Spiritual Advice and Guidance Blog: Urantia Book: April 2008

Q: What is the meaning of the "number of man," or the "mark of the beast" called "666?"

A: The closest Urantia Book reference to that number comes from the following paragraph:

"The grand universe number of your world, Urantia, is 5,342,482,337,666. That is the registry number on Uversa and on Paradise, your number in the catalogue of the inhabited worlds. I know the physical-sphere registry number, but it is of such an extraordinary size that it is of little practical significance to the mortal mind."
(15:14.8)

Perhaps this number, which ends in 666, was revealed to John and all that he recorded were the last 3 digits.

There are no magic numbers. The universe is logical, not magical. Some numbers have significance because they refer to universe realities, but numerology and the magic associated with numbers is superstition based. The "mark of the beast" is a figure of speech signifying our evolutionary animal origin. It's referred to in the following paragraph which describes the gradual spiritual purging and purification we experience as we move through the mansion worlds following death.

The experience on this sphere is the crowning achievement of the immediate postmortal career. During your sojourn here you will receive the instruction of many teachers, all of whom will co-operate in the task of preparing you for residence on Jerusem. Any discernible differences between those mortals hailing from the isolated and retarded worlds and those survivors from the more advanced and enlightened spheres are virtually obliterated during the sojourn on the seventh mansion world. Here you will be purged of all the remnants of unfortunate heredity, unwholesome environment, and unspiritual planetary tendencies. The last remnants of the "mark of the beast" are here eradicated. (47:9.1)

Labels: 666, mark of the beast, number of man, numerology, The Urantia Book

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Is there such a thing as "soul travel?"

Q: Is there anything called soul travel as practice by eckanker or other school of thought?

A: Thank you for your question. Yes, there is something called soul travel. It's associated with confusing beliefs about souls disconnecting from the body and traveling around, observing, becoming ghosts, reincarnating -- beliefs that are ancient and based in superstition. The process is along the lines that intent, or meditation, or drugs can allow the soul to detach, that it remains attached to the body only through a thin silver cord, that it can travel great distances -- to other planets as well -- and as long as the cord is attached the soul will return to the body but if it breaks it won't return. Eckankar focuses on teaching this technique and other meditation practices promote it as well -- after all, who wouldn't want to be able to fly off and observe all manner of interesting things?

It's a mind game deception. Our minds are powerful as well as directable. We do have the ability to direct our mind and a conscious connection so that it may seem we have left our body. Mind can detect information at a distance but "you" don't leave one place and travel to another. Through practice one can strengthen the connection to the subconscious mind's psychic abilities and participate in many otherwise strange mind games. Such a practice will disengage one from reality substituting the practical to make it become impractical.

The Urantia Book warns against attempting to augment psychic abilities, offering instead a practical, inspiring, spiritually beneficent cosmology which answers life's most challenging questions and gives focus to human longings and desires in a logical, positive, and uplifting manner. There's more than enough in reality to satisfy curiosity and the desire for adventure without veering away into augmenting unreality experiences.

Another of our responders has a few words on this subject as well...

I wonder if you are familiar with The Urantia Book teaching on the soul? I find it to be one of the loveliest parts of the Revelation. And it goes like this: When a child reaches the age of reason - anywhere from 5-7 years - and makes a conscious choice for good, that is the time when God sends a fragment of himself to indwell that child's mind. The Urantia Book calls this fragment the Thought Adjuster. And, it signals the birth of the soul. Thereafter, every moral choice that the child makes results in growth of the soul. The soul is comprised on only goodness, and it is that part of us that will survive us after our material bodies have died here on earth. It grows throughout our lifetime, and will actually be our true appearance when we awaken on the Mansion Worlds of God.

I only add this because sometimes people have a fuzzy understanding of just what the soul is - I know I did, before I read about it in The Urantia Book.

Personally, I would not like to think of my soul traveling away from me. I agree that our minds, including imagination, can play tricks on us - if we are so-minded. But they also can be influenced greatly by our spiritual choices. Maybe your spiritual frame of mind wants to think that your soul can travel to other realms, perhaps, but what does that really mean? There really are only two realms - the material and the spiritual. If you want to travel to spirit realms, you have to go no further than your own mind, where that fragment of God still resides, and get to know him. That is the best spiritual realm of all, and it is in the here-and-now, and will help your soul to grow, and you'll be conscious of everything.

If you are thinking more along the lines of remote-viewing or something, I would definitely not want to send my soul somewhere less than spiritual. This seems dangerous to me, only because it really could disassociate you from reality - reality being spiritual - and this would not be beneficial for your soul's growth. I don't know the limits of the human mind, and I find remote-viewing kind of interesting, but I doubt that it has anything to do with our soul. Again, this is a confusion of mind and soul, in my opinion.

Some additional soul quotes from The Utantia Book:
The material self has personality and identity, temporal identity; the prepersonal spirit Adjuster also has identity, eternal identity. This material personality and this spirit prepersonality are capable of so uniting their creative attributes as to bring into existence the surviving identity of the immortal soul.

Having thus provided for the growth of the immortal soul and having liberated man's inner self from the fetters of absolute dependence on antecedent causation, the Father stands aside. Now, man having thus been liberated from the fetters of causation response, at least as pertains to eternal destiny, and provision having been made for the growth of the immortal self, the soul, it remains for man himself to will the creation or to inhibit the creation of this surviving and eternal self which is his for the choosing. No other being, force, creator, or agency in all the wide universe of universes can interfere to any degree with the absolute sovereignty of the mortal free will, as it operates within the realms of choice, regarding the eternal destiny of the personality of the choosing mortal. As pertains to eternal survival, God has decreed the sovereignty of the material and mortal will, and that decree is absolute.
p71:2 (5:6.7)

The association of actuals and potentials equals growth, the experiential realization of values. But growth is not mere progress. Progress is always meaningful, but it is relatively valueless without growth. The supreme value of human life consists in growth of values, progress in meanings, and realization of the cosmic interrelatedness of both of these experiences. And such an experience is the equivalent of God-consciousness. Such a mortal, while not supernatural, is truly becoming superhuman; an immortal soul is evolving.
p1097:3 (100:3.6)

Labels: Eckankar, mind, soul, The Urantia Book, Thought Adjuster

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Monday, April 21, 2008

Interview With Rick Warren

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having "wealth" from the book sales. This is a facinating short interview with Rick Warren, "Purpose Driven Life " author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

Labels: God, Paul Bradshaw, purpose of life, Rick Warren, spirituality

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Friday, April 11, 2008

Student Visitors To The Finaliter's World

Q: In the Urantia book 47:1.1, it is stated that the student visitors are entertained in the finaliterâ€™s world. How do the students travel to this world? Are these students human too?

A: In answer to your question regarding student visitors, I offer the following:

Administrator Seraphim
p436:1 (39:4.15) The Transporters. These are the transport seraphim who function in the local systems. In Satania, your system, they carry passengers back and forth from Jerusem and otherwise serve as interplanetary transporters. Seldom does a day pass in which a transport seraphim of Satania does not deposit some student visitor or some other traveler of spirit or semispirit nature on the shores of Urantia. These very space traversers will sometime carry you to and from the various worlds of the system headquarters group, and when you have finished the Jerusem assignment, they will carry you forward to Edentia.

Student visitors may or may not be human like us, but they are more than likely ascenders in the Father's plan as we are. Here is a description of the landing field - the sea of glass - on our system capital world:

Jerusem Receiving Field
p521:6 (46:2.9) Transports arrive on the crystal field, the so-called sea of glass. Around this area are the receiving stations for the various orders of beings who traverse space by seraphic transport. Near the polar crystal receiving station for student visitors you may ascend the pearly observatory and view the immense relief map of the entire headquarters planet.

And on this subject of angelic transport, I thought you might like to read something about these transporters, and their connections with our ideas of the way angels look:

p438:5 (39:5.12) The erroneous idea that angels possess wings is not wholly due to olden notions that they must have wings to fly through the air. Human beings have sometimes been permitted to observe seraphim that were being prepared for transport service, and the traditions of these experiences have largely determined the Urantian concept of angels. In observing a transport seraphim being made ready to receive a passenger for interplanetary transit, there may be seen what are apparently double sets of wings extending from the head to the foot of the angel. In reality these wings are energy insulatorsâ€”friction shields.

When celestial beings are to be enseraphimed for transfer from one world to another, they are brought to the headquarters of the sphere and, after due registry, are inducted into the transit sleep. Meantime, the transport seraphim moves into a horizontal position immediately above the universe energy pole of the planet. While the energy shields are wide open, the sleeping personality is skillfully deposited, by the officiating seraphic assistants, directly on top of the transport angel. Then both the upper and lower pairs of shields are carefully closed and adjusted.

And now, under the influence of the transformers and the transmitters, a strange metamorphosis begins as the seraphim is made ready to swing into the energy currents of the universe circuits. To outward appearance the seraphim grows pointed at both extremities and becomes so enshrouded in a queer light of amber hue that very soon it is impossible to distinguish the enseraphimed personality. When all is in readiness for departure, the chief of transport makes the proper inspection of the carriage of life, carries out the routine tests to ascertain whether or not the angel is properly encircuited, and then announces that the traveler is properly enseraphimed, that the energies are adjusted, that the angel is insulated, and that everything is in readiness for the departing flash. The mechanical controllers, two of them, next take their positions. By this time the transport seraphim has become an almost transparent, vibrating, torpedo-shaped outline of glistening luminosity. Now the transport dispatcher of the realm summons the auxiliary batteries of the living energy transmitters, usually one thousand in number; as he announces the destination of the transport, he reaches out and touches the near point of the seraphic carriage, which shoots forward with lightninglike speed, leaving a trail of celestial luminosity as far as the planetary atmospheric investment extends. In less than ten minutes the marvelous spectacle will be lost even to reinforced seraphic vision.

Thanks for writing, please write again anytime

Labels: angels, Jerusem, Sea of Glass, seraphim, student visitors, The Urantia Book, transport, wings

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Matthew 27:52-53

Q: In Matthew 27: 52-53, it is written that many bodies of the saints were raised from the dead after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Where are these bodies now and what really happened?

A: Thanks for this question.
Here are some quotes discussing sleeping survivors, and what it means to be a sleeping survivor:

p341:1 (30:4.4) Sleeping Survivors. All mortals of survival status, in the custody of personal guardians of destiny, pass through the portals of natural death and, on the third period, personalize on the mansion worlds. Those accredited beings who have, for any reason, been unable to attain that level of intelligence mastery and endowment of spirituality which would entitle them to personal guardians, cannot thus immediately and directly go to the mansion worlds. Such surviving souls must rest in unconscious sleep until the judgment day of a new epoch, a new dispensation, the coming of a Son of God to call the rolls of the age and adjudicate the realm, and this is the general practice throughout all Nebadon. It was said of Christ Michael that, when he ascended on high at the conclusion of his work on earth, "He led a great multitude of captives." And these captives were the sleeping survivors from the days of Adam to the day of the Master's resurrection on Urantia.

There have only been a few of these dispensational resurrections of the sleeping survivors, and the one following Jesus' resurrection from the dead was the last one. There will not be another one until another celestial bestowal is made on this planet, which could be hundreds, or thousands of years from now. Here is a quote describing this amazing event:

The Dispensational Resurrection
p2024:3 (189:3.1) A little after half past four o'clock this Sunday morning, Gabriel summoned the archangels to his side and made ready to inaugurate the general resurrection of the termination of the Adamic dispensation on Urantia. When the vast host of the seraphim and the cherubim concerned in this great event had been marshaled in proper formation, the morontia Michael appeared before Gabriel, saying: "As my Father has life in himself, so has he given it to the Son to have life in himself. Although I have not yet fully resumed the exercise of universe jurisdiction, this self-imposed limitation does not in any manner restrict the bestowal of life upon my sleeping sons; let the roll call of the planetary resurrection begin."

The circuit of the archangels then operated for the first time from Urantia. Gabriel and the archangel hosts moved to the place of the spiritual polarity of the planet; and when Gabriel gave the signal, there flashed to the first of the system mansion worlds the voice of Gabriel, saying: "By the mandate of Michael, let the dead of a Urantia dispensation rise!" Then all the survivors of the human races of Urantia who had fallen asleep since the days of Adam, and who had not already gone on to judgment, appeared in the resurrection halls of mansonia in readiness for morontia investiture. And in an instant of time the seraphim and their associates made ready to depart for the mansion worlds. Ordinarily these seraphic guardians, onetime assigned to the group custody of these surviving mortals, would have been present at the moment of their awaking in the resurrection halls of mansonia, but they were on this world itself at this time because of the necessity of Gabriel's presence here in connection with the morontia resurrection of Jesus.

Notwithstanding that countless individuals having personal seraphic guardians and those achieving the requisite attainment of spiritual personality progress had gone on to mansonia during the ages subsequent to the times of Adam and Eve, and though there had been many special and millennial resurrections of Urantia sons, this was the third of the planetary roll calls, or complete dispensational resurrections. The first occurred at the time of the arrival of the Planetary Prince, the second during the time of Adam, and this, the third, signalized the morontia resurrection, the mortal transit, of Jesus of Nazareth.

All of these survivors who were resurrected at this, or any other dispensational resurrection, resume their ascension careers as if no time had passed at all. They are treated the same as a survivor who awakens after three days.

Labels: dispensational resurrection, Gospel of Matthew, Jesus, sleeping survivors, The Urantia Book

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Monday, April 07, 2008

Music and Life - Alan Watts

Music And Life

a short animated video illustrating a great spiritual truth - the journey IS the destination

URL: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4

Labels: achievement, Alan Watts, life, music, video

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Healthy way to reach God

6 Apr 2008,
Deah Curry

...long ago our ancestors knew a fundamental truth that we are only recently rediscovering: good mental health is inextricably intertwined with deep spiritual development. Transpersonal psychologists in the past several decades have produced good science that shows that people who have strong spiritual beliefs and practices are generally more resilient in the face of life crises, and tend to have an easier time recovering from some physical illnesses.

This should not be surprising. After all, the psyche â€” a Greek word for soul â€” which has come to be used for the mind or one's consciousness in modern times, is inescapably spiritual in its core nature. And so are we. This does not mean that we must return to church or temple, or become ultra religious to fulfil the promise of deep spirituality as a safeguard for mental and physical health. Let's not confuse religious belief and observance with spiritual development, which is about cultivating awareness, empathy and wisdom, being of service, and having tolerance and integrity â€” all virtues that can and should apply no matter what religious framework one believes in. Healing emotions often involves developing one's spirituality.

These healing and development efforts in education and therapy are about raising consciousness in order to support transformation in the learner or client. Transformation is more than just change. It occurs at such a deep level that we are truly different beings when we undergo transformation. Transformative change is essential for all of us in order to become better people, able to make a beneficial difference in the world and in our own lives. No matter where you are in your personal spiritual journey, or mental health status, it is useful to ponder these five transformative questions.

In the way you are living your life, how are you being the medicine? In teaching naturopathic medical students, the relevance of that question is obvious. But if we think about medicine as energetic spiritual power, as the First Peoples of America did and do, I think this question applies to all of us on the path of transformational consciousness. Being the medicine is about how you are living your life in such a way as to be respectfully and appropriately using the spiritual power that is innate within you. What can you further develop in order to be the medicine more fully?

What do you trust? Notice I didn't ask who. This question is asking: in what do you place your belief that all is and will be as it should be? It's always interesting to try to take this question down as deep as one can with as much honesty as one can stand. In your everyday life, are you acting in congruence with what you say you trust? If not, what needs to be surrendered, reframed, or healed in order to be in alignment with what you say you trust? What cause will you give your life?

The answer to this question is often very telling as to how congruent we are with our espoused and lived values. What we prioritise in thoughts, words, and deeds on a daily basis is what we are giving our life energy to. Many of us say we value our families, but then we work 16 hours a day, rarely eat a meal together, and put business success above interpersonal family relationships. Doing this is giving life energy to work, to stress, to something other than the family that is supposedly valued. What we're actually doing is not congruent with what we're saying we give our life to. Philosophers might say that happiness comes from not waiting until circumstances force you to choose between the cause for which you would give your life, and the life you live everyday. Are you really living a life of purpose and meaning now, and if not, what needs to change?

What you put your attention on grows. Are you growing what you want to be growing? If not, how does your attention need to shift? It really means something spiritually profound and psychologically healthy to be able to say you walk your talk. Can you say that with full integrity? If not, look at how you need to re-prioritise your choices.

At the end of your life, what will you have dared so that you can pass on with no regrets?

Daring to take risks is one of the most essential transformative energies that I know of for both spiritual development and mental health. In fact many mental health and relationship problems start from a fear of risking being fully seen as our authentic selves, fear of asserting our whole truth, fear of risking rejection and abandonment by those we love, fear of risking pride or security, and other large and small risks. Daring is a catalyst for becoming everything we are meant to be.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Healthy_way_to_reach_God/articleshow/2929454.cms

Labels: Deah Curry, medicine, mental health, religion, spirituality, transformation, trust