Paper 112 Overview: Personality Survival

The evolutionary planets constitute the spheres of human origin, where mortals begin the ascending career that potentially culminates in eternal union with the indwelling Thought Adjuster. On Urantia, mortal beings have been endowed with perfect guides, divine Adjusters, and if they sincerely complete the temporal race and achieve the final goal of faith, they will be eternally united with these indwelling fragments of deity. This union represents not an end but a beginning. The commencement of the true ascending life that progresses through successive stages of evolutionary growth from the mortal state through the mansion worlds and beyond to the eternal service of finaliters.

Personality, bestowed directly by the Universal Father, represents the one unchanging factor amid the otherwise continuous transformation of the ascending mortal. This divine endowment transcends material existence, functioning as the cosmic constant that enables identity continuity through the translation from material life to morontia existence and eventually to spirit status. The mystery of personality survival hinges on the relationship between the divine Adjuster and the human will, which together can achieve the transit from temporal existence to eternal life through the progressive creation and development of the immortal soul.

The evolutionary planets are the spheres of human origin, the initial worlds of the ascending mortal career. On Urantia, mortal beings have been endowed with perfect guides, the divine Thought Adjusters, and if they sincerely run the race of time and achieve the final goal of faith, they will be eternally united with their indwelling Adjusters. This union marks the beginning of the true life of ascension, the exalted and progressive mission as finaliters that extends through eternity. Throughout all these successive ages and stages of evolutionary growth, personality remains the one absolutely unaltered factor—the constant presence amid perpetual change.

While a comprehensive definition of personality would be presumptuous, we can enumerate several of its known attributes: it is bestowed by the Universal Father or the Conjoint Actor; it may be conferred upon any living energy system containing mind or spirit; it is relatively creative or cocreative rather than being fully subject to antecedent causation; it causes spirit to strive for mastery of energy-matter through mind mediation; it can unify the identity of any living energy system; it shows only qualitative response to the personality circuit; it remains changeless despite all transformations; it can make a gift to God through free will dedication; it discerns moral relativity of relationships; it is absolutely unique in time, space, eternity, and on Paradise; it responds directly to other-personality presence; it can be added to spirit; and it may survive mortal death with identity in the surviving soul. Personality is also uniquely conscious of time in a way distinct from mind or spirit perception.

Personality is bestowed by the Universal Father as a potentially eternal endowment designed to function across numerous levels and in successive universe situations ranging from the lowly finite to the highest absonite realms, extending even to the borders of the absolute. This divine gift operates on three cosmic planes or universe phases: position status (functioning equally in local universes, superuniverses, and the central universe); meaning status (effectively operating on the levels of the finite, absonite, and impinging upon the absolute); and value status (experientially realized in the progressive realms of the material, morontial, and spiritual). This extraordinary range of cosmic dimensional performance enables personality to transcend the limitations of any single realm of existence.

The dimensions of finite personality are three and function as follows: length represents direction and progressive movement through space and time (evolution); vertical depth encompasses organismal drives, attitudes, varying levels of self-realization, and environmental reactions; and breadth embraces coordination, association, and selfhood organization. The personality type bestowed upon Urantia mortals possesses a potentiality of seven dimensions of self-expression, with three realizable on the finite level, three on the absonite level, and one on the absolute level. On the finite level, these dimensions correlate with meaning (length), value (depth), and insight (breadth)—the capacity to experience unchallengeable consciousness of cosmic reality. When transferred to the morontia level after death, these finite dimensions are greatly enhanced, and certain new dimensional values become realizable through the influence of mota and morontia mathematics.

Much trouble experienced by mortals in studying human personality stems from failure to recognize that dimensional levels and spiritual levels are not coordinated in experiential personality realization. Life represents a process between the organism (selfhood) and its environment, with personality imparting value of identity and continuity to this organismal-environmental association. In this process, mechanisms remain passive while organisms are inherently active, and physical life operates not merely within the organism but in the relationship between organism and environment. It is through mind that self and environment establish meaningful contact, with personality functioning as the unifier of all factors of reality and coordinator of relationships.

In the study of selfhood, it is helpful to remember several fundamental principles: physical systems are subordinate; intellectual systems are coordinate; personality is superordinate; and the indwelling spiritual force is potentially directive. In the cosmic economy, insight precedes foresight, and in human development, the child first lives and only subsequently thinks about that living. This proper sequencing establishes the framework for understanding the complex interrelationship between experience and reflection that characterizes selfhood development.

The universe fact of God becoming human through the incarnation of Jesus has forever transformed all meanings and values associated with human personality. True love connotes mutual regard of whole personalities, whether human or divine, where the coordinated attributes of the whole personality focus in intelligent action when associated with the spiritual endowment of the mortal mind. The possession of personality identifies humans as spiritual beings, since the unity of selfhood and self-consciousness are endowments from the supermaterial realm. A profound cosmic gulf exists between matter and thought, and an even greater one separates material mind from spiritual love. Consciousness itself cannot be explained through any theory of mechanistic electronic association or materialistic energy phenomena.

As mind pursues reality to its ultimate analysis, matter vanishes to the material senses but may remain real to mind; when spiritual insight pursues the reality that remains after matter's disappearance, it vanishes to mind, but spirit insight can perceive cosmic realities and supreme values. Science thus gives way to philosophy, which surrenders to the conclusions inherent in genuine spiritual experience, as thinking yields to wisdom and wisdom becomes lost in enlightened worship. The possibility of unifying the evolving self resides in the qualities of its constitutive factors, including the divine spirit of Paradise bestowal—the secret of self-consciousness of human spiritual nature—with the purpose of cosmic evolution being to achieve unity of personality through increasing spirit dominance.

Urantians generally recognize only physical death, but concerning personality survival, there exist three distinct types: spiritual (soul) death occurs when a mortal finally rejects survival and is pronounced spiritually insolvent or morontially bankrupt by the conjoint opinion of the Adjuster and seraphim, resulting in the immediate release of the indwelling Monitor; intellectual (mind) death happens when the vital circuits of higher adjutant ministry become irreparably disrupted through aberrations of intellect or partial brain destruction, causing the Adjuster to depart for Divinington; and physical (body and mind) death takes place when the measurable brain energies cease their rhythmic vital pulsations, at which point the Adjuster leaves the vanishing mind. These distinctions are crucial for understanding the varying paths of personality transition.

Following physical death, two nonmaterial factors of surviving personality persist: the pre-existent Thought Adjuster, carrying the memory transcription of the mortal's career, proceeds to Divinington; and the immortal morontia soul remains in custody of the destiny guardian. These elements are essential for repersonalization on the morontia worlds, as it is their reunion that reassembles the surviving personality at the time of mansion world awakening. The seraphim are indispensable to this process of identity safekeeping and personality resurrection. Upon death, the Adjuster temporarily loses personality but not identity, while the human subject loses identity but not personality; when reunited on the mansion worlds, they manifest in eternal continuation of the relationship forged during material life.

Dis-Adjustered human beings remain wholly and absolutely unconscious during the sleep of death, with no possibility of exhibiting personality or communicating with living beings until after survival completion. Those who proceed to the mansion worlds are not permitted to send messages back to loved ones, as it is the policy throughout the universes to forbid such communication during the period of a current dispensation. This separation, though potentially distressing from the mortal perspective, serves essential purposes in the cosmic economy of personality development and transition.

When death of material, intellectual, or spiritual nature occurs, the Adjuster bids farewell to the mortal host and departs for Divinington. A reflective contact is established with supervisors of both local universe and superuniverse governments, and the Monitor is registered out by the same number that recorded entry into the domains of time. Through a process not fully understood, the Universal Censors gain possession of an epitome of the human life through the Adjuster's duplicate transcription of spiritual values and morontia meanings developed within the indwelt mind. This data, combined with seraphic records, becomes available for presentation during the adjudication of the individual and may enable certain ascenders to begin their morontia careers immediately upon mortal dissolution.

If a mortal belongs to a group destined for repersonalization at a dispensation's end rather than immediately, the Adjuster will not directly return to the mansion world of the former system of service but will enter one of seven possible temporary assignments: being mustered into the ranks of vanished Monitors for undisclosed service; assignment to observe the Paradise regime; enrollment in training schools of Divinington; stationing as a student observer on sacred spheres; assignment to messenger service of Personalized Adjusters; becoming an associate instructor in Divinington schools; or assignment to select potential worlds in case the human partner rejected survival. Conversely, if a mortal has attained the third circle or higher with a personal guardian assigned, and if the final transcript of survival character is unconditionally certified, the Ancients of Days may flash forth the mandate of advanced standing, decreeing immediate passage to the resurrection halls of the mansion worlds.

When the human individual survives without delay, the Adjuster registers at Divinington, proceeds to the Paradise presence of the Universal Father, returns immediately to be embraced by the Personalized Adjusters of the superuniverse and local universe of assignment, receives recognition from the chief Personalized Monitor of Divinington, and then passes into "realization of identity transition." The Adjuster is summoned therefrom on the third period and on the mansion world in the actual personality form prepared for reception of the surviving soul of the earth mortal as projected by the guardian of destiny.

Selfhood constitutes a cosmic reality whether material, morontial, or spiritual in nature. The actuality of the personal represents the bestowal of the Universal Father, acting either directly or through his manifold universe agencies, creating relative individuation of beings within the cosmic organism. That which originates from the Father shares his eternal nature and this applies equally to personality, which God bestows by his own freewill choice, and to the divine Thought Adjuster, an actual fragment of deity. Human personality, while eternal in potential, remains conditioned by the choices made during mortal existence; in the absence of proper choices, personality attains experiential Deity directly by becoming part of the Supreme Being.

Mortal identity exists only in the material sense, expressed through the material mind functioning within the energy system of the intellect. From a cosmic perspective, humans experience birth, life, and death in a relative instant of time, yet mortal personality possesses the extraordinary power to transfer its seat of identity from the passing material-intellect system to the higher morontia-soul system created in association with the Thought Adjuster as a new vehicle for personality manifestation. This power of choice, the universe insignia of freewill creaturehood, constitutes humanity's greatest opportunity and supreme cosmic responsibility. Upon this integrity of human volition depends the eternal destiny of the future finaliter, the realization of a new ascending son by the Universal Father, and the actuality of experiential evolution by the Supreme Being.

If uncertainty exists concerning the advisability of advancing a human identity to the mansion worlds, the universe governments invariably rule in the personal interests of that individual, unhesitatingly advancing such a soul to transitional status while continuing observations of emerging morontia intent and spiritual purpose. The soul of the human individual, which is the conjoint child of the human mind in liaison with the divine Adjuster, survives death as an unconscious entity in the custody of seraphic guardians until the resurrection on the mansion worlds. This survival depends on the relationship between material mind and divine spirit, which connotes a value and meaning not present in either contributing factor alone.

When you awaken on the mansion worlds, your spiritual transformation will be so great that, without your Thought Adjuster and guardian angel linking your past and present, your new mind might struggle to connect with your old identity. At first, much of mortal life may seem like a vague and hazy dream, though time will bring clarity. Your Thought Adjuster will help you recall only the experiences that truly matter for your eternal journey. Experiences without spiritual or morontia value will fade, like scaffolding no longer needed after a bridge is built. But relationships between personalities have lasting value and will be remembered—you will know and be known, remember and be remembered.

Just as a butterfly emerges from the caterpillar stage, the true personalities of human beings emerge on the mansion worlds, revealed for the first time apart from their material encasement. The morontia career in the local universe involves the progressive elevation of the personality mechanism from the initial morontia level of soul existence to the final morontia level of progressive spirituality. These morontia personality forms, while entirely real, are not energy patterns of the material order comprehensible to mortals but serve the same purpose on the local universe worlds as physical bodies do on the planets of human nativity.

In physical life, the body-form reflects to a limited degree the inherent nature of personality; however, in the morontia life, and increasingly on higher levels, the personality form varies directly according to the inner nature of the person. On spiritual levels, outward form and inner nature begin to approximate complete identification, which grows increasingly perfect on higher spirit levels. The ascending mortal receives the Nebadon modification of the cosmic-mind endowment from the Master Spirit of Orvonton, while the mortal intellect as a focused entity ceases to exist apart from the undifferentiated mind circuits of the Creative Spirit. Nevertheless, certain phases of mind and experiential values persist in the surviving soul, held by the Adjuster, while other registrations of the human life are preserved in the local universe.

Creature volition persists despite the loss of the material intellect, and in early stages of mansonia life, the ascending personality is guided largely by character patterns inherited from human life and by the newly appearing action of morontia mota. The morontia mind must evolve through direct contact with cosmic mind, modified and translated by the Creative Source of local universe intellect. Prior to death, the mortal mind functions self-consciously independent of the Adjuster, but the morontia soul, being superadjutant, cannot retain self-consciousness without the Adjuster when deprived of the material-mind mechanism. This evolving soul does, however, possess a continuing character derived from the decisions of the former associated adjutant mind, which becomes active memory when energized by the returning Adjuster.

Thought Adjuster fusion imparts eternal actualities to personality that were previously only potential, including fixation of divinity quality, past-eternity experience and memory, immortality, and a phase of qualified potential absoluteness. When earthly course in temporary form concludes, the awakening on the shores of a better world eventually leads to eternal union with the faithful Adjuster—an embrace that constitutes the mystery of making God and man one, the secret of finite creature evolution eternally true on the sacred sphere of Ascendington. This fusion represents the conjoining of identity with the spirit of Paradise Deity, a value that no creature except those who have experienced fusion can comprehend.

Fusion with the Adjuster typically occurs while the ascender resides within the local system, though it may happen on the birth planet as transcendence of natural death, on any mansion world, or even be delayed until the time of constellation sojourn or the local universe capital. Once fusion occurs, no future danger threatens the eternal career of such a personality, as celestial beings undergo extended testing while mortals experience a relatively short but intensive testing on evolutionary worlds. When fusion mandates are issued, they constitute clearance authority for the fused personality to eventually leave the local universe and proceed to the superuniverse headquarters, en route to the central universe of Havona and the ultimate Deity adventure.

These fused beings manifest a remarkable duality in their universe reactions; they are discrete morontia individuals not unlike seraphim while simultaneously existing as beings in potential on the order of Paradise finaliters. They represent one unified personality whose oneness defies all attempts at analysis by any universe intelligence. After passing the tribunals of the local universe from lowest to highest, none of which can identify man or Adjuster separately, the fused being appears before the Sovereign of Nebadon, who grants credentials for the superuniverse career. The triumphant Adjuster and valiant human have achieved the evolution of a member of one of the unique orders of ascending personalities of the Supreme—a candidate for further growth who will never cease the supernal ascent until the seven circuits of Havona have been traversed and the onetime soul of earthly origin stands in worshipful recognition of the actual personality of the Father on Paradise.