APPENDIX TWO
SOME COMMENTS BY DR. MEREDITH J. SPRUNGER
Dr. Meredith J. Sprunger is a minister in the Church of Christ and a college professor, now retired from pastoral and teaching responsibilities. For many years Dr. Sprunger was active as a counselor and psychological consultant, holding a Private Practice Certificate in Psychology in the state of Indiana. He has served congregations in the Midwest, and taught at Elmhurst College and the Indiana Institute of Technology, functioning as head of the Department of Psychology, Chairman of the Division of Liberal Arts, and as President.
In the Urantia movement Dr. Sprunger has served as a Field Representative, Chairman of the Education and Fraternal Relations Committee, and as President of the Urantia Brotherhood.
He is founder and Director of the Christian Fellowship for Readers of The Urantia Book, a trustee in the Jesusonian Foundation, and the editor of The Spiritual Fellowship Journal.
Psychic or paranormal psychological phenomena variously referred to as extrasensory perception, channeling, spiritualism, mediumship, and activities of marginal consciousness have been rather common throughout human history. Many years ago I made a study of these paranormal communications and found they varied in quality as widely as the capabilities of the human mind. Some of the psychic communications studied present verifiable factual knowledge for which scientists find no reasonable empirical explanation. The great bulk of this material, however, is demonstrably inaccurate and unreliable.
Since the publication of The Urantia Book, there have been many claims by book readers of" special" channeling information or guidance. Some even claim The Urantia Book came through a channeling process, although the authors of the book deny the spiritual authenticity of channeling-mediumship psychic phenomena (pp. 685, 1640). Dr. William S. Sadler, leader of the group receiving the Urantia Papers, after listing every conceivable form of psychic phenomena (marginal consciousness), unequivocally declared: "The technique of the reception of The Urantia Book in English in no way parallels or impinges upon any of the phenomena of the marginal consciousness".
The basic error in evaluating knowledge -- especially psychic communication and revelation -- is to look for verification in its source, author, claim or "authority". There is a natural human desire for superior, unearned knowledge; we yearn for surety, a "hot line" to higher guidance. This is the source of fundamentalism, literalist, dogmatic thinking. Claim or authority, however, is never a criterion of truth. The only road to truth is through earned, evolutionary experience. We should always evaluate information by its content, not its claim or supposed source. In our earned experience we have the highest resources to guide and verify our judgment: the Spirit of God (Thought Adjuster), the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit. Our judgments must also always be tested by personal experience, the experience of others, and time.
When measured by these earned, experiential standards over time, the value
of channeled communication does not rate very high. We should not, however,
allow fear or prejudice to prevent us from honestly examining the content of
information received through channeling. We should be open to carefully evaluating
all types of knowledge.
Recently I examined recordings of "The Teachings of Ham" channeled to the Salt Lake Study Group. I found the quality generally good. They are of the quality I would expect from a creative, intelligent student of The Urantia Book. While, in my judgment, they are not in the same league with The Urantia Book, they are basically constructive and insightful.
There are a number of limitations to the above generalizations. I find no empirical-experiential evidence for the claim that the Lucifer Rebellion has been adjudicated and that the system circuits are being opened. I question the truth of the claim of giving people their "spiritual" names. The authors of The Urantia Book tell us that we are given a new name only after fusion with our Thought Adjuster (p. 538). I further question the wisdom of this practice. Why is Rebecca more spiritual than Jan, Joshua more spiritual than Thern, or Martha more spiritual than Kathy? This is the kind of technique used for controlling people through "special" or "secret" knowledge. Many cults use such practices.
Ham discourages a member of the study group from taking an eight week summer course because he will miss these channeling sessions. Even the higher ranking authors of The Urantia Book do not use this style of manipulative control. Why would the Vicegerent Planetary Prince single out the Salt Lake Study Group for special attention as they were told? And through this special attention Ham tells them "You are . . . under . . . my . . . direction". Group leadership and direction are common practices, but I see in this kind of atmosphere the danger of acquiescing to uncritical manipulation.
Ham tells the group the spiritual center of the planet is Manitoba, Canada. This differs from the Chicago contact information designating it as at the Grizzly Giant in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in Yosemite National Park. When Ham is asked about Norsen, he identifies him as a teacher, which is markedly different that the Chicago contact information telling that Norsen is the new "take charge" planetary supervisor.
One wonders why people feel a need for channeling guidance, which, historically, does not have a good track record, when they have direct personal contact with much higher sources of truth: their Thought Adjuster, the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit? It seems to me that the study of The Urantia Book would be superior to preoccupation with this quality of channeling information. I further see a danger in the possibility of giving the channeler undue respect as an authority figure which might by-pass higher spiritual guidance. When this happens, cults are formed with susceptibility to manipulative control.
The content of Ham's teachings is basically constructive and is no doubt helpful to some people. There are also those who have not summoned the courage and confidence to initiate outreach work who will do so when encouraged by channeling messages. At best, such channeling activity can be a supplement to Urantia Book study, guidance, and individual initiative; at worst it could be a substitute for it. We should always critically evaluate the quality of any kind of guidance.
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 of 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 phenomena to add a few summary statements to my paper "Channeling and the Urantia Movement" (3/28/92) for consideration.
Both of these claims, in my judgment, are without foundation. My guess is that the adjudication of the Lucifer Rebellion will be communicated to our planet in a more significant way than channeling 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.
Although it is unintended, I can think of no more subtle way to disrupt unity in the Urantia movement and divert attention away from a dynamic outreach program to bring the Fifth Epochal Revelation to our world than the preoccupation with channeling and other psychic activities.
"Historically, there is a connection between psychoactive drugs and assumed 'divine messages'. Down through the ages various groups and individuals have used consciousness altering drugs as a means to initiate what participants regarded as 'spiritual' experiences. Often these substances were viewed as 'sacraments'.
"It is surprising and disturbing to see how intelligent contemporary people in the face of all this historic evidence of deception can be deluded by the same psychoactive drug experiences. The authors of The Urantia Book point out the danger of such artificially induced, mind-distorting experiences. We are led Godward by our highest thoughts, not by our emotions, psychoactive drugs, or mystic states. But one can be sure there will always be those who will repeat the mistakes of our ancestors!"