Hello friends!

Here is story #20 from "How I Found The Urantia Book," after which you will find details on submitting your own account for inclusion in the next edition, which I intend to have ready for publication late next year.

************************************* DOROTHY ELDER Teacher Los Angeles, California

The year was 1968 and I was thirty-seven years old. My life was the picture of tranquility--married with two children ages twelve and ten, a nice home surrounded by camellias, and with lots of family and good friends nearby. But the serene nature of my life was about to change. All of a sudden I was faced with the uncharted waters of anxiety, sadness, material instability, concern for my children, and an overpowering sense of uncertainty. I had big problems to solve and I was filled with fear.

Concurrently, my mother started telling me about a wonderful book that she had received from a friend. She said it was written by the angels and it told the whole story about Jesus. (I should mention that I was raised in a Protestant home with a mother who had her own liberal interpretation of the Bible.) She said that this book answered all of her questions about God and the universe. Mother urged me to get the book, but that was the last thing I wanted to do. I knew that if I saw this "revelatory" book, I would know for sure that my mother had lost her grip, and that would mean that the last stable reality in my life was gone. For months she persisted, and for months I politely resisted. I made it very clear that I did not wish to see that book!

Then one day Mother appeared at my door holding The Urantia Book. She thrust it in my hands and told me to sit down and open it. Trapped, I plopped down on the couch, stuck my thumb in the book and opened to "The Young Man Who Was Afraid." I didn't know it then, but that was the defining moment of my life.

I read that section over and over. The phrase, "Arise, young man!...." (p.1438) was like a wake-up call to my soul. Then I turned to another page and my eyes fell on these words: "...graciousness is the aroma of friendliness which emanates from a love-saturated soul."(p. 1874). I closed my eyes and just let the beauty of those words wash over me. I became aware that a sense of peace had entered my mind, and once again I turned to another page. For the first time I read the words that would inspire me for the rest of my life: "Uncertainty with security is the essence of the Paradise adventure...."(p.1223).

I read for an hour without saying a word. Finally, I quietly asked if I could borrow the book. Mother said yes, and left. After three days and nights of reading, I called Mother and said, "Yes! Yes! This book IS written by angels!" And that is the story of how The Urantia Book found me. From that point on my life was changed. I was invigorated and uplifted for the challenges of those earlier days, and its inspiration has continued to light up my life on each new day. ] My son and daughter began reading the book when I did, and they continue to do so today. We had a study group and joined a local Urantia Society. I went to my first Urantia conference in 1969 in Chicago and I remember what a thrill it was to be in a room full of people from around the country who were all long-time readers.

I have now retired after many years as a teacher and love having the time to devote to study of the book. My mother's own love, joy and study of The Urantia Book never diminished. I smile up to her now, on the mansion worlds, and utter a prayer of thanksgiving for that day that she knocked on my door.

Greetings fellow Urantians!

I am happy to present story #19 from "How I Found The Urantia Book." After Mo's story, you will find details on submitting your own account for inclusion in the next edition, which I intend to have ready for publication late next year. Since the last post we have received a contribution from Stacey Harlan.

************************************* MO SIEGEL Founder and Chairman, Celestial Seasonings Tea Boulder, Colorado

The setting was the late '60s and the Vietnam war was tearing apart America. Like many young people, I was in a philosophic crisis, searching for life's meaning. After six years of journeying through various religions, philosophies, and scientific theories, I was strongly encouraged by three friends to read The Urantia Book. They promised that this book blended religion and science into a transforming yet realistic vision of life.

My 1968 Christmas treasure was a Urantia Book under the tree. As the winter snows piled high on the Rocky Mountains outside my window, I sat by the warm fire learning about the mysteries of the universe from The Urantia Book. Life was quickly changing as hope flooded my mind after reading the book's vivid descriptions of life after death and the purpose of our lives here.

And then it happened. I read Part IV, The Life and Teachings of Jesus. For the first time I found true happiness. From within these pages Jesus came alive and made all things new.

Greetings, folks!

Here is story #17 from "How I Found The Urantia Book," after which you will find details on submitting your own account for inclusion in the next edition, which I intend to have ready for publication late next year. Today I received an addition to James Irwin's story (he was story #10).

************************************* DOC LIVINGSTON Entrepreneur Anaheim, California

Funny that I should remember that night over thirty years ago in 1968 so clearly. I was at a gathering of friends at the Topanga Canyon, California home of my business associate. He was my partner in an herbal sales and distribution group. (Remember, this was the '60s, folks!) All who were there had been sampling our firm's product for several hours. At that stage in the evening, we were unanimously agreed that our new product would do well in the marketplace. We were singing its praises. It was a jolly, festive moment.

My friend then took me aside and asked me if I would like to check out a book written by Venusians. This person had known me for years and was well aware of my penchant for science fiction. He also knew that no other approach would have caught my interest at that time, considering my state of mind. He took me to his study in the back of the house, sat me down at his desk, and put The Doors' first album on the phonograph. He laid before me this rather large blue book and said, "This will blow your mind!"

That was new slang at the time, so I asked him what the heck "Urantia" was. He replied with a knowing smile, "It's the name of the planet we live on."

Well, that surely activated my somewhat befuddled brain synapses and fueled my curiosity. I opened the book to the front and began to peruse its contents. Thus was launched a ten-hour reading marathon that became one of those prime moments in my life. With Jim Morrison playing in the background, and surrounded with musk incense and the sweet odors of our herbal product, I began reading one of the few books that has remained a favorite for over thirty years.

My initial impression looking through the table of contents was, "This can't be for real! This sucker was published when I was six years old!" I found it hard to believe that I had not discovered the book prior to this evening. The first section I read in The Urantia Book was "The Lucifer Rebellion," and it truly did "blow my mind"! That section was closely followed by "Problems of the Lucifer Rebellion," the Adam and Eve papers, the Melchizedek and religion papers, and finally, "Government on a Neighboring Planet."

When I "came to" around 10 o'clock the following morning and closed the book, I experienced a rather unique, paradoxical sensation. I knew I should be drained and exhausted, yet I felt so energized, I was reminded of some "chemical" experiences I'd had. I remember my subtle shift in viewpoint when observing other people that day. It was a rather unusual suffusion of other-worldliness, but not disassociative, as with chemicals. It was rather like noticing something that had always been there, but I'd never truly recognized before. The overriding theme that day (and to this day, in varying degrees) was that we were all stuck on this "third rock from the sun" together. The brotherhood of man became very real to me that day, and has remained so ever since.

That night I started reading the Jesus Papers, and finished them, pausing only for sleep and food, in about four days. My view of Jesus was forever changed--what a cool dude! He was nothing like the pious portrayal that had turned me away from the Bible so long ago. My comprehension of his masterful personality is still expanding, and I doubt it will ever stop.

Hello all!

Here is story #18 from "How I Found The Urantia Book." After the story, you will find details on submitting your own account for inclusion in the next edition, which I intend to have ready for publication late next year. Today we received a submission from Monte Pagni.

************************************* MARY J. MICHAEL Futurist Houston, Texas

In the ninth grade, circa 1960-something, I was researching a paper on dreams and dream theory. Between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, the Cleveland Public Library had planted The Urantia Book. At that time I thought that the Urantia Foundation was just another research foundation in psychology. Since this book was on the cannot-take-out-of-the-library list, I made little headway in reading it once a month.

In college, I relented and purchased my own copy for the monumental sum of thirty-five dollars. This was a great deal of money for a struggling college student who had tuition, books, rent, food and transportation to pay out of the earnings of her meager part-time job.

It took another few years before I found anyone else who had heard of, much less READ, this giant blue book. Since that time I have found a sprinkling of people that read the book, a few that study the book, and a very, very, very few who actually try to LIVE the book--a most exhilarating challenge.

Hello everyone!

Here is story #16 from "How I Found The Urantia Book." After the story, you will find details on submitting your own account for inclusion in the next edition, which I intend to have ready for publication late next year. Today I received David Bradley's story. David is the author of "An Introduction To The Urantia Revelation." Thanks, David!

************************************* PAT FEAREY Sacramento, California Writer/Artist

To one who has been many, the gathering of every multicolored thread of experience to make a tapestry seemed only natural. To one who had peeled layers of insight from many a spiritual onion, a bouillabaisse of many flavors was the obvious next course. To one who had wondered about a music not-quite-heard in the silence of a starry night, a universe-as-symphony seemed not only glorious but logical.

I was ready for The Urantia Book to find me. It was 1968. A metaphysical bookshop in Berkeley had a copy on its top shelf, way up high. I promptly bought it, knowing nothing about it. And, despite good intentions, I read the Jesus Papers, little else.

If The Urantia Book found me, did I then find it? Decidedly not. I was not ready to see the love of my life in that guise. I thought I knew how the universe worked after walking down numerous religious paths. I lumped all avatars together, including Jesus. I hated anything that seemed gender-exclusive, after a childhood oppressed by heavy patriarchal assumptions, but a young adulthood rich in the finest women's educational opportunities available. Names like Salvington made me wince; they seemed so specifically (even suspiciously) Anglo-Saxon, when my ear delighted in the poetry of Sanskrit and in liquid Polynesian syllables.

And though I did not know it at the time, I had preliminary work to do before I could fully embrace The Urantia Book. I was at the time a student of Hindu psychology, learning from a beloved teacher--a non-guru guru whose message was always BALANCE. His proclamation, in the face of a California influx of orange robes, beads and sandals in the '60s and '70s, was always: The only real teacher is inside oneself.

I did not, therefore, have the "Eureka!" experience when I first discovered The Urantia Book. I see now that I needed to continue learning from my Hindu mentor and to go to the spiritual community of Findhorn in 1971 to open up a flowering within myself. I became the first person in the San Francisco area to publicize Findhorn, telling its story straightforwardly in lectures-cum-slides, using photographs I had taken there. As time went by, I was further away from the experience, and could present less and less journalistically. Essence became a necessity. And my presentations became more and more an experience of poetry, photography, and music.

Going to Findhorn, for me, had tapped into a multifaceted creativity I had barely realized in myself. To mature, my budding art form needed collaboration with other like-minded souls. It turned out that these early inspirational slide shows were the impetus which led around the spiral again into deeper experiences with The Urantia Book. I made a creative connection in 1976, working on such shows with readers who then brought me into their study group.

Looking back, I can see clearly how one philosophical phase of my life had to end, and another creative phase had to come to a certain level of fruition before The Urantia Book could truly find me--or rather, find a wholehearted welcome within my mind and my heart. Although I began to read the book seriously in 1976, immersing myself in it over and over, ever deeper, I am not at all sure that I have begun even yet to read in earnest, with the sincerity the revelation deserves. One can thrill to its grand sweep, its overarching views, and its satisfying answers to life questions. The more I experience and the deeper I go, the less transformed and the more imperfect I see that I am and have been. I need this beautiful blue star-book as my guide. And, coming from love for the Bhagavad-Gita and the Upanishads, perhaps it has taken me all this time clearly to see Michael of Nebadon as Jesus of Nazareth as REAL, as available, and as the companion of my soul.

The world needs the book. The world needs those of us whose lives are dedicated to its salvation. But we have to LIVE the revelation, not just read it, study it, talk about it--or evangelize unto others without that increasing awareness which leads to changing oneself. For we are called--not in pride of station, but humbly, and as the beloveds of our Beloved--to be nothing less than ambassadors of God.

Greetings UB friends!

Here is story #15 from "How I Found The Urantia Book." After the story, you will find details on submitting your own account for inclusion in the next edition, which I intend to have ready for publication late next year.

************************************* SARA BLACKSTOCK Benicia, California Teacher

In the late '60s, when I was in my mid-twenties, I was living an alternative lifestyle--to put it mildly. I became involved in a strange mixture of the revelation, LSD, the Beatles' music, and suicidal depression. The Urantia Book had been given to me by a good friend, Jim Roland, who had been a nuclear physicist but had "dropped out" because of negative feelings about how that energy was being used. (Jim has long since graduated to the mansion worlds.)

My finding of The Urantia Book wasn't so exciting or unusual, but AFTER I found it my life turned upside down. I knew the revelation was what it said it was right from the first few pages, yet I proceeded to go downhill for the next three years. Through my drug-using days (ONLY marijuana and LSD!) and through several suicide attempts, I continued to carry the book with me as I roamed the countryside telling people about it. I was a mess, but somehow, by the grace of God, I survived those three years in which I was spinning out of control with that revelation under my arm.

I was at the same time studying astrology, magic, the Tarot, palm reading, the I Ching, Egyptian mythology, and all the rest of it, when I happened, in my reading of the UB, to come across Jesus' talk on magic and superstition. I had been trying to comprehend all of these concepts and had been getting more and more confused. But after reading this page in the Jesus Papers, I threw away all of the other books I had been studying concurrently with the UB teachings.

And yet, it wasn't until about three years later that I really began to get the message of the book--God loves you! It was not until then that I began to deeply desire to pray and get in touch with God. After that my life slowly began to turn upwards from its downward spiral. And even thirty years later, the truths, the stories, and the cosmology remain almost a daily nourishment for me.

So much of The Urantia Book is now embedded in my mind, my soul, and my life that I feel the revelation has gone beyond being a book, and has become a living reality that constantly struggles to express itself moment by moment in my life. I doubt that I would be here today if it weren't for being blessed by the amazing grace of love which flowed, and still flows, from the truths expressed in this living revelation. Thanks to our Father, and to all of my brothers and sisters whom I have met through this wonderful gift. I think it is because of the revelation that I am still alive today. Truly, it is "amazing grace."

If you would like to receive a copy of the 344-page Mission to Africa edition of "How I Found The Urantia Book" in exchange for a donation to Norman Ingram's upcoming mission to the east coast of Africa, please contact Norman directly at norlastar@aol.com or visit his website http://woun.hypermart.net/buythe.htm

You are also invited to email saskia@squarecircles.com your own story for inclusion in the second edition of the book. The new stories will be sandwiched in chronologically with those we already have. Please include information such as:

-year you found the book -town where you live -occupation -permission to edit for clarity of expression

You will have final approval of your story before it goes to press. The DEADLINE is when all 220 stories have been posted. That will bring us deep into the year 2000, so that gives everyone plenty of time to write an inspiring piece.

If you already have a story in the HIFTUB but want to revise it, please let me know and we can work on it together. This second edition will be a true bookstore version, with the purpose of inspiring non-readers to take a look at The Urantia Book. All proceeds will go towards keeping HIFTUB in print and finding a place for it on shelves in New Age bookstores.

Your sister, Saskia

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For a picture of the HIFTUB as well as other UB-related materials, please visit my website at http://www.squarecircles.com