© 2000 Kalevi Eklöf
© 2000 Urantia Association International (IUA)
| Living the Will of the Father: Walking the Talk | Journal — September 2000 — Index | The Way Jesus Discovered and Lived the Father's Will |
Kalevi Eklöf, Finland
We have in Finland an old adage that goes: “A beloved child has many names,” and in my reading The Urantia Book this saying very often crosses my mind, particularly where the discussion concerns the Thought Adjusters. We are familiat with appellations like Thought Adjuster, Mystery Monitor, Thought Changer, Thought Controller and many others. All of these denotations depict, tell about or express some of the many methods, ways or forms of acting that the Thought Adjusters make use of and apply.
The book tells us:
. . . there are the impersonal Mystery Monitors, Thought Adjusters, the actual gift of the great God himself sent to indwell such as the humans of Urantia, sent without announcement and without explanation. In endless profusion they descend from the beigbts of glory to grace and indwell the humble minds of thase mortals who possess the capacity for God-consciousness or the potential therfor. [UB 2:1.7]
In accordance with the three general developmental stages of man, the Monitors are given the following designations:
From the arrival of the Adjuster to comparative full growth, about twenty years of age on Urantia, the Monitors are sometimes designated Thought Changers. From this time to the attainment of the age of discretion, about forty years, the Mystery Monitors are called Thought Adjusters. From the attainment of discretion to deliverance from the flesh, they are often referred to as Thought Controllers. [UB 107:0.7]
The Adjusters can be classified also in accordance with the experience that they have gained, as virgin that is, those without experience in mortal indwelling advanced and supreme. Apart from that, we are told about self-acting Adjusters, divided in accordance with six different criteria (UB 109:2.1-8). This classification is functional, and reflects the various service experiences that the Adjuster has gained in his ministry, but it reflects also the eternity decisions that his mortal subjects have made, or the mortal subject’s membership in the reserve corps of destiny in his world, or the mortal subjects having acted as the material complement to a spirit personality intrusted with some cosmic achievement, orse the Adjuster’s having participated in extrahuman service associated with the spiritual administration of the world of assignment.
We may read the following statements concerning personality and its relationship with experience, evolution, and the Thought Adjuster:
Personality is a level of deified reality and ranges from the mortal and midwayer level of the higher mind activation of worship and wisdom up through the morontial and spiritual to the attainment of finality of personality status. That is the evolutionary ascent of mortal- and kindred-creature personality, but there are numerous other orders of universe personalities. UB 0:5.1
On attained experiential levels all personality orders or values are associable and even cocreational. Even God and man can coexist in a unified personality, as is so exquisitely demonstrated in the present status of Christ Michael—Son of Man and Son of God. UB 0:5.3
All subinfinite orders and phases of personality are associative attainables and are potentially cocreational. The prepersonal, the personal, and the superpersonal are all linked together by mutual potential of co-ordinate attainment, progressive achievement, and cocreational capacity. But never does the impersonal directly transmute to the personal. Personality is never spontaneous; it is the gift of the Paradise Father. Personality is superimposed upon energy, and it is associated only with living energy systems; identity can be associated with nonliving energy patterns. UB 0:5.4
Personality. The personality of mortal man is neither body, mind, nor spirit; neither is it the soul. Personality is the one changeless reality in an otherwise ever-changing creature experience; and it unifies all other associated factors of individuality. The personality is the unique bestowal which the Universal Father makes upon the living and associated energies of matter, mind, and spirit, and which survives with the survival of the morontial soul. UB 0:5.11
Concerning the Adjuster’s relationship with the mortal self and temporary identity and also with the material mind of the energy system of intelligence, we are told:
Selfhood is a cosmic reality whether material, morontial, or spiritual. The actuality of the personal is the bestowal of the Universal Father acting in and of himself or through his manifold universe agencies. To say that a being is personal is to recognize the relative individuation of such a being within the cosmic organism. The living cosmos is an all but infinitely integrated aggregation of real units, all of which are relatively subject to the destiny of the whole. But those that are personal have been endowed with the actual choice of destiny acceptance or of destiny rejection.
That which comes from the Father is like the Father eternal, and this is just as true of personality, which God gives by his own freewill choice, as it is of the divine Thought Adjuster, an actual fragment of God. Man’s personality is eternal but with regard to identity a conditioned eternal reality. Having appeared in response to the Father’s will, personality will attain Deity destiny, but man must choose whether or not he will be present at the attainment of such destiny. In default of such choice, personality attains experiential Deity directly, becoming a part of the Supreme Being. The cycle is foreordained, but man’s participation therein is optional, personal, and experiential.
Mortal identity is a transient time-life condition in the universe; it is real only in so far as the personality elects to become a continuing universe phenomenon. This is the essential difference between man and an energy system: The energy system must continue, it has no choice; but man has everything to do with determining his own destiny. The Adjuster is truly the path to Paradise, but man himself must pursue that path by his own deciding, his freewill choosing.
Human beings possess identity only in the material sense. Such qualities of the self are expressed by the material mind as it functions in the energy system of the intellect. When it is said that man has identity, it is recognized that he is in possession of a mind circuit which has been placed in subordination to the acts and choosing of the will of the human personality. But this is a material and purely temporary manifestation, just as the human embryo is a transient parasitic stage of human life. Human beings, from a cosmic perspective, are born, live, and die in a relative instant of time; they are not enduring. But mortal personality, through its own choosing, possesses the power of transferring its seat of identity from the passing material-intellect system to the higher morontia-soul system which, in association with the Thought Adjuster, is created as a new vehicle for personality manifestation. UB 112:5.1-4
We are told of the Adjuster’s influence on the development of the soul and the administration of the human memory matrix during the transition to the morontia state and resurrection (Paper 112 "Survival of the Personality "):
There is something real, something of human evolution, something additional to the Mystery Monitor, which survives death. This newly appearing entity is the soul, and it survives the death of both your physical body and your material mind. This entity is the conjoint child of the combined life and efforts of the human you in liaison with the divine you, the Adjuster. This child of human and divine parentage constitutes the surviving element of terrestrial origin; it is the morontia self, the immortal soul. UB 112:5.12
And when you thus awaken on the mansion worlds of Jerusem, you will be so changed, the spiritual transformation will be so great that, were it not for your Thought Adjuster and the destiny guardian, who so fully connect up your new life in the new worlds with your old life in the first world, you would at first have difficulty in connecting the new morontia consciousness with the reviving memory of your previous identity. Notwithstanding the continuity of personal selfhood, much of the mortal life would at first seem to be a vague and hazy dream. But time will clarify many mortal associations.
The Thought Adjuster will recall and rehearse for you only those memories and experiences which are a part of, and essential to, your universe career. If the Adjuster has been a partner in the evolution of aught in the human mind, then will these worth-while experiences survive in the eternal consciousness of the Adjuster. But much of your past life and its memories, having neither spiritual meaning nor morontia value, will perish with the material brain; UB 112:5.21-22
In this context we can also observe that regardless of whether the mortal subject survives or not, the experience gained in life will not be lost. The Eternal Adjuster will carry into another world the valuable characteristics of a non-surviving mortal and will confer this remnant of meaning and value on another mind of a higher type and able to survive.
Nothing worth surviving ever happens in vain. No real meaning or value ever perishes. (UB 109:6.1)
The Adjuster’s influence on intellectual interactions and civilizing functions is fundamental; on the other hand, one of the prerequisites for the appearance of Adjusters is intercommunication by means of learned spoken language.
The higher forms of intelligent intercommunication between human beings are greatly helped by the indwelling Adjusters. Animals do have fellow feelings, but they do not communicate concepts to each other; they can express emotions but not ideas and ideals. Neither do men of animal origin experience a high type of intellectual intercourse or spiritual communion with their fellows until the Thought Adjusters have been bestowed, albeit, when such evolutionary creatures develop speech, they are on the highroad to receiving Adjusters.
Animals do, in a crude way, communicate with each other, but there is little or no personality in such primitive contact. Adjusters are not personality; they are prepersonal beings. But they do hail from the source of personality, and their presence does augment the qualitative manifestations of human personality; especially is this true if the Adjuster has had previous experience.
The type of Adjuster has much to do with the potential for expression of the human personality. On down through the ages, many of the great intellectual and spiritual leaders of Urantia have exerted their influence chiefly because of the superiority and previous experience of their indwelling Adjusters. UB 109:4.1-3
The thread that runs throughout The Urantia Book is that of the idea of incessant progress and evolution. This idea concerns both material evolution and spiritual evolution. And as much individuals as communities, planets, systems and universes. Adjusters are an essential resource for this evolution.
Can you not advance in your concept of God’s dealing with man to that level where you recognize that the watchword of the universe is progress? Through long ages the human race has struggled to reach its present position. Throughout all these millenniums Providence has been working out the plan of progressive evolution. UB 4:1.2
The indwelling Adjusters have in no small measure co-operated with other spiritual influences in transforming and humanizing the descendants of the primitive men of olden ages. If the Adjusters indwelling the minds of the inhabitants of Urantia were to be withdrawn, the world would slowly return to many of the scenes and practices of the men of primitive times; the divine Monitors are one of the real potentials of advancing civilization. UB 109:4.4
I have observed a Thought Adjuster indwelling a mind on Urantia who has, according to the records on Uversa, indwelt fifteen minds previously in Orvonton. We do not know whether this Monitor has had similar experiences in other superuniverses, but I suspect so. This is a marvelous Adjuster and one of the most useful and potent forces on Urantia during this present age. What others have lost, in that they refused to survive, this human being (and your whole world) now gains. From him who has not survival qualities, shall be taken away even that experienced Adjuster which he now has, while to him who has survival prospects, shall be given even the pre-experienced Adjuster of a slothful deserter. UB 109:4.5
Here is more on the evolution and experience since the Adjuster’s training period to inhabit a human subject:
THE Thought Adjusters are the children of the universe career, and indeed the virgin Adjusters must gain experience while mortal creatures grow and develop. As the personality of the human child expands for the struggles of evolutionary existence, so does the Adjuster wax great in the rehearsals of the next stage of ascending life. UB 109:0.1
Human existence constitutes a period of practice which is effectively utilized by the Adjuster in preparing for the increased responsibilities and the greater opportunities of a future life. UB 109:0.1
Regarding the basic training and additional training of Adjusters, following the findings of a Lone Messenger from Orvonton:
There must be a comprehensive and elaborate plan for the training and development of virgin Adjusters before they are sent forth from Divinington, but we really do not know very much about it. There undoubtedly also exists an extensive system for retraining Adjusters of indwelling experience before they embark upon new missions of mortal association, but, again, we do not actually know. UB 109:1.1
I have been told by Personalized Adjusters that every time a Monitor-indwelt mortal fails of survival, when the Adjuster returns to Divinington, an extended course of training is engaged in. This additional training is made possible by the experience of having indwelt a human being, and it is always imparted before the Adjuster is remanded to the evolutionary worlds of time. [UB 109:1.2]
There is one interesting point to make: Even if the Adjusters communicate with other beings and are conscious of and able to utilise for example the news gathering and promulgation organisation of reflectivity of all creation, the information stored in Adjusters is nonetheless safe.
The knowledge and plans of the Father fragments are not reflectible. The Discerners of Spirits can and do reflect the presence of the Adjusters but they cannot decipher the content of the mindedness of the Mystery Monitors (UB 28:5.22).
We Urantians live our evolutionary and experiential lives on this decimal planet, and it is of utmost importance to realise the significance of multifarious experience within the whole of existence.
Actual living experience has no cosmic substitute. The perfection of the divinity of a newly formed Thought Adjuster does not in any manner endow this Mystery Monitor with experienced ministrative ability. Experience is inseparable from a living existence; it is the one thing which no amount of divine endowment can absolve you from the necessity of securing by actual living Therefore, in common with all beings living and functioning within the present spbere of the Supreme, Thought Adjusters must acquire experience; they must evolve from the lower, inexperienced, to the higher, more experienced groups. [UB 109:1.3]
Adjusters pass through a definite developmental career in the mortal mind; they achieve a reality of attainment which is eternally theirs. They progressively acquire Adjuster skill and ability as a result of any and all contacts with the material races, regardless of the survival or nonsurvival of their particular mortal subjects. They are also equal partners of the human mind in fostering the evolution of the immortal soul of survival capacity. [UB 109:1.4]
The first stage of Adjuster evolution is attained in fusion with the surviving soul of a mortal being. Thus, while you are in nature evolving inward and upward from man to God, the Adjusters are in nature evolving outward and downward from God to man; and so will the final product of this union of divinity and humanity be the son of man and the son of God. [UB 109:1.5]
Apart from what has been stated above, we may read about the Adjuster that indwelt Jesus’ human mind, and about his other ministries, as well as about the indestructibility of true values:
The activities of Adjusters in your local universe are directed by the Personalized Adjuster of Michael of Nebadon, that very Monitor who guided him step by step when be lived bis human life in the flesh of Joshua ben Joseph. Faithful to his trust was this extraordinary Adjuster, and wisely did this valiant Monitor direct the human nature, ever guiding the mortal mind of the Paradise Son in the choosing of the path of the Father’s perfect will. This Adjuster had previously served with Machiventa Melcbizedek in the days of Abrabam and had engaged in tremendous exploits both previous to this indwelling and between these bestowal experiences. [UB 109:6.4]
This Adjuster did indeed triumph in Jesus’ human mind —that mind which in each of life’s recurring situations maintained a consecrated dedication to the Father’s will, saying, “Not my will, but yours, be done.” Such decisive consecration constitutes the true passport from the limitations of human nature to the finality of divine attainment. [UB 109:6.5]
This same Adjuster now reflects in the inscrutable nature of his mighty personality the prebaptismal humanity of Joshua ben Joseph, the eternal and living transcript of the eternal and living values which the greatest of all Urantians created out of the humble circumstances of a commonplace life as it was lived to the complete exhaustion of the spiritual values attainable in mortal experience. [UB 109:6.6]
Everything of permanent value which is intrusted to an Adjuster is assured eternal survival. In certain instances the Monitor holds these possessions for bestowal on a mortal mind of future indwelling; in others, and upon personalization, these surviving and conserved realities are beld in trust for future utilization in the service of the Architects of the Master Universe. [UB 109:6.7]
As concems spiritually significant changes in superconsciousness which result from the Adjuster indwelling and as concerns the possibilities imbedded in human imagination and sleep we are revealed this:
Supreme and self-acting Adjusters are often able to contribute factors of spiritual import to the human mind when it flows freely in the liberated by controlled channels of creative imagination. At such times, and sometimes during sleep, the Adjuster is able to arrest the mental currents, to stay theylow, and then to divert the idea procession; and all this is done in order to effect deep spiritual transformations in the higher recesses of the superconsciousness. Thus are the forces and energies of mind more fully adjusted to the key of the contactual tones of the spiritual level of the present and the future. [UB 109:5.1]
It is sometimes possible to bave the mind illuminated, to bear the divine voice that continually speaks within you, so that you may become partially conscious of the wisdom, truth, goodness, and beauty of the potential personality constantly indwelling you. [UB 109:5.2]
Material disturbances, unstable attitudes and prejudices are factors that hamper the activities of the Adjuster. Also racial inheritance may play its role. Because of these and other obstructions it often happens that in a human consciousness there surge unfinished accomplishments of the Adjuster, which again lead to confused conceptualisations. Material disturbances, unstable attitudes and prejudices are factors that hamper the activities of the Adjuster. Also racial inheritance may play its role. Because of these and other obstructions it often happens that in a human consciousness there surge unfinished accomplishments of the Adjuster, which again lead to confused conceptualisations. This is what is said concerning the problems of human life, the material-temporal compromises which are to be faced, and the achievement of spiritual goals:
The great problem of life is the adjustment of the ancestral tendencies of living to the demands of the spiritual urges initiated by the divine presence of the Mystery Monitor. While in the universe and superuniverse careers no man can serve two masters, in the life you now live on Urantia every man must perforce serve two masters. He must become adept in the art of a continuous human temporal compromise while be yields spiritual allegiance to but one master; and this is why so many falter and fail, grow weary and succumb to the stress of the evolutionary struggle. [UB 109:5.5]
While the hereditary legacy of cerebral endowment and that of electrochemical overrontrol both operate to delimit the sphere of efficient Adjuster activity, no hereditary handicap (in normal minds) ever prevents eventual spiritual acbievement. Heredity may interfere with the rate of personality conquest, but it does not prevent eventual consummation of the ascendant adventure. If you will co-operate with your Adjuster, the divine gift will, sooner or later, evolve the immortal morontia soul and, subsequent to fusion therewith, will present the new creature to the sovereign Master Son of the local universe and eventually to the Father of Adjusters on Paradise. [UB 109:5.5]
Many of you may feel that what was said above is not exhaustive. Nonetheless, the text comes with a number of important and even startling pieces of knowledge conceming the relation of Adjusters to creatures. What is essential is that each of us has been bestowed with a Mystery Monitor who guides and cultivates our mind and development. And we have free will for action. Let us learn, let us progress and grow. It is possible for all of us. Heavenly Father, thank you for all of that. And thank you for your attention.
| Living the Will of the Father: Walking the Talk | Journal — September 2000 — Index | The Way Jesus Discovered and Lived the Father's Will |