The Hidden Messages in The Urantia Book
Unfinished manuscript for a book by John Hyde
Note: Be sure to let document fully load in browser before selecting a chapterContents: Preface Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: What The Urantia Book Tells Us To Do Chapter 3: Hidden Messages? Chapter 4: The Great Challenge Chapter 5: The Hidden Messages Chapter 6: More on Cults and Cult Formation Chapter 7
Preface
Shortly after starting on this book, an acquaintance of mine, let's call him Brent Minocco, sold his few worldly goods and moved to Sedona, Arizona, to join the personality cult headed by "Gabriel of Sedona." I thought that, if nothing else, the timing was ironic.
Brent discovered TUB in the Unity Church bookstore, where he was a part-time employee. Brent was sincere and kind and willing to help when needed, though not a worldly person, so although he did not convey an air of "lack," he never was particularly prosperous, either.
Brent would show up from time to time at various UB-related events in the Dallas area. He was never really "committed" to the book or the group, but unlike others who came from metaphysical backgrounds who would either try to incorporate TUB into their preexisting belief system, or else eventually drift away, Brent would continue to pop up at the most unexpected of times.
Brent was a normal looking guy, perhaps a bit on the attractive side, yet I never saw him with a girlfriend or heard him refer to one. I'm pretty sure that he was not gay. So, what did he do with his life?
I'm not sure, though I did get the impression that he was somewhat devoted to the crowd at the local Unity Church. He was a server, who enjoyed being needed. Now, he is serving Gabriel of Sedona.
We the experienced and long-time readers of The Urantia Book have let the Brents of the world down.
This book is dedicated not only to the Brents in and out of the movement, but also to the lost souls who will become Fundamentalist Christians, because the Fundamentalists offer a clear-cut program for salvation to all, such as the male-stripper-turned-hair-stylist who was cutting my hair on a regular basis for a while many years ago.
Many years ago, a man whom I'll call Steve opened a hair styling shop around the corner from my restaurant. Steve became a regular customer of mine, and I of him.
Eventually I asked Steve what he had done before opening his shop. He told me, in all seriousness, that he had been a male stripper. But he had eventually gotten sick of that scene, and had made pretty good money, so he took it and opened his hair styling shop. I once asked him if the business was as "wild" as one's imagination might surmise. His answer was that it was wild beyond my imagination. He said that at one time or another he had done everything -- everything.
But guilt was starting to eat at him, I guess. One day Steve started asking me about religion while I was getting my hair cut. Though I had been reading The Urantia Book for about 5 years, and had read the entire book 2+ times, I was at a total loss as to how to help him. I did not have clear-cut answers to his questions. In fact, I had no answers, other than to suggest that he might want to read my book. He said that he wanted truth that would work, that had worked for others, not some new and untested book.
The next time he cut my hair, he asked me about my opinion regarding some Fundamentalist doctrines. I was uncomfortable with the questions he asked, and I told him that I was, that I felt that the philosophy he was considering was too heavy-handed to be of value. He replied that it didn't really matter, because the people he had met who were espousing these doctrines were so kind and accepting and supportive that he felt that they simply MUST have gotten something right. He planned to keep seeing them, he told me, unless I could offer a better alternative. The fact was that I couldn't. He eventually moved his shop to the other end of town, to be closer to the group of Christians who had befriended him
This book was written for the Brents and the Steves of the world, the lost souls who hunger for truth, and who chance to come into contact with readers of TUB before sacrificing their sovereignty of personality and debasing their dignity of self respect in search of a "ready refuge to which the distracted and distraught soul of man may flee when harassed by fear and tormented by uncertainty." We need to broaden the base of the readership by appealing to a wider range of people, including people who may never read the entire book, but are searching for the saving truth that Jesus' followers taught 2,000 years ago, without any book to guide them, after the resurrection and the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth.
This book is serious in some places, and tongue in cheek in others. I leave it up to the reader to figure out where each applies. Large portions of this book are designed to be entertaining and humorous, but then, the majority of this book is also written to make the reader think.
If you are a long-time reader of TUB, it is hoped that this book will help take you to "the next level." The hidden messages are actually "tools" to help YOU to better discern the Father's will, and to aid in presenting the concepts of the book to others, including nonreaders and the less experienced readers.
One more option in the evolution of the Urantia movement, not designed to replace anything.
Chapter 1, Introduction
Remember the parable of the talents? Here it is:
"As individuals, and as a generation of believers, hear me while I speak a parable: There was a certain great man who, before starting out on a long journey to another country, called all his trusted servants before him and delivered into their hands all his goods. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. And so on down through the entire group of honored stewards, to each he intrusted his goods according to their several abilities; and then he set out on his journey. When their lord had departed, his servants set themselves at work to gain profits from the wealth intrusted to them. Immediately he who had received five talents began to trade with them and very soon had made a profit of another five talents. In like manner he who had received two talents soon had gained two more. And so did all of these servants make gains for their master except he who received but one talent. He went away by himself and dug a hole in the earth where he hid his lord's money. Presently the lord of those servants unexpectedly returned and called upon his stewards for a reckoning. And when they had all been called before their master, he who had received the five talents came forward with the money which had been intrusted to him and brought five additional talents, saying, `Lord, you gave me five talents to invest, and I am glad to present five other talents as my gain.' And then his lord said to him: `Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things; I will now set you as steward over many; enter forthwith into the joy of your lord.' And then he who had received the two talents came forward, saying: `Lord, you delivered into my hands two talents; behold, I have gained these other two talents.' And his lord then said to him: `Well done, good and faithful steward; you also have been faithful over a few things, and I will now set you over many; enter you into the joy of your lord.' And then there came to the accounting he who had received the one talent. This servant came forward, saying, `Lord, I knew you and realized that you were a shrewd man in that you expected gains where you had not personally labored; therefore was I afraid to risk aught of that which was intrusted to me. I safely hid your talent in the earth; here it is; you now have what belongs to you.' But his lord answered: `You are an indolent and slothful steward. By your own words you confess that you knew I would require of you an accounting with reasonable profit, such as your diligent fellow servants have this day rendered. Knowing this, you ought, therefore, to have at least put my money into the hands of the bankers that on my return I might have received my own with interest.' And then to the chief steward this lord said: `Take away this one talent from this unprofitable servant and give it to him who has the ten talents.' (Paper 176)
A couple of paragraphs later the Midwayers comment on this parable:
"What a sorry sight for successive generations of the professed followers of Jesus to say, regarding their stewardship of divine truth: "Here, Master, is the truth you committed to us a hundred or a thousand years ago. We have lost nothing; we have faithfully preserved all you gave us; we have allowed no changes to be made in that which you taught us; here is the truth you gave us." But such a plea concerning spiritual indolence will not justify the barren steward of truth in the presence of the Master. In accordance with the truth committed to your hands will the Master of truth require a reckoning."
This parable was seemingly written as an indictment against those Christians who take a fundamentalist attitude toward the Bible, who view the teachings of Jesus as so sacred that they cannot be reinterpreted for this day and age, and the book itself as so sacred that one's life philosophy must be based strictly on the contents of the Bible.
But did you ever stop to consider that this passage is also a potential indictment of the readers of The Urantia Book?
Part A, The Dog Chasing His Tail
Folks who have been privy to the oral traditions surrounding the transmission of The Urantia Book are in universal agreement that prior to publication, the revelators made sure that all apocryphal documents were destroyed by the Contact Commission, although some members of the Urantia Foundation wanted to imply that a few "secret" written instructions continued to exist until the 1980s (this may be true, but in any event, it is unverifiable).
Yet there is one apocryphal document that was allowed to survive, though its authorship was originally attributed, publicly, to the early readers of the book. Nevertheless, all the early readers had died off, it became acceptable to admit in public that this was indeed one of the very last transmissions received from the revelators, in connection with the fifth epochal revelation. Though the exact wording may be impossible to obtain or document, this version is close enough for our purposes:
"We regard the Urantia Book as a feature of the progressive evolution of human society. It is not germane to the spectacular episode of epochal revolution, even though it may apparently be timed to appear in the wake of one such revolution in human society. The Book belongs to the era immediately to follow the conclusion of the present ideological struggle. That will be the day when men will be willing to seek truth and righteousness. When the chaos of the present confusion has passed, it will be more readily possible to formulate the cosmos of a new and improved era of human relationships. And it is for this better order of affairs on earth that the book has been made ready.
"But the publication of the book has not been postponed to that (possibly) somewhat remote date. An early publication of the book has been provided so that it may be in hand for the training of leaders and teachers. Its presence is also required to engage the attention of persons of means who may be thus led to provide funds for translation into other languages."
So, among other things, we were specifically told to train leaders and teachers.
But what type of persons does The Urantia Book readership primarily consist of?
Leader/teacher wannabes. Educated persons. Management-types.
Note that there IS a distinct element of the readership who prefer to "follow," but since they are a minority, there are no real teachers able to "step up to the plate" and take on the challenge of leading this poorly-defined faction of the readership, largely because peer pressure would not condone it in the face of the lessons learned from past and more recent traumatic or embarrassing episodes (Vern Grimsley, Martin Myers, and others).
So, who do we end up "leading and teaching"? Ourselves. The teachers teach the teachers, and the leaders jockey for the ability lead other leaders. We are like a dog chasing its tail.
The source of this conundrum, the root of the problem, is that the only way to train a teacher is for the teacher-trainee to teach, and the only way to train a leader is for the leader-trainee to lead. So, in our feeble attempts to halfheartedly obey the injunction (though that is rarely the real motive), we observe fairly new readers trying to share their newest insights with the more seasoned readers, and the seasoned readers taking interest, not in the material that is being presented, but in observing the fascinating process of inner growth of the aspiring future teacher/leader. While this is a valid interest, it is also a bit disingenuous on the part of the more experienced readers.
In short, our little movement is badly inbred.
The only solution to the inbred result of our chasing ourselves around in circles is to start bringing the CONTENTS of the book to the hungry masses (and they ARE out there). We need to cease ministering to hungry souls by handing them a book, and start feeding Jesus' sheep, as he asked (no, sorry, I mean TOLD) Peter to do.
But we don't even know where to start! We are so infected with the "glow in the dark" doctrine (let our light so shine that the people will come to US) that we feel wholly inadequate to the task of sharing the magnificent gospel of Jesus. Meanwhile, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, and now even the fundamentalists send TEENAGERS out to spread THEIR particular messages.
So, where do we start?
I believe that we start by asking ourselves what our core beliefs are.
Then we see how we are applying them (our core beliefs) in our lives. Note that core beliefs are those few portions of our beliefs (UB-originated or otherwise) that we have fully internalized, the ones that we understand so well that we could explain them without cracking the book open, without quoting the text at all.
Most readers, when offered an opportunity to introduce the book to a person one-on-one, flounder about like a bee drowning in a vat of honey. The book seems to defy description, and it certainly does defy summarization. But if we are ever to stop looking like members of a bad excuse for a cult, we are going to have to learn to hone in on the central messages of The Urantia Book.
What the more experienced readers need to do, in my opinion, is to try to decide what the broad, underlying themes of the book are, to identify the major elements of the revelation. Then, they the experienced readers, need to start openly promulgating these for what they are - one person's summary of the basic precepts of the fifth epochal revelation.
The remarkable thing is that if we were to start doing so, we would probably find, in just a few short years, that the various assessments by individual readers are in many ways similar.
But we have always been afraid of exercises like this in the past, because of the intellectual tyranny of certain elements of the leadership of the readership.
So, if we come up with a summary of the major messages in the book, and do so in an evolutionary fashion, is there a danger of a "Paulification" of the fifth epochal revelation? I doubt it, because the book still survives in (essentially) unadulterated form! Jesus left no writings, because his was to be a "living" revelation. But the drawback to this approach is that it invites corruption of his message, a phenomenon which began long before his crucifixion, and which did not seem to bother Jesus in the least.
But there is practically no danger of this with this revelation, because it is NOT a living revelation, it is a book!
But why would we want to try to summarize the book, to identify its major themes, its underlying philosophical foundations?
Simple - so that we can provide our readers with ammo to use in everyday situations. Also, because the revelators (well, at least one of them), tells us that we should.
Part B, The Hidden Messages in The Urantia Book
At the end of paper 87, the Brilliant Evening Star of Nebadon discusses the nature of cults (in the non-inflammatory sense of the word). He makes many useful comments that would be fun and informative to analyze, but that would involve writing several books, so to keep this discussion on-topic, we'll just look at a few of his comments. Also, we will not always take his comments in the order presented.
For starters, our movement has desperately tried to pretend that this statement is not really in The Urantia Book:
"Regardless of the drawbacks and handicaps, every new revelation of truth has given rise to a new cult, and even the restatement of the religion of Jesus must develop a new and appropriate symbolism. Modern man must find some adequate symbolism for his new and expanding ideas, ideals, and loyalties."
Let's we as a movement stop this game of denial, stop lying to ourselves (the most destructive type of lie), and admit that The Urantia Book is going to spawn various and multiple factions, cults, and religions. Indeed, the first two are already clearly in evidence. The factions are obvious (Foundation, Fellowship, etc.), but the cults? Well, what is the so-called "Teacher Mission?" It is a channeler-inspired subgroup of readers, focused on a sense of mission, with its own separate theology and mythology, even with a figurative head (the chief entity supposedly sending the messages, I think it's supposed to be a Melchizedek). Sounds pretty cult-like to me.
What was Verne Grimsley and the Family of God? Was that not also a cult? What about "Gabriel of Sedona," in Arizona? Is that not a cult?
Face the facts, dear readers, it is already happening. Cults are forming today based on The Urantia Book. And the reason it is happening in such bizarre ways, the reason why these cults are so "out there," is that the leadership of this movement has failed to allow for more sane paths of cult development.
So, let's take it as a given, at this moment, that cults based on The Urantia Book are going to come into existence, one way or another. The next questions to ask are, "can we somehow influence the formation of these cults, and, if we can, should we?"
The Nature of Cults
The Urantia Book describes a successful cult better and more succinctly than any other source I've encountered. Let's look at the elements that make a cult successful (a "surviving cult"), and compare what The Urantia Book says with what the "Teacher Movement" (the most recent widespread UB-related sub-cult) has attempted to do.
First, a summary of the statements:
1. "... a religious cult cannot be manufactured; it must grow."
2. "In the past, truth has grown rapidly and expanded freely when the cult has been elastic, the symbolism expansive."
3. "A surviving cult must symbolize that which is permanent in the presence of unceasing change; it must glorify that which unifies the stream of ever-changing social metamorphosis."
4. "But the great difficulty of finding a new and satisfying symbolism is because modern men, as a group, adhere to the scientific attitude, eschew superstition, and abhor ignorance, while as individuals they all crave mystery and venerate the unknown."
5. "No cult can survive unless it embodies some masterful mystery and conceals some worthwhile unattainable."
6. "But a cult--a symbolism of rituals, slogans, or goals--will not function if it is too complex.
7. " And there must be the demand for devotion, the response of loyalty."
Now let's look at these one at a time:
1. "... a religious cult cannot be manufactured; it must grow."
The Teacher Movement was certainly manufactured in one sense, and that is in the sense that the channeled messages were the creation of the channelers. But there was little or no deliberate or conscious attempt to manufacture a CULT. The cult-like aspects of the whole enterprise were an unconscious outgrowth of the messages plus the innate human desire to associate with those of like minds. Thus, the TM meets the first criteria.
2. "In the past, truth has grown rapidly and expanded freely when the cult has been elastic, the symbolism expansive."
Of course the channeler-based cult is elastic. Anyone can join, and the messages can continue to mutate to fit the circumstances of the time and place. There is, however, little "symbolism," so we cannot really discuss if this non-existent symbolism is or is not expansive.
3. "A surviving cult must symbolize that which is permanent in the presence of unceasing change; it must glorify that which unifies the stream of ever-changing social metamorphosis."
I'm not inclined to believe that the present-day "Teacher Movement" will be a "surviving cult." But for a while, at least, it was pretty robust. The permanence in the face of change that is symbolized is the concept of the existence of spiritual overseers. Additionally, this cult tends to lean on The Urantia Book as a means to enhance its credibility.
4. "But the great difficulty of finding a new and satisfying symbolism is because modern men, as a group, adhere to the scientific attitude, eschew superstition, and abhor ignorance, while as individuals they all crave mystery and venerate the unknown."
5. "No cult can survive unless it embodies some masterful mystery and conceals some worthwhile unattainable."
As already mentioned, this channeling cult has failed to develop any sort of symbolism, which is probably the main reason why it will not last (in addition to the lack of intellectual or philosophical underpinning). But it has done very well in dealing with the issues of "mystery" and "unknown."
Participants in the channeling sub-cults of the Urantia movement are told that they are being given inside information on the goals of the planetary supervisors and on the status of the Lucifer Rebellion. While this does not help to perpetuate any sort of mystery, it does heavily exploit some of the inherent mysteries in The Urantia Book. In addition, there is the mystery of the act of channeling itself.
The veneration of the unknown, in my opinion, is one of the two main reasons why the channelers are so successful. The other reason has to do with the simplification of the many perceived mysteries in The Urantia Book, a subject that we will deal with shortly.
The "worthwhile unattainable" in the "Teacher Mission" is the mission of taking the message to others. Of course it is a sham message, designed to placate the sense of personal insecurity of the folks who sense that The Urantia Book is what they've been searching for, but still can't quite seem to grasp the essence of what they are reading. Now the recipients of the channeled messages feel that they have the book's essential messages broken down into component parts, and in order to build self-esteem, these participants are told that this new information is adequate for them to go out and spread the gospel of the coming age.
6. "But a cult--a symbolism of rituals, slogans, or goals--will not function if it is too complex.
The Teacher Mission is anything but complex. It is highly decentralized and very ad-hoc in nature.
7. " And there must be the demand for devotion, the response of loyalty."
We have already discussed the sense of mission, of devotion, that is placed upon those who believe in the channelings.
What of it?
Lest anyone assume that I am mocking the Teacher Movement, let me remind you that I feel that the channelers have succeeded in certain vital areas where I feel that the orthodox leadership of the readership has miserably failed. So, in a sense, we should stand back and admire the channelers of the TM, and try to learn from their methods.
Jesus comments on the types of persons who respond to the TM in his first Discourse on True Religion. Jesus says (emphasis added):
"Jesus made it clear that the great difference between the religion of the mind and the religion of the spirit is that, while the former is upheld by ecclesiastical authority, the latter is wholly based on human experience.
"And then the Master, in his hour of teaching, went on to make clear these truths:
"Until the races become highly intelligent and more fully civilized, THERE WILL PERSIST many of those childlike and superstitious ceremonies which are so characteristic of the evolutionary religious practices of primitive and backward peoples. Until the human race progresses to the level of a higher and more general recognition of the realities of spiritual experience, LARGE NUMBERS of men and women will continue to show a personal preference for those religions of authority which require only intellectual assent, in contrast to the religion of the spirit, which entails active participation of mind and soul in the faith adventure of grappling with the rigorous realities of progressive human experience.
"The acceptance of the traditional religions of authority presents the easy way out for man's urge to seek satisfaction for the longings of his spiritual nature. The settled, crystallized, and established religions of authority afford a ready refuge to which the distracted and distraught soul of man may flee when harassed by fear and tormented by uncertainty. Such a religion requires of its devotees, as the price to be paid for its satisfactions and assurances, only a passive and purely intellectual assent.
"And FOR A LONG TIME there will live on earth those timid, fearful, and hesitant individuals who will prefer thus to secure their religious consolations..."
The mistake we make when reading passages like this is in thinking that these pronouncements apply to the times of Jesus' life. But isn't participation in a channeling session one "of those childlike and superstitious ceremonies" characteristic of backward religious practices?
However, "the Master refused to belittle" those who engage in such practices, and we should (and usually do) also refrain from such. Indeed, until we step up to the plate and start attempting to meet the very basic human needs of our readership, we should probably cheer these people on, and congratulate them for understanding the spiritual message of the book better than the foundations, councils, and committees of the ordained leadership in Chicago.
One important thing to realize is this - ANY religion which is not experientially-derived is a "religion of authority." If your religion is based on The Urantia Book, then it is a "religion of authority." What we readers need to do is heed the call of Jesus, presented later in this same Discourse on True Religion:
"The religion of the spirit means effort, struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress...the exhilaration of facing the perils of intellectual discovery, the determination to explore the realities of personal religious experience...the spirit struggles and mental uncertainties associated with those faith voyages of daring adventure out upon the high seas of unexplored truth in search for the farther shores of spiritual realities as they may be discovered by the progressive human mind and experienced by the evolving human soul."
But does The Urantia Book still have a role to play in all this?
You bet.
Chapter 2
What The Urantia Book Tells Us to Do
The Urantia Book instructs us, in very clear language, to allow cults to develop. Then it gives us clear instructions regarding what characteristics are desirable, and which characteristics are not desirable.
In no uncertain terms, the Brilliant Evening Star writes, "Every inspiring ideal grasps for some perpetuating symbolism--seeks some technique for cultural manifestation which will insure survival and augment realization..." But we in the "Urantia Movement" have tried to pretend that our "ideal" is somehow different. By ignoring reality, and by ignoring the words written in our own blessed revelation, we hurt ourselves and our movement.
The Brilliant Evening Star continues, "Notwithstanding that the cult has always retarded social progress, it is regrettable that so many modern believers in moral standards and spiritual ideals have no adequate symbolism--no cult of mutual support--nothing to belong to."
There is little that can be added to this statement, except to point out that we readers of The Urantia Book may not have met the imbedded criteria of this comment. In the center of this sentence, we read "...modern believers in moral standards and spiritual ideals..." But wait, what does morality, or even more alarmingly, "moral standards," have to do with "spiritual ideals" and the central messages of the fifth epochal revelation?
Well, to tell the truth, one cannot have spiritual growth in the absence of a sound MORAL foundation. Jesus mentions this in his only parable about the trade of carpentry, and other authors mention this directly or else allude to it in various places throughout the book. We will address this subject in a bit more detail later in this book, but before leaving it for the moment, let me also remind the reader that any standard of conduct imposed by society is more rightly termed a part of the mores. A MORAL standard is a purely personal interpretation of right and wrong.
Note the Brilliant Evening Star's his comment about the cult retarding social progress. A few paragraphs later, he addresses this issue head on, by describing how a cult might be successful without retarding social progress. We will come to that part of his statement later in our examination.
But the key part of this statement is his open and vigorous endorsement of the concept of a "cult of mutual support." While a few reader groups do tend to approach this level of fellowship, it is typically an outgrowth of years of close association in connection with the book, and not due to any characteristics peculiar to the readership of The Urantia Book. This is a tragedy, in my opinion. I firmly believe that we need to start FOSTERING "mutual support."
But, how to do that? Can the national readership organizations do this, can they somehow foster the formation of a "cult of mutual support?" I would say that, given their current outlooks and defined missions, it would be too at odds with the present range of activities to even seriously consider. So, what shall we do, continue to ignore the advice of the Brilliant Evening Star?
No, what we must do is grow up alternatives to the national leadership. Frankly, however, we must also note one additional piece of advice given in this section of the book, and it is found in the very next sentence: "But a religious cult cannot be manufactured; it must grow." This is why the national leadership cannot be asked to fill this void. This is why the "movement" to become more of a cult must originate at the local level.
But there is an even stronger indication that this acceptance of our mutual beliefs must be a local phenomenon, and that is found (surprisingly - NOT) in the very NEXT sentence: "those of no two groups will be identical unless their rituals are arbitrarily standardized by authority."
This, I believe, is one of the central points to the successful establishment of a cult. It must not become a standardized set of meaningless rituals. The way to make the cult vibrant and relevant in the lives of its adherents is to "keep it local." For this reason, I believe that we should NEVER have a national church based primarily on the teachings of The Urantia Book. Of course, I also believe that such an effort will be doomed to fail for at least the next 150 years, but that is irrelevant.
So far, every single effort I've seen to establish a church based on the teachings of The Urantia Book has envisioned an organization that is national in scope. Besides this concept being an affront to the international nature of the revelation, it is in direct contradiction to the advice we are given in this section.
But, there is more wisdom still to be gleaned from this section, and we can begin by looking at the very title itself, "NATURE OF CULTISM." We in the movement, being creatures of our time, imagine that the eventual "institutionalizing" of the Urantia movement will result in a "church." We have already examined how the concept of "churches" is more appropriate than the idea of one big national church. But this author has gone us one step better -- he has admonished us to first become a cult.
Why, you might ask, is this BETTER? Remember, the word "cult" has only recently, in the past few decades, acquired a negative connotation. As it has done so, no word has arisen to replace the original definition of "cult." Therefore, we are constrained to use a word which tends to arouse unconscious fears. We must get past this stigma, and examine what a cult really is, a cult in the original sense of the word.
Now, if our movement stops erecting barriers to the formation of numerous small and healthy UB-based cults, we still find that a cult or cults "cannot be manufactured." So, what next?
That is the purpose for this book. Small, localized cults based on the teachings of The Urantia Book can and will come into existence, especially if the stigma of attempting to do so is removed. But knowledge of how to go about it comes mainly from this one passage in The Urantia Book, and there are certain unanswered questions left open in this passage. In this book, I hope to address these open questions, drawing the answers from other parts of The Urantia Book. Then the readers of this book will have a sort of "how to" manual on how to generate a successful and healthy cult. I also hope to provide more information than any one community can incorporate, so that each community of readers can select those elements which are most appealing to the particular mindsets of their region.
So, what is the wisdom of referring to the budding institutionalization and ritualization of The Urantia Book as a "cult" rather than a "church?" To put it simply, the word church has acquired too much secular baggage. For starters, every church must meet somewhere. This typically means that space must be rented, or else a building acquired. Immediately we encounter issues of money, for without a place to congregate, we cannot have a church. Thus, there will always be church leaders who have in the back of their mind the knowledge of and concern for the financial health of the church. Should that financial health ever come into question, the persons who have traditionally assumed responsibility for the church's finances is suddenly compelled to place a degree of PRIORITY on the situation. This can lead to money suddenly becoming more important than the spiritual mission.
Indeed, the situation above does not need a financial crisis to bring it about. Some people are just naturally more comfortable "serving" the community by concerning themselves with finances. These people, because of their essentialness to the success of the endeavor, are typically not as compelled to confront the more important matters of personal morals and spiritual ideals. Remember, from above, that real spiritual progress cannot occur without a solid foundation in these two areas, and the main purpose in establishing a "cult of mutual support" is to foster the growth of these two supreme values in the individual.
By referring to this growth of a mutual support group for the fostering of supreme values as a "cult," the Brilliant Evening Star has removed all nonspiritual burdens from the community of believers that might tend to distract from the central reason for establishing the cult in the first place. A cult can take on many forms, and can be defined anew in each neighborhood. It can be redefined every year, or even every month, as new needs arise or are discovered. A cult can meet in homes, or in parks, or even not meet at all. A cult could be a group of leaders who rotate their attendance at the various study groups. A cult can be a once a month lunch gathering, or, a cult can become, eventually, a church. But the point is, a cult is elastic, whereas in paper 99 we receive all sorts of warnings about the various dangers inherent in a church. Note that the warnings in paper 99 are also not warnings to avoid forming churches, but are rather warnings that if churches are established, there are many, many pitfalls to be avoided.
But no information is given in The Urantia Book about how to form a church. On the other hand, we are told specifically what characteristics a successful cult should have. For a church, we are only told what not to do. For a cult, we are told what try to do.
The Brilliant Evening Star goes on:
"Regardless of the drawbacks and handicaps, every new revelation of truth has given rise to a new cult, and even the restatement of the religion of Jesus must develop a new and appropriate symbolism."
Until this point, he has only lamented the lack of any "cult of mutual support," only implying that it would be beneficial if the readers of The Urantia Book would allow UB-based cults to form in a natural sort of way. Now, with the statement above, he has gone one step further. He has stated directly that cults based on The Urantia Book (in particular, part IV) WILL come into existence.
So, who are we to try and stop it? Can you say, "exercise in futility?"
From this point on, the Brilliant Evening Star starts explaining how to create a successful cult.
How to Create a Cult
"Modern man must find some adequate symbolism for his new and expanding ideas, ideals, and loyalties. This enhanced symbol must arise out of religious living, spiritual experience. And this higher symbolism of a higher civilization must be predicated on the concept of the Fatherhood of God and be pregnant with the mighty ideal of the brotherhood of man."
Notice that the Brilliant Evening Star seems to equate the formation of a symbolism with the formation of a cult, and furthermore tends to equate those two ideas with the expression of moral ideals and spiritual goals. I believe that the definition of a cult, as the word is used in this passage in TUV, is even broader and more flexible than the standard (and not recent) dictionary definition.
He again makes the case that modern man needs a way to express his spiritual longings, but then he starts talking about the specifics of forming a cult. The symbolism of the cult (a ritual could be considered a form of symbolism, as could a creed) "must be predicated on the concept of the Fatherhood of God and be pregnant with the mighty ideal of the brotherhood of man."
Now, remember earlier when I said that the Brilliant Evening Star later addresses the problem of the cult retarding social progress? Well, here is his solution:
"In the past, truth has grown rapidly and expanded freely when the cult has been elastic, the symbolism expansive. Abundant truth and an adjustable cult have favored rapidity of social progression."
So we see that a cult can make a definite CONTRIBUTION to social progress. Elsewhere in this passage, the Brilliant Evening Star comments on how effective the early Christian cult was at this.
So, the cult must not be rigid, and it must abound with truths. We shall consider this our first two points in cult-formation.
1. The cult must not be rigid
2. The cult must abound with truths
"The old cults were too egocentric; the new must be the outgrowth of applied love."
We can readily accept that egocentric leadership is destructive to a cult, because this is so obvious, we will not list it as a major factor in cult formation. But the concept of the cult being "an outgrowth of applied love" is indeed interesting. How could we foster "applied love?"
One way to do so would be to stop "preaching to the choir" when it comes to spreading the message of The Urantia Book. If we had an appealing and successful cult, an OUTWARD-LOOKING cult, we could, in the fashion of Jesus, dispense truths. We could each, according to the Spirit of Truth, share our individual understandings of the teachings of The Urantia Book.
Another way to foster applied love would be to become more supportive of each other. A few of the larger and better-organized communities of readers are already there. It almost seems that a critical mass of people (readers) must be attained before a clear sense of community starts to emerge. One exception to this is when there is strong or highly dedicated leadership within a community of readers. However, no matter how many readers there are in an area, a "community of readers" will not coalesce in the absence of some degree of dedicated and selfless leadership.
"No cult can endure and contribute to the progress of social civilization and individual spiritual attainment unless it is based on the biologic, sociologic, and religious significance of the home."
So, here is another "must."
3. The cult must glorify the family, the home.
There is one group, or cult, that comes to mind, which is rather adept at both "applied love" and at family-glorification, and that is the Church of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons). They have a well-developed and actively managed social structure. Mormon leaders make home visits to members of their church to see if the parents need help in implementing the precepts of the religion. Persons volunteer to help with babysitting on occasion, so that parents can get some time alone. In addition, I have heard that the founder, Joseph Smith, received a lot of inspiration from the Jewish religion, an accusation which seems almost obvious. The Jews also do exceptionally well at promoting the family and creating a sense of community.
In addition, a successful cult
"must recognize true meanings, exalt beautiful relations, and glorify the good values of real nobility."
It is at this point that I believe the idea of ceremonies (I don't like the word "rituals") must be considered. A successful cult must give public recognition to "real nobility" and "that which unifies the stream of ever-changing social metamorphosis." I can think of only one way to do this, and that is with ceremonies and rituals.
But is our aversion to ceremony in this movement so desirable? Jesus was certainly not adverse to ceremony. Consider the Ordination of the Apostles, or the healing of blind Josiah (paper 164). Why, Jesus even used the vehicle of a ceremony to turn possession of the caravan shop over to his brother James.
I personally believe that scorn for ceremony is extremely misguided. On the other hand, I can fully sympathize with disdain for MEANINGLESS ceremonies and rituals. The key is to invest ceremonies and rituals with MEANINGS and VALUES.
So, here is our next point:
4. Meaningful ceremonies must be allowed to develop.
Now, we begin to arrive at one of the core reasons for this book to be written:
"But the great difficulty of finding a new and satisfying symbolism is because modern men, as a group, adhere to the scientific attitude, eschew superstition, and abhor ignorance, while as individuals they all crave mystery and venerate the unknown."
This is true for everyone. Even atheists venerate the undiscovered secrets of science. The Urantia Book is often venerated because it reveals so many secrets that were previously unknown, while introducing a host of new unknowns. The Brilliant Evening Star uses the sentence above as an introduction to what I consider to be a core concept of this section of the book:
"No cult can survive unless it embodies some masterful mystery and conceals some worthwhile unattainable."
Let's look at various cults, large and small, and how they incorporated this idea into their doctrines and practices.
1. The UF of the 1970-80s embodied masterful mysteries, in that the Trustees claimed to be adhering to "secret instructions" handed down by the revelators regarding how to manage their control of the book. While this claim eventually came to be ignored, it was never fully debunked. For many years a large but decreasing number of readers were inclined to give the UF the benefit of the doubt.
2. The Mormons do not allow anyone but church MEMBERS into their temples. Members not only undergo the expected ceremonies in association with joining, but are also keepers of certain secrets on an ongoing basis (such as certain church-defined undergarments that are worn).
3. The Jews all have the hope of the return of the Messiah some day.
The unknowability of that day is the masterful mystery.
4. The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that only a certain number of persons will achieve the highest of the post-death honors, and that number is 144,000. While being numbered among this select group is the worthwhile unattainable, each member wonders if he or she is to be numbered among this group, so that is the masterful mystery.
All of these examples are, upon examination, not particularly impressive when viewed from the outside. Yet they each comprise a major portion of the very foundations of these various beliefs.
Now, if we want to start a healthy and successful cult based on the teachings of The Urantia Book, what options are there for capitalizing on any masterful mysteries or worthwhile unattainables? After all, once we have read The Urantia Book, haven't we discovered just about all of the "answers" relevant to the mortal career?
Here's where we have been missing the boat as a movement. The book conceals several, perhaps even numerous masterful mysteries, as well as at least one major worthwhile unattainable. The worthwhile unattainable is adjuster fusion, but it is made more attainable by examining the concept of conquest of the seven psychic circles. Of course, then the traversal of the seven psychic circles becomes its own masterful mystery, since the revelators do not describe in any detail how to traverse them. Or, do they? We shall examine that, and other masterful mysteries, in the main body of this book.
So, our next major points are:
5. A successful cult must embody some masterful mystery.
6. A successful cult must conceal some worthwhile unattainable.
In addition,
"...the new symbolism must not only be significant for the group but also meaningful to the individual. The forms of any serviceable symbolism must be those which the individual can carry out on his own initiative, and which he can also enjoy with his fellows."
So our next point is:
7. The symbolism must be significant to both the individual and the group.
The Brilliant Evening Star goes on:
"But a cult--a symbolism of rituals, slogans, or goals--will not function if it is too complex. And there must be the demand for devotion, the response of loyalty."
There are numerous warnings in this passage and in other places in the book regarding excessive complexity, yet every major proposal I've seen to-date for creating institutions of formal worship involve a national organization, with some type of hierarchical governing body. But I don't consider this a major component, simply because we want to emphasize what we SHOULD do, not what we should avoid.
But we discover that in any successful cult, there must be a demand for loyalty and devotion, presumably to the cult or at least to the theology of the cult. This demand for loyalty has actually backfired as it relates to The Urantia Book. This is apparent not only in the upheavals of the early 1990s, but also at the individual level, where lack of loyalty to the teachings of the book have led to all sorts of strange and channeling-related phenomena, including several claims that "part 2" of The Urantia Book is in the process of being authored. The response to these disloyal persons has often been in stark contrast to the generally tolerant teachings in The Urantia Book, so this additional level of disloyalty has only made the problem worse.
But is it possible to be loyal to the book? I don't think it is. The book is not a cult, it is a book. In order to create a cult, which has the right to demand loyalty, it is necessary to depart from the holistic approach to the book, what I will call the "whole-book" philosophy that has predominated up until this point.
Up to now, if anyone wanted to focus on some portion of the book, it was purely a personal affair. Now, I agree that in an ideal world, this approach is the best one. But our world is far from ideal, and The Urantia Book is a huge and incredibly complex document for some people. Many people end up focusing on the most trivial and irrelevant aspects of the revelation, such as the existence of a universe hierarchy, or the presumption that the book was itself somehow channeled.
This is the direct consequence of the whole-book philosophy. Actually the whole-book philosophy is an abdication of the responsibility of the more experienced readers. It should be expected of the seasoned readership that they select those portions of the book which are most relevant, and take the newer readers under their wing to teach them how to discern the real messages of the book.
But the experienced readers are not to blame, either, since the whole-book philosophy has been actively and publicly promoted for quite some time now. Additionally, there has been no consensus formed regarding what portions of the book are the most vital, although some would say "the Jesus papers" (a response that is too broad to be useful). Indeed, to even propose that a consensus be attempted regarding the "fundamentals" of The Urantia Book would still be regarded as a form of blasphemy to this day. Yet every major religion has its theologians, and every cult has its own clear-cut theology. Our optimistically-termed "movement" has neither, and the results are glaringly obvious.
Rather than allowing a few well-intentioned but misguided persons from espousing a whole-book approach while simultaneously promoting certain passages at the expense of others, it would be far more useful if there were an active and public debate among those few readers who truly can take a whole-book approach, those who are capable of grasping, at least to some extent, a majority of the major themes in the book. There are many readers whose grasp of the book is significant, though I believe that they represent less than 25% of the ACTIVE readership. This public debate should first center around identifying the major themes of the book, and then later around developing a theology based on those themes.
BTW, this proposal is not a contradiction to the spirit of the teachings. Rather, it is in harmony with Jesus' and the Midwayer's teachings regarding the Spirit of Truth, and the essence of Jesus' Second Discourse on True Religion. In short, it is incumbent upon us to find ways of restating the teachings of Jesus in modern language and in up-to-date and relevant terminology. This is what the Master would have us do. As in the parable of the talents, we should INCREASE the measure of truth given us, not by contradicting the teachings of the book, as the channelers have done (and will continue to do), but by analyzing the book and then applying it to life in our day and time. The book does NOT hold all the answers, but it does provide a solid foundation for a plethora of useful and relevant life philosophies.
And perhaps a group of theologians 200-300 years from now will take these efforts and discard them, starting all over again from scratch. In fact, I'm sure that that's what will happen. And it is good.
So anyway, our last major point is:
8. There must be a demand for loyalty and devotion placed upon the members.
I'm sure that many who read this will find this point, number 8, to be the most offensive of all. Yet, there it is, in our "sacred" book, written in black and white.
You see, actually I am fully devoted to the whole-book philosophy. Many who publicly espouse this outlook are actually highly selective in which portions of the book they wish to emphasize, and which portions they wish to ignore and wish that others will ignore. So many people who point to paper 99 as justification that no organized religion come from the teachings of the book have totally ignored the Brilliant Evening Star's next passage from paper 87:
"Every effective religion unerringly develops a worthy symbolism..."
In defense of those who are afraid of churchification, the sentence above continues with:
"...and its devotees would do well to prevent the crystallization of such a ritual into cramping, deforming, and stifling stereotyped ceremonials which can only handicap and retard all social, moral, and spiritual progress."
But then, just so that we don't miss the point, the Brilliant Evening Star end this passage in the book with:
"The cult is the skeletal structure around which grows the living and dynamic body of personal spiritual experience--true religion."
So, how do we create a cult? We begin by implementing the eight major points that the Brilliant Evening Star makes in this passage at the end of paper 87. Those eight points are:
1. The cult must not be rigid.
2. The cult must abound with truths.
3. The cult must glorify the family, the home.
4. Meaningful ceremonies must be allowed to develop.
5. A successful cult must embody some masterful mystery.
6. A successful cult must conceal some worthwhile unattainable.
7. The symbolism must be significant to both the individual and the group.
8. There must be a demand for loyalty and devotion placed upon the members.
Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8 will and should depend on local conditions and the creativity of the founders of the local UB-based cults. But what about numbers 5 and 6? What masterful mysteries are to be found in the book, other than that of psychic circles conquest? There are many. I will try to explain a few, and will try to suggest a few others that I have noticed but not examined.
[All can be done by others, I hope to focus on the most difficult portion, that of "masterful mystery" and "worthwhile unattainable."]
Chapter 3 - "Hidden Messages?"
What "masterful mysteries" lie hidden in the depths of The Urantia Book? Indeed, how can one propose that there are any "hidden messages" at all? After all, the whole book is there, plain to the eye to see. Nothing is hidden, it is all written in black and white (or other colors on the Internet sites).
I submit there are numerous undercurrents to the book, certain major and minor themes that keep popping up here and there. One reader I know and admire referred to the text of the book as a "tapestry," an analogy that I find both fitting and beautiful.
If this were a bona fide religion, we would have full-time theologians who devote their life to uncovering, expounding upon, and manifesting these major and minor themes. But as yet, the only real literary commentary on the book is found on occasion in some of the UB-based publications ("Innerface International" is one of my favorites), and in an occasional article on the Internet. There has yet to be a systematic study done on the contents of The Urantia Book, from the perspective of a believer.
But wait, this book is a REVELATION. What is this talk of "major themes" and "hidden messages?" Didn't the revelators just write about their assigned subjects, keeping in mind the conditions of the Mandate written by the Ancients of Days? Would there really be hidden messages in such a document, a collection of papers on various subjects, written by a variety of authors?
Consider that in ANY presentation, some theme must exist. If I am writing a paper on how to brew a cup of coffee, I can make that paper into a dissertation that is tens if not hundreds of pages long, unless I decide what portions of the relevant material I wish to emphasize. I submit that it is CLEAR that the revelatory mandate included instructions regarding not only content-specific do's and don'ts, but also thematic recommendations addressing the needs of our planet and what should be emphasized as well as what should not.
Here's a brief example. I can probably find at least two and maybe even five or ten references to various unrevealed types of "energies." Here's one, from paper 34:
"The divine Spirit is the source of continual ministry and encouragement to the children of men. Your power and achievement is "according to his mercy, through the renewing of the Spirit." Spiritual life, like physical energy, is consumed. Spiritual effort results in relative spiritual exhaustion."
[So, spiritual energy is consumed, and is replenished by the
Local Universe Mother Spirit]
Yet each of these references are cryptic, short, to the point, and largely dictated by context. Now, it is apparent that various references to energies and descriptions of those energies and how they interact with our existence could easily have been sprinkled throughout the book, without violating the rules of "unearned knowledge." And furthermore, this information would have delighted many of the new-age metaphysical-type seekers who are so prevalent today.
But the authors of the Mandate deemed such knowledge to be superfluous and essentially irrelevant, at least when compared to the more pressing needs of our planet. So certain decisions had to be taken regarding what to emphasize and what not to emphasize.
So it is very reasonable to assume that there were certain major themes that the revelators were directed to emphasize in the revelatory Mandate. And I believe that it is incumbent upon the serious students of The Urantia Book to identify those major themes, and to publish and promote them.
But in a revelation this broad and this deep, can the major themes
really be identified? C
Consider how easily the revelators summarized the 97-year incarnation of Machiventa Melchizedek. I say that yes, the major and even the minor underlying themes of The Urantia Book can and should be identified and summarized. To do so would provide the readers with a major new set of tools to use in spreading the teachings of the book, and the effort to identify these foundational concepts will lead the more experienced readers to new levels of appreciation for the revelation and the revelators.
The Major Themes, an Introduction
What might have motivated the selection of some of the major themes?
I'd say two things:
a. The human condition, at this point in time.
b. The long-term goals for the spiritual development of this planet.
I'll leave it to future students of the revelation to determine the clues in the book related to (b) above, and I'll focus on (a). ((b) is definitely hinted at in a couple of places, though).
The human condition, from a spiritual perspective, is derived from two main factors -- the biological foundation, which determines "capability and potential," and overall planetary spiritual progress, which determines actual quality of life on a day-to-day basis.
The biological foundation is important, and the revelators give us a considerable number of clues that this issue needs to be addressed as soon as possible. So, we'll leave this to the evolutionary processes, and focus on the spiritual development of our world.
The revelators describe our world as "confused" and the inner life of most mortals as largely dominated by fear. The main barriers to overcoming these two problems are lack of true religious faith, and a condition that one Melchizedek describes as "the slothful animal mind" in paper 100. This slothfulness of our partially-evolved human natures leads directly to a whole host of related maladies, such as conflict-avoidance and various forms of selfishness.
The awareness of these factors dominating the human condition today leads to a major understanding of many of the major themes within The Urantia Book. It is a fact that mankind will only advance when challenged. Many "irritants" have been placed into our human environment by design, so as to challenge us. We know, for instance, that this is one of the major reasons why the Life Carriers plan for the existence of six races, rather than just one. On our world, one race existed for the first half-million years of human existence, as part of the life-modification experiment of Urantia, a decimal planet. But look at how much progress was made by mankind in that half-million years. Essentially none.
The fearfulness of the human animal appears to be a natural occurrence on most mortal worlds. But it is usually in a state of severe decline by the time Adam and Eve arrive, and is probably nearly gone by the time the program of biological uplift is in full swing. Yet we find even the most Adamized of the Urantia races to be heavily fear-dominated.
It is this core of fear that, in my opinion, leads people to insist on a sense of certainty in matters of religion. Religion exists, for most people, to help explain the unknown. Indeed, religion has been tasked with this burden since the dawn of time, and now in modern times religion is having some trouble casting off this now-secular burden that had saddled the religious leaders of past ages.
Yet the authors of the book are barely sympathetic to mankind's
need for religious certainty, at least as that certainty is
currently defined by most mortals on this world. Rather than
receiving words of comfort, we are told that one of the many
prerequisites to being granted entrance to the central universe of
Havona is the ability "to feast upon uncertainty, [and] "enthuse over
apparent defeat." [paper 26]
But at least one other author is kind enough to explain _why_ uncertainty is such a blessing. In paper 39, the Melchizedek, after claiming that "uncertainty is the secret of contented continuity," goes on to explain that "when ignorance is essential to success, it would be a colossal blunder for the creature to know the future."
So in examining the book's relationship to the human condition, we start being able to recognize some of the underlying themes, and some of the hidden messages, too. Many of the hidden messages are simply new paradigms, paradoxes to our current way of thinking. We learn, for instance, that uncertainty, rather than being something to be avoided, is actually something to be appreciated and even feasted upon!
Yet we learn from Jesus, in the Discourse on True Religion, that the folks who insist in religious certainty are here to stay. What shall we do with them? Shall we continue to allow them to be victims of the many who would exploit their religious fears for personal gain? Should we sell or give them a book, and then leave them to their own devices? Should we invite them to study groups, so they can hear the book and its various topics discussed? Does any of this meet the REAL needs of these people?
How did Jesus deal with the fearful, the uncertain? He provided comfort, and provided them with something religious about which they could be certain. He would then try to challenge them to further religious growth and exploration, knowing full well that many would end up like the Alpheus twins, whose lives were immeasurably improved for having met Jesus, but who were not capable of expanding their religious horizons beyond what they learned from the Master.
Some of us are reasonably adept at personal interactions, and hence the part about providing comfort. But few of us readers of The Urantia Book could provide the religiously uncertain with a small enough piece of certainty to fill the needs of "those timid, fearful, and hesitant individuals," to use Jesus' own words. The reason why is that we ourselves are still relatively overwhelmed by the immensity of the totality of the revelation which is The Urantia Book.
Jesus was able to break a concept down into its constituent parts, in a manner not wholly dissimilar to psychologists studying the human mind and sociologists studying human interactions. Such an approach towards The Urantia Book, far from detracting from the beauty and totality of the revelation, would actually enhance it and make it more useful and understandable for all, those who read the book, and those who don't.
You see, most of the people who are moderately enlightened but not highly motivated spiritually want to have a relationship with God, and want to be told how to establish it. They want to be given a formula; they want clear directions. This the Christian church (and most others) readily and willingly provide. Yet the serious student of The Urantia Book realizes that is the exact opposite of Jesus' teachings regarding the real nature of religion. But Jesus did not forsake those people who could not grasp his message. Rather, he gave them some small slice of his overall message, that portion which he felt would most benefit the individual.
We need to do this. We need to be able to do this. We therefore need to break Jesus' message down into its constituent parts. Or, if Jesus' message is too "lofty" of an inspiration for us to do that, we can turn to the other parts of the book for help.
But these folks who want a "formula" for their religious practices are not only those who have not heard of The Urantia Book. Many are readers! Many, many folks read the book, and when finished, still do not have their IMMEDIATE spiritual needs met. That is because the book does not provide "answers," rather it explains how to find those answers ourselves. And some of those explanations are hardly much of a comfort at all, such as the injunction that "uncertainty is the secret of contented continuity." To the "distracted and distraught soul" of many readers, this sounds more like a stern admonition to "learn to like it, whether you want to or not." Not much comfort in that, I'd say.
Enough examination of human fears.
The other dimension to this human condition is the slothful animal nature. This affects mankind at the individual level, and the collective level. The Urantia Book addresses this issue head-on at the individual level, but only gingerly at the collective level.
For instance, we find the Melchizedek explaining in paper 100:
"Religious perplexities are inevitable; there can be no growth without psychic conflict and spiritual agitation. The organization of a philosophic standard of living entails considerable commotion in the philosophic realms of the mind. Loyalties are not exercised in behalf of the great, the good, the true, and the noble without a struggle. Effort is attendant upon clarification of spiritual vision and enhancement of cosmic insight. And the human intellect protests against being weaned from subsisting upon the nonspiritual energies of temporal existence. The slothful animal mind rebels at the effort required to wrestle with cosmic problem solving."
One secret to understanding The Urantia Book and its relation to the human condition is to identify and study the key passages. I believe that this is one of the key passages. This passage sums up the entire spectrum of our problems, at least from one perspective. Allow me to elaborate.
We can easily blame the state of our confused planet on Caligastia. We can then blame our mixed-up environment for our own inner lack of clarity. But that really amounts to only finger-pointing, whether the analysis is correct or not. What is needed is corrective action, we need to place our oars in the water and start righting the wrongs that are all around us, and we do this by setting ourselves right.
But of course, we cannot do this on our own. The guidance of the Divine Indwelling is necessary. The book goes on to explain that, within the realm of our mortal existence, this fragment of the eternal and infinite God is perfect. Thus, we have at our disposal all the guidance we need to set all the wrongs of our personal lives right, and to walk the path of high-powered personal growth (balanced growth, as described in the section on cosmic circles conquest).
Since our guide is perfect, but we still languish in confusion, there must be an explanation. That explanation is simple -- we do not take seriously the guidance provided by God. God IS able communicate with us as directly as necessary, at any and all times, in order to insure our growth. Any failings are our own, and we must faith-accept this as one step towards real balanced spiritual growth.
So really, the ideas presented in The Urantia Book deal in large measure with these major themes:
1. Developing an awareness of the existence of God (what God is really like)
2. Establishing a relationship with God
3. Recognizing that communication with God is two-way
4. How to recognize God's guidance
5. Milestones on the path of spiritual growth
6. Impediments to spiritual growth
This passage above, "the slothful animal mind rebels at the effort required to wrestle with cosmic problem solving" and its associated paragraph, pretty well sums up about 50% of #6. There are really only two impediments to spiritual growth -- fear, and the slothful animal nature. This is a key passage because, although this impediment is alluded to elsewhere*, the "slothful animal mind" passage addresses a ROOT CAUSE of the problem.
* Such as this passage in paper 48,
"One of the purposes of the morontia career is to effect the permanent eradication from the mortal survivors of such animal vestigial traits as procrastination, equivocation, insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and ease seeking"
This slothful nature of the animal has a collective effect, too. Hans Koning, in an article in _Atlantic Monthly_ (September 1997, "Notes on the Twentieth Century") observes, "Wherever and whenever daily life in our more recent past became peaceful and not too hard, boredom became a philosophical motif." In other words, when we as a civilization finally earn a degree of free time, do we use it for the betterment of our self and our world? Certainly, some individuals do, but the majority do not. How do we use our free time in the USA? Many use it to get hypnotized by the advertising executives' efforts on the television. Others partake of recreational drugs, such as beer or marijuana, rather than engaging in wholehearted efforts of self-betterment.
This "collective slothfulness" has collective repercussions. For instance, it is the major driving force behind the "natural" economic cycles in a free market economy. Good times beget upward wage demands and decreased productivity, which leads to an economic recession, the hardships of which stimulate the workforce (executives included) to higher levels of productivity, which again brings about good times.
This concept of the collective industriousness/slothfulness has MAJOR repercussions for the progress of our planet as a whole, which also affects the progress of the individual in a major way. Most of the advances of a more "spiritual" approach to life are wiped out before they become ingrained in society, due to an unwillingness to balance spiritual growth (which comes about as a result of effort) with mental growth, which also will only occur in response to diligent efforts.
So, the human condition plus the unrevealed long-term developmental goals of the planetary supervisors determine the underlying themes. In addition, just handing someone a book rarely meets that person's real needs, and anyway, we need to learn to dispense truth to those lost souls who will never read The Urantia Book, or at least will never read all of it.
Chapter 4 - The Great Challenge
Over the centuries, Christian theologians have singled out certain key or favorite elements of Christian doctrine, many of which come directly from the Bible. Everyone, even Atheists, have heard of the following:
The Ten Commandments
The Sermon on the Mount
The Beatitudes
The Apostle's Creed
The Atonement Doctrine
Someday there will be similar titles attached to certain key passages in The Urantia Book. Indeed, we already have "The Inevitabilities" and "Morontia Mota." But those were already named for us.
I submit to, the reader, a passage for special consideration. I'd like to call it, "The Great Challenge." In a way it sums up the entire book, and indeed, it is found on the last page of the book, in the second-to-the-last paragraph. Here is The Great Challenge:
"The great challenge to modern man is to achieve better communication with the divine Monitor that dwells within the human mind. Man's greatest adventure in the flesh consists in the well-balanced and sane effort to advance the borders of self-consciousness out through the dim realms of embryonic soul-consciousness in a wholehearted effort to reach the borderland of spirit-consciousness--contact with the divine presence."
Jesus says it differently:
"Never forget there is only one adventure which is more satisfying and thrilling than the attempt to discover the will of the living God, and that is the supreme experience of honestly trying to do that divine will."
I believe that The Great Challenge should be the real goal of everyone. Remembering the importance of The Great Challenge helps us to be able to identify the hidden messages in The Urantia Book, for the hidden messages are all about how to rise up to meet The Great Challenge of our lives.
The Great Challenge states, in unambigous terms, the starting point for our journey into eternity. That journey begins NOW.
Chapter 5, The Hidden Messages
Let me preface this chapter by saying that this listing of the hidden messages in The Urantia Book is certainly by no means exhaustive. I encourage everyone to find other hidden messages, and then to explain them to the body of serious readers. Also, these messages are really not so hidden.
Hidden Message #1: The Goal of Adjuster Fusion, Attained via Cosmic Circles Conquest
This hidden message is really not so hidden. But it definitely qualifies as both a "masterful mystery" and a "worthwhile unattainable." Indeed, the concept of adjuster fusion is probably the ultimate mystery, since even we ourselves will not fully understand it until we reach the worlds of the Father surrounding Paradise. It is also the ultimate worthwhile unattainable, because no one can question the worthiness of this goal, yet few if any of us will attain it during this life.
If anyone wanted to start a cult based on The Urantia Book, and wanted to be able to include in the cult's fundamental doctrines only one masterful mystery or worthwhile unattainable, I'd say the importance of cosmic circles conquest should be that which is chosen. Cosmic circles conquest is a necessary prerequisite to conscious contact with the indwelling spirit of God, and conscious contact with the Divine Presence is a necessary prerequisite to adjuster fusion.
Many readers of The Urantia Book, especially those with a propensity to accept new-age type thought, long to "see" or at least communicate directly with a superior (spirit) intelligence. (This is one cause of the continually reappearing episodes of channeling among the readership). I'm not sure if this is due to a wish for "concrete" guidance, or for reassurance that nonphysical entities really exist, or a wish to be "special," since obviously not everyone has the privilege of communicating directly with superhuman intelligences.
In any event, whenever this desire is relatively intense, it seems to be motivated by some sort of insecurity. And if the desire is strong enough, I have observed that a person will willingly suspend reason in order to fulfill this deeper and more compelling drive.
But The Urantia Book is clear. Our spirit mentors do not make direct contact in any form with human beings, except under the most extraordinary and rare of circumstances. Yet, in the desire to be somehow associated with a perceived extraordinary or rare event, many readers will ignore the statements in the book that spirit communication with mortals is not the way the celestials carry on their business.
Yet there is one spirit entity that DOES regularly communicate with the human mind. This spirit is forced to work primarily at the unconscious level, due to our lack of cooperation, but would LOVE to be able to communicate openly and consciously with its mortal host. And that spirit entity is -- the indwelling spirit of God, often referred to in The Urantia Book as the Thought Adjuster.
Why do we debauch ourselves with these various channeling enterprises, when we each have a unique and dedicated personal spirit guide living within the confines of our very minds, a spirit entity that is all-knowing, and that longs to share its essence with us, even as we learn to share our essence with it?
The Urantia Book is clear—the goal of achieving contact with the indwelling spirit of God should be our primary spiritual motivation. This is explicitly spelled out in the The Great Challenge, and alluded to elsewhere in numerous locations throughout the text.
But the Midwayer author of The Great Challenge is very careful to advocate a "_well-balanced_and_sane_ effort to advance the borders of self-consciousness out through the dim realms of embryonic soul-consciousness in a wholehearted effort to reach the borderland of spirit-consciousness--contact with the divine presence."
This is where the secret of the seven psychic circles comes in. The conquest of the seven psychic circles represents the ONLY path toward a well-balanced and sane effort to achieve direct contact with our Divine Partner.
But the book also makes it clear that there are other paths to adjuster attunement and communication. Moses achieved this, due to his extraordinary talents, his deep spiritual commitment, and his unique place in history. Siddhartha Guatama achieved at least one episode of direct contact with his TA simply by mere force of will (thought the episodes of his life up to that time provided a foundation for the event). The Urantia Book speaks of others who have achieved at least one episode of conscious contact with God by various means, though it appears that most of these persons were so thrown off balance by the event that it resulted in little good for humanity, and may have actually resulted in harm to the individual on occasion.
Apparently direct communication with God is something that we must learn to handle, gradually, like driving a car or raising a child well. But I submit that God is not shackled by the either-or proposition of communicating only at the conscious or the unconscious level. God knows our minds better than we do. Consider this statement regarding Jesus' relationship with his TA (paper 134):
"This was one of the more unusual years in the inner experience of the Son of Man; great progress was made in effecting working harmony between his human mind and the indwelling Adjuster. The Adjuster had been actively engaged in reorganizing the thinking and in rehearsing the mind for the great events which were in the not then distant future."
Note the phrase "rehearsing his mind."
Note too that the members of the Reserve Corps of Destiny are subjected to a similar process (paper 114):
"These mortal reservists are chosen by the corps to which they are respectively attached and are likewise trained and rehearsed in the deep mind by the combined technique of Thought Adjuster and seraphic guardian ministry. Many times numerous other celestial personalities participate in this unconscious training, and in all this special preparation the Midwayers perform valuable and indispensable services."
So we see that our TA has some sort of ability to "plant thoughts" in our minds, at least under certain circumstances. Again, in the Great Challenge, we note that the Midwayer refers to "the borderland of spirit-consciousness," and then equates spirit-consciousness with adjuster-consciousness.
In light of my own experiences, plus conversations with many other readers of The Urantia Book, I am convinced that God is able to bring any matter of import to the attention of our conscious minds. The methods at his disposal may not entail conscious, real-time contact. But it is foolhardy to suggest that God has any limits other than those that are self-imposed.
So, what is the secret of Adjuster contact?
The secret is this. The TA longs for personality, the human longs for perfection. There is a mutual period of betrothal that must occur between the two before the union (adjuster fusion) can be consummated. The Midwayers refer to the relationship between the TA and its mortal host has a "romance," and that is an apt comparison, for what we really need to be prepared to do is to share our deepest self with God, the very essence of who we are.
What defines who we are, in the ultimate sense of the word? According to The Urantia Book, it is our personality, a gift from God the Father.
Personality is absolutely unique, and is the one thing that will be with us unchanged throughout all eternity (though it will grow from three dimensional to seven dimensional). Your personality is YOU. It is because of the gift of personality that you can transcend your animal nature. Even the most unspiritual of persons can sense this transcendence, for if you make a statement about your mind ("I can't make up my mind"), who is it that "owns" that mind? Who is the "I" that can call that mind mine, as in "my mind?"
If mind were the source of personality, rather than the personality being separate from and transcendent of mind, then that mind could never conceive of a "me" that is managing the mind, and statements containing the phrase "my mind" would not exist.
The Urantia Book says that personality is the secret of self-consciousness, and I believe that this transcendence of the animal nature by virtue of the gift of personality is also the secret to the existence of the superconscious level of mind.
In paper 16, the Universal Censor says:
"The selective response of an animal is limited to the motor level of behavior. The supposed insight of the higher animals is on a motor level and usually appears only after the experience of motor trial and error. Man is able to exercise scientific, moral, and spiritual insight prior to all exploration or experimentation.
"Only a personality can know what it is doing before it does it; only personalities possess insight in advance of experience. A personality can look before it leaps and can therefore learn from looking as well as from leaping. A nonpersonal animal ordinarily learns only by leaping."
So our personality is the secret of our uniqueness, our moral behavior, our animal transcendence, and our very existence in eternity. Our personality "unifies" the various constituent elements of our existence (presumably our mind currents) and presents them to the world according to a pattern that is absolutely unique. It would be incorrect to say that the personality is the deepest reality in the human mind, for it is more than that. It is the essence of our selfhood.
And what does the adjuster crave? Personality expression. The TA wants you to surrender your personality, to share it, to allow the adjuster to express itself through you, through the vehicle of your personality.
Are you beginning to see why this process can be compared to a marriage? Can you see why marriage and family life are essential prerequisites to fully understanding God?
So—you have to make a deal with God, and the deal works something like this:
"God, I want perfection, which you can give me. But this perfection is not a gift, it is a process. Anytime I wish to react to a situation perfectly, or create a situation that is perfect, I will consult with you, God. If you do not answer, I'll just do my best. But if I feel that you did answer, or even might have answered, I promise to act upon your counsel and advice, freely and cheerfully.
"Furthermore, I know that you crave personality expression. You desire to interact with the world, as I am able to do every day. But the only way you can communicate with anyone other than me is through me. Therefore, any time that you indicate to me that you would like to initiate a communication, an action, or a behavior, I will cooperate, and will do my best to manifest your will, your desires.
"Additionally, I realize that on some occasions, we will need to collaborate. Our combined wills must produce an end result, one that could only come about as a result of conscious and deliberate effort on my part, fully harmonized with whatever input you choose to provide."
This is the deal we make with God. The Urantia Book refers to it as a "betrothal" and the relationship as "romantic." It is indeed deeply intimate.
Adjuster fusion is simply a permanent consummation of this relationship. You have conquered your mortal will, and can cheerfully and creatively submit to the desires of your inner companion at any time, and have demonstrated that you always will. You have also sufficiently mastered the art of teamwork with God so that in reality, all your actions are the result of the combined will of you and your TA. The two of you are, forevermore, indistinguishable.
The "Supreme Decision" that results in the immediate assignment of a personal seraphic guardian is this (I believe): You make the above deal with God, and you do so irrevocably and with a whole heart.
I guarantee you that if you strike the above deal with God, if you willingly give of your deepest essence, of your ultimate selfhood, in a very short time you will become aware of regular and definite contact with your TA, with God. And this "give and take" will eventually metamorphose into full conscious contact, though possibly not in this lifetime.
And, if you can talk to _God_, why bother with hoping to receive messages from the _angels_?
But this submission to God, while simple in principle, is quite a bit more difficult in practice. This is because it is necessary that we develop our minds in a holistic fashion. And that development process is measured in terms of psychic circles conquest.
Paper 110 is really a gem. In paper 110, the Solitary Messenger goes out of his way to explain the essence of the indwelling of the spirit of God in the human mind. Subchapters like "Adjusters and the Human Will," "The Adjuster's Work in the Human Mind," and "Erroneous Concepts of Adjuster Guidance" ought to be scrupulously studied by every serious student of The Urantia Book. But in section 6, "The Seven Psychic Circles," the Solitary Messenger describes the PROCESS whereby we attain to conscious contact with our inner God-self, the divine Thought Adjuster (described by a Melchizedek as "the _realest_ and _deepest_ thing within the human mind," paper 101). Let's examine the meat of what he says:
"The psychic circles are not exclusively intellectual, neither are they wholly morontial; they have to do with personality status, mind attainment, soul growth, and Adjuster attunement."
So, we see that growth of intellect is important for psychic circles conquest. We also see that soul growth is essential.
How is growth of intellect effected? I'm not sure, but I suspect that a major goal would be to attain a degree of "clarity of thought," which the book says is enhanced by the study of mathematics. One should strive to enhance one's reasoning ability, and to make one's memory more efficient.
How is soul growth effected? The book equates soul growth with values-experiences. In other words, every time we make a decision to embrace and incorporate a higher value into our lives, and (of course) then follow through on that decision, a new "building block" has been added to our soul, and it becomes just a bit more real.
But in addition to growth of intellect and soul growth, we also see that something called "personality status" is important, as is adjuster attunement.
I suspect that we all have some vague idea of what adjuster attunement might be. This chapter is in part dedicated to examining ways to achieve greater degrees of adjuster attunement. But what is "personality status?"
Again, I'm not sure, but I have a theory. Our personality is a unique pattern by which we organize and express the potentials that make us. At any given moment, tens if not hundreds of potential thoughts are scrolling through our subconscious mind, plus whatever activities are occurring in our superconscious mind. Yet in conversation, we "select" which of these thoughts we wish to communicate, and, more importantly, HOW.
At first, this act of projecting our selfhood is based almost entirely on antecedent causation—our inherent genetic makeup, plus the sum of our life experiences. But as we learn to allow our personality to come to fore, we begin to be able to transcend antecedent causation. I believe that the more we are able to become our personality (our real self), the higher is our "personality status." I also believe that this concept is central to understanding section 4 ("The Inner Life") of paper 111, "THE ADJUSTER AND THE SOUL" (another great paper, BTW).
The Solitary Messenger continues:
"The successful traversal of these levels demands the harmonious functioning of the entire personality, not merely of some one phase thereof."
It's my theory that those who are predisposed to intellectual growth are the persons most in need of spiritual growth, and are the ones least likely to struggle to attain it. Conversely, those who are naturally predisposed to spiritual growth are the least likely to willingly exercise their intellect.
This passage puts both groups in their place. But it also implies another step, that of INTEGRATING the growth of the two. Note that the Solitary Messenger says that "traversal of these levels demands the HARMONIOUS functioning" of all the attributes that make up "us." Remember, the personality is the pattern whereby we UNIFY all that makes us who we are. Our personality must be actively engaged in order to pull off this unity, this harmony of inner self.
Next the Solitary Messenger explains WHY direct, conscious contact with the TA can actually be dangerous to those who have not achieved the first psychic circle, or at least the third:
"When the development of the intellectual nature proceeds faster than that of the spiritual, such a situation renders communication with the Thought Adjuster both difficult and dangerous. Likewise, overspiritual development tends to produce a fanatical and perverted interpretation of the spirit leadings of the divine indweller."
Now, here comes the key passage. The day-to-day goals of living can be thought of in terms of "following God's will," of course. But some prefer a more "secular" description of what that really means. Here is one of the key passages in the entire book, from the standpoint of The Great Challenge, the challenge of achieving adjuster recognition:
"It is to the mind of perfect poise, housed in a body of clean habits, stabilized neural energies, and balanced chemical function—when the physical, mental, and spiritual powers are in triune harmony of development—that a maximum of light and truth can be imparted with a minimum of temporal danger or risk to the real welfare of such a being."
This passage does not imply conscious contact with God, but it DOES very clearly explain how we can aid God in imparting a maximum of truth to us. It seems to me that the attainment of this passage should be an early goal of all serious students of the fifth epochal revelation.
However, soon we encounter another interesting passage. It is not just through prayer, worship, and intellectual growth that we ascend the psychic circles. Rather, we learn that
"Every decision you make either impedes or facilitates the function of the Adjuster; likewise do these very decisions determine your advancement in the circles of human achievement. It is true that the supremacy of a decision, its crisis relationship, has a great deal to do with its circle-making influence; nevertheless, numbers of decisions, frequent repetitions, persistent repetitions, are also essential to the habit-forming certainty of such reactions."
This passage explains the parable of the good carpenter (Jesus' only parable that related to his chosen craft), as well as the importance of persistence. In the parable of the good carpenter, Jesus explains the importance of laying a sound MORAL foundation for true spiritual growth. Now we know why—because EVERY decision we make influences the habits of our mind-environment. And morality is the day-to-day foundation that is necessary to acquiring a predisposition to react in a spiritual manner.
Thus, a cult should emphasize morality if it wishes to truly aid its members in spiritual growth. But if the cult members balk at the word "morality," there are several alternate avenues that can be taken in order to emphasize the same concept.
One option is promoting the realization that morality (that is, living a moral life), is not the same as adhering to a moral code. Morality is more dynamic than that. Morality has more to do with MOTIVES. A moral person is motivated by doing what is right and what is best in every situation. So, the first remedy to the present-day unpopularity of the concept of morality is to emphasize "rightness" and concepts of Supreme value, that is, the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
The second avenue for highlighting the necessary moral foundation to spiritual growth without using the word "morality" is to refer directly to the paragraph above. This paragraph emphasizes the fundamental reason why a moral outlook on life is essential, without ever using the recently out-of-vogue word "morality."
This concept of the importance of every decision being based on our perception of God's will is so important that I'd even go so far as to say that with some minor modifications, the passage above could form the basis for some type of official creed of the cult, similar to the Nicene Creed.
Before you raise your hackles in protest, please realize that some people really need creeds, really need the core teachings of the book isolated so that they can concentrate on the important issues rather then get distracted by the huge amount of material in The Urantia Book that can and does distract readers from the really pressing issues. So, I present to you, a creed—let's call is, "The God-lover's Creed" (or whatever you want to call it):
"Every decision I make either impedes or facilitates the function of the indwelling spirit of God; likewise do these very decisions determine my advancement in the seven psychic circles of human achievement. While it is true that the supremacy of a decision, its crisis relationship, has a great deal to do with its circle-conquering influence; nevertheless, I recognize numbers of decisions, frequent and persistent repetitions of good decisions, are also essential to the habit-forming certainty of such positive spiritual and mental progress and growth."
Remember, it is necessary to give the participants something to believe in and something to focus on. People want truth. They want living truth that comes from your TA, through you, and then resonates directly in their soul. But many people also want "fossilized" truth. They cannot grasp the complexity of The Urantia Book, and they want you to boil the message down to its essence for them. And besides, you may not always be up to the task of presenting a new spirit-of-truth-inspired idea for your friends on a regular basis. While Jesus never tired of finding new and creative ways of portraying his teachings, you might not be quite so innovative.
This is one of several passages that convey the essence of the book. But, if you disagree, that's fine. Go ahead and instead promote whatever passages YOU think convey the essence of the book. But the point is, don't be afraid to narrow the scope of your teaching. Some will never grasp the whole book, in which case you are doing them a favor by emphasizing key passages. Others may someday read and even grasp the book as a whole, but if you can first elicit their interest by portraying some portion of the teachings as representative of the beauty and attractiveness of the overall spiritual message, then you may be successful in introducing the book to someone who otherwise may never have seriously looked into it. Again, if you can hook that person with some interesting passage, you have done him or her a favor.
Remember too that this book is portraying the CORE of the masterful mysteries. Adjuster fusion is a "worthwhile unattainable." Psychic circles conquest is the path to adjuster fusion. Thus, it is necessary to portray to the non-novice just how to attain to this worthwhile unattainable of fusion, how reasonably to begin to aspire to achieve the unachievable. In other words, although adjuster fusion, the worthwhile unattainable, is essentially a goal that will not be realized during the life in the flesh, it is still quite necessary to convey the methods whereby this supremely worthy goal at least MIGHT be attainable. It is via the "masterful mystery" of the seven psychic circles that we begin in earnest to ascend toward "worthwhile unattainable" of adjuster fusion.
It might also be advantageous to present the novices with other, more easy-to-grasp masterful mysteries and worthwhile unattainables. Morontia Mota is a good place to begin, for instance. Or, a study of Jesus' lessons on prayer in papers 143 and 144 might be a sufficient challenge for the earnest semi-new reader who wishes to delve deeper into the mysteries of the fifth epochal revelation. As another alternative, I'd suggest that the community develop its own "bridging theology" to help the newcomers attain to the level of the non-novice.
The ultimate goal is to bring people closer to God. Perhaps this will be attained because some person will finally be inspired to read the whole of The Urantia Book, and will start THINKING about it as you, the serious students, already do. Perhaps the person will never read the whole book, but will become unconsciously aware of the concept of "unbroken communion" (paper 120) as a result of the creed above. In any event, the idea expressed by the creed above is indeed a valid one for enhancing an awareness of the real obligations of a faith son of God, as well as for contributing to the healthy growth of society in a collective sense.
Remember too that ultimately we are dependent upon the adjuster's guidance even to determine what a good decision is. Yet, we will not hear from the TA consciously until we reach the first psychic circle. This is where faith comes in. This is where we can refer anyone back to the teachings of Jesus.
A few more hints remain in this chapter. Here's one:
"Perhaps these psychic circles of mortal progression would be better denominated cosmic levels—actual meaning grasps and value realizations..."
So, we know that psychic circles conquest relates to meanings and values, which are subjects covered from various angles all over the book, including in papers 100 [check this, it might be 101 or 102] and paper 197.
What we are doing here is giving the cult leadership material for leading the followers into multiple fruitful paths of organized and guided study within the book, many ways of emphasizing and reemphasizing the core messages in the book, while simultaneously exploring the totality of the book with them, too.
What is meant by intellectual development? I'm not sure, but I suspect it means several things, such as improving clarity of thought (The Urantia Book says studying mathematics helps in this endeavor), exercising our memory to make it more useful, and, of course, training our minds to respond to our will.
This concept of training the mind is almost like another hidden message in the book but because it is so interrelated to psychic circles growth, it is best examined in that context. Consider the first direct reference to this idea, found in paper 81:
"At first life was a struggle for existence; now, for a standard of living; next it will be for quality of thinking, the coming earthly goal of human existence."
Wow. The coming goal of earthly existence. We read in paper 595, entitled "Planetary Mortal Epochs" that in the era of post-Adamic man, just prior to the beginning of the Magisterial (Avonal) incarnations, "the crowning achievement of this era is the universal interest in intellectual realities, true philosophy."
Could this be related to "quality of thinking, the coming earthly goal of human existence?"
But what did Jesus have to say about this subject?
In the "Lesson on Self-mastery," (* good study topic) Jesus says:
"Verily, verily, I say to you, he who rules his own self is greater than he who captures a city. Self-mastery is the measure of man's moral nature and the indicator of his spiritual development."
This is another key passage, in my opinion, for in it Jesus lays great emphasis on the importance of self-conquest/self-control/self-mastery. Indeed, as we've been discussing, it is a powerful "indicator" of one's spiritual development.
Jesus tended to emphasize the spiritual side of his teachings, for in his day (as today, but perhaps to a lesser extent), spirituality was not taken seriously. All religion was portrayed as adherence to ritual. In modern times, we have many folks who pursue spiritual growth, though I doubt that their concept of spiritual growth very closely parallels that of Jesus (growth of values-sensitivity). So, the spiritual element of Jesus' teachings has at least enjoyed a partial degree of success among those who have liberated themselves from church-imposed doctrinal limitations.
But the concepts of self-mastery that are latent in Jesus' teachings are never taught or preached in this world. Even in The Urantia Book, it is not a dominant theme, though we can find numerous references to this idea in various places throughout the book.
Remember, from above—self-mastery IS the measure of man's moral nature, and, since the moral nature is the unavoidable foundation for spiritual growth, it is THE indicator of spiritual growth. Thus, self-mastery is essential to the achievement of the goals of life that Jesus would have us pursue.
But lest anyone think that they have made sufficient progress in this arena, the goal of self-mastery, I suggest that you ask God if there is still more useful progress to be made, and furthermore invite him to show you how and where adequate progress might still be lacking.
I remember that, at about the age of 21, I felt that I had achieved all that my life philosophy required of me. I asked God to lead me to the next challenge, whatever that might be. Now at that time my beliefs were influenced by the Christian Science religion, which was the church my grandparents had been involved in, as well as my mother prior to my becoming a teenager (when she converted to holy roller).
Very shortly after praying this prayer (within a few days), I remembered the large scar on my leg where I had been burned at the age of eight. I realized that if had truly mastered the "mind over matter" philosophy that I believed in, I ought to be able to replace the scar tissue with healthy skin, using mental powers alone. So, I set out to do it, I tried to will my body to regenerate normal skin where the scar tissue existed. Needless to say, I had no success. That incident was the first of many wherein inherent limitations or weaknesses or lack of personal development have been amply demonstrated, an experience I now partake of almost daily.
Jesus says more about self conquest. He also refers to it in a negative sense. If doing God's will and self-conquest together define spiritual growth, then sin, defined as "deliberate disloyalty to Deity ," (paper 89, section 10) is the opposite of spiritual growth.
But we see that even sin is heavily influenced by the degree of self-mastery, for in paper 170, Jesus teaches us that
"...sin is not the child of a defective nature but rather the offspring of a knowing mind dominated by an unsubmissive will."
Apparently, since we are all now adjuster indwelt, we all know good from evil, yet sin still exists on this world in abundance. Since sin is defined as _deliberate_ disloyalty to deity, it is natural that a "knowing mind" is an essential element to the act of committing a sin. On other words, you cannot unknowingly sin.
But we also see that "an unsubmissive will," in other words, an unconquered, untrained mind, is a key element in explaining the existence and nature of sin, at least on our world, Urantia. Jesus seems to be implying here that simply knowing God's will is insufficient. He says that we are not born defective. Yet we still knowingly make unwise choices. Why?
Because we have not subdued our will. We have not fought the battle of self-mastery to the point of victory.
The Solitary Messenger says essentially the same thing in paper 110, section 7:
"But with the vast majority of Urantians the Adjuster must patiently await the arrival of death deliverance; must await the liberation of the emerging soul from the well-nigh complete domination of the energy patterns and chemical forces inherent in your material order of existence. The chief difficulty you experience in contacting with your Adjusters consists in this very inherent material nature. So few mortals are real thinkers; you do not spiritually develop and discipline your minds to the point of favorable liaison with the divine Adjusters."
So we see that this concept of training, or disciplining our minds has a direct bearing on our ability to cooperate with the Divine Indwelling.
However, I personally believe that ultimately, cooperation with our Divine Partner comes down to just three things:
1. The exercise of living faith.
2. The proper prioritization of faith in the inner life.
3. The establishment of unbroken communion with God.
We will address item 1, living faith, later in this book. Item 2, the proper prioritization of faith, is summed up rather succinctly by Jesus, when he says (paper 159):
"There is but one struggle for those who enter the kingdom, and that is to fight the good fight of faith. The believer has only one battle, and that is against doubt -- unbelief."
And the importance of unbroken communion is brought out by Immanuel in his counsel to Michael just before Michael's departure for the Urantia incarnation. Immanuel stresses that:
"Throughout your Urantia bestowal you need be concerned with but one thing, the unbroken communion between you and your Paradise Father..."
Before we leave the subject of conquest of the seven psychic circles, there is one more point which is somewhat novel that is directly related. Here's the quote (paper 110, section 6):
"Purely spiritual development may have little to do with planetary material prosperity, but circle attainment always augments the potential of human success and mortal achievement."
Intriguing comment, coming from a Solitary Messenger, isn't it? It's almost like he thought, "aw, what the heck, if this comment causes even one person to pursue psychic circles conquest more seriously, then it will have been worth it." And you know what? I agree.
Must "conceal" some worthwhile unattainable: PC conquest is not the equivalent of adjuster fusion, there is more. It is only the necessary and unavoidable prerequisite. When you get there, you'll figure it out.
Part of the mystery of psychic circles conquest is that you never know which of the seven psychic circles you are in. (chap 6?)
Hidden Message #2: Enthusiasm for struggle
This hidden message is so intertwined with the others that it is hard to present it as a separate message, yet its importance demands special treatment. It is not much of a masterful mystery, for anyone throughout history who has ever enjoyed success in a big way, substantially rising above the circumstances of youth has, consciously or unconsciously, discovered this message. What is unique is its application to the spiritual journey. For, unless one can develop a willingness to confront difficult and seemingly inexplicable situations in the inner life as well as the outer life, and to so with gusto and enthusiasm, few if any of the worthwhile unattainables portrayed in this book will be even remotely achieved.
This message is also probably the least hidden of the hidden messages, though it is sparsely mentioned, at least directly. But understanding the importance of cheerfully and enthusiastically meeting the challenges of life, known and unknown, and mankind's general reluctance to do so, provides probably the fundamental key to fully grasping the present-day situation on this planet and the real difficulties that will be encountered in surmounting them.
We shall address the main comments in the book in the order which they appear:
(paper 26, line 214)
"...long before reaching Havona, these ascendant children of time have learned to feast upon uncertainty, to fatten upon disappointment, to enthuse over apparent defeat, to invigorate in the presence of difficulties, to exhibit indomitable courage in the face of immensity, and to exercise unconquerable faith when confronted with the challenge of the inexplicable."
The key phrase in this passage is "to invigorate in the presence of difficulties." For, while all of this passage is vital and true, if you are like me, the first few times you read it you will say to yourself something like what I said: "This is all well and good, and I wish I could achieve this here and now, but of course that is unlikely. Fortunately, I have until I reach Havona to fully develop these character traits."
Yet Jesus displayed all of these during his life.
In truth, a case could probably be made for each of the character traits above representing a hidden message in the book. But I believe that if one can at least learn to "invigorate in the presence of difficulties," then substantial progress will have been made toward accomplishing the rest of the worthwhile unattainables presented above.
In paper 103, section 5, a Melchizedek of Nebadon says:
"The life after death is no different in the essentials than the mortal existence."
This is vividly illustrated by another comment found in paper 47, section 7, where the Brilliant Evening Star, referring to Mansonia number five says,
"At about this point the average mortal ascender begins to manifest bona fide experiential enthusiasm for the Havona ascent. Study is becoming voluntary, unselfish service natural, and worship spontaneous."
So, let's be sure we understand this. We've already died and been resurrected. We've passed through several of the mansion worlds (three or four, maybe five). We've met our guardian angels, seen and heard the universe broadcasts, and frolicked with the Morontia Companions. And yet, unless we are an exception to the rule, we have yet to display genuine enthusiasm for the Paradise ascent!
I can't imagine what would keep us from being truly exited about the possibilities of so vastly improving our (already vastly improved) lot in life, unless it is the "difficulty factor." Indeed, it probably IS the difficulty factor, for in paper 48, section 5, we read that
" One of the purposes of the morontia career is to effect the permanent eradication from the mortal survivors of such animal vestigial traits as procrastination, equivocation, insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and ease seeking."
There it is again -- procrastination, problem avoidance, and ease seeking. In other words, lack of enthusiasm for struggle. And, we cannot progress beyond the Mansion Worlds until this problem (in the negative sense) is conquered. Or, to put it differently, by the time we leave Mansonia Seven, even if we have not yet learned to "invigorate in the presence of difficulties," at the very least we have purged ourselves of the negative animal habits that would certainly prevent us from developing that virtue.
I believe that that the traits of insincerity and ease seeking are the major impediments to real planetary progress becoming an observed reality. A careful study of history will show one particular pattern emerge again and again for the great civilizations. Upon attainment to a situation whereby the imminent dangers of survival have been practically banished, the population abandons the intense struggle that got them to that position. Eventually, outside forces cause the civilization to collapse. One recent exception to this rule was the island of Great Britain from the period of 1050 to 1950. The reason why the Brits managed to escape external conquest was that the internal struggle for political ascendancy (the balance of power) continually shifted between royalty and the aristocracy, with the common man even winning some small measures of self-control over personal destinies whenever a temporary stalemate would evolve between the two competing factions. In addition, there were various factions of aristocracy vying for control, and occasional minor external threats, both political and religious, to keep things interesting.
But this period of relative tranquility came about because of the diverse mix of sub-races that came into being in the millenium that preceded it. Repeatedly the relatively peaceful and complacent Celts were invaded by the Romans, the Angles, the Saxons, the Vikings, and finally a group from Brittany in France who were the direct descendants of some earlier Viking conquerors. This varied racial heritage helped contribute to the constant tension in the struggle for power that has ensued over the past millenium.
This phenomena is also at work in the economic cycles that characterize the free market economies of the present times. Those of us in the US who watch the financial markets may be aware that the stock traders consider a recession imminent when wage demands put upward pressure on prices, due to the higher cost of production. The ensuing inflation of prices due to wage inflation can only be "wrung out" of the economy by hiking the interest rate (which the central banking authority, the Federal Reserve in the US, will do). This hike in interest rates reduces economic activity, which causes a recession. People lose jobs, companies strive to produce the same product for less money, the truly industrious individuals get what few jobs are available, and that, in tandem with corporate efforts to improve efficiency, eventually brings the prices and the wages that drive prices back into balance. Then, the recession ends, and the economy enters an expansion phase all over again. The cycle is repeated over and over.
But what is really happening here? WHY is this same pattern repeated, over and over again?
Because of human nature as it exists on Urantia today. For, when the average worker observes relative prosperity around him, it is a natural reaction to expect to share in that perceived good fortune, even if that particular worker is not improving his or her performance! The mere lack of pressing financial problems by the company is enough to feel justified in demanding significantly higher compensation. In addition, during "good times," management often has trouble recruiting enough quality employees. This causes management to become excessively dependent upon what workforce they are able to maintain, which sets up a measure of false confidence in the workers. This eventually leads to drops in productivity, which in tandem with the increased wages, initiates the inflationary conditions that lead to a recession.
A similar cycle often occurs in the realm of personal spiritual growth, which goes a long way toward explaining why our guardian seraphim are invisible, we never will know which psychic circle we are in, and conscious communication with the indwelling spirit of God cannot occur until we have reached the first psychic circle.
It is important that spirituality grow in tandem with a willingness to seek out new challenges, and to vigorously meet the unexpected challenges that present themselves. Individual growth that is purely spiritual in nature will not do much to advance the state of this planet, and can therefore be actually harmful to the individual.
Continuing on in TUB, we find the next passage, which is one of the most direct statements in the book regarding the desirability of developing an enthusiasm for struggle. It is found in Morontia Mota:
"Difficulties may challenge mediocrity and defeat the fearful, but they only stimulate the true children of the Most Highs."
The thing to realize is that these difficulties may be internal. It may be ourselves, our inner lives, that present the greatest difficulties to us. It is the realization of this that intertwines the hidden message of developing an enthusiasm for struggle with the worthwhile unattainable of adjuster fusion. But, in any event, we see here that the expectation is that we will rise to the occasion when presented with unusually difficult challenges in life. Yet I believe that doing so is made more difficult if we have not first nurtured the habit of cheerfully meeting the lesser but no less daunting problems of everyday life with an aggressive enthusiasm.
In paper 48, section 7, we see that effort is also essential in order to be happy, where we read that
"Effort does not always produce joy, but there is no happiness without intelligent effort."
This phenomenon of entire races or cultures actually being harmed by a lessening of the necessity for intense struggle is illustrated in TUB in paper 80, section 3. Here's the story:
"About fifteen thousand years ago the Alpine forests were spreading extensively. The European hunters were being driven to the river valleys and to the seashores by the same climatic coercion that had turned the world's happy hunting grounds into dry and barren deserts. As the rain winds shifted to the north, the great open grazing lands of Europe became covered by forests. These great and relatively sudden climatic modifications drove the races of Europe to change from open-space hunters to herders, and in some measure to fishers and tillers of the soil.
" These changes, while resulting in cultural advances, produced certain biologic retrogressions. During the previous hunting era the superior tribes had intermarried with the higher types of war captives and had unvaryingly destroyed those whom they deemed inferior. But as they commenced to establish settlements and engage in agriculture and commerce, they began to save many of the mediocre captives as slaves. And it was the progeny of these slaves that subsequently so greatly deteriorated the whole Cro-Magnon type. This retrogression of culture continued until it received a fresh impetus from the east when the final and en masse invasion of the Mesopotamians swept over Europe, quickly absorbing the Cro-Magnon type and culture and initiating the civilization of the white races."
We see this same concept expressed again, more directly, in paper 52, "Planetary Mortal Epochs":
"After the initial visitation of a Magisterial Son the races soon effect their economic liberation. The daily work required to sustain one's independence would be represented by two and one-half hours of your time. It is perfectly safe to liberate such ethical and intelligent mortals. Such refined peoples well know how to utilize leisure for self-improvement and planetary advancement. "
Did the Mighty Messenger write that it's perfectly SAFE reduce the workload? Does this imply that it might be UNSAFE to do so prematurely? And, what's the criteria for determining whether or not it is indeed safe enough to effect this economic/time liberation? It is this -- an ability to profitably utilize leisure time.
Somewhere in the book, I'm not sure where, it implies that there is nothing stopping any individual from living a life of light and life, even though the planet is not ready to enter that exalted age as a unit. What we can learn from statements like the one above regarding the relationship between economic liberation and safety is that our own personal economic liberation is much more likely to occur when we as individuals learn how to profitably utilize our leisure time. Sound appealing to you?
I believe that one of the key passages in the entire book is to be found in paper 100. The whole issue of why effort is necessary, and why we avoid it, at least as it applies to spiritual effort, is summed up marvelously in one short paragraph:
"Religious perplexities are inevitable; there can be no growth without psychic conflict and spiritual agitation. The organization of a philosophic standard of living entails considerable commotion in the philosophic realms of the mind. Loyalties are not exercised in behalf of the great, the good, the true, and the noble without a struggle. Effort is attendant upon clarification of spiritual vision and enhancement of cosmic insight. And the human intellect protests against being weaned from subsisting upon the nonspiritual energies of temporal existence. The slothful animal mind rebels at the effort required to wrestle with cosmic problem solving."
What more is there to say? Only this: The passage above applies to me, and it applies to you. You cannot be a leader of others unless and until you have grasped and incorporated the hidden message of the necessity of struggle into your psyche. You should ask God, beginning right now, to aid you in conquering your slothful animal mind. You should learn to look forward to the efforts which are necessary for "clarification of spiritual vision and enhancement of cosmic insight ." Remember this: There is NO growth without inner conflict and spiritual agitation. And how is such growth characterized? True spiritual growth is portrayed as loyalties being exercised on behalf of the great, the good, the true, and the noble. This is the real goal of life, the whole purpose for all the daily struggles.
We see that Jesus developed habits of a healthy willingness to engage in the struggles of life early on, and kept honing them as he grew. For instance, we read that when Joseph died, though barely 14 years of age, Jesus "cheerfully accepted the responsibilities so suddenly thrust upon him..." A little later in this same paper 126, we read that
"As Jesus worked with his younger brothers and sisters in the garden, he many times entertained
the wish that they were all located on a farm out in the country where they could enjoy the liberty and freedom of an unhampered life. But they did not find themselves growing up in the country; and Jesus, being a thoroughly practical youth as well as an idealist, intelligently and vigorously attacked his problem just as he found it, and did everything within his power to adjust himself and his family to the realities of their situation and to adapt their condition to the highest possible satisfaction of their individual and collective longings."
The key phrase here is that Jesus "and vigorously attacked his problem just as he found it," rather than hoping that he had a different set of problems, or taking any one of hundreds of other courses of action or nonaction that is characteristic of the sothful animal mind's reluctance to grapple with the solving of life's more difficult problems.
By the way, in this paper we also read that "Jesus had much trouble with confused thinking" during the 15th year of his life. Elsewhere we read how John the Baptist became increasingly confused as time went on, and Jesus refused to assist him in his efforts at clarification of thought. I'm inclined to the belief that intense confusion is another "must" along the path to Paradise as it is lived on this world. Indeed, this may even be another hidden message in TUB. In any event, though, confusion and struggle often appear together. Indeed, this combination may largely characterize the "fringe of conflict" that Jesus refers to in paper 159, as we pass "from the life as it is lived in the flesh to the higher life as it is lived in the spirit." But only by persisting in the struggle will we emerge victorious on the other side, else we will slide back to the staring point, only to encounter the same struggle again at some future date.
This importance of a willingness to engage in the necessary struggles of life is directly related to our spiritual progress, circles-conquest, and our relationship with the God within. For, in paper xxx we read this startling revelation:
"The Mystery Monitors ... are not interested in making the mortal career easy; rather are they concerned in making your life reasonably difficult and rugged, so that decisions will be stimulated and multiplied. The presence of a great Thought Adjuster does not bestow ease of living and freedom from strenuous thinking, but such a divine gift should confer a sublime peace of mind and a superb tranquillity of spirit."
Here we see a different slant on the expression that "uncertainty is the secret of contented continuity," found in paper 39. Uncertainty and confusion, are, in a way, good, provided that we have as our inner core of being the contented continuity that derives from a sublime peace of mind and a superb tranquillity of spirit. It appears from the statement above that our inner Divine Guide wishes upon us a difficult and rugged life, characterized by much strenuous thinking. Without a willingness to exert ourselves, we will not be cooperating with God's plan for our lives. We will, in effect, be resisting cosmic reality.
But fear not, for there are provisions made for those times when we inadvertently slip into a state of complacency, for Jesus warns (paper 78, in the "Discourse on Sonship and Citizenship"):
"Learn to be faithful to the kingdom even in times of peace and prosperity. Tempt not the angels of your supervision to lead you in troublous ways as a loving discipline designed to save your ease-drifting souls."
This importance of struggle is so great that if you are not struggling enough, your guardian angels will lead you into troublous times! I was once discussing prayers with a group of readers. I commented that on occasion I will actually pray that certain persons encounter a higher degree of difficulty in life. The other readers present were incredulous! One man summed up the sentiments of the entire group when he said, only half jokingly, "then please do not ever pray for me!"
What do you think?
But there is even more wisdom in Jesus' statement. For, if we look at his comment from the standpoint of everyday practical implementation, what are we confronted with? Consider this -- is your life difficult enough today?
Can you ever imagine anyone answering "no" to this question? OK, some might, on occasion. But there are always challenges ahead. So, when are we in danger of tempting our guardian seraphim to lead us into troublous ways? I'd say: "Ask God."
So, what we have is this essential subject of struggle and man's reluctance to engage in it broached directly by a Perfector of Wisdom, an Archangel, a Melchizedek of Nebadon, and Jesus himself. Plus, we have numerous other indirect references to the importance of struggle in the grand scheme of life.
So, gird yourselves for the struggle ahead! And smile, and learn to love it!
Another Secret Message
Living Faith
Why is "living faith" one of the secret messages within TUB?
Because it is an essential key to spiritual growth, yet it is never defined nor explained. We only know of this term at all because Jesus alludes to it on several occasions, as do a few of the various authors of TUB. A quick computer search turns up 35 usages of the phrase "living faith." But the authors are extremely reticent when it comes to any sort of an explanation as to what this all-important phenomena is.
Why is it so important? consider some of the places this phrase is used:
196:0.9 The Master's entire life was consistently conditioned by this living faith, this sublime religious experience.
ubpaper194, line 192: They are equipped to overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate by love, to destroy fear with a courageous and living faith in truth.
ubpaper167, line 172: Works of self-righteousness cannot buy the favor of God, and much praying in public will not atone for lack of living faith in the heart.
ubpaper159, line 149: Men seek for the treasures of the kingdom with yearning hearts and weary feet when they are all within the immediate grasp of living faith.
ubpaper155, line 197: 155:6.4 Your religion shall change from the mere intellectual belief in traditional authority to the actual experience of that living faith which is able to grasp the reality of God and all that relates to the divine spirit of the Father.
ubpaper150, line 292: The transformations of grace are wrought in response to the living faith of those who are the beneficiaries."
ubpaper143, line 124: And if you are the children of this living faith, you are no longer the bondslaves of self but rather the triumphant masters of yourselves, the liberated sons of God.
OK, so let's start with a quick review of what faith is. We are taught to have faith. We learn that faith is not the same as belief, and that in fact the two are barely related. So, how is faith different?
For starters, "faith motivates action." (find quote)
Belief is centered upon something you learn, faith is dependent upon something you feel. But faith is not an emotion, it is more of a "gut feel." In addition, one can be pretty certain of one's beliefs, but I believe that one can never be wholly certain as to the object of one's faith, at least not at first.
I make this "not at first" observation because one can observe from TUB and from life that God invariably rewards faith. One example is that Jesus received no confirmation of his various faith journeys as a child until several months AFTER he had made some momentous decisions, in his twelfth year. The confirmations occurred in Jerusalem, first as "flood tides of spiritual illumination swept" over him (find quote), and then when the angelic visitor appeared and instructed him to start being "about his father's business."
We can also observe that Jesus followed the pattern during his public ministry (a time during which he was the official representative of the Father in Heaven).
For example, Jesus did not reveal his divinity to his Apostles until one of them figured it out on his own. A very careful reading of TUB reveals this is true -- scan every reference of Jesus referring to himself or his Paradise Father in the Jesus papers prior to Peter's confession. He hints at his relationship to the Father quite often, but never openly reveals it until after Peter demonstrates his attunement with his own TA by declaring that Jesus is "the Son of the Living God." (look up quote). This, by the way, is an example of living faith by Peter.
OK, so we have some vague idea of what faith is* (* = good topic to do a study on), but what is "living" faith?
We can help to discover the nature of living faith by examining those instances where Jesus compliments the faith of someone. The first example is that where the Centurion wishes to have his favorite servant healed. Jesus is prepared to go to this man's house, when the messenger (a messenger arrives?)...
[tell story]
This is also prior to Jesus' revealing himself as one with responsibility in the heavenly order of things, yet this Centurion figured out something that even his closest associates had not.
Jesus, who was living his life for the benefit of an entire universe, chose to make an example of this Centurion's faith. Jesus said, "..."
What was it about this Centurion's faith that was so impressive?
...
But we also have a clearer example of living faith. (pick this one apart in great detail)
We can also note that Jesus was always most apt to grant a request for healing when the request was unselfish. ...
Even the thief on the cross displayed living faith, momentarily.
line 137, paper 100: Man's sole contribution to growth is the mobilization of the total powers of his personality -- living faith.
The ART of Living
When asked to explain The Urantia Book, most of us come up short, or, worse yet, draw a complete blank. Many of the rest of us give some convoluted explanation that would only make sense to someone who has nearly finished his/her first reading of the book. I submit that this is because the book is simply too broad to be summarized, an assessment that I suspect few would disagree with.
TUB says that Jesus' may-sided teachings were not adequately grasped by any one individual, and that is why the bulk of his teachings were lost so soon after his death (within a generation or two). Or, to explain it differently, each of his followers taught that portion of Jesus' teachings which he or she understood, and the only teachings that have withstood the test of time are those that were universal, those few teachings that were commonly understood by all.
But, if we as individuals focus on that portion of TUB that we best understand, the risk of the message being largely lost is minimal, since this revelation is in book form. In any event, it is certainly not appropriate to tell an inquirer (sincere or otherwise) that the book is simply too vast to be summarized, so here, take my loaner copy, and go read it for yourself. People want TRUTH, not a BOOK, even if that truth is distorted, as long as it comes from your heart.
That, I believe, is the key. How much of that big blue book has made its way into your heart? For many, the fascination with the revelation as a revelation has eclipsed the more subtle messages.
We readers all know that God is love, hell is not real, everyone who seeks forgiveness is forgiven, and so on. But these ideas come off as just a bunch of platitudes to an outsider, just another "religion," probably made up by someone hoping to appeal to yet another segment of the unwary population.
What we need is something MEATY to give our inquirers. Something really different, something unique and highly appealing. So, turning to the book, what can be found that might fit this bill?
Consider paper 56, Universal Unity, co-authored by a Mighty Messenger (we will probably become Mighty Messengers some day) and Machiventa Melchizedek, the only other Descending Son of God to incarnate into the likeness of a human being on this planet, to-date. Until recently, I have found this one paper to be curiously out of step with most of the rest of the book, comparable in some ways to the papers on the Supreme - interesting, but perhaps a bit irrelevant.
But this paper was written by the one personality MOST INTERESTED in the welfare of this planet - our soon-to-be Vicegerent Planetary Prince. This convinced me that in fact this paper was probably one of the most important papers in the whole book. So, I read it very carefully, and very slowly.
In some ways paper 56 is a bit like the forward - it tends to summarize the whole book. But there are some very interesting and unique perspectives presented in this paper, entitled "Universal Unity." I will focus on just one of them - ART.
In section 10, "Truth, Beauty, and Goodness," we find the discussion on art. Our future replacement Planetary Prince, who once (and not too long ago) lived among us, says:
"Philosophy you somewhat grasp, and divinity you comprehend in worship, social service, and personal spiritual experience, but the pursuit of beauty -- cosmology -- you all too often limit to the study of man's crude artistic endeavors."
He then goes on to elaborate. I could take up many pages of text expanding upon this elaboration, but instead, let's just focus on one element. Here's his next sentence:
"Beauty, art, is largely a matter of the unification of contrasts."
Let's assume that Jesus, who exhausted all the potentials for finite expression of spiritual beauty in the local universe of Nebadon, epitomized this concept. How did Jesus express beauty (as art) by unifying contrasts?
I say that Jesus was every bit a man of his day. He could keep up with anyone who displayed the least bit of spiritual receptivity. Now, there are some pretty weird characters in the world today, and I'm sure that in Jesus' day the typical man on the street was much rougher, much weirder, and much more dangerous than today. Two examples (out of many) come to mind, of Jesus' melding of contrasts. One is the time he stopped a man from beating his wife in public, the other is the occasion of Jesus talking to Anaxand in the shipyard.
I'd like to confess here that I attended high school with a boy who was raised by his grandmother, in a very small town. We were very good friends, but as adults, he took a somewhat different path than I did, though we kept in touch for many years. After getting caught in some silly interstate theft thing and doing a few months in the Texas prison system, he returned to his wife and two young children, and made a life for himself.
Now, my friend Arley (not the one who reads TUB) was a good guy at heart, but his experiences in the Navy and in prison caused him to associate with a very rough crowd - bikers. He'd go to biker bars, and biker weddings. In case anyone doesn't know it, the "code" of the American old West still lives on in the biker sub-culture. Might very often makes right in these circles. There are plenty of drugs, and plenty of scoundrels. I remember one time when Arley told me that he'd taken his motorcycle to a guy for a major overhaul, and it was over two months later and he hadn't gotten it back. He told me that he (Arley) was afraid that this guy, this backyard mechanic, might be trying to get into the "Banditos," a motorcycle gang that requires, as the price of admission to their club, that the bike the candidate is riding be stolen from another biker. Arley summed up his dilemma by saying, "I might have to kill him." I thought he was speaking figuratively, but when I started making a joke of his comment, he let me know that he didn't appreciate me making light of his very real moral dilemma.
I rather suspect that many of the persons Jesus dealt with in his day were like Arley. I read a lot of Arley in the character of Anaxand, the young man in the shipyard working on the steering paddle alongside Jesus. Here we see Jesus making some kind of series of comments that causes Anaxand to ridicule Jesus, but to do so with a hint of sincerity.
Jesus knew that Anaxand's comment of "if the gods are so good then how come..." could not be answered directly. A discussion of free will, the real answer to the man's verbalized question, would have been wholly inappropriate. Jesus correctly saw the man's comment as a challenge to the assertions that Jesus had been making over the course of the morning - Jesus' assertions that God is good and that God cares for us. Jesus also correctly ascertained that such a challenge could only be addressed by a counterchallenge, one that would "one-up" the original challenge issued by the young man, Anaxand.
I'm picturing a bunch of bikers sitting around, one of whom is bragging about his friend. Another biker gets tired of listening to him, and calls his bluff. Now the bragger has to defend himself, or be made a fool. Imagine if biker #1 manages not only to defend his friend's honor, but at the same time to call his challenger a coward, and to do so in such a way that biker #2 actually agrees! This, I believe is what happened that afternoon in the shipyard as Jesus challenged Anaxand to accept his (Anaxand's) superior vision of justice, and act upon it to save the poor foreman who was drowning in spiritual darkness. Jesus even implied that if Anaxand didn't, he would be a spiritual coward!
If you read the passage on page 1430 you will notice that Jesus "puts down" Anaxand at least three times - twice at the beginning of his brief discourse, and then again at the end, where he challenges him with the following statement:
"Surely you are not the coward who could stand by on the seashore and watch a fellow man who could not swim perish!"
These are mighty strong words to use when dealing with an aggressive young man, one who hangs out in shipyards. But under the circumstances, they were exactly what needed to be said.
But, what does this have to do with art? Simple - it is a unification of contrasts. Jesus accepted this man exactly as he was, and still managed to unify spiritual growth and beauty with the rough and aggressive world of a common shipyard laborer. Truly, a unification of contrasts, creative beauty in the most amazing way.
However, this short passage illustrates a larger issue. Jesus lived a unique, spontaneous, and highly creative (artistic) life. The canvas of Jesus' life was the environs in which he happened to find himself at the moment. Jesus epitomized life in the era of light and life, a time when fashion will cease to dominate the lives of every mortal, when our clothes, our music, our ideas, our vocabularies, our reactions, and our thoughts will be unique expressions of the beauty of God, rather than being dictated by the acceptable norms of society.
In short, I believe that one of the hidden messages in The Urantia Book is the importance of ART. Not art as in paintings, sculpture, and music, but rather art as in "the art of living," as Rodan so aptly phrased it. We are each to become a unique and artistic expression of the infinite personality of the Universal Father. That infinity will not be fully expressed, a portion of it will be lost forever, if we do not fulfill our potential. God depends upon us to, in partnership with him, to CREATIVELY work out a new addition to reality as we know it. That, I believe, is the type of ART that our newly appointed Vicegerent Planetary Prince would like us to latch on to as a guiding concept in life.
And that, I submit, could be portrayed as the message that makes The Urantia Book unique among religions. For while all other religions rely on some type of code of ethics and morals (some are good, some are not so good, some are exceptionally good), The Urantia Book challenges us to devise a new and original path, one that will transcend the ethics and morals of this day, and will stand as a living testament to the glory of God the Almighty.
To the mistress of the Greek inn he said: "Minister your hospitality as one who entertains the children of the Most High. Elevate the drudgery of your daily toil to the high levels of a fine art through the increasing realization that you minister to God in the persons whom he indwells by his spirit which has descended to live within the hearts of men, thereby seeking to transform their minds and lead their souls to the knowledge of the Paradise Father of all these bestowed gifts of the divine spirit."
Supreme and Ultimate, Time and Space
This chapter is an exercise. There are numerous hidden messages in the paper "Supreme and Ultimate, Time and Space." It is in this paper that functional nature of reality is the most straightforwardly described. I would like to leave it to you the reader to discover these hidden messages.
For example, in this paper we discover that the final dynamics of the entire cosmos has to do with the conversion of potentials to actuals. It therefore behooves us to strive for original and creative manifestations of God's love, for this is how we build our soul and how we contribute to the growth of the Supreme. While quotes that support this can be found in various places throughout the book, only here is it openly discussed.
We also find the answer to one of the Atheist's favorite questions, which is, "can God create a rock so heavy that he can't lift it?" Ignoring that the concept of "heavy" and "lift" are irrelevant on a universe scale, the concept is often used a means of ridiculing believers. Here, in paper 118, we read the straightforward answer:
"The omnipotence of Deity does not imply the power to do the nondoable. Within the time-space frame and from the intellectual reference point of mortal comprehension, even the infinite God cannot create square circles or produce evil that is inherently good. God cannot do the ungodlike thing. Such a contradiction of philosophic terms is the equivalent of nonentity and implies that nothing is thus created."
As a quick example, let's examine one of the many fascinating concepts presented in this indeed mysterious paper, the concept of human free will. The Mighty Messenger writes:
"All volition is relative. ... Mortal man is endowed with free will, the power of choice, and though such choosing is not absolute, nevertheless, it is relatively final on the finite level and concerning the destiny of the choosing personality.
Hidden in this sentence is an interesting concept: Our free will is final only as it concerns destiny decisions. This implies that most of our "free will" decisions, such as which career to enter or how many children to have, are either:
a. Of utterly no consequence in the grand scheme of things, or
b. Predetermined by our genetic makeup plus the social environment (which is a summation of the genetic potentials plus the degree of overlaid spirituality).
Lest we find this portrayal of the limited range of human free will to be unpleasant and therefore tend to disagree, we should read on, and consider the next paragraph:
"Volition on any level short of the absolute encounters limitations which are constitutive in the very personality exercising the power of choice. Man cannot choose beyond the range of that which is choosable.
"In the mortal life, paths of differential conduct are continually opening and closing, and during the times when choice is possible the human personality is constantly deciding between these many courses of action."
The key phrase here is "when choice is possible." Possible? You mean, I don't have free will right this very minute? Why, I can get up and walk out the door right now and go do whatever I want! What is meant by the use of the word "possible"?
[discuss]
You see why this is indeed a "hidden message." All through the book, we are told that we are free will beings. Suddenly we discover that our free will is severely limited, that only certain types of decision-actions are truly classed as "free will" in nature! Hidden? You bet!
But how does this apply to LIFE? We agree that it is a hidden message, but is it a masterful mystery, or a worthwhile unattainable? Is it even relevant, or is it merely an intellectual curiosity?
This mysterious comment ties in with the greatest of worthwhile unattainables, that of Adjuster Fusion. We read that Jesus advocates "active and alert" submission to the Father's will. What he is really suggesting is that we be on constant alert for opportunities to inject creative righteousness into the affairs of everyday life. It not at all times that a free will choice is a possibility, so of course we must be on watch for those moments when it is possible. But by ACTIVE and ALERT submission to the Father's will, we might even see an opening whereby we can CAUSE there to be a possibility where previously one did not exist.
It helps if you view reality as a curtain. you can rarely see beyond the curtain, you only see that which is before your eyes. But on rare occasions, the curtain parts momentarily to allow you through, only to encounter another curtain, one that is in some small manner affected by your mere presence. Sometimes the curtain parts due to the actions of your guardian seraphim, but you also have the ability to cause the curtains to part, if you are active enough, and alert enough.
Would you say that acquiring the ability to cause that curtain to part a bit more often is a worthwhile goal? Could it qualify as a "worthwhile semi-attainable?" It is also a concept that is somewhat mysterious, for we really never know when the curtain is going to part, allowing us the opportunity to engage in a true exercise of free will.
But how can the teacher or leader take this concept and apply it? How to use it in a manner that fosters the growth of the community of believers?
I recommend that the underlying concept be taught and discussed. The readers need to know that their free will is only truly free with regard to the expression of values, and that the more original the value, the more free the will is to express it, and the freer the will be after the expression is complete. We are, ultimately, animal creatures. It is necessary to severely limit the range of options for our behavior. In the same paper, SUTS, we see that we have "governors" installed that limit our growth to the currently existent rate of momentum. The only way to allow for faster growth is to increase our growth momentum. These governors are simply the phenomenon of habit, the habits of thought that make up our mental environment.
Therefore, we should encourage our reader-friends to engage in values-based decisions at every opportunity. This will help to increase our momentum for positive change. you see, this passage, as is the case with ALL the hidden messages, has direct applications to everyday life.
The Ways of Spiritual Growth
Paper 170 (paradox)
Regarding sin, he taught that God has forgiven; that we make such forgiveness personally available by the act of forgiving our fellows. When you forgive your brother in the flesh, you thereby create the capacity in your own soul for the reception of the reality of God's forgiveness of your own misdeeds.
Mota - The greatest affliction is to never have been afflicted.
Chapter 6
More on Cults and Cult Formation
Most folks do not realize it, but The Urantia Book was written with a definite editorial slant. This tendency of the book to emphasize certain concepts while de-emphasizing or ignoring others is probably in response to the revelatory Mandate written by the Ancients of Days. For example, we find the topic of "energies," such as spiritual energies, which is a favorite of those engaged in metaphysical pursuits, to be almost but not completely ignored. There are certain references to various forms of undiscovered and undiscoverable energies in the book (paper 34 section 6 and pg. 1090 are two examples), but these brief passages do not elaborate at all on the subject, leading me to believe that this is an area of little importance when compared to the more dire spiritual needs of this planet.
One interesting editorial slant was brought to my attention recently on the Internet. From the Caligastia 100 to Jesus, each epochal revelation has focused increasingly upon the individual, and less on the group. Jesus, in his efforts to restore the individual's relationship with God, almost wholly ignored the ramifications of his teachings on various forms of social groupings in all his public and even practically all of his private pronouncements.
But THE Urantia BOOK has departed from this trend. THE Urantia BOOK has re-introduced the importance of the group. Some instances of this are [embarrassed for Satania] and [class formation]. But the most immediately relevant of all revealed avenues for the expression of group loyalty is the revelation of the various stages of a planet's development. For, as moves the parts, so moves the whole [there are at least two quotes to this effect]. We discover that the onus is on each and every one of us to help bring this planet incrementally closer to the ages of light and life. What the authors have done is to raise the ceiling of group consciousness to a planetary level, while even suggesting that our next level of group loyalty will be to the local system of Satania, during our next stage of ascendant existence.
This concept of a "mission" to help our planet has already been employed in a highly successful manner by the pseudo-religion of Scientology. They have some sort of concept that they call "clearing." It is necessary to "clear" the mind, I'm not sure of what, but I believe of distracting thoughts and ideas. The eventual goal is to "clear" the planet, and this goal is highly motivating to the members of Scientology.
THE Urantia BOOK's concept of planetary loyalty and sense of mission is considerably broader in scope, but is nevertheless more real and more relevant. We should each strive to live as if we were already participating in the era of light and life. One way to do that is to recognize the priorities presented in THE Urantia BOOK, and adhere to them in our efforts toward personal growth as well as our more public efforts to uplift our community.
Rituals
If you think people won't accept a few appropriate ceremonies and rituals, think again. Rituals appeal to all types of people, of all ages and all stations in life.
Consider the Jews who, as a group, tend towards above average accomplishments in life, suggesting above average intelligence and versatility. In addition, most Jews tend to be psychologically well-adjusted. You would think that this subculture would be particularly adverse to silly ceremonies and rituals.
But the Jewish religion is steeped in ceremony and ritual. The ceremonies of Judaism are both numerous and extensive. It could even be argued that part of the reason for the general success of the Jewish people in Western society is that they are well-grounded in their selfhood in part because of their system of religious ceremonies and rituals.
Mormons. Moslems. Jehovah's Witnesses.
I believe that it is incumbent upon aspiring cult leaders to allow ceremonies and meaningful rituals to spring up naturally.
Placing Requirements Upon Members
Many people balk at having requirements of any type placed upon them.
Readers too intellectual - afraid of a religion owning them (paper 195?)
More people leave the movement because of an unmet desire to be led, than stay because of an absence of undesirable leaders.
How to Start a Cult
So, you want to start a cult. Where do you begin?
It would appear that there are two necessities to getting started: Three or more persons of like mind, and some in-depth preparatory research into one or more of the hidden messages.
The like-minded group may choose to focus on one of the hidden messages, or on more than one (as a group), or on one per person. But before this group can begin to initiate a successful pre-cult, there must be some fundamental degree of understanding of the chosen and relevant secret messages.
This group does not have to be experts in the secret messages. It is important not to fall into the role of authoritative teacher. The secret messages all represent worthwhile unattainables, which implies that no mortal (other than Jesus) will be able to fully master them during one short life in the flesh. It is enough to promote the secret messages in concert with embarking on a personal program of devotion to the experiential mastery of the chosen hidden messages.
Of course, in the early stages the best approach is to research the relevant quotes, topical study-style. The problem and advantage is that the relevant quotes often cannot be found using the Concordex or the computer search tools, because relevant quotes may not have any related keywords.
An example of this is the following quote:
(UB435) ... The keys of the kingdom of heaven are: sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity. All men have these keys. Men use them--advance in spirit status-- by decisions, by more decisions, and by more decisions. The highest moral choice is the choice of the highest possible value, and always--in any sphere, in all of them--this is to choose to do the will of God.
This quote relates directly to psychic circles conquest, yet there is no mention in it of the phrase "psychic circles."
Remember, "a religious cult cannot be manufactured; it must grow."
So, I recommend the evolutionary approach to cult-formation.
One idea is this:
Find two or more persons of like mind Remember, it takes three to form a group. If you have a group, then your group will occasionally benefit by the presence of a seraphim assigned specifically to assist you in achieving your group goals, assuming that they are worthy.
It would be very helpful if this small group could openly discuss the concept of cult formation. One way to bring up the topic might be to begin by discussing the character of the readership in your area. For instance, are there a lot of channelers? New readers? Are there a bunch of highly seasoned readers who might be scaring off new readers? What are the family needs of your community? Are there many senior citizens? Have there been a lot of new-age types dropping in for one or two visits in the recent past?
So, begin by taking stock of the needs of your community of readers, actual readers and potential readers too, if possible.
Let's assume that your area consists of two study groups, on opposite ends of town, and the two groups get together a couple of times per year, but are otherwise of substantially different characters. Perhaps one consists largely of TM believers, and the other one does not.
Next pick one of the secret messages to focus on. This can be one message for your small group of like-minded persons, or it can be one message per person.
Then research the hidden message. Come to an understanding of it, if you have not already done so. This may take some time, so I recommend you begin with the next step and work on this one as you go.
Next, your group needs to make itself known in some fashion. I'm not recommending that you announce that the three of you have decided to start a cult. Rather, what you want to do is to begin capitalizing on the element of mystery from the very beginning. You might want to allude to your meeting in cryptic terms, as, "You know, George and Sally and I had a meeting at our house last week, and we came up with a plan to help increase the interest in TUB in this area." If someone asks what that plan is, simply say something like "we plan to try to focus on the basics of the book, some of the more interesting and fundamental concepts." This answer is entirely truthful, yet still cryptic.
The next thing that you should do is function as a group. Develop some loyalty to each other. You need to believe in your cause.
Meanwhile, it would be useful, in our little scenario above, if the three of you could make it a point to visit both study groups, on a rotating basis. During this period of time, you are also studying your particular secret message, oftentimes as references to it come up in the readings, studies, and discussions in study group.
The three of you should host one or two gatherings per year at your homes, where you choose the topic of study. That topic will of course relate to the hidden messages. It will also be helpful if, on occasion, you refer to the existence of hidden messages in TUB. Don't overdo this. Remember, you are presenting a masterful mystery. Don't strip away too much of the element of mystery, or it loses its effectiveness.
However, if someone shows a genuine interest, you need to decide how to handle that situation. One option is to start instructing that person in the mysteries of the hidden messages. Of course, much of that instruction is simply guided study. This approach would probably work best for the person who has thus far shown only a nominal interest in the book.
For new readers, I would be somewhat careful. You don't want to turn them off by making the book and its readers appear too cult-like, and here I am using the word "cult" as it is often used in society today, with all the associated negative connotations. For the new reader, I'd just mention that there are some hidden messages in the book, and that they relate to spiritual growth. I'd then add that they will probably become apparent over time, though probably not during the first reading of the book.
Another possibility is that a long-time and experienced reader begins to take an interest in your references to hidden messages. Here you need to decide if this person is a potential adversary or friend. If adversary, if this person is a highly orthodox reader, or already has his or her personal cause to promote (such as _A Course in Miracles_), then I'd just say that you are reading a book on the development of cults in the movement, and that it is based on paper 87, and you've come to realize that there are some underlying principles in the book that are often ignored. I'd then change the subject.
If this long-term reader is somewhat progressive in thought, though, then you might want to recommend this book to your friend, and then let this book do the selling job.
(Second scenario? Community that has already reached a consensus to form a church!)
I believe that there are several basic types of readers. There are, of course, the intellectualizers. These are the folks who are fascinated by the truths in TUB, but are not ready to venture out on the high seas of spiritual exploration.
There are the readers, those whose lives are fairly settled, and TUB is a source of added inspiration and spice.
There are the doers. These are the folks who want to go out and feed the hungry, as a group.
There are the gifted. These are the present and future teachers and leaders, by virtue of their life experiences.
The members of a cult should be treated equally and with respect, but it is also OK and even necessary to have distinctions of differentiability. Some will grasp the hidden messages. They should assume the major and minor leadership roles. Others will display that they will eventually grasp the hidden messages. These folks should be encouraged to contribute to the group on a regular basis.
But there will always be those who are more interested in receiving the insights of others, rather than venturing out on the path of spiritual discovery themselves. While these people should always be ENCOURAGED, they should never be PUSHED to attain levels of self-discovery for which they are not ready. Remember the old leadership adage, "you cannot push a rope."
The "hidden messages" are actually for the more advanced readers, those with some potential for leadership. The folks who are clearly followers need to learn the basics before being taught the hard stuff. Both Jesus and Paul clearly endorsed this concept (find quotes, beauty of the temple, milk vs. meat). Many of the more complacent spiritual seekers will be satisfied, at least at first, with the many mysteries within TUB that are dispelled by engaging in several careful readings. These "lower level" mysteries should be addressed by the less experienced readers before any emphasis is placed on the "masterful" mysteries which are only alluded to in the text, but never fully explained.
Thus, the masterful mysteries exist in order to challenge the more serious students of the revelation, that is, to present them with a set of permanent, life-long challenges, challenges that are wholly and obviously relevant in every way both to the day-to-day problems of life, and to the status of the individual soul with respect to eternity.
These hidden messages should never be "explained," in part because no human can presume to adequately grasp such high spiritual concepts. They should, rather, be DISCOVERED as the result of hints and innuendoes. It is OK to say that "the hidden messages relate to the subjects of adjuster fusion and spiritual growth" (or whichever of the many hidden messages you have chosen to focus on), but to assume the ability to "teach" what these hidden messages are is presumptuous, and could easily lead to spiritual pride, a matter of grave concern (find quote), since it was largely responsible for the downfall of Lucifer.
Indeed, it is wholly permissible and probably even a good idea if cult founders openly state themselves that they have an inadequate grasp of the hidden messages. The cult should in a way be dedicated to the discovery of the various implications of the hidden messages, and the living out of the discoveries made by the members of the local cults. But in all instances, it must be remembered that personal experience must be supreme. Even false experiences, such as those related to channelings, must take precedence over anything that anyone outside of yourself teaches. Jesus' religion is a religion of living experience, and as it pertains to any INDIVIDUAL, nothing takes precedence over living experience with spiritual realities.
Hinting at the mysteries and unattainables, and forcing others to discover them, enhances those elements of the cult that most appeal to neophytes. But remember, it is essential not to be heavy-handed about these matters. You certainly don't want to go up to a new reader every week and ask if that person had finally figured out the hidden messages. That would defeat the entire purpose of this whole book. The real goal is to have a graduated set of mysteries that will engage all members of the group in constructive efforts to advance personal spiritual growth (and circles conquest) for the rest of their lives. It is actually essential that advanced concepts not be overly-exposed to readers who are still busy figuring out the true consequences of the Lucifer Manifesto, or who still don't know the difference between the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth.
This is one essence of a successful cult, that no members ever attain to a position where it would be possible to exploit other, newer members.
In addition, some persons will be quickly turned off by the concepts of mystery elements. Especially if we are talking about certain new readers, such a presentation could have the effect of steering that person away from the book altogether and permanently. So, tact is an essential element. Remember, for most new readers (new = less than two full readings), the obvious messages of TUB constitute a sufficient set of mysteries.
For those who balk at reading the whole book, the more advanced readers should attempt to convey the various fundamental messages of the book, not from the position of an expert, but rather from the position of a long-time and dedicated student of the book, one who may feel comfortable with trying to convey the TRUTHS (not facts) that may not be obvious to the everyday person. Morontia Mota is a good section for efforts of this nature. That passage could be examined for years. Indeed, it could be chosen as the basis for forming a local cult, for few if any of us will ever succeed in mastering even half of those gems of wisdom in one lifetime.
Or, a regular study group format, or something similar but perhaps slightly enhanced, should suffice for most new readers. This could be supplemented by occasional "topical studies," a practice which is already common in many reader communities. Then there could be the occasional meeting for advanced readers, wherein the hidden messages are explored. I believe that it would be helpful to limit attendance at these meetings, perhaps to those who have read the entire book, or those who have been involved in the community of readers for a certain number of years, or by some other (locally determined) criteria.
But, in explaining the more basic messages of the book to newer readers, we are again faced with the problem of how to select which portions of the message to present, for the subject matter of TUB is so incredibly broad as well as deep. This is where the more advanced study of the hidden messages works to the teacher's advantage. For practically any passage in the book, especially in the Jesus papers, can be explained to someone else relative to the context of one of the hidden messages. In other words, any passage of spiritual import in the book can be related to one of the hidden messages in some fashion, and the background knowledge of the hidden messages can be kept in mind as that particular passage is expounded upon. In a way, the hidden messages are tools in the teacher-student's arsenal to be used in conveying the essence of the book to anyone who is seriously interested.
10 minute daily meditation (TM taught this).
Alternative strategy - advertise a more "structured" SG.
As the years passed, this young carpenter of Nazareth increasingly measured every institution of society and every usage of religion by the unvarying test: What does it do for the human soul? does it bring God to man? does it bring man to God?
Chapter 7
Summary
This chapter represents the hidden message in this book. (Note that this chapter is not listed in the table of contents). This is because I did not want you or anyone else to skip right to the summary. As I said in the preface, parts of this book are written tongue in cheek, while other parts are quite serious. Here's where we find out which is which.
The title of this book is not serious, for you cannot just go out and "start a cult," unless it is to be a personality-based cult, which will ordinarily benefit no one. Indeed, the Brilliant Evening Star says, "a religious cult cannot be manufactured; it must grow."
So, why this book?
Because we need to cast off the inhibitions about being "religious." We need to know that some day we WILL be accused of being a "cult" no matter what we do, and so we should just go on about our business, allowing the evolution of cultural and religious traditions to take their natural course, and not be so uptight about anything that seems overly religious or cultic.
The old "glow in the dark" doctrine of becoming so spiritually fragrant that others would be let attracted to us worked fine for Jesus and his followers, and it will work fine for us, too (though Jesus also sent his Apostles door-to-door). But when the people ARE attracted to us, what will we give them? A book?
Another main reason for this book is this: We really need to start analyzing the book in order to discern the fundamentals, the underlying messages. Yes, there is "God is love" and the afterlife and all that, but most religions have similar doctrines that they like to present as being a part of their central message. We need to be ready to step up to the plate with a description of what it is about the fifth epochal revelation that is special, unique, and unusual.
And then, when we have gotten the attention of our fellows, we need to have something more to offer them, something that will satisfactorily answer their first few questions, something that will whet their appetite to actually read that big blue book. It needs to be something that will interest not only the ardent truth-seeker, but the everyday Son of God, the person who seeks truth but not with the passion that tends to motivate the typical reader of today.
We have readers who are capable of providing us with the ammo to go out there and win lost souls for the Master. So, let's do it.
Remember, the rule in the Urantia movement is this: Nothing happens until someone makes it happen. The best person to make something happen is YOU.
Stop looking to Chicago for leadership. Chicago is barely able to manage to provide SUPPORT. The structures are just not set up to provide the readers with what they truly desire, and I question whether they (the structures) ever could be. Leadership must come from your community. YOU CAN DO IT! Go out, and do that which your heart and mind tell you most needs to be done. Do it with conviction, and with enthusiasm. Make a difference in this world. Be creative.
In addition, if we are to begin attracting new readers or at least believers in the Gospel of Jesus, we need to offer them something other than a "study group." Study groups are notoriously unfulfilling of the spiritual needs of their members. New mechanisms and structures need to be devised at the local level.
One idea is to "spice up" a study group with music. Include a group song at the beginning, and a prayer at the end, followed by a few more songs as the meeting is breaking up. But whatever format or ideas you decide are best, please, get started today!
Remember, there is nothing wrong with presenting only a portion of the teachings of The Urantia Book to those who have not read it, or will not read it. This is in no way misleading. What would be misleading would be to present concepts not in the book and imply that they are in the book, or, to present the highlights of the book as you perceive them, and then to discourage further independent reading of the book. I believe that all with whom you come in contact should be encouraged to read the entire book, while not being treated with disdain if they do not.