Evolving Our Souls With Celestial Wisdom
Byron Belitsos is a widely published author, journalist, editor, and is the founder of Origin Press (originpress.org)—a multiple award-winning book publishing company. He was an inaugural member of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute, and was a pioneer in the integral movement. Belitsos coauthored and edited The Center Within (1998), The Secret Revelation (2002), One World Democracy (2005), and The Adventure of Being Human (2012)—all related to the Urantia Revelation. He is also the coauthor of A Return to Healing (2009), a Nautilus Gold Prize winner. Byron has been a student of The Urantia Book for 37 years, and has written, spoken, and given workshops worldwide on its teachings. After receiving a B.A. (Honors) in intellectual history from the University of Chicago, he pursued graduate work in history, religious studies, and theology at the University of California (Santa Cruz), the California Institute of Integral Studies, and Graduate Theological Union at UC Berkeley. He can be reached at byron@originpress.com.
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AN ANATOMY OF A REVELATION
The Urantia Book contains 196 papers and is divided into four sections:
“PART I. THE CENTRAL AND SUPERUNIVERSES” presents the infinitely loving and merciful nature of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. It depicts the nature and activities of this Eternal Trinity and other high universe personalities, while offering many other revelations about the ultimate nature of deity, divinity, and the universe of universes. Part I also describes the extent and structure of the far-flung cosmic domains of physical creation, in particular painting a thrilling picture of a perfect, eternal central universe that lies at the cosmic center of an evolving time-space universe comprised of outlying galaxy clusters containing trillions of inhabited planets—and much more. The lofty exposition of cosmic realities provided in Part I is considered by most Urantians (i.e., Urantia “reader-believers”) to be pure revelation.
II. THE LOCAL UNIVERSE details the nature and structure of the “local” sector of our Milky Way galaxy that contains nearly four million inhabited planets. This account covers the physical constitution of the local universe, its administration and history going back to its first appearance over 400 billion years ago, and details its vast celestial host. It offers considerable detail about life after death and the plan for eternal ascent for those who survive death. (Most people from Urantia will awake after death on what is known as the “First Mansion World”—the first heavenly abode. They begin their afterlife career there, undergoing a vast regime of spiritual training, holistic education, and cosmic socialization whose description comprises many sections spread across Parts I–III in the text.) One of the highlights of Part II is the introduction of the “master sovereign” and Creator of our local universe, known as Christ Michael. It is he who incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth on Urantia. Also introduced is Michael’s complemental deity partner and coequal Creator with him of this local universe, known as the Universe Mother Spirit, and her vast and varied orders of ministering angels.
