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Hello Bradly, Julian, Rick, and all,
I’ll answer the question about revelatory commission communications that are not in The Urantia Book from the point of view of co-authors of the Michael’s Plan document. We do not use the term “apocrypha” to refer to them as in our experience none of the definitions of that term apply: we have no questions about the source of the documents, nor were they hidden or secret, nor were they intended to be part of the text of The Urantia Book. Upon the founding of the organizations the revelatory commission mandated for the publication of the book, the contact commissioners, as also mandated by the revelatory commission, placed the revelatory commission communications mandated for historical archives in the files of both Urantia Foundation and Urantia Brotherhood.
To answer Bradly’s question about why we didn’t base our Michael’s Plan document solely on the text of the book: If the history of our original organizations had been included in the book, we would have based our analysis and presentation solely on the book. However, the revelatory communications described above are historical documents of the organizations; therefore, any complete consideration of Urantia revelation planning must include them. Readers over the years have had various views of the revelatory communications not in the book, just as readers have varying reactions to and interpretations of the book.
A little background about how we came to author the 2008 documents: after the 2007 Fellowship Summer Study Session, at which all of us had been studying, among other topics, Seraphic Planetary Government (Paper 114), David Elders, Charles Olivea and George Park (all originally from the East coast of the US), who had long been studying patterns of revelation in the book, as Bradly mentioned, asked Carolyn Kendall, also a longtime study of those topics, to help them authenticate the revelatory communications. She was a member of the Forum, as were her parents before her, so is a primary source for these documents. Carolyn, with whom I have studied revelatory patterns since the mid-70s, asked me to verify for her. We have independent first-hand experiences with the documents, a generation apart (I started reading in Wichita, KS, USA, 1965). My experience came from working with both Urantia Foundation and Urantia Brotherhood documents in their Chicago archives, where I moved in 1975. I was happy to help, and we all continued to study online with our good friend Nick Stefero (Omaha, NB, USA). We came to assemble and authenticate relevant documents and write our paper. We then desired dialog with Urantia reader communities, who have been generous in accepting us or inviting us to meetings and conferences. I mention our locations in response to an earlier comment: only one person in our writing team is from Chicago.
Our co-author team are in an ongoing study of patterns and processes of revelation. Based on feedback and other work on history since 2008, we are updating our study and documents. I deeply appreciate this excellent Forum discussion in that regard. To answer Rick’s earlier question, we would not and do not base our views about Michael’s plan (small “p”) solely on revelatory commission communications that are not in the book. We may want to bring more of the book’s passages into our documents, especially the ones we reference frequently in our ongoing work together.
Michael’s plan is known fully only to him and his celestial associates. Michael’s celestial staff on Urantia meet at noon every day to carry out our Planetary Prince’s ever evolving plan for Urantia. We can all speculate about what they may be discussing as we speak
Peace,
Barbara
Rick…guess I’m in that “minority” with you….and my concern is how that minority will quickly become the majority over time. No criticism or judgment on Christie, a valiant servant, but she did, indeed, put the movement in quite a pickle by selecting and promoting the two personalities who defaulted their leadership roles and brought the movement to division and to its knees. That’s the problem. So did the Mandate come before or after the words….”You are on your own now.” (another piece of apocrypha)? I find such historical documents both interesting and, now, irrelevant. And potentially controversial in their irrelevance. The movement began by study group formation and book dissemination and volunteer activist organization. Birth and launch achieved!! Now what? Well, that work begun is barely into its toddler years so I think the next stage is nurture and maturation and organic growth in preparation for what the angels and others are doing with book placement and truth growth in the readership to now grow exponentially rather than just mathematically. The Association President’s trip to South America recently discovered many hundreds of study groups and an explosion of book sales and interest. Phase I is not yet complete but the Association and other organizations are on to Phase II – responsive infrastructure to accommodate the rising tide of readership globally.
The Association’s next symposium is planned around Teachers – the growing need for them, training, organizing them, and creating formats and access to them. UBIS has been working for years to bring students from around the world together to discover the UB with capable teachers and a wonderful spectrum of curriculum. They recently upgraded their platform for a huge leap forward in translation capability and recruit and train teachers for their growing student body. The Association is dedicating significant budgets to this website as an educational meeting place and to translation of the site and all publications in recognition, too, of the globalization of the movement. Personally, I think things are quite peachy and moving along briskly and simply keeping up with the success of the movement’s past and the angels of religion and progress and the Spirit of Truth will keep us all quite busy. Both UBIS and the Association are closely affiliated with and cooperative with the Foundation, so unity is hardly dead or disabled. I think Michael’s plan moves forward robustly, if not according to the preferences or in the time frame some may have. Impatience is no virtue. Blindness to reality isn’t either. And the reality is that the vine planted by the original Forum members bears much fruit and is in full blossom with that fruit still to come. The defaults of those two leaders did not derail or even significantly disrupt the movement, they did transform it by those experiences of disappointment and disillusionment, bringing greater strength and wisdom to those many worthy ones who perservered and persisted in loyalty to truth, beauty, goodness, and the Revelation. I have no complaints about progress.
But it is always interesting to consider next steps and priorities, especially in consideration of the examples and patterns given so generously within the Revelation. That which came to be “about” the gospel soon overwhelmed and distorted the gospel “of” Jesus. That danger and tendency is another example presented for our discernment and we are given fair warning about the “about”. Do we need more than the FER itself to guide us into priorities and actions to serve its spread around the world? The movement needs scholars, servants, and students….the rest is evolutionary! I find the history of “about” a serious distraction to many new students on multiple forums. But, I think, a couple more generations of Mansion world graduates will reduce the attachment so many of us long timers have with origins and mandates. The movement is not about the servants or the history of its founding – the past – but the Revelation itself as it transforms a world over many generations to come – the future.
Again….just one tadpole’s opinion.
I find the history of “about” a serious distraction to many new students on multiple forums.
Yes! I agree. The “about” stuff is all very interesting and important historically, but if we’re going to get embroiled in “abouts” shouldn’t it be about the Father’s business? Aren’t we supposed to be embracing the living truth, as it is in this generation going forward?
As I pointed out before, I think the Michael Plan group should organize themselves behind the mission of preserving those concepts they deem essential, according to the dictates of their soul’s consciousness. There is a place in the overall scheme of planetary evolution for what they believe , so I think there is value in pursuing it. However, I do not think there is any reason to compel others to be part of the group nor do I think that any group can claim their ideas are more superior than others. There is need of many groups with many other jobs equally vital to the evolution of this little planet, and they demand equal respect and support.
After all, there is really only one mandate: (56:0.1) . . . the Universal Father’s mandate: “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” Are there any perfect people around here? I think not.
Furthermore, I think that there must be a constant effort to avoid succumbing to the dependency humans tend to have on authority and power. Centralizing authority according to so-called mandates, wherever they claim to come from, is fraught with danger. And anyone who thinks they know what the Planetary Prince mandates needs to have their meds adjusted. We are all peons. Much loved peons, but peons none the less.
Interesting the way the Mandate itself says to look within the text and Jesus delivery of the gospel for the template and pattern to emulate and it further admonishes great patience to allow the evolutionary process to bring forth progress and no mandate for centralized authority seems apparent at all. It also claims the FER is a timely gift DUE TO prior progress (not any emergency insertion) – we deserved the next epochal Word. Again, I am very pleased, astounded really, at the progress of the first 4 generations of readership – the original Forum, those who organized the next generation of activist servants creating organizational capacity and hundreds of study groups, the generation that witnessed the collapse of organizational structures and cooperation, and the generation that rose from those ashes to regroup and carry the movement into the digital age. Quite evolutionary and yet quite quickly in universe time and mortal epoch time frame.
Consolidation of the multiple agencies of the movement by efforts to bring unity and cooperation by diversity rather than by authority will likewise, I think, be very fruitful in time to come. Learning unity without uniformity is no small task and will meet both resistance and failures as we learn better thereby how to reach that textual mandate. Exciting times. So glad I have been witness and participant in such important work. I will be forever grateful for the many pioneers who took those first steps into this adventure, many of whom I have known and will meet again soon enough. But until then, there is work to do right here and right now. The movement does not wait and seeks both servants and servant leaders to step up and act as though the Revelation given us is both true and important. Now.
Thanks to all. From the deep pockets to the widow’s mite, study group hosts, forum posters, volunteers on so many service committees, all those who give of their time, talent, skill, experience, and money….thank you all. Peace
This is Scott :). I put this in the same category as the Teaching Mission. A lot of fluffy comments without any substance. I also see parts of it that contradict the revelation itself.
There are points I agree with though.
The word “Apocrypha” has been used in this topic and I performed a search as to its relationship with The Urantia Book, and my search result came up with the following:
The Books of the Apocrypha: A Study Outline
Compiled by Dr. William S. Sadler
http://www.urantiabook.org/archive/readers/books-of-the-apocrypha.htm
“Contents:
Now prior to having read the Urantia Book, much of my time and studies went to collecting and reading as many of the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal text of the Old and New Testaments, along with many other text which lead me to Gnostic and other codex’s of various religious sects. Having collected and read many of these text prior to having read the Urantia Book, it gave me a more broad perspective of the context of the Urantia Book. So much so that having read the forth book in the Urantia Book paper series, I was able to relate to much of its context, when reading Andrew’s and Philips role as the narration proceeded, in that I recall reading on Apocryphal text where Jesus told Andrew and Philip a version of creation when they came to him questioning the Biblical accounts of creation, where alas, having read this account many times, I can no longer find this version in any of my hardcopies which I know that I retained, yet this is also true with a similar account where it was recorded that Jesus explained various principles through other Apocryphal text like stories about ‘the flowering branch’ and ‘the 12 mountains’, alas lost to my memory only, at least so I perceive. But then again there is an up side, where now what I am rereading seems to have changed from my original reading.
Now it would be interesting why Dr. Sadler would present this type of article, if there was not some factor as to its content. Nevertheless, as we study the Urantia Book it would seem that there are various Cosmic family ties which many of us have with each other and which may be better understood as those of us acquire a relationship with our Thought Adjuster, and as those who understand that this better union produces a better understanding of our Cosmic family circle members we become more perfected to the understanding and abilities which our Thought Adjuster has available, even through this may not be perfect as our Father is perfect but perfect enough to comprehend our role for His Plan, and how that plan can be effected through our causes.
Hi Bonita and all,
I agree with you that history of and about The Urantia Book can be a distraction for new readers. My personal view that one can only begin to get an answer to “who wrote the book?” without reading it all the way through at least once. When new readers want to know about its authorship and history, we read what the book says. If they really want more, I show them the Contact Commissioners’ short history on the Urantia Foundation website.
To date, our “Michael’s Plan” co-authors have only sought feedback and presented to experienced readers, except that there may have been some in our audience last summer who had not completed a first reading. So your point about new readers is well taken.
To address any concerns about my being offended by what you or anyone says here, I am not, appreciate your asking. Please don’t hesitate to respond if I offend someone. This is valuable, insightful dialog in a safe environment, thanks to UAI.
To clarify the method, timeframe, and provenance for the revelatory communications we reference in our “Michael’s Plan” document, all of them were communicated through the human subject used for tranmission of the book. He was unconscious with two or more contact commissioners present at all times. All such communications came before August 21, 1952, the date of the last revelatory commission communication the contact commission received. The provenance of these historical documents is from the contact commission to Urantia Foundation.
I do not claim to know what the planetary government has done since these final communications to the contact commission, nor do any of our co-authors. We obviously think about it and exchange ideas, but make no claims beyond the documents described above, which we accept as a matter of faith and belief. I am confident that our co-authors and supporters respect and encourage individuals to make their own decisions about the validity of these communications. In my experience, no Urantia Book-related organization has ever claimed ecclesiastical authority. I firmly believe one of our most important functions is to ensure and maintain spiritual freedom in our relations with all brothers and sisters, every mortal on the planet.
Peace, Barbara
To Barbara and to all,
Well, this is proving to be a very interesting thread. My interest in what is called “Michael’s Plan” arises because it appears to be an effort to discern and carry out the objectives Michael set forth as recorded in the Fourth Revelation. It is my view that the reason the Urantia reader community has had so many stops and starts and is growing relatively slowly is because they are trying to introduce a new revelation instead of creating a bridge from the Fourth Revelation to the Fifth.
Many here talk about discerning patterns in the UB. Well one pattern is the interrelation between revelations. The Second sought to uplift the First, the Third was an emergency mission designed to uplift what was left of the Second, and the Fourth uplifted the Third. It seems logical that the recipients of the Fifth would work to uplift what was generated and intended by the Fourth. The message of the Fourth – the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man and the need to spread this message to the ends of the earth – is thoroughly set forth in Part IV of the UB. And though it was quickly distorted, the message merely slumbered awaiting a more enlightened era.
The UB readers of this enlightened era have the benefit of the Fifth Revelation that fully explains the Fourth. So it seems to me that the most effective route for the UB community is to build a bridge from the Fourth to the Fifth. Instead, it seems that the UB community dismisses the Fourth and seeks instead to establish the Fifth as a standalone concept. Isn’t that the sin of Caligastia? Revolution. Trying to establish unadulterated truth before the people are ready for it. And isn’t the result the same? Confusion, dissension and a suppression of the Revelation?
I know there is a lot of distaste for organized religion and even Christianity. But it seems to me that finding a way to bridge the work of Christianity with the enlarged understanding embodied in the Fifth Revelation is the best course. Hence, my interest in the so-called “Michael’s Plan.” I thought “Michael’s Plan” meant a continuation of the objections and message set forth by Jesus of Nazareth. Surely that has message and objection not changed.
Elise
Hi Elise,
We agree revealed truth needs a certain continuity across time, and a unity of purpose. We may disagree on the method of achieving that. Disagreement doesn’t necessarily mean dysfunction or default. Only that we are working it out.
I have to admire your intention, but THIS discussion is necessarily about whether the Association should endorse this particular “plan”. It looks like no matter what anyone says the project will go forward. So, should UAI as an organization support and proclaim it? I foresee problems with that. For instance if we build this bridge to the Christian epoch, will that mitigate to exclude Buddhists, Islamists, Hindus, the five billion non-christians on the planet? Will it enable the drift toward making the UB an extention of an “extemporized religion”? To my mind there is great danger in identifying this new revelation with one that is quickly fading. The reason the celestials sent the book is because Christianity is failing to attract and hold the attention and loyalty of moderns, because Christianity has lost most of its savor.
The so called Plan might work out well, but more likely it will take the revelation down a religious rabbit hole that would not be good for the fourth or fifth epochs. To me, the greatest service we can render is not to stand by the old and failing doctrines but to proclaim and live the new revelation. Christians are already saved, and for the most part, are not interested in anything extra-biblical. It’s the non-christian world that needs and wants this new revelation, but they might well reject it if it appears to be too closely associated with politicized Christianity, which the Midwayers say has become a ideological/social institution hated more and more by those outside its doctrinal borders.
I understand the tendency to want to make the UB into a new revived Christianity since much of the book points to Jesus’ life, but I don’t believe it is wise in the long run. One organization puts Jesus’ picture on the cover of its version of the UB. That can get a librarian killed in certain regions of Urantia. And it ties the word Urantia directly to the Bible. That is a bad idea in the West and the East, in my opinion.
Rick
Richard E Warren
As is often the case, it is far easier for any group to agree on desired outcomes or goals than it is to then agree on strategies, tactics, priorities, and the timing of those elements. For me, the goal is laudable – an organizational treatise on unification of the movement to create efficiencies in organization, clarity of purpose, and power in function – results in dissemination.
Again, for me only do I speak, the issues by this attempt lie in the name (which I find both false and presumptuous), the source material used in an attempt to claim authority of its correctness (the FER itself offers much such direction, pattern, and instruction), and the inclusion of an endorsement by one who proclaimed himself a reservist and channeler of celestial messages (for and about others) which led directly to the Pandora’s box to soon follow. This individual took the whole movement down the rabbit hole…to whom is his opinion or endorsement important?
The end of the paper is quite benign actually – a school for scholars and students and religionists to share and discover the facts and truths given to us by Epochal Revelation for the centuries to come and an acceleration of dissemination of both the text and the teachings. Laudable indeed.
So why then, drag down the unification potential by the name, the source material, and the endorsement? And why is the document posted publicly if its audience is select and is primarily focused on unity among existing organizations….and their leadership and membership for discussion, consideration, revision, etc.?
Hi Bradley and all,
As one who has hoped for years that readers would dialog responsibly about these topics, I welcome the lively discussion, although it’s a little hard to keep up.
I am happy that the theme of unification resonates with you, Bradley. As I would be the last person who would want to do anything to impede unity among all followers of Jesus, I quickly assure you that how to communicate with other readers about our paper was a topic of much discussion in early 2008. We did not want it to be a “public” discussion, and we started by communication with close reader associates, some of whom wanted to add their names, which we decided to do. How to get wider participation in the dialog has been hard to decide as, ironically, we no longer have Urantia Brotherhood where more private venues among all readers were provided until 1989.
We opted for a website hidden from all web crawlers that George Park created for us. That worked pretty well, but traffic to the site had died down by 2012, and we decided to take the site down, but archive the document. We considered various reader -sponsored sites about archiving it and UAI responded. It was strictly a decision to archive it for reference until Elise started this forum.
I’ll continue to address your concerns as I am able; however, I just wanted to address the topic of “self-proclaimed reservists” among readers. I was utterly intrigued by that concept and realized that in my experience, I cannot think of one. Even the contact commissioners did not speak of themselves as reservists, though by the end of the book project, it was obvious to all in the forum that they were reservists. Even then, they never referred to themselves by name or as reservists in any of the histories they prepared, as directed, they believed, by the revelatory commission.
As I do know one person on our list who may be portrayed the Internet as having been a “self proclaimed reservist,” I plan to do a search to see what’s out there. On the other hand, that may be just your understanding of what happened with that individual. As the person I am thinking of is deceased, I cannot invite them to join out forum to speak for himself, which would ordinarily be my approach. However, I am intimately knowledgable of the events that may contribute to your understanding. They are indeed among the deep and controversial historical events of our movement, so I have been giving thought as to how best to respond.
Briefly, from my first-hand experience with the key persons involved, I would simply say that the person named by others at the time to be a reservist never claimed himself to be. You simply won’t find it in oral or written history. The opinion of others, yes, but of the person himself, no. Being proclaimed a reservist by one’s reader friends is not an experience I wish on any one of us. It means endless heart-ache for the person so called, not to mention their family members.
With love and peace,
Barbara
Barbara – thank you so much for the dialogue and such patience with me. As one who has long supported the mission of the Foundation, the Brotherhood, the Fellowship, and now, the Association (and still the Foundation), I appreciate your sensitivities and I have no wish to disparage any truth seeker or pilgrim, especially those who have graduated and cannot speak for themselves. But I was a contemporary of the person and the events well known to all who were there or who can read the History as archived. The messages he proclaimed to have received, on multiple occasions, led directly to great division – when such messages are thusly proclaimed to be for others and from celestial sources and are used to direct decisions and actions that effect others so profoundly and effectively, I call such claims second hand revelation – they are no longer personal revelation but claim, rather, to be epochal continuation or second hand from one for another. This special/chosen-person/people syndrome goes to the very heart of the Revelatory warnings and defy its claims and content….not to mention Dr. Sadler’s mind at mischief warnings as well. The result of this self delusion was disaster.
The movement today is rife with those who also proclaim the power and authority to amend, complete, continue, or explain the Revelation as presented. To hold up another one who began this circus of delusion, deception, and falsehood only adds fuel to these claimants and future ones to come – some sincere and some fraudulent charlatans – all seeking shelter under the shadow of that cloud the movement labored and suffered under already….lesson learned. There’s a reason the Association has a no-channeling policy…and it began 30 years ago.
Certainly one can find contrition and repentance after such a personal blunder and we must each forgive all such transgressions by all others, nonetheless, the movement was damaged and led astray by this party and structurally ended that unity your group seems so earnestly to seek out now – so again, why associate your efforts with such a one? It makes it a non-starter, or deal breaker for me personally. I wonder at the need for endorsement and affiliation of any individuals when it is organizational unity and progress that seems to be the goal.
I find the goal noble and worthy for consideration by the evolutionary process within the movement now and in time to come. But to claim it is our Master Son’s plan when it is clearly drafted by mortals seems odd and controversial and constrains the potential and the template presented comes directly from the published Revelation itself….so why use unpublished sources when not needed and when no truly new instruction of import is thereby proclaimed?
Thanks again Barbara….I love your voice, temperament, ideals, and goal. Best wishes. Sorry to be such a putz….but you asked for opinions.
Hi Bradley,
As you probably know by now, I am happy to receive your response, and do understand the strong feelings people have about readers who share their experiences about communication with superhuman personalities, especially the ones some 30 years ago that we now so tactfully discuss. The history of that episode is only partially published, and I sometimes wonder whether to comment, primarily out of my regard for Urantia Foundation. However, as long as people continue to see it as important, commentary and more historical accounts may make their way into the dialogue (please forgive my typos, especially prevalent when I am writing from a tablet or smartphone:)
My only point so far is that the individual in question did not “self proclaim” to be a reservist, and I know there is no record of that as it would have to be from him. I also know that he allowed no sharing of written versions of his communication experiences and did not intend for them to be widely shared orally. This may come as a shock to those who read others’ accounts (not his). The speed with which his trusted associates who were asked to keep it all in closely held confidence amazed me then and amazes me still. For me it was a time of thinking a lot about the wisdom of movement leaders. So when you read the various accounts, I think it’s wise to look at who made the claims and how they made them, especially at the outset. I am pretty sure people until recently have not seen accurate accounts of what his communications were.
I agree enormous trouble for our movement came then is apparently still important. That’s all I can say for now, and I appreciate your thought provoking opinions and your deep commitment and caring for the welfare of our treasured Urantia revelation.
Peace and love,
Barbara
You people are driving me crazy with suspense. Who the heck is this person or persons? I guess you can’t say, but darn . . . it is intriguing. It’s like a real whodunit movie going on here. Makes you crave a bag of popcorn.
Anyway, I’m totally ignorant about these goings on in the past and that is on purpose. Secretly, I don’t give a rat’s rear end. It doesn’t matter a hoot what kind of crazy stuff goes on around the Revelation. The apostle Paul claimed to have conversations with and visions of Jesus, all of which influenced the direction of the last Revelation. Personally, I think he was a madman, for what it’s worth. The same thing is happening again. So what? People are going to do this, it’s part of the frailty of being human. Humans have a hard time processing the spiritual domain and get it all flummoxed up on a regular basis.
Receiving messages from celestials and channeling are not the same thing. Not that I put any credence in either of those things myself. Messages from celestials are purely personal but they can affect the whole world based on how the individual receiving them reacts. And most people react inappropriately, unfortunately. Celestial messages can be very unsettling to the psyche, which is why they rarely happen.
So what’s the next scene? Are you going to reveal the reservist? Or is it going to be a cliff hanger . . . off to the microwave.
[P.S. Can someone please explain the Michael Plan in a few sentences? I confess that it makes absolutely no sense to me at all.]
Hi Bonita,
I love this–enjoy the popcorn!
One of the things a few of us “Michael Plan” folks discussed after last summer’s workshop was the need to write a short summary of it. One attendee had already prepared one, but has found it still needs some work. Until now, the summary document has proceeded glacially, and I’ll share one as quickly as we can.
Peace,
Barbara
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