© 2013 David Glass
© 2013 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Spiritual Faith, Incertainty and Cosmic Citizenship | Volume 13, Number 1, 2013 (Summer) — Index | A Statistical Test of the Hypothesis the That Urantia Book was authored by a Human Being |
There are a great many Urantia Book readers who have made various and valorous and concerted efforts to rise to the occasion of responding “adequately” to the message, the import—even the simple fact of the existence, of The Urantia Book. I personally know and have met and heard of many, many readers of the Fifth Epochal Revelation who have done, are doing, or are intending to do their utmost to respond to the highest vocations which it makes to its readers. The very uniqueness of each reader’s personality insures a diversity of individual responses to its existence and to its astounding contents.
I am one of those who finds himself in his fortieth year of experiences with this book. My upbringing saw me move through Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches, attend a nominally “Presbyterian” college, and then aspire to respond to my having discovered two major global religions—or religions with a global perspective—Baha’ism and the Self-Realization Fellowship (founded by Paramahansa Yogananda). Then in the summer of 1972, I first encountered The Urantia Book.
Perhaps you, like me, have speculated that, if you had continued your quest indefinitely, you would sooner or later have, by now, encountered the book. However, some readers have found the book by such seemingly outlandish means that we might even wonder if it were more than chance or mere circumstance which introduced them to the revelation. I owe my own discovery of the book partly to eavesdropping, by which means I overheard a now 41-year friend, Stephen Zendt, of San Francisco, mention the book in the summer of ’72 in a small town—Granby, Colorado. (For my complete story, I refer you to the first or second edition of How I Found “The Urantia Book,” edited by Byron Belitsos).
During these going on forty-one years, I have, like so many readers, perused and studied, analyzed and “synthesized,” discussed and revered, and generally been enthralled and overawed by this book.
I have been associated with The Urantia Book long enough to have passed through a range of responses to it, and to have met and become friends with a sufficient number of readers as to have learned of their responses to the book as well. And it is on the bases of these immediate (first-person), vicarious (second-person), and even some third-person (hearsay/reported) accounts by readers of the book that I have found insights into the various distinct re actions to the revelation I will present here. These potential and actual responses to The Urantia Book I refer to as the “moods, music, and magic” of The Urantia Book. Perhaps you will recognize your own reactions somewhere in this report. Some of the preeminent responses include:
I experienced curiosity when I heard, or rather overheard, Stephen Zendt comment that The Urantia Book was indeed “the best spiritual book” he had read—or was reading—so far. I was and am still in the habit of making mental notes of the names and authors of books mentioned by my friends, associates, and acquaintances, especially when they recommend or even praise them.
My next response to The Urantia Book was based on my decision to personally set out to examine it (and possibly to read it) myself, based only on Stephen’s acclamationrecommendation. I was immediately impressed by the size, “Table of Contents,” vocabulary, and literary sophistication of the book.
I decided to read this tome, and I was determined to read this newfound book, as I read all books, from beginning to end. I have always felt duty-bound to honor an author’s or a group of authors’ creative intention which placed the beginning at the beginning, the middle in the middle, and the end at the end. I developed this practice from my college experiences as a literature major; however, it has indeed always been my modus operandi.
This insured, however, that I would first encounter and be impacted by the formidable “Foreword.” And even though this “foreword” begins with admissions that the book was a revelation, that is not what initially and most emphatically impressed me. It was mainly the literary qualities I mentioned above, together with the simple quality of the publication itself. I kept reading and reading, somewhat non-committally and without any soul-grabbing response, until I reached—far over in Part III—Paper 74, “Adam and Eve.”
The moment of revelatory-recognition is etched indelibly in my memory. I was sitting on the side of my modest bed, in my modest, whitewashed room in the basement of a nondescript Sufi ashram, where I was staying while attending one year of study at SUNY at Stony Brook, Long Island. It was about eight o’clock in the evening. It was quiet, I was alone, I was reading the book. Suddenly, I was impressed -plus— astonished —then transfixed —with the overwhelming realization that this Paper was actually relating what truly happened with respect to the real and original and unique Adam and Eve of Urantia! And, suddenly — again, I had a memory-reflexive response of understanding that if this Paper were true, then the preceding Paper was most likely true, and the Paper preceding that, and so forth: THE ENTIRE Urantia Book IS TRUE!
In a momentary flash of insight, a near-paroxysm of recognition, I saw that the book was all it claimed to be. It was: the Fifth Epochal Revelation to this planet, which is one of more than five trillion inhabited planets in a universe teeming with life, personality, energy, and love! God was centered at the Paradise-focus of an eternal universe, surrounded by a near-eternally ancient-yet-youthful universe of inappreciably vast past duration—THE UNIVERSAL FATHER of every personality who had ever lived, lives, or ever would live anywhere in infinity—GOD—is MY Father! I am a “son of God,” a “brother” to every person on Urantia—spiritually kin to every creature in the cosmos!
My experience of astonishment quickly—immediately—segued into the next response, urgency. I had to tell somebody what I had discovered: Intelligent beings from the heart of the Milky Way had reached down and contacted Earth, addressed its teeming billions of God-children, and made themselves known to ME! God knew I had found The Urantia Book ; I knew that God knew; and we both suddenly knew each other in a new and uniquely different way. The depth and dimension of my “conversion” was near-instantaneous.
In a moment, I folded a bookmark into my reading place in the book, shut it with a thud, threw on my jacket, and bolted upstairs and out the back door to the social center of the ashram behind the kitchen, where some friends were socializing and relaxing. I burst into the room, breathless from the run and astonishment, and then realized I needed to contain myself somewhat if I were going to communicate anything meaningful. All I could say was that I had discovered that this book I had been reading, The Urantia Book, was the most important book I had ever encountered, probably the most significant document currently on the planet, that it was indeed the revelation of revelations for our time and for the future, that it was for all mankind, that I was convinced it would sweep the planet, once discovered—and I and now these, my friends, were to be among the vanguard to realize this monumental realization!!!
Slightly irritated, and definitely astounded at my words and behavior, my friends were not, to my judgment, sufficiently or appropriately responsive. But how could they be expected to be? This was simply my first and completely unthinking eruption of discovery, an impulsive spiritual-reflex, an unplanned, completely non-strategized announcement. Of course, my friends were bewildered by my words, by my expression, and by me.
As time passed, and as I continued to reflect and meditate over the significance of the book, I initially concluded that anyone, everyone, who honestly considered and read the book would respond as I had. And indeed I met several people who had had the same response, but not until considerably later.
It has been my experience that I and innumerable other reader-discoverers experience this initial, mind-blowing, epiphanic realization, associated with a sense of assurance that the book was destined to become the foremost, planet wide best-seller of all time. (Which, indeed, I still believe, it may become—or other means of communicating its message to individuals or to the masses may be discovered or devised before a person-by-person introduction to the book can be accomplished.) It becomes increasingly bewildering and even baffling to attempt to predict the future destiny of the unfolding of The Urantia Book’s story.
The initial white-hot urgency does, or did, pass, but it rekindles itself insistently from time to time, in moments of reflection, inspiration, or discovery. The spirit-blasted mind and will remain puzzled by: the non-responsiveness of those who do not appreciate the book as its true believers do; the seeming oblivion of the world at large to its existence, and the slowness of the spread of its message of its good news to the world. Gradually, one comes to understand that the book could not sweep the world, as the world is now, with the rapidity, and the urgency the revelation-discoverer wishes immediately were somehow possible.
Often, echoing through my mind, come the words of James “Jim” Mills who, with Christy, were the first two Chicago Urantia Book readers I met (in 1972). When I had poured out my incalculable astonishment at having found and read the contents of the book, Jim calmly asked me, “Well, David, just how many times have you read The Urantia Book ?” When I admitted that I had only read it once, he said, “I believe you’ll find that everything falls into place on about the fifth reading.” And then when he had studied my somewhat crestfallen expression, he added, “David, you will also find that, in this universe of vast time and immense space, if you’re in a hurry…you can just forget it.”
I was delighted, honored, and amazed to have met Jim and Christy, and Marian Rowley, Edith Cook, Mark Kulieke, and others during my first visit. But I returned to my hotel room again bewildered, confused, and feeling quite alone in my still fresh conviction that the world needed the information in the book, NOW. Why go so slowly? Why delay? All the realities concerning and the resistance to the project of spreading the word of the existence and message of the book had not occurred to me yet; there was only puzzlement bordering on consternation, along with the quiet inner voice which urged and goaded, “Well, obviously, these people have no real understanding of what they have in their possession. I suppose the real mission of The Urantia Book must be up to me.”
This mood or response did not endure very long for me. It consisted of the intrepid, self-assured, independent selfappointed mission of informing everyone I could think of about the revelation. First I tried some of my friends. Those who had any response beyond disbelief and even concern about me, entertained nothing better than that perhaps The Urantia Book was a supreme specimen of science fiction, at best—but, in all likelihood, a hoax. After all, the world was becoming crowded with a proliferation of cults—it was the 1970s.
I then visited my alma mater, Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. There I sought out a faculty sponsor who would support me in my desire to address the student body concerning the book. First I approached my former student advisor, the late Dr. “Iggy” Foster, a physics professor—though I was a humanities (literature) major—who examined the “Energy—Mind and Matter” Paper and whose assessment was: “Innocuous in the extreme!” He asked whether I had read and compared my book with Ouspensky. I said I had examined some books by Ouspensky, but not read them thoroughly. He suggested I do so. No sponsorship for addressing the students.
However oddly, and for whatever reason, except for, perhaps, faith in me, my former poetry and American and English literature professor, Dr. Peter Meinke, chose to support my petition to address an unofficial, extemporary presentation on The Urantia Book to the student body. I considered and pondered deeply what I could and should say. I personally made more than a dozen posters for the entire campus, put them up, readied the stage in the social hall, set up the microphone, and placed several rows of folding chairs in front of the speaker’s platform. NOBODY SHOWED UP!
Undefeated, I visited the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville and spoke with the geology professor about continental drift and how it had been presented in a book published in 1955. He was unimpressed. So were the professors of anthropology, sociology, and psychology. I went back home to Bradenton, Florida, thinking, perhaps these “Gators” were not sufficiently acute as intellects—that is to say, I was still indefatigably undaunted.
My next mission was to visit the chaplaincies of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Bryn Mawr, MIT, and Princeton, which I did. The most positive response I got—more positive than outright dismissal—was the suggestion that I would probably not get very far with the book on the campus of Columbia, because no other group of religionists who had visited had been able to achieve any of their goals who had visited that university either. I did at least have brief conversations with the chaplains, or assistant chaplains, of Harvard, MIT, and Princeton (and Columbia). The others did not grant me an interview at all.
Now, somewhat sobered, I returned to Florida. Next, I was contacted by Chicago, informing me that they had become aware of a Urantia Book study group which met in Cocoa and Melbourne, Florida, alternatively. Soon, I was making the 3-hour each-way, weekly trip to the east coast of Florida to the only Urantia Book study group I knew of in Florida, and this continued for a couple of years.
In 1974, I saw an Agondonter at the home of Larry Jones, the group’s host, in Melbourne announcing a Urantia Book conference in Los Angeles. I attended it and met many LA readers as well as a significant delegation from San Francisco’s “Family of God Foundation.” It was then I first heard Vern Bennom Grimsley and learned of his burgeoning radio outreach ministry.
In 1975, I attended the Kendall College conference in Evanston, Illinois, north of Chicago. There again I heard Christy, Jim Mills, and Vern Grimsley, along with others. All of these experiences only fed my revelation-kindled zeal for outreach. At this conference I met several Floridian readers from all over the state, and learned the names of several readers without study groups—Readers at Large. Upon returning to Florida, I began making trips around the state, visiting all the known study groups and readers. Ultimately, this led to planning for the First Florida Statewide Conference of Urantia Book Readers. John Hales and Vern Grimsley addressed the assembled readers.
Thereafter, almost yearly, Florida conferences took shape in: Tampa, Lakeland, Bradenton, near Sarasota, and in Ft. Lauderdale. Still we weren’t reaching the public!
Next, a trip to Oakland, California, made it possible for me to observe the workings of the Family of God Foundation directly and in action. I attended a group dinner at their center and participated in an evening’s project. I learned about Vern’s procedures and about how he and the team were pursuing becoming an international radio broadcasting system proclaiming the teachings of Jesus—a goal they eventually achieved.
I returned to Bradenton with pamphlets to copy and distribute, and with sample reel-to-reel tapes of Vern’s radio program, “On Campus,” to take to local radio stations, one of which, in Sarasota, agreed to air the program for a year.
Local study groups continued, and occasionally attracted new readers or visitors. But growth remained gradual—too slow for me.
At Lake Forest Academy I heard the late Rev. Dr. Meredith Sprunger, who agreed to address the attendees at the next year’s Florida Conference in Tampa. We also imported “Jesus—God and Man” by Larry Mullins and the Oklahoma Society, six of whose members attended the conference, bringing the 3-hour slide show of Jesus’ final bestowal. What times those were!
Even my parents attended this conference. Mom started reading Part IV and eventually completed about two-thirds of it. Dad, beginning with Paper 1, got as far as Paper 6, before deciding it was “over his head.” About this time the idea of going door to door first occurred to me, however, I have never tried it.
I know of many readers who have been equally and even more motivated to take on the role of what I call “the crusader.”
The Urantia Book student—either innately wise, or experientially tempered not to expect over-rapid develop ment and acceptance of the book—settles down a bit, at least enough to participate in study groups, to devise study materials, and to approach the book intellectually, as well as spiritually.
As this stage, the mood changes and matures and the student develops deepening comprehension, and the personality begins its maturation. The tempo of the revelatory music becomes more steady and reliable. Some of the fireworks of the initial transformative magic can be harnessed for deliberation and contemplation—more far-reaching comprehension.
For me, this stage stretched out for years in Florida, Texas, and Oregon. I continued to attend study groups and to contribute to and devise conferences. I feel this stage culminated, most recently, for me, with my participation in the “Introduction to The Urantia Book ” team of UU—Urantia University. For three years, almost biweekly conference calls took place which included the members of this team, and which elevated, expanded, enriched, and generally developed and matured my “studenthood.”
This response to The Urantia Book, like some of the others, can be returned to from time to time, or it may become an extended stage of development in itself. It is more reflective and contemplative than the strictly intellectual approach—the “Let’s learn this stuff” attitude, of the Student. This mood is sometimes overcome by awe; it is realizationenriching; and sometimes worshipful and imaginative—even artistically creative.
For me, this stage included actually attempting to visualize the universe of universes, draw diagrams of its levels, and study other readers’ diagrams. All this has led to other readers’ contemporary brilliant artistic achievements at portraying the Master Universe. This stage can overlap with a study of Bill Sadler’s A Study of the Master Universe and its Appendices. Other excellent secondary works have also been produced—including audio-visual media.
The music of this stage is artistic; beautiful, true, and good; serene; inspirational; and potentially love-saturated.
This stage refers to one’s interpersonal relationships both with other readers and with other inquirers, and those who wonder whatever happened to you in the first place. The “minister” may take on a ponderous commitment to service, while seeming, at the same time, to demonstrate that the Master’s burden is light. This group includes: leaders, speakers, healers, artists (again), and outright ordained ministers in recognized or unrecognized churches—assemblages of worshippers.
For me, this stage has had some realization in my participation in Dallas readers’ past two years of “Second Sunday Urantia Worship Celebrations,” where readers gather to worship God, to enjoy music, pray, partake of the Remembrance Supper, relish and discuss a presentation, and to appreciate the companionship of a segment of the brotherhood-sisterhood of man.
Various kinds of “magic” can characterize such gatherings, as when, during communion, the Master is “actually present,” when worship accedes to reality, or when socializations flourish in love. The music is celebratory, laudatory, glorious, and ideal.
This phase can begin as a form of Student-hood, or simply, Readership—and suddenly transpose into the magic of spiritual absorption, One moves through an imaginary doorway into the realm of the actual cosmos, for a while actually seeming to participate intelligently in the conversations, broadcasts, and activities of the universe. It can occur either in group or individual study, and during unstructured reading of the book—or unexpectedly during moments of reflection. Somehow, the pale shadows of this world fade away before, or merge into, the spiritual world, the celestial universe. One “realizes” cosmic citizenship, feels attuned to the universe and alert and directly in contact with God. “God-consciousness” dawns and action, even service, seems secondary, lost in admiration of the truth, beauty, and goodness of creation and its Creator(s). The music is sacred, lofty, reverberant, holy, ascendant, and enlightening. The magic is transformational.
Closely akin to the worshipful experience and to “cosmic- spiritual absorption” is the mood of gratitude for all things, for the assurances and interlocking, beautiful mechanisms of the ascension-promoting universe, for the attentiveness of the celestial ministerial personalities, and for the initiative, creativity, sustenance, and love of the Creator.
Concluding, I would say that the many moods, musics, and magic of The Urantia Book can be successive, alternate, or multiple. I invite readers to experiment to see whether they might deepen their realizations of any of these phases. Other readers stand as magnificent challenges to my intentions, activities, and devotional profundity. Sincerity-enrichment comes from reflection on the amazing accomplishments and service-records of many Urantia Book readers. The overall revelatory music is symphonic, polyphonic, contrapuntal, and ideal—harmonious and enthralling, uplifting, and revelatory—ideal. The magic is refreshing and seems to lead the reader, once more (and then once more) to pick up the forward struggle, to resume the ever-heightening climb to perfection, which, though long-protracted into the future, can be participated in and enjoyed in the present. Indeed, any stage in the eternal journey should and can be relished at the time of its actualization. Therefore, let us be alert to present insights, to new growth, and to our heavenward ascent—to soulful development, Adjuster-attunement, Godworship, and infinity-contemplation, for by these means do we progress, grow, and ascend—when we know: Eternity awaits, and—simultaneously—Now is.
David Glass has been reading The Urantia Book since 1972, attending study groups regularly since 1973, and attending and preparing conferences and presentations for conferences since _1974. He has served in various capacities in the Urantia Society of North Texas, been a member of the Publications Committee of the Fellowship for several years, and worked as a planner for Urantia University since 2009. His personal interests include reading, writing poetry, and performing piano solos.
| Spiritual Faith, Incertainty and Cosmic Citizenship | Volume 13, Number 1, 2013 (Summer) — Index | A Statistical Test of the Hypothesis the That Urantia Book was authored by a Human Being |