© 2022 David Schlundt
© 2022 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Art of Universal Language: Spiritual Growth Conversations | Volume 22, Number 1, 2022 (summer) — Index | Why The Urantia Corps of Truth Revealers Used Human Source Authors |
By David G. Schlundt
Vice President, The Urantia Book Fellowship
This gospel of the kingdom is a living truth. I have told you it is like the leaven in the dough, like the grain of mustard seed; and now I declare that it is like the seed of the living being, which, from generation to generation, while it remains the same living seed, unfailingly unfolds itself in new manifestations and grows acceptably in channels of new adaptation to the peculiar needs and conditions of each successive generation. The revelation I have made to you is a living revelation, and I desire that it shall bear appropriate fruits in each individual and in each generation in accordance with the laws of spiritual growth, increase, and adaptative development. From generation to generation this gospel must show increasing vitality and exhibit greater depth of spiritual power. It must not be permitted to become merely a sacred memory, a mere tradition about me and the times in which we now live. (UB 178:1.15)
¶ Sharing the Teachings of The Urantia Book
The Urantia Book Fellowship (the Fellowship) is currently working to find new ways to disseminate The Urantia Book and its teachings. As we have studied the challenge, one of our first steps was to think about who our audience is. While you might think the answer should be that every person in the world deserves to know about The Urantia Book and its life-altering teachings, this is not a practical approach. Based on the findings of a survey of Fellowship members, the Organizational Guidance Committee developed a way of segmenting our audience. The following figure is helpful in visualizing the segments.
There are three large blocks of people that the Fellowship plans to communicate with: 1) people engaged with the Urantia Book Community, 2) people engaged with The Urantia Book, and 3) people not aware of The Urantia Book. It is this third very large group that I am writing about here. We can think of those unaware of the book using a readiness continuum. The continuum goes from not ready for The Urantia Book, to those who might be receptive to some of the teachings, to active truth seekers who are ready to learn about the book. In using a readiness continuum, the goal is to help people move closer to being ready to study The Urantia Book. It is neither necessary nor desirable for the goal to be to start by sharing the book with everyone.
The billions of people who are unaware of The Urantia Book are obviously very diverse so there is not one single approach that will work for reaching out to people who are unaware of the book. In fact, there may be many approaches we can take to begin to introduce people to the information presented in The Urantia Book. Matching the message to the background and needs of the individual is the best way to bring these truths to the many. Long-time readers of The Urantia Book have most likely had many experiences of trying to share the book with someone that did not prove successful. We think that sharing the ideas in The Urantia Book may be a better way to reach many people than sharing the book. The remainder of this essay will explore how we might do this in some detail.
¶ A More Detailed Understanding of Outreach: Walls, Doors, and Windows
The following diagram will help us think about finding effective ways to share the truths contained in The Urantia Book.
The top of the figure is a house which represents the individual person. This house has an interior on the left and an exterior on the right. According to modern cognitive psychology, our understanding and perceptions of ourselves and the world are organized into cognitive schemas. Schemas are bundles of information about ideas, emotions, values, goals, consequences, and actions that are associated with our understanding of ourselves and our world. For example, a baseball schema contains knowledge that the shortstop is between second and third base, that a double play is the right action when there in an infield ground ball with a player on first, that getting hit by a pitched ball would hurt, and that striking out with two outs in the bottom of the ninth with the winning run on base would feel disappointing.
Cognitive schemas. We could not navigate the world; understand other people and their motivations, emotions, and actions; perform simple daily tasks; or understand complex written passages without these cognitive schemas. Schemas direct our attention to what information is important (e.g., a smile and a wink) and what information is irrelevant (e.g., the color of someone’s shirt) when trying to understand the meaning of a joke we have been told. Without this structured knowledge, daily tasks like shopping for groceries or using a GPS to drive to a new location, would be impossible. We use schemas to interpret new information considering what we already know and believe. How I interpret the statement “you look bigger than the last time I saw you” will be radically different if the meaning of “big” in my self-schema is “fat” as opposed to “muscular.” Schemas are modular (e.g., different schemas for different domains of knowledge or behavior) and hierarchical (e.g., a schema for animals has a sub-schema for dogs, which has a sub-schema for German Shepherds). Using this idea of cognitive schemas, let’s explore the inside of the house first.
The inside of the house. Understanding the inside of the house was guided by a large survey of values, religious beliefs, and religious practices that I conducted on behalf of the Fellowship and the Organizational Guidance Committee. Within this house of the inner self, four relevant domains of cognitive schemas are identified: (1) core values; (2) beliefs about God; (3) experiences with and beliefs about religion; and (4) religious or spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation, and worship.
Core values. Core values are the goals or outcomes in life that are most important to an individual. Examples of different categories of core values might be self-mastery, self-acceptance, community, interpersonal relationships, health, personal growth, money and finances, fame and acceptance, what other people think of you, consumption and pleasure, religious beliefs, and spiritual experiences. These can be grouped into three larger domains: self-actualization—seeking physical, emotional, interpersonal, and community wellbeing; materialism—seeking money, indulgence, fame, and good looks; and religion or spirituality—seeking to follow the beliefs and practices of a religious community and trying to find meaning and purpose in life.
Beliefs about God. Beliefs about God constitute the second important domain of cognitive schemas. There are many possible bundles or clusters of beliefs such as atheist, agnostic, and people who believe there is a God, a Supreme Being, or simply a Higher Power. Our research found that people’s cognitive schemas include specific ideas about the nature and characteristics of God such as loving, merciful, judgmental, angry, punishing, approachable, aloof, and forgiving. There are associated beliefs in angels, demons, heaven, hell, life after death, the soul, and the devil that go along with ideas about God. Some people will have a God schema that aligns with a specific organized religion, denomination, or sect. Others may have a schema that combines beliefs from many different sources.
In addition to beliefs about God, heaven, and hell, people have cognitive schemas about religion in general along with schemas about specific religions. People’s understandings of religious institutions and religious beliefs can be based on parental teaching, attending church and religious services, interacting with religious figures such as priests and pastors, being the target of evangelistic efforts, or their own independent research and study of different religious traditions. For some, experiences with religion will have been positive and affirming. Other people have had negative experiences with religion and religious people where they were made to feel guilt, shame, or fear. Some people will strongly identify with a specific religion or denomination, while others may have pieced together their religious beliefs and attitudes toward religion from a variety of sources and experiences. Some will have a history of entering and leaving religious communities and may be left with a range of feelings about those experiences. Some people will have a conversion experience that marks an abrupt change in their beliefs. Other people will have lived most of their lives in a religious family and community with a stable set of beliefs. Each person will have a set of beliefs and ideas about various religious doctrines and institutions, and these may range from embracing a religion to rejecting it. In addition, identifying with specific religious beliefs and institutions may be associated with many additional ideas about morality, righteousness, and sin. There may be a range of other beliefs about topics such as abortion, homosexuality, marriage, family, and politics that are part of one’s schema for religious belief and experience.
Religious and spiritual practices. Religious and spiritual practices are also part of one’s internal cognitive schemas. For many, these will be linked to actual behaviors, or for some practices are linked to feelings of guilt or regret for not engaging in these behaviors. There are many potential elements of a religious or spiritual practices schema such as group prayer, private prayer, attending religious services, reading specific books, consuming religious media such as radio and television, meditation, and individual and group worship. There may be very specific experiences associated with activities such as singing hymns, daily devotional reading time, or finding spiritual connections in nature that are a salient part of an individual’s religious or spiritual beliefs and practices schema.
¶ Walls, Doors, and Windows as Self-Protection
Cognitive schemas are well organized and resistant to change. The resistance to change is a balance between (1) defending what you think you know about yourself and the world and (2) being willing to alter your beliefs when confronted with new ideas or experiences. It is this tendency of the mind to defend its current ideas and beliefs that puts barriers between us and potentially new knowledge or experience.
Referring to the diagram, the right-hand side of the house is the exterior and protects the interior using walls, windows, and doors. The exterior is constructed using selective attention, implicit bias, interpretation that resists new or contradictory ideas or experiences, outright disbelief, and emotional reactions of anger, disgust, or discomfort when potentially contradictory information is encountered. Like the exterior of our house, the walls, windows, and doors offer us safety and relative comfort. They help us maintain a consistent sense of who we are and what we know. They keep us from having to admit that we were wrong.
Walls are activated when new information or information contrary to our current beliefs is presented to us and is not allowed to penetrate. A Christian faced with a message about the Muslim religion may erect walls that do not allow that person to reconsider what they believe in light of new ideas about what Muslims believe or do. The individual might not only respond that they aren’t willing to listen, they may even react with anger and attack the messenger. Many people in the world will have walls that will block them from revising their beliefs based on new information provided by The Urantia Book. Some walls are so strong that an individual will feel downright threatened by new religious or spiritual information since changing that belief might cause them to burn in Hell for eternity.
Windows allow light to come into the house, but block the wind, cold air, or entry into the house by strangers. Think of windows as allowing enough new information in that it might be considered as possible or worth thinking about. Some messages may trigger a defensive response, but if enough of the message is consistent with internal beliefs, then some light may be allowed to penetrate. A Christian might agree that angels exist but might not be open to the full knowledge of who angels are and what they do that is revealed in The Urantia Book. Angels might be a window that allows some conversation to occur. Windows give us opportunities to establish connections and to begin sharing new ideas that will build upon existing beliefs.
Doors, when closed, protect the inside of the house from the outside world. One can knock on a door and if the resident sees a friendly person on the other side, they may open the door and allow entry. Doors represent opportunities to present a message that resonates so much with one’s existing beliefs that the mind will actively process the information being presented. The parables of Jesus were intended as door openers. The mind would not defend against hearing a story about everyday people and their lives and therefore would be open to thinking about the implications of the story. Some people are far more ready than others to open the doors of their mind to consider teachings from The Urantia Book.
Core beliefs, ideas about God, ideas about and experiences with religions, and religious/spiritual beliefs and practices are four key schemas that can be used to craft messages that can gain entry to someone’s mind through windows, and maybe even doors. The next step is to use this understanding to think about ways to bring the teachings of The Urantia Book to others.
¶ Communicating about the Urantia Book Teachings
The lower part of the figure represents building communication strategies in ways that might penetrate an individual’s defenses and gain entry through a window or door. The goal of these communications is not to destroy or replace an individual’s current beliefs about God or religion, but instead to find a way to expand or modify these beliefs in a way that might let light or truth come through.
In the figure, there are three stages in the communication process. First, one identifies a teaching to share. Second, the teaching is crafted into a message that can find some alignment with the recipient’s internal cognitive schema. The diagram suggests four major themes that might be used to find alignment. Third, the message is delivered through some communication channel such as written material, video, Facebook, or other media. The sun in the diagram represents the light of truth shining on the individual’s outer self where it might be able to be received through a window or a door.
The Truths of The Urantia Book. The over 2,0oo pages of The Urantia Book contains a wealth of information about the nature of God, the organization of the Universe, our eternal destiny, the history of our planet, the many intelligent beings that inhabit the Universe, and the life and teachings of Jesus. Many people reading this essay may have read the entire book multiple times, and likely found most of the information fascinating, enlightening, and worth sharing with others. I have identified five essential themes in the Urantia Book teachings that are worthy of sharing: (1) portraying God as a loving Father; (2) sharing information about the Thought Adjuster, the indwelling presence of God in human beings; (3) the value of service as an expression of God’s will; (4) personal spiritual growth as the goal of one’s lifetime and the goal of eternity; and (5) knowing more about who Jesus was and what he taught us during his short time on this planet. I understand this does not exhaust the lessons one might learn from studying The Urantia Book, but I offer them as thoughtful examples of what might be shared.
Message Content. The goal of sharing teachings of The Urantia Book with others is to help the individual expand or enhance their current understandings. The goal is to allow a truth to penetrate through the walls, windows, and doors they use to protect and defend their sense of self and their understanding of the relationship of self to the world or even the Universe. A successful message is one that stimulates the individual’s thoughts and might even lead to an incremental change in their cognitive schemas.
Creating some alignment between what the message recipient already knows and believes, and the content of the communication will enhance the likelihood that the message will be received and contemplated. Any of the four domains can be used to create an alignment. For example, someone who places a high value on personal growth may be receptive to messages about spiritual growth from The Urantia Book. Someone who places a high value on helping others may be open to messages about service to humanity. Someone who practices meditation or who prays regularly may be open to messages about improving these practices that come from the Urantia Book teaching. There may be many different ways to create alignment with a person’s current ideas about God and religion so that they might consider a new or expanded understanding. Someone who already believes in angels might be willing to think more about what angels do for us as revealed in The Urantia Book. Someone who already believes that mercy is a characteristic of God may be open to thinking more broadly or deeply about what that means for oneself or for others.
Communication Channels. We truly live in an amazing time in human history. The past one hundred years have witnessed the invention of an astounding number of new ways to communicate. The invention and refinement of computer technology and the development of personal computing devices has created many new ways to communicate. Many of us have smartphones with more computing power than was available in the best computers of the 1960s. The twentieth century saw the world connected by telephones, radio, and television. In the twenty-first century, we have the internet that allows almost instant and world-wide access to knowledge and near-instant communication with anyone, anywhere on the planet.
The apostles could share the teachings of Jesus in person or through writing that could only be copied by hand. Students of The Urantia Book have a large toolkit of communication strategies that can be used to share our understanding of the teachings of Jesus. A Facebook post can reach hundreds or even thousands of people all over the world. Everything we write can be instantly available by posting it on a web site. Our outreach efforts are only limited by our creativity and our desire to share the teachings of The Urantia Book.
¶ Doing Our Homework
What I hoped to accomplish with this essay is to share my understanding of the goals and strategies involved in sharing the teachings of The Urantia Book. I hope it stimulates many people to begin to do some homework on how to create alignment with people’s current ideas and beliefs so that the teachings of The Urantia Book might penetrate the doors and windows of persons’ outer selves.
The next step is to do our homework. In our modern world, we have a science of communication that is used by marketing professionals to sell us goods and services we may or may not need. They align these messages with our internal selves and sell us ways to be wealthier, happier, and more beautiful. We can study what they do and begin to market a more reliable route to true happiness, the process of personal spiritual growth through cooperation with the Thought Adjuster augmented by the Spirit of Truth.
As an example, consider the following table on reaching out to secular humanists. This comes from survey work I did in 2020 in which I identified five clusters of values, religious beliefs, and spiritual practices. The five clusters were:
- Secular humanists—Very little interest in religion or spirituality, low on materialism, high on compassion and helping others, low on conservative beliefs.
- Worldly—Have religious views, but less engaged either at personal or institutional level, high on materialism and concerned about what others think, low interest in selfimprovement or self-mastery.
- Spiritual believers—High interest in religion and spirituality, high on self-actualization, low on materialism. More spiritual than religious, tended to be older.
- Religious believers—Strongly identify as religious and spiritual, high on self-actualization, high on materialism, concerned about others’ well being, high on conservative religious beliefs.
- Eclectic—Mostly religious and spiritual, high on self-actualization, less materialistic, more likely to have non-Christian influences, moderately engaged in religious community.
| Cluster | Description | Walls | Windows | Doors | Pathways |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secular humanists |
Very little interest in religion or spirituality Low on materialism High on compassion and helping others |
Put off by organized religion, faith, God, prayer |
Seek Truth about the world and Universe |
Increase love, compassion, forgiveness Find meaning and purpose in life Help others Better world Better society |
Internet news and opinion Local events YouTube |
To reach out to secular humanists, the table identifies potential walls, windows, and doors. This analysis could be used to create messages that align with the core values and beliefs of secular humanists. Creating some alignment on values such as compassion and forgiveness or finding meaning and purpose in life might lead to communications that will be given some consideration. The Fellowship is hard at work improving our outreach and communication.
¶ Summary
Each person has a complicated set of ideas about the self, the world, society, God, and religion. To maintain a consistent sense of self, these internal cognitive schemas are resistant to change and are defended by selective attention, motivated interpretation, and discounting or denial. Part of the mission of The Urantia Book Fellowship is to reach out to the billions of people who are not aware of The Urantia Book and its teachings. I have argued that the goal of sharing the teachings of The Urantia Book is to stimulate people to consider incorporating new information or perspectives into their understandings of themselves, God, the universe, religion, and spiritual practices. Small changes may eventually lead a person to be ready to discover The Urantia Book and pursue studying it on their own or as part of a study group. The art of outreach involves segmenting the target audience, listening to their real needs and desires, then creating messages that align enough with existing beliefs to allow new information to be considered. Using the analogy of the house, the goal is to shine the light of truth through the windows until someone becomes willing to open the door. There is much work to be done.
David Schlundt is a second-generation student of The Urantia Book. He is a clinical health psychologist and professor at Vanderbilt University. In addition to teaching students about health and behavior, he is actively involved in research. He is Vice President of The Urantia Book Fellowship.
¶ References
- Article obtained from The Fellowship site
| Art of Universal Language: Spiritual Growth Conversations | Volume 22, Number 1, 2022 (summer) — Index | Why The Urantia Corps of Truth Revealers Used Human Source Authors |