© 2003 Eric Cosh
© 2003 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
It was back in 1972 when I was first made aware of The Urantia Book. At the time, I was a professional entertainer, and had just returned from having photos taken of our group. I invited our photographer and his girlfriend to join myself and my girlfriend at my apartment for some refreshments.
At one point during the evening, the photographer, Roy Toma of Denver, picked up a book containing some of my poems and songs and began to read through it. After a few moments, he asked me "How long have you been reading The Urantia Book?”
I had no idea what he was talking about. "The what?” I replied. Roy went on to explain that many of my songs and writings embraced a philosophy that was right out of The Urantia Book. I asked him to tell me about this book. The more he explained about the book, the more excited I became.
The following day he dropped the blue tome at my door. It was HUGE! I opened the book to God the Sevenfold. I thought: Seven Gods? I’m having a very difficult time with just one! I remember closing the book and thinking that it was far more exciting to have someone tell me about this book than actually having to read it. I returned it to him the following day telling him that I had to go on tour and couldn’t take it with me because of the size and weight. (Yea-Right!)
Over the next four years, the word Urantia kept coming up in conversations with various people. In 1976, my wife and I went to the Blue Note Bookstore in Denver and purchased both The Urantia Book and Clyde Bedell’s Concordex. My Urantia journey really began that day.
I remember Marilyn and I going into a coffee shop on Laramar Square with The Urantia Book and reading the jacket cover. Tears flooded my eyes as I read about our planet. I was on fire! I kept saying, “This is truth!” I hadn’t even read 1000 words, and I was preaching this new revelation. What a joy! I, like so many other zealots, ended up turning off my family and friends within a few hours of having the Revelation.
Back in Montana, we were pretty much isolated with regard to fellow “Urantians.” Marilyn had contacted Mo Siegel through the mail. His office would mail us Urantia materials from time to time.
During my tenure in Montana and then Tennessee, I only read certain sections of The Urantia Book. I loved the science parts, and the stories of Adam and Eve, Andon and Fonta, and the rebellion.
Fate then jumped in when we moved to Claremore, Oklahoma in 1980. As it happened, Mo had sent us a newsletter about a multi-media presentation being held in Denver, and put on by Oklahoma Urantia Society. Wow! We have fellow Urantians, right here in Oklahoma! I was put into contact with someone from the Tulsa study group. They invited Marilyn and I to attend one of their study groups. I had no idea of what to expect from people who read The Urantia Book.
After several passed weeks of not showing up to their meetings, the gal that had contacted us asked us to please attend the meeting that night. I told her that I didn’t feel I was ready yet because I still smoked! Astonished she said, “Eric, smoke what?” I replied “cigarettes.” I thought she would die laughing. After she recovered she said, “Eric, our mother hen, Berkely Elliott, smokes four packs a day!” I attended my first study group that night and met my first Urantians face to face. One of those Urantians was Larry Mullins. Shortly afterwards, I met Berkeley Elliott and the Oklahoma City study group. I felt I now had a real spiritual family.
In 1981, I attended my first Urantia Conference at Snowmas, Colorado. It was at the conference that I got my first insight into what Paul must have experienced on the Damascus Road. I felt like I was in a different world. Mo Siegel gave a wonderful talk, along with Meredith Sprunger, Tom Kendall, John Hay, Clyde Bedell, and the icing on the cake for me was Vern Grimsley. What an experience to be with so many fellow “Urantians!” Shortly after returning to Oklahoma, I was transferred to San Antonio, Texas. I had to leave my Oklahoma family. I started the first study group in San Antonio with the assistance of Marian Rowley from Chicago who gave me the names and phone numbers of anyone who had ever made an inquiry from Texas.
Everything seemed to just get better every year until the Vern Grimsley incident. From that point on, things seemed to change not only for me, but I think for many of us in the movement. Human reality started to sink in. Error became more and more noticeable not only in the organizations, but among fellow Urantians. I first dropped out of The Fellowship and The Grand Canyon Society for political reasons. I thought that would cure my woes.
It didn’t. I then stopped reading The Urantia Book on a regular basis. I next stopped attending study groups. For the most part, I stopped talking about The Urantia Book to new friends and acquaintances. What was wrong? What was happening to me? How could I have been so involved with something as wonderful as the Urantian Revelation, and then just drop out?
My first impulse of course was to blame everything on The Urantia Foundation. Next came The Fellowship for not sticking to their guns and fighting the evil Foundation. I then started being critical of individual Urantians. This organization just wasn’t fun anymore. I was bored with the conferences. I was bored with the study groups. Same old thing every week.
“Is this a boring movement, or have I just become a boring old Urantian?” Mirrors are very difficult to look at sometimes because the reflection that comes back to you is real. If you’re honest with yourself, what you see is ”I" problems.
I thought: No Eric, it’s not The Foundation that’s your problem. It’s not The Fellowship. It’s not the conferences. It’s not the study groups, and for sure it’s not the individual Urantians! It’s you!
That’s great! I’ve come to grips with my problem. Now, what do I do about it? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were just as simple as saying a few words and all of the problems would be over? It’s not quite that simple. If it were, any sane person would just utter those precious words and life on this strife torn planet would be a breeze.
But we know from reading The Urantia Book that life on this planet from beginning to end was not a breeze for its Creator. Every day was a new challenge for Our Master. How could we hope that our life would be any easier than his?
My problem has never been my belief in this wonderful Revelation. My problem is that I’ve never seriously put the principles and lessons of our revelation into my daily life on a consistent basis. I guess I’ve been a “part-time” Urantian for the past 30 years.
Today, I’m making a decision to change that. I wish I could tell you of my newly found success, but I can’t. This new job is going to be a work in progress. I can’t change the past, and I might not be able to influence the future, but I can change the present.
I recently did a video production for John Teets, the past CEO of Greyhound and Dial Corporation. In one of the interviews he said that when he wakes up each morning and his feet hit the ground he thanks God for one more opportunity to do His will.
"Is this a boring movement, or have I just become a boring old Urantian”?
Ask me that question next year.
Eric Cosh first saw The Urantia Book in 1972 in Denver Colorado, first purchased The Urantia Book at the Blue Note bookstore in Denver in 1976, and Joined The Oklahoma Society in 1981. Eric was one of the founders of “The Grand Canyon Society for readers of The Urantia Book.” He has been professionally videotaping conferences and doing Urantia interviews for over a decade. Eric can be reached at: eric@pvpweddings.com