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Part One The following report is a compendium of Dr. William S. Sadler’s investigation into the mind phenomena movement perceived as channeling; it embraces excepts from his books wherein he presents a rationale as to why in all his years of investigation he determined all such phenomena to be self generated – some knowingly and the majority unwittingly. He was regarded by those prominent in this field as the foremost investigator and authority in this area of little understood mental activity, with much of the material recorded in his book The Mind at Mischief. His book The Practice of Psychiatry, being at one time required reading at major universities throughout the United States in the field of psychiatry, covers some of the same material. It is notable to mention that the celestial entities comprising the revelatory commission searched the planet for the best person to bring the revelation through, and after narrowing the search down to three people, it was Sadler who emerged as their final choice. Undoubtedly, for the following reasons: reliability/dependability (eventually published forty books on a variety of subjects); knowledge of religion, leader in the field of psychology, expert in medicine, being a top physician and psychiatrist in Chicago (books – (Theory and Practice of Psychiatry – 1936) (Modern of Psychiatry – 1945) (Practice of Psychiatry – 1953) expert on health and development (book – Piloting Modern Youth); knowledgeable in both science and religion, sought after as a lecturer, spent many years debunking false mediums (book Mind at Mischief – best seller in 1929), successful in the material world as well as the religious community, above all ethical. These and many other attributes set Dr. Sadler apart from the average citizen, making him the prime candidate for the reception of the revelation. He invariably followed through on his projects, completing all that he felt duty-bound to perform. He was both brilliant and possessed a photographic memory, but it was his sociability, integrity, and outstanding character that also attracted him to the revelatory commission. It was Sadler’s objectivity (skills probably honed as detective with the Pinkerton Detective Agency where he worked at one time, coupled with his background in psychology) that added to his investigative abilities in being able to debunk so many channelers of his time; this above acknowledgement should be of the greatest interest to the reader, for it is these credentials that separate Sadler from many of his peers, making his writings so worthwhile, especially as they apply to our topic. It is with some trepidation that I write this, knowing full well that it might offend the sensibilities of those within the channeling movement, but that is not my intent; it is rather a need to probe deeper into the psychological dynamics of a unique phenomena manifesting within the greater Urantia movement that is still attracting a small group of well meaning but possibly deluded Urantia students. While originally written in 1992, I have modified the report slightly, deleting some material and adding other, and will present it to our readers in four sections so as not to burden the reader with excessive reading material all at one time. For any new reader it is natural to possess an underlying skepticism, at least at first, regarding the validity of the import of messages that are purportedly presented (in part) by spirit entities speaking with authority for the Trinity – by beings who watched our universe being formed. And while this may appear unreasonable on the surface, the revelation becomes very plausible to most readers after a complete reading of the “Book.” It strains one’s credulity right off to read messages from entities who rule the very universe we live in (pg. 178 U.B.), but to talk personally to these entities via a channeler is a real stretch for most Urantians. Over the past two years I have received several lengthy transcripts of messages allegedly transmitted by teachers representing a teaching mission consisting of fused and non-fused mortals, from other planetary systems, some of which are even outside our universe. And occasionally the messages emanate from beyond the ascendant mortal establishment to embrace the highest beings including Michael (Jesus) and his CEO Gabriel. While these teachings for the most part consist of uplifting, somewhat enlightening, and generally comforting information, many parts of these transcripts contain information that is inconsistent with Urantia teachings, and what little there is of predictive value is therefore also unreliable. (e.g. A third world war set for the late 1980’s, predicted by the most illustrious channeler of the day, well respected in the Urantia movement and the one with the most followers, ensnared a large group in the Urantia Fellowship movement, eventually upsetting the lives of all those who had planned accordingly – a prime example of the unreliability of channeling.) This in itself does not necessarily indicate that these modern channelers are devoid of valid contacts, but I am suggesting rather emphatically that much of this new information is erroneous and leaves the reader to discriminate on his own as to what is real – what emanates from the channeler’s own mind and what might be coming from the outside, from another source presumably in another realm. Several months ago, quite by chance, I was given a copy of Dr. Robert Slagle’s rather erudite personal view of the teaching mission entitled "Welcome to Change". Bob, a psychologist from Sebastopol, California obviously spent a good deal of time compiling his thoughts, experiences, and recent information imparted through a rather diverse group of alleged transmitters -receivers (T/R’s); a fascinating and informative report for believers and skeptics alike. I found it inspirational yet suspect as did others who have read it. The report highlights messages from various transcripts around the country but presents an ambiguous rationale for their validity. This brings us to the topic of our discussion – is this channeling for real, is it truly legitimate? With nearly every page of some transcripts punctuated with some inconsistency, what interests me from both a general curiosity standpoint as well as a psychological perspective is not just the amount of error contained in the transcripts being circulated around the country, but rather the cavalier manner in which the explanations are presented for the many incongruities in transmissions. When a student, for example, in one of these groups confronts a channeler with some obvious error they get a response such as, “Don’t concern yourselves with human errors, they will all be corrected in time,” i.e. future transmissions – they seldom are. Or, “If these messages were error free you wouldn’t be agondonters.” (As if that has anything to do with transmission error.) Many of the errors are simply outlandish with no plausible explanation for the manifest contradictions. Slagle states that the contradictions, inconsistencies and general errors, while he is concerned about them, are not really important for his spiritual growth. I don’t view it that way. On the contrary, what we are concerned with here is the validity of the origin of these messages, not so much whether they offer spiritual value. There is admittedly much spiritual value in the content of these messages, however there is nothing that transcends the spiritual messages of the Urantia book in anything that I’ve read or heard in the last two years. Channeling is not new! Individuals professed to have channeled from great Indian chiefs of past times, famous historical warriors, members of the so called Great White Brotherhood (comprised of ascendant Masters - very popular in the 1940’s and 1950’s), Jesus, Gabriel, and all sorts of celestial personalities and disincarnate entities. What is important is, are their messages genuinely coming from an outside source or are they self generated through the subconscious mind of the channeler. What we don’t want to do is attribute our own mental machinations to anyone else. I was in Chicago at the Foundation when the leader of a group in Florida presented his manuscript to a Trustee for perusal, and unexpectedly had it rejected. The manuscript was given to me that day. I was present when the first channelers from Woods Cross, Utah visited Los Angeles where they were rejected by all but the few who bought into their movement. A personality calling himself Ham was channeled through a young woman named Jan Messenger who went by the biblical name Rebecca. Her male associates sporting long beards also had Biblical names. After a channeling session attended by about 100 to 150 people I invited them to a cocktail party at the Marriott next door which was being hosted by a wealthy Urantian attending a meeting there for the Fellowship organization; she ended up having to go to the kitchen several times to order more shrimp and wine to accommodate this Utah party. Unfortunately I didn’t have a lot of time to talk with them. I was told they were ex Mormons who had embraced the Urantia revelation, and had gotten involved in channeling. The Mormon Church incidentally teaches courses on channeling to get closer to God, and this is where the whole Urantia channeling movement started. The Florida group, Tennessee, and quite a few others are all in some measure connected with the original Utah organization. The medium as herein defined is merely the intermediary, liaison, or connection between two parties existing in different realms, and although the technique may differ somewhat, the term channeler, transmitter/receiver, and light trance mediums are used inter-changeably and synonymously since the above, as regards function and capacity, are for the most part quite similar. Deep trance mediums and some psychics are excluded from this definition. In some cases the method of contact, the depth of trance, or the mental reception may vary in means and intensity but nevertheless, in general, most appear to be drawing upon the subconscious in part or in whole. Many present day T/R’s scoff at being associated with channelers of the past, who by Urantia parameters were in all probability tapping their own subconscious; my concern is are these present day channelers making the same mistake? Channelers when they are not on the same page or wave length tend to discount, disregard, or completely discard the messages of those who might be a little further out in left field. The darling of the movement may have gone too far, perhaps even over the wall of center field, when he suggested everyone move into a cave or at least to the wilderness to escape the immediate nuclear blast due to materialize in the late eighties. No one can rule out a forthcoming nuclear blast but if your timing is ten or twenty years off and you have everyone living in a cave, you better start running yourself. One prominent Urantian outfitted his cave on just such a prediction with a generator, televisions, furniture, a water supply and necessities for comfortable cave dwelling, just eventually to realize the folly of it all, and then commenced to sell the cave for a couple million. Unfortunately radon gas was found by the new owner and he sued for misrepresentation. The point is you can channel all you want, but if you go too far out you are then considered delusional by your same group of channelers and not to be taken seriously. Presently there is a chap in Arizona who maintains that he receives regular messages from Gabriel, and that the Urantia book only has one fifth of the messages of the revelation, the rest are due to come from him. At one time he represented himself as Gabriel, but now is only a messenger for Gabriel. Yet another teacher in this so called coordinated teaching mission emphatically states that Gabriel is not giving anyone messages. Television evangelists, hucksters, hoaxers, and cultists deliver messages of spiritual import, but when their ulterior motives become discernable no one any longer pays attention to their fanatical approach to religion. Some of what they say might be well intentioned and meaningful in content, yet through some method of reasoning we discern insincerity, fanaticism, maybe ego exaltation, exploitation for profit, power control over their followers, a mixture of personal ideals with Biblical exhortations (right to life, etc.), and we move on to something more to our preference. Whatever the motive, we, for the most part, rule them out as our teachers. Yet, when someone comes along in the Urantia movement with a purported celestial contact, 1% of the movement jumps on the bandwagon hoping it’s headed for the town square, if not only a little time is lost. Those who reflect on their lives, if not content change direction, seldom are we required to make an unhesitating leap into the future; we invariably have time to sort things out – make rational decisions regarding our heading, yet in spite of this time element some of us make unwise choices evidenced by the Jonestown episode or the Koresh fiasco in Waco, Texas, and even a bad marriage decision; but mostly we just simply fail to employ common reasoning to some of our activities which in the long run does no permanent harm, it merely puts us momentarily on circuitous paths to our destinations – paths we need not be on if we exercised greater discrimination in viewing our course. Members of any group utilizing channelers as their contacts with an outside source (other than living mortals) ought to be quite concerned with the authenticity of the origin of their messages. There is so much in their realm of fallacious information including the promised materialization of a host of spiritual entities (at different places and at different times) which has yet to come about. Are these to be sloughed off as an error in human transmission? I hope not, but that appears to be the general direction. Then we have the implausible explanations for these non-appearances: “Well, Gabriel, even though he said he would be here visibly, just couldn’t make it this week because he had higher priorities. And after all, it is not for us to question the responsibilities of such magnanimous personages.” And one channeler even stated, “Gabriel was never mortal, you know, so he doesn’t really understand what it is like for mortals to anticipate an event such as his materializing in front of a group.” When I heard in April of 1993 that Melchizedek was to make an appearance in Naperville, IL to the channeling wife of an old friend of mine and people were coming from as far away as California to experience the event, I immediately directed my brother, who knew the channeler personally, to get on the phone and inquire if this was to be one of those phony contacts where Melchizedek remained invisible or was he actually going to make an appearance physically. She said physically – everyone will see him. This was proclaimed by Welmek the unseen transmitter of the group, and who stated Jesus himself authorized the materialization. Now what do you think was their excuse for no appearance? It was stopped at the last minute because the Father decided that in view of the sensationalizing of news about the Waco tragedy, it was not the propitious time for Melchizedek to be enfleshed. Not even Jesus knew of the Father’s decision until the last moment! And what was the response of one who came from California? “Those who met there were spiritually energized by a magical outpouring of love and peace. I see this as the starting point for the brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God materializing on our planet.” What? The non-appearance of a promised event decreed by Jesus with a phony explanation for its not happening is the beginning of the materialization of the brotherhood of man and God appearing on our planet. I happen to know this woman from California and that is exactly what I would have expected her to say. And what are we to think about Melchizedek making the announcement to a small group in Florida that, “we have a guest here today - Gabriel just dropped by to lend his support, and will be with us this afternoon.” Of course he remained unseen for the rest of the day. Gabriel popping in as if he were just walking into an office in the next room to converse with a subordinate and then remaining hidden all day doesn’t make a lot of sense either, but I guess his schedule was filled with more important things to do. I think it is fair to summarize these statements by merely saying nonsense! There are many more of these repeated inconsistencies. One teacher states that: “I am an ascendant mortal of non-fused status like all the other teachers.” We know of several of these teachers who professed to be of fusion status which should have been known by the teacher (transmitter) of this group if indeed as they maintain there is a “coordinated” teaching mission. One teacher maintains that he is from Salvington, yet in a later transmission admits that that was a mistake acknowledging that he is actually from Jerusem, but then later states he is also from outside our universe, and then goes on to say that he is just a little above our level in evolutional progress. Identifying different places on the planet to be the spiritual capital is also devoid of credence: Manitoba, Canada; Sedona, Arizona, Yosemite, California – they go on and on! There is a reasonable explanation for all this which we will explore in the next several pages. End of Part One |
