State of the 2012 Phenomenon

We have all heard the prophetic speculation about some great event occurring on December 21 of this year.  

First, it was the theoretical “end” of the Mayan Calendar, something that seems less likely in the light of evidence found by William A. Saturno on May 11 of this year. He discovered the oldest - a 1,200 year old - Mayan calendar in Guatemala that clearly goes way beyond 2012, and even to the year 3500 C.E..^[1]

William A. Saturno in Guatemala, May 2012

Source: Wikipedia

Of course no one has wondered publicly why an older Myan calendar would be taken as more accurate than a newer one. (?) It is something like trying to get people to go back to the non-leap year calendar over the western one we use now. Still Saturno is a very well respected “archaeologist and Mayanist scholar” ^{[2 ]} and I have been very impressed with his work in the past. He is probably right about the Mayans planning for times passed 2012.

Another great promoter of this 2012 date was Terence McKenna. Famously he formulated a mathematical model which incorporated recurring patterns in the King Wen sequence of the 64 hexagram I-Ching, creating what he called a “time wave.” He believed this wave represented a struggle between the forces of “novelty” (see Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality—progressive change and increasing connectedness; increasing complexity) and “habit.” (the opposite of novelty—stagnation, and entropy). When the wave rose up habit was increasing, and when the wave fell novelty was increasing. He called this “Novelty Theory.”^[3] He and some friends plotted out the “wave” (which did not infinitely repeat, but was rather asymptotic—in other words it had an end point) and even wrote a computer program that would overlay the wave against any time period in history.

He chose to place the last cycle upon important 20^th Century events, such as the Hiroshima bombing. With a little manipulation he eventually concluded that the wave would reach the pinnacle of novelty on November 16^th 2012.^[3] But after learning that the Mayan calendar supposedly ended just over a month later, he changed his date, figuring the Mayans were probably right.^[3]

Terence McKenna

Source: Wikipedia

Terence passed away in 2000. And in the last few years of his life, he tended to pull back a bit from even taking his own theory very seriously. In the years since, his brother Dennis and many others have downplayed Terence's part in the 2012 phenomenon.^[4]

Now here we are only days away from the auspicious date. Yet, haven't we always been here? Even when we humans are told that original information might be inaccurate (as happened with the Mayan calendar and Time Wave Zero), we still not only want to believe, but we BELIEVE.

It seems to be a natural human urge to have faith in our greatest desires. It does not matter if people are religious or not, whether they are atheists or fundamentalists, faith in their own beliefs can trump all other factors. I have myself as my greatest proof of this.

I have to admit riding on the 2012 train. For years I loved listening to Terence's many talks and I had a great interest in Mayan astronomy, mathematics and use of visionary plants, completely aside from any interest in the “ending day” of their long count calendar. Nevertheless, like so many people in the world I want to see dramatic changes, and was happy that so many other people want to see them too—so much so, that I have been willing to be open-minded about what they feel will be a significant day.

Even Nostradamus is said to have referred to something in this year. But I have a hard time buying the Nostradamus thing. I've never really gotten into it, for the same reason I don't take newspaper astrology very seriously; vague words can be bent and manipulated to suit just about anything.

My wishful thinking has subconsciously created in me a burning faith that some event will change everything—transform it, or at least end some of the negativity resident in the cycles of our destructive human behavior. I'm less certain when it will be. My mind says “Don't be silly. We can not rely on outside forces to correct what we humans have been doing wrong. It is our fault, and so it is our responsibility to find our way out the mess we've created.” My heart pretty-much agrees, but my soul aches to see improvement in the lives of my sisters and brothers all over the world...NOW, rather than later. Thus, I too want to believe in December 21^st, 2012. But I have a little bit different point of view about it than most believers. Let me try to explain...

Remember I asked: “...haven't we always been here?” Soon after Jesus was crucified in the 1^st Century C.E., the young Christian church was a fellowship of apocalypse believers. They took Jesus quite literally about his return and believed it would be “any day now.” Sadly, for all of the rest of us, Jesus did not return. Instead, his followers ended up creating the most divisive and deadly institutions in human history—the Christian Church. More human beings have died throughout history in the name of a church Jesus never even wanted, than by any other one religious influence.

Over and over again in the history of this church groups would splinter off and claim that the “Second Coming is at hand.” And time after time they were disappointed. There have been at least 242 predictions about the “End of the World.”^[5] One of these times that really stands out in American history is appropriately called, “The Great Disappointment of 1844”...

Based on his interpretations of the prophecies in the book of Daniel (Chapters 8 and 9, especially Dan. 8:14 "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed"),William Miller, a Baptist preacher, proposed that Jesus Christ would return to the earth during the year 1844. The more specific date of October 22, 1844, was preached by Samuel S. Snow. Thousands of followers, some of whom had given away all of their possessions, waited expectantly. When Jesus did not appear, October 22, 1844, became known as the Great Disappointment. ^[6]

William Miller

Source: Wikipedia

As far as I know, no Christians of high repute are claiming Jesus' return this year. But, how will we generalized, mongrelized believers in the “whatever” of December 21, 2012 handle the probability that nothing at all will happen on that date? I, for one, will be disappointed, but I will not be surprised. This is an important distinction to make.

We - humanity - have an addiction to desiring heavenly, mystical, magical, alien or otherwise “outside” intervention in our affairs. But this is not a shortcoming of our species. In my opinion, we should have had some celestial personage interacting with us for our entire history. According to the Urantia Book this earth is different from other similar worlds by not having a superman and/or superwoman to guide us and comfort us. Instead we make up heroes – that is what our obsession with celebrities is – and we expect from them superhuman abilities and moral behavior. But, hey, talk about great disappointments!

I was at the bank the other day depositing $1.90 to keep my business savings account from becoming overdrawn. Embarrassing, but true. Anyway, I have become friends with Amy, the Customer Service Manager there. She and I were joking around. I said that I was hoping I could make it through to the end of December and avoid a service charge, due to the “end of the world.” She laughed. We agreed that this idea of a great transformation or celestial revelation-thing had been over-predicted in history. I said, “Someday though, something really will be coming to our world.”

But she rightly replied, “Yeah, but how will we ever know the difference ahead of time?” She had a good point. Terence used to ask, “how can we tell shit from Shinola?” And in the context of this year, how do we know?

Well, obviously we don't “know” at all. Knowing requires hard evidence that can be accepted by a majority. I'm not a big proponent of relying on “specialists” (especially in this particular field), but if Richard Dawkins (probably the best known skeptic in the scientific world) suddenly woke up and claimed that he received a message directly from Zeta Reticuli (where the “Greys,” a group of aliens in popular media come from^[7]) that the UFO's would be landing at 11:11 Universal Time (or 6:11 am EST), on December 21, I might be more likely to sit up and listen. I think we all would. But it looks like it's not happening. And, if nothing happens on the 21^st of December, Richard Dawkins ^[8] will have a little laugh to himself, presumably knowing that he was right all along.

Richard Dawkins

Source: Wikipedia

Here is my proposal...

IF there is a higher power; something that exists above humanity, outside of it, this date (December 21, 2012) would be the IDEAL time to do “something.” It may not have been part of the celestial plan, at first. Yet, I tend to think that the simple fact that millions of people are paying attention to the date makes it even that much more likely that something will happen. Why would any supermortal agency let this opportunity slip by without a little bit of magic becoming manifest?

Technically, it is most likely that nothing will happen at the end of this month. But, I am very sure that if that is the case, no-one will ever promote a date again for celestial intervention in human affairs. Why would they? Inaction on this 2012 date would mean that all bets are permanently off in this regard. This might be a good thing. People would no longer suffer from unrealistic expectations, only to be periodically “disappointed.” And, if there is a heaven, it will reinforce the concept that “God [only] helps those who help themselves.” By this philosophy, we are brought back to the celestial “tough love” perspective.

I certainly don't presume to be able to see around this corner, myself. I've told you what I want, personally, and what many want collectively. But, what I ask fellow believers in the 2012 phenomenon is this: If you are like me and you want a major change in the world, something that might only be able to come from outside, focus your thoughts on that. MAKE the change if you are an atheist or FORCE the attention of Higher Powers if you believe in such a thing. REQUEST their attention.

There will not be another opportunity as clearly-defined in popular culture as we have right now. Maybe we can use this time to project a collective self-fulfilling prophecy, or a cry for assistance.

If there is no Higher Power, then none of this really matters anyway; my beliefs should be discounted, and the electromagnetic forces that are slowly ripping apart all of material reality (see, entropy) will eventually leave our universe a cold and eternally dark place where no mind will function and no life will exist. That is OK too. What is TRUE is REAL. And if no Primal Person rules truth or reality, so it shall be. I respect that perspective even if I don't believe it myself.

For now, though, here is a human prayer to the Universe and for humanity: At this point, let us just sit back and relax. Let us eat, drink and be merry. Let us be born and let us die. Let the skeptics find peace and/or let the believers find reason. Nothing will change what is about to happen now. Take this time until the 21^st of December to reflect on all that has come before, all the might transpire and all that we desire and expect from existence.

Online Sources

[1] Alternate Mayan Calendar

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/story/2012-05-08/maya-apocalypse-calendar-2012/54879760/1

[2] William A. Saturno

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Saturno

[3] Terence McKenna

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna#Novelty_theory

[4] Dennis McKenna

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_McKenna

[5] List of Predictions about the End

http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm

[6] The Great Disappointment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Disappointment

[7] Zeta Reticuli

http://www.crystalinks.com/zeta.html

[8] Richard Dawkins

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins

Published on the World Wide Web

December 18, 2012

© 2012 Omega Art and Music

The Urantia Book on "Cults" - Part 2

The nice thing about having people read something that they are allowed to either believe or not believe makes the UB very appealing. It is a work of such eloquence, such exquisite depth in its very simplicity (iow, packing many levels of meaning in each sentence); so much so, that re-reading former passages works in tandem with the ministry of the TA to ratchet-up the capacity of getting more and more meaning with each new read and it has such a self-consistency that it MAKES a reader WANT to believe in its authorship--its reality for being what it says it is: a Revelation by superhuman personalities, and thence its message rings clear and true.  The secret "weapon" of the UB to gain readership is the Thought Adjusters, common in all normal-minded (whatever that really means) people.

Just like many things we find in the UB, the WORDS do become less clearly defined (in the Webster's sense) over time, but surely the concepts persist as living truths when reconstituted by the human mind, and its unfailing Thought Adjuster.

Language IS becoming a larger and larger barrier. Not many young folks would know what the word "hither" means, though it is used eight times in the UB, with "hither and yon" being used four of those times together. To a young person of today, "yon" is something you do when you're sleepy in church.   

It is just an example of how things have changed.

"Idiot" (another example) is used instead of today's PC term, "mentally disabled" (of whom we are admonished to try to "disfellowship" from humanity). Bill Sadler uses this term (idiot) many times in his 1958 lecture, but there is no way in hell that a modern UB lecturer would say such a thing, even though the UB uses it. It is a matter of subjective discrimination in the presentation of a text that IS aging. And people do well to be sensitive in this regard outside the UB community bubble. We can be a little less sensitive here at UBRON since we are all mostly well- read in both UB and non-UB sources. We (hopefully) can overlook and differentiate the modern memes when the corresponding word is used in UB quotes.

But ANY UB quote taken out of context lends itself to HIGHLY subjective interpretation. One quote SEEMS to negate another quote. But for the person who has read ALL the quotes in the form and order that the book is written, is not as likely to misinterpret their overall message.

When taken in the context of 1934-1955, these verbal changes are well understood. But the language changes so fast that a vigilance about cultural assumptions is really a requirement in philosophical discussion even at UBRON.org (that is what is nice and progressive about English over most other languages--it grows, along with languages like Japanese which also allows for the adoption [and adaptation] of the concepts and words from other languages).

In the last 50 years though, these other languages are taking English's hint and finding ways of expanding themselves--often to adopt more English terms, actually. English is the most progressive language on earth and, in modified form, will surely become (is already becoming) the universal language--much more-so than 60 years ago. Naturally, this development was anticipated by the Revelators, therefore, why the UB IS in English.

The UB is careful to be diplomatic regarding sensitive issues of how people follow their belief systems--personal or group. It stretches its effort very ingeniously to speak to whatever level of spiritual growth the religionist finds her/himself in. To the church lover, it shows the value of church. To the Personal Religionist (the folks who Jesus sought to bring together) it shows the value - in greater frequency than support for the church-oriented view, as if to be gently steering us into the more personal goal of spiritual attainment--soul growth - of it being OK to let the groups do their group communion, while emphasizing the superior model of inner communion.

I don't think I specified very clearly what I meant by "anti-cult" in the last post.  So, let me have another crack at it. To answer the question about whether the UB is completely anti-cult, one must divide the concept implied in the question onto multiple logic levels, I believe. And we would all benefit from not overgeneralizing ANY stance the UB takes on ANY issue. The book is an example of a very high-quality tolerance for the half-perfected age we are living in, in just about every way.

1) A CULT AS COMPLETLY SUPPORTED BY THE UB - If "cult" is taken in the UB sense (as any organized religion), then surely (as I mentioned and so does the UB) a WORLD WIDE cult - appropriate to all that I highlighted regarding the promotion of individual spiritual growth, based on the inner leading of the Father fragment - is completely supported. When the whole world recognizes this Plan of individual soul growth through judicial choosing of the Father's will by each human, and thence the loving service to one's fellow individuals, a church of unimagined usefulness and high spiritual unity WILL come to fill the place of the thousands of faiths that now compete for group membership. The UB seems unequivocal about this point. I guess I don't see it as a paradox or inconsistent in any way. The UB is in support of a FUTURE cult--a "Mankind Religion."     

2) A CULT AS NEITHER SUPPORTED NOR DISCOURAGED BY THE UB - In our current state of mixed personal and group faith systems, the UB may be said to neither be anti-cult or pro-cult. It simply clarifies the negatives and positives, thus allowing philosophically for both personal and group religion. The blue quote in my essay (the one promoting tolerance by the non-ritual-minded for the ritual-minded types of truth seekers) is the perfect example of the UB's attitude toward our PRESENT situation--the evolutionary steps toward a "Mankind Religion."     

3) A CULT AS NOT SUPPORTED BY THE UB - If "cult" is taken in the David Koresh/Jim Jones sense of latter day phraseology and meme- development, then the UB most certainly would be AGAINST this idea, as it exemplifies ALL negative aspects of group faith, even killing its own deluded membership sometimes; well-ahead of what they could have achieved as separate inner God-Will seekers, and humanity- servers. This is a definite (in my mind) "anti-cult" stance, indicating that the group religious systems of the PAST (see the problems mentioned in the UB about Paul's efforts to convert the world through heavy-handed Catholicism)--only serve NOW to stultify individual growth and are examples of what will NOT lead to a "Mankind Religion."     

4) THE CULT AS AN INTEGRATABLE CONCEPT BY THE UB - Integrating these three divergent attitudes above seems a non-problem as long they are taken, each in their own way--ALWAYS, and not mixed. In this way the UB can be understood to be meaning the following (working backward through the last three examples above): It supports the reasons for and positive evolutionary value of past cults, inspires people to prefer the individual's loyalty to inward spiritual growth over outward religious cult loyalty in the present, and encourages those farther- seeing individual Personal Religionists, to keep in mind that a future cult of ALL individuals who are God-knowing and neighbor- serving is inevitable, but only when its application is voluntary and universal.

In my opinion, there will be a world unified by spiritually enlightened people BEFORE they ALL choose to codify that spirituality as a group-effort. One gets the impression (from a neighboring planet) that churches are not the norm on inhabited planets, YET the one-day organization of a religious/philosophy taken for granted, will arise on each world and become universally accepted. On the neighboring planet it means the universal acceptance by the citizens of that one nation to be spiritually unified.

Unfortunately, it looks like they are about to make the old Urantian (Christian and Muslim) mistake of pushing this belief system upon their less developed neighbors.

On Urantia development of a planetary church means using the stepping stones provided by the evolutionary means of many groups as they slowly liberate their individual members to all become ONE group.

Urantia is far ahead of its neighbor in this regard, as our international community is much more closely bound economically, and therefore culturally. Material items enjoyed by prosperous cultures are sought by less prosperous ones through international trade on our world, and no culture uses material items that are not ultimately associated with art, music and literature in some form. Art, music and literature are the vanguard of ideology, philosophy, and even of spirituality. India, for example, is intrigued by Western-style democracy, corporate structure, and the material wealth. That they trade back items with their own cultural attachments and accessories, means that America (for example) receives back Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, ornate art and beautiful classical Indian and even Indo-rock music. So it is similar with all trade at this time among nations. This is a very wonderful thing... or it WILL be when the service motive replaces the profit motive.

Also, the military umbrella provided by superpowers is politically useful in this inter-exchange, only when it becomes more of a peace-keeping police force under the authority of the UN. International war is diminishing in its destructive aspects. Our world is a rather tightly-gathered swarm of relatively developed nations, unlike our neighboring planet. Even if America or Europe is not as advanced as the island nation of the neighboring world, our WHOLE world is probably much more poised to find international peace, accelerated trade, cultural exchange...and even (after these things have come about) a worldwide religion.

Yet, the force that trumps ALL other factors in the growing together of the nations has got to be global communication. The advances in communication have a profound influence that is not even fully understood by our current generations. Nothing in the history of mankind, has ever been a bigger potentiator of political, economic and philosophic unification.

The things that I have seen attract new readers are...   

1) Non promotion of the UB unless it is asked about. This is a long- standing and extremely helpful "rule" that most UB readers understand remarkably well.     

2) The recognition that the UB is scientific as well as religious. This has a real drawing power to the modern, technologically minded, truth-seeker.     

3) The differences between the UB presentation of Jesus' religion vs Christianity's. And though it is disheartening to see pictures and and emphases ABOUT Jesus at sites like TruthBook.org, the UB has great power to straighten out these errors perpetuated by its so- called associated organizations and faith-based groups, all by itself.

The biggest benefit of the churchification efforts in the UB community is the bringing of the UB to OPEN minded folks, who can there and then choose for themselves whether they need the rituals offered by Behz Sarmast's and Paula Thompson's strategy. The only hitch is that these self-appointed Urantia Book ministers must not close the minds of these people who come to the UB, by presenting them with silly religious fetishes, before the new readers have the chance to allow themselves to open their own minds with the UB.

The biggest detractor is the first impression of potential UB readers by seeing white Jesus-es plastered all over the place in certain UB organizations, like TruthBook.org. Many potential readers don't like it because they are either (i) Christians who love Christ but are looking for an alternative to the soul-limiting features of Christian religious groups and are turned away from the UB without even reading it because of the perception that it is just another Christian group, or (ii) non-Christians will be put-off for the emphasis ABOUT Jesus before ever reading the truthful Gospel OF Jesus. Even Jesus deflected over-emphasis on himself, in favor of HighLighting the need for emphasis on his (our) Father. He would not be pleased about this over-emphasis on himself being prosecuted, especially by FER-believers.

Do remember: Jesus was a man, but he is no longer (and probably never was) a bearded white guy with blue eyes. He is a Creator Son of Paradise, our Local Universe Father. That he is remembered by the symbol of the cross is MOST unfortunate. It is a symbol of death. It is a Urantian embarrassment. I understand its value for reminding people that we had to nail our loving Master to a tree in order to have him resurrect himself and prove all that he taught. It is a symbol that we had to SEE wonders in order to believe. The Three Circles is a symbol that can serve (were it completely legal to do so) to replace the gore of the cross, with the Infinity of the Trinity, of Whom Michael is a direct descendant. After all, it is the symbol of HIS banner, not, btw, to be bartered out by the Urantia Foundation, but that is for another day.

The rising light of the Circles will replace the falling night of the cross.  A recent mention of a popular musician in the UB movement, and his religious form of ministry was discussed. I love this musician, he is a real man of action, with a wonderful and loving soul. However, I have noticed in my conversations with him, that he has a bit of a moralizing bent to his ministry. He is somewhat traditionally bound by the birthmark of religious group sensibility (or perhaps lack thereof). He has occasionally criticized the "rude behavior" of some of his fans, because they used swear words in FB posts, neglecting to appreciate what these folks INTENDED vs the words they chose. Their INTENTIONS were honorable, support and humorous.  But the words they used were focused on instead.  This is no big deal of course. The man is blessing to the mission of the FER.

But it shows how even one of the most progressive heroes of our movement - he is a strong cannabis supporter too - has a reverence for God that seems to overspill its edges and become expectations for a certain kind of behavior from others around him--one that meets his personal standards. That all of us are guilty of that from time to time, we could use the humility of dealing with our own shortcomings FIRST, before expecting others to deal correctly with their own. Ministers, in particular, are EXPERTS at delivering guilt directly into those who look up to them. This is the poison that is destroying today's organized religions. But it is NOT a sin. And it is not a fault either. It is pure human nature. It is just that it corrodes the need for an "appointed" person to lead one's spiritual search. So the quicker that ministers stop revealing their own beliefs and begin fostering the development of the independent belief systems of those around them, they succeed in the work of God, though they destroy the work of group maintenance. Oh well, some thing must be sacrificed. Better to sacrifice a non-personal group than even one personal soul.

Ministers have gone from "we are the chosen people" to "I am the chosen minister" just exactly as fast as the groups began to break into sects... Continue the logical sect-break-up theory, and you get individuals who are no longer part of any group but their own non- named, non-formalized group. The ultimate and most basic "sect" of any religion could then be said to be the personal belief system of the individual. THAT is why readers of the UB are special. We are a clumsy, yet noble, attempt at TRUE group religion. Yet, we should be satisfied in that fact at this very primitive time. We are already the final church in misty form. It has only one expectation of each member: find the truth from ALL sources (not just the UB), and be only bound by your fact of readership of the UB, and no other official ties are needed (no fellowships, no Uranita religious orders of ANY kind) for our congregation to thrive; maybe even to transform the world into a place that will ASK for a Religion of Urantia.

I have to agree that when my old roommate (only teasing and in jest) answered my former girlfriend's question of what Urantia is by saying "Oh, it's a cult," it ruined her first impression permanently (she was easily sway-able anyway) of the UB.

Now even ten years later, when I got back in touch with her at FB, she saw all my involvement in UB-related activities and sent me a private message that said, "I see your still doing the Urantia thing. I try to stay away from stuff like that. Once you take that path you lose your ability to have control over your life. Why can't you be happy just being YOU?" To which I simply let her know that the UB is not a flash in the pan, but a philosophical source that has been in my family for three generations. I told her it is NOT a cult; that its readers are anti- cult in not promoting the book, unless someone specifically asks about it. I let her know that we only are interested in readers who WANT to read and that most UB readers also are encouraged to seek out the best info from ALL philosophical sources. We don't push. And it is NOT a religious organization.

In her ignorance, she would actually think I was a liar if she were to visit TruthBook.org, or Behz's site. I don't like that and I will fight against the erroneous first impression.

On the other hand, my current roommate (who is not a girlfriend) frequently asks me about the UB. Because I always STOP talking about it at very interesting parts.  This sparks her interest even more. Two days ago we had a two hour discussion about the TA and Adam and Eve. She has been listening religiously (ha, ha) to the three CD's I burned for her about the Adamic Regime and is fascinated by the origin of the Secondary Midwayers. She believes that I came into her life just when she needed to know this information. And I believe she came into my life just when I needed to have some personal face-to-face UB fellowship. Win...win!

It seems to me that our focus as UB readers - knowing all of the above - should be on immediately pushing for the social and economic changes (based on a new and dynamic philosophy for the human family) that will allow all individuals to find the Will of the Spark inside themselves (by becoming less materially minded) and THEN to, by a common social-will, voluntarily join together in a planet-wide church of the Universal Father of all Religions, in spiritual unification; an actual human organization that will never diminish, leading to the greatest religious destiny of all: Peace on Earth, under God, in Light and Life.

The Urantia Book on "Cults" - Part 1

I would count myself to be someone who is entirely satisfied religiously by my own inner contact with the TA. Yet, I both appreciate and enjoy occassional group communion, group worship and group prayer, as they are associated with codified or "named" churches, temples, mosques and synagogues. What I have found (subjectively) is that I don't need any human minister to evolve my own soul. I have no interest in following any ritual (as they are commonly practiced). Ultimately, self-defined groups using their own group creeds as fall-back templates of faith for their individuals, only serve to perpetuate the continuance of the group--not the individual truth-seeker. It can never be otherwise.

As the very last quote may indicate, ideally the personal religionist who is not in need of symbol and dogma can find a religious satisfaction that surpasses anything that organized social religion can add to individual experience (with my emphases).   

92:1.3 Religion arises as a biologic reaction of mind to spiritual beliefs and the environment; it is the last thing to perish or change in a race. Religion is society’s adjustment, in any age, to that which is mysterious. As a social institution it embraces rites, symbols, cults, scriptures, altars, shrines, and temples. Holy water, relics, fetishes, charms, vestments, bells, drums, and priesthoods are common to all religions. And it is impossible entirely to divorce purely evolved religion from either magic or sorcery.

I have no use for material associations of things to a group belief system. The gathering of the PEOPLE in the spirit of God-recognition is plenty good enough for me.   

102:8.6 While personal religion precedes the evolution of human morals, it is regretfully recorded that institutional religion has invariably lagged behind the slowly changing mores of the human races. Organized religion has proved to be conservatively tardy. The prophets have usually led the people in religious development; the theologians have usually held them back. Religion, being a matter of inner or personal experience, can never develop very far in advance of the intellectual evolution of the races.

100:5.1 The world is filled with lost souls, not lost in the theologic sense but lost in the directional meaning, wandering about in confusion among the isms and cults of a frustrated philosophic era. Too few have learned how to install a philosophy of living in the place of religious authority. (The symbols of socialized religion are not to be despised as channels of growth, albeit the river bed is not the river.)

These "lost souls" are not in need of finding the right group. They are in need of find the God inside inside them and sharing their God- consciousness with the brethren, in a both organized (if they feel they must) or, all the better, unorganized way.

155:3.8 Jesus repeatedly taught his apostles that no civilization could long survive the loss of the best in its religion. And he never grew weary of pointing out to the twelve the great danger of accepting religious symbols and ceremonies in the place of religious experience. His whole earth life was consistently devoted to the mission of thawing out the frozen forms of religion into the liquid liberties of enlightened sonship.

And that frost still traps the forms of nearly all organized religions today.

99:2.1 Institutional religion cannot afford inspiration and provide leadership in this impending world-wide social reconstruction and economic reorganization because it has unfortunately become more or less of an organic part of the social order and the economic system which is destined to undergo reconstruction. Only the real religion of personal spiritual experience can function helpfully and creatively in the present crisis of civilization.

It would be good to recall that the very "crisis of civilization" in the 21st Century has much to do with the entanglement of this very religious formalization within the social structures that perpetuate the already ingrained mix of church and state (economic ones as well). We should expect no change in this social religious situation until society is significantly reformed...

99:2.2 Institutional religion is now caught in the stalemate of a vicious circle. It cannot reconstruct society without first reconstructing itself; and being so much an integral part of the established order, it cannot reconstruct itself until society has been radically reconstructed. 99:2.3 Religionists must function in society, in industry, and in politics as individuals, not as groups, parties, or institutions. A religious group which presumes to function as such, apart from religious activities, immediately becomes a political party, an economic organization, or a social institution. Religious collectivism must confine its efforts to the furtherance of religious causes.

The question at this point in history is: Do any named religious organization have the group-wisdom to practice group-self-control? Does it take money for the groups activities based on its group creeds? Then must it always use those funds to advance the individual's personal search for spiritual meaning, above any group or social promotion of the group.

99:2.4 Religionists are of no more value in the tasks of social reconstruction than nonreligionists except in so far as their religion has conferred upon them enhanced cosmic foresight and endowed them with that superior social wisdom which is born of the sincere desire to love God supremely and to love every man as a brother in the heavenly kingdom. An ideal social order is that in which every man loves his neighbor as he loves himself.

99:2.5 The institutionalized church may have appeared to serve society in the past by glorifying the established political and economic orders, but it must speedily cease such action if it is to survive. Its only proper attitude consists in the teaching of nonviolence, the doctrine of peaceful evolution in the place of violent revolution—peace on earth and good will among all men.

99:2.6 Modern religion finds it difficult to adjust its attitude toward the rapidly shifting social changes only because it has permitted itself to become so thoroughly traditionalized, dogmatized, and institutionalized. The religion of living experience finds no difficulty in keeping ahead of all these social developments and economic upheavals, amid which it ever functions as a moral stabilizer, social guide, and spiritual pilot. True religion carries over from one age to another the worth-while culture and that wisdom which is born of the experience of knowing God and striving to be like him.

99:4.7 There is no danger in religion’s becoming more and more of a private matter—a personal experience—provided it does not lose its motivation for unselfish and loving social service. Religion has suffered from many secondary influences: sudden mixing of cultures, intermingling of creeds, diminution of ecclesiastical authority, changing of family life, together with urbanization and mechanization.

One who is enlightened by communion with the TA, will definitely be able to apply the lessons learned in the individual's personal religious experience to the benefit of any and all groups--of any sort. Yet the opposite cannot be true. Group religious experience cannot definitely effect positive religious growth in the personal life of each individual in the organized group. Albeit, some will find great benefit from group activity, as long as they don't sacrifice their personal work in knowing God through the intimate association of the TA in the human mind, as enhanced by the successful growing of a soul.

99:5.1 While religion is exclusively a personal spiritual experience—knowing God as a Father—the corollary of this experience—knowing man as a brother—entails the adjustment of the self to other selves, and that involves the social or group aspect of religious life. Religion is first an inner or personal adjustment, and then it becomes a matter of social service or group adjustment. The fact of man’s gregariousness perforce determines that religious groups will come into existence. What happens to these religious groups depends very much on intelligent leadership. In primitive society the religious group is not always very different from economic or political groups. Religion has always been a conservator of morals and a stabilizer of society. And this is still true, notwithstanding the contrary teaching of many modern socialists and humanists.

99:6.3 But as religion becomes institutionalized, its power for good is curtailed, while the possibilities for evil are greatly multiplied. The dangers of formalized religion are: fixation of beliefs and crystallization of sentiments; accumulation of vested interests with increase of secularization; tendency to standardize and fossilize truth; diversion of religion from the service of God to the service of the church; inclination of leaders to become administrators instead of ministers; tendency to form sects and competitive divisions; establishment of oppressive ecclesiastical authority; creation of the aristocratic “chosen-people” attitude; fostering of false and exaggerated ideas of sacredness; the routinizing of religion and the petrification of worship; tendency to venerate the past while ignoring present demands; failure to make up-to-date interpretations of religion; entanglement with functions of secular institutions; it creates the evil discrimination of religious castes; it becomes an intolerant judge of orthodoxy; it fails to hold the interest of adventurous youth and gradually loses the saving message of the gospel of eternal salvation.

I have observed that many well-meaning UB readers who are inclined toward fundamentalizing the TEXT of the UB, see themselves as "chosen" and therefore consider all other religious organizations to be inferior to a UB-based organized religion. But, were they to stop and think for a moment, THAT attitude is the problem with all former institutionalization of religion in the past. Logically, why would some person who is dismayed with the group they officially worship be attracted to just another group (even if it is a UB-based organization, like Behz's)? To attempt to make a church for UB readers is a noble, even worthy, aspiration.

Yet, short of worldwide understanding about the extensive and well- clarified cosmology (with science too) presented in the UB and the religion OF Jesus presented to tease out the errors and inconsistencies of all forms of Biblical "Christianity," no UB-based church will ever attract personal religionists, nor "adventurous youths." I think there will be a Urantian Church of Humanity, but it will await the deconstruction and reconstruction of social and economic orders FIRST (as is said above).
99:6.4 Formal religion restrains men in their personal spiritual activities instead of releasing them for heightened service as kingdom builders.

99:5.7 Just as certainly as men share their religious beliefs, they create a religious group of some sort which eventually creates common goals. Someday religionists will get together and actually effect co-operation on the basis of unity of ideals and purposes rather than attempting to do so on the basis of psychological opinions and theological beliefs. Goals rather than creeds should unify religionists. Since true religion is a matter of personal spiritual experience, it is inevitable that each individual religionist must have his own and personal interpretation of the realization of that spiritual experience. Let the term “faith” stand for the individual’s relation to God rather than for the creedal formulation of what some group of mortals have been able to agree upon as a common religious attitude. “Have you faith? Then have it to yourself.”

99:4.3 True religion is a meaningful way of living dynamically face to face with the commonplace realities of everyday life. But if religion is to stimulate individual development of character and augment integration of personality, it must not be standardized. If it is to stimulate evaluation of experience and serve as a value-lure, it must not be stereotyped. If religion is to promote supreme loyalties, it must not be formalized.

What could be clearer than the above passage?

101:8.2 Belief is always limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Belief fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God- knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become group possessions, but faith must be personal. Theologic beliefs can be suggested to a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual religionist.

143:7.2 True religion is the act of an individual soul in its self-conscious relations with the Creator; organized religion is man’s attempt to socialize the worship of individual religionists.   

145:2.4 You well know that, while a kindhearted father loves his family as a whole, he so regards them as a group because of his strong affection for each individual member of that family. No longer must you approach the Father in heaven as a child of Israel but as a child of God. As a group, you are indeed the children of Israel, but as individuals, each one of you is a child of God. I have come, not to reveal the Father to the children of Israel, but rather to bring this knowledge of God and the revelation of his love and mercy to the individual believer as a genuine personal experience. The prophets have all taught you that Yahweh cares for his people, that God loves Israel. But I have come among you to proclaim a greater truth, one which many of the later prophets also grasped, that God loves you — every one of you — as individuals. All these generations have you had a national or racial religion; now have I come to give you a personal religion.

With the emphasized wording above, how could any UB-based minister then try to circumvent this need for personal spiritual experience and individual religious life, by locking his message back up into the iron chains of group-based motivation. I like Rev. Dennis Shield's church (over Behz's) because the UB is not held as a "sacred book" the way it is for UB-based Paula Thompson-style churchification.

121:5.18 Into such a generation of men, dominated by such incomplete systems of philosophy and perplexed by such complex cults of religion, Jesus was born in Palestine. And to this same generation he subsequently gave his gospel of personal religion — sonship with God.
The Gospel of Personal Religion IS The Gospel of Jesus. Period.

101:2.13 True religion is an insight into reality, the faith-child of the moral consciousness, and not a mere intellectual assent to any body of dogmatic doctrines. True religion consists in the experience that “the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” Religion consists not in theologic propositions but in spiritual insight and the sublimity of the soul’s trust.

Read: "soul's" as singular and individual.

But the following is perhaps the most useful and appropriate passage regarding how folks like myself (and the majority of UB readers who have gained insight from the UB's discussion of personal vs group "faith") should view group religionists - at this stage of history - with GREAT tolerance; affording them dignity for what they personally need (short of discovering that true religious experience is an individual pursuit...



* * *   91:5.7 But the minds of greater spiritual illumination should be patient with, and tolerant of, those less endowed intellects that crave symbolism for the mobilization of their feeble spiritual insight. The strong must not look with disdain upon the weak. Those who are God-conscious without symbolism must not deny the grace-ministry of the symbol to those who find it difficult to worship Deity and to revere truth, beauty, and goodness without form and ritual. * * *

I understand that there is some real potential for people who need the "Fellowship's" UB churchification for the very reason listed in the centered passage above. Paula and Behz can truly be ministers for these folks who need symbols and ritual in order to get started in their pathway to Paradise. It is all good, in that the effort to bring humans to God is given opportunity to evolve. But at some point, in some way, and some day, EACH and EVERY individual in a UB- based organized religion - one with a name like Behz's organization - MUST depart from the group and work with their OWN indwelling Adjuster in the sanctuary of the mind to enhance the progression of their OWN immortal soul.

This will all eventually work out. And it is a credit to our movement that there aren't MORE of these mini-churches, cults, whatever you want to call them. With patience and common understanding, and with the personal goal of God consciousness steering the application of personal brotherly INsights outward to ALL of one's brothers and sisters, ALL groups can be given an example of how to PROPERLY use group religion and institutionalized faith.

[Please see the next post for further discussion about how the Urantia Book handles the word, "cult" and what the future might hold for a world-wide and universal "organization" of Personal Religionists.]

The Way of Thought Adjustment - Part 2

For many years I misconstrued the concept behind cooperation with the Thought Adjuster.  Association of this sort seemed complex, ethereal, enigmatic and confusing.  I have since come to learn that it is NONE of these things.  It is the most natural and effective power to liberate the mind and foster the soul that could ever be conceived of. 

No wonder, of course.  It Knows what it's doing.  It comes down from Infinity and will return there with us attached (fused, actually), as we ascend inward toward the Center of all things.

The Adjuster's nature is indeed remote and almost wholly different from ours.  This is the primary difficulty we face.  Yet, because it functions so intimately within our minds - the "mind" being the intercession between spirit realities and material ones - the simple, conscious, recognition of the myriad and continuous choices (especially moral ones) in our lives is a derivative of the Spark's tireless work.  We are literally built to succeed in overcoming this problem, even if beings even higher than ourselves cannot understand how we are able to accomplish such things.

The trick is to see as many options as there are to choose from and to decide on the most heavily (what I call) HighLighted ones, and then to do that over and over again (please see my emphases)...

110:6.6 Every decision you make either impedes or facilitates the function of the Adjuster; likewise do these very decisions determine your advancement in the circles of human achievement. It is true that the supremacy of a decision, its crisis relationship, has a great deal to do with its circle-making influence; nevertheless, numbers of decisions, frequent repetitions, persistent repetitions, are also essential to the habit-forming certainty of such reactions.

We get a real sense from the passage above that not only is "supremacy" ("its crisis relationship" - its reality-significance) a quality that facilitates this process, but the shear quantity of decisions-made, whether deemed important to us or not, also contributes mightily to consistently solidifying the God-to-human partnership.  And clearly a constant focus on this process, with as much repetition as possible, in the real key to the Kingdom.

So, let's distill the above passage in this way...

Communication and familiarization with the

Thought Adjuster is a three-fold process of decision-making, based upon...

1) Quality - Reality Significance of Decisions

2) Quantity - Number of Decisions

3) Repetition - Frequency of Decisions

It is about developing a good habit, actually a God habit of intelligent gathering of knowledge, discernment of the truths contained in that knowledge and the actual (meaning by the acting) experience of following those truths.  Knowledge and experience equal wisdom.  But wisdom only becomes "good" (of survival value) when it is aligned with the Will of the Creator.

Considering the above three aspects of Adjuster attunement in penetrating the "circles of human achievement," we must, conversely postulate that NOT choosing the HighLighted options presented by the Thought Adjuster in our decision-making process, will inevitably lead to a distortion or reality, with habitual error resulting in cessation of soul existence.  Stated otherwise, choosing the correct option leads to exponential soul growth and could even border upon soul consciousness, but choosing in error leads to the exponential, and eventual, identity obliteration.  Obviously there is no place in reality for post-material Mortals (humans who have lived and and died in the flesh) who perpetually make unreal choices--choices that are not complementary to the laws of the original Creator of all Reality.

Ignoring the options presented is a choice in and of itself.  It is one that is as erroneous as habitually making many wrong choices.  If the cosmos were a basketball game, consistently "traveling" with a static ball (a non-Adjuster-attuned human will) in hand (in mind) results in a final and permanent penalty--expulsion from the Game.  The ball must always be in motion and moving toward the basket at the other side (the Goal-end the Infinite and Eternal destiny) of the Court.  Even if one does make many choices - ostensibly, dribbling to avoid the penalty - error can only result from moving toward one's own basket (one's finite, non-spiritual, material origin) can only score points against the after-material-death existence of the player.

Following this somewhat-debased sports analogy, and relating it to the three-fold process in blue, the material life is but a practice game, a scrimmage for gaining divine skills and training for the after-life existence.  The slothful or self-deceived/deceiving player is allowed to continue on the Court (the arena of choice--through the gift of human free will), until the final minutes of the flesh-bound Game run down.  Even then, the point stats are still carefully and mercifully examined, before judgement is decreed; before the player, if found lacking, is completely dropped from the next Season (eternal life).

For normal minded people, the human lifetime - despite its relative shortness in the cosmic sense - is more than enough time to effect the kinds of changes that grow a soul of immortal status.

Now that we know the importance of correct choices, we should examine which choices are supreme - have the reality significance - in order to get a grasp on how our Adjuster cooperation can advance the growth of our souls.

But first, let us consider the concept of the soul. 

Every religion has a word for the soul.  Humans have recognized, through a combination of evolutionary and revelatory experience, this third member of inner mind-association.  Humans are minded - with a material organ that is sensitive to semi-material intelligence.  Adjusters are also minded - with the aspects of the highest and most perfect form of Spirit Intelligence. 

Mind is like a liquid.  It is ever-moving.  It could be said that this liquid characteristic is the ancestor of all mind, high and low.  As stated earlier, the Adjuster and the human being are vastly different in nature.  The former is entirely spiritual, while the latter is almost entirely material. For demonstrative purposes, this difference could be equated with oil and water, respectively.  They (the spirit and the material) can be transiently mingled and also contrasted by the 'vibratory' action by the limited will of the creature.  This is what occurs in animals.  Their purely material existence, and relatively smaller intellectual capacity is only able to temporarily mingle the inherent and fundamental spirit circuits (the five sub-human Adjutant Mind Spirits) of life-action, in proportion to the efficiency in functioning of contact with these circuits.

But when allowed to settle (through death or intellectual inaction), spirit mind and material mind will always gravitate toward a separation and mutual exclusivity--back into their primary states; the spirit is slightly experientialized within the evolving Supreme Being, and the material mind (the brain)  "returns to dust."  And so this is the starting point of human mind phenomena.  Unlike the sub-human animal mind, the human animal mind is the result of a billion-year evolution toward God-consciousness.  In this way, with increased super-animal intellectual capacity, the sixth and seventh Adjutant Mind Spirits are able to function (The Spirit of Wisdom and the Spirit of Worship, respectively), allowing for human sponsorship of the Thought Adjuster - an actual fragment of God - and thence comes the subsequent potential for building an immortal entity: the soul.  I say "building" the soul, because it is a matter of volitional effort.

Essentially, the soul is built by the combination of the human moral decisions that are aligned with the mind presentations and manipulations of the indwelling Thought Adjuster.  Correct decisions build better souls--more Powerful souls.  Remembering that the soul is that third member of inner mind association, it is reasonable (in our mind-as-liquid metaphor) to assign a kind of liquid - the soul's mind - which is not the oil of spirit mind, nor the water of material mind, but another "substance" altogether.  We know that emulsifiers are substances that can mix oil and water.  Liquid soap is an example of an emulsifier.  When soap is added to oil and water it creates a solution containing all three liquids.  So does the soul combine the natures of spirit and material mind and, upon survival after material death, can take the place of the material mind, creating a new being of dual nature.  The two components of this duality are (1) a super-material body that is then able to easily contact the spirit presence of (2) the now-experienced Adjuster.


In the realm of the next life emulsification is no longer necessary.  Through the earth-life experience the Thought Adjuster learned how to successfully communicate with the soul's embryonic semi-spirit consciousness, by down-stepping the ideals of divinity in such a way that spirit contact could become permanent.  In return, the soul became more and more conscious as it dwelt in the first life how to up-step its own ideals about reality, effectively aligning them with their spirit counterparts.  Now the liquid mind of spirit functions as the mediator of mind.  In the next life (the post-material existence) a clear - though extensive - gradient running from time/space semi-spirit consciousness of the soul, to the absolute spirit consciousness of the Thought Adjuster is established.  The spirit liquid could be said to be pure at the top of the reality scale and quite diluted at the bottom of that scale, yet still it is now ONE substance.  Only experiential prerequisites are required at that point for the soul to complete its mission of fusion with the Adjuster.

The acceleration of soul evolution after material death can be quick and sure.  Experience in the flesh and post-material training experience will result in fusion.  And when fusion occurs, there is no risk in all eternity that the new being (the Im-Mortal Ascender) will fall back or lose its well-earned eternal life.  No limits can be placed upon such a new creature.  The essence of the highest Creator Person has become eternally one with the essence of the lowest creature person.  That piece of God - the Adjuster - gains experience and is liberated from its existential (non-experiential) state, while that once-lowly, animal creature gains an inevitable pathway to perfection.  The perfect has provided the means for the imperfect creature to then become perfected.

In the next post I hope to delve into some very real and personal experiences that can illustrate possible methods for maximizing the exponential development of the soul - while we are still in this material lifetime - through conscious cooperation with the God Spark.  Supreme decisions lead to the Supreme relationship.

The Way of Thought Adjustment - Part 1

On or around the 2,134st day of my life here on earth (or, about June 1, 1974), a new Presence entered my human mind.

I must have made some moral choice that was subsequently registered in the Central Universe, upon the Sacred Sphere of Divinington, where that Spark of God - the Thought Adjuster, was waiting and training for its mission in my life. The Adjuster then appeared at the Superuniverse Capital of Uversa (at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy), registered its its plan to indwell my mind and then instantly it became a part of me, right here on earth.

Of course, I don't really remember how it felt to suddenly be in the presence of that fragment of the infinite, eternal and absolute First Source and Center. But I suspect I began to see my existence differently from that point forward.

In the years spanning from that day to today I have slowly but unfailingly learned more and more about this Spark, even about one of it's other indwellings. I learned that before its partnership with me, it indwelt another man on a faraway world, in another time-frame. This former "host" was a great musician and artist in those ages and on that other world, but one who became self-deceived and chose not to survive his own death. He killed himself and lost the potential of life eternal--fusion with what would become my Adjuster.

There may have been other hosts too, but it is the life-efforts and struggles of this former host that has been partially revealed to me. The plans of my Thought Adjuster for my own life were significantly colored by this former experience and have had a bearing on both my feelings and moral decisions, even up to this very day. The Spark of God well-knew that I would represent a new opportunity for it to successfully steer a man of similar interests, temperament, subjective temptations toward self-destruction and self-hatred, into life everlasting.

Frankly, I now fully understand that the partnership offered by this Spark has been frequently frustrated by my own moral indecision, procrastination, submerged genetically inferior traits, prideful assumptions and mis-interpretation of divine meanings and values. It is only in recent years that I have discovered a new means of re-evaluating the messages and largely unconscious (and superconscious) presentations and proposals of this Spark. And I believe that this adult choice to TRY to understand the Thought Adjuster's role in my life is now actually saving that life.

But it took a drastic walking away from my human assumptions and conventional, culturally-sanctioned errors, to literally see the Light...

107:4.5 There is a characteristic light, a spirit luminosity, which accompanies this divine presence, and which has become generally associated with Thought Adjusters. In the universe of Nebadon this Paradise luminosity is widespreadly known as the “pilot light”; on Uversa it is called the “light of life.” On Urantia this phenomenon has sometimes been referred to as that “true light which lights every man who comes into the world.”

Removing myself from the trap of inferior 21st Century human mores and error was like a true rebirth.  It was a clearing out of the dilapidated passageway whereby material life and half-truth obstructed the REAL purpose for living and loving.  Intellectually I understood the commandment to "love my neighbor as myself."  What I did have an issue with was my apparent inability to love myself.  Before this rebirth, I completely believed in God and in the value of other people's lives.  I did not feel that I deserved that love to also be intelligently applied to myself as well.

Don't get me wrong.  For many years (during my high school and college days) I had fostered an unhealthy and prideful kind of self-love.  Ego-satisfaction.  But with the unexpected dissolution of that ego (through certain chemical methods of consciousness expansion) it became blindingly obvious to see that I was but a "speck of dust"; that to feel pride of self as a means for valid recognition among my peers was as silly as an ant aspiring to win the Nobel Prize for Mathematics.  It couldn't even begin to happen.  And that's why it didn't happen.

Unfortunately the revelation that I might find satisfaction in self-effacement was brought too far in the opposite direction.  And this deleterious direction ruled the image I had for myself to such an extent that it bordered on self-loathing and even the notion that the world would be better off without me.  I simply could not find the balance between self-confidence and self-denial.  I needed Help.

When my error-filled philosophy inevitably began to lead to serious thoughts of suicide - as a way of ridding the world of what I perceived to be my terrible influence in it - everything material and spiritual began to crumble.  Even in times of clear and rational inspiration, the over-riding sense was one of guilt and regret.  The minuses were piling up and drowning the pluses.  Darkness was overtaking me, and it was my own fault.

Walking away from my life of office work, car maintenance, silly and shallow social contact, and pressure to appear to "have it all together," was my only means of saving my soul.  It is not the prescription for all defeated idealists, but it certainly was the medicine I needed in my own life.  And no decision before or after that "walking away" has ever compared in significance, nor been more healthy for me.

Please see my journal of this Odyssey at my blog: iwallk.blogspot.com.

Almost immediately things began to change.  Long stretches of walking and living out on the street allowed much valuable communication to take place between my Creator and myself.  Now, finally, I have reached, and even applied, the long-sought desire of my soul--communication with the Spark and a brand new knowledge of the secret for how it works in my life. 

In the next post I will get into the specifics of the enlightening and effective partnership that has begun, along with some ideas about how anyone can find Real Power (even, partial power over the behavior of matter itself), by simply taking the option most clearly highlighted by the Thought Adjuster in every decision, or at least whenever humanly possible.

It is about Will. 

And it is so much easier than we Urantia Book readers might have made it seem to ourselves.  Truly, if all people could recognize the profound reality-revelation of the I AM to this backward and self-blinded world, we would start to realize the social goal of the ages: the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Humanity.  Peace would overtake this planet and a new age of spiritual wonder would dawn for the first time on earth, even within our own lifetimes!  The Answer is within each of us, pushing outward to be recognized.  And the Sparks sent here to guide us into the Light are set-up and fully-prepared to quicken the work in the Light of Love and for the Plan of Peace.

Please try to believe me: it is worth the TRY. 







By genuinely CHOOSING to learn more