The Soul in Man

If you want the garden — earth and beyond and within — to bloom, you must take care of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health of the gardener. That gardener is you, and it begins with the blooming inside.

What is birth, life and death, and how are these realms interconnected? 

What is I? What is You? And what means We? How is the one single part, the individual, connected to and interacting with the whole? What is freedom and what is ascension?

Whether you are aware of it or not, there is a purpose for mankind’s existence in this cosmos, and that is to become centered in the Universal Father.

A 10 lesson course exploring the fundamentals for what can become a life well lived.

PROLOGUE: What does it mean to be human?

The following passage is an excerpt from the book, Reclaiming Reality: Restoring Humanity in the Age of AI. You can learn more about the book, listen to the podcast based on the book, and purchase the book at ReclaimingReality.com

The great deception of our age is not that AI will replace humanity, but that it will convince us we were never more than machines to begin with. The rapid advance of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and transhumanist ideologies is forcing humanity to confront an age-old question in a new and urgent way: What does it mean to be human? For centuries, Christianity has provided a clear and unwavering answer — man is created in the image of God, possessing an immortal soul that gives him value, purpose, and an eternal destiny. Yet in the modern era, this truth is being systematically challenged. 

Secular thinkers increasingly reduce human existence to a series of chemical reactions, neural impulses, and data patterns. In their view, consciousness is not a reflection of the divine but merely an advanced form of computation. According to this materialist perspective, if human thoughts, emotions, and decisions are nothing more than electrical signals in the brain, then there is no fundamental distinction between man and machine. Artificial intelligence, they argue, is simply another form of intelligence — one that can eventually surpass human cognition and render human labor, creativity, and even relationships obsolete.

This way of thinking is not merely misguided; it is profoundly dangerous. When people no longer believe in the soul, they no longer believe in the sanctity of life. If human beings are nothing more than biological machines, then they can be optimized, reprogrammed, and even discarded when they no longer serve a function. This is the foundational assumption behind transhumanism, which seeks to merge man with technology, overcoming biological limitations through genetic modification, cybernetic enhancement, and even the digital uploading of consciousness. It is a movement rooted in the false belief that man can achieve godhood by his own efforts, transcending mortality and taking control of his own evolution.

Christianity utterly rejects this deception. The Bible teaches that human beings are not mere matter; they are living souls, formed by God’s hands and breathed into life by His spirit. Genesis 2:7 states, “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.” This means that our identity is not found in our intelligence, our productivity, or our technological capabilities — it is found in our relationship with the Creator.

Because man possesses an immortal soul, his value does not fluctuate based on his usefulness to society. In contrast, the secular world, which denies the soul, increasingly defines human worth in terms of economic output, social status, or political alignment. This is why modern culture so easily justifies the destruction of the unborn, the elderly, and the disabled. Those who are seen as burdens rather than contributors are deemed expendable. But in God’s eyes, every life is sacred, not because of what it can produce, but because it is made in His image.

The denial of the soul also leads to the destruction of human identity. If man is simply a collection of biological processes, then there is no fixed human nature, no objective moral law, and no ultimate accountability for one’s actions. This is why the rejection of the soul inevitably results in moral relativism, where concepts like good and evil are considered arbitrary and subjective. Without the soul, there is no foundation for justice, no reason to defend the weak, and no basis for love beyond self-interest.

Perhaps the greatest threat posed by the denial of the soul is the rise of artificial intelligence as a substitute for human consciousness. Tech leaders increasingly promote the idea that AI can think, create, and even possess self-awareness. Some argue that machines will one day develop emotions, ethical reasoning, and personal identity. This is not just science fiction; it is a growing belief system among the secular elite. There are even those who suggest that AI could become our new gods — superintelligent entities that will guide humanity into a new era of existence.

But no matter how advanced AI becomes, it will never possess a soul. It may simulate human thought and mimic human creativity, but it will always be an imitation. It will never love, never repent, never seek truth for its own sake. It will never stand before God in judgment. Those who place their hope in AI as the future of intelligence are placing their hope in an empty vessel, a soulless creation that can never truly replace the uniqueness of human existence.

For Christians, the response to this deception is clear. We must reaffirm and defend the biblical truth that man is not just a machine, not just an organism shaped by evolutionary forces, but a being with eternal significance. We must reject every ideology that seeks to reduce human life to mere data or treat consciousness as something that can be replicated in a laboratory. We must hold fast to the understanding that our worth is not in our abilities, our knowledge, or our digital presence — it is in the fact that we are known and loved by God.

To do this, we must actively resist the cultural pressure to conform to a worldview that denies the soul. This means teaching our children that their identity is not defined by algorithms, social media, or online personas, but by their relationship with their Creator. It means rejecting technologies that seek to replace real human connection with artificial interactions. It means choosing relationships over digital distractions, choosing real-world experiences over virtual simulations, and choosing faith over the false promises of technological salvation. The battle for the soul is not just a philosophical or theological debate — it is a spiritual war. The forces that seek to erase the concept of the soul are the same forces that seek to erase God from human consciousness. The more people believe they are nothing more than advanced animals or programmable machines, the easier it becomes to control them. A world without the soul is a world without free will, without meaning, and without hope.

But for those who know the truth, there is no reason to fear. No matter how powerful technology becomes, no matter how deeply the world embraces artificial intelligence and transhumanist fantasies, the reality of the soul remains unchanged. Human beings are more than flesh, more than neurons, more than code. They are eternal beings, made for relationship with their Creator, destined for a life beyond this world. In a time when many seek to replace human nature with artificial intelligence and biological enhancements, Christians must stand firm in the knowledge that what makes us human cannot be replicated by machines or rewritten by scientists. The soul is our divine inheritance, the breath of God within us, the unchanging essence that sets us apart from all creation. And no force in this world — whether digital, political, or ideological — can take that away.


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INTRODUCTION: What is the soul?

These lessons will explore various aspects of the soul and its connection to man including these:

But before we begin, we must acknowledge a very real and significant obstacle to taking this wholesome and stimulating adventure of soul discovery, and that is the paucity of words and meanings about the soul in the English language. For this reason it is necessary to begin this course by developing a core vocabulary, and an associated set of meanings and concepts.

Glossary

Mansion worlds (a.k.a. Heaven)
Jesus alluded to the mansion worlds when he said: "In my Father's house are many mansions." This was a reference to special planets, created by design, to be used for universe administration and education. These mansion worlds are where mortal survivors are resurrected and resume their lives just where they left off when overtaken by mortal death. While we do not yet know the exact astronomical location of these mansion worlds, we are told that they provide resurrection services for up to 1000 inhabited planets in our nearby region of galactic space. There are 7 of these mansion worlds (sometimes referred to as the 7 Heavens) and they are part of a larger system of 57 special planets known as architectural spheres, each one serving a special purpose. The Heaven conceived by most of our prophets is the first of these 7 mansion worlds, the first destination point from Earth, and where the resurrections occur. It is often referred to as Mansonia #1. These 7 mansion worlds are each about the size of Earth. Some others, known as transition worlds, are about 10 times the size of Earth (about the size of Jupiter), and the main one, the headquarter sphere known as Jerusem is about 100 times the size of Earth, making it nearly as big as our sun! We have designed a simple diagram of how we speculate these planets might be arranged in relation to each other, although they most certainly are spaced much further apart. The numerous descriptions provided in the Urantia Book form the basis for this drawing. Journey to mansion worlds.pdf. Note: there is a second page with written descriptions after the drawing.

Morontia
The universe consists of three degrees, or stages, of reality manifestation: matter, morontia, and spirit. The word morontia (or morontial) refers to both an energy/matter type and a state of being that lies between the material physical realm of mortal life and the purely spirit realm. A useful comparison would be:

The soul is constituted of morontia energy patterns and grows through the development of mota. The morontia reality, the domain of the soul, is a transition between the mortal estate and the subsequent spirit status of surviving human beings. The Urantia Book has much to say about the morontia reality in Paper 48.

Mota
Mota is a supermaterial and superphilosophical reality sensitivity which has for its substance knowledge-reason, and for its essence faith-insight. Science works with reason, religion works with faith, and the soul works with mota. Mota is the unifying technique of soul growth.

The lower planes of morontia mota join directly with the higher levels of human philosophy, but Mota is more than just a superior philosophy; it is to philosophy as two eyes are to one; It has a stereoscopic effect on meanings and values. Material man sees the universe, as it were, with but one eye — flat. Mansion world
students achieve cosmic perspective — depth — by superimposing the perceptions of the morontia life upon the perceptions of the physical life. The Urantia Book provides an interesting look at morontia mota.

Soul
The remainder of this INTRODUCTION will give a more in depth definition of the soul and its related concepts.

Thought Adjuster
The term Thought Adjuster refers to that divine Spirit fragment coming from the Creator, the Universal Father, to indwell mortal man, to encourage him, to uplift him, and to guide him towards the Father and eternal life. The Urantia Book has extensive explanations of Thought Adjusters in Part III, papers 107 to 112.

Nature of the soul

We must first understand the fundamental concept of what the soul actually is. The soul can be thought of as a growing embryo — like a foetus — an unborn child that is growing within you. You are the mother of this growing child and therefore it is important that you care for your own health (both mental and physical) because of the consequence it may have on the growing child within you. You would put the very best of who you are into the care of this unborn child knowing she will be wholly dependent on you for all her needs when she is born. You are planning for the future of this child's life and wanting the very best for her life experiences.

The soul, which is a morontia reality, can be viewed in a similar fashion. It is wholly dependent on you for its development and therefore it is beneficial for you to take great care in the decisions you make in life, both great and small. The soul is the very best part of who you are and what you are becoming. Therefore, this unborn soul is really you! It is the "you" who will pick-up and live life in the next phase of your ascendant career (after the resurrection) on the mansion worlds of Heaven. Wouldn't you want to build the very best "you" there could be while you are living in this world? This is what is meant by "Lay Up Treasures in Heaven".

Nurture of the soul

By knowing the process for nurturing your soul, and how these processors work together, you may become more effective in growing a weightier (richer, more mature) soul by making conscious decisions where you determine the quality of your experiences — what goes into your soul. These lessons are designed to stimulate you to think about the pediatric care of your soul — the unborn you — and what you are feeding your nascent soul, and how you are nurturing it.

There are three primary soul processors — the mind, the heart, and the Thought Adjuster (TA). Each of them play an important part in determining what experiences, meanings, and values are harvested for soul building and eternal survival. The order in which these three processors are listed here is sequential to the order in which all experiences are processed — from the physical aspect of human awareness (the brain and the five senses), to the emotional center (the heart), to the spiritual operator (the TA). All three are necessary and all three work together in accordance with the free will prerogatives established by the Father which assures relative untethered and diverse experience harvesting.

These three soul processors will be discussed in LESSON 4.

Soul food

In the short duration of time spent in earth life, it is wise to give thought to the value of your experiences and to maximize your time in building the best you there can be.

As with any well prepared traveler, it is beneficial to plan ahead for a long journey and pack things that you would most likely need when visiting a new land. Your "backpack" is the embryonic soul, it is the container for all those worthwhile experiences that will help you to navigate and explore this new Heavenly land you will surely visit. Because you are traveling light, you would not pack unnecessary items that would weigh you down. Knowing that you are not always adept at deciding what to take and what to leave, your "Smart Assistant" and "GPS" the Thought Adjuster (TA), knows the way and proficiently filters your check list of items deemed necessary for the journey.

So, what should you bring? Imagine what it will be like to visit this new land. What are the people like there? What are the customs? What's the weather like? What is the economy like? Are there any dangers? Imagine this heaven-like place and think about what you would need to actually live there.

If you think about only the very best experiences you had in life, the joys of life that you retain fond memory of, those are the things that will serve you in your next stage of life on those Heavenly abodes, the mansion worlds. 

When life experience encompasses true Love in any way, shape, or form, it is sure to make the check list and be included in your backpack, your soul. Pack wisely and choose to experience life in a way that will progressively serve you in your present life and in your future career. You won't regret it!

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LESSON 1: First Things First — The Big Decision

As we learned from the INTRODUCTION, not everything about your mortal life will become integrated into your soul. Only those worthy experiences, values, and moral decisions that embody Truth Beauty and Goodness, and are deemed to be of survival value by your Thought Adjuster (TA) will become part of your growing soul.

You have everything to do with the healthy development, or disease and decay of your soul. It is a choice to be made, and the better informed you are about the various aspects and requirements of this choice, the more confident, effective and wise you can be in carrying out your decision.

Many have never thought about the soul this way, yet this is so important for your future development both here and hereafter! Your current mortal life — your interests, your relationships, your activities, your adventures, your thoughts — all those things that feed your experiences become the palate for the appetite of the soul, but we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start with the soul's beginning.

Mortal life begins soulless

The physical fact of the biological birth of a new child of our species does not come with a ready made soul. Souls are not born this way. Souls are not biologically produced. Souls do not have DNA. 

Souls do have an origin, a beginning, a point of creation. Souls are initially created by the indwelling Thought Adjuster, and remain in embryonic form during our mortal life. But when does this happen and under what conditions?

The simple answer is that the soul is created when the Thought Adjuster first arrives to join its new ward. Upon arrival, the first act of the TA is to create a new, blank, soul pattern for its ward. This begs the question, when does this happen in a person's life?

Regardless of a person's age, the TA always arrives when a person makes his/her first moral decision. On average this occurs in childhood around the age of 6, but it can sometimes occur earlier or later. Essentially it can occur at anytime during the mortal life, but the deciding factor is always that first moral decision.

The Urantia Book 108:2.4: Even with a Spirit of Truth endowed mind, the Adjusters cannot arbitrarily invade the mortal intellect prior to the appearance of moral decision. But when such a moral decision has been made, this spirit helper assumes jurisdiction direct from Divinington. There are no intermediaries or other intervening authorities or powers functioning between the divine Adjusters and their human subjects; God and man are directly related.

While it is somewhat beyond the scope of this lesson, it will be of great comfort to parents who have lost a young child before the arrival of his/her TA to know that children dying before getting Thought Adjusters are repersonalized on a special nursery world concomitant with the arrival of either parent on the mansion worlds. Urantia Book 49:6.12

What is a moral decision?

Let's begin answering this question with this hint. The first promptings of a child’s moral nature have to do with justice, fairness, and kindness. The first moral personality decision is automatically indicated in the seventh mind–adjutant of wisdom. It is interesting to note that the sixth mind-adjutant is about worship and is always accomplished before the seventh. Therefore we can deduce that one's first moral decision incorporates an element of worship as well as wisdom. In simpler terms, one's first moral decision can be stated as one's first acted upon desire to do good. Beyond that we have little comprehension of all the parameters that constitute such a decision. These decisions seems to be something that only the Thought Adjusters and the mind-adjutants are capable of fully grasping.

Regardless of what we know, or don't know, about these special decisions, we are clearly instructed as follows: Since the arrival of the Spirit of Truth, on that faithful day of Pentecost about 2000 years ago, all normal minded people who make their first personal and wholehearted moral decision automatically receive their own Thought Adjuster, and that the current day average for these occurrences is around the age of 6 years.

The purpose of life

There is in the mind of the Creator a plan which embraces every creature of all the vast domains of the universe, and this plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited progress, and endless life.

Love of adventure, curiosity, and dread of monotony — these traits inherent in evolving human nature — were not put there just to aggravate and annoy you during your short time on Earth, but rather to suggest to you that death is only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an everlasting life of anticipation, an eternal voyage of discovery.

Throughout the eternal career you will never encounter monotony of inaction or stagnation of personality. Progress is made possible by inherent motion, advancement grows out of the capacity for action, and achievement is the child of imaginative adventure. But inherent in this capacity for achievement is the responsibility of ethics, the necessity for recognizing that the world and the universe are filled with a multitude of differing types of beings. All of this magnificent creation, including yourself, was not made just for you.

Resurrected (ascending) mortals gradually progress from the physical to the spiritual. As they progress, they serve on countless assignments in association with their teachers and in company with their more advanced and senior fellows.

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 you will be gently and lovingly led along the pathway of spiritual progress. Every step you take must be one of willingness, intelligent and cheerful co-operation. This process is never tainted with coercion nor compromised by compulsion.

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

The pursuit of the ideal is a continuous effort before death and after. The life after death is no different in the essentials than the mortal existence. Everything we do in this life which is good contributes directly to the enhancement of the future life. Real religion does not foster moral and spiritual laziness by encouraging the vain hope of having all the virtues of a noble character bestowed upon you as a result of passing through the portals of natural death. True religion does not belittle one’s efforts to progress during the mortal life. Every mortal gain is a direct contribution to the enrichment of the first stages of the immortal survival experience, the building of your soul.

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LESSON 2: Soul Growth — The Journey Into Truth Beauty and Goodness

Soul Growth

Your mental health affects the growth and development of your soul. If you are unable to rationally, consciously make decisions that develop your spiritual growth and maturity, then you are not able to engage and receive further soul growth. You must understand this, even as a five-year old, that your moral decisions are conscious, that you know what is right and what is wrong, that you know how to be of loving service to your fellow brothers and sisters. When your mental condition is such that it is not able to appreciate these differences and these contributions of its thinking, then it is no longer capable of making contributions to the soul. The soul is the repository of the wisdom and moral decisions and service credit that you earn, that you garner in your mortal life from the decisions that you make. 

Is there a connection or influence between the soul and DNA?

There is no connection of any significance to your conscious decisions. The DNA definitely have an influence on the soul but only in as much as the DNA prepares the physical body and the brain, and provides the format for the mind, and for the occupation of the Seven Adjutant Spirits, and for the eventual reception of your Thought Adjuster. Beyond that there is no connection or influence between your soul and your DNA.

Truth Beauty and Goodness

As you may have noticed, this web site makes frequent reference to Truth Beauty and Goodness. It's in the top header of the site, in our T B G icon, on our logo at the bottom of our pages, it's even the name of our organisation, The Truth Beauty and Goodness Commission. What are the real meanings and values of Truth Beauty and Goodness? Let's explore some.

The pursuit of authentic Truth Beauty and Goodness is what makes religion genuine and worthwhile, whereas dogma, ritual, and rigid tradition only serve to devalue authentic religion into imitative routine lacking in creativity.

Truth is the basis of science and philosophy, presenting the intellectual foundation of religion. Beauty sponsors art, music, and the meaningful rhythms of all human experience. Goodness embraces the sense of ethics, morality, and religion — experiential perfection-hunger.

The quest for Truth Beauty and Goodness is learning to discern God in mind, matter, and spirit, for a better discernment and a fuller realization of the comprehensible elements of Deity.

There is an interassociation between Truth Beauty and Goodness:

Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of Truth Beauty and Goodness as they are blended in human
experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.

And when these values of that which is real are co-ordinated in personality experience, the result is a high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by loyalty.

Truth Beauty and Goodness can also be interpreted as philosophy, cosmology, and divinity.

Truth Beauty and Goodness is soul food. We find the Creator through the leadings of spiritual insight, but we approach this insight of the soul through the love of the beautiful, the pursuit of truth, loyalty to duty, and the worship of divine goodness. But of all these values, love is the true guide to real insight.

Love is the sum total of these three qualities — Truth Beauty and Goodness, and is man’s perception of God as his spirit Father. But love, divested of Truth Beauty and Goodness, is only a sentiment, a philosophic distortion, a psychic illusion, a spiritual deception.

Love is the desire to do good to others. To finite man Truth Beauty and Goodness embrace the full revelation of
divinity reality. As this love-comprehension of Deity finds spiritual expression in the lives of mortal men, there are yielded the fruits of divinity: intellectual peace, social progress, moral satisfaction, spiritual joy, and cosmic wisdom. As mortal man advances in his pursuit of Truth Beauty and Goodness, he begins to realize that Love is the greatest thing in the universe — and it begins to dawn on such a man that God is love.

Truth: The discernment of mind

As previously stated: All Truth — material, philosophic, or spiritual — is both beautiful and good.

Truth is coherent. Where Truth is lacking we find a lack of cohesion, we find ambiguity, confusion, deceit, vagueness.

When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the Truth. — John 16:13 

Present yourself to God as one approved...rightly handling the word of Truth. — 2 Timothy 2:15

You will know the Truth, and the Truth will make you free. — John 8:32

The pursuit of Truth represents man’s effort to discern God in mind through a better understanding and a fuller realization of the comprehensible elements of Deity. 

Truth is a subject of special consideration because of the fact and presence of the Spirit of Truth on our planet. The Spirit of Truth is covered in our next curriculum The Spirit in Man: LESSON 1: Spirit Foundation & Support Infrastructure.

Beauty: The charm and harmony of art

The discernment of supreme Beauty is the discovery and integration of reality: The discernment of the divine Goodness in the eternal Truth, that is ultimate Beauty. Even the charm of human art consists in the harmony of
its unity.

The pursuit of Beauty — cosmology — is all too often limited to the study of man’s crude artistic endeavors. Beauty, art, is largely a matter of the unification of contrasts. Variety is essential to the concept of Beauty. The supreme Beauty, the height of finite art, is the drama of the unification of the vastness of the cosmic extremes of Creator and creature. Man finding God and God finding man — the creature becoming perfect as is the Creator — that is the supernal achievement of the supremely beautiful, the attainment of the apex of cosmic art.

Hence materialism, atheism, is the maximation of ugliness, the climax of the finite antithesis of the beautiful. Highest Beauty consists in the panorama of the unification of the variations which have been born of pre-existent harmonious reality.

The existence of Beauty implies the presence of appreciative creature mind.

Goodness: A living and personal experience

Goodness is the mental recognition of the relative values of the diverse levels of divine perfection. The recognition of Goodness implies a mind of moral status (remember that first moral decision of the previous lesson), a personal mind with ability to discriminate between good and evil. But the possession of Goodness, greatness, is the measure of real divinity attainment.

Goodness is living, relative, always progressing, invariably a personal experience, and everlastingly correlated with the discernment of Truth and Beauty. Goodness is found in the recognition of the positive Truth-values of
the spiritual level, which must, in human experience, be contrasted with the negative counterpart — the shadows of potential evil.

The 9 inevitabilities of life

The Urantia Book 3:5.5 provides us with a comprehensive list of 9 essential elements of life that are unavoidable for character development, which can then lead to robust soul growth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A grandmother's wisdom

Who better than a grandmother who has lived a full, varied, productive and challenging life in the pursuit of Truth Beauty and Goodness to offer us some practical techniques for the remainder of this lesson.

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Stay watchful and vigilant, always observant, always scanning the horizon and watching the angles. Pay attention to the truth. Find the good in people where you find it, regardless of their color, age, sex, religion, nationality, or political party.

Don't be quick to judge, but don't be afraid to judge, either.

Keep your balance and keep moving. Don't just accept appearances. Don't rely on the status quo. If there is too much fanfare, and you will have to become a good judge of that, avoid whatever it is.

Be friendly, but don't extend yourself too much. Always hang back a little. Survey the scene. Observe yourself within the scene. Be logical about things first, emotional about things second.

Let yourself enjoy life, especially all the little things, but don't let any person, experience, or thing become your master. Don't lose yourself in the crush of the crowd. Make sure you are at your own controls.

Politely consider everyone else's ideas and opinions, but mind your own thoughts. Push yourself a little every day, to try something that interests you, to find answers to questions that interest you.

Don't let other people ask all of your questions for you.

Never accept a dead end. If one good thing ends, accept that, and go on, knowing that other good things will come. Honor your own truth. Have courage and don't even try to lie.

Accept the fact that our relationships don't always last forever, and neither do our lives. That's not the point. It's the living that matters, every day, moment to moment, right now.

It's the sincerity of the love in each moment that matters most of all.

Make friends with Nature, even if it seems alien at first. The Earth is your Mother and your birthright, even if you've spent your entire life standing on asphalt and concrete. Take a clue from the Japanese. No matter how crowded together they are, no matter how urban their environment, they find ways to connect back to Nature. There are gardens on the rooftops and fish tanks in the restaurants, single flower blossoms adorning their chopsticks — for a reason.

They constantly remind each other that they are part of Nature and something greater than their individual selves.

We all need to know that.

When you fall down, stand back up. We all make mistakes, but the biggest mistake is when people don't dust themselves off, learn from it, and try again.

Remember Yogi Berra: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Whichever road you choose, you can make it the right one.

Never live with regret for long. It's a bad roommate. And don't be chintzy about forgiveness. Just forgive and move on. Whatever harm people have done to you, they've also done to themselves. There's no point in prolonging any attachment to that pain. Just let it go. Set yourself free of it.

And know that you are doing so. Be willful about it. You are forgiving them for your own sake, not for theirs, so there's no reason to hold onto the least shadow of hate. If you do, it will only darken your own days.

This goes double for "ancestral memories" — that is, animosity and fears and hatred about things that happened to your ancestors. Stay present. Those things didn't happen to you.

You weren't enslaved on a cotton plantation. You weren't slaughtered at Wounded Knee. You didn't die at Gettysburg. You didn't perish in a gas chamber at Dachau.

The soul memory of these things can cling to us for 22 generations, locked into our DNA. The only reason to remember what happened to your ancestors is to evaluate the experience. Examine it. What were the evil motives, thoughts, emotions, and beliefs that caused it?

How do we keep that from happening again?

Beyond that, the experience has served its purpose, and needs to be put to rest, together with all the prejudices and cruelties and fears that those memories engender.

The present moment is where you are and where you belong.

Don't get caught in the slipstream of a past that you can't consciously remember.

Let it go in peace and you — you move on. Live your own life.

Don't forget to dream. Dreams become realities. Thoughts take on a life of their own. Cherish every good dream you have, including daydreams and pipedreams. Remember that they belong to you, and are utterly your own.

Nobody else has the right to pass judgment on your dreams.

If people do pass judgement on your dreams, if they laugh at you, if they say, "Oh, that will never happen!" — just put that in the grab bag labeled "Personal Opinions" and smile, knowing that the fate of your dreams isn't up to them. It's up to you.

Don't waste your time on the P. Diddys and Jeffrey Epsteins of the world.  Know that they will get the payment they are owed and harvest the seeds they've sown — and so will you. So make up your mind to do good deeds and spread kindness. Plant carrots, not bombs.

By doing that, you change the world that is, and help to create a new world, where evil can't exist.

Give compassion as a gift. Nurture the world. Not being stupid about it, not to exhaust yourself, but quietly and consistently through the years, granting mercy and nurture to man and beast, not to be seen by any crowd or to earn any accolades, but just to fulfill your own nature as a caretaker of this world, and be at peace.

When you look at yourself in the mirror, look closely. Look at what you see reflected in your eyes. Are you happy? Really? Are you at peace with yourself? Is your conscience as clear as a pane of glass?

Trace over any scars and wrinkles. Think of them as tokens of the experience you've earned. Realize that while you may have lost beauty of one kind, you've gained another beauty. And it's all, first to last, uniquely your own.

At the end of one road, is the beginning of another. The wretched excuses for men like P. Diddy and Jeffrey Epstein, the empty husks of men, don't count, but you do, because you made that decision for yourself.

The decision to love.

It is a decision, like a decision to mow the lawn. It doesn't have to be any more dramatic than that. Just a simple decision, but it's the one decision that — repeated everyday — makes all the difference between a life well-lived, and ending up in the Abyss.

By: Anna Von Reitz


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LESSON 3: The Prime Directives

These 5 prime directives forever fix the jurisdiction and sovereignty of man above all else

The 5 cardinal features of the good news of the kingdom are:

  1. Pre-eminence of the individual. LESSON 4
  2. Will as determining factor. LESSON 5
  3. Sonship with God the Father. LESSON 6
  4. The loving service of men. LESSON 7
  5. Transcendency of the spiritual over the material. LESSON 8

These prime directives have been superbly expressed by Theresa Marks in her modern and fundamental work: A Spiritual Bill of Rights for Humanity. This clear and simple list of 7 essential Spiritual Rights for mankind sets a strong and fair foundation for the Brotherhood of Man, regardless of gender, faith, creed, race or nationality. For the first time in our rapidly growing modern day global civilisation, we have at our disposal an adequate, respectful, fair, and apropos foundation for building a truly Father centered Brotherhood of Man.

Here is a summary of these 7 Spritual Rights (they will be presented in full later in this page):

  1. The right of individuals to connect directly with the Creator in their own unique way is fundamental to human spirituality and should be protected, honored and nourished.
  2. Individuals have a right to affirm their inherent goodness as beloved children of the Creator.
  3. Individuals have a right to freedom from fear, especially fear of divine punishment.
  4. Individuals have the right to embark on their own search for truth.
  5. Individuals have the right to freedom from religious obligations.
  6. Individuals have the right to access all spiritual leadership roles.
  7. Individuals have the right to choose their own life partners.

A special comment to current and future spiritual leaders

Before proceeding to the full coverage of the 7 Spiritual Rights, the Truth Beauty and Goodness Commission wishes to make the following statement to all current and potential spiritual leaders.

An exemplary life is the best preaching and the best inspiration a spiritual leader can offer to those he or she serves. The words that come from the minds of these leaders may sometimes be confusing — and due to the difference in the way of thinking of each listener — even be misinterpreted, since it is always difficult to present and understand a new and higher truth. But a life that illustrates those words or ideas is always eloquent and direct, appealing to our sense of justice and inspiring true adoration.

A spiritual leader is a person who walks first the path that he or she wants to show their followers. How could you lead anybody on a path you yourself don’t know? Inevitably you would be lost and you would drag your followers with you. You should live the truths you desire to share with your brethren. You should make the best decisions that are suggested by your spirit in every situation in life, so those who search for truth can observe how a spiritual life is to be lived.

A true spiritual leader does not bring his or her followers to the truth. An authentic leader knows the value of experience and personal achievement, therefore the leader is only concerned with showing the way, letting each person live by their own terms. A human being can never convince another to think in his or her way. Each one of you has been born to find truth in your own personal way to then become an individual and original expression of that truth. The total understanding of reality can only be achieved through the efforts of all beings. The experience of one is useful to all and the individual realizations are then added to all universal realizations. This is why every experience is important, because it represents one more work in the infinite book that describes reality, a book that is available to all.

A spiritual leader is first of all a lover of mankind. Only a love that is unconditional and authentic can give origin to the desire of bringing every person that crosses your path towards a more meaningful and happy life. Love incites a soul to share it all and those who have tasted the delights of eternity and heard the melodies of divinity desire with all their hearts to share these glories with others. A true spiritual leader therefore never forces anybody to follow, he or she just shares the treasures found and those who decide to follow this leader will do the same.

A true spiritual leader — like the ones that are so necessary in our world today — recognizes unity of purpose while accepting individual differences. A leader of love does not keep count of the souls gained for his or her cause. Rather, he or she is a dedicated sower, spreading the seeds of truth in the hearts of those he or she meets, leaving the reaping in the hands of each individual, because that leader knows that each fruit of spirit rising from this earth is a treasure for all. The most successful service that Jesus provided to His children in this world was made while he was walking as an unknown man giving morsels of truth to the hungry souls he encountered every day. Those mortals who saw His life and His example were the ones who obtained the most benefit (more than did those who only heard His speeches) and were the ones who produced abundant fruit that in turn elevated the lives of others.

 

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The Seven Spiritual Rights of Humanity
‭What ‬‭they ‬‭are.‬‭ Why‬‭ they’re ‬‭important.‬

1.   
The right of individuals to connect directly with the Creator in their own unique way is fundamental to human spirituality and should be protected, honored and nourished.

No religious or spiritual institution, ideological or philosophical group, or individual representing any institution or group, or any individual acting alone should presume to act as an intermediary between persons and their Creator. Each of our relationships with the Creator is unique, primary, and sovereign in all matters relating to the spiritual life. 

There is nothing more life-giving for individuals than to discover and build a direct relationship with their Creator. This Creator-human relationship is the living source of spiritual growth and is all-important to these critical times. Although many experience this relationship in the context of religion, it is completely independent of religion or spiritual path. It is our human birthright and can be experienced by anyone. 

Because of its unique and intimate nature, this connection must never be abrogated by those who would insert themselves between persons and their Creator. Religions best serve people by taking a supportive role in the sacred Creator-human relationship. Religious leaders appropriately serve by leading group worship, teaching spiritual concepts and facilitating the sharing of spiritual insights; their role should be considered ancillary to the Creator-human relationship.

2.   
Individuals have a right to affirm their inherent goodness as beloved children of the Creator.

Humanity is not inherently sinful and unworthy of the Creator’s love. Such teachings prevent humanity from reaching its full potential. They do not reflect the Creator’s infinite love, parental devotion and spiritual empowerment toward humanity. Rather, each of us are created in goodness and beauty as precious seeds of great promise. Religious, philosophical and ideological systems cooperate with the Creator’s high purpose for us when they foster self-respect, thereby unleashing full human potential to solve our serious problems. The human spirit, when awakened and enlivened by a direct relationship with the Creator, naturally yields abundant fruits of loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance and enduring peace. 

3.   
Individuals have a right to freedom from fear, especially fear of divine punishment.

The primitive-origin concept of eternal torment, or hell, as well as other concepts of divine chastisement and retribution are demonstrably false. These teachings have long been a source of distress and an obstacle to spiritual growth for innumerable people. They stand in stark contrast to the Creator’s all-loving nature, who never uses fear to control us. In the Creator, we have the personification of our ultimate ideals—the perfect parent, teacher, friend; to portray our Creator as a punisher is simply untrue. No one has anything to fear from the Creator. Rather than accepting this long-held belief, we can choose to uplift one another by adopting more enlightened concepts of the Creator.

The fact that the Creator’s love coexists with the Creator’s justice presents a paradox; in our confusion we may feel that divine punishment is a reasonable solution to human imperfection. But our limited vision cannot compare to the far-seeing eye of an infinite Creator who knows the motives of every human soul and who would not lose one child. Love and mercy are the true attitudes of the Creator. The action of any individual, even the most grievous, is always met with infinite divine patience and understanding.

While it is true that free will choice makes it possible to reject a relationship with the Creator, the theory of an eternity of torture is a human fiction born from an immature desire to punish others.

4.   
Individuals have the right to embark on their own search for truth.

Since every human is endowed with a unique identity from the Creator, spiritual insights and experiences vary from person to person. The most sublime of human adventures is that of discovering the Creator for oneself. The diversity of spiritual viewpoints in the human family is a great strength that points to the beauty of the Creator, but in no way dilutes the truth of humanity’s unity as children of the Creator. Religions and spiritual groups should not interfere with any individual’s sincere efforts to comprehend and experience truth. On the contrary, they can inspire spiritual growth by encouraging people to discover for themselves the truths about the Creator and their great purpose and destiny as children of the Creator.

5.   
Individuals have the right to freedom from religious obligations.

Participation in religious activities should always be voluntary. Religions become oppressive when they dictate beliefs and behaviors. Since the Creator’s primary attribute is unconditional love, all people are given the divine gift of free will. The Creator does not then revoke this gift by imposing obligations on individuals. Similarly, when religions presume to claim divine penalties for not fulfilling religion-mandated obligations, it violates the spiritual liberty of followers and often results in shame and guilt.

While many religious traditions and rituals contain spiritual truth, they are not a substitute for the primary Creator-human relationship. But they should never be taken away if followers find them to be spiritually nourishing. Rather, the process of developing a personal relationship with the Creator can be prioritized for followers who may downplay this primary relationship because of their attachment to religious practices. When large numbers of these followers discover a relationship with their Creator, it could result in a tremendous collective spiritual illumination that would gather many under the twin unifying concepts of the divine Creator Parent and the family of humanity.

6.   
Individuals have the right to access all spiritual leadership roles.

We honor the beauty and diversity of the Creator when we invite all people into spiritual leadership, whether by gender, race, ethnicity, orientation or other identity, thereby including their precious gifts to uplift humanity. It significantly strengthens humanity whenever we do so. When people from all groups are empowered to answer the call to spiritual leadership, the Creator will be truly represented.

The exclusion of women from spiritual leadership, as entrenched in many religions throughout the centuries, has been a great loss for humanity. Their harmonizing influence is needed at all levels of religion to inspire new spiritual perspectives and help prevent tragic abuses.

Human attitudes of superiority and servility cannot reflect the Creator’s love toward all. The gifts of all people, when wholly embraced, will allow humanity’s full potential to emerge and heal our world. A fertile environment of equality is the spiritual salve that beckons us into a new era of light and life. 

7.   
Individuals have the right to choose their own life partners.

Along with our personal relationships with the Creator, loving and loyal human partnerships are the most beautiful testaments to love. As loving partners commit to each other’s well-being, face life’s challenges, and share physical, emotional and spiritual intimacy, they create a nurturing foundation for the growth of their souls. Unselfish and spiritually fragrant human partnerships form the basis for strong societies and should be supported by religious and spiritual groups who love the Creator.

There is a dedicated page which includes an extended section on putting these spiritual rights into practice. Go to the full Spiritual Bill of Rights page.

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LESSON 4: Personal Sovereignty

Prime Directive #1: Pre-eminence of the individual

Pre-eminence of the individual is rooted in sovereignty, the God given right to spiritual independence and self-governance. Personal sovereignty is not merely a static fact. It must also be able to interact with other levels and areas of sovereignty that life provides.

As was presented in the INTRODUCTION to these lessons, we know that there are three primary soul processors — the mind, the heart, and the Thought Adjuster (TA) — that affect the growth of the soul. All three are sovereign and work together in accordance with the free will prerogatives established by God the Father. This means that these three soul processors must function collectively according to the rules of split, or shared jurisdiction, which can be summarized as: 

* The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines merit as: spiritual credit held to be earned by performance of righteous acts and to ensure future benefits.

The collective approach to sovereignty can be complex, and is in many ways beyond the scope of this lesson. For an in depth study of sovereignty we refer you to our Planetary Jurisdictions Curriculum. Of special interest is LESSON 4: Sovereignty & Delegation.

In order to keep this complex topic of sovereignty within the scope of this lesson, we will endeavor to explain it with a simple analogy that most people can relate to, and that will help illustrate the issues of a split jurisdiction, which is a situation that all moral people find themselves in, and must learn to navigate through experience, and wise decisions.

Analogy

The mind, the heart, and the TA can be thought of like the three branches of democratic government:

To build a healthy and weighty soul, all three must function together harmoniously, and communicate laterally, sending feedback for wisdom gathering. Yet for many, the executive branch (the heart) can often bypass the judicial branch (the TA) by executive order and make decisions that are not necessarily of survival value, and therefore not in harmony with the TA. The ability of a government to serve the highest good for its constituency is determined by the quality of the members of the legislative (the mind) and executive (heart) branches; the judicial branch only contains one member (the TA) and retains sovereign authority and is the gatekeeper for what passes through to the soul.

There is a two party system at work in the first two branches (the mind and heart) — those legislative members (human thoughts) that are more aligned with fear and those that are more aligned with human love (conditional love from the heart) and they constitute one side of this split jurisdiction | the TA operates exclusively on Divine Love (unconditional love) and constitutes the other side. There is constant debate among these partisan members which does not always serve the greater good of the soul, yet the debate is essential to the functioning of free will. The judicial branch (TA) has no authority over what the other two branches do, or what experiences they will entertain (free will prevents it), yet the TA will express its opinion in certain matters, which the executive (heart) and legislative (mind) branches can take under consideration or ignore completely.

The legislative branch (mind) searches out and brings life experiences through the senses and presents them to the executive branch (the heart) for a decision on whether it will pursue the current course of action or will choose another based on the wisdom of past events. If the majority of its members belong to the Fear Party, then it is more likely the decisions of the executive branch (heart) will be subservient to the ego and the experiences will be discordant and not likely to pass through the judiciary (TA). If it is more dominated by the Love Party, the decisions of the heart are more likely to fall in favor of love, mercy, and compassion and the experiences are more likely to pass through the judicial branch and on into the soul. The judiciary (TA) holds the experiences up to the Divine Light and compares them to the precedence set by the Father in accordance with the criteria of Truth, Beauty and Goodness (the constitution).

The operations of the three soul processors are more complex than this parity suggests, yet this simple analogy is meant to stimulate your own thoughts about how experiences are processed to provide soul growth.

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LESSON 5: Free Will

Prime Directive #2: Will as determining factor

Without a free will, the creation would be but a vast operating field of robots incapable of reaching anything more than that already achieved up to the moment, since an automatic machine cannot strive for more than it has been programmed to perform.   

Today we have similar machines that perform monotonous, even though top precision, operations in industry, and they cannot choose some other operating function, for they are not designed for the other functions and cannot change the functions of their operation by themselves.

This example helps to develop a better understanding as to what it means to abolish free will. Even though these automatic machines do not have that living energy and they are but machines from the standpoint of their functioning, yet it would also be very similar with mortals if we had no free will any more. 

Therefore, it is only a free will that can provide such an inner environment to a free will creature, that the creature is capable of making a decision on how and what he must do. And having done it and having seen the consequences of the actions, he can even change his decision to encounter another sort of outcome. And he can change his decisions just because he enjoys a free will bestowed upon him by the Father.

Man truly is the architect of his own eternal destiny

Most of us do not think about a free will in our life at all, and we believe that we make use of it very little. But it is just the other way round. Every decision you make, is made on the basis of a free will. Even though it might seem to you that you arrive at your decisions just automatically, without pondering much, still they are free will decisions. Even the ones that have already been formed into your habits and that have turned into an inherent part of your own manifestation.

No other being, force, creator, or agency in all the wide universe of universes can interfere to any degree with the absolute sovereignty of the mortal free will, as it operates within the realms of choice, regarding the eternal destiny of the personality of the choosing mortal. As pertains to eternal survival, God has decreed the sovereignty of the material and mortal will, and that decree is absolute. Urantia Book 5:6.8

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. Urantia Book 5:6.12

As the two quotes above indicate, free will, while absolute, does nonetheless operate within the limits of certain parameters such as: the realm of choice, and eternal destiny of the personality. Sovereignty and free will are not unlimited and infinite. For something to be absolute does not make it infinite or without limits. Throughout the universe, every unit is regarded as a part of the whole. Survival of the part is dependent on co-operation with the plan and purpose of the whole, the wholehearted desire and willingness to do the Creator's divine will.

Because of this necessity for co-operation with the whole, we must always remember that our individual rights end where another's rights begin. And that makes mortal free will relative to external factors required for successful co-operation with the whole. That sets us a boundary which limits our realm of free will choice to decisions about ourselves, and the same applies to our fellow man, and that boundary makes it all relative. When we trespass across this boundary, problems are always the result.

This 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.

Man does not have unfettered and infinite free will; there are limits to our range of choice, but within the radius of this choice our will is relatively sovereign.

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LESSON 6: Sons & Daughters of God

Prime Directive #3: Sonship with God the Father

Spiritual Bondage

Let us begin by touching on the negative of spiritual bondage. The intent is not to instill fear or to rebuke the spiritually weak into obedience, so we shall not dwell on it for long. The causes of spiritual bondage are many. Spiritual bondage is the illusion of mind that prevents mortal man from seeing and believing in his or her eternal inheritance as faith sons and daughters of the Universal Father. Spiritual bondage shuts out the Light and dims the call of the Father to bring all men and women unto himself.

Of the many causes of spiritual bondage, materialism and selfishness are the greatest obstacles and detriments to soul growth. The other is the feeling of unworthiness and the confusion about the requirements to enter this spiritual family of the Father. The religions of the world have taken a very simple truth and made a labyrinth of rules and conditions that keep the followers ever in doubt of their true standing.

Let's not dwell on spiritual bondage any longer, but always remember its power to undermine your faith if you unwisely allow yourself to stray into the dark corners of materialistic and selfish habits.

Sonship in the Kingdom of Heaven

The Master came to illuminate and to teach those poor in spirit who felt they were outside and unworthy of salvation. Those that have ears, let them hear — Christ’s message was simple: to declare the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. To proclaim the truth about man’s eternal destiny and his sonship with the Father, for all men and women are indwelt with the spirit of the Father — a fragment of himself that lives in the mind of mortal men and women. Jesus taught that all men are your brothers, not just the ones that belong to your club — that the indwelling spirit binds us in brotherhood and that we should love each other as Christ loved us. The Kingdom of Heaven is the living experience of faith and belief in this indwelling spirit of the Father and His promise of eternal life. The doing of the Father’s will is the co-creative process of the Kingdom believer to actualize the outworking forward progression of spiritualization and perfection — to find God and to be like Him — to answer the Father’s call, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.”

Jesus said, if you sincerely believe this simple truth you are in the Kingdom, and you will know your standing in the Kingdom by the fruits that you bear. The Father holds nothing over your head — if you believe, you have entered. Plain and simple.

That is sonship and that is how we know that we have sonship with the Father — the creator of all. We know that all humans are the children of God, but what change, and what attributes define one who has sonship with the Father? Sonship is attained through the transformation of the soul from a state of blindness and darkness into a state of faith and light — a knowingness of ones eternal destiny — an acceptance of the inheritance of God’s eternal kingdom, and the realization of one’s place as a citizen of the grand universe. For one who has sonship with the Father, he or she heeds the call to perfection and is ever conscious of their forward progression and has a childlike faith and hunger for truth.

Those with sonship are not perfect, for they are all learning and struggling — discovering their true self and accepting their limitations while striving for self-mastery. They display the fruits of the spirit in their daily life — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control — they are becoming like Him and will ever reach to attain oneness with him. Those with sonship will increasingly live in providence, knowing that the Father knows what they need and will provide for their daily sustenance, and through the ministry of the Thought Adjuster, lead them onward to overcome their base natures and to know the better way.

Sonship with God also means that he or she is a partner with Him in His grand purpose. They will, more and more, do the will of the Father as the attunement of the mind responds to the leadings of the Thought Adjuster, and they willingly align their will with His. They feel the connectedness of all things and live a more harmonious life flowing with, and not against, the current of the river of life. Service to others becomes natural and second-nature — never a forced duty out of fear or expectant reward. They hunger for goodness and pray for the revelation and manifestation of higher spirit values in their lives. They recognize the divisions and barriers to true brotherhood and work to understand and resolve disharmony among his or her brethren.

Sonship is through family

Those having sonship are part of a family organism — they are in sympathy with the whole of the universe and they feel the pain of those outside the fold stumbling in darkness and yearn to bring them into the light. Each uses his or her gifts and talents for goodness and lives to be an example to those who are lost and scattered. They illuminate the path to a better way and forgo their own convenience to help those in need. Those having sonship will have an inner light that shines in the darkness and this light will be as a magnet to those that hunger and thirst for truth and righteousness, for which they will freely give.

All those who read this lesson and feel oneness in its message are on the path to true sonship with the Father. They recognize these attributes as reflective of their being or their future aspirations and are willing to trust God that he will ever draw them closer, because He loves them — they are his children.

The angels rejoice and cheer you onward and upward in your sacred journey to perfection.

The dignity of sonship

What is it to have dignity, and how does dignity relate to our spiritual walk with God?  Human dignity is a quality and an attitude of self respect — a worthiness to serve God and man with a position of honor and value as a true son or daughter of the Most High. Once you have accepted sonship with the Father, you are to conduct yourself, your actions and reactions, with peaceful assuredness and confidence, and without doubt in your standing as to your eternal survival.

Many of you still persist to hold onto the old paradigms that you are lowly and unworthy sinners, never to be sure about where you stand in relation to God and whether or not you are truly “saved” and written into the book of life. Stop measuring yourself against the requirements of men and orthodoxy. If you are here reading this message, then you are one who has begun their search for truth and for God.

If you sincerely believe in this sonship with the Father and you are working to love and serve your brothers and sisters, even though you may stumble along the way, willing to shake the dust from your coat and begin again — know that you are indeed written into that book, and conduct yourself as a representative of the kingdom who enjoys full diplomatic immunity from unworthiness and unrighteousness. With all humility, gratitude, and confidence; hold your head high knowing you house the jewel of the ages within you, the indwelling spirit of the Father, who will safely pilot you to those blessed shores of paradise.

You are being trained for great service in the kingdom. Use this dignity and assurance as a representative of Christ Michael and join with spirit to make a difference in the lives of all you know and meet, to fight the good fight, and to put into practice all that you have learned.

Forgive those who treat you unjust, for they fail to see the seal of eternity written on your soul, for they are unaware of their own divine spark and must find their way to truth and understanding on their own path. When they see the dignity of your countenance they will be attracted to your Light like a moth to the flame. Use this power of Light to teach and serve those who stumble in darkness.

Spirit works in unity and with those who have sonship. We are of one mind and work unendingly together to bring all into the family of the Father. Those of you who are spiritually aware are highly valued conduits of Light on the material plane. You are like life rafts floating in an ocean of flailing swimmers. With dignity, selflessness, and confidence, toss your life line to those in the water, and pilot them to safe harbors.

This in no way is a pursuit of selfish intent, but rather, a co-creative partnership between the Indwelling Spirit and the soul of the individual to develop the qualities and the capacity necessary for eternal life and sonship in the Father's creation: Childlike faith in the sovereignty of God; mercy, understanding, and compassion for one's fellows; a heart for service to one's fellows; genuine love for the Creator and His creation; the realization of the oneness and the connectedness of all things and beings; and pursuant to the likeness of God through the attributes of Truth Beauty and Goodness.

This is not a list to be crossed off as you make your way through life on this world, but rather, these things are to be learned and experienced — woven into the fabric of your life, here and hereafter, building upon previous lessons as you discover new meanings and values that develop the character and the personality of the soul — the harvesting of survival value experiences, your eternal heritage.

Throughout your eternal career you will continue to learn and grow; teach and serve, and discover new meaning and values as you increase your capacity for understanding the mysteries of God. For as you transition from one level to the next, so too will you receive this greater capacity for understanding. You will forever find increase in the desire to become godlike the more you understand how to discipline the mind and use the gifts of God power given to the worthy souls who align their will with the Creator's Will and to do those things that create progressive change in the lives of others, while you change as a result of living this divine love-path.

It is very important, for the continued progress of the individual, to rid yourself of the self-limiting thoughts and emotions derived from fear, an unforgiving spirit; and guilt as a result of some past failure, real or imagined. Ask for forgiveness and make your amends so you can start out with a clean heart, as it were, and move forward in the divine pursuit of perfection attainment. God loves all His children and desires all to partake of the grand adventure of eternity, to become perfect, like He is perfect — to seek Him out as you marvel at the sublimity of His creation.

Perfection is not automatic or quickly attained, it takes real courage and real intuitiveness. It takes patience and determination on your part to create change in the way you think and feel. What small step can you take today to move in the positive direction of perfection attainment? Search your soul and make that move, for there is no greater achievement than to move closer to, and become more reflective of our beloved Creator.

Sonship in the Kingdom, as a new child of God beginning his or her journey in the Kingdom, like a toddler he or she is not always certain of how to gain access to the throne of grace, and how to really know what the Father’s will for their life is. Thus begins the exciting adventure of discovery and great soul growth! This process of discovery, growth, and progression goes on throughout eternity. Each day while exercising the fruits of the spirit in your relationship with God and man, you take one step closer to Him and God takes two steps closer to you. He unfolds and reveals his will according to the faith of the individual. The Master said, “If you but had the faith of a mustard seed, you could command this mountain to remove itself into the sea, and it would obey your command.” Faith and belief are key to knowing the will of God.

Closet Cleaning

What is meant by this? It means that it is time to let the meaningless trifles and unimportant distractions of living go free from your mind and to recognize and to pursue the things of greater value in life.

These are the decisions and feelings that have survival value, those things that contribute to soul growth that you will carry with you into eternity. Every day that passes brings opportunities for you to make decisions that could have lasting and weighty value for soul growth and for the spiritual nourishment of your brothers and sisters.

This is what the religion of Moses was alluding to with its celebration of the Days of Unleavened Bread. This religious Feast teaches that if we maintain our faith in God and never give up our work of soul growth, that we are assured of victory. No matter how many times we may stumble and fall down along the way, Father's mercy and forgiveness will always be generous enough.

Let us be conscious of what things we allow to occupy our grey matter and let the “small stuff” go and start to see beyond this temporal life into the larger view of eternity. Yes, you must still go to work, raise your families, enjoy your life, but while you are doing those things, be conscious of your life mission and to your role as one who has sonship with the Father. In the coming days you will have many opportunities to make those decisions to act in accordance with the Father’s will. When acting selflessly and in service to others will you have help form above. Use this great power of unity with spirit and spiritual brotherhood to co-create the greatest outcome.

Trinity of Being

The Trinity of Being is: Truth Beauty and Goodness. As you progress and become more and more like your heavenly Father, your personality and your very nature will reflect this Trinity of Being.

Truth will become ever more apparent and the understanding of it will become clearer and more defined. You will communicate truth to others with greater confidence, and others will receive it with greater ease of understanding. Christ’s Spirit of Truth will work in you, through you, and your discernment of revelation will enable you to extract the very essence and purity of a given truth in part or whole, where it can be absorbed into the soul for eternal reflection. Your spiritual ears will develop; you will hear the voice of your indwelling with greater clarity; and you will learn to trust your intuition when unseen guidance points the way.

Beauty will become you. With respect for body, mind, and soul, you will become more beautiful in every way. As you purify your body to honor the indwelling God, your appearance will change and your very aura will shine with greater luminosity. Your personality will become magnetic, and your fellows will be drawn to this inner beauty which you will exude with kindness, love, and consideration. You will acquire a new appreciation for all things beautiful: nature, art, music, poetry, philosophy, and other virtuous expressions of higher human consciousness. Insight into cosmic realities and hidden meanings will speak to you through the appreciation of all things beautiful.

Goodness will be the banner of your presence. Love for God and man will show forth in the fruits of the spirit as you become more aware of the will of God through your devotion to serve others. You will communicate the goodness of the Father to others by becoming a living example of His unconditional love. Goodness and love freely given will be reflected back unto you as reward for righteous living and will count as the evidence of your sonship in the Father’s family. Gentleness, humility, and self control will transform the nature of self from what you were, to what you will become as God purifies the soul through the building of strong character.

Truth Beauty and Goodness is the Trinity of Being and becomes the very embodiment and reflectivity of God likeness. Seek after those things, and discover the secret to eternal life and friendship with God.

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LESSON 7: The Brotherhood of All Mankind

Prime Directive #4: The loving service of men

What does it mean to serve, especially in the divine sense? And who is serving who? The economy of the universe is based on the currency of this thing called service. But what is it? It is the simultaneous giving and receiving of and for the self with another — that is transacting with another in a mutually beneficial way!

Many make the mistake in believing that it (the receipt of benefit from service) is a one-way transaction. Yet many understand that it is not. You have heard “it is more blessed to give than to receive”. This is another way of saying that the giver receives more than the recipient in the giving. But did you know that to receive is also to minister to the giver? 

The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself.

That is spiritual power. That is intentional living. That is growth promoting and creating hopeful feeling that you are really living this mortal life, not being dragged through it.

Much confusion regarding service has been introduced by those who are strongly motivated by the desire to gain profit. The profit motive has been instrumental in the building of a modern civilisation. It has served a much useful purpose. However, service and profit are not the same. When profiteers present the notions of service to those whom they would enslave, the concept is transformed to become one of servitude rather than service, with the main idea being that so-called service consists in relinquishing one's material goods and efforts in order to improve one's self spiritually, and of course, the material goods and efforts received go on to improve the profits of the presenter. The most compelling use of this logic has been put forth by certain persons in organized religions, and they are most plentiful. Motive is extremely important in understanding the true nature of service.

True service, when performed, eventuates in spiritual growth. The addition of service motives, true service motives, to the existing profit motive, is a great step forward.

Many of the proverbs of Jesus are guidelines for you if you wish to be more service oriented and service actuated. For example, “it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish.” What good, truly, for a man to pursue profit throughout his life — disdaining Truth Beauty and Goodness, and Love — just to amass a great fortune in material goods, and then make large charitable contributions shortly before his death in the name of service?

Each of you, each individual, is unique and different, a created personality with a specific mission in the universe. The ultimate in service is to develop your skills and perform them to the best of your ability with each day that you live, whatever your skills may be, to be honest, to be kind.

Would you deprive others of the adversity that they require for their own experiential growth? If not, then why would you give a man goods he has not earned? Jobs he does not deserve? Honors he does not merit? The rewarding of inferior performance, even though it may be well motivated, is not correct. It leads to mediocrity, and holds everyone back rather than advancing. Inferior performance, if left alone unrewarded, will either improve or will extinguish itself, because it will not succeed. If rewarded, inferior performance will persist and detract from the superior performance of others, others who are rightfully motivated and service oriented. Pity is not the same as compassion.

Service has nothing to do with the gratification of the ego, which is another area of confusion, and incorrect motivation. Doing good is not the same as making another person feel good. How could you possibly know what really makes them feel good. To do such a thing is to attempt to enter into ego-seeking of the other. It is not service, and in fact it is the beginning of what can turn into full fledged trespass on another's free will.

True service is not the pursuit of one's own selfish goals, either. If anything, service takes you outside of yourself. It has been said that it is most important while living this mortal life to be in the world yet not of it. That is part of service.

To grow spiritually is becoming more and more service oriented in your actions, and that will feed your soul, and that will lead you to experience a greater measure of energies and a lesser concern with material needs. And, interestingly, you will find that your material life will become easier, with far less conflict (a wonderful side effect of soul growth). That is not to say you will not continue to experience adversity, with battles. But you will find it less onerous.

Do not be fearful, but have joy and good cheer for you have some wonderful experiences awaiting! 

There is much power in fellowship

In the busyness of everyday living we tend to become somewhat lost or disconnected from Spirit. Your fellowship is a tool for rallying each ones personal faith, and becoming strengthened for the week ahead. Your willingness to share experience always helps somebody. To be open and honest about life's realities aids those who hear you, and helps us all to feel a part of the Kingdom.

You each have gifts that tend to the wellness of the whole. Perhaps one of you is a good listener and shows compassion, and yet does not enable one to be weak, but become strengthened and inspired to carry on. Perhaps one of you may be quite skilled in the sharing of wise counsel and is able to impart wisdom to aid in life circumstances. There are those of you who have a heightened sense of justice and can bring about group solution in a non-biased manner. There are those of you who emanate a peace and calm that is contagious to those around you. In this peaceful example you help others to find their own Spirit within.

There are those of you who are wonderful organizers and instigators of new projects. You help to bring high ideals to a human useable level. There are those of you with the gift of speech and often do well as a group spokesman. There are those of you who are deep thinkers and always have a wonderful perspective to share, that guides towards logic and practicality, straying away from mysticism and perhaps self-deceit or denial.

When you add up these gifts there is definitely a great deal of power and influence that can be found in a group. There is so much good that can come from just one group. You are each strengthened by one another and your dedication to gathering regularly confirms your faith and strengthens your collective foundation.

That is spiritual power. That is intentional living. That is growth promoting and creating hopeful feeling that you are really living this mortal life, instead of being dragged through it.

The group is your tool

We all have a great deal to gain from one another. Those that have not known a loving parent may perhaps meet such a role model here in the group. Where one has not been a parent, there is experience to be gained from those in the group. Where there is lack there is fulfillment here. One who has not known a true friend will most likely find one here. One that does not know how to be a true friend will most likely find a wonderful example of one here.

Many have not experienced a typical childhood and have a great many issues to be healed. Through your willingness to share, heal and be healed, there will be fulfillment and satisfaction; there will be experience to be gained from one another; there will be tools to be shared in experiencing everyday life. There is such power in fellowship. There is such feelings of confidence being part of a family unit.

You sleep when you are tired. You eat when you are hungry. You communicate with your brethren when you feel empty. There is powerful wisdom to be gained in your unity. It is most likely that through fellowship your gifts will be fostered to use in everyday living.

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LESSON 8: Above & Beyond

Prime Directive #5: Transcendency of the spiritual over the material

Living a transcendent life

Transcendency in the context of this lesson means living according to the Will of God in every moment. It is taking the lessons that come to you, and squeezing out even the last drop of wisdom available. Going Above & Beyond the daily routine of self maintenance (food, shelter, clothing). Finding spiritual and soul nourishing purpose and value in all your earthly activities. It is also to master the art of patience and to accept that everything has its time and will happen at the right moment, as your indwelling spirit and pilot guides you.

Those who live with this intensity and focus are happy regardless of the situation. This has to be emphasized, since happiness should be the normal state of people illumined by spirit, because they are capable of understanding that they are always growing, and always without hesitation or doubt, that they are being guided towards a wonderful destiny Above & Beyond.

Jesus cried, worked and tired. However, he never worried. He never wanted to know ahead of time if he would cry or suffer. He always lived in the present and He was always happy in each moment. Even while suffering He knew that after the pain a bigger pleasure was prepared for him. Could you live your life in this way? In this moment, here and now, what do you need that you don't have already? Where would you rather be if not here, especially in this moment when we are talking and you open your mind to realities beyond the physical world? Life is always wonderful. Each moment can be filled with wonder and wisdom beyond understanding. Happiness is already within you, so take a moment to discover it.

A transcendent life is not a life filled with big adventures, deep afflictions, or great deeds. But rather it is a life of great discoveries, especially of self discovery. It is a life in which every day your mind is opened to a bigger, higher and more beautiful reality. It is a life in which every day you realize how magnificent your destiny is, as is your place as a true child of God. It is a life of love, where the trust in the care of your Father and the confidence in a friendly universe make every place a paradise. The Kingdom of Heaven is not an institution that will descend from the sky, but a reality that grows in the hearts and souls of mankind. The Kingdom of Heaven is not the age of Light & Life. The age of Light & Life will come to this world when the Kingdom of Heaven has manifested in the lives of all the people of this planet. Do you see how today, right now, you can help to bring the age of Light & Life to our native planet, Earth?

Soul growth through character building

To build character is to overcome (transcend) the vicissitudes of time and circumstance in your life, to rise above (transcend) the difficulties and not to succumb to the easy answers that your culture would provide for you. Growth in character is not synonymous with the growth of your spirituality, but it is definitely synonymous with the growth of your soul.

Spiritual progress is measured by the degree to which the human mind has established a connection with the soul that knows God. This is the reason why spiritual achievement is sometimes referred to as “how close one has come to finding the Father”. This can be achieved by being flexible in your beliefs, and by adopting the attitude of a true scientist in attempting to find the Father within yourself, and observing what happens.

The leaps of faith that we make, this stretching of the self, is indeed a trying process for many and in such a life as is being lived during this tumultuous generation, episodes of the demonstration of this in action are often fleeting and cyclical, but remember that the darkest times are when your light shines brightest! There may be times in your life when you are strongly motivated to walk this plank of faith and see what comes of it. There are other times when you may be inundated by the trials and tribulations and the demands of life so that not much energy may be left to devote to the exploration of spirit and faith, when you feel as if you are hanging on by a single thread. Never give up! These are often the most growth promoting, value filled, and faith building experiences. Transcending through these intense moments and periods often provide the closest and most intimate contact with the Fatherhood of God.

There are innumerable life changes which come upon individuals and bump them in one direction or another. For you who witness the ebb and flow of spiritual activity among your brethren and friends, it may be seem to you as though some have gained faith, some have lost faith, some have pursued spirit and some have forsaken it. You may be inclined to make subsequent assessments and judgements based upon your observations and determinations, but know this, one of the basic principles you will come to embrace in your spiritual journey is that no one is in a position to make an assessment or a judgement on anothers spiritual stature.

It is simply not for you to know of the inner lives of your brothers and sisters. You are able to view the fruits of spiritual growth as they are present and as you witness them. To this degree you should be joyous and happy for them but you are not privy to know the inner workings of your fellows, what they are grappling with, what their needs are in this life, what their tools are in this life, what their motivation may be and why. This is the domain of another persons free will, and should you dare to venture into that domain you would be tresspassing on their sovereignty. 

That's what makes this mortal experience so hard of comprehension for all that you get to see is the outer workings, the material manifestations of ones inner spiritual cultivation. You do not get to see what goes on behind the scenes and underneath the production. You cannot tell what challenges they are overcoming day by day, what obstacles they face, what successes that they have in the process. You merely see the physical and tangible results of their process in motion.

All that you can do is proceed in your fashion with your understanding and your awareness, being mindful not to tresspass, not to step into a jurisdiction that is not yours to govern. Offer as much support as you can manage, bring as much awareness as you possess, offer yourself in ministry as you are so able and simply allow the process to unfold. In other words be an active and wise participant in the Brotherhood of Man. The only part of the process that is up to you is your process and your interface with the grand process. It is when you begin to interface, interact, connect with that grand process that you begin to transcend the simple material habits of living. That is when you are beginning to go Above & Beyond, and earning your merit badges in the Kindgom of Heaven. That is all you have jurisdiction over. To make assessments or judgements about others, what they need, how you might help, what they are doing right or what they are doing wrong, are all just a mental exercise on your part, an attempt to understand, an effort to embrace this reality.

But everyone out there is their own mini-verse of experience, of truth, of understanding and awareness and you cannot know what is within this mini-verse of experience. You can barely understand what is in your own mini-verse of awareness. The purpose of this life, is to simply grow in awareness about your experience. Let others uncover their own truths and have their own experiences. This does not mean that you are not keenly interested in the well being and welfare of others and in so far as you are able to support them in their journey, provide stability for them to utilize in their experience, even provide examples that they might wish to choose and follow, these are your areas of jurisdiction, your realm of concern. That is it, that and gleaning from this life experience, all that you can manage to stuff into it in the process. Drink this cup to the full, live an intense life, focused on Father and in service to your brothers and sisters. Soon enough there will be whole new expanses, whole new arenas to engage in, as mortal life is but a short blip on the eternal path of life.

So seize the moment, grab the day. Do not be so busy that it slips by you unnoticed. Live your life to the fullest of your ideals and your principles and you will provide for others this inspiration, this desire to take from you those attributes which they admire and cherish. That is the game, a simple one and yet seemingly so layered and complex that it appears overwhelming so much of the time. But remember the phrase that God will not give you anymore than you can handle, and this is true. So when it seems as though your life is full and even overwhelmed, recall this truth that if you could not handle it, it would not be there.

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LESSON 9: Physical Death — Our First Graduation

The nature of physical death and the resurrection being what they are — something that can only be truly known by those who have experienced it — presents a dilemma of sorts for this lesson. No one alive today is qualified by experience to speak authoritatively about either death or the resurrection. We can only attempt to broach this hurdle by offering some insights from the Urantia Book, which claims to have authoritative knowledge of these two processes.

Jesus taught that death was not to be feared

Every mortal human being has a spirit nucleus. The mind is a system existing around that spirit nucleus and functioning in a material environment. Such a relationship of mind and spirit gives us the potential for eternal personality. There is something real, something of human evolution, which survives death. This entity is the soul, and it survives the death of both your physical body and your material mind. This entity is the child of the human you in liaison with the divine you. This child of human and divine parentage is the surviving element of mortal origin; it is the immortal soul.

At death the identity associated with the human personality is temporarily suspended. The stoppage of material life destroys the physical brain patterns of the mind and terminates mortal consciousness. The consciousness of that creature cannot reappear until a situation has been arranged which will permit the same human personality to function again in relationship with a new form of living energy.

Death adds nothing to the intellectual possession or to the spiritual endowment, but it does add the consciousness of survival to one's experience. Most human beings die because, having failed to achieve the spirit level, death is the only possible way in which they may escape the limitations of time and matter. Having survived the trial life of time and material existence, it becomes possible for you to continue on for eternity.

Love of adventure, curiosity, and dread of monotony — these traits inherent in evolving human nature — were not put there just to aggravate and annoy you during your short time on earth, but rather to suggest to you that death is only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an everlasting life of anticipation, an eternal voyage of discovery.

The phenomenon of death

Concerning personality survival, there are really three kinds of death:

Spiritual or Soul death is when man has finally rejected survival which is final.

Intellectual (mind) death is whenever the essential mind circuits of human will-action have been destroyed even though there is continuing function of the living mechanism of the physical body.

Physical (body and mind) death is when the material body returns to the elemental world from where it was derived. However, two non-material factors of surviving personality persist: the pre-existent Thought Adjuster, with the memory transcription of the mortal career, and the immortal morontia soul of the deceased human in the custody of the seraphic destiny guardian. It is the reunion of the Adjuster and the soul that reassembles the surviving personality — the morontia self — the immortal soul. Urantia Book 112:3.2-5

Survival choice is indomitable

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

The resurrection

The mansonia resurrection halls.
From the Temple of New Life there extend seven radial wings, the resurrection halls of the mortal races. Each of these structures is devoted to the assembly of one of the seven races of time. There are one hundred thousand personal resurrection chambers in each of these seven wings terminating in the circular class assembly halls, which serve as the awakening chambers for as many as one million individuals. There halls are surrounded by the personality assembly chambers of the blended races of the normal post-Adamic worlds. Regardless of the technique which may be employed on the individual worlds of time in connection with special or dispensational resurrections, the real and conscious reassembly of actual and complete personality takes place in the resurrection halls of mansonia number one. Throughout all eternity you will recall the profound memory impressions of your first witnessing of these resurrection mornings. Urantia Book 47:3.5

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

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

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

    3. When these prerequisites of repersonalization have been assembled, the seraphic custodian of the potentialities of the slumbering immortal soul, with the assistance of numerous cosmic personalities, bestows this morontia entity upon and in the awaiting morontia mind-body form while committing this evolutionary child of the Supreme to eternal association with the waiting Adjuster. And this completes the repersonalization, reassembly of memory, insight, and consciousness — identity. Urantia Book 112:5.16-19 

Resurrection launches us on our morontia career

Mortal death is a technique of escape from the material life in the flesh; and the mansonia experience of progressive life through seven worlds of corrective training and cultural education represents the introduction of mortal survivors to the morontia career, the transition life which intervenes between the evolutionary material existence and the higher spirit attainment of the ascenders of time who are destined to achieve the
portals of eternity. Urantia Book 47:10.7

The survival of young children

Children who die when too young to have Thought Adjusters are repersonalized on the finaliter world of the local systems concomitant with the arrival of either parent on the mansion worlds. A child acquires physical
entity at mortal birth, but in the matter of survival all Adjusterless children are reckoned as still attached to their parents.

In due course Thought Adjusters come to indwell these little ones, while the seraphic ministry to both groups of the probationary-dependent orders of survival is in general similar to that of the more advanced parent or is equivalent to that of the parent in case only one survives. Those attaining the third circle, regardless of the status of their parents, are accorded personal guardians. Urantia Book 49:6.12-13

An interesting aside

In many cultures it is customary to place the deceased horizontally and facing up, with the hands touching and resting on the chest or belly area. As it turns out, there is more than mere culture or habit behind this widespread and peculiar funerary practice. There is a certain value to doing this, but it must be done at the moment of death or very quickly afterwards. Our Guardian Angels are the ones entrusted with the most sacred task of removing the surviving soul from a deceased physical body, and this they normally do about 3 or 4 minutes after the last brain/mind activity has ceased. The process involves disconnecting the soul from the deceased body's energy circuits. But since the deceased body still contains a significant amount of residual energy in it (it takes a while for this energy to disspiate), the moment the angel "pulls the plug" to disconnect the soul from the body, this residual energy can give them something akin to an electrical shock. One way to help prevent this is to place the hands of the deceased so they are touching. This hand contact creates a closed loop energy circuit through the arms and chest which prevents the residual energy from jumping into the angel.

Much more about the resurrection, where it happens, and how we travel there is discussed in our School of Cosmology.

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LESSON 10: The Road Greatly Travelled

In these lessons on the soul building process we have examined what constitutes a survival value experience, and what practical value those experiences have in forming the surviving morontia soul. It is wise to give thought to the value of your experiences and to maximize your time in building the best soul possible.

Think about this: If 90% of your life experience was lived in the pursuit of non-survival values, what value would be in your soul? Only crumbs, and after death there would not be much of "you" left to begin the next phase of your post-resurrection life. You would be unprepared for your new adventure on the mansion worlds and would have a difficult time making the transition.

The weightier your soul is, rich with survival value experiences, mastery, and character in this life, the greater will be your ability to grasp the new meanings and values you encounter in this new and amazing resumption of your life on the mansion worlds; for each progressive realm of existence builds upon the experiences of the former, and the wisdom gleaned from those experiences is what perfects the mind and raises the vibratory signature of the surviving soul, elevating it closer and closer to the Source of all creation.

Become aware of this process as you go about your daily lives and think about how your current life shall work into your new environment and continuing life on the mansion worlds, and how you can start now to build a better you.

A well prepared traveler plans ahead for a long journey and packs the essential things needed for visiting a new land. So, what should you pack to bring to Heaven? Imagine what it will be like to visit this new land. What are the people like there? What are the customs? What's the weather like? What is the economy like? Are there any dangers? Imagine this heaven-like place and think about what you would need to actually live there.

Since there is no money economy in Heaven, you will not need currency, silver, gold, or any of the experiences from your current life that pertain to the procurement of money. That's a huge chunk of human life experience is it not? What about all those experiences you are not proud of that include anger, resentment, cruelty, abusiveness, judgment, selfishness, un-forgiveness, and other experiences that did not serve you well in this mortal life? They will not be needed there, because there is no practical or future use for such valueless meanings. All the hurtful, shameful, contemptible experiences (non-survival values) will fall away like scaffolding when you make the transition.

If you think about only the very best experiences you had in life, those are the things that will serve you in the next phase of your life on the mansion worlds. Loving relationships are the first and most important experiences the TA will likely retain for you. Those experiences that involve the discovery of Truth, the joy of creating or beholding Beauty, and the experiences of being in a state of Goodness. Those times and situations where you truly enjoyed living life to the fullest are the most valuable experiences to bring with you. 

When life experience encompasses Love in any way, shape, or form, it is sure to become part of your soul as your eternal inheritance for your ascension career.

These lessons have prepared you for our next curriculum which will introduce you to the Spirit realm and its vast host of helpers; but before you begin your journey in that realm, here are a few more insights about the soul and life in Heaven.

Some of the activities and practices you now entertain, and which bring value to your life, shall become a great asset to you in the afterlife. Being consciously prepared for your next adventure, having the blessed assurance that life is eternal is one of the greatest joys of living that shall sustain you and keep you moving forward, toward god-like perfection.

On the mansion worlds you will have greater mind capacity and circuitry connected to the cosmic mind, your ability to focus and reflect on the earth treasures you bring with your soul will help you to get acclimated to morontia life and the perfection process of ascension. There you no longer have to spend time and energy carving out a living to sustain your most basic physical needs, or to provide shelter and pay rent. Since your soul is potentially immortal you will have infinitely more time to build a better you.

Think about how much time you spend each day on self-improvement, or nurturing a loving relationship, compared to all the time spent on terrestrial needs? This ratio is nearly reversed on the mansion worlds and much of your early activities and time will be spent acclimating to your new morontia bodies and discovering and using your new expanded abilities. You will no longer have a physical brain that operates on electrochemical impulses driven by emotion, and therefore you will have greater control of your thoughts and the ability to analyze past experiences without self-loathing, and to extract the higher meanings and values as they relate to your ascendant career.

Do you practice stillness, and do you communicate your questions, ask for guidance, share your thoughts and desires with the Father? This same process of reaching out to Spirit for nurturing and guidance will continue on the mansion worlds, yet the energetic connection to these divine sources will be more real to you there because of your conscious connection to your Indwelling Father fragment, the Thought Adjuster. Do you enjoy socializing, gathering with like-minded personalities and sharing and exchanging information and experiences? On the mansion worlds, you won't have to search far to find kindred spirits, for you shall be mostly grouped together with those of similar vibration where you can all learn and acquire new knowledge, discover and create new ideas, and progress together in a safe and astonishing environment where you can focus on those things that interest you most.

There is a familiar pattern to life after you strip away all the interference from terrestrial challenges, that you can begin to recognize, that will carry over with you into the hereafter. There you can more clearly see how important is your earth life, your decisions and actions, your loves and relationships, and how they shape who you are and what you are becoming. As was previously stated at the beginning of this lesson, become aware of this process as you go about your daily lives and think about how your current life shall progress into your environment on the mansion worlds and how you can build a better you.

And finally, upon your completion of this course, we are making available to you a document entitled: Nature and Nurture of the Soul which contains every reference to the soul found in the Urantia Book. This document was graciously made available by the 2024 UAUS International Conference.

Go directly to our next course: The Spirit in Man.

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