William S. Sadler
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
and professor at McCormick Theological Seminary. For over sixty years he practiced medicine in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, thirty-three years being associated in practice with his wife, Lena Kellogg
Lena Kellogg
Dr. Lena Sadler was an American physician, surgeon, and obstetrician who was a leader in women's health issues.-Accomplishments:...
.
Education
The Sadlers married in 1897 and together pursued their medical degrees at the American Medical Missionary CollegeAmerican Medical Missionary College
American Medical Missionary College was a Seventh Day Adventist College in Battle Creek, Michigan. It grew out of classes offered at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. It existed from 1895 until 1910. It also ran classes in Chicago, Illinois...
(Illinois State University
Illinois State University
Illinois State University , founded in 1857, is the oldest public university in Illinois; it is located in the town of Normal. ISU is considered a "national university" that grants a variety of doctoral degrees and strongly emphasizes research; it is also recognized as one of the top ten largest...
) where they equally graduated with honors in 1906. They founded the Chicago Institute of Physiologic Therapeutics (later called the Chicago Institute of Research & Diagnosis).
Professional background
Sadler was a professor at the Post-Graduate Medical School of Chicago, consulting psychiatrist at Columbus Hospital, and for over twenty-five years, a professor and chairman of the department of pastoral psychology at McCormick Theological Seminary. He held memberships in the following associations: Life Fellow, American College of SurgeonsAmerican College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons is an educational association of surgeons created in 1913 to improve the quality of care for the surgical patient by setting high standards for surgical education and practice.-Membership:...
; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
; Fellow, American Medical Association; Fellow, American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
; Member, American Psychopathological Association
American Psychopathological Association
The American Psychopathological Association is an organization, "devoted to the scientific investigation of disordered human behavior, and its biological and psychosocial substrates."The association was founded in 1910...
; Member Illinois Psychiatric Association; Member; Chicago Society for Personality Study; Member, Chicago Medical Society; Member, Illinois State Medical Society; Board member, W. K. Kellogg Foundation
W. K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was founded in June 1930 as the W.K. Kellogg Child Welfare Foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg. In 1934, Kellogg donated more than $66 million in Kellogg Company stock and other investments to the W.K. Kellogg Trust...
; National Association of Authors and Journalists; founder member and governing board, Gorgas Memorial Institute in Tropical and Preventive Medicine. He was a professor at the Post-Graduate Medical School of Chicago, director of the Chicago Institute of Research and Diagnosis, consulting psychiatrist at Columbus Hospital, and for thirty years, a lecturer in Pastoral Counseling at McCormick Theological Seminary
McCormick Theological Seminary
McCormick Theological Seminary is one of eleven schools of theology of the Presbyterian Church . It shares a campus with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, bordering the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois...
. As a pioneer he interested ministers in improving their work of personal counseling through profiting by the experience of psychiatric practice.
Sadler was a humorous orator and was a member of the Eugene Field Society, the National Association of Authors and Journalists, and International Mark Twain Society. He was a fantastic story teller and could take the roof off a building with laughter when he got going. As was common practice for those associated with the Battle Creek Sanitarium
Battle Creek Sanitarium
The Battle Creek Sanitarium, in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States, first opened on September 5, 1866, as the Western Health Reform Institute, based on the health principles advocated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In 1876, John Harvey Kellogg became the superintendent, and his brother, W....
, the Sadlers were speakers for the Chautauqua
Chautauqua
Chautauqua was an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with...
assemblies, introducing the modern concepts of mental medicine and physical hygiene for the prevention of disease. For many years, at the Chicago Institute, Sadler taught clinics for physicians, ministers, and laity that covered the entire field of mental medicine that he liked to term "personology." Writing more than 42 books and numerous magazine articles, he authored such works as: Theory and Practice of Psychiatry, Psychiatric Nursing, The Mind at Mischief, Growing Out of Babyhood, Piloting Modern Youth, and The Quest for Happiness.
Sadler did not adhere to purely mechanistic or materialistic
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
views of psychology and psychiatry and was a consistent advocate of broad and rational principles of psychiatry; he was among early American psychiatrists who placed an emphasis upon the importance of the preventive aspects of mental hygiene.
Family
The Sadlers' first son, Willis, was born in 1899 but died as an infant. Their second son, William Samuel Sadler Jr., was born in 1907. In 1923, Emma L. Christensen, 33 years of age, was accepted as a member of the Sadler family.History
William Sadler was born in Spencer, IndianaSpencer, Indiana
Spencer is a town in Washington Township, Owen County, Indiana, United States. The population was 2,217 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Owen County.Spencer is part of the Bloomington, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
, son of Samuel Cavins Sadler and Dr Sarah Isabella Wilson MD, on June 24, 1875. Upon moving to Battle Creek Michigan, he was raised as a Seventh-day Adventist
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
. At age 14, he worked as in the sanitarium kitchen and later a salesman for the Sanitarium Food Company. In 1895 he began to instruct Christian doctrine, preach the gospel, and serve as an administrator for the Chicago Medical Mission and Benevolent Society. In addition he was an editor, author, and founder of Life Boat Magazine. In 1897 Sadler married Lena Kellogg
Lena Kellogg
Dr. Lena Sadler was an American physician, surgeon, and obstetrician who was a leader in women's health issues.-Accomplishments:...
. By 1889, the Chicago Medical Mission had grown to comprise eight institutions and twenty-five distinct lines of mission and rescue work. William became an ordained minister and he and Lena worked for twenty years in rescue ministry. The Sadlers went into private practice when the institutions of the Chicago Medical Missions began to dissolve due to internal conflicts between mission founder John Harvey Kellogg
John Harvey Kellogg
John Harvey Kellogg was an American medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan, who ran a sanitarium using holistic methods, with a particular focus on nutrition, enemas and exercise. Kellogg was an advocate of vegetarianism and is best known for the invention of the corn flakes breakfast cereal...
and the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
. In addition to private practice they also gave lectures for community organizations on a regular basis. For the rest of their lives the Sadlers were associated with the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago.
Debunker
Sadler was a well-known skeptic of psychic phenomena and devoted a substantial amount of his time to exposing the proponents of the paranormal as frauds and charlatans and writing numerous books on the topic. He worked with magicianMagic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
Howard Thurston
Howard Thurston
Howard Thurston was a stage magician from Columbus, Ohio.-Life:Thurston had the largest traveling magic show for the time, requiring more than eight entire train cars to transport his props across the country...
in exposing frauds and mediums
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
. He was considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject and held the life-long opinion that all psychic phenomena was explainable within the confines of the laws of nature.
The Urantia Book
In 1923 a group of interested persons said that the contents of The Urantia BookThe Urantia Book
The Urantia Book is a spiritual and philosophical book that discusses God, Jesus, science, cosmology, religion, history, and destiny. It originated in Chicago, Illinois, sometime between 1924 and 1955...
eventually came into being. The papers continued from 1924 until 1935. Sadler wrote a paper detailing the types of methods that he said were not used in the reception of the papers. "How We Did Not Get The Urantia Book" and Psychic Phenomena: Unusual Activities of the Marginal Consciousness (The Subconscious Mind).
William S Sadler was a participant among another 486 interested persons. He was not the founder of The Urantia Book movement, he just lived longer than most, becoming an elder statesman.
He and his wife were an exemplary team, medical doctors, working side by side as partners in business as well as spiritual interests. He did not serve as a trustee of the Urantia Foundation formed in 1950, and was never an officer of the Urantia Brotherhood. He was Chair of the Committee on Education and he worked, with his committee, after the book's publication to produce curriculum materials for the Urantia Brotherhood School. The titles were, Urantia Doctrine and the Theology of the Urantia Book, Urantia Book Quotations from the Teachings, Sayings, Miracles, and Parables of Jesus, Worship and Wisdom, Gems from the Urantia Book, History of the Urantia Movement, Study of the Books of the Bible, The History of the Bible, A Short Course in Doctrine, Analytical Study of the Urantia Book, Science in the Urantia Book, and Topical Studies in the Urantia Book.