UBH WILLIAM. M. HALES to [ATTY.] EDWARD BAKER

Chicago, April 22, 1958

Dear Ed,

Since the publication of the Urantia Book, Jacques Weiss of Paris, France, has been in communication with the Urantia Brotherhood and Foundation.

1. I have attached Thermofax copies of the following correspondence:
2. Jacques Weiss letter dated May 31, 1957, to the Urantia Brotherhood
3. Secretary-General of Urantia Brotherhood letter of June 5, 1957, to Jacques Weiss
4. Emma L. Christensen, Secretary, Urantia Foundation letter of June 12, 1957 to Jacques Weiss
5. Emma L. Christensen, Secretary, Urantia Foundation letter of November 5, 1957, to Jacques Weiss
6. Jacques Weiss letter of November 13, 1957, to the Urantia Foundation

I have been delayed in presenting this material to you for your suggestion as to how this last letter, dated November 13, from Jacques Weiss, should be answered so as not to legally obligate ourselves or give any inference thereof regarding contracting with him at a future time in any regard.

I have included correspondence immediately leading up to this November letter so as to give you a little more “pitch” as to the background.

We are in no position to know what the future actions and plans will be for translations of the Urantia Book whether in France or other locations. Mr. Weiss is a most interested party because of his interest in the text, as you can see. We are just not ready to move along the lines which he is most enthusiastic to do; yet, we wish to give him the courtesy of answering his letter and maintaining his interest in our long-range plans when we are able to develop them.

Could you advise me rather promptly as to your thoughts on how this letter should be answered?

Sincerely,
William M. Hales
President, Urantia Foundation

UBH MINISTERS’ STUDY GROUP MEETING with DR. SADLER

Marian Rowley’s Notes

Chicago, April 27, 1958

Dr. Sprunger’s group of ministers came for a meeting with Dr. Sadler Sunday, April 27, 1958.

• Rev. & Mrs. Herb A. Meussling, Niles, Mich.
• Rev. & Mrs. David Schlundt, Goshen, Ind.
• Rev. & Mrs. Henry Moehling Jr., Osceola, Ind.
• Rev. & Mrs. C. Paul Santa, South Bend, Ind.
• Rev. &. Mrs. Meredith Sprunger, Culver, Ind.
• Rev. Joseph O. Zarriskowski, South Bend, Ind.
• C. J. Priestley, Goshen, Ind.
• Rev. Boyd Stepler, Millersburg, Ind.
• Dr. Frank A. Ikert, Culver, Ind. (medical doctor)
• Rev. Henry Nishman, Elkhart, Ind. (didn’t sign guest book)

(Doctor had gone over his outline of psychic phenomena—automatic writing, etc.—and discussed each briefly before the questions started.)

* * *

Q. How do you know you and others were not self-deceived?

A. All the techniques I know had no reference to this. After many years of work and attempts to unravel the origin, I failed. Also used other people—Thurston—they all failed. If we were deceived, we were all deceived. Internal evidence in the book shows there are no contradictions.

Q. Mormonism—found plates. Is this similar?

A. We didn’t find any plates. We had plates made and collected the money. Not the same at all. (Someone asked about Oahspe, which was done by automatic writing apparently, and Doctor said this wasn’t the same.)

Q. Was there any editing?

A. None. The text was not altered. The group had permission to change punctuation or spelling, but nothing else.

Q. You refer to its being produced in English. What was the language it was originally in?

A. We don’t know. It might have been in the system, local universe, or superuniverse language. But the revelatory commission referred to difficulties in translation.

Q. Was there quite a stir in your group when the scientists discovered the mesotron some years ago (previously mentioned in the Book)?

A. Yes, of course we were interested. We are continually interested when things are discovered which the book has included. Especially the last 18 months when there has been so much talk about other inhabited worlds.

Q. How did this all start?

A. Can’t answer that. Sworn to secrecy. But it was a very commonplace, ordinary beginning.

Q. Has there been any recent contact since the papers came originally?

A. Won’t answer that. And if you ask whether the subject is living or dead, I won’t answer that.

Q. What is the immediate future (about 25 years) of this, and what is the purpose of this Book?

A. To save souls and enlighten the human mind.

Q. Do you think this is a closed book?

A. Yes. I have reason to believe there will not be any additions.

Q. How does this differ from the Bible? That is, saving souls and enlightening the mind?

A. The Bible portrays the religion about Jesus and the Urantia Book tells the religion of Jesus.

Q. Is the Urantia Book superior to the Bible?

A. (Sprunger answered this.) The answer is impossible until you read the Urantia Book. We started studying this very critically. The New Testament is continuous with the Old Testament. The Urantia Book is continuous with the New Testament.

Q. Is the Urantia Book more interpretative than it is revelatory?

A. It is both. It interprets both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Q. If this Book were generally known, would it be too explosive for most people, too unsettling?

A. So far, it seems to be very comforting, helpful, tranquilizing.

Q. Do the people who sponsored this Book believe the world is going to be here for some time? What is the future of the world?

A. Read the paper on light and life. We have a long future ahead of us on this planet.

Q. What is in the immediate future? The next 50 or 100 years?

A. Don’t know exactly what the immediate future is.

Q. In most religions there is authoritarianism. Even in the Urantia group I get a feeling of authoritarianism. Where does this leave our individual searching?

A. Read Jesus’ sermons on the way to Phoenicia. According to the Urantia Brotherhood Constitution, this cannot become an authoritarian group.

Q. Why the secrecy of the origin? Do all the members of the Brotherhood know about it?

A. No, they do not. Only a very small group know. The revelatory commission wants no human association with this book. One reason for secrecy: If we told you all we know, you wouldn’t be satisfied.

Q. In the Catholic Church, they have taught about seven heavens—seven places after death. What relation to Catholic theology does the Urantia Book have from the standpoint of these worlds the Book speaks of? When it speaks of the resurrection of Christ and also refers to the fact that we will have the kind of body Jesus had—the Judgment we have is a comparison of ourselves and Jesus. What percentage of the average congregation can understand what we are talking about tonight—because this concept of life after death is quite different from what the churches believe?

A. (Dr. Sprunger answered this.) First, there is no connection between Catholic theology and ours. Second, the different churches have all kinds of concepts of life after death. The progressive people will not have any trouble with the Urantia Book. For the others, point out that no one goes to the Father except through Christ our Lord and eventually we will meet the Father. This will be enough for them. Keep it simple. Don’t go through all the steps which the Urantia Book details.

Q. There is sometimes a personality who becomes an implement in the hands of superhumans. (I think he had reservists in mind.) Do you feel, Dr. Sadler, that you have a particular place in carrying on this work or in connection with the Book? Do you feel that you are led, or have a mission?

A. No, I have no such feeling. I think I just happened to be around when this happened.

HMSA ELSIE BAUMGARTNER to MARTHA SHERMAN

Chicago, April 29, 1958

Dear Martha,

. . . I have before me your voluminous letter of July 16, and your generous Christmas note. . . . Your July letter was most interesting with its excerpts from Urantia Book reviews of your friends. I am not at all shocked by these candid opinions for I have heard many and varied criticisms—one such a scathing denunciation from Pearl Buck. On the last Sunday of each month we spend the last hour of the session discussing our experiences introducing the book to new readers. The secretary of the Brotherhood reads many communications from the world over. The book is slowly drifting into foreign countries. Books have been sent to Australia, Alaska, France, Germany, Liberia, England, Ireland.

It seems to me so much depends on one’s approach to the book. What does the individual want to find? Do you suppose there is a person whose mind is absolutely untouched by some previous ideas or concepts? Pearl Buck’s whole criticism was based on her years of contact with Eastern philosophy and religion. And do you suppose that scientists are especially equipped to find simple spiritual truth? Perhaps their very intellectualism is a stumbling block to the simple truths of the book.

I must agree that I have had some difficulty with the Adam and Eve story. Several of my friends were favorably impressed until they reached the story of Adam and Eve and then became disgusted and rejected the whole book. The Book states emphatically that multiple marriage was practiced outside the Garden. Multiple marriage has been practiced in different parts of the world ever since, although in the Garden story it was an illicit affair even though the motive was sincere and thought to accelerate the divine plan to biologically upstep the race.

True, in the comprehension of truth, it is necessary to examine the many facets of fact. Certainly, science, philosophy and religion are correlated—fact, meaning and value.

Julia Fenderson wrote a letter telling of several friends who rejected the book saying they were not interested in the universe or our planet or the dozens of personalities, but wanted something which would help them solve their problems while living this life. Now, here we have someone not at all interested in the Paradise ascent or the achievement of Eternity; in the cosmology or the government of the Universe, or our planet in relationship to the Universe or our relationship to God and the Universe. It seems to me that the whole Book is overflowing with guidance about our daily living, and even if one would eliminate the first three parts and just study the Jesus papers one could find all the guidance needed for all the problems of life. Of course, some people are looking for an overnight magical cure-all for all the ills of the world and anything to keep them from solving their own problems.

I can say right here, that Phyllis has not as much as touched the Book—doubts the veracity of the whole thing and is perfectly satisfied with her religious concepts she now has. May had read some of the Jesus papers and shows no interest in the other parts of the Book.²

A letter was also read in which a minister using a letterhead of the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship ordered a Book. I understand that Dr. [Hornell] Hart is interested in this group and came here to Evanston to deliver a series of lectures to the group. Alice and Fred Leverenz, who now live in Dallas, Texas, attended several of the meetings of the group, had heard Dr. Hart and had some correspondence with him. They learned that I had sent Dr. Hart a Urantia Book and I think wrote him concerning it.

In several of your letters you mention the absence in the Book of anything about reincarnation. I have found two references to it:

• • Page 1811—paragraph 6
  • Page 528—paragraph 3 and 4

On departed spirits (coming back to the planet)

• • Page 436—para 2
  • Page 1230—last on page
  • Page 1646—para 3
  • Page 1680—last sentence

Our Sunday afternoon meetings are much the same as usual, one paper read and discussed, the reading and discussion leader being one of the group. The First Urantia Society has a membership of about a hundred and fifty although many members are out-of-towners. We always have under fifty present at our Sunday meetings. Marian Rowley has just finished a course of lessons on the outline of the book (on Wednesday evenings) and the Doctor is giving a series of lessons on the teachings of Jesus—the sayings, the miracles, the parables and the sermons.

The West Coast has organized into the West Coast Urantia Society. There is a Society organized in Glenview and a sizable group in Oklahoma City organized under the leadership of a Reverend Bert Salyer, a minister of a New Thought church. In Culver, Indiana, under the leadership of Dr. Meredith Sprunger, there is a study group of ministers seriously studying the Book. Mrs. James is sponsoring a study group in Albany, New York, and there is a group meeting in Western Springs and one in Bensonville. Julia Fenderson has a group meeting in her home [in Los Angeles] and there is also one in San Diego. Slowly small groups are forming for study. Oh, yes—Mr. Kulieke has a study group in Fort Lauderdale to which Lulu, Grace and Caroline go weekly. He started his group in his church but had to move it to the outside.

I haven’t seen Rachel since the holidays but we do have our weekly chat over the phone. Without her car she is unable to get to the Sunday meetings at 533, for it is too long a journey on public transportation. I certainly miss our visits but hope that now spring is here I shall be able to go to Oak Park to see her.

By the way, we were surprised several weeks ago to see Sir Hubert Wilkins on TV on “What’s My Line?” I recognized him immediately although his name was withheld from the panel, which incidentally he stumped. Seconds after he was on, Rachel called on the phone to tell me to hook up.

May and Phyllis join me in best wishes and my love to you both.

As ever,
Elsie

UBF JACQUES WEISS to URANTIA BROTHERHOOD

Paris, April 30, 1958

Dear Sirs,

I received with great pleasure your Quarterly News Letters for the last quarter of 1957 and the first of 1958.

You ask for possible news of interest. The one here is that I am practically building a half-spontaneous but not-yet-formal study group in Paris around the translation into French of the Urantia Book.

Last week I had personally completed in handwriting the translation of the entire first part. One half of it has already been corrected and typewritten. I am now starting with the second part.

I had hired a translator for the third part, but her first sixty pages did not qualify her for continuing. And also I have another translator who has started the work of the fourth part. She is so deeply interested that she will carry this part to the end in proper time if her frail health permits.

Although it is perhaps very anticipatory, I am studying the possibilities of publication in France a few years from now. I noticed that in the very broad American market it has taken you several years to sell less than 3,000 copies, which does not preclude a brighter future. But what about the narrower market of French reading students, with their financially limited purchasing power? It is quite a problem and would probably only be solved by dividing the Book in three and lowering correspondingly the purchasing price.

However, it is not the present day’s problem, and any comment from your side on the surplus of this letter would be welcome.

Sincerely yours,
J. Weiss

UBH MEREDITH SPRUNGER to WILLIAM S. SADLER

Culver, In., May 1, 1958

Dear Dr. Sadler,

Thank you again for the fine time we had at your place Sunday. The men enjoyed it very much. Have just received a letter from a Dr. A. M. Hubbard asking about the Urantia Book. He received his information through members of the Sequoia Seminar. I thought you might be interested in the letterhead on which his letter was written:

THE COMMISSION FOR THE STUDY OF CREATIVE IMAGINATION

Abram Hoffer Ph.D., Director of Psychiatric Research, Department of Public Health, Sask.

Humphrey Osmond, M.D., M.R.C.S., D.P.M., Superintendent Weyburn Hospital, Weyburn, Sask.

John Smythies, M.D., MB., D., P.M., Psychological Laboratory, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England

William C. Gibson, D. Phil., M.D., C.M., University of British Columbia Advisor

Hugh L. Keenleyside, M.A., Ph.D., LL.D., Director, General Technical Assistance, United Nations, New York

W. Klukauf, J.U.D.R., C.P.H.D.E., Mexico City, Mexico

Aldous Huxley, Author, Los Angeles, California

Gerald Heard, Author, Los Angeles, California

A. M. Hubbard, Ph.D., Scientific Director, Vancouver, B.C.

This is quite an imposing list of names. If people like this become interested in the Urantia Book, it would seem that the kind of solid foundations we’re looking for are gradually being built.

A question that comes in my mind after this Sunday’s discussion is: What is your present reaction to the reference to the contact individual in the Appendix of your book, The Mind at Mischief? I may have misquoted the title here, but you’ll know the reference I referred to. I was also wondering whether you were still skeptical of the Urantia revelation when this was written?

Best wishes to all.

Cordially,
Meredith

UBH WILLIAM S. SADLER to MEREDITH SPRUNGER

Chicago, May 2, 1958

Dear Dr. Sprunger,

Thank you for your letter about Dr. Hubbard. It would seem that his associates were largely British and Canadian. I hope that some of them will get interested in the Book.

Now about The Mind at Mischief and Appendix. At the time that book was written we had not begun to receive the Urantia papers. Our communications were varied and of miscellaneous nature, and furthermore, we had not yet been put under any restrictions about discussing the case. These were the times in which we could bring in magicians, physicians, and friends to help us observe this phenomena.

Theretofore, I had always made the statement that I had never met a psychic or sensitive, who was willing to submit to observation, that we had not been able to understand and classify.

Now when I made that statement several times in writing The Mind at Mischief it immediately occurred to me that it was not strictly true because until up to that date I had not solved this particular case. Therefore, in three or four statements I put in this footnote and referred to the Appendix.

At the time I wrote this Appendix I was puzzled and bewildered. I had been unable to solve my problem but I still regarded it as some new phase of natural psychic phenomena. This manuscript was prepared either late in 1927 or early in 1928—more than thirty years ago.
We certainly enjoyed you all during your visit, and we trust you will, before too long, repeat it. I am very much interested in your work. It seems to me that you are the leading pioneer in the study and introduction of the Urantia Book to theologians.

Sincerely,
Will