Paper 11 Overview: The Eternal Isle of Paradise

Paradise is the eternal center of the universe of universes and serves as the abode of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine associates. It is both a gigantic organized body of cosmic reality and a spiritual dwelling place, requiring all intelligent creation to be housed on material worlds. The material beauty of Paradise consists in its physical perfection, while its grandeur is evident in the intellectual achievements and mind development of its inhabitants, and its glory manifests in the infinite divine spirit personalities that dwell there.

The material and spiritual splendor of this divine abode is beyond the comprehension of mortal beings with finite minds. Paradise has existed eternally, with no records or traditions regarding its origin, making it the true nucleus of Light and Life. Those who are spiritually qualified and properly guided could theoretically travel through the universe circuits to reach the center where the Universal Father personally exists, just as one might navigate to find geographical locations on earth.

Paradise stands as the eternal center of the universe of universes and serves as the dwelling place for the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine associates. This central Isle represents the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in the entire master universe. Paradise exists as both a material sphere and a spiritual dwelling place, with all intelligent creation of the Universal Father residing on material worlds, necessitating that the absolute controlling center also be material and literal.

The material beauty of Paradise lies in its magnificent physical perfection, while its grandeur is displayed through the superb intellectual accomplishments and mind development of its inhabitants. The central Isle reveals its glory through its infinite endowment of divine spirit personality, described as the light of life. The depths of spiritual beauty and wonders of this magnificent ensemble exceed what finite minds can comprehend. Paradise has existed from eternity, with no records or traditions regarding its origin as this nuclear Isle of Light and Life.

Paradise serves many purposes in the administration of universal realms, but for creatures, it exists primarily as the dwelling place of Deity. The personal presence of the Universal Father resides at the very center of Paradise's upper surface, immediately surrounded by the personal presence of the Eternal Son, both enveloped by the unspeakable glory of the Infinite Spirit. God has always dwelled, currently dwells, and will eternally dwell in this central and eternal abode.

Everyone knows the direct path to find the Universal Father, though humans cannot comprehend much about the divine residence due to its remoteness and the immense intervening space. Those who can comprehend the meaning of these distances know God's location just as certainly as one knows the geographical location of cities on earth. With the right spiritual qualifications and necessary guidance, one could journey inward through the star realms until standing before the central shining glory of the Universal Father. The Father is always found at this central location, where lines of personality, material gravity, and spiritual gravity converge from the ends of creation.

As humans begin to glimpse the enormousness of the material universe from their astronomical position in stellar systems, it should become evident that such a vast material universe must have an adequate and worthy capital. This headquarters must be commensurate with the dignity and infinitude of the universal Ruler who oversees this vast creation of material realms and living beings. In form, Paradise differs from inhabited space bodies as it is not spherical but ellipsoid, being one-sixth longer in the north-south diameter than in the east-west diameter.

The central Isle is essentially flat, with the distance from upper to lower surface being one-tenth of the east-west diameter. These dimensional differences, combined with Paradise's stationary status and the greater outward pressure of force-energy at the north end, make it possible to establish absolute direction in the master universe. Paradise is geographically divided into three domains: Upper Paradise, Peripheral Paradise, and Nether Paradise. The surface occupied by personality activities is called the upper side, while the opposite surface is the nether side, with the periphery providing for activities that are not strictly personal or non-personal.

On upper Paradise, there are three grand spheres of activity: the Deity presence, the Most Holy Sphere, and the Holy Area. The vast region immediately surrounding the presence of the Deities is set aside as the Most Holy Sphere and is reserved for functions of worship, trinitization, and high spiritual attainment. No material structures or purely intellectual creations can exist in this zone, as it is wholly spiritual. It is impossible to fully portray to the human mind the divine nature and beautiful grandeur of the Most Holy Sphere of Paradise, as this realm is entirely spiritual and would appear nonexistent to purely material beings.

While there are no physical materializations in the Most Holy area, abundant souvenirs of material days exist in the Holy Land sectors, with even more in the reminiscent historic areas of peripheral Paradise. The Holy Area, the outlying or residential region, is divided into seven concentric zones, with Paradise sometimes called "the Father's House" since it is his eternal residence. The inner or first zone is occupied by Paradise Citizens and Havona natives, while the second zone houses natives of the seven superuniverses, subdivided into seven immense divisions dedicated to the welfare of beings from each superuniverse, though these facilities vastly exceed the requirements of the current seven superuniverses.

The central Isle ends abruptly at the periphery, but its size is so enormous that this terminal angle is relatively indiscernible within any circumscribed area. The peripheral surface of Paradise is occupied, in part, by landing and dispatching fields for various spirit personalities. Since the nonpervaded-space zones nearly touch the periphery, all personality transports destined for Paradise land in these regions, as neither upper nor nether Paradise can be approached by transport supernaphim or other space traversers.

The Seven Master Spirits maintain their personal seats of power on the seven spheres of the Spirit circling Paradise, but they establish force-focal headquarters on the Paradise periphery. Here, the slowly circulating presences of the Seven Supreme Power Directors indicate the locations of seven flash stations for certain Paradise energies flowing to the seven superuniverses. On peripheral Paradise are enormous historic and prophetic exhibit areas assigned to the Creator Sons and dedicated to local universes of time and space, with just seven trillion such reservations now established or in reserve, though these arrangements occupy only about four percent of the area designated for such purposes.

Concerning nether Paradise, we know only what has been revealed, as personalities do not sojourn there. It has nothing to do with the affairs of spirit intelligences, nor does the Deity Absolute function there. We are informed that all physical-energy and cosmic-force circuits originate on nether Paradise, which is constituted with specific zones and areas designed for different cosmic functions. Directly underneath the Trinity's location is the unknown and unrevealed Zone of Infinity, surrounded by an unnamed area.

The outer margins of nether Paradise's surface feature a region primarily concerned with space potency and force-energy. This vast elliptical force center cannot be identified with known functions of any triunity, though the primordial force-charge of space appears focused in this area. The center consists of three concentric elliptical zones: the innermost focuses Paradise force-energy activities, the outermost may relate to the Unqualified Absolute's functions, while the mid-zone's purpose remains uncertain. The inner zone seems to act like a gigantic heart, directing currents to the outermost borders of physical space, with greater pressure presence at the north end than in southern regions.

We do not know the actual mechanism of space respiration; we merely observe that all space alternately contracts and expands. This respiration affects both the horizontal extension of pervaded space and the vertical extensions of unpervaded space in the vast reservoirs above and below Paradise. When imagining the volume outlines of these space reservoirs, one might think of an hourglass shape with converging elements.

As the universes of pervaded space expand, the reservoirs of unpervaded space contract, and vice versa. There is a confluence of pervaded and unpervaded space just beneath nether Paradise, where both types flow through transmuting regulation channels. These channels facilitate changes that make pervadable space nonpervadable and vice versa during cosmic expansion-contraction cycles. "Unpervaded" space means space not filled with forces, energies, powers, and presences known to exist in pervaded space. Researchers know little about these space reservoirs, except that they exist and seem to counterbalance the space-expansion-contraction cycles of the universe, with each cycle phase lasting slightly more than one billion Urantia years.

Space does not exist on any Paradise surfaces. If one "looked" directly up from upper Paradise, one would "see" nothing but unpervaded space either coming in or going out – currently coming in. Space does not directly contact Paradise; only the quiescent midspace zones touch the central Isle. Paradise functions as the motionless nucleus of relatively quiet zones existing between pervaded and unpervaded space, with these zones appearing as a relative extension of Paradise geographically, though some motion likely exists within them.

Paradise is surrounded by zones of lessened space motion that separate pervaded from unpervaded space, similar to zones that once existed between pervaded space levels but are now less quiescent. A vertical cross-section of total space would resemble a Maltese cross, with horizontal arms representing pervaded (universe) space and vertical arms representing unpervaded (reservoir) space. The areas between the four arms separate them somewhat like midspace zones separate pervaded and unpervaded space, growing larger at greater distances from Paradise until they completely encapsulate both space reservoirs and the horizontal extension of pervaded space.

The inescapable pull of gravity effectively grips all worlds across all universes in space. Gravity represents the all-powerful grasp of Paradise's physical presence and serves as the omnipotent strand on which gleaming stars, blazing suns, and whirling spheres are strung, constituting the universal physical adornment of the eternal God. The center and focal point of absolute material gravity is the Isle of Paradise, complemented by the dark gravity bodies encircling Havona and equilibrated by upper and nether space reservoirs.

All known emanations from nether Paradise invariably respond to the central gravity pull operating upon the endless circuits of elliptical space levels in the master universe. Every known form of cosmic reality follows the bend of the ages, the trend of the circle, and the swing of the great ellipse. Space itself does not respond to gravity but acts as an equilibrant, exerting antigravity influence on physical gravity without delaying it. Absolute gravity is Paradise gravity, while local or linear gravity pertains to the electrical stage of energy or matter, operating wherever suitable materialization has occurred throughout the central, super-, and outer universes.

Paradise is unique because it serves as both the realm of primal origin and the final goal of destiny for all spirit personalities. While not all lower spirit beings from local universes are immediately destined for Paradise, it remains the goal of desire for all supermaterial personalities. Paradise functions as the geographic center of infinity yet is not part of universal creation, not even a real part of the eternal Havona universe. While commonly referred to as belonging to the divine universe, Paradise truly represents an eternal and exclusive existence.

In the eternity of the past, when the Universal Father gave infinite personality expression to his spirit self in the Eternal Son, he simultaneously revealed the infinity potential of his nonpersonal self as Paradise. Nonpersonal and nonspiritual Paradise appears to have been the inevitable repercussion to the Father's will and act that eternalized the Original Son. The tension between these realities, combined with the will to action by the Father and Son, gave existence to the Conjoint Actor and the central universe of material worlds and spiritual beings. Paradise is not a creator and is not ancestral to any being or living entity, functioning instead as the absolute of patterns while Havona exhibits these potentials in actuality.