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I begin this topic to compliment the current discussion in “The Urantia Book and the Soul”, where we are considering the concepts of the “gateway” and “emerging dominance” and the gravity circuit response, related to the individual’s self identification:
http://urantia-association.org/forums/topic/the-urantia-book-and-the-soul/
Each of us has the potential for amazing transformations of who “I” am. But who am I? Am I the same me born into this world? Am I the same me that made my first moral choice which gave birth to my soul? Am I the same me through all the psychic circles from first to last? Am I still me once fused with the Thought Adjuster? Will I still be me when I reach the shores of Paradise? Does the transfer of the seat of my identity change who I “am” fundamentally….is it a whole new identity or is it just that I now believe and respond with identification of and with the spirit nature of reality? Really….who am I? Is the actual me of past and present also the potential me in time to come?
111:2.10 (1218.8) The inevitable result of such a contactual spiritualization of the human mind is the gradual birth of a soul, the joint offspring of an adjutant mind dominated by a human will that craves to know God, working in liaison with the spiritual forces of the universe which are under the overcontrol of an actual fragment of the very God of all creation — the Mystery Monitor. And thus does the material and mortal reality of the self transcend the temporal limitations of the physical-life machine and attain a new expression and a new identification in the evolving vehicle for selfhood continuity, the morontia and immortal soul.
117:5.2 (1285.5) The intellectual, potentially personal selves of the finite emerge from the Third Source and Center and achieve finite time-space Deity synthesis in the Supreme. When the creature submits to the will of the Creator, he does not submerge or surrender his personality; the individual personality participants in the actualization of the finite God do not lose their volitional selfhood by so functioning. Rather are such personalities progressively augmented by participation in this great Deity adventure; by such union with divinity man exalts, enriches, spiritualizes, and unifies his evolving self to the very threshold of supremacy.
16:8.15 (195.2) The Urantia type of human personality may be viewed as functioning in a physical mechanism consisting of the planetary modification of the Nebadon type of organism belonging to the electrochemical order of life activation and endowed with the Nebadon order of the Orvonton series of the cosmic mind of parental reproductive pattern. The bestowal of the divine gift of personality upon such a mind-endowed mortal mechanism confers the dignity of cosmic citizenship and enables such a mortal creature forthwith to become reactive to the constitutive recognition of the three basic mind realities of the cosmos:
16:8.16 (195.3) 1. The mathematical or logical recognition of the uniformity of physical causation.
16:8.17 (195.4) 2. The reasoned recognition of the obligation of moral conduct.
16:8.18 (195.5) 3. The faith-grasp of the fellowship worship of Deity, associated with the loving service of humanity.
16:8.19 (195.6) The full function of such a personality endowment is the beginning realization of Deity kinship. Such a selfhood, indwelt by a prepersonal fragment of God the Father, is in truth and in fact a spiritual son of God. Such a creature not only discloses capacity for the reception of the gift of the divine presence but also exhibits reactive response to the personality-gravity circuit of the Paradise Father of all personalities.
Me here: it is my hope that we might better define who I am (we are) as “self” here to better study the process of soul birth and growth and how the I is affected by and/or responsive to the ministering spirits. As I am so actualized by these ministries, how is the “I” changed? Let us continue the discussion of the agents and results of soul growth and transferring the seat of identity by the evolution of dominance on the topic titled “The Urantia Book and the Soul”. Here I hope only to discover more about “self” – what is it?
Bonita – if you feel this is integral to and should be incorporated with the other topic, I’ll gladly repost and delete this topic. Just don’t want to insert a tangent there that might distract from the discussion already under way.
Thanks everyone!
Bradly wrote: Bonita – if you feel this is integral to and should be incorporated with the other topic, I’ll gladly repost and delete this topic.No I think it’s a good topic. I just posted a whole bunch of stuff that is related to this on the Soul thread because I hadn’t seen this one yet. Let me know if you want the explanations and quotes I posted there to be transferred over here. I’ll gladly discuss selfhood, personality, identity, character, nature and all that goes with it anytime, anywhere. I love this stuff. It’s better than chocolate.
Interesting thought, Bradly. This is a really effective way of approaching our understanding of personality, identity and soul. I can think of a few angles of approach. But just taking one less technical idea that comes to mind:
I wonder if we were to ask God this question “Who am I?”, the response might well be “I Am”.
Just as we have been placed upon this infinite journey of discovery of self, and the ‘Godlikeness’ within — all of God’s creation on Urantia is a small part of the experiential answer to the same question posed by God — God’s evolutionary autobiography.
The question “Who am I?” is asked as a reflective assessment of personal soul progress — that portion our material mind is capable of reflecting upon in the now. Part of my reason for saying that is because all my mistakes fade away. Only experiences of spiritual value survive. But also, our question “Who am I?” is also God’s question. The answer is in the progress recorded in infinity by the Supreme Being.
111:3.7 (1219.6) In so far as man’s evolving morontia soul becomes permeated by truth, beauty, and goodness as the value-realization of God-consciousness, such a resultant being becomes indestructible. If there is no survival of eternal values in the evolving soul of man, then mortal existence is without meaning, and life itself is a tragic illusion.
The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality — actuality — of that man. 117:4.14 (1285.3)
Bradly wrote: Bonita – if you feel this is integral to and should be incorporated with the other topic, I’ll gladly repost and delete this topic.No I think it’s a good topic. I just posted a whole bunch of stuff that is related to this on the Soul thread because I hadn’t seen this one yet. Let me know if you want the explanations and quotes I posted there to be transferred over here. I’ll gladly discuss selfhood, personality, identity, character, nature and all that goes with it anytime, anywhere. I love this stuff. It’s better than chocolate.
Thanks Bonita….below is the copy and paste from the topic: The Urantia Book and the Soul
I am studying the text under the key words – selfhood and identity for further research on Who “I” Am.
copied from the other thread:
Bradly wrote: I’d appreciate your perspective on “defining personal identity”
Bonita: The easiest way to explain identity is ego. Identity is your image of yourself and how it relates to the material world. When the identity is in the soul we don’t call it ego anymore (but you could). At that point, your image of yourself and how you relate to the morontia world will change. However, the personality will not change at all. Personality and identity are not the same thing. Identity is an attribute of the personality. Personality is an individualized pattern that organizes energies. When personality organizes material energies, identity is material. When personality chooses to organize morontia realities, identity is in the soul. That’s a real simplified explanation. Also, you should know that personality and character, or nature, are not the same thing. Personality never changes. It organizes energies the same way every time, consistently the same regardless of level you are functioning on. Character, however, is always changing and evolving. You start out with a material character inherited from your parents and grow a divine character, or nature, by choice, by identifying with the character of God.112:0.7 Personality, while devoid of identity, can unify the identity of any living energy system.
6:8.1 Concerning identity, nature, and other attributes of personality, . . .
42:12.9 Mind is always creative. The mind endowment of an individual animal, mortal, morontian, spirit ascender, or finality attainer is always competent to produce a suitable and serviceable body for the living creature identity. But the presence phenomenon of a personality or the pattern of an identity, as such, is not a manifestation of energy, either physical, mindal, or spiritual. The personality form is the pattern aspect of a living being; it connotes the arrangement of energies, and this, plus life and motion, is the mechanism of creature existence.
140:4.7 Personality is basically changeless; that which changes — grows — is the moral character.Bradly wrote: When I first choose “others’ interest” over self interest, soul is born. Am I now a new “me” or the same me with spirit-response-identity
Bonita: You’re not really new, you’re still Bradly, but now Bradly has a more mature and spiritually real character growing in the soul. And that’s the character you take with you to the mansion worlds. When we meet there, I will quite readily recognize that you are Bradly, but I will have to get to know your character, as that may have grown and changed since we last met. Get it?
Bradly wrote:Is the birth of soul the beginning of the gateway you describe and the evolution of spirit dominance? Does any of this change “who” me is or just the nature of who I am and am becoming by decisions, decisions and more decisions?
Bonita: The gateway comes first. The soul doesn’t come into existence until all seven adjutants make contact with the mind and the individual makes a moral choice to become more divine by doing something Godlike in character. (Don’t forget that this whole process is also called divinity attainment.) The gateway is opened by the spirit of wisdom when the individual sincerely chooses to engage in moral, reflective, worshipful thinking urged by the spirit of worship. It’s part of the material mind. Such activity is evidence of a conscious upward reach of the mind toward spirit. The Holy Spirit responds with a down reach. She pulls those thoughts up into the supermind (soul). Those are the same thoughts “lodged in the supermind” that the Adjuster works on spiritizing while we sleep. The gateway connects the human and divine levels of mind. It is accessed by the conscious material mind, but what goes on in the supermind is not conscious, at least initially.
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.
Bradly wrote:And this is where the study of personality begins to befuddle me…….the spirit changes me but it only makes “me” more real doesn’t it? More responsive to reality? More capable and effective in service? Where do personality and mind diverge regarding “me” and the seat of personal identity?
Bonita: Your personality changes its character by becoming more divine, by actually owning divine qualities. You borrow everything else, but your character is earned and owned. If you choose to get rid of it, the Adjuster holds onto it forever, since he helped create it. Of course, the more divine your character becomes the more real you become and the more useful you are to others and to the universe. This happens with soul growth and when the soul reaches a certain point in growth, it becomes conscious of the mind. At this point it can influence the material mind if the gateway stays open by the choice of the personality. (That’s how the personality chooses to transfer the seat of identity, by keeping the gateway open 24/7). When the personality chooses to keep the mind connected like that, it is growing or evolving dominance toward divinity.
56:10.12 Goodness is the mental recognition of the relative values of the diverse levels of divine perfection. The recognition of goodness implies a mind of moral status, a personal mind with ability to discriminate between good and evil. But the possession of goodness, greatness, is the measure of real divinity attainment.
111:3.4 The soul becomes increasingly conscious of both the mind and the Adjuster as associated identities, proportional to its own evolutionary growth. The soulpartakes of the qualities of both the human mind and the divine spirit but persistently evolves toward augmentation of spirit control and divine dominance through the fostering of a mind function whose meanings seek to co-ordinate with true spirit value.I wonder if we were to ask God this question “Who am I?”, the response might well be “I Am”.
Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For there is nothing OF me that is not from and OF the “I Am”! My job is to integrate all the parts of me… the personality, mind, and free will gifts with all the circuits and networks of Deity and Divinity to create a character that identifies with reality itself and interacts with reality within the greatest circuit of reality – LOVE.
When I ask, “who am I?” the answer I get is, “faith-son”. What else do you need to know, really?
Sonship means the recognition of ancestry.
0:6.13 Pattern is a master design from which copies are made. Eternal Paradise is the absolute of patterns; the Eternal Son is the pattern personality; the Universal Father is the direct ancestor-source of both. But Paradise does not bestow pattern, and the Son cannot bestow personality.
Sonship is dependent upon fatherhood and fatherhood is meaningless without sonship:
10.3.5 . . . fatherhood is not real without sonship.
Sonship means cooperation with the Adjuster, a Father-son relationship:
26: 4.15 Ability to comprehend is the mortal passport to Paradise. Willingness to believe is the key to Havona. The acceptance of sonship, co-operation with the indwelling Adjuster, is the price of evolutionary survival.
Sonship means I’m created in the image of God.
117:3.5 Mortal man is more than figuratively made in the image of God. From a physical standpoint this statement is hardly true, but with reference to certain universe potentialities it is an actual fact. In the human race, something of the same drama of evolutionary attainment is being unfolded as takes place, on a vastly larger scale, in the universe of universes. Man, a volitional personality, becomes creative in liaison with an Adjuster, an impersonal entity, in the presence of the finite potentialities of the Supreme, and the result is the flowering of an immortal soul. In the universes the Creator personalities of time and space function in liaison with the impersonal spirit of the Paradise Trinity and become thereby creative of a new power potential of Deity reality.
Here are the reasons, from 40:6.4-8, why we are entitled to think of ourselves as sons of God:
- You are sons of spiritual promise, faith sons; you have accepted the status of sonship. You believe in the reality of your sonship, and thus does your sonship with God become eternally real.
- A Creator Son of God became one of you; he is your elder brother in fact; and if in spirit you become truly related brothers of Christ, the victorious Michael, then in spirit must you also be sons of that Father which you have in common—even the Universal Father of all.
- You are sons because the spirit of a Son has been poured out upon you, has been freely and certainly bestowed upon all Urantia races. This spirit ever draws you toward the divine Son, who is its source, and toward the Paradise Father, who is the source of that divine Son.
- Of his divine free-willness, the Universal Father has given you your creature personalities. You have been endowed with a measure of that divine spontaneity of freewill action which God shares with all who may become his sons.
- There dwells within you a fragment of the Universal Father, and you are thus directly related to the divine Father of all the Sons of God.
Angela wrote: I wonder if we were to ask God this question “Who am I?”, the response might well be “I Am”.
Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For there is nothing OF me that is not from and OF the “I Am”! My job is to integrate all the parts of me… the personality, mind, and free will gifts with all the circuits and networks of Deity and Divinity to create a character that identifies with reality itself and interacts with reality within the greatest circuit of reality – LOVE.
Wow, that’s reaffirming, thanks Bradly. This family is so supportive. Sometimes my lateral, left-field thinking pays off. I think this question “Who am I?” is fundamental to our advancement. The UB goes to great lengths to illustrate how evolutionary worlds slowly go about awakening into God-consciousness. I can remember as a wide-eyed young thing, I wanted to know why people are not nicer to each other. It was so painful to watch TV shows with shouting actors. (I was a sensitive child). As I grew a bit it seemed that this cruel “drama” in real life (not reality) was often played out to alleviate boredom — particularly in the playground. This also confused me. There was one thing I was certain of from a young age — our reason for being is to support and encourage each other. My take on that has become much more complex since these early days. But it remains the core truth.
When people label the harm we do as “speciesism” or “racism” or some such “ism”, I reply that this merely distracts from the real reason or intent and accentuates a division that is illusory. As you suggest, Bradly, the reality is fraternal love, and the understanding and compassion that love inspires in all of us.
What would the result be if the young are encouraged to regularly assess their own character and to ask “Who am I?”? Wouldn’t they be inspired by a character goal, rather than animal and material instinct in the moment? Reflective assessment of self is central to soul progress.
Getting back to answering the question — I love the clarity that Bonita always brings to the discussion –
This happens with soul growth and when the soul reaches a certain point in growth, it becomes conscious of the mind. At this point it can influence the material mind if the gateway stays open by the choice of the personality. (That’s how the personality chooses to transfer the seat of identity, by keeping the gateway open 24/7). When the personality chooses to keep the mind connected like that, it is growing or evolving dominance toward divinity.117:3.5 Mortal man is more than figuratively made in the image of God. From a physical standpoint this statement is hardly true, but with reference to certain universe potentialities it is an actual fact. In the human race, something of the same drama of evolutionary attainment is being unfolded as takes place, on a vastly larger scale, in the universe of universes.
I am my future potential — to be reality-ised in the image of God.
The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality — actuality — of that man. 117:4.14 (1285.3)
Angela….it is interesting how so much overlap there is regarding so many topics! There is truly only one reality…but there are trillions of personalized, partial, and incomplete perspectives of that reality. Mortals born in the earlier epochs of planetary progress have the least clear view of all and the greatest attachment to the viewable “reality” of the material world. It “appears” that this material reality is the only or, at least, the dominant reality. But love, if not knowledge, intervenes and exerts an outward effect by its infectious nature in the hearts (really the minds) of most people. The experience of love leads all to the source of love….eventually.
Sympathy, kindness, sacrifice, loyalty, generosity, sharing, caring, and other-than-self-interest (the service motive of the brother/sisterhood)….all these results of the love factor fight for personal and planetary dominance over the self-interest of mortal/material immaturity, ignorance, and blindness! As LOVE IS REALITY, there is no doubt which “reality” will prevail over the course of planetary evolution. But what a planet may take hundreds of thousands of years and many thousands of generations to achieve…each person may experience within a single lifetime. A truly amazing fact!!! And each act of love and each person who responds to and in love of others lifts up the whole world….even the universe of universes! When “I’ becomes the “we”, great things happen.
28:5.13 (311.5) 3. The Union of Souls. Completing the triune staff of attachment to the Perfectors of Wisdom, are these reflectors of the ideals and status of ethical relationships. Of all the problems in the universe requiring an exercise of the consummate wisdom of experience and adaptability, none are more important than those arising out of the relationships and associations of intelligent beings. Whether in human associations of commerce and trade, friendship and marriage, or in the liaisons of the angelic hosts, there continue to arise petty frictions, minor misunderstandings too trivial even to engage the attention of conciliators but sufficiently irritating and disturbing to mar the smooth working of the universe if they were allowed to multiply and continue. Therefore do the Perfectors of Wisdom make available the wise experience of their order as the “oil of reconciliation” for an entire superuniverse……
28:5.14 (312.1) These are the angels who foster and promote the teamwork of all Orvonton. One of the most important lessons to be learned during your mortal career is teamwork. The spheres of perfection are manned by those who have mastered this art of working with other beings. Few are the duties in the universe for the lone servant. The higher you ascend, the more lonely you become when temporarily without the association of your fellows. *
81:6.37 (911.2) 13. Effective and wise leadership. In civilization much, very much, depends on an enthusiastic and effective load-pulling spirit. Ten men are of little more value than one in lifting a great load unless they lift together — all at the same moment…….
What might a million lift together? Or a hundred million or billion?
Glad you’re on the TEAM Angela!! And all my lovely friends and fellow students here who aspire to live the life of God’s children in this friendly universe….on such a world. Tadpoles today….agondontors to come!
I seem to be something I can’t really put my finger on. If I think of me as the sum total of my life experience then I am my soul, no?
or I can be the driver, choosing which road to drive on that results in experience, then I should be my personality. But my personality, just saying it implies I am something else. Probably playing on words?
when I consider my soul my mind always goes to a part of my body, it don’t make sense but my mind thinks my soul is near the heart.
isnt this an exercise in trying to comprehend morontia? Something not really tangible?
just thinking????
But what a planet may take hundreds of thousands of years and many thousands of generations to achieve…each person may experience within a single lifetime. A truly amazing fact!!!
I had not thought of it that way. That is amazing. But it would be an unconscious outcome. A bit like an inheritance you receive from a relative you never knew you had.
And each act of love and each person who responds to and in love of others lifts up the whole world….even the universe of universes! When “I’ becomes the “we”, great things happen.I am trying to understand this process. Does spiritual resonance of uplifting thoughts permeate space as energy? Does love have a physical effect on vibrational density of matter, making it less dense more spirit-like? If so, God would have to be behind that effect though.
The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality — actuality — of that man. 117:4.14 (1285.3)
Growth is unconscious we are told….the process, not the result or the cause. My understanding is that any individual of any mortal generation may attain a personal life of Light and Life during their circle progression on-planet. A person may attain during mortal life what takes a planet much, much longer….the planet’s progress depends upon the each but the each do not depend upon the planet’s progress for our own potential to be realized. While all mortals are affected to one degree or another by planetary progress, they are not limited in personal spiritual attainment and living in the kingdom and in the brotherhood by planetary progress…or the lack thereof. And even on a planet settled in L&L, each mortal must still choose and live the spirit led life for personal progress in the spirit.
I don’t understand the “inheritance” ?
Yes, love affects everything somehow…especially the one who loves and the world around them.
Angela wrote: I am trying to understand this process. Does spiritual resonance of uplifting thoughts permeate space as energy?First of all, there three types of energy, each with their own gravity circuit: physical (material), mental and spiritual. Spiritual energy is controlled by spiritual gravity and spiritual gravity is independent of space and time.
7:1.2 This gravity control of spiritual things operates independently of time and space; therefore is spirit energy undiminished in transmission. Spirit gravity never suffers time delays, nor does it undergo space diminution. It does not decrease in accordance with the square of the distance of its transmission; the circuits of pure spirit power are not retarded by the mass of the material creation. And this transcendence of time and space by pure spirit energies is inherent in the absoluteness of the Son; it is not due to the interposition of the antigravity forces of the Third Source and Center.
The Thought Adjuster adjust the mind’s attitude in such a way that it becomes more responsive to spiritual gravity. But the spirit gravity circuit only reacts with actual spirit nature (not potential). As the soul’s nature becomes more divine, its quality improves. It is quality that is being drawn Godward. Is quality an energy form? Yes, it is a spiritual energy form, an energy form dominant in the universe.
7:1.3 Spirit realities respond to the drawing power of the center of spiritual gravity in accordance with their qualitative value, their actual degree of spirit nature. Spirit substance (quality) is just as responsive to spirit gravity as the organized energy of physical matter (quantity) is responsive to physical gravity. Spiritual values and spirit forces are real. From the viewpoint of personality, spirit is the soul of creation; matter is the shadowy physical body.
Angela wrote: Does love have a physical effect on vibrational density of matter, making it less dense more spirit-like?Since spirit energy is the dominant energy in any system where it is present, it can improve the quality of the system. Physical matter when part of a personal system of selfhood is potentially influenced by spirit energy. Therefore, if spirit (love) is allowed to become dominant in the realm of selfhood, it will definitely affect a personality’s physical and mental components. It does not change density, it changes unity of function, or balance and symmetry of selfhood. It is the stability of balance that makes the parts work better. A spiritually progressing personality is a personality that is becoming more stable. It’s the same when a universe progresses; it becomes more stable. Light and life is a stable condition. That’s why they say, “settled in light and life.” This is the same thing that happens when a person ascends all seven psychic circles while on earth and becomes settled in personal light and life at the time of fusion.
2:7.11 Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.
100:4.3 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.
110:1.3 Although the divine indwellers are chiefly concerned with your spiritual preparation for the next stage of the never-ending existence, they are also deeply interested in your temporal welfare and in your real achievements on earth. They are delighted to contribute to your health, happiness, and true prosperity. They are not indifferent to your success in all matters of planetary advancement which are not inimical to your future life of eternal progress.
118:8.11 An automatic universe reaction is stable and, in some form, continuing in the cosmos. A personality who knows God and desires to do his will, who has spirit insight, is divinely stable and eternally existent. Man’s great universe adventure consists in the transit of his mortal mind from the stability of mechanical statics to the divinity of spiritual dynamics, and he achieves this transformation by the force and constancy of his own personality decisions, in each of life’s situations declaring, “It is my will that your will be done.”
54:2.3 Lucifer’s crime was the attempted creative disenfranchisement of every personality in Satania, the unrecognized abridgment of the creature’s personal participation — freewill participation — in the long evolutionary struggle to attain the status of light and life both individually and collectively.
55:11.7 Jesus of Nazareth, as a man among men, personally achieved the status of light and life over nineteen hundred years ago on Urantia.
You might remember that the spiritual gravity circuit is the channel by which prayers are transmitted. True prayer is a mental attitude focused on divinity, which is quality. Anything in a prayer with actual value gets grabbed by gravity and is transmitted immediately to spirit Deity. There is no time-space delay in the process of transmitting spiritual energy. It might be helpful to recall that spirit antedates both mind and matter, so it transcends everything.
7:3.3 The spirit-gravity circuit is the basic channel for transmitting the genuine prayers of the believing human heart from the level of human consciousness to the actual consciousness of Deity. That which represents true spiritual value in your petitions will be seized by the universal circuit of spirit gravity and will pass immediately and simultaneously to all divine personalities concerned. Each will occupy himself with that which belongs to his personal province. Therefore, in your practical religious experience, it is immaterial whether, in addressing your supplications, you visualize the Creator Son of your local universe or the Eternal Son at the center of all things.
91:6.2 Prayer is not a technique for curing real and organic diseases, but it has contributed enormously to the enjoyment of abundant health and to the cure of numerous mental, emotional, and nervous ailments. And even in actual bacterial disease, prayer has many times added to the efficacy of other remedial procedures. Prayer has turned many an irritable and complaining invalid into a paragon of patience and made him an inspiration to all other human sufferers.
I’m sure you’ve probably experienced spiritual gravity between yourself and some people you’ve come in contact with. It’s known as kindred spirits and there is a certain drawing power between people who are similarly spiritually minded. It’s evidence of spiritual energy’s dominance over mind and material energy. It’s also been called spiritual fragrance.
7:1.6 Spirit-gravity pull and response thereto operate not only on the universe as a whole but also even between individuals and groups of individuals. There is a spiritual cohesiveness among the spiritual and spiritized personalities of any world, race, nation, or believing group of individuals. There is a direct attractiveness of a spirit nature between spiritually minded persons of like tastes and longings. The term kindred spirits is not wholly a figure of speech.
Gene wrote: when I consider my soul my mind always goes to a part of my body, it don’t make sense but my mind thinks my soul is near the heart.Your soul is not part of your body. Your body is material, or physical. The soul is morontial. The soul cannot exist on the physical or material level. People often say, “mind, body and soul.” They also say “heart and soul.” Heart is a metaphor for the moral part of the mind. The moral part of the mind is the material mind influenced by the spirits of worship and wisdom. The spirits of worship and wisdom together are the gateway to the soul. Moral thinking is what keeps the gateway open and the escalator moving, connecting your ordinary thoughts with divine thoughts that exist in the soul. So, your “heart” is the road to the soul. But the heart is not feelings, like Zuimon claims. It’s moral thinking.
Gene wrote: isnt this an exercise in trying to comprehend morontia? Something not really tangible?The moral zone is a zone of contrasts. When a person is able to choose between two contrasting levels of morality, he has the opportunity to pick the highest moral and ethical ideal he is conscious of. The higher those options go the closer you get to the morontia level of the soul and to God himself (Adjuster). It comes down to faith that those ideal morontia options exist, until a time when they become actualized by your actions and subsequently become a reality to you as an individual experience, accomplished by your own decision.
101:9.3 True religion is that sublime and profound conviction within the soul which compellingly admonishes man that it would be wrong for him not to believe in those morontial realities which constitute his highest ethical and moral concepts, his highest interpretation of life’s greatest values and the universe’s deepest realities. And such a religion is simply the experience of yielding intellectual loyalty to the highest dictates of spiritual consciousness.
People who have ascended to the uppermost psychic circles can approach the morontia level of comprehension. Don’t forget that all these levels of consciousness overlap one another. The higher you climb the more you leave the lower levels behind and begin to embrace the upper levels of soul consciousness. This is why they say that the greatest challenge for us in our mortal lifetime is to attempt to become conscious of higher and higher levels until we actually know God. Until you do that, you have to go by faith alone, faith that those higher ideals exist and are worth striving for.
196:3.31 The great challenge to modern man is to achieve better communication with the divine Monitor that dwells within the human mind. Man’s greatest adventure in the flesh consists in the well-balanced and sane effort to advance the borders of self-consciousness out through the dim realms of embryonic soul-consciousness in a wholehearted effort to reach the borderland of spirit-consciousness—contact with the divine presence. Such an experience constitutes God-consciousness, an experience mightily confirmative of the pre-existent truth of the religious experience of knowing God. Such spirit-consciousness is the equivalent of the knowledge of the actuality of sonship with God. Otherwise, the assurance of sonship is the experience of faith.
Until you do that, you have to go by faith alone, faith that those higher ideals exist and are worth striving for.
i know that I have that faith.
thanks again Bonita for your wonderful insights.
Bonita…I’m going to split a hair with you regarding personal L&L….
I find it interesting that there are 7 stages of planetary L&L as well as 7 psychic circles. I would propose that a mortal who has begun to transfer the seat of identity and begins to experience the fruits of the spirit has entered into a personal L&L phase of living. Life is not perfect in the early phases of either planetary or personal L&L. Each phase actualizes more potential and demonstrates further progress but material/mortal evolution is not complete. When someone demonstrates and experiences the fruits of the spirit, I believe they have entered the kingdom, the brotherhood, and the early stages of L&L….no matter their personal circle progress. The more progress made, the more fruit and further into L&L each mortal may move by experience and wisdom….devoted to God and dedicated to love and service.
I wonder if “settled” in L&L is like being settled in mind to achieve finality/eternity. I recall such a personal commitment comes prior to fusion. “Settled” does not denote “completed”.
Thanks for the great quotes!
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