The origin of The Urantia Book

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Years of experience have demonstrated that the first thing people wish to know about The URANTIA Book is its authorship  and origin.  It does little good to tell them that the book should be judged by its content, not by claims of authorship or events associated with its publication.  This is a natural reaction as we have been conditioned by our culture to depend on sources and authority in evaluating publications of all kinds.  Religious literature, in particular, is appraised  in this way.

The authenticity of persons or literature which are classified by religious groups as having revelatory authority or which make claim to such status is always open to question.  Hopefully, we have left behind those days of cultural naivete when claim or authority have any meaning as criterion of truth.  There are only two sources through which this question can be approached with any credibility.  The one is personal judgment based on the evidence of the quality of the material being evaluated.  The other is the testimony of the judgment of society through years of historical experience.  Social tradition is an especially powerful influence.  Even when Biblical scholars like Rudolf Bultmann declare that our reliable historical knowledge of Jesus is so meager, "We can know almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus," few people are troubled by such statements.Our historical experience has socially validated the quality of the New Testament.

At present there are obviously no traditions associated with The URANTIA Book.  It must be analyzed and judged on the basis of the quality of its content .  Although, technically, they have little relevance in determining the quality of The URANTIA Book, there are two sources of information regarding its origin.

THE AUTHORS' ACCOUNT

First is the account you will find in the book itself.  We are told the URANTIA papers were authorized by high deity authorities and written by numerous supermortal personalities.  These papers are designated as the fifth epochal revelation to our planet, Urantia.The authors acknowledge the difficulty of attempting to portray the realities of eternity in the language of time.  We are told there are severe limitations placed on the knowledge they are allowed to share with man.  They even admit that all time-space revelation is partial and incomplete needing to be upstepped in the process of planetary development.

In general terms the authors discuss the problems associated with bridging communication between the spiritual levels of the universe and material mortals on our planet.  They speak of necessary preparations such as making contact with the Thought Adjuster (indwelling spirit of God) of a human being on our world but hasten to assure us they are not involved in phenomena related to "spiritualism"or "mediumship."  Specific details are not  discussed.  The book simply states the URANTIA papers were materialized in the English language in 1934 and 1935.

THE HUMAN STORY

The second source of information related to the origin of The URANTIA Book is the human side of the story.  Following my discovery of the book in December of 1955 and after introducing it to some of my clerical friends, we spent years researching the human side of the origin of the book.  While space does not allow reporting in detail,the following is a summary of our findings.

We quickly discovered the papers were received by a small group of people in Chicago and that the leader of this group was Dr. William S.Sadler.  As you may know, Dr. Sadler was a highly respected psychiatrist who is sometimes referred to as the father of American psychiatry.  For many years he taught at the Post-graduated School of Medicine at Chicago University and for almost thirty years he was a lecturer in Pastoral Counseling at McCormick Theological Seminary.

Discussions with Dr. Sadler revealed that in the mid 1920's a group of people from all walks of life were meeting at the Sadler residence as a psychological-medical discussion group.  It was known as the Forum.This group was in communication with the revelators and eventually members of the Forum assumed responsibility for forming the URANTIA Foundation and publishing The URANTIA Book.

Dr. Sadler candidly discussed any questions we asked him but he would not talk about two things - the name of the individual who was used in some way in the materialization of the URANTIA papers and details associated with this materialization.  He said they were asked to take vows of secrecy regarding two things.  When I asked him why these restrictions were imposed on them, he gave me the following reasons:

1.  The main reason for not revealing the identity of the contact personality is that the revelators do not want any human     being - any human name - ever to be associated with The URANTIA     Book.  They want this revelation to stand on its own     declarations and teachings.  They are determined that future generations shall have the book wholly free from all mortal     connections - they do not want a St. Peter, St. Paul, Luther, Calvin, or Westly.  The book does not even bear the imprint of the printer who brought the book into being.

2.  There is much connected with the appearance of the URANTIA     papers which no human being fully understands.  No one really     knows just how this phenomenon was executed.  There are numerous     missing links in the story of how this revelation came to appear     in written English.  If anyone should tell all he really knows about this technique and methods employed throughout the years of getting this revelation, such a narration would satisfy no one -     there are too many missing links."

Our group of ministers found in the appendix of Sadler's book The Mind at Mischief written in 1929 statements which appear to refer to this individual.  He says:

"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 habit 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 been found in human expression."p.383

During Dr. Sadler's investigation of this phenomenon he consulted with men like Howard Thurston, the renowned sleight of hand artist who devoted considerable time to exposing fraudulent mediums and psychics,and Sir Hubert Wilkens, the noted scientist and explorer who was interested in investigating psychic phenomena.  All of them agreed that the phenomena connected with this individual could not be classified with other types of psychic phenomena such as automatic writing, telepathy, clairvoyance, trances, spirit mediumship, or split personality.

On May 7, 1958 our group of ministers had an appointment with Dr.Sadler to discuss phenomena associated with the origin of The URANTIA Book.  When we arrived he had prepared a paper for us listing every imaginable form of subconscious mind or psychic activity at the bottom of the outline he had a note saying, "The technique of the reception of The URANTIA Book in English in no way parallels or impinges upon any of the above phenomena of the marginal consciousness." He went onto tell us that so nearly as he could determine, the appearance of the URANTIA papers was associated with some form of superconscious mind activity.

On numerous occasions Dr. Sadler told me that he really did not know how the materialization was accomplished and that just about everything known about the origin of The URANTIA Book is found in various places in the book.

In 1939 the revealators requested the leaders of the Forum ask for volunteers who would meet each Wednesday evening to seriously and systematically study the URANTIA papers.  Seventy persons volunteered and they became known as "The Seventy." The Seventy were trained by directives from the revelators and their own leadership up to the time of the publication of The URANTIA Book.  Special emphasis was placed on the evolutionary nature of the acceptance of new truth and the danger of using broadcast, indiscriminate, or revolutionary methods in presenting the message of The URANTIA Book.

After many years of study and discipline, they were given permission to publish the book.  They were told the book did not belong to the era in which they were living but would slowly take root in our society in the years to come.  An early publication of the book was given, they were told, so that leaders and teacher  may be trained and so that men of means may be found to provide for translations into other languages.  The cost of the first printing was $75,000, all of which was raised by voluntary contributions of those who had been members of the Forum.

URANTIA Foundation was established as a non-profit, educational organization in 1950 and they published The URANTIA Book under international copyright on October 12, 1955.  URANTIA Brotherhood was also organized in 1955 as an ecumenical fellowship of people interested in studying and dissemination the teachings of The URANTIA Book.  Both organizations have offices at 533 Diversey Parkway, Chicago, Illinois 60614.

JUDGE BY CONTENT

This brief account of events associated with the origin of The URANTIA Book, as we mentioned earlier, has nothing to do with the truth or spiritual quality of the book.  This must be judged by the reader on the basis of the content of the book.  The message of The URANTIA Book has amazing self-authentication and historical-philosophical truth consistency.  The indwelling spirit in man is, in the final analysis, the only ground of being which can reject or affirm the truth of its message.

Meredith J. Sprunger, PhD (4-6-79)