Who wrote what – The History of the Revelation
There have been many histories written of how the UB has come to this planet. There are 3 or 4 main works that give us an overview of how the revelation was given. Birth of a Divine Revelation from Ernest Moyer, A History of the Urantia Papers by Larry Mullins both true believers in the UB, published in 2000 and Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery written by skeptic Martin Gardner in 1995. A more recent work by Sioux Oliva, Dr. Sadler and the Urantia Book in 2014 also a believer in the UB.
Since Gardner is a skeptic I will use only the info from the other 3 works for now. We will discuss Martin’s view in another chapter.
In 1911 Dr Sadler and his wife Lena who were both physicians were approached by an unnamed neighbor who was concerned about her husband, she was having problems awakening him. He could not be awakened but he could respond to verbal questions and it was not the sleeping subject who responded to them. Who responded was a “student visitor” a celestial being who was on the earth studying and traveling from universe to universe. Various other celestial entities spoke thru the sleeping subject during this period. These sessions of which there were about 250 of them went from 1911 ( some accounts as early as 1906) until 1929 the last contact was in 1955. That was when the so called revelators said we are done and you are on your own.
Only a small group of 6 people were ever involved with the sleeping subject. This was called the Contact Commission, one of which was a stenographer who took notes of the sessions. A group called the Forum which consisted of about 70 people from all walks of life met every week to discuss various topics about life, health and a variety of subjects at the Sadler’s home – one day they were introduced to the revelation, the Forum lasted until May 31, 1942 – From the book Dr. Sadler and The Urantia Book: The Historic Origins of a Spiritual Revelation in the 20th Century
“Sadler described the process in his 1960 history draft: We would read a paper on Sunday afternoon and the following Sunday, the new questions would be presented. Again these would be sorted, classified, etc. …. Fifty-seven papers were received by this method between 1925– 1929 -This program covered several years and ultimately resulted in the presentation of the 196 papers as now found in The Urantia Book …. From first to last, when papers appeared, the questions disappeared. This was the procedure followed for the many years of the reception of the Urantia papers. No questions, no papers.”
The entire text of the Urantia Papers was materialized in handwritten form. Whenever a portion of the text was materialized, it was then typed, checked, and the original handwritten document was placed in a safe. (As explained, these original documents always mysteriously disappeared from the safe.)
Mullins , Larry ; Sprunger, Dr. Meredith (2011-01-23). A History of the Urantia Papers
So these papers just began to materialize. By 1934, the first three parts of the book were complete. The Forum members assumed the entire book was complete. A year later, they received a surprise: Part IV, “The Life and Teachings of Jesus,” a series of seventy-six papers, was delivered. All at once. Oliva, Sioux (2014-12-12). Dr. Sadler and The Urantia Book: The Historic Origins of a Spiritual Revelation in the 20th Century
The Urantia Book was finally published in 1955.