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What exactly are the 7 Psychic Circles?
When you get a chance read Paper 110 Section 6. It’s only 22 paragraphs. I might use up more than that trying to explain it and not as well.
Also, I don’t view the subconscious mind and dreams as negatively as Bonita does; I’m sure she has her reasons.
Are you referring to what I wrote about the subconscious here:
Bonita wrote: Also, hypnosis is a method to tap the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is not something that is carried over from one life to another. It certainly is not taken with us to the mansion worlds. The subconscious mind is nothing more than an overflow receptacle for all the stuff that cannot be held by the conscious mind during wakeful hours. Once all that stuff overflows into the subconscious, it is no longer subject to the conscious mind’s ability to filter, organize and compartmentalize . . . hence the chaotic mess that often surfaces during dreams. The dream state is mostly a parade of subconscious spill-over from ordinary life which hasn’t had the opportunity to be rationalized . . . in other words: total nonsense. Why would anyone structure a religion around subconscious emanations conjured up by hypnosis? There’s no difference between that and mysticism, channelling and mediumship.I don’t see it as negative, just chaotic because it is a reservoir for unorganized thought that hasn’t been built into the conscious scaffolding yet. It’s like the junk drawer in your kitchen where there’s probably lots of useful stuff just jumbled up into a giant mishmash. TUB informs us that prayer forces the ego to look both ways for help in problem solving, to the subconscious (lost info) and also to the superconscious (divine guidance).91.3.5 Aside from all that is superself in the experience of praying, it should be remembered that ethical prayer is a splendid way to elevate one’s ego and reinforce the self for better living and higher attainment. Prayer induces the human ego to look both ways for help: for material aid to the subconscious reservoir of mortal experience, for inspiration and guidance to the superconscious borders of the contact of the material with the spiritual, with the Mystery Monitor.
Okay, I’m done. Overspent. Said too much. And yes, I do think the problem with bolding has something to do with André’s post. Now that we’re on a new page it has disappeared. André, if you could post again on this page as part of an experiment I’d appreciate it.
Wow Bonita! You are very thoughtful and thorough with your replies. With Bradly, I sometimes have to read twice to properly absorb; with you, I may have to catalog all your posts, for there is so much to absorb
Let me continue to read through all the reincarnation related posts that were written before I joined the forum; that has been helpful, and that may save you and Bradly from rewriting what you have already written to others. I read the section of the Urantia Book dealing with Psychic Circles; like other sections, I may have to simply chew on what I read for a while before I more fully grasp it.But in the meantime, I will point out a few of the many intriguing ideas in the Urantia Book that seem to subtly address reincarnation in ways that I have been seeking. Apparently, even before Dravidian Deccan (whoever that was in history), primitive man began to formulate the idea of endless, non-progressive reincarnation simply by observing nature and by observing seemingly endless, non-progressive offspring who looked like their ancestors; that makes sense when I put myself in their shoes, realizing they had few reliable ways to test their ideas. Likewise today, other than the Urantia Book (and a few “other sources” I can think of for comparison), we modern humans have relatively few ways to test our ideas about reincarnation. For that reason, I am paying close attention to any and every example that the Urantia Book gives concerning how individuals have misinterpreted revealed truths of any kind, which should help us to exactly pinpoint where and how misunderstandings are occurring regarding reincarnation. For example, even in the chapter on Morontia Life, the full-length version of the 23rd Psalm of the Bible is provided, along with an explanation of how/why the Bible version was so different and shorter in length. Likewise but even more relevant was how the apostle Paul partly misinterpreted the 3rd Mansion World as the “3rd heaven”, according to the Urantia Book.
Another reference in the Morontia Life chapter indicates that we (meaning our morontia souls) will eventually experience all potential realities (as actual realities) that could have been experienced by us within our particular dispensations (on the surface of the physical planet Earth). Thus, if I were able to perceive the morontia environment, it’s reasonable to consider that I (from my limited human ways of thinking) could misinterpret those potential, simultaneous realities (in the morontia environment) as actual, sequential lifetimes (in the physical Earth environment). Since we humans will be perfectly reconstructed in the resurrection chambers on the 1st mansion world, I think we can also safely assume that the 1st mansion world environment may also appear as a perfect reconstruction of the physical Earth environment, at least from our current, physical human point of view. By the way, I have read one or more references in the Urantia Book that says our soul’s morontia life experiences have already begun (most active when we are sleeping) while we are still living as physical humans on the surface of Earth! That could also be why so many humans are convinced that we have had past lives!
I should stress that I am simply making logical, educated guesses to see in what ways the Urantia Book COULD be totally right regarding reincarnation as a false concept. I will add 2 things that Edgar Cayce said that further supports that assumption – dreams are real experiences, and the subconscious mind of a human is also simultaneously the conscious awareness of the soul. Sorry Bonita – those are 2 more reasons why I respectfully disagree with SOME of your comments regarding dreams and the subconscious mind. But how ironic that 2 of Cayce’s comments seem to support the Urantia Book’s view that reincarnation is untrue, even though Cayce reluctantly believed in some aspects of reincarnation! By the way, regarding the idea that dreams and the subconscious mind are full of nonsense, consider the possibility that you simply have not yet recognized the “symbolic language” of either one. Have you never seen/read dream interpretation books?! Objects and people in dreams can often symbolically represent aspects of yourself that maybe you have not been paying as close attention to as you should be. Here is another thing to consider about dreams – they are often produced as a way of re-balancing our conscious thoughts and emotions. For example, if a woman is pregnant and is obsessing over being pregnant, she may actually dream of death as a subconscious way of counter-balancing her obsession with the pregnancy (which symbolizes life). In fact, Cayce taught that dreams quite often are meant to counter-balance our conscious thoughts and emotions. And sometimes the specific content is not as important as the overall feeling or theme you get from your dreams. Also Bonita, I gather from a previous post that you have had some level of belief in the Bible; have you not read about Joseph in the book of Genesis interpreting the dreams of the Pharaoh in Egypt, and how Joseph said God enabled him to interpret dreams?! His correct interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams enabled them to stockpile food during 7 years of plenty which enabled the people of Egypt to survive the next 7 years of famine. Why would dreams have value and meaning then but not now?! Learning how to correctly interpret dreams is the key.
It is late but goodbye for now.
Hi,
The next sentence is bolded.
“Bolded sentence.”
André p.s. … will be easier putting recernces like “post 1234″.
I will add 2 things that Edgar Cayce said that further supports that assumption – dreams are real experiences, and the subconscious mind of a human is also simultaneously the conscious awareness of the soul. Sorry Bonita – those are 2 more reasons why I respectfully disagree with SOME of your comments regarding dreams and the subconscious mind.
I have no problem with your disagreement, but I think it’s due to a misunderstanding of the difference between the subconscious mind and the soul. The subconscious soul, as has been pointed out in some of the quotes I previously reproduced, is wholly material. The soul is not wholly material. The soul is morontia which is a hybrid of material and spiritual reality. It’s a brand new created reality consisting of actual conscious choices to do the will of God. Moreover, the soul, being supermaterial, does not function on the material level of reality.
0:5.10 4. Soul. The soul of man is an experiential acquirement. As a mortal creature chooses to “do the will of the Father in heaven,” so the indwelling spirit becomes the father of a new reality in human experience. The mortal and material mind is the mother of this same emerging reality. The substance of this new reality is neither material nor spiritual–it is morontial. This is the emerging and immortal soul which is destined to survive mortal death and begin the Paradise ascension.
The soul is supermaterial, meaning it functions on a plane of reality above the material level where the subconscious mind dwells. It is a superconscious manifestation of mind known as the supermind. It is possible to become partially conscious of either the subconscious or the superconscious, but they are not the same experience; one is a purely human psychological, the other a super-psychological, co-creation of both human and divine.
111:1.5 Mortal mind is a temporary intellect system loaned to human beings for use during a material lifetime, and as they use this mind, they are either accepting or rejecting the potential of eternal existence. Mind is about all you have of universe reality that is subject to your will, and the soul—the morontia self—will faithfully portray the harvest of the temporal decisions which the mortal self is making. Human consciousness rests gently upon the electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia energy system above. Of neither of these two systems is the human being ever completely conscious in his mortal life; therefore must he work in mind, of which he is conscious.
Both the subconscious and superconscious are part of the collective unconscious yet awareness of them is arrived at by totally different means. The substance of dreams is mostly the garbled experiences of the subconscious material psyche. Occasionally the Thought Adjuster, who dwells in the superconscious supermind of the soul, is able to register thoughts during dreams, but it is a very rare event. Below are a collection of quotes that might shed some light on what I’m trying to say about the difference between the subconscious (material) and the superconscious (morontia) as it relates to dreaming.
110:5.2 Man’s dream experiences, that disordered and disconnected parade of the un-co-ordinated sleeping mind, present adequate proof of the failure of the Adjusters to harmonize and associate the divergent factors of the mind of man. The Adjusters simply cannot, in a single lifetime, arbitrarily co-ordinate and synchronize two such unlike and diverse types of thinking as the human and the divine. When they do, as they sometimes have, such souls are translated directly to the mansion worlds without the necessity of passing through the experience of death.
110:5.3 During the slumber season the Adjuster attempts to achieve only that which the will of the indwelt personality has previously fully approved by the decisions and choosings which were made during times of fully wakeful consciousness, and which have thereby become lodged in the realms of the supermind, the liaison domain of human and divine interrelationship
110:5.4 While their mortal hosts are asleep, the Adjusters try to register their creations in the higher levels of the material mind, and some of your grotesque dreams indicate their failure to make efficient contact. The absurdities of dream life not only testify to pressure of unexpressed emotions but also bear witness to the horrible distortion of the representations of the spiritual concepts presented by the Adjusters. Your own passions, urges, and other innate tendencies translate themselves into the picture and substitute their unexpressed
s for the divine messages which the indwellers are endeavoring to put into the psychic records during unconscious sleep.110:5.5 It is extremely dangerous to postulate as to the Adjuster content of the dream life. The Adjusters do work during sleep, but your ordinary dream experiences are purely physiologic and psychologic phenomena. Likewise, it is hazardous to attempt the differentiation of the Adjusters’ concept registry from the more or less continuous and conscious reception of the dictations of mortal conscience. These are problems which will have to be solved through individual discrimination and personal decision. But a human being would do better to err in rejecting an Adjuster’s expression through believing it to be a purely human experience than to blunder into exalting a reaction of the mortal mind to the sphere of divine dignity. Remember, the influence of a Thought Adjuster is for the most part, though not wholly, a superconscious experience.
Okay then. Thanks André, you’ve solved the mystery. There’s something in your tag line that changes the formatting. Would it be possible for the moderator to address this issue, please?
Have you never seen/read dream interpretation books?!
Oh yes! For years and years I tried to figure out dreams. I have journals upon journals of my dreams and shelves of books on everything mystical. Don’t forget my mother, the ultimate occultist. I, myself, have had hundreds of so-called prophetic dreams, out of body experiences and other adventures I cannot share which have given me much insight into how this whole thing works. TUB is right about all of it. Thank God for TUB which states that dream interpretation is based on primitive superstition. If it hadn’t been for TUB, some of those experiences might very well have made me into a crazed religious fanatic. Thankfully I’ve remained balanced . . . somewhat 🤪.
150:3.9 7. The interpretation of dreams is largely a superstitious and groundless system of ignorant and fantastic speculation.
86:5.11 All down through the ages men have stood in awe of the apparitions of the night season, and the Hebrews were no exception. They truly believed that God spoke to them in dreams, despite the injunctions of Moses against this idea. And Moses was right, for ordinary dreams are not the methods employed by the personalities of the spiritual world when they seek to communicate with material beings.
When you get a chance, do a search in TUB on the ghost dream and the breath-dream. There’s a lot of enlightening material there.
Also Bonita, I gather from a previous post that you have had some level of belief in the Bible; have you not read about Joseph in the book of Genesis interpreting the dreams of the Pharaoh in Egypt, and how Joseph said God enabled him to interpret dreams?! His correct interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams enabled them to stockpile food during 7 years of plenty which enabled the people of Egypt to survive the next 7 years of famine. Why would dreams have value and meaning then but not now?! Learning how to correctly interpret dreams is the key.
Absolutely. There are such dreams, but they are not ordinary dreams. Ordinary dreams are garbled streams from the subconscious psyche. The dreams of actual celestial communication are extra-ordinary and extremely rare. Here are a few described in TUB: 48:6.21; 122:4.1; 122:8.6; 135:01
Very interesting, Bonita! Thanks again for the Urantia quotes, this time on the topic of dreams. Since the soul has connection to both the subconscious and the superconscious mind, that would explain my earlier post about dreams (and the subconscious, of which I was not fully distinguishing the superconscious from the subconscious but should have, for Cayce also talked about that as well – so did Dolores Cannon) as being “a mixed bag of goodies”. But I still find value in the dreams originating from the subconscious, for it allows me to better identify and attempt to tame/correct that lower animal part of my thoughts and emotions that I may not have been paying attention to but should. You all will laugh at this dream – I once dreamed that I was a monkey traveling from place to place with my group! The freedom of movement felt so good, but we always had to keep a lookout for rival monkey groups, which I did see before I woke up
There is another curious thought I have often had about the supposed purpose of reincarnation, which is, “If learning life lessons is the main reason to keep having lifetimes as physical humans upon the surface of the Earth, why then can’t we simply learn those lessons in the afterlife?!” Interesting how the Urantia Book has already greatly addressed that question!Since the soul has connection to both the subconscious and the superconscious mind,
That’s not correct according to TUB. The soul does not have a connection to the subconscious. They are miles apart and made of different substances. The soul is supermaterial, the subconscious is material, never the twain shall meet. They are entirely separate levels of consciousness. The conscious mind, however, does touch upon both levels of consciousness and it is the conscious mind that must make sense of it all.
Thoughts that arise in the superconscious must get filtered by the conscious mind in order to be understood, which is what causes all the distortion. The subconscious also has to become conscious in order to get filtered, and therein also lies distortion primarily because the subconscious is cluttered with thoughts that have yet to become organized and given meaning. Only thoughts with meaning make it into the conscious mind, which is its purpose. The rest of one’s experience with the outer world lies beneath the surface awaiting the opportunity to be categorized and given meaning.
On the other hand, superconscious thinking is an experience of the inner world and it is something that can be cultivated through spiritual insight, but even those new meanings are attached within the conscious mind. The conscious mind is all man has to work with despite the experiences of other levels of consciousness. It all gets filtered through the conscious mind, which is why both spiritual experiences and subconscious emanations seem so foreign and are so difficult to describe.
103:6.6 Always must man’s inner spirit depend for its expression and self-realization upon the mechanism and technique of the mind. Likewise must man’s outer experience of material reality be predicated on the mind consciousness of the experiencing personality. Therefore are the spiritual and the material, the inner and the outer, human experiences always correlated with the mind function and conditioned, as to their conscious realization, by the mind activity. Man experiences matter in his mind; he experiences spiritual reality in the soul but becomes conscious of this experience in his mind. The intellect is the harmonizer and the ever-present conditioner and qualifier of the sum total of mortal experience. Both energy-things and spirit values are colored by their interpretation through the mind media of consciousness.
What does connect the various levels of consciousness is mind ministry. There are many different types of mind ministry designed to aid us in unifying thought. That subject is a huge one. It would require you to do much more reading and digesting, so perhaps later.
Greetings Michael!!
You write above: “Another reference in the Morontia Life chapter indicates that we (meaning our morontia souls) will eventually experience all potential realities (as actual realities) that could have been experienced by us within our particular dispensations (on the surface of the physical planet Earth). Thus, if I were able to perceive the morontia environment, it’s reasonable to consider that I (from my limited human ways of thinking) could misinterpret those potential, simultaneous realities (in the morontia environment) as actual, sequential lifetimes (in the physical Earth environment). Since we humans will be perfectly reconstructed in the resurrection chambers on the 1st mansion world, I think we can also safely assume that the 1st mansion world environment may also appear as a perfect reconstruction of the physical Earth environment, at least from our current, physical human point of view. By the way, I have read one or more references in the Urantia Book that says our soul’s morontia life experiences have already begun (most active when we are sleeping) while we are still living as physical humans on the surface of Earth! That could also be why so many humans are convinced that we have had past lives!”
None of the architectural spheres are replications of the evolutionary worlds…..so no….the Mansion Worlds are not “a perfect reconstruction of the physical Earth environment”. Please remember that these worlds are for an entire System and not any single evolutionary planet’s ascendant survivors. We will be among survivors of up to 1000 worlds including Earth. We will still eat and drink and I do think much will seem very familiar to us….but far more beautiful and grand and glorious!! Let me suggest Paper 44 for a description of the Divinely appointed architectural spheres throughout the universes of time and space!!
As I have said before, reincarnation is not of human origin. It is the distorted remnant of the early and ancient teachings about the universe ascendant adventure. There is simply no reason to continue seeking its source or meaning or distortions over time. Joseph Campbell and many others have well demonstrated the singular source of so many myths, fables, and tales held in common by cultures all over the planet, passed orally for thousands of generations….which naturally results in unique distortions and contortions, but at their center is the seed of common origin. Reincarnation is simply one of those…a fictionalized fact from the teachings of the long ago celestials in The Garden or even prior.
48:1.1 (541.4) The morontia realms are the local universe liaison spheres between the material and spiritual levels of creature existence. This morontia life has been known on Urantia since the early days of the Planetary Prince. From time to time this transition state has been taught to mortals, and the concept, in distorted form, has found a place in present-day religions.
48:1.2 (541.5) The morontia spheres are the transition phases of mortal ascension through the progression worlds of the local universe. Only the seven worlds surrounding the finaliters’ sphere of the local systems are called mansion worlds, but all fifty-six of the system transition abodes, in common with the higher spheres around the constellations and the universe headquarters, are called morontia worlds. These creations partake of the physical beauty and the morontia grandeur of the local universe headquarters spheres.
48:2.22 (544.5) While the basic morontia forms of life and matter are identical from the first mansion world to the last universe transition sphere, there is a functional progression which gradually extends from the material to the spiritual. Your adaptation to this basically uniform but successively advancing and spiritizing creation is effected by this selective re-keying. Such an adjustment in the mechanism of personality is tantamount to a new creation, notwithstanding that you retain the same morontia form.
48:2.23 (544.6) You may repeatedly subject yourself to the test of these examiners, and as soon as you register adequate spiritual achievement, they will gladly certify you for advanced standing. These progressive changes result in altered reactions to the morontia environment, such as modifications in food requirements and numerous other personal practices.
48:8.4 (558.2) In traversing the ascending scale of living existence from mortal man to the Deity embrace, you actually live the very life of every possible phase and stage of perfected creature existence within the limits of the present universe age. From mortal man to Paradise finaliter embraces all that now can be—encompasses everything presently possible to the living orders of intelligent, perfected finite creature beings. If the future destiny of the Paradise finaliters is service in new universes now in the making, it is assured that in this new and future creation there will be no created orders of experiential beings whose lives will be wholly different from those which mortal finaliters have lived on some world as a part of their ascending training, as one of the stages of their agelong progress from animal to angel and from angel to spirit and from spirit to God.
112:6.1 (1235.5) Just as a butterfly emerges from the caterpillar stage, so will the true personalities of human beings emerge on the mansion worlds, for the first time revealed apart from their onetime enshroudment in the material flesh. The morontia career in the local universe has to do with the continued elevation of the personality mechanism from the beginning morontia level of soul existence up to the final morontia level of progressive spirituality.
I believe you have confused the work of the Adjuster with the soul’s self consciousness and volitional growth. It is true the Adjuster works during sleep, which may be due to less interference at various stages of slumber (?). But the soul grows and functions while we are awake and conscious and as the material mind discerns, decides, and understands that which contributes to soul. Soul becomes the other nature I think of our dual natures – material and spirit – and we are enticed and led to transfer the seat of our personal identity from our material self to our spirit self….this process is the transitional growth experience of traversing the 7 Circles of Progress and Spiritization. We become more morontially oriented in this life as the soul grows and we conquer the 7 Circles. This progression is probably also related to the historical and modern religious beliefs related to reincarnation.
All of life is about stages and levels of ascendant acquirement and experience, slowly growing and perfecting over time. The fiction of reincarnation is still a far superior belief than the Christian instant-perfection by mortal death beliefs. Reincarnation beliefs demand attention to growth and progress and the importance of freewill choices and the function of evolutionary progress in self and social and universal progress!! Nonetheless, reincarnation is inferior to reality itself and there simply is no cause for its perpetuation and prejudicial embrace. No one returns to the planet of birth and origin. No one progresses by a regressive rebirth as animal or insect. Progress is progressive and planned and managed with great attention to education and the development of experiential wisdom!!
110:6.1 (1209.1) The sum total of personality realization on a material world is contained within the successive conquest of the seven psychic circles of mortal potentiality. Entrance upon the seventh circle marks the beginning of true human personality function. Completion of the first circle denotes the relative maturity of the mortal being. Though the traversal of the seven circles of cosmic growth does not equal fusion with the Adjuster, the mastery of these circles marks the attainment of those steps which are preliminary to Adjuster fusion.
110:6.2 (1209.2) The Adjuster is your equal partner in the attainment of the seven circles—the achievement of comparative mortal maturity. The Adjuster ascends the circles with you from the seventh to the first but progresses to the status of supremacy and self-activity quite independent of the active co-operation of the mortal mind.
110:6.3 (1209.3) The psychic circles are not exclusively intellectual, neither are they wholly morontial; they have to do with personality status, mind attainment, soul growth, and Adjuster attunement. The successful traversal of these levels demands the harmonious functioning of the entire personality, not merely of some one phase thereof. The growth of the parts does not equal the true maturation of the whole; the parts really grow in proportion to the expansion of the entire self—the whole self—material, intellectual, and spiritual.
Sorry you find my writing to be so difficult to understand. I appreciate your efforts to understand my words. Glad you are here!!
I believe you have confused the work of the Adjuster with the soul’s self consciousness and volitional growth.
For clarity, I would like to point out that the soul does not have volition of its own. Only personality has volition. The personality may delegate authority to the soul during this life, but it is the personality and only the personality in control of volition. By using the phrase “volitional growth” I think Bradly means conscious decisions made by the personality which result in soul growth.
111:3.2 Neither does the soul make final decisions until death or translation divorces it from material association with the mortal mind except when and as this material mind delegates such authority freely and willingly to such a morontia soul of associated function. During life the mortal will, the personality power of decision-choice, is resident in the material mind circuits; as terrestrial mortal growth proceeds, this self, with its priceless powers of choice, becomes increasingly identified with the emerging morontia-soul entity; after death and following the mansion world resurrection, the human personality is completely identified with the morontia self. The soul is thus the embryo of the future morontia vehicle of personality identity.
Thank you Bonita!!
I do think I am confused. There is only one personality for volitional choices and yet, the soul is the emerging ME from the material ME which does lend itself to some confusion I think!! I would very much appreciate your consideration of the following and your comments and any related text you feel relevant. Thanks very much!!
100:1.6 (1095.1) Religious experience is markedly influenced by physical health, inherited temperament, and social environment. But these temporal conditions do not inhibit inner spiritual progress by a soul dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. There are present in all normal mortals certain innate drives toward growth and self-realization which function if they are not specifically inhibited. The certain technique of fostering this constitutive endowment of the potential of spiritual growth is to maintain an attitude of wholehearted devotion to supreme values.
Is dedicated volitional?? Are all souls thusly dedicated inherently and without individual volition? Or is the human mind that is so dedicated?
100:2.3 (1095.7) Religion can progress to that level of experience whereon it becomes an enlightened and wise technique of spiritual reaction to the universe. Such a glorified religion can function on three levels of human personality: the intellectual, the morontial, and the spiritual; upon the mind, in the evolving soul, and with the indwelling spirit.
100:4.3 (1097.7) But the great problem of religious living consists in the task of unifying the soul powers of the personality by the dominance of love. Health, mental efficiency, and happiness arise from the unification of physical systems, mind systems, and spirit systems. Of health and sanity man understands much, but of happiness he has truly realized very little. The highest happiness is indissolubly linked with spiritual progress. Spiritual growth yields lasting joy, peace which passes all understanding.
Do you think this might mean that soul has volition through the single, shared personality of the mortal mind?
101:3.2 (1108.1) Faith-insight, or spiritual intuition, is the endowment of the cosmic mind in association with the Thought Adjuster, which is the Father’s gift to man. Spiritual reason, soul intelligence, is the endowment of the Holy Spirit, the Creative Spirit’s gift to man. Spiritual philosophy, the wisdom of spirit realities, is the endowment of the Spirit of Truth, the combined gift of the bestowal Sons to the children of men. And the co-ordination and interassociation of these spirit endowments constitute man a spirit personality in potential destiny.
I believe that soul function and growth is related to the topic but we could open a different topic for such a discussion if you wish. I am keenly interested in your thoughts and understanding related to soul…thanks again!!
I would very much appreciate your consideration of the following and your comments and any related text you feel relevant. Thanks very much!!
What exactly is your question?
So the conscious mind awareness is like a hub of a wheel for us, with the other kinds of conscious like the spokes of the wheel. Could someone explain how we can borrow someone else’s mind, as the Urantia Book suggests we borrow the mind of Jesus. I never quite understood a similar comment in the Bible either. Thanks for all your clarifications, Bonita and Bradly.
Oh wait, I just noticed questions imbedded in the quotes. Do you know that if you highlight your quote and hit the ” icon in the toolbar that the entire quote will indent and be a slightly different shade. Then hit return to start a new line to type your question and hit ” again. The formatting will change for the new line pushing the margin outward so it can be differentiated from the quote.
100:1.6 (1095.1) Religious experience is markedly influenced by physical health, inherited temperament, and social environment. But these temporal conditions do not inhibit inner spiritual progress by a soul dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. There are present in all normal mortals certain innate drives toward growth and self-realization which function if they are not specifically inhibited. The certain technique of fostering this constitutive endowment of the potential of spiritual growth is to maintain an attitude of wholehearted devotion to supreme values.
Is dedicated volitional?? Are all souls thusly dedicated inherently and without individual volition? Or is the human mind that is so dedicated?
First of all, in the quote above, the word soul is a generality, meaning a moral being. It’s referring to the entire self who has a soul, and the self includes personality. TUB does that quite a bit because it assumes all humans who are reading have souls. They also use the word heart that way. Heart and soul, referring to the morally perceptive and spiritually progressing self. Selfhood has many parts.
In this quote the word dedication is volitional, but it is the personality who is in charge of choosing to dedicate itself to doing God’s will. In order to do that, the soul must be involved because there is no way to know what God’s will is without spiritual insight into the soul. A personality chooses to discover, recognize, interpret and act upon what it finds in the soul.
All souls begin to grow in and of themselves from the moment they are born. That does not mean the soul has volition, it means the soul has influence in its own growth. It has innate spiritual urges just like the human mind has innate adjutant urges. The soul’s urges for continued growth are perceptible by the human mind; they are felt, as in the feeling of the presence of God. This requires spiritual insight.
A mind open to the urges of the soul is a mind with a personality who has accepted the gifts of faith and spiritual insight, and according to the capacity of that faith and insight, heeds those urges when directed by the personality. Said differently, the personality can use its power of will to dedicate the human mind to discover, recognize and interpret those inner urges. Or, the personality can choose to ignore those urges and thwart the work of the Adjuster within the soul who is always seeking for moral material input necessary for soul growth. I would say for the most part that the urges of the soul actually come from the Adjuster. I’ve produced the quotes for this information so many times now I’m positive you already know what they are. If Michael wants to know, I’ll dig them up as a courtesy to a newbie.
But for the sake of discussion, here’s a quote that talks about the mind being dedicated. It’s similar to the idea of the soul being dedicated. What they mean is that the personality chooses to use its power of choice to devote mental energy to the task of discovering, recognizing, interpreting and doing God’s will.
133:7.12 The human mind does not well stand the conflict of double allegiance. It is a severe strain on the soul to undergo the experience of an effort to serve both good and evil. The supremely happy and efficiently unified mind is the one wholly dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. Unresolved conflicts destroy unity and may terminate in mind disruption. But the survival character of a soul is not fostered by attempting to secure peace of mind at any price, by the surrender of noble aspirations, and by the compromise of spiritual ideals; rather is such peace attained by the stalwart assertion of the triumph of that which is true, and this victory is achieved in the overcoming of evil with the potent force of good.
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