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Re: The Urantia Book

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2016 12:35 pm
by DCHindley
Angela wrote:My apologies, DCH. I would prefer to see judgment passed on content rather than similarity of purported origin to another book that is written in a different style.
When I attempted a reading of OAHASPE it was after my exposure to The Urantia Book. I found it cumbersome and overly complex. The Urantia Book is a joy to read. The subject matter is far broader and instructional, anticipating and addressing every question.
I did download a copy late last night, and agree, it is much more organized than the Oahaspe book was, almost hyper organized. The network of Urantia students is also much more organized than any Oahaspe devoted groups I am aware of. Apparently, though, both were said to have been dictated by automatic writing.

Automatic writing, for those who have not heard of it, is the theory that ascended/transcendent masters communicate to earth-bound humans by means of trance-like states similar to those achieved in séances, in which the human's hand is controlled by the ascended/transcendent being, who in turn writes the communication.

This technique was also used by psychic reader Edgar Cayce, who flourished as a psychic between 1925 and 1945. I think it is interesting that one of his resume's of world history given in trance included the idea that there were originally a set of five colored races, which is very similar to what is found in the Urantia book. It has been suggested that this was due to the influence by Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy movement, which originated around the beginning of the 20th century.

In Leon Festinger's psychological case study, published as When Prophecy Fails, of a woman who led a small group of "UFO" enthusiasts, and who claimed space beings had contacted her to advise that they were about to establish contact with humans and solve all our problems, he describes her as using AW to effect this communication. This group was also influenced by George Adamsky's (sp?) claims about his purported UFO contact experiences, as well as the book Oahaspe, where I think she might have got the automatic writing idea. She flourished in the late 1940s and early 1950s, just before the Urantia book was published.

DCH (who has pretty much said as much as I care to about the Urantia book)

Re: The Urantia Book

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2016 1:41 pm
by Angela
Thank you, DCH. Your final comment is understood.
If anyone, coming across this, would like to discuss content of the Urantia Book I am more that happy to oblige.