The Journey Following Mortal Death

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You know, this isn't going to be quite as bad as you think.

When you fuse with your Thought Adjuster, one of the contributions which the Adjuster will make to the new being is past-eternal memory. Now, I don't believe that your human consciousness will be able to absorb that past-eternal memory beyond the limits of achieved comprehension.

Audience: Will it vary with the individual?

I think it will vary with your life span. In other words, I think when you have lived on the mansion worlds ten thousand years, I think the Adjuster will be able meaningfully to communicate to you ten thousand years worth of past time. And when you have lived a billion years, the Adjuster will be able to communicate to you in those terms. And when you have lived a trillion, trillion years, you'll be able to go quite a ways back. I've got an absonite number very handy. This is a second floor number.

When you have lived a jillion years, the Adjuster will be able to do quite a lot with you. Do you follow me? If your soul were mature, you wouldn't wake up on the mansion worlds, because these are incubating worlds, designed to do for premature souls just what an incubation job does for a premature birth in a hospital. Let's go back to resurrection morn. And let's take inventory of precisely what happens. Let's say that–to simplify matters–let's say that you have a personal seraphim, so you make it on the third day. I just don't want to have to deal with a mass of people, see? And you are waking up in one of the private resurrection rooms off the main amphitheaters. And they are getting ready for you; they got three days warning. So the proper authorities go over to the morontia quartermaster department, and they draw out of issue one standard GI form, first stage morontia, suitable for the type of being that you were.

And we can deduce that your new form will be suitable because we're told that non-breathers who survive speak the system language by a modified technique, which means that they do not have breathing forms. This would be too big a shock for them probably. Your form will be appropriate to what you were.

Audience: (Can't understand tape)

Right. This is a standard quartermaster issue morontia form. Pretty undifferentiated. In time, you will etch your character on this form. It'll be a lot more plastic and responsive than the physical body. In time, we etch something of ourselves on our faces, don't we?

Audience: Sure we do.

Right. That's right. You know? As you grow older, you can't avoid wrinkles, but you have a choice as to which kind. You want the sour kind or the grinning kind? This choice you have.

OK. We now have–I think of this for some reason–a marble slab. This is an anti- morgue. We've got one perfectly still morontia quartermaster, morontia issue, form. Sort of dripping. I think of this as being pulled out of some pickling deal.

Audience: Laughter.

Again, forgive me for being salty–but if I'm salty, I'm not spooky.

Audience: That's right.

And I get through to you. You've got your seraphim, or your seraphic pair standing by. And they've got–well, we'll resurrect Ruth. She got us into this.

Audience: Thanks!

This seraphim, number zing stein stein stein and twelve has got Ruth's soul in custody.

Audience: Who has it?

The seraphim. (Can't understand phrase) perfectly competent to hang onto Ruth's morontia soul.

There's a Life Carrier standing by. This morontia form isn't alive. This Life Carrier has to catalyze life into this form. You'll recall the Life Carrier doesn't create life, it transmits life. It is a catalytic agent. The Thought Adjuster is standing by. And then, I don't know that this sequence is exactly right, but my inventory is correct, whether I've got it in the right order or not, the seraphim deposits the soul in the appropriate spot in this morontia body. I think of the soul as belonging somewhere, about an inch and a half, just above and behind the eyes. Isn't that where each of you feel that you live? A little above and behind your eyes? Somewhere in there. All right. They take a circuit of morontia mind--this is not the seven Adjutant Mind.

Audience: Isn't it?

No, this mind is morontia mind–it's a different–it's another mind endowment of the Creative Mother Spirit, suitable to this level of life. And they encircuit that mind in this morontia form.

Let's stop and talk about what that means. Again, I've got a homely illustration. Think of a rope. Put a loop in it. I think of that loop as being the encircuitment of the seven adjutant mind endowment in Ruth's cortex right now. That's what she's thinking with, I hope.

Audience: Is it attached to ours?

The loops tie into the Universe Mother Spirit on Salvington. As long as Ruth is alive, this living cortex can maintain the integrity of that loop as something segregated within that circuit. And when Ruth dies, they just pull the loop out of the circuit. Your mind is gone. And you never use that mind again. Up on mansion world number one, they do the same thing with another kind of rope. This is morontia rope, now. They put another loop in there.

The soul is deposited. The Adjuster takes up his seat of residence, adjacent to or within or in relationship to the soul. And so far, you can account for everything beautifully. But there's something else that's missing. Your personality. No one knows where it's been during this sleep event. The archangels have taken its fingerprints, but they're not its custodians. They've done that so that they can re-identify it beyond question. And at this moment, your personality reaches out and seizes control of that morontia mind. And that's when you wake up. And no one knows where your personality has been. But the archangels will again take the thumbprint of your personality, and they'll say, yes, this is Ruth Burton.

Audience: (Can't understand tape).

Of your living life mechanism, your personality has no more reality, functional discernible reality, than the color yellow has when it has nothing to color. It's an abstract concept. You see, your personality is quality but not quantity. But it colors the entire new morontia being. And it colors it with the color of this person. This personality of Ruth Burton's is utterly changeless. It will never change. It will never change from the time she was a little girl and first demonstrated it, through the morontia life, through the superuniverse, and Havona career, and the Corps of Finality, this personality is absolutely unchangeable. And if it changed, it wouldn't be Ruth Burton any more. One of the definitions of personality is, permanence in the presence of change. The quality of divinity in the Thought Adjuster. (Can't understand tape).

These are the two changeless features of an otherwise ever-changing, ever- growing, ever-evolving being. What changes? The soul. What is the soul? It's character. Later on it will be the spirit self. Now it's the morontia self. The soul today, in each of us, is a morontia embryo growing within the womb of a material body, having been procreated in that mind by the invasion of a spirit entity. Let's examine what's in that soul. Ruth's character is in that soul. Ruth doesn't take with her this seven adjutant mind that she's been using, but she does take with her in that soul all of the character-memory- precipitate of mind action out of this life. What kind of character–what do we mean by character? It's our virtue and our vices.

Audience: Vices, too?

Why, sure. Our defects are there. They tell us that the cardinal sins of mankind are not what the preachers thunder at us about on Sunday. They're much more deadly, much worse. They are animal vestigial traits which persist in the mansion worlds, such as: procrastination, equivocation, problem-avoidance, unfairness, and ease-seeking. That's the precise inventory. And this is what they go to work on. And if we didn't have these defects, we wouldn't go through the mansion worlds; we'd skip them. We'd wake up on Jerusem. But we're prematurely born, and we wake up with these deficiencies. And most of the work on the first two mansion worlds are deficiency (can't understand tape).

Audience: (Can't understand tape)–wake up on Jerusem–(can't understand tape).

We might wake up, yes. (Can't understand tape)– the mansion worlds, and go through them. We wake up with all of the strength of character and all of the weakness of character until we went to sleep. In this sense, I think that the mansion worlds are purgatory. Look, I use this illustration. It's normal for a baby to wet the bed, isn't it? Who thinks anything about it. But let's say that the youngster doesn't get over that, and that this persists. And he goes to college, and he wets the bed in the fraternity house. This is a very humiliating experience, isn't it? OK. There's a lot of things that I think are perfectly normal in this life. Let's call them animalistic bed-wetting. We expect them on the animal level, and we're animals. But if they persist on the mansion worlds, how great will be our humiliation.

Here, I think, is the pain and the suffering of the mansion worlds. It's all internal. Right. Purgatory. Hell has no purpose. The best definition I know of hell is one which I gave my kids years ago when they came bounding in, Daddy, is there a hell? So I said, let's define it. They said, what is it, what is it? Hell is supposed to be a place which God has set aside in which he's going to be mean to people forevermore. And they laughed, because they knew this was inconsistent with the concept of God. Purgatory–the concept of purgatory as–because you get somewhere out of purgatory. Hell, to me, has no merits whatsoever. OK. I think pain is a good stimulus, until you can reach the higher level. Fear is a good stimulus, until you can respond to a higher order of stimulus. Don't look down your nose at fear.

Why do you look both ways before you cross the street? I know I do; I'm not afraid to die, but I'm afraid I might live and be mangled. Fear helps me stay alive. And these lower stimuli are valuable until you can respond to higher ones. I think the profit motive is the only one that will work on present day people. Some day I think it will displaced by the service motive, but until then I'm all for the profit motive. Character, then, persists. If you were a God-knowing stinker, you'll wake up a social stinker over there. And you'll suffer accordingly. You know, lots of people have known God and been a pain in the neck to their fellow men. They're do-gooders. You know, they're always going around telling you how to reform. There is that memory which constituted a spiritual experience in your life and which is duplicated in the experiential nature of the Adjuster. And when the Adjuster returns, you immediately have that memory as an active possession. You know about that.

You remember about that. There are other memories, though, which were not spiritual experiences. And they are in the soul, but they are dormant until you relearn that episode. Let's say, for example, that Ruth and Helena had a common experience. And, for whatever reason, it was a spiritual experience in regard to Ruth, and not to Helena. And they wake up there and look each other up, and they're reminiscing and kaffe-klatching about how it was in Pasadena, and so on and so forth, and in the course of things Ruth happens to say, and do you remember so and so, and Helena says, wait a minute say that again? Say that more slowly. And as Ruth tells that memory, it re-awakens that memory facet in Helena's soul, and it's yours forevermore then. We will be helping each other out in recapturing dormant memories. For example, a spirit-fused mortal wakes up and no Adjuster returns. That being is fused with an individualized portion of the spirit of the local universe Mother Spirit. That being, as far as he can realize, is a brand-new being, waking up for the first time. He has no active memory whatsoever. But he's got a soul.

And all of that dormant memory can be reconstructed and reactivated over the long period of time that he will serve in the local universe. Spirit-fused mortals are completely dependent on memory reconstruction. Adjuster-fused mortals are partially dependent on that, and in part their memories are immediately reactivated by the Thought Adjuster. If mind would persist, then you'd have no problem with memory. Then death would work some form of magic, and this would mean that God has cheated his children out of the thrilling experience of personally participating in every step of the Paradise ascent. No personal creature can be coerced into the eternal adventure. The portal of eternity opens only in response to the freewill choice of the freewill sons of the God of free will. (Break in tape) There's absolutely no reason why any creature should do this if he doesn't want to. We are sons, not robots. And you see here. Let's consider, what is this free will choice? When God endows a creature with personality, God sets that creature up as relative sovereign of his own destiny.

Now, as you go outward and materialward in human experience, you have less and less free will choice.

Audience: Is there anything relative here? Or–

Let me finish. I'll answer it. In other words, I can't be older or younger. I'm in Pasadena; I can't be anywhere else on earth. I can't affect a material object unless I get up and move over there and do something with it. Do you follow me? I'm very limited. Now, as I move inward in my inner life, away from matter, towards mind and spirit, I have greater and greater liberty of choice. I can't keep from growing older, but I have something to say about the kind of a guy I'm going to be. I don't have to be a nice guy. That's up to me.

And finally, when I reach the question of God himself, here I have absolute freedom of choice. I can say no, the hell with it. Or I can say, yes, I'm buying, I'm very interested. And there isn't any being that can touch me in that area. And stop and think: if God wants sons, it's got to be that way, doesn't it? Otherwise, he has robots, not sons. If I choose this adventure, this is a completely free will choice on my part, because I'm subjected to no threats. There's no threat of hell, damnation, punishment, torture, or whatnot. I can choose between adventure or sleep. That's my choice. This universe is for people who enjoy giving as well as getting. They define loyalty in these papers as, how could you accept so much and give little or nothing in return? (Break in tape) "As you journey toward your Paradise goal, constantly acquiring added knowledge and enhanced skill, you are continuously afforded the opportunity to give out to others the wisdom and experience you have already accumulated. All the way into Havona, you enact the role of a pupil-teacher."

The mansion worlds are designed to equalize the fact that people come from different levels of culture and civilization. Let's take a guy by the name of Arvan–that sounds fairly exotic–and Arvan is a citizen on the planet Anova. That's a real name.

Audience: Which superuniverse?

Anova is planet number one in the system of Satania. We are number 606. In other words, Anova is the oldest planet in our local system. And Arvan is feeding into the Jerusem cluster, just like we are. I don't think– Yes?

Audience: And in the mansion world that Ruth is now suspended in, are there people coming, or–?

Arvan is waking up in the chamber adjoining Ruth Burton's. They're waking up together.

Audience: Laughter. (Everyone talking at once). (Can't understand tape).

Right. That's right. And Arvan comes from world number one. He's a very retarded person, or he would have skipped the mansion worlds. Ruth comes from Urantia, and waking up on mansion world number one is par for the course. All 606 worlds feed into the mansion worlds, or the higher levels where they have resurrection halls. Let's get the Jerusem cluster in mind. You have, in the center-this is an architectural cluster of physical worlds–in the center is Jerusem, about 100 times the size of Urantia. Jerusem has seven satellites, each of which is about ten times the size of Urantia. The mass of Jerusem is not what you'd expect, so the gravity isn't oppressive.

Each of these seven satellites has seven moons, and the mansion worlds are the seven moons encircling satellite number one. Got a picture? Fifty-seven worlds in all. You know, Heinz will be proud of that. All 606 planets in Satania feed into mansion world number one. We're going to have a lot of strangers on mansion world number one. Lots of people won't speak English up there. In fact, just a percentage of Urantians will speak English up there. Now, we don't have to go through pulling these GI, quartermaster issue morontia bodies out of the pickle and laying them out on the slab awaiting Ruth's soul, et cetera, and so forth. I mean have we got Ruth reassembled?

Audience: Yes. She's still on the slab.

Right. Well, let's reassemble her. I did that once today, and it's a pretty gory thing. I don't want to do it again.

Audience: Laughter.

And Arvan is waking up in the adjoining chamber from Anova, world number one. A very retarded specimen. It's the first time in over five million years that anyone from Anova has waked up on the first mansion world. They usually skip the mansion worlds.

Audience: Why?

Arvan was a throw-back Alpheus twin from Anova. Normal people from Anova don't go through the mansion worlds. They wake up on Jerusem where they have resurrection halls. Some of them wake up on the constellation, because they have nothing to learn on the system level. As you go through these mansion worlds, it starts out with deficiency ministry–getting rid of these horrible deficiencies of procrastination, equivocation, problem-avoidance, unfairness, ease-seeking–the things that are wrong with all of us, you know? It's not like we shouldn't beat our wives, or that sort of thing. Morals and virtue as preached from the pulpit are pretty artificial. These are pretty fundamental. The purpose of the mansion worlds is to do for a human being what he should do for himself in the course of normal living.

Audience: On the worlds of origin.

Yes. If he could settle himself in light and life, he wouldn't need the mansion worlds.

Audience: (Can't understand tape) anyone like this?

Jesus did it. Elijah did it. Enoch did it.

Audience: And who else?

We don't know of anybody else.

Audience: OK.

It can be done, though. It can be done. When they get through with deficiency ministry on the mansion worlds, then they start picking you up culturally.

These mansion worlds variously compare with planetary mortal epochs, such as the post-Planetary Prince epoch, the post-Adamic epoch–I'm speaking of the cultural level– the post-Magisterial Son epoch, the post- Bestowal Son epoch, the post-Teacher Son epoch, settlement in Light and Life, and by now you're getting up to the last of the mansion worlds, so that, when you graduate from the mansion worlds, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference whether you are a literal Hottentot or a figurative Hottentot. I read us figurative Hottentots. Things have been evened up culturally. When you get to Jerusem, you'll know which fork to use. Do you follow me? You won't lack couthness. Fusion takes place, usually, as I recall it's on the fifth mansion world. Am I right?

Audience: (Can't understand tape).

Not necessarily. Fusion can take place in this life. It can take place on any mansion world. It can take place at any point in the local universe career. But, by and large, it happens on about the fifth mansion world. Death is not absolutely inevitable, just damn probable.

Audience: (Can't understand tape).

When you say death and taxes, you'll have to hedge the death, slightly. You don't have to hedge on taxes. If you fuse with your Thought Adjuster, point number one, the midwayers are going to take you far enough away from your friends so that the fusion flash won't damage your friends, because the physical repercussions of fusion involve the dissipation of energy–heat, and so forth. And, on a planet settled in Light and Life, this takes place in a morontia temple, where you're warned ahead of time: you're going to fuse. And, if you've got unfinished business, you plea for a stay of execution.

And they detach the Thought Adjuster, because you can't leave the Adjuster in there, it'll fuse. And you finish up your planetary assignments, and then you repair to the morontia temple. You send out announcements. I hope they've gotten to the place where they no longer feel them, you know, is this engraved or printed? You send out announcements to your friends and they all come there to see you graduate. It's an occasion of great rejoicing, your fusing. And you disappear in a flash. Do you suppose that the final vestiges of snobbishness in the era of Light and Life have to do with dying versus fusion?

Audience: Probably.

The author of the paper says he knows of no planet which is entirely free from death. And can't you hear Mrs. Van Asterbuilt talking to Mr. Van Asterbuilt and Claudia wants to marry a guy by the name of Smith. And she sticks her nose up in the air, and she says, "The Smiths! Humm, they die!"

Audience: Laughter.

On a world such as ours, we don't have any morontia temple, and a physical structure would be damaged by the energy dissipated in fusion. See, the material body is consumed. That's a physical reality. When you suddenly oxidize that, a lot of heat is liberated. Midwayers carry a fusion candidate up in the air far enough so that nobody gets hurt in the process. And the reason I think Elijah fused is because it says, to those who witnessed such a transaction, the departing fusion personality would appear to ascend to heaven in chariots of fire. That's the exact language from the Old Testament. In the event of fusion, you don't die. The Adjuster seizes the immortal soul and transports it at Adjuster velocity, which is "instanter" to the first mansion world. Now, I suspect that the Adjuster has sensed fusion, and for that matter the personal guardian has sensed it– because believe me, such an individual would have a personal guardian.

The slow-moving seraphim have probably taken off, quite in advance, to be ready for the soul, so that everything is waiting for the fusion candidate when wham-bang, the Adjuster slides into home plate with a cloud of dust and the soul clutched in his little sweaty paw. You know what I mean? And there you are, and you wake up in the same way, only you wake up as a fused being. I don't think you probably wake up on the first mansion world. If you have achieved that inner quality of culture which enables you to fuse, I think you'd skip the whole seven mansion worlds. I would guess the fusion candidates would wake up on Jerusem, or maybe on the resurrection halls in the constellation. And you know, in worlds settled in the advanced stages of light and life, fusion candidates almost completely miss the morontia existence.

They almost go from the material existence directly into the spiritual existence. They wake up on Salvington as last stage morontia beings. But, of course, they then have to go down and teach in those levels that they didn't ascend through. There's another deal about the mansion worlds. If you don't have much to learn on the first mansion world, they don't make you go to work there. You may need the mansion worlds, but you may not need all seven. For example, let's take our favorite survival candidate. We've killed Ruth off so many times today that she won't mind being knocked off once more. Let's take Ruth and compare her to one of these Bushmen that we were talking about. What was this language? Bantu. We get a Bantu tribesman, a stone-age guy, who makes it. He wakes up in another adjoining chamber. Now, I think he's probably got to get a full course of sprouts on the first mansion world. But let's say that they check Ruth over, and they say, "Well, kiddo, it's like this–you need some of this mansion world business, but we don't think you need the first mansion world. So take ten days off." Which is thirty days of our time. So Ruth barges around and looks to see did Paul make it, and so forth, and is Fred going to make it, you know.

Well, of course there's a big question about Fred because he's basically so darn mean, it's a question of does meanness equal his virtue, and so on. Very difficult balance to strike. And she looks up her friends and goes around and is pretty amazed to realize how little she knows about this mansion world, because the papers didn't tell her very much. They gave her maybe about a half of one per cent, or a tenth of one per cent of what to expect. And at the end of thirty days, she moves on to the second mansion world. She leaves her body behind. Every time you move from one mansion world to another, you leave your body behind, because the change is too great. You're down in the lower level of the material end of morontial reality. It's not until you graduate from the mansion worlds that you get a morontia form which is sufficiently typical of morontia so that from there on they can re-key you, and you don't leave your body behind you every time you move on.

Ruth will keep moving on until she hits a mansion world where they run an IQ on her, or a social quotient on her, or a spiritual quotient on her, or maybe a cultural quotient, or maybe a combined quotient, and they say, "Well, sister, I guess we've got something for you here." And so she goes to school. This may be the third mansion world, I don't know–or the fourth, or the second. And, of course, the first thing she does is learn the language. Because they certainly aren't going to instruct in English. How many English-speaking people do you suppose there are on the mansion worlds? Well, there are six hundred worlds, and they only speak English on one of them. And only a fraction of the people from this world speak English. So the first thing you do is learn Satanian, then you can talk to everybody. (Break in tape)

Eventually we achieve a status equal to a citizen on an evolutionary world that is settled in light and life. And then we graduate and go on to Jerusem. And on Jerusem we still keep on growing. You know? They believe in differential democracy up there. When you become a Jerusem citizen, you have one vote, but some folks have a thousand votes. You know why? They're smarter. They're more cultured. They're wiser. And every so often, you get yourself tested in terms of intellectual and spiritual growth, and they keep increasing your franchise, and the more you have on the ball, the heavier the ballot you pack at the polls. And, please remember, all during this time, you're working as well as studying. You're thinking, you're feeling, you're acting.

You are teaching as well as functioning as a student. You will teach in the mansion world schools, as well as go through them as a student. And during this time, especially when you get to Uversa, you get a chance to go hitchhiking. You get some free time. And you go down to the airport. And you see the schedule of seraphic departure. I wonder is they'll have delays due to weather, and mechanical failures, and so forth? There's a seraphim that's going to world number in the system of Satania. Interesting world. Non- breather world. And you file with the dispatcher's office a request to go along with that seraphim, and you get approved.

So you enseraphim for world number. And you have a chance to spend some time there as a student visitor. This is how you spend part of your vacations, visiting the various worlds of the local system of Satania. You get a big charge out of being a graduate, a citizen. Maybe you've got about 600 votes now. You're an old-timer on Jerusem. You've got a little rank; you're an assistant professor in the schools there. You've been there for a long time. You're getting real satisfied with having achieved something. And you know what happens? One morning, somehow–this is because you're a person, and persons are quirky individuals–somehow, you get itchy feet. Somehow, you look at all this tremendous achievement, your postgraduate status, and somehow, it begins to shrink. You've been sitting down between rounds too long. You are beginning to get ripe to move on to the next level of the Paradise ascent.

You're darn tired of being a graduate student. You want to be a freshman again. You know? And this is when you move–are we going to fast?

Audience: Fine. Doing great.

This is when you move on to Edentia. They never make you move before you're ready. As the papers say, while the ascent is a long one, it's always punctuated by those temporarily stationary periods during which universe horizons stand still, and you can taste the sweetness of success. You're successful. You're not always moving up. You stand still, and you look back, and you say, gee, I made it. I made it. I'm on first base. I'm safe. And, pretty soon, you get a yen to try for second, you know? (Can't understand tape) regime is the most typical of the local universe ascent.

It's the mid point. In this respect, it's quite analogous to the major sector regime in the superuniverse. I think you spend the longest time here. You are a typical morontian. Not at the physical end, not at the spiritual end–at the mid-phase of morontia development. And what takes place on the constellation? Well, on the mansion worlds, they de-animalized you. When you finish the mansion worlds, you are a true human being. You are completely de-animalized. You're a cultured human being. (Break in tape) That's a kind of civil war we experience on this world. And that's the kind of civil war which is ended by the time we graduate from Jerusem. We have a unified purpose. And now, they can take such a unified being, and in the constellation regime, with its 771 worlds, that's a big lot of worlds, they can really start in–not to spiritual us–but to socialize us.

You know, I'm so tickled by these folks who are going to get to be spiritual right away. Are they going to be disappointed. You see, they're going to teach us real ethics first. And they teach us ethics by having us live with beings who are very non-human. Not nasty and feisty, but just extremely alien. Why are they this way? Because the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit, with all of their tremendous ingenuity, have created them this way. They're a mutation. And you know something? This intrigues me. They're midway between material beings and spiritual beings, but they are not morontia beings. In other words, there's more than one route between matter and spirit. Morontia is just one of at least two routes. We have to live in the (can't understand tape) a long time. And I suspect that by the time we can live with them, we can live with anyone. We really come out of this experience with flexible, malleable, personalities.

But we're none the less individuals. This is not a technique in conformity, but this is a course of sprouts in tolerance, understanding, and give and take. I think this whole ascent increases individuality. I don't think it decreases it. When we've been socialized, then we can graduate from the constellation regime. I've got a hunch that the constellation regime is the height of the aesthetic side of the local universe ascent. To me, it's very significant that they tell the story of the celestial artisans right after the story of the constellations. I think if you've really got a yen to do something, you'll have a chance to do it on the way up to Paradise. Of course, if you want to be a morontia fire chief, I don't think they'll hold you to it if more mature consideration suggests that you don't really want to work in the morontia fire department as a fire chief.

But let's say that you've got tremendous aptitude to be a physicist. And let's say that you've got a hangover yen to be a musician. If you really want to be a musician, I think they'll give you a crack at it. And I think they'll let you work at it until you finally get fed- up with being a second-rate musician, and decide to shoot for the Melchizedek prize in physics, because you are, potentially, a first-rate physicist. But that's your choice. I like that idea. They don't push you around.

Audience: Bill, may I intrude a question? Do you mean because potentially you could be a first-rate physicist?

I mean this. I think aptitudes vary.

Audience: You think they go on?

Of course they do.

Sex differences are not obliterated. Sure, procreation is limited to this life, but maleness and femaleness is fundamental. And they tell us that even in the Corps of the Finality, Finaliters who were once men will think differently from the Finaliters who were once women. They'll continue to stimulate each other. This I like. I would hate to be a neuter. How do you gals feel?

Audience: No.

I will always remember I was a man, not a woman. And I will always remember that you gals were women and not men. Our aptitudes vary. If you'll recall, in this connection, there is a grand statement–it's in the paper on the celestial artisans. Yes, section 8, on page 507: "Mortal Aspirations and Morontia Achievements." Let's just read a couple of lines from this.

"Many ambitions to excel which tantalize mortals in the flesh will not persist with these same mortals in the morontia and spirit careers. . . Nevertheless, those things which you so earnestly longed to do on earth and which circumstances so persistently denied you, if, after acquiring true mota insight in the morontia career, you still desire to do, then will you most certainly be granted every opportunity fully to satisfy your long- cherished desires."

And in the following paragraph it discusses how we equalize intellectually before we graduate from this local universe, how we equalize spiritually when we enter the Corps of the Finality, and how having attained spiritual and intellectual equalization, we now discover that we are up against a new differential, an absonite differential. But equalization does not mean identity of aptitude, merely equality of horse power.

We will still, some of us, be artists, some writers, some physicists, some legal- minded persons, some better teachers than others, some better executives than others. When we graduate from Edentia as unified, socialized morontians, we will embark on the Salvington regime. And it is the purpose of this regime to spiritualize us. This is how we graduated from the morontia to the spirit level of development. And it appears to me that our principle training takes place on the worlds of the Melchizedeks, the Lanonandeks, the Vorondadeks, and the Life Carriers–the great physical research laboratories of the local universe are on the worlds of the Life Carriers.

On the Melchizedek worlds we have a grand round-up of our whole training to date. On the Lanonandek worlds we study the problems of the coordination of executive rulings in the ten thousand systems of the local universe. On the Vorondadek worlds we become students of the problems of legislative coordination, coordinating the legislative enactments of the 100 constellations. On the Life Carrier worlds, I suspect we get a good course of sprouts in biology and in physics and so on. And finally we move on to Salvington. They don't tell us much about what we do on Salvington. But they do tell us about the function of a very interesting group of seraphim. Up on Salvington, we'll benefit from the ministry of a group of supreme seraphim called Universe Orientators.

"These are the true friends and postgraduate counselors of all those ascending creatures who are pausing for the last time on Salvington, in their universe of origin, as they stand on the brink of the spirit adventure stretching out before them in the vast superuniverse of Orvonton."

Look, guys, we're getting ready to leave home. This is really something. So far, we've operated in Michael's universe. Now we're about to leave it for a greater universe.

"And at such a time many an ascender has a feeling which mortals could understand only by comparison with the human emotion of nostalgia. Behind like the realms of achievement, realms grown familiar by long service and morontia attainment; ahead lies the challenging mystery of a greater and vaster universe."

"It is the task of the universe orientators to facilitate the passage of the ascending pilgrims from the attained to the unattained level of universe service, to help these pilgrims in making those kaleidoscopic adjustments in the comprehension of meanings and values inherent in the realization that a first-stage spirit being stands, not at the end and climax of the local universe morontia ascent, but rather at the very bottom of the long ladder of spiritual ascent to the Universal Father on Paradise."

Again, an end is a beginning. And so we shove off from Salvington for the minor sector of Ensa, and there on this minor sector as first stage spirit beings, who are our instructors? High, spiritual beings? No, not at all. The Associate Power Directors, and our subject is the physical constitution of the universe of universes. Here is where we get a real mess of mathematics. Here is where, I think, we really study ultimatons and the like.

Audience: The artists and all?

The artists and all, sure. This is required. Here is where we get a real course of sprouts in, I think, the operations of Paradise, the functions of the Force Organizers, the machinations of the Power Centers, the Master Physical Controllers, the Power Directors, and so on. And I fancy we don't have a chance to pass on until we've taught this course to our juniors.

You remember, all the way through, you pass the roughest examination we can pass. You're not graded until you demonstrate your willingness and ability to teach the course. And, as you folks who have experimented with teaching this book know, that's the roughest exam you can undertake, isn't it? Well, one day we'll graduate from the capitol of the minor sector of Ensa, and we will move on to the capitol of the major sector of Splandon. And here we begin our intellectual growth in the superuniverse regime. And here we depart from the normal pattern. So far we have been students with residential status on just one unit. One capitol of one system, constellation, local universe, and minor sector. But when we graduate from the major sector of Splandon, we don't move on in to Uversa. We move over to the next major sector. And we move successively through all ten of the major sectors of the superuniverse of Orvonton.

We don't get off this level until the entire thirty Perfections of Days have certified our progress. If you want to get a feel for the superuniverse ascent, I think what you ought to read is the story of the ministering spirits of the superuniverses, particularly the secondary and the tertiary seconaphim. The primary seconaphim work for the Ancient of Days, and we don't have much to do with them. But the secondary seconaphim work for their associates, Divine Counselors, the Perfectors of Wisdom, the Universal Censors. We do have to do with them. They're the ones, you know, who depict wisdom, philosophy, cooperation, council, and the sheer joy of living, the satisfaction of service, and the discerners of spirits who are people. But then the tertiary seconaphim work with the ascendant co-ordinates of the Divine Counselors, Mighty Messengers, Those High In Authority, Those Without Name and Number. These are the folks that we come in contact with.

These significance of origins are not only concerned with judgment, they're concerned with ethics and relationships. These Memories of Mercy are not only concerned with giving evidence in the judicial system, but in teaching mercy. The Imports of Time not only advise the adjudicating authorities–did Ruth Burton have time or not making the decision?–they also teach the ascenders concerning the active and the passive use of time, work, and play. The Solemnity of Trust not only appraises our trustworthiness, but also teaches us trustworthiness. The Sanctity of Service is in part engaged in teaching us the importance of service. When we have completed our intellectual education in the universe regime, when all 30 of the Perfections of Days have signed our report card, then we graduate to Uversa. And for the first time, we encounter Havona beings.

There's an overlap. Havona servitals are working out on Uversa and its satellites. Here's where we attempt to write our PhD thesis in the university of time and space. And I suspect that before we actually graduate, we have to do original pieces of work, besides doing all the prescribed work. I can imagine a good subject for an original PhD thesis. Let's say a group venture–it would take too long for one person to do it–but a group of graduates might decide to write a thesis appraising the bestowal careers of the Michael Sons in the superuniverse of Orvonton, or maybe the major sector of Splandon. What did you learn from an analysis of these careers? That would be an interesting thesis, wouldn't it? Or, here would be another interesting one: Why is it that the Michaels don't always bestow themselves in the same way?

You know, there's only one required bestowal for each Michael Son? That's the seventh. That's prescribed. Our Universe Sovereign bestowed himself as a Melchizedek, but not as a Vorondadek. As a Lanonandek, but not as a Brilliant Evening Star, or an Archangel. As an Adam, but not as a (can't understand tape), a (can't understand tape). As a seraphim, but not as a cherubim, or a midway creature. Don't you suppose that in other local universes, they hit some of these life levels Michael omitted? He can't hit them all. He elected to use three of his bestowals in the guise of an ascending mortal, physical, morontial, and spiritual. That left only four for other types of universe life. Don't you suppose that other Michaels in other local universes have different ideas? Wouldn't that be an interesting study?

Why were the bestowals different in this local universe as compared with that one? Well, there comes a day when we graduate from the university of time and space. I don't think they kick us out right away. I think they let us walk around. With graduate status, you know? Maybe by that time, our local universe will be settled in light and life. It may take that long to get there; I don't think so. If we came from a local universe settled in light and life which has membership in the superuniverse government–Nebadon is like Hawaii, we're just a territory in Orvonton. We have yet to be admitted to the Union. We will be admitted when we're settled in light and life. Such a citizen, though, might serve a tour of duty in the Uversa legislature in one of the houses which passes the laws governing the superuniverse of Orvonton.

But there finally comes a day when we take off. And we take off with a transport seconaphim, because that long flight to Havona, well, a seraphim just doesn't have a big enough gas tank. She'd run out of gas; she hasn't got jets enough. It takes a seconaphim to go from Uversa to Havona. A DC-3 just won't make it. It takes a DC-7. And we land on the pilot world of the outer circuit of Havona, and now time is no longer of significance. Up until now, time has been of relative significance. From here on, there are no classes. Up until now we've advanced sometimes as individuals, sometimes as classes. But from here on in, we advance only as an individual, and we're accompanied by three people: by a graduate guide who meets us, and who stays with us throughout the Havona ascent, by the associated servital attached to that guide, and by whatever secondary supernaphim is assigned to us on a given Havona circuit. We'll have seven different secondary supernaphims going through Havona.

And you'll recall, they read us out of the fine print in our diploma that we got from Uversa, you remember, it is hereby certified that this individual is graduated, you know, maybe cum lauda, magna summa, at any rate, it says there in the fine print, with the seal of Orvonton on it, we hereby certify that this ascendant pilgrim has learned to get fat on disappointment, to feast on uncertainty, to invigorate in the presence –in other words, we have really developed the tinsel strength of this pilgrim. This is a tough citizen. We've tested him. Then they tell us it's on this outer circuit of Havona–we're really tough characters–but it's on the outer circuit of Havona that for the first time we discover what real effort means. We're freshmen in the university of eternity. That's a hell of a sight more difficult than the university of time and space.

This is a real rough school. This is a really rough school. On the outer belt of Havona worlds, we get a primary course of sprouts on what this is all about. You'll recall they tell us how many times they break down the subdivisions; I suspect if we had normal textbooks for each subject, this house wouldn't be built big enough to hold them. This is the elementary course in Havona. And when we are through with the outer Havona circuit, we're introduced to the Master Spirit of the superuniverse of our origin. This happens to be Master Spirit Number Seven. This is the high being that we meet in the course of our ascent. And then we move into the sixth circuit.

This is the closest approach we make to the Supreme Being in the entire Paradise ascent –though with the outer Havona circuit, we're introduced to the Master Spirit of the superuniverse of our origin. This happens to be Master Spirit Number Seven. This is the high being that we meet in the course of our inward ascent. And then we move into the sixth circuit. This is the closest approach we make to the Supreme Being in the entire Paradise ascent. They're very specific. They say we never find the Supreme Being. But they say that during our passage through this circuit, things happen to the ascenders which can be explained only if it is assumed that the Supreme Being, the God of evolution, is doing everything possible for his evolutionary children to prepare them to meet pre-evolutionary Deity on Paradise.

The secondary supernaphim who work on the sixth Havona circuit are spoken of as Supremacy Guides. They don't guide us to the Supreme Being, they guide us to the Master Spirit who speaks for the Supreme Being–the same Master Spirit we met before, Number Seven. Then we graduate to the fifth circuit, and it's from there that, for the first time, we attempt to find Deity on Paradise. This time, the Third Person of Deity, the Infinite Spirit. And if we succeed–and few fail–we go on to the fourth circuit, the circuit of the Sons. And it's from this circuit, it's on this circuit, that the Creator Sons have extensive activities. They're in training there long before they go out in time and space. And it's from this circuit we attempt to find the Eternal Son. And again, few fail, although some may. And then we go to the third circuit. That's the great adventure. You know, it's odd. I would never have written these papers this way.

I would have had that on the first circuit, the innermost. But the great adventure does not take place on the last Havona circuit. There are two more ahead. And here, they say, they just don't spare the horses. Anybody who could be of service is drafted for teaching and helping purposes, because it's from here we attempt the recognition of the Universal Father. And if we succeed, the rest of it is formality. And if we fail, it's not a real failure, it's a delay. We always go back to a superuniverse that has within it inherently that educational value which will insure that we will never fail on the second attempt. No ascension candidate ever fails twice. The educational regime may break down the first time, but when corrective reading is applied, Johnny always learns to read. They tell us that the second and first circuits are anticlimactic.

The great adventure is over. And they observe that many times people want to sort of reminisce, and wish they could start back, you know, go through all the hell they've been through, moan about, groan about, and so on. This is a quiet period. The tremendous stimulus of the adventure of time is over. And the forward urge of eternity is yet to be encountered. We're catching our breath. And then we have that terminal sleep in which we wake up on Paradise. And the papers point out that the reason we didn't go through it before is because we merely went to Paradise with a student's visa. Now we're going with residential status, and the transit is different.

This time, when we wake up on the shores of Paradise, we wake up with citizenship status. And you'll recall, we enter into the regime of the primary supernaphim. And they tell us it's kind of a shock getting used to Paradise society. Sure, we've met the Paradise citizens out in Havona as descending pilgrims. But holy smokes, we've got transcendentalers to meet on Paradise. You know, there's a mish-mash of all three levels of the firehouse on Paradise. We need guides. We don't know our etiquette entirely. It takes directors of conduct, interpreters of ethics. There's nothing wrong with our motive, but our technique needs polishing. And finally, we pass through the hands of the Masters of Philosophy who discourse on the unknowables, and they say they don't explain them entirely, but we feel better about them.

And then we attempt worship. I don't believe that we have any understanding of what Paradise worship means to an ascending animal who's finally made the grade, because the kind of worship we talk about down here is all too often associated with a hard pew and somebody using a holy tone, you know? I always get a twitch of nausea when I hear a holy tone. There's nothing wrong with it, I'm just not harness broken to it. I was going to say church broken. But there, they say, worship exceeds the greatest pleasure we've ever known. So much so that it gets out of hand. And things have to be done to fix it so that we aren't going to spend all of eternity in worship.

And then, there comes a time when we stand in the receiving circle of the Corps of the Finality. And for the first time, we do business with one of the Architects of the Master Universe, the senior Architect, who administers to these mortal ascenders the Trinity Oath of Eternity. Think about that. The Trinity Oath of Eternity. This is forever. And now, we've made it. And now, do we rest on our laurels?

No. The paper says, and now the finaliter is face to face with the challenge of God the Ultimate.