© 2010 Elisabeth Liswen Delval
© 2010 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
Dear Urantians, after our meeting in Chalès, I wanted to draw your attention to a nice book “My life in Paradise” which relates the testimonies of Mgr Robert Hugh Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury who died in 1914, who dictated in spirit to Anthony Borgia, medium, the first days and the first impressions of his arrival in the other life.
There are very strong similarities with morontia life, which was the main theme of the AFLUB annual meeting this year in Chalès.
For those who have questions that are a little more down to earth, if I may say so, here are some extracts from this book which will provide us with many details on daily morontia life, it will enchant you and make you dream as its style is poetic and beautiful, just like the world that awaits us…
We will begin the story when he arrives up there.
“As soon as I was able to look around me and appreciate my new state, I was joined by one of my former colleagues, a priest who had died a few years before” UB 47:3.6
You have time to satisfy your desire to consult the register of inscriptions and to visit your loved ones and other earthly friends who have preceded you in this world.
How do we move around?
“Edwin explained to me: the spiritual world is a world of thoughts; to think is to act, and thought is instantaneous. We only have to think of going to a certain place to find ourselves there at the speed of lightning. This was the ordinary mode of locomotion…”
“Before us the countryside seemed to stretch out to infinity”
Food
“Fruits are always ripe, we are content to take many things as they are, without asking how they are produced and we know that they are inexhaustible because they come from an inexhaustible source” The fruits were fresh to the touch… Their taste was exquisite. Fruits help to invigorate the spirit age 535-$2 Although you have morontia bodies you continue to eat, drink… You absorb foods from the morontia order, a realm of living energy unknown on the material worlds. The morontia body makes full use of food and water…
“This water was alive. It radiated goodness and upon contact, it extended its divine influence to each individual.”
There are flowers
"I reached out my hands to a splendid flower, and to my great surprise the flower on its stem reached out toward me… instantly a current of life flowed through my arms, while a delicate fragrance wafted from the flower. Musical sounds produced sweet harmonies that exactly matched their magnificent colors.
The ground
“The soil does not have the mineral constituents of terrestrial soil, because here everything derives directly from the Great Source. The color of the soil is complementary to that of the flowers and trees.”
The sea
“A short walk brought us to the shore, and the glorious ocean stretched out before us.
The view was simply magnificent. I would never have expected to contemplate such a sea. Its color was the perfect reflection of the blue of the sky, but moreover, its thousands of ripples reflected all the colors of the rainbow … We grabbed a few handfuls of sand, and let it flow between our fingers. To our great astonishment, it was not gritty, but rather like a soft powder … If we looked at everything carefully, whether it was the ground on which we walked, the substance with which our houses were built or the thousand and other details that form the spiritual world, we would be in a state of continual surprise. Thus would be revealed to us some interesting details, but only a few details - about the Universe of the Great Creator - the greatest spirit in the Universe.
The houses
“Magnificent buildings present the image of eternal permanence. The materials with which they are built are imperishable. The surfaces are as clean and fresh as on their first day. Nothing defiles them. The materials with which they are built are those of the spiritual world, so their beauty is divine.
UB 48:1.3 The Master Physical Controllers and Morontia Power Supervisors can alter the rotation of the primary units of matter, and at the same time transform these energy associations so as to create this new substance.
“A rest house: It served those who had arrived in the spirit world after a long illness, or who had died a violent death… Immediately above the building, a great dome of blue light enveloped it in its radiance. It was a revitalizing fluid, a great healing radiation sent to those who were not yet spiritually awakened.”
“The houses of knowledge: of science, and of the arts; of painting and of music.”
The other worlds
"The spiritual world is divided into spheres or worlds. Students of psychic science have numbered these spheres, from the first, the lowest, to the seventh, the highest. The spheres of the spiritual world are arranged around the earth in such a way as to form a series of concentric layers. These globes, which continue almost to infinity, follow the rotation of the terrestrial world around its axis… The arrangement in concentric globes is well indicated when we are told that a visitor from a higher sphere will come down to see us, for he is above us, both spiritually and spatially… Each spiritual world has a governor, although this term is not quite correct. It would be more correct to say that he presides over our world.
If we begin our spiritual evolution at one of the lower levels, we find that each world is connected with the world immediately above it… but the higher worlds are invisible to the inhabitants of the lower worlds."
A visitor from the upper worlds
"The sanctuary, of spacious dimensions, was filled with elect from the higher worlds, with the exception of a space in the middle, which was to be reserved for our visitor. Then first appeared a luminous, almost sparkling form… its periphery became more brilliant and golden, then its center also became more brilliant and the form of our visitor slowly became clearer there. It became denser and it took on the appearance of a young man, spiritually young. But we knew that he carried with him to an unimaginable degree Wisdom, Knowledge and Purity! He shone with a transcendental beauty. His hair was of gold and encircled with a brilliant diadem. He was dressed in a robe of extreme fineness, of immaculate whiteness, bordered with a broad band of gold, and a sky-blue cape was attached to his chest with a pink pearl.
He raised his arms majestically to us and blessed us all. We stood in silence. Our thoughts went to Him who had sent us such a being. We gave Him thanks and offered our prayers. I had one thing to ask of Him, and I did it mentally. It is not possible for me to convey to you even a fraction of the spiritual exaltation with which the presence of this heavenly guest inspired me. But I know that I could not have remained long in that temple in his presence without becoming painfully conscious of the fact that I was very, very low in the scale of spiritual evolution and progress. And yet he sent to me, as to all of us, thoughts of encouragement, hope, and kindness; he told me never to despair of reaching the supreme spiritual world; I had before me good and useful work in the service of man, and after having accomplished this work, I would have all the spiritual worlds behind me - as with every soul who works in the service of man."
Anthony Borgia: MY LIFE IN PARADISE from Editions de Roseau/or Editions DERVYLIVRES
Elisabeth Liswen Delval