And of course it can’t be true that they don’t have to have higher spiritual attainment by the very quote you provided:
114:7.2 All reservists have self-conscious Adjusters, and most of them function in the higher cosmic circles of intellectual achievement and spiritual attainment.
Most function in the higher cosmic circles. What are the higher cosmic circles? Psychic circles 3 and above. And what does the word “most” mean? It means nearly all. We know that there are always exceptions, but nearly all means nearly all.
I don’t agree that “most” is “nearly all”. The writers are fine at expressing “nearly all” when it’s what they would like to say. For example in 26:8.4, or how in 114:7 the writers want us to know that just about all reservists are unaware they are trained to be reservists, and so they say it plainly. The word “most” only tells us its a majority, nothing more. As Bradley often points out, the book says what it says and doesn’t say what it doesn’t say. The book doesn’t say “nearly all” reservists function in the higher cosmic circles of intellectual achievement and spiritual attainment. While a majority do, I think it’s notable that potentially a decent number of reservists aren’t the spiritual equivalents of Olympic athletes the way it seems people tend to think about them.
I agree that the human definition of being “extraordinary” is not the same definition the celestials use. Look at the sleeping subject, he was essentially a nobody and the celestials deemed him to be extraordinary.
Great example, thanks. (And really, the only example of a reservist that can be discussed I think, since who else can credibly be pointed to as one.) I think inextricably a significant part of the sleeping subject’s “extraordinary” status to the celestials was that he was on the temporal stage of action in Chicago, IL in the early 20th century and not somewhere else in the world. Before a person even can become a reservist they have to “appear on the stage of temporal action” (114:7.1). (Maybe that could be interpreted so broadly that “stage of temporal action” is taken to mean “anywhere”, the whole world being the stage, but I don’t think so. Reservists seem to be for applying select amounts of spiritual action in select places where it makes the most difference.) If an individual isn’t even on a stage of action that has to do with plans where a reservist would be needed, how could they be used as a reservist? Even if he or she might otherwise fit the profile of being one, there wouldn’t be a use.
We don’t know if they were reservists per se, but a similar example to my mind is how Mary and Joseph were chosen to be the earth parents of Jesus. Their selection was only partially because of who they were as individuals but also because of when they lived and where they lived.
And think of how Mary was selected to be Jesus’ mother but wasn’t even able to advance spiritually so far as to see his mission accurately. But she fulfilled her task of raising him despite her shortcomings. It’s not hard for me to envision that reservists are a lot more like Mary than squads of A-team spirituality paragons.
We also know that reservists are considered “forward-looking”, meaning that they are growing and progressing individuals, which is more than just “good enough” at the “right time and right place”. These are individuals skilled enough to prevent the breakdown of culture and the extinction of the light of truth. That’s pretty lofty stuff.
Just as important an ingredient to being a reservist is that they are for “crucial positions on earth” (114:7.8). Based on other quotes in the book about “forward-looking” individuals, I don’t really see that “forward-looking” in itself is so rare an attribute that it’s what sets reservists apart from others. There are a lot of forward-looking individuals. (How else could we be “quivering on the very brink” of one of our world’s “most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment”? (195:9.2))
There are other parts of your post I’d love to address but am out of time at the moment, maybe another time.