A Dream Come True

In 1982 the Urantia Book came into my life.  I read a paper or two every weekend and by 1985 I finished it.

A friend told my wife about the Book and she in turn told me.  The very same week we went to a bookstore specializing in such books and ordered a copy.

In June 1982 I started reading it.  The Introduction (except for the first page) was almost incomprehensible.  But I was not discouraged.  The next five papers are on the Universal Father.  The next two are on the Eternal Son, and the final two are on the Infinite Spirit.  They are all authored by a Divine Counselor (a Superuniverse Personality who receives His assignments directly from the Deity).  Needless to say I was hooked long before I finished reading this first series of papers.  A sense of wonder installed itself in my mind and never again left me.  I wanted to shout the news to everybody, but quickly realized that other people were far behind and eventually gave up.  It may have been frustrating, however, in time, I realized that this was the price I had to pay for being in possession of advanced truth on a planet not ready for it.  Other Urantians no doubt travelled down the same road.

I had a second cousin who was well versed in the Talmud, the Kaballah and the Zohar.  He had read them in the original languages (Hebrew and Aramaic).  For years I heard his stories about the incredible things awaiting us when we “died.”  He also talked of a complex universe out there, wisely administered under God’s guidance.  I was curious to know more.  Somehow his stories seemed incomplete.  I turned to an English translation of the Zohar and the Kaballah, but their contents proved very confusing to me.  In my soul I thirsted to know more.  Yet, I had no hope to ever quench my thirst.  I shouldn’t have despaired.  “God will provide,” and indeed he did.  When the Urantia Book came into my life, a dream had come true.       

Is This The Real Thing?

Did I accept the book as revelations from the get-go?  Of course not.  While I was awed by its contents, I read it with a healthy dose of skepticism.  However, by the time I finished Part I and II, I had no doubt left in my mind.  Why is that?
The content could not have been written by human beings.  A person (or a group of people) could not have invented all that.  As well, the whole thing “hang together” properly.  If you’ve ever written a book (as opposed to an article), you know how difficult it is to weave the parts of the book into a logical whole.  Even after the book is edited to death by all and sundry, you never get a perfect book.  But the writing in the Urantia Book is not only perfect, but you’re struck by the supernal beauty of the language.  The English language has never been showcased this way, not even by Shakespeare!

However, let us push the envelope and assume for a moment that it was written by a group of brilliant people.  The Revelators instructed the Contact Commission not to advertise the Book.  It was to be a word-of-mouth affair only.  And this is what the Commission did.  The knowledge of this book spread slowly and as a result sales were limited.  Now, you have to be insane to expend so much effort to produce a book like that and not advertise it!  But this is exactly what the Urantia Foundation did.  They sought neither material gain nor prestige.  They simply followed the instructions of the Celestial Beings.  This alone tell you that the Urantia Book is the real thing.

Practical Considerations

I said that the Book is the real thing.  But, I need to reiterate that it is not for everybody.  You have to be ready for it.  Being ready is not a matter of intelligence or education.  You may have a PH.D. as opposed to my humble Accounting Degree.  But I could read it, understand it, and accept it because I was ready, but you cannot (or at least should not) because you’re not ready.  Having said that, I am mindful that this is the age of the internet.  You can therefore go to www.urantia.org  The whole book is on line; there is also a search area; you can for example enter Adam and Eve, The First Human Family, or The Twelve Apostles.  If you like it and accept it, then, and only then, you can purchase the Book and read it slowly.  The Urantia Book is not a page-turner!      

The Book is structured in an unusual way.  It goes from the most difficult (the Deity) to the easiest (the Jesus papers).  Somewhere in the Book they explain why they did it this way.  I read the explanation numerous times, but I still don’t understand it.  At any rate, the point I wish to make is that through the Book, they (the Authors of the papers) introduce new words and expressions without further explanations.  I was left wondering why they did that.  However, as I proceeded through the Book, I realized that everything is eventually explained, and that the Superuniverse Personalities had no choice.  They could not continually stop and explain terms.  Example:  Thought Adjusters (a fragment of God that indwell your mind in order to spiritualize you) and Mystery Monitors.  Both are synonyms.  There is eventually five papers on the Thought Adjusters!

In my article, within limits, I stopped and explained some terms.  But, I could not do that in every case.  This would have been tedious both to my readers and myself.

Copyright

In January 2006 the copyright expired (the Book was originally published in 1955).  Nevertheless, when I quoted from the book, I did so judiciously.  The purpose was always to deliver a clear message.  I can always paraphrase, but at time the book puts it in a way that this humble mortal can’t hope to match!

The copyright of the various translations from the original English text did not expire.

Translations

The Urantia Book was first revealed in English.  Within a few years it was translated into French.  The story goes that many French readers were waiting with baited breath for the Book to become available in bookstores

Next, the Book was translated into Spanish.  Other translations (not in the order in which they appeared):  Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Lithuanian, Russian, German, Portuguese        (cd version only), Italian, and Romanian (cd version only).

The foundation is in the process of translating the Book into Bulgarian, Chinese, Estonian, Farsi, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish, Swedish, and Urdu.  For a variety of reasons, it will take several more years to complete the Chinese translation.

Needless to say, any translation require a tremendous effort and a great deal of dedication on the part of the people involved.

The Story Behind the Urantia Book

The story behind the Book is incomplete and may in places be inaccurate. The reason for that is that the process was surrounded by a great deal of secrecy.  In effect, the Revelators told the Contact Commission the following:  “We don’t want a St. Peter, St. Paul, Luther, Calvin, or Wesley associated with the Urantia Book a thousand years hence.”  The idea is for us to focus on the revelations rather than the humans associated with them.

The following narrative is based on a paper by Mark Kulieke:  “Birth of a Revelation.  The Story of the Urantia Papers.”  Mr. Kulieke is the son of a Forum member, Warren Kulieke.  He was born early enough to have at least seen, heard, and in many cases talked personally with the members of the Contact Commission.  He also interviewed many of the early leaders.  His paper was published in 1991.

Another writing that I consulted is “The Mind At Mischief” by Dr. William S. Sadler (1929).  Dr. Sadler, a psychiatrist, was the leader (he essentially co-led with his wife Lena, herself a doctor) of the Contact Commission.  Dr. Sadler played a major role in verifying the validity of the writings received by the human subject.  It should be remembered that at the time spiritualism was all the rage.  Dr. Sadler exposed many fraudulent mediums.  In this particular case, however, he became convinced that there was no fraud involved.  (Dr. Sadler also wrote a history of the Urantia papers; you can find it on the Foundation website)

With this brief introduction out of the way, I am now ready to start at the beginning.

During the Middle Ages (circa 1200) the Urantia Midwayers (unique beings functioning on Urantia and other worlds of Nebadon; they are midway between the mortals of the realms and the Angelic Orders) petitioned the Higher Beings for a new revelation along the lines of the Urantia Book.  We will never know to what extent the inhabitants of this planet were observed by the Celestial Beings before it was judged that the time was right.

   (There are many different orders of Higher Beings that participated in the revelations:  Midwayers, Seraphim,  Melchizedeks, and so on; however, to avoid confusion, I will only use from that point on one name:  Celestial Beings.)

There is little doubt that the humans which were to form the nucleus of the receiving group of the Revelations were unconsciously brought together by the Celestial Beings.  This group would eventually become known as the Contact Commission.

They also influenced the group to do their work in Chicago.  Why on earth Chicago?  True it was in the very heartland of the North American continent.  But otherwise it was not the most desirable city in the world.  Carl Sandberg referred to it as the “hog butcher of the world” and it would become world famous as a city of gangsters and political corruption.  We will never know what criteria the Celestial Beings used; but, let us remember an equivalent example from the bible:  “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Chicago would remain the center and birthplace of the Urantia papers through the 50 years development process which culminated in the publication of the Urantia Book in 1955.      
 
 
Only the Contact Commission knew the identity of the human subject receiving the revelations; and they kept it a secret.  All that is known is that he was a male and was not the only person participating in the drama unfolding on our planet.

Essentially, this is how the process worked:

1.  Contact was made with this person and he spoke audibly to those present.  Notes were made by a stenographer.

2.  Same as 1. except that the person while unconscious or semiconscious wrote down the material dictated to him by the Celestial Beings.

The Contact experience went beyond the above procedure.  Many instructions were given and much dialogue was held with the Celestial Beings in addition to the actual presentation of the text of the Urantia Book.  A lot of supplementary material was produced, but it was destroyed when it was no longer needed.  There is virtually nothing left today to bear witness to the  early activity which accompanied the birth of the Revelation.

It should not be assumed that the Celestial Beings were stern and remote.  They had a sense of humor and they used it in the course of their numerous exchanges with the humans.  However, the higher the Personality the more formal their dealings were with the members of the Commission.

Another vital group, the Forum, played a key role in producing the Urantia Book the way we have it today.  Their number varied between 150 to 486 people depending upon the period referred to.  The Forum was the real acid test for the Celestial Beings.  To what extent will the humans understand the papers?  What questions/comments will they have?

   The members of the Forum were read a paper by Dr. Sadler, or read it themselves (but they could not take the paper home).  They were to write down any questions that came to mind and hand them each week.  Answers to their questions were then considered by the Celestial Beings.  The answers were incorporated in a subsequent paper or the original paper was edited.  For example one paper on the Universal Father grew into five papers – the first five in the Book.  This exercise took place between 1929 and 1935.  Again it was repeated for the Jesus papers from 1935 to 1942.  This period is also occupied with a final round of clarification and editing.

The work of the Forum is visible when you read the Urantia Book.  Oftentimes, while reading the Book, I raised a question in my mind only to find the answer a paragraph or two later, sometimes even in the next sentence! 

And so it was that the joint effort of the Celestial Beings and the humans on Urantia produced a book not only for our time, but for the ages.

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