"Mechanical inventions and the dissemination of knowledge are modifying civilization; certain economic adjustments and social changes are imperative if cultural disaster is to be avoided. This new and oncoming social order will not settle down complacently for a millennium. The human race must become reconciled to a procession of changes, adjustments, and readjustments. Mankind is on the march toward a new and unrevealed planetary destiny." (Paper 99, Section 1)

Human evolution proceeds at a snail's pace. In fact further genetic improvement of the human race has probably ceased, and is not likely to resume until acceptable selection criteria are agreed upon. Even then, it may take thousands of years before significant improvement is achieved. Hence, in referring to a millennium of change, the revelators must be speaking dominantly about changes to the mores of human society--which are dependent on changes to the individuals that constitute a society.

Perhaps it is the Eastern rather than the Western world that is destined to bring us the necessary changes--for there is a very deeply embedded "thinking pattern" indigenous to the western world which is highly resistant to change. The revelators refer to such patterns as "universe" or "concept" frames.

Partial, incomplete, and evolving intellects would be helpless in the master universe, would be unable to form the first rational thought pattern, were it not for the innate ability of all mind, high or low, to form a universe frame in which to think. If mind cannot fathom conclusions, if it cannot penetrate to true origins, then will such mind unfailingly postulate conclusions and invent origins that it may have a means of logical thought within the frame of these mind-created postulates. And while such universe frames for creature thought are indispensable to rational intellectual operations, they are, without exception, erroneous to a greater or lesser degree. (1260)

Perhaps mainly due to the influence of the ancient Greeks, Westerners mainly think in a "yes or no," "on or off,"  "this or that," "either/or" mode of thinking that chooses between incompatible alternatives. But in the Eastern world, "both this and that" is the more usual way  of considering reality.

The "universe frame" that is apparent in the Urantia Papers is far closer to Eastern "both/and" thinking than it is to the either/or thinking of the West that seeks to exclude any middle ground.

The vast majority of research workers in the Western world, whose interests are in the field of mind and neurophysiology, give credence only to the single postulate that every aspect of human behavioral characteristics has its roots in our animal origins.

In contrast, the Urantia Papers provide us with information on the structure of our mind and our personality that differentiates between an animal-origin and a spirit-origin component of our make up.

Mind, the revelators tell us, is derived from the Infinite Spirit, the source of Cosmic Mind. Mind is tailored to the needs of the creature and, for the human type of mind, comes already endowed with specific attributes such as self-consciousness and the ability to differentiate between relative right and wrong.

Our minds also interact with other components that go to make up our selfhood. Our personality is a gift from the Universal Father. With "personality" come the dual characteristics of relative free will and the capacity, through will, to utilize qualities inherent in Cosmic Mind.

Our first free will moral decision signals the coming of our Thought Adjuster to indwell our minds. On our request, we are also graced with the presence of the Spirit of Truth from our Creator Son. These two spirits then act as one in guiding and fostering those spiritual attributes of our being that are capable of fostering our soul growth--and thereby  differentiates our soul from that animal-origin component of our make-up that responds only to the cause-effect sensory signals emanating from our material environment.

It appears to be factual that Western civilization promotes the almost exclusive development of those animal-origin components of our being by which attention is focussed upon our interactions with the material components of the environment.

There is a positive feedback in this situation. The more we focus attention on the material environment, the more important it becomes to us, hence the more we develop its potentials which thereby demands more and more of our attention. Hence there is positive feedback--and an inherently explosive progression.

Automatically that means we Westerners give little thought and even less time to our spiritual progress  and the fostering of our souls.

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And so it is not surprising that the vast majority of western people are not at all spiritually orientated but are dominated by materialism and the animal-origin aspects of their being. The prospects for advancing the teachings of the Urantia Papers in the western world appear to be very limited indeed.

Traditions are quite different in the Hindu and Buddhist worlds of the East. To present a Westerner with a revelation is to automatically set in motion an "either/or" train of thought. The Westerner will analyze what he or she reads, dividing into alternative but mutually exclusive possibilities--such as "it is either divinely authoritative or it is not," one of which must be totally rejected.

In contrast, the Easterner is more likely to utilize a traditional "both/and" attitude, and accept what he or she finds valuable which then becomes incorporated into the body of  their treasured beliefs.

To we Westerners, China and its people are a strange, wonderful, but almost totally unknown quantity. The breakdown of communism in Russia generated an unexpected repercussion stemming from the previous  repression of religion. By analogy with Russia, something similar may occur among the Chinese people. Perhaps it will be these people who will prove to be a fertile ground for the wisdom and spirituality of the Urantia Papers?

There are some interesting pointers in The Urantia Book in which the revelators draw attention to Eastern people. They do so for a purpose--leaving us to discover that purpose and to implement the necessary action. They do it that way because the Universal Father has decreed that our free will is sacrosanct.

"Today, in India, the great need is for the portrayal of the Jesusonian gospel--the Fatherhood of God and the sonship and consequent brotherhood of all men, which is personally realized in loving ministry and social service. In India the philosophical framework is existent, the cult structure is present; all that is needed is the vitalizing spark of the dynamic love portrayed in the original gospel of the Son of Man, divested of the Occidental dogmas and doctrines which have tended to make Michael's life bestowal a white man's religion." (1032)

Are these objectionable dogmas completely absent from the Urantia Papers?  If not, then should they be modified or removed before introducing a translation to these people? (And already I hear echos emanating from our either/or thinkers screaming that in no circumstances can the text be modified. To which, I reply, "Read  Section 7 from Paper 2.")

Referring to Buddhism, the revelators say:

"At the time of this writing, much of Asia rests its hope in Buddhism. Will this noble faith, that has so valiantly carried on through the dark ages of the past, once again receive the truth of expanded cosmic realities even as the disciples of the great teacher in India once listened to his proclamation of new truth? Will this ancient faith respond once more to the invigorating stimulus of the presentation of new concepts of God and the Absolute for which it has so long searched?" (1041)

With some emphasis having at long last been placed on the translation of the Papers into other languages, there is now an accompanying need to consider how the content of the Papers might assist to speed up the spiritual progress of religionists of "all kinds."

"All kinds" must be inclusive of those of our brothers and sisters who are born into societies whose "universe frame" is highly antagonistic to many concepts found in the Urantia Papers. For example, many sects of Islam (and some of Christianity) appear not to have any chance whatsoever that the Urantia Papers' teachings could be introduced in toto within the foreseeable future.

But possibly even those sects that are locked into an apparently incompatible belief system could benefit from specific concepts of the Papers. Those that tell of the nature and qualities of the Universal Father, and of the virtues of our membership in the family of God are possible candidates.

We have a whole millennium in which to work. A gradual approach appears to be the only one likely to succeed. But that is a task for specialists--and for the Spirit of Truth.