Contact Activities Preceding the Urantia Papers

It would seem that, during these early years, our unseen friends were engaged in a thoroughgoing testing of the Contact Personality, rehearsing the technique of communication, selecting the Contact Commissioners—in fact, in a general way setting the stage for the subsequent initiation of the presentation of the Urantia papers.

During these early years we were introduced to many new and, to us, somewhat strange concepts of the universe of universes and as concerned man and his life on earth.

Among these numerous new ideas of cosmology and philosophy, the following may be mentioned:

1. New concept of a far-flung cosmos.
2. Millions of other inhabited planets.
3. Introduction to scores of different and varied echelons of celestial personalities.
4. Confirmation of evolutionary origin of humankind—even of an evolutionary cosmos
5. Intimation of multiple Creator Deities.
6. Tentative testing of our theologic concepts. Patient determination of how far we might possibly go in the direction of modifying our theologic beliefs and philosophical opinions.
7. Without realizing it, over a period of twenty years, our fundamental religious views and attitudes had been considerably changed.
8. We had been familiarized with such terms as “The First Source and Center,” “Havona,” “superuniverses,” and the “Supreme Being”—but we had but meager ideas as to the real meaning of these names.
9. We also heard such words as “Master Spirits,” “outer space,” and “Power Directors.” But, again, we understood little as to their meaning. We also learned about numerous orders of angels.
10. We heard about “Thought Adjusters,” but our concept of the meaning of the term was vague and indefinite.
11. We had acquired a fuzzy concept of the morontia level of existence—but we never heard the word “morontia” used until the papers started.
12. The midwayers were very real to us—we frequently talked with them during our varied “contacts.” We quite fully understood that the secondary midwayers supervised the contacts.
13. We heard some things about the Lucifer rebellion, but got little information about Adam and Eve.
14. We gained the impression that there were special reasons for Jesus’ bestowal on Urantia, but we had little or no idea as to the nature of these unrevealed reasons.
15. We listened to occasional references to Jesus’ life and teachings—but they were very cautious about the introduction of any new concepts regarding Michael’s Urantia bestowal. Of all the Urantia revelation the Jesus papers were the biggest surprise.
16. While we did not hear the term “Corps of the Finality,” we did pick up a hazy idea that Paradise might be the destination of surviving mortals.

Our superhuman friends thus spent upward of two decades in extending our cosmic horizons, enlarging our theologic concepts, and expanding our overall philosophy.

We never realized how much our religious thinking had been expanded until the papers began to arrive. As the revelation progressed we came more fully to appreciate how we had been prepared for the vast alteration of our religious beliefs by these preliminary contacts extending over a period of twenty years of pre-education.

Our apprenticeship training for subsequent service in association with the presentation of the Urantia papers was facilitated by the fact that, except for contacts with the midwayers, no two contacts were alike. Seldom did we meet the visiting personalities more than once. Every contact was entirely different from any and all that had gone before. And all of this experience was an extensive and liberal preparatory educational training in the expansion of our cosmology, theology and philosophy—not to mention our introduction to new ideas and concepts concerning a vast array of more mundane subjects.

The limited discussion of Jesus’ life and teachings during these pre-revelatory contacts might be explained by the fact that the midwayers were a bit dubious as to how much authority they had in such matters—as shown later on when a whole year was consumed in the clarification of their right to retell the story of the Michael bestowal.

Those of us who early attended upon these nocturnal vigils never suspected that we were in contact with anything supernatural.

During these early years, all of our observations and investigations utterly failed to reveal the technique of reducing messages to writing.

How the Urantia Papers Started

After about twenty years of contact experience, an alleged student visitor, speaking through this Sleeping Subject during one of these nocturnal vigils, in answer to one of our questions, said, “If you only knew what you are in contact with you would not ask such trivial questions. You would rather ask such questions as might elicit answers of supreme value to the human race.”

This was something of a shock, as well as a mild rebuke, and caused all of us to look upon this unique experience in a new and different way. Later on that night, one of our number said, “Now they have asked for it—let us give them questions that no human being can answer.”

Now it is best to let matters rest here while we shift this narrative to a new and different setting.

How the Forum Started

On my way to the University of Kansas to deliver some lectures on Gestalt psychology, I wrote a letter to my son [Bill] saying that I thought doctors should try to maintain some contact with their old patients. I suggested that he talk with his mother [Dr. Lena K. Sadler] about the feasibility of inviting some of our old friends to meet with us on Sunday afternoons for an hour or two of informal discussion and social exchange.

When I returned to Chicago one Sunday morning I found that my wife had invited a group of our old patients to meet at our house that afternoon at three o’clock. It was the plan to conduct these Sunday afternoon gatherings somewhat as follows: First have a talk on some health topic—such as the treatment of common colds, the cause and cure of worry—and then, after a cup of tea, engage in informal discussions, asking and answering questions.

As time passed, this group became a cosmopolitan gathering consisting of professional men and women—doctors, lawyers, dentists, ministers, teachers—together with individuals from all walks of life, farmers, housewives, secretaries, office workers, and common laborers.

Introduction of the Forum to "Contacts"

Presently, I was asked to give a series of talks on “Mental Hygiene,” or “Psychic Phenomena.” At the beginning of my first talk, I said, “With only one or two exceptions, all of the psychic phenomena which I have investigated have turned out to be either conscious or unconscious frauds. Some were deliberate frauds—others were those peculiar cases in which the performer was a victim of the deceptions of his own subconscious mind.”

I had no more than said this when one of the group spoke up, saying, “Doctor, if you have contacted something which you have been unable to solve, it would be interesting. Tell us more about it.”

I asked Dr. Lena to get some notes she had taken at a recent “contact” and read them to the group. It should be understood that up to this time there was no secrecy connected with this case. The Urantia papers had not begun to appear.

It was at about this time that this group meeting at our house on Sunday afternoons began to be called the “Forum.”

The group manifested such a great interest in this case that I never did get around to giving any of the health talks such as had been planned.

It was while these informal discussions were going on from week to week that the challenge came to us suggesting that if we would ask more serious questions we might get information of value to all mankind.

The Forum Begins to Ask Questions

We told the Forum all about this and invited them to join us in the preparation of questions. We decided to start out with questions pertaining to the origin of the cosmos, Deity, creation, and such other subjects as were far beyond the present-day knowledge of all humankind.

The following Sunday several hundred questions were brought in. We sorted out these questions, discarding duplicates and, in a general way, classifying them. Shortly thereafter, the first Urantia paper appeared in answer to these questions. From first to last, when the papers appeared, the questions disappeared.

This was the procedure followed throughout the many years of the reception of the Urantia papers. No questions—no papers.

The Forum Becomes a Closed Group

About this time, the Forum, as it were, was taken away from us. We were instructed to form a “closed group”—requiring each member to sign a pledge of secrecy and to discuss the papers and all matters pertaining thereto with only those persons who were members of the Forum.

Membership tickets were issued and the charter membership numbered thirty. The date of this organization was September 1925. Seventeen of these charter members are still living [1960].

The individuals charged with the responsibility of gathering up the questions and comparing the typewritten text with the original handwritten manuscript, came to be known as the “Contact Commissioners.” From that date forward only these Contact Commissioners attended “contacts” and received written communications through the contact personality.

From time to time new members were received into the Forum, after being interviewed by the officers and after signing the same pledge that was signed by the original charter members. This pledge read:

“We acknowledge our pledge of secrecy, renewing our promise not to discuss the Urantia revelations or their subject matter with any one save active Forum members, and to take no notes of such matter as is read or discussed at the public sessions, or make copies or notes of what we personally read.”

The last meeting of the Forum as a genetic assembly was held on May 31, 1942. During the seventeen years of official existence the Forum attained a total membership of 486.

During the period of the reception of the Urantia papers, upward of 300 different persons participated in asking these genetic questions. With but few exceptions, all of the Urantia papers were given in response to such questions.

The First Urantia Papers

The first group of papers numbered 57. We then received a communication suggesting that since we could now ask many and much more intelligent questions, the supervising agencies and personalities responsible for transmitting the 57 papers would engage to enlarge the revelation and to expand the papers in accordance with our new questions.

This was the plan: We would read a paper on a Sunday afternoon and the following Sunday the new questions would be presented. Again, these would be sorted, classified, etc. This program covered several years and ultimately resulted in the presentation of the 196 papers as now found in the Urantia Book.

Receiving the Completed Papers

In a way, there was a third presentation. After receiving these 196 papers, we were told that the “Revelatory Commission” would be pleased to have us go over the papers once more and ask questions concerning the “clarification of concepts” and the “removal of ambiguities.” This program again covered several years. During this period very little new information was imparted. Only minor changes were made in any of the papers. Some matter was added—some removed—but there was little revision or amplification of the text.

What has just been recorded refers more particularly to Parts I, II, and III of the Urantia Book. Part IV—the Jesus papers—had a little different origin. They were produced by a midwayer commission and were completed one year later than the other papers. The first three parts were completed and certified to us in AD 1934. The Jesus papers were not so delivered to us until 1935.²

The Delay in Receiving the Jesus Papers

The delay of one year in the reception of the Jesus papers—Part IV of the Urantia Book—may be explained as follows: The midwayers were a bit apprehensive about becoming involved in the suit pending in the Universe courts—Gabriel vs. Lucifer—and they hesitated to complete their project until they were assured that they had full authority to retell the story of Jesus’ life on earth.

After some months waiting there came the mandate from Uversa directing the United Midwayers of Urantia to proceed with their project of revealing the story of the life and teachings of Michael when incarnated on Urantia, and not only assuring them that they were not in “contempt” of the Uversa courts, but instead granting them a mandate to do this service and admonishing any and all persons connected therewith to refrain from interfering with, or in any way hindering, the execution of such an undertaking.

And this is the explanation of why the Jesus papers appeared one year after the other papers had been completed.

Reason for Silence Respecting Details of the Origin of the Urantia Book

Among the several reasons given us at the time we were requested not to discuss the details of our personal experiences associated with the origin of the Urantia Book, the two major reasons were the following:

1. Unknown features. There is much connected with the appearance of the Urantia papers which no human being fully understands. None of us really knows just how this phenomenon was executed. There are numerous missing links in our understanding of how this revelation came to appear in written English. If any one of us should tell any one all he really knows about the technique and methods employed throughout the years of our getting this revelation, such a narration would satisfy no one—there are too many missing links.
2. The main reason for not revealing the identity of the contact personality is that the celestial revelators do not want any human being—any human name—ever to be associated with the Urantia Book. They want this revelation to stand on its own declarations and teachings. They are determined that future generations shall have the Book wholly free from all mortal connections—they do not want a Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Luther, Calvin or Wesley. The Book does not even bear the imprint of the printer who brought the Book into being. (Remember: You could appreciate a good poem even if you did not know the author. Likewise, you could enjoy a symphony even if you were ignorant of the composer.)

How We Got the Urantia Papers

Just about all that is known or could be told about the origin of the Urantia papers is to be found, here and there, in the Urantia Book. A list of such references is to be found on the back of the dust jacket of the Book. Let us take a brief look at these citations.

1. Page 1, par. 2. This passage refers to the difficulty of presenting expanded spiritual concepts when restricted to circumscribed human language, such as English.
2. Page 1, par. 4. An Orvonton Commission participated in the revelation and prepared this Foreword.
3. Page 17, par. 1. In presenting this revelation of augmented spiritual values and universe meanings, more than one thousand human concepts were drawn from the minds of human beings of the present and the past.
4. Page 16, par. 8 & page 1343, par. 1. In all revelation of truth, preference is given to the highest existing human concepts of ideality and reality. Only in the absence of the human concept is superhuman knowledge revealed.
5. Page 1109, par. 4. Revelators are seldom at liberty to anticipate scientific discoveries. Truth is timeless, but the teachings respecting the physical sciences and certain phases of cosmology will become partially obsolescent as a result of the new discoveries of advancing scientific investigations. The cosmology of the Urantia revelation is not inspired. Human wisdom must evolve.
6. Page 215, par. 2-9. Human pedagogy proceeds from the simple to the complex. The Urantia revelation begins with the more complex and goes on to the consideration of the more simple. Instead of beginning with man reaching up for God, the Urantia papers begin with God—reaching down and finding man.
7. Page 865. par. 6, 7. The narrative of the midwayers’ function in initiating and carrying forward to completion the Urantia revelation.
8. Page 865, par. 2, & page 1208, par. 7. Midway creatures are always employed in the phenomenon of communication with material beings through the technique of Contact Personalities. The subject through whom the Urantia papers were bestowed had a highly experienced Thought Adjuster. The subject’s relative indifference and unconcern regarding the work of his indwelling Adjuster was in every way favorable to the execution and completion of this revelatory project.
9. Page 1256, par. 1. The contact personality was a member of the Urantia reserve corps of destiny. This was just one of several conditions favoring the impartation of the Urantia revelation.
10. Page 1008, par. 3. The Urantia revelation is unique in that it is presented by multiple authors. The Urantia revelation, like its predecessors, is not inspired.
11. Page 32, par. 2. A Divine Counselor “portrays the reality and nature of the Father with unchallengeable authority.”
12. Page 17, par. 2. The revelators depend upon the indwelling Adjusters and the Spirit of Truth to help us in the appropriation of the truth in the Urantia revelation.
13. Page 1007, par. 1. Revelation keeps in touch with evolution. Revelation is adapted to the age of its bestowal. New revelation maintains contact with preceding revelations.

Functioning of the Contact Commissioners

During these early years the Contact Commissioners received many communications and directives in writing. Almost all of these messages had annotation at the bottom of the last page which read, “To be destroyed by fire not later than the appearance of the Urantia papers in print.” It was the design of our unseen friends to prevent the appearance of an “Urantia apocrypha” subsequent to the publication of the Urantia Book.

All of this was encouraging to us in that it assured us that the Urantia papers would some time be published. It sustained our hopes through the long waiting years of delay.

The fact that no provision was ever made for replacing members of the Contact Commission who might be lost through disability or death, also led us to entertain the belief that the Book would be published during the lifetime of some of us.

The Commissioners were the custodians of the Urantia manuscript, keeping the carbon copy of the typewritten transcript in a fireproof vault. They were also charged with full responsibility for supervising all the details connected with the publication of the Book, securing the international copyrights, etc.

We were enjoined to refrain from discussing the identity of the Contact Personality and, after the publication of the Book, to make any statement at any time as to whether the “subject” was still living or was deceased.

The Seventy

In 1939, some of us thought the time had come when we should form a class to engage in the more serious and systematic study of the Urantia papers. This project was presented to the Forum and when those who wished to join such a group were counted, it was found that just seventy persons desired to enter upon this study. So for several years this class was referred to as “The Seventy.” Two or three years preceding the formation of The Seventy an informal group had been meeting on Wednesday evenings.

The Seventy carried on systematic study of the Urantia papers from April 3, 1939, to the summer of 1956, and was the forerunner of the later School of the Urantia Brotherhood.

During these years the Seventy enrolled 107 students.

The Seventy carried on its work of study, thesis writing, and practice of teaching for seventeen years. During this period eight written communications were given to the Seventy by the Seraphim of Progress attached to the superhuman Planetary Government of Urantia.

(Continued in Chapter 5, Foundation and Brotherhood)