© 2024 Robert Gallo
© 2024 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
| Repersonalization | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 106 — June 2024 | AFLLU Conference 2025 In Paris (France) AFLLU |
What follows is a very relative attempt to grasp this vast domain that is Paradise. An identical and equally relative approach will certainly follow, thanks to the information given to us by the revelators, on Havona as well as on the personalities who reside on this central Paradise-Havona universe. There are certainly in the definitions and information given by the revelators on this theme, certain analogies with our lives as mortals on the planets of a local system such as ours.
We may suspect that despite the distances that separate us from the inhabitants of this central universe and also from their quality of divinity, a distant echo reaches us through the very functions of their respective attributions. This in particular through the incomparable circuit of reflectivity orchestrated by the personality of Majeston located at the very center of Paradise, even if it must however be mentioned that the knowledge and the plans of our Thought Adjusters are not integrated into the phenomenon of reflectivity.
First particularity, the Isle of Paradise has a location in the universe, but no position in space. The name “Paradise” in the Urantia Book without further qualification is “The absolute material-gravitational control of the First Source-Center”.
Three principal terms are used in the vocabulary of The Urantia Book concerning realities emanating from Paradise:
The material gravity circuit is located and geographically centered in lower Paradise, and all energy-matter metamorphic states respond to this material gravity circuit.
“The numerous forms of cosmic force, physical energy, universe power, and various materializations disclose three general, though not perfectly clear-cut, stages of response to Paradise gravity:”
- Pregravity Stages (Force). This is the first step in the individuation of space potency into the pre-energy forms of cosmic force. This state is analogous to the concept of the primordial force-charge of space, sometimes called pure energy or segregata.
- Gravity Stages (Energy). This modification of the force-charge of space is produced by the action of the Paradise force organizers. It signalizes the appearance of energy systems responsive to the pull of Paradise gravity. This emergent energy is originally neutral but consequent upon further metamorphosis will exhibit the so-called negative and positive qualities. We designate these stages ultimata.
- Postgravity Stages (Universe Power). In this stage, energy-matter discloses response to the control of linear gravity. In the central universe these physical systems are threefold organizations known as triata. They are the superpower mother systems of the creations of time and space. The physical systems of the superuniverses are mobilized by the Universe Power Directors and their associates. These material organizations are dual in constitution and are known as gravita. The dark gravity bodies encircling Havona are neither triata nor gravita, and their drawing power discloses both forms of physical gravity, linear and absolute. (UB 11:8.4-7)
The Eternal Paradise is the absolute of archetypes just as the archetype of personality is bestowed upon the Eternal Son. Just as the latter cannot bestow personality, Paradise also bestows no archetype. In contrast to the aspect of the total, the archetype reveals the individual aspect of energy and personality.
In Paradise time and space do not exist; the space-time status of Paradise is absolute.
To give us some pointers regarding the origin of Paradise, in the philosophical concession that the revelators of the Urantia Book make to us with the term “I AM”, we are obliged in an arbitrary manner to apply a chronology to facts of eternity.
“In this original transaction the theoretical I AM achieved the realization of personality by becoming the Eternal Father of the Original Son simultaneously with becoming the Eternal Source of the Isle of Paradise. Coexistent with the differentiation of the Son from the Father, and in the presence of Paradise, there appeared the person of the Infinite Spirit and the central universe of Havona. With the appearance of coexistent personal Deity, the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, the Father escaped, as a personality, from otherwise inevitable diffusion throughout the potential of Total Deity. Thenceforth it is only in Trinity association with his two Deity equals that the Father fills all Deity potential, while increasingly experiential Deity is being actualized on the divinity levels of Supremacy, Ultimacy, and Absoluteness.” ([UB 0:3.22)
“A STRANGE thing occurred when, in the presence of Paradise, the Universal Father and the Eternal Son unite to personalize themselves. Nothing in this eternity situation foreshadows that the Conjoint Actor would personalize as an unlimited spirituality co-ordinated with absolute mind and endowed with unique prerogatives of energy manipulation. His coming into being completes the Father’s liberation from the bonds of centralized perfection and from the fetters of personality absolutism. And this liberation is disclosed in the amazing power of the Conjoint Creator to create beings well adapted to serve as ministering spirits even to the material creatures of the subsequently evolving universes.” ([UB 9:0.1)
“Paradise is the universal headquarters of all personality activities and the source-center of all force-space and energy manifestations. Everything which has been, now is, or is yet to be, has come, now comes, or will come forth from this central abiding place of the eternal Gods. Paradise is the center of all creation, the source of all energies, and the place of primal origin of all personalities.” ([UB 11:9.7)
These chapters allow a digression on the subject of personality which apparently only became actual when the First Source and Center assumed his status as Eternal Father of the Original Son.
In order to locate the geographical position of the absolute personality of Deity, we are pointed to the higher or spiritual plane of Paradise.
Another mysterious quote UB 0:4.13: “Heaven is not a creator. Heaven represents nothing and nothing represents Heaven. Heaven is a particular physical substance, a ”homogeneous organization of space power… This source matter of Heaven is neither dead nor alive, it is the original non-spiritual expression of the First Source and Center." UB 11:2.9.
UB 0:4.11: “Heaven is a term which includes the personal and nonpersonal focal Absolutes of all phases of universe reality. Properly qualified, Paradise may designate all forms of reality, Deity, divinity, personality, and energy—spiritual, mental, or material.” The tensions, to use a term often used by revelators, between Paradise and space are balanced by the associative presence of the Universal Absolute.
“PARADISE is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.” (UB 11:0.1)
“The Father is always to be found at this central location. Did he move, universal pandemonium would be precipitated, for there converge in him at this residential center the universal lines of gravity from the ends of creation. Whether we trace the personality circuit back through the universes or follow the ascending personalities as they journey inward to the Father; whether we trace the lines of material gravity to nether Paradise or follow the insurging cycles of cosmic force; whether we trace the lines of spiritual gravity to the Eternal Son or follow the inward processional of the Paradise Sons of God; whether we trace out the mind circuits or follow the trillions upon trillions of celestial beings who spring from the Infinite Spirit—by any of these observations or by all of them we are led directly back to the Father’s presence, to his central abode. Here is God personally, literally, and actually present. And from his infinite being there flow the flood-streams of life, energy, and personality to all universes.” ([UB 11:1.4)
“As the upholder of spirit realities, the Second Source and Center is the eternal counterpoise of the Isle of Paradise, which so magnificently upholds all things material. Thus is the First Source and Center forever revealed in the material beauty of the exquisite patterns of the central Isle and in the spiritual values of the supernal personality of the Eternal Son.” ([UB 7:0.3)
“Like the material gravity of Paradise, the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son is absolute. Sin and rebellion may interfere with the operation of local universe circuits, but nothing can suspend the spirit gravity of the Eternal Son. The Lucifer rebellion produced many changes in your system of inhabited worlds and on Urantia, but we do not observe that the resultant spiritual quarantine of your planet in the least affected the presence and function of either the omnipresent spirit of the Eternal Son or the associated spirit-gravity circuit.” ([UB 7:1.7)
Concerning the Eternal Son we can see that relatively few chapters give information concerning him. Within the Isle of Paradise chapter 0:5.5 can possibly justify these remarks:
“The Universal Father is the secret of the reality of personality, the bestowal of personality, and the destiny of personality. The Eternal Son is the absolute personality, the secret of spiritual energy, morontia spirits, and perfected spirits. The Conjoint Actor is the spirit-mind personality, the source of intelligence, reason, and the universal mind. But the Isle of Paradise is nonpersonal and extraspiritual, being the essence of the universal body, the source and center of physical matter, and the absolute master pattern of universal material reality.” (UB 0:5.5)
In the other Booklet UB 9:1.7 which follows, the duality which situates the Eternal Son and the Isle of Paradise, perhaps allows us to agree on their status which is both individual and moreover complementary, which finds their symbiosis through the very existence of the Infinite Spirit:
“And herein is an infinite mystery: That the Infinite simultaneously revealed his infinity in the Son and as Paradise, and then there springs into existence a being equal to God in divinity, reflective of the Son’s spiritual nature, and capable of activating the Paradise pattern, a being provisionally subordinate in sovereignty but in many ways apparently the most versatile in action. And such apparent superiority in action is disclosed in an attribute of the Third Source and Center which is superior even to physical gravity—the universal manifestation of the Isle of Paradise.” ([UB 9:1.7)
However, the revelation of the Urantia Book contains innumerable paradoxes such as that concerning the presence and action of the Eternal Son in Paradise. Indeed, we have just read above UB 0:5.5, “the Island of Paradise is non-personal and extra-spiritual”, and we can read concerning the gravity of Spirit UB 7:1.1: “This exclusively spiritual circuit leads directly back to the person of the Second Source and Center in Paradise”. Also in UB 7:2.1: “In Paradise, the presence and personal activity of the Original Son are profound and, in the spiritual sense, absolute”.
At this stage of our investigations we can possibly try to evoke that through the UB 0:4.13: “Paradise is not creative… It represents nothing and nothing represents it” and also accept the fact that it is the mysterious abode, for us mortals, of three Deities of Infinity and the three Absolutes of Infinity.
One manifestation of the Eternal Son is revealed through the Creator Sons emerging from Paradise, who compensate for the lack of personal or residential manifestation of God in the local creations.
“And herein is an infinite mystery: That the Infinite simultaneously revealed his infinity in the Son and as Paradise, and then there springs into existence a being equal to God in divinity, reflective of the Son’s spiritual nature, and capable of activating the Paradise pattern, a being provisionally subordinate in sovereignty but in many ways apparently the most versatile in action. And such apparent superiority in action is disclosed in an attribute of the Third Source and Center which is superior even to physical gravity—the universal manifestation of the Isle of Paradise.” (UB 9:1.7)
“Paradise is the pattern of infinity; the God of Action is the activator of that pattern. Paradise is the material fulcrum of infinity; the agencies of the Third Source and Center are the levers of intelligence which motivate the material level and inject spontaneity into the mechanism of the physical creation.” ([UB 9:3.8)
“The Universal Father presides over the realms of pre-energy, prespirit, and personality; the Eternal Son dominates the spheres of spiritual activities; the presence of the Isle of Paradise unifies the domain of physical energy and materializing power; the Conjoint Actor operates not only as an infinite spirit representing the Son but also as a universal manipulator of the forces and energies of Paradise, thus bringing into existence the universal and absolute mind. The Conjoint Actor functions throughout the grand universe as a positive and distinct personality, especially in the higher spheres of spiritual values, physical-energy relationships, and true mind meanings. He functions specifically wherever and whenever energy and spirit associate and interact; he dominates all reactions with mind, wields great power in the spiritual world, and exerts a mighty influence over energy and matter. At all times the Third Source is expressive of the nature of the First Source and Center.” ([UB 9:1.4)
“The Conjoint Actor seems to be motivated by the Father-Son partnership, but all his actions appear to recognize the Father-Paradise relationship. At times and in certain functions he seems to compensate for the incompleteness of the development of the experiential Deities—God the Supreme and God the Ultimate.” ([UB 9:1.6)
“All these material activities of the God of Action appear to relate his function to the Isle of Paradise, and indeed the agencies of power are all regardful of, even dependent on, the absoluteness of the eternal Isle. But the Conjoint Actor does not act for, or in response to, Paradise. He acts, personally, for the Father and the Son. Paradise is not a person. The nonpersonal, impersonal, and otherwise not personal doings of the Third Source and Center are all volitional acts of the Conjoint Actor himself; they are not reflections, derivations, or repercussions of anything or anybody.” ([UB 9:3.7)
“Roughly: space seemingly originates just below nether Paradise; time just above upper Paradise. Time, as you understand it, is not a feature of Paradise existence, though the citizens of the central Isle are fully conscious of nontime sequence of events. Motion is not inherent on Paradise; it is volitional. But the concept of distance, even absolute distance, has very much meaning as it may be applied to relative locations on Paradise. Paradise is nonspatial; hence its areas are absolute and therefore serviceable in many ways beyond the concept of mortal mind.” ([UB 11:2.11)
“Time and space are inseparable only in the time-space creations, the seven superuniverses. Nontemporal space (space without time) theoretically exists, but the only truly nontemporal place is Paradise area. Nonspatial time (time without space) exists in mind of the Paradise level of function.” ([UB 12:5.3)
“Like space, time is a bestowal of Paradise, but not in the same sense, only indirectly. Time comes by virtue of motion and because mind is inherently aware of sequentiality. From a practical viewpoint, motion is essential to time, but there is no universal time unit based on motion except in so far as the Paradise-Havona standard day is arbitrarily so recognized. The totality of space respiration destroys its local value as a time source.” ([UB 12:5.1)
“Time is not reckoned on Paradise; the sequence of successive events is inherent in the concept of those who are indigenous to the central Isle. But time is germane to the Havona circuits and to numerous beings of both celestial and terrestrial origin sojourning thereon. Each Havona world has its own local time, determined by its circuit. All worlds in a given circuit have the same length of year since they uniformly swing around Paradise, and the length of these planetary years decreases from the outermost to the innermost circuit.” ([UB 14:1.11)
Reading the booklet “The Eternal Island of Paradise” allows us to explore the rather particular concept of space and time from an unusual angle, with terms such as “volitional and indirectly”, which can lead us to think that for space the geographical position is acquired, because its periphery is already limited.
As for time, already within the four outer rings of the worlds in creation of the Ultimate, the movement and propagation of stellar creations determine its progression, without the “volitional” phenomenon being in action. This volitional term logically requires the presence of a personality who will determine by its manifestation a new scale of value with the phenomenon of time. Which can lead us to suppose that time coming out of the High Paradise, in the same way as space coming out of the Lower Paradise, both invade the totality of reality. And they are modified, interpreted, thanks to the level within which the different personalities acting hierarchically in the manifestation of reality manifest themselves.
Here are the two definitions of time and space that The Urantia Book offers us:
Here are Sophie Malicot’s comments on the subject of time and space, which I totally agree with:
"Chapter UB 22:7.10 tells us that the Trinitized Sons study the concepts of time. This implies that time is undoubtedly not homogeneous and that it manifests itself differently depending on the places and stages of its actualization.
In other words, time is used in different ways by the Deities depending on the goals They set.
Can we compare time to matryoshka dolls? These Russian dolls contain another doll inside them, then another etc. Thus time at the absolute level contains the time of the Ultimate which contains the time of the Supreme which is expressed by our linear time.
This represents the segregation of potentials, which arbitrarily limit the extent of their manifestation but not their conception as a plan, which is said in the quote:
“2. Eventuation of universe capacities. This involves the transformation of undifferentiated potentials into segregated and defined plans. This is the act of the Ultimacy of Deity and of the manifold agencies of the transcendental level. Such acts are in perfect anticipation of the future needs of the entire master universe. It is in connection with the segregation of potentials that the Architects of the Master Universe exist as the veritable embodiments of the Deity concept of the universes. Their plans appear to be ultimately space limited in extent by the concept periphery of the master universe, but as plans they are not otherwise conditioned by time or space.” ([UB 118:4.6)
Our difficulty is that we reason from our linear conception of time—a succession of sequences—to extend it toward eternity. But the Deity goes the opposite way. Imagining time according to their process allows us to conceptualize time more and more in a circular fashion.
Since there is incessant progression in the advancement of the divine plans, at this Ultimate level, space and its “variation in the connectedness of objects in the universe” will be the ground where the Ultimate will use time for the connectedness of personalities. The plan will no longer be to go towards perfection as we understand it, but on the acquired and surpassed ground of the perfection of the Supreme level, “we” will develop the perfection of personality connectivities.
So as we investigate the elements of the revelation which are devoted to the Isle of Paradise, a question perhaps emerges in the background of our intellects:
Why persist in trying to understand a domain so far removed from us mortals?
As far as I am concerned, the acceptable answer lies in the very fact that the revelators saw fit to expose all these phenomena to us by means of a book, our Urantia Book, which opens up a colossal field of investigation concerning these subjects, certainly intellectual, but currently necessary as scaffolding to access them later.
These two paragraphs may possibly lead us to think this:
“Faith has gained, for ascending pilgrims, a perfection of design which opens the doors of eternity to the children of time. Now, the pilgrims’ helpers must undertake to develop the perfection of intelligence and the technique of understanding which are indispensable to the paradisiacal perfection of the personality.”
“Faith has won for the ascendant pilgrim a perfection of purpose which admits the children of time to the portals of eternity. Now must the pilgrim helpers begin the work of developing that perfection of understanding and that technique of comprehension which are so indispensable to Paradise perfection of personality.” ([UB 26:4.14)
| Repersonalization | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 106 — June 2024 | AFLLU Conference 2025 In Paris (France) AFLLU |