Voices of Urantia
A Personal Testimony by Juan Jaramillo.
Antonio Schefer, Multimedia Chair for the Association, conducted several interviews at the Paris conference last June. We decided to transcribe these wonderful conversations for our readers. Or watch the first Voices of Urantia here.
My name is Juan Jaramillo. I am originally from Colombia, South America. Currently, I live in Edmonton, Canada. I am a brother. I am a friend. I am a Urantia Book reader. Service Quote here.
How did you discover The Urantia Book?
I discovered The Urantia Book while I was growing up, first in the form of a conversation with a group of friends in my childhood when I was 12 or 13 years old. We used to talk about UFOs and extraterrestrials, and there was this big, nice book that was written by extraterrestrials that was called The Urantia Book. Back in the day I guess I didn’t feel ready to get through that reading because it was a very big book. And then, later on in my adulthood, in 2019 during the pandemic, a friend of mine shared with me a YouTube video. It was called a True History of Urantia, by Jaime Rae. It was a two-hour presentation and it got me engaged with the book. And here I am.
What does The Urantia Book mean to you?
It means to me an uplifting message for our spiritual growth. For getting us out of the confusion that involves many of the spiritual teachings that are available to us throughout the world right now. It is the key for us to represent a better version. Of us, personally, and to contemplate different manners to use all the information that this book shares with us that we can apply in different areas, not only of our lives, but in our family, environment, and our societies.
What part of The Urantia Book fascinates you the most?
One of my favorites is Paper 141, which is the beginning of the career, the public career of the Master. It was the outcome of all the preparation that he had previously built with his apostles and all the communities surrounding him for the presentation of the gospel, the good news of the Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of men in a widespread manner. I think that’s memorable. And he gives us a lot of frameworks to learn about how his effectiveness was so re-doable in a timeless application, it’s something that we can do at any time. Many other things that he did are applicable today for us, for instance, so that’s why it’s one of my favorite papers.
How do you live the teachings of the book?
The way I live the teachings of the book is very personal and intimate. An experience I like to cultivate is praying every day. I love to socialize with other fellow readers. But not only of The Urantia Book, but followers of all paths, for their religions know how to speak the language that they know and complements their wisdom. Somehow, I realized that sometimes, rather than sharing with them what I know is best for them, I want to hear what they have to share. And encourage them to continue growing in their paths. Only when there is genuine interest for connecting with a higher context of those spiritual realities—we all understand there are common truths in the different spiritual paths—is when I take the opportunity, in my moral and personal approach, to share what I know from The Urantia Book, and from my personal experience, because when you read the book, you also develop a sense of things, knowledge. Those spiritual realities in your daily life, you know, deeper concepts. They are within you, but they constantly keep popping up while you live your daily life. So it’s a very, very interesting experience. It’s like a Thought Adjuster at work.
What message would you share with a young adult truth seeker?
What I will say to a young adult looking for the truth, whom is not yet familiar with The Urantia Book, is that they will best find the way by following their hearts first. Find the spiritual connections for spiritual bonds. And try to foster that spiritual desire to connect with a wider or an uplifting conceptualization of these realities that are present, because we don’t necessarily have to understand them. Then I’ll be happy to introduce them with some concepts that I know will be easy for them to understand, as beginners of the “Your Answer Book.” That would be my approach.
What would you like to share about your experience at the Paris conference?
I’ve had a great experience in this conference. I’ve loved the opportunity of meeting my fellow readers. Most of them, I’ve met online previously through virtual activities and other online conferences and study groups. It’s been a wonderful and funny first experience though with Soul Life because it’s different when you come to meet in person rather than online. It’s like you get to see the 3D perspective of their personality. You gave a proper face to their names. Sometimes, even though they might be familiar to you, they look at you to say: “You look familiar to me. I don’t know where I’ve seen you, but I think you’ve been in a previous conference. I’ve seen you somewhere.” And then, we finally have the personal connection to be present at the same time—a moment that’s so wonderful.
Anything else you’d like to share?
That we shall pursue the actualization of our potentials, our spiritual potential; we all have a life within ourselves. There’s a gift that our creator has given us to become their genuine children. And even though we sometimes experience struggles in life, necessities, and hardships, the spiritual strength that we gather by cultivating this relationship through praying, meditating, or the way that we feel best to approach is the key for the spiritual birth. That will be my encouragement and suggestion for those who are truth seekers or even truth seekers already on their way of discovering the entirety of these revelations.