A Phenomenal Perspective

(Anonymous)

An Executive Assistant in Colorado.

How did The Urantia Book change my life? I've pondered this question for quite some time now and have really had to delve into the depths of my being to even begin to answer such a profound question. On the surface it may appear as though the Urantia Book hasn't effected my life much at all. I may or may not be better off in a material sense; intellectually I'm certain I've improved. Emotionally I've come to realize depths of awe, wonder, joy, and sorrow, much more fully than before. Physically I've grown through my challenges with what the "world" offers. Yet no where has The Urantia Book changed my life more profoundly than in my spirituality. Since each Epochal Revelation (periodic revelations coming to our planet from beyond) is a spiritual revelation it would not surprise me that this should be the case.

I've grown so much since first picking up The Urantia Book. Initially I read The Life and Teachings of Jesus, because of all the subject matter covered by the book, this interested me the most. I was so touched by what I read that I just had to examine the whole book more thoroughly. While skeptical in the beginning, as I read I found nothing so unreasonable to me I couldn't grasp the possibilities of it all being real. With my first complete reading, from the forward to page 2097, came the full understanding of the meaning of "cosmic citizen." I felt like I had gained this phenomenal perspective of God that could never have been given to me by a mere mortal. This perspective has only increased and grown with time. My sense of wonder and awe for God and His incredible diversity has grown so exponentially that I couldn't even consider reverting to olden belief systems.

Life is still as challenging as ever, in fact, perhaps even more so given these words of the Master to his apostles, "Teach all believers that those who enter the kingdom are not thereby rendered immune to the accidents of time or to the ordinary catastrophes of nature. Believing the gospel will not prevent getting into trouble, but it will insure that you shall be unafraid when trouble does overtake you. If you dare to believe in me and wholeheartedly proceed to follow after me, you shall most certainly by so doing enter upon the sure pathway to trouble. I do not promise to deliver you from the waters of adversity, but I do promise to go with you through all of them." The Urantia Book, Page 1767

To sum up my growth is ongoing day by day. Once the door to cosmic citizenship, to universal understandings, and to Sonship with God is opened, there is only one thing to do, walk through it. On the other side is a beautiful, bright new world, in fact, lots of bright new worlds that, as spiritual beings, we will be traversing on our way toward perfection and Paradise, there to meet the Universal Father, the First Source and Center of all things and beings.

Questions Answered

(Anonymous)

By Karen Larson, a wife and mother from New Jersey

All my life I have questioned everything! My curiosity for how and why things work the way they do, kept my teachers, parents and priests busy. Yet, many of my questions went unanswered. The ones that perplexed me the most were about religion. Many of the theological explanations I was given did not satisfy my inquisitive mind. I knew in my heart and soul that something was missing. To accept religious teachings with blind faith made no sense to me. I reasoned that if God were truly all that they said he was, then explanations about him would make sense, or at least be somewhat logical to my limited point of view. I never doubted the existence of God or the workings of a master plan, but I just didn’t have a clue how to reconcile the diverse thoughts and ideas of the various religions on our world. Each religion with its own agenda made me wonder, “Where does God fit in? What is the bigger picture?”

The day I started reading the Urantia Book, was the day my whole outlook on religion and life, as I had been living it, began to change. The questions, too long unanswered, suddenly came in a steady stream of inspiring truth. Finally, I had logical insights and explanations about “how all things work” for the good of God and His divine plan. The Urantia Book’s objective presentation was a refreshing light of life that I had never experienced before. The teachings on man’s evolution, change, progress and potential were arranged in a chronological sequence that completed the missing links, and fulfilled my desire to know where I had come from, why I was here and where I had the potential to go. My religion became mine, personal, unique and always alive and dynamic!

One gets a strange and wonderful feeling when truth permeates the soul, when the Spirit of truth helps you soar a million miles high. Some revelations that came with the book were difficult; it is hard to change one’s perspective of life after years of living. It is challenging to reassess the meanings and value of what is and what is not. It seemed easier to stay where I was, then to move diligently some other way. Yet when I read of Jesus, our Sovereign Creator Son of God, who became mortal, as I am mortal, and still chose God’s will at each turn, I knew that no longer could I hide in what the past. I had to act in the present with love, kindness and unselfishness. I had to learn to love and come to understand the motives of all my brothers and sisters, to honestly and sincerely seek the will of God each and everyday, in every single situation that I come upon.

Through the presentations of the Fifth Epochal Revelation, The Urantia Book, I have been given spiritual freedom and liberation from the bondage of my mortal flesh. I am no longer a female mortal living on earth, with fears of death, disease and despair. I am an ascending faith-daughter of God, and I have within me an actual fragment of His perfect spirit, who is my constant guide, companion and friend, one who is always there, telling me, ever so quietly, “This is the way.” I know that when it is MY will that His will be done, nothing can stop God’s divine plan for me.

The Urantia revelation assisted me in being “born again” to the awareness and presence of the immortal soul that evolves within me. My eternal potential was awakened by my need for more then material things. I have acquired an honest desire to change the aspects of myself that I know are not in alignment with God’s will. I am now attempting to live those changes, ever so slowly; day-by-day, year-by-year, through each new experience of my life. I am constantly reevaluating and adjusting my thoughts, words and deeds, so that they might become living examples of God’s will. I pray always to be guided by His love from within and above. Through communion and prayer, I daily discover the best path for my life’s travels.

No Longer An Orphan

(Anonymous)

Rob Crickett, a minister from Australia.

The Urantia papers afforded me a rational map of spiritual excellence whose starting point was beyond both the Eastern obsession with reincarnation and helplessness and the Western bondage to materiality, competitiveness and Satan. Both are orphans in a dreadful spiritual plight. From my youngest days I was attracted to God and his willing, personal, good and magnificent presence. We were friends from the first; and it was in a sense inevitable that as I grew in his ways we would meet in The Urantia Papers at a place, which resides beyond these confounding burdens that so stifle man's abilities to live a complete and true spiritual life.

The Urantia papers became the greatest literary influence in my adult spiritual life. Other writings, teachings, meditations, reflections and biographies have moved me deeply, as has the company of men and women who actively pushed the envelope of righteousness. The Urantia papers, however, provided me with a full and adequate map within which the highest ideals of my relatively insignificant and brief life could be located. No other writing and no other human life gave so much to me with such consistency, depth and breadth.

What impressed me was the book's explanation of the historic context into which I had been born. That context included the history of God; the history of the universe and its inhabitants; the history of mankind and of spirituality on earth; the history of sin and iniquity; and the history of Jesus as Christ Michael the Son of God. Just as impressive was the destiny into which I would live out my existence in this world and beyond: never separate from my Paradise father; not only to be equipped for but expected to achieve a most wonderful finality of spiritual perfection, actual fusion with God.

I had sought a teaching that would educate me beyond the wholly subjective and non-scientific enlightenment experience of the Buddhists, and I found it in the Urantia Papers. Buddhism helped me to find the God of an individual. Christianity helped me to find the God of a people. Both are magnificent but it was the Father who personally bridged the gulf between He and my earthly position. It was Christ Jesus who delivered me into personal fellowship with the divine, and later into the power from on high, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It was in friendliness and service that I found God in action in me, impeccably caring for his son or his daughter, even in death.

It was the Urantia Papers alone however that gave my soul the language to desire an absolute, unbreakable, incorruptible, and eternal fusion with the heart, mind, purpose and power of God: a fusion in which both the human and the divine were equally present, as they were in Jesus of Nazareth, the perfect example.

It was the Urantia Papers alone that gave me the wings to appropriate sonship with the Michael and Mother Spirit, the creative parents of this universe, a spiritual reality that is difficult of comprehensive explanation in any other scripture. The Urantia Papers alone provided the platform of understanding that later enabled my heavenly parents, by their own grace, to deliver me from a spiritual orphanhood, which strikes at the heart of this world and restricts the scope of every religion on it. Have you sonship with the persons who are God? Then you have transcended the heart of every religion on earth in a single step. That is the eternal and spiritual and saving gift of the Urantia Papers as I have experienced them.

Man divides himself by not knowing his past. He stresses himself by not knowing where he is destined. With no known past or future he is an orphan; and an orphan at war: he belongs only to himself, and he destroys himself. No matter how hard the orphan tries to bring about unity among other orphans, he is powerless to bring anything but the further effects of orphanhood. The Urantia Papers alone, from start to finish, herald the scriptural dawn of the breaking of this great blindness and burden on humanity. The world will benefit much from the message of freedom from orphanhood of the Urantia Papers. As the resurrected Jesus said: "Do you not perceive how great a salvation has come upon you?"

Born In Faith One Night

(Anonymous)

LORRIE SHAPIRO, Writer/Producer, California

It was 1975. I was twenty-three years old and just out of UCLA. I had spent the previous five years as an activist in the anti-war movement and the women’s movement. I truly believed in the brotherhood of man. And my political struggles had just been vindicated. The war I had fought so strongly against was almost over. The President I despised was also almost out of office. I was an activist without a cause.

I found myself working to pay off years of college debt in the front office of Erewhon, a natural-foods distribution and retail business. A lot of young people worked there. Some were into EST and some were into the fifteen-year-old “perfect master,” a chubby Indian boy with some serious lineage. I was into neither. I got the job because the manager thought my astrological sign, Aries, would be good for the place. I thought the people around me were well meaning but deluded beyond belief.

One of the millers from the grain department and I began a romantic relationship. Of course he was really a rock musician with a day job. Steve was a spiritual kind of guy, and my first non-political boyfriend. A great love developed. He spoke to me of spiritual matters, and I was responding like crazy. I had never even heard these things talked about before. My higher mind was opening for the first time.

Six months into our relationship, we went on an overnight camping trip in his VW van (what else?). He said he had been waiting for the right moment to give me something special, and that it would change my life. I couldn’t imagine what it was. I was filled with anticipation.

We parked the van in a cow pasture by Lake Piru outside of Los Angeles. Night fell, and we talked by flashlight. Finally, he reached behind the driver’s seat and pulled out a large blue book. The hairs on my arms stood straight up. The base of my neck tingled. I reached for the book. “Wait,” he said. He turned to page 1118 and began to read aloud,

“To the unbelieving materialist, man is simply an evolutionary accident. His hopes of survival are strung on a figment of mortal imagination; his, fears, loves, longings, and beliefs are but the reaction of the incidental juxtaposition of certain lifeless atoms of matter. No display of energy nor expression of trust can carry him beyond the grave.”

As Steve read on through those first three paragraphs, a membrane burst in my mind. I saw for the first time.

“ … Each day of life slowly and surely tightens the grasp of a pitiless doom which a hostile and relentless universe of matter has decreed shall be the crowning insult to everything in human desire which is beautiful, noble, lofty and good.”

“No!” my mind screamed in despair. “This cannot be true!”

“But such is not man’s end and eternal destiny; such a vision is but the cry of despair uttered by some wandering soul who has become lost in spiritual darkness, and who bravely struggles on in the face of the mechanistic sophistries of a materialistic philosophy, blinded by the confusion and distortion of a complex learning.”

“That’s me!”

“ … And all this doom of darkness, and all this destiny of despair are forever dispelled by one brave stretch of faith on the part of the most humble and unlearned of God’s children on earth.”

That was it! One brave stretch of faith was all it took. I stretched in that moment, and have never looked back.

I spent the next eight hours wearing out the flashlight battery as I pored over this amazing book. I understood it totally. There was nothing I read that night that sounded new to me. It was as if I already knew everything in it, but was relearning it by reading it.

And thus it has been ever since.

Four years later, my relationship with the rock-and-roll miller ended. My life has taken many turns throughout the years since that fateful night. But the one constant, the one undeniable and unwavering truth about me has remained, I believe that The Urantia Book is a revelation to humanity. As the preamble to Paper 102 concludes:

“This saving faith has its birth in the human heart when the moral consciousness of man realizes that human values may be translated in mortal experience from the material to the spiritual, from the human to the divine, from time to eternity.”

I had been born in faith that night—July 4, 1975. And today, as in every day since, I thank the Father for this great gift.

End Of A Long Search

(Anonymous)

Joseph Patrick Hunneman, a professional musician in Ohio.

When I discovered The Urantia Book I was on what I thought to be the tail end of my search for truth on Earth. I had already read many of the sacred texts of the world, including different translations of the Bible; the one from the Eastern Christian Church was the most interesting.

I had gone to every type of church that I could get into. I slept on the floor and meditated my self to sleep every night. I studied my dreams and practiced a few yoga positions. I tried self-hypnosis, which seemed to work pretty well for minor wish fulfillment, but I simply was not getting it. Then when I got The Urantia Book I knew it was knowledge from beyond this world. It was too deep for anyone alive at the time, or even now, to have written. This seamless blend of cosmology and theology with the detailed story of Jesus' life, not to mention the almost humorous names that the authors invented, this could only have been done by some one seeing us from the "outside".

After reading the book all the way through three times in about twelve years, I feel that it has fundamentally changed me, but only in a way that I allowed and only to the extent that the Heavenly Father allowed.

The Urantia Book helps me to:
•Love unconditionally, love everyone, especially God.
•Forgive my enemies, forgive often and forgive myself.
•Live by the will of God, ask to know His will.
•Allow myself to be an instrument of God.
•Pray for enemies, pray for peace, but do not pray selfishly!
•Visualize the path ahead, learn everything you can, experience all of life that you can.
•Do the best that you can, be yourself, be good.
These are some of the important things that I have learned from the book. It wasn't until I read the book that I realized that I had been pushing too hard, searching for the Kingdom when it was already “at hand”. Besides, everywhere I looked someone wanted money, or for me to cut my hair, or for me never to cut my hair again, or believe a doomsday prophesy. Some were even waiting for the trees to come alive and eat us and grind us into dust to fertilize their emerging super intelligence with our remains.

The greatest thing that I have gotten from the Father and The Urantia Book is that there is nothing at all to be afraid of and that God loves all of us very much.

A Blessing In A World Gone Mad

(Anonymous)

Morris Z. Jacobs, unemployed in South Africa

I am a twenty seven year old black South African. I am the youngest in a family of six (five brothers and one sister). I was raised in a quiet, religious and political family home, which was reasonably comfortable, in the only way families could be during apartheid in a black township.

However, my family home life was never a bed of roses. As the youngest member of the family I have had my own share of hardship and sorrow. Circumstances had from an early age forced me to grow up too quickly; misguided and confused. I have made mistakes…sometimes very serious mistakes in my life. But I am glad and grateful that God has given me a chance to become a better person before I go to the grave. If there is anything positive about me today, it is all credit to God, no doubt!

I am very concerned about the spiritual and political understandings of my own people too. I am also very attentive to what is happening in the world. The Urantia Book, in my opinion, is a blessing in a world gone mad. It casts a light into the darkness and explains many strange, political, religious and social events. I really appreciate the straight-forward and technical approach it uses to get the truth across.

In my personal research into our worldwide situations, I understand many of the book’s conclusions. However, I do not have the knowledge or expertise necessary to understand all of its science, but the spiritual chapters are truly convincing. I’ve always believed that all that the Bible says is true and sacred. Thanks to The Urantia Book my interest in searching out the truth has been taken to a new level.

I have no problem with the origin of the book because it is not hard for me to perceive the truth as revealed in these papers. Let the Spirit of Truth carry us all into this new millennium and beyond.

These Beings Are Real

Submitted by Doug Huntzinger

Doug Huntzinger, a self-employed ship model builder from California.

My question during the early 1990's was, "What is a human being?" I couldnЃft help but wonder, ЃgWhy are all these people on this planet? What is their purpose? God only knows!Ѓh I searched in a lot of places for the answer, trying everything from different religions to extraterrestrial literature. No real or satisfying answer was forthcoming.

Then in 1993 my mother handed me a big blue book that had been sitting on her shelf since 1955, mostly unread. I must have passed by that book thousands of times. It was The URANTIA Book.

The Urantia Book revealed to me just what a human being is and what original cause we flow from. It also revealed the realm of spiritual beings. Entities such as the Spirit of Truth and angels that are right here and can be contacted. I very much desired to have contact with the spirit realm. What to do?

I finished my first reading of the book during the summer of 1995, and I asked a fellow UB reader how to contact the Holy Spirit. He suggested I try a Pentecostal church as he had done some years before.

I had been watching certain TV ministers for several months and saw many people filled with the Spirit of Truth or the Holy Ghost, as it is often called. I had never seen people so happy. I had to be touched by Spirit as well.

I attended a United Pentecostal church for two weeks and then went on a Men's Retreat high up in the mountains near Los Angeles. It was during the first night's service that I was actually "Baptized by the Holy Spirit." As I stood in the middle of the camp dinning hall the Spirit entered me head first, at the swirl of hair on top. Upon entering it energized inside of me for about 30 minutes. It felt like a thousand volts of spiritual electricity that are filled with pure love. My first thought was that this was like science and that God must be a great scientist. A white mist formed around me and I was covered by golden spirit fire. As I looked up, the ceiling disappeared. I could see thousands of stars and galaxies in full color and everything was in silent and slow motion. It was awesome. I was happy and smiling.

It was the first five seconds of this event that validated The URANTIA Book for me because I had experienced the reality of the Beings it was teaching me about. Being indwelled by JesusЃf Spirit of Truth was like being held in the arms of Jesus. The love I felt was cosmic and eternal.

Later that night I was very surprised by a visit from two Celestial Beings. They spoke to me and gave me four messages:

Do not fear - God is with you always.
Do not worry - you will be lifted up.
It took a lot of work to make this universe - we hope you care!
Since the Spirit of Truth put a blessing on your hands tonight, do not touch any object or person in an ungodly manner.
The next morning my hands were still on fire from the night before. I climbed out of my truck that was parked among the tall trees and rejoiced in a beautiful day. The fire in my hands lasted about three months.

That event proved to me that The Urantia book is real and that contact with the spirit world is a very real possibility. Before I saw a stranger as just another person, but now I see them as a child of God.

The Universe Creator Is My Dad

(Anonymous)

Christopher Lepine, a freelance writer from Delaware.

Twenty years ago, a next-door neighbor lent me The Urantia Book. At that time, I had a worldview marred by misconceptions, fears, and an ignorance of life’s spiritual essentials. After spending some time with the book, I found that I was not only beginning to see the world differently, but also myself, and thus, was becoming a new person. It gave me a way to remake my life and actually become a bit more alive each day.

My real life began based on several core truths I found in the book. When I allowed myself to believe and contemplate them, everything changed and kept changing. To this day, when I actively think and live these truths, I am thrilled and instantly empowered to do anything.

The re-creation of my being is profound and unending. Challenges that I once thought impossible to overcome are now met with strength and openness. I am completely on fire with the joy and possibility of life. I still go through ups and downs, but in all of it, I grow stronger daily and become more alive and real.

As an eighteen-year-old new to The Urantia Book, I had many issues and yearnings: I felt out of touch with people. I never seemed to fit in. I had little confidence in my abilities. I was always afraid to try, thinking that I just didn’t have it in me or that the consequences would be bad. I didn’t know what career I wanted to pursue. I had a few close friends, but was basically a lonely person. I wanted to realize my destiny and feel the full joy of relating to people. I had neither a clue nor a source of strength with which to accomplish these things. I had a spiritual outlook, but it was black and white, monotone, flat, conventional, and dim: It lacked the power to set me on fire and change my life. Then I found The Urantia Book and the truths that would release me.

So, what did this mysterious, enormous blue book give me – like no other – that made a difference?

Well, it gave me the courage to change my life and myself. Very shortly, I was spending more rewarding and quality time with people than I ever had. I was volunteering, dancing, hiking, going to concerts, and enjoying Urantia Book discussion groups. I started to date more women, began to try new projects, and generally believe that I could change myself. Today I am happily married and employed. I live in a great community, rich with family and friends.

Over time the key truths in The Urantia Book transformed my mind and improved my ability to make decisions: I started to challenge myself, take more risks, and yearn for adventure. When I had a problem, I began to see it as a growth opportunity. When I was afraid, I sought to change myself with courage. When I failed, I used the truths to show me the real value of learning. When I became mired in introversion and introspection, they helped me to emerge to socialize and serve others. When I didn’t know what to do with my life, they reminded me to open up and receive divine guidance. When I wanted to become more than I was, they inspired me and allowed God to fill me.

Today I continue to build my life on the foundation of truths in The Urantia Book: I am a child of a perfect and loving Father-God whom I can contact directly in any moment. He loves me with a sublime parental affection that will see me through everything. He wants me to grow, be happy, and know the joy of adventure. He wants me to see myself as He sees me, an eternal being of light, happy and confident with endless potential. He gives me everything I need. He is a loving parent, true friend, and a perfect, eternal, infinite Deity. The Creator of the universe is my Dad.

The Designer of all that is, the greatest, unlimited power of all, listens to me each day and offers His kind guidance and gentle divine touch. I know I will surmount every challenge. I know I will grow and exist for eternity. I know there is an unending panorama of breathtaking adventure and discovery in this life and the next. I know that no influence or power in the universe (as Paul has said) can come between me and my God.

The Urantia Book has taught me that it is my right to approach God simply through the sincerity of my heart and the effort of my will. I do not need to join any human institution or follow any human being to be close to God. I know that if I truly make an effort to pray and listen, grow and work, forgive and serve, then I will experience the full joy of intimate contact with God.

I know through the wonderful example of Jesus as portrayed in The Urantia Book, that I can overcome anything and that, in him, I have a loving, understanding and sympathetic brother by my side. I know that humankind is designed for greatness. I know that every act of good helps me grow and is never lost or forgotten, despite appearances. I know that the Spirit of God lives in me and will always be there to guide me.

I know that each day is a new beginning.

I know all of this and so much more, all because I know The Urantia Book.

The Truth Will Make You Free

Submitted by Paula Thompson

Paula Thompson, a Nonprofit Director from Colorado.

It may be easier for me to say how The Urantia Book hasn’t changed my life, because it has virtually had an effect on how I view everything. One thing the book has not done for me is take away life’s challenges. I am sure my life is just as challenging as it would have been had I never found and read the book. Having said that, I can say with absolute certainty that the truth, wisdom and philosophy of The Urantia Book has helped me get through every difficulty, even tragedy, with calm assurance, grace and dignity.

Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I always wondered what he meant by that. What would the truth free you from? I searched for truth in many places, and my experience with so-called “religious truth” did not have a liberating effect on me. In fact, most often after I heard these declarations of “truth” I was more burdened than I had been before I heard them. That is, being told that I was a “wretched miserable sinner” who would “go to hell” if I did not do exactly as ecclesiastic authorities dictated, did not exactly lift my spirits nor make me feel free. Neither was I inclined to worship a God whose primary purpose was to punish his erring children, or one who favored one child over another. My own imperfect parents were more wise, kind and loving than that.

At the tender age of 16, I had a heart to heart talk with God and I told him, “I’m not sure how you are God. You may be the way they say you are, and if you are, I’m sorry, but I can’t worship you.” After a moments reflection I added, “Somehow God, I don’t think you are that way and I’m just going wait for you to reveal how you really are to me.” I had peace, for inwardly I felt he would do just that. Four years later, in the midst of the worst crisis of my life, I found The Urantia Book.

Words can’t describe the joy I felt when I read statements like: “Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice; God as a father transcends God as a judge.”

I was completely lifted and liberated when I read: “God is inherently kind, naturally compassionate, and everlastingly merciful. And never is it necessary that any influence be brought to bear upon the Father to call forth his loving-kindness. The creature's need is wholly sufficient to insure the full flow of the Father's tender mercies and his saving grace.”

I let go of a great deal of anxiety to learn that: “What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity.”

I marveled to contemplate: “Therefore settle in your philosophy now and forever: To each of you and to all of us, God is approachable, the Father is attainable, the way is open; the forces of divine love and the ways and means of divine administration are all interlocked in an effort to facilitate the advancement of every worthy intelligence of every universe to the Paradise presence of the Universal Father.”

These profound words of truth rang like a gong in my soul, and they did surely make me free.

The Urantia Book showed me the way to overcome doubt, anxiety, fear, confusion, despair and loneliness. It’s not that I don’t still grapple with these emotions, I do, but the words of wisdom and love in this astonishing book come to me in dark moments and restore my faith “that all things work together for good.” The book saved me, from myself, by showing how to overcome base human tendencies. Even so, the book did more than just help me with negative and perplexing human emotions, it has given me something that is more valuable to me than all the riches in the world, and that is hope. Hope for myself, my children, the future of the human race, eternal life and perfection. It has given me absolute faith that there is reason to have hope for us all.

There is one more way in which The Urantia Book has changed my life and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it. More than anything I have ever encountered, The Urantia Book has given me a cosmic perspective, a way to view our fragile human estate the way God views it; with tolerance, love and forgiveness.

Something Grand To Work Towards

Submitted by Saskia Raevouri

Saskia Raevouri, a Disney Animator from California.

How did the Urantia Book change my life?

Before I was able to become a believer in God and have a purposeful life, I needed the answer to one question: What will happen to me when I die? Will I disappear? Will I be reborn as someone else, with no memory of this life? Or will I still be ME, with my personality, my consciousness and my memories intact? Until I had a satisfactory answer, my life was a meaningless round of eating, sleeping (mostly insomnia), shopping for clothes, working to earn money, and stress-filled relationships.

In 1977, aged 31, I discovered through reading the Urantia Book that I would continue to be ME after I died. When I KNEW that to be true deep inside my soul everything changed.

Suddenly my life had meaning and purpose. I now had a DIRECTION to live in--from where I found myself at that moment all the way into Paradise, even if it took four hundred billion years to get there. I began to see things in a universe framework. I went from living in a one-dimensional world to a multi-dimensional world, from black and white to color, from a world populated not only by humans but angels and hosts of other friendly beings who were here to help show the way. Studying our planetary history revealed how I had come to this point through the doings of my ancestors, knowing about the mansion worlds was like an exciting travel brochure depicting where I was going immediately after this life, and learning of our eternal destiny gave me something grand to work towards.

Discovering Jesus and his teachings taught me that God was a friend I could talk to, who understood me even when others didn't. I learned that being kind to others has eternal value, that such actions are the building blocks of the spiritual universe. Nice guys DIDN’T always finish last, as I had previously believed! I began to learn to tolerate people who irritated me, to see their viewpoint instead of mine. I could now cultivate the things that I knew I could take with me into the next life instead of worrying about how big my wardrobe was. I went from anxiety-filled nights to resting peacefully. (I still have insomnia but now I can contemplate the stupendous universe instead of worrying about eternal oblivion.)

The fact that I would continue to know the people I loved after this life added depth to my relationships. I felt a new closeness to ALL my earth brothers and sisters – one day in the distant future we would be able to look back on our Urantia experience as having survived a shipwreck or a plane crash together. I began to see this life as an opportunity to help each other cope with the disaster, and view it with a sense of humor.

Through the information in The Urantia Book I gained hope, strength, security, peace of mind, and the comfort that comes from knowing we are not expected to be perfect YET, as long as we strive to be perfect.

And that is how the Urantia Book changed my life!

Engaged On Every Level

(Anonymous)

Charlotte Wellen, an English and Choices teacher from Virginia.

My youth was one long search – through every religion on earth – for anything that could speak to my soul about Truth and God. I found many such truths, but many questions were left unanswered. I especially was dissatisfied with the Christian religion as my family and the culture of the South practiced it. The condemnation to an eternity in Hell of all who seek outside Christianity was disgusting to me.

Finally, I came to the study of the Urantia Book. It engaged me on every level. I was fascinated, at first, by who in the world could have written such a phenomenal work. Soon, I realized that whoever wrote it, it was going to be important to my development as a spiritual being.

As I read through it the first few times, I could feel a kind of "adjustment" taking place inside me. By adjustment, I mean that the book was inviting me to take out every assumption about my existence, turn it around and look at it in another way, through the light of the truth within, and to toss out whatever couldn't stand up to that light.

I had to examine my beliefs about reincarnation, the souls of animals, and the life of Jesus. I came to an understanding of my future and it felt "right." Now, I can love Christ without having to accept the condemnatory beliefs and mythologies of modern Protestant and Catholic Christianity. It's a welcome relief to be able to love Jesus, whom I had always felt didn't fit into the religion that carried His name. Because of The Urantia Book I spend every day in a dialogue with God. I know what I'm working toward. I can't wait to see the mansion worlds, to meet my guardian angels, to learn and learn and learn.

I feel now, as if I am a citizen of the universe, not just of the U.S., or even of this planet. I also feel the strength that comes from having to find God from my own inner leading, and not from external sources. I know that I have developed spiritual muscles from having to struggle on my own to find God's Truths. I hope that I can use these strengths in the service of God the Father and the Holy Spirit at some point in the far-flung future of the universe.

It Just Made Sense

(Anonymous)

Geoff Taylor, an engineer from Manitoba, Canada.

I grew up in an Anglican environment, my father was the leader of the church alter guild, and I was your stereotypical choirboy and alter boy. God was good and times were great. With a silver spoon in my mouth as a compass and an ego that had wings big enough to fly solo, I needed nothing to take on the big world.

As successes piled up I questioned the need for, and the very existence of, God. The Bible became illogical. This biblical anthropomorphic God was irrational and inconsistent. I now had enough science to know that the purported miracles were probably misunderstandings of natural events. As far as creation/evolution went I could explain all but the preexistent energy of the big bang.

Had it not been for the exceptional creditability of the person who introduced me to The Urantia Book I would never have read it. Having read it, I will admit that I have never taken anything more seriously in my life. The coin flipped and suddenly the miracles made sense, the concept of God made sense, this life, the next life, eternity, all made sense.

The Urantia Book was logical, internally consistent, intellectually stimulating, and every reading seemed to amplify my depth of understanding. There was however one major drawback to reading it. With the increase in understanding came a commensurate increase in self-expectation. It has taken some time to come to grips with these newfound responsibilities to the brotherhood of man and a God who accepts the consequences of my actions.

The Urantia Book changed my life from complete confidence in self to complete confidence in God.

I Found My Flippers

(Anonymous)

By Larry Gwynn, a poet from Georgia

All seekers of who they are within the universe come to a nexus wherein they feel like a ball in a pinball machine that is getting bounced around pell-mell and they have no idea where the flippers are to guide the ball. The Urantia Book gave me a context, a framework in which I could understand the search for the relationships that bind the universe together. As for where the flippers are? The Urantia Book gave me the answer and it turns out to be a delightful