THE STORY

In the early 1900s, Dr. William S. Sadler and Dr. Lena Kellogg Sadler encountered an anonymous man in their Chicago neighborhood who spoke in his sleep. Unlike typical sleep-talking, the messages appeared to come from distinct personalities who identified themselves as celestial beings.

Dr. Sadler, a prominent psychiatrist and former debunker of psychic phenomena, investigated the case rigorously. He was unable to explain the communications through any known psychological mechanism. The sleeping subject never remembered the episodes upon waking and never sought publicity or recognition.

The identity of the sleeping subject has never been publicly revealed, in accordance with the wishes of those involved. Over the course of approximately 250 nighttime sessions, an extraordinary body of material was transmitted through this contact process.

In 1923, Dr. Lena Sadler called together a group of about 30 friends and associates to discuss the unusual communications. This gathering became known as "The Forum." The celestial authors, through the contact process, invited the Forum members to submit questions.

These questions became the catalyst for the papers. The celestial personalities used the questions to shape and expand their presentation of truth. Over the years, hundreds of questions were submitted, and the resulting answers formed the 196 papers of The Urantia Book.

Forum members were sworn to secrecy about the process. They would read the papers at Sunday afternoon meetings, submit new questions, and receive expanded or corrected materials in response. The interactive process continued for over a decade.

According to those involved, the papers materialized in handwritten form and were collected by the Contact Commission, a small inner group that included William Sadler, Lena Sadler, their son William S. Sadler Jr., Emma "Christy" Christensen, and others.

Christy typed the entire manuscript from these handwritten pages. The papers were organized into four parts: The Central and Superuniverse, The Local Universe, The History of Urantia (Earth), and The Life and Teachings of Jesus. By 1934 to 1935, the papers were considered complete.

The Contact Commission was the inner circle of individuals who had direct involvement with the contact phenomenon and the custody of the papers. They were responsible for the physical safeguarding of the manuscript, managing the contact sessions, and eventually overseeing the publication process.

Members of the Contact Commission took oaths of secrecy about the details of the contact process. They were instructed by the celestial authors to protect the text, to prepare for eventual publication, and to establish organizations to carry forward the mission of disseminating the teachings.

After years of preparation, proofreading, and the establishment of Urantia Foundation in 1950, The Urantia Book was finally published on October 12, 1955. The first printing consisted of 10,000 copies. The Urantia Brotherhood was simultaneously chartered as the social and fraternal organization for readers.

The book was 2,097 pages long, containing 196 papers organized into four parts. It was published without a named human author. The Contact Commissioners had been instructed to let the book make its way in the world quietly, without sensational promotion or claims of supernatural origin in its marketing.

From those first 10,000 copies, the book has spread to every continent. It has been translated into more than 25 languages, and hundreds of thousands of copies are in circulation worldwide.