These weekly programs began in July of 2008 and are archived (just take the above link or select a show from the following list); they can be listened to at any time.
The hosts and guests appearing on The Cosmic Citizen program are presenting their own views. Guests who not part of "the Urantia community" aren't expected to endorse the book or its teachings, and are not required to agree with its precepts or to have any knowledge of its contents. There is no official interpretation of the teachings of The Urantia Book.
Guests Who Have Appeared on the Cosmic Citizen Program:
Programs without special guests:
• 2008/08/23 — Open mic with Paula and Andre
• 2008/09/27 — Open mic with Paula and Andre
• 2008/10/18 — Open mic with Paula and Andre
• 2008/11/15 — Open mic with Paula and Andre
• 2008/12/27 — Open mic with Paula and Andre
• 2009/01/31 — Open mic with Paula and Andre (Adopt-a-Person discussion)
• 2009/02/28 — Open mic with Paula and Ann Garner (Efficacy of Rest, Motas)
• 2009/04/11 — Open mic with Paula and Andre (New Readers Featured)
• 2009/05/23 — Open mic with Paula and Andre
• 2010/07/03 — Live from Montreal, Family Conference with Paula and Ann
David Bradley
is the author of the book “An Introduction to the Urantia Revelation”, and David and Winnie co-authored the book “Our Local Universe Mother Spirit”, with Winnie writing the poetry.
Winnie Hunt
is an experienced counselor, a body work practitioner, and resides in Canada. David is a retired civil engineer, and resides in northern California.
Both Winnie and David are long time readers of The Urantia Book. Winnie and David, as a team, have led workshops about the nature and attributes of the Mother Spirit or Divine Minister.
In workshops, Winnie has included body/movement awareness so that standing and walking become more fluid and graceful, as in the Mother Spirit’s Presence we “live, move, and have our being”. This embodied approach includes intention and awareness, and can be applied to daily life and service “as we pass by”. In or out of workshops, Winnie truly appreciates the Mother Spirit, which is evident in the beautiful poetry she has written. Her appreciation of the Mother Spirit was a prime motivation for production of the book “Our Local Universe Mother Spirit”.
David’s approach in workshops has included presenting handouts that summarize attributes of the Mother Spirit and Her ministry, and discussing her various attributes. Although Deity, and God’s Loving Ministry to humans, are experienced as ‘one’ in human experience (as from a single source), there are Deity sources that contribute to these experiences, and The Mother Spirit is one of them.
John Creger is a veteran English teacher and classroom researcher at American High School in Fremont CA, where he continually seeks new ways to engage his students more deeply in learning. His urge for depth stems from dissatisfaction with shallow learning in his own high school years--from which he cannot recall one conversation with a teacher that mattered to him. His discovery of the Urantia Book at the beginning of a life-redirecting period of confusion and disability in his late 20s brought him proof of what he had felt all along--this was no shallow universe. Scraped up off the highway in merciful hands, John entered the university with new purpose, published writing in five languages on three continents, and graduated with a new mission--to work with teenagers in the high school classroom.
Throughout his classroom career John has tried to help his students find satisfying connections to the universe within and beyond themselves as they gain skills reading, writing, thinking, and conversing. To better understand this kind of learning, he has synthesized a Model of Deepened Learning from various statements in the Urantia Book concerning education and the human condition. John believes this model explains the near universal passion from students and teachers who encounter the Personal Creed Project, which he began creating with his first sophomores his second year teaching, and is now being adapted in schools and colleges across North America.
In honor of the Personal Creed Project, John was the 2001 recipient of the James Moffett Memorial Award for Teacher Research from the National Council of Teachers of English and the National Writing Project. He has been honored by former students in six editions of Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (1992-2005), with San Jose State University’s Dorothy Wright Award for Outstanding High School Teachers (2005), and by National Honor Roll’s Outstanding American Teachers Award (2006, 2007). School site colleagues have nominated him for Fremont Unified School District’s Teacher of the Year (2000, 2008). John offered the first in his ongoing universeWired workshop series for educators at the 1998 annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of English’s Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (AEPL). He was a featured speaker at AEPL’s June 2011 conference, and gave a keynote at the Urantia Fellowship’s International Conference in July 2011. His first book is The Personal Creed Project and a New Vision of Learning (Heinemann 2004). John hosts a group of English teachers in an online conversation on ways to deepen classroom learning, at englishcompanion.ning.com/pers
Steven Scaffidi My passion is story-telling and I've been telling stories to anyone who would listen since I was a kid. It didn't matter if the story was fact or fiction, comedy or drama, action or some sappy love story, a good story is a good story and if I had an audience I would tell it like there was no tomorrow.
Over the past few years I dedicated much of my time to writing stories that were locked up in my head and just itching to get out...seven screenplays, a book, a stageplay, and a TV idea or two to be exact. It's amazing how quickly time flies while spending all day in a coffee shop pounding away on an old laptop.
This year has been a wild ride down the creative highway traveling at 100 miles per hour with absolutely no idea where the road may eventually take me. I began writing my first book "Ain't Dat Super!", a comedy about the Saints going to the Super Bowl, six months before the team did the unthinkable and actually won the big game by beating the almighty Peyton Manning and the Colts. Then I took the book and wrote a stageplay and saw it come to life at the world-class Mahalia Jackson Theatre in New Orleans in front of thousands of cheering Who Dats.
Over the years I've been fortunate to work with some very special people who have, for whatever reason, believed in my crazy dreams. Taking Rockey to the White House in FORGOTTEN ON THE BAYOU, working with former condemned man Billy Moore in EXECUTION, or making a run at the Academy Awards with THE PEOPLE'S STORY, would have been impossible if not for the support of my family, friends, and colleagues who believed in me. I am truly blessed and I can't wait to embark on our next great adventure.
Ross Hostetter
has been described by his colleagues as a thought leader in the field of emerging spirituality. Starting from a small-town agrarian environment in the Midwestern United States, Ross worked for thirty years to become a nationally recognized Attorney, mediator, consultant, and professional trainer who was employed as an expert in conflict resolution by hundreds of law firms throughout the United States, dozens of Federal and State courts, and many Fortune 100 clients. Ross has conducted over 3,000 mediations, and has helped train over a thousand lawyers in communication and conflict resolution.
Throughout this time, Ross also pursued a keen interest in spirituality, which was awakened by a profound spiritual experience which happened on a trip alone in the Canadian wilderness. Since that experience in his early 20’s, Ross has explored at depth the complex spiritual landscape of America. He has been influenced by traditional and progressive Christianity, Zen, Sufism, New Age spirituality, Chi Gong, and varieties of meditation and state-change practices, culminating in his current interest in the Integral movement and evolutionary Christianity. Ross was a co-founder of an intentional spiritual community where he and his partner Mary lived with their children for five years. Ross served on the staff of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute in the capacity of General Counsel, and he currently is a co-founder and director of the Boulder Integral Center in Boulder Colorado. He and his partner Mary have been together for 25 years, and are raising three children together.
Now in his 50’s, Ross is turning from working to achieve success within current systems and a lifetime of spiritual exploration to projects aimed at making a significant contribution to the future. These include a work of visionary fiction, Keepers of the Field, and the associated Field Book, a book of spiritual teaching; the active embrace of a progressive, evolutionary lifestyle to bring talk and walk into alignment; helping enlightened women (whom Ross believes will be the primary drivers of cultural evolution in the years ahead) develop more power and capacity; and the creation of a new version of Christianity that cuts ties with the domination systems of the past and embraces an indeterminate future that we can positively effect by who we become today.
Other facts: Ross was an Eagle Scout, was a professional wilderness guide in College, has a degree in Psychology, loves the outdoors and the mountains, loves power yoga, biking, fishing, hiking, cooking healthy, bright green thinking and practices, and having dinner with friends. He also loves spending time with his wife Mary, philosophical discourse, hanging out with his kids, reading a hundred books a year, and working.
Sally Morgenthaler,
known best for her book, Worship Evangelism (Zondervan, 1998), has become a trusted interpreter of the ongoing, tectonic shifts within North American religion.
As science opens new doors of exploration into the nature of conciousness, she is also focusing on the interface between those discoveries and spirituality.
Morgenthaler has been a contributing author in eight books and has taught graduate studies at Yale University, as well as at seminaries across the U.S. A fine art photographer, Morgenthaler's online gallery samples her award-winning work featuring flowers, botanicals, and nature patterns. (morganmyers.photoshelter.com).
Morgenthaler lives part-time in southern Califoria, and spends the rest of her time in Denver, Colorado.
Suza Scalora, a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, has received wide recognition in the last 12 years for creating photographic images that captivate all that is immaculate, colorful, and magical. Her beauty work is the culmination of sharp attention to detail, precise lighting, and a strong yet refreshing visual sense.
In addition to her advertising and editorial work, Suza has successfully projected her unique vision onto a completely different genre of imagery as photographer and author of a series of ethereal books. The first, “The Fairies: Photographic Evidence Of Another World” (HarperCollins Publishing), was named by Newsweek as one of the 10 best picture books in 2000. Saks Fifth Avenue NYC showcased characters from” The Fairies” in their spectacular Millennium Fifth Avenue windows. Suza's second book, "The Witches and Wizards Of Oberin” continued her journey into the unseen world. Suza has been profiled in some of the industry’s leading publications including: PDN, Communication Arts, Elle, GQ, and American Photo. Most recently, Suza's latest book “The Evidence Of Angels” was published in 2009.
Scalora is a modern day mythmaker. Her work speaks to the alliance between nature, man, and myth. The underlying message is there is more to life than meets the eye and that we must open ourselves to the magic that surrounds us everyday. Suza has taught at the International Center for Photography in NYC and the Omega Center. She lives in NYC.
The Reverend Michael Dowd is the author of the bestselling, bridge-building book,
Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World, which has been endorsed by
http://michaeldowd.org/endorsements/nobel/nobel.html">six Nobel laureates and other science luminaries, including noted skeptics, and by religious leaders across the spectrum. He and his wife,
Connie Barlow, an acclaimed science writer, have spoken to more than eleven hundred religious and secular groups—from Catholics to Quakers, to Baptists to Buddhists, to college and university students—since launching their itinerant ministry in April of 2002.
At home in both liberal and conservative settings, and uniquely gifted at building bridges between religious and non-religious people, Michael shares big history, the epic of evolution—humanity’s common creation story—in ways that uplift and expand heart, mind, and soul. His passion is showing how an evolutionary understanding of human nature, death, and the trajectory of big history can inspire and empower each of us to live with greater integrity, joy, and zest for life.
In addition to presenting guest sermons in churches throughout North America, the main program Michael is now delivering in all religious and non-religious settings is Evolutionize Your Life: Heaven Is Coming Home to Reality (alt. title: “Deep-Time Grace: An Inspiring Vision of Humanity’s Future”). An online version (75-minute video in 4 parts) can be found on his website. He offered an early version of this program at the United Nations in April 2009.
Three recent blog posts that communicate the heart of Rev. Dowd’s ministry:
“Evolution Isn’t About Darwin—It’s About Salvation Before You Die”
“Why Evangelize Evolution?”
“What’s Real? What’s Important?—Evidence as Divine Guidance“
The Making of an Evolutionary Evangelist
Michael graduated with highest honors from Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri (affiliated with the Assemblies of God), where he received a B.A. in biblical studies and philosophy. He also graduated with honors from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Seminary) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (affiliated with the American Baptist Church), where he earned a Master of Divinity degree. Rev. Dowd served as a United Church of Christ minister for nine years, pastoring churches in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Michigan. His 1991 book, EarthSpirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity (Twenty-Third Publications), inspired by the work of Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, Miriam MacGillis, and Joanna Macy, was one of the first attempts to look appreciatively at traditional, biblical Christianity from the perspective of a modern cosmology.
In 1995 Rev. Dowd began working with Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical leaders across America on social and environmental issues that were coming up for a vote in Congress, as Religious Organizer for the Washington D.C.–based National Environmental Trust. From 1997 to 2000 he headed the first government-funded program designed to produce large-scale voluntary citizen behavior change along stewardship lines in the United States: The Portland Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign, in Portland, Oregon. In 2000 and 2001 he served as Campaign Manager of Global Action Plan‘s EcoTeam and Livable Neighborhood Programs in Rockland County, New York.
Rev. Dowd has served on the boards of the North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology; the Ohio Conference United Church of Christ (UCC) Integrity of Creation, Justice, and Peace task force; and the Hudson Valley Sustainable Communities Network. He has also served on the steering committees of the International Network of Biblical Storytellers International and the UCC Network for Environmental and Economic Responsibility. Michael’s great joy in life is telling the history of everyone and everything in ways that inspire and empower people of all ages and theological orientations to know real freedom, to live in deepest integrity, and to fulfill their evolutionary mission (i.e., “God’s will for their lives”).
Michael and Connie are co-creators of the leading Religious Naturalism/Epic of Evolution educational website: TheGreatStory.org
His personal/media website is MichaelDowd.org, and book website is ThankGodforEvolution.com
Gerdean O'Dell is no stranger to metaphysics, but is also well grounded in the finite reality of material existence. Even as she pushes the envelope of conventional spirituality, by purportedly communicating with the spiritual realm, she knows that this world is where we live and work and have our being. Her work focuses mostly on The Word in its many manifestations: hers and yours, personal and professional, fact and fiction, written and oral, sacred and profane.
Gerdean was introduced to the Urantia Book in 1968 by a friend and has attended and hosted Urantia study groups for many years. She has traveled extensively throughout the US teaching the book's concepts and has engaged in a wide range of occupations ranging from owning a rare bookstore to being a Judicial Secretary. She is also proud to list being clean and sober for 20 years as one of her many accomplishments.
She has authored three books and has her own publishing company, Harp of God:
(1) 1999 -- "Fruits of the Spirit" is a brief channeled work about the Divine Spirit, compiled over a period of six months and published in 1999.
(2) 2002 -- "The Zooid Mission" was written over a period of 20 years, from 1971 until the summer of 1991 and then took another 11 years to publish. www.HarpofGod.org
(3) 2010 -- "Spirits of Promise" is a study based on a theory that the Seven Chakra Vortices and the Seven Adjutant Mind Spirits (from the Urantia Book) are virtually the same thing. This book was nominated for the 2010 New Mexico Book Awards. Learn more about it here: www.harpofgod.org/.
Gerdean's personal website is http://www.odellbowen.com/
Richard Knox holds a Master's Degree in clinical & counseling psychology, is a twenty-three year student of comparative religions, as well as having extensive personal experience with A Course in Miracles, Pathwork Guide Lectures (group process), and The Urantia Book. He is a troubadour of the spirit and a pilgrim of peace and music, who is a beloved performer and presenter for the Baha'i, Unity, Religious Science and Interfaith communities, as well as many other traditional and new form spiritual communities. He specializes in workshops and seminars in the human potential arena.
This is what Richard says about his work, "I am a devotional singer/songwriter. I travel in the U.S. and Canada playing workshops, seminars, conferences and all-faith gatherings in temples, synagogues and churches; playing the sacred music of our human family. It is how I honor myself, God within me, and is my service to my fellows. A music ministry, if you will. My current work is in line with an ancient profession known as a spiritual troubadour. As evolution is slow, it is only now that the troubadour is singing to all faiths — not just following the roads of one. Exploring this Journey without Distance that all faiths have in common, learning as we journey that what we share is stronger than what divides us.
When I am asked, in airports for instance, “What kind of music do you play?” I say, “Devotional.” “You play Gospel music?” “No, I play for all faiths — in temples, synagogues and churches.” “You sing in Hebrew?” (grin) “Well, no, I sing about what we have in common. I try to keep the conversation alive about Peace On Earth and the Human Family and the Love of God that we all share. “Isn’t that Christian music?” “Yes, and it is Hebrew music too, and Muslim music and Buddhist and Hindu music and Baha'i.”
Beyond the cathedrals and synagogues, the mosques and temples, beyond the books of wisdom which have offered us guidance throughout the centuries; beyond the words in any language or the form of any prayer, at the end of our breathing out, before we breathe in, there is an innocent space, a vulnerable pause, where the God of all names and no name resides. This innocent space is never far away."
Damon Kruger has, for the past 5 years, been teaching English in South Korea, where he lives with his wife and baby daughter. His parents and siblings all believe in the Urantia Book. He says that having been raised with the book made him a student of its teachings and an active seeker of truth, beauty and goodness for most of his life but he consciously became a true believer in the book's revelatory nature between the ages of 14-15. He says it was then that he sincerely decided to do the will of God. Damon has also been a Diabetic since he was 14 and has learned to manage his illness extremely effectively. In fact, he epitomizes robust health and his experiences make him uniquely qualified to teach on matters of holistic health. He is an advocate of a healthy natural diet and is an avid practitioner of Martial Arts. He has experienced and adapted to diverse and different cultures. Damon is a sincere, service oriented and courageous Cosmic Citizen and one who truly lives the teachings and walks the walk.
Tony Finstad was born and raised in Seattle, lived in Washington. D.C., and now resides in Anchorage, Alaska where he is currently president of the Northern Light Society of Alaska. Tony found The Urantia Book while hitchhiking down the California coast back in 1976. He has enjoyed hosting study groups, helping to form a Urantia society in Seattle, attending many wonderful conferences, serving on the General Council, but most importantly it's the joy of living the teachings from the book that brings that inner peace and continues to lead him into new opportunities for loving service. Tony is excited about working together with all readers in advancing the fifth epochal revelation to our planet. Currently he is working at forming a new committee within The Urantia Book Fellowship focused on youth and young adults. Tony has two adult daughters and three lovely grandchildren.
Tony recently did a workshop on The Midway Creatures and this is his overview to spark the interest in this presentation, which he will share with us on air this Saturday, on The Cosmic Citizen radio program.
The vast majority of people of faith believe in angels. We often talk about our "unseen friends". The Urantia Book not only provides us with a wealth of information about angels, the authors introduce us to a new type of unseen friend that lives midway between the angels and humans, hence their name the midway creatures or midwayers. They refer to them as our cousins. Our planet has been, and continues to be, greatly influenced by these creatures. Who are they? Where do they come from? Are they all our friends? Just what is it that they do.....and how do they do it? Join us as we explore these intriguing personalities that exist just outside the range of mortal vision.
Dick Bain is a retired engineer who resides in Lynchburg, VA with his wife, step- daughter, our dog and four cats.
The Urantia Book found Dick in a philosophy class at Indiana Institute of Technology in Ft. Wayne, Indiana in 1966. His professor was Dr. Meredith Sprunger, who assigned a reading from the Urantia Book about the nature of God. For six years, Dick attended the study group that met at Dr. Sprunger’s home. Dick later attended study groups in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, in the Atlanta area of Georgia and now participates in a small group that meets in Forest, VA.
Over the years, Dick has written a number of articles for various Urantian journals. Most of the writing concerned the science and cosmology content of the Urantia Book as compared to the current understanding of our science in those areas.
In 2002, he was invited to join The Spiritual Fellowship as a committee chair and subsequently joined the Board of Directors of TSF as Treasurer. He is also the webmaster for the TSF website.
During the past five years, Dick has produced eleven videos derived from the Life and Teaching papers about Jesus in the Urantia Book. The videos were produced with the help of Carol Foerster with the art and with narration by several members of his church. The videos are intended to be Christian friendly; where appropriate, passages from the Bible are cited in the videos. The videos are on Youtube, the TSF website and two Christian websites.
Andrea Barnes is a long time devotee of the Urantia Papers and evangelist for the book. She has been interested in spiritual concepts for most of her life and brings a flair for fun into all of her pursuits. After raising 3 sons she has now devoted herself to ministry and evangelism.
The last 15 years of her professional life has been spent as a website designer and developer. Her work can be seen at: www.winteradagency.com
Doug Paggit (http://dougpagitt.com/) is a fascinating example of the expanding roll taken by an Emergent Christian Pastor, author and "Social and Theological Entrepreneur" since both his work-life and ministry mission have so many divergent aspects. Not only is he a pastor of a new Holistic Missional Christian Community (where he trains and delegates an ever increasing role of leadership to the members themselves) an Entrepreneur (who runs three businesses) a speaker, and a Sunday morning radio host AM 950, (the worship services at Solomon's Porch are in the evenings) an author and consultant (his latest book Church in the Inventive Age is available now through Amazon.com at Church in the Inventive Age as well as a producer of conferences, workshops and seminars, but he is additionally a trainer - educator - and an innovative community builder. I'm sure Doug would also add family man, father and husband to his biographical sketch and list of passions, and where some of his seeming boundless energy is expended, since he's been married to Shelly since 1988, with whom he has raised 4 children to young adulthood.
Doug Paggit is probably most widely known as the innovative leader and founder of a church community called Solomon's Porch, which he calls a "Holistic Missional Christian Community", which we might call a successfully growing, group of dynamic Christians coming together regularly as community to form a fairly functional extended family, in Minneapolis, MN, which has been the topic of much media attention.
He has also been one of the founders of The Emergent Village, "a growing, generative friendship among Missional Christians seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ... "
Doug also runs a property management business and a Wellness Center in Minneapolis, and co-owns a production company (JoPa Productions) along along with Tony Jones; which is how we came to know of him. Last Fall several Urantia Book students attended his “Christianity 21” program last fall in MN. He and his partner in JoPa Productions, Tony Jones, just finished a weekend program called “Big Tent Christianity” in Raleigh, NC, and will be running some "Social Media For Pastors Bootcamp", workshops around the country in Boston, California and elsewhere. In addition to all that, Doug is also a radio host, and an author of several books: and he is a husband to Shelly, since 1988, and they are parents of four young adults.
Doug Paggit attended Bethel University in MN for a degree in Anthropology and a Masters of Arts in Theology. Among the things mentioned above, he has also worked in churches, and acts as a speaker and consultant offers consulting services (helping churches transition into the "Inventive Age") for churches, denominations and businesses throughout the United States and around the world on issues of postmodern culture, social systems and Christianity. In his own words, Doug says, "I am seeking to find creative, entrepreneurial, generative ways to join in the hopes, dreams and desires God has for the world." As he discusses in his latest book Church in the Inventive Age, "We live in the midst of inescapable change. Maybe this thrills you, maybe this scares you, but we can't pretend cultural change doesn't impact the church. It does. It always has. The challenge for churches is the rise of a creative, participatory, inclusive culture. The role of the church is to live as a participant in the culture. Inclusion, participation collaboration, and beauty are essential values. Living in the inventive age is not optional. We can either be in on the change or we can be left behind."
Malcolm Locke first started reading The Urantia Book in 1973, when he discovered it tucked away on the bottom shelf of an occult bookstore. Since then has been an avid reader and interpreter.
When Malcolm realized how the book's great length and complexity put off many readers, he decided to prepare a brief introduction to the book's principal teachings. For many years a college professor, where he taught literature and history to thousands of undergraduates, he acquired a sense of the style required for popular presentation. He incorporated many of the insights of The Urantia Book into his lectures and in this way brought the book's teaching to a wide audience, without of course revealing his source. Now he has written The Urantia Revelation: the Structure and Meaning of the Universe Explained, a succinct and lucid digest of the big book's teaching. He hopes in this way to reach out to those intimidated by The Urantia Book. It is available at http://urantiarevelation.com. By reading The Urantia Revelation the student can obtain a quick overview of the book's main arguments, then proceed to the big book for the real revelation and it’s exquisite detail. Those familiar with the big blue book will also find the brief compendium of great value, summarizing as it does the whole complex story.
Link to Barnes and Noble
Link to Amazon.com
• 09/11/2010 interview with Malcom Locke
Dr. Karen Hollie, a true pioneer, established Grace International Seminary in July of 2007; and as a trailblazer she ignited a church where great people can reach their greatest potential. Her church is a globally diverse, celebratory church. It is a church that will empower, enlighten, and encourage the unchurched and the alienated, assisting them to a life-changing new beginning. Dr. Hollie’s unique style of ministering is motivational, uplifting, and embraces practical solutions for positive living, with application to everyday situations that are particularly challenging to working professionals. She formerly served the past four years as the first female pastor of the historical Johnson Chapel Community Church in Desoto, Texas.
In August, 2007, she became the President and Founder of Grace International Seminary, the only women’s seminary in the southwest, offering Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees. Dr. Hollie also serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the Parliament of World's Religions 2014 - Dallas/Fort Worth.
Professionally, Dr. Hollie worked as a counselor for the Wilmer-Hutchins ISD for eight years and for the Catholic Diocese of Dallas for twelve years. Additionally, she has worked for the past twenty years as a therapist in private practice. She is a columnist for the Elite News and several online publications. Dr. Hollie travels nationally as an Educational Consultant for Twenty First Century. She is also the author of Ask Dr Hollie, Therapy in a Flash, a collection of psychological and inspirational advice.
Dr. Hollie received a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, a Masters in Guidance and Counseling, and a Ph.D. in Psychology. She graduated in the class of 2001 from the prestigious Leadership Southwest representing the Chamber of Commerce for the cities of DeSoto, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, and Lancaster. She served as president of Altrusa International Inc., a business and professional women’s organization. In 2003 she won the coveted National President’s Award for leading Altrusa International, Inc. to a nine-point merit of excellence
Dr. Hollie enjoys the opportunity to bridge her psychological background with her ministerial calling and says she preaches for two reasons: “to comfort the disturbed” and “to disturb the comfortable.”
List of Awards:
2003 – Woman of Achievement Award – Dallas Beautician Association
2003 – Educator of the Year – NAACP Dallas Chapter
2004 – Outstanding Community Service – D.O.T.Y. Award
2004 – Woman of the Year – Just One Look Production
2006 – Who’s Who of Professional Business Women
2007 – Women of Excellence – Elite News
2007 – Inducted into Religious Hall of Fame
2008 – Recognized by the Senate of the State of Texas – Community Service Award
2008 – Woman of the Year – National Council of Negro Women
2008 – Person of the Year – Woman to Woman Ministries
2009 – Member of American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC)
2009 – President of Lifeway P.G.T. Foundation
2009 – Board Member of Interfaith Service Network
• 08/11/2010 - Interview with Dr. Karen Hollie
George Mathieu Barnard
is Dutch by birth, French by descend, and Australian by choice. Since childhood, he has been aware of the “1,111 Spirit Guardians” who have always guided and protected him. In his career as an industrialist, and later as a therapist, these Spirit Friends assisted him in emergencies – from saving lives to rescuing companies from disaster. His luck was to have employed a wonderful, self-sufficient crew to virtually run his manufacturing business for him, giving him time to study psychology – industrial, normal and abnormal – as well as clinical hypnotherapy. After an enlightening event he named “The Great Master’s Golden Flame” Barnard drew closer to the 1,111, and the 11:11 Emergency Platoon was born for Celestials and their human student to treat the suicidal and post-traumatic stress disordered. In 1992 he began to document their cooperative efforts in a number of books – The Search for 11:11, In the Service of 11:11, and the Anatomy of the Halfway Realm.
In 1997 he purchased a pre-loved (used) copy of the Urantia book to discover his “Spirit Guardian Friends of old” to officially be called Midwayers. Around this era, he first met and spoke with Paula Thompson, who as the story was told to me, let George in on the secret of the origin of The Midwayers beings in The Urantia Book. The rest we will find out from George as he is the guest speaker on the Cosmic Citizen Show.
• 08/07/2010 - Interview with George Barnard
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Serebryanski joins host, Ann Garner. He is another treasure discovered on FaceBook and the web Revealing the Soul. Behind his simplicity lies a complexity of understanding and analysis of Torah and creation that brings joy and warmth to those who immerse themselves in his teachings.
A true friend and confidante to thousands of people who turn to weekly for guidance and wisdom, Rabbi Yossi is renowned for his compassion and open heart to all who enter his scope.
In his professional career Rabbi Yossi is a teacher, lecturer, mashgiach, published author, spiritual healer, professional counselor and guide. Born in Melbourne Australia, he grew up in a religious living and studying structure. After many years of journey learning the balance in many areas of the ins and outs of creation, he moved beyond structure. He is an 'ancient soul/spirit' doing its work in this realm and keeping a constant opening to beyond.
Rabbi and Ann focus on these questions: What was? What is? What will be?
Rabbi Yosef's website is located at RevealingTheSoul.com
• 07/21/2010 - Interview with Rabbi Yossi
Gary Tonge is a concept artist, art director and visionary who from a very early age had a fascination with space and the idea of “what might be out there in the Universe.” While always having a desire to find reason in what we see before us in the world and beyond, he found it difficult to amalgamate what science was saying about the heavens and the diverse concepts world’s religions currently represent. Gary’s life changed in 1995, when he was 24 yrs old, with a series of spiritual events, culminating in being led to The Urantia Book in August, 1997. Now equipped with a firm faith, The Urantia Book underlined, expanded and expressed an even greater understanding of who we are, our relationships with each other, the Universe of Universes and The Universal Father. From this point on Gary has used his free time to pursue a way of hoping to inspire others into thinking “greater, deeper and more sincerely” about the truth of our existence, art, creation, and the whole indescribable fantastic magnitude of it all- Whether that be via visionary or other world illustrations or the growing number of Urantia Book based pieces he has created so far. Gary’s website is www.visionafar.com and he can be reached at gary@vision-afar.com
• 2010/07/07 — An interview with Gary Tonge
Rassouli joins host, Ann Garner for this Wednesday morning program. He is a visionary artist who has a unique way of reflecting spiritual experience by expressing images from his subconscious onto canvas. He often stimulates creativity by meditating at dawn watching the sunrise in a natural setting, or by envisioning a mystical journey through a night sky. His style does not focus on what is literally seen by the artist, but by surrendering conceptually to what is felt on a deeper level. He discovered The Urantia Book in 1998.
• 2010/06/30 — An interview with Rassouli
Vicki Arkens’ interest in the topic of self-mastery stretches back more than twenty years. Using what she learned from The Urantia Book and her personal experiences, she wrote and published a book titled Transcending the Everyday Temptations of Overeating. The book became, for her, a project of life-long devotion. She sprinkles her writing with passages from the ancient scriptures of Psalms and Proverbs, which provide inspiration that can speak to people of many faiths. Her spiritual advice is useful, not only to the problem of overeating, but to the wide variety of self-mastery conflicts that challenge people.
Vicki was introduced to The Urantia Book in 1972 at the age of nineteen. Throughout her childhood, she took an avid interest in religion and appreciated her upbringing in the United Methodist Church. She has volunteered in religious education for many years—teaching all ages and developing curriculum materials. Additionally, she has given many presentations at Urantia gatherings and conferences. Vicki holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology, and has worked in the fields of social welfare and education. She and her husband Bob reside in Wisconsin and have three grown children.
Questions:
1. How did you become interested in the topic of self-mastery?
2. Why do we experience intense conflicts between our spiritual and material natures?
3. What is the kingdom of heaven and how does it help us with self-mastery?
4. Would Jesus tell us to take control, motivate, apply will power, and self-monitor?
5. What advice might Jesus give?
• 2010/06/23 — An interview with Vicki Arkens
Ben Bowler is the Wednesday morning guest. Ann discovered him on FaceBook, and after observing him for a season, it became obvious that he is a remarkably altruistic person.
Ben is an Australian of Irish decent with a background in direct sales, marketing and entrepreneurship. He is in the (probably) unique position of having incomplete degrees from Melbourne University in both Engineering and Theology.
After running their own business in Melbourne, in 2007 Ben and Jildou volunteered with Free Schools World Literacy as Field managers, a service project created by readers of The Urantia Book, for the village schools in northern Thailand. They spent a wonderful 10 months running this project and at the completion of the term together they launched Blood Foundation, an NGO focusing on Burma issues, interfaith projects and education.
In 2008 Ben founded Monk for a Month a unique cultural-exchange program allowing foreigners the chance for full immersion in the Thai Buddhist experience including ordination for men as a novice monk.
Ben is also the founder of U-Day 23-12-2012 which aims to capitalize on the energy created by the eschatological rise in temperature associated with late 2012.
Ben is excited by the rise of social enterprise, the enlightenment of faith and the emergence of convergence. He is also a mad supporter of the Geelong Cats AFL team who in 2010 are on track to win their third title in four years following a 44 year drought.
Ben will respond to these questions:
1. How did you end up living in the border regions of Northern Thailand?
2. How did that lead to getting involved in Burma Issues?
3. Can you tell us about Blood Foundation, what's with the name!?
4. Monk for a Month is a unique concept, can you tell us a bit about the program since you launched two years ago?
5. Talking about experiential spirituality, tell us about Fang Valley - adventures of the spirit / what's next?
• 2010/06/09 — An interview with Carol Herren Foerster
Carol Herren Foerster, gifted artist, will join host, Ann Garner. Carol is a second generation student of the Urantia papers. She started reading on her own when she was 12 yrs old. As she writes, “I couldn’t understand much of the first three parts, but the fourth part of the book was wonderful to read. I used to think it was because the midwayers were involved and they were more like us, thus making it easier for a child to understand.”
Carol is also a born again Christian and doesn’t have any problems with what may seem to be two different religious teachings, though there have been times she has struggled with the differences. Attending church and Bible studies regularly, she sees The Urantia Book as an encyclopedia of knowledge rather than a religion.
Carol has a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art. Applying her gifts and talents as an artist, she learned to use computer programs for her art. She now has two websites … one is for her art, which includes drawing and photography, and a website which contains her unique view of The Urantia Book.
Enjoy Carol’s art at www.carolherrenfoerster.com and her Urantia art at www.urantiagarden.org
• 2010/06/09 — An interview with Carol Herren Foerster
Rev Brian Young joins host, Ann Garner, co-founder in the mid 1990s of the Tarrant County Interfaith Council, with him. Pato Banton also joins them for a while.
Rev Brian is Senior Associate Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Arlington, Texas (UMC), a 5,000 member church. He preaches each week at the 10:50 Celebration Service in the Great Hall and assists regularly in the Sanctuary services. He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and Master of Theology (M.Div), Perkins School of Theology. He currently serves on the Central Texas Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, District Board of Ordained Ministry, Univ of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Wesley Foundation Board of Directors, SPR Chair Candidacy and Residency Mentor and Member Central Texas Campus Ministry Taskforce. Prior to joining the staff of UMC, Arlington, he was United Methodist Campus Minister, Director, The Wesley Foundation at Texas Christian University (TCU), Fort Worth, Texas.
A few of Rev Brian’s service to the religious/cultural community are: Central Texas Conference Board of Ordained Ministry; Annual Conference Worship Committee; Commission on the Status and Role of Women; Ministry Association (UMCMA) National Coordinating Committee; National Campus Ministry Association (President); US representative to global campus and Univ chaplain conferences, i.e. Brisbane, Australia, Finland/Russia, Cantebury and Rome. For many years he co-chaired the Fort Worth CROP Walk Arrangement, TCU Holocaust Awareness Committee, and served on the Board of Directors of Celebration Shop/Hugworks (www.hugworks.org/). Enjoy Pastor Brian's Musings at (Brian's Musings).
Some of the questions posed to Rev. Brian included:
1) Is the atonement doctrine valid?
2) Should we seek to convert others?
3) Why is the main-line Christians denominations not growing?
4) What created the sharp increase in non-denominational growth in recent years?
5) Why is your church growing?
6) Many young people are attending your church? What ignited this increase?
7) How can you, as a Christian minister of 27+ years, be so involved in Interfaith?
8) What are your reflections about The Urantia Book?
9) Would you co-found a new church?
• 2010/06/02 — An interview with Rev. Brian Young
Robert Burns is past President of The Urantia Book Fellowship and UBLA (Urantia Book of Los Angeles) society. He is currently serving on the General Council of The Urantia Book Fellowship, President of FreeSchools-USA, as well as Chairman of the Board of the UrantiaUniversity.
Robert is past President and/or Chairman of the Board of the American Heart Association Orange County, Exchange Club of Newport Harbor. He is Chairman of the Board of SSCIM, UCI (Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California at Irvine) under the department of Medicine, Board member of the Foxhall Foundation, Board member of World Tai Chi in Orange County, service member (every Friday morning) of a Santa Ana mission feeding the poor, study group host since 1990 every Thursday, active minister officiating 1-2 weddings and or memorials every month.
For fun Robert plays in a band, teaches group exercise classes and skateboards, looking forward to being a grandfather to baby Jace Paul Johnson, and spending time with wife Cindy Burns in her pursuits as a comedian and producer.
• 2010/05/22 — An interview Elizabeth Jones
Elizabeth Anne Jones began her journey with plants and a desire to use them in essential oil healing when she was a teen. Today she is a pioneer, leading educator, healer, formulator, and advocate in the field of using therapeutic essential oils in integrative medicine. She has completed extensive coursework in aromatherapy and botanicals, is a graduate of the California School of Herbal Studies in Forestville, California, and has studied with top aromatherapists around the world.
In 1997, Jones founded the College of Botanical Healing Arts, Santa Cruz, California, and serves as the institution’s director and primary instructor. CoBHA is one of a few certified schools in the United States offering a 400-hour comprehensive program in essential oil therapy. (www.cobha.org)
For more than thirty years, she has run a private aromatherapy practice and treated hundreds of clients. With her husband, chemist Lawrence Jones, she established Elizabeth Van Buren, Inc., a company producing an extensive line of botanical products used by practitioner and nurses, in spas, hospitals, massage schools, and hospices nationwide. (www.elizabethvanburen.com)
Elizabeth Jones received a Bachelor of Science Degree from Skidmore College and a Secondary Credential and Master Degree from University of California, Berkeley. As a member of the educational committee of the Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA), she has worked on regulating the standards of aromatherapy education in the United States. Jones has been invited to speak at many health conferences and workshops, including the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA).
Jones has published articles in alternative health journals and contributed to The World of Aromatherapy, an anthology edited by Jeanne Rose and Susan Earle. She wrote the definitive entry on aromatherapy for altMD.com, a search engine devoted to alternative medicine and local health and wellness specialists. Her newly released book, Awaken to Healing Fragrance published by North Atlantic Books, explores the value of scent in our lives and provides a comprehensive look at the past, present, and future of essential oil therapy.
• 2010/05/22 — An interview Elizabeth Jones
Elisabeth Espersen
Elisabeth Espersen is a pioneer in the Interfaith movement, co-founding the North American Interfaith Network (www.nain.org). Prior to serving as Executive Director of Thanks-Giving Square (www.thanksgiving.org) in Dallas (1982-2000), she was a Catholic nun. Her classic book, “Meeting in Faith” (1996) became a model and guide for Interfaith groups around the world.
Elisabeth spearheaded a five-day seminar (1999) that drew participants from 33 countries to discuss the global implications of gratitude and thankful living. World religious leaders attended the gathering, due to her gracious leadership and friendships, including the Chief Tibetan Archivist for the Dahli Lama, Archbishop of Canterbury, Imam Muzamil Siddiqi and Francis Cardinal Arinze, who walked amongst the participants as ‘men amongst men.’
Upon retiring from Thanks-Giving Square in 2000, Elisabeth returned to upper state New York, where she continued her contemplative life style and currently serves as assistant to the pastor of a Catholic parish.
Elisabeth’s visionary insights include, "Today's interfaith organizations have achieved a first level of success by creating structures where diverse religious groups can overcome ignorance and fear of one another. This achievement has created excitement, awe, and gratitude among the participants. Most seem ready for a next level, though they may not know what it is."
Although Elizabeth does not consider herself a seasoned reader of The Urantia Book, she has read the book twice and will provide valuable insights from her theological perspective.
• 2010/05/19 — An interview Elisabeth Espersen
Michael Gillespie is a journalist who lives and works in central Iowa. He is a contributing editor at The Independent Monitor, the national newspaper of Arab Americans. He writes regularly for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, the nation's most widely read and respected magazine focusing on U.S. Middle East foreign policy and the politics and culture of the region. A 1999 graduate of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Iowa State University in Ames where he was inducted a member of Kappa Tau Alpha, the national honor society in journalism and mass communication, Michael has previously worked in radio as a reporter at WUOT-FM in Knoxville, TN, a university NPR-affiliate station, and as project director for community radio station WDVX-FM in Clinton, TN. His reportage has been broadcast internationally by Swiss Radio International.
Michael has been a student of the Urantia Papers since 1974. While living in Tennessee, where he co-founded the Knoxville Writers Guild and served as executive director of the Tennessee Writers Alliance, Michael was an active member of Urantia study groups in Knoxville and in Murfreesboro. He had earlier been a member of a study group in Austin, TX.
In Iowa since 1996, Michael served as a member of the cabinet of the Ames Interfaith Council for six years. He was vice-chair and chair of the city's lay interfaith organization in the years before and after September 11, 2001.
Michael writes regularly about interfaith relations and peace and social justice issues and events.
• 2010/05/15 — An interview Michael Gillespie
Brigitte Mars: Have you ever wanted expert advice on natural medicines and alternative healing? This week's show is all about the care and feeding of the body human. The Cosmic Citizen feature Ms Brigitte Mars, a longtime student of the Urantia Book and an extraordinary herbalist, author and raw foods chef. She is a highly regarded and sought after nutritional consultant from Boulder, Colorado. Brigitte has been working with Natural Medicine for over 40 years. She teaches through private workshops and seminars, and also at
Naropa University,
the Boulder College of Massage,
Bauman College of Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts, and
Omega Institute. Brigitte also hosts a weekly Boulder radio show on KGNU (88.5 FM) called “Naturally,” teaches raw food classes, leads herb walks, and is a professional member of The American Herbalist Guild.
As an additional benefit, our friend and regular contributor, Diane Labrecque will be on the line providing her own expertise in natural medicines, infra red therapies, Bach Flower remedies and homeopathy. Don't hesitate to call in with your questions, it's not everyday we get practical expertise like this.
For more information on Brigitte and her healing work, visit www.BrigitteMars.com. Also, Brigitte recounts how The Urantia Book found her here at Hippie Chick Seeks Revelation on Truthbook.com.
• 2010/05/08 - Interview with Brigitte Mars and Diane Labrecque -- See Diane's bio below
Jim McNelly was born in Chicago on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1950 and began assimilating the Urantia Papers by proximity in the womb. Being a bit of a dense klutz, however, it took multiple introductions starting in 1966 before he finally started reading the Book in earnest in 1970. He started a study group in 1971 in Fullerton, California before he even knew that was what readers "were supposed to do". Joining the First Urantia Society of Los Angeles in 1972, Jim edited, wrote and published eleven issues of The Agondonter newsletter until 1975, widely claimed by a few paid instigators to be the original "Movement" newsletter. While he thought much of his material was humorous, others have expressed contrary opinions. Jim knows who they are. Before he came to his senses and settled down and got married to his lovely wife Linda in 1976, raising two really cool children, Lauren and Jeffrey who were graciously spared from the influence of 'Movement' politics, Jim estimates that he introduced over 5,000 people to the Book, of which maybe fifty actual new readers can be counted on one hand.
Full of the zeal of a frothy religious egoist, Jim went to Cal State Fullerton where he graduated with a BA in Religious Studies in 1975, which he has used to become an international authority on composting and sustainable agriculture. (proving that religious studies really is a wonderfully marketable skill) Go figure! Migrating to Boulder, Colorado, he made a fine mess of things helping to found the Rocky Mountain Urantia Society in 1980. Many editorials and cartoons in the "Planetary Prints" were Jim McNelly's attempts at humor, including the infamous cartoon of Jesus holding a protest sign outside an office marked "533" that read "Let My People Know!" Jim used his powers of persuasion, hypnosis and downright bribery to get selected as the RMUS Triennial Delegate which he naturally parlayed into a seat on the Urantia Brotherhood General Council. Jim's environmental career took him to Kansas City where he helped instigate the Heart of America Urantia Society. He currently lives in St. Cloud MN, with his Lovely Wife Linda and their beautiful garden.
A natural born ham, Jim used his considerable influence to write and perform a dozen or so plays performed at various conferences, of which his hilarious "At home with the Ben Joseph's" almost got him kicked off the General Council for it's (in the opinion of one influential person at least) irreverent portrayal of the events of Jesus' teenage life. Undaunted, Jim became a curmudgeon and recluse after the Brotherhood Foundation rift, but found a modicum of enlightenment in being a father, good husband (as Linda keeps saying and he continues to believe) and working on helping people feed themselves, restore topsoil, create renewable energy and fertilizers, while coming to the conclusion that "God's will be done on earth, as it is in heaven".
Jim's characters have included "Reverend Jimmy" who fervently admonishes the faithful that Jeeezzzuuuss did NOT die on the cross to atone for purported sins, and "Swami Gowananda" who teaches that "The Universe is over, we can all go home now!" and the recently appearing, "Mel Halfadek", who "sees things", "hears voices" and is "one who knows whereof he speaks!" Perhaps you were at the 1990 Snowmass conference where Jim read the story of Adamson and Ratta in a way that perhaps your study group had not envisioned. Jim likes to think that people are still laughing to this day.
A successful inventor with six patents and environmental work spanning the globe, Jim strives to live a life of loving service amid the chaos and uncertainty of planetary transformation, hoping someday to hear the words from our Heavenly Father, "This is a beloved son, of whom I got a great kick out of!"
(Many of us know he is destined to be an 'Eternal Reversion Director")
Contact Details:
Renewable Carbon Management LLC
NaturTech, NaturSoil, CompostMan
www.composter.com
• 2010/05/01 - Interview with Jim McNelly
Sioux Oliva, Ph.D.
is an historian and lecturer. Her historical career began after she earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Southern California in 1999. Now an historian in private practice, she does family and estate history as well as history project management through her company, Legacy History. Sioux clients’ include Gard Jameson (wrote his family history in three parts), Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy (lived with Ethel for 3 months while she organized her historic papers), the estate of Marilyn Monroe (wrote a proposal for a traveling exhibition about her life), Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee (organized the Grey Gardens papers into 23 volumes), The Getty & The City of Los Angeles (compiling the Civil Rights history of Los Angeles), and The Autry Museum of the American West (rewriting docent training to add the Native Voice). A person who likes how science informs philosophy and religion, Sioux suggests DNA testing as for clients due to the additional genealogical and historical information it provides. Soon to go on a speaking tour to talk about the importance of compiling a family history, how to create one, how DNA can give a broader picture of one’s ancestry, and share her experiences as a professional historian.
She has published many articles, including: “Family Secrets: How New DNA Tests Will Change Donor Disclosure Forever;” contributed five chapters in the Encyclopedia of Native American History; “Creating A Family Legacy As Part Of The Estate Plan: Assisting Clients In Assessing And Memorializing Their Achievements, Assets, And Collections;” "Winning the Sovereignty Jackpot: The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and the Struggle for Sovereignty;" and "Two Models to Sovereignty: A Comparative History of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Navajo Nation.”
Sioux has been a reader of The Urantia Book since 1974. Her religious practice includes daily meditation, reading the book, and trying to become a spiritually fragrant person. Currently she is writing a history of Dr. William S. Sadler to place him in his time and place to assist us in thinking through the work of Matthew Block. Sioux lives in Southern California with her husband George. She has two stepchildren, Micki and Natalie, who live in Manhattan and Paris respectively. Her leisure time is spent traveling, hiking, going to museums, movies, painting ceramics, and doing embroidery. Her website is www.LegacyHistory.com. She can be reached at LegacyHistory@me.com.
• 2010/04/28 - Interview with Sioux Olivea
Errol Strider has developed a new model for theater called Strider Innertainment which combines philosophical inquiry, spiritual discovery and psychological growth with comedy and theater.
He has been involved in professional theater, ministry and healing work for over 40 years as a director, choreographer, playwright, actor, dancer, mime, poet, group facilitator, counselor and humorist.
Currently he is artistic director of “The Laughing Heart”—a non-profit organization that produces Strider Innertainment, provides spiritual education and healing and a community context devoted to using creativity for the advancement of human consciousness.
He and his wife, Rochelle, produce a weekly radio program called, “Insight Out” at www.Utopiaradio.com. He also writes a blog where he combines his philosophical perspective with humor and stories... www.insightoutwithErrol.blogspot.com. Errol has a special gift for using comedy and humor to break through ego resistance and pave the way for real heart and mind connection. One of his mottos is, “When you can laugh at yourself, you’re too slippery for your ego to get a hold of you.”
His comedy focuses on pointing out the discrepancies between who we are and who we tend to think we are. His humor is positive and is never achieved at someone else’s expense, though often at his own as he continues to be impressed by the ridiculousness of his own behavior and thinking. He has written and performed many comedy sketches that not only reveal our human foibles, but also point the way to joy, freedom and wholeness. Errol was artistic director of three theater companies including The Montalvo Festival Theater in Saratoga, CA, Gaslight Playhouse in Miami, and Intersection Players in San Francisco.
He has performed at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Goodman Theater in Chicago, Café LaMama in New York and has appeared with Harv Presnell, Daryl Hickman, Rita Gardner and Lola Fisher.
He has written numerous plays including the critically acclaimed “Family Baggage” and the award winning “Adventures to Closetmush.” He was nominated for a National Cable Emmy Award and was the winner of the Jefferson University Oral Interpretation Contest.
He has taught acting, dance, comedy, creativity and spirituality at the University of Miami, Dominican University, Naropa West University in Oakland and Mundelein College in Chicago.
Errol has written several books including “Journeys to the Source”, “Welcome to Your Universe” and “Answers are Timid.” You can reach Errol by going to Strider Innertainment web site: www.sexmoneygod.com or emailing him at estrider@gmail.com.
• 2010/04/24 - Interview with Error Strider
"Dr. Chuck" has been a clergyman serving churches on the East coast since the early 1990's. He has earned degrees from accredited schools in philosophy, theology, biblical studies, comparative religions, and metaphysics. As part of both his academic study and professional ministry he has had an interest in new religions, new forms of religious expression within traditional religions, continuing revelation, and how religion shapes both the present and the future.
He first encountered the Urantia Book as a teenager in 1967, but did not begin serious reading of until four years ago. Although he does not claim to be an "expert" or "authority" on the Fifth Epochal Revelation, he has read the entire book through, and is well read on the history of the Urantia Papers, from the earliest days to the present.
On 04/21/2010 Dr. Chuck and Ann Garner interact about The Urantia Book in relation to:
1. Traditional Christian religion (Catholic, Protestant, liberal and evangelical/fundamentalist);
2. Other religions claiming additional or new revelations (Mormon, A Course in Miracles, OAHSPE);
3. Possible future for the Urantia revelation within the framework of traditional religion.
In Part 2, on 05/05/2010, Dr. Chuck and Ann continue with a program devoted to A Course in Miracles as a revelation, what it teaches, its similarities to the UB and its significant diffferences.
• 2010/04/21 - Dr. Chuck is Interviewed
• 2010/05/05 - Dr. Chuck, part II. A Course In Miracles discussion
Dr. Madan Kataria, a medical doctor from Mumbai, India, popularly known as the ‘Guru of Giggling’ (London Times) is featured. He is the founder of the Laughter Yoga Clubs movement started in 1995. While researching the benefits of laughter, he was amazed by the number of studies showing the profound physiological and psychological benefits of laughter. He decided to find a way to deliver these benefits to his patients and other people. The result is Laughter Yoga, a unique exercise routine that combines group laughter exercises with yoga breathing. It allows anyone to laugh without the use jokes, humor or comedy. Started with just five people in a public park in Mumbai, India in 1995, Laughter Yoga has grown into a worldwide movement of more than 6000 Laughter Yoga clubs in over 60 countries.
Spreading rapidly in USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, South East Asia, China and Africa, this new concept has been widely covered by prestigious publications like the TIME magazine, National Geographic, and the Wall Street Journal and featured on CNN, BBC, US networks and the Oprah Winfrey Show. Please visit Dr. Kateria's website at www.laughteryoga.org
• 2010/04/17 - Dr. Madan Kateria is Interviewed
Lisa Crowe discovered the Urantia Book in the summer of 2007, and since that day her life has taken a dramatic turn. . . for the best! Enthralled and excited about the Revelation, priorities in life began shifting quickly. Every spare minute became consumed with studying and researching to learn as much as she could about the Revelation as quickly as possible. At the same time she was also “home-schooling” herself in web design, hoping to eventually be able to make a living working from home on her ranchette in Texas.
By spring of 2008, Lisa made the bold decision to abandon the financial security of her career in the corporate world in order to focus much more time on her studies. As her skills in web design improved it seemed like a natural fit to use the web to help introduce the UB to others, and she created the site urantiabook-intro.org to serve that purpose.
• 2010/04/14 - Interview with Lisa Crowe
Steve Bhaerman is an internationally known author, humorist, and workshop leader. Since the late 1980s he has written and performed as Swami Beyondananda, the “Cosmic Comic.” Swami’s comedy has been called “irreverently uplifting” and has been described both as “comedy disguised as wisdom” and “wisdom disguised as comedy.”
As the Swami, Steve is the author of Driving Your Own Karma (1989), When You See a Sacred Cow, Milk It For All It’s Worth (1993), Duck Soup for the Soul (1999) and Swami for Precedent: A 7-Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic and Cure Electile Dysfunction (2004).
In his “past life” (before Swami), Steve started an alternative high school in Washington, D.C. and co-authored a book about his experiences, No Particular Place to Go: Making of a Free High School. A political science major, he later taught history to autoworkers at Wayne State University in Detroit as part of the Weekend College. In 1980, Steve co-founded Pathways Magazine in Ann Arbor, Michigan, one of the first publications bringing together holistic health, personal growth, spirituality, and politics. Subsequent to Pathways, Steve was a freelance writer and co-author with Don McMillan of Friends and Lovers: How to Meet the People You Want to Meet (Writer’s Digest Books, 1986).
Since 2005, Steve has written a political blog with a spiritual perspective, Notes From the Trail, hailed as an encouraging voice “in the bewilderness.” His latest book, written with cellular biologist Bruce H. Lipton, PhD is Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here (Hay House, 2009). Steve is active in transpartisan politics and the practical application of Spontaneous Evolution. He can be found online at www.wakeuplaughing.com/
• 2010/04/10 - Swami Beyondananda
Stephen Zendt was introduced to the UB in 1971. He has been involved with the Fellowship in various capacities ever since.
For nine years he served on the General Council in the Nineties, and then became president of his local Society GOLDEN GATE CIRCLE for four years. He served on the Education Committee and assisted with conferences and retreats.
In 1994 he was engaged in a project by Urantia Foundation to record the entire UB on tape, handling quality control and doing some Papers on the recording, itself. The tapes were digitally mastered and are now available from UF in digital format.
He has had articles published in some of the movement journals, and he continues to participate in the Society Administration e-list discussions.
Stephen works in financial services in the Bay Area of Northern California, and has one eye on retirement, some day.
• 2010/04/07 - Interview with Stephen Zendt
Elisabeth Hartnett Callahan:
Since discovering The Urantia Book in 1984, its spiritual meanings and values have informed and expanded every aspect of Elisabeth's life. Over the last 30 years, she has followed a spiritual path of dedicated contemplative practice, advanced studies in world religions and transpersonal psychology, and in-depth training and teaching in Zen Buddhism and mystical Christianity. She is an ordained priest in both the Soto Zen Buddhist School and Liberal Catholic Church, providing universal meditation instruction and spiritual ministry to those who seek it. As a long-time student of The Urantia Book, Elisabeth uses the transcendent spiritual truths of this epochal revelation as a greater vehicle for presenting and illuminating the life and teachings of Jesus and the Buddha.
In the workaday arena, Elisabeth currently administers educational programs for Elderhostel, now renamed Exploritas, following a long management career at a major life insurance and pension company. She and her husband, John, lead a weekly Urantia Book study group in southern California. They have a combined total of three children and five grandchildren. Elisabeth is also thrilled to be working with a remarkable team of spiritually creative individuals who are imagining and developing UrantiaUniversity as a community of students, teachers, service-givers and entrepreneurs. For her the true joy in life is to participate in the personal spiritual growth of others and progress of the planet.
• 2010/04/03 - Interview Tim Hobbs and Elisabeth Callahan, Urantia University
Kaye Cooper
describes her life purpose this way: “In the early 80’s I gave considerable thought to what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Every problem I could identify in our world—whether it was economic, social, or political—always seemed to come back to one thing—the solution was spiritual! So I decided I would get to the root of things: I dedicated myself to helping people draw nearer to God.”
For many years she has led adult workshops and spiritual support groups. In the 1970’s and 80’s she and her husband Bill initiated, wrote for, and edited "The Circles," (link to UB Historical Society archives) a quarterly magazine for Urantia Book readers that focused on living the spiritual life in the material world. In 1990 they published Friendship with God. As Kaye describes it, Friendship with God contains “the information I needed when I was in my teens and 20’s struggling with why my perfectly good prayers weren’t answered!” In 1988 she and Bill established “Adventures in Spiritual Living,” (link to UB Historical Society) a non-profit organization that has created and led spiritual retreats throughout the US and in Canada. In the early 21st century, she worked for a non-profit training people to lead groups for parents and teachers that teach them how to treat children so that the children grow up with healthy self-esteem. In the last year, she and her close friend (and fellow member of Adventures), Sharon Lanier, have been collaborating on an extraordinary breakthrough in living out one’s spiritual ideals. They call it “Joyful Living.”
Sharon Lanier
grew up in a deeply religious and spiritual household. All her young life, she was devoted to doing the right thing, living the Christian way. She knew, however, at the age of 16, that she was going to be following a different spiritual life from then on. Finding the Urantia book at 24 was a most incredible, glorious experience for her. She became friends with Bill and Kaye Cooper not too much later and then she and Ted, her husband, joined with Adventures in Spiritual Living. What a life changing experience. Sharon felt the doors over her heart spirit open up; she began to experience God in a whole new glorious way.
Ted and Sharon founded Whole Life Bookstore and devoted their lives to serving the Austin, TX, community with spiritual books from across the spectrum of religions from around the world. Learning about the different traditions even further opened the doors of her heart. Two years ago, while searching still for answers on how to handle emotions such as anxiety, anger, and all the other emotions that come up and try to cloud the spiritual world, she began to make headway. She shared these thoughts and feelings with her friend, Kaye, and the rest is history. They have diligently worked together and now have co-created Joyful Living. Says Sharon, “It too has been an incredible journey"
• 2010/03/31 - Interview with Kaye Cooper and Sharon Lanier
The guest for this program is David Kulieke, president of First Society in the Chicago area.
We ask David some provocative questions such as; what is our purpose?
What is God's purpose for us?
And ultimately, what is the purpos of The Urantia Book?
David has given other presentations on the purpose of the Urantia Book, and he will provide an informal version of his talk. Essentially, our questions will be the springboard for further discussion of his ideas.
• 2010/03/27 - Interview with David Kulieke
Pierre Chicoine
is a Urantia Book reader for over 35 years and hosted a study group for 20 years in Anaheim, CA. He is a musician, a futurist and a lover of science, technology and history. Recognized as one of the pioneers of automated computer designs, he utilized one of his 3d based automation programs to create an interactive, animated 3d trip to all the architectural spheres from Earth to Paradise from his synthesis the teachings from The Urantia Book (www.virtualurantia.com).
Since 1981, Pierre has automated a myriad of businesses from small to large. He created and set the standard on the first fully automated, computer based, technical publication maintenance system for all the airlines that purchased the McDonald Douglas' MD11 aircraft. (ATA rev 29). Pierre also created the first computer-based mapping system for new home real estate developers information system for banks, including Bank of America. He also created the first 3d based, automation front end for computer control of Power Plants. His latest development is a viewing and control system for Fairview Development Center in Costa Mesa which spans a square mile.
• 2010/03/24 - Interview with Pierre Chicoinea
The 03/20/2010 episode of the Cosmic Citizen provides updates to the two upcoming Uantia conferences.
Diane Labrecque (See bio below) is with us for the first hour, giving an update on the Urantia Family Festival to be held in Montreal, Quebec in July of this year.
The second hour is an update of the plans for the Urantia Book Fellowship's Intensive Summer Study Seminar in Chicago, also in July. The theme is Cosmic Morality, Living the Gospel.
Nick Stefero describes the seminar plans. Nick is a member of the Fellowship's Education Committee and also oversees the Committee's website.
• 2010/03/20 - Interviews with Diane Labrecque and Nick Stefero
Giani Ji Harbhajhan Singh Sandhu is a Sikh priest (5th largest world religion). He received his Bachelors degree in Art and Masters degree in Music, Giwaji Univerity, Gywaliar, India, as well as personal research studying texts of all major religions. His acclaimed universal writings have been published throughout most of his ministry years, which spans 50 years. Author of soon to be published, “Spiritual Spring,” Giani Ji succinctly shares his spiritual insights with his unique and refreshing approach to living a spiritually balanced, fulfilling and joyful life.
Blind since 1½ years old, Giani Ji’s remarkable ministry began in Gwalior, Indian, at age 21 in 1961. His singing of shabads (hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy scriptures of Sikhim) and expounding on the Holy scriptures consistently and profoundly affect peoples lives. In 1986 he traveled to the United States to continue his service as a Sikh minister in 3H0 Ashram in Phoenix (1989-2001) as well as traveling throughout the U.S. as the principal of Ragi Jatthas (group of 3 musicians & singers and reciter/interpreters of Holy Gurbani Keertans/holy hymns). In 2002, he was one of those instrumental in constructing the stunning Nishkam Seva Gurdwara Sahib, known as the Temple of Peace, next to Arrowhead Lakes in Arizona. For several years, he served as Giani Ji in the Temple.
The Gurdwara in Irving, Texas, has been blessed to have Giani Ji as a mentor and guest priest since 1995, with him and his lovely wife, Satwant Kaur, moving to Irving in 2007. In Sept, 2009, Giani Ji returned to his home in Phonex, AZ, where he continues to dedicate his life to preaching unconditional love. His writings continue to be published in the local newspaper and his recently completed book, mentioned above, will be published soon.
Giani Ji and Ann, who has been involved closely with the Sikh community since the mid 90’s, will interact about the origin and history of the 500 year old religion along with distilling the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib and Giani Ji’s recently completed book (which Ann had the honor of helping him complete).
• 2010/03/17 - Interview with Giani Ji Harbhajhan Singh Sandhu
Dr. Lawrence Schkade grew up in a strict conservative Christian home and calls himself a recovering fundamentalist. His testimony of how The Urantia Book changed his life can be found on truthbook.com, titled,
The Dark Night of My Soul is Ending.
Dr. Schkade is a retired academic, an 18-year survivor of a heart transplantm and is the person responsible for introducing Ann Garner to The Urantia Book. Ann of course is a regular supporter of our program and the host of our offshoot broadcast on Wednesday mornings.
• 2010/03/13 - Interview with Lawrence Schkade
M. Scott Peck's Work Continues through The Foundation For Community Encouragement (FCE):
Robert Reusing Director - guest speaker.
The Cosmic Citizen is honored to have as our guest speaker, the Director of Programs, for M. Scott Peck's institute: The Foundation for Community Encouragement (FCE) Robert Reusing. Mr. Reusing had the distinct privilege of knowing and working with the late Dr. Peck (best selling author of The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth; A World Waiting to be Born: Civility Rediscovered; and The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace (among many others) for more than 25 years. He was trained by Scott Peck in 1985 to facilitate the process called "community building" after having gone through a workshop himself as the Director of an alcohol and drug rehabilitation program. Since that time he has worked for FCE with both groups of strangers and organizations world wide to teach and feel true community. With clients ranging from car dealerships, and religious organizations to actual countries FCE has been involved in conflict resolution in Bosnia, Pakistan and the former USSR. Robert Reusing hails from Redding Pennsylvania but now makes his home in Buffalo, NY. In addition to his work with FCE Robert background includes being a Middle School Teacher, a Massage Therapist and a very Proud Grandfather.
Mr. Reusing will be talking about their workshops and facilitator training as well as the "Building Authentic Community" program they have coming up in April, in Buffalo NY. (the weekend of April 16-18, 2010) that several Urantia Book students will be attending, as well as the program they will be facilitating at The United Urantia Festival in Montreal, Quebec this summer (July 1-5, 2010). The workshop has been developed and improved through years of experience and successful testing with many groups based on Dr. M. Scott Peck's books as well as his hands-on involvement as a leader/facilitator.
More information (and registration information for their workshops) can be found on their website at www.fce-community.org. If you are interested in registering for the April workshop it is suggested that you register as soon as possible.
• 2010/03/06 - Interview with Robert Reusing, director of the Scott Peck Foundation for Community Encouragement
Michael Henderson, English journalist, broadcaster and author, lives in Westward Ho! North Devon. He returned to Britain at the end of 2000 after 22 years in the United States mostly in Portland , Oregon. He also has Irish citizenship.
In the United States he contributed articles to newspapers and journals all over the country, did more than 1,000 radio talks and was presenter for commercial, public and cable TV programs. In Oregon he was president of the World Affairs Council, of the English-Speaking Union, and of Willamette Writers, and on the board of the United Nations Association. He was co-founder of Oregon Uniting, a work for racial understanding and a prime instigator of Oregon’s 1999 Day of Acknowledgment of earlier racial exclusion. He has spoken throughout the United States to many organizations, church groups, university departments and service clubs.
He has addressed groups around the world as varied as the Rotary clubs of London, New Delhi and Rabaul, New Guinea; the English-Speaking Union branches of Moscow and St Petersburg, New York and Washington, DC, and London; the World Affairs Councils of San Antonio, Texas and Brattleboro, Vermont; the annual meeting of the Governors General of the Caribbean as well as in Parliament House, Canberra, and in the House of Commons. Since returning to Britain he has spoken to dozens of audiences in England, Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland . In December, 2009 he spoke on forgiveness at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia and in January 2010 was featured at the Munich International Peace Conference.
He has written eleven books, the latest being No Enemy To Conquer – Forgiveness in An Unforgiving World which has a foreword by the Dalai Lama and See You After the Duration - the Story of British Evacuees to North America in World War II which has a foreword by the distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert. Michael, with his brother Gerald, was one of more than three thousand British children evacuated to the United States for safety during World War II, living five years in Milton, Mass . His book Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate which has been strongly endorsed by Archbishop Tutu has also been published in Russian and in German and All Her Paths Are Peace – Women Pioneers in Peacemaking in Chinese. His books have been launched at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, and at the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the English-Speaking Union in London . He is author of a chapter on Initiatives of Change in Positive Approaches to Peacebuilding published in 2003; a chapter in People Building Peace II: Successful Stories of Civil Society published in 2005; and a chapter in Children: the Invisible Victims of War published in 2008. A Great Truth - Turning Enemies into Friends contains six radio broadcasts made in 2006 on Radio Dawn, Nottingham, with a foreword by Imam Musharaff Hussain. In February 2010 his eleventh book Ice in Every Carriage – an Extraordinary Asian Journey 1952-53 will be published with a foreword by Rajmohan Gandhi.
He has been a member of Britain’s Chartered Institute of Journalists since 1963 and was on its London District Committee. He is a member of the London Press Club, of the West Country Writers Association, of the International Communications Forum, of the English-Speaking Union and of The Pilgrims. In the United States he was a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He has been for more than fifty years associated with Initiatives of Change and was for twenty years on its US board and 35 years on its British Council of Management.
He is the author of words of many songs and was the co-author of three musical revues including GB which ran in London’s West End . As a teenager he worked backstage on Broadway and in Hollywood, later acting in many plays in a dozen countries. He has been producer or script writer of videos and done voiceovers for films and videos. He speaks French and German.
Awards for his writing and speaking include three George Washington Honor Medals from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.
He is a keen sportsman, having played soccer and ice hockey until he was sixty, is playing veteran tennis and is a member of the Devon 75-year-old team.
He has been married to Erica for 43 years and they have one daughter Juliet, who taught Spanish at Westridge School, Pasadena, California , for eight years and is now on the faculty at The Hotchkiss School, Connecticut, and two granddaughters, Lola and Lucy.
Website: www.michaelhenderson.org.uk
• 2010/02/27 - Interview with Michael Henderson on forgiveness
Rev. Thomas currently lives in North Texas. He has been retired from the active ministry for 15 years. His ministry has included foreign student work, pastor in local churches of a mainline denomination and administrative/chaplaincy work on a large retirement campus. His student work was in Cairo, Egypt and after returning from Egypt at the time of the Suez Crisis in 1956 he worked with foreign students in the San Francisco Bay Area. His pastoral and long-term care ministry has been in Oklahoma and Texas.
Rev. Thomas has enjoyed a long retirement. At the outset of his retirement he decided that it would consist of volunteer service and personal study and research. The volunteer work included assisting two local churches to start a non-profit organization that would provide services to senior adults in order for them to stay longer in their homes before going to a nursing home. Other volunteer work was with a literacy organization, the Alzheimer's Association and a hospice organization.
His personal study had mainly to do with death and the afterlife. He read very widely in this theological area which is called eschatology. He attended various conferences in the U. S. which touched upon his research topic. After reading and studying in this area he came upon The Urantia Book in 2006 and after reading it was amazed to find such a book which had more to say, with integrity, than anything that he had ever read.
• 2010/02/24 - Interview with Reverend Thomas on Wednesday morning study group.
Charlie Fox is neither an academic nor a priest. The author of Being Like Water (available either on
Amazon.com or on Lulu.com)
is interested only in the functionality of spirituality and the way that the Gospel of Jesus can enhance our lives and release our own great contributions to mankind.
Holding no qualifications other than a batchelors degree in the arts and an honourary qualification in the awareness of truth earned from his 37 years on our strife-ridden planet, this first book is a view and a discussion on humanity's great common struggle between our the acsension of our own egos and the optimum path that God holds for each of us. A path that the teachings of Jesus makes clear.
An experienced martial artist of many styles and a musician/composer of something he terms "art-based music", Charlie has been on a spiritual journey since his early years and has wended his way through various Christian denominations and belief systems. A Urantia Book reader since 1997 and always on the peripherary of the Christian scene, Charlie's personal mission is to reach other "religious and spiritually minded nomads" who feel otherwise excluded from the established church and isolated as a result. Charlie's music is available at www.myspace.com/charliefoxidioms
• 2010/02/20 - Interview with Charlie Fox
Yasuhiko Genku Kimura is a transhumanist philosopher; ordained Zen Buddhist priest and scholar; teacher of esoteric spiritual philosophies of the East and the West; creator and leader of transformational programs; consultant and advisor to leaders in business, science, and cultural organizations; researcher of science and scientific paradigms; translator of ancient Japanese and Chinese scriptures; and author in the fields of spiritual philosophy, evolutionary ethics, integral science, and business leadership.
Mr. Kimura is considered one of the most original, visionary thinkers in the field of integral and evolutionary philosophy. He is recognized for his unique ability to integrate advanced Western scientific thought with intuitive Eastern spiritual insight to bring about radical and lasting transformation in individuals and organizations. His numerous writings and seminars are acclaimed for their originality and spiritual depth.
In 1998, Mr. Kimura was appointed to be Executive Director of The Twilight Club, which had been originally established in the 19th century as a venerable American tradition by Herbert Spencer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Edwin Markham, Andrew Carnegie, Oliver Wendell Holms, William James, John Borroughs, and other prominent Americans for the purpose of ethical uplifting of the world through the enrichment of culture. In the early 20th century, Thomas Watson, Sr. and Walter Russell developed The Twilight Club into The Society of Arts and Science.
In 2003 Mr. Kimura established Vision-In-Action, an action-oriented sapient circle of thought leaders, as the 21st-century version of The Twilight Club/Society of Arts and Science, to develop and implement creative, innovative, and transformative approaches to problems and challenges facing humanity that will bring about novel resolutions and a new evolutionary pathway for the world. In 2005 he further established Vision-In-Action Leadership Institute to develop spiritually awakened, intellectually sovereign, and emotionally mature leaders of humanity.
For more information, please visit the Vision in Action website at www.via-visioninaction.org and also Mr. Kimura's complete biography
• 02/17/2010 interview with Yasuhiko Kimura on Wednesday morning study group
Philip G Calabrese is an internationally recognized mathematician credited with successfully combining deductive logic and conditional probability in a common context, something impossible within the standard logic of Boolean algebra. In a 50-page paper published in 1987 Phil did it with ordered pairs of events, which are like fractions, but instead with events or propositions rather than whole numbers. Twenty-six years earlier as a sophomore Phil had solved a standard calculus problem on alternating series in a new, more accurate way. His original research paper was later included in a well-known anthology of Calculus Papers in the American Mathematical Monthly.
After President Kennedy was assassinated, Phil dropped his mathematics courses at Harvard Graduate School in lieu of a three-year NASA Traineeship at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), graduating with a PhD in mathematics in 1968. He became a mathematics professor & teacher for 15 years at several universities in Illinois and California.
He then spent 10 years as an analyst and scientific computer programmer while doing mathematical research on his own time until the 1987 paper appeared. From 1990 to 1993 the National Research Council awarded him full-time support to do research in “reasoning with uncertainty” as a Senior Research Associate. For the next 11 years the US Navy supported his mathematical research as prime contractor, subcontractor and later as senior scientist for the Department of Defense. Phil retired from this job in 2004.
Phil had a religious experience in December 1969 that in August 1970 prompted a ‘love-at-first-sight’ reaction to The Urantia Book. In September 1972 as a founding faculty member of the experimental California State College at Bakersfield Phil initiated and co-taught the first college course for credit on The Urantia Book (five 2-hour sessions). Since then Phil has given numerous presentations on the fascinating cosmology of The Urantia Book and has published many papers on it. He was an invited presenter at the “Matter-Future Conference” in Oklahoma City in 1976, and at all three of the Urantia Book Fellowship Scientific Symposia in 1989, 1993 and 1994. Since 1979 Phil has been host or co-host of twice monthly meetings of a San Diego study group on The Urantia Book.
Phil actively participated in the birth & upbringing of his four children born in 1975, 77, 79, and 82. He has also been very active in a local congregation of the United Church of Christ, serving on the Forum Committee and as a leader of the Forum, and occasionally speaking from the pulpit. He has been church treasurer and moderator, but he is most appreciated as a soloist in the small choir. Phil has played classical piano since childhood.
Phil has published eleven papers (over 260 pages) in refereed mathematics journals or books most recently applying his algebra of Boolean fractions to successfully express the logic of quantum measurements. He has published over 60 other mathematical or philosophical papers including presentations at universities, Urantia Book conferences and church Forums.
Among his more influential presentations was “The Coming Scientific Validation of The Urantia Book”, at the International Conference of The Urantia Book Fellowship at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, July-August 2005. The associated paper was published in The Fellowship Herald, Vol. 7, 28-48, Summer 2006. An “Extended Abstract” is in The Arena, Vol. 12, No. 3, 4-7, published by The Australian and New Zealand URANTIA Association, Summer 2005. A follow-up paper “Year 2006 Update on the Coming Scientific Validation of The Urantia Book” appeared in The Fellowship Herald, Vol. 8, Summer 2007, 14-16.
In this long paper Phil gives many examples of “contemporary” science changing its mind to positions taken by the 1955 Urantia Book’, and he outlines a statistical argument for rejecting the hypothesis that The Urantia Book was written by humans.
Phil is presently writing a book on Science and Religion from the perspective of a mathematician.
• 2010/02/10 - Interview 1 with Dr. Phil Calabrese on the Wednesday Virtual Urantia Book Global Study Group
• 2010/03/03 - Interview 2 with Dr. Phil Calabrese on Science and Religion, Reason and Faith, a mathematician considers the issues.
This special Sunday evening broadcast takes the place of our regular Saturday morning program.Allison Zopel is a musician and second-generation Urantia Book reader. At age 19, Alison was involved in a traumatic accident which put her in a coma for five years, during which she slipped in and out of various levels of consciousness.
Allison has just finished a book about her experience, soon to be published, The Angel Inside, in which Allison details her experience. In addition to explaining the various levels of consciousness involved in a coma, Allison will share the spiritual truths she internalized as a result of her experience.
A brief video interview with Allison can be viewed here, on Truthbook.com
• 2010/02/08 - Interview with Allison Zopel
André Radatus was raised Roman Catholic in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada with his younger sisters and brothers. His Polish-immigrant mother and Latvian-immigrant father were survivors of communism and Nazism during World War II.
He fatefully met his best friend in high school, Jack Norenberg, who shared a desire to explore philosophical truth and led to his finding The Urantia Book when he was seventeen.
André moved to the United States in 1980 and was a teacher of learning difference youngsters for fifteen years. He has worked in various capacities in commercial finance for the succeeding fifteen years and is currently self-employed as a certified full-charge bookkeeper.
He has two college-aged children and one adolescent high-schooler: son Michael and daughters Vanessa and Yvana.
He is working on the Introductory Course committee for the nascent UrantiaUniversity with the goal of creating a university-level Introduction to The Urantia Book as a first step.
The truths illuminated in The Urantia Book have spoken to him compelling these past 33 years, enriching the experience of living to such an extent as to make the Book “Handbook Earth” for him and an ever close reference and companion. André is the first to admit that life hasn’t become Heaven-on-Earth with The Urantia Book but does say that it has accelerated how quickly and how frequently life’s trials arrive as a stimulus to spiritual growth.
André’s great discovery and joy with The Urantia Book continues to be other reader-believers who, because of their hunger for truth have found The Urantia Book and know that all human beings are their brothers and sisters because God is their loving Father. In his experience, The Urantia Book allows one to begin with one’s fellow readers speaking a kind of shorthand allowing one to assume a higher or deeper starting point for relationship which makes it a catalyst for personal evolution and growth in love.
• 2010/01/30 - Two Questions, with Andre Radatus
Suzanne Kelly is a frequent guest on the Cosmic Citizen Great Books Discussion -- The Wednesday Virtual Urantia Book Global Study Group broadcast. Suzanne writes: In my search for the truth, I have walked to the end of many a precipice and looked out over the valley of belief that lay below. Each time if I looked long enough, I found among the bramble a flower of truth, beauty and goodness. In every valley of belief that I crossed, I took with me a seed of its enlightenment, and hopefully left the weeds of superstition, ignorance and ritual behind. Over many years those seeds of truth have grown into a personal understanding of mind, matter, energy and spirituality. I've organized them into a modern day Iliad, which has become my story of God and man - and the evolution of man toward God, Élan Vital. http://www.elan-vital.net/
• 2010/01/06 - Wednesday Virtual Urantia Book Global Study Group
Nancy C. Johnson has been involved with Urantia related activities since 1979... in publications, typesetting, editing, proofreading, society member, and study group member and host. She has attended all but one IC since 1978, numerous regional and local conferences. Member Publications Committee since mid-80s. She typed The Urantia Book to create electronic reference aids and database; created search engine using WordCruncher; twice typeset Uversa Press editions of The Urantia Book; currently a member of the Standardized Text Committee and alternate delegate for current Triennial Delegate Assembly.
• 2010/01/09 - Interview with Nancy Johnson
About Dinesh D'Souza (www.dineshdsouza.com)
Andre writes: Our guest this week is a man I've known since the 1990's, when I was doing secular talk-radio on the Chicago airwaves. He got his start writing books on politics, but has since switched gears to writing about religious topics. His name is Dinesh D'Souza, and his latest book is titled
Life AFter Death, the Evidence.
Dinesh arrived in America in 1978 as an exchange student from India, and graduated from Dartmouth College in the early 1980's, where he founded the Dartmouth Review. Upon graduation, he spent two years editing a Princeton University alumni magazine, and then went on to serve as a domestic policy analyst for the Reagan White House. He also served as a fellow at two think-tanks, the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution. He is currently founder of the Why God Institute.
His books include Illiberal Education, the end of Racism, What's So Great About America?, and more recently, What's So Great About Christianity? In his most recent work, D'Souza sets out to prove, though reason alone, that life after exists. Drawing on arguments from philosophy, physics, neuroscience and other disciplines, D'Souza concludes that life after death can be demonstrated with no appeals to revelation or religious authority. The most interesting thing for us is how many of his claims are similar to those of The Urantia Book.
While himself a committed Christian, D'Souza is a man with an open and flexible mind. He is calm, well-spoken, and impeccably logical. Please tune in for a stimulating conversation with one of our finest contemporary intellectuals.
As a side note, D'Souza has debated many contemporary atheists, such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris.
• 2010/01/02 — Interview with Dinesh D'Souza
Preston Thomas holds a BA and MA degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. After college he worked for 10 years as a private tutor for children with learning disabilities. In 1981 he founded the Einstein School which provides one to one instruction for students with special learning needs. The Life and Teachings of Jesus is the result of a 14 year effort to produce a book that could be given as a graduation gift and would provide the students with a trustworthy guide for living. Preston has two grown sons, and lives in Earlysville, Virginia with his wife Kathy.
• 12/23/2009 Wednesday virtual Urantia study group with Preston Thomas
• 08/18/2010 — Preston Thomas discusses the update of his book, "The Life and Teachings of Jesus."
• 08/21/2010 — Jesus birthday celebration with Preston Thomas
• 03/12/2011 — An Exploration of Universal Truth with Preston Thomas
2009 Parliament of World Religions, Part 2
If you missed last week's show, Paula shared many of her experiences at the Parliament of World Religions, which was held recently in Melbourne, Australia. Continuing in that vein, the first half of our show will be with James Woodward, who will be making a cameo appearance on the show, his second since the show's debut. We'll also attempt to get other folks from the Urantia Assocation International, particuarly from Australia, to call in.
James would like to let listeners know that they can hear his band, pervaded space, on MySpace at: www.myspace.com/pervadedspace There's also an article in the fall/winter issue of the Retreat Network Newsletter available here written by James detailing his experiences with Sheila K. Lund and her newly published book Heaven Is Not the Last Stop written for a Urantia audience which he thinks most UB readers would find the background tale interesting.
During the second hour, we'll be doing an open phone segment, specifically focused on Christmas, favorite Christmas memories, carols, stories, or anything else of sentimental value.
• 2009/12/19 — Parliament of World Religions, Part II
2009 Parliament of World Religions - Part 1
Paula Thompson has been out of town this past week... she was in Melbourne Australia attending the Parliament of World Religions. On this program Paula will share her experiences at the Parliament. In addition, other attendees will be contacted and asked to call in with their stories and observations. So get ready for an Interfaith celebration as we get the inside scoop on the 2009 Parliament of World Religions.
• 2009/12/12 — Parliament of World Religions discussion
Jamal Jivanjee and
Rabbi Niles Elliot Goldstein
program removed from archive.
The November 28 broadcast of the Cosmic Citizen has a recorded talk by Phil Taylor that was given between July 30th and August 2, 2009 at the Dominican University Conference in River Forest, Illinois. His topic is God-consciousness through Michael. See Phil Taylor's bio below.
During the second half of the show, after Phil's speech, Diane Labrecque will call in to discuss the Urantia Family Festival. We've discussed this before on the air, but will be doing so in more detail. See Diane Labrecque's bio below.
• 2009/11/28 — Phil Taylor from Dominica University Conference with Diane Labrecque
Steve McIntosh (www.stevemcintosh.com) is a leader in the integral philosophy movement and the author of the acclaimed book:
Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution (Paragon House 2007).
An honors graduate of the University of Virginia Law School and the University of Southern California Business School, Steve is also founder and president of Now & Zen, Inc., (www.now-zen.com) an international manufacturing company marketing “natural lifestyle products” which he has invented, including the famous Zen Alarm Clock. Steve serves as Director of The Project for Integral World Federation, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultural and political evolution. The organization’s primary activity is the hosting and promotion of the on-line petition entitled: A Declaration of the Value of Global Governance, found at: www.integralworldgovernment.org. He is a long-time participant in progressive culture, he has traveled extensively throughout the world, and has had a variety of successful careers, practicing law with one of the nation's biggest firms, and working as an executive with Celestial Seasonings tea company. He lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and two sons.
• 2009/11/21 — Interview with Steve McIntosh
The 11/14/09 episode of the Cosmic Citizen discusses Larry Mullins' new book, The Metavalues Breakthrough. This is our second interview with Larry, our first was conducted over a year ago, and it dealt with the history of the Urantia movement. But this time, Larry will be taking us into different territory. We'll be discussing things like self-actualization, peak experiences, humanistic psychology, and all kinds of other things.
Please see Larry Mullins bio and program listings below.
The November 7 broadcast of the Cosmic Citizen has a recorded talk by Charles Olivea that was given between July 30th and August 2, 2009 at the Dominican University Conference in River Forest, Illinois.
Charles Olivea has been married for 43 years to wife, Mary. They raised two sons, Peter and Gordon. Gordon is the father of grandson, Michael, who will be 3 years old this November 19th. They moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, about 10 years ago because of its appeal along spiritual, ethnic, historical and aesthetic lines. Charles has read and studied The Urantia Book since 1968 and has tried to integrate its teachings into his life. He knew from the beginning that it constituted living truth and eventually appreciated why this planetary revelation came in book form: essentially, to bring greater clarity and instruction (spiritual wisdom) to our minds. He has have dedicated his life--personally and professionally (he is a teacher)--to its dissemination. Real and enduring education is his watchword. He says he is inspired by Michael of Nebadon and follows him only. He believes fundamentally that it is this Son who leads to the Father of all things and beings.
• 2009/11/07 — Charles Olivea from Dominica University Conference
Danielle Shroyer is pastor of an emergent church called "Journey" in Dallas, part of the Emergent Church movement, and one of the 21 female speakers at the Christianity Conference held in Minneapolis in early October of 2009.
Services or gatherings are held on Sunday evenings, and discussion vary to cover many topics such as letting the life of Jesus inspire us with joy and abundant life, rather than focusing only on his death on the cross, as she called "Vampire Christians" who are only interested in Jesus for his blood. She asks the question on her blog, "Should church be Fun"? and has also held services that focus on peace-making, fair trade, feeding the poor, and going green.
An influence on her theologically has been Jurgen Moltmann, a Twentieth Century Christian Theologian from Germany, the author of more than 25 books, whose work including "The Theology of Hope" revolutionized much Christian pastoral speakers and sparked a great deal of interest and discussion in Christian circles.
She is the author of The Boundary-Breaking God: An Unfolding Story of Hope and Promise (Jossey-Bass, 2009) and speaks often on issues of theology, church leadership and emerging communities of faith. Her father was a Southern Baptist and her mother was from a Druze family from Lebanon. Danielle lives with her husband and two children in Dallas, Texas.
Short video of Danielle on YouTube
• 2009/10/31 — Interview with Pastor Danielle Shroyer
Phyllis Tickle speaks with our hosts about the conference: Christianity21 and the Christian Emergence movement as well as her two new books
The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why, and
The Words of Jesus.
See Amazon.com page.
We will explore the ways in which certain phases of the emergence movement in Christianity today might getting close to the original Gospel of Jesus: The Fatherhood of God and The Brotherhood of Man. How are these changes effecting the youth movement in Christianity? What does this predict for the future of the church and for Christianity in general? A description of the movement from Tickle's perspective and her conclusions about the stages of evolution in religious thought every 500 years.
Phyllis Tickle is founding editor of the religion department at Publishers Weekly, is one of the most highly respected authorities and popular speakers on religion in America today. She is the author of more than two dozen books on the subject, including the recently published The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord and The Divine Hours, a series of manuals for observing fixed-hour prayer. A lector and lay eucharistic minister in the Episcopal Church, Tickle is a senior fellow of the Cathedral College of Washington National Cathedral. For more information, go to www.phyllistickle.com or www.thegreatemergence.com
In addition to lectures and numerous essays, articles, and interviews, Tickle is the author of over two dozen books in religion and spirituality. See the above Amazon.com link. Here is an introduction by Phyllis Tickle of The Great Emergence.
One of the most respected authorities and popular speakers on religion in America today, she is frequently quoted and interviewed in such media outlets as the New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Time, CNN, C-SPAN, and PBS. A Senior Fellow of Cathedral College at the National Cathedral in Washington, she is the author of more than two dozen books, including God-Talk in America, and makes her home on a small farm in Lucy, Tennessee.
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. North American Christianity is presently undergoing a change every bit as radical as the Protestant Reformation, possibly even as monumental as its natal break with Judaism. And it's right on schedule. Tickle, author of God-Talk in America and PW's founding religion editor, observes that Christianity is holding its semimillennial rummage sale of ideas. With an elegance of argument and economy of description, Tickle escorts readers through the centuries of church history leading to this moment and persuasively charts the character of and possibilities for the emerging church. Don't let this book's brevity fool you. It is packed with keen insights about what this great emergence is, how it came to be and where it may be headed. Tickle issues a clear call to acknowledge the inevitability of change, discern the church's new shape and participate responsibly in the transformation. Although Tickle's particular focus excludes the dynamic forces of Asian, African and Central/South American Christianity, this is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the face and future of Christianity. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Long an astute observer of religion, Tickle examines a phenomenon she refers to as the Great Emergence, a once-every-500-years trend within Christianity, in which a new and “more vital” form of the religion emerges. She believes such a development is happening now. To make her case, she examines the complex history of Christianity from Copernicus’ heretical idea that the earth circled the sun to the sixteenth-century Great Reformation to the Catholic Counter-Reformation. She also examines the effect on religion of great nineteenth- and twentieth-century cultural and social upheavals including those wrought by Darwin’s Origin of Species; Faraday’s field theory, which became foundational for the technology we all take for granted today; and the theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Albert Einstein, and Joseph Campbell. She explores the impact that the rise of the automobile has on Christian worship and church service while also making brief forays into the origins of Pentecostalism, the influence of Karl Marx, Buddhism, Alcoholics Anonymous, recreational drug use, and the changing roles of women and, hence, the notion of the traditional family, in society since World War II. Somehow all these diverse strands come together in a seamless fabric that, at fewer than 200 pages, is small but full of big ideas, a remarkable achievement of synthesis and thoughtful reflections. --June Sawyers
Rooted in the observation that massive transitions in the church happen about every 500 years, Phyllis Tickle shows readers that we live in such a time right now. She compares the Great Emergence to other "Greats" in the history of Christianity, including the Great Transformation (when God walked among us), the time of Gregory the Great, the Great Schism, and the Great Reformation. Combining history, a look at the causes of social upheaval, and current events, The Great Emergence shows readers what the Great Emergence in church and culture is, how it came to be, and where it is going. Anyone who is interested in the future of the church in America, no matter what their personal affiliation, will find this book a fascinating exploration.
• 2009/10/24 — Interview with Phillis Tickle
The two primary fraternal organizations for Urantia Book readers; the Urantia Association International, and the Fellowship for Readers of the Urantia Book. Representing the UAI for the first hour is
Gaetan Charland,
the current president.
Representing the Fellowship for the second hour is Executive Director Paula Thompson. See Paula's bio here...
• 2009/10/17 — Interviews with Gaetan Charland and Paula Thompson
Jennifer Skiff, author of the book, God Stories availabe at Amazon.com. Jennifer has collected all kinds of testimonies from various faith-traditions; stories of how God's grace has touched people's lives. Jennifer's representatives are in talks with the Oprah Winfrey Network about a potential TV series based on the book.
Jennifer Skiff’s award-winning career as an international television journalist includes more than a decade as an investigative correspondent for CNN. Her specialty is the environment and among other industry honors, she has received the prestigious Environmental Media Award. Passionate about animals and their welfare, she works with charities throughout the world to bring relief to abused and abandoned animals.
A cancer scare in her early thirties convinced her that a Divine presence was active in her life. Her journalistic instincts took over and she began a quest to find out if others had similar experiences’. The result is her first book, God Stories, a collection of inspiring first-person accounts of miracle-like encounters with God. Please feel free to visit Jennifer's website GodStories.com to add your own God story.
• 2009/10/10 — Interview with Jennifer Skiff author of God Stories
Even Jesus needed people; he asked his apostles to stay awake with him in the garden of Gethseane before he died. Contrary to our hyper-independent society, God's family is interdependent, not independent.
Psychology professor and author Robert Bornstein agrees; which is why he wrote his 2003 book, [i]Healthy Dependency.[/i] His wife, Mary Languirand, co-wrote the book with him, but he will be doing the show solo.
Mr. Bornstein is a specialist in the field of personality, is widely recognized as the world's foremost authority on dependency. He is currently a professor of psychology at Gettysburg College, and has published more than 100 articles and 30 book chapters on personality dynamics, diagnosis, and treatment.
Robert Bornstein and Mary Languirand are married, and live in Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania. They are also the authors of When Someone You Love Needs Nursing Home, Assisted Living, or In-Home Care - The Complete Guide.
Link to Healthy Dependency Website
• 2009/10/03 - Interview with Robert F. Bornstein - author of Healthy Dependency
Patrick Yesh has been a student of The Urantia Book since the late 1970s.
A master portrait artist and Fine Arts teacher, he lives in Calgary Alberta and facilitates workshops in Canada and the USA. He teaches dynamic personal growth seminars in therapeutic and spiritual arts: the application of art to life and spiritual growth. He lectures internationally, coaches and counsels individuals advancing on their spiritual path. He is the President of Art and Soul at www.artheartandsoul.com
WILL AND THOUGHTS: Dual Mind (soul-mind) and Dual Will
The Urantia Book teaches that within each human being is a divine spark of the infinite, eternal and perfect God. It says that our job is to align with this fragment, to become one with it, "...to be perfect, even as the Father in heaven is perfect." Jesus often prayed, "Not my will but yours be done." However, human beings are not perfect and we often feel that our will is weak. We can attempt to will something to happen but that is certainly not all it takes to accomplish desirable or noble results. Can will alone control our seemingly uncontrollable thoughts and mind?
The Urantia Book states that "mind is subservient to will" but that’s not easily achieved. The Urantia Book also teaches that the critical element in achieving mind subservience to will is basically intention, stating that it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend and not so much what mind is like as what mind strives to be like that brings the valuable and purposeful end results we seek.
Our guest, Patrick Yesh, in pondering this issue of will in light of The Urantia Book’s teachings, has discovered and developed some key techniques for helping our human will to more closely align with God’s will. He has also developed relaxation techniques that facilitate a deeper communion with the indwelling presence of God. His recent workshops on this subject have received enthusiastic acclaim. We hope you will tune in and explore these insightful ideas with our guest Patrick Yesh.
• 2009/09/26 — Interview with Patrick Yesh
Guests Dr. Zudhi Jasser and Frank Gaffney
Zudhi Jasser, president of the American Islamic forum on Democracy, graces us with a return visit. Dr. Jasser is a moderate Muslim deeply concerned about radical infiltration of American mosques. He is director of several documentaries, including THE THIRD JIHAD. We will address many of the objections raised by our prior guests in the spirit of real, honest, authentic, interfaith dialogue. And yes, we will get his perspective on the Rifqa Bary case that caused such a stir on our 9/05 program. Please see Dr. Jasser's bio below.
Frank J. Gaffney
is Founder and President Center for Security Policy, Washington, DC
The Center for Security Policy is a not-for-profit, non-partisan educational corporation established in 1988. Under Mr. Gaffney's leadership, the Center has been nationally and internationally recognized as a resource for timely, informed and penetrating analyses of foreign and defense policy matters. Mr. Gaffney also contributes actively to these debates in his capacity as a columnist for the Washington Times and as a monthly contributor to Defense News and Investor's Business Daily. He is a contributing editor to National Review Online and a columnist for American Spectator Online, WorldNetDaily.com and JewishWorldReview.com. He is a featured weekly contributor to Hugh Hewitt's nationally syndicated radio program and appears frequently on national and international television and radio programs. In addition, his op-ed articles have appeared, among other places, in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, and Newsday.
In April 1987, Mr. Gaffney was nominated by President Reagan to become the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, the senior position in the Defense Department with responsibility for policies involving nuclear forces, arms control and U.S.-European defense relations. He acted in that capacity for seven months during which time, he was the Chairman of the prestigious High Level Group, NATO's senior politico-military committee. He also represented the Secretary of Defense in key U.S.-Soviet negotiations and ministerial meetings.
From August 1983 until November 1987, Mr. Gaffney was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under Assistant Secretary Richard Perle. From February 1981 to August 1983, Mr. Gaffney was a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Senator John Tower (R-Texas). In the latter 1970's, Mr. Gaffney served as an aide to the late Senator Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson (D-Washington) in the areas of defense and foreign policy.
Mr. Gaffney holds a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Gaffney was born in 1953 and resides in the Washington area.
• Interviews with Dr. Zudhi Jasser and Frank J. Gaffney
The Value of Patient and Loving Interfaith Dialogue with Paula Thompson and Ann Garner
Andre is absent on business this week; Paula will be doing the Cosmic Citizen with her friend Ann Garner. This week’s show will deal with The Value of Patient and Loving Interfaith Dialogue.
Ann has been on our broadcast before and is uniquely qualified to share her experiences in Interfaith activities. She has been actively engaged in interfaith work for 16 years. She has worked extensively with Thanks Giving Square in Dallas, TX, and has been an active member of the Thanks-Giving Foundation’s Interfaith Council since 1995. A minister and a long-time student of the Urantia teachings, Ann has many personal friends from all faith traditions.
We examine what it means to achieve a “thoroughgoing understanding of your neighbor's motives and sentiments.” The inclusive spirit of Jesus will also be highlighted, who reiterated many times that we must all learn to use the positive and righteous method of overcoming evil with good.
You are invited to call and share your reflections regarding the value of interfaith dialogue and/or your personal experiences finding common ground with other religionists. Please keep in mind that this week’s show is not to accentuate problems; rather, it’s about finding peaceful solutions. We look forward to exploring how we, as peace loving second-milers, can reach forth to grasp our brothers in love and sweep them on “under spiritual guidance toward the higher and divine goal of mortal existence.”
See Paula's bio at www.urantiabook.org/blogs/CosmicCitizen/Bios.htm and Ann's below.
• 2009/09/12/The Value of Patient and Loving Interfaith Dialog
Pamela "Atlas" Geller, Tom Trento, and Nonie Darwish program removed from archive.
A special show featuring four interviews recorded at the July, 2009 Urantia Book Fellowship's Summer Seminar in Chicago.
The first interview is with Diane Labrecque, who has quite an on-air presence lately. Diane discusses the upcoming Urantia Family Festival in Montreal over the 4th of July weekend of 2010. See Diane's bio below.
Robert “Mr. Happy” Moyers
was born and raised in Steubenville, Ohio.
He graduated with honors from Steubenville High School and Ohio Wesleyan University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and history and a master’s degree in mass communications from the University of Iowa in 1965.
His public relations career began as the Sports Information Director at Wittenberg University, later at Bowling Green State University. Leaving Bowing Green in 1978 he founded the first of five companies focused on providing public relations services and products to interested customers and clients.
Robert is currently president and founder of the Center Of Unconditional Love at www.unconditionallovelive.com where he presents programs, workshops and seminars designed to reduce stress, improve communications and create an awareness and understanding of unconditional love and how it works to provide optimum health and happiness for the individual and the home and work environments.
He is the author of four training manuals about love, anger, stress and communications. His most recent book is entitled “Power Of Peaceful Thinking: How To Know Jesus Christ As Savior, Lord, Master, Friend, And King.”
He and his wife Peggy are the parents of four children, nine grand children and two great grand children. His hobbies and passions include sharing the life and teachings of Jesus, reading, playing bridge, loving sports, and being a true fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Dan and Lara Amyx
Lara has been a been a Urantia Book reader for 20 years. She is currently in her sixth year as conference chair for the Florida Students of The Urantia Book (FSUB) - a group that has held a conference every year since 1975. Recently Lara was elected to the Fellowship General Council.
Dan has been active in the Urantia community for over 30 years, currently ending his second term as President of FSUB. Dan is also involved in a project for businesses owned by Urantia Book readers called UB Entrepreneurs. They own 2 optical shops on Florida's Treasure Coast, using their business to minister to the customers and patients that become part of their practice, and further their personal spiritual projects.
• 2009/08/29 — Guest interviews at the 2009 Summer Study Session
Philip Gulley
is a Quaker pastor and beloved writer and speaker from Danville, Indiana. He has become the voice of small-town American life. Gulley's work includes the acclaimed Harmony series of novels chronicling life in the eccentric Quaker community of Harmony, Indiana and the best selling Porch Talk series of inspirational and humorous stories. In addition, Gulley and co-author James Mulholland describe their progressive worldview in their books, If Grace Is True and If God Is Love.
Gulley was raised in Danville, Indiana where he lives today with his wife, Joan, and their sons, Spencer and Sam, in a rambling house with Gulley’s eclectic chair collection (sixty-four at last count) and a welcoming porch. Many of his characters and recollections are taken from his boyhood in this small Midwestern town.
Gulley attended Marian College in Indianapolis where he studied theology and sociology. He then enrolled at Christian Theological Seminary. While in seminary, he became the pastor of Irvington Friends Meeting in Indianapolis and began writing essays for the church's newsletter. Paul Harvey, Jr. received those newsletters and shared them with a publisher. A few months later, the publisher invited Gulley to publish his essays, which became his first book, Front Porch Tales. He has been writing ever since.
Gulley is currently the the pastor at Fairfield Friends Meeting near Indianapolis. Additionally, he hosted the television program "Porch Talk" on the Indiana PBS affiliate WFYI and their flagship show "Across Indiana," for which he received an Emmy Award. He also writes the popular monthly Home Again column for Indianapolis Monthly Magazine.
Gulley's latest book, I Love You, Miss Huddleston: And Other Inappropriate Longings of My Indiana Childhood is a memoir, recounting his coming-of-age years in Danville.
Gulley is currently working on his 16th book, If the Church Were Christian which will focus on a Christianity that is consistent with Jesus' teachings and a church that encourages Jesus' example as a model for living. The book explores those values that Gulley believes the church should embrace in topics that will include grace, reconciliation, peace, personal spiritual exploration, and uplifting of the human spirit. If the Church Were Christian is scheduled for release by Harper Collins September, 2010.
• 2010/06/19 — Philip Gulley, "If the Church were Christian" interview
James Mulholland
grew up Free Methodist, spent his teen years in a house church, was baptized American Baptist, attended a Disciples of Christ seminary, and served as an inner city United Methodist pastor for twelve years. He is now a member of the Irvington Friends Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, no longer its pastor. He has been involved with many social ministries and has a special heart for helping men leaving prison.
In the past ten years, he has become known as a theologian and writer. He has written Praying Like Jesus individually and co-authored If Grace Is True and If God Is Love with Philip Gulley. He is married and has five children.
• 2009/08/08 — Quaker author Philip Gulley and James Mulholland interviewed
Phil Taylor
lives in Southern Vermont with his wife and two children. He is an active member in his community as a school board member and the chair of a committee charged with rebuilding the local high school. He is co-founder of the Eden Tree Fellowship, a local interfaith organization that seeks to advance religious thought and understanding through local community forums. He is a General Council member of The Urantia Book Fellowship and chairman of the UAI International Conference Committee. He also serves as a teacher/facilitator for the Urantia Book Internet School.
Phil is a reader of The Urantia Book since 1991, when he found it in college. His passion is service; that's what he speaks about at conferences, and that's what he'll talk about on the show, the Thrill of Loving Service being the theme.
• 2009/07/25 — The Thrill of Loving Service
Comedian Susan Isaacs
Takes God to Couples Counseling in New Memoir Angry Conversations with God
Jobless, loveless and living over a garage at age 40, actor-writer-Lutheran Susan Isaacs hit spiritual bottom. Her rocky relationship with God needed professional help, so she took Him to couples counseling. She chronicles her “middle class white girl’s dark night of the soul” in Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir. Originally staged as a solo show in New York and Los Angeles, it’s a cheeky account that even at its rawest is a heartfelt affirmation of faith.
An alumnus of the acclaimed Groundlings comedy troupe who has appeared in movies such as Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and TV shows such as Seinfeld, The Drew Carey Show, and My Name is Earl, Susan cast herself as a neglected wife who confronts the ridiculous expectations she has for her spouse. Only after divorcing her perceptions of “drill sergeant Father, wimpy Jesus and drive-by Holy Spirit” does she move on to a mature faith.
Susan’s Lutheran childhood infused her with a love of God, but her church experiences were detrimental to her spiritual health. In high school, the people who represented God were threatened by her burgeoning gift for comedy: “They acted like Woody Allen, Monty Python, and John Lennon led to sex, drugs, and atheism.” The pull between art and faith continued into adulthood, with Susan feeling “too wild for the church, too tame for the world.”
In hilarious, poignant detail, she recounts her flailing attempts to find peace. Struggling with her career, an eating disorder, alcoholism, and relationships complicated by her desire to remain chaste until marriage, Susan tried everything: Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Rock-n- Roll Slackers 4 Jesus, Actors for Yahweh, and any support group on offer, including one “to heal gays of their gaiety”— though she’s not gay.
“Through that insanity, even if pastors hurt me or friends let me down or entire denominations went Shiite on my ass, I still believed God was good,” she says. “I just needed to find out where he went.”
An encounter with controlling, abusive people and strange practices drove her away from church: “I had been violated by the people of God,” Susan writes. “Maybe I had Stockholm Syndrome. I’d been held hostage by wimpy Lutherans, parroting Pentecostals, fascist counselors, and rock-n-roll slackers. I blew off friendship and love; I turned down movies and abandoned a career-making comedy troupe. For what? To honor God with wild animal noises, gold teeth and Roidheads?”
At her lowest—a period that included breaking up with her almost-fiancé, her father’s death, her mother’s stroke, and her once-promising career on life-support—Susan’s faith unraveled. Who was this God who’d called her into a relationship? Had he ever had a plan for her life? Or had she imagined all of it? Did he care anymore? Had he ever? Counseling—getting God into a room with a third party—helped her rethink her beliefs and expectations, and return to what she once knew: “that God was good and that Jesus loved me.”
Now, whenever Susan tells her “God story” in her writing and performances, she finds that “regardless of their religious beliefs, people are looking for the same things: a connection to God, a desire for meaning and a way to stay alive even when dreams die.” That “dark night” sparked a turning point for Susan: “God torched my life and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. But I don’t like to say that too often. You know, in case he gets any snarky ideas.”
Susan has read her essays on public radio’s Weekend America and is a contributing writer to Donald Miller’s Burnside Writers Collective. She wrote DirecTV’s Songs of Praise specials, hosted by NASCAR champ Darrell Waltrip, featuring singers Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith.
For more information, visit Susan’s website: www.susanisaacs.net and blog susanisaacs.blogspot.com Her book is available on Amazon.com at Angry Conversations With God
• 2009/07/18 — Susan Isaacs, "Angry Conversations With God"
A brief review of Angry Conversations With God...
I've not written many comments as I've read Susan Isaacs Angry Conversations with God, A Snarky But Authentic Spiritual Memoir but that's okay because you'll have your plenty of insights of your own; it seems meaningless to try to invent commentary for material that's so openly honest. Her experiences and insights are hers, valid, meaningful, not asking for interpretation.
I see much of the ambivalence she expressed toward God in her earlier years coming from trying to reconcile her personal spiritual experiences with the Bible. She's tried to find God as well as life's answers within the confines of Christianity; her insight and thinking is outside the box, just as Jesus' is and throughout much of her life she's searched for a micromanager God.
Not totally relevant, but on page 3 she says, "I hate it when people say, ‘I'm spiritual but not religious.'... It turns religion into a dirty word." This bought to mind a post on the Truthbook Urantia Book Discussion board relating to insights from Urantia Paper 99:
How often have you heard someone say "I'm not religious, but I am spiritual." Spirituality is a force, the spiritual energy system. Spiritual energy is not innately divine — certainly Lucifer was imbued with a high degree of spirituality. Spiritual energy has to be directed by the personality since spiritual energy is self-actualizing and can operate in any direction, animate any ideal. Striving to "be spiritual" is to deny one's individuality since spirituality is unity directed and not individual directed. Religion is personal spirituality. To be religious is to control spiritual energy, directing it toward recognition of divinity and not the self. "It is my will that thy will be done, through me" is personal religion in action. Better we should think "I'm religious, but I am not spiritual." Being spiritual won't actualize until long after we've left here.
I think Susan Isaacs's book is a great book, a greater book than it's namesake, Neale Walsch's book, Conversations with God, an Uncommon Dialog which was written in 1995 and has been a long-time best seller and staple in the New Age. On page 7, Susan writes "Conversations with God... that new age piffle where God is like Big Lebowski, telling you to ‘just follow your truth, dude.'" We'll pray that Susan's book catches on as strongly as Neale's has since, in my judgment, hers is more connected with reality, exhibiting greater sincerity, truth, meaning and value.
There's a great summarization toward the end of the book, on page 232 where a friend tells Susan, "You're a journalist in a foreign country. I'm totally secular; I've never been to your God world. But when you keep telling me your story, I get a glimpse of it. I want to go on that journey with you." What a great compliment and a tribute to this author.
Larry
Jonathan Zoba
discovered The Urantia Book while at "Gordon" Christian College on the Northshore of the Boston area in 2003. Jonathan soon got his fellow students, including his brother, to read it as well.
Jonathan grew up as the son of an American Baptist Pastor Father and a Christian Journalist Mother. He had lived four years as a missionary kid in Honduras, and after discovering an interest in 'Sustainable Tropical Agriculture' at the afore-mentioned Christian Liberal Arts College, he returned to Honduras to work with a sustainable ag program for about the last year. He returned to the US this Spring, after hitchiking back from Central America - he now lives in Salem MA.
This program continues our further discussion of the Urantia Book's relation to Christianity, and the fertile soil for outreach that exists in Christian circles. The topic is "Sharing The Urantia Book at a Christian College".
• 2009/07/11 — Sharing The Urantia Book at a Christian College
Andre Traversa is working as a life-coach — visit his website at www.ControversialCoach.com and see his more complete bio on our host's bio page at www.urantiabook.org/blogs/CosmicCitizen/Bios.htm Andre's topic for this program is "How We Change." How do we form new habits? Are willpower and self-discipline enough to get us to keep commitments?
• 2009/07/04 — How We Change
Sheryl Bellman Cira
is a lifelong truth seeker and devoted Urantia Book student since 1975. A licensed clinical social worker in private practice, her passion is the pursuit and encouragement of personal growth.
• 2009/06/20 — Spending Time With God
• 2009/08/15 — Anger
David Kantor,
has been an avid reader of The Urantia Book since 1966 and has been actively involved in study groups and various aspects of the readership since 1968. David has worked professionally as a technical software developer and currently manages IT services for The Urantia Book Fellowship.
• 2009/06/13 — Virtual Christian Urantia Book Society
Bob Kalk,
founder of
Ascension University,
has been a reader of The Uranita Book since 1972. Bob's goal is to build a university with a comprehensive curriculum which seamlessly integrates The Urantia Book and its concepts with existing disciplines. Rather than a comprehensive study of the papers, the papers will instead be integrated into the course content. For example, The Urantia Book's religious content will be well represented in comparative religion courses, while it's physics and astronomy will be a part of the science courses. Both explicitly and implicitly, Urantia Book content will be woven throughout the curriculum.
This program was originally broadcast on June 6th but due to technical difficulties it was edited by Bob and replayed as a broadcast on 06/27.
• 2009/06/27 — Ascension University with Bob Kalk
David E. Nash
has Civil, Industrial and Mechanical Engineer degrees with a Master’s Degree in Organizational Behavior and is a specialist in ‘Scheduling’ which has helped hundreds of major companies over past 30 years, spearheading ‘Fatigue Solutions’ to help manage employee safety and health. David is the founder of the National Association for Shift-work Health being further developed by the US government. In over 30 years in the industry he also designed and developed over 100 copyrighted modules, three software programs and also holds the patent rights to PRISM, a software system developed to save thousands of lives and prevent accidents, whose proceeds will go towards full support of Urantia University.
Meanwhile he has been an avid student of the Urantia Book for more than thirty years, but only recently published an educational initiative with the creation of a virtual Urantia University as can be viewed at www.urantiauniversity.org. As David puts it, Urantia-University (U2) has been in progress for over 25 years and the timing is now to draw together the next level of Didactic Administrative Structure (DAS) with the assembly of 12 Elders, 24 Masters, and 144 Teachers. He recently moved from Pawley’s Island, South Carolina to Denver, Colorado to collaboratively manifest this new initiative with many other long-term Urantia Book readers, and to fulfill the development of PRISM with Data Connect Corp CEO, Tim Hobbs.
In its attempt to blend revealed and human educational models, the design of Urantia-University has three primary purposes, to offer another mechanisms for gaining the deepest understanding of God, to provide each student with as much depth of knowledge of the truths revealed in The Urantia Book as he or she seeks and is capable of understanding and to gain human academic respect, not only for the value of the material studied, but also for the depth, breadth, discipline, and integrity of its educational structure and purpose.
• 2009/05/30 — Interview with David Nash and the Urantia University
Byron Belitsos
is a universe romancer and has been a student of the revelation since 1974. After an eclectic early career as a teacher and professional writer, he turned to business and founded several companies, most notably Origin Press
(www.originpress.com)
Byron has edited and published two previous books about the Urantia revelation:
The Center Within,
coedited with Fred Harris, and
The Secret Revelation,
by Stella Religa. Two of his books were also directly inspired by the Urantia text:
Discovery of Atlantis
by Robert Sarmast, and
One World Democracy: A Progressive Vision for Enforceable Global Law
(Origin Press, 2005), which he also coauthored, and which culminated 20 years of activism in the movement for world federation. He is just now releasing
A Return To Healing,
which he coauthored with Len Saputo, MD. Byron’s own forthcoming book is
Radical Wisdom—due
out in 2010. Byron has spoken widely on the Urantia Book’s teachings in venues that include Russian TV and on George Noory’s Coast-to-Coast AM Radio. He also served on committees for the Urantia Brotherhood and the Fellowship, and in a variety of visionary undertakings related to the revelation. Byron has a B.A. in intellectual history from the University of Chicago; his graduate studies have embraced humanities, literature, and religious studies and were conducted at Naropa Institute, where he studied with poet Allen Ginsberg, and at University of California (Berkeley and Santa Cruz) and at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He was also an inaugural member of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute. He resides today in Fairfax, California.
• 2009/05/09 — Global Government and World Democracy with Byron Belitsos
• 2010/05/29 — Is the world really coming to an end? — Byron Belitsos
A panel featuring African-American readers discusses The Urantia Book's provocative statements regarding the evolution of the various human races. Do racial differences persist today? Is it still accurate to suggest that one race is superior to another, or are the races so blended that all generalizations about them are inconclusive? How many of the problems afflicting the African-American community are cultural, and how many are due to racial or genetic factors?
To address these and other issues is a distinguished panel of guests, including Earlene Green, Al Lockett (bio and picture below), Patty Snyder, and a guy who just calls himself John. Earlene and Al have written extensively on the subject and all four are longtime UB readers.
• 2009/05/02 — Race and The Urantia Book panel discussion
Earlene Green:
On p. 2097 of my Urantia Book, I recorded the following:
Completed 5-17-77 at 4:46 pm in the U.S. Attorney's office, Bldg. B, Washington, DC. Commenced appx. 11-30-76.
About four other independent readings followed along with at least seven to nine completions of the book in our study group, ten years of which I was the host.
I was introduced to the Urantia Book by Troy Bishop, the author of "starwind -- a study of space, time, deity, and the multilevelate nature of...." God sent me a genius to be my spiritual mentor. By the time I had finished Paper 51.5, I threw the Urantia Book from my position in bed clear across the room. I was in spiritual crisis. Troy had given me his phone number which I used for the first time at 10:30 that same evening. For over two hours, he guided me through other papers and sections which gave some continuity to the subject of the six evolutionary races of color.
I was one of about ten black people I had met at conferences who read The Urantia Book. I bought and gave away books to my other friends. I found it difficult to verbally explain to the unread in fifteen minutes or less how God really did love his black children equally with all of his children. Suddenly I was inspired to write about the subject and thus was born my paper called Race and The Urantia Book, (copy available here) April 1979, and addendum, August 1990. It was well-received in the Urantia community. Consequently I became a workshop leader, a speaker, a moderator, at a number of local, regional, and international conferences. I reached my pinnacle when I was a plenary speaker at IC96 in Flagstaff, Arizona. The title of the speech was: We're All Connected.
Now I enjoy the status of a senior in the Urantia movement. I attend only a few conferences now, the last one being IC08 in Los Angeles. It was most gratifying to see so many serious minded young people with a new attitude and a new way of spreading the teachings of The Urantia Book. For this, I give thanks to God. And so it is!
• Brief video containing interview of Earlene Green
Patricia Snyder:
I was born in, Oklahoma, but brought up in the segregated south in North Carolina. My grandmother was a person of strong faith, who lived by the “Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” We were members of the Baptist Church, which was a big influence in my life for two main reasons. Firstly, the sermons were by and large political, which emphasized the senselessness of segregation and nourished the idea that things could be changed. My half brother was the leader of the “lunch-counter sit-down movement” in Winston-Salem: he sat down alone three days after the “Greensboro Five” that started the movement to desegregate public food counters in the south. I, and a few others, joined him the next day. I was 15 years old, the others were college students. We stayed the course—when everyone else was giving up—and Winston-Salem, N. C. was the first in the liberated-lunch counter cities of the southern United States.
In the sit-down movement, we were joined by students from Wake Forest College (now University), which had recently moved to Winston-Salem. Wake Forest was a segregated Baptist College. My association with people from Wake Forest led to me being the first African American admitted to the college, which was the second reason for the Baptist Church’s influence in my life. I was also the first African American to be expelled, which made me a hero on campus in later years, but that’s another story. I left home at an early age, looking for truth. My mother died; I returned home and attended Wake Forest, was expelled and left North Carolina for California, where I stayed for about a year. After traveling throughout the US and to many countries for many years, I found that Truth, the Urantia Book, for which I was looking, in my own backyard, but not without drama.
I entrusted the money for a much-needed bank deposit—way before the ATM was a reality—to a neighbor, so I could leave with friends for a weekend in the islands. When I returned—a little later than I had anticipate—my bank account was in chaos. The neighbor to whom I had given my money was, unknown to me, a high-class-junkie heroin addict, who disappeared when I returned. One day, a couple of months later, he knocked on my door and asked, “Have you ever heard of the Urantia Book?” He handed me a big blue book and disappeared. As I touched the Book, it triggered a memory of a dream in which I was celebrating and dancing around a printing press, so happy that the “Papers” were finally being printed! That was in 1972. It took me 28 years to read the Book, cover to cover, the first time. When I finally stopped jumping around in the Book and opened to the Forward, I was stymied. The first paragraph was practically incomprehensible; I had only a high school education and less than a year of college. Because of the UB, I decided to continue my formal education, got accepted at UCLA in 1980 and was awarded a Ph.D. from UCLA (anthropology major) in 1995. My second reading took much less time. I have recently begun my third reading.
While at UCLA, I championed the cause of African Americans by serving in student government and bringing attention to the minimal number of minorities, especially African Americans, there were on campus. I promoted affairs to bring isolated African American graduate students together with faculty, administrators and each other to facilitate and establish networking opportunities to promote academic success for graduate students and retention for undergrads. I attended committee meetings and promoted women’s issues, such as, being on the University Policy Committee that for the first time, made a positive recommendation for UCLA to begin to award the PH. D. in Nursing. I worked on numerous projects regarding minority education. My focus in anthropology was linguistics.
My life project is a little program which I piloted—and hope to continue one day—in which I paid Fourth and Fifth Grade students to tutor First and Second Grade students in learning the alphabet and/or learning to read. Students from minority neighborhoods have figuratively a one-in-a-million chance of reading the UB; students who can not read have less than a snowball’s chance on the sun of reading the Book
Donald M. Ware,
LTC (USAF Ret.)
has studied UFOs since he saw seven alien vehicles over Washington, DC on July 26,1952. He received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University in 1957 and an MS in Nuclear Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1972. After serving his country as a fighter pilot, staff scientist, test manager, and teacher, he retired from the Air Force at the end of 1982. He served as State Director and Eastern Regional Director for MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) and since 1993 has been a Director of the International UFO Congress, www.ufocongress.com. He is now on an Advisory Board of the Exopolitics Institute trying to move formal interaction with those from other planets to an unclassified level below that of MJ-12. His search for truth has led to physical, mental, and spiritual interactions with the larger reality represented by the alien presence. Fifteen papers documenting his findings while seeking truth are at www.freewebs.com/donware
Don says, “I purchased the Urantia Book at a UFO conference in about 1990. I used it as an occasional reference in my studies of the larger reality of our alien visitors. It remained on the bottom of my reading stack, because I had reason to read many smaller books first. During my meditation on New Years resolutions for 1999 I knew I had to move that book from the bottom to the top and not read any other book until I finished it cover to cover. My only regret is that I did not read it sooner.”
Arnie Ondis
received the Urantia Book in 1972 during his second year of college. Although it mostly stayed on the shelf in those early years, he realized that it had become his touchstone and that led him eventually to become a dedicated reader. Arnie has become very active in sharing the Revelation with others, individually and in groups, using creative approaches that honor their truth and establish common ground. He is currently working to establish a Urantia Society in Florida, which is envisioned as a network of mentors and study groups designed to reach college students and sustain them in their spiritual development. Arnie has facilitated a study group for six years in Gulf Breeze, Florida, where he lives with his family.
• 2009/04/25 — Unique Approaches to Outreach with Don Ware and Arnie Ondis
Thomas J. Strawser,
the author and creator of Living Solutions, was born in West Virginia. He holds a B.S engineering degree and a graduate degree in Psychology.
For about twenty years Thomas has spoken to groups worldwide on Spiritual Engineering and emotional health. He has taken his unique ability to find solutions for complex technical challenges from his engineering and managing career and transformed it to finding logical solutions to improve physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional well being.
Thomas has been through his own trials and tribulations in life including the death of a teenage stepdaughter, his mother, nine siblings, loss of his wife of twenty-one years to cancer and his own diagnosis of total blindness (from which he totally recovered). Through the use of his spiritual engineering program, he has been able to survive all of these difficulties situations without fear or worry. Thomas has helped hundreds of people to find similar extraordinary results by applying the Living Solutions guidelines to their emotional problems.
Patricia Strawser is a native of Colombia, South America. She gained extensive experience in her home of Cali, Colombia as a school counselor and teacher.
Patricia immigrated to the US in 1988, in pursuit of the “American Dream”. Like many immigrants, she left behind a large supportive family and age-old customs to embrace a new culture and traditions. In 1993 she earned a B.A degree in Psychology. She has worked as a pre-school teacher and as a family counselor for neglected children. This valuable experience trained her to recognize the lack of parenting skills that contribute to problems in families. She applied this knowledge as a Parent Educator when she designed and provided training to help parents become more understanding and responsive to their children’s needs.
Currently Patricia is working with the Latino community in the Denver area. She provides weekly mentoring thru the radio in a local Hispanic station. Also she assists people into the implementation of the Spiritual Engineering Program.
As an immigrant facing family separation, cultural isolation, and language barriers, Patricia’s practical spirituality provided a source of strength. Through all these challenges she believed that when human spirit is strengthened by a higher spiritual power, transformations and miracles are possible.
OUR STORY: OUR COMMITMENT TO HUMANITY
One such miracle occurred in 2002, when we came from two corners of the country, Wyoming and Florida to attend a spiritual retreat in Estes Park, Colorado.
Near the end of the event, we met and within minutes we became entangled in a fascinating spiritual conversation and how to use our talents to serve other people.
We walked for a while contemplating the beauty of the Rocky Mountains’ skyline and continuing our conversation about the practical concepts of Living Solutions. After sharing for few more moments, we held hands, closed our eyes and prayed. We instantly experienced a powerful spiritual and mental communion. We both knew that we had discovered our soul mate.
We were laughing; just enjoying the restful awareness that follows prayer when all of a sudden a hummingbird flew towards us.
It came first to Patricia. She saw the amazing fluttering of his little lavender, blue, and pink wings as he hovered just six inches from her face as the time seemed to stretch into minutes. Then it flew to Thomas and lingered just inches from his face. The beautiful bird repeated this back-and-forth bonding action three times.
This happened in moments but we were frozen in time. As rapidly as it came, it flew away and left us with an open-mouthed wonder. We looked at each other in disbelief. Both of us had seen hummingbirds many times and knew what elusive and solitary birds they tend to be. Neither of us could offer a logical explanation of what had just happened.
This amazing episode marked the beginning of an extraordinary relationship. Within six hours, we fell in love and committed to share our lives and help others find a better life through a practical faith and intelligent spirituality. Then, we looked back and realized that perhaps the hummingbird symbolized a blessing and confirmation of our union.
We were married a year later and started our lives and loving service together. We have done lectures to present these concepts to many people in the Middle East, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Texas and Florida. In 2006, we had the great opportunity to introduce the concepts of the Living Solutions and the Spiritual Engineering process to the people in China. Now we work side by side to ensure a better and more productive life for hundreds of people, to transform humanity “One Person at a Time”
• 2009/04/18 — Interview with Patricia and Thomas Strawser
• 2010/06/11 — Interview with Tom Strawser — Spiritual engineering
• 2010/09/25 — Interview with Patricia and Thomas StrawserFoundations for Healthy Romance and Quality Relationships
Two of the Co-founders of Interlife International (ILI) are the Guest Speakers on Cosmic Citizen, Saturday, April 4, 2009. InnerLife International, a 501 (c)(3) non profit organization, was formed to act as a catalyst in forming new programs and paradigms that would train and develop leaders while accomplishing specific service goals. The focus is on younger readers although any can and do participate in the various programs offered.
Meredith Tenney
is a visionary program developer and interfaith minister with degrees in law, public health, and nurse-midwifery. She co-founded the East Coast Women‘s Corps. and was the creator/Director of Adolescent Preventive Services, an innovative program for at risk youth. She co-founded InnerLife International, Inc. in 2005, and spearheaded a women’s Sewing Machine Project in Kenya in 2006. Meredith offered a presentation called "The Garden Project" at the IC08 Conference which stirred a lot of interest. She recently co-anchored the Garden Conference in Valle Crucis, NC, focused on building interfaith models of spiritual community.
Meredith has been a contributing author to a book, Spiritual Awakening and been a guest panelist at the World Brotherhood Union Symposium in Istanbul. She works internationally to energize the connection between feminine spirituality and women’s global leadership, and launch a dynamic force of women to promote peace, combat poverty, reduce environmental degradation, and create transformational change.
Thomas Orjala
began reading The Urantia Book in the late 60’s and has since had a passion for introducing the book to others. He volunteered with the Family of God in the early 80’s and has been introducing the book at holistic fairs, colleges, churches and anywhere someone would listen to him. He has been a member of the General Council of the Urantia Book Fellowship since 2003 and is the chair of the Outreach Committee. He has put in place new outreach programs that are motivating the readership to go beyond what was previously thought possible.
A co-founder of InnerLife International, he has helped design new programs such as the Cosmic Café and has held a Cosmic Café in his home town for 5 years sharing the Urantia book with people from all walks of life who attend the meetings. Thomas and his partner, Aurora Hill, created the Ambassador Program of Urantia a year ago and now have 6 Ambassadors working on various service projects. His passion is that all the people of the world have access to the gifts we now enjoy. To accomplish this goal requires training an ever growing group of dedicated second-milers who will go all the way through with this great endeavor. Much of Thomas’ training comes from a ten year involvement with Landmark Education’s course work.
Thomas has 2 young adult sons who are both active in Urantia Book activities.
• 2009/04/04 — Interview of Meredeth Tenney and Thomas Orjala
Tom Choquette
started out with a "paper route" and now is an Author, Businessman, Entrepreneur, Community Builder and Civic Leader. Tom is a success in several fields such as a Contractor, Developer, various Retail business, and developing educational systems to promote creative thought in young people, as well as numerous other fields. He has been on the Board of five Foundations, including the Governor's Task Force on Youth in Washington State, but is most well known to many UB readers as the guy who takes our kids on adventures, both physical and spiritual, at conferences as the co-founder of the "Truth Seekers" program for the UB youth.
Youths at risk and in crisis have been Tom's service focus for many years. Working with homeless and street kids (providing food, hope, love and friendship) and at risk youth in the Seattle area, Tom and his lovely wife Jannie co-founded "Teen Hope," an emergency youth shelter, and "Peace Table," which was a peer mediation program, and "University Street Ministries" with Teen Feed, Teen Shelter, and Skate Park, where he was President of the Board and a volunteer for many years.
Tom is a passionate speaker about issues concerning young people today. Jannie and Tom have raised three terrific children of their own and they have all been instilled with the "Thrill of Loving Service." Tom has been a leader in the Urantia movement for many years in their local community of Seattle WA, as well as in their previous home in Alaska where he helped co-found the "Northern Lights Urantia Society" and "The Pilot Light Urantia Society of Seattle." He has started of facilitated several study groups and has been a dedicated Urantia Book reader since the early 70's.
Not only passionate about kids, Tom is also a very entertaining speaker and will be talking about the numerous pressures on our youth today and what he believes are some of the most effective ways to reach and mentor them. He will discuss his new book "Children of The Lie."
Christilyn will be co-hosting the show again this week (and next week) while Paula is on vacation with her family.
• 2009/03/28 — An interview with Tom Choquette
• 2010/06/05 — Helping Teens Find Spiritual Purpose — with Tom Choquette
Jennifer Siegel
has been running a study group for children for nearly 18 years and shares her insights about sharing Urantia Book concepts with little ones and young people with hosts Christilyn Biek, sitting in for Paula Thompson, and Andre Traversa.
• 2009/03/21 — An interview with Jennifer Siegel.
The voice of the Uversa Press audio DVD of the Urantia papers... Merritt Horn, is the guest of this week's program. A reader of the Urantia Book for 40 years, founder of the Boulder School for the Study of the Urantia Book, author or the book,
The Call of the Spirit
and scholar extraordinaire. Merritt discusses challenging issues that confront Urantia Book readers; speculation such as, if Dr. Sadler wrote the papers would that change the truth content of the revelation? What should our faith be based on anyway? and other faith-stretching exercises.
• 2009/02/21 — An interview with Merritt Horn
Al Lockett
is the President and CEO of Learning4Today Corporation, Quality After-School Programs LLC and Academic School Turnaround LLC, and brings more than 20 years of experience in developing Mastery Learning systems in both the corporate and academic environments.
Al is a published researcher and developer of the One2One™ Mastery Tutoring methodology and continues to evaluate and refine current technology-based programs for low performing and low motivated students. His philosophy is that “every child can learn if given the right tools, proper instruction and enough time”. This philosophy he put into practice with his work as a mentor to young elementary school boys in Syracuse NY at the CNY Charter School. Prior to Learning4Today, Al served as Vice President of Educational Technology and Business Development for Knowledge Delivery Systems Inc., a NY based educational firm. That position lead him to Arkansas where he secured a state assessment contract and eventually moved there. Today he guides Learning4Today’s growth and expansion with his senior management team, Regional Directors and over 94 employee’s and150 contract employees.
From his corporate office in Little Rock Arkansas to offices in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana, Al advances the company’s vision for closing the achievement gap and building successful motivated lifelong learners. His work includes research, assessment strategies, instructional methodology, training, and professional development.
Mr. Lockett went to Hampton Institute and holds undergraduate degree in Psychology from Rutgers University, a Master in Education in Instructional Technology from American Intercontinental University, and currently completing dissertation work for a doctorate in Educational Technology and Cognitive Development from Walden University.
Al started reading the Urantia Book in 1972 and his story appears in the book “How I found the Urantia Book”. He published “Disguised Blessings” a paper on race and the Urantia Book. He was the first instructor/ facilitator and assisted in the early development of UBIS Online School and taught for 6 years before serving on the Board of Directors. In addition to many published articles, he is also an accomplished musician and recorded on Arista records. Al recorded his own CD “Life Dance” and continues to record and perform concerts throughout the country as part of his music ministry. Two current recording projects include, “In Front of Angels” and “Agondonter, Believe without Seeing”.
Al is divorced and has two sons, Bradford, 27, the oldest and recently married, is a graduate of University of Maryland with a degree in Information Systems and works for the US Dept.Of Commerce. Matthew, 25, is engaged to be married and works for the Hartford Insurance while he finishes a degree in Business in Oklahoma City.
• 2009/02/07 — An interview with Al Lockett
• 2009/05/02 — Race and The Urantia Book
Gard Jameson,
a Urantia Foundation trustee and Urantia Book reader since 1971. Gard is a professor of Asian philosophy and religion at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his PhD from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Comparative Mythology with emphasis in Depth Psychology. He is married to Dr. Florence Jameson with two children, Michael and Julia.
The topic of these programs is the life and teaching of Karl Gustav Jung, a psychologist with a decidedly spiritual bent. Jung's interests included mythology, comparative religion, dream analysis, and even alchemy. The first of these two shows serves as an introduction to Jung. The second show integrates Jung's thought with the teachings of the UB.
• 2009/01/24 — An interview with Gard Jameson on Karl Jung
• 2009/02/14 — Karl Jung and The Urantia Book, Gard Jameson
• 2010/02/03 - Wednesday Virtual Urantia Book Global Study Group — Enneagram and Contemplative Prayer
Dr. Paul Knott
received his PhD in psychology from Vanderbilt University and served as a professor at the University of Denver. He is also the founder of Denver Academy, a private school known for it's service to special-needs students.
A longtime UB student, Dr. Knott is author of the book Remaking America, the Values Reolution, which he will discuss on our broadcast.
• 2009/01/17 — An interview with Dr. Paul Knott
The Good Doctor,
anonymous guest 2. A PhD. in Pauline theology and a professor of religion at a major university. A longtime Urantia Book reader, he has successfully integrated insights gleaned from the UB with credible Christian scholarship, and is an authority on the Atonement Doctrine, which is the topic of this program. He has authored several books on the subject, and is currently working on a book about the teachings of Jesus.
• 2009/01/10 — An interview with the Good Doctor
Brian,
anonymous guest number 1. Brian is a psychotherapist in private practice, and a longtime Urantia Book reader since his college days. The topic of this program is true and false guilt, the purpose of legitimate guilt as opposed to false, or neurotic guilt. Brian also touches on issues of New Year's resolutions, and what truly motivates people to change.
• 2009/01/03 — An interview with Brian
Sara Blackstock
has been working with elementary age children beginnin over 40 years as a public school teacher, and for the last 20 years the Executive Director of a large school age day care program. She is especially interested in the spiritual development of children and in guiding parents to nourish the innate spirituality of children. She was the co-ordinator of three Jerusalem Marketplaces for three international Urantia conferences, where she loved to set the stage for children to experience life in the times of Jesus.
Sara has given a number of workshops at Urantia conferences; the latest was at the 2008 conference at UCLA called Parenting with the Spirit - Raising Cosmic Citizens. She considers this workshop to be a start for a book coordinating truths of The Urantia Book with scientific research in the fields of Child Psychology, Neuro-sciences, Nutritional Sciences, Educational Research, and Social Research dealing with the emotional and social development of children.
• 2008/12/06 — An interview with Sara Blackstock — spirituality, parents and children
Buck and Arlene Weimer
met and fell in love on the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean in 1965. After marriage in 1970, we experienced many adventures while backpacking around the world for 2 years. During a year of teaching in Florida in 1972, Arlene was handed the UB by one of her students, a disoriented Vietnam veteran, who urged her to continue pursuing the course topic of “personality”. We both completed our first reading of the UB in a tent near a mountain top in Costa Rica and were compelled to make life-changing decisions: to return to our culture, have a family, and dedicate our lives to loving God and serving humanity.
We settled and lived in Pueblo, Colorado for the past 34 years, where we raised 3 sons (our greatest achievement) and developed careers in psychotherapy: Arlene in private practice, Buck at a local hospital. We continue to host a study group, participate in many forms of outreach, attend conferences, present workshops, and travel internationally for the cause of the Revelation. We invented and have a business based on our patented medical underwear, have written a book, and look forward to the Morontia adventure.
• 2008/11/29 — An interview with Buck and Arlene Weimer — parenting issues
Brother Dave and his wife, Georgia,
were given a copy of The Urantia Book in 1975. Being a life-long Truth-seeker, he realized, in a few hours of intense, critical study of the Foreword, that this Revelation was written by a definitely super-human intelligence. But is the purpose of this massive tome for good or evil? Careful perusals of all of TUB over the next 14 months fully confirmed to him that it is for the long-term good of all mankind. Over 33 years of Spirit-led reflective study of TUB (full readings about 18 times) and doing thousands of topic studies have convinced Brother Dave that The Urantia Book is just as it so states, no more and no less! This is a mighty Revelation of Truth, but not a mightly Revelation of Spirit until our One Holy Father-Son-Spirit of Truth, Who is known as our Sovereign Savior Jesus Christ Michael, lovingly burns these deep eternal Truths into your soul, and you have a glimpse of your final Paradise Destiny in and with Him. May 24, 1977 - is the date of his sudden and profound spiritual Birthday. Charles G. Finney's and Blaise Pascal's famous sudden Visions of God and Jesus as One combined Coordinate Light of Life seems to Brother Dave to be the closest kindred-spiritual experiences known to date. One must allow many years of study and ongoing experiences for the mind to slowly catch-up intellectually to the super-conscious experiences of our loving Father God here in our Spirit-led soul.
Dave taught electronics and math while in the US Army, then as a civilian taught for the US Navy, and then worked over six years as a Field Engineer at the NASA satellite tracking station in Madagascar (Malagasy Republic) for the Gemini and Apollo moon missions. He and his family then returned to the USA and owned hardware and music stores over six years. He was then Spirit of Truth-led to devote the rest of his life to active evangelism of sharing the Living Gospel of Jesus to many, often with selected gems from TUB. He suggests perusing this Fifth Epochal Revelation to only a very few who seem to be fully ready for such a tremendous illumination of Reality. He is married 43 years, has three adult children, and five grandchildren to date. Part-time professional jazz, (classic, big band, blues, funk) rock, concert band drummer-teacher over 45 years so far. Has Jesusonians Family Fellowship (TUB study) Group in his home in the greater Chicago area for many years.
Any persons interested may immediately join my Yahoo Group: Christian-Philosophy http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Christian-Philosophy/
Come visit and contribute content material to my large Jesusonian Christian website http://www.PureChristians.org/
• 2008/11/22 — Guest Bro Dave discusses the divinity of Jesus.
• 2009/03/07 — Guest Bro Dave discusses Sonship.
Mark Siljander
is an experienced statesman at home and abroad. He represented Michigan for 15 years, including three terms as a Member of the United States Congress, where he served on the International Relations Middle East Subcommittee and was Ranking Member of the Africa Subcommittee. He was the primary sponsor of the African Famine Relief Act. Mark was later appointed by President Reagan as a US Ambassador (Alt. Delegate) to the United Nations in New York, where he served as a member of the Middle East and Africa Strategy Group of permanent representatives.
Ambassador Siljander is a student of several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew, and has spent over ten years studying the three Holy Books of the Abrahamic faiths. With over 26 years serving in the power circles of Washington and semi-official travel to nearly 130 countries, he has generated unique opportunities for frequent access to world leaders.
Reprint of article from World Magazine: "2008 Daniel of the Year" Facing Islam 12/13/2008
• 2008/11/08 — Continuation of the 2008/11/01 interview below with Mr. Siljander
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser
is the Chairman of the Board, founding member, and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD). He is the son of Muslim-Syrian immigrants and is a native of Wisconsin. Dr. Jasser received his B.Sc. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1988 and graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin on a U.S. Navy scholarship in 1992. He completed his specialty training in internal medicine at Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1996. His tours of duty included Medical Department Head aboard the U.S.S. El Paso ('93-'94) which deployed to Somalia (Operation Restore Hope), Chief Resident at Bethesda Naval Hospital ('96-'97), and Staff Internist for the Office of the Attending Physician to Congress in Washington, D.C ('97-'99). He has since been in the private practice of internal medicine and nuclear cardiology in Phoenix. Dr. Jasser is the immediate-Past President of the Arizona Medical Association (ArMA) and also chairs the Bioethics Committee for Banner Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.
As a devout practicing Muslim, Dr. Jasser has always been very active in the study of Islam and its intersections with American culture. He has been active in multiple local efforts at interfaith work. In 2000 he and a leading local Rabbi founded the Children of Abraham, an active Muslim-Jewish dialogue group in Scottsdale, Arizona. Dr. Jasser has also serves as the Muslim representative on the Board of the Arizona Interfaith Movement since December 2001.
Dr. Jasser is a moderate Muslim concerned about radical infiltration of American mosques. His video, "The Third Jihdad," available at www.thethirdjihad.com, deals extensively with this topic. Also visit the American Islamic Forum for Democracy website.
Topics for this program include Mr. Siljander's recent book A Deadly Misunderstanding, a Congressmans' Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide available at Amazon.com and Dr. Jasser's Christian/Muslim perspectives.
• 2008/11/01 — Guests Siljander and Jasser discuss Christian/Muslim perspectives.
Raised up as a voice of reason and moderation in a world of extremes, Reverend Carlton Pearson made a choice. He chose to tell the world that God's love is absolute and complete. A choice boldly declaring that God wants relationship with all of humanity; Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Hispanics, gays and any and all who have been marginalized by the dominant culture and considered unacceptable and unworthy by the Christian church at large. Furthermore, Pearson, through scriptural study, research, and heartfelt conviction, is absolutely convinced that God is not sending people to Hell at the rate proclaimed by the moral majority. And even maybe more earth-shattering, he believes God's love is not being represented anywhere near the fullness that the Almighty intends. In essence, Pearson is simply saying that "God loves on a global basis, not just an American or Christian basis."
What Pearson intended to be comforting, resulted in being controversial. While his message is good news to the world, it caused religious leaders across America to revolt. Pearson had been a longstanding associate of The Joint College of African American Pentecostal Bishops Congress, who has deemed him "heretical" for preaching a Gospel that included everyone and excluded no one. Several other evangelicals issued harsh press releases and statements distancing themselves from Pearson, many of whom had been given their very first chances at national exposure through Pearson's ministry.
Currently the Senior Pastor of New Dimensions Worship Center located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he has pastored for over 30 years, and has been the host and overseer of the annual AZUSA Conferences, held each year in Tulsa and across America, for more than 15 years. AZUSA became known for its high-energy music, powerful preaching, integrated crowds, and for exposing a number of now well-known ministries to the world.... (Excerpt from Bishop Pearson's website.)
Bishop Pearson's latest book, The Gospel of Inclusion, available on Amazon.com, is the focus of the program.
For more information, more complete biography, photos, and contact, Carlton Pearson's website is located at www.bishoppearson.com
• 2008/10/25 — Interview with guest Bishop Carlton Pearson, author of The Gospel of Inclusion.
Julia Duin
(pronounced "Deen") is an accomplished writer and journalist who has worked for 5 newspapers, written four books, along with more magazine articles than she can count. Julia doubles as a senior writer for The Washington Times, covering events ranging from inner city ministries in Brooklyn, N.Y. and a church/state conflict in northeastern Alabama to a famous child abuse case in eastern Washington state and the 2005 election of Pope Benedict XVI.
Julia has won several national awards for her religion reporting. She has covered Pope John Paul II, the Lambeth Conference for Anglican Bishops in England, religious persecution in Egypt and Jordan and the millennial celebrations in Israel. She has covered other international events as well, including events in Italy, France, Canada, India, Greece, Spain, Iceland, Guatemala, Ecuador and the Caribbean, which is why she is fluent in French, conversant in Spanish and German and speaks portions of Kurdish, Arabic and Italian.
A native of Baltimore, Julia has been to nearly every state in the union, as her travels started at the age of six weeks when her family moved to Hawaii. She received her bachelor's degree at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., and her master's degree at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, a seminary near Pittsburgh. She began magazine writing in high school, and gained national recognition as a correspondent for evangelical publications such as "Christianity Today" and "Charisma.
Julia likes to ski, hike, bike and play the Celtic harp. She pursued her harp studies at a worldwide gathering for folk harpists in 2001 in Edinburgh and has attended many other harp conferences. She has even won a few blue ribbons in harp competitions.".... (Excerpt from Julia Duin's website.)
Julia's most recent book, Quitting Church, available on Amazon.com, is the focus of the first hour of this program.
For more information, more complete biography, photos, and contact, Julia Duin's website is located at www.juliaduin.com
• 2008/10/11 — Interview with guest Julia Duin, author of Quitting Church.
• Brief video containing interview of Pato Banton
Pato Banton is a Urantia Book reader who combines award-winning reggae music with UB Ministry.
Known for delivering a message that is food for both mind and soul, some have considered Pato's charismatic performance as live theatre. He mixes music with audience dialog on a range of topics including spiritual freedom and religious commitment while keeping the vibes upbeat and fun! Many have said that the positive outlook generated from the stage has changed their lives forever.
Sometimes Pato invites his fans to join him in a prayer circle after the show, where some have cried while sharing their stories of contemplated suicide, isolation after losing a loved one, struggles with substance abuse or how their personal connection with Pato has given them the strength to "Stay Positive" & "Never Give In."
In the mid-1990s, after six years of chart success and continuous touring, Pato decided to step away from the commercial music business and continue on his path of Positivity. In his home studio, Pato recorded his tenth album “Life is a Miracle”, which gained him a Grammy Nomination and clearly defined his lyrical, musical, and spiritual growth.
In early 2000, Pato decided to take a 7 year break from music to create more opportunities for young people in his local community. His venture was a huge success and became a region wide example of how to engage young people and reduce gang violence in inner city areas. Pato was duly awarded with the BBC’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication and commitment to positive change. In the same year Pato received the Black Music Award for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of his contribution to the British Music Industry.
A period of deep reflection and meditation left Pato feeling guided to continue his musical journey. In early 2005 Yahe Boda (a consecrated spiritual teacher and forerunner) invited Pato to do a short tour across America to “Gather the People in Praise.” This led to Pato phasing out his community commitments and with renewed energy to take on the challenge of recording the inspired double album entitled “The Words of Christ.” (a narrated album of Christ’s teachings taken from the Urantia Book).
Although Pato had been away from the live concert circuit for many years, he had a place in the minds and hearts of the masses; his remarkable reputation as being a first rate showman was evidenced in the grand reception to his comeback and the rave reviews from the media and fans alike. After two short tours Pato joined forces with the very popular, Mystic Roots Band (voted top Reggae Band by the Los Angeles Music Awards). In order to participate and open the International Urantia Conference at UCLA in July of 2008, Pato chose to cancel a major performance in London with Beyonce.
In 2009, Pato will embark on a major tour of all 50 states of America and offer his spoken word performances on the college circuit while spreading the good news and uplifting the masses with a message of peace and love.
Pato's CDs are available on Amazon.com. For more information, itinerary, more complete biography, photos, and contact, Pato's website is at www.patobanton.com
• 2008/09/20 — Interview with guest Pato Banton
• 2010/01/06 - Wednesday Virtual Urantia Book Global Study Group
Steve Dreier
has studied The Urantia Book for over thirty five years, participated in numerous conferences, and held a variety of positions in
The Urantia Book Fellowship.
He currently serves as Secretary of The Fellowship.
In the last two decades great progress was made in identifying the so-called “human sources” that various authors of The Urantia Book employed as the basis of their work. The majority of these discoveries come from the pioneering work of Matthew Block. Steve has studied many of these “human sources” and in this program he will share his findings and attempt to answer questions.
• 2008/09/13 — Guest Steve Dreier discusses human sources of The Urantia Book.
• Brief video containing interview of Sheila Keene-Lund
Sheila Keene-Lund was born to an English father and a Puerto Rican mother in Vigo, Spain. The family lived in Cuba, England, and Puerto Rico before moving to the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia, where she grew up and eventually married and had three sons.
She completed corporate management and finance training with the London Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and later became Chief Operations Officer of Carib Touring Limited. Moving her family to Fairfield, Iowa, Keene-Lund worked as a Marketing Manager for a local software company before starting her own business and developed a set of twelve standard operation procedure manuals pertaining to all aspects of nursing home and assisted living environments.
While in Fairfield, Sheila started a non-profit organization, the Adopt-a-Grandparent Foundation whose mission was to promote meaningful relationships between the elderly and the youth of the community. She developed a unique program for matching grandparents to youth and documented the system so that it could be introduced in any city. During her two years as Executive Director, she arranged and managed the "adoption" of over 200 elderly citizens in nursing homes and assisted living settings, with over 225 volunteers.
Introduced to Transcendental Meditation practice in 1977, Sheila became a certified teacher in 1980. In Iowa she also became a Server in the St. Gabriel's Liberal Catholic Church of Fairfield and eventually a Deaconess. In that capacity she developed workshops on spiritual care for the living and dying. These programs served to expand the understanding of the dying process and complimented her work as a Hospice volunteer.
Sheila was raised as a Catholic and after two near death experiences at a young age, she began to search for more complete answers about life after death than those provided by Catholic doctrines. She embraced Eastern mysticism at the age of 18 and for over twenty years these blended beliefs co-existed in her spiritual repertoire until she honestly questioned their effect on her life. Sheila found The Urantia Book in 1992 and has devoted much of the last fifteen years to writing Heaven Is Not the Last Stop which reflects her journey to reconcile the differences. It has been a journey of research and reflection, of theoretical and creative insight—putting the Big Picture of Existence together.
Sheila lives with her husband Bart Lund. They divide their time between Florida and California.
• 2008/09/06 — Guest Sheila Keene-Lund discusses her soon-to-be-released book Heaven Is Not the Last Stop.
Larry Mullins
was handed a 1955 first printing of The Urantia Book in 1968 by an advertising colleague, Clyde Bedell. Bedell was a member of the original Forum that helped publish the Urantia Papers as a book. Larry is author of
Jesus: God & Man
(1976), the first derivative work to be accepted for publication by Urantia Foundation. He has served the Urantia movement as President of the First Urantia Society of Oklahoma, and eight years as a General Councilor for Urantia Brotherhood. He is a noted public speaker and the author of several books on the Self-Actualization process including
Immature People with Power: How to Handle Them
and most recently:
Get Real.
His newest book, The MetaValues Breakthrough, will be published in late 2008. In reference to writing
A History of the Urantia Papers,
Larry states it is the achievement of a team of 15 dedicated Urantians who agreed to follow truth wherever it led. He adds that he is fortunate that his wife, Joan Batson Mullins, has a remarkable knowledge of the Urantia Papers and so enthusiastically contributed to this project.
Joan and Larry live in St. Augustine, Florida. Larry’s youngest daughter, Michelle, lives in Boulder and is a devoted student of the Urantia Papers. Larry is CEO of UltraSales, Inc., a nationally syndicated advertising and marketing business.
• 2008/08/30 — Discussion of the early history of The Urantia movement with guest Larry Mullins.
• 2010/03/10 — Discussion of Larry Mullins latest book, The MetaValues Breakthrough
• 2009/11/14 — Interview with Larry Mullins, Metavalues Breakthrough
• 2010/03/10 — Further interview with Larry Mullins, Metavalues Breakthrough with Ann Garner
• Brief video containing interview of Diane Labrecque
Diane Labrecque was born in Quebec city of French speaking parents and raised as a catholic in a family of 10 children including 5 boys and 5 girls. While living in Toronto at the age of 20, Diane studied Fashion Design at Sheridan College of applied arts and sciences. Upon returning to Montreal, she founded the High Fashion Knit Design Program at LaSalle College and enjoyed a successful 15 year career as a freelance fashion designer, professor and director of the program. While teaching in the fashion field, she avidly studied natural medicine in her spare time and later became a specialist in Natural Health Care.
While on a one year sabbatical from teaching in 1990, Diane had deeply transforming spiritual experiences which culminated in her receiving The Urantia Book as a gift in 1991. By the summer of 1993 she was serving as the MC for the International Urantia Conference in Montreal. In the first six months of 1993 she hosted a weekly television program on The Urantia Book that aired across the Province of Quebec. Later that same year she moved to Boulder, Colorado to fellowship with the lively community of UB readers there and although she eventually moved back to Canada, she still considers Boulder a second home. In 1998 she graduated from the Institute of Holistic Nutrition and started practicing as a nutritional consultant using the Quantum Energetic Medicine System. As someone who has actively promoted healthy eating and living, it was only natural that Diane would found her own company http://www.osauna.com/ in 2004. O' Sauna specializes in manufacturing high end infrared saunas to help rid the body of various impurities and promote overall health. Diane often says, "When the human temple is pure and healthy, the indwelling divine spirit can manifest itself in a free flowing harmonious expression."
In 2007, Diane received her DTM degree as a Distinguished Toastmaster. In July of 2008, she served again as MC for the International Urantia Conference IC'08 that was held at UCLA. Diane is an accomplished speaker and leader who devotes herself to a holistic ministry of health and spirituality with a special focus on actualizing the Living Faith of Jesus.
Diane can be contacted for speaking engagements at dianelabrecque@osauna.com;
In December, 2008 Diane is listed as the featured graduate from the Institute of Holistic Nutrition in December, 2008.
• 2008/08/16 — Discussion of the last paper in the Urantia Book, the "Faith of Jesus" with guest Diane Labrecque.
• 2008/08/16 — With Ann Garner, the meaning of the incarnation of Jesus and of God becoming man.
• 2009/08/22 — Natural health, healing, and happiness for God's children.
• 2010/01/27 — Diane Labrecque describes the upcoming Urantia Family Festival in Montreal over the 4th of July weekend of 2010.
• 2010/05/08 — Interview with Brigitte Mars and Diane Labrecque — natural and raw foods and remedies
• 2010/10/02 — Diane Labrecque — Natural Health & Healing for Body, Mind & Spirit
• Brief video containing interview of Ann Garner
Ann Garner brings a truly diverse background to audiences. She is an ordained Christian Minister and Thanks-Giving Square Interfaith Council member. In addition to her interfaith ministry, Ann has conducted seminars around the US, is a computer software instructor/consultant and an English as a Second Language Instructor. Her reflections also span 30 years of experiences drawn from top level executive management (Vice-President of two national companies), entrepreneurial endeavors in marketing and publishing (founder of SAGE, International), and certification in Whole Brain Technology by pioneer Ned Hermann. Ann embodies a lifetime of varied business and spiritual experiences as well as a fulfilling family life and ongoing friendships with outstanding leaders and teachers from around the world.
Ann was introduced to The Urantia Book in 1979. Over the years she has been a study group facilitator and currently co-hosts (with hubby, Steve) a "Third-Sunday Gathering," as well as a weekly study group. During the 90s she was a member of The Urantia Book Fellowship General Council and Director of North America Area Coordinators. She also served at Whole Life Expos throughout North America introducing the book.
• 2008/08/09 — Part IV of The Urantia Book, "The Life and Teachings of Jesus" with guest Ann Garner
• 2008/08/16 — With Diane Labrecque, the meaning of the incarnation of Jesus and of God becoming man.
• 2009/02/28 — Open mic with Paula and Ann Garner (Efficacy of Rest, Motas)
• 2010/06/26 — Encounters with Angels & Other Unseen Friends Paula and Ann Garner
Halbert Katzen
created the UBtheNEWS project and continues to spearhead its development on a full time basis.
He provides an excellent grasp of current science and its relation to the revelation in this program.
• 2008/08/02 — Part III of The Urantia Book, "The History of Urantia" with guest Halbert Katzen.
Michelle Klimesh
is the author of a condensed version of The Urantia Book titled
The Story of Everything.
She is a member of the General Council of
The Urantia Book Fellowship
and currently serves as Secretary-General. Michelle has been studying the revelation since 1973.
• 2008/07/26 — Part II of The Urantia Book, "The Local Universe" with guest Michelle Klimesh.
Chris Halvorson
has a PhD in physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has worked as a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder since 1987. He discovered The Urantia Book in 1990 and has been a student of its revelation of truth ever since. Starting in 1995, Chris has led a weekly study group that is devoted to expanding readers' understanding of The Urantia Book; these sequential weekly studies are being recorded on video and are available at his New Horizons Study Group site at
www.perfectinghorizons.org beginning with Paper 57, recorded in May of 2007.
• 2008/07/19 — Part I of The Urantia Book, "The Central and Superuniverses" with guest Chris Halvorson.
• 2008/10/04 — Truth, fact, error; etymology; scientific fallacies; Large Hadron Collider; time and space.
• 2009/03/14 — Survival; how many? who avoids survival?
• 2009/05/16 — Understanding eugenics in The Urantia Book
James Woodward
discovered The Urantia Book in 1973. In the early nineties he began attending study groups and social activities in Southern California, joining
Urantia Association International
in 1993. Following a variety of volunteer assignments in UAI, James was recruited to Chicago in 2000 to join the staff at Urantia Foundation. He served in the Reader Services Department for five years and then accepted the position of Executive Administrator of UAI, serving until July 2008. He is currently a free-lance writer and editor and continues to be active in Urantia outreach and volunteer projects.
• 2008/07/12 — Guest James Woodward provides a general overview of The Urantia Book.
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