The Spirit in Man

The Spirit never drives, only leads. If you are a willing learner, if you want to attain spirit levels and reach divine heights, if you sincerely desire to reach the eternal goal, then the divine Spirit will gently and lovingly lead you along the pathway of sonship and spiritual progress. Every step you take must be one of willingness, intelligent and cheerful co-operation. The domination of the Spirit is never tainted with coercion nor compromised by compulsion.

A 10 lesson course about man's relation to Divinity and Spirit.

ALL MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS STRICTLY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.

LESSON 1: Spirit Foundation & Support Infrastructure

The sevenfold spirit influence

Holy Spirit in the Bible

The terms Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, and the Spirit of God are used somewhat interchangeably in the Bible. These designations cover the references in the Urantia Book of the following different Spirit realities:

  1. Personality circuit of the Universal Father.
  2. The spirit circuit of the Eternal Son.
  3. The omnipresence of the Infinite Spirit.
  4. The Thought Adjuster bestowals of the Father.
  5. The Holy Spirit presence of the local universe Mother Spirit.
  6. The Spirit of Truth.
  7. The 7 adjutant mind-spirits of the local universe mind endowment.
Some main attributes of Spirit are (with Biblical references):
The Urantia Book expands our comprehension of Spirit

In a way, mankind is subject to the double influence of the sevenfold appeal of the universe spirit influences. The early evolutionary races of mortals are subject to the progressive contact of the 7 adjutant mind-spirits of the local universe Mother Spirit. As man progresses upward in the scale of intelligence and spiritual perception, there eventually come to hover over him and dwell within him the seven higher spirit influences.
And these seven spirits of the advancing worlds are:

  1. The bestowed spirit of the Universal Father — the Thought Adjusters.
  2. The spirit presence of the Eternal Son — the spirit gravity of the universe of universes and the certain channel of all spirit communion.
  3. The spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit — the universal spirit-mind of all creation, the spiritual source of the intellectual kinship of all progressive intelligences.
    Note:  These first three Spirits are part of circuits originating beyond the boundaries of Nebadon.
  4. The spirit of the Universal Father and the Creator Son — the Spirit of Truth, generally regarded as the spirit of the Universe Son.
  5. The spirit of the Infinite Spirit and the Universe Mother Spirit — the Holy Spirit, generally regarded as the spirit of:
  6. The mind-spirit of the Universe Mother Spirit — the 7 adjutant mind-spirits of the local universe.
  7. The spirit of the Father, Sons, and Spirits — the new-name spirit of the ascending mortals of the realms after the fusion of the mortal spirit-born soul with the Paradise Thought Adjuster and after the subsequent attainment of the divinity and glorification of the status of the Paradise Corps of the Finality. 

The following 3 distinct spirit circuits originate in the local universe of Nebadon:

  1. The bestowal spirit of the Creator Son, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth.
  2. The spirit circuit of the Divine Minister, the Holy Spirit.
  3. The intelligence-ministry circuit of the 7 adjutant mind-spirits. These are the 7 spirits mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

The Urantia Book identifies these 7 adjutant mind-spirits of the Book of Revelation.
These mind-spirits function in the human mind in accordance with its capacity of receptivity.

  1. Spirit of Intuition.
  2. Spirit of Understanding.
  3. Spirit of Courage.
  4. Spirit of Knowledge.
  5. Spirit of Counsel.
  6. Spirit of Worship.
  7. Spirit of Wisdom.

This simple chart illustrates the relationships between these various Spirits. In combination they form the Spiritual infrastructure which guides all intelligent life to discover itself and the very source of life and creation. Spirits-chart.pdf

A solid Spiritual foundation provides the Divine downreach to man, but does not begin and end merely in the Spirit realm. Man finds himself in the mortal-physical realm, and as such must also provide his own upreach to Divinity through his own initiatives and co-creative efforts, in response to the gentle and loving promptings of his Spirit helpers. One such co-creative upreach initiative is known as A Spiritual Bill of Rights for Humanity.

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LESSON 2: Father's Gift to Man — His Spirit Fragment

It all begins with the gift of personality

Personality is difficult to define — but it always seeks unification.

Personality is recognized as functioning on diverse levels:

  1. Physical level — the physique.
  2. Intellectual level — the mind.
  3. Emotional level — temperament.
  4. Social level — ethical disposition.
  5. Moral level — the character.

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/she may have changed. It is through personality that you will be able to recognize your friends and loved ones in Heaven. Personality is like a unique signature that each one of us has, and it cannot be forged or duplicated.

Personality is distinguished by two self-manifesting phenomena of behavior: self-consciousness and associated relative free will.

Self-consciousness consists in intellectual awareness of personality; it includes the ability to recognize the reality of other personalities. It indicates capacity for individualized and shared experience. Self-consciousness recognizes the functioning of mind and the relative independence of creative and determinative free will.

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.

The full function of a personality indwelt by a fragment of God the Father (a Thought Adjuster), is what constitutes a spiritual son/daughter of God.

Father's downreach to the inner man via His Thought Adjusters

As discussed in The Soul in Man LESSON 1, Father's next gift to man is a fragment of Himself in the form of a divine and perfect Thought Adjuster (TA), which arrives when the first moral decision is made.

A person's biological sex is of no consideration in the assignment of a Thought Adjuster. Both males and females are equal recipients of TAs.

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 because God lives through His Thought Adjusters in every one of his Spirit-born sons and daughters. What a mistake to dream of God in some far off place when the Spirit of the Universal Father, His TA, lives within your own mind!

Man does not passively surrender his will to the Adjuster. Man is not a slave to his Adjuster. Instead, man can choose to actively, positively, and co-operatively follow the Adjuster's leading. To the Thought Adjuster the human will is supreme. And they so regard and respect it while they strive to achieve the spiritual goals of thought adjustment and character transformation in the almost limitless arena of the human intellect.

That somewhat explains what this downreach is, but how does it actually work in man?

The very simplest way of explaining it is that mind is your ship, the Adjuster is your pilot, the human will is captain.

Remember from The Soul in Man LESSON 1, that the arrival of the Thought Adjuster also signifies the creation of a new nascent soul. That person is then responsible for the growth and survival of his/her new soul, but man is not born with an instruction manual on soul growth. In a simple sense the Thought Adjuster is akin to such an instruction manual. The TA is the one who guides, teaches and encourages a person to pursue the types of adventures and experiences that promote genuine soul growth. And this is not done haphazardly. There is a universal approach to soul growth based on 7 fundamental, essential and sequential stages of soul development. These are referred to as the 7 psychic circles.

These 7 psychic circles are an inner reflection of the universal expression of the 7 Heavens which are discussed in our School of Cosmology curriculum called: A Traveler's Guide to the Galaxy.

We know very little about these 7 psychic circles other than psychic circle 4 has to do with becoming socialized (according to Father's standard), and that one cannot progress through them randomly. They must be accomplished in sequential order and an inner journey of self discovery, leading prograssively inward. They deal with inner personal growth of survival value, in other words soul growth. While full knowledge of these 7 psychic circles is the domain of the Thought Adjuster, how they are applied to each person's soul growth can vary significantly from one person to the next, and that makes these 7 psychic circles difficult of precise explanation.

The Urantia Book has extensive coverage of Thought Adjusters in papers 107 to 112.

Father's downreach to the outer man via His Spirit of Truth

The new helper which Jesus promised to send into the hearts of believers, to pour out upon all flesh, is the Spirit of Truth. This divine endowment is not the letter or law of truth, neither is it to function as the form or expression of truth. The new teacher is the conviction of truth, the consciousness and assurance of true meanings on real spirit levels. And this new teacher is the spirit of living and growing truth, expanding, unfolding, and adaptative truth. Urantia Book 180:5.1

Father's Thought Adjusters function in the human mind in perfect synchrony and co-ordination with all other spirit ministries, including adjutant mind-spirits, Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth, and other influences.

While the Thought Adjuster functions in the human mind and guides us through the inner journey of our own intimate spiritual journey to contact the Father, the Spirit of Truth functions in the human heart to lead us through the 4 levels of outward interpersonal growth.

The Spirit of Truth is covered in LESSON 7.

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LESSON 3: Man's Gift to the Father — Doing of the will of God

The upreach of man to God

The topic of doing the will of God is such an extensive subject that we simply cannot do it justice in this short lesson. Entire books can easily be dedicated to merely a single aspect of this vast study. And so, in the spirit of keeping this lesson down to a reasonable length, we have chosen to highlight some major points through the use of simple lists. We leave it as an exercise for the reader to dig deeper into his/her specific areas of interest.

Personal religion

Every different culture of humanity has its own unique religious perspective on human existence, and these religions can never come to intellectual unification. Human unity can only be achieved through the religion of the Spirit. Human minds may differ, but all humanity is indwelt by the same Spirit. The hope of human unity can only be realized when the divergent religions become transformed by the unifying and ennobling religion of the Spirit — the religion of personal spiritual experience.

The philosophic elimination of religious fear and the steady progress of science add greatly to the end of false gods and to the eventual destruction of that ignorance and superstition which so long obscured the living Creator of eternal love. The relation between the creature and the Creator is a living experience, a dynamic religious faith, which is not subject to precise definition. To isolate part of life and call it religion is to disintegrate life and to distort religion. Religious convictions may be arrived at through wise reasoning, but the individual becomes certain only through personal experience.

Marks of religious living
    1. Causes ethics and morals to progress despite inherent animalistic tendencies.
    2. Produces sublime trust in the goodness of God in the face of bitter disappointment and crushing defeat.
    3. Generates profound courage and confidence despite natural adversity and physical calamity.
    4. Exhibits inexplicable poise and sustaining tranquility notwithstanding baffling diseases and acute physical suffering.
    5. Maintains a mysterious composure of personality in the face of maltreatment and the rankest injustice.
    6. Maintains a divine trust in ultimate victory in spite of the cruelties of seemingly blind fate and the apparent utter indifference of natural forces to human welfare.
    7. Persists in the unswerving belief in God despite all contrary demonstrations of logic and successfully withstands all other intellectual sophistries.
    8. Exhibits undaunted faith in the soul’s survival regardless of the deceptive teachings of false science and the persuasive delusions of unsound philosophy.
    9. Lives and triumphs irrespective of the crushing overload of the complex and partial civilizations of modern times.
    10. Contributes to the survival of altruism in spite of human selfishness, social antagonisms, industrial greeds, and political maladjustments.
    11. Steadfastly adheres to a sublime belief in universe unity and divine guidance regardless of the perplexing presence of evil and sin.
    12. Goes right on worshipping God in spite of anything and everything. Declares: “Even though he slay me, yet will I serve him.”
      ~ All references are from the Urantia Book.
Religion in relation to social institutions
Characteristics of true religion
What of faith and belief
Religious insight
Religious experience
Science and religion
Philosophy and religion
21 Steps to a spiritual awakening
  1. Recognizing our need
  2. Believing in God
  3. Accepting God's grace
  4. Admitting our shortcomings
  5. Forgiving others
  6. Asking others' forgiveness
  7. Accepting God's forgiveness
  8. Living new lives
  9. Committing ourselves
  10. Praying
  11. Balancing physical with spiritual
  12. Persisting in our search
  13. Gaining perspective
  14. Gaining faith
  15. Experiencing assurance
  16. Deepening fellowship
  17. Serving others
  18. Sharing our spiritual experience
  19. Loving each other
  20. Loving Jesus
  21. Loving God
Conditions of effective prayer — The laws of prevailing petitions


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LESSON 4: The Universe Mother Spirit

Good morning, my dear ones. This is Nebadonia, your Local Universe Mother Spirit. I would be happy to give you a few facts about myself. I am called a single-origin being, which means that my parent — the Infinite Spirit of Paradise — is who long ago created me to fulfill this function of being the Mother Spirit of a Local Universe out here in time and space. I was created, and am always tickled to be, a companion to Michael, a Creator Son of God, a dual origin being whose parents are God the Father and God the Eternal Son. The two of us got to know each other, then left Paradise many hundreds of billions of years ago to come out and organize preexisting material in space to, in time, create the organized systems of worlds in our Local Universe.

I was part of the creation and evolution of life

We also created many orders of spiritual beings who, once the evolutionary worlds were ready for it, helped us create physical life on these planets, and then shepherd the evolution of that life along to human beings. In the case of your world, this was about a million years ago when the first human beings were able to receive God's presence — Thought Adjusters — within them. They were twins — Andon and Fonta. This evolution of life through to the emergence of human beings was directed both by the Life Carriers who started life, and me. So you are by no means an accident, neither in your origin nor in your destiny, which is forever if you so choose. In fact the pattern for your kind of being is quite eternal and existed long before our Local Universe.

You will meet and live with higher spiritual beings

I have been the Nebadon Mother Spirit now for nigh on to four million evolutionary worlds inhabited with your order of beings. As for the orders of higher spiritual beings Michael and I have given birth to, it is your destiny — after your physical death and in your continuing life — to meet and live with them as you work your way up through the transition worlds of our Local Universe. You will be meeting and living with these different orders of spiritual beings, starting with the cherubim and sanobim who will be your companions. When you first regain consciousness after death, you will have these Morontia Companions to lead you to your new living quarters. In time as you evolve yourselves, from being less physical to more purely spiritual, you will be able to visualize and associate with these ever-higher orders of spiritual beings as you grow to acquire their larger dimensions of reality.

Also, as you get more and more spiritual, you and I come into an ever-greater companionship. But even now as a human being in your first life, I'm very much a part of your mentality as an inner spiritual presence throughout the space of our Local Universe. I'm like a bubble in foam since my spirit determines the spatial extent of our Local Universe and, as I am surrounded by other Local Universes, my space impinges upon theirs. Being spiritual, their Mother Spirits and I are quite familiar sisters with each other. In fact, through our mother — the Infinite Spirit of Paradise — we keep in touch with each other throughout our Super Universe of about 100,000 Local Universes. I briefly mention this because your Urantia Book reminds you that a hallmark of wisdom is a sense of proportion.

Acquiring a sense of proportion

This truth personally applies as you grow up through your childhood and adolescence, especially now in your modern electronic age of television, computers and internet. You encounter thousands of concepts concerning scientific facts, and the social/political realms, long before your own living experience gives some substance to them. Here my Mind/Spirit Adjutant of Wisdom augments this function of your mind and soul. You begin to get your own sense of proportion as together we begin to flesh out the sometimes disproportionate and biased viewpoints given in your mass media.

This is why Michael and I encourage you to constantly reach out and foster an inexhaustibly hungry curiosity for ever broader points of view. You live in a big world of literally thousands of different cultures, now so much more available to you. We tease you not to settle for the small picture, but constantly strive for an ever larger one to give you a greater sense of proportion. This is not only for your own personal life, but also for your responsibilities and duties as a citizen of your local community, state, and nation.

Your curiosity and spiritual creativity

With this wonderful aspect of curiosity, this hunger for more experience, you can fulfil your function out here in time and space: You can keep growing. Always remember: your essence — your personality — is unchanging — you will always be you. So too is the presence within you of God himself. We call this presence a Thought Adjuster because God can give you literal, discreet ideas to consider, right along with your own. Being a spiritual/creative being, you have your own original ideas to consider, plus you also have God’s.

While your personality is unchanging, the interaction between you and this presence of God — the co-author of your soul of experience, this relationship is one of constant change, constant growth. This is your function and your purpose here, my children: to experience life. Yet some poor, lazy souls consider curiosity a curse. They want to settle down and say “Enough! I’ve had enough of life!” Yet in this case, shy of dying they are driven on to keep experiencing and growing.

One essential tool you are given as part of your nature is something we call courage. Again, this is part of you, part of your mind, and spirit, and soul that I augment. My dears, always remember you live within me. I am surrounding you and part of your mentality simply because I am a Creator Daughter of God. We are in contact and your spirit and mine are intertwined.

Perception — Knowledge — Understanding — Courage — Counsel

It is my delight to experience your life right along with you, my purpose to augment your dimensions of mind and spirit. I boost your Perceptions and your ability to grow Knowledge — what you've personally experienced in your life. I help your ability to coordinate your knowledge as Understanding, especially what leads to what, what causes what. I help you with the Courage to keep exploring and growing.

Beyond these four is my Mind/Spirit of Counsel with which I augment your abilities to relate with each other. I help you counsel each other by sharing your experiences, your knowledge, and your understanding. This enhances your part in God's great attribute of sharing, here, your life with others — my Spirit of Counsel.

The power and connection of Worship and Wisdom

I help you worship — to feel and express your appreciation for being alive. Think of what you encounter, not only in your immediate environment but now, through your modern technology, the universe with its hundreds of millions of galaxies and their attendant gigantic phenomena. I help you be aware and thankful for all of this, all the way to God our Father. Fundamentally, what we call Worship is simply, yet most profoundly, ”Thank you, Father — for me. Thank you that I am! Thank you for my unique personhood that you created to share so much with me. You’ve made us so much alike — each a center and co-creator of everything we have the ability to experience. So: thank you for me. And thank you for all these others like me with whom to share my life." Finally, in time, along comes my seventh Mind/Spirit Adjutant to help you summarize and effectively use the previous six — Wisdom. It’s the great functioning treasure you are earning by living day to day.

With these adjutants in mind, let’s focus on courage. Think of it as a precious ability. It’s what you need to fulfill your God-given curiosity to extend yourself into — and do — what is yet unknown to you. This is Total Reality, and encompassing to you. It contains you and is infinite to your order of being — no top, no bottom, no sides, no end in time. Your wonderful Urantia Book encourages you to entertain the notion that even the inexorable passing of time can be endless forever — if you so choose — in an Eternal Now.

And now, especially because you are physical and involved in real possibilities called health, and danger, and injury — i.e. mortality — it takes courage to even want to extend yourself, let alone be able to extend yourself. Yet insofar as this is a major demand of your function as a living, soulfully growing, experiential being, you can never have enough courage. It’s always something you want to treasure, appreciate, and above all exercise.

The need to exercise courage

Exercise courage in the physical realm as well as in the intellectual and spiritual realms because it helps you expand in all of these. Physically it helps you with these bodies of yours so susceptible to pain, injury, and aging. Constantly, and ever so carefully, feel your way forward through pain and fear. Get out there and experience this world you live in, full of the others surrounding you. Every single one of them is like you, a unique being directly from God. My dears, these others — family, friends and even strangers passing you on a busy city sidewalk are what truly fill your soul, not only the physical things you own and treasure and have fun with, but these other living unique beings. Through all the aches and pains, courage helps you stretch, stay loose, mobile, and able to get out there — to move and keep moving.

In intellectual realms, you are also in another enormous encompassing of mind and spirit that challenges what you have accepted so far. It takes courage to seek and encounter those things which are directly contradictory to what you believe to be true. This is especially important, not so much in scientific realms of empirical knowledge — things that can be demonstrated — but in the social/political realms where you run into bias at every turn. Not all this bias is necessarily cynical or malicious. It just arises from the enormous variety of human life on your world, everything from living in the center of a great city, to being out on the open farmlands and in the small towns. There are hundreds of different human cultures in all the countries of your world. Now you can internet-contact and enjoy all these different viewpoints that directly challenge what you have accepted so far. Keep reaching. Keep growing.

Here is where you most need to broaden your horizons so your own personal, social and political viewpoint expands and helps you fulfill an ever-greater responsibility to make choices as you mature. This is your intellectual courage. Continue to fearlessly entertain different notions, trusting your ability to sort through things, correlate and compare them, and then come up with agreements and disagreements that add to your wisdom. This is where your curiosity is so valuable, and your courage so necessary.

The courage to act upon God’s suggestions

Michael and I remind you that your spiritual nature is your creative component — to personally come up with something new. This too takes courage to exercise, to put the new ideas into reality and act upon them. The idea is one thing, and the necessary precursor, but then to act upon it sometimes takes enormous courage. It’s why Michael and I have often encouraged keeping an open mind to what comes up, because ideas are partly God’s — right? It’s your Thought Adjuster teasing you with a new idea. So entertain it and keep it in mind — whether you can do it right away, or not.

Both God’s and others’ creativity and control

God’s ideas might be challenging the comfortable mode of life you've evolved so far. Keep them in mind, and let them tease you to act, because they help you grow and add something new to your soul. Remember, my dears, you are in God's Reality, and his creation is not repeating itself. There is something presently and eternally new within what we call his Eternal Now, and not only through God’s incessant, ongoing creativity. There’s the creativity of trillions upon trillions upon trillions of personal beings throughout the universe, co-creating and controlling this whole physical creation. Imagine the spiritual extent of it — some 300 levels to grow into by the time you get to Paradise, some 300 levels of reality that surround you even now. You will grow to recognize and use them, one at a time, in your coming future.

My dears, this is the function and the glory of courage, that loving companion to your curiosity that helps you stay hungry for more — and keep growing. You have an eternity of experience to come, in an ever-new Eternal Now.

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LESSON 5: The Adjutant Mind Spirits & The Holy Spirit

Local universe spirit circuits

There are three distinct spirit circuits in the local universe of Nebadon:

  1. The bestowal spirit of the Creator Son, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth.
  2. The spirit circuit of the Divine Minister, the Holy Spirit.
  3. The intelligence-ministry circuit, including the more or less unified activities but diverse functioning of the seven adjutant mind-spirits. Urantia Book 34:4.1 

The Spirit of Truth will be covered in LESSON 7.

The Spirit of Holy Mother Spirit of Nebadonia specifically works with the adjutant spirit of worship.

We will now focus on the intelligence-ministry circuit, commonly referred to as the Adjutant Mind Spirits. These are the same 7 Spirits that John the revelator informed us about. 

Notice that these 7 Spirits are sent out into all the earth. In other words they function in all human minds in accordance with its capacity of receptivity and can be described as:

Seven Adjutant Mind-Spirits
Designation Description
1. The spirit of intuition

Quick perception, the primitive physical and inherent reflex instincts, the directional and other self-preservative endowments of all mind creations; the only one of the adjutants to function so largely in the lower orders of animal life and the only one to make extensive functional contact with the nonteachable levels of mechanical mind.
2. The spirit of understanding The impulse of co-ordination, the spontaneous and apparently automatic association of ideas. This is the gift of the co-ordination of acquired knowledge, the phenomenon of quick reasoning, rapid judgment, and prompt decision.
3. The spirit of courage The fidelity endowment — in personal beings, the basis of character acquirement and the intellectual root of moral stamina and spiritual bravery. When enlightened by facts and inspired by truth, this becomes the secret of the urge of evolutionary ascension by the channels of intelligent and conscientious self-direction.
4. The spirit of knowledge The curiosity-mother of adventure and discovery, the scientific spirit; the guide and faithful associate of the spirits of courage and counsel; the urge to direct the endowments of courage into useful and progressive paths of growth.
5. The spirit of counsel The social urge, the endowment of species co-operation; the ability of will creatures to harmonize with their fellows; the origin of the gregarious instinct among the more lowly creatures.
6. The spirit of worship The religious impulse, the first differential urge separating mind creatures into the two basic classes of mortal existence. The spirit of worship forever distinguishes the animal of its association from the soulless creatures of mind endowment. Worship is the badge of spiritual-ascension candidacy.
7. The spirit of wisdom The inherent tendency of all moral creatures towards orderly and progressive evolutionary advancement. This is the highest of the adjutants, the spirit co-ordinator and articulator of the work of all the others. This spirit is the secret of that inborn urge of mind creatures which initiates and maintains the practical and effective program of the ascending scale of existence; that gift of living things which accounts for their inexplicable ability to survive and, in survival, to utilize the co-ordination of all their past experience and present opportunities for the acquisition of all of everything that all of the other six mental ministers can mobilize in the mind of the organism concerned. Wisdom is the acme of intellectual performance. Wisdom is the goal of a purely mental and moral existence.    

The mind's relation to the biological brain

NEEDS EDITING

Tom: As we get older at least some of our minds seem to diminish like our bodies whether through improper diet or lack of use of the mind or overuse of it or substance abuse. Our text in the Rodan papers says the master's worshipful practice brings relaxation that renews the mind. Does the mind need renewing? I thought the mind was a circuit from the Mother Spirit that's perfect. It's the brain that's not functioning. Is stillness able to renew the mind to overcome deterioration?

Jessona: It is helpful. I must place it in context in that your mind has a physical receptive mechanism that is your brain which is intimately associated with all else that is your body, and it is the body which is first to run out of its energy, its life force, to deteriorate. Since the mind must use this receptive organ to engage into your physical form and enact events initiated by your will in this world, it becomes hampered as the physical dimension of your mental, mindal, makeup declines. Relaxation renews the mind because it refreshes the brain. When the neural circuits are able to reset themselves through passivity, through the release of the tension of grappling with thought and method and events and their coordination, the mind is able to turn away from the outward focus and to be attracted to the inner impulses of the Divine Monitor.  Relaxation in a sense closes the door on the noise of the outer world so that you can hear the subtle sounds of the spirit dimension.

The mind itself does not degenerate; it's the biological platform upon which the mind rests that undergoes deterioration. Your mind is circuit-like, and as you age your patterns of thinking will remain, though your effectiveness at thinking may slip away.

I will return to my lesson and point out that the effort to be still and know that I am God is a knowledge that is grounded in awareness and not grounded in thinking, that stream of constructed expression of awareness. The knowledge or perhaps better the awareness of God subsequently is developed into a stream of thought often aided by a stream of words that express that knowledge. The awareness is in the mind; the expression is composed in the craft-room of the brain. You may encounter difficulty as your biologic form will deteriorate, for physical life is of a finite duration.

Your mind will never lose its patterns of thinking that it developed in the experience of the physical life.  When you receive your morontia vehicle, you will receive the new mind circuit, but your patterns of thought will be installed in this circuit, and you will continue the consciousness that you had prior to your death. In a sense, your operating system will change, but your software will be reinstalled. Then your work begins to transform these patterns of thought that were born in your nativity life on an evolutionary world into those
morontia patterns that will elevate you in awareness to this pure spirit form of consciousness. That, my friend, is a great task.

To aid in the preservation of the organ through which your mind functions it is good to practice those habits of health and well-being, be it nutritionally, be it through activity, and be it through the exercise of thinking, of problem solving, of wrestling in the mind conceptually.  This will burn the rust off the circuits or at least prevent further rust development.


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LESSON 6: The Creator Son

 ORIGIN AND NATURE
1. Sometimes the sovereign of Nebadon is referred to as Christ Michael. (234.3) 21:0.3
[2]
2. Our Creator Son is the personification of the 611,121st infinite concept of the Father
and the Son. (366.2) 33:1.1 [3]
3. Each Creator Son is the unique, unqualified, and final expression of the infinite
concept of his origin. (235.1) 21:1.2 [4]
4. When the concept of absolute ideation in the Eternal Son encounters an absolute
personality concept in the Universal Father—there flashes into existence an original
Creator Son. (234.6) 21:1.1 [5]
5. Each Creator Son is endowed with spiritual drawing power in his own realm.
(224.3) 20:1.13 [6]
6. A Creator Son is limited by space, but not by time. (377.1) 34:3.5 [7]
7. There are more than seven hundred thousand Creator Sons in existence.
(235.3) 21:1.4 [8]


II. CREATORS OF LOCAL UNIVERSES
1. The Creator Sons are preceded in universe organization by the power directors and
other Third Source beings. (358.3) 32:2.1 [9]
2. From the energies of space, thus previously organized, our Creator Son established
the inhabited worlds of Nebadon. (358.3) 32:2.1 [9]
3. Each Creator Son is accompanied by a Creative Daughter of the Infinite Spirit—the
local universe Mother Spirit. (235.5) 21:2.2 [10]
4. The first creative act of the Creator Son and the Creative Mother Spirit produces the
chief executive—Gabriel. (359.3) 32:2.6 [11]
5. The Creator Sons earn their sovereignty by bestowing themselves in the likeness of
their own creatures. (1323.1) 120:0.1 [12]
6. The Michaels are the most versatile and powerful of all divine beings in the local
universes. (366.3) 33:1.2 [13]
7. The local universe of Nebadon has 3,840,101 inhabited worlds. The local system of
Satania has 619. (359.6) 32:2.9 [14]
8. In accepting vicegerent sovereignty, a Creator Son takes an oath not to assume
complete sovereignty until he completes his seven bestowal experiences.
(238.6) 21:3.12 [15]


III. THE MICHAEL BESTOWALS
1. In each bestowal experience the Creator Son adds to his nature that of the creature.
(240.2) 21:4.6 [16]
2. Jesus of Nazareth was on his seventh bestowal when he sojourned on Urantia.
(240.1) 21:4.5 [17]
3. The Creator Son is truly “the way, the truth, and the life.” (242.3) 21:6.4 [18]
4. The Michael bestowals were:
1. First—a Melchizedek.
2. Second—Lanonandek Son.
3. Third—Material Son.
4. Fourth—Seraphim.
5. Fifth—Spirit ascender.
6. Sixth—Morontia mortal.
7. Seventh—Urantia mortal. (1309.1) 119:0.7 [19]


IV. LOCAL UNIVERSE ORGANIZATION
1. To a local universe, to all practical purposes, a Michael Son is God. (66.2) 5:3.6 [20]
2. The entire judicial mechanism of Nebadon is under the supervision of Gabriel.
(372.6) 33:7.2 [21]

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LESSON 7: The Spirit of Truth

The Spirit of Truth — The Comforter

"And so did the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth bring to the world and its peoples the last of the spirit endowment designed to aid in the ascending search for God.” Urantia Book 194:2.20 

The Spirit of Truth is a spiritual force, it is not a person, it is not an individual. It is not the "personality” of Christ Michael, or Jesus. It is a spiritual power that He controls and that people seeking truth can connect to.

Just as the Holy Spirit is a spiritual power that comes from the Mother Spirit of Nebadon, the consort of Christ Michael. The Spirit of Truth, with its encirclement by Holy Mother Spirit, specifically works with the adjutant spirit of wisdom, and the Thought Adjuster.

The Thought Adjusters live in man, the Spirit of Truth connects with the soul. 

No book, no scripture contains the whole truth and only the truth. Every revelation is a child of its time and passes through the mind and beliefs of a human being, which in itself already implies a limitation of the “Truth” or a partial distortion of it.

Many people continue to cling to knowledge that they do not want to give up, and this reluctance becomes an obstacle to the Spirit of Truth. Faith in the process is required to overcome such reluctance. Faith is the cornerstone that the Spirit of Truth requires.

The Spirit of Truth is a spiritual, intelligent and communicative force. This force indicates the direction towards the Truth, towards the answers to your spiritual questions. It can be heard as a whispering voice in the heart through the Thought Adjuster, or it can be felt as an intuitive knowing. It can tell you or give you a sign whether something is true or false and give you answers to your questions in your search for Truth.

There is only One Divine Truth and it is uniform, universal and unchanging. It is your understanding of this Truth that can evolve spiritually or that can be influenced, veiled and distorted.

To become proficient in using the Spirit of Truth requires practice. With sufficient practice your questions and answers will gradually become more spiritual. Be aware of selfish motives, for it is your motivation in everything you do that is monitored. Not the act itself. There are many problems for which you need good advice. Every difficulty that is overcome contains a seed of spiritual progress. Life is your greatest teacher.

Do not separate you worldly life from your spiritual experience. Bring the spiritual into the worldly so that the worldly can spiritualize. Seek advice, talk constantly to God about all your concerns. Start with your daily problems, your social problems, your family situations. There are many problems for which you need good advice.

The Spirit of Truth in the Bible

Throughout the New Testament the Spirit of Truth is confused with the Holy Spirit. While the two are closely related and work in harmony, they are two distinct Spirits.

Despite this widespread confusion, John did speak the truth about the Spirit of Truth when he stated:

What happened at Pentecost

Jesus lives in truth-taught believers.
“Many queer and strange teachings became associated with the early narratives of the day of Pentecost. In subsequent times the events of this day, on which the Spirit of Truth, the new teacher, came to dwell with mankind, have become confused with the foolish outbreaks of rampant emotionalism. The chief mission of this outpoured spirit of the Father and the Son is to teach men about the truths of the Father’s love and the Son’s
mercy. These are the truths of divinity which men can comprehend more fully than all the other divine traits of character. The Spirit of Truth is concerned primarily with the revelation of the Father’s spirit nature and the Son’s moral character. The Creator Son, in the flesh, revealed God to men; the Spirit of Truth, in the heart, reveals the Creator Son to men. When man yields the ‘fruits of the spirit’ in his life, he is simply showing forth the traits which the Master manifested in his own earthly life. When Jesus was on earth, he lived his life as one personality — Jesus of Nazareth. As the indwelling spirit of the ‘new teacher,’ the Master has, since Pentecost, been able to live his life anew in the experience of every truth-taught believer.” Urantia Book 194:3.1

You are not conscious of the Spirit of Truth

Do not make the mistake of expecting to become strongly intellectually conscious of the outpoured Spirit of Truth. The spirit never creates a consciousness of himself, only a consciousness of Michael, the Son. From the beginning Jesus taught that the spirit would not speak of himself. The proof, therefore, of your fellowship with the Spirit of Truth is not to be found in your consciousness of this spirit but rather in your experience of enhanced fellowship with Michael. Urantia Book 194:2.4

Transformation by the Spirit of Truth

By the old way you seek to suppress, obey, and conform to the rules of living; by the new way you are first transformed by the Spirit of Truth and thereby strengthened in your inner soul by the constant spiritual renewing of your mind, and so are you endowed with the power of the certain and joyous performance of the gracious, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Forget not—it is your personal faith in the exceedingly great and precious promises of God that ensures your becoming partakers of the divine nature. Thus by your faith and the spirit’s transformation, you become in reality the temples of God, and his spirit actually dwells within you. If, then, the spirit dwells within you, you are no longer bondslaves of the flesh but free and liberated sons of the spirit. The new law of the spirit endows you with the liberty of self-mastery in place of the old law of the fear of self-bondage and the slavery of self-denial. Urantia Book 143:2.4

The secret of a better civilization

Pentecost endowed mortal man with the power to forgive personal injuries, to keep sweet in the midst of the gravest injustice, to remain unmoved in the face of appalling danger, and to challenge the evils of hate and anger by the fearless acts of love and forbearance. Urantia has passed through the ravages of great and destructive wars in its history. All participants in these terrible struggles met with defeat. There was but one victor; there was only one who came out of these embittered struggles with an enhanced reputation — that was Jesus of Nazareth and his gospel of overcoming evil with good. The secret of a better civilization is bound up in
the Master’s teachings of the brotherhood of man, the good will of love and mutual trust.

Having embarked on the way of life everlasting, do not fear the limitations of human nature. At every crossroad, the Spirit of Truth will speak — ”This is the way.” Urantia Book 34:7.8

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LESSON 8: The Most Highs

The Most Highs
Are Vorondadek Sons.
At least 3 rule each constellation; each serves 150,000 years; reigns for 50,000 years. 

Constellation Fathers
Appoint System Sovereigns.
Constitute supreme advisory cabinet of Creator Son.
Courts of.
Frequently on Salvington.
Periodically send out broadcasts.
Reigning Most High is Constellation Father.

Exalted in constellation light and life.
Faithfuls of Days advise.
Gabriel commissions.
Have veto power over local system affairs.
Intervene at any time in affairs of inhabited worlds.
Occupied with groups, not individuals.
Overcontrollers of political evolution.
Rule fosters greatest good for greatest number for longest time. 

Rule in kingdoms of men
Rule chiefly through seraphim.
Rule through angels of nation life.
Rule through reservists.
Rule through Vorondadek observer. 

 

(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.”

(43:3.4)  Down through the ages there has been great confusion on Urantia regarding the various universe rulers. Many later teachers confused their vague and indefinite tribal deities with the Most High Fathers. Still later, the Hebrews merged all of these celestial rulers into a composite Deity. One teacher understood that the Most Highs were not the Supreme Rulers, for he said, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” In the Urantia records it is very difficult at times to know exactly who is referred to by the term “Most High.” But Daniel fully understood these matters. He said, “The Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever he will.”

(50:2.6)  The roving commissions of conciliators serve and supplement the planetary tribunals, and both spirit and physical controllers are subject to the findings of these conciliators. But no arbitrary execution is ever carried out without the consent of the Constellation Father, for the “Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men.”

(97:8.5)  All modern religions have seriously blundered in the attempt to put a miraculous interpretation on certain epochs of human history. While it is true that God has many times thrust a Father’s hand of providential intervention into the stream of human affairs, it is a mistake to regard theologic dogmas and religious superstition as a supernatural sedimentation appearing by miraculous action in this stream of human history. The fact that the “Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men” does not convert secular history into so-called sacred history.

(114:0.1)  THE Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men through many celestial forces and agencies but chiefly through the ministry of seraphim.

(114:6.8)  4. The angels of nation life. These are the “angels of the trumpets,” directors of the political performances of Urantia national life. The group now functioning in the overcontrol of international relations is the fourth corps to serve on the planet. It is particularly through the ministry of this seraphic division that “the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men.”

(134:5.3)  Religious teachers must always remember that the spiritual sovereignty of God overrides all intervening and intermediate spiritual loyalties. Someday civil rulers will learn that the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men.

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LESSON 9: The Planetary Manager & the 24 Elders

Modern man is confronted with the task of making more readjustments of human values in one generation than have been made in 2000 years. And this all influences the social attitude toward religion, for religion is a way of living as well as a technique of thinking. Source: Urantia Book 92:7.14

Briefly mention our original planetary manager, Caligastia and his betrayal.

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LESSON 10: Angels — Lots and Lots of Angels

What are angels?

‘The angels never die, as man does. The angels are immortal unless, perchance, they become involved in sin as did some of them with the deceptions of Lucifer. The angels are the spirit servants in heaven, and they are neither all-wise nor all-powerful. But all of the loyal angels are truly pure and holy.

Upon the attainment of the third psychic circle, mortals are assigned personal guardians for life. 113:1.8

 At death the guardians are the custodians of:
1. Mind patterns.
2. Memory formulas.
3. Soul realities. 113:3.4

The angels of planetary government have much to do with the kingdoms of men.
They are:
1. Epochal angels.
2. Progress angels.
3. Religions guardians.
4. Angels of nation life.
5. Angels of the races.
6. Angels of the future.
7. Angels of enlightenment.
8. Angels of health.
9. Home seraphim.
10. Angels of industry.
11. Angels of diversion.
12. Angels of superhuman ministry. 114:6.4

They enjoy a wide range of ministry

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. Urantia Book 26:1.1

Angels function on both material and spiritual levels

The seraphim are so created as to function on both spiritual and literal levels. There are few phases of morontia or spirit activity which are not open to their ministrations. While in personal status angels are not so far removed from human beings, in certain functional performances seraphim far transcend them. They possess many powers far beyond human comprehension. For example: You have been told that the ‘very hairs of your head are numbered,’ and it is true they are, but a seraphim does not spend her time counting them and keeping the number corrected up to date. Angels possess inherent and automatic (that is, automatic as far as you could perceive) powers of knowing such things; you would truly regard a seraphim as a mathematical prodigy. Therefore, numerous duties which would be tremendous tasks for mortals are performed with exceeding ease by seraphim. Urantia Book 38:2.3, Matthew 10:30

Angels do not judge us

Angels are superior to you in spiritual status, but they are not your judges or accusers. No matter what your faults, "the angels, although greater in power and might, bring no accusation against you." Angels do not sit in judgment on mankind, neither should individual mortals prejudge their fellow creatures. Urantia Book 38:2.4

Angels are not to be worshipped

You do well to love them, but you should not adore them; angels are not objects of worship. The great seraphim, Loyalatia, when your seer ‘fell down to worship before the feet of the angel,’ said: ‘See that you do it not; I am a fellow servant with you and with your races, who are all enjoined to worship God.  Urantia Book 38:2.5, Revelation 19:10; 22:9

In nature, angels are near humans

In nature and personality endowment the seraphim are just a trifle ahead of mortal races in the scale of creature existence. Indeed, when you are delivered from the flesh, you become very much like them. On the mansion worlds you will begin to appreciate the seraphim, on the constellation spheres to enjoy them, while on Salvington they will share their places of rest and worship with you. Throughout the whole morontia and subsequent spirit ascent, your fraternity with the seraphim will be ideal; your companionship will be superb. Urantia Book 38:2.6

Angels are mind stimulators

The guardian seraphim are not mind, though they do spring from the same source that also gives origin to mortal mind, the Creative Spirit. Seraphim are mind stimulators; they continually seek to promote circle-making decisions in human mind. They do this, not as does the Adjuster, operating from within and through the soul, but rather from the outside inward, working through the social, ethical, and moral environment of human beings. Seraphim are not the divine Adjuster lure of the Universal Father, but they do function as the personal agency of the ministry of the Infinite Spirit. Urantia Book 113:4.1 

Angels are teachers of mind and soul

Mortal man, subject to Adjuster leading, is also amenable to seraphic guidance. The Adjuster is the essence of man’s eternal nature; the seraphim is the teacher of man’s evolving nature—in this life the mortal mind, in the next the morontia soul. On the mansion worlds you will be conscious and aware of seraphic instructors, but in the first life men are usually unaware of them.

Seraphim function as teachers of men by guiding the footsteps of the human personality into paths of new and progressive experiences. To accept the guidance of a seraphim rarely means attaining a life of ease. In following this leading you are sure to encounter, and if you have the courage, to traverse, the rugged hills of moral choosing and spiritual progress. Urantia Book 113:4.2

Angels prompt us to worship

The impulse of worship largely originates in the spirit promptings of the higher mind adjutants, reinforced by the leadings of the Adjuster. But the urge to pray so often experienced by God-conscious mortals very often arises as the result of seraphic influence. The guarding seraphim is constantly manipulating the mortal environment for the purpose of augmenting the cosmic insight of the human ascender to the end that such a survival candidate may acquire enhanced realization of the presence of the indwelling Adjuster and thus be enabled to yield increased co-operation with the spiritual mission of the divine presence. Urantia Book 113:4.4 

Angels co-operate with Thought Adjusters

While there is apparently no communication between the indwelling Adjusters and the encompassing seraphim, they always seem to work in perfect harmony and exquisite accord. The guardians are most active at those times when the Adjusters are least active, but their ministry is in some manner strangely correlated. Such superb co-operation could hardly be either accidental or incidental. Urantia Book 113:4.5

Angels can give us dreams

 

 

Angels are very close to mortals

Angels do not have material bodies, but they are definite and discrete beings; they are of spirit nature and origin. Though invisible to mortals, they perceive you as you are in the flesh without the aid of transformers or translators; they intellectually understand the mode of mortal life, and they share all of man’s nonsensuous emotions and sentiments. They appreciate and greatly enjoy your efforts in music, art, and real humor. They are fully cognizant of your moral struggles and spiritual difficulties. They love human beings, and only good can result from your efforts to understand and love them. Urantia Book 38:2.1

Angels do not control human mind

Angels do not invade the sanctity of the human mind; they do not manipulate the will of mortals; neither do they directly contact with the indwelling Adjusters. The guardian of destiny influences you in every possible manner consistent with the dignity of your personality; under no circumstances do these angels interfere with the free action of the human will. Neither angels nor any other order of universe personality have power or authority to curtail or abridge the prerogatives of human choosing. Urantia Book 113:5.1

Negative and positive seraphim

Though not male and female as are the Material Sons and the mortal races, seraphim are negative and positive. In the majority of assignments it requires two angels to accomplish the task. When they are not encircuited, they can work alone; neither do they require complements of being when stationary. Ordinarily they retain their original complements of being, but not necessarily. Such associations are primarily necessitated by function; they are not characterized by sex emotion, though they are exceedingly personal and truly affectionate. Urantia Book 38:4.3

Transport seraphim

Your conventional idea of angels has been derived in the following way: During moments just prior to physical death a reflective phenomenon sometimes occurs in the human mind, and this dimming consciousness seems to visualize something of the form of the attending angel, and this is immediately translated into terms of the habitual concept of angels held in that individual’s mind.

The erroneous idea that angels possess wings is not wholly due to olden notions that they must have wings to fly through the air. Human beings have sometimes been permitted to observe seraphim that were being prepared for transport service, and the traditions of these experiences have largely determined the Urantian concept of angels. In observing a transport seraphim being made ready to receive a passenger for interplanetary transit, there may be seen what are apparently double sets of wings extending from the head to the foot of the angel. In reality these wings are energy insulators—friction shields. Urantia Book 39:5.11

Custodian of mind patterns and soul realities

And herein is revealed the reason why the seraphic guardian eventually becomes the personal custodian of the mind patterns, memory formulas, and soul realities of the mortal survivor during that interval between physical death and morontia resurrection. None but the ministering children of the Infinite Spirit could thus function in behalf of the human creature during this phase of transition from one level of the universe to another and higher level. Even when you engage in your terminal transition slumber, when you pass from time to eternity, a high supernaphim likewise shares the transit with you as the custodian of creature identity and the surety of personal integrity. Urantia Book 113:3.4

 

Angels.pdf

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