silverglass
Authorship of this unusual book
William S. Sadler
Lena K. Sadler
The exact circumstances of the origin of The Urantia Book are unknown. The book and its publishers do not name a human author: instead it is written as if directly presented by numerous celestial beings appointed to the task of providing an "epochal" spiritual revelation to humankind. For each paper, either a name, or an order of celestial being, or a group of beings is credited as its author.[7][8][9]
As early as 1911, William S. Sadler and his wife Lena Sadler, physicians in Chicago and well known in the community, were approached by a neighbor who was concerned because she would occasionally find her husband in a deep sleep and breathing abnormally.[2][7] She reported that she was unable to wake him at these times. The Sadlers came to observe the episodes, and over time, the individual produced verbal communications that claimed to be from "student visitor" spiritual beings.[2] This changed in early 1925 with a "voluminous handwritten document", which from then on became the regular method of purported communication.[2] The Sadlers were both respected physicians, and William Sadler was a debunker of paranormal claims, who is portrayed as not believing in the supernatural. In 1929, he published a book called The Mind at Mischief, in which he explained the fraudulent methods of mediums and how self-deception leads to psychic claims. He wrote in an appendix that there were two cases that he had not explained to his satisfaction.[10]
The other exception has to do with a rather peculiar case of psychic phenomena, one which I find myself unable to classify, and which I would like very much to narrate more fully; I cannot do so here, however, because of a promise which I feel under obligation to keep sacredly. In other words, 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 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, though 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.
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.
In 1924, a group of Sadler's friends, former patients, and colleagues began meeting for Sunday intellectual discussions, but became interested in the strange communications when Sadler mentioned the case and read samples at their request. Shortly afterwards, a communication reportedly was received that this group would be allowed to devise questions and that answers would be given by celestial beings through the "contact personality".
Sadler presented this development to the group, and they generated hundreds of questions without full seriousness, but their claim is that it resulted in the appearance of answers in the form of fully written papers. They became more impressed with the quality of the answers and continued to ask questions, until all papers now collected together as The Urantia Book were obtained. The group was known as the Forum. A smaller group of five individuals called the Contact Commission, including the Sadlers, was responsible for gathering the questions from the Forum, acting as the custodians of the handwritten manuscripts that were presented as answers, and arranging for proofreading and typing of the material.[7]
The Sadlers and others involved, now all deceased, claimed[11] that the papers of the book were physically materialized from 1925 until 1935 in a way that was not understood even by them, with the first three parts being completed in 1934 and the fourth in 1935. The last Forum gathering was in 1942. Also documented are methods of reception that Sadler denied as the way the papers were received.[8]
After all of the written material was received in 1935, an additional period of time supposedly took place where requests for clarifications resulted in revisions. Sadler and his son William (Bill) Sadler, Jr. at one point wrote a draft introduction and were told that they could not add their introduction because "A city can not be lit by a candle." [12][13] The Foreword was then "received." Bill Sadler is noted to have composed the table of contents that is published with the book.[citation needed]
The communications purportedly continued for another two decades while members of the Forum studied the book in depth, and according to Sadler and others, permission to publish it was given to them in 1955. The Urantia Foundation was formed in 1950 as a tax-exempt educational society in Illinois,[14] and through privately raised funds, the book was published under international copyright on October 12, 1955.
Only the members of the Contact Commission witnessed the activities of the sleeping subject, and only they knew his identity.[2] The individual is claimed to have been kept anonymous in order to prevent undesirable future veneration or reverence for him. Martin Gardner states that an explanation concerning the origin of the book more plausible than celestial beings is that the Contact Commission, particularly William Sadler, was responsible. Gardner's conclusion is that a man named Wilfred Kellogg was the sleeping subject and authored the work from his subconscious mind, with William Sadler subsequently editing and authoring parts.[7] A statistical analysis using the Mosteller and Wallace methods of stylometry indicates at least nine authors were involved, and by comparatively analyzing the book against Sadler's The Mind at Mischief, does not indicate authorship or extensive editing by Sadler, without ruling out the possibility of limited edits.[2]
[edit]
Teachings
When one examines this teaching it becomes clearer that it exhibits a mix of eastern thought, platonic theology with psychic influences.
Under the Nature of God section it becomes apparent that the book teaches and embraces a different gospel as portrayed in the New Testament. Jesus himself is portrayed as a secondary God in relation to the eternal son.
It is stated, “God is not hiding from any of his creatures. He is unapproachable to so many orders of beings only because he "dwells in a light which no material creature can approach." The immensity and grandeur of the divine personality is beyond the grasp of the unperfected mind of evolutionary mortals. Today, and as you are, you must discern the invisible Maker through his manifold and diverse creation, as well as through the revelation and ministration of his Sons and their numerous subordinates”.
This is in direct contradiction to what is stated in the New Testament book of Hebrews about the revelation of God as knowable and as stated by the apostles. > Hebrews 1:1-4 (New International Version)
Hebrews 1
The Son Superior to Angels
1In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
Paul himself said< “ I know in who I have believed” that knowing is an intimate relationship of a give and take experience similar to that found in a marriage. That word for knowing which Paul uses in the Greek refers to the same word for knowing that is found in the book of Genesis when it states that Adam knew his wife in an intimate way. It conceives of a relationship that far outweighs what is stated as one who is so transcendent that his creatures cannot know him. This only goes to show that Jesus himself as portrayed in the book of Urantia is not the eternal son himself who is not possible to know but a demigod version and therefore completes the idea of god as transcendent and unknowable. See the following statement for this:
Many types of celestial beings are enumerated in the book, and one of particular note is a joint "offspring" of the Universal Father and Eternal Son called a "Creator Son". A divine Creator Son is considered the full representation of the Universal Father and Eternal Son that is possible to people. This is Platonic theology in that it implies that God is immutable and impassable making him unapproachable. But the new testament teaches that God himself became incarnate , not some lesser form of demigod.
It is also stated that Jesus is to be understood only by sharing in his religious faith making ones own personal faith of none effect. This view is unwarranted when exposed by sound doctrine. The new testament states that it is not what we do that brings us into union with god but what the son of god did to reconcile the world to himself. See the following from the book of Urantia:
Jesus of Nazareth is identified as a Creator Son who incarnated on Earth and whose life and teachings are portrayed as the fullest revelation of the personality and attitude of God ever given to humanity.
Paper 196, "The Faith of Jesus",: the final paper, states:
To "follow Jesus" means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master's life of unselfish service for man. One of the most important things in human living is to find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.
[edit]
This is also in direct contradiction to what the New Testament writers said about Jesus. They preached that one must put their faith in Jesus to be reconciled to God and would have opposed any teaching that turned that idea around to state that one needed to find out what Jesus believed and then live out that ideal.
The more one examines these documents in light of the new testament teachings the more one sees how the word of god has been compromised and how antichrist its really is in character. Jesus said to Philip when asked that he be shown the father and Jesus said to him, “ have I been with you so long and you do not know me Philip, he who has seen me has seen the Father.
William S. Sadler
Lena K. Sadler
The exact circumstances of the origin of The Urantia Book are unknown. The book and its publishers do not name a human author: instead it is written as if directly presented by numerous celestial beings appointed to the task of providing an "epochal" spiritual revelation to humankind. For each paper, either a name, or an order of celestial being, or a group of beings is credited as its author.[7][8][9]
As early as 1911, William S. Sadler and his wife Lena Sadler, physicians in Chicago and well known in the community, were approached by a neighbor who was concerned because she would occasionally find her husband in a deep sleep and breathing abnormally.[2][7] She reported that she was unable to wake him at these times. The Sadlers came to observe the episodes, and over time, the individual produced verbal communications that claimed to be from "student visitor" spiritual beings.[2] This changed in early 1925 with a "voluminous handwritten document", which from then on became the regular method of purported communication.[2] The Sadlers were both respected physicians, and William Sadler was a debunker of paranormal claims, who is portrayed as not believing in the supernatural. In 1929, he published a book called The Mind at Mischief, in which he explained the fraudulent methods of mediums and how self-deception leads to psychic claims. He wrote in an appendix that there were two cases that he had not explained to his satisfaction.[10]
The other exception has to do with a rather peculiar case of psychic phenomena, one which I find myself unable to classify, and which I would like very much to narrate more fully; I cannot do so here, however, because of a promise which I feel under obligation to keep sacredly. In other words, 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 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, though 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.
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.
In 1924, a group of Sadler's friends, former patients, and colleagues began meeting for Sunday intellectual discussions, but became interested in the strange communications when Sadler mentioned the case and read samples at their request. Shortly afterwards, a communication reportedly was received that this group would be allowed to devise questions and that answers would be given by celestial beings through the "contact personality".
Sadler presented this development to the group, and they generated hundreds of questions without full seriousness, but their claim is that it resulted in the appearance of answers in the form of fully written papers. They became more impressed with the quality of the answers and continued to ask questions, until all papers now collected together as The Urantia Book were obtained. The group was known as the Forum. A smaller group of five individuals called the Contact Commission, including the Sadlers, was responsible for gathering the questions from the Forum, acting as the custodians of the handwritten manuscripts that were presented as answers, and arranging for proofreading and typing of the material.[7]
The Sadlers and others involved, now all deceased, claimed[11] that the papers of the book were physically materialized from 1925 until 1935 in a way that was not understood even by them, with the first three parts being completed in 1934 and the fourth in 1935. The last Forum gathering was in 1942. Also documented are methods of reception that Sadler denied as the way the papers were received.[8]
After all of the written material was received in 1935, an additional period of time supposedly took place where requests for clarifications resulted in revisions. Sadler and his son William (Bill) Sadler, Jr. at one point wrote a draft introduction and were told that they could not add their introduction because "A city can not be lit by a candle." [12][13] The Foreword was then "received." Bill Sadler is noted to have composed the table of contents that is published with the book.[citation needed]
The communications purportedly continued for another two decades while members of the Forum studied the book in depth, and according to Sadler and others, permission to publish it was given to them in 1955. The Urantia Foundation was formed in 1950 as a tax-exempt educational society in Illinois,[14] and through privately raised funds, the book was published under international copyright on October 12, 1955.
Only the members of the Contact Commission witnessed the activities of the sleeping subject, and only they knew his identity.[2] The individual is claimed to have been kept anonymous in order to prevent undesirable future veneration or reverence for him. Martin Gardner states that an explanation concerning the origin of the book more plausible than celestial beings is that the Contact Commission, particularly William Sadler, was responsible. Gardner's conclusion is that a man named Wilfred Kellogg was the sleeping subject and authored the work from his subconscious mind, with William Sadler subsequently editing and authoring parts.[7] A statistical analysis using the Mosteller and Wallace methods of stylometry indicates at least nine authors were involved, and by comparatively analyzing the book against Sadler's The Mind at Mischief, does not indicate authorship or extensive editing by Sadler, without ruling out the possibility of limited edits.[2]
[edit]
Teachings
When one examines this teaching it becomes clearer that it exhibits a mix of eastern thought, platonic theology with psychic influences.
Under the Nature of God section it becomes apparent that the book teaches and embraces a different gospel as portrayed in the New Testament. Jesus himself is portrayed as a secondary God in relation to the eternal son.
It is stated, “God is not hiding from any of his creatures. He is unapproachable to so many orders of beings only because he "dwells in a light which no material creature can approach." The immensity and grandeur of the divine personality is beyond the grasp of the unperfected mind of evolutionary mortals. Today, and as you are, you must discern the invisible Maker through his manifold and diverse creation, as well as through the revelation and ministration of his Sons and their numerous subordinates”.
This is in direct contradiction to what is stated in the New Testament book of Hebrews about the revelation of God as knowable and as stated by the apostles. > Hebrews 1:1-4 (New International Version)
Hebrews 1
The Son Superior to Angels
1In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
Paul himself said< “ I know in who I have believed” that knowing is an intimate relationship of a give and take experience similar to that found in a marriage. That word for knowing which Paul uses in the Greek refers to the same word for knowing that is found in the book of Genesis when it states that Adam knew his wife in an intimate way. It conceives of a relationship that far outweighs what is stated as one who is so transcendent that his creatures cannot know him. This only goes to show that Jesus himself as portrayed in the book of Urantia is not the eternal son himself who is not possible to know but a demigod version and therefore completes the idea of god as transcendent and unknowable. See the following statement for this:
Many types of celestial beings are enumerated in the book, and one of particular note is a joint "offspring" of the Universal Father and Eternal Son called a "Creator Son". A divine Creator Son is considered the full representation of the Universal Father and Eternal Son that is possible to people. This is Platonic theology in that it implies that God is immutable and impassable making him unapproachable. But the new testament teaches that God himself became incarnate , not some lesser form of demigod.
It is also stated that Jesus is to be understood only by sharing in his religious faith making ones own personal faith of none effect. This view is unwarranted when exposed by sound doctrine. The new testament states that it is not what we do that brings us into union with god but what the son of god did to reconcile the world to himself. See the following from the book of Urantia:
Jesus of Nazareth is identified as a Creator Son who incarnated on Earth and whose life and teachings are portrayed as the fullest revelation of the personality and attitude of God ever given to humanity.
Paper 196, "The Faith of Jesus",: the final paper, states:
To "follow Jesus" means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master's life of unselfish service for man. One of the most important things in human living is to find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.
[edit]
This is also in direct contradiction to what the New Testament writers said about Jesus. They preached that one must put their faith in Jesus to be reconciled to God and would have opposed any teaching that turned that idea around to state that one needed to find out what Jesus believed and then live out that ideal.
The more one examines these documents in light of the new testament teachings the more one sees how the word of god has been compromised and how antichrist its really is in character. Jesus said to Philip when asked that he be shown the father and Jesus said to him, “ have I been with you so long and you do not know me Philip, he who has seen me has seen the Father.