Beam's Doorway -How I found the Urantia Book-excerpts

Excerpts From "How I Found The Urantia Book"

Dear Urantia friends,

Here is another story from "How I Found The Urantia Book," Section I (1955-1969). Here us another one taken from Julia Fenderson's collection from the late '70s.

**************************** BEVERLY WOLD Hemet, California Therapist

The Urantia Book and I came together late in 1962. A copy was loaned to my husband by a Riverside County Planning associate as a result of their discussing philosophy and religion on their lunch breaks. The friend had used The Urantia Book as a reference book in a course he took while getting his engineering degree at USC in Los Angeles. I found out later that it had been placed in the university library by Julia Fenderson soon after it was published. So the ripples of this epochal revelation pushed out to be discovered by a truth seeker who was designing parks in Riverside, California. So it was, that my husband brought this big, blue, two-inch-thick, five-pound book home and put it on our bedside nightstand for some shared reading before we went to sleep.

My husband had a busy job, and I was in charge of a large therapy department at what was then Riverside County's largest general acute hospital, with four main treatment areas in various buildings, with quite a large staff of therapists and trained volunteers. I wanted something not heavy but gripping and educational before calling it a day, like an Irving Stone novel--not a 2097-page gargantuan collection of papers seemingly authored by outer-space entities--but I thought, well, let's give it a try. It was my turn to read and I let the book open where it would. It spread open at the place where it describes the earth being peopled by red, yellow, blue, orange, green, and indigo races. Well, we surmised that this might be better than Irving Stone, Orson Welles, and a few others collectively. So we started at the beginning. We were greatly inspired and thrilled by the enlarged concept of God -- his nature and attributes as set forth in the first three papers. It was like putting flesh and skin on the bare skeleton picture outline in the Bible.

Often I have read the first and last parts of a book to see if I want to read the in-between. So we turned to Part IV to read about the seventh incarnation of our universe creator coming to this earth, as a mortal, to demonstrate by his life and teachings the true will of God and his many attributes, as nearly as mortals are able to grasp. It was about Christmas-time, and reading about the love and compassion of Michael for his creatures was very touching.

It didn't seem to matter who wrote The Urantia Book (as so many people have asked me since). But as we read, it filled in all the gaps and unanswered spaces in the Bible about the life of Jesus, his earthly family, and what he did in those missing years before he started his direct ministry to his chosen disciples and the multitudes of his time. And so many other questions were answered in simple, gripping language, yet the literary form was so eloquent. The Urantia Book made the message of Jesus, so sketchy and abbreviated in the Bible, come alive in a vibrant, meaningful way. It gave direction for everyday, present living, and it made the teachings of the Bible understandable, too.

Our spirit guides were lovingly and gently leading us on, for we discovered that some friends in Riverside had also found The Urantia Book through a New Age study group. They had received a notice from Georgia Gecht, then secretary of the First Urantia Society of Los Angeles(FUSLA), of a meeting the first Sunday of the month to be held at a bank in Culver City. We all went to find out more about The Urantia Book from them.

Julia Fenderson was at the door, along with others, warmly greeting and introducing people. The meeting was very inspiring, the hospitality so warm and sincere--and no collection plate was passed. We returned many times and soon started a study group in Riverside. It was the beginning of a long association with FUSLA, multiple associations with Urantia Brotherhood all over the United States and other countries, and deep spiritual experiences, with an expanding knowledge of the journey to eternity as road-mapped in The Urantia Book.

******************************** [Incidentally Julia Fenderson was a member of the Seventy who read and studied the Papers in Chicago before they were published in book form as The Urantia Book. She moved to Los Angeles and was a Field Representative for the Urantia Brotherhood. She became the nucleus of the Urantia movement in Los Angeles and died in 1989.]

******************************* If you would like to receive a copy of the 344-page "How I Found The Urantia Book" in exchange for a donation to Norman Ingram's upcoming mission to the west 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, occupation, town where you live, and permission to edit for clarity of expression. You will have final approval of your story before it goes to press. Tomorrow I shall post some official guidelines. The DEADLINE is when all 220 stories have been posted, 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 friend, 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

Dear brothers and sisters,

Here is another story from "How I Found The Urantia Book," Section I (1955-1969). This one was taken from Julia Fenderson's collection from the late '70s. Does anyone have more information about Eldred Cocking?

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ELDRED COCKING

In the fall of 1959, 1 picked up a copy of The Urantia Book while browsing in a Chicago bookstore. Over the next five or ten minutes I perused the table of contents and read a few random samplings of the text. I concluded that the book was probably just another occult-metaphysical production.

I set the book down on the display table and briefly wondered if it would be worthwhile to buy and start reading this sizable and weighty volume carrying a title of which I had never even heard.

The next day I returned to the bookstore with no doubt in my mind. I had definitely decided to buy and read The Urantia Book. It was a decision which was to deeply influence my thinking and actions in the years ahead. What were the determining factors behind this decision? Why was I willing to pay any attention to this strange book? From whence came the urge to become acquainted with the contents of this lengthy treatise by completely unknown authors?

After several decades of reading and thinking about The Urantia Book and its amazing message, I have little doubt that spiritual guidance was the decisive factor in finding and studying the book, just as it was the same leading of spirit which influenced my human mind to persist in a quest for truth over several decades before encountering and receiving the revelatory message of The Urantia Book.

During the long quest for mental and spiritual enlightenment I encountered much recorded information about the lives and thinking of spiritual teachers and leaders, philosophers, theologians, and scientists. Most of these personalities and their writings were interesting, a few were inspiring, but-with one exception-none of them were both inspiring and convincing. That exception was Jesus of Nazareth as revealed in the New Testament and in my thinking about him.

The problem about Jesus was the fragmentary, incomplete Biblical record of his life and teachings, together with the multiplicity of sectarian interpretations of his message. I believed that Jesus was the greatest figure in human history, even though I realized that I understood all too little of his message and its implications. I longed to know more about this mysterious son of God.

The Urantia Book was a marvelous answer to my felt need for more enlightenment about Jesus and his heavenly Father. And the wealth of additional background information about the cosmos and its creator was tremendously impressive and illuminating. This amazing tour de force revealed a stupendous cosmic coordination in the life and teachings of Jesus and his program for human salvation. And so it was that I discovered in The Urantia Book a new revelation of Jesus and a vastly improved presentation of his saving message.

In summary, a persistent and uncomfortable hunger for truth is the real explanation of how I found The Urantia Book and stayed with it. Spiritual guidance in satisfying that hunger prepared me for the new revelation and ensured my acceptance of this gift from God.

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If you would like to receive a copy of the 344-page "How I Found The Urantia Book" in exchange for a donation to Norman Ingram's upcoming mission to the west 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. Yesterday Gene Narducy sent in his story. Please include information such as: year you found the book, occupation, town where you live, and permission to edit for clarity of expression. You will have final approval of your story before it goes to press. This weekend I shall post some official guidelines. The DEADLINE is when all 220 stories have been posted, so that gives everyone plenty of time to write an inspiring piece.

Much love, 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

Greetings Urantians!

Here is the fifth story from "How I Found The Urantia Book" (Section I, 1955-1969).

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WALLY ZIGLAR Corona del Mar, California Founder, the Brentwood School

Back in 1957 my twin brother Richard had attended a "flying saucer" convention with his friend Max Miller, who had just published the acclaimed Flying Saucers-Fact or Fiction. Bored with the lecture, they went next door to browse inside an occult book store. It was there that Richard spotted The Urantia Book nestled between several other monumental works, including A Treatise on Cosmic Fire by Alice Bailey and The Secret Doctrine by Madame Blavatsky. Max said he could get any book for Richard at fifty percent off list price through his publisher, DeVorss, so Richard bought all of them.

At the time Richard was working on his Master's Degree in psychology at Pepperdine University. There were few people aware of the UBook in those days-a handful at best. I gave The Urantia Book little notice until my dad, after reading a few chapters, suggested I take a look at it to see what I thought, and left it on the living room coffee table for my comments. At the time I was doing graduate work in finance and real estate at USC, and critiquing Richard's spacy books was not exactly what I had in mind for my weekends. So the book sat there for a while.

In the '50s my parents owned a duplex in Hancock Park, a suburb of Los Angeles. My grandparents occupied the upstairs unit. It was customary for my grandmother, whenever she was going to a luncheon, to come down to my parents' unit and wait in our living room for a lady friend to pick her up.

One summer day, Maria Culbertson, who had waited years for the book to be published and who possessed one of the first copies in Los Angeles, came over to take my grandmother to lunch. Maria tells me that when her eyes fell upon this big blue book resting on the coffee table, she almost had a coronary. Maria thought she had the only copy in Los Angeles, and so spotting another book only a block away gave her a real adrenalin boost. The idea crossed her mind that the book had somehow made the New York Times best-seller list without her knowing it, thanks to the advertising genius of Clyde Bedell.

After gathering her senses, she learned from Grandmother that the twins and their dad had recently found the book, not from a best-seller list but from the shelf of an occult book store in Fontana, California.

I did not jump into the UBook with great gusto as I had first had the misfortune of reading about fifty pages of the very lengthy Cosmic Fire and thought Richard had jumped off the deep end. None of the other titles caught my interest either, including The Book of the Dead and The Urantia Book, so the latter book sat on the coffee table for several weeks until Maria spotted it and called back to tell me to follow Richard and read the book. And that I did in the summer of 1958. Since then I have read it eight times in its entirety. Over the years I have given the book to many people, some notables being Werner Von Braun, Manly P. Hall, Richard Nixon and my neighbors Will and Ariel Durant. I have had many exhilarating moments and one memorable disappointment: I gave the book to a seminary professor who swore the book was "demon inspired." To him the doctrine of Christianity centered on "the blood of Christ shed for our sins" and he judged me to be in strong need of repentance for having read such a powerful work of the devil. I pray for him occasionally.

Along with my brother and dad I have placed numerous books in public libraries and some half a hundred in naval ship libraries where many a sailor has become a captive reader. I have often wondered where those big blue books go when the ships are decommissioned and put in mothballs. It would be nice to have a few of those first printings back.

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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. Yesterday Larry Whelen sent in his story. Thanks, Larry! Please include information such as: year you found the book, occupation, town where you live, and permission to edit for clarity of expression. You will have final approval of your story before it goes to press. In a few days I shall post some official guidelines.

Your devoted sister and friend, 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

Hello fellow travelers!

Here is the fourth story from "How I Found The Urantia Book" (Section I, 1955-1969). This one is from a collection started in the late '70s by Julia Fenderson. If anyone has more information on Gus Walstrom, please let me know.

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GUS WALSTROM Mansion World Sojourner

Some boys used to come to the canyon where we lived in Colorado to listen to some occult lectures on Sundays. As we were thirteen miles from Castle Rock and there was nowhere for them to get a meal, we would invite the boys to our house for dinner after the morning lecture. They were students at Colorado University at Boulder. They had visited the Urantia Book study group in Denver and were talking about it, and one Sunday in July 1956 Roger Darnell brought with him The Urantia Book all wrapped up like a box of candy.

Well, I started reading it, and by the end of the year I had finished it. My wife Marie read it after I did, and then we asked Roger to bring three more books, which we soon sold. After that we started ordering the books in ten-book lots. A few of us later got together for a Urantia Book reading once a week. From then on we always kept some books.

Through the years we have distributed over seventy Urantia Books. Marie made heavy plastic covers for all the books to save the fly covers and the reading on them. Dear Marie, she is now on the mansion worlds.

[Gus Walstrom is now on the mansion worlds with "dear Marie."]

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If you would like to receive a copy of the 344-page book in exchange for a donation to Norman Ingram's upcoming mission to the west 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. Yesterday stories were received from Jeff Abercrombie, Jacob Dix, and Bud Hughes. Thanks, guys! Please include information such as: year you found the book, occupation, town where you live, and permission to edit for clarity of expression. You will have final approval of your story before it goes to press. In a few days I shall post some official guidelines.

Your universe co-worker, 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

Hello universe ascenders!

Here is the third story from "How I Found The Urantia Book" (Section I, 1955-1969).

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GRACE WALKER Chicago, Illinois Forum Member Age 95 [departed for mansion worlds 1999]

I was raised in a religious family in suburbs of Chicago. My father was an evangelical minister, a circuit-riding preacher in his early ministry. Before the Depression, I wanted to be a missionary or a missionary doctor. When I was in college I was exposed to what was called "higher criticism," which questioned the authority of the Bible. This caused me to do a lot of thinking about religious questions.

Later, I found a book that was quite profound by a German professor. I asked my doctor, Dr. William Sadler, on Diversey Parkway in Chicago, if he had read this book because I felt he just knew something. He said he HAD read the book, then added, "I've got something I think you'd be interested in." He told me about the Urantia Papers, and asked me to pledge to secrecy. When I showed interest he said, "What are you doing on Sunday? Could you possibly come to the Forum?" The Forum met in the afternoon, so I went in early because he said it would take too long to tell the story in his office. I remember asking questions about Jesus.

So I began reading the Papers in 1945. I worked in downtown Chicago, and after work on Friday nights I would go to 533 Diversey on the bus. Afterwards I'd take a late train and wouldn't get home until midnight. We read one paper at a time, and I finished all the papers, one by one. I started with the Jesus Papers, then began reading from the first part of the book. I was convinced what I read was true, because the story of Jesus' life as father to his brothers and sisters touched on so many of the same problems I had in my life. I recall one time when I first began to read. I approached Mrs. Kellogg, who was the proctor at the desk, and asked, "Do you really believe all of this?"

" I certainly do!" she replied.

The Sunday afternoon group, which had started as a discussion group, was called the Forum. At the time I began attending it had become an open-house time for readers. I also belonged to a group called the Seventy. There were just seventy people in the group who had completed all the Papers.

Within this group there was a school formed to train teachers. These were evening classes at 533. The problem was that while there were teachers, there were no persons to teach at this time. There were more teachers than readers. In the Seventy group, each person had to write a paper on a Urantia topic. These were passed by the doctor and were read on Sundays.

My parents, who were by then in their seventies, lived next door to me, and they were curious where I was going on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. I finally had to tell them a little about the Papers. My dad was skeptical, but my mother was quite open-minded. They actually held some of the same ideas already.

I wasn't able to keep up with the meetings, living so far out. I was divorced and had much responsibility. These Papers helped me to raise my children. I also learned that with disappointment we have another chance. The Urantia Book literally changed my life.

If you would like to receive a copy of the 344-page book in exchange for a donation to Norman Ingram's upcoming mission to the west coast of Africa, For donations to Norman Ingram's mission, 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. Yesterday Sheryl Bellman from Ft. Lauderdale submitted her story. Please include information such as: year you found the book, occupation, town where you live, and permission to edit for clarity of expression. You will have final approval of your story before it goes to press.

Your universe co-worker, 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