Dr. William S. Sadler (1875 - 1969) was a psychiatrist and college teacher in the school of medicine at the University of Chicago, and one of the individuals closely associated with the publishing of the Urantia Book and the Urantia movement. 1875 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ... The University of Chicago is a private university primarily located in the Hyde Park neigborhood of Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1890, doors opened in 1892. ... Urantia is the name sometimes given to the spiritual movement whose principal text is The Urantia Book. ...

Family life

Sadler was born in Spencer, Indiana, to Samuel C. Sadler and Sarah I. (Wilson) Sadler on June 24, 1875. His father Samuel C. Sadler was a graduate of the Chicago Conservatory of Music and was a teacher and performer. After the death of ome of the Sadlers daughters, William Sadler was home-schooled due to his parents fear of disease.

He was raised as a Seventh Day Adventist. At age 14 he went to Battle Creek, Michigan where he worked as a bellboy and salesman for John Harvey Kellogg, at the Seventh Day Adventist Sanitarium. In 1893, Kellogg made him part of the team that started a new medical mission in Chicago. In 1897 Sadler married Lena Kellogg, niece of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and cousin and sister-in-law to Wilfred Custer Kellogg. On March 7, 1899, Sadler became a licensed minister of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and in 1901 he became an ordained minister. This article is about the city of Battle Creek, Michigan. ... Official language(s) English de-facto Capital Lansing Largest city Detroit Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 11th 96,889 mi² / 250,941 km² 239 miles / 385 km 491 miles / 790 km 41. ... John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943) Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (February 26, 1852 – December 14, 1943) was a medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan who ran a sanitarium using holistic methods, with a particular focus on nutrition, enemas and exercise. ... The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA), colloquially referred to as the Adventists, is an evangelical Protestant Christian denomination that grew out of the prophetic Millerite movement in the United States during the middle part of the 19th century. ... There are a few meanings of Sanitarium: A sanitarium can be a psychiatric hospital. ...

In 1901 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg asked Sadler to establish a new medical mission in San Francisco. Ellen White, the prophetess of Seventh Day Adventism lived nearby. Sadler and Lena became intimate with the White family. Ellen Gould Harmon White (November 26, 1827 - July 16, 1915) was co-founder of Seventh-day Adventism. ...

In 1903, Sadler was caught in Church political intrigue between the supporters of Ellen White and John Harvey Kellog. Accusations were brought against Sadler, including complaints that his expenditure of money to build medical facilities in San Francisco was done at the expense of Church spiritual operations. The accusations were brought openly in Sabbath meeting, the most stern form of indictment against someone in the Church. Kellogg had traveled to San Francisco for the meeting, but did not support Sadler. In October 1903, Sadler was demoted from all managerial responsibility within the Church. Sadler returned to Battle Creek and then to Chicago to continue his medical education. In 1905, Sadler left the Church entirely and was excommunicated in 1906. Prior to his expulsion, Sadler wrote a letter to Sister White, wherein he began questioning her authenticity as a prophetess in light of plagiarism discovered in her writings.

Sadler first studied medicine in 1901 at the Cooper Medical College in San Francisco, as well as studies at SDA Medical Mission School and the Rush Medical College in Chicago. He graduated in 1906. Stanford University School of Medicine is affiliated with Stanford University and is located at Stanford University Medical Center in Stanford, California, adjacent to Palo Alto and Menlo Park. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Rush Medical College (often referred to simply as Rush) is the medical school of Rush University, a private university in Chicago, Illinois. ...

In 1906, Sadler founded the Chicago Institute of Physiologic Therapeutics (later called the Chicago Therapeutic Institute). Sadler authored over 30 books on topics such as unorthodox health remedies, hydrotherapy and eugenics. Both William and Lena became popular paid speakers on the Chautauqua lecture circuit. Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy, is probably the oldest form of medical treatment. ... Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution: Logo from the Second International Congress of Eugenics, 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields. ... Chautauqua is an Iroquois word, meaning either two moccasins tied together or jumping fish. Chautauqua can also be any of: Places: Chautauqua, Illinois -- A private summer resort Chautauqua, Kansas -- A city Chautauqua, New York -- A town Chatauqua, Ohio -- a town Chautauqua County, Kansas -- A county Chautauqua County, New York -- A...

Sadler was regarded by his colleagues as a professional researcher of considerable integrity. He was also a well known skeptic of psychic phenomena and devoted a substantial amount of his time to exposing the proponents of the paranormal as frauds and charlatans. He worked with magician Howard Thurston in exposing frauds and mediums. He was considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject and held the life-long opinion that all psychic phenomena was explainable within the confines of the laws of nature. For almost thirty years Dr. Sadler lecturered in Pastoral Counseling at McCormick Theological Seminary. Howard Thurston (1869-1936) was a magician. ...

The Sadler's first son, Willis, was born in 1899 but died as an infant. Their second son, William Samuel Sadler Jr, was born in 1907. In 1923 they adopted a 33 year old woman Emma Christensen, who served as Sadlers secretary and subsequently became a leader in the Urantia movement. Emma Christy Christensen 1890-1982, was a leading figure in the Urantia movement. ...

Dr. William S. Sadler died on April 26, 1969.

The Urantia Book

In April 1908, at the behest of a woman who said her husband had begun to act strangely in is sleep, Sadler was introduced to a man who is thought to be the "Sleeping Subject" involved in writing The Urantia Book. Urantia The Urantia Book (TUB or UB), is a spiritual or religious tome that covers an in-depth portrayal of God, the universe, the planet, evolution, history, philosophy, religion, and destiny. ...

In a typical evening, Sadler was able to ask the subject questions and receive a response. Sadler assembled a Forum of interested persons who soon began to submit questions for the subject. This nightly questioning continued for a decade.

The Sadlers and others involved, now all deceased, claimed that the papers of the book were physically materializedone by one from 1925 until 1935 with the first three parts being complete in 1934 and the fourth in 1935. The last Forum gathering was in 1942. Documented also are types of reception which Dr. Sadler refuted as the way in which the Papers were received. (See Appendix I 'How We Did Not Get The Urantia Book' and Appendix II 'Psychic Phenomena: Unusual Activities of the Marginal Consciousness (The Subconscious Mind)' 1958].

The mystery of the "Sleeping Subject", has never been solved and Sadler never revealed the identity of the person. But Martin Gardner, a skeptic of The Urantia Book alleges in his book, Urantia, The Great Cult Mystery that he was Wilfred Custer Kellogg. Martin Gardner (born October 21, 1914) is an American recreational mathematician, magician, skeptic, and author of the long-running but now discontinued Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. ...

Criticism

Critics have claimed that several of Dr. Sadler's published books, including "Long Heads and Round Heads, or, What's the Matter with Germany?" (1918), "Race Decadence: An Examination of the Causes of Racial Degeneracy in the United States" (1922) and "The Truth About Heredity" (1927) reveal him to be a racist and a proponent of eugenics. Similar themes of eugenics are also prevalent in the Urantia Book. Urantia is the name sometimes given to the spiritual movement whose principal text is The Urantia Book. ...

Modern Urantia researchers such as Matthew Block have identified plagiarism in Sadlers published works. For example, Sadlers 1938 book "The Sex Life, Before and After Marriage" adapts material directly from Havelock Ellis "Psychology of Sex: A Manual for Students" published in 1933. Accusations of plagiarism have also been made against the Urantia Book, and an extensive list of plagiarized sources was published by Block in 1994. Havelock Ellis (1859-July 8, 1939) was a British doctor, sexual psychologist and Fabian. ... Urantia is the name sometimes given to the spiritual movement whose principal text is The Urantia Book. ...

References

Meredith Sprunger, "A Short Biographical Sketch of Dr. William S. Sadler" "Dr. William S. Sadler: A Self-made Renaissance Man", published in Pervaded Space (a Chicago Area Newsletter), Spring, 1979 URANTIA: The Great Cult Mystery (written by Martin Gardner, published by Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, 1995)