The Spheres of Light and Life

55:5.1Mor­tal crea­tures liv­ing on a sin-stricken, evil-dom­i­nated, self-seek­ing, iso­lated world, such as Uran­tia, can hardly con­ceive of the phys­i­cal per­fec­tion, the in­tel­lec­tual at­tain­ment, and the spir­i­tual de­vel­op­ment which char­ac­ter­ize these ad­vanced epochs of evo­lu­tion on a sin­less sphere.

55:5.2The ad­vanced stages of a world set­tled in light and life rep­re­sent the acme of evo­lu­tion­ary ma­te­rial de­vel­op­ment. On these cul­tured worlds, gone are the idle­ness and fric­tion of the ear­lier prim­i­tive ages. Pov­erty and so­cial in­equal­ity have all but van­ished, de­gen­er­acy has dis­ap­peared, and delin­quency is rarely ob­served. In­san­ity has prac­ti­cally ceased to ex­ist, and fee­ble-mind­ed­ness is a rar­ity.

55:5.3The eco­nomic, so­cial, and ad­min­is­tra­tive sta­tus of these worlds is of a high and per­fected or­der. Sci­ence, art, and in­dus­try flour­ish, and so­ci­ety is a smoothly work­ing mech­a­nism of high ma­te­rial, in­tel­lec­tual, and cul­tural achieve­ment. In­dus­try has been largely di­verted to serv­ing the higher aims of such a su­perb civ­i­liza­tion. The eco­nomic life of such a world has be­come eth­i­cal.

55:5.4War has be­come a mat­ter of his­tory, and there are no more armies or po­lice forces. Gov­ern­ment is grad­u­ally dis­ap­pear­ing. Self-con­trol is slowly ren­der­ing laws of hu­man en­act­ment ob­so­lete. The ex­tent of civil gov­ern­ment and statu­tory reg­u­la­tion, in an in­ter­me­di­ate state of ad­vanc­ing civ­i­liza­tion, is in in­verse pro­por­tion to the moral­ity and spir­i­tu­al­ity of the cit­i­zen­ship.

55:5.5Schools are vastly im­proved and are de­voted to the train­ing of mind and the ex­pan­sion of soul. The art cen­ters are ex­qui­site and the mu­si­cal or­ga­ni­za­tions su­perb. The tem­ples of wor­ship with their as­so­ci­ated schools of phi­los­o­phy and ex­pe­ri­en­tial re­li­gion are cre­ations of beauty and grandeur. The open-air are­nas of wor­ship as­sem­bly are equally sub­lime in the sim­plic­ity of their artis­tic ap­point­ment.

55:5.6The pro­vi­sions for com­pet­i­tive play, hu­mor, and other phases of per­sonal and group achieve­ment are am­ple and ap­pro­pri­ate. A spe­cial fea­ture of the com­pet­i­tive ac­tiv­i­ties on such a highly cul­tured world con­cerns the ef­forts of in­di­vid­u­als and groups to ex­cel in the sci­ences and philoso­phies of cos­mol­ogy. Lit­er­a­ture and or­a­tory flour­ish, and lan­guage is so im­proved as to be sym­bolic of con­cepts as well as to be ex­pres­sive of ideas. Life is re­fresh­ingly sim­ple; man has at last co-or­di­nated a high state of me­chan­i­cal de­vel­op­ment with an in­spir­ing in­tel­lec­tual at­tain­ment and has over­shad­owed both with an ex­qui­site spir­i­tual achieve­ment. The pur­suit of hap­pi­ness is an ex­pe­ri­ence of joy and sat­is­fac­tion.