Urantia Book Commentary and Articles

by Dave Holt

William S. Sadler: Psychologist, Surgeon, Medical Doctor, famous Chattaqua lecturer, author, detective, preacher, health food salesman. I wanted to get to know this man better, this man about whom so much has been said, about whom so many accusations of wrongdoing have been made. On trial, yet with little real examination. I immersed myself in his life for a while because his role is central to the rise of doubt and unbelief among some in our movement.

Born in 1875, Sadler was home-schooled by his parents until he left his home in Wabash, Indiana in 1889 at the age of 14. He moved to Battle Creek, Michigan where he worked at the well-known Battle Creek Sanitarium and met the Kellogg family who would become life-long associates, a second family to him. He also became baptized into the Kellogg's church, the Seventh Day Adventist Church (I'll refer to it as SDA from here on). A few years later (in 1893) when William Kellogg began manufacturing his soon to be very successful line of health foods, Sadler became a salesman for the new products. Then in 1897, Sadler married Lena Kellogg, William's daughter, also the niece of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the famous founder of the Battle Creek sanitarium.

Eventually, he became ordained as an SDA minister in 1901. He and Lena spent some years in San Francisco while he attended the SDA seminary here in the Bay Area, but they returned to Chicago just two years before the 1906 earthquake. Like many SDA church leaders at the time, he was disturbed by the controversy that swirled around Ellen White's plagiarisms, already discovered in her writings, and he eventually left the church in 1910. Or perhaps he was driven out. This was the end of a membership in the church that had lasted 21 years. Think about that for a minute. Meredith Sprunger tells us that Sadler, "rarely revealed this fact," of his SDA affiliation, "to his associates." There is an SDA website that has a long letter of Sadler's to Mrs. White, written in 1906, (which is also reprinted in Martin Gardner's book, Urantia) It details his objections and asks for her response, written in a tone that is still reverential but with respectful challenge. The letter also reveals a man poised at the precipice of a major decision. "I cannot afford to be wrong, whichever way it is. I must be right and I expect the Lord to help me into the light on all these mattersâ€¦"

Martin Gardner has made much of the Seventh Day Adventist connection. His conjecture is that Sadler followed Mrs. White's example to create the Urantia Book: "This painful loss of a childhood faith left a huge void in the hearts of Sadler and Lenaâ€¦[who] sought desperately for a replacement of Mrs. White who would not disappoint [them]â€¦The forward-looking personality who put the papers into English was none other than Sadler himself." (Gardner's Urantia, p. 272-274)

It's hard to find instances in Sadler's behavior that support Gardner's characterizations of their "painful" and "desperate" reactions to the SDA disappointment. Both he and Lena's life stories are those of people who never succumbed to defeat, who didn't let on they'd been beaten, but found ways to keep on going, taking on new projects, finding new ways to serve humanity. These two had shed their past and were moving forward.

Everyone who met William Sadler was impressed by his gigantic intellectual abilities, his memory, his sheer command of information such as the medical history of his patients. He also dictated his books; "words just flowed before his eyes as though on a movie screen." (Sprunger) He apparently would have been quite capable of putting together a 2,096 page revelation. And he'd had a close associate, a predecessor in Mrs. White, whose successes and mistakes he was able to study up close. There is no doubt that SDA and Ellen White is an interesting coincidence, or at least, an intriguing confluence of influences and events in Sadler's life. But how do we interpret this connection?

What would motivate Sadler to put forward a revelation of his own creation? Prestige? Power? Personal fame? Being a Savior of the World? Episodes in his life repeatedly show that he didn't desire these things. As far as saving the world, yes I imagine he might have wanted that at moments (just as we do sometimes). But not to be the one getting the glory for such an achievement. The causes and the organizations that he devoted himself to demonstrate his service motivation: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Chicago Society for Personality Study, the College of Surgeons, just to mention a few. He founded a clinic that demanded no tuition fees from the students. He turned down an offer from the Guggenheim family to build a sanitarium and hotel with 51% of the stock to go to him as a reward. A wealthy fundraiser who came forward to pay for the UB's publication was rebuffed in favor of Lena's continuing fundraising efforts from within the ranks of those supporters of the book with less glittering reputations and pocketbooks . He regularly transferred his leadership duties to younger ones coming up behind him rather than holding on to his own position as founding father.

Sadler's early eagerness to follow Ellen White might be interpreted as a demonstration of his openness to the consideration of modern prophetic utterances that came from outside of traditional sources. His was the type of scientific mind that one of my heroes, Carl Sagan, admired: a person with no prejudice as to where the next insights would come from. Sadler had an adventurous mind much like a scientist's. He could look for spiritual truth beyond what was conventionally accepted and regarded by others as holy scripture.

He entered the field of psychiatry in 1911, leaving medicine temporarily to go study with Freud in Europe. He later established "a pastoral psychiatry clinic," to help clergy people understand and treat psychological problems. This open-mindedness, coupled with his investigative abilities, as shown by his detective work in Chicago, and later by the investigations into frauds and mediums that he conducted with the magician Howard Thurston, would have demonstrated to the authors of the UB that here was someone able to handle the bestowal of the new revelation already in its planning stages.

As Matthew Block's research has shown, the purported plagiarisms of the UB are nothing like Ellen White's word-for-word borrowings. Indeed, the human sources quoted and paraphrased in the UB cannot be compared to any "plagiarisms" we have ever seen before. I encourage you, if you haven't done so, to investigate Matthew's work as it continues to appear on the Square Circles website. You will better understand the difference in these "plagiarisms." Where Sister White's verbatim pillagings were easily discovered by her close followers, the Urantia Book's authors use of the "thousand human concepts" are not easily exposed in the expanded and enhanced form they've been given, often with the addition of a higher, cosmic perspective. Without Block's detective work, we might not have even recognized these passages as originating in a human source or "thought pattern."

The SDA controversy could also be interpreted as a motivating factor behind Sadler's later mindset, which was one of determination to expose deceptive psychic phenomena. He had learned from personal experience. Those of us with a background at Family Of God Foundation can understand this kind of motivation. But soon afterwards, he came across the "one exception to the general statement that all cases of psychic phenomenon" are "auto-psychism." (The Mind at Mischief, appendix)

Living inside Sadler's life as I have done recently is very much like inhabiting a new quantum universe where we deal with probabilities alone; not exact realities. Just as we cannot determine the exact location of a nuclear particle, given the quantum uncertainties, so are we unable to be accurate and precise concerning Dr. Sadler's motivations and actions. The at-the-scene witnesses are mostly dead and gone.

A man who I have known and admired over the years, Meredith Sprunger, is one of the last living individuals to have personally known Sadler well. Meredith called him, "probably the greatest man I have ever known." (at the memorial service, 1969) Yet I do not find those who have attacked Sadler, such as Gardner, and Harold Sherman, to be admirable or sincere in their motivations. Nevertheless, I still accept that William S. Sadler may have made some alterations in, or additions to the book that we call the Fifth Epochal Revelation.

The UB tells us that the ebbs and flows of spiritual presence are completely under the direction of our free will, subject to our choices and our sincere desires for more of the Deities' fellowship. Likewise is the withdrawal of deity presence subject to our will when we no longer choose to have it near. Our decisions and choices take precedence over the desires of our spiritual overseers for our welfare. "And thus does the spirit of divinity become humbly obedient to the choosing of the creatures of the realms." (p. 150; 13.4.5) The UB so consistently elevates and dignifies the preeminence of our free will, that it even goes so far as to make itself as a book secondary to our own personal religious experience. We are in a sense always limiting or qualifying the revelation of the Urantia Book, submitting it to the scrutiny of our "evaluator within, [without which] we could not possibly appraise moral values and recognize spiritual meanings." (196: 3. p. 2094) The UB talks about how the teachings and revelations that proliferate on our planet must be "sort[ed] and censor[ed]". (p. 1007; 92.4) The fact that we have come to know more concrete details about how the UB was derived doesn't change the process of sorting and censoring which we, as thoughtful spiritual seekers, have always done before, and will continue to do in the future. Contrary to what you may have heard, I have only occasionally found, over my life-experience with the UB, students who show an unquestioning acceptance of the statements in the book.

What concerns me more is the ennui, apathy, and weariness we suffer in the Urantia movement right now. We are allowing ourselves to be tricked out of the will and desire to live passionately in the presence of God. We have watched the copyright court case, the battles over affiliation between Urantia Foundation and Fifth Epochal Fellowship, and many other legal and personal conflicts. We have grown disappointed and disillusioned by the questionable ways in which the Lord's servants have worked on his behalf. We allow the behavior of these men and women to reflect badly on the truth, even upon God. We know we should not tarnish God or the truth with the same brush used to portray the deeds of his followers, yet we so often do so.

Just at the point where it seems most important for us to be engaged, the free will choices we make seem to lead us into throwing ourselves with more determination into our jobs, our commutes, and the resolution of our money hassles, less engaged with our spiritual development. As the UB writes concerning Urantia after Pentecost, "One of the great troubles with modern life is that man thinks he is too busy to find time for spiritual meditation and religious devotion." (195: 6; 7, p. 2077)

I feel like I am watching an ancient Biblical proverb come true in our time, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Yet I open up the Urantia Book and find an antidote in many of its papers. Here is the vision we lack! I find it in the religion papers, the psychology that is depicted in the Adjuster papers, and of course the expanded life of Jesus.

I also see the current rise of fundamentalism within the religions of the world that seeks to re-impose the power trips of the ancient creeds, the sacred scriptures, and the old religious authorities-all of which trample underfoot the very personal spiritual liberties the UB wishes us to uphold and enhance.

I have fond memories of those times when we as a movement enthusiastically gathered together for projects and activities. Now, we are perhaps tempted to retreat. To feel that we can only go apart into our rooms, to close the door and pray, just as monks leave the world when the dark ages seem to descend upon them. Through meditation, contemplation and prayer we hope that we can raise the planet up spiritually from out of the darkness that descends upon it. And perhaps there is some validity to this point of view. But I think we will find in our study today that this is not the path that the Urantia Book is calling us to in our troubled times. The question we all have to answer is, do we, in our sorting and censoring process, want to throw out the visionary truths along with those other parts of the book that we find questionable. It is a decision we will make in partnership with our divine indwelling evaluator.

Labels: biography, Dr Willam Sadler, Ellen White, Martin Gardner, The Urantia Book

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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Methods of Teaching the Urantia Book

Note: Although this article was written over 50 years ago, many of the ideas are fresh and quite applicable to our 21st century challenge to continue to spread the teachings of The Urantia Book.
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Methods of Teaching the Urantia Book
A Thesis prepared for the Seventy

Marian Rowley
March 9, 1945

After choosing the subject for this thesis, my first job seemed to be definition of terms. Just what are â€œmethods of teachingâ€�? Webster gives several definitions of â€œteachingâ€�, among them the following: â€œTo show; guide; direct; to make to know how; show how; to direct as an instructor; to guide the studies of, or to conduct through a course of studies; to impart the knowledge of.â€� These are definitions of teaching, which we all know and accept.

But the definition of â€œmethodsâ€� is a little more difficult. Webster defines â€œmethodâ€� as: â€œAn orderly procedure or process; regular way or manner of doing anything.â€� In an educational sense, method is â€œa systematic plan adopted in presenting instructional material; as, the lecture method; a method of teaching.â€� â€œMethod is commonly a special or definite system of procedure.â€�

The next step was to discover what the conventional methods of teaching are, and how they could be used in teaching The Urantia Book.

The outside sources consulted seemed to pile confusion on confusion. Each author had his own interpretation of the word â€œmethods.â€� One author recognized just two methods â€“ subject teaching, that is, arithmetic, geography, history, as separate subjects (the way most of us studied); and progressive teaching, in which the project holds the important place, and the subjects â€“ arithmetic, geography, history, etc. â€“ are acquired as a by-product in the working out of the project. Another author listed methods as inductive, deductive, expository, demonstration, etc. Still another author defined methods as tools, techniques, devices used in teaching, such as maps, models, blackboards, and so on.

With such a range of meaning, from a general â€œsystem of procedureâ€� down to the concrete tool, such as a globe, I have felt free to make my own interpretation of â€œmethodsâ€�. While my primary interest has been in the actual techniques or tools for putting a point across, I felt that a consideration of the more general aspects of teaching should form the foundation for the discussion of the specialized procedures. The definition, which most nearly fits my purpose here, was found in a book titled â€œBeginning Teachingâ€� by Joseph Emory Avent. â€œMethod is the procedure by which a goal is reached, a purpose accomplished, or a result achieved. It is how you get the thing doneâ€¦

Devices may be thought of simply as little methods, or as parts of a larger method. A device usually involves the use of concrete materials, or concrete procedures, which may be objects or ideasâ€¦A device, then, is any little method to which a teacher resorts as a temporary means of more effective focusing of attention of pupils upon the task to be done.â€�

KINDS OF TEACHING

There seems to me to be two general ways of teaching â€“ unconscious teaching and conscious teaching. By unconscious teaching, I mean showing someone else how, not by direct imparting of information, but by doing something or living in such a way that the other person observes and learns from your example. Parents are unconscious teachers to their children.

Many things, which a child learns, are obtained with no conscious instruction on the part of his elders. The child himself is often unconscious that he is learning something. On a higher level, there is an analogy in the papers, which concerns the unconscious acquiring of information. In Paper 19 we are told that Trinity Teacher Sons are devoted to conscious enlightenment. But the Inspired Trinity Spirits are believed to be teachers who operate by super-conscious techniques. â€œThere is a vast body of essential spiritual knowledge, truth indispensable to high spiritual attainment, which cannot be consciously received; self-consciousness would effectively jeopardize the certainty of reception.â€� [p. 220, 4] To a certain degree, it seems that here in our material existence the method of unconscious learning and teaching is valuable, particularly in getting across the truths of The Urantia Book.

Our method of unconsciously teaching the truths of The Urantia Book will be to live them in our daily lives â€“ to show the fruits of the spirit in such a way that people will observe, wonder, and inquire into what we have that they donâ€™t have. Already there have been instances of this very thing happening and there will be many more as we absorb more of the truths of the book and actually try to live them.

During the ordination of the twelve, Jesus said: â€œAnd it will not be so much by the words you speak as by the lives you live that men will know you have been with me and learned of the realities of the kingdom.â€� [p. 1569,4]

This method of living our beliefs is well illustrated by Jesusâ€™ life. We are told in the papers to look not so much for what he taught as for what he did. [p. 2088, 5] â€œIt is his life, and not his lessons to the twelve or his sermons to the multitudes, that will assist most in revealing the Fatherâ€™s divine character and loving personality.â€� [p. 1581, 6]

Jesusâ€™ entire life on this planet was intended to be an inspiration to us so that we can learn from what he did. Before his bestowal on this planet, Immanuel, the Union of Days on Salvington, charged Jesus to do certain things and refrain from doing other things. In this charge, Immanuel said, among other things: â€œYour earth life in the likeness of mortal flesh shall not be so lived as to constitute an example for the mortals of Urantia in the days of your earthly sojourn nor for any subsequent generation of human beings on Urantia or on any other world. Rather shall your life in the flesh on Urantia be the inspiration for all lives upon all Nebadon worlds throughout all generations in the ages to come.â€� [p. 1328, 4]

The second general manner of teaching is conscious teaching, and that is the kind with which we are primarily concerned here. Every person in the world is a teacher, even though he does not realize it. Remember the definition of teachings: to show, guide, direct; to show how. There is not a person who has not shown someone else how to do something â€“ tie a knot, set a table, hammer a nail, play a game.

Even children of four or five show children of two or three how to pull a cart, build a house with blocks, and put a doll to bed. Our particular job is teaching The Urantia Book, and although at the present time there are only three of us who are teaching more or less formally, each one of you is a teacher in an informal sense. Many of you have said that you canâ€™t teach, and yet I have heard those same older members in the group answer questions and explain some point to a newer member â€“ and what is that but teaching?

We are told in the papers that our entire future career will be devoted to teaching others. â€œAs you journey toward your Paradise goal, constantly acquiring added knowledge and enhanced skill, you are continuously afforded the opportunity to give out to others the wisdom and experience you have already accumulated; al the way in to Havona you enact the role of a pupil-teacher. You will work your way through the ascending levels of this vast experiential university by imparting to those just below you the newfound knowledge of your advancing career. In the universal regime you are not reckoned as having possessed yourself of knowledge and truth until you have demonstrated your ability and your willingness to impart this knowledge and truth to others." [p. 279, 13]

Since we know that we are going to be teachers for untold ages, and since we know that this group has been designated as the â€œteacherleadersâ€� for the dissemination of The Urantia Book, it seems logical that we start right now preparing for that career. There is a very comforting statement in the papers that we will have help in this teaching career. There is one group of the Supreme Seraphim who are called Teaching Counselors. They act as â€œsecretaries to all orders of teachers, from the Melchizedeks and the Trinity Teacher Sons down to the morontia mortals who are assigned as helpers of those of their kind who are just behind them in the scale of ascendant lifeâ€¦These ministrations extend on down to the individual worlds. Even the true and consecrated teachers of time are assisted, and often attended, by
these counselors of the supreme seraphim.â€� [p. 428, 8]

One of the most important points to remember in teaching The Urantia Book is to confine our teaching to those who are truly interested in learning, those who are confused and seeking for help, those who are hungry for truth. Jesus brought this point out very clearly in a conversation with Ganid during their trip to the Northern Italian lakes. They had met a thoughtless pagan and Ganid was surprised that Jesus had made no effort to discuss spiritual questions with him. Jesus explained his attitude as follows: â€œGanid, the man was not hungry for truth. He was not dissatisfied with himself. He was not ready to ask for help, and the eyes of his mind were not open to receive light for the soul. That man was not ripe for the harvest of salvation; he must be allowed more time for the trials and difficulties of life to prepare him for the reception of wisdom and higher learning. Or, if we could have him live with us, we might by our lives show him the Father in heaven, and thus would be become so attracted by our lives as sons of God that he would be constrained to inquire about our Father. You cannot reveal God to those who do not seek for Him; you cannot lead unwilling souls into the joys of salvation. Man must become hungry for truth as a result of the experiences of living, or he must desire to know God as the result of contact with the lives of those who area acquainted with the divine Father before another human being can act as the means of leading such a fellow mortal to the Father in heaven. If we know God, our real business on earth is so to live as to permit the Father to reveal himself in our lives, and thus will all God-seeking persons see the Father and ask for our help in finding out more about the God who in this manner finds expression in our lives.â€� [p. 1466, 2]

In addition to confining ourselves to teaching those who are truly seeking for help, a second very important point to remember is to adapt our teaching to the pupil. His personality type should play a major part in determining the kind of teaching methods to be used. His intellectual capacity also is an important factor. Do not try to put a quart of knowledge into a pint-sized mind. We should consider the backgrounds and potentials of our pupils and present the concepts of the book accordingly. Jesus used this method in teaching is apostles.

He â€œtaught these men all they could assimilate. He did not make the mistake of over-teaching them. He did not precipitate confusion by the presentation of truth too far beyond their capacity to understand.â€� [p. 1535, 6]

The Urantia Book itself is presented to us following this same principle, in my opinion. While it seems to us that some parts of it are far beyond our ability to understand, still we can almost grasp most of it with a little work, and our successors in future years will understand the concepts better. I am convinced that many questions have remained unanswered and many things left unrevealed because they really would be beyond our capacity and would tend only to confuse us.

A third point to remember in imparting new truth is not to destroy old beliefs, which a person sincerely holds unless you can substitute the new truth without detriment to him. Never tear down a building unless you are sure you can build a better, more solid structure. A good illustration of this is Jesusâ€™ handling of the whale story in talking with Gadiah. â€œJesus perceived that his young manâ€™s life had been tremendously influenced by this tradition and that its contemplation had impressed upon this youth the folly of trying to run away from duty; he therefore said nothing that would suddenly destroy the foundations of his present motivation for practical living." [p. 1428, 2]

Jesus also emphasized this point in dealing with the Persian â€œfire worshipperâ€� who resisted Simonâ€™s method of teaching, but succumbed to Jesusâ€™ method. Upon Simonâ€™s inquiry as to why he had failed, Jesus said: â€œSimon, Simon, how many times have I instructed you to refrain from all efforts to take something out of the hearts of those who seek salvation? How often have I told you to labor only to put something into those hungry souls? Lead men into the kingdom, and the great and living truths of the kingdom will presently drive out all serious error." [p. 1592, 4]

Just before the crucifixion Jesus admonished his apostles: â€œDo not forget that you are only commissioned to go forth preaching the good news. You are not to attack the old ways; you are skillfully to put the leaven of new truth in the midst of the old beliefs.â€� [p. 1932, 1]

Dr. Sadler once prescribed an anesthetic to be used in imparting new truth. It consists of three attitudes on the part of the seeker after truth:

1. Interest â€“ based on curiosity.
2. Belief in your sincerity â€“ or friendliness.
3. Familiarity â€“ That is, familiarity of the listener with the terms and examples you use.

Everyone attempting to teach The Urantia Book would do well to remember that anesthetic before operating. Otherwise the sudden injection of new truth may be exceedingly painful to the listener.

There is another admonition which we would do well to remember: â€œThe teachers of the religion of Jesus should approach other religions with the recognition of the truths which are held in common (many of which come directly or indirectly from Jesusâ€™ message) while they refrain from placing so much emphasis on the differences.â€� [p. 670, 6]

There are two methods, which may be followed, in conscious teaching of The Urantia Book. One is individual teaching or tutoring. The other is class teaching. Undoubtedly both methods will be used, but probably the majority of this group will devote themselves to individual teaching, rather than formal class work.

Both methods have a place in the educational system, which is sponsored by the celestial personalities. In the schools of the Planetary Prince about 500,000 years ago on Urantia, the instruction seems to have been by classes, although the papers do not state that individual instruction was excluded.

Since the primary purpose of the Edenic schools was socialization, it seems logical that most information should be presented to groups rather than individuals. [p. 835, 5] The exact opposite is true in the schools on a neighboring planet, though it should be remembered that those are purely human schools like our own. On that planet the entire educational system is largely individual. There are no classrooms. Each pupil studies one subject at a time. The chief object of education there is to make every pupil a self-supporting citizen. [p. 812, 7]

In the morontia schools, the Mansion World Teachers engage in individual, group, class, and mass teaching. [p. 551, 1] Both individual and group teaching seems to be carried on all through the superuniverse, with the latter probably predominating. But upon graduation from Uversa, class work is ended. In Havona, all instruction is individual.

Although we all will participate in individual teaching most of the time in the coming years, classes for teaching The Urantia Book will develop more rapidly later. A start has already been made in that direction. There are three classes in operation now. The first is this class of the Doctorâ€™s for training teachers. Though not the first in the Forum in point of time, it is the most important, and the only one recognized officially by the seraphim under whom we work, the angels of progress. The second is Billâ€™s discussion class which started many years ago and which aims to teach the fundamentals of the book, and give a broad, comprehensive view of the whole. The third is the kindergarten class which I teach and which tries to present only the primary facts of cosmography and the personalities who inhabit the universe â€“ the bare bones of the skeleton on which the rest of the book is based.

With these three classes as a beginning, it is easy to foresee other classes which will evolve as the need becomes apparent, until sometime there will be an entire school devoted to instruction in the teachings of The Urantia Book. The beginning courses of such a school will, I believe, consist of classes such as the one I am teaching. For the starting point for learning the teachings of the book is knowledge of the facts of the universe â€“ the physical geography, the personalities who inhabit it, what they do, how the universe is administered. These are definite facts to be learned, with not much chance for differing interpretations, although the door is seldom closed completely to speculation. Once having learned these facts, the way is open for advanced classes â€“ classes in theory based on known facts, exploratory classes which follow avenues only hinted at in the papers. In these classes, there is an opportunity for individual, differing interpretations.

Such teaching requires vision, imagination, ability to build a theoretical structure or concept on a foundation of fact. But always in these classes, the teacher must have a thorough knowledge of the facts of the book.

There will be many specialist classes â€“ that is, classes devoted to just one subject in the book. One intriguing subject is the story of mortal ascent from the evolutionary planet to Paradise. Another is the story of the evolution of a planet from the beginning of a nebula through the period of light and life.

The life and teachings of Jesus will undoubtedly be divided into several subjects for class instruction. The energy system of the master universe will attract some students, while prayer and worship will be the primary interest of others. There will be classes in religion, covering many aspects, for example: the evolution of religion, the practical application of religion in everyday life, and comparative religions.

In all these specialist classes, the teachers must be not only very well grounded in The Urantia Book, but also fully conversant with the general knowledge in the same field of study. That is, anyone teaching about the physical energy system of the universe should have a good background of our own physical sciences, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and so on. As I have found to my embarrassment, it is difficult to explain some points in the papers without this background. In a class in religion, the teacher must be thoroughly familiar with not only the great religions of the world but also the minor ones, in order to point out agreements and disagreements, and to answer the questions which will be continually brought up.

TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING

The majority of the techniques, or little methods, of teaching, which will be discussed in the remainder of this paper, can be used either in individual teaching or in class teaching. Although devised primarily for class work, some of them have already been successfully used in private tutoring. Others are only in the future, but I am sure they will all be used sometime, and there are undoubtedly many that I have not thought of.

Some of these methods are used in the schools, which we will pass through on our assent through the universes, but the papers mention others, which are far beyond our present concepts. We are familiar with laboratories, and we now there are laboratories for scientists on Jerusem. Adam and Eve studied in the division of experimental energy as applied to living forms. They were expert anatomists before they came to Urantia. [p. 828, 3] We also know there are planetary life-planning laboratories on the Life Carrier worlds of Salvington.

Universe physicists and electrochemists serve there as technical assistants to the Life Carriers. [p. 398, 1] And we are told that the star students on Uversa work with the aid of a multitude of mechanical instruments and physical appliances, [p. 339, 1] so it is safe to assume that there are laboratories on Uversa also. We can understand laboratories. But in the classes conducted by the Masters of Philosophy on Paradise, we are told of other methods, which are far beyond our present comprehension. â€œThese Paradise philosophers teach by every possible method of instruction, including the higher graph technique of Havona and certain Paradise methods of communicating information. All of these higher techniques of imparting knowledge and conveying ideas are utterly beyond the comprehension capacity of even the most highly developed human mind. One hourâ€™s instruction on Paradise would be the equivalent of ten thousand years of the word-memory methods of Urantia. You cannot grasp such communication techniques, and there is simply nothing in mortal experience with which they may be compared, nothing to which they can be likened.â€� [p. 303, 2]

The Havona graph system is also mentioned in the discussion of the Intelligence Coordinators (a group of Tertiary Supernaphim) with the statement that it enables them to assimilate as much information in one hour of Urantia time as would require a thousand years for our most rapid telegraphic technique to record. [p. 289, 1]

Although Paradise and Havona methods are out of our reach, there are specific techniques, which can be used here and now, and among them are the following:

1. Learn by Doing â€“ One of the most important techniques of teaching is to let the pupil learn by doing. This method is being stressed in modern education for it has been discovered that this is one of the best ways for the student to make the information really his own. Several small colleges are operating on the basis of part study, part work, so that their students may apply practically, the theories, which they acquire in class. Boys are not only told how to run a farm or a business. They actually operate the farm or the business. Girls are required to run a home on a fixed budget, to care for children while theyâ€™re studying childcare, and so on. This method is not only one of the best in our present Urantia teaching. According to the papers, it is also used extensively in other, better schools than we have on Urantia today. In the schools, which were established, when the Planetary Prince first arrived on Urantia, the plan of teaching was carried out by establishing industrial schools in which the pupils learned by doing, and through which they worked their way by the daily performances of useful tasks. [p. 751, 1] This method was also followed in the schools of Eden. The elder children taught the younger â€“ another form of learning by doing. [p. 835, 1]

While Jesus was on earth, there was a school at Bethsaida for the evangelists, taught by the apostles. â€œThis school was conducted on the plan of learning and doing. What they learned during the forenoon they taught to the assembly by the seaside during the afternoon. After supper they informally discussed both the learning of the forenoon and the teaching of the afternoon.â€� [p. 1657, 6]

We are told that, in the advanced ages of an evolutionary world when education is the watchword of these ages, every child is provided an opportunity to learn by doing. [p. 577, 2] The schools on a â€œneighboring planetâ€� are described as largely consisting of individual instruction designed to make every pupil a self-supporting citizen. Books are used only to secure information that will assist in solving problems arising in school shops. At a very early age, pupils become assistant teachers, instructing those below them. [p. 812, 3]

In the discussion of the Celestial Overseers (the inspectors of the Nebadon educational system) there are several paragraphs on the system of education in general which bring out specifically the fact that we learn by doing. â€œOn the universe headquarters itself are numerous Melchizedek schools, the colleges of the Universe Sons, the seraphic universities, and the schools of the Teacher Sons and the Union of Days. Every possible provision is made to qualify the various personalities of the universe for advancing service and improving function. The entire universe is one vast school.â€�

â€œThe methods employed in many of the higher schools are beyond the human concept of the art of teaching truth, but this is the keynote of the whole educational system: Character acquired by enlightened experience. The teachers provide the enlightenment; the universe stations and the ascendersâ€™ status afford the opportunity for experience; the wise utilization of these two augments character.â€�

â€œFundamentally, the Nebadon educational system provides for your assignment to a task and then affords you opportunity to receive instruction as to the ideal and divine method of best performing that task. You are given a definite task to perform, and at the same time you are provided with teachers who are qualified to instruct you in the best method of executing your assignment. The divine plan of education provides for the intimate association of work and instruction. We teach you how best to execute the things we command you to do.â€� [p. 412, 4]

Learning by doing leads directly into the project method of teaching, which is emphasized so strongly in progressive schools. Projects promote the integration of learning. Subject matter is learned more thoroughly and in greater amounts. A project is an activity that involves planning and construction, the search for materials, and the evaluation of proposed solutions.

There is great opportunity for this method of teaching in connection with The Urantia Book. This very assignment on which we are working now is a form of project â€“ of planning and constructing, searching for materials, correlating and presenting it in a unified, coherent form. There are many subjects in The Urantia Book, which need to be learned this way, since they are not presented in compact form with all the information in one or two papers. For example, references are made to prayer and worship from the very early papers through the very last ones. The will of God is discussed in a number of places, and definitions and explanations of error, evil, sin, and iniquity are likewise scattered. The story of mortal ascent is another very good subject for project teaching.

The foregoing suggests just a few of the possibilities for using this technique of teaching â€“ that is, helping the student to learn by doing.

1. Radio â€“ It is an accepted fact that radio is now an educational tool to be reckoned with. It has been successfully used for teaching music, history, grammar, foreign languages, and Bible stories, in fact, almost everything that can be taught by the voice alone. There seems to be no reason why it cannot be used in teaching The Urantia Book. Probably of greatest interest are drama possibilities.

There are endless stories in the life of Jesus suitable for dramatization â€“ stories of His childhood and youth, His first trip to Jerusalem, the Mediterranean tour, and practically all the events of His later life. There are also possibilities for drama in Part III, for example, the story of Andon and Fonta, the early events of the Planetary Princeâ€™s regime, the sudden appearance of the six colored races, and the story of Adam and Eve.

In addition to the drama possibilities, the radio provides a splendid medium for straight reading of the papers, such as we have here on Sunday, and the discussion and development of interesting points. There will, of course, be sermons on the teachings of the papers. As a matter of fact, there have been Urantian sermons on the air for the last several years, though not labeled with that name, as Charlie Rawson can testify. Radio will probably be of the greatest value in publicizing the book, but it will also have value as an educational tool.

1. Movies â€“ This is another modern educational tool, which has proved itself immensely valuable. As a means of teaching The Urantia Book, the picture possibilities seem to lie mostly in Part IV, in the life of Jesus; although perhaps effective and fairly accurate movies could be made of early man and his struggles for existence, and of life in the Garden of Eden.

Not much could be done with Parts I and II in the movies, since these concepts are too far removed for reproduction in our physical world. However, there is a subdivision of movies, which could illustrate many situations not suitable for straight movie production. Animated cartoons â€“ Walt Disney style â€“ would prove an eminently suitable vehicle for portraying the evolution of nebulae, for example. Disney could do great things with the development of solar families and planets. This is the only present known method of showing the physical evolution of a planet and the evolution of life on a planet. By this means, the evolution of plans and animals could be shown simultaneously and the two could be brought together and made real in a way that pages and pages of text can never do.

Other fruitful subjects for animated cartoons are the rise and fall of oceans and landmasses, the movements of glaciers, and the westward drift of North and South America. This style of presentation would also be of great value in showing the evolution of early man, the spread of the six colored races, and the movements of the Andite peoples. To me, this seems one of the most spectacular and effective ways of presenting some of the Urantia teachings, particularly those of Part III.

The rest of the techniques listed are those, which can be used by any of us â€“ â€œlittle methodsâ€� which can be used in individual teaching or class teaching. Most of them have already been used in our present classes and have been proved practical and very helpful.

1. The Parallel Technique â€“ I took the name for this method from one, which is used on the mansion worlds in teaching mota. â€œThe lower planes of morontia mota join directly with the higher levels of human philosophy. On the first mansion world it is the practice to teach the less advanced students by the parallel technique; that is, in one column are presented the more simple concepts of mota meanings, and in the opposite column citation is made of analogous statements of mortal philosophy.â€� [p. 556, 1]

This method of placing the new teaching alongside the old in order to compare and get the full meaning of the new can be applied to several situations in The Urantia Book. For example, it will be helpful in learning to geological evolution of the planet to place the dates and ages of the periods beside the dates and ages, which our own scientists have postulated and thus be able to correlate the new teaching with the old. This method should also be used in studying the present day religions in relation to the new, so that the points of agreement and disagreement can be easily seen. It will also be of help in studying the evolution of man and comparing the Urantia story with the theories and facts, which our anthropologists have deduced.

This form of teaching new truth by comparison with old familiar things also covers the use of everyday, commonplace examples to illustrate points which may seem new at first reading. For example, in teaching the organization of the superuniverse and its subdivisions, a comparison with the United States and its subdivisions of sections, states, counties, townships, and villages brings out the relationship very clearly. In teaching the administration of the universe it is helpful to anyone in business to use the example of the administration charts of large corporations.

Jesus employed this method of using familiar examples to point up his teaching. He told stories of everyday occurrences â€“ parables â€“ to bring out the moral or emphasize the particular teaching he was trying to inject into his hearers. â€œJesus taught not so much from the law, as from life, by parables. And when he employed a parable for illustrating his message, he designed to utilize just one feature of the story for that purpose.â€� [p. 1672, 4]

This is a method, which can be used from the beginning of the book to the end, and will probably be used more than any other single method named.

1. Use of Models â€“ Actual models should be used for illustration whenever possible. Even though they are not 100% representations of the objects illustrated, they do help to give an approximate idea of what the objects are like. We have already made a start on accumulating models for use in teaching The Urantia Book, thanks to Mr. Pritchard. You have all seen the model of the entire cosmos in miniature, which comes apart to show the relationship of pervaded and unpervaded space. We also have a model of the Havona circuits surrounded by the dark islands, and a model of the Isle of Paradise. All these models have proved their value many times in our present classes.

Sometime in the future we may have a miniature model of the Master Universe with the space levels rotating to indicate the clockwise and counter-clockwise movements of the alternate levels. Possibly models can be made showing the stages of the physical evolution of Urantia, and I believe sufficient information is given about the Garden on Eden to enable us to produce a reasonable facsimile.

When actual models are lacking, other objects can be used as substitutes. For instance, a doughnut and two ice-cream cones serve very well to represent pervaded and unpervaded space. With a little imagination, an oval compact or a piece of bread marked off in zones becomes the Isle of Paradise. An apple cut horizontally or vertically can illustrate the cosmos and bring three dimensions to the vertical and horizontal cross-section charts, which we have.

Sometime far in the future there will be large intricate models showing the space levels and the various motions, which are described in the papers, similar to those in the planetarium showing the movements of the planets around the sun.

Since visualization is one of the most effective ways of learning, this method should be used whenever possible.

1. Use of Maps, Charts, Diagrams, and Illustrations â€“ This is another method of making teaching more effective by means of visualization. Someone has said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Maps, charts, diagrams, and pictures can impress facts on the mind far more vividly than pages of text. Whenever it is possible to illustrate a point by a drawing, it should be done.

There are many opportunities in The Urantia Book to use this graphic method of teaching. The drawing, which we now have showing pervaded and unpervaded space is of utmost value. From the comments, which have been made about it, it is evident that it has greatly clarified the concept of the relationship of pervaded and unpervaded space. Maps can be made of the Master Universe, the Grand Universe, Havona, Paradise, the architectural spheres and their satellites and sub satellites. Some of these have already been used, and others will be available in the future. In Part III maps can be made of the different stages of the physical evolution of Urantia and of the spread of the colored races and the Andite peoples over the earthâ€™s surface. In Part IV we will use maps of Palestine and the Roman
Empire to trace Jesusâ€™ travels and the beginnings of the Christian religion.

Charts and diagrams are helpful in showing relationships between parts. They can indicate lines of origin, lines of sovereignty, and lines of administration better than any other means. We are already using such charts in our classes â€“ the administration charts of the super universe and the genealogy charts, the family trees, showing origin of the personalities listed in the Uversa Personality Register. We also have a chart of the space levels of the Grand Universe and the Master Universe.

Charts and diagrams will also be useful in studying the evolution of man on Urantia. One, for example, could start with the appearance of animal life and trace the changes down to Andon and Fonta, the first true humans. Another could begin with Andon and Fonta and carry through the Andonites, the development of the six colored races, the Nodites, the injection of Adamic blood, the Andites, and the present human races. Still another chart could show the evolution of the religions of the world.

Sometimes a picture will dramatize a point when other methods will not fill the need for graphic presentation. And such pictures should by no means always be serious ones. Often, a humorous picture will do a better job than a literal, factual representation. It has been said, â€œWhen laughter is involved in the learning process, students will retain the same material about 50% better." Anyone who saw it will never forget Billâ€™s drawing of the baby with the clothesline looped above his head to illustrate the mind circuit and what happens to it when the human passes out of physical existence. Another graphic illustration was of the firehouse with three stories and a fire-pole running from top to bottom to indicate that God was on all three levels, Supreme, Ultimate, and Absolute. On the outside, a man on a ladder was
laboriously climbing to attain the first and second levels, the Supreme and Ultimate, and hanging by his toes from the roof trying to peer into the third level, the Absolute. Another good illustration, though not in the humorous vein, is the picture of a tree with a solid trunk, indicating one-fold deity, then three branches, indicating three-fold deity, and higher up, seven branches, indicating seven-fold deity, yet emphasizing that it is al one tree and all one deity.

The use of this method requires paper and pencil for individual teaching, but in classroom work a blackboard is essential. A teacher who has a little training in drawing or cartooning has a great advantage in blackboard teaching. And the teacher who can make the drawing and explain the points while doing it, has an advantage, for there is activity involved which will hold the attention of the class. Drawing is much more interesting than a drawing already on the board. The blackboard is also useful for maps, charts diagrams, lists, and so on, and is an almost indispensable part of a classroom.

1. Lists and Tables â€“ Another tool to be used in teaching The Urantia Book consists of lists and tables. These are the parts, which are uninteresting to most people, the dry-as-dust, cold, hard statistics, which are dull but necessary as a foundation. The Uversa Personality Register is a good example of this device. It is simply a list showing personalities and their classification. Another table we are using is one, which I call the basic table. It is similar to the tables of measurement, which we all learned in school, and just as basic. It starts out: 1,000 planets equal 1 system, 100 systems equal 1 constellation, etc. And there are other tables showing how many planets in the Grand Universe, how many minor sectors, and so on.

Later on, there will be still other tables to help in the study of this book. The history of our mother nebula, Andronover, of our solar system, and our planet will be put into tables. Dates and events are easier to fix in the mind in tabular form than buried in a mass of words. Some of these tables and lists will be necessary only for quick reference purposes, but others are truly basic and must be firmly fixed in the mind in order to grasp completely the other concepts in the book. And this brings us directly to the next tool to be discussed â€“ memory.

1. Memory â€“ This is a method which was used to a very large extent in acquiring learning up to the last thirty or forty years. It has fallen into disrepute under the modern or progressive method of teaching, partly because other activities take a much larger share of the time. But the best teachers acknowledge that there is still necessity for straight memorizing and some time is provided for it in the modern curriculum.

The alphabet, for example, is a series of letters without pattern or logic, and the only way to learn the alphabet is simply to memorize it, repeating it over and over until it becomes so fixed that it is automatic. Numbers are another fundamental that must be memorized. There is pattern and logic in the handling of numbers, but the multiplication tables, for example, should be memorized. The process of multiplication can be figured out, but if the tables have been drilled until they become automatic, and 7 x 8 means 56 without even thinking about it, much time is saved for the more complicated procedures that do require reasoning. Angelo Patri stated this principle very well in one of his columns in the Daily News. â€œNo teacher can teach tables. She presents them step-by-step and the child learns them, memorizes them as he learned and memorized his name. I would not bother explaining why two and two make four because I do not know why they do. They make four. Learn that and go ahead. Thorough learning of the fundamentals of arithmetic, grammar, and spelling is essential to the learning of those subjects, which are basic in school education. No matter how scientific the teaching, the learning must be thorough.â€�

Claude C. Drawford, in his book â€œHow to Teachâ€�, also covers the subject of memorizing. He points out that there are two extremes, too much and not enough, and that we should strive fore a happy medium, always questioning the selection of material to be memorized on the basis of utility. â€œSignificance of information is further increased by presenting facts in relationships instead of in isolation from each other.â€� In regard to routine lists, tables, etc., to be memorized, he says: â€œEither these items are not essential or else they are potentially interesting. Granting the value of learning a list of items, the next task is to put meaning into themâ€¦In addition to meaning, the material must have interestâ€¦A further suggestion for this type of learning is that of grouping and combining into larger patterns and configurationsâ€¦The Gestalt idea of learning in patterns and configurations is important in this present connection.â€�

Some memory work is necessary in learning the fundamentals of The Urantia Book. There are certain tables, which should be memorized, such as the table showing the units and sub-units, which make up superuniverse government. The Uversa Personality Register, which covers the principal personalities mentioned in the book, with their classifications and origins, is vital. The names of the units and their
headquarters are another set of facts which are really fundamental and the only way to learn them is to memorize them, exactly as states and their capitals have to be memorized in geography.

Some results may be acquired simply through repetition. Others are more permanent if memorized through an understanding of their relationships. This latter method has been used in great detail in teaching the Grand Universe administration chart. It has also been used in presenting the Personality Register. A brief description of each group of personalities brings out the reason for their presence in their major classification group and points out the relationship to the others of the group. With this background, the matter of memorizing the groups becomes easier and the result tends to last longer. Since most of us are inclined to forget quite easily things, which we think weâ€™ve memorized thoroughly, it becomes necessary to continue the drills over a fairly long period of time, with longer intervals between them.

Memorizing is hard and dull work for most people, so it is fortunate that there is not a great deal of it to be done in connection with The Urantia Book. But the very small part of it that is necessary should be done thoroughly as a foundation for the other concepts.

CONCLUSION

The methods discussed in the foregoing are some of those, which will be used in teaching The Urantia Book. There are others, which will be put into practice also, for example, the conversational method of questions and answers, which Jesus used so extensively in His private teaching. There is a statement in the papers as follows: â€œThough Jesusâ€™ public teaching largely consisted in parables and short discourses, He invariably taught His apostles by means of questions and answers. He would always pause to answer sincere questions during His later public discourses.â€� [p. 1546, 1]

In another paper we find the following: â€œJesusâ€™ usual technique of social contact was to draw people out and into talking with Him by asking them questions. The interview would usually begin by His asking them questions and end by their asking Him questions. He was equally adept in teaching by either asking or answering questions. As a rule, to those He taught the most, He said the least.â€� [p. 1460, 6]

But, the important thing to remember is that the method to be used should be one best adapted to the point in question and best suited to the comprehension capacity of the listener. The latter point in particular should be kept in mind â€“ that is, the attitude and receptiveness of the student.

Simple, direct methods should be employed for beginners and those who are not capable of grasping the larger concepts, and more advanced complicated techniques where the need and desires of the student are apparent. Any method or combination of methods is good which induces the student to learn and comprehend the teaching. But remember always, methods of teaching are only a means to an end â€“ the comprehension and adoption of the facts and truths of The Urantia Book throughout the whole world.

http://www.ubhistory.org/Documents/EM19450309_RowleyM_01.pdf

Labels: Dr Willam Sadler, Jesus, Marian Rowley, teachers, techniques, The Urantia Book

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Friday, February 09, 2007

Gardner, Moyer, and Mullins:Three Histories of the Urantia Book

By Matthew Rapaport

At the opening of the 21st century we find ourselves with 3 large histories of the Urantia Papers. First published, URANTIA: The Great Cult Mystery by Martin Gardner in 1995, followed by Ernest Moyerâ€™s THE BIRTH OF A DIVINE REVELATION: The Origin of the Urantia Papers, and then A History of the Urantia Papers by Larry Mullins, both published in 2000.

From a believerâ€™s perspective, Larry Mullinsâ€™ story of the revelation is the most orthodox with all the phases through which the papers traveled overseen â€“ however infrequently - by divine authority until the actual year of first printing in 1955. While this is, essentially, the down the middle story, it is full of interesting suprises and well clarifies some of the conflicting aspects of even the official histories as theyâ€™ve been recorded since the first printing. It is also the most severely critical of the present status quo in the Urantia Movement.

Martin Gardnerâ€™s book, while often funny â€“ and you better have a sense of humor about yourself because heâ€™s poking fun at us â€“ is so interlaced with misinterpretations, out of context statements, even outright lies and slander â€œBelow I AM are billions of lesser godsâ€� Gardner declares on p19, that his insightful observations may be too easily dismissed by UB readers. Gardner paints a picture of utterly human invention, deceit, and betrayal that explains the existence of the UB. He selects out-of-context events of UB history, especially those surrounding Harold Sherman and Harry Loose, that best suit his purpose, and then weaves a story around these isolated facts.

In between this telling, he does manage to make some interesting observations however, and it is a shame that the insights are mixed in with so much that is misrepresentative. Gardnerâ€™s only concession to the divinity of the revelatory process is the acknowledgement that there was a sleeping subject, and that this person (he thinks its Wilfred Kellog) made statements and/or wrote things whose content is part of that which makes up the UB. He does not share any opinion on whether this material really had a celestial origin, or was merely the product of the sleeping subjectâ€™s mind. For Gardner, the UB comes down to some unexpected (and unexplained) channeling on the part of Wilfred Kellog coupled with a conspiracy, on the part of Dr. Sadler, to inject into the spiritual ferment and literary stream of his time, a fantastic fraud. The saddest irony of Gardnerâ€™s book is that if he had employed the services of a UB reader merely to delete the out rightly false statements concerning the UBâ€™s contents (I know he had offers), what would be left would still be pretty damning.

Ernest Moyer, like Larry, believes that at core, the UB is divinely authored. Moyer however looks at the unfolding events of the late thirties and early forties and forces us to ask the question: What is the deposed Planetary Prince (whom we all suppose for the sake of argument is still on the planet) doing about the UB? We all take for granted that he (Caligastia) would desire to obstruct or otherwise thwart the fundamental purposes of the UB. We differ in our estimation of just how much potency he has in this regard, with Moyer casting his history in the light of his presupposition of Caligastiaâ€™s ability to enter into and dialog with any human mind who sits back and says â€œcome hither spirit and talk to me.â€� Ironically, for his version of things, Caligastiaâ€™s worst couldnâ€™t have been more damaging than what the movement, particularly the Urantia Foundation, has done to itself! If old Cal was involved, it wasnâ€™t the text that appears to have been his target, as much as the movement.

Larry Mullins manages to deal well with both Gardner and Moyer, but only if you accept some of his central propositions to be fundamentally factual. Mullins claims that no communication with celestials ever took place without the presence of the sleeping subject and at least two of the human contact commissioners. If his claims are correct, then it would have been impossible for either Christy or Dr. Sadler to have believed that the celestial revelatory commission could be reached by channeling, let alone that Dr. Sadler would have taken channeled messages as the product of celestial intelligences. Mullins addresses other of Moyerâ€™s evidence as well, pointing out for example that the Bookâ€™s 1934, 35 â€œindictmentâ€� statements mean only that the sections were begun in those years, not that they were a finished product.

Most people in the Urantia movement take for granted that a small amount of human error began to filter into the revealed material as soon as the original handwritten papers were typed. Further minor errors were introduced during the typesetting process, unnoticed by the proofreaders. The original set of nickle-plated stereotypes thus contained errors, which appeared in the first printing of the Urantia Book. Everything that went before the plates - the handwritten pages, the typed manuscripts, etc. - was destroyed. At that point, the plates became the canonical Urantia Book.

Imperfections were supposed to distance the Urantia Book from anything that might appear supernatural or unduly extraordinary. They were, I'd supposed, mostly typographical in nature, with a few typos making some semantic difference. I had also learned that alterations were made to the text between the various printings and that some of them went beyond the correction of obvious typos. This was not of great concern to those of us who noticed these things as the number of these semantic modifications was very small (fifteen, according to Mullins), and could easily be analyzed and evaluated by an enlightened readership. Mullins observes, however, that despite revelator involvement through 1955, they apparently never mention these imperfections. This fact fits nicely with Gardnerâ€™s version of events.

Gardner attacks UB content on scientific grounds, on its uncanny similarities to some Seventh Day Adventist doctrine (in which W. S. Sr. was heavily involved in his earlier days), and upon itâ€™s over all theological silliness. His theological criticisms are unfounded. He misunderstands the theology of the UB, and likely got much of it second hand. He notes for example that the UBâ€™s concept of God The Supreme is reflected in the early 20th century theology of Teilhard de Chardin, but utterly misses the fact that Teilhard thinks heâ€™s discovered the whole of God while the UB places the Supreme in a context much wider than anything Teilhard imagined.

The parallelisms Gardner identifies between the doctrines of Seventh-day Adventism (as expressed in the writings of Ellen G. White, one of the sect's founders) and some of the teachings of the Urantia Book, are intriguing. Also interesting are the connections he draws between the UB's teachings and some of Dr. Sadler's philosophic beliefs and scientific views, as expressed in Sadler's early books. Gardner suggests that Sadler must have felt betrayed when he discovered, in about 1906, that the supposedly prophetic revelations of Ellen White were often little more than plagiarisms of other human writers. Stung by this sense of betrayal, Sadler decided to create a new religion, adopting not only material from Seventh-day Adventism but White's plagiaristic methods as well.

In this case, Gardnerâ€™s criticism finds a ready answer in the canon of UB thought. Revelation is not entirely new, but expresses itself largely from what exists. The Seventh Day Adventist connection could, after all, be one of the reasons W. Sadler Sr. was chosen by celestials for the task! Gardner notes however, the number of coincidental agreements with Dr. Sadlerâ€™s other writing is very large on subjects as diverse as eugenics and humor. Gardner wants us to conclude that the UB was largely written by Sadler. Gardner, however, is at a loss to explain how the language of the UB, while reflecting Sadlerâ€™s own work, also makes distinctions and qualifications that Sadlerâ€™s thought lacks. Gardner does not notice that revelation is not utterly new. It borrows from the past, and filters it. Why shouldnâ€™t Ellen Whiteâ€™s recognition of â€œsoul sleepâ€� happen to be a genuine insight?

Gardner's criticisms of the science of the Urantia Book are very telling. He does a service to the Urantia movement by highlighting the "timebound" or erroneous data sprinkled through the first three Parts of the UB. He makes it clear that much of the UB's science reflects the views, and is expressed in the style, of popular 1920's scientific and semi-scientific literature. He also finds the UB's political philosophy dated, characterizing the book's call for world government as simply an echo of views advocated by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. It never occurs to Gardner that a world government of the kind the described in the UB makes sense regardless of its historical associations.

One begins to wonder, though, about the amount of timebound or erroneous information in the Urantia Book, and whether all of its material should be taken literally. Were Adam and Eve real people? Were they in fact "biologic uplifters" from Jerusem, or are they mythical characters created by the revelators in an attempt to foster a "creation myth" suitable for the early to mid 20th century. Gardner sees echoes of the Adam and Eve story in Sadlerâ€™s view of genetics and eugenics. They would be Dr. Sadlerâ€™s â€œcreation mythâ€�.

Moyer thinks that the more significant erroneous time bound data is the work of Caligastia via the channeling Christy, his attempt to corrupt the revelation. Indeed no one seems precisely to know just how many changes took place during this critical years from 1935 to 1942, the period on which Moyer focuses his attention. Moyer, and Mullins, based on Sadlerâ€™s off handed remarks concerning them, take these changes to be relatively few in number. Gardner, on the other hand, paints a picture of broad discrepancy between the UB and modern science. In the opinions of this reviewer, some of his criticisms are legitimate while others are not.

Moyer believes that Caligastia began influencing events through a channeling Christy in 1939. He grants (in personal conversation) that since she was personally responsible for small changes to the UB between the first two printings, and even up to her death in 1982, Caligastia would still have possessed a channel into the Urantia Foundation at least until that date.

Moyer alludes to events and policies that punctuate the history of the Urantia Movement since 1955. Gardner, not surprisingly, portrays this history as nothing but a parade of silliness and gullibility based upon a colossal fiction. It is left to Mullins to provide us with the most detailed and helpful analysis of everything that had happened in the history of the UB and the movement that surrounds it.

From the autocratic structure of the Bookâ€™s controlling body, unpopular with some as far back as the 1930â€™s, to textual changes unknown and unapproved by more than one of the original members of the Urantia Foundation, Mullins builds a case for the Urantia Foundationâ€™s legal and moral default of its own declaration of trust. He also elaborates on the significance of the elite circle within the elite group that became the Urantia Foundation. Three of the original members of the Foundation were also contact commissioners, those involved directly in the receipt of the revelation. This gave them, and Emma Christensen in particular, a special status that has had its continuing impact to the present day.

Gardner does not understand Christyâ€™s significance to the whole UB story. Moyer and Mullins well understand it, and both point a finger firmly at her as the focal point of much of what has occurred in the Urantia Movement even after her death. Christy believed that she received communications from midwayers (presumably) and/or other members of the celestial planetary government. Other prominent persons in the movement (including the other two contact commissioner Trustees) since 1955 and up to her death also believed this, or at least accepted the claim as a means of justifying policy. Moyer believes this process began in 1939 after the death of Lena Sadler. If Larry is correct about the sleeping subject mechanism being in place at every instance of communication until 1955, this would have been impossible.
What happened after the last 1955 contact was made however is another matter. Both Moyer and Mullins note that changes to the text between the first two printings were primarily Christyâ€™s responsibility. Larry notes carefully that the change process, and the belief (on the part of some members of the UF) that Christy had a â€œspecial relation to the textâ€� and continued if infrequent contact with celestials, is a critical component in their default as a body, but more importantly continues to have consequences for our present situation. Mullinsâ€™ patient examination of the mechanisms of the real â€“ pre 1955 â€“ contacts cast serious doubt on the veracity of any of these contact claims.

Too bad no body thought to examine these matters in the early 1960s! Christyâ€™s stature brought both Martin Myers and Vern Grimsley into prominence. She saw something she liked in both young men, and invested them with early authority in the movement thanks to her continued relationship to celestials.

Myers subsequently grew to become the goliath of the Urantia Foundation slaying creative initiative in the use and distribution of the content of the UB on the part of reader-believers with ceaseless litigation. No one more than he, a believer in Christyâ€™s messages, was responsible for the schism that still rends the Urantia Movement today, while Vern Grimsley picked up the mantle of Christyâ€™s contact with celestials itself!

Less than a year after Christy died, Vern was contacted by the midwayers! What followed that episode sent Urantianâ€™s all over the U.S. literally and figuratively packing for the hills. The events that occured between that date and dissolution of The Family Of God Foundation (FOG), Vernâ€™s organization, in March of 1984 changed the Urantia Movement forever. Ironically, Myers recognized that his fraternity brother was deluded and stood fast against the early pull to consolidate power in Grimsleyâ€™s hands. In a double irony, the disaffected members of FOG still retained a measure of power and respect in the Urantia Movement, and ended up among the strongest opponents of the policies of Martin Myers with whom they had, until the time of Grimsleyâ€™s contact, been allies!

Based on Mullins work, one might go as far as to say that even if the UB is certifiably divine, the entire history of the Urantia Movement since the first printing of the book has been, and continues to be, based on a tissue of lies and false belief starting with Christyâ€™s continued contact with celestials! Even this notion continues to find expression throughout the Urantia Movement! Like the â€œreligion about Jesusâ€� begun on that fateful day of Pentecost by Peter, The notion of contact with celestials is a very powerful draw. In the early 1990â€™s, after languishing for half a decade following the WWIII episode, not one, but numerous people came forth claiming to have been contacted. A whole new â€œphase of the revelationâ€� was manifesting before our eyes (one way or another Iâ€™m afraid), and now, anyone could be contacted who desired it!

To Larry, this newest twist is yet another divisive event possibly fostered by the Urantia Foundationâ€™s open declaration of their belief in the channeling activities of Christy: â€œWe have reason to believe that none of the changes were made without the approval of the Revelatorsâ€� they declare. Why shouldnâ€™t celestials be talking to all of us? For Ernest, the present channeling wave is yet another channel of involvement by Caligastia who can disguise himself as anything and talk to anyone who simply declares him or herself open to chat!

Lastly for Martin Gardner, itâ€™s just another cycle in the silliness of UB readers proving only once again that some people will believe anything!

Postscript

As I was working on this review, another watershed event occurred in the history of The Urantia Book, and the movement. Both Martin Gardner and Larry Mullins touch on the subject of the Urantia Foundationâ€™s litigious nature, a pattern solidified by Martin Myers, and based on a continuing Foundation claim to owning a copyright on the UB. Their original copyright expired in the early 1980â€™s, but they renewed it based, on a manifestly false claim, the UB was a â€œwork for hire.â€�

Since that time, numerous Urantia Book readers have stepped forth in one way or another to challenge the Urantia Foundationâ€™s right to a renewed copyright. The Foundation has predictably and consistently acted to protect its copyright claim by litigation, a process that has wasted millions of dollars and polarized the movement far more than even the recent spate of channeling. Gardner notes all of this infighting and suggests that it is still more evidence of the manifestly human origins of the book. Mullins more correctly recognizes that it is a reflection of the Bookâ€™s power; that many groups, some with conflicting claims, seek to attach themselves to it. Although Moyer doesnâ€™t address these issues, he might justifiably note that all of the infighting that has gone on around this issue for the past 25 years might be in Caligastiaâ€™s interest.

The Urantia Foundation briefly lost its copyright in the mid 1990â€™s, but a judgeâ€™s order was overturned by another judge after a brief hiatus in the public domain. Now, in June of 2001, a jury in Oklahoma has now decided that the copyright renewal was invalid and The Urantia Book is once again in the public domain, this time, more securely (presumably) than it was before, though the Foundation has, of course, said it will appeal. This certainly presages a new era in the history of the Book. We can look forward to alternate printings in a variety of formats that may appeal to a wider audience. Whether this results in some resurgence of interest in the Book is difficult to predict. As in times past, we seem to take for granted that many people will be interested in this â€œpearl of great valueâ€�, but time and time again, our visions do not appear to materialize.

At least one of the missing ingredients has been the armies of dedicated believers whose lives are changed by contact with the UB and who subsequently share those changes with others. For decades those opposed to the copyright have argued that this continuing claim (and of course the litigation that follows from it) has acted to suppress the growth of private and public ministries that will elevate the Book into the religious consciousness of the Earthâ€™s people. If this was a suppressive influence, it is now mostly gone. It remains to be seen if its absence makes a significant difference.

Matthew Rapaport

Labels: Dr Willam Sadler, Emma Christensen, Ernest Moyer, error, Larry Mullins, Martin Gardner, Matthew Rapaport, plates, Revelation, The Urantia Book, Urantia Papers

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Friday, January 26, 2007

The Urantia Book and the Coming Transformation of Civilization

by Stan Hartman

The most important event of the twentieth century is the most important event of the past twenty centuries and most of the world still knows nothing about it.

For those unfamiliar with the huge, strange text that appeared on earth sixty-five years ago, what I have to say here may seem like science-fiction, but it is not. The truth, it turns out, is stranger even than science fiction. We've grown used to the discoveries of science being strange, but this truth, though in part scientific, goes much deeper than science, even into the incredible core of the human mind itself, the center of which is directly connected with the core of the universe. With that statement, I know I've already lost some readers, but I intend to begin here as openly as possible, to save the time of those who will find this story too much to believe. The appearance of The Urantia Book, though it's still largely unknown, will mark this century throughout all future generations, eclipsing even the splitting of the atom. The knowledge this book has brought us is destined to make nuclear power seem trivial, and rather than breeding the dread that atomic energy has bred, will illuminate the deepest, most ancient human ignorance, and make fear an anachronism.

This is the story of a book unlike any ever written, promoted for the most part by word of mouth for the past decades, quietly circulating throughout the world and changing the lives of those who understand what it means for more than forty years now, though it and the phenomenon that gave rise to it began even earlier, in the second decade of the century. The crisis I'll describe that's unfolding around it presently is both tragic and transforming, challenging the best in human nature to once again stand up against its shadows, command them to get behind, and move on into the incredible light ahead.

Those enslaved by tradition will find the book a threat unlike any they have ever faced, though it comes not to destroy but to reveal and clarify, to paraphrase a message from many centuries ago whose significance it illuminates as it has never been illuminated. Likewise, those caught up in the distractions and aimless frivolities of a materialistic culture will find the text, if not a threat, an irrelevant fantasy, too complex and weighty to be amusing.

For the generations to come, though, and for many living now whose life experience has prepared them to recognize it for exactly what it says it is, The Urantia Book marks a turning point in world history that there is no turning back from. Its true students will always seek to serve rather than battle the forces of fear and ignorance that are even now trying to invalidate and destroy the book, though sometimes their deep service may not be recognized as such and may hardly be what the bookâ€™s enemies want. For those who don't know what I'm speaking of, let me expand a little on the story I've been alluding to and have barely begun to tell, though even before I can I need to say more about what the book is.

Only very recently, in historical terms, has the consciousness of most of humankind evolved to the point where it is willing and even eager to embrace the idea that we are not alone in the universe. There are many religions, and the religion some make of science, that resist such an idea, but the mass of humanity has shown itself in the last decades to be prepared for and excited by the possibility of meeting beings from beyond the planet. True scientists, who refuse to confuse what they know with what they surmise, and who have willingly or unwillingly been placed in positions of leadership in the march of human thought, have asserted for many years now that we must not be alone, though they have found no way to understand how the vast distances they assume must separate us from other intelligent worlds can be traversed in a reasonable time by material beings.

Philosophers, however, whose study and expertise are not limited to material facts but also embrace values and meanings, have long understood that we ourselves are more than material beings. And psychologists open-minded enough to realize that the mind can't be explained by brain physiology alone have added to the philosopher's palette the new colors of intuition, insight, and so-called paranormal abilities, which seem to be attributes of mind itself, some of them evident in animals even more than in humans. All of this investigation has led to a revolution in human thinking, making it at times so open to new ideas that it's in danger of falling into delusion and fanaticism, against which scientific thinkers struggle to maintain order and some more fearful religionists become hysterically reactionary. For many centuries before our era, religion was a tyranny in human thought, finally crumbling before the successes and eventually new tyranny of the pseudo-scientific religion of scientism, which asserts that all relevant phenomena can be explained rationally and eventually measured and controlled. It's against this betrayal of the true scientific method, which would never make such claims, that the present uncentered and ungrounded openness of much human thinking has reacted.

In the midst of this century's growing turmoil of ideas, opinions, rigidifying fundamentalisms, wild speculations, actual breakthroughs, catastrophic wars, technology addiction, information explosion, raping of natural resources, ridicule of traditions, and general collapse of order, The Urantia Papers appeared in the following way to a prominent student of Freud who was famous for his work in exposing fraudulent or deluded psychic phenomena.

Here is Dr. William S. Sadler, writing in 1929, in the appendix to his work, The Mind at Mischief, before the text of The Urantia Papers itself began to arrive, and before he understood the true significance of what was happening:

"I have promised not to publish this case during the lifetime of the individual. I hope sometime to secure a modification of that promise and to be able to report this case more fully because of its interesting features. I was brought in contact with it, in the summer of 1911, and I have had it under my observation more or less ever since, having been present at probably 250 of the night sessions, many of which have been attended by a stenographer who made voluminous notes.

"A thorough study of this case has convinced me that it is not one of ordinary trance. While the sleep seems to be quite of a natural order, it is very profound, and so far we have never been able to awaken the subject when in this state; but the body is never rigid, and the heart action is never modified, tho respiration is sometimes markedly interfered with. This man is utterly unconscious, wholly oblivious to what takes place, and, unless told about it subsequently, never knows that he has been used as a sort of clearing house for the coming and going of alleged extra-planetary personalities. In fact, he is more or less indifferent to the whole proceeding, and shows a surprising lack of interest in these affairs as they occur from time to time.

"In no way are these night visitations like the sÃ©ances associated with spiritualism. At no time during the period of eighteen years' observation has there been a communication from any source that claimed to be the spirit of a deceased human being. The communications which have been written, or which we have had the opportunity to hear spoken, are made by a vast order of alleged beings who claim to come from other planets to visit this world, to stop here as student visitors for study and observation when they are en route from one universe to another or from one planet to another. These communications further arise in alleged spiritual beings who purport to have been assigned to this planet for duties of various sorts.

"Eighteen years of study and careful investigation have failed to reveal the psychic origin of these messages. I find myself at the present time just where I was when I started. Psychoanalysis, hypnotism, intensive comparison, fail to show that the written or spoken messages of this individual have origin in his own mind. Much of the material secured through this subject is quite contrary to his habits of thought, to the way in which he has been taught, and to his entire philosophy. In fact, of much that we have secured, we have failed to find anything of its nature in existence. Its philosophic content is quite new, and we are unable to find where very much of it has ever found human expression.

"Much as I would like to report details of this case, I am not in a position to do so at present. I can only say that I have found in these years of observation that all the information imparted through this source has proved to be consistent within itself. While there is considerable difference in the quality of the communications, this seems to be reasonably explained by a difference in state of development and order of the personalities making the communications. Its philosophy is consistent . . . . In fact, the case is so unusual and extraordinary that it establishes itself immediately, as far as my experience goes, in a class by itself, one which has thus far resisted all my efforts to prove it to be of auto-psychic origin. Our investigations are being continued and, as I have intimated, I hope some time in the near future to secure permission for the more complete reporting of the phenomena connected with this interesting case."

Instead, even this appendix was removed from later editions, as a veil of secrecy was drawn down over the proceedings until the one hundred and ninety-six papers that were delivered and recorded in 1934 and 1935 were compiled into the text called The Urantia Book and published in 1955. By then, Sadler had realized, skeptic though he was almost by profession, that the information was what it said it was, and he was as humbled and amazed as everyone else by what it meant.

The information the book presents is transforming the consciousness of all those who are open to it, many of whom feel that they were waiting for it to come to them but didn't know it until it did, as if something inside them had prepared them for its appearance in their lives. Public figures who are familiar with it - and there are many - usually make no public acknowledgment of it, perhaps because those who understand it know that it's the most important book in human history, leaving them uncertain at first about how to present that fact to others without sounding fanatical or seeming to undercut others' beliefs. They know the book marks the beginning of a new epoch unlike any that has come before it, an age which will focus not merely on itself or even on this world alone, but on our planet's place in the universe and the universal destiny of each individual.

It is a book which both diminishes and infinitely enlarges humanity's view of its own importance, promoting a deeper humility but at the same time a deeper dignity, and challenging many of the assumptions of both traditional religion and science. It has vital things to teach more than simply those now living, as parts of it are meant for the minds of generations yet to come, who will be better prepared to understand. It gives people on this world a view of human nature, history, and destiny which has never been presented before, perhaps because human consciousness has only recently evolved to the point where it can be expected to deal with what the book presents without losing its balance, falling into either slavish devotion and fetishism, or fear that would seek to destroy the book and all who openly value it. In fact, both extremes are still very possible and even in evidence already on this world. For the most part, though, those who find the book are freed by it in a way they had never imagined they could be freed, and overwhelmed with gratitude for that freedom, if also somewhat confused by the responsibility they know is inherent in it.

It is a book which reveals to us our true home, where our minds and hearts know they really belong. It opens our eyes to a love, security, and infinite adventure which we can't help feeling we were designed to live, if we recognize the book's greater-than-human integrity, consistency, and authority, which is never condescending, if sometimes uncompromisingly truthful. There is humor in it as well as the most profound gravity. One of its most insistent statements is that all the universe is mobilized to help humanity overcome its fears, both collectively and individually. Though it describes us as the lowest form of creature who can be given will and recognize the existence of God, it also clearly emphasizes that there is no apparent limit to our destiny.

It simply rings true, to those who approach it without fear, and its message of hope, forgiveness, love, and the universality of family - how the family of humanity is not limited to this world alone, and the family of personality is not limited even by space and time - will transform human civilization here as it has never been transformed, and inspire it to become what it was designed from its very beginnings to become, before the tragedy happened that sent us spinning off on our own without apparent guidance.

It shows us that we are not really alone and never have been, as individuals and as a species of self-conscious personalities trying to understand their place in reality. It shows us that the ageless yearnings and sufferings of humanity, infinitely far from being futile, have a value beyond imagination.

It is a book which is literally from beyond this world, as the true origins of life here are as well, as scientists have only recently begun to suspect. It is a message that we are one inhabited world in a teeming, peopled universe. Though we are on the edge - at the wilderness frontier, in a way - of the expanding civilization among the stars, the story it presents of our history is one of unending, invisible watchcare by those who have been with us from the beginning, guiding our evolution, though limited by our own decisions, toward the dynamic peace and perfection, both individual and cultural, that all inhabited worlds aspire to and one day attain, no matter what tragedies of ignorance and barbarism they endure.

With respect to such tragedies and the suffering they bring, the book also makes clear that there is a darker aspect of our relationship with the larger universe civilization that has watched us and invisibly cared for us, a tragedy beyond our world which we had no part in instigating but had to suffer the consequences of, as all members of a family suffer when one of its members goes astray. It is a tragedy which is only now coming to an end, it may be, and the end of which is being prepared for on this world by the book itself. This crime on the part of those who were supposed to teach and guide us has kept us in relative spiritual darkness for two hundred thousand years, though not all the darkness of this world can be blamed on it, and the suffering it has caused has given those who keep their faith despite it a strength that is far more valuable than the tragedy itself was destructive.

All those with open minds must know there is life beyond this world, but the abundance of that life, and its good will, have never been revealed to humanity at large until this book revealed it. Reading it, it is certainly not unreasonable to hope that one of its purposes is to prepare the way for even more direct communication, in the not-far-distant future, with our family, both human and transhuman, beyond this planet. Such communication has in reality been taking place far longer than our current ideas of history acknowledge there has been a human civilization, from as much as five hundred millennia ago, and the traces of that communication can be found in many sacred texts and other writings from the remotest antiquity. Clues to even more evidence of this are presented throughout the book, as are scientific facts and cosmology which humanity is incapable of discovering on its own, though the authors were not permitted to reveal all that we can discover on our own in the future and deprive us of the adventure and joy of such discoveries.

There may be a question in the minds of many, reading here, especially when aware of the fact that the book has been in existence for over sixty years, as to why its arrival has not been proclaimed from the rooftops. Why do we not see discussions of its implications on the evening news?

The answer to that involves in part the nature of the book itself, but also another tragedy of fear and duplicity that has already occurred in connection with its appearance.

The first great tragedy on this world, that I referred to above, involved a betrayal of trust on the part of some of the transhuman caretakers of the very beginnings of civilization. The present tragedy, though, is one of a betrayal of trust on the part of those all-too-human caretakers of the book itself.

In the beginning, those to whom the book was entrusted were naturally very concerned with its safety, for more reasons than are obvious, that can't be enumerated here. They went to great lengths to protect it and to keep the text inviolate. Fortunately, they also took what has proven to be the most protective action of all, publishing thousands of copies of it and distributing them.

If this were all they had done, they would have done well, but it was not. Failing to study the book itself deeply enough and read its warnings, the desire to protect it slowly evolved in the minds of these people into a desire to possess and control it, and they became a menace to its safety and the spread of its message to the world. They lied to obtain a copyright on it, stopped distributing it, and threatened those who challenged their policies. They appointed themselves its guardians for life, chose as some of their leaders men who are unbalanced if not psychopathic, and sought to destroy all organizations of its readers and believers who were not controlled by them. This is a drama unfolding on this world even at the present time, and one of the reasons why the book is not more prominent than it is, though the nature of the text itself can of course be threatening to many before they truly understand it.

These supposed caretakers of the book obtained and keep a fraudulent copyright on it, by going so far as to say that their predecessors were its authors (predecessors who would be aghast at such an assertion), and have been successful so far in convincing the courts of their claims because the unfortunate personality at their head has abundant resources to spend on legal stratagems, and because the courts have refused to take the real nature of the book seriously.

All in all, it has resulted in a pitiful spectacle, but one the like of which is unfortunately not rare on our planet and points to how barely ready for such a gift we are.

As with all such crises, though, it also presents an opportunity to those who refuse to be ruled by fear. Without an atmosphere of fear, all evil is impotent. To those who truly know and understand the book's teachings, the group that claims to own it now has made itself irrelevant, ridiculous, and unworthy of serious consideration. They deserve help, but not the kind they imagine. There are those, of course, who need some kind of human authority to guide them, who will, out of genuine but naive trust, or laziness, or fear, unthinkingly follow those who want to control them.

Most serious students of the text, though, who rely on the book itself for their guidance rather than their own inner fears or ignorant ambitions, know they have a responsibility to what they have been given, a responsibility to create a worthy foundation for the book's revelations to the world. This foundation is not so much a social and organizational matter, though that can be part of it, but a spiritual one, a challenge to live as the book shows in its final section that all of us can live, aware of a destiny much greater than ever imagined in recorded history. It is in essence the challenge to realize - to make literally real - the kind of human family all our evolution has been designed to achieve. It is a responsibility to create relationships that acknowledge and devote themselves to the kinship all of us share, not only with our human brothers and sisters on this world, but with all the personalities throughout the inhabited cosmos who care for us despite our childish barbarism and the distortions of our culture that have resulted from our isolation and ignorance. We have a responsibility to this greater family as well, those who gave us the gift of the book and now watch us to see what we will do with it.

The history of our world is in a way like Lord of the Flies. We have been left to our own resources on our little island long enough, and though the book is not the first appearance to us of adult authority, it is the latest and most important for our time, as is obvious to all who open it with openness. It doesn't seek to supplant all other systems of human thought or to disparage the evolutionary beliefs and truths we have struggled so hard to attain and maintain. It states very clearly that, though it is a revelation, it is not inspired. Its purpose is to awaken us to what we can't know except with help from beyond the reach of our understanding and imagination, and to help us integrate that new information with the uniquely human perspective we have evolved in such relative isolation.

It points us to our own inner depths as individuals at least as much as to outer, cosmic vistas. In the end, such inner and outer depths are connected, and work together to help us toward an indescribable destiny in this world and beyond, the awareness of which will transform our planet as surely as it transforms the individual minds that share such awareness.

In its depiction of our history and destiny, The Urantia Book focuses mostly on the ancient past and far-distant future, but it also says of our present time that we are "quivering on the brink" of one of our "most amazing and enthralling epochs."

Perhaps if people from all the nations of the world would unite enough to organize into a democratic world government that represented all humanity, we could authorize such a government to broadcast to the universe watching us a few small, sincere words, such as "Thank you. Forgive us. Please help us." - or some other first prayer of collective humanity. Perhaps because this request came as the duly-elected voice of all mankind, we would receive an answer that was not only invisible but also visible. Perhaps we would be freed from the quarantine that has isolated us for so long, and find ourselves connected, in ways our science has so far not dreamed of, with neighbors in space who may not be as distant as many believe.

Until we unite as one world under God, perhaps this will not happen. Is it so strange, though, or naive, to believe it can? In the light of The Urantia Book, it most certainly will happen, one day. If enough people sincerely desire it, what can prevent us from making that day our own?

Labels: destiny, Dr Willam Sadler, extraterrestrials, family, God, history, humanity, Mind at Mischief, religion, responsibility, Stan Hartman, the universe, The Urantia Book, tradition, tragedy, truth

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Monday, January 30, 2006

Some Non-Biblical Quotations in The Urantia Book

Dr. William S. Sadler

"The divine Creator is also the Universal Disposer, the source and destiny of souls. He is the Supreme Soul, the Primal Mind, and the unlimited spirit of all creation." [2:1.2]

This is a composite quotation from the Hindu sacred books. In the version consulted, the passages are rendered:

"He is the Creator, He is the Disposer." (Atharva Veda, 13.4.3, 12, 20)
"The last source of every soul." (Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad, 3.9.1, 10)
"Verily, there is one Supreme Soul." (Bhagarata Purana, 11.18.32)
"The Primal Lord of Heaven." (Bhagavad Gita, 10.12, 13, 15, 16)
"He is the cause of the creation." (Vishnu Purana, 1.1.35)

"The great controller makes no mistakes. He is resplendent in magesty and glory." [2:1.2]

This quotation is derived from two sources: a. "Great Heaven makes no mistakes." (Shi King 3.3.3.12. 8-10), and, b. "But the face of the Lord shall abide, resplendent with majesty and glory." (Koran 57:3)

"The creator God is wholly devoid of fear and enmity. He is immortal, eternal, self-existent, divine, and bountiful." [2:1.2]

This is a passage from Sikhism: "There is but one God whose name is True, the Creator, devoid of fear and enmity, immortal, unborn, self-existent, great, and bountiful." (Jopji -- Preamble)

"How pure and beautiful, how deep and unfathomable is the supernal ancestor of all things." [2:1.2]

This is from Taoism. "How pure and still is the Supreme Being! How deep and unfathomable, as if the Honored Ancestor of all things." (Tao-Teh-King 4.2, 1)

"The Infinite is most excellent in that he imparts himself to men. He is the beginning and the end, the Father of every good and perfect purpose." [2:1.2]

This is also a quote of double origin; a. "It is only the Supreme that excels in imparting himself to men, and enabling them to achieve merit." (Tao-Teh-King 41.3), and, b. This section is from Zorastrianism; "As the beginning and the end, the Father of good purpose." (Yasna 31.8)

"With God all things are possible; the Eternal Creator is the Cause of Causes." [2:1.2]

This seems to be a double origin quote. a. "With God all things are possible." (Matt 19:26), and, b. A Hindu passage, "This universe has sprung from the Lord. In him it is established. He is the cause of creation." (Vishnu Purana 1.1.35)

"He is man's all-powerful benefactor." [2:1.2]

This seems to be taken from Sikhism and reads as follows: "He is omnipotent, our own Lord, and our benefactor." (Gauri and Sorath, 38)

"We know we dwell in him because he lives in us; he has given us his spirit. This gift from the Paradise Father is man's inseparable companion. He is the ever-present and all-pervading God. The spirit of the everlasting Father is concealed in the mind of every mortal child. Man goes forth searching for a friend while that very friend lives within his own heart. The true God is not afar off; he is part of us; his spirit speaks from within us. The Father lives in the child. God is always with us. He is the guiding spirit of eternal destiny." [3:1.4]

This passage -- a group of six quotations -- is from Sikhism.

a. "As I behold creation, I am amazed and astonished. God is contained in the hearts of men. In my heart I hold God, who filleth every place." (Hyms of Guru Nanak, Asa ashtapadi: Macauliffe, Sikh religion 1. 301)
b. "God is concealed in every heart. His light is in every heart." (Hyms of Guru Nanak, Rag Sorath: Macauliffe, Sikh religion 1. 330.)
c. "Many millions search for God and find him in their hearts." (Hymns of Guru Arjan, Sukhmani; Ashtapadi 10.6; Macauliffe, Sikh religion 3. 264.)
d. "I go searching for the friend; but the friend is with me." (Sloks of Shaikh Farid 121, Macualiffe, Sikh religion 6. 413.)
e. "Him whom I thought without me, I now find within me. When I found this secret, I recognized the Lord of the world.") (Kabir's Hymns, Acrostic 30; Macauliffe, Sikh religion, 6. 186.)

The last quotation I cannot locate: "The Father lives in the child. God is always with us. He is the guiding spirit of eternal destiny."

WSS/LMS
1/10/58

Labels: Dr Willam Sadler, Hindu, Koran, sacred books, Sikhism, Taoism, The Urantia Book