© 1992 Ernest Moyer
© 1992 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
Excerpts from “ A Report on Channeling in the Urantia Community” by Ernest Moyer
“But it should be made clear that the midway creatures are not involved in the sordid performances taking place under the general designation of ‘spiritualism’”. (UB 77:8.13)
There it is! A concrete and specific statement about spiritualism, about mediumship, and about channeling. Midway creatures are not involved in such sordid performances. They do not invade the sanctity of the human mind; they do not offer spirit communications; they do not mislead poor misguided human mortals; they do not desecrate the dignity of human personality. They do not provide channelings, or any other form of mediumship falling under the general designation of Spiritualism.
How did some Urantians get into the belief that channeling was an authorized technique of communication?
The notion is based partly on the tradition that The URANTIA Book was channeled, and partly on statements within The URANTIA Book.
When Sadler wrote ‘The Mind at Mischief’ he discussed an individual who produced ‘revelations’ both through ‘automatic’ writing and ‘automatic’ speaking. These revelations, as described by Sadler, contained material which had close parallels with the material we now find in The URANTIA Book. Therefore, everyone concludes that the Book was channeled. Was it not?
Sadler’s rejection of channeling as the mechanism for the transfer of The URANTIA Book was clearly indicated to a group of ministers brought together by Meredith Sprunger in May of 1958. Although he would not say how The URANTIA Book was given, he was willing to say how it was not given. His list included automatic writing, automatic talking, automatic hearing, automatic seeing, and other automatic phenomena. As a result of his meeting with the ministers, he wrote a paper entitled, ‘Consideration of Criticism of The URANTIA Book.’ In that paper he made several important remarks.
“No living person fully understands just how the URANTIA papers got translated into the English manuscript which was authorized for publication.” (p.9)
Here it is evident that he distinguishes that “manuscript which was authorized for publication.” This was different from the papers previously given to the Forum.
“I can testify that the URANTIA Papers were not the product of automatic writing or any other technique of psychic legerdemain known to me.” (p.13)
Here Sadler is explicit that The URANTIA Book did not come through automatic writing or automatic speaking. After listing all the automatic methods by which The URANTIA Book did not come, he states explicitly that the reception of the Book had no parallels with any of the phenomena of marginal consciousness. Nor did the technique of reception impinge upon any of the phenomena of marginal consciousness. This eliminates the sleeping subject as the source of The URANTIA Book.
But there are other factors to midwayer communications and activities which have served to confuse the general readership and more serious students of The URANTIA Book.
The midwayers serve as guardians when the Thought Adjuster is absent, for those human mortals who are members of the reserve corps of destiny. The midwayers do not manipulate the mind during these periods, nor do they transgress the will or the dignity of personality of those human mortals.
We do not know from fact the nefarious designs of Caligastia. but we can surmise, and we can use our heads to come to some fairly certain conclusions… He can enter the minds of human mortals and can draw near to their souls to tempt and corrupt them — if they wish to be cursed by his wicked presence. They probably do not go around saying, “Caligastia, I wish you would enter my mind.” But they do go around saying, “Spirit Intelligence, I wish you would communicate in my mind. I wish you would channel with me so I can tell my compatriots the secrets of the ages.” That most certainly is done everywhere, a thousand times a day.
Even more, the Thought Adjuster must depart for ‘Spirit Intelligence’ to come into the human mind. Thus it is clear that the Thought Adjuster, and hence God, knows the heart of the human mortal. God knows that such individuals are not centered on him, but rather have their hearts centered on such wicked deeds. Furthermore, those individuals cannot be members of the reserve corps of destiny. If they were members the midwayers would serve as contact guardians during the period when the Thought Adjuster is absent, to prevent ‘Spirit Intelligence’ from entering.
From a review of passages from The URANTIA Book, we can reach a deeper appreciation why ‘Spirit Intelligence’ would not pretend to be a midwayer.
