I am beginning this topic in response to a newer reader’s inquiry about soul on the “Reincarnation” topic. This study covers lots of territory and may extend in multiple directions based on interest and inquiry. First, the triggering post and questions:
“My name is Bart and I am a new lover of the UB which I just finished reading. I know one must keep reading and learning all the time. I do not understand a lot of the universe make-up and function as it is beyond my intellectual capacity right now. That is not what bothers me now. Being a former firm believer in reincarnation I had a simpler view of what I thought was the reason I was born where I was and believed as I did. This view I don’t think is consistent with UB presentation.
My main question is this: at about age 5 a mortal is assigned a thought adjuster provided he is a “fully functional mortal” What constitutes a “fully functional mortal”. If any mortal does not meet this requirement and not assigned a thought adjuster what is its fate? Upon death is that mortal just considered a failed experiment in nature and dissolved without any further evolution of any kind? There seem to be a lot of pages devoted to cosmic organization and function which I doubt a whole lot of UB readers truly understand but not much about simpler questions which I am sure I am not alone in asking and are closer to the kinds of things people who read the UB would like to understand.
I know I need more study and thought with the UB but these question occupy a lot of my thought and I have not found any pages that clarify them. Any and all comments, reference, or suggestions are welcome. Thank you.”
Bart
Greeting Bart. Congratulations on your first read!! Well done. Great questions too. I look forward to the discovery and discussion of what the Urantia Papers have to say on the matter.
As to the soul’s birth and origination, the UB is clear that it is an evolutionary and experiential accomplishment by each person who has soul. It is not a gift or an endowment or a loan or created by any other being or Divine intervention. It is a function of the mortal mind making a moral choice. This verifies that all mind circuits are engaged and functional….this distinguishes humans from animals.
Animal mind and human mind share 5 mind circuits – intuition, understanding, courage, knowledge and counsel. Humans are also connected to two more mind circuits – worship and wisdom. An evolutionary world is considered “inhabited” by people only when minds appear which are confirmed to be connected to all 7 Adjutant Mind Circuits. The human mind is “fully functional” when it is connected to the 7 Mind Circuits. This means the mind has the capacity for moral judgement and response to the Spirit. The mind can receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Thought Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth – the three mind ministries of Deity within each fully functional human being.
(1187.1) 108:2.2 The Adjusters cannot invade the mortal mind until it has been duly prepared by the indwelling ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits and encircuited in the Holy Spirit. And it requires the co-ordinate function of all seven adjutants to thus qualify the human mind for the reception of an Adjuster. Creature mind must exhibit the worship outreach and indicate wisdom function by exhibiting the ability to choose between the emerging values of good and evil — moral choice.
Me here: The birth of soul begins the personal and evolutionary religious experience of mortal mind. By the Spirit connection, mortal mind can begin to feel specific urges and yearns, it hungers and thirsts for that connection and it feels the Presence of God Within. That connection delivers Divine Assurance and the budding faith of being and belonging and the awareness of our two natures – the material nature and the spirit nature. The birth of soul also attaches our being to the 3 Divine Gravity Circuits of the Personality Circuit of the Father, the Spirit Gravity Circuit of the Son, and the Mind Gravity Circuit of the Mother/Conjoint Actor.
So we are connected in-mind to each Spirit AND we are responsive to and connected to the Gravity Circuits of each Spirit as well. That is a fully functional human. Since the time of Jesus this does usually occur in all normal minded children by the age of 5-6. If a child can know the difference between right and wrong, the child is considered normal. If the child demonstrates altruism and generosity and love or consideration for others, this is proof of the Divine Connection and soul is born!!
While similar, perhaps even identical, in many ways, the religious experience is also very unique and personal to each of us. Each personality in the universe of universes is unique and a distinct individual. Each personality has a very subjective perspective and experience based on their situation and circumstances and the choices they make and the order in which they make them. No two personalities can have the same experience…even identical twins do not. No one even experiences the same experience the same way as any other personality nor can they ever. Not possible. Always is their some unique aspect to experience. Experiential wisdom and evolutionary progress is a great adventure. Each personal experience of that adventure is a wonderful contribution to the totality of reality and a realization of potentials that releases ever new potentials for universe actualization. We are part of the greatness and grandness of universe creative experience. Big Stuff!!!!!!!
Again….great questions….so many related issues to consider!!
108:2.2 (1187.1) The Adjusters cannot invade the mortal mind until it has been duly prepared by the indwelling ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits and encircuited in the Holy Spirit. And it requires the co-ordinate function of all seven adjutants to thus qualify the human mind for the reception of an Adjuster. Creature mind must exhibit the worship outreach and indicate wisdom function by exhibiting the ability to choose between the emerging values of good and evil—moral choice.
108:2.3 (1187.2) Thus is the stage of the human mind set for the reception of Adjusters, but as a general rule they do not immediately appear to indwell such minds except on those worlds where the Spirit of Truth is functioning as a spiritual co-ordinator of these different spirit ministries. If this spirit of the bestowal Sons is present, the Adjusters unfailingly come the instant the seventh adjutant mind-spirit begins to function and signalizes to the Universe Mother Spirit that it has achieved in potential the co-ordination of the associated six adjutants of prior ministry to such a mortal intellect. Therefore have the divine Adjusters been universally bestowed upon all normal minds of moral status on Urantia ever since the day of Pentecost.
108:2.4 (1187.3) Even with a Spirit of Truth endowed mind, the Adjusters cannot arbitrarily invade the mortal intellect prior to the appearance of moral decision. But when such a moral decision has been made, this spirit helper assumes jurisdiction direct from Divinington. There are no intermediaries or other intervening authorities or powers functioning between the divine Adjusters and their human subjects; God and man are directly related.
108:2.5 (1187.4) Before the times of the pouring out of the Spirit of Truth upon the inhabitants of an evolutionary world, the Adjusters’ bestowal appears to be determined by many spirit influences and personality attitudes. We do not fully comprehend the laws governing such bestowals; we do not understand just what determines the release of the Adjusters who have volunteered to indwell such evolving minds. But we do observe numerous influences and conditions which appear to be associated with the arrival of the Adjusters in such minds prior to the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, and they are:
108:2.6 (1187.5) 1. The assignment of personal seraphic guardians. If a mortal has not been previously indwelt by an Adjuster, the assignment of a personal guardian brings the Adjuster forthwith. There exists some very definite but unknown relation between the ministry of Adjusters and the ministry of personal seraphic guardians.
108:2.7 (1187.6) 2. The attainment of the third circle of intellectual achievement and spiritual attainment. I have observed Adjusters arrive in mortal minds upon the conquest of the third circle even before such an accomplishment could be signalized to the local universe personalities concerned with such matters.
108:2.8 (1187.7) 3. Upon the making of a supreme decision of unusual spiritual import. Such human behavior in a personal planetary crisis usually is attended by the immediate arrival of the waiting Adjuster.
108:2.9 (1187.8) 4. The spirit of brotherhood. Regardless of the attainment of the psychic circles and the assignment of personal guardians—in the absence of anything resembling a crisis decision—when an evolving mortal becomes dominated by the love of his fellows and consecrated to unselfish ministry to his brethren in the flesh, the waiting Adjuster unvaryingly descends to indwell the mind of such a mortal minister.
108:2.10 (1188.1) 5. Declaration of intention to do the will of God. We observe that many mortals on the worlds of space may be apparently in readiness to receive Adjusters, and yet the Monitors do not appear. We go on watching such creatures as they live from day to day, and presently they quietly, almost unconsciously, arrive at the decision to begin the pursuit of the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. And then we observe the immediate dispatch of the Thought Adjusters.
108:2.11 (1188.2) 6. Influence of the Supreme Being. On worlds where the Adjusters do not fuse with the evolving souls of the mortal inhabitants, we observe Adjusters sometimes bestowed in response to influences which are wholly beyond our comprehension. We conjecture that such bestowals are determined by some cosmic reflex action originating in the Supreme Being. As to why these Adjusters can not or do not fuse with these certain types of evolving mortal minds we do not know. Such transactions have never been revealed to us.
"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."


