According to an article in Forbes, gratitude is the act of feeling and communicating appreciation for the people, circumstances and material possessions in our lives. Scientifically, the positive effects of gratitude have been proven for a variety of purposes. For example, in his book The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time, Alex Korb, PhD, talks about how gratitude boosts the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin and the hormone oxytocin, all associated with wellbeing and having a positive outlook on life. Read More

 

Halloween had its primary origin in an ancient Celtic festival to remember the dead called “Samhain.” When the Celts converted to Christianity, they changed the pagan celebration into a Christian holy day called ‘All-hallows’, which translates to ‘All Saints’. This eventually became Halloween.

During this time of dressing in costume and festivals, the memory of those who have died often leads to prayer as we remember those we love and our hopes for the afterlife. It is never a bad idea to pray for our departed loved ones…if nothing else, prayers for the dead keep our loved ones alive in our memory and our heart. Prayer is always a good idea. Read More 

The Urantia Book offers no sense of “doom” associated with death and the sleeping survivors. It says: “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.”

In other words, how far back in time must we go for our ancestors to not be human and be, instead, an ape walking on two legs? What’s needed to qualify as “human”? Read More.  

The Urantia Book explains what is needed to qualify as human: “Intelligence, and the evolution of a ‘mind of will dignity’.” This requisite was demonstrated in the first two true human beings: the ten year-old twins, Andon and Fonta.

Read about the first Human Beings
And about the Evolution of the Human Mind

In all the Universe, there’s one question that has been an overwhelming source of wonder, possibility, and fear for humanity: where did all this come from? Despite all that we’ve learned about the Universe, there remain unanswered, and possibly unanswerable, questions. Could “God” be the answer?  Read More

The Urantia Book says: “The God-knowing soul dares to say, “I know,” even when this knowledge of God is questioned by the unbeliever who denies such certitude because it is not wholly supported by intellectual logic. To every such doubter the believer only replies, “How do you know that I do not know?”  Read More

A study by Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the most rigorous and
comprehensive analysis to date of scientific literature on health and spirituality.
Overlooking spirituality in health care leaves patients feeling disconnected from the health care system and from the clinicians caring for them. Asking about a patient & spirituality should be part of patient-centered, value-sensitive care, new research suggests. Focusing on spirituality in health care means caring for the whole person, not just their disease. Read More

The Urantia Book says: “Spirituality enhances the ability to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, and discover goodness in values. Spiritual development is determined by capacity therefore and is directly proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities of love.”  Read More