Pain Management and Cognitive Liberty on Urantia

This essay has little to do with the Urantia Book. But it does have to do with our world and our Western culture. It was inspired by my concern about my sister, Deb's pain management; that her doctors skimped on how much medication they gave her after surgery. I think that the following will show that something so common (inadaquate pain management) actually has much deeper roots. And these roots are watered by the lack of our human government to provide its citizens with Cognitive Liberty.


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Regarding what I consider to be the extreme negligence of certain individuals in the medical community in the area of pain management and how that is tied into some basic things that are going wrong with our culture...

The proof is in the pudding:

Another DEA mistake

DEA as overseer of Doctors...

Pain and the Law

News of the Day

Many other instances of DEA interference in pain management

The DEA acknowledges yet denies the conflict between drug control and pain control

The DEA’s bad-faith war on pain doctors

Continuing Concerns About DEA’s 'Prescription Series' Proposal [PDF]

The War on Pain Medicine

Why do physicians fear prescribing adequate levels of opiates?

Thirty Attorneys General Speak Out On Pain Management


Undertreatment of chronic pain


Keep a close eye on your baby

My point here is that the reason there even IS a DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency, established in 1973) is because there is an official "War on Drugs" (actually, a civil war prosecuted by a government against its own people) initiated by a criminal, Richard Nixon, in the year Deb was born, 1969.

If you have a chance, download and/or listen to Jonathan Ott's extremely concise lecture on this topic [thanks to Lorenzo Hagerty for this audio file].

Using logic, one can then state that it is the War on Drugs that frightens and ties the hands of physicians. If this "WAR" were ended, not only would physicians have the liberty to actually practice compassionate medicine by playing with a full deck, but, in most cases, "alternative" medicines (like very safe Cannabis) would finally be able to be used instead of, or in combination with, LESS opiates.

Unfortunately, even where Medical Marijuana is legal, finding a doctor who will write a note for you can be a dignity-destroying experience. Also, it can not be done for *temporary* pain.

More audio presentations [thanks again to Lorenzo Hagerty for the following audio files]:

Ethan Nadelmann - Time to End the War on Drugs


Andrew Weil - Psychoactive Drugs Through Human History


Claudia Little - The Truth About Cannabis

The reason why I am so tempted to lash out at the medical community is because of the lack of courage I find there. But they don't deserve as much blame as I occassionally feel like placing on them. It is actually the scientific community - upon which both the DEA and the medical community depend for validation of their policies - that keeps dropping the research ball.

Scientists can perform the most abominable experiments on animals, they can probe the outer reaches of the universe, they can build multi-billion dollar supercolliders... Their knowledge is tested and verified by scholarly review with an unquestionable scrutiny that is unparalleled in the history of humanity. Science is touted as the greatest arbiter of secular and objective truth in this world. But when it comes to research on the value of Cannabis and the other psychedelic substances to medical science and the profoundly positive social policy changes that research could engender, many scientists are cowards of the first order. Forget grants and funding, the subject isn't even mentionable.

Every researcher in psychopharmacology should be standing up to the government in this respect, and so should every concerned citizen. As things are today, the government is not controlled by a democratic system. As we have seen above (and most of us have seen in our personal lives), pure military-industrial, power-based politics and fundamentalist religion RULE everyone on earth; most, with the barrel of a gun. If you think that you have REAL freedom, you are self-deluded in the extreme - no kinder way to say it.

As Terence McKenna might have explained the situation: The fact is that no one is handing out rights. They must be TAKEN. Cannabis and other psychedelic substances expand consciousness and cause people to question the hyper-conventionalism and unthinking habit of the broken-down and anitquated social and economic systems of every-day life that we seem to be enshrining and approving of (through our NON-action). Governments become very afraid when their citizens begin asking such inconvenient questions.

These substances bring about a realization in the people who know how to use them properly. It is a realization that it is the barriers we build between each other, and the groups that do the same thing, that are the biggest stumbling blocks to human PROGRESS. And here, in the 21st Century, these barriers are leading to a world-wide cultural REGRESS. If people began to make it a priority to tear down these barriers--starting with the liberty to think what we want and explore our own minds--control over our personal lives and inner thoughts would then fall back to WE, THE PEOPLE, where it belongs.

Thankfully, for the first time in history, due to the Internet and free speech forums like Facebook, people now have access to immense amounts of exponentially growing information (both objective study and subjective personal opinions, like mine) and they can make their OWN decisions about what is right and wrong. No longer can these concepts (right and wrong) be dictated to us from on high...

And no longer can uncomfortable truths be kept in the closet. We have to USE this new and unprecedented tool to free ourselves from unnecessary physical pain and suffering, unfair searches and seizures, moralistic oppression of sexual preference, institutionalized sexism (starting with pay equality) and the subsidized, debt-based, rampant consumerism of Western-style capitalism. The last and the greatest of all human rights issues is now upon us as a global civilization: The struggle for Cognitive Liberty.

When this struggle is (hopefully) won, a truly ethical age will dawn on this planet. Of course, I say that optimistically. The alternative is what we are heading toward now: hurting each other, dangerous religious fundamentalism, thing-fetishism and mall-worship, international mistrust, environmental destruction, biased scientific research, poverty, and perpetual war. If we continue on the path we have chosen so far, we WILL destroy ourselves, possibly along with all other higher-life, and the human race will have proved itself to be nature's biggest mistake.

Where are all other people who believe these things? Are these issues SO radical and embarrassing that it is thought best to leave them undiscussed? People are afraid to rock the boat. But, if they only would, they would tip that sucker over and find that the water was only 12 inches deep all along! It seems to me that the more "radical" thing would be to just leave these issues undiscussed; whistle past the graveyard until we are all buried there, in dark and everlastingly-cold silence.

We need to CHOOSE what we are here on earth for, as individuals and collectively, and we need to do it NOW. Is it to foul our own nest to the point of our own obliteration? Or, is it to become closer to each other than we ever imagined we could be and to march together - as a species - toward a future life of light-filled happiness and peace?

Time to decide.

A Facebook Discussion With Paula Thompson on the New Urantia Fellowship Church

Paula practicing what she preaches.

When I became concerned with the religious state of our community. The first person I thought of to gain some clarification from is Paula Thompson. She is major player in the UB organizations and a friend of mine for the last 15 years or so.

To one of her excellent ads at Facebook for her web radio show, "Cosmic Citizen," I asked...


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ALEX WALL - How about a show that discusses the fact that the movement is being turned into a religion by the major UB organizations? After all, isn't it TRUTH that we are seeking...


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That led to the following discussion among a few UB readers...


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MIKE BAIN - Alex - You have an excellent and valid point. We are to exhibit the Spirit, a Living and Breathing aspect of Truth that cannot be contained by words, powers, etc. only experience, and most of it personal spiritual experience.

ALEX WALL - Thanks, Mike.

[Since it is unlikely that I will be interviewed on this matter (ha, ha)I'm going to take a mile from that inch now... :) This is very long so people might want to just not read it, if they aren't interested or prefer to remain blissfully blind, rather than complain about its length.]

Also, doesn't that Living and Breathing Spirit often move us to pray, in private (like I do many times a day)? Why must I have to be "LED" by another person's prayer, if I don't want to be? Festivals like the one just passed (TUUFF) are wonderful opportunities to meet and have face to face discussions (and even debates). But I'm not interested in the moralistic religious tone and scheduled group prayer and worship each day. That is against my personal religion. I find it offensive and spiritually intrusive.

Here's a link to the schedule so people can see for themselves:

http://ubron.org/groupdocs/TUUFF10-Schedule.pdf.

My question to everyone is...

What Foundation or Fellowship festival can people like myself meet at, with UB folks from all over the world, but who have agreed not to be subjected to preplanned religious ceremonies of any kind?

Perhaps in a festival like THAT there would be only *spontaneous* praying, and when the Living and Breathing Spirit moved any group of people there, they could express their joy through worshipful group-praise for this *special* group event that they PERSONALLY experienced, right THEN (not on some "schedule")? Perhaps group prayer and led-worship RETARD the efforts of that spirit at UB functions--including Study Groups? How would anyone who uses group prayer know?

Or maybe people won't be interested in any socio-religious expression...Shouldn't that be okay too. Wasn't the whole idea od TUUFF to be inclusive? At least people like myself wouldn't be forced to endure being "directed" by someone else's religious expression. None of that would preclude a (potentially more) profound and joyous, spiritual experience for all! :D

REAL things would actually get done, not just resolutions like for the orgs to "not speak despairingly of each other." I mean!...what does that have to do with the individual readers? Who really cares?? Unity will never be achieved by this kind of top-down, organizational approach. It seems all we really need is a unification of (organizationally unaffiliated) READERSHIP--as such(!), not an impossible, impractical and possibly-immoral, organizational religious "unity."

People (especially younger people) want dynamic group SPIRIT, not worn-out religious ritual.

All of this is what I mean by the UB *organizations* (the prominent members of which populated and led TUUFF) trying to turn the "Urantia" Book readers (after all, the orgs hold the licenses to use that word--not you and me) into a literal "Church of Urantia."

But, they will NEVER speak for this Urantian...And I would be happy and proud to be kicked out of their church. The organizations have lost the secular battle for the movement, so in desperation they have chosen to religify it. They are NOT the leaders of the Urantia Book movement! Do not be deceived by the money and power they throw into their efforts. And if you are a thinking person, stop donating to them. Yes, I said that. And I mean it. I urge people to boycott the UB organizations until they drop religiosity from the menu entirely--no quarter. This is TOO important ignore.

All just my obviously very strong opinion of course... :) ...and it is meant in the spirit of progressivism, with loving intent, and is not purely as a criticism, and not meant as being directed toward any one person...especially Paula, probably the most UB-service-oriented human being alive today. This NEEDS to be discussed, not ignored blown-off... And I plan to discuss it all over the place.

MIKE BAIN - I would hope that your post was not removed from this type of open and free-flowing forum, Chuck. I have greatly enjoyed FB because of it's open and inclusive nature. Not that it hasn't been a little too fluffy at times for me, but hey, fluffy is good too. If I am feeling I need to feel good, I come here. But, I like to see a balance, and I think ... See Moreyou represent that, Chuck.

You are voicing concerns that have been (or should be) in the back of every Urantia Book Student ever since the papers started transmitting.

Prayer schedules, etc are just part of the issue, the "churchification" issue, although I admit I have been ignorant of any aspirations from any UB orgs, is definitely going to continue to be a point of contention and disagreement because of the nature of Spirit.

In this regard, I am glad Richard Omura put me in my place as far as trying to identify ourselves as anything else but ascenders, because pigeon-holing people is the delight of the science-minded (and something that exists in the human brain anyway).

How will outstanding/understanding/fruitful/spiritual ascenders be known/inspirational/loving to others? "By their fruits you shall know them."

If I stop my routine to help someone in need; if I go out of my way to do something, I would hope that people would recognize the Spirit flowing from me, instead of what I attempt to represent to them. If they discern the Spirit, nothing especially identifying is needed. The Spirit speaks for us.

How do we do this? Well, some folks are joining ALL organizations, UB and otherwise (attend a mosque, a Buddhist monestary, and other spiritual places, all at once). And from there, they will see, we are not stuck in a human loop; because Spirit speaks in a greater loop that involves all ascenders. That's how I feel (in the Spirit).

Father Bless You All,
Michael Bain

ALEX WALL - Very well put, Mike!

I like the idea of joining ALL (relevant) organizations. That's a good one too. It beats the hell out of joining only a few. Being exclusive to only a few severely limits one's perspective. Organizations have one goal: loyalty to the organization. That's it. Especially religious ones.

The biggest problem is the inability to see what they are doing from the outside. It is scary to me that the concerns we have about this "churchification" is SO summarily discounted. I cannot see a way that the Foundation or Fellowship would ever experiment with non-religious festivals, meetings, study groups, conclaves, or international conferences. They won't even comment on it.

So it is time to leave them. Frankly, at this point I would want to be associated with ANY organization, more than a "Urantian" one, except maybe UBRON.org. The others embarrass me. It pains me to no end that a huge amount of money was left by one of my relatives to these folks. That will not happen again. Its donor would be livid if she were to see what is taking place now.

So, I say again to anyone who's eyes fall upon these words: Don't attend the religiously based functions of these orgs. Leave them! Don't support them financially. Or if you do, INSIST that they listen to your concerns. Urantians are smart people but they are making bad investments in these groups.

The leaders of THESE orgs TRULY believe that they have a mandate from heaven to lead us all. THEY DON'T. That is a self-deception, if not an all-out lie!

Someone just emailed me and asked, "But Alex, who will organize and fund meetings and future Urantia festivals?"

Are we SUCH slaves to the ideas and goals of others, who we assume have our best interests in mind? Do we have no ability to come up with answers on our own? People need to think for themselves.

If we want a festival, one of us starts a blog about it.
We attach a donate button from PayPal to the site. Then we advertise the festival as "...an event free of religious ritual and open to ALL UB READERS, and all PEOPLE." People passionate about the freedom of expressing religious beliefs without official manipulation, heck, people who value any kind of Cognitive Liberty, will readily volunteer for positions in the making of a grand Urantia event, I know they would.

Perhaps someone who is reading this very sentence will really show us how it's done. I'd do it myself but I've lost track of all the irons in my fire. Plus, I can't do EVERYTHING. :P :) I will set up the blog and attach PayPal though, if others would join in and take over? This is a limited time offer.

I absolutely GUARANTEE that more relationships will be made, more books will be distributed, more guilt-free enjoyment will be had by all. And a new demographic willl become apparent: YOUNG PEOPLE (many more of them anyway).

In this fantasy Urantia Festival, free-spoken lectures will be set up not filtered by by the high priests of the Urantia Foundation or Fellowship by subject (as is done now) but simlply in the order they are received. Under every tree could be a person with an idea, even if they are controversial in the eyes of organized UB readers. People would be free to visit with each-other, unburdened by "praying schedules."

It would be a music and art festival. UB readers would sell their goods, UB entrepreneurs would advertise their business. Urantians who know about concessions would handle food services. All profits would go towards the NEXT festival...etc...

Every major aspect will be run by the blog followers. Online polls could be taken (at UBRON, for example, since truthbook.org is out of the question because of its high degree of censorship) to determine what folks REALLY want.

The "bottom" of our movement will determine everything. The READERS must become the LEADERS.

This sounds idealistic and radical to the "1,000-year" conservatives, text-fundamentalists, UB science fundamentalists, and to people who like the ignorant, static, comfort of where they are now...

But we can expect no help at all in this endeavor for a festival or the purging of churchification form the orgs from our Urantia establishment. As far as they're concerned, God's pipeline does not diverge from the minds of the Trustees and Boards of the UB orgs. They believe that because they have the money to do things (for now), that they MUST be favored by the Revelators or Celestial beings of some kind. THEY'RE NOT. In fact, I would bet that the unseen overseers of our world are seriously frustrated by our animal tendency to seek fluffy, self-aggrandizing, systems that can be set up and not have to be tinkered with by their lazy leaders.

As for these leaders...

Who among them will do the hard thing?

Who among them will have the courage?

Who among them will do the RIGHT thing?

What yet-unknown human angel of PROGRESS will step out into the Light, and wrest this UB beast (The Urantia Foundation and Urantia Book Fellowship Church) to the ground, before it can even get started, and then chain it there where it belongs?

Social religious success will come when people leave each other's belief systems ALONE! We have never seen what it is like to offer ABSOLUTE religious freedom, as a UB community. It is well-past time to start.

If these changes could be prosecuted fully, the word "Urantia" would cease to be the name of a "book" and a recidivist community of disparate and confused, readers and deluded leaders, and instead would take its rightful place AS THE NAME OF OUR WORLD, supported by a STRONG, but diversified (unaffiliated) UB readership and FER commUNITY.

People who wish to read more about the specifics of this situation are welcome to follow my blog:

http://ubphoria.blogspot.com/

I will be posting a series of essays there on this subject.

Peace, Light and Love,
Alex/Chuck

PATRICK MCNELLY - I too am uninterested in organized prayer and worship in these types of gatherings including study groups. I did not join the Urantia brotherhood 40 years ago to become a member of a religious group that has organized prayer and worship events at their conferences. I'm in the minority Paula? Why can't we just print, publish , translate and ... See Moredistribute books and leave the rest of the church stuff alone? The whole movement smells of a new age religion. There's work to be done and I think you are a tireless servant. But let's stop the churchy stuff.

PAULA THOMPSON - Alex, I never see you at conference so I don't know where you get your "facts." To say that because UB readers want to worship and pray together we are becoming a "religion" is no more accurate than saying, because we want to study together we are a book club. We should know that one size doesn't fit all. If you ever do come to a Urantia ... See Moreconference and we happen to offer group worship and you find that to be a turn off, go smoke a cigarette, or whatever.

Patrick, I could easily say that because I don't care for the kinds endless debates that take place on UBRON, YOU should stop doing it. How silly is that? If the Most Highs stand back in merciful respect of the prerogatives of will, who are any of us to try to dissuade each other from worshipping or debating or whatever we do that stimulates them and helps them get through the night down here?

ALEX WALL - Hi Paula,

Reading more carefully and being more diplomatic, would be a good idea in this case since it's not going away...But what can I expect? I'm well-trained in the mosh pits and dirty debating trenches of UBRON. I would not be raising this issue if I thought I didn't have solid facts and a damn good way of presenting them. You, on the ... See Moreother hand, have been bounced in the fluffy bed of self-righteous truthbook censorship, of IGNORING the uncomfortable questions and concerns of readers.

And the biggest mistake you're making is that you think I'm an isolated case, with no backing. That is because you have not soiled yourself with the issues discussed and read by the 2,000+ members of UBRON. Soon you will see that I'm nothing special, but rather the vanguard-voice of a HUMUNGOUS creature, I call THE READERSHIP. What you would have learned at UBRON (the ONLY online UB FREE-speech forum), had you been paying attention, is that the waves of unaddressed issues, uncomfortable questions, desire for clear DEMOCRATIC leadership in the movement are piling up, rising to utterly overwhelm this organizational arrogance that you defend without question. You are underestimating the situation.

The FACTS I used were taken from your very schedule for the TUUFF (which I have provided a link to)! I don't list facts without citation. People who know me know that.

Here it is again:

http://ubron.org/groupdocs/TUUFF10-Schedule.pdf

I sure hope every person who reads this will download this document and read it, as it is the first in a large series of indesputable evidence that the UB orgs are perforimng religious ceremonies, that makes them the perveyors of a their own church.

I have no problem with UB readers wanting to pray together at events--and very clearly and extensively said so, simply read the prior posts on this thread. Also, I accept being led in prayer when I visit my home-town church. But NEVER, NEVER by a fellow Urantia Book reader, as a scheduled session, at a public event.

*********What I have a problem with is THE DIRECTION OF RELIGIOUS CEREMONY BY THE UB ORGANIZATIONS. Why don't you address THAT, Paula?*********Why can't you simply address my point without trying to make this some personal problem I have? I have lots of personal problems, but this isn't one of them--unfortunately for you.

It is always interesting to me that the key words "religious ceremony" and "UB organizations" are ignored in your responses to me on this issue. You foolishly frame me as being "anti-UB-prayer."

The leaders of religions prepare religious ceremonies. How can that be argued? What makes Foundation and Fellowship leaders different, when they prosecute such a venture?

I already said I would go to a conference if there were no scheduled and led praying and worship activities. I also said I would be likely to find myself praying frequently and praying with small groups of others, but SPONTANEOUSLY (go back and re-read what I said). So to misrepresent me as a person against "UB readers praying" at events is extremely prejudicial and clearly shows your bias and your agenda in this regard, and very frankly shows that you're not even willing to READ what I'm saying.

And you compare debate at UBRON with organized prayer at your newly establishing church???

Honestly I too get sick of the text-fundamentalists at UBRON. You would enjoy it there lately with Mr. Warren ruling the show. But I know what to expect when I go there. And no matter what happens at UBRON it does not effect my personal religious experience EVER. I don't see your name as a reader of UBRON discussions. Why? Well, I theorize that hearing what UB readers REALLY think and how people REALLY are would seriously threaten your world view.

Surely you must know that praying is the most personal and important part of soul growth? Attempting to compare the sometimes-rotten, sometimes-delicious apples of UBRON with the forced and unearned authority of the oranges of a Urantia Fellowship Church revival is illogical, and seems desperate.

Further, have you any idea how insulting it is to be callously and unthinkingly told to "go smoke a cigarette or something" (to a survivor of heart disease from smoking cigarettes--having quit ten years ago). You propose that I should isolate myself with all of my friends who share my convictions about religious ceremony), just because YOU are demanding that the rest of the people bow their heads and accept YOUR leading in their personal religious experience? Are you serious? We know that cigarettes KILL people. You are suggesting that I temporarily "disfellowship" myself during your church service and go outside to hurt myself. What a metaphor for your detached sense of what MOST UB readers are, and think...I'd rather you'd said, you outside and play Russian Roulette while we exclude you from our movement--it would have been more direct.

So let's sum up:

1) You refuse to provide an environment free of religious ceremony, where ALL UB readers can feel comfortable.

2) You refuse to even discuss taking religious ceremony out of your events.

3) The decisions of the organizations that UB readers donate their hard-earned money to are made completely without considering such an important concern from those readers. I know this because that is happening to me at this very second.

4) People who do not agree with being prayer-led in ceremonial UB Foundation and Fellowship-organized events, should SEPARATE themselves from the others because of their religious convictions.

I'll be adding more to this list of FACTS, as we delve deeper into the intentions of the org leaders, so we can all see just how far this fervant religious mission runs in our community.

I was going to move discussion of this off of your Facebook wall, because I really don't consider YOU to be the root of this problem. But the Kool-Aid stains on your last reply to me and your willful diversions of the POINT as well as your unfair misrepresentation of that point, has fully erased my sympathy for your involvement in this.

You try to speak as if your finger rests on the pulse of the greater readership, when in fact it only monitors the apparently barely perceivable heartbeat of blinder-wearing, UB religionists, organizational insiders and the relatively tiny group of yes-men and women you surround yourself with; people who are unable to make peace with the FACT that the UB is not meant to base a religion around, AND that is EXACTLY what you are doing. And now no one within the orgs is allowed to "speak despairingly" of them? How do you think all this looks to new readers who are sick of other people's religious beliefs being jammed down their throats, having just come out of a century of organizational deception and self-perpetuating agendas, in a world of darkness?

I'm not going away. I have been very clear about everything that I've said. I know it is lengthy in the form I've taken here. But it really just boils down to the four FACTS that I've listed above.

As at UBRON, I will not continue saying the same thing over and over with people who have blinded themselves to the point of not even reading carefully. People unused to heavy debate are simply incapable of addressing the issues. You watch, folks, others will attack me personally, attack my life, my behavior, try to discredit my extensive work in the UB reader's community, twist the obvious, naively call me an outsider, an egotist, a self-promoter, in league with Caligastia, long-winded, without substance, arrogant (that's usually the favorite one), sentimental, emotional... I really have heard them all. :) And after I get done yawning, I will do what I've always done: redirect them tirelessly and for ever-more BACK to my POINT.

PAULA THOMPSON - Alex, I'm sorry to offend you in saying "smoke a cigarette or something" it's figure of speech.

Here's another thought, why don't you get a group of like-minded believers together and create the conference of your dreams. That's what Halbert has done and he's getting some traction. Obviously, no event will ever entirely please everyone, that's the point.
If you put forth the effort to create an event, you'll see what I mean.

I didn't create TUUFF, I had nothing to do with creating it, I just attended it and enjoyed it. If you don't like the program that is created by a group or individual for a Urantia event, it's really quite simple, just don't go. I'm glad you like UBRON but I don't, so I don't go there. It's a choice, and I like being able to choose what I do. Don't you?

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At this point Paula UNFRIENDED ME at Facebook.

Actually her final message mentioned that I must be proud of myself for being so "tuff" and such "a good debater." But she quickly withdrew that emotionally driven response and replaced it with what we see above. This was probably because she realized that she was fulfilling my prophecy that I would be attacked PERSONALLY, because my POINT couldn't be argued against.

Paula Thompson of all people!! The kindest, gentlest, most service-oriented UB reader in years, has thrown me our of the official UB family. But it isn't to be...



I can't blame her, really. When you are being PROVEN WRONG, the best strategy is to kill the prover. We had been friends for over ten years. This is how Paula "LOVES" the friends who disagree with her. I thought this was only a debate and didn't realize that she based our friendship upon it. Oh well!

It's all gone, folks. Whatever civility seemed to be left in the UB Fellowship's leadership is completely gone. Pray for them. They're gonna need it.

The Urantia Book Oganizations are Trying to Start a Religion

After reading the recent information about the Montreal gathering, here’s another view from the inside/outside. I don’t expect agreement or argument about this view, but it is a view that several people have who won’t speak up or are outside of the SocAdmin circle. This is the only one of the goals to come out of this event I agree with.

(1)To form an inter-organizational database of all readers, SGs, and readers with special abilities or talents.

Many people do not support top-down organizational models. They usually don’t work and thus far they have not been very successful in the so-called Urantia Movement with its many tentacles. We don't need any more organizations or recognition of them. In fact we need less organization; some people say we need none! And we don't need "inter-organizational" organizations either. If anything we need non-aligned persons/readers who are not interested in creating and perpetuating a religious/social group of Urantia Book religionists.

Many people want to either feel like part of a religion or think of themselves in "official" spots to deliver the revelation, with all their angelic helpers and inter-religious fervor. Special priests and priestesses. Prayer leaders. Worship ministers. Church officials. Special interpreters. But what does all of this have to do with the FER? These are things that church members do.

The real majority of readers could care less about any of those things and have never identifies with US! The majority of readers are not involved in these so-called official organizations. They don’t want "officially" self-appointed leaders...some of whom are truly of the least intellectual or discerning among us.

And now we are offered these low-quality, highly self-serving ideological lists of group "beliefs," group goals written during festivals and conferences that are getting praise and publicity on this discussion list. It could be argued that none of us should follow one word expounded by a "group." So-called Urantians are running at a severe reality-deficit disorder called: Not thinking for themselves and following the leaders without any say in their decisions. The Fellowship is not now and never has been democratic. Activists run the show for the most part, especially those with a lot of money and time on their hands.

Yes, it is the time to break down barriers between organizations, not better define them, and this... "Let’s pretend to show ourselves publicly getting along even though we don't agree"...what the hell is that?? Since the schism of 1989 and all of the other organizational isolation that resulted, we have a wounded limping group run by a few.

I’ve never encouraged people to get involved with UB organizations, even the one I’m a member of, which goes against our membership charter I know. As of now, all of the organizations are sucking the wind out of the sails of the FER, confusing people, retarding the work that should be refocused upon teaching and living, and distracting people by making them think that belonging to some organization with special goals somehow relieves them from the hard work and responsibility of going out among the non-UB people and living and doing and working and taking care of the real work of this world. It is all backwards. It is all inside out.

Here in the outside world I've noticed that people are very interested in the UB until they see the so-called "movement" of overly serious, self-righteous religionists (closet Christians with a new Bible to believe in?), new age crystal worshippers, Jesusonian moralizers and blind UB science TEXT fundamentalist freaks, trying desperately to "verify" things about the book to give it more respectability (which it doesn't need)...That all just cheapens it and hurts the FER's reputation. So many Urantians are just freaks or it attracts so many freaks. We are all just as whacked out as any other cult. Yes cult. Being on the inside, one can't tell. But it is woefully pathetic to see from the eyes of the people looking in at it all. I’ve spoken to many of them on UBRON over the years. As a non-aligned group, we see all types some and go, but mostly the troll stay, so even UBRON is not the answer for the non-aligned readers.

The UB community is, frankly, embarrassing to me now. Sorry to say. They have made their decision to dance around the golden calf (in this case a physical, blue, book), while Mt. Horeb rumbles in the distance. They have been given the NEW message of the FER and turned it into the OLD bait and switch religion that we're all so sick and tired of. More Jesus worship. And when the Master (or another Son) comes looking for growth on the FER investment, (if it is soon) no one will be more embarrassed than the UB community. We had it all and squandered it. I know, this is a young epochal revelation. But I’m just sayin’

The UB "movement" has failed so far and will continue to fail unless more prominent people adopt a profoundly less-organizational tone. But, ultimately the FER will triumph, because the UB is only the beginning of the FER. Personally, I believe that ALL UB related organizations should call it quits, with every member turning strictly toward individual teaching/living of the concepts in their personal, professional and public lives. With closed books in public. Organizationally, I think we are stagnant, puritanical, very evangelically Protestant, and are filled with religious pretenders and pseudo religionists.

When asked for specifics on the UB, we should give only enough info to get a prospective new reader to open a UB and read it--by, for instance, giving them a book. And then let it go. Leave them alone. None of this, "Oh you really need to visit the Urantia Foundation website, or join the Urantia Book Fellowship, blah, blah, blah...or this or that discussion list or prayer circle."

No, the new reader should NOT invest one second of time in participation with these organizations. Even Facebook is infested with it. As far as I'm concerned, the organizations are simply repositories of information--good for the text or cutting and pasting historical info. Just resources for information.

They have no OFFICIAL role, and FOR SURE, no "heavenly mandate."

And if a Study Group arises evolutionarily, it should be wholly absent of prayer (group or otherwise). And for god sakes, the UB should not be passed around or read from anymore. Reading should be personal, like prayer. Cite a passage and then discuss it with your knowledge of the UB or life or people. I really dislike the phrases “The Book says” or.. “It says in the Urantia Book.” Yikes!

Only use the UB in Study Groups to CITE and for reference, not to read aloud, like the Bible. So many study groups are just bible meetings with a different book. In college you do your reading as HOMEWORK. In class or seminar (Study Groups), you hear lectures, have back and forth discussions, hold debates...Reading whole sections aloud is stupid and accomplishes zero. Especially when members are poor readers, stumble over words, or have no idea what they are reading. People have GOT to stop churchifying everything. It is a total turn-off to so many new readers. And it is antithetical to the mission of the UB. Heck, it is a turn-off to ME as a 30+ year reader! I will not waste my time in an environment of group prayer and UB reading sessions ever again. Gawd! What hell could ever be more torturous?

The only way the readership will ever be unified (and I don't mean the Study Groups or any other organization--they need not apply) will be when the ideological and religious dogmas are abolished. THEN, individuals will come together over the simple fact that they read the UB and for no other organized reason.

The whole organizations is filled with Foundation supporters, Urantia Church founders , Fellowship/Brotherhood old timers, scientific types, UFO believers, sheeple types, people who believe UB should be taken from house to house, the channeler hunters, the channleres, the people who say we need to be nice and tolerant to the channelers, New-Age crystal types, and folks trying to keep things informationally straight. We’ve had self servers, egomaniacs, Jesus imposters, lost and loosely losers, and a lot of people who just want to meet other readers.

The whole movement is a train-wreck on a dark and stormy night, a fire in a madhouse sometimes. Yet we muddle through somehow. We all know self-appointed UB evangelists who mean well, and our god people with sincere motives. It could be argued that the UB "community" is going to be caught with its veritable pants down and thoroughly embarrassed about the way it has handled the FER when real non-aligned readers take over the movement.

[Partially edited by a close UB friend from an email response I sent him. It is therefore, our COMMON view.]

A Urantia Book Perspective on Personality and the Self

This is a tricky subject. It has largely to do with semantics. Different people from different backgrounds and experience will give different takes on this. All I can relate is how I look at such things. And keeping in mind that each person needs to define these things for her/himSELF, let me presume to work out the details of my own belief system and then you – the reader – can incorporate whatever you find useful into yours.

God is a great God because he is the highest of the Creators, possessing so much power—infinite power. Yet, he desires nothing more than giving as much of it away to his creatures. The more he gives, the happier he is (as such a thing might be interpreted by us). The first and most critical of all gifts from God is free will. For humans, free will completes their relative liberty as independent beings and dignifies the HUMAN will in the process. Humans are Mortals—they have survival (after death) potential. And it is God's will that the Mortal will should trump all other direction for that being, even if it is temporarily destructive to that Mortal's associates. To God it is more important to let one human be free than to limit the choices of all humans by limiting the choices of even ONE of them. There is an old Negro spiritual that says, “If one of us is in chains, none of us are free.” Humans keep themselves in chains, where God wants nothing more that to see them ALL free.

It is because of all of this that the 'self' comes into consideration. The mind of the animal-human Mortal is an arena of sorts. It is the place where spirit can connect with the material brain, where both function, and both are mutually contactable to each other.

Here is where things need teasing out. I will offer one interpretation out of many for the meaning of certain words as I understand them. Again it will be up to you to integrate them in a way that fits what you believe. These are mostly based upon my study of the Urantia Book.

God, as Father (or Original Parent) is a personality and shares all of his personal power with the Eternal Son (the Second Parent/Son) and the Infinite Spirit. In fact the Father is the bestower of all personality to all beings from the Eternal Son to the lowly Mortal. All personality is linked through the Father's personality “circuit”.

Now we divide “personality”into animal (material) and human (trans-material). Animal personality is only functional between the two ends of that animal's existence; birth and death. Human personality, when integrated with the developing soul, elevates that creature's IDENTITY to a potentially eternal status. It is this personality status that materially and spiritually separates animal from animal-human. It is my belief that the choice of one animal species (our form of a hominid – the first human) to turn its attention inward, away from large, on-rushing predators, etc., and was somehow able to believe in something more than it could see or hear in the “outside” world. Animals, even advanced animals are locked into individual self-preservation. But humans have chosen to preserve their species; though they sure have a funny way of showing it sometimes... And, fortunately or unfortunately, that decision has now put all the other species on our planet in human hands as well.

The mothers of the mammalian orders come the closest to being selfless animals, but their instinct to pass on their genes still can either lead to protecting their young ones even to the death OR let their young die in order that they (the mothers) be able produce future young again. To look beyond genetic desires (through primitive worship) makes an animal more than just an animal. Worship is the high water mark that humans reached as animals, even as their animal cousins were not able to achieve such a thing. According to the Urantia Book this desire to worship qualifies an animal to receive a Thought Adjuster (an entity WITHOUT a personality) and from then on that animal (and each of its descendants) is considered human.

So it is with the assistance of the Thought Adjuster and its embryonic soul-counterpart that the human “personality” survives death. The Thought Adjuster as a spirit strongly desires to become personal. The personality of the human strongly desires to become spiritual, and to thence live forever. Yet...then...what is the “self,” what is the “soul” and what is the “identity”? How do these three different terms find a way to fit coherently into one theory?

Well, here's one idea...

All material creatures have separate identities. No two material creatures are ever the same. This is an extraordinary statement, especially when one considers just how many material creatures there are—every paramecium, every bacterium included. There are more bacterial cells in the human body than there are human cells. Of course a bacterium does not experience self-awareness. But it is STILL unique. Every mammal has some sense of self though, even if it is in a most rudimentary, unconscious and/or nearly-unidentifiable form, as we humans might understand such a thing. Yet, honestly, even the great majority of mammals probably don't actually view themselves as “selfs,” because the capability of their material brains is so limited by the constant and unrelenting processing of dealing with exterior stimuli.

A mouse (for example) is so concerned with material survival that its very sense of identity is never self-realized. However, as one moves up the evolutionary phylogeny (through the higher taxonomic grouping of mammals), one finds animals that have periods of leisure. The great apes, in particular, show an enormous amount of self-identity, due to hundreds of thousands of years of “ape culture,” by being so familiar with their forest life routine, and coupled with their incredible ability (through a relatively high intelligence) to adapt to many varied situations. The lack of adaptability was the death-blow to the much less intelligent dinosaurs. And mammals in between these species (the mouse and the ape) are capable of self-identity but only marginally develop or appreciate any such sense. Cats, for instance, will sometimes realize that their image in a mirror IS them (their self), while others just don't get it and persist in treating the image as another cat.

Naturally, humans have developed a very great tool for understand themselves and each other: spoken language. Nothing has expanded the advancement of human culture so profoundly. Human culture is now SO foreign to mouse, cat or ape culture as to be almost entirely synthetic. Not only does it allow us to examine each other, but also to ask questions about ourselves as individuals, independent of all “lower” creatures. We have gone from being reflective animals to becoming reflecting animals. With our languages, ingenuity (very large brain) and ability to cooperate, we have significantly left our species' childhood as “animal,” becoming truly human. So it may be said that “identity” is common to the mammalian brain. Humans are able to hold on to that identity enough for each to develop a rich sense of self during their material lives.

Even when humans die (presuming that they choose to live on after material death) they retain the mammalian identity, as the human self. But the “soul” becomes the new vehicle for the identity, as self. Most importantly, the personality and the self become one. Thus the existential goal of material life, if not achieved during life in the flesh, is achieved at material death; true self-hood. Similarly once the self and personality have been combined with the liberated soul, the next personal development is for this personality-soul to combine with the Thought Adjuster spirit—as one being. Interestingly, according to the Urantia Book, this soul-spirit “translation” can even occur before material death!

The continuation of the personality to animate a soul (where it had once animated a human body) IS the evolutionary process of that person's identity becoming eternal (where once it was only temporal).

Largely, I have discussed what things look like on the outside of the person. The other side of this coin is the perception that the self (itself) has for inner realities. What does the self see about its own aspects?

When the self looks (hears, tastes, smells, touches...and intuits) the “outside” world as separate from it, it usually remains aloof from that outside world. It has been an evolutionary benefit for humans to demand this separation. Western people have perhaps taken this a bit too far by associating all so-called “developed” society with man-made things—not natural ones. As we develop into a species capable of designing tools that will take care of nearly all of our material needs, we MUST concomitantly become integrated again with the natural world (e.g. our planet) or it is likely that we will utterly destroy it, washing that destruction down with our own extinction as the self-appointed “care-taker” species of our world.

All of our “selfs” are at a historic pivot point that we have to make the correct decisions about, in order to get past. In my view, this transition from material origin to super-material destiny demands that each human self (identity) accept the notion of her/his increasing power over the material world, WHILE also insisting that all human personality be linked more closely, through the Father's circuit, in a sort of over-mind. In other words, self may be independent from other selfs, but through willful intention may submit to the ideals of self-denial in order to be more like the Father (remember that he has so much but gives as much as he possibly can to others).

The Father is SO giving that he let's his very personal aspects be shared equally with two other members. This is something that humans simply cannot do, and can understand even less. He allows the Eternal Son to represent ALL spirit. He gives the Infinite Spirit the power to represent ALL mind. In this way one “God” can function as a Trinity. It allows the Father's thought to be spoken by word of the Eternal Son and acted upon by the Infinite Spirit; thought, word and act.

In this same way, creatures may strive to give as much of themselves to others, whenever they are able. Another term for this giving is: LOVE. In the strictest and simplest sense, to give without the desire to receive IS to love. Because God gives the most, he is the example for all beings of how to give; how to love. God – though being the personality-center of gravity for all personalities – is the eternal and infinite example of selflessness for them too. The human self can find the “peace that passes all understanding” by following God's example, even in the material life.

Each of us - as human beings - should enjoy the fact that we are privileged enough to have be given a personality. We can recognize it and overlay it upon our animal selfs! Then we can give back to God by following his example of self-denial, giving and loving. This is the recipe for eternal soul development and personality survival. There is no greater reward for the self than to achieve a state of voluntary selflessness, and there is no way for human culture to survive if the majority of the species is unable to understand the need for self-denial. THIS is our biggest barrier to individual happiness and world-wide peace in the 21st Century. The situation is completely in our own hands.

Urantia and the Transition of the Fifth Epochal Revelation

This year is turning out to be the pivot point among well-informed Urantia Book (UB) readers. Most of the discussion forums are unable to deal with the change that must come to pass, in order for the UB to remain a useful source for conceptual cosmic information.

Yet, the Fifth Epochal Revelation (FER), in my opinion, is MORE than the just the static text of the UB. Even UB Text Fundamentalists (UBTF) admit that the human component (discussions and study groups, conferences and conclaves) are necessary to determine the dynamic nature of the textual concepts, even if the text itself is steadily becoming less relevant to our world situation. The unstoppable transition from the "sacred book" mentality to the "living truth" mentality has been well underway for perhaps ten years now, and is increasing exponentially.

I have likened this transition to a coming Civil War in our UB community... But I would be much happier to call it what it is: The Great Transition. It occurred to me that all of this was planned ahead of time by the Revelators. Why do I think this?

It is simple: Mathematics is the most logical of the predictive methods that humans (for no more than about the last 8,000 years) can use. How much more-so, would the Revelators - who hail from a civilization, theoretically TRILLIONS of earth years old - know all the potential outcomes of a revelation given to our world at this primitive stage? It is very reasonable to assume that much of he recent history of our world was estimated to occur just as it did by the celestial overseers. It is also worth mentioning that there was probably a large amount of celestial intervention in our 20th. Century history. Anecdotal accounts that the "celestials declared war on Communism," points to the possibility that such things were and are possible.

Upon visiting UBRON.org lately - the biggest and most influential of the UB online discussion forums - it has become almost painfully apparent that even with the introduction of the new human parallels to the UB text that Matthew Block has presented and entered into the Library there, along with the obvious math, science and history errors being discovered in the UB, the most frequent "posters" cannot seem to leave their EXACT TEXT interpretations aside. One gets the feeling that they believe they would be "sinning" or being "unfaithful" to the BOOK itself, by questioning the UB's origins and scrutinizing (objectively) the content that has come under dispute.

Meanwhile the UB has always plainly stated that its own information on science and history will "stand in need of revision" [my bold]...

The Urantia Book

101.4.2 We full well know that, while the historic facts and religious truths of this series of revelatory presentations will stand on the records of the ages to come, within a few short years many of our statements regarding the physical sciences will stand in need of revision in consequence of additional scientific developments and new discoveries. These new developments we even now foresee, but we are forbidden to include such humanly undiscovered facts in the revelatory records. Let it be made clear that revelations are not necessarily inspired. The cosmology of these revelations is not inspired. It is limited by our permission for the co-ordination and sorting of present-day knowledge. While divine or spiritual insight is a gift, human wisdom must evolve.

...and it is also filled with comments about how truth needs room to grow in the human mind, NOT through "formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct" [my bold]...

The Urantia Book

180.5.2 Divine truth is a spirit-discerned and living reality. truth exists only on high spiritual levels of the realization of divinity and the consciousness of communion with God. You can know the truth, and you can live the truth; you can experience the growth of truth in the soul and enjoy the liberty of its enlightenment in the mind, but you cannot imprison truth in formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct. When you undertake the human formulation of divine truth, it speedily dies. The post-mortem salvage of imprisoned truth, even at best, can eventuate only in the realization of a peculiar form of intellectualized glorified wisdom. Static truth is dead truth, and only dead truth can be held as a theory. Living truth is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in the human mind.

It is not unreasonable to state here and now that any BOOK that purports to offer "new truths" (like the UB) is wrestling with the fact that it has to "imprison" those truths. This puts an expiration date on books...even the UB. The work of Matthew Block only reinforces this in his presentation that large sections said to be of "celestial authorship" have instead been shown to be of human origin.

As I have said in past posts, I myself dealt with the doubt and insecurity I felt when first reading Martin Gardner's book, Urantia The Great Cult Mystery, in which he blithely attempted to tear the revelation apart, because of the errors, uncited human source material, UB community reliance upon its shaky apocryphal base and history. While I didn't appreciate Gardner's tone or enthusiasm for trying to destroy the belief systems of thousands of people, I DID appreciate how much work he did regarding the origin and history of the UB. His book still stands as the most detailed source for learning about how the UB came to be.

Another very well-researched and well-written history of the UB is Larry Mullins' more friendly, and surprisingly objective, book A History of the Urantia Papers. Despite it being a bit less professionally produced as compared to Gardner's book, Mullins' history is just as well-researched. Unlike the UBTF people, Mullins' bias is kept largely in check as he is willing to report (without comment) even the unfavorable aspects of the characters and situations that led to the UB's writing and editing from ca. 1909-1950's and eventual publication in 1955. It is nice to see this book in print again. And it is worth the $20 or so to pick up or order a copy.

These two books by Gardner and Mullins, respectively, give the biased but most objectively critical view AND biased but accurate view of the over-all creation of the Urantia Book and the activities of its 20th. Century organizations and relevant personalities (including the Revelators).

The other aspect that makes these two books so well-suited to be read one after the other is that both authors appreciate detail, clear citation of sources, large comprehensive appendices and relative even-handedness for accuracy; not letting their biases jeopardize the value of their research. For instance, Gardner - who let's it be known early on that he thinks the UB is a fraud - simply cannot help commenting in a positive way about the shear magnitude and quality of the writing of the UB. It is possible when reading Gardner's book to get the real feeling that he isn't all that sure of his own stance. I say this because he often re-assured for me (I read his book before Mullins') many of the more "supernatural" events in the weaving together of the circumstances, human-sourced material and major management of the Contact Commission (who received information directly somehow from the Revelators) and early Forum (who edited the material and sent it back to the Revelators) seemed to have no rational scientific explanation. Even Gardner would not seriously propose one of his own. In response to such mysterious events, he would only say that he believed that Sadler's family must have "somehow" plagiarized and completely fabricated the entire scheme. Incidentally, this is also Matthew Block's current theory. The differences between Martin Gardner and Matthew Block (who, in full disclosure, is a friend of mine) are many though, not the least of which is Matthew's admission that he could be wrong.

In contradistinction to Gardner, is Mullins' more "officially" (and organizationally) sanctioned, A History of the Urantia Papers, and his own biases. As I said above, Mullins treats even the most unflattering legends and facts of the UB project with a strong even-handedness. The reason for this might be more complicated than the simple assumption that Mullins is a supporter of the UB in other contexts and in his Secondary Source writing. In fact, Mullins book seemed to be the best the UB community could muster as a response to Gardner's sweeping attacks upon the their very reason for being. And it was an excellent, though not wholly-complete, response.

When I say "not complete" I mean, more specifically, "not unified." Notice how the title of Mullins' book uses "The Urantia Papers" and NOT "The Urantia Book." It is likely that this is a relic of the 1980's dispute between the Urantia Foundation (original publisher of the UB) and Urantia Book Fellowship (once, the "Urantia Brotherhood," when still associated with the Urantia Foundation). Mullins was associated with the Fellowship side (as opposed to the Foundation side) of this dispute. The sting of the separation between this two organizations was still evident, with the mopping up of the messy lawsuits including those regarding the Urantia Foundation's loss of the exclusive copyright for actually printing and publishing the UB. Ten years ago - when Mullins first published his history - the name, "Urantia Book" was still a Foundation-related title. Though the UB had been published under that title by Uversa Press (a Fellowship-related effort), there were still the potential of not using the title in the future. Many people still refuse to call the book "Urantia Book" and instead prefer the title, "The Urantia Papers." And so Mullins' title seems to swim against the tide that he himself is now swept up in. In other words, he is part of the re-unification of the Foundation with the Fellowship; both organizations now agreeing to use "Urantia BOOK." I'm glad his history has not changed its title.

In discussing Mullins and what I call, the "Great Urantia Book Rebellion" of the 1980's, we come full circle to the current problem that is facing the Urantia Book reading community. We are in the post-organizational phase of the FER. This became the case upon the divorce of the two organizations mentioned above. As soon as confidence was lost in the Urantia Foundation (specifically) the FER was cut away from any authority UB readers might have given any organization. This was a necessary step once the failure of the Foundation to hold on to the copyright of the UB text became a reality.

Some UBTF (Urantia Book Text Fundamentalist) people still argue for the leadership role of the Foundation; that it has some kind of "Revelatory Authority" still to lead the movement. In my view this is ridiculous, futile and retards the entire FER. What is needed now is only ONE group: The Urantia Book Readership. This is the name I propose for all people who read the UB, irrespective of (1) organizational loyalties, (2) hidden agendas and (3) attempts to make the UB the centerpiece for a cult or religion. Any or all of these three things are destined to miserable failure. It wouldn't have to be "miserable" if readers of the UB were to honestly reassess this situation: How can science errors, history errors, math errors, factionalized organizations, cults and religions be used to justify the reading of a book that both prepares us for all of these shortcomings AND discourages their defense? It simply will not work.

The much more unsettling perspectives of the fundamentalist-ideologues who believe that every word of the UB is still a dynamic and revelatory truth, beyond questioning, tell the scarier story of the unbalancing of intelligent human minds.

I had a girlfriend once who was an archaeologist AND a Christian fundamentalist, Bible-text believer. She studied the bones of animals that were alive on this world thousands and sometimes millions of years before she herself believed the earth was created. I asked if she saw any contradiction in this. How do things that are not (specifically and literally) mentioned in the Bible come into being? At first she resorted to the potential inaccuracies of radio carbon dating, then proposed the idea that perhaps these animals never did live, and their bones were left for us by God to test our faith!

It is this mushy-headed and absurdly erroneous stance that UBTF people use for the same kind of issues. In fact, at UBRON there was recently discussed the discrepancy between the UB's date for life implantation...

The Urantia Book

58.4.2 550,000,000 years ago the Life Carrier corps returned to Urantia. In co-operation with spiritual powers and superphysical forces we organized and initiated the original life patterns of this world and planted them in the hospitable waters of the realm. All planetary life (aside from extraplanetary personalities) down to the days of Caligastia, the Planetary Prince, had its origin in our three original, identical, and simultaneous marine-life implantations. These three life implantations have been designated as: the central or Eurasian-African, the eastern or Australasian, and the western, embracing Greenland and the Americas.

...and the current non-UB scientifically determined and tested dating of ~ 3.9 billion years ago. But, sure enough, the UBTF people are also willing to attempt to twist and bend the theories of current science to suit their agenda which aggressively asserts that "science is still catching up to the UB."

And so Chris Halvorson (official UB "science verifier" at UBtheNews.com) provided the paper that could explain why current science was unable to "correctly" date the emergence of life on earth. At the core of Halvorson's argument is the following...

From Chris Halvorson's five page paper, The Origin of Life

Page 3

The usefulness of natural radioactive decay as an accurate dating method hinges on the common assumption that the rate of decay is constant over time. That assumption is incorrect. Radioactivity is a reflection of the existence of the subelectronic domain of physical reality (42:4.12); it is affected by the environment, which is a function of both space and time. An atom is not an isolated physical system; there is no vacuum (42:4.6). Radioactivity is proportional to subelectronic activity (42:4.5,7). Hence, both mutation and radiometric dating are indirectly affected by the spatial environment.

The Master Physical Controllers, specifically, the energy transformers (29:4.15–18), have regulated radioactivity (42:4.10) over the span of geologic time, according to the evolution plan of the Life Carriers. In the past, the rates of radioactive decay were greater than the present rates. Therefore, radiometric dates, which are determined by assessing the degree of decay, overestimate the crystallization age of a mineral in a rock, especially if the mineral was formed in the remote past. For the oldest rocks on the surface of the earth, the radiometric dates are about four times greater than the actual dates. The oldest rocks that have been discovered so far are the Acasta Gneisses in northwestern Canada near Great Slave Lake, with a radiometric age of 4.03 billion years. Mineral grains of zircon in sedimentary rocks in west-central Australia have a radiometric age of 4.4 billion years. The oldest dated moon rocks have an age of 4.5 billion years. (The moon reached its present size just prior to the earth.) The oldest lead deposits are dated at 4.54 billion years,and the oldest meteorites at 4.58 billion years. These oldest radiometric dates correspond to actual dates from 1.01 to 1.15 billion years ago, which agrees with the statement in The Urantia Book: “Urantia is more than one billion years old on its surface” (57:7.3).

One doesn't need a PhD in anything to see that Halvorson only uses UB science to argue against non-UB science. That is what in Banking we used to call a "washout." You can't use your only source to justify ITSELF! No one would EVER take that seriously. Halvorson and his partner Halbert Katzen - who manages the UBtheNews website and lectures extensively about how current science is "catching up to the UB" constitute examples of the ultimate need to "prove" the science and history of the UB. Unfortunately, Halvorson doesn't seem to be helping much as radioactive decay dating is concerned, since the only "catching up" that is done involves him defending the UB WITH the UB, NOT by using non-UB science's "correction" of itself, and supposedly new "agreement" with the UB. The evidence is still OVERWHELMINGLY on the side of non-UB science, wherever and whenever the UB science comes into conflict with it.

These very well-educated and credentialed people who have committed themselves to bending the truth to fit the UB, have completely forgotten one of research's most important rules...

Occam's Razor - The meta-theoretical principle that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" (entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem) and the conclusion thereof, that the simplest solution is usually the correct one.

Naturally, this is just one of many such twistings, turnings and spinnings in the UBTF sphere; one of desperate clinging to the dissolution of their sand castle as the waves continue to roll in over it. But I want to move beyond all of this. I have come to peace with the aging of the UB and the transition of the FER into its new, social, post-organizational, post-textual role. It is obvious to me now that the UB cannot be relied upon to convince science or history of anything, nor was it ever the book's role to do so. The UBTF people insist it must do this, but it is not a function of the FER in any way, and nowhere in the UB is its own "verification" required. The UB stands on its own!

Epochal Revelation is only complete when celestial PERSONALITY is involved and contactable to the inhabitants of a world. Though the UB is a literary work of amazing scale, in Epochal Revelatory terms it is only a stop-gap measure to bridge the Fourth Epochal Revelation (the life of Jesus/Michael) to the completion of the Fifth Epochal Revelation: the visitation of a New Son.

If those of us who are more progressive and open-minded about the role of the UB can fulfill our destiny, we will bring a large number of our UB-reading friends over to the notion that preparation for this New Son is more important than promoting the UB. Obviously anyone who has passed through the text fundamentalist stage, then the skeptical phase, and has come to rest in the progressive nook already understands the basics of the cosmic philosophy that is revealed by the UB...even if we don't elevate the TEXT as a sacred one. I ask other people who are well-read in the UB, yet also open-minded to consider the possibility that the UB's text is giving way to a new aspect of the FER, and to join us in preparation of the final phase of the revelation.

I welcome comments for and against what I have written here. But I warn readers that I will not be pulled into a debate, as some readers have recently insisted upon. Instead I'm "looking for the others" who believe what I do, namely, that the UB is our textbook as teachers, teaching the philosophy of our Local Universe and Superuniverse to the world-stage actors (students) who shall greet the next phase whether it be a New Son or some unknown (but shortly arriving) aspect of the FER.

My goal will also be to unify The Urantia Book Readership as one group in the next couple years; with its only membership stipulation being the reading of the UB. That's it. Ideology must be left completely out. The UB is a work made for interpretation. And as long as the text fundamentalists insist on an exclusively literal interpretation for the UB (as the Bible text fundamentalists have done - because the two are often quite related), the freedom of other readers to express themselves stands in dispute. As we have seen at UBRON (and is always the case at the more heavily moderated (essentially, censored) Truthbook.org and UAI Forums.

One only need view the example (in my last post) of how one UBTF person abused his one and only opportunity to oppose me and all I say - by ignorantly threatening me - to clearly see that the fanatical point has been passed now with these folks. Even another guy who initially supported my last post here, ended up being just another text fundamentalist-nightmare of ignorance posing as learned scholar...for he too, ended up being unable to accept the idea that the UB has intentional "errors."

I am moving into a new domain with all of this. The time to debate is long over for me at least. For the fanatic ideologue, so called "debate" has become a series of circular and embellished arguments, where blindness is key, made by people who are incapable of thinking for themselves any more. They are utterly and permanently lost in self-deception. You chose the cliche: They painted themselves into a corner? They put all their eggs in one basket? No matter how we look at it, it is only PRIDE now that prevents the baptism of the DYNAMIC truth, as it replaces the static text of an aging but once-and-still-very useful manual (the UB). And NOTHING is harder to overcome than human ego-pride.

What each of us needs to do is ask ourselves: What is more important?

Awareness and the Perception of Reality

The following is an adaption from posts
at UBRON.org in late February and early March of 2010.


1

As we think about the new information flowing out of physics, psychology and philosophy about the evidence for non-physical aspects of reality, we are tempted to reject them as “strange.” Why would the Urantia Book (UB) mention such literal concepts as “ultimatons” if – as new science is suggesting more and more frequently – matter is just an illusion. I have some thoughts about this situation that I hope might find a sort of compromise between conventional non-UB discoveries and what the 1934 text of the UB has to say.

The ultimaton is a physical metaphor. There are no little solid spheres, called, "ultimatons." It is simply the smallest measurable energy level in space and time. And do recall that ALL physical phenomena are filtered through (at least in our case) human consciousness.

The light you see when you look at a candle is not light. You're seeing what your brain's interpretation of light is. And also bear in mind that because none of the photons that enter your eye are also entering my eye, what you are seeing ("seeing" is based on the reflection, refraction or emission of photonic - electromagnetic - particle/waves) is 100% different from what I'm seeing. We may agree that what we see is extraordinarily similar, but literally the light showing an object to you is 100% different particle-wise than the light showing the "same" object to me. You might want to sit back and think about that for a second. Because, if this is true, then no human being can ever observe any physical phenomenon objectively. How can someone see something as it is? She/he would have to see from all human perspectives at once. And this is impossible.

To put it in more detail, light is made of photons. When these photons reach your retina they are transformed into electro-chemical signals that are then relayed via neurons and chemicals to the visual cortex. But these signals are not light. Same thing with sound, touch, taste... None of these things are the same inside your brain as when they entered your nervous system. The point here is that nothing can be said to exist independently of human (and on higher levels, "superhuman") consciousness, because it takes consciousness to claim the existence of things in the first place.

It is for these reasons that the world is not at all as we observe and feel it. We are still learning what is actually taking place outside our bodies as we evolve. Unfortunately we can only base anything new that we encounter upon already-known perception. Without revelation of some sort, new concepts have to be clothed in the dirty worn-out rags of past concepts until they themselves reveal more or some higher-than-human intelligence reveals them to us.

Thus, hard little billiard balls are the way we imagine ultimatons, and until we can expand that concept into the fractal and metaphoric energy that is really driving the universe, we are stuck with hard little spheres. There may be objective things in the universe, but no human has ever been able to see them. Why? Again, because we have to observe and describe things that are completely changed from what we think they are (photons, atoms, ultimatons) by being filtered in our electro-chemical brains. Therefore all human perception is subjective.

Physics, which led the whole scientific community up through (arguably) the decades of 1970's through1990's, as the sterling example of material truth-seeking, is now somewhere left of the soft sciences, like psychology, when it comes to conceptual understanding. Most "New Physicists" now admit that there are probably non-physical aspects to reality. And because of not being able to measure or quantify the observations of non-physical processes, the physicists are nearing the end of conceptual science (that is, science done using the "scientific method"). The science of the future will be a kind of metaphysics dealing with the power of consciousness to alter physical mechanisms.

Because the cosmos is infinitely revealable, and we are so very far from ultimate, absonite and absolute levels of reality - combined with our primitive evolutionarily-acquired knowledge, that we observe a world and reality that is surely almost 100% different than what it truly is.

The UB uses the concept of a little "sphere" called the ultimaton in the same way a parent gives a child a cartoon or picture-book representation of objects in the "real" world. When a kid finally sees that the moon doesn't have a man's face smiling from it, he/she realizes that the moon presented to him/her was not the moon, but it was good enough to lead that kid to a clearer concept of what the moon really is. If that kid grows up and actually goes to the moon, she/he will get an even better idea of what the moon is. Think about beings who may have existed for trillions of years. There is a good chance that they have a pretty good grasp of what reality is. Yet, still, they can never exhaust the potential for finding greater and greater truths about that reality.

Just some thoughts. Reality is not what we see and feel. That is only our personal awareness of one little bit of the overall picture. As we all seek to learn more about reality, we automatically excavate new conceptual space in our minds in which to store greater and clearer concepts of reality. This is why mind-expansion (of any kind) is helpful and important.

2

Because our human world is primarily subjective, all things must remain as metaphors. Some metaphors come exceedingly close to being what an object is. But some (like the ultimaton) have to be clothed in half-truths, until their presentation can be upgraded by personal experience or revelation. We are not programmed to integrate the truth very efficiently. Winston Churchill said, "Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most times he will pick himself up and carry on..."

As humans we need to separate this one realm because we do not have the capacity to view it as a whole. More accurately, we do have the capacity to view our realm as it is, but we do not generally have the will. That's why people won't study the subject of "what is matter?" all the way through the latest physical theories. People don't want to know that much about the truth... I mean what happened to up is up and down is down? Or more appropriately to our discussion, what happened to in is in and out is out? Surely there is a barrier between out and in?

Again, the quotes from the UB can not be more than a cartoon characterization of what they really want to say. They have to meet us on our very primitive conceptual level.

I have conceived (rightly or wrongly) of the ultimaton as a holographic "thing" that has the potential to function as a building block in spacetime (matter), super-spacetime (morontia) and hyper-spacetime (spirit).

Think about it this way...

No one knows why I can will my arm to rise and scratch my nose and it will actually obey. This is the simplest of actions, but neither physicists nor philosophers can tell us why this is possible. The non-material mind is somehow able to control the body through a liaison with the brain. It has been proven that the brain has demonstrated activity that is non-local (seemingly has "effect" without "cause"). Well, controlling the body is a good enough way to control any other material mechanism. Once you control a material body you are simply restricted by the limitations of technology in that material realm, as to what you can control or not.

In other words, the same hand my mind used to scratch my nose with can also steer the wheels of a car, paint something that approximates for you what I can only see inside my own mind, or (theoretically) detonate the entire strategic nuclear arsenal of the United States, by pushing a button. Yes, one human can destroy the world. That's a lot of power. But the scheme in harnessing and using it is the same as scratching one's nose.

Technology is simply an extension of the human body and mind. There will no doubt be very advanced technologies someday here on Urantia. Instead of raising my arm to push a button, the button (and everything else that is important to me in my being able to control it) will be part of me; technology will have turned my thoughts into the equivalent of a keyboard and mouse. In this way a very advanced culture could live completely in tune with the natural world, while on the "inside" the people would have immense power over the physical objects of their world. And they would not see their power as being inner or outer but simply as is. But this should not surprise anyone. After all, it is simply the same old original mystery of a non-material mind effecting the material world. It is just that in this very advanced future culture all material means of connectivity (wires, circuits, levers, pulleys, cranes, etc...) have been eliminated by former physicists.

Here's the rub, though...

Keep in mind that that kind of technological achievement comes only to those who have concurrently grown more moral alongside their technical advances. No dangerous culture will ever have that kind of technology, because the price for attaining it was coupled to the moral enlightenment stemming from a plan to continuously become more Godlike.  It is also the effect of moral restrasint upon physical power.

Coming back to the "inside" vs "outside" thing, I would recommend reading The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, The Dreaming Universe (and any other of the many books) by Fred Alan Wolf, Wholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm, and any books about Chaos Theory.

Currently humankind wears itself inside-out. People are distracted by the surfaces of things. An advanced culture would see an unbroken vein of reality from the infinite potentiality of personal thought (imagination is limitless), to the infinities of literal, physical, and Ultimate Reality. In a world of highly advanced humans, each member of the society literally sees what other members mean, when they are communicating. Turning the human into a truly moral creature requires that that human stop putting up a barrier between himself and things that are not himself.

In this way, all are one. Yet individuality is safely guarded through the inherent uniqueness of each personality, straight from the Universal Father himself. People who have learned to turn their inside out have also learned to abolish the barrier separating inside from outside.

So, no hall of mirrors; a mirror is simply another barrier. Two mirrors facing each other trap light infinitely. But, remove them and light can flow everywhere. Continue removing barriers and you will become one with the light, even if it takes nearly an eternity.

It is highly doubtful that people can "get" what I'm really saying here. This is not because it is difficult to learn but because our typical, conventional matrix of how we think of the world will completely fall apart when we consider how backwards things in the man-made world actually are (literally and figuratively). People will continue to hold a primitive concept if it has worked out well for them so far. I think that it is very normal for a dark, rebellion-isolated world like Urantia to have a population who is wholly oblivious to the perspective and intuition needed to see things as they truly are.

I guess, our challenge is to not trash the sub-surface truth, just because wishful thinking has somehow kept our heads above water.

Rationally and wisely expanding one's mind to catch glimpses of that which has never been seen before, with a subsequent and purposeful intention to integrate these glimpses (whether physical or spiritual) into one's overall perspective of reality, IS the way to attain more power over the material world whilst learning the moral and spirit lessons necessary to use that power responsibly.

3

Wolf goes on and on about the clues existing in dreams. He and I once corresponded for a while and he surely believes in the reality of the lucid dream. The effects that seem to be only within the mind are still real, in every sense of the word.

When I looked up at the sun in a lucid dream once, it hurt my eyes, just like the regular sun would. There was no difference (I could feel the heat too).

My questions are...

What is that sunlight that I saw? Is it photonic or is it electro-chemical? The obvious answer (since it came from within the dream state) has to be an electro-chemical signal, just like I would receive from my eyes, were I looking at the sun, except there is no input from the "outside." So the electro-chemical, sunlight-image has to be produced in the brain itself. That seems impossible, but it just has to be true. The strange thing is that it effected the pain receptors at the site of my iris and the heat receptive nerves on my forehead and cheeks. It is a kind of reverse engineering of sensory input; the lucid dream inputs signals from the "inside" creating sensations so strong that they are registrable on the "outside."

And if that is so, and the consciousness can be awake in this dream environment where things can be created simply by the mind at will, then all the consciousness ever needs is that some similar environment be provided where it can function, and it will take care of the rest. This can be (as we say) on the "inside" or as a result of stimulus from the "outside" world. Either way, we are fully conscious and able to experience things of Adjuster quality. I know. I have been there. That is why I know that the outside is just an extension of the inside. But this knowledge cannot be relayed. It needs to be experienced to be believed. This is a prospect that is much easier than most people think.

Our prejudice against anything that isn't happening in the physical world as not being "real" is so strong because of the role of science during the last 200 years or so in Western society. It has made itself arbiter of all other intellectual or even moral pursuits. But what will it do, now that it, itself, has discovered the truth that there are non-physical realities?

4

More on the inside/outside thing...

One might wonder: "Is there any input to our senses that we work with?"

Then the answer is: Yes. Absolutely, there is. I'm also saying that the actual source of the input is (though very vaguely) what we think it is. But, I'm saying that our way of describing this input to ourselves as individuals and collectively is still very far from what is actually occurring in the mythical "outside." I'm also saying though, that how events are perceived in the felt moment (or "datum," as Aldous Huxley calls it) of the immediate experience of an event, there is only subjectivity (at least among humans). Their observations can make the event seem more objective as they discuss it afterwards. But the experience itself must always be subjective among humans who have not yet learned how to permanently remove the barriers necessary for greater conceptual clarity for all things.

But getting back to the strangeness of input...

Like the lucid dream, input can originate from within. And if that's the case, how can we tell the difference? Or, more importantly, IS THERE NO DIFFERENCE? For people who like to have a solid foundation for why they do all the things that they do every day, this is not good news. It tells them also that everything they see is not as they see it. In a world of danger and seeming misfortunes, people like stability and they think that living in the synthetic lives we've carved out for ourselves is stable enough. Why rock the boat?

What we UB readers seem destined to not realize is that TRUE stability (lasting peace both local and planetary, a universal religion, the yet-undiscovered cures for all kinds of health problems, etc.) will come when the flimsy boat is finally rolled over and sunk. Only then will we realize that the water was only two feet deep anyway!

But this is the same old story. We wear the birthmark of the Beast, the Dragon, the Devil: backwardness. If the Lucifer Rebellion had not occurred we would much more clearly perceive what is being inputed and where that input comes from. We have been crippled and retarded by our post-rebellion, sorry state of intellectual and (more importantly) moral, growth. Because of this we constantly (as individuals and as a species) teeter on the impossibly fine line between wanting to kill every thing we see and wanting to save it. This species bipolarism has gotten very dangerous in recent years, because our technological development is far ahead of where it should be, when contrasted with our moral development.

I think that science and math are very necessary and serviceable to humanity. But, they measure and analyze things in the abstract; using rules that are either correct or incorrect. The world though isn't either correct or incorrect. They have been a serviceable means of drawing near an understanding of some material constants. But the material universe is controlled by mind. The Infinite Spirit's mind reaches the outer edges of the universe. Where there is matter there is always mind. But where there is mind there is not always matter.

Science and math will never find a "final answer." They need revelation. They've even now reached an end of sorts. Supersymmetry is a perfect example. It is based on elegant and complex mathematics that is the cream of hundreds of years of work. But that math presents a theory that can probably never be fully tested in spacetime. Great math. Great theory. But, no longer science. We need a push from above (or within) to move further than we have gotten thus far.

This is a tricky time for we laymen. If science can't even test its own published theories anymore why trust anything it says? I don't need someone to understand quantum mechanics for my universe to continue on. I don't need someone to understand how a painting was painted to enjoy it. I don't need to understand how a piece of music was composed to feel its emotions. I can do these things for myself. It just takes WILL POWER.

5

Some folks don't understand what I refer to when speaking of “lucid” dreaming. Lucid dreaming is not "vivid" dreaming. It is not about dreams coming true in any way shape or form either. A simple Googling of the words "lucid dream" will give you more than enough information to move beyond any misunderstanding of it.

Lucid dreaming is not “dreaming” either. It is only when you are fully conscious, just as you are when you are awake, that you can be said to be "lucid." There is no way to make this as strongly emphasized as it needs to be for someone who has never lucid dreamed to understand. You simply need to do it. Then you will know. There are strong dreams. There are prophetic dreams. But they are still only dreams.

In a lucid dream you know you are not physiologically awake. Yet, you are awake in the dream. Now it is not a dream anymore. It turns into a laboratory where you can experiment with a different set of physical laws. It is not the type of thing that "comes true" in the physiologically waking state. You remember a lucid dream just as you would a visit to the grocery store from the day before.

In fact, to actually realize you are still in REM as you become conscious in your dream, shocks you to your soul. And you have to make every effort not to awaken (physiologically), so that you can remain in the lucid awareness. I often feel my pillow against my cheek while at the same time I am standing up in the middle of the room in my lucid dreaming-awake state. One time I was doing all kinds of things in the lucid state, but something kept pressing on my upper lip. I knew it was my hand as it rested beside my mouth on the pillow. But I also knew that if I even moved my hand slightly I would lose the lucid state and have to wake up. It got so bad that I did eventually attempt to move my hand, but the lucid state dissolved immediately.

I agree that (except for what Karl Jung called "big dreams") normal dreaming is as garbled as the UB says it is. Lucid dreaming is a thing I used to combat having nightmares after a serious health crisis a few years ago. It worked like a charm. Being the controller of your dream puts a quick end to letting your fears control your dreams.

Here's a lucid dreaming recipe that works pretty well for me...

First I can only sleep 5-6 hours, so I have tried to translate my recipe for an 8 hour night. On a night when you have just a relaxing time planned for the next day go to bed around 11pm. Set your alarm for about 3am or 4am.

Get up then and keep yourself awake for about 15 to 30 minutes doing something, then go back to bed. You don't want to stay up so long that you can't get back to sleep. Try different schedules, experiment with timing. The important thing is to try every night until you get it. And you will get there if you want to.

You will have already experienced your longest periods in Stage 4 (delta) sleep and the brain is beginning to get closer and closer to stabilizing in the REM stage, by this 4th or 5th hour in your regular sleep cycle you will begin to do more dreaming than non-dreaming. You need to go back to bed with the constant thought that you want to wake up inside your dream. And because of the time that you are re-entering your sleep cycle, you set yourself up for getting a dream right off the bat. But you will have more and more chances to become lucid before you finally wake up physiologically.

People work out all kinds of inner signals and signs that tell them they are sleeping physiologically but awake mentally. Mine is usually the repetition of something. I once watched the same shaped cloud go by a few times, realized where I was (asleep), and suddenly became lucid. Look for things that don't happen in the every-day world.

Another good way to tell you're still asleep as you become conscious in your dream is to look for writing. Nearly always, writing will be indecipherable. But when you realize that you've finally achieved this rare state of consciousness, your excitement alone can wake you up. Shivers race up and down your spine as you realize the enormity of what you've achieved. When you realize that now YOU are the boss of the dream no fear can penetrate the mind, it becomes your land and only invited guests can visit. And as I said, it abolishes nightmares quite effectively. It even worked to lessen PTSD symptoms.

It is well worth learning this tool. One time I became lucid in a dream and I did a bunch of tests before just having a good time. I was standing in a sunlit room and was very excited to be realizing that I was also lying with my head on a pillow somewhere else. I ran my hand along the mid molding on a badly painted wall. It was chipped and got stuck under my fingernails. But I just willed that paint out of my fingernails. Because the room was very small (6' x 8'ish), I decided I would walk outside through the wall. I lined up about two feet away and simply walked through the wall to the out doors. Things seemed even sharper than the regular waking world. And I did my favorite thing... I flew. I flew around a town. I flew around a factory. I headed for the moon but got tangled up in doubts about whether I could go that far, then I woke up in the regular world.

It is perfectly obvious and not confusing at all to distinguish between the other-worldly nature of the lucid dream vs the nature of the regular waking world. That is why the experiences are compatible with a reality that has nooks and crannies (and indeed whole realms) that are not of space and time.

It never lasts long enough for me though. I'm just recently training myself to stay asleep longer so I can experience more. I have found an ally in the quest.

Sometimes you have to wake up in several other dreams before you wake up in your room. After one dream I kept trying to wake up, but would end up somewhere else or in the right place but at some other time. I even sat up and was sure I was awake and it was still pitch dark out. I sighed and laid back on the bed, blinked and the sun was pouring through my window and the clock said 9:30 in the morning.

6

At UBRON we talked about how the mind is like a TV. Why spend time trying to learn how the TV works, if you just want to enjoy the program?

People are too afraid (or lazy?) to attempt to find the answers to how our corner of reality works. Someday we will all need to bite the bullet and learn how the TV works. As a person who has never seen an object that I didn't want to understand, I sometimes have a hard time feeling sympathy for people who are fully satisfied with not trying to learn how things really work. You have numerous celestial helpers and instructors to assist you.

The TV is not hard to understand. It is like anything else, you'll miss 100% of the things you never look for.

As an aside...

We are adaquately demonstrating the role of metaphor in truth-seeking, by using the TV as a metaphor for the mortal mind. And I am able to discuss the mind without needing to remind you that we have reduced it to a TV. That is the usefulness of metaphor.

What is unreasonable about asking you to exceed yourself? Jesus demanded it! He told the rich man to give up all his money and devote his life to God...but the man couldn't do it. I'm sure he was probably still quite salvable, for he really did have a guilty conscience about his refusal. But it certainly lessened the quality of the rest of his life in the flesh. He could not stand the idea of having to learn how the TV works (how eliminating worldly treasure would strengthen his spiritual treasure), it seemed like too much somehow... too unreasonable.

Being frustrated by trying to learn how the TV works does require experience with the parts (the "electronics" in our metaphor) to alleviate confusion and clarify one's reality "frame." So learn about electronics! Why not? For myself, I don't accept, "Oh, its SO hard to do!" Tough!! If it's not impossible, then what the hell am I waiting for? The result is well worth the effort.

And, surely you're aware of how many times this excuse has been used to justify sitting on one's hands...

Some might ask, "For if I knew how the television was designed wouldn't I be at the status of a Creator Son"?

Understanding the material world that Creator Sons have made for YOU, is your challenge from them. The idea that you would some how be able to figure out a way of being equal in status to a Creator Son simply by attempting to fully explore the limited mind that has been generously given to you, is almost laughable. Seeking to understand as much as possible about how the mind really works and what is the truest perception of the reality we exist in is the Creator Son's (and Supreme Being's) greatest pleasure!!

That is the whole idea behind the struggle and challenge of the Mortal Ascension Scheme. It is not meant to be easy. In fact, ascension is meant to be as hard as it can be - while still being appealing enough to trudge through the hardest aspects. This is the perfect plan, because it is the Father's plan. So rather than lamenting the small thing that is "frustrating" you - that is, the thing that is going "wrong" with your plan, it seems more proportionate somehow (and even-minded) to give thanks for all the things that go right most of the time. In this confused world, every second where the mind can find peace is like a precious oasis and people who experience peace of mind, more frequently feel the responsibility of helping those who don't, find it.

This argument about fearing to come too close to the Creator is the oldest trick in the book. It is what the church said to Galileo. Each new advancement is met by the friction of those who claim that knowing "new things" is some kind of 'arrogance' against divine creators. Then once the new phenomenon is finally adopted and well understood, everyone realizes how far they still remain from Godliness. Fear not, I think that nothing we can strive to achieve will ever equal the earned power of the Creators.

7

These ideas bring many profound concepts from the UB to mind. Expanding consciousness always makes big things more understandable.

For example, the length of human life when compared with the length of the entire ascension career. This comparison is not often quantified-out. We know it is enormous, but do-able. However, people don't really grasp this very prominent truth in all its wonder. We get the idea sometimes that the life in the flesh is the most important level of existence we will ever have. And that is true in only one way: We make a decision to move on to the next level, or not. We exercise our free will. We choose to survive death. We make the free will choice to be part of the Ultimate and even interact with Absolute levels some day.

And when we fuse we can never ever be eliminated from the universe. The Thought Adjuster part of us guarantees (in exchange for permanently sharing our personality) to never fail us for the rest of eternity.

We aren't citizens of eternity until we fuse with the Adjuster. Mortal life takes origin in a biologically evolutionary-animal, almost-wholly material way. There is no lower origin for will creatures in all the Grand Universe. And this one and first level qualifies us for the Corps of Finality. That's the big time. We will even journey out into the Outer Space Levels to administer them, once the Age of the Supreme has reached its finality.

But think about this. Just getting to Paradise takes a long time. If we live for 100 years in the flesh we are considered fortunate. But try to grasp the fact that far in the future when we enter Havona we will have to gain experience on each of its billion worlds. It is likely that we will spend at least one earth-length year on each world. If that is the average then we are looking at at least 1 billion years spent in the Central Universe, before becoming a Paradise Citizen.

It is an amazing fact that probably no Urantian has ever made it all the way through Havona, since humans have only been on earth for 1 million years (1/1000th the amount of time presumed necessary just to get through Havona). There are no Urantian Finaliters.

Now we add in the amount of time it takes to do all the required work we will have from local system to superuniverse levels. Maybe another billion years? If that is the case then, no Urantian has ever even made it to Havona. In fact, the most progressive Urantian would only be 1/1000th of the way out of the Superuniverse. It might be possible that no Urantian has ever made it out of the Local Universe.

Just traveling straight from Urantia to Paradise at light speed could take a million or more years; never mind having a career. It is astounding, the time scales and distances that we accept are so vast that even as a species we Urantians don't make a dent in the demographics of even Satania. We are on the map because of Michael, but our people are not overly special (in fact, as we know, they are a little retarded) or numerous. There are planets in Satania that likely have billions of years of cultural evolution behind them and are in the deep, late stages of Light and Life. It is probable that the finaliters that once lived as primitive humans on those older worlds are allowed to return. That is one old planet.

This is very interesting to me. One hundred years in the flesh is 10 million times shorter than a billion years. If our ascension career were 1 billion years and that time were displayed as one year equaling 1 millimeter, the ruler would be 1,000 kilometers long but the amount of distance representing our life in the flesh would be the diameter of a small apple. And, again, it is likely that our ascension will take a lot longer than 1 billion years. So in the final Paradise Mortal sense, the life on earth was less than 0.000001% of the total career. It makes me take what is happening in our world a little less seriously sometimes.

8

Of course expanding one's mind means being willing to release control over one's current model of reality in order to allow a new paradigm to be established. Even on Paradise sometimes things get "out of control" (my bold)...

Sometimes all Paradise becomes engulfed in a dominating tide of spiritual and worshipful expression. Often the conductors of worship cannot control such phenomena until the appearance of the threefold fluctuation of the light of the Deity abode, signifying that the divine heart of the Gods has been fully and completely satisfied by the sincere worship of the residents of Paradise, the perfect citizens of glory and the ascendant creatures of time. What a triumph of technique! What a fruition of the eternal plan and purpose of the Gods that the intelligent love of the creature child should give full satisfaction to the infinite love of the Creator Father!

The Urantia Book, 27:7.7

Control is very useful in many applications, most of the time. Everyone understands this. It can't be argued against. But there are certain times when an intentional "letting-go" of control over some deliberate aspects of what I call the three c's of stagnating habit: comfort, conformity and convention, can allow a person to obtain what would not have been obtainable by any other means. The defense mechanisms keeping control over your comfort level are the strongest ones you have. Yet, some folks can bring themselves to actually overtake these body guards of comfortable acceptance.

These people (in daring to destroy and reconstruct parts of their own egos, to be more like what they are continuously learning God must be like) are making an effort as important to their souls - and also related to the same kind of ultimate choice the soul makes - as the acceptance of eternal life itself.

Death (or rather, deconstruction) of the inferior, humanly-constructed ego, as it fights in vein with everything it has to remain untouched - even sending back hallucinations at you in its own defense is rough, rough ride. In every sense this feels like a real death - some people even believe they are temporarily dead if the experience is potent enough. It is scary to lose yourself, but VERY worth finding yourself again, renewed. The biggest, strongest man in the world will cower in the corner when the prospect of ego-realignment is placed on the menu. It takes soul-courage, brother.

But, then the ego's reconstruction with new more efficient and useful parts is a technique (noticed I also bolded that word in the UB quote above) for making a kinder, gentler, but vastly more powerful self (both over the material world and psycho-socially in everyday life). The ego realizes then that it was actually benefited by the chance you took to deconstruct and then reconstruct it. Then it is easier to do it again and again. In fact, the ego actually starts to like what it is turning into. And it becomes more and more SOUL-like and less and less EGO-like. I believe this is an integral part of the degree of "eternalness" in the soul. Perhaps a soul that is able to fuse with its Thought Adjuster while still in the flesh has reached a point where the eternal assurance of survival can no longer be denied, even physiologically.

What this means is that making the effort to break down the psychic barriers you've built (and been born with) can be a way of liberating yourself from temporal despair. It can be a way of conquering your ego and aligning that sucker with the will of the Father. It can be a way of passing through some of those circles you (and I) have been working on. It might even be a way of achieving translation directly from this existence into the next. I realize that is highly unlikely. But do bear in mind that the unlikeliness of it is not something that is being forced upon us. It is unlikely (fusing in the flesh) because of our decision to not make an effort. That's all that keeps us from finding the path to avoiding death all together: our lack of effort.

Personally, I intuitively "feel" that heaven is cheering me on in my personal quest to break down these barriers. It works for me. I know I am becoming more integrated, clear-sighted and far-sighted. It is technique (looking for barrier dissolution) in my life that has improved my ability to understand even more the next time. It has strongly increased my ability to remember and recall things. A have to admit that one of the biggest advantages it has given me is the precious and thankfully-received ability to effectively write and describe novel things from my expanding perspective. This is not a brag. I suck at so many other things that I could never be led to a sense of self-pride just over being able to communicate well. It sure has gotten me to LOVE communication though, and appreciate its value.

When I have the chance to open up the gate more and more - especially lately, the writing just comes out with no effort (besides the constant effort of trying to align it with what I think God's will is). Interesting how the giant effort I had to make so many times just to overcome the protestations of my own ego, the fear of the unknown (the uncertainty of what I would find by releasing control), the heartbreak and disappointment (that ever-linger) of letting go of my most treasured human beliefs and assumptions, the extremely difficult job of climbing back into a new and improved ego (many times now), has allowed me to not have to try as hard to write effectively about what I've found for myself.

As more and more aspects are improved, you find that even greater ones become available to be conquered. It is a very positive kind of feedback loop. And you get to keep all the tools you discover, which makes conquering new ground easier and easier. It is a win, win, win, win situation.

I use lucid dreaming as an example of a bridge between the outside and inside. This is one safe way to see how losing a little control of your comfort level can yield both satisfaction and pathway to greater experiences. There is nothing to buy, nothing to ingest, nothing to be afraid of, and only enlightening mind expansion for all your efforts. But again, it does take effort. There are so many other ways to utilize the technique of mind expansion (without drugs) that not trying something seems kind of lazy (with no offense to anyone sitting on their hands).

But all of these things: learning how we are backwards, learning how to perceive things more like they really are, psychedelic exploration, lucid dreaming, even "big dreaming" like we all experience from time to time, remote viewing, telepathy, etc, they are all part of my point. We see them as mysteries, when in fact they are just processes that we have not truly taken our natural ownership over yet. They are all related in that they are held in the prison of ignorance for most folks. But the doors of that prison are all fully unlocked for us and wide open! You can take these mysteries out of their cells and into the light of discovery.

The fact that I sit here at the beginning of the 21st Century trying to convince skeptical people that there is more to reality than what they have mis-learned about it, and that everyone is capable of clarifying that reality to be more like what it was meant to be, shows just how far we have to go. Younger minds will pick right up on this and agree with it (they are doing that right now). People will look back and read these conversations someday, and say, "Why couldn't they just SEE."

Trying to clarify your inaccurate view of reality, and actually succeeding would mean you have to tear down the cultural assumptions that the conventional world (and even the UB, to some extent) has given you a chance to adopt over your lifetime. But these assumptions (barriers to evolving conceptualization) are limiting your experience on earth, they are not the will of the Father, they were once the will of Lucifer. They are stick-built, rusty, duct-taped, hap-hazard, flimsy versions of the exquisitely beautiful world that our Creators have already provided.

Why paint over the greatest natural work ever presented to the mind of will creatures (that being, nature and divinely constructed reality), with your own animal, half-measured (material-wise), half-hearted (effort-wise), and half-real (perception-wise), crappy, cheap, and drably scribbled colors?

Why cling to Lucifer's method of second-guessing reality?

Why think that what WE can construct to see the world through is better than what the Gods have already constructed for you?

The Father has provided a great castle of glory for us to live in. And instead we prefer the rotten tree house we've constructed out of the mangled post-rebellion history of our race, along with some bent, rusty nails.

But people will continue to dismiss whatever is necessary, putting the blinders on whenever their more inferior perceptions are challenged. I do it too of course in the areas I have not yet faced. It is much easier to talk about changing one's perception than it is to succeed at doing it.

However, as I said above, because I've had success in many varied aspects of changing my perception and have reaped the reward that these diverse discoveries have given me, I have no choice but to try to get others to do the same. And that's what I'm doing.

I can't NOW be convinced that the notion of turning around, walking backwards and crawling back under that wet-blanket of formally-held, erroneous assumptions is somehow a good idea. Once the mind has experienced even the smallest datum of progressive and peaceful freedom, it will never again be satisfied with conforming to locked doors, chains, darkness, barriers, bad painting and self-deception.

Non-rebellion worlds would never even consider repainting their personal perceptions of reality with their own designs. Reality is too perfectly and artistically designed by the Gods to be re-decorated with the shoddy, gaudy, even trashy upholstery of the rebel-world's version.

Finally, age does not have to harden the mind and really shouldn't be used as an excuse for not expanding one's mind. Not acting is a WILLFUL act, not an inevitable one. Whatever you glean from all your earth years and end up with is because of your choice. The devil can NOT be blamed. As I said above, he put the veil in front of our eyes, but we can still lift the damn thing whenever we want! We don't have to ask for his permission. And he can't hold that veil in place either if we sincerely wish to look beyond it.

As I've said, I have found that I am far more open-minded and ready to explore my world more completely with each passing year. I attribute this to deliberately exploring the many techniques of mind expansion.

To those who cannot bring themselves to challenge what they think they know, physical death will bring these revelations to you whether you want them or not, and whether you are prepared for them or not. And after recovering from the shock of filling in so many holes left open from your earth career, you will understand what I've been saying.

9

Some people wonder where the personality is during the lucid dream.

The personality functions exactly the same way that it does when you are awake. Because... you are awake. There is no difference to the personality. You in a lucid dream is just like you sitting in your living room. It is still just you. There is no identity loss at all.

If you lay down and close your eyes, but don't experience unconsciousness, that is what lucid dreaming is like. The difference is that you get dual sensory info when in lucid awareness. When lucid dreaming you can feel things in every way exactly like you can when you are not lucid dreaming. But, you can also feel the state of your body in the non-lucid, everyday waking world. You can feel it lying in bed. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) you can not use your body in both places at once (as I tried to explain in a previous post).

Maybe a better example is sitting down to watch a movie at a theater. You put yourself in the movie, but you can still sit there eating popcorn in the theater. During lucid awareness (I don't like calling it a 'dream') state you not only hear and see the movie you've put yourself into, but you smell, taste and feel its objects too. That doesn't mean you forget that your body is sitting in the theater (or lying in bed in the case of lucid awareness).

Re-question: What is the function of the personality while your watching a movie in a theater? Answer: No different from walking back to your car afterwards. There are a lot of differences in the experience, but the personality and its function is not changed.

10

More differentiation should be explained between dreams and lucid dreams. I found out these differences while first learning how to lucid dream. It was the process of conquering negative dreams that brought me into the lucid realm. Like most people I didn't know I had been dreaming until I'd wake up. But when I finally was able to fully wake up while still IN one of those negative dreams, I realized (through training myself to reach this level) I could take control of the dream. After the very first time of doing that I never had another negative dream like that again.

After becoming more proficient at lucid dreaming I faced new and interesting issues. In the lucid state there are several minor temptations that I face... They are kind of funny to relate.

I always think I should be looking into bigger deeper issues while lucid. But the temptation to just have fun is overwhelming. Flying is the first one. Frankly, having sex is another. When you are there in that state you can summon people to appear. And they can be very friendly members of the opposite sex. I'm not saying you happen to run across the opportunity in a regular dream, I'm saying that you deliberately construct reality where you can have what you want.

But, as I said earlier, I'm learning to fight these temptations. In a light-hearted way they are like sentries sent to distract me from my mission of exploration. No matter what is going on - temptation or exploration – it always seems that the time is always too short.

11

Lucid dreaming is just a technique of hitching a conscious ride on the naturally unconscious (or maybe, subconscious) dreaming process. Something we haven't gotten into is what the brain is doing during our nightly sleep. The brain (specifically, in the pineal gland) contains a naturally-occurring neurotransmitter that has a very similar molecular shape to seratonin, called DMT [n,n-dimethyltryptamine]. This chemical has been observed to function in relatively larger amounts in the brain during REM, stressful situations and especially at the time of death. It is this chemical which naturally facilitates dreaming.

What lucid dreamers are probably doing is simply tricking the body/brain into not "re-uptaking" the DMT (which is normally immediately cleared away during normal consciousness), and allowing consciousness within the DMT facilitated state.

By the way, DMT (read DMT - The Spirit Molecule by Richard Stassman) is a Schedule 1 drug (supposedly meaning it has no medical value) under the federal laws of United States. It can be extracted from plants and purified for use as a psychedelic, but doing that is illegal. So not only is DMT naturally present in all human and mammalian brains but in hundreds of plants as well. They are all illegal. Legal scientific experimentation (though it has been extremely limited, due to the mountains of legal red tape needed to be overcome by researchers to even use this material) has shown that DMT effects us the same way when we use it intentionally (through injection, in Strassman's study, but it can be vaporized and inhaled, smoked or taken orally with a mono-amine oxidase inhibitor - maoi) as dreaming, stress and dying are effected by it, naturally. It's the same stuff. This is an amazing discovery, but no one can study it because of draconian laws. That will eventually change.

The technique of finding lucid awareness is a way of using the body's natural release of this DMT to explore its effects in the same way a psychedelic explorer could use it as an extracted substance. And lucid dreaming isn't illegal.