Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 22:41:49 -0600
To: ubros@cue.com,UBtalk@Utalk.org
From: "LARRYM MULLINS" <LAWRENCEOFDENVER@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: QUESTIONS ON PATHWAYS, SEDONA & BOULDER
 

QUESTIONS ON PATHWAYS, SEDONA & BOULDER

<<snip>>
1. How do you get a copy of the URANTIA Book Pathways Edition of 5000? Or are any still available? And is there really that much more in this edition that was left out of Foundation/Fellowship printings?

2. What do you think of Aquarian Concepts Community and the people at Sedona? I am going to be starting the home study course they offer very soon, as it is the only UB type training course I know to be available, or are there more out there?

3. What do you think about Continuing Fifth Epochal Revelation (CFER)? Could it be possible it really is continuing revelation, only more "real time" for us?

4. Lastly, can you tell me more about URF and ya'lls activities? <<snip>>

If ya'll are still taking affidavits let me know and I will send a completed one your way, because I definitely agree with it's message and meaning. I also am in deep sympathy with Kristen and Eric, and will be sending financial help to them soon... Thanks for listening and I hope to hear from you soon! All of our Father's blessings for you, I am sincerely yours........ "VC"
 

Hi VC: Some of the questions you have asked are easy, and some very difficult to answer. The easy questions are about the Pathways Edition: I understand that 5,000 or so books were printed. About half of these are titled: “The Urantia Papers.” The other half are titled “God’s Bible.” Both editions have the exact 1955 edition of the Papers. The two books are exactly alike with this exception: God’s Bible has a different cover, and two different title pages at the very beginning. For information write or call Chris Hansen, #1 Scenic Drive, Highlands NJ, 07732. I am not sure of the current number, but try 908 - 291 4402. I believe Chris also has a Pathways web site.

As far as changes, the current editions of the Urantia Book produced by the Foundation contains ten or so editorial changes - [changes beyond spelling, punctuation and capitalization] - which they describe as “more than minor.” The Fellowship edition was much more accurate to the first edition of 1955, and a listing of changes were made available on a separate sheet. [They also made editorial changes.] None of the editorial changes in either Urantia Foundation books or the Fellowship’s are significant to most readers. The problem I have had with both publications is that the changes they made were done virtually arbitrarily, and without traditional footnote indications, authorship and appropriate explanations.

Consider the Bible.  There are something like 700 valid copyrights on Bibles.  An interpretation of what the Appeal Court might have been thinking is that copyright is good for business, and what's good for business is good for America.  Every publisher of the Bible gets a copyright on the creative effort to publish the public domain Bible text. The Foundation gets a copyright because of their Table of Contents, pagination,  hyphenation decisions, etc.

You can see the need for a touchstone of perfect 1955 editions, or at least with suggested changes explained in footnotes. If the Foundation flooded the world with such Urantia Books at a low price, properly packaged and designated as the authorized inviolate text, they could still fulfill their obligation to protect the text for future generations.

As it is the Foundation’s and the Fellowship’s attitude that their text is “close enough,” and changes do not require traditional footnoting are a short-sighted recipe for disaster. Fortunately, modern computers are able to check various “versions” and see what various publishers with proprietary hang-ups are up to. Although the attitude of “close enough” serves you and me and few generations, it betrays the reader of five hundred years hence. It’s like an airplane that starts off just a bit off-course and after a long journey will be hundreds of miles off target. Likewise, an attitude of “good enough” will eventually lead to countless “versions” and variations of the “corrected” Urantia Text - without a touchstone authentic inviolate text to compare them with.

The Revelators did not trust human discretion, and gave categorical instructions to the Contact Commission to print the text exactly as received, with the exception of corrections in “spelling, punctuation and capitalization.” For two organizations of presumed sincere and logical people who are supposed to be SERVING us and the Revelation, the inviolate concept should be Revelation 101. But alas, they do not get it. Dedicated computer-whizzes must protect the text by exposing changes until one day someone else assumes the responsibility that has been defaulted: to produce and make available to the world vast numbers of certified and inviolate texts of the Urantia Papers.

Your next series of questions are about Sedona. Answering these is much more difficult.

When a revelation is placed into the evolutionary mainstream, it must blend and flow with the trend of human thought. This means humans may interpret revelation in different ways. [The evolutionary freedom to interpret underlines the need for touchstone first editions of the Urantia Papers that future generations can trust without a computer check.] The danger comes when the boundaries between human interpretation and epochal revelation are blurred. None of us can take the position of forbidding one explication or another, the Urantia Papers themselves encourage such creative human efforts at commentary. But we can take strong exception to human interpretation that is presented as epochal revelation.

The Spirit of Truth will inspire restatements of the Master’s teachings for each age and each generation. [1731] “The religion of the spirit leaves you forever free to follow the truth wherever the leadings of the spirit may take you. And who can judge--perhaps this spirit may have something to impart to this generation which other generations have refused to hear?” Yet, surely no thinking person would claim that such a challenge to creatively interpret is the same as a licence to adulterate a revelation.

We can also agree that we each have an individual right to buy-into or to reject any given interpretation of the Revelation. The question that confronts us is: how do we make that personal choice? This is the profound question you have asked me. I want to be very careful how I answer. I want to be fair, and yet be clear about what I believe the Papers say.

The appeal I am making to use the Papers for verification and arbitration should be a key principle for Believers.

Some readers have certain pet concepts that are in opposition to the philosophical positions taken by the Revelation. There are people who claim they are Urantain Believers, and yet they entertain concepts that (in my judgment) the Urantia Papers clearly refute, for example: reincarnation, the channeling of “higher personalities,” astrology, mind over matter, and others. How are Believers able to reconcile this conflict?

These people find it necessary to take one of three general courses: (1) They simply put things in logic-tight compartments and ignore the conflict, (2) They struggle intellectually and spiritually with the problem until it is resolved. [This may take time. It took me nearly ten years to let go of my own belief in reincarnation.] or (3) They insist the Urantia Papers were somehow corrupted from the start and their pet belief was removed. In this light, they are “correcting” them.

The Sedona group takes the third position. In their opinion, Dr. Sadler changed the areas of the Papers that did not agree with him. In the “Salvington Circuit” Volume 1, No 1, May 1993, they write on page 20: “William Sadler Sr. was vehemently against the idea of reincarnation . . . He was also vehemently against astrology.” In this article, a “channeled” entity named Paladin insists these beliefs are valid, and explains the Urantia Papers dismissal of them in this way: “He [Dr. Sadler] then began a systematic degradation of these papers . . .”

Thus, the Sedona folks, although they have supported Kristen in her own fight for religious freedom, are in the process of “correcting” the Urantia Papers and adding new Revelation to the original Papers. In fact, they believe that the original Urantia Papers are only ten percent of the Fifth Epochal Revelation, and they are in the process of providing the rest. They believe that “correcting” of the original text is necessary, because it so obviously contradicts their added material. Are these people right in claiming the text was altered before it got into print? I cannot prove categorically that they are right or wrong. You must make this judgment.

My own decision is that the Sedona denigration of the original text is erroneous and unfounded. I base this decision upon a few personal relationships: (1) My dozens and dozens of personal conversations with Clyde Bedell (who joined the original Sadler Forum in 1924 as a young man and was a devoted Believer when I met him in 1968 at the age of seventy. He gave me my first Urantia Book.) Clyde believed Dr. Sadler would have given his life to protect the integrity of the Urantia Revelation. He told me Sadler held his responsibility as a sacred trust. Clyde said that alteration of the text would have required the collusion of at least five individuals, each of whom was sworn in sacred oath to protect the text of the papers inviolate. I have also had many discussions and exchanges with Meredith Sprunger. Dr. Sprunger, like Clyde, had a close relationship to Dr. Sadler, and Meredith supports Clyde’s position. Finally, Berkeley Elliott knew Bill Sadler Jr., who was also a Contact Commissioner from the very beginning of the actual Revelation. She also told me many times that she was convinced the text was printed in 1955 exactly as it had been received.

(2). The astounding, seamless consistency of the Urantia Papers belie human conceptual corruption. After thirty years of reading and checking, I cannot see how it would be possible to corrupt one area of the Urantia Papers and not have it conflict with others areas. There are too many threads undergirding the text that reach out like pre-computer “hyper-links” and connect to others.

The great difficulty we face here is the immense complexity and scope of the material. Virtually daily I discover something I did not know, but never have I found an inconsistency of philosophical significance. There are simply no philosophical gaffs. This is one of the best personal tests for self-proclaimed revelatory material: “Is it consistent within itself?”

There are also core principles upon which the Revelation is based. There is much material we cannot prove nor disprove. Yet, though beyond scientific proof, certain religious premises must be philosophically consistent with the highest values or they cannot stand. Further, religious principles should not be repugnant to the common sense of the investigating mind.

Common-sense evaluating techniques are something we all use everyday. We have a “sense” of truth. The Papers themselves give a compelling statement about this on 191: “There exists in all personality associations of the cosmic mind a quality which might be denominated the ‘reality response.’ It is this universal cosmic endowment of will creatures which saves them from becoming helpless victims of the implied a priori assumptions of science, philosophy, and religion.”

The Thought Adjuster is able to continually “course-correct,” our personal philosophies based upon the “reality response,” - provided an individual has a degree of maturity, humility, and an open mind.

To compound the problem we Urantians are especially vulnerable to hero worship. We have, in the past, often followed people who sound like they have special knowledge or special gifts - only to be bitterly disappointed. This might be called the “Planetary Prince” syndrome:

[1008] “ . . . there is an instinctive longing in the heart of evolutionary man for help from above and beyond. This craving is designed to anticipate the appearance on earth of the Planetary Prince and the later Material Sons. On Urantia man has been deprived of these superhuman leaders and rulers, and therefore does he constantly seek to make good this loss by enshrouding his human leaders with legends pertaining to supernatural origins and miraculous careers.”

It seems we are at a huge disadvantage in evaluating the capabilities of our “leaders.” So, you may read on the internet that Bill Sadler, Jr. wrote the “Foreword” to the Urantia Papers. These assertions may stem from the false and damaging claims Foundation attorneys have made in the Maaherra Copyright Case.

[URANTIA FOUNDATION (plaintiff) vs. KRISTEN MAAHERRA NO. CIV PHX WKU United States District Court, District of Arizona, page 23 of the Proceedings, March 15, 1991, Jean M. Moll Court Reporter:]

MR. FOLCHER [for the Foundation] “First of all, it [The Urantia Book] is a work for hire . . . there was a trustee of the Urantia Foundation, William Sadler Jr., not senior, who wrote, authored, however you want to look at it, parts of The Urantia Book. And that was part of the work, and it was clearly a work for hire, also a joint work.”

If you believe this false statement to the court, it is not much of a stretch to say Bill Sadler wrote the Foreword. Can this be true? If this court statement were true, how can we know what is authentic and what is human in the Urantia Papers? In the Foundation’s court-submitted “History” we are told there were two prime directives to the Contact Commission: First is not to reveal the technique of transmission (insofar as they could understand it) and second, not to attach a human name to the Urantia Papers. Is this statement about Bill Sadler simply an expedient, short-sighted sophistry to win a court case? Or are the original Urantia Papers corrupted by human ideas? Let’s try to get as close to the source as possible and look for hard evidence.

In 1979, Dr. Meredith Sprunger wrote a “Commentary on the Origin of the Urantia Book.” As a practicing psychologist and an ordained minister, Dr. Sprunger based his commentaries on his own professional evaluation of more than a decade of intimate conversations with Dr. William Sadler, Sr. Now, keep in mind that Dr. Sprunger’s writings about the origin were so highly regarded by Urantia Foundation that for many years they mailed out one of his pamphlets to answer inquiries about the origin of the Papers.

In this excerpt from Dr. Sprunger’s 1979 writings, the claims that Bill Sadler Jr. (or anyone else) corrupted the text are thoroughly refuted. Those who contest this material are arguing with the Foundation, not me:

“In preparation for the publication of the Urantia Book, Dr. Sadler and Bill Sadler [his son] wrote an introduction to the book. At a contact session they were told that although they meant well, this was not acceptable - ‘a candle can hardly illuminate the sun.’ At the proper time, they were assured, an introduction would be given to the book. When they received the Foreword, Dr. Sadler observed that they fully realized the inadequacy of their introduction.

“They were, however, given permission to compose a Table of Contents for the book. Bill Sadler compiled the Paper titles, the section headings, and from various parts of the book outlined some material, thus making up the Table of Contents of the book. Dr. Sadler and other members of the Contact commission assured me that no human being wrote any part of the book. One individual, not a member of the Contact commission, who made suggestions to ‘improve’ one of the Papers was vigorously informed that no human additions to the book would be allowed. Every precaution was taken to publish the message of the text exactly as the revelators had given it.”

For me, this resonates as true. And, how can we trust a Foundation that, on one hand allows their attorneys to defame the integrity of our Revelation on the public court record, and on the other sent a “report to readers” [April 1990, section 3, page 4] in which it says that the Urantia Papers are in book form to prevent the “garbled thought of mere humans” from being “mixed indistinguishably” with the Urantia Revelations “true and clear teachings.” ? And then characterizes the viewpoint of “mere humans” as “subject to distortion, prejudice, unclear thinking, emotionalism and even psychic illusion.” Who are the radicals, those who would expose and challenge such duplicity or those who would condone and even attempt to appease those responsible for it?

We humans are sometimes lazy, too often we trust “authority” as a means to avoid personal responsibility. The Urantia syndrome is to tend to hero worship and to allow others to make decisions for us. But, herein also lies the great Urantain Believer opportunity:

[578]: “On first thought it might appear that Urantia and its associated isolated worlds are most unfortunate in being deprived of the beneficent presence and influence of such superhuman personalities as a Planetary Prince and a Material Son and Daughter. But isolation of these spheres affords their races a unique opportunity for the exercise of faith and for the development of a peculiar quality of confidence in cosmic reliability which is not dependent on sight or any other material consideration. It may turn out, eventually, that mortal creatures hailing from the worlds quarantined in consequence of rebellion are extremely fortunate. We have discovered that such ascenders are very early intrusted with numerous special assignments to cosmic undertakings where unquestioned faith and sublime confidence are essential to achievement.”

In the final analysis, our path or course must be our own call.

All that aside, I appreciate your response to the “Our New and Everlasting Religion.” We are busy formulating an organizational vehicle that can, perhaps, help propel the “New and Everlasting Religion of Jesus.” This is difficult, because we cannot have gurus, hierarchies, money-making appeals and so forth, at least not in the form of most modern religious organizations. A new paradigm of an enlightened organization must be developed. The past ideas of human organization are designed to control, configure, develop, modify, channel, or contain human energies in a certain desired manner.

The enlightened organization must encourage servant leadership, and help provide the Urantian Believership with the means and space for each individual to creatively actualize his or her spiritual potentials. There are vast differences between this new organizational paradigm and the traditional models.

Dr. Meredith Sprunger is coming to Boulder to help us with our religious task and to address our study group central (Nov. 14) and our worship service Nov. 16). As we progress, in our efforts, we will attempt to show success in the new organizational paradigm. We are plowing new snow. Indeed, “By their fruits shall you know them.”

By all means, send your affidavit and give what help you can to Kristen and Eric. We cannot fail the test of time. Their star-crossed lives have been innocently devoted to the Revelation, and they are the lightening rod that has - in behalf of us all - long been absorbing the flashes of vengeance from those who believe they own our Revelation.

One final point, a quote from Emmett Fox. He wrote an powerful book, still in print, in the destiny year of 1933. It is titled, “The Sermon on the Mount.” I believe parts of his work are inspired. Which is to say they are possibly “auto-revelation,” or Thought Adjuster revelation. I believe that autorevelation is the means by which God will uplift the future evolutionary world. The other kind of revelation, “epochal revelation,” involves higher spiritual entities. There have been only five of these, and one was the Urantia Papers. [See page.1109 - par 4]: “Truth is always a revelation: autorevelation when it emerges as a result of the work of the indwelling Adjuster; epochal revelation when it is presented by the function of some other celestial agency, group, or personality.”

Also see page P.1190 - “Apart from possible co-ordination with other Deity fragments, the Adjusters are quite alone in their sphere of activity in the mortal mind. The Mystery Monitors eloquently bespeak the fact that, though the Father may have apparently resigned the exercise of all direct personal power and authority throughout the grand universe, notwithstanding this act of abnegation in behalf of the Supreme Creator children of the Paradise Deities, the Father has certainly reserved to himself the unchallengeable right to be present in the minds and souls of his evolving creatures to the end that he may so act as to draw all creature creation to himself, co-ordinately with the spiritual gravity of the Paradise Sons. Said your Paradise bestowal Son when yet on Urantia, ‘I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men.’ This spiritual drawing power of the Paradise Sons and their creative associates we recognize and understand, but we do not so fully comprehend the methods of the all-wise Father's functioning in and through these Mystery Monitors that live and work so valiantly within the human mind.”

I imagine this is what the Revelators may have meant when they said upon publication of the Urantia Papers: “Now you are on your own.” We are not exactly on our own, of course. But we must individually take our share of the responsibility for the evolution of our “experimental” planet. In this choice whether or not to do so, we are indeed alone. Here is Fox’s quote, and then I’m outta here:

“There is a simple test by which anyone can tell a true teacher from a false one. It is this: If he points to his own personality; if he makes special claims for himself; if he says he has received any special privileges from God that are not equally accessible to the whole human race everywhere; If he attempts in his own name or that of an organization to establish under any pretense a monopoly of truth about God; Then, however imposing his credentials, however pleasing his personality might be; he is a false teacher, and you would be better off having nothing to do with him. If, on the contrary, he tells you to look away from himself, to seek the presence of God in your own heart, and to use books, lectures and churches only as a means to one end, then, however humble his efforts may seem, however lacking his own demonstration may appear, he is nevertheless a true teacher, and he is giving you the bread of life.”

God bless, my friend. I hope this was helpful.

Larry Mullins