelling Mystery Monitor, the Paradise Thought
  Adjuster. What a mistake to dream of God far off in the skies when the spirit
  of the Universal Father lives within your own mind!



  5:2.4 It is because of this God fragment that indwells you that you can hope,
  as you progress in harmonizing with the Adjuster's spiritual leadings, more
  fully to discern the presence and transforming power of those other spiritual
  influences that surround you and impinge upon you but do not function as an
  integral part of you. The fact that you are not intellectually conscious of
  close and intimate contact with the indwelling Adjuster does not in the least
  disprove such an exalted experience. The proof of fraternity with the divine
  Adjuster consists wholly in the nature and extent of the fruits of the spirit
  which are yielded in the life experience of the individual believer. "By their
  fruits you shall know them."

  5:2.5 It is exceedingly difficult for the meagerly spiritualized, material
  mind of mortal man to experience marked consciousness of the spirit activities
  of such divine entities as the Paradise Adjusters. As the soul of joint mind
  and Adjuster creation becomes increasingly existent, there also evolves a new
  phase of soul consciousness which is capable of experiencing the presence, and
  of recognizing the spirit leadings and other supermaterial activities, of the
  Mystery Monitors.

  5:2.6 The entire experience of Adjuster communion is one involving moral
  status, mental motivation, and spiritual experience. The self-realization of
  such an achievement is mainly, though not exclusively, limited to the realms
  of soul consciousness, but the proofs are forthcoming and abundant in the
  manifestation of the fruits of the spirit in the lives of all such inner-
  spirit contactors.





3. TRUE WORSHIP



  5:3.1 Though the Paradise Deities, from the universe standpoint, are as one,
  in their spiritual relations with such beings as inhabit Urantia they are also
  three distinct and separate persons. There is a difference between the
  Godheads in the matter of personal appeals, communion, and other intimate
  relations. In the highest sense, we worship the Universal Father and him only.
  True, we can and do worship the Father as he is manifested in his Creator
  Sons, but it is the Father, directly or indirectly, who is worshiped and
  adored.

  5:3.2 Supplications of all kinds belong to the realm of the Eternal Son and
  the Son's spiritual organization. Prayers, all formal communications,
  everything except adoration and worship of the Universal Father, are matters
  that concern a local universe; they do not ordinarily proceed out of the realm
  of the jurisdiction of a Creator Son. But worship is undoubtedly encircuited
  and dispatched to the person of the Creator by the function of the Father's
  personality circuit. We further believe that such registry of the homage of an
  Adjuster-indwelt creature is facilitated by the Father's spirit presence.
  There exists a tremendous amount of evidence to substantiate such a belief,
  and I know that all orders of Father fragments are empowered to register the
  bona fide adoration of their subjects acceptably in the presence of the
  Universal Father. The Adjusters undoubtedly also utilize direct prepersonal
  channels of communication with God, and they are likewise able to utilize the
  spirit-gravity circuits of the Eternal Son.

  5:3.3 Worship is for its own sake; prayer embodies a self- or creature-
  interest element; that is the great difference between worship and prayer.
  There is absolutely no self-request or other element of personal interest in
  true worship; we simply worship God for what we comprehend him to be. Worship
  asks nothing and expects nothing for the worshiper. We do not worship the
  Father because of anything we may derive from such veneration; we render such
  devotion and engage in such worship as a natural and spontaneous reaction to
  the recognition of the Father's matchless personality and because of his
  lovable nature and adorable attributes.

  5:3.4 The moment the element of self-interest intrudes upon worship, that
  instant devotion translates from worship to prayer and more appropriately
  should be directed to the person of the Eternal Son or the Creator Son. But in
  practical religious experience there exists no reason why prayer should not be
  addressed to God the Father as a part of true worship.

  5:3.5 When you deal with the practical affairs of your daily life, you are in
  the hands of the spirit personalities having origin in the Third Source and
  Center; you are co-operating with the agencies of the Conjoint Actor. And so
  it is: You worship God; pray to, and commune with, the Son; and work out the
  details of your earthly sojourn in connection with the intelligences of the
  Infinite Spirit operating on your world and throughout your universe.



  5:3.6 The Creator or Sovereign Sons who preside over the destinies of the
  local universes stand in the place of both the Universal Father and the
  Eternal Son of Paradise. These Universe Sons receive, in the name of the
  Father, the adoration of worship and give ear to the pleas of their
  petitioning subjects throughout their respective creations. To the children of
  a local universe a Michael Son is, to all practical intents and purposes, God.
  He is the local universe personification of the Universal Father and the
  Eternal Son. The Infinite Spirit maintains personal contact with the children
  of these realms through the Universe Spirits, the administrative and creative
  associates of the Paradise Creator Sons.



  5:3.7 Sincere worship connotes the mobilization of all the powers of the human
  personality under the dominance of the evolving soul and subject to the divine
  directionization of the associated Thought Adjuster. The mind of material
  limitations can never become highly conscious of the real significance of true
  worship. Man's realization of the reality of the worship experience is chiefly
  determined by the developmental status of his evolving immortal soul. The
  spiritual growth of the soul takes place wholly independently of the
  intellectual self-consciousness.

  5:3.8 The worship experience consists in the sublime attempt of the betrothed
  Adjuster to communicate to the divine Father the inexpressible longings and
  the unutterable aspirations of the human soul -- the conjoint creation of the
  God-seeking mortal mind and the God-revealing immortal Adjuster. Worship is,
  therefore, the act of the material mind's assenting to the attempt of its
  spiritualizing self, under the guidance of the associated spirit, to
  communicate with God as a faith son of the Universal Father. The mortal mind
  consents to worship; the immortal soul craves and initiates worship; the
  divine Adjuster presence conducts such worship in behalf of the mortal mind
  and the evolving immortal soul. True worship, in the last analysis, becomes an
  experience realized on four cosmic levels: the intellectual, the morontial,
  the spiritual, and the personal -- the consciousness of mind, soul, and
  spirit, and their unification in personality.





4. GOD IN RELIGION



  5:4.1 The morality of the religions of evolution drives men forward in the God
  quest by the motive power of fear. The religions of revelation allure men to
  seek for a God of love because they crave to become like him. But religion is
  not merely a passive feeling of "absolute dependence" and "surety of
  survival"; it is a living and dynamic experience of divinity attainment
  predicated on humanity service.

  5:4.2 The great and immediate service of true religion is the establishment of
  an enduring unity in human experience, a lasting peace and a profound
  assurance. With primitive man, even polytheism is a relative unification of
  the evolving concept of Deity; polytheism is monotheism in the making. Sooner
  or later, God is destined to be comprehended as the reality of values, the
  substance of meanings, and the life of truth.

  5:4.3 God is not only the determiner of destiny; he is man's eternal
  destination. All nonreligious human activities seek to bend the universe to
  the distorting service of self; the truly religious individual seeks to
  identify the self with the universe and then to dedicate the activities of
  this unified self to the service of the universe family of fellow beings,
  human and superhuman.



  5:4.4 The domains of philosophy and art intervene between the nonreligious and
  the religious activities of the human self. Through art and philosophy the
  material-minded man is inveigled into the contemplation of the spiritual
  realities and universe values of eternal meanings.



  5:4.5 All religions teach the worship of Deity and some doctrine of human
  salvation. The Buddhist religion promises salvation from suffering, unending
  peace; the Jewish religion promises salvation from difficulties, prosperity
  predicated on righteousness; the Greek religion promised salvation from
  disharmony, ugliness, by the realization of beauty; Christianity promises
  salvation from sin, sanctity; Mohammedanism provides deliverance from the
  rigorous moral standards of Judaism and Christianity. The religion of Jesus is
  salvation from self, deliverance from the evils of creature isolation in time
  and in eternity.

  5:4.6 The Hebrews based their religion on goodness; the Greeks on beauty; both
  religions sought truth. Jesus revealed a God of love, and love is all-
  embracing of truth, beauty, and goodness.

  5:4.7 The Zoroastrians had a religion of morals; the Hindus a religion of
  metaphysics; the Confucianists a religion of ethics. Jesus lived a religion of
  service. All these religions are of value in that they are valid approaches to
  the religion of Jesus. Religion is destined to become the reality of the
  spiritual unification of all that is good, beautiful, and true in human
  experience.

  5:4.8 The Greek religion had a watchword "Know yourself"; the Hebrews centered
  their teaching on "Know your God"; the Christians preach a gospel aimed at a
  "knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ"; Jesus proclaimed the good news of
  "knowing God, and yourself as a son of God." These differing concepts of the
  purpose of religion determine the individual's attitude in various life
  situations and foreshadow the depth of worship and the nature of his personal
  habits of prayer. The spiritual status of any religion may be determined by
  the nature of its prayers.



  5:4.9 The concept of a semihuman and jealous God is an inevitable transition
  between polytheism and sublime monotheism. An exalted anthropomorphism is the
  highest attainment level of purely evolutionary religion. Christianity has
  elevated the concept of anthropomorphism from the ideal of the human to the
  transcendent and divine concept of the person of the glorified Christ. And
  this is the highest anthropomorphism that man can ever conceive.



  5:4.10 The Christian concept of God is an attempt to combine three separate
  teachings:

1. The Hebrew concept -- God as a vindicator of moral values, a righteous God.

2. The Greek concept -- God as a unifier, a God of wisdom.

3. Jesus' concept -- God as a living friend, a loving Father, the divine
presence.

  5:4.11 It must therefore be evident that composite Christian theology
  encounters great difficulty in attaining consistency. This difficulty is
  further aggravated by the fact that the doctrines of early Christianity were
  generally based on the personal religious experience of three different
  persons: Philo of Alexandria, Jesus of Nazareth, and Paul of Tarsus.



  5:4.12 In the study of the religious life of Jesus, view him positively. Think
  not so much of his sinlessness as of his righteousness, his loving service.
  Jesus upstepped the passive love disclosed in the Hebrew concept of the
  heavenly Father to the higher active and creature-loving affection of a God
  who is the Father of every individual, even of the wrongdoer.





5. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD



  5:5.1 Morality has its origin in the reason of self-consciousness; it is
  superanimal but wholly evolutionary. Human evolution embraces in its unfolding
  all endowments antecedent to the bestowal of the Adjusters and to the pouring
  out of the Spirit of Truth. But the attainment of levels of morality does not
  deliver man from the real struggles of mortal living. Man's physical
  environment entails the battle for existence; the social surroundings
  necessitate ethical adjustments; the moral situations require the making of
  choices in the highest realms of reason; the spiritual experience (having
  realized God) demands that man find him and sincerely strive to be like him.

  5:5.2 Religion is not grounded in the facts of science, the obligations of
  society, the assumptions of philosophy, or the implied duties of morality.
  Religion is an independent realm of human response to life situations and is
  unfailingly exhibited at all stages of human development which are postmoral.
  Religion may permeate all four levels of the realization of values and the
  enjoyment of universe fellowship: the physical or material level of self-
  preservation; the social or emotional level of fellowship; the moral or duty
  level of reason; the spiritual level of the consciousness of universe
  fellowship through divine worship.

  5:5.3 The fact-seeking scientist conceives of God as the First Cause, a God of
  force. The emotional artist sees God as the ideal of beauty, a God of
  aesthetics. The reasoning philosopher is sometimes inclined to posit a God of
  universal unity, even a pantheistic Deity. The religionist of faith believes
  in a God who fosters survival, the Father in heaven, the God of love.



  5:5.4 Moral conduct is always an antecedent of evolved religion and a part of
  even revealed religion, but never the whole of religious experience. Social
  service is the result of moral thinking and religious living. Morality does
  not biologically lead to the higher spiritual levels of religious experience.
  The adoration of the abstract beautiful is not the worship of God; neither is
  exaltation of nature nor the reverence of unity the worship of God.

  5:5.5 Evolutionary religion is the mother of the science, art, and philosophy
  which elevated man to the level of receptivity to revealed religion, including
  the bestowal of Adjusters and the coming of the Spirit of Truth. The
  evolutionary picture of human existence begins and ends with religion, albeit
  very different qualities of religion, one evolutional and biological, the
  other revelational and periodical. And so, while religion is normal and
  natural to man, it is also optional. Man does not have to be religious against
  his will.



  5:5.6 Religious experience, being essentially spiritual, can never be fully
  understood by the material mind; hence the function of theology, the
  psychology of religion. The essential doctrine of the human realization of God
  creates a paradox in finite comprehension. It is well-nigh impossible for
  human logic and finite reason to harmonize the concept of divine immanence,
  God within and a part of every individual, with the idea of God's
  transcendence, the divine domination of the universe of universes. These two
  essential concepts of Deity must be unified in the faith-grasp of the concept
  of the transcendence of a personal God and in the realization of the
  indwelling presence of a fragment of that God in order to justify intelligent
  worship and validate the hope of personality survival. The difficulties and
  paradoxes of religion are inherent in the fact that the realities of religion
  are utterly beyond the mortal capacity for intellectual comprehension.



  5:5.7 Mortal man secures three great satisfactions from religious experience,
  even in the days of his temporal sojourn on earth:



  5:5.8 1. Intellectually he acquires the satisfactions of a more unified human
  consciousness.



  5:5.9 2. Philosophically he enjoys the substantiation of his ideals of moral
  values.



  5:5.10 3. Spiritually he thrives in the experience of divine companionship, in
  the spiritual satisfactions of true worship.



  5:5.11 God-consciousness, as it is experienced by an evolving mortal of the
  realms, must consist of three varying factors, three differential levels of
  reality realization. There is first the mind consciousness -- the
  comprehension of the idea of God. Then follows the soul consciousness -- the
  realization of the ideal of God. Last, dawns the spirit consciousness -- the
  realization of the spirit reality of God. By the unification of these factors
  of the divine realization, no matter how incomplete, the mortal personality at
  all times overspreads all conscious levels with a realization of the
  personality of God. In those mortals who have attained the Corps of the
  Finality all this will in time lead to the realization of the supremacy of God
  and may subsequently eventuate in the realization of the ultimacy of God, some
  phase of the absonite superconsciousness of the Paradise Father.

  5:5.12 The experience of God-consciousness remains the same from generation to
  generation, but with each advancing epoch in human knowledge the philosophic
  concept and the theologic definitions of God must change. God-knowingness,
  religious consciousness, is a universe reality, but no matter how valid (real)
  religious experience is, it must be willing to subject itself to intelligent
  criticism and reasonable philosophic interpretation; it must not seek to be a
  thing apart in the totality of human experience.



  5:5.13 Eternal survival of personality is wholly dependent on the choosing of
  the mortal mind, whose decisions determine the survival potential of the
  immortal soul. When the mind believes God and the soul knows God, and when,
  with the fostering Adjuster, they all desire God, then is survival assured.
  Limitations of intellect, curtailment of education, deprivation of culture,
  impoverishment of social status, even inferiority of the human standards of
  morality resulting from the unfortunate lack of educational, cultural, and
  social advantages, cannot invalidate the presence of the divine spirit in such
  unfortunate and humanly handicapped but believing individuals. The indwelling
  of the Mystery Monitor constitutes the inception and insures the possibility
  of the potential of growth and survival of the immortal soul.

  5:5.14 The ability of mortal parents to procreate is not predicated on their
  educational, cultural, social, or economic status. The union of the parental
  factors under natural conditions is quite sufficient to initiate offspring. A
  human mind discerning right and wrong and possessing the capacity to worship
  God, in union with a divine Adjuster, is all that is required in that mortal
  to initiate and foster the production of his immortal soul of survival
  qualities if such a spirit-endowed individual seeks God and sincerely desires
  to become like him, honestly elects to do the will of the Father in heaven.





6. THE GOD OF PERSONALITY



  5:6.1 The Universal Father is the God of personalities. The domain of universe
  personality, from the lowest mortal and material creature of personality
  status to the highest persons of creator dignity and divine status, has its
  center and circumference in the Universal Father. God the Father is the
  bestower and the conservator of every personality. And the Paradise Father is
  likewise the destiny of all those finite personalities who wholeheartedly
  choose to do the divine will, those who love God and long to be like him.



  5:6.2 Personality is one of the unsolved mysteries of the universes. We are
  able to form adequate concepts of the factors entering into the make-up of
  various orders and levels of personality, but we do not fully comprehend the
  real nature of the personality itself. We clearly perceive the numerous
  factors which, when put together, constitute the vehicle for human
  personality, but we do not fully comprehend the nature and significance of
  such a finite personality.



  5:6.3 Personality is potential in all creatures who possess a mind endowment
  ranging from the minimum of self-consciousness to the maximum of God-
  consciousness. But mind endowment alone is not personality, neither is spirit
  nor physical energy. Personality is that quality and value in cosmic reality
  which is exclusively bestowed by God the Father upon these living systems of
  the associated and co-ordinated energies of matter, mind, and spirit. Neither
  is personality a progressive achievement. Personality may be material or
  spiritual, but there either is personality or there is no personality. The
  other-than-personal never attains the level of the personal except by the
  direct act of the Paradise Father.

  5:6.4 The bestowal of personality is the exclusive function of the Universal
  Father, the personalization of the living energy systems which he endows with
  the attributes of relative creative consciousness and the freewill control
  thereof. There is no personality apart from God the Father, and no personality
  exists except for God the Father. The fundamental attributes of human
  selfhood, as well as the absolute Adjuster nucleus of the human personality,
  are the bestowals of the Universal Father, acting in his exclusively personal
  domain of cosmic ministry.

  5:6.5 The Adjusters of prepersonal status indwell numerous types of mortal
  creatures, thus insuring that these same beings may survive mortal death to
  personalize as morontia creatures with the potential of ultimate spirit
  attainment. For, when such a creature mind of personality endowment is indwelt
  by a fragment of the spirit of the eternal God, the prepersonal bestowal of
  the personal Father, then does this finite personality possess the potential
  of the divine and the eternal and aspire to a destiny akin to the Ultimate,
  even reaching out for a realization of the Absolute.

  5:6.6 Capacity for divine personality is inherent in the prepersonal Adjuster;
  capacity for human personality is potential in the cosmic-mind endowment of
  the human being. But the experiential personality of mortal man is not
  observable as an active and functional reality until after the material life
  vehicle of the mortal creature has been touched by the liberating divinity of
  the Universal Father, being thus launched upon the seas of experience as a
  self-conscious and a (relatively) self-determinative and self-creative
  personality. The material self is truly and unqualifiedly personal.



  5:6.7 The material self has personality and identity, temporal identity; the
  prepersonal spirit Adjuster also has identity, eternal identity. This material
  personality and this spirit prepersonality are capable of so uniting their
  creative attributes as to bring into existence the surviving identity of the
  immortal soul.

  5:6.8 Having thus provided for the growth of the immortal soul and having
  liberated man's inner self from the fetters of absolute dependence on
  antecedent causation, the Father stands aside. Now, man having thus been
  liberated from the fetters of causation response, at least as pertains to
  eternal destiny, and provision having been made for the growth of the immortal
  self, the soul, it remains for man himself to will the creation or to inhibit
  the creation of this surviving and eternal self which is his for the choosing.
  No other being, force, creator, or agency in all the wide universe of
  universes can interfere to any degree with the absolute sovereignty of the
  mortal free will, as it operates within the realms of choice, regarding the
  eternal destiny of the personality of the choosing mortal. As pertains to
  eternal survival, God has decreed the sovereignty of the material and mortal
  will, and that decree is absolute.



  5:6.9 The bestowal of creature personality confers relative liberation from
  slavish response to antecedent causation, and the personalities of all such
  moral beings, evolutionary or otherwise, are centered in the personality of
  the Universal Father. They are ever drawn towards his Paradise presence by
  that kinship of being which constitutes the vast and universal family circle
  and fraternal circuit of the eternal God. There is a kinship of divine
  spontaneity in all personality.



  5:6.10 The personality circuit of the universe of universes is centered in the
  person of the Universal Father, and the Paradise Father is personally
  conscious of, and in personal touch with, all personalities of all levels of
  self-conscious existence. And this personality consciousness of all creation
  exists independently of the mission of the Thought Adjusters.



  5:6.11 As all gravity is circuited in the Isle of Paradise, as all mind is
  circuited in the Conjoint Actor and all spirit in the Eternal Son, so is all
  personality circuited in the personal presence of the Universal Father, and
  this circuit unerringly transmits the worship of all personalities to the
  Original and Eternal Personality.



  5:6.12 Concerning those personalities who are not Adjuster indwelt: The
  attribute of choice-liberty is also bestowed by the Universal Father, and such
  persons are likewise embraced in the great circuit of divine love, the
  personality circuit of the Universal Father. God provides for the sovereign
  choice of all true personalities. No personal creature can be coerced into the
  eternal adventure; the portal of eternity opens only in response to the
  freewill choice of the freewill sons of the God of free will.



  5:6.13 And this represents my efforts to present the relation of the living
  God to the children of time. And when all is said and done, I can do nothing
  more helpful than to reiterate that God is your universe Father, and that you
  are all his planetary children.



  5:6.14 This is the fifth and last of the series presenting the narrative of
  the Universal Father by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.




PAPER 6


 THE ETERNAL SON



  6:0.1 THE Eternal Son is the perfect and final expression of the "first"
  personal and absolute concept of the Universal Father. Accordingly, whenever
  and however the Father personally and absolutely expresses himself, he does so
  through his Eternal Son, who ever has been, now is, and ever will be, the
  living and divine Word. And this Eternal Son is residential at the center of
  all things, in association with, and immediately enshrouding the personal
  presence of, the Eternal and Universal Father.

  6:0.2 We speak of God's "first" thought and allude to an impossible time
  origin of the Eternal Son for the purpose of gaining access to the thought
  channels of the human intellect. Such distortions of language represent our
  best efforts at contact-compromise with the time-bound minds of mortal
  creatures. In the sequential sense the Universal Father never could have had a
  first thought, nor could the Eternal Son ever have had a beginning. But I was
  instructed to portray the realities of eternity to the time-limited minds of
  mortals by such symbols of thought and to designate the relationships of
  eternity by such time concepts of sequentiality.

  6:0.3 The Eternal Son is the spiritual personalization of the Paradise
  Father's universal and infinite concept of divine reality, unqualified spirit,
  and absolute personality. And thereby does the Son constitute the divine
  revelation of the creator identity of the Universal Father. The perfect
  personality of the Son discloses that the Father is actually the eternal and
  universal source of all the meanings and values of the spiritual, the
  volitional, the purposeful, and the personal.

  6:0.4 In an effort to enable the finite mind of time to form some sequential
  concept of the relationships of the eternal and infinite beings of the
  Paradise Trinity, we utilize such license of conception as to refer to the
  "Father's first personal, universal, and infinite concept." It is impossible
  for me to convey to the human mind any adequate idea of the eternal relations
  of the Deities; therefore do I employ such terms as will afford the finite
  mind something of an idea of the relationship of these eternal beings in the
  subsequent eras of time. We believe the Son sprang from the Father; we are
  taught that both are unqualifiedly eternal. It is apparent, therefore, that no
  time creature can ever fully comprehend this mystery of a Son who is derived
  from the Father, and yet who is co-ordinately eternal with the Father himself.





1. IDENTITY OF THE ETERNAL SON



  6:1.1 The Eternal Son is the original and only-begotten Son of God. He is God
  the Son, the Second Person of Deity and the associate creator of all things.
  As the Father is the First Great Source and Center, so the Eternal Son is the
  Second Great Source and Center.

  6:1.2 The Eternal Son is the spiritual center and the divine administrator of
  the spiritual government of the universe of universes. The Universal Father is
  first a creator and then a controller; the Eternal Son is first a cocreator
  and then a spiritual administrator. "God is spirit," and the Son is a personal
  revelation of that spirit. The First Source and Center is the Volitional
  Absolute; the Second Source and Center is the Personality Absolute.

  6:1.3 The Universal Father never personally functions as a creator except in
  conjunction with the Son or with the co-ordinate action of the Son. Had the
  New Testament writer referred to the Eternal Son, he would have uttered the
  truth when he wrote: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
  God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was
  not anything made that was made."

  6:1.4 When a Son of the Eternal Son appeared on Urantia, those who fraternized
  with this divine being in human form alluded to him as "He who was from the
  beginning, whom we have heard, whom we have seen with our eyes, whom we have
  looked upon, and our hands have handled, even the Word of life." And this
  bestowal Son came forth from the Father just as truly as did the Original Son,
  as is suggested in one of his earthly prayers: "And now, O my Father, glorify
  me with your own self, with the glory which I had with you before this world
  was."



  6:1.5 The Eternal Son is known by different names in various universes. In the
  central universe he is known as the Co-ordinate Source, the Cocreator, and the
  Associate Absolute. On Uversa, the headquarters of the superuniverse, we
  designate the Son as the Co-ordinate Spirit Center and as the Eternal Spirit
  Administrator. On Salvington, the headquarters of your local universe, this
  Son is of record as the Second Eternal Source and Center. The Melchizedeks
  speak of him as the Son of Sons. On your world, but not in your system of
  inhabited spheres, this Original Son has been confused with a co-ordinate
  Creator Son, Michael of Nebadon, who bestowed himself upon the mortal races of
  Urantia.

  6:1.6 Although any of the Paradise Sons may fittingly be called Sons of God,
  we are in the habit of reserving the designation "the Eternal Son" for this
  Original Son, the Second Source and Center, cocreator with the Universal
  Father of the central universe of power and perfection and cocreator of all
  other divine Sons who spring from the infinite Deities.





2. NATURE OF THE ETERNAL SON



  6:2.1 The Eternal Son is just as changeless and infinitely dependable as the
  Universal Father. He is also just as spiritual as the Father, just as truly an
  unlimited spirit. To you of lowly origin the Son would appear to be more
  personal since he is one step nearer you in approachability than is the
  Universal Father.

  6:2.2 The Eternal Son is the eternal Word of God. He is wholly like the
  Father; in fact, the Eternal Son is God the Father personally manifest to the
  universe of universes. And thus it was and is and forever will be true of the
  Eternal Son and of all the co-ordinate Creator Sons: "He who has seen the Son
  has seen the Father."

  6:2.3 In nature the Son is wholly like the spirit Father. When we worship the
  Universal Father, actually we at the same time worship God the Son and God the
  Spirit. God the Son is just as divinely real and eternal in nature as God the
  Father.

  6:2.4 The Son not only possesses all the Father's infinite and transcendent
  righteousness, but the Son is also reflective of all the Father's holiness of
  character. The Son shares the Father's perfection and jointly shares the
  responsibility of aiding all creatures of imperfection in their spiritual
  efforts to attain divine perfection.

  6:2.5 The Eternal Son possesses all the Father's character of divinity and
  attributes of spirituality. The Son is the fullness of God's absoluteness in
  personality and spirit, and these qualities the Son reveals in his personal
  management of the spiritual government of the universe of universes.

  6:2.6 God is, indeed, a universal spirit; God is spirit; and this spirit
  nature of the Father is focalized and personalized in the Deity of the Eternal
  Son. In the Son all spiritual characteristics are apparently greatly enhanced
  by differentiation from the universality of the First Source and Center. And
  as the Father shares his spirit nature with the Son, so do they together just
  as fully and unreservedly share the divine spirit with the Conjoint Actor, the
  Infinite Spirit.

  6:2.7 In the love of truth and in the creation of beauty the Father and the
  Son are equal except that the Son appears to devote himself more to the
  realization of the exclusively spiritual beauty of universal values.

  6:2.8 In divine goodness I discern no difference between the Father and the
  Son. The Father loves his universe children as a father; the Eternal Son looks
  upon all creatures both as father and as brother.





3. MINISTRY OF THE FATHER'S LOVE



  6:3.1 The Son shares the justice and righteousness of the Trinity but
  overshadows these divinity traits by the infinite personalization of the
  Father's love and mercy; the Son is the revelation of divine love to the
  universes. As God is love, so the Son is mercy. The Son cannot love more than
  the Father, but he can show mercy to creatures in one additional way, for he
  not only is a primal creator like the Father, but he is also the Eternal Son
  of that same Father, thereby sharing in the sonship experience of all other
  sons of the Universal Father.

  6:3.2 The Eternal Son is the great mercy minister to all creation. Mercy is
  the essence of the Son's spiritual character. The mandates of the Eternal Son,
  as they go forth over the spirit circuits of the Second Source and Center, are
  keyed in tones of mercy.

  6:3.3 To comprehend the love of the Eternal Son, you must first perceive its
  divine source, the Father, who is love, and then behold the unfolding of this
  infinite affection in the far-flung ministry of the Infinite Spirit and his
  almost limitless host of ministering personalities.

  6:3.4 The ministry of the Eternal Son is devoted to the revelation of the God
  of love to the universe of universes. This divine Son is not engaged in the
  ignoble task of trying to persuade his gracious Father to love his lowly
  creatures and to show mercy to the wrongdoers of time. How wrong to envisage
  the Eternal Son as appealing to the Universal Father to show mercy to his
  lowly creatures on the material worlds of space! Such concepts of God are
  crude and grotesque. Rather should you realize that all the merciful
  ministrations of the Sons of God are a direct revelation of the Father's heart
  of universal love and infinite compassion. The Father's love is the real and
  eternal source of the Son's mercy.

  6:3.5 God is love, the Son is mercy. Mercy is applied love, the Father's love
  in action in the person of his Eternal Son. The love of this universal Son is
  likewise universal. As love is comprehended on a sex planet, the love of God
  is more comparable to the love of a father, while the love of the Eternal Son
  is more like the affection of a mother. Crude, indeed, are such illustrations,
  but I employ them in the hope of conveying to the human mind the thought that
  there is a difference, not in divine content but in quality and technique of
  expression, between the love of the Father and the love of the Son.





4. ATTRIBUTES OF THE ETERNAL SON



  6:4.1 The Eternal Son motivates the spirit level of cosmic reality; the
  spiritual power of the Son is absolute in relation to all universe
  actualities. He exercises perfect control over the interassociation of all
  undifferentiated spirit energy and over all actualized spirit reality through
  his absolute grasp of spirit gravity. All pure unfragmented spirit and all
  spiritual beings and values are responsive to the infinite drawing power of
  the primal Son of Paradise. And if the eternal future should witness the
  appearance of an unlimited universe, the spirit gravity and the spirit power
  of the Original Son will be found wholly adequate for the spiritual control
  and effective administration of such a boundless creation.



  6:4.2 The Son is omnipotent only in the spiritual realm. In the eternal
  economy of universe administration, wasteful and needless repetition of
  function is never encountered; the Deities are not given to useless
  duplication of universe ministry.



  6:4.3 The omnipresence of the Original Son constitutes the spiritual unity of
  the universe of universes. The spiritual cohesion of all creation rests upon
  the everywhere active presence of the divine spirit of the Eternal Son. When
  we conceive of the Father's spiritual presence, we find it difficult to
  differentiate it in our thinking from the spiritual presence of the Eternal
  Son. The spirit of the Father is eternally resident in the spirit of the Son.

  6:4.4 The Father must be spiritually omnipresent, but such omnipresence
  appears to be inseparable from the everywhere spirit activities of the Eternal
  Son. We do, however, believe that in all situations of Father-Son presence of
  a dual spiritual nature the spirit of the Son is co-ordinate with the spirit
  of the Father.

  6:4.5 In his contact with personality, the Father acts in the personality
  circuit. In his personal and detectable contact with spiritual creation, he
  appears in the fragments of the totality of his Deity, and these Father
  fragments have a solitary, unique, and exclusive function wherever and
  whenever they appear in the universes. In all such situations the spirit of
  the Son is co-ordinate with the spiritual function of the fragmented presence
  of the Universal Father.

  6:4.6 Spiritually the Eternal Son is omnipresent. The spirit of the Eternal
  Son is most certainly with you and around you, but not within you and a part
  of you like the Mystery Monitor. The indwelling Father fragment adjusts the
  human mind to progressively divine attitudes, whereupon such an ascending mind
  becomes increasingly responsive to the spiritual drawing power of the all-
  powerful spirit-gravity circuit of the Second Source and Center.



  6:4.7 The Original Son is universally and spiritually self-conscious. In
  wisdom the Son is the full equal of the Father. In the realms of knowledge,
  omniscience, we cannot distinguish between the First and Second Sources; like
  the Father, the Son knows all; he is never surprised by any universe event; he
  comprehends the end from the beginning.



  6:4.8 The Father and the Son really know the number and whereabouts of all the
  spirits and spiritualized beings in the universe of universes. Not only does
  the Son know all things by virtue of his own omnipresent spirit, but the Son,
  equally with the Father and the Conjoint Actor, is fully cognizant of the vast
  reflectivity intelligence of the Supreme Being, which intelligence is at all
  times aware of all things that transpire on all the worlds of the seven
  superuniverses. And there are other ways in which the Paradise Son is
  omniscient.



  6:4.9 The Eternal Son, as a loving, merciful, and ministering spiritual
  personality, is wholly and infinitely equal with the Universal Father, while
  in all those merciful and affectionate personal contacts with the ascendant
  beings of the lower realms the Eternal Son is just as kind and considerate,
  just as patient and long-suffering, as are his Paradise Sons in the local
  universes who so frequently bestow themselves upon the evolutionary worlds of
  time.

  6:4.10 It is needless further to expatiate on the attributes of the Eternal
  Son. With the exceptions noted, it is only necessary to study the spiritual
  attributes of God the Father to understand and correctly evaluate the
  attributes of God the Son.





5. LIMITATIONS OF THE ETERNAL SON



  6:5.1 The Eternal Son does not personally function in the physical domains,
  nor does he function, except through the Conjoint Actor, in the levels of mind
  ministry to creature beings. But these qualifications do not in any manner
  otherwise limit the Eternal Son in the full and free exercise of all the
  divine attributes of spiritual omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence.

  6:5.2 The Eternal Son does not personally pervade the potentials of spirit
  inherent in the infinity of the Deity Absolute, but as these potentials become
  actual, they come within the all-powerful grasp of the spirit-gravity circuit
  of the Son.

  6:5.3 Personality is the exclusive gift of the Universal Father. The Eternal
  Son derives personality from the Father, but he does not, without the Father,
  bestow personality. The Son gives origin to a vast spirit host, but such
  derivations are not personalities. When the Son creates personality, he does
  so in conjunction with the Father or with the Conjoint Creator, who may act
  for the Father in such relationships. The Eternal Son is thus a cocreator of
  personalities, but he bestows personality upon no being and of himself, alone,
  never creates personal beings. This limitation of action does not, however,
  deprive the Son of the ability to create any or all types of other-than-
  personal reality.

  6:5.4 The Eternal Son is limited in transmittal of creator prerogatives. The
  Father, in eternalizing the Original Son, bestowed upon him the power and
  privilege of subsequently joining with the Father in the divine act of
  producing additional Sons possessing creative attributes, and this they have
  done and now do. But when these co-ordinate Sons have been produced, the
  prerogatives of creatorship are apparently not further transmissible. The
  Eternal Son transmits creatorship powers only to the first or direct
  personalization. Therefore, when the Father and the Son unite to personalize a
  Creator Son, they achieve their purpose; but the Creator Son thus brought into
  existence is never able to transmit or delegate the prerogatives of
  creatorship to the various orders of Sons which he may subsequently create,
  notwithstanding that, in the highest local universe Sons, there does appear a
  very limited reflection of the creative attributes of a Creator Son.

  6:5.5 The Eternal Son, as an infinite and exclusively personal being, cannot
  fragmentize his nature, cannot distribute and bestow individualized portions
  of his selfhood upon other entities or persons as do the Universal Father and
  the Infinite Spirit. But the Son can and does bestow himself as an unlimited
  spirit to bathe all creation and unceasingly draw all spirit personalities and
  spiritual realities to himself.

  6:5.6 Ever remember, the Eternal Son is the personal portrayal of the spirit
  Father to all creation. The Son is personal and nothing but personal in the
  Deity sense; such a divine and absolute personality cannot be disintegrated or
  fragmentized. God the Father and God the Spirit are truly personal, but they
  are also everything else in addition to being such Deity personalities.

  6:5.7 Though the Eternal Son cannot personally participate in the bestowal of
  the Thought Adjusters, he did sit in council with the Universal Father in the
  eternal past, approving the plan and pledging endless co-operation, when the
  Father, in projecting the bestowal of the Thought Adjusters, proposed to the
  Son, "Let us make mortal man in our own image." And as the spirit fragment of
  the Father dwells within you, so does the spirit presence of the Son envelop
  you, while these two forever work as one for your spiritual advancement.





6. THE SPIRIT MIND



  6:6.1 The Eternal Son is spirit and has mind, but not a mind or a spirit which
  mortal mind can comprehend. Mortal man perceives mind on the finite, cosmic,
  material, and personal levels. Man also observes mind phenomena in living
  organisms functioning on the subpersonal (animal) level, but it is difficult
  for him to grasp the nature of mind when associated with supermaterial beings
  and as a part of exclusive spirit personalities. Mind must, however, be
  differently defined when it refers to the spirit level of existence, and when
  it is used to denote spirit functions of intelligence. That kind of mind which
  is directly allied with spirit is comparable neither to that mind which co-
  ordinates spirit and matter nor to that mind which is allied only with matter.

  6:6.2 Spirit is ever conscious, minded, and possessed of varied phases of
  identity. Without mind in some phase there would be no spiritual consciousness
  in the fraternity of spirit beings. The equivalent of mind, the ability to
  know and be known, is indigenous to Deity. Deity may be personal, prepersonal,
  superpersonal, or impersonal, but Deity is never mindless, that is, never
  without the ability at least to communicate with similar entities, beings, or
  personalities.

  6:6.3 The mind of the Eternal Son is like that of the Father but unlike any
  other mind in the universe, and with the mind of the Father it is ancestor to
  the diverse and far-flung minds of the Conjoint Creator. The mind of the
  Father and the Son, that intellect which is ancestral to the absolute mind of
  the Third Source and Center, is perhaps best illustrated in the premind of a
  Thought Adjuster, for, though these Father fragments are entirely outside of
  the mind circuits of the Conjoint Actor, they have some form of premind; they
  know as they are known; they enjoy the equivalent of human thinking.

  6:6.4 The Eternal Son is wholly spiritual; man is very nearly entirely
  material; therefore much pertaining to the spirit personality of the Eternal
  Son, to his seven spiritual spheres encircling Paradise and to the nature of
  the impersonal creations of the Paradise Son, will have to await your
  attainment of spirit status following your completion of the morontia
  ascension of the local universe of Nebadon. And then, as you pass through the
  superuniverse and on to Havona, many of these spirit-concealed mysteries will
  clarify as you begin to be endowed with the "mind of the spirit" -- spiritual
  insight.





7. PERSONALITY OF THE ETERNAL SON



  6:7.1 The Eternal Son is that infinite personality from whose unqualified
  personality fetters the Universal Father escaped by the technique of
  trinitization, and by virtue of which he has ever since continued to bestow
  himself in endless profusion upon his ever-expanding universe of Creators and
  creatures. The Son is absolute personality; God is father personality -- the
  source of personality, the bestower of personality, the cause of personality.
  Every personal being derives personality from the Universal Father just as the
  Original Son eternally derives his personality from the Paradise Father.

  6:7.2 The personality of the Paradise Son is absolute and purely spiritual,
  and this absolute personality is also the divine and eternal pattern, first,
  of the Father's bestowal of personality upon the Conjoint Actor and,
  subsequently, of his bestowal of personality upon the myriads of his creatures
  throughout a far-flung universe.

  6:7.3 The Eternal Son is truly a merciful minister, a divine spirit, a
  spiritual power, and a real personality. The Son is the spiritual and personal
  nature of God made manifest to the universes -- the sum and substance of the
  First Source and Center, divested of all that which is nonpersonal,
  extradivine, nonspiritual, and pure potential. But it is impossible to convey
  to the human mind a word picture of the beauty and grandeur of the supernal
  personality of the Eternal Son. Everything that tends to obscure the Universal
  Father operates with almost equal influence to prevent the conceptual
  recognition of the Eternal Son. You must await your attainment of Paradise,
  and then you will understand why I was unable to portray the character of this
  absolute personality to the understanding of the finite mind.





8. REALIZATION OF THE ETERNAL SON



  6:8.1 Concerning identity, nature, and other attributes of personality, the
  Eternal Son is the full equal, the perfect complement, and the eternal
  counterpart of the Universal Father. In the same sense that God is the
  Universal Father, the Son is the Universal Mother. And all of us, high and
  low, constitute their universal family.

  6:8.2 To appreciate the character of the Son, you should study the revelation
  of the divine character of the Father; they are forever and inseparably one.
  As divine personalities they are virtually indistinguishable by the lower
  orders of intelligence. They are not so difficult of separate recognition by
  those whose origin is in the creative acts of the Deities themselves. Beings
  of nativity in the central universe and on Paradise discern the Father and the
  Son not only as one personal unity of universal control but also as two
  separate personalities functioning in definite domains of universe
  administration.

  6:8.3 As persons you may conceive of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son
  as separate individuals, for they indeed are; but in the administration of the
  universes they are so intertwined and interrelated that it is not always
  possible to distinguish between them. When, in the affairs of the universes,
  the Father and the Son are encountered in confusing interassociations, it is
  not always profitable to attempt to segregate their operations; merely recall
  that God is the initiating thought and the Son is the expressionful word. In
  each local universe this inseparability is personalized in the divinity of the
  Creator Son, who stands for both Father and Son to the creatures of ten
  million inhabited worlds.

  6:8.4 The Eternal Son is infinite, but he is approachable through the persons
  of his Paradise Sons and through the patient ministry of the Infinite Spirit.
  Without the bestowal service of the Paradise Sons and the loving ministry of
  the creatures of the Infinite Spirit, beings of material origin could hardly
  hope to attain the Eternal Son. And it is equally true: With the help and
  guidance of these celestial agencies the God-conscious mortal will certainly
  attain Paradise and sometime stand in the personal presence of this majestic
  Son of Sons.



  6:8.5 Even though the Eternal Son is the pattern of mortal personality
  attainment, you find it easier to grasp the reality of both the Father and the
  Spirit because the Father is the actual bestower of your human personality and
  the Infinite Spirit is the absolute source of your mortal mind. But as you
  ascend in the Paradise path of spiritual progression, the personality of the
  Eternal Son will become increasingly real to you, and the reality of his
  infinitely spiritual mind will become more discernible to your progressively
  spiritualizing mind.

  6:8.6 Never can the concept of the Eternal Son shine brightly in your material
  or subsequent morontial mind; not until you spiritize and commence your spirit
  ascension will the comprehension of the personality of the Eternal Son begin
  to equal the vividness of your concept of the personality of the Creator Son
  of Paradise origin who, in person and as a person, onetime incarnated and
  lived on Urantia as a man among men.

  6:8.7 Throughout your local universe experience the Creator Son, whose
  personality is comprehensible by man, must compensate for your inability to
  grasp the full significance of the more exclusively spiritual, but none the
  less personal, Eternal Son of Paradise. As you progress through Orvonton and
  Havona, as you leave behind you the vivid picture and deep memories of the
  Creator Son of your local universe, the passing of this material and morontia
  experience will be compensated by ever-enlarging concepts and intensifying
  comprehension of the Eternal Son of Paradise, whose reality and nearness will
  ever augment as you progress Paradiseward.



  6:8.8 The Eternal Son is a grand and glorious personality. Although it is
  beyond the powers of the mortal and material mind to grasp the actuality of
  the personality of such an infinite being, doubt not, he is a person. I know
  whereof I speak. Times almost without number I have stood in the divine
  presence of this Eternal Son and then journeyed forth in the universe to
  execute his gracious bidding.



  6:8.9 Indited by a Divine Counselor assigned to formulate this statement
  depicting the Eternal Son of Paradise.




PAPER 7


 RELATION OF THE ETERNAL SON TO THE UNIVERSE



  7:0.1 THE Original Son is ever concerned with the execution of the spiritual
  aspects of the Father's eternal purpose as it progressively unfolds in the
  phenomena of the evolving universes with their manifold groups of living
  beings. We do not fully comprehend this eternal plan, but the Paradise Son
  undoubtedly does.

  7:0.2 The Son is like the Father in that he seeks to bestow everything
  possible of himself upon his co-ordinate Sons and upon their subordinate Sons.
  And the Son shares the Father's self-distributive nature in the unstinted
  bestowal of himself upon the Infinite Spirit, their conjoint executive.



  7:0.3 As the upholder of spirit realities, the Second Source and Center is the
  eternal counterpoise of the Isle of Paradise, which so magnificently upholds
  all things material. Thus is the First Source and Center forever revealed in
  the material beauty of the exquisite patterns of the central Isle and in the
  spiritual values of the supernal personality of the Eternal Son.



  7:0.4 The Eternal Son is the actual upholder of the vast creation of spirit
  realities and spiritual beings. The spirit world is the habit, the personal
  conduct, of the Son, and the impersonal realities of spirit nature are always
  responsive to the will and purpose of the perfect personality of the Absolute
  Son.

  7:0.5 The Son is not, however, personally responsible for the conduct of all
  spirit personalities. The will of the personal creature is relatively free and
  hence determines the actions of such volitional beings. Therefore the freewill
  spirit world is not always truly representative of the character of the
  Eternal Son, even as nature on Urantia is not truly revelatory of the
  perfection and immutability of Paradise and Deity. But no matter what may
  characterize the freewill action of man or angel, the Son's eternal grasp of
  the universal gravity control of all spirit realities continues as absolute.





1. THE SPIRIT-GRAVITY CIRCUIT



  7:1.1 Everything taught concerning the immanence of God, his omnipresence,
  omnipotence, and omniscience, is equally true of the Son in the spiritual
  domains. The pure and universal spirit gravity of all creation, this
  exclusively spiritual circuit, leads directly back to the person of the Second
  Source and Center on Paradise. He presides over the control and operation of
  that ever-present and unerring spiritual grasp of all true spirit values. Thus
  does the Eternal Son exercise absolute spiritual sovereignty. He literally
  holds all spirit realities and all spiritualized values, as it were, in the
  hollow of his hand. The control of universal spiritual gravity is universal
  spiritual sovereignty.

  7:1.2 This gravity control of spiritual things operates independently of time
  and space; therefore is spirit energy undiminished in transmission. Spirit
  gravity never suffers time delays, nor does it undergo space diminution. It
  does not decrease in accordance with the square of the distance of its
  transmission; the circuits of pure spirit power are not retarded by the mass
  of the material creation. And this transcendence of time and space by pure
  spirit energies is inherent in the absoluteness of the Son; it is not due to
  the interposition of the antigravity forces of the Third Source and Center.

  7:1.3 Spirit realities respond to the drawing power of the center of spiritual
  gravity in accordance with their qualitative value, their actual degree of
  spirit nature. Spirit substance (quality) is just as responsive to spirit
  gravity as the organized energy of physical matter (quantity) is responsive to
  physical gravity. Spiritual values and spirit forces are real. From the
  viewpoint of personality, spirit is the soul of creation; matter is the
  shadowy physical body.

  7:1.4 The reactions and fluctuations of spirit gravity are ever true to the
  content of spiritual values, the qualitative spiritual status of an individual
  or a world. This drawing power is instantly responsive to the inter- and
  intraspirit values of any universe situation or planetary condition. Every
  time a spiritual reality actualizes in the universes, this change necessitates
  the immediate and instantaneous readjustment of spirit gravity. Such a new
  spirit is actually a part of the Second Source and Center; and just as
  certainly as mortal man becomes a spiritized being, he will attain the
  spiritual Son, the center and source of spirit gravity.



  7:1.5 The Son's spiritual drawing power is inherent to a lesser degree in many
  Paradise orders of sonship. For there do exist within the absolute spirit-
  gravity circuit those local systems of spiritual attraction that function in
  the lesser units of creation. Such subabsolute focalizations of spirit gravity
  are a part of the divinity of the Creator personalities of time and space and
  are correlated with the emerging experiential overcontrol of the Supreme
  Being.

  7:1.6 Spirit-gravity pull and response thereto operate not only on the
  universe as a whole but also even between individuals and groups of
  individuals. There is a spiritual cohesiveness among the spiritual and
  spiritized personalities of any world, race, nation, or believing group of
  individuals. There is a direct attractiveness of a spirit nature between
  spiritually minded persons of like tastes and longings. The term kindred
  spirits is not wholly a figure of speech.



  7:1.7 Like the material gravity of Paradise, the spiritual gravity of the
  Eternal Son is absolute. Sin and rebellion may interfere with the operation of
  local universe circuits, but nothing can suspend the spirit gravity of the
  Eternal Son. The Lucifer rebellion produced many changes in your system of
  inhabited worlds and on Urantia, but we do not observe that the resultant
  spiritual quarantine of your planet in the least affected the presence and
  function of either the omnipresent spirit of the Eternal Son or the associated
  spirit-gravity circuit.



  7:1.8 All reactions of the spirit-gravity circuit of the grand universe are
  predictable. We recognize all actions and reactions of the omnipresent spirit
  of the Eternal Son and find them to be dependable. In accordance with well-
  known laws, we can and do measure spiritual gravity just as man attempts to
  compute the workings of finite physical gravity. There is an unvarying
  response of the Son's spirit to all spirit things, beings, and persons, and
  this response is always in accordance with the degree of actuality (the
  qualitative degree of reality) of all such spiritual values.

  7:1.9 But alongside this very dependable and predictable function of the
  spiritual presence of the Eternal Son, there are encountered phenomena which
  are not so predictable in their reactions. Such phenomena probably indicate
  the co-ordinate action of the Deity Absolute in the realms of emerging
  spiritual potentials. We know that the spirit presence of the Eternal Son is
  the influence of a majestic and infinite personality, but we hardly regard the
  reactions associated with the conjectured performances of the Deity Absolute
  as personal.



  7:1.10 Viewed from the personality standpoint and by persons, the Eternal Son
  and the Deity Absolute appear to be related in the following way: The Eternal
  Son dominates the realm of actual spiritual values, whereas the Deity Absolute
  seems to pervade the vast domain of potential spirit values. All actual value
  of spirit nature finds lodgment in the gravity grasp of the Eternal Son but,
  if potential, then apparently in the presence of the Deity Absolute.

  7:1.11 Spirit seems to emerge from the potentials of the Deity Absolute;
  evolving spirit finds correlation in the experiential and incomplete grasps of
  the Supreme and the Ultimate; spirit eventually finds final destiny in the
  absolute grasp of the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son. This appears to be
  the cycle of experiential spirit, but existential spirit is inherent in the
  infinity of the Second Source and Center.





2. THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE ETERNAL SON



  7:2.1 On Paradise the presence and personal activity of the Original Son is
  profound, absolute in the spiritual sense. As we pass outward from Paradise
  through Havona and into the realms of the seven superuniverses, we detect less
  and less of the personal activity of the Eternal Son. In the post-Havona
  universes the presence of the Eternal Son is personalized in the Paradise
  Sons, conditioned by the experiential realities of the Supreme and the
  Ultimate, and co-ordinated with the unlimited spirit potential of the Deity
  Absolute.

  7:2.2 In the central universe the personal activity of the Original Son is
  discernible in the exquisite spiritual harmony of the eternal creation. Havona
  is so marvelously perfect that the spiritual status and the energy states of
  this pattern universe are in perfect and perpetual balance.

  7:2.3 In the superuniverses the Son is not personally present or resident; in
  these creations he maintains only a superpersonal representation. These spirit
  manifestations of the Son are not personal; they are not in the personality
  circuit of the Universal Father. We know of no better term to use than to
  designate them superpersonalities; and they are finite beings; they are
  neither absonite nor absolute.

  7:2.4 The administration of the Eternal Son in the superuniverses, being
  exclusively spiritual and superpersonal, is not discernible by creature
  personalities. Nonetheless, the all-pervading spiritual urge of the Son's
  personal influence is encountered in every phase of the activities of all
  sectors of the domains of the Ancients of Days. In the local universes,
  however, we observe the Eternal Son personally present in the persons of the
  Paradise Sons. Here the infinite Son spiritually and creatively functions in
  the persons of the majestic corps of the co-ordinate Creator Sons.





3. RELATION OF THE ETERNAL SON TO THE INDIVIDUAL



  7:3.1 In the local universe ascent the mortals of time look to the Creator Son
  as the personal representative of the Eternal Son. But when they begin the
  ascent of the superuniverse training regime, the pilgrims of time increasingly
  detect the supernal presence of the inspiring spirit of the Eternal Son, and
  they are able to profit by the intake of this ministry of spiritual
  energization. In Havona the ascenders become still more conscious of the
  loving embrace of the all-pervading spirit of the Original Son. At no stage of
  the entire mortal ascension does the spirit of the Eternal Son indwell the
  mind or soul of the pilgrim of time, but his beneficence is ever near and
  always concerned with the welfare and spiritual security of the advancing
  children of time.

  7:3.2 The spiritual-gravity pull of the Eternal Son constitutes the inherent
  secret of the Paradise ascension of surviving human souls. All genuine spirit
  values and all bona fide spiritualized individuals are held within the
  unfailing grasp of the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son. The mortal mind,
  for example, initiates its career as a material mechanism and is eventually
  mustered into the Corps of the Finality as a well-nigh perfected spirit
  existence, becoming progressively less subject to material gravity and
  correspondingly more responsive to the inward pulling urge of spirit gravity
  during this entire experience. The spirit-gravity circuit literally pulls the
  soul of man Paradiseward.



  7:3.3 The spirit-gravity circuit is the basic channel for transmitting the
  genuine prayers of the believing human heart from the level of human
  consciousness to the actual consciousness of Deity. That which represents true
  spiritual value in your petitions will be seized by the universal circuit of
  spirit gravity and will pass immediately and simultaneously to all divine
  personalities concerned. Each will occupy himself with that which belongs to
  his personal province. Therefore, in your practical religious experience, it
  is immaterial whether, in addressing your supplications, you visualize the
  Creator Son of your local universe or the Eternal Son at the center of all
  things.



  7:3.4 The discriminative operation of the spirit-gravity circuit might
  possibly be compared to the functions of the neural circuits in the material
  human body: Sensations travel inward over the neural paths; some are detained
  and responded to by the lower automatic spinal centers; others pass on to the
  less automatic but habit-trained centers of the lower brain, while the most
  important and vital incoming messages flash by these subordinate centers and
  are immediately registered in the highest levels of human consciousness.

  7:3.5 But how much more perfect is the superb technique of the spiritual
  world! If anything originates in your consciousness that is fraught with
  supreme spiritual value, when once you give it expression, no power in the
  universe can prevent its flashing directly to the Absolute Spirit Personality
  of all creation.

  7:3.6 Conversely, if your supplications are purely material and wholly self-
  centered, there exists no plan whereby such unworthy prayers can find lodgment
  in the spirit circuit of the Eternal Son. The content of any petition which is
  not "spirit indited" can find no place in the universal spiritual circuit;
  such purely selfish and material requests fall dead; they do not ascend in the
  circuits of true spirit values. Such words are as "sounding brass and a
  tinkling cymbal."

  7:3.7 It is the motivating thought, the spiritual content, that validates the
  mortal supplication. Words are valueless.





4. THE DIVINE PERFECTION PLANS



  7:4.1 The Eternal Son is in everlasting liaison with the Father in the
  successful prosecution of the divine plan of progress: the universal plan for
  the creation, evolution, ascension, and perfection of will creatures. And, in
  divine faithfulness, the Son is the eternal equal of the Father.

  7:4.2 The Father and his Son are as one in the formulation and prosecution of
  this gigantic attainment plan for advancing the material beings of time to the
  perfection of eternity. This project for the spiritual elevation of the
  ascendant souls of space is a joint creation of the Father and the Son, and
  they are, with the co-operation of the Infinite Spirit, engaged in associative
  execution of their divine purpose.



  7:4.3 This divine plan of perfection attainment embraces three unique, though
  marvelously correlated, enterprises of universal adventure:



  7:4.4 1. The Plan of Progressive Attainment. This is the Universal Father's
  plan of evolutionary ascension, a program unreservedly accepted by the Eternal
  Son when he concurred in the Father's proposal, "Let us make mortal creatures
  in our own image." This provision for upstepping the creatures of time
  involves the Father's bestowal of the Thought Adjusters and the endowing of
  material creatures with the prerogatives of personality.



  7:4.5 2. The Bestowal Plan. The next universal plan is the great Father-
  revelation enterprise of the Eternal Son and his co-ordinate Sons. This is the
  proposal of the Eternal Son and consists of his bestowal of the Sons of God
  upon the evolutionary creations, there to personalize and factualize, to
  incarnate and make real, the love of the Father and the mercy of the Son to
  the creatures of all universes. Inherent in the bestowal plan, and as a
  provisional feature of this ministration of love, the Paradise Sons act as
  rehabilitators of that which misguided creature will has placed in spiritual
  jeopardy. Whenever and wherever there occurs a delay in the functioning of the
  attainment plan, if rebellion, perchance, should mar or complicate this
  enterprise, then do the emergency provisions of the bestowal plan become
  active forthwith. The Paradise Sons stand pledged and ready to function as
  retrievers, to go into the very realms of rebellion and there restore the
  spiritual status of the spheres. And such a heroic service a co-ordinate
  Creator Son did perform on Urantia in connection with his experiential
  bestowal career of sovereignty acquirement.



  7:4.6 3. The Plan of Mercy Ministry. When the attainment plan and the bestowal
  plan had been formulated and proclaimed, alone and of himself, the Infinite
  Spirit projected and put in operation the tremendous and universal enterprise
  of mercy ministry. This is the service so essential to the practical and
  effective operation of both the attainment and the bestowal undertakings, and
  the spiritual personalities of the Third Source and Center all partake of the
  spirit of mercy ministry which is so much a part of the nature of the Third
  Person of Deity. Not only in creation but also in administration, the Infinite
  Spirit functions truly and literally as the conjoint executive of the Father
  and the Son.



  7:4.7 The Eternal Son is the personal trustee, the divine custodian, of the
  Father's universal plan of creature ascension. Having promulgated the
  universal mandate, "Be you perfect, even as I am perfect," the Father
  intrusted the execution of this tremendous undertaking to the Eternal Son; and
  the Eternal Son shares the fostering of this supernal enterprise with his
  divine co-ordinate, the Infinite Spirit. Thus do the Deities effectively co-
  operate in the work of creation, control, evolution, revelation, and
  ministration -- and if required, in restoration and rehabilitation.





5. THE SPIRIT OF BESTOWAL



  7:5.1 The Eternal Son without reservation joined with the Universal Father in
  broadcasting that tremendous injunction to all creation: "Be you perfect, even
  as your Father in Havona is perfect." And ever since, that invitation-command
  has motivated all the survival plans and the bestowal projects of the Eternal
  Son and his vast family of co-ordinate and associated Sons. And in these very
  bestowals the Sons of God have become to all evolutionary creatures "the way,
  the truth, and the life."



  7:5.2 The Eternal Son cannot contact directly with human beings as does the
  Father through the gift of the prepersonal Thought Adjusters, but the Eternal
  Son does draw near to created personalities by a series of downstepping
  gradations of divine sonship until he is enabled to stand in man's presence
  and, at times, as man himself.

  7:5.3 The purely personal nature of the Eternal Son is incapable of
  fragmentation. The Eternal Son ministers as a spiritual influence or as a
  person, never otherwise. The Son finds it impossible to become a part of
  creature experience in the sense that the Father-Adjuster participates
  therein, but the Eternal Son compensates this limitation by the technique of
  bestowal. What the experience of fragmented entities means to the Universal
  Father, the incarnation experiences of the Paradise Sons mean to the Eternal
  Son.

  7:5.4 The Eternal Son comes not to mortal man as the divine will, the Thought
  Adjuster indwelling the human mind, but the Eternal Son did come to mortal man
  on Urantia when the divine personality of his Son, Michael of Nebadon,
  incarnated in the human nature of Jesus of Nazareth. To share the experience
  of created personalities, the Paradise Sons of God must assume the very
  natures of such creatures and incarnate their divine personalities as the
  actual creatures themselves. Incarnation, the secret of Sonarington, is the
  technique of the Son's escape from the otherwise all-encompassing fetters of
  personality absolutism.



  7:5.5 Long, long ago the Eternal Son bestowed himself upon each of the
  circuits of the central creation for the enlightenment and advancement of all
  the inhabitants and pilgrims of Havona, including the ascending pilgrims of
  time. On none of these seven bestowals did he function as either an ascender
  or a Havoner. He existed as himself. His experience was unique; it was not
  with or as a human or other pilgrim but in some way associative in the
  superpersonal sense.

  7:5.6 Neither did he pass through the rest that intervenes between the inner
  Havona circuit and the shores of Paradise. It is not possible for him, an
  absolute being, to suspend consciousness of personality, for in him center all
  lines of spiritual gravity. And during the times of these bestowals the
  central Paradise lodgment of spiritual luminosity was undimmed, and the Son's
  grasp of universal spirit gravity was undiminished.



  7:5.7 The bestowals of the Eternal Son in Havona are not within the scope of
  human imagination; they were transcendental. He added to the experience of all
  Havona then and subsequently, but we do not know whether he added to the
  supposed experiential capacity of his existential nature. That would fall
  within the bestowal mystery of the Paradise Sons. We do, however, believe that
  whatever the Eternal Son acquired on these bestowal missions, he has ever
  since retained; but we do not know what it is.



  7:5.8 Whatever our difficulty in comprehending the bestowals of the Second
  Person of Deity, we do comprehend the Havona bestowal of a Son of the Eternal
  Son, who literally passed through the circuits of the central universe and
  actually shared those experiences which constitute an ascender's preparation
  for Deity attainment. This was the original Michael, the first-born Creator
  Son, and he passed through the life experiences of the ascending pilgrims from
  circuit to circuit, personally journeying a stage of each circle with them in
  the days of Grandfanda, the first of all mortals to attain Havona.

  7:5.9 Whatever else this original Michael revealed, he made the transcendent
  bestowal of the Original Mother Son real to the creatures of Havona. So real,
  that forevermore each pilgrim of time who labors in the adventure of making
  the Havona circuits is cheered and strengthened by the certain knowledge that
  the Eternal Son of God seven times abdicated the power and glory of Paradise
  to participate in the experiences of the time-space pilgrims on the seven
  circuits of progressive Havona attainment.



  7:5.10 The Eternal Son is the exemplary inspiration for all the Sons of God in
  their ministrations of bestowal throughout the universes of time and space.
  The co-ordinate Creator Sons and the associate Magisterial Sons, together with
  other unrevealed orders of sonship, all partake of this wonderful willingness
  to bestow themselves upon the varied orders of creature life and as the
  creatures themselves. Therefore, in spirit and because of kinship of nature as
  well as fact of origin, it becomes true that in the bestowal of each Son of
  God upon the worlds of space, in and through and by these bestowals, the
  Eternal Son has bestowed himself upon the intelligent will creatures of the
  universes.

  7:5.11 In spirit and nature, if not in all attributes, each Paradise Son is a
  divinely perfect portraiture of the Original Son. It is literally true,
  whosoever has seen a Paradise Son has seen the Eternal Son of God.





6. THE PARADISE SONS OF GOD



  7:6.1 The lack of a knowledge of the multiple Sons of God is a source of great
  confusion on Urantia. And this ignorance persists in the face of such
  statements as the record of a conclave of these divine personalities: "When
  the Sons of God proclaimed joy, and all of the Morning Stars sang together."
  Every millennium of sector standard time the various orders of the divine Sons
  forgather for their periodic conclaves.

  7:6.2 The Eternal Son is the personal source of the adorable attributes of
  mercy and service which so abundantly characterize all orders of the
  descending Sons of God as they function throughout creation. All the divine
  nature, if not all the infinity of attributes, the Eternal Son unfailingly
  transmits to the Paradise Sons who go out from the eternal Isle to reveal his
  divine character to the universe of universes.

  7:6.3 The Original and Eternal Son is the offspring-person of the "first"
  completed and infinite thought of the Universal Father. Every time the
  Universal Father and the Eternal Son jointly project a new, original,
  identical, unique, and absolute personal thought, that very instant this
  creative idea is perfectly and finally personalized in the being and
  personality of a new and original Creator Son. In spirit nature, divine
  wisdom, and co-ordinate creative power, these Creator Sons are potentially
  equal with God the Father and God the Son.



  7:6.4 The Creator Sons go out from Paradise into the universes of time and,
  with the co-operation of the controlling and creative agencies of the Third
  Source and Center, complete the organization of the local universes of
  progressive evolution. These Sons are not attached to, nor are they concerned
  with, the central and universal controls of matter, mind, and spirit. Hence
  are they limited in their creative acts by the pre-existence, priority, and
  primacy of the First Source and Center and his co-ordinate Absolutes. These
  Sons are able to administer only that which they bring into existence.
  Absolute administration is inherent in priority of existence and is
  inseparable from eternity of presence. The Father remains primal in the
  universes.



  7:6.5 Much as the Creator Sons are personalized by the Father and the Son, so
  are the Magisterial Sons personalized by the Son and the Spirit. These are the
  Sons who, in the experiences of creature incarnation, earn the right to serve
  as the judges of survival in the creations of time and space.



  7:6.6 The Father, Son, and Spirit also unite to personalize the versatile
  Trinity Teacher Sons, who range the grand universe as the supernal teachers of
  all personalities, human and divine. And there are numerous other orders of
  Paradise sonship that have not been brought to the attention of Urantia
  mortals.



  7:6.7 Between the Original Mother Son and these hosts of Paradise Sons
  scattered throughout all creation, there is a direct and exclusive channel of
  communication, a channel whose function is inherent in the quality of
  spiritual kinship which unites them in bonds of near-absolute spiritual
  association. This intersonship circuit is entirely different from the
  universal circuit of spirit gravity, which also centers in the person of the
  Second Source and Center. All Sons of God who take origin in the persons of
  the Paradise Deities are in direct and constant communication with the Eternal
  Mother Son. And such communication is instantaneous; it is independent of time
  though sometimes conditioned by space.

  7:6.8 The Eternal Son not only has at all times perfect knowledge concerning
  the status, thoughts, and manifold activities of all orders of Paradise
  sonship, but he also has perfection of knowledge at all times regarding
  everything of spiritual value which exists in the hearts of all creatures in
  the primary central creation of eternity and in the secondary time creations
  of the co-ordinate Creator Sons.





7. THE SUPREME REVELATION OF THE FATHER



  7:7.1 The Eternal Son is a complete, exclusive, universal, and final
  revelation of the spirit and the personality of the Universal Father. All
  knowledge of, and information concerning, the Father must come from the
  Eternal Son and his Paradise Sons. The Eternal Son is from eternity and is
  wholly and without spiritual qualification one with the Father. In divine
  personality they are co-ordinate; in spiritual nature they are equal; in
  divinity they are identical.

  7:7.2 The character of God could not possibly be intrinsically improved upon
  in the person of the Son, for the divine Father is infinitely perfect, but
  that character and personality are amplified, by divestment of the nonpersonal
  and nonspiritual, for revelation to creature beings. The First Source and
  Center is much more than a personality, but all of the spirit qualities of the
  father personality of the First Source and Center are spiritually present in
  the absolute personality of the Eternal Son.

  7:7.3 The primal Son and his Sons are engaged in making a universal revelation
  of the spiritual and personal nature of the Father to all creation. In the
  central universe, the superuniverses, the local universes, or on the inhabited
  planets, it is a Paradise Son who reveals the Universal Father to men and
  angels. The Eternal Son and his Sons reveal the avenue of creature approach to
  the Universal Father. And even we of high origin understand the Father much
  more fully as we study the revelation of his character and personality in the
  Eternal Son and in the Sons of the Eternal Son.

  7:7.4 The Father comes down to you as a personality only through the divine
  Sons of the Eternal Son. And you attain the Father by this same living way;
  you ascend to the Father by the guidance of this group of divine Sons. And
  this remains true notwithstanding that your very personality is a direct
  bestowal of the Universal Father.



  7:7.5 In all these widespread activities of the far-flung spiritual
  administration of the Eternal Son, do not forget that the Son is a person just
  as truly and actually as the Father is a person. Indeed, to beings of the
  onetime human order the Eternal Son will be more easy to approach than the
  Universal Father. In the progress of the pilgrims of time through the circuits
  of Havona, you will be competent to attain the Son long before you are
  prepared to discern the Father.

  7:7.6 More of the character and merciful nature of the Eternal Son of mercy
  you should comprehend as you meditate on the revelation of these divine
  attributes which was made in loving service by your own Creator Son, onetime
  Son of Man on earth, now the exalted sovereign of your local universe -- the
  Son of Man and the Son of God.



  7:7.7 Indited by a Divine Counselor assigned to formulate this statement
  depicting the Eternal Son of Paradise.




PAPER 8


 THE INFINITE SPIRIT



  8:0.1 BACK in eternity, when the Universal Father's "first" infinite and
  absolute thought finds in the Eternal Son such a perfect and adequate word for
  its divine expression, there ensues the supreme desire of both the Thought-God
  and the Word-God for a universal and infinite agent of mutual expression and
  combined action.

  8:0.2 In the dawn of eternity both the Father and the Son become infinitely
  cognizant of their mutual interdependence, their eternal and absolute oneness;
  and therefore do they enter into an infinite and everlasting covenant of
  divine partnership. This never-ending compact is made for the execution of
  their united concepts throughout all of the circle of eternity; and ever since
  this eternity event the Father and the Son continue in this divine union.

  8:0.3 We are now face to face with the eternity origin of the Infinite Spirit,
  the Third Person of Deity. The very instant that God the Father and God the
  Son conjointly conceive an identical and infinite action -- the execution of
  an absolute thought-plan -- that very moment, the Infinite Spirit springs
  full-fledgedly into existence.



  8:0.4 In thus reciting the order of the origin of the Deities, I do so merely
  to enable you to think of their relationship. In reality they are all three
  existent from eternity; they are existential. They are without beginning or
  ending of days; they are co-ordinate, supreme, ultimate, absolute, and
  infinite. They are and always have been and ever shall be. And they are three
  distinctly individualized but eternally associated persons, God the Father,
  God the Son, and God the Spirit.





1. THE GOD OF ACTION



  8:1.1 In the eternity of the past, upon the personalization of the Infinite
  Spirit the divine personality cycle becomes perfect and complete. The God of
  Action is existent, and the vast stage of space is set for the stupendous
  drama of creation -- the universal adventure -- the divine panorama of the
  eternal ages.

  8:1.2 The first act of the Infinite Spirit is the inspection and recognition
  of his divine parents, the Father-Father and the Mother-Son. He, the Spirit,
  unqualifiedly identifies both of them. He is fully cognizant of their separate
  personalities and infinite attributes as well as of their combined nature and
  united function. Next, voluntarily, with transcendent willingness and
  inspiring spontaneity, the Third Person of Deity, notwithstanding his equality
  with the First and Second Persons, pledges eternal loyalty to God the Father
  and acknowledges everlasting dependence upon God the Son.

  8:1.3 Inherent in the nature of this transaction and in mutual recognition of
  the personality independence of each and the executive union of all three, the
  cycle of eternity is established. The Paradise Trinity is existent. The stage
  of universal space is set for the manifold and never-ending panorama of the
  creative unfolding of the purpose of the Universal Father through the
  personality of the Eternal Son and by the execution of the God of Action, the
  executive agency for the reality performances of the Father-Son creator
  partnership.



  8:1.4 The God of Action functions and the dead vaults of space are astir. One
  billion perfect spheres flash into existence. Prior to this hypothetical
  eternity moment the space-energies inherent in Paradise are existent and
  potentially operative, but they have no actuality of being; neither can
  physical gravity be measured except by the reaction of material realities to
  its incessant pull. There is no material universe at this (assumed) eternally
  distant moment, but the very instant that one billion worlds materialize,
  there is in evidence gravity sufficient and adequate to hold them in the
  everlasting grasp of Paradise.

  8:1.5 There now flashes through the creation of the Gods the second form of
  energy, and this outflowing spirit is instantly grasped by the spiritual
  gravity of the Eternal Son. Thus the twofold gravity-embraced universe is
  touched with the energy of infinity and immersed in the spirit of divinity. In
  this way is the soil of life prepared for the consciousness of mind made
  manifest in the associated intelligence circuits of the Infinite Spirit.

  8:1.6 Upon these seeds of potential existence, diffused throughout the central
  creation of the Gods, the Father acts, and creature personality appears. Then
  does the presence of the Paradise Deities fill all organized space and begin
  effectively to draw all things and beings Paradiseward.



  8:1.7 The Infinite Spirit eternalizes concurrently with the birth of the
  Havona worlds, this central universe being created by him and with him and in
  him in obedience to the combined concepts and united wills of the Father and
  the Son. The Third Person deitizes by this very act of conjoint creation, and
  he thus forever becomes the Conjoint Creator.



  8:1.8 These are the grand and awful times of the creative expansion of the
  Father and the Son by, and in, the action of their conjoint associate and
  exclusive executive, the Third Source and Center. There exists no record of
  these stirring times. We have only the meager disclosures of the Infinite
  Spirit to substantiate these mighty transactions, and he merely verifies the
  fact that the central universe and all that pertains thereto eternalized
  simultaneously with his attainment of personality and conscious existence.

  8:1.9 In brief, the Infinite Spirit testifies that, since he is eternal, so
  also is the central universe eternal. And this is the traditional starting
  point of the history of the universe of universes. Absolutely nothing is
  known, and no records are in existence, regarding any event or transaction
  prior to this stupendous eruption of creative energy and administrative wisdom
  that crystallized the vast universe which exists, and so exquisitely
  functions, at the center of all things. Beyond this event lie the unsearchable
  transactions of eternity and the depths of infinity -- absolute mystery.



  8:1.10 And we thus portray the sequential origin of the Third Source and
  Center as an interpretative condescension to the time-bound and space-
  conditioned mind of mortal creatures. The mind of man must have a starting
  point for the visualization of universe history, and I have been directed to
  provide this technique of approach to the historic concept of eternity. In the
  material mind, consistency demands a First Cause; therefore do we postulate
  the Universal Father as the First Source and the Absolute Center of all
  creation, at the same time instructing all creature minds that the Son and the
  Spirit are coeternal with the Father in all phases of universe history and in
  all realms of creative activity. And we do this without in any sense being
  disregardful of the reality and eternity of the Isle of Paradise and of the
  Unqualified, Universal, and Deity Absolutes.

  8:1.11 It is enough of a reach of the material mind of the children of time to
  conceive of the Father in eternity. We know that any child can best relate
  himself to reality by first mastering the relationships of the child-parent
  situation and then by enlarging this concept to embrace the family as a whole.
  Subsequently the growing mind of the child will be able to adjust to the
  concept of family relations, to relationships of the community, the race, and
  the world, and then to those of the universe, the superuniverse, even the
  universe of universes.





2. NATURE OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT



  8:2.1 The Conjoint Creator is from eternity and is wholly and without
  qualification one with the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The Infinite
  Spirit reflects in perfection not only the nature of the Paradise Father but
  also the nature of the Original Son.



  8:2.2 The Third Source and Center is known by numerous titles: the Universal
  Spirit, the Supreme Guide, the Conjoint Creator, the Divine Executive, the
  Infinite Mind, the Spirit of Spirits, the Paradise Mother Spirit, the Conjoint
  Actor, the Final Co-ordinator, the Omnipresent Spirit, the Absolute
  Intelligence, the Divine Action; and on Urantia he is sometimes confused with
  the cosmic mind.

  8:2.3 It is altogether proper to denominate the Third Person of Deity the
  Infinite Spirit, for God is spirit. But material creatures who tend towards
  the error of viewing matter as basic reality and mind, together with spirit,
  as postulates rooted in matter, would better comprehend the Third Source and
  Center if he were called the Infinite Reality, the Universal Organizer, or the
  Personality Co-ordinator.



  8:2.4 The Infinite Spirit, as a universe revelation of divinity, is
  unsearchable and utterly beyond human comprehension. To sense the absoluteness
  of the Spirit, you need only contemplate the infinity of the Universal Father
  and stand in awe of the eternity of the Original Son.



  8:2.5 There is mystery indeed in the person of the Infinite Spirit but not so
  much as in the Father and the Son. Of all aspects of the Father's nature, the
  Conjoint Creator most strikingly discloses his infinity. Even if the master
  universe eventually expands to infinity, the spirit presence, energy control,
  and mind potential of the Conjoint Actor will be found adequate to meet the
  demands of such a limitless creation.

  8:2.6 Though in every way sharing the perfection, the righteousness, and the
  love of the Universal Father, the Infinite Spirit inclines towards the mercy
  attributes of the Eternal Son, thus becoming the mercy minister of the
  Paradise Deities to the grand universe. Ever and always -- universally and
  eternally -- the Spirit is a mercy minister, for, as the divine Sons reveal
  the love of God, so the divine Spirit depicts the mercy of God.

  8:2.7 It is not possible that the Spirit could have more of goodness than the
  Father since all goodness takes origin in the Father, but in the acts of the
  Spirit we can the better comprehend such goodness. The Father's faithfulness
  and the Son's constancy are made very real to the spirit beings and the
  material creatures of the spheres by the loving ministry and ceaseless service
  of the personalities of the Infinite Spirit.

  8:2.8 The Conjoint Creator inherits all the Father's beauty of thought and
  character of truth. And these sublime traits of divinity are co-ordinated in
  the near-supreme levels of the cosmic mind in subordination to the infinite
  and eternal wisdom of the unconditioned and limitless mind of the Third Source
  and Center.





3. RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER AND THE SON



  8:3.1 As the Eternal Son is the word expression of the "first" absolute and
  infinite thought of the Universal Father, so the Conjoint Actor is the perfect
  execution of the "first" completed creative concept or plan for combined
  action by the Father-Son personality partnership of absolute thought-word
  union. The Third Source and Center eternalizes concurrently with the central
  or fiat creation, and only this central creation is eternal in existence among
  universes.

  8:3.2 Since the personalization of the Third Source, the First Source no more
  personally participates in universe creation. The Universal Father delegates
  everything possible to his Eternal Son; likewise does the Eternal Son bestow
  all possible authority and power upon the Conjoint Creator.

  8:3.3 The Eternal Son and the Conjoint Creator have, as partners and through
  their co-ordinate personalities, planned and fashioned every post-Havona
  universe which has been brought into existence. The Spirit sustains the same
  personal relation to the Son in all subsequent creation that the Son sustains
  to the Father in the first and central creation.

  8:3.4 A Creator Son of the Eternal Son and a Creative Spirit of the Infinite
  Spirit created you and your universe; and while the Father in faithfulness
  upholds that which they have organized, it devolves upon this Universe Son and
  this Universe Spirit to foster and sustain their work as well as to minister
  to the creatures of their own making.



  8:3.5 The Infinite Spirit is the effective agent of the all-loving Father and
  the all-merciful Son for the execution of their conjoint project of drawing to
  themselves all truth-loving souls on all the worlds of time and space. The
  very instant the Eternal Son accepted his Father's plan of perfection
  attainment for the creatures of the universes, the moment the ascension
  project became a Father-Son plan, that instant the Infinite Spirit became the
  conjoint administrator of the Father and the Son for the execution of their
  united and eternal purpose. And in so doing the Infinite Spirit pledged all
  his resources of divine presence and of spirit personalities to the Father and
  the Son; he has dedicated all to the stupendous plan of exalting surviving
  will creatures to the divine heights of Paradise perfection.

  8:3.6 The Infinite Spirit is a complete, exclusive, and universal revelation
  of the Universal Father and his Eternal Son. All knowledge of the Father-Son
  partnership must be had through the Infinite Spirit, the conjoint
  representative of the divine thought-word union.

  8:3.7 The Eternal Son is the only avenue of approach to the Universal Father,
  and the Infinite Spirit is the only means of attaining the Eternal Son. Only
  by the patient ministry of the Spirit are the ascendant beings of time able to
  discover the Son.

  8:3.8 At the center of all things the Infinite Spirit is the first of the
  Paradise Deities to be attained by the ascending pilgrims. The Third Person
  enshrouds the Second and the First Persons and therefore must always be first
  recognized by all who are candidates for presentation to the Son and his
  Father.

  8:3.9 And in many other ways does the Spirit equally represent and similarly
  serve the Father and the Son.





4. THE SPIRIT OF DIVINE MINISTRY



  8:4.1 Paralleling the physical universe wherein Paradise gravity holds all
  things together is the spiritual universe wherein the word of the Son
  interprets the thought of God and, when "made flesh," demonstrates the loving
  mercy of the combined nature of the associated Creators. But in and through
  all this material and spiritual creation there is a vast stage whereon the
  Infinite Spirit and his spirit offspring show forth the combined mercy,
  patience, and everlasting affection of the divine parents towards the
  intelligent children of their co-operative devising and making. Everlasting
  ministry to mind is the essence of the Spirit's divine character. And all the
  spirit offspring of the Conjoint Actor partake of this desire to minister,
  this divine urge to service.

  8:4.2 God is love, the Son is mercy, the Spirit is ministry -- the ministry of
  divine love and endless mercy to all intelligent creation. The Spirit is the
  personification of the Father's love and the Son's mercy; in him are they
  eternally united for universal service. The Spirit is love applied to the
  creature creation, the combined love of the Father and the Son.

  8:4.3 On Urantia the Infinite Spirit is known as an omnipresent influence, a
  universal presence, but in Havona you shall know him as a personal presence of
  actual ministry. Here the ministry of the Paradise Spirit is the exemplary and
  inspiring pattern for each of his co-ordinate Spirits and subordinate
  personalities ministering to the created beings on the worlds of time and
  space. In this divine universe the Infinite Spirit fully participated in the
  seven transcendental appearances of the Eternal Son; likewise did he
  participate with the original Michael Son in the seven bestowals upon the
  circuits of Havona, thereby becoming the sympathetic and understanding spirit
  minister to every pilgrim of time traversing these perfect circles on high.



  8:4.4 When a Creator Son of God accepts the creatorship charge of
  responsibility for a projected local universe, the personalities of the
  Infinite Spirit pledge themselves as the tireless ministers of this Michael
  Son when he goes forth on his mission of creative adventure. Especially in the
  persons of the Creative Daughters, the local universe Mother Spirits, do we
  find the Infinite Spirit devoted to the task of fostering the ascension of the
  material creatures to higher and higher levels of spiritual attainment. And
  all this work of creature ministry is done in perfect harmony with the
  purposes, and in close association with the personalities, of the Creator Sons
  of these local universes.

  8:4.5 As the Sons of God are engaged in the gigantic task of revealing the
  Father's personality of love to a universe, so is the Infinite Spirit
  dedicated to the unending ministry of revealing the combined love of the
  Father and the Son to the individual minds of all the children of each
  universe. In these local creations the Spirit does not come down to the
  material races in the likeness of mortal flesh as do certain of the Sons of
  God, but the Infinite Spirit and his co-ordinate Spirits do downstep
  themselves, do joyfully undergo an amazing series of divinity attenuations,
  until they appear as angels to stand by your side and guide you through the
  lowly paths of earthly existence.

  8:4.6 By this very diminishing series the Infinite Spirit does actually, and
  as a person, draw very near to every being of the animal-origin spheres. And
  all this the Spirit does without in the least invalidating his existence as
  the Third Person of Deity at the center of all things.



  8:4.7 The Conjoint Creator is truly and forever the great ministering
  personality, the universal mercy minister. To comprehend the ministry of the
  Spirit, ponder the truth that he is the combined portrayal of the Father's
  unending love and of the Son's eternal mercy. The Spirit's ministry is not,
  however, restricted solely to the representation of the Eternal Son and the
  Universal Father. The Infinite Spirit also possesses the power to minister to
  the creatures of the realm in his own name and right; the Third Person is of
  divine dignity and also bestows the universal ministry of mercy in his own
  behalf.

  8:4.8 As man learns more of the loving and tireless ministry of the lower
  orders of the creature family of this Infinite Spirit, he will all the more
  admire and adore the transcendent nature and matchless character of this
  combined Action of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. Indeed is this
  Spirit "the eyes of the Lord which are ever over the righteous" and "the
  divine ears which are ever open to their prayers."





5. THE PRESENCE OF GOD



  8:5.1 The outstanding attribute of the Infinite Spirit is omnipresence.
  Throughout all the universe of universes there is everywhere present this all-
  pervading spirit, which is so akin to the presence of a universal and divine
  mind. Both the Second Person and the Third Person of Deity are represented on
  all worlds by their ever-present spirits.

  8:5.2 The Father is infinite and is therefore limited only by volition. In the
  bestowal of Adjusters and in the encircuitment of personality, the Father acts
  alone, but in the contact of spirit forces with intelligent beings, he
  utilizes the spirits and personalities of the Eternal Son and the Infinite
  Spirit. He is at will spiritually present equally with the Son or with the
  Conjoint Actor; he is present with the Son and in the Spirit. The Father is
  most certainly everywhere present, and we discern his presence by and through
  any and all of these diverse but associated forces, influences, and presences.



  8:5.3 In your sacred writings the term Spirit of God seems to be used
  interchangeably to designate both the Infinite Spirit on Paradise and the
  Creative Spirit of your local universe. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual
  circuit of this Creative Daughter of the Paradise Infinite Spirit. The Holy
  Spirit is a circuit indigenous to each local universe and is confined to the
  spiritual realm of that creation; but the Infinite Spirit is omnipresent.



  8:5.4 There are many spiritual influences, and they are all as one. Even the
  work of the Thought Adjusters, though independent of all other influences,
  unvaryingly coincides with the spirit ministry of the combined influences of
  the Infinite Spirit and a local universe Mother Spirit. As these spiritual
  presences operate in the lives of Urantians, they cannot be segregated. In
  your minds and upon your souls they function as one spirit, notwithstanding
  their diverse origins. And as this united spiritual ministration is
  experienced, it becomes to you the influence of the Supreme, "who is ever able
  to keep you from failing and to present you blameless before your Father on
  high."

  8:5.5 Ever remember that the Infinite Spirit is the Conjoint Actor; both the
  Father and the Son are functioning in and through him; he is present not only
  as himself but also as the Father and as the Son and as the Father-Son. In
  recognition of this and for many additional reasons the spirit presence of the
  Infinite Spirit is often referred to as "the spirit of God."

  8:5.6 It would also be consistent to refer to the liaison of all spiritual
  ministry as the spirit of God, for such a liaison is truly the union of the
  spirits of God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and God the Sevenfold
  -- even the spirit of God the Supreme.





6. PERSONALITY OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT



  8:6.1 Do not allow the widespread bestowal and the far-flung distribution of
  the Third Source and Center to obscure or otherwise detract from the fact of
  his personality. The Infinite Spirit is a universe presence, an eternal
  action, a cosmic power, a holy influence, and a universal mind; he is all of
  these and infinitely more, but he is also a true and divine personality.

  8:6.2 The Infinite Spirit is a complete and perfect personality, the divine
  equal and co-ordinate of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The
  Conjoint Creator is just as real and visible to the higher intelligences of
  the universes as are the Father and the Son; indeed more so, for it is the
  Spirit whom all ascenders must attain before they may approach the Father
  through the Son.

  8:6.3 The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity, is possessed of all the
  attributes which you associate with personality. The Spirit is endowed with
  absolute mind: "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God."
  The Spirit is endowed not only with mind but also with will. In the bestowal
  of his gifts it is recorded: "But all these works that one and the selfsame
  Spirit, dividing to every man severally and as he wills."

  8:6.4 "The love of the Spirit" is real, as also are his sorrows; therefore
  "Grieve not the Spirit of God." Whether we observe the Infinite Spirit as
  Paradise Deity or as a local universe Creative Spirit, we find that the
  Conjoint Creator is not only the Third Source and Center but also a divine
  person. This divine personality also reacts to the universe as a person. The
  Spirit speaks to you, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says."
  "The Spirit himself makes intercession for you." The Spirit exerts a direct
  and personal influence upon created beings, "For as many as are led by the
  Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."

  8:6.5 Even though we behold the phenomenon of the ministry of the Infinite
  Spirit to the remote worlds of the universe of universes, even though we
  envisage this same co-ordinating Deity acting in and through the untold
  legions of the manifold beings who take origin in the Third Source and Center,
  even though we recognize the omnipresence of the Spirit, nonetheless, we still
  affirm that this same Third Source and Center is a person, the Conjoint
  Creator of all things and all beings and all universes.



  8:6.6 In the administration of universes the Father, Son, and Spirit are
  perfectly and eternally interassociated. Though each is engaged in a personal
  ministry to all creation, all three are divinely and absolutely interlocked in
  a service of creation and control which forever makes them one.

  8:6.7 In the person of the Infinite Spirit the Father and the Son are mutually
  present, always and in unqualified perfection, for the Spirit is like the
  Father and like the Son, and also like the Father and the Son as they two are
  forever one.



  8:6.8 Presented on Urantia by a Divine Counselor of Uversa commissioned by the
  Ancients of Days to portray the nature and work of the Infinite Spirit.




 PAPER 9


 RELATION OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT TO THE UNIVERSE



  9:0.1 A STRANGE thing occurred when, in the presence of Paradise, the
  Universal Father and the Eternal Son unite to personalize themselves. Nothing
  in this eternity situation foreshadows that the Conjoint Actor would
  personalize as an unlimited spirituality co-ordinated with absolute mind and
  endowed with unique prerogatives of energy manipulation. His coming into being
  completes the Father's liberation from the bonds of centralized perfection and
  from the fetters of personality absolutism. And this liberation is disclosed
  in the amazing power of the Conjoint Creator to create beings well adapted to
  serve as ministering spirits even to the material creatures of the
  subsequently evolving universes.



  9:0.2 The Father is infinite in love and volition, in spiritual thought and
  purpose; he is the universal upholder. The Son is infinite in wisdom and
  truth, in spiritual expression and interpretation; he is the universal
  revealer. Paradise is infinite in potential for force endowment and in
  capacity for energy dominance; it is the universal stabilizer. The Conjoint
  Actor possesses unique prerogatives of synthesis, infinite capacity to co-
  ordinate all existing universe energies, all actual universe spirits, and all
  real universe intellects; the Third Source and Center is the universal unifier
  of the manifold energies and diverse creations which have appeared in
  consequence of the divine plan and the eternal purpose of the Universal
  Father.

  9:0.3 The Infinite Spirit, the Conjoint Creator, is a universal and divine
  minister. The Spirit unceasingly ministers the Son's mercy and the Father's
  love, even in harmony with the stable, unvarying, and righteous justice of the
  Paradise Trinity. His influence and personalities are ever near you; they
  really know and truly understand you.

  9:0.4 Throughout the universes the agencies of the Conjoint Actor ceaselessly
  manipulate the forces and energies of all space. Like the First Source and
  Center, the Third is responsive to both the spiritual and the material. The
  Conjoint Actor is the revelation of the unity of God, in whom all things
  consist -- things, meanings, and values; energies, minds, and spirits.



  9:0.5 The Infinite Spirit pervades all space; he indwells the circle of
  eternity; and the Spirit, like the Father and the Son, is perfect and
  changeless -- absolute.





1. ATTRIBUTES OF THE THIRD SOURCE AND CENTER



  9:1.1 The Third Source and Center is known by many names, all designative of
  relationship and in recognition of function: As God the Spirit, he is the
  personality co-ordinate and divine equal of God the Son and God the Father. As
  the Infinite Spirit, he is an omnipresent spiritual influence. As the
  Universal Manipulator, he is the ancestor of the power-control creatures and
  the activator of the cosmic forces of space. As the Conjoint Actor, he is the
  joint representative and partnership executive of the Father-Son. As the
  Absolute Mind, he is the source of the endowment of intellect throughout the
  universes. As the God of Action, he is the apparent ancestor of motion,
  change, and relationship.

  9:1.2 Some of the attributes of the Third Source and Center are derived from
  the Father, some from the Son, while still others are not observed to be
  actively and personally present in either the Father or the Son -- attributes
  that can hardly be explained except by assuming that the Father-Son
  partnership which eternalizes the Third Source and Center consistently
  functions in consonance with, and in recognition of, the eternal fact of the
  absoluteness of Paradise. The Conjoint Creator embodies the fullness of the
  combined and infinite concepts of the First and Second Persons of Deity.



  9:1.3 While you envisage the Father as an original creator and the Son as a
  spiritual administrator, you should think of the Third Source and Center as a
  universal co-ordinator, a minister of unlimited co-operation. The Conjoint
  Actor is the correlator of all actual reality; he is the Deity repository of
  the Father's thought and the Son's word and in action is eternally regardful
  of the material absoluteness of the central Isle. The Paradise Trinity has
  ordained the universal order of progress, and the providence of God is the
  domain of the Conjoint Creator and the evolving Supreme Being. No actual or
  actualizing reality can escape eventual relationship with the Third Source and
  Center.



  9:1.4 The Universal Father presides over the realms of pre-energy, prespirit,
  and personality; the Eternal Son dominates the spheres of spiritual
  activities; the presence of the Isle of Paradise unifies the domain of
  physical energy and materializing power; the Conjoint Actor operates not only
  as an infinite spirit representing the Son but also as a universal manipulator
  of the forces and energies of Paradise, thus bringing into existence the
  universal and absolute mind. The Conjoint Actor functions throughout the grand
  universe as a positive and distinct personality, especially in the higher
  spheres of spiritual values, physical-energy relationships, and true mind
  meanings. He functions specifically wherever and whenever energy and spirit
  associate and interact; he dominates all reactions with mind, wields great
  power in the spiritual world, and exerts a mighty influence over energy and
  matter. At all times the Third Source is expressive of the nature of the First
  Source and Center.



  9:1.5 The Third Source and Center perfectly and without qualification shares
  the omnipresence of the First Source and Center, sometimes being called the
  Omnipresent Spirit. In a peculiar and very personal manner the God of mind
  shares the omniscience of the Universal Father and his Eternal Son; the
  knowledge of the Spirit is profound and complete. The Conjoint Creator
  manifests certain phases of the omnipotence of the Universal Father but is
  actually omnipotent only in the domain of mind. The Third Person of Deity is
  the intellectual center and the universal administrator of the mind realms;
  herein is he absolute -- his sovereignty is unqualified.

  9:1.6 The Conjoint Actor seems to be motivated by the Father-Son partnership,
  but all his actions appear to recognize the Father-Paradise relationship. At
  times and in certain functions he seems to compensate for the incompleteness
  of the development of the experiential Deities -- God the Supreme and God the
  Ultimate.



  9:1.7 And herein is an infinite mystery: That the Infinite simultaneously
  revealed his infinity in the Son and as Paradise, and then there springs into
  existence a being equal to God in divinity, reflective of the Son's spiritual
  nature, and capable of activating the Paradise pattern, a being provisionally
  subordinate in sovereignty but in many ways apparently the most versatile in
  action. And such apparent superiority in action is disclosed in an attribute
  of the Third Source and Center which is superior even to physical gravity --
  the universal manifestation of the Isle of Paradise.

  9:1.8 In addition to this supercontrol of energy and things physical, the
  Infinite Spirit is superbly endowed with those attributes of patience, mercy,
  and love which are so exquisitely revealed in his spiritual ministry. The
  Spirit is supremely competent to minister love and to overshadow justice with
  mercy. God the Spirit possesses all the supernal kindness and merciful
  affection of the Original and Eternal Son. The universe of your origin is
  being forged out between the anvil of justice and the hammer of suffering; but
  those who wield the hammer are the children of mercy, the spirit offspring of
  the Infinite Spirit.





2. THE OMNIPRESENT SPIRIT



  9:2.1 God is spirit in a threefold sense: He himself is spirit; in his Son he
  appears as spirit without qualification; in the Conjoint Actor, as spirit
  allied with mind. And in addition to these spiritual realities, we think we
  discern levels of experiential spirit phenomena -- the spirits of the Supreme
  Being, Ultimate Deity, and Deity Absolute.

  9:2.2 The Infinite Spirit is just as much a complement of the Eternal Son as
  the Son is a complement of the Universal Father. The Eternal Son is a
  spiritualized personalization of the Father; the Infinite Spirit is a
  personalized spiritualization of the Eternal Son and the Universal Father.

  9:2.3 There are many untrammeled lines of spiritual force and sources of
  supermaterial power linking the people of Urantia directly with the Deities of
  Paradise. There exist the connection of the Thought Adjusters direct with the
  Universal Father, the widespread influence of the spiritual-gravity urge of
  the Eternal Son, and the spiritual presence of the Conjoint Creator. There is
  a difference in function between the spirit of the Son and the spirit of the
  Spirit. The Third Person in his spiritual ministry may function as mind plus
  spirit or as spirit alone.

  9:2.4 In addition to these Paradise presences, Urantians benefit by the
  spiritual influences and activities of the local and the superuniverse, with
  their almost endless array of loving personalities who ever lead the true of
  purpose and the honest of heart upward and inward towards the ideals of
  divinity and the goal of supreme perfection.

  9:2.5 The presence of the universal spirit of the Eternal Son we know -- we
  can unmistakably recognize it. The presence of the Infinite Spirit, the Third
  Person of Deity, even mortal man may know, for material creatures can actually
  experience the beneficence of this divine influence which functions as the
  Holy Spirit of local universe bestowal upon the races of mankind. Human beings
  can also in some degree become conscious of the Adjuster, the impersonal
  presence of the Universal Father. These divine spirits which work for man's
  uplifting and spiritualization all act in unison and in perfect co-operation.
  They are as one in the spiritual operation of the plans of mortal ascension
  and perfection attainment.





3. THE UNIVERSAL MANIPULATOR



  9:3.1 The Isle of Paradise is the source and substance of physical gravity;
  and that should be sufficient to inform you that gravity is one of the most
  real and eternally dependable things in the whole physical universe of
  universes. Gravity cannot be modified or annulled except by the forces and
  energies conjointly sponsored by the Father and the Son, which have been
  intrusted to, and are functionally associated with, the person of the Third
  Source and Center.



  9:3.2 The Infinite Spirit possesses a unique and amazing power -- antigravity.
  This power is not functionally (observably) present in either the Father or
  the Son. This ability to withstand the pull of material gravity, inherent in
  the Third Source, is revealed in the personal reactions of the Conjoint Actor
  to certain phases of universe relationships. And this unique attribute is
  transmissible to certain of the higher personalities of the Infinite Spirit.



  9:3.3 Antigravity can annul gravity within a local frame; it does so by the
  exercise of equal force presence. It operates only with reference to material
  gravity, and it is not the action of mind. The gravity-resistant phenomenon of
  a gyroscope is a fair illustration of the effect of antigravity but of no
  value to illustrate the cause of antigravity.

  9:3.4 Still further does the Conjoint Actor display powers which can transcend
  force and neutralize energy. Such powers operate by slowing down energy to the
  point of materialization and by other techniques unknown to you.



  9:3.5 The Conjoint Creator is not energy nor the source of energy nor the
  destiny of energy; he is the manipulator of energy. The Conjoint Creator is
  action -- motion, change, modification, co-ordination, stabilization, and
  equilibrium. The energies subject to the direct or indirect control of
  Paradise are by nature responsive to the acts of the Third Source and Center
  and his manifold agencies.

  9:3.6 The universe of universes is permeated by the power-control creatures of
  the Third Source and Center: physical controllers, power directors, power
  centers, and other representatives of the God of Action who have to do with
  the regulation and stabilization of physical energies. These unique creatures
  of physical function all possess varying attributes of power control, such as
  antigravity, which they utilize in their efforts to establish the physical
  equilibrium of the matter and energies of the grand universe.

  9:3.7 All these material activities of the God of Action appear to relate his
  function to the Isle of Paradise, and indeed the agencies of power are all
  regardful of, even dependent on, the absoluteness of the eternal Isle. But the
  Conjoint Actor does not act for, or in response to, Paradise. He acts,
  personally, for the Father and the Son. Paradise is not a person. The
  nonpersonal, impersonal, and otherwise not personal doings of the Third Source
  and Center are all volitional acts of the Conjoint Actor himself; they are not
  reflections, derivations, or repercussions of anything or anybody.

  9:3.8 Paradise is the pattern of infinity; the God of Action is the activator
  of that pattern. Paradise is the material fulcrum of infinity; the agencies of
  the Third Source and Center are the levers of intelligence which motivate the
  material level and inject spontaneity into the mechanism of the physical
  creation.





4. THE ABSOLUTE MIND



  9:4.1 There is an intellectual nature of the Third Source and Center that is
  distinct from his physical and spiritual attributes. Such a nature is hardly
  contactable, but it is associable -- intellectually though not personally. It
  is distinguishable from the physical attributes and the spiritual character of
  the Third Person on mind levels of function, but to the discernment of
  personalities this nature never functions independently of physical or
  spiritual manifestations.

  9:4.2 The absolute mind is the mind of the Third Person; it is inseparable
  from the personality of God the Spirit. Mind, in functioning beings, is not
  separated from energy or spirit, or both. Mind is not inherent in energy;
  energy is receptive and responsive to mind; mind can be superimposed upon
  energy, but consciousness is not inherent in the purely material level. Mind
  does not have to be added to pure spirit, for spirit is innately conscious and
  identifying. Spirit is always intelligent, minded in some way. It may be this
  mind or that mind, it may be premind or supermind, even spirit mind, but it
  does the equivalent of thinking and knowing. The insight of spirit transcends,
  supervenes, and theoretically antedates the consciousness of mind.



  9:4.3 The Conjoint Creator is absolute only in the domain of mind, in the
  realms of universal intelligence. The mind of the Third Source and Center is
  infinite; it utterly transcends the active and functioning mind circuits of
  the universe of universes. The mind endowment of the seven superuniverses is
  derived from the Seven Master Spirits, the primary personalities of the
  Conjoint Creator. These Master Spirits distribute mind to the grand universe
  as the cosmic mind, and your local universe is pervaded by the Nebadon variant
  of the Orvonton type of cosmic mind.

  9:4.4 Infinite mind ignores time, ultimate mind transcends time, cosmic mind
  is conditioned by time. And so with space: The Infinite Mind is independent of
  space, but as descent is made from the infinite to the adjutant levels of
  mind, intellect must increasingly reckon with the fact and limitations of
  space.



  9:4.5 Cosmic force responds to mind even as cosmic mind responds to spirit.
  Spirit is divine purpose, and spirit mind is divine purpose in action. Energy
  is thing, mind is meaning, spirit is value. Even in time and space, mind
  establishes those relative relationships between energy and spirit which are
  suggestive of mutual kinship in eternity.

  9:4.6 Mind transmutes the values of spirit into the meanings of intellect;
  volition has power to bring the meanings of mind to fruit in both the material
  and spiritual domains. The Paradise ascent involves a relative and
  differential growth in spirit, mind, and energy. The personality is the
  unifier of these components of experiential individuality.





5. THE MINISTRY OF MIND



  9:5.1 The Third Source and Center is infinite in mind. If the universe should
  grow to infinity, still his mind potential would be adequate to endow
  limitless numbers of creatures with suitable minds and other prerequisites of
  intellect.

  9:5.2 In the domain of created mind the Third Person, with his co-ordinate and
  subordinate associates, rules supreme. The realms of creature mind are of
  exclusive origin in the Third Source and Center; he is the bestower of mind.
  Even the Father fragments find it impossible to indwell the minds of men until
  the way has been properly prepared for them by the mind action and spiritual
  function of the Infinite Spirit.

  9:5.3 The unique feature of mind is that it can be bestowed upon such a wide
  range of life. Through his creative and creature associates the Third Source
  and Center ministers to all minds on all spheres. He ministers to human and
  subhuman intellect through the adjutants of the local universes and, through
  the agency of the physical controllers, ministers even to the lowest
  nonexperiencing entities of the most primitive types of living things. And
  always is the direction of mind a ministry of mind-spirit or mind-energy
  personalities.



  9:5.4 Since the Third Person of Deity is the source of mind, it is quite
  natural that the evolutionary will creatures find it easier to form
  comprehensible concepts of the Infinite Spirit than they do of either the
  Eternal Son or the Universal Father. The reality of the Conjoint Creator is
  disclosed imperfectly in the very existence of human mind. The Conjoint
  Creator is the ancestor of the cosmic mind, and the mind of man is an
  individualized circuit, an impersonal portion, of that cosmic mind as it is
  bestowed in a local universe by a Creative Daughter of the Third Source and
  Center.



  9:5.5 Because the Third Person is the source of mind, do not presume to reckon
  that all phenomena of mind are divine. Human intellect is rooted in the
  material origin of the animal races. Universe intelligence is no more a true
  revelation of God who is mind than is physical nature a true revelation of the
  beauty and harmony of Paradise. Perfection is in nature, but nature is not
  perfect. The Conjoint Creator is the source of mind, but mind is not the
  Conjoint Creator.

  9:5.6 Mind, on Urantia, is a compromise between the essence of thought
  perfection and the evolving mentality of your immature human nature. The plan
  for your intellectual evolution is, indeed, one of sublime perfection, but you
  are far short of that divine goal as you function in the tabernacles of the
  flesh. Mind is truly of divine origin, and it does have a divine destiny, but
  your mortal minds are not yet of divine dignity.

  9:5.7 Too often, all too often, you mar your minds by insincerity and sear
  them with unrighteousness; you subject them to animal fear and distort them by
  useless anxiety. Therefore, though the source of mind is divine, mind as you
  know it on your world of ascension can hardly become the object of great
  admiration, much less of adoration or worship. The contemplation of the
  immature and inactive human intellect should lead only to reactions of
  humility.





6. THE MIND-GRAVITY CIRCUIT



  9:6.1 The Third Source and Center, the universal intelligence, is personally
  conscious of every mind, every intellect, in all creation, and he maintains a
  personal and perfect contact with all these physical, morontial, and spiritual
  creatures of mind endowment in the far-flung universes. All these activities
  of mind are grasped in the absolute mind-gravity circuit which focalizes in
  the Third Source and Center and is a part of the personal consciousness of the
  Infinite Spirit.

  9:6.2 Much as the Father draws all personality to himself, and as the Son
  attracts all spiritual reality, so does the Conjoint Actor exercise a drawing
  power on all minds; he unqualifiedly dominates and controls the universal mind
  circuit. All true and genuine intellectual values, all divine thoughts and
  perfect ideas, are unerringly drawn into this absolute circuit of mind.



  9:6.3 Mind gravity can operate independently of material and spiritual
  gravity, but wherever and whenever the latter two impinge, mind gravity always
  functions. When all three are associated, personality gravity may embrace the
  material creature -- physical or morontial, finite or absonite. But
  irrespective of this, the endowment of mind even in impersonal beings
  qualifies them to think and endows them with consciousness despite the total
  absence of personality.



  9:6.4 Selfhood of personality dignity, human or divine, immortal or
  potentially immortal, does not however originate in either spirit, mind, or
  matter; it is the bestowal of the Universal Father. Neither is the interaction
  of spirit, mind, and material gravity a prerequisite to the appearance of
  personality gravity. The Father's circuit may embrace a mind-material being
  who is unresponsive to spirit gravity, or it may include a mind-spirit being
  who is unresponsive to material gravity. The operation of personality gravity
  is always a volitional act of the Universal Father.

  9:6.5 While mind is energy associated in purely material beings and spirit
  associated in purely spiritual personalities, innumerable orders of
  personality, including the human, possess minds that are associated with both
  energy and spirit. The spiritual aspects of creature mind unfailingly respond
  to the spirit-gravity pull of the Eternal Son; the material features respond
  to the gravity urge of the material universe.



  9:6.6 Cosmic mind, when not associated with either energy or spirit, is
  subject to the gravity demands of neither material nor spiritual circuits.
  Pure mind is subject only to the universal gravity grasp of the Conjoint
  Actor. Pure mind is close of kin to infinite mind, and infinite mind (the
  theoretical co-ordinate of the absolutes of spirit and energy) is apparently a
  law in itself.

  9:6.7 The greater the spirit-energy divergence, the greater the observable
  function of mind; the lesser the diversity of energy and spirit, the lesser
  the observable function of mind. Apparently, the maximum function of the
  cosmic mind is in the time universes of space. Here mind seems to function in
  a mid-zone between energy and spirit, but this is not true of the higher
  levels of mind; on Paradise, energy and spirit are essentially one.



  9:6.8 The mind-gravity circuit is dependable; it emanates from the Third
  Person of Deity on Paradise, but not all the observable function of mind is
  predictable. Throughout all known creation there parallels this circuit of
  mind some little-understood presence whose function is not predictable. We
  believe that this unpredictability is partly attributable to the function of
  the Universal Absolute. What this function is, we do not know; what actuates
  it, we can only conjecture; concerning its relation to creatures, we can only
  speculate.



  9:6.9 Certain phases of the unpredictability of finite mind may be due to the
  incompleteness of the Supreme Being, and there is a vast zone of activities
  wherein the Conjoint Actor and the Universal Absolute may possibly be tangent.
  There is much about mind that is unknown, but of this we are sure: The
  Infinite Spirit is the perfect expression of the mind of the Creator to all
  creatures; the Supreme Being is the evolving expression of the minds of all
  creatures to their Creator.





7. UNIVERSE REFLECTIVITY



  9:7.1 The Conjoint Actor is able to co-ordinate all levels of universe
  actuality in such manner as to make possible the simultaneous recognition of
  the mental, the material, and the spiritual. This is the phenomenon of
  universe reflectivity, that unique and inexplicable power to see, hear, sense,
  and know all things as they transpire throughout a superuniverse, and to
  focalize, by reflectivity, all this information and knowledge at any desired
  point. The action of reflectivity is shown in perfection on each of the
  headquarters worlds of the seven superuniverses. It is also operative
  throughout all sectors of the superuniverses and within the boundaries of the
  local universes. Reflectivity finally focalizes on Paradise.

  9:7.2 The phenomenon of reflectivity, as it is disclosed on the superuniverse
  headquarters worlds in the amazing performances of the reflective
  personalities there stationed, represents the most complex interassociation of
  all phases of existence to be found in all creation. Lines of spirit can be
  traced back to the Son, physical energy to Paradise, and mind to the Third
  Source; but in the extraordinary phenomenon of universe reflectivity there is
  a unique and exceptional unification of all three, so associated as to enable
  the universe rulers to know about remote conditions instantaneously,
  simultaneously with their occurrence.

  9:7.3 Much of the technique of reflectivity we comprehend, but there are many
  phases which truly baffle us. We know that the Conjoint Actor is the universe
  center of the mind circuit, that he is the ancestor of the cosmic mind, and
  that cosmic mind operates under the dominance of the absolute mind gravity of
  the Third Source and Center. We know further that the circuits of the cosmic
  mind influence the intellectual levels of all known existence; they contain
  the universal space reports, and just as certainly they focus in the Seven
  Master Spirits and converge in the Third Source and Center.



  9:7.4 The relationship between the finite cosmic mind and the divine absolute
  mind appears to be evolving in the experiential mind of the Supreme. We are
  taught that, in the dawn of time, this experiential mind was bestowed upon the
  Supreme by the Infinite Spirit, and we conjecture that certain features of the
  phenomenon of reflectivity can be accounted for only by postulating the
  activity of the Supreme Mind. If the Supreme is not concerned in reflectivity,
  we are at a loss to explain the intricate transactions and unerring operations
  of this consciousness of the cosmos.

  9:7.5 Reflectivity appears to be omniscience within the limits of the
  experiential finite and may represent the emergence of the presence-
  consciousness of the Supreme Being. If this assumption is true, then the
  utilization of reflectivity in any of its phases is equivalent to partial
  contact with the consciousness of the Supreme.





8. PERSONALITIES OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT



  9:8.1 The Infinite Spirit possesses full power to transmit many of his powers
  and prerogatives to his co-ordinate and subordinate personalities and
  agencies.

  9:8.2 The first Deity-creating act of the Infinite Spirit, functioning apart
  from the Trinity but in some unrevealed association with the Father and the
  Son, personalized in the existence of the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise,
  the distributors of the Infinite Spirit to the universes.

  9:8.3 There is no direct representative of the Third Source and Center on the
  headquarters of a superuniverse. Each of these seven creations is dependent on
  one of the Master Spirits of Paradise, who acts through the seven Reflective
  Spirits situated at the capital of the superuniverse.

  9:8.4 The next and continuing creative act of the Infinite Spirit is
  disclosed, from time to time, in the production of the Creative Spirits. Every
  time the Universal Father and the Eternal Son become parent to a Creator Son,
  the Infinite Spirit becomes ancestor to a local universe Creative Spirit who
  becomes the close associate of that Creator Son in all subsequent universe
  experience.

  9:8.5 Just as it is necessary to distinguish between the Eternal Son and the
  Creator Sons, so it is necessary to differentiate between the Infinite Spirit
  and the Creative Spirits, the local universe co-ordinates of the Creator Sons.
  What the Infinite Spirit is to the total creation, a Creative Spirit is to a
  local universe.



  9:8.6 The Third Source and Center is represented in the grand universe by a
  vast array of ministering spirits, messengers, teachers, adjudicators,
  helpers, and advisers, together with supervisors of certain circuits of
  physical, morontial, and spiritual nature. Not all of these beings are
  personalities in the strict meaning of the term. Personality of the finite-
  creature variety is characterized by:

1. Subjective self-consciousness.

2. Objective response to the Father's personality circuit.

  9:8.7 There are creator personalities and creature personalities, and in
  addition to these two fundamental types there are personalities of the Third
  Source and Center, beings who are personal to the Infinite Spirit, but who are
  not unqualifiedly personal to creature beings. These Third Source
  personalities are not a part of the Father's personality circuit. First Source
  personality and Third Source personality are mutually contactable; all
  personality is contactable.



  9:8.8 The Father bestows personality by his personal free will. Why he does so
  we can only conjecture; how he does so we do not know. Neither do we know why
  the Third Source bestows non-Father personality, but this the Infinite Spirit
  does in his own behalf, in creative conjunction with the Eternal Son and in
  numerous ways unknown to you. The Infinite Spirit can also act for the Father
  in the bestowal of First Source personality.



  9:8.9 There are numerous types of Third Source personalities. The Infinite
  Spirit bestows Third Source personality upon numerous groups who are not
  included in the Father's personality circuit, such as certain of the power
  directors. Likewise does the Infinite Spirit treat as personalities numerous
  groups of beings, such as the Creative Spirits, who are in a class by
  themselves in their relations to encircuited creatures of the Father.

  9:8.10 Both First Source and Third Source personalities are endowed with all
  and more than man associates with the concept of personality; they have minds
  embracing memory, reason, judgment, creative imagination, idea association,
  decision, choice, and numerous additional powers of intellect wholly unknown
  to mortals. With few exceptions the orders revealed to you possess form and
  distinct individuality; they are real beings. A majority of them are visible
  to all orders of spirit existence.

  9:8.11 Even you will be able to see your spiritual associates of the lower
  orders as soon as you are delivered from the limited vision of your present
  material eyes and have been endowed with a morontia form with its enlarged
  sensitivity to the reality of spiritual things.



  9:8.12 The functional family of the Third Source and Center, as it is revealed
  in these narratives, falls into three great groups:



  9:8.13 I. The Supreme Spirits. A group of composite origin that embraces,
  among others, the following orders:

1. The Seven Master Spirits of Paradise.

2. The Reflective Spirits of the Superuniverses.

3. The Creative Spirits of the Local Universes.

  9:8.14 II. The Power Directors. A group of control creatures and agencies that
  function throughout all organized space.



  9:8.15 III. The Personalities of the Infinite Spirit. This designation does
  not necessarily imply that these beings are Third Source personalities though
  some of them are unique as will creatures. They are usually grouped in three
  major classifications:

1. The Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit.

2. The Messenger Hosts of Space.

3. The Ministering Spirits of Time.

  9:8.16 These groups serve on Paradise, in the central or residential universe,
  in the superuniverses, and they embrace orders that function in the local
  universes, even to the constellations, systems, and planets.



  9:8.17 The spirit personalities of the vast family of the Divine and Infinite
  Spirit are forever dedicated to the service of the ministry of the love of God
  and the mercy of the Son to all the intelligent creatures of the evolutionary
  worlds of time and space. These spirit beings constitute the living ladder
  whereby mortal man climbs from chaos to glory.



  9:8.18 Revealed on Urantia by a Divine Counselor of Uversa commissioned by the
  Ancients of Days to portray the nature and work of the Infinite Spirit.




PAPER 10


 THE PARADISE TRINITY



  10:0.1 THE Paradise Trinity of eternal Deities facilitates the Father's escape
  from personality absolutism. The Trinity perfectly associates the limitless
  expression of God's infinite personal will with the absoluteness of Deity. The
  Eternal Son and the various Sons of divine origin, together with the Conjoint
  Actor and his universe children, effectively provide for the Father's
  liberation from the limitations otherwise inherent in primacy, perfection,
  changelessness, eternity, universality, absoluteness, and infinity.

  10:0.2 The Paradise Trinity effectively provides for the full expression and
  perfect revelation of the eternal nature of Deity. The Stationary Sons of the
  Trinity likewise afford a full and perfect revelation of divine justice. The
  Trinity is Deity unity, and this unity rests eternally upon the absolute
  foundations of the divine oneness of the three original and co-ordinate and
  coexistent personalities, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.



  10:0.3 From the present situation on the circle of eternity, looking backward
  into the endless past, we can discover only one inescapable inevitability in
  universe affairs, and that is the Paradise Trinity. I deem the Trinity to have
  been inevitable. As I view the past, present, and future of time, I consider
  nothing else in all the universe of universes to have been inevitable. The
  present master universe, viewed in retrospect or in prospect, is unthinkable
  without the Trinity. Given the Paradise Trinity, we can postulate alternate or
  even multiple ways of doing all things, but without the Trinity of Father,
  Son, and Spirit we are unable to conceive how the Infinite could achieve
  threefold and co-ordinate personalization in the face of the absolute oneness
  of Deity. No other concept of creation measures up to the Trinity standards of
  the completeness of the absoluteness inherent in Deity unity coupled with the
  repleteness of volitional liberation inherent in the threefold personalization
  of Deity.



1. SELF-DISTRIBUTION OF THE FIRST SOURCE AND CENTER



  10:1.1 It would seem that the Father, back in eternity, inaugurated a policy
  of profound self-distribution. There is inherent in the selfless, loving, and
  lovable nature of the Universal Father something which causes him to reserve
  to himself the exercise of only those powers and that authority which he
  apparently finds it impossible to delegate or to bestow.

  10:1.2 The Universal Father all along has divested himself of every part of
  himself that was bestowable on any other Creator or creature. He has delegated
  to his divine Sons and their associated intelligences every power and all
  authority that could be delegated. He has actually transferred to his
  Sovereign Sons, in their respective universes, every prerogative of
  administrative authority that was transferable. In the affairs of a local
  universe, he has made each Sovereign Creator Son just as perfect, competent,
  and authoritative as is the Eternal Son in the original and central universe.
  He has given away, actually bestowed, with the dignity and sanctity of
  personality possession, all of himself and all of his attributes, everything
  he possibly could divest himself of, in every way, in every age, in every
  place, and to every person, and in every universe except that of his central
  indwelling.



  10:1.3 Divine personality is not self-centered; self-distribution and sharing
  of personality characterize divine freewill selfhood. Creatures crave
  association with other personal creatures; Creators are moved to share
  divinity with their universe children; the personality of the Infinite is
  disclosed as the Universal Father, who shares reality of being and equality of
  self with two co-ordinate personalities, the Eternal Son and the Conjoint
  Actor.



  10:1.4 For knowledge concerning the Father's personality and divine attributes
  we will always be dependent on the revelations of the Eternal Son, for when
  the conjoint act of creation was effected, when the Third Person of Deity
  sprang into personality existence and executed the combined concepts of his
  divine parents, the Father ceased to exist as the unqualified personality.
  With the coming into being of the Conjoint Actor and the materialization of
  the central core of creation, certain eternal changes took place. God gave
  himself as an absolute personality to his Eternal Son. Thus does the Father
  bestow the "personality of infinity" upon his only-begotten Son, while they
  both bestow the "conjoint personality" of their eternal union upon the
  Infinite Spirit.

  10:1.5 For these and other reasons beyond the concept of the finite mind, it
  is exceedingly difficult for the human creature to comprehend God's infinite
  father-personality except as it is universally revealed in the Eternal Son
  and, with the Son, is universally active in the Infinite Spirit.

  10:1.6 Since the Paradise Sons of God visit the evolutionary worlds and
  sometimes even there dwell in the likeness of mortal flesh, and since these
  bestowals make it possible for mortal man actually to know something of the
  nature and character of divine personality, therefore must the creatures of
  the planetary spheres look to the bestowals of these Paradise Sons for
  reliable and trustworthy information regarding the Father, the Son, and the
  Spirit.





2. DEITY PERSONALIZATION



  10:2.1 By the technique of trinitization the Father divests himself of that
  unqualified spirit personality which is the Son, but in so doing he
  constitutes himself the Father of this very Son and thereby possesses himself
  of unlimited capacity to become the divine Father of all subsequently created,
  eventuated, or other personalized types of intelligent will creatures. As the
  absolute and unqualified personality the Father can function only as and with
  the Son, but as a personal Father he continues to bestow personality upon the
  diverse hosts of the differing levels of intelligent will creatures, and he
  forever maintains personal relations of loving association with this vast
  family of universe children.

  10:2.2 After the Father has bestowed upon the personality of his Son the
  fullness of himself, and when this act of self-bestowal is complete and
  perfect, of the infinite power and nature which are thus existent in the
  Father-Son union, the eternal partners conjointly bestow those qualities and
  attributes which constitute still another being like themselves; and this
  conjoint personality, the Infinite Spirit, completes the existential
  personalization of Deity.

  10:2.3 The Son is indispensable to the fatherhood of God. The Spirit is
  indispensable to the fraternity of the Second and Third Persons. Three persons
  are a minimum social group, but this is least of all the many reasons for
  believing in the inevitability of the Conjoint Actor.



  10:2.4 The First Source and Center is the infinite father-personality, the
  unlimited source personality. The Eternal Son is the unqualified personality-
  absolute, that divine being who stands throughout all time and eternity as the
  perfect revelation of the personal nature of God. The Infinite Spirit is the
  conjoint personality, the unique personal consequence of the everlasting
  Father-Son union.



  10:2.5 The personality of the First Source and Center is the personality of
  infinity minus the absolute personality of the Eternal Son. The personality of
  the Third Source and Center is the superadditive consequence of the union of
  the liberated Father-personality and the absolute Son-personality.



  10:2.6 The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit are
  unique persons; none is a duplicate; each is original; all are united.



  10:2.7 The Eternal Son alone experiences the fullness of divine personality
  relationship, consciousness of both sonship with the Father and paternity to
  the Spirit and of divine equality with both Father-ancestor and Spirit-
  associate. The Father knows the experience of having a Son who is his equal,
  but the Father knows no ancestral antecedents. The Eternal Son has the
  experience of sonship, recognition of personality ancestry, and at the same
  time the Son is conscious of being joint parent to the Infinite Spirit. The
  Infinite Spirit is conscious of twofold personality ancestry but is not
  parental to a co-ordinate Deity personality. With the Spirit the existential
  cycle of Deity personalization attains completion; the primary personalities
  of the Third Source and Center are experiential and are seven in number.

  10:2.8 I am of origin in the Paradise Trinity. I know the Trinity as unified
  Deity; I also know that the Father, Son, and Spirit exist and act in their
  definite personal capacities. I positively know that they not only act
  personally and collectively, but that they also co-ordinate their performances
  in various groupings, so that in the end they function in seven different
  singular and plural capacities. And since these seven associations exhaust the
  possibilities for such divinity combination, it is inevitable that the
  realities of the universe shall appear in seven variations of values,
  meanings, and personality.





3. THE THREE PERSONS OF DEITY



  10:3.1 Notwithstanding there is only one Deity, there are three positive and
  divine personalizations of Deity. Regarding the endowment of man with the
  divine Adjusters, the Father said: "Let us make mortal man in our own image."
  Repeatedly throughout the Urantian writings there occurs this reference to the
  acts and doings of plural Deity, clearly showing recognition of the existence
  and working of the three Sources and Centers.



  10:3.2 We are taught that the Son and the Spirit sustain the same and equal
  relations to the Father in the Trinity association. In eternity and as Deities
  they undoubtedly do, but in time and as personalities they certainly disclose
  relationships of a very diverse nature. Looking from Paradise out on the
  universes, these relationships do seem to be very similar, but when viewed
  from the domains of space, they appear to be quite different.

  10:3.3 The divine Sons are indeed the "Word of God," but the children of the
  Spirit are truly the "Act of God." God speaks through the Son and, with the
  Son, acts through the Infinite Spirit, while in all universe activities the
  Son and the Spirit are exquisitely fraternal, working as two equal brothers
  with admiration and love for an honored and divinely respected common Father.

  10:3.4 The Father, Son, and Spirit are certainly equal in nature, co-ordinate
  in being, but there are unmistakable differences in their universe
  performances, and when acting alone, each person of Deity is apparently
  limited in absoluteness.



  10:3.5 The Universal Father, prior to his self-willed divestment of the
  personality, powers, and attributes which constitute the Son and the Spirit,
  seems to have been (philosophically considered) an unqualified, absolute, and
  infinite Deity. But such a theoretical First Source and Center without a Son
  could not in any sense of the word be considered the Universal Father;
  fatherhood is not real without sonship. Furthermore, the Father, to have been
  absolute in a total sense, must have existed at some eternally distant moment
  alone. But he never had such a solitary existence; the Son and the Spirit are
  both coeternal with the Father. The First Source and Center has always been,
  and will forever be, the eternal Father of the Original Son and, with the Son,
  the eternal progenitor of the Infinite Spirit.

  10:3.6 We observe that the Father has divested himself of all direct
  manifestations of absoluteness except absolute fatherhood and absolute
  volition. We do not know whether volition is an inalienable attribute of the
  Father; we can only observe that he did not divest himself of volition. Such
  infinity of will must have been eternally inherent in the First Source and
  Center.

  10:3.7 In bestowing absoluteness of personality upon the Eternal Son, the
  Universal Father escapes from the fetters of personality absolutism, but in so
  doing he takes a step which makes it forever impossible for him to act alone
  as the personality-absolute. And with the final personalization of coexistent
  Deity -- the Conjoint Actor -- there ensues the critical trinitarian
  interdependence of the three divine personalities with regard to the totality
  of Deity function in absolute.

  10:3.8 God is the Father-Absolute of all personalities in the universe of
  universes. The Father is personally absolute in liberty of action, but in the
  universes of time and space, made, in the making, and yet to be made, the
  Father is not discernibly absolute as total Deity except in the Paradise
  Trinity.



  10:3.9 The First Source and Center functions outside of Havona in the
  phenomenal universes as follows:



  10:3.10 1. As creator, through the Creator Sons, his grandsons.



  10:3.11 2. As controller, through the gravity center of Paradise.



  10:3.12 3. As spirit, through the Eternal Son.



  10:3.13 4. As mind, through the Conjoint Creator.



  10:3.14 5. As a Father, he maintains parental contact with all creatures
  through his personality circuit.



  10:3.15 6. As a person, he acts directly throughout creation by his exclusive
  fragments -- in mortal man by the Thought Adjusters.



  10:3.16 7. As total Deity, he functions only in the Paradise Trinity.



  10:3.17 All these relinquishments and delegations of jurisdiction by the
  Universal Father are wholly voluntary and self-imposed. The all-powerful
  Father purposefully assumes these limitations of universe authority.



  10:3.18 The Eternal Son seems to function as one with the Father in all
  spiritual respects except in the bestowals of the God fragments and in other
  prepersonal activities. Neither is the Son closely identified with the
  intellectual activities of material creatures nor with the energy activities
  of the material universes. As absolute the Son functions as a person and only
  in the domain of the spiritual universe.



  10:3.19 The Infinite Spirit is amazingly universal and unbelievably versatile
  in all his operations. He performs in the spheres of mind, matter, and spirit.
  The Conjoint Actor represents the Father-Son association, but he also
  functions as himself. He is not directly concerned with physical gravity, with
  spiritual gravity, or with the personality circuit, but he more or less
  participates in all other universe activities. While apparently dependent on
  three existential and absolute gravity controls, the Infinite Spirit appears
  to exercise three supercontrols. This threefold endowment is employed in many
  ways to transcend and seemingly to neutralize even the manifestations of
  primary forces and energies, right up to the superultimate borders of
  absoluteness. In certain situations these supercontrols absolutely transcend
  even the primal manifestations of cosmic reality.





4. THE TRINITY UNION OF DEITY



  10:4.1 Of all absolute associations, the Paradise Trinity (the first triunity)
  is unique as an exclusive association of personal Deity. God functions as God
  only in relation to God and to those who can know God, but as absolute Deity
  only in the Paradise Trinity and in relation to universe totality.



  10:4.2 Eternal Deity is perfectly unified; nevertheless there are three
  perfectly individualized persons of Deity. The Paradise Trinity makes possible
  the simultaneous expression of all the diversity of the character traits and
  infinite powers of the First Source and Center and his eternal co-ordinates
  and of all the divine unity of the universe functions of undivided Deity.

  10:4.3 The Trinity is an association of infinite persons functioning in a
  nonpersonal capacity but not in contravention of personality. The illustration
  is crude, but a father, son, and grandson could form a corporate entity which
  would be nonpersonal but nonetheless subject to their personal wills.

  10:4.4 The Paradise Trinity is real. It exists as the Deity union of Father,
  Son, and Spirit; yet the Father, the Son, or the Spirit, or any two of them,
  can function in relation to this selfsame Paradise Trinity. The Father, Son,
  and Spirit can collaborate in a non-Trinity manner, but not as three Deities.
  As persons they can collaborate as they choose, but that is not the Trinity.



  10:4.5 Ever remember that what the Infinite Spirit does is the function of the
  Conjoint Actor. Both the Father and the Son are functioning in and through and
  as him. But it would be futile to attempt to elucidate the Trinity mystery:
  three as one and in one, and one as two and acting for two.



  10:4.6 The Trinity is so related to total universe affairs that it must be
  reckoned with in our attempts to explain the totality of any isolated cosmic
  event or personality relationship. The Trinity functions on all levels of the
  cosmos, and mortal man is limited to the finite level; therefore must man be
  content with a finite concept of the Trinity as the Trinity.

  10:4.7 As a mortal in the flesh you should view the Trinity in accordance with
  your individual enlightenment and in harmony with the reactions of your mind
  and soul. You can know very little of the absoluteness of the Trinity, but as
  you ascend Paradiseward, you will many times experience astonishment at
  successive revelations and unexpected discoveries of Trinity supremacy and
  ultimacy, if not of absoluteness.





5. FUNCTIONS OF THE TRINITY



  10:5.1 The personal Deities have attributes, but it is hardly consistent to
  speak of the Trinity as having attributes. This association of divine beings
  may more properly be regarded as having functions, such as justice
  administration, totality attitudes, co-ordinate action, and cosmic
  overcontrol. These functions are actively supreme, ultimate, and (within the
  limits of Deity) absolute as far as all living realities of personality value
  are concerned.

  10:5.2 The functions of the Paradise Trinity are not simply the sum of the
  Father's apparent endowment of divinity plus those specialized attributes that
  are unique in the personal existence of the Son and the Spirit. The Trinity
  association of the three Paradise Deities results in the evolution,
  eventuation, and deitization of new meanings, values, powers, and capacities
  for universal revelation, action, and administration. Living associations,
  human families, social groups, or the Paradise Trinity are not augmented by
  mere arithmetical summation. The group potential is always far in excess of
  the simple sum of the attributes of the component individuals.



  10:5.3 The Trinity maintains a unique attitude as the Trinity towards the
  entire universe of the past, present, and future. And the functions of the
  Trinity can best be considered in relation to the universe attitudes of the
  Trinity. Such attitudes are simultaneous and may be multiple concerning any
  isolated situation or event:



  10:5.4 1. Attitude toward the Finite. The maximum self-limitation of the
  Trinity is its attitude toward the finite. The Trinity is not a person, nor is
  the Supreme Being an exclusive personalization of the Trinity, but the Supreme
  is the nearest approach to a power-personality focalization of the Trinity
  which can be comprehended by finite creatures. Hence the Trinity in relation
  to the finite is sometimes spoken of as the Trinity of Supremacy.



  10:5.5 2. Attitude toward the Absonite. The Paradise Trinity has regard for
  those levels of existence which are more than finite but less than absolute,
  and this relationship is sometimes denominated the Trinity of Ultimacy.
  Neither the Ultimate nor the Supreme are wholly representative of the Paradise
  Trinity, but in a qualified sense and to their respective levels, each seems
  to represent the Trinity during the prepersonal eras of experiential-power
  development.



  10:5.6 3. The Absolute Attitude of the Paradise Trinity is in relation to
  absolute existences and culminates in the action of total Deity.



  10:5.7 The Trinity Infinite involves the co-ordinate action of all triunity
  relationships of the First Source and Center -- undeified as well as deified
  -- and hence is very difficult for personalities to grasp. In the
  contemplation of the Trinity as infinite, do not ignore the seven triunities;
  thereby certain difficulties of understanding may be avoided, and certain
  paradoxes may be partially resolved.



  10:5.8 But I do not command language which would enable me to convey to the
  limited human mind the full truth and the eternal significance of the Paradise
  Trinity and the nature of the never-ending interassociation of the three
  beings of infinite perfection.





6. THE STATIONARY SONS OF THE TRINITY



  10:6.1 All law takes origin in the First Source and Center; he is law. The
  administration of spiritual law inheres in the Second Source and Center. The
  revelation of law, the promulgation and interpretation of the divine statutes,
  is the function of the Third Source and Center. The application of law,
  justice, falls within the province of the Paradise Trinity and is carried out
  by certain Sons of the Trinity.



  10:6.2 Justice is inherent in the universal sovereignty of the Paradise
  Trinity, but goodness, mercy, and truth are the universe ministry of the
  divine personalities, whose Deity union constitutes the Trinity. Justice is
  not the attitude of the Father, the Son, or the Spirit. Justice is the Trinity
  attitude of these personalities of love, mercy, and ministry. No one of the
  Paradise Deities fosters the administration of justice. Justice is never a
  personal attitude; it is always a plural function.



  10:6.3 Evidence, the basis of fairness (justice in harmony with mercy), is
  supplied by the personalities of the Third Source and Center, the conjoint
  representative of the Father and the Son to all realms and to the minds of the
  intelligent beings of all creation.



  10:6.4 Judgment, the final application of justice in accordance with the
  evidence submitted by the personalities of the Infinite Spirit, is the work of
  the Stationary Sons of the Trinity, beings partaking of the Trinity nature of
  the united Father, Son, and Spirit.



  10:6.5 This group of Trinity Sons embraces the following personalities:

1. Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy.

2. Eternals of Days.

3. Ancients of Days.

4. Perfections of Days.

5. Recents of Days.

6. Unions of Days.

7. Faithfuls of Days.

8. Perfectors of Wisdom.

9. Divine Counselors.

10. Universal Censors.

  10:6.6 We are the children of the three Paradise Deities functioning as the
  Trinity, for I chance to belong to the tenth order of this group, the
  Universal Censors. These orders are not representative of the attitude of the
  Trinity in a universal sense; they represent this collective attitude of Deity
  only in the domains of executive judgment -- justice. They were specifically
  designed by the Trinity for the precise work to which they are assigned, and
  they represent the Trinity only in those functions for which they were
  personalized.

  10:6.7 The Ancients of Days and their Trinity-origin associates mete out the
  just judgment of supreme fairness to the seven superuniverses. In the central
  universe such functions exist in theory only; there fairness is self-evident
  in perfection, and Havona perfection precludes all possibility of disharmony.

  10:6.8 Justice is the collective thought of righteousness; mercy is its
  personal expression. Mercy is the attitude of love; precision characterizes
  the operation of law; divine judgment is the soul of fairness, ever conforming
  to the justice of the Trinity, ever fulfilling the divine love of God. When
  fully perceived and completely understood, the righteous justice of the
  Trinity and the merciful love of the Universal Father are coincident. But man
  has no such full understanding of divine justice. Thus in the Trinity, as man
  would view it, the personalities of Father, Son, and Spirit are adjusted to
  co-ordinate ministry of love and law in the experiential universes of time.





7. THE OVERCONTROL OF SUPREMACY



  10:7.1 The First, Second, and Third Persons of Deity are equal to each other,
  and they are one. "The Lord our God is one God." There is perfection of
  purpose and oneness of execution in the divine Trinity of eternal Deities. The
  Father, the Son, and the Conjoint Actor are truly and divinely one. Of a truth
  it is written: "I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no
  God."



  10:7.2 As things appear to the mortal on the finite level, the Paradise
  Trinity, like the Supreme Being, is concerned only with the total -- total
  planet, total universe, total superuniverse, total grand universe. This
  totality attitude exists because the Trinity is the total of Deity and for
  many other reasons.

  10:7.3 The Supreme Being is something less and something other than the
  Trinity functioning in the finite universes; but within certain limits and
  during the present era of incomplete power-personalization, this evolutionary
  Deity does appear to reflect the attitude of the Trinity of Supremacy. The
  Father, Son, and Spirit do not personally function with the Supreme Being, but
  during the present universe age they collaborate with him as the Trinity. We
  understand that they sustain a similar relationship to the Ultimate. We often
  conjecture as to what will be the personal relationship between the Paradise
  Deities and God the Supreme when he has finally evolved, but we do not really
  know.



  10:7.4 We do not find the overcontrol of Supremacy to be wholly predictable.
  Furthermore, this unpredictability appears to be characterized by a certain
  developmental incompleteness, undoubtedly an earmark of the incompleteness of
  the Supreme and of the incompleteness of finite reaction to the Paradise
  Trinity.

  10:7.5 The mortal mind can immediately think of a thousand and one things --
  catastrophic physical events, appalling accidents, horrific disasters, painful
  illnesses, and world-wide scourges -- and ask whether such visitations are
  correlated in the unknown maneuvering of this probable functioning of the
  Supreme Being. Frankly, we do not know; we are not really sure. But we do
  observe that, as time passes, all these difficult and more or less mysterious
  situations always work out for the welfare and progress of the universes. It
  may be that the circumstances of existence and the inexplicable vicissitudes
  of living are all interwoven into a meaningful pattern of high value by the
  function of the Supreme and the overcontrol of the Trinity.

  10:7.6 As a son of God you can discern the personal attitude of love in all
  the acts of God the Father. But you will not always be able to understand how
  many of the universe acts of the Paradise Trinity redound to the good of the
  individual mortal on the evolutionary worlds of space. In the progress of
  eternity the acts of the Trinity will be revealed as altogether meaningful and
  considerate, but they do not always so appear to the creatures of time.





8. THE TRINITY BEYOND THE FINITE



  10:8.1 Many truths and facts pertaining to the Paradise Trinity can only be
  even partially comprehended by recognizing a function that transcends the
  finite.

  10:8.2 It would be inadvisable to discuss the functions of the Trinity of
  Ultimacy, but it may be disclosed that God the Ultimate is the Trinity
  manifestation comprehended by the Transcendentalers. We are inclined to the
  belief that the unification of the master universe is the eventuating act of
  the Ultimate and is probably reflective of certain, but not all, phases of the
  absonite overcontrol of the Paradise Trinity. The Ultimate is a qualified
  manifestation of the Trinity in relation to the absonite only in the sense
  that the Supreme thus partially represents the Trinity in relation to the
  finite.



  10:8.3 The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit are, in
  a certain sense, the constituent personalities of total Deity. Their union in
  the Paradise Trinity and the absolute function of the Trinity equivalate to
  the function of total Deity. And such completion of Deity transcends both the
  finite and the absonite.

  10:8.4 While no single person of the Paradise Deities actually fills all Deity
  potential, collectively all three do. Three infinite persons seem to be the
  minimum number of beings required to activate the prepersonal and existential
  potential of total Deity -- the Deity Absolute.

  10:8.5 We know the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit
  as persons, but I do not personally know the Deity Absolute. I love and
  worship God the Father; I respect and honor the Deity Absolute.



  10:8.6 I once sojourned in a universe where a certain group of beings taught
  that the finaliters, in eternity, were eventually to become the children of
  the Deity Absolute. But I am unwilling to accept this solution of the mystery
  which enshrouds the future of the finaliters.

  10:8.7 The Corps of the Finality embrace, among others, those mortals of time
  and space who have attained perfection in all that pertains to the will of
  God. As creatures and within the limits of creature capacity they fully and
  truly know God. Having thus found God as the Father of all creatures, these
  finaliters must sometime begin the quest for the superfinite Father. But this
  quest involves a grasp of the absonite nature of the ultimate attributes and
  character of the Paradise Father. Eternity will disclose whether such an
  attainment is possible, but we are convinced, even if the finaliters do grasp
  this ultimate of divinity, they will probably be unable to attain the
  superultimate levels of absolute Deity.

  10:8.8 It may be possible that the finaliters will partially attain the Deity
  Absolute, but even if they should, still in the eternity of eternities the
  problem of the Universal Absolute will continue to intrigue, mystify, baffle,
  and challenge the ascending and progressing finaliters, for we perceive that
  the unfathomability of the cosmic relationships of the Universal Absolute will
  tend to grow in proportions as the material universes and their spiritual
  administration continue to expand.



  10:8.9 Only infinity can disclose the Father-Infinite.



  10:8.10 Sponsored by a Universal Censor acting by authority from the Ancients
  of Days resident on Uversa.




PAPER 11


 THE ETERNAL ISLE OF PARADISE



  11:0.1 PARADISE is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the
  abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit,
  and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most
  gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise
  is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent
  creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must
  the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should
  be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.

  11:0.2 The material beauty of Paradise consists in the magnificence of its
  physical perfection; the grandeur of the Isle of God is exhibited in the
  superb intellectual accomplishments and mind development of its inhabitants;
  the glory of the central Isle is shown forth in the infinite endowment of
  divine spirit personality -- the light of life. But the depths of the
  spiritual beauty and the wonders of this magnificent ensemble are utterly
  beyond the comprehension of the finite mind of material creatures. The glory
  and spiritual splendor of the divine abode are impossible of mortal
  comprehension. And Paradise is from eternity; there are neither records nor
  traditions respecting the origin of this nuclear Isle of Light and Life.





1. THE DIVINE RESIDENCE



  11:1.1 Paradise serves many purposes in the administration of the universal
  realms, but to creature beings it exists primarily as the dwelling place of
  Deity. The personal presence of the Universal Father is resident at the very
  center of the upper surface of this well-nigh circular, but not spherical,
  abode of the Deities. This Paradise presence of the Universal Father is
  immediately surrounded by the personal presence of the Eternal Son, while they
  are both invested by the unspeakable glory of the Infinite Spirit.

  11:1.2 God dwells, has dwelt, and everlastingly will dwell in this same
  central and eternal abode. We have always found him there and always will. The
  Universal Father is cosmically focalized, spiritually personalized, and
  geographically resident at this center of the universe of universes.



  11:1.3 We all know the direct course to pursue to find the Universal Father.
  You are not able to comprehend much about the divine residence because of its
  remoteness from you and the immensity of the intervening space, but those who
  are able to comprehend the meaning of these enormous distances know God's
  location and residence just as certainly and literally as you know the
  location of New York, London, Rome, or Singapore, cities definitely and
  geographically located on Urantia. If you were an intelligent navigator,
  equipped with ship, maps, and compass, you could readily find these cities.
  Likewise, if you had the time and means of passage, were spiritually
  qualified, and had the necessary guidance, you could be piloted through
  universe upon universe and from circuit to circuit, ever journeying inward
  through the starry realms, until at last you would stand before the central
  shining of the spiritual glory of the Universal Father. Provided with all the
  necessities for the journey, it is just as possible to find the personal
  presence of God at the center of all things as to find distant cities on your
  own planet. That you have not visited these places in no way disproves their
  reality or actual existence. That so few of the universe creatures have found
  God on Paradise in no way disproves either the reality of his existence or the
  actuality of his spiritual person at the center of all things.

  11:1.4 The Father is always to be found at this central location. Did he move,
  universal pandemonium would be precipitated, for there converge in him at this
  residential center the universal lines of gravity from the ends of creation.
  Whether we trace the personality circuit back through the universes or follow
  the ascending personalities as they journey inward to the Father; whether we
  trace the lines of material gravity to nether Paradise or follow the insurging
  cycles of cosmic force; whether we trace the lines of spiritual gravity to the
  Eternal Son or follow the inward processional of the Paradise Sons of God;
  whether we trace out the mind circuits or follow the trillions upon trillions
  of celestial beings who spring from the Infinite Spirit -- by any of these
  observations or by all of them we are led directly back to the Father's
  presence, to his central abode. Here is God personally, literally, and
  actually present. And from his infinite being there flow the flood-streams of
  life, energy, and personality to all universes.





2. NATURE OF THE ETERNAL ISLE



  11:2.1 Since you are beginning to glimpse the enormousness of the material
  universe discernible even from your astronomical location, your space position
  in the starry systems, it should become evident to you that such a tremendous
  material universe must have an adequate and worthy capital, a headquarters
  commensurate with the dignity and infinitude of the universal Ruler of all
  this vast and far-flung creation of material realms and living beings.



  11:2.2 In form Paradise differs from the inhabited space bodies: it is not
  spherical. It is definitely ellipsoid, being one-sixth longer in the north-
  south diameter than in the east-west diameter. The central Isle is essentially
  flat, and the distance from the upper surface to the nether surface is one
  tenth that of the east-west diameter.

  11:2.3 These differences in dimensions, taken in connection with its
  stationary status and the greater out-pressure of force-energy at the north
  end of the Isle, make it possible to establish absolute direction in the
  master universe.



  11:2.4 The central Isle is geographically divided into three domains of
  activity:

1. Upper Paradise.

2. Peripheral Paradise.

3. Nether Paradise.

  11:2.5 We speak of that surface of Paradise which is occupied with personality
  activities as the upper side, and the opposite surface as the nether side. The
  periphery of Paradise provides for activities that are not strictly personal
  or nonpersonal. The Trinity seems to dominate the personal or upper plane, the
  Unqualified Absolute the nether or impersonal plane. We hardly conceive of the
  Unqualified Absolute as a person, but we do think of the functional space
  presence of this Absolute as focalized on nether Paradise.



  11:2.6 The eternal Isle is composed of a single form of materialization --
  stationary systems of reality. This literal substance of Paradise is a
  homogeneous organization of space potency not to be found elsewhere in all the
  wide universe of universes. It has received many names in different universes,
  and the Melchizedeks of Nebadon long since named it absolutum. This Paradise
  source material is neither dead nor alive; it is the original nonspiritual
  expression of the First Source and Center; it is Paradise, and Paradise is
  without duplicate.

  11:2.7 It appears to us that the First Source and Center has concentrated all
  absolute potential for cosmic reality in Paradise as a part of his technique
  of self-liberation from infinity limitations, as a means of making possible
  subinfinite, even time-space, creation. But it does not follow that Paradise
  is time-space limited just because the universe of universes discloses these
  qualities. Paradise exists without time and has no location in space.

  11:2.8 Roughly: space seemingly originates just below nether Paradise; time
  just above upper Paradise. Time, as you understand it, is not a feature of
  Paradise existence, though the citizens of the central Isle are fully
  conscious of nontime sequence of events. Motion is not inherent on Paradise;
  it is volitional. But the concept of distance, even absolute distance, has
  very much meaning as it may be applied to relative locations on Paradise.
  Paradise is nonspatial; hence its areas are absolute and therefore serviceable
  in many ways beyond the concept of mortal mind.





3. UPPER PARADISE



  11:3.1 On upper Paradise there are three grand spheres of activity, the Deity
  presence, the Most Holy Sphere, and the Holy Area. The vast region immediately
  surrounding the presence of the Deities is set aside as the Most Holy Sphere
  and is reserved for the functions of worship, trinitization, and high
  spiritual attainment. There are no material structures nor purely intellectual
  creations in this zone; they could not exist there. It is useless for me to
  undertake to portray to the human mind the divine nature and the beauteous
  grandeur of the Most Holy Sphere of Paradise. This realm is wholly spiritual,
  and you are almost wholly material. A purely spiritual reality is, to a purely
  material being, apparently nonexistent.

  11:3.2 While there are no physical materializations in the area of the Most
  Holy, there are abundant souvenirs of your material days in the Holy Land
  sectors and still more in the reminiscent historic areas of peripheral
  Paradise.

  11:3.3 The Holy Area, the outlying or residential region, is divided into
  seven concentric zones. Paradise is sometimes called "the Father's House"
  since it is his eternal residence, and these seven zones are often designated
  "the Father's Paradise mansions." The inner or first zone is occupied by
  Paradise Citizens and the natives of Havona who may chance to be dwelling on
  Paradise. The next or second zone is the residential area of the natives of
  the seven superuniverses of time and space. This second zone is in part
  subdivided into seven immense divisions, the Paradise home of the spirit
  beings and ascendant creatures who hail from the universes of evolutionary
  progression. Each of these sectors is exclusively dedicated to the welfare and
  advancement of the personalities of a single superuniverse, but these
  facilities are almost infinitely beyond the requirements of the present seven
  superuniverses.

  11:3.4 Each of the seven sectors of Paradise is subdivided into residential
  units suitable for the lodgment headquarters of one billion glorified
  individual working groups. One thousand of these units constitute a division.
  One hundred thousand divisions equal one congregation. Ten million
  congregations constitute an assembly. One billion assemblies make one grand
  unit. And this ascending series continues through the second grand unit, the
  third, and so on to the seventh grand unit. And seven of the grand units make
  up the master units, and seven of the master units constitute a superior unit;
  and thus by sevens the ascending series expands through the superior,
  supersuperior, celestial, supercelestial, to the supreme units. But even this
  does not utilize all the space available. This staggering number of
  residential designations on Paradise, a number beyond your concept, occupies
  considerably less than one per cent of the assigned area of the Holy Land.
  There is still plenty of room for those who are on their way inward, even for
  those who shall not start the Paradise climb until the times of the eternal
  future.





4. PERIPHERAL PARADISE



  11:4.1 The central Isle ends abruptly at the periphery, but its size is so
  enormous that this terminal angle is relatively indiscernible within any
  circumscribed area. The peripheral surface of Paradise is occupied, in part,
  by the landing and dispatching fields for various groups of spirit
  personalities. Since the nonpervaded-space zones nearly impinge upon the
  periphery, all personality transports destined to Paradise land in these
  regions. Neither upper nor nether Paradise is approachable by transport
  supernaphim or other types of space traversers.

  11:4.2 The Seven Master Spirits have their personal seats of power and
  authority on the seven spheres of the Spirit, which circle about Paradise in
  the space between the shining orbs of the Son and the inner circuit of the
  Havona worlds, but they maintain force-focal headquarters on the Paradise
  periphery. Here the slowly circulating presences of the Seven Supreme Power
  Directors indicate the location of the seven flash stations for certain
  Paradise energies going forth to the seven superuniverses.

  11:4.3 Here on peripheral Paradise are the enormous historic and prophetic
  exhibit areas assigned to the Creator Sons, dedicated to the local universes
  of time and space. There are just seven trillion of these historic
  reservations now set up or in reserve, but these arrangements all together
  occupy only about four per cent of that portion of the peripheral area thus
  assigned. We infer that these vast reserves belong to creations sometime to be
  situated beyond the borders of the present known and inhabited seven
  superuniverses.

  11:4.4 That portion of Paradise which has been designated for the use of the
  existing universes is occupied only from one to four per cent, while the area
  assigned to these activities is at least one million times that actually
  required for such purposes. Paradise is large enough to accommodate the
  activities of an almost infinite creation.

  11:4.5 But a further attempt to visualize to you the glories of Paradise would
  be futile. You must wait, and ascend while you wait, for truly, "Eye has not
  seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the mind of mortal man, the
  things which the Universal Father has prepared for those who survive the life
  in the flesh on the worlds of time and space."





5. NETHER PARADISE



  11:5.1 Concerning nether Paradise, we know only that which is revealed;
  personalities do not sojourn there. It has nothing whatever to do with the
  affairs of spirit intelligences, nor does the Deity Absolute there function.
  We are informed that all physical-energy and cosmic-force circuits have their
  origin on nether Paradise, and that it is constituted as follows:



  11:5.2 1. Directly underneath the location of the Trinity, in the central
  portion of nether Paradise, is the unknown and unrevealed Zone of Infinity.

  11:5.3 2. This Zone is immediately surrounded by an unnamed area.

  11:5.4 3. Occupying the outer margins of the under surface is a region having
  mainly to do with space potency and force-energy. The activities of this vast
  elliptical force center are not identifiable with the known functions of any
  triunity, but the primordial force-charge of space appears to be focalized in
  this area. This center consists of three concentric elliptical zones: The
  innermost is the focal point of the force-energy activities of Paradise
  itself; the outermost may possibly be identified with the functions of the
  Unqualified Absolute, but we are not certain concerning the space functions of
  the mid-zone.



  11:5.5 The inner zone of this force center seems to act as a gigantic heart
  whose pulsations direct currents to the outermost borders of physical space.
  It directs and modifies force-energies but hardly drives them. The reality
  pressure-presence of this primal force is definitely greater at the north end
  of the Paradise center than in the southern regions; this is a uniformly
  registered difference. The mother force of space seems to flow in at the south
  and out at the north through the operation of some unknown circulatory system
  which is concerned with the diffusion of this basic form of force-energy. From
  time to time there are also noted differences in the east-west pressures. The
  forces emanating from this zone are not responsive to observable physical
  gravity but are always obedient to Paradise gravity.



  11:5.6 The mid-zone of the force center immediately surrounds this area. This
  mid-zone appears to be static except that it expands and contracts through
  three cycles of activity. The least of these pulsations is in an east-west
  direction, the next in a north-south direction, while the greatest fluctuation
  is in every direction, a generalized expansion and contraction. The function
  of this mid-area has never been really identified, but it must have something
  to do with reciprocal adjustment between the inner and the outer zones of the
  force center. It is believed by many that the mid-zone is the control
  mechanism of the midspace or quiet zones which separate the successive space
  levels of the master universe, but no evidence or revelation confirms this.
  This inference is derived from the knowledge that this mid-area is in some
  manner related to the functioning of the nonpervaded-space mechanism of the
  master universe.



  11:5.7 The outer zone is the largest and most active of the three concentric
  and elliptical belts of unidentified space potential. This area is the site of
  unimagined activities, the central circuit point of emanations which proceed
  spaceward in every direction to the outermost borders of the seven
  superuniverses and on beyond to overspread the enormous and incomprehensible
  domains of all outer space. This space presence is entirely impersonal
  notwithstanding that in some undisclosed manner it seems to be indirectly
  responsive to the will and mandates of the infinite Deities when acting as the
  Trinity. This is believed to be the central focalization, the Paradise center,
  of the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute.

  11:5.8 All forms of force and all phases of energy seem to be encircuited;
  they circulate throughout the universes and return by definite routes. But
  with the emanations of the activated zone of the Unqualified Absolute there
  appears to be either an outgoing or an incoming -- never both simultaneously.
  This outer zone pulsates in agelong cycles of gigantic proportions. For a
  little more than one billion Urantia years the space-force of this center is
  outgoing; then for a similar length of time it will be incoming. And the
  space-force manifestations of this center are universal; they extend
  throughout all pervadable space.



  11:5.9 All physical force, energy, and matter are one. All force-energy
  originally proceeded from nether Paradise and will eventually return thereto
  following the completion of its space circuit. But the energies and material
  organizations of the universe of universes did not all come from nether
  Paradise in their present phenomenal states; space is the womb of several
  forms of matter and prematter. Though the outer zone of the Paradise force
  center is the source of space-energies, space does not originate there. Space
  is not force, energy, or power. Nor do the pulsations of this zone account for
  the respiration of space, but the incoming and outgoing phases of this zone
  are synchronized with the two-billion-year expansion-contraction cycles of
  space.





6. SPACE RESPIRATION



  11:6.1 We do not know the actual mechanism of space respiration; we merely
  observe that all space alternately contracts and expands. This respiration
  affects both the horizontal extension of pervaded space and the vertical
  extensions of unpervaded space which exist in the vast space reservoirs above
  and below Paradise. In attempting to imagine the volume outlines of these
  space reservoirs, you might think of an hourglass.

  11:6.2 As the universes of the horizontal extension of pervaded space expand,
  the reservoirs of the vertical extension of unpervaded space contract and vice
  versa. There is a confluence of pervaded and unpervaded space just underneath
  nether Paradise. Both types of space there flow through the transmuting
  regulation channels, where changes are wrought making pervadable space
  nonpervadable and vice versa in the contraction and expansion cycles of the
  cosmos.



  11:6.3 "Unpervaded" space means: unpervaded by those forces, energies, powers,
  and presences known to exist in pervaded space. We do not know whether
  vertical (reservoir) space is destined always to function as the equipoise of
  horizontal (universe) space; we do not know whether there is a creative intent
  concerning unpervaded space; we really know very little about the space
  reservoirs, merely that they exist, and that they seem to counterbalance the
  space-expansion-contraction cycles of the universe of universes.



  11:6.4 The cycles of space respiration extend in each phase for a little more
  than one billion Urantia years. During one phase the universes expand; during
  the next they contract. Pervaded space is now approaching the mid-point of the
  expanding phase, while unpervaded space nears the mid-point of the contracting
  phase, and we are informed that the outermost limits of both space extensions
  are, theoretically, now approximately equidistant from Paradise. The
  unpervaded-space reservoirs now extend vertically above upper Paradise and
  below nether Paradise just as far as the pervaded space of the universe
  extends horizontally outward from peripheral Paradise to and even beyond the
  fourth outer space level.

  11:6.5 For a billion years of Urantia time the space reservoirs contract while
  the master universe and the force activities of all horizontal space expand.
  It thus requires a little over two billion Urantia years to complete the
  entire expansion-contraction cycle.





7. SPACE FUNCTIONS OF PARADISE



  11:7.1 Space does not exist on any of the surfaces of Paradise. If one
  "looked" directly up from the upper surface of Paradise, one would "see"
  nothing but unpervaded space going out or coming in, just now coming in. Space
  does not touch Paradise; only the quiescent midspace zones come in contact
  with the central Isle.

  11:7.2 Paradise is the actually motionless nucleus of the relatively quiescent
  zones existing between pervaded and unpervaded space. Geographically these
  zones appear to be a relative extension of Paradise, but there probably is
  some motion in them. We know very little about them, but we observe that these
  zones of lessened space motion separate pervaded and unpervaded space. Similar
  zones once existed between the levels of pervaded space, but these are now
  less quiescent.

  11:7.3 The vertical cross section of total space would slightly resemble a
  Maltese cross, with the horizontal arms representing pervaded (universe) space
  and the vertical arms representing unpervaded (reservoir) space. The areas
  between the four arms would separate them somewhat as the midspace zones
  separate pervaded and unpervaded space. These quiescent midspace zones grow
  larger and larger at greater and greater distances from Paradise and
  eventually encompass the borders of all space and completely incapsulate both
  the space reservoirs and the entire horizontal extension of pervaded space.



  11:7.4 Space is neither a subabsolute condition within, nor the presence of,
  the Unqualified Absolute, neither is it a function of the Ultimate. It is a
  bestowal of Paradise, and the space of the grand universe and that of all
  outer regions is believed to be actually pervaded by the ancestral space
  potency of the Unqualified Absolute. From near approach to peripheral
  Paradise, this pervaded space extends horizontally outward through the fourth
  space level and beyond the periphery of the master universe, but how far
  beyond we do not know.

  11:7.5 If you imagine a finite, but inconceivably large, V-shaped plane
  situated at right angles to both the upper and lower surfaces of Paradise,
  with its point nearly tangent to peripheral Paradise, and then visualize this
  plane in elliptical revolution about Paradise, its revolution would roughly
  outline the volume of pervaded space.

  11:7.6 There is an upper and a lower limit to horizontal space with reference
  to any given location in the universes. If one could move far enough at right
  angles to the plane of Orvonton, either up or down, eventually the upper or
  lower limit of pervaded space would be encountered. Within the known
  dimensions of the master universe these limits draw farther and farther apart
  at greater and greater distances from Paradise; space thickens, and it
  thickens somewhat faster than does the plane of creation, the universes.



  11:7.7 The relatively quiet zone between the space levels, such as the one
  separating the seven superuniverses from the first outer space level, are
  enormous elliptical regions of quiescent space activities. These zones
  separate the vast galaxies which race around Paradise in orderly procession.
  You may visualize the first outer space level, where untold universes are now
  in process of formation, as a vast procession of galaxies swinging around
  Paradise, bounded above and below by the midspace zones of quiescence and
  bounded on the inner and outer margins by relatively quiet space zones.

  11:7.8 A space level thus functions as an elliptical region of motion
  surrounded on all sides by relative motionlessness. Such relationships of
  motion and quiescence constitute a curved space path of lessened resistance to
  motion which is universally followed by cosmic force and emergent energy as
  they circle forever around the Isle of Paradise.

  11:7.9 This alternate zoning of the master universe, in association with the
  alternate clockwise and counterclockwise flow of the galaxies, is a factor in
  the stabilization of physical gravity designed to prevent the accentuation of
  gravity pressure to the point of disruptive and dispersive activities. Such an
  arrangement exerts antigravity influence and acts as a brake upon otherwise
  dangerous velocities.





8. PARADISE GRAVITY



  11:8.1 The inescapable pull of gravity effectively grips all the worlds of all
  the universes of all space. Gravity is the all-powerful grasp of the physical
  presence of Paradise. Gravity is the omnipotent strand on which are strung the
  gleaming stars, blazing suns, and whirling spheres which constitute the
  universal physical adornment of the eternal God, who is all things, fills all
  things, and in whom all things consist.

  11:8.2 The center and focal point of absolute material gravity is the Isle of
  Paradise, complemented by the dark gravity bodies encircling Havona and
  equilibrated by the upper and nether space reservoirs. All known emanations of
  nether Paradise invariably and unerringly respond to the central gravity pull
  operating upon the endless circuits of the elliptical space levels of the
  master universe. Every known form of cosmic reality has the bend of the ages,
  the trend of the circle, the swing of the great ellipse.

  11:8.3 Space is nonresponsive to gravity, but it acts as an equilibrant on
  gravity. Without the space cushion, explosive action would jerk surrounding
  space bodies. Pervaded space also exerts an antigravity influence upon
  physical or linear gravity; space can actually neutralize such gravity action
  even though it cannot delay it. Absolute gravity is Paradise gravity. Local or
  linear gravity pertains to the electrical stage of energy or matter; it
  operates within the central, super-, and outer universes, wherever suitable
  materialization has taken place.



  11:8.4 The numerous forms of cosmic force, physical energy, universe power,
  and various materializations disclose three general, though not perfectly
  clear-cut, stages of response to Paradise gravity:



  11:8.5 1. Pregravity Stages (Force). This is the first step in the
  individuation of space potency into the pre-energy forms of cosmic force. This
  state is analogous to the concept of the primordial force-charge of space,
  sometimes called pure energy or segregata.



  11:8.6 2. Gravity Stages (Energy). This modification of the force-charge of
  space is produced by the action of the Paradise force organizers. It
  signalizes the appearance of energy systems responsive to the pull of Paradise
  gravity. This emergent energy is originally neutral but consequent upon
  further metamorphosis will exhibit the so-called negative and positive
  qualities. We designate these stages ultimata.



  11:8.7 3. Postgravity Stages (Universe Power). In this stage, energy-matter
  discloses response to the control of linear gravity. In the central universe
  these physical systems are threefold organizations known as triata. They are
  the superpower mother systems of the creations of time and space. The physical
  systems of the superuniverses are mobilized by the Universe Power Directors
  and their associates. These material organizations are dual in constitution
  and are known as gravita. The dark gravity bodies encircling Havona are
  neither triata nor gravita, and their drawing power discloses both forms of
  physical gravity, linear and absolute.



  11:8.8 Space potency is not subject to the interactions of any form of
  gravitation. This primal endowment of Paradise is not an actual level of
  reality, but it is ancestral to all relative functional nonspirit realities --
  all manifestations of force-energy and the organization of power and matter.
  Space potency is a term difficult to define. It does not mean that which is
  ancestral to space; its meaning should convey the idea of the potencies and
  potentials existent within space. It may be roughly conceived to include all
  those absolute influences and potentials which emanate from Paradise and
  constitute the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute.

  11:8.9 Paradise is the absolute source and the eternal focal point of all
  energy-matter in the universe of universes. The Unqualified Absolute is the
  revealer, regulator, and repository of that which has Paradise as its source
  and origin. The universal presence of the Unqualified Absolute seems to be
  equivalent to the concept of a potential infinity of gravity extension, an
  elastic tension of Paradise presence. This concept aids us in grasping the
  fact that everything is drawn inward towards Paradise. The illustration is
  crude but nonetheless helpful. It also explains why gravity always acts
  preferentially in the plane perpendicular to the mass, a phenomenon indicative
  of the differential dimensions of Paradise and the surrounding creations.





9. THE UNIQUENESS OF PARADISE



  11:9.1 Paradise is unique in that it is the realm of primal origin and the
  final goal of destiny for all spirit personalities. Although it is true that
  not all of the lower spirit beings of the local universes are immediately
  destined to Paradise, Paradise still remains the goal of desire for all
  supermaterial personalities.



  11:9.2 Paradise is the geographic center of infinity; it is not a part of
  universal creation, not even a real part of the eternal Havona universe. We
  commonly refer to the central Isle as belonging to the divine universe, but it
  really does not. Paradise is an eternal and exclusive existence.



  11:9.3 In the eternity of the past, when the Universal Father gave infinite
  personality expression of his spirit self in the being of the Eternal Son,
  simultaneously he revealed the infinity potential of his nonpersonal self as
  Paradise. Nonpersonal and nonspiritual Paradise appears to have been the
  inevitable repercussion to the Father's will and act which eternalized the
  Original Son. Thus did the Father project reality in two actual phases -- the
  personal and the nonpersonal, the spiritual and the nonspiritual. The tension
  between them, in the face of will to action by the Father and the Son, gave
  existence to the Conjoint Actor and the central universe of material worlds
  and spiritual beings.

  11:9.4 When reality is differentiated into the personal and the nonpersonal
  (Eternal Son and Paradise), it is hardly proper to call that which is
  nonpersonal "Deity" unless somehow qualified. The energy and material
  repercussions of the acts of Deity could hardly be called Deity. Deity may
  cause much that is not Deity, and Paradise is not Deity; neither is it
  conscious as mortal man could ever possibly understand such a term.



  11:9.5 Paradise is not ancestral to any being or living entity; it is not a
  creator. Personality and mind-spirit relationships are transmissible, but
  pattern is not. Patterns are never reflections; they are duplications --
  reproductions. Paradise is the absolute of patterns; Havona is an exhibit of
  these potentials in actuality.



  11:9.6 God's residence is central and eternal, glorious and ideal. His home is
  the beauteous pattern for all universe headquarters worlds; and the central
  universe of his immediate indwelling is the pattern for all universes in their
  ideals, organization, and ultimate destiny.

  11:9.7 Paradise is the universal headquarters of all personality activities
  and the source-center of all force-space and energy manifestations. Everything
  which has been, now is, or is yet to be, has come, now comes, or will come
  forth from this central abiding place of the eternal Gods. Paradise is the
  center of all creation, the source of all energies, and the place of primal
  origin of all personalities.



  11:9.8 After all, to mortals the most important thing about eternal Paradise
  is the fact that this perfect abode of the Universal Father is the real and
  far-distant destiny of the immortal souls of the mortal and material sons of
  God, the ascending creatures of the evolutionary worlds of time and space.
  Every God-knowing mortal who has espoused the career of doing the Father's
  will has already embarked upon the long, long Paradise trail of divinity
  pursuit and perfection attainment. And when such an animal-origin being does
  stand, as countless numbers now do, before the Gods on Paradise, having
  ascended from the lowly spheres of space, such an achievement represents the
  reality of a spiritual transformation bordering on the limits of supremacy.



  11:9.9 Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom commissioned thus to function by the
  Ancients of Days on Uversa.




PAPER 12


 THE UNIVERSE OF UNIVERSES



  12:0.1 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.

  12:0.2 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.

  12:0.3 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



  12:1.1 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.

  12:1.2 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 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.



  12:1.3 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.

  12:1.4 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.



  12:1.5 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.



  12:1.6 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.



  12:1.7 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 superuniverses 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.



  12:1.8 The Outer Space Levels. Far out in space, at an enormous distance from
  the seven inhabited superuniverses, there are assembling vast and unbelievably
  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.

  12:1.9 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.



  12:1.10 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



  12:2.1 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.

  12:2.2 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.

  12:2.3 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 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.



  12:2.4 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.



  12:2.5 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.

  12:2.6 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



  12:3.1 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.

  12:3.2 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.



  12:3.3 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:



  12:3.4 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.



  12:3.5 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.



  12:3.6 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 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.



  12:3.7 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.



  12:3.8 Personality Gravity is noncomputable. We recognize the circuit, but we
  cannot measure either qualitative or quantitative realities responsive
  thereto.





4. SPACE AND MOTION



  12:4.1 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.

  12:4.2 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:



  12:4.3 1. We think the Conjoint Actor initiates motion in space.

  12:4.4 2. If the Conjoint Actor produces the motions of space, we cannot prove
  it.

  12:4.5 3. The Universal Absolute does not originate initial motion but does
  equalize and control all of the tensions originated by motion.

  12:4.6 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.



  12:4.7 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:



  12:4.8 1. Primary motion -- space respiration, the motion of space itself.

  12:4.9 2. Secondary motion -- the alternate directional swings of the
  successive space levels.

  12:4.10 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.

  12:4.11 4. Compensatory or correlating movement designed to co-ordinate all
  other motions.



  12:4.12 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.

  12:4.13 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.



  12:4.14 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.

  12:4.15 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.

  12:4.16 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



  12:5.1 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 standard day is arbitrarily so recognized. The totality of
  space respiration destroys its local value as a time source.

  12:5.2 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.



  12:5.3 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.

  12:5.4 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.



  12:5.5 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.



  12:5.6 There are three different levels of time cognizance:



  12:5.7 1. Mind-perceived time -- consciousness of sequence, motion, and a
  sense of duration.



  12:5.8 2. Spirit-perceived time -- insight into motion Godward and the
  awareness of the motion of ascent to levels of increasing divinity.



  12:5.9 3. Personality creates a unique time sense out of insight into Reality
  plus a consciousness of presence and an awareness of duration.



  12:5.10 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.

  12:5.11 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



  12:6.1 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.

  12:6.2 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.

  12:6.3 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.

  12:6.4 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.

  12:6.5 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.



  12:6.6 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.

  12:6.7 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.



  12:6.8 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.

3. The Supreme in evolutionary co-ordination.

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

  12:6.9 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



  12:7.1 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.



  12:7.2 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.

  12:7.3 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.

  12:7.4 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.

  12:7.5 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 is the assurance of stability for all created things and beings. He
  is God; therefore he changes not.

  12:7.6 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.



  12:7.7 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.

  12:7.8 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.

  12:7.9 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.

  12:7.10 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.

  12:7.11 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.



  12:7.12 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.



  12:7.13 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.

  12:7.14 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



  12:8.1 "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.



  12:8.2 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.

  12:8.3 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.



  12:8.4 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 nature than with the equally real and mighty
  operations of a spiritual nature which are discerned only by the spiritual
  insight of the soul.

  12:8.5 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.



  12:8.6 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.

  12:8.7 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.

  12:8.8 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.



  12:8.9 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:



  12:8.10 1. Matter. Organized energy which is subject to linear gravity except
  as it is modified by motion and conditioned by mind.



  12:8.11 2. Mind. Organized consciousness which is not wholly subject to
  material gravity, and which becomes truly liberated when modified by spirit.



  12:8.12 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.



  12:8.13 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.



  12:8.14 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.

  12:8.15 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 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.

  12:8.16 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



  12:9.1 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.



  12:9.2 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.

  12:9.3 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.

  12:9.4 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.



  12:9.5 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.



  12:9.6 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.



  12:9.7 Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom acting by authority of the Ancients
  of Days.




PAPER 13


 THE SACRED SPHERES OF PARADISE



  13:0.1 BETWEEN the central Isle of Paradise and the innermost of the Havona
  planetary circuits there are situated in space three lesser circuits of
  special spheres. The innermost circuit consists of the seven secret spheres of
  the Universal Father; the second group is composed of the seven luminous
  worlds of the Eternal Son; in the outermost are the seven immense spheres of
  the Infinite Spirit, the executive-headquarters worlds of the Seven Master
  Spirits.

  13:0.2 These three seven-world circuits of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit
  are spheres of unexcelled grandeur and unimagined glory. Even their material
  or physical construction is of an order unrevealed to you. Each circuit is
  diverse in material, and each world of each circuit is different excepting the
  seven worlds of the Son, which are alike in physical constitution. All twenty-
  one are enormous spheres, and each group of seven is differently eternalized.
  As far as we know they have always been; like Paradise they are eternal. There
  exists neither record nor tradition of their origin.



  13:0.3 The seven secret spheres of the Universal Father, circulating about
  Paradise in close proximity to the eternal Isle, are highly reflective of the
  spiritual luminosity of the central shining of the eternal Deities, shedding
  this light of divine glory throughout Paradise and even upon the seven
  circuits of Havona.



  13:0.4 On the seven sacred worlds of the Eternal Son there appear to take
  origin the impersonal energies of spirit luminosity. No personal being may
  sojourn on any of these seven shining realms. With spiritual glory they
  illuminate all Paradise and Havona, and they directionize pure spirit
  luminosity to the seven superuniverses. These brilliant spheres of the second
  circuit likewise emit their light (light without heat) to Paradise and to the
  billion worlds of the seven-circuited central universe.



  13:0.5 The seven worlds of the Infinite Spirit are occupied by the Seven
  Master Spirits, who preside over the destinies of the seven superuniverses,
  sending forth the spiritual illumination of the Third Person of Deity to these
  creations of time and space. And all Havona, but not the Isle of Paradise, is
  bathed in these spiritualizing influences.



  13:0.6 Although the worlds of the Father are ultimate status spheres for all
  Father-endowed personalities, this is not their exclusive function. Many
  beings and entities other than personal sojourn on these worlds. Each world in
  the circuit of the Father and the circuit of the Spirit has a distinct type of
  permanent citizenship, but we think the Son's worlds are inhabited by uniform
  types of other-than-personal beings. Father fragments are among the natives of
  Divinington; the other orders of permanent citizenship are unrevealed to you.

  13:0.7 The twenty-one Paradise satellites serve many purposes in both central
  and superuniverses not disclosed in these narratives. You are able to
  understand so little of the life of these spheres that you cannot hope to gain
  anything like a consistent view of them, either as to nature or function;
  thousands of activities are there going on which are unrevealed to you. These
  twenty-one spheres embrace the potentials of the function of the master
  universe. These papers afford only a fleeting glimpse of certain circumscribed
  activities pertaining to the present universe age of the grand universe --
  rather, one of the seven sectors of the grand universe.





1. THE SEVEN SACRED WORLDS OF THE FATHER



  13:1.1 The Father's circuit of sacred life spheres contains the only inherent
  personality secrets in the universe of universes. These satellites of
  Paradise, the innermost of the three circuits, are the only forbidden domains
  concerned with personality in the central universe. Nether Paradise and the
  worlds of the Son are likewise closed to personalities, but neither of those
  realms is in any way directly concerned with personality.

  13:1.2 The Paradise worlds of the Father are directed by the highest order of
  the Stationary Sons of the Trinity, the Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy. Of
  these worlds I can tell little; of their manifold activities I may tell less.
  Such information concerns only those beings who function thereon and go forth
  therefrom. And though I am somewhat familiar with six of these special worlds,
  never have I landed on Divinington; that world is wholly forbidden to me.

  13:1.3 One of the reasons for the secrecy of these worlds is because each of
  these sacred spheres enjoys a specialized representation, or manifestation, of
  the Deities composing the Paradise Trinity; not a personality, but a unique
  presence of Divinity which can only be appreciated and comprehended by those
  particular groups of intelligences resident on, or admissible to, that
  particular sphere. The Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy are the personal agents
  of these specialized and impersonal presences of Divinity. And the Secrets of
  Supremacy are highly personal beings, superbly endowed and marvelously adapted
  to their exalted and exacting work.



  13:1.4 1. DIVININGTON. This world is, in a unique sense, the "bosom of the
  Father," the personal-communion sphere of the Universal Father, and thereon is
  a special manifestation of his divinity. Divinington is the Paradise
  rendezvous of the Thought Adjusters, but it is also the home of numerous other
  entities, personalities, and other beings taking origin in the Universal
  Father. Many personalities besides the Eternal Son are of direct origin by the
  solitary acts of the Universal Father. Only the Father fragments and those
  personalities and other beings of direct and exclusive origin in the Universal
  Father fraternize and function on this abode.



  13:1.5 The secrets of Divinington include the secret of the bestowal and
  mission of Thought Adjusters. Their nature, origin, and the technique of their
  contact with the lowly creatures of the evolutionary worlds is a secret of
  this Paradise sphere. These amazing transactions do not personally concern the
  rest of us, and therefore do the Deities deem it proper to withhold certain
  features of this great and divine ministry from our full understanding. In so
  far as we come in contact with this phase of divine activity, we are permitted
  full knowledge of these transactions, but concerning the intimate details of
  this great bestowal we are not fully informed.

  13:1.6 This sphere also holds the secrets of the nature, purpose, and
  activities of all other forms of Father fragments, of the Gravity Messengers,
  and of hosts of other beings unrevealed to you. It is highly probable that
  those truths pertaining to Divinington which are withheld from me, if
  revealed, would merely confuse and handicap me in my present work, and still
  again, perhaps they are beyond the conceptual capacity of my order of being.



  13:1.7 2. SONARINGTON. This sphere is the "bosom of the Son," the personal
  receiving world of the Eternal Son. It is the Paradise headquarters of the
  descending and ascending Sons of God when, and after, they are fully
  accredited and finally approved. This world is the Paradise home for all Sons
  of the Eternal Son and of his co-ordinate and associate Sons. There are
  numerous orders of divine sonship attached to this supernal abode which have
  not been revealed to mortals since they are not concerned with the plans of
  the ascension scheme of human spiritual progression through the universes and
  on to Paradise.



  13:1.8 The secrets of Sonarington include the secret of the incarnation of the
  divine Sons. When a Son of God becomes a Son of Man, is literally born of
  woman, as occurred on your world nineteen hundred years ago, it is a universal
  mystery. It is occurring right along throughout the universes, and it is a
  Sonarington secret of divine sonship. The Adjusters are a mystery of God the
  Father. The incarnation of the divine Sons is a mystery of God the Son; it is
  a secret locked up in the seventh sector of Sonarington, a realm penetrated by
  none save those who have personally passed through this unique experience.
  Only those phases of incarnation having to do with your ascension career have
  been brought to your notice. There are many other phases of the mystery of the
  incarnation of the Paradise Sons of unrevealed types on missions of universe
  service which are undisclosed to you. And there are still other Sonarington
  mysteries.



  13:1.9 3. SPIRITINGTON. This world is the "bosom of the Spirit," the Paradise
  home of the high beings that exclusively represent the Infinite Spirit. Here
  forgather the Seven Master Spirits and certain of their offspring from all
  universes. At this celestial abode may also be found numerous unrevealed
  orders of spirit personalities, beings assigned to the manifold activities of
  the universe not associated with the plans of upstepping the mortal creatures
  of time to the Paradise levels of eternity.



  13:1.10 The secrets of Spiritington involve the impenetrable mysteries of
  reflectivity. We tell you of the vast and universal phenomenon of
  reflectivity, more particularly as it is operative on the headquarters worlds
  of the seven superuniverses, but we never fully explain this phenomenon, for
  we do not fully understand it. Much, very much, we do comprehend, but many
  basic details are still mysterious to us. Reflectivity is a secret of God the
  Spirit. You have been instructed concerning reflectivity functions in relation
  to the ascension scheme of mortal survival, and it does so operate, but
  reflectivity is also an indispensable feature of the normal working of
  numerous other phases of universe occupation. This endowment of the Infinite
  Spirit is also utilized in channels other than those of intelligence gathering
  and information dissemination. And there are other secrets of Spiritington.



  13:1.11 4. VICEGERINGTON. This planet is the "bosom of the Father and the Son"
  and is the secret sphere of certain unrevealed beings who take origin by the
  acts of the Father and the Son. This is also the Paradise home of many
  glorified beings of complex ancestry, those whose origin is complicated
  because of the many diverse techniques operative in the seven superuniverses.
  Many groups of beings forgather on this world whose identity has not been
  revealed to Urantia mortals.



  13:1.12 The secrets of Vicegerington include the secrets of trinitization, and
  trinitization constitutes the secret of authority to represent the Trinity, to
  act as vicegerents of the Gods. Authority to represent the Trinity attaches
  only to those beings, revealed and unrevealed, who are trinitized, created,
  eventuated, or eternalized by any two or all three of the Paradise Trinity.
  Personalities brought into being by the trinitizing acts of certain types of
  glorified creatures represent no more than the conceptual potential mobilized
  in that trinitization, albeit such creatures may ascend the path of Deity
  embrace open to all of their kind.

  13:1.13 Nontrinitized beings do not fully understand the technique of
  trinitization by either two or three Creators or by certain creatures. You
  will never fully understand such a phenomenon unless, in the far-distant
  future of your glorified career, you should essay and succeed in such an
  adventure, because otherwise these secrets of Vicegerington will always be
  forbidden you. But to me, a high Trinity-origin being, all sectors of
  Vicegerington are open. I fully understand, and just as fully and sacredly
  protect, the secret of my origin and destiny.

  13:1.14 There are still other forms and phases of trinitization which have not
  been brought to the notice of the Urantia peoples, and these experiences, in
  their personal aspects, are duly protected in the secret sector of
  Vicegerington.



  13:1.15 5. SOLITARINGTON. This world is the "bosom of the Father and the
  Spirit" and is the rendezvous of a magnificent host of unrevealed beings of
  origin in the conjoint acts of the Universal Father and the Infinite Spirit,
  beings who partake of the traits of the Father in addition to their Spirit
  inheritance.

  13:1.16 This is also the home of the Solitary Messengers and of other
  personalities of the superangelic orders. You know of very few of these
  beings; there are vast numbers of orders unrevealed on Urantia. Because they
  are domiciled on the fifth world, it does not necessarily follow that the
  Father had aught to do with the creation of Solitary Messengers or their
  superangelic associates, but in this universe age he does have to do with
  their function. During the present universe age this is also the status sphere
  of the Universe Power Directors.

  13:1.17 There are numerous additional orders of spirit personalities, beings
  unknown to mortal man, who look upon Solitarington as their Paradise home
  sphere. It should be remembered that all divisions and levels of universe
  activities are just as fully provided with spirit ministers as is the realm
  concerned with helping mortal man ascend to his divine Paradise destiny.



  13:1.18 The secrets of Solitarington. Besides certain secrets of
  trinitization, this world holds the secrets of the personal relation of the
  Infinite Spirit with certain of the higher offspring of the Third Source and
  Center. On Solitarington are held the mysteries of the intimate association of
  numerous unrevealed orders with the spirits of the Father, of the Son, and of
  the Spirit, with the threefold spirit of the Trinity, and with the spirits of
  the Supreme, the Ultimate, and the Supreme-Ultimate.



  13:1.19 6. SERAPHINGTON. This sphere is the "bosom of the Son and the Spirit"
  and is the home world of the vast hosts of unrevealed beings created by the
  Son and the Spirit. This is also the destiny sphere of all ministering orders
  of the angelic hosts, including supernaphim, seconaphim, and seraphim. There
  also serve in the central and outlying universes many orders of superb spirits
  who are not "ministering spirits to those who shall be heirs of salvation."
  All these spirit workers in all levels and realms of universe activities look
  upon Seraphington as their Paradise home.



  13:1.20 The secrets of Seraphington involve a threefold mystery, only one of
  which I may mention -- the mystery of seraphic transport. The ability of
  various orders of seraphim and allied spirit beings to envelop within their
  spirit forms all orders of nonmaterial personalities and to carry them away on
  lengthy interplanetary journeys, is a secret locked up in the sacred sectors
  of Seraphington. The transport seraphim comprehend this mystery, but they do
  not communicate it to the rest of us, or perhaps they cannot. The other
  mysteries of Seraphington pertain to the personal experiences of types of
  spirit servers as yet not revealed to mortals. And we refrain from discussing
  the secrets of such closely related beings because you can almost comprehend
  such near orders of existence, and it would be akin to betrayal of trust to
  present even our partial knowledge of such phenomena.



  13:1.21 7. ASCENDINGTON. This unique world is the "bosom of the Father, Son,
  and Spirit," the rendezvous of the ascendant creatures of space, the receiving
  sphere of the pilgrims of time who are passing through the Havona universe on
  their way to Paradise. Ascendington is the actual Paradise home of the
  ascendant souls of time and space until they attain Paradise status. You
  mortals will spend most of your Havona "vacations" on Ascendington. During
  your Havona life Ascendington will be to you what the reversion directors were
  during the local and superuniverse ascension. Here you will engage in
  thousands of activities which are beyond the grasp of mortal imagination. And
  as on every previous advance in the Godward ascent, your human self will here
  enter into new relationships with your divine self.



  13:1.22 The secrets of Ascendington include the mystery of the gradual and
  certain building up in the material and mortal mind of a spiritual and
  potentially immortal counterpart of character and identity. This phenomenon
  constitutes one of the most perplexing mysteries of the universes -- the
  evolution of an immortal soul within the mind of a mortal and material
  creature.

  13:1.23 You will never fully understand this mysterious transaction until you
  reach Ascendington. And that is just why all Ascendington will be open to your
  wondering gaze. One seventh of Ascendington is forbidden to me -- that sector
  concerned with this very secret which is (or will be) the exclusive experience
  and possession of your type of being. This experience belongs to your human
  order of existence. My order of personality is not directly concerned with
  such transactions. It is therefore forbidden to me and eventually revealed to
  you. But even after it is revealed to you, for some reason it forever remains
  your secret. You do not reveal it to us nor to any other order of beings. We
  know about the eternal fusion of a divine Adjuster and an immortal soul of
  human origin, but the ascendant finaliters know this very experience as an
  absolute reality.





2. FATHER-WORLD RELATIONSHIPS



  13:2.1 These home worlds of the diverse orders of spiritual beings are
  tremendous and stupendous spheres, and they are equal to Paradise in their
  matchless beauty and superb glory. They are rendezvous worlds, reunion
  spheres, serving as permanent cosmic addresses. As finaliters you will be
  domiciled on Paradise, but Ascendington will be your home address at all
  times, even when you enter service in outer space. Through all eternity you
  will regard Ascendington as your home of sentimental memories and reminiscent
  recollections. When you become seventh-stage spirit beings, possibly you will
  give up your residential status on Paradise.

  13:2.2 If outer universes are in the making, if they are to be inhabited by
  time creatures of ascension potential, then we infer that these children of
  the future will also be destined to look upon Ascendington as their Paradise
  home world.



  13:2.3 Ascendington is the only sacred sphere that will be unreservedly open
  to your inspection as a Paradise arrival. Vicegerington is the only sacred
  sphere that is wholly and unreservedly open to my scrutiny. Though its secrets
  are concerned in my origin, in this universe age I do not regard Vicegerington
  as my home. Trinity-origin beings and trinitized beings are not the same.



  13:2.4 The Trinity-origin beings do not fully share the Father's worlds; they
  have their sole homes on the Isle of Paradise in close proximity to the Most
  Holy Sphere. They often appear on Ascendington, the "bosom of the Father-Son-
  Spirit," where they fraternize with their brethren who have come up from the
  lowly worlds of space.



  13:2.5 You might assume that Creator Sons, being of Father-Son origin, would
  regard Vicegerington as their home, but such is not the case in this universe
  age of the function of God the Sevenfold. And there are many similar problems
  that will perplex you, for you are sure to encounter many difficulties as you
  attempt to understand these things which are so near Paradise. Nor can you
  successfully reason out these questions; you know so little. And if you knew
  more about the Father's worlds, you would simply encounter more difficulties
  until you knew all about them. Status on any of these secret worlds is
  acquired by service as well as by nature of origin, and the successive
  universe ages may and do redistribute certain of these personality groupings.



  13:2.6 The worlds of the inner circuit are really fraternal or status worlds
  more than actual residential spheres. Mortals will attain some status on each
  of the Father's worlds save one. For example: When you mortals attain Havona,
  you are granted clearance for Ascendington, where you are most welcome, but
  you are not permitted to visit the other six sacred worlds. Subsequent to your
  passage through the Paradise regime and after your admission to the Corps of
  the Finality, you are granted clearance for Sonarington since you are sons of
  God as well as ascenders -- and you are even more. But there will always
  remain one seventh of Sonarington, the sector of the incarnation secrets of
  the divine Sons, which will not be open to your scrutiny. Never will those
  secrets be revealed to the ascendant sons of God.

  13:2.7 Eventually you will have full access to Ascendington and relative
  access to the other spheres of the Father except Divinington. But even when
  you are granted permission to land on five additional secret spheres, after
  you have become a finaliter, you will not be allowed to visit all sectors of
  such worlds. Nor will you be permitted to land on the shores of Divinington,
  the "bosom of the Father," though you shall surely stand repeatedly at the
  "right hand of the Father." Never throughout all eternity will there arise any
  necessity for your presence on the world of the Thought Adjusters.

  13:2.8 These rendezvous worlds of spirit life are forbidden ground to the
  extent that we are asked not to negotiate entrance to those phases of these
  spheres which are wholly outside our realms of experience. You may become
  creature perfect even as the Universal Father is deity perfect, but you may
  not know all the experiential secrets of all other orders of universe
  personalities. When the Creator has an experiential personality secret with
  his creature, the Creator preserves that secret in eternal confidence.



  13:2.9 All these secrets are supposedly known to the collective body of the
  Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy. These beings are fully known only by their
  special world groups; they are little comprehended by other orders. After you
  attain Paradise, you will know and ardently love the ten Secrets of Supremacy
  who direct Ascendington. Excepting Divinington, you will also achieve a
  partial understanding of the Secrets of Supremacy on the other worlds of the
  Father, though not so perfectly as on Ascendington.

  13:2.10 The Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy, as their name might suggest, are
  related to the Supreme; they are likewise related to the Ultimate and to the
  future Supreme-Ultimate. These Secrets of Supremacy are the secrets of the
  Supreme and also the secrets of the Ultimate, even the secrets of the Supreme-
  Ultimate.





3. THE SACRED WORLDS OF THE ETERNAL SON



  13:3.1 The seven luminous spheres of the Eternal Son are the worlds of the
  seven phases of pure-spirit existence. These shining orbs are the source of
  the threefold light of Paradise and Havona, their influence being largely, but
  not wholly, confined to the central universe.

  13:3.2 Personality is not present on these Paradise satellites; therefore is
  there little concerning these pure-spirit abodes which can be presented to the
  mortal and material personality. We are taught that these worlds teem with the
  otherwise-than-personal life of the beings of the Eternal Son. We infer that
  these entities are being assembled for ministry in the projected new universes
  of outer space. The Paradise philosophers maintain that each Paradise cycle,
  about two billion years of Urantia time, witnesses the creation of additional
  reserves of these orders on the secret worlds of the Eternal Son.



  13:3.3 As far as I am informed, no personality has ever been on any one of
  these spheres of the Eternal Son. I have never been assigned to visit one of
  these worlds in all my long experience in and out of Paradise. Even the
  personalities cocreated by the Eternal Son do not go to these worlds. We infer
  that all types of impersonal spirits -- regardless of parentage -- are
  admitted to these spirit homes. As I am a person and have a spirit form, no
  doubt such a world would seem empty and deserted even if I were permitted to
  pay it a visit. High spirit personalities are not given to the gratification
  of purposeless curiosity, purely useless adventure. There is at all times
  altogether too much intriguing and purposeful adventure to permit the
  development of any great interest in those projects which are either futile or
  unreal.





4. THE WORLDS OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT



  13:4.1 Between the inner circuit of Havona and the shining spheres of the
  Eternal Son there circle the seven orbs of the Infinite Spirit, worlds
  inhabited by the offspring of the Infinite Spirit, by the trinitized sons of
  glorified created personalities, and by other types of unrevealed beings
  concerned with the effective administration of the many enterprises of the
  various realms of universe activities.

  13:4.2 The Seven Master Spirits are the supreme and ultimate representatives
  of the Infinite Spirit. They maintain their personal stations, their power
  focuses, on the periphery of Paradise, but all operations concerned with their
  management and direction of the grand universe are conducted on and from these
  seven special executive spheres of the Infinite Spirit. The Seven Master
  Spirits are, in reality, the mind-spirit balance wheel of the universe of
  universes, an all-embracing, all-encompassing, and all-co-ordinating power of
  central location.

  13:4.3 From these seven special spheres the Master Spirits operate to equalize
  and stabilize the cosmic-mind circuits of the grand universe. They also have
  to do with the differential spiritual attitude and presence of the Deities
  throughout the grand universe. Physical reactions are uniform, unvarying, and
  always instantaneous and automatic. But experiential spiritual presence is in
  accordance with the underlying conditions or states of spiritual receptivity
  inherent in the individual minds of the realms.



  13:4.4 Physical authority, presence, and function are unvarying in all the
  universes, small or great. The differing factor in spiritual presence, or
  reaction, is the fluctuating differential in its recognition and reception by
  will creatures. Whereas the spiritual presence of absolute and existential
  Deity is in no manner whatever influenced by attitudes of loyalty or
  disloyalty on the part of created beings, at the same time it is true that the
  functioning presence of subabsolute and experiential Deity is definitely and
  directly influenced by the decisions, choices, and will-attitudes of such
  finite creature beings -- by the loyalty and devotion of the individual being,
  planet, system, constellation, or universe. But this spiritual presence of
  divinity is not whimsical nor arbitrary; its experiential variance is inherent
  in the freewill endowment of personal creatures.

  13:4.5 The determiner of the differential of spiritual presence exists in your
  own hearts and minds and consists in the manner of your own choosing, in the
  decisions of your minds, and in the determination of your own wills. This
  differential is inherent in the freewill reactions of intelligent personal
  beings, beings whom the Universal Father has ordained shall exercise this
  liberty of choosing. And the Deities are ever true to the ebb and flow of
  their spirits in meeting and satisfying the conditions and demands of this
  differential of creature choice, now bestowing more of their presence in
  response to a sincere desire for the same and again withdrawing themselves
  from the scene as their creatures decide adversely in the exercise of their
  divinely bestowed freedom of choice. And thus does the spirit of divinity
  become humbly obedient to the choosing of the creatures of the realms.



  13:4.6 The executive abodes of the Seven Master Spirits are, in reality, the
  Paradise headquarters of the seven superuniverses and their correlated
  segments in outer space. Each Master Spirit presides over one superuniverse,
  and each of these seven worlds is exclusively assigned to one of the Master
  Spirits. There is literally no phase of the sub-Paradise administration of the
  seven superuniverses which is not provided for on these executive worlds. They
  are not so exclusive as the spheres of the Father or those of the Son, and
  though residential status is limited to native beings and those who work
  thereon, these seven administrative planets are always open to all beings who
  desire to visit them, and who can command the necessary means of transit.

  13:4.7 To me, these executive worlds are the most interesting and intriguing
  spots outside of Paradise. In no other place in the wide universe can one
  observe such varied activities, involving so many different orders of living
  beings, having to do with operations on so many diverse levels, occupations at
  once material, intellectual, and spiritual. When I am accorded a period of
  release from assignment, if I chance to be on Paradise or in Havona, I usually
  proceed to one of these busy worlds of the Seven Master Spirits, there to
  inspire my mind with such spectacles of enterprise, devotion, loyalty, wisdom,
  and effectiveness. Nowhere else can I observe such an amazing interassociation
  of personality performances on all seven levels of universe reality. And I am
  always stimulated by the activities of those who well know how to do their
  work, and who so thoroughly enjoy doing it.



  13:4.8 Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom commissioned thus to function by the
  Ancients of Days on Uversa.




PAPER 14


 THE CENTRAL AND DIVINE UNIVERSE



  14:0.1 THE perfect and divine universe occupies the center of all creation; it
  is the eternal core around which the vast creations of time and space revolve.
  Paradise is the gigantic nuclear Isle of absolute stability which rests
  motionless at the very heart of the magnificent eternal universe. This central
  planetary family is called Havona and is far-distant from the local universe
  of Nebadon. It is of enormous dimensions and almost unbelievable mass and
  consists of one billion spheres of unimagined beauty and superb grandeur, but
  the true magnitude of this vast creation is really beyond the understanding
  grasp of the human mind.



  14:0.2 This is the one and only settled, perfect, and established aggregation
  of worlds. This is a wholly created and perfect universe; it is not an
  evolutionary development. This is the eternal core of perfection, about which
  swirls that endless procession of universes which constitute the tremendous
  evolutionary experiment, the audacious adventure of the Creator Sons of God,
  who aspire to duplicate in time and to reproduce in space the pattern
  universe, the ideal of divine completeness, supreme finality, ultimate
  reality, and eternal perfection.





1. THE PARADISE-HAVONA SYSTEM



  14:1.1 From the periphery of Paradise to the inner borders of the seven
  superuniverses there are the following seven space conditions and motions:

1. The quiescent midspace zones impinging on Paradise.

2. The clockwise processional of the three Paradise and the seven Havona
circuits.

3. The semiquiet space zone separating the Havona circuits from the dark gravity
bodies of the central universe.

4. The inner, counterclockwise-moving belt of the dark gravity bodies.

5. The second unique space zone dividing the two space paths of the dark gravity
bodies.

6. The outer belt of dark gravity bodies, revolving clockwise around Paradise.

7. A third space zone -- a semiquiet zone -- separating the outer belt of dark
gravity bodies from the innermost circuits of the seven superuniverses.

  14:1.2 The billion worlds of Havona are arranged in seven concentric circuits
  immediately surrounding the three circuits of Paradise satellites. There are
  upwards of thirty-five million worlds in the innermost Havona circuit and over
  two hundred and forty-five million in the outermost, with proportionate
  numbers intervening. Each circuit differs, but all are perfectly balanced and
  exquisitely organized, and each is pervaded by a specialized representation of
  the Infinite Spirit, one of the Seven Spirits of the Circuits. In addition to
  other functions this impersonal Spirit co-ordinates the conduct of celestial
  affairs throughout each circuit.

  14:1.3 The Havona planetary circuits are not superimposed; their worlds follow
  each other in an orderly linear procession. The central universe whirls around
  the stationary Isle of Paradise in one vast plane, consisting of ten
  concentric stabilized units -- the three circuits of Paradise spheres and the
  seven circuits of Havona worlds. Physically regarded, the Havona and the
  Paradise circuits are all one and the same system; their separation is in
  recognition of functional and administrative segregation.



  14:1.4 Time is not reckoned on Paradise; the sequence of successive events is
  inherent in the concept of those who are indigenous to the central Isle. But
  time is germane to the Havona circuits and to numerous beings of both
  celestial and terrestrial origin sojourning thereon. Each Havona world has its
  own local time, determined by its circuit. All worlds in a given circuit have
  the same length of year since they uniformly swing around Paradise, and the
  length of these planetary years decreases from the outermost to the innermost
  circuit.

  14:1.5 Besides Havona-circuit time, there is the Paradise-Havona standard day
  and other time designations which are determined on, and are sent out from,
  the seven Paradise satellites of the Infinite Spirit. The Paradise-Havona
  standard day is based on the length of time required for the planetary abodes
  of the first or inner Havona circuit to complete one revolution around the
  Isle of Paradise; and though their velocity is enormous, owing to their
  situation between the dark gravity bodies and gigantic Paradise, it requires
  almost one thousand years for these spheres to complete their circuit. You
  have unwittingly read the truth when your eyes rested on the statement "A day
  is as a thousand years with God, as but a watch in the night." One Paradise-
  Havona day is just seven minutes, three and one-eighth seconds less than one
  thousand years of the present Urantia leap-year calendar.

  14:1.6 This Paradise-Havona day is the standard time measurement for the seven
  superuniverses, although each maintains its own internal time standards.



  14:1.7 On the outskirts of this vast central universe, far out beyond the
  seventh belt of Havona worlds, there swirl an unbelievable number of enormous
  dark gravity bodies. These multitudinous dark masses are quite unlike other
  space bodies in many particulars; even in form they are very different. These
  dark gravity bodies neither reflect nor absorb light; they are nonreactive to
  physical-energy light, and they so completely encircle and enshroud Havona as
  to hide it from the view of even near-by inhabited universes of time and
  space.

  14:1.8 The great belt of dark gravity bodies is divided into two equal
  elliptical circuits by a unique space intrusion. The inner belt revolves
  counterclockwise; the outer revolves clockwise. These alternate directions of
  motion, coupled with the extraordinary mass of the dark bodies, so effectively
  equalize the lines of Havona gravity as to render the central universe a
  physically balanced and perfectly stabilized creation.

  14:1.9 The inner procession of dark gravity bodies is tubular in arrangement,
  consisting of three circular groupings. A cross section of this circuit would
  exhibit three concentric circles of about equal density. The outer circuit of
  dark gravity bodies is arranged perpendicularly, being ten thousand times
  higher than the inner circuit. The up-and-down diameter of the outer circuit
  is fifty thousand times that of the transverse diameter.

  14:1.10 The intervening space which exists between these two circuits of
  gravity bodies is unique in that nothing like it is to be found elsewhere in
  all the wide universe. This zone is characterized by enormous wave movements
  of an up-and-down nature and is permeated by tremendous energy activities of
  an unknown order.

  14:1.11 In our opinion, nothing like the dark gravity bodies of the central
  universe will characterize the future evolution of the outer space levels; we
  regard these alternate processions of stupendous gravity-balancing bodies as
  unique in the master universe.





2. CONSTITUTION OF HAVONA



  14:2.1 Spirit beings do not dwell in nebulous space; they do not inhabit
  ethereal worlds; they are domiciled on actual spheres of a material nature,
  worlds just as real as those on which mortals live. The Havona worlds are
  actual and literal, albeit their literal substance differs from the material
  organization of the planets of the seven superuniverses.

  14:2.2 The physical realities of Havona represent an order of energy
  organization radically different from any prevailing in the evolutionary
  universes of space. Havona energies are threefold; superuniverse units of
  energy-matter contain a twofold energy charge, although one form of energy
  exists in negative and positive phases. The creation of the central universe
  is threefold (Trinity); the creation of a local universe (directly) is
  twofold, by a Creator Son and a Creative Spirit.

  14:2.3 The material of Havona consists of the organization of exactly one
  thousand basic chemical elements and the balanced function of the seven forms
  of Havona energy. Each of these basic energies manifests seven phases of
  excitation, so that the Havona natives respond to forty-nine differing
  sensation stimuli. In other words, viewed from a purely physical standpoint,
  the natives of the central universe possess forty-nine specialized forms of
  sensation. The morontia senses are seventy, and the higher spiritual orders of
  reaction response vary in different types of beings from seventy to two
  hundred and ten.

  14:2.4 None of the physical beings of the central universe would be visible to
  Urantians. Neither would any of the physical stimuli of those faraway worlds
  excite a reaction in your gross sense organs. If a Urantia mortal could be
  transported to Havona, he would there be deaf, blind, and utterly lacking in
  all other sense reactions; he could only function as a limited self-conscious
  being deprived of all environmental stimuli and all reactions thereto.



  14:2.5 There are numerous physical phenomena and spiritual reactions
  transpiring in the central creation which are unknown on worlds such as
  Urantia. The basic organization of a threefold creation is wholly unlike that
  of the twofold constitution of the created universes of time and space.

  14:2.6 All natural law is co-ordinated on a basis entirely different than in
  the dual-energy systems of the evolving creations. The entire central universe
  is organized in accordance with the threefold system of perfect and
  symmetrical control. Throughout the whole Paradise-Havona system there is
  maintained a perfect balance between all cosmic realities and all spiritual
  forces. Paradise, with an absolute grasp of material creation, perfectly
  regulates and maintains the physical energies of this central universe; the
  Eternal Son, as a part of his all-embracing spirit grasp, most perfectly
  sustains the spiritual status of all who indwell Havona. On Paradise nothing
  is experimental, and the Paradise-Havona system is a unit of creative
  perfection.

  14:2.7 The universal spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son is amazingly active
  throughout the central universe. All spirit values and spiritual personalities
  are unceasingly drawn inward towards the abode of the Gods. This Godward urge
  is intense and inescapable. The ambition to attain God is stronger in the
  central universe, not because spirit gravity is stronger than in the outlying
  universes, but because those beings who have attained Havona are more fully
  spiritualized and hence more responsive to the ever-present action of the
  universal spirit-gravity pull of the Eternal Son.

  14:2.8 Likewise does the Infinite Spirit draw all intellectual values
  Paradiseward. Throughout the central universe the mind gravity of the Infinite
  Spirit functions in liaison with the spirit gravity of the Eternal Son, and
  these together constitute the combined urge of the ascendant souls to find
  God, to attain Deity, to achieve Paradise, and to know the Father.



  14:2.9 Havona is a spiritually perfect and physically stable universe. The
  control and balanced stability of the central universe appear to be perfect.
  Everything physical or spiritual is perfectly predictable, but mind phenomena
  and personality volition are not. We do infer that sin can be reckoned as
  impossible of occurrence, but we do this on the ground that the native
  freewill creatures of Havona have never been guilty of transgressing the will
  of Deity. Through all eternity these supernal beings have been consistently
  loyal to the Eternals of Days. Neither has sin appeared in any creature who
  has entered Havona as a pilgrim. There has never been an instance of
  misconduct by any creature of any group of personalities ever created in, or
  admitted to, the central Havona universe. So perfect and so divine are the
  methods and means of selection in the universes of time that never in the
  records of Havona has an error occurred; no mistakes have ever been made; no
  ascendant soul has ever been prematurely admitted to the central universe.





3. THE HAVONA WORLDS



  14:3.1 Concerning the government of the central universe, there is none.
  Havona is so exquisitely perfect that no intellectual system of government is
  required. There are no regularly constituted courts, neither are there
  legislative assemblies; Havona requires only administrative direction. Here
  may be observed the height of the ideals of true self-government.

  14:3.2 There is no need of government among such perfect and near-perfect
  intelligences. They stand in no need of regulation, for they are beings of
  native perfection interspersed with evolutionary creatures who have long since
  passed the scrutiny of the supreme tribunals of the superuniverses.

  14:3.3 The administration of Havona is not automatic, but it is marvelously
  perfect and divinely efficient. It is chiefly planetary and is vested in the
  resident Eternal of Days, each Havona sphere being directed by one of these
  Trinity-origin personalities. Eternals of Days are not creators, but they are
  perfect administrators. They teach with supreme skill and direct their
  planetary children with a perfection of wisdom bordering on absoluteness.

  14:3.4 The billion spheres of the central universe constitute the training
  worlds of the high personalities native to Paradise and Havona and further
  serve as the final proving grounds for ascending creatures from the
  evolutionary worlds of time. In the execution of the Universal Father's great
  plan of creature ascension the pilgrims of time are landed on the receiving
  worlds of the outer or seventh circuit, and subsequent to increased training
  and enlarged experience, they are progressively advanced inward, planet by
  planet and circle by circle, until they finally attain the Deities and achieve
  residence on Paradise.

  14:3.5 At present, although the spheres of the seven circuits are maintained
  in all their supernal glory, only about one per cent of all planetary capacity
  is utilized in the work of furthering the Father's universal plan of mortal
  ascension. About one tenth of one per cent of the area of these enormous
  worlds is dedicated to the life and activities of the Corps of the Finality,
  beings eternally settled in light and life who often sojourn and minister on
  the Havona worlds. These exalted beings have their personal residences on
  Paradise.

  14:3.6 The planetary construction of the Havona spheres is entirely unlike
  that of the evolutionary worlds and systems of space. Nowhere else in all the
  grand universe is it convenient to utilize such enormous spheres as inhabited
  worlds. Triata physical constitution, coupled with the balancing effect of the
  immense dark gravity bodies, makes it possible so perfectly to equalize the
  physical forces and so exquisitely to balance the various attractions of this
  tremendous creation. Antigravity is also employed in the organization of the
  material functions and the spiritual activities of these enormous worlds.

  14:3.7 The architecture, lighting, and heating, as well as the biologic and
  artistic embellishment, of the Havona spheres, are quite beyond the greatest
  possible stretch of human imagination. You cannot be told much about Havona;
  to understand its beauty and grandeur you must see it. But there are real
  rivers and lakes on these perfect worlds.

  14:3.8 Spiritually these worlds are ideally appointed; they are fittingly
  adapted to their purpose of harboring the numerous orders of differing beings
  who function in the central universe. Manifold activities take place on these
  beautiful worlds which are far beyond human comprehension.





4. CREATURES OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE



  14:4.1 There are seven basic forms of living things and beings on the Havona
  worlds, and each of these basic forms exists in three distinct phases. Each of
  these three phases is divided into seventy major divisions, and each major
  division is composed of one thousand minor divisions, with yet other
  subdivisions, and so on. These basic life groups might be classified as:

1. Material.

2. Morontial.

3. Spiritual.

4. Absonite.

5. Ultimate.

6. Coabsolute.

7. Absolute.

  14:4.2 Decay and death are not a part of the cycle of life on the Havona
  worlds. In the central universe the lower living things undergo the
  transmutation of materialization. They do change form and manifestation, but
  they do not resolve by process of decay and cellular death.



  14:4.3 The Havona natives are all the offspring of the Paradise Trinity. They
  are without creature parents, and they are nonreproducing beings. We cannot
  portray the creation of these citizens of the central universe, beings who
  never were created. The entire story of the creation of Havona is an attempt
  to time-space an eternity fact which has no relation to time or space as
  mortal man comprehends them. But we must concede human philosophy a point of
  origin; even personalities far above the human level require a concept of
  "beginnings." Nevertheless, the Paradise-Havona system is eternal.

  14:4.4 The natives of Havona live on the billion spheres of the central
  universe in the same sense that other orders of permanent citizenship dwell on
  their respective spheres of nativity. As the material order of sonship carries
  on the material, intellectual, and spiritual economy of a billion local
  systems in a superuniverse, so, in a larger sense, do the Havona natives live
  and function on the billion worlds of the central universe. You might possibly
  regard these Havoners as material creatures in the sense that the word
  "material" could be expanded to describe the physical realities of the divine
  universe.

  14:4.5 There is a life that is native to Havona and possesses significance in
  and of itself. Havoners minister in many ways to Paradise descenders and to
  superuniverse ascenders, but they also live lives that are unique in the
  central universe and have relative meaning quite apart from either Paradise or
  the superuniverses.

  14:4.6 As the worship of the faith sons of the evolutionary worlds ministers
  to the satisfaction of the Universal Father's love, so the exalted adoration
  of the Havona creatures satiates the perfect ideals of divine beauty and
  truth. As mortal man strives to do the will of God, these beings of the
  central universe live to gratify the ideals of the Paradise Trinity. In their
  very nature they are the will of God. Man rejoices in the goodness of God,
  Havoners exult in the divine beauty, while you both enjoy the ministry of the
  liberty of living truth.

  14:4.7 Havoners have both optional present and future unrevealed destinies.
  And there is a progression of native creatures that is peculiar to the central
  universe, a progression that involves neither ascent to Paradise nor
  penetration of the superuniverses. This progression to higher Havona status
  may be suggested as follows:

1. Experiential progress outward from the first to the seventh circuit.

2. Progress inward from the seventh to the first circuit.

3. Intracircuit progress -- progression within the worlds of a given circuit.

  14:4.8 In addition to the Havona natives, the inhabitants of the central
  universe embrace numerous classes of pattern beings for various universe
  groups -- advisers, directors, and teachers of their kind and to their kind
  throughout creation. All beings in all universes are fashioned along the lines
  of some one order of pattern creature living on some one of the billion worlds
  of Havona. Even the mortals of time have their goal and ideals of creature
  existence on the outer circuits of these pattern spheres on high.

  14:4.9 Then there are those beings who have attained the Universal Father, and
  who are entitled to go and come, who are assigned here and there in the
  universes on missions of special service. And on every Havona world will be
  found the attainment candidates, those who have physically attained the
  central universe, but who have not yet achieved that spiritual development
  which will enable them to claim Paradise residence.

  14:4.10 The Infinite Spirit is represented on the Havona worlds by a host of
  personalities, beings of grace and glory, who administer the details of the
  intricate intellectual and spiritual affairs of the central universe. On these
  worlds of divine perfection they perform the work indigenous to the normal
  conduct of this vast creation and, in addition, carry on the manifold tasks of
  teaching, training, and ministering to the enormous numbers of ascendant
  creatures who have climbed to glory from the dark worlds of space.

  14:4.11 There are numerous groups of beings native to the Paradise-Havona
  system that are in no way directly associated with the ascension scheme of
  creature perfection attainment; therefore are they omitted from the
  personality classifications presented to the mortal races. Only the major
  groups of superhuman beings and those orders directly connected with your
  survival experience are herein presented.

  14:4.12 Havona teems with the life of all phases of intelligent beings, who
  there seek to advance from lower to higher circuits in their efforts to attain
  higher levels of divinity realization and enlarged appreciation of supreme
  meanings, ultimate values, and absolute reality.





5. LIFE IN HAVONA



  14:5.1 On Urantia you pass through a short and intense test during your
  initial life of material existence. On the mansion worlds and up through your
  system, constellation, and local universe, you traverse the morontia phases of
  ascension. On the training worlds of the superuniverse you pass through the
  true spirit stages of progression and are prepared for eventual transit to
  Havona. On the seven circuits of Havona your attainment is intellectual,
  spiritual, and experiential. And there is a definite task to be achieved on
  each of the worlds of each of these circuits.

  14:5.2 Life on the divine worlds of the central universe is so rich and full,
  so complete and replete, that it wholly transcends the human concept of
  anything a created being could possibly experience. The social and economic
  activities of this eternal creation are entirely dissimilar to the occupations
  of material creatures living on evolutionary worlds like Urantia. Even the
  technique of Havona thought is unlike the process of thinking on Urantia.

  14:5.3 The regulations of the central universe are fittingly and inherently
  natural; the rules of conduct are not arbitrary. In every requirement of
  Havona there is disclosed the reason of righteousness and the rule of justice.
  And these two factors, combined, equal what on Urantia would be denominated
  fairness. When you arrive in Havona, you will naturally enjoy doing things the
  way they should be done.



  14:5.4 When intelligent beings first attain the central universe, they are
  received and domiciled on the pilot world of the seventh Havona circuit. As
  the new arrivals progress spiritually, attain identity comprehension of their
  superuniverse Master Spirit, they are transferred to the sixth circle. (It is
  from these arrangements in the central universe that the circles of progress
  in the human mind have been designated.) After ascenders have attained a
  realization of Supremacy and are thereby prepared for the Deity adventure,
  they are taken to the fifth circuit; and after attaining the Infinite Spirit,
  they are transferred to the fourth. Following the attainment of the Eternal
  Son, they are removed to the third; and when they have recognized the
  Universal Father, they go to sojourn on the second circuit of worlds, where
  they become more familiar with the Paradise hosts. Arrival on the first
  circuit of Havona signifies the acceptance of the candidates of time into the
  service of Paradise. Indefinitely, according to the length and nature of the
  creature ascension, they will tarry on the inner circuit of progressive
  spiritual attainment. From this inner circuit the ascending pilgrims pass
  inward to Paradise residence and admission to the Corps of the Finality.

  14:5.5 During your sojourn in Havona as a pilgrim of ascent, you will be
  allowed to visit freely among the worlds of the circuit of your assignment.
  You will also be permitted to go back to the planets of those circuits you
  have previously traversed. And all this is possible to those who sojourn on
  the circles of Havona without the necessity of being ensupernaphimed. The
  pilgrims of time are able to equip themselves to traverse "achieved" space but
  must depend on the ordained technique to negotiate "unachieved" space; a
  pilgrim cannot leave Havona nor go forward beyond his assigned circuit without
  the aid of a transport supernaphim.



  14:5.6 There is a refreshing originality about this vast central creation.
  Aside from the physical organization of matter and the fundamental
  constitution of the basic orders of intelligent beings and other living
  things, there is nothing in common between the worlds of Havona. Every one of
  these planets is an original, unique, and exclusive creation; each planet is a
  matchless, superb, and perfect production. And this diversity of individuality
  extends to all features of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual aspects
  of planetary existence. Each of these billion perfection spheres has been
  developed and embellished in accordance with the plans of the resident Eternal
  of Days. And this is just why no two of them are alike.

  14:5.7 Not until you traverse the last of the Havona circuits and visit the
  last of the Havona worlds, will the tonic of adventure and the stimulus of
  curiosity disappear from your career. And then will the urge, the forward
  impulse of eternity, replace its forerunner, the adventure lure of time.

  14:5.8 Monotony is indicative of immaturity of the creative imagination and
  inactivity of intellectual co-ordination with the spiritual endowment. By the
  time an ascendant mortal begins the exploration of these heavenly worlds, he
  has already attained emotional, intellectual, and social, if not spiritual,
  maturity.

  14:5.9 Not only will you find undreamed-of changes confronting you as you
  advance from circuit to circuit in Havona, but your astonishment will be
  inexpressible as you progress from planet to planet within each circuit. Each
  of these billion study worlds is a veritable university of surprises.
  Continuing astonishment, unending wonder, is the experience of those who
  traverse these circuits and tour these gigantic spheres. Monotony is not a
  part of the Havona career.

  14:5.10 Love of adventure, curiosity, and dread of monotony -- these traits
  inherent in evolving human nature -- were not put there just to aggravate and
  annoy you during your short sojourn on earth, but rather to suggest to you
  that death is only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an
  everlasting life of anticipation, an eternal voyage of discovery.

  14:5.11 Curiosity -- the spirit of investigation, the urge of discovery, the
  drive of exploration -- is a part of the inborn and divine endowment of
  evolutionary space creatures. These natural impulses were not given you merely
  to be frustrated and repressed. True, these ambitious urges must frequently be
  restrained during your short life on earth, disappointment must be often
  experienced, but they are to be fully realized and gloriously gratified during
  the long ages to come.





6. THE PURPOSE OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE



  14:6.1 The range of the activities of seven-circuited Havona is enormous. In
  general, they may be described as:

1. Havonal.

2. Paradisiacal.

3. Ascendant-finite -- Supreme-Ultimate evolutional.

  14:6.2 Many superfinite activities take place in the Havona of the present
  universe age, involving untold diversities of absonite and other phases of
  mind and spirit functions. It is possible that the central universe serves
  many purposes which are not revealed to me, as it functions in numerous ways
  beyond the comprehension of the created mind. Nevertheless, I will endeavor to
  depict how this perfect creation ministers to the needs and contributes to the
  satisfactions of seven orders of universe intelligence.



  14:6.3 1. The Universal Father -- the First Source and Center. God the Father
  derives supreme parental satisfaction from the perfection of the central
  creation. He enjoys the experience of love satiety on near-equality levels.
  The perfect Creator is divinely pleased with the adoration of the perfect
  creature.

  14:6.4 Havona affords the Father supreme achievement gratification. The
  perfection realization in Havona compensates for the time-space delay of the
  eternal urge of infinite expansion.

  14:6.5 The Father enjoys the Havona reciprocation of the divine beauty. It
  satisfies the divine mind to afford a perfect pattern of exquisite harmony for
  all evolving universes.

  14:6.6 Our Father beholds the central universe with perfect pleasure because
  it is a worthy revelation of spirit reality to all personalities of the
  universe of universes.

  14:6.7 The God of universes has favorable regard for Havona and Paradise as
  the eternal power nucleus for all subsequent universe expansion in time and
  space.

  14:6.8 The eternal Father views with never-ending satisfaction the Havona
  creation as the worthy and alluring goal for the ascension candidates of time,
  his mortal grandchildren of space achieving their Creator-Father's eternal
  home. And God takes pleasure in the Paradise-Havona universe as the eternal
  home of Deity and the divine family.



  14:6.9 2. The Eternal Son -- the Second Source and Center. To the Eternal Son
  the superb central creation affords eternal proof of the partnership
  effectiveness of the divine family -- Father, Son, and Spirit. It is the
  spiritual and material basis for absolute confidence in the Universal Father.

  14:6.10 Havona affords the Eternal Son an almost unlimited base for the ever-
  expanding realization of spirit power. The central universe afforded the
  Eternal Son the arena wherein he could safely and securely demonstrate the
  spirit and technique of the bestowal ministry for the instruction of his
  associate Paradise Sons.

  14:6.11 Havona is the reality foundation for the Eternal Son's spirit-gravity
  control of the universe of universes. This universe affords the Son the
  gratification of parental craving, spiritual reproduction.

  14:6.12 The Havona worlds and their perfect inhabitants are the first and the
  eternally final demonstration that the Son is the Word of the Father. Thereby
  is the consciousness of the Son as an infinite complement of the Father
  perfectly gratified.

  14:6.13 And this universe affords the opportunity for the realization of
  reciprocation of equality fraternity between the Universal Father and the
  Eternal Son, and this constitutes the everlasting proof of the infinite
  personality of each.



  14:6.14 3. The Infinite Spirit -- the Third Source and Center. The Havona
  universe affords the Infinite Spirit proof of being the Conjoint Actor, the
  infinite representative of the unified Father-Son. In Havona the Infinite
  Spirit derives the combined satisfaction of functioning as a creative activity
  while enjoying the satisfaction of absolute coexistence with this divine
  achievement.

  14:6.15 In Havona the Infinite Spirit found an arena wherein he could
  demonstrate the ability and willingness to serve as a potential mercy
  minister. In this perfect creation the Spirit rehearsed for the adventure of
  ministry in the evolutionary universes.

  14:6.16 This perfect creation afforded the Infinite Spirit opportunity to
  participate in universe administration with both divine parents -- to
  administer a universe as associate-Creator offspring, thereby preparing for
  the joint administration of the local universes as the Creative Spirit
  associates of the Creator Sons.

  14:6.17 The Havona worlds are the mind laboratory of the creators of the
  cosmic mind and the ministers to every creature mind in existence. Mind is
  different on each Havona world and serves as the pattern for all spiritual and
  material creature intellects.

  14:6.18 These perfect worlds are the mind graduate schools for all beings
  destined for Paradise society. They afforded the Spirit abundant opportunity
  to test out the technique of mind ministry on safe and advisory personalities.

  14:6.19 Havona is a compensation to the Infinite Spirit for his widespread and
  unselfish work in the universes of space. Havona is the perfect home and
  retreat for the untiring Mind Minister of time and space.



  14:6.20 4. The Supreme Being -- the evolutionary unification of experiential
  Deity. The Havona creation is the eternal and perfect proof of the spiritual
  reality of the Supreme Being. This perfect creation is a revelation of the
  perfect and symmetrical spirit nature of God the Supreme before the beginnings
  of the power-personality synthesis of the finite reflections of the Paradise
  Deities in the experiential universes of time and space.



  14:6.21 In Havona the power potentials of the Almighty are unified with the
  spiritual nature of the Supreme. This central creation is an exemplification
  of the future-eternal unity of the Supreme.

  14:6.22 Havona is a perfect pattern of the universality potential of the
  Supreme. This universe is a finished portrayal of the future perfection of the
  Supreme and is suggestive of the potential of the Ultimate.

  14:6.23 Havona exhibits finality of spirit values existing as living will
  creatures of supreme and perfect self-control; mind existing as ultimately
  equivalent to spirit; reality and unity of intelligence with an unlimited
  potential.



  14:6.24 5. The Co-ordinate Creator Sons. Havona is the educational training
  ground where the Paradise Michaels are prepared for their subsequent
  adventures in universe creation. This divine and perfect creation is a pattern
  for every Creator Son. He strives to make his own universe eventually attain
  to these Paradise-Havona levels of perfection.

  14:6.25 A Creator Son uses the creatures of Havona as personality-pattern
  possibilities for his own mortal children and spirit beings. The Michael and
  other Paradise Sons view Paradise and Havona as the divine destiny of the
  children of time.

  14:6.26 The Creator Sons know that the central creation is the real source of
  that indispensable universe overcontrol which stabilizes and unifies their
  local universes. They know that the personal presence of the ever-present
  influence of the Supreme and of the Ultimate is in Havona.

  14:6.27 Havona and Paradise are the source of a Michael Son's creative power.
  Here dwell the beings who co-operate with him in universe creation. From
  Paradise come the Universe Mother Spirits, the cocreators of local universes.

  14:6.28 The Paradise Sons regard the central creation as the home of their
  divine parents -- their home. It is the place they enjoy returning to ever and
  anon.



  14:6.29 6. The Co-ordinate Ministering Daughters. The Universe Mother Spirits,
  cocreators of the local universes, secure their prepersonal training on the
  worlds of Havona in close association with the Spirits of the Circuits. In the
  central universe the Spirit Daughters of the local universes were duly trained
  in the methods of co-operation with the Sons of Paradise, all the while
  subject to the will of the Father.

  14:6.30 On the worlds of Havona the Spirit and the Daughters of the Spirit
  find the mind patterns for all their groups of spiritual and material
  intelligences, and this central universe is the sometime destiny of those
  creatures which a Universe Mother Spirit jointly sponsors with an associated
  Creator Son.

  14:6.31 The Universe Mother Creator remembers Paradise and Havona as the place
  of her origin and the home of the Infinite Mother Spirit, the abode of the
  personality presence of the Infinite Mind.

  14:6.32 From this central universe also came the bestowal of the personal
  prerogatives of creatorship which a Universe Divine Minister employs as
  complemental to a Creator Son in the work of creating living will creatures.

  14:6.33 And lastly, since these Daughter Spirits of the Infinite Mother Spirit
  will not likely ever return to their Paradise home, they derive great
  satisfaction from the universal reflectivity phenomenon associated with the
  Supreme Being in Havona and personalized in Majeston on Paradise.



  14:6.34 7. The Evolutionary Mortals of the Ascending Career. Havona is the
  home of the pattern personality of every mortal type and the home of all
  superhuman personalities of mortal association who are not native to the
  creations of time.

  14:6.35 These worlds provide the stimulus of all human impulses towards the
  attainment of true spirit values on the highest conceivable reality levels.
  Havona is the pre-Paradise training goal of every ascending mortal. Here
  mortals attain pre-Paradise Deity -- the Supreme Being. Havona stands before
  every will creature as the portal to Paradise and God attainment.

  14:6.36 Paradise is the home, and Havona the workshop and playground, of the
  finaliters. And every God-knowing mortal craves to be a finaliter.

  14:6.37 The central universe is not only man's established destiny, but it is
  also the starting place of the eternal career of the finaliters as they shall
  sometime be started out on the undisclosed and universal adventure in the
  experience of exploring the infinity of the Universal Father.



  14:6.38 Havona will unquestionably continue to function with absonite
  significance even in future universe ages which may witness space pilgrims
  attempting to find God on superfinite levels. Havona has capacity to serve as
  a training universe for absonite beings. It will probably be the finishing
  school when the seven superuniverses are functioning as the intermediate
  school for the graduates of the primary schools of outer space. And we incline
  to the opinion that the potentials of eternal Havona are really unlimited,
  that the central universe has eternal capacity to serve as an experiential
  training universe for all past, present, or future types of created beings.



  14:6.39 Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom commissioned thus to function by
  the Ancients of Days on Uversa.






PAPER 15


 THE SEVEN SUPERUNIVERSES



  15:0.1 AS FAR as the Universal Father is concerned -- as a Father -- the
  universes are virtually nonexistent; he deals with personalities; he is the
  Father of personalities. As far as the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit are
  concerned -- as creator partners -- the universes are localized and individual
  under the joint rule of the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits. As far as
  the Paradise Trinity is concerned, outside Havona there are just seven
  inhabited universes, the seven superuniverses which hold jurisdiction over the
  circle of the first post-Havona space level. The Seven Master Spirits radiate
  their influence out from the central Isle, thus constituting the vast creation
  one gigantic wheel, the hub being the eternal Isle of Paradise, the seven
  spokes the radiations of the Seven Master Spirits, the rim the outer regions
  of the grand universe.

  15:0.2 Early in the materialization of the universal creation the sevenfold
  scheme of the superuniverse organization and government was formulated. The
  first post-Havona creation was divided into seven stupendous segments, and the
  headquarters worlds of these superuniverse governments were designed and
  constructed. The present scheme of administration has existed from near
  eternity, and the rulers of these seven superuniverses are rightly called
  Ancients of Days.

  15:0.3 Of the vast body of knowledge concerning the superuniverses, I can hope
  to tell you little, but there is operative throughout these realms a technique
  of intelligent control for both physical and spiritual forces, and the
  universal gravity presences there function in majestic power and perfect
  harmony. It is important first to gain an adequate idea of the physical
  constitution and material organization of the superuniverse domains, for then
  you will be the better prepared to grasp the significance of the marvelous
  organization provided for their spiritual government and for the intellectual
  advancement of the will creatures who dwell on the myriads of inhabited
  planets scattered hither and yon throughout these seven superuniverses.





1. THE SUPERUNIVERSE SPACE LEVEL



  15:1.1 Within the limited range of the records, observations, and memories of
  the generations of a million or a billion of your short years, to all
  practical intents and purposes, Urantia and the universe to which it belongs
  are experiencing the adventure of one long and uncharted plunge into new
  space; but according to the records of Uversa, in accordance with older
  observations, in harmony with the more extensive experience and calculations
  of our order, and as a result of conclusions based on these and other
  findings, we know that the universes are engaged in an orderly, well-
  understood, and perfectly controlled processional, swinging in majestic
  grandeur around the First Great Source and Center and his residential
  universe.

  15:1.2 We have long since discovered that the seven superuniverses traverse a
  great ellipse, a gigantic and elongated circle. Your solar system and other
  worlds of time are not plunging headlong, without chart and compass, into
  unmapped space. The local universe to which your system belongs is pursuing a
  definite and well-understood counterclockwise course around the vast swing
  that encircles the central universe. This cosmic path is well charted and is
  just as thoroughly known to the superuniverse star observers as the orbits of
  the planets constituting your solar system are known to Urantia astronomers.

  15:1.3 Urantia is situated in a local universe and a superuniverse not fully
  organized, and your local universe is in immediate proximity to numerous
  partially completed physical creations. You belong to one of the relatively
  recent universes. But you are not, today, plunging on wildly into uncharted
  space nor swinging out blindly into unknown regions. You are following the
  orderly and predetermined path of the superuniverse space level. You are now
  passing through the very same space that your planetary system, or its
  predecessors, traversed ages ago; and some day in the remote future your
  system, or its successors, will again traverse the identical space through
  which you are now so swiftly plunging.



  15:1.4 In this age and as direction is regarded on Urantia, superuniverse
  number one swings almost due north, approximately opposite, in an easterly
  direction, to the Paradise residence of the Great Sources and Centers and the
  central universe of Havona. This position, with the corresponding one to the
  west, represents the nearest physical approach of the spheres of time to the
  eternal Isle. Superuniverse number two is in the north, preparing for the
  westward swing, while number three now holds the northernmost segment of the
  great space path, having already turned into the bend leading to the southerly
  plunge. Number four is on the comparatively straightaway southerly flight, the
  advance regions now approaching opposition to the Great Centers. Number five
  has about left its position opposite the Center of Centers while continuing on
  the direct southerly course just preceding the eastward swing; number six
  occupies most of the southern curve, the segment from which your superuniverse
  has nearly passed.

  15:1.5 Your local universe of Nebadon belongs to Orvonton, the seventh
  superuniverse, which swings on between superuniverses one and six, having not
  long since (as we reckon time) turned the southeastern bend of the
  superuniverse space level. Today, the solar system to which Urantia belongs is
  a few billion years past the swing around the southern curvature so that you
  are just now advancing beyond the southeastern bend and are moving swiftly
  through the long and comparatively straightaway northern path. For untold ages
  Orvonton will pursue this almost direct northerly course.

  15:1.6 Urantia belongs to a system which is well out towards the borderland of
  your local universe; and your local universe is at present traversing the
  periphery of Orvonton. Beyond you there are still others, but you are far
  removed in space from those physical systems which swing around the great
  circle in comparative proximity to the Great Source and Center.





2. ORGANIZATION OF THE SUPERUNIVERSES



  15:2.1 Only the Universal Father knows the location and actual number of
  inhabited worlds in space; he calls them all by name and number. I can give
  only the approximate number of inhabited or inhabitable planets, for some
  local universes have more worlds suitable for intelligent life than others.
  Nor have all projected local universes been organized. Therefore the estimates
  which I offer are solely for the purpose of affording some idea of the
  immensity of the material creation.



  15:2.2 There are seven superuniverses in the grand universe, and they are
  constituted approximately as follows:



  15:2.3 1. The System. The basic unit of the supergovernment consists of about
  one thousand inhabited or inhabitable worlds. Blazing suns, cold worlds,
  planets too near the hot suns, and other spheres not suitable for creature
  habitation are not included in this group. These one thousand worlds adapted
  to support life are called a system, but in the younger systems only a
  comparatively small number of these worlds may be inhabited. Each inhabited
  planet is presided over by a Planetary Prince, and each local system has an
  architectural sphere as its headquarters and is ruled by a System Sovereign.



  15:2.4 2. The Constellation. One hundred systems (about 100,000 inhabitable
  planets) make up a constellation. Each constellation has an architectural
  headquarters sphere and is presided over by three Vorondadek Sons, the Most
  Highs. Each constellation also has a Faithful of Days in observation, an
  ambassador of the Paradise Trinity.



  15:2.5 3. The Local Universe. One hundred constellations (about 10,000,000
  inhabitable planets) constitute a local universe. Each local universe has a
  magnificent architectural headquarters world and is ruled by one of the co-
  ordinate Creator Sons of God of the order of Michael. Each universe is blessed
  by the presence of a Union of Days, a representative of the Paradise Trinity.



  15:2.6 4. The Minor Sector. One hundred local universes (about 1,000,000,000
  inhabitable planets) constitute a minor sector of the superuniverse
  government; it has a wonderful headquarters world, wherefrom its rulers, the
  Recents of Days, administer the affairs of the minor sector. There are three
  Recents of Days, Supreme Trinity Personalities, on each minor sector
  headquarters.



  15:2.7 5. The Major Sector. One hundred minor sectors (about 100,000,000,000
  inhabitable worlds) make one major sector. Each major sector is provided with
  a superb headquarters and is presided over by three Perfections of Days,
  Supreme Trinity Personalities.



  15:2.8 6. The Superuniverse. Ten major sectors (about 1,000,000,000,000
  inhabitable planets) constitute a superuniverse. Each superuniverse is
  provided with an enormous and glorious headquarters world and is ruled by
  three Ancients of Days.



  15:2.9 7. The Grand Universe. Seven superuniverses make up the present
  organized grand universe, consisting of approximately seven trillion
  inhabitable worlds plus the architectural spheres and the one billion
  inhabited spheres of Havona. The superuniverses are ruled and administered
  indirectly and reflectively from Paradise by the Seven Master Spirits. The
  billion worlds of Havona are directly administered by the Eternals of Days,
  one such Supreme Trinity Personality presiding over each of these perfect
  spheres.



  15:2.10 Excluding the Paradise-Havona spheres, the plan of universe
  organization provides for the following units:

Superuniverses. . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Major sectors . . . . . . . . . . . .70

Minor sectors . . . . . . . . . . 7,000

Local universes . . . . . . . . 700,000

Constellations. . . . . . . .70,000,000

Local systems . . . . . . 7,000,000,000

Inhabitable planets . 7,000,000,000,000



  15:2.11 Each of the seven superuniverses is constituted, approximately, as
  follows:

One system embraces, approximately . . . . . . . . 1,000 worlds

One constellation (100 systems). . . . . . . . . 100,000 worlds

One universe (100 constellations). . . . . . .10,000,000 worlds

One minor sector (100 universes) . . . . . 1,000,000,000 worlds

One major sector (100 minor sectors) . . 100,000,000,000 worlds

One superuniverse (10 major sectors) . 1,000,000,000,000 worlds



  15:2.12 All such estimates are approximations at best, for new systems are
  constantly evolving while other organizations are temporarily passing out of
  material existence.





3. THE SUPERUNIVERSE OF ORVONTON



  15:3.1 Practically all of the starry realms visible to the naked eye on
  Urantia belong to the seventh section of the grand universe, the superuniverse
  of Orvonton. The vast Milky Way starry system represents the central nucleus
  of Orvonton, being largely beyond the borders of your local universe. This
  great aggregation of suns, dark islands of space, double stars, globular
  clusters, star clouds, spiral and other nebulae, together with myriads of
  individual planets, forms a watchlike, elongated-circular grouping of about
  one seventh of the inhabited evolutionary universes.

  15:3.2 From the astronomical position of Urantia, as you look through the
  cross section of near-by systems to the great Milky Way, you observe that the
  spheres of Orvonton are traveling in a vast elongated plane, the breadth being
  far greater than the thickness and the length far greater than the breadth.

  15:3.3 Observation of the so-called Milky Way discloses the comparative
  increase in Orvonton stellar density when the heavens are viewed in one
  direction, while on either side the density diminishes; the number of stars
  and other spheres decreases away from the chief plane of our material
  superuniverse. When the angle of observation is propitious, gazing through the
  main body of this realm of maximum density, you are looking toward the
  residential universe and the center of all things.



  15:3.4 Of the ten major divisions of Orvonton, eight have been roughly
  identified by Urantian astronomers. The other two are difficult of separate
  recognition because you are obliged to view these phenomena from the inside.
  If you could look upon the superuniverse of Orvonton from a position far-
  distant in space, you would immediately recognize the ten major sectors of the
  seventh galaxy.

  15:3.5 The rotational center of your minor sector is situated far away in the
  enormous and dense star cloud of Sagittarius, around which your local universe
  and its associated creations all move, and from opposite sides of the vast
  Sagittarius subgalactic system you may observe two great streams of star
  clouds emerging in stupendous stellar coils.

  15:3.6 The nucleus of the physical system to which your sun and its associated
  planets belong is the center of the onetime Andronover nebula. This former
  spiral nebula was slightly distorted by the gravity disruptions associated
  with the events which were attendant upon the birth of your solar system, and
  which were occasioned by the near approach of a large neighboring nebula. This
  near collision changed Andronover into a somewhat globular aggregation but did
  not wholly destroy the two-way procession of the suns and their associated
  physical groups. Your solar system now occupies a fairly central position in
  one of the arms of this distorted spiral, situated about halfway from the
  center out towards the edge of the star stream.



  15:3.7 The Sagittarius sector and all other sectors and divisions of Orvonton
  are in rotation around Uversa, and some of the confusion of Urantian star
  observers arises out of the illusions and relative distortions produced by the
  following multiple revolutionary movements:

1. The revolution of Urantia around its sun.

2. The circuit of your solar system about the nucleus of the former Andronover
nebula.

3. The rotation of the Andronover stellar family and the associated clusters
about the composite rotation-gravity center of the star cloud of Nebadon.

4. The swing of the local star cloud of Nebadon and its associated creations
around the Sagittarius center of their minor sector.

5. The rotation of the one hundred minor sectors, including Sagittarius, about
their major sector.

6. The whirl of the ten major sectors, the so-called star drifts, about the
Uversa headquarters of Orvonton.

7. The movement of Orvonton and six associated superuniverses around Paradise
and Havona, the counterclockwise processional of the superuniverse space level.

  15:3.8 These multiple motions are of several orders: The space paths of your
  planet and your solar system are genetic, inherent in origin. The absolute
  counterclockwise motion of Orvonton is also genetic, inherent in the
  architectural plans of the master universe. But the intervening motions are of
  composite origin, being derived in part from the constitutive segmentation of
  matter-energy into the superuniverses and in part produced by the intelligent
  and purposeful action of the Paradise force organizers.



  15:3.9 The local universes are in closer proximity as they approach Havona;
  the circuits are greater in number, and there is increased superimposition,
  layer upon layer. But farther out from the eternal center there are fewer and
  fewer systems, layers, circuits, and universes.





4. NEBULAE -- THE ANCESTORS OF UNIVERSES



  15:4.1 While creation and universe organization remain forever under the
  control of the infinite Creators and their associates, the whole phenomenon
  proceeds in accordance with an ordained technique and in conformity to the
  gravity laws of force, energy, and matter. But there is something of mystery
  associated with the universal force-charge of space; we quite understand the
  organization of the material creations from the ultimatonic stage forward, but
  we do not fully comprehend the cosmic ancestry of the ultimatons. We are
  confident that these ancestral forces have a Paradise origin because they
  forever swing through pervaded space in the exact gigantic outlines of
  Paradise. Though nonresponsive to Paradise gravity, this force-charge of
  space, the ancestor of all materialization, does always respond to the
  presence of nether Paradise, being apparently circuited in and out of the
  nether Paradise center.

  15:4.2 The Paradise force organizers transmute space potency into primordial
  force and evolve this prematerial potential into the primary and secondary
  energy manifestations of physical reality. When this energy attains gravity-
  responding levels, the power directors and their associates of the
  superuniverse regime appear upon the scene and begin their never-ending
  manipulations designed to establish the manifold power circuits and energy
  channels of the universes of time and space. Thus does physical matter appear
  in space, and so is the stage set for the inauguration of universe
  organization.

  15:4.3 This segmentation of energy is a phenomenon which has never been solved
  by the physicists of Nebadon. Their chief difficulty lies in the relative
  inaccessibility of the Paradise force organizers, for the living power
  directors, though they are competent to deal with space-energy, do not have
  the least conception of the origin of the energies they so skillfully and
  intelligently manipulate.



  15:4.4 Paradise force organizers are nebulae originators; they are able to
  initiate about their space presence the tremendous cyclones of force which,
  when once started, can never be stopped or limited until the all-pervading
  forces are mobilized for the eventual appearance of the ultimatonic units of
  universe matter. Thus are brought into being the spiral and other nebulae, the
  mother wheels of the direct-origin suns and their varied systems. In outer
  space there may be seen ten different forms of nebulae, phases of primary
  universe evolution, and these vast energy wheels had the same origin as did
  those in the seven superuniverses.



  15:4.5 Nebulae vary greatly in size and in the resulting number and aggregate
  mass of their stellar and planetary offspring. A sun-forming nebula just north
  of the borders of Orvonton, but within the superuniverse space level, has
  already given origin to approximately forty thousand suns, and the mother
  wheel is still throwing off suns, the majority of which are many times the
  size of yours. Some of the larger nebulae of outer space are giving origin to
  as many as one hundred million suns.

  15:4.6 Nebulae are not directly related to any of the administrative units,
  such as minor sectors or local universes, although some local universes have
  been organized from the products of a single nebula. Each local universe
  embraces exactly one one-hundred-thousandth part of the total energy charge of
  a superuniverse irrespective of nebular relationship, for energy is not
  organized by nebulae -- it is universally distributed.

  15:4.7 Not all spiral nebulae are engaged in sun making. Some have retained
  control of many of their segregated stellar offspring, and their spiral
  appearance is occasioned by the fact that their suns pass out of the nebular
  arm in close formation but return by diverse routes, thus making it easy to
  observe them at one point but more difficult to see them when widely scattered
  on their different returning routes farther out and away from the arm of the
  nebula. There are not many sun-forming nebulae active in Orvonton at the
  present time, though Andromeda, which is outside the inhabited superuniverse,
  is very active. This far-distant nebula is visible to the naked eye, and when
  you view it, pause to consider that the light you behold left those distant
  suns almost one million years ago.

  15:4.8 The Milky Way galaxy is composed of vast numbers of former spiral and
  other nebulae, and many still retain their original configuration. But as the
  result of internal catastrophes and external attraction, many have suffered
  such distortion and rearrangement as to cause these enormous aggregations to
  appear as gigantic luminous masses of blazing suns, like the Magellanic Cloud.
  The globular type of star clusters predominates near the outer margins of
  Orvonton.

  15:4.9 The vast star clouds of Orvonton should be regarded as individual
  aggregations of matter comparable to the separate nebulae observable in the
  space regions external to the Milky Way galaxy. Many of the so-called star
  clouds of space, however, consist of gaseous material only. The energy
  potential of these stellar gas clouds is unbelievably enormous, and some of it
  is taken up by near-by suns and redispatched in space as solar emanations.





5. THE ORIGIN OF SPACE BODIES



  15:5.1 The bulk of the mass contained in the suns and planets of a
  superuniverse originates in the nebular wheels; very little of superuniverse
  mass is organized by the direct action of the power directors (as in the
  construction of architectural spheres), although a constantly varying quantity
  of matter originates in open space.

  15:5.2 As to origin, the majority of the suns, planets, and other spheres can
  be classified in one of the following ten groups:



  15:5.3 1. Concentric Contraction Rings. Not all nebulae are spiral. Many an
  immense nebula, instead of splitting into a double star system or evolving as
  a spiral, undergoes condensation by multiple-ring formation. For long periods
  such a nebula appears as an enormous central sun surrounded by numerous
  gigantic clouds of encircling, ring-appearing formations of matter.



  15:5.4 2. The Whirled Stars embrace those suns which are thrown off the great
  mother wheels of highly heated gases. They are not thrown off as rings but in
  right- and left-handed processions. Whirled stars are also of origin in other-
  than-spiral nebulae.



  15:5.5 3. Gravity-explosion Planets. When a sun is born of a spiral or of a
  barred nebula, not infrequently it is thrown out a considerable distance. Such
  a sun is highly gaseous, and subsequently, after it has somewhat cooled and
  condensed, it may chance to swing near some enormous mass of matter, a
  gigantic sun or a dark island of space. Such an approach may not be near
  enough to result in collision but still near enough to allow the gravity pull
  of the greater body to start tidal convulsions in the lesser, thus initiating
  a series of tidal upheavals which occur simultaneously on opposite sides of
  the convulsed sun. At their height these explosive eruptions produce a series
  of varying-sized aggregations of matter which may be projected beyond the
  gravity-reclamation zone of the erupting sun, thus becoming stabilized in
  orbits of their own around one of the two bodies concerned in this episode.
  Later on the larger collections of matter unite and gradually draw the smaller
  bodies to themselves. In this way many of the solid planets of the lesser
  systems are brought into existence. Your own solar system had just such an
  origin.



  15:5.6 4. Centrifugal Planetary Daughters. Enormous suns, when in certain
  stages of development, and if their revolutionary rate greatly accelerates,
  begin to throw off large quantities of matter which may subsequently be
  assembled to form small worlds that continue to encircle the parent sun.



  15:5.7 5. Gravity-deficiency Spheres. There is a critical limit to the size of
  individual stars. When a sun reaches this limit, unless it slows down in
  revolutionary rate, it is doomed to split; sun fission occurs, and a new
  double star of this variety is born. Numerous small planets may be
  subsequently formed as a by-product of this gigantic disruption.



  15:5.8 6. Contractural Stars. In the smaller systems the largest outer planet
  sometimes draws to itself its neighboring worlds, while those planets near the
  sun begin their terminal plunge. With your solar system, such an end would
  mean that the four inner planets would be claimed by the sun, while the major
  planet, Jupiter, would be greatly enlarged by capturing the remaining worlds.
  Such an end of a solar system would result in the production of two adjacent
  but unequal suns, one type of double star formation. Such catastrophes are
  infrequent except out on the fringe of the superuniverse starry aggregations.



  15:5.9 7. Cumulative Spheres. From the vast quantity of matter circulating in
  space, small planets may slowly accumulate. They grow by meteoric accretion
  and by minor collisions. In certain sectors of space, conditions favor such
  forms of planetary birth. Many an inhabited world has had such an origin.



  15:5.10 Some of the dense dark islands are the direct result of the accretions
  of transmuting energy in space. Another group of these dark islands have come
  into being by the accumulation of enormous quantities of cold matter, mere
  fragments and meteors, circulating through space. Such aggregations of matter
  have never been hot and, except for density, are in composition very similar
  to Urantia.



  15:5.11 8. Burned-out Suns. Some of the dark islands of space are burned-out
  isolated suns, all available space-energy having been emitted. The organized
  units of matter approximate full condensation, virtual complete consolidation;
  and it requires ages upon ages for such enormous masses of highly condensed
  matter to be recharged in the circuits of space and thus to be prepared for
  new cycles of universe function following a collision or some equally
  revivifying cosmic happening.



  15:5.12 9. Collisional Spheres. In those regions of thicker clustering,
  collisions are not uncommon. Such an astronomic readjustment is accompanied by
  tremendous energy changes and matter transmutations. Collisions involving dead
  suns are peculiarly influential in creating widespread energy fluctuations.
  Collisional debris often constitutes the material nucleuses for the subsequent
  formation of planetary bodies adapted to mortal habitation.



  15:5.13 10. Architectural Worlds. These are the worlds which are built
  according to plans and specifications for some special purpose, such as
  Salvington, the headquarters of your local universe, and Uversa, the seat of
  government of our superuniverse.



  15:5.14 There are numerous other techniques for evolving suns and segregating
  planets, but the foregoing procedures suggest the methods whereby the vast
  majority of stellar systems and planetary families are brought into existence.
  To undertake to describe all the various techniques involved in stellar
  metamorphosis and planetary evolution would require the narration of almost
  one hundred different modes of sun formation and planetary origin. As your
  star students scan the heavens, they will observe phenomena indicative of all
  these modes of stellar evolution, but they will seldom detect evidence of the
  formation of those small, nonluminous collections of matter which serve as
  inhabited planets, the most important of the vast material creations.





6. THE SPHERES OF SPACE



  15:6.1 Irrespective of origin, the various spheres of space are classifiable
  into the following major divisions:

1. The suns -- the stars of space.

2. The dark islands of space.

3. Minor space bodies -- comets, meteors, and planetesimals.

4. The planets, including the inhabited worlds.

5. Architectural spheres -- worlds made to order.

  15:6.2 With the exception of the architectural spheres, all space bodies have
  had an evolutionary origin, evolutionary in the sense that they have not been
  brought into being by fiat of Deity, evolutionary in the sense that the
  creative acts of God have unfolded by a time-space technique through the
  operation of many of the created and eventuated intelligences of Deity.



  15:6.3 The Suns. These are the stars of space in all their various stages of
  existence. Some are solitary evolving space systems; others are double stars,
  contracting or disappearing planetary systems. The stars of space exist in no
  less than a thousand different states and stages. You are familiar with suns
  that emit light accompanied by heat; but there are also suns which shine
  without heat.

  15:6.4 The trillions upon trillions of years that an ordinary sun will
  continue to give out heat and light well illustrates the vast store of energy
  which each unit of matter contains. The actual energy stored in these
  invisible particles of physical matter is well-nigh unimaginable. And this
  energy becomes almost wholly available as light when subjected to the
  tremendous heat pressure and the associated energy activities which prevail in
  the interior of the blazing suns. Still other conditions enable these suns to
  transform and send forth much of the energy of space which comes their way in
  the established space circuits. Many phases of physical energy and all forms
  of matter are attracted to, and subsequently distributed by, the solar
  dynamos. In this way the suns serve as local accelerators of energy
  circulation, acting as automatic power-control stations.

  15:6.5 The superuniverse of Orvonton is illuminated and warmed by more than
  ten trillion blazing suns. These suns are the stars of your observable
  astronomic system. More than two trillion are too distant and too small ever
  to be seen from Urantia. But in the master universe there are as many suns as
  there are glasses of water in the oceans of your world.



  15:6.6 The Dark Islands of Space. These are the dead suns and other large
  aggregations of matter devoid of light and heat. The dark islands are
  sometimes enormous in mass and exert a powerful influence in universe
  equilibrium and energy manipulation. The density of some of these large masses
  is well-nigh unbelievable. And this great concentration of mass enables these
  dark islands to function as powerful balance wheels, holding large neighboring
  systems in effective leash. They hold the gravity balance of power in many
  constellations; many physical systems which would otherwise speedily dive to
  destruction in near-by suns are held securely in the gravity grasp of these
  guardian dark islands. It is because of this function that we can locate them
  accurately. We have measured the gravity pull of the luminous bodies, and we
  can therefore calculate the exact size and location of the dark islands of
  space which so effectively function to hold a given system steady in its
  course.



  15:6.7 Minor Space Bodies. The meteors and other small particles of matter
  circulating and evolving in space constitute an enormous aggregate of energy
  and material substance.

  15:6.8 Many comets are unestablished wild offspring of the solar mother
  wheels, which are being gradually brought under control of the central
  governing sun. Comets also have numerous other origins. A comet's tail points
  away from the attracting body or sun because of the electrical reaction of its
  highly expanded gases and because of the actual pressure of light and other
  energies emanating from the sun. This phenomenon constitutes one of the
  positive proofs of the reality of light and its associated energies; it
  demonstrates that light has weight. Light is a real substance, not simply
  waves of hypothetical ether.



  15:6.9 The Planets. These are the larger aggregations of matter which follow
  an orbit around a sun or some other space body; they range in size from
  planetesimals to enormous gaseous, liquid, or solid spheres. The cold worlds
  which have been built up by the assemblage of floating space material, when
  they happen to be in proper relation to a near-by sun, are the more ideal
  planets to harbor intelligent inhabitants. The dead suns are not, as a rule,
  suited to life; they are usually too far away from a living, blazing sun, and
  further, they are altogether too massive; gravity is tremendous at the
  surface.

  15:6.10 In your superuniverse not one cool planet in forty is habitable by
  beings of your order. And, of course, the superheated suns and the frigid
  outlying worlds are unfit to harbor higher life. In your solar system only
  three planets are at present suited to harbor life. Urantia, in size, density,
  and location, is in many respects ideal for human habitation.

  15:6.11 The laws of physical-energy behavior are basically universal, but
  local influences have much to do with the physical conditions which prevail on
  individual planets and in local systems. An almost endless variety of creature
  life and other living manifestations characterizes the countless worlds of
  space. There are, however, certain points of similarity in a group of worlds
  associated in a given system, while there also is a universe pattern of
  intelligent life. There are physical relationships among those planetary
  systems which belong to the same physical circuit, and which closely follow
  each other in the endless swing around the circle of universes.





7. THE ARCHITECTURAL SPHERES



  15:7.1 While each superuniverse government presides near the center of the
  evolutionary universes of its space segment, it occupies a world made to order
  and is peopled by accredited personalities. These headquarters worlds are
  architectural spheres, space bodies specifically constructed for their special
  purpose. While sharing the light of near-by suns, these spheres are
  independently lighted and heated. Each has a sun which gives forth light
  without heat, like the satellites of Paradise, while each is supplied with
  heat by the circulation of certain energy currents near the surface of the
  sphere. These headquarters worlds belong to one of the greater systems
  situated near the astronomical center of their respective superuniverses.



  15:7.2 Time is standardized on the headquarters of the superuniverses. The
  standard day of the superuniverse of Orvonton is equal to almost thirty days
  of Urantia time, and the Orvonton year equals one hundred standard days. This
  Uversa year is standard in the seventh superuniverse, and it is twenty-two
  minutes short of three thousand days of Urantia time, about eight and one
  fifth of your years.



  15:7.3 The headquarters worlds of the seven superuniverses partake of the
  nature and grandeur of Paradise, their central pattern of perfection. In
  reality, all headquarters worlds are paradisiacal. They are indeed heavenly
  abodes, and they increase in material size, morontia beauty, and spirit glory
  from Jerusem to the central Isle. And all the satellites of these headquarters
  worlds are also architectural spheres.

  15:7.4 The various headquarters worlds are provided with every phase of
  material and spiritual creation. All kinds of material, morontial, and
  spiritual beings are at home on these rendezvous worlds of the universes. As
  mortal creatures ascend the universe, passing from the material to the
  spiritual realms, they never lose their appreciation for, and enjoyment of,
  their former levels of existence.



  15:7.5 Jerusem, the headquarters of your local system of Satania, has its
  seven worlds of transition culture, each of which is encircled by seven
  satellites, among which are the seven mansion worlds of morontia detention,
  man's first postmortal residence. As the term heaven has been used on Urantia,
  it has sometimes meant these seven mansion worlds, the first mansion world
  being denominated the first heaven, and so on to the seventh.



  15:7.6 Edentia, the headquarters of your constellation of Norlatiadek, has its
  seventy satellites of socializing culture and training, on which ascenders
  sojourn upon the completion of the Jerusem regime of personality mobilization,
  unification, and realization.



  15:7.7 Salvington, the capital of Nebadon, your local universe, is surrounded
  by ten university clusters of forty-nine spheres each. Hereon is man
  spiritualized following his constellation socialization.



  15:7.8 Uminor the third, the headquarters of your minor sector, Ensa, is
  surrounded by the seven spheres of the higher physical studies of the
  ascendant life.



  15:7.9 Umajor the fifth, the headquarters of your major sector, Splandon, is
  surrounded by the seventy spheres of the advancing intellectual training of
  the superuniverse.



  15:7.10 Uversa, the headquarters of Orvonton, your superuniverse, is
  immediately surrounded by the seven higher universities of advanced spiritual
  training for ascending will creatures. Each of these seven clusters of wonder
  spheres consists of seventy specialized worlds containing thousands upon
  thousands of replete institutions and organizations devoted to universe
  training and spirit culture wherein the pilgrims of time are re-educated and
  re-examined preparatory to their long flight to Havona. The arriving pilgrims
  of time are always received on these associated worlds, but the departing
  graduates are always dispatched for Havona direct from the shores of Uversa.

  15:7.11 Uversa is the spiritual and administrative headquarters for
  approximately one trillion inhabited or inhabitable worlds. The glory,
  grandeur, and perfection of the Orvonton capital surpass any of the wonders of
  the time-space creations.



  15:7.12 If all the projected local universes and their component parts were
  established, there would be slightly less than five hundred billion
  architectural worlds in the seven superuniverses.





8. ENERGY CONTROL AND REGULATION



  15:8.1 The headquarters spheres of the superuniverses are so constructed that
  they are able to function as efficient power-energy regulators for their
  various sectors, serving as focal points for the directionization of energy to
  their component local universes. They exert a powerful influence over the
  balance and control of the physical energies circulating through organized
  space.

  15:8.2 Further regulative functions are performed by the superuniverse power
  centers and physical controllers, living and semiliving intelligent entities
  constituted for this express purpose. These power centers and controllers are
  difficult of understanding; the lower orders are not volitional, they do not
  possess will, they do not choose, their functions are very intelligent but
  apparently automatic and inherent in their highly specialized organization.
  The power centers and physical controllers of the superuniverses assume
  direction and partial control of the thirty energy systems which comprise the
  gravita domain. The physical-energy circuits administered by the power centers
  of Uversa require a little over 968 million years to complete the encirclement
  of the superuniverse.



  15:8.3 Evolving energy has substance; it has weight, although weight is always
  relative, depending on revolutionary velocity, mass, and antigravity. Mass in
  matter tends to retard velocity in energy; and the anywhere-present velocity
  of energy represents: the initial endowment of velocity, minus retardation by
  mass encountered in transit, plus the regulatory function of the living energy
  controllers of the superuniverse and the physical influence of near-by highly
  heated or heavily charged bodies.

  15:8.4 The universal plan for the maintenance of equilibrium between matter
  and energy necessitates the everlasting making and unmaking of the lesser
  material units. The Universe Power Directors have the ability to condense and
  detain, or to expand and liberate, varying quantities of energy.

  15:8.5 Given a sufficient duration of retarding influence, gravity would
  eventually convert all energy into matter were it not for two factors: First,
  because of the antigravity influences of the energy controllers, and second,
  because organized matter tends to disintegrate under certain conditions found
  in very hot stars and under certain peculiar conditions in space near highly
  energized cold bodies of condensed matter.

  15:8.6 When mass becomes overaggregated and threatens to unbalance energy, to
  deplete the physical power circuits, the physical controllers intervene unless
  gravity's own further tendency to overmaterialize energy is defeated by the
  occurrence of a collision among the dead giants of space, thus in an instant
  completely dissipating the cumulative collections of gravity. In these
  collisional episodes enormous masses of matter are suddenly converted into the
  rarest form of energy, and the struggle for universal equilibrium is begun
  anew. Eventually the larger physical systems become stabilized, become
  physically settled, and are swung into the balanced and established circuits
  of the superuniverses. Subsequent to this event no more collisions or other
  devastating catastrophes will occur in such established systems.

  15:8.7 During the times of plus energy there are power disturbances and heat
  fluctuations accompanied by electrical manifestations. During times of minus
  energy there are increased tendencies for matter to aggregate, condense, and
  to get out of control in the more delicately balanced circuits, with resultant
  tidal or collisional adjustments which quickly restore the balance between
  circulating energy and more literally stabilized matter. To forecast and
  otherwise to understand such likely behavior of the blazing suns and the dark
  islands of space is one of the tasks of the celestial star observers.

  15:8.8 We are able to recognize most of the laws governing universe
  equilibrium and to predict much pertaining to universe stability. Practically,
  our forecasts are reliable, but we are always confronted by certain forces
  which are not wholly amenable to the laws of energy control and matter
  behavior known to us. The predictability of all physical phenomena becomes
  increasingly difficult as we proceed outward in the universes from Paradise.
  As we pass beyond the borders of the personal administration of the Paradise
  Rulers, we are confronted with increasing inability to reckon in accordance
  with the standards established and the experience acquired in connection with
  observations having exclusively to do with the physical phenomena of the near-
  by astronomic systems. Even in the realms of the seven superuniverses we are
  living in the midst of force actions and energy reactions which pervade all
  our domains and extend in unified equilibrium on through all regions of outer
  space.

  15:8.9 The farther out we go, the more certainly we encounter those
  variational and unpredictable phenomena which are so unerringly characteristic
  of the unfathomable presence-performances of the Absolutes and the
  experiential Deities. And these phenomena must be indicative of some universal
  overcontrol of all things.

  15:8.10 The superuniverse of Orvonton is apparently now running down; the
  outer universes seem to be winding up for unparalleled future activities; the
  central Havona universe is eternally stabilized. Gravity and absence of heat
  (cold) organize and hold matter together; heat and antigravity disrupt matter
  and dissipate energy. The living power directors and force organizers are the
  secret of the special control and intelligent direction of the endless
  metamorphoses of universe making, unmaking, and remaking. Nebulae may
  disperse, suns burn out, systems vanish, and planets perish, but the universes
  do not run down.





9. CIRCUITS OF THE SUPERUNIVERSES



  15:9.1 The universal circuits of Paradise do actually pervade the realms of
  the seven superuniverses. These presence circuits are: the personality gravity
  of the Universal Father, the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son, the mind
  gravity of the Conjoint Actor, and the material gravity of the eternal Isle.

  15:9.2 In addition to the universal Paradise circuits and in addition to the
  presence-performances of the Absolutes and the experiential Deities, there
  function within the superuniverse space level only two energy-circuit
  divisions or power segregations: the superuniverse circuits and the local
  universe circuits.



  15:9.3 The Superuniverse Circuits:



  15:9.4 1. The unifying intelligence circuit of one of the Seven Master Spirits
  of Paradise. Such a cosmic-mind circuit is limited to a single superuniverse.



  15:9.5 2. The reflective-service circuit of the seven Reflective Spirits in
  each superuniverse.



  15:9.6 3. The secret circuits of the Mystery Monitors, in some manner
  interassociated and routed by Divinington to the Universal Father on Paradise.



  15:9.7 4. The circuit of the intercommunion of the Eternal Son with his
  Paradise Sons.



  15:9.8 5. The flash presence of the Infinite Spirit.



  15:9.9 6. The broadcasts of Paradise, the space reports of Havona.



  15:9.10 7. The energy circuits of the power centers and the physical
  controllers.



  15:9.11 The Local Universe Circuits:



  15:9.12 1. The bestowal spirit of the Paradise Sons, the Comforter of the
  bestowal worlds. The Spirit of Truth, the spirit of Michael on Urantia.



  15:9.13 2. The circuit of the Divine Ministers, the local universe Mother
  Spirits, the Holy Spirit of your world.



  15:9.14 3. The intelligence-ministry circuit of a local universe, including
  the diversely functioning presence of the adjutant mind-spirits.



  15:9.15 When there develops such a spiritual harmony in a local universe that
  its individual and combined circuits become indistinguishable from those of
  the superuniverse, when such identity of function and oneness of ministry
  actually prevail, then does the local universe immediately swing into the
  settled circuits of light and life, becoming at once eligible for admission
  into the spiritual confederation of the perfected union of the supercreation.
  The requisites for admission to the councils of the Ancients of Days,
  membership in the superuniverse confederation, are:



  15:9.16 1. Physical Stability. The stars and planets of a local universe must
  be in equilibrium; the periods of immediate stellar metamorphosis must be
  over. The universe must be proceeding on a clear track; its orbit must be
  safely and finally settled.



  15:9.17 2. Spiritual Loyalty. There must exist a state of universal
  recognition of, and loyalty to, the Sovereign Son of God who presides over the
  affairs of such a local universe. There must have come into being a state of
  harmonious co-operation between the individual planets, systems, and
  constellations of the entire local universe.



  15:9.18 Your local universe is not even reckoned as belonging to the settled
  physical order of the superuniverse, much less as holding membership in the
  recognized spiritual family of the supergovernment. Although Nebadon does not
  yet have representation on Uversa, we of the superuniverse government are
  dispatched to its worlds on special missions from time to time, even as I have
  come to Urantia directly from Uversa. We lend every possible assistance to
  your directors and rulers in the solution of their difficult problems; we are
  desirous of seeing your universe qualified for full admission into the
  associated creations of the superuniverse family.



   10

. RULERS OF THE SUPERUNIVERSES



  15:10.1 The headquarters of the superuniverses are the seats of the high
  spiritual government of the time-space domains. The executive branch of the
  supergovernment, taking origin in the Councils of the Trinity, is immediately
  directed by one of the Seven Master Spirits of supreme supervision, beings who
  sit upon seats of Paradise authority and administer the superuniverses through
  the Seven Supreme Executives stationed on the seven special worlds of the
  Infinite Spirit, the outermost satellites of Paradise.

  15:10.2 The superuniverse headquarters are the abiding places of the
  Reflective Spirits and the Reflective Image Aids. From this midway position
  these marvelous beings conduct their tremendous reflectivity operations, thus
  ministering to the central universe above and to the local universes below.



  15:10.3 Each superuniverse is presided over by three Ancients of Days, the
  joint chief executives of the supergovernment. In its executive branch the
  personnel of the superuniverse government consists of seven different groups:

1. Ancients of Days.

2. Perfectors of Wisdom.

3. Divine Counselors.

4. Universal Censors.

5. Mighty Messengers.

6. Those High in Authority.

7. Those without Name and Number.

  15:10.4 The three Ancients of Days are immediately assisted by a corps of one
  billion Perfectors of Wisdom, with whom are associated three billion Divine
  Counselors. One billion Universal Censors are attached to each superuniverse
  administration. These three groups are Co-ordinate Trinity Personalities,
  taking origin directly and divinely in the Paradise Trinity.

  15:10.5 The remaining three orders, Mighty Messengers, Those High in
  Authority, and Those without Name and Number, are glorified ascendant mortals.
  The first of these orders came up through the ascendant regime and passed
  through Havona in the days of Grandfanda. Having attained Paradise, they were
  mustered into the Corps of the Finality, embraced by the Paradise Trinity, and
  subsequently assigned to the supernal service of the Ancients of Days. As a
  class, these three orders are known as Trinitized Sons of Attainment, being of
  dual origin but now of Trinity service. Thus was the executive branch of the
  superuniverse government enlarged to include the glorified and perfected
  children of the evolutionary worlds.

  15:10.6 The co-ordinate council of the superuniverse is composed of the seven
  executive groups previously named and the following sector rulers and other
  regional overseers:

1. Perfections of Days -- the rulers of the superuniverse major sectors.

2. Recents of Days -- the directors of the superuniverse minor sectors.

3. Unions of Days -- the Paradise advisers to the rulers of the local universes.

4. Faithfuls of Days -- the Paradise counselors to the Most High rulers of the
constellation governments.

5. Trinity Teacher Sons who may chance to be on duty at superuniverse
headquarters.

6. Eternals of Days who may happen to be present at superuniverse headquarters.

7. The seven Reflective Image Aids -- the spokesmen of the seven Reflective
Spirits and through them representatives of the Seven Master Spirits of
Paradise.

  15:10.7 The Reflective Image Aids also function as the representatives of
  numerous groups of beings who are influential in the superuniverse
  governments, but who are not, at present, for various reasons, fully active in
  their individual capacities. Embraced within this group are: the evolving
  superuniverse personality manifestation of the Supreme Being, the Unqualified
  Supervisors of the Supreme, the Qualified Vicegerents of the Ultimate, the
  unnamed liaison reflectivators of Majeston, and the superpersonal spirit
  representatives of the Eternal Son.

  15:10.8 At almost all times it is possible to find representatives of all
  groups of created beings on the headquarters worlds of the superuniverses. The
  routine ministering work of the superuniverses is performed by the mighty
  seconaphim and by other members of the vast family of the Infinite Spirit. In
  the work of these marvelous centers of superuniverse administration, control,
  ministry, and executive judgment, the intelligences of every sphere of
  universal life are mingled in effective service, wise administration, loving
  ministry, and just judgment.

  15:10.9 The superuniverses do not maintain any sort of ambassadorial
  representation; they are completely isolated from each other. They know of
  mutual affairs only through the Paradise clearinghouse maintained by the Seven
  Master Spirits. Their rulers work in the councils of divine wisdom for the
  welfare of their own superuniverses regardless of what may be transpiring in
  other sections of the universal creation. This isolation of the superuniverses
  will persist until such time as their co-ordination is achieved by the more
  complete factualization of the personality-sovereignty of the evolving
  experiential Supreme Being.





11. THE DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLY



  15:11.1 It is on such worlds as Uversa that the beings representative of the
  autocracy of perfection and the democracy of evolution meet face to face. The
  executive branch of the supergovernment originates in the realms of
  perfection; the legislative branch springs from the flowering of the
  evolutionary universes.

  15:11.2 The deliberative assembly of the superuniverse is confined to the
  headquarters world. This legislative or advisory council consists of seven
  houses, to each of which every local universe admitted to the superuniverse
  councils elects a native representative. These representatives are chosen by
  the high councils of such local universes from among the ascending-pilgrim
  graduates of Orvonton who are tarrying on Uversa, accredited for transport to
  Havona. The average term of service is about one hundred years of
  superuniverse standard time.

  15:11.3 Never have I known of a disagreement between the Orvonton executives
  and the Uversa assembly. Never yet, in the history of our superuniverse, has
  the deliberative body ever passed a recommendation that the executive division
  of the supergovernment has even hesitated to carry out. There always has
  prevailed the most perfect harmony and working agreement, all of which
  testifies to the fact that evolutionary beings can really attain the heights
  of perfected wisdom which qualifies them to consort with the personalities of
  perfect origin and divine nature. The presence of the deliberative assemblies
  on the superuniverse headquarters reveals the wisdom, and foreshadows the
  ultimate triumph, of the whole vast evolutionary concept of the Universal
  Father and his Eternal Son.





12. THE SUPREME TRIBUNALS



  15:12.1 When we speak of executive and deliberative branches of the Uversa
  government, you may, from the analogy of certain forms of Urantian civil
  government, reason that we must have a third or judicial branch, and we do;
  but it does not have a separate personnel. Our courts are constituted as
  follows: There presides, in accordance with the nature and gravity of the
  case, an Ancient of Days, a Perfector of Wisdom, or a Divine Counselor. The
  evidence for or against an individual, a planet, system, constellation, or
  universe is presented and interpreted by the Censors. The defense of the
  children of time and the evolutionary planets is offered by the Mighty
  Messengers, the official observers of the superuniverse government to the
  local universes and systems. The attitude of the higher government is
  portrayed by Those High in Authority. And ordinarily the verdict is formulated
  by a varying-sized commission consisting equally of Those without Name and
  Number and a group of understanding personalities chosen from the deliberative
  assembly.

  15:12.2 The courts of the Ancients of Days are the high review tribunals for
  the spiritual adjudication of all component universes. The Sovereign Sons of
  the local universes are supreme in their own domains; they are subject to the
  supergovernment only in so far as they voluntarily submit matters for counsel
  or adjudication by the Ancients of Days except in matters involving the
  extinction of will creatures. Mandates of judgment originate in the local
  universes, but sentences involving the extinction of will creatures are always
  formulated on, and executed from, the headquarters of the superuniverse. The
  Sons of the local universes can decree the survival of mortal man, but only
  the Ancients of Days may sit in executive judgment on the issues of eternal
  life and death.

  15:12.3 In all matters not requiring trial, the submission of evidence, the
  Ancients of Days or their associates render decisions, and these rulings are
  always unanimous. We are here dealing with the councils of perfection. There
  are no disagreements nor minority opinions in the decrees of these supreme and
  superlative tribunals.

  15:12.4 With certain few exceptions the supergovernments exercise jurisdiction
  over all things and all beings in their respective domains. There is no appeal
  from the rulings and decisions of the superuniverse authorities since they
  represent the concurred opinions of the Ancients of Days and that Master
  Spirit who, from Paradise, presides over the destiny of the superuniverse
  concerned.





13. THE SECTOR GOVERNMENTS



  15:13.1 A major sector comprises about one tenth of a superuniverse and
  consists of one hundred minor sectors, ten thousand local universes, about one
  hundred billion inhabitable worlds. These major sectors are administered by
  three Perfections of Days, Supreme Trinity Personalities.

  15:13.2 The courts of the Perfections of Days are constituted much as are
  those of the Ancients of Days except that they do not sit in spiritual
  judgment upon the realms. The work of these major sector governments has
  chiefly to do with the intellectual status of a far-flung creation. The major
  sectors detain, adjudicate, dispense, and tabulate, for reporting to the
  courts of the Ancients of Days, all matters of superuniverse importance of a
  routine and administrative nature which are not immediately concerned with the
  spiritual administration of the realms or with the outworking of the mortal-
  ascension plans of the Paradise Rulers. The personnel of a major sector
  government is no different from that of the superuniverse.

  15:13.3 As the magnificent satellites of Uversa are concerned with your final
  spiritual preparation for Havona, so are the seventy satellites of Umajor the
  fifth devoted to your superuniverse intellectual training and development.
  From all Orvonton, here are gathered together the wise beings who labor
  untiringly to prepare the mortals of time for their further progress towards
  the career of eternity. Most of this training of ascending mortals is
  conducted on the seventy study worlds.



  15:13.4 The minor sector governments are presided over by three Recents of
  Days. Their administration is concerned mainly with the physical control,
  unification, stabilization, and routine co-ordination of the administration of
  the component local universes. Each minor sector embraces as many as one
  hundred local universes, ten thousand constellations, one million systems, or
  about one billion inhabitable worlds.

  15:13.5 Minor sector headquarters worlds are the grand rendezvous of the
  Master Physical Controllers. These headquarters worlds are surrounded by the
  seven instruction spheres which constitute the entrance schools of the
  superuniverse and are the centers of training for physical and administrative
  knowledge concerning the universe of universes.

  15:13.6 The administrators of the minor sector governments are under the
  immediate jurisdiction of the major sector rulers. The Recents of Days receive
  all reports of observations and co-ordinate all recommendations which come up
  to a superuniverse from the Unions of Days who are stationed as Trinity
  observers and advisers on the headquarters spheres of the local universes and
  from the Faithfuls of Days who are similarly attached to the councils of the
  Most Highs at the headquarters of the constellations. All such reports are
  transmitted to the Perfections of Days on the major sectors, subsequently to
  be passed on to the courts of the Ancients of Days. Thus the Trinity regime
  extends from the constellations of the local universes up to the headquarters
  of the superuniverse. The local system headquarters do not have Trinity
  representatives.





14. PURPOSES OF THE SEVEN SUPERUNIVERSES



  15:14.1 There are seven major purposes which are being unfolded in the
  evolution of the seven superuniverses. Each major purpose in superuniverse
  evolution will find fullest expression in only one of the seven
  superuniverses, and therefore does each superuniverse have a special function
  and a unique nature.

  15:14.2 Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse, the one to which your local
  universe belongs, is known chiefly because of its tremendous and lavish
  bestowal of merciful ministry to the mortals of the realms. It is renowned for
  the manner in which justice prevails as tempered by mercy and power rules as
  conditioned by patience, while the sacrifices of time are freely made to
  secure the stabilization of eternity. Orvonton is a universe demonstration of
  love and mercy.

  15:14.3 It is, however, very difficult to describe our conception of the true
  nature of the evolutionary purpose which is unfolding in Orvonton, but it may
  be suggested by saying that in this supercreation we feel that the six unique
  purposes of cosmic evolution as manifested in the six associated
  supercreations are here being interassociated into a meaning-of-the-whole; and
  it is for this reason that we have sometimes conjectured that the evolved and
  finished personalization of God the Supreme will in the remote future and from
  Uversa rule the perfected seven superuniverses in all the experiential majesty
  of his then attained almighty sovereign power.

  15:14.4 As Orvonton is unique in nature and individual in destiny, so also is
  each of its six associated superuniverses. A great deal that is going on in
  Orvonton is not, however, revealed to you, and of these unrevealed features of
  Orvonton life, many are to find most complete expression in some other
  superuniverse. The seven purposes of superuniverse evolution are operative
  throughout all seven superuniverses, but each supercreation will give fullest
  expression to only one of these purposes. To understand more about these
  superuniverse purposes, much that you do not understand would have to be
  revealed, and even then you would comprehend but little. This entire narrative
  presents only a fleeting glimpse of the immense creation of which your world
  and local system are a part.



  15:14.5 Your world is called Urantia, and it is number 606 in the planetary
  group, or system, of Satania. This system has at present 619 inhabited worlds,
  and more than two hundred additional planets are evolving favorably toward
  becoming inhabited worlds at some future time.

  15:14.6 Satania has a headquarters world called Jerusem, and it is system
  number twenty-four in the constellation of Norlatiadek. Your constellation,
  Norlatiadek, consists of one hundred local systems and has a headquarters
  world called Edentia. Norlatiadek is number seventy in the universe of
  Nebadon. The local universe of Nebadon consists of one hundred constellations
  and has a capital known as Salvington. The universe of Nebadon is number
  eighty-four in the minor sector of Ensa.

  15:14.7 The minor sector of Ensa consists of one hundred local universes and
  has a capital called Uminor the third. This minor sector is number three in
  the major sector of Splandon. Splandon consists of one hundred minor sectors
  and has a headquarters world called Umajor the fifth. It is the fifth major
  sector of the superuniverse of Orvonton, the seventh segment of the grand
  universe. Thus you can locate your planet in the scheme of the organization
  and administration of the universe of universes.

  15:14.8 The grand universe number of your world, Urantia, is
  5,342,482,337,666. That is the registry number on Uversa and on Paradise, your
  number in the catalogue of the inhabited worlds. I know the physical-sphere
  registry number, but it is of such an extraordinary size that it is of little
  practical significance to the mortal mind.



  15:14.9 Your planet is a member of an enormous cosmos; you belong to a well-
  nigh infinite family of worlds, but your sphere is just as precisely
  administered and just as lovingly fostered as if it were the only inhabited
  world in all existence.



  15:14.10 Presented by a Universal Censor hailing from Uversa.




PAPER 16


 THE SEVEN MASTER SPIRITS



  16:0.1 THE Seven Master Spirits of Paradise are the primary personalities of
  the Infinite Spirit. In this sevenfold creative act of self-duplication the
  Infinite Spirit exhausted the associative possibilities mathematically
  inherent in the factual existence of the three persons of Deity. Had it been
  possible to produce a larger number of Master Spirits, they would have been
  created, but there are just seven associative possibilities, and only seven,
  inherent in three Deities. And this explains why the universe is operated in
  seven grand divisions, and why the number seven is basically fundamental in
  its organization and administration.

  16:0.2 The Seven Master Spirits thus have their origin in, and derive their
  individual characteristics from, the following seven likenesses:

1. The Universal Father.

2. The Eternal Son.

3. The Infinite Spirit.

4. The Father and the Son.

5. The Father and the Spirit.

6. The Son and the Spirit.

7. The Father, Son, and Spirit.

  16:0.3 We know very little about the action of the Father and the Son in the
  creation of the Master Spirits. Apparently they were brought into existence by
  the personal acts of the Infinite Spirit, but we have been definitely
  instructed that both the Father and the Son participated in their origin.

  16:0.4 In spirit character and nature these Seven Spirits of Paradise are as
  one, but in all other aspects of identity they are very unlike, and the
  results of their functioning in the superuniverses are such that the
  individual differences of each are unmistakably discernible. All the
  afterplans of the seven segments of the grand universe -- and even the
  correlative segments of outer space -- have been conditioned by the other-
  than-spiritual diversity of these Seven Master Spirits of supreme and ultimate
  supervision.

  16:0.5 The Master Spirits have many functions, but at the present time their
  particular domain is the central supervision of the seven superuniverses. Each
  Master Spirit maintains an enormous force-focal headquarters, which slowly
  circulates around the periphery of Paradise, always maintaining a position
  opposite the superuniverse of immediate supervision and at the Paradise focal
  point of its specialized power control and segmental energy distribution. The
  radial boundary lines of any one of the superuniverses do actually converge at
  the Paradise headquarters of the supervising Master Spirit.





1. RELATION TO TRIUNE DEITY



  16:1.1 The Conjoint Creator, the Infinite Spirit, is necessary to the
  completion of the triune personalization of undivided Deity. This threefold
  Deity personalization is inherently sevenfold in possibility of individual and
  associative expression; hence the subsequent plan to create universes
  inhabited by intelligent and potentially spiritual beings, duly expressive of
  the Father, Son, and Spirit, made the personalization of the Seven Master
  Spirits inescapable. We have come to speak of the threefold personalization of
  Deity as the absolute inevitability, while we have come to look upon the
  appearance of the Seven Master Spirits as the subabsolute inevitability.

  16:1.2 While the Seven Master Spirits are hardly expressive of threefold
  Deity, they are the eternal portrayal of sevenfold Deity, the active and
  associative functions of the three ever-existent persons of Deity. By and in
  and through these Seven Spirits, the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, or the
  Infinite Spirit, or any dual association, is able to function as such. When
  the Father, the Son, and the Spirit act together, they can and do function
  through Master Spirit Number Seven, but not as the Trinity. The Master Spirits
  singly and collectively represent any and all possible Deity functions, single
  and several, but not collective, not the Trinity. Master Spirit Number Seven
  is personally nonfunctional with regard to the Paradise Trinity, and that is
  just why he can function personally for the Supreme Being.

  16:1.3 But when the Seven Master Spirits vacate their individual seats of
  personal power and superuniverse authority and assemble about the Conjoint
  Actor in the triune presence of Paradise Deity, then and there are they
  collectively representative of the functional power, wisdom, and authority of
  undivided Deity -- the Trinity -- to and in the evolving universes. Such a
  Paradise union of the primal sevenfold expression of Deity does actually
  embrace, literally encompass, all of every attribute and attitude of the three
  eternal Deities in Supremacy and in Ultimacy. To all practical intents and
  purposes the Seven Master Spirits do, then and there, encompass the functional
  domain of the Supreme-Ultimate to and in the master universe.

  16:1.4 As far as we can discern, these Seven Spirits are associated with the
  divine activities of the three eternal persons of Deity; we detect no evidence
  of direct association with the functioning presences of the three eternal
  phases of the Absolute. When associated, the Master Spirits represent the
  Paradise Deities in what may be roughly conceived as the finite domain of
  action. It might embrace much that is ultimate but not absolute.





2. RELATION TO THE INFINITE SPIRIT



  16:2.1 Just as the Eternal and Original Son is revealed through the persons of
  the constantly increasing number of divine Sons, so is the Infinite and Divine
  Spirit revealed through the channels of the Seven Master Spirits and their
  associated spirit groups. At the center of centers the Infinite Spirit is
  approachable, but not all who attain Paradise are immediately able to discern
  his personality and differentiated presence; but all who attain the central
  universe can and do immediately commune with one of the Seven Master Spirits,
  the one presiding over the superuniverse from which the newly arrived space
  pilgrim hails.

  16:2.2 To the universe of universes the Paradise Father speaks only through
  his Son, while he and the Son conjointly act only through the Infinite Spirit.
  Outside of Paradise and Havona the Infinite Spirit speaks only by the voices
  of the Seven Master Spirits.



  16:2.3 The Infinite Spirit exerts an influence of personal presence within the
  confines of the Paradise-Havona system; elsewhere his personal spirit presence
  is exerted by and through one of the Seven Master Spirits. Therefore is the
  superuniverse spirit presence of the Third Source and Center on any world or
  in any individual conditioned by the unique nature of the supervisory Master
  Spirit of that segment of creation. Conversely, the combined lines of spirit
  force and intelligence pass inward to the Third Person of Deity by way of the
  Seven Master Spirits.



  16:2.4 The Seven Master Spirits are collectively endowed with the supreme-
  ultimate attributes of the Third Source and Center. While each one
  individually partakes of this endowment, only collectively do they disclose
  the attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. No one of them
  can so function universally; as individuals and in the exercise of these
  powers of supremacy and ultimacy each is personally limited to the
  superuniverse of immediate supervision.

  16:2.5 All of everything which has been told you concerning the divinity and
  personality of the Conjoint Actor applies equally and fully to the Seven
  Master Spirits, who so effectively distribute the Infinite Spirit to the seven
  segments of the grand universe in accordance with their divine endowment and
  in the manner of their differing and individually unique natures. It would
  therefore be proper to apply to the collective group of seven any or all of
  the names of the Infinite Spirit. Collectively they are one with the Conjoint
  Creator on all subabsolute levels.





3. IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE MASTER SPIRITS



  16:3.1 The Seven Master Spirits are indescribable beings, but they are
  distinctly and definitely personal. They have names, but we elect to introduce
  them by number. As primary personalizations of the Infinite Spirit, they are
  akin, but as primary expressions of the seven possible associations of triune
  Deity, they are essentially diverse in nature, and this diversity of nature
  determines their differential of superuniverse conduct. These Seven Master
  Spirits may be described as follows:



  16:3.2 Master Spirit Number One. In a special manner this Spirit is the direct
  representation of the Paradise Father. He is a peculiar and efficient
  manifestation of the power, love, and wisdom of the Universal Father. He is
  the close associate and supernal adviser of the chief of Mystery Monitors,
  that being who presides over the College of Personalized Adjusters on
  Divinington. In all associations of the Seven Master Spirits, it is always
  Master Spirit Number One who speaks for the Universal Father.

  16:3.3 This Spirit presides over the first superuniverse and, while
  unfailingly exhibiting the divine nature of a primary personalization of the
  Infinite Spirit, seems more especially to resemble the Universal Father in
  character. He is always in personal liaison with the seven Reflective Spirits
  at the headquarters of the first superuniverse.



  16:3.4 Master Spirit Number Two. This Spirit adequately portrays the matchless
  nature and charming character of the Eternal Son, the first-born of all
  creation. He is always in close association with all orders of the Sons of God
  whenever they may happen to be in the residential universe as individuals or
  in joyous conclave. In all the assemblies of the Seven Master Spirits he
  always speaks for, and in behalf of, the Eternal Son.

  16:3.5 This Spirit directs the destinies of superuniverse number two and rules
  this vast domain much as would the Eternal Son. He is always in liaison with
  the seven Reflective Spirits situated at the capital of the second
  superuniverse.



  16:3.6 Master Spirit Number Three. This Spirit personality especially
  resembles the Infinite Spirit, and he directs the movements and work of many
  of the high personalities of the Infinite Spirit. He presides over their
  assemblies and is closely associated with all personalities who take exclusive
  origin in the Third Source and Center. When the Seven Master Spirits are in
  council, it is Master Spirit Number Three who always speaks for the Infinite
  Spirit.

  16:3.7 This Spirit is in charge of superuniverse number three, and he
  administers the affairs of this segment much as would the Infinite Spirit. He
  is always in liaison with the Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the
  third superuniverse.



  16:3.8 Master Spirit Number Four. Partaking of the combined natures of the
  Father and the Son, this Master Spirit is the determining influence regarding
  Father-Son policies and procedures in the councils of the Seven Master
  Spirits. This Spirit is the chief director and adviser of those ascendant
  beings who have attained the Infinite Spirit and thus have become candidates
  for seeing the Son and the Father. He fosters that enormous group of
  personalities taking origin in the Father and the Son. When it becomes
  necessary to represent the Father and the Son in the association of the Seven
  Master Spirits, it is always Master Spirit Number Four who speaks.

  16:3.9 This Spirit fosters the fourth segment of the grand universe in
  accordance with his peculiar association of the attributes of the Universal
  Father and the Eternal Son. He is always in personal liaison with the
  Reflective Spirits of the headquarters of the fourth superuniverse.



  16:3.10 Master Spirit Number Five. This divine personality who exquisitely
  blends the character of the Universal Father and the Infinite Spirit is the
  adviser of that enormous group of beings known as the power directors, power
  centers, and physical controllers. This Spirit also fosters all personalities
  taking origin in the Father and the Conjoint Actor. In the councils of the
  Seven Master Spirits, when the Father-Spirit attitude is in question, it is
  always Master Spirit Number Five who speaks.

  16:3.11 This Spirit directs the welfare of the fifth superuniverse in such a
  way as to suggest the combined action of the Universal Father and the Infinite
  Spirit. He is always in liaison with the Reflective Spirits at the
  headquarters of the fifth superuniverse.



  16:3.12 Master Spirit Number Six. This divine being seems to portray the
  combined character of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. Whenever the
  creatures jointly created by the Son and the Spirit forgather in the central
  universe, it is this Master Spirit who is their adviser; and whenever, in the
  councils of the Seven Master Spirits, it becomes necessary to speak conjointly
  for the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, it is Master Spirit Number Six
  who responds.

  16:3.13 This Spirit directs the affairs of the sixth superuniverse much as
  would the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. He is always in liaison with
  the Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the sixth superuniverse.



  16:3.14 Master Spirit Number Seven. The presiding Spirit of the seventh
  superuniverse is a uniquely equal portrayal of the Universal Father, the
  Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. The Seventh Spirit, the fostering
  adviser of all triune-origin beings, is also the adviser and director of all
  the ascending pilgrims of Havona, those lowly beings who have attained the
  courts of glory through the combined ministry of the Father, the Son, and the
  Spirit.

  16:3.15 The Seventh Master Spirit is not organically representative of the
  Paradise Trinity; but it is a known fact that his personal and spiritual
  nature is the Conjoint Actor's portraiture in equal proportions of the three
  infinite persons whose Deity union is the Paradise Trinity, and whose function
  as such is the source of the personal and spiritual nature of God the Supreme.
  Hence the Seventh Master Spirit discloses a personal and organic relationship
  to the spirit person of the evolving Supreme. Therefore in the Master Spirit
  councils on high, when it becomes necessary to cast the ballot for the
  combined personal attitude of the Father, Son, and Spirit or to depict the
  spiritual attitude of the Supreme Being, it is Master Spirit Number Seven who
  functions. He thus inherently becomes the presiding head of the Paradise
  council of the Seven Master Spirits.

  16:3.16 No one of the Seven Spirits is organically representative of the
  Paradise Trinity, but when they unite as sevenfold Deity, this union in a
  deity sense -- not in a personal sense -- equivalates to a functional level
  associable with Trinity functions. In this sense the "Sevenfold Spirit" is
  functionally associable with the Paradise Trinity. It is also in this sense
  that Master Spirit Number Seven sometimes speaks in confirmation of Trinity
  attitudes or, rather, acts as spokesman for the attitude of the Sevenfold-
  Spirit-union regarding the attitude of the Threefold-Deity-union, the attitude
  of the Paradise Trinity.

  16:3.17 The multiple functions of the Seventh Master Spirit thus range from a
  combined portraiture of the personal natures of the Father, Son, and Spirit,
  through a representation of the personal attitude of God the Supreme, to a
  disclosure of the deity attitude of the Paradise Trinity. And in certain
  respects this presiding Spirit is similarly expressive of the attitudes of the
  Ultimate and of the Supreme-Ultimate.

  16:3.18 It is Master Spirit Number Seven who, in his multiple capacities,
  personally sponsors the progress of the ascension candidates from the worlds
  of time in their attempts to achieve comprehension of the undivided Deity of
  Supremacy. Such comprehension involves a grasp of the existential sovereignty
  of the Trinity of Supremacy so co-ordinated with a concept of the growing
  experiential sovereignty of the Supreme Being as to constitute the creature
  grasp of the unity of Supremacy. Creature realization of these three factors
  equals Havona comprehension of Trinity reality and endows the pilgrims of time
  with the ability eventually to penetrate the Trinity, to discover the three
  infinite persons of Deity.

  16:3.19 The inability of the Havona pilgrims fully to find God the Supreme is
  compensated by the Seventh Master Spirit, whose triune nature in such a
  peculiar manner is revelatory of the spirit person of the Supreme. During the
  present universe age of the noncontactability of the person of the Supreme,
  Master Spirit Number Seven functions in the place of the God of ascendant
  creatures in the matter of personal relationships. He is the one high spirit
  being that all ascenders are certain to recognize and somewhat comprehend when
  they reach the centers of glory.

  16:3.20 This Master Spirit is always in liaison with the Reflective Spirits of
  Uversa, the headquarters of the seventh superuniverse, our own segment of
  creation. His administration of Orvonton discloses the marvelous symmetry of
  the co-ordinate blending of the divine natures of Father, Son, and Spirit.





4. ATTRIBUTES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE MASTER SPIRITS



  16:4.1 The Seven Master Spirits are the full representation of the Infinite
  Spirit to the evolutionary universes. They represent the Third Source and
  Center in the relationships of energy, mind, and spirit. While they function
  as the co-ordinating heads of the universal administrative control of the
  Conjoint Actor, do not forget that they have their origin in the creative acts
  of the Paradise Deities. It is literally true that these Seven Spirits are the
  personalized physical power, cosmic mind, and spiritual presence of the triune
  Deity, "the Seven Spirits of God sent forth to all the universe."

  16:4.2 The Master Spirits are unique in that they function on all universe
  levels of reality excepting the absolute. They are, therefore, efficient and
  perfect supervisors of all phases of administrative affairs on all levels of
  superuniverse activities. It is difficult for the mortal mind to understand
  very much about the Master Spirits because their work is so highly specialized
  yet all-embracing, so exceptionally material and at the same time so
  exquisitely spiritual. These versatile creators of the cosmic mind are the
  ancestors of the Universe Power Directors and are, themselves, supreme
  directors of the vast and far-flung spirit-creature creation.

  16:4.3 The Seven Master Spirits are the creators of the Universe Power
  Directors and their associates, entities who are indispensable to the
  organization, control, and regulation of the physical energies of the grand
  universe. And these same Master Spirits very materially assist the Creator
  Sons in the work of shaping and organizing the local universes.

  16:4.4 We are unable to trace any personal connection between the cosmic-
  energy work of the Master Spirits and the force functions of the Unqualified
  Absolute. The energy manifestations under the jurisdiction of the Master
  Spirits are all directed from the periphery of Paradise; they do not appear to
  be in any direct manner associated with the force phenomena identified with
  the nether surface of Paradise.

  16:4.5 Unquestionably, when we encounter the functional activities of the
  various Morontia Power Supervisors, we are face to face with certain of the
  unrevealed activities of the Master Spirits. Who, aside from these ancestors
  of both physical controllers and spirit ministers, could have contrived so to
  combine and associate material and spiritual energies as to produce a hitherto
  nonexistent phase of universe reality -- morontia substance and morontia mind?

  16:4.6 Much of the reality of the spiritual worlds is of the morontia order, a
  phase of universe reality wholly unknown on Urantia. The goal of personality
  existence is spiritual, but the morontia creations always intervene, bridging
  the gulf between the material realms of mortal origin and the superuniverse
  spheres of advancing spiritual status. It is in this realm that the Master
  Spirits make their great contribution to the plan of man's Paradise ascension.

  16:4.7 The Seven Master Spirits have personal representatives who function
  throughout the grand universe; but since a large majority of these subordinate
  beings are not directly concerned with the ascendant scheme of mortal
  progression in the path of Paradise perfection, little or nothing has been
  revealed about them. Much, very much, of the activity of the Seven Master
  Spirits remains hidden from human understanding because in no way does it
  directly pertain to your problem of Paradise ascent.



  16:4.8 It is highly probable, though we cannot offer definite proof, that the
  Master Spirit of Orvonton exerts a decided influence in the following spheres
  of activity:



  16:4.9 1. The life-initiation procedures of the local universe Life Carriers.



  16:4.10 2. The life activations of the adjutant mind-spirits bestowed upon the
  worlds by a local universe Creative Spirit.



  16:4.11 3. The fluctuations in energy manifestations exhibited by the linear-
  gravity-responding units of organized matter.



  16:4.12 4. The behavior of emergent energy when fully liberated from the grasp
  of the Unqualified Absolute, thus becoming responsive to the direct influence
  of linear gravity and to the manipulations of the Universe Power Directors and
  their associates.



  16:4.13 5. The bestowal of the ministry spirit of a local universe Creative
  Spirit, known on Urantia as the Holy Spirit.



  16:4.14 6. The subsequent bestowal of the spirit of the bestowal Sons, on
  Urantia called the Comforter or the Spirit of Truth.



  16:4.15 7. The reflectivity mechanism of the local universes and the
  superuniverse. Many features connected with this extraordinary phenomenon can
  hardly be reasonably explained or rationally understood without postulating
  the activity of the Master Spirits in association with the Conjoint Actor and
  the Supreme Being.



  16:4.16 Notwithstanding our failure adequately to comprehend the manifold
  workings of the Seven Master Spirits, we are confident there are two realms in
  the vast range of universe activities with which they have nothing whatever to
  do: the bestowal and ministry of the Thought Adjusters and the inscrutable
  functions of the Unqualified Absolute.





5. RELATION TO CREATURES



  16:5.1 Each segment of the grand universe, each individual universe and world,
  enjoys the benefits of the united counsel and wisdom of all Seven Master
  Spirits but receives the personal touch and tinge of only one. And the
  personal nature of each Master Spirit entirely pervades and uniquely
  conditions his superuniverse.

  16:5.2 Through this personal influence of the Seven Master Spirits every
  creature of every order of intelligent beings, outside of Paradise and Havona,
  must bear the characteristic stamp of individuality indicative of the
  ancestral nature of some one of these Seven Paradise Spirits. As concerns the
  seven superuniverses, each native creature, man or angel, will forever bear
  this badge of natal identification.

  16:5.3 The Seven Master Spirits do not directly invade the material minds of
  the individual creatures on the evolutionary worlds of space. The mortals of
  Urantia do not experience the personal presence of the mind-spirit influence
  of the Master Spirit of Orvonton. If this Master Spirit does attain any sort
  of contact with the individual mortal mind during the earlier evolutionary
  ages of an inhabited world, it must occur through the ministry of the local
  universe Creative Spirit, the consort and associate of the Creator Son of God
  who presides over the destinies of each local creation. But this very Creative
  Mother Spirit is, in nature and character, quite like the Master Spirit of
  Orvonton.

  16:5.4 The physical stamp of a Master Spirit is a part of man's material
  origin. The entire morontia career is lived under the continuing influence of
  this same Master Spirit. It is hardly strange that the subsequent spirit
  career of such an ascending mortal never fully eradicates the characteristic
  stamp of this same supervising Spirit. The impress of a Master Spirit is basic
  to the very existence of every pre-Havona stage of mortal ascension.

  16:5.5 The distinctive personality trends exhibited in the life experience of
  evolutionary mortals, which are characteristic in each superuniverse, and
  which are directly expressive of the nature of the dominating Master Spirit,
  are never fully effaced, not even after such ascenders are subjected to the
  long training and unifying discipline encountered on the one billion
  educational spheres of Havona. Even the subsequent intense Paradise culture
  does not suffice to eradicate the earmarks of superuniverse origin. Throughout
  all eternity an ascendant mortal will exhibit traits indicative of the
  presiding Spirit of his superuniverse of nativity. Even in the Corps of the
  Finality, when it is desired to arrive at or to portray a complete Trinity
  relationship to the evolutionary creation, always a group of seven finaliters
  is assembled, one from each superuniverse.





6. THE COSMIC MIND



  16:6.1 The Master Spirits are the sevenfold source of the cosmic mind, the
  intellectual potential of the grand universe. This cosmic mind is a
  subabsolute manifestation of the mind of the Third Source and Center and, in
  certain ways, is functionally related to the mind of the evolving Supreme
  Being.

  16:6.2 On a world like Urantia we do not encounter the direct influence of the
  Seven Master Spirits in the affairs of the human races. You live under the
  immediate influence of the Creative Spirit of Nebadon. Nevertheless these same
  Master Spirits dominate the basic reactions of all creature mind because they
  are the actual sources of the intellectual and spiritual potentials which have
  been specialized in the local universes for function in the lives of those
  individuals who inhabit the evolutionary worlds of time and space.

  16:6.3 The fact of the cosmic mind explains the kinship of various types of
  human and superhuman minds. Not only are kindred spirits attracted to each
  other, but kindred minds are also very fraternal and inclined towards co-
  operation the one with the other. Human minds are sometimes observed to be
  running in channels of astonishing similarity and inexplicable agreement.



  16:6.4 There exists in all personality associations of the cosmic mind a
  quality which might be denominated the "reality response." It is this
  universal cosmic endowment of will creatures which saves them from becoming
  helpless victims of the implied a priori assumptions of science, philosophy,
  and religion. This reality sensitivity of the cosmic mind responds to certain
  phases of reality just as energy-material responds to gravity. It would be
  still more correct to say that these supermaterial realities so respond to the
  mind of the cosmos.

  16:6.5 The cosmic mind unfailingly responds (recognizes response) on three
  levels of universe reality. These responses are self-evident to clear-
  reasoning and deep-thinking minds. These levels of reality are:



  16:6.6 1. Causation -- the reality domain of the physical senses, the
  scientific realms of logical uniformity, the differentiation of the factual
  and the nonfactual, reflective conclusions based on cosmic response. This is
  the mathematical form of the cosmic discrimination.



  16:6.7 2. Duty -- the reality domain of morals in the philosophic realm, the
  arena of reason, the recognition of relative right and wrong. This is the
  judicial form of the cosmic discrimination.



  16:6.8 3. Worship -- the spiritual domain of the reality of religious
  experience, the personal realization of divine fellowship, the recognition of
  spirit values, the assurance of eternal survival, the ascent from the status
  of servants of God to the joy and liberty of the sons of God. This is the
  highest insight of the cosmic mind, the reverential and worshipful form of the
  cosmic discrimination.



  16:6.9 These scientific, moral, and spiritual insights, these cosmic
  responses, are innate in the cosmic mind, which endows all will creatures. The
  experience of living never fails to develop these three cosmic intuitions;
  they are constitutive in the self-consciousness of reflective thinking. But it
  is sad to record that so few persons on Urantia take delight in cultivating
  these qualities of courageous and independent cosmic thinking.



  16:6.10 In the local universe mind bestowals, these three insights of the
  cosmic mind constitute the a priori assumptions which make it possible for man
  to function as a rational and self-conscious personality in the realms of
  science, philosophy, and religion. Stated otherwise, the recognition of the
  reality of these three manifestations of the Infinite is by a cosmic technique
  of self-revelation. Matter-energy is recognized by the mathematical logic of
  the senses; mind-reason intuitively knows its moral duty; spirit-faith
  (worship) is the religion of the reality of spiritual experience. These three
  basic factors in reflective thinking may be unified and co-ordinated in
  personality development, or they may become disproportionate and virtually
  unrelated in their respective functions. But when they become unified, they
  produce a strong character consisting in the correlation of a factual science,
  a moral philosophy, and a genuine religious experience. And it is these three
  cosmic intuitions that give objective validity, reality, to man's experience
  in and with things, meanings, and values.

  16:6.11 It is the purpose of education to develop and sharpen these innate
  endowments of the human mind; of civilization to express them; of life
  experience to realize them; of religion to ennoble them; and of personality to
  unify them.





7. MORALS, VIRTUE, AND PERSONALITY



  16:7.1 Intelligence alone cannot explain the moral nature. Morality, virtue,
  is indigenous to human personality. Moral intuition, the realization of duty,
  is a component of human mind endowment and is associated with the other
  inalienables of human nature: scientific curiosity and spiritual insight.
  Man's mentality far transcends that of his animal cousins, but it is his moral
  and religious natures that especially distinguish him from the animal world.

  16:7.2 The selective response of an animal is limited to the motor level of
  behavior. The supposed insight of the higher animals is on a motor level and
  usually appears only after the experience of motor trial and error. Man is
  able to exercise scientific, moral, and spiritual insight prior to all
  exploration or experimentation.

  16:7.3 Only a personality can know what it is doing before it does it; only
  personalities possess insight in advance of experience. A personality can look
  before it leaps and can therefore learn from looking as well as from leaping.
  A nonpersonal animal ordinarily learns only by leaping.

  16:7.4 As a result of experience an animal becomes able to examine the
  different ways of attaining a goal and to select an approach based on
  accumulated experience. But a personality can also examine the goal itself and
  pass judgment on its worth-whileness, its value. Intelligence alone can
  discriminate as to the best means of attaining indiscriminate ends, but a
  moral being possesses an insight which enables him to discriminate between
  ends as well as between means. And a moral being in choosing virtue is
  nonetheless intelligent. He knows what he is doing, why he is doing it, where
  he is going, and how he will get there.

  16:7.5 When man fails to discriminate the ends of his mortal striving, he
  finds himself functioning on the animal level of existence. He has failed to
  avail himself of the superior advantages of that material acumen, moral
  discrimination, and spiritual insight which are an integral part of his
  cosmic-mind endowment as a personal being.



  16:7.6 Virtue is righteousness -- conformity with the cosmos. To name virtues
  is not to define them, but to live them is to know them. Virtue is not mere
  knowledge nor yet wisdom but rather the reality of progressive experience in
  the attainment of ascending levels of cosmic achievement. In the day-by-day
  life of mortal man, virtue is realized by the consistent choosing of good
  rather than evil, and such choosing ability is evidence of the possession of a
  moral nature.

  16:7.7 Man's choosing between good and evil is influenced, not only by the
  keenness of his moral nature, but also by such influences as ignorance,
  immaturity, and delusion. A sense of proportion is also concerned in the
  exercise of virtue because evil may be perpetrated when the lesser is chosen
  in the place of the greater as a result of distortion or deception. The art of
  relative estimation or comparative measurement enters into the practice of the
  virtues of the moral realm.



  16:7.8 Man's moral nature would be impotent without the art of measurement,
  the discrimination embodied in his ability to scrutinize meanings. Likewise
  would moral choosing be futile without that cosmic insight which yields the
  consciousness of spiritual values. From the standpoint of intelligence, man
  ascends to the level of a moral being because he is endowed with personality.



  16:7.9 Morality can never be advanced by law or by force. It is a personal and
  freewill matter and must be disseminated by the contagion of the contact of
  morally fragrant persons with those who are less morally responsive, but who
  are also in some measure desirous of doing the Father's will.

  16:7.10 Moral acts are those human performances which are characterized by the
  highest intelligence, directed by selective discrimination in the choice of
  superior ends as well as in the selection of moral means to attain these ends.
  Such conduct is virtuous. Supreme virtue, then, is wholeheartedly to choose to
  do the will of the Father in heaven.





8. URANTIA PERSONALITY



  16:8.1 The Universal Father bestows personality upon numerous orders of beings
  as they function on diverse levels of universe actuality. Urantia human beings
  are endowed with personality of the finite-mortal type, functioning on the
  level of the ascending sons of God.

  16:8.2 Though we can hardly undertake to define personality, we may attempt to
  narrate our understanding of the known factors which go to make up the
  ensemble of material, mental, and spiritual energies whose interassociation
  constitutes the mechanism wherein and whereon and wherewith the Universal
  Father causes his bestowed personality to function.

  16:8.3 Personality is a unique endowment of original nature whose existence is
  independent of, and antecedent to, the bestowal of the Thought Adjuster.
  Nevertheless, the presence of the Adjuster does augment the qualitative
  manifestation of personality. Thought Adjusters, when they come forth from the
  Father, are identical in nature, but personality is diverse, original, and
  exclusive; and the manifestation of personality is further conditioned and
  qualified by the nature and qualities of the associated energies of a
  material, mindal, and spiritual nature which constitute the organismal vehicle
  for personality manifestation.

  16:8.4 Personalities may be similar, but they are never the same. Persons of a
  given series, type, order, or pattern may and do resemble one another, but
  they are never identical. Personality is that feature of an individual which
  we know, and which enables us to identify such a being at some future time
  regardless of the nature and extent of changes in form, mind, or spirit
  status. Personality is that part of any individual which enables us to
  recognize and positively identify that person as the one we have previously
  known, no matter how much he may have changed because of the modification of
  the vehicle of expression and manifestation of his personality.



  16:8.5 Creature personality is distinguished by two self-manifesting and
  characteristic phenomena of mortal reactive behavior: self-consciousness and
  associated relative free will.

  16:8.6 Self-consciousness consists in intellectual awareness of personality
  actuality; it includes the ability to recognize the reality of other
  personalities. It indicates capacity for individualized experience in and with
  cosmic realities, equivalating to the attainment of identity status in the
  personality relationships of the universe. Self-consciousness connotes
  recognition of the actuality of mind ministration and the realization of
  relative independence of creative and determinative free will.



  16:8.7 The relative free will which characterizes the self-consciousness of
  human personality is involved in:

1. Moral decision, highest wisdom.

2. Spiritual choice, truth discernment.

3. Unselfish love, brotherhood service.

4. Purposeful co-operation, group loyalty.

5. Cosmic insight, the grasp of universe meanings.

6. Personality dedication, wholehearted devotion to doing the Father's will.

7. Worship, the sincere pursuit of divine values and the wholehearted love of
the divine Value-Giver.

  16:8.8 The Urantia type of human personality may be viewed as functioning in a
  physical mechanism consisting of the planetary modification of the Nebadon
  type of organism belonging to the electrochemical order of life activation and
  endowed with the Nebadon order of the Orvonton series of the cosmic mind of
  parental reproductive pattern. The bestowal of the divine gift of personality
  upon such a mind-endowed mortal mechanism confers the dignity of cosmic
  citizenship and enables such a mortal creature forthwith to become reactive to
  the constitutive recognition of the three basic mind realities of the cosmos:

1. The mathematical or logical recognition of the uniformity of physical
causation.

2. The reasoned recognition of the obligation of moral conduct.

3. The faith-grasp of the fellowship worship of Deity, associated with the
loving service of humanity.

  16:8.9 The full function of such a personality endowment is the beginning
  realization of Deity kinship. Such a selfhood, indwelt by a prepersonal
  fragment of God the Father, is in truth and in fact a spiritual son of God.
  Such a creature not only discloses capacity for the reception of the gift of
  the divine presence but also exhibits reactive response to the personality-
  gravity circuit of the Paradise Father of all personalities.





9. REALITY OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS



  16:9.1 The cosmic-mind-endowed, Adjuster-indwelt, personal creature possesses
  innate recognition-realization of energy reality, mind reality, and spirit
  reality. The will creature is thus equipped to discern the fact, the law, and
  the love of God. Aside from these three inalienables of human consciousness,
  all human experience is really subjective except that intuitive realization of
  validity attaches to the unification of these three universe reality responses
  of cosmic recognition.

  16:9.2 The God-discerning mortal is able to sense the unification value of
  these three cosmic qualities in the evolution of the surviving soul, man's
  supreme undertaking in the physical tabernacle where the moral mind
  collaborates with the indwelling divine spirit to dualize the immortal soul.
  From its earliest inception the soul is real; it has cosmic survival
  qualities.

  16:9.3 If mortal man fails to survive natural death, the real spiritual values
  of his human experience survive as a part of the continuing experience of the
  Thought Adjuster. The personality values of such a nonsurvivor persist as a
  factor in the personality of the actualizing Supreme Being. Such persisting
  qualities of personality are deprived of identity but not of experiential
  values accumulated during the mortal life in the flesh. The survival of
  identity is dependent on the survival of the immortal soul of morontia status
  and increasingly divine value. Personality identity survives in and by the
  survival of the soul.



  16:9.4 Human self-consciousness implies the recognition of the reality of
  selves other than the conscious self and further implies that such awareness
  is mutual; that the self is known as it knows. This is shown in a purely human
  manner in man's social life. But you cannot become so absolutely certain of a
  fellow being's reality as you can of the reality of the presence of God that
  lives within you. The social consciousness is not inalienable like the God-
  consciousness; it is a cultural development and is dependent on knowledge,
  symbols, and the contributions of the constitutive endowments of man --
  science, morality, and religion. And these cosmic gifts, socialized,
  constitute civilization.

  16:9.5 Civilizations are unstable because they are not cosmic; they are not
  innate in the individuals of the races. They must be nurtured by the combined
  contributions of the constitutive factors of man -- science, morality, and
  religion. Civilizations come and go, but science, morality, and religion
  always survive the crash.

  16:9.6 Jesus not only revealed God to man, but he also made a new revelation
  of man to himself and to other men. In the life of Jesus you see man at his
  best. Man thus becomes so beautifully real because Jesus had so much of God in
  his life, and the realization (recognition) of God is inalienable and
  constitutive in all men.



  16:9.7 Unselfishness, aside from parental instinct, is not altogether natural;
  other persons are not naturally loved or socially served. It requires the
  enlightenment of reason, morality, and the urge of religion, God-knowingness,
  to generate an unselfish and altruistic social order. Man's own personality
  awareness, self-consciousness, is also directly dependent on this very fact of
  innate other-awareness, this innate ability to recognize and grasp the reality
  of other personality, ranging from the human to the divine.

  16:9.8 Unselfish social consciousness must be, at bottom, a religious
  consciousness; that is, if it is objective; otherwise it is a purely
  subjective philosophic abstraction and therefore devoid of love. Only a God-
  knowing individual can love another person as he loves himself.

  16:9.9 Self-consciousness is in essence a communal consciousness: God and man,
  Father and son, Creator and creature. In human self-consciousness four
  universe-reality realizations are latent and inherent:

1. The quest for knowledge, the logic of science.

2. The quest for moral values, the sense of duty.

3. The quest for spiritual values, the religious experience.

4. The quest for personality values, the ability to recognize the reality of God
as a personality and the concurrent realization of our fraternal relationship
with fellow personalities.

  16:9.10 You become conscious of man as your creature brother because you are
  already conscious of God as your Creator Father. Fatherhood is the
  relationship out of which we reason ourselves into the recognition of
  brotherhood. And Fatherhood becomes, or may become, a universe reality to all
  moral creatures because the Father has himself bestowed personality upon all
  such beings and has encircuited them within the grasp of the universal
  personality circuit. We worship God, first, because he is, then, because he is
  in us, and last, because we are in him.

  16:9.11 Is it strange that the cosmic mind should be self-consciously aware of
  its own source, the infinite mind of the Infinite Spirit, and at the same time
  conscious of the physical reality of the far-flung universes, the spiritual
  reality of the Eternal Son, and the personality reality of the Universal
  Father?



  16:9.12 Sponsored by a Universal Censor from Uversa.




PAPER 17


 THE SEVEN SUPREME SPIRIT GROUPS



  17:0.1 THE seven Supreme Spirit groups are the universal co-ordinating
  directors of the seven-segmented administration of the grand universe.
  Although all are classed among the functional family of the Infinite Spirit,
  the following three groups are usually classified as children of the Paradise
  Trinity:

1. The Seven Master Spirits.

2. The Seven Supreme Executives.

3. The Reflective Spirits.



  17:0.2 The remaining four groups are brought into being by the creative acts
  of the Infinite Spirit or by his associates of creative status:



4. The Reflective Image Aids.

5. The Seven Spirits of the Circuits.

6. The Local Universe Creative Spirits.

7. The Adjutant Mind-Spirits.

  17:0.3 These seven orders are known on Uversa as the seven Supreme Spirit
  groups. Their functional domain extends from the personal presence of the
  Seven Master Spirits on the periphery of the eternal Isle, through the seven
  Paradise satellites of the Spirit, the Havona circuits, the governments of the
  superuniverses, and the administration and supervision of the local universes,
  even to the lowly service of the adjutants bestowed upon the realms of
  evolutionary mind on the worlds of time and space.

  17:0.4 The Seven Master Spirits are the co-ordinating directors of this far-
  flung administrative realm. In some matters pertaining to the administrative
  regulation of organized physical power, mind energy, and impersonal spirit
  ministry, they act personally and directly, and in others they function
  through their multifarious associates. In all matters of an executive nature
  -- rulings, regulations, adjustments, and administrative decisions -- the
  Master Spirits act in the persons of the Seven Supreme Executives. In the
  central universe the Master Spirits may function through the Seven Spirits of
  the Havona Circuits; on the headquarters of the seven superuniverses they
  reveal themselves through the channel of the Reflective Spirits and act
  through the persons of the Ancients of Days, with whom they are in personal
  communication through the Reflective Image Aids.

  17:0.5 The Seven Master Spirits do not directly and personally contact
  universe administration below the courts of the Ancients of Days. Your local
  universe is administered as a part of our superuniverse by the Master Spirit
  of Orvonton, but his function in relation to the native beings of Nebadon is
  immediately discharged and personally directed by the Creative Mother Spirit
  resident on Salvington, the headquarters of your local universe.





1. THE SEVEN SUPREME EXECUTIVES



  17:1.1 The executive headquarters of the Master Spirits occupy the seven
  Paradise satellites of the Infinite Spirit, which swing around the central
  Isle between the shining spheres of the Eternal Son and the innermost Havona
  circuit. These executive spheres are under the direction of the Supreme
  Executives, a group of seven who were trinitized by the Father, Son, and
  Spirit in accordance with the specifications of the Seven Master Spirits for
  beings of a type that could function as their universal representatives.

  17:1.2 The Master Spirits maintain contact with the various divisions of the
  superuniverse governments through these Supreme Executives. It is they who
  very largely determine the basic constitutive trends of the seven
  superuniverses. They are uniformly and divinely perfect, but they also possess
  diversity of personality. They have no presiding head; each time they meet
  together, they choose one of their number to preside over that joint council.
  Periodically they journey to Paradise to sit in council with the Seven Master
  Spirits.



  17:1.3 The Seven Supreme Executives function as the administrative co-
  ordinators of the grand universe; they might be termed the board of managing
  directors of the post-Havona creation. They are not concerned with the
  internal affairs of Paradise, and they direct their limited spheres of Havona
  activity through the Seven Spirits of the Circuits. Otherwise there are few
  limits to the scope of their supervision; they engage in the direction of
  things physical, intellectual, and spiritual; they see all, hear all, feel
  all, even know all, that transpires in the seven superuniverses and in Havona.

  17:1.4 These Supreme Executives do not originate policies, nor do they modify
  universe procedures; they are concerned with the execution of the plans of
  divinity promulgated by the Seven Master Spirits. Neither do they interfere
  with the rule of the Ancients of Days in the superuniverses nor with the
  sovereignty of the Creator Sons in the local universes. They are the co-
  ordinating executives whose function it is to carry out the combined policies
  of all duly constituted rulers in the grand universe.

  17:1.5 Each of the executives and the facilities of his sphere are devoted to
  the efficient administration of a single superuniverse. Supreme Executive
  Number One, functioning on executive sphere number one, is wholly occupied
  with the affairs of superuniverse number one, and so on to Supreme Executive
  Number Seven, working from the seventh Paradise satellite of the Spirit and
  devoting his energies to the management of the seventh superuniverse. The name
  of this seventh sphere is Orvonton, for the Paradise satellites of the Spirit
  have the same names as their related superuniverses; in fact, the
  superuniverses were named after them.

  17:1.6 On the executive sphere of the seventh superuniverse the staff engaged
  in keeping straight the affairs of Orvonton runs into numbers beyond human
  comprehension and embraces practically every order of celestial intelligence.
  All superuniverse services of personality dispatch (except Inspired Trinity
  Spirits and Thought Adjusters) pass through one of these seven executive
  worlds on their universe journeys to and from Paradise, and here are
  maintained the central registries for all personalities created by the Third
  Source and Center who function in the superuniverses. The system of material,
  morontial, and spiritual records on one of these executive worlds of the
  Spirit amazes even a being of my order.

  17:1.7 The immediate subordinates of the Supreme Executives consist for the
  greater part of the trinitized sons of Paradise-Havona personalities and of
  the trinitized offspring of the glorified mortal graduates from the agelong
  training of the ascendant scheme of time and space. These trinitized sons are
  designated for service with the Supreme Executives by the chief of the Supreme
  Council of the Paradise Corps of the Finality.

  17:1.8 Each Supreme Executive has two advisory cabinets: The children of the
  Infinite Spirit on the headquarters of each superuniverse choose
  representatives from their ranks to serve for one millennium in the primary
  advisory cabinet of their Supreme Executive. In all matters affecting the
  ascending mortals of time, there is a secondary cabinet, consisting of mortals
  of Paradise attainment and of the trinitized sons of glorified mortals; this
  body is chosen by the perfecting and ascending beings who transiently dwell on
  the seven superuniverse headquarters. All other chiefs of affairs are
  appointed by the Supreme Executives.



  17:1.9 From time to time, great conclaves take place on these Paradise
  satellites of the Spirit. Trinitized sons assigned to these worlds, together
  with the ascenders who have attained Paradise, assemble with the spirit
  personalities of the Third Source and Center in the reunions of the struggles
  and triumphs of the ascendant career. The Supreme Executives always preside
  over such fraternal gatherings.

  17:1.10 Once in each Paradise millennium the Seven Supreme Executives vacate
  their seats of authority and go to Paradise, where they hold their millennial
  conclave of universal greeting and well-wishing to the intelligent hosts of
  creation. This eventful occasion takes place in the immediate presence of
  Majeston, the chief of all reflective spirit groups. And they are thus able to
  communicate simultaneously with all their associates in the grand universe
  through the unique functioning of universal reflectivity.





2. MAJESTON -- CHIEF OF REFLECTIVITY



  17:2.1 The Reflective Spirits are of divine Trinity origin. There are fifty of
  these unique and somewhat mysterious beings. Seven of these extraordinary
  personalities were created at a time, and each such creative episode was
  effected by a liaison of the Paradise Trinity and one of the Seven Master
  Spirits.

  17:2.2 This momentous transaction, occurring in the dawn of time, represents
  the initial effort of the Supreme Creator Personalities, represented by the
  Master Spirits, to function as cocreators with the Paradise Trinity. This
  union of the creative power of the Supreme Creators with the creative
  potentials of the Trinity is the very source of the actuality of the Supreme
  Being. Therefore, when the cycle of reflective creation had run its course,
  when each of the Seven Master Spirits had found perfect creative synchrony
  with the Paradise Trinity, when the forty-ninth Reflective Spirit had
  personalized, then a new and far-reaching reaction occurred in the Deity
  Absolute which imparted new personality prerogatives to the Supreme Being and
  culminated in the personalization of Majeston, the reflectivity chief and
  Paradise center of all the work of the forty-nine Reflective Spirits and their
  associates throughout the universe of universes.

  17:2.3 Majeston is a true person, the personal and infallible center of
  reflectivity phenomena in all seven superuniverses of time and space. He
  maintains permanent Paradise headquarters near the center of all things at the
  rendezvous of the Seven Master Spirits. He is concerned solely with the co-
  ordination and maintenance of the reflectivity service in the far-flung
  creation; he is not otherwise involved in the administration of universe
  affairs.

  17:2.4 Majeston is not included in our catalogue of Paradise personalities
  because he is the only existing personality of divinity created by the Supreme
  Being in functional liaison with the Deity Absolute. He is a person, but he is
  exclusively and apparently automatically concerned with this one phase of
  universe economy; he does not now function in any personal capacity with
  relation to other (nonreflective) orders of universe personalities.



  17:2.5 The creation of Majeston signalized the first supreme creative act of
  the Supreme Being. This will to action was volitional in the Supreme Being,
  but the stupendous reaction of the Deity Absolute was not foreknown. Not since
  the eternity-appearance of Havona had the universe witnessed such a tremendous
  factualization of such a gigantic and far-flung alignment of power and co-
  ordination of functional spirit activities. The Deity response to the creative
  wills of the Supreme Being and his associates was vastly beyond their
  purposeful intent and greatly in excess of their conceptual forecasts.

  17:2.6 We stand in awe of the possibility of what the future ages, wherein the
  Supreme and the Ultimate may attain new levels of divinity and ascend to new
  domains of personality function, may witness in the realms of the deitization
  of still other unexpected and undreamed of beings who will possess unimagined
  powers of enhanced universe co-ordination. There would seem to be no limit to
  the Deity Absolute's potential of response to such unification of
  relationships between experiential Deity and the existential Paradise Trinity.





3. THE REFLECTIVE SPIRITS



  17:3.1 The forty-nine Reflective Spirits are of Trinity origin, but each of
  the seven creative episodes attendant upon their appearance was productive of
  a type of being in nature resembling the characteristics of the coancestral
  Master Spirit. Thus they variously reflect the natures and characters of the
  seven possible combinations of the association of the divinity characteristics
  of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. For this
  reason it is necessary to have seven of these Reflective Spirits on the
  headquarters of each superuniverse. One of each of the seven types is required
  in order to achieve the perfect reflection of all phases of every possible
  manifestation of the three Paradise Deities as such phenomena might occur in
  any part of the seven superuniverses. One of each type was accordingly
  assigned to service in each of the superuniverses. These groups of seven
  dissimilar Reflective Spirits maintain headquarters on the capitals of the
  superuniverses at the reflective focus of each realm, and this is not
  identical with the point of spiritual polarity.

  17:3.2 The Reflective Spirits have names, but these designations are not
  revealed on the worlds of space. They pertain to the nature and character of
  these beings and are a part of one of the seven universal mysteries of the
  secret spheres of Paradise.

  17:3.3 The attribute of reflectivity, the phenomenon of the mind levels of the
  Conjoint Actor, the Supreme Being, and the Master Spirits, is transmissible to
  all beings concerned in the working of this vast scheme of universal
  intelligence. And herein is a great mystery: Neither the Master Spirits nor
  the Paradise Deities, singly or collectively, disclose these powers of co-
  ordinate universal reflectivity just as they are manifested in these forty-
  nine liaison personalities of Majeston, and yet they are the creators of all
  these marvelously endowed beings. Divine heredity does sometimes disclose in
  the creature certain attributes which are not discernible in the Creator.

  17:3.4 The personnel of the reflectivity service, with the exception of
  Majeston and the Reflective Spirits, are all the creatures of the Infinite
  Spirit and his immediate associates and subordinates. The Reflective Spirits
  of each superuniverse are the creators of their Reflective Image Aids, their
  personal voices to the courts of the Ancients of Days.



  17:3.5 The Reflective Spirits are not merely transmitting agents; they are
  retentive personalities as well. Their offspring, the seconaphim, are also
  retentive or record personalities. Everything of true spiritual value is
  registered in duplicate, and one impression is preserved in the personal
  equipment of some member of one of the numerous orders of secoraphic
  personalities belonging to the vast staff of the Reflective Spirits.

  17:3.6 The formal records of the universes are passed up by and through the
  angelic recorders, but the true spiritual records are assembled by
  reflectivity and are preserved in the minds of suitable and appropriate
  personalities belonging to the family of the Infinite Spirit. These are the
  live records in contrast with the formal and dead records of the universe, and
  they are perfectly preserved in the living minds of the recording
  personalities of the Infinite Spirit.

  17:3.7 The reflectivity organization is also the news-gathering and the
  decree-disseminating mechanism of all creation. It is in constant operation in
  contrast with the periodic functioning of the various broadcast services.

  17:3.8 Everything of import transpiring on a local universe headquarters is
  inherently reflected to the capital of its superuniverse. And conversely,
  everything of local universe significance is reflected outward to the local
  universe capitals from the headquarters of their superuniverse. The
  reflectivity service from the universes of time up to the superuniverses is
  apparently automatic or self-operating, but it is not. It is all very personal
  and intelligent; its precision results from perfection of personality co-
  operation and therefore can hardly be attributed to the impersonal presence-
  performances of the Absolutes.

  17:3.9 While Thought Adjusters do not participate in the operation of the
  universal reflectivity system, we have every reason to believe that all Father
  fragments are fully cognizant of these transactions and are able to avail
  themselves of their content.



  17:3.10 During the present universe age the space range of the extra-Paradise
  reflectivity service seems to be limited by the periphery of the seven
  superuniverses. Otherwise, the function of this service seems to be
  independent of time and space. It appears to be independent of all known
  subabsolute universe circuits.

  17:3.11 On the headquarters of each superuniverse the reflective organization
  acts as a segregated unit; but on certain special occasions, under the
  direction of Majeston, all seven may and do act in universal unison, as in the
  event of the jubilee occasioned by the settling of an entire local universe in
  light and life and at the times of the millennial greetings of the Seven
  Supreme Executives.





4. THE REFLECTIVE IMAGE AIDS



  17:4.1 The forty-nine Reflective Image Aids were created by the Reflective
  Spirits, and there are just seven Aids on the headquarters of each
  superuniverse. The first creative act of the seven Reflective Spirits of
  Uversa was the production of their seven Image Aids, each Reflective Spirit
  creating his own Aid. The Image Aids are, in certain attributes and
  characteristics, perfect reproductions of their Reflective Mother Spirits;
  they are virtual duplications minus the attribute of reflectivity. They are
  true images and constantly function as the channel of communication between
  the Reflective Spirits and the superuniverse authorities. The Image Aids are
  not merely assistants; they are actual representations of their respective
  Spirit ancestors; they are images, and they are true to their name.

  17:4.2 The Reflective Spirits themselves are true personalities but of such an
  order as to be incomprehensible to material beings. Even on a superuniverse
  headquarters sphere they require the assistance of their Image Aids in all
  personal intercourse with the Ancients of Days and their associates. In
  contacts between the Image Aids and the Ancients of Days, sometimes one Aid
  functions acceptably, while on other occasions two, three, four, or even all
  seven are required for the full and proper presentation of the communication
  intrusted to their transmission. Likewise, the messages of the Image Aids are
  variously received by one, two, or all three Ancients of Days, as the content
  of the communication may require.

  17:4.3 The Image Aids serve forever by the sides of their ancestral Spirits,
  and they have at their disposal an unbelievable host of helper seconaphim. The
  Image Aids do not directly function in connection with the training worlds of
  ascending mortals. They are closely associated with the intelligence service
  of the universal scheme of mortal progression, but you will not personally
  come in contact with them when you sojourn in the Uversa schools because these
  seemingly personal beings are devoid of will; they do not exercise the power
  of choice. They are true images, wholly reflective of the personality and mind
  of the individual Spirit ancestor. As a class, ascending mortals do not
  intimately contact with reflectivity. Always some being of the reflective
  nature will be interposed between you and the actual operation of the service.





5. THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF THE CIRCUITS



  17:5.1 The Seven Spirits of the Havona Circuits are the joint impersonal
  representation of the Infinite Spirit and the Seven Master Spirits to the
  seven circuits of the central universe. They are the servants of the Master
  Spirits, whose collective offspring they are. The Master Spirits provide a
  distinct and diversified administrative individuality in the seven
  superuniverses. Through these uniform Spirits of the Havona Circuits they are
  enabled to provide a unified, uniform, and co-ordinated spiritual supervision
  for the central universe.

  17:5.2 The Seven Spirits of the Circuits are each limited to the permeation of
  a single Havona circuit. They are not directly concerned with the regimes of
  the Eternals of Days, the rulers of the individual Havona worlds. But they are
  in liaison with the Seven Supreme Executives, and they synchronize with the
  central universe presence of the Supreme Being. Their work is wholly confined
  to Havona.

  17:5.3 These Spirits of the Circuits make contact with those who sojourn in
  Havona through their personal offspring, the tertiary supernaphim. While the
  Circuit Spirits are coexistent with the Seven Master Spirits, their function
  in the creation of tertiary supernaphim did not attain major importance until
  the first pilgrims of time arrived on the outer circuit of Havona in the days
  of Grandfanda.

  17:5.4 As you advance from circuit to circuit in Havona, you will learn of the
  Spirits of the Circuits, but you will not be able to hold personal communion
  with them, even though you may personally enjoy, and recognize the impersonal
  presence of, their spiritual influence.

  17:5.5 The Circuit Spirits are related to the native inhabitants of Havona
  much as the Thought Adjusters are related to the mortal creatures inhabiting
  the worlds of the evolutionary universes. Like the Thought Adjusters, the
  Circuit Spirits are impersonal, and they consort with the perfect minds of
  Havona beings much as the impersonal spirits of the Universal Father indwell
  the finite minds of mortal men. But the Spirits of the Circuits never become a
  permanent part of Havona personalities.





6. THE LOCAL UNIVERSE CREATIVE SPIRITS



  17:6.1 Much that pertains to the nature and function of the local universe
  Creative Spirits properly belongs to the narrative of their association with
  the Creator Sons in the organization and management of the local creations;
  but there are many features of the prelocal universe experiences of these
  marvelous beings which may be narrated as a part of this discussion of the
  seven Supreme Spirit groups.



  17:6.2 We are conversant with six phases of the career of a local universe
  Mother Spirit, and we speculate much concerning the probability of a seventh
  stage of activity. These different stages of existence are:



  17:6.3 1. Initial Paradise Differentiation. When a Creator Son is personalized
  by the joint action of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son,
  simultaneously there occurs in the person of the Infinite Spirit what is known
  as the "supreme reaction of complement." We do not comprehend the nature of
  this reaction, but we understand that it designates an inherent modification
  of those personalizable possibilities which are embraced within the creative
  potential of the Conjoint Creator. The birth of a co-ordinate Creator Son
  signalizes the birth within the person of the Infinite Spirit of the potential
  of the future local universe consort of this Paradise Son. We are not
  cognizant of this new prepersonal identification of entity, but we know that
  this fact finds place on the Paradise records of the career of such a Creator
  Son.



  17:6.4 2. Preliminary Creatorship Training. During the long period of the
  preliminary training of a Michael Son in the organization and administration
  of universes, his future consort undergoes further development of entity and
  becomes group conscious of destiny. We do not know, but we suspect that such a
  group-conscious entity becomes space cognizant and begins that preliminary
  training requisite to the acquirement of spirit skill in her future work of
  collaboration with the complemental Michael in universe creation and
  administration.



  17:6.5 3. The Stage of Physical Creation. At the time the creatorship charge
  is administered to a Michael Son by the Eternal Son, the Master Spirit who
  directs the superuniverse to which this new Creator Son is destined gives
  expression to the "prayer of identification" in the presence of the Infinite
  Spirit; and for the first time, the entity of the subsequent Creative Spirit
  appears as differentiated from the person of the Infinite Spirit. And
  proceeding directly to the person of the petitioning Master Spirit, this
  entity is immediately lost to our recognition, becoming apparently a part of
  the person of this Master Spirit. The newly identified Creative Spirit remains
  with the Master Spirit until the moment of the departure of the Creator Son
  for the adventure of space; whereupon the Master Spirit commits the new Spirit
  consort to the keeping of the Creator Son, at the same time administering to
  the Spirit consort the charge of eternal fidelity and unending loyalty. And
  then occurs one of the most profoundly touching episodes which ever take place
  on Paradise. The Universal Father speaks in acknowledgment of the eternal
  union of the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit and in confirmation of the
  bestowal of certain joint powers of administration by the Master Spirit of
  superuniverse jurisdiction.

  17:6.6 The Father-united Creator Son and Creative Spirit then go forth on
  their adventure of universe creation. And they work together in this form of
  association throughout the long and arduous period of the material
  organization of their universe.



  17:6.7 4. The Life-Creation Era. Upon the declaration of intention to create
  life by the Creator Son, there ensue on Paradise the "personalization
  ceremonies," participated in by the Seven Master Spirits and personally
  experienced by the supervising Master Spirit. This is a Paradise Deity
  contribution to the individuality of the Spirit consort of the Creator Son and
  becomes manifest to the universe in the phenomenon of "the primary eruption"
  in the person of the Infinite Spirit. Simultaneously with this phenomenon on
  Paradise, the heretofore impersonal Spirit consort of the Creator Son becomes,
  to all practical intents and purposes, a bona fide person. Henceforth and
  forevermore, this same local universe Mother Spirit will be regarded as a
  person and will maintain personal relations with all the personality hosts of
  the ensuing life creation.



  17:6.8 5. The Postbestowal Ages. Another and great change occurs in the never-
  ending career of a Creative Spirit when the Creator Son returns to universe
  headquarters after the completion of his seventh bestowal and subsequent to
  his acquirement of full universe sovereignty. On that occasion, before the
  assembled administrators of the universe, the triumphant Creator Son elevates
  the Universe Mother Spirit to cosovereignty and acknowledges the Spirit
  consort as his equal.



  17:6.9 6. The Ages of Light and Life. Upon the establishment of the era of
  light and life the local universe cosovereign enters upon the sixth phase of a
  Creative Spirit's career. But we may not portray the nature of this great
  experience. Such things pertain to a future stage of evolution in Nebadon.



  17:6.10 7. The Unrevealed Career. We know of these six phases of the career of
  a local universe Mother Spirit. It is inevitable that we should ask: Is there
  a seventh career? We are mindful that, when finaliters attain what appears to
  be their final destiny of mortal ascension, they are of record as entering
  upon the career of sixth-stage spirits. We conjecture that there awaits the
  finaliters still another and unrevealed career in universe assignment. It is
  only to be expected that we would likewise regard the Universe Mother Spirits
  as having ahead of them some undisclosed career which will constitute their
  seventh phase of personal experience in universe service and loyal co-
  operation with the order of the Creator Michaels.





7. THE ADJUTANT MIND-SPIRITS



  17:7.1 These adjutant spirits are the sevenfold mind bestowal of a local
  universe Mother Spirit upon the living creatures of the conjoint creation of a
  Creator Son and such a Creative Spirit. This bestowal becomes possible at the
  time of the Spirit's elevation to the status of personality prerogatives. The
  narration of the nature and functioning of the seven adjutant mind-spirits
  belongs more appropriately to the story of your local universe of Nebadon.





8. FUNCTIONS OF THE SUPREME SPIRITS



  17:8.1 The seven groups of Supreme Spirits constitute the nucleus of the
  functional family of the Third Source and Center both as the Infinite Spirit
  and as the Conjoint Actor. The domain of the Supreme Spirits extends from the
  presence of the Trinity on Paradise to the functioning of mind of the
  evolutionary-mortal order on the planets of space. Thus do they unify the
  descending administrative levels and co-ordinate the manifold functions of the
  personnel thereof. Whether it is a Reflective Spirit group in liaison with the
  Ancients of Days, a Creative Spirit acting in concert with a Michael Son, or
  the Seven Master Spirits encircuited around the Paradise Trinity, the activity
  of the Supreme Spirits is encountered everywhere in the central, super-, and
  local universes. They function alike with the Trinity personalities of the
  order of "Days" and with the Paradise personalities of the order of "Sons."



  17:8.2 Together with their Infinite Mother Spirit, the Supreme Spirit groups
  are the immediate creators of the vast creature family of the Third Source and
  Center. All orders of the ministering spirits spring from this association.
  Primary supernaphim originate in the Infinite Spirit; secondary beings of this
  order are created by the Master Spirits; tertiary supernaphim by the Seven
  Spirits of the Circuits. The Reflective Spirits, collectively, are the mother-
  makers of a marvelous order of the angelic hosts, the mighty seconaphim of the
  superuniverse services. A Creative Spirit is the mother of the angelic orders
  of a local creation; such seraphic ministers are original in each local
  universe, though they are fashioned after the patterns of the central
  universe. All these creators of ministering spirits are only indirectly
  assisted by the central lodgment of the Infinite Spirit, the original and
  eternal mother of all the angelic ministers.



  17:8.3 The seven Supreme Spirit groups are the co-ordinators of the inhabited
  creation. The association of their directing heads, the Seven Master Spirits,
  appears to co-ordinate the far-flung activities of God the Sevenfold:



  17:8.4 1. Collectively the Master Spirits near-equivalate to the divinity
  level of the Trinity of Paradise Deities.



  17:8.5 2. Individually they exhaust the primary associable possibilities of
  triune Deity.



  17:8.6 3. As diversified representatives of the Conjoint Actor they are the
  repositories of that spirit-mind-power sovereignty of the Supreme Being which
  he does not yet personally exercise.



  17:8.7 4. Through the Reflective Spirits they synchronize the superuniverse
  governments of the Ancients of Days with Majeston, the Paradise center of
  universal reflectivity.



  17:8.8 5. In their participation in the individualization of the local
  universe Divine Ministers, the Master Spirits contribute to the last level of
  God the Sevenfold, the Creator Son-Creative Spirit union of the local
  universes.



  17:8.9 Functional unity, inherent in the Conjoint Actor, is disclosed to the
  evolving universes in the Seven Master Spirits, his primary personalities. But
  in the perfected superuniverses of the future this unity will undoubtedly be
  inseparable from the experiential sovereignty of the Supreme.



  17:8.10 Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.




PAPER 18


 THE SUPREME TRINITY PERSONALITIES



  18:0.1 SUPREME Trinity Personalities are all created for specific service.
  They are designed by the divine Trinity for the fulfillment of certain
  specific duties, and they are qualified to serve with perfection of technique
  and finality of devotion. There are seven orders of the Supreme Trinity
  Personalities:

1. Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy.

2. Eternals of Days.

3. Ancients of Days.

4. Perfections of Days.

5. Recents of Days.

6. Unions of Days.

7. Faithfuls of Days.

  18:0.2 These beings of administrative perfection are of definite and final
  numbers. Their creation is a past event; no more are being personalized.

  18:0.3 Throughout the grand universe these Supreme Trinity Personalities
  represent the administrative policies of the Paradise Trinity; they represent
  the justice and are the executive judgment of the Paradise Trinity. They form
  an interrelated line of administrative perfection extending from the Paradise
  spheres of the Father to the headquarters worlds of the local universes and to
  the capitals of their component constellations.

  18:0.4 All Trinity-origin beings are created in Paradise perfection in all
  their divine attributes. Only in the realms of experience has the passing of
  time added to their equipment for cosmic service. There is never any danger of
  default or risk of rebellion with Trinity-origin beings. They are of divinity
  essence, and they have never been known to depart from the divine and perfect
  path of personality conduct.





1. THE TRINITIZED SECRETS OF SUPREMACY



  18:1.1 There are seven worlds in the innermost circuit of the Paradise
  satellites, and each of these exalted worlds is presided over by a corps of
  ten Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy. They are not creators, but they are
  supreme and ultimate administrators. The conduct of the affairs of these seven
  fraternal spheres is wholly committed to this corps of seventy supreme
  directors. Though the offspring of the Trinity supervise these seven sacred
  spheres nearest Paradise, this group of worlds is universally known as the
  personal circuit of the Universal Father.

  18:1.2 The Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy function in groups of ten as co-
  ordinate and joint directors of their respective spheres, but they also
  function individually in particular fields of responsibility. The work of each
  of these special worlds is divided into seven major departments, and one of
  these co-ordinate rulers presides over each such division of specialized
  activities. The remaining three act as the personal representatives of triune
  Deity in relation to the other seven, one representing the Father, one the
  Son, and one the Spirit.

  18:1.3 Although there is a definite class resemblance which typifies the
  Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy, they also disclose seven distinct group
  characteristics. The ten supreme directors of Divinington affairs are
  reflective of the personal character and nature of the Universal Father; and
  so it is with each of these seven spheres: Each group of ten resembles that
  Deity or Deity association which is characteristic of their domain. The ten
  directors who rule Ascendington are reflective of the combined nature of the
  Father, Son, and Spirit.



  18:1.4 I can reveal very little about the work of these high personalities on
  the seven sacred worlds of the Father, for they are truly the Secrets of
  Supremacy. There are no arbitrary secrets associated with the approach to the
  Universal Father, the Eternal Son, or the Infinite Spirit. The Deities are an
  open book to all who attain divine perfection, but all the Secrets of
  Supremacy can never be fully attained. Always will we be unable fully to
  penetrate the realms containing the personality secrets of Deity association
  with the sevenfold grouping of created beings.

  18:1.5 Since the work of these supreme directors has to do with the intimate
  and personal contact of the Deities with these seven basic groupings of
  universe beings when domiciled on these seven special worlds or while
  functioning throughout the grand universe, it is fitting that these very
  personal relations and extraordinary contacts should be held sacredly secret.
  The Paradise Creators respect the privacy and sanctity of personality even in
  their lowly creatures. And this is true both of individuals and of the various
  separate orders of personalities.

  18:1.6 To beings of even high universe attainment these secret worlds ever
  remain a test of loyalty. It is given us fully and personally to know the
  eternal Gods, freely to know their characters of divinity and perfection, but
  it is not granted us fully to penetrate all of the personal relations of the
  Paradise Rulers with all of their creature beings.





2. THE ETERNALS OF DAYS



  18:2.1 Each of the billion worlds of Havona is directed by a Supreme Trinity
  Personality. These rulers are known as the Eternals of Days, and they number
  exactly one billion, one for each of the Havona spheres. They are the
  offspring of the Paradise Trinity, but like the Secrets of Supremacy there are
  no records of their origin. Forever have these two groups of all-wise fathers
  ruled their exquisite worlds of the Paradise-Havona system, and they function
  without rotation or reassignment.

  18:2.2 The Eternals of Days are visible to all will creatures dwelling in
  their domains. They preside over the regular planetary conclaves.
  Periodically, and by rotation, they visit the headquarters spheres of the
  seven superuniverses. They are close of kin to, and are the divine equals of,
  the Ancients of Days, who preside over the destinies of the seven
  supergovernments. When an Eternal of Days is absent from his sphere, his world
  is directed by a Trinity Teacher Son.

  18:2.3 Except for the established orders of life, such as the Havona natives
  and other living creatures of the central universe, the resident Eternals of
  Days have developed their respective spheres entirely in accordance with their
  own personal ideas and ideals. They visit each other's planets, but they do
  not copy or imitate; they are always and wholly original.

  18:2.4 The architecture, natural embellishment, morontia structures, and
  spirit creations are exclusive and unique on each sphere. Every world is a
  place of everlasting beauty and is wholly unlike any other world in the
  central universe. And you will each spend a longer or shorter time on each of
  these unique and thrilling spheres on your way inward through Havona to
  Paradise. It is natural, on your world, to speak of Paradise as upward, but it
  would be more correct to refer to the divine goal of ascension as inward.





3. THE ANCIENTS OF DAYS



  18:3.1 When mortals of time graduate from the training worlds surrounding the
  headquarters of a local universe and are advanced to the educational spheres
  of their superuniverse, they have progressed in spiritual development to that
  point where they are able to recognize and communicate with the high spiritual
  rulers and directors of these advanced realms, including the Ancients of Days.

  18:3.2 The Ancients of Days are all basically identical; they disclose the
  combined character and unified nature of the Trinity. They possess
  individuality and are in personality diverse, but they do not differ from each
  other as do the Seven Master Spirits. They provide the uniform directorship of
  the otherwise differing seven superuniverses, each of which is a distinct,
  segregated, and unique creation. The Seven Master Spirits are unlike in nature
  and attributes, but the Ancients of Days, the personal rulers of the
  superuniverses, are all uniform and superperfect offspring of the Paradise
  Trinity.

  18:3.3 The Seven Master Spirits on high determine the nature of their
  respective superuniverses, but the Ancients of Days dictate the administration
  of these same superuniverses. They superimpose administrative uniformity on
  creative diversity and insure the harmony of the whole in the face of the
  underlying creational differences of the seven segmental groupings of the
  grand universe.



  18:3.4 The Ancients of Days were all trinitized at the same time. They
  represent the beginning of the personality records of the universe of
  universes, hence their name -- Ancients of Days. When you reach Paradise and
  search the written records of the beginning of things, you will find that the
  first entry appearing in the personality section is the recital of the
  trinitization of these twenty-one Ancients of Days.



  18:3.5 These high beings always govern in groups of three. There are many
  phases of activity in which they work as individuals, still others in which
  any two can function, but in the higher spheres of their administration they
  must act jointly. They never personally leave their residential worlds, but
  then they do not have to, for these worlds are the superuniverse focal points
  of the far-flung reflectivity system.

  18:3.6 The personal abodes of each trio of the Ancients of Days are located at
  the point of spiritual polarity on their headquarters sphere. Such a sphere is
  divided into seventy administrative sectors and has seventy divisional
  capitals in which the Ancients of Days reside from time to time.

  18:3.7 In power, scope of authority, and extent of jurisdiction the Ancients
  of Days are the most powerful and mighty of any of the direct rulers of the
  time-space creations. In all the vast universe of universes they alone are
  invested with the high powers of final executive judgment concerning the
  eternal extinction of will creatures. And all three Ancients of Days must
  participate in the final decrees of the supreme tribunal of a superuniverse.



  18:3.8 Aside from the Deities and their Paradise associates, the Ancients of
  Days are the most perfect, most versatile, and the most divinely endowed
  rulers in all time-space existence. Apparently they are the supreme rulers of
  the superuniverses; but they have not experientially earned this right to rule
  and are therefore destined sometime to be superseded by the Supreme Being, an
  experiential sovereign, whose vicegerents they will undoubtedly become.

  18:3.9 The Supreme Being is achieving the sovereignty of the seven
  superuniverses by experiential service just as a Creator Son experientially
  earns the sovereignty of his local universe. But during the present age of the
  unfinished evolution of the Supreme, the Ancients of Days provide the co-
  ordinated and perfect administrative overcontrol of the evolving universes of
  time and space. And the wisdom of originality and the initiative of
  individuality characterize all the decrees and rulings of the Ancients of
  Days.





4. THE PERFECTIONS OF DAYS



  18:4.1 There are just two hundred and ten Perfections of Days, and they
  preside over the governments of the ten major sectors of each superuniverse.
  They were trinitized for the special work of assisting the superuniverse
  directors, and they rule as the immediate and personal vicegerents of the
  Ancients of Days.

  18:4.2 Three Perfections of Days are assigned to each major sector capital,
  but unlike the Ancients of Days, it is not necessary that all three be present
  at all times. From time to time one of this trio may absent himself to confer
  in person with the Ancients of Days concerning the welfare of his realm.



  18:4.3 These triune rulers of the major sectors are peculiarly perfect in the
  mastery of administrative details, hence their name -- Perfections of Days. In
  recording the names of these beings of the spiritual world, we are confronted
  with the problem of translating into your tongue, and very often it is
  exceedingly difficult to render a satisfactory translation. We dislike to use
  arbitrary designations which would be meaningless to you; hence we often find
  it difficult to choose a suitable name, one which will be clear to you and at
  the same time be somewhat representative of the original.



  18:4.4 The Perfections of Days have a moderate-sized corps of Divine
  Counselors, Perfectors of Wisdom, and Universal Censors attached to their
  governments. They have still larger numbers of Mighty Messengers, Those High
  in Authority, and Those without Name and Number. But much of the routine work
  of major sector affairs is carried on by the Celestial Guardians and the High
  Son Assistants. These two groups are drawn from among the trinitized offspring
  of either Paradise-Havona personalities or glorified mortal finaliters.
  Certain of these two orders of creature-trinitized beings are retrinitized by
  the Paradise Deities and then are dispatched to assist in the administration
  of the superuniverse governments.

  18:4.5 Most of the Celestial Guardians and the High Son Assistants are
  assigned to the service of the major and the minor sectors, but the Trinitized
  Custodians (Trinity-embraced seraphim and midwayers) are the officers of the
  courts of all three divisions, functioning in the tribunals of the Ancients of
  Days, the Perfections of Days, and the Recents of Days. The Trinitized
  Ambassadors (Trinity-embraced ascendant mortals of Son- or Spirit-fused
  nature) may be encountered anywhere in a superuniverse, but the majority are
  in the service of the minor sectors.

  18:4.6 Before the times of the full unfolding of the governmental scheme of
  the seven superuniverses, practically all administrators of the various
  divisions of these governments, excepting the Ancients of Days, served
  apprenticeships of varying duration under the Eternals of Days on the various
  worlds of the perfect Havona universe. The later trinitized beings likewise
  passed through a season of training under the Eternals of Days before they
  were attached to the service of the Ancients of Days, the Perfections of Days,
  and the Recents of Days. They are all seasoned, tried, and experienced
  administrators.



  18:4.7 You will early see the Perfections of Days when you advance to the
  headquarters of Splandon after your sojourn on the worlds of your minor
  sector, for these exalted rulers are closely associated with the seventy major
  sector worlds of higher training for the ascendant creatures of time. The
  Perfections of Days, in person, administer the group pledges to the ascending
  graduates of the major sector schools.

  18:4.8 The work of the pilgrims of time on the worlds surrounding a major
  sector headquarters is chiefly of an intellectual nature in contrast with the
  more physical and material character of the training on the seven educational
  spheres of a minor sector and with the spiritual undertakings on the four
  hundred ninety university worlds of a superuniverse headquarters.

  18:4.9 Although you are entered only upon the registry of the major sector of
  Splandon, which embraces the local universe of your origin, you will have to
  pass through every one of the ten major divisions of our superuniverse. You
  will see all thirty of the Orvonton Perfections of Days before you reach
  Uversa.





5. THE RECENTS OF DAYS



  18:5.1 The Recents of Days are the youngest of the supreme directors of the
  superuniverses; in groups of three they preside over the affairs of the minor
  sectors. In nature they are co-ordinate with the Perfections of Days, but in
  administrative authority they are subordinate. There are just twenty-one
  thousand of these personally glorious and divinely efficient Trinity
  personalities. They were created simultaneously, and together they passed
  through their Havona training under the Eternals of Days.

  18:5.2 The Recents of Days have a corps of associates and assistants similar
  to that of the Perfections of Days. In addition they have assigned to them
  enormous numbers of the various subordinate orders of celestial beings. In the
  administration of the minor sectors they utilize large numbers of the resident
  ascending mortals, the personnel of the various courtesy colonies, and the
  various groups originating in the Infinite Spirit.

  18:5.3 The governments of the minor sectors are very largely, though not
  exclusively, concerned with the great physical problems of the superuniverses.
  The minor sector spheres are the headquarters of the Master Physical
  Controllers. On these worlds ascending mortals carry on studies and
  experiments having to do with an examination of the activities of the third
  order of the Supreme Power Centers and of all seven orders of the Master
  Physical Controllers.

  18:5.4 Since the regime of a minor sector is so extensively concerned with
  physical problems, its three Recents of Days are seldom together on the
  capital sphere. Most of the time one is away in conference with the
  Perfections of Days of the supervising major sector or absent while
  representing the Ancients of Days at the Paradise conclaves of the high
  Trinity-origin beings. They alternate with the Perfections of Days in
  representing the Ancients of Days at the supreme councils on Paradise.
  Meanwhile, another Recent of Days may be away on a tour of inspection of the
  headquarters worlds of the local universes belonging to his jurisdiction. But
  at least one of these rulers always remains on duty at the headquarters of a
  minor sector.

  18:5.5 You will all sometime know the three Recents of Days in charge of Ensa,
  your minor sector, since you must pass through their hands on your way inward
  to the training worlds of the major sectors. In ascending to Uversa, you will
  pass through only one group of minor sector training spheres.





6. THE UNIONS OF DAYS



  18:6.1 The Trinity personalities of the order of "Days" do not function in an
  administrative capacity below the level of the superuniverse governments. In
  the evolving local universes they act only as counselors and advisers. The
  Unions of Days are a group of liaison personalities accredited by the Paradise
  Trinity to the dual rulers of the local universes. Each organized and
  inhabited local universe has assigned to it one of these Paradise counselors,
  who acts as the representative of the Trinity, and in some respects, of the
  Universal Father, to the local creation.

  18:6.2 There are seven hundred thousand of these beings in existence, though
  they have not all been commissioned. The reserve corps of the Unions of Days
  functions on Paradise as the Supreme Council of Universe Adjustments.

  18:6.3 In a special manner these Trinity observers co-ordinate the
  administrative activities of all branches of the universal government, from
  those of the local universes up through the sector governments to those of the
  superuniverse, hence their name -- Unions of Days. They make a threefold
  report to their superiors: They report pertinent data of a physical and semi-
  intellectual nature to the Recents of Days of their minor sector; they report
  intellectual and quasi-spiritual happenings to the Perfections of Days of
  their major sector; they report spiritual and semiparadisiacal matters to the
  Ancients of Days at the capital of their superuniverse.

  18:6.4 Since they are Trinity-origin beings, all of the Paradise circuits are
  available to them for intercommunication, and thus are they always in touch
  with each other and with all other required personalities up to the supreme
  councils of Paradise.



  18:6.5 A Union of Days is not organically connected with the government of the
  local universe of his assignment. Aside from his duties as an observer, he
  acts only at the request of the local authorities. He is an ex officio member
  of all primary councils and all important conclaves of the local creation, but
  he does not participate in the technical consideration of administrative
  problems.

  18:6.6 When a local universe is settled in light and life, its glorified
  beings associate freely with the Union of Days, who then functions in an
  enlarged capacity in such a realm of evolutionary perfection. But he is still
  primarily a Trinity ambassador and Paradise counselor.

  18:6.7 A local universe is directly ruled by a divine Son of dual Deity
  origin, but he has constantly by his side a Paradise brother, a Trinity-origin
  personality. In the event of the temporary absence of a Creator Son from the
  headquarters of his local universe, the acting rulers are largely guided in
  their major decisions by the counsel of their Union of Days.





7. THE FAITHFULS OF DAYS



  18:7.1 These high Trinity-origin personalities are the Paradise advisers to
  the rulers of the one hundred constellations in each local universe. There are
  seventy million Faithfuls of Days, and like the Unions of Days, not all are in
  service. Their Paradise reserve corps is the Advisory Commission of
  Interuniverse Ethics and Self-government. Faithfuls of Days rotate in service
  in accordance with the rulings of the supreme council of their reserve corps.

  18:7.2 All that a Union of Days is to a Creator Son of a local universe, the
  Faithfuls of Days are to the Vorondadek Sons who rule the constellations of
  that local creation. They are supremely devoted and divinely faithful to the
  welfare of their constellations of assignment, hence the name -- Faithfuls of
  Days. They act only as counselors; never do they participate in administrative
  activities except upon the invitation of the constellation authorities.
  Neither are they directly concerned in the educational ministry to the
  pilgrims of ascension on the architectural training spheres surrounding a
  constellation headquarters. All such undertakings are under the supervision of
  the Vorondadek Sons.

  18:7.3 All Faithfuls of Days functioning in the constellations of a local
  universe are under the jurisdiction of, and report directly to, the Union of
  Days. They do not have a far-flung system of intercommunication, being
  ordinarily self-limited to an interassociation within the limits of a local
  universe. Any Faithful of Days on duty in Nebadon can and does communicate
  with all others of his order on duty in this local universe.

  18:7.4 Like the Union of Days on a universe headquarters, the Faithfuls of
  Days maintain their personal residences on the constellation capitals separate
  from those of the administrative directors of such realms. Their abodes are
  indeed modest in comparison with the homes of the Vorondadek rulers of the
  constellations.

  18:7.5 The Faithfuls of Days are the last link in the long administrative-
  advisory chain which reaches from the sacred spheres of the Universal Father
  near the center of all things to the primary divisions of the local universes.
  The Trinity-origin regime stops with the constellations; no such Paradise
  advisers are permanently situated on their component systems or on the
  inhabited worlds. These latter administrative units are wholly under the
  jurisdiction of beings native to the local universes.



  18:7.6 Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.




PAPER 19


 THE CO-ORDINATE TRINITY-ORIGIN BEINGS



  19:0.1 THIS Paradise group, designated the Co-ordinate Trinity-origin Beings,
  embraces the Trinity Teacher Sons, also classed among the Paradise Sons of
  God, three groups of high superuniverse administrators, and the somewhat
  impersonal category of the Inspired Trinity Spirits. Even the Havona natives
  may properly be included in this classification of Trinity personalities along
  with numerous groups of beings resident on Paradise. Those Trinity-origin
  beings to be considered in this discussion are:

1. Trinity Teacher Sons.

2. Perfectors of Wisdom.

3. Divine Counselors.

4. Universal Censors.

5. Inspired Trinity Spirits.

6. Havona Natives.

7. Paradise Citizens.

  19:0.2 Excepting the Trinity Teacher Sons and possibly the Inspired Trinity
  Spirits, these groups are of definite numbers; their creation is a finished
  and past event.





1. THE TRINITY TEACHER SONS



  19:1.1 Of all the high orders of celestial personalities revealed to you, the
  Trinity Teacher Sons alone act in a dual capacity. By origin of Trinity
  nature, in function they are almost wholly devoted to the services of divine
  sonship. They are the liaison beings who bridge the universe gulf between
  Trinity- and dual-origin personalities.

  19:1.2 While the Stationary Sons of the Trinity are of completed numbers, the
  Teacher Sons are constantly increasing. What the final number of Teacher Sons
  will be I do not know. I can, however, state that, at the last periodic report
  to Uversa, the Paradise records indicated 21,001,624,821 of these Sons in
  service.

  19:1.3 These beings are the only group of the Sons of God revealed to you
  whose origin is in the Paradise Trinity. They range the central and
  superuniverses, and an enormous corps is assigned to each local universe. They
  also serve the individual planets as do the other Paradise Sons of God. Since
  the scheme of the grand universe is not fully developed, large numbers of
  Teacher Sons are held in the reserves on Paradise, and they volunteer for
  emergency duty and unusual service in all divisions of the grand universe, on
  the lone worlds of space, in the local and superuniverses, and on the worlds
  of Havona. They also function on Paradise, but it will be more helpful to
  postpone their detailed consideration until we come to the discussion of the
  Paradise Sons of God.

  19:1.4 In this connection, however, it may be noted that Teacher Sons are the
  supreme co-ordinating personalities of Trinity origin. In such a far-flung
  universe of universes there is always great danger of succumbing to the error
  of the circumscribed viewpoint, to the evil inherent in a segmentalized
  conception of reality and divinity.

  19:1.5 For example: The human mind would ordinarily crave to approach the
  cosmic philosophy portrayed in these revelations by proceeding from the simple
  and the finite to the complex and the infinite, from human origins to divine
  destinies. But that path does not lead to spiritual wisdom. Such a procedure
  is the easiest path to a certain form of genetic knowledge, but at best it can
  only reveal man's origin; it reveals little or nothing about his divine
  destiny.

  19:1.6 Even in the study of man's biologic evolution on Urantia, there are
  grave objections to the exclusive historic approach to his present-day status
  and his current problems. The true perspective of any reality problem -- human
  or divine, terrestrial or cosmic -- can be had only by the full and
  unprejudiced study and correlation of three phases of universe reality:
  origin, history, and destiny. The proper understanding of these three
  experiential realities affords the basis for a wise estimate of the current
  status.



  19:1.7 When the human mind undertakes to follow the philosophic technique of
  starting from the lower to approach the higher, whether in biology or
  theology, it is always in danger of committing four errors of reasoning:



  19:1.8 1. It may utterly fail to perceive the final and completed evolutionary
  goal of either personal attainment or cosmic destiny.



  19:1.9 2. It may commit the supreme philosophical blunder by oversimplifying
  cosmic evolutionary (experiential) reality, thus leading to the distortion of
  facts, to the perversion of truth, and to the misconception of destinies.



  19:1.10 3. The study of causation is the perusal of history. But the knowledge
  of how a being becomes does not necessarily provide an intelligent
  understanding of the present status and true character of such a being.



  19:1.11 4. History alone fails adequately to reveal future development --
  destiny. Finite origins are helpful, but only divine causes reveal final
  effects. Eternal ends are not shown in time beginnings. The present can be
  truly interpreted only in the light of the correlated past and future.



  19:1.12 Therefore, because of these and for still other reasons, do we employ
  the technique of approaching man and his planetary problems by embarkation on
  the time-space journey from the infinite, eternal, and divine Paradise Source
  and Center of all personality reality and all cosmic existence.





2. THE PERFECTORS OF WISDOM



  19:2.1 The Perfectors of Wisdom are a specialized creation of the Paradise
  Trinity designed to personify the wisdom of divinity in the superuniverses.
  There are exactly seven billion of these beings in existence, and one billion
  are assigned to each of the seven superuniverses.

  19:2.2 In common with their co-ordinates, the Divine Counselors and the
  Universal Censors, the Perfectors of Wisdom passed through the wisdom of
  Paradise, of Havona, and except for Divinington, of the Father's Paradise
  spheres. After these experiences the Perfectors of Wisdom were permanently
  assigned to the service of the Ancients of Days. They serve neither on
  Paradise nor on the worlds of the Paradise-Havona circuits; they are wholly
  occupied with the administration of the superuniverse governments.



  19:2.3 Wherever and whenever a Perfector of Wisdom functions, there and then
  divine wisdom functions. There is actuality of presence and perfection of
  manifestation in the knowledge and wisdom represented in the doings of these
  mighty and majestic personalities. They do not reflect the wisdom of the
  Paradise Trinity; they are that wisdom. They are the sources of wisdom for all
  teachers in the application of universe knowledge; they are the fountains of
  discretion and the wellsprings of discrimination to the institutions of
  learning and discernment in all universes.

  19:2.4 Wisdom is twofold in origin, being derived from the perfection of
  divine insight inherent in perfect beings and from the personal experience
  acquired by evolutionary creatures. The Perfectors of Wisdom are the divine
  wisdom of the Paradise perfection of Deity insight. Their administrative
  associates on Uversa, the Mighty Messengers, Those without Name and Number,
  and Those High in Authority, when acting together, are the universe wisdom of
  experience. A divine being can have perfection of divine knowledge. An
  evolutionary mortal can sometime attain perfection of ascendant knowledge, but
  neither of these beings alone exhausts the potentials of all possible wisdom.
  Accordingly, whenever in the conduct of the superuniverse it is desired to
  achieve the maximum of administrative wisdom, these perfectors of the wisdom
  of divine insight are always associated with those ascendant personalities who
  have come up to the high responsibilities of superuniverse authority through
  the experiential tribulations of evolutionary progression.

  19:2.5 The Perfectors of Wisdom will always require this complement of
  experiential wisdom for the completion of their administrative sagacity. But
  it has been postulated that a high and hitherto unattained level of wisdom may
  possibly be achieved by the Paradise finaliters after they are sometime
  inducted into the seventh stage of spirit existence. If this inference is
  correct, then would such perfected beings of evolutionary ascent undoubtedly
  become the most effective universe administrators ever to be known in all
  creation. I believe that such is the high destiny of finaliters.



  19:2.6 The versatility of the Perfectors of Wisdom enables them to participate
  in practically all of the celestial services of the ascendant creatures. The
  Perfectors of Wisdom and my order of personality, the Divine Counselors,
  together with the Universal Censors, constitute the highest orders of beings
  who may and do engage in the work of revealing truth to the individual planets
  and systems, whether in their earlier epochs or when settled in light and
  life. From time to time we all make contact with the service of the ascending
  mortals, from an initial-life planet on up through a local universe and the
  superuniverse, particularly the latter.





3. THE DIVINE COUNSELORS



  19:3.1 These Trinity-origin beings are the counsel of Deity to the realms of
  the seven superuniverses. They are not reflective of the divine counsel of the
  Trinity; they are that counsel. There are twenty-one billion Counselors in
  service, and three billion are assigned to each superuniverse.

  19:3.2 Divine Counselors are the associates and equals of the Universal
  Censors and the Perfectors of Wisdom, from one to seven Counselors being
  associated with each of these latter personalities. All three orders
  participate in the government of the Ancients of Days, including major and
  minor sectors, in the local universes and constellations, and in the councils
  of the local system sovereigns.

  19:3.3 We act as individuals, as I do in inditing this statement, but we also
  function as a trio whenever the occasion requires. When we act in an executive
  capacity, always there are associated together a Perfector of Wisdom, a
  Universal Censor, and from one to seven Divine Counselors.



  19:3.4 One Perfector of Wisdom, seven Divine Counselors, and one Universal
  Censor constitute a tribunal of Trinity divinity, the highest mobile advisory
  body in the universes of time and space. Such a group of nine is known either
  as a fact-finding or as a truth-revealing tribunal, and when it sits in
  judgment upon a problem and renders a decision, it is just as if an Ancient of
  Days had adjudicated the matter, for in all the annals of the superuniverses
  such a verdict has never been reversed by the Ancients of Days.

  19:3.5 When the three Ancients of Days function, the Paradise Trinity
  functions. When the tribunal of nine arrives at a decision following its
  united deliberations, to all intents and purposes the Ancients of Days have
  spoken. And it is in this manner that the Paradise Rulers make personal
  contact, in administrative matters and governmental regulation, with the
  individual worlds, systems, and universes.



  19:3.6 Divine Counselors are the perfection of the divine counsel of the
  Paradise Trinity. We represent, in fact are, the counsel of perfection. When
  we are supplemented by the experiential counsel of our associates, the
  perfected and Trinity-embraced beings of evolutionary ascent, our combined
  conclusions are not only complete but replete. When our united counsel has
  been associated, adjudicated, confirmed, and promulgated by a Universal
  Censor, it is very probable that it approaches the threshold of universal
  totality. Such verdicts represent the nearest possible approach to the
  absolute attitude of Deity within the time-space limits of the situation
  involved and the problem concerned.

  19:3.7 Seven Divine Counselors in liaison with a trinitized evolutionary trio
  -- a Mighty Messenger, One High in Authority, and One without Name and Number
  -- represent the nearest superuniverse approach to the union of the human
  viewpoint and the divine attitude on near-paradisiacal levels of spiritual
  meanings and reality values. Such close approximation of the united cosmic
  attitudes of the creature and the Creator is only surpassed in the Paradise
  bestowal Sons, who are, in every phase of personality experience, God and man.





4. THE UNIVERSAL CENSORS



  19:4.1 There are exactly eight billion Universal Censors in existence. These
  unique beings are the judgment of Deity. They are not merely reflective of the
  decisions of perfection; they are the judgment of the Paradise Trinity. Even
  the Ancients of Days do not sit in judgment except in association with the
  Universal Censors.

  19:4.2 One Censor is commissioned on each of the billion worlds of the central
  universe, being attached to the planetary administration of the resident
  Eternal of Days. Neither Perfectors of Wisdom nor Divine Counselors are thus
  permanently attached to the Havona administrations, nor do we altogether
  understand why Universal Censors are stationed in the central universe. Their
  present activities hardly account for their assignment in Havona, and we
  therefore suspect that they are there in anticipation of the needs of some
  future universe age in which the Havona population may partially change.

  19:4.3 One billion Censors are assigned to each of the seven superuniverses.
  Both in an individual capacity and in association with Perfectors of Wisdom
  and Divine Counselors, they operate throughout all divisions of the seven
  superuniverses. Thus the Censors act on all levels of the grand universe, from
  the perfect worlds of Havona to the councils of the System Sovereigns, and
  they are an organic part of all dispensational adjudications of the
  evolutionary worlds.



  19:4.4 Whenever and wherever a Universal Censor is present, then and there is
  the judgment of Deity. And since the Censors always render their verdicts in
  liaison with Perfectors of Wisdom and Divine Counselors, such decisions
  embrace the united wisdom, counsel, and judgment of the Paradise Trinity. In
  this juridical trio the Perfector of Wisdom would be the "I was," the Divine
  Counselor the "I will be," but the Universal Censor is always "I am."



  19:4.5 The Censors are universe totaling personalities. When a thousand
  witnesses have given testimony -- or a million -- when the voice of wisdom has
  spoken and the counsel of divinity has recorded, when the testimony of
  ascendant perfection has been added, then the Censor functions, and there is
  immediately revealed an unerring and divine totaling of all that has
  transpired; and such a disclosure represents the divine conclusion, the sum
  and substance of a final and perfect decision. Therefore, when a Censor has
  spoken, no one else may speak, for the Censor has depicted the true and
  unmistakable total of all that has gone before. When he speaks, there is no
  appeal.

  19:4.6 Most fully do I understand the operation of the mind of a Perfector of
  Wisdom, but I certainly do not fully comprehend the working of the
  adjudicating mind of a Universal Censor. It appears to me that the Censors
  formulate new meanings and originate new values from the association of the
  facts, truths, and findings presented to them in the course of an
  investigation of universe affairs. It seems probable that the Universal
  Censors are able to bring forth original interpretations of the combination of
  perfect Creator insight and the perfected creature experience. This
  association of Paradise perfection and universe experience undoubtedly
  eventuates a new value in ultimates.

  19:4.7 But this is not the end of our difficulties regarding the working of
  the minds of the Universal Censors. Having made due allowances for all that we
  know or conjecture about the functioning of a Censor in any given universe
  situation, we find that we are still unable to predict decisions or to
  forecast verdicts. We very accurately determine the probable result of the
  association of Creator attitude and creature experience, but such conclusions
  are not always accurate forecasts of Censor disclosures. It seems likely that
  the Censors are in some manner in liaison with the Deity Absolute; we are
  otherwise unable to explain many of their decisions and rulings.



  19:4.8 Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, and Universal Censors,
  together with the seven orders of Supreme Trinity Personalities, constitute
  those ten groups which have been sometimes designated Stationary Sons of the
  Trinity. Together they comprise the grand corps of Trinity administrators,
  rulers, executives, advisers, counselors, and judges. Their numbers slightly
  exceed thirty-seven billion. Two billion and seventy are stationed in the
  central universe and just over five billion in each superuniverse.

  19:4.9 It is very difficult to portray the functional limits of the Stationary
  Sons of the Trinity. It would be incorrect to state that their acts are finite
  limited, for there are transactions of superuniverse record which indicate
  otherwise. They act on any level of universe administration or adjudication
  that may be required by time-space conditions and that pertains to the past,
  present, and future evolution of the master universe.





5. INSPIRED TRINITY SPIRITS



  19:5.1 I will be able to tell you very little concerning the Inspired Trinity
  Spirits, for they are one of the few wholly secret orders of beings in
  existence, secret, no doubt, because it is impossible for them fully to reveal
  themselves even to those of us whose origin is so near the source of their
  creation. They come into being by the act of the Paradise Trinity and may be
  utilized by any one or two of the Deities as well as by all three. We do not
  know whether these Spirits are of completed numbers or are constantly
  increasing, but we incline to the belief that their number is not fixed.

  19:5.2 We fully understand neither the nature nor the conduct of the Inspired
  Spirits. They may possibly belong to the category of superpersonal spirits.
  They seem to operate over all known circuits and appear to act well-nigh
  independently of time and space. But we know little about them except as we
  deduce their character from the nature of their activities, the results of
  which we certainly observe here and there in the universes.

  19:5.3 Under certain conditions these Inspired Spirits can individualize
  themselves sufficiently for recognition by beings of Trinity origin. I have
  seen them; but it would never be possible for the lower orders of celestial
  beings to recognize one of them. Certain circumstances also arise from time to
  time in the conduct of the evolving universes in which any being of Trinity
  origin may directly employ these Spirits in the furtherance of his
  assignments. We therefore know that they exist, and that under certain
  conditions we may command and receive their assistance, sometimes recognize
  their presence. But they are not a part of the manifest and definitely
  revealed organization intrusted with the conduct of the time-space universes
  before such material creations are settled in light and life. They have no
  clearly discernible place in the present economy or administration of the
  evolving seven superuniverses. They are a secret of the Paradise Trinity.

  19:5.4 The Melchizedeks of Nebadon teach that Inspired Trinity Spirits are
  destined, sometime in the eternal future, to function in the places of the
  Solitary Messengers, whose ranks are slowly but certainly being depleted by
  their assignment as associates of certain types of trinitized sons.



  19:5.5 The Inspired Spirits are the solitary Spirits of the universe of
  universes. As Spirits they are very much like the Solitary Messengers except
  that the latter are distinct personalities. We obtain much of our knowledge of
  the Inspired Spirits from the Solitary Messengers, who detect their nearness
  by virtue of an inherent sensitivity to the presence of the Inspired Spirits
  which functions just as unfailingly as a magnetic needle points to a magnetic
  pole. When a Solitary Messenger is near an Inspired Trinity Spirit, he is
  conscious of a qualitative indication of such a divine presence and also of a
  very definite quantitative registration which enables him actually to know the
  classification or number of the Spirit presence or presences.

  19:5.6 I may relate a further interesting fact: When a Solitary Messenger is
  on a planet whose inhabitants are indwelt by Thought Adjusters, as on Urantia,
  he is aware of a qualitative excitation in his detection-sensitivity to spirit
  presence. In such instances there is no quantitative excitation, only a
  qualitative agitation. When on a planet to which Adjusters do not come,
  contact with the natives does not produce any such reaction. This suggests
  that Thought Adjusters are in some manner related to, or are connected with,
  the Inspired Spirits of the Paradise Trinity. In some way they may possibly be
  associated in certain phases of their work; but we do not really know. They
  both originate near the center and source of all things, but they are not the
  same order of being. Thought Adjusters spring from the Father alone; Inspired
  Spirits are the offspring of the Paradise Trinity.



  19:5.7 The Inspired Spirits do not apparently belong to the evolutionary
  scheme of the individual planets or universes, and yet they seem to be almost
  everywhere. Even as I am engaged in the formulation of this statement, my
  associated Solitary Messenger's personal sensitivity to the presence of this
  order of Spirit indicates that there is with us at this very moment, not over
  twenty-five feet away, a Spirit of the Inspired order and of the third volume
  of power presence. The third volume of power presence suggests to us the
  probability that three Inspired Spirits are functioning in liaison.

  19:5.8 Of more than twelve orders of beings associated with me at this time,
  the Solitary Messenger is the only one aware of the presence of these
  mysterious entities of the Trinity. And further, while we are thus apprised of
  the nearness of these divine Spirits, we are all equally ignorant of their
  mission. We really do not know whether they are merely interested observers of
  our doings, or whether they are, in some manner unknown to us, actually
  contributing to the success of our undertaking.

  19:5.9 We know that the Trinity Teacher Sons are devoted to the conscious
  enlightenment of universe creatures. I have arrived at the settled conclusion
  that the Inspired Trinity Spirits, by superconscious techniques, are also
  functioning as teachers of the realms. I am persuaded that there is a vast
  body of essential spiritual knowledge, truth indispensable to high spiritual
  attainment, which cannot be consciously received; self-consciousness would
  effectively jeopardize the certainty of reception. If we are right in this
  concept, and my entire order of being shares it, it may be the mission of
  these Inspired Spirits to overcome this difficulty, to bridge this gap in the
  universal scheme of moral enlightenment and spiritual advancement. We think
  that these two types of Trinity-origin teachers effect some kind of liaison in
  their activities, but we do not really know.

  19:5.10 On the superuniverse training worlds and on the eternal circuits of
  Havona, I have fraternized with the perfecting mortals -- spiritualized and
  ascendant souls from the evolutionary realms -- but never have they been aware
  of the Inspired Spirits, which ever and anon the powers of detection resident
  in the Solitary Messengers would indicate were very near us. I have freely
  conversed with all orders of the Sons of God, high and low, and they likewise
  are unconscious of the admonitions of the Inspired Trinity Spirits. They can
  and do look back in their experiences and recount happenings which are
  difficult to explain if the action of such Spirits is not taken into account.
  But excepting Solitary Messengers, and sometimes Trinity-origin beings, none
  of the celestial family have ever been conscious of the nearness of the
  Inspired Spirits.

  19:5.11 I do not believe the Inspired Trinity Spirits are playing hide and
  seek with me. They are probably trying just as hard to disclose themselves to
  me as I am to communicate with them; our difficulties and limitations must be
  mutual and inherent. I am satisfied that there are no arbitrary secrets in the
  universe; therefore will I never cease in my efforts to solve the mystery of
  the isolation of these Spirits belonging to my order of creation.

  19:5.12 And from all this, you mortals, just now taking your first step on the
  eternal journey, can well see that you must advance a long way before you will
  progress by "sight" and "material" assurance. You will long use faith and be
  dependent on revelation if you hope to progress quickly and safely.





6. HAVONA NATIVES



  19:6.1 The Havona natives are the direct creation of the Paradise Trinity, and
  their number is beyond the concept of your circumscribed minds. Neither is it
  possible for Urantians to conceive of the inherent endowments of such divinely
  perfect creatures as these Trinity-origin races of the eternal universe. You
  can never truly envisage these glorious creatures; you must await your arrival
  in Havona, when you can greet them as spirit comrades.

  19:6.2 During your long sojourn on the billion worlds of Havona culture you
  will develop an eternal friendship for these superb beings. And how deep is
  that friendship which grows up between the lowest personal creature from the
  worlds of space and these high personal beings native to the perfect spheres
  of the central universe! Ascending mortals, in their long and loving
  association with the Havona natives, do much to compensate for the spiritual
  impoverishment of the earlier stages of mortal progression. At the same time,
  through their contacts with ascending pilgrims, the Havoners gain an
  experience which to no small extent overcomes the experiential handicap of
  having always lived a life of divine perfection. The good to both ascending
  mortal and Havona native is great and mutual.



  19:6.3 Havona natives, like all other Trinity-origin personalities, are
  projected in divine perfection, and as with other Trinity-origin
  personalities, the passing of time may add to their stores of experiential
  endowments. But unlike the Stationary Sons of the Trinity, Havoners may evolve
  in status, may have an unrevealed future eternity-destiny. This is illustrated
  by those Havoners who service-factualize capacity for fusion with a non-
  Adjuster Father fragment and so qualify for membership in the Mortal Corps of
  the Finality. And there are other finaliter corps open to these natives of the
  central universe.



  19:6.4 The status evolution of Havona natives has occasioned much speculation
  on Uversa. Since they are constantly filtering into the several Paradise Corps
  of the Finality, and since no more are being created, it is apparent that the
  number of natives remaining in Havona is constantly diminishing. The ultimate
  consequences of these transactions have never been revealed to us, but we do
  not believe that Havona will ever be entirely depleted of its natives. We have
  entertained the theory that Havoners will possibly cease entering the
  finaliter corps sometime during the ages of the successive creations of the
  outer space levels. We have also entertained the thought that in these
  subsequent universe ages the central universe may be peopled by a mixed group
  of resident beings, a citizenship consisting only in part of the original
  Havona natives. We do not know what order or type of creature may be thus
  destined to residential status in the future Havona, but we have thought of:

1. The univitatia, who are at present the permanent citizens of the local
universe constellations.

2. Future types of mortals who may be born on the inhabited spheres of the
superuniverses in the flowering of the ages of light and life.

3. The incoming spiritual aristocracy of the successive outer universes.

  19:6.5 We know that the Havona of the previous universe age was somewhat
  different from the Havona of the present age. We deem it no more than
  reasonable to assume that we are now witnessing those slow changes in the
  central universe that are anticipatory of the ages to come. One thing is
  certain: The universe is nonstatic; only God is changeless.





7. PARADISE CITIZENS



  19:7.1 There are resident on Paradise numerous groups of superb beings, the
  Paradise Citizens. They are not directly concerned with the scheme of
  perfecting ascending will creatures and are not, therefore, fully revealed to
  Urantia mortals. There are more than three thousand orders of these supernal
  intelligences, the last group having been personalized simultaneously with the
  mandate of the Trinity which promulgated the creative plan of the seven
  superuniverses of time and space.



  19:7.2 Paradise Citizens and Havona natives are sometimes designated
  collectively as Paradise-Havona personalities.



  19:7.3 This completes the story of those beings who are brought into existence
  by the Paradise Trinity. None of them have ever gone astray. And yet, in the
  highest sense, they are all freewill endowed.

  19:7.4 Trinity-origin beings possess prerogatives of transit which make them
  independent of transport personalities, such as seraphim. We all possess the
  power of moving about freely and quickly in the universe of universes.
  Excepting the Inspired Trinity Spirits, we cannot attain the almost
  unbelievable velocity of the Solitary Messengers, but we are able so to
  utilize the sum total of the transport facilities in space that we can reach
  any point in a superuniverse, from its headquarters, in less than one year of
  Urantia time. It required 109 days of your time for me to journey from Uversa
  to Urantia.

  19:7.5 Through these same avenues we are enabled to intercommunicate
  instantaneously. Our entire order of creation finds itself in touch with every
  individual embraced within every division of the children of the Paradise
  Trinity save only the Inspired Spirits.



  19:7.6 Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.




PAPER 20


 THE PARADISE SONS OF GOD



  20:0.1 AS THEY function in the superuniverse of Orvonton, the Sons of God are
  classified under three general heads:

1. The Descending Sons of God.

2. The Ascending Sons of God.

3. The Trinitized Sons of God.

  20:0.2 Descending orders of sonship include personalities who are of direct
  and divine creation. Ascending sons, such as mortal creatures, achieve this
  status by experiential participation in the creative technique known as
  evolution. Trinitized Sons are a group of composite origin which includes all
  beings embraced by the Paradise Trinity even though not of direct Trinity
  origin.





1. THE DESCENDING SONS OF GOD



  20:1.1 All descending Sons of God have high and divine origins. They are
  dedicated to the descending ministry of service on the worlds and systems of
  time and space, there to facilitate the progress in the Paradise climb of the
  lowly creatures of evolutionary origin -- the ascending sons of God. Of the
  numerous orders of descending Sons, seven will be depicted in these
  narratives. Those Sons who come forth from the Deities on the central Isle of
  Light and Life are called the Paradise Sons of God and embrace the following
  three orders:

1. Creator Sons -- the Michaels.

2. Magisterial Sons -- the Avonals.

3. Trinity Teacher Sons -- the Daynals.



  20:1.2 The remaining four orders of descending sonship are known as the Local
  Universe Sons of God:



4. Melchizedek Sons.

5. Vorondadek Sons.

6. Lanonandek Sons.

7. The Life Carriers.

  20:1.3 Melchizedeks are the joint offspring of a local universe Creator Son,
  Creative Spirit, and Father Melchizedek. Both Vorondadeks and Lanonandeks are
  brought into being by a Creator Son and his Creative Spirit associate.
  Vorondadeks are best known as the Most Highs, the Constellation Fathers;
  Lanonandeks as System Sovereigns and as Planetary Princes. The threefold order
  of Life Carriers is brought into being by a Creator Son and Creative Spirit
  associated with one of the three Ancients of Days of the superuniverse of
  jurisdiction. But the natures and activities of these Local Universe Sons of
  God are more properly portrayed in those papers dealing with the affairs of
  the local creations.



  20:1.4 The Paradise Sons of God are of threefold origin: The primary or
  Creator Sons are brought into being by the Universal Father and the Eternal
  Son; the secondary or Magisterial Sons are children of the Eternal Son and the
  Infinite Spirit; the Trinity Teacher Sons are the offspring of the Father,
  Son, and Spirit. From the standpoint of service, worship, and supplication the
  Paradise Sons are as one; their spirit is one, and their work is identical in
  quality and completeness.

  20:1.5 As the Paradise orders of Days proved to be divine administrators, so
  have the orders of Paradise Sons revealed themselves as divine ministers --
  creators, servers, bestowers, judges, teachers, and truth revealers. They
  range the universe of universes from the shores of the eternal Isle to the
  inhabited worlds of time and space, performing manifold services in the
  central and superuniverses not disclosed in these narratives. They are
  variously organized, dependent on the nature and whereabouts of their service,
  but in a local universe both Magisterial and Teacher Sons serve under the
  direction of the Creator Son who presides over that domain.

  20:1.6 The Creator Sons seem to possess a spiritual endowment centering in
  their persons, which they control and which they can bestow, as did your own
  Creator Son when he poured out his spirit upon all mortal flesh on Urantia.
  Each Creator Son is endowed with this spiritual drawing power in his own
  realm; he is personally conscious of every act and emotion of every descending
  Son of God serving in his domain. Here is a divine reflection, a local
  universe duplication, of that absolute spiritual drawing power of the Eternal
  Son which enables him to reach out to make and maintain contact with all his
  Paradise Sons, no matter where they may be in all the universe of universes.

  20:1.7 The Paradise Creator Sons serve not only as Sons in their descending
  ministrations of service and bestowal, but when they have completed their
  bestowal careers, each functions as a universe Father in his own creation,
  while the other Sons of God continue the service of bestowal and spiritual
  uplifting designed to win the planets, one by one, to the willing recognition
  of the loving rule of the Universal Father, culminating in creature
  consecration to the will of the Paradise Father and in planetary loyalty to
  the universe sovereignty of his Creator Son.

  20:1.8 In a sevenfold Creator Son, Creator and creature are forever blended in
  understanding, sympathetic, and merciful association. The entire order of
  Michael, the Creator Sons, is so unique that the consideration of their
  natures and activities will be reserved to the next paper in this series,
  while this narrative will be chiefly concerned with the two remaining orders
  of Paradise sonship: the Magisterial Sons and the Trinity Teacher Sons.





2. THE MAGISTERIAL SONS



  20:2.1 Every time an original and absolute concept of being formulated by the
  Eternal Son unites with a new and divine ideal of loving service conceived by
  the Infinite Spirit, a new and original Son of God, a Paradise Magisterial
  Son, is produced. These Sons constitute the order of Avonals in
  contradistinction to the order of Michael, the Creator Sons. Though not
  creators in the personal sense, they are closely associated with the Michaels
  in all their work. The Avonals are planetary ministers and judges, the
  magistrates of the time-space realms -- of all races, to all worlds, and in
  all universes.

  20:2.2 We have reasons for believing that the total number of Magisterial Sons
  in the grand universe is about one billion. They are a self-governing order,
  being directed by their supreme council on Paradise, which is made up of
  experienced Avonals drawn from the services of all universes. But when
  assigned to, and commissioned in, a local universe, they serve under the
  direction of the Creator Son of that domain.

  20:2.3 Avonals are the Paradise Sons of service and bestowal to the individual
  planets of the local universes. And since each Avonal Son has an exclusive
  personality, since no two are alike, their work is individually unique in the
  realms of their sojourn, where they are often incarnated in the likeness of
  mortal flesh and sometimes are born of earthly mothers on the evolutionary
  worlds.



  20:2.4 In addition to their services on the higher administrative levels, the
  Avonals have a threefold function on the inhabited worlds:



  20:2.5 1. Judicial Actions. They act at the close of the planetary
  dispensations. In time, scores -- hundreds -- of such missions may be executed
  on each individual world, and they may go to the same or to other worlds times
  without number as dispensation terminators, liberators of the sleeping
  survivors.



  20:2.6 2. Magisterial Missions. A planetary visitation of this type usually
  occurs prior to the arrival of a bestowal Son. On such a mission an Avonal
  appears as an adult of the realm by a technique of incarnation not involving
  mortal birth. Subsequent to this first and usual magisterial visit, Avonals
  may repeatedly serve in a magisterial capacity on the same planet both before
  and after the appearance of the bestowal Son. On these additional magisterial
  missions an Avonal may or may not appear in material and visible form, but on
  none of them will he be born into the world as a helpless babe.



  20:2.7 3. Bestowal Missions. The Avonal Sons do all, at least once, bestow
  themselves upon some mortal race on some evolutionary world. Judicial visits
  are numerous, magisterial missions may be plural, but on each planet there
  appears but one bestowal Son. Bestowal Avonals are born of woman as Michael of
  Nebadon was incarnated on Urantia.



  20:2.8 There is no limit to the number of times the Avonal Sons may serve on
  magisterial and on bestowal missions, but usually, when the experience has
  been seven times traversed, there is suspension in favor of those who have had
  less of such service. These Sons of multiple bestowal experience are then
  assigned to the high personal council of a Creator Son, thus becoming
  participants in the administration of universe affairs.

  20:2.9 In all their work for and on the inhabited worlds, the Magisterial Sons
  are assisted by two orders of local universe creatures, the Melchizedeks and
  the archangels, while on bestowal missions they are also accompanied by the
  Brilliant Evening Stars, likewise of origin in the local creations. In every
  planetary effort the secondary Paradise Sons, the Avonals, are supported by
  the full power and authority of a primary Paradise Son, the Creator Son of
  their local universe of service. To all intents and purposes their work on the
  inhabited spheres is just as effective and acceptable as would have been the
  service of a Creator Son upon such worlds of mortal habitation.





3. JUDICIAL ACTIONS



  20:3.1 The Avonals are known as Magisterial Sons because they are the high
  magistrates of the realms, the adjudicators of the successive dispensations of
  the worlds of time. They preside over the awakening of the sleeping survivors,
  sit in judgment on the realm, bring to an end a dispensation of suspended
  justice, execute the mandates of an age of probationary mercy, reassign the
  space creatures of planetary ministry to the tasks of the new dispensation,
  and return to the headquarters of their local universe upon the completion of
  their mission.

  20:3.2 When they sit in judgment on the destinies of an age, the Avonals
  decree the fate of the evolutionary races, but though they may render
  judgments extinguishing the identity of personal creatures, they do not
  execute such sentences. Verdicts of this nature are executed by none but the
  authorities of a superuniverse.

  20:3.3 The arrival of a Paradise Avonal on an evolutionary world for the
  purpose of terminating a dispensation and of inaugurating a new era of
  planetary progression is not necessarily either a magisterial mission or a
  bestowal mission. Magisterial missions sometimes, and bestowal missions
  always, are incarnations; that is, on such assignments the Avonals serve on a
  planet in material form -- literally. Their other visits are "technical," and
  in this capacity an Avonal is not incarnated for planetary service. If a
  Magisterial Son comes solely as a dispensational adjudicator, he arrives on a
  planet as a spiritual being, invisible to the material creatures of the realm.
  Such technical visits occur repeatedly in the long history of an inhabited
  world.

  20:3.4 Avonal Sons may act as planetary judges prior to both the magisterial
  and bestowal experiences. On either of these missions, however, the incarnated
  Son will judge the passing planetary age; likewise does a Creator Son when
  incarnated on a mission of bestowal in the likeness of mortal flesh. When a
  Paradise Son visits an evolutionary world and becomes like one of its people,
  his presence terminates a dispensation and constitutes a judgment of the
  realm.





4. MAGISTERIAL MISSIONS



  20:4.1 Prior to the planetary appearance of a bestowal Son, an inhabited world
  is usually visited by a Paradise Avonal on a magisterial mission. If it is an
  initial magisterial visitation, the Avonal is always incarnated as a material
  being. He appears on the planet of assignment as a full-fledged male of the
  mortal races, a being fully visible to, and in physical contact with, the
  mortal creatures of his day and generation. Throughout a magisterial
  incarnation the connection of the Avonal Son with the local and the universal
  spiritual forces is complete and unbroken.

  20:4.2 A planet may experience many magisterial visitations both before and
  after the appearance of a bestowal Son. It may be visited many times by the
  same or other Avonals, acting as dispensational adjudicators, but such
  technical missions of judgment are neither bestowal nor magisterial, and the
  Avonals are never incarnated at such times. Even when a planet is blessed with
  repeated magisterial missions, the Avonals do not always submit to mortal
  incarnation; and when they do serve in the likeness of mortal flesh, they
  always appear as adult beings of the realm; they are not born of woman.

  20:4.3 When incarnated on either bestowal or magisterial missions, the
  Paradise Sons have experienced Adjusters, and these Adjusters are different
  for each incarnation. The Adjusters that occupy the minds of the incarnated
  Sons of God can never hope for personality through fusion with the human-
  divine beings of their indwelling, but they are often personalized by fiat of
  the Universal Father. Such Adjusters form the supreme Divinington council of
  direction for the administration, identification, and dispatch of Mystery
  Monitors to the inhabited realms. They also receive and accredit Adjusters on
  their return to the "bosom of the Father" upon the mortal dissolution of their
  earthly tabernacles. In this way the faithful Adjusters of the world judges
  become the exalted chiefs of their kind.



  20:4.4 Urantia has never been host to an Avonal Son on a magisterial mission.
  Had Urantia followed the general plan of inhabited worlds, it would have been
  blessed with a magisterial mission sometime between the days of Adam and the
  bestowal of Christ Michael. But the regular sequence of Paradise Sons on your
  planet was wholly deranged by the appearance of your Creator Son on his
  terminal bestowal nineteen hundred years ago.

  20:4.5 Urantia may yet be visited by an Avonal commissioned to incarnate on a
  magisterial mission, but regarding the future appearance of Paradise Sons, not
  even "the angels in heaven know the time or manner of such visitations," for a
  Michael-bestowal world becomes the individual and personal ward of a Master
  Son and, as such, is wholly subject to his own plans and rulings. And with
  your world, this is further complicated by Michael's promise to return.
  Regardless of the misunderstandings about the Urantian sojourn of Michael of
  Nebadon, one thing is certainly authentic -- his promise to come back to your
  world. In view of this prospect, only time can reveal the future order of the
  visitations of the Paradise Sons of God on Urantia.





5. BESTOWAL OF THE PARADISE SONS OF GOD



  20:5.1 The Eternal Son is the eternal Word of God. The Eternal Son is the
  perfect expression of the "first" absolute and infinite thought of his eternal
  Father. When a personal duplication or divine extension of this Original Son
  starts on a bestowal mission of mortal incarnation, it becomes literally true
  that the divine "Word is made flesh," and that the Word thus dwells among the
  lowly beings of animal origin.

  20:5.2 On Urantia there is a widespread belief that the purpose of a Son's
  bestowal is, in some manner, to influence the attitude of the Universal
  Father. But your enlightenment should indicate that this is not true. The
  bestowals of the Avonal and the Michael Sons are a necessary part of the
  experiential process designed to make these Sons safe and sympathetic
  magistrates and rulers of the peoples and planets of time and space. The
  career of sevenfold bestowal is the supreme goal of all Paradise Creator Sons.
  And all Magisterial Sons are motivated by this same spirit of service which so
  abundantly characterizes the primary Creator Sons and the Eternal Son of
  Paradise.

  20:5.3 Some order of Paradise Son must be bestowed upon each mortal-inhabited
  world in order to make it possible for Thought Adjusters to indwell the minds
  of all normal human beings on that sphere, for the Adjusters do not come to
  all bona fide human beings until the Spirit of Truth has been poured out upon
  all flesh; and the sending of the Spirit of Truth is dependent upon the return
  to universe headquarters of a Paradise Son who has successfully executed a
  mission of mortal bestowal upon an evolving world.

  20:5.4 During the course of the long history of an inhabited planet, many
  dispensational adjudications will take place, and more than one magisterial
  mission may occur, but ordinarily only once will a bestowal Son serve on the
  sphere. It is only required that each inhabited world have one bestowal Son
  come to live the full mortal life from birth to death. Sooner or later,
  regardless of spiritual status, every mortal-inhabited world is destined to
  become host to a Magisterial Son on a bestowal mission except the one planet
  in each local universe whereon a Creator Son elects to make his mortal
  bestowal.



  20:5.5 Understanding more about the bestowal Sons, you discern why so much
  interest attaches to Urantia in the history of Nebadon. Your small and
  insignificant planet is of local universe concern simply because it is the
  mortal home world of Jesus of Nazareth. It was the scene of the final and
  triumphant bestowal of your Creator Son, the arena in which Michael won the
  supreme personal sovereignty of the universe of Nebadon.

  20:5.6 At the headquarters of his local universe a Creator Son, especially
  after the completion of his own mortal bestowal, spends much of his time in
  counseling and instructing the college of associate Sons, the Magisterial Sons
  and others. In love and devotion, with tender mercy and affectionate
  consideration, these Magisterial Sons bestow themselves upon the worlds of
  space. And in no way are these planetary services inferior to the mortal
  bestowals of the Michaels. It is true that your Creator Son selected for the
  realm of his final adventure in creature experience one which had had unusual
  misfortunes. But no planet could ever be in such a condition that it would
  require the bestowal of a Creator Son to effect its spiritual rehabilitation.
  Any Son of the bestowal group would have equally sufficed, for in all their
  work on the worlds of a local universe the Magisterial Sons are just as
  divinely effective and all wise as would have been their Paradise brother, the
  Creator Son.



  20:5.7 Though the possibility of disaster always attends these Paradise Sons
  during their bestowal incarnations, I have yet to see the record of the
  failure or default of either a Magisterial or a Creator Son on a mission of
  bestowal. Both are of origin too close to absolute perfection to fail. They
  indeed assume the risk, really become like the mortal creatures of flesh and
  blood and thereby gain the unique creature experience, but within the range of
  my observation they always succeed. They never fail to achieve the goal of the
  bestowal mission. The story of their bestowal and planetary service throughout
  Nebadon constitutes the most noble and fascinating chapter in the history of
  your local universe.





6. THE MORTAL-BESTOWAL CAREERS



  20:6.1 The method whereby a Paradise Son becomes ready for mortal incarnation
  as a bestowal Son, becomes enmothered on the bestowal planet, is a universal
  mystery; and any effort to detect the working of this Sonarington technique is
  doomed to meet with certain failure. Let the sublime knowledge of the mortal
  life of Jesus of Nazareth sink into your souls, but waste no thought in
  useless speculation as to how this mysterious incarnation of Michael of
  Nebadon was effected. Let us all rejoice in the knowledge and assurance that
  such achievements are possible to the divine nature and waste no time on
  futile conjectures about the technique employed by divine wisdom to effect
  such phenomena.



  20:6.2 On a mortal-bestowal mission a Paradise Son is always born of woman and
  grows up as a male child of the realm, as Jesus did on Urantia. These Sons of
  supreme service all pass from infancy through youth to manhood just as does a
  human being. In every respect they become like the mortals of the race into
  which they are born. They make petitions to the Father as do the children of
  the realms in which they serve. From a material viewpoint, these human-divine
  Sons live ordinary lives with just one exception: They do not beget offspring
  on the worlds of their sojourn; that is a universal restriction imposed on all
  orders of the Paradise bestowal Sons.

  20:6.3 As Jesus worked on your world as the carpenter's son, so do other
  Paradise Sons labor in various capacities on their bestowal planets. You could
  hardly think of a vocation that has not been followed by some Paradise Son in
  the course of his bestowal on some one of the evolutionary planets of time.

  20:6.4 When a bestowal Son has mastered the experience of living the mortal
  life, when he has achieved perfection of attunement with his indwelling
  Adjuster, thereupon he begins that part of his planetary mission designed to
  illuminate the minds and to inspire the souls of his brethren in the flesh. As
  teachers, these Sons are exclusively devoted to the spiritual enlightenment of
  the mortal races on the worlds of their sojourn.



  20:6.5 The mortal-bestowal careers of the Michaels and the Avonals, while
  comparable in most respects, are not identical in all: Never does a
  Magisterial Son proclaim, "Whosoever has seen the Son has seen the Father," as
  did your Creator Son when on Urantia and in the flesh. But a bestowed Avonal
  does declare, "Whosoever has seen me has seen the Eternal Son of God." The
  Magisterial Sons are not of immediate descent from the Universal Father, nor
  do they incarnate subject to the Father's will; always do they bestow
  themselves as Paradise Sons subject to the will of the Eternal Son of
  Paradise.



  20:6.6 When the bestowal Sons, Creator or Magisterial, enter the portals of
  death, they reappear on the third day. But you should not entertain the idea
  that they always meet with the tragic end encountered by the Creator Son who
  sojourned on your world nineteen hundred years ago. The extraordinary and
  unusually cruel experience through which Jesus of Nazareth passed has caused
  Urantia to become locally known as "the world of the cross." It is not
  necessary that such inhuman treatment be accorded a Son of God, and the vast
  majority of planets have afforded them a more considerate reception, allowing
  them to finish their mortal careers, terminate the age, adjudicate the
  sleeping survivors, and inaugurate a new dispensation, without imposing a
  violent death. A bestowal Son must encounter death, must pass through the
  whole of the actual experience of mortals of the realms, but it is not a
  requirement of the divine plan that this death be either violent or unusual.

  20:6.7 When bestowal Sons are not put to death by violence, they voluntarily
  relinquish their lives and pass through the portals of death, not to satisfy
  the demands of "stern justice" or "divine wrath," but rather to complete the
  bestowal, "to drink the cup" of the career of incarnation and personal
  experience in all that constitutes a creature's life as it is lived on the
  planets of mortal existence. Bestowal is a planetary and a universe necessity,
  and physical death is nothing more than a necessary part of a bestowal
  mission.

  20:6.8 When the mortal incarnation is finished, the Avonal of service proceeds
  to Paradise, is accepted by the Universal Father, returns to the local
  universe of assignment, and is acknowledged by the Creator Son. Thereupon the
  bestowal Avonal and the Creator Son send their conjoint Spirit of Truth to
  function in the hearts of the mortal races dwelling on the bestowal world. In
  the presovereignty ages of a local universe, this is the joint spirit of both
  Sons, implemented by the Creative Spirit. It differs somewhat from the Spirit
  of Truth which characterizes the local universe ages following a Michael's
  seventh bestowal.

  20:6.9 Upon the completion of a Creator Son's final bestowal the Spirit of
  Truth previously sent into all Avonal-bestowal worlds of that local universe
  changes in nature, becoming more literally the spirit of the sovereign
  Michael. This phenomenon takes place concurrently with the liberation of the
  Spirit of Truth for service on the Michael-mortal-bestowal planet. Thereafter,
  each world honored by a Magisterial bestowal will receive the same spirit
  Comforter from the sevenfold Creator Son, in association with that Magisterial
  Son, which it would have received had the local universe Sovereign personally
  incarnated as its bestowal Son.





7. THE TRINITY TEACHER SONS



  20:7.1 These highly personal and highly spiritual Paradise Sons are brought
  into being by the Paradise Trinity. They are known in Havona as the order of
  Daynals. In Orvonton they are of record as Trinity Teacher Sons, so named
  because of their parentage. On Salvington they are sometimes denominated the
  Paradise Spiritual Sons.

  20:7.2 In numbers the Teacher Sons are constantly increasing. The last
  universal census broadcast gave the number of these Trinity Sons functioning
  in the central and superuniverses as a little more than twenty-one billion,
  and this is exclusive of the Paradise reserves, which include more than one
  third of all Trinity Teacher Sons in existence.

  20:7.3 The Daynal order of sonship is not an organic part of the local or
  superuniverse administrations. Its members are neither creators nor
  retrievers, neither judges nor rulers. They are not so much concerned with
  universe administration as with moral enlightenment and spiritual development.
  They are the universal educators, being dedicated to the spiritual awakening
  and moral guidance of all realms. Their ministry is intimately interrelated
  with that of the personalities of the Infinite Spirit and is closely
  associated with the Paradise ascension of creature beings.

  20:7.4 These Sons of the Trinity partake of the combined natures of the three
  Paradise Deities, but in Havona they seem more to reflect the nature of the
  Universal Father. In the superuniverses they seem to portray the nature of the
  Eternal Son, while in the local creations they appear to show forth the
  character of the Infinite Spirit. In all universes they are the embodiment of
  service and the discretion of wisdom.

  20:7.5 Unlike their Paradise brethren, Michaels and Avonals, Trinity Teacher
  Sons receive no preliminary training in the central universe. They are
  dispatched directly to the headquarters of the superuniverses and from there
  are commissioned for service in some local universe. In their ministry to
  these evolutionary realms they utilize the combined spiritual influence of a
  Creator Son and the associated Magisterial Sons, for the Daynals do not
  possess a spiritual drawing power in and of themselves.





8. LOCAL UNIVERSE MINISTRY OF THE DAYNALS



  20:8.1 The Paradise Spiritual Sons are unique Trinity-origin beings and the
  only Trinity creatures to be so completely associated with the conduct of the
  dual-origin universes. They are affectionately devoted to the educational
  ministry to mortal creatures and the lower orders of spiritual beings. They
  begin their labors in the local systems and, in accordance with experience and
  achievement, are advanced inward through the constellation service to the
  highest work of the local creation. Upon certification they may become
  spiritual ambassadors representing the local universes of their service.

  20:8.2 The exact number of Teacher Sons in Nebadon I do not know; there are
  many thousands of them. Many of the heads of departments in the Melchizedek
  schools belong to this order, while the combined staff of the regularly
  constituted University of Salvington embraces over one hundred thousand
  including these Sons. Large numbers are stationed on the various morontia-
  training worlds, but they are not wholly occupied with the spiritual and
  intellectual advancement of mortal creatures; they are equally concerned with
  the instruction of seraphic beings and other natives of the local creations.
  Many of their assistants are drawn from the ranks of the creature-trinitized
  beings.

  20:8.3 The Teacher Sons compose the faculties who administer all examinations
  and conduct all tests for the qualification and certification of all
  subordinate phases of universe service, from the duties of outpost sentinels
  to those of star students. They conduct an agelong course of training, ranging
  from the planetary courses up to the high College of Wisdom located on
  Salvington. Recognition indicative of effort and attainment is granted to all,
  ascending mortal or ambitious cherubim, who complete these adventures in
  wisdom and truth.

  20:8.4 In all universes all the Sons of God are beholden to these ever-
  faithful and universally efficient Trinity Teacher Sons. They are the exalted
  teachers of all spirit personalities, even the tried and true teachers of the
  Sons of God themselves. But of the endless details of the duties and functions
  of the Teacher Sons I can hardly instruct you. The vast domain of Daynal-
  sonship activities will be better understood on Urantia when you are more
  advanced in intelligence, and after the spiritual isolation of your planet has
  been terminated.





9. PLANETARY SERVICE OF THE DAYNALS



  20:9.1 When the progress of events on an evolutionary world indicates that the
  time is ripe to initiate a spiritual age, the Trinity Teacher Sons always
  volunteer for this service. You are not familiar with this order of sonship
  because Urantia has never experienced a spiritual age, a millennium of cosmic
  enlightenment. But the Teacher Sons even now visit your world for the purpose
  of formulating plans concerning their projected sojourn on your sphere. They
  will be due to appear on Urantia after its inhabitants have gained comparative
  deliverance from the shackles of animalism and from the fetters of
  materialism.

  20:9.2 Trinity Teacher Sons have nothing to do with terminating planetary
  dispensations. They neither judge the dead nor translate the living, but on
  each planetary mission they are accompanied by a Magisterial Son who performs
  these services. Teacher Sons are wholly concerned with the initiation of a
  spiritual age, with the dawn of the era of spiritual realities on an
  evolutionary planet. They make real the spiritual counterparts of material
  knowledge and temporal wisdom.

  20:9.3 The Teacher Sons usually remain on their visitation planets for one
  thousand years of planetary time. One Teacher Son presides over the planetary
  millennial reign and is assisted by seventy associates of his order. The
  Daynals do not incarnate or otherwise so materialize themselves as to be
  visible to mortal beings; therefore is contact with the world of visitation
  maintained through the activities of the Brilliant Evening Stars, local
  universe personalities who are associated with the Trinity Teacher Sons.

  20:9.4 The Daynals may return many times to an inhabited world, and following
  their final mission the planet will be ushered into the settled status of a
  sphere of light and life, the evolutionary goal of all the mortal-inhabited
  worlds of the present universe age. The Mortal Corps of the Finality has much
  to do with the spheres settled in light and life, and their planetary
  activities touch upon those of the Teacher Sons. Indeed, the whole order of
  Daynal sonship is intimately connected with all phases of finaliter activities
  in the evolutionary creations of time and space.



  20:9.5 The Trinity Teacher Sons seem to be so completely identified with the
  regime of mortal progression through the earlier stages of evolutionary
  ascension that we are often led to speculate regarding their possible
  association with the finaliters in the undisclosed career of the future
  universes. We observe that the administrators of the superuniverses are part
  Trinity-origin personalities and part Trinity-embraced ascendant evolutionary
  creatures. We firmly believe that the Teacher Sons and the finaliters are now
  engaged in acquiring the experience of time-association which may be the
  preliminary training to prepare them for close association in some unrevealed
  future destiny. On Uversa it is our belief that, when the superuniverses are
  finally settled in light and life, these Paradise Teacher Sons, who have
  become so thoroughly familiar with the problems of evolutionary worlds and
  have been so long associated with the career of evolutionary mortals, will
  probably be transferred to eternal association with the Paradise Corps of the
  Finality.





10. UNITED MINISTRY OF THE PARADISE SONS



  20:10.1 All the Paradise Sons of God are divine in origin and in nature. The
  work of each Paradise Son in behalf of each world is just as if the Son of
  service were the first and only Son of God.

  20:10.2 The Paradise Sons are the divine presentation of the acting natures of
  the three persons of Deity to the domains of time and space. The Creator,
  Magisterial, and Teacher Sons are the gifts of the eternal Deities to the
  children of men and to all other universe creatures of ascension potential.
  These Sons of God are the divine ministers who are unceasingly devoted to the
  work of helping the creatures of time attain the high spiritual goal of
  eternity.

  20:10.3 In the Creator Sons the love of the Universal Father is blended with
  the mercy of the Eternal Son and is disclosed to the local universes in the
  creative power, loving ministry, and understanding sovereignty of the
  Michaels. In the Magisterial Sons the mercy of the Eternal Son, united with
  the ministry of the Infinite Spirit, is revealed to the evolutionary domains
  in the careers of these Avonals of judgment, service, and bestowal. In the
  Trinity Teacher Sons the love, mercy, and ministry of the three Paradise
  Deities are co-ordinated on the highest time-space value-levels and are
  presented to the universes as living truth, divine goodness, and true
  spiritual beauty.

  20:10.4 In the local universes these orders of sonship collaborate to effect
  the revelation of the Deities of Paradise to the creatures of space: As the
  Father of a local universe, a Creator Son portrays the infinite character of
  the Universal Father. As the bestowal Sons of mercy, the Avonals reveal the
  matchless nature of the Eternal Son of infinite compassion. As the true
  teachers of ascending personalities, the Trinity Daynal Sons disclose the
  teacher personality of the Infinite Spirit. In their divinely perfect co-
  operation, Michaels, Avonals, and Daynals are contributing to the
  actualization and revelation of the personality and sovereignty of God the
  Supreme in and to the time-space universes. In the harmony of their triune
  activities these Paradise Sons of God ever function in the vanguard of the
  personalities of Deity as they follow the never-ending expansion of the
  divinity of the First Great Source and Center from the everlasting Isle of
  Paradise into the unknown depths of space.



  20:10.5 Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.




PAPER 21


 THE PARADISE CREATOR SONS



  21:0.1 THE Creator Sons are the makers and rulers of the local universes of
  time and space. These universe creators and sovereigns are of dual origin,
  embodying the characteristics of God the Father and God the Son. But each
  Creator Son is different from every other; each is unique in nature as well as
  in personality; each is the "only-begotten Son" of the perfect deity ideal of
  his origin.

  21:0.2 In the vast work of organizing, evolving, and perfecting a local
  universe, these high Sons always enjoy the sustaining approval of the
  Universal Father. The relationship of the Creator Sons with their Paradise
  Father is touching and superlative. No doubt the profound affection of the
  Deity parents for their divine progeny is the wellspring of that beautiful and
  well-nigh divine love which even mortal parents bear their children.

  21:0.3 These primary Paradise Sons are personalized as Michaels. As they go
  forth from Paradise to found their universes, they are known as Creator
  Michaels. When settled in supreme authority, they are called Master Michaels.
  Sometimes we refer to the sovereign of your universe of Nebadon as Christ
  Michael. Always and forever do they reign after the "order of Michael," that
  being the designation of the first Son of their order and nature.



  21:0.4 The original or first-born Michael has never experienced incarnation as
  a material being, but seven times he passed through the experience of
  spiritual creature ascent on the seven circuits of Havona, advancing from the
  outer spheres to the innermost circuit of the central creation. The order of
  Michael knows the grand universe from one end to the other; there is no
  essential experience of any of the children of time and space in which the
  Michaels have not personally participated; they are in fact partakers not only
  of the divine nature but also of your nature, meaning all natures, from the
  highest to the lowest.

  21:0.5 The original Michael is the presiding head of the primary Paradise Sons
  when they assemble for conference at the center of all things. Not long since
  on Uversa we recorded a universal broadcast of a conclave extraordinary on the
  eternal Isle of one hundred fifty thousand Creator Sons assembled in the
  parental presence and engaged in deliberations having to do with the progress
  of the unification and stabilization of the universe of universes. This was a
  selected group of Sovereign Michaels, sevenfold bestowal Sons.





1. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF CREATOR SONS



  21:1.1 When the fullness of absolute spiritual ideation in the Eternal Son
  encounters the fullness of absolute personality concept in the Universal
  Father, when such a creative union is finally and fully attained, when such
  absolute identity of spirit and such infinite oneness of personality concept
  occur, then, right then and there, without the loss of anything of personality
  or prerogative by either of the infinite Deities, there flashes into full-
  fledged being a new and original Creator Son, the only-begotten Son of the
  perfect ideal and the powerful idea whose union produces this new creator
  personality of power and perfection.

  21:1.2 Each Creator Son is the only-begotten and only-begettable offspring of
  the perfect union of the original concepts of the two infinite and eternal and
  perfect minds of the ever-existent Creators of the universe of universes.
  There never can be another such Son because each Creator Son is the
  unqualified, finished, and final expression and embodiment of all of every
  phase of every feature of every possibility of every divine reality that
  could, throughout all eternity, ever be found in, expressed by, or evolved
  from, those divine creative potentials which united to bring this Michael Son
  into existence. Each Creator Son is the absolute of the united deity concepts
  which constitute his divine origin.

  21:1.3 The divine natures of these Creator Sons are, in principle, derived
  equally from the attributes of both Paradise parents. All partake of the
  fullness of the divine nature of the Universal Father and of the creative
  prerogatives of the Eternal Son, but as we observe the practical outworking of
  the Michael functions in the universes, we discern apparent differences. Some
  Creator Sons appear to be more like God the Father; others more like God the
  Son. For example: The trend of administration in the universe of Nebadon
  suggests that its Creator and ruling Son is one whose nature and character
  more resemble that of the Eternal Mother Son. It should be further stated that
  some universes are presided over by Paradise Michaels who appear equally to
  resemble God the Father and God the Son. And these observations are in no
  sense implied criticisms; they are simply a recording of fact.

  21:1.4 I do not know the exact number of Creator Sons in existence, but I have
  good reasons for believing that there are more than seven hundred thousand.
  Now, we know that there are exactly seven hundred thousand Unions of Days and
  no more are being created. We also observe that the ordained plans of the
  present universe age seem to indicate that one Union of Days is to be
  stationed in each local universe as the counseling ambassador of the Trinity.
  We note further that the constantly increasing number of Creator Sons already
  exceeds the stationary number of the Unions of Days. But concerning the
  destiny of the Michaels beyond seven hundred thousand, we have never been
  informed.





2. THE CREATORS OF LOCAL UNIVERSES



  21:2.1 The Paradise Sons of the primary order are the designers, creators,
  builders, and administrators of their respective domains, the local universes
  of time and space, the basic creative units of the seven evolutionary
  superuniverses. A Creator Son is permitted to choose the space site of his
  future cosmic activity, but before he may begin even the physical organization
  of his universe, he must spend a long period of observation devoted to the
  study of the efforts of his older brothers in various creations located in the
  superuniverse of his projected action. And prior to all this, the Michael Son
  will have completed his long and unique experience of Paradise observation and
  Havona training.



  21:2.2 When a Creator Son departs from Paradise to embark upon the adventure
  of universe making, to become the head -- virtually the God -- of the local
  universe of his own organization, then, for the first time, he finds himself
  in intimate contact with, and in many respects dependent upon, the Third
  Source and Center. The Infinite Spirit, though abiding with the Father and the
  Son at the center of all things, is destined to function as the actual and
  effective helper of each Creator Son. Therefore is each Creator Son
  accompanied by a Creative Daughter of the Infinite Spirit, that being who is
  destined to become the Divine Minister, the Mother Spirit of the new local
  universe.

  21:2.3 The departure of a Michael Son on this occasion forever liberates his
  creator prerogatives from the Paradise Sources and Centers, subject only to
  certain limitations inherent in the pre-existence of these Sources and Centers
  and to certain other antecedent powers and presences. Among these limitations
  to the otherwise all-powerful creator prerogatives of a local universe Father
  are the following:



  21:2.4 1. Energy-matter is dominated by the Infinite Spirit. Before any new
  forms of things, great or small, may be created, before any new
  transformations of energy-matter may be attempted, a Creator Son must secure
  the consent and working co-operation of the Infinite Spirit.



  21:2.5 2. Creature designs and types are controlled by the Eternal Son. Before
  a Creator Son may engage in the creation of any new type of being, any new
  design of creature, he must secure the consent of the Eternal and Original
  Mother Son.



  21:2.6 3. Personality is designed and bestowed by the Universal Father.



  21:2.7 The types and patterns of mind are determined by the precreature
  factors of being. After these have been associated to constitute a creature
  (personal or otherwise), mind is the endowment of the Third Source and Center,
  the universal source of mind ministry to all beings below the level of
  Paradise Creators.



  21:2.8 The control of spirit designs and types depends on the level of their
  manifestation. In the last analysis, spiritual design is controlled by the
  Trinity or by the pre-Trinity spirit endowments of the Trinity personalities
  -- Father, Son, and Spirit.



  21:2.9 When such a perfect and divine Son has taken possession of the space
  site of his chosen universe; when the initial problems of universe
  materialization and of gross equilibrium have been resolved; when he has
  formed an effective and co-operative working union with the complemental
  Daughter of the Infinite Spirit -- then do this Universe Son and this Universe
  Spirit initiate that liaison which is designed to give origin to the
  innumerable hosts of their local universe children. In connection with this
  event the Creative Spirit focalization of the Paradise Infinite Spirit becomes
  changed in nature, taking on the personal qualities of the Mother Spirit of a
  local universe.

  21:2.10 Notwithstanding that all Creator Sons are divinely like their Paradise
  parents, none exactly resembles another; each is unique, diverse, exclusive,
  and original in nature as well as in personality. And since they are the
  architects and makers of the life plans of their respective realms, this very
  diversity insures that their domains will also be diverse in every form and
  phase of Michael-derived living existence which may be created or subsequently
  evolved therein. Hence the orders of creatures native to the local universes
  are quite varied. No two are administered or inhabited by dual-origin native
  beings who are in all respects identical. Within any superuniverse, one half
  of their inherent attributes are quite alike, being derived from the uniform
  Creative Spirits; the other half vary, being derived from the diversified
  Creator Sons. But such diversity does not characterize those creatures of sole
  origin in the Creative Spirit nor those imported beings who are native to the
  central or superuniverses.



  21:2.11 When a Michael Son is absent from his universe, its government is
  directed by the first-born native being, the Bright and Morning Star, the
  local universe chief executive. The advice and counsel of the Union of Days is
  invaluable at such times. During these absences a Creator Son is able to
  invest the associated Mother Spirit with the overcontrol of his spiritual
  presence on the inhabited worlds and in the hearts of his mortal children. And
  the Mother Spirit of a local universe remains always at its headquarters,
  extending her fostering care and spiritual ministry to the uttermost parts of
  such an evolutionary domain.

  21:2.12 The personal presence of a Creator Son in his local universe is not
  necessary to the smooth running of an established material creation. Such Sons
  may journey to Paradise, and still their universes swing on through space.
  They may lay down their lines of power to incarnate as the children of time;
  still their realms whirl on about their respective centers. No material
  organization is independent of the absolute-gravity grasp of Paradise or of
  the cosmic overcontrol inherent in the space presence of the Unqualified
  Absolute.



3. LOCAL UNIVERSE SOVEREIGNTY



  21:3.1 A Creator Son is given the range of a universe by the consent of the
  Paradise Trinity and with the confirmation of the supervising Master Spirit of
  the superuniverse concerned. Such action constitutes title of physical
  possession, a cosmic leasehold. But the elevation of a Michael Son from this
  initial and self-limited stage of rulership to the experiential supremacy of
  self-earned sovereignty comes as a result of his own personal experiences in
  the work of universe creation and incarnated bestowal. Until the achievement
  of bestowal-earned sovereignty, he rules as vicegerent of the Universal
  Father.



  21:3.2 A Creator Son could assert full sovereignty over his personal creation
  at any time, but he wisely chooses not to. If, prior to passing through the
  creature bestowals, he assumed an unearned supreme sovereignty, the Paradise
  personalities resident in his local universe would withdraw. But this has
  never happened throughout all the creations of time and space.

  21:3.3 The fact of creatorship implies the fullness of sovereignty, but the
  Michaels choose to experientially earn it, thereby retaining the full co-
  operation of all Paradise personalities attached to the local universe
  administration. We know of no Michael who ever did otherwise; but they all
  could, they are truly freewill Sons.



  21:3.4 The sovereignty of a Creator Son in a local universe passes through
  six, perhaps seven, stages of experiential manifestation. These appear in the
  following order:



  21:3.5 1. Initial vicegerent sovereignty -- the solitary provisional authority
  exercised by a Creator Son before the acquirement of personal qualities by the
  associated Creative Spirit.



  21:3.6 2. Conjoint vicegerent sovereignty -- the joint rule of the Paradise
  pair subsequent to the personality achievement of the Universe Mother Spirit.



  21:3.7 3. Augmenting vicegerent sovereignty -- the advancing authority of a
  Creator Son during the period of his seven creature bestowals.



  21:3.8 4. Supreme sovereignty -- the settled authority following the
  completion of the seventh bestowal. In Nebadon, supreme sovereignty dates from
  the completion of Michael's bestowal on Urantia. It has existed just slightly
  over nineteen hundred years of your planetary time.



  21:3.9 5. Augmenting supreme sovereignty -- the advanced relationship growing
  out of the settling of a majority of the creature domains in light and life.
  This stage pertains to the unachieved future of your local universe.



  21:3.10 6. Trinitarian sovereignty -- exercised subsequent to the settling of
  the entire local universe in light and life.



  21:3.11 7. Unrevealed sovereignty -- the unknown relationships of a future
  universe age.



  21:3.12 In accepting the initial vicegerent sovereignty of a projected local
  universe, a Creator Michael takes an oath to the Trinity not to assume supreme
  sovereignty until the seven creature bestowals have been completed and
  certified by the superuniverse rulers. But if a Michael Son could not, at
  will, assert such unearned sovereignty, there would be no meaning in taking an
  oath not to do so.

  21:3.13 Even in the prebestowal ages a Creator Son rules his domain well-nigh
  supremely when there is no dissent in any of its parts. Limited rulership
  would hardly be manifest if sovereignty were never challenged. The sovereignty
  exercised by a prebestowal Creator Son in a universe without rebellion is no
  greater than in a universe with rebellion; but in the first instance
  sovereignty limitations are not apparent; in the second, they are.

  21:3.14 If ever the authority or administration of a Creator Son is
  challenged, attacked, or jeopardized, he is eternally pledged to uphold,
  protect, defend, and if necessary retrieve his personal creation. Such Sons
  can be troubled or harassed only by the creatures of their own making or by
  higher beings of their own choosing. It might be inferred that "higher
  beings," those of origin on levels above a local universe, would be unlikely
  to trouble a Creator Son, and this is true. But they could if they chose to.
  Virtue is volitional with personality; righteousness is not automatic in
  freewill creatures.

  21:3.15 Before the completion of the bestowal career a Creator Son rules with
  certain self-imposed limitations of sovereignty, but subsequent to his
  finished bestowal service he rules by virtue of his actual experience in the
  form and likeness of his manifold creatures. When a Creator has seven times
  sojourned among his creatures, when the bestowal career is finished, then is
  he supremely settled in universe authority; he has become a Master Son, a
  sovereign and supreme ruler.



  21:3.16 The technique of obtaining supreme sovereignty over a local universe
  involves the following seven experiential steps:



  21:3.17 1. Experientially to penetrate seven creature levels of being through
  the technique of incarnated bestowal in the very likeness of the creatures on
  the level concerned.



  21:3.18 2. To make an experiential consecration to each phase of the sevenfold
  will of Paradise Deity as it is personified in the Seven Master Spirits.



  21:3.19 3. To traverse each of the seven experiences on the creature levels
  simultaneously with the execution of one of the seven consecrations to the
  will of Paradise Deity.



  21:3.20 4. On each creature level, experientially to portray the acme of
  creature life to Paradise Deity and to all universe intelligences.



  21:3.21 5. On each creature level, experientially to reveal one phase of the
  sevenfold will of Deity to the bestowal level and to all the universe.



  21:3.22 6. Experientially to unify the sevenfold creature experience with the
  sevenfold experience of consecration to the revelation of the nature and will
  of Deity.



  21:3.23 7. To achieve new and higher relationship with the Supreme Being. The
  repercussion of the totality of this Creator-creature experience augments the
  superuniverse reality of God the Supreme and the time-space sovereignty of the
  Almighty Supreme and factualizes the supreme local universe sovereignty of a
  Paradise Michael.



  21:3.24 In settling the question of sovereignty in a local universe, the
  Creator Son is not only demonstrating his own fitness to rule but is also
  revealing the nature and portraying the sevenfold attitude of the Paradise
  Deities. The finite understanding and creature appreciation of the Father's
  primacy is concerned in the adventure of a Creator Son when he condescends to
  take upon himself the form and experiences of his creatures. These primary
  Paradise Sons are the real revealers of the Father's loving nature and
  beneficent authority, the same Father who, in association with the Son and the
  Spirit, is the universal head of all power, personality, and government
  throughout all the universal realms.





4. THE MICHAEL BESTOWALS



  21:4.1 There are seven groups of bestowal Creator Sons, and they are so
  classified in accordance with the number of times they have bestowed
  themselves upon the creatures of their realms. They range from the initial
  experience up through five additional spheres of progressive bestowal until
  they attain the seventh and final episode of creature-Creator experience.

  21:4.2 Avonal bestowals are always in the likeness of mortal flesh, but the
  seven bestowals of a Creator Son involve his appearing on seven creature
  levels of being and pertain to the revelation of the seven primary expressions
  of the will and nature of Deity. Without exception, all Creator Sons pass
  through this seven times giving of themselves to their created children before
  they assume settled and supreme jurisdiction over the universes of their own
  creation.

  21:4.3 Though these seven bestowals vary in the different sectors and
  universes, they always embrace the mortal-bestowal adventure. In the final
  bestowal a Creator Son appears as a member of one of the higher mortal races
  on some inhabited world, usually as a member of that racial group which
  contains the largest hereditary legacy of the Adamic stock which has
  previously been imported to upstep the physical status of the animal-origin
  peoples. Only once in his sevenfold career as a bestowal Son is a Paradise
  Michael born of woman as you have the record of the babe of Bethlehem. Only
  once does he live and die as a member of the lowest order of evolutionary will
  creatures.

  21:4.4 After each of his bestowals a Creator Son proceeds to the "right hand
  of the Father," there to gain the Father's acceptance of the bestowal and to
  receive instruction preparatory to the next episode of universe service.
  Following the seventh and final bestowal a Creator Son receives from the
  Universal Father supreme authority and jurisdiction over his universe.



  21:4.5 It is of record that the divine Son of last appearance on your planet
  was a Paradise Creator Son who had completed six phases of his bestowal
  career; consequently, when he gave up the conscious grasp of the incarnated
  life on Urantia, he could, and did, truly say, "It is finished" -- it was
  literally finished. His death on Urantia completed his bestowal career; it was
  the last step in fulfilling the sacred oath of a Paradise Creator Son. And
  when this experience has been acquired, such Sons are supreme universe
  sovereigns; no longer do they rule as vicegerents of the Father but in their
  own right and name as "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." With certain stated
  exceptions these sevenfold bestowal Sons are unqualifiedly supreme in the
  universes of their abode. Concerning his local universe, "all power in heaven
  and on earth" was relegated to this triumphant and enthroned Master Son.



  21:4.6 Creator Sons, subsequent to the completion of their bestowal careers,
  are reckoned as a separate order, sevenfold Master Sons. In person the Master
  Sons are identical with the Creator Sons, but they have undergone such a
  unique bestowal experience that they are commonly regarded as a different
  order. When a Creator deigns to effect a bestowal, a real and permanent change
  is destined to take place. True, the bestowal Son is still and none the less a
  Creator, but he has added to his nature the experience of a creature, which
  forever removes him from the divine level of a Creator Son and elevates him to
  the experiential plane of a Master Son, one who has fully earned the right to
  rule a universe and administer its worlds. Such beings embody all that can be
  secured from divine parentage and embrace everything to be derived from
  perfected-creature experience. Why should man bemoan his lowly origin and
  enforced evolutionary career when the very Gods must pass through an
  equivalent experience before they are accounted experientially worthy and
  competent finally and fully to rule over their universe domains!





5. RELATION OF MASTER SONS TO THE UNIVERSE



  21:5.1 The power of a Master Michael is unlimited because derived from
  experienced association with the Paradise Trinity, is unquestioned because
  derived from actual experience as the very creatures subject to such
  authority. The nature of the sovereignty of a sevenfold Creator Son is supreme
  because it:

1. Embraces the sevenfold viewpoint of Paradise Deity.

2. Embodies a sevenfold attitude of time-space creatures.

3. Perfectly synthesizes Paradise attitude and creature viewpoint.

  21:5.2 This experiential sovereignty is thus all-inclusive of the divinity of
  God the Sevenfold culminating in the Supreme Being. And the personal
  sovereignty of a sevenfold Son is like the future sovereignty of the sometime-
  to-be-completed Supreme Being, embracing as it does the fullest possible
  content of the power and authority of the Paradise Trinity manifestable within
  the time-space limits concerned.



  21:5.3 With the achievement of supreme local universe sovereignty, there
  passes from a Michael Son the power and opportunity to create entirely new
  types of creature beings during the present universe age. But a Master Son's
  loss of power to originate entirely new orders of beings in no way interferes
  with the work of life elaboration already established and in process of
  unfoldment; this vast program of universe evolution goes on without
  interruption or curtailment. The acquirement of supreme sovereignty by a
  Master Son implies the responsibility of personal devotion to the fostering
  and the administering of that which has already been designed and created, and
  of that which will subsequently be produced by those who have been thus
  designed and created. In time there may develop an almost endless evolution of
  diverse beings, but no entirely new pattern or type of intelligent creature
  will henceforth take direct origin from a Master Son. This is the first step,
  the beginning, of a settled administration in any local universe.

  21:5.4 The elevation of a sevenfold bestowal Son to the unquestioned
  sovereignty of his universe means the beginning of the end of agelong
  uncertainty and relative confusion. Subsequent to this event, that which
  cannot be sometime spiritualized will eventually be disorganized; that which
  cannot be sometime co-ordinated with cosmic reality will eventually be
  destroyed. When the provisions of endless mercy and nameless patience have
  been exhausted in an effort to win the loyalty and devotion of the will
  creatures of the realms, justice and righteousness will prevail. That which
  mercy cannot rehabilitate justice will eventually annihilate.



  21:5.5 The Master Michaels are supreme in their own local universes when once
  they have been installed as sovereign rulers. The few limitations upon their
  rule are those inherent in the cosmic pre-existence of certain forces and
  personalities. Otherwise these Master Sons are supreme in authority,
  responsibility, and administrative power in their respective universes; they
  are as Creators and Gods, supreme in virtually all things. There is no
  penetration beyond their wisdom regarding the functioning of a given universe.

  21:5.6 After his elevation to settled sovereignty in a local universe a
  Paradise Michael is in full control of all other Sons of God functioning in
  his domain, and he may freely rule in accordance with his concept of the needs
  of his realms. A Master Son may at will vary the order of the spiritual
  adjudication and evolutionary adjustment of the inhabited planets. And such
  Sons do make and carry out the plans of their own choosing in all matters of
  special planetary needs, in particular regarding the worlds of their creature
  sojourn and still more concerning the realm of terminal bestowal, the planet
  of incarnation in the likeness of mortal flesh.

  21:5.7 The Master Sons seem to be in perfect communication with their bestowal
  worlds, not only the worlds of their personal sojourn but all worlds whereon a
  Magisterial Son has bestowed himself. This contact is maintained by their own
  spiritual presence, the Spirit of Truth, which they are able to "pour out upon
  all flesh." These Master Sons also maintain an unbroken connection with the
  Eternal Mother Son at the center of all things. They possess a sympathetic
  reach which extends from the Universal Father on high to the lowly races of
  planetary life in the realms of time.





6. DESTINY OF THE MASTER MICHAELS



  21:6.1 No one may with finality of authority presume to discuss either the
  natures or the destinies of the sevenfold Master Sovereigns of the local
  universes; nevertheless, we all speculate much regarding these matters. We are
  taught, and we believe, that each Paradise Michael is the absolute of the dual
  deity concepts of his origin; thus he embodies actual phases of the infinity
  of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The Michaels must be partial in
  relation to total infinity, but they are probably absolute in relation to that
  part of infinity concerned in their origin. But as we observe their work in
  the present universe age, we detect no action that is more than finite; any
  conjectured superfinite capacities must be self-contained and as yet
  unrevealed.

  21:6.2 The completion of the creature-bestowal careers and the elevation to
  supreme universe sovereignty must signify the completed liberation of a
  Michael's finite-action capacities accompanied by the appearance of capacity
  for more-than-finite service. For in this connection we note that such Master
  Sons are then restricted in the production of new types of creature beings, a
  restriction undoubtedly made necessary by the liberation of their superfinite
  potentialities.

  21:6.3 It is highly probable that these undisclosed creator powers will remain
  self-contained throughout the present universe age. But sometime in the far-
  distant future, in the now mobilizing universes of outer space, we believe
  that the liaison between a sevenfold Master Son and a seventh-stage Creative
  Spirit may attain to absonite levels of service attended by the appearance of
  new things, meanings, and values on transcendental levels of ultimate universe
  significance.

  21:6.4 Just as the Deity of the Supreme is actualizing by virtue of
  experiential service, so are the Creator Sons achieving the personal
  realization of the Paradise-divinity potentials bound up in their unfathomable
  natures. When on Urantia, Christ Michael once said, "I am the way, the truth,
  and the life." And we believe that in eternity the Michaels are literally
  destined to be "the way, the truth, and the life," ever blazing the path for
  all universe personalities as it leads from supreme divinity through ultimate
  absonity to eternal deity finality.



  21:6.5 Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.






 PAPER 22


 THE TRINITIZED SONS OF GOD



  22:0.1 THERE are three groups of beings who are called Sons of God. In
  addition to descending and ascending orders of sonship there is a third group
  known as the Trinitized Sons of God. The trinitized order of sonship is
  subdivided into three primary divisions in accordance with the origins of its
  many types of personalities, revealed and unrevealed. These primary divisions
  are:

1. Deity-trinitized Sons.

2. Trinity-embraced Sons.

3. Creature-trinitized Sons.

  22:0.2 Irrespective of origin all Trinitized Sons of God have in common the
  experience of trinitization, either as a part of their origin or as an
  experience of Trinity embrace subsequently attained. The Deity-trinitized Sons
  are unrevealed in these narratives; therefore will this presentation be
  confined to a portrayal of the remaining two groups, more particularly the
  Trinity-embraced sons of God.





1. THE TRINITY-EMBRACED SONS



  22:1.1 All Trinity-embraced sons are originally of dual or single origin, but
  subsequent to the Trinity embrace they are forever devoted to Trinity service
  and assignment. This corps, as revealed and as organized for superuniverse
  service, embraces seven orders of personalities:

1. Mighty Messengers.

2. Those High in Authority.

3. Those without Name and Number.

4. Trinitized Custodians.

5. Trinitized Ambassadors.

6. Celestial Guardians.

7. High Son Assistants.

  22:1.2 These seven groups of personalities are further classified, according
  to origin, nature, and function, into three major divisions: the Trinitized
  Sons of Attainment, the Trinitized Sons of Selection, and the Trinitized Sons
  of Perfection.



  22:1.3 The Trinitized Sons of Attainment -- the Mighty Messengers, Those High
  in Authority, and Those without Name and Number -- are all Adjuster-fused
  ascendant mortals who have attained Paradise and the Corps of the Finality.
  But they are not finaliters; when they have been Trinity embraced, their names
  are removed from the finaliter roll call. The new sons of this order pass
  through specific courses of training, for comparatively short periods, on the
  circuit headquarters planets of the Havona circuits under the direction of the
  Eternals of Days. Thereafter they are assigned to the services of the Ancients
  of Days in the seven superuniverses.



  22:1.4 The Trinitized Sons of Selection embrace the Trinitized Custodians and
  the Trinitized Ambassadors. They are recruited from certain of the
  evolutionary seraphim and translated midway creatures who have traversed
  Havona and have attained Paradise, as well as from certain of the Spirit-fused
  and the Son-fused mortals who have likewise ascended to the central Isle of
  Light and Life. Subsequent to their embrace by the Paradise Trinity and after
  a brief training in Havona, the Trinitized Sons of Selection are assigned to
  the courts of the Ancients of Days.



  22:1.5 The Trinitized Sons of Perfection. The Celestial Guardians and their
  co-ordinates, the High Son Assistants, comprise a unique group of twice-
  trinitized personalities. They are the creature-trinitized sons of Paradise-
  Havona personalities or of perfected ascendant mortals who have long
  distinguished themselves in the Corps of the Finality. Some of these creature-
  trinitized sons, after service with the Supreme Executives of the Seven Master
  Spirits and after serving under the Trinity Teacher Sons, are retrinitized
  (embraced) by the Paradise Trinity and then commissioned to the courts of the
  Ancients of Days as Celestial Guardians and as High Son Assistants. Trinitized
  Sons of Perfection are assigned directly to the superuniverse service without
  further training.



  22:1.6 Our Trinity-origin associates -- Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine
  Counselors, and Universal Censors -- are of stationary numbers, but the
  Trinity-embraced sons are constantly increasing. All seven orders of Trinity-
  embraced sons are commissioned as members of one of the seven superuniverse
  governments, and the number in the service of each superuniverse is exactly
  the same; not one has ever been lost. Trinity-embraced beings have never gone
  astray; they may stumble temporarily, but not one has ever been adjudged in
  contempt of the superuniverse governments. The Sons of Attainment and the Sons
  of Selection have never faltered in the service of Orvonton, but the
  Trinitized Sons of Perfection have sometimes erred in judgment and thereby
  caused transient confusion.

  22:1.7 Under the direction of the Ancients of Days all seven orders function
  very much as self-governing groups. Their scope of service is far-flung;
  Trinitized Sons of Perfection do not leave the superuniverse of assignment,
  but their trinitized associates range the grand universe, journeying from the
  evolutionary worlds of time and space to the eternal Isle of Paradise. They
  may function in any of the superuniverses, but they do so always as members of
  the supergovernment of original designation.

  22:1.8 Apparently the Trinity-embraced sons have been permanently assigned to
  the service of the seven superuniverses; certainly this assignment is for the
  duration of the present universe age, but we have never been informed that it
  is to be eternal.





2. THE MIGHTY MESSENGERS



  22:2.1 Mighty Messengers belong to the ascendant group of the Trinitized Sons.
  They are a class of perfected mortals who have been rebellion tested or
  otherwise equally proved as to their personal loyalty; all have passed through
  some definite test of universe allegiance. At some time in their Paradise
  ascent they stood firm and loyal in the face of the disloyalty of their
  superiors, and some did actively and loyally function in the places of such
  unfaithful leaders.

  22:2.2 With such personal records of fidelity and devotion, these ascending
  mortals pass on through Havona with the stream of the pilgrims of time, attain
  Paradise, graduate therefrom, and are mustered into the Corps of the Finality.
  Thereupon they are trinitized in the secret embrace of the Paradise Trinity
  and subsequently are commissioned to become associated with the Ancients of
  Days in the administration of the governments of the seven superuniverses.

  22:2.3 Every ascendant mortal of insurrectionary experience who functions
  loyally in the face of rebellion is eventually destined to become a Mighty
  Messenger of the superuniverse service. Likewise is any ascendant creature who
  effectively prevents such upheavals of error, evil, or sin; for action
  designed to prevent rebellion or to effect higher types of loyalty in a
  universe crisis is regarded as of even greater value than loyalty in the face
  of actual rebellion.

  22:2.4 The senior Mighty Messengers were chosen from those ascendant mortals
  of time and space who were among the earlier Paradise arrivals, many having
  traversed Havona in the times of Grandfanda. But the first trinitizing of
  Mighty Messengers was not effected until the candidate corps contained
  representatives from each of the seven superuniverses. And the last group of
  this order to qualify on Paradise embraced ascendant pilgrims from the local
  universe of Nebadon.

  22:2.5 Mighty Messengers are embraced by the Paradise Trinity in classes of
  seven hundred thousand, one hundred thousand for assignment to each
  superuniverse. Almost one trillion Mighty Messengers are commissioned on
  Uversa, and there is every reason to believe that the number serving in each
  of the seven superuniverses is exactly the same.



  22:2.6 I am a Mighty Messenger, and it may interest Urantians to know that the
  companion and associate of my mortal experience was also triumphant in the
  great test, and that, though we were many times and for long periods separated
  in the agelong inward ascent to Havona, we were embraced in the same seven-
  hundred-thousand group, and that we spent our time passing through
  Vicegerington in close and loving association. We were finally commissioned
  and together assigned to Uversa of Orvonton, and we are often dispatched in
  company for the execution of assignments requiring the services of two
  Messengers.



  22:2.7 Mighty Messengers, in common with all Trinity-embraced sons, are
  assigned to all phases of superuniverse activities. They maintain constant
  connection with their headquarters through the superuniverse reflectivity
  service. Mighty Messengers serve in all sectors of a superuniverse and
  frequently execute missions to the local universes and even to the individual
  worlds, as I do on this occasion.

  22:2.8 In the superuniverse courts, Mighty Messengers act as defenders of both
  individuals and planets when they come up for adjudication; they also assist
  the Perfections of Days in the direction of the affairs of the major sectors.
  As a group, their chief assignment is that of superuniverse observers. They
  are stationed on the various headquarters worlds and on individual planets of
  importance as the official observers of the Ancients of Days. When so
  assigned, they also serve as advisers to the authorities directing the affairs
  of the spheres of their sojourn. The Messengers take active part in all phases
  of the ascendant scheme of mortal progression. With their associates of mortal
  origin they keep the supergovernments in close and personal touch with the
  status and progression of the plans of the descending Sons of God.

  22:2.9 Mighty Messengers are fully conscious of their entire ascendant
  careers, and that is why they are such useful and sympathetic ministers,
  understanding messengers, for service on any world of space and to any
  creature of time. As soon as you are delivered from the flesh, you will
  communicate freely and understandingly with us since we spring from all the
  races on all the evolutionary worlds of space, that is, from those mortal
  races that are indwelt by, and subsequently fused with, Thought Adjusters.





3. THOSE HIGH IN AUTHORITY



  22:3.1 Those High in Authority, the second group of the Trinitized Sons of
  Attainment, are all Adjuster-fused beings of mortal origin. These are the
  perfected mortals who have exhibited superior administrative ability and have
  shown extraordinary executive genius throughout their long ascending careers.
  They are the cream of governing ability derived from the surviving mortals of
  space.

  22:3.2 Seventy thousand of Those High in Authority are trinitized at each
  Trinity liaison. Though the local universe of Nebadon is a comparatively young
  creation, it has representatives among a recently trinitized class of this
  order. There are now commissioned in Orvonton more than ten billion of these
  skillful administrators. Like all separate orders of celestial beings, they
  maintain their own headquarters on Uversa, and like the other Trinity-embraced
  sons, their reserves on Uversa act as the central directing body of their
  order in Orvonton.

  22:3.3 Those High in Authority are administrators without limitation. They are
  the everywhere-present and always-efficient executives of the Ancients of
  Days. They serve on any sphere, on any inhabited world, and in any phase of
  activity in any of the seven superuniverses.

  22:3.4 Having superb administrative wisdom and unusual executive skill, these
  brilliant beings assume to present the cause of justice in behalf of the
  superuniverse tribunals; they foster the execution of justice and the
  rectification of misadaptations in the evolutionary universes. Therefore, if
  you should ever be cited for errors of judgment while you are ascending the
  worlds and spheres of your ordained cosmic progression, it is hardly likely
  that you would suffer injustice since your prosecutors would be onetime
  ascendant creatures who are personally familiar with every step of the career
  you have traversed and are traversing.





4. THOSE WITHOUT NAME AND NUMBER



  22:4.1 Those without Name and Number constitute the third and last group of
  the Trinitized Sons of Attainment; they are the ascendant souls who have
  developed the ability to worship beyond the skill of all the sons and
  daughters of the evolutionary races from the worlds of time and space. They
  have acquired a spiritual concept of the eternal purpose of the Universal
  Father which comparatively transcends the comprehension of the evolutionary
  creatures of name or number; therefore are they denominated Those without Name
  and Number. More strictly translated, their name would be "Those above Name
  and Number."

  22:4.2 This order of sons is embraced by the Paradise Trinity in groups of
  seven thousand. There are of record on Uversa over one hundred million of
  these sons commissioned in Orvonton.

  22:4.3 Since Those without Name and Number are the superior spiritual minds of
  the survival races, they are especially qualified to sit in judgment and to
  render opinions when a spiritual viewpoint is desirable, and when experience
  in the ascendant career is essential to an adequate comprehension of the
  questions involved in the problem to be adjudicated. They are the supreme
  jurors of Orvonton. A maladministered jury system may be more or less of a
  travesty of justice on some worlds, but on Uversa and its extension tribunals
  we employ the highest type of evolved spiritual mentality as juror-judges.
  Adjudication is the highest function of any government, and those who are
  intrusted with verdict rendering should be chosen from the highest and most
  noble types of the most experienced and understanding individuals.



  22:4.4 The selection of candidates for the trinitization classes of Mighty
  Messengers, Those High in Authority, and Those without Name and Number is
  inherent and automatic. The selective techniques of Paradise are not in any
  sense arbitrary. Personal experience and spiritual values determine the
  personnel of the Trinitized Sons of Attainment. Such beings are equal in
  authority and uniform in administrative status, but they all possess
  individuality and diverse characters; they are not standardized beings. All
  are characteristically different, depending on the differentials of their
  ascendant careers.

  22:4.5 In addition to these experiential qualifications, the Trinitized Sons
  of Attainment have been trinitized in the divine embrace of the Paradise
  Deities. Consequently they function as the co-ordinate associates of the
  Stationary Sons of the Trinity, for the Trinity embrace does seem to
  precipitate out of the stream of future time many of the unrealized potentials
  of creature beings. But this is true concerning only that which pertains to
  the present universe age.

  22:4.6 This group of sons is chiefly, but not wholly, concerned with the
  services of the ascendant career of the time-space mortals. If the viewpoint
  of a mortal creature is ever in doubt, the question is settled by appeal to an
  ascendant commission consisting of a Mighty Messenger, One High in Authority,
  and One without Name and Number.

  22:4.7 You mortals who read this message may yourselves ascend to Paradise,
  attain the Trinity embrace, and in remote future ages be attached to the
  service of the Ancients of Days in one of the seven superuniverses, and
  sometime be assigned to enlarge the revelation of truth to some evolving
  inhabited planet, even as I am now functioning on Urantia.





5. THE TRINITIZED CUSTODIANS



  22:5.1 The Trinitized Custodians are Trinitized Sons of Selection. Not only do
  your races and other mortals of survival value traverse Havona, attain
  Paradise, and sometimes find themselves destined to superuniverse service with
  the Stationary Sons of the Trinity, but your faithful seraphic guardians and
  your equally faithful midway associates may also become candidates for the
  same Trinity recognition and superb personality destiny.

  22:5.2 Trinitized Custodians are ascendant seraphim and translated midway
  creatures who have passed through Havona and have attained Paradise and the
  Corps of the Finality. Subsequently they were embraced by the Paradise Trinity
  and were assigned to the service of the Ancients of Days.

  22:5.3 The candidates for the Trinity embrace from among the ascendant
  seraphim are accorded this recognition because of their valiant co-operation
  with some ascendant mortal who attained the Corps of the Finality and was
  subsequently trinitized. My own seraphic guardian of the mortal career went
  through with me, was later trinitized, and now is attached to the Uversa
  government as a Trinitized Custodian.

  22:5.4 And so with the midway creatures; many are translated and achieve
  Paradise and, along with the seraphim and for the same reasons, are Trinity
  embraced and commissioned as Custodians in the superuniverses.

  22:5.5 The Trinitized Custodians are embraced by the Paradise Trinity in
  groups of seventy thousand, and one seventh of each group is assigned to a
  superuniverse. There are now in the service of Orvonton slightly over ten
  million of these trusted and high Custodians. They serve on Uversa and on the
  major and minor headquarters spheres. In their labors they are assisted by a
  corps of several billion seconaphim and other able superuniverse
  personalities.

  22:5.6 The Trinitized Custodians start out their careers as custodians, and
  they continue as such in the affairs of the supergovernments. In a way, they
  are officers of their superuniverse governments, but they do not deal with
  individuals, as do the Celestial Guardians. The Trinitized Custodians
  administer group affairs and foster collective projects. They are the
  custodians of records, plans, and institutions; they act as the trustees of
  undertakings, personality groups, ascendant projects, morontia plans, universe
  projections, and innumerable other enterprises.





6. THE TRINITIZED AMBASSADORS



  22:6.1 Trinitized Ambassadors are the second order of the Trinitized Sons of
  Selection and like their associates, the Custodians, are recruited from two
  types of ascendant creatures. Not all ascending mortals are Adjuster or Father
  fused; some are Spirit fused, some are Son fused. Certain of these Spirit- and
  Son-fused mortals reach Havona and attain Paradise. From among these Paradise
  ascenders, candidates are selected for the Trinity embrace, and from time to
  time they are trinitized in classes of seven thousand. They are then
  commissioned in the superuniverses as Trinitized Ambassadors of the Ancients
  of Days. Almost one-half billion are registered on Uversa.

  22:6.2 Trinitized Ambassadors are selected for the Trinity embrace upon the
  advices of their Havona teachers. They represent the superior minds of their
  respective groups and are, therefore, best qualified to assist the
  superuniverse rulers in understanding and in administering the interests of
  those worlds from which the Spirit-fused mortals hail. The Son-fused
  Ambassadors are of great assistance in our dealings with problems involving
  the Son-fused order of personality.

  22:6.3 Trinitized Ambassadors are the emissaries of the Ancients of Days for
  any and all purposes, to any and all worlds or universes within the
  superuniverse of their assignment. They render particular and important
  services on the headquarters of the minor sectors, and they perform the
  numberless miscellaneous assignments of a superuniverse. They are the
  emergency or reserve corps of the Trinitized Sons of the supergovernments, and
  they are therefore available for a great range of duties. They engage in
  thousands upon thousands of undertakings in superuniverse affairs which it is
  impossible to portray to human minds since there is nothing transpiring on
  Urantia that is in any way analogous to these activities.





7. TECHNIQUE OF TRINITIZATION



  22:7.1 I cannot fully unfold to the material mind the experience of the
  supreme creative performance of perfect and perfected spiritual beings -- the
  act of trinitization. The techniques of trinitization are among the secrets of
  Vicegerington and Solitarington and are revealable to, and understandable by,
  none save those who have passed through these unique experiences. Therefore is
  it beyond the possibility of any being successfully to portray to the human
  mind the nature and purport of this extraordinary transaction.

  22:7.2 Aside from the Deities, only Paradise-Havona personalities and certain
  members of each of the finaliter corps engage in trinitization. Under
  specialized conditions of Paradise perfection, these superb beings may embark
  upon the unique adventure of concept-identity, and they are many times
  successful in the production of a new being, a creature-trinitized son.

  22:7.3 The glorified creatures who engage in such adventures of trinitization
  may participate in only one such experience, whereas with the Paradise Deities
  there seems to be no limit to the continued enactment of trinitization
  episodes. Deity seems to be limited in just one respect: There can be only one
  Original and Infinite Spirit, only one infinite executive of the united will
  of the Father-Son.

  22:7.4 The ascendant Adjuster-fused mortal finaliters who have attained
  certain levels of Paradise culture and spiritual development are among those
  who can essay to trinitize a creature being. Mortal-finaliter companies, when
  stationed on Paradise, are granted a recess every millennium of Havona time.
  There are seven different ways such finaliters may elect to spend this duty-
  free period, and one of these is, in association with some fellow finaliter or
  some Paradise-Havona personality, to attempt the enactment of creature
  trinitization.

  22:7.5 If two mortal finaliters, on going before the Architects of the Master
  Universe, demonstrate that they have independently chosen an identical concept
  for trinitization, the Architects are empowered, on their own discretion, to
  promulgate mandates permitting these glorified mortal ascenders to extend
  their recess and to remove themselves for a time to the trinitizing sector of
  the Paradise Citizens. At the end of this assigned retreat, if they report
  that they have singly and jointly elected to make the paradisiacal effort to
  spiritualize, idealize, and actualize a selected and original concept which
  has not theretofore been trinitized, then does Master Spirit Number Seven
  issue orders authorizing such an extraordinary undertaking.

  22:7.6 Unbelievably long periods of time are sometimes consumed in these
  adventures; an age seems to pass before these faithful and determined onetime
  mortals -- and sometimes Paradise-Havona personalities -- finally achieve
  their goal, really succeed in bringing their chosen concept of universal truth
  into actual being. And not always do these devoted couples meet with success;
  many times they fail, and that through no discoverable error on their part.
  Candidates for trinitization who thus fail are admitted to a special group of
  finaliters who are designated as beings who have made the supreme effort and
  sustained the supreme disappointment. When the Paradise Deities unite to
  trinitize, they always succeed, but not so with a homogeneous pair of
  creatures, the attempted union of two members of the same order of being.



  22:7.7 When a new and original being is trinitized by the Gods, the divine
  parents are in deity potential unchanged; but when exalted creature beings
  enact such a creative episode, one of the contracting and participating
  individuals undergoes a unique personality modification. The two ancestors of
  a creature-trinitized son become in a certain sense spiritually as one. We
  believe that this status of bi-unification of certain spiritual phases of
  personality will probably prevail until such time as the Supreme Being shall
  have attained full and completed manifestation of personality in the grand
  universe.

  22:7.8 Simultaneously with the appearance of a new creature-trinitized son,
  there occurs this functional spiritual union of the two ancestors; the two
  trinitizing parents become one on the ultimate functional level. No created
  being in the universe can fully explain this amazing phenomenon; it is a near-
  divine experience. When the Father and the Son united to eternalize the
  Infinite Spirit, upon the accomplishment of their purpose they immediately
  became as one and ever since have been one. And while the trinitization union
  of two creatures is on the order of the infinite scope of the perfect Deity
  union of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, the repercussions of
  creature trinitization are not eternal in nature; they will terminate upon the
  completed factualization of the experiential Deities.

  22:7.9 While these parents of creature-trinitized sons become as one in their
  universe assignments, they continue to be reckoned as two personalities in the
  make-up and roll calls of the Corps of the Finality and of the Architects of
  the Master Universe. During the current universe age, all trinitization-united
  parents are inseparable in assignment and function; where one goes the other
  goes, what one does the other does. If parental bi-unification involves a
  mortal (or other) finaliter and a Paradise-Havona personality, the united
  parental beings function neither with the Paradisers, Havoners, nor
  finaliters. Such mixed unions forgather in a special corps made up of similar
  beings. And in all trinitization unions, mixed or otherwise, the parental
  beings are conscious of, and can communicate with, each other, and they can
  perform duties that neither could have previously discharged.



  22:7.10 The Seven Master Spirits have authority to sanction the trinitizing
  union of finaliters and Paradise-Havona personalities, and such mixed liaisons
  are always successful. The resultant magnificent creature-trinitized sons are
  representative of concepts unsuited to the comprehension of either the eternal
  creatures of Paradise or the time creatures of space; hence they become the
  wards of the Architects of the Master Universe. These trinitized sons of
  destiny embody ideas, ideals, and experience which apparently pertain to a
  future universe age and are therefore of no immediate practical value to
  either the super- or central universe administrations. These unique sons of
  the children of time and the citizens of eternity are all held in reserve on
  Vicegerington, where they are engaged in the study of the concepts of time and
  the realities of eternity in a special sector of the sphere occupied by the
  secret colleges of the corps of the Creator Sons.



  22:7.11 The Supreme Being is the unification of three phases of Deity reality:
  God the Supreme, the spiritual unification of certain finite aspects of the
  Paradise Trinity; the Almighty Supreme, the power unification of the grand
  universe Creators; and the Supreme Mind, the individual contribution of the
  Third Source and Center and his co-ordinates to the reality of the Supreme
  Being. In their trinitization adventures the superb creatures of the central
  universe and Paradise are engaged in a threefold exploration of the Deity of
  the Supreme which results in the production of three orders of creature-
  trinitized sons:



  22:7.12 1. Ascender-trinitized Sons. In their creative efforts the finaliters
  are attempting to trinitize certain conceptual realities of the Almighty
  Supreme which they have experientially acquired in their ascension through
  time and space to Paradise.



  22:7.13 2. Paradise-Havona-trinitized Sons. The creative efforts of the
  Paradise Citizens and the Havoners result in the trinitization of certain high
  spiritual aspects of the Supreme Being which they have experientially acquired
  on a supersupreme background bordering on the Ultimate and the Eternal.



  22:7.14 3. Trinitized Sons of Destiny. But when a finaliter and a Paradise-
  Havoner together trinitize a new creature, this conjoint effort repercusses in
  certain phases of the Supreme-Ultimate Mind. The resulting creature-trinitized
  sons are supercreational; they represent actualities of Supreme-Ultimate Deity
  which have not been otherwise experientially attained, and which, therefore,
  automatically fall within the province of the Architects of the Master
  Universe, custodians of those things which transcend the creational limits of
  the present universe age. The trinitized sons of destiny embody certain
  aspects of the unrevealed master universe function of the Supreme-Ultimate. We
  do not know a great deal about these conjoint children of time and eternity,
  but we know much more than we are permitted to reveal.





8. THE CREATURE-TRINITIZED SONS



  22:8.1 In addition to the creature-trinitized sons considered in this
  narrative, there are numerous unrevealed orders of creature-trinitized beings
  -- the diverse progeny of the multiple liaisons of seven finaliter corps and
  Paradise-Havona personalities. But all these creature-trinitized beings,
  revealed and unrevealed, are endowed with personality by the Universal Father.



  22:8.2 When new ascender-trinitized and Paradise-Havona-trinitized sons are
  young and untrained, they are usually dispatched for long periods of service
  on the seven Paradise spheres of the Infinite Spirit, where they serve under
  the tutelage of the Seven Supreme Executives. Subsequently they may be adopted
  for further training in the local universes by the Trinity Teacher Sons.

  22:8.3 These adopted sons of high and glorified creature origin are the
  apprentices, student helpers, of the Teacher Sons, and as regards
  classification they are often temporarily numbered with these Sons. They may
  and do execute many noble assignments in self-denial in behalf of their chosen
  realms of service.

  22:8.4 The Teacher Sons in the local universes may nominate their creature-
  trinitized wards for embrace by the Paradise Trinity. Emerging from this
  embrace as Trinitized Sons of Perfection, they enter the service of the
  Ancients of Days in the seven superuniverses, that being the present known
  destiny of this unique group of twice-trinitized beings.

  22:8.5 Not all creature-trinitized sons are Trinity embraced; many become the
  associates and ambassadors of the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise, of the
  Reflective Spirits of the superuniverses, and of the Mother Spirits of the
  local creations. Others may accept special assignments on the eternal Isle.
  Still others may enter the special services on the secret worlds of the Father
  and on the Paradise spheres of the Spirit. Eventually many find their way into
  the conjoint corps of the Trinitized Sons on the inner circuit of Havona.

  22:8.6 Excepting the Trinitized Sons of Perfection and those who are
  forgathering on Vicegerington, the supreme destiny of all creature-trinitized
  sons appears to be entrance into the Corps of Trinitized Finaliters, one of
  the seven Paradise Corps of the Finality.





9. THE CELESTIAL GUARDIANS



  22:9.1 Creature-trinitized sons are embraced by the Paradise Trinity in
  classes of seven thousand. These trinitized offspring of perfected humans and
  of Paradise-Havona personalities are all equally embraced by the Deities, but
  they are assigned to the superuniverses in accordance with the advice of their
  former instructors, the Trinity Teacher Sons. Those of more acceptable service
  are commissioned High Son Assistants; those of less distinguished performance
  are designated Celestial Guardians.

  22:9.2 When these unique beings have been Trinity embraced, they become
  valuable adjuncts to the superuniverse governments. They are versed in the
  affairs of the ascendant career, not by personal ascension, but as a result of
  their service with the Trinity Teacher Sons on the worlds of space.



  22:9.3 Almost one billion Celestial Guardians have been commissioned in
  Orvonton. They are chiefly assigned to the administrations of the Perfections
  of Days on the headquarters of the major sectors and are ably assisted by a
  corps of ascendant Son-fused mortals.

  22:9.4 The Celestial Guardians are the officers of the courts of the Ancients
  of Days, functioning as court messengers and as bearers of the summonses and
  decisions of the various tribunals of the superuniverse governments. They are
  the apprehending agents of the Ancients of Days; they go forth from Uversa to
  bring back beings whose presence is required before the superuniverse judges;
  they execute the mandates for the detention of any personality in the
  superuniverse. They also accompany Spirit-fused mortals of the local universes
  when, for any reason, their presence is required on Uversa.



  22:9.5 The Celestial Guardians and their associates, the High Son Assistants,
  have never been indwelt by Adjusters. Neither are they Spirit nor Son fused.
  The embrace of the Paradise Trinity does, however, compensate for the nonfused
  status of the Trinitized Sons of Perfection. The Trinity embrace may act
  solely upon the idea which is personified in a creature-trinitized son,
  leaving the embraced son otherwise unchanged, but such a limitation occurs
  only when so planned.

  22:9.6 These twice-trinitized sons are marvelous beings, but they are neither
  as versatile nor dependable as their ascendant associates; they lack that
  tremendous and profound personal experience which the rest of the sons
  belonging to this group have acquired by actually climbing up to glory from
  the dark domains of space. We of the ascendant career love them and do all in
  our power to compensate their deficiencies, but they make us ever grateful for
  our lowly origin and our capacity for experience. Their willingness to
  recognize and acknowledge their deficiencies in the experiencible realities of
  universe ascension is transcendently beautiful and sometimes most touchingly
  pathetic.

  22:9.7 Trinitized Sons of Perfection are limited in contrast to other Trinity-
  embraced sons because their experiential capacity is time-space inhibited.
  They are experience-deficient, despite long training with the Supreme
  Executives and the Teacher Sons, and if this were not the case, experiential
  saturation would preclude their being left in reserve for acquiring experience
  in a future universe age. There is simply nothing in all universal existence
  which can take the place of actual personal experience, and these creature-
  trinitized sons are held in reserve for experiential function in some future
  universe epoch.

  22:9.8 On the mansion worlds I have often seen these dignified officers of the
  high courts of the superuniverse look so longingly and appealingly at even the
  recent arrivals from the evolutionary worlds of space that one could not help
  realizing that these possessors of nonexperiential trinitization really envied
  their supposedly less fortunate brethren who ascend the universal path by
  steps of bona fide experience and actual living. Notwithstanding their
  handicaps and limitations they are a wonderfully useful and ever-willing corps
  of workers when it comes to the execution of the complex administrative plans
  of the superuniverse governments.





10. HIGH SON ASSISTANTS



  22:10.1 The High Son Assistants are the superior group of the retrinitized
  trinitized sons of glorified ascendant beings of the Mortal Corps of the
  Finality and of their eternal associates, the Paradise-Havona personalities.
  They are assigned to the superuniverse service and function as personal aids
  to the high sons of the governments of the Ancients of Days. They might
  fittingly be denominated private secretaries. They act, from time to time, as
  clerks for special commissions and other group associations of the high sons.
  They serve Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, Universal Censors, Mighty
  Messengers, Those High in Authority, and Those without Name and Number.



  22:10.2 If, in discussing the Celestial Guardians, I have seemed to call
  attention to the limitations and handicaps of these twice-trinitized sons, let
  me now, in all fairness, call attention to their one point of great strength,
  the attribute which makes them almost invaluable to us. These beings owe their
  very existence to the fact that they are the personification of a single and
  supreme concept. They are the personality embodiment of some divine idea, some
  universal ideal, as it has never before been conceived, expressed, or
  trinitized. And they have subsequently been Trinity embraced; thus they show
  forth and actually embody the very wisdom of the divine Trinity as concerns
  the idea-ideal of their personality existence. As far as that particular
  concept is revealable to the universes, these personalities embody all of
  everything that any creature or Creator intelligence could possibly conceive,
  express, or exemplify. They are that idea personified.

  22:10.3 Can you not see that such living concentrations of a single supreme
  concept of universe reality would be of untold service to those who are
  intrusted with the administration of the superuniverses?



  22:10.4 Not long since I was directed to head a commission of six -- one of
  each of the high sons -- assigned to the study of three problems pertaining to
  a group of new universes in the south parts of Orvonton. I was made acutely
  aware of the value of the High Son Assistants when I made requisition on the
  chief of their order on Uversa for temporary assignment of such secretaries to
  my commission. The first of our ideas was represented by a High Son Assistant
  on Uversa, who was forthwith attached to our group. Our second problem was
  embodied in a High Son Assistant assigned to superuniverse number three. We
  secured much help from this source through the central universe clearinghouse
  for the co-ordination and dissemination of essential knowledge, but nothing
  comparable to the assistance afforded by the actual presence of a personality
  who is a concept creature-trinitized in supremacy and Deity-trinitized in
  finality. Concerning our third problem, the records of Paradise disclosed that
  such an idea had never been creature trinitized.



  22:10.5 High Son Assistants are unique and original personalizations of
  tremendous concepts and stupendous ideals. And as such they are able to impart
  inexpressible illumination to our deliberations from time to time. When I am
  acting on some remote assignment out in the universes of space, think what it
  means, by way of assistance, if I am so fortunate as to have attached to my
  mission a High Son Assistant who is the fullness of divine concept regarding
  the very problem I have been sent to attack and solve; and I have repeatedly
  had this very experience. The only difficulty with this plan is that no
  superuniverse can have a complete edition of these trinitized ideas; we only
  get one seventh of these beings; so it is only about one time in seven that we
  enjoy the personal association of these beings even when the records indicate
  that the idea has been trinitized.

  22:10.6 We could use to great advantage much larger numbers of these beings on
  Uversa. Because of their value to the superuniverse administrations, we, in
  every way possible, encourage the pilgrims of space and also the residents of
  Paradise to attempt trinitization after they have contributed to one another
  those experiential realities which are essential to the enactment of such
  creative adventures.



  22:10.7 We now have in our superuniverse about one and a quarter million High
  Son Assistants, and they serve on both the major and minor sectors, even as
  they function on Uversa. They very often accompany us on our assignments to
  the remote universes. High Son Assistants are not permanently assigned to any
  Son or to any commission. They are in constant circulation, serving where the
  idea or ideal which they are can best further the eternal purposes of the
  Paradise Trinity, whose sons they have become.

  22:10.8 They are touchingly affectionate, superbly loyal, exquisitely
  intelligent, supremely wise -- regarding a single idea -- and transcendently
  humble. While they can impart to you the lore of the universe concerning their
  one idea or ideal, it is well-nigh pathetic to observe them seeking knowledge
  and information on hosts of other subjects, even from the ascending mortals.



  22:10.9 And this is the narrative of the origin, nature, and functioning of
  certain of those who are called the Trinitized Sons of God, more particularly
  of those who have passed through the divine embrace of the Paradise Trinity,
  and who have then been assigned to the services of the superuniverses, there
  to give wise and understanding co-operation with the administrators of the
  Ancients of Days in their untiring efforts to facilitate the inward progress
  of the ascending mortals of time toward their immediate Havona destination and
  their eventual Paradise goal.

  22:10.10 Narrated by a Mighty Messenger of the revelatory corps of Orvonton.




PAPER 23


 THE SOLITARY MESSENGERS



  23:0.1 SOLITARY Messengers are the personal and universal corps of the
  Conjoint Creator; they are the first and senior order of the Higher
  Personalities of the Infinite Spirit. They represent the initial creative
  action of the Infinite Spirit in solitary function for the purpose of bringing
  into existence solitary personality spirits. Neither the Father nor the Son
  directly participated in this stupendous spiritualization.

  23:0.2 These spirit messengers were personalized in a single creative episode,
  and their number is stationary. Although I have one of these extraordinary
  beings associated with me on this present mission, I do not know how many such
  personalities exist in the universe of universes. I only know, from time to
  time, how many are of registry-record as functioning for the time being within
  the jurisdiction of our superuniverse. From the last Uversa report I observe
  that there were almost 7,690 trillion Solitary Messengers then operating
  within the boundaries of Orvonton; and I conjecture that this is considerably
  less than one seventh of their total number.





1. NATURE AND ORIGIN OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS



  23:1.1 Immediately following the creation of the Seven Spirits of the Havona
  Circuits the Infinite Spirit brought into being the vast corps of Solitary
  Messengers. There is no part of the universal creation which is pre-existent
  to the Solitary Messengers except Paradise and the Havona circuits; they have
  functioned throughout the grand universe from near eternity. They are
  fundamental to the divine technique of the Infinite Spirit for self-revelation
  to, and personal contact with, the far-flung creations of time and space.

  23:1.2 Notwithstanding that these messengers are existent from the near times
  of eternity, they are all aware of a beginning of selfhood. They are conscious
  of time, being the first of the creation of the Infinite Spirit to possess
  such a time consciousness. They are the first-born creatures of the Infinite
  Spirit to be personalized in time and spiritualized in space.

  23:1.3 These solitary spirits came forth in the dawn of time as full-fledged
  and perfectly endowed spirit beings. They are all equal, and there are no
  classes or subdivisions founded on personal variation. Their classifications
  are based wholly on the type of work to which they are assigned from time to
  time.

  23:1.4 Mortals start out as well-nigh material beings on the worlds of space
  and ascend inward towards the Great Centers; these solitary spirits start out
  at the center of all things and crave assignment to the remote creations, even
  to the individual worlds of the outermost local universes and even on beyond.

  23:1.5 Though denominated Solitary Messengers, they are not lonesome spirits,
  for they truly like to work alone. They are the only beings in all creation
  who can and do enjoy a solitary existence, albeit they equally enjoy
  association with the very few orders of universe intelligence with whom they
  can fraternize.



  23:1.6 Solitary Messengers are not isolated in their service; they are
  constantly in touch with the wealth of the intellect of all creation as they
  are capable of "listening in" on all the broadcasts of the realms of their
  sojourn. They can also intercommunicate with members of their own immediate
  corps, those beings doing the same kind of work in the same superuniverse.
  They could communicate with others of their number, but they have been
  directed by the council of the Seven Master Spirits not to do so, and they are
  a loyal group; they do not disobey or default. There is no record that a
  Solitary Messenger ever stumbled into darkness.

  23:1.7 The Solitary Messengers, like the Universe Power Directors, are among
  the very few types of beings operating throughout the realms who are exempt
  from apprehension or detention by the tribunals of time and space. They could
  be cited to appear before no one except the Seven Master Spirits, but not in
  all the annals of the master universe has this Paradise council ever been
  called upon to adjudicate the case of a Solitary Messenger.

  23:1.8 These messengers of solitary assignment are a dependable, self-reliant,
  versatile, thoroughly spiritual, and broadly sympathetic group of created
  beings derived from the Third Source and Center; they operate by the authority
  of the Infinite Spirit resident on the central Isle of Paradise and as
  personalized on the headquarters spheres of the local universes. They are
  constant partakers of the direct circuit emanating from the Infinite Spirit,
  even when they function in the local creations under the immediate influence
  of the local universe Mother Spirits.



  23:1.9 There is a technical reason why these Solitary Messengers must travel
  and work alone. For short periods and when stationary, they can collaborate in
  a group, but when thus ensembled, they are altogether cut off from the
  sustenance and direction of their Paradise circuit; they are wholly isolated.
  When in transit, or when operating in the circuits of space and the currents
  of time, if two or more of this order are in close proximity, both or all are
  thrown out of liaison with the higher circulating forces. They are "short
  circuited" as you might describe it in illustrative symbols. Therefore they
  have inherent within them a power of automatic alarm, a warning signal, which
  unerringly operates to apprise them of approaching conflicts and unfailingly
  keeps them sufficiently separated as not to interfere with their proper and
  effective functioning. They also possess inherent and automatic powers which
  detect and indicate the proximity of both the Inspired Trinity Spirits and the
  divine Thought Adjusters.



  23:1.10 These messengers possess no power of personality extension or
  reproduction, but there is practically no work of the universes in which they
  cannot engage, and to which they cannot contribute something essential and
  helpful. Especially are they the great timesavers for those who are concerned
  in the administration of universe affairs; and they assist us all, from the
  highest to the lowest.





2. ASSIGNMENTS OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS



  23:2.1 Solitary Messengers are not permanently attached to any individual or
  group of celestial personalities. They are on duty, always by assignment, and
  during such service they work under the immediate supervision of those who
  direct the realms of their attachment. Among themselves they have neither
  organization nor government of any kind; they are Solitary Messengers.



  23:2.2 Solitary Messengers are assigned by the Infinite Spirit to the
  following seven divisions of service:

1. Messengers of the Paradise Trinity.

2. Messengers of the Havona Circuits.

3. Messengers of the Superuniverses.

4. Messengers of the Local Universes.

5. Explorers of Undirected Assignment.

6. Ambassadors and Emissaries of Special Assignment.

7. Revelators of Truth.

  23:2.3 These spirit messengers are in every sense interchangeable from one
  type of service to another; such transfers are constantly taking place. There
  are no separate orders of Solitary Messengers; they are spiritually alike and
  in every sense equal. While they are generally designated by number, they are
  known to the Infinite Spirit by personal names. They are known to the rest of
  us by the name or number designative of their current assignment.



  23:2.4 1. Messengers of the Paradise Trinity. I am not permitted to reveal
  much of the work of the group of messengers assigned to the Trinity. They are
  the trusted and secret servants of the Deities, and when intrusted with
  special messages which involve the unrevealed policies and future conduct of
  the Gods, they have never been known to divulge a secret or betray the
  confidence reposed in their order. And all this is related in this connection,
  not to appear boastful of their perfection, but rather to point out that the
  Deities can and do create perfect beings.

  23:2.5 The confusion and turmoil of Urantia do not signify that the Paradise
  Rulers lack either interest or ability to manage affairs differently. The
  Creators are possessed of full power to make Urantia a veritable paradise, but
  such an Eden would not contribute to the development of those strong, noble,
  and experienced characters which the Gods are so surely forging out on your
  world between the anvils of necessity and the hammers of anguish. Your
  anxieties and sorrows, your trials and disappointments, are just as much a
  part of the divine plan on your sphere as are the exquisite perfection and
  infinite adaptation of all things to their supreme purpose on the worlds of
  the central and perfect universe.



  23:2.6 2. Messengers of the Havona Circuits. Throughout the ascendant career
  you will be vaguely, but increasingly, able to detect the presence of the
  Solitary Messengers, but not until you reach Havona will you recognize them
  unmistakably. The first of the messengers you will see face to face will be
  those of the Havona circuits.

  23:2.7 Solitary Messengers enjoy special relations with the natives of the
  Havona worlds. These messengers, who are so functionally handicapped when
  associating with one another, can and do have a very close and personal
  communion with the Havona natives. But it is quite impossible to convey to
  human minds the supreme satisfactions consequent upon the contact of the minds
  of these divinely perfect beings with the spirits of such near-transcendent
  personalities.



  23:2.8 3. Messengers of the Superuniverses. The Ancients of Days, those
  personalities of Trinity origin who preside over the destinies of the seven
  superuniverses, those trios of divine power and administrative wisdom, are
  bountifully supplied with Solitary Messengers. It is only through this order
  of messengers that the triune rulers of one superuniverse can directly and
  personally communicate with the rulers of another. Solitary Messengers are the
  only available type of spirit intelligence -- aside, possibly, from the
  Inspired Trinity Spirits -- that can be dispatched from the headquarters of
  one superuniverse directly to the headquarters of another. All other
  personalities must make such excursions by way of Havona and the executive
  worlds of the Master Spirits.

  23:2.9 There are some kinds of information which cannot be obtained either by
  Gravity Messengers, reflectivity, or broadcast. And when the Ancients of Days
  would certainly know these things, they must dispatch a Solitary Messenger to
  the source of knowledge. Long before the presence of life on Urantia the
  messenger now associated with me was assigned on a mission out of Uversa to
  the central universe -- was absent from the roll calls of Orvonton for almost
  a million years but returned in due time with the desired information.

  23:2.10 There is no limitation upon the service of Solitary Messengers in the
  superuniverses; they may function as executioners of the high tribunals or as
  intelligence gatherers for the good of the realm. Of all the supercreations
  they most delight to serve in Orvonton because here the need is greatest and
  the opportunities for heroic effort are greatly multiplied. In the more needy
  realms we all enjoy the satisfaction of a more replete function.



  23:2.11 4. Messengers of the Local Universes. In the services of a local
  universe there is no limit upon the functioning of the Solitary Messengers.
  They are the faithful revealers of the motives and intent of the local
  universe Mother Spirit, although they are under the full jurisdiction of the
  reigning Master Son. And this is true of all messengers operating in a local
  universe, whether they are traveling out directly from universe headquarters,
  or whether they are acting temporarily in liaison with Constellation Fathers,
  System Sovereigns, or Planetary Princes. Before the concentration of all power
  in the hands of a Creator Son at the time of his elevation as sovereign ruler
  of his universe, these messengers of the local universes function under the
  general direction of the Ancients of Days and are immediately responsible to
  their resident representative, the Union of Days.



  23:2.12 5. Explorers of Undirected Assignment. When the reserve corps of the
  Solitary Messengers is overrecruited, there issues from one of the Seven
  Supreme Power Directors a call for exploration volunteers; and there is never
  a lack of volunteers, for they delight to be dispatched as free and
  untrammeled explorers, to experience the thrill of finding the organizing
  nucleuses of new worlds and universes.

  23:2.13 They go forth to investigate the clues furnished by the space
  contemplators of the realms. Undoubtedly the Paradise Deities know of the
  existence of these undiscovered energy systems of space, but they never
  divulge such information. If the Solitary Messengers did not explore and chart
  these newly organizing energy centers, such phenomena would long remain
  unnoticed even by the intelligences of adjacent realms. Solitary Messengers,
  as a class, are highly sensitive to gravity; accordingly they can sometimes
  detect the probable presence of very small dark planets, the very worlds which
  are best adapted to life experiments.

  23:2.14 These messenger-explorers of undirected assignment patrol the master
  universe. They are constantly out on exploring expeditions to the uncharted
  regions of all outer space. Very much of the information which we possess of
  transactions in the realms of outer space, we owe to the explorations of the
  Solitary Messengers as they often work and study with the celestial
  astronomers.



  23:2.15 6. Ambassadors and Emissaries of Special Assignment. Local universes
  situated within the same superuniverse customarily exchange ambassadors
  selected from their native orders of sonship. But to avoid delay, Solitary
  Messengers are frequently asked to go as ambassadors from one local creation
  to another, to represent and interpret one realm to another. For example: When
  a newly inhabited realm is discovered, it may prove to be so remote in space
  that a long time will pass before an enseraphimed ambassador can reach this
  far-distant universe. An enseraphimed being cannot possibly exceed the
  velocity of 558,840 Urantia miles in one second of your time. Massive stars,
  crosscurrents, and detours, as well as attraction tangents, will all tend to
  retard such speed so that on a long journey the velocity will average about
  550,000 miles per second.

  23:2.16 When it develops that it will require hundreds of years for a native
  ambassador to reach a far-distant local universe, a Solitary Messenger is
  often asked to proceed there immediately to act as ambassador ad interim.
  Solitary Messengers can go in very short order, not independently of time and
  space as do the Gravity Messengers, but nearly so. They also serve in other
  circumstances as emissaries of special assignment.



  23:2.17 7. Revelators of Truth. The Solitary Messengers regard the assignment
  to reveal truth as the highest trust of their order. And they function ever
  and anon in this capacity, from the superuniverses to the individual planets
  of space. They are frequently attached to commissions which are sent to
  enlarge the revelation of truth to the worlds and systems.





3. TIME AND SPACE SERVICES OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS



  23:3.1 The Solitary Messengers are the highest type of perfect and
  confidential personality available in all realms for the quick transmission of
  important and urgent messages when it is inexpedient to utilize either the
  broadcast service or the reflectivity mechanism. They serve in an endless
  variety of assignments, helping out the spiritual and material beings of the
  realms, particularly where the element of time is involved. Of all orders
  assigned to the services of the superuniverse domains, they are the highest
  and most versatile personalized beings who can come so near to defying time
  and space.



  23:3.2 The universe is well supplied with spirits who utilize gravity for
  purposes of transit; they can go anywhere any time -- instanter -- but they
  are not persons. Certain other gravity traversers are personal beings, such as
  Gravity Messengers and Transcendental Recorders, but they are not available to
  the super- and the local universe administrators. The worlds teem with angels
  and men and other highly personal beings, but they are handicapped by time and
  space: The limit of velocity for most nonenseraphimed beings is 186,280 miles
  of your world per second of your time; the midway creatures and certain others
  can, often do, attain double velocity -- 372,560 miles per second -- while the
  seraphim and others can traverse space at triple velocity, about 558,840 miles
  per second. There are, however, no transit or messenger personalities who
  function between the instantaneous velocities of the gravity traversers and
  the comparatively slow speeds of the seraphim, except the Solitary Messengers.

  23:3.3 Solitary Messengers are, therefore, generally used for dispatch and
  service in those situations where personality is essential to the achievement
  of the assignment, and where it is desired to avoid the loss of time which
  would be occasioned by the sending of any other readily available type of
  personal messenger. They are the only definitely personalized beings who can
  synchronize with the combined universal currents of the grand universe. Their
  velocity in traversing space is variable, depending on a great variety of
  interfering influences, but the record shows that on the journey to fulfill
  this mission my associate messenger proceeded at the rate of 841,621,642,000
  of your miles per second of your time.

  23:3.4 It is wholly beyond my ability to explain to the material type of mind
  how a spirit can be a real person and at the same time traverse space at such
  tremendous velocities. But these very Solitary Messengers actually come to,
  and go from, Urantia at these incomprehensible speeds; indeed, the whole
  economy of universal administration would be largely deprived of its personal
  element were this not a fact.



  23:3.5 The Solitary Messengers are able to function as emergency lines of
  communication throughout remote space regions, realms not embraced within the
  established circuits of the grand universe. It develops that one messenger,
  when so functioning, can transmit a message or send an impulse through space
  to a fellow messenger about one hundred light-years away as Urantia
  astronomers estimate stellar distances.

  23:3.6 Of the myriads of beings who co-operate with us in the conduct of the
  affairs of the superuniverse, none are more important in practical helpfulness
  and timesaving assistance. In the universes of space we must reckon with the
  handicaps of time; hence the great service of the Solitary Messengers, who, by
  means of their personal prerogatives of communication, are somewhat
  independent of space and, by virtue of their tremendous transit velocities,
  are so nearly independent of time.



  23:3.7 I am at a loss to explain to Urantia mortals how the Solitary
  Messengers can be without form and yet possess real and definite
  personalities. Although they are without that form which would naturally be
  associated with personality, they do possess a spirit presence which is
  discernible by all higher types of spirit beings. The Solitary Messengers are
  the only class of beings who seem to be possessed of well-nigh all the
  advantages of a formless spirit coupled with all the prerogatives of a full-
  fledged personality. They are true persons, yet endowed with nearly all of the
  attributes of impersonal spirit manifestation.

  23:3.8 In the seven superuniverses, ordinarily -- but not always -- everything
  which tends to increase any creature's liberation from the handicaps of time
  and space proportionately diminishes personality prerogatives. Solitary
  Messengers are an exception to this general law. They are in their activities
  all but unrestricted in the utilization of any and all of the limitless
  avenues of spiritual expression, divine service, personal ministry, and cosmic
  communication. If you could view these extraordinary beings in the light of my
  experience in universe administration, you would comprehend how difficult it
  would be to co-ordinate superuniverse affairs were it not for their versatile
  co-operation.

  23:3.9 No matter how much the universe may enlarge, no more Solitary
  Messengers will probably ever be created. As the universes grow, the expanded
  work of administration must be increasingly borne by other types of spirit
  ministers and by those beings who take origin in these new creations, such as
  the creatures of the Sovereign Sons and the local universe Mother Spirits.





4. SPECIAL MINISTRY OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS



  23:4.1 The Solitary Messengers seem to be personality co-ordinators for all
  types of spirit beings. Their ministry helps to make all the personalities of
  the far-flung spiritual world akin. They contribute much to the development,
  in all spirit beings, of a consciousness of group identity. Every type of
  spirit being is served by special groups of Solitary Messengers who foster the
  ability of such beings to understand and fraternize with all other types and
  orders, however dissimilar.

  23:4.2 The Solitary Messengers demonstrate such an amazing ability to co-
  ordinate all types and orders of finite personality -- even to make contact
  with the absonite regime of the master universe overcontrollers -- that some
  of us postulate that the creation of these messengers by the Infinite Spirit
  is in some manner related to the Conjoint Actor's bestowal of Supreme-Ultimate
  Mind.



  23:4.3 When a finaliter and a Paradise Citizen co-operate in the trinitization
  of a "child of time and eternity" -- a transaction involving the unrevealed
  mind potentials of the Supreme-Ultimate -- and when such an unclassified
  personality is dispatched to Vicegerington, a Solitary Messenger (a
  conjectured personality repercussion of the bestowal of such deity mind) is
  always assigned as guardian-companion to such a creature-trinitized son. This
  messenger accompanies the new son of destiny to the world of his assignment
  and nevermore leaves Vicegerington. When thus attached to the destinies of a
  child of time and eternity, a Solitary Messenger is forever transferred to the
  sole supervision of the Architects of the Master Universe. What the future of
  such an extraordinary association may be, we do not know. For ages these
  partnerships of unique personalities have continued to forgather on
  Vicegerington, but not even a single pair has ever gone forth therefrom.

  23:4.4 Solitary Messengers are of stationary numbers, but the trinitization of
  the sons of destiny is apparently an unlimited technique. Since each
  trinitized son of destiny has assigned to him a Solitary Messenger, it appears
  to us that at some time in the remote future the supply of messengers will
  become exhausted. Who will take up their work in the grand universe? Will
  their service be assumed by some new development among the Inspired Trinity
  Spirits? Is the grand universe at some remote period going to be more nearly
  administered by Trinity-origin beings while the single- and dual-origin
  creatures move on into the realms of outer space? If the messengers return to
  their former service, will these sons of destiny accompany them? Will the
  trinitizations between finaliters and Paradise-Havoners cease when the supply
  of Solitary Messengers has been absorbed as guardian-companions of these sons
  of destiny? Are all our efficient Solitary Messengers going to be concentrated
  on Vicegerington? Are these extraordinary spirit personalities going to be
  eternally associated with these trinitized sons of unrevealed destiny? What
  significance should we attach to the fact that these couples forgathering on
  Vicegerington are under the exclusive direction of those mighty mystery
  beings, the Architects of the Master Universe? These and many similar
  questions we ask ourselves, and ask numerous other orders of celestial beings,
  but we do not know the answers.



  23:4.5 This transaction, together with many similar occurrences in universe
  administration, unmistakably indicates that the personnel of the grand
  universe, even that of Havona and Paradise, is undergoing a definite and
  certain reorganization in co-ordination with, and with reference to, the vast
  energy evolutions now taking place throughout the realms of outer space.

  23:4.6 We incline to the belief that the eternal future will witness phenomena
  of universe evolution which will far transcend all that the eternal past has
  experienced. And we anticipate such tremendous adventures, even as you should,
  with keen relish and ever-heightening expectation.



  23:4.7 Presented by a Divine Counselor from Uversa.




PAPER 24


 HIGHER PERSONALITIES OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT



  24:0.1 ON UVERSA we divide all personalities and entities of the Conjoint
  Creator into three grand divisions: the Higher Personalities of the Infinite
  Spirit, the Messenger Hosts of Space, and the Ministering Spirits of Time,
  those spirit beings who are concerned with teaching and ministering to the
  will creatures of the ascendant scheme of mortal progression.



  24:0.2 Those Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit that find mention in
  these narratives function throughout the grand universe in seven divisions:

1. Solitary Messengers.

2. Universe Circuit Supervisors.

3. Census Directors.

4. Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit.

5. Associate Inspectors.

6. Assigned Sentinels.

7. Graduate Guides.

  24:0.3 Solitary Messengers, Circuit Supervisors, Census Directors, and the
  Personal Aids are characterized by the possession of tremendous endowments of
  antigravity. The Solitary Messengers are without known general headquarters;
  they roam the universe of universes. The Universe Circuit Supervisors and the
  Census Directors maintain headquarters on the capitals of the superuniverses.
  The Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit are stationed on the central Isle of
  Light. The Associate Inspectors and the Assigned Sentinels are respectively
  stationed on the capitals of the local universes and on the capitals of their
  component systems. The Graduate Guides are resident in the Havona universe and
  function on all its billion worlds. Most of these higher personalities have
  stations in the local universes, but they are not organically attached to the
  administrations of the evolutionary realms.

  24:0.4 Of the seven classes composing this group, only the Solitary Messengers
  and perhaps the Personal Aids range the universe of universes. Solitary
  Messengers are encountered from Paradise outward: through the Havona circuits
  to the superuniverse capitals and thence out through the sectors and local
  universes, with their subdivisions, and even to the inhabited worlds. Although
  Solitary Messengers belong to the Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit,
  their origin, nature, and service have been discussed in the preceding paper.





1. THE UNIVERSE CIRCUIT SUPERVISORS



  24:1.1 The vast power currents of space and the circuits of spirit energy may
  seem to operate automatically; they may appear to function without let or
  hindrance, but such is not the case. All these stupendous systems of energy
  are under control; they are subject to intelligent supervision. Universe
  Circuit Supervisors are concerned, not with the realms of purely physical or
  material energy -- the domain of the Universe Power Directors -- but with the
  circuits of relative spiritual energy and with those modified circuits which
  are essential to the maintenance of both the highly developed spiritual beings
  and the morontia or transition type of intelligent creatures. The supervisors
  do not give origin to circuits of energy and superessence of divinity, but in
  general they have to do with all higher spirit circuits of time and eternity
  and with all relative spirit circuits concerned in the administration of the
  component parts of the grand universe. They direct and manipulate all such
  spirit-energy circuits outside the Isle of Paradise.



  24:1.2 Universe Circuit Supervisors are the exclusive creation of the Infinite
  Spirit, and they function solely as the agents of the Conjoint Actor. They are
  personalized for service in the following four orders:

1. Supreme Circuit Supervisors.

2. Associate Circuit Supervisors.

3. Secondary Circuit Supervisors.

4. Tertiary Circuit Supervisors.

  24:1.3 The supreme supervisors of Havona and the associate supervisors of the
  seven superuniverses are of completed numbers; no more of these orders are
  being created. The supreme supervisors are seven in number and are stationed
  on the pilot worlds of the seven Havona circuits. The circuits of the seven
  superuniverses are in the charge of a marvelous group of seven associate
  supervisors, who maintain headquarters on the seven Paradise spheres of the
  Infinite Spirit, the worlds of the Seven Supreme Executives. From here they
  supervise and direct the circuits of the superuniverses of space.

  24:1.4 On these Paradise spheres of the Spirit the seven associate circuit
  supervisors and the first order of the Supreme Power Centers effect a liaison
  which, under the direction of the Supreme Executives, results in the sub-
  Paradise co-ordination of all material and spiritual circuits passing out to
  the seven superuniverses.

  24:1.5 On the headquarters worlds of each superuniverse are stationed the
  secondary supervisors for the local universes of time and space. The major and
  minor sectors are administrative divisions of the supergovernments but are not
  concerned in these matters of spirit-energy supervision. I do not know how
  many secondary circuit supervisors there are in the grand universe, but on
  Uversa there are 84,691 of these beings. Secondary supervisors are being
  created right along; from time to time they appear in groups of seventy on the
  worlds of the Supreme Executives. We obtain them on requisition as we arrange
  for the establishment of separate circuits of spirit energy and liaison power
  to the newly evolving universes of our jurisdiction.

  24:1.6 A tertiary circuit supervisor functions on the headquarters world of
  every local universe. This order, like the secondary supervisors, is of
  continuous creation, being created in groups of seven hundred. They are
  assigned to the local universes by the Ancients of Days.

  24:1.7 Circuit supervisors are created for their specific tasks, and they
  eternally serve in the groups of their original assignment. They are not
  rotated in service and hence make an agelong study of the problems found in
  the realms of their original assignment. For example: Tertiary circuit
  supervisor No. 572,842 has functioned on Salvington since the early concept of
  your local universe, and he is a member of the personal staff of Michael of
  Nebadon.



  24:1.8 Whether acting in the local or higher universes, circuit supervisors
  direct all concerned as to the proper circuits to employ for the transmission
  of all spirit messages and for the transit of all personalities. In their work
  of circuit supervision these efficient beings utilize all agencies, forces,
  and personalities in the universe of universes. They employ the unrevealed
  "high spirit personalities of circuit control" and are ably assisted by
  numerous staffs composed of personalities of the Infinite Spirit. It is they
  who would isolate an evolutionary world if its Planetary Prince should rebel
  against the Universal Father and his vicegerent Son. They are able to throw
  any world out of certain universe circuits of the higher spiritual order, but
  they cannot annul the material currents of the power directors.



  24:1.9 The Universe Circuit Supervisors have something of the same
  relationship to spirit circuits that the Universe Power Directors have to
  material circuits. The two orders are complemental, together having the
  oversight of all spirit and all material circuits that are controllable and
  manipulatable by creatures.

  24:1.10 The circuit supervisors exercise certain oversight of those mind
  circuits which are spirit associated much as the power directors have certain
  jurisdiction over those phases of mind which are physical-energy associated --
  mechanical mind. In general the functions of each order are expanded by
  liaison with the other, but the circuits of pure mind are subject to the
  supervision of neither. Neither are the two orders co-ordinate; in all their
  manifold labors the Universe Circuit Supervisors are subject to the Seven
  Supreme Power Directors and their subordinates.



  24:1.11 While the circuit supervisors are entirely alike within their
  respective orders, they are all distinct individuals. They are truly personal
  beings, but they possess a type of other-than-Father-endowed personality not
  encountered in any other type of creature in all universal existence.

  24:1.12 Although you will recognize and know them as you journey inward
  towards Paradise, you will have no personal relations with them. They are
  circuit supervisors, and they attend strictly and efficiently to their
  business. They deal solely with those personalities and entities having the
  oversight of those activities which are concerned with the circuits subject to
  their supervision.





2. THE CENSUS DIRECTORS



  24:2.1 Notwithstanding that the cosmic mind of the Universal Intelligence is
  cognizant of the presence and whereabouts of all thinking creatures, there is
  operative in the universe of universes an independent method of keeping count
  of all will creatures.

  24:2.2 The Census Directors are a special and completed creation of the
  Infinite Spirit, and they exist in numbers unknown to us. They are so created
  as to be able to maintain perfect synchrony with the reflectivity technique of
  the superuniverses, while at the same time they are personally sensitive and
  responsive to intelligent will. These directors, by a not-fully-understood
  technique, are made immediately aware of the birth of will in any part of the
  grand universe. They are, therefore, always competent to give us the number,
  nature, and whereabouts of all will creatures in any part of the central
  creation and the seven superuniverses. But they do not function on Paradise;
  there is no need for them there. On Paradise knowledge is inherent; the
  Deities know all things.



  24:2.3 Seven Census Directors operate in Havona, one being stationed on the
  pilot world of each Havona circuit. Excepting these seven and the reserves of
  the order on the Paradise worlds of the Spirit, all Census Directors function
  under the jurisdiction of the Ancients of Days.

  24:2.4 One Census Director presides at the headquarters of each superuniverse,
  while subject to such a chief director are thousands upon thousands, one on
  the capital of every local universe. All personalities of this order are equal
  excepting those on the Havona pilot worlds and the seven superuniverse chiefs.

  24:2.5 In the seventh superuniverse there are one hundred thousand Census
  Directors. And this number consists entirely of those assignable to local
  universes; it does not include the personal staff of Usatia, the superuniverse
  chief of all Orvonton directors. Usatia, like the other superuniverse chiefs,
  is not directly attuned to the registration of intelligent will. He is solely
  attuned to his subordinates stationed in the Orvonton universes; thus he acts
  as a magnificent totaling personality for their reports coming in from the
  capitals of the local creations.

  24:2.6 From time to time the official recorders of Uversa place on their
  records the status of the superuniverse as it is indicated by the
  registrations in and upon the personality of Usatia. Such census data is
  indigenous to the superuniverses; these reports are transmitted neither to
  Havona nor to Paradise.



  24:2.7 The Census Directors are concerned with human beings -- as with other
  will creatures -- only to the extent of recording the fact of will function.
  They are not concerned with the records of your life and its doings; they are
  not in any sense recording personalities. The Census Director of Nebadon,
  number 81,412 of Orvonton, now stationed on Salvington, is at this very moment
  personally conscious and aware of your living presence here on Urantia; and he
  will afford the records confirmation of your death the moment you cease to
  function as a will creature.

  24:2.8 Census Directors register the existence of a new will creature when the
  first act of will is performed; they indicate the death of a will creature
  when the last act of will takes place. The partial emergence of will observed
  in the reactions of certain of the higher animals does not belong to the
  domain of the Census Directors. They keep count of nothing but bona fide will
  creatures, and they are responsive to nothing but will function. Exactly how
  they register the function of will, we do not know.

  24:2.9 These beings always have been, and always will be, Census Directors.
  They would be comparatively useless in any other division of universe labor.
  But they are infallible in function; they never default, neither do they
  falsify. And notwithstanding their marvelous powers and unbelievable
  prerogatives, they are persons; they have recognizable spirit presence and
  form.





3. PERSONAL AIDS OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT



  24:3.1 We have no authentic knowledge as to the time or manner of the creation
  of the Personal Aids. Their number must be legion, but it is not of record on
  Uversa. From conservative deductions based on our knowledge of their work, I
  venture to estimate that their number extends high into the trillions. We hold
  the opinion that the Infinite Spirit is not limited as to numbers in the
  creation of these Personal Aids.

  24:3.2 The Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit exist for the exclusive
  assistance of the Paradise presence of the Third Person of Deity. Although
  attached directly to the Infinite Spirit and located on Paradise, they flash
  to and fro to the uttermost parts of creation. Wherever the circuits of the
  Conjoint Creator extend, there these Personal Aids may appear for the purpose
  of executing the bidding of the Infinite Spirit. They traverse space much as
  do the Solitary Messengers but are not persons in the sense that the
  messengers are.

  24:3.3 The Personal Aids are all equal and identical; they disclose no
  differentiation of individuality. Though the Conjoint Actor looks upon them as
  true personalities, it is difficult for others to regard them as real persons;
  they do not manifest a spirit presence to other spirit beings. Paradise-origin
  beings are always aware of the proximity of these Aids; but we do not
  recognize a personality presence. The lack of such a presence-form undoubtedly
  renders them all the more serviceable to the Third Person of Deity.

  24:3.4 Of all the revealed orders of spirit beings taking origin in the
  Infinite Spirit, the Personal Aids are about the only ones you will not
  encounter on your inward ascent to Paradise.





4. THE ASSOCIATE INSPECTORS



  24:4.1 The Seven Supreme Executives, on the seven Paradise spheres of the
  Infinite Spirit, collectively function as the administrative board of
  supermanagers for the seven superuniverses. The Associate Inspectors are the
  personal embodiment of the authority of the Supreme Executives to the local
  universes of time and space. These high observers of the affairs of the local
  creations are the joint offspring of the Infinite Spirit and the Seven Master
  Spirits of Paradise. In the near times of eternity seven hundred thousand were
  personalized, and their reserve corps abides on Paradise.

  24:4.2 Associate Inspectors work under the direct supervision of the Seven
  Supreme Executives, being their personal and powerful representatives to the
  local universes of time and space. An inspector is stationed on the
  headquarters sphere of each local creation and is a close associate of the
  resident Union of Days.

  24:4.3 The Associate Inspectors receive reports and recommendations only from
  their subordinates, the Assigned Sentinels, stationed on the capitals of the
  local systems of inhabited worlds, while they make reports only to their
  immediate superior, the Supreme Executive of the superuniverse concerned.





5. THE ASSIGNED SENTINELS



  24:5.1 The Assigned Sentinels are co-ordinating personalities and liaison
  representatives of the Seven Supreme Executives. They were personalized on
  Paradise by the Infinite Spirit and were created for the specific purposes of
  their assignment. They are of stationary numbers, and there are exactly seven
  billion in existence.

  24:5.2 Much as an Associate Inspector represents the Seven Supreme Executives
  to a whole local universe, so in each of the ten thousand systems of that
  local creation there is an Assigned Sentinel, who acts as the direct
  representative of the far-distant and supreme board of supercontrol for the
  affairs of all seven superuniverses. The sentinels on duty in the local system
  governments of Orvonton are acting under the direct authority of Supreme
  Executive Number Seven, the co-ordinator of the seventh superuniverse. But in
  their administrative organization all sentinels commissioned in a local
  universe are subordinate to the Associate Inspector stationed at universe
  headquarters.

  24:5.3 Within a local creation the Assigned Sentinels serve in rotation, being
  transferred from system to system. They are usually changed every millennium
  of local universe time. They are among the highest ranking personalities
  stationed on a system capital, but they never participate in deliberations
  concerned with system affairs. In the local systems they serve as the ex
  officio heads of the four and twenty administrators hailing from the
  evolutionary worlds, but otherwise, ascending mortals have little contact with
  them. The sentinels are almost exclusively concerned in keeping the Associate
  Inspector of their universe fully informed on all matters relating to the
  welfare and state of the systems of their assignment.

  24:5.4 Assigned Sentinels and Associate Inspectors do not report to the
  Supreme Executives through a superuniverse headquarters. They are responsible
  solely to the Supreme Executive of the superuniverse concerned; their
  activities are distinct from the administration of the Ancients of Days.

  24:5.5 The Supreme Executives, Associate Inspectors, and Assigned Sentinels,
  together with the omniaphim and a host of unrevealed personalities, constitute
  an efficient, direct, centralized, but far-flung system of advisory and
  administrative co-ordination of all the grand universe of things and beings.





6. THE GRADUATE GUIDES



  24:6.1 The Graduate Guides, as a group, sponsor and conduct the high
  university of technical instruction and spiritual training which is so
  essential to mortal attainment of the goal of the ages: God, rest, and then
  eternity of perfected service. These highly personal beings take their name
  from the nature and purpose of their work. They are exclusively devoted to the
  tasks of guiding the mortal graduates from the superuniverses of time through
  the Havona course of instruction and training which serves to prepare the
  ascending pilgrims for admission to Paradise and the Corps of the Finality.

  24:6.2 I am not forbidden to undertake to tell you of the work of these
  Graduate Guides, but it is so ultraspiritual that I despair of being able to
  adequately portray to the material mind a concept of their manifold
  activities. On the mansion worlds, after your vision range is extended and you
  are freed from the fetters of material comparisons, you can begin to
  comprehend the meaning of those realities which "eye cannot see nor ear hear,
  and which have never entered the concept of human minds," even those things
  which "God has prepared for those who love such eternal verities." You are not
  always to be so limited in the range of your vision and spiritual
  comprehension.

  24:6.3 The Graduate Guides are engaged in piloting the pilgrims of time
  through the seven circuits of Havona worlds. The guide who greets you upon
  your arrival on the receiving world of the outer Havona circuit will remain
  with you throughout your entire career on the heavenly circuits. Though you
  will associate with countless other personalities during your sojourn on a
  billion worlds, your Graduate Guide will follow you to the end of your Havona
  progression and will witness your entrance into the terminal slumber of time,
  the sleep of eternity transit to the Paradise goal, where, upon awakening, you
  will be greeted by the Paradise Companion assigned to welcome you and perhaps
  to remain with you until you are initiated as a member of the Mortal Corps of
  the Finality.



  24:6.4 The number of Graduate Guides is beyond the power of human minds to
  grasp, and they continue to appear. Their origin is something of a mystery.
  They have not existed from eternity; they mysteriously appear as they are
  needed. There is no record of a Graduate Guide in all the realms of the
  central universe until that far-distant day when the first mortal pilgrim of
  all time made his way to the outer belt of the central creation. The instant
  he arrived on the pilot world of the outer circuit, he was met with friendly
  greetings by Malvorian, the first of the Graduate Guides and now the chief of
  their supreme council and the director of their vast educational organization.

  24:6.5 On the Paradise records of Havona, in the section denominated "Graduate
  Guides," there appears this initial entry:

  24:6.6 "And Malvorian, the first of this order, did greet and instruct the
  pilgrim discoverer of Havona and did conduct him from the outer circuits of
  initial experience, step by step and circuit by circuit, until he stood in the
  very presence of the Source and Destiny of all personality, subsequently
  crossing the threshold of eternity to Paradise."

  24:6.7 At that far-distant time I was attached to the service of the Ancients
  of Days on Uversa, and we all rejoiced in the assurance that, eventually,
  pilgrims from our superuniverse would reach Havona. For ages we had been
  taught that the evolutionary creatures of space would attain Paradise, and the
  thrill of all time swept through the heavenly courts when the first pilgrim
  actually arrived.



  24:6.8 The name of this pilgrim discoverer of Havona is Grandfanda, and he
  hailed from planet 341 of system 84 in constellation 62 of local universe
  1,131 situated in superuniverse number one. His arrival was the signal for the
  establishment of the broadcast service of the universe of universes.
  Theretofore only the broadcasts of the superuniverses and the local universes
  had been in operation, but the announcement of the arrival of Grandfanda at
  the portals of Havona signalized the inauguration of the "space reports of
  glory," so named because the initial universe broadcast reported the Havona
  arrival of the first of the evolutionary beings to attain entrance upon the
  goal of ascendant existence.



  24:6.9 Graduate Guides never leave the Havona worlds; they are dedicated to
  the service of the graduate pilgrims of time and space. And you will sometime
  meet these noble beings face to face if you do not reject the certain and all-
  perfected plan designed to effect your survival and ascension.





7. ORIGIN OF THE GRADUATE GUIDES



  24:7.1 Though evolution is not the order of the central universe, we believe
  that the Graduate Guides are the perfected or more experienced members of
  another order of central universe creatures, the Havona Servitals. Graduate
  Guides show such a breadth of sympathy and such a capacity for understanding
  the ascendant creatures that we are convinced they have gained this culture by
  actual service in the superuniverse realms as the Havona Servitals of
  universal ministry. If this view is not correct, how then can we account for
  the continuous disappearance of the senior or more experienced servitals?

  24:7.2 A servital will be long absent from Havona on superuniverse assignment,
  having been on many such missions previously, will return home, be granted the
  privilege of "personal contact" with the Paradise Central Shining, will be
  embraced by the Luminous Persons, and disappear from the recognition of his
  spirit fellows, never more to reappear among those of his kind.

  24:7.3 On returning from superuniverse service, a Havona Servital may enjoy
  numerous divine embraces and emerge therefrom merely an exalted servital.
  Experiencing the luminous embrace does not necessarily signify that the
  servital must translate into a Graduate Guide, but almost one quarter of those
  who achieve the divine embrace never return to the service of the realms.



  24:7.4 There appears on the high records a succession of such entries as this:

  24:7.5 "And servital number 842,842,682,846,782 of Havona, named Sudna, came
  over from the superuniverse service, was received on Paradise, knew the
  Father, entered the divine embrace, and is not."

  24:7.6 When such an entry appears on the records, the career of such a
  servital is closed. But in just three moments (a little less than three days
  of your time) a newborn Graduate Guide "spontaneously" appears on the outer
  circuit of the Havona universe. And the number of Graduate Guides, allowing
  for a slight difference, due no doubt to those in transition, exactly equals
  the number of vanished servitals.



  24:7.7 There is an additional reason for supposing the Graduate Guides to be
  evolved Havona Servitals, and that is the unfailing tendency of these guides
  and their associated servitals to form such extraordinary attachments. The
  manner in which these supposedly separate orders of beings understand and
  sympathize with one another is wholly inexplicable. It is refreshing and
  inspiring to witness their mutual devotion.



  24:7.8 The Seven Master Spirits and the associated Seven Supreme Power
  Directors, respectively, are the personal repositories of the mind potential
  and of the power potential of the Supreme Being which he does not, as yet,
  operate personally. And when these Paradise associates collaborate to create
  the Havona Servitals, the latter are inherently involved in certain phases of
  Supremacy. Havona Servitals are thus, in actuality, a reflection in the
  perfect central universe of certain evolutionary potentialities of the time-
  space domains, all of which is disclosed when a servital undergoes
  transformation and re-creation. We believe that this transformation takes
  place in response to the will of the Infinite Spirit, undoubtedly acting in
  behalf of the Supreme. Graduate Guides are not created by the Supreme Being,
  but we all conjecture that experiential Deity is in some way concerned in
  those transactions which bring these beings into existence.

  24:7.9 The Havona now traversed by ascending mortals differs in many respects
  from the central universe as it was before the times of Grandfanda. The
  arrival of mortal ascenders on the Havona circuits inaugurated sweeping
  modifications in the organization of the central and divine creation,
  modifications undoubtedly initiated by the Supreme Being -- the God of
  evolutionary creatures -- in response to the arrival of the first of his
  experiential children from the seven superuniverses. The appearance of the
  Graduate Guides, together with the creation of the tertiary supernaphim, is
  indicative of these performances of God the Supreme.



  24:7.10 Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.




PAPER 25


 THE MESSENGER HOSTS OF SPACE



  25:0.1 RANKING intermediately in the family of the Infinite Spirit are the
  Messenger Hosts of Space. These versatile beings function as the connecting
  links between the higher personalities and the ministering spirits. The
  messenger hosts include the following orders of celestial beings:

1. Havona Servitals.

2. Universal Conciliators.

3. Technical Advisers.

4. Custodians of Records on Paradise.

5. Celestial Recorders.

6. Morontia Companions.

7. Paradise Companions.

  25:0.2 Of the seven groups enumerated, only three -- servitals, conciliators,
  and Morontia Companions -- are created as such; the remaining four represent
  attainment levels of the angelic orders. In accordance with inherent nature
  and attained status, the messenger hosts variously serve in the universe of
  universes but always subject to the direction of those who rule the realms of
  their assignment.





1. THE HAVONA SERVITALS



  25:1.1 Though denominated servitals, these "midway creatures" of the central
  universe are not servants in any menial sense of the word. In the spiritual
  world there is no such thing as menial work; all service is sacred and
  exhilarating; neither do the higher orders of beings look down upon the lower
  orders of existence.



  25:1.2 The Havona Servitals are the joint creative work of the Seven Master
  Spirits and their associates, the Seven Supreme Power Directors. This creative
  collaboration comes the nearest to being the pattern for the long list of
  reproductions of the dual order in the evolutionary universes, extending from
  the creation of a Bright and Morning Star by a Creator Son-Creative Spirit
  liaison down to sex procreation on worlds like Urantia.

  25:1.3 The number of servitals is prodigious, and more are being created all
  the time. They appear in groups of one thousand on the third moment following
  the assembly of the Master Spirits and the Supreme Power Directors at their
  joint area in the far northerly sector of Paradise. Every fourth servital is
  more physical in type than the others; that is, out of each thousand, seven
  hundred and fifty are apparently true to spirit type, but two hundred and
  fifty are semiphysical in nature. These fourth creatures are somewhat on the
  order of material beings (material in the Havona sense), resembling the
  physical power directors more than the Master Spirits.



  25:1.4 In personality relationships the spiritual is dominant over the
  material, even though it does not now so appear on Urantia; and in the
  production of Havona Servitals the law of spirit dominance prevails; the
  established ratio yields three spiritual beings to one semiphysical.



  25:1.5 The newly created servitals, together with newly appearing Graduate
  Guides, all pass through the courses of training which the senior guides
  continuously conduct on each of the seven Havona circuits. Servitals are then
  assigned to the activities for which they are best adapted, and since they are
  of two types -- spiritual and semiphysical -- there are few limits to the
  range of work these versatile beings can do. The higher or spirit groups are
  assigned selectively to the services of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit,
  and to the work of the Seven Master Spirits. In large numbers they are
  dispatched, from time to time, to serve on the study worlds encircling the
  headquarters spheres of the seven superuniverses, the worlds devoted to the
  final training and spiritual culture of the ascending souls of time who are
  preparing for advancement to the circuits of Havona. Both spirit servitals and
  their more physical fellows are also designated assistants and associates of
  the Graduate Guides in helping and instructing the various orders of ascending
  creatures who have attained Havona, and who seek to attain Paradise.

  25:1.6 The Havona Servitals and the Graduate Guides manifest a transcendent
  devotion to their work and a touching affection for one another, an affection
  which, while spiritual, you could only understand by comparison with the
  phenomenon of human love. There is divine pathos in the separation of the
  servitals from the guides, as so often occurs when the servitals are
  dispatched on missions beyond the limits of the central universe; but they go
  with joy and not with sorrow. The satisfying joy of high duty is the eclipsing
  emotion of spiritual beings. Sorrow cannot exist in the face of the
  consciousness of divine duty faithfully performed. And when man's ascending
  soul stands before the Supreme Judge, the decision of eternal import will not
  be determined by material successes or quantitative achievements; the verdict
  reverberating through the high courts declares: "Well done, good and faithful
  servant; you have been faithful over a few essentials; you shall be made ruler
  over universe realities."

  25:1.7 On superuniverse service the Havona Servitals are always assigned to
  that domain presided over by the Master Spirit whom they most resemble in
  general and special spirit prerogatives. They serve only on the educational
  worlds surrounding the capitals of the seven superuniverses, and the last
  report of Uversa indicates that almost 138 billion servitals were ministering
  on its 490 satellites. They engage in an endless variety of activities in
  connection with the work of these educational worlds comprising the
  superuniversities of the superuniverse of Orvonton. Here they are your
  companions; they have come down from your next career to study you and to
  inspire you with the reality and certainty of your eventual graduation from
  the universes of time to the realms of eternity. And in these contacts the
  servitals gain that preliminary experience of ministering to the ascending
  creatures of time which is so helpful in their subsequent work on the Havona
  circuits as associates of the Graduate Guides or -- as translated servitals --
  as Graduate Guides themselves.





2. THE UNIVERSAL CONCILIATORS



  25:2.1 For every Havona Servital created, seven Universal Conciliators are
  brought into being, one in each superuniverse. This creative enactment
  involves a definite superuniverse technique of reflective response to
  transactions taking place on Paradise.

  25:2.2 On the headquarters worlds of the seven superuniverses there function
  the seven reflections of the Seven Master Spirits. It is difficult to
  undertake to portray the natures of these Reflective Spirits to material
  minds. They are true personalities; still each member of a superuniverse group
  is perfectly reflective of just one of the Seven Master Spirits. And every
  time the Master Spirits associate themselves with the power directors for the
  purpose of creating a group of Havona Servitals, there is a simultaneous
  focalization upon one of the Reflective Spirits in each of the superuniverse
  groups, and forthwith and full-fledgedly an equal number of Universal
  Conciliators appear on the headquarters worlds of the supercreations. If, in
  the creation of servitals, Master Spirit Number Seven should take the
  initiative, none but the Reflective Spirits of the seventh order would become
  pregnant with conciliators; and concurrently with the creation of one thousand
  Orvontonlike servitals, one thousand of the seventh-order conciliators would
  appear on each superuniverse capital. Out of these episodes, reflecting the
  sevenfold nature of the Master Spirits, arise the seven created orders of
  conciliators serving in each superuniverse.

  25:2.3 Conciliators of pre-Paradise status do not serve interchangeably
  between superuniverses, being restricted to their native segments of creation.
  Every superuniverse corps, embracing one seventh of each created order,
  therefore spends a very long time under the influence of one of the Master
  Spirits to the exclusion of the others, for, while all seven are reflected on
  the superuniverse capitals, only one is dominant in each supercreation.

  25:2.4 Each of the seven supercreations is actually pervaded by that one of
  the Master Spirits who presides over its destinies. Each superuniverse thus
  becomes like a gigantic mirror reflecting the nature and character of the
  supervising Master Spirit, and all of this is further continued in every
  subsidiary local universe by the presence and function of the Creative Mother
  Spirits. The effect of such an environment upon evolutionary growth is so
  profound that in their postsuperuniverse careers the conciliators collectively
  manifest forty-nine experiential viewpoints, or insights, each angular --
  hence incomplete -- but all mutually compensatory and together tending to
  encompass the circle of Supremacy.



  25:2.5 In each superuniverse the Universal Conciliators find themselves
  strangely and innately segregated into groups of four, associations in which
  they continue to serve. In each group, three are spirit personalities, and
  one, like the fourth creatures of the servitals, is a semimaterial being. This
  quartet constitutes a conciliating commission and is made up as follows:



  25:2.6 1. The Judge-Arbiter. The one unanimously designated by the other three
  as the most competent and best qualified to act as judicial head of the group.



  25:2.7 2. The Spirit-Advocate. The one appointed by the judge-arbiter to
  present evidence and to safeguard the rights of all personalities involved in
  any matter assigned to the adjudication of the conciliating commission.



  25:2.8 3. The Divine Executioner. The conciliator qualified by inherent nature
  to make contact with the material beings of the realms and to execute the
  decisions of the commission. Divine executioners, being fourth creatures --
  quasi-material beings -- are almost, but not quite, visible to the short-range
  vision of the mortal races.



  25:2.9 4. The Recorder. The remaining member of the commission automatically
  becomes the recorder, the clerk of the tribunal. He makes certain that all
  records are properly prepared for the archives of the superuniverse and for
  the records of the local universe. If the commission is serving on an
  evolutionary world, a third report, with the assistance of the executioner, is
  prepared for the physical records of the system government of jurisdiction.



  25:2.10 When in session a commission functions as a group of three since the
  advocate is detached during adjudication and participates in the formulation
  of the verdict only at the conclusion of the hearing. Hence these commissions
  are sometimes called referee trios.



  25:2.11 The conciliators are of great value in keeping the universe of
  universes running smoothly. Traversing space at the seraphic rate of triple
  velocity, they serve as the traveling courts of the worlds, commissions
  devoted to the quick adjudication of minor difficulties. Were it not for these
  mobile and eminently fair commissions, the tribunals of the spheres would be
  hopelessly overspread with the minor misunderstandings of the realms.

  25:2.12 These referee trios do not pass upon matters of eternal import; the
  soul, the eternal prospects of a creature of time, is never placed in jeopardy
  by their acts. Conciliators do not deal with questions extending beyond the
  temporal existence and the cosmic welfare of the creatures of time. But when a
  commission has once accepted jurisdiction of a problem, its rulings are final
  and always unanimous; there is no appeal from the decision of the judge-
  arbiter.





3. THE FAR-REACHING SERVICE OF CONCILIATORS



  25:3.1 Conciliators maintain group headquarters on the capital of their
  superuniverse, where their primary reserve corps is held. Their secondary
  reserves are stationed on the capitals of the local universes. The younger and
  less experienced commissioners begin their service on the lower worlds, worlds
  like Urantia, and are advanced to the adjudication of greater problems after
  they have acquired riper experience.

  25:3.2 The order of conciliators is wholly dependable; not one has ever gone
  astray. Though not infallible in wisdom and judgment, they are of unquestioned
  reliability and unerring in faithfulness. They take origin on the headquarters
  of a superuniverse and eventually return thereto, advancing through the
  following levels of universe service:



  25:3.3 1. Conciliators to the Worlds. Whenever the supervising personalities
  of the individual worlds become greatly perplexed or actually deadlocked
  concerning the proper procedure under existing circumstances, and if the
  matter is not of sufficient importance to be brought before the regularly
  constituted tribunals of the realm, then, upon the receipt of a petition of
  two personalities, one from each contention, a conciliating commission will
  begin to function forthwith.

  25:3.4 When these administrative and jurisdictional difficulties have been
  placed in the hands of the conciliators for study and adjudication, they are
  supreme in authority. But they will not formulate a decision until all the
  evidence has been heard, and there is absolutely no limit to their authority
  to call witnesses from anywhere and everywhere. And while their decisions may
  not be appealed, sometimes matters so develop that the commission closes its
  records at a given point, concludes its opinions, and transfers the whole
  question to the higher tribunals of the realm.

  25:3.5 The commissioners' decisions are placed on the planetary records and,
  if necessary, are put into effect by the divine executioner. His power is very
  great, and the range of his activities on an inhabited world is very wide.
  Divine executioners are masterful manipulators of that which is in the
  interests of that which ought to be. Their work is sometimes carried out for
  the apparent welfare of the realm, and sometimes their acts on the worlds of
  time and space are difficult of explanation. Though executing decrees in
  defiance of neither natural law nor the ordained usages of the realm, they do
  ofttimes effect their strange doings and enforce the mandates of the
  conciliators in accordance with the higher laws of the system administration.



  25:3.6 2. Conciliators to the System Headquarters. From service on the
  evolutionary worlds these commissions of four are advanced to duty on a system
  headquarters. Here they have much work to do, and they prove to be the
  understanding friends of men, angels, and other spirit beings. The referee
  trios are not so much concerned with personal differences as with group
  contentions and with misunderstandings arising between different orders of
  creatures; and on a system headquarters there live both spiritual and material
  beings, as well as the combined types, such as the Material Sons.

  25:3.7 The moment the Creators bring into existence evolving individuals with
  the power of choice, that moment a departure is made from the smooth working
  of divine perfection; misunderstandings are certain to arise, and provision
  for the fair adjustment of these honest differences of viewpoint must be made.
  We should all remember that the all-wise and all-powerful Creators could have
  made the local universes just as perfect as Havona. No conciliating
  commissions need function in the central universe. But the Creators did not
  choose in their all-wisdom to do this. And while they have produced universes
  which abound in differences and teem with difficulties, they have likewise
  provided the mechanisms and the means for composing all these differences and
  for harmonizing all this seeming confusion.



  25:3.8 3. The Constellation Conciliators. From service in the systems the
  conciliators are promoted to the adjudication of the problems of a
  constellation, taking up the minor difficulties arising between its one
  hundred systems of inhabited worlds. Not many problems developing on the
  constellation headquarters fall under their jurisdiction, but they are kept
  busy going from system to system gathering evidence and preparing preliminary
  statements. If the contention is honest, if the difficulties arise out of
  sincere differences of opinion and honest diversity of viewpoints, no matter
  how few persons may be involved, no matter how apparently trivial the
  misunderstanding, a conciliating commission can always be had to pass upon the
  merits of the controversy.



  25:3.9 4. Conciliators to the Local Universes. In this larger work of a
  universe the commissioners are of great assistance to both the Melchizedeks
  and the Magisterial Sons and to the constellation rulers and the hosts of
  personalities concerned with the co-ordination and administration of the one
  hundred constellations. The different orders of seraphim and other residents
  of the headquarters spheres of a local universe also avail themselves of the
  help and decisions of the referee trios.

  25:3.10 It is almost impossible to explain the nature of those differences
  which may arise in the detailed affairs of a system, a constellation, or a
  universe. Difficulties do develop, but they are very unlike the petty trials
  and travails of material existence as it is lived on the evolutionary worlds.



  25:3.11 5. Conciliators to the Superuniverse Minor Sectors. From the problems
  of local universes the commissioners are advanced to the study of questions
  arising in the minor sectors of their superuniverse. The farther they ascend
  inward from the individual planets, the fewer are the material duties of the
  divine executioner; gradually he assumes a new role of mercy-justice
  interpreter, at the same time -- being quasi-material -- keeping the
  commission as a whole in sympathetic touch with the material aspects of its
  investigations.



  25:3.12 6. Conciliators to the Superuniverse Major Sectors. The character of
  the work of the commissioners continues to change as they advance. There is
  less and less of misunderstanding to adjudicate and more and more of
  mysterious phenomena to explain and interpret. From stage to stage they are
  evolving from arbiters of differences to explainers of mysteries -- judges
  evolving into interpretative teachers. Arbiters of those who through ignorance
  permit difficulties and misunderstandings to arise, they once were; but they
  are now becoming instructors of those who are sufficiently intelligent and
  tolerant to avoid clashes of mind and wars of opinions. The higher a
  creature's education, the more respect he has for the knowledge, experience,
  and opinions of others.



  25:3.13 7. Conciliators to the Superuniverse. Here the conciliators become co-
  ordinate -- four mutually understood and perfectly functioning arbiter-
  teachers. The divine executioner is divested of retributive power and becomes
  the physical voice of the spirit trio. By this time these counselors and
  teachers have become expertly familiar with most of the actual problems and
  difficulties encountered in the conduct of superuniverse affairs. Thus they
  become wonderful advisers and wise teachers of the ascending pilgrims who are
  in residence on the educational spheres surrounding the headquarters worlds of
  the superuniverses.



  25:3.14 All conciliators serve under the general supervision of the Ancients
  of Days and under the immediate direction of the Image Aids until such time as
  they are advanced to Paradise. During the Paradise sojourn they report to the
  Master Spirit who presides over the superuniverse of their origin.

  25:3.15 The superuniverse registries do not enumerate those conciliators who
  have passed beyond their jurisdiction, and such commissions are widely
  scattered through the grand universe. The last report of registry on Uversa
  gives the number operating in Orvonton as almost eighteen trillion commissions
  -- over seventy trillion individuals. But these are only a very small fraction
  of the multitude of conciliators that have been created in Orvonton; that
  number is of an altogether higher magnitude and is the equivalent of the total
  number of Havona Servitals, with allowances for the transmutation into
  Graduate Guides.

  25:3.16 From time to time, as the numbers of the superuniverse conciliators
  increase, they are translated to the council of perfection on Paradise, from
  which they subsequently emerge as the co-ordinating corps evolved by the
  Infinite Spirit for the universe of universes, a marvelous group of beings
  which is constantly increasing in numbers and efficiency. By experiential
  ascent and Paradise training they have acquired a unique grasp of the emerging
  reality of the Supreme Being, and they roam the universe of universes on
  special assignment.

  25:3.17 The members of a conciliating commission are never separated. A group
  of four forever serve together just as they were originally associated. Even
  in their glorified service they continue to function as quartets of
  accumulated cosmic experience and perfected experiential wisdom. They are
  eternally associated as the embodiment of the supreme justice of time and
  space.





4. TECHNICAL ADVISERS



  25:4.1 These legal and technical minds of the spirit world were not created as
  such. From the early supernaphim and omniaphim, one million of the most
  orderly minds were chosen by the Infinite Spirit as the nucleus of this vast
  and versatile group. And ever since that far-distant time, actual experience
  in the application of the laws of perfection to the plans of evolutionary
  creation has been required of all who aspire to become Technical Advisers.



  25:4.2 The Technical Advisers are recruited from the ranks of the following
  personality orders:

1. The Supernaphim.

2. The Seconaphim.

3. The Tertiaphim.

4. The Omniaphim.

5. The Seraphim.

6. Certain Types of Ascending Mortals.

7. Certain Types of Ascending Midwayers.

  25:4.3 At the present time, not counting the mortals and midwayers who are all
  of transient attachment, the number of Technical Advisers registered on Uversa
  and operating in Orvonton is slightly in excess of sixty-one trillion.

  25:4.4 Technical Advisers frequently function as individuals but are organized
  for service and maintain common headquarters on the spheres of assignment in
  groups of seven. In each group at least five must be of permanent status,
  while two may be of temporary association. Ascending mortals and ascending
  midway creatures serve on these advisory commissions while pursuing the
  Paradise ascent, but they do not enter the regular courses of training for
  Technical Advisers, nor do they ever become permanent members of the order.

  25:4.5 Those mortals and midwayers who serve transiently with the advisers are
  chosen for such work because of their expertness in the concept of universal
  law and supreme justice. As you journey toward your Paradise goal, constantly
  acquiring added knowledge and enhanced skill, you are continuously afforded
  the opportunity to give out to others the wisdom and experience you have
  already accumulated; all the way in to Havona you enact the role of a pupil-
  teacher. You will work your way through the ascending levels of this vast
  experiential university by imparting to those just below you the new-found
  knowledge of your advancing career. In the universal regime you are not
  reckoned as having possessed yourself of knowledge and truth until you have
  demonstrated your ability and your willingness to impart this knowledge and
  truth to others.

  25:4.6 After long training and actual experience, any of the ministering
  spirits above the status of cherubim are permitted to receive permanent
  appointment as Technical Advisers. All candidates voluntarily enter this order
  of service; but having once assumed such responsibilities, they may not
  relinquish them. Only the Ancients of Days can transfer these advisers to
  other activities.



  25:4.7 The training of Technical Advisers, begun in the Melchizedek colleges
  of the local universes, continues to the courts of the Ancients of Days. From
  this superuniverse training they proceed to the "schools of the seven circles"
  located on the pilot worlds of the Havona circuits. And from the pilot worlds
  they are received into the "college of the ethics of law and the technique of
  Supremacy," the Paradise training school for the perfecting of Technical
  Advisers.

  25:4.8 These advisers are more than legal experts; they are students and
  teachers of applied law, the laws of the universe applied to the lives and
  destinies of all who inhabit the vast domains of the far-flung creation. As
  time passes, they become the living law libraries of time and space,
  preventing endless trouble and needless delays by instructing the
  personalities of time regarding the forms and modes of procedure most
  acceptable to the rulers of eternity. They are able so to counsel the workers
  of space as to enable them to function in harmony with the requirements of
  Paradise; they are the teachers of all creatures concerning the technique of
  the Creators.

  25:4.9 Such a living library of applied law could not be created; such beings
  must be evolved by actual experience. The infinite Deities are existential,
  hence are compensated for lack of experience; they know all even before they
  experience all, but they do not impart this nonexperiential knowledge to their
  subordinate creatures.



  25:4.10 Technical Advisers are dedicated to the work of preventing delay,
  facilitating progress, and counseling achievement. There is always a best and
  right way to do things; there is always the technique of perfection, a divine
  method, and these advisers know how to direct us all in the finding of this
  better way.

  25:4.11 These exceedingly wise and practical beings are always closely
  associated with the service and work of the Universal Censors. The
  Melchizedeks are provided with an able corps. The rulers of the systems,
  constellations, universes, and superuniverse sectors are all bountifully
  supplied with these technical or legal reference minds of the spiritual world.
  A special group act as law counselors to the Life Carriers, advising these
  Sons concerning the extent of permissible departure from the established order
  of life propagation and otherwise instructing them respecting their
  prerogatives and latitudes of function. They are the advisers of all classes
  of beings regarding the proper usages and techniques of all spirit-world
  transactions. But they do not directly and personally deal with the material
  creatures of the realms.

  25:4.12 Besides counseling regarding legal usages, Technical Advisers are
  equally devoted to the efficient interpretation of all laws concerning
  creature beings -- physical, mindal, and spiritual. They are available to the
  Universal Conciliators and to all others who desire to know the truth of law;
  in other words, to know how the Supremacy of Deity may be depended upon to
  react in a given situation having factors of an established physical, mindal,
  and spiritual order. They even essay to elucidate the technique of the
  Ultimate.

  25:4.13 Technical Advisers are selected and tested beings; I have never known
  one of them to go astray. We have no records on Uversa of their ever having
  been adjudged in contempt of the divine laws they so effectively interpret and
  so eloquently expound. There is no known limit to the domain of their service,
  neither has any been placed upon their progress. They continue as advisers
  even to the portals of Paradise; the whole universe of law and experience is
  open to them.





5. THE CUSTODIANS OF RECORDS ON PARADISE



  25:5.1 From among the tertiary supernaphim in Havona, certain of the senior
  chief recorders are chosen as Custodians of Records, as keepers of the formal
  archives of the Isle of Light, those archives which stand in contrast to the
  living records of registry in the minds of the custodians of knowledge,
  sometimes designated the "living library of Paradise."

  25:5.2 The recording angels of the inhabited planets are the source of all
  individual records. Throughout the universes other recorders function
  regarding both formal records and living records. From Urantia to Paradise,
  both recordings are encountered: in a local universe, more of the written
  records and less of the living; on Paradise, more of the living and less of
  the formal; on Uversa, both are equally available.

  25:5.3 Every occurrence of significance in the organized and inhabited
  creation is a matter of record. While events of no more than local importance
  find only a local recording, those of wider significance are dealt with
  accordingly. From the planets, systems, and constellations of Nebadon,
  everything of universe import is posted on Salvington; and from such universe
  capitals those episodes are advanced to higher recording which pertain to the
  affairs of the sector and supergovernments. Paradise also has a relevant
  summary of superuniverse and Havona data; and this historic and cumulative
  story of the universe of universes is in the custody of these exalted tertiary
  supernaphim.

  25:5.4 While certain of these beings have been dispatched to the
  superuniverses to serve as Chiefs of Records directing the activities of the
  Celestial Recorders, not one has ever been transferred from the permanent roll
  call of their order.





6. THE CELESTIAL RECORDERS



  25:6.1 These are the recorders who execute all records in duplicate, making an
  original spirit recording and a semimaterial counterpart -- what might be
  called a carbon copy. This they can do because of their peculiar ability
  simultaneously to manipulate both spiritual and material energy. Celestial
  Recorders are not created as such; they are ascendant seraphim from the local
  universes. They are received, classified, and assigned to their spheres of
  work by the councils of the Chiefs of Records on the headquarters of the seven
  superuniverses. There also are located the schools for training Celestial
  Recorders. The school on Uversa is conducted by the Perfectors of Wisdom and
  the Divine Counselors.

  25:6.2 As the recorders advance in universe service, they continue their
  system of dual recording, thus making their records always available to all
  classes of beings, from those of the material order to the high spirits of
  light. In your transition experience, as you ascend from this material world,
  you will always be able to consult the records of, and to be otherwise
  conversant with, the history and traditions of your status sphere.

  25:6.3 The recorders are a tested and tried corps. Never have I known of the
  defection of a Celestial Recorder, and never has there been discovered a
  falsification in their records. They are subjected to a dual inspection, their
  records being scrutinized by their exalted fellows from Uversa and by the
  Mighty Messengers, who certify to the correctness of the quasi-physical
  duplicates of the original spirit records.

  25:6.4 While the advancing recorders stationed on the subordinate spheres of
  record in the Orvonton universes number trillions upon trillions, those of
  attained status on Uversa are not quite eight million in number. These senior
  or graduate recorders are the superuniverse custodians and forwarders of the
  sponsored records of time and space. Their permanent headquarters are in the
  circular abodes surrounding the area of records on Uversa. They never leave
  the custody of these records to others; as individuals they may be absent, but
  never in large numbers.

  25:6.5 Like those supernaphim who have become Custodians of Records, the corps
  of Celestial Recorders is of permanent assignment. Once seraphim and
  supernaphim are mustered into these services, they will respectively remain
  Celestial Recorders and Custodians of Records until the day of the new and
  modified administration of the full personalization of God the Supreme.

  25:6.6 On Uversa these senior Celestial Recorders can show the records of
  everything of cosmic import in all Orvonton since the far-distant times of the
  arrival of the Ancients of Days, while on the eternal Isle the Custodians of
  Records guard the archives of that realm which testify to the transactions of
  Paradise since the times of the personification of the Infinite Spirit.





7. THE MORONTIA COMPANIONS



  25:7.1 These children of the local universe Mother Spirits are the friends and
  associates of all who live the ascending morontia life. They are not
  indispensable to an ascender's real work of creature progression, neither do
  they in any sense displace the work of the seraphic guardians who often
  accompany their mortal associates on the Paradise journey. The Morontia
  Companions are simply gracious hosts to those who are just beginning the long
  inward ascent. They are also skillful play sponsors and are ably assisted in
  this work by the reversion directors.

  25:7.2 Though you will have earnest and progressively difficult tasks to
  perform on the morontia training worlds of Nebadon, you will always be
  provided with regular seasons of rest and reversion. Throughout the journey to
  Paradise there will always be time for rest and spirit play; and in the career
  of light and life there is always time for worship and new achievement.

  25:7.3 These Morontia Companions are such friendly associates that, when you
  finally leave the last phase of the morontia experience, as you prepare to
  embark upon the superuniverse spirit adventure, you will truly regret that
  these companionable creatures cannot accompany you, but they serve exclusively
  in the local universes. At every stage of the ascending career all contactable
  personalities will be friendly and companionable, but not until you meet the
  Paradise Companions will you find another group so devoted to friendship and
  companionship.

  25:7.4 The work of the Morontia Companions is more fully depicted in those
  narratives dealing with the affairs of your local universe.





8. THE PARADISE COMPANIONS



  25:8.1 The Paradise Companions are a composite or assembled group recruited
  from the ranks of the seraphim, seconaphim, supernaphim, and omniaphim. Though
  serving for what you would regard as an extraordinary length of time, they are
  not of permanent status. When this ministry has been completed, as a rule (but
  not invariably) they return to those duties they performed when summoned to
  Paradise service.

  25:8.2 Members of the angelic hosts are nominated for this service by the
  local universe Mother Spirits, by the superuniverse Reflective Spirits, and by
  Majeston of Paradise. They are summoned to the central Isle and are
  commissioned as Paradise Companions by one of the Seven Master Spirits. Aside
  from permanent status on Paradise, this temporary service of Paradise
  companionship is the highest honor ever conferred upon the ministering
  spirits.

  25:8.3 These selected angels are dedicated to the service of companionship and
  are assigned as associates to all classes of beings who may chance to be alone
  on Paradise, chiefly to the ascendant mortals but also to all others who are
  alone on the central Isle. Paradise Companions have nothing especial to
  accomplish in behalf of those with whom they fraternize; they are simply
  companions. Almost every other being you mortals will encounter during your
  Paradise sojourn -- aside from your fellow pilgrims -- will have something
  definite to do with you or for you; but these companions are assigned only to
  be with you and to commune with you as personality associates. They are often
  assisted in their ministry by the gracious and brilliant Paradise Citizens.

  25:8.4 Mortals come from races that are very social. The Creators well know
  that it is "not good for man to be alone," and provision is accordingly made
  for companionship, even on Paradise.



  25:8.5 If you, as an ascendant mortal, should reach Paradise in the company of
  the companion or close associate of your earthly career, or if your seraphic
  guardian of destiny should chance to arrive with you or were waiting for you,
  then no permanent companion would be assigned you. But if you arrive alone, a
  companion will certainly welcome you as you awaken on the Isle of Light from
  the terminal sleep of time. Even if it is known that you will be accompanied
  by someone of ascendant association, temporary companions will be designated
  to welcome you to the eternal shores and to escort you to the reservation made
  ready for the reception of you and your associates. You may be certain of
  being warmly welcomed when you experience the resurrection into eternity on
  the everlasting shores of Paradise.

  25:8.6 Reception companions are assigned during the terminal days of the
  ascenders' sojourn on the last circuit of Havona, and they carefully examine
  the records of mortal origin and eventful ascent through the worlds of space
  and the circles of Havona. When they greet the mortals of time, they are
  already well versed in the careers of these arriving pilgrims and immediately
  prove to be sympathetic and intriguing companions.

  25:8.7 During your prefinaliter sojourn on Paradise, if for any reason you
  should be temporarily separated from your associate of the ascending career --
  mortal or seraphic -- a Paradise Companion would be forthwith assigned for
  counsel and companionship. When once assigned to an ascendant mortal of
  solitary residence on Paradise, the companion remains with this person until
  he either is rejoined by his ascendant associates or is duly mustered into the
  Corps of the Finality.



  25:8.8 Paradise Companions are assigned in order of waiting except that an
  ascender is never placed in the charge of a companion whose nature is unlike
  his superuniverse type. If a Urantia mortal were arriving on Paradise today,
  there would be assigned to him the first waiting companion either of origin in
  Orvonton or otherwise of the nature of the Seventh Master Spirit. Hence the
  omniaphim serve not with the ascendant creatures from the seven
  superuniverses.



  25:8.9 Many additional services are performed by the Paradise Companions: If
  an ascending mortal should reach the central universe alone and, while
  traversing Havona, should fail in some phase of the Deity adventure, in due
  course he would be remanded to the universes of time, and forthwith a call
  would be made to the reserves of the Paradise Companions. One of this order
  would be assigned to follow the defeated pilgrim, to be with him and to
  comfort and cheer him, and to remain with him until he returned to the central
  universe to resume the Paradise ascent.

  25:8.10 If an ascending pilgrim met defeat in the Deity adventure while
  traversing Havona in the company of an ascending seraphim, the guardian angel
  of the mortal career, she would elect to accompany her mortal associate. These
  seraphim always volunteer and are permitted to accompany their long-time
  mortal comrades back to the service of time and space.

  25:8.11 But not so with two closely associated mortal ascenders: If one
  attains God while the other temporarily fails, the successful individual
  invariably chooses to go back to the evolutionary creations with the
  disappointed personality, but this is not permitted. Instead, a call is made
  to the reserves of the Paradise Companions, and one of the volunteers is
  selected to accompany the disappointed pilgrim. A volunteer Paradise Citizen
  then becomes associated with the successful mortal, who tarries on the central
  Isle awaiting the Havona return of the defeated comrade and in the meantime
  teaches in certain Paradise schools, presenting the adventurous story of the
  evolutionary ascent.



  25:8.12 Sponsored by One High in Authority from Uversa.






 PAPER 26


 MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE



  26:0.1 SUPERNAPHIM are the ministering spirits of Paradise and the central
  universe; they are the highest order of the lowest group of the children of
  the Infinite Spirit -- the angelic hosts. Such ministering spirits are to be
  encountered from the Isle of Paradise to the worlds of time and space. No
  major part of the organized and inhabited creation is without their services.





1. THE MINISTERING SPIRITS



  26:1.1 Angels are the ministering-spirit associates of the evolutionary and
  ascending will creatures of all space; they are also the colleagues and
  working associates of the higher hosts of the divine personalities of the
  spheres. The angels of all orders are distinct personalities and are highly
  individualized. They all have a large capacity for appreciation of the
  ministrations of the reversion directors. Together with the Messenger Hosts of
  Space, the ministering spirits enjoy seasons of rest and change; they possess
  very social natures and have an associative capacity far transcending that of
  human beings.



  26:1.2 The ministering spirits of the grand universe are classified as
  follows:

1. Supernaphim.

2. Seconaphim.

3. Tertiaphim.

4. Omniaphim.

5. Seraphim.

6. Cherubim and Sanobim.

7. Midway Creatures.

  26:1.3 The individual members of the angelic orders are not altogether
  stationary as to personal status in the universe. Angels of certain orders may
  become Paradise Companions for a season; some become Celestial Recorders;
  others ascend to the ranks of the Technical Advisers. Certain of the cherubim
  may aspire to seraphic status and destiny, while evolutionary seraphim can
  achieve the spiritual levels of the ascending Sons of God.



  26:1.4 The seven orders of ministering spirits, as revealed, are grouped for
  presentation in accordance with their functions of greatest importance to
  ascending creatures:



  26:1.5 1. The Ministering Spirits of the Central Universe. The three orders of
  supernaphim serve in the Paradise-Havona system. Primary or Paradise
  supernaphim are created by the Infinite Spirit. The secondary and tertiary
  orders, serving in Havona, are respectively the offspring of the Master
  Spirits and of the Spirits of the Circuits.



  26:1.6 2. The Ministering Spirits of the Superuniverses -- the seconaphim, the
  tertiaphim, and the omniaphim. Seconaphim, the children of the Reflective
  Spirits, variously serve in the seven superuniverses. Tertiaphim, of origin in
  the Infinite Spirit, are eventually dedicated to the liaison service of the
  Creator Sons and the Ancients of Days. Omniaphim are created concertedly by
  the Infinite Spirit and the Seven Supreme Executives, and they are the
  exclusive servants of the latter. The discussion of these three orders forms
  the subject of a succeeding narrative in this series.



  26:1.7 3. The Ministering Spirits of the Local Universes embrace the seraphim
  and their assistants, the cherubim. With these offspring of a Universe Mother
  Spirit mortal ascenders have initial contact. The midway creatures, of
  nativity on the inhabited worlds, are not really of the angelic orders proper,
  though often functionally grouped with the ministering spirits. Their story,
  with an account of the seraphim and cherubim, is presented in those papers
  dealing with the affairs of your local universe.



  26:1.8 All orders of the angelic hosts are devoted to the various universe
  services, and they minister in one way or another to the higher orders of
  celestial beings; but it is the supernaphim, seconaphim, and seraphim who, in
  large numbers, are employed in the furtherance of the ascending scheme of
  progressive perfection for the children of time. Functioning in the central,
  super-, and local universes, they form that unbroken chain of spirit ministers
  which has been provided by the Infinite Spirit for the help and guidance of
  all who seek to attain the Universal Father through the Eternal Son.

  26:1.9 Supernaphim are limited in "spirit polarity" regarding only one phase
  of action, that with the Universal Father. They can work singly except when
  directly employing the exclusive circuits of the Father. When they are in
  power reception on the Father's direct ministry, supernaphim must voluntarily
  associate in pairs to be able to function. Seconaphim are likewise limited and
  in addition must work in pairs in order to synchronize with the circuits of
  the Eternal Son. Seraphim can work singly as discrete and localized
  personalities, but they are able to encircuit only when polarized as liaison
  pairs. When such spirit beings are associated as pairs, the one is spoken of
  as complemental to the other. Complemental relationships may be transient;
  they are not necessarily of a permanent nature.

  26:1.10 These brilliant creatures of light are sustained directly by the
  intake of the spiritual energy of the primary circuits of the universe.
  Urantia mortals must obtain light-energy through the vegetative incarnation,
  but the angelic hosts are encircuited; they "have food that you know not."
  They also partake of the circulating teachings of the marvelous Trinity
  Teacher Sons; they have a reception of knowledge and an intake of wisdom much
  resembling their technique of assimilating the life energies.





2. THE MIGHTY SUPERNAPHIM



  26:2.1 The supernaphim are the skilled ministers to all types of beings who
  sojourn on Paradise and in the central universe. These high angels are created
  in three major orders: primary, secondary, and tertiary.



  26:2.2 Primary supernaphim are the exclusive offspring of the Conjoint
  Creator. They divide their ministry about equally between certain groups of
  the Paradise Citizens and the ever-enlarging corps of ascendant pilgrims.
  These angels of the eternal Isle are highly efficacious in furthering the
  essential training of both groups of Paradise dwellers. They contribute much
  that is helpful to the mutual understanding of these two unique orders of
  universe creatures -- the one being the highest type of divine and perfect
  will creature, and the other, the perfected evolution of the lowest type of
  will creature in all the universe of universes.



  26:2.3 The work of the primary supernaphim is so unique and distinctive that
  it will be separately considered in the succeeding narrative.



  26:2.4 Secondary supernaphim are the directors of the affairs of ascending
  beings on the seven circuits of Havona. They are equally concerned in
  ministering to the educational training of numerous orders of Paradise
  Citizens who sojourn for long periods on the world circuits of the central
  creation, but we may not discuss this phase of their service.



  26:2.5 There are seven types of these high angels, each of origin in one of
  the Seven Master Spirits and in nature patterned accordingly. Collectively,
  the Seven Master Spirits create many different groups of unique beings and
  entities, and the individual members of each order are comparatively uniform
  in nature. But when these same Seven Spirits create individually, the
  resulting orders are always sevenfold in nature; the children of each Master
  Spirit partake of the nature of their creator and are accordingly diverse from
  the others. Such is the origin of the secondary supernaphim, and the angels of
  all seven created types function in all channels of activity open to their
  entire order, chiefly on the seven circuits of the central and divine
  universe.



  26:2.6 Each of the seven planetary circuits of Havona is under the direct
  supervision of one of the Seven Spirits of the Circuits, themselves the
  collective -- hence uniform -- creation of the Seven Master Spirits. Though
  partaking of the nature of the Third Source and Center, these seven subsidiary
  Spirits of Havona were not a part of the original pattern universe. They were
  in function after the original (eternal) creation but long before the times of
  Grandfanda. They undoubtedly appeared as a creative response of the Master
  Spirits to the emerging purpose of the Supreme Being, and they were discovered
  in function upon the organization of the grand universe. The Infinite Spirit
  and all his creative associates, as universal co-ordinators, seem abundantly
  endowed with the ability to make suitable creative responses to the
  simultaneous developments in the experiential Deities and in the evolving
  universes.



  26:2.7 Tertiary supernaphim take origin in these Seven Spirits of the
  Circuits. Each one of them, on the separate Havona circles, is empowered by
  the Infinite Spirit to create a sufficient number of high superaphic ministers
  of the tertiary order to meet the needs of the central universe. While the
  Circuit Spirits produced comparatively few of these angelic ministers prior to
  the arrival in Havona of the pilgrims of time, the Seven Master Spirits did
  not even begin the creation of secondary supernaphim until the landing of
  Grandfanda. As the older of the two orders, the tertiary supernaphim will
  therefore receive first consideration.





3. THE TERTIARY SUPERNAPHIM



  26:3.1 These servants of the Seven Master Spirits are the angelic specialists
  of the various circuits of Havona, and their ministry extends to both the
  ascending pilgrims of time and the descending pilgrims of eternity. On the
  billion study worlds of the perfect central creation, your superaphic
  associates of all orders will be fully visible to you. There you will all be,
  in the highest sense, fraternal and understanding beings of mutual contact and
  sympathy. You will also fully recognize and exquisitely fraternize with the
  descending pilgrims, the Paradise Citizens, who traverse these circuits from
  within outward, entering Havona through the pilot world of the first circuit
  and proceeding outward to the seventh.

  26:3.2 The ascending pilgrims from the seven superuniverses pass through
  Havona in the opposite direction, entering by way of the pilot world of the
  seventh circuit and proceeding inward. There is no time limit set on the
  progress of the ascending creatures from world to world and from circuit to
  circuit, just as no fixed span of time is arbitrarily assigned to residence on
  the morontia worlds. But, whereas adequately developed individuals may be
  exempted from sojourn on one or more of the local universe training worlds, no
  pilgrim may avoid passing through all seven of the Havona circuits of
  progressive spiritualization.



  26:3.3 That corps of tertiary supernaphim which is chiefly assigned to the
  service of the pilgrims of time is classified as follows:



  26:3.4 1. The Harmony Supervisors. It must be apparent that some sort of co-
  ordinating influence would be required, even in perfect Havona, to maintain
  system and to insure harmony in all the work of preparing the pilgrims of time
  for their subsequent Paradise achievements. Such is the real mission of the
  harmony supervisors -- to keep everything moving along smoothly and
  expeditiously. Originating on the first circuit, they serve throughout Havona,
  and their presence on the circuits means that nothing can possibly go amiss. A
  great ability to co-ordinate a diversity of activities involving personalities
  of differing orders -- even multiple levels -- enables these supernaphim to
  give assistance wherever and whenever required. They contribute enormously to
  the mutual understanding of the pilgrims of time and the pilgrims of eternity.



  26:3.5 2. The Chief Recorders. These angels are created on the second circuit
  but operate everywhere in the central universe. They record in triplicate,
  executing records for the literal files of Havona, for the spiritual files of
  their order, and for the formal records of Paradise. In addition they
  automatically transmit the transactions of true-knowledge import to the living
  libraries of Paradise, the custodians of knowledge of the primary order of
  supernaphim.



  26:3.6 3. The Broadcasters. The children of the third Circuit Spirit function
  throughout Havona, although their official station is located on planet number
  seventy in the outermost circle. These master technicians are the broadcast
  receivers and senders of the central creation and the directors of the space
  reports of all Deity phenomena on Paradise. They can operate all of the basic
  circuits of space.



  26:3.7 4. The Messengers take origin on circuit number four. They range the
  Paradise-Havona system as bearers of all messages requiring personal
  transmission. They serve their fellows, the celestial personalities, the
  Paradise pilgrims, and even the ascendant souls of time.



  26:3.8 5. The Intelligence Co-ordinators. These tertiary supernaphim, the
  children of the fifth Circuit Spirit, are always the wise and sympathetic
  promoters of fraternal association between the ascending and the descending
  pilgrims. They minister to all the inhabitants of Havona, and especially to
  the ascenders, by keeping them currently informed regarding the affairs of the
  universe of universes. By virtue of personal contacts with the broadcasters
  and the reflectors, these "living newspapers" of Havona are instantly
  conversant with all information passing over the vast news circuits of the
  central universe. They secure intelligence by the Havona graph method, which
  enables them automatically to assimilate as much information in one hour of
  Urantia time as would require a thousand years for your most rapid telegraphic
  technique to record.



  26:3.9 6. The Transport Personalities. These beings, of origin on circuit
  number six, usually operate from planet number forty in the outermost circuit.
  It is they who take away the disappointed candidates who transiently fail in
  the Deity adventure. They stand ready to serve all who must come and go in the
  service of Havona, and who are not space traversers.



  26:3.10 7. The Reserve Corps. The fluctuations in the work with the ascendant
  beings, the Paradise pilgrims, and other orders of beings sojourning in
  Havona, make it necessary to maintain these reserves of supernaphim on the
  pilot world of the seventh circle, where they take origin. They are created
  without special design and are competent to take up service in the less
  exacting phases of any of the duties of their superaphic associates of the
  tertiary order.





4. THE SECONDARY SUPERNAPHIM



  26:4.1 The secondary supernaphim are ministers to the seven planetary circuits
  of the central universe. Part are devoted to the service of the pilgrims of
  time, and one half of the entire order is assigned to the training of the
  Paradise pilgrims of eternity. These Paradise Citizens, in their pilgrimage
  through the Havona circuits, are also attended by volunteers from the Mortal
  Finality Corps, an arrangement that has prevailed since the completion of the
  first finaliter group.



  26:4.2 According to their periodic assignment to the ministry of the ascending
  pilgrims, secondary supernaphim work in the following seven groups:

1. Pilgrim Helpers.

2. Supremacy Guides.

3. Trinity Guides.

4. Son Finders.

5. Father Guides.

6. Counselors and Advisers.

7. Complements of Rest.

  26:4.3 Each of these working groups contains angels of all seven created
  types, and a pilgrim of space is always tutored by secondary supernaphim of
  origin in the Master Spirit who presides over that pilgrim's superuniverse of
  nativity. When you mortals of Urantia attain Havona, you will certainly be
  piloted by supernaphim whose created natures -- like your own evolved natures
  -- are derived from the Master Spirit of Orvonton. And since your tutors
  spring from the Master Spirit of your own superuniverse, they are especially
  qualified to understand, comfort, and assist you in all your efforts to attain
  Paradise perfection.



  26:4.4 The pilgrims of time are transported past the dark gravity bodies of
  Havona to the outer planetary circuit by the transport personalities of the
  primary order of seconaphim, operating from the headquarters of the seven
  superuniverses. A majority, but not all, of the seraphim of planetary and
  local universe service who have been accredited for the Paradise ascent will
  part with their mortal associates before the long flight to Havona and will at
  once begin a long and intense training for supernal assignment, expecting to
  achieve, as seraphim, perfection of existence and supremacy of service. And
  this they do, hoping to rejoin the pilgrims of time, to be reckoned among
  those who forever follow the course of such mortals as have attained the
  Universal Father and have received assignment to the undisclosed service of
  the Corps of the Finality.

  26:4.5 The pilgrim lands on the receiving planet of Havona, the pilot world of
  the seventh circuit, with only one endowment of perfection, perfection of
  purpose. The Universal Father has decreed: "Be you perfect, even as I am
  perfect." That is the astounding invitation-command broadcast to the finite
  children of the worlds of space. The promulgation of that injunction has set
  all creation astir in the co-operative effort of the celestial beings to
  assist in bringing about the fulfillment and realization of that tremendous
  command of the First Great Source and Center.

  26:4.6 When, through and by the ministry of all the helper hosts of the
  universal scheme of survival, you are finally deposited on the receiving world
  of Havona, you arrive with only one sort of perfection -- perfection of
  purpose. Your purpose has been thoroughly proved; your faith has been tested.
  You are known to be disappointment proof. Not even the failure to discern the
  Universal Father can shake the faith or seriously disturb the trust of an
  ascendant mortal who has passed through the experience that all must traverse
  in order to attain the perfect spheres of Havona. By the time you reach
  Havona, your sincerity has become sublime. Perfection of purpose and divinity
  of desire, with steadfastness of faith, have secured your entrance to the
  settled abodes of eternity; your deliverance from the uncertainties of time is
  full and complete; and now must you come face to face with the problems of
  Havona and the immensities of Paradise, to meet which you have so long been in
  training in the experiential epochs of time on the world schools of space.

  26:4.7 Faith has won for the ascendant pilgrim a perfection of purpose which
  admits the children of time to the portals of eternity. Now must the pilgrim
  helpers begin the work of developing that perfection of understanding and that
  technique of comprehension which are so indispensable to Paradise perfection
  of personality.



  26:4.8 Ability to comprehend is the mortal passport to Paradise. Willingness
  to believe is the key to Havona. The acceptance of sonship, co-operation with
  the indwelling Adjuster, is the price of evolutionary survival.





5. THE PILGRIM HELPERS



  26:5.1 The first of the seven groups of secondary supernaphim to be
  encountered are the pilgrim helpers, those beings of quick understanding and
  broad sympathy who welcome the much-traveled ascenders of space to the
  stabilized worlds and settled economy of the central universe. Simultaneously
  these high ministers begin their work for the Paradise pilgrims of eternity,
  the first of whom arrived on the pilot world of the inner Havona circuit
  concomitantly with the landing of Grandfanda on the pilot world of the outer
  circuit. Back in those far-distant days the pilgrims from Paradise and the
  pilgrims of time first met on the receiving world of circuit number four.

  26:5.2 These pilgrim helpers, functioning on the seventh circle of Havona
  worlds, conduct their work for the ascending mortals in three major divisions:
  first, the supreme understanding of the Paradise Trinity; second, the
  spiritual comprehension of the Father-Son partnership; and third, the
  intellectual recognition of the Infinite Spirit. Each of these phases of
  instruction is divided into seven branches of twelve minor divisions of
  seventy subsidiary groups; and each of these seventy subsidiary groupings of
  instruction is presented in one thousand classifications. More detailed
  instruction is provided on subsequent circles, but an outline of every
  Paradise requirement is taught by the pilgrim helpers.

  26:5.3 That, then, is the primary or elementary course which confronts the
  faith-tested and much-traveled pilgrims of space. But long before reaching
  Havona, these ascendant children of time have learned to feast upon
  uncertainty, to fatten upon disappointment, to enthuse over apparent defeat,
  to invigorate in the presence of difficulties, to exhibit indomitable courage
  in the face of immensity, and to exercise unconquerable faith when confronted
  with the challenge of the inexplicable. Long since, the battle cry of these
  pilgrims became: "In liaison with God, nothing -- absolutely nothing -- is
  impossible."

  26:5.4 There is a definite requirement of the pilgrims of time on each of the
  Havona circles; and while every pilgrim continues under the tutelage of
  supernaphim by nature adapted to helping that particular type of ascendant
  creature, the course that must be mastered is fairly uniform for all ascenders
  who reach the central universe. This course of achievement is quantitative,
  qualitative, and experiential -- intellectual, spiritual, and supreme.

  26:5.5 Time is of little consequence on the Havona circles. In a limited
  manner it enters into the possibilities of advancement, but achievement is the
  final and supreme test. The very moment your superaphic associate deems you to
  be competent to pass inward to the next circle, you will be taken before the
  twelve adjutants of the seventh Circuit Spirit. Here you will be required to
  pass the tests of the circle determined by the superuniverse of your origin
  and by the system of your nativity. The divinity attainment of this circle
  takes place on the pilot world and consists in the spiritual recognition and
  realization of the Master Spirit of the ascending pilgrim's superuniverse.

  26:5.6 When the work of the outer Havona circle is finished and the course
  presented is mastered, the pilgrim helpers take their subjects to the pilot
  world of the next circle and commit them to the care of the supremacy guides.
  The pilgrim helpers always tarry for a season to assist in making the transfer
  both pleasant and profitable.





6. THE SUPREMACY GUIDES



  26:6.1 Ascenders of space are designated "spiritual graduates" when translated
  from the seventh to the sixth circle and are placed under the immediate
  supervision of the supremacy guides. These guides should not be confused with
  the Graduate Guides -- belonging to the Higher Personalities of the Infinite
  Spirit -- who, with their servital associates, minister on all circuits of
  Havona to both ascending and descending pilgrims. The supremacy guides
  function only on the sixth circle of the central universe.

  26:6.2 It is in this circle that the ascenders achieve a new realization of
  Supreme Divinity. Through their long careers in the evolutionary universes the
  pilgrims of time have been experiencing a growing awareness of the reality of
  an almighty overcontrol of the time-space creations. Here, on this Havona
  circuit, they come near to encountering the central universe source of time-
  space unity -- the spiritual reality of God the Supreme.

  26:6.3 I am somewhat at a loss to explain what takes place on this circle. No
  personalized presence of Supremacy is perceptible to the ascenders. In certain
  respects, new relationships with the Seventh Master Spirit compensate this
  noncontactability of the Supreme Being. But regardless of our inability to
  grasp the technique, each ascending creature seems to undergo a transforming
  growth, a new integration of consciousness, a new spiritualization of purpose,
  a new sensitivity for divinity, which can hardly be satisfactorily explained
  without assuming the unrevealed activity of the Supreme Being. To those of us
  who have observed these mysterious transactions, it appears as if God the
  Supreme were affectionately bestowing upon his experiential children, up to
  the very limits of their experiential capacities, those enhancements of
  intellectual grasp, of spiritual insight, and of personality outreach which
  they will so need, in all their efforts at penetrating the divinity level of
  the Trinity of Supremacy, to achieve the eternal and existential Deities of
  Paradise.

  26:6.4 When the supremacy guides deem their pupils ripe for advancement, they
  bring them before the commission of seventy, a mixed group serving as
  examiners on the pilot world of circuit number six. After satisfying this
  commission as to their comprehension of the Supreme Being and of the Trinity
  of Supremacy, the pilgrims are certified for translation to the fifth circuit.





7. THE TRINITY GUIDES



  26:7.1 Trinity guides are the tireless ministers of the fifth circle of the
  Havona training of the advancing pilgrims of time and space. The spiritual
  graduates are here designated "candidates for the Deity adventure" since it is
  on this circle, under the direction of the Trinity guides, that the pilgrims
  receive advanced instruction concerning the divine Trinity in preparation for
  the attempt to achieve the personality recognition of the Infinite Spirit. And
  here the ascending pilgrims discover what true study and real mental effort
  mean as they begin to discern the nature of the still-more-taxing and far-
  more-arduous spiritual exertion that will be required to meet the demands of
  the high goal set for their achievement on the worlds of this circuit.

  26:7.2 Most faithful and efficient are the Trinity guides; and each pilgrim
  receives the undivided attention, and enjoys the whole affection, of a
  secondary supernaphim belonging to this order. Never would a pilgrim of time
  find the first approachable person of the Paradise Trinity were it not for the
  help and assistance of these guides and the host of other spiritual beings
  engaged in instructing the ascenders respecting the nature and technique of
  the forthcoming Deity adventure.

  26:7.3 After the completion of the course of training on this circuit the
  Trinity guides take their pupils to its pilot world and present them before
  one of the many triune commissions functioning as examiners and certifiers of
  candidates for the Deity adventure. These commissions consist of one fellow of
  the finaliters, one of the directors of conduct of the order of primary
  supernaphim, and either a Solitary Messenger of space or a Trinitized Son of
  Paradise.

  26:7.4 When an ascendant soul actually starts for Paradise, he is accompanied
  only by the transit trio: the superaphic circle associate, the Graduate Guide,
  and the ever-present servital associate of the latter. These excursions from
  the Havona circles to Paradise are trial trips; the ascenders are not yet of
  Paradise status. They do not achieve residential status on Paradise until they
  have passed through the terminal rest of time subsequent to the attainment of
  the Universal Father and the final clearance of the Havona circuits. Not until
  after the divine rest do they partake of the "essence of divinity" and the
  "spirit of supremacy" and thus really begin to function in the circle of
  eternity and in the presence of the Trinity.



  26:7.5 The ascender's companions of the transit trio are not required to
  enable him to locate the geographic presence of the spiritual luminosity of
  the Trinity, rather to afford all possible assistance to a pilgrim in his
  difficult task of recognizing, discerning, and comprehending the Infinite
  Spirit sufficiently to constitute personality recognition. Any ascendant
  pilgrim on Paradise can discern the geographic or locational presence of the
  Trinity, the great majority are able to contact the intellectual reality of
  the Deities, especially the Third Person, but not all can recognize or even
  partially comprehend the reality of the spiritual presence of the Father and
  the Son. Still more difficult is even the minimum spiritual comprehension of
  the Universal Father.

  26:7.6 Seldom does the quest for the Infinite Spirit fail of consummation, and
  when their subjects have succeeded in this phase of the Deity adventure, the
  Trinity guides prepare to transfer them to the ministry of the Son finders on
  the fourth circle of Havona.





8. THE SON FINDERS



  26:8.1 The fourth Havona circuit is sometimes called the "circuit of the
  Sons." From the worlds of this circuit the ascending pilgrims go to Paradise
  to achieve an understanding contact with the Eternal Son, while on the worlds
  of this circuit the descending pilgrims achieve a new comprehension of the
  nature and mission of the Creator Sons of time and space. There are seven
  worlds in this circuit on which the reserve corps of the Paradise Michaels
  maintain special service schools of mutual ministry to both the ascending and
  descending pilgrims; and it is on these worlds of the Michael Sons that the
  pilgrims of time and the pilgrims of eternity arrive at their first truly
  mutual understanding of one another. In many respects the experiences of this
  circuit are the most intriguing of the entire Havona sojourn.

  26:8.2 The Son finders are the superaphic ministers to the ascending mortals
  of the fourth circuit. In addition to the general work of preparing their
  candidates for a realization of the Trinity relationships of the Eternal Son,
  these Son finders must so fully instruct their subjects that they will be
  wholly successful: first, in the adequate spiritual comprehension of the Son;
  second, in the satisfactory personality recognition of the Son; and third, in
  the proper differentiation of the Son from the personality of the Infinite
  Spirit.

  26:8.3 After the attainment of the Infinite Spirit, no more examinations are
  conducted. The tests of the inner circles are the performances of the pilgrim
  candidates when in the embrace of the enshroudment of the Deities. Advancement
  is determined purely by the spirituality of the individual, and no one but the
  Gods presumes to pass upon this possession. In the event of failure no reasons
  are ever assigned, neither are the candidates themselves nor their various
  tutors and guides ever chided or criticized. On Paradise, disappointment is
  never regarded as defeat; postponement is never looked upon as disgrace; the
  apparent failures of time are never confused with the significant delays of
  eternity.



  26:8.4 Not many pilgrims experience the delay of seeming failure in the Deity
  adventure. Nearly all attain the Infinite Spirit, though occasionally a
  pilgrim from superuniverse number one does not succeed on the first attempt.
  The pilgrims who attain the Spirit seldom fail in finding the Son; of those
  who do fail on the first adventure, almost all hail from superuniverses three
  and five. The great majority of those who fail on the first adventure to
  attain the Father, after finding both the Spirit and the Son, hail from
  superuniverse number six, though a few from numbers two and three are likewise
  unsuccessful. And all this seems clearly to indicate that there is some good
  and sufficient reason for these apparent failures; in reality, simply
  unescapable delays.

  26:8.5 The defeated candidates for the Deity adventure are placed under the
  jurisdiction of the chiefs of assignment, a group of primary supernaphim, and
  are remanded to the work of the realms of space for a period of not less than
  one millennium. They never return to the superuniverse of their nativity,
  always to that supercreation most propitious for their retraining in
  preparation for the second Deity adventure. Following this service, on their
  own motion, they return to the outer circle of Havona, are immediately
  escorted to the circle of their interrupted career, and at once resume their
  preparations for the Deity adventure. Never do the secondary supernaphim fail
  to pilot their subjects successfully on the second attempt, and the same
  superaphic ministers and other guides always attend these candidates during
  this second adventure.





9. THE FATHER GUIDES



  26:9.1 When the pilgrim soul attains the third circle of Havona, he comes
  under the tutelage of the Father guides, the older, highly skilled, and most
  experienced of the superaphic ministers. On the worlds of this circuit the
  Father guides maintain schools of wisdom and colleges of technique wherein all
  the beings inhabiting the central universe serve as teachers. Nothing is
  neglected which would be of service to a creature of time in this transcendent
  adventure of eternity attainment.

  26:9.2 The attainment of the Universal Father is the passport to eternity,
  notwithstanding the remaining circuits to be traversed. It is therefore a
  momentous occasion on the pilot world of circle number three when the transit
  trio announce that the last venture of time is about to ensue; that another
  creature of space seeks entry to Paradise through the portals of eternity.



  26:9.3 The test of time is almost over; the race for eternity has been all but
  run. The days of uncertainty are ending; the temptation to doubt is vanishing;
  the injunction to be perfect has been obeyed. From the very bottom of
  intelligent existence the creature of time and material personality has
  ascended the evolutionary spheres of space, thus proving the feasibility of
  the ascension plan while forever demonstrating the justice and righteousness
  of the command of the Universal Father to his lowly creatures of the worlds:
  "Be you perfect, even as I am perfect."

  26:9.4 Step by step, life by life, world by world, the ascendant career has
  been mastered, and the goal of Deity has been attained. Survival is complete
  in perfection, and perfection is replete in the supremacy of divinity. Time is
  lost in eternity; space is swallowed up in worshipful identity and harmony
  with the Universal Father. The broadcasts of Havona flash forth the space
  reports of glory, the good news that in very truth the conscientious creatures
  of animal nature and material origin have, through evolutionary ascension,
  become in reality and eternally the perfected sons of God.





10. THE COUNSELORS AND ADVISERS



  26:10.1 The superaphic counselors and advisers of the second circle are the
  instructors of the children of time regarding the career of eternity. The
  attainment of Paradise entails responsibilities of a new and higher order, and
  the sojourn on the second circle affords ample opportunity to receive the
  helpful counsel of these devoted supernaphim.



  26:10.2 Those who are unsuccessful in the first effort at Deity attainment are
  advanced from the circle of failure directly to the second circle before they
  are returned to superuniverse service. Thus the counselors and advisers also
  serve as the counselors and comforters of these disappointed pilgrims. They
  have just encountered their greatest disappointment, in no way differing from
  the long list of such experiences whereon they climbed, as on a ladder, from
  chaos to glory -- except in its magnitude. These are they who have drained the
  experiential cup to its dregs; and I have observed that they temporarily
  return to the services of the superuniverses as the highest type of loving
  ministrators to the children of time and temporal disappointments.

  26:10.3 After a long sojourn on circuit number two the subjects of
  disappointment are examined by the councils of perfection sitting on the pilot
  world of this circle and are certified as having passed the Havona test; and
  this, so far as nonspiritual status is concerned, grants them the same
  standing in the universes of time as if they had actually succeeded in the
  Deity adventure. The spirit of such candidates was wholly acceptable; their
  failure was inherent in some phase of the technique of approach or in some
  part of their experiential background.

  26:10.4 They are then taken by the counselors of the circle before the chiefs
  of assignment on Paradise and are remanded to the service of time on the
  worlds of space; and they go with joy and gladness to the tasks of former days
  and ages. In another day they will return to the circle of their greatest
  disappointment and attempt anew the Deity adventure.

  26:10.5 For the successful pilgrims on the second circuit the stimulus of
  evolutionary uncertainty is over, but the adventure of the eternal assignment
  has not yet begun; and while the sojourn on this circle is wholly pleasurable
  and highly profitable, it lacks some of the anticipative enthusiasm of the
  former circles. Many are the pilgrims who, at such a time, look back upon the
  long, long struggle with a joyous envy, really wishing they might somehow go
  back to the worlds of time and begin it all over again, just as you mortals,
  in approaching advanced age, sometimes look back over the struggles of youth
  and early life and truly wish you might live your lives over once again.

  26:10.6 But the traversal of the innermost circle lies just ahead, and soon
  thereafter the last transit sleep will terminate, and the new adventure of the
  eternal career will begin. The counselors and advisers on the second circle
  begin the preparation of their subjects for this great and final rest, the
  inevitable sleep which ever intervenes between the epochal stages of the
  ascendant career.

  26:10.7 When those ascendant pilgrims who have attained the Universal Father
  complete the second-circle experience, their ever-attendant Graduate Guides
  issue the order admitting them to the final circle. These guides personally
  pilot their subjects to the inner circle and there place them in the custody
  of the complements of rest, the last of those orders of secondary supernaphim
  assigned to the ministry of the pilgrims of time on the world circuits of
  Havona.





11. THE COMPLEMENTS OF REST



  26:11.1 Much of an ascender's time on the last circuit is devoted to a
  continuation of the study of the impending problems of Paradise residence. A
  vast and diverse host of beings, the majority unrevealed, are permanent and
  transient residents of this inner ring of Havona worlds. And the commingling
  of these manifold types provides the superaphic complements of rest with a
  rich situational environment which they effectively utilize in furthering the
  education of the ascending pilgrims, especially with regard to the problems of
  adjustment to the many groups of beings soon to be encountered on Paradise.



  26:11.2 Among those who dwell on this inner circuit are the creature-
  trinitized sons. The primary and the secondary supernaphim are the general
  custodians of the conjoint corps of these sons, including the trinitized
  offspring of the mortal finaliters and similar progeny of the Paradise
  Citizens. Certain of these sons are Trinity embraced and commissioned in the
  supergovernments, others are variously assigned, but the great majority are
  being gathered together in the conjoint corps on the perfect worlds of the
  inner Havona circuit. Here, under the supervision of the supernaphim, they are
  being prepared for some future work by a special and unnamed corps of high
  Paradise Citizens who were, prior to the times of Grandfanda, first executive
  assistants to the Eternals of Days. There are many reasons for conjecturing
  that these two unique groups of trinitized beings are going to work together
  in the remote future, not the least of which is their common destiny in the
  reserves of the Paradise Corps of Trinitized Finaliters.

  26:11.3 On this innermost circuit, both the ascending and the descending
  pilgrims fraternize with each other and with the creature-trinitized sons.
  Like their parents, these sons derive great benefits from interassociation,
  and it is the special mission of the supernaphim to facilitate and to insure
  the confraternity of the trinitized sons of the mortal finaliters and the
  trinitized sons of the Paradise Citizens. The superaphic complements of rest
  are not so much concerned with their training as with promoting their
  understanding association with diverse groups.

  26:11.4 Mortals have received the Paradise command: "Be you perfect, even as
  your Paradise Father is perfect." To these trinitized sons of the conjoint
  corps the supervising supernaphim never cease to proclaim: "Be you
  understanding of your ascendant brethren, even as the Paradise Creator Sons
  know and love them."



  26:11.5 The mortal creature must find God. The Creator Son never stops until
  he finds man -- the lowest will creature. Beyond doubt, the Creator Sons and
  their mortal children are preparing for some future and unknown universe
  service. Both traverse the gamut of the experiential universe and so are
  educated and trained for their eternal mission. Throughout the universes there
  is occurring this unique blending of the human and the divine, the commingling
  of creature and Creator. Unthinking mortals have referred to the manifestation
  of divine mercy and tenderness, especially towards the weak and in behalf of
  the needy, as indicative of an anthropomorphic God. What a mistake! Rather
  should such manifestations of mercy and forbearance by human beings be taken
  as evidence that mortal man is indwelt by the spirit of the living God; that
  the creature is, after all, divinity motivated.



  26:11.6 Near the end of the first-circle sojourn the ascending pilgrims first
  meet the instigators of rest of the primary order of supernaphim. These are
  the angels of Paradise coming out to greet those who stand at the threshold of
  eternity and to complete their preparation for the transition slumber of the
  last resurrection. You are not really a child of Paradise until you have
  traversed the inner circle and have experienced the resurrection of eternity
  from the terminal sleep of time. The perfected pilgrims begin this rest, go to
  sleep, on the first circle of Havona, but they awaken on the shores of
  Paradise. Of all who ascend to the eternal Isle, only those who thus arrive
  are the children of eternity; the others go as visitors, as guests without
  residential status.

  26:11.7 And now, at the culmination of the Havona career, as you mortals go to
  sleep on the pilot world of the inner circuit, you go not alone to your rest
  as you did on the worlds of your origin when you closed your eyes in the
  natural sleep of mortal death, nor as you did when you entered the long
  transit trance preparatory for the journey to Havona. Now, as you prepare for
  the attainment rest, there moves over by your side your long-time associate of
  the first circle, the majestic complement of rest, who prepares to enter the
  rest as one with you, as the pledge of Havona that your transition is
  complete, and that you await only the final touches of perfection.

  26:11.8 Your first transition was indeed death, the second an ideal sleep, and
  now the third metamorphosis is the true rest, the relaxation of the ages.



  26:11.9 Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.




PAPER 27


 MINISTRY OF THE PRIMARY SUPERNAPHIM



  27:0.1 PRIMARY supernaphim are the supernal servants of the Deities on the
  eternal Isle of Paradise. Never have they been known to depart from the paths
  of light and righteousness. The roll calls are complete; from eternity not one
  of this magnificent host has been lost. These high supernaphim are perfect
  beings, supreme in perfection, but they are not absonite, neither are they
  absolute. Being of the essence of perfection, these children of the Infinite
  Spirit work interchangeably and at will in all phases of their manifold
  duties. They do not function extensively outside Paradise, though they do
  participate in the various millennial gatherings and group reunions of the
  central universe. They also go forth as special messengers of the Deities, and
  in large numbers they ascend to become Technical Advisers.

  27:0.2 Primary supernaphim are also placed in command of the seraphic hosts
  ministering on worlds isolated because of rebellion. When a Paradise Son is
  bestowed upon such a world, completes his mission, ascends to the Universal
  Father, is accepted, and returns as the accredited deliverer of this isolated
  world, a primary supernaphim is always designated by the chiefs of assignment
  to assume command of the ministering spirits on duty in the newly reclaimed
  sphere. Supernaphim in this special service are periodically rotated. On
  Urantia the present "chief of seraphim" is the second of this order to be on
  duty since the times of the bestowal of Christ Michael.

  27:0.3 From eternity the primary supernaphim have served on the Isle of Light
  and have gone forth on missions of leadership to the worlds of space, but they
  have functioned as now classified only since the arrival on Paradise of the
  Havona pilgrims of time. These high angels now minister chiefly in the
  following seven orders of service:

1. Conductors of Worship.

2. Masters of Philosophy.

3. Custodians of Knowledge.

4. Directors of Conduct.

5. Interpreters of Ethics.

6. Chiefs of Assignment.

7. Instigators of Rest.

  27:0.4 Not until the ascending pilgrims actually attain Paradise residence do
  they come under the direct influence of these supernaphim, and then they pass
  through a training experience under the direction of these angels in the
  reverse order of their naming. That is, you enter upon your Paradise career
  under the tutelage of the instigators of rest and, after successive seasons
  with the intervening orders, finish this training period with the conductors
  of worship. Thereupon are you ready to begin the endless career of a
  finaliter.





1. INSTIGATORS OF REST



  27:1.1 The instigators of rest are the inspectors of Paradise who go forth
  from the central Isle to the inner circuit of Havona, there to collaborate
  with their colleagues, the complements of rest of the secondary order of
  supernaphim. The one essential to the enjoyment of Paradise is rest, divine
  rest; and these instigators of rest are the final instructors who make ready
  the pilgrims of time for their introduction to eternity. They begin their work
  on the final attainment circle of the central universe and continue it when
  the pilgrim awakes from the last transition sleep, the slumber which graduates
  a creature of space into the realm of the eternal.



  27:1.2 Rest is of a sevenfold nature: There is the rest of sleep and of play
  in the lower life orders, discovery in the higher beings, and worship in the
  highest type of spirit personality. There is also the normal rest of energy
  intake, the recharging of beings with physical or with spiritual energy. And
  then there is the transit sleep, the unconscious slumber when enseraphimed,
  when in passage from one sphere to another. Entirely different from all of
  these is the deep sleep of metamorphosis, the transition rest from one stage
  of being to another, from one life to another, from one state of existence to
  another, the sleep which ever attends transition from actual universe status
  in contrast to evolution through various stages of any one status.

  27:1.3 But the last metamorphic sleep is something more than those previous
  transition slumbers which have marked the successive status attainments of the
  ascendant career; thereby do the creatures of time and space traverse the
  innermost margins of the temporal and the spatial to attain residential status
  in the timeless and spaceless abodes of Paradise. The instigators and the
  complements of rest are just as essential to this transcending metamorphosis
  as are the seraphim and associated beings to the mortal creature's survival of
  death.



  27:1.4 You enter the rest on the final Havona circuit and are eternally
  resurrected on Paradise. And as you there spiritually repersonalize, you will
  immediately recognize the instigator of rest who welcomes you to the eternal
  shores as the very primary supernaphim who produced the final sleep on the
  innermost circuit of Havona; and you will recall the last grand stretch of
  faith as you once again made ready to commend the keeping of your identity
  into the hands of the Universal Father.

  27:1.5 The last rest of time has been enjoyed; the last transition sleep has
  been experienced; now you awake to life everlasting on the shores of the
  eternal abode. "And there shall be no more sleep. The presence of God and his
  Son are before you, and you are eternally his servants; you have seen his
  face, and his name is your spirit. There shall be no night there; and they
  need no light of the sun, for the Great Source and Center gives them light;
  they shall live forever and ever. And God shall wipe away all tears from their
  eyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall
  there be any more pain, for the former things have passed away."





2. CHIEFS OF ASSIGNMENT



  27:2.1 This is the group designated from time to time by the chief
  supernaphim, "the original pattern angel," to preside over the organization of
  all three orders of these angels -- primary, secondary, and tertiary. The
  supernaphim, as a body, are wholly self-governing and self-regulatory except
  for the functions of their mutual chief, the first angel of Paradise, who ever
  presides over all these spirit personalities.

  27:2.2 The angels of assignment have much to do with glorified mortal
  residents of Paradise before they are admitted to the Corps of the Finality.
  Study and instruction are not the exclusive occupations of Paradise arrivals;
  service also plays its essential part in the prefinaliter educational
  experiences of Paradise. And I have observed that, when the ascendant mortals
  have periods of leisure, they evince a predilection to fraternize with the
  reserve corps of the superaphic chiefs of assignment.

  27:2.3 When you mortal ascenders attain Paradise, your societal relationships
  involve a great deal more than contact with a host of exalted and divine
  beings and with a familiar multitude of glorified fellow mortals. You must
  also fraternize with upwards of three thousand different orders of Paradise
  Citizens, with the various groups of the Transcendentalers, and with numerous
  other types of Paradise inhabitants, permanent and transient, who have not
  been revealed on Urantia. After sustained contact with these mighty intellects
  of Paradise, it is very restful to visit with the angelic types of mind; they
  remind the mortals of time of the seraphim with whom they have had such long
  contact and such refreshing association.





3. INTERPRETERS OF ETHICS



  27:3.1 The higher you ascend in the scale of life, the more attention must be
  paid to universe ethics. Ethical awareness is simply the recognition by any
  individual of the rights inherent in the existence of any and all other
  individuals. But spiritual ethics far transcends the mortal and even the
  morontia concept of personal and group relations.

  27:3.2 Ethics has been duly taught and adequately learned by the pilgrims of
  time in their long ascent to the glories of Paradise. As this inward-ascending
  career has unfolded from the nativity worlds of space, the ascenders have
  continued to add group after group to their ever-widening circle of universe
  associates. Every new group of colleagues met with adds one more level of
  ethics to be recognized and complied with until, by the time the mortals of
  ascent reach Paradise, they really need someone to provide helpful and
  friendly counsel regarding ethical interpretations. They do not need to be
  taught ethics, but they do need to have what they have so laboriously learned
  properly interpreted to them as they are brought face to face with the
  extraordinary task of contacting with so much that is new.

  27:3.3 The interpreters of ethics are of inestimable assistance to the
  Paradise arrivals in helping them to adjust to numerous groups of majestic
  beings during that eventful period extending from the attainment of
  residential status to formal induction into the Corps of Mortal Finaliters.
  Many of the numerous types of Paradise Citizens the ascendant pilgrims have
  already met on the seven circuits of Havona. The glorified mortals have also
  enjoyed intimate contact with the creature-trinitized sons of the conjoint
  corps on the inner Havona circuit, where these beings are receiving much of
  their education. And on the other circuits the ascending pilgrims have met
  numerous unrevealed residents of the Paradise-Havona system who are there
  pursuing group training in preparation for the unrevealed assignments of the
  future.

  27:3.4 All these celestial companionships are invariably mutual. As ascending
  mortals you not only derive benefit from these successive universe companions
  and such numerous orders of increasingly divine associates, but you also
  impart to each of these fraternal beings something from your own personality
  and experience which forever makes every one of them different and better for
  having been associated with an ascending mortal from the evolutionary worlds
  of time and space.





4. DIRECTORS OF CONDUCT



  27:4.1 Having already been fully instructed in the ethics of Paradise
  relationships -- neither meaningless formalities nor the dictations of
  artificial castes but rather the inherent proprieties -- the ascendant mortals
  find it helpful to receive the counsel of the superaphic directors of conduct,
  who instruct the new members of Paradise society in the usages of the perfect
  conduct of the high beings who sojourn on the central Isle of Light and Life.

  27:4.2 Harmony is the keynote of the central universe, and detectable order
  prevails on Paradise. Proper conduct is essential to progress by way of
  knowledge, through philosophy, to the spiritual heights of spontaneous
  worship. There is a divine technique in the approach to Divinity; and the
  acquirement of this technique must await the pilgrims' arrival on Paradise.
  The spirit of it has been imparted on the circles of Havona, but the final
  touches of the training of the pilgrims of time can be applied only after they
  actually attain the Isle of Light.

  27:4.3 All Paradise conduct is wholly spontaneous, in every sense natural and
  free. But there still is a proper and perfect way of doing things on the
  eternal Isle, and the directors of conduct are ever by the side of the
  "strangers within the gates" to instruct them and so guide their steps as to
  put them at perfect ease and at the same time to enable the pilgrims to avoid
  that confusion and uncertainty which would otherwise be inevitable. Only by
  such an arrangement could endless confusion be avoided; and confusion never
  appears on Paradise.

  27:4.4 These directors of conduct really serve as glorified teachers and
  guides. They are chiefly concerned with instructing the new mortal residents
  regarding the almost endless array of new situations and unfamiliar usages.
  Notwithstanding all the long preparation therefor and the long journey
  thereto, Paradise is still inexpressibly strange and unexpectedly new to those
  who finally attain residential status.





5. THE CUSTODIANS OF KNOWLEDGE



  27:5.1 The superaphic custodians of knowledge are the higher "living epistles"
  known and read by all who dwell on Paradise. They are the divine records of
  truth, the living books of real knowledge. You have heard about records in the
  "book of life." The custodians of knowledge are just such living books,
  records of perfection imprinted upon the eternal tablets of divine life and
  supreme surety. They are in reality living, automatic libraries. The facts of
  the universes are inherent in these primary supernaphim, actually recorded in
  these angels; and it is also inherently impossible for an untruth to gain
  lodgment in the minds of these perfect and replete repositories of the truth
  of eternity and the intelligence of time.

  27:5.2 These custodians conduct informal courses of instruction for the
  residents of the eternal Isle, but their chief function is that of reference
  and verification. Any sojourner on Paradise may at will have by his side the
  living repository of the particular fact or truth he may wish to know. At the
  northern extremity of the Isle there are available the living finders of
  knowledge, who will designate the director of the group holding the
  information sought, and forthwith will appear the brilliant beings who are the
  very thing you wish to know. No longer must you seek enlightenment from
  engrossed pages; you now commune with living intelligence face to face.
  Supreme knowledge you thus obtain from the living beings who are its final
  custodians.

  27:5.3 When you locate that supernaphim who is exactly what you desire to
  verify, you will find available all the known facts of all universes, for
  these custodians of knowledge are the final and living summaries of the vast
  network of the recording angels, ranging from the seraphim and seconaphim of
  the local and superuniverses to the chief recorders of the tertiary
  supernaphim in Havona. And this living accumulation of knowledge is distinct
  from the formal records of Paradise, the cumulative summary of universal
  history.

  27:5.4 The wisdom of truth takes origin in the divinity of the central
  universe, but knowledge, experiential knowledge, largely has its beginnings in
  the domains of time and space -- therefore the necessity for the maintenance
  of the far-flung superuniverse organizations of the recording seraphim and
  supernaphim sponsored by the Celestial Recorders.

  27:5.5 These primary supernaphim who are inherently in possession of universe
  knowledge are also responsible for its organization and classification. In
  constituting themselves the living reference library of the universe of
  universes, they have classified knowledge into seven grand orders, each having
  about one million subdivisions. The facility with which the residents of
  Paradise can consult this vast store of knowledge is solely due to the
  voluntary and wise efforts of the custodians of knowledge. The custodians are
  also the exalted teachers of the central universe, freely giving out their
  living treasures to all beings on any of the Havona circuits, and they are
  extensively, though indirectly, utilized by the courts of the Ancients of
  Days. But this living library, which is available to the central and
  superuniverses, is not accessible to the local creations. Only by indirection
  and reflectively are the benefits of Paradise knowledge secured in the local
  universes.





6. MASTERS OF PHILOSOPHY



  27:6.1 Next to the supreme satisfaction of worship is the exhilaration of
  philosophy. Never do you climb so high or advance so far that there do not
  remain a thousand mysteries which demand the employment of philosophy in an
  attempted solution.

  27:6.2 The master philosophers of Paradise delight to lead the minds of its
  inhabitants, both native and ascendant, in the exhilarating pursuit of
  attempting to solve universe problems. These superaphic masters of philosophy
  are the "wise men of heaven," the beings of wisdom who make use of the truth
  of knowledge and the facts of experience in their efforts to master the
  unknown. With them knowledge attains to truth and experience ascends to
  wisdom. On Paradise the ascendant personalities of space experience the
  heights of being: They have knowledge; they know the truth; they may
  philosophize -- think the truth; they may even seek to encompass the concepts
  of the Ultimate and attempt to grasp the techniques of the Absolutes.

  27:6.3 At the southern extremity of the vast Paradise domain the masters of
  philosophy conduct elaborate courses in the seventy functional divisions of
  wisdom. Here they discourse upon the plans and purposes of Infinity and seek
  to co-ordinate the experiences, and to compose the knowledge, of all who have
  access to their wisdom. They have developed a highly specialized attitude
  toward various universe problems, but their final conclusions are always in
  uniform agreement.

  27:6.4 These Paradise philosophers teach by every possible method of
  instruction, including the higher graph technique of Havona and certain
  Paradise methods of communicating information. All of these higher techniques
  of imparting knowledge and conveying ideas are utterly beyond the
  comprehension capacity of even the most highly developed human mind. One
  hour's instruction on Paradise would be the equivalent of ten thousand years
  of the word-memory methods of Urantia. You cannot grasp such communication
  techniques, and there is simply nothing in mortal experience with which they
  may be compared, nothing to which they can be likened.

  27:6.5 The masters of philosophy take supreme pleasure in imparting their
  interpretation of the universe of universes to those beings who have ascended
  from the worlds of space. And while philosophy can never be as settled in its
  conclusions as the facts of knowledge and the truths of experience, yet, when
  you have listened to these primary supernaphim discourse upon the unsolved
  problems of eternity and the performances of the Absolutes, you will feel a
  certain and lasting satisfaction concerning these unmastered questions.

  27:6.6 These intellectual pursuits of Paradise are not broadcast; the
  philosophy of perfection is available only to those who are personally
  present. The encircling creations know of these teachings only from those who
  have passed through this experience, and who have subsequently carried this
  wisdom out to the universes of space.





7. CONDUCTORS OF WORSHIP



  27:7.1 Worship is the highest privilege and the first duty of all created
  intelligences. Worship is the conscious and joyous act of recognizing and
  acknowledging the truth and fact of the intimate and personal relationships of
  the Creators with their creatures. The quality of worship is determined by the
  depth of creature perception; and as the knowledge of the infinite character
  of the Gods progresses, the act of worship becomes increasingly all-
  encompassing until it eventually attains the glory of the highest experiential
  delight and the most exquisite pleasure known to created beings.



  27:7.2 While the Isle of Paradise contains certain places of worship, it is
  more nearly one vast sanctuary of divine service. Worship is the first and
  dominant passion of all who climb to its blissful shores -- the spontaneous
  ebullition of the beings who have learned enough of God to attain his
  presence. Circle by circle, during the inward journey through Havona, worship
  is a growing passion until on Paradise it becomes necessary to direct and
  otherwise control its expression.

  27:7.3 The periodic, spontaneous, group, and other special outbursts of
  supreme adoration and spiritual praise enjoyed on Paradise are conducted under
  the leadership of a special corps of primary supernaphim. Under the direction
  of these conductors of worship, such homage achieves the creature goal of
  supreme pleasure and attains the heights of the perfection of sublime self-
  expression and personal enjoyment. All primary supernaphim crave to be
  conductors of worship; and all ascendant beings would enjoy forever remaining
  in the attitude of worship did not the chiefs of assignment periodically
  disperse these assemblages. But no ascendant being is ever required to enter
  upon the assignments of eternal service until he has attained full
  satisfaction in worship.



  27:7.4 It is the task of the conductors of worship so to teach the ascendant
  creatures how to worship that they may be enabled to gain this satisfaction of
  self-expression and at the same time be able to give attention to the
  essential activities of the Paradise regime. Without improvement in the
  technique of worship it would require hundreds of years for the average mortal
  who reaches Paradise to give full and satisfactory expression to his emotions
  of intelligent appreciation and ascendant gratitude. The conductors of worship
  open up new and hitherto unknown avenues of expression so that these wonderful
  children of the womb of space and the travail of time are enabled to gain the
  full satisfactions of worship in much less time.

  27:7.5 All the arts of all the beings of the entire universe which are capable
  of intensifying and exalting the abilities of self-expression and the
  conveyance of appreciation, are employed to their highest capacity in the
  worship of the Paradise Deities. Worship is the highest joy of Paradise
  existence; it is the refreshing play of Paradise. What play does for your
  jaded minds on earth, worship will do for your perfected souls on Paradise.
  The mode of worship on Paradise is utterly beyond mortal comprehension, but
  the spirit of it you can begin to appreciate even down here on Urantia, for
  the spirits of the Gods even now indwell you, hover over you, and inspire you
  to true worship.

  27:7.6 There are appointed times and places for worship on Paradise, but these
  are not adequate to accommodate the ever-increasing overflow of the spiritual
  emotions of the growing intelligence and expanding divinity recognition of the
  brilliant beings of experiential ascension to the eternal Isle. Never since
  the times of Grandfanda have the supernaphim been able fully to accommodate
  the spirit of worship on Paradise. Always is there an excess of worshipfulness
  as gauged by the preparation therefor. And this is because personalities of
  inherent perfection never can fully appreciate the tremendous reactions of the
  spiritual emotions of beings who have slowly and laboriously made their way
  upward to Paradise glory from the depths of the spiritual darkness of the
  lower worlds of time and space. When such angels and mortals of time attain
  the presence of the Powers of Paradise, there occurs the expression of the
  accumulated emotions of the ages, a spectacle astounding to the angels of
  Paradise and productive of the supreme joy of divine satisfaction in the
  Paradise Deities.

  27:7.7 Sometimes all Paradise becomes engulfed in a dominating tide of
  spiritual and worshipful expression. Often the conductors of worship cannot
  control such phenomena until the appearance of the threefold fluctuation of
  the light of the Deity abode, signifying that the divine heart of the Gods has
  been fully and completely satisfied by the sincere worship of the residents of
  Paradise, the perfect citizens of glory and the ascendant creatures of time.
  What a triumph of technique! What a fruition of the eternal plan and purpose
  of the Gods that the intelligent love of the creature child should give full
  satisfaction to the infinite love of the Creator Father!



  27:7.8 After the attainment of the supreme satisfaction of the fullness of
  worship, you are qualified for admission to the Corps of the Finality. The
  ascendant career is well-nigh finished, and the seventh jubilee prepares for
  celebration. The first jubilee marked the mortal agreement with the Thought
  Adjuster when the purpose to survive was sealed; the second was the awakening
  in the morontia life; the third was the fusion with the Thought Adjuster; the
  fourth was the awakening in Havona; the fifth celebrated the finding of the
  Universal Father; and the sixth jubilee was the occasion of the Paradise
  awakening from the final transit slumber of time. The seventh jubilee marks
  entrance into the mortal finaliter corps and the beginning of the eternity
  service. The attainment of the seventh stage of spirit realization by a
  finaliter will probably signalize the celebration of the first of the jubilees
  of eternity.



  27:7.9 And thus ends the story of the Paradise supernaphim, the highest order
  of all the ministering spirits, those beings who, as a universal class, ever
  attend you from the world of your origin until you are finally bidden farewell
  by the conductors of worship as you take the Trinity oath of eternity and are
  mustered into the Mortal Corps of the Finality.

  27:7.10 The endless service of the Paradise Trinity is about to begin; and now
  the finaliter is face to face with the challenge of God the Ultimate.



  27:7.11 Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.






PAPER 28


 MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE SUPERUNIVERSES



  28:0.1 AS THE supernaphim are the angelic hosts of the central universe and
  the seraphim of the local universes, so are the seconaphim the ministering
  spirits of the superuniverses. In degree of divinity and in potential of
  supremacy, however, these children of the Reflective Spirits are much more
  like supernaphim than seraphim. They serve not alone in the supercreations,
  and both numerous and intriguing are the transactions sponsored by their
  unrevealed associates.



  28:0.2 As presented in these narratives, the ministering spirits of the
  superuniverses embrace the following three orders:

1. The Seconaphim.

2. The Tertiaphim.

3. The Omniaphim.



  28:0.3 Since the latter two orders are not so directly concerned with the
  ascendant scheme of mortal progression, they will be briefly discussed prior
  to the more extended consideration of seconaphim. Technically, neither
  tertiaphim nor omniaphim are ministering spirits of the superuniverses, though
  both serve as spirit ministers in these domains.





1. THE TERTIAPHIM



  28:1.1 These high angels are of record on the superuniverse headquarters, and
  despite service in the local creations, technically they are residents of
  these superuniverse capitals inasmuch as they are not native to the local
  universes. Tertiaphim are children of the Infinite Spirit and are personalized
  on Paradise in groups of one thousand. These supernal beings of divine
  originality and near-supreme versatility are the gift of the Infinite Spirit
  to the Creator Sons of God.

  28:1.2 When a Michael Son is detached from the parental regime of Paradise and
  is made ready to go forth on the universe adventure of space, the Infinite
  Spirit is delivered of a group of one thousand of these companion spirits. And
  these majestic tertiaphim accompany this Creator Son when he embarks upon the
  adventure of universe organization.

  28:1.3 Throughout the early times of universe building, these one thousand
  tertiaphim are the only personal staff of a Creator Son. They acquire a mighty
  experience as Son assistants during these stirring ages of universe assembling
  and other astronomical manipulations. They serve by the side of the Creator
  Son until the day of the personalization of the Bright and Morning Star, the
  first-born of a local universe. Thereupon the formal resignations of the
  tertiaphim are tendered and accepted. And with the appearance of the initial
  orders of native angelic life, they retire from active service in the local
  universe and become the liaison ministers between the Creator Son of former
  attachment and the Ancients of Days of the superuniverse concerned.





2. THE OMNIAPHIM



  28:2.1 Omniaphim are created by the Infinite Spirit in liaison with the Seven
  Supreme Executives, and they are the exclusive servants and messengers of
  these same Supreme Executives. Omniaphim are of grand universe assignment, and
  in Orvonton their corps maintains headquarters in the northerly parts of
  Uversa, where they reside as a special courtesy colony. They are not of
  registry on Uversa, nor are they attached to our administration. Neither are
  they directly concerned with the ascendant scheme of mortal progression.

  28:2.2 The omniaphim are wholly occupied with the oversight of the
  superuniverses in the interests of administrative co-ordination from the
  viewpoint of the Seven Supreme Executives. Our colony of omniaphim on Uversa
  receives instructions from, and makes reports to, only the Supreme Executive
  of Orvonton, situated on conjoint executive sphere number seven in the outer
  ring of Paradise satellites.





3. THE SECONAPHIM



  28:3.1 The secoraphic hosts are produced by the seven Reflective Spirits
  assigned to the headquarters of each superuniverse. There is a definite
  Paradise-responsive technique associated with the creation of these angels in
  groups of seven. In each seven there are always one primary, three secondary,
  and three tertiary seconaphim; they always personalize in this exact
  proportion. When seven such seconaphim are created, one, the primary, becomes
  attached to the service of the Ancients of Days. The three secondary angels
  are associated with three groups of Paradise-origin administrators in the
  supergovernments: the Divine Counselors, the Perfectors of Wisdom, and the
  Universal Censors. The three tertiary angels are attached to the ascendant
  trinitized associates of the superuniverse rulers: the Mighty Messengers,
  Those High in Authority, and Those without Name and Number.

  28:3.2 These seconaphim of the superuniverses are the offspring of the
  Reflective Spirits, and therefore reflectivity is inherent in their nature.
  They are reflectively responsive to all of each phase of every creature of
  origin in the Third Source and Center and the Paradise Creator Sons, but they
  are not directly reflective of the beings and entities, personal or otherwise,
  of sole origin in the First Source and Center. We possess many evidences of
  the actuality of the universal intelligence circuits of the Infinite Spirit,
  but even if we had no other proof, the reflective performances of the
  seconaphim would be quite sufficient to demonstrate the reality of the
  universal presence of the infinite mind of the Conjoint Actor.





4. THE PRIMARY SECONAPHIM



  28:4.1 The primary seconaphim, of assignment to the Ancients of Days, are
  living mirrors in the service of these triune rulers. Think what it means in
  the economy of a superuniverse to be able to turn, as it were, to a living
  mirror and therein to see and therewith to hear the certain responses of
  another being a thousand or a hundred thousand light-years distant and to do
  all this instantly and unerringly. Records are essential to the conduct of the
  universes, broadcasts are serviceable, the work of the Solitary and other
  messengers is very helpful, but the Ancients of Days from their position
  midway between the inhabited worlds and Paradise -- between man and God -- can
  instantly look both ways, hear both ways, and know both ways.

  28:4.2 This ability -- to hear and see, as it were, all things -- can be
  perfectly realized in the superuniverses only by the Ancients of Days and only
  on their respective headquarters worlds. Even there limits are encountered:
  From Uversa, such communication is limited to the worlds and universes of
  Orvonton, and while inoperative between the superuniverses, this same
  reflective technique keeps each one of them in close touch with the central
  universe and with Paradise. The seven supergovernments, though individually
  segregated, are thus perfectly reflective of the authority above and are
  wholly sympathetic, as well as perfectly conversant, with the needs below.



  28:4.3 The primary seconaphim are found to incline by inherent nature towards
  seven types of service, and it is befitting that the first serials of this
  order should be so endowed as inherently to interpret the mind of the Spirit
  to the Ancients of Days:



  28:4.4 1. The Voice of the Conjoint Actor. In each superuniverse the first
  primary seconaphim and every seventh one of that order subsequently created
  exhibit a high order of adaptability for understanding and interpreting the
  mind of the Infinite Spirit to the Ancients of Days and their associates in
  the supergovernments. This is of great value on the headquarters of the
  superuniverses, for, unlike the local creations with their Divine Ministers,
  the seat of a supergovernment does not have a specialized personalization of
  the Infinite Spirit. Hence these secoraphic voices come the nearest to being
  the personal representatives of the Third Source and Center on such a capital
  sphere. True, the seven Reflective Spirits are there, but these mothers of the
  secoraphic hosts are less truly and automatically reflective of the Conjoint
  Actor than of the Seven Master Spirits.



  28:4.5 2. The Voice of the Seven Master Spirits. The second primary seconaphim
  and every seventh one thereafter created incline towards portraying the
  collective natures and reactions of the Seven Master Spirits. Though each
  Master Spirit is already represented on a superuniverse capital by some one of
  the seven Reflective Spirits of assignment, such representation is individual,
  not collective. Collectively, they are only reflectively present; therefore do
  the Master Spirits welcome the services of these highly personal angels, the
  second serials of the primary seconaphim, who are so competent to represent
  them before the Ancients of Days.



  28:4.6 3. The Voice of the Creator Sons. The Infinite Spirit must have had
  something to do with the creation or training of the Paradise Sons of the
  order of Michael, for the third primary seconaphim and every seventh serial
  thereafter possess the remarkable gift of being reflective of the minds of
  these Creator Sons. If the Ancients of Days would like to know -- really know
  -- the attitude of Michael of Nebadon regarding some matter under
  consideration, they do not have to call him on the lines of space; they need
  only call for the Chief of Nebadon Voices, who, upon request, will present the
  Michael seconaphim of record; and right then and there the Ancients of Days
  will perceive the voice of the Master Son of Nebadon.

  28:4.7 No other order of sonship is thus "reflectible," and no other order of
  angel can thus function. We do not fully understand just how this is
  accomplished, and I doubt very much that the Creator Sons themselves fully
  understand it. But of a certainty we know it works, and that it unfailingly
  works acceptably we also know, for in all the history of Uversa the secoraphic
  voices have never erred in their presentations.

  28:4.8 You are here beginning to see something of the manner in which divinity
  encompasses the space of time and masters the time of space. You are here
  obtaining one of your first fleeting glimpses of the technique of the eternity
  cycle, divergent for the moment to assist the children of time in their tasks
  of mastering the difficult handicaps of space. And these phenomena are
  additional to the established universe technique of the Reflective Spirits.

  28:4.9 Though apparently deprived of the personal presence of the Master
  Spirits above and of the Creator Sons below, the Ancients of Days have at
  their command living beings attuned to cosmic mechanisms of reflective
  perfection and ultimate precision whereby they may enjoy the reflective
  presence of all those exalted beings whose personal presence is denied them.
  By and through these means, and others unknown to you, God is potentially
  present on the headquarters of the superuniverses.

  28:4.10 The Ancients of Days perfectly deduce the Father's will by equating
  the Spirit voice-flash from above and the Michael voice-flashes from below.
  Thus may they be unerringly certain in calculating the Father's will
  concerning the administrative affairs of the local universes. But to deduce
  the will of one of the Gods from a knowledge of the other two, the three
  Ancients of Days must act together; two would not be able to achieve the
  answer. And for this reason, even were there no others, the superuniverses are
  always presided over by three Ancients of Days, and not by one or even two.



  28:4.11 4. The Voice of the Angelic Hosts. The fourth primary seconaphim and
  every seventh serial prove to be angels peculiarly responsive to the
  sentiments of all orders of angels, including the supernaphim above and the
  seraphim below. Thus the attitude of any commanding or supervising angel is
  immediately available for consideration at any council of the Ancients of
  Days. Never a day passes on your world that the chief of seraphim on Urantia
  is not made conscious of the phenomenon of reflective transference, of being
  drawn upon from Uversa for some purpose; but unless forewarned by a Solitary
  Messenger, she remains wholly ignorant of what is sought and of how it is
  secured. These ministering spirits of time are constantly furnishing this sort
  of unconscious and certainly, therefore, unprejudiced testimony concerning the
  endless array of matters engaging the attention and counsel of the Ancients of
  Days and their associates.



  28:4.12 5. Broadcast Receivers. There is a special class of broadcast messages
  which are received only by these primary seconaphim. While they are not the
  regular broadcasters of Uversa, they work in liaison with the angels of the
  reflective voices for the purpose of synchronizing the reflective vision of
  the Ancients of Days with certain actual messages coming in over the
  established circuits of universe communication. Broadcast receivers are the
  fifth serials, the fifth primary seconaphim to be created and every seventh
  one thereafter.



  28:4.13 6. Transport Personalities. These are the seconaphim who carry the
  pilgrims of time from the headquarters worlds of the superuniverses to the
  outer circle of Havona. They are the transport corps of the superuniverses,
  operating inward to Paradise and outward to the worlds of their respective
  sectors. This corps is composed of the sixth primary seconaphim and every
  seventh one subsequently created.



  28:4.14 7. The Reserve Corps. A very large group of seconaphim, the seventh
  primary serials, are held in reserve for the unclassified duties and the
  emergency assignments of the realms. Not being highly specialized, they can
  function fairly well in any of the capacities of their diverse associates, but
  such specialized work is undertaken only in emergencies. Their usual tasks are
  the performance of those generalized duties of a superuniverse which do not
  fall within the scope of the angels of specific assignment.





5. THE SECONDARY SECONAPHIM



  28:5.1 Seconaphim of the secondary order are no less reflective than their
  primary fellows. Being classed as primary, secondary, and tertiary does not
  indicate a differential of status or function in the case of seconaphim; it
  merely denotes orders of procedure. Identical qualities are exhibited by all
  three groups in their activities.



  28:5.2 The seven reflective types of secondary seconaphim are assigned to the
  services of the co-ordinate Trinity-origin associates of the Ancients of Days
  as follows:

  28:5.3 To the Perfectors of Wisdom -- the Voices of Wisdom, the Souls of
  Philosophy, and the Unions of Souls.

  28:5.4 To the Divine Counselors -- the Hearts of Counsel, the Joys of
  Existence, and the Satisfactions of Service.

  28:5.5 To the Universal Censors -- the Discerners of Spirits.



  28:5.6 Like the primary order, this group is created serially; that is, the
  first-born was a Voice of Wisdom, and the seventh thereafter was similar, and
  so with the six other types of these reflective angels.



  28:5.7 1. The Voice of Wisdom. Certain of these seconaphim are in perpetual
  liaison with the living libraries of Paradise, the custodians of knowledge
  belonging to the primary supernaphim. In specialized reflective service the
  Voices of Wisdom are living, current, replete, and thoroughly reliable
  concentrations and focalizations of the co-ordinated wisdom of the universe of
  universes. To the well-nigh infinite volume of information circulating on the
  master circuits of the superuniverses, these superb beings are so reflective
  and selective, so sensitive, as to be able to segregate and receive the
  essence of wisdom and unerringly to transmit these jewels of mentation to
  their superiors, the Perfectors of Wisdom. And they so function that the
  Perfectors of Wisdom not only hear the actual and original expressions of this
  wisdom but also reflectively see the very beings, of high or lowly origin, who
  gave voice to it.

  28:5.8 It is written, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask." On Uversa, when
  it becomes necessary to arrive at the decisions of wisdom in the perplexing
  situations of the complex affairs of the superuniverse government, when both
  the wisdom of perfection and of practicability must be forthcoming, then do
  the Perfectors of Wisdom summon a battery of the Voices of Wisdom and, by the
  consummate skill of their order, so attune and directionize these living
  receivers of the enminded and circulating wisdom of the universe of universes
  that presently, from these secoraphic voices, there ensues a stream of the
  wisdom of divinity from the universe above and a flood of the wisdom of
  practicality from the higher minds of the universes below.

  28:5.9 If confusion arises regarding the harmonization of these two versions
  of wisdom, immediate appeal is made to the Divine Counselors, who forthwith
  rule as to the proper combination of procedures. If there is any doubt as to
  the authenticity of something coming in from realms where rebellion has been
  rife, appeal is made to the Censors, who, with their Discerners of Spirits,
  are able to rule immediately as to "what manner of spirit" actuated the
  adviser. So are the wisdom of the ages and the intellect of the moment ever
  present with the Ancients of Days, like an open book before their beneficent
  gaze.

  28:5.10 You can just faintly comprehend what all this means to those who are
  responsible for the conduct of the superuniverse governments. The immensity
  and the comprehensiveness of these transactions are quite beyond finite
  conception. When you stand, as I repeatedly have, in the special receiving
  chambers of the temple of wisdom on Uversa and see all this in actual
  operation, you will be moved to adoration by the perfection of the complexity,
  and by the surety of the working, of the interplanetary communications of the
  universes. You will pay homage to the divine wisdom and goodness of the Gods,
  who plan and execute with such superb technique. And these things actually
  happen just as I have portrayed them.



  28:5.11 2. The Soul of Philosophy. These wonderful teachers are also attached
  to the Perfectors of Wisdom and, when not otherwise directionized, remain in
  focal synchrony with the masters of philosophy on Paradise. Think of stepping
  up to a huge living mirror, as it were, but instead of beholding the likeness
  of your finite and material self, of perceiving a reflection of the wisdom of
  divinity and the philosophy of Paradise. And if it becomes desirable to
  "incarnate" this philosophy of perfection, so to dilute it as to make it
  practical of application to, and assimilation by, the lowly peoples of the
  lower worlds, these living mirrors have only to turn their faces downward to
  reflect the standards and needs of another world or universe.

  28:5.12 By these very techniques do the Perfectors of Wisdom adapt decisions
  and recommendations to the real needs and actual status of the peoples and
  worlds under consideration, and always do they act in concert with the Divine
  Counselors and the Universal Censors. But the sublime repleteness of these
  transactions is beyond even my ability to comprehend.



  28:5.13 3. The Union of Souls. Completing the triune staff of attachment to
  the Perfectors of Wisdom, are these reflectors of the ideals and status of
  ethical relationships. Of all the problems in the universe requiring an
  exercise of the consummate wisdom of experience and adaptability, none are
  more important than those arising out of the relationships and associations of
  intelligent beings. Whether in human associations of commerce and trade,
  friendship and marriage, or in the liaisons of the angelic hosts, there
  continue to arise petty frictions, minor misunderstandings too trivial even to
  engage the attention of conciliators but sufficiently irritating and
  disturbing to mar the smooth working of the universe if they were allowed to
  multiply and continue. Therefore do the Perfectors of Wisdom make available
  the wise experience of their order as the "oil of reconciliation" for an
  entire superuniverse. In all this work these wise men of the superuniverses
  are ably seconded by their reflective associates, the Unions of Souls, who
  make available current information regarding the status of the universe and
  concurrently portray the Paradise ideal of the best adjustment of these
  perplexing problems. When not specifically directionized elsewhere, these
  seconaphim remain in reflective liaison with the interpreters of ethics on
  Paradise.



  28:5.14 These are the angels who foster and promote the teamwork of all
  Orvonton. One of the most important lessons to be learned during your mortal
  career is teamwork. The spheres of perfection are manned by those who have
  mastered this art of working with other beings. Few are the duties in the
  universe for the lone servant. The higher you ascend, the more lonely you
  become when temporarily without the association of your fellows.



  28:5.15 4. The Heart of Counsel. This is the first group of these reflective
  geniuses to be placed under the supervision of the Divine Counselors.
  Seconaphim of this type are in possession of the facts of space, being
  selective for such data in the circuits of time. Especially are they
  reflective of the superaphic intelligence co-ordinators, but they are also
  selectively reflective of the counsel of all beings, whether of high or low
  estate. Whenever the Divine Counselors are called upon for important advice or
  decisions, they immediately requisition an ensemble of the Hearts of Counsel,
  and presently there is handed down a ruling which actually incorporates the
  co-ordinated wisdom and advice of the most competent minds of the entire
  superuniverse, all of which has been censored and revised in the light of the
  counsel of the high minds of Havona and even of Paradise.



  28:5.16 5. The Joy of Existence. By nature these beings are reflectively
  attuned to the superaphic harmony supervisors above and to certain of the
  seraphim below, but it is difficult to explain just what the members of this
  interesting group really do. Their principal activities are directed toward
  promoting reactions of joy among the various orders of the angelic hosts and
  the lower will creatures. The Divine Counselors, to whom they are attached,
  seldom use them for specific joy finding. In a more general manner and in
  collaboration with the reversion directors, they function as joy
  clearinghouses, seeking to upstep the pleasure reactions of the realms while
  trying to improve the humor taste, to develop a superhumor among mortals and
  angels. They endeavor to demonstrate that there is inherent joy in freewill
  existence, independent of all extraneous influences; and they are right,
  although they meet with great difficulty in inculcating this truth in the
  minds of primitive men. The higher spirit personalities and the angels are
  more quickly responsive to these educational efforts.



  28:5.17 6. The Satisfaction of Service. These angels are highly reflective of
  the attitude of the directors of conduct on Paradise, and functioning much as
  do the Joys of Existence, they strive to enhance the value of service and to
  augment the satisfactions to be derived therefrom. They have done much to
  illuminate the deferred rewards inherent in unselfish service, service for the
  extension of the kingdom of truth.

  28:5.18 The Divine Counselors, to whom this order is attached, utilize them to
  reflect from one world to another the benefits to be derived from spiritual
  service. And by using the performances of the best to inspire and encourage
  the mediocre, these seconaphim contribute immensely to the quality of devoted
  service in the superuniverses. Effective use is made of the fraternal
  competitive spirit by circulating to any one world information about what the
  others, particularly the best, are doing. A refreshing and wholesome rivalry
  is promoted even among the seraphic hosts.



  28:5.19 7. The Discerner of Spirits. A special liaison exists between the
  counselors and advisers of the second Havona circle and these reflective
  angels. They are the only seconaphim attached to the Universal Censors but are
  probably the most uniquely specialized of all their fellows. Regardless of the
  source or channel of information, no matter how meager the evidence at hand,
  when it is subjected to their reflective scrutiny, these discerners will
  forthwith inform us as to the true motive, the actual purpose, and the real
  nature of its origin. I marvel at the superb functioning of these angels, who
  so unerringly reflect the actual moral and spiritual character of any
  individual concerned in a focal exposure.

  28:5.20 The Discerners of Spirits carry on these intricate services by virtue
  of inherent "spiritual insight," if I may use such words in an endeavor to
  convey to the human mind the thought that these reflective angels thus
  function intuitively, inherently, and unerringly. When the Universal Censors
  behold these presentations, they are face to face with the naked soul of the
  reflected individual; and this very certainty and perfection of portraiture in
  part explains why the Censors can always function so justly as righteous
  judges. The discerners always accompany the Censors on any mission away from
  Uversa, and they are just as effective out in the universes as at their Uversa
  headquarters.

  28:5.21 I assure you that all these transactions of the spirit world are real,
  that they take place in accordance with established usages and in harmony with
  the immutable laws of the universal domains. The beings of every newly created
  order, immediately upon receiving the breath of life, are instantly reflected
  on high; a living portrayal of the creature nature and potential is flashed to
  the superuniverse headquarters. Thus, by means of the discerners, are the
  Censors made fully cognizant of exactly "what manner of spirit" has been born
  on the worlds of space.

  28:5.22 So it is with mortal man: The Mother Spirit of Salvington knows you
  fully, for the Holy Spirit on your world "searches all things," and whatsoever
  the divine Spirit knows of you is immediately available whenever the
  secoraphic discerners reflect with the Spirit concerning the Spirit's
  knowledge of you. It should, however, be mentioned that the knowledge and
  plans of the Father fragments are not reflectible. The discerners can and do
  reflect the presence of the Adjusters (and the Censors pronounce them divine),
  but they cannot decipher the content of the mindedness of the Mystery
  Monitors.





6. THE TERTIARY SECONAPHIM



  28:6.1 In the same manner as their fellows, these angels are created serially
  and in seven reflective types, but these types are not assigned individually
  to the separate services of the superuniverse administrators. All tertiary
  seconaphim are collectively assigned to the Trinitized Sons of Attainment, and
  these ascendant sons use them interchangeably; that is, the Mighty Messengers
  can and do utilize any of the tertiary types, and so do their co-ordinates,
  Those High in Authority and Those without Name and Number. These seven types
  of tertiary seconaphim are:



  28:6.2 1. The Significance of Origins. The ascendant Trinitized Sons of a
  superuniverse government are charged with the responsibility of dealing with
  all issues growing out of the origin of any individual, race, or world; and
  the significance of origin is the paramount question in all our plans for the
  cosmic advancement of the living creatures of the realm. All relationships and
  the application of ethics grow out of the fundamental facts of origin. Origin
  is the basis of the relational reaction of the Gods. Always does the Conjoint
  Actor "take note of the man, in what manner he was born."

  28:6.3 With the higher descendant beings, origin is simply a fact to be
  ascertained; but with the ascending beings, including the lower orders of
  angels, the nature and circumstances of origin are not always so clear, though
  of equally vital importance at almost every turn of universe affairs -- hence
  the value of having at our disposal a series of reflective seconaphim who can
  instantly portray anything required respecting the genesis of any being in
  either the central universe or throughout the entire realm of a superuniverse.

  28:6.4 The Significance of Origins are the living ready-reference genealogies
  of the vast hosts of beings -- men, angels, and others -- who inhabit the
  seven superuniverses. They are always ready to supply their superiors with an
  up-to-date, replete, and trustworthy estimate of the ancestral factors and the
  current actual status of any individual on any world of their respective
  superuniverses; and their computation of possessed facts is always up to the
  minute.



  28:6.5 2. The Memory of Mercy. These are the actual, full and replete, living
  records of the mercy which has been extended to individuals and races by the
  tender ministrations of the instrumentalities of the Infinite Spirit in the
  mission of adapting the justice of righteousness to the status of the realms,
  as disclosed by the portrayals of the Significance of Origins. The Memory of
  Mercy discloses the moral debt of the children of mercy -- their spiritual
  liabilities -- to be set down against their assets of the saving provision
  established by the Sons of God. In revealing the Father's pre-existent mercy,
  the Sons of God establish the necessary credit to insure the survival of all.
  And then, in accordance with the findings of the Significance of Origins, a
  mercy credit is established for the survival of each rational creature, a
  credit of lavish proportions and one of sufficient grace to insure the
  survival of every soul who really desires divine citizenship.

  28:6.6 The Memory of Mercy is a living trial balance, a current statement of
  your account with the supernatural forces of the realms. These are the living
  records of mercy ministration which are read into the testimony of the courts
  of Uversa when each individual's right to unending life comes up for
  adjudication, when "thrones are cast up and the Ancients of Days are seated.
  The broadcasts of Uversa issue and come forth from before them; thousands upon
  thousands minister to them, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before
  them. The judgment is set, and the books are opened." And the books which are
  opened on such a momentous occasion are the living records of the tertiary
  seconaphim of the superuniverses. The formal records are on file to
  corroborate the testimony of the Memories of Mercy if they are required.

  28:6.7 The Memory of Mercy must show that the saving credit established by the
  Sons of God has been fully and faithfully paid out in the loving ministry of
  the patient personalities of the Third Source and Center. But when mercy is
  exhausted, when the "memory" thereof testifies to its depletion, then does
  justice prevail and righteousness decree. For mercy is not to be thrust upon
  those who despise it; mercy is not a gift to be trampled under foot by the
  persistent rebels of time. Nevertheless, though mercy is thus precious and
  dearly bestowed, your individual drawing credits are always far in excess of
  your ability to exhaust the reserve if you are sincere of purpose and honest
  of heart.



  28:6.8 The mercy reflectors, with their tertiary associates, engage in
  numerous superuniverse ministries, including the teaching of the ascending
  creatures. Among many other things the Significances of Origins teach these
  ascenders how to apply spirit ethics, and following such training, the
  Memories of Mercy teach them how to be truly merciful. While the spirit
  techniques of mercy ministry are beyond your concept, you should even now
  understand that mercy is a quality of growth. You should realize that there is
  a great reward of personal satisfaction in being first just, next fair, then
  patient, then kind. And then, on that foundation, if you choose and have it in
  your heart, you can take the next step and really show mercy; but you cannot
  exhibit mercy in and of itself. These steps must be traversed; otherwise there
  can be no genuine mercy. There may be patronage, condescension, or charity --
  even pity -- but not mercy. True mercy comes only as the beautiful climax to
  these preceding adjuncts to group understanding, mutual appreciation,
  fraternal fellowship, spiritual communion, and divine harmony.



  28:6.9 3. The Import of Time. Time is the one universal endowment of all will
  creatures; it is the "one talent" intrusted to all intelligent beings. You all
  have time in which to insure your survival; and time is fatally squandered
  only when it is buried in neglect, when you fail so to utilize it as to make
  certain the survival of your soul. Failure to improve one's time to the
  fullest extent possible does not impose fatal penalties; it merely retards the
  pilgrim of time in his journey of ascent. If survival is gained, all other
  losses can be retrieved.

  28:6.10 In the assignment of trusts the counsel of the Imports of Time is
  invaluable. Time is a vital factor in everything this side of Havona and
  Paradise. In the final judgment before the Ancients of Days, time is an
  element of evidence. The Imports of Time must always afford testimony to show
  that every defendant has had ample time for making decisions, achieving
  choice.

  28:6.11 These time evaluators are also the secret of prophecy; they portray
  the element of time which will be required in the completion of any
  undertaking, and they are just as dependable as indicators as are the
  frandalanks and chronoldeks of other living orders. The Gods foresee, hence
  foreknow; but the ascendant authorities of the universes of time must consult
  the Imports of Time to be able to forecast events of the future.

  28:6.12 You will first encounter these beings on the mansion worlds, and they
  will there instruct you in the advantageous use of that which you call "time,"
  both in its positive employment, work, and in its negative utilization, rest.
  Both uses of time are important.



  28:6.13 4. The Solemnity of Trust. Trust is the crucial test of will
  creatures. Trustworthiness is the true measure of self-mastery, character.
  These seconaphim accomplish a double purpose in the economy of the
  superuniverses: They portray to all will creatures the sense of the
  obligation, sacredness, and solemnity of trust. At the same time they
  unerringly reflect to the governing authorities the exact trustworthiness of
  any candidate for confidence or trust.

  28:6.14 On Urantia, you grotesquely essay to read character and to estimate
  specific abilities, but on Uversa we actually do these things in perfection.
  These seconaphim weigh trustworthiness in the living scales of unerring
  character appraisal, and when they have looked at you, we have only to look at
  them to know the limitations of your ability to discharge responsibility,
  execute trust, and fulfill missions. Your assets of trustworthiness are
  clearly set forth alongside your liabilities of possible default or betrayal.



  28:6.15 It is the plan of your superiors to advance you by augmented trusts
  just as fast as your character is sufficiently developed to gracefully bear
  these added responsibilities, but to overload the individual only courts
  disaster and insures disappointment. And the mistake of placing responsibility
  prematurely upon either man or angel may be avoided by utilizing the ministry
  of these infallible estimators of the trust capacity of the individuals of
  time and space. These seconaphim ever accompany Those High in Authority, and
  never do these executives make assignments until their candidates have been
  weighed in the secoraphic balances and pronounced "not wanting."



  28:6.16 5. The Sanctity of Service. The privilege of service immediately
  follows the discovery of trustworthiness. Nothing can stand between you and
  opportunity for increased service except your own untrustworthiness, your lack
  of capacity for appreciation of the solemnity of trust.

  28:6.17 Service -- purposeful service, not slavery -- is productive of the
  highest satisfaction and is expressive of the divinest dignity. Service --
  more service, increased service, difficult service, adventurous service, and
  at last divine and perfect service -- is the goal of time and the destination
  of space. But ever will the play cycles of time alternate with the service
  cycles of progress. And after the service of time there follows the
  superservice of eternity. During the play of time you should envision the work
  of eternity, even as you will, during the service of eternity, reminisce the
  play of time.



  28:6.18 The universal economy is based on intake and output; throughout the
  eternal career you will never encounter monotony of inaction or stagnation of
  personality. Progress is made possible by inherent motion, advancement grows
  out of the divine capacity for action, and achievement is the child of
  imaginative adventure. But inherent in this capacity for achievement is the
  responsibility of ethics, the necessity for recognizing that the world and the
  universe are filled with a multitude of differing types of beings. All of this
  magnificent creation, including yourself, was not made just for you. This is
  not an egocentric universe. The Gods have decreed, "It is more blessed to give
  than to receive," and said your Master Son, "He who would be greatest among
  you let him be server of all."



  28:6.19 The real nature of any service, be it rendered by man or angel, is
  fully revealed in the faces of these secoraphic service indicators, the
  Sanctities of Service. The full analysis of the true and of the hidden motives
  is clearly shown. These angels are indeed the mind readers, heart searchers,
  and soul revealers of the universe. Mortals may employ words to conceal their
  thoughts, but these high seconaphim lay bare the deep motives of the human
  heart and of the angelic mind.



  28:6.20 6 and 7. The Secret of Greatness and the Soul of Goodness. The
  ascending pilgrims having awakened to the import of time, the way is prepared
  for the realization of the solemnity of trust and for the appreciation of the
  sanctity of service. While these are the moral elements of greatness, there
  are also secrets of greatness. When the spiritual tests of greatness are
  applied, the moral elements are not disregarded, but the quality of
  unselfishness revealed in disinterested labor for the welfare of one's earthly
  fellows, particularly worthy beings in need and in distress, that is the real
  measure of planetary greatness. And the manifestation of greatness on a world
  like Urantia is the exhibition of self-control. The great man is not he who
  "takes a city" or "overthrows a nation," but rather "he who subdues his own
  tongue."

  28:6.21 Greatness is synonymous with divinity. God is supremely great and
  good. Greatness and goodness simply cannot be divorced. They are forever made
  one in God. This truth is literally and strikingly illustrated by the
  reflective interdependence of the Secret of Greatness and the Soul of
  Goodness, for neither can function without the other. In reflecting other
  qualities of divinity, the superuniverse seconaphim can and do act alone, but
  the reflective estimates of greatness and of goodness appear to be
  inseparable. Hence, on any world, in any universe, must these reflectors of
  greatness and of goodness work together, always showing a dual and mutually
  dependent report of every being upon whom they focalize. Greatness cannot be
  estimated without knowing the content of goodness, while goodness cannot be
  portrayed without exhibiting its inherent and divine greatness.

  28:6.22 The estimate of greatness varies from sphere to sphere. To be great is
  to be Godlike. And since the quality of greatness is wholly determined by the
  content of goodness, it follows that, even in your present human estate, if
  you can through grace become good, you are thereby becoming great. The more
  steadfastly you behold, and the more persistently you pursue, the concepts of
  divine goodness, the more certainly will you grow in greatness, in true
  magnitude of genuine survival character.





7. MINISTRY OF THE SECONAPHIM



  28:7.1 The seconaphim have their origin and headquarters on the capitals of
  the superuniverses, but with their liaison fellows they range from the shores
  of Paradise to the evolutionary worlds of space. They serve as valued
  assistants to the members of the deliberative assemblies of the
  supergovernments and are of great help to the courtesy colonies of Uversa: the
  star students, millennial tourists, celestial observers, and a host of others,
  including the ascendant beings in waiting for Havona transport. The Ancients
  of Days take pleasure in assigning certain of the primary seconaphim to assist
  the ascending creatures domiciled on the four hundred ninety study worlds
  surrounding Uversa, and here also do many of the secondary and tertiary orders
  serve as teachers. These Uversa satellites are the finishing schools of the
  universes of time, presenting the preparatory course for the seven-circuited
  university of Havona.



  28:7.2 Of the three orders of seconaphim, the tertiary group, attached to the
  ascendant authorities, minister most extensively to the ascending creatures of
  time. You will on occasion meet them soon after your departure from Urantia,
  though you will not freely make use of their services until you reach the
  tarrying worlds of Orvonton. You will enjoy their companionship when you
  become fully acquainted with them during your sojourn on the Uversa school
  worlds.

  28:7.3 These tertiary seconaphim are the timesavers, space abridgers, error
  detectors, faithful teachers, and everlasting guideposts -- living signs of
  divine surety -- in mercy placed at the crossroads of time, there to guide the
  feet of anxious pilgrims in moments of great perplexity and spiritual
  uncertainty. Long before attaining the portals of perfection, you will begin
  to gain access to the tools of divinity and to make contact with the
  techniques of Deity. Increasingly, from the time you arrive on the initial
  mansion world until you close your eyes in the Havona sleep preparatory to
  your Paradise transit, you will avail yourself of the emergency help of these
  marvelous beings, who are so fully and freely reflective of the sure knowledge
  and certain wisdom of those safe and dependable pilgrims who have preceded you
  on the long journey to the portals of perfection.

  28:7.4 We are denied the full privilege of using these angels of the
  reflective order on Urantia. They are frequent visitors on your world,
  accompanying assigned personalities, but here they cannot freely function.
  This sphere is still under partial spiritual quarantine, and some of the
  circuits essential to their services are not here at present. When your world
  is once more restored to the reflective circuits concerned, much of the work
  of interplanetary and interuniverse communication will be greatly simplified
  and expedited. Celestial workers on Urantia encounter many difficulties
  because of this functional curtailment of their reflective associates. But we
  go on joyfully conducting our affairs with the instrumentalities at hand,
  notwithstanding our local deprivation of many of the services of these
  marvelous beings, the living mirrors of space and the presence projectors of
  time.



  28:7.5 Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger of Uversa.






PAPER 29


 THE UNIVERSE POWER DIRECTORS



  29:0.1 OF ALL the universe personalities concerned in the regulation of
  interplanetary and interuniverse affairs, the power directors and their
  associates have been the least understood on Urantia. While your races have
  long known of the existence of angels and similar orders of celestial beings,
  little information concerning the controllers and regulators of the physical
  domain has ever been imparted. Even now I am permitted fully to disclose only
  the last of the following three groups of living beings having to do with
  force control and energy regulation in the master universe:

1. Primary Eventuated Master Force Organizers.

2. Associate Transcendental Master Force Organizers.

3. Universe Power Directors.

  29:0.2 Though I deem it impossible to portray the individuality of the various
  groups of directors, centers, and controllers of universe power, I hope to be
  able to explain something about the domain of their activities. They are a
  unique group of living beings having to do with the intelligent regulation of
  energy throughout the grand universe. Including the supreme directors, they
  embrace the following major divisions:

1. The Seven Supreme Power Directors.

2. The Supreme Power Centers.

3. The Master Physical Controllers.

4. The Morontia Power Supervisors.

  29:0.3 The Supreme Power Directors and Centers have existed from the near
  times of eternity, and as far as we know, no more beings of these orders have
  been created. The Seven Supreme Directors were personalized by the Seven
  Master Spirits, and then they collaborated with their parents in the
  production of more than ten billion associates. Before the days of the power
  directors the energy circuits of space outside of the central universe were
  under the intelligent supervision of the Master Force Organizers of Paradise.

  29:0.4 Having knowledge about material creatures, you have at least a
  contrastive conception of spiritual beings; but it is very difficult for the
  mortal mind to envisage the power directors. In the scheme of ascendant
  progression to higher levels of existence you have nothing directly to do with
  either the supreme directors or the power centers. On certain rare occasions
  you will have dealings with the physical controllers, and you will work freely
  with the supervisors of morontia power upon reaching the mansion worlds. These
  Morontia Power Supervisors function so exclusively in the morontia regime of
  the local creations that it is deemed best to narrate their activities in the
  section dealing with the local universe.





1. THE SEVEN SUPREME POWER DIRECTORS



  29:1.1 The Seven Supreme Power Directors are the physical-energy regulators of
  the grand universe. Their creation by the Seven Master Spirits is the first
  recorded instance of the derivation of semimaterial progeny from true spirit
  ancestry. When the Seven Master Spirits create individually, they bring forth
  highly spiritual personalities on the angelic order; when they create
  collectively, they sometimes produce these high types of semimaterial beings.
  But even these quasi-physical beings would be invisible to the short-range
  vision of Urantia mortals.

  29:1.2 The Supreme Power Directors are seven in number, and they are identical
  in appearance and function. One cannot be distinguished from another except by
  that Master Spirit with whom each is in immediate association, and to whom
  each is in complete functional subservience. Each of the Master Spirits is
  thus in eternal union with one of their collective offspring. The same
  director is always in association with the same Spirit, and their working
  partnership results in a unique association of physical and spiritual
  energies, of a semiphysical being and a spirit personality.

  29:1.3 The Seven Supreme Power Directors are stationed on peripheral Paradise,
  where their slowly circulating presences indicate the whereabouts of the
  force-focal headquarters of the Master Spirits. These power directors function
  singly in the power-energy regulation of the superuniverses but collectively
  in the administration of the central creation. They operate from Paradise but
  maintain themselves as effective power centers in all divisions of the grand
  universe.

  29:1.4 These mighty beings are the physical ancestors of the vast host of the
  power centers and, through them, of the physical controllers scattered
  throughout the seven superuniverses. Such subordinate physical-control
  organisms are basically uniform, identical except for the differential toning
  of each superuniverse corps. In order to change in superuniverse service, they
  would merely have to return to Paradise for retoning. The physical creation is
  fundamentally uniform in administration.





2. THE SUPREME POWER CENTERS



  29:2.1 The Seven Supreme Power Directors are not able, individually, to
  reproduce themselves, but collectively, and in association with the Seven
  Master Spirits, they can and do reproduce -- create -- other beings like
  themselves. Such is the origin of the Supreme Power Centers of the grand
  universe, who function in the following seven groups:

1. Supreme Center Supervisors.

2. Havona Centers.

3. Superuniverse Centers.

4. Local Universe Centers.

5. Constellation Centers.

6. System Centers.

7. Unclassified Centers.

  29:2.2 These power centers together with the Supreme Power Directors are
  beings of high will freedom and action. They are all endowed with Third-Source
  personality and disclose unquestioned volitional capacity of a high order.
  These directing centers of the universe power system are the possessors of
  exquisite intelligence endowment; they are the intellect of the power system
  of the grand universe and the secret of the technique of the mind control of
  all the vast network of the far-flung functions of the Master Physical
  Controllers and the Morontia Power Supervisors.



  29:2.3 1. Supreme Center Supervisors. These seven co-ordinates and associates
  of the Supreme Power Directors are the regulators of the master energy
  circuits of the grand universe. Each center supervisor is headquartered on one
  of the special worlds of the Seven Supreme Executives, and they work in close
  association with these co-ordinators of general universe affairs.

  29:2.4 The Supreme Power Directors and the Supreme Center Supervisors function
  both as individuals and conjointly with regard to all cosmic phenomena below
  the levels of "gravity energy." When acting in liaison, these fourteen beings
  are to universe power what the Seven Supreme Executives are to general
  universe affairs, and what the Seven Master Spirits are to the cosmic mind.



  29:2.5 2. Havona Centers. Before the creation of the universes of time and
  space, power centers were not required in Havona, but ever since these far-
  distant times, one million have functioned in the central creation, each
  center having the supervision of a thousand Havona worlds. Here in the divine
  universe there is perfection of energy control, a condition not existing
  elsewhere. Perfection of energy regulation is the ultimate goal of all the
  power centers and the physical controllers of space.



  29:2.6 3. Superuniverse Centers. Occupying an enormous area on the capital
  sphere of each of the seven superuniverses are one thousand power centers of
  the third order. Three currents of primary energy of ten segregations each
  come in to these power centers, but seven specialized and well-directed,
  though imperfectly controlled, circuits of power go forth from their seat of
  united action. This is the electronic organization of universe power.

  29:2.7 All energy is circuited in the Paradise cycle, but the Universe Power
  Directors direct the force-energies of nether Paradise as they find them
  modified in the space functions of the central and superuniverses, converting
  and directing these energies into channels of useful and constructive
  application. There is a difference between Havona energy and the energies of
  the superuniverses. The power charge of a superuniverse consists of three
  phases of energy of ten segregations each. This threefold energy charge
  spreads throughout the space of the grand universe; it is like a vast moving
  ocean of energy which engulfs and bathes the whole of each of the seven
  supercreations.

  29:2.8 The electronic organization of universe power functions in seven phases
  and discloses varying response to local or linear gravity. This sevenfold
  circuit proceeds from the superuniverse power centers and pervades each
  supercreation. Such specialized currents of time and space are definite and
  localized energy movements initiated and directed for specific purposes, much
  as the Gulf Stream functions as a circumscribed phenomenon in the midst of the
  Atlantic Ocean.



  29:2.9 4. Local Universe Centers. On the headquarters of each local universe
  are stationed one hundred power centers of the fourth order. They function to
  downstep and otherwise to modify the seven power circuits emanating from
  superuniverse headquarters, thus making them applicable to the services of the
  constellations and systems. The local astronomical catastrophes of space are
  of passing concern to these power centers; they are engaged in the orderly
  dispatch of effective energy to the subsidiary constellations and systems.
  They are of great assistance to the Creator Sons during the later times of
  universe organization and energy mobilization. These centers are able to
  provide intensified lanes of energy useful for interplanetary communication
  between important inhabited points. Such a lane or line of energy, sometimes
  also called an energy path, is a direct circuit of energy from one power
  center to another power center or from one physical controller to another
  controller. It is an individualized stream of power and stands in contrast to
  the free space movements of undifferentiated energy.



  29:2.10 5. Constellation Centers. Ten of these living power centers are
  stationed in each constellation, functioning as energy projectors to the one
  hundred tributary local systems. From these beings there go forth the power
  lines for communication and transport and for the energizing of those living
  creatures who are dependent upon certain forms of physical energy for the
  maintenance of life. But neither the power centers nor the subordinate
  physical controllers are otherwise concerned with life as a functional
  organization.



  29:2.11 6. System Centers. One Supreme Power Center is permanently assigned to
  each local system. These system centers dispatch the power circuits to the
  inhabited worlds of time and space. They co-ordinate the activities of the
  subordinate physical controllers and otherwise function to insure the
  satisfactory distribution of power in the local system. The circuit relay
  between the planets depends upon the perfect co-ordination of certain material
  energies and upon the efficient regulation of physical power.



  29:2.12 7. Unclassified Centers. These are the centers who function in special
  local situations but not on the inhabited planets. The individual worlds are
  in the charge of Master Physical Controllers and receive the encircuited lines
  of power dispatched by the power center of their system. Only those spheres of
  the most extraordinary energy relationships have power centers of the seventh
  order acting as universe balance wheels or energy governors. In every phase of
  activity these power centers are the full equals of those who function on the
  higher units of control, but not one space body in a million harbors such a
  living power organization.





3. THE DOMAIN OF POWER CENTERS



  29:3.1 The Supreme Power Centers distributed throughout the superuniverses
  number, with their associates and subordinates, upward of ten billion. And
  they are all in perfect synchrony and complete liaison with their Paradise
  progenitors, the Seven Supreme Power Directors. The power control of the grand
  universe is thus intrusted to the keeping and direction of the Seven Master
  Spirits, the creators of the Seven Supreme Power Directors.

  29:3.2 The Supreme Power Directors and all their associates, assistants, and
  subordinates are forever exempt from apprehension or interference by all the
  tribunals of all space; neither are they subject to the administrative
  direction either of the superuniverse government of the Ancients of Days or of
  the local universe administration of the Creator Sons.

  29:3.3 These power centers and directors are brought into being by the
  children of the Infinite Spirit. They are not germane to the administration of
  the Sons of God, though they affiliate with the Creator Sons during the later
  epochs of universe material organization. But the power centers are in some
  way closely associated with the cosmic overcontrol of the Supreme Being.



  29:3.4 Power centers and physical controllers undergo no training; they are
  all created in perfection and are inherently perfect in action. Never do they
  pass from one function to another; always do they serve as originally
  assigned. There is no evolution in their ranks, and this is true of all seven
  divisions of both orders.

  29:3.5 Having no ascendant past to revert to in memory, power centers and
  physical controllers never play; they are thoroughly businesslike in all their
  actions. They are always on duty; there is no provision in the universal
  scheme for the interruption of the physical lines of energy; never for a
  fraction of a second can these beings relinquish their direct supervision of
  the energy circuits of time and space.



  29:3.6 The directors, centers, and controllers of power have nothing to do
  with anything in all creation except power, material or semiphysical energy;
  they do not originate it, but they do modify, manipulate, and directionize it.
  Neither do they have anything whatever to do with physical gravity except to
  resist its drawing power. Their relation to gravity is wholly negative.

  29:3.7 The power centers utilize vast mechanisms and co-ordinations of a
  material order in liaison with the living mechanisms of the various segregated
  energy concentrations. Each individual power center is constituted in exactly
  one million units of functional control, and these energy-modifying units are
  not stationary as are the vital organs of man's physical body; these "vital
  organs" of power regulation are mobile and truly kaleidoscopic in associative
  possibilities.

  29:3.8 It is utterly beyond my ability to explain the manner in which these
  living beings encompass the manipulation and regulation of the master circuits
  of universe energy. To undertake to inform you further concerning the size and
  function of these gigantic and almost perfectly efficient power centers, would
  only add to your confusion and consternation. They are both living and
  "personal," but they are beyond your comprehension.



  29:3.9 Outside of Havona the Supreme Power Centers function only on especially
  constructed (architectural) spheres or on otherwise suitably constituted space
  bodies. The architectural worlds are so constructed that the living power
  centers can act as selective switches to directionize, modify, and concentrate
  the energies of space as they pour over these spheres. They could not so
  function on an ordinary evolutionary sun or planet. Certain groups are also
  concerned in the heating and other material necessities of these special
  headquarters worlds. And though it is beyond the scope of Urantia knowledge, I
  may state that these orders of living power personalities have much to do with
  the distribution of the light that shines without heat. They do not produce
  this phenomenon, but they are concerned with its dissemination and
  directionization.



  29:3.10 The power centers and their subordinate controllers are assigned to
  the working of all of the physical energies of organized space. They work with
  the three basic currents of ten energies each. That is the energy charge of
  organized space; and organized space is their domain. The Universe Power
  Directors have nothing whatever to do with those tremendous actions of force
  which are now taking place outside the present boundaries of the seven
  superuniverses.

  29:3.11 The power centers and controllers exert perfect control over only
  seven of the ten forms of energy contained in each basic universe current;
  those forms which are partly or wholly exempt from their control must
  represent the unpredictable realms of energy manifestation dominated by the
  Unqualified Absolute. If they exert an influence upon the primordial forces of
  this Absolute, we are not cognizant of such functions, though there is some
  slight evidence which would warrant the opinion that certain of the physical
  controllers are sometimes automatically reactive to certain impulses of the
  Universal Absolute.

  29:3.12 These living power mechanisms are not consciously related to the
  master universe energy overcontrol of the Unqualified Absolute, but we surmise
  that their entire and almost perfect scheme of power direction is in some
  unknown manner subordinated to this supergravity presence. In any local energy
  situation the centers and controllers exert near-supremacy, but they are
  always conscious of the superenergy presence and the unrecognizable
  performance of the Unqualified Absolute.





4. THE MASTER PHYSICAL CONTROLLERS



  29:4.1 These beings are the mobile subordinates of the Supreme Power Centers.
  The physical controllers are endowed with capabilities of individuality
  metamorphosis of such a nature that they can engage in a remarkable variety of
  autotransport, being able to traverse local space at velocities approaching
  the flight of Solitary Messengers. But like all other space traversers they
  require the assistance of both their fellows and certain other types of beings
  in overcoming the action of gravity and the resistance of inertia in departing
  from a material sphere.

  29:4.2 The Master Physical Controllers serve throughout the grand universe.
  They are directly governed from Paradise by the Seven Supreme Power Directors
  as far as the headquarters of the superuniverses; from here they are directed
  and distributed by the Council of Equilibrium, the high commissioners of power
  dispatched by the Seven Master Spirits from the personnel of the Associate
  Master Force Organizers. These high commissioners are empowered to interpret
  the readings and registrations of the master frandalanks, those living
  instruments which indicate the power pressure and the energy charge of an
  entire superuniverse.

  29:4.3 While the presence of the Paradise Deities encircles the grand universe
  and sweeps around the circle of eternity, the influence of any one of the
  Seven Master Spirits is limited to a single superuniverse. There is a distinct
  segregation of energy and a separation of the circuits of power between each
  of the seven supercreations; hence individualized control methods must and do
  prevail.



  29:4.4 The Master Physical Controllers are the direct offspring of the Supreme
  Power Centers, and their numbers include the following:

1. Associate Power Directors.

2. Mechanical Controllers.

3. Energy Transformers.

4. Energy Transmitters.

5. Primary Associators.

6. Secondary Dissociators.

7. The Frandalanks and Chronoldeks.

  29:4.5 Not all of these orders are persons in the sense of possessing
  individual powers of choice. Especially do the last four seem to be wholly
  automatic and mechanical in response to the impulses of their superiors and in
  reaction to existing energy conditions. But though such response appears
  wholly mechanistic, it is not; they may seem to be automatons, but all of them
  disclose the differential function of intelligence.

  29:4.6 Personality is not necessarily a concomitant of mind. Mind can think
  even when deprived of all power of choice, as in numerous of the lower types
  of animals and in certain of these subordinate physical controllers. Many of
  these more automatic regulators of physical power are not persons in any sense
  of the term. They are not endowed with will and independence of decision,
  being wholly subservient to the mechanical perfection of design for the tasks
  of their allotment. Nonetheless all of them are highly intelligent beings.

  29:4.7 The physical controllers are chiefly occupied in the adjustment of
  basic energies undiscovered on Urantia. These unknown energies are very
  essential to the interplanetary system of transport and to certain techniques
  of communication. When we lay lines of energy for the purpose of conveying
  sound equivalents or of extending vision, these undiscovered forms of energy
  are utilized by the living physical controllers and their associates. These
  same energies are also, on occasion, used by the midway creatures in their
  routine work.



  29:4.8 1. Associate Power Directors. These marvelously efficient beings are
  intrusted with the assignment and dispatch of all orders of the Master
  Physical Controllers in accordance with the ever-shifting needs of the
  constantly changing energy status of the realms. The vast reserves of the
  physical controllers are maintained on the headquarters worlds of the minor
  sectors, and from these concentration points they are periodically dispatched
  by the associate power directors to the headquarters of the universes,
  constellations, and systems, and to the individual planets. When thus
  assigned, the physical controllers are provisionally subject to the orders of
  the divine executioners of the conciliating commissions but are otherwise
  solely amenable to their associate directors and to the Supreme Power Centers.

  29:4.9 Three million associate power directors are assigned to each of the
  Orvonton minor sectors, making a total of three billion as the superuniverse
  quota of these amazingly versatile beings. Their own reserves are maintained
  on these same minor sector worlds, where they also serve as instructors of all
  who study the sciences of the techniques of intelligent energy control and
  transmutation.

  29:4.10 These directors alternate periods of executive service in the minor
  sectors with equal periods of inspection service to the realms of space. At
  least one acting inspector is always present in each local system, maintaining
  headquarters on its capital sphere. They keep the whole vast living energy
  aggregation in harmonious synchrony.



  29:4.11 2. Mechanical Controllers. These are the exceedingly versatile and
  mobile assistants of the associate power directors. Trillions upon trillions
  of them are commissioned in Ensa, your minor sector. These beings are called
  mechanical controllers because they are so completely dominated by their
  superiors, so fully subservient to the will of the associate power directors.
  Nevertheless they are, themselves, very intelligent, and their work, though
  mechanical and matter-of-fact in nature, is skillfully performed.

  29:4.12 Of all the Master Physical Controllers assigned to the inhabited
  worlds, the mechanical controllers are by far the most powerful. Possessing
  the living endowment of antigravity in excess of all other beings, each
  controller has a gravity resistance equaled only by enormous spheres revolving
  at tremendous velocity. Ten of these controllers are now stationed on Urantia,
  and one of their most important planetary activities is to facilitate the
  departure of seraphic transports. In so functioning, all ten of the mechanical
  controllers act in unison while a battery of one thousand energy transmitters
  provides the initial momentum for the seraphic departure.

  29:4.13 The mechanical controllers are competent to directionize the flow of
  energy and to facilitate its concentration into the specialized currents or
  circuits. These mighty beings have much to do with the segregation,
  directionization, and intensification of the physical energies and with the
  equalization of the pressures of the interplanetary circuits. They are expert
  in the manipulation of twenty-one of the thirty physical energies of space,
  constituting the power charge of a superuniverse. They are also able to
  accomplish much towards the management and control of six of the nine more
  subtle forms of physical energy. By placing these controllers in proper
  technical relationship to each other and to certain of the power centers, the
  associate power directors are enabled to effect unbelievable changes in power
  adjustment and energy control.

  29:4.14 The Master Physical Controllers often function in batteries of
  hundreds, thousands, and even millions and by varying their positions and
  formations are able to effect energy control in a collective as well as an
  individual capacity. As requirements vary, they can upstep and accelerate the
  energy volume and movement or detain, condense, and retard the energy
  currents. They influence energy and power transformations somewhat as so-
  called catalytic agents augment chemical reactions. They function by inherent
  ability and in co-operation with the Supreme Power Centers.



  29:4.15 3. Energy Transformers. The number of these beings in a superuniverse
  is unbelievable. There are almost one million in Satania alone, and the usual
  quota is one hundred for each inhabited world.

  29:4.16 The energy transformers are the conjoint creation of the Seven Supreme
  Power Directors and the Seven Cental Supervisors. They are among the more
  personal orders of physical controllers, and except when an associate power
  director is present on an inhabited world, the transformers are in command.
  They are the planetary inspectors of all departing seraphic transports. All
  classes of celestial life can utilize the less personal orders of the physical
  controllers only by liaison with the more personal orders of the associate
  directors and the energy transformers.

  29:4.17 These transformers are powerful and effective living switches, being
  able to dispose themselves for or against a given power disposition or
  directionization. They are also skillful in their efforts to insulate the
  planets against the powerful energy streams passing between gigantic planetary
  and starry neighbors. Their energy-transmutive attributes render them most
  serviceable in the important task of maintaining universal energy balance, or
  power equilibrium. At one time they seem to consume or store energy; at other
  times they appear to exude or liberate energy. The transformers are able to
  increase or to diminish the "storage-battery" potential of the living and dead
  energies of their respective realms. But they deal only with physical and
  semimaterial energies, they do not directly function in the domain of life,
  neither do they change the forms of living beings.

  29:4.18 In some respects the energy transformers are the most remarkable and
  mysterious of all semimaterial living creatures. They are in some unknown
  manner physically differentiated, and by varying their liaison relationships,
  they are able to exert a profound influence upon the energy which passes
  through their associated presences. The status of the physical realms seems to
  undergo a transformation under their skillful manipulation. They can and do
  change the physical form of the energies of space. With the aid of their
  fellow controllers they are actually able to change the form and potential of
  twenty-seven of the thirty physical energies of the superuniverse power
  charge. That three of these energies are beyond their control proves that they
  are not instrumentalities of the Unqualified Absolute.



  29:4.19 The remaining four groups of the Master Physical Controllers are
  hardly persons within any acceptable definition of that word. These
  transmitters, associators, dissociators, and frandalanks are wholly automatic
  in their reactions; nevertheless they are in every sense intelligent. We are
  greatly limited in our knowledge of these wonderful entities because we cannot
  communicate with them. They appear to understand the language of the realm,
  but they cannot communicate with us. They seem fully able to receive our
  communications but quite powerless to make response.



  29:4.20 4. Energy Transmitters. These beings function chiefly, but not wholly,
  in an intraplanetary capacity. They are marvelous dispatchers of energy as it
  is manifested on the individual worlds.

  29:4.21 When energy is to be diverted to a new circuit, the transmitters
  deploy themselves in a line along the desired energy path, and by virtue of
  their unique attributes of energy-attraction, they can actually induce an
  increased energy flow in the desired direction. This they do just as literally
  as certain metallic circuits directionize the flow of certain forms of
  electric energy; and they are living superconductors for more than half of the
  thirty forms of physical energy.

  29:4.22 Transmitters form skillful liaisons which are effective in
  rehabilitating the weakening currents of specialized energy passing from
  planet to planet and from station to station on an individual planet. They can
  detect currents which are much too feeble to be recognized by any other type
  of living being, and they can so augment these energies that the accompanying
  message becomes perfectly intelligible. Their services are invaluable to the
  broadcast receivers.

  29:4.23 Energy transmitters can function with regard to all forms of
  communicable perception; they can render a distant scene "visible" as well as
  a distant sound "audible." They provide the emergency lines of communication
  in the local systems and on the individual planets. These services must be
  used by practically all creatures for purposes of communication outside of the
  regularly established circuits.

  29:4.24 These beings, together with the energy transformers, are indispensable
  to the maintenance of mortal existence on those worlds having an impoverished
  atmosphere, and they are an integral part of the technique of life on the
  nonbreathing planets.



  29:4.25 5. Primary Associators. These interesting and invaluable entities are
  masterly energy conservators and custodians. Somewhat as a plant stores solar
  light, so do these living organisms store energy during times of plus
  manifestations. They work on a gigantic scale, converting the energies of
  space into a physical state not known on Urantia. They are also able to carry
  forward these transformations to the point of producing some of the primitive
  units of material existence. These beings simply act by their presence. They
  are in no way exhausted or depleted by this function; they act like living
  catalytic agents.

  29:4.26 During seasons of minus manifestations they are empowered to release
  these accumulated energies. But your knowledge of energy and matter is not
  sufficiently advanced to make it possible to explain the technique of this
  phase of their work. They always labor in compliance with universal law,
  handling and manipulating atoms, electrons, and ultimatons much as you
  maneuver adjustable type to make the same alphabetical symbols tell vastly
  different stories.

  29:4.27 The associators are the first group of life to appear on an organizing
  material sphere, and they can function at physical temperatures which you
  would regard as utterly incompatible with the existence of living beings. They
  represent an order of life which is simply beyond the range of human
  imagination. Together with their co-workers, the dissociators, they are the
  most slavish of all intelligent creatures.



  29:4.28 6. Secondary Dissociators. Compared with the primary associators,
  these beings of enormous antigravity endowment are the reverse workers. There
  is never any danger that the special or modified forms of physical energy on
  the local worlds or in the local systems will be exhausted, for these living
  organizations are endowed with the unique power of evolving limitless supplies
  of energy. They are chiefly concerned with the evolution of a form of energy
  which is hardly known on Urantia from a form of matter which is recognized
  still less. They are truly the alchemists of space and the wonder-workers of
  time. But in all the wonders they work, they never transgress the mandates of
  Cosmic Supremacy.



  29:4.29 7. The Frandalanks. These beings are the joint creation of all three
  orders of energy-control beings: the primary and secondary force organizers
  and the power directors. Frandalanks are the most numerous of all the Master
  Physical Controllers; the number functioning in Satania alone is beyond your
  numerical concept. They are stationed on all inhabited worlds and are always
  attached to the higher orders of physical controllers. They function
  interchangeably in the central and superuniverses and in the domains of outer
  space.

  29:4.30 The frandalanks are created in thirty divisions, one for each form of
  basic universe force, and they function exclusively as living and automatic
  presence, pressure, and velocity gauges. These living barometers are solely
  concerned with the automatic and unerring registration of the status of all
  forms of force-energy. They are to the physical universe what the vast
  reflectivity mechanism is to the minded universe. The frandalanks that
  register time in addition to quantitative and qualitative energy presence are
  called chronoldeks.

  29:4.31 I recognize that the frandalanks are intelligent, but I cannot
  classify them as other than living machines. About the only way I can help you
  to understand these living mechanisms is to compare them to your own
  mechanical contrivances which perform with almost intelligentlike precision
  and accuracy. Then if you would conceive of these beings, draw upon your
  imagination to the extent of recognizing that in the grand universe we
  actually have intelligent and living mechanisms (entities) that can perform
  more intricate tasks involving more stupendous computations with even greater
  delicacy of accuracy, even with ultimacy of precision.





5. THE MASTER FORCE ORGANIZERS



  29:5.1 The force organizers are resident on Paradise, but they function
  throughout the master universe, more particularly in the domains of
  unorganized space. These extraordinary beings are neither creators nor
  creatures, and they comprise two grand divisions of service:

1. Primary Eventuated Master Force Organizers.

2. Associate Transcendental Master Force Organizers.

  29:5.2 These two mighty orders of primordial-force manipulators work
  exclusively under the supervision of the Architects of the Master Universe,
  and at the present time they do not function extensively within the boundaries
  of the grand universe.



  29:5.3 Primary Master Force Organizers are the manipulators of the primordial
  or basic space-forces of the Unqualified Absolute; they are nebulae creators.
  They are the living instigators of the energy cyclones of space and the early
  organizers and directionizers of these gigantic manifestations. These force
  organizers transmute primordial force (pre-energy not responsive to direct
  Paradise gravity) into primary or puissant energy, energy transmuting from the
  exclusive grasp of the Unqualified Absolute to the gravity grasp of the Isle
  of Paradise. They are thereupon succeeded by the associate force organizers,
  who continue the process of energy transmutation from the primary through the
  secondary or gravity-energy stage.

  29:5.4 Upon the completion of the plans for the creation of a local universe,
  signalized by the arrival of a Creator Son, the Associate Master Force
  Organizers give way to the orders of power directors acting in the
  superuniverse of astronomic jurisdiction. But in the absence of such plans the
  associate force organizers continue on indefinitely in charge of these
  material creations, even as they now operate in outer space.



  29:5.5 The Master Force Organizers withstand temperatures and function under
  physical conditions which would be intolerable even to the versatile power
  centers and physical controllers of Orvonton. The only other types of revealed
  beings capable of functioning in these realms of outer space are the Solitary
  Messengers and the Inspired Trinity Spirits.



  29:5.6 Sponsored by a Universal Censor acting by authority of the Ancients of
  Days on Uversa.




PAPER 30


 PERSONALITIES OF THE GRAND UNIVERSE



  30:0.1 THE personalities and other-than-personal entities now functioning on
  Paradise and in the grand universe constitute a well-nigh limitless number of
  living beings. Even the number of major orders and types would stagger the
  human imagination, let alone the countless subtypes and variations. It is,
  however, desirable to present something of two basic classifications of living
  beings -- a suggestion of the Paradise classification and an abbreviation of
  the Uversa Personality Register.

  30:0.2 It is not possible to formulate comprehensive and entirely consistent
  classifications of the personalities of the grand universe because all of the
  groups are not revealed. It would require numerous additional papers to cover
  the further revelation required to systematically classify all groups. Such
  conceptual expansion would hardly be desirable as it would deprive the
  thinking mortals of the next thousand years of that stimulus to creative
  speculation which these partially revealed concepts supply. It is best that
  man not have an overrevelation; it stifles imagination.





1. THE PARADISE CLASSIFICATION OF LIVING BEINGS



  30:1.1 Living beings are classified on Paradise in accordance with inherent
  and attained relationship to the Paradise Deities. During the grand gatherings
  of the central and superuniverses those present are often grouped in
  accordance with origin: those of triune origin, or of Trinity attainment;
  those of dual origin; and those of single origin. It is difficult to interpret
  the Paradise classification of living beings to the mortal mind, but we are
  authorized to present the following:



  30:1.2 I. TRIUNE-ORIGIN BEINGS. Beings created by all three Paradise Deities,
  either as such or as the Trinity, together with the Trinitized Corps, which
  designation refers to all groups of trinitized beings, revealed and
  unrevealed.

  30:1.3 A. The Supreme Spirits.

1. The Seven Master Spirits.

2. The Seven Supreme Executives.

3. The Seven Orders of Reflective Spirits.



  30:1.4 B. The Stationary Sons of the Trinity.

1. Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy.

2. Eternals of Days.

3. Ancients of Days.

4. Perfections of Days.

5. Recents of Days.

6. Unions of Days.

7. Faithfuls of Days.

8. Perfectors of Wisdom.

9. Divine Counselors.

10. Universal Censors.



  30:1.5 C. Trinity-origin and Trinitized Beings.

1. Trinity Teacher Sons.

2. Inspired Trinity Spirits.

3. Havona Natives.

4. Paradise Citizens.

5. Unrevealed Trinity-origin Beings.

6. Unrevealed Deity-trinitized Beings.

7. Trinitized Sons of Attainment.

8. Trinitized Sons of Selection.

9. Trinitized Sons of Perfection.

10. Creature-trinitized Sons.

  30:1.6 II. DUAL-ORIGIN BEINGS. Those of origin in any two of the Paradise
  Deities or otherwise created by any two beings of direct or indirect descent
  from the Paradise Deities.



  30:1.7 A. The Descending Orders.

1. Creator Sons.

2. Magisterial Sons.

3. Bright and Morning Stars.

4. Father Melchizedeks.

5. The Melchizedeks.

6. The Vorondadeks.

7. The Lanonandeks.

8. Brilliant Evening Stars.

9. The Archangels.

10. Life Carriers.

11. Unrevealed Universe Aids.

12. Unrevealed Sons of God.

  30:1.8 B. The Stationary Orders.

1. Abandonters.

2. Susatia.

3. Univitatia.

4. Spironga.

5. Unrevealed Dual-origin Beings.

  30:1.9 C. The Ascending Orders.

1. Adjuster-fused Mortals.

2. Son-fused Mortals.

3. Spirit-fused Mortals.

4. Translated Midwayers.

5. Unrevealed Ascenders.



  30:1.10 III. SINGLE-ORIGIN BEINGS. Those of origin in any one of the Paradise
  Deities or otherwise created by any one being of direct or indirect descent
  from the Paradise Deities.



  30:1.11 A. The Supreme Spirits.

1. Gravity Messengers.

2. The Seven Spirits of the Havona Circuits.

3. The Twelvefold Adjutants of the Havona Circuits.

4. The Reflective Image Aids.

5. Universe Mother Spirits.

6. The Sevenfold Adjutant Mind-Spirits.

7. Unrevealed Deity-origin Beings.

  30:1.12 B. The Ascending Orders.

1. Personalized Adjusters.

2. Ascending Material Sons.

3. Evolutionary Seraphim.

4. Evolutionary Cherubim.

5. Unrevealed Ascenders.

  30:1.13 C. The Family of the Infinite Spirit.

1. Solitary Messengers.

2. Universe Circuit Supervisors.

3. Census Directors.

4. Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit.

5. Associate Inspectors.

6. Assigned Sentinels.

7. Graduate Guides.

8. Havona Servitals.

9. Universal Conciliators.

10. Morontia Companions.

11. Supernaphim.

12. Seconaphim.

13. Tertiaphim.

14. Omniaphim.

15. Seraphim.

16. Cherubim and Sanobim.

17. Unrevealed Spirit-origin Beings.

18. The Seven Supreme Power Directors.

19. The Supreme Power Centers.

20. The Master Physical Controllers.

21. The Morontia Power Supervisors.

  30:1.14 IV. EVENTUATED TRANSCENDENTAL BEINGS. There is to be found on Paradise
  a vast host of transcendental beings whose origin is not ordinarily disclosed
  to the universes of time and space until they are settled in light and life.
  These Transcendentalers are neither creators nor creatures; they are the
  eventuated children of divinity, ultimacy, and eternity. These "eventuators"
  are neither finite nor infinite -- they are absonite; and absonity is neither
  infinity nor absoluteness.

  30:1.15 These uncreated noncreators are ever loyal to the Paradise Trinity and
  obedient to the Ultimate. They are existent on four ultimate levels of
  personality activity and are functional on the seven levels of the absonite in
  twelve grand divisions consisting of one thousand major working groups of
  seven classes each. These eventuated beings include the following orders:

1. The Architects of the Master Universe.

2. Transcendental Recorders.

3. Other Transcendentalers.

4. Primary Eventuated Master Force Organizers.

5. Associate Transcendental Master Force Organizers.

  30:1.16 God, as a superperson, eventuates; God, as a person, creates; God, as
  a preperson, fragments; and such an Adjuster fragment of himself evolves the
  spirit soul upon the material and mortal mind in accordance with the freewill
  choosing of the personality which has been bestowed upon such a mortal
  creature by the parental act of God as a Father.



  30:1.17 V. FRAGMENTED ENTITIES OF DEITY. This order of living existence,
  originating in the Universal Father, is best typified by the Thought
  Adjusters, though these entities are by no means the only fragmentations of
  the prepersonal reality of the First Source and Center. The functions of the
  other-than-Adjuster fragments are manifold and little known. Fusion with an
  Adjuster or other such fragment constitutes the creature a Father-fused being.

  30:1.18 The fragmentations of the premind spirit of the Third Source and
  Center, though hardly comparable to the Father fragments, should be here
  recorded. Such entities differ very greatly from Adjusters; they do not as
  such dwell on Spiritington, nor do they as such traverse the mind-gravity
  circuits; neither do they indwell mortal creatures during the life in the
  flesh. They are not prepersonal in the sense that the Adjusters are, but such
  fragments of premind spirit are bestowed upon certain of the surviving
  mortals, and fusion therewith constitutes them Spirit-fused mortals in
  contradistinction to Adjuster-fused mortals.

  30:1.19 Still more difficult of description is the individualized spirit of a
  Creator Son, union with which constitutes the creature a Son-fused mortal. And
  there are still other fragmentations of Deity.



  30:1.20 VI. SUPERPERSONAL BEINGS. There is a vast host of other-than-personal
  beings of divine origin and of manifold service in the universe of universes.
  Certain of these beings are resident on the Paradise worlds of the Son;
  others, like the superpersonal representatives of the Eternal Son, are
  encountered elsewhere. They are for the most part unmentioned in these
  narratives, and it would be quite futile to attempt their description to
  personal creatures.



  30:1.21 VII. UNCLASSIFIED AND UNREVEALED ORDERS. During the present universe
  age it would not be possible to place all beings, personal or otherwise,
  within classifications pertaining to the present universe age; nor have all
  such categories been revealed in these narratives; hence numerous orders have
  been omitted from these lists. Consider the following:



The Consummator of Universe Destiny.

The Qualified Vicegerents of the Ultimate.

The Unqualified Supervisors of the Supreme.

The Unrevealed Creative Agencies of the Ancients of Days.

Majeston of Paradise.

The Unnamed Reflectivator Liaisons of Majeston.

The Midsonite Orders of the Local Universes.



  30:1.22 No especial significance need attach to the listing of these orders
  together except that none of them appear in the Paradise classification as
  revealed herein. These are the unclassified few; you have yet to learn of the
  unrevealed many.

  30:1.23 There are spirits: spirit entities, spirit presences, personal
  spirits, prepersonal spirits, superpersonal spirits, spirit existences, spirit
  personalities -- but neither mortal language nor mortal intellect are
  adequate. We may however state that there are no personalities of "pure mind";
  no entity has personality unless he is endowed with it by God who is spirit.
  Any mind entity that is not associated with either spiritual or physical
  energy is not a personality. But in the same sense that there are spirit
  personalities who have mind there are mind personalities who have spirit.
  Majeston and his associates are fairly good illustrations of mind-dominated
  beings, but there are better illustrations of this type of personality unknown
  to you. There are even whole unrevealed orders of such mind personalities, but
  they are always spirit associated. Certain other unrevealed creatures are what
  might be termed mindal- and physical-energy personalities. This type of being
  is nonresponsive to spirit gravity but is nonetheless a true personality -- is
  within the Father's circuit.



  30:1.24 These papers do not -- cannot -- even begin to exhaust the story of
  the living creatures, creators, eventuators, and still-otherwise-existent
  beings who live and worship and serve in the swarming universes of time and in
  the central universe of eternity. You mortals are persons; hence we can
  describe beings who are personalized, but how could an absonitized being ever
  be explained to you?





2. THE UVERSA PERSONALITY REGISTER



  30:2.1 The divine family of living beings is registered on Uversa in seven
  grand divisions:

1. The Paradise Deities.

2. The Supreme Spirits.

3. The Trinity-origin Beings.

4. The Sons of God.

5. Personalities of the Infinite Spirit.

6. The Universe Power Directors.

7. The Corps of Permanent Citizenship.

  30:2.2 These groups of will creatures are divided into numerous classes and
  minor subdivisions. The presentation of this classification of the
  personalities of the grand universe is however chiefly concerned in setting
  forth those orders of intelligent beings who have been revealed in these
  narratives, most of whom will be encountered in the ascendant experience of
  the mortals of time on their progressive climb to Paradise. The following
  listings make no mention of vast orders of universe beings who carry forward
  their work apart from the mortal ascension scheme.



  30:2.3 I. THE PARADISE DEITIES.

1. The Universal Father.

2. The Eternal Son.

3. The Infinite Spirit.

  30:2.4 II. THE SUPREME SPIRITS.

1. The Seven Master Spirits.

2. The Seven Supreme Executives.

3. The Seven Groups of Reflective Spirits.

4. The Reflective Image Aids.

5. The Seven Spirits of the Circuits.

6. Local Universe Creative Spirits.

7. Adjutant Mind-Spirits.

  30:2.5 III. THE TRINITY-ORIGIN BEINGS.

1. Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy.

2. Eternals of Days.

3. Ancients of Days.

4. Perfections of Days.

5. Recents of Days.

6. Unions of Days.

7. Faithfuls of Days.

8. Trinity Teacher Sons.

9. Perfectors of Wisdom.

10. Divine Counselors.

11. Universal Censors.

12. Inspired Trinity Spirits.

13. Havona Natives.

14. Paradise Citizens.

  30:2.6 IV. THE SONS OF GOD.

  30:2.7 A. Descending Sons.

1. Creator Sons -- Michaels.

2. Magisterial Sons -- Avonals.

3. Trinity Teacher Sons -- Daynals.

4. Melchizedek Sons.

5. Vorondadek Sons.

6. Lanonandek Sons.

7. Life Carrier Sons.

  30:2.8 B. Ascending Sons.

1. Father-fused Mortals.

2. Son-fused Mortals.

3. Spirit-fused Mortals.

4. Evolutionary Seraphim.

5. Ascending Material Sons.

6. Translated Midwayers.

7. Personalized Adjusters.

  30:2.9 C. Trinitized Sons.

1. Mighty Messengers.

2. Those High in Authority.

3. Those without Name and Number.

4. Trinitized Custodians.

5. Trinitized Ambassadors.

6. Celestial Guardians.

7. High Son Assistants.

8. Ascender-trinitized Sons.

9. Paradise-Havona-trinitized Sons.

10. Trinitized Sons of Destiny.

  30:2.10 V. PERSONALITIES OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT.



  30:2.11 A. Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit.

1. Solitary Messengers.

2. Universe Circuit Supervisors.

3. Census Directors.

4. Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit.

5. Associate Inspectors.

6. Assigned Sentinels.

7. Graduate Guides.

  30:2.12 B. The Messenger Hosts of Space.

1. Havona Servitals.

2. Universal Conciliators.

3. Technical Advisers.

4. Custodians of Records on Paradise.

5. Celestial Recorders.

6. Morontia Companions.

7. Paradise Companions.

  30:2.13 C. The Ministering Spirits.

1. Supernaphim.

2. Seconaphim.

3. Tertiaphim.

4. Omniaphim.

5. Seraphim.

6. Cherubim and Sanobim.

7. Midwayers.



  30:2.14 VI. THE UNIVERSE POWER DIRECTORS.



  30:2.15 A. The Seven Supreme Power Directors.

  30:2.16 B. Supreme Power Centers.

1. Supreme Center Supervisors.

2. Havona Centers.

3. Superuniverse Centers.

4. Local Universe Centers.

5. Constellation Centers.

6. System Centers.

7. Unclassified Centers.

  30:2.17 C. Master Physical Controllers.

1. Associate Power Directors.

2. Mechanical Controllers.

3. Energy Transformers.

4. Energy Transmitters.

5. Primary Associators.

6. Secondary Dissociators.

7. Frandalanks and Chronoldeks.

  30:2.18 D. Morontia Power Supervisors.

1. Circuit Regulators.

2. System Co-ordinators.

3. Planetary Custodians.

4. Combined Controllers.

5. Liaison Stabilizers.

6. Selective Assorters.

7. Associate Registrars.

  30:2.19 VII. THE CORPS OF PERMANENT CITIZENSHIP.

1. The Planetary Midwayers.

2. The Adamic Sons of the Systems.

3. The Constellation Univitatia.

4. The Local Universe Susatia.

5. Spirit-fused Mortals of the Local Universes.

6. The Superuniverse Abandonters.

7. Son-fused Mortals of the Superuniverses.

8. The Havona Natives.

9. Natives of the Paradise Spheres of the Spirit.

10. Natives of the Father's Paradise Spheres.

11. The Created Citizens of Paradise.

12. Adjuster-fused Mortal Citizens of Paradise.

  30:2.20 This is the working classification of the personalities of the
  universes as they are of record on the headquarters world of Uversa.



  30:2.21 COMPOSITE PERSONALITY GROUPS. There are on Uversa the records of
  numerous additional groups of intelligent beings, beings that are also closely
  related to the organization and administration of the grand universe. Among
  such orders are the following three composite personality groups:

  30:2.22 A. The Paradise Corps of the Finality.

1. The Corps of Mortal Finaliters.

2. The Corps of Paradise Finaliters.

3. The Corps of Trinitized Finaliters.

4. The Corps of Conjoint Trinitized Finaliters.

5. The Corps of Havona Finaliters.

6. The Corps of Transcendental Finaliters.

7. The Corps of Unrevealed Sons of Destiny.

  30:2.23 The Mortal Corps of the Finality is dealt with in the next and final
  paper of this series.



  30:2.24 B. The Universe Aids.

1. Bright and Morning Stars.

2. Brilliant Evening Stars.

3. Archangels.

4. Most High Assistants.

5. High Commissioners.

6. Celestial Overseers.

7. Mansion World Teachers.

  30:2.25 On all headquarters worlds of both local and superuniverses, provision
  is made for these beings who are engaged in specific missions for the Creator
  Sons, the local universe rulers. We welcome these Universe Aids on Uversa, but
  we have no jurisdiction over them. Such emissaries prosecute their work and
  carry on their observations under authority of the Creator Sons. Their
  activities are more fully described in the narrative of your local universe.



  30:2.26 C. The Seven Courtesy Colonies.

1. Star Students.

2. Celestial Artisans.

3. Reversion Directors.

4. Extension-school Instructors.

5. The Various Reserve Corps.

6. Student Visitors.

7. Ascending Pilgrims.

  30:2.27 These seven groups of beings will be found thus organized and governed
  on all headquarters worlds from the local systems up to the capitals of the
  superuniverses, particularly the latter. The capitals of the seven
  superuniverses are the meeting places for almost all classes and orders of
  intelligent beings. With the exception of numerous groups of Paradise-
  Havoners, here the will creatures of every phase of existence may be observed
  and studied.





3. THE COURTESY COLONIES



  30:3.1 The seven courtesy colonies sojourn on the architectural spheres for a
  longer or shorter time while engaged in the furtherance of their missions and
  in the execution of their special assignments. Their work may be described as
  follows:



  30:3.2 1. The Star Students, the celestial astronomers, choose to work on
  spheres like Uversa because such specially constructed worlds are unusually
  favorable for their observations and calculations. Uversa is favorably
  situated for the work of this colony, not only because of its central
  location, but also because there are no gigantic living or dead suns near at
  hand to disturb the energy currents. These students are not in any manner
  organically connected with the affairs of the superuniverse; they are merely
  guests.

  30:3.3 The astronomical colony of Uversa contains individuals from many near-
  by realms, from the central universe, and even from Norlatiadek. Any being on
  any world in any system of any universe may become a star student, may aspire
  to join some corps of celestial astronomers. The only requisites are:
  continuing life and sufficient knowledge of the worlds of space, especially
  their physical laws of evolution and control. Star students are not required
  to serve eternally in this corps, but no one admitted to this group may
  withdraw under one millennium of Uversa time.

  30:3.4 The star-observer colony of Uversa now numbers over one million. These
  astronomers come and go, though some remain for comparatively long periods.
  They carry on their work with the aid of a multitude of mechanical instruments
  and physical appliances; they are also greatly assisted by the Solitary
  Messengers and other spirit explorers. These celestial astronomers make
  constant use of the living energy transformers and transmitters, as well as of
  the reflective personalities, in their work of star study and space survey.
  They study all forms and phases of space material and energy manifestations,
  and they are just as much interested in force function as in stellar
  phenomena; nothing in all space escapes their scrutiny.

  30:3.5 Similar astronomer colonies are to be found on the sector headquarters
  worlds of the superuniverse as well as on the architectural capitals of the
  local universes and their administrative subdivisions. Except on Paradise,
  knowledge is not inherent; understanding of the physical universe is largely
  dependent on observation and research.



  30:3.6 2. The Celestial Artisans serve throughout the seven superuniverses.
  Ascending mortals have their initial contact with these groups in the morontia
  career of the local universe in connection with which these artisans will be
  more fully discussed.



  30:3.7 3. The Reversion Directors are the promoters of relaxation and humor --
  reversion to past memories. They are of great service in the practical
  operation of the ascending scheme of mortal progression, especially during the
  earlier phases of morontia transition and spirit experience. Their story
  belongs to the narrative of the mortal career in the local universe.



  30:3.8 4. Extension-School Instructors. The next higher residential world of
  the ascendant career always maintains a strong corps of teachers on the world
  just below, a sort of preparatory school for the progressing residents of that
  sphere; this is a phase of the ascendant scheme for advancing the pilgrims of
  time. These schools, their methods of instruction and examinations, are wholly
  unlike anything which you essay to conduct on Urantia.

  30:3.9 The entire ascendant plan of mortal progression is characterized by the
  practice of giving out to other beings new truth and experience just as soon
  as acquired. You work your way through the long school of Paradise attainment
  by serving as teachers to those pupils just behind you in the scale of
  progression.



  30:3.10 5. The Various Reserve Corps. Vast reserves of beings not under our
  immediate supervision are mobilized on Uversa as the reserve-corps colony.
  There are seventy primary divisions of this colony on Uversa, and it is a
  liberal education to be permitted to spend a season with these extraordinary
  personalities. Similar general reserves are maintained on Salvington and other
  universe capitals; they are dispatched on active service on the requisition of
  their respective group directors.



  30:3.11 6. The Student Visitors. From all the universe a constant stream of
  celestial visitors pours through the various headquarters worlds. As
  individuals and as classes these various types of beings flock in upon us as
  observers, exchange pupils, and student helpers. On Uversa, at present, there
  are over one billion persons in this courtesy colony. Some of these visitors
  may tarry a day, others may remain a year, all dependent on the nature of
  their mission. This colony contains almost every class of universe beings
  except Creator personalities and morontia mortals.

  30:3.12 Morontia mortals are student visitors only within the confines of the
  local universe of their origin. They may visit in a superuniverse capacity
  only after they have attained spirit status. Fully one half of our visitor
  colony consists of "stopovers," beings enroute elsewhere who pause to visit
  the Orvonton capital. These personalities may be executing a universe
  assignment, or they may be enjoying a period of leisure -- freedom from
  assignment. The privilege of intrauniverse travel and observation is a part of
  the career of all ascending beings. The human desire to travel and observe new
  peoples and worlds will be fully gratified during the long and eventful climb
  to Paradise through the local, super-, and central universes.



  30:3.13 7. The Ascending Pilgrims. As the ascending pilgrims are assigned to
  various services in connection with their Paradise progression, they are
  domiciled as a courtesy colony on the various headquarters spheres. While
  functioning here and there throughout a superuniverse, such groups are largely
  self-governing. They are an ever-shifting colony embracing all orders of
  evolutionary mortals and their ascending associates.





4. THE ASCENDING MORTALS



  30:4.1 While the mortal survivors of time and space are denominated ascending
  pilgrims when accredited for the progressive ascent to Paradise, these
  evolutionary creatures occupy such an important place in these narratives that
  we here desire to present a synopsis of the following seven stages of the
  ascending universe career:

1. Planetary Mortals.

2. Sleeping Survivors.

3. Mansion World Students.

4. Morontia Progressors.

5. Superuniverse Wards.

6. Havona Pilgrims.

7. Paradise Arrivals.

  30:4.2 The following narrative presents the universe career of an Adjuster-
  indwelt mortal. The Son- and Spirit-fused mortals share portions of this
  career, but we have elected to tell this story as it pertains to the Adjuster-
  fused mortals, for such a destiny may be anticipated by all of the human races
  of Urantia.



  30:4.3 1. Planetary Mortals. Mortals are all animal-origin evolutionary beings
  of ascendant potential. In origin, nature, and destiny these various groups
  and types of human beings are not wholly unlike the Urantia peoples. The human
  races of each world receive the same ministry of the Sons of God and enjoy the
  presence of the ministering spirits of time. After natural death all types of
  ascenders fraternize as one morontia family on the mansion worlds.



  30:4.4 2. Sleeping Survivors. All mortals of survival status, in the custody
  of personal guardians of destiny, pass through the portals of natural death
  and, on the third period, personalize on the mansion worlds. Those accredited
  beings who have, for any reason, been unable to attain that level of
  intelligence mastery and endowment of spirituality which would entitle them to
  personal guardians, cannot thus immediately and directly go to the mansion
  worlds. Such surviving souls must rest in unconscious sleep until the judgment
  day of a new epoch, a new dispensation, the coming of a Son of God to call the
  rolls of the age and adjudicate the realm, and this is the general practice
  throughout all Nebadon. It was said of Christ Michael that, when he ascended
  on high at the conclusion of his work on earth, "He led a great multitude of
  captives." And these captives were the sleeping survivors from the days of
  Adam to the day of the Master's resurrection on Urantia.

  30:4.5 The passing of time is of no moment to sleeping mortals; they are
  wholly unconscious and oblivious to the length of their rest. On reassembly of
  personality at the end of an age, those who have slept five thousand years
  will react no differently than those who have rested five days. Aside from
  this time delay these survivors pass on through the ascension regime
  identically with those who avoid the longer or shorter sleep of death.

  30:4.6 These dispensational classes of world pilgrims are utilized for group
  morontia activities in the work of the local universes. There is a great
  advantage in the mobilization of such enormous groups; they are thus kept
  together for long periods of effective service.



  30:4.7 3. Mansion World Students. All surviving mortals who reawaken on the
  mansion worlds belong to this class.

  30:4.8 The physical body of mortal flesh is not a part of the reassembly of
  the sleeping survivor; the physical body has returned to dust. The seraphim of
  assignment sponsors the new body, the morontia form, as the new life vehicle
  for the immortal soul and for the indwelling of the returned Adjuster. The
  Adjuster is the custodian of the spirit transcript of the mind of the sleeping
  survivor. The assigned seraphim is the keeper of the surviving identity -- the
  immortal soul -- as far as it has evolved. And when these two, the Adjuster
  and the seraphim, reunite their personality trusts, the new individual
  constitutes the resurrection of the old personality, the survival of the
  evolving morontia identity of the soul. Such a reassociation of soul and
  Adjuster is quite properly called a resurrection, a reassembly of personality
  factors; but even this does not entirely explain the reappearance of the
  surviving personality. Though you will probably never understand the fact of
  such an inexplicable transaction, you will sometime experientially know the
  truth of it if you do not reject the plan of mortal survival.



  30:4.9 The plan of initial mortal detention on seven worlds of progressive
  training is nearly universal in Orvonton. In each local system of
  approximately one thousand inhabited planets there are seven mansion worlds,
  usually satellites or subsatellites of the system capital. They are the
  receiving worlds for the majority of ascending mortals.

  30:4.10 Sometimes all training worlds of mortal residence are called universe
  "mansions," and it was to such spheres that Jesus alluded when he said: "In my
  Father's house are many mansions." From here on, within a given group of
  spheres like the mansion worlds, ascenders will progress individually from one
  sphere to another and from one phase of life to another, but they will always
  advance from one stage of universe study to another in class formation.



  30:4.11 4. Morontia Progressors. From the mansion worlds on up through the
  spheres of the system, constellation, and the universe, mortals are classed as
  morontia progressors; they are traversing the transition spheres of mortal
  ascension. As the ascending mortals progress from the lower to the higher of
  the morontia worlds, they serve on countless assignments in association with
  their teachers and in company with their more advanced and senior brethren.

  30:4.12 Morontia progression pertains to continuing advancement of intellect,
  spirit, and personality form. Survivors are still three-natured beings.
  Throughout the entire morontia experience they are wards of the local
  universe. The regime of the superuniverse does not function until the spirit
  career begins.

  30:4.13 Mortals acquire real spirit identity just before they leave the local
  universe headquarters for the receiving worlds of the minor sectors of the
  superuniverse. Passing from the final morontia stage to the first or lowest
  spirit status is but a slight transition. The mind, personality, and character
  are unchanged by such an advance; only does the form undergo modification. But
  the spirit form is just as real as the morontia body, and it is equally
  discernible.

  30:4.14 Before departing from their native local universes for the
  superuniverse receiving worlds, the mortals of time are recipients of spirit
  confirmation from the Creator Son and the local universe Mother Spirit. From
  this point on, the status of the ascending mortal is forever settled.
  Superuniverse wards have never been known to go astray. Ascending seraphim are
  also advanced in angelic standing at the time of their departure from the
  local universes.



  30:4.15 5. Superuniverse Wards. All ascenders arriving on the training worlds
  of the superuniverses become the wards of the Ancients of Days; they have
  traversed the morontia life of the local universe and are now accredited
  spirits. As young spirits they begin the ascension of the superuniverse system
  of training and culture, extending from the receiving spheres of their minor
  sector in through the study worlds of the ten major sectors and on to the
  higher cultural spheres of the superuniverse headquarters.

  30:4.16 There are three orders of student spirits in accordance with their
  sojourn upon the minor sector, major sectors, and the superuniverse
  headquarters worlds of spirit progression. As morontia ascenders studied and
  worked on the worlds of the local universe, so spirit ascenders continue to
  master new worlds while they practice at giving out to others that which they
  have imbibed at the experiential founts of wisdom. But going to school as a
  spirit being in the superuniverse career is very unlike anything that has ever
  entered the imaginative realms of the material mind of man.

  30:4.17 Before leaving the superuniverse for Havona, these ascending spirits
  receive the same thorough course in superuniverse management that they
  received during their morontia experience in local universe supervision.
  Before spirit mortals reach Havona, their chief study, but not exclusive
  occupation, is the mastery of local and superuniverse administration. The
  reason for all of this experience is not now fully apparent, but no doubt such
  training is wise and necessary in view of their possible future destiny as
  members of the Corps of the Finality.

  30:4.18 The superuniverse regime is not the same for all ascending mortals.
  They receive the same general education, but special groups and classes are
  carried through special courses of instruction and are put through specific
  courses of training.



  30:4.19 6. Havona Pilgrims. When spirit development is complete, even though
  not replete, then the surviving mortal prepares for the long flight to Havona,
  the haven of evolutionary spirits. On earth you were a creature of flesh and
  blood; through the local universe you were a morontia being; through the
  superuniverse you were an evolving spirit; with your arrival on the receiving
  worlds of Havona your spiritual education begins in reality and in earnest;
  your eventual appearance on Paradise will be as a perfected spirit.

  30:4.20 The journey from the superuniverse headquarters to the Havona
  receiving spheres is always made alone. From now on no more class or group
  instruction will be administered. You are through with the technical and
  administrative training of the evolutionary worlds of time and space. Now
  begins your personal education, your individual spiritual training. From first
  to last, throughout all Havona, the instruction is personal and threefold in
  nature: intellectual, spiritual, and experiential.

  30:4.21 The first act of your Havona career will be to recognize and thank
  your transport seconaphim for the long and safe journey. Then you are
  presented to those beings who will sponsor your early Havona activities. Next
  you go to register your arrival and prepare your message of thanksgiving and
  adoration for dispatch to the Creator Son of your local universe, the universe
  Father who made possible your sonship career. This concludes the formalities
  of the Havona arrival; whereupon you are accorded a long period of leisure for
  free observation, and this affords opportunity for looking up your friends,
  fellows, and associates of the long ascension experience. You may also consult
  the broadcasts to ascertain who of your fellow pilgrims have departed for
  Havona since the time of your leaving Uversa.

  30:4.22 The fact of your arrival on the receiving worlds of Havona will be
  duly transmitted to the headquarters of your local universe and personally
  conveyed to your seraphic guardian, wherever that seraphim may chance to be.

  30:4.23 The ascendant mortals have been thoroughly trained in the affairs of
  the evolutionary worlds of space; now they begin their long and profitable
  contact with the created spheres of perfection. What a preparation for some
  future work is afforded by this combined, unique, and extraordinary
  experience! But I cannot tell you about Havona; you must see these worlds to
  appreciate their glory or to understand their grandeur.



  30:4.24 7. Paradise Arrivals. On reaching Paradise with residential status,
  you begin the progressive course in divinity and absonity. Your residence on
  Paradise signifies that you have found God, and that you are to be mustered
  into the Mortal Corps of the Finality. Of all the creatures of the grand
  universe, only those who are Father fused are mustered into the Mortal Corps
  of the Finality. Only such individuals take the finaliter oath. Other beings
  of Paradise perfection or attainment may be temporarily attached to this
  finality corps, but they are not of eternal assignment to the unknown and
  unrevealed mission of this accumulating host of the evolutionary and perfected
  veterans of time and space.

  30:4.25 Paradise arrivals are accorded a period of freedom, after which they
  begin their associations with the seven groups of the primary supernaphim.
  They are designated Paradise graduates when they have finished their course
  with the conductors of worship and then, as finaliters, are assigned on
  observational and co-operative service to the ends of the far-flung creation.
  As yet there seems to be no specific or settled employment for the Mortal
  Corps of Finaliters, though they serve in many capacities on worlds settled in
  light and life.

  30:4.26 If there should be no future or unrevealed destiny for the Mortal
  Corps of the Finality, the present assignment of these ascendant beings would
  be altogether adequate and glorious. Their present destiny wholly justifies
  the universal plan of evolutionary ascent. But the future ages of the
  evolution of the spheres of outer space will undoubtedly further elaborate,
  and with more repleteness divinely illuminate, the wisdom and loving-kindness
  of the Gods in the execution of their divine plan of human survival and mortal
  ascension.



  30:4.27 This narrative, together with what has been revealed to you and with
  what you may acquire in connection with instruction respecting your own world,
  presents an outline of the career of an ascending mortal. The story varies
  considerably in the different superuniverses, but this recital affords a
  glimpse of the average plan of mortal progression as it is operative in the
  local universe of Nebadon and in the seventh segment of the grand universe,
  the superuniverse of Orvonton.



  30:4.28 Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger from Uversa.




 PAPER 31


 THE CORPS OF THE FINALITY



  31:0.1 THE Corps of Mortal Finaliters represents the present known destination
  of the ascending Adjuster-fused mortals of time. But there are other groups
  who are also assigned to this corps. The primary finaliter corps is composed
  of the following:

1. Havona Natives.

2. Gravity Messengers.

3. Glorified Mortals.

4. Adopted Seraphim.

5. Glorified Material Sons.

6. Glorified Midway Creatures.

  31:0.2 These six groups of glorified beings compose this unique body of
  eternal destiny. We think we know their future work, but we are not certain.
  While the Corps of the Mortal Finality is mobilizing on Paradise, and while
  they now so extensively minister to the universes of space and administer the
  worlds settled in light and life, their future destination must be the now-
  organizing universes of outer space. At least that is the conjecture of
  Uversa.

  31:0.3 The corps is organized in accordance with the working associations of
  the worlds of space and in keeping with the associative experience acquired
  throughout the long and eventful ascendant career. All the ascendant creatures
  admitted to this corps are received in equality, but this exalted equality in
  no way abrogates individuality or destroys personal identity. We can
  immediately discern, in communicating with a finaliter, whether he is an
  ascendant mortal, Havona native, adopted seraphim, midway creature, or
  Material Son.

  31:0.4 During the present universe age the finaliters return to serve in the
  universes of time. They are assigned to labor successively in the different
  superuniverses and never in their native superuniverses until after they have
  served in all the other six supercreations. Thus may they acquire the
  sevenfold concept of the Supreme Being.

  31:0.5 One or more companies of the mortal finaliters are constantly in
  service on Urantia. There is no domain of universe service to which they are
  not assigned; they function universally and with alternating and equal periods
  of assigned duty and free service.

  31:0.6 We have no idea as to the nature of the future organization of this
  extraordinary group, but the finaliters are now wholly a self-governing body.
  They choose their own permanent, periodic, and assignment leaders and
  directors. No outside influence can ever be brought to bear upon their
  policies, and their oath of allegiance is only to the Paradise Trinity.

  31:0.7 The finaliters maintain their own headquarters on Paradise, in the
  superuniverses, in the local universes, and on all the divisional capitals.
  They are a separate order of evolutionary creation. We do not directly manage
  them or control them, and yet they are absolutely loyal and always co-
  operative with all our plans. They are indeed the accumulating tried and true
  souls of time and space -- the evolutionary salt of the universe -- and they
  are forever proof against evil and secure against sin.





1. THE HAVONA NATIVES



  31:1.1 Many of the Havona natives who serve as teachers in the pilgrim-
  training schools of the central universe become greatly attached to the
  ascending mortals and still more intrigued with the future work and destiny of
  the Corps of Mortal Finaliters. On Paradise there is maintained, at the
  administrative headquarters of the corps, a registry for Havona volunteers
  presided over by the associate of Grandfanda. Today, you will find millions
  upon millions of Havona natives upon this waiting list. These perfect beings
  of direct and divine creation are of great assistance to the Mortal Corps of
  Finality, and they will undoubtedly be of even greater service in the far-
  distant future. They provide the viewpoint of one born in perfection and
  divine repleteness. The finaliters thus embrace both phases of experiential
  existence -- perfect and perfected.

  31:1.2 Havona natives must achieve certain experiential developments in
  liaison with evolutionary beings which will create reception capacity for the
  bestowal of a fragment of the spirit of the Universal Father. The Mortal
  Finaliter Corps has as permanent members only such beings as have been fused
  with the spirit of the First Source and Center, or who, like the Gravity
  Messengers, innately embody this spirit of God the Father.

  31:1.3 The inhabitants of the central universe are received into the corps in
  the ratio of one in a thousand -- a finaliter company. The corps is organized
  for temporary service in companies of one thousand, the ascendant creatures
  numbering 997 to one Havona native and one Gravity Messenger. Finaliters are
  thus mobilized in companies, but the finality oath is administered
  individually. It is an oath of sweeping implications and eternal import. The
  Havona native takes the same oath and becomes forever attached to the corps.

  31:1.4 The Havona recruits follow the company of their assignment; wherever
  the group goes, they go. And you should see their enthusiasm in the new work
  of the finaliters. The possibility of attaining the Corps of the Finality is
  one of the superb thrills of Havona; the possibility of becoming a finaliter
  is one of the supreme adventures of these perfect races.

  31:1.5 The Havona natives are also received, in the same ratio, into the Corps
  of Conjoint Trinitized Finaliters on Vicegerington and into the Corps of
  Transcendental Finaliters on Paradise. The Havona citizens regard these three
  destinies as constituting the supreme goals of their supernal careers,
  together with their possible admission to the Corps of Havona Finaliters.





2. GRAVITY MESSENGERS



  31:2.1 Wherever and whenever Gravity Messengers are functioning, the
  finaliters are in command. All Gravity Messengers are under the exclusive
  jurisdiction of Grandfanda, and they are assigned only to the primary Corps of
  the Finality. They are invaluable to the finaliters even now, and they will be
  all-serviceable in the eternal future. No other group of intelligent creatures
  possesses such a personalized messenger corps able to transcend time and
  space. Similar types of messenger-recorders attached to other finaliter corps
  are not personalized; they are absonitized.



  31:2.2 Gravity Messengers hail from Divinington, and they are modified and
  personalized Adjusters, but no one of our Uversa group will undertake to
  explain the nature of one of these messengers. We know they are highly
  personal beings, divine, intelligent, and touchingly understanding, but we do
  not comprehend their timeless technique of traversing space. They seem to be
  competent to utilize any and all energies, circuits, and even gravity.
  Finaliters of the mortal corps cannot defy time and space, but they have
  associated with them and subject to their command all but infinite spirit
  personalities who can. We presume to call Gravity Messengers personalities,
  but in reality they are superspirit beings, unlimited and boundless
  personalities. They are of an entirely different order of personality as
  compared with Solitary Messengers.



  31:2.3 Gravity Messengers may be attached to a finaliter company in unlimited
  numbers, but only one messenger, the chief of his fellows, is mustered into
  the Mortal Corps of the Finality. This chief however has assigned to him a
  permanent staff of 999 fellow messengers, and as occasion may require, he may
  call upon the reserves of the order for assistants in unlimited numbers.

  31:2.4 Gravity Messengers and glorified mortal finaliters achieve a touching
  and profound affection for one another; they have much in common: One is a
  direct personalization of a fragment of the Universal Father, the other a
  creature personality existent in the surviving immortal soul fused with a
  fragment of the same Universal Father, the spirit Thought Adjuster.





3. GLORIFIED MORTALS



  31:3.1 Ascendant Adjuster-fused mortals compose the bulk of the primary Corps
  of the Finality. Together with the adopted and glorified seraphim they usually
  constitute 990 in each finaliter company. The proportion of mortals and angels
  in any one group varies, though the mortals far outnumber the seraphim. The
  Havona natives, glorified Material Sons, glorified midway creatures, the
  Gravity Messengers, and the unknown and missing member make up only one per
  cent of the corps; each company of one thousand finaliters has places for just
  ten of these nonmortal and nonseraphic personalities.

  31:3.2 We of Uversa do not know the "finality destiny" of the ascendant
  mortals of time. At present they reside on Paradise and temporarily serve in
  the Corps of Light and Life, but such a tremendous course of ascendant
  training and such lengthy universe discipline must be designed to qualify them
  for even greater tests of trust and more sublime services of responsibility.



  31:3.3 Notwithstanding that these ascendant mortals have attained Paradise,
  have been mustered into the Corps of the Finality, and have been sent back in
  large numbers to participate in the conduct of local universes and to assist
  in the administration of superuniverse affairs -- in the face of even this
  apparent destiny, there remains the significant fact that they are of record
  as only sixth-stage spirits. There undoubtedly remains one more step in the
  career of the Mortal Corps of the Finality. We do not know the nature of that
  step, but we have taken cognizance of, and here call attention to, three
  facts:



  31:3.4 1. We know from the records that mortals are spirits of the first order
  during their sojourn in the minor sectors, and that they advance to the second
  order when translated to the major sectors, and to the third when they go
  forward to the central training worlds of the superuniverse. Mortals become
  quartan or graduate spirits after reaching the sixth circle of Havona and
  become spirits of the fifth order when they find the Universal Father. They
  subsequently attain the sixth stage of spirit existence upon taking the oath
  that musters them forever into the eternity assignment of the Corps of the
  Mortal Finality.

  31:3.5 We observe that spirit classification, or designation, has been
  determined by actual advancement from one realm of universe service to another
  realm of universe service or from one universe to another universe; and we
  surmise that the bestowal of seventh-spirit classification upon the Mortal
  Corps of the Finality will be simultaneous with their advancement to eternal
  assignment for service on hitherto unrecorded and unrevealed spheres and
  concomitant with their attainment of God the Supreme. But aside from these
  bold conjectures, we really know no more about all this than you do; our
  knowledge of the mortal career does not go beyond present Paradise destiny.



  31:3.6 2. The mortal finaliters have fully complied with the injunction of the
  ages, "Be you perfect"; they have ascended the universal path of mortal
  attainment; they have found God, and they have been duly inducted into the
  Corps of the Finality. Such beings have attained the present limit of spirit
  progression but not finality of ultimate spirit status. They have achieved the
  present limit of creature perfection but not finality of creature service.
  They have experienced the fullness of Deity worship but not finality of
  experiential Deity attainment.



  31:3.7 3. The glorified mortals of the Paradise Corps of Finality are
  ascendant beings in possession of experiential knowledge of every step of the
  actuality and philosophy of the fullest possible life of intelligent
  existence, while during the ages of this ascent from the lowest material
  worlds to the spiritual heights of Paradise, these surviving creatures have
  been trained to the limits of their capacity respecting every detail of every
  divine principle of the just and efficient, as well as merciful and patient,
  administration of all the universal creation of time and space.



  31:3.8 We deem that human beings are entitled to share our opinions, and that
  you are free to conjecture with us respecting the mystery of the ultimate
  destiny of the Paradise Corps of Finality. It seems evident to us that the
  present assignments of the perfected evolutionary creatures partake of the
  nature of postgraduate courses in universe understanding and superuniverse
  administration; and we all ask, "Why should the Gods be so concerned in so
  thoroughly training surviving mortals in the technique of universe
  management?"





4. ADOPTED SERAPHIM



  31:4.1 Many of the faithful seraphic guardians of mortals are permitted to go
  through the ascendant career with their human wards, and many of these
  guardian angels, after becoming Father fused, join their subjects in taking
  the finaliter oath of eternity and forever accept the destiny of their mortal
  associates. Angels who pass through the ascending experience of mortal beings
  may share the destiny of human nature; they may equally and eternally be
  mustered into this Corps of the Finality. Large numbers of the adopted and
  glorified seraphim are attached to the various nonmortal finaliter corps.





5. GLORIFIED MATERIAL SONS



  31:5.1 There is provision in the universes of time and space whereby the
  Adamic citizens of the local systems, when long delayed in receiving planetary
  assignment, may initiate a petition for release from permanent-citizenship
  status. And if granted, they join the ascending pilgrims on the universe
  capitals and thence proceed onward to Paradise and the Corps of the Finality.



  31:5.2 When an advanced evolutionary world attains the later eras of the age
  of light and life, the Material Sons, the Planetary Adam and Eve, may elect to
  humanize, receive Adjusters, and embark upon the evolutionary course of
  universe ascent leading to the Corps of Mortal Finaliters. Certain of these
  Material Sons have partially failed or technically defaulted in their mission
  as biologic accelerators, as Adam did on Urantia; and then are they compelled
  to take the natural course of the peoples of the realm, receive Adjusters,
  pass through death, and progress by faith through the ascendant regime,
  subsequently attaining Paradise and the Corps of the Finality.

  31:5.3 These Material Sons are not to be found in many finaliter companies.
  Their presence lends great potential to the possibilities of high service for
  such a group, and they are invariably chosen as its leaders. If both of the
  Edenic pair are attached to the same group, they are usually permitted to
  function jointly, as one personality. Such ascendant pairs are far more
  successful in the adventure of trinitizing than are the ascendant mortals.





6. GLORIFIED MIDWAY CREATURES



  31:6.1 On many planets the midway creatures are produced in large numbers, but
  they seldom tarry on their native world subsequent to its being settled in
  light and life. Then, or soon thereafter, they are released from permanent-
  citizenship status and start on the ascension to Paradise, passing through the
  morontia worlds, the superuniverse, and Havona in company with the mortals of
  time and space.

  31:6.2 The midway creatures from various universes differ greatly in origin
  and nature, but they are all destined to one or another of the Paradise
  finality corps. The secondary midwayers are all eventually Adjuster fused and
  are mustered into the mortal corps. Many finaliter companies have one of these
  glorified beings in their group.





7. THE EVANGELS OF LIGHT



  31:7.1 At the present time every finaliter company numbers 999 personalities
  of oath status, permanent members. The vacant place is occupied by the chief
  of attached Evangels of Light assigned on any single mission. But these beings
  are only transient members of the corps.

  31:7.2 Any celestial personality assigned to the service of any finaliter
  corps is denominated an Evangel of Light. These beings do not take the
  finaliter oath, and though subject to the corps organization they are not of
  permanent attachment. This group may embrace Solitary Messengers, supernaphim,
  seconaphim, Paradise Citizens, or their trinitized offspring -- any being
  required in the prosecution of a transient finaliter assignment. Whether or
  not the corps is to have these beings attached to the eternal mission, we do
  not know. At the conclusion of attachment these Evangels of Light resume their
  former status.



  31:7.3 As the Mortal Corps of the Finality is at present constituted, there
  are just six classes of permanent members. The finaliters, as might be
  expected, engage in much speculation as to the identity of their future
  comrades, but there is little agreement among them.

  31:7.4 We of Uversa often conjecture respecting the identity of the seventh
  group of finaliters. We entertain many ideas, embracing possible assignment of
  some of the accumulating corps of the numerous trinitized groups on Paradise,
  Vicegerington, and the inner Havona circuit. It is even conjectured that the
  Corps of the Finality may be permitted to trinitize many of their assistants
  in the work of universe administration in the event they are destined to the
  service of universes now in the making.

  31:7.5 One of us holds the opinion that this vacant place in the corps will be
  filled by some type of being of origin in the new universe of their future
  service; the other inclines to the belief that this place will be occupied by
  some type of Paradise personality not yet created, eventuated, or trinitized.
  But we will most likely await the entrance of the finaliters upon their
  seventh stage of spirit attainment before we really know.





8. THE TRANSCENDENTALERS



  31:8.1 Part of the perfected mortal's experience on Paradise as a finaliter
  consists in the effort to achieve comprehension of the nature and function of
  more than one thousand groups of the transcendental supercitizens of Paradise,
  eventuated beings of absonite attributes. In their association with these
  superpersonalities, the ascendant finaliters receive great assistance from the
  helpful guidance of numerous orders of transcendental ministers who are
  assigned to the task of introducing the evolved finaliters to their new
  Paradise brethren. The entire order of the Transcendentalers live in the west
  of Paradise in a vast area which they exclusively occupy.

  31:8.2 In the discussion of Transcendentalers we are restricted, not only by
  the limitations of human comprehension, but also by the terms of the mandate
  governing these disclosures concerning the personalities of Paradise. These
  beings are in no way connected with the mortal ascent to Havona. The vast host
  of the Paradise Transcendentalers have nothing whatever to do with the affairs
  of either Havona or the seven superuniverses, being concerned only with the
  superadministration of the affairs of the master universe.

  31:8.3 You, being a creature, can conceive of a Creator, but you can hardly
  comprehend that there exists an enormous and diversified aggregation of
  intelligent beings who are neither Creators nor creatures. These
  Transcendentalers create no beings, neither were they ever created. In
  speaking of their origin, in order to avoid using a new term -- an arbitrary
  and meaningless designation -- we deem it best to say that Transcendentalers
  simply eventuate. The Deity Absolute may well have been concerned in their
  origin and may be implicated in their destiny, but these unique beings are not
  now dominated by the Deity Absolute. They are subject to God the Ultimate, and
  their present Paradise sojourn is in every way Trinity supervised and
  directed.

  31:8.4 Although all mortals who attain Paradise frequently fraternize with the
  Transcendentalers as they do with the Paradise Citizens, it develops that
  man's first serious contact with a Transcendentaler occurs on that eventful
  occasion when, as a member of a new finaliter group, the mortal ascender
  stands in the finaliter receiving circle as the Trinity oath of eternity is
  administered by the chief of Transcendentalers, the presiding head of the
  Architects of the Master Universe.





9. ARCHITECTS OF THE MASTER UNIVERSE



  31:9.1 The Architects of the Master Universe are the governing corps of the
  Paradise Transcendentalers. This governing corps numbers 28,011 personalities
  possessing master minds, superb spirits, and supernal absonites. The presiding
  officer of this magnificent group, the senior Master Architect, is the co-
  ordinating head of all Paradise intelligences below the level of Deity.

  31:9.2 The sixteenth proscription of the mandate authorizing these narratives
  says: "If deemed wise, the existence of the Architects of the Master Universe
  and their associates may be disclosed, but their origin, nature, and destiny
  may not be fully revealed." We may, however, inform you that these Master
  Architects exist in seven levels of the absonite. These seven groups are
  classified as follows:



  31:9.3 1. The Paradise Level. Only the senior or first-eventuated Architect
  functions on this highest level of the absonite. This ultimate personality --
  neither Creator nor creature -- eventuated in the dawn of eternity and now
  functions as the exquisite co-ordinator of Paradise and its twenty-one worlds
  of associated activities.



  31:9.4 2. The Havona Level. The second Architect eventuation yielded three
  master planners and absonite administrators, and they have always been devoted
  to the co-ordination of the one billion perfect spheres of the central
  universe. Paradise tradition asserts that these three Architects, with the
  counsel of the pre-eventuated senior Architect, contributed to the planning of
  Havona, but we really do not know.



  31:9.5 3. The Superuniverse Level. The third absonite level embraces the seven
  Master Architects of the seven superuniverses, who now, as a group, spend
  about equal time in the company of the Seven Master Spirits on Paradise and
  with the Seven Supreme Executives on the seven special worlds of the Infinite
  Spirit. They are the superco-ordinators of the grand universe.



  31:9.6 4. The Primary Space Level. This group numbers seventy Architects, and
  we conjecture that they are concerned with the ultimate plans for the first
  universe of outer space, now mobilizing beyond the borders of the present
  seven superuniverses.



  31:9.7 5. The Secondary Space Level. This fifth corps of Architects numbers
  490, and again we conjecture that they must be concerned with the second
  universe of outer space, where already our physicists have detected definite
  energy mobilizations.



  31:9.8 6. The Tertiary Space Level. This sixth group of Master Architects
  numbers 3,430, and we likewise infer that they may be occupied with the
  gigantic plans for the third universe of outer space.



  31:9.9 7. The Quartan Space Level. This, the final and largest corps, consists
  of 24,010 Master Architects, and if our former conjectures are valid, it must
  be related to the fourth and last of the ever-increasing-sized universes of
  outer space.



  31:9.10 These seven groups of Master Architects total 28,011 universe
  planners. On Paradise there is a tradition that far back in eternity there was
  attempted the eventuation of the 28,012th Master Architect, but that this
  being failed to absonitize, experiencing personality seizure by the Universal
  Absolute. It is possible that the ascending series of the Master Architects
  attained the limit of absonity in the 28,011th Architect, and that the
  28,012th attempt encountered the mathematical level of the presence of the
  Absolute. In other words, at the 28,012th eventuation level the quality of
  absonity equivalated to the level of the Universal and attained the value of
  the Absolute.



  31:9.11 In their functional organization the three supervising Architects of
  Havona act as associate assistants to the solitary Paradise Architect. The
  seven Architects of the superuniverses act as co-ordinates of the three
  supervisors of Havona. The seventy planners of the universes of the primary
  outer space level are at present serving as associate assistants to the seven
  Architects of the seven superuniverses.

  31:9.12 The Architects of the Master Universe have at their disposal numerous
  groups of assistants and helpers, including two vast orders of force
  organizers, the primary eventuated and the associate transcendental. These
  Master Force Organizers are not to be confused with the power directors, who
  are germane to the grand universe.

  31:9.13 All beings produced by the union of the children of time and eternity,
  such as the trinitized offspring of the finaliters and the Paradise Citizens,
  become wards of the Master Architects. But of all other creatures or entities
  revealed as functioning in the present organized universes, only Solitary
  Messengers and Inspired Trinity Spirits maintain any organic association with
  the Transcendentalers and the Architects of the Master Universe.

  31:9.14 The Master Architects contribute technical approval of the assignment
  of the Creator Sons to their space sites for the organization of the local
  universes. There is a very close association between the Master Architects and
  the Paradise Creator Sons, and while this relationship is unrevealed, you have
  been informed of the association of the Architects and the grand universe
  Supreme Creators in the relationship of the first experiential Trinity. These
  two groups, together with the evolving and experiential Supreme Being,
  constitute the Trinity Ultimate of transcendental values and master universe
  meanings.





10. THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE



  31:10.1 The senior Master Architect has the oversight of the seven Corps of
  the Finality, and they are:

1. The Corps of Mortal Finaliters.

2. The Corps of Paradise Finaliters.

3. The Corps of Trinitized Finaliters.

4. The Corps of Conjoint Trinitized Finaliters.

5. The Corps of Havona Finaliters.

6. The Corps of Transcendental Finaliters.

7. The Corps of Unrevealed Sons of Destiny.

  31:10.2 Each of these destiny corps has a presiding head, and the seven
  constitute the Supreme Council of Destiny on Paradise; and during the present
  universe age Grandfanda is the chief of this supreme body of universe
  assignment for the children of ultimate destiny.

  31:10.3 The gathering together of these seven finaliter corps signifies
  reality mobilization of potentials, personalities, minds, spirits, absonites,
  and experiential actualities that probably transcend even the future master
  universe functions of the Supreme Being. These seven finaliter corps probably
  signify the present activity of the Ultimate Trinity engaged in mustering the
  forces of the finite and the absonite in preparation for inconceivable
  developments in the universes of outer space. Nothing like this mobilization
  has taken place since the near times of eternity when the Paradise Trinity
  similarly mobilized the then existing personalities of Paradise and Havona and
  commissioned them as administrators and rulers of the projected seven
  superuniverses of time and space. The seven finaliter corps represent the
  divinity response of the grand universe to the future needs of the undeveloped
  potentials in the outer universes of future-eternal activities.

  31:10.4 We venture the forecast of future and greater outer universes of
  inhabited worlds, new spheres peopled with new orders of exquisite and unique
  beings, a material universe sublime in its ultimacy, a vast creation lacking
  in only one important detail -- the presence of actual finite experience in
  the universal life of ascendant existence. Such a universe will come into
  being under a tremendous experiential handicap: the deprivation of
  participation in the evolution of the Almighty Supreme. These outer universes
  will all enjoy the matchless ministry and supernal overcontrol of the Supreme
  Being, but the very fact of his active presence precludes their participation
  in the actualization of the Supreme Deity.

  31:10.5 During the present universe age the evolving personalities of the
  grand universe suffer many difficulties due to the incomplete actualization of
  the sovereignty of God the Supreme, but we are all sharing the unique
  experience of his evolution. We evolve in him and he evolves in us. Sometime
  in the eternal future the evolution of Supreme Deity will become a completed
  fact of universe history, and the opportunity to participate in this wonderful
  experience will have passed from the stage of cosmic action.

  31:10.6 But those of us who have acquired this unique experience during the
  youth of the universe will treasure it throughout all future eternity. And
  many of us speculate that it may be the mission of the gradually accumulating
  reserves of the ascendant and perfected mortals of the Corps of the Finality,
  in association with the other six similarly recruiting corps, to administer
  these outer universes in an effort to compensate their experiential
  deficiencies in not having participated in the time-space evolution of the
  Supreme Being.

  31:10.7 These deficiencies are inevitable on all levels of universe existence.
  During the present universe age we of the higher levels of spiritual
  existences now come down to administer the evolutionary universes and minister
  to the ascending mortals, thus endeavoring to atone for their deficiencies in
  the realities of the higher spiritual experience.

  31:10.8 But though we really know nothing about the plans of the Architects of
  the Master Universe respecting these outer creations, nevertheless, of three
  things we are certain:



  31:10.9 1. There actually is a vast and new system of universes gradually
  organizing in the domains of outer space. New orders of physical creations,
  enormous and gigantic circles of swarming universes upon universes far out
  beyond the present bounds of the peopled and organized creations, are actually
  visible through your telescopes. At present, these outer creations are wholly
  physical; they are apparently uninhabited and seem to be devoid of creature
  administration.



  31:10.10 2. For ages upon ages there continues the unexplained and wholly
  mysterious Paradise mobilization of the perfected and ascendant beings of time
  and space, in association with the six other finaliter corps.



  31:10.11 3. Concomitantly with these transactions the Supreme Person of Deity
  is powerizing as the almighty sovereign of the supercreations.



  31:10.12 As we view this triune development, embracing creatures, universes,
  and Deity, can we be criticized for anticipating that something new and
  unrevealed is approaching culmination in the master universe? Is it not
  natural that we should associate this agelong mobilization and organization of
  physical universes on such a hitherto unknown scale and the personality
  emergence of the Supreme Being with this stupendous scheme of upstepping the
  mortals of time to divine perfection and with their subsequent mobilization on
  Paradise in the Corps of the Finality -- a designation and destiny enshrouded
  in universe mystery? It is increasingly the belief of all Uversa that the
  assembling Corps of the Finality are destined to some future service in the
  universes of outer space, where we already are able to identify the clustering
  of at least seventy thousand aggregations of matter, each of which is greater
  than any one of the present superuniverses.



  31:10.13 Evolutionary mortals are born on the planets of space, pass through
  the morontia worlds, ascend the spirit universes, traverse the Havona spheres,
  find God, attain Paradise, and are mustered into the primary Corps of the
  Finality, therein to await the next assignment of universe service. There are
  six other assembling finality corps, but Grandfanda, the first mortal
  ascender, presides as Paradise chief of all orders of finaliters. And as we
  view this sublime spectacle, we all exclaim: What a glorious destiny for the
  animal-origin children of time, the material sons of space!



  31:10.14 Jointly sponsored by a Divine Counselor and One without Name and
  Number authorized so to function by the Ancients of Days on Uversa.



* * * * *



  31:10.15 These thirty-one papers depicting the nature of Deity, the reality of
  Paradise, the organization and working of the central and superuniverses, the
  personalities of the grand universe, and the high destiny of evolutionary
  mortals, were sponsored, formulated, and put into English by a high commission
  consisting of twenty-four Orvonton administrators acting in accordance with a
  mandate issued by the Ancients of Days of Uversa directing that we should do
  this on Urantia, 606 of Satania, in Norlatiadek of Nebadon, in the year A.D.
  1934.