The Thought Adjuster

By Bill Fenderson

November 3, 1960

Above and beyond all else in the hearts and minds of Urantia mortals and all mortals of the realms there should be ceaseless gratitude to our Paradise Father for the heavenly gift of love he has bestowed upon us.

That gift is the Thought Adjuster - that fragment of God himself indwelling the mind of every normal and morally conscious being.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us..,” wrote John. (I John 3:1). This “manner of love” of which John wrote is the love of the Thought Adjuster for each of us. It is a divinely exclusive gift beyond all comparison.

Says a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton:

"As far as I am conversant with the affairs of a universe, I regard the love and devotion of a Thought Adjuster as the most truly divine affection in all creation. The love of the Sons in their ministry to the races is superb, but the devotion of an Adjuster to the individual is touchingly sublime, divinely Father-like. The Paradise Father has apparently reserved this form of personal contact with his individual creatures as an exclusive Creator prerogative, and there is nothing in all the universe of universes exactly comparable to the marvelous ministry of these impersonal entities that so fascinatingly indwell the children of the evolutionary planets.” (1203: 2)

Mortal existence would be little above that of animals and our search for God would be almost hopeless were it not for these two gifts from our heavenly Father. Listen to a Divine Counselor:

All our efforts to enlarge the human concept of God would be well-nigh futile except for the fact that the mortal mind is indwelt by the bestowed Adjuster of the Universal Father and is pervaded by the Truth Spirit of the Creator Son." (33.3.)

"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 and there to assist in evolving the mortal 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 Cod - the wholehearted desire to do the Father’s will.” (24:2-5)

If all the races of mankind could but realize that every normal-minded mortal on Urantia is indwelt by this fragment of God, this realization would bring about an era of peace and a relationship among all men based upon the true meaning of love. For what mortal could look upon another through the eyes of love, knowing that the Spirit of God in the form of a Thought Adjuster is within each of us?

The Divine Counselor explains it thus:

“However Urantia mortals may differ in their intellectual, social, economic, and even moral opportunities and endowments, forget not that their spiritual endowment is uniform and unique. They all enjoy the same divine presence of the gift from the Father and they are all equally privileged to-seek intimate personal communion with this indwelling spirit of divine origin, while they may all equally choose to accept the uniform spiritual leading of these Mystery Monitors.” (63.4)

The pattern for our behavior as God-knowing beings blessed with the indwelling Mystery Monitors is again pointed up by the Divine Counselor:

“Truly of the human race it has been said, “You are of God" because "he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.” Even in wrongdoing you torment the indwelling gift of God, for the Thought Adjuster must needs go through the consequences of evil thinking with the human mind of its incarceration.” (45:4)

“If mortal man is wholeheartedly spiritually motivated, unreservedly consecrated to the doing of the Father's will, then, since he is so certainly and so effectively spiritually endowed by the indwelling and divine Adjuster, there cannot fail to materialize in that individual's experience the sublime consciousness of knowing God and the supernal assurance of surviving for the purpose of finding God by the progressive experience of becoming more and more like him.” (65:5)

On Page 1221, Paragraph 4, the Solitary Messenger, in a single profound sentence, sums up the key to survival:

"The imitation of God is the key to perfection; the doing of his will is the secret of survival and of perfection in survival."

The impact of this short statement points up the fact that only one objective should motivate our very brief existence on this planet: Eternal survival. The choice is ours.

It is not a selfish objective, for our Paradise Father and our indwelling Thought Adjusters certainly desire our survival. If this were not so, would God have seen fit to bestow a fragment of himself in each of us?

In humble and grateful acknowledgment of this divine gift of love, we should and can cooperate with our Thought Adjusters in all ways that are humanly possible by attempting to live our lives by precepts in which there must be no hypocrisy, superstition, selfishness or any motive other than seeking and finding God and loving and serving our fellow beings, recognizing that in each there dwells a Thought Adjuster.

Above all else, must be the daily striving to do God's will and being able to recognize that will. We can bring this closer in our personal lives by being guided by what we believe our Thought Adjusters desire from us by keeping our minds free from all negative thinking and our bodies healthy and free from poisons.

Thus, in the remaining pages of this paper, I have selected references by Divine Counselor and a Solitary Messenger which may be of help in our endeavor to cooperate with our Thought Adjusters insofar as our spiritual understanding, intellect, and the limitations imposed by human weaknesses will permit.

“If the finite mind of man is unable to comprehend how so great and so majestic a God as the Universal Father can descend from his eternal abode in infinite perfection to fraternize with the individual human creature, then must such a finite intellect rest assurance of divine fellowship upon the truth of the fact that an actual fragment of the living God resides within the intellect of every normal-minded and morally conscious Urantia mortal. The indwelling Thought Adjusters are a part of the eternal Deity of the Paradise Father. Man does not have to go farther than his inner experience of the soul’s contemplation of this spiritual-reality presence to find God and attempt communication with him” (Pg. 62:1)

“Mortals live in God, and so God has willed to live in mortals. As men trust themselves to him, so has he and first trusted a part of himself to be with men; has consented to live in man and to indwell men subject to the human will.” (1221:6)

"Peace in this life, survival in death, perfection in the next life and service in eternity - all these are achieved (in spirit) now; when the creature consents - chooses - to subject the creature will to the Father’s will. And already has the Father chosen to make a fragment of himself subject to the will of the creature personality.” (1221:6)

"Such a creature choice is not a surrender of will. It is a consecration of will, an expansion of will, a glorification of will, a perfection of will; and such choosing raises the creature will from the level of temporal significance to that higher estate wherein the personality of the creature son communes with the personality of the spirit Father.” (1221:7)

Thought Adjusters are not encased within the human skull nor are they far off in some distant heaven -- they are within the minds of mortals. There is the possibility of eventual direct communication between a mortal and his Thought Adjuster, but to attain this, the mortal mind must progress to that exalted state where hearing the voice of this divine presence can become a reality.

Says the Solitary Messenger:

“Adjusters should not be thought of as living in the material brains of human beings. They are not organic parts of the physical creatures of the realms. The Thought Adjusters may more properly be envisaged as indwelling the mortal mind of man rather than existing within the confines of a single physical organ, And indirectly and unrecognized, the Adjuster is constantly communicating with the human subject, especially during those sublime experiences of the worshipful contact of mind with spirit in the super-consciousness.” (1203:3)

“Do not confuse and confound the mission and influence of the Adjuster with what is commonly called conscience; they are not directly related. Conscience is a human and purely psychic reaction. It is not to be despised, but it is hardly the voice of God to the soul, which indeed the Adjuster would be if such a voice could be heard. Conscience, rightly, admonishes you to do right; but the Adjuster, in addition, endeavors to tell you what truly is right; that is, when and as you are able to perceive the Monitors leading.” (Pg1207: 7)

“It is sometimes possible to have the mind illuminated, to hear the divine voice that continually speaks within you, so that you may become partially conscious of the wisdom, truth, goodness and beauty of the potential personality constantly indwelling you.” (1199:4)

“The Mystery Monitors are not thought helpers, they are thought adjusters. They labor with the material mind for the purpose of constructing by adjustment and spiritualization, a mind for the new worlds and the new name of your future career. Their mission chiefly concerns the future life, not this life. They are called heavenly helpers, not earthly helpers. They are not interested in making the mortal career easy; rather are they concerned in making your life reasonably difficult and rugged, so that decisions will be stimulated and multiplied. The presence of a great Thought Adjuster does not bestow ease of living and freedom from strenuous thinking, but such a divine gift should confer a sublime peace of mind and a superb tranquillity of spirit.” (1191:7)

“The Adjusters are the eternal ancestors, the divine originals, of your evolving immortal souls; they are the unceasing urge that leads man to attempt the mastery of the material and present existence in the light of the spiritual and future career. The Monitors are the prisoners of undying hope, the founts of everlasting progression. And how they do enjoy communicating with their subjects in more or less direct channels. How they rejoice when they can dispense with symbols and other methods of indirection and flash their messages straight to the intellects of their human partners.” (1193:6)

“The divine presence cannot, however be discovered anywhere in nature or even in the lives of God-knowing mortals so fully and so certainly as in your attempted communion with the indwelling Mystery Monitor, the Paradise Thought Adjuster. What a mistake to dream of God far off in the skies when the spirit of the Universal Father lives within your own mind.” (64:7)

The assignment of the Thought Adjusters to indwell the minds of mortals is not an easy one. Through our own negative thinking and acting we can thwart the mission of this divine presence sent to deliver us from the folly of our behavior and we can close the door on our chance for survival.

Listen to the Solitary Messenger:

“The Adjusters accept a difficult assignment when they volunteer to indwell such composite beings as live on Urantia. But they have assumed the task of existing in your minds, there to receive the admonitions of the spiritual intelligences of the realms and then to undertake to rededicate or translate these spiritual messages to the material mind; they are indispensable to the Paradise ascension.” (1191:3)

“…through the bestowal of the divine gifts the Father makes the closest possible approach to sin and evil, for it is literally true that the Adjuster must coexist in the mortal mind even in the very midst of human unrighteousness. The indwelling Adjusters are particularly tormented by those thoughts which are purely sordid and selfish; they are distressed by irreverence for that which is beautiful and divine, and they are virtually thwarted in their work by many of man’s foolish animal fears and childish anxieties.” (1193:1).

“The Adjuster remains with you in all disasters and through every sickness which does not wholly destroy the mentality. But how unkind knowingly to defile or otherwise deliberately pollute the physical body, which must serve as the earthly tabernacle of this marvelous gift from God. All physical poisons greatly retard the efforts of the Adjuster to exalt the material mind, while the mental poisons of fear, anger, jealousy, suspicion, envy and intolerance likewise tremendously interfere with the spiritual progress of the evolving soul” (1204:3)

“The Thought Adjusters would like to change your feelings of fear to convictions of love and confidence; but they cannot mechanically and arbitrarily do such things; that is your task. In executing those decisions which deliver you from the fetters of fear, you literally supply the psychic fulcrum on which the Adjuster may subsequently apply a spiritual lever of uplifting and advancing illumination.” (1192:4)

"The Adjuster is man’s eternity possibility; man is the Adjuster's personality possibility. Your individual Adjusters work to spiritize you in the hope of eternalizing your temporal identity. The Adjusters are saturated with the beautiful and self-bestowing love of the Father of spirits. They truly and divinely love you; they are the prisoners of spirit hope confined within the minds of men. They long for the divinity attainment of your mortal minds that their loneliness may end, that they may be delivered with you from the limitations of material investiture and the habiliments of time.” (1182:5)

“The success of our Adjuster in the enterprise of piloting you through the mortal life and bringing about your survival depends not so much on the theories of your beliefs as upon your decisions, determinations, and steadfast faith.” (1205:7)

“When we speak of an Adjuster's success or failure, we are speaking in terms of human survival. Adjusters never fail; they are of the divine essence, and they always emerge triumphant in each of their undertakings.” (1206: 2)

We mortals are embarked upon a grand adventure as we pass through this short existence on Urantia. This is the kindergarten stage of our evolution from the human to the divine. It is ours to accept or reject - we can choose to follow the leading of our indwelling Adjusters and go onward and upward in eternal service and eventual fusion with our Adjusters or we can choose oblivion.

The Divine Counselor explains it:

“Eternal survival of personality is wholly dependent on the choosing of the mortal mind, whose decisions determine the survival potential of the immortal soul. When the mind believes God and the soul knows God, and when, with the fostering Adjuster, they all desire God, then is survival assured. Limitations of intellect, curtailment of education, deprivation of culture, impoverishment of social status, even inferiority of the human standards of morality resulting from the unfortunate lack of educational, cultural, and social advantages, cannot invalidate the presence of the divine spirit in such unfortunate and humanly handicapped but believing individuals. The indwelling of the Mystery Monitor constitutes the inception and insures the possibility of the potential of growth and survival of the mortal soul.” (69:9)

This from the Solitary Messenger:

“You humans have begun an endless unfolding of an almost infinite panorama, a limitless expanding of never-ending, ever-widening spheres of opportunity for exhilarating service, matchless adventure, sublime uncertainty and boundless attainment. When the clouds gather overhead, your faith should accept the fact of the presence of the indwelling Adjuster, and thus you should be able to look beyond the mists of mortal uncertainty into the clear shining of the sun of eternal righteousness on the beckoning heights of the mansion worlds of Satania.” (1194:1)

“Today you are passing through the period of the courtship of your Adjuster; and if you only prove faithful to the trust reposed in you by the divine spirit who seeks your mind and soul in eternal union, there will eventually ensue that morontia oneness, that supernal harmony, that cosmic coordination, that divine attunement, that celestial fusion, that never-ending blending of identity, that oneness of being which is so perfect and final that even the most experienced personalities can never segregate or recognize as separate entities, the fusion partners - mortal man and divine Adjuster.” (1204:4)

"You must not regard cooperation with your Adjuster as a particularly conscious process, for it is not; but your motives and your decisions, your faithful determinations and your supreme desires, do constitute real and effective cooperation. You can consciously augment Adjuster harmony by:

1. Choosing to respond to divine leading; sincerely basing the human life on the highest consciousness of truth, beauty and goodness, and then Coordinating these qualities of divinity through wisdom, worship, faith, and love.

2. Loving God and desiring to be like him - genuine recognition of the divine fatherhood and loving worship of the heavenly Parent.

3. Loving man and sincerely desiring to serve him - wholehearted recognition of the brotherhood of man coupled with an intelligent and wise affection for each of your fellow mortals.

4. Joyful acceptance of cosmic citizenship - honest recognition of your progressive obligations to the Supreme Being, awareness of evolutionary man and evolving Deity. This is the birth of cosmic morality and the dawning of universal duty.” (1206: 5-9.

Choosing to do the Father^’s will is mortal man's assurance of divine help from his indwelling Thought Adjuster - divine help of which he can eventually become conscious and this choosing leads to the glorious adventure of loving and eternal service, and the assurance of survival.

“This choosing of the Father’s will,” says the Solitary Messenger, “is the spiritual finding of the spirit Father by mortal man, even though an age must pass before the creature son may actually stand in the factual presence of God on Paradise. This choosing does not so much consist in the negation of creature will – “Not my will but yours be done" - as it consists in the creature's positive affirmation: “It is my will that you will be done.” (1221:8)