© 2022 Claude Flibotte
© 2022 Urantia Association of Quebec
Claude Flibotte
Sainte-Julie
Have you ever wondered when your life began? Why am I here on this planet? Why am I living this life and where is it leading me? What is the purpose? All these questions and many more are completely legitimate for anyone wishing to know the truth about their life, the meaning they should give it and the goal they should achieve.
These existential questions find a partial answer through science and philosophy, but to transcend the material facts on which these questions are based, we must rely on the superhuman revelations contained in The Urantia Book. All the answers are there for those who take the trouble to delve deeper into the revelations made there and to connect together the information provided by various contributors who know what they are talking about.
In this way, it becomes possible to answer many questions such as when did life begin? What is the difference between me and animals? When did I become a person? What is my destiny? And many other questions of this kind!
¶ Life in our universe
For any serious person who is desirous of finding the truth about life, he will inevitably come upon this fifth epochal revelation, The Urantia Book. He will then discover the vast panorama of the universe of physical universes and the Creator’s perfect plan for spreading life wherever conditions become favorable for its implantation. For this study, we will concentrate on our own universe of time and space, the one called Nebadon. It is the creation of the Creator Son, Michael of Nebadon, and his consort the Creative Daughter (UB 32:0.1 and UB 32:1.5). Michael creates the plans for his universe (UB 32:0.3), and in concert with the Creative Daughter, they elaborate life (UB 32:2.6). In fact, we use the term “creating” to refer to the acts of the Creator Son, but in reality it is more an act of transformation. Through his creative powers inherited from his nature as Creator Son, Michael has the ability to draw from the potentials contained in the Deity Absolute and the Unqualified Absolute the materials necessary to actualize the patterns of his creation.
The Infinite Spirit, mother of our Divine Minister, transmitted to her daughter, among other powers, that of life and action of the mind. This Creative Spirit occupies and delimits all the space designated as that of the universe of Nebadon. To make an analogy, the presence of the Divine Minister in the universe of Nebadon could be compared to the atmosphere which surrounds our planet, thus delimiting the living space of the organisms which live there. Life in our universe is therefore possible by the plans of the Creator Son and the divine presence of the Creative Daughter.
¶ Inauguration of life on our planet
The revelators tell us that life was developed and implanted on our sphere 550 million years ago by the Life Carriers (UB 58:4.2). The work of the Life Carriers consists of developing the physical models in accordance with the life formulas planned for this world (UB 36:3.2). In other words, they are responsible for producing the vital plasma which will eventually become the bodily mechanism for all forms of life to appear through evolution up to man himself. However, life does not come from them, it is the contribution of the Creative Spirit which transmits into these material formulas the spark of life, “the breath of life” which animates these forms (UB 36:3.4).
Think about it for a moment, the phenomenon of life is unique as God is unique, but it expresses itself in diversity! Life emanates from the Paradise Deity and spreads throughout our universe by the presence and action of our Divine Mother to all. In her are contained life, mind, consciousness and spirit. The potential capacity of this divine gift can transform a man into a perfected spirit if he desires it! So, to the question since when has life existed on our planet? We now have our answer!
¶ When did my life appear?
To this question, I would answer since my conception. Indeed, my parents provided for each of them a copy of their genes constituting half of the biological program determining the characteristics of my vital organism, my material body. In this ovum now fertilized by a spermatozoon, resides the gift of my life transmitted by the process of human procreation. This spark of life contains within itself the potentiality of the existence of a future mental circuit, the possibility of consciousness and the beginnings of the presence of mind. So, to the question of knowing when my life began, it is precisely at that moment.
¶ Animal or human?
Every living being with a brain uses a mind circuit to think. In Nebadon, all such living beings bathe in the mental ocean of the presence of the Divine Minister like fish bathing in the sea. The brain serves as the medium for this temporary mind circuit. Imagine the presence of mind as a light omnipotent mist throughout our universe, with each living being with a brain holding a denser concentration of this mind mist for its material life span. Or imagine the mind circuit as the electrical current that runs to your home and powers your computer. The revelators inform us that animals use the first five adjutant mind-spirits, and that humans use all seven (UB 36:6.3) of these minds. Reading the quote UB 62:6.3 in The Urantia Book describes the mental evolution of animals to the human stage quite well. The action of these adjunct spirits could, in a very unrepresentative way, be compared to the computer programs added to your computer to animate various new functions.
Finally, it is the entry into function of the adjutant spirit-mind of worship that forever distinguishes the animal from what will eventually become a human (UB 62:6.5). We must not be fooled by the word “worship” in the descriptive name of this spirit. At the beginning, man does not worship God, but rather everything that is incomprehensible to him. He will worship trees, mountains, animals, the sun, certain influential men, in short the list is long. It is the entry into function of the seventh adjutant spirit, the spirit of wisdom, which will make the human mind fully effective (UB 34:5.3; UB 62:6.5 and UB 101:6.4).
With the first five adjutant mind-spirits, the animal benefits from consciousness, that is to say that it is in interaction with its environment, it has a material identity (UB 130:2.8). Man using the ministry of the seven adjutant mind-spirits becomes conscious of being conscious, he has self-consciousness. In addition to having an identity, he has elevated his status from animal to that of man, thus expressing the latent personality of his mental circuit. He has become creative and endowed with the power of free will (UB 16:8.6). Thus, to the question when did I become a human being? We now have an answer!
¶ Irruption into the supermind
The acquisition of personality thus allows this new man to access the spiritual circuit of the Divine Minister, the circuit of the Holy Spirit (UB 36:5.15). This spirit will thus work tirelessly to make this human mind more and more spiritual, eventually preparing it to receive the second divine gift from the Universal Father, the Thought Adjuster. At this stage, this material mind, although still subject to the influence of the adjutants, has surpassed the mental level of the adjutants to approach the state of functioning described as supermind.
As described above, the mental circuit of our Divine Minister contains within itself the potentiality of life, consciousness, human mind, personality and spirit (UB 5:6.3). Although the gift of personality is the exclusive gift of the Father, it seems that its bestowal, as with the other gifts, passes through the Divine Minister. After all, are not the Father, the Son and the Spirit one and the same God, the Infinite ONE, the I AM.
¶ Since when do I have a soul?
We have seen so far that the animal mind has evolved into the human mind through the ministry of the seven adjutant mind-spirits, that the ministry of the Holy Spirit has prepared the mind for the eventual reception of an Adjuster, but when does this Adjuster manifest? The revelators tell us that the first moral decision made by a human on Urantia immediately brings about the arrival of the Adjuster (UB 108:2.1,4). Furthermore, they assure us that the relationship which develops between the human mind and its Adjuster “gives birth” to the human soul (UB 11:2.9-10). I pass over this in order to shorten my explanation of the ministry of the Spirit of Truth of our Creator Son and other spiritual influences.
Come to think of it, does the day I was born mark the beginning of my life or simply its continuation? Before being born into this world, I existed for nine months in my mother’s womb! Could I make the same observation for my soul? It seems so!
As we have seen previously, identity, self-awareness, personality, and the gift of free will are potentially included in the gift of the mind circuit of our mother, the Divine Minister of our local universe. Can we also conclude that this human mind contains within it an embryo of a soul ready to be born and develop at the moment of this man’s first moral decision? If this hypothesis proves correct, we would have there an explanation for the fact that the cherubim can recover the potential identity of children who died in infancy long before the bestowal of a Thought Adjuster!
The infant-receiving schools of Satania are situated on the finaliter world, the first of the Jerusem transition-culture spheres. These infant-receiving schools are enterprises devoted to the nurture and training of the children of time, including those who have died on the evolutionary worlds of space before the acquirement of individual status on the universe records. In the event of the survival of either or both of such a child’s parents, the guardian of destiny deputizes her associated cherubim as the custodian of the child’s potential identity, charging the cherubim with the responsibility of delivering this undeveloped soul into the hands of the Mansion World Teachers in the probationary nurseries of the morontia worlds. (UB 47:2.1)
Starting from the idea that identity is potential and innate in the material mind of the infant; it will become a fact as the maturation of its brain continues during the first months and even years of its life. Everything that will constitute this future human being is in the state of potentiality, but a potentiality is not yet an actuality, something real. This is, according to my understanding, why the revelators tell us that children who die at a very young age are “dependent” on the spiritual evolution and survival of their parents. In other words, a potentiality not expressed in a reality does not constitute an existence viable in the immediate future that can reach a value of spirit and persist in time and eternity. The survival of one of the parents guarantees in a certain way that this child would have received a moral and spiritual education sufficient to survive. That said, we see from the quote UB 47:2.1 that the love of the Father and the mercy of the Son are so great, that they found a way to recover what initially seemed irrecoverable!
Finally, to answer the last question regarding the purpose of human life, the text of the Urantia Book preaches that man must know the Universal Father, become like Him, and seek to do His will. This is the purpose of human existence! I hope that my cogitations will have served your reflection somewhat!