PAPER 108
MISSION AND MINISTRY OF THOUGHT ADJUSTERS
108:0.1 THE mission of the Thought Adjusters to the
human races is to represent, to be, the Universal Father to the mortal
creatures of time and space; that is the fundamental work of the divine gifts.
Their mission is also that of elevating the mortal minds and of translating
the immortal souls of men up to the divine heights and spiritual levels of
Paradise perfection. And in the experience of thus transforming the human
nature of the temporal creature into the divine nature of the eternal
finaliter, the Adjusters bring into existence a unique type of being, a being
consisting in the eternal union of the perfect Adjuster and the perfected
creature which it would be impossible to duplicate by any other universe
technique.
108:0.2 Nothing in the entire universe can
substitute for the fact of experience on nonexistential levels. The infinite
God is, as always, replete and complete, infinitely inclusive of all things
except evil and creature experience. God cannot do wrong; he is infallible.
God cannot experientially know what he has never personally experienced; God's
preknowledge is existential. Therefore does the spirit of the Father descend
from Paradise to participate with finite mortals in every bona fide experience
of the ascending career; it is only by such a method that the existential God
could become in truth and in fact man's experiential Father. The infinity of
the eternal God encompasses the potential for finite experience, which indeed
becomes actual in the ministry of the Adjuster fragments that actually share
the life vicissitude experiences of human beings.
1. SELECTION AND ASSIGNMENT
108:1.1 When Adjusters are dispatched for mortal
service from Divinington, they are identical in the endowment of existential
divinity, but they vary in experiential qualities proportional to previous
contact in and with evolutionary creatures. We cannot explain the basis of
Adjuster assignment, but we conjecture that these divine gifts are bestowed in
accordance with some wise and efficient policy of eternal fitness of
adaptation to the indwelt personality. We do observe that the more experienced
Adjuster is often the indweller of the higher type of human mind; human
inheritance must therefore be a considerable factor in determining selection
and assignment.
108:1.2 Although we do not definitely know, we
firmly believe that all Thought Adjusters are volunteers. But before ever they
volunteer, they are in possession of full data respecting the candidate for
indwelling. The seraphic drafts of ancestry and projected patterns of life
conduct are transmitted via Paradise to the reserve corps of Adjusters on
Divinington by the reflectivity technique extending inward from the capitals
of the local universes to the headquarters of the superuniverses. This
forecast covers not only the hereditary antecedents of the mortal candidate
but also the estimate of probable intellectual endowment and spiritual
capacity. The Adjusters thus volunteer to indwell minds of whose intimate
natures they have been fully apprised.
108:1.3 The volunteering Adjuster is particularly
interested in three qualifications of the human candidate:
108:1.4 1. Intellectual capacity. Is the mind
normal? What is the intellectual potential, the intelligence capacity? Can the
individual develop into a bona fide will creature? Will wisdom have an
opportunity to function?
108:1.5 2. Spiritual perception. The
prospects of reverential development, the birth and growth of the religious
nature. What is the potential of soul, the probable spiritual capacity of
receptivity?
108:1.6 3. Combined intellectual and spiritual
powers. The degree to which these two endowments may possibly be
associated, combined, so as to produce strength of human character and
contribute to the certain evolution of an immortal soul of survival value.
108:1.7 With these facts before them, it is our
belief that the Monitors freely volunteer for assignment. Probably more than
one Adjuster volunteers; perhaps the supervising personalized orders select
from this group of volunteering Adjusters the one best suited to the task of
spiritualizing and eternalizing the personality of the mortal candidate. (In
the assignment and service of the Adjusters the sex of the creature is of no
consideration.)
108:1.8 The short time intervening between the
volunteering and the actual dispatch of the Adjuster is presumably spent in
the Divinington schools of the Personalized Monitors where a working pattern
of the waiting mortal mind is utilized in instructing the assigned Adjuster as
to the most effective plans for personality approach and mind spiritization.
This mind model is formulated through a combination of data supplied by the
superuniverse reflectivity service. At least this is our understanding, a
belief which we hold as the result of putting together information secured by
contact with many Personalized Adjusters throughout the long universe careers
of the Solitary Messengers.
108:1.9 When once the Adjusters are actually
dispatched from Divinington, practically no time intervenes between that
moment and the hour of their appearance in the minds of their chosen subjects.
The average transit time of an Adjuster from Divinington to Urantia is 117
hours, 42 minutes, and 7 seconds. Virtually all of this time is occupied with
registration on Uversa.
2. PREREQUISITES OF ADJUSTER INDWELLING
108:2.1 Though the Adjusters volunteer for service
as soon as the personality forecasts have been relayed to Divinington, they
are not actually assigned until the human subjects make their first moral
personality decision. The first moral choice of the human child is
automatically indicated in the seventh mind-adjutant and registers instantly,
by way of the local universe Creative Spirit, over the universal mind-gravity
circuit of the Conjoint Actor in the presence of the Master Spirit of
superuniverse jurisdiction, who forthwith dispatches this intelligence to
Divinington. Adjusters reach their human subjects on Urantia, on the average,
just prior to the sixth birthday. In the present generation it is running five
years, ten months, and four days; that is, on the 2,134th day of terrestrial
life.
108:2.2 The Adjusters cannot invade the mortal mind
until it has been duly prepared by the indwelling ministry of the adjutant
mind-spirits and encircuited in the Holy Spirit. And it requires the
co-ordinate function of all seven adjutants to thus qualify the human mind for
the reception of an Adjuster. Creature mind must exhibit the worship outreach
and indicate wisdom function by exhibiting the ability to choose between the
emerging values of good and evil -- moral choice.
108:2.3 Thus is the stage of the human mind set for
the reception of Adjusters, but as a general rule they do not immediately
appear to indwell such minds except on those worlds where the Spirit of Truth
is functioning as a spiritual co-ordinator of these different spirit
ministries. If this spirit of the bestowal Sons is present, the Adjusters
unfailingly come the instant the seventh adjutant mind-spirit begins to
function and signalizes to the Universe Mother Spirit that it has achieved in
potential the co-ordination of the associated six adjutants of prior ministry
to such a mortal intellect. Therefore have the divine Adjusters been
universally bestowed upon all normal minds of moral status on Urantia ever
since the day of Pentecost.
108:2.4 Even with a Spirit of Truth endowed mind,
the Adjusters cannot arbitrarily invade the mortal intellect prior to the
appearance of moral decision. But when such a moral decision has been made,
this spirit helper assumes jurisdiction direct from Divinington. There are no
intermediaries or other intervening authorities or powers functioning between
the divine Adjusters and their human subjects; God and man are directly
related.
108:2.5 Before the times of the pouring out of the
Spirit of Truth upon the inhabitants of an evolutionary world, the Adjusters'
bestowal appears to be determined by many spirit influences and personality
attitudes. We do not fully comprehend the laws governing such bestowals; we do
not understand just what determines the release of the Adjusters who have
volunteered to indwell such evolving minds. But we do observe numerous
influences and conditions which appear to be associated with the arrival of
the Adjusters in such minds prior to the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, and
they are:
108:2.6 1. The assignment of personal seraphic
guardians. If a mortal has not been previously indwelt by an Adjuster, the
assignment of a personal guardian brings the Adjuster forthwith. There exists
some very definite but unknown relation between the ministry of Adjusters and
the ministry of personal seraphic guardians.
108:2.7 2. The attainment of the third circle of
intellectual achievement and spiritual attainment. I have observed Adjusters
arrive in mortal minds upon the conquest of the third circle even before such
an accomplishment could be signalized to the local universe personalities
concerned with such matters.
108:2.8 3. Upon the making of a supreme decision of
unusual spiritual import. Such human behavior in a personal planetary crisis
usually is attended by the immediate arrival of the waiting Adjuster.
108:2.9 4. The spirit of brotherhood. Regardless of
the attainment of the psychic circles and the assignment of personal guardians
-- in the absence of anything resembling a crisis decision -- when an evolving
mortal becomes dominated by the love of his fellows and consecrated to
unselfish ministry to his brethren in the flesh, the waiting Adjuster
unvaryingly descends to indwell the mind of such a mortal minister.
108:2.10 5. Declaration of intention to do the will
of God. We observe that many mortals on the worlds of space may be apparently
in readiness to receive Adjusters, and yet the Monitors do not appear. We go
on watching such creatures as they live from day to day, and presently they
quietly, almost unconsciously, arrive at the decision to begin the pursuit of
the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. And then we observe the
immediate dispatch of the Thought Adjusters.
108:2.11 6. Influence of the Supreme Being. On
worlds where the Adjusters do not fuse with the evolving souls of the mortal
inhabitants, we observe Adjusters sometimes bestowed in response to influences
which are wholly beyond our comprehension. We conjecture that such bestowals
are determined by some cosmic reflex action originating in the Supreme Being.
As to why these Adjusters can not or do not fuse with these certain types of
evolving mortal minds we do not know. Such transactions have never been
revealed to us.
3. ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION
108:3.1 As far as we know, Adjusters are organized
as an independent working unit in the universe of universes and are apparently
administered directly from Divinington. They are uniform throughout the seven
superuniverses, all local universes being served by identical types of Mystery
Monitors. We do know from observation that there are numerous series of
Adjusters involving a serial organization that extends through races, over
dispensations, and to worlds, systems, and universes. It is, however,
exceedingly difficult to keep track of these divine gifts since they function
interchangeably throughout the grand universe.
108:3.2 Adjusters are of complete record (outside of
Divinington) only on the headquarters of the seven superuniverses. The number
and order of each Adjuster indwelling each ascending creature are reported out
by the Paradise authorities to the headquarters of the superuniverse, and from
there are communicated to the headquarters of the local universe concerned and
relayed to the particular planet involved. But the local universe records do
not disclose the full number of the Thought Adjusters; the Nebadon records
contain only the local universe assignment number as designated by the
representatives of the Ancients of Days. The real significance of the
Adjuster's complete number is known only on Divinington.
108:3.3 Human subjects are often known by the
numbers of their Adjusters; mortals do not receive real universe names until
after Adjuster fusion, which union is signalized by the bestowal of the new
name upon the new creature by the destiny guardian.
108:3.4 Though we have the records of Thought
Adjusters in Orvonton, and though we have absolutely no authority over them or
administrative connection with them, we firmly believe that there is a very
close administrative connection between the individual worlds of the local
universes and the central lodgment of the divine gifts on Divinington. We do
know that, following the appearance of a Paradise bestowal Son, an
evolutionary world has a Personalized Adjuster assigned to it as the planetary
supervisor of Adjusters.
108:3.5 It is interesting to note that local
universe inspectors always address themselves, when carrying out a planetary
examination, to the planetary chief of Thought Adjusters, just as they deliver
charges to the chiefs of seraphim and to the leaders of other orders of beings
attached to the administration of an evolving world. Not long since, Urantia
underwent such a periodic inspection by Tabamantia, the sovereign supervisor
of all life-experiment planets in the universe of Nebadon. And the records
reveal that, in addition to his admonitions and indictments delivered to the
various chiefs of superhuman personalities, he also delivered the following
acknowledgment to the chief of Adjusters, whether located on the planet, on
Salvington, Uversa, or Divinington, we do not definitely know, but he said:
108:3.6 "Now to you, superiors far above me, I come
as one placed in temporary authority over the experimental planetary series;
and I come to express admiration and profound respect for this magnificent
group of celestial ministers, the Mystery Monitors, who have volunteered to
serve on this irregular sphere. No matter how trying the crises, you never
falter. Not on the records of Nebadon nor before the commissions of Orvonton
has there ever been offered an indictment of a divine Adjuster. You have been
true to your trusts; you have been divinely faithful. You have helped to
adjust the mistakes and to compensate for the shortcomings of all who labor on
this confused planet. You are marvelous beings, guardians of the good in the
souls of this backward realm. I pay you respect even while you are apparently
under my jurisdiction as volunteer ministers. I bow before you in humble
recognition of your exquisite unselfishness, your understanding ministry, and
your impartial devotion. You deserve the name of the Godlike servers of the
mortal inhabitants of this strife-torn, grief-stricken, and disease-afflicted
world. I honor you! I all but worship you!"
108:3.7 As a result of many suggestive lines of
evidence, we believe that the Adjusters are thoroughly organized, that there
exists a profoundly intelligent and efficient directive administration of
these divine gifts from some far-distant and central source, probably
Divinington. We know that they come from Divinington to the worlds, and
undoubtedly they return thereto upon the deaths of their subjects.
108:3.8 Among the higher spirit orders it is
exceedingly difficult to discover the mechanisms of administration. My order
of personalities, while engaged in the prosecution of our specific duties, is
undoubtedly unconsciously participating with numerous other personal and
impersonal sub-Deity groups who unitedly are functioning as far-flung universe
correlators. We suspect that we are thus serving because we are the only group
of personalized creatures (aside from Personalized Adjusters) who are
uniformly conscious of the presence of numerous orders of the prepersonal
entities.
108:3.9 We are aware of the presence of the
Adjusters, who are fragments of the prepersonal Deity of the First Source and
Center. We sense the presence of the Inspired Trinity Spirits, who are
superpersonal expressions of the Paradise Trinity. We likewise unfailingly
detect the spirit presence of certain unrevealed orders springing from the
Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. And we are not wholly unresponsive to
still other entities unrevealed to you.
108:3.10 The Melchizedeks of Nebadon teach that the
Solitary Messengers are the personality co-ordinators of these various
influences as they register in the expanding Deity of the evolutionary Supreme
Being. It is very possible that we may be participants in the experiential
unification of many of the unexplained phenomena of time, but we are not
consciously certain of thus functioning.
4. RELATION TO OTHER SPIRITUAL INFLUENCES
108:4.1 Apart from possible co-ordination with other
Deity fragments, the Adjusters are quite alone in their sphere of activity in
the mortal mind. The Mystery Monitors eloquently bespeak the fact that, though
the Father may have apparently resigned the exercise of all direct personal
power and authority throughout the grand universe, notwithstanding this act of
abnegation in behalf of the Supreme Creator children of the Paradise Deities,
the Father has certainly reserved to himself the unchallengeable right to be
present in the minds and souls of his evolving creatures to the end that he
may so act as to draw all creature creation to himself, co-ordinately with the
spiritual gravity of the Paradise Sons. Said your Paradise bestowal Son when
yet on Urantia, "I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men." This spiritual
drawing power of the Paradise Sons and their creative associates we recognize
and understand, but we do not so fully comprehend the methods of the all-wise
Father's functioning in and through these Mystery Monitors that live and work
so valiantly within the human mind.
108:4.2 While not subordinate to, co-ordinate with,
or apparently related to, the work of the universe of universes, though acting
independently in the minds of the children of men, unceasingly do these
mysterious presences urge the creatures of their indwelling toward divine
ideals, always luring them upward toward the purposes and aims of a future and
better life. These Mystery Monitors are continually assisting in the
establishment of the spiritual dominion of Michael throughout the universe of
Nebadon while mysteriously contributing to the stabilization of the
sovereignty of the Ancients of Days in Orvonton. The Adjusters are the
will of God, and since the Supreme Creator children of God also personally
embody that same will, it is inevitable that the actions of Adjusters and the
sovereignty of the universe rulers should be mutually interdependent. Though
apparently unconnected, the Father presence of the Adjusters and the Father
sovereignty of Michael of Nebadon must be diverse manifestations of the same
divinity.
108:4.3 Thought Adjusters appear to come and go
quite independent of any and all other spiritual presences; they seem to
function in accordance with universe laws quite apart from those which govern
and control the performances of all other spirit influences. But regardless of
such apparent independence, long-range observation unquestionably discloses
that they function in the human mind in perfect synchrony and co-ordination
with all other spirit ministries, including adjutant mind-spirits, Holy
Spirit, Spirit of Truth, and other influences.
108:4.4 When a world is isolated by rebellion, when
a planet is cut off from all outside encircuited communication, as was Urantia
after the Caligastia upheaval, aside from personal messengers there remains
but one possibility of direct interplanetary or universe communication, and
that is through the liaison of the Adjusters of the spheres. No matter what
happens on a world or in a universe, the Adjusters are never directly
concerned. The isolation of a planet in no way affects the Adjusters and their
ability to communicate with any part of the local universe, superuniverse, or
the central universe. And this is the reason why contacts with the supreme and
the self-acting Adjusters of the reserve corps of destiny are so frequently
made on quarantined worlds. Recourse is had to such a technique as a means of
circumventing the handicaps of planetary isolation. In recent years the
archangels' circuit has functioned on Urantia, but that means of communication
is largely limited to the transactions of the archangel corps itself.
108:4.5 We are cognizant of many spirit phenomena in
the far-flung universe which we are at a loss fully to understand. We are not
yet masters of all that is transpiring about us; and I believe that much of
this inscrutable work is wrought by the Gravity Messengers and certain types
of Mystery Monitors. I do not believe that Adjusters are devoted solely to the
remaking of mortal minds. I am persuaded that the Personalized Monitors and
other orders of unrevealed prepersonal spirits are representative of the
Universal Father's direct and unexplained contact with the creatures of the
realms.
5. THE ADJUSTER'S MISSION
108:5.1 The Adjusters accept a difficult assignment
when they volunteer to indwell such composite beings as live on Urantia. But
they have assumed the task of existing in your minds, there to receive the
admonitions of the spiritual intelligences of the realms and then to undertake
to redictate or translate these spiritual messages to the material mind; they
are indispensable to the Paradise ascension.
108:5.2 What the Thought Adjuster cannot utilize in
your present life, those truths which he cannot successfully transmit to the
man of his betrothal, he will faithfully preserve for use in the next stage of
existence, just as he now carries over from circle to circle those items which
he fails to register in the experience of the human subject, owing to the
creature's inability, or failure, to give a sufficient degree of
co-operation.
108:5.3 One thing you can depend upon: The Adjusters
will never lose anything committed to their care; never have we known these
spirit helpers to default. Angels and other high types of spirit beings, not
excepting the local universe type of Sons, may occasionally embrace evil, may
sometimes depart from the divine way, but Adjusters never falter. They are
absolutely dependable, and this is equally true of all seven groups.
108:5.4 Your Adjuster is the potential of your new
and next order of existence, the advance bestowal of your eternal sonship with
God. By and with the consent of your will, the Adjuster has the power to
subject the creature trends of the material mind to the transforming actions
of the motivations and purposes of the emerging morontial soul.
108:5.5 The Mystery Monitors are not thought
helpers; they are thought adjusters. They labor with the material mind for the
purpose of constructing, by adjustment and spiritualization, a new mind for
the new worlds and the new name of your future career. Their mission chiefly
concerns the future life, not this life. They are called heavenly helpers, not
earthly helpers. They are not interested in making the mortal career easy;
rather are they concerned in making your life reasonably difficult and rugged,
so that decisions will be stimulated and multiplied. The presence of a great
Thought Adjuster does not bestow ease of living and freedom from strenuous
thinking, but such a divine gift should confer a sublime peace of mind and a
superb tranquillity of spirit.
108:5.6 Your transient and ever-changing emotions of
joy and sorrow are in the main purely human and material reactions to your
internal psychic climate and to your external material environment. Do not,
therefore, look to the Adjuster for selfish consolation and mortal comfort. It
is the business of the Adjuster to prepare you for the eternal adventure, to
assure your survival. It is not the mission of the Mystery Monitor to smooth
your ruffled feelings or to minister to your injured pride; it is the
preparation of your soul for the long ascending career that engages the
attention and occupies the time of the Adjuster.
108:5.7 I doubt that I am able to explain to you
just what the Adjusters do in your minds and for your souls. I do not know
that I am fully cognizant of what is really going on in the cosmic association
of a divine Monitor and a human mind. It is all somewhat of a mystery to us,
not as to the plan and purpose but as to the actual mode of accomplishment.
And this is just why we are confronted with such difficulty in finding an
appropriate name for these supernal gifts to mortal men.
108:5.8 The Thought Adjusters would like to change
your feelings of fear to convictions of love and confidence; but they cannot
mechanically and arbitrarily do such things; that is your task. In executing
those decisions which deliver you from the fetters of fear, you literally
supply the psychic fulcrum on which the Adjuster may subsequently apply a
spiritual lever of uplifting and advancing illumination.
108:5.9 When it comes to the sharp and well-defined
conflicts between the higher and lower tendencies of the races, between what
really is right or wrong (not merely what you may call right and
wrong), you can depend upon it that the Adjuster will always participate in
some definite and active manner in such experiences. The fact that such
Adjuster activity may be unconscious to the human partner does not in the
least detract from its value and reality.
108:5.10 If you have a personal guardian of destiny
and should fail of survival, that guardian angel must be adjudicated in order
to receive vindication as to the faithful execution of her trust. But Thought
Adjusters are not thus subjected to examination when their subjects fail to
survive. We all know that, while an angel might possibly fall short of the
perfection of ministry, Thought Adjusters work in the manner of Paradise
perfection; their ministry is characterized by a flawless technique which is
beyond the possibility of criticism by any being outside of Divinington. You
have perfect guides; therefore is the goal of perfection certainly attainable.
6. GOD IN MAN
108:6.1 It is indeed a marvel of divine
condescension for the exalted and perfect Adjusters to offer themselves for
actual existence in the minds of material creatures, such as the mortals of
Urantia, really to consummate a probationary union with the animal-origin
beings of earth.
108:6.2 No matter what the previous status of the
inhabitants of a world, subsequent to the bestowal of a divine Son and after
the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth upon all humans, the Adjusters flock to
such a world to indwell the minds of all normal will creatures. Following the
completion of the mission of a Paradise bestowal Son, these Monitors truly
become the "kingdom of heaven within you." Through the bestowal of the divine
gifts the Father makes the closest possible approach to sin and evil, for it
is literally true that the Adjuster must coexist in the mortal mind even in
the very midst of human unrighteousness. The indwelling Adjusters are
particularly tormented by those thoughts which are purely sordid and selfish;
they are distressed by irreverence for that which is beautiful and divine, and
they are virtually thwarted in their work by many of man's foolish animal
fears and childish anxieties.
108:6.3 The Mystery Monitors are undoubtedly the
bestowal of the Universal Father, the reflection of the image of God abroad in
the universe. A great teacher once admonished men that they should be renewed
in the spirit of their minds; that they become new men who, like God, are
created in righteousness and in the completion of truth. The Adjuster is the
mark of divinity, the presence of God. The "image of God" does not refer to
physical likeness nor to the circumscribed limitations of material creature
endowment but rather to the gift of the spirit presence of the Universal
Father in the supernal bestowal of the Thought Adjusters upon the humble
creatures of the universes.
108:6.4 The Adjuster is the wellspring of spiritual
attainment and the hope of divine character within you. He is the power,
privilege, and the possibility of survival, which so fully and forever
distinguishes you from mere animal creatures. He is the higher and truly
internal spiritual stimulus of thought in contrast with the external and
physical stimulus, which reaches the mind over the nerve-energy mechanism of
the material body.
108:6.5 These faithful custodians of the future
career unfailingly duplicate every mental creation with a spiritual
counterpart; they are thus slowly and surely re-creating you as you really are
(only spiritually) for resurrection on the survival worlds. And all of these
exquisite spirit re-creations are being preserved in the emerging reality of
your evolving and immortal soul, your morontia self. These realities are
actually there, notwithstanding that the Adjuster is seldom able to exalt
these duplicate creations sufficiently to exhibit them to the light of
consciousness.
108:6.6 And as you are the human parent, so is the
Adjuster the divine parent of the real you, your higher and advancing self,
your better morontial and future spiritual self. And it is this evolving
morontial soul that the judges and censors discern when they decree your
survival and pass you upward to new worlds and never-ending existence in
eternal liaison with your faithful partner -- God, the Adjuster.
108:6.7 The Adjusters are the eternal ancestors, the
divine originals, of your evolving immortal souls; they are the unceasing urge
that leads man to attempt the mastery of the material and present existence in
the light of the spiritual and future career. The Monitors are the prisoners
of undying hope, the founts of everlasting progression. And how they do enjoy
communicating with their subjects in more or less direct channels! How they
rejoice when they can dispense with symbols and other methods of indirection
and flash their messages straight to the intellects of their human partners!
108:6.8 You humans have begun an endless unfolding
of an almost infinite panorama, a limitless expanding of never-ending,
ever-widening spheres of opportunity for exhilarating service, matchless
adventure, sublime uncertainty, and boundless attainment. When the clouds
gather overhead, your faith should accept the fact of the presence of the
indwelling Adjuster, and thus you should be able to look beyond the mists of
mortal uncertainty into the clear shining of the sun of eternal righteousness
on the beckoning heights of the mansion worlds of Satania.
108:6.9 Presented
by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton.
