2024-05-13-Michael in Mission Urantia 11

Session

Opening

Jerry: Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, Welcome! We are happy to have you with us in this new forum this morning, always keeping in mind that you are ever with us. Mother Spirit, your Mind/Spirit Adjutants are actually part of our mentality. Michael, your Spirit of Truth is a constant orientation to keep reaching for greater truth in our lives. Michael, this morning, if you would, I’d like you to address a question that came up a while ago, about contacting our Thought Adjuster—The presence of God within us. So, if you would, please. Thank You.

Lesson

Michael: Good morning, everyone. This is Michael. Mother Spirit and I are very happy to be with you this way. Always remember that we are as close as your next thought, as is our mutual Father. Yes, I would be happy to give you a lesson on your relationship with this presence of God within you. It's called a Thought Adjuster because his input is exactly that. He can supply thoughts that affect the balance of all the thoughts that occur to you.

I want to emphasize right off the bat that you yourself reign supreme within yourself. Among all your thoughts—whatever the source!—you yourself decide, sometimes even moment to moment, what thoughts you will acknowledge, which you will ignore, which you will cherish, and which you will carry into action. Remember: being a spiritual being, your unique, God-given personality is endowed with creative spirit. You yourself are the origin of most of your thoughts, especially when you are engaged in some activity like making dinner, talking with a friend, watching TV or the internet, or driving your car. Even waking up at three in the morning you are always thinking.

(Dear Father, what do I do next?)

Throughout, your Thought Adjuster is constantly with you, supplying thoughts that affect the balance. For most folks they can be recognized as a kind of idealism. This presence of God within you is mainly concerned that you have life and have it more abundantly. Your Thought Adjuster can even suggest very practical ideas concerning things like your diet and exercise. In times of stress or crisis, your Thought Adjuster's input can be recognized for being thoroughly comprehensive, encapsulating the whole situation. Still, these ideas are offered, never demanded, for the next step to take. And so, this can be your most sincere prayer at any time—anytime at all: “Dear Father. what do I do next?” Then pay particular attention because his answer can be your very next thought.

If you want to open yourself to your Thought Adjuster exclusively, let me offer a kind of meditation called stillness. This is where you simply but profoundly suspend all your other activities and just be still. This can be very difficult for some folks initially. They fall asleep or simply wander away in reverie. To practice this kind of hyper-consciousness, I offer a simple technique for staying in touch with your physical being. Obviously, your body is always in reality, however your mind and self-awareness come and go.

Just be aware of your breathing. Count your breaths from 1 to 10 over and over, so if you suddenly find yourself counting 17 or 18, you know your attention has strayed. Very soon you will find this does not stop your thinking. Thoughts will occur right alongside. At first you may be concerned with recent events or some demands, but after a while deeper, more profound notions can come. As contrasted to mental exercises or specific prayers with an end result in mind, this is just practicing open-mindedness with no preconceived result. This opportunity gives your Thought Adjuster the chance to have his thoughts register in your mind.

This, my children, is one of your finest activities to keep in touch with your Thought Adjuster and your greater Self. It helps you pay the greatest price in your life: You pay attention!—in this case, just pure attention.

Now if you have any questions or comments about your Thought Adjuster, or anything else—go ahead.

Dialogue

John: Greetings, Jerry. I've read your transcripts for decades, living up here in Ukiah, just north of the Bay Area. It's wonderful to hear you T/R-ing. Thank you so much. The question I have for Michael is this: I know from what I've read in The Urantia Book there's the presence of the Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit at the very center of creation, but I also see that reflected within mortals too. We have the Father’s Thought Adjusters; we have Michael’s Spirit of Truth, and we have Mother Spirit's Holy Spirit and her Adjutant Mind/Spirits. In The Urantia Book they talk about mind being the medium between the physical and the spiritual. So, my question is: can you offer how we might keep our minds in a healthy state so that we are more available for our Thought Adjuster, and connecting with spirit? Thank you.

Michael: Yes, my son. For one—in addition to stillness meditation—it's wonderful to occupy your mind with good, creative work in all your day-to-day habits. It's better to occupy yourself genuinely creatively rather than try to suppress things like anger, resentment, revenge--mental poisons that sometimes grab a hold of you. You’ll only be giving them attention and energy. Rather, occupy yourself with great achievements. Above all, the finest activity is very obviously helping someone else. Their needful company gets you out of yourself, if you will. Also, as I said, one of your most sincere prayers is: “Dear Father, what do I do next? What can I do next? Even: what should I do next?” This gets you in contact with his greater presence.

(Seek, employ, and enjoy truth, beauty, and goodness)

Healthy mental habits of appreciation fill your life as best you can with good work, good things to occupy yourself, good entertainment, joyful, friendly relationships. A dear friend with whom to share your life is such a blessing. In actively seeking to find truth, beauty, and goodness, you develop a strength of mind. Your soul becomes full of happy, rewarding experiences. You literally build a good life shared with others. As Mother Spirit says, the others in your life are “little walking infinities”—as are you to yourself. You glory in the unbounded enormity that both you and God’s creation are. Be in my peace.

John: Thank you Michael.

Marthe: Thank you very much. Thank you very much for these answers, Michael. I have two questions. The first one is a continuation of Sal's question about your own indwelling spirit while you were on earth as Jesus of Nazareth. Are we correct in believing that you had an indwelling spirit that had previously indwelt Machiventa Melchizedek, and that you had come to show us how to complete our human attainment of the seven psychic circles? Were you therefore, in our understanding, fused with a Father fragment, but obviously in a much... Could explain the methodology by which you completed your human experience, and how your soul functioned? Thank you very much.

Michael: Yes. Thank you for the question. Yes, I was blessed as are you with a presence of our Father and, as you have been informed, all through my life I was aware of this presence, even as a small boy. I can only explain it as a kind of company. No matter what I was doing, even when I was alone, I still had company. This, of course, is something that so many of you also have, this awareness of someone with whom to share your life.

(God’s great gift of the ability to share one’s life)

For this is God's greatest attribute, this ability to share your life with another. It is God's desire to share himself that literally gives rise to the Creation filled with trillions of trillions of trillions of trillions of personal beings that he enjoys. So yes, I was blessed--as are you--with someone to talk with, someone to address, and someone to listen to--for that critical, next best thing to do—as best you can. Always keep an open mind—and remember!—the next best thing to do—whether you can do it or not! Keep open to it. Let it motivate you. You have the finest guide available, so learn to trust yourself. Lean in that direction. You had another question?

Marthe: Thank you so much, Michael. Thanks for that answer. I do. The second question is about trusting oneself. Because of where I live and the role I've played these last 20 years, I have a very strong sense that African women have a very special role to play in the healing of the world. I wanted to understand from you, in the same way that you were born in Palestine--is this a correct understanding?--is this something that I should spend my time to support--the agency of African women to bring their contribution to the world? It's so strong in my mind, but I'm not sure if it is part of my spiritual path, or is it merely something that I think up in my own mind? I would like some guidance, please. Thank you.

(The adventure of doing good work)

Michael: Yes. My daughter. In any real, genuine spiritual work like this you never know until you try. Sometimes even the next day—even tomorrow—is rather opaque. Yet after thinking it through—as you have—you lend your spirit and your good work. All well and very good, but most importantly, continue paying attention and being open to what you call “feedback.” In spite of your contribution, and even because of it, you need to keep an open mind for the result. You do your best, but then: what happens? What is the result? Is it good or not? This is sometimes the most difficult part because of having given your heart and your soul to a project, and wanting it so much to succeed, still there comes a further necessary evaluation to continue. So, continue to give your attention and your heart to that. Do your best, then see what happens. This, my dear, is what you are involved in. This is why it's an adventure.

Marthe: Thank you so much, Michael. Thanks for that answer.

Bea: Hi there. I feel very privileged to be here today. I have a question that I'll just ask. I don't know if you want to answer this because it’s only sort-of a curiosity question about the universe. As you know, I'm a scientist, and although I'm not an astrophysicist, I know that there are a lot of galaxies out there, at least according to our scientists and our telescopes. I perceive there is much more out there than is outlined in the Urantia Book. Can you make some comment about this?

Michael: Yes, my dear. The physical creation, including the seven inhabited Super Universes, is truly enormous with hundreds of millions of galaxies. Yet, as your Urantia Book tells you, the Master Universe is limited/finite. But even this statement goes beyond any kind of true human comprehension. Words like “hundreds of millions” have no direct experience in your human lives. And beyond/within the physical universe is the inner universe of Havona’s billion worlds surrounding something called Paradise, which is a kind of counterbalance to the rest of creation. So, it's all very large.

Bea: Okay. That makes sense. I do have an interesting question. How should I put it? Does our First Source and Center have any other projects ongoing other than this; or is that it?

Michael: Yes, my dear. The thing to keep in mind is that God's activity was not just some kind of initial nudge once upon a time to get it all going. His work is continuous, moment by moment. Your classical theologians express this as his omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence—everywhere-ness, all-knowing, and all-powerful. He once expressed it through a prophet as: “Without my work, these worlds would cease.”

(Continuous creation via God’s “cosmic children”)

Your Urantia Book further states that he divests himself of as much creativity as he can to other subordinate beings. A poetical way of saying this is to give them names like “Architects of the Master Universe”, or “Ancients of Days” of the Super Universes. Many neigh incomprehensible beings are even involved in additional, ongoing physical creation. The First Source and Center is constantly active in creating and upholding everything through these his “cosmic children.”

Bea: Is He like a big computer?

Michael: Well, a very big one, if you think of it in that way. But there is also something given one little English word that is truly impossible to exhaustively delineate. That word is “life.” What is it to be alive? What is life?--except that you know it most intimately, moment by moment. You actually have it. Wiggle your fingers and be amazed.

Bea: That I am. Thank you very much.

Sal: I'd like to go back to the original discussion we had about the soul. Now I understand The Urantia Book where it talks about the presence of a Thought Adjuster in Machiventa Melchizedek when he was here. The same Thought Adjuster was in Christ Michael. Now I understand the communication that went on between them, but the fact of creating a soul in either one of them; Machiventa doesn't have a soul that I know of (the need for one I don't know) and the reason for Christ Michael to have a soul. That was the question I had about the creation of a soul in the mortals for sure, but in those entities, the personalities of a Creative Son or Melchizedek, I don't understand the need for a soul. The communication, I understand. But the creation of a soul I don't understand. Can you comment on that?

(Every personal being has access to past experiences)

Michael: Why yes, my son. This is where one of the finest chapters of your Urantia Book helps. (#112) It's called Personality Survival and it gets into the nature of personality. All personal beings are experiential, like little nodules of experience, each with a unique personality in God’s personality circuit. In this way God enjoys all these unique viewpoints. While every personality (human or spirit) remains unchanging in itself (you will always be you), still it acquires experience. If you will, that's both your purpose and God's purpose in enjoying your life. In God—the First Source and Center, and the Supreme Being—is all time and all experience. Every individual personality has an earned past of experience, a human soul or what is analogous to a soul.

Sal: No, I don't buy that.

Michael: The higher personal spiritual beings have what is what you might consider a near perfect memory. This is analogous to a human soul.

Sal: I can understand an audit trail on personalities. That's what experience is. And God enjoys the experiences of all personalities. That's the gift that we give to God. I can understand the creation of a soul with a Thought Adjuster. That's what got me into The Urantia Book--that concept. But the fact of the matter of a soul in a Melchizedek--I don't understand the creation of that, or in a Creator Son. (Ed: A Thought Adjuster and soul was given them to fulfill their human incarnations—the Sage of Salem in Melchizedek’s case, Jesus in Michael’s case)

Michael: My son, they don't need what you call a soul. With what you might think of as a near perfect memory, all their past experience is available to them.

Sal: I understand experience. We all have different experiences. That's part of God the Supreme's creation of experience as the evolving God of experience, that we as individuals have. But there's no soul there.

Michael: I guess you do not understand by what I mean by analogous. Your soul is your experience.

Sal: As a mortal? Yes, but as a Melchizedek, please explain.

Michael: Melchizedek’s have experience. We all have our experience available to us. This is our “soul”—what we have done. That's the analogy here.

Sal: Analogy is one thing, but a soul—according to The Urantia Book—is something resurrected with the personality of the individual mortal. Melchizedeks don't resurrect.

Michael: My son. I think you are clinging to notions you've had and are not really comprehending what I'm telling you. A human being is given a way to keep their experiences as a personal possession—what we call a soul. They have a Thought Adjuster's help in maintaining this Morontia entity. Higher beings do not have the same thing. They don't need to.

Sal: Agreed.

Michael: That's all I'm saying. It's analogous. Obviously, a Melchizedek does not have a human soul. But both Melchizedek’s and human beings have access to what they’ve experienced. God’s Supreme Being is the totality of this accumulating experience of all personal beings, a dimension of cosmic reality, if you will.

Sometime in the future you will literally become one with the presence of God within you. You will go through a transformation in which you change as a kind of being at that time, although you're still shy of being even a first stage spirit. It's just another--but profound--step in your eternal potential.

Sal: Paper 112 [Personality Survival] is one of my favorite papers.

Michael: Thank you, my son. Be in my peace.

Sal: Thank you.

Bea: I like this discussion about the soul because it's a very difficult concept for me to understand. However, I am wondering if the reason that we mortals have souls is that we're actually growing closer to God with each and every experience, and therefore adding to who we are--our soul. Whereas Melchizedek’s and other created beings are considered perfect without needing to ascend. Would that be one of the reasons they don't require a soul? I know you're talking to limited human minds here, so sorry.

Michael: Yes, my dear. All personal beings are endowed with a unique personality with creative spirit. Almost all have some discernible form analogous to a body, but not so physical as yours. All personal beings are “nodules of experience” with their own way of keeping their past experiences and bringing them into the present. But keep in mind that only the Trinity is absolutely perfect—neither Mother Spirit nor I. Here is a distinction between a Creator Son, a Creator Daughter, and the Trinity.

(Your soul is your only necessary possession)

Your soul, my dear, is yours. It’s what you acquire and earn through living. It's your only—yet only necessary—true possession forever. Now, being so caught up in all the thinking I was talking about earlier, you have to go into a deep meditation to focus on some remembered experience to consciously contact your soul. For a few precious moments you might feel you are 15 years old again in all its fullness. This is so short-lived and limited compared to one day being totally, consciously one with your own soul and God’s presence.

Hopefully, with reflection, you grow your ability to be more and more one with your own soul and the presence of God within you, until one day you literally merge with this presence of God and change the kind of being you are. For now, it's a matter of faith to accept that your soul is so enormous beyond your ability to just casually tap into all of it.

Bea: So, my soul is an existence in another dimension while I'm down here having an experience?

Michael: In a way, yes. It's like you already have a toe in the Morontia realm. Soul is a kind of extra-temporal reality as is--of course--the presence of God within you.

Bea: Of course.

Michael: This is what your soul is. Your Urantia Book compares it to the warp and wolf of a piece of cloth that you and your Thought Adjuster weave together to make a soul. Mother Spirit has teased you with the notion that your soul doesn't contain every hot dog and hamburger you’ve ever eaten--no matter how delicious; nor every delightful little object you’ve had. The soul is mostly--if you are blessed--the other human beings you have shared your life with. They are the most precious and fullest content of your soul.

Bea: That makes perfect sense. That's very interesting. I like thinking about this kind of thing. But from my perspective it's like I don't have much of a scaffold to hang it on. I feel like I'm missing a lot of information and so it's very difficult to understand these concepts.

But I have one last question about how the Urantia Book mentions traversing the second and first psychic circles. There is one statement where it says your Thought Adjuster tries to Morontia-ize your mind for the rest of your life. I was wondering if you could comment or expand on that statement to maybe provide a little bit more detail or context.

(The wonder of a truly soulful person)

Michael: Yes, my dear. You have a wonderful sense of this when you meet someone who has had enormous experience with other folks, someone who has lived a very full life shared with many others. It's apparent to you. You say: here is a very soulful individual. Similarly, your psychic circles are largely determined by your relationship with the presence of God within you and his co-authored content. What you call saints are individuals who have fully given themselves to helping others, sharing themselves to positively affect so many other lives. They have a lot of soul. You can actually register this. One of your most delightful experiences is spending some time with a very soulful individual. Does that make sense?

Bea: Yes, it does.

Michael: Again, I recommend you read that chapter in your Urantia Book on Personality Survival. It's the most comprehensive description in all your world’s literature about the very kind of being you are, especially the idea that your human personality is not strictly bound by time and change. In a very personal way of thinking about it, you will always be you! Even in a million, or 100 million years from now--with all you will have experienced and have grown enormously through all the worlds you have crossed and all the hundreds of thousands if not millions of different beings you will have shared your life with--you will still be you. Your experiences will be ever more available to you as you yourself continue to grow and evolve. This is the kind of being you are.

Bea: Thank you very much. I have one more question. Would you be able to comment on reincarnation--whether or not it's obligatory--if it exists--if it's optional--if it depends on the path of the individual?

Michael: Yes, my dear. To repeat, you are essentially a fresh God-created personality, unique in all reality and like no other—before or current. As such, you do not have an identity in and of yourself before personal experience and a soul. This is hard to comprehend, except that this is where the soul comes in. You literally acquire a soul identity that continues beyond physical death.

(Reincarnation is not a literal fact)

Your Urantia Book goes into enormous detail about your reawakening on the mansion worlds, not into another human life. Reincarnation was and remains attempts to comprehend the fact that personal life does continue after death, and there is a divine/cosmic justice, a moral cause-and-effect--called Karma. Good and bad acts affect you. They fill your soul and, when you regain consciousness on the mansion worlds, you will be so much more spiritual and in touch with your soul. All the things you have done in this life will be there for review, even things you failed to do—opportunities you chose not to avail yourself of.

You will continue to grow from your past experiences. So again, read that chapter. It talks about how at conception, suddenly being physical, each fertilized egg is unique except perhaps for identical twins, right? Even in old-fashioned families with 8 or 10 brothers and sisters with a family similarity, they're each still unique. Physically you are unique, with an associated unique personality. There's no way that you are encumbered with some previous life.

Sal: But personality isn't at conception. Isn't personality at birth?

Michael: Personality is associated with a unique physical event.

Sal: Not to conception, but to the birth. According to The Urantia Book, the discerners of spirit--supernaphim [seconaphim?]--register any personality in creation, no matter where in the universe, not just mortals upon--and I quote--"the breath of life" If I'm not mistaken.

Michael: Personality is assigned to a living organism in your human case. Were there any more questions?

JT: That's all the time we have for questions today. Michael, do you have a closing for us?

Closing

Michael: Yes. Thank everyone for your questions. Always keep in mind: You have to be open to other dimensions to which your comprehension creates and directs a question. I can only do my best to answer in a way I feel you can grasp. I enjoy so much being with you this way.

(The profound ability to share your life with others)

Also keep in mind that Mother Spirit and I are part of your lives, and are always available. You can talk with us. You can ask us questions, as you do of your Father Fragment—the presence of God within you. It is our glory to be able to share our lives with you, just as we encourage you to share your lives with each other. This great possibility--this enormous potential for your kind of being--extends indefinitely forever-- as you choose!--moment by moment. Mother Spirit sends you her love, and I bid you: Be in my peace. Let it thrill and amaze you.

JT: Thank you, Michael; and thank you, Jerry.

Michael: Goodbye.