© 1977 Clyde Bedell
An author who for some years has specialized in lecturing and writing books on psychic phenomena, the occult, astral projections, and such — in the early 1940’s was for a time a member of the Forum group which was hearing read the revelatory Urantia papers which comprise the Urantia Book. Said author, finding the Urantia Revelation denying many of his beliefs, made what now appears to be an attempt to gain control of the papers, presumably, to alter the text to conform to his beliefs.
He failed, and departed the Forum, clinging to his psychic and occult beliefs and practices, into which he had been delving for 20 years and which had become the source of his livelihood.
As one who is mentioned several times in his book (giving me the name Floyd Winters) and included in his generally irresponsible comments about the Forum, I feel it important to set the record straight.
The author’s entire chapter of attack is full of statements and innuendos that have no relationship whatever to truth, or to the actual experiences and incidents which he has fictionized. Thus, he paints a completely false, erroneous, even shameful picture (1) of the Forum, its members and their view, (2) of Dr. Sadler and his secretary, and (3) of the Urantia BOOK.
FORUM members did not know of the author’s occult practices and beliefs, nor that he considered himself on an investigation “assigment” among them. As a protection against the curious and enemies of religion, Forum members vowed secrecy about their great revelation. The author reveals in his attack chapter that he violated that vow from the beginning and spent many nighttime hours making notes on conversations he heard as a private guest in the home of a great man.
Knowing that I and a few others were concerned as to what kind of organizations would be set up to (1) protect the Book’s copyright when it was published, and (2) to disseminate the Urantia revelation, the author organized an effort to induce the Doctor to give us more privilege concerning these projected organizations. I wrote the letter to the Doctor for this group and still have a copy of it.
The author calls the letter a “petition” and our concern a “rebellion.” He reproduced a long letter in his attack chapter, which he wrote to the Doctor on behalf of his occult and psychic views. He states the letter I wrote “was based on some of the points” in his letter. That is not true. The two letters were on entirely different subjects and not one sentence of mine was based on any of his occult and psychic concerns. The matter was quickly, amicably settled with all of us (a small minority of the Forum) still loving the Doctor and respecting his leadership, excepting the authorl
The Author tells of confronting the Doctor in the conclusion of this matter, in a scene he makes up out of wholecloth. There are a number of Forumites then present who are alive today who are appalled at the man’s temerity in fabricating such a dramatic fairy tale.
The author says the “Jesus papers” were added “as an afterthought,” and in a Book which had made no mention of “Jesus” as such. Wrong again! The author prevaricates. The Urantia Book is a Christian document from first to last. The first 1,400 pages lead up to the life of Christ Michael (as Jesus) on this planet. No authoritative book on cosmology embracing this planet could fail to treat of Jesus who created our entire local universe, which includes 10 million inhabitable planets.
The author’s motivation for writing his sorry and insupportable chapter? We can only surmise that the Urantia Book which tells authoritatively there is no reincarnation on this planet, and otherwise runs counter to the author’s views on “tramp spirits,” “possession,” “seances,” “astral projections,” et cetera, must have seemed a threat to his livelihood for he decided to discredit it, if he could. Hence, he wrote his trashy chapter.
He indicates the Urantia text was modified and altered by human beings, and otherwise charges Dr. Sadler with bad faith and being a dictator, a “little pope.”
I JOINED the Sadler Forum in September, 1924, and within a few days had permission to bring in the young woman I married in 1926. We have been Forumites and/or Urantians ever since. We knew intimately Dr. Sadler from 1924 until his death a few years ago (and have known an increasing number of Urantians through the long years). Dr. Sadler was a giant of a man in his moral good faith and in his care of his Urantia responsibility.
ALTHOUGH the great Urantia Book came through human fingers, it did not come from the mind of any human being. Every word of the Urantia Book, even when it uses some of the “highest existing human concepts,” was placed in the Urantia Papers by the revelstors. Not a sentence in the entire million-plus words was inserted or added by any human being whatever. I will stake my life on this!
In his paperback book carrying the attack on the Urantia Book, the author, himself a psychic, warns his readers against “fake mediums,” “phony seances,” and “dishonest psychics,” and he says he has found many to have been “fraudulent.” He tells of items becoming lodged in psychic’s minds, “put together and fabricated by the imaginative functioning of the subconscious.”
He also writes: “Unhappily, many so-called psychics … have simply activated their imagination (sic) and caused-it to fabricate whatever they have sought to create…I have had to school myself to be able to detect where my imagination was trying to come into play. Even so, despite every effort, there are times when imagination breaks in and tries to embroider an impression.”
His imagination created most of the chapter of his attack. Those still living who were in the Forum with him can and do testify to his embroidery, and even wholecloth fictions.
The author, had he wished to report to his readers honestly, could easily have contacted me and several other old time Forumites, who could have given him the truth. Instead, he based much of his story on contacts with two embittered individuals of the only three persons the Urantia Foundation has been compelled to enjoin in court for outrageous copyright violations.
I BELIEVE the Urantia Book is the greatest physical instrument of truth on this earth today. It is at the same time, the greatest reading program for individual spiritual development any human being can possess, coming as it does from our unseen celestial friends, for upstepping the planet’s spiritual well-being. The Book is its own proof of this truth.
CONTRAST the author’s lack of faith and his artificial philosophy with yours as a Urantian. “We (the author and wife, he says) decided, at some point along the way, that it was unwise to place our faith in any human being, however spiritual and principled he might appear to be.” Imagine living with no trust in any human being!
Urantians love the teachings of our Great Revelation, and the fellowship, faith, and loving brotherhood of Urantian believers. I pity the author, as he suspiciously peers at his fellow man through the dark glasses of his 50 disillusioning years of psychic misadventure. We know this small planet is destined to be much changed by the Revelation he attacks. Let us forgive him.
FOR THOSE who are not satisfied with this brief response to the detailed attack, I have written a 27 page detailed response, item by item, with supporting material and specifics for which there is not space here. I have made a few copies, available at less than their out-of-pocket cost to me.
For the detailed response send $1. 00 & .79 first class postage ($1. 79) to me as follows:
Clyde Bedell, 120 Camino Alto, Santa Barbara, CA 93103