© 2002 Chris Ragetly
© 2002 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
The Urantia Book strongly advises us to work in teams, and warns us that in the future we will have little opportunity to work alone. “One of the most important lessons to be learned during your mortal career is that of teamwork. Those who have mastered this art of working with other beings populate the spheres of perfection. There is little work in the universe for isolated servers. The higher you rise, the more isolated you become when you are temporarily deprived of the society of your companions.” (UB 28:5.14)
When a group for reading and studying The Urantia Book, such as the one in Avignon, to which I belong, meets with more or less the same members for 15 to 25 years for the majority of them, a sort of unconscious habit of work is formed, not only with regard to the other members as individuals, but also with regard to the group as a corporate entity, to give it a name of unit.
This attitude, this unconscious expression is manifested at each of our meetings by the moods of each person, the subject discussed, etc. The arrival of new elements within the group always poses some problems, resulting in new ideas which “disrupt” the usual routine in which the older members tend to “loll around”: these new personalities are a valuable aid in familiarizing us with the approach to situations, crises, new social habits, with which we will have to live and work in harmony.
First think of all these relatively different personalities coming from the 620 or so evolutionary worlds of Satania, who will also have their say on how to react, work and think on a given subject, and with whom we will have to accommodate and adapt.
There will also be all these personalities who will be there to guide us, to teach us the different ways of thinking, of accommodating a new life, of reacting on intellectual, material or spiritual levels, of harmonizing these different levels with each other, etc., etc. The more different people we meet in our immediate surroundings, the more comfortable we will feel in our new life.
And what of the totally strange personalities we shall encounter on Edentia, Salvington, Uversa, Havona, and the Central Isle? But by then our progress in adaptation will have accomplished wonders if we consider them from our earthly point of view.
For example, in our superuniverse, the Unions of Souls, those seconaphim who facilitate the teamwork of all Orvonton are those angels who help the Perfectors of Wisdom to better smooth out the frictions which can arise between ascending personalities from diverse backgrounds. (311.5 and UB 28:5.14)
Teamwork is therefore a preparation that is done in stages: first a few people get together and get used to working together, when they are well accustomed to this common working life, they are ready to receive other members to broaden their knowledge and their capacities to work with even more people, and this cycle continues, each time broadening the capacity of each person to work within an increasingly complex group. This kind of activity is, I think, the key to all progression, whether on the material, intellectual and spiritual levels. The harmonization of these activities on the three aforementioned levels is facilitated by the rapprochement of the points of view of each person within the group, but this social cooperation depends to a large extent on the quality of its leaders (See UB 81:6.37), which is why a group is only sustainable if there is a quality leader to guide it.
Then, when such groups (whether on Urantia, Satania Salvington, etc.) come together to form group ensembles, the integrating abilities of all the members must be an impressive accomplishment, especially as they proceed on the higher and higher levels of universal ascension. On the mansion worlds, the Mental Organizers, the seraphim devoted to the effective grouping of morontia beings and the organization of their teamwork, will be our first mentors for this kind of work. (See UB 48:6.24)
We can therefore devote ourselves to working in a group, a work or reading group, in complete peace of mind. We will need it more and more.
Chris M Ragetly