© 1986 Charles Laurence Olivea, John Lange
© 1986 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
This little essay is written in the hope that I may take advantage of the notion expressed in The URANTIA Book which suggests somewhat gently that universe romancing in the search for truth is often characterized more by insight than fact.
Probably, you have heard of the idea (however phrased) that, although “love” is real, it is impossible to “hold” it as it is possible to hold a baseball or fountain pen in your hand. Since our life vehicle is a material body, we can relate easily to physical reality. The superuniverse of Orvonton in which we live contains both physical and spiritual realities, but these dimensions do not contact each other anywhere in this time-space segment of the grand universe. Even though our body and brain consists of energy-matter, we humans possess mind capacities that enable us to bridge the reality difference between physical and spiritual realities. This is the creature function of human mind.
Charles Laurence Olivea
Watertown, Connecticut
Through the ages mortal man has sensed something vital growing within him destined to endure beyond the short span of his earthly life. Thus the concept of the soul has found its way into many of the planetary systems of religious thought. Early man associated the soul with blood, breath, shadows, and reflections in the water; and later it was thought to indwell various physical organs — the eye, kidney, liver, heart, and finally the brain.
With a growing awareness of man’s rich spiritual heritage, the concept of the soul began to take on various meanings as he reached out in his desire to know God. The Egyptians evolved the clearest picture with their belief in the ka and the ba, the spirit and the soul respectively. Lao-tse taught the ascension of man to spiritual union with Tao, the Eternal Deity and Absolute Creator. Despite his lofty teachings, failure along the true path to God-consciousness among the Chinese precluded a clearer picture of the evolving immortal soul. Gautama Siddhartha did not perceive the personality of the One Universal and thus did not believe in the existence of individual human souls.
John Lange, M.D.
Fort Smith, Arkansas
“Truth is a spiritual reality value experienced only by spirit-endowed beings who function upon supermaterial levels of universe consciousness, and who, after the realization of truth, permit its spirit of activation to live and reign within their souls.” (UB 180:5.3)