Chapter Two

THE KEY PLAYERS IN THE MAY 7, 1958 meeting were certainly Dr. Sadler and Dr. Sprunger. It is important to set the stage for this rendezvous by providing additional background about both Dr. Sadler and Dr. Sprunger, so the reader will understand the meeting's significance. Each was a formidable personality. Dr. Sadler was energetic and dominating in a friendly, personable manner. At the time Dr. Sadler met with Dr. Sprunger and his associate ministers, Sadler was nearly 82 years of age, still vigorous, but mellowing well into the autumn of a very successful career. Meredith Sprunger was a gracious and perhaps less assertive man of 42, yet one who possessed comparable depth and academic development.

Dr. William S. Sadler was without question a man of unique academic and professional stature. Dr. Sadler's 1942 listing in Who's Who gives an idea of his versatility and accomplishments (see next page). He had been nationally noted, and featured in an article in Reader's Digest magazine. His training had been exceptionally broad in two key disciplines: psychology and theology. Dr. Sadler's books reflected religious insights, extensive clinical experience, as well as profound knowledge of the science of the human mind. If there was any weakness in his holistic vision that was apparent from his written works, it might be the third key discipline of human thought -- the great intellectual unifier -- philosophy.

Dr. Meredith Sprunger was one of those rare scholars who was as well grounded in religion and science as Dr. Sadler. As an ordained minister he naturally had a strong educational background in theology. In addition, Dr. Sprunger had a doctorate in psychology, a clinical practice, was trained as a social scientist, and engaged in a successful academic career at the Indiana Institute of Technology. With his long experience as a college professor and administrator, Dr. Sprunger was also thoroughly trained in philosophy. So it was that Dr. Sprunger brought to the meeting what might be considered an even more balanced and broader working knowledge than Dr. Sadler of all three of the great disciplines of human knowledge: science, religion and philosophy.

The stage was set for a unique relationship. Dr. Sprunger would win the confidence and respect of William Sadler. The two would become colleagues in their pursuit to better understand, and to help propagate, the Urantia Revelation. It was over a decade later when Dr. Sprunger officiated at the memorial service of his friend and colleague. He would later write of the human side of Dr. Sadler:

"Although Dr. Sadler was an extraordinary person with great talents and diverse experience in serving humankind, he was also a warm and loving person with a great sense of humor. Dr. Sadler's life experience uniquely prepared him to serve as a pioneer in the field of medicine, psychiatry, and religion."¹

The Meeting

Dr. Sadler was well aware of the curiosity of the ministerial team in the origin of the Urantia Papers, as well as their interest in the technique by which they were materialized. At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Sadler informed the ministers that although he was not permitted to tell what little he knew about the materialization of the Papers, there was nothing to prevent him from explaining the way the Papers were not materialized. He offered a paper that listed every imaginable form of subconscious mind or psychic activity. (See opposite page). At the bottom of the paper was a note reading: "The technique of the reception of The Urantia Book in English in no way parallels or impinges upon any of the above phenomena of marginal consciousness."

Dr. Sadler went on to explain that, as nearly as he could determine, the appearance of the Urantia Papers was associated with some form of superconscious -- not subconscious -- activity.²

During the meeting, Dr. Sadler candidly discussed any questions the ministers asked him. However, he made it clear that he would not talk about two things: the name of the individual who was used in some undisclosed way for the materialization of the Papers, nor would he discuss the details of the materialization. Dr. Sadler explained that the small group, known as the "Contact Commission," that had interfaced with the contact personality and the Revelators, had been required to take vows of secrecy about these subjects. He was asked why these restrictions were imposed. Dr. Sadler gave these reasons:

"[1]. The main reason for not revealing the identity of the contact personality is that the revelators did not want any human being -- any human name -- ever to be associated with The Urantia Book. They wanted the Revelation to stand upon 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 new St. Peter, St. Paul, Luther, Calvin or Wesley. The book does not even bear the imprint of the printer who brought the book into being." [NOTE: A printer traditionally includes a small imprint of their identity on large publications. In this case, R.R. Donnelley & Sons was requested to waive this identification.]

"[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 revelation came to appear in written English. If anyone should tell all he really knows about this [sic] technique and methods employed throughout the years of getting this revelation, such a narration would satisfy no one -- there is simply too much missing"³

Dr. Sadler also explained that, in addition to the Contact Commission, there had been another, larger group associated with the Urantia Papers. This group was known as the "Forum." Several members of the Forum had speculated that the above restrictions were imposed because the Revelators wanted nothing "miraculous" associated with the appearance of the Urantia Papers.

Dr. Sadler confided to the group of ministers that he had spent a great number of years seeking to discover natural explanations for what he had been observing. He had consulted with Sir Hubert Wilkins, a noted scientist and explorer who had an interest in psychic phenomena. He also contacted Howard Thurston, a professional magician who was noted for his ability to expose fraudulent mediums and psychics. All of the outside experts who were consulted agreed that the phenomena associated with the contact personality were not classifiable as known so-called psychic activities, such as automatic writing, telepathy, clairvoyance, trances, spirit mediumship, channeling -- nor as any psychological disturbance such as split personality.⁴

It was obvious to Dr. Sprunger that William Sadler had started as a professional, objective researcher and skeptic, and yet somehow had become a believer. Dr. Sprunger asked him how this transformation had occurred. Dr. Sadler replied:

"We set up our `Forum' in the mid-twenties as an informal Sunday tea, a place where a group of about thirty interested people could meet and discuss medical and social issues. The Forum was composed of people from all walks of life, including professionals such as doctors, lawyers, dentists, ministers and teachers, as well as housewives, secretaries, farmers, and laborers. The Forum eventually became involved in examining the Urantia Papers, and in discussing them. Each week, I began to read them one of the Papers and accept questions from the Forum members about what they had heard. In time, it seemed to me the folks in the Forum were becoming more and more impressed with the content of the Papers, and were losing objectivity. I was most concerned with Lena, my wife."

Indeed, Dr. Lena Sadler was evidently a strong believer in the Papers long before William. She apparently urged him to continue the process when his interest began to flag. Unfortunately, Lena died of cancer in 1939 at the age of 64, more than fifteen years before the Urantia Papers became The Urantia Book.

"So one Sunday," continued Dr. Sadler, "I made a speech to the group about the importance of maintaining a tough, critical and objective approach to the material. To my astonishment, the response I got was almost like a testimonial meeting! The essence of the reaction was: `We don't care who wrote these Papers, they simply make more sense than anything else we have ever read along this line.'"

"Now, I believed that my own professional reputation was at stake. I had often declared in public that there were no genuine mediumistic phenomena, and I wasn't going to let one baffling case change my mind. I felt that in time I would discover a natural explanation for this remarkable case.

"However, as years went by I became more and more impressed with the quality and the consistency of the material that was being received. I became satisfied in my own mind that the subject involved in the materializations could not have authored the Papers we were receiving. He simply did not have the qualifications nor the abilities to do so. I finally became satisfied that I was not dealing with some hoax or trick, but some kind of an authentic phenomenon.

"Finally, in the mid-thirties -- over twenty years after I had first encountered this case -- I carefully studied a Paper evaluating the personalities of the apostles of Jesus. It was at that point that I threw in the intellectual towel. I am a psychiatrist, and I believe I know my business. But this Paper was a real blow to my pride. I believe that if I assembled a half dozen of the world's best psychiatrists and had years to prepare it, we could not collectively fabricate a paper with this ring of genuineness and insight. So I said to myself: `I don't know what this is, but I do know it is the highest quality of philosophical-religious material I have ever read.'"

From that point on, Dr. Sadler became not simply a detached professional director of the group, he became a proactive and dedicated leader.⁵

The question of origin

Ideally, from a human philosophical perspective, Revelation is best served when evaluated upon its content, not upon some supposed miraculous origin. However, many people believe that a mysterious -- or even seemingly "miraculous" -- origin of revelatory material actually validates the contents of the material itself. Yet, in the case of the Urantia Papers, Dr. Sadler made great effort to avoid attaching some supernatural occurrence to explain their materialization. In point of fact, there is no authentic record I know of that either he or any member of the Contact Commission ever witnessed a supernatural event associated with the actual materialization of the text of the Urantia Papers. They attested to many events relative to the materialization of the text that they could not explain, but none claimed to have witnessed any of the materialization events. Even so, the Urantia Papers themselves tell us that if the human mind cannot fathom the true origin of a phenomenon, it will create an origin:

"Partial, incomplete, and evolving intellects would be helpless in the master universe, would be unable to form the first rational thought pattern, were it not for the innate ability of all mind, high or low, to form a universe frame in which to think. If mind cannot fathom conclusions, if it cannot penetrate to true origins, then will such mind unfailingly postulate conclusions and invent origins that it may have a means of logical thought within the frame of these mind-created postulates. And while such universe frames for creature thought are indispensable to rational intellectual operations, they are, without exception, erroneous to a greater or lesser degree." [1260, par. 2]

We will see that Dr. Sadler may have eventually authorized the preparation of a "History of the Urantia Movement" for this reason. Later, in private discussions with Dr. Sprunger, William Sadler would reiterate that he did not know how the materialization of the Papers was accomplished. Dr. Sadler also insisted that everything known about the materialization of the Urantia Papers can be found in various parts of the book. However, based upon these Urantia Book references and Dr. Sadler's own experiences in relationship to the materializations, the colleagues were led to speculate upon the process, as we shall see.

Dr. Sprunger and his ministerial colleagues left Chicago with a much better idea of how the Urantia Papers came to be. It should be emphasized once more that the origins of the Urantia Papers have little relevance in assessing the truth and spiritual quality of their content. It is, however, an important area of research that was destined to be revisited. On October 6, 1958, Dr. Sprunger and the ministerial group met with Dr. Robert V. Moss, who was at the time Professor of New Testament Studies at Lancaster Theological Seminary and President of the United Church of Christ. The purpose of the South Bend meeting was to evaluate The Urantia Book. There was a lively and spirited discussion. Although Dr. Moss had not read the entire book, he remarked that the Biblical material in The Urantia Book was essentially in harmony with the best scholarship of the day, and that the book had many inspiring passages.

A week after the meeting, Dr. Moss wrote Dr. Sprunger and asked a most provocative question:

"It occurred to me that we did not deal with one basic question. As you know, Christianity is a historical religion and because of that the basis of revelation can be tested by scholarship. It seems extremely important that the source of the Urantia `revelations' be set forth in any serious discussions of its claim. To say there is no historical basis for the "revelation" is to say that it differs greatly from the biblical understanding of the way in which God acts."⁶

Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that an investigation into the origin of the Urantia Papers would lend a significant contribution to the evaluation of the text itself. Indeed, issues about the sequences and techniques of the origin remained. In the next decade, Dr. Sprunger would pursue these questions. He would have many conversations with Dr. Sadler as well as with two other members of the Contact Commission: Bill Sadler, Jr. and Emma Louise Christensen (Christy). He would also meet and develop associations with many Forum members.

Our own quest for answers begins in the early years of the twentieth century. It was a uniquely colorful period in world history. Matisse and Renoir were still painting. And, another aspiring artist named Adolf Hitler was attempting to sell his watercolors in Vienna. Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States. Americans were still talking about two brothers named Orville and Wilbur Wright who successfully flew a heavier than air machine in 1903. Chicago was then the center of movie making, and Bill Harris has noted: "in the prairies just out of town someone first headed someone else off at the pass in cowboy pictures. They called it Chicago's Golden Age. And in every quarter of the arts, from jazz to poetry, Chicago was clearly the place to be."⁷ Chicago newspapermen like Carl Sandburg, Ben Hecht, and Ring Lardner were turning to more serious ideas -- and America was sitting up and taking notice. H. L. Mencken wrote: "In Chicago, a spirit broods on the face of the waters."⁸ It was in this remarkable city of Chicago, Illinois, that the intriguing story of the Urantia Papers was set into motion.

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Footnotes

^1. A full biography of Dr. Sadler is beyond the scope of our book. However, a few highlights of his life were gleaned from a paper written by Meredith Sprunger after Dr. Sadler's death, and an article in PERVADED SPACE, a newsletter published by Chicago Urantian David Kulieke, Spring, 1979. Born in Spencer, Indiana, 1875, as a boy Sadler was not allowed to attend public school after the death of his sister, because his parents were afraid that he would also catch a communicable disease. So it was that he received most of his formal education from his parents and tutors, and through his own initiative. He showed early signs of skill as an orator, and because of his remarkable knowledge of the Bible he was called the "boy preacher" at fourteen. He was also a remarkable salesman, selling health foods for John Harvey Kellogg, brother of W. K. Kellogg, founder of the Kellogg cereal empire. At twenty, as director of a Chicago Medical Mission, Sadler engaged in teaching, speaking, and working with skid row people. He initiated and edited a magazine which reached a circulation of 150,000 copies. His theological training took place at the Moody Bible Institute. He met Lena Kellogg in 1893, when she was a student nurse. They married in 1897. The Sadler's lost their first son a few years later, who died at the age of 11 months. Soon after that, both Sadlers decided to become doctors, and attended different medical schools. This was virtually William Sadler, Sr.'s first formal education. After a few years as a successful surgeon, he decided to become a psychiatrist. After passing the required examination, he went to Europe (circa 1911) and studied with Freud in Vienna for almost a year. He told Dr. Sprunger that he was a member of Freud's "fair-haired boys' club" along with Jung and Adler, meeting weekly with Freud for informal debates. All three men were to later break with Freud, Dr. Sadler going on to become the "father of American Psychiatry" and recognized in the International Who'sWho as a "pioneer in the popularization of preventative medicine." For all of his accomplishments, Dr. Sadler told Meredith that he considered his most important contribution to the world to be his leadership of a little-known group called the "Forum," which received the gift of the Urantia Papers from celestial beings and published it as The Urantia Book.

For more information on Dr. William S. Sadler, see:

• Pervaded Space, "A Self-Made Renaissance Man," Vol 2, No 4, Spring 1979
• Kulieke, Alvin L. and Sprunger, Meridith J., "Memorial Service for Dr. William S. Sadler," Unpublished manuscript, 1969
• Sprunger, Meredith J., "Dr. William S. Sadler," Unpublished manuscript, 1989
• Sprunger, Meredith J., "Some Notes on the Life of Dr. William S. Sadler," Unpublished manuscript, 1989
• Vonne Meussling, G., "Dr. William S. Sadler: Chautauqua's Medic Orator," excerpt from an unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, 1970

Photographs of Dr. Sadler:

Dr. William S. Sadler, circa 1914
Dr. William S. Sadler, posing, circa 1914
Dr. William S. Sadler, circa 1950
Dr. William S. Sadler, teaching in Chicago, circa 1960

^2. The term "superconscious" is used in the Urantia Papers to describe the higher reaches of human consciousness, above the conscious level and distinct from the subconscious mind. The idea of a superconscious mind has been hinted at by a few scientists such as Abraham Maslow, Roberto Assagioli, and Dr. Barbara Brown. The Urantia Papers propose a fully operational mind that functions above the level of human consciousness and impinges upon the highest reaches of human thought by means of religious insights and spiritual values (or what Dr. Maslow termed meta-values): "But there is also a domain of prayer wherein the intellectually alert and spiritually progressing individual attains more or less contact with the superconscious levels of the human mind, the domain of the indwelling Thought Adjuster." [91:2.6][996, par. 4] "Prayer induces the human ego to look both ways for help: for material aid to the subconscious reservoir of mortal experience, for inspiration and guidance to the superconscious borders of the contact of the material with the spiritual, with the Mystery Monitor." [91:3.5][997, par 3] "Most of the spectacular phenomena associated with so-called religious conversions are entirely psychologic in nature, but now and then there do occur experiences which are also spiritual in origin. When the mental mobilization is absolutely total on any level of the psychic upreach toward spirit attainment, when there exists perfection of the human motivation of loyalties to the divine idea, then there very often occurs a sudden down-grasp of the indwelling spirit to synchronize with the concentrated and consecrated purpose of the superconscious mind of the believing mortal. And it is such experiences of unified intellectual and spiritual phenomena that constitute the conversion which consists in factors over and above purely psychologic involvement." [100:5.4][1099,par. 2]

^3. THE HISTORICITY OF THE URANTIA BOOK by Meredith J. Sprunger, Paper revised December 18, 1993, page 3. [See "Meredith Sprunger's Notes on the Origin of The Urantia Book"]

^4. IBID, page 3.

^5. IBID, pages 3-4.

^6. IBID, page 1.

^7. CHICAGO, A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY by Bill Harris, Crescent Books, New York, 1989, page 15.

^8. IBID, page 15.

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