PAPER 77
THE MIDWAY CREATURES
77:0.1 MOST of the inhabited worlds of Nebadon
harbor one or more groups of unique beings existing on a life-functioning
level about midway between those of the mortals of the realms and of the
angelic orders; hence are they called midway creatures. They appear to be an
accident of time, but they occur so widespreadly and are so valuable as
helpers that we have all long since accepted them as one of the essential
orders of our combined planetary ministry.
77:0.2 On Urantia there function two distinct orders
of midwayers: the primary or senior corps, who came into being back in the
days of Dalamatia, and the secondary or younger group, whose origin dates from
the times of Adam.
1. THE PRIMARY MIDWAYERS
77:1.1 The primary midwayers have their genesis in a
unique interassociation of the material and the spiritual on Urantia. We know
of the existence of similar creatures on other worlds and in other systems,
but they originated by dissimilar techniques.
77:1.2 It is well always to bear in mind that the
successive bestowals of the Sons of God on an evolving planet produce marked
changes in the spiritual economy of the realm and sometimes so modify the
workings of the interassociation of spiritual and material agencies on a
planet as to create situations indeed difficult of understanding. The status
of the one hundred corporeal members of Prince Caligastia's staff illustrates
just such a unique interassociation: As ascendant morontia citizens of Jerusem
they were supermaterial creatures without reproductive prerogatives. As
descendant planetary ministers on Urantia they were material sex creatures
capable of procreating material offspring (as some of them later did). What we
cannot satisfactorily explain is how these one hundred could function in the
parental role on a supermaterial level, but that is exactly what happened. A
supermaterial (nonsexual) liaison of a male and a female member of the
corporeal staff resulted in the appearance of the first-born of the primary
midwayers.
77:1.3 It was immediately discovered that a creature
of this order, midway between the mortal and angelic levels, would be of great
service in carrying on the affairs of the Prince's headquarters, and each
couple of the corporeal staff was accordingly granted permission to produce a
similar being. This effort resulted in the first group of fifty midway
creatures.
77:1.4 After a year of observing the work of this
unique group, the Planetary Prince authorized the reproduction of midwayers
without restriction. This plan was carried out as long as the power to create
continued, and the original corps of 50,000 was accordingly brought into
being.
77:1.5 A period of one-half year intervened between
the production of each midwayer, and when one thousand such beings had been
born to each couple, no more were ever forthcoming. And there is no
explanation available as to why this power was exhausted upon the appearance
of the one thousandth offspring. No amount of further experimentation ever
resulted in anything but failure.
77:1.6 These creatures constituted the intelligence
corps of the Prince's administration. They ranged far and wide, studying and
observing the world races and rendering other invaluable services to the
Prince and his staff in the work of influencing human society remote from the
planetary headquarters.
77:1.7 This regime continued until the tragic days
of the planetary rebellion, which ensnared a little over four fifths of the
primary midwayers. The loyal corps entered the service of the Melchizedek
receivers, functioning under the titular leadership of Van until the days of
Adam.
2. THE NODITE RACE
77:2.1 While this is the narrative of the origin,
nature, and function of the midway creatures of Urantia, the kinship between
the two orders -- primary and secondary -- makes it necessary to interrupt the
story of the primary midwayers at this point in order to follow out the line
of descent from the rebel members of the corporeal staff of Prince Caligastia
from the days of the planetary rebellion to the times of Adam. It was this
line of inheritance which, in the early days of the second garden, furnished
one half of the ancestry for the secondary order of midway creatures.
77:2.2 The physical members of the Prince's staff
had been constituted sex creatures for the purpose of participating in the
plan of procreating offspring embodying the combined qualities of their
special order united with those of the selected stock of the Andon tribes, and
all of this was in anticipation of the subsequent appearance of Adam. The Life
Carriers had planned a new type of mortal embracing the union of the conjoint
offspring of the Prince's staff with the first-generation offspring of Adam
and Eve. They had thus projected a plan envisioning a new order of planetary
creatures whom they hoped would become the teacher-rulers of human society.
Such beings were designed for social sovereignty, not civil sovereignty. But
since this project almost completely miscarried, we shall never know what an
aristocracy of benign leadership and matchless culture Urantia was thus
deprived of. For when the corporeal staff later reproduced, it was subsequent
to the rebellion and after they had been deprived of their connection with the
life currents of the system.
77:2.3 The postrebellion era on Urantia witnessed
many unusual happenings. A great civilization -- the culture of Dalamatia --
was going to pieces. "The Nephilim (Nodites) were on earth in those days, and
when these sons of the gods went in to the daughters of men and they bore to
them, their children were the `mighty men of old,' the `men of renown.'" While
hardly "sons of the gods," the staff and their early descendants were so
regarded by the evolutionary mortals of those distant days; even their stature
came to be magnified by tradition. This, then, is the origin of the well-nigh
universal folk tale of the gods who came down to earth and there with the
daughters of men begot an ancient race of heroes. And all this legend became
further confused with the race mixtures of the later appearing Adamites in the
second garden.
77:2.4 Since the one hundred corporeal members of
the Prince's staff carried germ plasm of the Andonic human strains, it would
naturally be expected that, if they engaged in sexual reproduction, their
progeny would altogether resemble the offspring of other Andonite parents. But
when the sixty rebels of the staff, the followers of Nod, actually engaged in
sexual reproduction, their children proved to be far superior in almost every
way to both the Andonite and the Sangik peoples. This unexpected excellence
characterized not only physical and intellectual qualities but also spiritual
capacities.
77:2.5 These mutant traits appearing in the first
Nodite generation resulted from certain changes which had been wrought in the
configuration and in the chemical constituents of the inheritance factors of
the Andonic germ plasm. These changes were caused by the presence in the
bodies of the staff members of the powerful life-maintenance circuits of the
Satania system. These life circuits caused the chromosomes of the specialized
Urantia pattern to reorganize more after the patterns of the standardized
Satania specialization of the ordained Nebadon life manifestation. The
technique of this germ plasm metamorphosis by the action of the system life
currents is not unlike those procedures whereby Urantia scientists modify the
germ plasm of plants and animals by the use of X rays.
77:2.6 Thus did the Nodite peoples arise out of
certain peculiar and unexpected modifications occurring in the life plasm
which had been transferred from the bodies of the Andonite contributors to
those of the corporeal staff members by the Avalon surgeons.
77:2.7 It will be recalled that the one hundred
Andonite germ plasm contributors were in turn made possessors of the organic
complement of the tree of life so that the Satania life currents likewise
invested their bodies. The forty-four modified Andonites who followed the
staff into rebellion also mated among themselves and made a great contribution
to the better strains of the Nodite people.
77:2.8 These two groups, embracing 104 individuals
who carried the modified Andonite germ plasm, constitute the ancestry of the
Nodites, the eighth race to appear on Urantia. And this new feature of human
life on Urantia represents another phase of the outworking of the original
plan of utilizing this planet as a life-modification world, except that this
was one of the unforeseen developments.
77:2.9 The pure-line Nodites were a magnificent
race, but they gradually mingled with the evolutionary peoples of earth, and
before long great deterioration had occurred. Ten thousand years after the
rebellion they had lost ground to the point where their average length of life
was little more than that of the evolutionary races.
77:2.10 When archaeologists dig up the clay-tablet
records of the later-day Sumerian descendants of the Nodites, they discover
lists of Sumerian kings running back for several thousand years; and as these
records go further back, the reigns of the individual kings lengthen from
around twenty-five or thirty years up to one hundred and fifty years and more.
This lengthening of the reigns of these older kings signifies that some of the
early Nodite rulers (immediate descendants of the Prince's staff) did live
longer than their later-day successors and also indicates an effort to stretch
the dynasties back to Dalamatia.
77:2.11 The records of such long-lived individuals
are also due to the confusion of months and years as time periods. This may
also be observed in the Biblical genealogy of Abraham and in the early records
of the Chinese. The confusion of the twenty-eight-day month, or season, with
the later introduced year of more than three hundred and fifty days is
responsible for the traditions of such long human lives. There are records of
a man who lived over nine hundred "years." This period represents not quite
seventy years, and such lives were regarded for ages as very long, "threescore
years and ten" as such a life span was later designated.
77:2.12 The reckoning of time by the
twenty-eight-day month persisted long after the days of Adam. But when the
Egyptians undertook to reform the calendar, about seven thousand years ago,
they did it with great accuracy, introducing the year of 365 days.
3. THE TOWER OF BABEL
77:3.1 After the submergence of Dalamatia the
Nodites moved north and east, presently founding the new city of Dilmun as
their racial and cultural headquarters. And about fifty thousand years after
the death of Nod, when the offspring of the Prince's staff had become too
numerous to find subsistence in the lands immediately surrounding their new
city of Dilmun, and after they had reached out to intermarry with the Andonite
and Sangik tribes adjoining their borders, it occurred to their leaders that
something should be done to preserve their racial unity. Accordingly a council
of the tribes was called, and after much deliberation the plan of Bablot, a
descendant of Nod, was indorsed.
77:3.2 Bablot proposed to erect a pretentious temple
of racial glorification at the center of their then occupied territory. This
temple was to have a tower the like of which the world had never seen. It was
to be a monumental memorial to their passing greatness. There were many who
wished to have this monument erected in Dilmun, but others contended that such
a great structure should be placed a safe distance from the dangers of the
sea, remembering the traditions of the engulfment of their first capital,
Dalamatia.
77:3.3 Bablot planned that the new buildings should
become the nucleus of the future center of the Nodite culture and
civilization. His counsel finally prevailed, and construction was started in
accordance with his plans. The new city was to be named Bablot after
the architect and builder of the tower. This location later became known as
Bablod and eventually as Babel.
77:3.4 But the Nodites were still somewhat divided
in sentiment as to the plans and purposes of this undertaking. Neither were
their leaders altogether agreed concerning either construction plans or usage
of the buildings after they should be completed. After four and one-half years
of work a great dispute arose about the object and motive for the erection of
the tower: The contentions became so bitter that all work stopped. The food
carriers spread the news of the dissension, and large numbers of the tribes
began to forgather at the building site. Three differing views were propounded
as to the purpose of building the tower:
77:3.5 1. The largest group, almost one half,
desired to see the tower built as a memorial of Nodite history and racial
superiority. They thought it ought to be a great and imposing structure which
would challenge the admiration of all future generations.
77:3.6 2. The next largest faction wanted the tower
designed to commemorate the Dilmun culture. They foresaw that Bablot would
become a great center of commerce, art, and manufacture.
77:3.7 3. The smallest and minority contingent held
that the erection of the tower presented an opportunity for making atonement
for the folly of their progenitors in participating in the Caligastia
rebellion. They maintained that the tower should be devoted to the worship of
the Father of all, that the whole purpose of the new city should be to take
the place of Dalamatia -- to function as the cultural and religious center for
the surrounding barbarians.
77:3.8 The religious group were promptly voted down.
The majority rejected the teaching that their ancestors had been guilty of
rebellion; they resented such a racial stigma. Having disposed of one of the
three angles to the dispute and failing to settle the other two by debate,
they fell to fighting. The religionists, the noncombatants, fled to their
homes in the south, while their fellows fought until well-nigh obliterated.
77:3.9 About twelve thousand years ago a second
attempt to erect the tower of Babel was made. The mixed races of the Andites
(Nodites and Adamites) undertook to raise a new temple on the ruins of the
first structure, but there was not sufficient support for the enterprise; it
fell of its own pretentious weight. This region was long known as the land of
Babel.
4. NODITE CENTERS OF CIVILIZATION
77:4.1 The dispersion of the Nodites was an
immediate result of the internecine conflict over the tower of Babel. This
internal war greatly reduced the numbers of the purer Nodites and was in many
ways responsible for their failure to establish a great pre-Adamic
civilization. From this time on Nodite culture declined for over one hundred
and twenty thousand years until it was upstepped by Adamic infusion. But even
in the times of Adam the Nodites were still an able people. Many of their
mixed descendants were numbered among the Garden builders, and several of
Van's group captains were Nodites. Some of the most capable minds serving on
Adam's staff were of this race.
77:4.2 Three out of the four great Nodite centers
were established immediately following the Bablot conflict:
77:4.3 1. The western or Syrian Nodites. The
remnants of the nationalistic or racial memorialists journeyed northward,
uniting with the Andonites to found the later Nodite centers to the northwest
of Mesopotamia. This was the largest group of the dispersing Nodites, and they
contributed much to the later appearing Assyrian stock.
77:4.4 2. The eastern or Elamite Nodites. The
culture and commerce advocates migrated in large numbers eastward into Elam
and there united with the mixed Sangik tribes. The Elamites of thirty to forty
thousand years ago had become largely Sangik in nature, although they
continued to maintain a civilization superior to that of the surrounding
barbarians.
77:4.5 After the establishment of the second garden
it was customary to allude to this near-by Nodite settlement as "the land of
Nod"; and during the long period of relative peace between this Nodite group
and the Adamites, the two races were greatly blended, for it became more and
more the custom for the Sons of God (the Adamites) to intermarry with the
daughters of men (the Nodites).
77:4.6 3. The central or pre-Sumerian
Nodites. A small group at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
maintained more of their racial integrity. They persisted for thousands of
years and eventually furnished the Nodite ancestry which blended with the
Adamites to found the Sumerian peoples of historic times.
77:4.7 And all this explains how the Sumerians
appeared so suddenly and mysteriously on the stage of action in Mesopotamia.
Investigators will never be able to trace out and follow these tribes back to
the beginning of the Sumerians, who had their origin two hundred thousand
years ago after the submergence of Dalamatia. Without a trace of origin
elsewhere in the world, these ancient tribes suddenly loom upon the horizon of
civilization with a full-grown and superior culture, embracing temples,
metalwork, agriculture, animals, pottery, weaving, commercial law, civil
codes, religious ceremonial, and an old system of writing. At the beginning of
the historical era they had long since lost the alphabet of Dalamatia, having
adopted the peculiar writing system originating in Dilmun. The Sumerian
language, though virtually lost to the world, was not Semitic; it had much in
common with the so-called Aryan tongues.
77:4.8 The elaborate records left by the Sumerians
describe the site of a remarkable settlement which was located on the Persian
Gulf near the earlier city of Dilmun. The Egyptians called this city of
ancient glory Dilmat, while the later Adamized Sumerians confused both the
first and second Nodite cities with Dalamatia and called all three Dilmun. And
already have archaeologists found these ancient Sumerian clay tablets which
tell of this earthly paradise "where the Gods first blessed mankind with the
example of civilized and cultured life." And these tablets, descriptive of
Dilmun, the paradise of men and God, are now silently resting on the dusty
shelves of many museums.
77:4.9 The Sumerians well knew of the first and
second Edens but, despite extensive intermarriage with the Adamites, continued
to regard the garden dwellers to the north as an alien race. Sumerian pride in
the more ancient Nodite culture led them to ignore these later vistas of glory
in favor of the grandeur and paradisiacal traditions of the city of
Dilmun.
77:4.10 4. The northern Nodites and Amadonites --
the Vanites. This group arose prior to the Bablot conflict. These
northernmost Nodites were descendants of those who had forsaken the leadership
of Nod and his successors for that of Van and Amadon.
77:4.11 Some of the early associates of Van
subsequently settled about the shores of the lake which still bears his name,
and their traditions grew up about this locality. Ararat became their sacred
mountain, having much the same meaning to later-day Vanites that Sinai had to
the Hebrews. Ten thousand years ago the Vanite ancestors of the Assyrians
taught that their moral law of seven commandments had been given to Van by the
Gods upon Mount Ararat. They firmly believed that Van and his associate Amadon
were taken alive from the planet while they were up on the mountain engaged in
worship.
77:4.12 Mount Ararat was the sacred mountain of
northern Mesopotamia, and since much of your tradition of these ancient times
was acquired in connection with the Babylonian story of the flood, it is not
surprising that Mount Ararat and its region were woven into the later Jewish
story of Noah and the universal flood.
77:4.13 About 35,000 B.C. Adamson visited one of the
easternmost of the old Vanite settlements to found his center of
civilization.
5. ADAMSON AND RATTA
77:5.1 Having delineated the Nodite antecedents of
the ancestry of the secondary midwayers, this narrative should now give
consideration to the Adamic half of their ancestry, for the secondary
midwayers are also the grandchildren of Adamson, the first-born of the violet
race of Urantia.
77:5.2 Adamson was among that group of the children
of Adam and Eve who elected to remain on earth with their father and mother.
Now this eldest son of Adam had often heard from Van and Amadon the story of
their highland home in the north, and sometime after the establishment of the
second garden he determined to go in search of this land of his youthful
dreams.
77:5.3 Adamson was 120 years old at this time and
had been the father of thirty-two pure-line children of the first garden. He
wanted to remain with his parents and assist them in upbuilding the second
garden, but he was greatly disturbed by the loss of his mate and their
children, who had all elected to go to Edentia along with those other Adamic
children who chose to become wards of the Most Highs.
77:5.4 Adamson would not desert his parents on
Urantia, he was disinclined to flee from hardship or danger, but he found the
associations of the second garden far from satisfying. He did much to forward
the early activities of defense and construction but decided to leave for the
north at the earliest opportunity. And though his departure was wholly
pleasant, Adam and Eve were much grieved to lose their eldest son, to have him
go out into a strange and hostile world, as they feared, never to
return.
77:5.5 A company of twenty-seven followed Adamson
northward in quest of these people of his childhood fantasies. In a little
over three years Adamson's party actually found the object of their adventure,
and among these people he discovered a wonderful and beautiful woman, twenty
years old, who claimed to be the last pure-line descendant of the Prince's
staff. This woman, Ratta, said that her ancestors were all descendants of two
of the fallen staff of the Prince. She was the last of her race, having no
living brothers or sisters. She had about decided not to mate, had about made
up her mind to die without issue, but she lost her heart to the majestic
Adamson. And when she heard the story of Eden, how the predictions of Van and
Amadon had really come to pass, and as she listened to the recital of the
Garden default, she was encompassed with but a single thought -- to marry this
son and heir of Adam. And quickly the idea grew upon Adamson. In a little more
than three months they were married.
77:5.6 Adamson and Ratta had a family of sixty-seven
children. They gave origin to a great line of the world's leadership, but they
did something more. It should be remembered that both of these beings were
really superhuman. Every fourth child born to them was of a unique order. It
was often invisible. Never in the world's history had such a thing occurred.
Ratta was greatly perturbed -- even superstitious -- but Adamson well knew of
the existence of the primary midwayers, and he concluded that something
similar was transpiring before his eyes. When the second strangely behaving
offspring arrived, he decided to mate them, since one was male and the other
female, and this is the origin of the secondary order of midwayers. Within one
hundred years, before this phenomenon ceased, almost two thousand were brought
into being.
77:5.7 Adamson lived for 396 years. Many times he
returned to visit his father and mother. Every seven years he and Ratta
journeyed south to the second garden, and meanwhile the midwayers kept him
informed regarding the welfare of his people. During Adamson's life they did
great service in upbuilding a new and independent world center for truth and
righteousness.
77:5.8 Adamson and Ratta thus had at their command
this corps of marvelous helpers, who labored with them throughout their long
lives to assist in the propagation of advanced truth and in the spread of
higher standards of spiritual, intellectual, and physical living. And the
results of this effort at world betterment never did become fully eclipsed by
subsequent retrogressions.
77:5.9 The Adamsonites maintained a high culture for
almost seven thousand years from the times of Adamson and Ratta. Later on they
became admixed with the neighboring Nodites and Andonites and were also
included among the "mighty men of old." And some of the advances of that age
persisted to become a latent part of the cultural potential which later
blossomed into European civilization.
77:5.10 This center of civilization was situated in
the region east of the southern end of the Caspian Sea, near the Kopet Dagh. A
short way up in the foothills of Turkestan are the vestiges of what was
onetime the Adamsonite headquarters of the violet race. In these highland
sites, situated in a narrow and ancient fertile belt lying in the lower
foothills of the Kopet range, there successively arose at various periods four
diverse cultures respectively fostered by four different groups of Adamson's
descendants. It was the second of these groups which migrated westward to
Greece and the islands of the Mediterranean. The residue of Adamson's
descendants migrated north and west to enter Europe with the blended stock of
the last Andite wave coming out of Mesopotamia, and they were also numbered
among the Andite-Aryan invaders of India.
6. THE SECONDARY MIDWAYERS
77:6.1 While the primary midwayers had a well-nigh
superhuman origin, the secondary order are the offspring of the pure Adamic
stock united with a humanized descendant of ancestors common to the parentage
of the senior corps.
77:6.2 Among the children of Adamson there were just
sixteen of the peculiar progenitors of the secondary midwayers. These unique
children were equally divided as regards sex, and each couple was capable of
producing a secondary midwayer every seventy days by a combined technique of
sex and nonsex liaison. And such a phenomenon was never possible on earth
before that time, nor has it ever occurred since.
77:6.3 These sixteen children lived and died (except
for their peculiarities) as mortals of the realm, but their electrically
energized offspring live on and on, not being subject to the limitations of
mortal flesh.
77:6.4 Each of the eight couples eventually produced
248 midwayers, and thus did the original secondary corps -- 1,984 in number --
come into existence. There are eight subgroups of secondary midwayers. They
are designated as A-B-C the first, second, third, and so on. And then there
are D-E-F the first, second, and so on.
77:6.5 After the default of Adam the primary
midwayers returned to the service of the Melchizedek receivers, while the
secondary group were attached to the Adamson center until his death.
Thirty-three of these secondary midwayers, the chiefs of their organization at
the death of Adamson, endeavored to swing the whole order over to the service
of the Melchizedeks, thus effecting a liaison with the primary corps. But
failing to accomplish this, they deserted their companions and went over in a
body to the service of the planetary receivers.
77:6.6 After the death of Adamson the remainder of
the secondary midwayers became a strange, unorganized, and unattached
influence on Urantia. From that time to the days of Machiventa Melchizedek
they led an irregular and unorganized existence. They were partially brought
under control by this Melchizedek but were still productive of much mischief
up to the days of Christ Michael. And during his sojourn on earth they all
made final decisions as to their future destiny, the loyal majority then
enlisting under the leadership of the primary midwayers.
7. THE REBEL MIDWAYERS
77:7.1 The majority of the primary midwayers went
into sin at the time of the Lucifer rebellion. When the devastation of the
planetary rebellion was reckoned up, among other losses it was discovered that
of the original 50,000, 40,119 had joined the Caligastia secession.
77:7.2 The original number of secondary midwayers
was 1,984, and of these 873 failed to align themselves with the rule of
Michael and were duly interned in connection with the planetary adjudication
of Urantia on the day of Pentecost. No one can forecast the future of these
fallen creatures.
77:7.3 Both groups of rebel midwayers are now held
in custody awaiting the final adjudication of the affairs of the system
rebellion. But they did many strange things on earth prior to the inauguration
of the present planetary dispensation.
77:7.4 These disloyal midwayers were able to reveal
themselves to mortal eyes under certain circumstances, and especially was this
true of the associates of Beelzebub, the leader of the apostate secondary
midwayers. But these unique creatures must not be confused with certain of the
rebel cherubim and seraphim who also were on earth up to the time of Christ's
death and resurrection. Some of the older writers designated these rebellious
midway creatures as evil spirits and demons, and the apostate seraphim as evil
angels.
77:7.5 On no world can evil spirits possess any
mortal mind subsequent to the life of a Paradise bestowal Son. But before the
days of Christ Michael on Urantia -- before the universal coming of the
Thought Adjusters and the pouring out of the Master's spirit upon all flesh --
these rebel midwayers were actually able to influence the minds of certain
inferior mortals and somewhat to control their actions. This was accomplished
in much the same way as the loyal midway creatures function when they serve as
efficient contact guardians of the human minds of the Urantia reserve corps of
destiny at those times when the Adjuster is, in effect, detached from the
personality during a season of contact with superhuman
intelligences.
77:7.6 It is no mere figure of speech when the
record states: "And they brought to Him all sorts of sick peoples, those who
were possessed by devils and those who were lunatics." Jesus knew and
recognized the difference between insanity and demoniacal possession, although
these states were greatly confused in the minds of those who lived in his day
and generation.
77:7.7 Even prior to Pentecost no rebel spirit could
dominate a normal human mind, and since that day even the weak minds of
inferior mortals are free from such possibilities. The supposed casting out of
devils since the arrival of the Spirit of Truth has been a matter of
confounding a belief in demoniacal possession with hysteria, insanity, and
feeble-mindedness. But just because Michael's bestowal has forever liberated
all human minds on Urantia from the possibility of demoniacal possession, do
not imagine that such was not a reality in former ages.
77:7.8 The entire group of rebel midwayers is at
present held prisoner by order of the Most Highs of Edentia. No more do they
roam this world on mischief bent. Regardless of the presence of the Thought
Adjusters, the pouring out of the Spirit of Truth upon all flesh forever made
it impossible for disloyal spirits of any sort or description ever again to
invade even the most feeble of human minds. Since the day of Pentecost there
never again can be such a thing as demoniacal possession.
8. THE UNITED MIDWAYERS
77:8.1 At the last adjudication of this world, when
Michael removed the slumbering survivors of time, the midway creatures were
left behind, left to assist in the spiritual and semispiritual work on the
planet. They now function as a single corps, embracing both orders and
numbering 10,992. The United Midwayers of Urantia are at present
governed alternately by the senior member of each order. This regime has
obtained since their amalgamation into one group shortly after
Pentecost.
77:8.2 The members of the older or primary order are
generally known by numerals; they are often given names such as 1-2-3 the
first, 4-5-6 the first, and so on. On Urantia the Adamic midwayers are
designated alphabetically in order to distinguish them from the numerical
designation of the primary midwayers.
77:8.3 Both orders are nonmaterial beings as regards
nutrition and energy intake, but they partake of many human traits and are
able to enjoy and follow your humor as well as your worship. When attached to
mortals, they enter into the spirit of human work, rest, and play. But
midwayers do not sleep, neither do they possess powers of procreation. In a
certain sense the secondary group are differentiated along the lines of
maleness and femaleness, often being spoken of as "he" or "she." They often
work together in such pairs.
77:8.4 Midwayers are not men, neither are they
angels, but secondary midwayers are, in nature, nearer man than angel; they
are, in a way, of your races and are, therefore, very understanding and
sympathetic in their contact with human beings; they are invaluable to the
seraphim in their work for and with the various races of mankind, and both
orders are indispensable to the seraphim who serve as personal guardians to
mortals.
77:8.5 The United Midwayers of Urantia are organized
for service with the planetary seraphim in accordance with innate endowments
and acquired skills, in the following groups:
77:8.6 1. Midway messengers. This group bear
names; they are a small corps and are of great assistance on an evolutionary
world in the service of quick and reliable personal communication.
77:8.7 2. Planetary sentinels. Midwayers are
the guardians, the sentinels, of the worlds of space. They perform the
important duties of observers for all the numerous phenomena and types of
communication which are of import to the supernatural beings of the realm.
They patrol the invisible spirit realm of the planet.
77:8.8 3. Contact personalities. In the
contacts made with the mortal beings of the material worlds, such as with the
subject through whom these communications were transmitted, the midway
creatures are always employed. They are an essential factor in such liaisons
of the spiritual and the material levels.
77:8.9 4. Progress helpers. These are the
more spiritual of the midway creatures, and they are distributed as assistants
to the various orders of seraphim who function in special groups on the
planet.
77:8.10 Midwayers vary greatly in their abilities to
make contact with the seraphim above and with their human cousins below. It is
exceedingly difficult, for instance, for the primary midwayers to make direct
contact with material agencies. They are considerably nearer the angelic type
of being and are therefore usually assigned to working with, and ministering
to, the spiritual forces resident on the planet. They act as companions and
guides for celestial visitors and student sojourners, whereas the secondary
creatures are almost exclusively attached to the ministry of the material
beings of the realm.
77:8.11 The 1,111 loyal secondary midwayers are
engaged in important missions on earth. As compared with their primary
associates, they are decidedly material. They exist just outside the range of
mortal vision and possess sufficient latitude of adaptation to make, at will,
physical contact with what humans call "material things." These unique
creatures have certain definite powers over the things of time and space, not
excepting the beasts of the realm.
77:8.12 Many of the more literal phenomena ascribed
to angels have been performed by the secondary midway creatures. When the
early teachers of the gospel of Jesus were thrown into prison by the ignorant
religious leaders of that day, an actual "angel of the Lord" "by night opened
the prison doors and brought them forth." But in the case of Peter's
deliverance after the killing of James by Herod's order, it was a secondary
midwayer who performed the work ascribed to an angel.
77:8.13 Their chief work today is that of
unperceived personal-liaison associates of those men and women who constitute
the planetary reserve corps of destiny. It was the work of this secondary
group, ably seconded by certain of the primary corps, that brought about the
co-ordination of personalities and circumstances on Urantia which finally
induced the planetary celestial supervisors to initiate those petitions that
resulted in the granting of the mandates making possible the series of
revelations of which this presentation is a part. But it should be made clear
that the midway creatures are not involved in the sordid performances taking
place under the general designation of "spiritualism." The midwayers at
present on Urantia, all of whom are of honorable standing, are not connected
with the phenomena of so-called "mediumship"; and they do not, ordinarily,
permit humans to witness their sometimes necessary physical activities or
other contacts with the material world, as they are perceived by human senses.
9. THE PERMANENT CITIZENS OF URANTIA
77:9.1 Midwayers may be regarded as the first group
of the permanent inhabitants to be found on the various orders of worlds
throughout the universes in contrast with evolutionary ascenders like the
mortal creatures and the angelic hosts. Such permanent citizens are
encountered at various points in the Paradise ascent.
77:9.2 Unlike the various orders of celestial beings
who are assigned to minister on a planet, the midwayers live on
an inhabited world. The seraphim come and go, but the midway creatures remain
and will remain, albeit they are nonetheless ministers for being natives of
the planet, and they provide the one continuing regime which harmonizes and
connects the changing administrations of the seraphic hosts.
77:9.3 As actual citizens of Urantia, the midwayers
have a kinship interest in the destiny of this sphere. They are a determined
association, persistently working for the progress of their native planet.
Their determination is suggested by the motto of their order: "What the United
Midwayers undertake, the United Midwayers do."
77:9.4 Although their ability to traverse the energy
circuits makes planetary departure feasible to any midwayer, they have
individually pledged themselves not to leave the planet prior to their
sometime release by the universe authorities. Midwayers are anchored on a
planet until the ages of settled light and life. With the exception of 1-2-3
the first, no loyal midway creatures have ever departed from
Urantia.
77:9.5 1-2-3 the first, the eldest of the primary
order, was released from immediate planetary duties shortly after Pentecost.
This noble midwayer stood steadfast with Van and Amadon during the tragic days
of the planetary rebellion, and his fearless leadership was instrumental in
reducing the casualties in his order. He serves at present on Jerusem as a
member of the twenty-four counselors, having already functioned as governor
general of Urantia once since Pentecost.
77:9.6 Midwayers are planet bound, but much as
mortals talk with travelers from afar and thus learn about remote places on
the planet, so do midwayers converse with celestial travelers to learn about
the far places of the universe. So do they become conversant with this system
and universe, even with Orvonton and its sister creations, and so do they
prepare themselves for citizenship on the higher levels of creature
existence.
77:9.7 While the midwayers were brought into
existence fully developed -- experiencing no period of growth or development
from immaturity -- they never cease to grow in wisdom and experience. Like
mortals they are evolutionary creatures, and they have a culture which is a
bona fide evolutionary attainment. There are many great minds and mighty
spirits among the Urantia midway corps.
77:9.8 In the larger aspect the civilization of
Urantia is the joint product of the Urantia mortals and the Urantia midwayers,
and this is true despite the present differential between the two levels of
culture, a differential which will not be compensated prior to the ages of
light and life.
77:9.9 The midway culture, being the product of an
immortal planetary citizenry, is relatively immune to those temporal
vicissitudes which beset human civilization. The generations of men forget;
the corps of midwayers remembers, and that memory is the treasure house of the
traditions of your inhabited world. Thus does the culture of a planet remain
ever present on that planet, and in proper circumstances such treasured
memories of past events are made available, even as the story of the life and
teachings of Jesus has been given by the midwayers of Urantia to their cousins
in the flesh.
77:9.10 Midwayers are the skillful ministers who
compensate that gap between the material and spiritual affairs of Urantia
which appeared upon the death of Adam and Eve. They are likewise your elder
brethren, comrades in the long struggle to attain a settled status of light
and life on Urantia. The United Midwayers are a rebellion-tested corps, and
they will faithfully enact their part in planetary evolution until this world
attains the goal of the ages, until that distant day when in fact peace does
reign on earth and in truth is there good will in the hearts of
men.
77:9.11 Because of the valuable work performed by
these midwayers, we have concluded that they are a truly essential part of the
spirit economy of the realms. And where rebellion has not marred a planet's
affairs, they are of still greater assistance to the seraphim.
77:9.12 The entire organization of high spirits,
angelic hosts, and midway fellows is enthusiastically devoted to the
furtherance of the Paradise plan for the progressive ascension and perfection
attainment of evolutionary mortals, one of the supernal businesses of the
universe -- the superb survival plan of bringing God down to man and then, by
a sublime sort of partnership, carrying man up to God and on to eternity of
service and divinity of attainment -- alike for mortal and
midwayer.
77:9.13 Presented
by an Archangel of Nebadon.
