The Urantia Book (sometimes called The Urantia Papers or The Fifth Epochal Revelation) is a spiritual, philosophical, and religious book that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States, sometime between 1924 and 1955.
The text, which claims to have been composed by celestial beings, introduces the word "Urantia" as the name of the planet Earth and states that its intent is to "present enlarged concepts and advanced truth". The book aims to unite religion, science, and philosophy. Its large amount of content on topics of interest to science is unique among documents said to have been received from celestial beings. Among other topics, the book discusses the origin and meaning of life, mankind's place in the universe, the history of Earth, the relationship between God and people, and the life of Jesus.
The Urantia Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit group, first published The Urantia Book in 1955. In 2001, a jury found that the English-language book's copyright was no longer valid in the United States after 1983. Therefore, the English text of the book became a public domain work in the United States, and in 2006 the international copyright expired.
How it arrived at the form published in 1955 is unclear and a matter of debate. The book itself claims that its "basis" is found in "more than one thousand human concepts representing the highest and most advanced planetary knowledge". Analysis of The Urantia Book has found that it repeated portions of numerous pre-existing published works by human authors with only the above "basis" as attribution. Despite this general acknowledgment of derivation from human authors, the book contains no specific references to those sources. It has received both praise and criticism for its religious and science-related content, and is noted for its unusual length and the unusual names and origins of its reputed celestial contributors.
Background
Authorship
The exact circumstances of the origin of The Urantia Book are unknown. The book and its publishers do not name a human author. Instead, it is written as if directly presented by numerous celestial beings appointed to the task of providing an "epochal" religious revelation.
William S. Sadler and his wife Lena Sadler, physicians in Chicago and well known in the community, are said to have been approached as early as 1911 by a neighbor who was concerned because she would occasionally find her husband in a deep sleep and breathing abnormally. She reported that she was unable to wake him at these times. The Sadlers came to observe the episodes, and over time, the individual produced verbal communications that claimed to be from "student visitor" spiritual beings. This changed sometime in early 1925 with a "voluminous handwritten document," which from then on became the regular method of purported communication. The individual was never identified publicly but has been described as "a hard-boiled business man, member of the board of trade and stock exchange".
The Sadlers were both respected physicians, and William Sadler was a sometime debunker of paranormal claims. In 1929, he published a book called The Mind at Mischief, in which he explained the fraudulent methods of mediums and how self-deception leads to psychic claims. He wrote in an appendix that there were two cases that he had not explained to his satisfaction:
The other exception has to do with a rather peculiar case of psychic phenomena, one which I find myself unable to classify. ... I was brought in contact with it, in the summer of 1911, and I have had it under my observation more or less ever since, having been present at probably 250 of the night sessions, many of which have been attended by a stenographer who made voluminous notes. A thorough study of this case has convinced me that it is not one of ordinary trance. ... This man is utterly unconscious, wholly oblivious to what takes place, and, unless told about it subsequently, never knows that he has been used as a sort of clearing house for the coming and going of alleged extra-planetary personalities. ... Psychoanalysis, hypnotism, intensive comparison, fails to show that the written or spoken messages of this individual have origin in his own mind. Much of the material secured through this subject is quite contrary to his habits of thought, to the way in which he has been taught, and to his entire philosophy. In fact, of much that we have secured, we have failed to find anything of its nature in existence.
In 1923, a group of Sadler's friends, former patients, and colleagues began meeting for Sunday philosophical and religious discussions, but became interested in the strange communications when Sadler mentioned the case at their fourth meeting and read samples at their request. Shortly afterward, a communication reportedly was received that was intended to serve as the basis for questions from the group that would be answered by celestial beings through the "contact personality."
Sadler presented this development to the group, and they generated hundreds of questions without full seriousness, but their claim is that it resulted in the appearance of answers in the form of fully written papers. They became more impressed with the quality of the answers and continued to ask questions, until all papers now collected together as The Urantia Book were obtained. The group was known as the Forum, and was formalized in 1925 as a closed group of 30 members who pledged not to discuss the material with others. Over time, some participants left and others joined, leading to a total membership of 486 people over the years from diverse backgrounds and a mix of interest levels. A smaller group of five individuals called the Contact Commission, including the Sadlers, was responsible for gathering the questions from the Forum, acting as the custodians of the handwritten manuscripts that were presented as answers, and arranging for proofreading and typing of the material. Bill Sadler, Jr. is noted to have composed the table of contents that is published with the book.
The Sadlers and others involved, now all deceased, claimed that the papers of the book were physically materialized from 1925 until 1935 in a way that was not understood even by them, with the first two parts being completed in 1934 and the third and fourth in 1935. The last Forum gathering was in 1942.
After the last of Part IV was obtained in 1935, there was a period of time during which requests for clarification supposedly resulted in revisions from the celestials. Sadler and his son Bill at one point wrote a draft introduction but were told they could not use it. The Foreword was then "received."
The communications purportedly continued for another two decades while members of the Forum studied the book in depth, and according to Sadler and others, permission to publish it was given to them in 1955. The Urantia Foundation was formed in 1950 as a tax-exempt educational society in Illinois, and through privately raised funds, the book was published on 12 October 1955.
Only the members of the Contact Commission witnessed the activities of the "sleeping subject", and only they knew his identity. The individual is claimed to have been kept anonymous in order to prevent undesirable future veneration or reverence for him. Martin Gardner claims that an explanation concerning the origin of the book more plausible than celestial beings is that the Contact Commission, particularly William Sadler, was responsible. Gardner's conclusion is that a man named Wilfred Kellogg was the sleeping subject and authored the work from his subconscious mind, with William Sadler subsequently editing and authoring parts. Brad Gooch believes Sadler wrote the book, possibly with help from others on the Contact Commission. A statistical analysis, using the Mosteller and Wallace methods of stylometry, indicates at least nine authors were involved in the Urantia documents. Comparing Sadler's The Mind at Mischief to the Urantia documents does not indicate authorship or extensive editing of the latter by Sadler, without ruling out the possibility Sadler made limited edits or contributions.
Bunker and Pressler posit that the 'sleeping subject' was Edgar Cayce On another level, the Urantia Book itself credits midwayers in relaying material to the sleeping subject. 38:9.9, 121:0.1. 0:0.1 credits an "Orvonton corps of truth revealers" later detailed to include:
Copyright status As of 2006, the Urantia Foundation has accepted that the international copyright on the English text has expired.
In 1991, Kristen Maaherra, after having compiled an index of The Urantia Book and distributed free copies via computer disk and printouts, was sued by the Urantia Foundation for violating their copyright on the book.
In 1995, Maaherra won a summary judgment declaring the Urantia Foundation's copyright renewal invalid. Upon appeal, the judgment was reversed and awarded to the Urantia Foundation.
In 1999, four years later, Harry McMullan III and the Michael Foundation published a book, Jesus–A New Revelation, which included verbatim 76 of the 196 papers included in The Urantia Book. McMullan and the Michael Foundation subsequently sought a legal declaration that the Urantia Foundation's US copyright in The Urantia Book was either invalid or, alternatively, that the copyright had not been infringed upon. Urantia Foundation's copyright was held to have expired in 1983 because the book was deemed to have been neither a composite work nor a commissioned work for hire. These two arguments having been rejected, a U.S. court held that, since the "sleeping subject" (whom the court referred to as "the Conduit") had died prior to 1983, only the Conduit's heirs would have been eligible to renew the copyright in 1983 and, since they had not done so, the Urantia Foundation's copyright on the book had expired and the book had therefore passed into the public domain. This decision was upheld on appeal.
Overview
The Urantia Book is approximately 2,000 pages long, and consists of a body of 196 "papers," divided into four parts, and an introductory foreword: Part I, titled "The Central and Superuniverses," addresses what the authors consider the highest levels of creation, including the eternal and infinite "Universal Father," his Trinity associates, and the "Isle of Paradise." Part II, "The Local Universe," describes the origin, administration, and personalities of the local universe of "Nebadon," the part of the cosmos where Earth resides. It discusses the inhabitants of local universes and how the work of different orders of beings, including humans and angels, is coordinated within a scheme of ascension and spiritual progress. Part III, "The History of Urantia," presents a broad history of the Earth, offering an explanation of the origin, evolution, and destiny of the planet and its inhabitants. Topics include Adam and Eve, Melchizedek, the concept of the Thought Adjuster, "Religion in Human Experience," and "Personality Survival." Part IV, "The Life and Teachings of Jesus," is the largest part at 775 pages, and is often noted as the most accessible and most impressive. It narrates a detailed biography of Jesus that includes his childhood, teenage years, family life, and public ministry, as well as the events that led to his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. It continues by discussing his appearances after he rose, Pentecost and, finally, "The Faith of Jesus."
Nature of God