~~ The Birth of a Divine Revelation
1 - A Brief Account ~~

CHAPTER ONE

The Origin of The Urantia Papers

A Brief Account

A man wanted to know the difference between Edgar Cayce, the socalled Sleeping Prophet, and the Sleeping Subject described by William Sadler in the Appendix to his book, The Mind At Mischief. The latter was suspected of being involved in the creation of The Urantia Papers. I shall describe the sequence of events which led Sadler to investigate the behavior of the Sleeping Subject, how that relationship developed into The Urantia Papers, and why Edgar Cayce could not have been the Sleeping Subject.

Edgar Cayce

Cayce was psychic from young boyhood. On repeated occasions through his life he had visions of an angel of light. He was often plagued by psychic presentations while fully conscious.

Contrary to popular opinion, Cayce had numerous personal problems. He was not the kind, gentle, Christian man described by his promoters. He was a chain smoker. He had a volatile temperament. On countless occasions he fired his secretary in a fit of rage, only to reinstate her a few hours later. He was arrested in New York City for fraud. He could not keep his financial affairs in order. As a young married man he refused to seek employment, and often his wife and sons were short on food, with rent unpaid. Throughout his life he depended on the largess of others. His hospital in Virginia Beach was financed by a wealthy man from New York City. When that support terminated he had to declare bankruptcy. The hospital and his home were both lost to Sheriff's sale.

Cayce's technique for entrance into trance was as follows. He would lie down on a couch or bed. He would cross his hands upon his chest and close his eyes, as though going to sleep. He needed a conductor. In his early years it was his wife, in later years his son. They would sit by him as he went into repose. When they saw his eyelids flicker they would present him with a question. He would then give an answer. If they did not present him with a question when his eyelids flickered he would fall into a natural sleep from which he would awaken on his own. If he did not fall into a natural sleep, he went into the trance from which he made his pronouncements.

Note that Cayce always entered his trance from a fully conscious mental state. He had to make a conscious decision to enter into his psychic state.

In 1968 I visited the Cayce library in Virginia Beach and skimmed through random selections of his pronouncements. They were typed and placed in loose leaf binders. They covered many shelves.

None of his pronouncements were identified from any spirit author. (In contrast, the materials which came through Sadler's Sleeping Subject were identified with authorship by various celestial personalities.) This lack of celestial source led everyone to believe his statements came out of his unaided mind, strictly from his psychic powers. Thus he was a sleeping prophet. A popular book on Cayce was given that title. (Edgar Cayce, The Sleeping Prophet, Jess Stern, Doubleday, New York, 1967.)

Many of Cayce's pronouncements were for the healing of other persons who would come to him or who wrote him letters. He had amazing success with this method, with prescriptions for home remedies. Although it is a popular opinion that Cayce did not remember his pronouncements when he awoke from his transmissions, he was often able to describe the environment of a remote patient, down to the details of the furniture and lighting of the room in which the patient was located. This accuracy of detail was confirmed on many occasions, to impress everyone with Cayce's psychic powers.

How? Did this come out of his unaided psychic mind, or did he have spirit help? Did he tap into a universal consciousness or was he assisted by an invisible spirit entity? If so, did that entity know the medical condition and physical surroundings of the remote patient? Does that entity possess the power to instantaneously know all human mortals living on this planet? Does he also possess insight into human ailments from several hundred thousand years of human observation? Was Cayce used by the spirit entity to show the world how powerful Cayce was as a healer?

As I studied Cayce I discovered that some of his pronouncements were focused on coming earth events, reversal of the poles, and great shifting of land masses. Okay, that would certainly pique everyone's interest. Unfortunately, he failed as a prophet. For example, he said that California would slide into the ocean in '68. That had to be 1968, otherwise the prediction had to wait for another century, or several, and by that time no one would remember Cayce. California did not slide into the ocean in '68, or any other year, thus far.

Then, as I studied further, I saw the source of his pronouncements. Cayce was deep into reincarnation, a doctrine that is contrary to Christian and Urantian teachings. He said that Jesus was the reincarnation of other historic personalities including Joseph, Melchizedek, and so on. That was pure blasphemy.

Well, so much for Cayce. Such vile material certainly did not come out of the conscious or unconscious mind of a good Christian. I know the source of such teaching. It is an evil, rebellious personality whose purpose is to throw this planet into disarray. Christians know him as the Devil. Jesus called him the Prince of this World, John 12, 14, 16. In The Urantia Papers he is named Caligastia. (From page 602: The `devil' is none other than Caligastia, the deposed Planetary Prince of Urantia . . .) (The name is derived from the Roman word caliginous. It means dim, misty, and dark, certainly an appropriate name for the rebel.)

William Sadler

Human Agent For The Revelation

Sadler was raised Seventh Day Adventist. At age 14 he went to Battle Creek, Michigan where he worked for John Harvey Kellogg, the famous manager of the SDA Sanitarium. He soon was placed in positions of responsibility by Kellogg. In 1893, when Sadler was 18, Kellogg made him part of the team that started a new medical mission in Chicago. On letter heads he is identified as Secretary. He married Lena Kellogg, blood niece to Kellogg, and to William Keith Kellogg, known today on your breakfast table as W. K. Kellogg. (Recently, the A&E cable network did a biography on John Harvey and his brother William Keith as The Corn Flake Kings.) In 1901 John Harvey asked Sadler to establish a new medical mission in San Francisco. (Sadler was then 26.) Ellen White, the prophetess of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, lived nearby with her son, William (Willie) White. Sadler and Lena became intimate with the White family. Sadler remained friends with Willie until 1913.

The Kelloggs and the Whites knew each other from youth. Ellen White had sponsored John Harvey in order for him to obtain his medical education, before the Whites moved from Battle Creek. John Harvey and Willie White were the same age. Willie won the heart of John Harvey's girl and married her.

Around the turn of the century a great contest arose within the Seventh Day Adventist Church. John Harvey had published a book which brought into question some of the basic tenets of the SDA. (The Living Temple, Good Health Publishing Company, Battle Creek, 1903.) His doctrinal threat was unintentional, and before the SDA had fully developed its theology. (In fact, it spurred more formal development of SDA theology.) Meantime his fame had spread far and wide. The large Medical Mission organization he was building increased his reputation and power. Thus, there were two prongs to the contest which stormed around Ellen White, the spiritual leader, and John Harvey Kellogg, the medical healer. They were the two most powerful figures in the SDA. One prong was doctrinal issues: did Kellogg's book jeopardize fundamental SDA beliefs? The other prong was Church political power: was Kellogg a threat to Church ministerial control? Sadler, as agent for Kellogg's operations in California, was caught in the warfare. He was very faithful to the Church, and strongly believed in the prophetic powers of Ellen White. But he also felt strong ties to Kellogg, who had essentially raised him from youth.

Sadler was an intelligent, efficient organizer. But he worked for Kellogg, and the Medical Mission operation of the SDA; he did not report directly to the ministerial arm of the Church. With debate growing among the ministers about the serious doctrinal concerns generated by Kellogg's book, and with Sadler as Kellogg's personal agent, ministerial eyes naturally focused on Sadler. Without justification he was regarded suspiciously. (There was also an element of jealousy among some of the San Francisco ministers.) Accusations were brought against Sadler, and his methods. One complaint was his expenditure of money to build medical facilities at the expense of Church spiritual operations. A committee of four was formed to investigate the accusations. Kellogg was a member of the committee. The accusations were brought openly in Sabbath meeting, the most stern form of indictment that could be leveled against someone in the Church. Kellogg had traveled to San Francisco for the meeting. During the discussions Kellogg would not support Sadler. His own Church position had come into jeopardy. As a result Sadler was demoted from all managerial responsibility.

This incident took place in October, 1903. It threw Sadler into a psychological and spiritual whirl. Ellen White, and her son Willie, recognizing Sadler's outstanding abilities, pleaded for him to remain in San Francisco. They did not want to lose him. They would find a place for him. But it was too much of a blow to Sadler. By December he and his wife Lena decided to move back to Battle Creek to continue their medical education. The Sadlers were in Chicago the week before Christmas, and on a train to Battle Creek Christmas Day. They remained in Battle Creek until the following spring, when they moved to La Grange, Illinois, where they entered the Chicago branch of SDA Medical Mission School. (At that point Sadler could not tolerate being in the same town with John Harvey Kellogg.) They both graduated two years later with MD certification from the State of Illinois. In the state medical exam Sadler was one of four who made the same top grade. (The other three were from the Rush Medical School.) He was a bright man with an incredible memory. He remarked in a letter to Willie that he found the SDA school more rigorous than the Stanford medical school he and Lena had attended in San Francisco.

The Sleeping Subject (SS)

Sadler first met SS around the middle of April, 1908. Sadler's lease had expired at the end of March on property he was renting at 38 Calendar Avenue in La Grange, Illinois. He purchased a property at 56 S. 6th Avenue around the first of April, but the condition of sale held him to obey existing leases. Those leases did not expire until late summer. Therefore he had to find temporary housing. He and Lena moved into a furnished apartment. One evening, as they were preparing to retire around 11:00, a knock came on their door. An excited woman requested that they come and examine her husband. She had heard they were physicians. He was behaving in an unusual manner. She and her husband had gone to bed and were falling asleep when he suddenly awakened her by moving abruptly about on the bed. She thought he was dreaming, and tried to awake him, but without success. He continued this odd behavior, which greatly disturbed her. Thereupon, she went looking for the Sadlers.

He was still moving about when the Sadlers entered his bedroom. They tried also to awake him, again without success. Sadler employed every reasonable means he knew as a physician. They sat with him for awhile. After some time he awoke on his own and wanted to know why these strangers were in his bedroom. They proceeded to explain but he didn't believe them. At their urging he met with Dr. Sadler the next day for a complete physical and psychological examination. He came from a healthy family with no known psychological or emotional problems. Sadler could determine no cause for his strange behavior.

Some period of time passed when the wife again came knocking on the door, again in the evening hours. The same behavior was exhibited. By this time SS was highly concerned. He asked Sadler as a medical doctor to investigate the cause. Thus he became a patient of Sadler's, and this relationship shows in legal court records until today, although SS had nothing to do with the final revelation.

This behavior continued at odd times, always at night, during the summer. In late summer, during one of the nocturnal visits, Lena noticed that SS was wiping his lips with his tongue, as though to speak. She suggested they ask him a question, whereupon he began to speak.

About that time the Sadlers moved into their home. SS, highly concerned about his unusual behavior, moved into an apartment in the same block in order that he would be near the Sadlers during the night episodes. This pattern of behavior led to a long series of questions and answers through subsequent visits, and eventually to the unfolding of the Revelation.

SS was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, a highly pragmatic, hardnosed business man who did not believe in psychic phenomena or any such nonsense. He was as puzzled as Sadler as to the cause of his behavior. His night statements were about the heavenly realms, about God, about creation, and about this world. Conceptually they went far beyond his simple religious teachings. They were not something that could come out of either his conscious or subconscious mind. He was from a traditional Christian background; he just simply could not accept that such things were issuing from his mouth. As his strange behavior continued, he asked Sadler to continue in consultation.

As part of his investigation Sadler used hypnosis. Although Sadler had difficulty hypnotizing the man because he was such a pragmatic person, he finally was able to do so. Sadler could find no subconscious memory of the materials which the man had been presenting while asleep. This was an extreme puzzle for Sadler. In his investigations of psychic, spiritualist, and channeler patients he was always able to find such memories. This evidence was one of the major reasons Sadler felt that psychic materials were generated in the subconscious mind of individuals.

This arrangement with Sadler continued for nearly thirty years. (SS was as keenly interested as Sadler in determining the cause of his unusual behavior.) During that time Sadler brought in other medical and psychiatric professionals, as well as famous magicians, who knew all the tricks of the trade, to determine if there were hidden methods by which this man might be producing such strange behavior. Did some other explanation exist? In 1911 Sadler himself entered the field of psychiatry in order to become better trained in the behavior of the human mind. No one was able to solve the riddle.

Highly important to our understanding is the fact that no one had any idea when these events would take place. SS did not know, his wife did not know, Sadler did not know, nor anyone else. They would come suddenly, and unexpectedly. Highly important also is recognition that the wife was needed to alert Sadler to an event. She was a key part of the process. Her notification to the Sadlers would come at any time of the night. Later, as this curious behavior went on, the other professionals and consultants also had to be awakened from their sleep to rush over to the man's residence. Can you imagine how this excitable woman and this man must have felt to have strangers moving around their private bedroom in the middle of the night while SS was in his bed in nightclothes?

Another important element is displayed. Because these events took place at night, only when the man was in a natural sleep, the two households could not be separated from one another by any great distance. When Sadler moved to north Chicago in 1913 SS had to follow him if Sadler were to continue as his physician. Sadler and Lena, or other members of the investigative team, could not travel thirty miles back to La Grange in those days, (with no night trains), and still have time for investigative study. Consider also why SS did not want this behavior to become known. It would have damaged his business reputation. Therefore, he had a strong desire not to bounce from one doctor to another. Doctorpatient confidentiality was an important element in the arrangement.

The pronouncements made while he was asleep were collected by Sadler, taken from his hand notes or those of the other professional consultants. Some of the material was also handwritten by SS, while still asleep. This came about because Sadler tried other methods to understand the process at work. One method was to place a pencil in the man's hand, with paper. He then would write upon it in answer to a question. (I shall not detail episodes here.) Over the years the notes formed a coherent structure of presentation, similar to what we now have in The Urantia Papers, but more primitive. Many of the concepts were not developed to the level we now find in the Papers.

The importance of the similarity of the early material through SS, and the actual Revelation, may be recognized by the need to condition Sadler and other persons to the new concepts. They could not have one revelation through SS, and then completely different concepts when the actual Revelation was presented.

By this time Sadler had been informed through SS that he was in communication with personalities from the invisible spirit world. In this manner a link had been established between the material and spirit worlds. Sadler could engage in conversation with the spirit visitors. Again, this element has led many to believe that the communications Sadler received through SS were the same as communications through psychics, mediums, or channelers. Indeed, a similarity was true. They were both from the spirit world. Unfortunately, no one until now has differentiated between the two techniques. One was benign and concerned about mankind; the technique was mechanical manipulation of the muscles and breathing of SS while he was fully unconscious. The other was malicious with intent on putting this world into total disarray; the technique was spirit violation of conscious human mind.

In 1923 two other events took place related to the revelation. Emma Christensen (Christy) was adopted by the Sadlers and became a member of the Sadler household. Oddly, she was 33 years old. She was a trained secretary and office manager, who then served as secretary for recording the night sessions. Meanwhile, at the urging of several individuals, Sadler formed an unrelated Sunday discussion group in his home which started as an informal presentation and dialogue on medical and psychiatric subjects. (Sadler had recently left the Chautauqua lecture circuits and was exploring other ways to talk to the public about solutions to health and mental problems.) The members of the group were from all walks of life. The only thing common among them was their mutual interest in those subjects. This group became known as The Forum. Shortly after their first meeting the subject of psychic phenomena and spiritualism came up. Sadler showed them copies of some of the material coming through SS, which piqued their interest.

(Sadler still sought all possible avenues to come to an explanation of the behavior of SS. Perhaps some member of the Sunday group might come up with an idea, or have some knowledge that would provide a key to the riddle.)

When Sadler offered that material to the group it forever altered their purpose. It led to many questions, generated from the material they had seen. In attempt to organize this interest Sadler had the members prepare lists of questions between Sunday meetings. Hundreds of questions were generated. These were collated and edited. Sadler then took those questions to SS at the next event. This, in turn, as part of a formal response, led to the presentation of full Papers through SS. Those precursor Papers were not part of the final Revelation and were subsequently destroyed by Sadler.

Sadler continued to believe he was dealing with an unusual psychic phenomenon. In the late 1920's, in one Sunday meeting, when Lena and members of the Forum began to voice views that they were dealing with a divine revelation, Sadler took them to task. He accused them of losing their scientific objectivity. He was not going to let one baffling case change his mind.

I shall not describe all the steps of the process, but in 1934 and 1935 the actual Revelation appeared. It came in sets of Papers, on several different occasions. It appeared in fully developed form, exactly what we know today. It appeared out of thin air. Sadler would find the sets of Papers unexpectedly. SS had nothing to do with the process. The Forum had nothing to do with it. The final Papers appeared miraculously. This was the first time Sadler and other members of his family, and the Forum, saw the Jesus Papers. The Jesus Papers did not exist prior to this event.

Sadler had two instructions. He was never to reveal the identity of SS. And he was never to reveal how the Papers appeared. He obeyed his instructions. However, he left sufficient evidence that we can trace the sequence of events, and the manner of the appearance of the Papers. While technically obeying the instructions I feel that he wanted the world to know what had happened, and left it to later investigators to piece together his various clues.

I have summarized my investigations into this book. One of the more difficult parts for me personally was dealing with the weaknesses of the human personalities associated with the Revelation. Two major elements were involved. One was the shortness of human vision exhibited by Sadler in his creation of secular vehicles for control and dissemination of the Revelation. The other was the perversions of Christy, and how that led to fragmentation of the Urantia organizations. Both Sadler and Christy have been held up as idols in the work of the Revelation. Without question the Revelation would not have appeared without Sadler. He was the key personality. Christy was also a great contributor. She alone typed the entire manuscript from the original documents. But she went off on a path that created serious discord and strife within the Urantia community. She also introduced various materials and traditions as authentic revelation, which were not. That was a grave mistake. I shall discuss these elements later in this book.

Imagine Sadler's consternation when material began appearing out of the blue. He devised an explanation which was repeated by Meredith Sprunger, but not a realistic scenario of what actually happened. Sadler believed the mind of SS was used to produce the miracle Papers. He felt the Spirit of the Father (Thought Adjuster) produced material within the man's mind, and that midwayers read that material, from the man's mind. The midwayers then produced the actual revelation on paper. What Sadler failed to recognize was the circuitous route of his explanation. The midwayers are in direct contact with celestial authorities; they had no need for the mind of SS. But Sadler was tied to a need for SS from his many years of study, and could not release hold of that need in his thinking.

The last part was correct. The midwayers actually materialized the revelation. (This thinking tells us something about SS. From Sadler's explanation we know he was still alive, and supposedly well, in 1935.)

From this evidence we can now come to grips with the process of SS. He was mechanically manipulated by the midwayers. They could control his voice, and move his arms. Thus they were able to communicate either orally or manually. They engaged in these activities only when the man was fully asleep because they did not want to violate his conscious mind, or his personal will. They never entered his mind. They had no need to do so.

On the other hand, Caligastia can work his perversions only through a conscious mind. He cannot manipulate the physical world. He cannot control the voice or move the hands of a sleeping person. If such phenomena take place by him it is only because he has already entered the minds of his subjects while they are in a conscious state. Thus it was with Cayce. Cayce was not asleep when he made his pronouncements. He entered the psychic trance state only from a conscious state of mind. This rule is true for all psychics. No matter what evidence is adduced to show that other psychics could produce their "revelations" from sleep there is always a conscious decision by the psychic to enter into such a trance state.

The Purpose Behind SS

From rumors that circulate about the appearance of the Revelation, from statements and anecdotes related by Sadler and other family members, and from our habitual notions of channeling, nearly everyone concludes that the Papers were channeled. The idea of a Sleeping Subject and parallels with Edgar Cayce, reinforce such conclusion. After all, channeling is the process of a human mind serving as a conduit for disembodied spirits. Weren't disembodied spirits the source of the Papers?

Why didn't true divine beings come in direct visitation, as with Paul on the road to Damascus, or as with Moses in the many visitations described in the Pentateuch?

They didn't for severely practical reasons. If Sadler, or someone else, had served as a scribe, taking dictation, would we believe they were not channeling? The Koran is a good example. The Book of Oahspe is another. If Sadler, or someone else, had said that an angel visited him and gave him the dictation, would we believe that story any more than we believe the record Sadler gave us?

Many elements were involved in the process. How did our planetary supervisors expect to condition Sadler to accept a divine Revelation? They could not just drop it on him from out of the blue. He would not have believed it. He would have thought someone was playing a joke on him. (In fact, at the initial stages of the miracle, he did, indeed, believe someone was playing a joke on him.) He would not have had twenty years of preparation to the new, and startling, concepts. Sadler was a stickinthemud midwestern traditionalist. He believed in God and country. He believed in Christianity. He believed in the Jesus of tradition. Until he became thoroughly disillusioned with Ellen White and John Harvey Kellogg, he was a dyedinthewool Seventh Day Adventist. He left the Church because of the internecine warfare, and because he was stabbed in the back by Kellogg. But those personal events were highly important to prepare Sadler psychologically. They created deep disillusionment with human theological authority. Sadler no longer trusted human mortals as sources of divine truth, although he continued to respect Ellen White's inspirations for their religious value, not their divine authenticity. That disillusionment came several years before he met SS. But he continued for many years after the first event of SS, and after the actual event of the Revelation, as a traditional Christian believer, and a member of a formal religious congregation.

Our planetary supervisors had to devise some method by which they could get Sadler's attention, and condition him to their presence. They used his profession as a Doctor, and they used his views on psychic phenomena and spiritualism. He was adamant that such things were from the subconscious or marginal consciousness of the mind. From his youthful adult days in articles in Seventh Day Adventist publications, to his many books throughout his life, he never seriously departed from such views. Although Sadler publicly admitted to the possibility of contact from divine agencies, (after all, it was Bible teaching), certainly reinforced later from his experience with the Revelation, his explanation for psychic phenomena was always as a natural but abnormal product of the human mind. Therefore, he was particularly suspicious of any psychic performance. This background made him ideal for the event of revelation. SS had to be so different in behavior that Sadler would not immediately discard him as a psychic. In the late 1920's, when the Forum members were willing to accept the Papers as a divine revelation, Sadler still clung to the notion that this was some unusual psychic phenomena he could not classify. That is why the unusual behavior of SS held him for so many years. He would not let go. Not until the Jesus Papers came, and he began to read the descriptions of the apostles, was he finally converted. He recognized that no human author or psychologist would have had the insights into those personalities as displayed in The Urantia Papers. But that did not happen until the late 1930's.

Thus the process of the revelation came squarely onto the shoulders of a trained professional, who was thoroughly familiar with human mental and psychic behavior, and who was highly skeptical in his acceptance of any unusual phenomena. That it took thirty years to convince Sadler is testimony to his tenacity for a natural explanation.

The conditioning of Sadler was a crucial part of the process of the revelation. It involved a method which everyone believes was channeling, but which Sadler could not classify as a psychic phenomenon. Not until final Papers appeared miraculously could he with all honesty and truthfulness say:

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.

The "above phenomena" was an exhaustive list of every conceivable form of psychic or abnormal mental phenomena he could devise. He made the statement at a meeting in 1958 to a group of ministers from mainline churches. That meeting was called at the request of Meredith Sprunger, a minister in the United Church of Christ, because many were questioning the origin of the Papers. (Meredith had spent many hours in private conversations with Sadler.)

Two essential questions face us. First, could our planetary supervisors have devised another method of presentation?

The answer to this question enters the realm of imagination. How could spirit beings communicate with the material world in a manner that would be accepted by human mortals? They certainly could not place it on a library shelf in the hope that someone might accidentally find it. Would persons who found such a book believe it? Would they not think of it as just another book of strange material and put it back on the shelf, as so many have done with the Papers? Would most persons not reject stealing someone else's work? How many persons possess the necessary resources to do something even if they did believe such strange work should be made known to others? How could they contact a publisher to obtain promotion rights if no publisher was shown in the book imprint? How could a firm social foundation from a single believer be built which would ensure survival in the world? How long would it take to convince another person, or even groups of persons, to accept the book as worthy of reproduction? We could go on and on, speculating about possible alternate routes, and second guessing the wisdom of the Revelators.

Other observations are important. The testimony and anecdotes of Sadler, his family members, and the Forum became a critical part of the process of recognition of The Urantia Papers as a divine revelation. If the Papers had appeared mysteriously on some library shelf that background would be missing. We would not know where to place the work. We might think of it as strictly out of some anonymous person's imagination, regardless of the profundity or nobility of its conceptual presentations. Who could tell? A history had to develop, no matter how informal, of the celestial origins of the Papers. That history was a critical part of the recognition of the Papers as a divine revelation.

Here we can understand the importance of the role of the Forum members. Through the interplay of questions and celestial answers, a group of dedicated human beings, extending beyond Sadler's private family, was developed. They were intimately involved in exchange with spirit personalities; they were willing to testify to the remarkable, even miraculous, nature of the Revelation. They could place on public record their devotion and high regard for the work. Some members of the Forum gave major portions of their private resources, or jeopardized their personal well being, for the Revelation. Those persons included Robert Burton and Clyde Bedell. (Again, both were pragmatic, practical minded business men who rejected psychic performances in all its forms and varieties.) Clyde Bedell's Concordex contributed much to help build public recognition. Thus the Forum members helped strengthen acceptance of the Papers as a divine Revelation beyond mere financial support for printing and publication. Everyone would come, asking how the Papers originated, and who was involved in their creation. This knowledge and influence then spread to other people, as many of us today are witness, and on out to the rest of the world. Indeed, the coming contests between spiritist explanations from a godless and unbelieving world, and actual origins from God, have this foundation on which to build.

Second, could our planetary supervisors have chosen someone else for the task?

The answer to this question goes back to the human pool upon which to draw. There are only so many persons who could have been trained to such task. It involved elements of self discipline. It involved elements of fortitude, and mettle not possessed by many people. Hardnosed business men might have possessed such attributes but they were mostly secular; they would not have been good candidates. Persons who were religious would come from Christian or Jewish traditions and would have rejected such possibilities. Christian ministers would not have been candidates; few of them had gone through a process of personal disillusionment to make them skeptical of human theological authority. (Remember, we are in the early years of this century, with traditional values still pervading Christianity.) The godless and academic intelligentsia would not have been candidates. On the other hand, it had to be someone with a respect for God. It had to be someone with sufficient training to deal with the process. It had to be someone with a practical view of the world, with both feet on the ground, and with considerable experience in human mental phenomena. Few such persons existed. And among them even fewer would have the combination of strong religious and psychiatric interests possessed by Sadler. So, as one considers qualifications, the realm of likely candidates shrinks more and more.

(Upon publication of his Theory and Practice of Psychiatry in 1936 Sadler was universally praised by psychiatrists and professional journals for his thorough treatment of the subject, and for his concentration on the health benefits of religion in the lives of individuals. The book was a center piece of instruction in many medical schools for years. And it came from a man who had no formal training in psychiatry.)

From such considerations perhaps we can better understand why the process was particularly tuned to Sadler, his training, and his personality.

Another Purpose to the Method of SS

I personally feel that the proscriptions placed upon Sadler prevented him from adequately explaining the difference between channeling and the unique performance of SS. Although he was adamant and forceful that no psychic phenomena were involved, to the point of denying every possible form he could imagine, he did not convince many people.

I also believe the interplay of celestial constraints and Sadler's personality were fully recognized by our planetary supervisors. They knew the uncertainty which would surround the events of the revelation. I personally feel they had another purpose to the technique of SS. That purpose is exhibited in other revelations. How do we know that John's Apocalypse came from God? Maybe it came from his imagination. Maybe it was channeled also.

It all comes down to one primary and crucial element:

Does truth speak to you?

Lack of certainty is of crucial importance in the decisions we now face.

The program God is unfolding today involves FAITHDECISION. Celestial agencies do not come down here to do our work for us, or to direct our decisions. We all must make up our own minds about revelation. We cannot do that if revelation comes to us with absolute sureness. Here are some of the elements.

1. We now live in an extreme planetary crisis. This crisis is at all levels, from the biological, to the social, to the economic, to the political, to the spiritual.

2. This crisis will continue to intensify, until breakdown occurs.

a. The first breakdown will take place with the channelers. Caligastia will call them to his service. They will go out in massive slaughter of God's people. A warning of this event was given to us by Jesus, and is partially recorded in John 16:2, ...indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. Fragments of this warning are preserved in other New Testament documents, including Matt 10:34-39, 24:9-11, Luke 21:16-17, and Rev 17:6.

b. I know nothing about the social, economic, or political environment which will permit this to take place. I can only speculate. I do know that laws and technology now exist to quickly enter into complete totalitarian control of human populations.

c. Some sense of the fierce spiritual contest can be estimated from Revelation 11:213. However, this text has been somewhat adulterated.

d. An intense international political struggle will take place. I do not know if that struggle will be the result of a worldwide economic crises, fear of maverick countries with nuclear weapons, or other horrifying scenarios.

e. Great Babylon will then use her nuclear weapons. She will destroy greater parts of the Near East, including the modern state of Israel. This is described in Jeremiah 25, and other places.

f. The nations, in turn, will bring nuclear destruction to Great Babylon.

g. This will be the end of our civilization.

h. Instructions have been provided within revelation for individuals to save themselves from nuclear destruction — for those who survive the other persecutions. The events of John 16:2 and Revelation 11 will cause everyone to reassess their spiritual loyalties and dedication to God. Allegiance to current religious structures will be destroyed.

i. After the nuclear destructions, after everyone has an opportunity to make decisions concerning personal survival, the 144,000 of The Book of Revelation, Chapters 7 and 14, will be taken away. See also Matt 24:31 & 40. They will be part of a program of planetary rehabilitation. Their children eventually will be returned to this planet for a substitute program of genetic uplift. See Deuteronomy 30:4 and I Enoch 39:1.

3. The decisions involve preservation of the better genetic and spiritual potentials of the human population. These are now more concentrated in the United States. This country will be the center stage upon which these various events will unfold. This is why The Urantia Papers were given here in the English language rather than some other country or other language.

4. Certain Urantians, because of their deep spiritual sense and training in cosmic perspectives, will be able to offer service to their fellow men as no other human group. But they will pay the same price as the rest of the population for their dedication to God.

5. The entire gamut of revelation was provided in such a way that human minds must actively employ themselves to come to understanding. The information they must study goes back to the days of Moses, through the Old Testament prophets, through I Enoch, through Jesus and John's Apocalypse, and on to The Urantia Papers. God's program cannot properly be comprehended without knowledge from this entire gamut.

6. All revelation comes to us under a cloud. None is completely free. Understanding of the Old Testament prophecies is highly uncertain; Christians

have fought over interpretation for two thousand years. Those prophecies were given in nonsequential form; time sequences were thoroughly confused. The sequences could not be understood unless some framework was provided. That is why Christian fundamentalist interpretation today is so confused and misplaced into irrational structures. Everyone struggles to find the proper arrangement; multitudes of books are written claiming to be the correct interpretation.

I recently browsed the Internet on Bible prophecy to learn that many sincere individuals are dissatisfied with interpretations, and are attempting to put some sense into it. Anyone who has read the Book of Enoch knows it is badly corrupted by extraneous material. Yet Jude quoted from it and Jesus may very well have obtained his title, Son of Man, from it. The Book of Revelation is equally corrupted, not so much by extraneous material as by some editor liberally reworking it to his human notions. The framework to make all of this comprehensible came with The Urantia Papers. Time sequences could now be laid out. Warning of the impurity of texts was impressed upon us. But presentation of The Urantia Papers also brought them under a cloud. The great concern over SS created serious doubts.

7. Human sense of truth must be employed to overcome these impediments. The Spirit of the Father will work with all who are truly dedicated to God. God's people will have the right sense of what to do. Others will be lost. The illustration about Jesus and the Book of Enoch is well taken, page 1390:

As Jesus would read these passages, (well understanding that much of the Eastern mysticism which had become admixed with these teachings was erroneous), he responded in his heart and recognized in his mind that of all the Messianic predictions of the Hebrew scriptures and of all the theories about the Jewish deliverer, none was so near the truth as this story tucked away in this only partially accredited Book of Enoch; and he then and there decided to adopt as his inaugural title `the Son of Man.' And this he did when he subsequently began his public work. Jesus had an unerring ability for the recognition of truth, and truth he never hesitated to embrace, no matter from what source it appeared to emanate.

8. God's true people also will respond in their hearts. God is using this technique to screen the human race. He is not standing at some stable door saying this is a sheep and this a goat. He is employing a method of human decisions. Not only will those with a higher sense of God make the right decisions; they will also become partners in one of the most stupendous operations this universe has ever seen. Because this is Michael's special world, the Sentimental Shrine of all Nebadon, he is performing a work the likes of which have never been. He is asking human mortals to contribute, of their own free will and choosing, under extreme conditions of doubt and uncertainty, to this universe display. This is the method he has chosen.

What a marvelous vision to cleanse and renew a world!

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