Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit

24:2.1Not­with­stand­ing that the cos­mic mind of the Uni­ver­sal In­tel­li­gence is cog­nizant of the pres­ence and where­abouts of all think­ing crea­tures, there is op­er­a­tive in the uni­verse of uni­verses an in­de­pen­dent method of keep­ing count of all will crea­tures.

24:2.2The Cen­sus Di­rec­tors are a spe­cial and com­pleted cre­ation of the In­fi­nite Spirit, and they ex­ist in num­bers un­known to us. They are so cre­ated as to be able to main­tain per­fect syn­chrony with the re­flec­tiv­ity tech­nique of the super­uni­verses, while at the same time they are per­son­ally sen­si­tive and re­spon­sive to in­tel­li­gent will. These di­rec­tors, by a not-fully-un­der­stood tech­nique, are made im­me­di­ately aware of the birth of will in any part of the grand uni­verse. They are, there­fore, al­ways com­pe­tent to give us the num­ber, na­ture, and where­abouts of all will crea­tures in any part of the cen­tral cre­ation and the seven super­uni­verses. But they do not func­tion on Par­a­dise; there is no need for them there. On Par­a­dise knowl­edge is in­her­ent; the De­i­ties know all things.

24:2.3Seven Cen­sus Di­rec­tors op­er­ate in Ha­vona, one be­ing sta­tioned on the pi­lot world of each Ha­vona cir­cuit. Ex­cept­ing these seven and the re­serves of the or­der on the Par­a­dise worlds of the Spirit, all Cen­sus Di­rec­tors func­tion un­der the ju­ris­dic­tion of the An­cients of Days.

24:2.4One Cen­sus Di­rec­tor pre­sides at the head­quar­ters of each super­uni­verse, while sub­ject to such a chief di­rec­tor are thou­sands upon thou­sands, one on the cap­i­tal of ev­ery lo­cal uni­verse. All per­son­al­i­ties of this or­der are equal ex­cept­ing those on the Ha­vona pi­lot worlds and the seven super­uni­verse chiefs.

24:2.5In the sev­enth super­uni­verse there are one hun­dred thou­sand Cen­sus Di­rec­tors. And this num­ber con­sists en­tirely of those assignable to lo­cal uni­verses; it does not in­clude the per­sonal staff of Us­a­tia, the super­uni­verse chief of all Or­von­ton di­rec­tors. Us­a­tia, like the other super­uni­verse chiefs, is not di­rectly at­tuned to the reg­is­tra­tion of in­tel­li­gent will. He is solely at­tuned to his sub­or­di­nates sta­tioned in the Or­von­ton uni­verses; thus he acts as a mag­nif­i­cent to­tal­ing per­son­al­ity for their re­ports com­ing in from the cap­i­tals of the lo­cal cre­ations.

24:2.6From time to time the of­fi­cial re­cord­ers of Uversa place on their rec­ords the sta­tus of the super­uni­verse as it is in­di­cated by the reg­is­tra­tions in and upon the per­son­al­ity of Us­a­tia. Such cen­sus data is in­dige­nous to the super­uni­verses; these re­ports are trans­mit­ted nei­ther to Ha­vona nor to Par­a­dise.

24:2.7The Cen­sus Di­rec­tors are con­cerned with hu­man be­ings—as with other will crea­tures—only to the ex­tent of record­ing the fact of will func­tion. They are not con­cerned with the rec­ords of your life and its do­ings; they are not in any sense record­ing per­son­al­i­ties. The Cen­sus Di­rec­tor of Neb­a­don, num­ber 81,412 of Or­von­ton, now sta­tioned on Sal­ving­ton, is at this very mo­ment per­son­ally con­scious and aware of your liv­ing pres­ence here on Uran­tia; and he will af­ford the rec­ords con­fir­ma­tion of your death the mo­ment you cease to func­tion as a will crea­ture.

24:2.8Cen­sus Di­rec­tors reg­is­ter the ex­is­tence of a new will crea­ture when the first act of will is per­formed; they in­di­cate the death of a will crea­ture when the last act of will takes place. The par­tial emer­gence of will ob­served in the re­ac­tions of cer­tain of the higher an­i­mals does not be­long to the do­main of the Cen­sus Di­rec­tors. They keep count of noth­ing but bona fide will crea­tures, and they are re­spon­sive to noth­ing but will func­tion. Ex­actly how they reg­is­ter the func­tion of will, we do not know.

24:2.9These be­ings al­ways have been, and al­ways will be, Cen­sus Di­rec­tors. They would be com­par­a­tively use­less in any other di­vi­sion of uni­verse la­bor. But they are in­fal­li­ble in func­tion; they never de­fault, nei­ther do they fal­sify. And not­with­stand­ing their mar­velous pow­ers and un­be­liev­able pre­rog­a­tives, they are per­sons; they have rec­og­niz­able spirit pres­ence and form.