PAPER 112
PERSONALITY SURVIVAL
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.
