© 1998 François Le Rohellec, Raymond Barila, Louis Robert, François Dupont, Jean-Claude Romeuf, Jean Royer, Dominique Ronfet
© 1998 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Journal of the association L'A.F.L.L.U. French-speaking Association of Readers of the URANTIA Book
Member of the I.U.A.
Head office:
8, Passage of the Good Seed
75011 PARIS—France
¶ A Word from the President
Promoting an ever clearer perception of the multiple concepts revealed by The Urantia Book is indeed one of the primary roles of Le Lien Urantien. But a second, no less negligible, role is also to be the support for the expression of a lived experience, a spiritual experience or even a reflection “applied” to the immediate and practical problems of our particular lives and, on a larger scale, of our heterogeneous societies, in short, of our world and its inhabitants. This issue of The Link gives a particularly generous sample of this second aspect to which I referred. May you take as much pleasure as I do in reading it.
Furthermore, I wish great success to our new French-language colleague (and especially to its translators): the Journal of the I.U.A. Subscribe!
Francois Le Rohellec
President of the A.F.L.L.U.
¶ Summary
- The President’s word— François Le Rohellec
- Report of the national meeting of readers — Spring 1997
- To pray or not to pray — testimony -
- The day I bought the L.U. — Raymond Barila
- How the teachings of The Urantia Book help me overcome fear — Louis Robert
- Tendencies to cultivate according to the Urantia Book — François Dupont
- Waiting for the resurrection — Jean-Claude Romeuf
- Is it possible — Jean Royer
- Coherence 2 — Jean Royer.
- Contribution to the article by J Royer (Link n° 5) — Dominique Ronfet
- The Gazette with:
❧ 1955 URANTIA Foundation. All rights reserved. These materials from The URANTIA Book are used with permission. Any artistic depiction(s), interpretation(s), opinion(s) or conclusion(s) implied or stated are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of URANTIA Foundation or its affiliates.
Legal deposit: December 1997 — ISSN 1285-1116¡
Subscription in 1998: 100 FF per year (approximately 4 issues)
¶ Report of the national meeting of readers — Spring 1998
As every six months now, a national meeting of readers was held in France on March 28 and 29. About thirty participants responded positively to the invitation launched by the A.F.L.L.U and went to the charming setting of “Notre Dame des Lumières” in the heart of the Lubéron.
For this meeting, the theme chosen was “teamwork” and on Saturday, after the A.F.L.L.U. general meeting, things got serious. Several working groups were formed and led their own discussions. All the meetings took place in a rather informal atmosphere and, despite a slight breeze, some readers ventured to take advantage of the mild southern climate to chat in the surrounding gardens. The two evenings (Friday and Saturday) were devoted, according to the participants’ choice, to private discussions, wine tastings or night walks…
All our speakers were, however, in great shape on Sunday morning to address the theme of “teamwork” according to Urantia. Indeed, while the discussions on Saturday had been essentially centered on working together here below, this Sunday morning, carried by the stimulation and imagination of the group, our reflections extended to Paradise and the organization of the finaliters.
Overall, there were no injuries to report, and it was in good spirits and fraternity that the participants parted, arranging to meet again next autumn for the future meeting.
In addition to reflections and work on defined themes, this meeting was above all an opportunity to allow all readers, novices as well as experienced, to meet and share for a weekend a cup of common values overflowing with fraternity and love from the same Father Creator.
Severin and Joseph
¶ To Pray or Not to Pray — Testimony
Often, when I found myself in a high place, from where my gaze embraced a landscape with very small houses, down there, I thought: "and to think that in each house, there is a family of men, and when each one begins to pray for his personal case and according to his belief, what a multitude of messages and supplications addressed to God!
But God, how does he do it?
God is no longer a Sovereign, but He becomes a Servant, a valet at the service of the believers. The unbelievers, on the other hand, do not pray and therefore never disturb God with their problems.
So I decided to do as the unbelievers do, I would pray as little as possible so as not to disturb God.
Soon after, after purchasing The Urantia Book, I read that the Adjuster was our God within, and I understood that God is not at all disturbed when we pray to Him.
Needless to say, now I am no longer afraid to address Him!
Raymond Barila
Cork
¶ The day I bought The Urantia Book
The day I bought the L.U. and twenty minutes before I entered the bookstore, I was going to experience an unexpected event…
That Saturday, I had come to the bookstore very early, around 9 o’clock when it didn’t open until 10 o’clock. To pass the time, I sat on a bench, took a book out of my pocket, but I didn’t feel like reading. I changed places to go to Place Saint-Jacques where I watched the birds on the lawns and in the shrubs. I remembered that I had some dry bread in the van. I went to get it, sat on a bench and started to crumble the bread for the birds. At 9:45, I got up to get a parking ticket. Suddenly, to my left, a little behind, I saw something like a black glove falling from the top. I told myself that it couldn’t be and that it must be a swallow. I immediately rushed to the road between the parked cars to get a better look.
Sure enough, there was a swallow lying on the road. I picked it up and examined it to see if it was injured, but no, nothing. So, thinking it was probably dizzy, I decided to put it in my van.
As I headed back to the parking ticket machine, the swallow rose up and leapt out of my hand, skimmed the ground, then made a dazzling ascent and went to join its friends high in the sky. With my head raised I began to watch the swallows: none of them came down lower than the roofs of the buildings, it was a beautiful day, with a bright sun in a blue sky.
How did this swallow fall?
A single overhead cable crosses Place Saint-Jacques, from one building to another.
The swallow must have descended for no apparent reason and in its mad descent, distracted and surprised, probably hit the cable.
This event over, it was time to go to the bookstore. I asked the salesman the following question: “I would like to know among all that you have read and among all the books that you have in store, the one that impressed you the most.”
The salesman went to look in one of the shelves, the L.U. telling me that it was a “Christian” book, that it spoke about the universe and that there were 75 pages of tables of contents.
When I saw that the 4th part was about the life of Jesus, I said: “OK, I’ll take it, this 4th part will allow me to do a personal check and realize if he was really that exceptional.”
During the first months after purchasing the L.U. I did not make the connection between the swallow and the L.U. It was only when I realized how exceptional this book was that I thought about it, and I deciphered this message:
“TODAY YOU CAME TO SEEK IN YOUR HAND SOMETHING THAT COMES FROM THE HEAVENLY TOP”
Raymond Barila
Cork
¶ How the teachings of The Urantia Book help me overcome fear
(testimony following the article by François Dupont, the Urantian Link n° 3)
Since we are taught that the relationship with God is a personal experience, well, let’s experiment… After some time of reading the Book, my first attempt was to dare to declare to myself: “I am a child of God”. My surprise was to feel a very physical reaction: energy starting to circulate in the body, and the spine straightening. Mentally, it was not a sensation of pride, nor of false humility, but simply an awareness of balanced presence.
At first, it often took some forcing to get this thought established; it was a real choice, with a share of doubt, to be sincerely acknowledged. Since then, I have continued to use this statement when there are clouds to cross.
The relational effect is that from the moment I grant myself this dignity, I can also give it to anyone in front of me!
My second experience was living with uncertainty about God’s will.
When I began to wish for it, I first experienced it as a burden, difficult to understand. Moreover, I had lost all confidence in my personal desires, since I did not know if they were in accordance with God’s path.
The change that then took place was to become aware of my potential value; of the state of dignity of a child of God, able to accomplish his task more proudly.
I was then able to ask God for advice; and after understanding that if I acted for the best, trying to embody, with wisdom and courage, a spiritual ideal in the possibilities of daily life, I had “God’s green light”. And I suddenly felt more at peace.
The third stage, now, is when I declare: “I am loved, perfectly, by God.” Then the mind and body calm down; and the problems are better overcome.
It also allows me to better receive the love of others or to no longer be dependent on their possible malevolence. I also know, by experimenting with it, that I can, more and more, install a constructive mental state in myself.
The next step, indicated by The Urantia Book, is to move from passive love received, to love expressed towards God; I will learn… And it seems to me that it is at this level that fear is truly conquered, that a deep happiness settles in, as well as a real fraternal attitude.
Faced with the fear of the future of Humanity, we have two answers: — the scheme of possible evolution described in The Urantia Book, which can be explained to any person in disarray; — and the testimony of our personal and social evolution.
Why fear for future generations, since they will have the guidance of their Adjusters, the Spirit of Truth and beautiful potentialities? Isn’t the best gift to give them, in addition, to trust them?
Louis Robert
LIEGE-NAMUR study group
¶ Cultivation Tendency According to The Urantia Book
This modest contribution is not intended to be more than a summary of the subject. The attentive reader of the UB will easily find something to feed his imagination and complete the short presentation below.
For the sake of clarity, I have divided the subject into two major chapters, depending on whether one considers the planetary point of view or the individual point of view.
On a global scale:
globalize political, social, cultural, artistic, religious, scientific and economic relations to the point of planetarization.
This trend can be further explained by considering each area of humanity’s action:
- a) For the world economy: there should be no limitation on trade except that it must be done in a spirit of fraternity.
- b) For politics: global sovereignty should be conferred on a planetary political organization with delimitation of national and regional sovereignties; that is to say a transfer of political powers upwards and downwards by lightening the national level.
- c) From the cultural point of view: increase in cultural, artistic and linguistic exchanges with proliferation of multilingualists as well as cultural schools, colleges and universities.
- d) From the point of view of philosophy and religion: setting up a network of inter-philosophical and inter-religious research, which will aim at: defining common objectives and establishing common spiritual values.
- e) Creation or adaptation of one or more world languages.
At the individual level
- a) inward: unification of the components inherent in the constitution of man: harmonization of biological, hereditary, social, educational, emotional, sentimental, intellectual, philosophical and spiritual tendencies. In other words: knowing oneself, putting everything in its place, establishing and frequently revising one’s own hierarchy of needs, values and meanings.
- b) Towards the outside:
- strive to speak the world language
- strive to increase the number of social contacts,
- establish a hierarchy in social contacts by raising awareness of one’s needs and the needs of others while valuing spiritual, cultural, intellectual and charitable tendencies,
- seek to increase the sense of meanings, as well as the spirituality of values,
- to bring one’s life into harmony with the highest concepts of revelation: love, goodness, beauty and truth.
Francois Dupont
¶ Waiting for the resurrection
THE PERSON
- the body. Faced with an analysis stripped of all emotional components, the small child appears as a material structure animated by living energy: the breath of life animating a material body. The Life Carriers are responsible for the bodily form and all the elements that compose it while the Mother spirit of the local universe transmits the vital spark (UB 34:2.5). When the candle of the physical body is consumed, dust returns to dust (UB 36:6.4).
- the mind. Like any living energy system, the young child receives a material mind (emotional and intellectual) from the Mother Spirit. The mind is functional through the existence of the adjutant mental spirits and is experiential as:
- animal intellectual mind in the first five mental spirits,
- human or moral intellectual mind, the brain has disappeared.
Jean-Claude Romeuf
¶ Is this possible?
If it is true that a good book poses more problems than it solves, then The Urantia Book is a very great book. Two examples among others: Where were the Melchizedek-decks provisional administrators who returned to earth 70 days after the failure of Adam and Eve (UB 75:5.8)? As close as possible to Jerusem, perhaps on Nebadon, we do not know, but they had no reason to exceed the speed of 3 x c - 900,000 km / s$ which, once again, places Jerusem much too close to us compared to what astronomy tells us and also compared to our position in the system according to The Urantia Book (UB 41:10.5). A similar question arises with the arrival of the seraphic transports who came to recover the children of Adam and Eve. This time we know that they are coming from Jerusem (UB 75:6.3) but we do not have precise dates. We can say that it is more than 70 days and less than 9 months after the failure of Adam and Eve since “Caien and Sansa were both born before the Adamic caravan had reached its destination…” Now, these seraphic transports can hardly exceed three times the speed of light. 27 light months is already more reasonable but still incompatible with the previous data (see also UB 32:2.10).
Second example: We read in booklet 72.3 that on an isolated continent about the size of Australia “a nation has 140 million inhabitants” (UB 72:1.1) and that “families have an average of five children” (UB 72:3.3). If the average life expectancy is ninety years (UB 72:1.1) how will this continent avoid an overpopulation that is incompatible with the laws in force, namely: “the law forbids two families to live under the same roof.” (UB 72:3.1) and “The smallest dwelling must have half a hectare of land”? Here again we lack some elements for the calculation, but by comparison with the Earth it would seem that the critical point is reached quickly. Are there any statisticians among the readers who could tell us what is happening?
Jean Royer
¶ COHERENCE 2
(Continuation of the article COHERENCE, OR PRINCIPLE OF EVANESCENCE?) (Link n° 5)
One of the inconsistencies known to a number of readers is that of the necessary presence at Salvington of Father Melchizedek or Gabriel. “Gabriel and Father Malchizedek never leave Salvington at the same time, for in Gabriel’s absence Father Melchizedek functions as the chief executive of Nebadon.” (UB 35:1.2). But at the time of the Transfiguration both are on Urantia. “Peter wrongly supposed the two personages to be Moses and Elijah; in reality they were Gabriel and Father Malchizedek.” (UB 158:1.8)
So Nebadon had no chief executive?
Was the primitive logical? We can ask ourselves the question by considering the following three quotes:
“The primitive mind was logical but contained few ideas for intelligent association; the savage mind was uneducated, wholly unsophisticated. If one event followed another, the savage considered them to be cause and effect. What civilized man regards as superstition was just plain ignorance in the savage. Mankind has been slow to learn that there is not necessarily any relationship between purposes and results. Human beings are only just beginning to realize that the reactions of existence appear between acts and their consequences. The savage strives to personalize everything intangible and abstract, and thus both nature and chance become personalized as ghosts—spirits—and later on as gods.” (UB 86:2.3)
“The primitive mind may be handicapped by lack of facts, but it is for all that logical. When thoughtful men observe disease and death, they set about to determine the causes of these visitations, and in accordance with their understanding, the shamans and the scientists have propounded the following theories of affliction:” (UB 90:3.3)
“However, the primitive mind was neither logical nor consistent.”
Perhaps we should question the fact that the first quote comes to us from an Evening Star, the second from a Melchizedek and the third from the Chief of the Midwayers? UB 91:1.3
Jean Royer
¶ Contribution to Jean Royer’s article “Coherence, or principle of evanescence?” from Link n5
1) — Common point between Frandalanks and Adjusters
the Frandalanks (subgroup of the Power Directors, called Physical Master Controllers):
“OF ALL the universe personalities concerned in the regulation of interplanetary and interuniverse affairs, the power directors and their associates have been the least understood on Urantia. While your races have long known of the existence of angels and similar orders of celestial beings, little information concerning the controllers and regulators of the physical domain has ever been imparted. Even now I am permitted fully to disclose only the last of the following three groups of living beings having to do with force control and energy regulation in the master universe:” (UB 29:0.1)
Physical Master Controllers:
Dominique Ronfet
Dominique.Ronfet@hol.fr
¶ Questions Answers
At UB 30:0.2, the author tells us that The Urantia Book is probably a revelation given to us for a thousand years. What does this information inspire in you?
What difference do you make between prayer, communion and worship?
Could someone advise us on the rhythm of reading the Book (weekly and daily) that we should follow in order to progress.
Address your questions and answers to these:
A.F.L.L.U. — 8, Passage de la Bonne Graine 75011 — PARIS FRANCE
¶ Gazette section
¶ Electronic version of The Urantia Book now on CD-ROM
The CD-ROM version of The Urantia Book (multi-language) is now available…
This first edition currently contains the English, French and Finnish versions of The Urantia Book as well as the powerful associated research software Folio Views. It currently works exclusively in the PC environment. Future editions will gradually take into account translations into other languages. This electronic version is in fact becoming an invaluable tool for an in-depth and “trans-linguistic” study of The Urantia Book.
Directly from the CD-ROM, you can also view the Foundation’s Internet site without any connection. This limited version of the site contains information about Urantia Foundation and the I.U.A. and also includes various aids to the study of the Book.
Its price is set at 146 FF including tax, excluding shipping costs. Orders are placed at the Foundation’s Paris office:
Urantia Foundation
8, passage of the Good Seed
75011 Paris
Such. : 01.48.06.60.11 — Fax: 01.48.06.59.09
Ordering the CD-ROM version of The Urantia Book
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¶ French version of the I.U.A. Journal.
The I.U.A. Journal is now available in its entirety in French. It is published approximately 4 issues per year. In addition to the original American version, a Finnish and Spanish version are or will soon be available.
- Subscription fee: USD 15 (US dollars) per year for 4 issues or USD 3 per issue.
- To register: send the coupon below with your payment (check payable to International Urantia Association, international card or local currency).
Article Submission
Anyone may submit an article to the I.U.A. Journal for possible inclusion in one of its future issues. Submitted articles become the property of the I.U.A. Journal, and as such none will be returned to the authors. Those not used immediately are retained for potential future use.
Authors are requested to provide at least the English version of the articles ( + the French version if it exists!) and to send them directly to the publisher whose address is given below. If only a French version is available, send them, explicitly specifying the mention “For Journal de l’I.U.A.”, to the office of the A.F.L.L.U. association which will take care of their translation.
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¶ Information about study groups
Below is an addition to the list of study groups that have been fully disseminated in the previous Link. The entire list will be disseminated regularly depending on the importance of changes in it.
Contacts:
- A.F.L.L.U. — 8, passage de la bonne Graine — 75011 Paris
- François Le Rohellec — 8, rue des Lilas — 34430 St Jean de Védas
France
Dordogne Group:
- Location: Excideuil
- Frequency: every Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
- Contact: Bernadette & Xavier Mahieu, 9, rue Porte Piquet, 24160 Excideuil Tel.: 05.53.62.81.25
Do not hesitate to write to us for an article, or for the “questions and answers” section.
We ask you to provide us with your names (use your real names, no pseudonyms) and address, date and also try not to exceed 2 typewritten pages…
Send them to:
A.F.L.L.U. — 8, Passage de la Bonne Graine 75011 — PARIS FRANCE