The Transformation of Synthesis: A Study of the Master Universe

A Study of the Master Universe:
A Development of Concepts in the Urantia Book

Bill Sadler (William S. Sadler, Jr.)
Copyright © 1968 Second Society Foundation

Chapter 5: The Transformation of Synthesis

Contents of this chapter:
1. The First Cycle of Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis
2. The Transformation of Synthesis
3. The Second Cycle of Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis

Back in the Prologue to this study, we explored the three-way relationship of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. In the last chapter, we developed the idea of nuclear universes and cytoplasmic universes. In this chapter, we would like to associate these two concepts.

1. THE FIRST CYCLE OF THESIS, ANTITHESIS, AND SYNTHESIS

Let us review our study of the Havona thesis, the superuniverse antithesis, and the final synthesis of the perfect and the perfected in the completed grand universe, which synthesis was witnessed by the final emergence of the Supreme Being. Again let us consider the three steps that were involved:

(a) First Thesis. We have studied Havona, first as a precreative existence and then as the subsequent thesis of divine perfection. We have recognized that it is a nuclear universe. When did it become nuclear? When was it no longer a self-existent and a self-sufficient creation? When did it become a thesis? - a challenge? We would suggest that this took place with the formation of the association of God the Sevenfold, and this association of Deity began to function when the superuniverses were organized. In order for Havona to be a nucleus it had to exist in relation to some cytoplasmic creation. Something had to be present to be challenged before God the Sevenfold could function as a thesis, as the challenge of divine perfection.
(b) First Antithesis. The original imperfection of the superuniverses is certainly the antithesis of perfect Havona, and the seven superuniverses are cytoplasmic in relation to nuclear Havona. Their imperfection constitutes the counter-challenge of need which confronts God the Sevenfold and all of the concurring personalities from the Paradise-Havona system who have descended into the time-space universes to help creatures of imperfection climb upward, to reach the heights of evolutionary perfection.
(c) First Synthesis. We have observed that the completed grand universe is the synthesis of the perfect and the perfected. This is creature-demonstrated when man fuses with the indwelling Adjuster and ascends to find God on Paradise; it is creator-demonstrated when God becomes man, as in the bestowals of the Paradise Sons; it is Deity-demonstrated by the power-personality synthesis of the total of finite reality, leading to the final emergence of the Supreme Being.

This is the first cycle: Havona thesis, superuniverse antithesis, and the grand universe synthesis. This is what we have been studying in the first three chapters, the three chapters that tell the first story of the master universe - the Finite Story.

2. THE TRANSFORMATION OF SYNTHESIS

The cycle of growth would appear to be completed when the process of synthesis succeeds in putting together those things which were originally so different from, and so challenging to, each other. When thesis and antithesis achieve synthesis, that is the attainment of destiny - at least the destiny that was implied in the original challenge which thesis makes to antithesis, and the counter-challenge which antithesis makes to thesis. (We should not forget that our own imperfection must be just as much of a service-challenge to a being of divine perfection, as his divine perfection is an ascension-challenge to each of us.)

The attainment of destiny, however, always seems to set something new in motion. If the settling of the superuniverses in light and life and the completion of the grand universe led only to the emergence of the Supreme Being and nothing more, then the grand universe might enter upon a static condition of non-growth at the end of the present age. But the appearance of the Supreme sets in motion certain other events: the First Experiential Trinity forms as a factual reality, as the direct consequence of his completed growth.

We submit that the completion of the Supreme Being stands for, and consummates, the completion of the First Synthesis. We further submit that the formation of the First Experiential Trinity is a transaction which has the effect of transforming this First Synthesis into the Second Thesis. The completion of the Supreme is the equivalent of destiny attained; the formation of the new experiential trinity (The Trinity Ultimate) is the equivalent of the new challenge of a new thesis. This new challenge presents a new and greater goal, a new and higher destiny to be achieved.

We believe that the transformation of an old synthesis is a basic principle that runs through the whole growth-history of the master universe. An old synthesis becomes a new thesis. This old synthesis is personalized in the appearance of new Deity; the new thesis is presented in the formation of a new trinity.

The First Experiential Trinity, the Trinity Ultimate, is concerned with the whole master universe, not just with the grand universe. This Trinity really is a new thesis; it is the Second Thesis.

3. THE SECOND CYCLE OF THESIS, ANTITHESIS, AND SYNTHESIS

Now, having formulated this new principle of the transformation of synthesis into new thesis, we may attempt to look ahead, to forecast what will happen as the result of the appearance of the Second Thesis on the space-stage of the master universe:

(a) Second Thesis. First of all, we must re-evaluate the grand universe. As the First Synthesis, it has attained destiny; as a new nucleus, it stands on the threshold of a new and greater destiny to be attained. As the Second Nuclear Universe, it is the power-base from which the Second Thesis will be projected. This Second Thesis is the First Experiential Trinity. This Trinity and the hosts of personalities it will mobilize will be working outward from the nuclear base of the grand universe into the cytoplasmic creations of the four outer space levels.

(b) Second Antithesis. This must be the domain of the outer space levels. These outer universes will undoubtedly be as different from the grand universe as the superuniverses were different from Havona. The outer universes will be post Supreme in nature, and will therefore be entirely devoid of any capacity for finite experience.

(c) Second Synthesis. If we are correct in our deductions concerning the Second Thesis and the Second Antithesis, then logic directs us to expect that their mutual challenge must eventually lead to a Second Synthesis - to the putting together of the cytoplasmic outer universes and the nuclear inner creations. But such a possible synthesis would require the completed growth and the final development of the entire master universe. And, as we will observe in our study, this is a formidable undertaking.

When we view the master universe from a larger perspective it does appear that it is developing rather rapidly. The Havona thesis is followed by the superuniverse antithesis and the grand-universe synthesis. This will be followed by the Second Thesis and the Second Antithesis, all of which will inaugurate the second great adventure - the Ultimate Adventure - in the wide-spreading universes of the now-uninhabited realms of outer space.