The unusual-neighbors-next-door idea has been the theme of many a movie and TV show.  But it would be hard to imagine neighbors as odd as some neighbors mentioned in The Urantia Book.  They live on a 'nearby' planet and they are called nonbreathers.  Intelligent will creatures come in many sizes and styles to fit their planet's conditions but, according to the authors, of all other mortals the nonbreathers are the most radically different from us.

The most outstanding difference is  that, since their worlds lack an  atmosphere, they don't breathe.  Most people are aware that our human bodies use the food we eat and oxygen from the air to produce the energy to power our bodies. But how do the nonbreathers get the energy to power theirs?  In fact, the nonbreathers get energy from the same source that we do, but we get the energy second or third hand.  In plants, the process of photosynthesis uses the energy of the sun, carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water from the soil in a complex process to synthesize the starches and sugars needed to power the plant.  We eat either the plants themselves, or animals that eat the plants to recover the solar energy.  The nonbreathers, we are informed by the author of Paper 49, Pg. 563, get their energy directly from the sun with the help of the Master Physical Controllers.  Is it possible that they use something like photosynthesis?  Might there be little green men after all?  If they do use something like photosynthesis, where would they get the carbon dioxide to use in the process?

There is another possibility.  Our scientists fabricated solar cells many years ago that convert light directly to electricity. Interestingly, electricity is created at one stage of photosynthesis, and researchers are studying photosynthesis to see if they might be able to create a biological electrical power generator using photosynthesis. There are several problems with our neighbors using photosynthesis as we know it. The first is that it requires water in its initial stages.  There is no atmosphere to hold water vapor, and liquid bodies of water can't exist on the surface of an airless planet but water may exist in a frozen state under the surface of such a planet, left over from a time when the planet had an atmosphere.

Another problem with photosynthesis is that it requires carbon dioxide for the carbon fixing process. Again, if the temperature is low enough, carbon dioxide can exist as a frost above or below the surface of the planet. It is possible that the heat of the sun might slowly release this carbon dioxide, making it available to our nonbreather neighbors. Another possibility is that our neighbors' bodies may be able to convert sunlight to electricity and use this form of energy directly to perform the vital functions of life. Possibly, but they might also use the electricity to convert raw materials to    substances suitable to power their bodies in a process similar to photosynthesis.  But excluding water and carbon dioxide, where did they get the raw materials?

We can be sure that our neighbors don't have any lungs since they don't breathe, and from that we might surmise that they don't have a mouth, but that may be incorrect. Their bodies might be powered directly from electricity, but where did the raw material come from to produce their bodies? One source is from the plants and animals that inhabit their world. The Urantia Book says that they don't eat food and drink water as we do but they must get their body building materials from somewhere. They might take in minerals directly from the soil of their planet but that seems like a difficult process. Since the plants and animals have concentrated the needed building materials in their bodies, it would be logical to consume them, but only for the materials, not for the energy as we do. If this surmise is correct, then we would also have to suppose that they have some sort of digestive system to process the food just as we do, and an excretory system to dispose of wastes. This indicates that they would have to have openings to the outside in their bodies just as we do.  Since they live in a vacuum, we might assume their inner bodies have to be sealed to prevent their insides from exploding out into the vacuum. But it is possible that the pressure within their bodies is very low, so there isn't a great pressure differential between the outside and the inside. And of what might their bodies consist? Are they constructed of cells as are our bodies?

To answer the question about the tissues of the nonbreathers, it would be helpful to inquire about the nonbreathers origins. It would seem logical that they evolved from simpler life forms as we did. It is probable that the life carriers implanted single celled life on their world as on ours, and that through evolution this single celled life evolved in steps,  eventually producing the nonbreathers. It would seem evident therefore that their bodies consist of cells just as do our bodies. If they are composed of cells, just how do those cells receive energy?

The circulatory system in the human body serves many purposes. It carries oxygen and nutrients to all the cells in the body, removes waste carbon dioxide from the cells, carries hormones to various organs, helps the body regulate its temperature, etc. In fact, the blood itself is seen as an organ of the body. Do the non-breathers have a circulatory system similar to ours? If they do not, it is hard to imagine how all the functions performed by ours are accomplished. How could heat be removed from the organs and muscles and dissipated to the world outside the body? Even with a circulatory system, removing heat from an object in a vacuum is a formidable task. The side that is in the sun gets overheated, and the side in the shade is very cold.

Our bodies lose heat through the evaporation of perspiration into the air but the nonbreathers would have to lose or gain heat through radiation from the skin and perhaps in the area where the feet contact the ground. The communications satellites orbiting our planet sometimes are designed to lose heat by painting one side dark and the other side shiny. The ratio of shiny to dark area in the sun can be varied to control the temperature in the satellite. Perhaps our neighbors have the capability of changing the absorption capabilities of their bodies to control their temperature; they might be mortal chameleons!

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 Just like ours, their circulatory system undoubtedly has a mechanism for quick sealing of wounds to prevent a rapid loss of circulatory fluid due to an injury. And if they have a circulatory system, then such a system would need some sort of pump, a heart. Obviously the life carrier designers have solved all such problems involved with the nonbreather design, just as they have solved problems unique to life on worlds such as ours, and perhaps the solutions are more similar than we might at first imagine.  But their communications must be quite different.

We cause vibrations in the air with our vocal cords to create speech that travels through the air to other people. The nonbreathers obviously use some other means to communicate. Of course, we use other means to communicate as well. Deaf people use sign language to communicate, or read lips. This works well in the light, but not at all in the dark, and of course light can't pass around obstacles. We do use a form of energy for communications that works in the dark and can pass through obstacles; that form is radio waves.

It might seem preposterous to think of living beings generating radio waves, but that is very possible. In fact, our bodies generate very feeble low frequency electromagnetic waves because of electrical currents in our nerves and brains. The nonbreathers might have a specialized organ such as electric eels have that can generate a large voltage. All that would be required to generate the radio waves is to apply that voltage to an electrically conducting material and vary the voltage at a high rate. This would vary the current through the conductor which would generate and radiate electro-magnetic waves (radio waves). The non-breathers "speech" patterns could be impressed on the varying electrical current--as we do in radio broadcasting--and the electromagnetic wave thus created would carry the information to other nonbreathers. There would also have to be an organ to detect these radio waves, but that should not be a problem for the life carrier designers.

There is an interesting side issue involved with the non-breathers' communications. On Page 446, the Mighty Messenger author informs us that the nonbreathers require special means to communicate when they reach the mansion worlds. This indicates two things: First, we and the nonbreathers apparently communicate the same way on the mansion worlds as we do on our individual planets, which is evidence that our bodies there are similar to our bodies here. Second, the non-breathers must be provided with mechanisms on the mansion worlds that convert their radio waves (if that's what they use) to sound waves and our sound waves to radio waves so they can communicate with the rest of us.

Child birth among the nonbreathers is another interesting issue. The author mentions that it is a similar but modified form of the way our children are born. Perhaps the baby develops in some sort of sealed pouch which splits open at the time of birth to allow the baby out into the world.  If you think that being born into a cold operating room is tough, how about being born into a vacuum?

On Page 446 we are also told of intense electrical storms that the nonbreathers must contend with on their planets. We are all familiar with the lightning storms we have on Urantia, but what sort of  electrical storms could occur on a planet without an atmosphere?  The answer came to me as I was watching a TV show about colonizing our moon. During magnetic storms on the sun, great quantities of high energy charged particles are hurled out into space from the magnetic disturbed areas on the sun. These charged particles can damage the cells of our bodies. To protect themselves, the inhabitants of the moon base went into electrically shielded rooms until the magnetic storm was over, which is exactly what the nonbreathers do during their electrical storms. Even now, pilots and crews of flights that fly long distances at high altitudes, such as over the north polar regions must be careful not to get excessive exposure to the charged particles during magnetic storms on the sun. Furthermore, such exposure is also a concern for astronauts on long missions in space.

Yes, those nonbreather folks seem pretty odd to us but I suppose that we seem just as peculiar to them as we move about in a sea of corrosive gas like oxygen, and communicate by vibrating air molecules. Looks like we'll both have to make some adjustments when we get to the mansion worlds. But as much trouble as some folks on this planet have just tolerating someone with a different skin color, what a problem they will have learning to work with and relax with nonbreathers! But then that's what the mansion worlds are for, isn't it?

On page 447, the author of Paper 41 informs us that the nonbreathers are, "...identical with your order of creature life in spirit and personality manifestation..." I have always felt that the first prayer on page 1622 must have been written by someone on one of the nonbreather worlds because of the line, "Give us this day the vivifying forces of light..."  I feel a certain kinship with these beings as I seek my daily  bread and a better relationship with our spirit Father.

Dick Bain, USA