Master+Universe

=THE MASTER UNIVERSE=



 ==A Study of the Master Universe ;[|Appendix I: Master Universe Antecedents] [|Author's Introductory Comments] == We tend to look at the master universe as a "going concern," as something that has been here for a long time and is going to be here for a long time. This is a very legitimate way of looking at the master universe; it is a durable creation. At its center is the stationary Isle and the universe of eternal perfection. We live on the outer edge of one of the encircling superuniverses that is slowly evolving in the direction of perfection. Out beyond us, in the outer space regions, are the new universes of the future ages - large physical creations that are being organized for the developments of the future ages. Still farther out, in the more remote regions of outer space, physical creation begins to taper off until finally there is nothing but the quietness of empty space in the outermost reaches of the master creation. The master universe has been here for a long time and it will be here for all future eternity, but it has not always been as large as it is now. If we could go back in time, it would shrink; there would be less of it. The farther back in time we went, the less there would be of physical matter - stars and nebulae - in the outer space regions. Finally we might go so far back in past time that we would discover there was nothing at all in outer space, nothing outside of the seven superuniverses except empty space. At that distant moment in past time even the superuniverses would be thinned out." The stars would then be fewer in number than now. We are thinking in past time about the superuniverses of long ago, back before the beginning of any physical activities in outer space. And we could think still farther back in time. If we continue to time-travel backward in concept, the superuniverses: would continue to thin out, they would continue to shrink. We could eventually think of a point in past time when there were comparatively few stars, few nebulae in the superuniverses; when there was mostly empty space. And not too far back of that point, in remote past time, there would be nothing in the superuniverse space level which, like the (then) outer space levels, would be empty of all material creation. So far, we have been traveling back in concept to a time before the beginning of the present universe age. We have gone back to a point in time the Urantia Papers describe as "near eternity"(256,3), and as the "dawn of time." (256,5) Have we gone back to a past time that is before the beginning of the whole master universe? The answer is, "No," but we have traveled all the way back to the eternal core of the master universe. We have gone back to a point in time where there was nothing but empty space in the regions outside of the central universe. (Only in those days it would not have been called the "central" universe; it would probably have been called "the" universe.) And from here on, no matter how much farther back we try to reach in concept, things would always be the same; nothing would change; always there would be Paradise at the center, with Havona encircling it. No matter how far back we go this would be unchanging; this is the eternal heart, the unbeginning core of the master universe. This is the eternal Paradise-Havona system, and it has no origin in time. The concept of the entire master universe is eternal; it is forever living in the minds of its Master Architects. These beings are superfinite, the living "blueprints" of God's whole plan for the total master creation. (351, §9) The reality of the master universe has its roots in past eternity in the unbeginning existence of Havona. (91,7) Its first expression was Havona perfection in the First Universe Age. (152,1) Its next expression is in the Second Universe Age (the present age) when the imperfect superuniverses of time enter into relationship with the perfect central universe of eternity to constitute the grand universe of growing evolutionary perfection. (2,8-10), (4,10-11) Its final expression concerns the now uninhabited outer universes and their future relationship with the grand universe. These mobilizing physical creations of outer space are neither inhabited nor organized; they encircle the presently inhabited and organized grand universe. (2,11), (4,12), Appendix III,§3; An Inventory of the Six Space Levels) It is our purpose in this Appendix to examine the antecedents of the master universe. We propose to begin this examination in past time when there was nothing but empty space outside of Havona. This is Havona in the First Universe Age. If we can think back to the dawn of time, then we might try to think our way still farther back, before time itself, into past eternity. We might try to visualize conditions as they could have been "before" Havona. Such ideas "before the appearance of Havona" would not be factual realities, but they could still be valid concepts. The Urantia Papers find it useful to entertain the concept of a "time" before the existence of Havona, a "time" that would be prior to the existence of the Infinite Spirit. (91,1-4), (91,8) The Urantia Papers speak of this concept of such a hypothetical past moment as "the dawn of eternity." (351,5)

== Urantia Text [|Paper 115]:[|1. RELATIVITY OF CONCEPT FRAMES] ==

115:1.1 [|Partial], incomplete, and [|evolving] [|intellects] would be helpless in the [|master universe], would be unable to form the first [|rational] [|thought] [|pattern], were it not for the [|innate] [|ability] of all [|mind], high or low, to [|form] a [|universe] [|frame] in which to [|think]. If mind cannot [|fathom] conclusions, if it cannot penetrate to true [|origins], then will such mind unfailingly [|postulate] conclusions and [|invent] [|origins] that it may have a means of [|logical] [|thought] within the [|frame] of these mind-created [|postulates]. And while such [|universe] [|frames] for [|creature] [|thought] are indispensable to [|rational] [|intellectual] operations, they are, without exception, [|erroneous] to a greater or lesser [|degree]. 115:1.2 [|Conceptual] [|frames] of the [|universe] are only [|relatively] true; they are serviceable [|scaffolding] which must eventually give way before the expansions of enlarging [|cosmic] [|comprehension]. The [|understandings] of [|truth, beauty, and goodness], [|morality], [|ethics], [|duty], [|love], [|divinity], [|origin], [|existence], [|purpose], [|destiny], [|time], [|space], even [|Deity], are only [|relatively] true. [|God] is much, much more than a [|Father], but [|the Father] is man's highest [|concept] of [|God]; nonetheless, the Father-Son portrayal of [|Creator]-[|creature] [|relationship] will be augmented by those [|supermortal] [|conceptions] of [|Deity] which will be [|attained] in [|Orvonton], in [|Havona], and on [|Paradise]. Man must [|think] in a [|mortal] [|universe] [|frame], but that does not mean that he cannot envision other and higher frames within which [|thought] can take place. 115:1.3 In order to [|facilitate] [|mortal] [|comprehension] of the [|universe of universes], the [|diverse] [|levels] of [|cosmic] [|reality] have been designated as [|finite], [|absonite], and [|absolute]. Of these only the [|absolute] is unqualifiedly [|eternal], truly [|existential]. [|Absonites] and [|finites] are [|derivatives], [|modifications], qualifications, and attenuations of the [|original] and primordial [|absolute] [|reality] of [|infinity]. 115:1.4 The realms of the [|finite] exist by [|virtue] of the [|eternal] [|purpose] of [|God]. [|Finite] [|creatures], high and low, may propound [|theories], and have done so, as to the [|necessity] of the [|finite] in the [|cosmic] [|economy], but in the last [|analysis] it exists because [|God] so willed. The [|universe] cannot be [|explained], neither can a [|finite] [|creature] offer a [|rational] reason for his own [|individual] [|existence] without [|appealing] to the prior [|acts] and pre-existent [|volition] of [|ancestral] [|beings], [|Creators] or procreators.

== Urantia Text [|Paper 12]:[|1. SPACE LEVELS OF THE MASTER UNIVERSE] ==

12:1.1 The universe of universes is not an [|infinite] [|plane], a boundless [|cube], nor a limitless [|circle]; it certainly has [|dimensions]. The [|laws] of physical organization and [|administration] [|prove] conclusively that the whole vast aggregation of [|force]-[|energy] and [|matter]-[|power] [|functions] [|ultimately] as a space unit, as an organized and [|co-ordinated] whole. The [|observable] [|behavior] of the material creation constitutes [|evidence] of a physical universe of definite limits. The final proof of both a circular and delimited universe is afforded by the, to us, well-known [|fact] that all forms of basic energy ever swing around the curved path of the space levels of the [|master universe] in [|obedience] to the incessant and [|absolute] pull of [|Paradise] [|gravity]. 12:1.2 The successive space levels of the master universe constitute the major divisions of pervaded space—total creation, organized and partially inhabited or yet to be organized and inhabited. If the master universe were not a series of [|elliptical] space levels of lessened [|resistance] to [|motion], alternating with zones of [|relative] [|quiescence], we conceive that some of the cosmic energies would be observed to shoot off on an infinite range, off on a straight-line path into trackless [|space]; but we never find [|force], [|energy], or [|matter] thus behaving; ever they whirl, always swinging onward in the tracks of the great space circuits. 12:1.3 Proceeding outward from [|Paradise] through the horizontal extension of pervaded space, the master universe is existent in six concentric [|ellipses], the space levels encircling the central Isle:
 * 1. The Central Universe—[|Havona].
 * 2. [|The Seven Superuniverses].
 * 3. [|The First Outer Space Level].
 * 4. [|The Second Outer Space Level].
 * 5. [|The Third Outer Space Level].
 * 6. [|The Fourth and Outermost Space Level].

12:1.4 [|Havona], the central universe, is not a [|time] [|creation]; it is an eternal [|existence]. This never-beginning, never-ending [|universe] consists of one billion [|spheres] of sublime [|perfection] and is surrounded by the enormous [|dark gravity] bodies. At the center of Havona is the stationary and absolutely stabilized Isle of [|Paradise], surrounded by its [|twenty-one satellites]. Owing to the enormous encircling masses of the [|dark gravity bodies] about the fringe of the central universe, the [|mass] [|content] of this central creation is far in excess of the total known mass of all seven sectors of the [|grand universe]. 12:1.5 [|The Paradise-Havona System], the eternal universe encircling the eternal Isle, constitutes the [|perfect] and eternal [|nucleus] of the [|master universe]; all seven of [|the superuniverses] and all regions of [|outer space] revolve in established orbits around the gigantic central aggregation of the [|Paradise] [|satellites] and the [|Havona] [|spheres]. 12:1.6 [|The Seven Superuniverses] are not primary [|physical] [|organizations]; nowhere do their boundaries divide a [|nebular] [|family], neither do they cross a [|local universe], a prime creative unit. Each [|superuniverse] is simply a geographic space clustering of approximately one seventh of the organized and partially [|inhabited post-Havona creation], and each is about equal in the number of [|local universes] [|embraced] and in the [|space] [|encompassed]. [|Nebadon], your local universe, is one of the newer creations in [|Orvonton], the seventh superuniverse. 12:1.7 The [|Grand Universe] is the present organized and [|inhabited creation]. It consists of [|the seven superuniverses], with an aggregate [|evolutionary] [|potential] of around seven trillion inhabited [|planets], not to mention the eternal [|spheres] of the [|central creation]. But this tentative estimate takes no account of [|architectural administrative spheres], neither does it include the outlying [|groups] of [|unorganized universes]. The present ragged edge of the [|grand universe], its uneven and unfinished [|periphery], together with the tremendously unsettled condition of the whole astronomical plot, suggests to our star students that even [|the seven superuniverses] are, as yet, uncompleted. As we move from within, from the divine center outward in any one direction, we do, eventually, come to the outer limits of the organized and inhabited creation; we come to the outer limits of the [|grand universe]. And it is near this outer border, in a far-off corner of such a [|magnificent] [|creation], that your [|local universe] has its eventful [|existence]. 12:1.8 [|The Outer Space Levels]. Far out in [|space], at an enormous distance from the seven inhabited superuniverses, there are assembling vast and unbelievably stupendous [|circuits] of [|force] and materializing energies. Between the energy circuits of [|the seven superuniverses] and this gigantic outer belt of [|force] [|activity], there is a space zone of comparative quiet, which varies in width but averages about four hundred thousand [|light-years]. These space zones are free from star dust—cosmic fog. Our students of these [|phenomena] are in [|doubt] as to the exact [|status] of the space-forces existing in this zone of [|relative] [|quiet] which encircles [|the seven superuniverses]. But about one-half million light-years beyond the [|periphery] of the present [|grand universe] we observe the beginnings of a zone of an unbelievable [|energy] [|action] which increases in volume and [|intensity] for over twenty-five million light-years. These tremendous [|wheels] of energizing forces are situated in the [|first outer space level], a [|continuous] belt of cosmic activity encircling the whole of the known, organized, and inhabited [|creation]. 12:1.9 Still greater activities are taking place beyond these regions, for the Uversa physicists have detected early evidence of force manifestations more than fifty million light-years beyond the outermost ranges of the phenomena in the first outer space level. These activities undoubtedly presage the organization of the material creations of the second outer space level of the master universe. 12:1.10 The [|central universe] is the creation of eternity; the seven superuniverses are the creations of time; the [|four outer space levels] are undoubtedly destined to [|eventuate]-evolve the [|ultimacy] of creation. And there are those who maintain that the Infinite can never attain full [|expression] short of infinity; and therefore do they postulate an additional and unrevealed creation beyond the [|fourth and outermost space level], a possible ever-expanding, never-ending universe of infinity. In [|theory] we do not know how to limit either the infinity of the Creator or the potential infinity of creation, but as it exists and is [|administered], we regard the [|master universe] as having [|limitations], as being definitely delimited and bounded on its outer margins by open space.

==[|A Study of the Master Universe][| Chapter 4]: Nuclear and Cytoplasmic Universes==

At this point in our study of the master universe, it is desirable to introduce two new words: "nucleus" and "cytoplasm." If the master universe could be likened to a growing organism, and in many ways it is, then we could think of it as having a nucleus which is surrounded by cytoplasm.

Some definitions are now very much in order:

Nucleus is defined (in Webster) as follows: "An organ present in the protoplasm of most plant and animal cells, and regarded as an essential agent in their constructive metabolism, growth, and reproduction and in the hereditary transmission of characters."

Cytoplasm stands in contrast to nucleus, and is, in part, defined (in Webster) as follows: the protoplasm of the cell exclusive of the nucleus." Illustration: In an egg, the yellow portion (the yolk) is the nucleus and the surrounding white (or translucent portion) is the cytoplasm.

This study advances the theory that the master universe has more than one nucleus. We believe it has two of them: one is existential, and the other is a combination of existential-experiential. The Havona nucleus is existential; the grand universe nucleus (the seven superuniverses plus Havona) is existential-experiential. Let us examine the evidence available to see if there is any support for this proposition.

==A Study of the Master Universe [|Appendix XX] § [|4. AGAIN: CYTOPLASMIC NEED EXPANDS NUCLEAR FUNCTIONS] ==

We have previously examined the effect on an "inner universe" of the needs of an "outer universe." (See [|Appendix XI, 7; Cytoplasmic Need expands Nuclear Functions].) Perhaps it would be well, at this point, to recapitulate this principle: (a) Post-Havona needs. In a certain sense, every creation that is subsequent to the central universe is alike; all are universes that are experiential (non-existential) in nature. Havona has something to give to each of them -- the superuniverses, the outer universes, and the Cosmos Infinite. All lack the quality of inherent, existential, and divine perfection. And in this giving, Havona escapes from the limitations inherent inbeing a universe of original and divine perfection. We can see this most clearly in the relationship which Havona sustains to the imperfect superuniverses. And we can also see what the superuniverses do for Havona when they introduce the evolutionary-growth technique into the central creation, thus superimposing new experiential growth possibilities on existential perfection. (b) Post-supreme needs. The creations that appear after the grand universe is settled in light and life are post-supreme domains. These post-supreme creations are the outer space universes and the Cosmos Infinite - everything outside of the grand universe. These realms are organized and settled after the Supreme Being has completed his growth, and after the possibility for finite experience has disappeared from the potentials of cosmic growth. As Havoners must compensate us for the lack of inherent perfection, so will the grand universers compensate the citizens of outer space for their inability to have finite experience. (c) Post-ultimate needs. The potentially absolute universe that will sometime exist outside the master creation, is a post-ultimate development. We know that it is post-Havona in status and deduce that it will accordingly be an experiential domain. It is post-supreme, hence devoid of finite experience. It is also post-ultimate, and is accordingly lacking in all absonite experience. The citizens of the (completed) master universe will have to compensate these deficiencies in their service-ministry to the natives of the Cosmos Infinite. Such beings would start their existences on some coabsolute level of creature status that would be devoid of any comprehension of the finite and the absonite antecedents to the attainment of such inherent coabsolute status. This line of reasoning uses a lot of words that really have very little meaning to us. We know nothing of absonite growth, much less about what may come after it. But we can "feel" this principle in operation when we contemplate the life of Jesus in relation to human beings. Here we have a beautiful example of the ministry of divine perfection on an evolutionary planet and to imperfect human beings. What the perfect beings from Paradise and Havona now do for us in the imperfect time-space creations, we, in turn, will do for the citizens of the outer universes. We are lacking in the perfection of divinity; the Paradise-Havoners bring it to us. The outer space citizens will be lacking in the finite experience of experiential Supremacy; we will take it to them. And some day, in the very remote future, we will join with the citizens of the outer space universes in the ministry to those beings who will be lacking in all knowledge of subabsolute growth and experience - the natives of the Cosmos Infinite.



[|THE COMPLETED MASTER UNIVERSE]
The completion and the unification of the master universe, from Havona to the last outer space level, is an awesome prospect. The master universe is so very large! Nevertheless, let us attempt a survey of the completed master creation, starting with the inner universes and proceeding outward. The central universe. Now, the central creation should begin to correlate with the post-Havona universes somewhere near its full potential. The divine universe contains much that is superfinite, and some of these meanings and values should become functionally coordinated with the master universe by the end of the Sixth Age. The final emergence of the Ultimate would appear to mark the completion, the end, of all experiential growth of an absonite nature; this must mean the beginning of post-absonite (post-ultimate) growth. Such post-ultimate growth must be super-ltimate, and super-ultimates are absolute or, at the very least, coabsolute or associable-absolute. We believe this development will open certain phases of Havona life that have been hitherto unpenetrated by experiential beings, phases which are the post-ultimate aspects of Havona life. We are informed that life in the central universe extends in range from the finite to the absolute levels of existence. One thing is certain: there is no development within the master universe (or outside the master universe) that is likely to exceed the capacities and the functions of the pattern universe, the central and divine creation. (See [|Appendix IV, §4; Havona in the Post Supreme Ages].) The grand universe. The grand universe probably continues under the rule of the Supreme, and under the over sovereignty of the Ultimate. The superuniverses are now, for the second time, breaking through the experiential barriers to growth. The first break through was at the time of the emergence of the Supreme Being, when absonite growth was superimposed on the finite limitations of settled status in light and life. The second breakthrough is now taking place in connection with the final emergence of the Ultimate, when post-ultimate potentials are superimposed on the experiential limitations of completed absonite growth. This exposes the inner universes to the unfathomable possibilities of coabsolute expansion. Could we possibly imagine what a planet such as Urantia would be like at this very distant time? Consider an inhabited world, a world that has been long established in the final stage of light and life; consider this world in relation to a very primitive world, the two worlds are a great distance apart in terms of civilization and culture. We would suggest that a world like ours, in the post-ultimate stage of development, would be more remote from a world in the final stage of light and life than such a settled world would be in relation to a primitive planet of cavedwelling days. A post-ultimate inhabited world is simply beyond our capacity to imagine! The master universe is now united under the experiential sovereignty of the Ultimate. This absonite sovereign now fully and completely unifies this vast domain, from the innermost circuits of the central creation to the outermost space level from the Father's circuit in the near regions of Paradise to the outer periphery of the Quartan Space Level. (This is also the functional domain of the First Experiential Trinity.) The outer universes are experiencing the first breakthrough as concerns the limits of experiential growth, the transcendence of absonite growth limits. Thus, the entire master universe stands on the verge of post-ultimate growth, and this development of the master universe very likely completes the story of creation. The Master Architects have fulfilled their function as universe planners. They are the living blueprints of the whole master universe, the eternal personifications of God's entire plan for the whole master creation. Now this plan has been consummated it has become an actual reality the Architects have fulfilled their ordained function as universe planners. But we would raise the question: have they also fulfilled their function as concerns the internal and intensive growth of the master universe on post-ultimate levels? In other words, even though the Architects have fostered the development of the master creation through the supreme (finite) and the ultimate (absonite) levels of growth, still there remain potentialities of a Supreme-Ultimate nature that appear to be unrealized even at the close of the Sixth Universe Age. We might possibly consider that our study of the master universe had reached its logical conclusion at this point in our survey of the events of the remote future. Indeed, our study of the expanding growth of the master universe has come to a close. But this is not the end of the story as concerns internal and intensive growth. As we have already learned, the successful completion of a major synthesis has proved to be the beginning of the transformation of that completed synthesis into a new thesis. The growth of the master universe has been followed through the remoteness of all four of the post-Supreme ages -- Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth. Let us now look beyond the closing of the Sixth Universe Age; let us look even farther ahead, into the still more remote future, to see what we may learn about the master universe in the post-Ultimate age. 12:1.4 [|Havona], the central universe, is not a [|time] [|creation]; it is an eternal [|existence]. This never-beginning, never-ending [|universe] consists of one billion [|spheres] of sublime [|perfection] and is surrounded by the enormous [|dark gravity] bodies. At the center of Havona is the stationary and absolutely stabilized Isle of [|Paradise], surrounded by its [|twenty-one satellites]. Owing to the enormous encircling masses of the [|dark gravity bodies] about the fringe of the central universe, the [|mass] [|content] of this central creation is far in excess of the total known mass of all seven sectors of the [|grand universe]. 12:1.5 [|The Paradise-Havona System], the eternal universe encircling the eternal Isle, constitutes the [|perfect] and eternal [|nucleus] of the [|master universe]; all seven of [|the superuniverses] and all regions of [|outer space] revolve in established orbits around the gigantic central aggregation of the [|Paradise] [|satellites] and the [|Havona] [|spheres]. 12:1.6 [|The Seven Superuniverses] are not primary [|physical] [|organizations]; nowhere do their boundaries divide a [|nebular] [|family], neither do they cross a [|local universe], a prime creative unit. Each [|superuniverse] is simply a geographic space clustering of approximately one seventh of the organized and partially [|inhabited post-Havona creation], and each is about equal in the number of [|local universes] [|embraced] and in the [|space] [|encompassed]. [|Nebadon], your local universe, is one of the newer creations in [|Orvonton], the seventh superuniverse. 12:1.7 The [|Grand Universe] is the present organized and [|inhabited creation]. It consists of [|the seven superuniverses], with an aggregate [|evolutionary] [|potential] of around seven trillion inhabited [|planets], not to mention the eternal [|spheres] of the [|central creation]. But this tentative estimate takes no account of [|architectural administrative spheres], neither does it include the outlying [|groups] of [|unorganized universes]. The present ragged edge of the [|grand universe], its uneven and unfinished [|periphery], together with the tremendously unsettled condition of the whole astronomical plot, suggests to our star students that even [|the seven superuniverses] are, as yet, uncompleted. As we move from within, from the divine center outward in any one direction, we do, eventually, come to the outer limits of the organized and inhabited creation; we come to the outer limits of the [|grand universe]. And it is near this outer border, in a far-off corner of such a [|magnificent] [|creation], that your [|local universe] has its eventful [|existence]. 12:1.8 [|The Outer Space Levels]. Far out in [|space], at an enormous distance from the seven inhabited superuniverses, there are assembling vast and unbelievably stupendous [|circuits] of [|force] and materializing energies. Between the energy circuits of [|the seven superuniverses] and this gigantic outer belt of [|force] [|activity], there is a space zone of comparative quiet, which varies in width but averages about four hundred thousand [|light-years]. These space zones are free from star dust—cosmic fog. Our students of these [|phenomena] are in [|doubt] as to the exact [|status] of the space-forces existing in this zone of [|relative] [|quiet] which encircles [|the seven superuniverses]. But about one-half million light-years beyond the [|periphery] of the present [|grand universe] we observe the beginnings of a zone of an unbelievable [|energy] [|action] which increases in volume and [|intensity] for over twenty-five million light-years. These tremendous [|wheels] of energizing forces are situated in the [|first outer space level], a [|continuous] belt of cosmic activity encircling the whole of the known, organized, and inhabited [|creation]. 12:1.9 Still greater activities are taking place beyond these regions, for the Uversa physicists have detected early evidence of force manifestations more than fifty million light-years beyond the outermost ranges of the phenomena in the first outer space level. These activities undoubtedly presage the organization of the material creations of the second outer space level of the master universe. 12:1.10 The [|central universe] is the creation of eternity; the seven superuniverses are the creations of time; the [|four outer space levels] are undoubtedly destined to [|eventuate]-evolve the [|ultimacy] of creation. And there are those who maintain that the Infinite can never attain full [|expression] short of infinity; and therefore do they postulate an additional and unrevealed creation beyond the [|fourth and outermost space level], a possible ever-expanding, never-ending universe of infinity. In [|theory] we do not know how to limit either the infinity of the Creator or the potential infinity of creation, but as it exists and is [|administered], we regard the [|master universe] as having [|limitations], as being definitely delimited and bounded on its outer margins by open space.