Showing posts with label Urantia Book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Urantia Book. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Talking to me?

 


This guy is more crazy than I am, he actually *talks to* some kind of ChatGPT version. The AI is supposed to represent "The Christ Mind" manifesting in ACIM (A Course in Miracles). I can´t process Christ´s words just now, will have to wait until the afternoon I think! 

Friday, April 17, 2026

Wildcard scenario

 

- Bala, the stupid humans are harping
about "disclosure" again,
when will they realize that they are already It? 

So I had to amuse myself by asking Gemini the 10,000 dollar question... 

What are the chances that Donald Trump will disclose secret military / government knowledge about Midway Creatures?

To address this from a grounded perspective, we have to bridge the gap between two very different worlds: the theological cosmology of The Urantia Book and the political reality of a U.S. Presidency.

The chances of a formal disclosure regarding Midway Creatures are extremely low, likely near zero, for a few fascinating reasons:

1. The Nature of the "Secret"

In the context of government "secret knowledge" (UAPs, classified military technology, or "aliens"), the entities discussed are usually physical or biological.

  • The Midwayers described in The Urantia Book are celestial/spiritual beings. According to the book, they are invisible to human instruments and do not use "crafts" or technology that a government could capture, hide, or reverse-engineer.

  • If the military has "secret knowledge" of non-human intelligence, it likely pertains to physical phenomena. Midwayers operate on a frequency that—by definition—evades material detection.

2. Presidential Access vs. Bureaucratic "Need to Know"

While a President serves as the Commander-in-Chief, secret military programs are often shielded by "Special Access Programs" (SAPs).

  • Past presidents have occasionally expressed interest in "UFO" disclosure, but there is no evidence that the U.S. government uses The Urantia Book as a source for its intelligence.

  • Since Midwayers are part of a specific revelation (the Urantia papers), they aren't part of the standard terminology used in military or government briefings.

3. The Trump Approach to Disclosure

Donald Trump’s history with "secret knowledge" has been one of teasing and populism rather than theological revelation.

  • He has alluded to "very interesting" information regarding things like Roswell, but he tends to focus on the physical and national security aspects of such secrets.

  • Disclosing "Midway Creatures" would require the President to validate a specific 20th-century spiritual text, which is a step away from the usual political or military narrative.

4. The "Midway" Protection

According to The Urantia Book itself, the Midwayers are extremely skilled at remaining incognito. They are "invisible cousins" who do not wish to disrupt the natural evolution of human society. If they don't want to be found by the military, they simply won't be.


The "Wildcard" Scenario

The only way such a disclosure would happen is if a President were to declassify files that describe "invisible entities" or "interdimensional helpers" that just happen to match the Midwayers' description. However, even then, the government would likely label them as "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena" (UAP) rather than using the term "Midwayers."

Does it feel more likely to you that these "invisible cousins" would prefer to stay in the shadows of our folklore, rather than being the subject of a televised government briefing?


Having fun with Gemini

 


So I had to ask Gemini about the Midway Creatures mentioned in a previous blog post. Heeeere we go! What are the chances that Donald Trump (or even my man Obama) will disclose *this*, even if we assume for a moment that it´s actually true?

What are "Midway Creatures" in the Urantia Book?

In The Urantia Book, Midway Creatures (or Midwayers) are a unique order of celestial beings who exist in the "midway" zone between the material world of humans and the spiritual world of angels. They are essentially the "invisible cousins" of humanity, permanent inhabitants of Earth (Urantia) who serve as the primary link between physical and spiritual realities.

Here is a breakdown of their origin, nature, and function:

1. The Two Groups of Midwayers

Midwayers are divided into two distinct classes based on their origin and timing in Earth's history:

  • The Primary Midwayers: These beings were brought into existence during the era of the Prince’s Administration (about 500,000 years ago). They are more "spirit-leaning" than the secondary group. There are exactly 50,000 of them.

  • The Secondary Midwayers: These beings originated during the time of Adam and Eve (about 37,000 years ago). They are more "material-leaning" and are mathematically closer to the human frequency. There were originally 1,984 of them, though many were lost during the Lucifer Rebellion.


2. Key Characteristics

Midwayers are often described as the "most versatile" of all celestial assistants because of their unique makeup:

  • Invisibility: They occupy a vibration just outside the range of human vision. While they are "physical" in a sense, they are composed of a refined matter that does not reflect light in a way we can see.

  • Physicality: Unlike angels, Midwayers can occasionally manipulate physical matter. They consume a specialized form of energy (similar to light or electricity) rather than food.

  • Longevity: They are "immortal" in the sense that they do not age or die like humans. They remain on Earth through all its changing eras, serving as the planet's permanent custodians.


3. Their Role and Function

Midwayers are often referred to as the "Planetary Helpers." Their work is largely invisible but vital to the spiritual administration of the world:

  • Liaisons: They act as translators and messengers between human beings and the higher angelic orders.

  • The "United Midwayers of Urantia": They maintain a vast "intelligence network," keeping track of human progress and spiritual needs.

  • Personal Contact: Because Secondary Midwayers are so close to the human frequency, they are often used by the Thought Adjusters (the indwelling fragments of God) to facilitate spiritual breakthroughs or "synchronistic" events in a person’s life.

  • Historians: Because they have lived through every major event in human history, they are the primary source of information for the historical sections of The Urantia Book itself.


4. Relationship to Human Folklore

The Urantia Book suggests that many of our myths regarding fairies, brownies, ghosts, and "spirits" are actually distorted racial memories of the Midwayers. Because they have been seen by "sensitives" or young children throughout history, they have been woven into our folklore, though the Book clarifies that they are highly organized, loyal, and technically advanced beings—not "magical" creatures.

Fun Fact: According to the book, the Midwayers were the ones who moved the stone from the tomb of Jesus, as angels generally do not perform such physical tasks.

Does the concept of a "permanent invisible guard" on Earth change how you look at the unexplained coincidences or "synchronicities" in your own life?

Invisible aliens?

 


This guy (the Urantia Book rocker) is still just as optimistic about UFO disclosure. He believes that there is a special kind of aliens already living on Earth, known as "Midway Creatures". They seem to be similar to guardian angels or spirit-beings in other religious systems. Maybe they are real, who knows, but the idea that the US government (or any government) knowing anything important about the situation is far fetched. And even Jay sometimes concedes this, but still hopes that Trump or somebody else will tell us about it.   

Thursday, February 26, 2026

What a time to be alive

 


This guy again! ;-) 

The content-creator Jay (who believes in the channelled scripture known as the Urantia Book) is happy about Trump´s promise to disclose information about UFOs and aliens. Jay believes that most aliens are benign. Our planet ("Satania") is quarantined by the angelic aliens due to Adam´s and Eve´s fall. Maybe Trump´s disclosure means that the quarantine is finally over? 

Jay also criticizes Christians for thinking that everything that isn´t strictly "Biblical" simply must be demonic in nature. He predicts that many Christians will get their faith shaken by the impending revelations from the Pentagon archives. Perhaps a gradual disclosure process will lessen the impact?

I admit that I don´t share Jay´s optimism. What will actually happen is...nothing at all. Or more disinfo from the military. Besides, what makes us think that the government knows anything important at all about the vast cosmic expanses? Let alone Havona.

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Fandor rock

 


Believe it or not, but this is a real rock song based on the Urantia Book. And yes, "Master of the Sky" prominently mentions the fandors...all but un-ironically?! It´s actually a quite good tune and video, all things considered. I assume Visions of Reality is the name of the band. 

From the YouTube channel Faith Evolves, made famous by a somewhat strange cyber-drama a couple of weeks ago. Or straight from the geographic center of infinity? ;-) 

Monday, December 30, 2024

Is God a space alien?

 


Atheists sometimes ask Christians how they can know that Jesus wasn´t a space alien. This content-creator, Jay from the YouTube channel Faith Evolved, turned the question around and asked the atheists how *they* can know that God isn´t a space alien! 

In the clip above, Jay expands on the topic. What if both Jesus, Gabriel or Moroni were aliens? Indeed, what if all "gods" are really aliens? Maybe they are superior intelligences trying to communicate with primitive humanity, using word-symbols we can understand. And that´s apparently alright. Jay is inspired by the peculiar Urantia Book, a channeled scripture first published in 1955 by renegade Adventist William Sadler. The conflation between Ascended Masters and space aliens presumably comes from Theosophy originally. 

Make of this content what you wish.  

Sunday, December 29, 2024

On a fandor to Nebadon


 

The neverending flame war between Christians and atheists on YouTube continues, LOL. This week´s battle: a two year old video on a channel titled Faith Evolved. The content-creator, Jay, is actually *not* a Christian. At the very least not a very Nicene-orthodox one. He is into the ACIM (A Course in Miracles) and the Urantia Book! I haven´t looked into *that* particular milieu for years. Recently, he even uploaded a heavy metal song composed by himself based on the Urantia Bible.

Since I don´t have any meaningful to do just now (except maybe sleep), I decided to comment Jay´s video, which contains 10 questions for atheists (or perhaps atheist materialists). A few are quite original. I don´t consider myself an "atheist" or "materialist" sensu stricto, so on some topics I more or less agree with Faith Evolved. But...I dunked on the Urantia Book and the ACIM on this blog before, so *those* particular "revelations" are simply not my cup of tea.    

1. Are you sure you´re an atheist at all? Why are you not an agnostic, since you can´t prove a negative?

Good question. Many atheists claim that atheism is "merely a lack of belief in god or gods", a position jokingly known as "lacktheism". But of course that´s impossible. All atheism is a *positive* claim about the state of the (purported) evidence for a (purported) "god" or "gods". It literally can´t be otherwise. Therefore, most atheists are *not* "agnostic", "negative", "soft" or "lacktheist" but rather the exact opposite *even when they claim otherwise*, which explains the activism of many atheists Jay reacts against. 

Next, Jay further states that since we are a "baby species" who can´t even cure the common cold, how can we be sure that God doesn´t exist? This is a correct observation, but it works both ways: how can we be sure the ACIM or the Urantia Book are real, rather than (at best) very scrambled communications from the Great Beyond (or our own psyches)? Some form of humble agnosticism when it comes to "Ultimate Reality" seems to be in order here...from both sides. 

2. How can intelligence come from non-intelligence? Isn´t this evidence for intelligent design?

Also good questions, but I have a problem with Jay´s computer metaphors. Whatever Reality might be, it sure isn´t a human-built computer! Intelligent design in the "computer simulation" or "watchmaker" senses strikes me as extremely unlikely, indeed, impossible. An organic metaphor for Reality seems more apt. Or Neo-Platonist emanationism per usual. As for intelligence, the Divine probably isn´t "intelligent" in the human sense. Most personal gods are simply humans writ large. Perhaps the Divine simply "creates" countless of universes spontaneously without having to "design" them or "think" at all in our senses of those terms? 

3. Since something exists, must not part of it have existed forever? Reality must have some kind of structure to exist at all.

This also seems correct. A materialist atheist would (of course) argue that the structure is purely material, perhaps space-time. But yes, the notion of a true Nothing or Nothingness does sound incoherent.  

4. Why can´t that one thing that exists forever be consciousness, spiritual or god?

Well, exactly. 

5. What if the scientific method doesn´t take everything into considerations, such as spirituality? 

That depends on how you define "science", but at least in the modern world, "science" either tries to explain phenomena in a materialist way, or declares them unsolvable and therefore meaningless if they can´t be so explained. This may or may not be a good approach *in science* but of course people have broader vistas and will explore the spiritual anyway. 

Note the following, however. Many religions make claims about the material world. For instance, the Bible. Or the Urantia Book. If these claims contradict each other and/or contradict scientific evidence, that particular religion is probably not true, and neither is it´s "god" if the faulty information is said to come from Him through divine revelation. Examples include young earth creationism, ancient aliens and (perhaps) the claim that Jesus visited Rome. Indeed, channeled material seems to contain a downright staggering amount of misinformation of this kind!  

6. Why can´t God just be an advanced alien race?

This was the question that really brought the house down, LOL. It´s derived from the Urantia Book, of course. I agree that a sufficiently powerful space alien would be a "god" according to one common definition of that word. Pagan gods look humanoid, they are long-lived but it´s not always clear whether they are really immortal, they have superhuman powers, have access to flying vehicles, and are sometimes associated with various planets. Yeah, sounds like a space alien, alright! But note that most atheists would *not* consider such a being to be a "god" (this position is probably an unconscious Christian influence), but rather a material being misidentified as such, or perhaps nefariously posing as such. Compare cargo cults in New Guinea. 

7. What would it take for you to believe that "God" exists? 

Depends entirely on what you mean by that word. A kind of generic spiritual reality could presumably be strongly suggested by a mystical experience. But how can we *know* that this is the Ultimate Reality? Maybe we´re only tapping into the hive-mind of some lower astral creatures! 

8. What if an advanced alien race could change reality? What if humans could become "gods" and create life on other planets? 

Theosophy? My guess is that material creatures can´t change material reality in this radical fashion. We can "only" leave this plane of existence for another one, and probably not change that either.

9. Does a part of you secretely hope that God exists?

Which "god" was that, again? I hope the ACIM or the Urantia Book *aren´t* true!

10. How can you know for sure that I (Jay) don´t know God? 

Here, Jay quotes some kind of scripture, but it´s not clear to me which one. The point is that knowledge of God or the Divine is gained through personal experience and living faith and not through intellectual logic. Therefore, it can´t be disproven by the latter. First, what is "living faith"? Second, while I agree that completely dry philosophy doesn´t prove anything, there seems to be a false dichotomy between "personal experience" and "intellectual logic". Surely, they can inform each other? Third, what about "comparing notes" with other people´s personal experiences? 

Obviously, I can´t ultimately *know* whether or not Jay experienced God, but precisely for that reason, I´m not duty-bound to accept his claims without some kind of corroboration.

How do you know I´m not the Ashtar Command? ;-) 

Thursday, June 15, 2023

The day the UFO stood still

 



An interesting introduction to "UFO religions", here New Religious Movements with a kind-of-traditionally-religious-or-spiritual attitude towards UFOs and space aliens (as defined by American post-war pop culture and ufology). 

This kind of UFO religions emerged after World War II. The narrator points out that they were influenced by Theosophy, but I think one could go even further and argue that many of them *were* Theosophists, rather than merely "influenced" by them. That is, Theosophists in the ideological sense, as opposed to card-carrying members of the Adyar society. 

As one of the commentators to the first video points out, religions postulating the existence of extraterrestrials certainly existed already before the UFO craze (the Urantia Book), which brings me to the second video. 

Would the confirmation of extraterrestrial intelligent life destroy religion? The obvious answers is "no", and this for two reasons. First, religion always adapt to changes in society´s reality-perception, so why not here? This reason is mentioned by the narrator. Second, ETs might fit into traditional religious frameworks, for instance by declaring them to be demons or asuras. Indeed, some Christians and Hare Krishnas are already doing this! 

However, there is yet another reason for why an ET-UFO disclosure won´t be as dramatic as many people think. *The idea that there are super-intelligent demigod-like space aliens is part and parcel of the secular-atheist mythology of our time*. It´s the notion that we are alone that would truly shock people...secular people, that is. 

Maybe that´s why they are constantly sperging about Christianity collapsing due to evidence of extraterrestrial life...

Sunday, August 5, 2018

If space aliens are this boring, I rather stay on Earth




"The Urantia Book" (sometimes erroneously called the Urantia Bible) is a religious scripture first published in 1955. The authorship is unclear. A defected Adventist named William Sadler is often pointed to by sceptics as the probable author, perhaps with the aid of some other people (the entire work is over 2000 pages). Today, several small groups accept "The Urantia Book" as their holy scripture, most notably The Urantia Foundation.

I can't say I was thrilled by this book. Quite the contrary. It's tedious, frivolous and bizarre. I'm frankly surprised that the work has generated so much attention, and been translated to a dozen different languages, including Finnish and Lithuanian. And very few things surprise me these days! Of all silly "new religious movements", this must be the silliest one.

"The Urantia Book" is said to be written by superhuman intelligences, some kind of crosses between angels and space aliens. The universe is supposedly ruled by these intelligences. They have a vast, almost Byzantine, bureaucracy with countless commissions, committees and administrative levels. It seems every little miracle on Earth is first debated and decided upon by committees of angels in some capital city on another planet. There are also courts, laws and decrees to deal with planetary rebellions and what not.

The foreword, gracefully bestowed upon humanity by "an Orvonton Divine Counselor, Chief of the Corps of Superuniverse Personalities assigned to portray on Urantia the truth concerning the Paradise Deities and the universe of universes", contains the following, almost classical lines: "Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon. This universe, together with similar creations, makes up the superuniverse of Orvonton, from whose capital, Uversa, our commission hails. Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection--the central universe of Havona. At the heart of this eternal and central universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity and the dwelling place of the eternal God."

Amen.

Large sections of "The Urantia Book" sound as if they were written by a person with an obsessive compulsive disorder, a person who simply must write interminable documents containing weird ideas and meaningless prose. Other sections look frankly frivolous, at least to a non-believer. They come across as a manuscript to a really bad science fiction movie. The planets and solar systems have absurd names such as Satania, Edenia, Salvington and Jerusem. The last section of the book deals with Jesus, whose real name turns out to be Michael of Salvington. Evangelical heresy-hunters will have a field day: Jesus' death on the cross wasn't an atonement, his resurrection was purely spiritual ("morontian" in the lingo of the aliens), and his physical body remained in the tomb until the aliens - after a committee meeting - decided to quite simply disintegrate it. And yes, the Russellites believe that Jesus was an incarnation of the archangel Michael. Any secret connection? For more tips, please call Hank Hanegraaf!

On a more disturbing note, the authors of "The Urantia Book" are obsessed with racial purity, degeneration and atavism. Ancient wars were good, since they weeded out the weaklings. Modern wars, by contrast, are bad. They only destroy the well-bred people. Since I haven't read all 2000 pages, I don't know exactly how the racial hierarchy looks like, but it seems as if Aborigines and Blacks are at the bottom. Slavery is said to have a civilizing effect. The unknown writers are also at great pains to prove that Joseph and Mary weren't really Jewish. Especially not Mary, who was a tall blond girl. Unsurprisingly, the Old Testament is declared to be non-canonical.

Only a very strong suspension of disbelief can make anyone believe this alternative "bible". Above all, it's boring. If space aliens are like this, I rather remain on Earth!

Finally, some more direct quotes, to give you the flavour of this document, misspellings and all.

[EXTENSIVE QUOTATION BEGINS]

Adam and Eve arrived on Urantia, from the year A.D. 1934, 37,848 years ago. It was in midseason when the Garden was in the height of bloom that they arrived. At high noon and unannounced, the two seraphic transports, accompanied by the Jerusem personnel intrusted with the transportation of the biologic uplifters to Urantia, settled slowly to the surface of the revolving planet in the vicinity of the temple of the Universal Father. All the work of rematerializing the bodies of Adam and Eve was carried on within the precincts of this newly created shrine. And from the time of their arrival ten days passed before they were re-created in dual human form for presentation as the world's new rulers. They regained consciousness simultaneously. The Material Sons and Daughters always serve together. It is the essence of their service at all times and in all places never to be separated. They are designed to work in pairs; seldom do they function alone.

The Planetary Adam and Eve of Urantia were members of the senior corps of Material Sons on Jerusem, being jointly number 14,311. They belonged to the third physical series and were a little more than eight feet in height. At the time Adam was chosen to come to Urantia, he was employed, with his mate, in the trial-and-testing physical laboratories of Jerusem. For more than fifteen thousand years they had been directors of the division of experimental energy as applied to the modification of living forms. Long before this they had been teachers in the citizenship schools for new arrivals on Jerusem. And all this should be borne in mind in connection with the narration of their subsequent conduct on Urantia.

When the proclamation was issued calling for volunteers for the mission of Adamic adventure on Urantia, the entire senior corps of Material Sons and Daughters volunteered. The Melchizedek examiners, with the approval of Lanaforge and the Most Highs of Edentia, finally selected the Adam and Eve who subsequently came to function as the biologic uplifters of Urantia. Adam and Eve had remained loyal to Michael during the Lucifer rebellion; nevertheless, the pair were called before the System Sovereign and his entire cabinet for examination and instruction. The details of Urantia affairs were fully presented; they were exhaustively instructed as to the plans to be pursued in accepting the responsibilities of rulership on such a strife-torn world. They were put under joint oaths of allegiance to the Most Highs of Edentia and to Michael of Salvington. And they were duly advised to regard themselves as subject to the Urantia corps of Melchizedek receivers until that governing body should see fit to relinquish rule on the world of their assignment.

Adam and Eve fell asleep on Jerusem, and when they awakened in the Father's temple on Urantia in the presence of the mighty throng assembled to welcome them, they were face to face with two beings of whom they had heard much, Van and his faithful associate Amadon. These two heroes of the Caligastia secession were the first to welcome them in their new garden home. The tongue of Eden was an Andonic dialect as spoken by Amadon. Van and Amadon had markedly improved this language by creating a new alphabet of twenty-four letters, and they had hoped to see it become the tongue of Urantia as the Edenic culture would spread throughout the world. Adam and Eve had fully mastered this human dialect before they departed from Jerusem so that this son of Andon heard the exalted ruler of his world address him in his own tongue.

And on that day there was great excitement and joy throughout Eden as the runners went in great haste to the rendezvous of the carrier pigeons assembled from near and far, shouting: "Let loose the birds; let them carry the word that the promised Son has come." Hundreds of believer settlements had faithfully, year after year, kept up the supply of these home-reared pigeons for just such an occasion. As the news of Adam's arrival spread abroad, thousands of the near-by tribesmen accepted the teachings of Van and Amadon, while for months and months pilgrims continued to pour into Eden to welcome Adam and Eve and to do homage to their unseen Father. Soon after their awakening, Adam and Eve were escorted to the formal reception on the great mound to the north of the temple. This natural hill had been enlarged and made ready for the installation of the world's new rulers. Here, at noon, the Urantia reception committee welcomed this Son and Daughter of the system of Satania. Amadon was chairman of this committee, which consisted of twelve members embracing a representative of each of the six Sangik races; the acting chief of the midwayers; Annan, a loyal daughter and spokesman for the Nodites; Noah, the son of the architect and builder of the Garden and executive of his deceased father's plans; and the two resident Life Carriers.

The next act was the delivery of the charge of planetary custody to Adam and Eve by the senior Melchizedek, chief of the council of receivership on Urantia. The Material Son and Daughter took the oath of allegiance to the Most Highs of Norlatiadek and to Michael of Nebadon and were proclaimed rulers of Urantia by Van, who thereby relinquished the titular authority which for over one hundred and fifty thousand years he had held by virtue of the action of the Melchizedek receivers. And Adam and Eve were invested with kingly robes on this occasion, the time of their formal induction into world rulership. Not all of the arts of Dalamatia had been lost to the world; weaving was still practiced in the days of Eden. Then was heard the archangels' proclamation, and the broadcast voice of Gabriel decreed the second judgment roll call of Urantia and the resurrection of the sleeping survivors of the second dispensation of grace and mercy on 606 of Satania. The dispensation of the Prince has passed, the age of Adam, the third planetary epoch, opens amidst scenes of simple grandeur; and the new rulers of Urantia start their reign under seemingly favorable conditions, notwithstanding the world-wide confusion occasioned by lack of the co-operation of their predecessor in authority on the planet.

[EXTENSIVE QUOTATION ENDS]

Only considerations of space prohibit me from quoting any further.

One star - for the carrier pigeons.

The Great Satanic Mystery

William Sadler


Martin Gardner's "Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery" could have been interesting, but unfortunately the book is very badly edited. The author constantly jumps back and forth between the subjects, incorporates a lot of irrelevant material, and occasionally cracks strange jokes at the expense of the reader (his famous friend Dr. Matrix doesn't really exist).

Gardner is something as unusual as a non-Christian theist who is also a debunker of paranormal phenomena and virtually all organized religions. His most well known book is "Facts and fallacies in the name of science", published over 50 years ago but still considered a classic of the sceptic movement. Apparently, Gardner was also a founding member of CSICOP (now renamed CSI) and a regular contributor to their magazine "Sceptical Enquirer". In his youth, Gardner for a short period considered joining the Seventh Day Adventists, and although he never did, he has retained a life long fascination and obsession with this particular Christian group. Which finally brings us to the subject matter of the present work, "Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery".

Urantia is the real name of Earth according to the Urantia Book (UB), an extensive scripture supposedly written under the guidance of superhuman intelligences from other planets. UB was published in 1955 by the Urantia Foundation, and followers are known as Urantians. This new religious movement is small (it's usually only mentioned in passing in books on alternative religion), but still surprisingly active. UB has been translated into many different languages, and scores of Urantia-related websites exist. Today, there are also the inevitable breakaway groups, which combine the UB with their own channelled messages, also supposedly from sources in outer space. The original Urantia Foundation recently lost the copyright to UB after a protracted (and absurd) court battle. The UB is now in the public domain, enabling "heretics" to publish their own editions. What made Gardner interested in the Urantians is that their founders were defectors from the Seventh Day Adventists.

According to its devotees, the Urantia Book was channelled by a sleeping human over a period of decades. Extraterrestrials were speaking through his mouth as he would enter trance states. The identity of this person has never been revealed, but Gardner (and many others) suspect it was Wilfred Custer Kellogg, a relative of the famous ex-Adventist John Kellogg. Both men were also related to Will Keith Kellogg, the founder of the corn flakes company (!). The real leader of the Urantians, however, was Dr. William Sadler, a disaffected Adventist who organized a movement based on the "revelations" given to Wilfred. Why he never disclosed Wilfred's identity is unclear. Gardner also suspects that large portions of the UB were written by Sadler himself, and that other portions may have been concocted by his closest aides. Eventually, the UB swelled to a lengthy document of over 2000 pages, many of them of absurd complexity.

Gardner points out that two central doctrines of Adventism were taken over by the Urantians, no doubt because of Sadler and Wilfred. One is the denial of Hell, the other is the notion of "soul sleep", which implies that contact with the spirits of departed humans is impossible. (But apparently contact with extraterrestrials is alright!) Gardner further shows that the scientific information contained in the UB is badly out of date. For instance, the UB denies the big bang. Today, of course, the big bang theory is scientific orthodoxy. The UB also believes in an extreme form of mutationism, no doubt inspired by Hugo De Vries, without noticing the Neo-Darwinian synthesis. In UB's scenario, the first humans were born to ape parents! Gardner also points out that many sections of the UB sound very similar to what Sadler has written in his own books, and that other sections are more or less plagiarized from a wide variety of sources. This is richly ironic, since Sadler's former mentor, Adventist leader Ellen White, plagiarized large portions of her own writings. That many of Sadler's opinions found their way into the UB seem obvious, including a strong belief in eugenics and a racist hatred for Blacks. Indeed, after reading "Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery", I wonder why on earth Sadler was using Wilfred as a trance medium in the first place? The new religion seems to have been Sadler's own creation! Also ironic is the fact that Sadler had previously written a competent book exposing Spiritualist mediums. Yet, the Urantia cult was based on something similar, and so was Adventism. To an outsider, there is no obvious difference between claiming contact with the spirits of the dead, and claiming contact with celestial beings or God himself.

Of course, most of the Urantia Book is completely absurd from a scientific viewpoint. Gardner pokes a lot of fun at the "fandors": large, intelligent passenger birds contemporary with Adam and Eve. Personally, I found the fandors pretty cute. And yes, they are obviously based on condors. Another bizarre notion found in the UB is that each electron consists of 100 "ultimatons". The existence of this sensational new particle has not been confirmed by science. Personally, I find the UB so ridiculous, that I'm seriously intrigued by the fact that anyone can take it even remotely seriously (see my review of The Urantia Book elsewhere on Amazon). I'm also appalled by its obvious racism and fixation with genetic purity.

The most entertaining piece of information in Gardner's book comes from his imaginary friend Dr. Matrix. The UB claims that Earth's assigned number in the grand universe registry is 5,342,482,337,666. Could this number mean something? Gardner proposes that the numbers be reversed and partitioned like this: 666-73-328-42435. The first three digits (666) are pretty obvious. If 7 and 3 are added, we get 10. There are ten letters in the word "Revelation". If 3,2 and 8 are added, we get 13. If 4,2,4,3 and 5 are added, we get 18. And Revelation 13:18 is the exact verse which mentions...the number of the Beast!

I agree with Dr. Matrix. This can't be a coincidence. But why is a coded Satanic message included in the Urantia Book? There are two possible interpretations. One: The Urantia Book actually is a Satanic revelation. This would be the logical inference if you are a Christian fundamentalist. Two: Somebody is pulling our leg. Did the sleeping Wilfred Kellogg have a sick sense of humour?

Gardner also points out that another number assigned to Earth in the UB, 606, is identical to the number of Chicago's postal zone. And the Urantia Foundation has always been headquartered in Chicago...

It's a pity that "Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery" wasn't heavily edited before publication. In its present state, it's almost as tedious and difficult to read as the Urantia Book itself! It only deserves two stars, but since I agree with Gardner's sceptical attitude and have a certain obsession with obscure subjects myself, I will give it three.

And yes, the "Satanic" revelation was worth the price of the entire book...

;-)