Destiny of the Master Michaels

Printer-friendly version

Audience: Why, Bill, should the worlds of the Eternal Son be non-personal when he is a personal being?

That's the limitation of the Absolute Personality. He can't create personality. Both the Father and the Spirit can. When we get into personality we'll observe this. But he creates, and when he creates in a solitary fashion, he produces other-than-personal beings. And these are the inhabitants of the second belt of Paradise satellites.

Let's do a little thinking. What is the objective of Son-Spirit collaboration? We are now getting pretty near–our thinking is now drawing to the–pointing to the closing chapters of the present universe age.

What are the Creator Son and Creative Spirit attempting to do? Well, obviously, their immediate job is to attempt to duplicate on a one per cent basis what the Father and Son did in Havona. The local universe has one per cent as many inhabited worlds as there are in Havona–ten million in relation to a billion. They're going to do this in time. They're going to grow experientially in the process.

When a Creator Son has finished his bestowal career, they don't call him a Creator Son any more, do they? They call him a Master Son. At that time he receives the title of Sovereign of his local universe. And he takes a new oath. The first oath he took was not to assume sovereignty without earning it.

Now that he's earned it, and they make him Sovereign, they put a new restriction on him. He takes another oath: not to do anything radically new. This doesn't mean that he can't continue to use creative imagination in the further elaboration of the plans which have been propounded. He's got two thirds of the local universe ahead of him. There'll be further ramifications–but nothing radically new.

Why? I've got a theory. I think a Creator Son is more than finite. And I think that when he becomes a Master Son, he's got some superfinite potentials that could operate, and they don't want them to operate in the present universe age. That's for the next universe age. And I think they just make sure by saying, "Now, look, keep these in reserve."

When the Creator Son and Creative Spirit came out here in time and space, and when they had finished the initial work of whipping this local universe into shape, they engaged in their first creative act, and the product of that creative act was Gabriel. They put everything they could into Gabriel, in terms of producing the perfect executive. I think of Gabriel as the Prime Minister of the local universe.

Did they trinitize Gabriel? The answer is no. Gabriel is not the equal of the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit. If he were their equal, he too would be a creator, wouldn't he? I believe that when the Creator Son and Creative Spirit had perfected this local universe, their function–their required function–begins to diminish.

Let's stop and think. What's it going to be like when Nebadon is settled in light and life? And Orvonton is settled in light and life? When the seven superuniverses are settled in light and life? I'm not so sure that the Creative Mother Spirit will need to minister mind to the inhabitants of these perfected universes. I'm not so sure--and Julia will like it in those days because you get your cosmic mind direct and it stays with you, see?

Audience: Well, I don't like this one I have, I want a better one.

So do I.

I think maybe the inhabitants of these worlds far settled in the advanced stages of the seventh stage of light and life–maybe they can operate on a cosmic mind. If so, the local universe Mother Spirit's out of work, isn't she? In terms of mind.

If death ever finally vanishes from the inhabited worlds, she probably won't have to keep on creating seraphim.

Is Michael needed as a creator anymore? No. Creation is over in a local universe. Administration is what is required. And, when a local universe is settled in light and life, its future administration is foreshadowed. Administrative duties are largely assumed by three excellent administrators: the Trinity Ambassador, the Union of Days, Gabriel and his associate, the Father Melchizedek.

I think in the next universe age, the age of the first outer space level–the third universe age–I don't think there are going to be any Creator Sons or Creative Spirits in the local universes.

I think they're going to be run by these three beings: the Union of Days, the Bright and Morning Star, and the Father Melchizedek, although I think Michael will always retain the title of "Sovereign of Nebadon," just as the carpenter carries the title, "Planetary Prince of Urantia." That's no title for a Creator Son to carry, but it's a great honor for a human being to carry that title.

And don't you imagine that they'll really deck out the streets of Salvington with Japanese lanterns and bunnies on those occasions when Michael revisits his capital, coming in from outer space on the way into Paradise. This will be occasion for great a jamboree on Salvington.

But don't you see? The two Creators have worked themselves out of a job when their local universe is settled in light and life.

Audience: They've raised their family.

That's right. They've raised their family. Now, the papers speculate–starting on page 241, but mostly on page 242–they discuss the future of the Master Michaels. They're discussing this problem of restricting superfinite creative powers, and they go on to say,

"It is highly probable that these undisclosed creator powers will remain self- contained throughout the present universe age. But sometime in the far-distant future, in the now mobilizing universes of outer space, we believe that the liaison between a sevenfold Master Son and a seventh-stage Creative Spirit may attain to absonite levels of service attended by the appearance of new things, meanings, and values on transcendental levels of ultimate universe significance."

"Just as the Deity of the Supreme is actualizing by virtue of experiential service, so are the Creator Sons achieving the personal realization of the Paradise-divinity potentials bound up in their unfathomable natures. When on Urantia, Christ Michael once said, `I am the way, the truth, and the life.' And we believe that in eternity the

Michaels are literally destined to be `the way, the truth, and the life,' ever blazing the path for all universe personalities as it leads from supreme divinity through ultimate absonity to eternal deity finality."

And that's the adventure I want to take you folks on today. (Break in tape).

Let's take a look at page 643.

"As the frontiers of experiential Deity are extended out into the domains of the Unqualified Absolute,"–and the domains of the Unqualified Absolute are defined in Paper 12 as the outer space levels–"we envision the activity of God the Sevenfold during the earlier evolutionary epochs of these creations of the future. We are not all in agreement respecting the future status of the Ancients of Days and the superuniverse Master Spirits. Neither do we know whether or not the Supreme Being will therein function as in the seven superuniverses. But we all conjecture that the Michaels, the Creator Sons, are destined to function in these outer universes. Some hold that the future ages will witness some closer form of union between the associated Creator Sons and Divine Ministers; it is even possible that such a creator union might eventuate in some new expression of associate-creator identity of an ultimate nature. But we really know nothing about these possibilities of the unrevealed future."

Audience: They always come back to that, don't they?

Yes.

"We do know, however, that in the universes of time and space, God the Sevenfold provides a progressive approach to the Universal Father, and that this evolutionary approach is experientially unified in God the Supreme. We might conjecture that such a plan must prevail in the outer universes; on the other hand the new orders of beings that may sometime inhabit these universes may be able to approach Deity on ultimate levels and by absonite techniques. In short, we have not the slightest concept of what technique of deity approach may become operative in the future universes of outer space."

"Nevertheless, we deem that the perfected superuniverses will in some way become a part of the Paradise-ascension careers of those beings who may inhabit these outer creations. It is quite possible that in that future age we may witness outerspacers approaching Havona through the seven superuniverses, administered by God the Supreme with or without the collaboration of the Seven Master Spirits."

Audience: What does that mean, without the collaboration?

Well, it might signify the Master Spirits are going to be more concerned with outer space. Remember, these Master Spirits are not finite. These Master Spirits embody all of the Supreme, and all of the Ultimate, and all of the Supreme-Ultimate attributes of Paradise Deitybut not their absolute attributes.

We've reached the end of the present universe age. The papers do some interesting speculating.

(Break in tape)

–find the Supreme Being. You'll recall that God the Father and God the Supreme are not respecters of persons. But they operate differently. With God the Father, you have an "each" relationship. With God the Supreme, you have an "all" relationship. No creature will find God the Supreme until all creatures can find God the Supreme.

And when we find God the Supreme, we are going to find God as comprehensible to creatures. We can understand the Supreme Being because we are like him. He had an origin in time. We don't have to go back and say, "Gee, but it never really happened this way."

He has age. The Infinite Spirit has no age. He's not eternal in the past sense of the word–only in the future sense, as we are. He grew, partly because of the environment of growth, and partly because of his own personal efforts to grow. And that's us. That's exactly how we grew.

We will be able to portray the Supreme Being, because we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. Even as Michael could portray the Father, because he is of origin in the Father. I don't say we make a portrayal of the magnitude of Michael, but as creatures we can portray the Supreme Being.

The papers speculate that he'll become personally resident on Uversa of Orvonton, because it's the seventh superuniverse. And at that time, they'll take down these iron curtains between the superuniverses, and blend them.

There's an interesting principle which they follow. It's like the seven colored races on earth: They want them to pull apart, and work out their own cultures. And then–when they've been upstepped with Adam's blood–they merge them. They're doing that same thing with the superuniverses, aren't they?

There are very few beings who can go directly from one superuniverse to another. Very few. The perfected grand universe of those future days will be vastly different from what it is at present. Gone will be the thrilling adventures of the organization of the galaxies of space, the planting of life on the uncertain worlds of time, and the evolving of harmony out of chaos, beauty out of potentials, truth out of meanings, and goodness out of values.

The time universes will have achieved the fulfillment of finite destiny, and perhaps for a space there will be rest, relaxation from the age-long struggle for evolutionary perfection–but not for long. Certainly, surely, and inexorably the enigma of the emerging deity of God the Ultimate will challenge these perfected citizens of the settled universes just as their struggling evolutionary forbearers were once challenged by the quest for God the Supreme. The curtain of cosmic destiny will draw back to reveal the transcendent grandeur of the alluring absonite quest for the attainment of the Universal Father on those new and higher levels revealed in the ultimate of creature experience.

(Break in tape)

When the Supreme Being appears, the First Experiential Trinity can begin to function in the true sense of the word. And that means, at the close of the present universe age–or, prior to the opening of the next universe age.

What is this First Experiential Trinity? It has three members: the Supreme Being, the Supreme Creators–remember, we discussed that? three levels of God the Sevenfold-- and the Architects of the Master Universe.

(Break in tape)

I think of them as living blueprints. God has a plan for the master universe. And these Architects are the living embodiments of that plan. They're living, intelligent, administrative, walking blueprints.

Audience: Not personal?

They're super personal. They're more than personal. That doesn't mean that we can't deal with them. For example, when we enter the Corps of the Finality, the being who swears us in is the senior Architect.

Audience: Does it tell how many there are of them?

Yes. Yes. We'll get to that. We'll do it right now if you want to. We have one Architect on the Paradise level. Three on the Havona level. Seven Architects on the superuniverse space level. Gee, that makes sense, doesn't it? There's seven superuniverses.

There are seventy Architects assigned to the first outer space level. And in one place in the papers, they speak of the observations of their astronomers–not ours–and they say that in the first outer space level they have already detected seventy major aggregations of matter, any one of which is vastly greater than a superuniverse. This is big!

You remember when they compute the output of Paradise gravity? You see, if you can measure how much gravity Paradise is exercising, you have measured the mass of creation, haven't you?

Since Paradise puts out gravity in direct proportion to the mass it has to control. And only 5% of Paradise gravity is accountable for in the grand universe. No, 15% I think. Let's check that. 5%

Ninety-five per cent of the present gravity output of Paradise is engaged in controlling material creations outside the seven superuniverses and Havona.

Audience: What was that?

95%. You get this on page 132.

Fifteen per cent of the mind-gravity of the Infinite Spirit is unaccountable for, unless it's operating out in outer space. See, you've got intelligence out there. I think Force Organizers.

Apparently, all of the spirit-gravity of the Eternal Son can be accounted for by the seven superuniverses and Havona. But they hedge a little bit. They say, "Look, if there were a few spirit beings out there, the number is so small, we don't think we could pick it up, see?" The inference is that Solitary Messengers maybe can go out there. Maybe Inspired Trinity Spirits can go out there. The papers say they're the only two revealed to us who can collaborate with Force Organizers.

Now, I don't believe in numerology. But I do believe that there is a logic to numbers.

For example, the Mendelian ratio is a basic law of chance. We'll get into the Mendelian ratio, because it appears all throughout these papers. As you get these so- called force creatures, you know? Like these Divine Executioners and the Conciliating Commission?

Why were there seven Master Spirits, and not six, and not eight. Well, you compute it out. If you take the three Deities singly, and severally, there are only seven possible expressions–right? It's inherent in the numbers. OK.

If the essence of the growth of the Supreme is the collaboration between the Supreme Creators and the Paradise Deities, and if the Seven Master Spirits are primarily expressive of the Supreme Creators–and we know this to be a fact, at least in the case of Majeston–then, if there is a number which would attach to the Supreme Being, it would be ten, wouldn't it? Seven in relation to three. Is there any warrant for that? I say yes. Let's take a look at–again, this can be in either of two places, doggone it.

Audience: Well, there's a lot on 489.

"The worlds of the Father contain the potentials of the whole master universe." (304) And in discussing the rulers of these worlds, they're discussing the Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy. And there are ten Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy on each of the Father's worlds. You remember? Divinington, Sonarington, so on.

Audience: Is that page 208?

208, yes.

"The work of each of these special worlds is divided into seven major departments, and one of these co-ordinate rulers presides over each such division of specialized activities. The remaining three act as the personal representatives of triune Deity in relation to the other seven, one representing the Father, one the Son, and one the Spirit."

I think where you encounter the number ten, you encounter the function of the Supreme Being. And let's see if this stands up to logic. Does the number ten appear prior to the appearance of the Supreme Being? The answer is no, in this calculation. But the number ten repeats on each of the outer space levels, from the first to the fourth. And I think it's there because the Supreme Being is functioning. Are you with me?

When I first read these numbers, I thought, gee, they make no sense after you go up a little ways. But I got my clue. Seventy to four ninety. It's the square of seven times ten. (306) And naturally, what do you do? You take the cube. This is seven to the third power times ten, and lastly, seven to the fourth power times ten. If you have any doubts, multiply it out for yourself.

In other words, you multiply seven by itself four times, and then multiply by ten, and the answer is twenty four thousand and ten: 24,010.

So, it seems to me that the Supreme Being is a functional reality in all universe ages after the present one. And I would like to refer to them as the post-Supreme ages.

The Supreme Being functions in the Master Universe. He has three levels of function. He functions primarily in Havona as a spirit person. Secondarily, in the Grand Universe, as a personality of power, an evolving sovereign. The tertiary function of the Supreme Being is of Master Universe scope, and is an unknown potential.

Master Spirit Number Seven is a perfect blend of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

These are the Architects.

Now, we got into this because we are talking about the First Experiential Trinity.

And I think it's very significant that the completion of the Master Universe witnesses the appearance of a Trinity. The completion of Havona witnessed the appearance of a Trinity.

(Break in tape).

Now, are we going to get a Trinity every time we complete something?

Audience: Yes.

No. There are only three Trinities projected. When will the Second Experiential Trinity appear? Whenever God the Ultimate appears. And when will God the Ultimate appear? Not until the whole Master Universe has been completed.

(Break in tape).

I think that you get a nuclear universe every time a trinity forms. Havona is obviously the nucleus of the Grand Universe, isn't it? And, the Paradise Trinity formed concurrent with the appearance of Havona.

I would like to submit that the Grand Universe, the seven superuniverses as dependent on Havona–I'm including the whole thing, now–is the second nuclear universe, because a Trinity forms concurrent with the full appearance of the Grand Universe. And by full appearance, I mean the perfecting of the Grand Universe.

I think that the Grand Universe is the nucleus–the true nucleus–of the Master Universe. I think the nucleus must have within it the seeds of growth for the future, and Havona is perfect. Havona basically, inherently is non-experiential. I think you've got to add an experiential component to existential Havona in order to get a real nucleus for an experiential universe. Are you with me?

Audience: Yes. Yes.

Consider the argument about what is and what is not a nucleus. I think Havona is a nucleus for the Grand Universe because:

1. It is central in relation to the cytoplasmic superuniverses. It's the yolk in relation to the white of the egg. And we're out here in the white.

Audience: (Can't understand tape).

3. Hereditary characteristics are transmitted by it to the superuniverses. This follows the dictionary definition of a nucleus. And I think we're safe if we deal with organic comparisons. I don't like mechanical comparisons. This is not a piece of machinery–this is a living organism.

4. The birth of the Havona nucleus is associated with the birth of a trinity.

5. Deity appears whose nature is like the nature of the nucleus. Havona's perfect, so also is the Infinite Spirit perfect.

Now. Let's stop and say Havona is the nucleus of the Master Universe. Well, I just don't think it's adequate, because if a nucleus is to transmit hereditary characteristics, then the nucleus must contain those potentials within it. And certainly, even Havona was non- evolutionary until Grandfanda landed.

I would offer this argument in favor of conceiving the of Grand Universe–the perfected Grand Universe–as a second nucleus. Now, let's see.

We've got, by process of reasoning, a queer duplication of events, haven't we? We started with two existential Deities and a power base. We wind up here with two experiential Deities and a power base. I would suggest that these two experiential Deities are going to duplicate experientially what the Father and Son did at the beginning of all things.

Now, these Deities are not infinite, are they? No. The Father and the Son are. But while these two experiential Deities are sub-infinite, they're very great, are they not? Let's stop and think. Our local universe is 1/100th part of approximately–of a little less than 1/7th of the tennis ball.

And they have got the moon mobilized. They're able to mobilize the whole of the experiential magnitude of the completed Master Universe, because they grew it, and grew with it. And I think what they're trying to do is to trinitize. The papers refer to Supreme- hyphen-Ultimate, as they refer to Father-hyphen-Son. It's a form of union involving the appearance of an equal being.

And what are they going to trinitize? I think they're going to attempt to trinitize God the Absolute. And that throws some light on a very cryptic statement in the Foreword. The point I'd like to direct your attention to is on page 16, paragraph 6.

"The Ultimate Trinity"–that's the First Experiential Trinity–"is experientially unifying in completion. . . "

(Break in tape)

We've just been talking about that. And when it finally unifies, the Master Universe is complete, and we have God the Ultimate.

". . . but we truly doubt the possibility of such full unification of the Absolute Trinity."

That's the Second Experiential Trinity.

In other words, if the Second Experiential Trinity could completely unify, they would experientialize God the Absolute out of the Deity Absolute. But if they could do that, they could exhaust infinity. We're in a paradox here, aren't we?

"Our concept, however, of the eternal Paradise Trinity is an ever-present reminder that Deity trinitization may accomplish what is otherwise nonattainable; hence do we postulate the sometime appearance of the Supreme-Ultimate and the possible trinitization- factualization of God the Absolute."

This trinitizing act is symbolized in my mind by the following picture: There are two mighty experiential brothers, a greater and a lesser. They are carrying a stupendous battering ram. This battering ram is the earned, experiential sovereignty of the whole Master Universe. They are approaching a formidable wall that is labeled, "Absolute." And as they arrive before this wall, the Ultimate says to the Supreme: "Swing hard, brother, we are going through." They know full well they can never knock this wall down, but they also know that they are going to breach it. Consider, just consider the massiveness of the battering ram they are swinging: the total vastness of the mighty mobilization of all the experience in the completed Master Universe.

(Break in tape)

Look. Are we going to be there? I submit yes. And here's my reason. The reason I offer you, this speculative thinking, is because it's a string on which I've been able to string so many beads in these papers that help illuminate.

Page 1226, next to the last paragraph:

"The type of personality bestowed upon Urantia mortals has a potentiality of seven dimensions of self-expression or person- realization."

And don't ask me why it has this, because that's the way God designed it. It comes from him, with these properties.

"These dimensional phenomena are realizable as three on the finite level," (first floor), "three on the absonite level," (second floor), "and one on the absolute level." (third floor)

"This supreme dimension is an associable absolute and, while not infinite, is dimensionally potential for subinfinite penetration of the absolute."

Let's kick that around. We have got the equipment right now necessary when they breach this wall–we can't breach it, but we can go through any hole they make. What does "subinfinite penetration of the absolute" mean? Well, I use this illustration later on: I can't drink all of the orange juice in the city of Chicago, but that doesn't mean I can't drink some, and can't keep on drinking orange juice.

Havona is a sub-infinite portrayal of God's concept of an absolutely perfect universe. It isn't infinite, though, is it? It's got an outer edge.

(Break in tape)

I think that we'll be there when this takes place. And I think that it will take place just as sure as the darned thing started. You see, just as Jesus portrays the divine path to God, so the Supreme Being is the pathway from finite limitations to absonite adventures. And so the Supreme and the Ultimate are the pathway to the final adventure–the never- ending attempt to find out more and more and more about God as Absolute.

This is a growth we can start. And isn't it wonderful that we can never finish it.

It's sort of like–here. Consider a ten-year old's concept of success. And then a twenty- year old's concept of success. And then a fifty-year old's concept of success. And someday we'll be fifty million years old. And someday fifty billion years old. And someday we'll look upon fifty billion years as a very small segment of time. We will be making plans involving units of many times fifty billion years. This is not impossible.

Think back in your own experience when you were a kid. Do you remember second or third grade? And do you remember summer vacations between those school years? How long they were? They were awfully long. Well, when you've lived a billion years, you can think about a billion years. You can think a billion years ahead, can't you? (Break in tape)

It's on one of the zones on nether Paradise. This is believed to be the central focalization, the Paradise center, of the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute.

Audience: (Can't understand tape).

He also pervades all space, but here's his central focalization.

Audience: How could–

Dark bodies the same as dark bodies. If not, what is the difference? I know what you mean.

(Break in tape)

There are two kinds of dark bodies described in these papers. And let's get their technical terminology. 52. They're talking about the two belts of dark gravity bodies surrounding Havona. Now, these dark gravity bodies surrounding Havona are like no other matter anywhere, because they exhibit both linear and circular gravity. They exhibit the kind of gravity that is peculiar to Paradise, and they also exhibit the kind of gravity that is like the gravity we know about–straight line gravity. And they're found only in these two belts surrounding the Central Universe, and nowhere else. Now, I believe what this question refers to is another type.

On page 173, paragraph 2, there is a term, "the dark islands of space." You all know that a sun is tremendously larger than a planet. But when you have a dark, non- luminous cold body, as massive as a sun, then they use this special term for it–a dark island of space. It is a tremendously massive thing. Jupiter would be a peanut alongside of it. It's got the gravity pull of a sun, a blazing sun, but it itself–it may be a burnt-out sun–that would be one origin of a dark island of space.

They use that specialized term to deal with a cold space body whose size is altogether of a larger magnitude than the size of even a big planet.

Let's take a quick look at the story of the birth of the Urantia solar system. Massiveness of material creation. Listen, if there are 70 thousand aggregations in the first outer space level, each one of which is bigger than a superuniverse, what do they mean when they say, that more than 50 million years on beyond in the second outer space level, there are far greater energy activities. Holy smoke.

Now, we have no data given anywhere as to dimensions of the second outer space level. But, we've developed two members of a series. And we can speculate concerning the third member, because one is to one hundred as one hundred is to ten thousand. That's just an ordinary proportion. Now, this assumes a–we recognize a rate of increase. We can have two choices now: Is the increase constant? Or is the increase accelerated? Is this thing growing by arithmetic progression, or geometric progression? We have absolutely no way of estimating an accelerating factor. We don't know that it isn't accelerating.

But since we can't even estimate such a factor, I have elected to speculate on the more conservative side, and to assume the rate of acceleration is the constant rate which we've deduced.

So. We draw an inch. Now we've gone from Paradise roughly to the edge of Orvonton. Then we draw a hundred inches. Now we cross the first outer space level. Now to get across the second outer space level, we draw ten thousand inches.

Remember, this is only the linear relationship.The cubic relationship is something else again. And I got tired of multiplying at this point, so I didn't work it out.

Audience: Laughter.

If you represent the Grand Universe by a two-inch circle, the first outer space level goes out around eight feet. And the second outer space level goes out around eight hundred feet.

Audience: Wonderful!

From a two inch–yes. That's right. You can go out in both directions that far–I'm just going in one direction. It keeps it simpler. Are you still with me?

Audience: Yes.

Let's take–

Audience: You're talking about this from the center across the ring, not all the way–

Sure. Oh, no, I'm going out in a straight line from the center. We're dealing with radius' here. The diameter's twice this number.

How big is the third outer space level? Well, if we have an inch, eight feet, eight hundred feet, then we can project the distance across the third outer space level as eighty thousand feet.

Audience: Ah!

Just to make it easy to figure, let's take a mile at five thousand feet, instead of 5280, and we can see that the third outer space level is 16 miles across.

Audience: From one inch.

Orvonton is an inch across. The third outer space level is sixteen miles across. And that doesn't account for the dead space between. I'm just ignoring it. It's small in relation to the whole.

Audience: Does the space between stay the same–

We have no way of knowing. I would say not. I think that the quiet zones get bigger, farther across.

Audience: (Can't understand tape)

Well, how about the fourth outer space level? Let's just summarize it. If the Grand Universe is a two inch circle, the first outer level is eight feet farther out, or a sixteen foot circle. The second outer level is eight hundred feet farther out, or a sixteen hundred foot circle. The third outer level is sixteen miles farther out, or a thirty two mile circle. And the fourth outer level is sixteen hundred miles out, or a circle three thousand two hundred miles in diameter.

You know, I want to tell you–the weekend I worked out these numbers, I damn near dropped my teeth on the desk.

Audience: Laughter.

Now, let's get this thing down, and make it real simple. I want you to visualize a tennis ball. It's somewhere close to two inches in diameter–a little oversize. I don't care about precision here, now–all I'm speaking for here is a feeling for this. Do you see the tennis ball?

Audience: Two inches in what?

Two inches in diameter. Can you visualize a small bedroom? Eight feet cubic. Float the tennis ball in the small bedroom.

Audience: The tennis ball is the Grand Universe?

Yes. Now you're thinking of the seven superuniverses and Havona in relation to the size of the first outer space level.

Audience: –Grand Universe–(can't understand tape).

We'll use this term tennis ball several times. Now, let's visualize a city block with ten eighty-foot lots on it. These are comfortable building sites. It's a little less than a hundred foot front footage. It's an eight hundred foot block with ten comfortable houses on it. Now, make a cube of this block. And float our little bedroom in the cubic block. You've now got the first outer space level in relation to the second outer space level.

Audience: The block is the second?

The block is the second, right. A city block. I've got to get things that we feel for, you know?

I tried to think of what would be a sixteen mile cube, and I decided we might cube the city of Chicago. You can’t cube Los Angeles, because it's almost bigger than North America . ..

Audience: Laughter.

But float our city block in cubic Chicago. And now you've got the second outer space level in relation to the third.

Well, I kept reaching around–what would symbolize the fourth? There isn't anything that works exactly. But the diameter of the moon is twenty one hundred miles, and what we need is something that's thirty two hundred miles–but the moon is the nearest object I can think of that's the right magnitude to float Chicago in.

And now we've got the fourth outer space level. The moon is only two thirds as big as it should be for the illustration. But it's a lot bigger than Chicago. Tennis ball, bedroom, city block, cubic city, in the moon.

Audience: Now, that's easy.

Think about these bedrooms and things–we should be thinking about concentric doughnuts, shouldn't we? That's the way, really, to think about them. But I find it easier to use terms like cubic blocks and bedrooms and so on.

Do you see why each finaliter company has got attached to it a thousand Gravity Messengers?

Audience: No, why? They go fast?

They go instanter. And when you're dealing with distances like this, you've got to have some pretty high velocity communication techniques. These distances are so great, that a Solitary Messenger would take a while getting there, you know? And a poor seraphim, who can only go three times the velocity of light–well, it takes a seraphim a third of five hundred thousand years to go from here to Uversa. That's a long trip. It takes light five hundred thousand years, and it takes a seraphim one third of that length of time. Of course, a Solitary Messenger can get there pretty fast.

Audience: (Can't understand tape) the Gravity Messenger can go faster?

Sure, Gravity Messenger uses gravity, and that moves instanter. I think they give the time it takes a Thought Adjuster to come from Divinington to take up residence in a human being on Urantia–it took about eleven minutes, which was spent on registration on Uversa. Thought Adjusters traverse space independently of time.

Audience: They're the fastest?

They're fast as gravity messengers. Gravity Messengers are very much like Thought Adjusters. They're fragments of the Universal Father.

Audience: Oh, I didn't know that!

Let's just take a look at them. They're discussed in just one place in the papers, in connection with the Corps of the Finality. Page 346.

It says there's a thousand of them attached to each finaliter company of a thousand, and the chief Gravity Messenger is a member of the finaliter company. It says,

"No other group of intelligent creatures possesses such a personalized messenger corps able to transcend time and space. Similar types of messenger-recorders attached to other finaliter corps are not personalized; they are absonitized." (311)

Don't ask me what that means, I don't know.

"Gravity Messengers hail from Divinington, and they are modified and personalized Adjusters, but no one of our Uversa group will undertake to explain the nature of one of these messengers. We know they are highly personal beings, divine, intelligent, and touchingly understanding, but we do not comprehend their timeless technique of traversing space." (312)

Audience: And so they are personalized Adjusters.

Yes, they are.

Audience: I didn't know that.

It says, "Gravity Messengers and glorified mortal finaliters achieve a touching an profound affection for one another; they have much in common: One is a direct personalization of a fragment of the Universal Father, the other a creature personality existent in the surviving immortal soul fused with a fragment of the same Universal Father, the spirit Thought Adjuster."

The reason I believe that we're going on and on and on is not because we're such a much, but Adjusters are. I'm not so sure that we've got the legs to go this far, but we're riding a horse that's a fragment of infinity. I think we're going to go right on through, following the Michaels. The papers suggest that the Michaels are never going to stop the invasion of space.

There's a wonderful statement here. See if I can find it. Wish me luck. 645. It's in their discussion of universal absolute unity. I'm starting a little below the middle of the page:

"And God the Father is the personal source of all manifestations of Deity and reality to all intelligent creatures and spirit beings throughout all the universe of universes. As personalities, now or in the successive universe experiences of the eternal future, no matter if you achieve the attainment of God the Sevenfold, comprehend God the Supreme, find God the Ultimate, or attempt to grasp the concept of God the Absolute, you will discover to your eternal satisfaction that in the consummation of each adventure you have, on new experiential levels, rediscovered the eternal God–the Paradise Father of all universe personalities."

That's why I've left my firehouse on the blackboard. It doesn't make any difference what floor we manage to achieve, the center pole is there, and that is the personality of the Universal Father. And the only change that's taking place is in us. We now approach him with a quart-size comprehension instead of a pint-size, and later on with a gallon size.

"The Universal Father is the explanation of universal unity as it must be supremely, even ultimately, realized in the post-Ultimate unity of absolute values and meanings–unqualified Reality."

That's the third floor. Oh, I love these last two paragraphs:

"The Master Force Organizers go out into space and mobilize its energies to become gravity responsive to the Paradise pull of the Universal Father; and subsequently there come the Creator Sons, who organize these gravity-responding forces into inhabited universes and therein evolve intelligent creatures who receive unto themselves the spirit of the Paradise Father and subsequently ascend to the Father to become like him in all possible divinity attributes." "The ceaseless and expanding march of the Paradise creative forces through space seems to presage the ever-extending domain of the gravity grasp of the Universal Father and the never-ending multiplication of varied types of intelligent creatures who are able to love God and be loved by him, and who, by thus becoming God-knowing, may choose to be like him, may elect to attain Paradise and find God."

And that's just as true of outerspacers as it's true of us. Only, in outer space, we will be part of the living ladder on which they will climb, just as the Havoners and Paradise personalities have made themselves into a living ladder for us to climb, from the status of an animal, up to the portals of Paradise.

Well, fellow Argonauts–

Audience: Laughter.

Pull theology and cosmology out of this–this complicated book is the simplest religion ever presented to man.

Audience: That's right.

The boss man is your father and wants you, and if you want him–who the hell could keep you apart. There's nobody bigger than the boss.

Audience: Great illustration, Bill.

And you require no intermediaries. He touches you twice. You're in the personality circuit, because you have personality and free will choice. And a piece of him lives inside of you.

Now, that's terrifying and comforting at the same time. This complex religion is at the same time the simplest religion that's ever been presented on this world.

"Ability to comprehend is the mortal passport to Paradise. Willingness to believe is the key to Havona. The acceptance of sonship, cooperation with the indwelling Adjuster, is the price of evolutionary survival."

Very simple. Just as much as the other citation I read you. Very simple. You go adventuring. You encounter many new things. But at the heart of each adventure, you keep finding the same God, the same Universal Father, unchanging, still loving, only you have changed. You can understand more.

Remember the great statement they make in these papers? That God is the first truth and the last fact? To feel God is the first touch of divinity which a creature like us can have; but to understand God as a fact–that is at the end of eternity.

We are developing capacity to explore the fragment of God within us, while we explore the creation of God on the outside. And then we take both experiences, and periodically, I think we go back to Paradise. And each time, we find the same God–only, we're a little higher up on the pole. Do you follow me?

We think we have found more of God. He was always there. We just had more finding capacity.