Astronomy – Urantia Book Study Aids

[This project is in an early to mid stage of development. Last update: 3/19/23.]
At Urantia Foundation’s 2022 Scientific Symposium, Phil Calabrese presented on redshift in relationship to Urantia Book cosmology. It seems to me to be a major breakthrough for squaring astronomy with The Urantia Book. Quick links: Video. PDF.

While Jesus continued to make enviable progress at school,
all did not run smoothly for either parents or teachers.
He persisted in asking many embarrassing questions
concerning both science and religion, particularly
regarding geography and astronomy. (123:6.6)
* * * * * * *

Bold is used for study aid emphasis. Italic indicates emphasis used in The Urantia Book.
The images done by hand are my own.

Algorithms being what they are today, my astronomy related studies on the Internet, apparently, prompted YouTube to encourage me to check out Alyona Vargasova (note the three concentric circles on her album cover graphic). Her original instrumental electric guitar pieces, with their celestially named titles, are highly recommended as background music for study and as study break material.

Pedagogical development

The current Table of Contents reflects an evolutionary process, a mix of old and new. Once I get my initial efforts re-organized into the new pedagogy, these introductory remarks will be changed to reflect the progress. About that new pedagogy … it got revised on 3/26, to put the Revelation Permissions and Limitations work as step one rather than step two.

Step 1: Finish up the Topical Study: Revelatory Permissions and Limitations, which was inspired by this Topical Study, and then apply it to this topic.
Step 2: A four-corners analysis of astronomy related teachings.
Step 3: Apply second step to science in two ways: 1) science during the 1930’s. 2) contemporary science.
Step 4: Apply the third step to the second step.

Introduction
aaaaEternity vs. Time-Space (first draft completed)
aaaaThe Absonity of Three Geometries (first draft completed)
Step 1: Revelatory Permissions and Limitations
Step 2: Four-Corners Analysis
aaaaHavona/Paradise
aaaaaaaaThe shape and direction of things to come (first draft completed)
aaaaaaaaThe periphery (first draft completed)
aaaaSuperuniverses and Outer Space Levels
aaaaaaaaUniverses: master, grand, super-, local
aaaaaaaaExtrasolar system proper names
aaaaaaaaNebulae — The Ancestors of Universes (15:4.4-9)
aaaaaaaaComparing larger and smaller structures
aaaaaaaaComparing descriptors: “multiple revolutionary movements”
aaaaaaaaRelationship between Orvonton and Andromeda
aaaaaaaaMilky Way Galaxy and Orvonton
aaaaaaaaTerminology: Sagittarius vs. Milky Way
Step 3: Past And Present Scientific Understandings
aaaaVisible At The Fringe
aaaaSpace Respiration
Step 4: Applying Step 3 To Step 2

Terminology
aaaaGeometric
aaaaaaaaCircular
aaaaaaaaElongated
aaaaaaaaEllipse
aaaaaaaaFringe, (Ragged) Edge, and Rim
aaaaaaaaPeriphery
aaaaaaaaSpherical and Spheroid
aaaaaaaaSpiral
aaaaGalaxy
aaaaLight-Years
aaaaTime-Space
Astronomy Links

Introduction

Eternity-Infinity vs. Time-Space

The more philosophic foundations for contemplating nature of time-space and eternity-infinity relationships cannot be undervalued as it relates to this topic. Nonetheless, at this stage in the development of the Astronomy study, a more truncated review is undertaken as an effort to respect the subtopic and encourage deeper study in this area.

For perspective on the challenge of this study, consider:

(103:6.14) When the philosophy of man leans heavily toward the world of matter, it becomes rationalistic or naturalistic. When philosophy inclines particularly toward the spiritual level, it becomes idealistic or even mystical. When philosophy is so unfortunate as to lean upon metaphysics, it unfailingly becomes skeptical, confused. In past ages, most of man’s knowledge and intellectual evaluations have fallen into one of these three distortions of perception. Philosophy dare not project its interpretations of reality in the linear fashion of logic; it must never fail to reckon with the elliptic symmetry of reality and with the essential curvature of all relation concepts.

(105:0.1) TO EVEN high orders of universe intelligences infinity is only partially comprehensible, and the finality of reality is only relatively understandable. The human mind, as it seeks to penetrate the eternity-mystery of the origin and destiny of all that is called real, may helpfully approach the problem by conceiving eternity-infinity as an almost limitless ellipse which is produced by one absolute cause, and which functions throughout this universal circle of endless diversification, ever seeking some absolute and infinite potential of destiny.

Noteworthy, is the degree to which the revelators dedicated their own time and revelatory space to time-space. It is used in 112 paragraphs. The first 28 occurrences are in the Foreword. The first instance being:

(0:1.3) Deity functions on personal, prepersonal, and superpersonal levels. Total Deity is functional on the following seven levels: …

(0:1.9) 6. Supreme—self-experiential and creature-Creator-unifying Deity. Deity functioning on the first creature-identificational level as time-space overcontrollers of the grand universe, sometimes designated the Supremacy of Deity.

Consider the paradoxical nature of it all that stretches our ability to meaningfully define terms:

(106:9.3) Time, space, and experience are man’s greatest aids to relative reality perception and yet his most formidable obstacles to complete reality perception. Mortals and many other universe creatures find it necessary to think of potentials as being actualized in space and evolving to fruition in time, but this entire process is a time-space phenomenon which does not actually take place on Paradise and in eternity. On the absolute level there is neither time nor space; all potentials may be there perceived as actuals.

Consider these select paragraphs from the Paper 118: Supreme and Ultimate—Time and Space, Section 3: Time-Space Relationships:

(118:3.1) Only by ubiquity could Deity unify time-space manifestations to the finite conception, for time is a succession of instants while space is a system of associated points. You do, after all, perceive time by analysis and space by synthesis. You co-ordinate and associate these two dissimilar conceptions by the integrating insight of personality. Of all the animal world only man possesses this time-space perceptibility. To an animal, motion has a meaning, but motion exhibits value only to a creature of personality status.

(118:3.6) It may help to an understanding of space relationships if you would conjecture that, relatively speaking, space is after all a property of all material bodies. Hence, when a body moves through space, it also takes all its properties with it, even the space which is in and of such a moving body.

(118:3.7) All patterns of reality occupy space on the material levels, but spirit patterns only exist in relation to space; they do not occupy or displace space, neither do they contain it. But to us the master riddle of space pertains to the pattern of an idea. When we enter the mind domain, we encounter many a puzzle. Does the pattern—the reality—of an idea occupy space? We really do not know, albeit we are sure that an idea pattern does not contain space. But it would hardly be safe to postulate that the immaterial is always nonspatial.

Hold that thought—somewhere?—and consider:

(32:5.5) The sectors of time are like the flashes of personality in temporal form; they appear for a season, and then they are lost to human sight, only to reappear as new actors and continuing factors in the higher life of the endless swing around the eternal circle. Eternity can hardly be conceived as a straightaway drive, in view of our belief in a delimited universe moving over a vast, elongated circle around the central dwelling place of the Universal Father.

That being said and speaking of the elongated circle …

The Absonity of Three Geometries

Before getting into the more vertical aspects of Paradise, consider the dimensional implications of:

(11:2.2) In form Paradise differs from the inhabited space bodies: it is not spherical. It is definitely ellipsoid …

The difference between a sphere and an ellipsoid involves not only a different relationship to shape but also dimensions, at least on a mathematical or conceptual level.

Consider that there may be useful associations to make between the three geometries—plane (Euclidean), spherical, and hyperbolic—and the three realms of creation—absolute (Paradise), finite (seven superuniverses), and absonite (outer space levels), respectively.

Bearing in mind that the defining difference between the three geometries is a choice regarding parallel line structure, we note that these three choices also reflect three types of possibilities—one possibility, no possibility, and multiple possibilities, respectively. Given a line and a point off the line, there will be one, no, or multiple parallel lines through the offset point, depending on which geometry is chosen, respectively.

Socrates said that the beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. Mathematics might say, if it was personalized and could speak, that the beginning of wisdom is to chose your geometry wisely because this is where the definition of terms starts. The good news is that wisely choosing a geometry is usually pretty straight forward (not to be implying here any a priori assumptions about what “straight” or “forward” means, of course).

Consider that plane geometry is heavenly. In the central universe a straight line is what one naturally imagines it to be and everything is on the up and up, meaning what is up for one is also what is up for others. That’s what’s up in heaven, if you have the time for it …

(11:2.11) Roughly: space seemingly originates just below nether Paradise; time just above upper Paradise. Time, as you understand it, is not a feature of Paradise existence, though the citizens of the central Isle are fully conscious of nontime sequence of events. Motion is not inherent on Paradise; it is volitional. But the concept of distance, even absolute distance, has very much meaning as it may be applied to relative locations on Paradise. Paradise is nonspatial; hence its areas are absolute and therefore serviceable in many ways beyond the concept of mortal mind.

In some ways it is beyond our comprehension. In other ways, the geometry is plane and simple; the plane is shaped like an ellipse. That is simple to understand. We even get a ratio for it, plus the relative thickness. But let’s not be thick about it, a central point of this central universe is that UP is the same direction for everyone enjoying that divine state of existence.

Here on Urantia, of course, life is not so paradisical. In fact, what is up for one person is down for another. Looking up for one person means looking towards Paradise and, for someone on the opposite of the world, it means looking towards the outer space levels. Having a ball and being on a ball are entirely two different things. As Einstein pointed out, seeing things straight is not seeing things straight anymore. Nothing is plane and simple. It’s all relative, generally speaking.

We can see that we are part of a larger planar reality but it is hard to really feel it and have a direct and meaningful relationship to the planar aspects of our existence. Our primary relationship is to the sphere on which we live. Being so much more limited and conditioned as we are on this sphere, it is as hard to find parallels to the central universe as it is to find parallels in spherical geometry.

In the outer space levels, we are taught, there is a realm for an eventual (or eventuated) absonite reality that has possibilities beyond our imagination.

(0:8.12) The function of God the Sevenfold dates from the organization of the seven superuniverses, and it will probably expand in connection with the future evolution of the creations of outer space. The organization of these future universes of the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quartan space levels of progressive evolution will undoubtedly witness the inauguration of the transcendent and absonite approach to Deity.

(0:9.1) Just as the Supreme Being progressively evolves from the antecedent divinity endowment of the encompassed grand universe potential of energy and personality, so does God the Ultimate eventuate from the potentials of divinity residing in the transcended time-space domains of the master universe. The actualization of Ultimate Deity signalizes absonite unification of the first experiential Trinity and signifies unifying Deity expansion on the second level of creative self-realization. This constitutes the personality-power equivalent of the universe experiential-Deity actualization of Paradise absonite realities on the eventuating levels of transcended time-space values. The completion of such an experiential unfoldment is designed to afford ultimate service-destiny for all time-space creatures who have attained absonite levels through the completed realization of the Supreme Being and by the ministry of God the Sevenfold.

(115:4.6) Supreme reality, which is total finite reality, is in process of dynamic growth between the unqualified potentials of outer space and the unqualified actuals at the center of all things. The finite domain thus factualizes through the co-operation of the absonite agencies of Paradise and the Supreme Creator Personalities of time. The act of maturing the qualified possibilities of the three great potential Absolutes is the absonite function of the Architects of the Master Universe and their transcendental associates. And when these eventualities have attained to a certain point of maturation, the Supreme Creator Personalities emerge from Paradise to engage in the agelong task of bringing the evolving universes into factual being.

If this reminds us of hyperbolic geometry and the infinite number of possibilities for parallel lines through the offset point, maybe it should. Maybe this is the point—at this point we can talk about it mathematically but it is otherwise beyond the realm of our current experiential relationship to life. We would need to have a transcendent experience to get in touch with that reality. We need to go from no possibilities to at least one possibility before we can get to many possibilities, geometrically speaking.

Easier said than done. But, at least, the above concepts provide a foundation for talking about why it is going to become increasingly difficult to express concepts clearly. The three geometries are a structure for appreciating the limitations of language and the necessity of meta-discussions in an effort to bridge the gap between absolute, finite, and absonite realms.

The macro level cosmological presentation found in The Urantia Book is progressively complex. We go from an ellipse in the central universe to a sphere within an elliptically shaped disk on an elliptical path. And the next step is to add more vertical expression with the outer space levels. Speculations about how this fits with a toroidal pattern of energy management seem like a natural extension of the math. Perhaps at the absonite level, the fundamental relationship to reality will primarily and primordially be one of movement between spheres on toroidial outer space level circuits?

[As it turns, two chapters in my book, The Logic of Love:Finding Faith through the Heart<>Mind Connection, review in more detail the three types of geometry as a context for discussing atheism, agnosticism, and theism. There are some graphics along with the explanation that may be helpful to those unfamiliar with the general nature of these geometries. This material is covered in: Part IV: Recognizing The Possibilities; Chapter 18: The Geometry Analogy; and Chapter 19: Competing Paradigms.]

Step 1: Revelatory Permissions and Limitations

Revelatory Permissions and Limitations raises issues that reach beyond a discussion of astronomy. So, it was created as a separate Topical Study. After it is drafted, perhaps, some additional comments will be made here that are specific to astronomy.

Step 2: Four-Courners Analysis

Havona/Paradise

The shape and direction of things to come

David Neufer’s computer generated, 3-D graphical presentation about the structure of Havona/Paradise is highly recommended. He gave a presentation about it at Urantia Foundation’s 2019 Scientific Symposium. The video tutorial he created that is embedded in the presentation is about seven and half minutes long.

What information about the shape of the eternal Isle of Paradise that might be useful for understanding the physical nature of the time-space creation?

(11:8.2) The center and focal point of absolute material gravity is the Isle of Paradise, complemented by the dark gravity bodies encircling Havona and equilibrated by the upper and nether space reservoirs. All known emanations of nether Paradise invariably and unerringly respond to the central gravity pull operating upon the endless circuits of the elliptical space levels of the master universe. Every known form of cosmic reality has the bend of the ages, the trend of the circle, the swing of the great ellipse.

(11:2.1) Since you are beginning to glimpse the enormousness of the material universe discernible even from your astronomical location, your space position in the starry systems, it should become evident to you that such a tremendous material universe must have an adequate and worthy capital, a headquarters commensurate with the dignity and infinitude of the universal Ruler of all this vast and far-flung creation of material realms and living beings.

(11:2.2) In form Paradise differs from the inhabited space bodies: it is not spherical. It is definitely ellipsoid, being one-sixth longer in the north-south diameter than in the east-west diameter. The central Isle is essentially flat, and the distance from the upper surface to the nether surface is one tenth that of the east-west diameter.

(11:2.3) These differences in dimensions, taken in connection with its stationary status and the greater out-pressure of force-energy at the north end of the Isle, make it possible to establish absolute direction in the master universe.

In distinguishing inhabited planets from the shape of Paradise, note the meaning/value consideration that also is mentioned—the ability to establish a sense of direction. The micro level expression of this value principle is made all the more interesting by its related UBtheNEWS report: Magnetic Sensitivity, which centers around this teaching:

(34:4.13) The four points of the compass are universal and inherent in the life of Nebadon. All living creatures possess bodily units which are sensitive and responsive to these directional currents. These creature creations are duplicated on down through the universe to the individual planets and, in conjunction with the magnetic forces of the worlds, so activate the hosts of microscopic bodies in the animal organism that these direction cells ever point north and south. Thus is the sense of orientation forever fixed in the living beings of the universe. This sense is not wholly wanting as a conscious possession by mankind. These bodies were first observed on Urantia about the time of this narration.

The Periphery

Given the cosmological structure of an eternal central universe, the obvious issue about which to wonder concerns how the particulars of the eternal central universe impact astronomic observations. Predictably, information about the periphery of the central universe provides some clues.

(11:4.1) The central Isle ends abruptly at the periphery, but its size is so enormous that this terminal angle is relatively indiscernible within any circumscribed area. The peripheral surface of Paradise is occupied, in part, by the landing and dispatching fields for various groups of spirit personalities. Since the nonpervaded-space zones nearly impinge upon the periphery, all personality transports destined to Paradise land in these regions. Neither upper nor nether Paradise is approachable by transport supernaphim or other types of space traversers.

How is the bolded portion above to be interpreted? Is this a way of saying the circumference is so big that any distance across, for practical purposes, looks like a straight line? If this defines the horizontal perspective, what about a view on the vertical perspective? Is this because at the periphery the difference between straight and curved gets blurred with the transition from beings who exist in eternity to ones that exist in time?

Does the perspective on the vertical dimension parallel the horizontal perspective?

Not Tangent

Tangent

(11:7.3) The vertical cross section of total space would slightly resemble a Maltese cross, with the horizontal arms representing pervaded (universe) space and the vertical arms representing unpervaded (reservoir) space. The areas between the four arms would separate them somewhat as the midspace zones separate pervaded and unpervaded space. These quiescent midspace zones grow larger and larger at greater and greater distances from Paradise and eventually encompass the borders of all space and completely incapsulate both the space reservoirs and the entire horizontal extension of pervaded space.

(11:7.5) If you imagine a finite, but inconceivably large, V-shaped plane situated at right angles to both the upper and lower surfaces of Paradise, with its point nearly tangent to peripheral Paradise, and then visualize this plane in elliptical revolution about Paradise, its revolution would roughly outline the volume of pervaded space.

The Maltese cross with lines tangent at the center more accurately reflects the description. But what of the qualifiers “slightly” and “somewhat” for the Maltese cross and midspace zones, respectively? These Maltese cross images do not “slightly resemble a Maltese cross;” they are generally accepted examples.

This paragraph alludes to the issues related to why “somewhat” is used in connection with the midspace zones:

(11:7.6) There is an upper and a lower limit to horizontal space with reference to any given location in the universes. If one could move far enough at right angles to the plane of Orvonton, either up or down, eventually the upper or lower limit of pervaded space would be encountered. Within the known dimensions of the master universe these limits draw farther and farther apart at greater and greater distances from Paradise; space thickens, and it thickens somewhat faster than does the plane of creation, the universes.

Whatever bending or other conditioning is intended (beyond a tangent center) by the qualifiers “slightly” and “somewhat” is apparently open to our speculations and (“so-called”) scientifci investigations.

In any case, it seems then that the horizontal and vertical perspective towards the central universe would run us into a wall, a flat shaped wall, if we could see it, of course.

(14:1.14) On the outskirts of this vast central universe, far out beyond the seventh belt of Havona worlds, there swirl an unbelievable number of enormous dark gravity bodies. These multitudinous dark masses are quite unlike other space bodies in many particulars; even in form they are very different. These dark gravity bodies neither reflect nor absorb light; they are nonreactive to physical-energy light, and they so completely encircle and enshroud Havona as to hide it from the view of even near-by inhabited universes of time and space.

Later in the study, when the relatively quiet zones that separate counterrotating superuniverses and outer space levels is discussed, unknown and distorting characteristics become part of the consideration. Notice here that conspicuous absence of such comments in relationship to both the “quiescent midspace zones” and the nature of the dark gravity bodies. Are we to understand that neither of these have a distorting influence? Does this mean that, if we were on the other side of Orvonton, we could plainly see superuniverses on the opposite side of the central universe? And if that is true, what would it mean to the progressively developing view of things as one swings from one side of Orvonton to the other?

Even if the central universe is hidden, what of the swirling superuniverse energies traveling around it? Would the center point be like a tornado of energy for the materialist and be like a hurricane, with its calm center, for the theist?

Consider that if we do not come up with a model that works for the whole system, then speculations about how to integrate The Urantia Book with developing science will suffer from having to compare science to partial theory or perspective on Urantia Book teachings.

Superuniverses and Outer Space Levels

(15:0.3) Of the vast body of knowledge concerning the superuniverses, I can hope to tell you little, but there is operative throughout these realms a technique of intelligent control for both physical and spiritual forces, and the universal gravity presences there function in majestic power and perfect harmony. It is important first to gain an adequate idea of the physical constitution and material organization of the superuniverse domains, for then you will be the better prepared to grasp the significance of the marvelous organization provided for their spiritual government and for the intellectual advancement of the will creatures who dwell on the myriads of inhabited planets scattered hither and yon throughout these seven superuniverses.

Universes: master, grand, super-, local

Understanding the material and administrative relationships associated with these various universe designations is tied to couple concepts (including their negative expressions)—inhabited and organized.

Etymology of universe:

uni: word-forming element meaning “having one only,” from Latin uni-, combining form of unus “one” (from PIE root *oi-no- “one, unique”).

verse: late Old English (replacing Old English fers, an early West Germanic borrowing directly from Latin), “line or section of a psalm or canticle,” later “line of poetry” (late 14c.), from Anglo-French and Old French vers “line of verse; rhyme, song,” from Latin versus “a line, row, line of verse, line of writing,” from PIE root *wer- (2) “to turn, bend.” The metaphor is of plowing, of “turning” from one line to another (vertere = “to turn”) as a plowman does.

The English New Testament first was divided fully into verses in the Geneva version (1550s). Meaning “metrical composition” is recorded from c. 1300; as the non-repeating part of a modern song (between repetitions of the chorus) by 1918.

A uniquely bounded religious expression.

(0:0.6) 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.

(0:1.10) 7. Ultimate—self-projected and time-space-transcending Deity. Deity omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Deity functioning on the second level of unifying divinity expression as effective overcontrollers and absonite upholders of the master universe. As compared with the ministry of the Deities to the grand universe, this absonite function in the master universe is tantamount to universal overcontrol and supersustenance, sometimes called the Ultimacy of Deity.

(0:1.12) The absonite level of reality is characterized by things and beings without beginnings or endings and by the transcendence of time and space. Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated—they simply are. The Deity level of Ultimacy connotes a function in relation to absonite realities. No matter in what part of the master universe, whenever time and space are transcended, such an absonite phenomenon is an act of the Ultimacy of Deity.

(4:2.1) Nature is in a limited sense the physical habit of God. The conduct, or action, of God is qualified and provisionally modified by the experimental plans and the evolutionary patterns of a local universe, a constellation, a system, or a planet. God acts in accordance with a well-defined, unchanging, immutable law throughout the wide-spreading master universe; but he modifies the patterns of his action so as to contribute to the co-ordinate and balanced conduct of each universe, constellation, system, planet, and personality in accordance with the local objects, aims, and plans of the finite projects of evolutionary unfolding.

(0:0.6) 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.

(0:1.9) 6. Supreme—self-experiential and creature-Creator-unifying Deity. Deity functioning on the first creature-identificational level as time-space overcontrollers of the grand universe, sometimes designated the Supremacy of Deity.

Extrasolar system proper names (and direct references)

Before addressing the specific ways that the revelators use existing proper names in their discussion of astronomy, consider the creative options and broader pattern of relationship to this opportunity to use existing human terminology. Only five terms are used for extrasolar proper names: Andromeda, Antares, Crab nebula, Milky Way Galaxy, Sagittarius, Megellanic Cloud, Tycho’s Nova (or SN1572 is referenced), and Orion. (If any have been missed, please do get in touch!)

Consider all the proper name references that could have been creatively incorporated into the teachings but were not. What insights can be gleaned from this literary technique that avoids integrating Urantia Book teachings with existing human understandings, even at the most rudimentary level of naming something specific and observable, like stars and nebulae? Do the revelatory mandates specifically require this level of restricted use regarding existing terminology?

(0:0.2) It is exceedingly difficult to present enlarged concepts and advanced truth, in our endeavor to expand cosmic consciousness and enhance spiritual perception, when we are restricted to the use of a circumscribed language of the realm. But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue. We have been instructed to introduce new terms only when the concept to be portrayed finds no terminology in English which can be employed to convey such a new concept partially or even with more or less distortion of meaning.

Apparently not. What is the relationship between the above mandate and this context? Before applying an understanding of the revelatory limitations to scientific information, what is there to notice separate from that broader and more integrated consideration? What literary considerations are at play here?

If the Andromeda nebula is not in the first outer space level, then nothing in the list is in outer space.

Milky Way Galaxy: Orvonton,

Sagittarius

The Megellanic Cloud is as an example of the evolutionary development of a nebula within Orvonton.

(15:4.8) The Milky Way galaxy is composed of vast numbers of former spiral and other nebulae, and many still retain their original configuration. But as the result of internal catastrophes and external attraction, many have suffered such distortion and rearrangement as to cause these enormous aggregations to appear as gigantic luminous masses of blazing suns, like the Magellanic Cloud. The globular type of star clusters predominates near the outer margins of Orvonton.

Crab nebula:

(41:8.4) As a rule, the vast extrusion of matter continues to exist about the residual cooling sun as extensive clouds of nebular gases. And all this explains the origin of many types of irregular nebulae, such as the Crab nebula, which had its origin about nine hundred years ago, and which still exhibits the mother sphere as a lone star near the center of this irregular nebular mass.

Tycho’s Nova: 10,000 light-years away in Cassiopia, towards Andromeda.

Orion is used once. On the surface, it may seem like an anomoly because the context relates to statements made by a prophet.

(97:4.3) Said Amos: “He who formed the mountains and created the wind, seek him who formed the seven stars and Orion, who turns the shadow of death into the morning and makes the day dark as night.” And in denouncing his half-religious, timeserving, and sometimes immoral fellows, he sought to portray the inexorable justice of an unchanging Yahweh when he said of the evildoers: “Though they dig into hell, thence shall I take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.” “And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I direct the sword of justice, and it shall slay them.” Amos further startled his hearers when, pointing a reproving and accusing finger at them, he declared in the name of Yahweh: “Surely I will never forget any of your works.” “And I will sift the house of Israel among all nations as wheat is sifted in a sieve.”

Wikipedia’s introduction to the Orion Nebula states:

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. It is … the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. …

The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have directly observed protoplanetary disks and brown dwarfs within the nebula, intense and turbulent motions of the gas, and the photo-ionizing effects of massive nearby stars in the nebula.

One of the most distinctive stars in Orion is a red giant named Betelgeuse.

Whatever insights and perspectives of worth may be availabe in the time-space warping and afterlife wooping related aspects to the Betelgeuse character in the movie Beetlejuice, you will need to explore on your own. I will note, however, that, according to Wikipedia, filming for a sequel begins in 2022.

(41:4.4) One of your near-by suns, which started life with about the same mass as yours, has now contracted almost to the size of Urantia, having become forty thousand times as dense as your sun. The weight of this hot-cold gaseous-solid is about one ton per cubic inch. And still this sun shines with a faint reddish glow, the senile glimmer of a dying monarch of light.

Nebulae — The Ancestors of Universes (15:4.4-9) +

From nebula that account for only a portion of a Local Universe to ones comparible to a superuniverse, the evolutionary dynamics are similar.

(57:3.2) The near-by star students of that faraway era, as they observed this metamorphosis of the Andronover nebula, saw exactly what twentieth-century astronomers see when they turn their telescopes spaceward and view the present-age spiral nebulae of adjacent outer space.

(15:4.4) Paradise force organizers are nebulae originators; they are able to initiate about their space presence the tremendous cyclones of force which, when once started, can never be stopped or limited until the all-pervading forces are mobilized for the eventual appearance of the ultimatonic units of universe matter. Thus are brought into being the spiral and other nebulae, the mother wheels of the direct-origin suns and their varied systems. [Previous statements concern all space, which includes us, then outer space is specifically distinguished for its variations.] In outer space there may be seen ten different forms of nebulae, phases of primary universe evolution, and these vast energy wheels had the same origin as did those in the seven superuniverses.

(15:4.5) Nebulae vary greatly in size and in the resulting number and aggregate mass of their stellar and planetary offspring. A sun-forming nebula just north of the borders of Orvonton, but within the superuniverse space level, has already given origin to approximately forty thousand suns, and the mother wheel is still throwing off suns, the majority of which are many times the size of yours. [First they make it relevant to us, then they distinguish outer space.] Some of the larger nebulae of outer space are giving origin to as many as one hundred million suns.

Cygnus may be the above reference.

(15:4.6) Nebulae are not directly related to any of the administrative units, such as minor sectors or local universes, although some local universes have been organized from the products of a single nebula. Each local universe embraces exactly one one-hundred-thousandth part of the total energy charge of a superuniverse irrespective of nebular relationship, for energy is not organized by nebulae—it is universally distributed. [Distinguishing general but localized energy expressions from local material expressions.]

(15:4.7) Not all spiral nebulae are engaged in sun making. Some have retained control of many of their segregated stellar offspring, and their spiral appearance is occasioned by the fact that their suns pass out of the nebular arm in close formation but return by diverse routes, thus making it easy to observe them at one point but more difficult to see them when widely scattered on their different returning routes farther out and away from the arm of the nebula. There are not many sun-forming nebulae active in Orvonton at the present time, though Andromeda, which is outside the inhabited superuniverse, is very active. [Discussion of nebulae nature followed by a CLEAR effort to distinguish nebulae generally found still in Orvonton from something outside of Orvonton.] This far-distant nebula is visible to the naked eye, and when you view it, pause to consider that the light you behold left those distant suns almost one million years ago.

(15:4.9) The vast star clouds of Orvonton should be regarded as individual aggregations of matter comparable to the separate nebulae observable in the space regions external to the Milky Way galaxy. [Finally finishing with one last parallel. First what is immediately related to us is mentioned, then we get something about what’s beyond us.] Many of the so-called star clouds of space, however, consist of gaseous material only. The energy potential of these stellar gas clouds is unbelievably enormous, and some of it is taken up by near-by suns and redispatched in space as solar emanations.

(11:7.8) A space level thus functions as an elliptical region of motion surrounded on all sides by relative motionlessness. Such relationships of motion and quiescence constitute a curved space path of lessened resistance to motion which is universally followed by cosmic force and emergent energy as they circle forever around the Isle of Paradise.

(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.

Comparing larger and smaller structures

(15:4.4) Paradise force organizers are nebulae originators; they are able to initiate about their space presence the tremendous cyclones of force which, when once started, can never be stopped or limited until the all-pervading forces are mobilized for the eventual appearance of the ultimatonic units of universe matter. Thus are brought into being the spiral and other nebulae, the mother wheels of the direct-origin suns and their varied systems. In outer space there may be seen ten different forms of nebulae, phases of primary universe evolution, and these vast energy wheels had the same origin as did those in the seven superuniverses.

(15:3.1) Practically all of the starry realms visible to the naked eye on Urantia belong to the seventh section of the grand universe, the superuniverse of Orvonton. The vast Milky Way starry system represents the central nucleus of Orvonton, being largely beyond the borders of your local universe. This great aggregation of suns, dark islands of space, double stars, globular clusters, star clouds, spiral and other nebulae, together with myriads of individual planets, forms a watchlike, elongated-circular grouping of about one seventh of the inhabited evolutionary universes.

(15:4.7) Not all spiral nebulae are engaged in sun making. Some have retained control of many of their segregated stellar offspring, and their spiral appearance is occasioned by the fact that their suns pass out of the nebular arm in close formation but return by diverse routes, thus making it easy to observe them at one point but more difficult to see them when widely scattered on their different returning routes farther out and away from the arm of the nebula. There are not many sun-forming nebulae active in Orvonton at the present time, though Andromeda, which is outside the inhabited superuniverse, is very active. This far-distant nebula is visible to the naked eye, and when you view it, pause to consider that the light you behold left those distant suns almost one million years ago.

(41:1.1) The spiral and other nebulae, the mother wheels of the spheres of space, are initiated by Paradise force organizers; and following nebular evolution of gravity response, they are superseded in superuniverse function by the power centers and physical controllers, who thereupon assume full responsibility for directing the physical evolution of the ensuing generations of stellar and planetary offspring. This physical supervision of the Nebadon preuniverse was, upon the arrival of our Creator Son, immediately co-ordinated with his plan for universe organization. Within the domain of this Paradise Son of God, the Supreme Power Centers and the Master Physical Controllers collaborated with the later appearing Morontia Power Supervisors and others to produce that vast complex of communication lines, energy circuits, and power lanes which firmly bind the manifold space bodies of Nebadon into one integrated administrative unit.

(57:2.1) All evolutionary material creations are born of circular and gaseous nebulae, and all such primary nebulae are circular throughout the early part of their gaseous existence. As they grow older, they usually become spiral, and when their function of sun formation has run its course, they often terminate as clusters of stars or as enormous suns surrounded by a varying number of planets, satellites, and smaller groups of matter in many ways resembling your own diminutive solar system.

(57:3.1) The enormous nebula now began gradually to assume the spiral form and to become clearly visible to the astronomers of even distant universes. This is the natural history of most nebulae; before they begin to throw off suns and start upon the work of universe building, these secondary space nebulae are usually observed as spiral phenomena.

(57:3.3) About the time of the attainment of the maximum of mass, the gravity control of the gaseous content commenced to weaken, and there ensued the stage of gas escapement, the gas streaming forth as two gigantic and distinct arms, which took origin on opposite sides of the mother mass. The rapid revolutions of this enormous central core soon imparted a spiral appearance to these two projecting gas streams. The cooling and subsequent condensation of portions of these protruding arms eventually produced their knotted appearance. These denser portions were vast systems and subsystems of physical matter whirling through space in the midst of the gaseous cloud of the nebula while being held securely within the gravity grasp of the mother wheel.

(57:4.1) The primary stage of a nebula is circular; the secondary, spiral; the tertiary stage is that of the first sun dispersion, while the quartan embraces the second and last cycle of sun dispersion, with the mother nucleus ending either as a globular cluster or as a solitary sun functioning as the center of a terminal solar system.

Comparing descriptors: “multiple revolutionary movements”

(15:3.7) The Sagittarius sector and all other sectors and divisions of Orvonton are in rotation around Uversa, and some of the confusion of Urantian star observers arises out of the illusions and relative distortions produced by the following multiple revolutionary movements:

(15:3.8) 1. The revolution of Urantia around its sun.

(15:3.9) 2. The circuit of your solar system about the nucleus of the former Andronover nebula.

(15:3.10) 3. The rotation of the Andronover stellar family and the associated clusters about the composite rotation-gravity center of the star cloud of Nebadon.

(15:3.11) 4. The swing of the local star cloud of Nebadon and its associated creations around the Sagittarius center of their minor sector.

(15:3.12) 5. The rotation of the one hundred minor sectors, including Sagittarius, about their major sector.

(15:3.13) 6. The whirl of the ten major sectors, the so-called star drifts, about the Uversa headquarters of Orvonton.

(15:3.14) 7. The movement of Orvonton and six associated superuniverses around Paradise and Havona, the counterclockwise processional of the superuniverse space level.

(15:3.15) These multiple motions are of several orders: The space paths of your planet and your solar system are genetic, inherent in origin. The absolute counterclockwise motion of Orvonton is also genetic, inherent in the architectural plans of the master universe. But the intervening motions are of composite origin, being derived in part from the constitutive segmentation of matter-energy into the superuniverses and in part produced by the intelligent and purposeful action of the Paradise force organizers.

Relationship Between Orvonton and Andromeda

Some UB astronomy students have suggested that Andromeda is within Orvonton, arguing that:

(15:4.7) … There are not many sun-forming nebulae active in Orvonton at the present time, though Andromeda, which is outside the inhabited superuniverse, is very active. This far-distant nebula is visible to the naked eye, and when you view it, pause to consider that the light you behold left those distant suns almost one million years ago.

… refers to just the inhabited part of Orvonton and that Andromeda is in an, as yet, uninhabited region of Orvonton.

However, a comparison of these passages indicates otherwise:

(41:3.5) The most recent of the major cosmic eruptions in Orvonton was the extraordinary double star explosion, the light of which reached Urantia in A.D. 1572. This conflagration was so intense that the explosion was clearly visible in broad daylight. [See UBtheNEWS: Tycho’s Nova Report.]

(41:8.3) In large suns—small circular nebulae—when hydrogen is exhausted and gravity contraction ensues, if such a body is not sufficiently opaque to retain the internal pressure of support for the outer gas regions, then a sudden collapse occurs. The gravity-electric changes give origin to vast quantities of tiny particles devoid of electric potential, and such particles readily escape from the solar interior, thus bringing about the collapse of a gigantic sun within a few days. It was such an emigration of these “runaway particles” that occasioned the collapse of the giant nova of the Andromeda nebula about fifty years ago. This vast stellar body collapsed in forty minutes of Urantia time.

From Wikipedia:

“In 1885, a supernova (known as S Andromedae) was seen in Andromeda, the first and so far only one observed in that galaxy. At the time Andromeda was considered to be a nearby object, so the cause was thought to be a much less luminous and unrelated event called a nova, and was named accordingly; “Nova 1885”.”

Ergo, Andromeda is not in Orvonton because commentary about the “most recent of the major cosmic eruptions in Orvonton makes no mention of inhabited vs. uninhabited and everything else is clear.

As well, the following introductory statement from the first several paragraphs of the Foreword states:

(0:0.6) 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.

Here we see that “inhabited” is used in a general way with the superuniverse creations, even though they are not complete and some parts and yet inhabited. And, at the same time, general use of uninhabited is designated for outer space levels.

Additionally, consider the Topical Study: Reader Captivation Phrases, which contextualizes the phrase “pause to consider.”

All things considered, textual analysis strongly supports the interpretation that Andromeda is in the first outer space level.

Consider as candidates for the two or three nebulae: Andromeda, Triangulum, and Centaurus A.

Milky Way Galaxy and Orvonton

Study break material: Journey Through the Milky Way by Alyona Vargasova.
See Topical Study: Milky Way Galaxy/(sub)(super)galactic

Terminology: Sagittarius vs. Milky Way

There are 88 arbitrary configurations of stars used to map areas of the heavens, to identify a general direction. When trying to use existing astronomical terminology as a reference point, consider the comparative challenge faced by the revelators Milky Way Galaxy vs. Sagittarius. The former being a huge band of light in the sky that seemingly indicates the presence of some type of cohesive astronomical unity. In contrast, Sagittarius is a collection of a small number of bright stars, identifying a much more limited segment of the cosmos and without a naked eye formation observable beyond the fixed stars of the constellation. Perhaps this is why “so-called” is used in reference to “Milky Way” and there is an effort made to redefine the term but no such effort is made with respect to Sagittarius.

Note in the following passages how there is no attempt to redefine Sagittarius or to specifically associate with any administrative unit, as is done with Milky Way Galaxy and Orvonton.

(15:3.5) The rotational center of your minor sector is situated far away in the enormous and dense star cloud of Sagittarius, around which your local universe and its associated creations all move, and from opposite sides of the vast Sagittarius subgalactic system you may observe two great streams of star clouds emerging in stupendous stellar coils.

Notice what is and is not said. The rotational center of our minor sector is in the enormous star cloud. This is not saying that the center of our minor sector is the center of the Sagittarius star cloud.

Interesting to note, “far away” and “far, far away” (which is only used once) are each used only once as general astronomical descriptions. “Far away” is used nine times but in different contexts elsewhere.

(15:3.11) 4. The swing of the local star cloud of Nebadon and its associated creations around the Sagittarius center of their minor sector.

(15:3.12) 5. The rotation of the one hundred minor sectors, including Sagittarius, about their major sector.

(41:0.4) Such is the constitution of the local star cloud of Nebadon, which today swings in an increasingly settled orbit about the Sagittarius center of that minor sector of Orvonton to which our local creation belongs.

Step 3: Past And Present Scientific Understandings

Visible At The Fringe

(12:1.13) 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.

(12:2.2) Although the unaided human eye can see only two or three nebulae outside the borders of the superuniverse of Orvonton, your telescopes literally reveal millions upon millions of these physical universes in process of formation. Most of the starry realms visually exposed to the search of your present-day telescopes are in Orvonton, but with photographic technique the larger telescopes penetrate far beyond the borders of the grand universe into the domains of outer space, where untold universes are in process of organization. And there are yet other millions of universes beyond the range of your present instruments.

(12:2.3) In the not-distant future, new telescopes will reveal to the wondering gaze of Urantian astronomers no less than 375 million new galaxies in the remote stretches of outer space. At the same time these more powerful telescopes will disclose that many island universes formerly believed to be in outer space are really a part of the galactic system of Orvonton. The seven superuniverses are still growing; the periphery of each is gradually expanding; new nebulae are constantly being stabilized and organized; and some of the nebulae which Urantian astronomers regard as extragalactic are actually on the fringe of Orvonton and are traveling along with us.

(12:2.4) The Uversa star students observe that the grand universe is surrounded by the ancestors of a series of starry and planetary clusters which completely encircle the present inhabited creation as concentric rings of outer universes upon universes. The physicists of Uversa calculate that the energy and matter of these outer and uncharted regions already equal many times the total material mass and energy charge embraced in all seven superuniverses. We are informed that the metamorphosis of cosmic force in these outer space levels is a function of the Paradise force organizers. We also know that these forces are ancestral to those physical energies which at present activate the grand universe. The Orvonton power directors, however, have nothing to do with these far-distant realms, neither are the energy movements therein discernibly connected with the power circuits of the organized and inhabited creations.

(15:1.6) Urantia belongs to a system which is well out towards the borderland of your local universe; and your local universe is at present traversing the periphery of Orvonton. Beyond you there are still others, but you are far removed in space from those physical systems which swing around the great circle in comparative proximity to the Great Source and Center.

(41:10.5) Urantia is comparatively isolated on the outskirts of Satania, your solar system, with one exception, being the farthest removed from Jerusem, while Satania itself is next to the outermost system of Norlatiadek, and this constellation is now traversing the outer fringe of Nebadon. You were truly among the least of all creation until Michael’s bestowal elevated your planet to a position of honor and great universe interest. Sometimes the last is first, while truly the least becomes greatest.

What might be these two or three nebulae outside the border of the superuniverse of Orvonton? Which ones are the ones formerly believed to be in outer space but are actually part of Orvonton?

Galaxies visible to the naked eye, listed by Wikipedia:

Large Magellanic Cloud: 160,000 light years—“Visible only from the southern hemisphere. It is also the brightest patch of nebulosity in the sky.”

Small Magellanic Cloud: 200,000 light years—“Visible only from the southern hemisphere.”

Andromeda galaxy: 2,500,000 light years—science; almost 1,000,000,000 light years—Urantia Book

Trangulum galaxy: 2,900,000 light years—“Being a diffuse object, its visibility is strongly affected by even small amounts of light pollution, ranging from easily visible in direct vision in truly dark skies to a difficult averted vision object in rural/suburban skies.”

Bode’s Galaxy: 12,000,000 light years—“Highly experienced amateur astronomers may be able to see Messier 81 under exceptional observing conditions.”

Sculptor Galaxy: 12,000,000 light years—“NGC 253 has been observed with the naked eye by Timo Karhula.”

Centaurus A: 13,700,000 light years—“Centaurus A has been spotted with the naked eye by Stephen James O’Meara.”

Space Respiration

(11:5.9) All physical force, energy, and matter are one. All force-energy originally proceeded from nether Paradise and will eventually return thereto following the completion of its space circuit. But the energies and material organizations of the universe of universes did not all come from nether Paradise in their present phenomenal states; space is the womb of several forms of matter and prematter. Though the outer zone of the Paradise force center is the source of space-energies, space does not originate there. Space is not force, energy, or power. Nor do the pulsations of this zone account for the respiration of space, but the incoming and outgoing phases of this zone are synchronized with the two-billion-year expansion-contraction cycles of space.

(11:6.0) 6. Space Respiration
(11:6.1) We do not know the actual mechanism of space respiration; we merely observe that all space alternately contracts and expands. This respiration affects both the horizontal extension of pervaded space and the vertical extensions of unpervaded space which exist in the vast space reservoirs above and below Paradise. In attempting to imagine the volume outlines of these space reservoirs, you might think of an hourglass.

Step 4: Applying Step 3 to Step 2

At Urantia Foundation’s June 2022 Sceintific Symposium, Phil Calabrese’s presentation was titled: “Explaining Large Doppler Redshifts Without a Big Bang.” (Video. PDF.) It seems to me to be a major breakthrough for squaring astronomy with The Urantia Book.

Providing a Sense of Place and Purpose

The Urantia Book is a cosmic road map for the spiritual adventure that goes from being a dense and imperfect material creature on earth to an enlightened and spiritual being in Paradise.

(15:1.2) We have long since discovered that the seven superuniverses traverse a great ellipse, a gigantic and elongated circle. Your solar system and other worlds of time are not plunging headlong, without chart and compass, into unmapped space. The local universe to which your system belongs is pursuing a definite and well-understood counterclockwise course around the vast swing that encircles the central universe. This cosmic path is well charted and is just as thoroughly known to the superuniverse star observers as the orbits of the planets constituting your solar system are known to Urantia astronomers.

(0:0.5) Your world, Urantia, 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 commission hails. Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection—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 and the dwelling place of the eternal God.

(15:1.4) In this age and as direction is regarded on Urantia, superuniverse number one swings almost due north, approximately opposite, in an easterly direction, to the Paradise residence of the Great Sources and Centers and the central universe of Havona. This position, with the corresponding one to the west, represents the nearest physical approach of the spheres of time to the eternal Isle. Superuniverse number two is in the north, preparing for the westward swing, while number three now holds the northernmost segment of the great space path, having already turned into the bend leading to the southerly plunge. Number four is on the comparatively straightaway southerly flight, the advance regions now approaching opposition to the Great Centers. Number five has about left its position opposite the Center of Centers while continuing on the direct southerly course just preceding the eastward swing; number six occupies most of the southern curve, the segment from which your superuniverse has nearly passed.

(15:1.5) Your local universe of Nebadon belongs to Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse, which swings on between superuniverses one and six, having not long since (as we reckon time) turned the southeastern bend of the superuniverse space level. Today, the solar system to which Urantia belongs is a few billion years past the swing around the southern curvature so that you are just now advancing beyond the southeastern bend and are moving swiftly through the long and comparatively straightaway northern path. For untold ages Orvonton will pursue this almost direct northerly course.

(The UBtheNEWS: Magnetic Sensitivity Report provides additional perspective on striking the balance between what information can and cannot be included in The Urantia Book.)

Perhaps one day, this page will grow beyond being a Topical Study to also live as a UBtheNEWS research page. For now, the first job is to work on creating images and developing questions related to Urantia Book-based astronomy. Neither the picture painted by The Urantia Book or science is a complete picture of astronomy that answers all of our questions. And speaking of painting pictures, I have my own limitations as a graphic artist. So, please do feel free to get in touch with constructive criticism and/or help with creating better quality graphics. Thanks for checking this out!

Note how the “time-space” phrase and concept is addressed very close to the beginning and end of the text. And a section on time-space, provided in Paper 118, is also noteworthy for its placement (towards the very end Part III) in relationship to the rest of The Urantia Book.

(0:1.9) 6. Supreme—self-experiential and creature-Creator-unifying Deity. Deity functioning on the first creature-identificational level as time-space overcontrollers of the grand universe, sometimes designated the Supremacy of Deity.

(195:7.20) Science lives by the mathematics of the mind; music expresses the tempo of the emotions. Religion is the spiritual rhythm of the soul in time-space harmony with the higher and eternal melody measurements of Infinity. Religious experience is something in human life which is truly supermathematical.

Notice that in these introductory comments of general description, the superuniverses are referred to as “organized and inhabited creations,” notwithstanding the fact that portions of the superuniverses are incomplete, currently uninhabited areas and spheres that are destined to be inhabited.

Inherent Challenges and Limitations

Superuniverses vs. Outer Space Levels

(41:3.10) In one group of variable stars the period of light fluctuation is directly dependent on luminosity, and knowledge of this fact enables astronomers to utilize such suns as universe lighthouses or accurate measuring points for the further exploration of distant star clusters. By this technique it is possible to measure stellar distances most precisely up to more than one million light-years. Better methods of space measurement and improved telescopic technique will sometime more fully disclose the ten grand divisions of the superuniverse of Orvonton; you will at least recognize eight of these immense sectors as enormous and fairly symmetrical star clusters.

[Consider that “most precisely” does not mean precise. It is relative to other techniques in this context. At 12:4.14 this technique is referred to as “fairly reliable”: “spectroscopic estimations of astronomic velocities are fairly reliable”.]

(12:4.14) Although your spectroscopic estimations of astronomic velocities are fairly reliable when applied to the starry realms belonging to your superuniverse and its associate superuniverses, such reckonings with reference to the realms of outer space are wholly unreliable. Spectral lines are displaced from the normal towards the violet by an approaching star; likewise these lines are displaced towards the red by a receding star. Many influences interpose to make it appear that the recessional velocity of the external universes increases at the rate of more than one hundred miles a second for every million light-years increase in distance. By this method of reckoning, subsequent to the perfection of more powerful telescopes, it will appear that these far-distant systems are in flight from this part of the universe at the unbelievable rate of more than thirty thousand miles a second. But this apparent speed of recession is not real; it results from numerous factors of error embracing angles of observation and other time-space distortions.

Time dilation and the Doppler effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation

In physics and relativity, time dilation is the difference in the elapsed time as measured by two clocks. It is either due to a relative velocity between them (special relativistic “kinetic” time dilation) or to a difference in gravitational potential between their locations (general relativistic gravitational time dilation). When unspecified, “time dilation” usually refers to the effect due to velocity.

After compensating for varying signal delays due to the changing distance between an observer and a moving clock (i.e. Doppler effect), the observer will measure the moving clock as ticking slower than a clock that is at rest in the observer’s own reference frame. In addition, a clock that is close to a massive body (and which therefore is at lower gravitational potential) will record less elapsed time than a clock situated further from the said massive body (and which is at a higher gravitational potential).

These predictions of the theory of relativity have been repeatedly confirmed by experiment, and they are of practical concern, for instance in the operation of satellite navigation systems such as GPS and Galileo.^[1] Time dilation has also been the subject of science fiction works.

Visual Aids and Discussion

The black dot in the center of this cosmological Maltese cross is approximately proportionately representative of the seven superuniverses and the first quiet zone—one million light-years.

(15:3.1) Practically all of the starry realms visible to the naked eye on Urantia belong to the seventh section of the grand universe, the superuniverse of Orvonton. The vast Milky Way starry system represents the central nucleus of Orvonton, being largely beyond the borders of your local universe. This great aggregation of suns, dark islands of space, double stars, globular clusters, star clouds, spiral and other nebulae, together with myriads of individual planets, forms a watchlike, elongated-circular grouping of about one seventh of the inhabited evolutionary universes.

(15:3.2) From the astronomical position of Urantia, as you look through the cross section of near-by systems to the great Milky Way, you observe that the spheres of Orvonton are traveling in a vast elongated plane, the breadth being far greater than the thickness and the length far greater than the breadth.

(11:7.7) The relatively quiet zones between the space levels, such as the one separating the seven superuniverses from the first outer space level, are enormous elliptical regions of quiescent space activities. These zones separate the vast galaxies which race around Paradise in orderly procession. You may visualize the first outer space level, where untold universes are now in process of formation, as a vast procession of galaxies swinging around Paradise, bounded above and below by the midspace zones of quiescence and bounded on the inner and outer margins by relatively quiet space zones.

(11:7.8) A space level thus functions as an elliptical region of motion surrounded on all sides by relative motionlessness. Such relationships of motion and quiescence constitute a curved space path of lessened resistance to motion which is universally followed by cosmic force and emergent energy as they circle forever around the Isle of Paradise.

(12:1.14) 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.

(12:1.15) 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.

(15:4.7) Not all spiral nebulae are engaged in sun making. Some have retained control of many of their segregated stellar offspring, and their spiral appearance is occasioned by the fact that their suns pass out of the nebular arm in close formation but return by diverse routes, thus making it easy to observe them at one point but more difficult to see them when widely scattered on their different returning routes farther out and away from the arm of the nebula. There are not many sun-forming nebulae active in Orvonton at the present time, though Andromeda, which is outside the inhabited superuniverse, is very active. This far-distant nebula is visible to the naked eye, and when you view it, pause to consider that the light you behold left those distant suns almost one million years ago.

(11:8.2) The center and focal point of absolute material gravity is the Isle of Paradise, complemented by the dark gravity bodies encircling Havona and equilibrated by the upper and nether space reservoirs. All known emanations of nether Paradise invariably and unerringly respond to the central gravity pull operating upon the endless circuits of the elliptical space levels of the master universe. Every known form of cosmic reality has the bend of the ages, the trend of the circle, the swing of the great ellipse.

The ratios used to create an egg-shaped ellipse come from ratios found in atomic physics.

Even though The Urantia Book provides information about where our superuniverse sits in relationship to other superuniverses, along with a north/south coordinate perspective and rotational direction, I have not been able to determine either the proportions of the ellipse or our position on it. Either the information is not in the revelation or I have not figured it out yet. So, for now, a circle is being used to approximate relationships between the superuniverses for the purpose of developing a rough idea of how far we might be able to see across the seven superuniverses.

Image by Tom Allen(?)

Image by Nigel Nunn.

Milky Way halo

(0:0.5) Your world, Urantia, 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 commission hails. Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection—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 and the dwelling place of the eternal God.

(15:1.2) We have long since discovered that the seven superuniverses traverse a great ellipse, a gigantic and elongated circle.

(12:4.14) [Y]our spectroscopic estimations of astronomic velocities are fairly reliable when applied to the starry realms belonging to your superuniverse and its associate superuniverses …

Corroborating Scientific Research

Rotating universes supported by science

Supports 12:4.15—See June 2020 article in Phys.org supporting the theory that the universe has been rotating from the beginning “An analysis of more than 200,000 spiral galaxies has revealed unexpected links between spin directions of galaxies, and the structure formed by these links might suggest that the early universe could have been spinning, according to a Kansas State University study.”

Great Attractor

Video about the Great Attractor and Laniakea.

Seeing Adjacent Superuniverses

Looking towards adjacent superuniverse capitals.

One of the most obvious questions to ask, regarding a comparison of UB astronomy to contemporary science, concerns the location of adjoining superuniverse capitals. I think my drawing is probably overly tight with respect to relative relationships, meaning there is likely more space between superuniverses, which would tend to expand the angel of observation off of center, when it comes to looking for the centers of other superuniverses.

If a line is drawn from us to the Milky Way halo (call that the center line) and we presume being in the center of the outer edge and we take the angel off center to the center of adjoining superuniveres to be about 22.5 degrees, this would be the angle to start with and then increase from there. Seems we should be looking for something in the neighborhood of 350,000 to 450,000 ly away?

If anyone has any suggestions for candidates, please get in touch.

An Astronomy online text book seems to suggest that Uversa can be identified using infrared imaging technology:

“The fact that much of the bulge is obscured by dust makes its shape difficult to determine. For a long time, astronomers assumed it was spherical. However, infrared images and other data indicate that the bulge is about two times longer than it is wide, and shaped rather like a peanut. The relationship between this elongated inner bulge and the larger bar of stars remains uncertain. At the very center of the nuclear bulge is a tremendous
concentration of matter, which we will discuss later in this chapter.

“In our Galaxy, the thin and thick disks and the nuclear bulge are embedded in a spherical halo of very old, faint stars that extends to a distance of at least 150,000 light-years from the galactic center. Most of the globular clusters are also found in this halo.”

Terminology

Geometric Descriptions

(0:0.5) Your world, Urantia, 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 commission hails. Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection—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 and the dwelling place of the eternal God.

(0:0.6) 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.

(11:7.3) The vertical cross section of total space would slightly resemble a Maltese cross, with the horizontal arms representing pervaded (universe) space and the vertical arms representing unpervaded (reservoir) space. The areas between the four arms would separate them somewhat as the midspace zones separate pervaded and unpervaded space. These quiescent midspace zones grow larger and larger at greater and greater distances from Paradise and eventually encompass the borders of all space and completely incapsulate both the space reservoirs and the entire horizontal extension of pervaded space.

(11:7.5) If you imagine a finite, but inconceivably large, V-shaped plane situated at right angles to both the upper and lower surfaces of Paradise, with its point nearly tangent to peripheral Paradise, and then visualize this plane in elliptical revolution about Paradise, its revolution would roughly outline the volume of pervaded space.

(11:7.6) There is an upper and a lower limit to horizontal space with reference to any given location in the universes. If one could move far enough at right angles to the plane of Orvonton, either up or down, eventually the upper or lower limit of pervaded space would be encountered. Within the known dimensions of the master universe these limits draw farther and farther apart at greater and greater distances from Paradise; space thickens, and it thickens somewhat faster than does the plane of creation, the universes.

(11:7.9) This alternate zoning of the master universe, in association with the alternate clockwise and counterclockwise flow of the galaxies, is a factor in the stabilization of physical gravity designed to prevent the accentuation of gravity pressure to the point of disruptive and dispersive activities. Such an arrangement exerts antigravity influence and acts as a brake upon otherwise dangerous velocities.

(11:8.2) The center and focal point of absolute material gravity is the Isle of Paradise, complemented by the dark gravity bodies encircling Havona and equilibrated by the upper and nether space reservoirs. All known emanations of nether Paradise invariably and unerringly respond to the central gravity pull operating upon the endless circuits of the elliptical space levels of the master universe. Every known form of cosmic reality has the bend of the ages, the trend of the circle, the swing of the great ellipse.

(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:

(12:1.4) 1. The Central Universe—Havona.
(12:1.5) 2. The Seven Superuniverses.
(12:1.6) 3. The First Outer Space Level.
(12:1.7) 4. The Second Outer Space Level.
(12:1.8) 5. The Third Outer Space Level.
(12:1.9) 6. The Fourth and Outermost Space Level.

(105:0.1) T O EVEN high orders of universe intelligences infinity is only partially comprehensible, and the finality of reality is only relatively understandable. The human mind, as it seeks to penetrate the eternity-mystery of the origin and destiny of all that is called real, may helpfully approach the problem by conceiving eternity-infinity as an almost limitless ellipse which is produced by one absolute cause, and which functions throughout this universal circle of endless diversification, ever seeking some absolute and infinite potential of destiny.

(15:1.2) We have long since discovered that the seven superuniverses traverse a great ellipse, a gigantic and elongated circle. Your solar system and other worlds of time are not plunging headlong, without chart and compass, into unmapped space. The local universe to which your system belongs is pursuing a definite and well-understood counterclockwise course around the vast swing that encircles the central universe. This cosmic path is well charted and is just as thoroughly known to the superuniverse star observers as the orbits of the planets constituting your solar system are known to Urantia astronomers.

(15:3.1) Practically all of the starry realms visible to the naked eye on Urantia belong to the seventh section of the grand universe, the superuniverse of Orvonton. The vast Milky Way starry system represents the central nucleus of Orvonton, being largely beyond the borders of your local universe. This great aggregation of suns, dark islands of space, double stars, globular clusters, star clouds, spiral and other nebulae, together with myriads of individual planets, forms a watchlike, elongated-circular grouping of about one seventh of the inhabited evolutionary universes.

(15:3.2) From the astronomical position of Urantia, as you look through the cross section of near-by systems to the great Milky Way, you observe that the spheres of Orvonton are traveling in a vast elongated plane, the breadth being far greater than the thickness and the length far greater than the breadth.

(57:5.5) As Angona more closely approached the sun, at moments of maximum expansion during solar pulsations, streams of gaseous material were shot out into space as gigantic solar tongues. At first these flaming gas tongues would invariably fall back into the sun, but as Angona drew nearer and nearer, the gravity pull of the gigantic visitor became so great that these tongues of gas would break off at certain points, the roots falling back into the sun while the outer sections would become detached to form independent bodies of matter, solar meteorites, which immediately started to revolve about the sun in elliptical orbits of their own.

(58:3.3) These eventualities in the origin of the space rays are determined by many cosmic occurrences as well as by the orbits of circulating matter, which vary from modified circles to extreme ellipses. Physical conditions may also be greatly altered because the electron spin is sometimes in the opposite direction from that of the grosser matter behavior, even in the same physical zone.

Circular

(11:1.1) Paradise serves many purposes in the administration of the universal realms, but to creature beings it exists primarily as the dwelling place of Deity. The personal presence of the Universal Father is resident at the very center of the upper surface of this well-nigh circular, but not spherical, abode of the Deities. This Paradise presence of the Universal Father is immediately surrounded by the personal presence of the Eternal Son, while they are both invested by the unspeakable glory of the Infinite Spirit.

(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.

(41:5.6) Energy, whether as light or in other forms, in its flight through space moves straight forward. The actual particles of material existence traverse space like a fusillade. They go in a straight and unbroken line or procession except as they are acted on by superior forces, and except as they ever obey the linear-gravity pull inherent in material mass and the circular-gravity presence of the Isle of Paradise.

(42:2.11) a. Puissant energy. This is the powerful-directional, mass-movemented, mighty-tensioned, and forcible-reacting energy—gigantic energy systems set in motion by the activities of the primary force organizers. This primary or puissant energy is not at first definitely responsive to the Paradise-gravity pull though probably yielding an aggregate-mass or space-directional response to the collective group of absolute influences operative from the nether side of Paradise. When energy emerges to the level of initial response to the circular and absolute-gravity grasp of Paradise, the primary force organizers give way to the functioning of their secondary associates.

(42:2.12) b. Gravity energy. The now-appearing gravity-responding energy carries the potential of universe power and becomes the active ancestor of all universe matter. This secondary or gravity energy is the product of the energy elaboration resulting from the pressure-presence and the tension-trends set up by the Associate Transcendental Master Force Organizers. In response to the work of these force manipulators, space-energy rapidly passes from the puissant to the gravity stage, thus becoming directly responsive to the circular grasp of Paradise (absolute) gravity while disclosing a certain potential for sensitivity to the linear-gravity pull inherent in the soon appearing material mass of the electronic and the postelectronic stages of energy and matter. Upon the appearance of gravity response, the Associate Master Force Organizers may retire from the energy cyclones of space provided the Universe Power Directors are assignable to that field of action.

(57:2.4) 600,000,000,000 years ago the height of the Andronover energy-mobilization period was attained; the nebula had acquired its maximum of mass. At this time it was a gigantic circular gas cloud in shape somewhat like a flattened spheroid. This was the early period of differential mass formation and varying revolutionary velocity. Gravity and other influences were about to begin their work of converting space gases into organized matter.

(130:7.5) Animals do not sense time as does man, and even to man, because of his sectional and circumscribed view, time appears as a succession of events; but as man ascends, as he progresses inward, the enlarging view of this event procession is such that it is discerned more and more in its wholeness. That which formerly appeared as a succession of events then will be viewed as a whole and perfectly related cycle; in this way will circular simultaneity increasingly displace the onetime consciousness of the linear sequence of events.

Elongated

(15:1.2) We have long since discovered that the seven superuniverses traverse a great ellipse, a gigantic and elongated circle. Your solar system and other worlds of time are not plunging headlong, without chart and compass, into unmapped space. The local universe to which your system belongs is pursuing a definite and well-understood counterclockwise course around the vast swing that encircles the central universe. This cosmic path is well charted and is just as thoroughly known to the superuniverse star observers as the orbits of the planets constituting your solar system are known to Urantia astronomers.

(15:3.1) Practically all of the starry realms visible to the naked eye on Urantia belong to the seventh section of the grand universe, the superuniverse of Orvonton. The vast Milky Way starry system represents the central nucleus of Orvonton, being largely beyond the borders of your local universe. This great aggregation of suns, dark islands of space, double stars, globular clusters, star clouds, spiral and other nebulae, together with myriads of individual planets, forms a watchlike, elongated-circular grouping of about one seventh of the inhabited evolutionary universes.

Fringe, (Ragged) Edge, and Rim

Central Universe

(12:1.10) 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.

Grand Universe/Superuniverses

(15:5.8) 6. Contractural Stars. In the smaller systems the largest outer planet sometimes draws to itself its neighboring worlds, while those planets near the sun begin their terminal plunge. With your solar system, such an end would mean that the four inner planets would be claimed by the sun, while the major planet, Jupiter, would be greatly enlarged by capturing the remaining worlds. Such an end of a solar system would result in the production of two adjacent but unequal suns, one type of double star formation. Such catastrophes are infrequent except out on the fringe of the superuniverse starry aggregations.

(15:0.1) AS FAR as the Universal Father is concerned—as a Father—the universes are virtually nonexistent; he deals with personalities; he is the Father of personalities. As far as the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit are concerned—as creator partners—the universes are localized and individual under the joint rule of the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits. As far as the Paradise Trinity is concerned, outside Havona there are just seven inhabited universes, the seven superuniverses which hold jurisdiction over the circle of the first post-Havona space level. The Seven Master Spirits radiate their influence out from the central Isle, thus constituting the vast creation one gigantic wheel, the hub being the eternal Isle of Paradise, the seven spokes the radiations of the Seven Master Spirits, the rim the outer regions of the grand universe.

Andronover

(15:3.6) The nucleus of the physical system to which your sun and its associated planets belong is the center of the onetime Andronover nebula. This former spiral nebula was slightly distorted by the gravity disruptions associated with the events which were attendant upon the birth of your solar system, and which were occasioned by the near approach of a large neighboring nebula. This near collision changed Andronover into a somewhat globular aggregation but did not wholly destroy the two-way procession of the suns and their associated physical groups. Your solar system now occupies a fairly central position in one of the arms of this distorted spiral, situated about halfway from the center out towards the edge of the star stream.

Periphery

(12:6.13) The Unqualified Absolute pervades all space. We are not altogether clear as to the exact status of the Deity and Universal Absolutes, but we know the latter functions wherever the Deity and Unqualified Absolutes function. The Deity Absolute may be universally present but hardly space present. The Ultimate is, or sometime will be, space present to the outer margins of the fourth space level. We doubt that the Ultimate will ever have a space presence beyond the periphery of the master universe, but within this limit the Ultimate is progressively integrating the creative organization of the potentials of the three Absolutes.

(17:3.10) During the present universe age the space range of the extra-Paradise reflectivity service seems to be limited by the periphery of the seven superuniverses. Otherwise, the function of this service seems to be independent of time and space. It appears to be independent of all known subabsolute universe circuits.

(112:7.16) You have been instructed to a certain extent about the organization and personnel of the central universe, the superuniverses, and the local universes; you have been told something about the character and origin of some of the various personalities who now rule these far-flung creations. You have also been informed that there are in process of organization vast galaxies of universes far out beyond the periphery of the grand universe, in the first outer space level. It has also been intimated in the course of these narratives that the Supreme Being is to disclose his unrevealed tertiary function in these now uncharted regions of outer space; and you have also been told that the finaliters of the Paradise corps are the experiential children of the Supreme.

Spherical and Spheroid

(11:1.1) Paradise serves many purposes in the administration of the universal realms, but to creature beings it exists primarily as the dwelling place of Deity. The personal presence of the Universal Father is resident at the very center of the upper surface of this well-nigh circular, but not spherical, abode of the Deities. This Paradise presence of the Universal Father is immediately surrounded by the personal presence of the Eternal Son, while they are both invested by the unspeakable glory of the Infinite Spirit.

(11:2.2) In form Paradise differs from the inhabited space bodies: it is not spherical. It is definitely ellipsoid, being one-sixth longer in the north-south diameter than in the east-west diameter. The central Isle is essentially flat, and the distance from the upper surface to the nether surface is one tenth that of the east-west diameter.

(57:3.6) 500,000,000,000 years ago the first Andronover sun was born. This blazing streak broke away from the mother gravity grasp and tore out into space on an independent adventure in the cosmos of creation. Its orbit was determined by its path of escape. Such young suns quickly become spherical and start out on their long and eventful careers as the stars of space. Excepting terminal nebular nucleuses, the vast majority of Orvonton suns have had an analogous birth. These escaping suns pass through varied periods of evolution and subsequent universe service. [The paralleling puns to Creator Sons are too much fun.]

(57:2.4) 600,000,000,000 years ago the height of the Andronover energy-mobilization period was attained; the nebula had acquired its maximum of mass. At this time it was a gigantic circular gas cloud in shape somewhat like a flattened spheroid. This was the early period of differential mass formation and varying revolutionary velocity. Gravity and other influences were about to begin their work of converting space gases into organized matter.

Spiral

(15:3.6) The nucleus of the physical system to which your sun and its associated planets belong is the center of the onetime Andronover nebula. This former spiral nebula was slightly distorted by the gravity disruptions associated with the events which were attendant upon the birth of your solar system, and which were occasioned by the near approach of a large neighboring nebula. This near collision changed Andronover into a somewhat globular aggregation but did not wholly destroy the two-way procession of the suns and their associated physical groups. Your solar system now occupies a fairly central position in one of the arms of this distorted spiral, situated about halfway from the center out towards the edge of the star stream.

(15:4.4) Paradise force organizers are nebulae originators; they are able to initiate about their space presence the tremendous cyclones of force which, when once started, can never be stopped or limited until the all-pervading forces are mobilized for the eventual appearance of the ultimatonic units of universe matter. Thus are brought into being the spiral and other nebulae, the mother wheels of the direct-origin suns and their varied systems. In outer space there may be seen ten different forms of nebulae, phases of primary universe evolution, and these vast energy wheels had the same origin as did those in the seven superuniverses.

(15:4.7) Not all spiral nebulae are engaged in sun making. Some have retained control of many of their segregated stellar offspring, and their spiral appearance is occasioned by the fact that their suns pass out of the nebular arm in close formation but return by diverse routes, thus making it easy to observe them at one point but more difficult to see them when widely scattered on their different returning routes farther out and away from the arm of the nebula. There are not many sun-forming nebulae active in Orvonton at the present time, though Andromeda, which is outside the inhabited superuniverse, is very active. This far-distant nebula is visible to the naked eye, and when you view it, pause to consider that the light you behold left those distant suns almost one million years ago.

(15:5.3) 1. Concentric Contraction Rings. Not all nebulae are spiral. Many an immense nebula, instead of splitting into a double star system or evolving as a spiral, undergoes condensation by multiple-ring formation. For long periods such a nebula appears as an enormous central sun surrounded by numerous gigantic clouds of encircling, ring-appearing formations of matter.

(15:5.4) 2. The Whirled Stars embrace those suns which are thrown off the great mother wheels of highly heated gases. They are not thrown off as rings but in right- and left-handed processions. Whirled stars are also of origin in other-than-spiral nebulae.

(15:5.5) 3. Gravity-explosion Planets. When a sun is born of a spiral or of a barred nebula, not infrequently it is thrown out a considerable distance. Such a sun is highly gaseous, and subsequently, after it has somewhat cooled and condensed, it may chance to swing near some enormous mass of matter, a gigantic sun or a dark island of space. Such an approach may not be near enough to result in collision but still near enough to allow the gravity pull of the greater body to start tidal convulsions in the lesser, thus initiating a series of tidal upheavals which occur simultaneously on opposite sides of the convulsed sun. At their height these explosive eruptions produce a series of varying-sized aggregations of matter which may be projected beyond the gravity-reclamation zone of the erupting sun, thus becoming stabilized in orbits of their own around one of the two bodies concerned in this episode. Later on the larger collections of matter unite and gradually draw the smaller bodies to themselves. In this way many of the solid planets of the lesser systems are brought into existence. Your own solar system had just such an origin.

Double Star

(15:5.7) 5. Gravity-deficiency Spheres. There is a critical limit to the size of individual stars. When a sun reaches this limit, unless it slows down in revolutionary rate, it is doomed to split; sun fission occurs, and a new double star of this variety is born. Numerous small planets may be subsequently formed as a by-product of this gigantic disruption.

(15:5.8) 6. Contractural Stars. In the smaller systems the largest outer planet sometimes draws to itself its neighboring worlds, while those planets near the sun begin their terminal plunge. With your solar system, such an end would mean that the four inner planets would be claimed by the sun, while the major planet, Jupiter, would be greatly enlarged by capturing the remaining worlds. Such an end of a solar system would result in the production of two adjacent but unequal suns, one type of double star formation. Such catastrophes are infrequent except out on the fringe of the superuniverse starry aggregations.

(41:3.3) When suns that are too large are thrown off a nebular mother wheel, they soon break up or form double stars. All suns are originally truly gaseous, though they may later transiently exist in a semiliquid state. When your sun attained this quasi-liquid state of supergas pressure, it was not sufficiently large to split equatorially, this being one type of double star formation.

(41:3.4) When less than one tenth the size of your sun, these fiery spheres rapidly contract, condense, and cool. When upwards of thirty times its size—rather thirty times the gross content of actual material—suns readily split into two separate bodies, either becoming the centers of new systems or else remaining in each other’s gravity grasp and revolving about a common center as one type of double star.

Light-Years

(12:1.14) 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.

(12:1.15) 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.

(12:4.14) Although your spectroscopic estimations of astronomic velocities are fairly reliable when applied to the starry realms belonging to your superuniverse and its associate superuniverses, such reckonings with reference to the realms of outer space are wholly unreliable. Spectral lines are displaced from the normal towards the violet by an approaching star; likewise these lines are displaced towards the red by a receding star. Many influences interpose to make it appear that the recessional velocity of the external universes increases at the rate of more than one hundred miles a second for every million light-years increase in distance. By this method of reckoning, subsequent to the perfection of more powerful telescopes, it will appear that these far-distant systems are in flight from this part of the universe at the unbelievable rate of more than thirty thousand miles a second. But this apparent speed of recession is not real; it results from numerous factors of error embracing angles of observation and other time-space distortions.

(12:4.15) But the greatest of all such distortions arises because the vast universes of outer space, in the realms next to the domains of the seven superuniverses, seem to be revolving in a direction opposite to that of the grand universe. That is, these myriads of nebulae and their accompanying suns and spheres are at the present time revolving clockwise about the central creation. The seven superuniverses revolve about Paradise in a counterclockwise direction. It appears that the second outer universe of galaxies, like the seven superuniverses, revolves counterclockwise about Paradise. And the astronomic observers of Uversa think they detect evidence of revolutionary movements in a third outer belt of far-distant space which are beginning to exhibit directional tendencies of a clockwise nature.

(15:4.7) Not all spiral nebulae are engaged in sun making. Some have retained control of many of their segregated stellar offspring, and their spiral appearance is occasioned by the fact that their suns pass out of the nebular arm in close formation but return by diverse routes, thus making it easy to observe them at one point but more difficult to see them when widely scattered on their different returning routes farther out and away from the arm of the nebula. There are not many sun-forming nebulae active in Orvonton at the present time, though Andromeda, which is outside the inhabited superuniverse, is very active. This far-distant nebula is visible to the naked eye, and when you view it, pause to consider that the light you behold left those distant suns almost one million years ago.

(32:2.11) The Satania system of inhabited worlds is far removed from Uversa and that great sun cluster which functions as the physical or astronomic center of the seventh superuniverse. From Jerusem, the headquarters of Satania, it is over two hundred thousand light-years to the physical center of the superuniverse of Orvonton, far, far away in the dense diameter of the Milky Way. Satania is on the periphery of the local universe, and Nebadon is now well out towards the edge of Orvonton. From the outermost system of inhabited worlds to the center of the superuniverse is a trifle less than two hundred and fifty thousand light-years. [Consider that because of the ragged edge issue, a distance from the edge needs to be given relative to something specific. Specificity essential means inhabited or uninhabited worlds in this context of saying we are in the outer most system because giving a distance from a ragged edge is unclear by nature, compared to spheres. Inhabited spheres is what is relevant to the audience to which the author writes.]

(41:3.10) In one group of variable stars the period of light fluctuation is directly dependent on luminosity, and knowledge of this fact enables astronomers to utilize such suns as universe lighthouses or accurate measuring points for the further exploration of distant star clusters. By this technique it is possible to measure stellar distances most precisely up to more than one million light-years. Better methods of space measurement and improved telescopic technique will sometime more fully disclose the ten grand divisions of the superuniverse of Orvonton; you will at least recognize eight of these immense sectors as enormous and fairly symmetrical star clusters. [Consider that “most precisely” does not mean precise. It is relative to other techniques in this context. At12:4.14 this technique is referred to as “fairly reliable”: “spectroscopic estimations of astronomic velocities are fairly reliable”.]

(23:3.5) The Solitary Messengers are able to function as emergency lines of communication throughout remote space regions, realms not embraced within the established circuits of the grand universe. It develops that one messenger, when so functioning, can transmit a message or send an impulse through space to a fellow messenger about one hundred light-years away as Urantia astronomers estimate stellar distances.

(28:4.1) The primary seconaphim, of assignment to the Ancients of Days, are living mirrors in the service of these triune rulers. Think what it means in the economy of a superuniverse to be able to turn, as it were, to a living mirror and therein to see and therewith to hear the certain responses of another being a thousand or a hundred thousand light-years distant and to do all this instantly and unerringly. Records are essential to the conduct of the universes, broadcasts are serviceable, the work of the Solitary and other messengers is very helpful, but the Ancients of Days from their position midway between the inhabited worlds and Paradise—between man and God—can instantly look both ways, hear both ways, and know both ways.

Time-Space

Time-Space: 112 paragraphs. First 28 occurrences are in the Foreword.

(116:1.4) The time-space mind, the cosmic mind, is differently functioning in the seven superuniverses, but it is co-ordinated by some unknown associative technique in the Supreme Being. The Almighty overcontrol of the grand universe is not exclusively physical and spiritual. In the seven superuniverses it is primarily material and spiritual, but there are also present phenomena of the Supreme which are both intellectual and spiritual.

3. Time-Space Relationships

(118:3.2) Things are time conditioned, but truth is timeless. The more truth you know, the more truth you are, the more of the past you can understand and of the future you can comprehend.

118:3.3) Truth is inconcussible—forever exempt from all transient vicissitudes, albeit never dead and formal, always vibrant and adaptable—radiantly alive. But when truth becomes linked with fact, then both time and space condition its meanings and correlate its values. Such realities of truth wedded to fact become concepts and are accordingly relegated to the domain of relative cosmic realities.

(118:3.4) The linking of the absolute and eternal truth of the Creator with the factual experience of the finite and temporal creature eventuates a new and emerging value of the Supreme. The concept of the Supreme is essential to the co-ordination of the divine and unchanging overworld with the finite and ever-changing underworld.

(118:3.5) Space comes the nearest of all nonabsolute things to being absolute. Space is apparently absolutely ultimate. The real difficulty we have in understanding space on the material level is due to the fact that, while material bodies exist in space, space also exists in these same material bodies. While there is much about space that is absolute, that does not mean that space is absolute.

(195:7.20) Science lives by the mathematics of the mind; music expresses the tempo of the emotions. Religion is the spiritual rhythm of the soul in time-space harmony with the higher and eternal melody measurements of Infinity. Religious experience is something in human life which is truly supermathematical.

Links

Astronomy online text book for first two semesters.