© 2023 Urantia Association of Spain
I am currently an entrepreneur in the nutrition sector based in Geneva, Switzerland. Although in the past I have worked in the areas of banking and finance, strategic business consulting and international business, as well as in the world of entrepreneurship in innovation and corporate digitalization.
I am originally from Mexico, and in addition to Switzerland, I have lived in the US, the UK, France and Germany. I am not yet married and am single with no children. In addition to loving my family, friends and spirituality, I love philosophy, psychology, technology, scientific research, entrepreneurial inventiveness and innovation, art, music, cooking and yoga.
¶ 1. How did you come across The Urantia Book and why do you think you found it?
Through my brother Victor, who when we were teenagers introduced me to the books The Trojan Horse and The Rebellion of Lucifer by the Spanish writer Juan José Benítez. It was in this last book where my brother Victor found the first reference to what J.J. Benítez then referred to as the “Iurancha Foundation.”
Years later—in 1993, to be precise—by chance, Victor located the first Spanish translation of The Urantia Book in a bookstore in Mexico City. We read “the blue book” together, although my brother did it in Spanish and I used the original version in English.
I think one of the possible reasons for having found him—perhaps the most obvious, in retrospect—was the intense spiritual and intellectual curiosity that we both shared, partly through family influence and experience, and partly as a result of what I would call an “inner calling.” An unconscious search for truth through discernment of possible philosophical answers to the essential questions of the origin and purpose of human existence that troubled us, as I think they trouble many of us when we are teenagers, thirsty to establish a credible, coherent and sensible personal version of the world and the universe—and our reality in them.
¶ 2. What was your first impression when reading it?
I suppose my first impression was more pure and spiritually unconscious, since, as I mentioned, it was based on the various volumes of the Trojan Horse series—which, as we know, plagiarize large sections of the fourth part of The Urantia Book.
From those readings, two aspects stand out that initially captivated me: the exquisite beauty of the passages in which Jesus expounds his teachings to the apostles and his affirmations about eternal spiritual life beyond this planet. Two aspects that began to give congruence, purpose and meaning to my life. As soon as I found out that The Urantia Book is the original source without the adulterations of J.J. Benítez, it awakened in me a keen interest in reading the entire fifth epochal revelation in its entirety.
Speaking of The Urantia Book itself, one of my earliest memories is of reading the table of contents thinking, “This book is finally going to answer many of my philosophical and spiritual questions that still lack satisfactory answers.” After reading the prologue, I realized that it would be a very complex and extraordinary book, which simultaneously caused me enormous curiosity and a kind of fear coupled with an intense desire to face the intellectual challenge it presented.
Once I finished reading document number one, I remember going back to the beginning and reading it several times before moving on to number two. I felt intellectually amazed and enlightened, but also confused and aware that I was going to need a dictionary at my side at all times!
¶ 3. At what point in the reading (document, sentence, etc.) did you accept that The Urantia Book is really what it claims to be?
In reality, I never harbored any a priori doubts about the veracity of The Urantia Book. I suppose that the more logical, rational, skeptical and common sense-seeking part of my mind has guided me since my initial reading and throughout my study of the book for more than thirty years now.
What I do remember upon completing my first complete reading of Part One (including, as I mentioned, re-reading documents I found difficult to discern) is the feeling—I would say intuitively—that in The Urantia Book I had been given access to the invaluable treasure of epochal divine revelation. I realized that the supreme technical simplicity, linguistic beauty, and dialectical mastery with which highly complex concepts, definitions, and personalities are presented and correlated were extraordinary and were not comparable with any of the human works I had hitherto read.
Throughout decades of study, this initial conviction has only been strengthened and enriched, leading me to my current level of living faith in the compelling divine and universal reality of the values of truth, beauty and goodness presented in The Urantia Book. Values that are manifested in a tangible and wonderful way in all the relationships that make up the reality of our daily material living.
¶ 4. How has The Urantia Book changed your life?
Perhaps the most simplified way to answer this question would be to say that The Urantia Book has offered me clarity about:
- The divine and intelligent source of all matter, energy and forces that govern, synchronize and coordinate all creation of the universe.
- The divine origin of life, of the evolution and progress of the cosmos, of my human individuality and of the collective that integrates all my relationships with my environment.
- The potential of the eternal destiny of my personality, in the exercise of my sovereign freedom of choosing universal divine values and service out of love in my current existence.
¶ 5. Has your faith changed after reading it? If so, in what way?
The Urantia Book opened my mind and soul to the reality of personal spirituality in direct relationship with God and in service to others. This allowed me to abandon the atheism into which I had fallen as a rejection of all the absurdities and manipulations of institutionalized faith organizations.
¶ 6. Is there any point (or points) of the revelation that you find difficult to accept?
Although there are points that are difficult for me to accept, there are great challenges that are difficult for me to achieve. For example, The Urantia Book invites us to learn to authentically and selflessly love one more human being each day. But it also teaches us that such love is the result of a deep understanding of our fellow human beings. In the reality of the demands of daily living, it is very complex and challenging to be able to achieve this each week, not to mention each day!
“You cannot truly love your fellows by a mere act of the will. Love is only born of thoroughgoing understanding of your neighbor’s motives and sentiments. It is not so important to love all men today as it is that each day you learn to love one more human being. If each day or each week you achieve an understanding of one more of your fellows, and if this is the limit of your ability, then you are certainly socializing and truly spiritualizing your personality. Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. If each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity to such an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be the realization of the brotherhood of man.” (UB 100:4.6)
¶ 7. What is the part that has impressed you most deeply?
Perhaps the knowledge that not even the revealers themselves can explain the nature and source of planetary life endowment. They know where it comes from, but not how it is obtained. That is one of the greatest secrets of the universe, specifically centered on the person of the Infinite Spirit and the creative-distributive power of its progeny. For this very reason, they reveal to us that humans will never be able to create life.
“There are some things connected with the elaboration of life on the evolutionary planets which are not altogether clear to us. We fully comprehend the physical organization of the electrochemical formulas of the Life Carriers, but we do not wholly understand the nature and source of the life-activation spark. We know that life flows from the Father through the Son and by the Spirit. It is more than possible that the Master Spirits are the sevenfold channel of the river of life which is poured out upon all creation. But we do not comprehend the technique whereby the supervising Master Spirit participates in the initial episode of life bestowal on a new planet. The Ancients of Days, we are confident, also have some part in this inauguration of life on a new world, but we are wholly ignorant of the nature thereof. We do know that the Universe Mother Spirit actually vitalizes the lifeless patterns and imparts to such activated plasm the prerogatives of organismal reproduction. We observe that these three are the levels of God the Sevenfold, sometimes designated as the Supreme Creators of time and space; but otherwise we know little more than Urantia mortals—simply that concept is inherent in the Father, expression in the Son, and life realization in the Spirit.” (UB 36:6.7)
¶ 8. How do you understand “doing the will of the Father”?
Doing the will of the Father demands knowing what the will of the Father is, which is that each one of us, given the various material, mental and spiritual gifts and ministries that have been given to us, achieve:
- Realize our highest level of discernment of divine truth through worship, and
- Realize our highest level of beauty and spiritual progress in service through sincere and genuinely selfless love.
¶ 9. Have you become conscious of the presence of your Adjuster?
No.
¶ 10. Have you tried to put the Master’s teachings into practice? What has been the result?
I still try every day. The most evident and palpable manifestations of my efforts have been a gradual, but clearly progressive and growing abandonment:
-Of my spiritual and intellectual doubts and distrusts, and
- Of my fears, anger and emotional anxieties due to uncertainties or temporary material and emotional inadequacies.
¶ 11. Do you think that The Urantia Book has something “mysterious” that makes not everyone decide to read it?
The “mysterious” is, to offer a definition, something that we do not know well, that seems hidden. Most of those who uncover the complexities of The Urantia Book, due to their inability to, or lack of interest in, studying it in a structured and disciplined way, choose to abandon it. This prevents many from overcoming the apparent “mystery” that The Urantia Book imposes.
In my opinion, the book presents a great cognitive, intellectual, emotional and material challenge for most of us who study it. Discerning the highest meanings and value of its truths and teachings, and integrating them in a practical way into daily life, requires time commitments and radical changes in habits and inertia that most are not prepared to offer.
But studying it is one of the wisest decisions one can make, because the path of spirituality is the perfect path to stability and the realization of the greatest intellectual, affective, emotional and material potentials. But those who have not put it into practice do not understand it, in part due to the current perception - somewhat prejudiced, somewhat distorted - and bad reputation that surrounds topics such as spirituality, religion and sincere brotherly love.
¶ 12. Is there anything else you would like to say regarding The Urantia Book?
I only invite all those interested in The Urantia Book to dare to open their minds and hearts to new realities derived from divine revelation that have enormous potential to be transcendental in improving the quality of their relationships and the results of their intellectual, emotional and professional efforts. Growing spiritually feeds the virtuous circle of human existence in an extraordinary and highly peculiar way in each one of us.
¶ References
- Index of the magazine “Luz y Vida” of the Association of Spain
- This article from the magazine “Luz y Vida Online”