This is indeed a strange topic for our "Favorite Places" segment. But if you have the stamina, read on and discover the reality of a revelation.

   "Evolving energy has substance; it has weight, although weight is always relative, depending on revolutionary velocity, mass, and antigravity. Mass in matter tends to retard velocity in energy; and the anywhere-present velocity of energy represents: the initial endowment of velocity, minus retardation by mass encountered in transit, plus the regulatory function of the living energy controllers of the superuniverse and the physical influence of near-by highly heated or heavily charged bodies….

   "Given a sufficient duration of retarding influence, gravity would eventually convert all energy into matter were it not for two factors: First, because of the antigravity influences of the energy controllers, and second, because organized matter tends to disintegrate under certain conditions found in very hot stars and under certain peculiar conditions in space near highly energized cold bodies of condensed matter.

   "When mass becomes overaggregated and threatens to unbalance energy, to deplete the physical power circuits, the physical controllers intervene unless gravity's own further tendency to overmaterialize energy is defeated by the occurrence of a collision among the dead giants of space, thus in an instant completely dissipating the cumulative collections of gravity. In these collisional episodes enormous masses of matter are suddenly converted into the rarest form of energy, and the struggle for universal equilibrium is begun anew. Eventually the larger physical systems become stabilized, become physically settled, and are swung into the balanced and established circuits of the superuniverses. Subsequent to this event no more collisions or other devastating catastrophes will occur in such established systems.

     "During the times of plus energy there are power disturbances and heat fluctuations accompanied by electrical manifestations. During times of minus energy there are increased tendencies for matter to aggregate, condense, and to get out of control in the more delicately balanced circuits, with resultant tidal or collisional adjustments which quickly restore the balance between circulating energy and more literally stabilized matter. To forecast and otherwise to understand such likely behavior of the blazing suns and the dark islands of space is one of the tasks of the celestial star observers….

     "The superuniverse of Orvonton is apparently now running down; the outer universes seem to be winding up for unparalleled future activities; the central Havona universe is eternally stabilized. Gravity and absence of heat (cold) organize and hold matter together; heat and antigravity disrupt matter and dissipate energy. The living power directors and force organizers are the secret of the special control and intelligent direction of the endless metamorphoses of universe making, unmaking, and remaking. Nebulae may disperse, suns burn out, systems vanish, and planets perish, but the universes do not run down." (176)

Commentary

   To include a Section, primarily on physics, as a "Favorite Place," probably seems extraordinary to most readers. But this Section, as well as many others like it, is capable of exciting true wonderment if we are old enough or knowledgeable enough to be familiar with the historical background.

   In 1955, this Urantia Book Section could appear to  be a fanciful extract from a science fiction novel. For one thing, antigravity was considered to be nonsense by most of the physics fraternity. Only recently has it attained a degree of respectability. And despite Einstein's E = mc², very few people believed that energy could be converted to matter or that the weight of an object could be affected by its rate of rotation.

   Nowadays we might not be surprised to read something like: "Bottomonium, for example, is what you get by putting together a bottom quark and its antiquark. They can come together to form a number of different mesons, depending on how they move relative to one another. The simplest is the "upsilon." It has the lowest energy--and the smallest mass--because the bottom quark and its antiquark rotate about one another as slowly as possible. Set these quarks rotating more vigorously, and you get other mesons with larger masses."

   More science fiction? No, it comes from a serious 1998 discussion on lattice quantum chromodynamics computations. For more information ask a physicist.

   "Highly energized cold bodies of condensed matter" from the Urantia Paper quotation could only mean black holes to the modern day physicist. Pre-1960's, condensed matter was known to exist in white dwarf stars but these could have a surface temperature in the order of 3000 degrees. The then hypothetical neutron star was even more condensed but both the neutron star and black holes remained undiscovered.

   A respectability status for black holes is a very recent acquirement. In 1939, after