Chapter 2 – Spiritual Reality
Spiritual and Physical Reality
Before proceeding it is necessary to gain an understanding of spiritual reality. Living as most of us do in a secular society, spiritual values are largely ignored; lip service may be given to formal religion but true spirituality is noticeably lacking in personal relations, politics, business and many other areas.
We are all certainly aware of our physical environment; we have some awareness of the physical things around us. There is however much more to reality than what we can see and touch; there is our spiritual environment. This part of our surroundings includes spirit beings and forces invisible to us. We should realize our Heavenly Father who created all things is spirit; therefore spirit has precedence over the material realm.
The Urantia Book reveals there are three types of energy: physical, mindal, and spiritual.[1] The physical energy system we see and experience every moment of our lives on Earth, is not all there is. There is also an energy system for intelligence, called mindal, which we will not discuss here. The third energy continuum is spiritual energy.
There is a dichotomy to reality most of us are unaware of. There certainly is material reality, what we see and feel and touch; these are our everyday experiences. Material reality deals with facts which can be investigated using scientific techniques; an object has a certain size and color and weight, which are verifiable. Spiritual reality deals with value, nearness to God, which can be investigated by spiritual means.
While we may think of our material surroundings as being substantial that is not the case. Indeed, matter is but the shadow of enduring spirit reality.[2]
All of the matter that makes up our bodies and surrounds us is basically empty space. Matter is made up of molecules composed of atoms of various kinds. The nucleus of an atom is its core where the mass of that atom resides. If this nucleus is expanded so that it becomes the size of your thumbnail, the nucleus would be no bigger than a cuticle cell in that thumbnail; physical matter is mostly empty space.[3]
We feel matter because of the fields of energy comprising each atom. When we touch something we are not actually feeling anything solid because there is very little solid there. What we experience is the interaction of the atomic fields in our hands, or whatever, with the corresponding fields of the object we are touching. Our material reality is built up from a complex web of atomic fields. From this viewpoint our physical “reality” becomes a hodgepodge of energy fields.
The matter surrounding us appears to be real because we are composed of similar matter, our physical portion at any rate, and our entire being is tuned to this portion of creation. This world of matter is where we live and have our being; we would do well to become the best we can here and now simply because it is our present reality.
In addition to the physical realm we also exist in a spiritual reality which is more subtle yet more vital. The power of love gives a slight indication of the power spiritual reality has. Modern materialistic society has ignored spiritual reality at its peril.
It may not be possible to describe spiritual reality using language based upon material thoughts. The best we can do is to give broad characterizations. It is difficult for us to recognize that everything we are aware of is something other than completely substantial, less than total reality. The spiritual component of our world, of our being, needs to be reckoned with and nurtured.
We cannot see spirit beings because our awareness, our vision, is limited to the electro-magnetic spectrum, which is to say, physical reality. Spirit beings are invisible because they exist in a different energy continuum, the spiritual realm. It is not so much that they can walk through our walls; rather to them our physical walls do not even exist.
We can get some of idea of the difference between physical reality and spiritual reality when we consider our emotions. Our physical emotions are concrete, easily recognizable; some of these are pain, heat, lust, cold, hunger, fear, and such. Spiritual emotions are more subtle yet more powerful. These include love, empathy, brotherhood and spiritual yearning. Our physical emotions reside only in the physical realm while our spiritual emotions are in the spiritual realm and lead us closer to God who is spirit.
Perhaps the best we can hope for is to recognize spiritual reality is a vital component of our existence even though for now we may only glimpse it through faith. Spiritual values are those that lead us Godward and anything leading us away from God has no spiritual value.
Our society must become more aware of spiritual reality; however this may take a major event. We need something to make us aware of the need to seek a more spiritual existence for all citizens; this spark may be anything: a major war, riots in the streets, an economic collapse or perhaps a spiritual awakening. People need to become aware of their eternal spiritual possibilities, what will be in store for them if they reach out and grasp eternal goals and seek spiritual reality.
The goal of eternity has been obscured from the majority of our sisters and brothers; we have become more interested in tomorrow’s football game or something equally transitory than in considering where we will be a thousand years from now. Spiritual reality beckons us to seek a higher awareness, seek to reach out to God knowing He is with us guiding us toward Him.
Our spiritual environment has many components we have been largely ignorant of until we were given The Urantia Book. The first part of this spiritual reality surrounding us is our spiritual free will, which is the defining characteristic that separates us from all the other animals on our planet.
Dedicated materialists will avow what we see and experience is all there is, but they are mistaken. Truly nothing could be farther from the truth; we are assisted on many levels by beings and forces seeking to show us the way, to guide us into a fuller comprehension of truth.
These beings and forces are unknown to us because they are invisible, they are spiritual not physical. The dedicated materialist cannot accept the existence of anything other than material reality. Even though the materialist denies anything other than physically verifiable facts, there are emotions that the materialist strictly speaking cannot accept: love, joy, empathy, and brotherhood. We affirm that spirit beings and forces are real; God, who is spirit, is the ultimate reality, therefore it would be well to seek an understanding of the spiritual forces and beings assisting us.
We are certainly not cosmic orphans, we have not been abandoned;[4] there are higher beings and spirit forces that continually guide us and strive to show us the way. It would be well if we would try to understand them and the work they do on our behalf.
Our spiritual helpers are working to guide us toward a greater understanding of our Heavenly Father; they are urging us to become more like Him and to choose to do His will; we can cooperate with them by gaining a fuller understanding of true religion. A discussion of the nature of true religion completes the study of our spiritual environment.
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All references are to The Urantia Book unless stated otherwise. The number refers to the single column version in the format page.paragraph; 140.10 ↑
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141.1 ↑
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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/just-ask-what-would-a-baseball-sized-atom-look-like/ ↑
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1259.2 ↑