Paper 14
THE CENTRAL AND DIVINE UNIVERSE
1. This central planetary family is called Havona and is far‑distant from the local universe of Nebadon. It is of enormous dimensions and almost unbelievable mass and consists of one billion spheres of unimagined beauty and superb grandeur, but the true magnitude of this vast creation is really beyond the understanding grasp of the human mind ... This is a wholly created and perfect universe; it is not an evolutionary development.
2. The billion worlds of Havona are arranged in seven concentric circuits immediately surrounding the three circuits of Paradise satellites ... Each circuit differs ... and each is pervaded by a specialized representation of the Infinite Spirit.
3. Time is not reckoned on Paradise; the sequence of successive events is inherent in the concept of those who are indigenous to the central Isle. But time is germane to the Havona circuits and to numerous beings of both celestial and terrestrial origin sojourning thereon. Each Havona world has its own local time, determined by its circuit...Besides Havona‑circuit time, there is the Paradise‑Havona standard day… One Paradise‑Havona day is just seven minutes, three and one‑eighth seconds less than one thousand years of the present Urantia leap‑year calendar.
4. On the outskirts of this vast central universe, far out beyond the seventh belt of Havona worlds, there swirl an unbelievable number of enormous dark gravity bodies... they so completely encircle and enshroud Havona as to hide it from the view of even near‑by inhabited universes of time and space.
5. Spirit beings do not dwell in nebulous space; they do not inhabit ethereal worlds; they are domiciled on actual spheres of a material nature, worlds just as real as those on which mortals live...Havona energies are threefold ... The material of Havona, consists of the organization of exactly one thousand basic chemical elements and the balanced function of the seven forms of Havona energy.
6. The natives of the central universe possess forty‑nine specialized forms of sensation. The morontia senses are seventy, and the higher spiritual orders of reaction response vary in different types of beings from seventy to two hundred and ten.
None of the physical beings of the central universe would be visible to Urantians. Neither would any of the physical stimuli of those faraway worlds excite a reaction in your gross sense organs.
7. Everything physical or spiritual is perfectly predictable, but mind phenomena and personality volition are not. We do infer that sin can be reckoned as impossible of occurrence, but we do this on the ground that the native freewill creatures of Havona, have never been guilty of transgressing the will of Deity ... Neither has sin appeared in any creature who has entered Havona as a pilgrim...no ascendant soul has ever been prematurely admitted to the central universe.
8. Concerning the government of the central universe, there is none. Havona is so exquisitely perfect that no intellectual system of government is required...Havona requires only administrative direction. Here may be observed the height of the ideals of true self‑government ... The administration of Havona ... is vested in the resident Eternal of Days...they are perfect administrators. They teach with supreme skill and direct their planetary children with a perfection of wisdom bordering on absoluteness.
9. The billion spheres of the central universe constitute the training worlds of the high personalities native to Paradise and Havona and further serve as the final proving grounds for ascending creatures from the evolutionary worlds of time...At present...only about one per cent of all planetary capacity is utilized in the work of furthering the Father's universal plan of mortal ascension.
10. The architecture, lighting, and heating, as well as the biologic and artistic embellishment, of the Havona spheres, are quite beyond the greatest possible stretch of human imagination. You cannot be told much about Havona; to understand its beauty and grandeur you must see it. But there are real rivers and lakes on these perfect worlds.
11. There are seven basic forms of living things and beings on the Havona worlds.. Classified as:
1. Material.
2. Morontial.
3. Spiritual.
4. Absonite.
5. Ultimate.
6. Coabsolute.
7. Absolute.
12. Decay and death are not a part of the cycle of life on the Havona worlds. In the central universe the lower living things undergo the transmutation of materialization. They do change form and manifestation, but they do not resolve by process of decay and cellular death.
13. The Havona natives are all the offspring of the Paradise Trinity ... they are nonreproducing beings ... You might possibly regard these Havoners as material creatures in the sense that the word "material" could be expanded to describe the physical realities of the divine universe ... Havoners have both optional present and future unrevealed destinies.
14. All beings in all universes are fashioned along the lines of some one order of pattern creature living on some one of the billion worlds of Havona.
15. On Urantia you pass through a short and intense test during your initial life of material existence. On the mansion worlds and up through your system, constellation, and local universe, you traverse the morontia phases of ascension. On the training worlds of the superuniverse you pass through the true spirit stages of progression and are prepared for eventual transit to Havona. On the seven circuits of Havona your attainment is intellectual, spiritual, and experiential. And there is a definite task to be achieved on each of the worlds of each of these circuits.
16. Life on the divine worlds of the central universe is so rich and full, so complete and replete, that it wholly transcends the human concept of anything a created being could possibly experience. The social and economic activities of this eternal creation are entirely dissimilar to the occupations of material creatures living on evolutionary worlds like Urantia. Even the technique of Havona thought is unlike the process of thinking on Urantia.
17. During your sojourn in Havona as a pilgrim of ascent, you will be allowed to visit freely among the worlds of the circuit of your assignment. You will also be permitted to go back to the planets of those circuits you have previously traversed ... The pilgrims of time are able to equip themselves to traverse "achieved" space but must depend on the ordained technique to negotiate "unachieved" space.
18. There is a refreshing originality about this vast central creation...Every one of these planets is an original, unique, and exclusive creation; each planet is a matchless, superb, and perfect production. And this diversity of individuality extends to all features of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of planetary existence.
19. Not until you traverse the last of the Havona circuits and visit the last of the Havona worlds, will the tonic of adventure and the stimulus of curiosity disappear from your career. And then will the urge, the forward impulse of eternity, replace its forerunner, the adventure lure of time.
20. Monotony is indicative of immaturity of the creative imagination and inactivity of intellectual co‑ordination with the spiritual endowment ... Each of these billion study worlds is a veritable university of surprises. Continuing astonishment, unending wonder, is the experience of those who traverse these circuits and tour these gigantic spheres...Love of adventure, curiosity, and dread of monotony ‑ these traits inherent in evolving human nature ‑ were not put there just to aggravate and annoy you during your short sojourn on earth, but rather to suggest to you that death is only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an everlasting life of anticipation,
an eternal voyage of discovery.
21. Havona is a perfect pattern of the universality potential of the Supreme. This universe is a finished portrayal of the future perfection of the Supreme and is suggestive of the potential of the Ultimate.
22. Havona is the educational training ground where the Paradise Michaels are prepared for their subsequent adventures in universe creation. This divine and perfect creation is a pattern for every Creator Son…A Creator Son uses the creatures of Havona as personality-pattern possibilities for his own mortal children and spirit beings…The Paradise Sons regard the central creation as the home of their divine parents—their home. It is the place they enjoy returning to ever and anon.
23. Paradise is the home, and Havona the work‑shop and playground, of the finaliters. And every God‑knowing mortal craves to be a finaliter. The central universe is not only man's established destiny, but it is also the starting place of the eternal career of the finaliters as they shall sometime be started out on the undisclosed and universal adventure in the experience of exploring the infinity of the Universal Father.
24. Havona will unquestionably continue to function with absonite significance even in future universe ages which may witness space pilgrims attempting to find God on superfinite levels. Havona has capacity to serve as a training universe for absonite beings. It will probably be the finishing school when the seven superuniverses are functioning as the intermediate school for the graduates of the primary schools of outer space. And we incline to the opinion that the potentials of eternal Havona are really unlimited, that the central universe has eternal capacity to serve as an experiential training universe for all past, present, or future types of created beings.
U.B. 14:152‑163- Perfector of Wisdom
Discussion Questions
1. How does it happen that the description of Havona has similarities with the Christian concepts of heaven and Plato’s pattern universe?
2. Why do you suppose the natives of Havona have fewer (49) forms of sensation than the morontia senses (70)?
3. Do you think the statement, “A day is a thousand years to God,” is a random-chance guess or a “guided” utterance?
4. Where in our planetary structure do you think the incidents of evil are augmented because we give people responsibility prematurely?
5. Going from five senses as mortals to seventy senses in morontia life sounds like a revolution in perception. What are some of the ways this may effect our understanding, appreciation, and learning?
6. Is freedom from regulation conducive to spiritual growth on our world or a hindrance to such growth?
7. If death is the “beginning of an endless career of adventure,” should our attitudes toward death and our observances of funerals be changed?