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How big is Paradise?

Well, let's stop and do some real thinking now. Paradise has no distance, because distance is a function of space. Let me help you in your semantics a little bit.

When you say that you weigh 145 pounds, what are you saying? Are you describing the mass of your body? Yes, in practical, loose language, you are. But actually what you're describing is the action of Urantia gravity on that mass. The term pound is a measure of gravity action, because if you moved into a different gravity field, you would weigh more or less.

What would you weigh on Jupiter? Less than a thousand pounds--you wouldn't be able to move. If you get on the moon and live there, you wouldn't weigh 145 pounds, you'd weigh--what? --50 pounds, something like that.

All right, distance is a function of space as the term pound is a function of gravity. If you want a good math term which is independent of gravity, there is such a word. It's called a pound-bell. That's the unit of mass. But what we call pound is a function of gravity.

Distance is a function of space. I don't think there are any distances on Paradise. What is on Paradise? The papers refer to Paradise area. And they point out that Paradise area is non-spacial, hence serviceable in many ways that we don't visualize. Our whole concept of size goes out the window when we think about Paradise. It's interesting to note that the concept of proportion stands up; they can give us Paradise proportions regardless of space. And they give us those proportions. If you take the east-west dimension of Paradise, then the north-south dimension equals one and one sixth, or 7/6ths, and the up-down dimension equals one tenth.

Audience: Well, what's the one, then?

One--

Audience: Is the east-west?

--is the east-west, yes. And the north-south equals one and one sixth, a little longer.

Audience: Longer--

And very flat.

Audience: --and very flat.

And you get there a basic pattern which determines the pattern of everything else. That Paradise ellipse is reflected in all the concentric space levels of the master universe. Everything is elliptical.

I like this statement--here again you get an idea of proportion-- They say that where upper Paradise is laid to the periphery is a sharp edge. But then they hedge, and they say that Paradise is so enormous that even though this is a sharp edge in proportion, it's imperceptible as you traverse it.

Please note a good example of the humility displayed by the authors of these papers. This paper is being written by a Perfector of Wisdom. He is a coauthor of paper 1, who among other things, says, "I portray the reality and truth of the Father's nature and attributes with unchallengeable authority; I know whereof I speak."

One of this Divine Counselor's colleagues introduces the discussion of neither Paradise with the statement: "Concerning neither Paradise, we know only that which is revealed; personalities do not sojourn there." I have a little more respect for authority when it admits ignorance in certain areas. And the author of the paper is saying to us here: This is what we've been told, we've never been there. This is second-hand information.

Apparently, what goes on in nether Paradise--as Fred Squires put it, he said, "God lives on the first floor, and he's got the furnace in the basement."

That's a good homely way of looking at it. This is the furnace room, the boiler room, of the universe of universes. And about all that we know anything about is this outermost zone of activity. We don't know anything about the centermost zone of activity. It's called the "unknown and unrevealed Zone of Infinity."

How 'bout that? And it's surrounded by an unnamed area. They aren't even going to bother naming it; they just tell us that it's there.

Now the third zone, we know a little something about. It's a triconcentric arrangement, this third zone. And the innermost sub-zone appears to the be the location of the functions of Paradise as a material governor. I think of Paradise as a material heart, pumping energy. The outermost sub-zone is the central focalization of the Unqualified Absolute.

Yes?

Audience: Are you speaking of nether Paradise?

Yes. Of nether Paradise, right. The outermost sub-zone is the central focalization of the Unqualified Absolute. The force pressure at the north end of the Isle is greater than elsewhere, and this gives us the basis for absolute direction.

Since Paradise is flat, you know which way is up and down. And given a greater out-pressure at one end of the Isle, that can be defined as north. And all other directions now follow.

We are used to thinking of space as a nothing. And it isn't. It is a something. It exists in relation to something which is not space, which these papers refer to as mid-space. Let me suggest some things to you which will help you get a feel for the space that they describe. When water freezes, why doesn't it contract as most things do when they freeze? Of course, if water contracted when it froze, the oceans would freeze from the bottom up, and it would have been impossible ever to have evolved life on this planet, because if you ever got them frozen on the bottom, they'd never thaw out, would they? The sun's rays would never penetrate.

It's very handy that water expands when it freezes, isn't it? How does water expand? Well, let's consider the nature of matter. Matter exists in space, does it not? And space also exists in matter. This table is quite solid, isn't it? And yet, this table is made up of cells which, in turn, are made up of molecular chains, and these molecules are made up of atoms. And these atoms contain a nucleus with orbital electrons. And the relative relationship of the electron to the nucleus is very much like the relationship of the planets in our solar system to the sun. And our solar system is mostly empty space, isn't it?

Are you with me? An atom is mostly empty space. As a physicist would view this table--I remember reading this first in Edington years ago--this table is mostly empty space.

When you look at it that way, you can easily see why a spiritual being like a Solitary Messenger freely moves through matter. It's mostly empty space.

We can then make a statement that space is a property of matter. Matter exists in space; space exists in matter.

When water freezes, it traps some more space, hence becomes less dense. There is less mass in a given volume. Are you with me? Density is merely an expression of the relationship between mass and volume. More mass in a given volume--dense, like lead. Less mass in a given volume--less dense, like feathers. You know?

Water is a space trapper. And what it traps is real. It changes the physical properties of the material substance. Ice floats.

Let's see is we can catch water monkeying around with space in any other direction. If you take some water--just to keep this thing chemically clean, let's take 100 cc of distilled water. Put it in a beaker, take off a reading, you've got so much volume of water. Take some table salt, sodium chloride, measure the volume of the sodium chloride. Put the salt in solution, in the water. When you take a reading on your graduated beaker, the volume of the solution is less than the volume of the water plus the volume of the salt. This is from wierdsville. But it happens. How can you explain it? I offer this solution: When water takes something into solution, it gives up some space, so that you have a smaller volume than the sum of the two.

This is a well-known physical fact.

You've always been exposed to this statement: that gravity diminishes as the square of the distance traversed. Sound familiar? All right, let me run a switcharoo on you. Space is a positive reality in the universe which so acts on gravity as to cause it to diminish as the square of the distance traversed. That's just as valid a statement.

Space is real. These papers introduce the concept of space in relationship to mid-space, and they point out that space has the property of being something that is conducive to motion. I assume a physical thing. Whereas mid-space is resistant to motion.

If you had the means of transit--let's be Buck Rogers-ish and get us a space ship.And we start up, at right angles to the plane of the milky way, which is Orvonton. If we could travel long enough, we would begin to run out of space, and begin to run into mid-space. How would we know this? Our ship would slow down. We are encountering a condition in reality which resists motion.

Let's say we are applying 100 units of energy, and achieving 100 units of velocity. And all of a sudden our velocity's been cut down to 10, with the same application of energy. So we step her up to a 1000 units of energy, and we move up again to 100 units of velocity.

We stick our snout a little deeper into mid-space, and I think our velocity would fall off again. And we step her up to 10,000 units of energy. And no matter how much energy we apply, I think as we would penetrate mid-space, we would eventually encounter equal resistance to motion. Until finally, even with the most Buck Rogerish space ship, we would run out of jets. We just wouldn't have any energy to draw on. That's as far as we'd go into mid-space.

I don't think you bounce on mid-space. I just think you encounter increasing resistance to motion. Time is something we deduce. They make the point that relationships to time do not exist without motions in space, but consciousness of time does. And there are three levels of time consciousness: as mind perceives it, as spirit perceives it, and as personality creates a unique time-consciousness.

The only truly non-temporal place is Paradise area. Gosh, I can't visualize that. I think that Paradise citizens have a concept of sequence, but it's non-temporal sequence. I think they have an understanding of source relationships, but they aren't necessarily temporal, sequence, source relationships.

There's an interesting comment here as to why you have to go to sleep when you finally enter Paradise. You go there before with only a student's visa. When you take out your citizenship papers, you have to make formal entry through the mid-space zone. And that's where you leave time as a creature, and enter eternity.

In the third paragraph on page 137, you have another interesting comment on space relationships: "The Unqualified Absolute pervades all space. . . The Deity Absolute may be universally present but hardly space present."

The Deity Absolute is a spiritual reality. He might have a relationship to space, but he is not in space.