The 12th Irish Mind Body Spirit International Festival

The Urantia Book makes its debut in Ireland on St Patrick's Day

—Dublin, Ireland, 17th-20th March 2005

It was a free will choice of four diverse individuals from UK united in Spirit and pulling their own resources, which made a difference to the lives of forty-one Truth Seekers from Ireland. They too made in turn the free will choice to purchase The Urantia Book presented and offered to them. This offer was made by their, till that moment, unknown brethren from other shores manning the Urantia stand of the Dublin Mind Body and Spirit Festival. The Irish Truth Seekers were steered by the visible testimony of metamorphosed lives, which exuded the aroma of unselfish service in fellowship and love. In a timing full of rich symbolism and by a Master Stroke the Seraphic Planetary Government of Urantia, succeeded in planting the first en masse seeds of the fifth Epochal Revelation Movement in Ireland. This event happened in a strong Roman Catholic domain of influence, on St Patrick's Day, the very same day that celebrated the arrival of the Fourth Epochal Revelation on the Irish shores of the distant past. The Midwayer records of Urantia may show the following background of the event. After the formation of Urantia Association of United Kingdom and Ireland in 2003 it was jointly decided that an experiment in an alternative method of spreading the Revelation would take place. The experiment required the following ingredients: Readers willing to make available for the task in hand necessary monetary resources, Readers willing to devote time and energy in planning and executing the experiment with consistency and determination not deterred by initial disappointments and sense of failure. Those human instruments were selected and the first experiment was executed in May 2004 in London in a Mind Body and Spirit Exhibition.

The Stand and the Books were sponsored accordingly, the human living energies required for the mission were provided and lo and behold 17 books were sold in five days. A small miracle in itself given that this almost equaled the annual sales in the UK. Not disappointed from the first experiment the human instruments planned the second experiment in Manchester in November 2004 at a greater cost to themselves, as they had to sponsor additionally their travel and accommodation. Having learned from the first attempt and with a greater sense of purpose and unity they succeeded this time to sell 28 books in three days. Not counting the monetary costs a sense of triumph and spiritual joy enhanced further their fellowship. The third experiment involved traveling in a different but neighboring English speaking country in 17th-20th March 2005. Considerable greater preparation was allowed this time, having learned from the previous two experiences, at even greater monetary cost and personal time allocation and in two cases even sacrificing birthday anniversaries away from home. This time the rewards in terms of spiritual joy and unselfish ministry were even greater as the solidified personality synergy's produced 41 sales in four days. Apart from the sales of the book, incalculable at this stage potential of the ripple effect via the contact, exposure to universal images and text excerpts, discussions and strategic alliances with various group leaders becoming now readers, is certain to have already been set to motion. The fourth experiment is in preparation and will take place in London as a repeat of the first experiment at the last weekend of May this year. The existing nucleus of the dedicated human instruments invites other readers from all over the world to join them in their effort with any type of contribution they can make and encourages them to initiate the same experiments in their home grounds. The rewards are unbelievable and can only be achieved experientially by dedicated and project related team effort and the multi-personality interactions when presenting the Truth, Beauty and Goodness of The Book. No other experience is immersed with so much spiritual upliftment and mind spiritualization than the conscious dedication of spreading the Revelation in a framework of teamwork's loving ministry and in a progressive goal attainment manner. The time is ripe for actions. Take the opportunity, if you have not already started the Human Instruments of this presentation:

1) Gary Rawlings: President of Urantia Association of UK and Ireland. Reader of the Book since 2003. Gary is the leading and organising force behind this teamwork.

2) Costas Diamantopoulos: Vice President. Reader of the Book since 1998.Costas is the funds organiser and as a more experienced reader in the forefront of the book presentation.

3) Roberto Lara, Treasurer. Reader of the Book since 2003, Roberto is in charge of the Art Work that attracts many seekers to the stand. Roberto's native Spanish speaking abilities attract Spanish speakers in the stand and he is responsible for collecting and classifying the generated from the exhibition contact database.

4) Gavin Dormand, Member. Reader of the Book since 2000. Gavin is in charge of writing inspirational leaflets with excerpts from the Book to be handed out. His multimedia background is very useful for the attractive presentation of the leaflets.

This is what each member of the team wants to share about their experience in Ireland:

Gary:
Having planned the adventure into the unknown we felt like four of the disciples entering into a foreign land to which we found mortals there searching for the truth and having spoken to 218 mortals, 41 English versions of Urantia Books were sold along with Thought Gems, MP3 Editions and this represented a great team effort from concerned, and just as importantly we have these core base of readers that will stand us in good stead that I am sure for the seeding of the book on a larger scale throughout that beautiful country, there are to many memories to include them all in my overview, one was in the restaurant at night when a gentleman paid for a book without seeing it having heard our conversations at the next table and the book was delivered to him by the next morning before he flew back to London, and then two of the books were sold with amazing ease to Roman Catholic Nuns and one of those account's will be given to you by Gavin.

Without my brothers this adventure could not have been made possible, and I look forward in having their company both at the Summer Meeting and the next Mind Body Spirit Festival that will be held in London. (One of the most important lessons to be learned during you mortal career is teamwork.) - (312:01)

In Loving Service - Gary- Garyurantia@Aol.com

Costas:
The High Lights of this collective effort for me were the recognition of the drawing power of our stand by a number of individuals via the pictures, insignia and writings we had placed there. More than seven individuals with whom I came in contact and consequently bought the book confirmed that they were drawn to the stand by an inner force, one admitted his feet were magnetised standing there and he knew he would not be released till he buys the book, an other said with strong emotion that this feels at home and many other such remarkable incidents which for me revalidated once more the Power and Reality of our Revelation. Another interesting experience was the "unearthing" of three lonely and isolated existing readers who did not know anyone else was out there reading the same book! The joy they felt to see us there as kindred spirits will always stay in my mind. Although the Book proclaims personal religion many may interpret it as encouraging the pursuit of individual growth with the book as a teacher alone. However the joy of shared goal fellowship in doing the Father's business has a non-linear mind spiritualization potential often overlooked even amongst seasoned readers of the Book. Now at last we have found and proved a way to be true Light bearers of the Book's Teachings, whilst proclaiming the Good news and enjoy the journey all the way with other personality associations from here to Eternity. Urantia meetings are great in exalting the fellowship potential of the existing readers but loving ministry to our brethren who are not readers and are offered the choice of reading the book by our actions of unselfish service has a completely different experiential potential.

Thank you Father for giving us this opportunity! urantiabookukm@yahoo.co.uk

Roberto:
During the six days, since we set off from London at 7am on 16th March until our return on on Monday the 21st March at 23.00, I lived some gratifying experiences. It was a long trip from London to Dublin, but the logistics worked out very well for us, hours of planning and "double checks" finally paid off. That made remember the seven Ps (Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Problematic Poor Performance). The three of us Gary, Gavin and myself were trying to get along as it had been months since our last adventure in Manchester, and we needed to brush and catch up on a couple of things so that we could reach that level of relative smoothness in the expected team work, which we finally achieved at the end of our mission.

Costas, has expressed quite rightly most of our general feelings, my personal experience could be summarised in the following quotations:

"Someday religionists will get together and actually effect co-operation on the basis of unity of ideals and purposes rather than attempting to do so on the basis of psychological opinions and theological beliefs. Goals rather than creeds should unify religionists." 1091:6

Our goals and purposes were achieved and we actually lived out these experiences, we lived our personal religion, what an adventure! What a destiny! To be to Our Father's service.

"Future religionists must live out their religion, dedicate themselves to the wholehearted service of the brotherhood of man. It is high time that man had a religious experience so personal and so sublime that it could be realised and expressed only by "feelings that lie too deep for words.""1091:8. And:..... Life is but a day's work--do it well. (556:13) The act is ours; the consequences God's. 556:13

My special gratitude to my brothers Costas, Gavin, and Gary. I thank Gary for the dedication of extra hours to work out the details. We lived and experience and now believe that the consequences are of God's.

May Our Father always be with all of you.
Roberto Lara

Gavin:
This being our first trip to a Mind Body Spirit exhibition in Ireland, a country with very strong Catholic traditions, we were interested to find out how strongly this religious backdrop would feature in our discussions with visitors to the stand. In this regard, I questioned the appropriateness of displaying a prominent picture of Jesus on the stand. I later came to
realise that it was useful to have this picture of Jesus alongside Gary Tonge's stunningly beautiful artistic depiction of the Grand Universe. This served as a vividly real illustration of the cosmic context into which the Urantia Book allows us to place the life and teachings of Jesus.

Several people I spoke to said that the Catholic church's grip and influence on Irish society is waning rapidly, and our poster stating that "the Urantia Book does not advocate a new organised religion", but that it "builds upon the religious heritages of past and present and fosters a living personal religion to faith and to service to one's fellows" helped draw people to enquire further about the book.

My highlight of the four days came right at the very end, as we were about to start packing up. A Roman Catholic nun came to our stand and intently read the posters with descriptions of the four parts of the Urantia Book. She had a puzzled look on her face at this time, and this look remained as she asked Roberto, "But who wrote it?" and received his reply, "It was written by angels". After opening a copy of the book and looking at it for a couple of minutes, she told us, "I took one look at this and thought, 'This is true! This is true!' ". She eagerly bought a copy of the book and said she couldn't wait to start reading it!

Other members of the IUA wishing to become part of this type of outreach program and would like to exchange information or wishing to contribute to our efforts in any form can contact us at the email addresses given above. Our next project is the Mind, Body and Spirit Festival in London May 26th-30th, 2005 and we are welcoming other readers or IUA members to join us in our stand No 49 and live the experience alongside with us.

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