On our very uncommon topic of various beliefs, is anyone here familiar with the following?

Question

Not sure of the spelling, but they are the Rosicrucians, Urantia, and the Mazdaznans. Should be good for an hour or so of ranting and raving; that is if anyone else has information about them.

Answer 1

Mazdaznan Movement
Doctrines The Mazdaznan movement emphasises the monotheistic faith in Mazda, the good creator. It originated in the United States of America and is an eclectic movement which has incorporated elements of Hinduism and Christianity in its doctrines. The divinity is expressed in trinitarian terms as the Holy Family of Father (male creative principle) and Mother (procreative female principle) and Child (destiny/salvation). Man's purpose on earth is to reclaim it and make it a place suitable for God to dwell. Mazdaznans believe that the means to perfect the material world is the power of breath and therefore the movement teaches a discipline of breath control, rhythmic praying and chanting. These exercises are supplemented by a recommended vegetarian diet.

History The Mazdaznan movement was the first Zoroastrian group in the United States of America. It was founded by Rev. Dr. Otoman Zar-Adhusht Hanish who claimed visionary enlightenment and died in 1936. He claimed that he had been sent by the Inner Temple Community of El-Khaman to bring Mazdaznan to the world. He began teaching at the turn of this century and the movement was inaugerated in 1902 in New York; spreading to other American cities in its first ten years. Establishing their headquarters in Chicago, the group began publishing a periodical, The Mazdaznan. In 1916 the headquarters were transferred to Los Angeles, California and then in the mid 1980s to Encinitas, California. In the 1930s, a wealthy follower of the movement known as 'Mother Gloria' went to Bombay with the intention of restoring the 'true' message of Zoroaster to the Parsis. Although she met with a hostile reception in India, she remained there for a number of years before returning to the United States. During the 1970s centres were established in England, Mexico, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland and Switzerland.

Symbols The Mazdaznan movement emphasises the use of fire as a cult symbol.

Adherents Not known, as no formal membership.

Headquarters/
Main Centre Encinitas, California, United States of America Urantia


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I. Profile Report
Name: Urantia Brotherhood (pronounced: you-ran'-sha)

Founder: Dr. William S. Sadler

Date of Birth: 1875 (died 1969)

Place of Birth: Chicago

Year(s) Founded: 1950-1955

Brief History: Sadler taught at the Post-Graduate School of Medicine at Chicago University, and for thirty years he was a lecturer in Pastoral Counseling at the McCormick Theological Seminary. He was also the author of numerous books. During the '20's and '30's, he became interested in one of his unusual cases. This patient came to see him after his wife informed him that he had been talking in his sleep and seemed to have been talking for various supermortal personalities called revelators. The contact personality was entirely asleep during the transmission and had little or no interest in the process when he was awake. From these sessions emerged The Urantia Book. Sadler organized a group to discuss the material collected from this patient and others in 1934-1935. The group was called the Forum. The Urantia Foundation, headed by a five member board, was formed as a non-profit educational group in the year 1950.

Sacred or Revered Texts: The Urantia Book is the sacred text. The Urantia Foundation claims the book is used as a spiritual guide by many different religions. It has over 2,000 pages and is divided into 200 individual essays with information on God, other supernatural beings, the history of the earth and the rest of the universe, the development of mankind, and the purpose, history, and message of Jesus Christ. It is divided into four sections: Part I: Central and Superuniverses; Part II: The Local Universe; Part III: The History of Urantia; Part IV: The Life and Teachings of Jesus.

Cult or Sect: Negative sentiments are typically implied when the concepts "cult" and "sect" are employed in popular discourse. Since the Religious Movements Homepage seeks to promote religious tolerance and appreciation of the positive benefits of pluralism and religious diversity in human cultures, we encourage the use of alternative concepts that do not carry implicit negative stereotypes. For a more detailed discussion of both scholarly and popular usage of the concepts "cult" and "sect," please visit our Conceptualizing "Cult" and "Sect" page, where you will find additional links to related issues.

Beliefs of Group: The Urantia Book is the basis of beliefs of the Urantia Foundation. The book describes Urantia to be an ancient name for the planet Earth. There are five epochal events in the history of mankind; the fourth is the life of Christ and the fifth epochal revelation is the Urantia Book. The book does not present a complete religion. Urantia does not have a clergy or a creed one is required to believe in, nor does it have a code of behavior. There are many teachings of the Urantia Book.
Part I consists of 31 papers and describes the nature of Deity, the reality of Paradise, the organization and workings of the central and superuniverses, the personalities of the grand universe, and the high density of evolutionary models. These books were formulated by 24 spiritual administrators acting with a mandate issued by high deity authorities, otherwise known as the "Ancients of Days," directing that they do this on planet Urantia in the year 1934 AD.

Part II, comprised of 25 papers, describes the Local Universe, which is the work of the Creator Son of the Paradise Order of Michael. It is comprised of 100 systems of constellations, each with 100 systems of inhabited worlds. Each system will eventually contain about 1,000 inhabited spheres. Urantia (Earth) belongs to the local universe. Michael, the Son of God and the Son of Man (otherwise known as Jesus of Nazareth), is the sovereign of Urantia's local universe. In the central universe, the Universal Father (God) is a personally present figure. The Father is represented in sovereign universes by sovereign sons. However, he is still present in the minds of his mortal children through his "indwelling spirit," or "Thought Adjusters."

In Part III, the 63 papers describe the history of Urantia. Around 1,000,000,000 years ago, Urantia reached its present size. This part describes the history of the planet, its geologic development, the establishment of life, the evolution and history of man, evolving civilizations, human institutions and governments. It also discusses the Trinity concept, the evolution of religion, the indwelling spirit of God, personality survival, and the bestowals of Christ Michael.

Book IV, the final book, consists of 77 papers which describe the life and teachings of Jesus. It describes the Son of Man's childhood, youth, early travels, personal and public ministry, the twelve disciples, and his trial, death, and resurrection.


Size of Group: There is no record of an exact number, but a total of 250,000 Urantia Books have been published. Urantia is based completely on The Urantia Book which does not require readers to join a certain church or adhere to certain standards. The Urantia Book is a guide available to all religions, so the size of the group reading the book could be quite large. Many services are available on-line for those interested in Urantia.

Remarks: Many concepts in The Urantia Book are directly traceable to earlier works including writings of Seventh-Day Adventists. Urantia has been involved in several law suits. In 1991, the Urantia Foundation sued Kristin Maaherra for copyright infringement, and in 1996, they sued the Fellowship Uversa Press, and the Jesusonian Foundation for trademark infringement. Urantia has trademarked and registered the name Urantia and the Concentric-Circles symbol (a large blue circle with two smaller circles inside of it.) The Concentric-Circles symbol is on the Banner of Michael.
The International Urantia Association (IUA), organized by the Urantia Foundation, is a reader membership organization. It is a task-oriented, social and service organization formed to foster a closer study of The Urantia Book and the orderly dissemination of its teachings. IUA's activities are intended to spread teachings of the Book mainly by word of mouth, personally, in a quiet manner like that of Jesus. IUA also refers readers to study groups, responds to reader inquiries, sponsors meetings, seminars, conferences, and develops teaching and leadership skills. The Urantia Foundation publishes the Urantian News twice yearly.

In April of 1996, the Urantia Foundation held its first ever Translators' Conference in Paris, France. They focused on the development of a dictionary of terms unique to the Urantia Book, the standardization of computers, software, formatting, establishment of e-mail communications, translation of the most difficult concepts in the book, and the importance and dynamics of having a translation team. The Urantia Book has been translated into ten languages, including the following: French, Finnish, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Korean, Swedish, Estonian, German, and Italian. French, Spanish, and Finnish are available in print for the public, and the other seven languages have been drafted. Urantia makes services readily available online. Many of these services are offered on the pages listed below, such as getting involved in study groups and study aids.




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II.Links to Urantia
Urantia Foundation
The is the official web site of the Urantian Foundation. It is an extensive and informative page presented in multiple languages. You'll find here a description of the Urantia Book, the Urantia Book on-line, a pronunciation guide, information on the foundation, offices worldwide, the International Urantia Association, the mailing list, Friends of Urantia, available publications, current events, newsletters, discussion and more.
http://www.urantia.org

The Urantia Book
The Urantia book is 2097 pages in length. This beautiful site presents the entire book in nine languages, indexed with over 40,000 entries.
http://www.urantiabook.org/

The Urantia Book Homepage
This site also presents the Urantia Book along with many different aspects of the Urantia faith including electronic study aids, study group directories, and prayers from other planets.
http://www.ubook.org

Fellowship for Readers of The Urantia Book
This is probably the most extensive resource for accessing materials on The Urantia Book that one will find on the Internet. In addition to a site index, there is an online search engine.
http://www.ubfellowship.org

The Urantia Book
This page gives a brief overview of the history and the teachings of the Urantia Book.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/urantia.htm

The Friends of The Urantia Revelation Website
Norm DuVal, the creator of this site has been a dedicated Urantian since 1959, but a person seriously at odds with the organizational leadership. The site claims to offer "everything you ever wanted to know about Urantia Foundation, but were afraid to ask. A religious site dedicated to religious freedom, 'unceasing exposure' (53.5.6, Urantia Book) of Urantia Foundation's sophistries, and resistance to Urantia Foundation's religious tyranny and persecution against believers of the Urantia Revelation."
http://www.geocities.com/~nduval/

The Urantia Book
This page contains a list of sites with unique and often differing perspectives, such as the Urantia Foundation, Fellowship, and other "quick information" on various topics.
http://web.canlink.com/ocrt/urantia.htm

The Origin of the Urantia Book
A brief essay/description of the origin of the Urantia Book written by Dr. Meredith J. Sprunger, PhD. and published by the Christian Fellowship.
http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~no/origin.html

Light and Life: One World and One People
This is an eclectic and syncretistic page that takes its inspiration from Paper 55 of The Urantia Book. The page features a quarterly on-line journal and lots of links to spiritual traditions that are considered consistent with the one world, one people theme.
http://www.lightandlife.com/
About the Rosicrucian Order
We welcome you and thank you for your interest in learning more about the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. Perhaps you have already explored the vast sea of metaphysical and self-help books, programs, lectures, and seminars, and you may have found yourself wondering how to make sense of it all -- how to put it all together in a way that's practical and truly relevant to you.

You can acquire a lot of information from books, lectures, and classes, and you may even discover some very useful techniques for improving certain aspects of your life. But this approach to self-improvement is always incomplete, because most books, seminars and study groups have a limited focus, such as personal prosperity, improving relationships, meditation, spiritual attunement, or developing psychic abilities. And focusing on one area of study doesn't provide balanced development. The Rosicrucian system is unique -- it provides a foundation that ties together all of the different aspects of metaphysical study, and demonstrates their interconnectedness. Read more about this in Mastery of Life >>

Is the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, a religion?
No. AMORC, which stands for Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, is not a religion and does not require a specific code of belief or conduct. Rosicrucian students come from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds. Becoming a Rosicrucian student does not in any way require you to leave your church, join a church, or change your religious beliefs.

Some Rosicrucian members do not subscribe to any specific religious beliefs at all. For students who do, we encourage them to participate in the religion of their choice. As a result, Rosicrucian students come from every religious denomination, and through our teachings, many find a greater appreciation of the mystical principles underlying their individual religious and philosophical beliefs. Those who do not belong to any particular religion often discover a sense of connection with a higher intelligence that was missing in their lives before.

We don't expect you to accept anything on faith. We want you to think for yourself, to learn how to draw upon the higher knowledge already within you. What we provide are simply the tools to enable you to accomplish this. The Rosicrucian teachings contain practical exercises and experiments that allow you to demonstrate for yourself the principles presented in the lessons and to access your own source of inner wisdom and guidance. As you do this, you'll begin developing natural abilities that may have been left dormant throughout your life. Almost immediately you'll begin to see your life in a different light.

How Is the organization structured?
The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, is a non-profit, educational charitable organization which is classified by the United States Internal Revenue Service under section 501(c)(3). Its activities and services are supported by dues and donations received from Rosicrucian students. After expenses are covered, all additional funds go back into the organization to further benefit its students, allowing us to expand our services, develop new programs and other projects that will help us accomplish our humanitarian goals.

What about other "Rosicrucian" groups?
There are a number of web pages using the word "rosicrucian" in their name. Some are created by small groups who describe themselves as rosicrucian, while others are created by private individuals who simply have an interest in rosicrucianism. We're often asked if these other web sites are affiliated with the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. The answer is: A few of them are, but most are not.

The word "rosicrucian" is so old it cannot be trademarked, so other groups cannot be prevented from using it. However, the term "AMORC" in our name, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, identifies us as the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, and no other group can use the word "AMORC" in its name.

AMORC has been operating since 1915, and we have affiliated lodges and chapters all over the world. Many of the other "rosicrucian" groups appearing on the web have been created in just the past few years, and appear to have no physical headquarters or facilities. Further, their philosophies may vary widely from those of AMORC. It has long been AMORC policy to not comment on, judge or evaluate the concepts, techniques or claims of other organizations. Through your own investigation, you will come to evaluate for yourself the worthiness of an organization.

Our international web site at www.amorc.org contains a list of official AMORC web sites in various languages. These are the only web sites associated with AMORC. Any other web sites are NOT affiliated with our organization.

Answer 2

Absolutely not. Even on political views some hold their marriage together no matter what but most don't and in the long run you will eventually break up or stop the religion you are involved with. So make a choice is this person more important to me than my relationship with God? Rant about negative stereotypes??? That relationship will never work. Get someone who thinks like you do, what ever you are involved in. From saving the whales to providing an attorney for the poor. Making money your God and getting rich, if they are not on board for that you will break up. They have to match your political views or lack of politics. Your race to know the challenges you face growing up, either black, jewish or even Italian. The more you are alike the more chance the marriage has to last.

Answer 3

I used to be a member of AMORC (Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis) with HQ in Santa Rosa, California. There is at least one other Rosicrucian order, probably several. Anyway, working my way through studies and exercises with AMORC was a valuable experience for me. At some point, however, it started to feel confining (just like a religion) so I struck out on my own spiritual journey. I must thank AMORC for giving me the necessary boost, and I recommend them to others.

Answer 4

Sorry, I only know the first. They are sworn to protect the 'rose' or the holy cross. They were knights in the beginning and have evolved over the centuries. They are generally catholic and have many different beliefs that the mainstream catholics don't share. They do figure into the grail quest and I ponder whether the 'rose' isn't really a euphemism for the grail.

Answer 5

I thinkthat the Rosicrucians (Order of the Rosy Cross) are Freemason-y types. Outgrowth of the heretical Gnostic movement that developed in Christianity - see Knights Templar. Mostly made up of a bunch of guys who think they are subscribing to some new world order of peace and service but are actually pantomiming modern Western ceremonial witchcraft, as far as I can see. Quite comical I think...

Answer 6

I only know of the Rosicrucianists. I think mysticism is always a good way to find 'God' firsthand. A direct experience with 'God' is good. That's my opinion.