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Hi Elise!! Well, 2/3 of the “plan” in still intact – the UB and the publisher/disseminator of the UB or the Foundation. However, due to court rulings in the US over a decade or so ago, there is no longer any US copyright so there are now other publishers like the Fellowship and now, of course, the Revelation is readily available to all by down load on the internet. The Association, your host of this site, promotes and supports the Foundation efforts to publish, distribute, and translate the UB. The Association is the related group of activists organized to create and support the people network of students with study groups, conferences at local, regional, national, and international levels as well as dozens of other projects designed to connect the readership in a grass roots service organization. The Association has developed significant infrastructure to serve the growing international student body. UBIS is an independent school, online, that serves hundreds of students every year in some wonderful classes at different levels of comprehension and experience. The Fellowship is a large membership organization that has similar goals if different methods from the Association. There are many student believers that support all 4 of these organizations.
There are now dozens of websites by other students, some main stream and some way out in left field. How would you suggest that any mortals might un-scramble this omlete? Unity without uniformity is THE plan given in the UB. Lack of uniformity led to today’s reality of multiple organizations in many different forms of service mission. It hardly matters who’s in favor of what was….it’s what is that matters now. And what is, is very exciting, dynamic, growing, and moving into the future….right now!! All around. Want to help? Lots of places, lots of tasks, lots of opportunity!!
Perhaps you might be more specific as to your wishes regarding the so-called, mortal labeled, Plan. The plan itself notes that there is no plan presented in text and we are way beyond any central authority for the believers and students. But we of the Association strive to unite readers around the world who have found the UB and seek others in study and in the application and experience of the teachings in the Papers. No one here is against the book or its publication or the dissemination of its teachings or the organizing of students into action to help others. But there will be no single mortal authority or organization that’s in charge. That boat has sailed. Peace.
You are most welcome….and again, I apologize for not knowing about the document or link you provided Elise. The guy I found on the internet with The Plan was a self proclaimed Reservist….and I fear my hair caught on fire for a moment!! Hahaha. There are some very serious minded and scholarly students of the UB that are quite focused on the issues described in the documents found by the link you provided. There is great effort on many fronts to find unity and common ground among many of the various organizations that have evolved the past two decades or so. But centralized authority over the movement proved a disaster to not only the movement but to some key principals in the movement as well….the implosion of ego, self love, and the corruption of power. Turmoil, catastrophe, collapse….was followed by rebirth, rejuvenation, greater strength, more determination, and more creativity. And this occurred just as the digital age delivered instant, universal communication and limitless access to all human knowledge on a global scale.
My belief is that the UB was delivered into the hands of an intellectual class of educated and skeptical thinkers who formed the first forum, like this one and others now on-line, where great discussions and debates resulted from deep and reflective reading and studying lasting decades – a whole generation. And then, just as Rock and Roll and transistor radios came in vogue in the hands of the great boomer wave, the book was published and distributed on a glacially slow basis in an ever widening radius of new and eager students who readily shed their institutionalized religiousities in favor of the pursuit of”enlightenment” , best described as the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness. A generation hungry for change and knowledge, unencumbered by traditions and restrictions as to what might be. The man on the moon generation. The generation who watched a world coming apart around them. And yet a world where liberty and justice found voice.
This generation of Revelation students witnessed the collapse of the central authorities which were formed in the 50s – all because of many, very human, realities and frailties. Reformation of the next generation of student activists by this experience came just in time for the internet. It is my considered opinion that all of what has happened over the last 60 years had high and predictable probabilities that were well considered by those who delivered this gift to us and was not a failure but an example of mortal, evolutionary progress by well intentioned and devout students who are and were, after all, humans. I feel that the movement is but leaven and salt in the larger planetary epochal process of upliftment and that there are endless other ways in which The Most Highs are changing our world patiently, persistently, powerfully, and with an inevitable outcome. So I worry not about who’s on first or what’s on second. Above my pay grade. My role is to live and love in joy and blissful confidence of the Finality of my future and the Light and Life to come for the world of my birth. Fear Not!! Love God and one another. Those are enough for this tadpole for this life I am loving every day. Peace.
I hope we hear more of your voice Elise.
I heard this revelation is to stand for the next thousand years – give or take a few years. We are now in our babyhood timewise. I’m of the opinion we are exactly where we should be. There is room for all comers, and room for as many organizations as people want. Why not?
Yes there is room for all comers, and even room for many organizations, present and to come, but as we have seen over time, with religions, even those offshoots over time from the base religions of hundreds or thousands of years ago, that people will make of things what they will, and there are always enough sheep to follow many shepherds, but shepherds come dressed in many varieties of clothing that covers many intentions. With the onset of more and more variations of UB groups comes also the same number of interpretive expressionists who are ready and willing to instruct others under the veil of enlightenment.
I have finished reading both volumes of “The Cosmic Family”, subtitled as “Continuing Fifth Epochal Revelation”, and I would think that these works and their originating organization are more than ready to take on the future of the Urantia Book movement. Although I will not comment on this open forum as to my opinion, regarding such authoritative addendums, where it is a shame that we no longer have a PM side to communicate on this new forum, but this also may be intentional. But, from the previous readings, I have started to read the five volumes of “The Sherman Diaries”, published by Square Circles, and in perusing through them, would seem to be some interesting information which may parallel what Bradly aforementioned above. Nevertheless, time can be an enemy as well as a medication to problematic issues.
Hello Midi – I’m glad for this thread on a topic that seems to be evolving. I’d like to discuss, based on your post Midi, what might be called The Fall From Grace syndrome. I don’t wish to name names or personalize this in any way as that would only detract from the larger and far more important issue. Since I met my first other reader (some 5 years of being a lone student not knowing how to pronounce so many words…like Urantia for example) I have witnessed more than 2 of the movement’s central leaders and scholars suddenly proclaim to be Reservists, continuing to receive “instruction”, selected to lead the planet in a religious metamorphosis, often with a claim of impending doom or planetary transformation of one form or another. How does this happen??
Charlatanism aside (and there is plenty of that in the “movement”), how do one time stable, likeable, scholarly, and experienced folks in leadership positions suddenly and dramatically go 90 degrees into kookooville?? Personally, I believe by text that no one knows who is a reservist….including and especially the reservist!!!! I also think the text is very clear that no one receives any messages or revelation for any other party whatsoever under any circumstances – what I call second hand revelation, something received for others. So I conclude personally that there is no merit or truth in those, of any stripe or claim, who believe it is their role to revise, complete, or interpret the Revelation and claim that authority by that which contradicts the claim so made. These deluded ones have always been part of this movement and every movement. Let those take on the UB movement if they wish….for it is the fruit that comes or does not come that will prove the worth of each and all.
I approve of the policy here against channelers, by definition frauds or self deluded egos, and all who claim such status and power and authority to oracle the words of celestials and portend planetary status and affairs and offer nothing relevant to the truths given in the book itself for all to use as map and lamp to our source and our destiny….as servants, to all. The long time readership well remembers, with some horror, the results of such nonsense, no matter how bundled and wrapped. That which goes on now is nothing new and not any more attractive or ultimately meaningful, except perhaps how the whole movement responds and transforms to all the coming challenges to all social and religious and scientific progressions still to come. Our life is far too short but the ego far too impatient to make the difference or see the difference we long for. But I remain stupefied and paranoid about the ability of the human mind to become ultimately unable to overcome prejudice and self importance and succumb to total instability, if not insanity to some degree. Confounding to me. I am beginning to blame the weak ones who elevate the one above others and adore them into this madness. Interesting….
Nevertheless, time can be an enemy as well as a medication to problematic issues.
Yes indeed…there is a fine line of balance between impatience and procrastination. Timing is everything as they say. I remember my own impatience in a decade long ago spent crusading for change and “progress” (as I conceived it) in the movement’s founding organizations. I got to be indignant, demanding, judgmental, intolerant, impetuous….and when my position eventually prevailed, another divisive issue arose to further disrupt and derail that “victory” and sent the entire movement far deeper into chaos and division. Won the battle, lost the war. It took over a decade of isolation from the movement (not the text) and much prayer and reflection to grow through that experience and gain a better time unit perspective and appreciation for those truly in charge of our planet’s progress.
As Mara said and Midi agreed, there is room for all at the Master’s table. All who will, may come.
(1932.1) 178:1.16 …… Do not forget that you are commissioned to go forth preaching only the good news. You are not to attack the old ways; you are skillfully to put the leaven of new truth in the midst of the old beliefs. Let the Spirit of Truth do his own work. Let controversy come only when they who despise the truth force it upon you. But when the willful unbeliever attacks you, do not hesitate to stand in vigorous defense of the truth which has saved and sanctified you.
(1932.2) 178:1.17 Throughout the vicissitudes of life, remember always to love one another. Do not strive with men, even with unbelievers. Show mercy even to those who despitefully abuse you. Show yourselves to be loyal citizens, upright artisans, praiseworthy neighbors, devoted kinsmen, understanding parents, and sincere believers in the brotherhood of the Father’s kingdom. And my spirit shall be upon you, now and even to the end of the world.
Hello all,
Thank you, Elise, for sending me the link to this new forum. As a co-author of Michael’s Plan as it appears on the UAI website, I welcome all the comments I read this morning. My fellow co-authors and I are in the midst of updating the material, but it may take a while, so I thought I would let you know that I think the tone of the 2008 letter needs to be improved. And there have been many wonderful developments in the past several years that need to be recognized.
Our intent in writing an open letter to all readers was to create positive dialog among readers who are socializing the teachings with other readers. So many people now are apparently reading alone. We see this often in the study groups I attend–someone who has read alone for 15 years, for example, attends a first meeting with other readers.
This forum is a first. I cannot speak for the other co-authors and supporters of Michael’s Plan, so will let them know about this forum. There are many ways to socialize the multi-faceted teachings of The Urantia Book and many avenues of service. Cosmic wisdom in socializing the teachings is our aim. Although we have many views and opinions among ourselves, we are united in that goal. I am one of one of those readers who participates in several Urantia Book organizations.
I look forward to further discussion.
Best wishes,
Barbara
Bradley’s comments remind me of Jesus’ reaction to the strange preacher when he said, “My son, in matters of this sort it would be better for you to reckon that he who is not against us is for us. In the generations to come many who are not wholly worthy will do many strange things in my name, but I will not forbid them.” (159:2.1)
The apostles were always offended when someone claimed to teach the gospel who wasn’t taught directly by Jesus. Their reaction is sort of like the Michael Plan today, where offense is taken if followers of the Revelation do not adhere to what is considered the original intent of the founding principles set forth by the founding fathers. There is a big difference between personal interpretation of the text and administrative control over it. People should have the freedom to interpret the text however they please and also feel free to teach whatever they like about it without fear of repercussions from an iron-fisted organization intent on standardization.
As Bradley pointed out, and also according to what we are told happened with the trance prophet at the Bethsaida camp (148:8.3), sooner or later the loony tunes become obvious. If left to their own devices, they will only attract erratic and unstable people, like the nut case, Beth-Marion (148:8.4) who nearly drowned trying to walk on water. And all this is to be pitied, I think. It’s sad to see such unbalanced minds trying to act out untruths. It always fails. But if Jesus allowed this to work itself out without interference, why shouldn’t we? There must be some value in allowing insanity to play itself out, otherwise the Lucifer problem would have been snuffed out the day it started.
So many people now are apparently reading alone. We see this often in the study groups I attend–someone who has read alone for 15 years, for example, attends a first meeting with other readers.
Hello Barbara,
I hope I’m not offending you with my opinion of the Michael Plan. You seem very sincere and I appreciate that.
I’m wondering why it’s a problem to have people reading alone? I’m not following the logic. I have been reading TUB since 1970 and have only met one other reader, and he had to travel over a thousand miles to visit me, just one single time in 44 years. But, I don’t feel that I’m lacking in the least, not even a tiny bit. I’m not sorry for it or pining away for my life to be otherwise.
Why do people feel the need to build a social structure around the book rather than allow such things to occur naturally? Aren’t we told on page 1585:05 that the social implications of the new religion of Jesus must be a natural outworking of the inner experience of the soul, manifested in the spontaneous daily ministry of personal religious experience? It seems to me that attempts to contrive otherwise would most likely be an exercise of futility.
My personal opinion is that whatever organization exists should exist only to provide scaffolding, knowing that scaffolding is only temporary and will have to be changed as we evolve. Rigid structures, which attempt to withstand the tides of time, will eventually topple in the wake of inevitable change.
Greetings….in reflecting upon my experience, prior and current, with UB organizations, I agree with Bonita in that one of my great errors before was attachment to outcome. And impatience for its fruition. I now work exclusively on infrastructure and process capability as a servant to truth and beauty and goodness and the Revelation and its community of students, trying to build that which will sustain the efforts and challenges to come with little regard as to measureable progress or personal contribution or finality of result – success in human time unit perspective, or completion of some sort. I have come to believe that one of the patterns and truths presented to us by the Master and the UB is the profound difference in response-ability and responsibility.
That is to say that if I feel responsible for an outcome, then I become so attached to that preconception of either my own making or by the adoption of someone else’s making or some institutionalized vision of result, that I see every and all obstacles, delays, new data or variables, unforeseen consequences, etc. as something to overcome and resist. I now own the result and the process in ways that are illusionary at best and delusional and misguided and now blinding at worst. The end does not justify the means. The end is irrelevant in fact – at least to humans in this brief flash of a life….it is the process of response and the skillfulness of response that keeps process moving forward and contributes positively to results. Only short timers of great impatience demand a preconceived result from the process.
Jesus was so response-able. And I am beginning to comprehend that this is where truth lies and our challenge. What happens is far less important than how we respond to what happens. We cannot control what happens nor can we predict the future nor create a preconceived result without ignoring all the intersections of all the variables always in play. I have always been stumped by the “wise as a serpent” thing; “innocent as doves” is so much easier to discern for me. I think the wisdom thing is first an acknowledgement that we’re not in charge of anything EXCEPT our response to everything and everyone and every choice that intersects with our being. We may also be able to avoid certain situations of entrapment and certain characters that fail the sniff test and better position ourselves in some ways by understanding cause and effect by our experience but this skill of maturity does not put us in control of anything still.
As Midi pointed out earlier, the celestials are also successful based on their response-ability. The Master taught that love is the most powerful response to any and all circumstances and situations. Now Jesus (and his universe) does plan and organize and create infrastructure designed for response-ability regardless of what may happen. This mechanism is what delivered 1000 times more good from the rebellion than the untold carnage it created. And what of the murder of our Lord? Was this “the plan”? No. But the love response to that event shakes the foundation of our world. Love is not a passive feeling but a profoundly powerful antidote and virus at the same time…it does not just heal but it brings strength and corrective results to all evil and sin. It does not prevent them for both will forever remain potentials of free will.
So I think that many who “plan” a “result” are blinded by their attachment to that result. And will remain forever disappointed and frustrated when things do not go according to the “plan”. And any plan for a central authority and controlling mechanism regarding an epochal revelation will surely be frustrated and disappointed for not even celestials or Creator Sons enjoy such control over evolutionary events – even non-human ones and especially not human ones. What they do enjoy is a sublime confidence in the eventuation of perfecting by experience….with plan b, and then plan c, and right on down the alphabet – until the plan now in play may not resemble in any way the original plan a but the persistent infusion of love….and time….always leads to God’s will . Error fades, loves blooms and radiates outward, forever engaged in affecting results to come.
We are not responsible, God is. We are not in charge, God is. Who doubts God’s purpose, power, and plan? Who knows the right outcome or target for the divine process of making heavenly lemonade from the lemons of experience and choice in time and space? Certainly not me. I am so happy now to be a loyal and more patient tadpole with full confidence that I am here to learn response-ability with the power of love and in complete confidence in God’s way. Thanks to all. This is becoming quite interesting….and welcome Barbara – I look forward to more on this fascinating topic. Peace.
Barbara – personally, I am quite disturbed by at least one self proclaimed reservist on your endorsement list….one who single handedly drove the Brotherhood off the cliff and into ruin and despair by the mind at mischief and ego run wild. While it is not my role to judge any, your group’s inclusion of this individual does not endear your “Plan” to me and will forever make suspect the source of your group’s inspiration. Having said that, there are also some awesome servants and loyal supporters of righteous mission process to spread the Revelation and disseminate its teachings who endorse this effort. I do not criticize the group, we’ll let the Plan speak for itself and stand on its own merits, but…
Of course, I also remain skeptical of any group that would have me as a member – hahaha!
Much wisdom on this topic in this thread in my opinion from you both, Bonita and Bradly.
In reading the plan myself, a foundational problem and fatal flaw in how I read it personally is how thoroughly the conclusions rest on apocrypha, the so-called “communications from the revelators to the contact commissioners” outside the book itself. It reads to me as a document of a small group of people who weren’t really the intended recipients of the so-called communications, but who are organizationally-minded and have extended the apocrypha with a lot of assumptions of their own, to then conclude how other people should or shouldn’t be organizing and publishing the book. And this extension of apocrypha salted heavily with assumptions by a limited number of people is titled as “Michael’s Plan”? I don’t doubt the sincerity of the people who wrote the document, but it’s not hard to see why it hasn’t perhaps amounted to too much.
Ideas like those in the UB are bound to spread evolutionarily and with fits and spurts and using developments that weren’t even possible to anticipate earlier, and which inevitably won’t have anything to do with the original organizations, but instead from the inner life of individuals and what they do with the teachings. It’s all healthy and natural even if not always so orderly in appearance, in my view.
To use an analogy, it’s like the UB was planted on this world in a backyard called Chicago, and it was given certain trellises from which its vines could grow and strengthen. People wisely cultivated the slow and patient growth up the trellises, gardening it as the vines spread and the planting got stronger, admiring and enjoying the blooms and fruit.
Yet, the fruit of it inevitably was carried off by some individuals as they lived their lives around the planet, and the seeds from the dispersed fruit started some of their other little shoots growing up here and there. It wasn’t connected with the original trellises anymore. They were in sidewalk cracks and along a fence in a neighbor’s yard and all sorts of messy places. And plenty of people didn’t even have any thoughts or considerations about the original trellises.
The “Michael’s Plan” document reads to me as being from individuals who have had much faith in the wisdom of the original few backyard trellises for supporting the UB, to such a degree that they want to believe those same trellises (the original organizations) are so integral that the growth and ideas beyond the trellises are of concern. It’s a big world however. Like it or not a lot is going to grow and happen beyond the bounds of the original organizations.
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