THE URANTIA BOOK: A Guide to the Future and Beyond

by Dr. Robert W. Hunt

NOTE: Quotation marks followed by a page reference are from The Urantia Book published in 1955 by the Urantia Foundation.

Contemplation of the future can be an exciting and adventurous part of life, an activity that is as useful as it is natural, useful in making decisions and natural in attempting to satisfy curiosity. Also, futuristic thinking, in the broadest and highest sense, is a unique pursuit of human personality. In making a decision, an animal's selective response is limited to the motor level of behavior. However, "man is able to exercise scientific, moral, and spiritual insight prior to all exploration or experimentation. Only a personality can know that it is doing before it does it; only personalities possess insight in advance of experience. A personality can look before it leaps and can therefore learn from looking as well as from leaping." [page 1931]

In striving for some understanding about our origin, nature, and destiny, we attempt to evaluate the past and to forecast the future. Utilization of the mind to probe the mysteries of future time and space certainly seems appropriate. However, my own experience has led me to be aware of some distinctions between contemplation and anticipation. Actions based upon overly serious anticipation or misdirected expectations may impede a natural flow of events and affect the future adversely. By contrast, careful contemplation may lead to some degree of wisdom concerning dynamic growth and the potentialities for expanding knowledge and truth. I am persuaded that life and evolution are progressive rather than cyclic and that some near-future transitions are more likely to be quantum jumps than gradual developments. We should manifest an openness that permits us to gracefully incorporate changes as they occur rather than always attempting to anticipate and manipulate them.

As truth-seekers investigating both traditional and nontraditional sources, we should not overlook the possibility of divine revelation. Actually, I believe that such revelation as a personal human experience is occurring continuously. Further, on a broader scale, "Revelation as an epochal phenomenon is periodic." [page 1107] However, for either the individual insight or the major breakthrough of expanding truth, certain levels of awareness and cosmic consciousness are required. Unfortunately, it is more often the case that "error is so great that its rectification by revelation would be fatal to those slowly emerging truths which are essential to its experiential overthrow." [pages 554, 555] In other words, our revelations will ever await our preparation. Perhaps we should, both individually and collectively, develop some patterns of future thought consistent with these realizations.

I observe that some of the most crucial as well as fertile areas of exploration along these lines are lying dormant and almost unrecognized. It seems appropriate to issue a challenge, a call to all who can hear, to devote time and energy to matters of an eternal and consistent nature; to values and meanings; to ideals concerned with the unification of body, mind, and spirit; and to the integration of science, philosophy, and religion in the highest and purest sense. In particular, "the overstressed and isolated morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion and loyalty of many twentieth century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in addition to its moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the beauties of the physical creation, the charm of intellectual art, and the grandeur of genuine character achievement." [page 43]

Rather than becoming stalled on philosophical and theological debates over the existence of God and of a creative scheme of life and cosmology, all persons of intelligence and good will should consider assuming these basic matters and proceed to study the consequences of their assumptions. Further, these investigations must break free of the constraints that have plagued religionists throughout history. "The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul.": [page 43]

I am convinced that there are scientific, philosophic, and religious unifications in almost endless profusion simply awaiting discovery. These discoveries have the power to alter the course of history and the nature of life for every human being on the face of the earth. For a variety of reasons, this planet has long been in a state of quarantine. But there are signs of a gradual lifting of this curtain of forced isolation, and the glimpses afford majestic patterns and living truths heretofore only approximated by shadowy visions. Furthermore, these potentialities of which I speak transcend even the time-fettered concept of the future and contain sequentiality as only a useful but limited aspect of expanded reality. The domain of time and space, together with the finite nature of our earth-bound capabilities, provide the setting within which we must live and grow and work; but any investigations of deity, divinity, and eternal life cannot accept such boundary conditions. Also, we must recognize that "religious experience, being essentially spiritual, can never be fully understood by the material mind." [page 69] "The difficulties and paradoxes of religion are inherent in the fact that the realities of religion are utterly beyond the mortal capacity for intellectual comprehension." [page 69] Nevertheless, within the confines of these realizations, there is still much to be discovered, both intellectually and experientially; and, in fact, there are no ultimate limitations except our own self-imposed timidity.

Suppose that, by some technique, the very highest, most perceptive and truthful human insights could be collected and then formulated into a consistent rendition for study and analysis. The source of each gem of wisdom would be relatively unimportant; each would find its proper place in the whole by withstanding the tests of beauty, truth, and goodness on as many levels of reality as the current evolving consciousness of man has experience for evaluation. Suppose, further, that some new information is made available for transition, for completion of partial concepts, and for extensions within the grasp of human understanding. Would the populace of this beleaguered little planet be able to adjust to the new levels of both understanding and responsibility? I regard both the supposition and the question as being of the utmost importance because, incredibly, what I am describing has occurred!

However, before I explain, I must digress by almost two thousand years and point out that the life and teachings of Jesus exhibited essentially the characteristics of the supposition. Jesus was familiar with the very frontiers of knowledge and understanding in the realms of science, philosophy, and religion; his insights and utterances reflected the most profound and truthful aspects of these conceptualizations. Further, Jesus clarified and expanded meanings and values into a dynamic pattern for progressive living and cosmic awareness. His insights and teachings have at least partially survived even amidst the harshest possible distortions, extremely misguided fanaticism, extraneous ideas, and mistaken concepts. I am quite certain that the life and teachings of Jesus constitute a revelation of epochal significance intended to benefit all mortal beings participating in the evolutionary development of life on earth. I am also persuaded that other revelations of such significance occurred prior to the time of Jesus; but the details of these have been all but lost and buried in antiquity. Each of these occurred due to a great and cumulative need for redirection of human understanding and reconsideration of human values, a need best met by a sifting of truth from error and a concurrent revelation, the latter occurring when necessary and to an extent commensurate with the current evolutionary state. Thus, such an occurrence of epochal significance must be both subtle and profound, both gentle and strong, both acceptable and incredible.

Now, if these observations expressed only my own combined perceptions and faith, there would be little else to add. I might urge others to seek personal and spiritual experience as the most reliable guide not only to the future but beyond to the ultimate potential of eternal life. To say anything more could be at worst counterproductive or at best ineffectual since the seeking and finding are necessarily matters of personal experience that can only be assisted but not completed through physical and intellectual efforts alone. However, at this particular time in the history of our planetary evolution and with a calculated absence of fanfare, a revelation of epochal significance has occurred. It is available to anyone willing to suspend disbelief, approach it with an open mind, and ultimately realize the extraordinary significance of the discovery.

I am speaking of The Urantia Book, an unprecedented, altogether astounding and totally unique work that will one 2day be recognized as the most important document ever to appear in the history on mankind on this planet. Beyond this, I will refrain from further exclamatory adjectives or praise for this treatise as it can stand on its own merits without need of supporting rhetoric. It must be read, studied, and ultimately experienced in order to be grasped on any but the most superficial levels. The magnitude and grandeur of this work encompass an expensive proposition for the reader, the cost including a genuine openness, a sincere attitude, an increasing dedication, a growing faith, and acceptance of an expanding reality. Many persons encounter The Urantia Book only briefly and are not drawn further; others tarry a while and then move away; others experience an overpowering realization of its importance and significance. The latter group is instilled with a deep feeling of commitment to a way of living that is consistent with the primary theme of the book which is the concept of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

The Urantia Book was published and copyrighted in 1955 by the Urantia Foundation in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to its publication, it was referred to as the "Urantia Papers" due the fact that the book consists of one hundred ninety-six separate papers, or chapters. Beginning in the year 1935, the papers were in the possession of a doctor named William S. Sadler and his wife, Lena K. Sadler. A group of friends of the Sadler's read and discussed the papers before funds were raised to underwrite the publication of the book. The authorship is attributed to a group of superhuman beings charged with the responsibility by celestial authorities of formulating this revelation of epochal significance to our world, which is known to these beings as Urantia. Very little has been communicated about how the papers came into being; an unidentified man, a patient of Dr. Sadler's, was involved in the transmission of the content of the book in some unspecified way. This meager information is bound to fail to satisfy the scientific mind. However, after twenty years of experience reading and studying The Urantia Book, my conclusions concerning the issues of validity and credibility are as follows.

The logistics of the communication of The Urantia Book become irrelevant upon discovering the dynamic, flawless and completely consistent nature of the Urantia Papers. Accompanying the recognition of these characteristics of this work is the dawning realization that no mortal earth-bound being or group of beings would be capable of authorship. While the notion of extra-terrestrial authors may be difficult, I urge the sincere seeker to read The Urantia Book with an open mind on this issue. If, as I have observed in the experience of every one of my acquaintances who has read the book, one finds a transforming power along with an awesome treasure-trove of information and insight about the most important questions relating to human existence, the issues of transmission and authorship seem secondary.

In this commentary, I wish to introduce some basic information conveyed in The Urantia Book. Our world, Urantia, is one of about ten million inhabited or inhabitable planets, currently at various stages of evolutionary development and progress, composing what is known as a local universe. Our local universe, Nebadon, is the creative work of Michael, a celestial being belonging to a class known as Creator Sons. Michael, according to plan, culminated his creative act by living a relatively ordinary life as one of the time-space-planet-bound beings on a selected world at a certain stage of evolution. The chosen planet for this bestowal was Urantia; and Michael lived and died here as Jesus of Nazareth.

Approximately one hundred thousand local universes comprise a superuniverse of which there are seven. This represents about seven trillion inhabited or inhabitable planets on which dwell an extraordinary variety of different types of beings with the common characteristic of being of one family, the family of God, the Universal Father. The Urantia Book describes a vast array of cosmological data while at the same time presenting a consistent, highly intelligent and insightful, philosophy of life and reality that covers and unifies the highest and best concepts of material existence (science), intellectual potential (philosophy), and spiritual realization (religion). The book is in four major parts beginning with Part One, consisting of thirty-one papers, and entitled "The Central and Superuniverses". Part Two, consisting of twenty-five papers, is entitled "The Local Universe"; Part Three, consisting of sixty-three papers, is entitled "The History of Urantia"; and Part Four, consisting of seventy-seven papers, is entitled "The Life and Teachings of Jesus". Included are papers dealing with such matters as the nature and attributes of God, God's relation to the individual, the evolution of the local universes, the establishment of life on Urantia, the nature of life and government on a neighboring planet, the growth and development of evolutionary religion, the four revelations of epochal significance preceding the Creator Son bestowal, and the purpose and nature of Michael's sojourn here.

The span of The Urantia Book is far too vast and comprehensive to consider in an introductory commentary. One vital thread concerns not only the origin and nature of mortal, planetary beings but also their potential ascendant destiny. There is every assurance that each unique human personality has the capacity to survive physical death and to exist on successfully higher awareness and reality levels, growing as an immortal soul, formed by human and divine partnership, to a fully realized spirit. Thus, Jesus' teachings of eternal life achieve new dimensions of literal truth by this expanded message.

There are many references in The Urantia Book to the background and nature of a revelation such as this. In paper 92, entitled "The Later Evolution of Religion", a section dealing with revelation offers this information: "Revelation is evolutionary but always progressive. Down through the ages of a world's history, the revelations of religion are ever-expanding and successively more enlightening. It is the mission of revelation to sort and censor the successive religions of evolution. But if revelation is to exalt and upstep the religions of evolution, then must such divine visitations portray teachings which are not too far removed from the thought and reactions of the age in which they are presented. Thus must and does revelation always keep in touch with evolution. Always must the religion of revelation be limited by man's capacity of receptivity. But regardless of apparent connection or derivation, the religions of revelation are always characterized by a belief in some Deity of final value and in some concept of the survival of personality identity after death. Evolutionary religion is sentimental, not logical. It is man's reaction to belief in a hypothetical ghost-spirit world - the human belief-reflex, excited by the realization and fear of the unknown. Revelatory religion is propounded by the real spiritual world; it is the response of the superintellectual cosmos to the mortal hunger to believe in, and depend upon, the universe Deities. Evolutionary religion pictures the circuitous gropings of humanity in quest of truth; revelatory religion is that very truth". [page 1007]

In reference to the Urantia Papers, Paper 92 also contains this fascinating statement: "The papers, of which this is one, constitute the most recent presentation of truth to the mortals of Urantia. These papers differ from all previous revelations, for they are not the work of a single universe personality but a composite presentation my many beings. But no revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. All other celestial ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and practically adapted to local conditions of time and space. While such admissions as this may possibly detract from the immediate force and authority of all revelations, the time has arrived on Urantia when it is advisable to make such frank statements, even at the risk of weakening the future influence and authority of this, the most recent of the revelations of truth to the mortal races of Urantia." [page 1008]

I wish to include a few additional brief quotations from The Urantia Book although selecting these is frustrating because of the vast choice of topics. I am using quotations because it is difficult to adequately paraphrase or to improve on the precise language and economy of statement characteristic of the book's prose. In choosing these readings, I am attempting to convey an idea of the scope of the book, the quality of its exposition, and the presentation of futuristic concepts.

Paper 41 is entitled "Physical Aspects of the Local Universe". One section includes the following: "In deciphering spectral phenomena, it should be remembered that space is not empty; that light, in traversing space, is sometimes slightly modified by the various forms of energy and matter which circulate in all organized space. Some of the lines indicating unknown matter which appear in the spectra of your sun are due to modifications of well-known elements which are floating throughout space in shattered form, the atomic casualties of the fierce encounters of the solar elemental battles. Space is pervaded by these wandering derelicts, especially sodium and calcium. As your physicists have suspected, these mutilated remnants of solar calcium literally ride the light beams for varied distances, and their widespread dissemination throughout space is tremendously facilitated. Of all the solar elements, calcium, notwithstanding its comparative bulk - containing as it does twenty revolving electrons - is the most successful in escaping from the solar interior to the realms of space. This explains why there is a calcium layer, a gaseous stone surface, in the sun six thousand miles thick; and this despite the fact that nineteen lighter elements, and numerous heavier one, are underneath." [pages 461, 462] It is interesting to point out that the sun presence of Calcium 19 was discovered in 1964!

The next paper in sequence, Paper 42, is "Energy - Mind and Matter". A sample quotation reads: "There is innate in matter and present in universal space a form of energy not known on Urantia. When this discovery is finally made, then will physicists feel that they have solved, almost at least, the mystery of matter. And so will they have approached one step nearer the Creator; so will they have mastered one more phase of the divine technique; but in no sense will they have found God, neither will they have established the existence of matter of the operation of natural laws apart from the cosmic technique of Paradise and the motivating purpose of the Universal Father.
"Subsequent to even still greater progress and further discoveries, after Urantia has advanced immeasurably in comparison with present knowledge, though you should gain control of the energy revolutions of the electrical units of matter to the extent of modifying their physical manifestations - even after all such possible progress, forever will scientists be powerless to create one atom of matter or to originate one flash of energy or ever to add to matter that which we call life." [pages 467-468]

The evolutionary destiny of a world of time and space is a planetary age designated the "age of light and life". Paper 55 is entitled "The Spheres of Light and Life"; and Section 5, "The Acme of Material Development", offers this information. "The advanced stages of a world settled in light and life represent the acme of evolutionary material development. On these cultured worlds, gone are the idleness and friction of the earlier primitive ages. Poverty and social inequality have all but vanished, degeneracy has disappeared, and delinquency is rarely observed. Insanity has practically ceased to exist, and feeble-mindedness is a rarity.

"The economic, social, and administrative status of these worlds is of a high and perfected order. Science, art, and industry flourish, and society is a smoothly working mechanism of high material, intellectual, and cultural achievement. Industry has been largely diverted to serving the higher aims of such a superb civilization. The economic life of such a world has become ethical.

"War has become a matter of history, and there are no more armies or police forces. Government is gradually disappearing. Self-control is slowly rendering laws of human enactment obsolete. The extent of civil government and statutory regulation, in an intermediate state of advancing civilization, is in inverse proportion to the morality and spirituality of the citizenship.

"Schools are vastly improved and are devoted to the training of mind and expansion of soul. The art centers are exquisite and the musical organizations superb. The temples of worship with their associated schools of philosophy and experiential religion are creations of beauty and grandeur. The open-air arenas of worship assembly are equally sublime in the simplicity of their artistic appointment.

"The provisions for competitive play, humor, and other phases of personal and group achievement are ample and appropriate. A special feature of the competitive activities on such a highly cultured world concerns the efforts of individuals and groups to excel in the sciences and philosophies of cosmology. Literature and oratory flourish, and language is so improved as to be symbolic of concepts as well as to be expressive of ideas. Life is refreshingly simple; man has at last coordinated a high state of mechanical development with an inspiring intellectual attainment and has overshadowed both with an exquisite spiritual achievement. The pursuit of happiness is an experience of joy and satisfaction." [pages 629-630]

The entirety of Part IV, "The Life and Teachings of Jesus", is very much in keeping with the other portions of The Urantia Book - consistent, intelligent, and altogether fascinating. Events are described in a most straightforward fashion and annotated by a most enlightened commentary. As an interesting example, in referring to the biblically well-documented wedding at Cana, the exposition includes not only what occurred but also what was in the minds of Jesus and Mary and many other participants. An excerpt reads as follows: "Near at hand stood six waterpots of stone, filled with water, holding about twenty gallons apiece. This water was intended for subsequent use in the final purification ceremonies of the wedding celebration. the commotion of the servants about these huge stone vessels, under the busy direction of his mother, attracted Jesus' attention, and going over, he observed that they were drawing wine out of them by the pitcherful.

"It was gradually dawning upon Jesus what had happened. Of all the persons present at the marriage feast of Cana, Jesus was the most surprised. Others had expected him to work a wonder, but that was just what he had purposed not to do." [However] "in the face of the expressed wish of the Universe Creator Sovereign, there was no escaping the instantaneous appearance of wine."

"But this was in no sense a miracle. No law of nature was modified, abrogated, or even transcended. Nothing happened but the abrogation of time in association with the celestial assembly of the chemical elements requisite for the elaboration of the wine. At Cana on this occasion the agents of the Creator made wine just as they do by the ordinary natural processes except that they did it independently of time and with the intervention of superhuman agencies in the matter of the space assembly of the necessary chemical ingredients." [page 1530]
Many of Jesus' discourses to his twelve chosen apostles and to various individuals and groups, heretofore completely unreported in biblical sources, are presented in modern terms. On various occasions, Jesus spoke on such matters as time and space, the nature of reality, spiritual freedom, and interpersonal relationships as well as the more familiar topics such as justice and ;mercy, worship, prayer, and the Kingdom of God.

As an example, The Urantia Book relates some ideas that Jesus communicated to a friend; it states that "in substance and modern phraseology", Jesus had this to say about knowledge and truth: "Knowledge is the sphere of the material or fact-discerning mind. Truth is the domain of the spiritually endowed intellect that is conscious of knowing God. Knowledge is demonstrable; truth is experienced. Knowledge is a possession of the mind; truth is an experience of the soul, the progressing self. Knowledge is a function of the nonspiritual level; truth is a phase of the mind-spirit level of the universes. The eye of the material mind perceives a world of factual knowledge; the eye of the spiritualized intellect discerns a world of true values. These two views, synchronized and harmonized, reveal the world of reality, wherein wisdom interprets the phenomena of the universe in terms of progressive personal experience." [page 1435]

I sincerely urge you to consider a careful investigation of The Urantia Book. There are many facets to explore, consider, and return to - regardless of how you categorize or evaluate the book. Treat it not with awe, but with respect - if only for the advanced cosmology and compelling religiosity that it presents. I think you will be enlightened by the experience. I am completely persuaded that the concepts of The Urantia Book are on the frontier of the highest, deepest, and best of human thought in the history of man on this planet. Furthermore, the book has a subtle growth potential in that some parts of it are consistent with the knowledge of each of the past four decades; and there is a time-blossoming of new levels inherent in the exposition. This is the nature of its cumulative futuristic aspect and it is both original and compelling. The future destiny of the planet is hopeful; but a positive future depends directly upon the quality of integration of body, mind and spirit on the part of the mortal inhabitants, and upon the conceptual realization and implementation of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

The Urantia Book states that "We cannot judge religion by the status of its accompanying civilization; we had better estimate the real nature of a civilization by the purity and nobility of its religion." [page 1127] Also, "An ideal social order is that in which every man loves his neighbor as he loves himself." [page 1087] This is more than a graceful and attractive ideal. It can occur; it has occurred on other worlds not unlike our own. Furthermore, on a personal level, this concept is at the very basis of life's purpose; and it provides the key to survival, to happiness, and to eternal life! The Urantia Book offers some powerful and convincing arguments. It is truly a guide to the future - and beyond.