Latest / Urantia Radio / The Mind, the Brain and the Soul

Transcript

The Mind, the Brain and the Soul · Urantia Radio

0:21
Welcome to the ranch a podcast on Jim Watkins.
0:23
It's always a pleasure to have you here.
0:25
We've got a really good podcast for you and just a little bit.
0:28
We're going to play our interview with brother, Joshua
0:32
Wilson who resides in Arizona and northern part of Arizona
0:36
long time. Urantia book reader with quite a
0:38
story to tell and he has chosen to publish an essay which is
0:43
entitled The master and his Emissary and it is based on the
0:49
previous writings of a gentleman from Yale, who did a study in
0:52
2009, gentleman by the name of Ian mcgilchrist, who had a
0:57
thesis on the to brain hemispheres and how the brain
1:01
functions and how the brain operates and what each of these
1:05
hemispheres do, which corroborates, interestingly
1:08
enough and unintentionally. So Ian McCulloch, McGill, Chris
1:13
work actually does corroborate. Many of the statements the
1:16
Urantia book makes in its discussion of the thought
1:20
adjusters and the in what the Mind does and what the mind is.
1:24
And now if you ask most people, you know, is the mind, a product
1:29
of the brain or does it act independently of the brain?
1:33
Can the to be separated is the brain or the Consciousness,
1:36
something separate than the brain.
1:39
Can it exist without the brain Most people would probably tell
1:44
you no, but we're going to talk about why the mind is a separate
1:50
function of the brain and how the to correlate.
1:53
And all of this is going to be discussed coming up here on this
1:57
edition of your Rancher, radio the podcast and will be joined
2:00
in just a moment. Before we begin with our
2:45
interview on the mind and the brain and how it works.
2:49
Talk about some of the statements that are made in the
2:52
Rancho book and how they're corroborated by another study
2:54
that was done in 2009 by a gentleman from Yale Iain
2:58
mcgilchrist. Just so we're going to bring all
3:00
of this together, but I want to highlight a particular paper in
3:04
the Iran, Chabot to give us a premise of some of the things
3:08
that we're going to be talking about here.
3:10
And I want to see if they resonate with you.
3:12
These are some pretty powerful and impact of words and it comes
3:15
from paper 111 on the subject. It's a paper on the adjuster and
3:19
the Soul. Now, the adjuster is the
3:21
thought, adjuster, and for those who aren't familiar with the
3:24
Rancho books, concept of the thought, adjuster, think of the
3:28
thought. Adjuster Stir as the spirit of
3:30
the father. It is actually a fragment a
3:33
spirit fragment of the heavenly father and it resides in US
3:38
throughout our entire lives. And it comes to us when we are
3:41
children and we make that first moral choice, think of the
3:46
thought, adjuster as God's way of trying to reveal spiritual
3:50
truth to us throughout our life. Because that is essentially what
3:56
this the spirit does. And I'll start to read, I just
3:59
want to go through this, and it's such such a collection of
4:02
beautiful statements, and I want to give you a chance to enjoy it
4:05
and then we'll go into our interview with mr.
4:08
Wilson. So paper 111, the adjuster, and
4:12
the soul that it reads, intellectual cells have their
4:16
origin in the cosmic mind much as nebula take origin in the
4:20
cosmic energies of any universe space is not Amazing.
4:24
So just as our minds take origin in the cosmic mind is
4:29
Illustrated physically by the fact that our own sun takes
4:34
origin and nebula. And that amazing concept on the
4:38
human, hence, personal level of intellectual selves, the
4:41
potential of spirit Evolution becomes a dominant with the
4:47
assent of the Mortal mind because of the spiritual
4:49
endowments. Of the human personality
4:53
together with the creative presence of an entity point of
4:56
absolute value in such human cells, the material self must
5:02
choose to cooperate with the indwelling, adjuster, or spirit
5:07
in creating, and fostering. The morontia self The
5:12
evolutionary and potentially Immortal Soul.
5:14
So, it is, it is a partnership between ourselves choosing to
5:19
cooperate with God that Contributes to the eventual
5:24
appearance of our Immortal. Soul material mind is the arena
5:29
in which human personality. Human personalities, live are
5:33
self-conscious, make decisions, choose God or forsake Him
5:37
eternalize or destroy themselves material.
5:41
Evolution has provided you a life machine, your body.
5:44
The father himself has an endowed you with the purest
5:48
Spirit reality known in the universe, your Not a gesture but
5:53
into your hand subject to your own decisions has been given
5:57
mind and it is by mind that you live or die.
6:02
It is within this mind and with this mind that you make those
6:06
moral decisions which enable you to achieve adjuster likeness and
6:12
that is God likeness mortal mind is a temporary intellect system
6:16
loan to human beings for use during a material Lifetime and
6:20
as they use this mine, And they are either accepting or
6:23
rejecting the potential of Eternal existence.
6:28
Mind is about all you have a universal reality that is
6:32
subject to your will and the soul will Faithfully portray the
6:36
Harvest of the temporal decisions which the Mortal self
6:40
is making human. Consciousness rests gently upon
6:45
the electro, chemical mechanisms below and delicately touches the
6:50
spirit above. And it is not so much what mine
6:54
comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend.
6:57
And that ensures survival mind is the cosmic instrument on
7:02
which the human will can played the discords of Destruction or
7:06
upon which the same human will can bring forth the Exquisite
7:10
Melodies of God identification and consequent.
7:14
Eternal survival mind is your ship.
7:17
The adjuster is your pilot, the human will is Captain.
7:22
The master of the Mortal vessel should have the wisdom to trust
7:26
the Divine pilot. To guide the ascending Soul into
7:30
the morontia harbors of Eternal survival with your consent.
7:35
This faithful pilot will safely carry you across the barriers of
7:38
time and the handicaps of space to the very source of the Divine
7:43
mind and on Beyond, even to the paradise father of Adjusters.
8:01
I was reading an article by Dennis Prager, the talk show
8:04
host a couple of days ago, and he was talking about our desire
8:09
to worship and Prager noted something, which is should have
8:14
been obvious. But he says that, what
8:16
distinguishes human beings from all of our out?
8:19
Other animal relatives, is that we have a desire to worship, but
8:25
it isn't something that our survival is contingent upon.
8:30
In other words, we eat, because if we didn't eat, we would die.
8:35
If we didn't have sexual relations, our species would
8:38
die. So these are things that that
8:40
are wired into us, hardwired into us for our own Survival.
8:45
But Prager says, when it comes to worship, that's an urge to
8:49
find truth, but that urge has nothing whatsoever to do with
8:54
our physical survival. But it's there, and it's real,
8:58
because human beings share the ability, and the desire to
9:02
worship. And so his conclusion, Vision.
9:05
And it's sort of the premise of we're going to talk about is
9:08
that we are hard-wired to search for God.
9:12
And so with that, let us begin our interview segment of this
9:16
podcast here on your Ranch radio talking with Joshua Wilson.
9:22
And what caught my eye on this particular subject.
9:24
Is this paper that appeared on? Where did I find it on Facebook?
9:29
It's called thought adjustment between the two brain.
9:32
Hemispheres, a book Review with his commentary on the master and
9:37
his Emissary, The Divided brain and the making of the Western
9:40
World Iain mcgilchrist, Yale University, press 2009.
9:45
And then this is your presentation based on the works
9:49
of Iain mcgilchrist. And brother, Joshua Wilson joins
9:53
me here on this program. So Josh we were talking about.
9:58
We saw we're doing a pre-interview and we were
10:01
talking about your history with the ranch of papers is and how
10:05
you founded the the greater Grand Canyon Society in Arizona.
10:09
Is that correct? Yeah.
10:12
The Grand Canyon Society is the direct book.
10:17
Fellowship Society in Arizona. And tell me a little bit about
10:22
that and you're a native of Arizona.
10:25
So tell me a little bit about that and how you got involved
10:28
with the book and then how you've got come to as best as
10:31
you can in 37 years. I suppose we have a lot of
10:34
ground to cover. Yeah, i-i've been reading the
10:41
book since 1977 and then we operated a study group for 37
10:49
years And one of the study groups in Arizona when I was
10:56
involved with that, ran for quite a while.
10:59
Yeah, a lot of great friendships with continue on to this day a
11:04
lot of edge. Projects conferences, put on,
11:09
and so on and so forth. So we've really enjoyed boosting
11:15
and spreading the good news about the Revelation here in
11:21
Arizona and in the southwest, you know, I haven't checked
11:24
lately, but I know, you know, there's a lot of groups in
11:28
California and Florida seem to be areas where there's a lot of
11:32
interest. Is that the case also in Arizona
11:35
with Readers. Are you seeing faces more
11:40
frequently? It study groups.
11:45
We're I would say we're holding pretty pretty much steady and
11:51
there's always the efforts to connect with with more people
11:57
and with young people and we have, you know, from time to
12:01
time some interesting things going on at our Jubilee of
12:08
Jubilee celebration. Last May 18th here in the
12:13
Phoenix. The area and folks from around
12:16
the state came and a lot of young people that type of
12:21
things. So yeah, we try to keep keep in
12:24
touch and keep things moving. What was it about the book?
12:31
Everybody likes to talk about some of the early days when they
12:34
first found out, what was it about the book that appeal to
12:36
you, Josh? Yeah, well I was part of the
12:40
Jesus movement. So what I was in college as a
12:44
music student At Arizona State University.
12:49
I was led to Christ by my friend.
12:56
And I had a pretty powerful born-again conversion experience
13:03
at that time, as a kind of frustrated college student.
13:09
Well, it happened at that time. That there, the Jesus movement
13:13
was going on and Peter Max drawing or painting of the face
13:20
of Jesus Christ appeared on the front of Time Magazine.
13:24
I would Jesus Christ. Superstar playful 700
13:29
performances at the Mark Heller. Auditorium in New York.
13:32
I mean it was a really happening thing.
13:34
Yeah, and young people were just no one could wonder where it
13:40
started. It was, it was really just like
13:43
when Jesus said you hear the sound of the wind blowing but
13:47
you don't know where it comes from or where it's going.
13:50
Those kind of like that it was just a Revival and I was part of
13:55
that. Well, that was a great
13:57
experience and I grew my hair long and my beard long and a lot
14:05
of Hitchhiking around, we would do we called witnessing on the
14:11
street so we were just go out and talk to people just just a
14:16
great time. But after a few years, it seemed
14:20
to To die down as winds that blow tend to do.
14:29
And then I found myself, like a man in the trying to wring out
14:39
front. One more drop of water for
14:46
sustenance. And praying for for help,
14:52
praying for a relationship with God.
14:56
Well, at that time, one of my old friends, from the Jesus
15:01
movement had moved to another city down, Southern Arizona.
15:07
And I went to visit him and lo and behold.
15:10
He had a year actual book on the Shelf.
15:14
And that's another story. Take too much time to go into
15:22
it, but I've written my Memoirs and I do quite a bit of writing
15:26
an essay so you can read all about it.
15:27
It's just, it really was an amazing one of those Angelic,
15:31
God stories, but just to be brief, I'll say that, boom, I
15:37
found that I had been asking. For help and learning about who
15:44
Melchizedek was. And the first passage in the
15:48
book opened up to A description of Mac event a Milky stick.
15:54
Yeah. So it was an answer to prayer.
15:57
I found out about it and it lit a fire under me in 1977 October
16:06
that has not died down. Since was there.
16:10
Any particular reason why you didn't just go, the mainstream
16:14
route, you'd found the Lord and you were caught up in the
16:18
movement of the, you know, that Period.
16:21
Which I have hazy memories but but you did have.
16:25
Yeah. But you you you walked away
16:27
feeling dissatisfied. It's interesting to me.
16:30
Yeah, yeah, well I was but I had a lot of family members and
16:36
involved with church. Its end up going both, both
16:39
directions simultaneously and so I became the pastor And over
16:50
seven year period delivered over 300 sermons, that taught the
16:58
concepts of the Iran-Contra book, very particularly in
17:03
strongly, however it was coached are couched.
17:07
I should say in the language of the Bible, the stories of the
17:11
Bible, That's fascinating to me because it was it successful.
17:16
Did you get people that? So, where did you get that from?
17:20
Sometimes I'm in a positive way because I know marriage is
17:31
stronger. Are you familiar with Meredith
17:33
Springer? You must be, oh, yeah, yeah.
17:36
United Church of Christ passed away a couple years ago but, you
17:40
know, he he too would try to include the concepts of the you
17:45
be into his, you know, his sermons and I've always been
17:49
fascinated. Fascinated by how one could do
17:51
that and then what would happen if somebody came up to you?
17:54
Because there have been times when I've been talking to
17:56
Christians and I'm a, I would say something to them that is
18:00
referencing a part of the book of the fourth part of the the
18:03
UB. And they'll say, I don't
18:05
remember Jesus ever saying that, where'd you get that from, you
18:07
know? And of course I don't but that
18:10
has not been in general your experience.
18:12
Well, that's good. So you're a pastor musician,
18:15
writer. You've had this book in your
18:17
life, you and it has been Assistant.
18:20
I would imagine a lot of people who, and I can even speak for my
18:24
own experience. The, the book is so consistent
18:27
over the years, it never fails to deliver and provoking some
18:32
sort of thought which kind of brings me to your your paper,
18:35
which is why I wanted to have you on is Joshua Wilson, explain
18:40
to me this this essay, this book review of of the works of Ian
18:46
and I am I pronouncing that Iain mcgilchrist who wrote about The
18:50
Divided break. So that caught your eye and I
18:53
found what you what you walked away was fabulous.
18:57
I want to just kind of read one a little paragraph here, kind of
19:00
set the stage and then we could talk about it in mcgilchrist
19:03
view, the master is the right hemisphere of the brain.
19:07
And the Emissary is the left describing the we're to brained
19:11
beings, it will take some effort and finessing of the differences
19:15
to avoid simplistic conclusions. First, it is important to know
19:18
that both brains Are involved in everything, both are involved
19:22
together in speech, analysis, understanding and emotions and
19:27
you right. Eye view mcgilchrist studies on
19:29
the to brain as the most insightful of any I've ever
19:32
read. And that is why you've pinned
19:35
the Seth sa. So you made a point in that in
19:40
the 60s when they first started, Talking about the brain and the
19:44
function of the brain science sort of took.
19:47
A, they seem to stop like they didn't continue to try to figure
19:54
out why the brain operates because you most people think
19:57
that the brain is the mind, and the mind is the brain and
20:00
they're, they're not separable, but that's not the case,
20:03
according to the ranch a book. So could you Sort of explain to
20:07
us how the brain functions and in particular, what the Rancho
20:13
book. Says, actually turns out to be
20:15
true, that we may not know this in modern science today.
20:23
The Gilchrist 20 years of actual research and study on the
20:31
function of the two, hemispheres of the brain.
20:35
And so the picked up now, we need a connection as we look at
20:43
the two hemispheres. As described by current science
20:47
like by mcgilchrist. I felt a need to connect that up
20:54
your with what your answer book says, about the function of the
20:59
two brains and that was the purpose of the paper to show how
21:06
the thought adjuster is is working with our brain
21:10
structure. Other planets have persons with
21:15
one Rain, then there's a two brain type.
21:21
Here on on Urantia and other planets have three brains.
21:26
That's you could imagine that. So the, the I found wonderful
21:33
Connections in the air, the the this to brain theories that we
21:41
have and how the thought adjuster Adjust thinking with
21:48
our type of structure, I thought it all to be quite fascinating.
21:52
Yeah, me too because there has not been a lot of expen my
21:55
opinion. The Urantia book is still light
21:59
years ahead. In terms of explaining the
22:02
differences between all of the elements that make up the the
22:06
highly evolved human intellect. You know, for for example, you
22:11
right in your your essay Say the key to grasping the why of two
22:17
hemispheres is to recognize that each has its own very different
22:21
view of the world. And this is what I was thinking
22:24
of his last couple of days. The difference is the asymmetry
22:28
of the to has increased from the lineage of the Apes, not
22:31
diminished and evolution always has a purpose.
22:34
But what your explanation is is that the two hemispheres want
22:38
one tends to look at the world holistic View.
22:43
You know, the full picture and then the other part of the
22:45
brain, the left part looks at specific tasks that need to be
22:49
done. Let's go in there and let's get
22:51
it done. Whereas the master side, the
22:54
right brain tends to say, hold on here, let's look at all the
22:57
possibilities and that's how we process things throughout our
23:01
life. Do we do this subconsciously?
23:04
But the work of the spirit which is the the thought adjuster is
23:08
to do two things. If I understand one, is to take
23:11
a snapshot and Errol ties a concept for later.
23:14
Use, as you describe. And then also to sort of allow
23:19
you to grasp something a truth, a revelation of some sort that
23:25
took a lot of time for your brain to process and you know
23:30
jump in any time but I found your essay like the first time
23:35
in years that I read somebody who's actually taken the Urantia
23:39
book to task and what you're saying is that the mcgilchrist
23:43
work sort of does that it takes the Rancho books concept to tap.
23:47
Ask is that a fair assessment? Yes, the Gilchrist made some
23:54
some great discoveries and that's why the kind of Pop
23:58
science of the 1960s and 1970s about, you know, right.
24:04
Brain people and left brain, people, and tendencies tended up
24:08
to be basically in the building the grill, Crestview absurd,
24:15
that's why I call it pop science.
24:17
Now, we're up to some better science and then we're Combining
24:21
that with the revelation of Urantia book itself, which as
24:26
you said is light years ahead because it describes to us, you
24:32
know, as we know one of the central themes of the Urantia
24:35
book, is this inestimable gift from the father of the father?
24:42
Fragment the mystery monitor route, adjuster or controller as
24:48
we call it as we get older? You know, or the light, that
24:52
lighteth? Every man, it is.
24:54
I think how the scripture you would you would know more than I
24:58
would you point, you know, my brother who is a reader once
25:01
common. He says, I do, I've always had
25:03
trouble with the word thought adjuster it sounds like mind
25:06
control, but I think you sort of explain it in a different way.
25:10
It's not it's not controlling it suggesting, it's taking
25:14
something and making in spirit sizing it giving a you know,
25:19
what was that one thing you say it?
25:20
It's a the right brain initiates higher thought, then your human
25:26
intellect. Left-brain parses out the
25:28
details and refers it back again to the right brain.
25:31
And it's a back and forth like a tennis ball until a concept of
25:34
feeling, or an idea, settles and gets the Divine stamp of
25:38
approval. That is thought adjustment
25:40
through a human Divine joint effort.
25:43
It's almost like a hand coming from above reaching down and
25:47
you're grasping for it. You finally grab it and it pulls
25:49
you up. It's pretty amazing.
25:52
Well, that's that's that is amazing and that's what's
25:56
happening with every person on Earth.
26:01
The thought adjusters are given worldwide to everyone at a
26:07
diverse a on right now as we speak in our minds and with
26:15
everyone on Earth, it is a continual effort by By this
26:22
divine presence within our mind, which has birthed our soul to
26:29
lead us upward into higher, and better Concepts and
26:34
understandings. And during the time of sleep,
26:40
according to the Urantia book, the adjuster endeavours to
26:46
register. Concepts in the superconscious.
26:53
That it becomes. Part of our enlarged,
26:59
understanding of the world of God of the universe of Prayer.
27:08
So we need to know are fostered through this process of thought
27:14
adjustment, and it just doesn't happen out in The Ether
27:18
someplace. This is actually being played
27:21
out with the biological brain structure that we have been
27:28
endowed with, and that is the process of evolution.
27:33
So, This this presence of spirit presence from the Father, the
27:43
thought adjuster at activity is touching on the electrochemical
27:53
very lightly touching that you connecting with the matcha.
27:57
Mine structure above and and making the connection.
28:02
From, but it happens in the material brain and then it
28:06
connects with the sole mind. Well, I couldn't have said it
28:11
better myself and I want to encourage people to read more of
28:14
your works. And I want to just reiterate,
28:18
how can we find out more about this particular paper?
28:22
How would you go about recommending people read it, get
28:25
it, get a copy of it. What would you like us to do?
28:28
Yeah, yeah. I'll send out a copy to anyone
28:32
who asks us to do is send me a message on email at Musical and
28:39
USIC Al at Cox dotnet, that c0x dotnet musical at Cox dotnet.
28:49
Thank you. Jim.
28:50
And God bless everyone out. There may your thoughts.
28:54
The Divine room, a Justin today and may you find the love and
28:59
joy, and a place to worship. Thanks again to my guests.
29:03
This time up on your Rancher, radio the podcast.
29:07
Hey, I want to give you Great reason to check back on our next
29:11
episode. We're doing something very
29:12
exciting. We ran across an essay actually.
29:17
It's an incredible story of the first human family, and you are
29:23
going to love the narrator next time up on your Ranch radio.
29:27
They first human family. As told in story authored by
29:32
Rick Warren, and that'll be our subject on the next podcast
29:35
here. Until next time, thanks again
29:37
for joining me.