In this issue... President s Report. Autumn Volume 21 No 1

Transcription

1 TheArena The Mind Arena of Choice Mind is your ship, the Adjuster is your pilot, the human will is captain p 1217 Volume 21 No 1 AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND URANTIA ASSOCIATION Autumn 2014 President s Report Welcome to 2014 s first issue of. I trust you re settling in nicely to the New Year and I hope this finds you refreshed and well after the eventful Christmas summer season. Kathleen Swadling Plans are well under way now for this year s annual conference in Auckland New Zealand which will be held 3 6 October The theme will be Celebrating God s Gifts: An Exploration of Creative Living. I hope many from Australia will take the plunge this year to cross the pond to join our Kiwi brothers and sisters, many of whom have made many trips to Aus to attend conferences here. I also hope readers in New Zealand will be able to make it to Auckland to attend this unique event in their own homeland so we can all have an opportunity to meet one another and share our most heartfelt convictions about the wonderful truths we ve found in the Urantia teachings. More details on the event and information on registration can be found further on in this newsletter. Another annual event in the planning stages is the International Study Day where groups of readers from all over the world will be meeting to study the same paper over the same weekend. It will be held over the weekend of 24/25 May 2014 and we ll be reading Paper 44: The Celestial Artisans (page 497). I hope you can find a study group host nearby so you can share in this event. If not you might want to join in the online study group via the website at I was really touched by a YouTube video clip from a TED talk that was shared by Rick Lyon on the Urantia Association members list on How Great Leaders Inspire Action. He was focusing on the importance of leaders of organisations explaining the Whys of what they do. Organisations tend to tell people a lot about what they do and how they go about doing it, but fail >> In this issue... News President's Report... 1 Conference 2014 New Zealand... 3 NZ Corner... 5 New Contact Details for ANZURA... 5 Contributions Making Truth Accessible Nigel Nunn... 6 Animating the human mind with cosmic software Julian McGarry...10 On Being Human Bob Ghen...11 A Study Group Story Meredith Van Woert...13 Mining the Archives Gallant Human Spirit, 1980 issue six-o-six...14 Family, 1984 issue six-o-six Ken Glasziou...14 Interesting Website The Urantia Book Encyclopaedia...15 Friendship Poem by Andrew Pell...16 Freewill Choice Verner Verass...17 The UB Endeavour...19 Study Groups in Australia & New Zeland...20 Registered Mark of URANTIA Foundation. Used pursuant to license.

2 from the President cont. to inspire people because they don t talk enough about why they do it. As an organisation of people who have come together to foster study of The Urantia Book and disseminate its teachings (which is the mission of the Urantia Association International and ANZURA) we are often looking at ways to improve our methods of leading hungry souls into finding the life-saving and refreshing truths found in The Urantia Book. Do we inspire people to take a look at the book or do we simply bamboozle them with too much weird information about the book? People are generally more responsive to new ideas if they have been moved during their initial introduction to an idea. I believe the philosophy expressed by TED in this particular talk also applies to any individual who is attempting to share new ideas and concepts (such as the Urantia teachings) with others. You can view it by clicking on this link: Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action Here s an interesting concept from The Urantia Book to ponder: Are you becoming increasingly artistic in your technique of leading hungry souls into the spiritual kingdom? [p.1740:2] We have some great material for you so please enjoy this issue of the Arena and many thanks to all who have contributed. n New Zealand ferns page 2 Autumn 2014

3 Celebrating God s Gifts An Exploration of Creative Living The Australian and New Zealand Urantia Book Readers Annual Conference Vaughan Park Retreat and Conference Centre,1043 Beach Road, Long Bay, Auckland City 0630, New Zealand 3 6 October 2014 Religious living is devoted living, and devoted living is creative living, original and spontaneous. [Paper 100:4.1, page 1097:5] Rejoicing Adjuster Relating Personality Living Spirit of Truth Spirit helpers creating a soul unique talents creatively shows the way guide us on our journey creatively creatively 3 6 Oct 2014 to bring forward for exploration and discussion the ideas related to the theme that are dearest to their hearts. About the conference theme As the days pass by, every true believer becomes more skilful in alluring his fellows into the love of eternal truth. Are you more resourceful in revealing goodness to humanity than you were yesterday? Are you a better righteousness recommender this year than you were last year? Are you becoming increasingly artistic in your technique of leading hungry souls into the spiritual kingdom? [Paper 156:5.15, page 1740:2] The conference, in October 2014 in Long Bay, Auckland, New Zealand, provides an exciting opportunity for New Zealand readers to welcome our Australian friends/ brothers and sisters to our fair shores to join with us in expressing our deep gratitude for the gifts that the Father has bestowed upon us, and discovering together new ways of living a creative religious life. Long Bay NZ We invite you to join us at this year s ANZURA conference to celebrate together all of God s gifts to us, and to explore how, individually and together, we may live our lives on Urantia more creatively. It is hoped that this ANZURA conference will provide opportunities to: Rejoice in the spiritual riches bestowed upon us Share our unique attributes in an outpouring of creativity Discover talents we didn t know we had Learn new ways of leading people to the Father. The conference programme will include a mixture of presentations, study groups, workshops and creative activities. One part of the conference will allow participants the space Transport Pre-booked shuttle door to door: Approx. NZ$75-80 (depending on number of passengers) Transfer service available through the conference centre check their website for details nz/?sid=223 The venue is 44 km from Auckland Airport, and the journey takes between 45 and 70 minutes depending on traffic. Venue Vaughan Park Retreat and Conference Centre, 1043 Beach Road, Long Bay, Auckland City 0630, New Zealand, is at the south end of Long Bay Beach in the East Coast Bays. It is in a tranquil setting, consisting of a number of lodges and meeting rooms, and a beautiful chapel with stunning views of the beach and the Waitemata Harbour. Autumn 2014 page 3

4 Long Bay Regional Park is a sheltered beach with a children s playing area, which includes a miniature railway. In addition to the beach, significant parts of the park are available for quiet walks and meditative strolls. There are also coastal walks along the cliff top. Catering Dining is in the dining room attached to the main meeting room. The centre provides breakfast, morning and afternoon teas, lunch and dinner every day. Tea, coffee and other refreshments will also be available. Cost Full conference: NZ $425, Aus $395 Covers 3 nights of twin share accommodation, with bed linen, shared bathroom, and all meals from Friday dinner to Monday lunch. Single room surcharge NZ $5 per person per night NZ $440, Aus $410. Daily Rate: NZ $90, Aus $85 includes both lunch and dinner. Daily Rate: NZ $50, Aus $45 includes only lunch. Vaughan Park Anglican Retreat Centre 1 km 1mi Dairy Flat Hwy East Coast Rd Auckland Waiwera Motorway Okura 25 Glenvar Rd Vaughan Park Retreat and Conference Centre Northcross Long Bay N Long Bay Auckland & International Airport 37km Enquiries and registrations For further information please contact: Marion Steward, New Zealand ANZURA Representative Ph: (09) joemarion@xtra.co.nz Please send (for NZ), completed registration forms to: 14 Aspiring Avenue, Manukau City, Auckland 2023 OR ANZURA Australia: Ph: anzura@urantia-anzura.org Please send completed registration forms to: ANZURA, PO Box 1581, Warriewood, NSW 2102 Australia We look forward to seeing you there! n Conference 2014 Registration Form Names of people attending Please complete and return by 10 August 2014 to: NZ, 14 Aspiring Avenue, Manukau City, Auckland 2023, OR AUST, PO Box 1581, WARRIEWOOD, NSW 2102, AUSTRALIA Full Conference Day Rates Special dietary Requirements please specify Conference Fees Contact address Total Fees ($Aus) ($NZ) Postcode Paying by (please tick) Credit Card Cheque page 4 Phone Payment can be made by cheque or credit card. Please make cheques payable to ANZURA. (Cheques from overseas to Australia must be bank cheques in Australian dollars) ($NZ) Electronic Bank Transfer: Account Name: The Australian and New Zealand United Readers Association ASB: OR ($Aus) Electronic Bank Transfer: Account Name: ANZURA BSB: Account Number: I hereby authorise you to charge my: Credit Card Number Expiry Date Mastercard Name on Card Signature Please detach and return the completed registration form. Thanks and see you there! Visa Autumn 2014

5 National Study Day It s that time of year again for the National Study Day which provides readers with an opportunity to meet and study The Urantia Book with other readers their region. This year it s being held over the weekend of 24th of May and we ll be reading Paper 44: The Celestial Artisans. This paper was chosen to get us thinking about the importance the universe places on art and beauty seeing as this conference theme will be all about Celebrating God s Gifts: An Exploration of Creative Living. These beings [the Celestial Artisans] are the master artists and artisans of the morontia and lower spirit realms. They are engaged in morontia embellishment and in spiritual beautification. Though their work may be almost incomprehensible to the material mind, it should be understood that the morontia and spirit worlds are not without their high arts and supernal cultures. [Paper 44:0, page 497:1.2] Again we have invited the international readership to join us on this weekend to study the same paper from The Urantia Book. It s uplifting to know that such unifying connections are possible for us readers who are spread far and wide across Australia and New Zealand indeed the whole oceanic region and even the entire globe. You will find on the back page of this newsletter contact details of the Study Group Hosts. By contacting the one nearby, you will be able to find out how the day/weekend will be structured. If however you are a solitary student with no other readers nearby, please consider joining us in spirit on the day and read this paper with the knowledge that we are united and motivated in the same Spirit. You may also wish to consider joining the on-line Study Day on Urantia Association s Forum at We wish you an interesting, uplifting and enjoyable day. n New Zealand Corner Marion Steward, Auckland New Zealand Keen readers of may recall that one year ago New Zealanders were preparing to fill out their Census forms, and I expressed some interest in the results regarding the religious question. These results were finally released last December, and, as many predicted, the percentage selecting No Religion did indeed rise, from 32% in 2006 to 38.5% in Added to the 4% who objected to answering, and the 8% who did not answer at all, this came to just over 50%, a somewhat depressing number. Various Christian denominations make up nearly 30% and unspecified Christians nearly 15%. Due to the rich ethnic diversity in Auckland in particular, where there are over 200 different ethnic groups, (more than New York!) there are also rising numbers of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Muslims. Statistics like this, however, often do not reveal the whole truth. The question in the Census asks specifically about religious affiliation, not about belief in God.An independent survey conducted in 2008 found that 72% of the population believe in God or a higher power, 15% are agnostic and 13% are atheist.this paints a far better picture of the inner life of New Zealanders, and indicates that there is fertile ground for a message of spiritual hope regarding the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.Our study group have been reading Paper 195 recently, and contemplating the call to the adventure of building a new and transformed human society by means of the spiritual rebirth of Jesus brotherhood of the kingdom (p.2084). But what to do? Where to start? We hope to begin discovering answers to these questions at the ANZURA conference being held in Auckland in October, and we invite you all to come and join us, as we contemplate the tools we have been given to help us in this work, and explore the small steps we can take in our individual spheres that can lay the foundations of this rebirth. Marion Steward joemarion@xtra.co.nz n New Contact Details for ANZURA Please note that the Administrator for ANZURA has moved, therefore the contact details for the Central Administration office have changed. The new contact details for ANZURA now are ANZURA PO Box 1581 Warriewood, NSW 2102 Phone: anzura@urantia-anzura.org Autumn 2014 page 5

6 Making truth accessible Nigel Nunn, Canberra March 2014 What is it that makes something feel true? In our mind arena of choice, when we choose to believe that something is true, what s really going on? Let s discount the gullible (who fall for whatever they re told) and think instead about the best of our scientists and philosophers, the most inspiring of our poets and religionists. In their private inner world, where they can safely admit that their perception of reality is limited and subjective, what makes it possible for them to commit to a conclusion that something is real? And the other side of that coin: how is it possible for equally sincere and sophisticated souls to reach such distinctly different conclusions about what the real thing is? Throughout history, this real thing has been called (the equivalent of) truth. Our groups and tribes are almost defined by what those in the group believe about truth. But things get slippery when we try to describe our experience of truth. For scientists, truth is somehow tied up with facts. For philosophers, truth is something woven into the frames in which we think. For others, it s those feelings too deep for words. Sadly, each of these groups tend to think that only their view, their own experience of truth, is well, true. So we find mystics stuck on their islands of illumination, and materialists dismissing anything they can t measure. What causes this great divide between materialist and religionist? Why do the satisfactions that quench the thirst of one leave the other parched? What could possibly explain such specialization and polarization, yet allow both camps to declare, with equal conviction, that their business is getting to the truth, and that they love what they do? Assuming such motivation and feelings of validity are felt in the mind, we have to wonder: what is it about our minds that enables such response? What makes possible, and so powerful, this intuitive validation? Among psychologists, discussion about such things has grown stale. But this fifth epochal revelation stirs the pot, revealing some surprising things about our human minds: [...]. In the mortal experience the human intellect resides in the rhythmic pulsations of the adjutant mind-spirits and effects its decisions within the arena produced by encircuitment within this ministry. [...] [Paper 117:5.7, page1286:5] This is new. This is something other than the biochemistry of neurons, and something more than chakras spinning. Human mind as an arena, designed and sustained? Ok, by what? The seven adjutant mind-spirits always accompany the Life Carriers to a new planet, but they should not be regarded as entities; they are more like circuits. The spirits of the seven universe adjutants do not function as personalities apart from the universe presence of the Divine Minister; they are in fact a level of consciousness of the Divine Minister and are always subordinate to the action and presence of their creative mother. [Paper 36:5.4, page 402:1] If this is true, then a whole lot of territory has just been opened up for psychologists to explore. But wait, there s more. This adjutant-induced arena is intended simply to help us make a start, like training wheels on a child s bike. Once we ve found our balance, as we progress though psychic circles of personality realization, we are weaned quickly onto more substantial stuff. But let s not get ahead of ourselves. To get a clearer picture of what s going on, let s take a look behind the scenes, and remind ourselves how our mind arena of choice was made. For us, the story begins about 200 billion years ago [Paper 57:3.10, page 654:3]. Michael and his Beloved, the Divine Minister, had been enjoying their own personal family affair for about 100 billion years, age upon age when it was just these two Paradise pioneers together with their family of splendid sons and angelic daughters. 100 billion years of orderly progress and organization, free of those complications sure to arise once humans are involved. But then one day, Michael announced to his realm, to his beautiful family, that the time had come for him to be about his father s work : And then, when such a universe has been so completely organized and so repletely manned, does the Creator Son enter into the Father s proposal to create mortal man in their divine image. [Paper 32:2.8, page 359:5] Let us make mortal man... Easier said than done. Sure, native science can follow how evolution might turn salty fluids into living tissue, but how to tickle up emotion in biochemistry? How to turn emotion into choice, and then heroic deeds? To get this process started, the Divine Minister broadcasts throughout Nebadon a level of her consciousness as a set of circuits, the adjutant mind spirits. These serve as targets for each team of Life Carriers, whose challenge is to evolve animals that can respond biochemically and psychologically to this adjutant urge. >> page 6 Autumn 2014

7 The adjutant mind circuits, a level of consciousness of the Divine Minister, inducing an arena for animal mind. As The Uurantia Book reveals, that animal which can respond to all seven of these rhythmically pulsating circuits is called human. The game-changers: wisdom and worship. Upon these potentials for wisdom and worship, fostered by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth can act. And then, with our mind arena of choice all set up and our personality bestowed, an Adjuster arrives to begin the great adventure-romance: of weaving for us a soul. Step 1 in the slow motion personalization of an Adjuster by the human technique. But the plot thickens. This system of adjutants is not so much a system of mind, but a system that serves like mind; a technique for animating our biochemistry. This is the domain of feelings and urges and pre-programmed subjective response. It s here that understanding first flickers as superstition, where courage and loyalty take root as tribalism, where zeal appears as our first unlovely response to worship. But once we learn to use wisdom to manage the mix, this system of differential urges [Paper 36:5.2, page 401:6], [Paper 36:5.11, page 402:8] becomes an integrated ministry, a first interface into the source of mind in Nebadon. This is the coal-face, the cutting edge, where humanity begins to be levered beyond its animal ancestry. What s missing from this picture? If this were the whole story, then a sceptical materialist would be right to ask: So what s different from the Richard Dawkins view? A body built by evolution, animated by a standard set of urges, warmed by a cluster of imaginary friends? If this adjutant animation is merely emulating mind to help us make a start, then there s a puzzle: what is mind, and how does it fit in? Enter a timely revelation. As humans, much of our thinking has to be backwards, from effect to cause. We use the facts we can measure to induce theories to explain those facts. But measuring material facts won t help us discover nonmaterial causes. Fortunately, those very non-material causes, those agents involved in creating human mind, are well equipped to explain how it works: Human consciousness rests gently upon the electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia energy system above. [Paper 111:1.5, page 216:6] Not only does our mind arena of choice react to mind-like urges from below, it can respond to another system, impinging from above. This is something we d never work out for ourselves, so the fifth epochal revelators were free to sketch some details. From Paper 16 section 6, The Cosmic Mind: 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 energymaterial responds to gravity. It would be still more correct to say that these supermaterial realities so respond to the mind of the cosmos. [Paper 16:6.4, page191:7] >> Autumn 2014 page 7

8 As free-will persons, apparently part of the deal is access to a more cosmic mind. As the revelators explain, for us prefusion humans, this means a first taste of three cosmic intuitions : cosmic intuitions: physicist philosopher poet 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. [Paper 16:6.9, page 192.5] Ok, this too is new. What s even more surprising is how these intuitions, these reality responses, are made accessible to us. As local source and center of the Nebadon variant of the Orvonton type of cosmic mind [Paper 9:4.3, page102:3], our local universe mother, the Divine Minister of Salvington, complements Michael s Spirit of Truth by serving as Spirit of the Meaning of Facts ; as source of these three intuitions, she enables us not only to to recognize (1) the facts of causality, (2) the facts of relative right and wrong, and (3) the facts of spirit values, but also to sense the meaning of all these facts. [see Paper 16:6.5, page 192:1]. As one level of her consciousness (the adjutants) fosters in us a capacity to believe, in her capacity as Spirit of Fact, she makes it possible for us to know, to discriminate fact from figment. 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. [ ] [Paper 16:9.1, page195:7] But what if we fail to discern all three? What if we get hung up on the love of God, and remain blissfully ignorant of his fact (causation) or his law (duty)? What if we take delight in cultivating our first cosmic intuition, revelling in the beauty of nature and the harmonies of mathematics, while completely failing to recognize the source of such beauty and harmony? [...]. 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, [...] [Paper 16:6.10, page 192:6] disproportionate and virtually unrelated... This reminds me of how baby kangaroos begin: as near helpless embryos, they crawl from the birth canal into their mother s pouch, then fiercely attach to the first teat they find. Not unlike us? As humans, we re equally embryonic, and our shift into our soul is not unlike that climb from birth canal to pouch. So what are the teats to which we so fiercely attach? An intuition about what s real? >> page 8 Autumn 2014

9 Think how human specialists become the way they are: while growing up, the strength of some intuitive recognition stirs a deep response, and they know their life s calling. Thus a scientist or mystic is born, firmly attached to the first intuition of validity they find (not realizing there are others equally as sweet from which to suck). 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. [...] [Paper 16:6.10, page192:6] Imagine someone who takes delight in cultivating their 3rd cosmic intuition, utterly satisfied by the teat they ve found ( the reverential and worshipful form of the cosmic discrimination [Paper 16:6.8, page192:4], yet remaining ignorant of fact and law. Or picture Richard Dawkins, sucking on the teat of the mathematical form of the cosmic discrimination [Paper 16:6.6, page192:2], taking delight in cultivating his 1st cosmic intuition, fiercely determined to believe he s found all there is to find. Clearly, such one-eyed specialisation is just an imbalance and should not be hard to fix. But looking at the bigger picture, once we accept that such reality response is fostered by the Divine Minister, the next question is why? Why is it important that we be given access to, and learn to wield, the three cosmic discriminations? Let us make mortal man in our own image. [Paper 6:5.7, page 78:3 ], [Paper 10:3.1, page 110:7] As The Urantia Book explains, this making of us requires Adjusters and souls. The making of souls requires choice. And the making of choice requires? A mind in which to choose. From Paper 111: Though the work of Adjusters is spiritual in nature, they must, perforce, do all their work upon an intellectual foundation. Mind is the human soil from which the spirit Monitor must evolve the morontia soul [Paper 111:1.1, page1216:2] [ ]. Concerning insight, the recognition of moral values and the discernment of spiritual meanings, all that the human mind can do is to discover, recognize, interpret, and choose. [Paper 196:3.10, page ] As humans it s our business to choose. Which makes sense, because it s our personal and wilful choices that allow our Adjuster to weave for us a soul. But for us to make free-will, soul-worthy choices, we need some sort of intuition about value and validity; some way to sense what s real; some way to evaluate and discriminate things, meanings and values. Having learned of the cosmic intuitions, we can see how the necessary reality responses are fostered by the Holy Spirit as Spirit of Fact. But what do these intuitions of validity have to do with truth? And in particular, the Spirit of Truth: This bestowed Comforter is the spiritual force which ever draws all truth seekers towards Him who is the personification of truth in the local universe. [Paper 34:4.5, page 377.9] The personification of truth in the local universe. For most of us, this sort of truth is new. It s not philosophical or mathematical, it s living, personal, and seeks relationship. It s the truth made accessible by the presence of Michael and Dad within, Truth is made accessible to the wisdom-endowed individual by the bestowal on such a mind of the spirits of the Father and the Sons, the Thought Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth. [Paper 101:6.4, page 1111:8] And what about the truth in this most wonderful and unforgettable paragraph: Faith most willingly carries reason along as far as reason can go and then goes on with wisdom to the full philosophic limit; and then it dares to launch out upon the limitless and never-ending universe journey in the sole company of TRUTH. [Paper 103:9.7, page ] Notice, it s not faith, but the person wielding faith, that chooses to dare to launch. This kind of TRUTH lives beyond that full philosophic limit. So how does this relate to those more familiar species of truth which motivate the >> Autumn 2014 page 9

10 work of physicists, philosophers and poets? And what about this: Increasingly throughout the morontia progression the assurance of truth replaces the assurance of faith. When you are finally mustered into the actual spirit world, then will the assurances of pure spirit insight operate in the place of faith and truth or, rather, in conjunction with, and superimposed upon, these former techniques of personality assurance. [Paper 101:5.14, page 1111:4] emphasis added Truth as a technique of personality assurance? So I m thinking... while the personality assurance made accessible by the Father/Son validates our reality as persons in the personality circuit, it s this resonance with cosmic intuitions (made accessible by Mum) that enables us as persons to discover, recognize, interpret and choose. So here s the question: is this numinous validation, these intuitive realizations of validity, what reflective humans have historically interpreted as truth? If so, should we dismiss such feelingly experienced validation as something less than truth? Or should we help to reveal the good news about another species of truth, a truth that s personal and life-giving, a distinct and unexpected truth now made accessible by the Spirit of that Truth, the truth Caligastia and Adam were commissioned to plant as the essential motivation in all human cultures: that we are our Father s children. Everyone will have their own response to The Urantia Book. For me, it simply offers a bigger frame in which to think; and within this bigger frame, scientists can see the material universe in context, and mystics can understand their experiences in a way that they can share. Let s not forget, revelation is all about bridging the gulf back to territory evolution has attained. n Animating the Human Mind with Cosmic Software Julian McGarry, Tasmania Nigel has a lovely way of making something rather complex into something accessible and understandable for the average mortal. His explanation of how the seven adjutants prepare our minds for the subsequent indwelling of our Thought Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth was really helpful to me. As children of the information age, the world of computers offers us many metaphors that can help us grasp the processes of this mind arena of choice [page 1271:0]. I kind of see the human brain as being the hardware that the Life Carriers have laboured for millions of years to perfect. For any hardware to work, it must be capable of detecting, receiving, and processing the software that animates it. In our case, that software begins as a fundamental operating system...the seven adjutants...circuits radiating a level of consciousness from the Divine Minister throughout the local universe, animating biochemical hardware that is capable of responding to their rhythmic pulsations [page 402:1]. Without a properly functioning operating system, a computer is not capable of performing the higher functions encoded within more sophisticated software. Likewise, we would not be able to make superior moral choices and participate in the worship of our heavenly Father...building a soul...were it not for the potential created by the mind circuits of our local universe Mother Spirit. Another metaphor that helps me to understand this amazing process is the common radio receiver. It is a box that sits in our homes or pockets that is capable of receiving and when animated, emitting intelligent data. No matter how fancy the box is, no matter how faithful the speakers and amplifiers are for reproducing sound, it will forever be mute unless it has a receiver that is capable of being tuned into the broadcast signal. It appears that the cerebral cortex is the latest hardware that humans possess that enables them to detect the rhythmic pulsations of wisdom and worship. page 10 Our neocortex enables us to literally think about our thinking, be aware of our awareness, or be conscious of our consciousness (ie. superconsciousness) [page 1435:1]. We have the right machinery and the right software to develop the three cosmic intuitions, the basic platform from which we can make choices. And then at the tender age of 5 or 6, our Father downloads the ultimate programme, our Thought Adjuster [page 1187:0], which can only be accessed at the superconscious level [page1203:3], and can only adjust our thinking if we already possess the right operating system humming along nicely. So what does that make the Spirit of Truth?...an augmentor?..a transformer? [page 1609:5]...it seems to enable us to do something that psychology can t even begin to explain. Facts and reason become truth...an inner realization or experience of higher reality that goes beyond words...the perfect complement to the Thought Adjuster. From the point of view of mainstream psychology, this is pretty radical stuff! Mind...consciousness being animated from an external source? I wonder if they will ever invent a super MRI machine that will be able to detect the seven adjutants. I guess not and that is why all of this has had to be revealed to us. n Autumn 2014

11 On Being Human Bob Ghen, USA The Urantia Book presents a helpful, new conceptual paradigm of the composition of a human being. New meanings describe our basic components, how they function together, and why. It offers an alternative conceptual framework for thinking about our experience in new ways, and in the process, enhances our comprehension and appreciation of who we are. experience self-consciousness, other-consciousness, and God-consciousness. Personality is not the identity, but it is the unifying element of the human identity. Personality is a strictly qualitative reality, completely lacking in any quantitative measure. It is therefore not a form of universe energy. This qualitative element that is personality imbues, invests and unifies the other four human components, the Body, Mind, Spirit, and Soul. These components are composed of universe energies; the physical, intellectual, spiritual, and morontial. Five basic components comprise the makeup of a human being in our new paradigm. They are: BODY, MIND, SOUL, SPIRIT, and PERSONALITY. Let s start with PERSONALITY I have not, nor have I met anyone who has encountered this concept of personality anywhere in the wisdom literature (East or West) except in The Urantia Book. This new concept provides a fresh perspective and clarifies much of the intellectual and metaphysical muddle associated with self-realization, self-actualization, self-mastery, and the like. With this concept of personality, our new model takes the greatest detour from its usual, conventional meanings, such as, A. The combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual s distinctive character or, B. The charming pizzazz of charisma. It is neither of these. As the meaning applies here, personality is a complete, whole and unique something, in and of itself. It is that distinct aspect of us that remains the same no matter what changes we may have experienced in every other part of ourselves. It is permanence in the very presence of change. We don t develop a personality, it is bestowed upon us directly, as is and already whole, by the infinite, personal creator, God. It separates us from our mammalian cousins and makes possible the potential for eternal life. It elevates us to a cosmic status wherein we may in truth be called, the children of God. But as much as we can and do say about personality, it defies definition and remains one of the great mysteries of life. Still, we forge ahead. Personality is that part of an individual whom we know. The constant feature that allows us to recognize our friend as the same one we have always known, regardless of the passage of time, or the changes in form, or the advances of progress, or any other transformation of body, mind or character. It is wholly unique and distinct, it is the one and only you. The same one you remain throughout, despite the ever changing nature of all four of the other components of one s self, the Body, Mind, Soul, and Spirit. Again, it is that singularly qualitative attribute of us that always stays the same. It is who we are, who we have been, and who we will always be. Morontia is an amalgamation of spiritual and physical energies and represents a vast level of life that lies between the material and the spiritual. We currently physical, mortal beings are to ascend step by step through the morontia levels of increasing spirituality on to the following stage, a wholly spiritual plane of life. The ascent through these morontia levels constitutes our immediate universe career following physical death here on earth. Again, do not conflate personality with identity. Personality currently has identity in the body-mind-ego identified self. The process of one s personal, spiritual maturity involves the gradual transfer of the seat of personal identity from this transient body-mind-ego self to the growing, potentially eternal, inner, soul consciousness. This is the soul-self that will transcend death and be invested with your personality, with you, when you awaken on a new and better world, the first of the transition morontia worlds. The BODY This we know best. It is our living, material energy system, a temporary life vehicle specifying our location in time and space. It is our physical presence-mechanism within the material environment, and our means of transit through it. It literally connects us as an integral part of the physical world through our senses and through our biological processes of environmental exchange. In our new paradigm, we humans have an evolutionary origin, mammalian body that has developed over time a highly evolved, human central nervous system. A brain capable of synchronizing with the highest levels of the local, spirit mind circuits, thus enabling us to transcend our strictly mammalian nature. Now we are capable of choosing our actions. On a scale of ascending universe life, we have now joined the lowest rung of free-will endowed beings who can personally choose to co-create (with God) an endless life of ascending growth and transformation. We are now personally enrolled in the universe ascension career, up through the morontia levels and beyond, becoming increasingly spiritual through a long and rewarding series of progressive steps and stages. Central to personality is our inherent, but limited, free will, the God given creative ability to choose between good The MIND and evil, the freedom to select among moral and ethical alternatives; and the power to co-create our lives in partnership with God. Personality endows us with the capacity to the mechanism of consciousness that connects the The Urantia Book paradigm describes personal MIND as >> Autumn 2014 page 11

12 material and spiritual, the outer and inner, levels of life in personality experience. In the unifying mind, we simultaneously experience physical things, intellectual meanings, and spiritual values. It is the aware, feeling, perceiving, thinking, evaluating component of our makeup, wherein personality exercises its precious, creative power of choice, the power of free will. Human mind as we know it becomes functional when the higher, faster rhythmic pulsations in the physical, central nervous system sync up, or resonate, with the lower, slower rhythmic vibrations produced by the seven local, spirit mind circuits. The human recipient of such spirit ministry is thereby encircuited into the cosmic arena of consciousness. The lower five of these seven, spirit mind circuits we share with the minds of the higher animals. Since our more evolved human brains also sync up with the next two highest circuits, we intellectually transcend these same animals and are enabled to grasp the meanings of spiritual reality, and to experience self-awareness. Mind is unifying and it ever seeks to coordinate all experience into a meaningful whole. Mind organizes, arranges, and harmonizes the physical data from the senses, the heart-felt values of the soul, and the intellectual meanings of mind into a progressing personal comprehension of true Reality. The SPIRIT The inner SPIRIT in humans is the mysterious God fragment, that spark of divinity that indwells the human mind in its highest region, the superconscious level (consciousness of consciousness). It unceremoniously takes up residence in the personal mind when a child arrives at his very first moral decision. This occurs when the young personality first chooses to override his natural, selfish impulse on behalf of another, typically prior to the sixth birthday. This unselfish act marks the very moment that it becomes spiritually possible for the mind of the child to host the divine God fragment. This literal, individual parcel of God s spirit is an active, conscious, purposeful entity of the purest spirit essence. It is your divine and unerring navigator in the journey of life, ever pointing your inner compass Godward, while you personally remain captain of the voyage. You have free will. You may choose to be guided by this inner spirit navigator, or not. And it is important to know that one s progress toward eternal life depends entirely upon this very choosing. Sincerely seeking, encouraging, and responding positively to the leading of the inner, divine presence is the very essence of the religion of personal, spiritual experience portrayed in The Urantia Book. God s spirit is seeking union with you, to incrementally become one with your personality. And with your full cooperation, you are becoming divine in the process. No one can advance spiritually against their will. Spiritual growth is never automatic; always it must be chosen with a full heart. page 12 The process of spiritualization is a mutual venture, a relationship between you and the God fragment that makes your eternal life possible. God is in a continuous effort to spiritualize your thinking and expand your soul, decision by decision. The inner Spirit seeks to gain, to actually become, your personality, even as you seek to become divine, thereby evolving a new, and higher, order of being. One embracing both the human and the divine. You are becoming divine, and the inner, divine spirit is becoming personal. And one day, relatively soon in the universe ascension plan, you are to actually fuse with this spirit of God. Together, you are becoming one. The SOUL We are not born with a SOUL. In our new paradigm, the soul is born with the arrival of the Spirit and it starts to grow, to mature, as the personality of the child begins to yield to the divine promptings of the newly arrived Spirit. Continuing growth of the soul is wholly dependent on the willing participation of the personality with the plans and purposes of the indwelling God fragment. Over time, this soul consciousness grows as it gradually displaces the temporary, body-mind-ego centered, human identity. The growing soul constitutes the morontia embryo of the life phase that follows our time here on earth. It is the soul that transcends death and provides the living entity wherein the personality (and the inner spirit) may again function, only now as a morontia being with a new morontia life vehicle, and a new morontia mind in the new environment of the first morontia transition world. We have left the mammalian body behind on the planet of our nativity. That experience which is devoid of spiritual value, having only served temporal and worldly purposes does not survive the transition. Only that which is of spiritual worth has survival value and will thus be remembered of our earth life. Even as now, we normally only remember specific incidents in our history, the greater mass of our mundane, detailed, moment to moment experience ignored by memory as it serves no pertinent value. But all of the spiritually worthwhile experience of our lives, including our personal relationships, will be translated with us. We will continue to know others and be known, personally, just as we now do. All of the truly valuable intellectual and spiritual comprehension of Reality we have gained here on earth is recorded in our souls, and this too remains our possession when we awaken from the sleep of death. We begin our new morontia life at the exact level of growth and development we acquired during our earth lives. These five concepts then, PERSONALITY, BODY, MIND, SPIRIT, and SOUL form the basic components of our newly described human paradigm. This little primer, however, can only outline a paltry sketch of the rich, in-depth portrayal of these concepts found in The Urantia Book. Here for example, I have written a mere four paragraphs on the indwelling God fragment, >> Autumn 2014

13 while The Urantia Book devotes a full 48 pages exclusively to an exhaustive discussion of this particular subject. Each of these concepts and their functional relationships is brilliantly woven into an enlightened portrait of who and what we are; a fascinating story of why we are here, how we got here, where we are going, how things got so screwed up here, and what we can do about it as individual persons, and as the people of earth. The Urantia Book teaches that, as personalities, each of us, and all of us, currently have all of everything we need, materially, intellectually, and spiritually to advance, to grow and evolve. The whole vast creation of time and space and everything and everybody in it is evolving, is a part of the grand, cosmic sweep forward from a lesser state of development, to a higher level of development. Evolution is Creation in slow motion. And we humans, because we are personalities, get to participate as a living, self-aware part of the colossal undertaking. Eternal life means being fully engaged, personally, in God s eternal plan, in the unfolding and actualizing of all of divinity that is as yet unexpressed potential. What a plan! What an opportunity! It s all available to us in a measure beyond our ability to conceive. The Urantia Book reveals the whole stupendous enterprise and our place in it, in an authoritative and creatively engrossing integration of science, philosophy, and religion. And all we have to do is choose it! n A Study Group Story Meredith Van Woert, USA January 2014 marks the beginning of the 24th year of my study group. It s not really my study group. While I was the one that got it rolling in 1991, the study group now has a life of its own and meets weekly, whether I am there or not. I remember the first study group I ever attended in September 1990 at the home of Dick and Cheryl Prince in San Diego. While there, I wept to be in the presence of other Urantia Book readers for the very first time ever. It was a profound experience one I will never forget. For twelve years prior to that, I read the book in isolation no one in my life ever heard of it and I asked just about everyone I met. I was very lonely and needed to talk to someone about the material. Maybe that s why I am so gung-ho on the formation of study groups. I read alone for so long. Readers who do not read with other readers miss so much in my opinion. Not only do they miss the personal relationships with readers, but also they miss the fullness of real time discussion of the material with others. Talking to others about the material is so very, very important. I was 35 years old when I found the book. Our organization, Urantia Association International, always frets about finding young readers. I found it when young, but my life was so complicated with personal matters I could do no more than take one day at a time. I read the book by selecting random Papers and sections. I read in the evening when the children were in bed. Year after year I read and read, and then I read some more. My children would ask me, Mom, are your still reading that book? or, Aren t you finished with that book yet? And I am still reading and still studying it. I never tire of it! I got my first computer in 1995 for the single purpose of downloading the floppy disc version of the book, so I could I could read it and research it. Prior to that, members of the study group used the Clyde Bidell Concordex to search the book for references on study topics. Early on in the life of our study group we began doing topical studies once a month and invited other study groups in our area to join us. This was fruitful for readers. People got experience leading the discussion and the topics were fascinating. Anyone who wanted to lead the study was encouraged to do so. The topical venues alternated with other study groups in the San Diego, Los Angeles and Riverside areas. As a result over the years we have collected perhaps a hundred or more study aids (handouts) created by the various presenters on their chosen topic. In 1991 we started on page one. Over the years we read the book sequentially as a group four times. Our current method of study is by utilizing the topicals we have archived. Newer readers in our group get to experience more of the material by this method of study, and discussion is always very stimulating. We study the material in the book, and our study group is going strong. We have a Meet-up account in order to inform each other of the location of the next study group, because we rotate the location week-to-week to among eight of us who want to host it, and I notice people are planning ahead. For example the month of January is planned out as to who will host it. To me the life of our study group is really wonderful! I hope yours is too! n Autumn 2014 page 13

14 ~MINING THE ARCHIVES~ Editorial From March 1981 edition of Six-O-Six Family Ken Glasziou from September 1984 edition of Six-O-Six Excerpt from his book: The Radical Christian The gallant human spirit! In others we see a tremendous ability to cope with events that seem daunting should we have to face them, but placed in similar circumstances, each of us may reveal previously unknown strengths. They key would seem to lie in our ever-new adaptability. Examples are to be found all around. It is thought the world has changed more in the last fifty years than it has in the two thousand years prior to that. Constantly we have to re-evaluate our attitudes and sort new information in that wondrous data bank, the mind. In addition people rebuild their lives from natural disasters, crippling diseases, broken homes and loss of loved ones. Just how do we cope with it all? It would seem we are kept ever buoyant and informed by our indwelling spirit which monitors information and prepares us with insights to our destiny. In our level of communication with our superconscious lies our ability to make adjustments in the mind that are in accordance with values of Truth, Beauty and Goodness. This is, in effect, prayer. It offers a permanent channel of communication between man and God. In a continually changing world, in the midst of an evolving social order, it is impossible to maintain settled and established goals of destiny. Stability of personality can be experienced only by those who have discovered and embraced the living God as the eternal goal of infinite attainment. And thus to transfer one s goal from time to eternity, from earth to Paradise, from the human to the divine, requires that man shall become regenerated, converted, be born again; that he shall become the re-created child of the divine spirit; that he shall gain entrance into the brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven. All philosophies and religions which fall short of these ideals are immature. The philosophy which I teach, linked with the gospel which you preach, represents the new religion of maturity, the ideal of all future generations. And this is true because our ideal is final, infallible, eternal, universal, absolute, and infinite. [Paper 160:1, page1774:6] n Jesus revealed the nature of God as Father. Jesus life lived out the perfect relationship of a son of God to his brothers, the whole family of all men, for all time. The basis of that relationship is love, a love in which there is no place at all for hate, jealousy, anger, meanness, selfishness, arrogance, pride or exploitation. But Jesus revelation was concerned with eternal spiritual values, not with the laying down of rules for daily living. In Jesus time, the Jewish people had in excess of five hundred rules governing their everyday conduct, rules that the Pharisees were meticulous in observing. Correct observance of these rules had become a substitute for the actual living of their two most important commandments, to love God, and to love their neighbour. Jesus condemned this substitution, so easily made even today. Instead of a set of rules, Jesus gave us the principle of love to guide all aspects of human relationship. Because Jesus knew the tendencies of men to selfdeceit, he illustrated and demonstrated the principle of love by living out an actual life of love, the first, and so far the last. There is of course a hierarchy of families within the structure of human society, reaching out through the relationships of parents and children, to social groupings, tribes, races, nations and the whole family of God, and at no level does the love principle permit an act contrary to the well being of any individual. In the family of true brothers in Christ there is not even room for discussion of such things as women s rights, rules governing divorce, civil liberties and so on, for the love principle makes such disputations redundant. But we are speaking of an ideal not yet achieved. Society will still need its rules and regulations until the actual living out of Jesus love in the family of brothers in Christ demonstrates the practicality of an alternative. Paul told us this nearly two thousand years ago Brothers, it s up to you. n page 14 Autumn 2014

15 ~INTERESTING PROJECTS AND WEBSITES~ Encyclopaedia Urantia Here are some screen grabs of an interesting site to share with you as an example of interesting study aids for The Urantia Book that can be found on the Internet: To view in full go to then go to study aids. Scroll down to Study Guides and you will arrive at this, or alternatively you can go directly to n Autumn 2014 page 15

16 Friendship is a Flower in Bloom Andrew Pell 2013 All rights reserved Friendship needs to be watered and nourished. Lovingly cared for and nurtured. Each petal needs a drop of kindness. Mutual respect and nothing less, Each soul dancing as one in sheer delight, Bathing in the rays of an autumn sunlight. Resting in the coolness of the evening. An eternity of always believing and seeing, Two independent lights shining incandescently, Connecting as one for all eternity. When one is sad, the other appears. Friendships are there to help overcome fears. Give thanks to the kind souls that have crossed our path. Together as friends, enjoying a good laugh..n page 16 Autumn 2014

17 2. Freewill choice must continuously adjust to situations involving decisions in response to experience of contrastive perfection and imperfection. The inevitable consequence of answering the Father s invitation call to be perfect. Evolutionary man finds it difficult fully to comprehend the significance and to grasp the meanings of evil, error, sin, and iniquity. Man is slow to perceive that contrastive perfection and imperfection produce potential evil; that conflicting truth and falsehood create confusing error; that the divine endowment of freewill choice eventuates in the divergent realms of sin and righteousness; that the persistent pursuit of divinity leads to the kingdom of God as contrasted with its continuous rejection, which leads to the domains of iniquity. [Paper 54:0.1, page 613:1] emphasis added Freewill Choice Verner Verass, Australia Freewill choice is a divine endowment of personality by which we determine our individual destiny. The words freewill control appear in a single instance in The Urantia Book, in the quote at states all personality is bestowed by the Father. That the attribute of creative cosciousness is ours to control. 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. [Paper 5:6.4, page 70:5] emphasis added The words freewill choice appear within paragraphs in The Urantia Book in 10 instances. All confirming we inhabit a universe in which self-determiantion is the ordained means of progress. 1. The ability to choose freely is a fact, no personal creature can be coerced, sonship is a gift to be accepted without compulsion. 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. [Paper 5:6.12, page 71:7] emphasis added 3. We ve always had freewill choice on the question of eternal survival. Sin cannot be inherited, it s always a matter of freewill choice. One error of human thinking respecting these problems consists in the idea that all evolutionary mortals on an evolving planet would choose to enter upon the Paradise career if sin had not cursed their world. The ability to decline survival does not date from the times of the Lucifer rebellion. Mortal man has always possessed the endowment of freewill choice regarding the Paradise career. [Paper 54:6.9, page 620:1] emphasis added 4. What the Father wills, is. Having passed the priceless power of freewill choice to his imperfect children of time and space, their participation, while most desirable and specifically intended, is optional. That which comes from the Father is like the Father eternal, and this is just as true of personality, which God gives by his own freewill choice, as it is of the divine Thought Adjuster, an actual fragment of God. Man s personality is eternal but with regard to identity a conditioned eternal reality. Having appeared in response to the Father s will, personality will attain Deity destiny, but man must choose whether or not he will be present at the attainment of such destiny. In default of such choice, personality attains experiential Deity directly, becoming a part of the Supreme Being. The cycle is foreordained, but man s participation therein is optional, personal, and experiential. [Paper 112:5.2, page 1232:3] emphasis added 5. The most appropriate means to communicate the unassailable sanctity of this ability to choose is to personally participate in the eternal adventure. Starkly contrasted with Lucifer s folly crime attempt to revoke this very creature freewill choice to do the Father s will. No being can deprive another of the thrilling experience of contributing something personal and unique and original to God. Lucifer s folly was the attempt to do the nondoable, to short-circuit time in an experiential universe. Lucifer s crime was the attempted creative disenfranchisement of every personality in Satania, the unrecognized abridgment of the creature s personal participation freewill participation in the long evolutionary struggle to attain the status of light and life both individually and collectively. In so doing this onetime Sovereign of your system set the >> Autumn 2014 page 17

18 Freewill Choice cont. temporal purpose of his own will directly athwart the eternal purpose of God s will as it is revealed in the bestowal of free will upon all personal creatures. The Lucifer rebellion thus threatened the maximum possible infringement of the freewill choice of the ascenders and servers of the system of Satania a threat forevermore to deprive every one of these beings of the thrilling experience of contributing something personal and unique to the slowly erecting monument to experiential wisdom which will sometime exist as the perfected system of Satania. Thus does the Lucifer manifesto, masquerading in the habiliments of liberty, stand forth in the clear light of reason as a monumental threat to consummate the theft of personal liberty and to do it on a scale that has been approached only twice in all the history of Nebadon. [Paper 54:2.3, page 614:8] emphasis added 6. On the Mansion Worlds, we are free to choose our individually matched Paradise career path. You are not given unrestricted choice as to your future course; but you may choose within the limits of that which the transition ministers and their superiors wisely determine to be most suitable for your future spirit attainment. The spirit world is governed on the principle of respecting your freewill choice provided the course you may choose is not detrimental to you or injurious to your fellows. [Paper 48:6.6, page 18 page 552:4] emphasis added 7. It s refreshing to know in a local universe such as we inhabit, even the Creators are required to evolve through exercise of freewill choice as part of the creature bestowal experience to achieve the perfection of supremacy in the case of Michael and transformation from living power focus to personification as the Divine Minister, her freewill choice of loving partnership and power synthesis. In the local universes even the Creators evolve: The presence of the Conjoint Actor evolves from a living power focus to the status of the divine personality of a Universe Mother Spirit; the Creator Son evolves from the nature of existential Paradise divinity to the experiential nature of supreme sovereignty. The local universes are the starting points of true evolution, the spawning grounds of bona fide imperfect personalities endowed with the freewill choice of becoming cocreators of themselves as they are to be. [Paper 116:4.8, page 1272:7] emphasis added 8. The Thought Adjuster which indwells the minds of men and women is an absolute foudation of freewill choice. The indwelling presences of the First Source and Center. Mind unifies spirit causations with energy reactions; bestowal ministry unifies divinity descensions with creature ascensions; and the indwelling fragments of the Universal Father actually unify the evolving creatures with God on Paradise. There are many such presences of the Father which indwell numerous orders of personalities, and in mortal man these divine fragments of God are the Thought Adjusters. The Mystery Monitors are to human beings what the Paradise Trinity is to the Supreme Being. The Adjusters are absolute foundations, and upon absolute foundations freewill choice can cause to be evolved the divine reality of an eternaliter nature, finaliter nature in the case of man, Deity nature in God the Supreme. [Paper 116:3.4, page 1271:2] emphasis added 9. Freewill choice with regard to participation in the ascension career is extended to children who have perished before they had opportunity to acquire spiritual status as individuals. This ongoing life experience and opportunity to choose to follow the path of their parent or parents in mortal ascension, is provided on the probation nursery of Satania. This probation nursery of Satania is maintained by certain morontia personalities on the finaliters world, one half of the planet being devoted to this work of child rearing. Here are received and reassembled certain children of surviving mortals, such as those offspring who perished on the evolutionary worlds before acquiring spiritual status as individuals. The ascension of either of its natural parents insures that such a mortal child of the realms will be accorded repersonalization on the system finaliter planet and there be permitted to demonstrate by subsequent freewill choice whether or not it elects to follow the parental path of mortal ascension. Children here appear as on the nativity world except for the absence of sex differentiation. There is no reproduction of mortal kind after the life experience on the inhabited worlds [Paper 45:6.7, page 516:5] emphasis added 10. The Deity Absolute is that potential which was segregated from total, infinite reality by the freewill choice of the Universal Father for this reason, our own freewill choice has its ancestry and present potential of eternal actualization. The Deity Absolute seems to be the all-powerful activator, while the Unqualified Absolute appears to be the allefficient mechanizer of the supremely unified and ultimately co-ordinated universe of universes, even universes upon universes, made, making, and yet to be made. 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. 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. [Foreword 0:11.4, page 14:2] emphasis added We are meant to share freely with each other that which has been freely given, we can only love because our Father has made a freewill choice to live inside us. Unless a divine lover lived in man, he could not unselfishly and spiritually love. [Paper 196:3.16, page 2094:15] n Autumn 2014

19 THE UB ENDEAVOUR The UB Endeavour is a fundraising initiative for the purpose of raising funds for ANZURA. We ask if you would consider making a contribution to help us spread The Urantia Book and its teachings throughout Australia and New Zealand. ANZURA has adopted much of the work of the former Australian office of Urantia Foundation which closed in It holds a small inventory of Urantia Books and other Urantia associated material such as study aids and secondary works that are available to readers for dissemination projects. As ANZURA s main objective is to foster the in-depth study of The Urantia Book and to disseminate its teachings there is continually work to be done in an effort to fulfill this mission. ANZURA provides a reader referral service that helps readers find other readers and study groups in their towns or regions. Volunteer staff respond to enquiries about The Urantia Book and associated reader activities that come to us via the internet and telephone. We maintain a website that services readers and curious truth seekers alike with information, study aids, secondary works, and the entire text of The Urantia Book online with an efficient search engine. Each year ANZURA sponsors and organises two major study events: the National Study Day and the annual Urantia Book Readers Conference. We sponsor a gift book program where books are donated to libraries and relevant learning centres as well as study groups and individuals who wish to assist in this seeding program. A four-part introductory DVD is being developed as a study aid which will be a useful tool to use when introducing people to The Urantia Book. And of course, none of this can happen without an administration centre that requires basic office equipment such as computers, printers, a telephone line and stationary. All of the above require funds. Would you please consider helping us by making a contribution? For the average income earner we recommend regular small donations such as a dollar a day (or $30 per month) automatically debited from bank accounts. If you decide to assist us with the promotion and dissemination of The Urantia Book by contributing to the UB Endeavour, please either fill out the tear-off contribution form below and return it with your contribution to: ANZURA PO Box 1581 Warriewood, NSW 2102 Or alternatively you may direct debit into ANZURA s bank account: Account Name: ANZURA BSB: Account Number: Please consider a perpetual monthly or quarterly donation. For enquiries phone or urantia@urantia.org.au n Name Miss / Ms / Mrs / Mr / Dr Address City State Postcode UB. ENDEAVOUR Home Phone Business Phone journey to regional autonomy Fax number Signature Date ANZURA The Australian & New Zealand Urantia Association, National Association of URANTIA Association International (UAI) PO Box 1581, Warriewood, NSW 2102 Australia Ph: anzura@urantia-anzura.org 14 Aspiring Ave, Manukau Heights, Auckland New Zealand, Ph/Fax: joemarion@xtra.co.nz For Office Use Only: PLEDGE / GIFT CARD My gift to the UB-Endeavour is enclosed. $ I pledge to the UB-Endeavour I authorise a contribution of $ Please make cheques payable to ANZURA UB Endeavour Registered Mark of URANTIA Foundation. Used pursuant to license. Charge my: Mastercard Visa card Bank card Card number Expiry Signature Perpetual gift arrangement Please deduct $ from my credit card until further notice Monthly Bi-monthly Quarterly Bi-annually Annually Autumn 2014 page 19

20 Contacts in Australia and New Zealand If you would like to be listed as a contact person, advise about your study Group or if your details have changed please contact ANZURA. Visit our website at Autumn Thought Gem ACT William Wentworth Holder Canberra, ACT wentworth@grapevine.com.au Nigel Nunn Bruce Canberra, ACT nnnunnn@gmail.com Verner Verass Duffy Canberra, ACT vern@designd.com.au NSW Trevor & Kathleen Swadling Mona Vale 2103 Sydney, NSW swadling@bigpond.net.au Pam & Dave Bradford Towamba 2550 Southern NSW lepney@skymesh.com.au Rita Schaad New Lambton 2305 Newcastle, NSW maritah1@optusnet.com.au Merindi & Bernie Belarski Belmont Newcastle, NSW belarski@bigpond.com QLD Graeme Chapman East Brisbane QLD graemechapman@archart.com.au TheArena SA Stephen Carthew Marino, SA stephencarthew@optusnet.com.au TAS Julian McGarry Hobart, TAS jmcgarry7@bigpond.com VIC Regina Williamson Boronia 3155 Melbourne VIC reginaeve@gmail.com Bevan-Rhys James Heidelberg 3084 Melbourne VIC bevan@brjames.com.au WA Peter Webb Butler, WA webbph@bigpond.com NZ Marion Steward Manukau City, Auckland, NZ joemarion@xtra.co.nz Neville Twist Epsom Auckland, NZ mainrl@clear.net.nz Colin Hemmingsen Wellington, NZ colinhemmingsen@xtra.co.nz PO Box 1581, Warriewood, NSW 2102, Australia anzura@urantia-anzura.org Web: Phone: is a quarterly publication dedicated to the promotion of goodwill and understanding among readers of ~ The Urantia Book ~ Editorial contributions are welcome. Subscription rates: Australia/New Zealand $A10 per year. Other countries $A15 per year. Please remit in Australian currency, cheques made payable to ANZURA. Interpretations and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of ANZURA,, or Urantia Foundation. All quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Urantia Book 1955 and used by permission. page 20 Summer