"The Urantia Book says that there is one physical life followed by a long ascent to paradise."

Perhaps that long ascent is the process of living more lives. =]

For a more serious answer, I think it is more likely that both are correct. Where we are here in this life often seems to be determined and decided by ourselves (though we aren't always aware of it or accepting of it), so it makes sense to take this and extend it to the afterlife as well. If we think we're going to spend time in another world after this one, we likely will and it likely will closely match whatever description we believe it is going to.

So some people may experience reincarnation, others may go straight to a paradise world, others may take a detour for some self improvement. I personally believe I will arrive wherever I belong (preferably somewhere nice! ^_^) and I will retain much of what it means to be me, the parts of me that always came to me naturally from childbirth, and the parts of me that I grew to come naturally to me in my life and experience here.

Whether my next life is here on this planet or in one of the infinite other possible worlds or existences I am not sure, I just try to keep myself open to any possibility and know that if I land in a 'nicer' place I will be comfortable and enjoy, and if I land in a less than ideal place I will have plenty of stuff to work on and keep myself occupied while I'm there.

The only thing I really feel 'sure' about is that I exist. I know I exist now, I believe it's likely I've always existed, and I don't believe in the idea of non-existence. So all I have is time on my hands, whether it be in this life or the next. Since I established that, I get to come to terms with enjoying where I happen to be at any given moment, and the rest is tertiary to happiness and finding something to do with my time I enjoy.

Any way you like. It's a personal thing. Here's a few suggestions:

On the level of interpretation

• You could decide that your first life happened before the shift of the earth into the aquarian age, and that, because of the markedly different characteristics of physical life in the ages of aquarius and pisces, most notable the expanded possibilities, aquarian physical life is not strictly speaking physical and therefore should be considered part of the ascent to paradise. Therefore, your Urantian physical life would be the past life where you reached your lowest frequency.
• You could decide that paradise is now, and that all events of Urantia happened a long time ago.
• You could decide that your current life is the one physical life of Urantia, and that all figments of future lives you get do not happen on strictly physical terms and are therefore part of your ascent to paradise.

By complying your experience

• You could decide that your current physical life is your Urantian physical life. Then, after you die, you can decide not to reincarnate, in order not to drift into an undesirable unscripted territory, and embark on a long ascent to paradise, and then actual paradise. Should you decide paradise has become boring you can always ignore the teachings and go back to reincarnation.

By leaving the contradictions unresolved

• This is probably the most practical means if you enjoy working with Urantia, but also enjoy working with other material that may involve reincarnation. This is similar in the way a successful surgeon may be scientifically-minded while performing medical procedures, and Christian-minded on Sunday in the Church he loves. You just go into Urantia mode when you are dealing with Urantia, and into new age mode when you are dealing with various other enjoyable teachings that are broadly compatible. You can even borrow one or two compatible ideas from new age teachings when in Urantia mode and vice versa. The key is that you are doing this while aware that you are shifting in and out of different modes of existence that are not necessarily meant to be reconciled. You could also consider this the shamanic approach- shapeshifting.

Here are some further options that take a little bit more leeway with the original question, but might still be relevant.

By creating your own teachings

• You can become your own teacher by synthesizing the best aspects of the Urantia material (those that you enjoy most) and of all other teachings. Specifically, you can get a summary of the material, and modify the points you disagree with until you like them. Through this process, you will create a variant of the teachings that are more appealing to you. That is essentially how the major religions were created. The main difference is that you are no longer claiming to work with Urantia teachings- you changed them, so they are now your teachings.

By declaring certain ideas unreliable and ignoring them

• You can, instead of creating your own teachings, simply declare that Urantia is bunk and join the reincarnation camp, for better or for worse.

When choosing from these approaches, the most practical approach is to consider what you would like to experience, both for yourself and for whoever you are interacting with. In the end, it doesn't really matter what you chose, as long as you feel good. If it is difficult to figure out how to proceed, or if one or more of the approaches look great to you except some kind of nagging feelings, I recommend to start clearing negative beliefs- that will give you the necessary mental flexibility to pick your approach and ride with it.

Thank you for sharing this interesting question!

There is far too much scientific evidence supporting incarnation to simply discard it as being false. I much prefer fist hand knowledge from the likes of Robert Monroe than channeled info.

Well it kinda depends on how scientific you really are. Because there is only one real scientist who ever studied this, and he never ever declared the topic "proven". And that was Ian Stevenson. (Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation) Now that is a very dry book, as befits a researcher, and if you have not read it cover to cover, you have not done the work required here. I have done that work, plus a heck of a lot more, because I agree there are a great many things to explain if you wish to make a solid case that reincarnation has never occurred. That took me about ten years, but I did not stop researching, and I have actually taken Ian Stevenson's work and used it because he was unable to explain how some of his cases involved "reincarnated" persons who were alive at the same time as the person with the memory. All of this and a lot more is in my book. Perhaps if you want to save time you should read my book "Is Reincarnation an Illusion?" But I have found that most people don't want their reincarnation bubble pricked. I guess that is ok, we certainly all have free will. But its not the path of a real searcher after Truth.

I am not a big proponent of channeling...

But, despite that, on matters concerning life after death, I suppose that anything is possible. You might like this link from YouTube which tells of children recalling past lives.

It's a fun subject to consider. I know that I personally recall one past life very well, and have others brief memories of others. So, who knows?

Here's the link- Children Who Recall Past Lives:

link text

Jaianniah

According to the Urantia Foundation website, the book was presented by celestial beings (channeled). In my books, anything channeled is highly suspect. "God the Father" and "Jesus?" That's much too biblical for my liking. There is far too much scientific evidence supporting incarnation to simply discard it as being false. I much prefer fist hand knowledge from the likes of Robert Monroe than channeled info.