The Urantia Book
PAPER 112
PERSONALITY SURVIVAL
Presented by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton.
112:0.1 THE evolutionary planets are the
spheres of human origin, the initial worlds of the ascending
mortal career. Urantia is your starting point; here you and your
divine Thought Adjuster are joined in temporary union. You have
been endowed with a perfect guide; therefore, if you will
sincerely run the race of time and gain the final goal of faith,
the reward of the ages shall be yours; you will be eternally
united with your indwelling Adjuster. Then will begin your real
life, the ascending life, to which your present mortal state is
but the vestibule. Then will begin your exalted and progressive
mission as finaliters in the eternity which stretches out before
you. And throughout all of these successive ages and stages of
evolutionary growth, there is one part of you that remains
absolutely unaltered, and that is personality -- permanence in
the presence of change.
112:0.2 While it would be presumptuous to
attempt the definition of personality, it may prove helpful to
recount some of the things which are known about personality:
112:0.3 1. Personality is that quality in
reality which is bestowed by the Universal Father himself or by
the Conjoint Actor, acting for the Father.
112:0.4 2. It may be bestowed upon any living
energy system which includes mind or spirit.
112:0.5 3. It is not wholly subject to the
fetters of antecedent causation. It is relatively creative or
cocreative.
112:0.6 4. When bestowed upon evolutionary
material creatures, it causes spirit to strive for the mastery
of energy-matter through the mediation of mind.
112:0.7 5. Personality, while devoid of
identity, can unify the identity of any living energy system.
112:0.8 6. It discloses only qualitative
response to the personality circuit in contradistinction to the
three energies which show both qualitative and quantitative
response to gravity.
112:0.9 7. Personality is changeless in the
presence of change.
112:0.10 8. It can make a gift to God --
dedication of the free will to the doing of the will of God.
112:0.11 9. It is characterized by morality --
awareness of relativity of relationship with other persons. It
discerns conduct levels and choosingly discriminates between
them.
112:0.12 10. Personality is unique, absolutely
unique: It is unique in time and space; it is unique in eternity
and on Paradise; it is unique when bestowed -- there are no
duplicates; it is unique during every moment of existence; it is
unique in relation to God -- he is no respecter of persons, but
neither does he add them together, for they are nonaddable --
they are associable but nontotalable.
112:0.13 11. Personality responds directly to
other-personality presence.
112:0.14 12. It is one thing which can be
added to spirit, thus illustrating the primacy of the Father in
relation to the Son. (Mind does not have to be added to spirit.)
112:0.15 13. Personality may survive mortal
death with identity in the surviving soul. The Adjuster and the
personality are changeless; the relationship between them (in
the soul) is nothing but change, continuing evolution; and if
this change (growth) ceased, the soul would cease.
112:0.16 14. Personality is uniquely conscious
of time, and this is something other than the time perception of
mind or spirit.
1. PERSONALITY AND REALITY
112:1.1 Personality is bestowed by the
Universal Father upon his creatures as a potentially eternal
endowment. Such a divine gift is designed to function on
numerous levels and in successive universe situations ranging
from the lowly finite to the highest absonite, even to the
borders of the absolute. Personality thus performs on three
cosmic planes or in three universe phases:
112:1.2 1. Position status. Personality
functions equally efficiently in the local universe, in the
superuniverse, and in the central universe.
112:1.3 2. Meaning status. Personality
performs effectively on the levels of the finite, the absonite,
and even as impinging upon the absolute.
112:1.4 3. Value status. Personality
can be experientially realized in the progressive realms of the
material, the morontial, and the spiritual.
112:1.5 Personality has a perfected range of
cosmic dimensional performance. The dimensions of finite
personality are three, and they are roughly functional as
follows:
112:1.6 1. Length represents direction
and nature of progression -- movement through space and
according to time -- evolution.
112:1.7 2. Vertical depth embraces the
organismal drives and attitudes, the varying levels of
self-realization and the general phenomenon of reaction to
environment.
112:1.8 3. Breadth embraces the domain
of co-ordination, association, and selfhood organization.
112:1.9 The type of personality bestowed upon
Urantia mortals has a potentiality of seven dimensions of
self-expression or person-realization. These dimensional
phenomena are realizable as three on the finite level, three on
the absonite level, and one on the absolute level. On
subabsolute levels this seventh or totality dimension is
experiencible as the fact of personality. This supreme
dimension is an associable absolute and, while not infinite, is
dimensionally potential for subinfinite penetration of the
absolute.
112:1.10 The finite dimensions of personality
have to do with cosmic length, depth, and breadth. Length
denotes meaning; depth signifies value; breadth embraces insight
-- the capacity to experience unchallengeable consciousness of
cosmic reality.
112:1.11 On the morontia level all of these
finite dimensions of the material level are greatly enhanced,
and certain new dimensional values are realizable. All these
enlarged dimensional experiences of the morontia level are
marvelously articulated with the supreme or personality
dimension through the influence of mota and also because of the
contribution of morontia mathematics.
112:1.12 Much trouble experienced by mortals
in their study of human personality could be avoided if the
finite creature would remember that dimensional levels and
spiritual levels are not co-ordinated in experiential
personality realization.
112:1.13 Life is really a process which takes
place between the organism (selfhood) and its environment. The
personality imparts value of identity and meanings of continuity
to this organismal-environmental association. Thus it will be
recognized that the phenomenon of stimulus-response is not a
mere mechanical process since the personality functions as a
factor in the total situation. It is ever true that mechanisms
are innately passive; organisms, inherently active.
112:1.14 Physical life is a process taking
place not so much within the organism as between the
organism and the environment. And every such process tends to
create and establish organismal patterns of reaction to such an
environment. And all such directive patterns are highly
influential in goal choosing.
112:1.15 It is through the mediation of mind
that the self and the environment establish meaningful contact.
The ability and willingness of the organism to make such
significant contacts with environment (response to a drive)
represents the attitude of the whole personality.
112:1.16 Personality cannot very well perform
in isolation. Man is innately a social creature; he is dominated
by the craving of belongingness. It is literally true, "No man
lives unto himself."
112:1.17 But the concept of the personality as
the meaning of the whole of the living and functioning creature
means much more than the integration of relationships; it
signifies the unification of all factors of reality as
well as co-ordination of relationships. Relationships exist
between two objects, but three or more objects eventuate a
system, and such a system is much more than just an enlarged
or complex relationship. This distinction is vital, for in a
cosmic system the individual members are not connected with each
other except in relation to the whole and through the
individuality of the whole.
112:1.18 In the human organism the summation
of its parts constitutes selfhood -- individuality -- but such a
process has nothing whatever to do with personality, which is
the unifier of all these factors as related to cosmic realities.
112:1.19 In aggregations parts are added; in
systems parts are arranged. Systems are significant
because of organization -- positional values. In a good system
all factors are in cosmic position. In a bad system something is
either missing or displaced -- deranged. In the human system it
is the personality which unifies all activities and in turn
imparts the qualities of identity and creativity.
2. THE SELF
112:2.1 It would be helpful in the study of
selfhood to remember:
1. That physical systems are
subordinate.
2. That intellectual systems are
co-ordinate.
3. That personality is
superordinate.
4. That the indwelling spiritual
force is potentially directive.
112:2.2 In all concepts of selfhood it should
be recognized that the fact of life comes first, its evaluation
or interpretation later. The human child first lives and
subsequently thinks about his living. In the cosmic
economy insight precedes foresight.
112:2.3 The universe fact of God's becoming
man has forever changed all meanings and altered all values of
human personality. In the true meaning of the word, love
connotes mutual regard of whole personalities, whether human or
divine or human and divine. Parts of the self may
function in numerous ways -- thinking, feeling, wishing -- but
only the co-ordinated attributes of the whole personality are
focused in intelligent action; and all of these powers are
associated with the spiritual endowment of the mortal mind when
a human being sincerely and unselfishly loves another being,
human or divine.
112:2.4 All mortal concepts of reality are
based on the assumption of the actuality of human personality;
all concepts of superhuman realities are based on the experience
of the human personality with and in the cosmic realities of
certain associated spiritual entities and divine personalities.
Everything nonspiritual in human experience, excepting
personality, is a means to an end. Every true relationship of
mortal man with other persons -- human or divine -- is an end in
itself. And such fellowship with the personality of Deity is the
eternal goal of universe ascension.
112:2.5 The possession of personality
identifies man as a spiritual being since the unity of selfhood
and the self-consciousness of personality are endowments of the
supermaterial world. The very fact that a mortal materialist can
deny the existence of supermaterial realities in and of itself
demonstrates the presence, and indicates the working, of spirit
synthesis and cosmic consciousness in his human mind.
112:2.6 There exists a great cosmic gulf
between matter and thought, and this gulf is immeasurably
greater between material mind and spiritual love. Consciousness,
much less self-consciousness, cannot be explained by any theory
of mechanistic electronic association or materialistic energy
phenomena.
112:2.7 As mind pursues reality to its
ultimate analysis, matter vanishes to the material senses but
may still remain real to mind. When spiritual insight pursues
that reality which remains after the disappearance of matter and
pursues it to an ultimate analysis, it vanishes to mind, but the
insight of spirit can still perceive cosmic realities and
supreme values of a spiritual nature. Accordingly does science
give way to philosophy, while philosophy must surrender to the
conclusions inherent in genuine spiritual experience. Thinking
surrenders to wisdom, and wisdom is lost in enlightened and
reflective worship.
112:2.8 In science the human self observes the
material world; philosophy is the observation of this
observation of the material world; religion, true spiritual
experience, is the experiential realization of the cosmic
reality of the observation of the observation of all this
relative synthesis of the energy materials of time and space. To
build a philosophy of the universe on an exclusive materialism
is to ignore the fact that all things material are initially
conceived as real in the experience of human consciousness. The
observer cannot be the thing observed; evaluation demands some
degree of transcendence of the thing which is evaluated.
112:2.9 In time, thinking leads to wisdom and
wisdom leads to worship; in eternity, worship leads to wisdom,
and wisdom eventuates in the finality of thought.
112:2.10 The possibility of the unification of
the evolving self is inherent in the qualities of its
constitutive factors: the basic energies, the master tissues,
the fundamental chemical overcontrol, the supreme ideas, the
supreme motives, the supreme goals, and the divine spirit of
Paradise bestowal -- the secret of the self-consciousness of
man's spiritual nature.
112:2.11 The purpose of cosmic evolution is to
achieve unity of personality through increasing spirit
dominance, volitional response to the teaching and leading of
the Thought Adjuster. Personality, both human and superhuman, is
characterized by an inherent cosmic quality which may be called
"the evolution of dominance," the expansion of the control of
both itself and its environment.
112:2.12 An ascending onetime human
personality passes through two great phases of increasing
volitional dominance over the self and in the universe:
112:2.13 1. The prefinaliter or God-seeking
experience of augmenting the self-realization through a
technique of identity expansion and actualization together with
cosmic problem solving and consequent universe mastery.
112:2.14 2. The postfinaliter or God-revealing
experience of the creative expansion of self-realization through
revealing the Supreme Being of experience to the God-seeking
intelligences who have not yet attained the divine levels of
Godlikeness.
112:2.15 Descending personalities attain
analogous experiences through their various universe adventures
as they seek for enlarged capacity for ascertaining and
executing the divine wills of the Supreme, Ultimate, and
Absolute Deities.
112:2.16 The material self, the ego-entity of
human identity, is dependent during the physical life on the
continuing function of the material life vehicle, on the
continued existence of the unbalanced equilibrium of energies
and intellect which, on Urantia, has been given the name life.
But selfhood of survival value, selfhood that can transcend the
experience of death, is only evolved by establishing a potential
transfer of the seat of the identity of the evolving personality
from the transient life vehicle -- the material body -- to the
more enduring and immortal nature of the morontia soul and on
beyond to those levels whereon the soul becomes infused with,
and eventually attains the status of, spirit reality. This
actual transfer from material association to morontia
identification is effected by the sincerity, persistence, and
steadfastness of the God-seeking decisions of the human
creature.
3. THE PHENOMENON OF DEATH
112:3.1 Urantians generally recognize only one
kind of death, the physical cessation of life energies; but
concerning personality survival there are really three kinds:
112:3.2 1. Spiritual (soul) death. If
and when mortal man has finally rejected survival, when he has
been pronounced spiritually insolvent, morontially bankrupt, in
the conjoint opinion of the Adjuster and the surviving seraphim,
when such co-ordinate advice has been recorded on Uversa, and
after the Censors and their reflective associates have verified
these findings, thereupon do the rulers of Orvonton order the
immediate release of the indwelling Monitor. But this release of
the Adjuster in no way affects the duties of the personal or
group seraphim concerned with that Adjuster-abandoned
individual. This kind of death is final in its significance
irrespective of the temporary continuation of the living
energies of the physical and mind mechanisms. From the cosmic
standpoint the mortal is already dead; the continuing life
merely indicates the persistence of the material momentum of
cosmic energies.
112:3.3 2. Intellectual (mind) death.
When the vital circuits of higher adjutant ministry are
disrupted through the aberrations of intellect or because of the
partial destruction of the mechanism of the brain, and if these
conditions pass a certain critical point of irreparability, the
indwelling Adjuster is immediately released to depart for
Divinington. On the universe records a mortal personality is
considered to have met with death whenever the essential mind
circuits of human will-action have been destroyed. And again,
this is death, irrespective of the continuing function of the
living mechanism of the physical body. The body minus the
volitional mind is no longer human, but according to the prior
choosing of the human will, the soul of such an individual may
survive.
112:3.4 3. Physical (body and mind) death.
When death overtakes a human being, the Adjuster remains in the
citadel of the mind until it ceases to function as an
intelligent mechanism, about the time that the measurable brain
energies cease their rhythmic vital pulsations. Following this
dissolution the Adjuster takes leave of the vanishing mind, just
as unceremoniously as entry was made years before, and proceeds
to Divinington by way of Uversa.
112:3.5 After death the material body returns
to the elemental world from which it was derived, but two
nonmaterial factors of surviving personality persist: The
pre-existent Thought Adjuster, with the memory transcription of
the mortal career, proceeds to Divinington; and there also
remains, in the custody of the destiny guardian, the immortal
morontia soul of the deceased human. These phases and forms of
soul, these once kinetic but now static formulas of identity,
are essential to repersonalization on the morontia worlds; and
it is the reunion of the Adjuster and the soul that reassembles
the surviving personality, that reconsciousizes you at the time
of the morontia awakening.
112:3.6 For those who do not have personal
seraphic guardians, the group custodians faithfully and
efficiently perform the same service of identity safekeeping and
personality resurrection. The seraphim are indispensable to the
reassembly of personality.
112:3.7 Upon death the Thought Adjuster
temporarily loses personality, but not identity; the human
subject temporarily loses identity, but not personality; on the
mansion worlds both reunite in eternal manifestation. Never does
a departed Thought Adjuster return to earth as the being of
former indwelling; never is personality manifested without the
human will; and never does a dis-Adjustered human being after
death manifest active identity or in any manner establish
communication with the living beings of earth. Such
dis-Adjustered souls are wholly and absolutely unconscious
during the long or short sleep of death. There can be no
exhibition of any sort of personality or ability to engage in
communications with other personalities until after completion
of survival. Those who go to the mansion worlds are not
permitted to send messages back to their loved ones. It is the
policy throughout the universes to forbid such communication
during the period of a current dispensation.
4. ADJUSTERS AFTER DEATH
112:4.1 When death of a material,
intellectual, or spiritual nature occurs, the Adjuster bids
farewell to the mortal host and departs for Divinington. From
the headquarters of the local universe and the superuniverse a
reflective contact is made with the supervisors of both
governments, and the Monitor is registered out by the same
number that recorded entry into the domains of time.
112:4.2 In some way not fully understood, the
Universal Censors are able to gain possession of an epitome of
the human life as it is embodied in the Adjuster's duplicate
transcription of the spiritual values and morontia meanings of
the indwelt mind. The Censors are able to appropriate the
Adjuster's version of the deceased human's survival character
and spiritual qualities, and all this data, together with the
seraphic records, is available for presentation at the time of
the adjudication of the individual concerned. This information
is also used to confirm those superuniverse mandates which make
it possible for certain ascenders immediately to begin their
morontia careers, upon mortal dissolution to proceed to the
mansion worlds ahead of the formal termination of a planetary
dispensation.
112:4.3 Subsequent to physical death, except
in individuals translated from among the living, the released
Adjuster goes immediately to the home sphere of Divinington. The
details of what transpires on that world during the time of
awaiting the factual reappearance of the surviving mortal depend
chiefly on whether the human being ascends to the mansion worlds
in his own individual right or awaits a dispensational summoning
of the sleeping survivors of a planetary age.
112:4.4 If the mortal associate belongs to a
group that will be repersonalized at the end of a dispensation,
the Adjuster will not immediately return to the mansion world of
the former system of service but will, according to choice,
enter upon one of the following temporary assignments:
1. Be mustered into the ranks of
vanished Monitors for undisclosed service.
2. Be assigned for a period to the
observation of the Paradise regime.
3. Be enrolled in one of the many
training schools of Divinington.
4. Be stationed for a time as a
student observer on one of the other six sacred spheres which
constitute the Father's circuit of Paradise worlds.
5. Be assigned to the messenger
service of the Personalized Adjusters.
6. Become an associate instructor in
the Divinington schools devoted to the training of Monitors
belonging to the virgin group.
7. Be assigned to select a group of
possible worlds on which to serve in the event that there is
reasonable cause for believing that the human partner may have
rejected survival.
112:4.5 If, when death overtakes you, you have
attained the third circle or a higher realm and therefore have
had assigned to you a personal guardian of destiny, and if the
final transcript of the summary of survival character submitted
by the Adjuster is unconditionally certified by the destiny
guardian -- if both seraphim and Adjuster essentially agree in
every item of their life records and recommendations -- if the
Universal Censors and their reflective associates on Uversa
confirm this data and do so without equivocation or reservation,
in that event the Ancients of Days flash forth the mandate of
advanced standing over the communication circuits to Salvington,
and, thus released, the tribunals of the Sovereign of Nebadon
will decree the immediate passage of the surviving soul to the
resurrection halls of the mansion worlds.
112:4.6 If the human individual survives
without delay, the Adjuster, so I am instructed, registers at
Divinington, proceeds to the Paradise presence of the Universal
Father, returns immediately and is embraced by the Personalized
Adjusters of the superuniverse and local universe of assignment,
receives the recognition of the chief Personalized Monitor of
Divinington, and then, at once, passes into the "realization of
identity transition," being summoned therefrom on the third
period and on the mansion world in the actual personality form
made ready for the reception of the surviving soul of the earth
mortal as that form has been projected by the guardian of
destiny.
5. SURVIVAL OF THE HUMAN SELF
112:5.1 Selfhood is a cosmic reality whether
material, morontial, or spiritual. The actuality of the
personal is the bestowal of the Universal Father acting in
and of himself or through his manifold universe agencies. To say
that a being is personal is to recognize the relative
individuation of such a being within the cosmic organism. The
living cosmos is an all but infinitely integrated aggregation of
real units, all of which are relatively subject to the destiny
of the whole. But those that are personal have been endowed with
the actual choice of destiny acceptance or of destiny rejection.
112:5.2 That which comes from the Father is
like the Father eternal, and this is just as true of
personality, which God gives by his own freewill choice, as it
is of the divine Thought Adjuster, an actual fragment of God.
Man's personality is eternal but with regard to identity a
conditioned eternal reality. Having appeared in response to the
Father's will, personality will attain Deity destiny, but man
must choose whether or not he will be present at the attainment
of such destiny. In default of such choice, personality attains
experiential Deity directly, becoming a part of the Supreme
Being. The cycle is foreordained, but man's participation
therein is optional, personal, and experiential.
112:5.3 Mortal identity is a transient
time-life condition in the universe; it is real only in so far
as the personality elects to become a continuing universe
phenomenon. This is the essential difference between man and an
energy system: The energy system must continue, it has no
choice; but man has everything to do with determining his own
destiny. The Adjuster is truly the path to Paradise, but man
himself must pursue that path by his own deciding, his freewill
choosing.
112:5.4 Human beings possess identity only in
the material sense. Such qualities of the self are expressed by
the material mind as it functions in the energy system of the
intellect. When it is said that man has identity, it is
recognized that he is in possession of a mind circuit which has
been placed in subordination to the acts and choosing of the
will of the human personality. But this is a material and purely
temporary manifestation, just as the human embryo is a transient
parasitic stage of human life. Human beings, from a cosmic
perspective, are born, live, and die in a relative instant of
time; they are not enduring. But mortal personality, through its
own choosing, possesses the power of transferring its seat of
identity from the passing material-intellect system to the
higher morontia-soul system which, in association with the
Thought Adjuster, is created as a new vehicle for personality
manifestation.
112:5.5 And it is this very power of choice,
the universe insignia of freewill creaturehood, that constitutes
man's greatest opportunity and his supreme cosmic
responsibility. Upon the integrity of the human volition depends
the eternal destiny of the future finaliter; upon the sincerity
of the mortal free will the divine Adjuster depends for eternal
personality; upon the faithfulness of mortal choice the
Universal Father depends for the realization of a new ascending
son; upon the steadfastness and wisdom of decision-actions the
Supreme Being depends for the actuality of experiential
evolution.
112:5.6 Though the cosmic circles of
personality growth must eventually be attained, if, through no
fault of your own, the accidents of time and the handicaps of
material existence prevent your mastering these levels on your
native planet, if your intentions and desires are of survival
value, there are issued the decrees of probation extension. You
will be afforded additional time in which to prove yourself.
112:5.7 If ever there is doubt as to the
advisability of advancing a human identity to the mansion
worlds, the universe governments invariably rule in the personal
interests of that individual; they unhesitatingly advance such a
soul to the status of a transitional being, while they continue
their observations of the emerging morontia intent and spiritual
purpose. Thus divine justice is certain of achievement, and
divine mercy is accorded further opportunity for extending its
ministry.
112:5.8 The governments of Orvonton and
Nebadon do not claim absolute perfection for the detail working
of the universal plan of mortal repersonalization, but they do
claim to, and actually do, manifest patience, tolerance,
understanding, and merciful sympathy. We had rather assume the
risk of a system rebellion than to court the hazard of depriving
one struggling mortal from any evolutionary world of the eternal
joy of pursuing the ascending career.
112:5.9 This does not mean that human beings
are to enjoy a second opportunity in the face of the rejection
of a first, not at all. But it does signify that all will
creatures are to experience one true opportunity to make one
undoubted, self-conscious, and final choice. The sovereign
Judges of the universes will not deprive any being of
personality status who has not finally and fully made the
eternal choice; the soul of man must and will be given full and
ample opportunity to reveal its true intent and real purpose.
112:5.10 When the more spiritually and
cosmically advanced mortals die, they proceed immediately to the
mansion worlds; in general, this provision operates with those
who have had assigned to them personal seraphic guardians. Other
mortals may be detained until such time as the adjudication of
their affairs has been completed, after which they may proceed
to the mansion worlds, or they may be assigned to the ranks of
the sleeping survivors who will be repersonalized en masse at
the end of the current planetary dispensation.
112:5.11 There are two difficulties that
hamper my efforts to explain just what happens to you in
death, the surviving you which is distinct from the
departing Adjuster. One of these consists in the impossibility
of conveying to your level of comprehension an adequate
description of a transaction on the borderland of the physical
and morontia realms. The other is brought about by the
restrictions placed upon my commission as a revelator of truth
by the celestial governing authorities of Urantia. There are
many interesting details which might be presented, but I
withhold them upon the advice of your immediate planetary
supervisors. But within the limits of my permission I can say
this much:
112:5.12 There is something real, something of
human evolution, something additional to the Mystery Monitor,
which survives death. This newly appearing entity is the soul,
and it survives the death of both your physical body and your
material mind. This entity is the conjoint child of the combined
life and efforts of the human you in liaison with the divine
you, the Adjuster. This child of human and divine parentage
constitutes the surviving element of terrestrial origin; it is
the morontia self, the immortal soul.
112:5.13 This child of persisting meaning and
surviving value is wholly unconscious during the period from
death to repersonalization and is in the keeping of the seraphic
destiny guardian throughout this season of waiting. You will not
function as a conscious being, following death, until you attain
the new consciousness of morontia on the mansion worlds of
Satania.
112:5.14 At death the functional identity
associated with the human personality is disrupted through the
cessation of vital motion. Human personality, while transcending
its constituent parts, is dependent on them for functional
identity. The stoppage of life destroys the physical brain
patterns for mind endowment, and the disruption of mind
terminates mortal consciousness. The consciousness of that
creature cannot subsequently reappear until a cosmic situation
has been arranged which will permit the same human personality
again to function in relationship with living energy.
112:5.15 During the transit of surviving
mortals from the world of origin to the mansion worlds, whether
they experience personality reassembly on the third period or
ascend at the time of a group resurrection, the record of
personality constitution is faithfully preserved by the
archangels on their worlds of special activities. These beings
are not the custodians of personality (as the guardian seraphim
are of the soul), but it is nonetheless true that every
identifiable factor of personality is effectually safeguarded in
the custody of these dependable trustees of mortal survival. As
to the exact whereabouts of mortal personality during the time
intervening between death and survival, we do not know.
112:5.16 The situation which makes
repersonalization possible is brought about in the resurrection
halls of the morontia receiving planets of a local universe.
Here in these life-assembly chambers the supervising authorities
provide that relationship of universe energy -- morontial,
mindal, and spiritual -- which makes possible the
reconsciousizing of the sleeping survivor. The reassembly of the
constituent parts of a onetime material personality involves:
112:5.17 1. The fabrication of a suitable
form, a morontia energy pattern, in which the new survivor can
make contact with nonspiritual reality, and within which the
morontia variant of the cosmic mind can be encircuited.
112:5.18 2. The return of the Adjuster to the
waiting morontia creature. The Adjuster is the eternal custodian
of your ascending identity; your Monitor is the absolute
assurance that you yourself and not another will occupy the
morontia form created for your personality awakening. And the
Adjuster will be present at your personality reassembly to take
up once more the role of Paradise guide to your surviving self.
112:5.19 3. When these prerequisites of
repersonalization have been assembled, the seraphic custodian of
the potentialities of the slumbering immortal soul, with the
assistance of numerous cosmic personalities, bestows this
morontia entity upon and in the awaiting morontia mind-body form
while committing this evolutionary child of the Supreme to
eternal association with the waiting Adjuster. And this
completes the repersonalization, reassembly of memory, insight,
and consciousness -- identity.
112:5.20 The fact of repersonalization
consists in the seizure of the encircuited morontia phase of the
newly segregated cosmic mind by the awakening human self. The
phenomenon of personality is dependent on the persistence of the
identity of selfhood reaction to universe environment; and this
can only be effected through the medium of mind. Selfhood
persists in spite of a continuous change in all the factor
components of self; in the physical life the change is gradual;
at death and upon repersonalization the change is sudden. The
true reality of all selfhood (personality) is able to function
responsively to universe conditions by virtue of the unceasing
changing of its constituent parts; stagnation terminates in
inevitable death. Human life is an endless change of the factors
of life unified by the stability of the unchanging personality.
112:5.21 And when you thus awaken on the
mansion worlds of Jerusem, you will be so changed, the spiritual
transformation will be so great that, were it not for your
Thought Adjuster and the destiny guardian, who so fully connect
up your new life in the new worlds with your old life in the
first world, you would at first have difficulty in connecting
the new morontia consciousness with the reviving memory of your
previous identity. Notwithstanding the continuity of personal
selfhood, much of the mortal life would at first seem to be a
vague and hazy dream. But time will clarify many mortal
associations.
112:5.22 The Thought Adjuster will recall and
rehearse for you only those memories and experiences which are a
part of, and essential to, your universe career. If the Adjuster
has been a partner in the evolution of aught in the human mind,
then will these worth-while experiences survive in the eternal
consciousness of the Adjuster. But much of your past life and
its memories, having neither spiritual meaning nor morontia
value, will perish with the material brain; much of material
experience will pass away as onetime scaffolding which, having
bridged you over to the morontia level, no longer serves a
purpose in the universe. But personality and the relationships
between personalities are never scaffolding; mortal memory of
personality relationships has cosmic value and will persist. On
the mansion worlds you will know and be known, and more, you
will remember, and be remembered by, your onetime associates in
the short but intriguing life on Urantia.
6. THE MORONTIA SELF
112:6.1 Just as a butterfly emerges from the
caterpillar stage, so will the true personalities of human
beings emerge on the mansion worlds, for the first time revealed
apart from their onetime enshroudment in the material flesh. The
morontia career in the local universe has to do with the
continued elevation of the personality mechanism from the
beginning morontia level of soul existence up to the final
morontia level of progressive spirituality.
112:6.2 It is difficult to instruct you
regarding your morontia personality forms for the local universe
career. You will be endowed with morontia patterns of
personality manifestability, and these are investments which, in
the last analysis, are beyond your comprehension. Such forms,
while entirely real, are not energy patterns of the material
order which you now understand. They do, however, serve the same
purpose on the local universe worlds as do your material bodies
on the planets of human nativity.
112:6.3 To a certain extent, the appearance of
the material body-form is responsive to the character of the
personality identity; the physical body does, to a limited
degree, reflect something of the inherent nature of the
personality. Still more so does the morontia form. In the
physical life, mortals may be outwardly beautiful though
inwardly unlovely; in the morontia life, and increasingly on its
higher levels, the personality form will vary directly in
accordance with the nature of the inner person. On the spiritual
level, outward form and inner nature begin to approximate
complete identification, which grows more and more perfect on
higher and higher spirit levels.
112:6.4 In the morontia estate the ascending
mortal is endowed with the Nebadon modification of the
cosmic-mind endowment of the Master Spirit of Orvonton. The
mortal intellect, as such, has perished, has ceased to exist as
a focalized universe entity apart from the undifferentiated mind
circuits of the Creative Spirit. But the meanings and values of
the mortal mind have not perished. Certain phases of mind are
continued in the surviving soul; certain experiential values of
the former human mind are held by the Adjuster; and there
persist in the local universe the records of the human life as
it was lived in the flesh, together with certain living
registrations in the numerous beings who are concerned with the
final evaluation of the ascending mortal, beings extending in
range from seraphim to Universal Censors and probably on beyond
to the Supreme.
112:6.5 Creature volition cannot exist without
mind, but it does persist in spite of the loss of the material
intellect. During the times immediately following survival, the
ascending personality is in great measure guided by the
character patterns inherited from the human life and by the
newly appearing action of morontia mota. And these guides to
mansonia conduct function acceptably in the early stages of the
morontia life and prior to the emergence of morontia will as a
full-fledged volitional expression of the ascending personality.
112:6.6 There are no influences in the local
universe career comparable to the seven adjutant mind-spirits of
human existence. The morontia mind must evolve by direct contact
with cosmic mind, as this cosmic mind has been modified and
translated by the creative source of local universe intellect --
the Divine Minister.
112:6.7 Mortal mind, prior to death, is
self-consciously independent of the Adjuster presence; adjutant
mind needs only the associated material-energy pattern to enable
it to operate. But the morontia soul, being superadjutant, does
not retain self-consciousness without the Adjuster when deprived
of the material-mind mechanism. This evolving soul does,
however, possess a continuing character derived from the
decisions of its former associated adjutant mind, and this
character becomes active memory when the patterns thereof are
energized by the returning Adjuster.
112:6.8 The persistence of memory is proof of
the retention of the identity of original selfhood; it is
essential to complete self-consciousness of personality
continuity and expansion. Those mortals who ascend without
Adjusters are dependent on the instruction of seraphic
associates for the reconstruction of human memory; otherwise the
morontia souls of the Spirit-fused mortals are not limited. The
pattern of memory persists in the soul, but this pattern
requires the presence of the former Adjuster to become
immediately self-realizable as continuing memory. Without
the Adjuster, it requires considerable time for the mortal
survivor to re-explore and relearn, to recapture, the memory
consciousness of the meanings and values of a former existence.
112:6.9 The soul of survival value faithfully
reflects both the qualitative and the quantitative actions and
motivations of the material intellect, the former seat of the
identity of selfhood. In the choosing of truth, beauty, and
goodness, the mortal mind enters upon its premorontia universe
career under the tutelage of the seven adjutant mind-spirits
unified under the direction of the spirit of wisdom.
Subsequently, upon the completion of the seven circles of
premorontia attainment, the superimposition of the endowment of
morontia mind upon adjutant mind initiates the prespiritual or
morontia career of local universe progression.
112:6.10 When a creature leaves his native
planet, he leaves the adjutant ministry behind and becomes
solely dependent on morontia intellect. When an ascender leaves
the local universe, he has attained the spiritual level of
existence, having passed beyond the morontia level. This newly
appearing spirit entity then becomes attuned to the direct
ministry of the cosmic mind of Orvonton.
7. ADJUSTER FUSION
112:7.1 Thought Adjuster fusion imparts
eternal actualities to personality which were previously only
potential. Among these new endowments may be mentioned: fixation
of divinity quality, past-eternity experience and memory,
immortality, and a phase of qualified potential absoluteness.
112:7.2 When your earthly course in temporary
form has been run, you are to awaken on the shores of a better
world, and eventually you will be united with your faithful
Adjuster in an eternal embrace. And this fusion constitutes the
mystery of making God and man one, the mystery of finite
creature evolution, but it is eternally true. Fusion is the
secret of the sacred sphere of Ascendington, and no creature,
save those who have experienced fusion with the spirit of Deity,
can comprehend the true meaning of the actual values which are
conjoined when the identity of a creature of time becomes
eternally one with the spirit of Paradise Deity.
112:7.3 Fusion with the Adjuster is usually
effected while the ascender is resident within his local system.
It may occur on the planet of nativity as a transcendence of
natural death; it may take place on any one of the mansion
worlds or on the headquarters of the system; it may even be
delayed until the time of the constellation sojourn; or, in
special instances, it may not be consummated until the ascender
is on the local universe capital.
112:7.4 When fusion with the Adjuster has been
effected, there can be no future danger to the eternal career of
such a personality. Celestial beings are tested throughout a
long experience, but mortals pass through a relatively short and
intensive testing on the evolutionary and morontia worlds.
112:7.5 Fusion with the Adjuster never occurs
until the mandates of the superuniverse have pronounced that the
human nature has made a final and irrevocable choice for the
eternal career. This is the at-onement authorization, which,
when issued, constitutes the clearance authority for the fused
personality eventually to leave the confines of the local
universe to proceed sometime to the headquarters of the
superuniverse, from which point the pilgrim of time will, in the
distant future, enseconaphim for the long flight to the central
universe of Havona and the Deity adventure.
112:7.6 On the evolutionary worlds, selfhood
is material; it is a thing in the universe and as such is
subject to the laws of material existence. It is a fact in time
and is responsive to the vicissitudes thereof. Survival
decisions must here be formulated. In the morontia state the
self has become a new and more enduring universe reality, and
its continuing growth is predicated on its increasing attunement
to the mind and spirit circuits of the universes. Survival
decisions are now being confirmed. When the self attains the
spiritual level, it has become a secure value in the universe,
and this new value is predicated upon the fact that survival
decisions have been made, which fact has been witnessed by
eternal fusion with the Thought Adjuster. And having achieved
the status of a true universe value, the creature becomes
liberated in potential for the seeking of the highest universe
value -- God.
112:7.7 Such fused beings are twofold in their
universe reactions: They are discrete morontia individuals not
altogether unlike seraphim, and they are also beings in
potential on the order of the Paradise finaliters.
112:7.8 But the fused individual is really one
personality, one being, whose unity defies all attempts at
analysis by any intelligence of the universes. And so, having
passed the tribunals of the local universe from the lowest to
the highest, none of which have been able to identify man or
Adjuster, the one apart from the other, you shall finally be
taken before the Sovereign of Nebadon, your local universe
Father. And there, at the hand of the very being whose creative
fatherhood in this universe of time has made possible the fact
of your life, you will be granted those credentials which
entitle you eventually to proceed upon your superuniverse career
in quest of the Universal Father.
112:7.9 Has the triumphant Adjuster won
personality by the magnificent service to humanity, or has the
valiant human acquired immortality through sincere efforts to
achieve Adjusterlikeness? It is neither; but they together have
achieved the evolution of a member of one of the unique orders
of the ascending personalities of the Supreme, one who will ever
be found serviceable, faithful, and efficient, a candidate for
further growth and development, ever ranging upward and never
ceasing the supernal ascent until the seven circuits of Havona
have been traversed and the onetime soul of earthly origin
stands in worshipful recognition of the actual personality of
the Father on Paradise.
112:7.10 Throughout all this magnificent
ascent the Thought Adjuster is the divine pledge of the future
and full spiritual stabilization of the ascending mortal.
Meanwhile the presence of the mortal free will affords the
Adjuster an eternal channel for the liberation of the divine and
infinite nature. Now have these two identities become one; no
event of time or of eternity can ever separate man and Adjuster;
they are inseparable, eternally fused.
112:7.11 On the Adjuster-fusion worlds the
destiny of the Mystery Monitor is identical with that of the
ascending mortal -- the Paradise Corps of the Finality. And
neither Adjuster nor mortal can attain that unique goal without
the full co-operation and faithful help of the other. This
extraordinary partnership is one of the most engrossing and
amazing of all the cosmic phenomena of this universe age.
112:7.12 From the time of Adjuster fusion the
status of the ascender is that of the evolutionary creature. The
human member was the first to enjoy personality and, therefore,
outranks the Adjuster in all matters concerned with the
recognition of personality. The Paradise headquarters of this
fused being is Ascendington, not Divinington, and this unique
combination of God and man ranks as an ascending mortal all the
way up to the Corps of the Finality.
112:7.13 When once an Adjuster fuses with an
ascending mortal, the number of that Adjuster is stricken from
the records of the superuniverse. What happens on the records of
Divinington, I do not know, but I surmise that the registry of
that Adjuster is removed to the secret circles of the inner
courts of Grandfanda, the acting head of the Corps of the
Finality.
112:7.14 With Adjuster fusion the Universal
Father has completed his promise of the gift of himself to his
material creatures; he has fulfilled the promise, and
consummated the plan, of the eternal bestowal of divinity upon
humanity. Now begins the human attempt to realize and to
actualize the limitless possibilities that are inherent in the
supernal partnership with God which has thus factualized.
112:7.15 The present known destiny of
surviving mortals is the Paradise Corps of the Finality; this is
also the goal of destiny for all Thought Adjusters who become
joined in eternal union with their mortal companions. At present
the Paradise finaliters are working throughout the grand
universe in many undertakings, but we all conjecture that they
will have other and even more supernal tasks to perform in the
distant future after the seven superuniverses have become
settled in light and life, and when the finite God has finally
emerged from the mystery which now surrounds this Supreme Deity.
112:7.16 You have been instructed to a certain
extent about the organization and personnel of the central
universe, the superuniverses, and the local universes; you have
been told something about the character and origin of some of
the various personalities who now rule these far-flung
creations. You have also been informed that there are in process
of organization vast galaxies of universes far out beyond the
periphery of the grand universe, in the first outer space level.
It has also been intimated in the course of these narratives
that the Supreme Being is to disclose his unrevealed tertiary
function in these now uncharted regions of outer space; and you
have also been told that the finaliters of the Paradise corps
are the experiential children of the Supreme.
112:7.17 We believe that the mortals of
Adjuster fusion, together with their finaliter associates, are
destined to function in some manner in the administration of the
universes of the first outer space level. We have not the
slightest doubt that in due time these enormous galaxies will
become inhabited universes. And we are equally convinced that
among the administrators thereof will be found the Paradise
finaliters whose natures are the cosmic consequence of the
blending of creature and Creator.
112:7.18 What an adventure! What a romance! A
gigantic creation to be administered by the children of the
Supreme, these personalized and humanized Adjusters, these
Adjusterized and eternalized mortals, these mysterious
combinations and eternal associations of the highest known
manifestation of the essence of the First Source and Center and
the lowest form of intelligent life capable of comprehending and
attaining the Universal Father. We conceive that such
amalgamated beings, such partnerships of Creator and creature,
will become superb rulers, matchless administrators, and
understanding and sympathetic directors of any and all forms of
intelligent life which may come into existence throughout these
future universes of the first outer space level.
112:7.19 True it is, you mortals are of
earthly, animal origin; your frame is indeed dust. But if you
actually will, if you really desire, surely the heritage of the
ages is yours, and you shall someday serve throughout the
universes in your true characters -- children of the Supreme God
of experience and divine sons of the Paradise Father of all
personalities.
112:7.20
Presented by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton.
