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Reading The Urantia Book as a Religious Practice
David Kantor
One of the similarities which I see in the sequence of epochal revelations that are described in Paper 52, Planetary Mortal Epochs, is that each revelation provided mechanisms for expanding access to Deity. In doing so, they opened up new avenues of approach and provided more functional integration between evolving mortals and the agencies of celestial ministry.
My primary reason for reading The Urantia Book is that, if approached in a prayerful or worshipful attitude, it facilitates my personal encounter with God. The very act of reading becomes a symbolic approach to Deity--psychologically similar to any other symbolic ritual leading to encounter, such as making a pilgrimage to a holy place or participating in a remembrance supper.
This symbolic act of reading makes neither a religion nor a fetish out of the book, but recognizes it as a potent tool for bringing the individual into closer contact with planetary founts of spiritual ministry. Quotations that express the religious nature of my experience are:
Religion is the experiencing of divinity in the consciousness of a moral being of evolutionary origin; it represents true experience with the eternal realities in time, the realization of spiritual satisfactions while still in the flesh." (1104) This seems to happen to me when I prayerfully read the book!
The divine spirit makes contact with mortal man, not by feelings or emotions, but in the realms of the highest and most spiritualized thinking. It is your thoughts, not your feelings, that lead you Godward...All such inner and spiritual communion is termed spiritual insight. Such religious experiences result from the impress made upon the mind of man by the combined operations of the Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth as they function amid and upon the ideas, ideals, insights, and spirit strivings of the evolving sons of God." (1104) This seems to explain what happens to me when I worshipfully read the book!
Religion lives and prospers...in the discovery of new and spiritual meanings in facts already well known to mankind." ( 1105) As I read this book prayerfully, I am constantly discovering new, spiritual meanings in facts! This book is an extremely valuable component of my personal religious experience!
Personal conversations with hundreds of readers over the years confirm that I am not alone in having this kind of experience with the text. The significance of this experience for my own personal growth is what keeps bringing me back to the text, day after day, year after year, decade after decade. It provides more useful sustenance than anything else I have encountered in my limited but not insignificant encounters with universe reality. It has helped me to learn how to open the worship channel of spiritual communion and it helps me learn how to function more effectively in my social environment. My experience with this text is so profound that I want to be sure that anyone else who might be interested in having such an experience has unrestricted access to it.
It is the power of this symbolic act, the prayerful and worshipful reading of this text, which holds such great potential for facilitating the spiritual transformation of each individual as well as the social aggregations in which those individuals participate. It is as if a prayerful, worshipful reading of the text opens the gateway to the ministry of our unseen friends. Such reading creates an open channel through which their ministry can pour into each individual and from thence into the world. Many readers have experienced a similar phenomenon in the social context of study groups. Jesus' description of the Kingdom helps us to understand the nature of this experience and helps us gain insight into how we can effectively socialize it, consistent with the broadening horizons of the personal universe which this text reveals.
For a small group of readers to attempt to fabricate an air of authority for purposes of controlling and 'managing' the reactions of their fellows to this revelation reveals a level of insight which is shallow and superficial at best. Trying to establish and enforce an ideology which is designed to inhibit, restrict and control the reaction to this text is as rational as attempting to control a nuclear explosion by detonating it in a paper bag. The interaction between the spirit-indwelt, inquiring mind and the Fifth Epochal Revelation makes any policy of restricted access to the text both obscene and impossible of implementation. This revelation is the most powerful force to be liberated on the planet since Michael's bestowal of the Spirit of Truth. Can you imagine anyone having the audacity to attempt to control the functioning of the Spirit of Truth? Or trying to establish ideological constraints upon where and when it should be allowed to function?
On page 966, the revelators acknowledge the difficulty we face in a new and satisfying symbolism. They state that, "...the new symbolism must not only be significant for the group but also meaningful for the individual. The forms of any serviceable symbolism must be those which the individual can carry out on his own initiative, and which he can also enjoy with his fellows. If the new cult could only be dynamic instead of static, it might really
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