© 2023 Helena Bañas
© 2023 Urantia Association of Spain
Man makes many attempts to find the fountain of eternal youth, but no matter how hard he tries, he is powerless to evade disease and death. As the saying goes, “Dust thou art…” The Urantia Book sums it up well: “Man is a creature of the earth, a child of nature; however much ardor he may exert in trying to free himself from the earth, in the end he may be sure that he will not succeed. ‘Dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return’ applies literally to all mankind.” UB 68:6.1
Life is not a bed of roses. Our existence is filled with painful and mysterious situations that are difficult to understand, and this is especially true for the first inhabitants of our planet who were beginning to “write” in the book of life with all the pages still blank. The book tells us in document UB 86:2.2 that “the struggle for life is so painful that even today some backward tribes howl and wail at each new dawn.”
And it was this helplessness in the face of a trying environment and the fear of disease and death that gave rise to the first stirrings of evolutionary religion: “The realization of his helplessness in the face of the mighty forces of nature, together with the recognition of human weakness under the scourges of disease and death, prompted the savage to seek aid from the supermaterial world.” UB 86:3.4
Then, as we progress, many of the initially misunderstood phenomena, such as diseases, are clarified. It was the descendants of the Adamsonites who first learned about the material causes of disease. The scientific method has been key in destroying the magic and superstition of primitive minds, and it will be key in the future to banish most of the diseases that threaten us.
But evolution is slow and has an effective brake, and when these achievements proceed too quickly and are not accompanied by a parallel growth in values, we can regress (and we see this today) to bygone eras, returning to the fear and anxiety typical of savage tribes. Esotericism and magic reappear, and fear takes root in our lives, generating illness. Anxiety and depression abound in medical records and are the background to many physical illnesses. Many doctors are unaware of this mind-body connection and only treat “the tip of the iceberg.”
Only the search for truth and the abandonment of intellectual laziness can clarify our doubts and replace fear with the joy of living.
The teachings contained in revelation are key to understanding much of what happens to us. First, we live on an evolutionary planet made of matter. In our case, moreover, it is a decimal planet where life is experimented with in an attempt to improve it.
The Creator Sons are responsible for going out into space and, through their associates, creating these worlds and the beings that inhabit them. They use the Life Carriers, who are responsible for carrying out the chemical modifications necessary in cosmic laboratories to formulate life, DNA, which contains all the potential for physical evolution on the planets. They also study the body-mind-spirit relationship, a key hierarchy for understanding the human being, the human person.
On a physical level, our bodies are a supermortal creative design (UB 118:9.3), and they provide formulas for healing any wounds we may have and preventing uncontrolled cell proliferation. But sometimes, as a result of the evolution they have “designed,” intermediate, seemingly useless forms appear, which may be “foreseen” or “unforeseen” for them. We are talking about bacteria and viruses that have wreaked true havoc on the population of all evolutionary eras. We have recently experienced a particularly difficult global situation, such as the coronavirus pandemic.
And one of the plans these beings had in mind to partially resolve this problem was the arrival of the material children Adam and Eve, biological elevators whose genes would have mixed largely with ours to, among other things, make us more resistant to disease, apart from elevating us spiritually, something that also affects our health.
Thus, failed plans, such as Lucifer’s rebellion and Eve’s failure, have prevented us from advancing both materially and spiritually, and we are still surrounded by disease and darkness, despite the vast improvement for the human race since then.
Aside from the fact that we are made of matter and that our choices have not helped us progress further, there is another, little-understood reason that has to do with the fact that we are part of a large family whose destiny and well-being are in the hands of that function of the Trinity, of providence, managed by both the Conjoint Actor and the Supreme Being.
These movements of supremacy are key for the whole to reach that perfection toward which we all walk, both as individuals and as a collective, as humanity. And so, great global catastrophes or epidemics could have a goal at the level of the whole, which even the most evolved celestial beings are unaware of: “The mortal mind can immediately think of a thousand and one things—catastrophic physical events, appalling accidents, horrific disasters, painful illnesses, and world-wide scourges—and ask whether such visitations are correlated in the unknown maneuvering of this probable functioning of the Supreme Being. Frankly, we do not know; we are not really sure. But we do observe that, as time passes, all these difficult and more or less mysterious situations always work out for the welfare and progress of the universes.” UB 10:7.5
Furthermore, we live in a world of contrasts in order to experience the highest value. And if pleasure is to be experienced, we can do so only by knowing what pain and suffering are: “Is pleasure—the satisfaction of happiness—desirable? Then must man live in a world where the alternative of pain and the likelihood of suffering are ever-present experiential possibilities.” UB 3:5.14
Jesus, during his life on earth, continued to clarify many misunderstandings about illness and disease, although it was very difficult for him to make people understand:
“As they journeyed on toward Philadelphia, Jesus continued to teach them and to answer their questions having to do with accidents, sickness, and miracles, but they were not able fully to comprehend this instruction. One hour of teaching will not wholly change the beliefs of a lifetime…” UB 166:4.12
These great teachings are found in documents 148 and 166. The Master made a final statement that summarizes these matters: “The Father in heaven does not willingly afflict the children of men. Man suffers, first, from the accidents of time and the imperfections of the evil of an immature physical existence. Next, he suffers the inexorable consequences of sin—the transgression of the laws of life and light. And finally, man reaps the harvest of his own iniquitous persistence in rebellion against the righteous rule of heaven on earth. But man’s miseries are not a personal visitation of divine judgment. Man can, and will, do much to lessen his temporal sufferings. But once and for all be delivered from the superstition that God afflicts man at the behest of the evil one.”UB 148:6.11
Sometimes it is in adversity that we find many truths—even God within us (UB 48:7.18). Such was the case with Job, who “through misunderstood suffering rose to a superhuman plane of moral understanding and spiritual insight” UB 148:6.2.
Jesus’ way of helping men was not so much to cure their material bodies as to “solve their spiritual problems and in this way to quicken their minds so that they may be the better prepared and inspired to go about solving their manifold material problems” (UB 148:5.4)
In fact, at one point he seemed somewhat concerned because he did not want to perform miracles or cure illnesses, since these do not lead man to spiritual enlightenment. Rather, he had a much more important mission to perform among us, which was to reveal the Father and leave a life as an example for our spiritual growth.
“He contemplated the great danger of being compelled to devote so much of his time to the care of the sick and afflicted that his mission of establishing the spiritual kingdom in the hearts of men would be interfered with or at least subordinated to the ministry of things physical. (…) Though he did not wish altogether to avoid ministering to the sick, he knew that he must also do the more important work of spiritual teaching and religious training.” UB 145:5.1
That is why he taught his apostles and others how the human being was constituted, which was the union of body, mind and spirit, to talk to them about the different types of diseases that affect us and how they should unify to achieve health and harmony.
At the hospital at Bethsaida, the first hospital in the kingdom, Jesus used all the material means at his disposal to heal these sick people, but he did not neglect spiritual practices such as prayer and the encouragement of faith, as indispensable complements to improving our health through the unification of our personality.
“Health, mental efficiency, and happiness arise from the unification of physical systems, mind systems, and spirit systems. Of health and sanity man understands much, but of happiness he has truly realized very little. The highest happiness is indissolubly linked with spiritual progress” UB 100:4.3
This living faith is what led many people to be healed, even though they believed Jesus had performed the miracle. Without a doubt, when we have a living faith, experienced through the Spirit of Truth of Jesus, it can transform and transfigure our mind in such a way that it produces an improvement in the material energetic mechanism (brain) that lies beneath and subordinate to it.
“Many of the cures effected by Jesus … indeed, appear to resemble the working of miracles, but we were instructed that they were only just such transformations of mind and spirit as may occur in the experience of expectant and faith-dominated persons who are under the immediate and inspirational influence of a strong, positive, and beneficent personality whose ministry banishes fear and destroys anxiety.” UB 148:2.2
Fear and anxiety generate much physical illness due to the mind’s influence on our electrochemical brain and the harmful release of substances into our bloodstream, which ultimately manifest as bodily illness. That’s why he insisted that we practice dialogue and friendship with God through prayer and worship as methods for improving our body and soul. His exemplary life and living faith are the path to improving our health here and obtaining eternal life in the hereafter.
And it will ultimately be science, the scientific method, that will later banish most of the diseases that plague us on this world: “When Urantia scientists know more of these healing chemicals, they will become more efficient in the treatment of injuries, and indirectly they will know more about controlling certain serious diseases.” UB 65:4.5
Death does not exist for those who believe in God and find this living faith triumphant over doubt through the vicissitudes of existence.
The morontial perspective or Mota philosophy, that cosmic vision, will one day make us fully understand that we were always transitional beings, like “caterpillars” destined to become chrysalides and then butterflies. From the cosmic perspective, our stage is only larval.
Rebellion has only exacerbated death, making it more violent and disorderly, and bringing the element of uncertainty through the exacerbation of disease. But in a world of light and life, deaths become gentler phenomena, wise transitions, even reaching a point where earthly escapes are controlled.
Death will no longer be an earthly escape mechanism; our family and friends will be able to come to a great temple, built on the planet, to say goodbye and watch us merge with our inner spirit in a “flash of life,” just as happened to Enoch and Elijah.
“The scenes of weeping and wailing characteristic of earlier epochs of human evolution are now replaced by ecstatic joy and the sublimest enthusiasm as these God-knowing mortals bid their loved ones a transient farewell as they are removed from their material associations by the spiritual fires of consuming grandeur and ascending glory. On worlds settled in light and life, “funerals” are occasions of supreme joy, profound satisfaction, and inexpressible hope.” UB 55:2.5
When a human being is God-conscious, he is assured of salvation and fears neither life nor death. He understands and courageously endures the inevitable sufferings of a life in matter governed by physical laws made by God Himself (UB 156:5.20). He understands that “death is only the beginning of a race of endless adventure, of a perpetual life of anticipation, of an eternal voyage of discovery” (LU 14:5.10)
Jesus also accompanied us in this suffering like no one else, giving his life on the cross out of love.
“No one can ever fear that the Creator does not know the nature or extent of his temporal afflictions.” UB 188:5.12
And although he does not wish to spare us from adversity, he has also promised to be at our side in suffering.
Finally, “…it should be a real comfort to every human being to understand that ”He knows your frame; He remembers that you are dust” UB 3:3.2
In this way, evolution has achieved its goal: through that superstitious fear of the unknown and the terror of disease and death that constitute the scaffolding for attaining the concept of God, once it has achieved progress in knowledge about Him, the coordinated action of revelation (such as the teachings contained in The Urantia Book), this technique of evolutionary growth sets in motion the mental forces that, little by little, will inexorably destroy the scaffolding that, age after age, has already fulfilled its mission (nontextual quotation, UB 90:3.10).