Paper 36 Overview: The Life Carriers

Life does not originate spontaneously but is constructed according to plans formulated by the Architects of Being and implemented by the Life Carriers of the local universes. These fascinating and versatile Sons are entrusted with designing and transporting creature life to planetary spheres, where they remain for extended periods to foster life's development. These Life Carriers play a crucial role in the universe plan, initiating life on barren worlds and guiding its evolution until the emergence of will creatures.

The Life Carriers are responsible for establishing physical life forms, but the spark of life itself comes from the Universe Mother Spirit. Their work follows precise patterns established at higher universe levels, involving complex processes of energy manipulation and material organization. After establishing life on a planet, they are permitted to guide evolution until the emergence of creatures with moral decision-making capacity, at which point they must withdraw from direct manipulation and allow natural evolution to proceed according to the inherent patterns they established.

Life does not originate spontaneously in the universe but is carefully constructed according to plans formulated by the unrevealed Architects of Being. It appears on inhabited planets either through direct importation or as a result of operations performed by the Life Carriers of local universes. These Life Carriers are among the most interesting and versatile members of the diverse family of universe Sons, entrusted with designing and carrying creature life to planetary spheres. After planting life on new worlds, these specialized beings remain for long periods to foster its development and guide its evolution.

The Life Carriers belong to the family of divine sonship but represent a peculiar and distinct type of universe Sons. They are the only group of intelligent life in a local universe whose creation involves participation from superuniverse rulers. These Life Carriers originate from three pre-existent personalities: the Creator Son, the Universe Mother Spirit, and one of the three Ancients of Days who preside over the destinies of that particular superuniverse. The Ancients of Days, who alone can decree the extinction of intelligent life, participate in creating the Life Carriers who establish physical life on evolving worlds.

In the universe of Nebadon, records indicate the creation of one hundred million Life Carriers who make up an efficient corps of life disseminators. This group is directed by a leadership trio consisting of Gabriel, the Father Melchizedek, and Nambia (the original and first-born Life Carrier of Nebadon), though they are self-governing in their divisional administration. Life Carriers are organized into three grand divisions: senior Life Carriers, assistants, and custodians, with the primary division further subdivided into twelve specialist groups based on different forms of life manifestation. The Melchizedeks conducted tests to determine this organizational structure and have remained closely associated with the Life Carriers, accompanying them when they establish life on new planets.

The Melchizedeks have general oversight of the fourth group of seven primary spheres in the Salvington circuit, which are designated as the Life Carrier worlds. These include: the Life Carrier headquarters, the life-planning sphere, the life-conservation sphere, the sphere of life evolution, the sphere of life associated with mind, the sphere of mind and spirit in living beings, and the sphere of unrevealed life. Each of these primary worlds is surrounded by six satellites where specialized phases of Life Carrier activities are centered.

The headquarters sphere and its satellites are devoted to studying universal life in all its known manifestations, housing the college of life planning with teachers and advisers from Uversa, Havona, and even Paradise. The life patterns of the universe follow specific numerical patterns, with three primal life plans corresponding to the three Paradise Sources and Centers. There are twelve distinct concepts of transmissible life and seven architectural types of life design. The second world serves as the life-designing sphere where new modes of life organization are developed, while the third world focuses on life conservation. The fourth sphere studies the evolution of creature life, and the fifth world is concerned entirely with life associated with mind. The sixth sphere is dedicated to correlating mind with spirit in living beings, while the seventh sphere addresses unrevealed domains of evolutionary creature life.

Life does not spontaneously appear in the universes; the Life Carriers must initiate it on barren planets. These beings serve as carriers, disseminators, and guardians of life as it develops on evolutionary worlds. All life forms known on Urantia originated with these Sons, though not all possible forms of planetary life exist on Urantia. The corps of Life Carriers commissioned to plant life on a new world typically consists of one hundred senior carriers, one hundred assistants, and one thousand custodians.

Life Carriers sometimes transport actual life plasm to new worlds, but not always. They may organize life patterns after arriving on their assigned planet according to previously approved formulas, which was the case for Urantia's planetary life. When physical patterns are provided according to approved formulas, the Life Carriers catalyze this lifeless material by imparting a vital spirit spark through their presence, transforming inert patterns into living matter. The vital spark—the mystery of life itself—is bestowed through the Life Carriers but not by them directly. They supervise the transactions and formulate the life plasm, but the Universe Mother Spirit supplies the essential factor that enlivens the body and presages the mind.

In every local system of inhabited worlds throughout Nebadon, there exists a single sphere where Melchizedeks have functioned as life carriers. These worlds are known as system midsonite worlds, and on each one, a materially modified Melchizedek Son has mated with a selected Daughter from the material order of sonship. The Mother Eves of these midsonite worlds are dispatched from the system headquarters of jurisdiction, chosen by the designated Melchizedek life carrier from among numerous volunteers responding to the System Sovereign's call.

The offspring of a Melchizedek life carrier and a Material Daughter are known as midsoniters. The Melchizedek father eventually leaves the planet of his unique life function, and the Mother Eve also departs upon the appearance of the seventh generation of planetary offspring, at which point the direction of the world devolves upon her eldest son. The midsonite creatures live and function as reproducing beings on their magnificent worlds until they reach one thousand standard years of age, when they are translated by seraphic transport. After dematerialization in preparation for enseraphiming, they are forever deprived of reproductive capabilities, thus becoming nonreproducing beings.

The presence of the seven adjutant mind-spirits on primitive worlds influences the course of organic evolution, explaining why evolution is purposeful rather than accidental. These adjutants represent the mind ministry of the Infinite Spirit extended to lower orders of intelligent life through a local universe Mother Spirit. The adjutants are children of the Universe Mother Spirit and constitute her personal ministry to material minds. Wherever mind is manifest, these spirits function in various ways.

The seven adjutant mind-spirits are called by names equivalent to intuition, understanding, courage, knowledge, counsel, worship, and wisdom. They send forth their influence to all inhabited worlds as a differential urge, each seeking receptivity capacity quite independent of how the others are received. The central lodgments of these adjutants on the Life Carrier headquarters planet indicate to Life Carrier supervisors the extent and quality of adjutant mind function on any world. These life-mind emplacements perfectly indicate the functioning of the first five adjutants, but for worship and wisdom, the lodgments record only qualitative function, while quantitative activity is registered in the immediate presence of the Divine Minister on Salvington.

Life is both mechanistic and vitalistic—material and spiritual. Earth physicists and chemists will continue to advance in their understanding of protoplasmic forms of vegetable and animal life, but they will never be able to produce living organisms. Life is fundamentally different from all energy manifestations; even the material life of physical creatures is not inherent in matter. Material things may enjoy independent existence, but life springs only from pre-existing life, mind derives only from pre-existent mind, and spirit takes origin only from spirit ancestors.

Life Carriers can organize the material forms or physical patterns of living beings, but the Spirit provides the initial spark of life and bestows the endowment of mind. Even the living forms experimentally organized by Life Carriers on their Salvington worlds lack reproductive powers. When life formulas and vital patterns are correctly assembled and properly organized, the presence of a Life Carrier is sufficient to initiate life, but such organisms lack two essential attributes: mind endowment and reproductive capabilities. Animal and human mind are gifts from the local universe Mother Spirit working through the seven adjutant mind-spirits, while reproductive ability is the specific personal impartation of the Universe Spirit to the ancestral life plasm initiated by the Life Carriers.