Author: Sławomir Żydenko
Hello there. I wanted to tell you what life after death looks like according to the Urantia Book. But to talk about life after death, we first need to discuss the phenomenon of death itself. Death in the Urantia Book is described, among other places, in Paper 112. I have chosen a passage from Paper 112, Chapter 3, specifically verse 112:3.1. Please read it:
“Urantians generally recognize only one kind of death, the physical cessation of life energies; but concerning personality survival there are really three kinds:”
So, there are three kinds of death. The first kind of death is spiritual death. Here’s verse 112:3.2:
“1. Spiritual (soul) death. If and when mortal man has finally rejected survival, when he has been pronounced spiritually insolvent, morontially bankrupt, in the conjoint opinion of the Adjuster and the surviving seraphim, when such co-ordinate advice has been recorded on Uversa, and after the Censors and their reflective associates have verified these findings, thereupon do the rulers of Orvonton order the immediate release of the indwelling Monitor. But this release of the Adjuster in no way affects the duties of the personal or group seraphim concerned with that Adjuster-abandoned individual. This kind of death is final in its significance irrespective of the temporary continuation of the living energies of the physical and mind mechanisms. From the cosmic standpoint the mortal is already dead; the continuing life merely indicates the persistence of the material momentum of cosmic energies.”
To understand what this verse is about, we need to explain some unfamiliar terms.
Morontial refers to an intermediate form between material life and spiritual life. This is morontia in the Urantia Book.
Adjuster is the divine fragment dwelling within a human.
Seraphim is our Guardian Angel.
Uversa is the capital of Orvonton.
Censors are high-ranking spiritual personalities.
Orvonton is the Milky Way Galaxy where we reside.
Monitor is the same as Adjuster, the divine fragment dwelling within a human.
Let’s read this passage again, now understanding the individual terms:
“1. Spiritual (soul) death. If and when mortal man has finally rejected survival, when he has been pronounced spiritually insolvent, morontially bankrupt, in the conjoint opinion of the Adjuster and the surviving seraphim, when such co-ordinate advice has been recorded on Uversa, and after the Censors and their reflective associates have verified these findings, thereupon do the rulers of Orvonton order the immediate release of the indwelling Monitor. But this release of the Adjuster in no way affects the duties of the personal or group seraphim concerned with that Adjuster-abandoned individual. This kind of death is final in its significance irrespective of the temporary continuation of the living energies of the physical and mind mechanisms. From the cosmic standpoint the mortal is already dead; the continuing life merely indicates the persistence of the material momentum of cosmic energies.”
So, what is this about? A human being lives and makes certain decisions, and those decisions have specific spiritual consequences. Bad decisions have bad consequences. In the Urantia Book, there’s also a definition of good and evil, or sin. Sin has several degrees. If a person ultimately decides that they want to be evil, they erase themselves.
Here is, in a nutshell, how evil is graded in the Urantia Book:
If a person unknowingly commits evil, it’s not yet considered evil. If they commit evil but have a moral problem with it, it’s already a slightly higher degree of evil. And if a person knowingly commits evil, is aware that it is evil, and chooses to be that way, meaning they decide to be an evil person, then it is the worst degree of evil, and that person is written off from the possibility of further spiritual evolution. In other words, spiritual death occurs. This is the kind of death described here. We then have a person like a zombie, a person without a soul.
Commonly, we might refer to an evil person as a person without a soul. It’s unclear whether people have intuitively come to this conclusion that someone can be soulless, or whether it’s just something people say. In any case, one can be a person without a soul, who is already spiritually dead, while physically indistinguishable from other people.
Let’s move on to verse 112:3.3. Here, the second, easier-to-explain type of death is presented.
“2. Intellectual (mind) death. When the vital circuits of higher adjutant ministry are disrupted through the aberrations of intellect or because of the partial destruction of the mechanism of the brain, and if these conditions pass a certain critical point of irreparability, the indwelling Adjuster is immediately released to depart for Divinington. On the universe records a mortal personality is considered to have met with death whenever the essential mind circuits of human will-action have been destroyed. And again, this is death, irrespective of the continuing function of the living mechanism of the physical body. The body minus the volitional mind is no longer human, but according to the prior choosing of the human will, the soul of such an individual may survive.”
This verse should be understandable. We already know what the Adjuster is – a divine fragment dwelling within a human. Divinington, on the other hand, is a place in the Universe reserved for Adjusters.
What does it mean? From a spiritual point of view, a human is will. Through will, a person makes decisions, and the will functions thanks to the mind. When a person loses their mental abilities, they can no longer make decisions.
In other words, you make decisions, you are a human being. If you cannot make decisions, according to the Urantia Book, you are no longer a human being.
Suppose a person gets sick or has an accident, but physically survives – the body continues to function, but the mind does not. The person cannot make decisions, so at this point, the Adjuster, the divine fragment functioning within the human, is released. The soul’s development stops at the moment when the person was still making decisions, as long as their will was functioning. At this stage, the evolution of the human soul stops but continues further after death.
And the third type of death, the normal, typical one. Let’s read verse 112:3.4:
“3. Physical (body and mind) death. When death overtakes a human being, the Adjuster remains in the citadel of the mind until it ceases to function as an intelligent mechanism, about the time that the measurable brain energies cease their rhythmic vital pulsations. Following this dissolution the Adjuster takes leave of the vanishing mind, just as unceremoniously as entry was made years before, and proceeds to Divinington by way of Uversa.”
And finally, normal death, the usual kind as everyone knows it, the death of the body and mind. The Adjuster, the divine fragment, departs back to heaven, and the body decomposes into its primary material elements.
That’s all for today. Take care, and we’ll continue this topic further. Until next time!
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Link to the video:
https://youtu.be/e0ILmUPJSK0?si=u856ToKrzf3V-rqJ
Sources of the quotes:
https://www.urantia.org/urantia-book-standardized/paper-112-personality-survival