© 1961 William S. Sadler Jr.
© 1975 Urantia Foundation
Existential reality does not (of itself) grow; experiential reality does. The Growth of experiential reality implies the partnership of creator and creature. To grow is characteristic of experiential deity. UB 116:0.3 The growth of experiential reality is expansive; it may induce growth in pre-existent and non-growing existential reality. (Appendix IV § 4-B)
As we view the present process of experiential growth, it appears to have a dual relationship — a relationship to that which came before it, and a relationship to that which will follow it. The present mechanisms of experiential growth seem to govern in the post-Havona ages of the master universe. These mechanisms do not seem to have been operative in relation to the eternity-appearance of the central creation. Still other mechanisms will probably become operative in the ages after the completion of the entire master universe. As we perceive these three different mechanisms, they may be described as follows:
In the following Appendix, “Transformative Techniques,” we will examine certain of the several methods whereby reality is converted from the potential to the actual state. In this Appendix we are undertaking the study of those mechanisms that underlie, and make possible, these transformative techniques of an experiential nature — the mechanisms of experiential growth.
In the last analysis, everything that is real (at least all experiential reality) comes from the Seven Absolutes of Infinity. UB 0:3.1
There are several ways in which these Absolutes can be classified. One way is to place them in three categories: Original, Actual, and Potential. UB 115:3.5 We are informed UB 115:3.9 that the interaction of the Original, the Actual, and the Potential accounts for growth on all levels — Sevenfold, Supreme, and Ultimate. We will accordingly consider these Absolutes as follows:
(a) The Original
UB 115:3.6 The First Source and Center, the source from which all reality takes origin.
UB 115:3.11 That which is. (A time concept of the Original)
UB 115:3.12 That which balances all of the out-going and the incoming motions of growth.
The Original is something that does not properly classify as either Actual or Potential. The Original is the source of both the Actual and the Potential. The Original is, in and of itself, both actual and potential — yet neither, it is Original!
(b) The Actual
UB 115:3.7 The Three Absolutes of Actuality: the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and the Isle of Paradise.
UB 104:5.2-6 The Triodity of Actuality: the Son, the Spirit, and the Paradise Isle.
(ibid) The total of all actualized reality: matter, mind, and spirit.
UB 115:3.10 The triodity in which actuality is absolute; all potentials are emergent.
UB 12:3.1-5 The gravity control over spirit, mind, and matter, centering respectively in the Son, in the Spirit, and in the Isle of Paradise.
UB 115:3.11 Actuals are defined as: that which was and which is. (This is the time concept of actuals).
UB 115:3.12 Actuality is substance — it is existent at the center and is expanding outward into infinity at the periphery.
The Actual embraces the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and the Paradise Isle. These are the respective Centers of all spirit, all mind, and all physical energy. All actual and actualizing reality is related to these three gravity Centers and is securely held in the grasp of one (or more) of the three gravity circuits — spiritual, mindal, or material. These three Sources and Centers, when associated in function, are designated as the Triodity of Actuality.
© The Potential
UB 115:3.8 The Three Absolutes of Potentiality: the Deity Absolute, the Unqualified Absolute, and the Universal Absolute.
UB 104:5.7-11 The Triodity of Potentiality, the association of the three Absolutes: Deity, Universal, and Unqualified.
(ibid) The sum total of the unlimited reservoirs of latent energy: spiritual, mindal, or material energy. (In potential, this total reservoir is infinite.)
UB 115:3.10 The triodity in which all potentials are absolute and all actuals are emergent.
UB 115:3.11 Potentials are defined as: that which is becoming and which will be. (This is the time concept of potentials.)
UB 115:3.12 Potentiality is capacity; it is incoming from peripheral infinity and is converging at the center of all things.
The Potential consists of the three Absolutes: the Deity Absolute, the Universal Absolute, and the Unqualified Absolute. These are the sources of new spirit, new mind, and new matter. All such new realities emerge from these limitless sources. When associated, these three Absolutes are designated the Triodity of Potentiality. Growth, whether creative or evolutional, is not a process of getting something for nothing, or something from nothing. Growth involves a transformative transaction concerning the transfer of reality from a potential level of existence to an actual level of existence. Concerning these transactions, the Papers say:
“The final dynamics of the cosmos have to do with the continual transfer of reality from potentiality to actuality.” UB 115:3.16 All new things (spiritual, mindal, or physical) emerge from the Potential by creative or evolutional processes and are eventually grasped by one (or more) of the gravity circuits centering in the Actual. (For the purposes of this discussion this statement is virtually true, but there is some obscurity concerning the emergence of mind, and there are more than two [creative and evolutional] transformation techniques. See Appendix VIII)
Growth in the master universe is a subabsolute process; it is taking place on the finite level (in time and space) and on the absonite level (in transcended time and space). This means that something, or someone, has to operate on the potentials of the Absolutes in order to down-step them to the point where they become responsive to the actions of subabsolute beings functioning on subabsolute levels. Concerning this process, the following statements are made in the Papers:
UB 115:3.13 The Potential (the three Absolutes) never functions as such on subabsolute levels.
UB 12:6.6 The presence-performances of the Absolutes and the activities of the Ultimate always precede the work of the time-space creators.
UB 12:6.13 Within the master universe, the Ultimate is working out “the creative organization” of the Absolutes of Potentiality.
UB 117:3.2 The Supreme Being is the channel that carries the creative potential of the triodities to the finite level, and this is the source from which the superuniverses and their native beings are created.
UB 115:2.3-4 Experiential creation and evolution is the conversion of potentialities into actualities; and this equally applies to the potency of spirit, to space potency, and to mind potency.
UB 118:7.7 From the larger and superfinite perspective, creators really are “transformative creators.”
We can now set forth our concept of the mechanism of experiential growth: The basic potentials are absolute, and they must somehow be reduced to subabsolute potentials before they can become serviceable to finite (and absonite) levels of activity. This work of downstepping absolute potentials is performed by the Supreme and the Ultimate. When they have done this work, then these modified and matured potentials become serviceable to the creators and the controllers of the time-space universes. In the larger sense, an act of creation is an act of transformation; it is the transformation of a “matured potential” into a new actual — some new thing or some new being.
As an illustration of this: We are informed UB 38:1.1 that a local universe Creative Spirit usually creates seraphim “. . . in unit formation — 41,472 at a time . . .” As we visualize this episode, at one moment there are no seraphim present and the next moment, there they are — all 41,472 of them! But this unit of seraphim did not come from nothing or nowhere; they came (emerged) from something that was somewhere. The “something” was a matured potential, and the “somewhere” must have been the presence of the Supreme — the presence in which the matured potential was held in a state of suspense.
(In case this seems to be altogether simple and clear, it can be complicated just a little: The Infinite Spirit and the Master Spirits are, in some manner, involved in certain phases of this process of maturing potentials. UB 42:2.8; UB 16:4.8,11-12 This is true concerning the maturation of physical force into emergent energy and then to the levels of universe power. And, if this is true of the maturation of the potentials of a physical nature, it may also be true concerning the maturation of potentials of a spiritual and a mindal nature.)
The experiential deities do something more than simply down-step absolute potentials to those subabsolute levels on which such potential become responsive to the acts of the creators and organizers of the presently evolving universes. In this process the experiential deities impart qualities of their respective natures to these maturing potentials. Such potentialities are, so to speak, held in suspense within the presence of the experiential deities — the master-universe everywhere-presence (omnipresence) of the Ultimate UB 118:2.1), and the grand-universe many-where-presences (ubiquity) of the Supreme. UB 118:2.3 With regard to this conditioning of maturing potentials, the Papers state:
UB 115:3.14 The Actual (triodity) serves as the center of total actualized reality. In the finite realms it functions in and upon the Ultimate as he is conditioned by the Supreme.
UB 115:4.5 The Actual and the Potential (triodities) appear on the finite level in conjunction with the Supreme, by both direct and indirect techniques. They are manifest by direct repercussion in the Supreme, and by indirect derivation through the absonite.
UB 117:3.12 Man was not created by the Supreme Being, but the potentiality of the Supreme Being provided the wherewithal out of which man emerged.
(ibid) All finite creatures have their being and existence within the grand-universe presence of the Supreme.
The presence of the Supreme makes possible the growth of all finite creatures; his nature seems to determine the basic natures of these same creatures — they become like the Supreme. Something analogous to this happens on a slightly smaller scale in each superuniverse; each of the supercreations is pervaded by the Master Spirit of jurisdiction. The unique nature of this supervising Spirit so permeates his superuniverse that all native beings “. . . will forever bear this badge of natal identification.” UB 16:5.2 In like manner does the Supreme pervade and condition the growth in the grand universe. So, in turn, must the Ultimate condition all growth in the entire master universe.
Growth in the present universe age is inseparable from the evolutionary Growth of the Supreme Being. To understand more about our own growth we must understand something about his growth. If we associate certain statements that are made in the Papers, we may clarify our thinking concerning the origin, functions, growth, and unification of the Supreme Being.
UB 104:5.12 The Actual and the Potential (triodities) are concerned directly with the growth and the appearance of the experiential deities.
UB 115:6.5 The Supreme is in motion: intensively toward the Actuals at the center and extensively toward the Potentials in the periphery.
UB 115:4.2 God the Supreme, as a spirit person, derives from the Paradise Trinity. The growth of the Supreme derives from the Actual and potential (triodities).
UB 118:10.2 In functions, the Almighty is related to the Paradise Trinity. In growth, the Almighty centers on the Actual and predicates on the Potential.
UB 115:4.7 The growth of Supremacy depends on the Actual and the Potential (triodities), but the power of the Almighty depends on the divinity successes of God the Sevenfold.
(ibid) The synthesis of almighty power with the spirit person of the Supreme takes place by virtue of Supreme Mind, and bestowal of the Infinite Spirit.
The Supreme derives his spirit person from the Trinity and his almighty power from the Sevenfold, and these are united by Supreme Mind. His acts are related to Trinity functions. But the actual “stuff” from which, and with which, he grows is derived from the Absolute Potential and is based on the Absolute Actual; the Supreme is accordingly in dual motion in the direction of both.
UB 115:4.6 Total finite reality (and this is Supreme Reality) is growing dynamically between the Absolutes of Potentiality in outer space, and the Absolutes of Actuality at the Paradise center.
All of this growth of the Supreme is a transaction involving the transfer of reality from the potential to the actual. From something can come something; from nothing can come only nothing.
We may logically deduce all the growth that is characteristic of the present age is due to the incompleteness of the Supreme, and to the fact that we are all participating in, and contributing to, his growth. UB 117:2.8-9 Finite experience with imperfect choice is possible only because we are participants in the growth of Supremacy.
UB 118:7.3 “Error in finite choosing is time bound and time limited. It can exist only in time and within the evolving presence of the Supreme Being.”
This type of growth, growth in and with the Supreme, is peculiar to the Second Age. It began when the Supreme began to grow; it will end when his growth has come to an end.
UB 31:10.12 Sometime the Supreme will have completed his growth and the chance to be a participant in this experience will be forever gone.
Evolutionary growth, as we know it, is a very temporary condition in the master universe. It did not exist in the First Universe Age, the age of non-growing Havona. It will not exist in the post-supreme ages, the ages of the outer space universes.
Does the growth pattern of the evolutionary Supreme completely pervade the grand universe of the present age? The general answer to that question would be, “Yes.” But, if we ask, “Are there exceptions?” the answer would also be, “Yes.”
The inhabitants of the present grand universe appear to classify into four major division as they are related to the typical evolutionary growth characteristic of the Second Age — growth with and in the Supreme Being.
This is the picture of the overlap of all four growth techniques: The First Age type of non-growth, involving the existential mechanism — the age of non-growing Havona perfection. The Second Age type of growth, the age of grand universe participation in the evolutionary growth of the Supreme Being and including all finite-growing creatures and creators. The post-supreme type of growth, including those beings who are not growing at present because they “are not in the Supreme” in the sense of sharing his growth; beings held in reserve in order to participate in the post-supreme growth of the outer space universes. And finally, the post-ultimate beings whose natures are so remote from the affairs of the present age that they are non-participating in the events of the grand universe.
As we pass from the age of Havona to the present universe age there is a change in the growth potential of the central creation. In the First Age, Havona was entirely non-growing, non-evolutionary. In the Second Age, Havona entered into grand universe relationships, and since then, has take on some of the characteristics of the evolutionary growth of the superuniverses. UB 24:7.9 How did this come about? If we can better understand this change, then we can better forecast what may happen in the grand universe at the end of the current age, when we enter upon the events of the universe ages of the outer space levels. The growth of the present age is associated with the growth of the incomplete-Supreme UB 117:2.9; the growth of the future ages of the outer universes will be characterized by a growth process that is post-supreme in nature. UB 117:2.7 This is Growth after the completion of the Supreme — after his emergence.
The static condition of non-growth in existential and eternal Havona was interrupted by the free will choice of God, who instituted the “growth cycle.” UB 105:5.4-6 The deity response to this act is the appearance of the potential of the Supreme UB 105:6.1) and the deity presence of the Ultimate. UB 105:7.5 Basically, this means the establishment of the presently-operating mechanisms of experiential growth. Stated otherwise, it appears to be an act that establishes the seven levels on which Total Deity functions in the present universe age. UB 0:1.3-10 As we view the changes that follow the completed evolution and the final emergence of the Supreme Being, we submit they will cause a modification of these seven levels of Total Deity function. These changes are suggested in the comparative tabulation below:
Present Levels | Post-Supreme Levels |
---|---|
1- Static | 1- Static |
2- Potential | 2- Potential |
3- Associative | 3- Associative |
4- Creative | 4- Creative |
5- Evolutional | 5- Super-evolutional |
6- Supreme | 6- Post-Supreme |
7- Ultimate | 7- Ultimate |
We are instructed UB 105:7.1-2 that transcendental growth is “superfinite and supercreatural,” and is “. . . super-experience as such is meaningful to creatures.” It does involve experiential and expanding development, but it is “super-evolutional.” This being the case, we submit that the fifth level of the function of Total Deity will shift from the “evolutional” to the “super-evolutional.”
We believe that the sixth level will also shift from a Supreme function (which includes the power-personality synthesis of the Supreme) to a post-supreme function of participation in transcendental growth. The Supreme Being is no longer an incomplete and emerging experiential deity; he has emerged and he is now a personal participant in the postfinite growth process on transcendental levels.
As an emerged experiential deity, we believe the Supreme no longer operates on the Potential side of the “cosmic ledger.” He has now become operative on the Actual side of the “ledger” — like the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. He no longer conditions potentials within his emerging presence; he now works with these potentials as they have been creatively organized by the Ultimate. UB 12:6.13
It is this emergence of the Supreme from the Potential to the Actual side of Reality that forever changes the whole potential for growth in the post-supreme ages of the outer space levels. Whatever it is that he does, here and now, in modifying and down-stepping potentials, then and there he will no longer do. And this means the end of all finite-experiential-evolutionary growth. The mechanisms of experiential growth will have entered upon their second phase of operation and experiential growth will have embarked on its second cycle. This must be the growth-cycle in which all concerned will work directly with potentials, as creatively organized by the Ultimate. This then, is postfinite growth, postcreatural growth, post-supreme growth. It is absonite growth, transcendental growth, growth pointing toward eventual ultimate status.
We may go back to recapitulate our study of the functions of the Actual and the Potential (triodities) in relation to the transcendental domains of the Ultimate. We observed that the Actual functions “in and upon the Ultimate,” and the Potential is manifest “with the Ultimate,” and both (triodities) are concerned with the appearance of experiential deity — including the Ultimate. To recapitulate:
UB 115:3.13 The Potential (the three Absolutes) never function as such on subabsolute levels.
UB 12:6.6 The presence-performances of the Absolutes and the activities of the Ultimate always precede the work of the time-space creatures.
UB 12:6.13 Within the master universe the Ultimate is working out the “creative organization” of the Absolutes of Potentiality.
So much is characteristic of the present universe age and would appear to remain unchanged by the emergence of the Supreme, but
UB 115:2.3-4 Experiential creation and evolution is, in essence, the conversion of potentialities into actualities. This is accomplished by “. . . experiential evolution in the finite and experiential eventuation in the absonite.”
We have a continuation of the mechanisms of experiential growth, but one step in the maturation of potentials has been removed — the former function of the emerging Supreme. The principle of experiential growth remains the same, but the absonite method differs from the finite technique. On the finite level it is experiential-evolution; on the absonite level it is experiential-eventuation (a super-evolutionary, super-experiential process that is supercreatural).
We know what post-supreme growth will not be. It will not be the kind of growth that characterizes the present universe age; that kind of growth is a part of the growth of the Supreme, and it will stop whenever he stops growing — when he has finally emerged as an actuality. UB 117:2.6 When finite-creature-growth-within-the-Supreme comes to an end, then what will post-supreme growth be? We are informed that:
UB 31:10.11 Outer space citizens will be deficient in one very important quality — finite experience.
UB 117:2.7 They will have a post-supreme capacity for growth which will be based on the fact of the completed Supreme Being, and will accordingly not have participated in the growth of the Supreme.
UB 0:7.4-5 Post-supreme growth will be experiential in nature.
UB 0:4.5 It will be evolutionary (eventuational) in nature. God the Ultimate is now “evolving.”
UB 0:9.2 It may be some type of eventuational growth; the Ultimate is a super-supreme eventuation of deity.
But we still do not know what post-supreme growth will be like. We may find it just as difficult to visualize post-supreme growth as did a Havona native who might have tried to conceive of evolutionary growth prior to the arrival of Grandfanda in the central universe. Neither we nor the Havoner can actually imagine outside the concept-frames inherent in our respective experiences. Perhaps the Havona native had to meet the moral ascenders before he could actually conceive that such evolutionary creatures could actually exist. And we will probably have to meet the outer-spacers in order to be able to conceive of them.
We can, however, be sure of one thing: Post-supreme growth will be something entirely new in the universe; it will be unlike anything that has ever happened in the First or the Second Age. We cannot visualize post-supreme growth, but we can take inventory of the potentials that will be operative in the outer space regions. These would logically include the following: postfinite, post-supreme, tertiary-supreme, absonite, transcendental, Ultimate, and pre-absolute.
Growth in the outer universes will have a meaning for finaliters, and quite likely, for their colleagues as well. Concerning ascending mortals, the Papers state:
UB 112:1.9 Urantia mortals have a type of personality that contains three dimensions of “self-expression or person-realization” that are realizable on the absonite level.
Our growth in the Supreme has to do with the realization of the first three dimensions of personality. (ibid) Our post-supreme growth will have to do with the unfolding of these three additional dimensions of personality — dimensions for which there is no possible expression in the present age of the evolutionary growth of the Supreme.
When we attempt a consideration of post-ultimate growth we are leaving behind the “mechanisms of experiential growth,” as we have studied them in this Appendix. Post-ultimate growth seems to involve a completely new alignment of the levels of Total Deity function — an existential-experiential mechanism of growth. Technically, such operational methods fall outside the purview of this Appendix and are considered in their proper context in Appendix XX § 5, The Post-Ultimate Change in Growth Potential, and Appendix XXVII § 3, The Existential-Experiential Mechanism of Deity Functions.
Technically, post-ultimate growth cannot be subabsolute. Perhaps the best definition of this level is given in the Papers UB 106:0.7 in the definition of the coabsolute level of reality. This level is defined as a “projection of experientials” beyond the master universe onto a larger field of expansion. This definition is elsewhere amplified:
UB 0:2.11 Post-ultimate growth is something that must take place beyond creative levels. The Ultimate is presented as the “final creative level.”
UB 0:2.12 If growth is to continue beyond the “creative level” then it would have to become “super-creative.”
UB 0:2.17-18 Post-supreme (transcendental) growth is something that has to do with super-personal values. Post-ultimate (absolute) growth has to do with values and divinity-meanings that are transcended-superpersonal.
UB 0:1.12-13 Post-supreme (transcendental) growth takes place on the absonite level, here time and space are transcended. Beyond this level (on the absolute level) the status would be timeless and spaceless.
Post-supreme growth is difficult enough to imagine, post-ultimate growth is even more difficult. Nevertheless, the finaliters are likely to find themselves involved in this kind of growth in the most-remote future. Consider the statements:
UB 112:7.1 Among other things, fusion with a Thought Adjuster adds “a phase of qualified potential absoluteness.”
UB 112:1.9 Urantia mortals have a type of personality bestowed upon them that contains a seventh dimension that is an “associable absolute,” and though it is not infinite, it still has the “. . . potential for subinfinite penetration of the absolute.”
UB 106:0.8 The absolute level of reality “. . . may involve some degree of associative experiential attainment . . . perhaps through the contact potential of personality.”
UB 106:7.4 Mortals have a potential of destiny that is absolute in value.
We are informed UB 0:5.2 that the potential for change and growth of nonpersonal reality is “definitely limited,” but there is no known limit to the progressive growth of personality — of personal creatures.