Bearing Spiritual Truth
(Or How I Discovered The Urantia Book)

by Liz Engstrom
Eugene, Oregon

Searching, searching, searching. I'd done the est training, taken classes in witchcraft, gone to a wide variety of churches, participated in religious drug rituals, been rebirthed, listened to gurus, read books by the enlightened ones, had my Tarot cards read, my astrological chart done, the runes thrown, past lives counseling, and still nothing clicked. I was living on Maui, in the middle of New Age crystalline weirdness, trying to find out my purpose in life and my location in the universe. There was only one thing of which I was absolutely certain, and that was my belief in God. I had no model or concrete idea about that concept, but one look around me told me that my physical body, this society, this planet certainly had an architect. This was no accident.

I went to work for an advertising agency as head copywriter in 1978. Tonia Baney was the art director, and one day she breezed by my desk and dropped a copy of the Foundation's topical newsletter, The Urantian on my desk. "Take a look at that when you have time," she said. I had time. Right then I had time. I can't remember what I read, but I do remember the feeling of excitement that grew in me as I read. Ten minutes later, I invited her to lunch, and I said, "What is this?"

"Have you ever thought about the personality of God?" she asked.

I was floored. Personality of God?

"If he created it in us, then he must have one of his own, don't you think?" she said. "What do you imagine his personality attributes are?"

"Duh-hh," I said.

"When you think of spiritual growth, you must think of growing more Godlike," she went on. "Who is your role model? Where is your destination? Love, Mercy and Ministry? Truth, Beauty and Goodness?"

"Ahh, well..." I said, trying to look intelligent and failing. I had no response. I'd never considered these questions. I always wanted to be a "better" person, but better than what? Where was my ideal, anyway?

On the way back to the office, we stopped by the local bookstore. I bought a copy of The URANTIA Book, Tonia bought me a Concordex as a gift, and I have been a rabid reader ever since. I read randomly, haphazardly, for about a month, trying to get a handle on an overview of it. As I recall, I was a nightly imposition at the Baney kitchen table, enthusiastically discussing it with whoever happened to be in the room, long before I had any idea what I was diving into. Eventually, I started at the beginning and read the whole book on my own.

We began holding weekly study group meetings in Tonia's home, and at first it was just Tonia, her husband Steve, and me, until the word came out and closet readers ventured forth to join us in worship and study. We experimented with a variety of meeting formats, then eventually read the entire book from beginning to end. It took us thirteen years, including a hiatus now and then, and those nights when we would barely read a paragraph before engaging in spirited conversation that lasted the whole session. Sometimes one discussion would last two or three consecutive weeks.

I remember one particular study group session when a member posed the question of suicide. I knew how I felt about it, and since we were all Urantia Book readers, I assumed everybody else thought the way I did. We did not. Everyone brought a different element, a different slant to the conversation. That discussion lasted three entire study group sessions, all of us researching between meetings, making reference to areas of the book, all in all, a most enlightening exchange of information and ideas.

One of the advantages of having a regular, publicized study group in a tourist destination is that visiting Urantia Book readers would attend our meetings, bringing with them news of readers in other areas of the world, as well as fresh perspectives on certain aspects of the book.

My efforts at introducing the book to new readers have met with a wide range of successes, near successes and absolute failures. That seems to be a common experience among those of us who read the book; it's a difficult thing to pass along. Part of my personal ministry is to buy ten books per year and give them away, trusting that they will eventually gravitate to those who want and need what the book has to offer. Whenever I give a book away, it is always with this stipulation: "If this is not your cup of tea, that's fine with me. This isn't for everyone. I just ask that if you don't want it, either return it or keep it in a prominent place on your bookshelf and give it away to someone who does want it." I have had several people who were not interested in it tell me years later that they gave the book I had given them to friends who have either been mysteriously drawn to it, or who have wanted one for years, but couldn't afford it.

I have also had successes where friends have become regular readers. More importantly, though, I endeavor to pass along the teachings of the book, rather than the book itself. If Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches (page 1945), then my job, as a faithful branch, is to bear fruit. Spiritual fruit. Every day.

I'll never be able to pay Tonia back for listening to her inner leading and placing that newsletter on my desk. But I can follow her example by consistently and lovingly placing spiritual concepts before my brothers and sisters. Now that I have an ideal, a destination, a goal, a vision of the ideal spiritual life—one of love, mercy and ministry—I have a true plan for living.

—Liz Engstrom continues to transcend space and time zones—was last seen in Bellingham, Maui, Paris. Next stop: 533 Diversey. Check out her latest novel, Lizard Wine. Her published novels may be found at her website. Just click: http://www.sff.net/people/elizabeth_engstrom/

Walking Through the Weeds

by Lori Danté
Bend, Oregon

Months before The URANTIA Book found me in my 17th year, I received a profound awareness that seems to have happened just yesterday! I was driving through Port Angeles, Washington alone, when I suddenly slammed on the brakes stopping the car in the middle of the road. With tremendous amazement I exclaimed out loud: "Listen to the rot running through your head!!!" Something like a bolt of lightning stepped into my endless stream of sordid thinking to loudly interrupt my headlong pursuit of pleasure, which was reeling me toward personality suicide. I liken my response to that of a drunk having been snatched from a stupor by a cold shower. Certainly this voice commanded my attention. I vowed that moment to listen actively and weed the garden of my thoughts.

Months later I was introduced to the strangely appealing concept of a Thought Adjuster. Fascinated, yet repulsed by the idea of submitting to any authority figure, this process was painstakingly slow. What began tentatively 22 years ago, grew to become a deep desire for a consecration of choice; "It is my will that your will be done." (1221)

The sublime experience of wholesome co-creation was a powerful influence upon this 17-year old whose outer conditioning had created an inner world of chaos. Error far outdistanced any progress in the beginning. My emotional nature was passionately fueled by thinking patterns well grounded in the seven deadly sins; "the urge of angels opposed by the emotions of an animal; ...the experience of the individual opposed by the accumulated propensities of the race; ...the art of the beautiful besmirched by the presence of evil." (1224)

I quickly learned that it was dangerous for me to pay homage to my intellect as the great discerner of the Father's will; "Do not confuse and confound the mission and influence of the Adjuster with what is commonly called conscience; they are not directly related. Conscience is a human and purely psychic reaction. It is not to be despised, but it is hardly the voice of God to the soul, which indeed the Adjuster's would be if such a voice could be heard." (1208). Whoa now—this is scary! If I can't rely on my mind to discern God's will, what then? No wonder our manual refers to our divine indweller as The Mystery Monitor. At times I feel like I'm playing a game of charade with my Adjuster. Osmosis then. Somehow between my spirit and the Spirit of Truth a willing electrochemical child of the flesh can eventually birth a real Soul. In reference to an Adjuster's mission, it is said on page 1193: "These faithful custodians of the future career unfailingly duplicate every mental creation with a spiritual counterpart; they are thus slowly and surely recreating you as you really are (only spiritually) for resurrection on the survival worlds... And as you are the human parent, so is the Adjuster the divine parent of the real you, your higher and advancing self, your better morontial and future spiritual self. And it is this evolving morontial soul that the judges and censors discern when they decree your survival and pass you upward to the new worlds and never-ending existence in eternal liaison with your faithful partner—God, the Adjuster." (1193) Whew...I guess that to mean that my mind isn't required to be perfect—that's a relief! It makes sense that because I was created human by God that He won't hold it against me.

"It is sometimes possible to have the mind illuminated, to hear the divine voice that continually speaks within you, so that you may become partially conscious of the wisdom, truth, goodness, and beauty of the potential personality constantly indwelling you. But your unsteady and rapidly shifting mental attitudes often result in thwarting the plans and interrupting the work of the Adjusters. Their work is not only interfered with by the innate natures of the mortal races, but this ministry is also greatly retarded by your own preconceived opinions, settled ideas, and longs-standing prejudices." (1199) There is a great hint for ascending action. I took this Urantia insight to start work on my mind's garden, pulling the weeds of religious dogma, parental prejudices, social stigma, and egotistical striving, to make fertile soil with which to offer my spirit for its planting of the seeds for the Supreme.

At first, weeding the garden of my mind was an exercise that was punctuated by shame and outrage at the horrific rambling of my psyche. I took on the posture of a punishing parent. As my relationship with God evolved away from that of my upbringing to what presently is a kind, loving and compassionate parent-child relation, my response to my human mind has become more tolerant and nurturing. I now actively listen to the dialogue in my mind with enthusiasm for its ludicrously entertaining comedy; as a result of exposing its innate evil human tendencies through physical cleansing and confessional fellowshipping, I have experienced a joyful freedom from shame and compulsive reactiveness, sometimes leaving me virtually open to sense the will of my divine partner. Ever cautious am I for the seduction of selfish desire which wishes me to ordain fallacy by co-signing its error with God's approval.

As usual when I am sincerely open to God's will, I am sent teachers. Even if the teacher merely shows me how not to do life by demonstrating the embrace of strife. A few years ago a lovely gent in his seventh decade gave me a precious weeding spade for my garden. The exercise is simple and powerful. He pointed out to me that God brings people into my life who allow me to reflect more accurately upon the parts of my psyche that dwell in the hazy periphery of my conscience. These symbolic mirrors who would enable this process weren't necessarily long or short term relationships, intimate or casual, etc. Usually they were people I knew of, who caused me discomfort, or in other words, irritated me. He asked me to list the seven deadly sins— pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth—and meditate upon whom I have judged for demonstrating one of these defective behavior, or someone that I felt one of these toward until I have a representative for each of the seven sins. At this point I was to write narratives describing these relationships, my feelings toward the person, and finally how it is that I manifest this behavior in thought, covertly, or deed, overtly. I can tell you I didn't like this assignment. It made me squirm with discomfort, yet, my desire to rout out descension from integrity led me forward. Christ is the perfect example of an integrated human being. Of integrity he said: "The pride of unspiritualized learning is a treacherous thing in human experience. The true teacher maintains his intellectual integrity by ever remaining a learner." (1433) Christ said to Ganid: "If you have not shown foresight and integrity in the affairs of this world, how can you hope to be faithful and prudent when you are trusted with the stewardship of the true riches of the heavenly kingdom?" (1854)

The reward for examining myself in the reflection of others has enabled me to identify destructive traits within my thinking before I validate them and possibly act upon them. Quite often the seeds of evil are quietly sown in the periphery of my consciousness poisoning my perspective and polluting my attitude; "The indwelling Adjusters are particularly tormented by those thoughts which are purely sordid and selfish." (1193)

Strong emotion can at times be exciting and interesting, however for me to allow my feeling self toward well nigh extreme content usually indicates an imbalance that extracts a price I would rather not pay; "Your transient and ever-changing emotions of joy and sorrow are in the main purely human and material reactions to your internal psychic climate and to your external material environment. Do not, therefore, look to the Adjuster for selfish consolation and mortal comfort. It is the business of the Adjuster to prepare you for the eternal adventure, to assure your survival. It is not the mission of the Mystery Monitor to smooth your ruffled feelings or to minister to your injured pride; it is the preparation of your soul for the long ascending career that engages the attention and occupies the time of the Adjuster." (1192)

This information seemed very harsh at first. Eventually I came to realize that just because my spirit wasn't the appropriate source for emotional comfort the implication wasn't that there was not a source. I have often related to Eve's exasperation and loneliness for her home, so often I have felt abandoned and orphaned. It is at those times that I reach out to the Universe Mother Spirit and Father Christ Michael for comfort. I experience a warmth and compassion during these moments of communion that seem to express that I don't have to go anywhere to come home to my divine parents.

At times it has felt impossible to contain my emotional self within my body. And some of my old interpretations of The URANTIA Book led me to believe that emotion wasn't fact nor spiritual, but for me and the personality type that I am it was necessary to acknowledge that emotion was not only present but at times like a runaway train. I have since interpreted the teachings to indicate that emotion is not spiritual and not to be worshipped, yet due to our lack of the Adamic racial strain, ours is a handicapped heritage with much to overcome. "So much of fear persists in the present-day races of Urantia because your ancestors received so little of Adam's life plasm, owing to the early miscarriage of the plans for racial physical uplift." (851) I couldn't attend to emotionalism by denying its existence. Taking the lid off a boiling pot of concealed and repressed emotion is a valuable stabilizing process. It has been a baffling task purging years of stifled guilt, grief, rage, terror and indignation. Just when I think I've cleansed the vessel some new twist, with a completely new costume jumps on stage, however, due to the emergence of a living faith this is more entertaining than overwhelming today.

Fear used to shadow my commitment to align myself with the love of the Father, however, through experience I have developed a relationship that is more so marked by adventuresome trust and deeply seeded gratitude; "Both the human mind and the divine Adjuster are conscious of the presence and differential nature of the evolving soul—the Adjuster fully, the mind partially. The soul becomes increasingly conscious of both the mind and the Adjuster as associated identities, proportional to its own evolutionary growth. The soul partakes of the qualities of both the human mind and the divine spirit but persistently evolves toward augmentation of spirit control and divine dominance through fostering of a mind function whose meanings seek to coordinate with true spirit value." (1219)

Probably one of the nicest words of guidance that I ever received was from a woman friend of mine, she said: "I don't think God cares whether I turn right or left, as long as I move with Love."

My thanks go out to Dennis for the stimulating conversation at the last NUA meeting. I was inspired to go home and make literal sense out of some emotionally charged attempts to communicate these concepts. I feel better now!

—Lori Danté is a mother of three and a watercolorist among other things. She has lived in Bend, Oregon for the last six years and will soon be moving to the Portland area.

On Adding Quality to Our Lives

by Leonard Ablieter
Camarillo, California

A quality experience. Quality time. The quality of life. . . Catchwords and phrases bandied about freely in conversation and appearing with great frequency in newspapers and on television, their meanings largely subjective and superficial. Quality. A word often meaning different things to different people, a concept glibly expressed and not usually thought about in depth.

So what is quality? Robert M. Pirsig in his classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance struggled for 380 pages to define an elusive something he chose to call quality. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his national bestseller Flow expounds the psychology of optimal experience, steps toward enhancing the quality of life, and Robert Fritz in The Path of Least Resistance attempts to show the way to identifying worthwhile goals and the path to their attainment. Finally, Dan Millmann, author of another best-selling classic, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, in his book There are No Ordinary Moments talks of "meditating the action" as a means to achieving quality in all that we do.

All of these books made deep impressions on me coming as they did long before I even knew of the existence of The URANTIA Book and still, today, I consider these authors' ideas and concepts to be blessed with much insight, if at times on a mainly intellectual level. But it took the study of The URANTIA Book for me to really glimpse the potential and meaning of this seemingly elusive attribute, quality.

I learned that quality carries divinity and that this divinity equals the degree of reality or actuality of any will creature. Moreover I learned that inherent in this fact is the ultimate outcome of any universe contest between higher and lower levels of personalities, which inevitably results in the triumph of the higher level personality. (0037.3).

We can actually experience the full and undiminished impact of the infinite Father's love, and the quality of this experience is unlimited even while its quantity is strictly limited by our capacity for spiritual receptivity and the associated capacity to love the Father in return. (0050.4). Spirit realities respond to the spiritual Son, the center and source of spirit gravity, according to their qualitative value, their actual degree of spirit nature; the reactions and fluctuations of spirit gravity are ever true to the content of the qualitative spiritual status of an individual or a world, (0082.2-3); and spiritual gravity action is the qualitative measure of the living energy of divinity. (0140.1).

The depth of our perception determines the quality of our worship (0303.5), and the real measure of planetary greatness is the quality of unselfishness revealed in the disinterested service to out earthly fellows. (0317.1).

Closely related to our oft-expressed concern about the quality of life is a reference to the fact that the quality of a people is determined by its standard of living in contrast to mere quantity (0770.4). In another reference quite apropos to current conditions in our country we are told that the future of our continent will be determined by the quality of the racial factors permitted to enter into its present and future population, as well as by the social culture which is maintained. (0899.3). The quality of the social torchbearers will determine whether civilization goes forward or backward. (0909.7). And we are told that our next struggle will be for quality of thinking, the coming earthly goal of human existence. (author's emphasis) (0910.1).

In a reference Mr. Pirsig could relate to only too well, The URANTIA Book tells us that quality— values—is felt, in contrast to the knowing by mind of quantity, reality, meanings. And that which feels is the mutual creation of mind and the associated spirit. (1219.5). Jesus himself tells us that while quantity is fact, quality, being a matter of mind interpretation, represents an estimate of values, and must, therefore, remain an experience of the individual. (1477.2).

Quality experience. Quality time. The quality of life . . . . No longer catchwords but concepts with a new and higher level of meaning. We now know that it is not the quantity of things we do which is important but their quality. We are able even to infer that quantity is important mostly in a material sense and that the important question to ask is how we, can enhance the quality of our actions, choices and decisions? How can we truly lead quality lives?

A ready beginning can be made by just becoming and remaining conscious of this new and expanded concept of quality. In many cases this is likely to lead at once to the dismissal of quantity, a very significant change in a society which venerates the principle that more is better. Earnest reflection on the issues, putting aside personal interest or advantage and trying to determine our choice based on the relative values of those issues, is likely to lead us nearer to our goal.

But ultimately the surest path to leading lives of quality is to ask ourselves before the action: "Does it bring God nearer to me? Does it bring me nearer to God?" For if the answer is yes, we are doing the will of the Father.

—Leonard Ablieter lives in his boat and is preparing to sail down and moor somewhere on the coast of Mexico for the winter. He is working on the German translation of The URANTIA Book.

Jesus was a Working Man

By Bert Cobb
Jerome, Idaho

Jesus was a working man,
He labored with his rustic tools all day.
He packed his lunch and stayed on the job,
putting in long hours for his pay.

He walked to work early each morning,
He didn't drive a fancy pick-up truck,
He might have hitched a ride on a camel or an ass,
if He had just a little bit of luck.

He didn't own a cellular phone,
and He wasn't on the Internet,
But He was the best communicator there ever was,
and that's a pretty sure bet.

He could have been a priest or a businessman,
or a wealthy Jerusalem tycoon,
But He chose to live the simple life,
and He slept on the ground beneath the moon.

He struggled with the animals on his uncle's farm,
and He was a carpenter, and he could make a tent.
He became skilled at the trades of men,
to buy groceries and pay the rent.

He fished on the lake in an open boat,
all day in the wind and the sun,
Then He talked to the Father out under the stars,
when His working day was done.

So sometimes if it seems like you can't get ahead,
though you're trying as hard as you can,
Remember that life is but a day's work,
and Jesus was a working man.

Ganymede Revisited

by Thomas Channic
Mokena, Illinois

On September 6, 1996, the NASA space probe Galileo accomplished its second flyby of the Jupiter moon Ganymede. This time Galileo came within 162 miles of Ganymede (the last space shuttle mission orbited about 245 miles above Earth), about 350 miles closer than its last visit in June. At that time, scientists were surprised to receive data that indicated a magnetic field around the moon, the first evidence of any moon having a magnetic field.

After the first flyby, I began to speculate that Ganymede—the solar system's largest moon (about the size of Mercury)—might be the home of the race of non-breathing mortals, who are described in The URANTIA Book as being "in close proximity to Urantia." In response to this speculation at IC96, a speaker offered the challenge: "close proximity—who knows what that really means?" So I looked a little closer and found the following:

"Satania is not a uniform physical system, a single astronomic unit or organization. Its 619 inhabited worlds are located in over five hundred different physical systems. Only five have more than two inhabited worlds, and of these only one has four peopled planets, while there are forty-six having two inhabited worlds." (page 359, 32:2:9)

A little arithmetic yields:

511 physical systems with 1 inhabited planet,
46 physical systems with 2 inhabited planets,
4 physical systems with 3 inhabited planets,
1 physical system with 4 inhabited planets, and a total of
562 physical systems in Satania with inhabited life.

These numbers determine that the probability of an inhabited planet of Satania having two or more inhabited planets in its physical system would be 51 divided by 562 equals 9% or about 1 chance in 11. Slightly encouraging, but let's go on.

"Urantia is comparatively isolated on the outskirts of Satania, your solar system, with one exception, being the farthest removed from Jerusem, while Satania itself is next to the outermost system of Norlatiadek, and this constellation is now traversing the outer fringe of Nebadon." (page 466, 41:10:5)

Compare this with the original quote:

"You would be more than interested in the planetary conduct of this type of mortal because such a race of beings inhabits a sphere in close proximity to Urantia." (page 564A, 49:3:5)

Now how can Urantia be comparatively isolated AND have another inhabited planet in close proximity? My interpretation is that Urantia is isolated because our solar system is isolated. An isolated solar system means no nearby inhabited solar systems. If this is true, an inhabited sphere in close proximity must be INSIDE the system.

Three other points about the "close proximity" quote are worth noting:

1. The phrase "in close proximity" is quite redundant. Something close can be referred to as being merely "in proximity". Close proximity indicates really close.

2. The phrase "more than interested" suggests surprised, if not shocked, as many would be if another human race turned up in our own astronomical backyard.

3. The choice of the generic word "sphere" instead of planet strikes me as a clue. "Planet" is used almost without exception in the book as a generic term for inhabited world, as in "Planetary Princes", "Planetary Mortal Epochs", "Planetary Adams", even on the first page of the Foreword ("Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon.") The switch to "sphere" in this context suggests "close, but not a planet (as you know it)."

I realize this is hardly conclusive evidence, but it is keeping me glued to results from the Galileo mission as they become available on the world wide web at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ galileo. Perhaps soon we not only will have the answer to the question "Is there anyone else out there?" but to other questions such as: Do they read The Ganymede Book? Have a Ganymede Foundation? And what does a nonbreather call someone who's full of hot air?

—Tom Channic is a systems analyst who lives in suburban Chicago with his wife and son. He has a master's degree from the University of Illinois, and likes to keep his feet on the ground and his eyes on the stars.

A Study Group Trim Tab

by Roy Mooneyham
California

I ran across one of those human tendencies, I think it was in a book called You Just Don't Understand by Deborah Tannen. The tendency is that when men and women are in conversation, men tend to interrupt women and women tend to allow the interruption.

Well, when I run across a statement like this I want to look and see if it's true. So study group seemed like a good place to look for that tendency. Sure enough that is what tends to happen. Then I noticed that, in looking back, that the study groups I have been in tended to have more men than women on average on any given night. I also noticed that the men tended to stay longer as regular members and that the women seemed to come for a while, then stop being regular, then stop coming at all. Then I spotted the trim tab.

Let me explain what a trim tab is, and how I heard about it. I once had the opportunity to be at Buckminster Fuller's house for a small diner party and talk. For those who are not familiar with who Bucky was, he is mostly known for having invented the geodesic dome.

His talk that night was about making a difference in the world. How that some issues in life seem too large for us to be able to do much about. He went on to speak about trim tabs. That on large control surfaces there is always this thing called trim tab.

He used the example of the big rudder on the large ocean going vessels, he called them the huge ships of state. He talked about the large volume of water displaced by these ships. That how as the ship moves forward through the water, it creates this huge slip stream that passes by the rudder. He said that the amount of force needed to turn the rudder against this slip stream was incredible. Then he went on to talk about that on the back of the big rudder there is this little rudder called a trim tab. And that only a little force is needed to turn this trim tab. So the way they manage to turn the huge ship of state is to turn this little trim tab in the opposite direction that you want the big rudder to turn. This causes the big rudder to swing out into the slip stream of water and that turns the huge ship of state.

He went on to talk about making a difference when facing some issue that seems too large to handle. That what you need to look for are the trim tabs. Those things that take only a little force or energy to manage. Those little trim tabs that will make a huge difference.

So back to study group. What I did was see the trim tab. I started having little private conversations with the men. Pointing out that men have this tendency to interrupt the women and asking them if they would watch this and try to curb it, and let the woman finish with her point. Now this is not easy to do, we men have had a lifetime of this habit. Once it was pointed out the guy would catch himself interrupting and looks over at me and I would nod that I noticed, he would go on to finish his point(we learn slowly). Then he would ask her to continue.

So then I started having these same little private conversations with the women asking them to not allow these interruptions. I was surprised at how the women would boldly speak up and hold the floor when interrupted (this must mean something).

Before long study group started having as many regular women as men on average. Wonderful things started to happen. Birthdays were always remembered and celebrated. More and more of us started to do things together outside of study group. We started to be a family of readers. More and more people were attracted to our study group, and staying as regulars. We soon had a problem with space, we started having 20 plus show up every week. Soon other study groups fractured off.

All I did was have these little trim tab conversations.

—Roy Mooneyham posted this article to UrantiaL during one of the more stringent days of debates among the readership. Soon after the Urantial cyberspaceship turned around somewhat.

Happiness

by Marian Hughes
Kamuela, Hawaii

Happiness is a warm Thought Adjuster,
Stimulating my pineal and pituitary glands,
To cascade in streams of light and life.
Hormonal bliss bath,
Enabling this electrochemically mandated mortal,
To experientially feel
The divine, personal presence of my Universal Father,
Enlivening my cells,
Nurturing my soul,
Enlightening my mind,
And sharing in this supreme, cosmic, ecstasy
Of Sonship Consciousness.

Future International Conferences

The first meeting of representatives from all four national associations of IUA was held in Nashville last August. The national associations represented were Australia/New Zealand, Finland, France/Belgium, and the USA. The main item of discussion was future IUA Conferences and it was decided that the international IUA conferences will be held every two years instead of every year and the location will alternate between the USA and another country. The next International Conference will be held in Helsinki, Finland in 1998. The one after that will be in the USA in 2000.

—Kathleen Swadling, North Narrabeen, Australia

Double Rainbow

by J.E. Lundstrom
Maui, Hawaii

EMPLOYMENT APPLICATION

Still cruising down highway 102? One of my favorite lines from that paper was, "To science God is a possibility, to psychology a desirability, to philosophy a probability, to religion a certainty, an actuality of religious experience." p. 1124

Yes!

With the mountain winds of Maui whisperin outside our bedroom window, I spent an hour or so last night havin my mind boggled by what awaits us on the Mansion Worlds. Paper 48, the Morontia life, is one of the many sections of the book where I'll read a paragraph or two, close my eyes with a huge smile on my face, and go, "Wow!"

The incredible adventure that awaits all Faith Sons and Daughters of God through the rest of eternity is, oddly enough, what keeps me grounded on this backward young planet of ours. It also fills me with unalterable hope in the face of all temporal setbacks and disappointments.

I'm definitely going to put in my application for the Reversion Directors Corps... the celestial humorists of the galaxy. That sounds like a cool way to spend a couple of million years.

TONIA'S JOB?

Tonia Baney is from Maui (the island I've called home for 27 years), and is a warm, kind, and compassionate woman. She's an excellent painter of evocatively haunting portraits and striking landscapes. Her husband, Stevie-B, is a local rock musician, writer and all-around good guy. They are both wonderful, loving people and have been a major force in the Urantia movement here on the island for years. I have also been to a number of the study-group sessions they hold on a regular basis at their home in Kihei and elsewhere, and their deep and abiding love for each other and the truth of that big blue book we all cherish has always come shining through.

Tonia and I hung out together during a 4th of July picnic at a friend's house this past summer. This was a week or so before she was to fly to Chicago and take over the reins as the new Director of the Foundation. She did so with no small amount of trepidation.

As the afternoon wore on, I showed her some excerpts from my novel on Christ Michael (which she LOVED, I add humbly)... and she confided to me that much of her considerable energy in Chicago would be focused on trying to heal the rift between the two factions. I believed her then, and I believe her now. . . Her presence in Chicago could result in the beginning of an end to this debilitating controversy.

(J.E. Lundstrom, a.k.a. "bow" and a regular on UrantiaL, has written a 200,000-word novel on the life of Christ. It's called Mission to a Backward Planet, and is based on the The URANTIA Book's story of Christ Michael's brief sojourn to our planet. He is still looking for a literary agent.)

Urantial, Global

MC

Nashville, Tennessee was the setting for IUA international conferences for the last three years, hosted by the Southern Kindred Spirits. NUA members Bruce Porter, Leonard Ablieter and I attended the conference. We met Susan Alexander from Anchorage, Alaska who along with her husband, Carl Ramm, later joined our association.

I meant to write about the conference but instead got sidetracked when I subscribed to URANTIAL, The URANTIA Book discussion group on the Internet. If you have a computer and a modem, tune in to the global village, Urantia-style, at URANTIAL@www.urantia.org. This is where UB readers from all over meet to exchange ideas, debate on their favorite differences, and sometimes, practice and try to love one another in spite of it all.

I found several interesting postings, asked for and got permission from their authors to publish them here. Thank you all.

Library Book Placement

Damian Bondi from the Foundation sent eight copies of The URANTIA Book to the Multnomah County Public Library last September. Our thanks go to Michael D’Ambrosia for initiating the book placement for the Portland metro area library system and to Damian for following through. Michael discovered the UB in a library and so did I.

We’re going back to 8 pages on the next issue.

NUA Meeting— August 25, 1996

by MC

PRESENT: Dennis Gray, Bruce Porter, Pat Murnin, Janet Nilsen, Lori Danté, Mark Alexander, and MC

Our third meeting for 1996 was held at Dennis Gray's house. We first sat outside on his deck, but the overheated sun drove us inside. Should this keep up, in a few billion years, the humans on this planet may have to evolve into non-breathers. As predicted by Bruce, Mark Alexander arrives on time at 2:30 p.m., and gave us our quorum of seven members.

NUA President Bruce Porter gave an update on how the 1997 USUA Conference at Glen Ivy is taking shape. (See page 9). Last September he met with other planners from the main host, SURF (Southwest Urantia Readers Family), and PURE (Pacific Urantia Readers Engagement). Bruce and I, who attended the IUA Conference in Nashville, shared our experience a bit.

Some energy went into discussing the Urantia movement—what the future holds. Janet asks, How do we reestablish communications, bridge the gap between the various factions, show that we care? Should we wait on the judicial results and take it from there? In study groups or elsewhere, our relationship with fellow readers who are indifferent or don't want to deal with "the politics of it all", is an ongoing process. Our business is to do God's will, whatever that may be.

Treasurer Pat Murnin proposed we contribute $50 to the Urantia Foundation and $50 to the U. S. Urantia Association. All ayes, no nays. It is easy to report on business matters, those with numbers and names. Not so easy to catch the rambling, rambunctious process, the subjective, multidimensional nature of what is a gathering of readers. Add to this the unexpected bursts of humor, which may be what did Lori in.

Lori Danté, from Bend, Oregon, is a longtime reader and friend of Janet. Although this is the first time she came to a meeting, she joined NUA on the spot, even paying for half of her dues. (Shortly after the meeting, the governing board decided to cut to one-half the annual dues for those joining on the latter part of the year. Susan Alexander and Carl Ramm from Anchorage, Alaska signed up this month, October, bringing our total membership to twenty two).

After some discussion and by a majority vote, we reduce the number of meetings from four to three times a year, starting in 1997. On the first or second meeting next year, we will be electing two replacements to the governing board. This is not yet definite, but the positions for vice president and secretary may be open.

Pat suggested we end the meeting with a moment of silence. We gave thanks to the Father and welcomed Lori. Our next and last meeting for 1996 will be on October 27, Sunday, 1-5 p.m., and will be held in Lebanon, Oregon. This will be the first time we meet outside the Portland metro area. It will be at Janet Nilsen's office building where they have a ballroom. Yes, I had always known that eventually, we're going to have a ball.