UBH UBF DR. SADLER’S HISTORY, Continued

Circa 1960

DISTRIBUTION OF THE URANTIA BOOK
At the time of the publication of the Urantia Book suggestions were given by the revelators respecting the methods to be employed in the work of its distribution. These instructions may be summarized as follows:

Study the methods employed by Jesus in introducing his work on earth. Note how quietly he worked at first—so often after even a miracle, he would admonish the recipient of his ministry, saying: “Tell no man what has happened to you.”

It was suggested that we avoid all efforts to achieve early and spectacular recognition.

During the first five years these suggestions have been followed and the distribution increases yearly. The vast majority of the Brotherhood has concurred in this sort of quiet and gradual presentation of the book. However, one thing should be made clear: While it is the policy of the Brotherhood to work slowly in the presentation of the book, nothing is done to interfere with the energetic and enthusiastic efforts of any individual to introduce the Urantia Book to his friends and associates.

URANTIA BROTHERHOOD CORPORATION
Since the Urantia Brotherhood is not a corporation—a legal entity—the Urantia Brotherhood Corporation was formed on October 21, 1955, under the laws of the State of Illinois, designed to provide for corporations not-for-profit, to serve as the legal arm of the fraternal and voluntary association of the Urantia Brotherhood.

This corporation is the fiscal agent of the Brotherhood and in a general way takes care of the varied financial and legal interests of the Brotherhood

In December 1959 the Internal Revenue Bureau of the United States government ruled that the Urantia Foundation, and the Urantia Brotherhood, and the Urantia Brotherhood Corporation were exempt from paying income taxes, and that any and all contributions made to these organizations are deductible from the income taxes of such donors.

URANTIA BROTHERHOOD SCHOOL
Among the early activities of the Brotherhood was the organization of the School of the Brotherhood which began its first session in September 1956. The degree granted after three years of training is that of “Ordained Teacher.” A shorter course of study leads to the status of “Certified Leader.”

The School is conducted by the Educational Committee. Many textbooks have been prepared for use in the School and for use by a future Correspondence School which will no doubt materialize as the Urantia Book continues to be distributed throughout the world.

The following textbooks have been prepared:

• The Theology of the Urantia Book, Part I
• The Theology of the Urantia Book, Part II
• The Theology of the Urantia Book, Part III
• The Theology of the Urantia Book, Part IV
• The Teachings of Jesus
• The Short Course in Doctrine
• Worship and Wisdom
• Science in the Urantia Book, Vol. I
• Science in the Urantia Book, Vol. II

In Preparation:

• The Urantia Book and the New Testament
• Analytic Studies in Part I
• Analytic Studies in Part II
• Diagrams and Maps

The course of study is planned to cover a three years’ seminary education. At present, only part time work is provided at evening sessions.

The curriculum embraces courses in the following subjects:

• Techniques of Public Speaking
• Leadership and Teaching
• Comparative Religion
• Educational Psychology
• Christian Sects and Denominations
• Homiletics
• Old and New Testament History
• Presentation of the Urantia Book
• Studies in the Urantia Book

Urantia Doctrine
Synthetic Studies
Topical Studies
Life of Christ
Worship and Wisdom
Short Course in Doctrine
Comparison with the Four Gospels
Science in the Urantia Book
Critical Analysis

As yet [1960], no degrees of “Ordained Teacher” have been granted, but diplomas as “Certified Leader” have been given to 14 individuals.

The number of registered students taking credit courses has averaged about thirty. A like number of “auditors” attend the classes.

HMSA DIARY of HAROLD and MARTHA SHERMAN

Hollywood, February 22, 1961

Bud Kagan and new wife, Betty, married around January 11, spent the evening with us last night and had much to report about Urantia doings.²⁰

Bud said he had checked our story with the folks in Chicago and found it was in substantial agreement with the account Dr. Sadler gave him. He said he still couldn’t understand why so much fuss had been made over us and why Clyde Bedell, who had suggested the petition, and had written it, had not been punished or ostracized along with the Shermans. There was no satisfactory answer to this.

Bud agreed that Dr. Sadler was a dictator and said he, himself, had witnessed violent explosions of temper whenever the Doctor was crossed or questioned. In talking with Bill about the matter, Bill readily admitted that his father had lied when he had told the Shermans that he had received a communication from the “higher-ups” warning against them. Bud stated that he intended to see the Shermans again, and Bill told him to go ahead, that he, himself would apologize to them if the occasion presented itself.

Of course, Bill has since broken with his father after divorcing Leone and marrying his secretary. Bud said that Bill is still one of the Trustees but they do not notify him of meetings and he has to force his attendance.

Bud went on to say that the Sherman or so-called “Second Lucifer Rebellion” has accomplished much good because it had resulted in drastic changes of the original Charter and Constitution, which the Shermans had criticized as being completely commercial and dictatorial. Now, the control of the Urantia Foundation is in the hands of a board of Trustees of which Dr. Sadler is no longer ²¹ a member; no monies can be invested in other projects save Urantia; the power to vote on limited salaries to executives of the Foundation has been removed; and Trustees can no longer vote for their successors—they must be elected by the membership.

Bud remarked that the membership, however, is still largely made up of the Doctor’s patients so there is really what amounts to a “psychopathic board of control.” (Russell Bucklin is now a Trustee replacing Mrs. Kellogg.)

Bud learned that there was one woman (Mrs. Gusler), who refused to be intimidated and who would not remove her name from the list of petitioners despite the threats and demands of the Doctor.²² She refused to take sides saying that she believed the Shermans. Bud further stated that Dr. Lena, the Doctor’s wife, was far more spiritual than he and kept him in line while she lived, demanding that he observe the social graces and that he hold his temper in check. After her death, it was learned she had been a member of the reserve corps of destiny.

Bud himself is now on the blacklist because he wrote an essay entitled, “The Price of Survival,” in which he challenged some of the survival concepts presented by Urantia. This essay was mimeographed by Julia Fenderson and apparently sent broadcast, which infuriated the Doctor who again issued an unsigned documentary denunciation purporting to come from “higher sources” which Bill Sadler told Bud was also a lie. Bud had emphasized that, in his opinion, reading the Book alone and being a member of the Urantia Society did not entitle a person to survival, which appears to be the commonly accepted belief of Forum members. In the case of Al Dyon, who “betrayed” the Forum members by reporting in advance to Dr. Sadler concerning the forthcoming presentation of the petition, he now considered himself elevated to the ranks of a Solitary Messenger.

At that time Dr. Sadler had scared the Forum members by telling them that the “higher intelligences” had taken him into the astral and had enabled him to be present in the home of Dent Karle in Oak Park when the petition was signed. Sadler had described what took place there to the members he was seeing, two at a time, as a means of frightening them into withdrawing their names. This [account of Dr. Sadler’s] too Bill Sadler branded as an “out-and-out lie” and as a “device the old man had used to keep his flock in line.” (In the face of these confessions, one is hard put to know what is true and what is false.)

Bud was concerned about the Jesus papers having been written after the Book itself had been declared finished as of 1934. He received an involved explanation from Dr. Sadler to the effect that the midwayers had wanted to present the Jesus story but had been opposed by the Melchizedeks and the issue went up to Michael himself who bypassed it so that it eventually came to the attention of Gabriel and finally the Ancients of Days. They overruled the objections so the Jesus papers were written.

Bud said he had learned that the Sleeping Subject had died some seven years ago (about the time of the publication of the Urantia Book) and that so far as he knew the wife was still living. Bud was told that this man could not have cared less about this material, and his wife herself was not too interested.

He further stated that Dr. Sadler did not believe this material for some twenty years and finally, so Sadler said, became convinced because of the psychological interpretation of the personalities of the twelve disciples. The Shermans insisted there was something very wrong about this explanation, since the writing and compiling of these papers obviously required an enormous expenditure of time, both on the part of the subject, Dr. Sadler and others involved. It was inconceivable that the subject and his wife, if not interested, would have permitted such a colossal expenditure of time, cutting into their own private lives, particularly if they were disinterested. The comings and goings of witnesses at odd times of day and night for years would have been disrupting to any household or married couple. This man was supposed to be a member of the Board of Trade. His identity has been kept a well-guarded secret.

Bud told, again, how the papers began materializing in typewritten form and how one set was kept at 533 and another in a vault at the Northern Trust Company and that these papers would sometimes be taken out of the vault and replaced by corrections, and the midwayers explained that they had been so close to earth that they had learned how to open safes. This explanation is not accepted by the Shermans, who are inclined to believe that any editorial changes from the original were made by Dr. Sadler.

Bud, however, has accepted the statement made by the midwayers that they will use any material created by human sources if it should fit in the frame of the planned Urantia Book. This excuse was offered when Clyde Bedell, years ago, confronted Dr. Sadler with an almost word-for-word article written by economist Stuart Chase [sic—Emery Reves]²³ which Dr. Sadler had read from one of the supposedly inspired papers. All Forumites accepted this explanation without question, apparently approving of this obvious plagiarism. This instance, alone, should have conclusively proved that the Doctor was meddling with the material and preparing and inserting papers of his own. To represent, under these conditions, that the entire Book of Urantia has been written from higher sources is an outrageous travesty.

Bud also remarked that the apocrypha papers told of a Tabamantia visit wherein he recommended that all colored races be incited to fight each other so that they could be wiped off the face of the earth and thus enable the Caucasian race to evolve much faster toward the desired Light and Life goal. Bud termed this suggestion shocking. Tabamantia, however, was overruled by the Ancients of Days who said that, despite painful consequences, the mixing of the races must proceed until harmony might be established.

Another apocrypha story had to do with the visit of a being from a planet trillions of light years away whose own peoples had been isolated by other races and were about to be destroyed. He sought the aid of members of the reserve corps stationed on Urantia who had been schooled in warfare as a result of centuries of experience on this planet. Through the sleeping subjects, a council of these personalities from all the earth races was arranged and they outlined to this visitor a hundred-year battle plan for him to take back to his planet to protect and preserve his own people.

Bud reported that Dr. Sadler was given a “dressing down” by the “higher ups” at the time he denounced President Truman for firing General MacArthur. He was reprimanded and told that Truman was right in his action and that he, the Doctor, was out of order in his criticism. How Bud learned this, he did not say. (This purported action seems inconsistent since the Urantia Book indicates no specific interest in present world affairs and it is unlikely, if the Doctor were bawled out, that the rank and file would ever be informed about it. The Doctor has committed so many personal offenses of a far more serious nature for which he has apparently not been reproved, that this reported rebuke over his comments regarding the Truman-MacArthur incident does not hold much water.)

Bill and Bud are apparently very close friends.

Bud himself has formed an independent Urantia study group, resigning from the West Coast body. It has taken him eight months to get a charter²⁴ whereas another group applying for a charter got action almost at once. Bud’s interest in the Urantia project approached the fanatical. He claims the material is not new to him, that he can quote whole pages almost verbatim from having read the Book through only twice. He told the West Coast group that he could go to a tea party any time and be with people he enjoyed more than [he enjoyed] them, that he came to the Urantia group for one purpose only: to study and discuss and get more out of the material. He observed that members had not developed in character or consciousness or social qualities in all the time they had been exposed to the Urantia philosophy. This was an observation the Shermans had long since made.

The attitude of the members, on the whole, has been one of a smug sense of importance and with the feeling that they had been specially selected as members of an extra-special secret society which has endowed them with a “personal pipeline to God” and the assurance of immortality. They, themselves, do not have to do anything about it; their survival is up to the manipulation of their T.A.s and they are just going along for the ride. Bud, himself, may be taking the Urantia material too seriously and may well wear out his own newly-organized membership by hammering too constantly at the technical details which is really more memorizing than a self-developing process.

Bud’s new wife Betty, as a writer, believes the Doctor could have done some editing or actual writing of the Book itself. Bud is still not ready to admit this.

UBH From the MEMORY of BUD KAGAN²⁵

Re: Harold and Martha Sherman’s Diaries

Recorded September 2002

Harold and Martha’s diaries are fairly close to what happened with a few corrections. I never called Doctor Sadler a “dictator” but rather a very autocratic person who wanted the conversation to go his way or else! I still liked Doc. To me, he was a nice guy and had a very heavy burden on his shoulders being the titular head of the Urantia movement. Doc was a fantastic orator and when he bellowed out in the second floor room of 533 the windows rattled.

Bill Sadler was much closer to me as a friend, a teacher, a mentor. I was in awe of his brilliance and knowledge of all subjects—even airplanes! I can say without equivocation Bill and I were soulmates. Bill was more or less aloof to the Sherman so-called “rebellion.” Bill did not believe that our unseen friends warned Doc about Sherman, but it had a real impact on the simple-minded Forumites.

Clyde Bedell was up to his neck in this petition business; even Christy was taken in by Sherman. Let me describe Sherman (Harold): He had silver hair—not grey but true silver—very good-looking and a wonderful command of language.

Doc called each member of the Forum in to line out their names (I am convinced someone squealed about the petition) and that is where Doc got his information, not the midwayers, seraphim or other beings then on the planet engaged in the Urantia revelation. Doc was very clever unlike his son who called ’em like he saw it.

The Shermans really bought the Urantia Papers; (Martha admitted this me in her kitchen of their little apartment on Sunset Boulevard where many B actors and unsuccessful screenwriters lived on the cheap). Martha said to me as we were collecting the tea and crumpets that Harold really believed in the “New Revelation Papers,” as she termed it, but he could not stand the arrogant Doctor. There was a real “Blood Feud” there.

I speculate that when you have two egos like Sadler (Doc) and Sherman (Harold) there will be a clash of the “Titans.” Evidently this is what happened.

When all is said and done, the Sherman’s caused a real shake up in the (then) Urantia community. It took a year for everyone to take a position on whom to side with. So, in effect it was like the Lucifer Rebellion (on Urantia) where everyone had seven years to make his or her decision. See:

For more than seven years this struggle continued. Not until every personality concerned had made a final decision, would or did the authorities of Edentia interfere or intervene. Not until then did Van and his loyal associates receive vindication and release from their prolonged anxiety and intolerable suspense. (p.756)

Harold wanted to take over the Forum group, and with his charm and charisma probably could have pulled it off, but Doc had a secret weapon. He was communicating with the Revelatory Commission and used this to his advantage.

There is a letter floating around written by Forumite Elsie Bumgartner (never met her) that Sherman wanted to steal the plates (which were in the basement of 533 then) and write a screenplay about them. This story does not make any sense since hauling out 2200 lead convex plates would be a logistics nightmare. (He should have gone for the galley proofs which he could have tucked in his trousers and walked merrily away.)

Now we can get to the nitty gritty of the Sherman diaries. Yes I had dinner with them. I am not certain if Marie Methgen (a novice reader with less than three weeks of struggling through the Book) was there, but Julia Fenderson and Dorothy Elms were present. Subsequently, I had two more interviews with Harold and Martha Sherman at their Hollywood apartment. Julia evidently caught a streak of whatever and phoned Doctor and said: “Bud is talking to the Shermans.” She forgot to mention she set up the appointments. So a phone call from Chicago, where the great doctor commanded me to appear before him the next day. Evidently 1600 miles distance did not phase him one bit. So I traded a flight with another crew member and flew the Cargo flight all night (propeller days) and took a taxi from Midway Airport to 533 Diversey, where I was led into Doc Sadler’s office and got a real ass-chewing for an hour or so. But I explained to Doc, “It was not me but Julia that wanted to bring the Shermans back into the fold.” Then I got another hour of Julia’s physiological [sic] profile. I was a bit uncomfortable with the whole event. Doc "ordered" me to never see or communicate with the Shermans again. I did not take this well, even though I was familiar with taking orders from superiors (and commanders). I told Doc he could tell me who to see or talk to, I was not under his medical care and I did not consider him (Doc) as my spiritual advisor—at which time Doc became irate and began to yell and scream at me. (I am convinced this is how I got the reputation as a “troublemaker,” which I freely admit I am).

I can summarize: The Shermans were really charming people. Martha was petite, about four-foot-seven inches and very attractive (there is another story here). If there was a Sherman Rebellion, so be it. Bill Sadler thinks not. But they did remove [Sherman] (by force) from the second floor meeting room and escorted him out of the building, although Doc said Martha could stay; she followed her husband, and that it the sum and substance of the whole Sherman affair.

In summary: The revelators chose the Sadlers; they did not choose Sherman! I would have to go along with the wisdom of our unseen friends. Of course, Doc Sadler was not a perfect man, but he and his fellow Contact Commissioners got the job done. They received and published the fifth epochal revelation to our planet, Urantia. We should never forget that, as it was a momentous transaction. As Doctor’s son said: “When I see the gold-plated Cadillac in this, I’m out of here!” As I see it, no one got rich over this mystery that lasted over fifty years, and many more.

As for myself, I was lucky having to be thrown into an experience that put me at the right place at the right time. I take no credit for this, it was one of those events that happen in time and space, and is was a propitious time for myself. I am very grateful for it.

HMSA DIARY of HAROLD and MARTHA SHERMAN

Hollywood, March 8, 1961

Henry Belk, head of the Belk Foundation,²⁶ phoned out of a clear sky from NYC to ask Harold what he knew about the Urantia Book. He said he had spent last evening with Dr. Charles Francis Potter²⁷ who had reported to him that Harold knew a lot about Urantia. Belk said he [Belk] had read the Book through completely twice, and was much impressed by it, but when he had tried to get information regarding its source and origin from the Urantia Foundation he had met with a stony silence and come up against a wall of secrecy. He said when he encountered any attitude like this it always aroused his suspicions and made him feel there was something rotten or phony about a person or organization.

Belk remarked about psychic mediums and psychic investigators in general, wondering why the majority of them were so jealous of one another. For illustration he referred to Dr. Puharich²⁸ and Dr. Rhine, both of whom he had known personally for some years. He said Rhine had little use for Puharich although he, Belk, had found Puharich to be a good man and competent investigator. Belk said it was he [himself] who had arranged with his friend Tom O’Neill (publisher of the Psychic Observer) for Puharich to conduct the infrared motion picture investigation of Camp Chesterfield séances, which had resulted in the exposé.²⁹

Belk asked Harold if he knew Arthur Ford,³⁰ and Harold confirmed that he did, saying that he had liked him and his work some years ago but that he had also known that Ford had suffered a decline in health and psychic ability due to drink and emotional difficulties for quite a period of time. Belk said this was true but that Ford, for the past five years, had straightened himself out and was trying in every way to make atonement for what he termed “the sins he had committed.” He said Ford was doing some good work with several prominent ministers, members of the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship.

Belk asked Harold what he knew about the coming of a predicted world catastrophe or calamity. Belk said that every medium or psychic of any consequence that he had contacted, whatever variance of their impressions on other subjects, had all agreed that a great and devastating world change was coming which might take the form of tremendous earth disturbances, such as earthquakes, added to whatever man himself might do.

Harold said this was true in his case, but he wanted to make a distinction between the wishful thinkers, who were hoping that higher beings might appear on earth to save man from himself, and genuine “sensitives” who could apparently foresee the catastrophe which might result from man’s own causations. Belk said he was allowing for that but that, significantly, ancient literature as well as modern seers seemed to indicate that a cataclysm of some stupendous nature was approaching.

Belk said he was forty-four years of age, head of a department chain in Miami, and had set up his foundation with the hope of finding out what this ESP really was and how operative. He said he believed that with the sensitized instrumentation of today, man should be able to tune in on the minds of humans by machine and duplicate as well as amplify the thought waves. . . .

Harold inquired if Belk had read Nature’s Divine Revelations by A. J. Davis as well as the works of Swedenborg and A Dweller on Two Planets by Phylos. Belk said he was familiar with all except the Davis book and asked Harold, in turn, if he had heard of a man whose name Harold could not catch but who had been a friend of Tesla, and who had written a manuscript the size of Urantia in ancient Hebrew. Apparently the writer of the Hebrew manuscript had no knowledge of Hebrew, and Belk said the entity dictating this book purported to have been Isaiah. . . .

Getting back to the Urantia Book, Belk said his interest was heightened in it by the many references to the Order of Melchizedeks. It seems that Peter Hurkos³¹ has, as his “guide,” an entity by the name of “Mosedek” who is a member of that order. Belk is speculating that there is some connection between the Melchizedeks of old and some of the psychic revelations taking place at the present time. He feels that there are good and evil forces of an almost cosmic nature as the result of his investigation thus far.

Belk is a little wary about “guides” who represent themselves as great spirits or personalities of the past. He has seen Hurkos be so completely wrong during certain manifestations. But Urantia, according to Belk, seems to tie in with all known knowledge in the various fields of science, and he had hoped this Book and its contents would stand rigid investigation and inspection. He asked Harold who was behind the Book, and Harold supplied him with Dr. Sadler’s name and address. Harold also said that he was convinced Sadler had taken editorial liberties and that Sadler had kept none of the original papers as written by the Sleeping Subject.

Belk asked why wouldn’t Dr. Sadler have done this if this was all on the level, and Harold said that that is just the point. Belk expressed the desire to meet Harold in the near future and asked if he would be willing to come to New York for a discussion of Urantia and ESP subjects. Harold said he would if the institute would provide the means. Belk then gave his NY address and phone numbers in NY and Miami.

This was a surprise call and left Harold with the feeling that Belk, himself, is a genuine and honest investigator.

HMSA HAROLD SHERMAN to HENRY BELK

Hollywood, March 8, 1961

Dear Mr. Belk,

There is so much I would like to discuss with a man of your penetrating interest and background, which average citizens, involved in their own little problems, would not comprehend. Great changes are coming so soon that few will be prepared to meet them. . . .

For instance, I have documentary evidence of a so-called flying saucer landing—signed statements of witnesses, countersigned by an examinating officer of the Air Force at the Yuma Air Force base, in Arizona, which I have written up with the hope that True Magazine will accept it for publication. . . . This may be part of the functioning of Higher Intelligence, and we have no reason to be assured that it is necessarily friendly.

I was thrilled at your discussion of the book Urantia, to know of your interest in it. I know the whole inside story, as much as can be known at present. I went to Chicago and spent five years with the material before it was published, reading the manuscripts with Mrs. Sherman. I brought my friend, Sir Hubert Wilkins, into this project, so he could evaluate the material with a scientific mind. He was much impressed and went to his death believing in it, in the main. When I challenged certain editorial handlings of the Book, Dr. Sadler and his inner circle tried to excommunicate the Shermans. It is as dramatic a story of its kind as you will ever hear.

I could write a book titled The Mystery of Urantia which would make amazing reading. If the Belk Foundation would support me in such an enterprise, and help investigate from this point on, we might unearth something of great metaphysical value—but Sadler has controlled this project with an iron hand and ruled as a Pope. Any Forum member (pledged to secrecy until the Book was out) who so much as questioned him on any phase, was threatened with expulsion. He became drunk with his feeling of power as the “appointed custodian” of this unusual material, and, as one Forum member said, “became obsessed with the idea that he had a special pipeline to God.”

So few people who develop metaphysical powers or become closely associated therewith, retain their mental or emotional balance. They are like hypnotists tempted to misuse their domination over the minds of others. Why is it? Of course, we both have discovered these ESP powers will function for the evil as well as the right-minded individual, once they learn how to exercise them! . . .

I have written Rhine that I believe I am getting a clue as to how these ESP powers work, and I myself have been experimenting in telepathy, psychometry, clairvoyance, and the like—with the feeling that these phases are all manifestations of the same basic force.

It interested me to have you give me the good report on Arthur Ford, whom I have not seen in years but for whom I had great respect some years ago. I know he went through some rough years, as many sensitives apparently do. Potter may have told you that he, himself, ran into trouble, during his experimenting.
So much to say that cannot be said in writing. . . .

Best to you!

Cordially,
Harold Sherman

HMSA HENRY BELK to HAROLD SHERMAN

New York, pre-March 27, 1961

Dear Mr. Sherman,

I am impressed by your intelligent letter and sensible conversation. You and I agree on all major ESP points just like Hudson³² fifty years back. Now where do we go from here? . . .

I am impressed by Urantia and surprised you turn up the missing link for me. I knew it would unravel. It’s a great book. It doesn’t say much on reincarnation or hypnotism. It sure has all the angels stashed away—like an IBM machine.

Excuse my direct answers, but another surprise was flying saucers and its tie-in to ESP. I saw one, and some of my friends with Eastern Air as pilots have also. We all feel they are spirits and actual machines. Five years ago I would never believe UFOs nor ESP stuff. It has been a hell of an intellectual jolt to find out all this stuff since I was a Presbyterian.

I want to meet you. We will see whether I fly there or you here.

Kindly,
H. J. Belk

HMSA HAROLD SHERMAN to HENRY BELK

Hollywood, March 27, 1961

Dear Mr. Belk,

Thank you for your good letter.

Yes, I will have much to tell you about the Urantia Book when we meet. Ivan Tors would like to meet you, also. He has in mind doing a TV documentary on the outstanding ESP experiences—every phase, each one—dramatized, with authoritative comments and evidential support. Ivan Tors is close to the scientists, and your idea of a possible electronic machine is worth thinking about.
As in the ESP field, the flying saucer mystery has attracted many screwballs, fanatics, and self-deluded individuals who have muddied the waters, but there is no question that spaceships from some unknown source exist.

You have come a long way in the past five years, with your Presbyterian background as a start. . . . Let us know when you can make it out here and we will set aside the time for a real visit.

Best to you!

Sincerely,
Harold Sherman

HMSA URANTIA FOUNDATION REQUEST for SUPPORT

From William M. Hales, President

Chicago, April 7, 1961

Dear Friend of the Urantia Book,

As we analyze our financial needs for the current year, and for the next few years, we are faced with certain practical considerations.

1. Almost half of the Urantia Books of the first printing have been sold out. We estimate we will need to be financially ready to enter into a contract for the second printing within five years.
2. We are in the final stage of entering into a contract for the acquisition and publication of a French translation, which involves a specific commitment of $20,000.00 at the time of the signing of the contract. In completing this transaction there will be, of course, additional costs such as legal fees not yet billed, copyright expenses, etc.
3. We are midway in the very arduous procedure of preparing the Index for publication. We have on a salary basis the full time of one person and half time of another working on this exacting detail. When this is completed, we then must arrange for the printing which involves proofreading as well as other printing costs.
4. Finally, illustrative material has been developed and is continuing to be developed which presents concepts of the physical universe and geographical references as developed in the text. These should be helpful to all of us.

We are enclosing a statement of income and expenses from the establishment of the Urantia Foundation, through December 31, 1960, which shows our cash position.

Our only definite additional funds in sight at this time toward meeting the costs of the items mentioned above are the sales of Books and from a bequest now in the process of becoming available. The remaining funds needed must, therefore, come from those interested in furthering these projects.

Our analysis indicates that (apart from the anticipated receipts from the sale of Books and the known bequest) $10,000 per year will be required for each of the next five years for meeting continual annual costs as well as building up a cash reserve for the money needed at the time actual contracts are signed for the second English printing, the French translation, the Index, and illustrations.
We are enclosing a pledge card for your convenience in indicating and programming your financial help. . . .

We welcome any questions or suggestions you may have. The Urantia Foundation is financially separate from the Urantia Brotherhood, and receives money from it only through the sale of Books. . . .

P.S. The U.S. Treasury Department has ruled that contributions to the Urantia Foundation are deductible from taxable income.