© 2024 Claude Flibotte
© 2024 Urantia Association of Quebec
Claude Flibotte
Sainte-Julie
Following my reading about the seven psychic circles described in The Urantia Book, I often wondered how I could identify which circle I was in at the time of these questions. Is it even possible to know? What can I base myself on to get an idea in my investigation? Knowing that mastering these circles is not the equivalent of merging with my Adjuster (UB 110:6.1), if I could recognize the stages, perhaps I could facilitate the moment of fusion! My first instinct is to refer to the book!
The psychic circles are not exclusively intellectual, neither are they wholly morontial; they have to do with personality status, mind attainment, soul growth, and Adjuster attunement. The successful traversal of these levels demands the harmonious functioning of the entire personality, not merely of some one phase thereof. The growth of the parts does not equal the true maturation of the whole; the parts really grow in proportion to the expansion of the entire self—the whole self—material, intellectual, and spiritual. (UB 110:6.3)
From this quote, it is clear that I must harmoniously develop the three aspects of my individuality, my material nature by providing my body with everything vital for its well-being; my intellectual capacity by nourishing my mind with balanced thoughts from all points of view in order to recognize the right meanings of the facts of this world and to anticipate those of the higher worlds; my spiritual reality by identifying and putting into practice in my human life the virtues of the reality of spirit emerging from the synthesis of the facts and meanings which are deduced.
…It is to the mind of perfect poise, housed in a body of clean habits, stabilized neural energies, and balanced chemical function—when the physical, mental, and spiritual powers are in triune harmony of development—that a maximum of light and truth can be imparted with a minimum of temporal danger or risk to the real welfare of such a being. By such a balanced growth does man ascend the circles of planetary progression one by one, from the seventh to the first. (UB 110:6.4)
Thus, every intellectual decision, every moral choice, influences my spiritual development, which makes my Adjuster more able to function in my mind. Circle by circle, this attitude enables me to emerge in this way from the lower stages of association and mental agreement with my Adjuster. Finally, it is the repetition of making the right choices, or at least of correcting the situation when a wrong decision is made, which enables me to create a habit of expressing my personality and of crossing, one by one, the psychic circles.
According to the author of booklet 110, it is difficult to precisely define the seven levels of human progression, because these levels are personal. However, three manifestations emerge to identify them: first, a good agreement with one’s Adjuster by becoming more and more divine like him; second, promoting the evolution of my soul which reveals the extent and depth of the crossing of the circles; and finally, the degree of reality of my personality which becomes more and more an actuality in the universe as I approach the total crossing of these circles (UB 110:6.7-10)!
Although it is difficult to identify the crossing of the seven circles, the Solitary Messenger of Orvonton gives us some clues:
The seventh circle. This level is entered when human beings develop the powers of personal choice, individual decision, moral responsibility, and the capacity for the attainment of spiritual individuality. This signifies the united function of the seven adjutant mind-spirits under the direction of the spirit of wisdom, the encircuitment of the mortal creature in the influence of the Holy Spirit, and, on Urantia, the first functioning of the Spirit of Truth, together with the reception of a Thought Adjuster in the mortal mind. Entrance upon the seventh circle constitutes a mortal creature a truly potential citizen of the local universe. (UB 110:6.13)
Clearly, this description corresponds to the moment of my first moral decision, which set off the cascade of events described in this quote. On average on Urantia, this occurred a little before the age of six at the time of the revelation of this information (UB 108:2.1).
The third circle. The Adjuster’s work is much more effective after the human ascender attains the third circle and receives a personal seraphic guardian of destiny. While there is no apparent concert of effort between the Adjuster and the seraphic guardian, nonetheless there is to be observed an unmistakable improvement in all phases of cosmic achievement and spiritual development subsequent to the assignment of the personal seraphic attendant. When the third circle is attained, the Adjuster endeavors to morontiaize the mind of man during the remainder of the mortal life span, to make the remaining circles, and achieve the final stage of the divine-human association before natural death dissolves the unique partnership. (UB 110:6.14)
It is interesting to point out that all persons who have reached the third circle are considered an exceptional human-divine association! I wonder if many people on Urantia reach this third circle. Should exceptional be taken in the sense of an exception because there are few of them or in the sense of a particularly fantastic relationship!
The first circle. The Adjuster cannot, ordinarily, speak directly and immediately with you until you attain the first and final circle of progressive mortal achievement. This level represents the highest possible realization of mind-Adjuster relationship in the human experience prior to the liberation of the evolving morontia soul from the habiliments of the material body. Concerning mind, emotions, and cosmic insight, this achievement of the first psychic circle is the nearest possible approach of material mind and spirit Adjuster in human experience. (UB 110:6.15)
From this description, it is likely that a particularly divinized individual in near perfect synchronicity with his Adjuster could have a conscious relationship with him. However, I suspect that this phenomenon is rare here below, and that it is rather experienced through an intuition, a clairvoyance, of the right decision to make for each of the situations.
In quote UB 110:6.16, the author tells us that the circles of psychic progressions should perhaps be better named cosmic levels because it is through the mastery of each of these circles that we grasp the meanings and realize the values of a progressive approach to morontia consciousness of the existence of an initial relationship between the evolutionary soul and the emerging Supreme Being. Thus, although an individual is not fully conscious of the reality of God, if he manifests in his human life a coordination with his Adjuster and unknowingly contributes to doing the will of the Father by being of loving, brotherly, and even fatherly service to his community, then unconsciously he is progressing from one circle to another, and he is actually contributing to the actualization of the Supreme Being.
¶ Jesus and the crossing of psychic circles
Since the life of Jesus of Nazareth is a perfect model for me, I asked myself the question of whether I could recognize in the description of his life, in the fourth part of the Urantia Book, the crossing of these seven circles. The idea came to me to ask AskJesus, the artificial intelligence centered on the life of Jesus, if it could give me an answer. Unfortunately, although its answer was somewhat plausible, it did not seem to me to correspond accurately to the definition of the author of Paper 110. Then, I referred to an article by Linda Buselli published in volume 1, number 2 of the Fellowship Herald of spring 1999 entitled “The seven psychic circles” where she had attempted to identify the moments when Jesus had crossed the seven circles. You can find her article translated into French with the following link: https://urantiapedia.org%%0%%
Leaving aside other comparisons with chakras, sacraments and Sefirot, it is interesting to note his findings. Like all of us, Jesus reached the seventh psychic circle at the time of his first moral decision a little before the age of five (UB 123:2.1). Extremely curious about all the facts of material life, Jesus constantly had questions to ask in order to understand the world. According to Linda’s research, Jesus crossed the sixth psychic circle at the age of seven when he formed relationships with his classmates and people from all over the world in Nazareth. This is how Jesus came to know the human race, to love it with great devotion. He also had a very personal relationship in his prayers with what he called his Heavenly Father. At the age of ten, Jesus began to become aware of the nature of his mission, which he shared with his parents (UB 124:2.1). The same personality, that of Michael of Nebadon, had to balance two natures, one divine and one human (UB 124:4.4). Still according to Linda, Jesus reached the fifth psychic circle by resolving the conflicts between his personal convictions and the desire to obey his parents and his family obligations in a masterful concept of collective solidarity based on loyalty, fairness, tolerance and love (UB 124:4.9). We see that Jesus began his human life with a consciousness limited to his immediate environment, his family, then his city, people from all over the planet, the entire planet then the starry sky to eventually recover his cosmic consciousness of the universe of universes as Michael of Nebadon.
Linda points out at this point in Jesus’ life, and I agree with her, that the dividing line between each of the circles is not clearly defined, but rather vague and fuzzy. So, just like the basic needs of the human being described by Maslow’s pyramid where we move up and down according to circumstances, we have to constantly make decisions that concern any of these circles at different times in life. The same goes for the adjutant minds, although we have reached the functioning of the seventh adjutant, this does not prevent the others from being operative throughout our human life.
Possibly, Jesus entered the fourth or even the third psychic circle at about the age of thirteen, for at that time, through his assiduous communion with his Adjuster, he acquired the human certainty that he was destined to fulfill a mission on earth to enlighten humanity and reveal God to them.
On the day before the Passover Sabbath, flood tides of spiritual illumination swept through the mortal mind of Jesus and filled his human heart to overflowing with affectionate pity for the spiritually blind and morally ignorant multitudes assembled for the celebration of the ancient Passover commemoration. This was one of the most extraordinary days that the Son of God spent in the flesh; and during the night, for the first time in his earth career, there appeared to him an assigned messenger from Salvington, commissioned by Immanuel, who said: “The hour has come. It is time that you began to be about your Father’s business.” (UB 124:6.15)
From the description in the following quotation, it is virtually certain that Jesus had reached the third psychic circle, for his main focus was now on doing the will of his Heavenly Father where the lure of the material things of this world had little bearing on his thinking.
From the seventh to the third circle there occurs increased and unified action of the seven adjutant mind-spirits in the task of weaning the mortal mind from its dependence on the realities of the material life mechanisms preparatory to increased introduction to morontia levels of experience. From the third circle onward the adjutant influence progressively diminishes. (UB 110:6.20)
It was perhaps in his fourteenth or fifteenth year that Jesus entered the second psychic circle. Already he had acquired a certain degree of communication with his Adjuster as mentioned in the following quotation.
OF ALL Jesus’ earth-life experiences, the fourteenth and fifteenth years were the most crucial. These two years, after he began to be self-conscious of divinity and destiny, and before he achieved a large measure of communication with his indwelling Adjuster, were the most trying of his eventful life on Urantia. It is this period of two years which should be called the great test, the real temptation. (UB 126:0.1)
After the death of his father Joseph, and from the end of his fourteenth year until his twentieth year, Jesus devoted himself to two things, taking care of his family and preparing to accomplish on earth the will of his heavenly Father (UB 126:2.5). The Midwayers offers us an account of his sixteenth year in these terms:
This physically strong and robust youth also acquired the full growth of his human intellect, not the full experience of human thinking but the fullness of capacity for such intellectual development. He possessed a healthy and well-proportioned body, a keen and analytical mind, a kind and sympathetic disposition, a somewhat fluctuating but aggressive temperament, all of which were becoming organized into a strong, striking, and attractive personality. (UB 127:1.3)
It was possibly around the age of seventeen that Jesus reached the first psychic circle.
This year Jesus made great progress in the organization of his mind. Gradually he had brought his divine and human natures together, and he accomplished all this organization of intellect by the force of his own decisions and with only the aid of his indwelling Monitor, just such a Monitor as all normal mortals on all postbestowal-Son worlds have within their minds. (UB 127:2.12)
Reading the life of Jesus, it seems to me that mastering the first psychic circle is a more arduous and lengthy task compared to mastering the previous circles. After devoting himself enormously to his family, during his twentieth year, Jesus continued the unification of his two natures.
This year he began anew the task of further weaving his mortal and divine natures into a simple and effective human individuality. And he continued to grow in moral status and spiritual understanding. (UB 127:6.9)
At his twenty-second year, Jesus passed the torch of family responsibility to his brother James (UB 128:2.4). At twenty-six, it is recorded that Jesus thought much about his relationship with his Father in heaven, but spoke little (UB 128:7.2) about it. It was in his twenty-seventh year that Jesus had conscious contact with his Adjuster.
This year Jesus made great advances in the ascendant mastery of his human mind and attained new and high levels of conscious contact with his indwelling Thought Adjuster. (UB 129:1.14)
It was during his voyage around the Mediterranean at the age of twenty-nine that Jesus made great strides in his human task of dominating the material, mortal mind, and his indwelling Adjuster made great progress in the spiritual ascension and conquest of that same human intellect (UB 129:3.9). During his thirtieth year Jesus made great progress in attaining a perfect functional equilibrium of his human mind with his Adjuster.
This was one of the more unusual years in the inner experience of the Son of Man; great progress was made in effecting working harmony between his human mind and the indwelling Adjuster. (UB 134:1.7)
Then came the time when his Adjuster made his human subject feel that the perfect synchronism between the human and the divine was coming to an end. So Jesus withdrew alone with his indwelling Adjuster to Mount Hermon.
Jesus spent the last three weeks of August and the first three weeks of September on Mount Hermon. During these weeks he finished the mortal task of achieving the circles of mind-understanding and personality-control. Throughout this period of communion with his heavenly Father the indwelling Adjuster also completed the assigned services. The mortal goal of this earth creature was there attained. Only the final phase of mind and Adjuster attunement remained to be consummated. (UB 134:8.4)
The final act took place at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist on Monday, January 14, 26 AD. He was 31 years, 4 months, 24 days old. At that time, Jesus had completed the conquest of his human mind and the identification of self with the spirit. A perfect synchronism and full communication had been established between the human mind of Jesus and his indwelling spirit Adjuster (UB 136:2.2). The rest, we all know, the fusion did not take place, but an even more spectacular phenomenon occurred.
Ordinarily, when a mortal of the realm attains such high levels of personality perfection, there occur those preliminary phenomena of spiritual elevation which terminate in eventual fusion of the matured soul of the mortal with its associated divine Adjuster. And such a change was apparently due to take place in the personality experience of Jesus of Nazareth on that very day when he went down into the Jordan with his two brothers to be baptized by John. This ceremony was the final act of his purely human life on Urantia, and many superhuman observers expected to witness the fusion of the Adjuster with its indwelt mind, but they were all destined to suffer disappointment. Something new and even greater occurred. As John laid his hands upon Jesus to baptize him, the indwelling Adjuster took final leave of the perfected human soul of Joshua ben Joseph. And in a few moments this divine entity returned from Divinington as a Personalized Adjuster and chief of his kind throughout the entire local universe of Nebadon. Thus did Jesus observe his own former divine spirit descending on its return to him in personalized form. And he heard this same spirit of Paradise origin now speak, saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And John, with Jesus’ two brothers, also heard these words. John’s disciples, standing by the water’s edge, did not hear these words, neither did they see the apparition of the Personalized Adjuster. Only the eyes of Jesus beheld the Personalized Adjuster. UB 136:2.3
However, for us who are not creative sons, this fusion between our human identity and our divine identity in a single personality will be an eternal fact. This is what I wish for us!