Cayce was psychic from young boyhood. On repeated occasions through his life he had visions of an angel of light. He was often plagued by psychic presentations while fully conscious. Contrary to popular opinion, Cayce had numerous personal problems.

He was not the kind, gentle, Christian man described by his promoters. He was a chain smoker. He had a volatile temperament. On countless occasions he fired his secretary in a fit of rage, only to reinstate her a few hours later. He was arrested in New York City for fraud. He could not keep his financial affairs in order. As a young married man he refused to seek employment, and often his wife and sons were short on food, with rent unpaid. Throughout his life he depended on the largess of others. His hospital in Virginia Beach was financed by a wealthy man from New York City. When that support terminated he had to declare bankruptcy. The hospital and his home were both lost to Sheriff’s sale.

Cayce’s technique for entrance into trance was as follows. He would lie down on a couch or bed. He would cross his hands upon his chest and close his eyes, as though going to sleep. He needed a conductor. In his early years it was his wife, in later years his son. They would sit by him as he went into repose. When they saw his eyelids flicker they would present him with a question. He would then give an answer. If they did not present him with a question when his eyelids flickered he would fall into a natural sleep from which he would awaken on his own. If he did not fall into a natural sleep, he went into the trance from which he made his pronouncements.

Note that Cayce always entered his trance from a fully conscious mental state. He had to make a conscious decision to enter into his psychic state.

William Sadler

Human Agent For The Revelation

Sadler was raised Seventh Day Adventist. At age 14 he went to Battle Creek, Michigan where he worked for John Harvey Kellogg, the famous manager of the SDA Sanitarium. He soon was placed in positions of responsibility by Kellogg.

A committee of four was formed to investigate the accusations. Kellogg was a member of the committee. The accusations were brought openly in Sabbath meeting, the most stern form of indictment that could be leveled against someone in the Church. Kellogg had traveled to San Francisco for the meeting. During the discussions Kellogg would not support Sadler. His own Church position had come into jeopardy. As a result Sadler was demoted from all managerial responsibility.

This incident took place in October, 1903. It threw Sadler into a psychological and spiritual whirl. Ellen White, and her son Willie, recognizing Sadler’s outstanding abilities, pleaded for him to remain in San Francisco. They did not want to lose him. They would find a place for him. But it was too much of a blow to Sadler. By December he and his wife Lena decided to move back to Battle Creek to continue their medical education. The Sadlers were in Chicago the week before Christmas, and on a train to Battle Creek Christmas Day.

They remained in Battle Creek until the following spring, when they moved to La Grange, Illinois, where they entered the Chicago branch of SDA Medical Mission School. (At that point Sadler could not tolerate being in the same town with John Harvey Kellogg.)

They both graduated two years later with MD certification from the State of Illinois. In the state medical exam Sadler was one of four who made the same top grade. (The other three were from the Rush Medical School.) He was a bright man with an incredible memory. He remarked in a letter to Willie that he found the SDA school more rigorous than the Stanford medical school he and Lena had attended in San Francisco.

He came from a healthy family with no known psychological or emotional problems. Sadler could determine no cause for his strange behavior. Some period of time passed when the wife again came knocking on the door, again in the evening hours. The same behavior was exhibited. By this time SS was highly concerned. He asked Sadler as a medical doctor to investigate the cause. Thus he became a patient of Sadler’s, and this relationship shows in legal court records until today, although SS had nothing to do with the final revelation.

This behavior continued at odd times, always at night, during the summer. In late summer, during one of the nocturnal visits, Lena noticed that SS was wiping his lips with his tongue, as though to speak. She suggested they ask him a question, whereupon he began to speak. About that time the Sadlers moved into their home. SS, highly concerned about his unusual behavior, moved into an apartment in the same block in order that he would be near the Sadlers during the night episodes.

This pattern of behavior led to a long series of questions and answers through subsequent visits, and eventually to the unfolding of the Revelation. SS was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, a highly pragmatic, hard-nosed business man who did not believe in psychic phenomena or any such nonsense. He was as puzzled as Sadler as to the cause of his behavior. His night statements were about the heavenly realms, about God, about creation, and about this world. Conceptually they went far beyond his simple religious teachings. They were not something that could come out of either his conscious or subconscious mind. He was from a traditional Christian background; he just simply could not accept that such things were issuing from his mouth.

As his strange behavior continued, he asked Sadler to continue in consultation. As part of his investigation Sadler used hypnosis. Although Sadler had difficulty hypnotizing the man because he was such a pragmatic person, he finally was able to do so. Sadler could find no subconscious memory of the materials which the man had been presenting while asleep. This was an extreme puzzle for Sadler. In his investigations of psychic, spiritualist, and channeler patients he was always able to find such memories. This evidence was one of the major reasons

Sadler felt that psychic materials were generated in the subconscious mind of individuals. This arrangement with Sadler continued for nearly thirty years. (SS was as keenly interested as Sadler in determining the cause of his unusual behavior.)

During that time Sadler brought in other medical and psychiatric professionals, as well as famous magicians, who knew all the tricks of the trade, to determine if there were hidden methods by which this man might be producing such strange behavior. Did some other explanation exist? In 1911 Sadler himself entered the field of psychiatry in order to become better trained in the behavior of the human mind. No one was able to solve the riddle.

Highly important also is recognition that the wife was needed to alert Sadler to an event. She was a key part of the process. Her notification to the Sadlers would come at any time of the night. Later, as this curious behavior went on, the other professionals and consultants also had to be awakened from their sleep to rush over to the man’s residence. Can you imagine how this excitable woman and this man must have felt to have strangers moving around their private bedroom in the middle of the night while SS was in his bed in nightclothes?

Another important element is displayed. Because these events took place at night, only when the man was in a natural sleep, the two households could not be separated from one another by any great distance. When Sadler moved to north Chicago in 1913 SS had to follow him if Sadler were to continue as his physician. Sadler and Lena, or other members of the investigative team, could not travel thirty miles back to La Grange in those days, (with no night trains), and still have time for investigative study. Consider also why SS did not want this behavior to become known. It would have damaged his business reputation. Therefore, he had a strong desire not to bounce from one doctor to another.

Meanwhile, at the urging of several individuals, Sadler formed an unrelated Sunday discussion group in his home which started as an informal presentation and dialogue on medical and psychiatric subjects. (Sadler had recently left the Chautauqua lecture circuits and was exploring other ways to talk to the public about solutions to health and mental problems.) The members of the group were from all walks of life. The only thing common among them was their mutual interest in those subjects.

This group became known as The Forum. Shortly after their first meeting the subject of psychic phenomena and spiritualism came up. Sadler showed them copies of some of the material coming through SS, which piqued their interest.  (Sadler still sought all possible avenues to come to an explanation of the behavior of SS. Perhaps some member of the Sunday group might come up with an idea, or have some knowledge that would provide a key to the riddle.)

When Sadler offered that material to the group it forever altered their purpose. It led to many questions, generated from the material they had seen. In attempt to organize this interest Sadler had the members prepare lists of questions between Sunday meetings. Hundreds of questions were generated. These were collated and edited. Sadler then took those questions to SS at the next event. This, in turn, as part of a formal response, led to the presentation of full Papers through SS. Those precursor Papers were not part of the final Revelation and were subsequently destroyed by Sadler.

Sadler continued to believe he was dealing with an unusual psychic phenomenon. In the late 1920’s, in one Sunday meeting, when Lena and members of the Forum began to voice views that they were dealing with a divine revelation, Sadler took them to task. He accused them of losing their scientific objectivity. He was not going to let one baffling case change his mind.

I shall not describe all the steps of the process, but in 1934 and 1935 the actual Revelation appeared. It came in sets of Papers, on several different occasions. It appeared in fully developed form, exactly what we know today. It appeared out of thin air. Sadler would find the sets of Papers unexpectedly. SS had nothing to do with the process. The Forum had nothing to do with it. The final Papers appeared miraculously. This was the first time Sadler and other members of his family, and the Forum, saw the Jesus Papers. The Jesus Papers did not exist prior to this event.

Sadler had two instructions. He was never to reveal the identity of SS. And he was never to reveal how the Papers appeared. He obeyed his instructions.

However, he left sufficient evidence that we can trace the sequence of events, and the manner of the appearance of the Papers. While technically obeying the instructions I feel that he wanted the world to know what had happened, and left it to later investigators to piece together his various clues.

I have summarized my investigations into this book. One of the more difficult parts for me personally was dealing with the weaknesses of the human personalities associated with the Revelation. Two major elements were involved.

One was the shortness of human vision exhibited by Sadler in his creation of secular vehicles for control and dissemination of the Revelation. The other was the perversions of Christy, and how that led to fragmentation of the Urantia organizations.

Both Sadler and Christy have been held up as idols in the work of the Revelation. Without question the Revelation would not have appeared without Sadler. He was the key personality. Christy was also a great contributor. She alone typed the entire manuscript from the original documents. But she went off on a path that created serious discord and strife within the Urantia community. She also introduced various materials and traditions as authentic revelation, which were not. That was a grave mistake. I shall discuss these elements later in this book.

Imagine Sadler’s consternation when material began appearing out of the blue. He devised an explanation which was repeated by Meredith Sprunger, but not a realistic scenario of what actually happened. Sadler believed the mind of SS was used to produce the miracle Papers. He felt the Spirit of the Father (Thought Adjuster) produced material within the man’s mind, and that midwayers read that material, from the man’s mind. The midwayers then produced the actual revelation on paper. What Sadler failed to recognize was the circuitous route of his explanation. The midwayers are in direct contact with celestial authorities; they had no need for the mind of SS. But Sadler was tied to a need for SS from his many years of study, and could not release hold of that need in his thinking.

The last part was correct. The midwayers actually materialized the revelation. (This thinking tells us something about SS. From Sadler’s explanation we know he was still alive, and supposedly well, in 1935.)

From this evidence we can now come to grips with the process of SS. He was mechanically manipulated by the midwayers. They could control his voice, and move his arms. Thus they were able to communicate either orally or manually.

They engaged in these activities only when the man was fully asleep because they did not want to violate his conscious mind, or his personal will. They never entered his mind. They had no need to do so. On the other hand, Caligastia can work his perversions only through a conscious mind. He cannot manipulate the physical world. He cannot control the voice or move the hands of a sleeping person. If such phenomena take place by him it is only because he has already entered the minds of his subjects while they are in a conscious state. Thus it was with Cayce. Cayce was not asleep when he made his pronouncements. He entered the psychic trance state only from a conscious state of mind. This rule is true for all psychics. No matter what evidence is adduced to show that other psychics could produce their “revelations” from sleep there is always a conscious decision by the psychic to enter into such a trance state.

From rumors that circulate about the appearance of the Revelation, from statements and anecdotes related by Sadler and other family members, and from our habitual notions of channeling, nearly everyone concludes that the Papers were channeled. The idea of a Sleeping Subject and parallels with Edgar Cayce, reinforce such conclusion. After all, channeling is the process of a human mind serving as a conduit for disembodied spirits. Weren’t disembodied spirits the source of the Papers?

Why didn’t true divine beings come in direct visitation, as with Paul on the road to Damascus, or as with Moses in the many visitations described in the Pentateuch? They didn’t for severely practical reasons. If Sadler, or someone else, had served as a scribe, taking dictation, would we believe they were not channeling?

 This background made him ideal for the event of revelation. SS had to be so different in behavior that Sadler would not immediately discard him as a psychic. In the late 1920’s, when the Forum members were willing to accept the Papers as a divine revelation, Sadler still clung to the notion that this was some unusual psychic phenomena he could not classify. That is why the unusual behavior of SS held him for so many years. He would not let go. Not until the Jesus Papers came, and he began to read the descriptions of the apostles, was he finally converted.

Two essential questions face us. First, could our planetary supervisors have devised another method of presentation? The answer to this question enters the realm of imagination. How could spirit beings communicate with the material world in a manner that would be accepted by human mortals? They certainly could not place it on a library shelf in the hope that someone might accidentally find it. Would persons who found such a book believe it? Would they not think of it as just another book of strange material and put it back on the shelf, as so many have done with the Papers?

Would most persons not reject stealing someone else’s work? How many persons possess the necessary resources to do something even if they did believe such strange work should be made known to others? How could they contact a publisher to obtain promotion rights if no publisher was shown in the book imprint?

How could a firm social foundation from a single believer be built which would ensure survival in the world? How long would it take to convince another person, or even groups of persons, to accept the book as worthy of reproduction?

I personally feel that the proscriptions placed upon Sadler prevented him from adequately explaining the difference between channeling and the unique performance of SS. Although he was adamant and forceful that no psychic phenomena were involved, to the point of denying every possible form he could imagine, he did not convince many people. I also believe the interplay of celestial constraints and Sadler’s personality were fully recognized by our planetary supervisors. They knew the uncertainty which would surround the events of the revelation. I personally feel they had another purpose to the technique of SS. That purpose is exhibited in other revelations.

Lack of certainty is of crucial importance in the decisions we now face. The program God is unfolding today involves FAITH-DECISION. Celestial agencies do not come down here to do our work for us, or to direct our decisions. We all must make up our own minds about revelation. We cannot do that if revelation comes to us with absolute sureness. Here are some of the elements.

1. We now live in an extreme planetary crisis. This crisis is at all levels, from the biological, to the social, to the economic, to the political, to the spiritual.

2. This crisis will continue to intensify, until breakdown occurs.

b. I know nothing about the social, economic, or political environment which will permit this to take place. I can only speculate. I do know that laws and technology now exist to quickly enter into complete totalitarian control of human populations.

c. Some sense of the fierce spiritual contest can be estimated from Revelation 11:2-13. However, this text has been somewhat adulterated.

d. An intense international political struggle will take place. I do not know if that struggle will be the result of a worldwide economic crises, fear of maverick countries with nuclear weapons, or other horrifying scenarios.

e. Great Babylon will then use her nuclear weapons. She will destroy greater parts of the Near East, including the modern state of Israel. This is described in Jeremiah 25, and other places.

f. The nations, in turn, will bring nuclear destruction to Great Babylon.

g. This will be the end of our civilization.

h. Instructions have been provided within revelation for individuals to save themselves from nuclear destruction — for those who survive the other persecutions. The events of John 16:2 and Revelation 11 will cause everyone to reassess their spiritual loyalties and dedication to God. Allegiance to current religious structures will be destroyed.

The sequences could not be understood unless some framework was provided. That is why Christian fundamentalist interpretation today is so confused and misplaced into irrational structures. Everyone struggles to find the proper arrangement; multitudes of books are written claiming to be the correct interpretation.

As Jesus would read these passages, (well understanding that much of the Eastern mysticism which had become admixed with these teachings was erroneous), he responded in his heart and recognized in his mind that of all the Messianic predictions of the Hebrew scriptures and of all the theories about the Jewish deliverer, none was so near the truth as this story tucked away in this only partially accredited Book of Enoch; and he then and there decided to adopt as his inaugural title ‘the Son of Man.’ And this he did when he subsequently began his public work. Jesus had an unerring ability for the recognition of truth, and truth he never hesitated to embrace, no matter from what source it appeared to emanate.