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Further Comments on Channeling
Meredith Sprunger, Fort Wayne, IN., USA
During the last several months I have received a number of papers promoting or explaining channeling and the "teaching mission." Some of them are "off the wall" and ludicrous, containing veiled threats to join in with them or face rejection of salvation, while others are well written and on the surface appear to say all the right things. All of them attempt to ride the coat tails of The Urantia Book .
It might be helpful to some who are still perplexed about this problem to add a few summary statements to my paper "Channelling and the Urantia Movement (Six-O-Six, May 1992) for consideration.
1. Psychic, esoteric, or paranormal psychological phenomena is rather common throughout human history. In the field of religion, such things as "speaking in tongues" (glossolalia), seeing, visions, getting "special" or ''higher'' instructions through spiritualistic or psychic channels tends to occur in periods where people are stimulated spiritually without having concrete social-organizational channels to express these motivations in service or outreach activities. Historically, these psychic activities have not had a very good track record.
2. Currently there is an attempt to explain and justify this phenomena by claiming that the Lucifer Rebellion has been adjudicated and the system circuits are being opened. To give the "teaching mission" further prestige, they claim these instructions are a continuation of The Fifth Epochal Revelation. Both of these claims are, in my judgment, without foundation. My guess is that the adjudication of the Lucifer rebellion will be communicated to our planet in a more significant way than channelling messages!
Claiming that these channeling messages--or even our own autorevelation--is a continuation of the Fifth Epochal Revelation is to toy with "delusions of grandeur." This is different than God's historic way of bringing epochal revelation to our world. Epochal revelation has always come in specific, concrete, objective form--in persons or a book--not in subjective messages of various quality from numerous "teachers." The content of these messages, in my judgment, is not in the same league with The Urantia Book but what I might expect from an intelligent student of the book. Some of these messages are not even up to this quality.
3. The best apologetics for "teaching mission" do say things that, in the main, are harmonious with the wisdom of The Urantia Book but neglect a key spiritual insight. Preoccupation with "intermediaries" or dependence on their direction tends to sidetrack the basic purpose of spiritual growth: God-consciousness, learning to grapple with tough problems through our own decisions and experience, and outgoing service. We have the greatest teachers available to human beings--Thought Adjusters, the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit. We have ample opportunity to learn through personal decisions and experience, and we have service potentials to fully occupy our lives.
Although it is unintended, I can think of no more subtle way to disrupt unity in the Urantia movement and divert attention away froth a dynamic outreach program to bring the Fifth Epochal Revelation to our world than the preoccupation with channeling and
I know that many people have been helped by these channeling "teachers." Some of them are close friends. All of us probably have a conscious or latent desire for a ''higher" spiritual mentor. As material beings we appreciate "tangible" personal relationships. So I understand the attraction of "special teachers" and share these observations, not to denigrate those who may disagree with them, but to clarify differences in perception, and with the hope that in spite of differences, we may unite in bringing the Fifth Epochal revelation to our world.
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