How The Urantia Book Changed My Life.
Part I
Дата добавления: 2008-12-07
Автор: 13 авторов
Found The Urantia Book In My Dreams
In 1971 I had a reoccurring dream, about a room filled with books. I was always in the room looking for a book.
One day my husband and I decided to go to a Goodwill store on the north side of Chicago. I walked in the bookroom and I knew this was the room in my dream. I started looking through the books and the third book I picked up was The Urantia Book. I looked at the contents and told my husband "This is the book I've been looking for. This is why this room was coming to me in dreams." I bought The Urantia Book for $2.50.
I was overwhelmed by the contents. I looked up the Urantia Foundation and spoke to someone there. I explained that I didn't understand the names and I was getting a headache just trying to comprehend the papers. The person at the Foundation told me to read the life and teachings of Jesus, which I did in a weekend. I couldn't put the book down. After reading about Jesus's life I could then understand, for some reason, everything the book said.
I have loaned this book to many ministers of every faith, because I believe it is supposed to be shared. I truly believe every person should read this book. It has changed my life and helped many of the people who I've shared it with.
Colorado Country Boy Finds A Revelation
The following story is taken from the new book: "You've Got To Read This Book," by Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks, available at Amazon.com.
Mo Siegel's chapter is devoted to his favorite book - The Urantia Book. Following is the entire chapter:
In 1970, Mo Siegel co-founded Celestial Seasonings Tea Company with only $500 of capital. Mo and his friends harvested the first two years of tea production by combing the mountains of Colorado in search of exotic herb teas growing wild. He led the company to a successful acquisition by Kraft, Inc., in 1984 and left the company in 1986. Two years later, he returned to the Celestial Seasonings Board of Directors when the company became independent by buying itself back from Kraft. In 1991, Mo once again became chairman and CEO and then took the company public. In 2000, he oversaw the merger of Celestial with The Hain Food Group to become the Hain Celestial Group. For two years Mo stayed to oversee the transition between the companies. Mo retired in September 2002 to begin a new era in his life. Today he serves on numerous corporate boards of directors, actively invests, travels, climbs the “fourteeners,” the 55 Colorado peaks that exceed 14,000 feet in height, and loves being a dad and grandpa.
I am a Colorado country boy, chiseled out of the snow and rock of these mountains. The year I was born, my father, who was raised in Chicago , moved our family to a dairy ranch on the side of a 9,000-foot-mountain pass in Colorado . The stormy weather at the ranch proved too harsh for the cattle, so that spring my father moved to us to Palmer Lake, a little mountain town at an elevation of just over 7000 feet—still high by most standards—where I spent my childhood.
When I was two years old, my mother was killed by a drunk driver, leaving my traumatized father to raise three young children alone. Although my father, a self-styled Jewish John Wayne, was deeply religious, he had always led an unconventional spiritual life. He’d married my mother, although she was a Protestant, and felt closest to God while riding horses in the mountains; he prayed by the rivers and spent little time in formal religious environments. At home his religious word stood supreme, at least in his presence. But like my dad and his father before him, I grew up curious about religion, unconventional in my ideas, and in quest of deeper spiritual meaning. As a consequence—and to the terrible annoyance of my dad—I asked a lot of questions about God and religion. During my formative years I was especially troubled by the apparent conflict between science and religion over the subject of evolution.
I spent my last two years of high school living at a Catholic monastery and attending their college prep school. I entered the monastery school as a confused agnostic and graduated as a searching Christian. At the monastery, one of the priests introduced me to the teachings of the brilliant Catholic theologian, Teilhard de Chardin. Chardin’s elegant writing on the relationship between religion and science propelled me to read a broad array of books on evolution. Before long, Charles Darwin became one of my life heroes, and his theories laid the foundation for my thinking on the subject. While searching bookstores for books on evolution, I also scoured the religion sections. I spent a number of years reading a wide range of religious books at an almost frenetic pace, ranging from Norman Vincent Peale to Taoism. The more I read on religion and science, the more I was convinced that science reflected the divine nature of God, rather than contradicting it. I wanted to understand how the world was the way it was. The idea that the universe was created in six days, or even 6,000 years, was something that wasn’t working for me. I was rapidly moving toward centrist Christianity with a complete endorsement of scientific fact.
It was in 1969 at age 19 that I first encountered The Urantia Book. A number of friends had praised its teachings on evolution, and that Christmas a girlfriend gave it to me. I was surprised at its daunting size: 2,097 pages long. What confounded me the most was that the book contained 875 pages on the life and teachings of Jesus, including the missing years of his life—from age one to twelve and then from age thirteen to approximately thirty—not chronicled in the Bible. How strange and intriguing, I thought. Dinosaurs and Jesus all in one text. I didn’t read it right away; instead, I lent it to a friend. But over the course of the next few months, people kept telling me about The Urantia Book. So late one night, after hearing, “You really have to read this book,” for what seemed like the hundredth time, I knocked on my friend’s door and told him, “I need my book back.” For the next year, I was absorbed in reading it—and I’ve been reading it ever since. Even today, I still host a weekly Urantia Book study group at my home.
Initially, I found the Foreword to The Urantia Book utterly confusing, but I kept reading anyway. What followed was a fascinating intellectual and spiritual adventure that shook up everything I thought I knew. The first two parts of the book describe God, the Trinity, the organization and structure of the universe, life on other worlds, life after death, angels and other personalities, and Heaven. When I read Part Three, I felt as though I’d won the lottery. This section deals with the origin and history of our world, starting from the origin of our sun over six billion years ago—when it spun out of the disintegrating Andronover Nebula—and ending with the birth of Jesus. From ice ages to saber tooth tigers; from the first human family to the evolution of modern government; from the story of Adam and Eve to the birth of prayer--The Urantia Book presented a logical story of physical and social evolution. It was the bridge between science and religion that I had been searching for, and I was finally at peace with the subject that had consumed me for years.
The fourth section of the book recounts the magnificent life and teachings of Jesus. Before I read The Urantia Book, I loved the story of Jesus in the New Testament, but I had always felt disappointed that it only covered a few years of his life. I wanted to know his entire life story and have it fit into a bigger context. Being born to a Christian mother, raised by a non-conformist Jewish father, and having spent two years in a Catholic monastery, my smorgasbord of religious education had taught me to question everything. How did the idea that Jesus was the only son of God relate to Moses, Buddha and other prophets? And if you were born in India and had never heard of Jesus, would you really go to “hell?” When I read the section in The Urantia Book about Jesus, I was profoundly moved: Jesus—both the human being and the Son of God—came alive in the most superbly written biographical literature that I have ever come across. In addition to reframing Jesus for me, it made me far more respectful and appreciative of my childhood training in both Judaism and Christianity.
Simply put, Part Four transformed my life from one of doubt to one of faith, from one of insecurity to one of trust in God—with Jesus as the lens in which God becomes visible. As a spiritual adventurer, I was thrilled that the Jesus of The Urantia Book built upon the Bible, and then took me a hundred miles further.
The Urantia Book changed three major things inside me. First, it made me examine my values and commit myself to doing something worthwhile with my life. After college, studying and peace marches were replaced by the ordinary tasks of living: making money and raising a family. After studying the teachings in The Urantia Book, I knew that it would feel selfish and wasteful to simply focus on material success. So, as a young man, when I began thinking of what I could do to make a living, I immediately turned to the health food industry. I was adamant that whatever product or service I sold should be healthy and make a positive difference in people’s quality of life.
Growing up in Colorado , I had developed a love for hiking and spending time in the mountains. Not long after I read The Urantia Book, I decided to start collecting the herbs that grew wild in the canyons and valleys of the mountains around Boulder . With the help of friends, I collected and dried 500 pounds of my first blend, called Mo's 36 Herb Tea®. It was packaged in hand-sewn muslin bags and sold to a local health food store. This was the start of Celestial Seasonings Teas, which today is the largest manufacturer and marketer of specialty teas in the North America .
Like all business people, I have had to make choices every step of the way. My materialistic side could easily have hardened me, forming me into one tough businessman. But the ideals I internalized from The Urantia Book kept pushing me to choose good over greed and to care about the people I worked with as well as the people who bought our products. In fact, those ideas were the inspiration for the uplifting quotes we print on the side of our tea boxes and on our teabag tags!
The second thing the book for me did was instill the importance of family. One line in the book reads, “The family is man's greatest purely human achievement.” Everything I have done since reading The Urantia Book—from my career to my mountain-climbing—has been influenced by my decision to put my family first. I vividly remember the moment when I first understood the choices this commitment required. It was December 24th. I was 26 years old and was sitting in the beautifully appointed office of the first billionaire I’d ever met. It was an important meeting: the billionaire and another executive in the company—also extremely wealthy—were talking to me about investing in Celestial Seasonings. Although the offices were emptying as employees departed to celebrate Christmas Eve, these two men just wanted to talk to me. It was snowing like crazy and I realized I might get stranded at the airport if I stayed much longer. I thought, “I’m going to miss Christmas with my wife and three young children…chasing after money!”
After a while, when the building was empty except for us, I asked one of the men where he was spending Christmas and what he was doing that night. He broke down and told me of his many divorces and how his children hated him. It turned out that he had nowhere to go. The billionaire also had been through multiple divorces and had no one waiting for him at home. They were hanging around their luxurious offices, entertaining a 26-year-old kid—because they didn’t have anywhere better to go. The combination of the snowstorm, the two lonely men in that super-rich office and the quote in The Urantia Book about human achievement and family hit me hard. I asked myself, What’s important in life?
The answer was obvious. I stood up and said, “Excuse me, I’ve got to catch a plane.” I left them, those two sad older men, and went home to spend the holiday with my wife and kids.
The third and most valuable thing that The Urantia Book did for me was to make God real. I once saw a sign on the inside of a friend’s front door that said, “God is knocking on the door; let’s see whose face he’s wearing this time.” I loved that idea, but it wasn’t yet my experience. Finding God on an everyday basis—and in everyone I met—seemed an almost impossible task for me. After reading and absorbing The Urantia Book’s specific and detailed teachings about the real fragment of God that dwells within all of us, I slowly grew to trust that a very real part of God has been implanted in our minds to guide our decisions toward God. This part of God—the still small voice of Christianity and Judaism, the Atman of Hinduism and the Tao of Taoism—lives with us in our joys and our sufferings. Experiencing God as something real and tangible inside of me and inside of you, and not just some kind of wispy spirit, was pivotal for me. This reality has shaped every single day of my life since that time.
When I first heard people discussing The Urantia Book, they said it was a revelation, written not by human beings, but by angels, which I thought was just the goofiest thing I’d ever heard. I ended up reading it in spite of all that. After I read it, I was not concerned about who had written it or how it had been written because it was so powerful. I’d wanted bold; I found bold. I’d wanted spiritual adventure and I was on the ride of my life. I’d wanted truth and the book was loaded with it. Since that time, I have looked into it deeply and I cannot find any author associated with the book. But that is not the point, because I love what it says and I’m a much better person because of its teachings. I’ve learned not to pick fights with the books I read—I’m appreciative and I grow from them.
Hippie Chick Seeks Revelation
As a youth, for seven consecutive summers, I attended Les Chalets Franзais, an exclusive French camp on Deer Isle, off the coast of Maine. Many nights, I would look up at the stellar sky, breathe in the balsam-scented forests and wonder; Who am I? Why am I here? Is there life after death? Is there life on other planets? When will I meet them? I hoped that someday, perhaps when I died, I might learn the answers.
My last summer there, after having studied the nature of atoms in 7th Grade, I marveled under that Deer Isle starry canopy. I saw clearly how an atom with a nucleus and electrons spinning around it, was a microcosm of our solar system, with the sun as the nucleus and its revolving planetary hosts. Worlds within worlds. Life forms within cells. Mind blowing universes. Seemed teeming with life.
I grew up with a religious Catholic mother and temple-twice-a-year Jewish father. I chose to attend Catechism as well as Sabbath School, sincerely wanting to learn about God. Because my parents were different religions, they didn’t tell me what to believe in, but gave me the opportunity to “find God on my own.” It was lovely that when they traveled together, they always brought me back an angel statue. I enjoyed that both their religions had angels in common.
At age twelve I started visiting other local churches just to check it out and broadening my spiritual horizons as well as social opportunities. (The Protestant church held great teen dances and youth adventure trips.) I tried morning glory seeds in Winchester Cathedral on one such church trip at age twelve. I thought maybe I would someday become a nun. But then, maybe a nun that kept her hair long, rode the country on a horse with a guitar and talked about God, maybe sing a few Bob Dylan or Joan Baez songs.
I first smoked cannabis sativa, at age fourteen in the cemetery outside a church dance with my best friend, Lorin, the two young hippie male heirs at the time of the K Mart and Syracuse China fortunes.
Then were the influence of The Beatles, The Doors, Jimi, Ravi Shankar, Aldous Huxley, Salvador Dali, Timothy Leary and a host of ancient and modern teachers and wisdom to tap into. I enjoyed exploring the possibilities…
In desperation, to keep me away from the burgeoning hippie movement, at age fifteen, I was sent to Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. My parents hoped I would grow up a proper young lady. At Miss Hall’s I wore beads and a small tinkling bell with my pinstriped uniform and blue blazer. I was the only hippie; less interested in Gucci shoes and Papagalo purses, than paisley and patchouli.
One Saturday, out on the town of Pittsfield, I picked up a book called Yoga, Youth and Reincarnation by Jess Stearn. It promised to reveal ancient secrets on topics such as health, sex and awareness. How else is a young girl supposed to learn about these things at an all girls’ school? I bought the book.
A week later, my friend George who I met at an anti-Vietnam War rally in the park brought me into my first health food store; on Main Street. We were both tripping on LSD. I could feel the energy radiating from the bin of organic apples, mung bean sprouts bursting into life, and sun dried papaya candy bars.
By the next Saturday, I had become vegetarian, was doing yoga before class, growing sprouts, and recommending chamomile tea for headache and cramps. I’m sure it was better than going to the school nurse, and getting an aspirin. I even had Tupelo honey.
I once had the privilege of helping Sally from the room down the hall; get over a difficult LSD experience, for which prayer and Rescue Remedy helped, much more than a trip to the emergency ward to have your stomach pumped could ever have.
I even had a small business in my dorm where I sold day-glo paint from Greenwich Village, and posters and buttons that visually proclaimed Make Love not War, God is Alive in a Sugar Cube, and a handsome drawing of Jesus saying, “Just tell them I said you can wear your hair long.” I was also getting a great education in French, Spanish, Latin, English History, World Religions, Dance, and Art.
I was eventually expelled from Miss Hall’s for some illegal, though therapeutic herbs found in a drawer along with ginseng root, and rosemary essential oil for excelling at tests.
A year later, instead of attending Bard College as planned, at nineteen I was living in a teepee on a commune in the Ozark Mountains of Reynolds, Missouri. My daughter Sunflower Sparkle Mars, born at home was in a papoose as I harvested wild edibles to feed my “tribe” of about twenty assorted freaky friends. Lambsquarter, elderberries, blackberries, watercress, purslane, wild onion, black walnuts and acorns were among our sustenance. We dried extra plants in the sun on the hot black surface of a trampoline to store food for the winter, as we had no electricity.
Another teepee dweller was Bobaroo, a bold young man with long auburn curls and intense brown eyes. He had lived as a fruitarian in the jungles in Ecuador with a spiritual teacher named Johnny Lovewisdom. He knew about living on the land, gardening and smuggling various herbs. Every time we would pass the cannabis filled “peace pipe,” he would bring out this big blue book and start telling me about The Urantia Book.
I knew Jesus was groovy, but didn’t want to feel limited by any one teacher. Enlightened information? Hey Darlin’ I had taken enough LSD 25 to have caught the wave of nirvana -union -bliss. I knew God was real. And Hail the Goddess. Haven’t I read enough books? The Bible, Baghavad Gita, Koran and even Kama Sutra?
Hadn’t I groked the reality of spirituality when I threw the I Ching or laid down a selection of Rider Waite Tarot cards? Yogananda was cool and I had experienced the opportunity to meet Ram Das, Muktananda, and Yogi Bajan. Urantia? I don’t think so. Besides I was a busy mom and needed to collect more wild amaranth, chop wood and fetch water from the creek to wash the dishes. The water for Sunflower’s bath warmed sparkling in the sun.
One full moon night, around the campfire with a group of Native Americans from St. Louis who had come to the farm do a peyote ritual. Feeling the eternity of all life, all light, I turned to Bobaroo who was sitting in the circle next to me, and quietly mused “I wonder what happened to the dinosaurs?” Bobaroo exclaimed softly, “I keep telling you, Sister. It’s all in the Book. The Urantia Book will tell you everything you want to know about anything.
“No kidding. It talks about dinosaurs? “
“And cave people and Adam and Eve! Life on other planets and even life after death! Bob glowed.
“Hmmmm. Ok, I’ll check it out,” I confirmed. “But right now I’m going deep into the heart of space.”
My days in the teepee were spent gardening, collecting wild food, milking goats, and washing clothes with Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap in the creek as crawdads nipped at my toes. My first husband, Sergai was living in the main house with his ladylove Brenda. At dusk, as my daughters, Sunflower and now baby, Rainbeau Harmony slept to the sound of whip-poor-will, and the creek that ran by our teepee. I read much of the Urantia Book by sandalwood scented beeswax candles. On several occasions, I read the blue book on blue hued mushrooms, which was totally amazing! It just rang true. You know what I mean.
The Urantia Book provoked myriads of questions, which often were answered in the next paragraph. My IQ increased and consciousness expanded. I contemplated the nature of God, The Mother Spirit. Those Lucifer Rebellion dudes were wild brothers. I identified with Adam and Eve (who were raw foodists, like myself and “imbibed certain space emanations”. By the time I reached the Jesus papers, my heart was open. I was inspired to learn Jesus studied the stars and wildflowers. I loved that he had a core of women apostles. The story was so much more amazing than I had ever been taught in any church of my childhood. It all made so much sense. And I didn’t even have to die to receive the answers to my far-flung questions.
Eventually, I managed a place in Miami called the Supernatural Restaurant and Juice Bar. I started serving Celestial Seasonings tea. I read their tea tags and when I saw messages such as “How many inhabited planets are there?” and “Cut out the middle man. Deal directly with God.” I suspected that folks at Celestial Seasonings in Boulder, Colorado just might be Urantia Book readers too. Maybe even some other things….
I moved to Boulder, Colorado, as a single mom with Rainbeau now six months old and Sunflower five, to attend Boulder College of Massage Therapy, and connect with other readers. This was back in the days when hitchhiking was a safe thing to do. I hitchhiked to take Sunflower to Misty Mountain preschool, then hitched to Massage School, then back to the house to nurse Rainbeau who was being cared for my friends who ran the local co-op. Sunflower and I both retuned home at the end of the day. After making dinner for my “tribe” and playing with all of the household kids before their bedtime I then walked up the hill to study herbal medicine with the brilliant William LeSassier. I found awesome community in Boulder. Including many Urantia Book readers.
A month after arriving here, a wonderful man, named Tom Pfeiffer, gave me a ride from a Navarro rock concert. We shared some Matй Anise Spice tea and he said he was into Guru Maharaji. I could see he had spiritual potential. He certainly looked good and even had a job that didn’t involve illegal herbs. I went with him to see the fifteen-year-old guru twice, always wanting to be open. Tom graciously returned the favor and attended several Urantia Book study groups to check out my scene. He initially thought the Urantia Book was science fiction, but soon became a serious reader after reading The Marriage and the Family Life papers. (Wasn’t I blessed to meet him?) He took on the noble task of helping a single mama raise her two precious daughters in an honorable way. He is forever my hippie hero. I tell him, he reminds me of Van, the Steadfast.
There is something in the Urantia Book for everyone. If a celestial being appeared to you and said “I’ll answer any three questions.” What would yours be? “Would you be ready? Would you be steady?” Just about any topic can be explored in the Urantia Book.
Nowadays I live, teach and write about herbs, raw foods, natural healing and The Urantia Book. My beloved husband, human design analyst, Tom Pfeiffer and I live in Boulder, Colorado, a few blocks from where we first met thirty years ago. I still haven’t learned to drive a car. I am a grandmиre of two and teach Herbal Medicine at Naropa University, where I love to talk about The Urantia Book in my History of Herbal Medicine class. It is there I get to talk about life being planted in the ocean, the evolution of plants, Andon and Fonta, The Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life. I pass the U Book around the classroom, and every semester, a few students see it as a revelation they are ready for.
I still dance psychedelic yoga ballet, and thank God every day for all of my blessings, including the Urantia revelations. Tom and I sometimes attend Urantia study groups at Mo and Jennifers’ Siegel’s.
We sometimes have even hosted stoner study groups where we’ll have a raw pot luck, maybe a few will vaporize some herb and read something like the Adam and Eve papers or Government on a Neighboring Planet. See, even hippies can dig the book. There’s something for everyone. If you truly are high, and have positive intentions, it is easy to see truth.
The quest of my heart is answered in the Urantia Book. I love to turn people on. Thank you God. Thank you Universe for providing the answers to the questions of our souls and infusing us with your precious love.
Blessed be!
Ask and it shall be given!
I searched for the Truth and I pondered on Truth. Eventually I asked for the Truth to be revealed.
I found the Urantia Book in a nearby Barnes and Noble bookstore and started examining it. It seemed quite far fetched at first but I kept going back to the store until I got convinced that this was THE book.!
Now we all know that Truth is much more than can be found in the Urantia Book but is sure did change my life. It showed me who I was in relation to God, Earth and everything else. It got me truly started on my spiritual journey. It got me to truly start expecting God to be with me all the time and everywhere.
I'm very grateful to God for giving me this great opportunity, love.
The Urantia Book - the Book of Truth
The Urantia Book - the book of truth - enhanced my mind and added knowledge to what I knew. It gave accountable history to the Bible and Biblical characters.
It caused me to accept my faith and not question so much and I began to see miracles in my life. I understand better why I do so many of the things I do. It became easier to teach the children I keep.
I understand the government and outer space and science - not so much that I can teach it, but the book just put it in order. I came to understand: "thy kingdom come, thy will be done" and not be fearful for the generation in which we live. It may not be something I could teach, but it does cause me to be able to walk my journey with Jesus Christ a lot easier.
I passed on many Urantia Book quotes to my grandchildren and children; to me, that had a personal meaning beyond belief. My grandchildren have told me it gave them the wisdom of right and wrong and why.
Now, I feel at ease when I think about my time to go home. Being able to listen to the quotes and see the pictures, etc, has been a little of this side of heaven for me.
In Jesus Name amen.
A Wake-Up Call to the Light!!!
I was raised in a very strict protestant religion, so, for years I could not understand how God's true followers were so hypocritical and still ok. I continued to reach out for other religions and study their beliefs and various factors.
I received the Urantia Book at a holistic healing expo in Spokane, when a wonderful gentlemean appeared out of nowhere at my booth. I did a demo on him with my new healing machine from Japan and asked him what he was doing there. He briefly explained his book. But until I went to a vision quest and was told by the medicine woman of the beliefs of the star people and where their beliefs lie in our coming to this planet did it dawn on me how true the Urantia Book is.
I read alot and when I got the book home my mother and I had to discuss the truth of the book and how it fits with our beliefs. The more I study this truth each day I tend to feel more of a comfort in knowing all my feelings were correct about the bigger picture. To open the eyes of others is what I find difficult. Sad but true.
Thank you for the Book. And thanks to the man who was passing them out at Wellness Expo booth in June 2006.
HOW THE URANTIA REVELATION CHANGED MY NAME
Since my initial exposure to the Fifth Epochal Revelation just 20 years ago, I have experienced many momentous changes in my life and outlook on almost everything. Among them are the following: I have changed my name, my address, my whole philosophy of living, my mind, my choices, direction, and attitudes.
Here's how my name change happened: Around the time of my birth, I inherited my surname which, according to the customs of the time was the same as my father's. My identity was all wrapped up in that name for many years. In that town, the name was well known and generally highly respected. Used by public figures, it sometimes got us places socially. Like most names however, it carried with it certain racial biases and prejudice among those of other nationalities. All in all, I recently found it better to just drop the last name. My first name is another story, I hated it! I never knew anyone else with THAT NAME. Then, after becoming a devotee of the Urantia Book, I discovered the letters "UB" right in the middle of my given name, H U B E R T, so I adopted it!
Huge changes have occurred in my religion. Instead of having a "second hand religion," I now get it directly from God - not from a book, a religious denomination or church authority. I find true religion comes from beyond human sources. If this sounds difficult, onerous or unpleasant in any way, let me assure you that such is absolutely not the case! My enjoyment of life, my fellow humans, nature, everything I encounter in fact, has been enhanced a hundred fold. Whereas I formerly saw others as potential enemies out to harm me in some way, now I can hardly wait to meet the next stranger whom I know I will enjoy and benefit from in some super-mortal manner. Every day I greet with enthusiasm, happy anticipation, expecting and finding another wonderful list of beneficial experiences.
One thing I find is that since leaving my mortal plans aside and adopting the divine plan, laid out for me by an all-wise Creator Father, I end each day with praise and gratitude. Each day seems to begin with spiritual thrills beyond human comprehension. Often I have to divert my attention to "shut off the stream of blessing" which is just too torrential to handle.
The "revelation" I'm describing has been called by many names - The Urantia book, the Fifth Epochal Revelation, God's Bible etc. Call it what you like, but just read a hundred pages of it and you will think of a name to describe it. Overall, it is a huge book but it is easily divided into sections which one may read in a few minutes each. Many find that a glimpse at the "Contents" in the front of the book arouses curiosity in some manner. Another way some find helpful is to randomly open it anywhere and read whatever takes your fancy. Some prefer to start at the beginning and read it consecutively.
There are hundreds of "study groups" who read together and help each other with difficult passages. There are no expensive, multinational advertising campaigns under way to "sell" this unique book. As far as I know, most folks learn of it through meeting another reader. That is how I came across it. I'll always be very grateful for the person who introduced it to me. It happened at a time when I was apparently ready for it. When a pupil is ready a teacher will appear. That's how it often works. If you would like more information regarding this wonderful experience I have had over the past 20 years, I would be happy to share it with you. I call myself "UBie" in deference to my favorite book, the Urantia Book.
Have Courage
Once the initial feeling of joyous awe and wonder had subsided enough to allow contemplation of how The Urantia Book would affect any personal dreams, aspirations or plans, the most definite 'quality' imparted to a young and impressionable lad just starting off at university, was... courage.
Reading about the Master's unswerving faith in tackling experiences on this planet when life was much tougher than today, and learning accurate details of his 'walkabouts' with Ganid and then his disciples, gave me the courage to face a future without fear. Life took on new meaning.
The quotation that sums it up was when Jesus portrayed the profound surety of the God-knowing man, saying: "To a God-knowing kingdom believer, what does it matter if all things earthly crash?"
A Cosmic Parenting Manual
It was the story of the Lucifer rebellion that saved my life. When I found The Urantia Book in 1974, I was deeply depressed, and didn't want to live here any more. I couldn't understand how to believe in a God that could create such a mess as I saw our world to be. I didn't understand the rules of being human, couldn't understand why people valued things I thought were useless, and why they ignored what was obviously precious. I was in a lot of pain and I just wanted out.
Learning that our planet was screwed up, that we had gone astray, that this wasn't God's plan for us made perfect sense to me, and helped me believe that God hadn't abandoned me.
The second most profound impact the revelation made on the course of my life was learning how Jesus raised his family. The idea that the creator of Nebadon would set aside universe affairs to be a good parent to his father's children made it crystal clear to me that nothing I would ever do in my life was as important as doing right by my children. My beautiful daughters are grown now and I feel so grateful that I had Jesus' example to light my choices during those long years of motherhood.
From Yahweh to ALLWAY
I grew up as an outcast in my hometown, as my father converted our entire family to a doomsday-cult religion based on the name Yahweh and believing in his son, Yahoshua, who was the reincarnating son of the father spreading his message through the ages. But try as I might, I could never see the 'good' in it, as it spoke of everyone else living in the world as 'lost' and of babylon. I could never believe that our Spiritual Father could abandon anyone if we are all made of the same stuff.
I had been out of high school only about a year or so when I went to work at a metal building factory and worked in the sheet line dept. with only one other person, and he had the Urantia book. He said he got it from someone else, but had never really studied it. I was desperate for what was in it, and we actually had a race to see who could finish it first. I ordered a case of them before finishing the book, which I think we did in three months. I sent one to each member of my family, but they were ignored. Oh well, I found the peace and the reason for inner peace I was looking for.
My suspicions were confirmed - the heavenly father really does love each one of us equally regardless of our ancestry, earthly religion, language, or physical appearance. And this is our first life, built from a culture of evolution - largely denied by most earthly religions, but so obvious.
I now have the courage to face everything. Even now I am facing life in prison for a crime I did not commit, but I have the necessary peace to see this as only a very small problem in the eternal adventure that I am already on. My wife does not see things as I do, but I pray for her to recognize her Thought Adjuster and the presence of the angels.
Just as no one can take away our knowledge once we have it, so too with the love of our inner spirit. It is so true - 'Seek and ye shall find' regarding our inner spirit and the peace that passes all material understanding.
Amen and God Bless for the Urantia book. Now I am on a quest to convert regular biblical-based Christians to see that believing in Jesus is really most synonymous to believing in altruism. I thank the loving angels for my life's purpose.
Love to you, whoever you are.
First year in college
It was my first year of college, 17 years of age at CSUF, 1971. Prof. Gard of the religious studies department was in the hallway rounding up "anyone" to sign up for a senior class in rIt was my first year of college, 17 years of age at CSUF, 1971. Prof. Gard of the religious studies department was in the hallway rounding up "anyone" to sign up for a senior class in rituals and symbols taught by a Servite priest.
I was an avid truth seeker. In class a raggedy military veteran incessitantly talked about a book called The Urantia Book, and strayed off-topic often. I went to Mass at the Newman Center and met the faculty advisors for the center, who happened to be his parents. That event made him more credible.
My mom picked me up at school and asked what I wanted for my birthday. I told her "the Urantia Book", and we went to the college bookstore and she ordered it for me. When I got the book I read Part IV about Jesus. It was what I had been looking for my whole life. I cried a lot and was so grateful to my Paradise Father for the new revelation.
It has been the supreme joy of my life, and the teachings have given me a spiritual foundation to understand life better and my destiny.
I almost missed it!
During my childhood I went to church every week with my family. I was baptized 3 times through 2 different denominations. I found the information I was given in church to be good in many respects but in my opinion inconsistent. In some very important areas it was detrimental to my ability to have a sincere trust and faith in God. I could not have faith and trust in a God that could be characterized with words like vengeful, wrathful and jealous. I really took issue with a God that would require the painful death of His Son to balance the bad choices of my forefathers.
Un the late 70's I started becoming interested in religious information outside the mainstrean religion that I had been exposed to. My Stepmother was interested in this as well and we would share this information back and forth. One day in the early 80's she said she had found this very unusual book that whe wanted me to read. After I found out some of the story of how the book came to be written I declined her offer. It just seemed to far out for me to take seriously.
My Stepmother died in January of 2003. My life had also started coming apart. I quit a job I had held for 25 years, was divorced from a marriage of over 22 years and had entered a 12 step program to address some other bad choices I had made. One morning in February 2003 I had awaken to begin my ritual of reading some 12 step material and setting my day in motion by scheduling the things that needed to be done. I was in a house that I now lived alone in, with no job that required my time. In this condition of being humbled, simplified, willing and open minded the thought about the book my Stepmother had told me about 20 years earlier entered my mind. I wondered if it might still be in her house so I drove the 30 miles to my late parent's house and let myself in. Although she had several hundred books in her home I found her Urantia Book on the headboard of her bed with a handful of other books...imagine that.
I came home and started reading the book. I have read it every morning, with the exception of a few days ever since that time. How has it changed my life? The real gift for me is it has erased the inconsistencies and all doubt that affected my faith and trust in God. It brought Jesus to life for me right here right now. It has given me glorious dreams to try to apply to my daily living. It is affecting every aspect of my life. It has made all old things new in my life and I am grateful and enrgized to be on this new adventure.
The book in my dreams
My family is not religious, but I did learn about Jesus when I was a child and I was christened in the Church of England. The pure beautiful message I received was of love, friendship, encouragement and healing.
I had a dream many times about an open book with thousands of open books behind it and I would be viewing the map of the world from out in Space somewhere! In 2002 I met a beautiful, spiritual lady who introduced me to the Urantia Book. We were neighbours for a few months and shared and read together. The Urantia Book is the book in my dreams!
God's Grace and my faith have made it possible for me to be here against all odds! I suffered from chronic alcoholism and eating disorders for 21 years. I have been free and sober since 15th October, 2001. Praise God! I am a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and The Salvation Army. I am a quiet gentle soul, my life experiences have given me insights, compassion and understanding. I recently bought a computer and as soon as I was online looked up Urantia, and was so happy to find it! I love the daily readings and beautiful pictures. It is a constant challenge to be who I am. The Urantia Book always helps me to focus on The Big Picture! I have had a very testing time lately and reading every day is helping me so much. Thank you for being here.
I am 45 years old and my new life is amazing! I dont have a family of my own, which has caused me great sadness, but I am a spiritual Mum! My three beautiful younger sisters all have children. Our family is healing from the devastation of addictions. I have a closeness with my mother I have always wanted. I know my dear Dad is in a good place. I am a full time student at Tafe, studying Community services. My goal is to be a social worker. I am truly blessed.
Thank you for the oppotunity to share with you, Lauren Dean
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