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What do the Urantia Papers say about mind?
The Urantia Papers' concepts about mind are most similar to those found in Whitehead's Process Philosophy1--which has it that even primary particles down to sub-atomic levels are, to some extent, 'minded,' and this mindedness is grounded in the 'consequent' nature of God.
In the Urantia Papers, the source of all things is the 'First Source and Center,' also referred to as God, the Universal Father, etc., who is a different entity from a finite 'God of the Universes' given the name the 'Supreme Being.' Whitehead solved his need to have both a transcendent and a finite aspect of God, by giving two natures to his concept of God, uniting them as just one God having both a 'primordial' and a 'consequent' nature--the former being transcendent while the latter is God's finite aspect.
Previously an already famous professor of mathematics at Oxford, England, at the age of 63, Whitehead was offered the position of professor of philosophy at Harvard in 1924, a position he retained until he was 77 years of age. He is best known for his book, 'Process and Reality,' published in 1939 on the subject matter of his lectures. It is interesting that Whitehead's tenure at Harvard was contemporaneous with the period of receipt of the Urantia Papers.
For Whitehead, his primordial aspect of God is the source of all that is possible while his consequent nature of God is the source in the finite world that offers these possibilities as choices to whoever or whatever is doing the choosing. For the Urantia Papers, the Absolutes of Infinity are the storehouse for all such possibilities and these become available as needed in the finite universes where they then repose with the Supreme Being.
But whether the names the Papers give to functions of deity are names for independent entities, or are simply names for the functions, is uncertain. However, functionally, they have the same creative duties to perform as do Whitehead's two aspects of the same God.
About the origin of mind, the Papers are more detailed than Whitehead. They state the origin of mind to be from the cosmic mind of the third person of the Trinity, the Eternal Spirit from whom it is routed via the Master Spirits to the Universe Mother Spirit, thence via the Adjutant Mind Spirits to the animal life forms of their worlds. At a lower level, the Master Physical Controllers serve as controllers and directors of the pre-adjutant mind levels, the levels of non-teachable or mechanical mind. (403)
Perhaps this reference to mechanical mind means that the Papers are speaking of a similar function for mind way beyond material life and all the way to the sub-atomic as did Whitehead. This is suggested by: "the nonteachable mind functions on many levels beside that of primitive planetary life." (480)
For simplifying purposes, at its higher levels mind and its functions may be pictured as a fields centered in the Universe Mother Spirits--somewhat like a compass operating in the magnetic field of a planet. Each compass operates to point direction in an apparently inexhaustible field, at least unless and until it is demagnetized. When death 'de-magnetizes' our minds, we have to find a new mind source, something that is accomplished on the mansion worlds where our new mind goes through a long series of adaptations that finally render it suitable as spirit-mind.
For mankind, mind is in addition to personality, body, and soul. Our earth-mind dies when we die. But personality, from which we derive self-consciousness and free will, is a permanent pattern that stays with us to eternity. On the mansion worlds we are reconstituted with that same personality, a new mind and 'body', and our same God-Spirit, the Adjuster, that also brings our soul and those memories of everything from our former life that had spiritual meaning and value.
Reference
A.N. Whitehead (1937) Process and Reality.
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