How I Found the Urantia Book - Square Circles Publishing

36 How I Found the Urantia Book
those words wash over me. A sense of peace 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 hosted a study group and joined a local Urantia Society. I
went to my first Urantia conference in 1969 in Chicago and 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 she knocked on my door.
MO SIEGEL: The time was the late ’60s and the Vietnam war was tearing
America apart. 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.
KERMIT ANDERSON: Much of our world view with respect to the great
questions of life are “inherited” from our early moral, religious, and philosophical
environment. My early environment conveyed to me the moral view that
we are all members of the great family of man. Spiritually, however, I had no
teaching or direction to follow. My father had suffered at the hands of Roman
Catholic nuns in an orphanage for a short time. His experience and the stories he
told shaped my early view of religion in a most negative way. My father always
asserted his agnostic position regarding the existence of God and felt passionately
that one’s religion was too important to be left to the choice of another.
In my teenage rebellion I did him one better by going all the way to atheism.
As a philosophical materialist I enjoyed poking holes in the religious reasoning
of my peers. However, after some poor decisions and traumatic experiences I
found myself, 23 years old, anxious and depressed, seeking answers and meaning
in astrology, the occult, and drugs.