The Matter of the Mind

PD 1.5 (i.e. Pandect: page 1, fifth pgrph) Your world ... is one of many similar inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon. This universe, together with similar creations, makes up the superuniverse of Orvonton, from whose capital, Uversa, our ... revelatory commission hails. Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle ... the central universe of Havona. At the heart of this eternal and central universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity.

Sean "Now hang on a minute—I can't let that go by. `The geographic center of infinity' is an oxymoron if ever I heard one. First, the word geographic has to do with the drawing out of a description of `geos' or earth. And I cannot imagine how earth can be considered a center of infinity, or how Paradise could be either, for that matter. Or anything else. One has to posit infinity in this scenario as an incomprehensibly huge `globe' of which the perimeter somehow is at any point equidistant from the center. But if infinity is all that is therein contained then what have we got there? Endless reaches of nothing at all? Does anything in this make any sort of sense?"

Ben "Did I just hear you say that the bulk of what you just set forth makes no sense?"

"Listen, we have the following: 1. Nebadon, an inhabited local universe which is part of a superuniverse: 2. Orvonton, of which there are seven, and from whose capital: 3. Uversa, a commission has been sent to bring us this missive of revelation. Further, the seven superuniverses circle, like normal satelites, 4. Havona, the perfect central universe, itself circling, like normal satelites, 5. The Isle of Paradise, the absolute center of the 6. `heelal' (i.e. `everything, in an undifferentiated sense,' borrowed from the Dutch language.)"

Ben "Does that help? Make sense?" "Not sure. Let me think about it."

PD 1.6 (i.e. sixth pgrph) The seven evolving superuniverses in association with the central and divine universe, we commonly refer to as the grand universe; these are the now organized and inhabited creations. They are all a part of the master universe, which also embraces the uninhabited but mobilizing universes of outer space.

"Thus, we also have: 7. The Grand Universe of organized and inhabited creations, and: 8. The Master Universe which is the Grand Universe plus the organizing but uninhabited universes of outer space.

Ben "Take note, Sean, that the term `outer space' in this setting, has quite a different meaning than the one in use among earth's astronomers. The latter use outer space to refer to a region that is not a part of an organized community or family of space objects; the former are speaking of a region of space in which there are no such objects at all."

Sean "That's all very interesting, but at the moment it is just a bald, unsupported set of statements." Ben "At the moment, yes, but later astronomy proper plays a good part, with an overall effect of supporting these and many other cosmological claims. As you can surely tell, these are the bold and basic strokes, to set the stage in major parts, a concession, if you will, to the limited human mind. And now, another such ambit."

PD (6.2) In this original transaction the theoretical I AM achieved the realization of personality by becoming the Eternal Father of the Original Son simultaneously with becoming the Eternal Source of the Isle of Paradise.

"Here we have an early introduction, by way of a conceptual nod to `eternity' with the use of 8. the theoretical I AM which appellation, (see the King James Bible.) "underlines the meaning of `eternity' in an experiential sense as being the always and ever present, connoting the whole of past-present-future in one apprehension."

(KJB, Gen. 26.24) And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

PD (34.4) No thing is new to God, and no cosmic event ever comes as a surprise; he inhabits the circle of eternity. He is without beginning or end of days. To God there is no past, present, or future; all time is present at any given moment. He is the great and only I AM.

"We also come up against 9. the realization of personality as the first occurrence of relatedness between two persons—think of "This is my beloved Son ..." but, to put the capacity for relatedness as somehow commensurate with `personality' engenders some dissonance, so that will require some discussion later on.

"There is a third element in the last Pandect item, and that is the paired way in which the creation of the Eternal Son is coterminous with that of the Isle of Paradise, and what's more, the quotation continues as follows:"

PD (6.2) Coexistent with the differentiation of the Son from the Father, and in the presence of Paradise, there appeared the person of the Infinite Spirit and the central universe of Havona.

"The third element, then, applies also in the case of the Infinite Spirit: In the same way that the Eternal Son is paired with the Isle of Paradise, the Infinite Spirit is paired with Havona. Both of them are coupled with an immediate objective correlative as they come into existence. The implication would be that even with the coming of the gods there is a balance involved, `a balance in groundedness,' for want of a more fully formulated explication."

We also come up against the realization of personality as the first occurrence of relatedness between two persons—think of "This is my beloved Son ..." but, to put the capacity for relatedness as somehow commensurate with `personality' engenders some dissonance, so that requires some examination later on."

PD (6.2) Coexistent with the differentiation of the Son from the Father, and in the presence of Paradise, there appeared the person of the Infinite Spirit and the central universe of Havona.

Sean "Well, you're a fledgling full of promise, aren't you? You're soaring the azure skies and leaving me here unattended in my atheistic isolation. Ever think this might just be all balderdash? If there IS no God, what is the point of all this aerobatic gyration?"

Ben "I'd like to invite you on a little metaphoric thought experiment, okay?"

"Proceed, precocious one, proceed, with no more big surprises."

"A traveler in the arctic snows comes upon a good sized igloo which differs from the usual kind in having a doorway with a wooden door and a window with glass. He is tired and can think of little else than getting some rest. So he drinks the bottom half of a bottle of rum and sleeps for a couple of hours.

He wakes and goes to the window, looking far out onto the level snows fading to the horizon. He notices the window frame is fastened onto some supporting wooden structure, with the grain coming straight onto the opening without any horizontal lines. Could that be the cutoff end of a log? Never! The tree line is a gazilion miles to the south!

He exclaims, from deep conviction: "There are no log cabins in the arctic; none!" But he is inside one, oddly built, but a log cabin it is, nevertheless."

"And that, my good Sean, is like the fool saying in his heart, `There is no God'!"

(KJB, Pss. 14.1) The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

"Come now Ben, a contrived and artificial meta-image is supposed to alter the long and arduously attained belief structure of my inmost mind?"

"Not just that, no, not just that, there will be more, now and again, there will be more."

"More damocletian isolants suspended o'er my sparsely covered head?" (Sean stands a full head shorter than Ben; he tends to the rotund, even as to his head, which has an already thin halo of hair that seems suspended slightly above it.)"

Ben "All in good time, all in good faith and with good will, you can be sure: No danger to your roundy noggin from a few ideas that have so far not found a lodging inside."

"Pretty sure of yourself." "I've read the Pandect six times, I think." "Right on."

"We need to have another look at Paradise—you've already seen that the term isn't exactly used the way we've seen in the Bible, so let's go back a bit to the basic strokes."

PD (7.9) PARADISE is a term inclusive of the personal and the nonpersonal focal Absolutes of all phases of universe reality. Paradise, properly qualified, may connote any and all forms of reality, Deity, divinity, personality, and energy—spiritual, mindal, or material. All share Paradise as the place of origin, function, and destiny, as regards values, meanings, and factual existence.

PD (7.10) The Isle of Paradise—Paradise not otherwise qualified—is the Absolute of the material-gravity control of the First Source and Center. Paradise is motionless, being the only stationary thing in the universe of universes. The Isle of Paradise has a universe location but no position in space. This eternal Isle is the actual source of the physical universes—past, present, and future. The nuclear Isle of Light is a Deity derivative, but it is hardly Deity; neither are the material creations a part of Deity; they are a consequence.

"We must parse this a bit. Consider: `Paradise is motionless, being the only stationary thing in the universe of universes ... It ... has a universe location but no position in space.' "So clearly, it does not move in relation to any element of the Master Universe. But we know that all such elements do move, and they move in space, so at any given time they may be changing their location with respect to the position of Paradise. Just for the present, let us pin down our view of space: it is the limbeck in which the various forms of energy rush out from Paradise as they encharge the space which holds the constituents of the Master Universe, and one effect thereof is that those bodies move, away from Paradise."

"When those energies are exhausted, the reverse takes place, so space then is the medium which returns the bodies back to where they were, and takes the spent energies back to Paradise, to be there recharged, so that the cycle can be repeated. It is quite the drama—our scientists, having figured out some aspects of this maelstrom, have decided that it should be called The Big Bang, and that it happened only once, having started about 15 billion years ago. They have quite a bit more work to do."

"And one more thing: all three persons of the Trinity are stationed on Paradise."

About Chapter 1

The Matter of the Mind

In the beginning was the Word of God
And the word became Son and Paradise,
And Havona word fathered forth, abroad
In twosome wholeness, word to Spiritize.
Spirit acts in two domains. Mass and mind;
In gravest gravity slows energy
To form the worlds in balance right, and bind
In perfect equipoise the melody,
The music of the spheres the souls to please
As they progress inward and up to grow
A greater life and light like god's increase
And evermore his holiness to show.
And so the Spirit God of matter-mind
The Universe rebuilds, and that in kind.
NS

The Personality of Personicity

PD (9.1) The personality of mortal man is neither body, mind, nor spirit; neither is it the soul. Personality is the one changeless reality in an otherwise ever-changing creature experience; and it unifies all other associated factors of individuality. The personality is the unique bestowal which the Universal Father makes upon the living and associated energies of matter, mind, and spirit, and which survives with the survival of the ... soul.

Sean "What are you up to now? I've never heard of `personicity' before: Where did you come up with that, explain to me what's with this drift a'coming?"

"Oh, do not get all worked up about a little shift in the sequence of presentation; I will adjust the perspective in the shake of a dinosaur's tail." "That could take a while."

Ben "We have the beginning of a definition in this Pandect quote, of personality, or more to the point:

"10. The Personality of Mortal Man as here stipulated to be a `changeless reality' that unifies `factors of individuality' and is bestowed by God the Father uniquely on a human person and if all goes well, to survive mortal death. That is a good-sized gulp, and it could do with some examination. First, see item 9 above, p.10.

"In the language of the realm, so to speak, we use the term `personality' in social and sociological discourse as having an under-shadow connected with it from the concept `persona' and that has to do with how we present ourselves to others: We speak of a person as having a pleasant, an engaging, or perhaps an abrasive personality. And we readily allow that it might vary from day to day; from mood to mood; by/from who is present or who is not, and other circumstances such as health or effects of substances.

"So the way we use the term, `personality' actually has very little of any sort of `changeless reality' about it, and that is where `personicity' comes in, to provide a concept which may better serve the purposes intended by the writers of the Pandect, so thus we have the coinage: 11. personicity to serve as substitute for Pandect personality.

"Now, Sean, since you have maintained that you are an atheist, though not the fool we met before, I would like to present some pandect material relative to the question of the existence or otherwise of God, of Deity in its various forms, and so on. Alright?"

Sean "Of course, fire away, and may the devil take the hindmost." "Welll, as far as I've been able to consider that, we can pretty much forget about any devil at all."

PD (24.1) The actuality of the existence of God is demonstrated in human experience by the indwelling of the divine presence, the spirit Monitor sent from Paradise to live in the mortal mind of man and there to assist in evolving the immortal soul of eternal survival. The presence of this divine Adjuster in the human mind is disclosed by three experiential phenomena:

1. The intellectual capacity for knowing God—God-consciousness.

2. The spiritual urge to find God—God-seeking.

3. The personality craving to be like God.

The existence of God can never be proved by scientific experiment or by the pure reason of logical deduction. God can be realized only in the realms of human experience; nevertheless, the true concept of the reality of God is reasonable to logic, plausible to philosophy, essential to religion, and indispensable to a hope of personality survival.

"Here too, we are apprised of the existence and presence in the mind of almost everyone, of what in the Pandect are called Mystery Monitors or Thought Adjusters."

"So we, or all the normal WEs, receive not only the direct gift of personicity or pandect personality, but also, and directly from God the Father as well, a spark of his own being, which inhabits our minds, and which we are free to learn to access, to consult, and to share our lives with to whatever degree we can grow and teach our soul to do so."

Sean "That all seems a bit fantastic to me, you must realize—a fairy tale by night."

Ben "So from God almighty you expect kindling and sling shots? Hmmnn, by his fruits you shall know him? Or how shall you know him?"

PD (24.7.8) In theory you may think of God as the Creator, and he is the personal creator of Paradise and the central universe of perfection, but the universes of time and space are all created and organized by the Paradise corps of the Creator Sons ... Nebadon; the universe in which you live is the creation of his Son Michael ... God the Father is the personal creator of the Paradise universe and, in association with the Eternal Son, the creator of all other personal universe Creators.

As a physical controller in the material universe of universes, the First Source and Center functions in the patterns of the eternal Isle of Paradise, and through this absolute gravity center the eternal God exercises cosmic overcontrol of the physical level equally in the central universe and throughout the universe of universes ... the Master Universe.