© 2018 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
How, in your own words, would you draw the analogy between the birth of a human and the birth of religion in the mind of man and ultimately the birth of the spirit?
¶ AGNES
In the ideal situation, a man and a woman decide to associate the associable elements in order to bring out, in the woman’s womb, a new reality which is neither completely one nor completely the other. In this act of wisdom, that of unifying what is unifiable, an embryo is formed and grows according to the perfect laws of the Creator!
In my experience, I perceive the same phenomenon in the conception of the soul. It is the joint wills of God and man to meet and experience together that create and activate this new morontia reality. God is natural to man and man to God. God created man to experience and manifest Him.
As this experiential association progresses, the product of their encounter (God is always there waiting for his human collaborator) increases and strengthens.
On this human-divine basis, an ideal platform containing a fertile soil suitable for the perfect grafting of a Divine Monitor and Guide, the Thought Adjuster, the birth of the spirit is actuated. The growth and increase of His influence is manifested according to the voluntary act of abandonment of all control by man in the experiences presented to him (an ideal setting just as was the mother’s womb). The evolution of the manifestation of the being’s submission to the directives of the spirit is seen in the increase in the manifestation of the fruits of the spirit.
¶ ASSANE
Space and time are an evolutionary creation. The birth of a child and religion respect this law of evolution. One comes into existence through the progressive process of pregnancy; religion exists through the presence of God and the desire for personality after the progressive installation of mental faculties and their functioning, functioning which, moreover, produces evolutionary religion.
It is after becoming aware of oneself and of life that man turns to God to maintain himself in the sustainability of life and attain perfection; it is the beginning of faith which inaugurates true religion.
- The birth of flesh is the combination of two factors, the sperm and the ovum through procreation and gives a reality which is neither one nor the other, destined to grow into full humanity.
- Spirit birth is the combination of two factors through religion, the human and the spiritual and gives a reality, the soul, which is neither destined to grow to full spirit status.
- The birth of a child is a mother’s deliverance from nine months of labor.
- The birth of spirit is the deliverance of man assailed by the uncertainty of survival and imperfection.
- At birth the child exists in a world different from the world in which he was formed, the humanity that he will discover through experience.
- At the birth of the spirit, man exists in a world different from the material, the morontial which he will discover through experience.
¶ AURORA
It is said in The Urantia Book that the birth of religion is not sudden but gradual, that sooner or later, one day, there is a birth of the spirit.
As far back as I can remember, as a child, I prayed. Particularly when my father fell ill when I was 8 or 9 years old and died when I was 15. I was very angry at that time and at the same time, I needed to know and especially to be reassured if there was life after death.
Living, at that time such a painful experience allowed me to ask myself existential questions. It was only when I had my first child that all these questions came back and the answers obtained gave birth to Aurore who evolves every day in God, by God and with God. I keep the date in me and never forget to thank God on June 3, for me, my zth birth was on June 3, 2003, when a person told me; God lives in you!
I, who after so many years, have always thought that God was outside, worse beyond our world and untouchable. I understand and accept all the experiences lived as THE PATH chosen by God so that I am to this day a woman conscious of him in me and especially with this immense need to do his will.
¶ EMILIE
So here is a table (I like it 
) to compare, according to my experience, the two births (excluding the birth of any intermediate religion: I went from skeptical atheist to birth of Spirit directly… without the intermediate step of any other institutionalized religion.)
| BIRTH OF A BABY (seen from the baby’s perspective) |
BIRTH IN THE SPIRIT (seen by the human) |
|---|---|
| Mid-pregnancy: comfort zone, comfortable environment, we stay there comfortably. Familiar ground. | Before birth in Spirit: material comfort zone (even in pain or negativity), we don’t want to leave known and familiar ground. |
| End of pregnancy: the middle becomes too narrow, we feel that the middle will no longer allow us to continue growing. We move a lot, we move uncomfortably, but we don’t come out yet… we are well attached to the middle (and to the cord). | End of the second “pregnancy”: the comfort zone is no longer so comfortable. We feel cramped, slowed down, no longer in tune with the middle. We move, we deny the obvious, we move mentally, we are uncomfortable, and we stay there for fear of losing. |
| Contractions. The living environment no longer suits us. To survive we have to get out, it’s no longer time to choose. We have to get out and the environment makes us understand this… everything pushes us to get out. We feel movement outside… something will welcome us. For the moment… we struggle. We have to get out. It’s tiring, trying, we’re afraid… outside is the unknown. | The “contractions”: The environment also makes us understand that it’s time for us to change in order to grow… otherwise it’s death… the death of the soul. We struggle to save what we can… without success… we have to leave everything. Review everything… we throw ourselves into the unknown. The suffering is there, we feel that something better awaits us. We are afraid. |
| Cord cut: It’s time to breathe for ourselves. There’s no going back. | Cord cut: We breathe the divine air for the first time. There’s no going back. |
| Rest, feeding, the first hours of life: The baby must sleep a lot, let go and recover from these trials. He must be fed, he asks for milk, attention, love. Everything no longer happens to him in the cord, he must manifest himself. His growth can continue. He is in a new dimension. The baby is fragile, he will consolidate himself as he grows physically. | After birth: Fatigue, need for spiritual food and drink (I am a baby with a good appetite lol), I must learn to ask the Adjuster (and no longer believe that everything comes ready-made), I must invest myself in this divine path. Spiritual growth is underway. A new dimension. The newborn is still fragile. He will consolidate himself as he grows spiritually. |
Does a succession of births await us? Good growth to all. 
¶ MICHELLE
Just as the birth of a child is the fruit of conscious and vigorous efforts, the birth of religion in the human mind is an active, positive, courageous, voluntary experience. For true religion promotes neither moral indolence nor acedia.
The religion of the spirit is a work that requires determination and a positive state of mind like that of a mother giving birth.
For my part, after a fairly long gestation where religion developed consciously in me, I experienced a crisis of religious identity and questioning of my beliefs. Which triggered the pains of childbirth and a new birth: the birth of the spirit, under the impulse of my divine monitor who with patience and love, guided me towards a new state of religious awakening.
I then understood, perceived and felt that this birth was the prelude to upheavals and inner transformations that I accepted with humility, confidence and joy. “Perplexity is inevitable in religion; there can be no growth without psychic conflicts and spiritual agitation. The organization of a philosophical standard of life leads to considerable commotions in the philosophical domain of the mind. It is not without struggle that one exercises one’s loyalty to what is great, good, true and noble.” [UB 100:4]
¶ MOANA
Before meeting my twin flame Kény, I went through a whole bunch of personal, religious, professional, romantic, travel, etc. experiences.
What profoundly transformed me, I think, and prepared me to finally welcome into my life what I had wanted more than anything for a long time, that is to say, to find my twin flame and create our little family together (I was so impatient even though patience is such a remarkable quality), was my meeting with Brigitte Cave, her brother David, their niece Ervine Teixeira, Brigitte’s daughter too, Herenui, with whom I began to read and then study The Urantia Book. These were intense and magnificent moments of preparation, of dazzling development of my religious faith in the company of beings (those mentioned just before) true ones filled with goodness and beauty!!! We were also lucky enough to meet Guy who helped us write our letter to the Father and many other experiences.
My wonderful blessing of love Wailani (which literally means heavenly water in Hawaiian, so rain and by extension blessing) is 19 months old. I carried her for 9 months in my belly before giving birth and “giving her life”. A friend also told me that when my daughter was born she would give birth to me her mother and to Kény her father. We wanted to have a baby and all the conditions were met and we were both ready after deciding that our relationship would be triangular with God in our lives (thank you my fairy godmother Brigitte). When we conceived Wailani, it was as if I “felt” the fertilization taking place in me at the moment it was happening. It’s weird to explain but it’s the truth. Then the first month of pregnancy, no visible change, still in shape and “pep”. But strangely, as soon as the pregnancy test was positive and confirmed by the gynecologist, there, wow, surprising and immediate changes in my body: great fatigue, vomiting and nausea, loss of appetite even though I am a big foodie (even the strawberry tart from a famous local pastry shop didn’t go down well, to say the least), hypersalivation… all things that I would describe as really embarrassing or even extremely disturbing.
Very quickly I had to stop my professional activity while how many women in the world work until the day they give birth… Me, who is rather strong by nature, rarely sick, and had a very active lifestyle, well there, bang, a real wreck. Twice hospitalized for dehydration because I even rejected water. Weight loss. I didn’t recognize myself at all. It still lasted 3 to 4 months.
When finally, all this passed and I was able to eat again, wow, I quickly gained weight again, too much even, more than 30 kg; the midwife didn’t know what to do… All these hormonal, internal changes were accompanied by my move from Tahiti to New Caledonia and consequently an adaptation to my new host country as well as life as a couple with Kény and learning to live together. Then the in-laws to get to know too…
Fortunately, and this is the most important thing in this story: my baby was growing perfectly in my womb, all my energy was dedicated to her, she was in very good health according to all the visits. During the pregnancy, I read a lot about education, the first years of a child’s life, healthy eating, gentle and natural methods/medicines of care (no epidural), etc. I learned a lot. I was well supported by my partner, my in-laws. My mother came for the birth, from Tahiti to New Caledonia.
The childbirth preparation classes were great with meditation, creative visualization, learning different positions for pushing, breathing and company. I’m going to sound stupid but that’s where I discovered that it’s the mother who does the work of giving birth and not the midwife!!! I had always heard that it’s the midwife who gives birth, but that’s wrong, she helps the mother give birth and the baby to be born.
The birth itself: a real experience so rich and beautiful despite the pain of the contractions and the pain of giving birth, the delivery lives up to its name. I thought of all the women who had been through it before me and despite that, I felt like I was the first to experience it, nothing else and no one else existed. When Wailani was born, I “fell in infinite love” for her. I “fell in love” with my daughter. What joy to finally see her because I couldn’t imagine who she would look like!!! What joy to hold her against me, to breastfeed her, to feel her, to be able to sing her lullabies, caress and kiss her, whisper words of love to her!!!
Today she is 19 months old and the joy of seeing her blossom remains strong. We see her evolve from an infant stage (eating, sleeping, peeing, pooping) to a baby who reacts, who awakens to life with so much force, then a little girl who is happy with the autonomy she seeks (“reading” alone on her pouf or with us, eating alone, going to the potty, putting on her boots by herself, her schoolbag because she goes to 2 mornings a week of after-school workshops in an alternative school where they garden, cook, speak English, feed the geese, chickens and rabbits, etc.). The desire to speak is great, the words come little by little. She makes herself understood despite these gaps which will be filled little by little. We notice progress every day. And we see her being born into life each time more and more each time better in fact.
I tell you about my experience as a woman and a mother to link this to the birth of religion in the mind of man and ultimately to the birth of the spirit.
Indeed, just like the creation of my baby and its gestation in my womb, I find that the birth of religion in the mind of man is preceded by a whole process of creation or fertilization of the Thought Adjuster with the man as well as a lot of preparation work of a physical, emotional, mental and finally spiritual nature.
Before pregnancy — A whole bunch of more or less pleasant experiences going through phases of discouragement, great disappointments, questioning, rejection then acceptance, anger then peace. Many tests, more or less positive. In reality, only experiences, neither good nor bad. However, all this with an ultimate goal that remains the same: the search for the truth. During my personal development phase with the “positive energy” group, I remember starting yoga to find peace. In hindsight, what I was really looking for was God. When, for all these years, I spoke to my father (who died when I was 21) looking towards the sky (especially at night when it was magnificently starry) asking him to guide me towards the best, asking him to help me choose the best path, thanking him for the values he left me, crying with rage sometimes too and reproaching him for having abandoned me… it was to my heavenly Father that I spoke.
Then, finally, when we are called to do the right but incomprehensible thing, which seems crazy in the eyes of others (sometimes close ones like family), but that finally, the right person is put on our path by God, that it does not correspond to what we imagined in form, well we must jump in and accept getting completely wet!!! And there, wow, what is happening is marvelous.
It’s the same when you have Urantia Live in your hands!!! When you sincerely feel that you are approaching the divine, that you feel something beautiful, good, true happening!
Fertilization — The seeds of religion may have been planted quite consciously and lovingly.
1st month of pregnancy — At the beginning, even if we don’t feel religion in ourselves, that doesn’t mean there is nothing; religion is in its embryonic stage and its presence is real.
3 to 4 months of pregnancy following — Then, when we have confirmation that it is indeed there, this causes upheavals in our lives because we put things in order, or else these are internal (hormonal) and external (moving to a new land) upheavals inherent to the presence/manifestation of the Thought Adjuster within us: doubts, fears (of the unknown), worries.
Rest of pregnancy — During this period of gestation, other changes are noticed in one’s life through new learning, new encounters. We find support, brothers and sisters with whom to share and exchange our experiences. We document ourselves, we prepare to fully welcome this new life by working on ourselves. We choose, we determine more firmly what we wish to welcome and who we want to become. We make new discoveries such as that the “work” ('childbirth) is to be done by oneself (it is the mother who gives birth) even if we are helped (by the midwife). In fact, that we are actors in our own right and conscious of the development of our religion and therefore of the deepening of our personal relationship with God. We cannot remain passive but we must participate actively or even be the main actor so that the birth takes place! Well, a little peremptory perhaps. It would be more accurate to say that we are one of the main actors alongside the Thought Adjuster, our living divine fragment already present within us for, oh, ages!
Birth — Birth of religion in the mind of man. Each experience and each person being unique, each birth is also, and this although this birth has taken place for a multitude before us. And this happens whether we are ready or not, still the fact is that when this birth takes place, our life is changed forever while being accompanied by another birth: a rebirth to oneself… We are happy to discern better and better what this personal religion is made of, we learn to Know it, to rub shoulders with it and to evolve together. It’s magnificent!
Growth — Birth of the mind. Here I make the analogy with my daughter who has been growing for 19 months and all that she has experienced since then in terms of developments, learning, discoveries. Speech is starting to come, autonomic. I marvel at her progress every day. The first 2-3 years of a being’s life are the most important for their development as a human and will determine their future balance. For me this corresponds to the natural evolution towards the birth of the mind. There is a whole natural process (biological, physiological) that happens all by itself. On the other hand, the birth of the mind is increased and encouraged when we provide it with the best ground to develop (a loving home), when we stimulate it with various supports (educational, activities), when we feed it good things (healthy food), when we communicate directly with it, when we consider it as a being in its own right, and when we find it important, when we congratulate it. There are also adjustments to be made. In these conditions, God has plenty of room to intervene and continue to pour out His abundant blessings on each of us.
So this is how I make the analogy between the birth of a human and the birth of religion in the mind of man and ultimately the birth of the spirit.
¶ MUSTAPHA
The birth of a human in the physical sense is more about the process of integration into material realities, through the mechanism of the senses, until the emergence of the first five adjutants.
The birth of religion in the human mind begins with the installation of the adjutant of worship, which results in the conception of God. The emergence of this adjutant also denotes that our type of consciousness also becomes a shared consciousness with God. At this point God (the Adjuster) has succeeded in finding us, even if we do not know it. The birth of spirit in the human mind denotes the activity of the adjutant of wisdom and results in the consciousness of God, which is manifested by our seeking Him after He has already found us, and as a consequence of His finding us.
Beyond the birth of the spirit and as a culmination of this activity, through a transformative activity of our being, we receive the fruits of the spirit of this search. This is reflected in the fact that we seek to resemble God, to ensure that “it is our will that His will be done.”
It is the growing sensitivity to the Spirit of Truth of the Son which then constitutes our Source of daily inspiration.