Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 12, 2012



William S. Sadler (1875–1969) was an American surgeon, psychiatrist and author who helped publish The Urantia Book, a document that resulted from his relationship with a man whom he believed to be channeling extraterrestrials and celestial beings. Mentored by John Harvey Kellogg, he became a doctor and practiced medicine in Chicago. Sadler and his wife were speakers on the Chautauqua adult education circuit in 1907. He became a highly paid, popular orator and wrote over 40 books on medical and spiritual topics, advocating a holistic approach to health. Sometime between 1906 and 1911, Sadler attempted to treat a patient who spoke to him in unusual voices while sleeping. Sadler spent years observing the sleeping man and eventually decided the man had no mental illness and that his words were genuine. The man's communications were eventually published in The Urantia Book, and the Urantia Foundation was created to assist Sadler in spreading the book's message. Although it never became the basis of an organized religion, the book attracted followers who devoted themselves to its study, and the Urantia movement continued after Sadler's death. (more...)

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