Paper 111 Overview: The Adjuster and the Soul

The presence of the Thought Adjuster in the human mind makes it impossible for science or philosophy to fully understand the evolving soul of human personality. The morontia soul is a universal creation that can only be comprehended through cosmic insight and spiritual discovery. Many religious traditions throughout history have recognized the dual nature of humans as both divine and mortal, acknowledging an inner presence that continues beyond physical death. Before humans realized that the soul was fathered by a divine spirit, it was associated with physical organs, blood, breath, and reflections.

Mind is the foundation upon which the Adjuster works to evolve the morontia soul in cooperation with human personality. The relationship between material mind and divine spirit creates the soul, which is neither material nor spiritual, but morontial in nature. Human decisions in the mind arena of choice determine eternal destiny, and while mind errors may delay soul evolution, they cannot prevent it once initiated. The inner life of creativity, meaning, and values forms the basis for true civilization, with the consecration of human will to divine purpose being the key to spiritual growth and eventual Adjuster fusion.

The presence of the divine Adjuster in the human mind makes it forever impossible for either science or philosophy to reach a satisfactory understanding of the evolving soul of human personality. The morontia soul is truly a child of the universe that can only be known through cosmic insight and spiritual discovery. The concept of a soul and indwelling spirit has appeared in many belief systems throughout human history, as many cultures have perceived that humans possess both divine heritage and human inheritance.

Before humans understood that the evolving soul was fathered by a divine spirit, ancient peoples thought it resided in various physical organs—the eye, liver, kidney, heart, and later, the brain. Early humans associated the soul with blood, breath, shadows, and reflections in water. Different cultures conceptualized the relationship between soul and spirit differently: Hindu teachers approached an understanding of the Adjuster through their concept of atman, Chinese recognized both yang and yin (soul and spirit), while Egyptians believed in the ka (guardian spirit) that guided the mortal subject in life and awaited them after death.

Though Adjusters work spiritually, they must do all their work upon an intellectual foundation. Mind is the human soil from which the spirit Monitor must evolve the morontia soul with the cooperation of the indwelt personality. There exists a cosmic unity in the several mind levels of the universe, and intellectual selves originate in the cosmic mind much as nebulae take origin in the cosmic energies of space. The potential for spirit evolution becomes dominant at the human level of intellectual selves, but this mind must have evolved through the ministry of the seven adjutant mind-spirits, and the material self must choose to cooperate with the Adjuster.

Material mind is the arena in which human personalities live, make decisions, and choose either to accept or reject God, thereby determining their eternal destiny. The Father has endowed humans with the purest spirit reality known in the universe—the Thought Adjuster—while material evolution has provided the physical body. Mind, subject to human decisions, is the instrument through which humans may achieve Adjuster-likeness, which is Godlikeness. It is not so much what mind is like, but what it is striving to become that constitutes spirit identification; not so much that humans are conscious of God, but that they yearn for God that results in universe ascension. Mind can be twisted by a perverse will or made noble by a God-knowing human being.

Throughout the mind functions of cosmic intelligence, the totality of mind dominates over its parts and always seeks spirit coordination when associated with personalities having dignity and ascension potential. The material mind of mortal humans serves as the cosmic loom that carries the morontia fabrics upon which the indwelling Thought Adjuster threads spirit patterns of enduring values and divine meanings—creating a surviving soul of ultimate destiny. Human personality identifies with mind and spirit held in functional relationship by a material body, and this relationship produces an entirely new universe value—the soul.

The creation of the immortal soul involves three factors: the human mind with all cosmic influences affecting it, the divine spirit indwelling this mind with all its spiritual potentials, and the relationship between material mind and divine spirit, which is neither material nor spiritual but morontial. This mid-mind has been called such by the midway creatures to distinguish it from the lower material mind and higher cosmic mind. The evolution of this morontia soul is made possible because the mortal mind possesses a supermaterial endowment enabling it to make moral decisions, establishing contact with spiritual ministries and the indwelling Adjuster. The gradual birth of the soul represents the joint offspring of a human will craving to know God working with the spiritual forces under the direction of the Thought Adjuster.

While mistakes of the mortal mind and errors in human conduct may delay the evolution of the soul, they cannot stop this morontia phenomenon once it has been initiated by the indwelling Adjuster with the creature's consent. However, at any time before physical death, the human will has the power to reject survival, and even after survival, the ascending mortal retains the prerogative to reject eternal life until fusion with the Adjuster. This fusion signifies that the ascending mortal has eternally and unreservedly chosen to do the Father's will. During physical life, the evolving soul reinforces the spiritual decisions of the mortal mind, though it cannot function on the material level without collaboration with spirit entities like the Adjuster.

As terrestrial mortal growth proceeds, the self with its decision-making power becomes increasingly identified with the emerging morontia-soul entity. After death and resurrection on the mansion worlds, the human personality becomes completely identified with the morontia self. The immortal soul is initially wholly morontial in nature but possesses the capacity for development toward spirit levels, usually fusing with the Adjuster. Both the human mind and divine Adjuster are conscious of the soul's presence and differential nature—the Adjuster fully, the mind partially. As the soul evolves, it becomes increasingly aware of both the mind and Adjuster as associated identities, while persistently moving toward greater spirit control and divine dominance.

Recognition is the intellectual process of fitting sensory impressions from the external world into memory patterns. Understanding happens when these recognized sensory impressions and associated memory patterns become integrated into a dynamic network of principles. Meanings and values can only be perceived in the inner or supermaterial spheres of human experience, not in a purely sensory or material world. The advances of true civilization are born in this inner world of mankind, as only the inner life is truly creative.

Civilization faces danger when most young people devote their interests and energies to materialistic pursuits rather than to ethics, sociology, philosophy, fine arts, religion, and cosmology. Only in the higher levels of the superconscious mind, as it touches the spiritual realm, can we find those higher concepts and effective patterns that will build a better and more enduring civilization. While humans cannot completely control the external environment, the creativity of the inner world is much more subject to personal direction. Each person bears the responsibility of choosing whether this creativity will be spontaneous and haphazard or controlled, directed, and constructive. Ideas may originate from external stimuli, but ideals are born only in the creative realms of the inner world.

Doing God's will means willingly sharing your inner life with God—with the very God who made such a creature life of inner meaning-value possible. Sharing is Godlike and divine; God shares all with the Eternal Son and Infinite Spirit, who in turn share with the divine Sons and spirit Daughters of the universes. Imitating God is the key to perfection, and doing his will is the secret to survival and perfection in survival. Humans live in God, and God has chosen to live in humans by trusting a part of himself to dwell within them, subject to human will.

The consecration of human will to God's will is not a surrender but an expansion, glorification, and perfection of will. This choice raises the creature will from temporal significance to the higher state where the personality of the creature communes with the personality of the spirit Father. This spiritual discovery of the Father by mortal humans may take an age before the creature actually stands before God on Paradise. When humans make this choice, they will eventually find inner union with the indwelling Adjuster fragment and supreme satisfaction in the worship relationship between the personality of humans and the personality of their Maker—the birth of an eternal partnership between human will and God's will.

Many of the temporal troubles of mortal humans stem from their twofold relationship to the cosmos: they exist as part of nature yet can transcend it, and they are finite beings indwelt by a spark of infinity. This dual situation creates social and moral uncertainties accompanied by anxiety. The courage required to overcome nature and transcend oneself might lead to the temptation of self-pride, while the freedom of spiritual choice alongside subservience to nature creates a paradox filled with potential for error and sin when self becomes proud and arrogant.

The problem of sin does not naturally exist in the finite world, as the finite creation of an infinite Creator must be fundamentally good. Evil and sin originate in the misuse, distortion, and perversion of the finite. Spirit can control mind, and mind can control energy through intelligent understanding of cause and effect in the physical world. Science provides facts, and experience cements these facts into wisdom; humans can find God's love without facts and God's laws without love, but they can only appreciate the infinite harmony of the First Source and Center by unifying divine law and divine love in their evolving cosmic philosophy. Despite the insecurity of being bound to nature while possessing transcendent spiritual powers, reasonable self-confidence is not to be discouraged—pride, however, is deceitful and ultimately self-destructive.

The essence of the Paradise adventure involves uncertainty with security—uncertainty in time and mind, but security in spirit and eternity. There is complete trust in the divine compassion and infinite love of the Universal Father, despite the inexperience of the creature in the universe. The indwelling Adjuster cannot prevent or reduce the difficulties of your earthly life, but you could—if you would—permit this valiant helper to fight alongside you through life's challenges. The Adjuster can only patiently observe while you struggle through your planetary existence.

Why do you not allow the Adjuster to strengthen you with spiritual truths while you wrestle with temporal difficulties? Why not encourage this heavenly helper to show you the eternal perspective of universal life as you face the problems of today? The complex nature of humanity, with its mixture of races and conflicts between higher purposes and primitive instincts, makes the Adjuster's work particularly challenging. A guardian seraphim once described this challenge as an unending conflict between opposing natures: the ideals of a superior people crossed by inferior instincts, the long-distance view of the Monitor versus the short-sightedness of a temporal creature, and the progress of the good hindered by the inertia of the bad.