Q: After we die, and if you have attained the 3rd circle, our souls are resurected on the mansion world on the 3rd day. My question is: the transport seraphim travels at about 350, 000 miles per second. How fast can it arrive Jerusem which is thousands of light years away?

My second question: where are souls kept during the period of “sleep of survival?” Here on earth or a special sphere in Jerusem?

A: Thanks so much for this interesting question about the Seraphic Transport angels, those beings who carry mortal personalities around the universes.

I found the following quotes regarding these beings here:

(39:3.8) 5. The Transporters. The fifth group of supervisor seraphim operate as personality transporters, carrying beings to and from the headquarters of the constellations. Such transport seraphim, while in flight from one sphere to another, are fully conscious of their velocity, direction, and astronomic whereabouts. They are not traversing space as would an inanimate projectile. They may pass near one another during space flight without the least danger of collision. They are fully able to vary speed of progression and to alter direction of flight, even to change destinations if their directors should so instruct them at any space junction of the universe intelligence circuits.

These transit personalities are so organized that they can simultaneously utilize all three of the universally distributed lines of energy, each having a clear space velocity of 186, 280 miles per second. These transporters are thus able to superimpose velocity of energy upon velocity of power until they attain an average speed on their long journeys varying anywhere from 555, 000 to almost 559, 000 of your miles per second of your time. The velocity is affected by the mass and proximity of neighboring matter and by the strength and direction of the near-by main circuits of universe power. There are numerous types of beings, similar to the seraphim, who are able to traverse space, and who also are able to transport other beings who have been properly prepared.

…and also this one regarding the distances between Jerusem, the Milky Way, and our local universe of Nebadon:

(32:2.11) The Satania system of inhabited worlds is far removed from Uversa and that great sun cluster which functions as the physical or astronomic center of the seventh superuniverse. From Jerusem, the headquarters of Satania, it is over two hundred thousand light-years to the physical center of the superuniverse of Orvonton, far, far away in the dense diameter of the Milky Way. Satania is on the periphery of the local universe, and Nebadon is now well out towards the edge of Orvonton. From the outermost system of inhabited worlds to the center of the superuniverse is a trifle less than two hundred and fifty thousand light-years.

You were a little off in your recollection of the miles per second, but at those kinds of speeds, hey—who’s counting? I am no math wizard, but I did a little figuring on paper and here’s what I came up with:

Rounding off the 559, 000 miles per second to 560, 000 in the second quote above, I multiplied that by 60 to give me speed per minute, which was 33, 600, 000 miles per minute, and then multiplied that by 60 to give me miles per hour, which turns out to be 2, 016, 000, 000. That is over 2 billion miles per hour—pretty impressive!

Now, I am not sure how long it takes to travel one light year. I looked it up, but even then I didn’t understand what I was reading. So, it looks like I am not going to be able to answer your question with any certainty. I will say that the figures given are the average speed, which makes me think that it could go higher than that. Personally, I feel sure that however we get there, the plan of ascension is not lacking in its ability to get us where we need to go, whether we understand it or not.

Regarding the second part of your question about where the souls are who rest in the sleep of survival…eventually, these souls awaken on the Mansion Worlds, and about this the text says:

(30:4.5) The passing of time is of no moment to sleeping mortals; they are wholly unconscious and oblivious to the length of their rest. On reassembly of personality at the end of an age, those who have slept five thousand years will react no differently than those who have rested five days. Aside from this time delay these survivors pass on through the ascension regime identically with those who avoid the longer or shorter sleep of death.

So, these souls are treated the same as all other souls; they awaken on the Mansion worlds, as in the following quote:

(30:4.8) The Adjuster is the custodian of the spirit transcript of the mind of the sleeping survivor. The assigned seraphim is the keeper of the surviving identity—the immortal soul—as far as it has evolved. And when these two, the Adjuster and the seraphim, reunite their personality trusts, the new individual constitutes the resurrection of the old personality, the survival of the evolving morontia identity of the soul. Such a reassociation of soul and Adjuster is quite properly called a resurrection, a reassembly of personality factors; but even this does not entirely explain the reappearance of the surviving personality. Though you will probably never understand the fact of such an inexplicable transaction, you will sometime experientially know the truth of it if you do not reject the plan of mortal survival.

The Urantia Book does not, as far as I know, identify exactly where these souls are kept, but I suspect it is on one of the Mansion Worlds, as in this quote, from the dispensational resurrection following Jesus’ resurrection from Joseph’s tomb. I bolded the one sentence that seemed to be relevant.

(189:3.2) The circuit of the archangels then operated for the first time from Urantia. Gabriel and the archangel hosts moved to the place of the spiritual polarity of the planet; and when Gabriel gave the signal, there flashed to the first of the system mansion worlds the voice of Gabriel, saying: “By the mandate of Michael, let the dead of a Urantia dispensation rise!” Then all the survivors of the human races of Urantia who had fallen asleep since the days of Adam, and who had not already gone on to judgment, appeared in the resurrection halls of mansonia in readiness for morontia investiture. And in an instant of time the seraphim and their associates made ready to depart for the mansion worlds. Ordinarily these seraphic guardians, onetime assigned to the group custody of these surviving mortals, would have been present at the moment of their awaking in the resurrection halls of mansonia, but they were on this world itself at this time because of the necessity of Gabriel’s presence here in connection with the morontia resurrection of Jesus.

I want to thank you again for taking the time to write to us with this interesting question. I hope that my reply has been useful to you today, and that you continue your study of The Urantia Book.