Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 16
THE SEVEN MASTER SPIRITS
1. The Seven Master Spirits of Paradise are the primary personalities of the Infinite Spirit. In this sevenfold creative act of self-duplication the Infinite Spirit exhausted the associative possibilities mathematically inherent in the factual existence of the three persons of Deity ... And this explains why the universe is operated in seven grand divisions, and why the number seven is basically fundamental in its organization and administration.
2. In spirit character and nature these Seven Spirits of Paradise are as one, but in all other aspects of identity they are very unlike, and the results of their functioning in the superuniverses are such that the individual differences of each are unmistakably discernible.
3. When the Father, the Son, and the Spirit act together, they can and do function through Master Spirit Number Seven, but not as the Trinity. The Master Spirits singly and collectively represent any and all possible Deity functions, single and several, but not collective, not the Trinity. Master Spirit Number Seven is personally nonfunctional with regard to the Paradise Trinity, and that is just why he can function personally for the Supreme Being.
4. As far as we can discern, these Seven Spirits are associated with the divine activities of the three eternal persons of Deity; we detect no evidence of direct association with the functioning presences of the three eternal phases of the Absolute. When associated, the Master Spirits represent the Paradise Deities in what may be roughly conceived as the finite domain of action. It might embrace much that is ultimate but not absolute.
5. At the center of centers the Infinite Spirit is approachable, but not all who attain Paradise are immediately able to discern his personality and differentiated presence; but all who attain the central universe can and do immediately commune with one of the Seven Master Spirits, the one presiding over the superuniverse from which the newly arrived space pilgrim hails ... The Infinite Spirit exerts an influence of personal presence within the confines of the Paradise‑Havona system; elsewhere his personal spirit presence is exerted by and through one of the Seven Master Spirits
6. The presiding Spirit of the seventh superuniverse is a uniquely equal portrayal of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. The Seventh Spirit, the fostering advisor of all triune‑origin beings, is also the advisor and director of all the ascending pilgrims of Havona, those lowly beings who have attained the courts of glory through the combined ministry of the Father., the Son, and the Spirit.
7. The Seventh Master Spirit discloses a personal and organic relationship to the spirit person of the evolving Supreme ... He thus inherently becomes the presiding head of the Paradise council of the Seven Master Spirits...The multiple functions of the Seventh Master Spirit thus range from a combined portraiture of the personal natures of the Father, Son, and Spirit, through a representation of the personal attitude of God the Supreme, to a disclosure of the deity attitude of the Paradise Trinity. And in certain respects this presiding Spirit is similarly expressive of the attitudes of the Ultimate and of the Supreme‑Ultimate.
8. During the present universe age of the noncontactability of the person of the Supreme, Master Spirit Number Seven functions in the place of the God of ascendant creatures in the matter of personal relationships. He is the one high spirit being that all ascenders are certain to recognize and somewhat comprehend when they reach the centers of glory ... His administration of Orvonton discloses the marvelous symmetry of the co‑ordinate blending of the divine natures of Father, Son, and Spirit.
9. The goal of personality existence is spiritual,, but the morontia creations always intervene, bridging the gulf between the material realms of mortal origin and the superuniverse spheres of advancing spiritual status. It is in this realm that the Master Spirits make their great contribution to the plan of man's Paradise ascension.
10. The physical stamp of a Master Spirit is a part of man's material origin. The entire morontia career is lived under the continuing influence of this same Master Spirit. It is hardly strange that the subsequent spirit career of such an ascending mortal never fully eradicates the characteristic stamp of this same supervising Spirit...Throughout all eternity an ascendant mortal will exhibit traits indicative of the presiding Spirit of his superuniverse of nativity. Even in the Corps of the Finality, when it is desired to arrive at or to portray a complete Trinity relationship to the evolutionary creation, always a group of seven finaliters is assembled, one from each superuniverse.
11. The fact of the cosmic mind explains the kinship of various types of human and superhuman minds. Not only are kindred spirits attracted to each other, but kindred minds are also very fraternal and inclined towards co‑operation the one with the other. Human minds are sometimes observed to be running in channels of astonishing similarity and inexplicable agreement.
12. There exists in all personality associations of the cosmic mind a quality which might be denominated the "reality response." It is this universal cosmic endowment of will creatures which saves them from becoming helpless victims of the implied a priori assumptions of science, philosophy, and religion. This reality sensitivity of the cosmic mind responds to certain phases of reality just as energy‑material responds to gravity.
13. The cosmic mind unfailingly responds...on three levels of universe reality ... These levels of reality are:
1. Causation ...the differentiation of the factual and the nonfactual...This is the mathematical form of the cosmic discrimination.
2. Duty ... the arena of reason, the recognition of relative right and ‑wrong. This is the judicial form of the cosmic discrimination.
3. Worship...the personal realization of divine fellowship, the recognition of spirit values, the assurance of eternal survival ... This is the highest insight of the cosmic mind, the reverential and worshipful form of the cosmic discrimination ... The experience of living never fails to develop these three cosmic intuitions ... But it is sad to record that so few persons on Urantia take delight in cultivating these qualities of courageous and independent cosmic thinking.
14. These three basic factors in reflective thinking may be unified and co‑ordinated in personality development, or they may become disproportionate and virtually unrelated in their respective functions. But when they become unified, they produce a strong character consisting in the correlation of a factual science, a moral philosophy, and a genuine religious experience. And it is these three cosmic intuitions that give objective validity, reality, to man's experience in and with things, meanings, and values. It is the purpose of education to develop and sharpen these innate endowments of the human mind; of civilization to express them; of life experience to realize them; of religion to ennoble them; and of personality to unify them.
15. Morality, virtue, is indigenous to human personality...Man's mentality far transcends that of his animal cousins, but it is his moral and religious natures that especially distinguish him from the animal world ... The supposed insight of the higher animals is on a motor level and usually appears only after the experience of motor trial and error. Man is able to exercise scientific, moral, and spiritual insight prior to all exploration or experimentation.Only a personality can know what it is doing before it does it...a moral being possesses an insight which enables him to discriminate between ends as well as between means. And a moral being in choosing virtue is nonetheless intelligent. He knows what he is doing, why he is doing it, where he is going, and how he will get there. When man fails to discriminate the ends of his mortal striving, he finds himself functioning on the animal level of existence.
16. Virtue is righteousness ‑ conformity with the cosmos ... Virtue is not mere knowledge nor yet wisdom but rather the reality of progressive experience in the attainment of ascending levels of cosmic achievement ... Man's choosing between good and evil is influenced ... by such influences as ignorance, immaturity, and delusion. A sense of proportion is also concerned in the exercise of virtue ... Man's moral nature would be impotent without the art of measurement, the discrimination embodied in his ability to scrutinize meanings.
17.Morality can never be advanced by law or by force. It is a personal and freewill matter and must be disseminated by the contagion of the contact of morally fragrant persons with those who are less morally responsive, but who are also in some measure desirous of doing the Father's will.
18. Personality is a unique endowment of original nature whose existence is independent of, and antecedent to, the bestowal of the Thought Adjuster ... the manifestation of personality is ... conditioned and qualified by the nature and qualities of the associated energies of a material, mindal, and spiritual nature which constitute the organismal vehicle for personality manifestation…Personality is that feature of an individual which we know, and which enables us to identify such a being at some future time regardless of the nature and extent of changes in form, mind, or spirit status.
19.Creature personality is distinguished by two self‑manifesting and characteristic phenomena of mortal reactive behavior: self‑consciousness and associated relative free will. Self‑consciousness consists in intellectual awareness of personality actuality; it includes the ability to recognize the reality of other personalities ... and the realization of relative independence of creative and determinative free will.
20.The bestowal of the divine gift of personality upon such a mind‑endowed mortal mechanism confers the dignity of cosmic citizenship ... Such a selfhood indwelt by a prepersonal fragment of God the Father, is in truth and in fact a spiritual son of God.
21.The cosmic‑mind‑endowed, Adjuster‑indwelt, personal creature possesses innate recognition‑realization of energy reality, mind reality, and spirit reality. The will creature is thus equipped to discern the fact, the law, and the love of God.
22.If mortal man fails to survive natural death, the real spiritual values of his human experience survive as a part of the continuing experience of the Thought Adjuster. The personality values of such a nonsurvivor persist as a factor in the personality of the actualizing Supreme Being.
23.Civilizations are unstable because they are not cosmic; they are not innate in the individuals of the races. They must be nurtured by the combined contributions of the constitutive factors of man ‑ science, morality, and religion. Civilizations come and go, but science, morality, and religion always survive the crash.
24.Jesus not only revealed God to man, but he also made a new revelation of man to himself and to other men. In the life of Jesus you see man at his best. Man thus becomes so beautifully real because Jesus had so much of God in his life, and the realization (recognition) of God is inalienable and constitutive in all men.
25.Unselfishness, aside from parental instinct, is not altogether natural; other persons are not naturally loved or socially served. It requires the enlightenment of reason, morality, and the urge of religion, God‑knowingness, to generate an unselfish and altruistic social order ... You become conscious of man as your creature brother because you are already conscious of God as your Creator Father.
Discussion Questions
1. How can we promote and cultivate more courageous and independent thinking?
2. What disciplines cultivate the unity of things, meanings, and values (the empirical, the rational, and the spiritual)?
3. Even though we can discern the quality of actions before experience, why is experience so important?
4. If morality cannot be established by law, what value are laws in establishing conduct in society?
5. Do we intuit something unique about personality that we can recognize regardless of changes in physical form, mind, and spirit?
6. Because of our good fortune to originate and experience the influence of the Seventh Master Spirit, what advantages of reality comprehension and Supreme recognition may this give us?
7. In what aspects of life should we attempt to organize kindred minds to promote projects, and where should we strive to avoid assembling kindred minds to prevent one-sided development or influence?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship