© 1994 Mark Kulieke
© 1994 The Fellowship for readers of The Urantia Book
By Mark Kulieke, Green Bay, Wisconsin
The superhuman sponsors of The Urantia Book wrote much material that doesn’t appear in the book. They also had substantial dialogue with the Contact Commission which was recorded, but also doesn’t appear in the book. There seems to be some confusion about this material and its importance.
This extra material falls into three categories:
Category One: Papers or fragments of papers which were given to the Forum. but subsequently recalled. By this I mean material that was originally intended to be part of The Urantia Book. Such recalled material was gone as quickly as it came through the years, approximately from 1924 to 1942 . It was destroyed by the revelators themselves or by members of the Contact Commission.
Much of it seems to have been regarded as material that was too difficult for us to comprehend. For example, the purpose of each of the seven superuniverses was originally revealed. Now we have only the purpose of Orvonton, our own superuniverse.
Perhaps some of the material was recalled because of reactions among members of the Forum that the superhuman revelators regarded as not altogether fortunate. They used the Forum for dialogue and as a test group, and edited the papers according to the Forum’s questions and reactions.
This editing was an ongoing process of nearly 20 years. Some Forum members have dim recollections about some of this recalled material. On the whole, they seem to remember very little or are disinclined to talk about it. It doesn’t seem that we are meant to know about these matters.
Category Two: Informal exchanges (chitchat) between superhuman revelators and members of the Contact Commission. Most of this communication was personal in nature and so informal that it was not recorded. What was recorded is long since gone and was very limited in time.
A few memories persist among the Urantia readers and students, usually short anecdotes. For example, when the Contact Commission was told that the revelators started working on the Urantia project during the Middle Ages, Lena Sadler asked, “What took you so long?” There was a long pause before a Midwayer answered, “Oh, we see what you mean.” While it may not matter whether some of these anecdotes are known, they are probably of minimal significance.
Category Three: More formal presentations which were intended for repeated readings, study and action plans by the Contact Commission and Forum. Some people regularly refer to this extra material as “instructions” and certainly some of it was in the nature of instructions. Others use the word “mandates” to refer to this material. I’m not aware that any surviving fragments constitute mandates.
Some material, now gone, may have been mandates to the Forum, Contact Commission and the Urantia Foundation because all groups entered into formal agreements and commitments with the superhuman revelators. The Forum and the Contact Commission have long since fulfilled their roles and accomplished their missions. The Foundation was the formal heir to the Contact Commission and is presumably bound by its commitments to our celestial overseers.
To my knowledge no one is being currently “mandated” by any surviving writings. The Contact Commission members received no more regular communications from the superhumans after 1952 until the death of the last member of the Contact Commission in 1982. I understand there was one brief intervention of an emergency nature in 1980 , the details and validity of which are disputed. Short of that, the instructions from superhumans appear to be past history.
The only writing that exists in fragmentary form is the third category: Writings outside of The Urantia Book which, in a general sense, constitute instruction or “guidance.” It is general guidance which can inspire us in our work and give us a general direction. It is not very detailed.
For example, I regard the following statement of superhuman origin as general encouragement and guidance:
“You must learn to possess your souls in patience. You are in association with a revelation of truth which is a part of the natural evolution of religion on this world. Overrapid growth would be suicidal. The book is being given to those who are ready for it long before the day of its worldwide mission. Thousands of study groups must be brought into existence and the book translated into many tongues. Thus will the book be in readiness to comfort and enlighten the people of many languages when the battle for man’s liberty is finally won and the world is once more made safe for the religion of Jesus and the freedom of mankind.”
This material didn’t belong in the book. The major portion of it dealt with how to bring the book into existence, how to handle the book, how to get it published, and after publication, how to form and deal with groups connected with the book. Most of it was time bound, hence its destruction at different points in the the last 40 years or so. I know of at least three or four points when this superhuman guidance was destroyed, the last being 1982 when the final member of the Contact Commission died. Only a few frequently quoted fragments have survived.