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Global Urantia Book Read Thru Project · Urantia Radio

0:18
Welcome to the Your Rancher Radio podcast where we explore
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the 5th applicable revelation, including the life and teachings
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of Jesus, the history of our planet, and the destiny that's
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in store for all. It's a spiritual and
0:34
intellectual journey, so sit back and enjoy the Your Rancho
0:39
Radio podcast. Here now is long time reader and
0:44
student Jim Watkins. All right, so in with me today
0:48
are several great individuals, Erica Montgomery, Devin Landis,
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Diane Labrecque who has been on our program before and Conrad
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Levelly and did I miss anybody? I don't think I did right.
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And you guys have a project which is officially named the
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Global Urantia Book Daily Reading Project, but you also
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call it the UB read through for short.
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And so I wanted to bring you guys on and share because this
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is a big thing. It means a lot.
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We have technology now or you can be anywhere and you can
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still have fellowship with the Urantia book.
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And I think that's terrific. And I was honored to sit in on
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one of your read throughs. And I love the approach.
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It's sort of like a study group, but not really.
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I mean it, there's a little different flavor.
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So I guess I'll ask anyone who wants to answer, how did this
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project get started and, and, and who are you?
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Who is tuning in every week? Do you find people that you
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know, mostly strangers? How did the project get started?
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And tell me a little bit about your audience.
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We want to start Erika and Devin.
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Devin, do you want to start? Yeah, sure.
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The project got started where I guess come from our desire to
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have a bunch of people reading at the same time.
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So in a way, an international study group, we each had
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independent, I guess, ideas or contributions that led to the
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same or singular conclusion and then the details we just hashed
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out through logic. Yeah, sort of a natural.
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Let let it emerge or grow organically.
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And have you all known each other before?
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How did you all get together? How do you all know each other?
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Because obviously you're not in the same spots.
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We all read the same book. How did you find each other?
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I guess would be the better question.
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So I guess we all met through, well, we met through the range
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book, of course, but Devin and I met through like some young
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reader events that happened maybe over 10 years ago that MM
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Macisa kid put together and then also through other fellowship
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events. And I guess it was last or this
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spring, this last spring that we I had just finished a reading of
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the Urantia book and kind of was deciding about how to undertake
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the next reading. And that's when we started
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talking about what like an ideal reading schedule would look
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like. And we had another friend who
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was kind of thinking about the same thing at the same time.
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So we ended up talking with him and developing this idea that we
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wanted to read, be able to read together.
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But, but knowing that so many of the younger generation lives
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places where there aren't study groups at all, we were trying to
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think of a way that we could we could read like at the same
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pace, but not necessarily have to be in the same location.
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So that's where we kind, that's where we kind of came up with
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the idea of the the read through and then and then the schedule.
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The schedule for what? What an ideal schedule would
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look like for that. Yeah.
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And so the format who wants? Go ahead.
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Go ahead, Diane. Yes, I wanted to say that this
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is the part of Devin and Erica, how they met.
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And maybe Erica later on you can explain about the 20-30, how you
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coordinated the whole thing. But the beauty, Jim, is to know
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that this is the hand of God moving along.
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Because as I told Erica, I said, Erica, do you realize that when
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when we first spoke, I said four months ago, I didn't even know
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that you existed, neither you nor Devin.
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And now we are going on this Co hosting project of UB reading
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globally. And this is the hand of God.
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Because when I received their calendar as a gift for they
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contacted me for the Jubilee of Jubilees and they said, could we
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just give a little word about our project because it's brand
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new. And I said, I don't know if we
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have enough room because we already have 20 plus guests, you
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know, in that little bit of time, but I'll make sure that I
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find a spot. And that's how they announce
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their project. And I thought, wow, this is
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great project. And then they sent me a calendar
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as a gift. When I received the calendar, I
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thought, holy God, this is beautiful.
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So I called them and I said, congratulation, all of you
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Yayas, you know, you're brilliant.
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This is a great project. And they said, oh, would you
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help us to to to do it? I said, absolutely, I'd be more
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than feeling privileged to be part of this project.
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And that's how Erica and I started to Co host.
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So you can see like it's going click, click, click, click,
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click. And now today you're right on
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our website interviewing us, so. Diane, I didn't start the the
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recording so far, so tell me when you want me to start.
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It now please write down. Thank you, Colin.
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Well, it certainly is good to have you all here.
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Tell us about the calendar aspect of this recording in
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progress, Diane, or anyone who wants to tell me the format,
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what what do, what's the goal is to go through the book in a
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certain amount of time. Tell me what your goals are with
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it. Bevan or Erica would be the
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people to explain it because they have all the details.
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Do you want to go to say it, Erica, Devin?
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Yeah, sure. I would say that my experience
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was such that when I was reading the book, if I were to ever stop
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reading, my life would sort of emulate what I was about to
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read. And maybe that's like a almost
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like a fairy tale experience, but it really was happening.
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And that sort of led me to this conclusion that we should all
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read together, or that reading together is power, or reading
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even alone is power. And that, I think, is the main
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goal. You know, I find myself, and I'm
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sure many people listening, reading the book is if you grab
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a paragraph here or there, it really sticks with you for a
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couple of days. And the most frustrating thing
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for me is that nobody in my circle knows anything about the
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Urantia book. So I might as well be studying
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Mandarin Chinese, you know, and then not having anybody to
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practice with. So since you started doing this,
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have you noticed any change in the way that you read the book
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in a group setting versus in a private setting?
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I would like to say something because I know the answer that I
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want to say right now. Yes, Jim, it has changed a lot.
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I told my study group. I've had a study group for years
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and years and years, every Monday.
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So we begin the week when we meet from lunchtime to supper
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time. So the whole afternoon we
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dedicate and devote to the arranger book.
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And as I said earlier when I received the calendar and I saw
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the program that Devin and Charles and Erica and others put
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together, what I loved about it is the fact that the project
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says read only one section a day, Monday to Friday, take the
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weekend off. So if you want to review or
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finish your weekly reading, and then we'll meet once a month
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together to chat, to answer questions, to make presentations
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and whatever. And I told my study group, you
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know, we, we are very blessed because right from the start
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when I accepted to join with them and help them with this
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project, uh, every Monday now we devote to doing a pre reading of
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the five sections of the week. And then after that, everybody
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goes home and we study ourselves by ourselves.
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And the, the, what I would say the wonderful aspect of this
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project is that one section is possible for everyone to do
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every day. And it allows us to, as I tell
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my study group, we deep dive. So instead of just reading on
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the surface and hurrying up to do 1 paper, we do 1 section in,
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in in communion with our thought adjuster and the spirit of truth
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and the inspiration that comes. And I call it scuba diving
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because it's like going really deep and getting new
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understanding that people have said to me, Diane, even though I
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had read those parts, it's like it's brand new or I'm getting
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new on. This time, yeah.
9:29
No, it's fabulous. How do you decide that the which
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papers or sections you read? Is that just sort of everybody?
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How is that planned? Is there someone who says, OK,
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we're going to start here? Are you going chronologically
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through the book? Who determines the subject
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matter that you're reading? Yeah, I can answer that.
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So yeah, you asked about the organization of the calendar and
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I have it or you're, I'm not sure if you're watching a zoom,
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you'll be able to see it here. Yeah, Yeah, I see it.
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We did the we made a visual which is a, a spiral calendar.
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And in a sense the idea was that we, we were trying to line up a
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specific anniversary. So the two thousand anniversary
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of Jesus, the Master's ascension and the Jubilee of Jubilees and
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the coming of the spirit of truth.
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So that's happening in 20-30. So the idea was that we wanted
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to be reading about that and which is around the end of the
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book, the end of the ranch book on that date, on those dates.
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So we, we targeted that date and then, and then decided that, OK,
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well we want to read. We want this to be a very light
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read, easy reading schedule. So we do 1 section a day and
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just Monday through Friday. So we, we don't read on the
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weekends and we don't read, we're not reading over the big
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hall, the big holidays in December and January, so between
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Christmas and New Year's. So we worked backwards from
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that, counted out how many sections there are in the
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Urantia book, use the calendar and that's how we got our start
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date. Got it.
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So essentially we we are reading, we started just in
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September, around September 18th I believe and we are reading
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chronologically and we started with the forward.
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So yeah, that. So that was how we laid how we
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started. With the forward boy, that's a
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tough one, right? Do you all find that the people
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that are attending and your your idea how many people that you
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think TuneIn or or have been a part of it Same same group 2030.
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No, there's been people adding at every meeting.
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Started 20-30, then close to 40, and we have five and five years
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and eight months to go. So yeah.
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We have a while, it'll be huge. Yes.
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Yeah, yes, it's so it sounds to me like the difference is as
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opposed to say, a regular study group, and no study group is
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exactly the same. But there's a general sense, you
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know, people will start like with the beginning of the life
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and teachings of Jesus and then they'll go through the end.
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Then they'll maybe start at the beginning and work their way and
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everybody reads a piece of the paper.
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Is that sort of the same format as you guys where you read a
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paper and then everybody discusses that section and then
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you move on to the next chapter or or paragraph?
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Is it structured in that kind of way?
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Maybe this is the proper time to introduce Conrad and talk about
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what he's doing. He's our Technical Support for
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the project and he's actually allowing us everyone, just not
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the the four of us or the three of us.
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He's allowing everyone who signs up with him officially with
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their e-mail address to access the website for the read through
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the UB read through project. So that 24/7, 365 people need to
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at 3:00 in the morning because this is a worldwide, a global
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project, Jim. So there are people that right
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now as we speak, it's night time for them and vice versa.
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And so anytime they don't need Conrad or they don't need me or
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Erica or Devin or anyone else, they can actually zoom in, go
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into the chat, they can review the video, study what we did, or
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they can reread the chat or contribute or put comments,
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comments, questions. And so it's an interactive,
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ongoing project. And at the same time, again, the
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beauty is to know that anywhere in the world today, many readers
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and more and more readers, we will be uniting spiritually in
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energy, reading the same section and sharing about it and
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contributing. So it's wonderful.
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So the technology behind it, Conrad.
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Well, the whole idea is to allow people to work together during
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the online video conferences, but also to contribute in
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between the meetings. As they're going through their
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personal readings, they make some discoveries.
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They may find the interesting sites on the web that they may
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want to share. There's all sort of resources
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that they could bring in. So what we're trying to do is to
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take Zoom, which is normally used for video conferencing, but
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the chat disappears. We use a persistent chat and
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what we are slowly building is a set of channels where people
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will be able to collaborate in on a permanent basis.
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So people can go there at the most convenient time and use
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various resources provided by those collaborative features.
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For instance, a persistent chat is one of them.
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But in the channel, they can use different chats.
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They can use documents, notes, they can share videos, they can
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do some drawings and share their drawings or make some diagrams.
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I mean, as they will proceed with their study of the Urantia
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book, they will undergo a whole set of new discoveries.
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And that we want to provide them with the opportunity to share
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those discoveries so that the whole group will benefit from
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each individual's findings. And because of the fact, as
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Diane mentioned, that people are geographically scattered then
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located on different time zones, it makes it a lot more
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convenient to allow them to to join in at the their most
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convenient time and contribute to the whole dynamic.
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So that's an experience. It's an experiment, so to speak
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of both to foster, to study if you rancher book and also I
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would say that with the advent of artificial intelligence in
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Zoom, there are some translation capabilities in document like
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notes and documents. Documents within Zoom are
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collaborative and people can easily convert a text written in
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Spanish or English or Finnish or name it Japanese.
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They can have it translated in English, French or whatever on
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the fly by the AI system, which is now providing a crazy
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professional level of translation, if not squarely to
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say professional translation. So basically.
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It's a cloud based Urantia community where the focus is on
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the read through but also in collaborating and sharing new.
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So for as an example, this week they announced a new theory on
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how the moon came to be. And I happen to see that.
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And then I of course read it, went back to read the Urantia
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book and cross referenced and they up till now they believe
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that the moon there was a collision or the moon came from
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the Earth. Well, the Urantia book says
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something completely different. So I would naturally want to
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share that with other Urantia book readers and say, hey, have
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you heard about this? They're getting a little closer
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to confirming what the Urantia book it says.
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Yeah. So you could put a link on the
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permanent chat and allow other readers to consult that thing.
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And from that link you can engage a conversational thread.
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And the nice thing about it, if you go into documents and put
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the links in a document, in a collaborated documents, then you
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have the the fact that people can engage in a multilinguistic
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fashion. So you're breaking, for all
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intents and purposes, the cultural barrier that to
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normally separate people of different linguistic
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communities. There's a lot of potential there
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when you think about it. Yeah.
18:00
What is the ratio you think of new readers versus say seasoned?
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Are you more? Does it seem like more people
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this has more appeal to seasoned readers who are familiar with
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the Urantia book or new readers that are just getting started?
18:14
Just curious. It's interesting you ask this
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question because as call Dad was just finishing talking, I was
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thinking, oh, we need to talk about that.
18:23
So we're on the same plane. All right.
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And I just wanted to share with you and your audience, Jim, that
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it's interesting because we have, I received an e-mail from
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a wonderful lady and she wrote to me and said thank you, Diane,
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and to all the team at UB read through because I've read the
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book more than 50 years ago. And I am so, so happy to be on
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this project. She loved it.
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And all this at the same time I participated because Zoom is
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just about every day now. So I participated on an other
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conference and there was a new reader, a man who had never read
19:05
the book, met through people on the street and heard about the
19:09
name You ran shot. So he was there.
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And as I listened to him, I said, you're a new reader, Maybe
19:15
you would like to be on this new project of ours.
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And he said I told him the detail.
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He said please send me the e-mail and the invitation.
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He responded. He's part of the group.
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So we have older people with more experience and wisdom and
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younger people. We have middle age.
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We have all groups. It's really wonderful to see how
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it has a life of its own and it's growing like a seed that
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was planted from above. And now this, the terrain.
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The terrain is just. The time has come for this and
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the project is going very well and I.
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Yeah, yeah, I agree. I was going to say I think we
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have some very seasoned readers who are getting something new
20:03
and different out of it. And also some, we do have some
20:06
brand new readers. I have a a good friend who'd,
20:09
you know, I told her about the earring book and she'd read a
20:11
few papers. She actually even came to a
20:13
conference, but she hasn't read much at all.
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And she's doing the read through with us and there's a, there's a
20:18
couple people like that. So they're pretty much brand new
20:20
readers. Which is really exciting, but
20:23
since the pace is slow, I think it it works for new readers as
20:27
well as seasoned readers. Yeah, I would think so.
20:30
How I know I get an e-mail from you when you guys have a weekly,
20:34
but how do, how do people know about it otherwise?
20:36
Are the other agencies like the Association and the foundation,
20:40
are they helping spread the word that you're doing this?
20:43
Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah?
20:47
Well, you you can go ahead if you want.
20:49
OK, first of all, the Urantia Fellowship, Urantia Book
20:53
Fellowship, they sent an e-mail, a beautiful invitation to
20:56
everyone. And then after that we also have
21:00
Center for Unity with Gabriel Rimberg and his team.
21:03
And so they've been wonderful. They wrote a great article about
21:08
Erica and Devin and Charles. And so that was really, really
21:12
nice to introduce people and they have a great list as well.
21:16
There's also Urantia University, it's been announced at
21:20
different. Then I have my listing from the
21:24
United Urantia family and so I send the invitation to everyone.
21:29
Erica has a listing about the yayas, the young and youth and
21:34
young adults of Urantia book readers.
21:36
So she has her list as well. Yes.
21:39
And so it's again, it has a life of its own.
21:43
And there's actually a woman who contacted me and she said Monica
21:50
Camp said, hi Diane. Hi Monica.
21:53
She said, I love the meeting when we launched it on September
21:57
18th and again on September 22nd for the CFU members and
22:02
audience. And she said, Diane, this is
22:05
such a great project and so on. And then after we finished our
22:10
conversation, her, my husband sent me an e-mail and he said,
22:15
Diane, I've already put the ad on our website.
22:19
So instantly I clicked on the link and I went to see on the
22:23
website and they have thousands of people, not hundreds or
22:29
thousands of people that have already seen the ad.
22:32
So it's spreading, Jim. It's spreading on its own.
22:37
Well, you know, that's great. The Urantia community is
22:39
growing, no question about that. I mean, I could see it more I
22:43
think in the last 10 years than I've seen in the last 30 really.
22:46
But maybe it's because of technology.
22:48
What do you guys think about that?
22:50
The fact that with Kindle and the fact here's my phone, I've
22:54
got my Urantia book on my phone that I read every day.
22:58
I think before this, how do I'm trying to remember how I read
23:01
the book? Did I actually pull out a book
23:03
and start reading it? I can't believe it.
23:05
Yeah, I'm quite sure that technology will be a
23:08
contributing factor to the growth of the Urantia movement,
23:12
not only from a quantitative standpoint, but also
23:16
qualitatively. The fact that the Urantia book
23:19
is available online in multiple languages free of charge, that's
23:24
a major technological advancement.
23:29
And also the the collaborative features and S technology is
23:34
evolving. I mean, there's new affordances
23:37
provided to the Urantia readership.
23:41
My personal view on that is that technology is good and welcomed,
23:46
and so far as it we can put it at the service of people, when
23:50
it works the other way around, it ought to be kicked out of the
23:53
way. What do you mean by that?
23:55
Elaborate on that. Well, sometimes technology could
23:59
become a source of, I would say dependency can create different
24:05
kinds of dependencies, and we need to use technology in a
24:09
balanced way. I mean, otherwise technology is,
24:15
and when it becomes addictive, it's alienating people instead
24:18
of liberating them. So the, the wise usage of
24:22
technology is paramount if we want that to have a, a positive
24:26
influence on the Urantia movement.
24:28
And that's what we're striving for.
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But yeah, the the manner in which we use technology that
24:35
would apply for instance, to the manner in which we would use
24:39
artificial intelligence to support the Urantia readership.
24:43
AI won't replace the Urantia book.
24:45
It's not a replacement for the Urantia book, but it can support
24:49
the study of the Urantia book in a variety of ways.
24:52
But as well as people are at the cent at the center, technology
24:59
revolves around people, not people revolving around
25:02
technology. If we want to put it that way,
25:04
we'll. Put Yeah.
25:05
That's all I said. Yeah, I wrote a couple more
25:08
questions and I know that we have a little bit of a time
25:10
limit here, but. And I, I would like to say an
25:14
answer to your question, Part B, Jim, quickly.
25:18
But I see, I observed that there's an interesting phenomena
25:23
that's happening and I think that it's synchronistically
25:27
coordinated with this project of global reading of the
25:31
Revelation. And that is that many we know
25:35
that readers of the Bible are by the billions, OK around the
25:40
planet. And many, many readers seem to
25:43
be searching for more, For more information.
25:47
And it's like they have a thirst, you know, for some kind
25:51
of information that we Rancho Book readers are blessed to know
25:54
about. So with this project and all the
25:57
other projects going around the world, it's helping it.
26:01
It's almost like, you know, when Jesus said my time has come, he
26:05
took his apron off and said to his two brothers, come on my
26:08
brothers, let's go to the Jordan.
26:10
I need I will be baptized. So it seems to me that the time
26:15
has come now for the Rancho book to rise up to a new level.
26:20
We have had all those years to plant the seeds for the
26:24
institutions, for the organizations, for the printing
26:28
of the book, for the translations, for the study
26:31
groups around the world. And now it's time to reach a new
26:34
level. And I see the synchronicity
26:37
between the the two. So not just technology, but also
26:41
this spiritual thirst, you know, and hunger to know.
26:47
And we have, we have a responsibility to feed our
26:51
brothers and sisters spiritually with the Urantia book
26:54
Revelation. And and wise guidance too,
26:57
because I started reading this book that a gentleman wrote.
27:01
Many of you may know him. He wrote a book about the second
27:04
coming of Jesus and he just published it.
27:07
Do any of you know Soren Westgard?
27:10
I think he's name is. Anyway, and I'm reading this
27:13
book and he gives a summary of the Urantia book.
27:16
And I'm thinking to myself, man, there's a lot of stuff that the
27:21
Urantia book has taught me more than I ever imagined.
27:25
And it's stuff that nobody knows, you know, And it's like,
27:28
how do we get this into more people's presence so that they
27:33
could realize, just as an example, when you're standing in
27:36
the supermarket just thinking that every person in that store
27:41
has a thought adjuster, how many of them are not even aware of
27:44
the fact that they have a soul that's in process of formation?
27:49
And imagine how transformative that would be if they had that
27:53
piece of information. And I that's it.
27:56
When I realized if you read the Urantia book long enough, you
27:59
forget how much you've actually learned and how much you know,
28:03
or at least you feel that you know about the universe that
28:05
nobody else knows and how transformative that would be if
28:09
they did know that. I'm hoping that's why they wrote
28:11
the Urantia book is to prepare us so that we could know that.
28:15
So the next revelation, when it comes, we'll know what the hell
28:19
a Melchizedek is or a Gabriel or, you know, something like
28:22
that, a magisterial son. So anyway, I just, I was reading
28:27
about the Supreme being today and this what you're doing
28:31
brings us that much closer to the emergence of the Supreme,
28:36
Simply put. So I just want to thank you for
28:39
the. I want to say, Jim, that I've
28:41
been invited to an interview that I will do in a month.
28:45
And it's about a concept that I got in 2008 at UCLA when I was
28:52
asked to be part of the Urantia Book Fellowship Conference.
28:57
And just before reaching Los Angeles, I was at the restaurant
29:01
and I saw an ad in the paper. And in 2008, if we go back 16
29:06
years ago, HD equipment was just about coming out.
29:11
So there was a big, almost full page ad, you know, big sale on
29:14
your HD computer or television screen or whatever.
29:18
And it just dawned on me, hey, you know what?
29:21
So when I gave my speech at UCLA, I told the people, if
29:28
equipment, pieces of equipment have reached the high definition
29:32
mode, what about us human beings reaching our highest definition
29:37
mode, which is our HD mode? And that is exactly what the
29:42
mission of Jesus was, to reveal the Father to men and bring men
29:45
to the Father and he lived in his human and divine mode.
29:50
So to know that we are sons and daughters of God and to live in
29:54
our human divine mode with our thought adjuster and the
29:57
conscious of our soul, that means we can help people to
30:03
transcend to a level now of living not just in the human
30:08
brutal mode at times, but to respect God in my neighbor.
30:14
You're kind of breaking up there a little bit.
30:17
No, totally agree with that assessment.
30:19
Anything that we can do it. This is, I think the age of the
30:22
the first period was just getting the book out there
30:25
translated, forming groups. I think we might be in a
30:27
position now where more teachers are needed.
30:30
I don't know if you heard any of that.
30:32
I'm curious to know how long all you guys have been reading the
30:36
book. How long have you all been
30:38
readers? Just curious.
30:40
Erica, you want to go ahead. So my parents were both readers,
30:44
so I grew up with the Uranch book.
30:47
But and I maybe I started reading 1 / 20 years ago, but
30:51
not seriously until the last. Like I would say three years.
30:56
So what was that like growing up in a family of Urantia book
30:59
readers? That's pretty special.
31:01
Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm very grateful for it.
31:04
Now it they're, you know, it felt a little weird at the time.
31:08
It was like when people asked what my religion was, most of my
31:12
community was Jewish or Christian, and I would have to
31:16
explain what the Urantia book was, which obviously nobody's
31:19
ever heard of. So, but it, it was great.
31:23
I mean it now. Now I'm very grateful that I
31:25
was, that I was raised with it and that I was given that gift,
31:29
you know, to be so, so good in general.
31:33
Devin, what about you? Are you still with us there?
31:37
How long have you been a leader? I was introduced in 2008 to the
31:40
book, and then by the beginning of 2009 I started reading on my
31:45
own as I was bored with my college textbook and I thought
31:50
that the Your Answer book might have something better to say
31:53
about something in the in the realm of science.
31:56
So I think that was maybe 15 years ago, 2009.
32:01
You know, they always talk about there's a point where you come
32:05
like Meredith Springer is one of the early pioneers.
32:08
He always said that there was a point where you throw in the
32:11
intellectual towel and you say, OK, at what point do I
32:15
absolutely believe that what I'm reading is true?
32:19
Do any of you have a memory of when that point occurred for
32:23
you? Well, I started reading the
32:26
arranged book when I was 19. I'm now 71 and I bought the
32:33
Urantia book. At that time I was a Yogi
32:36
practitioner and I believed in reincarnation and the teachings
32:41
of Orobindo and Chivananda Sarasvati and Yogananda and so
32:46
forth. And there were some differences
32:50
between the Teachings of Urantia book and those Hindu philosophy.
32:55
So it created the state of cognitive dissonance.
32:59
So I sold the book. Then I regretted it.
33:02
I bought it back. And there was a kind of inner
33:07
crisis, a kind of internal conflict between my former
33:11
beliefs and the new belief. Because the problem I had is I
33:14
felt that what I was reading is real, is the truth.
33:19
But it doesn't. They didn't suit well with my
33:22
previous beliefs. So at a certain point I took the
33:25
book, threw them in the drawer and I asked the father, well,
33:29
I'll, I'll stop reading the book for about two or three weeks and
33:34
give me a signal when I'll read it again.
33:37
Give me a signal whether or not this is for me, This is true,
33:40
this is good. And that's exactly what I did. 3
33:43
weeks later, I opened the drawer, started reading your
33:46
Durant book and I felt comfortable.
33:49
I, I liked what I was reading. That was my signal.
33:52
Since then, I'm not only a Urantia Book believer, but I
33:57
have faith in the spiritual teachings of Urantia Book.
34:00
And that faith never painted. Since then, not a bit.
34:05
It grew continually, and it's still growing.
34:09
Yeah, I have to say I agree. Nobody would be able to talk me
34:12
out of it at this point. If somebody said you're a nut,
34:15
you know, how do you know all this?
34:17
I said, look, I could, I could sit here and spend 3 days
34:21
telling you why this book is true, and then you have to make
34:24
a decision. And but you know, nobody wants
34:27
to ask. That's what I find most
34:28
interesting. I have this podcast.
34:30
Everybody in my family, all my friends know I read the book.
34:33
Anybody's known me for 30 years. But nobody asks questions.
34:36
They never ask. They they Jesus.
34:39
I consider Jesus as an avatar, just like Krishna, Buddha or
34:44
Pythagora or you name it, the the great gurus that marked the
34:49
evolution of the humanity. Loud say, or Confucius.
34:52
But after reading the life and teachings of Jesus, I remember
34:56
holding the side of a bridge and looking at the river.
35:01
And at that moment, I acknowledge that Jesus is the
35:05
Son of God and Son of man, and I acknowledge the divinity of
35:09
Jesus. But it's through the reading of
35:11
your ranch book, the, the life and teachings of Jesus that I
35:15
reached that fate point in my life.
35:19
And that was a a game changer, to say the least.
35:22
It affected it. It changed the whole life, the
35:25
whole perspective on life and my relation with with Jesus.
35:28
And yeah, was tremendously enhanced.
35:32
Feeling the spirit of truth. There's no words to describe
35:34
that. It leads to spiritual
35:37
experiences, goes beyond near intellectuality.
35:40
It becomes a living experience at some point.
35:43
Yeah, yeah. Diane, you had an interesting
35:46
experience. Can you share your if you don't
35:49
mind? It's such a great story.
35:51
OK, I was just leaving it in God's hands.
35:54
If you asked, I'll answer. If you don't, I was not going to
35:57
say anything. All right, so I'll take my
36:00
courage and say it. First of all, I was born in in
36:05
Quebec. And so when I was born and even
36:09
now, it was a very, very religious area.
36:13
So I was born a Christian and have always loved God and Jesus
36:19
and the Spirit and all this. So it was, it was my world and
36:24
my whole family of 12. And I've had many experiences
36:29
with Jesus throughout my life and one of them I remember when
36:34
I was just starting school 1 morning, my mother being a
36:39
mother of I have brothers and sisters who have just months
36:43
difference not even one year. And so she was a busy mother and
36:48
I came downstairs and I was all happy to tell my mother, Mommy,
36:53
I was just probably 6 years old or something because I was in
36:56
first grade, just starting. And I said, Mama, I just went to
37:00
heaven last night. God took me to heaven.
37:04
And I still hear her saying, OK, OK, that's good.
37:07
Diane, go eat your oatmeal and your eggs because I want you to
37:10
be on time for school. And I look like, no, she doesn't
37:14
believe me. So I kept things silent to
37:17
myself. And so over the years, I have
37:20
experienced beautiful, beautiful situations with Jesus
37:26
personally. And on December the 14th, 1990,
37:32
I had a visitation of Jesus. And I just want to say I am not
37:36
on to drugs or alcohol or whatever, no, but I just want
37:41
people to know I'm not hallucinating.
37:43
I'm extremely straightforward from A to B.
37:46
And like I said to people, if Jesus visited you, just like I
37:52
see you, Jim, and the rest of the group, you would remember
37:56
for eternity because it is something that absolutely
38:00
transforms you. It's unbelievable.
38:03
And at the time, I did not know anything about the Uranchi book,
38:06
had never heard the word, never seen the book, never met anyone
38:11
involved with the Uranchi book. And at 3, exactly 3:00 in the
38:16
morning, I looked at my clock. Jesus visited me, and he allowed
38:21
me to experience through personal religious experience,
38:27
the reality of many aspects of creation that I didn't even know
38:34
when I came back. I didn't even know the words to
38:38
say or what how to call it or where I had been or whatever.
38:42
And a few months later I was going to a business meeting and
38:47
I was in the limousine drawing with the the man in charge and I
38:51
saw him reading this big book. It was like, wow.
38:56
So I looked at him and his name was Marcel, Marcel Pele.
39:00
And I said, Marcel, what are you reading?
39:02
As the driver was driving us to the meeting.
39:05
And he said, oh, the livre durancia, don't you know about
39:09
it? I said, what you leave the what
39:12
you, you, you. He said the Urantia book.
39:15
I said, no, I don't know. And he started to, he continued
39:19
to read, but aloud. And as I heard what he was
39:23
reading, I went, what is that? He said that's that's the
39:28
Urantia book. I said, Oh my God, can I have
39:30
one? He said, oh, I buy them, buy the
39:33
case from the foundation in Chicago.
39:37
He said when I meet people that are ready to receive the rancher
39:40
book, Ioffer them freely, a book if they want.
39:44
I said can I have one please? He said absolutely when we come
39:48
back from the meeting tonight. So when we came back, I remember
39:52
I wrote it down. I in my journal, I have all the
39:55
details and it was past midnight.
39:58
It was the 14th of March 1991 and it was at 12:15 AM.
40:06
And when I I received the book and I put my hands on it and I
40:10
knew I was holding something beyond earth, beyond human, and
40:15
I said thank you so much. He turned out to be the man in
40:19
helping with the project of IC 93.
40:23
And he said you should come to the conference.
40:25
It's going to be here. And I was asked to be a keynote
40:29
speaker and I, I did it and that's how I started on my
40:33
mission. I say on my on a mission,
40:36
mission for God. And when I arrived at about
40:40
12:30 at my house, I sat, I opened it.
40:44
I let God guide me to and I as I started to read and it was in
40:49
the first part like the first five papers and tears started to
40:54
just drop, drop, drop. I remember moving away because I
40:58
didn't want to wet that beautiful book and it was
41:01
describing experiences that I could finally put words on.
41:06
And so that's the beginning and we are here now.
41:10
So it is. Appreciate you sharing that
41:13
personal story and I think you carry the spirit of what all of
41:16
this is about. And I again, just how can I want
41:20
to kind of bring it to a close? How how can people who are
41:23
listening to this podcast become a part of what you're doing?
41:27
Do they need to go to a website? Do and they need to send an
41:29
e-mail? What's the?
41:31
What's the procedure? Erica and Devin, would you like
41:34
to give the different to e-mail like for symmetry of soul and
41:39
your website? Sure, yeah, the all of the
41:42
information about the project and how it works is on our
41:47
website anditsyoureadthrough.com.
41:50
So it's UREADTHRU, so just TH ru.com shortened.
42:00
And so that has that has all the information about how it works
42:04
that you can download a copy of the calendar there and print it.
42:09
You can request a copy from us if you'd rather have us send
42:12
one. Our meeting Zoom link is on
42:15
there as well. And then there is also a link on
42:20
there to another website, which is very helpful.
42:23
So it's just it's the symmetry of Seoul website, which is
42:28
another podcast. So that one is SYMMETRY of
42:35
seoul.org. And at the very top of that
42:38
page, it will say that there's a daily reading going on.
42:44
And you can click on that and that will have the date, the the
42:47
exact text of the daily reading and and also the audio as well.
42:52
And there's a little quiz at the bottom of of each each section
42:56
or each day, which is kind of fun.
42:58
So people have been enjoying doing that.
42:59
So if you go to Cemetery of Seoul and you'll get the daily
43:03
reading or go to youreadthrough.com and it has
43:06
all of the other information in the calendar and also the daily
43:09
reading on there as well all. Right, terrific.
43:13
Any closing thoughts from any of of you And just again, I
43:16
appreciate you guys very much anything you want to.
43:19
Close. With.
43:20
Sure, I'll just if some somebody else wants to say something too,
43:24
but just it's not too late to join the project if you want, if
43:28
you would like to or only a couple papers in and anytime you
43:34
want to join would be would be great.
43:36
And at this point we're, you know, it would be pretty easy to
43:39
catch up if you wanted to. So we'd love to have anyone
43:42
who's interested. OK.
43:44
And where are you at in the book right now?
43:45
Like where did you, since you're just starting, where are you
43:48
starting from the first five papers?
43:52
Yes, yes, OK. That is a good part to.
43:54
Start right from page one of the introduction.
43:58
And now we are at paper 5. And if people want to connect
44:04
with us to receive the invitation, the recurrent link
44:08
and all this for the monthly meetings, they can write to us.
44:12
I can give my e-mail address, Erica.
44:14
You can give yours as well. And my address is my name Diane
44:18
Diane period Labrecque LAB as beauty RECQUE Diane dot
44:29
labrecque at Videotron, the video Tron T as Thomas RO n.ca,
44:38
and they can also have Ericas address and we will be more than
44:42
happy to include them in in as a guest to participate with us.
44:49
And I personally want to say from my heart, thank you so
44:52
much, Jim, for one, congratulations for the great
44:55
work you're doing to broadcast the revelation worldwide.
44:59
And thank you for inviting us to be part of your wonderful
45:04
programs that you record for people to see, because this is a
45:08
very important project. It's meant from above and it's
45:14
going to go far and it's wonderful that you did this.
45:17
So I really, really appreciate it on behalf of the whole group.
45:22
Well, same here. So thank you everyone and.
45:25
Erica, you want to give your e-mail address?
45:27
Thank you. Sure.
45:29
Yeah, it's Erica, Erica dot Montgomery.
45:34
Montgomery at urantiabook.org. So you, yeah, you can e-mail
45:42
myself or Diane and then also through the website, you can
45:46
contact us from the website as well.
45:48
So once again, I want to thank all these wonderful people for
45:51
joining me this time on the Urantia Radio podcast.
45:54
Erica Montgomery, Devin Landis, Diane Labrecque, of course, and
45:59
Conrad Levelly joining us to talk about their project, which
46:04
is the global Urantia Book Daily Reading project, otherwise known
46:08
as the UB Read through and I hope you can get involved in
46:12
enjoy what they're offering. And that's going to do it for
46:15
this edition of the Rancho Radio Podcast.
46:17
Comments, questions, always feel free to e-mail me your Rancho
46:21
Book radio@gmail.com. Yours truly, Jim Watkins, thank
46:25
you again for stopping by. Music.